recidivist:
(plural: ‘recidivists‘)
a recidivist (Othman Ahmed al Ghamdi, suspected Soudi Arabian Islamic terrorist)
a person/criminal who commits the same crime over and over again even after being punished several times before;
a habitual criminal; a repeater;
a person who falls back into old habits, usually bad habits, probably but not necessarily criminal activities, after being away from those habits for some time; a backslider,
some recidivists behind bars
Recidivists are often given stronger punishment than the first timers are. ( i.e. a recidivist goes to jail longer time even for a petty crime, and a person who commits the same crime for the first time goes to jail for only a short time)
Some social workers argue that a person does not become a recidivist because he/she likes to be but because the society makes it difficult for him/her to live a normal, crime-free life.
[For an article on recidivists, you may visit: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/06/saudi_gitmo_recidivi.php.]
Return to “backslider“.
receptionist:
(plural: ‘receptionists‘)
a couple of hotel receptionists
an office worker/employee whose job is to receive/welcome guests at a hotel, clients at an office and patients at a hospital, and in addition, he/she answers phone calls, makes appointments, arranges schedules and meetings, etc.;
an office secretary,
an office receptionist receiving a client/visitor
Most hotels have smart and young receptionists who receive guests, book rooms and attend to their needs.
Whenever you need to see a dentist, first you should make an appointment with the receptionist who takes you to the dentist when it’s your turn and, in most dental clinics, reminds you of your appointment in advance.
We can asses the status of an office by the arrangement of the reception and the efficiency its receptionist.
receiver:
(plural: ‘receivers‘)
a receiver of a gift
a person who gets something that has been sent to him/her by another person;
a person/criminal who buys, keeps or hides away any stolen goods (knowing well that the things are stolen, and often helping or assisting somebody else who actually steals the goods);
a receiver with stolen goods (TVs, DVDs, etc.)
(in a court of law) a person employed by a court of law to take care of any property which is under dispute and the case is pending in that court of law;
(in baseball sport) a catcher — the player who catches the ball;
(in football sport) a player of a team who is permitted or is supposed to catch and pass the ball forward;
(in tennis sport) the player who gets the ball on his/her side of the court that has been served (hit) by his/her opponent from the other side of the net;
a person (an official) whose job is to get/collect money (in an office) from those who has to pay (due),
a receiver of a serve in a beach volleyball game
Mr Ahmed, the receiver of several compliments and gifts, thanked all those who complimented him at his retirement ceremony.
The police have raided a suspected receiver’s hideout and found many stolen and unlicensed things, including TV sets, mobile phones and even guns!
In tennis, the receiver is, most often, bond to lose a point to the server as most players serve aces.
Compare: recipient >>>
(a receiver — a device)
recalcitrant:
(plural: ‘recalcitrants‘; pronunciation: the first ‘c’ is said with a ‘k’ sound as in “king”)
a recalcitrant
an unruly person; a person who does not obey general rules and regulations; a stubborn person,
Robin is a recalcitrant; he does not listen to his parents, he does not obey his teachers and he does not even share things with his playmates!
A recalcitrant employer often loses efficient employees with his/her recalcitrant treatment.
a couple of recalcitrants
rebel:
(plural: ‘rebels‘)
FARC rebels, Columbia, taking up arms and fighting the government in military style
a person who refuses to follow or obey orders because he/she thinks those are not the right orders;
a person who opposes (acts against) the present traditional political or social system, and often acts or fights against the government by taking up arms and being violent;
a person, usually a youngster, who always does something against the traditions by not following the normal or usual way of life, such as wearing different types of clothes, hair-style; having unacceptable sexual activities, criticising religion and religious rites, using a different style of language, etc. (nothing to do with politics or violence, just a social change),
Most governments in the present world are unable to control the rebels who cause a lot of damage to the public and public property.
Though rebels in general are labelled anti-social elements, most of the politicians in the present democratic governments were once rebels that rebelled against the previous governments!
