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122 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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complicity
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n. participation; involvement
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You cannot keep your complicity participation involvement in this affair secret very long; you would be wise to admit your involvement complicity immediatly
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consummate
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adj. complete
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I have never seeen anyone who makes as many stupid errors as you do; wat a consummate complete idiot you are!
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creed
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n. system of religious or ethical belief
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Any loyal American's creed system of religious or ethical belief must emphasize love of democracy
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douse
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v. plunge into water; drench; extinguish
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they doused drenched eachother with hoses and water balloons
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equivocate
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v. lie; mislead; attempt to conceal the truth
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No matter how bad teh news is, give it to us straight. Above all, dont equivocate lie mislead attempt to conceal the truth
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expropriate
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v. take possession of
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He questioned the governments right to expropriate take possession of his land to create a wildlife preserve
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infraction
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n. violation (of a rule or regulation); breach
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When Dennis Rodman butted heads with that referee, he committed a clear infraction violation of NBA rules
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invalidate
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v. weaken; destroy
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the relatives who recieved little or nothing sought to invalidate weaken destroy the will by claiming that the deceased had not been in his right mind when he had signed the document
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lout
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n. clumsy person
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that awkward lout clumsy person dropped by my priceless vase!
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mendicant
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n. beggar
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"O noble sir, give alms to the poor" cried Aladdin, playing the mendicant beggar
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mores
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n. conventions; moral standards; customs
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In America, Benazir Bhutto dressed as Western women did; in Pakistan, however she followed the mores conventions moral standards customs of her people ddressing in traditional veil and robes
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parsimony
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n. stinginess; excessive frugality; reluctance to give or spend
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Furious because her father wouldn't let her buy out the clothing store, Annie accused him of parsimony stinginess; excessive frugality
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potable
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adj. suitable for drinking
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The recent drought in the Middle Atlantic states has emphasized the need for extensive research in way sof making sea water potable suitable for drinking
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reactionary
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adj. recoiling from progress; politically ultra conservative
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Opposing the use of English in worship services, reactionary politically ultra conservative forces in the church fought to reinstate the mass in Latin
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rhapsodize
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v. to speak or write in an exaggeratedly enthusiastic manner
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She greatly enjoyed her Hawaiian vacation and rhapsodized speaked in an exaggertedly enthusastic manner about it for weeks
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schism
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n. division; split
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His reforms led to a schism division split in the church and the establishment of a new sect opposing the old order
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skirmish
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n. minor fight
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Custer's troops expected they might run into a skirmish minor fight or two on maneuvers; they did not expect to face a major battle
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spurn
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v. reject; scorn
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teh heroine spurned rejected scorned the villain's advances
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succinct
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adj. brief; terse; compact
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Don't bore your audience with excess verbiage: be succinct brief terse compact
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tantalize
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v. tease; torture with disappointment
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tom tantalized teased tortured with disappointment his younger brother, holding the ball just too high for Jimmy to reach
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traverse
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v. go through or across
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When you traverse go through accros this field, be careful of the bull
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untenable
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adj. indefensible; not able to be maintained
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Wayne is so contrary that, the more untenable indefensible not able to be maintained a position is, the harder he'll try to defend it
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clairvoyant
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adj, n. having foresight; fortuneteller
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Cassandra's clairvoyant having foresight warning was not heeded by the Trojens
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contagion
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n. infection
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Fearing contagion infection, they took great steps to prevent the spread of the disease
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crescendo
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n. increase in the volume or intensity, as in a musical passage; climax
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Teh music suddenly shifted its mood, dramatically switching from a muted, contemplative passage toa crescendo increase in the volume or intensity climax with blaring trumpets and clashing cymbals
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deference
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n. courteous regard for another's wish
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In deference courteous regard for another's wish to the minister' request, please do not take photographs during the wedding service
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dowdy
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adj. slovenly; untidy
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She tried to change her dowdy untidy slovenly image by buying a new fashionable wardrobe
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expunge
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v. cancel; remove
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If you behave, I will expunge cancel remove this notation from your record
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finesse
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n. delicate skill
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The finesse delicate skill and adroitness with which the surgeon welded her scalpel impressed all the observers in the operating room
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frigid
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adj. intensely cold
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Alaska is in the frigid intensely cold zone
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impenitent
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adj. not repentant
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We could see from his tough guy attitude that he was impenitent not repentant
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incorporeal
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adj. lacking a material body; insubstantial
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While Casper the friendly ghost is an incorporeal lacking a material insubstantial being, envertheless he and his fellow ghosts make quite an impact on the physical world
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laceration
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n. torn, ragged wound
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The stoke car driver needed stitches to close up the lacerations torn ragged wound he recieved in the car crash
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low
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v. moo
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From the hilltop, they could see the herd like ants in the distance; they could barely hear the cattle low
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menial
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adj. suitable for servants; lowly; mean
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Her wicked stepmother forced Cinderalla to do menial suitable for servants lowly mean tasks around the house while her ugly stepsisters lolled around painting their toenails
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moribund
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adj. dying
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Hearst took a moribund dying, failing weekly newspaper and transformed it into one of the liveliest, most profitable daily newspapers around
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peruse
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v. read with care
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After teh conflagration that burned down her house, Joan closely perused read with care her home insurance policy to discover exactly what benefits her coverage provided heer
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potent
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adj. powerful; persuasive; greatly influential
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Looking at the expiration date on teh cough syrup bottle, we wondered whether the medication would still be potent greatly influential powerful
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prodigal
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adj. wasteful; reckless with money
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Don't be so prodigal wasteful reckless with money spending my money; when you've earned some money yourself, you can waste it as much as you want!
