billingsgate (pg. Note) -- Foul, abusive language.
lordosis (pg. 5) -- Excessive inward curvature of the spine.
vitiates (pg. 21) -- To reduce the value or impair the quality of.
tocsin (pg. 24) -- An alarm bell or signal.
trucklight (pg. 84) -- The aircraft warning lights on a ship, as far as I can figure out
.
dithyrambic (pg. 129) -- A wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing. From wild dances to honor the Greek god Dionysus.
Title B inventory (pg. 155) -- Items on a Navy ship valued at less than $1,000 (currently, not sure abou during WWII) each, such as binoculars, stop watches, test equipement.
prisonors-at-large (pg. 162) -- Prisonors who are required to perform their duties but not allowed to leave the ship.
alidade (pg. 303) -- An indicator or a sighting apparatus on a plane table, used in angular measurement.
JBD 640 (pg. 310) -- I cannot find any reference to a radio with this name.
Harold Teen (pg. 448) -- A comic strip about a teenager that ran from 1919 til 1959. It may have originated the word "gedunk".
pink tea (pg. 483) -- Formal afternoon tea usu. marked by a high degree of decorum.
No one minds a touch of the farouche in a new bride. (pg.184) -- Either fierce, wild, or exhibiting withdrawn temperament and shyness coupled with an air of cranky, often sullen fey charm. Sounds like opposites, to me.
Made a cake of myself (pg. 177) -- Seems to be a Regency phrase, can't find a definition, but in context I take it as to do something foolish.
"Gammon", said Lady Sylvia. (pg. 99) -- Are they playing backgammon? Is it a pet name? An ejaculation?
reticule (pg. 90) -- a woman's drawstring bag used especially as a carryall.
commonplace book (pg,. 11) -- A kind of notebook, to my mind.
I totally do not understand the paragraph on pages 192-193.
A review on Amazon.com says this is a retelling of Hamlet. Don't know, never read it. It certainly is a tragedy, though!cold lightning...Only hot lightning makes thunder. (pg. 51) -- Cold lightning has a shorter duration than hot, but I'm not finding anything about the lack of thunder.
Leinenkugel (pg. 175) -- A brand of beer from Wisconsin. I read they introduced Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout in 2010, sounds impressive!
chiaroscuro figure (pg. 325) -- Several definitions, I'm going with "the quality of being veiled or partly in shadow".
Eight-letter word for 'Formed of fire or light.' Starts with E, ends with L." (pg. 395) -- Turns out to be empyreal.
A little hay goes in, huge cowpies come out. How does that happen? -- (pg. 415) You can't explain that!