Even with all the things written about Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, I think I might be the first to try adding some TEFL-style pointless elicitation. And so here goes… Try to work out which word he was defining in each case then scroll down the screen to check (it’s a bit like the classroom activities The Definition Game and Taboo):

1. belonging to an ass
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asinine

2. a hog dressed whole, in the West Indian manner
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barbecue

3. a stone in the bladder
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calculus

4. dependence on experience without knowledge or art; quackery
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empiricism

5. a man of violent passions
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fireman

6. one that carries his opinions to extravagance
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high-flier

7. to deprive a dog of something, nobody knows what, under his tongue, which is said to prevent him, nobody knows why, from running mad
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to worm

8. as much food as one’s hand can hold
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lunch

9. an insect whose bite is only cured by music
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tarantula

10. in copulation the female receives the male lying on her back
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elephant

11. an Abyssinian animal, taller than an elephant, but not so thick
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camelopard (= giraffe)

12. when its bowels are taken out, or it is wounded, it smells very agreeably
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crocodile

13. being waterish, fill the veins with crude and windy serosities
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cucumber

13. to emasculate; to effeminate; to soften
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to womanize

14. a word of slight contempt for a woman
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slut

15. a shed hanging out aslope from the main wall
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penthouse

16. a bottle, in which water is kept for inspection
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urinal

17. one who works upon lead
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plumber

18. to toss in a blanket, by way of penalty or contempt
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to blanket

19. something in which diseased parts are washed
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lavatory

20. sudden vehemence
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orgasm

21. a schoolmaster
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pedant

22. a lamb taken into the house
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pet

23. goods in the wife’s disposal
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paraphernalia

23. a kind name of a monkey
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pug

24. splendid; magnificient; grand
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pompous

25. a medical prescription
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recipe

26. one who strikes
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rapper

27. one who moves heavily and dully
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jogger

All from the surprisingly readable and interesting book Dr Johnson’s Dictionary (Defining the World) by Henry Hitchings, or is saying that just a sign I’ve been in TEFL too long?? Anyway, not quite as much fun as Robbie Coltrane as Dr Johnson in Blackadder Three.