Gre Verbal | High-Frequency Review

Front 1

abscond

Back 1

to depart clandestinely; to steal off; to hide

Hint 1

(from + stow away)

"Spring beckons! All things to the call respond;
The trees are leaving and cashiers abscond."

Front 2

alacrity

Back 2

eager; enthusiastic willingness

Hint 2

(lightly)

"It should be done with the same degree of alacrity and nonchalance that you would display in authorizing a highly intelligent trained bear to remove your appendix."

Front 3

approbation

Back 3

expression of approval or praise; sanction; authorization

Hint 3

(from + for + test and find good)

Front 4

austere

Back 4

without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic; spartan

Hint 4

(harsh; rough; bitter)

"The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling."

Front 5

axiomatic

Back 5

taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth; aphoristic

Hint 5

(to reckon worthy)

"It is...axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people..."

Front 6

capricious

Back 6

inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic; unpredictable; whimsical

Hint 6

(head with bristling hair; horned)

"As love without esteem is capricious and volatile; esteem without love is languid and cold."

Front 7

censure

Back 7

criticize harshly; officially rebuke

Hint 7

(to give one's opinion, to recomment)

"Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood."

Front 8

disabuse

Back 8

to undeceive; to set right

Hint 8

(counter + abuse)

"Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity."

Front 9

effrontery

Back 9

extreme boldness; presumptuousness

Hint 9

(from + front)

"The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery."

Front 10

discordant

Back 10

conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound

Hint 10

(apart + heart)

"Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill at ease, and my fingers wandered idly over the noisy keys. It seemed the harmonious echo from our discordant life."

Front 11

enervate

Back 11

to weaken; to reduce in vitality

Hint 11

(to cause to become ‘out of muscle’)

"Beatriz de Ahumada soldiered on to produce nine more children, a tour of duty that left her enervated and worn."

Front 12

equivocate

Back 12

to use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent; deliberate deception

Hint 12

(equal + voice)

"I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - and I will be heard!"

Front 13

erudite

Back 13

very learned; scholarly (erudition)

Hint 13

(from + rudeness)

"So wide his erudition's mighty span,
He knew Creation's origin and plan
And only came by accident to grief --
He thought, poor man, 'twas right to be a thief."

Front 14

exigent

Back 14

urgent; pressing; requiring immediate action or attention

Hint 14

(from + weighing)

"There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake."

Front 15

extemporaneous

Back 15

improvised; done without preparation

Hint 15

(from/without + time)

"The speech teacher made the students give two extemporaneous speeches during the school year."

Front 16

fulminate

Back 16

to loudly/thunderously attack or denounce

Hint 16

(to strike with lightning)

"fulminated against political chicanery"

Front 17

ingenuous

Back 17

artless; frank and candid; lacking in sophistication; obsolete

Hint 17

(honest, freeborn)

"I don’t judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan."

Front 18

inured

Back 18

accustomed to accepting something undesirable

Hint 18

(in + use)

"Though the food became no more palatable, he soon became sufficiently inured to it"

"One of the sad things about contemporary journalism is that it actually matters very little. The world now is almost inured to the power of journalism. The best journalism would manage to outrage people. And people are less and less inclined to outrage."

Front 19

magnanimity

Back 19

the quality of being generously noble in mind and heart, especially in forgiving; big-hearted

Hint 19

(great + soul)

"Let us bear with magnanimity whatever it is needful for us to bear."

Front 20

neologism

Back 20

a new word, expression or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses; new interpretation

Hint 20

(new + word)

"Yesterday's neologisms, like yesterday's jargon, are often today's essential vocabulary."

Front 21

obtuse

Back 21

lacking sharpness of intellect; not clear or precise in thought or expression; not distinctly felt

Hint 21

(from + beating)

"But deliberately making things obtuse and difficult is counter to the spirit of what is supposed to be a populist medium."

Front 22

obviate

Back 22

to anticipate and make unnecessary;

Hint 22

(against + the way)

"As it rained, we all held large paper bags over our heads to obviate the need to return to the hairdresser."

Front 23

paean

Back 23

song or hymn of praise and thanksgiving

Hint 23

(hymn; also title of Apollo)

"The choir sang the requested paean to the congregation."

Front 24

perfidy

Back 24

intentional breach of faith; treachery; calculated violation of trust

Hint 24

(through + trust/faith)

"Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness."

Front 25

perfunctory

Back 25

cursory; done without care or interest; routine

Hint 25

(through + performing)

"It is an indifferent and perfunctory one. Sometimes it does not heal at all. And sometimes when it seems to, no healing has been necessary."

Front 26

perspicacious

Back 26

acutely perceptive; having keen discernment

Hint 26

(through + looking)

Front 27

prattle

Back 27

to babble meaninglessly; to talk in an empty or idle manner

Hint 27

"This isn't being said, out of some liberal prattle: It's being said from the very essence and the heart of our religion."

Front 28

precipitate

Back 28

adj. acting with excessive haste or impulse

verb. to cause or happen before anticipated

Hint 28

(to throw headlong)

"It is always one's virtues and not one's vices that precipitate one into disaster."

Front 29

predilection

Back 29

a disposition in favour of something; preference

Hint 29

(before + taste)

"The parrot holds its food for prim consumption as daintily as any debutante, with a predilection for pot roast, hashed-brown potatoes, duck skin, butter, ..."

Front 30

prescience

Back 30

foreknowledge of events; knowing of events prior to their occuring

Hint 30

(before + knowledge)

"In this work I have received the opposition of a number of men who only advocate the unobtainable because the immediately possible is beyond their moral courage, administrative ability, and their political prescience."

Front 31

prevaricate

Back 31

to deliberately avoid the truth; to mislead; to deceive

Hint 31

(to straddle, through + bent)

"You will always be found out by your parents if you prevaricate."

Front 32

qualms

Back 32

misgivings; reservations; causes for hesitance

Hint 32

"If you have qualms about how honorable your ideas are, it is best to rethink them.

Front 33

ad hoc

Back 33

for this situation only

Hint 33

(for + this)

"a committee formed ad hoc to address the issue of salaries."

Front 34

caustic

Back 34

Capable of burning, corroding, dissolving; corrosive

Hint 34

(to burn)

"The satirist who writes nothing but satire should write but little - or it will seem that his satire springs rather from his own caustic nature than from the sins of the world in which he lives."

Front 35

recondite

Back 35

not easily understandable; concerned with or treating something abstruse or obscure: "recondite scholarship"; concealed; hidden

Hint 35

(back + put together)

"I would like to learn more about more unusual and recondite phenomena."

Front 36

prodigious

Back 36

impressively great in size, force, or extent; enormous: "a prodigious storm"; extraordinary; marvelous

Hint 36

(through + omen)

"From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring."

Front 37

reticent

Back 37

quiet; reserved; reluctant to express thoughts and feelings

Hint 37

(keep silent)

"The student was reticent to express his opinions and ideas in class discussions."

Front 38

sanctimony

Back 38

Feigned piety or righteousness; hypocritical devoutness or high-mindedness

Hint 38

(holiness)

" I have a liberal definition of news because I think news can be what excites people. I'm not very sanctimonious about what news is and isn't."

