But Can You Use it in a Sentence?

def·i·ni·tion
Pronunciation: def-uh-nish-uhn]
noun
1. the act of defining or making definite, distinct, or clear.
2. the formal statement of the meaning or significance of a word, phrase, etc.

I spent all day sitting in a warm conference room in Baltimore today. While a foot of snow threatened Chicago (which I left on Tuesday afternoon), Baltimore was over 70 degrees today. I felt pretty silly for bringing my puffy coat.
Our hotel is one of those old places where you either have air conditioning or you have heat. And once you make the transition from one to the other, there's really no easy going back. It was nearly 80 degrees in our conference room today. I don't normally get hot or perspire from nervousness while presenting but today I made a point to stand with my arms akimbo while I spoke, hoping to keep the air circulating to my underarms. It wasn't stage fright, it was just so darn balmy!
Usually we all know to dress for the chill of a hotel conference room, but today proved that layers are the only way to go, since we were stripping down to the least amount of clothing considered acceptable in a business setting. At one point, delirious singing of "we don't have to take our clothes off, to have a good time..." broke out from one of my colleagues. The meeting leader ducked out in the afternoon to bring us ice cream.
In this environment, you can bet that my normal minor perturbation with sloppy powerpoint was cranked up a little higher. But I looked past mispellings, and people covering up the design template background with their excel graphs. (You know, there's a little box to click to suppress the background template.)
But in an after-lunch "I want a nap" crankiness, I was confronted by one of those argument tools that drives me crazy: the definition. I am never persuaded that I am about to hear a convincing argument when someone's first slide begins with, "The American Heritage Dictionary defines [topic of discussion] as ..."
I'm not sure if people think that this will give their argument more credibility, or maybe it's meant to be a double-check to make sure we're on the same page, but it's usually not a controversial topic that needs to be defined. Unless they think that their audience is fourth graders.
"Today we are going to talk about patient convenience. The dictionary defines convenience as follows:
1. the quality of being convenient; suitability.
2. anything that saves or simplifies work, adds to one's ease or comfort, etc., as an appliance, utensil, or the like. "

... yes, and in Britain it's also a synonym for the water closet. So what?

I can't claim I never used this argument tool, but I was likely writing a junior high current events paper. With nearly ten further years of schooling, I moved on.

This reminds me that I have been meaning to read "Getting to Yes" forever. So long that the copy that has been gathering dust on the bookshelf is actually from an ex-boyfriend. (A lot of my current job involves negotiating with people who don't share the same primary goals as me. It's requiring a great deal of stoicism lately to deal with their lack of common sense.) Maybe I can lead by example.
Better to pick up that book than the dictionary.

Remember my earlier post on working on forbearance*? This might be Chapter 2.
*defined as patient endurance and self control ;)

p.s. Cute snowman photo from Chicagoist shows what I'm missing at home: