My mother-in-law calls me ... a gadabout? accuses me of going to unheard-of places, and thinks it ought to be joy enough for me to sit at home and count over my ancestors on my fingers. Henry James, The American, 1877
Oh Dapple, Dapple, you wild gadabout, how footloose you have become! Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616), Don Quixote, translated by John Rutherford, 2000
when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd ... and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, into his very soul ... Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle, 1819
Placed on top was a primitive wooden statue of the general himself, left arm akimbo and eyes fixed on uptown. "Arch of Pride," New York Times, June 1, 1991
Scholars, and such that love to ratiocinate, will have more and better matter to exercise their wits upon. Sir William Petty, Letter to Samuel Hartlib, January 8, 1647–8
It also authorized the Senate's Revenue Laws Study Committee to (ahem) "study" the concept through this year, then study it some more next year, and, we presume, gradually ratiocinate the complexities of the question into the sunset. Matthew Lasar, “Municipal broadband haters in NC dealt a blow,” Ars Technica, July 12, 2010
... everyday conversation is filled with little pauses and filler words, the “phatic” spackle of social interactions. That’s why Alexa says things like “Sorry, I’m not sure about that,” or Siri says “OK, here’s what I found ...” Clive Thompson, "Stop the Chitchat. Bots Don't Need to Sound Like Us," Wired, November 16, 2017
At conferences, phatic greetings including the endless discussion of the weather where one lives. “Does it get hot there in the summer?” “I bet the winters are cold.” Jeff Rice, "Phatic Academics," Inside Higher Ed, May 5, 2015
Over the span of its short life, the company has caromed from self-description to self-description. Franklin Foer, World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech, 2017
Her life often caromed like one of the billiard balls clicking in the gaslit parlor below her on the mezzanine of the Bardolph. John Griesemer, Signal & Noise, 2004
Above us the clouds were heavy and leaky, and ahead every depression of the dark mountains and the underside of the black cloud canopy above them was lit with the pale, cold glare of the "ice-blink." Robert E. Peary, Northward Over the "Great Ice," 1898
In a clear sky, it appeared, ice-blink was to be seen as a luminous yellow haze; on an overcast sky it was more of a whitish glare. J. R. L. Anderson, Reckoning in Ice, 1971
... Dr. Shara said he strongly suspected that we will terraform Mars. “It goes with the human propensity for expansionism, colonization, the need to be real estate developers.” Dennis Overbye, "Oh, the Places We Could Go," New York Times, November 14, 2011
... the Old Race became able to terraform planets that had previously been beyond their powers. John Brunner, The Psionic Menace, 1963