allowing him no purchase

Kazuo Ishiguro氏のThe Buried Giantを読んでいます。
The baskets were moving ever more slowly now, pulling inwards towards the sludge-like water where the bank made its turn. Thrusting the staff into the water, Axl found he could touch the bottom easily, but when he tried to push off back into the tide, the river floor sucked at the stick, allowing him no purchase.
引用文最後の個所に出てきた "purchase" は10/4/2017に覚えたばかりの意味ですね。前回とは別の辞書の説明を引用します。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a firm hold that allows someone or something to be pulled or lifted without sliding or falling: Dancers use a special powder on their shoes to help them get a better purchase on the floor.

a small lapse on the left side

Kazuo Ishiguro氏のThe Buried Giantを読んでいます。
Even the best of us would have feared to meet him as a foe. Yet yesterday, when I saw him meet Brennus’s soldier in combat, I might have seen a small weakness on his left side. Or was it his clever ploy of the moment? If I watch him fight once more, I will know better. A skilful warrior all the same, and it would take a knight of Arthur to suspect it, but I thought it so, as I watched the fight. I said to myself, look there, a small lapse on the left side. One a canny opponent might just exploit. Yet which of us would not have respected him?
"lapse" は「経過(する)」の他にも「無効(にする/なる)」の意味があるのを10/24/2012に取り上げましたが、上の引用個所の "lapse" はさらに別の意味のようです。辞書を引きます。 ・Oxford English Dictionary: A weak or careless decline from previously high standards.: ‘tracing his lapse into petty crime’
・Macmillan Dictionary: a gradual or temporary change to a worse or more unusual type of behaviour or activity
左側に何か弱みがあると解釈しましたがどうでしょうか？

gutted like a trout

Kazuo Ishiguro氏のThe Buried Giantを読んでいます。
'I hear the same reports,sir,' Sir Gawain said. 'It was another reason I wouldn't side with this wretch now gutted like a trout. I fear this Lord Brennus is one who would undo the great peace won by Arthur.'
"gutted" は家が全焼したことを伝える新聞記事でよく見かけますが、上記は人についての形容なので別の意味で使われているはずです。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Take out the intestines and other internal organs of (a fish or other animal) before cooking it.: The fish were gutted and stuffed with a spoonful of herbs, or mustard, apple, or samphire.
"gutted" の後に "like a trout" とあるのでこの意味かなとも思いましたが、Sir Gawainが味方をしないとしているのは人間なので、次の意味と解釈する方が合っているでしょう。
・Collins Dictionary: If you are gutted, you feel extremely disappointed or depressed about something that has happened.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: extremely disappointed and unhappy: He was gutted when she finished the relationship.
"like a trout" は川を遡上して産卵を終えてぐったりしている状態なのでしょう。

second opinion

Doctor, Can I have second opinion?
Of course, come back tomorrow!

hard-to find records

Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'Laugh Lines Shop Around the Clock' からの抜粋です。
I walked by a record store. The sign in the front said they specialized in hard-to find records.
Nothing was alphabetized.

spray

Kazuo Ishiguro氏のThe Buried Giantを読んでいます。
'Those boards are rotted with the spray, and that's why we're here, though my comrades think there was some further errand must have brought us. So I'll ask you, uncle, if you and your good wife have seen any staranger on your travels.'
"spray" は日本語にもなっているスプレイの意味と関係があるに違いありません。日本でもたまに見かけますが、スプレイで建物や塀に落書きされている景色は欧米の都市の方がはるかに多くあります。上の場面の前に老女が兎をナイフで殺していることを示唆している個所があったので、その兎の血が飛び散った汚れを示しているのだろうと思いますが、辞書を見ると "spray" に次の様な説明もあるのに気が付きました。
・Macmillan Dictionary: if a cat sprays a particular area, it urinates in many places around the area to show other cats that it lives there
・American Heritage Dictionary: Zoology To urinate on various objects as a way of marking territory.
・Oxford English Dictionary: Verb: (of a male cat) direct a stream of urine over (an object or area) to mark a territory.
いずれも動詞としての説明ですが、"spray" が猫あるいは兎の放尿による汚れとも解釈できそうです。

set upon by two ogres

Kazuo Ishiguro氏のThe Buried Giantを読んでいます。
'It seems earlier today one of the village men came back out of breath and his shoulder wounded, and when prevailed upon to calm himself told of how he and his brother, together with his nephew, a boy of twelve, were fishing at their usual spot by the river and were set upon by two ogres.
"set upon" は知らないフレーズなので辞書を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: If you are set upon by people, they make a sudden and unexpected physical attack on you.: We were set upon by about twelve youths and I was kicked unconscious.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: to attack someone or something violently.: The dogs set upon the bear and chased it up a tree. Bill set upon Tom and struck him hard in the face.
"attack" なら誰でも知っている単語ですが、"set upon" の様に簡単な単語から成る連語が意外と難しいのです。

no call

Kazuo Ishiguro氏のThe Buried Giantを読んでいます。
'Mistress, I beg you, allow my husband to assist with your rabbit. There's no call to spill blood in a place such as this, and no basin to catch it. You'll bring bad luck not only to this honest boatman but to yourself and all other travellers who stray in here seeking shelter. Put that knife away and slughter the creature gently elsewhere.
"call" も色々な意味を持つ単語ですね。上の "call" は文脈からして必要の意味だと思いますが、一応辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: [usually with negative] Demand or need for (goods or services): ‘there was little call for work as sophisticated as his’
・Collins Dictionary: need, demand, or occasion: there is no call to shout: we don't get much call for stockings these days

exposed to the elements

今年の初めにKazuo Ishiguroの本は予約が一杯で地元の図書館から当分借りることはできないと書きましたが、ふと気が付いて隣の区の図書館はどうだろうかと余り期待せずに調べたところ、なんと、誰も借りていないし、予約もされていないThe Buried Giantがありました。早速借りて読むことにしました。
The villa must have been splendid enough in Roman days, but now only a small section was standing. Once magnificent floors lay exposed to the elements, disfigured by stagnant puddles, weeds and grass sprouting through the faded tiles.
上に出てきた "elements" は1月18日に "braving the elements" でも取り上げましたね。

spike

The Japan Times Online Jan.10の記事から引用します。
One of Japan’s top sprint canoeists banned for spiking rival’s drink to cause positive drug test
One of the country’s top sprint canoeists has been banned from competition for eight years for spiking a younger rival’s drink with an anabolic steroid, causing him to fail a doping test, the Japan Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday.
この事件は正月の休み明けに大きく報道されたので、この意味の "spiking" は知りませんでしたが、ここでは飲み物に何か違法のドラグを混ぜた意味になることであることは分かりました。一応辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Add alcohol or a drug to contaminate (drink or food) surreptitiously.: ‘she bought me an orange juice and spiked it with vodka’
・Collins Dictionary: If your drink is spiked, someone has added alcohol or drugs to it without telling you.: They wondered whether their drinks had been spiked.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to make a drink stronger by adding alcohol, or to add flavour or interest to something: She claimed that someone had spiked her drink with whisky.