| alimony |
money that a court orders one member of a divorced couple to pay to the other. |
| artisan |
a person skilled in making things, especially by using the hands. People such as those who make furniture, quilts, or other crafts are artisans. |
| bombast |
boastful, pompous, or otherwise overblown utterances. |
| caricature |
a depiction, in a drawing or verbal description, that deliberately exaggerates or distorts some features of the person or thing represented to produce a comic or grotesque appearance. |
| douse1 |
to place or plunge in water or another liquid; immerse. |
| hypocrite |
a person who pretends to be different or better than he or she really is. Someone who does not act according to his or her stated beliefs is a hypocrite. |
| ineffectual |
incapable of acting effectively. |
| mores |
the behaviors and manners accepted and expected in a social group, embodying its fundamental moral standards. |
| perfidy |
an act or the practice of conscious, deliberate disloyalty or treachery; breach of faith. |
| populist |
a person, especially a political leader, who represents, or claims to represent, the interests and concerns of the common people rather than the privileged, the politically powerful, or the intelligentsia. |
| probity |
proven trustworthiness; honesty; integrity. |
| proscribe |
to make illegal or prohibit. |
| raucous |
loud, sharp, and rasping, as, at times, a bird's call or a human's voice or laugh. |
| replenish |
to make complete or full again; refill. |
| shackle |
a metal band or one of a pair of metal rings used to bind the wrist or ankle of a prisoner or animal. |