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101 Cards in this Set
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- Back
alloy
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to commingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior; unalloyed means pure
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appropriate
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to take for one's own use, confiscate
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august
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majestic, venerable
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bent
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leaning, inclination, proclivity
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brook
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to tolerate, endure, countenance
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chauvinist
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a blindly devoted patriot
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cardinal
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major, as in cardinal sin
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consequential
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pompous, self-important (primary definitions are logically following; important)
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meet
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fitting, proper; "It is altogether meet that Jackie Robinson is in the baseball hall of fame."
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mince
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pronounce or speak affectedly, euphemize, speak too carefully: "Don't mince words." Also, to take tiny steps, tiptoe
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nice
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exacting, fastidious, extremely precise: "He made a nice distinction between the two cases."
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obtain
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to be established, accepted, or customary: "Those standards no longer obtain."
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occult
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hidden, concealed, beyond comprehension
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pied
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multicolored, usually in blotches: "The pied piper of hamlin was so called because of his multicolored coat."
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pine
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to lose vigor (as though through grief); to yearn
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pine
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to lose vigor (as though through grief); to yearn
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plastic
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moldable, pliable, not rigid
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prize
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to pry, to press or force with a lever; something taken by force, spoils: "The information was prized from him."
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rent
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torn, past of rend: "He rent his garments:" an opening or tear caused by such: "a large rend in the fabric"
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quail
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to lose courage, turn frightened
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sap
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a fool or nitwit: "Don't be a sap."
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scurvy
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contemptible, despicable: "He was a scurvy old reprobate."
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stand
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a group of trees
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strut
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the supporting structural cross-part of a wing
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tender
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to proffer or offer: "He tendered his resignation."
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waffle
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to equivocate; to change one's position: "His detractors say that the President waffles too much; he can never make up his mind."
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wag
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wit, joker: "Groucho Marx was a well known wag."
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abjure
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to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid
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adumbrate
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to foreshadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow
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anathema
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a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing
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anodyne
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soothing, something that allays pain or comforts
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apogee
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farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith
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apotheosis
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deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model or excellence or perfection
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asperity
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severity, rigor; roughness, harshness, acrimony, irritability
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assevervate
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to aver, allege, assert
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augury
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omen, portent
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calumniate
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to slander, make a false accusation; calumny means slander, aspersion
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captious
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disposed to point out trivial faults, calculated to confuse or entrap in argument
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cavil
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to find fault without good reason
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celerity
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speed, alacrity; think accelerate
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chimera
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an illusion; originally an imaginary fire-breathing she monster
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contumacious
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insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means insult, scorn, aspersion
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descry
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to discriminate or discern
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desuetude
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disuse: "After years of desuetude, my french skills were finally put to use."
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desultory
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random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose: "Her desultory performance impressed no one."
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diaphanous
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transparent, gauzy
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diffident
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reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in self-confidence: Surprisingly, the CEO of the corporation had been a diffident youth
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dirge
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a song of grief or lamentation: "We listened to the slow, funereal dirge"
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encomium
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glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy
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eschew
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to shun or avoid: "She chose to eschew the movie theater, preferring to watch DVDs at home."
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excoriate
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to censure scathingly, to upbraid
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execrate
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denounce, feel loathing for, curse, declare to be evil
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exegesis
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critical examination, explication
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expiate
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to atone or make amends for: "Pia Zadora has expiated her movie career by good works and charity."
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extirpate
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to destroy, exterminate, cut out, exscind
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extirpate
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to destroy, exterminate, cut out, exscind
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fatuous
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silly, inanely foolish: "I would ignore such a fatuous comment."
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fractious
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quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable
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gainsay
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to deny, dispute, contradict, oppose
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heterodox
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unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic
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imbroglio
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difficult or embarrassing situation
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indefatigable
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not easily exhaustible; tireless; dogged
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ineluctable
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certain, inevitable
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inimitable
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one of a kind, peerless
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insouciant
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unconcerned, carefree, heedless
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inveterate
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deep rooted, ingrained, habitual
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jejune
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vapid, uninteresting, nugatory; childish, immature, puerile
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lubricious
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lewd, wanton, greasy, slippery
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mendicant
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a beggar, supplicant
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meretricious
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cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy; attracting by false show
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minatory
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menacing, threatening (reminds you of the minotaur, a threatening creature indeed)
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nadir
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low point, perigee
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nonplussed
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baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think
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obstreperous
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noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous
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ossified
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tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age; literally, turned into bone
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palliate
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to make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense
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panegyric
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formal praise, eulogy, encomium; panegyrical means expressing elaborate praise
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parsimonious
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cheap, miserly: "A parsimonious person parses out his money with great difficulty."
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pellucid
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transparent, easy to understand, limpid
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peroration
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the concluding part of a speech; flowery, rhetorical speech
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plangent
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pounding, thundering, resounding
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prolix
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long-winded, verbose; prolixity means verbosity: "Mikhail Gorbachev is famous for his prolixity."
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propitiate
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to appease; to conciliate; propitious means auspicious, favorable
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puerile
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childish, immature, jejune, nugatory
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puissance
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power, strength; puissant means powerful strong: "The senator delivered a puissant speech to the convention."
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pusillanimous
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cowardly, craven
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remonstrate
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to protest, object
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sagacious
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having sound judgment; perceptive, wise; like a sage
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salacious
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lustful, lascivious, bawdy
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salutary
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remedial, wholesome, causing improvement
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sanguine
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cheerful, confident, optimistic
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saturnine
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gloomy, dark, sullen, morose
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sententious
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aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively
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stentorian
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extremely loud and powerful
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stygian
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gloomy, dark
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sycophant
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toady, servile, self-seeking flatterer; parasite
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tendentious
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biased; showing marked tendencies
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timorous
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timid, fearful, diffident
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tyro
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novice, greenhorn, rank amateur
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vitiate
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to corrupt, debase, spoil, make ineffective
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voluble
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fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language
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