| ascertain |
to learn without question; determine. |
| credulous |
disposed to believe, especially on scanty evidence; gullible. |
| emulous |
filled with the desire to equal or surpass. |
| gossamer |
delicately fine, gauzelike, or filmy. |
| indurate |
to make hard in texture; harden. |
| ineluctable |
impossible to be avoided; inescapable. |
| naturalism |
in literature, a method of depicting life that reflects a philosophy of determinism. |
| peripatetic |
walking or traveling around; going from place to place; itinerant. |
| pusillanimous |
shamefully timid; cowardly. |
| raffish |
carelessly unconventional or disreputable, sometimes appealingly so. |
| relict |
a plant, animal, or geological feature that has survived in a considerably changed environment. |
| risible |
provoking laughter; laughable or funny. |
| solipsism |
the self-centered habit of interpreting and judging all things exclusively according to one's own concepts of meaning and value. |
| stentorian |
extremely loud and powerful. |
| stridulate |
to produce a shrill grating, creaking, or chirping sound by rubbing certain parts of the body together, as some insects do. |