| collateral |
property or other security put forward to guarantee repayment of a loan. |
| comity |
mutual courtesy and respectful treatment among people or nations. |
| conclave |
a secret, private, or confidential meeting or gathering. |
| demotic |
of or relating to the common people; popular. |
| disallow |
to refuse to allow or admit; reject. |
| disheveled |
not neat; messy. |
| fealty |
faithfulness or loyalty. |
| insipid |
having a bland or uninteresting flavor; tasteless. |
| meretricious |
appealing or attracting in a cheap, showy, or shallow way. |
| modus operandi |
a method of accomplishing something; way of working. |
| pedantic |
making or characterized by an excessive display of learnedness, or overly insistent on scholarly details and formalities. |
| recurve |
to bend or curve back or backward, as the ends of certain shooting bows. |
| relict |
a plant, animal, or geological feature that has survived in a considerably changed environment. |
| uxorious |
excessively or foolishly devoted to one's wife, and often thereby submissive to her. |
| vitiate |
to harm the quality of; mar; spoil. |