1. corm — [botany] swollen stem of plant serving as storage organ, bulbotuber
Transforming your corm into a burgeoning banana plant is a labor of love and … well, labor, which is the reason for the much lower price.
2. graupel — mushy hail, granular snow
To distinguish hail from graupel is most easily done by watching or feeling its impact; if it splashes, it is not hail.
3. cornify — to transmogrify into horn
In the epidermis as the cell is cornified the organelles including mitochondria are removed, though this process is not yet fully understood.
4. flame cell — specialized excretory cell in very simple invertebrates
Using an electron microscope the excretory material can be seen in the cytoplasm of the flame cell.
5. cotehardie — long-sleeved outer garment buttoned or laced up the front
He thought himself a fine figure in his blue velvet cotehardie, until an errant swine ran squealing through his legs and knocked him into the cesspool.
6. culverin — handheld weapon of the 14th & early 15th Centuries; small cannon
The bow chasers were two brass culverins mounted above the captain’s cabin.
7. burleycue — burlesque, esp. burlesque theater
She shamelessly admitted she’d worked in burleycue, yet Haldane persisted in believing he might one day introduce her to his mother.
8. monovision — presbyopia treatment in which differently adjusted contact lenses are used, one for far vision and the other to correct for near vision
Monovision lenses are generally used for patients who either will not or cannot simply wear reading glasses.
9. exoteric — of or related to information suitable for public consumption
Though the exoteric meaning of the play clearly supported the new regime, party leaders were disturbed by elements they did not understand, fearing some hidden criticism of their rule.
10. immie — [informal] marble
Petey was looking for an immie that had rolled into the drain when he saw the silver watch.
Bonus Vocabulary
(archaic minced expletive)
ods bodikins — interjection palliating stronger phrase “God’s bodkins” (meaning the nails used to affix Jesus to the cross)
“Ods bodikins, man! They can only hang us once, so buck up and set to these bastards!”