Each of the words in 1-13 have had a word removed from them. The definitions of the removed words are in a-m. Find the removed words and then place them in the blank spaces to recreate the original 13-letter words. The words will fill in the ‘-‘ without changing the order of the letters. Example : Fa-h-o-mo-g-- with a. transgressor = sinner, answer = Fashionmonger.

-1. --bi-e-mak--s
-2. --c-a--r-hips
-3. ele-t--cu-i--
-4. h--rsp--tti--
-5. i--gi-a-iv--y
-6. -l--p--mou-ly
-7. o-e--ogr--h-r
-8. --n--m--ities
-9. unco-f--t-b--
-10. s--iz-ph-en--
-11. te-d-rhe--t--
-12. u-d-r-r-dua--
-13. -uln--ab-li--

-a. being in the style of a company of singers and dancers
-b. deny the existence of
-c. fireplace shelf
-d. forcefully hits something
-e. got closer
-f. horse speed
-g. self-confidence; spirit
-h. in bridge, a style of bidding in which short suits are bid before long ones
-i. pair of small marks used to indicate repetition
-j. situated away from the mouth
-k. state of being true
-l. suffering ill health
-m. tree of the spurge family

13k. vulnerability (verity)

3m. electrocution (croton)

Hi Sue.

1f - cabinetmakers - canter

5c. imaginatively (mantel)

Great starts!

Hi Remi

4l. hairsplitting / ailing

2i dictatorships (dittos)

Good ones!

10a. schizophrenic (choric)

9g Uncomfortable (morale)

Bernie

11e tenderhearted (neared)

All three correct!

7h. oceanographer (canape)

12b - undergraduate - negate

6d blasphemously (bashes)

Well done! Only one left - 8j - and it's not a common 6-letter word.

8j abnormalities (aboral)

Nailed it!

Aboral could perhaps be a usefully obscure term of abuse if applied to humans...