It’s time for this month’s vocabulary test-take it and see how you do.
- Dwindle down
- Draw fire
- Daub
- Dadjimit
- Dodge
- Dwindle down: to decline in amount or weight. “We had some wood stocked up, but with the cold lasting so long into Spring it’s dwindled down to nearly nothing.”
- Draw fire: to draw heat from a burned area of skin. “I’ve heard about drawing fire out of burns my entire life. Some people are said to have power to blow on a burn and remove the fire-thus easing the pain of the burn.”
- Daub: to fill the cracks in a chimney, cabin, etc. to make airtight; to place/rub/spread an amount of a substance on something. “Just daub a little of that ointment on there and it’ll quit hurting before you know it.”
- Dadjimit: a mild oath. “Dadjimit! I left my pocketbook down at the store now I’m going to have to turn around and go back!”
- Dodge: to avoid. “I know I’ll have to talk to him eventually. But so far I’ve been able to dodge him. Every time I see him coming I slip off and go the other way.”
I’m familiar with all of this month’s words-I hear and use them on a regular basis. How about you?
Tipper
Yep, I may be from this here corner, but once again I’m familiar with all but one of your terms. Draw fire.
Haven’t heard “dadjimit” but I think it’s about the same as “dadgumit” which I have heard. Haven’t heard “draw fire” either, except in the military when it meant something else entirely. Have heard of “daub” but our dad sometimes said “butter” when he meant for us to “daub” something, as in “Butter it up good, so it won’t leak.”
And I see Tipper has a few of the “Little People” hiding about in her yard too. We have ’em here and there, and we love them.
God bless.
RB
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1, 3, an 5. I have heard a version of 4…”dagnabitt!”
I have heard of all the words and use them all regularly. I have heard of putting mustard on a burn to draw the fire out of it. Love those vocabulary tests..
Great test because I know them all- I’ll have to vote for
‘dadgummit’ though. Haven’t heard ‘draw fire’ for a long time, but was used by my mother and grandmother.
I have heard and use most of these,, drawing fire I don’t use, but have heard some folks use it.. Our “dadjimit” is pronounced “dadgum-it” which means the same thing… I think..
All except for dadjimit, though as others have noted a lot of similar terms were used.
I thought everyone said dwindle down.
Whew! I did very well on the words this month. Maybe I am assimilating a bit better. I am happy about that. The words were a good choice. I like the gnome a lot. Happy Day!
Tipper,
How in the world could I forget
“DAGBLASTIT” that is a g instead of a d and a blast instead of a blame, jim, or gum it…
I wonder how many dadburns, etc.
there are?
Whew, comin’ a storm here, doggone it and he really is gone under the chair…he’s afeered of
“thunder-boomers”!
Later and thanks to you, I got to vent a lot today!!
PS…I know it would be better praying today and especially for the little girl who lost her brother, critical mother, and her own one leg in the Boston bombing…I understand that she was a little Irish dancer…just sickening…I prayed first yesterday but just have to vent today at the “evil one” today!
Just my human nature, sorry!
We said “dadblamit, dadgumit or dadblameit” And “dob” instead of daub–dirt “dobber” was a kind of wasp.
Never heard of anyone who could “draw fire” but many believed in reading a certain Bible verse to stop bleeding. I have actual story of this working but Coincidence or not; who knows!
This just brought to mind a story Mama told that included the line “dob it with mud and stop it with clay/moss & then you can carry your riddle full away. Familiar to anyone?
Tipper,
I recon I’m hillbilly enough to
recognize all these words. Sound
good enough to me! To keep from
cussin’, my mama would say
“Jimtakeit” sometimes.
When I was younger, like Cindy, I
had friends from New York who ran
Escod Industries at the Taylorsville, N.C. plant. I made tools for them and they loved to
hear me talk. And all the time I
thought they talked funny…Ken
For minor expletives: dadgummit, gummit, dadblameit, dang, darn it.
We use dab as a noun and daub as a verb.
I use dwindle down and dodge on a regular basis.
And while I know of draw fire in the physical sense of attracting the attention of the “enemy”, I also know it in terms of one person deflecting verbal abuse from another by refocusing verbal battery (and sometime physical) on themselves.
As I notice the areas where some of the posts are from I am intrigued by the connection to the “tracks” of the known branches of my family.
One branch (possibly starting in Germany) can be traced to West Virginia before it was West Virginia. That branch trekked to Illinois and Indiana before going to Eastern Kansas/Western Missouri, then Texas.
Another branch seems to have started in Prussia, wound up in Pennsylvania, then went to Indiana/Illinois, to eastern Nebraska/Kansas, then to Texas.
The other branches are more spotty with a strong component in Western Kansas and Nebraska.
I wonder if the phrases I use traveled with them or were picked up along the way. . . .
By the way, when my husband was stationed in Virginia, I was on a work break when I noticed dark clouds building and roiling in the North. I commented that it looked like we were going to have a “mean blue norther” – not a soul in the office new what I meant!!
Tipper,
DADBURNIT, SOMEBODY DAUB UP THAT AIRHOLE OR GO BACK TO THE BARN!
Yep, we sez “dadburnit”…not so much, dadjimit, dadblameit, sometimes dadgummit!
You shoe dodged a bullit that time, this here poultice will draw the fire out and the pain will dwindle down in a time!
I think I jest said that yesturty, when the betterhalf nearly cut his arm off with a sawbrair!
Thanks Tipper, As usual I love this post…
PS…The first picture reminds me of a red capped mushroom…and of course the second one I love too..
There is a big one standing by my little homemade pond, holding a big goldfish! Anotheren around holding a lantern and one holdin’ a larnin’ book who teaches woodsy stuff to the fairies….
I was recently thinking how I wish I could go back and say a different word instead of dwindle down. When my boss asked me, via radio communication, if my area was still getting hammered, I replied that the volume of packages had dwindled down to nearly nothing. I got radio calls from all over to please repeat that. With my accent, it’s no telling what they thought they heard.
I use all the other words, too.
Yes, all but draw fire. And we say dadgumit. These tests are fun! It’s always good to know there are others like us.
I know them all but usually use dadblameit or dadgummit. One of my boys couldn’t say dadgummit so he would just say,”ahh,gummit”.
Around my neck of the woods it wasn’t dadjimit but rather dadgummit? Other than that the other phrases were familiar.
All except for dadjimit. My grandpa blew on burns and drew the fire from it. I’ve been told of times when he did it to my cousins and my mom.
Tipper, I know all these and have used all these at some time or other.
Most of these I thought were normal English usage.
I used to work with a guy that moved here from New York state and he would tease me on occasion saying “Cindy, your country is showing”. I was not offended but sometimes I had no idea what I had said that prompted that comment from him. I’d think back over our conversation and sometimes I had said ain’t but usually I didn’t know what i’d said because it was something so ingrained in me that I had no sense of saying something he could call country.
I knew them all, around here it is dadgumit or dadblameit, instead of dadjimit.
I say everthing but dadjimit and daub. Thinking about using dadjimit as a substitute. I use dab instead of daub.
Don’t forget Dadgummit!
Wow, never heard draw out the fire anywhere but my own family. I get strange looks from people when I use it. And yes, all the words are used by me and mine
I had never heard “draw fire” used that way before. The others I knew. “Draw fire” always meant to me the act of getting the bad guys attention while your buddies sneaked up on them or did something else to help the situation.
I have heard all the words used,not sure I use them daily. Have a happy daiy from midle TN!
Well, I’ll be doggone, we finally got some warm weather, and doggone it I’m going to enjoy it. That dad blame winter was bad. I guess we use those terms instead of dadjimit. We dab instead of daub.