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60 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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arrant
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(adj.) Notoriously bad. synonyms: extreme, outright, total, extreme, complete, notorious
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“Maro, you' give me nothing while you live, but, after death, you cry, then, you'll give; If thou art not indeed turned arrant ass, Thou know'st what I desire to come to pass” ~Marcus Aurelius
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ascetic
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(adj.) Given to severe self-denial and practicing excessive abstinence and devotion.
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“The ascetic makes a necessity of virtue.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
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ascribe
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(t verb) To assign as a quality or attribute or as a cause.
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Many foolish Evangelicals attributed Hurricane Katria to God because of homosexuality in America.
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asperity
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(noun) Harshness or roughness of temper. Or, something that it hard to bear because of its severity
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“The animadversions of critics are commonly such as may easily provoke the sedatest writer to some quickness of resentment and asperity of reply” ~Samuel Johnson
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assiduous
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(adj.) Unceasing; persistent; showing persistent and hard working effort in doing something
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“A person, whose heart is pure, remains untouched by 'pain' just as an assiduous person remains aloof from sinful deeds.”
~Atharva Veda |
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assuage
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(t verb) to relieve something unpleasant; To cause to be less harsh, violent, or severe, as excitement, appetite, pain, or disease.
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The fount at which the panting mind assuages Her thirst of knowledge. --Byron.
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astringent
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(noun) pore-closing substance (adj.) speaking or writing in a manner that is critical and hurtful in tone and content; Harsh in disposition or character.
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Those astringent remarks really hurt my feelings.
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astute
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(adj.) Keen in discernment; clever and perceptive
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Chris is very astute.
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atonement
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(noun) Amends, reparation, or expiation made from wrong or injury.
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Christ's sacrifice provides the much needed atonement for my sins. Hallelujah!
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audacious
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(adj.) bold, daring, fearless esp. in challenging conventions
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What made Jane Austin's character, Emma, so lovabale was that she was very audacious for her time.
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auxiliary
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(adj.) One who or that which aids or helps, especially when regarded as subsidiary or accessory.
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Papa often used the auxiliary motor on the sailboat.
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augury
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(noun) 1) divination, 2) omen
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“The best augury of a man's success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world”
George Eliot |
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auspicious
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(adj.) Favorable omen, promising well for future
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“Sincere efforts made for the realization of auspicious resolution never go in vain.Such a person naturally becomes the leader of the masses. ”
Atharva Veda |
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austere
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(adj.) 1) suggesting physical hardship, 2) unsmiling, humorless, or suggesting strict self denial, 3) severely simple; unadorned, plain
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“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture”
Bertrand Russell |
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autocrat
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(noun) Any one who claims or wields unrestricted or undisputed authority or influence, bossy person
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“No one can go on being a rebel too long without turning into an autocrat”
Lawrence Durrell |
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avarice
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(noun) greed, Passion for getting and keeping riches.
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“We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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aver
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(t verb) To avouch, justify or prove; 1) assert confidently, 2) allege something is true
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“He was uniformly of an opinion which, though not a popular one, he was ready to aver, that the right of governing was not property but a trust.”
Charles James Fox |
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avow
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(t verb) To declare openly, affirm.
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“He who would valiant be against all disaster; let him in constancy follow the Master. There's no discouragement shall make him once relent; his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.”
John Buchan |
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baleful
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(adj.) threatening, Malignant.
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“baleful look of the eyes, the tilt of the head - it's the real Murrow.”
Edward R. Murrow |
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aversion
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(noun) 1) strong dislike, 2) someone or something disliked
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Sarah has a strange aversion to pickles.
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banal
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(adj.) Commonplace, dull, unoriginal.
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“Some quirk in human nature allows even the most unspeakable acts of evil to become banal within minutes, provided that they occur far enough away to pose no personal threat”
Iris Chang |
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bask
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(t verb) To make warm by genial heat. 2) to get pleasure from something
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Mom always basks in the sun.
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beatify
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(t verb) 1) to declare someone as holy, 2) To make supremely happy.
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The Catholic Church beatified Mother Theresa.
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bedaub
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(t verb) To smear over, as with something that spoils or is oily, sticky, or makes it dirty. 2) to ornemate gaudily
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"What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigor of the earlier world?”
William Morris |
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bellicose
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(adj.) Warlike.
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“The bellicose Venezuelan decided to meddle in American energy policy, and we think it might prove instructive to know how.”
Larry Neal |
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belligerent
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(adj.) Manifesting a warlike spirit, hostile, aggressive.
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“Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal”
Benjamin Spock |
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benefactor
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(noun) A doer of kindly and charitable acts.
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“No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.”
St. Francis of Assisi |
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benevolence
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(adj.) Any act of kindness or well-doing.
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“The true source of cheerfulness is benevolence.”
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benign
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(adj.) Good and kind of heart, 2) not life threatening
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The tumor was benign. Chris is benign.
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berate
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(t verb) To scold severely.
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“I pulled Marcus off and berated him as much as I possibly could. Marcus didn't come out with the kind of enthusiasm that he needs to.”
Jim Calhoun |
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bewilder
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(t verb) To confuse the perceptions or judgment of.
