| asperity |
harshness or roughness, especially of tone or manner. |
| assuage |
to make less severe or more bearable; alleviate. |
| bellicose |
easily incited to quarrel or fight; belligerent. |
| cachet |
prestige. |
| disinter |
to dig up or remove from a place of burial; exhume. |
| effrontery |
shameless impudence; insolence. |
| expatiate |
to discuss something at great length; describe in great detail. |
| highbrow |
one who has or pretends to have highly sophisticated intellectual and cultural interests and tastes (often used disparagingly). |
| inanition |
a state of exhaustion caused by a lack of nourishment. |
| ingenuous |
having or showing simplicity and lack of sophistication; artless. |
| misanthrope |
someone who hates or distrusts humanity. |
| pedantic |
making or characterized by an excessive display of learnedness, or overly insistent on scholarly details and formalities. |
| periphrasis |
an indirect or roundabout way of phrasing something; circumlocution. |
| recrudesce |
to become active again or break out anew, as a disease or harmful condition. |
| spurn |
to reject, refuse, or treat with scorn; disdain; despise. |