Sat Spark Notes D

Front 1

daunting

Back 1

(adj.) intimidating, causing one to lose courage

Hint 1

He kept delaying the
daunting act of asking for a promotion.

Front 2

dearth

Back 2

(n.) a lack, scarcity

Hint 2

An eager reader, she was dismayed by the dearth of classic
books at the library.

Front 3

debacle

Back 3

(n.) a disastrous failure, disruption

Hint 3

The elaborately designed fireworks show
turned into a debacle when the fireworks started firing in random directions.

Front 4

debase

Back 4

(v.) to lower the quality or esteem of something

Hint 4

The large raise that he gave
himself debased his motives for running the charity.

Front 5

debauch

Back 5

(v.) to corrupt by means of sensual pleasures

Hint 5

An endless amount of good wine
and cheese debauched the traveler.

Front 6

debunk

Back 6

(v.) to expose the falseness of something

Hint 6

He debunked her claim to be the
world’s greatest chess player by defeating her in 18 consecutive matches.

Front 7

decorous

Back 7

(adj.) socially proper, appropriate

Hint 7

The appreciative guest displayed decorous
behavior toward his host.

Front 8

decry

Back 8

(v.) to criticize openly

Hint 8

The kind video rental clerk decried the policy of charging
customers late fees.

Front 9

deface

Back 9

(v.) to ruin or injure something’s appearance

Hint 9

(The brothers used eggs and
shaving cream to deface their neighbor’s mailbox.)

Front 10

defamatory

Back 10

(adj.) harmful toward another’s reputation

Hint 10

The defamatory gossip
spreading about the actor made the public less willing to see the actor’s new movie.

Front 11

defer

Back 11

(v.) to postpone something; to yield to another’s wisdom

Hint 11

Ron deferred to Diane,
the expert on musical instruments, when he was asked about buying a piano.

Front 12

deferential

Back 12

(adj.) showing respect for another’s authority

Hint 12

His deferential attitude
toward her made her more confident in her ability to run the company.

Front 13

defile

Back 13

(v.) to make unclean, impure

Hint 13

She defiled the calm of the religious building by
playing her banjo.

Front 14

deft

Back 14

(adj.) skillful, capable

Hint 14

Having worked in a bakery for many years, Marcus was a
deft bread maker.

Front 15

defunct

Back 15

(adj.) no longer used or existing

Hint 15

They planned to turn the defunct schoolhouse
into a community center.

Front 16

delegate

Back 16

(v.) to hand over responsibility for something

Hint 16

The dean delegated the task of
finding a new professor to a special hiring committee.

Front 17

deleterious

Back 17

(adj.) harmful

Hint 17

She experienced the deleterious effects of running a
marathon without stretching her muscles enough beforehand.

Front 18

deliberate

Back 18

(adj.) intentional, reflecting careful consideration

Hint 18

Though Mary was quite
upset, her actions to resolve the dispute were deliberate.

Front 19

delineate

Back 19

(v.) to describe, outline, shed light on

Hint 19

She neatly delineated her reasons for
canceling the project’s funding.

Front 20

demagogue

Back 20

(n.) a leader who appeals to a people’s prejudices

Hint 20

(The demagogue
strengthened his hold over his people by blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs.)

Front 21

demarcation

Back 21

(n.) the marking of boundaries or categories

Hint 21

Different cultures have
different demarcations of good and evil.

Front 22

demean

Back 22

(v.) to lower the status or stature of something

Hint 22

She refused to demean her
secretary by making him order her lunch.

Front 23

demure

Back 23

(adj.) quiet, modest, reserved

Hint 23

Though everyone else at the party was dancing
and going crazy, she remained demure.

Front 24

denigrate

Back 24

(v.) to belittle, diminish the opinion of

Hint 24

The company decided that its
advertisements would no longer denigrate the company’s competitors.

Front 25

denounce

Back 25

(v.) to criticize publicly

Hint 25

The senator denounced her opponent as a greedy
politician.

Front 26

deplore

Back 26

(v.) to feel or express sorrow, disapproval

Hint 26

We all deplored the miserable
working conditions in the factory.

Front 27

depravity

Back 27

(n.) wickedness

Hint 27

Rumors of the ogre’s depravity made the children afraid to
enter the forest.

Front 28

deprecate

Back 28

(v.) to belittle, depreciate

Hint 28

Always over-modest, he deprecated his
contribution to the local charity.

