Word List-1 for The New York Times Editorial (End Yemen’s Agony) – Nov 06, 2018:

agony (noun) – pain, suffering, torture.
cloud (verb) – confuse, muddle, make unclear.
exile (noun) – banishment, expulsion,deportation.
ruthless (adjective) – merciless, cruel, heartless.
prod (verb) – prompt, drive/push, urge.
ceasefire (noun) – truce; a temporary stoppage of a war.
carnage (noun) – massacre, mass murder, mass destruction.
de facto (adjective) – Latin phrase, literally means ‘of fact’; actual, existing, effective.
thug (noun) – a criminal, violent person; gangster, murderer, killer.
strangle (verb) – throttle, choke, stifle; to cause a person/animal unable to breathe properly by tightening the neck to block the air flow through the throat.
dismember (verb) – cut off, mutilate, disjoint (the limbs of a person).
the consulate (noun) – embassy; the building where a consul lives and works.
(be) hard on (phrase) – criticize (someone) severely.
furore (or) furor (noun) – commotion, uproar, outcry/agitation.
heart-rending (adjective) – distressing, heartbreaking, painful.
wage (verb) – engage in, carry on, conduct (a war).
sectarian (adjective) – denoting a sect (a group of people); factional, partisan.
(humanitarian) nightmare (noun) – ordeal, torment, burden/curse. (humanitarian crisis (noun) – it is also called as humanitarian disaster; a situation with high levels of human suffering in which basic human welfare is in danger on a large scale).
innumerable (adjective) – countless, numerous, untold.
entangle (verb) – restrict, bog down, prevent.
ordnance (noun) – military supplies (weapons, arms & etc).
call on (phrasal verb) – appeal to, demand; ask/request.
Houthi (adjective) – relating to an Islamic religious-political-armed movement that emerged from Yeman.
pull the plug (phrase) – prevent, terminate, discontinue.
indiscriminate (adjective) – thoughtless/unthinking, careless, unmethodical.
pummel (verb) – strike, hit, thrash (repeatedly).
flee (verb) – run away, take flight, escape (from a place of danger).
proxy (noun) – representative figure for something (original).
shiite (adjective) – relating to Shia (a branch of Islam).
war of attrition (noun) – a military strategy consisting of aggressive attempts to win a war by wearing down (weakening) the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and materiel.
submission (noun) – yielding, surrender, capitulation.
blockade (noun) – barricade, barrier (obstruction of supply of essential goods and others to an area).
punitive (adjective) – harsh, severe/cruel, savage.
famine (noun) – scarcity of food, food shortages; paucity/poverty.
catastrophic (adjective) – destructive, ruinous, disastrous.
starvation (noun) – extreme hunger, lack of food, famine.

Note:

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Definitions (elementary level) & Synonyms provided for the words above are my personal work and not that of Oxford University Press. Tentative definitions/meanings are provided for the study purpose only and they may vary in different context.
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