1. repine — to show discontent, to complain
The whole weary day he repines and sighs at the utter unfairness of it all, making each day wearier and drearier still.
2. operculum — (zoology) gill cover of a fish
Besides the three bands of color (yellow head, black body, yellow tail) which give the rock beauty its Latin name, Holacanthus tricolor, small stripes of red are often seen alongside the opercula.
3. kirtle — long women’s garment worn from medieval times to the Baroque Era over smock or chemise
The barwoman’s scarlet kirtle matched her ruddy cheeks, and distracted from the dirty linen smock she wore beneath.
4. catamount — leopard, ocelot, lynx, or panther; (U.S.) puma or cougar
Having been abducted as a small boy, he is as wild as the bear, the wolf, and the catamount, and I doubt me that any amount of effort will bring him back whole to civilization.
5. hyperesthesia — excessive sensitivity of nerves, as to pain, etc.; algesia
Many felt that the Rhine experiments proved no such thing as extrasensory perception, but rather a seemingly benign hyperesthesia on the part of the subjects, produced by factors which could only be guessed at.
6. gink — (slang) fellow, person
Every time we trot out the pinhead some gink has to claim that it’s a fake chicken, or something stupid like that.
7. blirt — to burst into tears
It made my heart near to burst, to see her blirt so upon the woeful, awful news.
8. ecdysiast — stripper, striptease performer
If she plays the ecdysiast solely in the privacy of her home and only for physical exercise, does she really need to call it a stripper pole?
9. chthonic — of creatures, deities, beings, or other things dwelling in the earth
He sought an ancient and matchless power, known only to the most primitive chthonic beings that resided deep within the bowels of rock and magma, the power to move through matter itself.
10. etiolate — to blanch (a plant) by keeping light from it; to induce a pale, sickly hue in (a person or a person’s skin)
Playing video games for twelve, sixteen hours a day had etiolated his face and hands, and his legs seemed almost leprous.