Word: corking
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Herbert preferred an older precedent: that of "Mr. Purcell, a septuagenarian of County Cork, who in 1811 was knighted for killing four burglars with a carving knife. That, I feel, is the spirit...
...quickly surrounded by jubilant searchers. A rope was lowered down inside; after 16 hours of imprisonment, Roger was snaked back up to the top, extracted like a cork from a bottle, and put back into circulation. Shaky, but full of honors, he retired to his parents' four-room frame house and recounted his adventures...
Former Democratic Boss James A. Farley, now chairman of the board of the Coca-Cola Export Corp., sailed from Manhattan to open a bottling plant in Cork, the first in the Irish Republic...
...derivation of "ham" as applied to "h'amateur" actors in your article on Charles Laughton differs from what I believe to be the correct one. The oldtime minstrels used to apply ham-fat to their faces so that their burnt-cork makeup would be easier to remove. They thus became known as "ham-fatters," the word eventually being shortened to "ham," and used to designate any broad, slapstick performances such as those of the minstrels. Now, of course, it simply means bad acting...
They never made it. Caught in the turbulent waters off Portland Bill in the south of England, Reliance was sent crashing on the rocks. For a whole night the Davisons clung to a tiny cork float in the freezing seas. Through pure luck, Ann was flung ashore, climbed away from the sea's reach with her last strength. Frank's adventure had ended sooner; his drowned body was found among the rocks...