Baize: a soft, usually green, woolen or cotton fabric, resembling felt, used chiefly for the top of billiard tables.
Hearts: Hearts is an "evasion-type" trick-taking playing card game for four players, although variations can accommodate 3–6 players. Please refer to this video on how the game is played.
Weir: a barrier across a river designed to alter its flow characteristics. Unlike dams, weirs are commonly used to alter the flow of rivers to prevent flooding, measure discharge, and help render rivers navigable.
Snigger: a smothered or half-suppressed laugh.
Ward: a person (the guardian) appointed by a court to take care of and manage the property of a person (the ward) who does not possess the legal capacity to do so, by reason of age, comprehension, or self-control.
Volatile: liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.
Languorous: the state or feeling, often pleasant, of tiredness or inertia.
Rheumy: a watery fluid that collects in or drips from the nose or eyes.
Winnowing machine: an agricultural method developed by ancient cultures for separating grain from chaff. It is also used to remove weevils or other pests from stored grain.
Dullard: a slow or stupid person.
Preference: An Eastern European 10-card plain-trick game with bidding, played by three or four players with a 32-card Piquet deck (ranked from 7 to Ace). Please refer to this website on how to play.
Clandestine: kept secret or done secretively, especially because illicit.
The Contemporary: Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836-1866. It came out four times a year in 1836-1843 and once a month after that. The magazine published poetry, prose, critical, historical, ethnographic and other material.
Vissarion Belinsky: A Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. Belinsky played one of the key roles in the career of poet and publisher Nikolay Nekrasov and his popular magazine Sovremennik (also known as The Contemporary).
Corncrake: a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia as far east as western China, and migrates to Africa for the northern hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff- or grey-streaked brownish-black upperparts, chestnut markings on the wings, and blue-grey underparts with rust-coloured and white bars on the flanks and undertail. The strong bill is flesh-toned, the iris is pale brown, and the legs and feet are pale grey.
Copse: a small group of trees.
Zeal: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.
Tersely: sparing in the use of words; abrupt.
Snuff: fine-ground tobacco, intended for consumption by being inhaled or sniffed into the nose.
Revulsion: a sense of disgust and loathing.
Reticent: not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily.
Flay: whip or beat (someone) so harshly as to remove their skin.
Mirth: amusement, especially as expressed in laughter.
Regaled: entertain or amuse (someone) with talk.
Morose: sullen and ill-tempered.
Cabal: a secret political clique or faction.
Hearts: Hearts is an "evasion-type" trick-taking playing card game for four players, although variations can accommodate 3–6 players. Please refer to this video on how the game is played.
Weir: a barrier across a river designed to alter its flow characteristics. Unlike dams, weirs are commonly used to alter the flow of rivers to prevent flooding, measure discharge, and help render rivers navigable.
Snigger: a smothered or half-suppressed laugh.
Ward: a person (the guardian) appointed by a court to take care of and manage the property of a person (the ward) who does not possess the legal capacity to do so, by reason of age, comprehension, or self-control.
Volatile: liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.
Languorous: the state or feeling, often pleasant, of tiredness or inertia.
Rheumy: a watery fluid that collects in or drips from the nose or eyes.
Winnowing machine: an agricultural method developed by ancient cultures for separating grain from chaff. It is also used to remove weevils or other pests from stored grain.
Dullard: a slow or stupid person.
Preference: An Eastern European 10-card plain-trick game with bidding, played by three or four players with a 32-card Piquet deck (ranked from 7 to Ace). Please refer to this website on how to play.
Clandestine: kept secret or done secretively, especially because illicit.
The Contemporary: Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836-1866. It came out four times a year in 1836-1843 and once a month after that. The magazine published poetry, prose, critical, historical, ethnographic and other material.
Vissarion Belinsky: A Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. Belinsky played one of the key roles in the career of poet and publisher Nikolay Nekrasov and his popular magazine Sovremennik (also known as The Contemporary).
Corncrake: a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia as far east as western China, and migrates to Africa for the northern hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff- or grey-streaked brownish-black upperparts, chestnut markings on the wings, and blue-grey underparts with rust-coloured and white bars on the flanks and undertail. The strong bill is flesh-toned, the iris is pale brown, and the legs and feet are pale grey.
Copse: a small group of trees.
Zeal: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.
Tersely: sparing in the use of words; abrupt.
Snuff: fine-ground tobacco, intended for consumption by being inhaled or sniffed into the nose.
Revulsion: a sense of disgust and loathing.
Reticent: not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily.
Flay: whip or beat (someone) so harshly as to remove their skin.
Mirth: amusement, especially as expressed in laughter.
Regaled: entertain or amuse (someone) with talk.
Morose: sullen and ill-tempered.
Cabal: a secret political clique or faction.