mnemonic

“Just since this morning,” Lizzie said. Her knee was bouncing up and down beneath her thin paper gown. She made herself be still and ran through her mnemonic--not hungry, not angry, not tired. Maybe a little lonely--Jeff had been calling and e-mailing, but she hadn’t answered. He would be sweet, she knew, and his sweetness would only make her feel worse about the thing she hadn’t told him; the lie of omission that lay between them. “Well, this morning was when I noticed it.”
"mnemonic" は大昔ちょっとかじったアセンブリー言語を連想しますが、上の引用個所はプログラミングとは関係ないですね。辞書を見ます。
・Wiktionary: 1.Anything (especially something in verbal form) used to help remember something.: To remember the colours of the rainbow, use the mnemonic "Richard of York gave battle in vain" (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).
・Cambridge English Dictionary: something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something: The musical notes on the lines go EGBDF - use the mnemonic "Every good boy deserves fun".
プログラムで何かを検索する事とは関係があるようです。

police

If Tim knew the specifics of her story, if he had questions about what her husband had done, in all of their nights out and their meals together he’d never let on. They never talked about politics, and, while he’d asked her questions about Lizzie and Diana and their lives, he’d never once asked about Richard. Sylvie policed her own conversation carefully, and she didn’t think she’d ever said Richard’s name in front of Tim.
"police" となると直ぐに警察を連想しますが、上の引用個所に出てきた動詞の "police" は警察とはどう考えても無関係です。次の辞書に上の意味に近いと思われる説明がありました。
・Macmillan Dictionary: to check that organizations or people behave correctly; To limit or control something or someone:draw a line in the sand, limit, control...

in the thick of

Jennifer WeinerのFly Away Homeを読んでいます。
When she was in the thick of her residency, working thirty-six-hour shifts, then going home to a preschooler and a husband who was more inclined to complain about his own lack of sleep than to help Diana address hers, there was a patient, a repeater, whom she saw every few weeks in the ER. The patient’s name was Crystal, and Diana remembered her because she was exactly her age.
"in the thick of" は文脈から何かの真っ最中、真っただ中の様な意味だと推測できますが、初めて見る表現なので辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: in the most active or intense part of (something): a soldier in the thick of battle
・Collins Dictionary: If you are in the thick of an activity or situation, you are very involved in it.: I enjoy being in the thick of things.
"residency" は以前(11/20/2013) "resident" で覚えた意味と関係のある単語ですね。

noodle around

Jennifer WeinerのFly Away Homeを読んでいます。
She kept track of his phone calls and appointments, his meetings with lobbyists and staffers, and kept the reporters who still occasionally called the house phone at bay. “I’m sorry,” she would say in a coolly adult voice that sounded like her sister’s, “the senator is unavailable.” When she wasn’t cleaning and cooking, she noodled around, editing the pictures she’d taken in Philadelphia.
"noodle" は名詞の麺の意味しか知りません。動詞の "noodle" を調べます。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: to wander around; to fiddle around with something. I couldn't find the instructions so I spent the afternoon noodling around, trying to find out how it worked. I noodled around until I found the right address.
・Dictionary.com: Informal. to play, experiment, or improvise.: In 1998, Joel Thomas Zimmerman was 16 years old, noodling around with vintage DOS music software like Impulse Tracker.
"noodle" に何故こんな意味があるのか気になったのでOnline Etymology Dictionaryをみると次の説明がありました。
1937 (implied in noodling), from noun meaning "improvised music," 1926, probably from noodle (n.), on analogy of the suppleness of the food and that of the trills and improvised phrases in jazz improvisations. Related: Noodled.

the elephant in the room

Jennifer WeinerのFly Away Homeを読んでいます。
“Dad,” Lizzie said, a little impatiently. “I want to talk about Dad.” She also wanted to talk about Diana’s frequent absences from the house on Spruce Street, and why her sister had been sleeping on the couch in the living room instead of in bed with her husband, but she’d decided to start with the elephant in the room.
"the elephant in the room" は1/15/2011に取り上げた慣用句です。おさらいします。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A major problem or controversial issue that is obviously present but avoided as a subject for discussion because it is more comfortable to do so.: It's the elephant in the room that everybody avoids talking about, isn't it?
World Wide Words: It refers to some a problem or controversial issue that’s obviously present but which everyone ignores or avoids mentioning, usually because it’s politically or socially embarrassing.
"the elephant in the room" の由来についてはWorld Wide Wordsに詳しい説明がありました。

