Furtive

  [fur-tiv]

Adj.
1. Intended to escape observation, typically because of guilt or a belief that discovery would lead to trouble; secretive: a furtive glance

2. Suggestive of guilty nervousness: a furtive manner

Synonyms: surreptitious, clandestine, sneaky, insincere

Example from As It Is In Heaven by David Rakoff: “That crazy, callow, buoyant feeling couldn’t be further from embarrassment with which I skulk through the terminal at Newark Liberty International just a few short weeks after.”

Other examples:
At social gatherings she’s always lurking in the corners looking slightly furtive.
We exchanged furtive smiles across the table.

He still does furtive good deeds, but when he makes a celebratory air punch, he throws his back out.
TIME MAGAZINE (2004)

The police report said the teen made furtive motions in the back seat, making officers suspicious.
SEATTLE TIMES (2004)

But mostly it was men – men of all sorts and shapes, but the same furtive demeanor.
Kevin Baker DREAMLAND (1999)

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Facile

  [fas-il]

1. Easy or unconstrained, relaxed in manners, easygoing.

2. Easily accomplished or attained: a facile victory; a facile method; a facile wit

3. Acting with little effort and sometimes with superficiality: facile fingers; a facile mind

4. Without depth, superficial: a facile solution; facile emotions

5. Affable, agreeable, or complacent; easily influenced: a facile temperament; facile people.

6. Fluent: a facile writer.

Synonyms: smooth, fluent, superficial, shallow, simplistic

Example from J.D.V., M.I.A.by David Rakoff: “It will be an evening of more than seven hours’ duration and two hard-won insights, the first of which is that I am not a facile puzzler.”

Other examples:
I am not concerned with offering any facile solution for so complex a problem — T. S. Eliot

But in the less palmy days of their marriage and the final years of his life, Lennon produced (with Yoko’s help) shallow, facile recordings that cannibalized his early work. —Francine Prose, The Lives of the Muses, 2002

But that’s far too facile, like calling Einstein a foreign nerd with a few wacky ideas. – USA TODAY (2004)

In a field rife with self-promotion and facile advice, Covey’s message carries the weight of a scholar and a teacher. – SEATTLE TIMES (2004)

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Vertiginous

  [ver-tij-uh-nuh s]

Adj.
1. Whirling; spinning; rotary: vertiginous currents of air.

2. Affected with vertigo; dizzy.

3. Threatening to cause vertigo; extremely high or steep: a vertiginous climb, vertiginous drops to the valley below.

4. Apt to change quickly; unstable: a vertiginous economy.

Synonyms: dizzy, woozy, changeable, unstable

Example from As It Is in Heaven by David Rakoff: “The takeoff feels standard, not the vertiginous climb I was expecting.”

Other examples:
Most people feel vertiginous after spinning in a circle.
Sometimes when I stand up too fast, I can get vertiginous for a second.

And it still has vertiginous steps down from the pavement level that threaten to catapult you headfirst into the basement.
TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES (2004)

But the last four days had seen such a vertiginous descent into frailty that he had no reserves of energy left.
Clive Barker GALILEE (2001)

However, to infer that the vertiginous drop in currency values translates into large improvements in Asia’s competitiveness is absurd.
BUSINESS TODAY (1998)

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Whiff

  [wif]

n.
1. A slight, gentle gust of air; a waft: a whiff of cool air.
2. A brief or faint odor carried in the air: a whiff of perfume.
3. A trace or hint of something bad, menacing, or exciting: There has been a whiff of financial scandal in the past.
4. An act of sniffing or inhaling: I found my inhaler and took a deep whiff.

v.intr.
1. To be carried in brief gusts; waft: puffs of smoke whiffing from the chimney.
2. Sports To swing at and miss a ball or puck.
3. Baseball To strike out. Used of a batter.

v.tr.
1. To blow or convey in whiffs.
2. To inhale through the nose; sniff: a dog whiffing the air.
3. Baseball To strike out (a batter).

Synonyms: hint, trace, dash

Example: “Humanity is unregenerable and hates the language of conformity, since conformity has a whiff of the inhuman about it” (Anthony Burgess).

From David Rakoff’s As It Is In Heaven: “It is June 2003, but it might as well be Paris before Germans  marched in, so penetrating is the whiff of memory in the making, the glow of era about to end.”

Other examples:
I got a whiff of new paint when I entered the room.
I detected a whiff of sarcasm in her voice.
The pitcher had eight whiffs during the game.

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Rapt

Adj
1. deeply engrossed or absorbed: A rapt teenage audience. A rapt listener.

2. characterized by a state of fascination: they listened with rapt attention

3. transported with emotion; enraptured: she shut her eyes and seemed rapt with desire. Rapt with joy.

4. showing or proceeding from rapture: a rapt smile.

5. carried off spiritually to another place, sphere of existence, etc.

Synonyms: engrossed, preoccupied, captivated, immersed, elated

Example from Shrimp by David Rakoff: “The children are rapt by his cunning size and stern air of authority.”

Other examples:
My brother and I sat rapt in front of the TV.
She read the book with a rapt attention.

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Salubrious

  [suh-loo-bree-uhs]

1. favorable to or promoting health or well-being <salubrious habits>

Synonyms: healthy, wholesome, beneficial, invigorating

Example from The Bleak Shall Inherit by David Rakoff: “The embrace of another clearly has some salubrious effect.”

Other examples:
She is living in one of the least salubrious neighborhoods.
We went hiking last weekend. I enjoyed the salubrious mountain air.

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Incendiary

  \in-ˈsen-dē-er-ē\

1. (of a device or attack) designed to cause fires: an incendiary bomb.
2. Tending to stir up conflict: an incendiary speech.
3. Very exciting: an incendiary live performer.

n. pl. in•cen•di•ar•ies
1. An incendiary bomb or device.
2. A person who starts fires.
3. A person who stirs up conflict.

Synonyms: inflammatory, provocative

Example from The Bleak Shall Inherit by David Rakoff: “They weren’t saying anything terribly incendiary. It’s not like they were proposing tattooing people who have HIV the way odious William F. Burkley did.”

Other examples:
The politician’s incendiary speech provoked shouts of protest from the crowd.
The police department has a special unit for handling incendiary devices.

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