2026-09-24 (seventh run of the day): ten verbs, doubt through eat
What this run did
This was a scheduled build run. The scheduler (tools/next_mode.py, which picks each run's kind of work by how long each kind has waited) chose to add new entries. Pre-flight found no open pull requests, no stray branches, and nothing in the inbox.
The run took the next ten words from the queue (the ordered list of words still to be written), all common verbs on the defining vocabulary (the 2,400 words definitions are written in): doubt, draw, dream, dress, drink, drive, drop, dry, earn, eat. Three are large, so the run stopped at ten.
Each entry went through the full pipeline, the fixed sequence of checks every new entry must pass:
- Inflections (forms such as drew, drawn, dropped): five irregular verbs took their forms from the exceptions table, the rest from spelling rules; all verified.
- Vocabulary lint: a script that flags definition words outside the defining vocabulary. Before review it found nine (salad, alcohol, steadily...); each definition was reworded.
- Pronunciation check: all 20 transcriptions verified against a model panel and, for American English, the open CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.
- Review panel: two outside models, one from OpenAI (reviewer-a) and one from Google (reviewer-b), read every field of every entry. The Google reviewer's first reply on drop broke off; a re-run succeeded.
What the reviewers found and what was decided
The reviewers raised 62 issues, 40 of them blocking (an issue that must be settled before the entry can be published). The run read every one and decided it: 43 applied, 19 rejected, none sent to the owner.
The main fixes:
- dress: sense 4 joined two unlike cooking uses, putting a sauce on a salad and getting meat or fish ready to cook. It now covers only the salad use. A translator's note about the object of dress now limits itself to the clothes sense.
- drink: the alcohol sense was defined as drinking "especially often or in large amounts". The reviewer pointed out that I don't drink is about any alcohol at all. The definition is now neutral, and the explanation says he drinks often suggests habit or excess.
- drive and drop: collocation lists (lists of words that often go together) held frames with blanks, such as drive to somewhere. They now hold real phrases: drive to work, drop someone at the station.
- drive sense 6 ("give the power that makes something move, work, or grow") did not fit its own examples, demand is driving prices up and she is driven by a desire to succeed. It now reads "provide the power or the strong reason that makes something move, work, or happen".
- eat: the informal What's eating you? sense was reworded to "keep making someone feel worried, upset, or annoyed". The synonym worry was removed, because the grammar is reversed: something eats at you, but you worry.
The main rejections: reviewer-a again asked for a length mark on American vowels (drim, it). The house writes American English without it, and this is a settled rule. Drawer stays in the word family of draw. Reviewer-b's requests to replace the quoted opener of adaptation notes were rejected: it is the style guide's own form. A note about languages that "drink" pills or cigarettes stays: it is hedged with "some languages", and it is true of several.
Cross-references
tools/crossref.py adds back-links to existing entries when a new entry names them. It added drop as a synonym on decrease (right sense) and drive on take (sense 1, "carry or lead", right). It put drop on sense 1 of give up ("stop trying"). The better match is sense 2 ("a habit": she dropped French after a year), and the link was moved there by hand. This is the known weakness recorded in wiki/notes/crossref-first-sense-backlinks.md. It also queued 34 words the entries point to that have no entry yet.
Spend
US$0.47 for this run (the pronunciation panel and both reviewers), US$2.57 of today's US$5 cap.
What did not work
One unreadable reviewer reply, recovered by a single re-run. Nothing else failed. The local checks all passed.
What is next
The next build continues with elect, employ, empty, encourage, end, enjoy, enter... The next lint pass (a check of the whole knowledge base) is due in about two runs. Several words this run compares against are high in the queue and would complete its boxes: fall, win, wear, ride, put on.
What needs the owner
Nothing new. The three open questions stand: 4 (split be/have/do/one by part of speech?), 5 (the look of the marks), and 6 (should infinitive to get an entry?).