Front 29

derelict

Back 29

(adj.) abandoned, run-down

Hint 29

Even though it was dangerous, the children
enjoyed going to the deserted lot and playing in the derelict house.

Front 30

deride

Back 30

(v.) to laugh at mockingly, scorn

Hint 30

The bullies derided the foreign student’s
accent.)

Front 31

derivative

Back 31

(adj.) taken directly from a source, unoriginal

Hint 31

She was bored by his music
because she felt that it was derivative and that she had heard it before.

Front 32

disaffected

Back 32

(adj.) rebellious, resentful of authority

Hint 32

Dismayed by Bobby’s poor
behavior, the parents sent their disaffected son to a military academy to be
disciplined.

Front 33

disavow

Back 33

(v.) to deny knowledge of or responsibility for

Hint 33

Not wanting others to criticize
her, she disavowed any involvement in the company’s hiring scandal.

Front 34

discern

Back 34

(v.) to perceive, detect

Hint 34

Though he hid his emotions, she discerned from his body
language that he was angry.

Front 35

disclose

Back 35

(v.) to reveal, make public

Hint 35

The CEO disclosed to the press that the company
would have to fire several employees.

Front 36

discomfit

Back 36

(v.) to thwart, baffle

Hint 36

The normally cheery and playful children’s sudden
misery discomfited the teacher

Front 37

discordant

Back 37

(adj.) not agreeing, not in harmony with

Hint 37

The girls’ sobs were a discordant sound amid the general laughter that filled the restaurant.

Front 38

discrepancy

Back 38

(n.) difference, failure of things to correspond

Hint 38

He was troubled by the
discrepancy between what he remembered paying for the appliance and what his
receipt showed he paid for it.

Front 39

desecrate

Back 39

(v.) to violate the sacredness of a thing or place

Hint 39

They feared that the
construction of a golf course would desecrate the preserved wilderness.

Front 40

desiccated

Back 40

(adj.) dried up, dehydrated

Hint 40

The skin of the desiccated mummy looked like
old paper.

Front 41

desolate

Back 41

(adj.) deserted, dreary, lifeless

Hint 41

She found the desolate landscape quite a
contrast to the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded city.

Front 42

despondent

Back 42

(adj.) feeling depressed, discouraged, hopeless

Hint 42

Having failed the first math test, the despondent child saw no use in studying for the next and failed that
one too.

Front 43

despot

Back 43

(n.) one who has total power and rules brutally

Hint 43

The despot issued a death
sentence for anyone who disobeyed his laws.

Front 44

destitute

Back 44

(adj.) impoverished, utterly lacking

Hint 44

The hurricane destroyed many homes and left many families destitute.

Front 45

deter

Back 45

(v.) to discourage, prevent from doing

Hint 45

Bob’s description of scary snakes couldn’t deter Marcia from traveling in the rainforests.

Front 46

devious

Back 46

(adj.) not straightforward, deceitful

Hint 46

Not wanting to be punished, the devious girl blamed the broken vase on the cat.

Front 47

dialect

Back 47

(n.) a variation of a language

Hint 47

In the country’s remote, mountainous regions, the
inhabitants spoke a dialect that the country’s other inhabitants had difficulty
understanding.

Front 48

diaphanous

Back 48

(adj.) light, airy, transparent

Hint 48

Sunlight poured in through the diaphanous curtains, brightening the room.

Front 49

didactic

Back 49

1. (adj.) intended to instruct
2. (adj.) overly moralistic

Hint 49

1. She wrote up a didactic document showing new
employees how to handle the company’s customers.
2.His
didactic style of teaching made it seem like he wanted to persuade his students not to understand history fully, but to understand it from only one point of view.

Front 50

diffident

Back 50

(adj.) shy, quiet, modest

Hint 50

While eating dinner with the adults, the diffident
youth did not speak for fear of seeming presumptuous.

Front 51

diffuse

Back 51

1. (v.) to scatter, thin out, break up
2. (adj.) not concentrated, scattered, disorganized

Hint 51

1. He diffused the tension in the room by making in a joke.
2. In her
writings, she tried unsuccessfully to make others understand her diffuse thoughts.

Front 52

dilatory

Back 52

(adj.) tending to delay, causing delay

Hint 52

The general’s dilatory strategy enabled the enemy to regroup.

Front 53

diligent

Back 53

(adj.) showing care in doing one’s work

Hint 53

The diligent researcher made sure to check her measurements multiple times.

