# What's a word for...?



## Penpilot (Jan 12, 2013)

You ever have trouble finding the right word/phase to describe a certain thing or action or whatever? And no matter how hard you look and flip thesaurus pages, it just doesn't come. Well, I was thinking maybe we could all pool our collective vocabulary to help each other out when needed. 

If you need a word/phase to describe something, post a description of the word/phrase you need and people can spit-ball choices for you, or at the very least, shake things loose in your head so you can figure out the word you need yourself.

OK now my selfish reason for starting this thread. I'm looking for a word/phrase that means 'promotion-seeker'. 

Cheers


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## Xaysai (Jan 12, 2013)

Penpilot said:


> You ever have trouble finding the right word/phase to describe a certain thing or action or whatever? And no matter how hard you look and flip thesaurus pages, it just doesn't come. Well, I was thinking maybe we could all pool our collective vocabulary to help each other out when needed.
> 
> If you need a word/phase to describe something, post a description of the word/phrase you need and people can spit-ball choices for you, or at the very least, shake things loose in your head so you can figure out the word you need yourself.
> 
> ...



Promotion, as in a job promotion?

Ambitious?


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## Kit (Jan 12, 2013)

"_____-chaser"


The "_______" being whatever specific promotion is being sought.

IE, we call people in martial arts who are focused on getting their next belt "belt chasers" and people who are focused on winning competitions "medal-chasers".


This one is often used in a derogatory fashion.


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## Butterfly (Jan 12, 2013)

Are you after a ladder-climber?

As in the career ladder?


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## Sir Rico (Jan 12, 2013)

Promotion seeker = arse licker or brown nose lol.


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## Penpilot (Jan 13, 2013)

Butterfly said:


> Are you after a ladder-climber?
> 
> As in the career ladder?




That's kind of the spirit I'm looking for but I should have been more specific in my initial post. The character I'm trying to call "a ladder-climber" is a police officer. He's not a kiss-ass. He's ambitious. I'm trying to find a world to encompass that in one word or phrase in a negative way. What I'm using right now is promotion-chaser, but that's just now cranking my chain. I don't know. Maybe I'm over thinking.


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## wordwalker (Jan 13, 2013)

"Climber" works in the right context. And depending on the details (including who's talking about him at the moment), there's also backstabber, publicity-chaser, spotlight-hog, and so on.


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## STSIN7 (Jan 14, 2013)

Opportunist?


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## jax (Mar 29, 2013)

Two faced back stabbing brown nosing rat


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## OGone (Mar 29, 2013)

I like the idea of this thread. I'm not sure about promotion-chaser. I think you should just use a sentence to describe him as career ambitious, it's hard otherwise to not make him sound like a suck-up.

I've got a couple questions:

Does anyone know what raised patios are called? 
Like this but higher up. 
Is there a word, or are they just raised patios?

Secondly.. French doors. 
What would they be called in a fantasy setting where France doesn't exist?

Thanks anyone who gives either of these two a crack.


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## wordwalker (Mar 29, 2013)

For a don't-call-it-French door, I'd just say "glass door" and be sure to mention it "sliding" early on.


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## Subcreator (Mar 29, 2013)

As for a raised patio, that's a deck, at least in my experience.


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## Nihal (Mar 29, 2013)

OGone said:


> Does anyone know what raised patios are called?
> Like this but higher up.
> Is there a word, or are they just raised patios?



It's a veranda, I think. A kind of terrace or platform, or deck. (ninja'ed xD)

---
Anyway, this thread is awesome. My doubt:

What would be the right word to convey the feeling when you get rebuked by someone? Like when a child asks something to her parents, they deny it making the child sullen. It's a word alluding to the contrariness, sounding like "she was _contraried_" instead of "she was rebuked" and "she's _contraried_" instead of "she's upset". Is there a specific word for this in English?


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## A. E. Lowan (Mar 29, 2013)

If she is somehow remorsefull about her request, the word you're looking for is "contrite."  So, you're close!


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## Ireth (Mar 29, 2013)

@Nihal: Contradicted, maybe? It means "spoken against", which I think is what you're going for with the denial.


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## Nihal (Mar 29, 2013)

@aelowan Kinda, but not exactly. It's an angrier feeling.

@Ireth Yes and no. Works for the verb case but not for the feeling I'm trying to describe. I might end going with sullen.

Just for the fun, a bad translation of a dictionary entry:

1. One who is ?? _(the mysterious word)_
2. One who endures or endured opposition (contradicted opinion)
3. One who faced contrariness
4. One who is unsatisfied, annoyed because something unexpected or unintended happened
5. One who feels or reveals displeasure, annoyance, disappointment or sadness; UNHAPPY; DISCONTENT

Usage: Feeling ??, the boy threw a tantrum.


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## Jamber (Mar 29, 2013)

Hi Nihal, is it 'chastened'? What about 'crestfallen'? Or 'piqued'? Or what about 'scalded' (it's the feeling you get after a major rebuke)? Or you could just describe his face to indicate the feeling: 'Glowering, the boy threw a tantrum;' 'Scowling, the boy threw a tantrum'; etc.
(I like puzzles like this.)
cheers
Jennie


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## Nihal (Mar 29, 2013)

It's probably something along "scalded" lines, but less...








Thanks anyway! Made me think in "vexed", which also works in some cases.


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## Jamber (Mar 29, 2013)

Penpilot said:


> I'm looking for a word/phrase that means 'promotion-seeker'.



Can you make one up based on their workplace? Matthew Connolly does this sort of thing all the time, using local detail and colour to make jargon.
Phillip K Dick was pretty good at it too, in that 50s kind of detective-voice fashion.

Otherwise, a go-getter is the only one I can think of offhand, and it's not all that pejorative, sorry.


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## Jamber (Mar 29, 2013)

Nihal said:


> It's probably something along "scalded" lines, but less...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Ha, yep, gotcha... I should know the right word; my son has that expression constantly.


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