Vocabulary Set

Front 1

Tosspot

Back 1

(TOS-pot) noun:

1) A drunkard

2) An idiot

ex: "It's like a cast of tosspots who don't know their limit and then get into a car."

Front 2

Gadabout

Back 2

(GAD-uh-bout) noun:

1) One whom roams around in search of amusement.

ex: "The film charted Zelda Kaplan's transformation from homemaker to social gadabout flitting from party to party.

Front 3

Bleb

Back 3

(bleb) noun:

1) a small blister or swelling.

2) A bubble

ex: "His worried face shone with moisture; rivulets of sweat slid down his jaw bone. A bleb hung from his chin."

Front 4

Jilt

Back 4

(jilt) Verb:

1) To end a relationship suddenly or callously.

ex: "Even so, it is unlikely, analysts said, that china would jilt Khartoum for Juba."

Front 5

Pi

Back 5

noun:

1) A confused mixture, originally a jumble of printing types.

2) The 16th letter of the Greek alphabet.

3) A mathematical circumference of a circle to its diameter.

ex: "The Indiana Soldier's letter, however, "has completely knocked into pi all the arguments they have employed."

Front 6

Yare

Back 6

(yahr) adjective:

1) Easily maneuverable; nimble

2) Ready

ex: "I do desire to learn, sir; and, I hope, if you have occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare."

Front 7

Ruck

Back 7

(ruk) noun:

1) A large mass, especially of ordinary people or things.

2) A crease or wrinkle

verb:

1) To make a crease or to become creased

ex: "Any genuine pilgrim would have to fight his way past a ruck of tourists to get close to such an object.

Front 8

Repletion

Back 8

(ri-PLEE-shuhn) noun:

1) The condition of being completely filled or satisfied.

ex: Her body tingled with repletion and yet she was somehow unsatisfied.

Front 9

Inimical

Back 9

(I-NIM-I-kuhl) adjective

1) Harmful

2) Unfriendly

ex: "But the landers found no other signs of biological activity, nor any organic compound. If anything, the soil seemed inimical to life."

Front 10

skulduggery

Back 10

(skuhl-DUHG-uh-ree) noun

1) Underhand dealing: trickery, bribery, etc

ex: "In the 1980s {the Vatican Bank} was accused of involvement in financial skullduggery and responsibility for the still-mysterious death of a prominent Italian banker Roberto Calvi."

Front 11

Bloviate

Back 11

(BLO-vee-ayt) verb:

1) to speak pompously

ex: "All you cinephiles who like to find grand statements and social criticism in horro movies, prepare to bloviate. It's midnight at the Tribeca Film Festival."

Front 12

Ponderous

Back 12

(PON-duhr-uhs) adjective:

1) Having great weight

2) Awkward or unwieldy

3) Dull or laborious

ex: "Don't fall for the old fat trap. That ponderous old set resolutions you make every year: I will lose weight. I will work out. I will eat less dessert. We both know you'll be tucking into a double chocolate chip cookie before the day is over."

Front 13

Quondam

Back 13

(KWON-duhm) adjective:

1)Former; onetime

ex: "One of the assumptions Madison and others labored under was that Britain would be too preoccupied with beating Napoleon to pay attention to its quondam colonies."

Front 14

Ignominy

Back 14

(IG-nuh-min-ee, ig-NOM-uh-nee) Noun:

1) Public disgrace

2) Disgraceful quality or conduct

ex: "Nor is JAL likely to suffer the ignominy of an immediate slump in the share price, as Facebook did after its IPO, analysts say."

Front 15

Voluble

Back 15

(VOL-yuh-buhl) adjective:

1) Speaking incessantly or fluently

ex: "As Mr. Barroso, a voluble sort, talked about strong transatlantic relationships and the like, Mr. Obama gazed stony-faced at his shoes."

Front 16

Intransigent

Back 16

(in-TRAN-si-jent) ajective:

1) unwilling to compromise, especially from an extreme position.

Noun:

1) One who refuses to compromise

ex: "Both remain intransigent in their respective positions without any real effort to negotiate in a democratic spirit."

Front 17

potentate

Back 17

(POH-ten-tayt) Noun:

1) One having great power, especially an autocratic person.

ex: "The company has always been good at finding oil, whether by discovering new fields deep beneath the ocean floor or by schmoozing potentates such as Libya's Colonel Muammer Qaddafi."

Front 18

Sophist

Back 18

(SOF-ist) Noun:

1) One who makes clever, but unsound arguments.

ex: "But this day Mansoor had turned five, and Ma used a sophist's argument to call for a celebration.

