Synonym a Day

[Author Stephen] Fry talks of his father’s “misanthropy and arrogance,” his “infuriatingly, cold, precise ratiocinating engine of a brain fuelled by a wholly egocentric passion” and says that whenever Fry Senior was in the house, “instantly, fun, freedom and relaxation turned into terrified silence.” (Lynn Barber, Books: “But Who Cares About Tishes and Pollies?” Daily Telegraph [London], 10/18/1997.)