| A | B |
|---|
| cantakerous | adj. ill-tempered; quarrelsome; difficult to get along or deal with |
| bane | n. the source or cause of fatal injury, death, destruction, or ruin; death or ruin itself; poison |
| malcontent | adj. discontented with or in open defiance of prevailing conditions; n.. such a person |
| empathy | n. a sympathetic understanding of or identification with the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of someone or something else |
| peccadillo | n. a minor sin or offense; a trifling fault or shortcoming |
| ad hoc | adj. for this specific purpose; improvised; with respect to this |
| nepotism | n. undue favoritism to or excessive patronage of one's relatives |
| de facto | adj. actuallyl existing or in effect, although not legally required or sanctioned by adv. in reality, actually |
| piece de resistance | n. the principal dish of a meal; the principal event, incident, or item; an outstanding accomplishment |
| mellifluous | adj. flowing sweetly or smoothly; honeyed |
| harbinger | n. a forerunner, herald. v. to herald the approach of |
| pander | n. to cater to or provide satisfaction for the low tastes or vices of others; n a person who does this |
| casuistry | n. the determination of right and wrong in questions of conduct or conscience by the application of general ethical principles; specious argument |
| aberration | n. a departure from what is proper, right, expected, or normal, a lapse from a sound mental state |
| syndrome | n. a group of symptoms or signs that collectivelyl characterize or indicate a disease, disorder, abnormality, etc. |
| hedonism | n. the belief that the attainment of pleasure is life's chief aim; devotion to or pursuit of pleasure |
| bathos | n. the intrusion of commonplace or trite material into a context whose tone is lofty or elevated; grossly insincere or exaggerated sentimentality; the lowest phase, nadir, an anticlimax, comedown |
| lackluster | adj. lacking brilliance or vitality; dull |
| depredation | n. the act of preying upon or plundering |
| remand | v. to send or order back; in law, to send back to jail or to a lower court |
