romance; love story; love affair; romantic relationship; romance
misreading; misinterpreting
to love one another; to be affectionate towards each other; to have sex; to make love
crack; crevice; fissure; chap; rift
recollection; reminiscence
to change into; to be transformed; to be transfigured; to transform; to alter; to convert
pen spinning; spinning a pen around between the fingers
to step forward; to take a step forward; to start on a project, etc.; to take the first step with
blunder; bungle; clumsiness
education; schooling; training; culture; cultivation; education
impossible to do (although wants to)
eyesore; offensive sight; offense to the eye; obstruction (to the view of something)
lump of meat; piece of flesh; human body
drawing; picture; diagram; sight; scene
number two; mistress; concubine
to vent one's frustration; to relieve one's pent-up anger; to let off one's pent-up feelings; to let off steam
closing in on (the enemy, first place, etc.); coming close to; pressing hard; pressing hard (e.g. with a question); taking to task; grilling
long sword (as opposed to the shorter katana)
lingchi; death by a thousand cuts; slow torture by slicing off parts of the body
nata; sturdy broad-bladed knife, used in woodcraft and hunting (often with a rectangular blade)
ticktock; chinking (e.g. of a hammer against rock); knocking; dry and hard; (frozen) stiff; hidebound
chattering (teeth); (frozen, worried) stiff; rigid (personality, thinking, etc.); inflexible; voracious (e.g. work, study); without slack or pause
steadily; unflaggingly; untiringly; knocking; tapping; clicking
rugged; scraggy; angular; gnarled
to chip off; to scrape off; to prune
ensemble (e.g. orchestra, chamber group, etc.); concert
several times; once or twice
directly opposite; right in front
to stand (something) up; to put upright; to thrust into; to bury into; to make (a noise); to let out; to raise (a cloud of dust, smoke, etc.)
conspicuously; noticeably; remarkably; strikingly; outstandingly; especially
delay; lag; falling behind; falling behind in; lagging behind in
reverberation; swelling (of a hymn); lingering memory; aftertaste; suggestiveness (of a book, poem, etc.)
whoosh (of something suddenly spreading, billowing, swelling, or gushing outward); fwoosh; (bursting) into tears; suddenly (crying)
to roll up; to be rolled up
locking swords and pushing against each other; close contest; neck-and-neck game; fierce competition
rivalry (between two equally strong sides); struggle for supremacy; competing (with); vying (with); contending (with); being an equal match (for)
decision; judgment; resolution
mess; sorry state; -ways; -wards; in the act of ...; just as one is ...
to have; to possess; to own; to be endowed with
direction (of a play, film, etc.); production; organization (of an event); arrangement; staging (for effect)