Advanced Vocab

Front 1

Hallux

Back 1

The "big toe" on a primate or the hind foot of other mammals. In birds, it is the homologous digit.

Front 2

milieu

Back 2

Surroundings, especially of a social or cultural nature. "A snobbish mileu." Synonyms include background, sphere, setting or environment.

Front 3

Chalumeau

Back 3

1. Music: the low register of the clarinet
2. a 17th or 18th century woodwind instrument

Front 4

Sycophant

Back 4

a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite. Syn: Toady, Yes man, Fawner, flatterer

Front 5

servile

Back 5

1. slavishly submissive or obsequious; fawning: servile flatterers
2. being in slavery, oppressed
3. yielding slavishly; truckling (usually followed by "to")

Front 6

avowed

Back 6

to state positively

Front 7

vigil

Back 7

a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching or observance

Front 8

plaudits

Back 8

1. an act or round of applause
2. enthusiastic approval - usually used in plural: (..received the plaudits of the critics)

Front 9

Laodicean

Back 9

lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics

Front 10

pococurante

Back 10

indifferent, nonchalant

Front 11

prospicience

Back 11

the act of looking forward, foresight

Front 12

succedaneum

Back 12

a person or thing that take the place or function of another

Front 13

iogorrhea

Back 13

excessive talkativeness or wordiness

Front 14

delitescent

Back 14

lying hidden, obfuscated, latent

Front 15

eleemosynary

Back 15

of, relating to, or supported by charity

Front 16

gauche

Back 16

lacking social experience or grace
not tactful, crude

Front 17

infra dig; "infra dignitatem"

Back 17

beneath one's dignity. "Drug store brands are too infra dig for my glamorous sister!"

Front 18

rheum

Back 18

the thin discharge of mucous membranes, especially during a cold. also called catarrh. It's the stuff that forms in your eyes.

Front 19

pulchritudinous

Back 19

physically beautiful; comely

Front 20

loquacious

Back 20

very talkative; garrulous

Front 21

resplendent

Back 21

brilliant; splendid or dazzling in appearance

Front 22

paramour

Back 22

a lover, especially one in an adulterous relationship

Front 23

beau

Back 23

a frequent and attentive male companion

Front 24

beau geste

Back 24

a gracious gesture
a gracious gesture that has no meaning, substance behind it

Front 25

abase

Back 25

n. to bring down the status or reputation of; degrade. (abasement)

opp: exalt

Front 26

abash

Back 26

v. to cause to feel embarrassed or uneasy

opp: embolden

Front 27

abject

Back 27

adj. without pride; humble; wretched: an abject apology for the wrong. n abjectness

Front 28

abound

Back 28

v. to be or grow in a large number or amount; teem (Rabbits abound in these woods) adj. abundant

Front 29

abrogate

Back 29

v. to abolish, repeal or set aside (Congress abrogated the treaty)

Front 30

sibylline

Back 30

prophetic, oracular
mysterious; cryptic

Front 31

squelch

Back 31

v. 1. to put, suppress, or silence, as with a crushing retort or argument 2. to strike or press with crushing force; to crush down 3. to make a splashing sound 4. to tread heavily in water, mud, we shoes, etc. with such a sound

Front 32

rataplan

Back 32

v. 1. to produce the sound as the beating of a drum 2. a tattoo, as of a drum, the hooves of a galloping horse, or machine-gun fire. (As his one stick beat, rataplanning as best it might alone, his ghastly face, turned backward, saw the first man)

Front 33

vespertine

Back 33

adj. 1. of, relating to, or occurring in the evening

Front 34

evanescence

Back 34

n. 1. a gradual dissappearance 2. the state of becoming imperceptible

Front 35

snuff

Back 35

1. to extinguish or suppress 2. to cut off or remove the snuff (candles, tapers, etc.)

Front 36

tantivy

Back 36

adj. swift; rapid adv. at full gallop n. a rush, a gallop or stampede int. (used as a hunting cry when the chase is at full speed)

Front 37

goad

Back 37

to prod; incite

Front 38

swain

Back 38

a male admirer or lover

Front 39

fathom

Back 39

to penetrate to the truth of

Front 40

noctivagant

Back 40

pertaining to wandering at night

Front 41

ruth

Back 41

pity or compassion

Front 42

vernacular

Back 42

the plain variety of language in everyday use

Front 43

quintessential

Back 43

being the most typical

Front 44

festoon

Back 44

to adorn with hanging chains or strands of any material

Front 45

oscitant

Back 45

yawning, as with drowsiness

Front 46

Manichean \man-i-KEE-unn

Back 46

adj. pertaining to a strongly dualistic worldview (And in such a Manichean national landscape of villains and heroes, either the government, the Church, or the "rich" hoodwinked the noble people into doing what they in retrospect should not have.

Front 47

couvade \koo-VAHD

Back 47

a practice in certain cultures in which the husband of a woman in labor takes to his bed as though he were bearing the child

Front 48

yaw

Back 48

v. to move unsteadily; weave

Front 49

macabre

Back 49

adj. gruesome and horrifying/pertaining to or representing death, esp. its grimmer or uglier aspect

Front 50

omnific

Back 50

having unlimited powers of creation

Front 51

iatrogenic

Back 51

(of a medical disorder) caused by the actions of a physician

Front 52

vamoose

Back 52

to leave hurriedly or quickly; decamp

Front 53

perpend

Back 53

to ponder; deliberate

Front 54

muliebrity

Back 54

womanly nature or qualities