"I've lost a pantofle!" he whispered desperately. Sally Watson, The Outrageous Oriel, 2006
... your art / Can blind a jealous husband, and, disguised / Like a milliner or shoemaker, convey / A letter in a pantofle or glove, / Without suspicion, nay at his table ... Philip Massinger, The Emperor of the East, 1632
Laranger's answering smile showed no trace of the carking anxiety and deadly uncertainty which filled him at the thought of the future. Joseph B. Ames, "The Secret of Spirit Lake," Boys' Life, September 1927
If we get our victuals daily we can lift our voices gaily / In a song that chants farewell to carking care. Anonymous, "Cheer Up," The Rotarian, June 1920
Ever eager to tub-thump America's vast superiority, local civic chauvinists wanted our homegrown exposition to outstrip them all. Jean Zimmerman, Savage Girl, 2014
Whereas the United States and many other countries are finding pollution control easier to tub-thump with than to implement, Britain has the existing machinery of the Alkali Inspectorate, the Clean Air Acts and the river authorities whose ambitious programmes were well under way before the word environment was heard in Westminster. Jon Tinker, "Environmental politician," New Scientist, April 22, 1971
A mercurial woman, elusive in her lifetime, Anne is still changing centuries after her death, carrying the projections of those who read and write about her. Hilary Mantel, "Author's Note," Bring Up the Bodies, 2012
Agriculture, which was most of all to have profited from inflation, on the theory that the mercurial crop-prices would rise faster than anything else, actually suffered the most of all ... Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here, 1935
An aide said Mr. Markey hoped to combat the tactic of astroturfing in which a professional lobbying effort is made to seem like a grass-roots movement. Stephanie Strom, "Coal Group Is Linked to Fake Letters on Climate Bill," New York Times, August 4, 2009
This isn’t usually the sort of behavior we think of when we talk about political “astroturfing”—that much-loathed, much-feared practice of faking grass-roots support online—but as more and more political discourse has moved to the Internet, the techniques have multiplied. Caitlin Dewey, "The three types of political astroturfing you'll see in 2016," Washington Post, September 26, 2016
I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew, Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers ... William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 1, 1598
That sounds like a cheap balladmonger's gibe, Richard. Norah Lofts, The Lute Player, 1951
Facebook was reluctant, however, to issue any mea culpas or action plans with regard to the problem of filter bubbles or Facebook’s noted propensity to serve as a tool for amplifying outrage. Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelstein, "Inside the Two Years That Shook Facebook--and the World," Wired, February 12, 2018
Only later on are they willing to strike a bargain with him: a refuge for a mea culpa. Paul West, A Fifth of November, 2001