Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else. Many symbols are mere "survivals" - as funereal urns carved on memorial monuments. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name that conceals our helplessness.

FREEBOOTER, n. A conqueror in a small way of business, whose annexations lack of the sanctifying merit of magnitude.

Respectability, n. The offspring of a liaison between a bald head and a bank account.

ILLUSTRIOUS, adj. Suitably placed for the shafts of malice, envy and detraction.

Evolutionary biology is genuinely scientific, but more than that it opens the door to a world more marvellous than any Christian fundamentalist has ever read into the pages of the Bible.

Electricity is the power that causes all natural phenomena not known to be caused by something else

There are two instruments worse than a clarinet - two clarinets.