Miscellaneous Word List 1701-1800

Front 1

sirocco

Back 1

n. a hot humid south or southeast wind, especially one moving toward a low barometric pressure

Front 2

cantrips

Back 2

n. a magic spell; a witch's trick; a deceptive move; a sham

Front 3

contrails

Back 3

n. a visible trail of streaks of condensed water vapor or ice crystals sometimes forming in the wake of an aircraft; vapor trail

Front 4

suborn

Back 4

v. to induce to commit an unlawful act; to induce or procure perjury

Front 5

distaff

Back 5

n. work and concerns traditionally considered important to women

Front 6

decoct

Back 6

v. to extract the flavor of by boiling; to make concentrated; boil down

Front 7

coiffeuse

Back 7

n. a woman who is a hairdresser

Front 8

slake

Back 8

v. (1) to satisfy a craving; to quench (2) to lessen the force or activity; moderate (3) to cool or refresh by wettening or moistening

Front 9

sistrum

Back 9

n. a percussion instrument of ancient Egypt, Sumeria and Rome consisting of metal rods or loops attached to a metal frame

Front 10

asperges

Back 10

n. the ceremony of sprinkling the alter and congregation with holy water

Front 11

demiurge

Back 11

n. (1) a powerful creative force or personality (2) a public magistrate in some ancient Greek states

Front 12

rills

Back 12

n. a small brook or rivulet

Front 13

guffaw

Back 13

n. a hearty, boisterous burst of laughter

Front 14

bard

Back 14

n. poets who compose and recite verses celebrating the legendary exploits of chieftains and heroes

Front 15

besot

Back 15

v. to muddle or stupefy, as with alcoholic liquor or infatuation

Front 16

mattock

Back 16

n. a digging tool with a flat blade set at right angles to the handle

Front 17

skirl

Back 17

v. (1) to produce high, shrill, wailing tones (2) to play on bagpipes

Front 18

lambkin

Back 18

n. a small young lamb

Front 19

gravid

Back 19

adj. carrying developing young or eggs

Front 20

ape

Back 20

v. to mimic slavishly but often with an absurd result

Front 21

pumice

Back 21

n. a light, porous, glassy lava, used in solid form as an abrasive and in powdered form as a polish

Front 22

ululate

Back 22

v. to howl, wail, or lament loudly

Front 23

cymbal

Back 23

n. a percussion instrument consisting of a concave brass plate that makes a loud clashing tone when hit

Front 24

clodhopper

Back 24

n. a clumsy, coarse person; a bumpkin

Front 25

gull

Back 25

v. to deceive or cheat

Front 26

cuckold

Back 26

v. to make a man unfaithful to his wife

Front 27

cocksman

Back 27

n. a man obsessed with sex and/or women; an ardent womanizer; a lecherous or promiscuous man; a prodigious sex partner; one possessing great sexual prowess

Front 28

numinous

Back 28

adj. (1) relating to the supernatural (2) spiritually elevated; sublime

Front 29

spillikin

Back 29

n. the game of jackstraws; one of the straws used in playing jackstraws

Front 30

merel

Back 30

n. blackbird

Front 31

nought

Back 31

n./adj. a miniscule or non-existent quanitty

Front 32

parturition

Back 32

n. the act or process of giving birth; childbirth

Front 33

rotgut

Back 33

n. raw, inferior liquor

Front 34

pudendum

Back 34

n. the human external genital organs, especially of a woman

Front 35

dun

Back 35

v. to importune for payment

Front 36

lintel

Back 36

n. a horizontal structural member, such as a beam or stone, that spans an opening, as between the uprights of a door or window or between two columns or piers

Front 37

soubrette

Back 37

n. a young woman regarded as flirtatious or frivolous; a saucy, coquettish, intriguing maidservant

Front 38

caulk

Back 38

v. to maker watertight or airtight by filling or sealing

Front 39

anneal

Back 39

v. to strengthen or harden, especially by a process of heating and slow cooling in order to toughen and reduce brittleness

Front 40

coquette

Back 40

n. a woman who makes teasing sexual or romantic overtures; a flirt

Front 41

defalcate

Back 41

v. to steal or misuse money or property entrusted to one's care

Front 42

virtuoso

Back 42

n./adj. a person skilled in the techniques of an art, especially by a musical instrument/showing mastery in artistic skills

Front 43

toady

Back 43

n./v. a fawning flatterer; humble dependent/to attempt to gain favor by fawning or being servile

Front 44

osteopath

Back 44

n. a practitioner specializing in treatment chiefly by manipulation of the bones and muscles

Front 45

froward

Back 45

adj. not easily managed; contrary

Front 46

pinchbeck

Back 46

n./adj. an alloy of zinc and copper used t imitate gold in jewelry-making; by extension, something counterfeit; an imitation

Front 47

nocuous

Back 47

adj. very hurtful; noxious

Front 48

beseech

Back 48

v. to ask earnestly; implore

Front 49

canary

Back 49

n. (1) a small finch native to the Canary Islands (2) a woman singer; an informer; a stool pigeon (3) a light to moderate vivid yellow

Front 50

stool pigeon

Back 50

n. (1) a person acting as a decoy as an informer, especially one who is a spy for the police

