Related:

• SALAMANDER, n. Originally a reptile inhabiting fire
  later, an anthropomorphous immortal, but still a pyrophile....
• Dejeuner, n. The breakfast of an American who has been in Paris.
  Variously pronounced. -- Ambrose Bierce "The Devil's Dictionary...
• USAGE, n. The First Person of the literary Trinity, the Second and Third being Custom and Conventionality.
  Imbued with a decent reverence for this Holy Triad an industrious writer may hope to produce books that will live as long as the fashion....
• 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.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• Fashion, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey. -- Ambrose Bierce "The Devil's Dictionary
• INCUBUS, n. One of a race of highly improper demons who, though probably not wholly extinct, may be said to have seen their best nights.
  For a complete account of _incubi_ and _succubi_, including _incubae_ and _succubae_, see the _Liber Demonorum_ of Protassus (Paris, 1328), which contains much curious information that would be out of place in a dictionary intended as a text-book for the public schools....
• PHILISTINE, n. One whose mind is the creature of its environment, following the fashion in thought, feeling and sentiment.
  He is sometimes learned, frequently prosperous, commonly clean and always solemn....
• TOMB, n. The House of Indifference. Tombs are now by common consent invested with a certain sanctity
  but when they have been long tenanted it is considered no sin to break them open and rifle them, the famous Egyptologist, Dr....
• MAGDALENE, n. An inhabitant of Magdala. Popularly, a woman found out.
  This definition of the word has the authority of ignorance, Mary of Magdala being another person than the penitent woman mentioned by St....