Front 39

profligate

Back 39

Given over to dissipation; dissolute; Recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant

Hint 39

(to strike down)

"Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil."

Front 40

vitriol

Back 40

Bitterly abusive feeling or expression

Hint 40

(glass)

"But the vitriol also reflects the fact that many of the people at the Republican National Convention, for all their flag-waving, hate America. They want a controlled, monolithic society; they fear and loathe our nation's freedom, diversity and complexity."

Front 41

effrontery

Back 41

Brazen boldness; presumptuousness

Hint 41

(from + front)

"Even after clear evidence was shown, the jury was shocked by the defendant's effrontery in denying any guilt."

Front 42

penury

Back 42

Extreme want or poverty; destitution; Extreme dearth; barrenness or insufficiency

Hint 42

(to want)

"In the middle classes the gifted son of a family is always the poorest - usually a writer or artist with no sense for speculation - and in a family of peasants, where the average comfort is just over penury, the gifted son sinks also, and is soon a tramp on the roadside."

Front 43

abstruse

Back 43

Difficult to understand; recondite; ambiguous

Hint 43

(to push + from; to hide)

"My view is that popular fiction as it existed was just plain dumb, and literary fiction was either abstruse, or unbelievably boring."

Front 44

solicitous

Back 44

concerned and attentive; eager; full of desire; extremely careful; meticulous

Hint 44

(entire + set in motion)

"A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude."

Front 45

tortuous

Back 45

winding, twisting; excessively complicated; highly involved

Hint 45

(to turn)

"Reason is the slow and tortuous method by which these who do not know the truth discover it. The heart has its own reason which reason does not know."

Front 46

truculent

Back 46

fierce and cruel; eager to fight; pugnacious; expressing bitter opposition; scathing: "a truculent speech against the new government"; disposed to or exhibiting violence or destructiveness

Hint 46

(fierce)

"The leader of the party gave a truculent speech against the opposition."

Front 47

veracity

Back 47

truthfulness, honesty

Hint 47

(truth)

"Veracity is the heart of morality."

Front 48

evanescent

Back 48

Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor

Hint 48

(to vanish)

"Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet."

Front 49

feckless

Back 49

lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective; careless and irresponsible

Hint 49

(effect + less)

"The attempt to secure the fortress was feckless at best."

Front 50

upbraid

Back 50

to reprove sharply; reproach

Hint 50

(up + to turn)

"It is better to advise than upbraid, for the one corrects the erring; the other only convicts them."

Front 51

taciturn

Back 51

Habitually untalkative

Hint 51

(silent)

"Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn."

Front 52

inveterate

Back 52

firmly and long established; deep-rooted: "inveterate preferences"; Persisting in an ingrained habit; habitual: "an inveterate liar"

Hint 52

(in + to grow old)

"I am an inveterate homemaker, it is at once my pleasure, my recreation, and my handicap....being a woman, my work has had to be done between bouts of homemaking."

Front 53

deposition

Back 53

the act of deposing, as from high office; the act of depositing, especially the laying down of matter by a natural process; something deposited; a deposit; A formal declaration of truth or fact given under oath

Hint 53

(from + position)

"The old man had a nasty "disposition" (one's temperament) while giving the "deposition" (testimony given under oath) to the attorneys."

Front 54

repine

Back 54

to be discontented or low in spirits; complain or fret; to yearn after something: "Immigrants who repined for their homeland."

Hint 54

(again + yearn)

"Shall any of us repine that it is our lot to live in perilous and sacrificial days?"

Front 55

laconic

Back 55

using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise

Hint 55

(Lakon, a Spartan)

"Though the speech was laconic in nature, it told worlds about why it is important to follow directions."

Front 56

deference

Back 56

submission or courteous yielding to the opinion, wishes, or judgment of another; Courteous respect.

Hint 56

(consideration)

"Great men always pay deference to greater."

Front 57

opprobrious

Back 57

Expressing contemptuous reproach; scornful or abusive: "opprobrious epithets";

Bringing disgrace; shameful or infamous: "opprobrious conduct"

Hint 57

(against + reproach)

"It was an opprobrious decision by the clan to torch the neighboring village."

Front 58

polemical

Back 58

Polemic; controversial; disputatious; argumentative

Hint 58

(war)

"The word pessimism was a polemical word - it described an attitude of general despair, which was supposed to color opinions and assessments of facts."

"The worst offense that can be committed by a polemic is to stigmatize those who hold a contrary opinion as bad and immoral men."

Front 59

blithe

Back 59

Carefree and lighthearted; Lacking or showing a lack of due concern; casual

Hint 59

(kind, friendly, merciful)

"He spoke with blithe ignorance of the true situation."

Front 60

specious

Back 60

Having the ring of truth or plausibility but actually fallacious: a specious argument; Deceptively attractive

Hint 60

(appearance)

"If I am not mistaken, psychology, psychiatry and some branches of sociology, not to speak about the so-called philosophy of history, are even more affected by what I have called the scientific prejudice, and by specious claims of what science can achieve."

Front 61

peremptory

Back 61

Putting an end to all debate or action: "a peremptory decree"

Not allowing contradiction or refusal; imperative: "The officer issued peremptory commands."

Having the nature of or expressing a command; urgent: "The teacher spoke in a peremptory tone."

Offensively self-assured; dictatorial: "a swaggering, peremptory manner."

Hint 61

(through + to obtain/buy)

"He would not, with a peremptory tone, Assert the nose upon his face his own."

Front 62

millinery

Back 62

Articles, especially women's hats, sold by a milliner.

The profession or business of a milliner.

accoutrements that are functionally unnecessary, such as a garnish on a dish, or the extra cuff-buttons on a man's dress jacket

Hint 62

(??)

"With such popular designs, the "millinery" (women's hats) were selling by the "millenary" (a group of 1,000 units)."

Front 63

profligate

Back 63

Given over to dissipation; dissolute.

Recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant.

Hint 63

(forth/down + to strike)

"Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil."

Front 64

dawdler

Back 64

One who wastes time in trifling employments; an idler; a trifler.

Hint 64

(diddle)

"The dawdler is always last to the trough."

Front 65

debonair

Back 65

Suave; urbane.

Affable; genial.

Carefree and gay; jaunty.

Hint 65

(of + good + lineage/family)

"Oh, that character was light years away from me. I'm not debonair. I'm not suave. I did wear tight pants, though, because I found out that it worked."

Front 66

didactic

Back 66

Intended to instruct.

Morally instructive.

Inclined to teach or moralize excessively.

Hint 66

(to teach/educate)

"In the opinion of many students, the professor's didactic approach was too heavy."

Front 67

adulation

Back 67

excessive praise; intense adoration

Hint 67

(to flatter)

"I savour the adulation and love I have been getting from my fans and the blessings of elders in my family."

Front 68

ascetic

Back 68

one who practices rigid self-denial; esp. as an act of religious devotion

Hint 68

(monk, hermit)

"A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking the right tone for every occasion. "

Front 69

axiom

Back 69

a universally recognized principle

Hint 69

(weighing as much)

"It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important."

Front 70

bucolic

Back 70

rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants

Hint 70

(rustic, from buos: "cow")

"I am superstitious, not adventurous, sometimes clairvoyant especially where women are concerned, bad at hiding my feelings, and am immoderately amused at bucolic jests and the knockabout side of life in general."

