like in a spy movie or something

Someone just asked me why their partner thinks it's ok to treat them badly.

I’m looking for a some good phrases referring to someone who picks out a bunch of people to fight against or or squabble against someone. Edit: I usually never ask for “phrases”, so yeah I should’ve began the title with “WTP” for… and not used that, as I’m looking for a phrase.

Standoff only came about in the 1800s and is quite coded into the Mexican standoff. When I look up synonyms, I get impasse, stalemate, and such which don't hold the idea of violence/danger in the standoff that "standoff" does. Is there another word that would basically mean "two ready to attack each other but waiting for the other to make the move first or see if they'll both be dropping it"?

Like, "okay you didnt fire my husband but i had to sleep with you"

Looking for a word or phrase that describes when, during an argument about a large or very consequential problem, someone changes the topic to a very minor or trivial detail which then derails the entire conversation.

e.g. Martha hates that Tom is always using dishes and very rarely washes them. Just this morning Martha found a plate that Tom had left out used and unwashed. Tom’s response is that “it wasn't a plate, it was a saucer.” The conversation turns into a fight about the definition of plates instead of Martha’s original issue with dish washing.

My days off are Sunday and Monday . But I'm looking forward to going back to work later on tonight so I can hurry up and get to my days off.

I’m taking a course that has us reading a book on critical thinking. The authors of the book (Paul & Elder, 2012) come up with a provisional definition of the topics as “the art of thinking about thinking while thinking to make thinking better” (p.xix). Another word for it would be metacognition, but the discussion got me to thinking if there were another word that would fit into the following analogy: epistemology:knowing::ontology: being::wtw:thinking. Any ideas?

A friend of mine had to be hospitalized for several days after routine surgery nearly killed him. His world basically shrunk down to that hospital bed. He couldn’t eat solid food for days, was attached to an IV and drains, and was stuck in this sterile, bland environment until discharge. When he finally left the hospital, he said it felt like he was walking for the first time and seeing the world for the first time. He described the feeling as almost a euphoria. He wasn’t an emotional guy but he would burst into tears because something was so overwhelmingly beautiful or intense. Eating a simple bowl of soup had him in tears. He said it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. When I relayed this story to a psychologist acquaintance, she said “oh, that’s…”

I can’t remember what she called it. Help me, please!

I was riding a ride at an amusement park, and they take your picture at the end with a flash that causes temporary Flash Blindness. But in that section, it is also pitch black after the flash guess off, so you can't tell if your vision had come back or not... Is there a word or phrase for this Schrodinger's blindness?

So the situation is this: the guy is 18 years old with a 4 year old sister. She has just said something that, to her, is serious, but to him, is funny. He doesn't want to laugh at her, so he is holding it back. The smile is kind of like a smirk, but 'smirk' is too negative for the situation. So, imagine that one side of the mouth is lifted, but instead of the lips being relaxed like with a smirk, they are more pursed. I hope I explained this well enough to make sense. Thanks!

ex: someone has a privacy screen protector only because they also look at other people’s phones

or someone hides their snacks because they also look for other people’s snacks to eat

i don’t think it’s a hypocrite i just can’t describe it well enough for google

(sorry if I used suffix wrong I'm stupid) So I saw this VSauce video about how Diahrrea isn't the only word with the suffix -rrhea, so I tried to find what uncontrollable crying was because it rhymes well in a rap I'm making, but it just shows up with some sort of pseudobulbar effect or something like that I don't remember

I want to describe a connection with someone but I don’t want to use the word “love”. This is more than friendship, almost like kindred souls, but I don’t want the word to be obviously romantic. Is there a word that exists such as this?

I heard someone compliment another person on their success and they said “when I see you, I just feel like you’re someone favoured by god”. I felt that was kind of nice. And I would like to know if there is one word to sum that up.

Also, the word doesn’t necessarily have to be in English.

