The general went out to find that none of his GIs were there. One finally ran up, panting heavily.
"Sorry, sir! I can explain, you see I had a date and it ran a little late. I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but it broke down, found a farm, bought a horse but it dropped dead, ran 10 miles, and now I"m here."
The general was very skeptical about this explanation but at least he was here so he let the G.I. go.
Moments later, eight more GIs came up to the general panting, he asked them why they were late.
"Sorry, sir! I had a date and it ran a little late, I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but it broke down, found a farm, bought a horse but it dropped dead, ran 10 miles, and now I"m here."
The general eyed them, feeling very skeptical but since he let the first guy go, he let them go, too.
A ninth GI jogged up to the general, panting heavily. "Sorry, sir! I had a date and it ran a little late, I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but..."
"Let me guess," the general interrupted, "it broke down."
"No," said the G.I., "there were so many dead horses in the road, it took forever to get around them."
v. (-ting) secrete saliva, esp. In excess. salivation n. [latin salivare: related to *saliva]
SALTLICK
n. Place where animals lick salt from the ground.
SALTMINE
n. Mine yielding rock-salt.
SALUTARY
adj. Having a good effect. [latin: related to *salute]
SAMARIUM
n. Metallic element of the lanthanide series. [ultimately from samarski, name of an official]
SAMIZDAT
n. Clandestine publication of banned literature. [russian]
SAMPHIRE
n. Edible maritime rock-plant. [french, = st peter('s herb)]
SAMPLING
n. Technique of digitally encoding a piece of sound and re-using it as part of a composition or recording.
SANCTIFY
v. (-ies, -ied) 1 consecrate; treat as holy.
- free from sin.
- justify; sanction. sanctification n. [latin sanctus holy]
SANCTION
—n. - approval by custom or tradition; express permission.
- confirmation of a law etc.
- penalty for disobeying a law or rule, or a reward for obeying it.
- ethics moral force encouraging obedience to any rule of conduct.
- (esp. In pl.) (esp. Economic) action by a state against another to abide by an international agreement etc. —v. - authorize or agree to (an action etc.).
- ratify; make (a law etc.) Binding. [latin sancio sanct- make sacred]
