| askance |
with distrust or suspicion. |
| baneful |
causing or leading to death, destruction, or ruin; harmful or deadly. |
| bereft |
deprived or stripped of something. |
| cyst |
a small pouch within body tissue that is filled with fluid or air. Some cysts are connected with serious disease, but most are not harmful at all. |
| facetious |
not serious; humorous or frivolous. |
| festoon |
a decorative chain or strip of ribbons, flowers, leaves, or the like, suspended at the ends and hung in a curve. |
| forswear |
to give up or renounce, often with an oath or pledge. |
| gadfly |
a persistent critic, especially of established institutions and policies. |
| harbinger |
someone or something that signals or foreshadows a later arrival or occurrence; herald; forerunner. |
| impute |
to ascribe or attribute to a source or cause. |
| indurate |
to make hard in texture; harden. |
| misfeasance |
a normally lawful act performed in an unlawful way. |
| repose2 |
to put or place (confidence, hope, or the like) in someone or something. |
| risible |
provoking laughter; laughable or funny. |
| stickler |
one who must observe or conform to something (usually followed by "for"). |