| abeyance |
temporary suspension or cessation. |
| astringent |
a substance or drug that contracts body tissue and slows discharge or secretion. |
| cognizant |
aware; informed (usually followed by "of"). |
| dearth |
a shortage or scarcity of something; lack. |
| disquisition |
a formal, often lengthy, oral or written discussion of a subject. |
| epigraph |
a pertinent quotation or motto, especially found at the beginning of a literary work or of a chapter. |
| fracas |
a noisy disturbance or quarrel. |
| gird |
to surround, bind, or encircle, as with a belt. |
| 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. |
| lupine2 |
fierce; greedy. |
| pandemic |
a widespread outbreak of disease that afflicts many people over different continents. |
| panegyric |
a formal speech or piece of writing devoted to publicly praising a person or thing. |
| pedantic |
making or characterized by an excessive display of learnedness, or overly insistent on scholarly details and formalities. |
| recant |
to withdraw from commitment to (a former position or statement), especially publicly; retract. |
| tort |
in law, any civil rather than criminal harm or injury that violates the implicit duty of each citizen not to harm others, and for which one may bring a civil suit and collect compensation. |