Front 51

jacobin

Back 51

n. a radical republican during the French Revolution; a radical or extreme leftist

Front 52

rancid

Back 52

adj. having the disagreeable odor or taste of decomposing oils or fats; rank; repugnant; nasty

Front 53

spittle

Back 53

n. spit; saliva; the frothy liquid secreted by spittlebugs

Front 54

whet

Back 54

v. to make more keen; stimulate

Front 55

plinth

Back 55

n. a block of slab on which a pedestal, column, or statue is placed; a continuous course of stones supporting a wall

Front 56

bilk

Back 56

v. to defraud; to cheat; to frustrate

Front 57

acta jure imperii/gentionis

Back 57

n. rule of sovereign immunity where a state may not be sued by another state by a court of its own, by excepts nonofficial acts of a commercial nature

Front 58

tetchy

Back 58

adj. peevish; testy; irritiable

Front 59

minuet

Back 59

n. a slow, stately pattern dance

Front 60

inanition

Back 60

n. the condition or quality of being empty; exhaustion, as from lack of nourishment; lack of vitality of spirit

Front 61

susurrus

Back 61

n. the indistinct sound of people whispering

Front 62

de rigueur

Back 62

adj. required by the current fashion or custom; socially obligatory

Front 63

fusty

Back 63

adj. smelling of mildew or decay; musty

Front 64

pelf

Back 64

n. wealth or riches, especially when dishonestly acquired

Front 65

ablution

Back 65

n. a washing or cleaning of the body, especially as part of a religious rite

Front 66

esperanto

Back 66

n. an artificial international language with a vocabulary based on word roots common to many european languages and a regularized system of inflection

Front 67

miscegenate

Back 67

v. to marry or cohabit with a person of another race

Front 68

thaumaturgy

Back 68

n. the working of miracles or magic feats

Front 69

trestle

Back 69

n. a horizontal beam or bar held up by two pairs of divergent legs and used as a support

Front 70

ludic

Back 70

adj. of or relating to play; characterized by play; playful

Front 71

ornery

Back 71

adj. mean-spirited, disagreeable, and contrary in disposition; cantankerous

Front 72

flummox

Back 72

v. to perplex; to confuse

Front 73

ligamen

Back 73

an existing marriage tie that constitutes an impediment to the contracting of a second

Front 74

catechumen

Back 74

n. one who is being instructed in a subject at an elementary level

Front 75

frisson

Back 75

n. moment of intense excitement; a shudder; an emotional thrill

Front 76

kettling

Back 76

a controversial strategy of crowd control through containment

Front 77

pulchritude

Back 77

n. the quality of appearance which pleases the eye; beauty; comeliness; grace; loveliness

Front 78

appatis

Back 78

having been approved; approbatis, the sanction of offical authority (2) agreements between local inhabitants and soldiers living off the countryside

Front 79

outre

Back 79

adj. unconventional; eccentric; bizarre

Front 80

etoilate

Back 80

v. to make pale or sickly; to make weak by stunting the growth; to become bleached or whitened, as when grown without sunlight

Front 81

quiddity

Back 81

n. (1) the essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing (2) a hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble (3) an eccentricity; an odd feature

Front 82

stormy petrel

Back 82

n. one who brings discord or strife, or appears at the onset of trouble

Front 83

ken

Back 83

n. perception; understanding; knowledge; the range of vision; view; sight

Front 84

decretal

Back 84

n. a decree, especially a papal letter giving a decision on a point or question of canon law

Front 85

distrain

Back 85

v. to seize and hold to compel payment or reparation, as of debts; to levy a distress

Front 86

depose

Back 86

v. to state or affirm in a deposition or by affidavit; to lay down a deposit

Front 87

escheat

Back 87

n. reversion of property to the state in the absence of legal heirs or claimants

Front 88

senescent

Back 88

adj. growing old; aging

Front 89

tyro

Back 89

n. a beginner in learning; a novice

Front 90

quaff

Back 90

v. to drink a beverage, especially an intoxicating one, copiously and with hearty enjoyment

Front 91

aliment

Back 91

n. something that nourishes or feeds; nutriment; something that sustains a state of mind or body

Front 92

munificent

Back 92

adj. very liberal in giving or bestowing; very generous; lavish

Front 93

bombinate

Back 93

v. to buzz; to hum; to drone

Front 94

abnegate

Back 94

v. to refuse or deny oneself; to reject; to renounce; to surrender; to relinquish; to give up

Front 95

stolid

Back 95

adj. having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily excited

Front 96

fey

Back 96

adj. (1) possessing or displaying a strange and otherworldly aspect or quality; magical or fairylike; elftin (2) visionary; clairvoyant (3) appearing slightly crazy, as if under a spell; touched

Front 97

immure

Back 97

v. to enclose within walls; to shut up; to imprison; to incarcerate; to entomb

Front 98

sympathy/empathy

Back 98

sym- together with; em- within: sympathy express pity for anothers troubles/empathy reflects a stronger emotional identification

Front 99

buss

Back 99

n./v. a kiss/to kiss, especially to kiss with a smack

Front 100

percontation

Back 100

n. a question or inquiry, especially one which requires more than a yes or no answer