| adulteration |
the act or process of making worse or impure by adding unnecessary or inferior ingredients. |
| bellicose |
easily incited to quarrel or fight; belligerent. |
| benign |
causing little or no harm. |
| caparison |
decorative trappings to cover a horse's saddle or harness. |
| contumacious |
stubbornly disobedient; insubordinate; rebellious. |
| contumely |
contemptuous insolence; rudeness. |
| indulgent |
gratifying, or being inclined to gratify or yield to others' wishes, especially rather than enforcing discipline or strictness. |
| linguistics |
(used with a singular verb) the scientific and historical study of the form and structure of human language. |
| maunder |
to speak in an aimless or foolish way; babble. |
| maverick |
a person who thinks and behaves independently, especially one who refuses to adhere to the orthodoxy of the group to which he or she belongs. |
| mendicant |
living on charity; begging. |
| pretentious |
assuming or marked by an air of importance or superiority that is unwarranted. |
| reconnaissance |
the act or process of examining an area, especially to gain militarily useful information. |
| solecism |
a gross violation of convention in grammar, etiquette, or the like; impropriety. |
| 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. |