Spring Has Sprung: Our Twist on National Grilled Cheese Day: April 12

National Grilled Cheese Day is celebrated on April 12. To show our appreciation for this iconic sandwich, we present a metaphorical "grilled cheese" sandwich — synonyms for grill, as in "question strenuously," plus synonyms for cheesy, as in "tacky." (Tomato soup not included.)
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. interrogate
    pose a series of questions to
    One particularly great scene has Michonne being interrogated by the leader of the settlement, and it’s hard to know how to best answer her questions.The Verge (Feb 23, 2016)
  2. saccharine
    overly sweet
    But the movie — or, at least, this trailer — looks goofy and saccharine in a way that makes everything here seem like parody.The Verge (Feb 5, 2016)
  3. cross examine
    question closely, or question a witness that has already been questioned by the opposing side
    The defense is entitled to call witnesses during the hearing and to also cross examine the government’s witnesses.Forbes (Nov 21, 2011)
  4. trite
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    IT’S a bit trite, and usually untrue, when executives say they are departing a position to spend more time with their families.Wall Street Journal (Feb 2, 2016)
  5. debrief
    elicit a report from someone about a mission, job, or event
    “So you’ve got to ask tough critical questions. In the military we called it a debrief or a hot wash.”New York Times (Feb 17, 2016)
  6. garish
    tastelessly showy
    Say the word "Barbie" and you'll probably picture a thin doll with make-up, a mane of straight blonde hair and garish clothes.BBC (Mar 2, 2016)
  7. probe
    question or examine thoroughly and closely
    As scholars and journalists later probed the facts of the case, the original description of events was challenged, and the challenges proved persuasive.Washington Post (Apr 5, 2016)
  8. tawdry
    cheap and shoddy
    Beside such treasures the gloves looked cheap and tawdry.A Dance with Dragons
  9. query
    pose a question
    Howdy, a bot in the popular productivity software Slack, can query employees on behalf of a boss and collate their answers into a single document.Washington Post (Apr 7, 2016)
  10. mawkish
    very sentimental or emotional
    The books you’ve insisted on making popular are bad ones: sentimental, mawkish and manipulative.The Guardian (Nov 24, 2015)
Created on April 9, 2016 (updated March 28, 2020)

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