| annuity |
a regular yearly income paid at fixed intervals and produced by money invested or by an insurance contract. |
| auditory |
having to do with or referring to hearing or the sense of hearing. |
| auspice |
(usually plural) sponsorship or protection; patronage. |
| courier |
someone who delivers messages, packages, and the like, especially for a government, military organization, or business. |
| embalm |
to treat (a corpse) with preservatives before burial. |
| excoriate |
to denounce or criticize severely. |
| exhaustive |
thorough and all-encompassing. |
| implausible |
hard to believe or credit. |
| irony |
a manner of using language so that it conveys a different or opposite meaning to that which is literally expressed in the words themselves. Irony is used in ordinary conversation and also as a literary technique, especially to express criticism or to produce humor or pathos. |
| miasma |
a thick, obscuring vapor. |
| premeditate |
to consider, plan, or arrange in advance. |
| refractory |
obstinately disobedient; difficult to control, as a child or animal. |
| revert |
to return to a previous state, practice, belief, or the like. |
| severance |
the act, process, or result of breaking off or separating. |
| tenuous |
having little substance, support, or significance; flimsy; weak. |