Sparknotes Plus - Md - Nowns 2

Front 1

twaddle

(twod'le, rhymes with "waddle")

Back 1

(n.) silly/foolish/trivial talk
(v.) to talk foolishly

I asked for a serious explanation and he responded with such -twaddle- that there was no way I could believe him.

Front 2

fustian

(fuss'-chun)

Back 2

(adj.) pompus; ridiculously inflated
(n.) an inflated way of speaking or writing; pompous/pretentious language; a special kind of coarse and strong cotton/linen fabric

They would have me believe that he was a self-effacing man, but I had already read his six hundred page -fustian- autobiography.

Front 3

bombast

(bomb-bast')

bombastic

(bomb-bas'-tic)

Back 3

(n.) grandiloquent, pompous speech or writing
(adj.) ostentatiously lofty in style


It was another Ted Kennedy day in the Senate today --- one -bombastic-, but useless, speech after another.

Front 4

invective

in-vek'-tive

Back 4

(n.) an angry verbal attack


My mother's irrational -invective- against the way I dress only made want to dye my hair green.

Front 5

largess

(lar'-gess')

Back 5

(n.) the generous giving of lavish gifts


I was a poor kid and was only able to go to college through the -largess- of an unknown benifactor --- a friend of my dead father, I think.

Front 6

legerdemain

(ledge'-er-de-main')

Back 6

(n.) a deception; slight-of-hand

Smugglinging the French plants through customs by claiming that they were fake was a remarkable bit of -legerdemain-.

Front 7

maelstrom

(male'-strum)

Back 7

(n.) destructive whirlpool that sucks things into it; a violent or turbulent situation

Little did the kayakers know that around the next bend of the fast river was a viscious -maelstrom- that would leave three of them dead.