1. revers — lapel or other garment part turned back to reveal the lining
The colonel wore a half-length silk robe in black with revers in a startling crimson.
2. cornice — [architecture] horizontal element surrounding the top of a building; crown molding of walls within a room; overhanging snow in alpine mountains
Jeremy thought he could just make out a small tube or shaft—a rifle barrel? an antenna?—peeking out above the cornice of the shabby hotel across the street from the senator’s election party.
3. goloptious — excellent, wonderful; delicious
Steve decided that he’d waited long enough after dinner to enjoy yet another piece of that goloptious pumpkin pie.
4. velarium — ancient awning over Roman amphitheaters
Here in the cheap seats of course there was no velarium to dampen the sun’s harsh rays, so the early events were often difficult to see in the blinding light of Apollo.
5. carrack — large three- or four-masted merchant ship of European nations from 14th Century and later
The captain had gambled and lost, and the topsail still set now took the mast with it as the wind tore and raged, and now the carrack was lost, no hope of reaching the open water opposite the treacherous rocks to port which seemed evilly to glister in the lightnings’ fire.
6. cuspidorian — person tasked with cleaning and maintaining cuspidors
Never an easy job, the cuspidorian despaired of his Sisyphean task whenever the Shriners came to town.
7. rangdoodle — round in a card game in which limits or antes are increased after a specified winning hand
The house rules called for rangdoodles after any hand better than a full house, so I ended up losing most of what I’d just won.
8. daedal (also dædal) — clever, adroit
Quickly he sketched, and from Bollard’s daedal hand came a striking—not to say devastating—portrait of the headmaster in spitting rage.
9. deltiology — the collection and study of postcards
His was a rather specialized subset of deltiology, so I knew when I found the Chinese postcard featuring a fat baby wearing a Mao hat and jacket that I finally had something to bargain with.
10. manubrium — upper part of the sternum connecting to the clavicles
The point of the umbrella had pierced completely his manubrium, though somehow the EMTs had kept him alive despite his almost useless trachea.