Front 71

castigation

Back 71

severe criticism or punishment; chastise

Hint 71

(to make pure)

"If thou didst put this soure cold habit on To castigate thy pride, 'twere well."

Front 72

caustic

Back 72

burning or stinging; causing corrosion; Causing a burning or stinging sensation, as from intense emotion

Hint 72

(combustible, to burn)

"Most of all, there is caustic shame for my own stupidity"

Front 73

chary

Back 73

wary; cautious; sparing

Hint 73

(full of care, careful)

"Your women of honor, as you call em, are only chary of their reputations, not their persons; and 'Tis scandal that they would avoid, not men."

Front 74

cogent

Back 74

appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing

Hint 74

(to drive + together)

"The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power."

Front 75

complaisance

Back 75

the willingness to comply with the wishes of others

Hint 75

(with + pleasure)

Their "complacence" (state of being satisfied with oneself) was unpleasant when compared to his "complaisance" (a willingness to please others)"

Front 76

contentious

Back 76

argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement

Hint 76

(with + tension)

"Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous."

Front 77

contrite

Back 77

regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness (n. contrition)

Hint 77

(together + to rub)

"The tender heart, the broken and contrite spirit, are to me far above all the joys that I could ever hope for in this vale of tears."

Front 78

dearth

Back 78

smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; a lack

Hint 78

(dear)

"I can remember swimming my horse through floodwaters to fetch the mail, and enjoying a dish of stewed nettles during a dearth of vegetables."

Front 79

demur

Back 79

to question or oppose; to raise objections

Hint 79

(from + to delay)

"She may be "demure" (modest, shy, or coy) now about her role in the winning strategy, but later claim to "demur" from the boss's views about it."

Front 80

discretion

Back 80

cautious reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions (adj. discreet)

Hint 80

(to separate, distinguish)

"Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order."

Front 81

disinterested

Back 81

free of bias or self-interest; impartial (not "uninterested")

Hint 81

(not + [self] interested)

"Supremely disinterested in all efforts to find a peaceful solution"

Front 82

dogmatic

Back 82

expressing a rigid opinion based on unproved or improvable principles (n. dogma)

Hint 82

(opinion, tenet)

"The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false."

Front 83

eclectic

Back 83

composed of elements drawn from various sources

Hint 83

(out + to gather/choose)

"I like the eclectic feel of the game, the wide range of puzzles, so I'd keep that, even though it looks incoherent in places."

Front 84

esoteric

Back 84

intended for or understood by a small, specific group

Hint 84

(within + small inner circle)

"Poetry can bridge that gap between what is solid and what is suggested; poetry can pull cogent meaning from the vaporous illusions of the esoteric."

Front 85

facetious

Back 85

playful, humourous

Hint 85

(witty, elegant)

"I don't want to sound facetious, but humour is the key to the soul. You know what I mean?"

Front 86

furtive

Back 86

marked by stealth; covert; surreptitious

Hint 86

(stolen, hidden, secret)

"Like the furtive collectors of stolen art, cell biologists are forced to be lonely admirers of spectacular architecture, exquisite symmetry, dramas of violence and death, mobility, self-sacrifice and, yes, rococo sex."

Front 87

harangue

Back 87

to deliver a pompous speech or tirade; a long pompous speech

Hint 87

(rings, public square)

"Continuing her harangue, she declared that the knowledge that this man still existed poisoned her very life."

Front 88

hyperbole

Back 88

an exaggerated statement, often used as a figure of speech

Hint 88

(beyond + to throw)

"First it's all hyperbole and over exaggeration; we went through that in the 1990s with the dot-com bubble. We really got quite 'techno-ecstatic.'"

Front 89

incipient

Back 89

beginning to come into being or to become apparent; (n. inception)

"Beginning to exist or appear: detecting incipient tumors; an incipient personnel problem.

Hint 89

(on + to take)

"It may be encountered in Wall Street, Main Street or Tobacco Road. Some even suspect that they can detect incipient traces of it along the Potomac."

Front 90

intransigent

Back 90

refusing to moderate a position, especially an extreme position; uncompromising

Hint 90

(not + cross + drive)

"I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism, and work slowly towards a world federation of peaceful nations."

Front 91

inveigle

Back 91

to obtain by deception or flattery;

To obtain by cajolery: "inveigled a free pass to museum."

To win over by coaxing, flattery, or artful talk.

To beguile or draw into a wrong or foolish course of action: allure, entice, lure, seduce, tempt. Idioms: lead astray.

Hint 91

(from + eye)

"[The ego's greatest triumph] is to inveigle us into believing its best interests are our best interests, and even into identifying our very survival with its own. This is a savage irony, considering that ego is at the root of all our suffering."

Front 92

morose

Back 92

sad; sullen; melancholy

Hint 92

(habit, custom)

"In terms of my own film experience, I'm definitely used to morose and very heavy, heavy dramas."

Front 93

penurious

Back 93

penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous

Hint 93

(poverty stricken)

"Talking of a penurious gentleman of our acquaintance, Johnson said, "Sir, he is narrow, not so much from avarice, as from impotence to spend his money. He cannot find in his heart to pour out a bottle of wine; but he would not much care if it should sour."

Front 94

pernicious

Back 94

extremely harmful; potentially causing death

Hint 94

(completely + murder)

"In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful."

Front 95

preen

Back 95

to dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care

Hint 95

(to trim/prune, as in falconry)

"For many of us, sport has provided the continuity in our lives, the alternative family to the one we left behind. It gives us something to talk about, to preen about, to care about."

Front 96

fastidious

Back 96

Possessing or displaying careful, meticulous attention to detail.

Difficult to please; exacting.

Excessively scrupulous or sensitive, especially in matters of taste or propriety.

Hint 96

(contempt + disdain)

"There is one thing that matters — to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people."

Front 97

prodigious

Back 97

abundant in size, force, or extent; extraordinary

Hint 97

(vast, enormous)

"I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up."

Front 98

prolific

Back 98

producing large volumes or amounts; productive

Hint 98

(to make + offspring)

"Periods of tranquillity are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up."

Front 99

quaff

Back 99

to drink deeply

Hint 99

(to overindulge?)

"Or merry swains, who quaff the nut-brown ale, and sing enamoured of the nut-brown maid."

Front 100

quiescence

Back 100

stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest (adj. quiescent)

Hint 100

(quiet)

"Uprisings of comparable magnitude took place in smaller cities as well, some of which went unanswered until after the Falluja battle was settled. But the Shia areas were quiescent at best."

Front 101

redoubtable

Back 101

awe-inspiring; worthy of honour

Hint 101

(intensifier + to be afraid of)

"For Memorial Day weekend, the redoubtable New York Post published hypothetical barbecue memos for the two contenders, with Mr. Bush favoring sausage and beer and Mr. Kerry opting for frogs legs, chardonnay and creme brulee."

Front 102

sanction

Back 102

authoritative permission or approval; a penalty intended to enforce compliance; to give permission or authority to

Hint 102

(to decree, to make sacred)

"Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character."

Front 103

torpid

Back 103

lethargic; sluggish; dormant (n. torpor)

Hint 103

(numb or stiff)

"Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand."

