"They are that," said Humpty Dumpty; "also they make their nests under sun-dials; also they live on cheese."
"And what's to gyre and to gimble?"
"To gyre is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To gimble is to make holes like a gimblet."
"And the wabe is the grass-plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?" said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.
"Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,' you know, because it goes a long way before it and a long way behind it"
"And a long way beyond it on each side," Alice added.
"Exactly so. Well, then, mimsy is 'flimsy and miserable' (there's another portmanteau for you). And a borogove is a thin, shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round—something like a live mop."
"And then mome raths?" said
