dis-coun-te-nance

verb :: To view or treat with disfavor.

"Several important considerations have been touched in the course of these papers, which discountenance the supposition that the operation of the federal government will by degrees prove fatal to the State governments." -- James Madison by Madison, James

bom-bast

noun :: Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding.

noun :: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion.

adj. :: High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning.

"Ordinarily I am not given to long speeches, nor ever before had I descended to bombast, but I had guessed at the keynote which would strike an answering chord in the breasts of the green Martians, nor was I wrong, for my harangue evidently deeply impressed them, and their attitude toward me thereafter was still further respectful." -- Burroughs, Edgar Rice

ta-per

noun :: A small wax candle; a small lighted wax candle; hence, a small light.

noun :: Gradual diminution of thickness in an elongated object

"Westmacott was standing, as rigid as a statue, in the center of the room, with a lighted taper in her right hand." -- Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

an-cil-lar-y

adj. :: Subservient or subordinate; of secondary importance; auxiliary.

"For Degas, sculpture was never more than ancillary to his painting" --Herbert Read.

sun-der

verb :: To disunite in almost any manner, either by rending, cutting, or breaking; to part; to put or keep apart; to separate; to divide; to sever

To part; to separate.

A separation into parts; a division or severance.

To expose to the sun and wind.


"Notwithstanding terrifically wide sweep (some thirty feet or more) and the its hissing vigor of its descent, sufficient to sunder these very walls of iron, still the fraying of my robe would be all that, for several minutes, it would accomplish." -- Poe, Edgar Allan