apt to notice and make much of trivial faults or defects;

faultfinding; difficult to please.

a captious scholar.

sluggish in temperament; gloomy; taciturn.

prominent or conspicuous: 

salient traits.

easily seen or noticed; readily visible or observable: 

aconspicuous error.

to give up resistance:

 He finally capitulated and agreed to do the job my way.

to approve, support, or sustain:

 to endorse a political candidate.

to challenge as false (another's statements, motives, etc.);

cast doubt upon.

impugn a political opponent's record.

To quiet or bring under control by physical force or persuasion; make tractable.

Rome subdued Gaul.

To make less intense or prominent; tone down: 

subdued my excitement about the upcoming holiday.

Appropriateness to the purpose at hand; fitness.

The Commissioners also considered the expediency of appointing a Minister of Science.

Adherence to self-serving means: an ambitious politician, guided by expediency rather than principle.

to help to grow or develop; stimulate; promote: 

to foster discontent

to make dirty; soil

It pains me to see his reputation so besmirched.

characterized by a great flow of words; talking much and easily; talkative, glib,

Spaniards are reputed to be among Europe's most voluble people.

to moan about or deplore (a loss, grief, etc.); lament:

 to bemoan one's fate

Suggest or hint (something negative) in an indirect and unpleasant way.

 insinuating remarks.

a false, esp. malicious, report that has been fabricated with the intention of doing harm

Reay brings up the old canard about the total fuel cycle costs for nuclear energy.

that cannot be broken or separated

that cannot be violated or infringed

infrangible human rights.

to object when there is little reason to do so; resort to trivial faultfinding; carp; quibble 

he finds something to cavil at in everything i say

easily crumbled or crushed into powder

The bones here were very friable whilst other long bones appeared reasonably strong

complete or perfect in every way; supreme:
 consummate happiness

very skillful; highly expert: a consummate liar

that cannot be imitated or matched;

too good to be equaled or copied

They identify themselves as a rock band, but they have an inimitable style that makes their music somewhat unclassifiable.

to raid, esp. repeatedly, and ravage or rob; pillage;

plunder; to torment or worry; harass

hard to understand because of being extremely complex, intellectually demanding, highly abstract, etc.; deep; recondite

These abstruse terms can be illustrated most simply by diagrams.

being the first or earliest of something that is later recognized as having been of primary influence

Remember the date, because it could just prove seminal in the history of our football club.

of reproduction: seminal power

an inferring, theorizing, or predicting from incomplete or uncertain evidence; guesswork: 

an editorial full of conjecture

To erase or strike out: 

“I have corrected some factual slips, expunged some repetitions” (Kenneth Tynan).

 fraud; deception

Now that the irate lady has slammed the door, I am free to confess the imposture I have played.

childish; silly; immature; trivial

it simply isn't an appropriate answer to say in a puerile way, ' Well, they started it!

to break apart; separate; part; split

Their chains had indeed been sundered by the sword, but the broken links still hung upon their limbs.

to destroy or remove completely; exterminate; abolish

Prior to the settlement by the Europeans the local fauna consisted of many species that are now extirpated or threatened.

a person who has or professes to have great learning; actual or self-professed authority

Quite apart from being extremely knowledgeable, he's by far the most entertaining pundit on TV.

to fool, as by false promises or wrong notions; mislead;

deceive; trick

Jason felt deluded when his friend lied to him.

eagerness; enthusiasm; zeal

This in itself was enough to damp the ardor of my enthusiasm.

causing or bringing calamity

Since his calamitous mistake in the World Cup Final, Oliver Kahn's life has spun out of control.