| antebellum |
in or of the period prior to a war, especially the American Civil War. |
| appurtenance |
(plural) equipment or instruments used for a given purpose; gear. |
| assail |
to attack with vigor or violence; assault. |
| etiolate |
to weaken, especially through deprivation of normal development. |
| fealty |
faithfulness or loyalty. |
| forswear |
to give up or renounce, often with an oath or pledge. |
| fulminate |
to vehemently denounce or criticize something. |
| immaculate |
not dirty; completely clean. |
| inflection |
change that occurs in the form of words to show a grammatical characteristic such as the tense of a verb, the number of a noun, or the degree of an adjective or adverb. |
| inveigle |
to entice or ensnare by clever talk or flattery. |
| obfuscate |
to make (something) seem or be difficult to understand; obscure or darken. |
| ontogeny |
the process of biological growth and development of a particular living organism. |
| pungency |
sharpness or bite in taste or smell. |
| recurve |
to bend or curve back or backward, as the ends of certain shooting bows. |
| travesty |
something so grotesque or inferior as to seem a parody. |