down-in-the-mouth

角田光代の "The Eighth Day" (原題　八日目の蝉)を読んでいます。
"Sorry, but I'm going for a drink with my friend here, so tonight's off," I told Kishida, dismissing him with a nod and hurrying on past, leaving him standing in the alley. Chigusa stared back at him as she walked beside me, one hand resting on the handlebars. I suppressed a desire to look over my shoulder.
"Rika-chan, is that guy back there your boyfriend? He's looks a bit down-in-the-mouth," she said once we were out of the alley, turning around for one more look.
Kiwakoとデートしようと思っていたKishidaはChigusaのお陰でそれだ駄目になったので嬉しいわけがありません。ということは "down-in-the-mouth" はその反対の意味ですね。辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (of a person or their expression) unhappy; dejected.: It seems that City stockbrokers are a little down in the mouth.

・Collins Dictionary: unhappy or depressed: As for George, I hear he's rather down in the mouth.

・Wiktionary: Sad or discouraged, especially as indicated by one's facial appearance.: Don't get down in the mouth about business in this country. There is going to be a lot of money spent here.

cure

会社に行かないので暇をもて余すかと思っていましたが、台所の換気扇の掃除やら厄介な家事をやらされ、結構忙しい。夕食の料理も4日間連続で作らされました。一昨日はペペロンチーノを初めて作りましたが、ベーコンをたっぷり使ったせいか大変おいしくできて、気に入りました。というわけで今日はベーコンの話です。Reader's Digest 3月号の記事 'The FOOD ON YOUR PLATE' I Am Pork...Bringing Home the Bacon' からの引用です。
No wonder I am the most-consumed meat in the world--even as two major religions, Judaism and Islam, prohibit eating pork. The rest of you grill my chops, braise my shanks, cure my legs into hams and prosciutto, devour me in pates, fry my skin into crispy pork rinds, and so much more.
"cure" に治療するの他に硬化させる（Oxford English Dictionary: Harden (rubber, plastic, concrete, etc.) after manufacture by a chemical process such as vulcanization.）)の意味がある事は知っていましたが、上記例のように肉を加工する時にも使えるのは知りませんでした。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Preserve (meat, fish, tobacco, or an animal skin) by various methods such as salting, drying, or smoking.: some farmers cured their own bacon

・Collins Dictionary: When food, tobacco, or animal skin is cured, it is dried, smoked, or salted so that it will last for a long time.: Legs of pork were cured and smoked over the fire.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: to treat food, tobacco, etc. with smoke, salt, etc. in order to preserve it: cured meats
記事タイトルにある表現 "Bringing Home the Bacon" は家族の為に稼ぐ意味でも使われる成句ですね。

selling elixirs

Reader's Digest 2月号の記事 'Laughter the Best Medicine' からの引用です。
The police arrested a man selling "secret formula" tablets he claimed gave eternal youth. It was actually the fifth time he'd been caught for committing the same medical fraud. He had been arrested in 1794, 1856, 1928, and 1983.
新型コロナにも効く "elixir" があると良いですね。

vaping products

vとb、rとlの違いを耳で区別をするのが苦手な私ですが、英語の母国人でも聞き間違えをすることを知ると少し安心します。 pilotとpirateと聞き違えた話のオペラThe Pirates of Penzance（Wikipedia参照）とかReader's Digestにも時々その様な話がジョークとして取り上げられています。次に引用するReader's Digest 3月号の記事 'Life in these United States ' も聞き違いの話です。
Over dinner, I could sense something was bothering my mother, so I asked if anything was wrong. "Yes," she admitted. "What's all this I hear on the news about banning barking products?"
I patted her hand reassuringly and said, "That's vaping products."

providential

宮部みゆきの小説 "The Sleeping Dragon" を読んでいます。
After seeing each other for six months, we decided to get married. I proposed, Saeko immediately assented, and our parents were all delighted. There wasn't a problem with any of it. We set the date for a formal engagement ceremony and reserved a hall for the wedding itself. Our official "go-between" was the city desk editor in chief--a man who, coincidentally, came from the same area as Saeko's father. The two had known each other for years, and, coincidentally, I had been tapped for a future position under him.
Saeko had considered the link providential, and I was pleased, too. How were we to know the harm it would lead to?
"providential" は見覚えのある単語ですが、意味を思い出せません。辞書を引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Occurring at a favorable time; opportune.: thanks to that providential snowstorm, the attack had been repulsed

