1. matutinal — of or occurring in the morning
He grabbed the newspaper for his matutinal visit to the smallest room in the house, there to await the results of his first cups of coffee.
2. ringent — gaping, grinning
But the lip augmentation was a failure, leaving her mouth looking like a ringent maw of inflated liver.
3. huffy — quick to take offense; haughty; sulky
Nicolai was in a huffy mood all evening, making sure everyone at the party knew that he could have been somewhere much more interesting had he not felt sorry for the old gal.
4. flageolet — small flute blown from end with four finger holes atop, and two below
Then my grandfather picked up the flageolet and began to trill out a falsetto rendition of “John Brown’s Body”, shocking my grandmother, who had assumed that the thing was a mere decoration.
5. chop-logic — disputatious or tendentious argumentation, quibbling
He was not actually interested in hearing the many proofs against the flat earth theory, but only wanted to respond with the same chop-logic and tired questioning of the very conclusions he had been forced to accede to earlier in the discussion.
6. judder — to violently shake
After the incident with the cow and the fence post, the frame was badly warped, and the old car juddered and shuddered all the way across the long rickety bridge leaving the county.
7. nuchal — of or relating to the nape of the neck
And because he habitually hung down his head, Tom Dooley had a perpetual nuchal sunburn.
8. foulard — lightweight cloth of silk or silk and cotton, often with printed design
Once again she felt the weight of her failure, and she almost sobbed to think how proud she’d been of her taffeta gown, only to find that the fashionable women now only wore foulard.
9. impi — Zulu warrior unit
Lord Shatterton won a smashing victory in spite of his own incompetence and the courageous impis arrayed against him.
10. margarite — [obsolete] a pearl; type of mica supposed to resemble pearls
Do not cast your margarites before hogs.
Bonus Vocabulary
(British slang)
shufty (also shufti) — a peep, a look
I’ll just take a walk down the strand, take a quick shufty around to make sure everything still looks good for tonight.