| A | B |
|---|
| abstruse | (adj.) extremely difficult to understand |
| affront | (n.) an open or intentional insult; a slight; (v.) to insult to one's face; to face in defiance, confront |
| canard | (n.) a false rumor, fabricated story |
| captious | (adj.) excessively ready to find fault; given to petty criticism; intended to trap, confuse, or show up |
| cognizant | (adj.) aware, knowledgeable, informed; having jurisdiction |
| contrite | (adj.) regretful for some misdeed or sin; plagued by a sense of guilt; thoroughly penitent |
| cynosure | (n.) the center ot attraction, attention, or interest; something that serves to guide or direct |
| decorous | (adj.) well behaved, dignified, socially proper |
| deign | (v.) to think it apporpriate or suitable to one;s dignity to do something; to condescend |
| desiccated | (adj.,part.) thoroughly dried out; divested of spirit or vitality; arid and uninteresting |
| efficacy | (n.) the power to produce a desired result |
| engender | (v.) to bring into existence, give rise to , proeduce; to come into existence, assume form |
| ethereal | (adj.) light, airy, delicate; highly refined; suggesting what is heavenly (rather than earthbound) |
| facade | (n.) the front or face of a building; a surface appearance (as opposed to what may lie behind) |
| ghoulish | (adj.) revolting in an unnatural or morbid way; suggestive of someone who robs graves or otherwise preys on the dead |
| incongruous | (adj.) not in keeping, unsuitable, incompatible |
| machination | (n.) a crafty, scheming, or underhanded action designed to accomplish some (usually evil) end |
| mesmerize | (v.) to hynotize, entrance; to fascinate, entrhall, bewitch |
| opprobrium | (n.) disgrace arising from shameful conduct; contempt, reproach |
| putative | (adj.) generally regarded as such; reputed; hypothesized, inferred |
