scrimp.
Does anybody use the word scrimp without following it with and save?
How about nooks and cranies. Are those real words?
I’ve used (and heard) scrimp outside of scrimp n’ save, though I’ll admit it’s none too common. Nook seems to be fairly common, though I’d say crannies sure ain’t.
Examples:
“Don’t scrimp on the boiled potato!”
“We’ve been scrimping for a while so we can afford a place with a real dining room instead of just a breakfast nook.”
Maybe it all depends on where you’re fro. Or to. Or both.
Perfectly. Is perfectly ever used, except as in “perfectly ridiculous?” (Besides maybe perfectly absurd or perfectly preposterous?)
Hey! I use perfectly, I doubt I use it in the grammatically correct sense of the word but I do use it.
“That would be so perfectly, wonderfully, magically, fun”
Okay so maybe not like that but close enough, it’s just for when I fell like stringing suff together.
Kitty
Well, Richard Armour pointed out that one “strews” flowers and nothing else.
Retardant - only goes with “fire retardant”
I’m perfectly capable of strewing random destruction.
What I want to know is who uses the word “rid” without “get” in front of it.
All the prior examples are lame. You guys aren’t working hard enough.
Here’s one I dare you to crack: akimbo
You can use it with “arms,” as in “arms akimbo,” and nothing else.
(I’m counting the minutes until Ukelele Ike comes in with come improbable, wacko English construction that he’ll swear on a stack of bibles is valid.)
“If only I could rid myself of that man…”
“Our kitchen has a nice breakfast nook.”
“A boulder, perfectly poised on top of a pointed rock in the desert.”
I seem to remember hearing “strew” used in conjunction with “feces”, but I don’t remember the context.
-Ben
Rats. Mods, if you happen to stop in could you change the subject line to read “combination” so that we may rid this thread of as many misspellings as possible. I’m perfectly willing to have my mistakes corrected whenever necessary. 
How about wreaking havoc? I’m not even sure which word to focus on.
I am waaaay too slow.
Damn stuy, akimbo is a tough one. It’s examples like that I had in mind when I started this thread. Unfortunately, they all left my mind before I actually entered them in it.
Meemees (sp?). Are there any other kind besides the screaming ones?
Re: Arms akimbo.
In a writers’ critique group I once attended, one of the manuscripts under review included the phrase, “legs akimbo.” (That was small potatoes after reading of the protagonist’s horse, which began the chapter as a mare and ended it as a gelding.)
How about disgruntled? Who else is ever disgruntled but workers? Usually Postal workers.
OrcaChow, I’ve got disgruntled squirrels in my back yard, and they are not employees of the postal service. Ever since we got that new bird feeder that they can’t get into…
Someone try using “ulterior” without following it up with “motive.”
Gelded horse. Every other animal is fixed.
I don’t think anyone I know would think ‘perfectly’ must be used with a certain word, and certainly not with ‘rediculous.’ I’m not even sure if I’ve heard ‘perfectly rediculous’ more than 3 times in my life.
He did that backflip perfectly.
She applied her makeup perfectly.
They performed perfectly on the test.
and so on…
Jman
It seems there is only one thing that is referred to as “unrequited”.
I’ve never heard the word “harbinger” not referring to death or the bluebird of spring.
At Red Lobster, I ordered the Steak with Scrimp Scampi.
:D:D