| abstruse |
difficult to comprehend or understand; esoteric; arcane. |
| astringent |
a substance or drug that contracts body tissue and slows discharge or secretion. |
| deracinate |
to pull up by or as if by the roots; uproot; isolate; exile. |
| doggerel |
trivial, crudely constructed verse. |
| foible |
a minor flaw or weakness in personality, character, or behavior. |
| fungible |
interchangeable. |
| hagiography |
an admiring and uncritical biography of anyone. |
| immaculate |
not dirty; completely clean. |
| impinge |
to encroach. |
| indolence |
the tendency to avoid exertion or effort; laziness. |
| inflection |
change that occurs in the form of words to show a grammatical characteristic such as the tense of a verb, the number of a noun, or the degree of an adjective or adverb. |
| jubilate |
to feel joyful; rejoice; exult. |
| lorgnette |
eyeglasses, such as opera glasses, that have a short handle by which one holds them in position. |
| occlude |
to close or obstruct (a passage or opening, one's vision, or the like). |
| sotto voce |
in a low voice or undertone, so as not to be overheard; softly (often used as a musical direction). |