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pummel
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v. beat or pound with fists
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Swinging wildly, Pam pummeled beat or pound with fists her brother around the head and shoulders
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repast
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n. meal; feast; banquet
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The caterers prepared a delicious repast meal feast banquet for Fred and Judy's wedding day
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scintillate
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v. sparkle; flash
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I enjoy her dinner parties because the food is excellent and the conversation scintillates sparkles flashes
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succor
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v. aid; assist; comfort
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If you believe that con man has come here to succor aid assist comfort you in your hour of need, you're an even bigger sucker than i thought
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tantamount
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adj. equivalent in effect or value
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Because so few Southern blacks could afford to pay the poll tax, the imposition of this tax on prospective voters was tantamount equivalent in effect or value to disenfranchisement for black voters.
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travesty
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n. harshly distorted imitation; parody; debased likeness
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Phillip's translation of Don Quixote is so inadequate and clumsy that it seems a travesty harshly distorted imitation of the original
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unwarranted
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adj. unjustified; groundless; undeserved
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Your assumption that I would accept your proposal is unwarranted unjustified groundless undeserved sir; I do not want to marry you at all. We could not understand Martin's unwarranted undeserved rudeness to his mother's guests
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writhe
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v. twist in coils; contort in pain
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In Dances with Snakes, the snake dancer wriggled sinuously as her boa constrictor writhed twist in coils contort in pain around her torso
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clamber
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v. climb by crawling
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She clambered climbed by crawling over the wall
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discursive
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adj. digressing; rambling
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As the lecturer wandered from topic to topic, we wondered what if any point there was to his discursive digressing rambling remarks
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embroil
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v. throw into confusion; involve in strife; entangle
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He became embroiled thrown into confusion in the heated discussion when he tried to arbitrate the dispute
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expurgate
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v. clean; remove offensive parts of a book
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The editors felt that certain passages in the book had to be expurgated removed offensive parts of a book before it could be used in the classroom
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finicky
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adj. too particular; fussy
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The little girl was finicky too particular fussy about her food, leaving over anything that wasn't to her taste
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frivolous
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adj. lacking in seriousness; self-indulgently carefree; relatively unimportant
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Though Nancy enjoyed Bill's frivolous lacking in seriousness, lighthearted companionship, she sometimes wondered whether he could ever be serious
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hermetic
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adj. sealed by fusion so as to be airtight
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After you sterilize the bandages, place them in a container and seal it with a hermetic sealed by fusion so as to be airtight seal to protect them from contamination by airborne bacteria
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incorrigible
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adj. not correctable
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Though Widow Douglass hoped to reform Huck, Miss Watson called him incorrigible not correctable and said he would come to no good end
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invective
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n. abuse
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He had expected criticism but not the invective abuse that greeted his proposal
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lachrymose
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adj. producing tears
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His voice has a lachrymose producing tears quality more appropriate to a funeral than a class reunion
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machinations
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n. evil schemes or plots
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Fortunately , Batman saw through the wily machinations evil schemes or plots of the Riddler and saved Gotham City from destruction by the forces of evil
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ordination
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n. ceremony making someone a minister
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At the young priest's ordination ceremony making someone a minister, the members of the congregation presented him with a set of vestments
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pervasive
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adj. pervading; spread throughout every part
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Despite airing them for several hours, Martha could not rid her clothes of the pervasive spread throughout every part odor of mothballs that clung to them
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potentate
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n. monarch; sovereign
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The potentate monarch spent more time at Monte Carlo than he did at home on his throne
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prodigious
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adj. marvelous; enormous
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Watching the champion weight lifter have the weighty barbell to shoulder height and then boost it overhead, we marveled at his prodigious marvelous enormous strength
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punctilious
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adj. laying stress on niceties of conduct or form; minutely attentive to fine points (perhaps too much so)
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Percy is punctilious laying stress on niceties of conduct or form abut observing the rules of etiquette whenever Miss Manners invites him to stay
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reaper
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n. one who harvests grain
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Death, the Grim Reaper one who who harvests grain, cuts down mortal men and women, just as a farmer cuts down the ripened grain
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scoff
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v. mock; ridicule
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He scoffed mocked ridiculed dentists until he had his first toothache
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squalor
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n. filth; degradation; dirty, neglected state
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Rusted, broken-down cars in its yard, trash piled up on the porch, tar paper peeling from the roof, the sack was the picture of squalor filth degradation dirty neglected state
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tenacity
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n. firmness; persistence
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Jean Valjean could not believe the tenacity firmness persistence of Inspector Javert. Here all Valjean had done was to steal a loaf of bread, and the inspector had pursued him doggedly for twenty years!
