Vocab Tests 4-13

Front 1

perusal

Back 1

To read or examine, typically with great care

Hint 1

They are intended for the perusal of young women, at that tender age when the feelings of their nature begin to act on them most insidiously, and when their minds are least prepared by reason and experience to contend with their passions.

Front 2

fulminating

Back 2

To issue a thunderous verbal attack or denunciation:

to cause to explode.

Hint 2

This powder, now called pyroxyle, or fulminating cotton, is prepared with great facility by simply plunging cotton for fifteen minutes in nitric acid, then washing it in water, then drying it, and it is ready for use.

Front 3

mountebank

Back 3

1. A hawker of quack medicines who attracts customers with stories, jokes, or tricks.
2. A flamboyant charlatan.

Hint 3

He scoffed at them as adventures, mountebanks, sideshow riffraff, dime museum freaks; he assailed their showy titles with measureless derision; he said they were back-alley barbers disguised as nobilities, peanut peddlers masquerading as gentlemen, organ-grinders bereft of their brother monkey.

Front 4

laconic

Back 4

Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.

Hint 4

"Wasps," stammered Sara Ray, laconic from terror.

Front 5

stolid

Back 5

Having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; impassive:

Hint 5

So they watched, the women beating their bosoms and uttering strange cries, the men stolid but scared.

Front 6

deplore

Back 6

1. To feel or express strong disapproval of; condemn
2. To express sorrow or grief over.
3. To regret; bemoan.

Hint 6

"Somehow we had to master events, not simply deplore them" Henry A. Kissinger.

Front 7

ameliorate

Back 7

To make or become better; improve.

Hint 7

But here there was nothing to look after, nothing to undertake, and they had to submit to the situation, without having it in their power to ameliorate it.

Front 8

tawdry

Back 8

1. Gaudy and cheap in nature or appearance. See Synonyms at gaudy1.
2. Shameful or indecent: tawdry secrets

Hint 8

Look what a tawdry and vulgar thing an embroidered slipper is on a woman's foot.

Front 9

obeisance

Back 9

1. A gesture or movement of the body, such as a curtsy, that expresses deference or homage.
2. An attitude of deference or homage.

Hint 9

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he, But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-- Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-- Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Go to page Poems by Poe, Edgar Allan

Front 10

trenchant

Back 10

1. Forceful, effective, and vigorous: a trenchant argument. See Synonyms at incisive.
2. Caustic; cutting: trenchant criticism.
3. Distinct; clear-cut.

Hint 10

He heard these words in his father's trenchant voice, and trembled, and then dodged the thought.

Front 11

vapid

Back 11

. Lacking liveliness, animation, or interest; dull:

Hint 11

It was a grey, white face, shrivelled and pinched, weak eyes without depth, a vapid smile in which there was no meaning.

Front 12

propriety

Back 12

The quality of being proper; appropriateness.

Hint 12

The severe accuracy of some critics has objected to the complexion of the slaves of Brian de Bois-Guilbert, as being totally out of costume and propriety.

Front 13

cortege

Back 13

A train of attendants, as of a distinguished person; a retinue.

Hint 13

In the centre of this pacific and fragrant cortege the black tulip was seen, carried on a litter, which was covered with white velvet and fringed with gold.

Front 14

retinue

Back 14

The retainers or attendants accompanying a high-ranking person.

Hint 14

Some of them even owned automobiles and traveled with a retinue of trainers and servants.

Front 15

absentee

Back 15

Of or relating to one that is absent.

Hint 15

Her father was organist at your own church, and a hard struggle he must have had of it, with an absentee landlord, and a congregation of seagulls, I should think.

Front 16

indiscretion

Back 16

. Lack of discretion; injudiciousness.

Hint 16

On their going to dinner, he ate up all they had left behind, consisting of a pound or two of white lead; and this youthful indiscretion terminated in death.

Front 17

recalcitrant

Back 17

Marked by stubborn resistance to and defiance of authority or guidance.

Hint 17

Neither could he mobilize his army to go forth to war, nor could he punish his recalcitrant subjects.

Front 18

bon mot

Back 18

A clever saying; a witticism.

Hint 18

You need not hurry when the object is only to prevent my saying a bon mot, for there is not the least wit in my nature

Front 19

accoutrements

Back 19

An accessory item of equipment or dress. Often used in the plural.

Hint 19

About his waist he wore an old brass-buckled leather belt, which was the one thing solid in his whole accoutrement.

Front 20

penitent

Back 20

Feeling or expressing remorse for one's misdeeds or sins.

Hint 20

I shall relate my wrongs, the persecutions that I endure--I, a helpless mortal, a penitent, an unoffending poet

Front 21

contrite

Back 21

Feeling regret and sorrow for one's sins or offenses; penitent.

Hint 21

She is contrite, she has confessed all to me.

Front 22

prevaricate

Back 22

To stray from or evade the truth; equivocate, lie.

Hint 22

Thinking it professional to prevaricate, he murmured something about a nervous breakdown.

Front 23

effrontery

Back 23

Brazen boldness; presumptuousness.

Hint 23

cores of times I nerved myself almost to the point of asking her, but never quite reached the necessary pitch of effrontery.