Off-duty county deputy...June 17, 2005:

COMPTON (AP)-- An off-duty sheriff's deputy shot at robbers who took his wallet and held up a store at gunpoint Wednesday, authorities said

Were you wondering about this definition?

I looked up the word and couldn't find that definition. I did find this in the OED:

"Compton effect, the scattering and increase in wavelength of an X-ray (or gamma-ray) photon on encountering an electron, with a partial transference of energy from the photon to the electron; Compton shift, the difference between the wavelengths of incident and scattered photons; also Compton absorption, electron, etc."

This is what I understand to be the meaning of "brain fart".

Great item, dale. Is there a term for this form of ambiguity?

Kalleh: You will have to read it over a couple of times, then it will hit you. I know I did

nerd: I will try to find out as I'd like to know too

Isn't this a form of zeugma? I don't have time to seach the forum just now but I'm sure we have discussed this sort of thing before.

Another example would be 'She broke his heart and windows', for instance.

Edit: on second thoughts, perhaps not. http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html#45 defines it as " two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them."

Ah! I've read that half a dozen times and only just noticed what the problem is.
I think that it's because this being one of your posts dale I was expecting it to be asking about a word usage.

Bob: Your honesty in the admission is a rare quality indeed

Oh...I see.

For some reason I thought you were defining "Compton," so I looked that word up all over the place. It must have been late!

No apology necessary. Here's your def:

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Compton