Meaning of Excrescence | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Something, usually abnormal, which grows out of something else.
2. A disfiguring or unwanted mark or adjunct.
3. The epenthesis of a consonant, e.g., warmth as [ˈwɔrmpθ] (adding a [p] between [m] and [θ]), or -t (Etymology 2).

Equivalents

Examples

“I have⟳ again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly, plainly. Miss⟳ Temple, that girl’s hair must be cut⟳ off entirely; I will send⟳ a barber to-morrow: and I see⟳ others who have⟳ far too much of the excrescence—that tall girl, tell⟳ her to turn⟳ round.”

“The squirrels were in hiding. One only he saw⟳,—a sleek gray fellow, flattened against a gray dead limb so that he seemed a part of it, a woody excrescence upon the wood itself.”

“Perhaps he meant that towns are after all excrescences, grey fluxions, where men, hurrying to find⟳ one another, have⟳ lost themselves.”

“It is taken for granted that a beggar does not 'earn⟳' his living, as a bricklayer or a literary critic 'earns' his. He is a mere social excrescence, tolerated because we live⟳ in a humane age, but essentially despicable.”

“Being bussum buddies, the two friends often communicated with mere exchange⟳ of psychic forces, verbal communication having been rendered unnecessary excrescence.”

CEFR level