21st July 2021 Flashcards
avarice
When people talk about greed, it’s clearly not a good thing, but avarice has an even worse flavor to it.
despicable
The despicable man — the one who is so awful and worthless that he deserves to be despised — is the one who burns down the office building and frames his co-worker for it.
wax
To wax is to grow larger or increase, whereas wane means to grow smaller or decrease.
As the moon grows towards fullness, it waxes. It wanes, or diminishes in size, as the new moon approaches
Support for Black Lives Matter waxed only to wane months later
As vaccination rates rise, so do the number of personal grooming appointments — so much so that “vaxxed and waxed” is already an unofficial motto of the summer.
raft
A large number of something
Despite a raft of city ordinances passed by an overzealous council, noise pollution continued unbated in the megapolis.
hodgepodge
A hodgepodge is a random assortment of things.
If you made a stew with bacon, oatmeal, and chocolate cake, you’ve made a hodgepodge.
The law is a hodgepodge of bans, financial incentives and other measures that aim to cut waste, improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in day-to-day life.
The resulting compromise consists of a hodgepodge of measures that are unlikely to create actual revenue that pays for the spending plan, according to a half-dozen experts interviewed by The Washington Post.
errant
Something or someone described as errant has gone astray or done wrong by going in an unexpected direction.
It’s the story that goes with it — the president’s errant son, buffeted by tragedy, embroiled in controversy and sunken in addiction before cleaning up and finding some respite in high culture — that’s really irresistible.
checkered
it’s got bright spots and dark ones, like a checkerboard.
To describe up’s and down’s of someone’s past.
cadaverous
Cadaverous means looking corpse-like, from being sick or too skinny, like an aging rock star or a Halloween ghoul.
heyday
A heyday is a peak of popularity or success.
If you remember a time in the past when you were doing something really well or getting a lot of attention or fame, you might be reminiscing about your heyday.
The decision is another sign that the CD, once the dominant means of buying and selling recorded music, is long past its heyday.
The group is now defunct, but in its heyday, it formed a political party that was the third-largest in the Greek Parliament.
imponderable
Imponderable describes a situation that isn’t able to be completely explained.
Use imponderable to describe something that is elusive and vague, perhaps even evasive. When your question doesn’t have a definitive answer, you are in imponderable territory:
One of the great imponderables in climate science is how long forests will continue to buffer climate change as CO2 levels continue to spiral.
aboveboard
If something is aboveboard, it’s done in a completely honest, straightforward way.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said China was doing nothing of the sort, calling its vaccine deals “completely aboveboard” and humanitarian minded.
Early exit polls found that 56% of voters believed that the 2020 election was aboveboard, but the responses broke heavily along partisan lines with 76% of Republicans saying the election was not conducted fairly.
lassitude
If you are feeling lassitude, you’re weary and just can’t be bothered. Couch potatoes make lassitude into an art form.
Lassitude is the weariness you’d experience after attempting to run a marathon around the equator.
Lassitude can also describe a lack of interest, like deciding you’d rather lie on your couch than run that marathon along the equator.