Front 104

urbane

Back 104

sophisticated; refined; elegant

Hint 104

(belonging to a city)

"Who could deny that privacy is a jewel? It has always been the mark of privilege, the distinguishing feature of a truly urbane culture."

Front 105

viscous

Back 105

thick; sticky

Hint 105

(sticky)

"No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous."

Front 106

acumen

Back 106

keen, accurate judgment or insight

Hint 106

(a point, sting, to sharpen)

"You have to combine instinct with a good business acumen. You just can't be creative, and you just can't be analytical."

Front 107

adulterate

Back 107

to reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients

Hint 107

(pollute)

"The middlemen almost unconsciously adulterate the food which they supply."

Front 108

aver

Back 108

to state as a fact; to declare or assert

Hint 108

(to + truth)

"If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men."

Front 109

diatribe

Back 109

a harsh denunciation

Hint 109

(away + to wear)

"I would not be able to pen an academic and dry diatribe .I have too much talent for that."

Front 110

dissemble

Back 110

to disguise or conceal; to mislead; feign

Hint 110

(from + likeness)

"In fact, the converse is true: At a time when the United States has been called on for a level of moral leadership, vision and inspiration not seen since World War II, we cannot afford to dissemble about crimes against humanity."

Front 111

eccentric

Back 111

departing from the norms or conventions

Hint 111

(from + centre)

"I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish."

Front 112

endemic

Back 112

characteristic of or often found in a particular locality, region, or people

Hint 112

(in + people)

"All of the hypocrisy and the difficulties that are endemic in being British also make it an incredibly fertile place culturally."

Front 113

fortuitous

Back 113

happening by accident or chance

Hint 113

(chance)

"It's good to keep in mind that prominence is always a mix of hard work, eloquence in your practice, good timing and fortuitous social relations. Everything can't be personalized."

Front 114

germane

Back 114

relevant to the subject at hand; appropriate in subject matter

Hint 114

(having the same parents)

"So are my men. Their racism and homophobia is appalling, but it's germane to their characters, and people will either get that or not get it."

Front 115

hackneyed

Back 115

rendered trite or commonplace by frequent usage

Hint 115

()

"The cliche is a hackneyed idiom that hopes that it can still palm itself off as a fresh response.

Front 116

halcyon

Back 116

calm and peaceful; prosperous; golden

Hint 116

(kingfisher; halcyon dayes: 14 days of calm at the winter solstice when the giant bird mates)

"My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea."
"

Front 117

iconoclast

Back 117

one who attacks or undermines traditional conventions or institutions

Hint 117

(image + breaker)

"I think that every artist dreams of renewing the forms which came before, but I think very few can be considered to have achieved that. We are all dwarves standing upon the shoulders of the giants who preceded us, and I think we must never forget that. After all, even iconoclasts only exist with respect to that which they destroy."

Front 118

idolatrous

Back 118

given to intense or excessive devotion to something

Hint 118

(image + worship)

"That is not only bad foreign policy or presumptuous foreign policy - I would say it's idolatrous foreign policy to claim God's purpose for that mission. And in the language that Mr. Bush has used, he does this again and again and again."

Front 119

impassive

Back 119

revealing no emotion; expressionless; archaic; incapable of physical sensation; motionless; still

Hint 119

(not + subject to emotion)

"The judge was impassive during closing arguments of the case."

Front 120

inchoate

Back 120

in an initial stage; not fully formed

Hint 120

(on + to strap, as a hitch)

"Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values."

Front 121

insipid

Back 121

without taste or flavour; lacking in spirit; bland; lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull.

Hint 121

(not + tasty)

"Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing."

Front 122

mitigate

Back 122

to make or become less severe or intense; to moderate

Hint 122

(gentle, soft + to make)

"This is an opportunity to look in-depth at the specific issues of long-term climate change, and the lessons that our paleontologists have shown about the risks of abrupt climate change and the issues of new energy systems to mitigate or avert some of the great risks that lie ahead."

Front 123

obdurate

Back 123

unyielding; hardhearted; intractable

Hint 123

(against + to harden)

"Her obdurate demeanor left them no choice but to give up their plan and go home."

Front 124

obsequious

Back 124

exhibiting a fawning attentiveness

Hint 124

(after + following)

"Those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home."

Front 125

occlude

Back 125

to obstruct or block; to cause to become closed; obstruct: "occlude an artery."

"To prevent the passage of: "occlude light"; "occlude the flow of blood."

Hint 125

(up + to shut)

"The doctor occluded the flow of blood."

Front 126

opprobrium

Back 126

disgrace; contempt; scorn

Hint 126

(against + reproach)

"The terms of opprobrium were based on Marxism rather than fascism, but the intent was the same: to eradicate the Jews."

Front 127

pedantic

Back 127

overly concerned with the trivial details of learning or education; show-offish about one's knowledge

Hint 127

(teacher)

"Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another."

Front 128

pine

Back 128

to yearn intensely; to languish; to lose vigor

Hint 128

(to suffer pain)

"Your grace's subjects pine away even unto death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft."

Front 129

pithy

Back 129

precise and brief

Hint 129

(essential part)

"Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory."

Front 130

prodigal

Back 130

recklessly wasteful; extravagant; profuse; lavish

Hint 130

(forth + to drive)

"Love never reasons, but profusely gives; it gives like a thoughtless prodigal its all, and then trembles least it has done to little."

Front 131

profuse

Back 131

given or coming forth abundantly; extravagant

Hint 131

(forth + to pour)

"As regards the naumes of stations, it must be observed that the Somali, like the Bedouins of Arabia, the Todas of the Neilgherry hills, and other wild races, are profuse in nomenclature of every feature of ground."

Front 132

querulous

Back 132

prone to complaining or grumbling; peevish

Hint 132

(to complain/quarrel)

"That some are poorer than others, ever was and ever will be: And that many are naturally querulous and envious, is an Evil as old as the World."

Front 133

rancorous

Back 133

characterized by bitter, long-lasting resentment (n. rancor)

Hint 133

(bitterness, to stink)

"Unfortunately, you know, working in a spirit of cooperation and respect requires someone else to reach back, and I don't think that's happened and it's been disappointing because the debate in our country has become so rancorous."

Front 134

recalcitrant

Back 134

obstinately defiant of authority; difficult to manage

Hint 134

(back + to kick)

"If they lingered too long, Clarice hurried them along in the same annoyed way she rushed recalcitrant goats through the gate."

Front 135

repudiate

Back 135

to refuse to have anything to do with; disown

Hint 135

(back away + by foot)

"If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America."

Front 136

rhetorical

Back 136

characterized by the art or study of effective use of language for communication and persuasion

Hint 136

(oratory)

"Wealth, religion, military victory have more rhetorical than efficacious worth."

Front 137

salubrious

Back 137

promoting health or well-being

Hint 137

(health, welfare)

"On the contrary, a trust in the staying power and travel-worthiness of such good should encourage us to credit the possibility of a world where respect for the validity of every tradition will issue in the creation and maintenance of a salubrious political space."

Front 138

surfeit

Back 138

an overabundant supply; excess; to feed or supply to excess

Hint 138

(over + to do)

"Our country obviously has a surfeit of capital, which is why so many companies were able to come public during this period."

