A young boy was playing with a ball in the street. He kicked it too hard, and it broke the window of a house and fell inside. A lady came to the window with the ball and shouted at the young boy, so he ran away, but he still wanted his ball back.
A few minutes later he returned and knocked at the door of the house, and when the lady answered it, he said, "My father"s going to come and fix your window very soon."
After a few more minutes a man came to the door with tools in his hand, so the lady let the boy take his ball away.
When the man finished fixing the window, he said to the lady, "That will cost you exactly ten dollars."
"But aren"t you the father of that young boy?" the woman asked, looking surprised.
"No," he answered, equally surprised. "Aren"t you his mother? "
adj. Not easily excited or moved; impassive, unemotional. stolidity n. Stolidly adv. [latin]
STONED
adj. Slang drunk or drugged.
STOOGE
colloq. —n. - butt or foil, esp. For a comedian.
- assistant or subordinate, esp. For routine or unpleasant work. —v. (-ging) 1 (foll. By for) act as a stooge for.
- (foll. By about, around, etc.) Move about aimlessly. [origin unknown]
STOPGO
n. Alternate stopping and restarting, esp. Of the economy.
STOREY
n. (pl. -s) 1 = *floor n. 3.
- thing forming a horizontal division. -storeyed adj. (in comb.). [anglo-latin: related to *history, perhaps originally meaning a tier of painted windows]
STORMY
adj. (-ier, -iest) 1 of or affected by storms.
- (of a wind etc.) Violent.
- full of angry feeling or outbursts (stormy meeting). stormily adv. Storminess n.
- petrel var. Of *storm petrel.
STRAFE
v. (-fing) bombard; attack with gunfire. [german, = punish]
STRAIN
—v. - stretch tightly; make or become taut or tense.
- injure by overuse or excessive demands.
- exercise (oneself, one's senses, a thing, etc.) Intensely; press to extremes.
- strive intensively.
- (foll. By at) tug, pull.
- distort from the true intention or meaning.
- a clear (a liquid) of solid matter by passing it through a sieve etc. B (foll. By out) filter (solids) out from a liquid. —n. - a act of straining. B force exerted in this.
- injury caused by straining a muscle etc.
- severe mental or physical demand or exertion (suffering from strain).
- snatch of music or poetry.
- tone or tendency in speech or writing (more in the same strain). [french estrei(g)n- from latin stringo]