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treacly
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adj. sticky sweet; cloyingly sentimental
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Irritatingly cheerful, always looking on the bright side, Pollyanna speaks nothing but treacly cloyingly sentimental sentimentalities
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unwieldy
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adj. awkward; cumbersome; unmanageable
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The large carton was so unwieldy cumbersome that the movers had trouble getting it up the stairs
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virulent
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adj. extremely poisonous; hostile; bitter
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Laid up with a virulent bitter case of measles, Vera blamed her doctors because her recovery took so long. In fact, she became quite virulent bitter on the subject of the quality of modern medical care
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clamor
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n. noise
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The clamor noise of the children at play outside made it impossible for her to take a nap
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compound
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pay interest; increase
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disdain
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v. view with scorn or contempt
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In the film Funny Face, the bookish heroine disdained hated fashion models for their lack of intellectual interests
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embryonic
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adj. undeveloped; rudimentary
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The CEO reminisced about the good old days when the computer industry was still in its embryonic undeveloped rudimentary stage and start-up companies were founded in family garages
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erratic
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adj. odd; unpredictable
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Investors become anxious when the stock market appears erratic odd unpredictable
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extant
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adj. still in existence
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Although the book is out of print, some copies are still extant still in existence. Unfortunately, all of them are in libraries or private collections; none are for sale
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firebrand
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n. hothead; troublemaker
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The police tried to keep track of all the local firebrands hotheads trouble makers when the President came to town
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hermitage
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n. home of a hermit
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Even in his remote hermitage he could not escape completely from the world
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incredulous
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adj. withholding belief; skeptical
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When Jack claimed he hadn't eaten the jelly dough nut, Jill took an incredulous skeptical look at his smeared face and laughed
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inveigle
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v. entice; persuade; wheedle
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Flattering Adam about his good taste in food, Eve inveigled enticed persuaded wheedled him into taking a bite of her apple pie
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lackadaisical
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adj. lacking purpose or zest; halfhearted; languid
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Because Gatsby had his mind more on his love life than on his finances, he did a very lackadaisical halfhearted job of managing his money
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madrigal
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n. pastoral song
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His program of folk songs included several madrigals pastoral songs which he sang to the accompaniment of a flute
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mercenary
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adj. interested in money or gain
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Andy's every act was prompted by mercenary interested in money or gain motives; his first question was always "What's in it for me?"
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perverse
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adj. stubbornly wrongheaded; wicked and perverted
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When Jack was in a perverse stubbornly wrongheaded mood, he would do the opposite of whatever Jill asked him. When Hannibal Lecter was in a perverse wicked and perverted mood, he ate the flesh of his victims. Jack acted out of perversity. Hannibal's act proved his perversion.
