To _?_ means to go back and summarize. At the end of an oral report, you might say, "So, to _?_, I've made three points," and then you name them.

If you disapprove of the overly submissive way someone is acting — like the teacher's pet or a celebrity's assistant — call them by the formal adjective _?_.

To be _?_ is to be unembarrassed. When you're _?_, you're confident and proud. You're letting it all hang out.

A timorous person is timid or shy, like your timorous friend who likes to hang out with close pals but gets nervous around big groups of new people.

A _?_ is a rebel, someone who shows a lot of independence. A _?_ on a motorcycle might blaze her own trail, traveling around the country and earning money by performing in rodeos.

_?_ means done as part of a routine or duty. If you give someone a gift and they look at it like it's roadkill and say nothing but a _?_ "thank you," you might not be giving them another one anytime soon.

Something _?_ is flashing briefly and sharply with light. _?_ conversations are smart and captivating.

_?_ is so dry that nothing will grow. Death Valley in California features an _?_ climate, which is why it's called Death Valley and not Life Valley.

Someone with _?_ shows cheerful willingness and eager behavior, like a kid whose mother has told him he can buy anything in a candy store.

Old, cranky, and more than a little stubborn, a _?_ is the gruff, grey-haired neighbor who refuses to hand out candy at Halloween and shoos away holiday carolers with a "bah humbug!"

To _?_ is to collect many units into one. If you're writing a novel, you might create a character who is an _?_ of five or six real people.

To _?_ means to edit offensive parts out of something. If the hero in an R-rated movie adapted for TV exclaims, “Oh shoot fudge darn!” but his lips seem to be saying something else, that movie has been _?_.

You think Mittens the kitten is gentle and sweet, and then one day she runs _?_, ripping up Grandma's favorite armchair until its cottony guts are hanging out. Time to take Mittens to get her claws trimmed.

The _?_ person sounds like a hypocrite when he preaches to a friend about the evils of drugs, while he drinks one beer after another.

When you feel _?_, you're sluggish or lacking energy. Being sleepy or hungry can make anyone _?_.

Things that discourage you or make you feel hopeless are _?_. It can be _?_ when the candidate you've supported and campaigned for loses the election.

A _?_ is a dramatic picture. If you catch a glance into the Oval Office and see top advisers speaking to each other with intensity, you behold a dramatic political _?_.

The biological clock is thought to be a form of _?_, perhaps analogous to a pendulum.

Reach for the adjective _?_ when you want a flashy way to say — well, "flashy" or "showy."

A _?_ is a mishmash of unpleasant sounds, often at loud volume. It's what you'd hear if you gave instruments to a group of four-year-olds and asked them to play one of Beethoven's symphonies.

An _?_ is someone selected to judge and settle a dispute. When Doc and Grumpy disagreed over whose turn it was to stay late at the mine, they chose Snow White as an _?_.

_?_ means to make or preserve peace with a nation, group, or person by giving in to their demands, or to relieve a problem, as in "the cold drink _?_ed his thirst."

If you repeat _?_ out loud enough times, it sounds so funny that you can laugh at it and maybe remember to laugh at the odd and distinctive weaknesses of others — the _?_ or two or a hundred that we all have.