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68 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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Abscond |
To leave secretly |
The patron ____ from the restaurant by sneaking out the back door to avoid paying |
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Adulterate |
Make impure |
The chef made his ketchup last longer by _____ it with water |
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Aggrandize |
To increase in power, influence and reputation |
The supervisor sought to ____ herself by claiming the staff's achievements were her own |
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Amalgamate |
To combine, to mix together |
Giant industries ____ with Mega Products to form Giant-Mega Incorporated |
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Ameliorate |
To make better or improve |
The doctor was able to ____ the patients suffering with pain medication |
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Anachronism |
Something out of place in time |
The aged hippie used _____ phrases like groovy that had not been popular for years |
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Antipathy |
Extreme dislike |
The ___ between the French and English regularly erupted into open warfare |
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Arbitrate |
To judge a dispute between two opposing parties |
Since the couple could not come to an agreement, a judge was forced to ____ their divorce proceedings |
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Assuage |
To make something unpleasant less severe |
Serena used aspirin to ____ her migraine |
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Attenuate |
To reduce in force or degree; to weaken |
The bill of rights ___ the traditional power of governments to change laws at will |
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Castigate |
To punish or criticize harshly |
Many Americans are amazed at how harshly the authorities in Singapore ___ perpetrators of what would be considered minor crimes in the US |
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Chicanery |
Deception by means of craft or guile |
Dishonest used car sales people often use ___ to sell their old beat up cars |
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Cogent |
Convincing and we'll reasoned |
Swayed by the ___ argument of the defense, the jury had no choice but to acquit the defendant |
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Credulous |
Too trusting, gullible |
Although some four year olds believe in the Easter bunny, only the most ___ nine year olds also believe in him |
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Dessicate |
To try out entirely |
After a few weeks of lying on the desert sands, the carcass was completely ____ |
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Desultory |
Jumping from one thing to another; disconnected |
Diane had a ___ academic record. She had changed majors 12 times in 3 years |
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Diatribe |
An abusive, condemnatory speech |
The trucker bellowed a ____ at the driver who had cut him off |
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Diffident |
Lacking self confidence |
Steve's ____ manner during the job interview stemmed from his nervous nature and lack of experience |
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Dilatory |
Intended to delay |
The congressman used ___ measures to delay the passage of the bill |
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Disabuse |
To set right; to free from error |
Galileo's observations ___ scholars of the notion that the sun revolved around the earth |
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Dissemble |
To present a false appearance; to disguise ones real intentions or character |
The villain could ___ to the police no longer - he admitted the free and tore up the floor to reveal the body of the old man |
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Dogmatic |
Dictatorial in ones opinions |
The dictator was ___ - he and only he was right |
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Efficacy |
Effectiveness |
The ___ of penicillin was unsurpassed when it was first introduced; it eliminated all bacterial infections for which it was eliminated |
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Enervate |
To reduce in strength |
The guerillas hoped that a series of surprise attacks would ___ the regular army |
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Engender |
To produce, cause or bring about |
His fear and hatred of clowns was ___ when he witnessed the death of his father at the hands of a clown |
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Equivocate |
To use expressions of double meaning in order to mislead |
When faced with criticism of her policies, the politician ___ and left all parties thinking she agreed with them |
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Erudite |
Learned; scholarly; bookish |
The annual meeting of philosophy professors was a gathering of the most ___ and well published individuals in the field |
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Exculpate |
To clear from blame; prove innocent |
The adversarial legal system is intended to convict those who are guilty and to ___ those who are innocent |
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Exigent |
Urgent; requiring immediate action |
The patient was losing blood so rapidly that it was ___ to stop the source of the bleeding |
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Foment |
To arouse or incite |
The protesters tried to ___ feeling against the war through their speeches and demonstrations |
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Garrulous |
Tending to talk a lot |
The ___ parakeet distracted its owner with its continuous talking |
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Guile |
Deceit or trickery |
Since he was not fast enough to catch the roadrunner, the coyote resorted to ___ in an effort to trap his enemy |
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Iconoclast |
One who opposes established beliefs, customs, and institutions |
His lack of regard for traditional beliefs soon established him as an ____ |
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Imperturbable |
Not capable of being disturbed |
The counselor had so much experience dealing with distraught children that she seemed ___ even when faced with the wildest tantrums |
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Impetuous |
