veiled

veiled    [veyld] 

adjective.  concealed, (expressed) indirectly, disguised 

veil. noun. cloth worn by women to protect or conceal face

"In his short speech in Cuba, Pope Francis delivered a veiled critique of the Castro."

"At Thursday's announcement in New York, Samsung dropped several veiled barbs against Apple, particularly on the subject of innovation."

"Does Iran care for such veiled warnings by Turkish officials?"

balloon

balloon     [buh-loon] 

verb.  to increase rapidly 

"Social media are getting more influential. Social networks have ballooned since the last presidential election. Candidates are smarter about using them."

"The company's debt has ballooned in the last 5 years"

"Total undergraduate debt has ballooned over the last 10 years."

flub

flub     [fluhb] 

verb.  to perform poorly; botch

"The candidates flubbed claims on the key issues such as vaccines and immigration in the presidential debate last night."

"When a movie actor flubs his lines, the scene has to be re-filmed."

"The initial report appears to have flubbed some key facts."

gladiator fight

gladiator fight     [Glad-ee-ey-ter] 

noun.  a brutal combat between one armed gladiator and another armed gladiator or a wild animal in order to entertain audiences in an arena in Ancient Rome; a fight 

"Presidential candidate Ben Carson said he wasn't looking to get into a gladiator fight with Donald Trump."

"Arnold Schwarzenegger's office says he won't be attending a gladiator fight in Ohio this weekend."

dexterity

dexterity     [dek-STER-i-tee] 

noun.  skill of using hands, fingers 

"No robots can yet match the dexterity of a human hand. Laundry folding robots are not yet invented."

"As a brain surgeon, Ben Carson has the dexterity of the fingers. To run for the U.S. president, he will need the dexterity of the tongue."

"To test the usability of treadmill desks,  the volunteers were asked to complete a series of tests of their manual and mental dexterity."

bellwether

bellwether     [Bel-weth-er] 

noun.   1) a male sheep that leads the flock, usually bearing a bell; 2) a person or thing that leads a profession or industry

"Paris is a bellwether of the fashion industry."

"The Scandinavian countries are the bellwethers of women’s representation in politics. The Asian nations are the next.”

"California has long been a political bellwether, with the federal government and other states often following California’s lead in passing laws."

omnipotent

omnipotent    [om-Nip-uh-tuh nt]

adjective.  having very great or unlimited authority or power.

"No company in history has ever achieved the scale of Facebook, which now reaches nearly 1.5 billion total users. Nor has there ever been a mogul quite like Zuckerberg. He rules, with near omnipotence, over Silicon Valley’s grandest empire, and remains eager for more."

"A dentist with a weapon and money can send a lion to its death. Lions and elephants, omnipotent in the natural order, are vulnerable in our cultural one."

"No matter how omnipotent they may seem, all corporate empires eventually fall."