skinflint skIn flInt noun a stingy person; miser. Note: Robert Barnhart parses this eighteenth-century slang word as meaning “the kind of person who would skin a flint to save or gain something.”…
gall
gall2 gawl transitive verb 1. to damage or make sore by rubbing or chafing. quotation: We walked next day over a more level country but it was strewed with large stones. These galled…
truculent
truhk yə lənt adjective 1. extremely hostile or belligerent; inclined to fight. example: The prisoner’s truculent attitude made a bad impression on the parole board. 2. savagely and fiercely cruel or…
sciolism
sciolism saI ə lih zəm noun superficial knowledge or familiarity, used as a basis for scholarly pretensions. I myself prize classes far higher than I do lectures. From my own experience, a…
smattering
smattering smae tə rIng noun a small or inadequate amount, especially of knowledge of a subject. example: I know only a smattering of German.