1. taximeter — device for calculating cab fare by measuring distance traveled
We were fortunate to find a taximeter cab in that area and so were able to speed to the station before Bertram’s Daimler arrived.
2. hogget — not yet shorn sheep under one year old
Reilly was caught red-handed with two of Widow Janet’s hoggets in the back of his wagon.
3. punkin — pumpkin
Cy’s horse got in the punkins and there weren’t nary a one left.
4. lumber room — storeroom in domicile used for oddments and unused furniture
Whitby had last seen the trunk in the lumber room, but that was years ago, and he wasn’t even sure the map was still in that trunk anyway.
5. agrestal — of or related to plants wildly growing in cultivated fields
After the verdict, of course, the water dried up and now all that you see are a few agrestal weeds growing where there used to be rows of verdant crops.
6. chirographically — as related to penmanship
He tried new pens and new pencils and even bought a book on improving handwriting, but in the end Joel decided that he was just chirographically challenged.
7. thesicle — subthesis
These diversions and divagations may seem entertaining to you, but all these thesicles do not add up to even one single cogent argument about your supposed subject.
8. cruive — [archaic Scots] weir for catching salmon
We’ll just head down to the beck and check the cruive before going home.
9. drongo — [Australian slang] fool, dummy
He’s the sort of drongo who carries a penknife in case he has to write a sharp note.
10. fichu — triangular woman’s scarf
But it was the plummeting necklines which made the fichu an essential fashion accessory in the era of Marie Antoinette.
Bonus Vocabulary
(military)
corporal’s guard — small detachment of soldiers; any small group
The incident began during the Christmas party, so there was only a corporal’s guard at the monitoring desk the first catastrophic failures.