The closest term I know of is the TVTropes term Noodle Incident, but that refers specifically to a past event that characters occasionally reference. But I'm wondering if there's more of an umbrella term for this kind of writing technique, where something is vaguely alluded to in-story but never elaborated on or shown to the audience, and the writer chooses against ever revealing what the thing is because the entertainment value is in what the audience imagines in their head.

For one example (inspired by a nostalgia bender I've been on lately), the character Double D from Ed Edd n' Eddy wears a beanie at all times. The rare instances when his hat is removed, there is a cutaway or his head is covered up, so it's never revealed what he looks like without his hat on, but it's alluded to by multiple characters to be something shocking and possibly grotesque. I remember as a kid the ambiguity around this was a source of frustration to me, but now as an adult I recognize it as an example of this trope, and that no definitive answer given by the creator himself would be anything other than a disappointment.

Another version I see a lot in sitcoms is that a character will occasionally be referenced, and usually be hyped up as exceptionally quirky in some way, but never shown onscreen. Like Dorothy's brother Phil from The Golden Girls, or Spencer's friend Socko in iCarly.

Now this is probably something different, but tangentially I'm also thinking of this trope in literature where things are described vaguely so readers can apply their own image to it, like "it was so beautiful/horrifying that words cannot do it justice."

The can handle the money, know all details, handle the employees, make executive decisions, do the actual hands on work because they are so familiar with what is going on,

I feel like there is a phrase for this, but the closest I can get is "In a country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," which is totally wrong.

But, when you're desperate, you'll grasp at straws.

Is there a phrase like that, but that implies you think you are making a smart choice, not a desperate one?

You are joking around with coworkers. You leave the office thinking everything is fine and you even have a smile on your face. Five minutes later one of your coworkers messages you and says "You know exactly what she meant. She meant no ill will and you know that. She is worried unnecessarily that she upset you, and that's not fair." I replied "Huh? What happened? What did I do?"

All I can think of is gobsmacked.

When someone says something, and then someone else repeats it back to them with pursed lips and a mocking voice.

What's that called?

(i don't know Tommy what's that called?)

WTW for the pride feeling when one of your new friends/co-worker or acquaintance. Does or attempts something amazing.

Like a girl I travelled for a week with attempted to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. I didn't help, or train or join etc, but kind of feel proud of her via proxy?

Thanks

My wife and I have been discussing this all day, what is the word for a drug that makes you constipated.

Codeine is a _______, which makes you constipated. It's been driving us mad. Not anti-diarrheal or anti-mobility.

We have the word (two words) for a straw man but do we call the person behind the straw man? This has come up in my work and there isn't a great word that I can find for it.

I just say guy behind the guy? which isn't all that eloquent

One of my high school teachers asked the girls why everyone was wearing Uggs. One of the girls said that sneakers were kind of bulky and unattractive, and I looked down at my own sneakers and thought, “well, f me then.”

I was kind of bothered by it, but I also just had to laugh at how the moment played out.

Is there a word for that?

I have appetite fatigue or maybe hunger-induced nausea. Looking for more expressive words and phrases. The emotion associated is rage. Literally that: when you hate everyone, then eat feeling.

My character is really going through it and I'd like to make fun of him.

Like someone who never liked Bill Cosby even from the early days, and then his true history comes to light and the person who never liked him was right about not liking him all along. Not Schadenfreude.

So for context I'm writing a fantasy novel, and there's this small vessel characters can use to both store and release magic spells. To activate it, they would need to say "release" followed by thhe spell's name (e.g. Release, Fireball!) then throw the vessel towards the intended target, or at least the general direction of it. It is small enough in shape that you can hold it with only two fingers. Anyways, for now I call it "spell canisters" but it being a "canister" doesn't sit right with me. "Vial" and "flask" are already taken, nevertheless it still doesn't seem right, since the thing's typically not made out of glass. And it certainly isn't a "potion" lol. Anybody knows another word for it?

For example if someone borrowed their friend money a while ago, they might casually say to them, "One of my old friends really annoyed me, they never paid me back when I'd borrow them money."

Is there a word for sorcerer but as a female? If there's version of it like any words [e.g Actress, vampiress, witch, etc..]