1. clinker-built — (naut.) of a ship’s hull built with the edges of its planks overlapping, as opposed to “carvel-built” ships where the planks are fitted side-by-side and flush with one another
The front end view of Viking longships shows the edge-over-edge construction characteristic of clinker-built boats.
2. felloe — outer part of wheel into which the spokes are inserted
When wheels were made of wood, with only the outer rim being banded in metal, the felloes were often made in separate arcs, from the same wood as the spokes.
3. hendiadys — rhetorical figure wherein a usual adjective-noun construction is replaced by two nouns joined by a copula; any such joining of words (whether nouns or not)
“Please join me in sending our prayerful thoughts,” said the politician, taking the usual platitude for a hendiadys.
4. virga — streaky precipitation from clouds which evaporates before reaching earth
The slate-grey virga beneath the massing clouds did not obscure the village at the foot of the mountains, the white adobe bright in spite of the dimming light.
5. spate — (Brit.) flood, esp. sudden flooding of a river caused by heavy precipitation
The usually gentle stream was in spate, making it impossible to ford in our small roadster.
6. chelonian — of or related to turtles
It had been foolish to settle the pet turtle in an old glass-walled terrarium, for the chelonian brain saw only open space instead of barriers and persisted in driving his head into the walls without cease.
7. quire — section of folded printed sheets of paper, for binding with other sections to make a completed book
The old book had been abused: the spine was barely hanging onto the volume, the endpapers and title page were gone, many other pages were torn or loose in the binding, and the entire quire containing the final entries of the index was simply missing.
8. halt — limping; lame
The old man was halt and shivering, though whether from exposure or from his aged condition I could not tell.
9. escalade — scaling of walls by means of ladders
We quickly destroyed the stairs leading up to the second floor, knowing that the zombies were incapable of mounting an escalade.
10. collop — fold of fat flesh
“Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.” [Job 15:27]