(Adj.) able to get and retain ideas or information; concerned with acquiring wealth or property

Synonyms: greedy, grasping, avaricious, retentive

(V.) to claim without right

Synonyms: expropriate, usurp, commandeer

(Adj.) hackneyed, trite, commonplace

Synonyms: stale, insipid

(V.) to work on excessively; to thrash soundly

Synonyms: overwork

(Adj.) Tending to find fault, especially in a petty, nasty, or hairsplitting way;

(N.) petty, nagging criticism 

Synonyms: nit-picking, caviling

(Adj.) holding or sticking together; making a logical whole; comprehensible, meaningful

Synonyms: connected, unified, consistent, cohesive

(V.) to change from liquid to solid, thicken; to make inflexible or rigid

Synonyms: harden, jell, coagulate, solidify

(V.) to imitate with intent of equaling or surpassing the model

Synonyms: copy, mimic, rival, match, measure up to