Dictionary Definitions

Once upon a time, when I was in the fourth grade, the teacher taught the class how to use the dictionary, and we were allowed to leave our seats without permission when ever we needed to look up the meaning of a word.  The dictionary was a heavy, thick book on a stand across the room from my desk, alongside the wall of windows where play grounds and recess areas were visible.

I think I used the freedom of going to the dictionary more than any other classmate, making numerous trips per day.  I actually did look up the meanings of words, but I also took sneaky peaks out the windows to see what was happening outside.  Sometimes it really did take a while to leaf thru pages and scroll thru the alphabet to find the word I was looking for. You would think with all that effort, I might have learned to spell. 

Some words I've recently checked in the dictionary:

Deception: act of deceiving, state of being deceived, trick, stratagem, ruse, hoax, fraud, artifice
Artifice:  a clever trick or stratagem, crafty, expedient, wile, cunning, contrivance, subterfuge
Subterfuge: deception to achieve an end, a stratagem employed to conceal or evade, an expedient used to evade a rule or escape consequences