1. hinky — behaving in a nervous manner; suspicious
Say what you want about interdepartmental lines of communication and all that, but the way the Secret Service acted makes the whole thing seem hinky to me.
2. gisant — [French] recumbent statue atop a grave representing the deceased
For decades after his death in fin de siècle Paris his manly vigor was so renowned that the bronze gisant over his tomb had a pelvic region shiny from the touch of desperate ones rubbing his likeness in hopes of gaining the potency of the deceased.
3. vaticinate — to prophesy, to predict the future
When all our profits and cultural gains are only promises of stockjobbers vaticinating the future of the latest ‘hot’ technology, one can only heed Carlyle’s advice to focus on the present day and its problems and opportunities.
4. break-bulk — of or related to non-containerized cargo, that is, cargo designated for multiple consignees which must be offloaded piecemeal at each port
It wasn’t a huge operation, nor a glamorous one, but my shipping line did have four small cargo boats running break-bulk loads into and out of ports all around the Java, Celebes, and Banda Seas.
5. chasuble — outer sleeveless garment worn over other priestly garments by the celebrant
We found three beautiful chasubles in the antique store, though no one could explain how they’d made their way to the resale market.
6. crossruff — to take tricks alternately in bridge, each winning partner leading a suit which the other trumps and so forth
Instead of good cop, bad cop, these two clowns tried to crossruff admissions from me by throwing out hypotheticals which the other shot down, so I figured they didn’t really need me there in the interrogation room for their routine, though they got offended when I told them so.
7. educt — to extract
At this point the slurry is driven through a dewatering screw press to educt the material for the final drying in the kiln.
8. ostension — demonstration, presentation; showing of the sacrament for adoration
Although ostension is one of the obvious theories for language acquistion—it seems obvious to learn the word ‘bird’ by having examples pointed out—it does not explain how blind children learn to talk almost as rapidly as their sighted peers.
9. shuttlewitted — scatterbrained, flighty
Quite frankly I’ve never heard before of such a responsible position being offered to such a callow shuttlewitted youth.
10. bandeau — headband; narrow strapless bra
Small though it was, even her tight bandeau no longer fit after her protracted illness.
Bonus Vocabulary
(archaic British slang)
quod — to be imprisoned
Petey was a fine lad when he stuck to ale but when he got gin in him he always got quodded for fighting.