sue the socks off

Jennifer WeinerのFly Away Homeを読んでいます。
上院議員の夫(Richard)が女性の研修生と関係を持った話はClinton大統領の事を思い出させる話です。
She ignored Joe and hit Richard twice more, once on the left side, once on the right. There was no satisfaction in it other than the sound, the meaty slap of her palm against his ear and cheek, the cheek she’d cupped, the ear into which she’d whispered I love you and deeper and the names of their daughters, just after they were born. “You bastard!” she cried, and let her hands drop to her sides. She’d spoken her lines, she’d hit him. What now? Screaming? Throwing things? Telling him that she’d sue the socks off him, that she’d go first to a divorce lawyer and then to 60 Minutes, that he was disgusting and a disgrace and a cliche, no better than the other cheating politicians, or that golfer, that fine upstanding young man she’d met at a White House luncheon for the Leaders of Tomorrow who’d turned out to have a dozen different girlfriends, porn stars and pancake-house waitresses and club promoters, whatever they were?
"sue the socks off him" の個所の意味が分かりません。
色々と辞書を見ましたが "sue the socks off" の説明をしている辞書は見当たりませんでした。しかし、"sue" 以外の次の動詞を使った慣用句 "～ the socks off" は次の様に色々とあります。
"knock the socks off"
・Oxford English Dictionary: Surpass or beat.: 'it will knock the socks off the opposition’
"blow the socks off"
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To thoroughly impress, overwhelm, or excite one. Primarily heard in UK. The show of support from everyone just blew my socks off. That movie really blew my socks off?I didn't expect it to be so good!
"beat the socks off (of) (someone)"
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: slang To defeat an opponent decisively. Despite using the word "socks," this phrase does not involve literally stripping off someone's clothes. The final score was 17-1? Wow, we really beat the socks off that team!
しかしGoogle検索をすると、 "sue the socks off" を使った例文は幾らでもあります。 例えば次の文です。
・While it is satisfying to sue the socks off an opponent, taking a dispute to court is risky business.
・I'm sure that Tesla Motors would sue the socks off anyone who copied their technology to use in a gasoline hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle.
・However, under the "Right to be free from discrimination", I read that people can sue the socks off "places of public accommodation" over this kind of stuff.
これらの例から "sue the socks off" は裁判に訴えてやつける様な意味ではないでしょうか。

venture

Jennifer WeinerのFly Away Homeを読んでいます。
She glanced at his left hand, hardly believing she was doing it. No ring. But that might not mean anything. Lots of men didn’t wear them, men who worked with their hands. Did Tim work with his hands? His nametag said MANAGER, but what did that mean? She pictured him running a sponge over the gleaming edges of the meat slicer, pushing a mop over the floors at the end of the day.
“Do you have children?” she ventured.
He nodded. “Three boys. All grown. Frankie’s in New York, actually. He’s a banker. Ollie’s in grad school in Boston, and Tim Junior, my oldest, he and his wife have a baby girl, but he’s all the way in Seattle. My ex-wife moved out there. She helps with the baby.”
つい最近読んだ「反省しないアメリカ人をあつかう方法３４」（ロッシェル・カッブ著、アルク）に、アメリカ人は家族のことや恋愛、結婚などについて（職場では）話したがらない、と書かれていました。それで上の引用文中の“Do you have children?”と質問した事に "ventured" の動詞を使っている事になるほどと思いました。
辞書にこの様な例の説明があるか見てみます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Dare to do or say something that may be considered audacious (often used as a polite expression of hesitation or apology): May I venture to add a few comments?
・Collins Dictionary: If you venture a question or statement, you say it in an uncertain way because you are afraid it might be stupid or wrong.: 'So you're Leo's girlfriend?' he ventured.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to risk going somewhere or doing something that might be dangerous or unpleasant, or to risk saying something that might be criticized: She tentatively ventured the opinion that the project would be too expensive to complete, but the boss ignored her.
"venture" はいわゆる冒険だけではないのですね。

multilinguist

During a conference, my high school principal insulted my immigrant mother's English. Mom didn't get upset. Instead, she smiled politely as she delivered this punch to the gut: "I'm sorry. Somethimes I get English mixed up with the other six languages I speak."

(from Reader's Digest September, 2017)

brine-filled

Jennifer WeinerのFly Away Homeを読んでいます。
She went to the deli for sliced ham and cheese and turkey, fresh garlicky pickles that she scooped from a brine-filled barrel, and a pound of dill-flecked potato salad before heading back to Produce. More potatoes, white ones this time. She lifted a can of chicken noodle soup before setting it down. Why have canned soup when she could make soup from scratch? She had time. For the first time in as long as she could remember, Sylvie Serfer Woodruff had nothing but time. "brine-filled" の "brine" は濃い塩水のことです、1/10/2011に取り上げました。

schadenfreude

Jennifer WeinerのFly Away Homeを読んでいます。
Sylvie thought of the laptop, its flickering screen. She remembered a Leonard Cohen song that Lizzie used to play, over and over, in the middle of the night, which honestly, in retrospect, should have been a sign: “Everybody Knows,” the song was called. When Eliot Spitzer had had his troubles, out of some mixture of sympathy and schadenfreude, she’d Googled Silda Spitzer’s name, and been horrified (and, a little titillated) by what she’d read.
"schadenfreude" は人の不幸を喜ぶ気持ちを表すユニークな意味を持っているので、十年前(2/23/2007)に初めて知った単語ですが、珍しく直ぐに覚えられました。