1. closestool — (also close-stool) stool with hole in its seat, beneath which rests a chamber pot
The room he showed me was well-appointed, large enough to have a separate small chamber for the closestool, unlike the mere nook hidden by a curtain I used in my own house.
2. franklin — freeholder of land in 14th–15th centuries, ranking just below the gentry
The farmers all told the friar scandalous tales about the rich franklin who owned the inn and the ferry at the edge of the wood.
3. irremissibly — unforgivably, in a manner precluding all possibility of pardon
“Now that you know the true situation, my son, if you continue with your scheme you will be irremissibly damned—yes, damned.”
4. niveous — resembling snow; snowy
A nail had torn a large hole in the bottom of the package and the laundry powder lay in niveous mounds at the bottom of the closet.
5. urinator — (obsolete) diver
He couches his words in obscure references and euphuistic constructions so that one needs be an expert urinator to plumb the depths of his meaning.
6. preterlapsed — past, bygone
She stood in the photo arrayed in a costume from a preterlapsed era, long gone even on that day in the previous century when some anonymous photographer had captured her on film.
7. unwonted — unusual, not customary; unaccustomed
My frail grandmother spoke with such unwonted frankness that I became embarrassed and began to blush.
8. dolichocephalic — long-headed; of skulls having a breadth less than 3/4 the height
The cell had only a metal mirror—doubtless so that glass shards could not be broken off to form weapons—but the reflecting surface had become warped, making me look like some mustachioed and dolichocephalic Hunter S. Thompson.
9. shy — to throw with sudden or jerky movement
Without breaking stride he shied the rock in his hand directly at Jason’s head and was wrestling the mask off the killer’s face before I knew his intentions.
10. tenter — frame upon which cloth is stretched to dry evenly
The baron awaited her answer in the tower chamber, and his patience was stretched upon the tenter as never before when a dozen days passed with no reply.
Bonus Vocabulary
(idiom)
mare’s nest — illusory discovery
The hopes for cold fusion soon faded after other scientists had a chance to study the data, and once again the authors of the paper had found only a mare’s nest where they had thought to find the Holy Grail.