CHILL - Answers1. Telling lies, especially making false accusations intended to harm someone’s reputation. Some politicians resort to calumny in order to defeat their opponents—and to avoid talking about important issues.2. Sealed tight, perhaps by heat. The manufacturer put a hermetic seal on the containers to make sure none of the contents escaped. (Hermetic can also mean not subject to outside influence.) 3. From an unknown cause. I didn’t know what was causing my dizzy spells until the doctor said I had idiopathic vertigo. I later found out that meant dizziness from an unknown cause—so he didn’t know either. 4. Scrub on your skin. It’s a sponge-like material from the dried fruit of the luffa vine—also called dishcloth gourd or vegetable sponge. 5. An empty space or gap, as a cavity in a bone, or missing pages from a manuscript. Congress has from time to time been upset by lacunae created by an administration’s erasure of tapes or deletion of words or sections from printed material. |
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