Front 54

diminutive

Back 54

(adj.) small or miniature

Hint 54

The bullies, tall and strong, picked on the diminutive child.

Front 55

dirge

Back 55

(n.) a mournful song, especially for a funeral

Hint 55

The bagpipers played a dirge as the casket was carried to the cemetery.

Front 56

dispatch

Back 56

(v.) to send off to accomplish a duty

Hint 56

The carpenter dispatched his assistant to fetch wood.

Front 57

dispel

Back 57

(v.) to drive away, scatter

Hint 57

She entered the office as usual on Monday, dispelling
the rumor that she had been fired.

Front 58

disperse

Back 58

(v.) to scatter, cause to scatter

Hint 58

When the rain began to pour, the crowd at the
baseball game quickly dispersed.

Front 59

disrepute

Back 59

(n.) a state of being held in low regard

Hint 59

The officer fell into disrepute after it
was learned that he had disobeyed the orders he had given to his own soldiers.

Front 60

dissemble

Back 60

(v.) to conceal, fake

Hint 60

Not wanting to appear heartlessly greedy, she
dissembled and hid her intention to sell her ailing father’s stamp collection.

Front 61

disseminate

Back 61

(v.) to spread widely

Hint 61

The politician disseminated his ideas across the town
before the election.

Front 62

dissent

Back 62

1. (v.) to disagree
2. (n.) the act of disagreeing

Hint 62

1. The principal argued that the child should repeat the fourth grade, but the unhappy parents dissented.
2. Unconvinced that the defendant was guilty, the last juror voiced his dissent with the rest of the jury.

Front 63

dissipate

Back 63

1. (v.) to disappear, cause to disappear
2. (v.) to waste

Hint 63

1. The sun finally came out and dissipated the haze.
2. She dissipated her fortune on a series of bad
investments.

Front 64

dissonance

Back 64

(n.) lack of harmony or consistency

Hint 64

Though the president of the company often spoke of the company as reliant solely upon its workers, her decision to increase her own salary rather than reward her employees revealed a striking dissonance between her alleged beliefs and her actions.

Front 65

dissuade

Back 65

(v.) to persuade someone not to do something

Hint 65

Worried that he would catch a
cold, she tried to dissuade him from going out on winter nights.

Front 66

distend

Back 66

(v.) to swell out

Hint 66

Years of drinking beer caused his stomach to distend.

Front 67

dither

Back 67

(v.) to be indecisive

Hint 67

Not wanting to offend either friend, he dithered about
which of the two birthday parties he should attend.

Front 68

divine

Back 68

(adj.) godly, exceedingly wonderful

Hint 68

Terribly fond of desserts, she found the rich chocolate cake to be divine.

Front 69

divisive

Back 69

(adj.) causing dissent, discord

Hint 69

Her divisive tactics turned her two friends against each other.

Front 70

divulge

Back 70

(v.) to reveal something secret

Hint 70

Pressured by press, the government finally
divulged the previously unknown information.

Front 71

docile

Back 71

(adj.) easily taught or trained

Hint 71

She successfully taught the docile puppy several
tricks.

Front 72

dogmatic

Back 72

(adj.) aggressively and arrogantly certain about unproved principles

Hint 72

His
dogmatic claim that men were better than women at fixing appliances angered
everyone.

Front 73

dormant

Back 73

(adj.) sleeping, temporarily inactive

Hint 73

Though she pretended everything was
fine, her anger lay dormant throughout the dinner party and exploded in screams of
rage after everyone had left.

Front 74

dour

Back 74

(adj.)stern, joyless

Hint 74

The children feared their dour neighbor because the old man would take their toys if he believed they were being too loud.

Front 75

dubious

Back 75

(adj.) doubtful, of uncertain quality

Hint 75

Suspicious that he was only trying to get a raise, she found his praise dubious.

Front 76

duplicity

Back 76

(n.) crafty dishonesty

Hint 76

His duplicity involved convincing his employees to let
him lower their salaries and increase their stock options, and then to steal the money
he saved and run the company into the ground.

Front 77

duress

Back 77

(n.) hardship, threat

Hint 77

It was only under intense duress that he, who was
normally against killing, fired his gun.

Front 78

dynamic

Back 78

(adj.) actively changing

Hint 78

The parents found it hard to keep up with the dynamic music scene with which their children had become very familiar.