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pundit
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n. authority on a subject; learned person; expert
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Some authors who write about SAT I as if they are pundits authority on a subject actually know very little about the test
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ribald
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adj. wanton; profane
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He sang a ribald wanton profane song that offended many of the more prudish listeners
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crestfallen
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adj. dejected; dispirited
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We were surprised at his reaction to the failure of his project; instead of being crestfallen dejected; dispirited, he busily engaged in planning new activities
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defile
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v. pollute; profane
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The hoodlums defiled polluted profaned the church with their scurrilous writing
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definitive
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adj. final; complete
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Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln may be regarded as the definitive final comlete work on the life of the Great Emancipator
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draconian
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adj. extemely severe
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When the principal canceled the senior prom because some seniors had been late to school that week, we thought the draconian extremely sever punishment was far too harsh for such a minor violation of the rules
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emend
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v. correct; correct by a critic
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The critic emended corrected the book by selecting passages which he thought most appropriate to the text
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erroneous
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adj. mistaken; wrong
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I thought my answer was correct, but it was erroneous wrong
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fissure
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n. crevice
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The mountain climbers secured footholds in tiny fissures crevices in the rock
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frond
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n. fern leaf; palm or banana leaf
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After the storm the beach was littered with the fronds fern leafs of palm trees
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glower
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v. scowl
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The angry boy glowered scowled at his father
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heterodox
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adj. unorthodox; unconventional
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To those who upheld the belief that the earth did not move, Galileo's theory that the earth circled the sun was disturbingly heterodox
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increment
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n. increase
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The new contract calls for a 10 percent increment increase in salary for each employee for the next two years
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inkling
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n. hint
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This came as a complete surprise to me as i did not have the slightest inkling of your plans
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lackluster
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adj. dull
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We were disappointed by the lackluster performance
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maelstrom
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n. whirlpool
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The canoe was dossed about in the maelstrom whirlpool
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mercurial
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adj. capricious; changing ;fickle
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Wuick as quicksilver to change, he was mercurial capricious changing fickle in nature and therefore unreliable
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partiality
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n. inclination; bias
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As a judge, not only must I be unviased but I must also avoid any evidence of partiality inclination bias when i award the prize
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partisan
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adj. one-sided; prejudiced; committed to a party
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On certain issues of principle, she refused to take a partisan one-sided prejudiced stand, but let her conscience be her guide. Rather than joining forces to solve our nation's problems, the Democrats and Republicans spend their time on partisan committed to a party struggles
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profane
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v. violate; desecrate; treat unworthily
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The members of the mysterious Far Eastern cult sought to kill the British explorer because he had profaned violated the sanctity of their holy goblet by using it as a ashtray
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pungent
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adj. stinging; sharp in taste or smell; caustic
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The pungent stinging odor of ripe Limburger cheese appealed to Simone but made Stanley gag
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rebuke
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v. scold harshly; cricize severely
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No matter how sharply Miss Watson rebuked scholded harshly criticized severely Huck for his misconduct, he never talked back but just stood there like a stump
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riddle
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v. pierce with holes; permeate or spread throughout
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With his machine gun, Tracy riddled pierced with holes the car with bullets till it looked like a slice of cheese. During the proofreader's strike, the newspaper was riddled permeated or spread throughout with typos
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scourge
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n. cause of widespread devastation; severe punishment; whip
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Abraham Lincolne wrote, "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge cause of widespread devastation of war speedily may pass away
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scruple
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v. fret about; hesitate for ethical reasons
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Fearing that her husband had become involved in an affair, she did not scrupple hesitate for ethical reasons to read his diary
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slag
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n. residue from smelting metal; dross; waste matter
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The blast furnace had a special opening at the bottom to allow the workers to remove the worthless slag residue from smelting metal dross waste matter
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slake
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v. quench; sate
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When we reached the oasis, we were able to slake quench sate our thirst
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squander
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v. waste
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If you squander your allowance on candy and comic books, you won't ahve any monely left to buy the new box of crayons you want
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squat
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adj. stocky; short and thick
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Tolkien's hobbits are somewhat squat short and thick, sturdy little creatures, fond of good ale, good music, and good mushrooms.
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succumb
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v. yield; give in; die
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I succumb yield to temptation whenever i see chocolate
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suffragist
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n. advocate of voting rights (for women)
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In recognition of her efforts to win the vote for women, Congress authorized coining a silver dollar honoring the suffragist Susan B. Anthony
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tendentious
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adj. having an aim; biased; designed to further a cause
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The editorials in this periodical are tendentious designed to further a cause rather than truth-seeking
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tender
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v. offer; extend
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Although no formal charges had been made against him, in the wake of the recent scandal the mayor felt he should tender offer extend his resignation
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treatise
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n. article treating a subject systematically and thoroughly
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He is preparing a treatise article treating a subject systematically and thoroughly on the Elizabethan playwrights for his graduate degree
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unwitting
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adj. unintentional; not knowing
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She was the unwitting unintentional not knowing tool of the swindlers
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upbraid
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v. severly scold; reprimand
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Not only did Miss Minchin upbraid severly scold reprimand Ermengarde for her disobedience, but she hung her up by her braids froma coat rack in the classroom.
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visceral
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adj. felt in one's inner organs
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She disliked the visceral felt in one's inner organs sensations she had whenever she rode the roller coaster
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yen
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n. longing; urge
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She had a yen longing urge to get away and live on her own for a while
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