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.

Create | Read

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.

Pendicament

Created by: Eyeshah

Pronunciation: /pen-DIK-uh-mint/

Sentence: Pennelope found herself in quite the pendicament (quilemma) when her professor decided to give a pop quiz, and her backpack rummagings for a functional pen proved fruitless.

Etymology: pen+predicament=pendicament

| Comments and Points

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)

| Comments and Points

Scribulation

Created by: milorush

Pronunciation: (n.) skrĭb'yə-lā'shən; (intr. v.) skrĭb'yə-lāt'; (adj.) skrĭb'yə-lā'əd

Sentence: Mario suffered a moment of intense scribulation while attempting to jot down his mother's phone messages.

Etymology: scrib[ble] + [trib]ulation

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

Mario's gonna get it when his Momma gets home! - libertybelle, 2007-11-06: 08:47:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Thenotwritestuff

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: The not rite stuff

Sentence: When the first astronauts went up in space, they had thenotwritestuff for report writing, because the lack of gravity prevented the ink from flowing down the shaft and appearing on official NASA notepaper. This where the famous line, "Houston, we have a problem" was born. After the Astronaut Pen was invented, where you could write upside down or at any angle, proper records could be documented. This was long before any computers were available (except HAL) to enter data. Imagine then how many alien encounters were missed or not reported because the crews had thenotwritestuff! Have you any ink-ling? The biro-ny...they can get a man on the moon, but they cannot invent a pen that does not dry up!

Etymology: The Not (negative) Write Stuff (play on Right Stuff(Essential abilities or qualities;dependability,etc.necessary for success...also name for a Hollywood Movie about astronauts chosen for the space program)

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

Good sentence. Funny, cud have just splurged a buck for a dozen of pencils instead. - zxvasdf, 2008-10-03: 13:39:00

Then they would have had to get the lead out! Cheers! - Nosila, 2008-10-04: 23:08:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Impeniment

Created by: artr

Pronunciation: impenəmənt

Sentence: When Ralph saw the infomercial for the most wonderful thing he had even seen on late-night TV he just had to have it. As they displayed the phone number he frantically tried one impeniment after another. By the time he found one that worked they had moved on to products for incontinence. Ralph was pissed-off.

Etymology: impediment (a hindrance or obstruction in doing something) + pen (an instrument for writing or drawing with ink)

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

your sentence almost made me pee in my pants - thegoatisbad, 2010-03-03: 14:17:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

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.

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

I like it! - lumina, 2008-10-05: 11:36:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Leftwritewrong

Created by: serickson

Pronunciation: left rite rong

Sentence: Mary, where is the pen I put here yesterday? What do you mean I didn't put it ther; of course I did. Here it is, what did I tell you! (Oh, shucks, I am definitely not telling Mary I'm having another leftwritewrong. It did too work when I put it there, and I do not have Alzheimer's!)

Etymology: leave-left-had left..to put something somewhere and let it stay there; write-right-rite..mantra spoken when looking for a pen; wrong..both you and the pen

| Comments and Points