| A | B |
|---|
| abate | to reduce in amount, degree, or intensity |
| abridge | to condense or to shorten a written text |
| acerbate | to irritate; to exasperate |
| bourgeois | pertaining to middle-class tastes |
| cache | to store supplies (v.); a hiding place for stores (n.) |
| chagrin | disappointment; embarrassment or humiliation by failure |
| charlatan | boastful pretender; a quack |
| cognizant | aware; fully informed |
| dilettante | aimless follower of the arts; a dabbler |
| dotage | feebleness of mind because of old age; senility |
| elicit | to draw out by discussion |
| expurgate | to remove or edit anything morally harmful or in poor taste |
| fatuous | foolish; silly |
| felicitous | apt or pleasing; well-chosen for a situation |
| holocaust | complete destruction, especially by fire |
| imperturbable | calm or steady |
| implacable | unrelenting; unwilling to forgive |
| laudatory | expressing praise |
| militate | to have force or influence; to work against |
| nefarious | wicked; evil |
| obviate | to make unnecessary; to anticipate and dispose of |
| peculate | to steal; to embezzle |
| profligate | recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant |
| putative | supposed; thought to be |
| ruminate | to ponder; to think deeply; to reflect upon |
| sanguinary | bloody |
| savoir faire | tact; the ability to do things |
| tractable | docile; easily led, controlled, or managed |
| unconscionable | unscrupulous; unreasonable; not guided by one's conscience |
| vicissitude | a change in fortune; fluctuation in condition |
