| Term | Definition |
|---|
| fakir | n. 1. a Muslim or Hindu religious ascetic or mendicant monk commonly considered a wonder-worker 2. a member of any Islamic religious order; dervish |
| tumescence | n. 1. swelling; slightly tumid 2. exhibiting or affected with many ideas or emotions; teeming 3. pompous and pretentious, esp. in the use of language; bombastic |
| mortification | n. 1. a feeling of humiliation or shame, as through some injury to one's pride or self-respect 2. a cause or source of such humiliation or shame 3. the practice of asceticism by penitential discipline to overcome desire for sin and to strengthen the will |
| psaltery | n. an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum |
| patriarch | n. the male head of a family or tribal line; a person regarded as the father or founder of an order, class |
| cacique | n. (in Spain and Latin America) a political boss on a local level |
| insipid | adj. without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid; without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland |
| banal | adj. devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed; trite |
| flaccid | adj. soft and limp; not firm; flabby; lacking force; weak |
| succor | n. help; relief; aid; assistance; a person or thing that gives help, relief, aid; v. to help or relieve |
| assuage | v. to make milder or less severe; relieve; ease; mitigate; to appease; satisfy; allay; relieve |
| castigation | n. the act of criticizing or reprimanding severely; punishment in order to correct |
| scion | n. a descendant |
| bucolic | adj. of or pertaining to shepherds; pastoral; of, pertaining to, or suggesting an idyllic rural life |
| lugubrious | adj. mournful, dismal, or gloomy, esp. in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner |
| sarcophagus | n. a stone coffin, esp. one bearing sculpture, inscriptions, etc., often displayed as a monument |
| prodigious | adj. extraordinary in size, amount, extent, degree, force, etc.; wonderful or marvelous; abnormal; monstrous |
| cudgel | n. a short, thick stick used as a weapon; club; v. to strike with a cudgel; beat |
| expiation | n. the means by which atonement or reparation is made |
| beatific | adj. bestowing bliss, blessings, happiness, or the like; blissful, saintly |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace