bilk

/bilk/

Verb

Defraud, cheat (especially of money)

Ever paid a restaurant bill only to discover they charged you for stuff you never had? What they did was bilk you — cheat you out of money that was justly yours. Shady companies are forever bilking their investors.

To bilk someone is slightly different from plain robbing them, though the effect is the same; it implies a non-violent, subtle and devious method masquerading as legitimate. Bernie Madoff, the Ponzi scheme king, was a classic bilker. On a more enjoyable note, one of the greatest bilkers in TV history was the appropriately named Sergeant Bilko, played by the comedian Phil Silvers. His eternal card games, promotions and get-rich-quick schemes were all designed to part some poor sucker from their cash. Watch and learn from the master. (Explanation from vocabulary.com)

nefarious

/ne-fair-ee-us/

Adjective

Villainous, criminal, wicked

Describe a person's actions as nefarious if they are evil or wicked. Batman and Superman are always fighting evildoers and stopping their nefarious plots.

Nefarious comes from the Latin nefas "crime, impiety." If something is nefarious, it is criminal, evil, malicious and wicked. Thinking of superheroes can help you remember the meaning of the word, but it is often used in much less exciting circumstances. News reporters investigate corrupt politicians in order to uncover the nefarious activities. And, if you don't pay for your downloaded music, you have gotten it by nefarious means.

(Explanation from vocabulary.com)

palliate

/pal-ee-ate/

Verb

To reduce the severity of

When you palliate something, you try to make something less bad: “City leaders tried to palliate effects of the trash haulers' strike by distributing extra large garbage cans with tight-fitting lids.”

Palliate is the word to use when you want to make something feel or seem better. Palliate doesn’t mean “cure” or “solve.” Instead, something that palliates relieves the symptoms or consequences of something, without addressing the underlying cause. Your dentist might give you pain-killing drugs to palliate the discomfort caused by an impacted molar, but that molar is still there, waiting to cause more trouble. (Explanation from vocabulary.com)

vicissitude

/vi-sis-i-tood/

Noun

A change or a variation in the course of something

When you talk of the vicissitudes of life, you're referring to the difficult times that we all go through: sickness, job loss, and other unwelcome episodes. No one can escape thevicissitudes of life.

While vicissitude comes from the Latin vicis, which means "change" and technically can mean a change of any kind, you'll find that vicissitude is almost always used to talk about an unfortunate event or circumstance. Losing a pet, crashing the car, being called in for jury duty: these are examples of vicissitudes — chapters in one's life that one would rather avoid but must get through. Some lives have more vicissitudes than others, to be sure, but no life is without events that test and challenge us.

(explanation from vocabulary.com)

staid

/stayed/

Adjective

Sedate, respectable, unadventurous

Something that is staid is dignified, respectable — possibly even boring, like a staid dinner party that is heavy on the important guests but light on the laughs.

Staid is pronounced just like "stayed" — in fact, it comes from stay, meaning "fixed" or "permanent." Something that is staid is sedate, slightly dull, and tends to stay the same. Whether it’s a middle-class lifestyle, a conservative law firm, your unadventurous aunt, or an old navy plaid sofa, the word staid can be used to describe anything that maintains a respectable self-restraint and takes no chances.

(explanation from vocabulary.com)

1. punctilious

/punk-TIL-ee-us/

Adjective

showing great attention to detail or correct behavior

A punctilious person pays attention to details. Are you always precisely on time? Is your room perfectly neat? Do you never forget a birthday or a library book's due date? Then you are one of the punctilious people.

The adjective punctilious, pronounced "punk-TIL-ee-us," is related to the Italian word puntiglio, meaning "fine point." For someone who is punctilious no point is too fine, no detail too small, to be overlooked. The word is often used to describe people, but it can be used more broadly to apply to observations, behavior, or anything else that is characterized by close attention to detail.

(Explanation from vocabulary.com)