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28 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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perfidious
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(adj.) treacherous; not trustworthy
keyword: hideous The perfidious villain had a hideous face that could not be trusted. The zoo caretakers had to be careful, esp. when feeding the tigers. They were considered perfidious and extremely dangerous when hungry. |
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pernicious
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(adj.) harmful or destructive; deadly
keyword: perm fishes Many pple thought that Jane's idea to perm fishes was cruel and pernicious thing to do. The pernicious termites ate into the wooden foundation of the house, costing thousands of dollars in damage. |
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pique
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(n.) resentment at being slighted; a feeling of hurt pride
(v.) to provoke intrigue or interest keyword: peak Tom was piqued at Jim who erroneously took all the credit in the news for reaching the peak of the mountain first. The biggest thing damaged in the motorcycle accident was David's pride, but his pique quickly disappeared when he realized how lucky he was to be uninjured. |
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precipitous
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(adj.) very steep
keyword: pressed lips Several pairs of pressed lips smashed against the front window of the bus as it descended the precipitous mountain road. Due to high interest rates and job layoffs, there was a precipitous fall in teh sale of houses. |
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peregrinate
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(v.) to wander or travel from place to place
keyword: pair of granades (手榴彈) Stuck with a pair of grenades, the soldier peregrinated for miles, searching for a safe sport to detonate 觸發 them. |
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polemic
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(n.) an attack or defense regarding a set of principles, ideals, or opinions; argument; debate; controversy
note: a polemicist is an aggressive controversialist keyword: pole limit The fisherman engaged in a polemic with the park warden, arguing that he was unhappy with the new pole limit of one fishing pole per family. The televised polemic uncovered many scandals that the governor's administration had desperately been trying to conceal. |
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prodigious
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(adj.) enornous or extraordinary
keyword: ditches In his search for dinosaur bones, the little boy dug several prodigious ditches. |
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petulant
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(adj.) bad tempered; rude or impatient; irritable
keyword: pet for rent The petulant pet for rent bared its teeth and growled before chewing up the man's leg. The customer's petulant behavior was rude and difficult to deal with. |
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ponderous
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(adj.) heavy or weighty/slow or awkward b/c something is heavy or large/boring or unpleasantly dull
keyword: pond His steps seemed ponderous as he struggled to move the heavy and awkward pond. The teacher's slow and ponderous delivery made the lecture more monotonous. |
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raconteur
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(n.) story teller
keyword: wreck on tour The judge ordered the raconteur to take his wretck on tour. He had to drive his beat up car around the country, telling his story. |
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ramify
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(v.) to divide or branch out
keyword: rams 公羊 The rams forged new trails in the mountains, ramifying the existing former path into several branches. |
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raucous
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(adj.) rough-sounding/ in a disorderly and rowdy manner
keyword: rock Mike made a raucous noise that woke the neighbors by throwing rocks against his friend's window at night. |
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reprobate
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(n.) an immoral, vicious person
keyword: wreck a date The reprobate was so mean and self-centered that he often wrecked a date with one mean comment. Garrett was labeled a reprobate after he was caught beating a bunny. |
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reticent
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(adj.) uncommunicative; tending to be silent; keeping to oneself
keyword: rent a tent Greg liked to keep to himself and decided that in order to remain reticent it would be best to rent a tent instead of staying in a cabin with his friends. In police custody, he remained reticent, refusing to answer any questions about his whereabouts the previous evening. |
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ribald
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(adj.) characterized by crude or indecent joking; vulgar 粗俗的
Keyword: real bald The kids loved to tell ribald jokes about the man's really bald head. William had a tendency to tell ribald jokes at church, and was consequently avoided. |
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sagacity
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(n.) good judgement; wisdom
keyword: Sack City Due to the sagacity of its leaders, sacks were recycled over and over again in Sack City. Wendy was voted president of the student council due to her sagacity and good judgement on tough issues. |
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salient
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(adj.) highly noticeable, prominent, or most important
keyword: sail ants The sail ants were highly salient as they sailed their little boat across the bathtub. Journalism students are required to listen to speeches for the most important info, and the to report the most salient points. |
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salutary
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(adj.) beneficial; improving
keyword: salute It is very salutary to salute the colonel in order to show respect for command and to avoid punishment. Flunking the pretest was a salutary reminder that he needed to study more. |
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sanctimonious
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(adj.) acting morally superior; hypocritically pious or devout
keyword: sank After his sanctimonious comment, "Nothing can sink us," the Titanic sank. |
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seminal
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(adj.) origin, or the beginning of something (often influencing later developments)
keyword: cement ball Some say the seminal beginning to the modern game of basketball originated with the Aztecs who played a similar game with a hard rubber ball that felt rather like a cement ball. |
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conundrum
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(ku'nundrum)
(n.) a question or riddle that is difficult to solve keyword: con and drum Sherlock Holmes was brought in to solve the conundrum of the escaped con and drum. Newlyweds are often faced with the conundrum of whose parents to visit during the holidays. |
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coagulate
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(v.) to thicken; solidify; curdle
Even after you remove the pudding from the burner, it will continue to coagulate as it stands. coagulant (n.) |
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curdle
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凝結
the vapor curdle into a shape of turtle. |
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coda
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(n.) concluding section of a music or literary composition; something rounds out, summarizes, or concludes.
The piece concluded with a distinctive coda that strikingly brought together various motifs. Several months after Charlie Chaplin's death, his body was briefly kidnapped from a Swiss cemetery by a pair of bungling thieves-a macabre coda that Chaplin might have concocted for one of his own two-reelers. |
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desultory
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('desultery) (adj.) aimless; haphazard (hap'hazerd) 隨意的, 雜亂的, 古怪的
In prison Malcolm X set himself the task of reading straight through the dictionary; to him, reading was purposeful, not desultory. |
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disabuse
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(v.) to free (a person) from deception or error;corrected false impression; undeceive; 使醒悟
ex. I will attempt to disabuse you of your impression of my client's guilt; I know he's innocent. |
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disingenuous
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(adj.) lacking genuine candor; insincere; not candid
Now that we know that the major and his wife are engaged in a bitter divorce fight; we find their earlier remarks regretting their lack of time to get together remarkably disingenuous. <=> ingenuous-candid; sincere; naive; innocent; artless similar-looking word: ingenious- (adj.) characterized by cleverness/originality of invention ex. an ingenious machine |
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disinterested
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(adj.) unprejudiced; impartial; not taking sides; not having one's personal interest at stake
ex. a good referee should be disinterested. (He does not take side) similar looking word- uninterested (adj.) not interested, not showing any interest ex. He was uninterested in Jill's hobby. |
