1. uffish — “a state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish” [Lewis Carroll]
Our path into the bar was blocked by an uffish oaf who, claiming some sort of rôle as a bouncer, sought to gainsay our entry.
2. tympany — swelling of the bowels caused by a build up of gas in the intestines
The political flatus has grown so rapidly that Washington is threatened by an explosive tympany of casuistry, equivocation, and rationalization.
3. idiolect — an individual’s particular speech pattern
The idiolects of graduate students, particularly in the humanities, become so specialized that they grow all but incomprehensible to others not mired in the same field of study.
4. futilitarian — someone who believes that hope is useless
Though trouble seems always to haunt the strivings of the human race, and the cannibals are often at the gates, I refuse to turn futilitarian.
5. gelotophobia — fear of being the object of laughter
As they gathered around the piano, laughing at his putrid playing of “Chopsticks”, Andy felt his gelotophobia recrudescing, in spite of Dr. Whalen’s three-year course of reverse aversion therapy.
6. devolve — to be passed from one to another
As his parole officer arrested Tommy for another silly violation — something to do with a dog, a needle, and open containers — Renée realized that the care and feeding of Tommy’s pet skunk had suddenly devolved upon her.
7. appanage — a customary accompaniment
Cheese or mustard, or even both together, is the appanage of tasteless chili in certain parts of the South.
8. import — meaning; significance
The import of his frenzied motions, his hands clutching violently at his throat while his lips began to turn blue, was clear: he did not like the chili.
9. bole — tree trunk
A small, rusty casket lay beneath the bole of the elm, uncovered after the tree’s death at the hands of the Dutch.
10. slough — a state of profound despair [pronounced “sloo”]
And so sliding through addiction into a slough of bleak inanition, Jim finally found himself staring out over the precipice into the utter blackness, willing the darkness to take his misery once and for all.