Those who had seen the Standard Oil dissolution as condign punishment for Rockefeller were in for a sad surprise: It proved to be the luckiest stroke of his career. (Ron Chernow, Titan, Random House [1998], p. 556.)
This word, when used in the above sense, can also be a synonym for fitting, merited or warranted.…
It was during the 1980s and 1990s that [Barry] Goldwater developed a reputation for apostasy. He defended legal abortion and homosexual rights and criticized the religious right, famously arguing that Jerry Falwell deserved “a swift kick in the ass.” Some conservatives felt betrayed, while liberals applauded. (Michael Gerson, Mr. Right, U.S. News & World Report, 06/8/1998, p. 12.)
This word, when used in the above sense, can also be a synonym for reversal, revocation or about-face.…
Perhaps [Secretary of Energy Bill] Richardson himself deserves some of the blame for his oL Too eager to please, he constantly agrees to run fool’s errands for his boss [President Clinton]. A cynic might even call him a lickspittle. (Franklin Foer, Bill Richardson, Masochist, The New Republic, 07/3/2000.)
This word can also be a synonym for toady, yes man, bootlicker, brown-noser, fawner or flatterer.…
It is spring, always a time when an NFL general manager’s fancy turns to quarterbacks. But in this first season of true free agency, the courting has been especially perfervid. (Peter King, Pro Football, Sports Illustrated, 04/25/1994, p. 26.)
[In the spring of 1952, Roger Kahn] was a 24-year-old reporter for The New York Herald Tribune when he was assigned to travel with the [Brooklyn] Dodgers. It was a rich time in the game’s history, especially in New York, the undisputed center of the baseball universe, home to three teams and three perfervid fan bases. (Bruce Weber, “Roger Kahn, Who Lifted Sportswriting With ‘Boys of Summer,’ Dies at 92,” The New York Times, 02/07/2020.)
This word can also be a synonym for ardent, eager, intense or zealous.…
[Note: this word also means very cold and in the following example, both meanings would be appropriate]. [If there were drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,] how many drilling rigs, it’s fair to ask, would cause postpartum psychosis among caribou? … Would oil pipes and pumps in just 2,000 acres of the 9 million-acre refuge seriously harm animals and migrating birds? And if it does, is that the overriding consideration? Certainly no tourist jobs are at stake in that desolate, hyperborean plain. (Edwin A. Roberts, Jr., Ruminations On Oil And Its Origins, The Tampa Tribune, 11/18/2001.)
This word can also be a synonym for cold, freezing, frigid or icy.…
