Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: v., To search for and find a pen to write down an important note, only to discover that the pen does not work. n., A moment in time when the only pens you can find, are pens that do not work.
Verboticisms
Click on each verboticism to read the sentences created by the Verbotomy writers, and to see your voting options...
You have two votes. Click on the words to read the details, then vote your favorite.
Birony
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: by ron ee
Sentence: It was one of life's bits of birony that Fred could only find pens in his house that were all out of ink. He could never find the write stuff!
Etymology: Biro (a pen that has a small metal ball as the point of transfer of ink to paper) & Irony (incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs)
Pendemonium
Created by: ahniwa
Pronunciation:
Sentence: "I can't ... what!? Hold on ... no, I need to write this ... yeah, one sec ... crap, no ... the pen's broken! Yeah, no ... it's pendemonium over here, no doubt."
Etymology: Inky pandemonium.
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COMMENTS:
I like it! - lumina, 2008-10-05: 11:36:00
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Mispenning
Created by: thebaron
Pronunciation:
Sentence: She tried to finish her love note, but she kept mispenning.
Etymology:
Ballpointless
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: bôlˌpoint lis
Sentence: Rusty had a wonderful idea. This happened so infrequently that it seemed imperative to write it down. He reached for a ballpointless pen and proceeded to do little more than tear a hole in a piece of paper. This whole exercise was ballpointless. He then had to try his entire collection of paper scratchers. As he looked at the advertising message on a pen and wondered where he had pilfered each one, the original thought he wanted to save for humanity slowly faded away, never to return.
Etymology: ballpoint (a pen with a tiny ball as its writing point) + pointless (having little or no sense, use, or purpose)
Ninscribe
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: nin-skrahyb
Sentence: It doesn't matter how many pens he owns, Larry always finds the one that has no ink and proceeds to ninscribe whatever urgent message he is trying to retain. Some of his pens even play jokes on him by writing a few works before transforming into paper scratchers.
Etymology: ninja (mercenary in feudal Japan reported to possess the ability to be invisible) + inscribe (to mark a surface with words, characters, etc.)
Styless
Created by: pungineer
Pronunciation: Style/less
Sentence: Winston's major coronary failure was prompted when he was left styless in his own home, at the very moment he needed to write down the number flashing before him on the screen, his thoughtless children had taken all the functioning pens to school...
Etymology: Stylus - writing utensil + Less - opposite of more
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COMMENTS:
No doubt his children thought he was styleless too. Daaaad, don't pick me up from school wearing that. - petaj, 2007-11-06: 07:09:00
ha, that'll teach them to steal all the good pens! - pungineer, 2007-11-06: 12:02:00
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Inkonspicuous
Created by: Jabberwocky
Pronunciation: in/kon/spic/u/us
Sentence: Maybe if he pressed hard enough on the paper he would be able to see an outline of his words but the pen was virtually inkonspicuous.
Etymology: ink + inconspicuous
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COMMENTS:
sweet - leechdude, 2007-11-06: 21:14:00
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Plastick
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: plastik
Sentence: Tommy thought he had a drawer full of pens. When he went to use them he found one plastick after another. He might as well have a fistful of tongue depressors.
Etymology: plastic (a synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, nylon, etc) + stick (a thin piece of wood that has been trimmed for a particular purpose)
Bickenscratch
Created by: xirtam
Pronunciation: bic-en-skrach
Sentence: With the only pen I could find out of ink, I had to bickenscratch the phone number into the note pad so I could read the indentations later.
Etymology: bic: a brand of pen + Chicken Scratch: slang; poor or illegible writing. Scratch: To write or draw by scraping or cutting the lines into a surface.
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COMMENTS:
To be precise, this is the inevitable result of the event described, but I like it! 'He bickenscratched his way through the morning until he finally found a pen that worked.' - Tigger, 2007-11-06: 13:23:00
I like it too. Resembles my grocery list. - purpleartichokes, 2007-11-06: 20:01:00
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Comments:
Today's definition was suggested by vixphilia. Thank you vixphilia! ~ James'
OZZIEBOB - 2007-11-06: 16:53:00
Good word!
Today's definition was suggested by vixphilia. Thank you vixphilia. ~ James
Petrikreink - 2020-03-03: 05:14:00