RESPIRATOR, n. An apparatus fitted over the nose and mouth of an inhabitant of London, whereby to filter the visible universe in its passage to the lungs.

PROOF, n. Evidence having a shade more of plausibility than of unlikelihood. The testimony of two credible witnesses as opposed to that of only one.

RECREATION, n. A particular kind of dejection to relieve a general fatigue.

Book - Learning : The dunce's derisive term for all knowledge that transcends his own impertinent ignorance.

RIMER, n. A poet regarded with indifference or disesteem.

PLAGUE, n. In ancient times a general punishment of the innocent for admonition of their ruler, as in the familiar instance of Pharaoh the Immune. The plague today . . . is merely Nature's fortuitous manifestation of her purposeless objectionableness.

DELUGE, n. A notable first experiment in baptism which washed away the sins (and sinners) of the world.