The Elusive Stormy Petrel
A stormy petrel, also known as a storm petrel, is an Atlantic seabird (also found in the Mediterranean). The term "stormy petrel" in general usage has come to refer to a harbinger of trouble; perhaps people believed that the bird was seen just before a storm. Sometime in the late '80s, Elliott Moreton came up with a category of words which can't be used except in the company of specific other words; having heard the word "petrel" only in the company of the word "stormy," he decided to call such items "stormy petrels." As it happens, there is such a thing as a petrel which isn't stormy, but the term was a catchy one so it stuck.

Some examples are in order at this point: The word "shrift" never occurs except when modified by "short"; in Elliott's phrasing, "All SHRIFT is SHORT." You can't refer to "low dudgeon" or "red dudgeon" or just plain "dudgeon" by itself; all DUDGEON is HIGH. You can't "wend a book" or "wend around" or just "wend"; the only thing you can WEND is your WAY. You can't "bestride carefully" or "bestride through the clouds"; the only way you can BESTRIDE is LIKE A COLOSSUS. And so on.

Note that "can't" above doesn't mean such usage would be ungrammatical; it's just that people never do use a stormy petrel without its associated word or phrase. As a joke someone could refer to "long shrift" or "low dudgeon," but such usage would be obviously a joke. Also, a stormy petrel is not just a fixed phrase: for instance, "He ran like the wind" is such a common phrase it's a cliché, but none of its constituents are stormy petrels.

Someone once defined a stormy petrel as a phrase in which you can hear part of the phrase and know with certainty what the rest of it is. That's too loose a definition[ -- ]if you hear "He sashayed [garble] and forth," you know the garbled word must have been "back," but none of the words "back," "forth," or "sashayed" are stormy petrels (because you can use each of them without the others).

We sometimes make a distinction between the rare "strong" stormy petrel, which can never occur without the associated word or phrase, and the more common "weak" stormy petrel, which can never occur as a particular part of speech without the companion word or phrase. For instance, "snub" as an adjective can only modify "nose"; only a NOSE can be SNUB. However, "snub" as a verb can appear in many contexts having nothing to do with noses. Thus, "snub" is a weak stormy petrel, not a strong one.

The Taxonomized Register of English "Stormy Petrels"

A question mark next to an item indicates doubt as to its petrelosity.

NOUN requiring MODIFIER

All PETRELS are STORMY (Except, of course, those that aren't. This item remains on the list
for historical reasons.) All SHRIFT is SHORT
All DUDGEON is HIGH
All MEEMIES are SCREAMING
All DURANCE is VILE
All RECRIMINATIONS are BITTER
All FIGMENTS are OF somebody's IMAGINATION
Every CYNOSURE is OF ALL EYES
All ZEST is FOR LIFE
All TURPITUDE is MORAL
Every SCRUFF is OF THE NECK
All FETTLE is FINE
Every NAPE is OF THE NECK
All PARLANCE is COMMON
All SNIFTERS are BRANDY
All GUIGNOL is GRAND
Every SKIRL is OF BAGPIPES
Every CORTEX is CEREBRAL

MODIFIER requiring NOUN

Note that in these items, the petrel is the second word or phrase given; the modifier, not the noun.

Only TREASURE can be TROVE (TROVE can be used by itself as a synonym for "treasure trove," but then it's a noun.)
Only MOTIVES can be ULTERIOR
? Only an HOUR can be UNGODLY
Only a KNIGHT can be ERRANT
? Only a NOSE can be SNUB
Only VEINS can be VARICOSE
Only BACKS can be SWAY
Only SWITCHES can be TOGGLE
? Only ARMS can be AKIMBO
? Only TIES can be FOUR-IN-HAND
Only SKIRTS can be DIRNDL
Only BLACKNESS can be STYGIAN
Only NOSES can be AQUILINE
Only LOVE can be UNREQUITED
Only IDIOTS can be BLITHERING
? Only TEETH can be SNAGGLE
Only PHRASES can be FUSTIAN
Only KNIGHTS can be TEMPLAR
Only the COMMISSION can be TRILATERAL
Only a SEAT can be CATBIRD
Only BEADS can be AGGRY
Only CIRCUMSTANCES can be STRAITENED
Only VIRGINS can be VESTAL
Only LINES can be PLIMSOLL
Only a LINE can be MAGINOT
Only TISSUE can be ERECTILE
Only SHEARS can be PINKING
Only GLANCES can be SIDELONG
Only a MOON can be GIBBOUS
Only the TIDE can be EBB
Only a PLOVER can be SEMIPALMATED
Only the ORACLE can be DELPHIC
Only a RECORD can be LONG-PLAYING
Only a CONE can be PYROMETRIC
Only a CLAM can be CHERRYSTONE
Only an OYSTER can be BLUE POINT
Only a SEIZURE can be GRAND MAL
Only CREME is BRULEE (in English)
Only DEPTHS can be BENTHIC
Only EGGS can be SUNNY-SIDE UP
Only EGGS can be OVER EASY
Only EGGS can be BENEDICT
Only EGGS can be SOFT-BOILED