・Collins Dictionary: A providential event is lucky because it happens at exactly the right time.: He explained the yellow fever epidemic as a providential act to discourage urban growth.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: happening exactly when needed but without being planned: a providential opportunity

acquatic park

宮部みゆきの小説 "The Sleeping Dragon" を読んでいますが、この小説に限らず、宮部みゆきの小説には私の住んでいる地域の地名が頻繁に出てくるので、話の中身は突拍子もない感じですが、身近な話の様にも思えます。先日も会社からの帰りの電車で読んでいると船堀の地名が出てきたと思ったら、丁度地下鉄の降車駅の船堀駅に着くところでした。今日も江戸川区民には馴染みの深い名称が出てきました。
At exactly 11p.m., I stood in the spot the kidnapper had specified--next to a yellow public phone in a small aquatic park in Edogawa Ward. It was called an aquatic park, but in fact it was located in what used to be a tributary of the Edogawa River.
江戸川区の葛西臨海公園にはクロマグロの群泳や逃亡したペンギンがいたことで有名な水族館があるので "aquatic park" で一瞬その水族館を連想したのですが、続きを読んで直ぐに区内に何ケ所もある親水公園（あるいは親水緑道）を指していると分かりました。

sounding board

コロナ感染による緊急事態状況は長引くような気配がします。
さて、宮部みゆきの小説 "The Sleeping Dragon" を読んでいます。
Listen to what he says and be patient with him. It's different from when I was young; it's even harder now. You'll never understand what he has to go through. Watch out for him, and listen to him whenever he needs a sounding board. That's all you can do.
"sounding board" この表現は7/26/2017に取り上げていました。
今回はその語源についてMerriam-Webster's Online Dictionaryが触れているので、それを紹介します。
The Literal Origins of Sounding Board
Beginning during the Renaissance, a flat wooden canopy called a sounding board was placed over church pulpits, amplifying the sound of the preacher's voice, carrying it to the farthest reaches of the church. Similarly, ideas can be spread by a figurative sounding board. A publication, for example, can be a sounding board for propaganda. That's one modern sense of the word. But when sound bounces off a literal sounding board, not only does it reach more people, it also comes across more clearly. Likewise, bouncing ideas off another person can lend clarity to one's thought processes. If someone comes to you and says "How does this sound?" and leaves with his or her mind made up (whether or not you've ventured a word), you have served as a very effective sounding board.

breech position

宮部みゆきの小説 "The Sleeping Dragon" を読んでいます。
"Right. I was astonished. But then I remember the old days, and I asked her if she still had the same powers. She laughed and said, 'Of course! It's my calling in life.' Then she told me my wife's name and that she was pregnant. She even knew that the baby was in the breech position. My wife worried about it all the time, and Shinji ended up being delivered by cesarean section." Inamura sighed.
"breech position" は胎児の状態を示しているので、日本語でいう逆子ですね。辞書で確認します。
・Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine: When a child is oriented feet first in the mother's uterus just before delivery.

・Wikipedia: A breech birth is when a baby is born bottom first instead of head first. Around 3–5% of pregnant women at term (37–40 weeks pregnant) have a breech baby.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: If a baby in the womb is in a breech position, it is lying so that the lower part of its body will come out first: a breech birth/delivery

zoonosis

今日から5月6日まで会社が休みになりました。図書館も完全に閉館になり、貸出返却も一切できなくなり、今借りている本を読み終わったら時間が余って大変です。　さて、BBC News Jan.23, 2020付のコロナウィルス関連記事から引用します。
Dr Jake Dunning, head of emerging infections and zoonoses at Public Health England, said: "Although there is a perception that the wearing of facemasks may be beneficial, there is in fact very little evidence of widespread benefit from their use outside of these clinical setting."
"zoonoses" が分からないので辞書を見ました。 "zoonoses" は複数形で、単数形は "zoonosis" で、意味は次のように書かれていました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A disease which can be transmitted to humans from animals.: Other zoonoses involving wild birds are also gaining prominence as disease issues.

・Collins Dictionary: any infection or disease that is transmitted to humans from lower vertebrates: The disease is classified as a zoonosis, which means that humans can be infected.

・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: an infection or disease that is transmissible from animals to humans under natural conditions: This makes them zoonoses, diseases that can jump between humans and other animals.

droll sense of humor

宮部みゆきの小説 "The Sleeping Dragon" を読んでいます。

"Don't worry. But you've got to tell me about anything that comes of it. Has something happened?"
I didn't respond immediately, so he clapped me on the back. "Forget about it until you've got something. Whatever it's about, it seems to be taking a toll on you."
"You can tell?"
"Your hair's going gray."
I went to the men's room to check, but it wasn't true. The old man had a droll sense of humor.
He laughed when I came out.
"Your hair's going gray." はからかって言われたのは明白です。 "droll sense of humor" の "droll" を辞書で調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Curious or unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement.: No, I didn't do the chicken dance or anything so droll.

・Collins Dictionary: Something or someone that is droll is amusing or witty, sometimes in an unexpected way.: The band have a droll sense of humour.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: humorous, especially in an unusual way: I always loved his droll sense of humor.

"droll sense of humor" のフレーズで覚えた方が良さそうです。