| A | B |
| accost | to approach and speak to first, to confront in a challenging or aggressive way |
| animadversion | a comment indicating strong criticism or disapproval |
| avid | desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager |
| brackish | having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink |
| celerity | swiftness, rapidity of motion or action |
| devious | staying or wandering from a straight or direct course, done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way |
| gambit | in chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type |
| halcyon | a legendary bird identified wit the kingfisher; or or relating to the halcyon; calm; peaceful; happy; golden;prosperous; affluent |
| histrionic | pertaining to actos and their techniques, theatrical, artificial, melodramatic |
| incendiary | deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife or rebellion; (n) one who deliberately sets fires |
| maelstrom | (n) a whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirlpool violence and destruction |
| myopic | (adj) nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment |
| overt | open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized |
| pejorative | tending to make worse; expressing disapproval or disparagement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittiling |
| propriety | (n) the state of being proper, appropriateness (pl) standards of what is proper or socially acceptable |
| sacrilege | (n) improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred |
| summarily | without delay or formality, briefly, concisely |
| suppliant | (adj) asking humbly and earnestly (n) one who makes a request humbly and earnestly, a petitioner, suitor |
| talisman | (n) an object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish |
| undulate | (v) to move in waves or with a wavelike motion |