a multitoed frog

Mother believed round garters cut off the circulation and caused varicose veins, so she kept me in a pantywaist several years longer than most boys. Nobody knew this except me and Mother, and I was particularly careful to keep it a secret because there was a touch of ladiness to a waist after a boy got about so big.

to deaden a wall or a floor

For the long-term data set, spatfall events and the amount of spatfall increased markedly with strong offshore winds. On days with high tidal range, there tended to be an increase in the amount of spatfall, but this trend was not significant statistically.