seance, 'Smatchet', 'fustilugs', goes to extraordinary lengths ....put someone/something on the map

British war censors became convinced that James Joyce had written it in spy code. It was confiscated and burned, but men and women went to extraordinary lengths to smuggle it into Britain and America



As the world’s largest landlocked country and surrounded by a sea of authoritarianism, Kazakhstan goes to extraordinary lengths to put itself on the map


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Citizens of Kazakhstan are just one click away from jail
Online grumbling can lead to long periods of imprisonment

go to extraordinary lengths. To make a great effort. Alternative forms[edit]. go to great lengths. 


put someone/something on the map
to make someone or something famous

It was a role that really put her on the map as a serious actor.

seance

/ˈseɪɒns,ˈseɪɒ̃s,ˈseɪɑːns/

noun

1. a meeting at which people attempt to make contact with the dead, especially through the agency of a medium.

Words at Play

10 Polite Words for Impolite People

'Smatchet', 'fustilugs', & other words for people who get on your nerves

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Smatchet

 
 

Definition: a contemptible unmannerly person

English is a language that contains an embarrassment of riches for when one wants to say something mean about someone else. If you need to refer to a contemptible person you may choose from blighter, cockloche, dandiprat, dirtbag, dogbolt, shagrag, stinkard ... you get the picture. So why do we need smatchet? Well, because there are a lot of contemptible people out there.

And you, ye idle ablich ‘at ye are! negleckin yer business an’ galantine aboot wi’ yon blackguard smatchet o’ a loon, Geordie Onnerson.
—James Leslie, The Otter’s Tale-Book for the Winter Evenings, 1839

Prickmedainty

 
 

Definition: an affectedly nice person, a fop

Prickmedainty, a word that has primarily been used in Northern England and Scotland, may be employed as either a noun or an adjective. It comes from compounding three words, which are exactly the ones you would expect: prick, me, and dainty. When the word first began to be used in the early 16th century it had more of a sense of “someone who cares overmuch about his clothing or appearance.”

It was then my mother found me out, and laughed at me a little; she even called me prick-me-dainty. But it was all no use; Berry King would stick in my mind like a leech on the skin.
—Esmè Stuart, The Prisoner’s Daughter, 1884

Cupboard-Lover

 
 

Definition: one who insincerely professes love for the sake of gain

This delightful term is fashioned from the earlier noun cupboard love. Rather than give a dry and precise definition of this we shall instead quote from our earliest citation for cupboard love, which comes from 18th century British court records, The Proceedings at the New Bayley (1756): “Now, there is a Kind of Love in the Old Stile, termed Cupboard Love; and it often happens, that what People judge to be an Intrigue with a young Woman, turns out, on a nearer View, to be only an Intrigue with a Leg of Mutton and Turnips. This Kind of Love is frequently seen among certain Gentlemen at Counry Quarters, the Curates in City Parishes, Attornies Clerks, and young Barrister, and may, doubtless, descend to all Persons who have larger Stomachs than Purses. So, Gentlemen, go out.”

Bread-and-cheese-friend, e. A true friend as distinguished from a cupboard-lover.
—Rev. W. D. Parish, A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect, 1875