defalcate: to steal or misuse money or property entrusted to one’s care
In his haste to get into the nightclub and start imbibing green-hued beverages, Harry soon found himself defalcated by a little man dressed like a Leprechaun, who turned out not to be the valet parking attendant after all.
sciatherical: pertaining to measurement of time by shadows; belonging to a sundial
Jimmy’s Sundial was inundated with repair requests from clients whose
instruments were off because of the recent daylight savings time change.
obaceration: of shutting someone’s mouth
Just as Stevenson was starting to ask her out for the fifth time that night, Samantha interrupted to ask him where he got the red dress from his myspace picture, a remark that lead to his immediate obaceration and departure from the party, and it was rumored to have prompted his sudden move to Saskatoon
nugatory : Of little value; trifling; ineffective
Charles took off his coat and put it across the mud puddle for his fiance, a chivalrous, though nonetheless nugatory action, as this caused his companion to fall into a three-foot deep sink-hole after stepping on his jacket.
pinchbeck: something counterfeit; an imitation
Carley didn’t need an expert jeweler to tell her that her boyfriend’s engagement ring was a knock-off, as the “gold” turned her fingers green and the pinchbeck diamond started to melt in the humidity.
quantal: relating to, or having only two experimental alternatives
Daryl’s career, and quite possibly his survival, was quantal of him perfectly landing a fifty-foot jump over a shark tank full of rabid badgers on a specially modified, nitro-powered unicycle; the fact that he had agreed to do it while carrying a basket of poisonous snakes lead some to believe that this would probably be his last stunt either way.
malacissation: the process of making something soft and pliable
Gwen screamed as she scraped the grimy dish that she had left soaking all morning, as it did not seem to show any signs of malacissation to the two-week-old crust of petrified macaroni that lay clinging the sides of her favorite casserole dish like barnacles on a ship’s hull.
cacozelia: studied affectation in diction or style.
After learning that some of his former classmates had gone on to become doctors and lawyers, Nelson sought to impress everybody at his high school reunion with a speech that was an exercise in cacozelia and featured no less than ten obtuse allusions to pre-classical literature, a dozen phrases in Latin and Greek, and a peppering of incomprehensible acronyms and technobabble.
heterodox: Contrary to or differing from some acknowledged standard. Holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines.
James found himself ostracized from the rest of the Gilligan’s Island fan club because of his heterodox theories about the crew of the S.S. Minnow being abducted by aliens to be studied in an intergalactic space-zoo; also, he thought Mary Ann was hotter than Ginger.
alexipharmacon: an antidote for poison
Mario rifled through his refrigerator, searching for an
to the blistering heat from the Guatemalan insanity pepper that was currently threatening to peel off his taste buds.