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When something is aberrant, it is unusual, not socially acceptable, or a departure from the norm.
If something is anathema to you, such as a cursed object or idea, you very strongly dislike it or even hate it.
When you arraign someone, you make them come to court and answer criminal charges made against them.
Candor is the quality of being honest and open in speech or action.
You describe someone as a charlatan if they pretend to have special knowledge or skill that they don’t actually possess.
A chivalrous man behaves in a polite, kind, generous, and honorable way, especially towards women.
If someone is complaisant, they are willing to please others and do what they want without complaining.
If you are culpable for an action, you are held responsible for something wrong or bad that has happened.
A man who is debonair is sophisticated, charming, friendly, and confident.
A decadent person has low moral standards and is more interested in pleasure than serious matters.
Decorous appearance or behavior is respectable, polite, and appropriate for a given occasion.
To decry something is to speak against it and find fault with it.
A degenerate person is immoral, wicked, or corrupt.
If you describe someone, usually a young woman, as demure, you mean that she is quiet, shy, and always behaves modestly.
If you denigrate something, you criticize or speak ill of it in a way that shows you think it has little to no value at all.
If you denounce people or actions, you criticize them severely in public because you feel strongly that they are wrong or evil.
Depravity is behavior that is immoral, corrupt, or evil.
If you say a person’s actions are despicable, you think they are extremely unpleasant or nasty.
Someone who is disingenuous is not straightforward or is dishonest in what they say or do.
An animal or person that is docile is not aggressive; rather, they are well-behaved, quiet, and easy to control.
If something is done for someone’s edification, it is done to benefit that person by teaching them something that improves or enlightens their knowledge or character.
If you excoriate someone, you express very strong disapproval of something they did.
An exemplary person is one that sets an ideal or praiseworthy example for others to follow.
An action that is flagrant shows that someone does not care if they obviously break the rules or highly offend people.
If you impugn someone’s motives or integrity, you say that they do not deserve to be trusted.
An irreproachable person is very honest and so morally upright that their behavior cannot be criticized.
A mendacious person does not tell the truth.
A mountebank is a smooth-talking, dishonest person who tricks and cheats people.
A nefarious activity is considered evil and highly dishonest.
If you prevaricate, you avoid giving a direct or honest answer, usually because you want to hide the truth or want to delay or avoid making a hard decision.
Probity is very moral and honest behavior.
Someone who behaves in a prodigal way spends a lot of money and/or time carelessly and wastefully with no concern for the future.
Someone who is profligate is lacking in restraint, which can manifest in carelessly and wastefully using resources, such as energy or money; this kind of person can also act in an immoral way.
Propriety is behaving in a socially acceptable and appropriate way.
Recidivism is someone’s falling back into an undesirable activity—especially crime—after they had temporarily refrained from committing such acts.
You show rectitude if you behave or conduct yourself in an honest and morally correct manner.
If you think a type of behavior or idea is reprehensible, you think that it is very bad, morally wrong, and deserves to be strongly criticized.
A reprobate has a bad character and behaves in an immoral or improper way.
If you repudiate something, you state that you do not accept or agree with it and no longer want to be connected with it in any way.
If you are staid, you are set in your ways; consequently, you are settled, serious, law-abiding, conservative, and traditional—and perhaps even a tad dull.
If you are steadfast, you have a firm belief in your actions or opinions and refuse to give up or change them because you are certain that you are doing the right thing.
A wanton action deliberately harms someone or damages something for no apparent or good reason.
A wastrel is a lazy person who wastes time and money.
Noun
rapscallion
rap-SKAL-yuhn
Context
I don’t think our young son, who is clearly a rapscallion or naughty child now, will grow up to be a criminal. Just because he is a rapscallion or rascal now doesn’t mean that he won’t grow out of it. However, I have to admit that rapscallions or dishonest adults probably began their lesser degree of mischievous behavior when they were young. Despite that cautionary statement, I do realize that Mickey is only three years old . . . and kids are supposed to be rapscallions or little villains at that age!
Quiz:Try again!
What is a rapscallion?
Someone who loves to cook and listen to music concurrently.
A rogue or mischievous individual.
A person who asks way too many irritating questions.
I am, of course, a rogue. A rapscallion. A musician. I would bring her nothing but poverty, shame, and bruised shins from my flailing limbs. She is the better for our parting.
— Sarah Dessen, American author, from _This Lullaby_
For years, the true identity of Banksy—the British artist, guerrilla graffitist, and/or provocateur-rapscallion—has more or less eluded an increasingly indifferent public.
—
The Atlantic
Arturo Gerace, the novel’s young hero, is far too introspective, and too giddy, to resemble Huck Finn in any other way, but like the Hannibal rapscallion, he has all the right disadvantages.
—
TIME
The movie belongs to Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow the pirate, a rapscallion who’s as woozy as someone who has endured much too much time on a roller coaster.
—
The New York Times
Rapscallion is a variant form of “rascal.” The word “rascal” itself possibly came from a word meaning “commoners” or “mob,” which were often filled with mischievous “rascals;” this in turn may have come from a word meaning “scab” or “mud” (things needing to be “scraped” off) which often covered the “rascals” or rapscallions in the mob.
