abstruse
hard to understand
ague
a chill or similar brief illness
B-Girl
A woman hired by a bar to persuade customers to spend money freely
bantam
small yet aggressive
bedraggled
dilapidated
brackish
distasteful; unpalatable
caparisoned
dressed in rich clothing
chanteuse
a woman singer
charlatan
a quack or fraud
chartreuse
a greenish-yellow color
coxcomb
a dandy
cretin
an idiot
culottes
a woman's full trousers cut to resemble a skirt
desultorily
haphazardly
distaff
referring to a woman (from a time when women spun clothes using a spinning tool called a distaff)
doldrums
a melancholy time
doxy
promiscuous woman
effrontery
presumptuousness
elephantine
enormous
enervated
out of energy
ennui
boredom
epicene
effeminate or unmanly
ersatz
a lesser imitation or substitute
fecund
fruitful
foppery
foolish quality of a dandy or coxcomb
gaucheries
awkward acts
gimlet
sharp or penetrating
harangue
long, overdone speech (noun); to speak a harangue (verb)
hennaed
dyed reddish-brown
hirsute
covered with hair
imprecation
curse
jade
disreputable woman
jodhpurs
riding pants
Lilliput
a land filled with tiny people, from Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels
loquacious
talkative
Luftwaffe
the German air force around World War II
lugubrious
mournful in almost a funny way
lute
a stringed instrument
mensch
admirable man having, for example, fortitude, firmness, and good manners
muffler
a heavy scarf
muscatel
a kind of wine
nosegay
a small set of flowers
novena
a nine-day series of prayers and devotions
octogenarian
aged in one's eighties
offal
the unused parts after an animal is butchered
onanist
one who masturbates
parasol
an umbrella used against the sun
patina
a change in appearance produced by frequent application
pekoe
black tea
perambulate
to walk around
pique
wounded pride
Proustian
following Marcel Proust, a French writer
pyloric valve
a muscle at the bottom of the stomach
recherche
exquisite
rheumy
moist or arthritic
roue
a man who is lecherous and dissipated
roughage
fiber
scrofulous
looking or being externally diseased
septuagenarians
people in their seventies
sibyl
a female prophet
sodality
association
stentorian
very loud (after Stentor, the storied Greek herald)
supercilious
haughty
surfeited
overfull
svengali
one who evilly schemes to persuade another to do something
tarsi
foot bones
valise
a piece of hand luggage
vibrissae
stiff hairs projecting from the snout or brow of many animals
W.C.T.U.
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
W.P.A.
Works Progress Administration or Work Projects Administration, a New Deal agency
wan
unnaturally pale, as from stress
Weltanschauung
worldview
Xanadu
an idyllic place (originally Kublai Khan's majestic summer capital)
