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167 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Banal
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Cliched, boring, predictable
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Belfry
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Bell tower
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Bevy
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Group
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Bilk
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Cheat, defraud
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Blight
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To afflict, destroy
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Blithe
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Joyful, cheerful, or without appropriate thought
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Demagogue
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A leader or rabble-rouser, usually appealing to emotion or prejudice
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Demur
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To express doubts or objections
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Desiccate
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To dry out thoroughly
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Desultory
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Jumping from one thing to another, disconnected
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Lassitude
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A state of diminished energy
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Legerdemain
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Trickery
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Licentious
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Immoral, unrestrained by society
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Limpid
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Clear, translucent
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Martinet
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Strict disciplinarian, one who rigidly follows rules
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Mendacious
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Dishonest, lying
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Mendicant
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Beggar
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Mercurial
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Quick, shrewd, and unpredictable
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Meretricious
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Gaudy, falsely attractive
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Militate
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To operate against, to work against
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Mirth
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Frivolity, gaiety, laughter
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Monastic
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Extremely plain or secluded, like a monastery
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Neologism
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New word or expression
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Neophyte
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Novice/beginner
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Noisome
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Stinking, putrid
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Stentorian
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Extremely loud
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Verdant
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Green with vegetation; inexperienced
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Vernal
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Related to spring; fresh
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Vicissitude
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A change or variation; ups and downs
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Vituperate
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To abuse verbally/berate
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Lugubrious
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Sorrowful, mournful, dismal
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Phlegmatic
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Calm and unemotional in temperament
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Polemic
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Argument, controversy, verbal attack
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Polyglot
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A speaker of many languages
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Potentate
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A monarch or ruler with great power
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Pastiche
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A piece of literature or music that imitates other works
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Peccadillo
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Minor sin or offense
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Pedant
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Someone who shows off learning
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Penury
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An oppressive lack of resources (such as money); severe poverty
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Peregrinate
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To wander from place to place, especially on foot; to travel
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Perfidious
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Willing to betray one's trust; traitorous, disloyal
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Peripatetic
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To wander from place to place, especially on foot
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Perspicacious
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Shrewd, astute, or keen-witted; insightful
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Itinerant
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Wandering from place to place; unsettled
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Aerie
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A nest built high in the air; an elevated/secluded dwelling
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Alacrity
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Speed or quickness
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Amortize
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To diminish by payment installments (as in debt)
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Analgesia
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A lessening of pain without a loss of consciousness
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Investiture
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Ceremony conferring authority
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Invidious
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Envious, obnoxious, or offensive; likely to promote ill will
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Scintilla
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Trace amount
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Seraphic
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Angelic, sweet (cherubic)
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Slake
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To calm down or moderate; quench, satisfy
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Sobriquet
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Nickname
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Solecism
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Grammatical mistake or blunder in speech
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Soporific
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Causing sleep or lethargy
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Specious
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Deceptively attractive; seemingly plausible but fallacious
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Sanguine
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Ruddy, cheerfully optimistic; rosy
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Malinger
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To evade responsibility by pretending to be ill
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Effrontery
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Impudent boldness, audacity
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Elegy
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A sorrowful poem or speech
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Doctrinaire
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Rigidly devoted to theories without regard for practicality; dogmatic
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Exponent
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One who champions or advocates, a supporter
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Expurgate
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To censor
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Fallow
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Dormant, unused (as in fields)
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Fatuous
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Stupid, foolishly self-satisfied
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Fervid
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Intensely emotional, feverish
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Fetid
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Foul smelling, putrid
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Foment
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To arouse or incite
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Fractious
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Unruly, rebellious
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Furtive
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Secret, stealthy
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Gambol
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To dance or skip around playfully
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Stolid
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Unemotional, lacking sensitivity
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Surfeit
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Excessive amount
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Sybarite
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A sensualist, hedonist, someone who seeks pleasure and luxury
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Sycophant
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Self-serving flatterer; yesman
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Tacit
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Done without using words
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Trenchant
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Acute, sharp, or incisive; effective, forceful
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Turgid
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Swollen as from a fluid, bloated
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Upbraid
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To scold sharply (berate)
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Usury
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The practice of lending money at exorbitant rates
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Attenuate
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To reduce in force or degree; to weaken
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Augury
