1. stridulate — to make a shrill grating, chirping, squeaking or similar sound by rubbing together body parts (e.g., as a cricket does)
The latex body suits made the grotesque couple fairly stridulate as they writhed in the heat of, for want of a better or at least more acceptable term, what Will could only call their passion.
2. exedra — room or recess, often semicircular, with a bench or benches where discussions can take place; such a bench
Tucked behind the bench in the exedra just to the right of the main church doors was a small brown leather bag, which was found to contain directions about paying the money, and for all his vaunted awareness, Timmy had to confess that he had spotted nobody even going near to the recess while he watched during the service.
3. hypotaxis — [grammar] subordination of a clause to another
“You can’t just say ‘While I’d like to stay…” and pause and expect me to play fill-in-the-blanks to your hypotaxis because you’re too diffident to stand up for yourself!”
4. feretory — reliquary; part of church where relics are kept
He had stolen the medicine cabinet from the home of this most beloved author before the bulldozers came in, and over the years it had become a feretory for the strange miscellanea of artifacts he collected at book signings and other public appearances: a discarded coffee stirrer, a leaky pen, a torn packet formerly containing ibuprofen.
5. chevauchee — calvary raid into enemy territory
Along these Scottish border lands the tradition of the chevauchee—although usually referred to by the more prosaic term ‘raids’—was so strong that it is believed the term was the etymological ancestor of the famous Chevy Chase.
6. pung — one-horse sleigh
Somehow it didn’t seem as romantic as she’d imagined, riding in the pung in the biting wind as the horse kicked up slushy snow which kept finding the crevices in the scarf she’d wrapped around her head and face.
7. solfeggio — do-re-mi system of learning notes of the scale
Winston never learned to read music and even the simplified solfeggio from The Sound Of Music left him painfully going through all the verses to find which note corresponded to ‘a drink with jam and bread’, and when Marnie told him about sharps and flats he simply gave it up as a lost cause.
8. nefandous — [archaic] execrable, appalling, unspeakable
You cannot commit such nefandous atrocities and then return to me with a mealy-mouthed apology asking for forgiveness.
9. groyne (also [US] groin) — breakwater
The first body was found caught in the pilings of the terminal groyne, which gave the detectives a pretty clear idea where the corpse had entered the water.
10. trenchant — incisive, cutting, biting
He rarely spoke in contradiction during these presentations, but the merest lift of an eyebrow as a junior executive made his case could be a more trenchant blow than any harsh words might have been.
Bonus Vocabulary
(nautical)
slungshot (also slung shot) — weight attached to small cord used to cast lines from one place to another; similar device with shorter rope used as a weapon similar to a blackjack
These slavers would subdue the natives with a blow from a slungshot, but this time one of the pirates had struck with too much force, leaving only a corpse to be disposed of.