Example is better than following it.

AUSTRALIA, n. A country lying in the South Sea, whose industrial and commercial development has been unspeakably retarded by an unfortunate dispute among geographers as to whether it is a continent or an island.

PAIN, n. An uncomfortable frame of mind that may have a physical basis in something that is being done to the body, or may be purely mental, caused by the good fortune of another.

Dog - a kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship.

APOTHECARY, n. The physician's accomplice, undertaker's benefactor and grave worm's provider

Irreligion - the principal one of the great faiths of the world.

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.