SUBJECT requiring VERB

The only thing your HACKLES can do is RISE

DIRECT OBJECT requiring VERB

The only thing you can do with ASPERSIONS is CAST them
The only thing you can do with a FAIT ACCOMPLI is PRESENT someone WITH it
The only thing you can do with (SHORT) SHRIFT is BE GIVEN it
The only thing you can do with UMBRAGE is TAKE it
The only thing you can do with (THE) KIBOSH is PUT IT ON something
The only thing you can do with YOUR OWN DEVICES is BE LEFT TO them
The only thing you can do with LOGGERHEADS is be AT them WITH somebody
The only thing you can do with KILTER is THROW something OUT OF it
? The only thing I can do with MY DANDER is GET it UP
The only thing you can do with a DAMN is GIVE it
The only thing you can do with HEADWAY is MAKE it
The only thing you can do with THE CATBIRD SEAT is BE SITTING IN it
The only thing you can do with TENTERHOOKS is BE ON them
The only thing you can do with THE LAM is BE ON it
The only thing you can do with THE COCKLES OF YOUR HEART is WARM them
The only thing you can do with (YOUR OWN) PETARD is BE HOIST by it
The only thing you can do with A JAUNDICED VIEW is TAKE it
The only thing you can do with YOUR TROTH is PLIGHT it

MODIFIER requiring VERB

The only thing you can do BALEFULLY is GLARE
The only thing you can do ABACK is BE TAKEN
The only thing you can do ASKANCE is LOOK on or at something

VERB requiring SUBJECT

Only HEAVEN can FORFEND
Only CLOUDS can SCUD

VERB requiring DIRECT OBJECT (& OBLIQUE OBJECT(S))

The only thing you can BOGGLE is THE MIND
The only thing you can PLIGHT is your TROTH
? The only thing you can WREAK is HAVOC
The only thing you can OBVIATE is the NECESSITY for something
The only thing you can GRIT is your TEETH
The only thing you can WEND is your WAY
The only thing you can GNASH is YOUR TEETH
The only thing you can BIDE is your TIME
The only thing you can METE OUT is PUNISHMENT
The only thing you can WORM is YOUR WAY into or out of something

VERB requiring ANAPHORIC OBJECT

The only person you can PRIDE is YOURSELF (ON something)
The only person you can RECUSE is YOURSELF
The only person you can INGRATIATE is YOURSELF (WITH someone)
The only person you can AVAIL is YOURSELF (OF something)
? The only person you can ENSCONCE is YOURSELF

VERB requiring MODIFIER

The only way to BESTRIDE something is LIKE A COLOSSUS
The only way to DISABUSE someone is OF A NOTION
The only way to REDOUND is TO someone's CREDIT

MODIFIER requiring MODIFIER

The only way to be ENSCONCED is FIRMLY (unless you want to treat "to be ensconced" as a defective verb)

NOUN requiring COORDINATE NOUN

You can't get SUCCOUR without AID
You can't have TRIBULATIONS without TRIALS
You can't have KITH without KIN
You can't have CRANNIES without NOOKS
You can't have BECK without CALL

VERB requiring COORDINATE VERB

You can't ABET unless you also AID
You can't HAW unless you also HEM

ADVERB requiring COORDINATE ADVERB

You can't do anything FRO unless you've already done it TO

ADJECTIVE requiring COORDINATE ADJECTIVE

A thing can't be SPIC unless it's also SPAN, and vice versa

"VERB" requiring INFINITIVAL COMPLEMENT

The only thing you can BE RARING to do is GO (Note that this isn't really a verb: you can't rare to go, nobody ever rared to go.)


Notes

A Stormy Petrel is a phrase P containing a word W such that W cannot occur anywhere but in P. The best Petrels are therefore things like (P = "to and fro", W = "fro"), since "fro" cannot occur outside of "to and fro." "Cannot" means here that native speakers will reject "fro" in any other environment, like "back and fro." Until a better name comes along, let's call these "first-tier" Petrels.

There is also a second tier of Petrels which consist of a P and a W such that P is never observed outside of W. These would include things like (P = "dirndl skirt", W = "dirndl"), since I at least have never seen anything else described as dirndl. If, however, someone were to show me an Austrian peasant bicycling costume and call it "dirndl pants", I could accept that. "Dirndl pants" isn't ungrammatical, it's just unheard-of.

He adds that a third category consists of joke petrels, such as MAGINOT LINE; you could also talk about "the Maginot family," for instance, but the word "Maginot" is strongly associated with the word "line." Similarly, I like to say that every MANUEL NORIEGA is a PANAMANIAN STRONGMAN, since every news report I encountered around the time of the invasion of Panama took pains to refer to him that way.

Corrections:
You can also be bestride a horse.
A cube, not just a nose, can be SNUB.
You can WREAK vengeance as well as havoc.
The example of how not to use "bestride" is confusing, regardless of whether the word is a petrel; since it means "to stand across," you couldn't "bestride through the clouds" even if the "colossus" part weren't an issue. I bestride corrected.