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? "
n. - thing serving as a symbol, reminder, or mark (as a token of affection; in token of my esteem).
- voucher.
- thing equivalent to something else, esp. Money.
- (attrib.) A perfunctory (token effort). B conducted briefly to demonstrate strength of feeling (token strike). C chosen by tokenism to represent a group (token woman).
TOMMY
n. (pl. -ies) colloq. British private soldier. [tommy atkins, name used in specimens of completed official forms]
TONAL
adj. Of or relating to tone or tonality. tonally adv. [medieval latin: related to *tone]
TONGS
n.pl. Implement with two arms for grasping coal, sugar, etc. [old english]
TONIC
sol-fa n. Mus. System of notation used esp. In teaching singing.
- water n. Carbonated water flavoured with quinine.
- —n. - invigorating medicine.
- anything serving to invigorate.
- = *tonic water.
- mus. Keynote. —adj. Invigorating. [greek: related to *tone]
TONNE
n. = *metric ton. [french: related to *ton]
TONUP
attrib. Adj. Slang (of a motor cyclist) achieving a speed of 100 m.p.h., esp. Habitually.
TOOTH
n. (pl. Teeth) 1 each of a set of hard bony enamel-coated structures in the jaws of most vertebrates, used for biting and chewing.
- toothlike part or projection, e.g. The cog of a gearwheel, the point of a saw or comb, etc.
- (often foll. By for) taste; appetite.
- (in pl.) Force, effectiveness. armed to the teeth completely and elaborately armed. Fight tooth and nail fight very fiercely. Get one's teeth into devote oneself seriously to. In the teeth of 1 in spite of (opposition or difficulty etc.).
- contrary to (instructions etc.).
- directly against (the wind etc.). toothed adj. (also in comb.). Toothless adj. [old english]
- powder n. Powder for cleaning the teeth.
TOPAZ
n. Transparent mineral, usu. Yellow, used as a gem. [greek topazos]
