Vocab

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Across
  1. 2. Chopping off the legs of guests so they fit the standard iron bed.
  2. 4. Flip-flop endlessly between ordering the steak or the salmon.
  3. 7. Lop off the last four paragraphs to make the article fit on one page.
  4. 8. Gross corruption and moral decay that brings down an empire.
  5. 11. Stuffed to the brim after a seven-course holiday feast.
  6. 13. Rich black loam ready to welcome the seed planter's drill.
  7. 14. A single decaying archway remaining from a ancient Roman palace.
  8. 15. An official freeze placed on home foreclosures during a economic crisis.
  9. 16. A carved wooden charm carried in a pocket for protection against evil.
  10. 19. Ascetic at the banquet hall, passing on wine and dessert to maintain discipline.
  11. 21. Shrugging off a major catastrophe with an unbothered smirk.
  12. 23. Silky smooth logical tricks that sound brilliant until you analyze them.
  13. 26. Local neighborhood slang that doesn't show up in standard dictionaries.
  14. 27. A dry, repetitive laundry list of complaints read aloud at a board meeting.
  15. 28. Linnaeus's system of binominal names for organizing species.
  16. 30. Velvety smooth singing tones that gently lull an audience to rest.
  17. 33. Robin Hood minus the good intentions; an outlaw lurking on trade routes.
  18. 35. Full to bursting with rumors, like a small town after a sudden scandal.
  19. 36. A crusader's fierce, unyielding devotion to a single cause.
  20. 38. A mandatory two-hour lecture that feels like a lifetime.
  21. 40. A blank check signed at the bottom, offering unrestricted freedom.
  22. 42. Like Wi-Fi signals in a modern city—present in every room you enter.
  23. 44. The radical transformation from a crawling caterpillar into a monarch butterfly.
  24. 45. What dry salt and hot desert winds do to a perishable specimen.
Down
  1. 1. The warm, unspoken bond forged between comrades in a trenches.
  2. 3. Thin blown glass that will shatter at the slightest impact.
  3. 5. Looking down your nose with cold disdain at an inferior performance.
  4. 6. Syllables chanted under a full moon to unlock an ancient tomb.
  5. 9. The central speaker in a debate who keeps the dialogue moving.
  6. 10. A drill sergeant's barking order that allows zero room for argument.
  7. 12. What happens when an umpire's bad call turns into a full-team bench-clearing brawl.
  8. 17. The innocent assistant thrown under the bus to save the manager's job.
  9. 18. The gut-twisting heartbreak of watching a loved one's plane taxi away.
  10. 20. Sherlock's sharp eye, spotting the single strand of red dog hair instantly.
  11. 22. Seize the mantle of leadership without taking a single vote.
  12. 24. Clear enough to read a coin's date through ten feet of mountain water.
  13. 25. Ruffling a junior colleague's hair while offering a backhanded compliment.
  14. 29. Equally comfortable navigating subway lines in Tokyo, Paris, or New York.
  15. 31. Wearing heavy black robes and sighing melodramatically at every pause.
  16. 32. Where oil paints dry on easels under north-facing skylights.
  17. 34. Like an old dial-up modem or 'whilom', out of place in modern life.
  18. 37. A baseline principle in geometry that requires no formal proof.
  19. 39. Unshakeable composure maintained by a pilot during severe turbulence.
  20. 41. Black out the offensive lines before printing the family-friendly edition.
  21. 43. Darkness so thick and oppressive it belongs on the banks of the underworld.