Synonym cousins, once removed

Let a 'synonym cousin' represent a case where a word can form a synonym of itself simply by adding or removing one letter. (The extra letter may be added at any position in the word, but no rearranging of the letters is permitted).

Below, you will find 5 pairs of synonym cousins. However, the pairings have been obscured by replacing each cousin with a different synonym.

abrupt bawdy diminuitive draws elite in-waiting ironic off course plenty survive

For example, one sense of 'wry' can mean 'twisted'. Add an A to get 'awry', which can also mean 'twisted'. But 'wry' can also mean 'ironic' and 'awry' can also mean 'off course'. Thus:

twisted = wry (ironic) and awry (off course)

Can you determine the other 4 pairings and the shared meanings?

etc) or do they need to be both solved and paired properly?

They are currently in alphabetical order. Determining the pairings is part of the puzzle.

(s)xxxxx (c)xxxx (a)wry (p)xxxx x(e)xxx

Here's the one I (think I) got:

abrupt: rude bawdy: crude synonyms of: unsophisticated

(which is why I thought they might be sequentially paired)

/me slaps head

D'oh! I forgot that the synonyms differ by one letter! I got one, too! I marked those (words) that are used up, and added my solution at the bottom.

Martin DeMello schrieb:

elite: select (as in 'the select few' in-waiting: elect (as in 'president-elect' synonyms of: choose

diminutive: least synonyms of: lowest, humblest

Got the final one:

Martin DeMello schrieb:

All that's left is 'plenty' and 'draws', and the solution is (p)xxxx. It must be 'lots' and 'plots', synonyms for pieces of ground.

Nice puzzle, but hard.

That is correct. Well done, both of you. I agree that it is pretty hard, but then again a lot of the puzzles that are posted here seem hard and yet readers still figure them out.

I was wondering how people would go about figuring this out. I thought the best way was probably just to think of some common words until you find a synonym cousin, then check if it is on the list. Once you have narrowed down the list a bit, you can then attempt to pair up the remaining words.

The above list was all the pairings I could think of within a week. There were a few more that I considered, but rejected for not being synonymous enough. Can anyone think of any more synonym cousins that weren't on my list? (post them once-removed, of course)

How I did it was think of synonyms of the words listed, and see if any of them had synonym cousins that mapped back to the another list entry. Hard puzzle but a fun one.