| animus |
a feeling or attitude of enmity. |
| corollary |
a readily drawn conclusion; deduction or inference. |
| curmudgeon |
an irritable or ill-tempered person. |
| elide |
to leave out or slur, as a syllable or letter, in pronunciation. |
| gadfly |
a persistent critic, especially of established institutions and policies. |
| glabrous |
having no hair or fuzz; bald; smooth. |
| hackneyed |
made trite or commonplace by overuse, as an expression or phrase. |
| halcyon |
tranquil; peaceful; calm. |
| heterodox |
deviating from an officially approved belief or doctrine, especially in religion. |
| peroration |
the concluding part of a speech in which there is a summing up of the principal points. |
| phlegmatic |
not given to shows of emotion or interest; slow to excite. |
| recondite |
involving profound concepts and complexities; not easily understood. |
| spurn |
to reject, refuse, or treat with scorn; disdain; despise. |
| triage |
a system of determining priority of medical treatment, on the basis of need, chances of survival, and the like, to victims on a battlefield or in a hospital emergency ward. |
| vouchsafe |
to grant or give with condescension or as a special favor. |