Word: dumbing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Broadway. Pippin (Justin Richardson) is an average upper-middle class college overachiever; his dad. Charlemagne (John D. Langdon), a gruff executive type; Fastrada (Ann Henry), his mother, a matron right out of the Five Towns area; and Lewis (Mark Morland), his younger brother, the ancient equivalent of a dumb jock--a dumb warrior...
Where is the next generation of slang to come from? Not from Valley Girl, the argot made famous lately by Singer Frank Zappa and his daughter, who is named Moon Unit Zappa. "Val" is really a sort of satire of slang, a goof on language and on the dreamily dumb and self-regarding suburban kids who may actually talk like that. It would come out all wrong if a minister were to compose his sermon in Val. "The Lord is awesome," he would have to begin. "He knows that life can sometimes be, like, grody-grody...
...older brother's company, believes that John was "set up" for the drug bust. "It's totally against his ethical and moral character," says Charles. But even more, it seems, the younger De Lorean thinks John is too canny to blunder so badly. "He's not dumb enough to put himself into a situation like that...
...banks $10 billion in losses on loans to speculative real estate ventures that went bust. This time around, the banks were more cautious about land deals. Says Willard Butcher, chairman of Chase Manhattan: "We mightn't be the brightest guys in town, but we aren't dumb enough to do it twice...
...understood novelist is back. And forth. In his new book, Kurt Vonnegut once again traverses time and space, filling the pages. With short sentences. And placebo profundities: "To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life." And bromides: "the witching hour," "laughingstock," "dumb luck," "social leper...