Vote for the best verboticism.

'What's that dripping sound?'

DEFINITION: n. Strange sounds that keep you awake in the middle of the night. v. To lie in bed unable to sleep because you keep hearing weird sounds.

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Verboticisms

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You have two votes. Click on the words to read the details, then vote your favorite.

Imagounds

Moonstar

Created by: Moonstar

Pronunciation: Image-ounds

Sentence: Vicky lie awake, staring up[ at the ceiling, eyes wide. Her breathing quickend as even more imagounds entered the room. There was a small thump, a squeak, a creak, a skitter. What was that!? Could it be....Yes, yes it was! The sound of a heartbeat, a HUMAN heartbeat! She sat up straight in bed, her hand on the knife she had kept stored beneath her pillow, ready to strike-but there was no one there.

Etymology: Imagined, as in the act of imagining, + Sounds, as in noises.

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COMMENTS:

Poe-etic tense to it! - Nosila, 2010-07-13: 23:59:00

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| Comments and Points

Dinsomnia

Created by: Tigger

Pronunciation: /din-SOM-nee-uh/

Sentence: Lying in bed and staring toward the ceiling, Michelle sighed again, kept awake by the dinsomnia that had plagued her every night this week. There were the 'creekity-creeks' that Jack had explained were just the roof beams contracting in the cooler evenings, the 'tick, tick, tick, hiss' of the hot water pipes, the faint 'thump, thump, thump' of the refrigerator in the kitchen, and the 'drip, drip' of the leaky bathroom faucet. But what on earth was that 'clankety, clank' noise that sounded like it was coming from the attic? It didn't fit in with the familiar nighttime rhythm, and Michelle winced every time she heard it.

Etymology: Din - sound with clamor or persistent repetition (from Old English, dyne "loud noise") + Insomnia - an inability to sleep; chronic sleeplessness (Latin, insomnia "want of sleep" from in- "not" + somnus "sleep")

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COMMENTS:

Great minds think alike...? Or is it fools seldom differ???? - Nosila, 2008-05-12: 02:13:00

So the saying goes, but to our mutual credit, I'd like to think that I'm a unique sort of fool. You decide. - Tigger, 2008-05-12: 02:37:00

had to give you a vote each in the interests of fairness. - galwaywegian, 2008-05-12: 12:00:00

Too kind, galwaywegian, thanks! - Nosila, 2008-05-12: 19:26:00

Clever blend! - OZZIEBOB, 2008-05-13: 07:26:00

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| Comments and Points

Nocturnemanations

Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: nock - tern - em - uh - NAY - shuns

Sentence: The nocturnemanations that continuously emitted from the walls, the outdoors, the attic and unseen places kept Gladys on edge thru the night and made sleep impossible.

Etymology: Blend of nocturnal and emanations.

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COMMENTS:

a bit of a tongue twister but nice blend - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-12: 13:55:00

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| Comments and Points

Nightbumps

Created by: ErWenn

Pronunciation: /ˈnaɪtˌbʌmps/

Sentence: We decided that the poltergeist haunting our house must be either blind or clumsy when the nightbumps started sounding more like night-bump-ow-crash-$#!+s.

Etymology: from "things that go bump in the night"

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Insomniyaketyyak

Created by: Jabberwocky

Pronunciation: in/som/ni/yaketee/yak

Sentence: Sally couldn't get any sleep because her partner talked constantly. She was a victim of insomniyaketyyak

Etymology: insomniac + yakety yak

| Comments and Points

Knockturnals

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: nok turn als

Sentence: When Velma went to bed that night, she awoke later to strange noises. At about three a.m. she could hear the knockturnals very clearly. Although scared, she finally got up and crept towards the sound. That's when she discovered that her cat, Tomahawk, had learned how to rap on the back door to get back in, rather than trying to squeeze his massive body through the cat flap. Oh well, she thought it was better than him learning how to use the doorbell...

Etymology: Knock (make light, repeated taps on a surface) & Nocturnal (at night)

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Soundawake

Created by: TJayzz

Pronunciation: Sownd-a-wayk

Sentence: No wonder Mary was soundawake, it as all her own fault for hearing spooky noises in the middle of the night. She vowed never to watch horror films when she was alone ever again.

Etymology: Sound (Virbrations sensed by the ear) Awake (Not asleep, past-awoken) Opposite of sound asleep

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COMMENTS:

I liked this one. The only problem - if you don't immdiately catch the underlying connection to 'sound-asleep' it seems like an overly-simple response to the definition, (i.e. it may seem, at first, like you picked 2 words from the definition and stuck them together). Gets my vote though, for the clever double-meaning wordplay. - Tigger, 2008-05-13: 01:21:00

How true! Reminds me of a fairly recent film, "Eyes Wide Shut". Excellent word! - OZZIEBOB, 2008-05-13: 07:19:00

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| Comments and Points

Heffabump

youmustvotenato

Created by: youmustvotenato

Pronunciation: heff-a-bump

Sentence: I could hear the heffabumps made by the heffalumps, shuffling in my closet.

Etymology: heffalump, a mystical creature. Bump, a sound usually made in the night.

| Comments and Points

Knockturnalnozees

Created by: Jabberwocky

Pronunciation: nok/tur/nal/no/zees

Sentence: Once again I stumbled out of bed, blurry eyed and sleepless after all the racket from the knockturnalnozees.

Etymology: nocturnal + noise + knock + no zzzs

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COMMENTS:

Clever blend. Great verboticism - Mustang, 2008-05-12: 23:08:00

Covers the whole gamut. - OZZIEBOB, 2008-05-13: 07:20:00

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| Comments and Points

Dissomnance

petaj

Created by: petaj

Pronunciation: diss-som-nance

Sentence: Valda thought her inability to sleep was just a temporary case of dissomnance during the windy weather, but in fact she had been turned into a vampire. She would never sleep at night ever again.

Etymology: dis- (against/opposite) + somn- (sleep) + sonance (sound) + dissonance (unpleasant sound)

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COMMENTS:

perfect for the cartoon - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-12: 13:54:00

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Comments:

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Svetikreink - 2019-07-15: 07:03:00
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