| A | B |
|---|
| abortive | failing to accomplish an intended aim or purpose |
| bruit | to spread news, reports, or unsubstantiated rumors |
| contumelious | insolent or rude in speech or behavior |
| dictum | a short saying |
| ensconce | to settle comfortably and firmly in position |
| iconoclastic | attacking traditional beliefs, ideas, or institutions |
| in medias res | in or into the middle of a plot |
| internecine | mutually destructive |
| maladroit | lacking skill or dexterity |
| maudlin | excessively sentimental |
| modulate | to change or vary the intensity or pitch |
| portentous | foreshadowing an event to come |
| prescience | foresight |
| quid pro quo | something given in exchange or return for something else |
| salubrious | conducive to health or well-being; wholesome |
| saturnalian | characterized by rioutous or unrestrained revelry or licentiousness |
| touchstone | a means of testing worth or genuineness |
| traumatic | so shocking to the emotions as to cause lasting and substantial psychological damage |
| vitiate | to weaken, debase, or corrupt |
| waggish | fond of making jokes |