Quick to act without thinking |
It is not good for an investment broker to be ___ since much thought should be given to all the possible options |
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Implacable |
Unable to be calmed down or made peaceful |
His rage at the betrayal was so great that he remained ___ for weeks |
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Inchoate |
Not fully formed, disorganised |
The ideas expressed in Nietsche's mature work also appear in an ___ form in his earliest writing. |
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Ingenuous |
Showing innocence or childlike simplicity |
She was so ___ that her friends feared her innocence and truthfulness would be exploited when she visited the big city |
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Inimical |
Hostile or unfriendly |
Even though the children had grown up together, they were ___ to each other at school |
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Insipid |
Lacking interest or flavor |
The critic claimed that the painting was ___, containing no interesting qualities at all. |
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Intransigent |
Uncompromising, refusing to be reconciled |
The professor was ____ on the deadline, insisting that everyone turn the assignment in at the same time |
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Irascible |
Easily made angry |
Attila the hun's ___ and violent nature made all who dealt with him fear for their lives |
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Laconic |
Using few words |
She was a ___ poet who built her reputation on using words as sparingly as possible |
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Malinger |
To evade responsibilities by pretending to be ill |
A common way to avoid the draft was by ___ - pretending to be mentally or physically ill so as to avoid being taken by the army |
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Misanthrope |
A person who dislikes others |
The character scrooge in A Christmas Carol is such a ____ that even the sight of children made him angry |
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Mitigate |
To soften or lessen |
A judge may choose to ___ a sentence of she decides that a person committed a crime out of need |
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Obdurate |
Hardened in feeling; resistant to persuasion |
The president was completely ___ on the issue and no amount of persuasion would change his mind |
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Obsequious |
Overly submissive and eager to please |
The ___ new associate made sure to compliment her supervisors tie and agree with him on every issue |
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Obviate |
To prevent; to make unnecessary |
The river was shallow enough to wade across at many points, which ___ the need for a bridge. |
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Opprobrium |
Public disgrace |
After the scheme to embezzle the elderly was made public, the treasurer resigned in utter ___ |
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Paragon |
Model of excellence or perfection |
She is the ___ of what a judge should be; honest, intelligent, hardworking and just |
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Perfidious |
Willing to betray one's trust |
The actress's ___ companion revealed all of her intimate secrets to the gossip columnist. |
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Perfunctory |
Done in a routine way; indifferent |
The machine-like bank teller processed the transaction and gave the waiting customer a ___ smile. |
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Precipitate |
To throw violently or bring about abruptly; lacking deliberation |
Upon learning that the couple married after knowing each other only two months, friends, and family members expected such a ___ marriage to end in divorce. |
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Prevaricate |
To lie or deviate from the truth |
Rather than admit that he had overslept again, he employee ___ and claimed that heavy traffic had prevented him from arriving at work on time. |
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Prodigal |
Lavish, wasteful |
The ___ son quickly wasted all his inheritance on a lavish lifestyle. |
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Propitiate |
To conciliate, to appease |
The management ___ the irate union by agreeing by agreeing to raise wages for its members |
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Quiescent |
Motionless |
Many animals are ___ over the winter months, minimizing activity in order to conserve energy |
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Rarefy |
To make thinner or sparser |
Since the atmosphere ___ as altitudes increase, the air at the top of very tall mountains is too thin to breathe |
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Repudiate |
To reject the validity of |
The old woman's claim that she was Russian royalty was ____ with DNA evidence |
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Reticent |
Silent and reserved |
Physically small and ___ in her speech, Joan Didion often went unnoticed by those upon whom she was reporting |
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Soporific |
Causing sleep or lethargy |
The movie proved to be so ___ that soon loud snores were heard in the theater |
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Specious |
Deceptively attractive; seemingly plausible but fallacious |
The students ___ excuse for being late sounded legitimate but was proved otherwise when her teacher called her home. |
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Stolid |
Unemotional; lacking sensitivity |
The prisoner appeared ___ and unaffected by the judges harsh sentence |
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Tacit |
Done without using words |
Although not a word had been said, everyone in the room knew that a ___ agreement had been made about which course of action to take |
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Torpor |
Extreme mental and physical sluggishness |
After surgery, the patient experienced ___ until the anesthesia wore off |
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Veracity |
Filled with truth and accuracy |
She had a reputation for ___, so everyone trusted her description of events |
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Verbose |
Wordy |
The professors answer was so ___ that his students forgot what the original question had been |
