(adjective) marked by or given to censure; severely critical of others
(adjective) marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections / (adjective) calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument
(noun) a change or variation occurring in the course of something; successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs
an ideal, a kind of abstract utopia, a recovered country free of vicissitudes
an ideal, a kind of abstract utopia, a recovered country free of vicissitudes