1. subrident — with or accompanied by a smile
Professor Harlake spoke to the committee with an air of subrident superiority, as if deigning to respond only to prevent even more misinformed opinions from being promulgated.
2. fane — temple
The flowers were heaped on the mound like offerings before a pagan fane.
3. aliquot — exact proper divisor (that is, a number which can divide a larger number without leaving any remainder)
In this example we can see how shillings and pence were useful aliquots of the pound sterling, although in some cases the halfpenny was needed.
4. contravallation — second chain of fortifications built by besieging army to prevent relief of the siege by outside forces, facing away from the breastworks, etc. circumvallating the besieged place
Even as these well-funded groups laid siege to the Constitution, legislative and legal reforms were pursued to serve as a contravallation against any counterattacks upon the sinister attackers.
5. splenetic — bad-tempered, testy, peevish, irittable
His splenetic reviews of the works of his betters could not distract from his weak efforts as a poetaster of a most mediocre talent.
6. purlieu — outskirts; neighborhood, environs; bounds, haunt, beat
That summer as I helped Nathan check in the gym equipment for the entire club, I dreamed of being allowed inside the metal cage wherein all the gear was stored when not in use, but he had no intention of inviting me into his purlieu behind the locked red wire gate.
7. knacker — (British) to tire out; to damage
Running the two dozen bags of groceries from the car into the house in the middle of the pouring rain left me totally knackered.
8. secundum artem — according to the standard practice, skillfully
Of course Dr. Johns will do everything in his power to save Reginald’s leg, secundum artem, but you should prepare yourself for the possibility that amputation will be necessary.
9. toper — heavy or excessive drinker
He beheld the broken Nintendo Switch like a toper staring mournfully at his last bottle smashed on the ground.
10. gelid — ice-cold, frosty
Already the cold was sapping his strength, and each tortured breath left the gelid hair in his beard heavier with increasing ice.
Bonus Vocabulary
(British slang)
knackers — testicles
For a while I tried that tight legged black pants look à la The Specials, but the inseam was like a knife to my knackers.