Front 139

tenuous

Back 139

having little substance or strength; flimsy; weak

Hint 139

(thin)

"The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions."

Front 140

tirade

Back 140

a long and extremely critical speech; a harsh denunciation

Hint 140

(to draw, shoot)

"Anger begins as an inner twinge. We sense something long before it blossoms (explodes?) into an emotional tirade."

Front 141

scad

Back 141

A large number or amount. Often used in the plural

Hint 141

(unknown)

"Scads of people are in the hall."

Front 142

parsimony

Back 142

1. Unusual or excessive frugality; extreme economy or stinginess.
2. Adoption of the simplest assumption in the formulation of a theory or in the interpretation of data, especially in accordance with the rule of Ockham's razor.

Hint 142

(to spare)

"Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy."

Front 143

abrogate

Back 143

To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority.

Hint 143

(away + to ask)

"God leaves to Man the choice of Forms in Government; and those who constitute one Form, may abrogate it."

Front 144

restive

Back 144

1. Uneasily impatient under restriction, opposition, criticism, or delay.
2. Resisting control; difficult to control.
3. Refusing to move. Used of a horse or other animal.

Hint 144

(back + to stand/stay)

"By the end of the impeachment process even the New York Times had grown slightly restive."

Front 145

prevaricate

Back 145

To stray from or evade the truth; equivocate.

Hint 145

(through + to straddle)

"Journalism has a similar obligation, particularly with men and women suddenly transferred to places of great power, who are often led to exaggerate and prevaricate, all in the name of a supposedly greater good."

Front 146

bilk

Back 146

To defraud, cheat, or swindle: made millions bilking wealthy clients on art sales.
b. To evade payment of: bilk one's debts.
2. To thwart or frustrate: "Fate . . . may be to a certain extent bilked" Thomas Carlyle.
3. To elude.

Hint 146

(alteration of "balk")

"The idea is to bilk the public, as anyone may say without fear of libel."

Front 147

occlude

Back 147

1. To cause to become closed; obstruct: occlude an artery.
2. To prevent the passage of: occlude light; occlude the flow of blood.
3. Chemistry To absorb or adsorb and retain (a substance).
4. Meteorology To force (air) upward from the earth's surface, as when a cold front overtakes and undercuts a warm front.
5. Dentistry To bring together (the upper and lower teeth) in proper alignment for chewing.
v.intr. Dentistry
To close so that the cusps fit together. Used of the teeth of the upper and lower jaws.

Hint 147

(from + to close)

"It consisted of a narrow armlet to occlude the brachial artery."

Front 148

tractable

Back 148

1. Easily managed or controlled; governable.
2. Easily handled or worked; malleable.

Hint 148

(to draw)

"Because the medium is tractable, we expect few difficulties in implementation; hence our pervasive optimism."

Front 149

sumptuous

Back 149

Of a size or splendor suggesting great expense; lavish

Hint 149

(expense)

"It is very grand and sumptuous and awesome to look at but it was really about the characters for me."

Front 150

apotheosis

Back 150

1. Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification.
2. Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification: "Many observers have tried to attribute Warhol's current apotheosis to the subversive power of artistic vision" Michiko Kakutani.
3. An exalted or glorified example: Their leader was the apotheosis of courage.

Hint 150

(change + to god)

"Rome was so mighty that it could not fall. It had to vanish in a cloud, like so many of the mythical heros of antiquity, and to receive its apotheosis among the stars before men became fully aware that it had vanished from the earth!"

Front 151

stilted

Back 151

1. Stiffly or artificially formal; stiff.
2. Architecture: Having some vertical length between the impost and the beginning of the curve. Used of an arch.

Hint 151

(??)

"As far as the trades go, I want to avoid how comics have captions or just really stilted dialogue at the beginning of the pages."

Front 152

credit

Back 152

1. Belief or confidence in the truth of something. See Synonyms at belief.
2. A reputation for sound character or quality; standing: It is to their credit that they worked so hard without complaining.
3. A source of honor or distinction: This exceptional athlete is a credit to our team.
4. Recognition or approval for an act, ability, or quality: gave them credit for a job well done.
5. Influence based on the good opinion or confidence of others.
6. An acknowledgment of work done, as in the production of a motion picture or publication. Often used in the plural: At the end of the film we stayed to watch the credits.
7.
a. Official certification or recognition that a student has successfully completed a course of study: He received full credit for his studies at a previous school.
b. A unit of study so certified: This course carries three credits.
8. Reputation for solvency and integrity entitling a person to be trusted in buying or borrowing: You should have no trouble getting the loan if your credit is good.
9.
a. An arrangement for deferred payment of a loan or purchase: a store that offers credit; bought my stereo on credit.
b. The terms governing such an arrangement: low prices and easy credit.
c. The time allowed for deferred payment: an automatic 30-day credit on all orders.
10. Accounting
a. The deduction of a payment made by a debtor from an amount due.
b. The right-hand side of an account on which such amounts are entered.
c. An entry or the sum of the entries on this side.
d. The positive balance or amount remaining in a person's account.
e. A credit line.

Hint 152

(to entrust)

"Giving credit where credit is due is a very rewarding habit to form. Its rewards are inestimable."

Front 153

chary

Back 153

1. Very cautious; wary: was "chary of the risks involved"
2. Not giving or expending freely; sparing: "was chary of compliments."

Hint 153

(care)

"Your women of honor, as you call em, are only chary of their reputations, not their persons; and 'Tis scandal that they would avoid, not men."

Front 154

stupefy

Back 154

1. To dull the senses or faculties of. Synonym "daze".
2. To amaze; astonish.

Hint 154

(to be stunned + to make)

"The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us."

Front 155

asperity

Back 155

1. a. Roughness or harshness, as of surface, sound, or climate: the asperity of northern winters.
b. Severity; rigor.
2. A slight projection from a surface; a point or bump.
3. Harshness of manner; ill temper or irritability.

Hint 155

(rough)

"Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity."

"The nakedness and asperity of the wintry world always fills the beholder with pensive and profound astonishment."

Front 156

insipid

Back 156

1. without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid: an insipid personality.
2. without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland: a rather insipid soup.

Hint 156

(not + taste)

"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid."

Front 157

candor

Back 157

the state or quality of being frank, open, and sincere in speech or expression; candidness: The candor of the speech impressed the audience.
2. freedom from bias; fairness; impartiality: to consider an issue with candor.

Hint 157

(shinning white/incandescent)

"Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin."

Front 158

didactic

Back 158

1. intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry.
2. inclined to teach or lecture others too much: a boring, didactic speaker.
3. teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.
4. didactics, (used with a singular verb) the art or science of teaching.

Hint 158

(that might be taught)

"The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work."

Front 159

reprisal

Back 159

1. (in warfare) retaliation against an enemy, for injuries received, by the infliction of equal or greater injuries.
2. an act or instance of retaliation.
3. the action or practice of using force, short of war, against another nation, to secure redress of a grievance.
4. the forcible seizure of property or subjects in retaliation.

Hint 159

(back + to take)

"Natural fighters, conducting a war of spoliation and reprisal,-through the brush,-trained to quick sorties and deadly ambuscades, how easily they drifted as their instincts inclined, and became guerrillas by an irresistible combination of circumstances, such as I have explained."

Front 160

apostate

Back 160

1. a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc.

