Chapter17

1.hunch

V-I If you hunch forward, you raise your shoulders, put your head down, and lean forward, often because you are cold, ill, or unhappy. 

2.brood

V-I If someone broods over something, they think about it a lot, seriously and often unhappily.

3.nonplus

V to put at a loss; confound 

4.ripple

N-COUNT Ripples are little waves on the surface of water caused by the wind or by something moving in or on the water.

5.vehement

ADJ If a person or their actions or comments are vehement, the person has very strong feelings or opinions and expresses them forcefully. 

6.reverie

N-COUNT A reverie is a state of imagining or thinking about pleasant things, as if you are dreaming. 

7.exempt

V-T To exempt a person or thing from a particular rule, duty, or obligation means to state officially that they are not bound or affected by it.

8.ransack

V-T If people ransack a building, they damage things in it or make it very messy, often because they are looking for something in a quick and careless way.

9.waylay

V-T If someone waylays you, they stop you when you are going somewhere, for example, in order to talk to you, to steal something from you, or to attack you.

10.sceptical

ADJ If you are sceptical about something, you have doubts about it.