The notice blamed a delinquent householder for an egregious breach of the street code. (delinquent: remiss, neglectful, negligent; egregious: flagrant, glaring, gross) Her willful transgression, it said, was liable to attract a fine. (willful: deliberate, intentional, purposeful; transgression: violation, offense, breach; liable: prone, apt, likely) The grandmother held out two identical photographs. The wind had been scattering the town's own notices. The only visible irregularity was a reversed street number. (irregularity: anomaly, deviation, inconsistency)
The clerk was ready to deem this an extenuating circumstance and recommend leniency. (deem: consider, regard, judge; extenuating: mitigating, excusing; leniency: lenience, lenity, mercy) She objected. An innocent person should hardly need mercy. She asked him to annul the fine, correct the erroneous address and forestall the next notice. (annul: invalidate, nullify, void; erroneous: incorrect, wrong, mistaken; forestall: preempt, avert, prevent) He withdrew the notice. The only default had been the council's failure to secure its papers. (default: failure, omission, nonperformance)
He found the stack at the printer's door. One loose corner was enough to defeat an otherwise efficacious clamp. (efficacious: effective, effectual, potent) He tightened the screw and canceled the ticket. He sent his grandmotherly visitor a proper letter, this time through her door.