| aberration |
a deviation from what is considered normal or right; irregularity. |
| bellicose |
easily incited to quarrel or fight; belligerent. |
| bibulous |
addicted to alcohol; alcoholic. |
| contumely |
contemptuous insolence; rudeness. |
| equipoise |
a state of balance or equal weight, importance, or the like; equilibrium. |
| exegesis |
a critical explanation or interpretive analysis, especially of religious texts. |
| festoon |
a decorative chain or strip of ribbons, flowers, leaves, or the like, suspended at the ends and hung in a curve. |
| flak |
(informal) irritating opposition, criticism, or dissent. |
| glean |
to gather or discover (facts, information, or the like) a little at a time. |
| ingenuous |
having or showing simplicity and lack of sophistication; artless. |
| malinger |
to pretend illness or injury, especially in order to be excused from duty or work. |
| scion |
an offspring or heir. |
| sere1 |
dried up or withered. |
| solecism |
a gross violation of convention in grammar, etiquette, or the like; impropriety. |
| symbiosis |
a close association, usually a mutually beneficial relationship, between two dissimilar organisms. |