| A | B |
|---|
| vellum | Fine parchment made from the skins of calves; paper made to resemble parchment |
| trammel | Impediment; hindrance; restriction |
| indelicate | Improper; unseemly; impolite; tactless |
| superintend | To oversee; direct |
| oubliette | A secret room or dungeon with an entrance only through the top |
| emancipate | To liberate; to unshackle |
| diatribe | Tirade; invective; harangue; verbal attack |
| sepulchral | Relating to a tomb or burial vault; also, by extension, funereal, dismal |
| vexatious | Troubling; irritating; annoying |
| contrite | Remorseful; penitent; apologetic |
| contretemps | Quarrel; squabble; spat |
| deferential | Respectful; courteous; obsequious |
| gainsay | To oppose; contradict |
| plaintive | Mournful; lamenting |
| russet | A reddish or yellowish brown |
| concerted | Intensive; strenuous; determined; concentrated |
| catholic | Wide-ranging; broad; all-embracing; varied |
| parapet | Rampart; fortification; wall; bulwark |
| desideratum | Something needed or desired; pl., desiderata |
| ingénue | The role of a young girl in a book, movie, or play, particularly when played as an innocent; or, the actress who plays such a character |
| adroitly | Skillfully; dexterously; nimbly; capably |
| erudition | Sophistication; learning; education |
| promontory | A high point of land extending into the sea; headland |
| self-abasement | The act of lowering or humbling of oneself |
| profundity | Insightfulness; intensity; depth of understanding |
| transfigured | Made glorious; transformed into an idealized state |
| tremulous | Unsteady; quivering; skittish; nervous |
| asceticism | Severity; the leading of an austere and self-denying life |
| parochial | Narrow-minded; close-minded; pertaining to, supported by, or confined to a parish |
| surreptitious | Furtive; secret; clandestine; sly |
| dowager | An elderly, dignified woman; a widow holding property or title derived from her deceased husband |
| portentous | Ominous; fateful; significant |
| dilatory | Slow; tardy; remiss; negligent |
| virago | A noisy, sharp-tongued woman (from the Latin, vir, suggesting a manly woman) |
| ingenuously | Frankly; candidly; innocently; naively |
| querulous | Fretful; whining; petulant; argumentative |
| supercilious | Arrogant; disdainful; condescending; haughty |
| disconsolately | Sadly; gloomily |
| conflagration | Blaze; inferno (either literally or figuratively) |
| lugubrious | Mournful; doleful; melancholy; depressing |
| iniquitous | Wicked; sinful; unjust |
| mollify | To soothe; to placate; to appease |
| cumber | To hinder; to burden |
| charlatan | Imposter; fake; con; swindler |
| benighted | Ignorant; unenlightened; kept in the dark |
| sedulously | Diligently; assiduously; carefully |
| capricious | Impulsive; unpredictable; whimsical |
| salvo | Barrage; bombardment; round (as of ammunition) |
| florid | Ornate; extravagant; flowery |
| desultory | Aimless; random; unfocused; (derogatory) half-hearted |
