Adverb:

• Without showing fear or indecision; resolutely. [W]

This is courage in a man to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends. 

-English Proverb

via

Noun:

• The practice of favoring one’s close friends, especially in political appointments. [Dictionary.com]

‘Whistleblower’ claims cronyism and fear at ICANN

A word I’ve been looking for. Seriously. 

Adjective:

• Greedy; ravenous.
• Subsisting on live prey. [TheFreeDictionary]

DF:

‘The difference between Google’s predatory rapaciousness today and Microsoft’s of yore is that Microsoft wore it on their sleeve, they owned it, celebrated it.’

‘Microsoft’s of yore’. So eloquent. 

Noun:

• An injury or wrong.

[W]

Noun:

• The crime or tort of intentionally striking another person. [W]

‘Last week, the guy in charge of the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office was charged with sexual battery.’ [NextDraft]

Btw, if you have room in your inbox for a top notch newsletter, subscribe to Dave Pell’s NextDraft. It’s quite great. 

Noun:

• Unpleasantly cold or wet weather.

via

Verb:

• To bring (something) into opposition with something else. [W]

‘But there’s nothing stupid about seeing Google being pitted “versus” other companies.’ [X]

Verb:

• To free from accusation or blame. [W]

‘When they were eventually exonerated, the coverage was minuscule by comparison.’ [X]

Verb:

• To incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate. [W]

‘Facebook is celebrating all the wrong things. It advocates tuning out the people around you to see what else is happening that must be more interesting elsewhere. It foments FOMO. And it makes Facebook Home look like the best possible way to be the least present.’ [X]

via DF

Verb:

• Drive back

[W]

via FreeRice

Adjective:

• (of weather) hot and humid; oppressively sticky

[W]

Verb:

• To estimate the value of a function between two points between which it is tabulated.
• During the course of processing some data, and in response to a directive in that data, to fetch data from a different source and process it in-line along with the original data.
• To introduce (material) to change the meaning of or falsify a text. [W]

‘I’ve modeled active Android users (excluding China) based on interpolating between Google’s announcements: my model says there were 680m Android users at the end of March.’ [X]

Verb:

• To excite (someone) to action by causing resentment or jealousy; to stimulate (a feeling, emotion); to offend by slighting. [W]

‘The profile piqued my interest because it described tools on IP Neighborhood that are similar to those of DomainTools.’ [X]

Noun:

• Coastal water body where ocean tides and river water merge.
• An ocean inlet also fed by fresh river water. [W]

‘Tampa Bay is a large, natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay.’ [X]