| abeyance |
temporary suspension or cessation. |
| askance |
with distrust or suspicion. |
| austerity |
a tightened or stringent economy, as when there are high taxes, frozen wages, and shortages of consumer goods. |
| dilatory |
used to cause a delay. |
| discomfit |
to upset or confuse. |
| extenuate |
to reduce the magnitude or seriousness of (a fault or offense) by offering partial excuses. |
| idiosyncrasy |
a characteristic of temperament, habit, or physical structure particular to a given individual or group; peculiarity. |
| 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. |
| loll |
to hang down loosely; dangle. |
| magnum opus |
a great work of art, literature, or music, especially a particular person's masterpiece. |
| malapropism |
the humorous or ridiculous misuse of a word, especially by using a word that sounds similar to the correct word, but whose meaning is inappropriate. |
| nostrum |
a favorite but unproven scheme or theory, offered as a remedy for social or political problems; panacea. |
| pinchbeck |
false, sham, or counterfeit. |
| rebarbative |
tending to irritate or repel; forbidding or unattractive. |
| surcingle |
a girth or belt that wraps around the body of a horse to secure a saddle, pack, or the like to its back. |