| allegory |
in art or literature, the use of concrete characters, events, or things, to represent abstract qualities or ideas, often to make a point about good and evil. |
| cubicle |
any very small room or partitioned space, as in an office or dormitory. |
| egregious |
remarkably bad; flagrant; glaring. |
| gentry |
people who come from families of high social standing. |
| importune |
to pester with insistent demands or requests. |
| inaccessible |
hard or impossible to reach, approach, or attain. |
| intransigent |
refusing to alter an idea or a position in response to others' wishes; uncompromising. |
| irony |
a manner of using language so that it conveys a different or opposite meaning to that which is literally expressed in the words themselves. Irony is used in ordinary conversation and also as a literary technique, especially to express criticism or to produce humor or pathos. |
| jargon |
special words or language used by a particular group or to describe a particular interest. |
| pummel |
to strike heavily with or as if with the fists, a sword, a club, or the like; beat. |
| quiescent |
in a state of inaction or rest; dormant. |
| resilience |
the ability to resume shape after being pressed or stretched. |
| risqué |
very close to indecency or indelicacy; sexually suggestive; racy. |
| squalor |
living conditions that are filthy, or the state of being dirty or foul. |
| zealous |
characterized by, showing, or filled with an intense enthusiasm, as toward a cause, purpose, or activity. |