| canny |
difficult to fool or take advantage of; shrewd; wary; clever. |
| collateral |
property or other security put forward to guarantee repayment of a loan. |
| deadeye |
an expert shooter. |
| dissimulate |
to hide one's true feelings, intentions, or the like by pretense or hypocrisy. |
| festoon |
a decorative chain or strip of ribbons, flowers, leaves, or the like, suspended at the ends and hung in a curve. |
| froward |
unwilling to agree or obey; stubborn; perverse. |
| garble |
to mix up, distort, or confuse (a message, translation, or the like); cause to be disordered or unintelligible. |
| harbinger |
someone or something that signals or foreshadows a later arrival or occurrence; herald; forerunner. |
| homily |
any discourse offering moral advice or admonitions. |
| ingenuous |
having or showing simplicity and lack of sophistication; artless. |
| ligature |
a band or tie. |
| quondam |
having been in the past; former. |
| salvo |
the firing of guns or other firearms simultaneously or in succession, especially as a salute. |
| stentorian |
extremely loud and powerful. |
| stickler |
one who must observe or conform to something (usually followed by "for"). |