1. apotropaic — intended to ward off evil
Before retiring in our quaint hotel room deep within vampire country, we placed crosses and apotropaic garlic before each window and upon the door.
2. gob — mouth
As the wrench slammed into his left elbow his right fist was lashing out, catching the attacker smack dab in his gob.
3. protreptic — intended to convince or instruct
Listening to the president’s protreptic oratory, Billy wondered if his Pizza Pockets were ready yet.
4. irrefragable — indisputable, undeniable
The collapse of the Twentieth Century into the first tenth of the Twenty-First took with it any lingering belief in irrefragable truths or standards of conduct.
5. jake leg — paralysis caused by drinking bootleg liquor made from denatured alcohol
Though the crippling effects of jake leg left a terrible scar upon communities during Prohibition, the condition became the inspiration for many wonderful blues songs.
6. decimate — to reduce by a tenth
The terrible battles and consequent famine of the Thirty Years’ War decimated the male population of Germany’s towns and villages, with some burgs losing well over 30% of their men in the carnage.
7. abstruse — hard to understand; recondite
The abstruse subject matter was made more difficult to understand by the professor’s discursive and tangential lectures.
8. ascend — to move upward
As the portly man began to ascend the stairs into the attic, a steamer trunk tossed from above knocked him back to the hallway floor.
9. burgee — a triangular flag or one having a triangular indentation leaving two tails
The yachts were resplendant on the water, flying flags, pennants, and burgees in the particolor code of the sea.
10. hyperopia — farsightedness
The coke-bottle lenses in photographs of James Joyce give testimony to the author’s severe hyperopia.