What's the difference between calamite and catamite?
Calamite
Definition:
(n.) A fossil plant of the coal formation, having the general form of plants of the modern Equiseta (the Horsetail or Scouring Rush family) but sometimes attaining the height of trees, and having the stem more or less woody within. See Acrogen, and Asterophyllite.
Example Sentences:
(1) Such views are increasingly common all over Detroit, the forlorn former capital of America's car industry and now a by-word for calamitous urban decline.
(2) Opening heroin consumption rooms We have spent nearly 50 calamitous years treating drug addiction as a criminal justice matter rather than a social and medical problem.
(3) If that attitude could sometimes frustrate senior editors’ desire to raise standards – if it could, in the end, be blamed for the calamitous failure to spot the misdeeds of Johann Hari – it was also the only thing that kept the paper from falling apart completely: an irresistibly romantic underdog spirit, a sense that since this plainly wasn’t a viable business, it had to be a cause.
(4) That spirit of co-operation represents a drastic change from the calamitous Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, when diplomatic snubs and general distrust between the two countries wrecked any prospect for a deal.
(5) Without them, it would be like the calamitous three-day service outage of October 2011 – permanently.
(6) His seventh goal in his last seven games for Wales, after a calamitous mistake from Radja Nainggolan, was the difference on a evening that ended with the Real Madrid forward leaving the field to a standing ovation two minutes from time.
(7) As ruthless as Liverpool were with their finishing, in particular the irrepressible Luis Suárez , who scored twice to take his tally for the season to 22, Stoke were guilty of some calamitous defending and contributed largely to their own downfall.
(8) While calamitous action unfolds on screen, Green imparts anecdotes, socio-political analysis and the kind of life advice you might expect from his day-job as a best selling author and progressive digital campaigner.
(9) Rather than boasting of calamitous missions, the politicians responsible for them must be held to account.
(10) Second-chance Sunday in Gosford In truth, Justin Pasfield’s calamitous goalkeeping against Newcastle last week was about as cringe-worthy as his new hipster beard-haircut combination.
(11) Blair’s calamitous war in Iraq and Cameron’s radical domestic agenda implemented in a hung parliament are cited as examples of mighty power exerted against the will of the people.
(12) They’re a pro-X Factor paper.” But his book arguably also proves the alternative explanation for his calamitous public image.
(13) This is not to say that I think his presidency has been without its serious, even calamitous, failures, the most important of which is his unwillingness to intervene in any meaningful way in Syria.
(14) You would expect newspaper sales to drop in August as readers head for the beaches, so the important comparison is the year-on-year figures which range from catastrophic to calamitous.
(15) Referring repeatedly to “our friends and allies in the EU”, the prime minister added she had no interest in the bloc unravelling: “It remains overwhelmingly and compellingly in Britain’s national interest that the EU should succeed.” But she warned that if the EU 27 heeded those “voices calling for a punitive deal that punishes Britain”, it would amount to “an act of calamitous self-harm for the countries of Europe.
(16) The Kensington and Chelsea council leader, Nick Paget-Brown, stepped down on Friday along with his deputy following another calamitous week that included a bungled attempt by the council to hold a cabinet meeting behind closed doors.
(17) The victors will have a home tie against Watford, who scraped past Leeds thanks to a calamitous Scott Wootton own goal.
(18) But it wasn't just on the war on terror that opponents of the New World Order were shown to be right and its cheerleaders to be talking calamitous nonsense.
(19) Previous research has shown three quarters of the world’s listed reserves of carbon producing fuels must stay in the ground if the world is to avoid calamitous climate change.
(20) "Fears about growth in Europe, Asia and the US, where calamitous existing home sales figures were the focus...
Catamite
Definition:
(n.) A boy kept for unnatural purposes.
Example Sentences:
(1) Piers Gaveston members are understood to be given obscure titles such as “Poker”, “Despenser” and “Catamite”, and they all follow the Sicilian code of Omertà – or maintaining silence about the club.