Hint 160

(apart + to stand)

"This opinion, however, is held by most, that the devil was an angel, and that, having become an apostate, he induced as many of the angels as possible to fall away with himself, and these up to the present time are called his angels."

Front 161

soporific

Back 161

1. causing or tending to cause sleep.
2. pertaining to or characterized by sleep or sleepiness; sleepy; drowsy.
–noun
3. something that causes sleep, as a medicine or drug.

Hint 161

(deep sleep)

"It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific'."

Front 162

dilatory

Back 162

# Intended to delay.
# Tending to postpone or delay: dilatory in his work habits.

Hint 162

(apart + to carry)

"Lose this day loitering, 'twill be the same story Tomorrow, and the rest more dilatory; Thus, indecision brings its own delays And days are lost lamenting over days, Are you in earnest? Seize this very moment; What you can do, or dream you can, begin it."

Front 163

felicitous

Back 163

1. Admirably suited; apt: a felicitous comparison.
2. Exhibiting an agreeably appropriate manner or style: a felicitous writer.
3. Marked by happiness or good fortune: a felicitous life.

Hint 163

(lucky)

"We do this sort of thing most weekends anyway, said a lean rebel with gunpowder smudges on his face and the felicitous name of Troy Cool."

Front 164

proselyte

Back 164

a person who has changed from one opinion, religious belief, sect, or the like, to another; convert

neophyte, disciple

Hint 164

(through + to go)?

"Fresh confidence the speculatist takes From every harebrained proselyte he makes."

Front 165

exigency

Back 165

1. The state or quality of requiring much effort or immediate action.
2. A pressing or urgent situation. See synonyms at crisis.
3. Urgent requirements; pressing needs. Often used in the plural.

An exigency may justify speeding to the hospital with a critically ill person, or breaking into someone's home to secure shelter from life-threatening harm.

Hint 165

(out + to drive)

"Finally, in late 1961 and early 1962, naked exigency forced the Chinese Communist Party to recognize the extent of the crisis it had created. The most deadly innovations from the Great Leap Forward were quietly abandoned or reversed; almost immediately, this artificially manufactured famine came to an end.

Front 166

prolix

Back 166

# Tediously prolonged; wordy: editing a prolix manuscript.
# Tending to speak or write at excessive length

Hint 166

(forth + to pour)

"The French, I think, in general, are strangely prolix in their natural history."

Front 167

terse

Back 167

Brief and to the point; effectively concise: a terse one-word answer.

Hint 167

(to cleanse)

"The vocabulary of `Bradshaw' is nervous and terse, but limited."

Front 168

trenchant

Back 168

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

Hint 168

(to cut)

"Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost."

Front 169

truculent

Back 169

1. Disposed to fight; pugnacious.
2. Expressing bitter opposition; scathing: a truculent speech against the new government.
3. Disposed to or exhibiting violence or destructiveness; fierce.

Hint 169

(fierce)

"The leader of the party gave a truculent speech against the opposition."

Front 170

abeyance

Back 170

1. The condition of being temporarily set aside; suspension: held the plan in abeyance.
2. Law. A condition of undetermined ownership, as of an estate that has not yet been assigned.

Hint 170

(from + to open out/gape)

"In writing the history of a disease, every philosophical hypothesis whatsoever, that has previously occupied the mind of the author, should lie in abeyance."

Front 171

palliate

Back 171

1. To make (an offense or crime) seem less serious; extenuate.
2. To make less severe or intense; mitigate: tried unsuccessfully to palliate the widespread discontent.
3. To relieve the symptoms of a disease or disorder.

Hint 171

(to cloak)

"It's a palliative. The remedy is death."

Front 172

brook

Back 172

To put up with; tolerate

Hint 172

(to use, enjoy)

"We will brook no further argument."

Front 173

reticent

Back 173

1. Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself. See synonyms at silent.
2. Restrained or reserved in style.
3. Reluctant; unwilling.

Hint 173

(more + to be silent)

"The student was reticent to express his opinions and ideas in class discussions."

Front 174

sanguine

Back 174

1.
1. Of the color of blood; red.
2. Of a healthy reddish color; ruddy: a sanguine complexion.
2. Archaic.
1. Having blood as the dominant humor in terms of medieval physiology.
2. Having the temperament and ruddy complexion formerly thought to be characteristic of a person dominated by this humor; passionate.
3. Cheerfully confident; optimistic.

Hint 174

(blood)

"They act as if they supposed that to be very sanguine about the general improvement of mankind is a virtue that relieves them from taking trouble about any improvement in particular."

Front 175

recreant

Back 175

1. Unfaithful or disloyal to a belief, duty, or cause.
2. Craven or cowardly.

Hint 175

(again + to believe)

"Or has she been recreant in hailing the motto of liberty that at the first step she takes practically to claim the recognition of her rights she is rewarded."

Front 176

exhort

Back 176

To urge by strong, often stirring argument, admonition, advice, or appeal: exhorted the troops to hold the line.

Hint 176

(from + to encourage)

"I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict."

Front 177

extol

Back 177

To praise highly; exalt; praise

Hint 177

(from + to lift)

"I find that there are few reviews that extol women as wonderful"

Front 178

diffident

Back 178

1. Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid.
2. Reserved in manner.

Hint 178

(not + trust)

"He lived naturally in a condition that many greater poets never had, or if they had it, were embarrassed or diffident about it: a total commitment to his own powers of invention, a complete loss of himself in his materials."

Front 179

sycophantic

Back 179

fawning, obsequious;

A servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people.

Hint 179

(a fig + to show)

"The billionaire refused to be surrounded by sycophants."

Front 180

deference

Back 180

# Submission or courteous yielding to the opinion, wishes, or judgment of another.
# Courteous respect.

Hint 180

(before + to bear)

"Great men always pay deference to greater."

Front 181

spurious

Back 181

1. not genuine, authentic, or true; not from the claimed, pretended, or proper source; counterfeit.
2. Biology. (of two or more parts, plants, etc.) having a similar appearance but a different structure.
3. of illegitimate birth; bastard.

Hint 181

(bastard)

"Some of these graves are clearly spurious and were manufactured by nineteenth-century royalists who wanted evidence of an unbroken 2,000-year-old imperial line."

Front 182

chicanery

Back 182

Deception by trickery or sophistry.

Hint 182

(to quibble)

"The aging system of American-style democracy is beset in too many places by dry rot, cynicism, chicanery and fraud. It's due for an overhaul."

Front 183

self-effacement

Back 183

Reserve in speech, behavior, or dress: demureness, diffidence, modesty, reticence.

Hint 183

(self + away from + to face)

"Those who are silent, self-effacing and attentive become the recipients of confidences."

Front 184

discomfit

Back 184

1. To make uneasy or perplexed; disconcert; embarrass.
2. To thwart the plans of; frustrate.
3. Archaic. To defeat in battle; vanquish.

Hint 184

(away from + to make)

"Younger siblings have an easy time discomfiting their brothers and sisters."

Front 185

diffident

Back 185

1. Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid. See synonyms at shy1.
2. Reserved in manner.

Hint 185

(without + trust/faith)

"It is this generation's catchword, one only vaguely understood and constantly misused. Frigid women are few. There is a host of diffident and slow-ripening ones."

