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."
adj. Of or in spasms, intermittent. spasmodically adv. [greek: related to *spasm]
SPEAKEASY
n. (pl. -ies) us hist. Slang place where alcoholic liquor was sold illicitly.
SPEARHEAD
—n. - point of a spear.
- person or group leading an attack etc. —v. Act as the spearhead of (an attack etc.).
SPEARMINT
n. Common garden mint, used in cookery and to flavour chewing-gum etc.
SPEARWORT
n. Aquatic plant with narrow spear-shaped leaves and yellow flowers.
SPECIALTY
n. (pl. -ies) esp. Us = *speciality.
SPECTACLE
n. - striking, impressive, or ridiculous sight.
- public show.
- object of public attention. [latin specio spect- look]
SPECTATOR
n. Person who watches a show, game, incident, etc. spectate v. (-ting) informal. [latin: related to *spectacle]
- sport n. Sport attracting many spectators.
SPECULATE
v. (-ting) 1 (usu. Foll. By on, upon, about) theorize, conjecture.
- deal in a commodity or asset in the hope of profiting from fluctuating prices. speculation n. Speculative adj. Speculator n. [latin specula watch-tower, from specio look]
SPEECHIFY
v. (-ies, -ied) joc. Make esp. Boring or long speeches.
