| rogation | n. | profound prayer | ||
| roister | v. | to act in a swaggering or blustering manner; to revel rudely or noisily | ||
| roke | n. | fog, mist; drizzle | ||
| roman-fleuve | n. | long involved novel about lives of intricately connected people; sequence of related novels detailing (for example) lives of a single family across generations; very lengthy and wordy text | ||
| rondure | n. | supple roundness; orb, sphere | ||
| roneo | v. | to copy or produce a document by means of a mimeograph | ||
| rootle | v. | to dig with the snout | ||
| roquelaure | n. | knee-length men’s cloak worn in the 18th Century | ||
| rorqual | n. | baleen whale of the largest taxonomic family | ||
| rose cold | n. | rose fever, allergic condition triggered by rose pollen | ||
| rostral | adj. | adorned with the beaks of galleys; of the prows of ships; of a rostrum or speaker’s platform | ||
| round Robin Hood’s barn | adv. | by a circuitous route, in a roundabout manner | ||
| roundelay | n. | poem or song with repeated phrase, round; circle dance | ||
| roundsman | n. | [US] policeman having charge of a patrol; [Brtish] deliveryman with regular route | ||
| rubato | n. | expressive phrasing of music by use of non-strict tempo, often by slight speeding up of tempo followed by slowing to the original beat | ||
| rubefacient | adj. | causing redness or slight irritation | ||
| rubescent | adj. | becoming red, blushing | ||
| rubicund | adj. | red, reddish, red-faced | ||
| ruck | n. | 2 | pile or heap; mass of people | |
| ruck | n. | 1 | crease, fold, or wrinkle | |
| ruction | n. | disturbance, tumult, row | ||
| ruffle | v. | to swagger | ||
| rufous | adj. | brownish red, ferruginous | ||
| rugosity | n. | state of being wrinkled or corrugated | ||
| rumbustious | adj. | roisterous, exuberantly unruly, troublesome | British | |
| runagate | n. | runaway, fugitive, deserter; vagabond | ||
| runcible | adj. | nonsense word meaning nothing invented by Edward Lear | ||
| runcible spoon | n. | spoon with fork tines and a cutting edge, proto-spork | ||
| rundlet | n. | small barrel or cask; old British measurement equivalent to about 18 US gallons | ||
| runkle | v. | to crease or wrinkle | ||
| runnel | n. | small stream of water; small channel | ||
| Rupert | n. | junior officer | ||
| rushlight | n. | rush-candle, weak candle made from dipping dried pith of a rush into grease; the light emitted from a rush-candle | ||
| rusk | n. | dry biscuit, twice-baked bread | ||
| russet | n. | homespun cloth of reddish-brown | ||
| rutch | v. | to scootch, to slide | ||
| ruth | n. | compassion, pity | ||
| rutilated | adj. | (of minerals) having tiny needle-shaped crystals of titanium dioxide (rutile) embedded within | ||
| sabretache | n. | leather pouch attached to sword-belt of a cavalry officer | ||
| sacer vates | n. | sacred poet | Latin | |
| sacerdotal | adj. | of or related to priests, priestly | ||
| sago | n. | starch made from the pith of the trunks of several palms and cycads, used particularly in preparation of puddings | ||
| sallow | adj. | of pale sickly yellow color, esp. of skin | ||
| sally port | n. | opening in fortification for passage of troops making a sally | ||
| salmi | n. | stew or ragout, usu. with game meat | ||
| salpingectomy | n. | removal of the Fallopian tube | ||
| salsify | n. | edible winter root vegetable related to parsnip, also called ‘oyster plant’ | ||
| saltatory | adj. | characterized by or adapted for leaping or dancing movement | ||
| salubrious | adj. | promoting health | ||
| salutatorian | n. | graduating high school student with second highest academic record |