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Prophecy, prediction of events
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Axiom
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Premise, postulate, self-evident truth
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Abeyance
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Temporary suppression or suspension
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Abjure
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To reject, abandon formally
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Abstemious
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Moderate in appetite
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Acidulous
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Sour in taste or manner
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Laconic
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Using few words
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Lapidary
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Having to do with precious stones or the cutting of them
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Catholic
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Universal, broad and comprehensive
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Chicanery
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Deception by means of craft or guile
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Puerile
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Childish, immature or silly, infantile
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Diffident
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Lacking self-confidence
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Dilatory
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Intended to delay
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Dirge
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A funeral hymn or mournful speech
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Dyspeptic
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Suffering from indigestion, gloomy and irritable
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Ebullient
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Exhilarated, full of enthusiasm and high spirits
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Edify
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To instruct morally and spiritually
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Impetuous
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Quick to act without thinking
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Imprecation
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A curse
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Incarnadine
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Blood-red in color
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Garrulous
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Tending to talk a lot
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Hermetic
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Tightly sealed
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Hoary
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Very old; whitish or gray from age
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Husband
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To manage economically, to use sparingly
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Pulchritude
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Beauty
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Pusillanimous
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Cowardly, without courage
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Quiescent
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Motionless
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Quotidian
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Occurring daily, commonplace
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Raconteur
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Witty, skillful storyteller
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Rarefy
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To make thinner or sparser
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Restive
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Impatient, uneasy, or restless
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Ribald
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Humorous in a vulgar way
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Sagacious
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Shrewd, wise
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Salubrious
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Healthful
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Redress
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Relief from wrong or injury
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Obdurate
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Hardened in feeling, resistant to persuasion
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Obsequious
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Overly submissive and eager to please
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Obviate
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To prevent, to make unnecessary
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Officious
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Too helpful, meddlesome
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Opprobrium
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Public disgrace
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Orotund
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Pompous
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Palliate
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To make less serious, to ease
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Panoply
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Impressive array; variety
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Precipitate
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To throw violently or bring about abruptly; lacking deliberation
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Prescient
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Having foresight
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Prevaricate
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To lie or deviate from the truth
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Probity
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Complete honesty and integrity
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Prodigal
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Lavish, wasteful
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Profligate
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Corrupt, degenerate
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Propitiate
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To conciliate, to appease
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Distaff
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Maternal -- female -- side to a family
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Encomium
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Warm praise
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Equivocate
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To use expressions of double meaning in order to mislead
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Ersatz
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Fake
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Antipathy
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Extreme dislike
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Apocryphal
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Of questionable authority or authenticity
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Apostate
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One who renounces a religious faith
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Approbation
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Approval and praise
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Esoteric
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Known or understood only by a few
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Estimable
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Admirable
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Euphony
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A pleasant, harmonious sound
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Anodyne
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Something that calms or soothes pain
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Voluble
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Talkative, speaking easily, glib
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Wizened
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Shriveled, withered, wrinkled
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Wraith
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A ghost or a specter; a ghost of a living person seen before their death
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Zephyr
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A gentle breeze; something airy or unsubstantial
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Bonhomie
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Good-natured geniality, atmosphere of good cheer
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Indolent
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Habitually lazy or idle
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Inexorable
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Inflexible, unyielding
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Inimical
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Hostile, unfriendly
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Iniquity
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Sin, evil act
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Interregnum
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Period between reigns
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Intransigent
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Uncompromising, refusing to be reconciled
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Inure
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To harden, accustom, become used to
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Lissome
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Easily flexed, limber, agile
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Burnish
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To polish
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Cabal
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A secret group seeking to overturn something
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Calumny
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A false or malicious accusation, misrepresentation
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Canard
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A lie
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Capricious
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Changing one's mind quickly and often
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Contrite
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Deeply sorrowful and repentant for a wrong
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Contumacious
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Rebellious
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Craven
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Lacking courage
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Cupidity
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Greed, strong desire
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Declivity
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Downward slope
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