| abstruse |
difficult to comprehend or understand; esoteric; arcane. |
| apocryphal |
of dubious authorship or authority. |
| apprehensive |
feeling fearful about future events. |
| chary |
not dispensing freely. |
| coddle |
to simmer in water that is almost at the boiling point. |
| descry |
to see or make out, especially something obscured or at a distance. |
| elide |
to leave out or slur, as a syllable or letter, in pronunciation. |
| forbear |
to keep or abstain from (an action or utterance). |
| forswear |
to give up or renounce, often with an oath or pledge. |
| garble |
to mix up, distort, or confuse (a message, translation, or the like); cause to be disordered or unintelligible. |
| lorgnette |
eyeglasses, such as opera glasses, that have a short handle by which one holds them in position. |
| 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. |
| reconnoiter |
to go through or over (an area) so as to gain information about it, as for military or engineering purposes. |
| sequester |
to remove into protection and isolation; seclude. |
| untoward |
unexpected and unfortunate. |