to prance	to be boastful
nifty	skillful, effective
median	place in the middle
crank	sb who behaves strangely
pauper	sb who is very poor
requisite	needed for a particular purpose
preordained	certain to happen, decided in advance
to subdue	to bring sth under control (zapanować)
to sustain	to make sth continue to exist
offspring	someone's child/ result
to exert yourself	to work very hard
to disdain	to have no respect for sth/sb, to contempt (lekceważyć)
to excel	to do sth much better than most people
to peddle	to sell goods (esp. illegal) to people (domokrążyć)
every walk of life	every social group
to prod	to encourage, to stimulate (poganiać)
to deplore	to disapprove of sth, to criticize it (ubolewać)
unrelenting	ruthless (nieubłagany)
to pervade	to permeate (przenikać)
duly	as it should be
obscurity	the state of not being known
to be cut out for sth	to be the right person
household name	very popular person
credibility	an instance of being believable
to linger	to make sth longer
to menace	to threaten
one-off	sth that is done only once (jednorazowy)
venture	activity which involves taking risk
to venture	to go to a dangerous place
snatch	extract
remote	far away
to rubbish	to say sth sad or useless
odd	weird
odd jobs	different jobs
hand on	practical
to look out	to watch out