delinquent account = overdue.
scantily dressed, scantily explored, scantily seen.
How about a fell swoop? Have you ever heard of anything other than a swoop described as fell? For that matter, have you ever heard of a swoop that is not fell?
I have a patient whose tinnitus tintinabulates.
Did you study the properties of “ert gases” when you were in chemistry?
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic books of Gilbert Shelton used to claim “hundreds of gruntled customers”
I’m suitably whelmed.
No, but anything that has inertia is inert, it’s not only used for gases.
I remind you folk of the OP, to wit:
I do not take this to mean “words with only one meaning”. I define “expression” as two or more words used together.
By this definition, even if the single word does not have more than one meaning, if it can be used without a particular accompanying word or phrase, it does not fit the OP. Have I mistated the OP?
By that definition, IMHO, no words, including the examples provided in the OP, fit that description.
yojimboguy wrote:
“Legs can also be akimbo. So there.”
No they can’t. Look it up.
So there yourself.
short shrift
“Legs/limbs akimbo” indeed!
What’s next, “very unique”? Humph.
Akimbo used to only mean, bent arms WITH HANDS ON HIPS. No doubt somewhere along the line someone who did not know better assumed it meant just bent arms, period; so why not bent legs, right? Bah!
The language is going all to hell. The precision of words and phrases is being diluted in a tide of indifference and ignorance.
Anyway, yojimboguy, you win. I concede the point.
Vim is only used in conjunction with vigor.
Nobody has ever hawed without also hemming.
“Nothing is ever inclement except weather”?
You’ve not met my farts.
As for ample… let’s don’t forget clevage.
Passel of turnips.
Bunch of hogwash.
Stroke of genius.
I’ve yet to meet a * Rocket Humanist* or Philosopher.
Scarlett O’Hara said she didn’t want a “passel of brats” in Gone with the Wind.
Sheri
Did the mention of farts help bring Gone With The Wind to mind?
Yes, but are you gruntled?
Must I first be tarded?
Personally, I think so.
Bolding mine. The OP is asking for words that are used in only one way, not words that can only be used in one way.
Prior to your example, I’ve never seen the word “akimbo” used in any way other than “arms akimbo” and I’ve still never seen the word “scantily” used in a complete sentence to refer to anything other than a person’s (usually a woman’s) state of cladness.