| antebellum |
in or of the period prior to a war, especially the American Civil War. |
| astringent |
a substance or drug that contracts body tissue and slows discharge or secretion. |
| deify |
to raise to the rank of a god; consider to be a god. |
| Draconian |
(often lower case) harshly cruel or rigorous. |
| euphoria |
a strong feeling of well-being or elation, sometimes unrealistic or unwarranted, and able to be induced by certain drugs. |
| garble |
to mix up, distort, or confuse (a message, translation, or the like); cause to be disordered or unintelligible. |
| goad |
something that spurs a person to action; stimulus. |
| guttural |
articulated in the back of the mouth; velar. |
| incredulous |
not able to believe something. |
| laconic |
using very few words; succinct; terse. |
| mélange |
a mixture, usually of very dissimilar elements. |
| reprisal |
injury inflicted in retaliation for injury received, as in war; revenge. |
| schadenfreude |
(often capitalized) pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. |
| sepsis |
infection, especially by pus-forming bacteria in the blood or tissues. |
| solipsism |
the self-centered habit of interpreting and judging all things exclusively according to one's own concepts of meaning and value. |