#14 banal ~ belittle

Question 1

banal

/bəˈnæl, -ˈnɑl, ˈbeɪnl/

Answer 1

adj. unoriginal; ordinary
- The dinner conversation was so banal that Amanda fell asleep in her dessert dish.
- A banal statement is a boring, trite and uncreative statement. It is a banality.
- What made Yu fall asleep was the banality of the dinner conversation.

Question 2

bane

/beɪn/

Answer 2

n. poison; torment; cause of harm
Bane means poison, but the word is usually used figuratively.
- To say that someone is the bane of your existence is to say that that person poisons your enjoyment of life.

Question 3

baneful

/ˈbeɪnfəl/

Answer 3

adj. harmful

Question 4

bastion

/ˈbæstʃən, -tiən/

Answer 4

n. stronghold; fortress; fortified place
- Mrs. Garnett’s classroom is a bastion of banality; that is, it’s a place where originality seldom, if ever, makes its way inside.
- The robbers terrorized the village for several weeks, and then escaped to their bastion high in the treacherous mountains.

Question 5

beget

/bɪˈgɛt/

Answer 5

v. to give birth to; to create; to lead to; to cause

- Those who lie should be creative and have good memories, since one lie often begets another lie, which begets another.

Question 6

belabor

/bɪˈleɪbər/

Answer 6

v. to go over repeatedly or to an absurd extent
- For more than an hour, the boring speaker belabored his point about the challenge of foriegn competition.
- Mr. Irving spent the entire period belaboring the obvious; he made the same dumb observation over and over again.

Question 7

beleaguer

/bɪˈligər/

Answer 7

v. to surround; to besiege; to harass
- No one could leave the beleaguered city; the attacking army had closed off all the exits.
- Oscar felt beleaguered at work. He was months behind in his assignment, and he had little hope of catching up.
- The beleaguered executive seldom emerged from his office as he struggled to deal with the growing scandal.

Question 8

belie

/bɪˈlaɪ/

Answer 8

v. to give a false impression of; to contradict
- Melvin’s smile belied the grief he was feeling; despite his happy expression he was terribly sad inside.
- The messy appearance of the banquet table belied the huge effort that had gone into setting it up.

Question 9

belittle

/bɪˈlɪtl/

Answer 9

v. to make to seem little; to put someone down
- We worked hard to put out the fire, but the fire chief belittled our efforts by saying he wished he had brought some marshmallows.
- The chairman’s belittling comments made everyone feel small.