| adulteration |
the act or process of making worse or impure by adding unnecessary or inferior ingredients. |
| apocryphal |
of dubious authorship or authority. |
| astringent |
a substance or drug that contracts body tissue and slows discharge or secretion. |
| bereft |
deprived or stripped of something. |
| disheveled |
not neat; messy. |
| froward |
unwilling to agree or obey; stubborn; perverse. |
| gullible |
believing almost anything; easily tricked. |
| hackneyed |
made trite or commonplace by overuse, as an expression or phrase. |
| impromptu |
without advance plan or preparation; spontaneously. |
| lorgnette |
eyeglasses, such as opera glasses, that have a short handle by which one holds them in position. |
| maverick |
a person who thinks and behaves independently, especially one who refuses to adhere to the orthodoxy of the group to which he or she belongs. |
| oblivious |
not conscious or paying attention; unknowing or unaware (usually followed by "to" or "of"). |
| pastiche |
a work of visual art, music, or literature that consists mostly of materials and techniques borrowed from other works, sometimes done as an exercise to learn the technique of others. |
| shunt |
to turn or move aside or out of the way; divert. |
| syntax |
the word order or pattern of word order in a sentence. |