Front 19

Solicitous

Back 19

(suh-LIS-I-tuhs) adjective:

1) Full of concern

2) Eager

3) Meticulous

ex: "The staff is solicitous of its core customer; efficient with others."

Front 20

Stellenbosch

Back 20

(STE-len-bosh) Verb:

1) To relegate someone incompetent to a position of minimal responsibility.

ex: "His erstwhile colleague acknowledged Mr. Myer's absence. Has Mr. Myers been stellenbosched."

Front 21

Campanology

Back 21

(kam-puh-NOL-uh-jee) Noun:

1) The art or study of bell-ringing or making bells

ex: "A woman who has helped secure the future of bell ringing across the east of England has been appointed MBE in the New Year Honours list for her services to campanology.

Front 22

Iliad

Back 22

(IL-ee-uhd) Noun:

1) A long narrative, especially an epic poem describing martial exploits.

2) A long series of miseries or disasters.

ex: "She knew... stories which form part of an iliads of obscure hatreds, quarrels, adulteries, marriages."

Front 23

Damask

Back 23

(DAM-uhsk)

Noun:

1) A reversible fabric with a pattern woven into it, used for table linen, upholstery, etc.

2) Short for damask rose.

3) The color of damask rose: grayish red or pink.

4) Short for damask steel.

5) Wavy markings on such steel...

Adjective:

1) Made of or resembling damask

2) Having the color of damask rose.

Verb:

1) To decorate or weave with richly-figured designs.

2) To inlay a metal object with gold or silver patterns; to gild.

ex: "The richly coloured damask-covered walls do evoke the palaces for which many of the pictures were intended."

Front 24

Honeyfuggle

Back 24

(HUN-ee-fuh-guhl)

Verb:

1) to deceive or swindle, especially by flattery.

ex: "Don't try to honeyfuggle me, Wolf McCloud. I'm not pretty, and we both know it."

Front 25

Scud

Back 25

(skud)

Verb:

1) To run or move swiftly

2) In nautical parlance, to run before a g

Front 26

Slipstream

Back 26

(SLIP-streem)

Noun:

1) A Stream of air (or another fluid) forced backwards by a propeller.

2) The area of reduced pressure behind a fast-moving object.

Verb:

1) To follow behind a vehicle to take advantage of decreased wind resistance.

ex: "The owl was so small, in fact, that it kept on tumbling over in the air, buffeted this way and that in the train's slipstream."

Front 27

Heinous

Back 27

(HAY-nuhs)

Adjective: Extremely Wicked

ex: "You have been brought here before the Council of Magical Law ... so that we may pass judgment on you, for a crime so heinous."

Front 28

Sepulchral

Back 28

(suh-PUHL-kruhl)

Adjective:

1) Relating to a grave or a burial

2) Gloomy, serious, or sad

ex: "A sallow-skinned wizard with a very mournful face got int. "Morning, Arthur, he said in a sepulchral voice."

Front 29

Canker

Back 29

(KANG-kuhr)

Noun: 1) A source of corruption or decay.

2) Ulcerous sores in the mouth; also any of various diseases affecting animals and plants.

Verb: 1) To corrupt or to become corrupted.

2) To infect with or be infected with canker.

ex: "And in your family, so in the world ... we shall cut away the canker that infects us until only those of the true blood remain."

Front 30

Grok

Back 30

(grok)

Verb: To understand deeply and intuitively

ex: "Any first-time Apple user immediately groks the nature of the device."

Front 31

Waldo

Back 31

(WAL-doh)

Noun: A device for manipulating objects by remote control, for example, a remotely-operated arm.

ex: "I stuck my hand back into the waldo ... the remote arms peeled back the thin metal of the gondola."

Front 32

Tardis

Back 32

(TAR-dis)

Noun: 1) A time machine

2) Something that is much bigger than it appears from the outside.

ex: "This revival disco tune is a must on any party list. For those born post-1980, it's like taking a tardis back to the heady heights of the 70s funk revolution."

Front 33

Longhair

Back 33

(LONG-hair)

Noun: 1) An intellectual

2) One having a deep interest in the arts, especially in classical music.

3) A male with long hair, especially a hippie.

4) A cat having long hair.

ex: "With the largest cast in LA Opera history, it delivers pure kitsch, complete with pratfalls, pie-in-the-face .... it is shamelessly slapstick, but the diehard longhairs loved it anyway."

Front 34

Tribology

Back 34

(try-BOL-uh-jee)

Noun: The study of interacting surfaces in relative motion and associated issues, such as friction, lubrication, and wear.

ex: "As in the later case of the frayed shoelace, what I wanted here was tribology: detailed knowledge of the interaction between the surfaces inflicting the wear and the surfaces receiving it."