| cantankerous |
irritable, stubborn, and quarrelsome. |
| cession |
the act of formally giving up or signing over, as a territory; ceding. |
| desideratum |
something that is needed or wanted. |
| erudite |
having or showing a high level of scholarly knowledge; learned. |
| fledge |
to grow flight feathers. |
| gossamer |
delicately fine, gauzelike, or filmy. |
| ineluctable |
impossible to be avoided; inescapable. |
| parturient |
giving birth or about to give birth; in labor. |
| recurve |
to bend or curve back or backward, as the ends of certain shooting bows. |
| salvo |
the firing of guns or other firearms simultaneously or in succession, especially as a salute. |
| seminal |
of critical importance; essential. |
| sententious |
using or marked by pompous, high-flown moralizing. |
| sequester |
to remove into protection and isolation; seclude. |
| stanch1 |
to cause (a liquid, especially blood) to stop flowing. |
| travesty |
something so grotesque or inferior as to seem a parody. |