1. madding — frenzied, acting like a madman; tending to drive (one) insane
You seem to still have the illusion that this madding bureaucracy is a mistake, a misapplication of higher ideals and the tenets of a purer political science—when of course the very arbitrariness and nonsensical practice you bemoan is the very core, the purpose, in fact, of the whole system.
2. entrepôt — transshipment place for goods, warehouse; commercial distribution point
Hong Kong’s status as a legal entrepôt permitted packaging and other processing of mainland goods transshipped through the growing commercial center.
3. perdurance — persistence, duration, permanence
On the other hand, one can adapt the philosophy best known through the maxim of Heraclitus, denying any perdurance of things in space and (especially) time, a viewpoint that in its most extreme forms takes on a sort of Zen belief in only the existence of the ‘now’—to the exclusion of all else that the perceiving mind may claim for the physical world.
4. skirl — to shriek; to make a shrill, shrieking sound (on the bagpipes); to play the bagpipes
Then all at once the girls began to skirl with frenzied wail, joined at once by the dogs who, though they knew not what caused the alarm, knew well their duty to spread the warning far and wide.
5. argy-bargy — vigorous verbal dispute, loud wrangling
Even through the thick oak doors we could hear the voices raised in anger, but were nearly stunned by the tumult of the argy-bargy in the courtroom when the doors were opened.
6. lantern jaw — protruding lower jaw; long thin jaw
He also had a ludicrously noticeable lantern jaw which would have been more appropriate for a clown than an undertaker, which jaw he made even more noticeable by affecting a tuft of hair which I suppose he claimed for a goatee.
7. monocable — aerial ropeway using single wire rope for both support and transit
Although the lower initial costs for monocable systems may seem enticing, the expenses for upkeep are much higher than for a similar bicable implementation.
8. genuflect — to bend the knee in worship, to touch one knee to ground as sign of reverence
Now that Slocum has all the proxies in hand, you can be sure that each of us on the board will be forced to appear and genuflect before him to maintain our seats.
9. fuddle — to confuse; to inebriate; to tipple, to go on a drinking spree
“I fear your boy Tom has fuddled his last, if’n he’s passed out in the open on this sair cold and freezing night.”
10. paroicous — [botany] having male and female reproductive organs next to or near each other
Many of these Iberian mosses are paroicous, and can be gathered in any stony region where even slight dampness is present.
Bonus Vocabulary
(British slang)
on the lash — drinking socially, usu. to excess
I always regretted going out on the lash the next day, but that night—as always—it seemed like an excellent idea.