| abeyance |
temporary suspension or cessation. |
| astute |
keen in understanding and judgment; shrewd. |
| compunction |
uneasiness about the propriety or suitability of an action; qualm. |
| constrict |
to pull or squeeze in; make smaller or more narrow; tighten. |
| homily |
any discourse offering moral advice or admonitions. |
| 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. |
| jeremiad |
a long complaint about life or one's situation; lamentation. |
| obtrusive |
aggressive and self-assertive, or inclined to be so. |
| panegyric |
a formal speech or piece of writing devoted to publicly praising a person or thing. |
| peripatetic |
walking or traveling around; going from place to place; itinerant. |
| recidivism |
chronic return to bad habits, especially criminal relapse. |
| recurve |
to bend or curve back or backward, as the ends of certain shooting bows. |
| Sabbatarian |
one who observes the Sabbath on Saturday, as Jews and certain Christians. |
| vitiate |
to harm the quality of; mar; spoil. |
| voluble |
characterized by a steady flow of words; fluent; talkative. |