1. poioumenon — metafiction in which the process of writing or creation is the primary subject
He liked Barton Fink as a wonderful example of poioumenon, while I just liked it for John Goodman screaming in a burning hallway.
2. hotbox (also hot box) — (railroads) overheated axle bearing on rail cars and engines
But just as we were about to get under way, our car was removed from the train and placed on a siding due to a hotbox discovered by the yard crew, who could give us, however, no idea of how long we would be delayed.
3. tenuity — thinness of size; thinness of texture or density; paucity, weakness
The sheer tenuity if not outright vacuity of his thought is obvious from the misinformed connections he makes between the most disparate ideas, connections only possible to a mind trained on a rarified program of conspiracy and illogic.
4. mine-run — average, not special or distinguished in any way, run of the mill
Still, Pete was lucky to have had no mechanical problems during the race, for his mine-run pit crew had their hands full with basic tire changes and refilling the fuel.
5. bawdry — (archaic) lewd speech or writing, obscenity; the practice of a prostitute
He had imagined a Paris night life of decadent bawdry and exciting transgression, but instead had found only the same sullen forced revelry and nauseating drunkenness he had left behind at college.
6. imp — to engraft, to implant; (falconry) to graft feathers into a damaged wing so as to restore or improve flight
Jason used any feathers he could find for imping in new ones when his charges had suffered losses during their hunts, but he seemed partial to the crow feathers that he had in great supply.
7. coverture — legal doctrine under which a married woman’s rights and obligations (to property, to enter contracts, etc.) were subsumed under those of her husband
If a widow had been named as executor of her deceased husband’s estate during her coverture, she must fulfill those duties and settle the estate before remarrying, otherwise her new spouse will assume the office of executor in her stead.
8. gimlet — tool for boring holes, esp. in wood, consisting of a metal screw on a shaft with a handle at the other end
The lazy apprentices attempted to pilfer wine from their master’s stores, but chose too small a gimlet to penetrate fully through the thick wine barrels.
9. pricket — spike upon which to stick a candle; buck in his second year
At one point they had been a matched pair, but the one candlestick had been left out of doors quite often, and was thus worn and rusted, its pricket almost entirely broken off.
10. polyuria — passing abnormally large amounts of urine
They were worried, naturally, since polyuria is defined for all practical purposes as the production of more than three liters of urine in a twenty-four hour period, but their fears were allayed when they realized that he was drinking almost half a dekaliter of soda every day.