a little learning is a dangerous thing

Rebut - to refute by evidence or argument.



Filigree-
delicate ornamental work of fine silver, gold, or other metal wires, esp. lacy jewelers' work of scrolls and arabesques.

anything very delicate or fanciful: a filigree of frost.

Oracle

1.	(esp. in ancient Greece) an utterance, often ambiguous or obscure, given by a priest or priestess at a shrine as the response of a god to an inquiry.

2.	the agency or medium giving such responses.

3.	a shrine or place at which such responses were given: the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.

4.	a person who delivers authoritative, wise, or highly regarded and influential pronouncements.

5.	a divine communication or revelation.

6.	any person or thing serving as an agency of divine communication.

7.	any utterance made or received as authoritative, extremely wise, or infallible.

Tyranny

1.	arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority.

2.	the government or rule of a tyrant or absolute ruler.

3.	a state ruled by a tyrant or absolute ruler.

4.	oppressive or unjustly severe government on the part of any ruler.

5.	undue severity or harshness.

6.	a tyrannical act or proceeding.

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Verbiage

1.	overabundance or superfluity of words, as in writing or speech; wordiness; verbosity.

2.	manner or style of expressing something in words; wording: a manual of official verbiage.

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Dwindled

1.	to become smaller and smaller; shrink; waste away: His vast fortune has dwindled away.

2.	to fall away, as in quality; degenerate.

pages 90-102

words:
drones
noun

1.	the male of the honeybee and other bees, stingless and making no honey.

2.	a remote control mechanism, as a radio-controlled airplane or boat.

3.	a person who lives on the labor of others; parasitic loafer.

4.

a drudge.

Cheshire
noun

1.	Formerly, Chester. a county in NW England. 910,900; 899 sq. mi. (2328 sq. km).

2.	a town in central Connecticut. 21,788.

3.	Also called Cheshire cheese, Chester. a hard cheese, yellowish, orange, or white in color, made of cow's milk and similar to cheddar.

furled-

to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff.

words, pages 82-90

Mediocre-of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate.

arsonist-noun a person who commits arson
.
treason - the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign.

loam - a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.

praetorian - of or pertaining to a praetor.

centrifuge - an apparatus that rotates at high speed and by centrifugal force separates substances of different densities, as milk and cream.

Antaeus - an African giant who was invincible when in contact with the earth but was lifted into the air by Hercules and crushed.

Insidious - intended to entrap or beguile: an insidious plan.

Harlequin - a comic character in commedia dell'arte and the harlequinade, usually masked, dressed in multicolored, diamond-patterned tights, and carrying a wooden sword or magic wand.