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I walked into the room, bewildered that no one was there.
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blandishment
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(noun) Flattery intended to persuade.
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Our blandishments left him unmoved.
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blatant
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(adj.) Noisily or offensively loud or clamorous, obtrusive, conspicuous; obvious; tastelessly conspicuous
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The blatant ring of the phone drives me crazy.
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blithe
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(adj.) 1) Joyous, 2) casually indifferent
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Everyone loved her for her blithe spirit.
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boisterous
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(adj.) Noisy, energetic, rowdy, Unchecked merriment or animal spirits. 2) turbulent
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“He was a really spritely, boisterous kid who you couldn't help but like, because he was so full of life and, and he was cheeky, but never nasty,”
Ian Roberts |
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bolster
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(t verb) 1) To support, as something wrong, 2) to prop something up; (noun) long pillpw, several proffesions use it to describe something used for support
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“If we can't turn the world around we can at least bolster the victims.”
Liz Carpenter |
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bombast
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(noun) pompous language. Inflated or extravagant language, especially on unimportant subjects
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“There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!”
Jean de la Bruyere |
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boorish
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(adj.) Rude.
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breach
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(noun) 1) The violation of official duty, lawful right, or a legal obligation, 2) estrangement, 3) hole/gap, 4) whale’s leap (t verb) to fail to keep a promise etc. 2) to make an opening through something 3) to surpass limit (t & i verb) to leap out of the water (referring to whales)
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brittle
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(adj.) 1) hard and breakable, 2) sharp-sounding voice, 3) tense, irritable, and lacking personal warmth
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broach
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(verb) 1. (t) to bring up a difficult subject, 2) open a container for the 1st time, 3) (t) to make a hole in something, 5) (i) to break through the surface of water (navy submarines) 6) (i) to turn sideways into the wind while sailing; To mention, for the first time.
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bumptious
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(adjective) Full of offensive and aggressive self-conceit.
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Brandon is loyal to Emily inspite of her bumptious attitude.
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buoyant
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(adj.) Having the power or tendency to float or keep afloat; cheerful; able to recover quickly emotionally
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burnish
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(t verb) To make brilliant or shining; polish
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The frame of burnished steel, that east a glare From far, and seemed to thaw the freezing air. --Dryden.
Now the village windows blaze, Burnished by the setting sun. --Cunningham. |
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cabal
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(noun) A number of persons secretly united for effecting by intrigue some private purpose; a group of ministers in the court of the English king Charles II, who governed the country between 1667 and 1673. Their surnames were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale; a secret scheme or plot
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"Espionage is quite precisely it—a cabal of powerful men, working secretly" (Frank Conroy).
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cacophony
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(noun) A disagreeable, harsh, or discordant sound or combination of sounds or tones.
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Mom heard a cacophony of horns during the traffic jam.
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cajole
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(t & i verb) To impose on or dupe by flattering speech.
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“He bullied, soothed and cajoled. In fact, he's awfully good at what he does, but how one wishes he didn't work quite so hard doing it.”
John Corry |
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Callow
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(adj.) Young, immature, and/or without experience of the world.
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the callow teenager
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calumny
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(noun) Slander; defamation or false accusation
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The speech was considered a calumny of the administration.
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candid
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(adj.) Straightforward; 1) honest, 2) photographed un-posed
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smile, your on candid camera!
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cant
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(noun) To talk in a singsong, preaching tone with affected solemnity; 1) clichéd talk, 2) hypocritical talk, jargon, 3) the private language of the underworld
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“Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world - though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst - the cant of criticism is the most tormenting!”
Laurence Sterne |
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capacious
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(adj.) Roomy.
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We need capacious storage bins in the barn.
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capitulate
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(i verb)To surrender or stipulate terms (esp. under agreed conditions); to consent or yield – give in to an argument, request, pressure, or something unavoidable
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He finally capitulated and agreed to do the job my way.
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captious
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(adj.) Hypercritical, noticing trivial faults and critisizing them. 2) entrapping (indenting to confuse or entrap in an argument)
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He could never praise without adding a captious remark.
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castigate
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(t verb) To punish; to criticize or rebuke someone’s behavior severely
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“People are bouncing across boundaries - we are starting to have fun with our history rather than seeing it as something we have to castigate ourselves for.”
Anne Salmond |
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cataract
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(noun) Opacity of the lens of the eye resulting in complete or partial blindness.
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caustic
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(adj.) Sarcastic and severe. 2) corrosive or burning by chemical action
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“Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.”
George Eliot |
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censure
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(t verb, noun) To criticize severely; also, an expression of disapproval. official condemnation
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centurion
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(noun) A captain of a company of one hundred infantry in the ancient Roman army.
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Jesus healed the centurian's daughter.
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chagrin
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chagrin(noun) Keen vexation, annoyance, or mortification, as at one's failures or errors. Anger at being let down
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“GNOSTICS, n. A sect of philosophers who tried to engineer a fusion between the early Christians and the Platonists. The former would not go into the caucus and the combination failed, greatly to the chagrin of the fusion managers.”
Ambrose Bierce |
