· middle-aged - 'between youth and old age, variously reckoned to suit the reckoner'

· charity begins at home - 'usually an excuse for not allowing it to get abroad'

· kazoo - 'a would-be musical instrument'

· jay walker - 'a contemptuous word applied to careless pedestrians by motorists who have to avoid running them down'

· Land o' the Leal - 'the home of the blessed after death - heaven not Scotland' · sea-serpent - 'an enormous marine animal of serpent-like form, frequently seen and described by credulous sailors, imaginative landsmen and common liars'

· noose - 'a snare or bond generally, especially hanging or marriage'

· end-reader - 'one who peeps at the end of a novel to see if she got him'

· double-locked - 'locked by two turns of the key, as in very few locks, but many novels'

· ghost word - 'a word that has originated in the blunder of a scribe or printer - common in dictionaries'