(v.) to approach and speak to first, to confront in a challenging or aggresive way

s: buttonhole, approach, confront

a: evade, avoid, shun

(n.) a comment indicating strong criticism ro disapproval

s: rebuke, reproof

a: praise, compliment

(adj.) desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager

s: keen, enthusiastic, grasping

a: reluctant, indifferent, unenthusiastic

(adj.) having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink

s: briny, saline

a: fresh, clear, sweet

(n.) swiftness, rapidity or motion or action

s: promptness, alacrity, speed

a: slowness, sluggishness, dilatoriness

(adj.) strayihng or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way

s: roundabout, indirect, tricky, sly, artful

a: direct, straightforward, open, aboveboard

gambit

(n.) in chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type

s: ploy, stratagem, ruse, maneuver

(n.) a legendary bird identified with the kingfisher; ( adj.) of or relating to the halcyon; calm, peaceful; happy, golden; prosperous, affluent

s: tranquil, serene, placid, palmy

a: turbulent, chaotic, tumultuous

(adj.) pertaining to actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial; melodramatic

s: affected, stagy

a: low-keyed, muted, untheatrical, subdued

(adj.) deliberately setting or causing fires; (n.) one who deliberately sets fires, arsonist, one who causes strife

s: inflammatory, provocative, firebrand

a: soothing, quieting, peacemaker

(n.) a whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirlpoool in violence and destruction

s: vortex, chaos, turbulence, tumult

(adj.) nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment

s: shortsighted

a: farsighted

(adj.) open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized

s: clear, obvious, manifest, patent

a: secret, clandestince, covert, concealed

(adj.) tending to make worse; expressing disapproval or disparagement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittling

a: complimentary, ameliorative

(n.) the state of being proper, appropriateness; (pl.) standards of what is proper or socially acceptable

s: fitness, correctness, decorum

a: unseemliness, inappropriateness

(n.) improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred

s: desecration, profanation, defilement

(adv.) without delay or formality; briefly, concisely

s: promptly, peremptorily, abruptly

(adj.) asking humbly and earnestly; (n.) one who makes a request humbly and earnestly, a petitioner, suitor

s: petitioner, suitor

(n.) an object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish

(v.) to move in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form

s: ripple, fluctuate, rise and fall