"Bierce, Ambrose - THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bierce Ambrose)

AFFIANCED, pp. Fitted with an ankle-ring for the ball-and-chain.

AFFLICTION, n. An acclimatizing process preparing the soul for
another and bitter world.

AFRICAN, n. A nigger that votes our way.

AGE, n. That period of life in which we compound for the vices that
we still cherish by reviling those that we have no longer the
enterprise to commit.

AGITATOR, n. A statesman who shakes the fruit trees of his neighbors
-- to dislodge the worms.

AIM, n. The task we set our wishes to.

"Cheer up! Have you no aim in life?"
She tenderly inquired.
"An aim? Well, no, I haven't, wife;
The fact is -- I have fired."
G.J.

AIR, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence for
the fattening of the poor.

ALDERMAN, n. An ingenious criminal who covers his secret thieving
with a pretence of open marauding.

ALIEN, n. An American sovereign in his probationary state.

ALLAH, n. The Mahometan Supreme Being, as distinguished from the
Christian, Jewish, and so forth.

Allah's good laws I faithfully have kept,
And ever for the sins of man have wept;
And sometimes kneeling in the temple I
Have reverently crossed my hands and slept.
Junker Barlow

ALLEGIANCE, n.

This thing Allegiance, as I suppose,
Is a ring fitted in the subject's nose,
Whereby that organ is kept rightly pointed
To smell the sweetness of the Lord's anointed.
G.J.

ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who
have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they