Front 186

abjure

Back 186

1. To recant solemnly; renounce or repudiate: “For nearly 21 years after his resignation as Prime Minister in 1963, he abjured all titles, preferring to remain just plain ‘Mr.’” (Time).
2. To renounce under oath; forswear.

Hint 186

(from + to swear)

"The heavens rejoice in motion, why should I abjure my so much loved variety."

Front 187

agog

Back 187

Full of keen anticipation or excitement; eager.

Hint 187

(in + merriment)

"I was agape and agog at the technological stuff that is available to us now."

Front 188

pedagogue

Back 188

1. A schoolteacher; an educator.
2. One who instructs in a pedantic or dogmatic manner.

Hint 188

(boy + to lead)

"If the experimentalist would not commit himself, the social philosopher, the preacher, and the pedagogue tried the harder to give a short-cut answer."

Front 189

aphorism

Back 189

1. A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage; a saying.
2. A brief statement of a principle.

Hint 189

(away from + the horizon)

"Victor's favorite aphorism is, 'A penny saved is a penny earned.' "

Front 190

preciosity

Back 190

1. Extreme meticulousness or overrefinement, as in language, taste, or style.
2. An instance of extreme meticulousness or overrefinement.

Hint 190

(price)

"That she calls the fairy-tale vogue "second preciosity" is a strategy to firmly inscribe fairy tales authored by women within the precious movement, pointing furthermore to the continuation of this movement beyond the temporal confines literary historians traditionally have given it."

Front 191

abstruse

Back 191

Difficult to understand; recondite. See synonyms at ambiguous.

Hint 191

(away + to push)

"An 'abstruse' professor may be deep, profound, and hard to understand. Unfortunately, some of her students are 'obtuse,' or dull and slow-witted."

Front 192

obtuse

Back 192

1. Lacking quickness of perception or intellect.
2. Characterized by a lack of intelligence or sensitivity: an obtuse remark.
3. Not distinctly felt: an obtuse pain.
2.
1. Not sharp, pointed, or acute in form; blunt.
2. Having an obtuse angle: an obtuse triangle.
3. Botany. Having a blunt or rounded tip: an obtuse leaf.

Hint 192

(against + to beat)

"Am an attendant lord, one that will do...Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— Almost, at times, the Fool."

Front 193

obtrude

Back 193

1. To impose (oneself or one's ideas) on others with undue insistence or without invitation.
2. To thrust out; push forward.

Hint 193

(against + to thrust)

"I can't do with mountains at close quarters - they are always in the way, and they are so stupid, never moving and never doing anything but obtrude themselves."

Front 194

fastidious

Back 194

1. Possessing or displaying careful, meticulous attention to detail.
2. Difficult to please; exacting.
3. Excessively scrupulous or sensitive, especially in matters of taste or propriety. See synonyms at meticulous.
4. Microbiology. Having complicated nutritional requirements.

Hint 194

(haughtiness)

"There is one thing that matters — to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people."

Front 195

pithy

Back 195

1. Precisely meaningful; forceful and brief: a pithy comment.
2. Consisting of or resembling pith (short stem/essential component).

Hint 195

(heart/essence)

"Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory."

Front 196

recriminate

Back 196

To accuse in return.
v.intr.

To counter one accusation with another.

Hint 196

(in return + to accuse)

"Experience informs us that the first defense of weak minds is to recriminate."

Front 197

hortatory

Back 197

Marked by exhortation or strong urging: a hortatory speech.

Hint 197

(to encourage)

"I mean he was more declamatory and more hortatory than I've ever been."

Front 198

dogmatic

Back 198

1. Relating to, characteristic of, or resulting from dogma.
2. Characterized by an authoritative, arrogant assertion of unproved or unprovable principles. See synonyms at dictatorial.

Hint 198

(belief)

"When people are the least sure, they are often the most dogmatic."

Front 199

admonish

Back 199

1. To reprove gently but earnestly.
2. To counsel (another) against something to be avoided; caution.
3. To remind of something forgotten or disregarded, as an obligation or a responsibility.

Hint 199

(to warn)

"Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly."

Front 200

adulterate

Back 200

To make impure by adding extraneous, improper, or inferior ingredients.

Spurious

Hint 200

(to + pollute)

"The chemist needed to be sure that he didn't have an adulterated mixture."

Front 201

alacrity

Back 201

1. Cheerful willingness; eagerness.
2. Speed or quickness; celerity.

Hint 201

(lively)

"I feel, thank God, no abatement of the alacrity and ardour of my mind for the propagation of the truth."

Front 202

antipathy

Back 202

1. A strong feeling of aversion or repugnance; enmity
2. An object of aversion.

Hint 202

(against + feeling)

"Sympathy constitutes friendship; but in love there is a sort of antipathy, or opposing passion."

Front 203

ascetic

Back 203

A person who renounces material comforts and leads a life of austere self-discipline, especially as an act of religious devotion.
adj.

1. Leading a life of self-discipline and self-denial, especially for spiritual improvement. See synonyms at severe.
2. Pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic; self-denying and austere: an ascetic existence.

Hint 203

(hermit/monk/to work)

"This severe, ascetic music, calm and horizontal as the line of the ocean, monotonous by virtue of its serenity, anti-sensuous, and yet so intense in its contemplativeness that it verges sometimes on ecstasy."

Front 204

assiduous

Back 204

1. Constant in application or attention; diligent: an assiduous worker who strove for perfection; busy.
2. Unceasing; persistent: assiduous research.

Hint 204

(to sit)

"I was never a very assiduous collector, I was more the kid who kind of looked over other kids' shoulders at their collections."

Front 205

banal

Back 205

Drearily commonplace and often predictable; trite:

Hint 205

(summons to military service)

"Blunt language cannot hide a banal conception"

Front 206

buttress

Back 206

1. A structure, usually brick or stone, built against a wall for support or reinforcement.
2. Something resembling a buttress, as:
1. The flared base of certain tree trunks.
2. A horny growth on the heel of a horse's hoof.
3. Something that serves to support, prop, or reinforce

Hint 206

(to strike against)

"The law is by its very nature a buttress of the status quo"

Front 207

burnish

Back 207

1. To make smooth or glossy by or as if by rubbing; polish.
2. To rub with a tool that serves especially to smooth or polish.

Hint 207

(shining)

"I suspect that many corporations have begun to understand that they have an important role to play in the lives of their communities, and that allocating funds to support local groups helps them discharge that function and also burnish their image."

Front 208

bombastic

Back 208

Characterized by bombast; high-sounding; inflated.

Turgid; tumid; pompous; grandiloquent.

Hint 208

(cotton padding)

"The principle of exclusiveness of a political everything-or-nothing, mythical Messiah-belief in the bombastic Fuehrer who alone is destined to direct fate, gives it the character of a political sect."

Front 209

caustic

Back 209

1. Capable of burning, corroding, dissolving, or eating away by chemical action.
2. Corrosive and bitingly trenchant; cutting. See synonyms at sarcastic.
3. Causing a burning or stinging sensation, as from intense emotion:

Hint 209

(to burn)

"Most of all, there is caustic shame for my own stupidity"

Front 210

chicanery

Back 210

Deception by trickery or sophistry.

