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25 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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Abase
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to humliate, degrade
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After being overthrown and ABASED, the deposed leader offered to bow down to his conqueror.
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Balk
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to block abruptly, stop
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Edna's boss balked at her request for anoter raise.
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Cacophony
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tremendous noise, disharmonious sound.
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The elementary school orchestra created a cacophony at the recital.
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Daunting
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intimidating, causing one to lose courage
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He kept delaying the daunting act of asking for a promotion.
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Ebullient
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extremely lively, enthusiastic
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She became ebullient upon receiving an acceptance letter from her first-choice college.
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Fabricate
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to make, invent
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When I arrived an hour late to class, I fabricated some excuse about my car breaking down on the way to school.
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Garish
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gaudy, in bad taste
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Mr. Watson has poor taste and covers every object in her house with a garish gold laame.
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Hackneyed
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unoriginal, trite
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A girl can only hear "I love you" so many times before it begins to sound heckneyed and meaningless.
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Iconoclast
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one who attacks common beliefs or institutions
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Jane goes to one protest after another, but she seems to be an iconoclast rather than an activist with a progressive agenda.
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Jubilant
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extremely joyful, happy
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The crowd was jubilant when the firefighter carried the woman from the flaming building.
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Knell
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the solemn sound of a bell, often indicating a death
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Echoing throughout our village, the funeral knell made the stormy day even more grim.
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Laceration
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a cut, tear
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Because he fell off his bike into a rosebrush, the paperboy's skin was covered with lacerations.
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Maelstrom
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a destructive whirlpool which rapidly sucks in objects
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Little did the explorers know that as they turned the next bend of the calm river a vicious maelstrom would catch their boat.
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Nadir
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the lowest point of something
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My day was boring, but the nadir came when I accidentally spilled a bowl of spaghetti on my head.
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Obdurate
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unyielding to persuasion or moral influences
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The obdurate old man refused to take pity on the kittens.
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Pacific
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soothing
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The chemistry professor's pacific demanor helped the class remain calm after the experiment exploded.
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Quagmire
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a difficult situation
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We'd all like to avoid the kind of military quagmire characterized by the Vietname War.
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Rail
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to scold, protest
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The professor railed against the injustice of the college's tenure policy.
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Saccharine
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sickeningly sweet
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Tom's saccharine manner, although intended to make him popular, actually repelled his classmates.
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Tacit
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expressed without words
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I interpreted my parents' refusal to talk as a tacit acceptance of my request.
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Ubiquitous
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existing everywhere, widespread
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It seems that everyone in the US has a television. The technology is ubiquitous here.
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Vacillate
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to fluctuate, hesitate
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I prefer a definite answer, but my boss kept vacillating between the distinct options available to us.
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Wallow
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to roll oneself indolently; to become or remain helpless
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My roommate can't get over her breakup with her boyfriend and now just wallows in self-pity.
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Yoke
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to join, link
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We yoked together the logs by tying a string around them.
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Zealous
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fervent, filled with eagerness in pursuit of something
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If he were any more zealous about getting his promotion, he'd practially live at the office.
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