(n.) A web-footed bird, of the genus Diomedea, of which there are several species. They are the largest of sea birds, capable of long-continued flight, and are often seen at great distances from the land. They are found chiefly in the southern hemisphere.
Example Sentences:
(1) But the Ukip albatross grows bigger by the year and may destroy his career.
(2) On her right shoulder is an albatross: "She wanted to come back as one when she died."
(3) These patients continue to haunt the surgeon, and the syndrome has been named the "albatross" syndrome.
(4) There is now provisional BBC Trust approval for Project Canvas , the TV-on-demand joint venture that includes ITV, the BBC and BT, but Norman may be left with the task of working out what to do with ITV's digital albatross Friends Reunited, if the Competition Commission blocks its proposed £25m sale .
(5) Now that shopping habits have changed with the arrival of online grocers and the popularity of buying little and often from small local shops, Tesco’s collection of large stores seems more like an albatross around its neck.
(6) So far, the president has been more fatuous than fascistic, though he belatedly realized what an albatross the bill had become.
(7) While newer procedures in ulcer surgery may alter the incidence of standard postgastrectomy complications it will not alter the incidence of the albatross syndrome, which is more directly related to the selection of the patient rather than the selection of the surgeon or surgical procedure.
(8) "Does social conservatism continue to be a albatross around the neck of the party?"
(9) Liberal Democrat leader Clegg, who has been variously branded a "jelly", "condom", "lapdog" and "yellow albatross" by Johnson, suggested the mayor should be clearer about his true intentions.
(10) 'House Of Cards', which recalled Fleetwood Mac's 'Albatross'.
(11) So next time you buy bottled water, remember the baby albatross.
(12) Lead poisoning was diagnosed in 10 of the droop-winged albatrosses and was one of the causes of morbidity.
(13) But albatrosses have adapted to cope with salty food and water.
(14) Human activity (lead poisoning and vehicular trauma) caused mortality at Midway Atoll and represented additive mortality for pre-fledgling albatrosses.
(15) Although she came to see The Golden Notebook as her "albatross", she had to concede that the novel, written during a period of great personal and social upheaval, had a life and energy of its own.
(16) There’s no question it will be an albatross should he win the nomination.
(17) His presence either indicates a certain softening of attitude towards the prize on the part of Blur's frontman, or else it's going to be short-lived: the last time he turned up on the Mercury shortlist, for Gorillaz's eponymous 2001 debut album, Albarn demanded the nomination be withdrawn, claiming that winning the award would be "like carrying a dead albatross around your neck for eternity".
(18) Over 100 species of sea birds are known to have ingested plastics, and according to a study published last month around 95% of fulmar, a seabird related to albatrosses, have been found to have potentially hazardous plastics in their stomachs.
(19) Hosts of brightly plumed birds – "flamingos and frigate-birds, falcons and deep-water albatross" – have flocked into the town, and when the narrator leans against a pillar box, trying to straighten his flying suit, an eagle "guarding these never-to-be-collected letters snaps at my hands, as if she has forgotten who I am and is curious to inspect this solitary pilot who has casually stepped off the wind into these deserted streets".
(20) Epizootic mortality occurred in Laysan albatross (Diomedea immutabilis) fledgings at Midway Atoll in 1983.
Curse
Definition:
(v. t.) To call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon; to imprecate evil upon; to execrate.
(v. t.) To bring great evil upon; to be the cause of serious harm or unhappiness to; to furnish with that which will be a cause of deep trouble; to afflict or injure grievously; to harass or torment.
(v. i.) To utter imprecations or curses; to affirm or deny with imprecations; to swear.
(v. t.) An invocation of, or prayer for, harm or injury; malediction.
(v. t.) Evil pronounced or invoked upon another, solemnly, or in passion; subjection to, or sentence of, divine condemnation.
(v. t.) The cause of great harm, evil, or misfortune; that which brings evil or severe affliction; torment.
Example Sentences:
(1) But it was also a portrait of an England charged with secrets - and, as Michael Billington put it, the work of an accomplished playwright who understood the English curse of 'emotional evasion.'
(2) A new, terrible curse that comes on top of the bleaching, the battering, the poisoning and the pollution.
(3) She comes from the "cursed" political dynasty in Pakistan : her grandfather, the former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979, three years before Fatima was born; her father, the radical politician Murtaza Bhutto, was shot dead by police in 1996; and her aunt, the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a bombing in 2007.
(4) It has somehow managed to escape the curse of Murdoch, who partly owns it.
(5) But it accused South Park of having mocked the prophet, and cited Islamic scholars who ruled that "whoever curses the messenger of Allah must be killed".
(6) Now they await the results of the American League Championship Series to see whether this year's World Series will be a rematch of 2004, when the Cardinals were swept by the curse-reversing Boston Red Sox, or 2006, when the Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers and became one of the worst teams to win the World Series in MLB history .
(7) Several survivors and family members of the victims who were flown to the US testified this week , and one cursed Bales for attacking villagers as some slept and others screamed for mercy.
(8) The bakers can freeze each layer as it goes on, tensely waiting by the ice box, cursing under their breath.
(9) Still alive, he was then surrounded by people who cursed and spat at him, kicked him in the head and tried to hit him with a chair.
(10) How they got here You'll be forgiven if you thought they were still cursed, if you had been following recent baseball history.
(11) Not a Lynyrd Skynyrd "doom will plague you at every turn" sort of curse, it must be said; more a sequence of mildly irritating events.
(12) In 1 infant diagnosed with Ondine's curse, examination showed diffuse neuronal loss and gliosis in the medullary tegmentum.
(13) Since then, the cursing and sobbing have been plentiful.
(14) Maguwu said: "To me it's very clear the diamonds have been a curse to this country.
(15) As Taylor cursed, McClaren embarked on a tactical rejig.
(16) The curse of playing Ari Gold is that Jeremy Piven may have to spend the rest of his life trying to convince the world he is not a rage-fuelled blustering asshole.
(17) They managed to catch two people, aged no more than 30, and were beating them up badly, swearing at them all the time and cursing the Shia clerics, saying: "Where is al-Khomeini now?
(18) It would swirl around that child's head in the manner of a bad fairy from a storybook bringing along a cursed gift to a christening.
(19) Infantile delivery also frequently serves to take the curse off self-publicity; sleight of hand for those who find "my programme is on BBC2 tonight" too presumptuous and exposing, and prefer to cower behind the low-status imbecility of "I done rote a fingy for da tellybox!"
(20) This discovered gothic quality within everyday life found one of its finest expressions in the American work of French-born director Jacques Tourneur , especially the brilliant Cat People (1943), Curse of the Cat People (1944) and Night of the Demon (1957).