Hint 210

(to quibble)

"The aging system of American-style democracy is beset in too many places by dry rot, cynicism, chicanery and fraud. It's due for an overhaul."

Front 211

sophistry

Back 211

1. Plausible but fallacious argumentation.
2. A plausible but misleading or fallacious argument.

Hint 211

(from the Sophist school of philosophy)

"Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society."

Front 212

contrite

Back 212

1. Feeling regret and sorrow for one's sins or offenses; penitent.
2. Arising from or expressing contrition: contrite words.

Hint 212

(with + to grind)

"The tender heart, the broken and contrite spirit, are to me far above all the joys that I could ever hope for in this vale of tears."

Front 213

trite

Back 213

1. Lacking power to evoke interest through overuse or repetition; hackneyed.
2. Archaic. Frayed or worn out by use.

Hint 213

(to wear out)

"It is by vivacity and wit that man shines in company; but trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon."

Front 214

craven

Back 214

Characterized by abject fear; cowardly.

Hint 214

(to crack, to creak)

"America-bashing is addictive, born of power envy and nurtured by power lust among the weak, the cowardly and craven."

Front 215

deference

Back 215

1. Submission or courteous yielding to the opinion, wishes, or judgment of another.
2. Courteous respect; honor.

Hint 215

(from + to bring)

"We show deference to the civil authorities when they respect the divine origin of their power and when they serve the people with objective reference to the law of God."

Front 216

denigrate

Back 216

1. To attack the character or reputation of; speak ill of; defame.
2. To disparage; belittle: The critics have denigrated our efforts.

Hint 216

(from + to blacken)

"We should never denigrate any other culture but rather help people to understand the relationship between their own culture and the dominant culture. When you understand another culture or language, it does not mean that you have to lose your own."

Front 217

desultory

Back 217

1. Having no set plan; haphazard or random. See synonyms at chance.
2. Moving or jumping from one thing to another; disconnected: a desultory speech.

Hint 217

(from + to jump)

"If the first committing to memory is a very careful and long continued one, the difference will be greater than if it is desultory and soon abandoned."

Front 218

diatribe

Back 218

A bitter, abusive denunciation.

Hint 218

(completely + to rub/wear out)

"Everybody felt uncomfortable after such an unprovoked diatribe."

Front 219

diffidence

Back 219

The quality or state of being diffident; timidity or shyness.

Opposite of confidence

Hint 219

(without + trust)

"Ability hits the mark where presumption over-shoots and diffidence falls short."

Front 220

dirge

Back 220

1. Music.
1. A funeral hymn or lament.
2. A slow, mournful musical composition.
2. A mournful or elegiac poem or other literary work.
3. Roman Catholic Church. The Office of the Dead.

Hint 220

(to direct)

"In the end, one or the other will triumph — a funeral dirge will be sung over the Soviet republic or over world capitalism."

Front 221

disabuse

Back 221

To free from a falsehood or misconception:

Hint 221

(from + abuse)

"Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity."

Front 222

disparage

Back 222

1. To speak of in a slighting or disrespectful way; belittle; decry.
2. To reduce in esteem or rank.

Hint 222

(from + high birth)

"When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad."

Front 223

disparate

Back 223

1. Fundamentally distinct or different in kind; entirely dissimilar: “This mixture of apparently disparate materials—scandal and spiritualism, current events and eternal recurrences—is not promising on the face of it” (Gary Wills).
2. Containing or composed of dissimilar or opposing elements: a disparate group of people who represented a cross section of the city.

Hint 223

(apart + to prepare)

"Throughout the ages, stories with certain basic themes have recurred over and over, in widely disparate cultures."

Front 224

dissemble

Back 224

1. To disguise or conceal behind a false appearance. See synonyms at disguise.
2. To make a false show of; feign.

Hint 224

(from + to appear)

"Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love, But — why did you kick me down stairs?"

Front 225

distend

Back 225

To swell out or expand from or as if from internal pressure.

To stretch

v.tr.

1. To cause to expand by or as if by internal pressure; dilate.
2. To extend.

Hint 225

(from + to stretch)

"He chose to distend his sweater so as to be able to carry home all the apples."

Front 226

effrontery

Back 226

Brazen boldness; presumptuousness.

Hint 226

(from + front)

"The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery."

Front 227

endemic

Back 227

1. Prevalent in or peculiar to a particular locality, region, or people: diseases endemic to the tropics. See synonyms at native.
2. Ecology. Native to or confined to a certain region.

Hint 227

(to go into + people)

"All of the hypocrisy and the difficulties that are endemic in being British also make it an incredibly fertile place culturally."

Front 228

ephemeral

Back 228

1. Lasting for a markedly brief time

2. Living or lasting only for a day, as certain plants or insects do.

Hint 228

(around + day)

"There remain some truths too ephemeral to be captured in the cold pages of a court transcript"

Front 229

equanimity

Back 229

The quality of being calm and even-tempered; composure.

Hint 229

(equal + mind)

"It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity."

Front 230

erudite

Back 230

Characterized by erudition; learned.

Hint 230

(from + being untaught)

"An erudite fool is a greater fool than an ignorant fool."

Front 231

esoteric

Back 231

1.
1. Intended for or understood by only a particular group: an esoteric cult. See synonyms at mysterious.
2. Of or relating to that which is known by a restricted number of people.
2.
1. Confined to a small group: esoteric interests.
2. Not publicly disclosed; confidential.

Hint 231

(within)

"My esoteric doctrine, is that if you entertain any doubt, it is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance."

Front 232

exigency

Back 232

1. The state or quality of requiring much effort or immediate action.
2. A pressing or urgent situation. See synonyms at crisis.
3. Urgent requirements; pressing needs. Often used in the plural.

Hint 232

(from + to demand)

"But rearing and educating babies required women to prepare for exigencies that could occur decades down the road."

Front 233

extant

Back 233

1. Still in existence; not destroyed, lost, or extinct: extant manuscripts.
2. Archaic. Standing out; projecting.

Hint 233

(from + to stand)

"There is not a single extant study that supports all the arguments against men being with their children. It's absolute bollocks."

Front 234

fatuous

Back 234

Foolish or silly, especially in a smug or self-satisfied way: “‘Don't you like the poor lonely bachelor?’ he yammered in a fatuous way”

Displaying a complete lack of forethought and good sense: brainless, foolish, insensate, mindless, senseless, silly, unintelligent, weak-minded, witless.

Hint 234

(foolish, insipid)

"Are we to be the slaves of the sun, that second-hand, overrated knob of gilt, or of his sister, that fatuous circle of silver paper?"

Front 235

foment

Back 235

1. To promote the growth of; incite.
2. To treat (the skin, for example) by fomentation.

Hint 235

(to warm)

"Jackals are CIA-sanctioned people that come in and try to foment a coup or revolution. If that doesn't work, they perform assassinations"

Front 236

forestall

Back 236

1. To delay, hinder, or prevent by taking precautionary measures beforehand. See synonyms at prevent.
2. To deal with or think of beforehand; anticipate.
3. To prevent or hinder normal sales in (a market) by buying up merchandise, discouraging persons from bringing their goods to market, or encouraging an increase in prices in goods already on sale.

Hint 236

(fore + position)

"Is it hard for the reader to believe that suicides are sometimes committed to forestall the committing of murder?"