last touma vocab

captious

fault-finding, nit-picking

definitive

authoritative, final and conclusive

gregarious

sociable, fond of company

licentious

lewd and immoral

mellifluous

sweet and smooth (sound)

ombudsman

an official appointed to look into complaints by individuals against public bodies and authorities

parsimonious

stingy, cheap

quixotic

impractical, visionary

savoir-faire

tact, polish, wide knowledge of the ways of the world

timorous

showing a high degree of fear and uncertainty

bovine

dull, stolid, listless, sluggish

carnal

sensual, bodily

mendacious

false, lying, untruthful

nubile

marriageable, ready for marriage

parvenu

an upstart, one who acquires wealth but not the manners to go with it

deleterious

harmful, injurious

empirical

based on observation and experience

fetid

stinking, malodorous

mendicant

beggar, begging

nugatory

worthless, ineffective, futile

onerous

burdensome

toady

an obsequious and fawning flatterer

virago

an extremely quarrelsome and loud-mouthed and scolding shrew

brickbat

a cutting remark, an unkind criticism

fey

eccentric, whimsical, unworldly, touched, unpredictable

cynosure

center of attention

munificent

extremely generous, bountiful, lavish

ruminate

to think something over slowly

tyro

a beginner

bucolic

rustic, relating to the country

lugubrious

gloomy, mournful

mundane

dull, ordinary, routine

pusillanimous

cowardly, timid

zenith

the highest point

avuncular

acting like an affectionate uncle

cursory

hasty, superficial, without attention to details

jocular

joking, facetious, jesting, not serious

lothario

a seducer of women

rubicund

ruddy, having a red complexion

curmudgeon

a person quick to anger and complain

draconian

extremely harsh and severe

loquacious

talkative, garrulous

mountebank

a charlatan, a swindler

voluble

very talkative

extempore

impromptu, done on the spur of the moment

kite

a bad check or worthless piece of commercial paper

pundit

an expert, an authority on a subject

risible

laughable, ludicrous

sycophant

a flatterer, a sniveling toady

truculent

aggressively hostile, belligerent