The old generation says the present generation is a gang of good-for-nothing rebels, and the young generation says the old generation is a bunch of floatsam and jetsam, not worth considering as people!
a gang of fashion rebels
rear admiral:
(plural: ‘rear admirals‘)
Rear Admiral John P. Currier of the US Coast Guard
an officer in the Navy, ranking above a captain and below a vice admiral,
It is to be noted that in peace time there are four different kinds of admiral ranks: four star admiral; three star admiral; two star admiral (or upper half); one star admiral (or lower half).
reaper:
(plural: ‘reapers‘; pronunciation: the letters ‘rea’ rhyme with the letters ‘ree’ in “reed” or “reel”, or with the letters ‘rea’ in “read”)
reapers reaping/harvesting a crop
a person/worker who helps the farmer in harvesting (cutting and gathering the plants on a field) the crops; a harvester;
(less commonly and figuratively) a person who knows how to get or who gets the best results from doing some task or by showing some effort,
The farmer needs at least a dozen reapers to reap his crops.
During the election time, some politicians send out efficient vote reapers to gather more and more votes.
a reaper, a huge agricultural machine that reaps crops
Note 2: ‘The grim reaper’, a picture of a skeleton holding a scythe, is used to represent ‘death’.
the grim reaper (= a symbol of death)
realist:
(plural: ‘realists‘; the word opposite in meaning: ‘idealist‘)
a realist, Liu Heng, an award-winning realist writer, China
a person who accepts the real physical world that is seen and experienced around us, not taking the ideals or romance into consideration;
a philosopher who believes in the theory that the real things in the universe exist without anybody thinking or talking about them, i.e. the real world has nothing to do with what people think of them;
an artist or a writer who chooses a real practical subject for his expression, without involving any idealism or romance,
a popular realist writer, Allen Tapia
A realist thinks and talks about real things that are actually found in the nature — no sentiments, ideologies or colour added to them.
Some political critics think that President Obama is a realist in style but not in substance.
A realist paints a picture what is actually seen in the nature, which looks just like a photo, without any romantic feelings put in it.
[For an interesting article on realist, you may visit: http://jbpaz101.blogspot.com/2011/04/is-obama-realist.html.]
[Return to "idealist".]
real estate agent:
(also ‘real estate broker‘, ‘realtor‘,’estate agent‘, ‘house agent‘, ‘land agent‘; plural: ‘real estate agents)
a real estate agent, just sold a house to a couple
a person whose business is to sell plots of land or buildings (mostly houses), usually taking a percentage of the total price for his/her services, either from the seller, buyer or both;
an employee working for an agency whose job is to sell or buy property — land or buildings,
a real estate agent, advertising his business
When a buyer wants to buy a new house, he/she goes to a real estate agent with the requirements and the real estate agent shows him/her the best available houses within the buyer’s budget, and once the buyer selects a house, the real estate agent then contacts the seller and informs them of the deal, and finally, if both the seller and buyer reach an agreement, the real estate agent makes all the arrangements for a smooth transfer of the property from the seller to the buyer, and he/she gets a good amount of money as a commission for his/her services.
reader:
(plural: ‘readers‘)
book readers (book lovers)
a person who reads books and/or enjoys reading books; a book lover; a bibliophile;
a person who reads out good books publicly;
an employee who reads the text, written by a book/story writer, before printing by a publisher, to find out the quality of that text/story;
a proof reader
(at a printing press & usually in combination with another word = proofreader) a person whose job is to read the first copy of any printed matter to check for spelling errors or grammar mistakes before printing the final copy of it;
(in Christian Church & usually in combination with another word = lay reader) a person who is not a priest but is given permission by a bishop to read a part of the church service; and a person who leads a church choir or the group of people in a church in singing the gospel songs; a precentor;
(in Jew religion) a Jewish official who reads the musical part of a service; a cantor;
(on TV or radio = news reader) a person who reads out news on a TV or radio news programme;
a reader (Mike Radford, OBE, a reader at the University of Aberdeen)
(at a British university) a teacher having a position between a senior lecturer and a professor;
(at an American university) a member of the teaching staff who grades students’ papers, marks answer papers, etc. to assist a professor,
Mrs Smith is a good reader; children like to listen to her reading their story books.
My English teacher is a great reader; there is no book unread by him in our library.
When Mr Smith got a job as a reader at the same university where he did his post-graduation, his joy knew no limits.
When a reader finds any spelling errors or grammar mistakes in a text, he immediately marks them and sends a copy to the writer for confirmation, just to make sure that the error was a real error or the writer wants it there that way.
