3. Flashcards
to humiliate, degrade
abase
(After being overthrown and abased, the deposed leader offered to bow down to his conqueror.)
(v.) to reduce, lessen
abate (The rain poured down for a while, then abated.)
(v.) to kidnap, take by force
abduct (The evildoers abducted the fairy princess from her happy home.)
(n.) something that differs from the norm
aberration (In 1918, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, but the success turned out to be an aberration, and the Red Sox have not won a World Series since.)
(v.) to aid, help, encourage
abet (The spy succeeded only because he had a friend on the inside to abet him.)
(v.) to put up with/ (v.) to remain
(Though he did not agree with the decision, Chuck decided to abide by it.)
(Despite the beating they’ve taken from the weather throughout the millennia, the mountains abide.)
(adj.) wretched, pitiful
abject (After losing all her money, falling into a puddle, and breaking her ankle, Eloise was abject.)
v.) to reject, renounce
abjure (To prove his honesty, the President abjured the evil policies of his wicked predecessor.)
self-denial/ Self-sacrifice
abnegation
“people are capable of abnegation and unselfishness”
to give up on a half-finished project or effort
abort
he had to abort and go home.
(v.) to cut down, shorten
abridge
(The publisher thought the dictionary was too long and abridged it.)
(Moby-Dick is such a long book that even the abridged version is longer than most normal books.)
to abolish, usually by authority
evade (a responsibility or duty).
abrogate
(The Bill of Rights assures that the government cannot abrogate our right to a free press.)
“a proposal to abrogate temporarily the right to strike”
“we believe the board is abrogating its responsibilities to its shareholders”
(of a person kept in detention or under supervision) escape.
to sneak away and hide
abscond
“176 detainees absconded”
(In the confusion, the super-spy absconded into the night with the secret plans.)
(n.) freedom from blame, guilt, sin (
absolution
(Once all the facts were known, the jury gave Angela absolution by giving a verdict of not guilty.)
to freely choose not to commit an action
abstain
(Once all the facts were known, the jury gave Angela absolution by giving a verdict of not guilty.)
(v.) to freely choose not to commit an action
abstain
(Everyone demanded that Angus put on the kilt, but he did not want to do it and abstained.)
hard to comprehend
abstruse
(Everyone else in the class understood geometry easily, but John found the subject abstruse.)
(v.) to agree
accede
(When the class asked the teacher whether they could play baseball instead of learn grammar they expected him to refuse, but instead he acceded to their request.)
(v.) to stress, highlight
accentuate
(Psychologists agree that those people who are happiest accentuate the positive in life.)
(n.) high praise
acclaim
(Greg’s excellent poem won the acclaim of his friends.)
high praise, special distinction= honor
accolade
(Everyone offered accolades to Sam after
he won the Noble Prize.)
helpful, obliging, polite
accommodating
(Though the apartment was not big enough for three people, Arnold, Mark, and Zebulon were all friends and were accommodating to each other.)
“we always found our local branch most accommodating”
to confront verbally
accost
(Though Antoinette was normally quite calm, when the waiter spilled soup on her for the fourth time in 15 minutes she stood up and accosted the man.)
slow growth in size or amount
accretion
(Stalactites are formed by the accretion of minerals from the roofs of caves.)
biting, bitter in tone or taste
acerbic
(Jill became extremely acerbic and began to cruelly make fun of all her friends.)
“his acerbic wit”
mental sharpness and inventiveness; keen intelligence.
= shrewdness
wit
“he does not lack perception or native wit”
to agree without protesting
acquiesce
(Though Mr. Correlli wanted to stay outside and work in his garage, when his wife told him that he had better come in to dinner, he acquiesced to her demands.)
bitterness, discord
acrimony
(Though they vowed that no girl would ever come between them, Biff and Trevor could not keep acrimony from overwhelming their friendship after they both fell in love with the lovely Teresa.)
(of people) disagree.
“we discorded commonly on two points”
lack of harmony between notes sounding together.
“the music faded in discord’
disagreement between people.
“a prosperous family who showed no signs of discord”
discord
(n.) keen insight
acumen
(Because of his mathematical acumen, Larry was able to figure out in minutes problems that took other students hours.)
(adj.) sharp, severe
(adj.) having keen insight
acute
(Arnold could not walk because the pain in his foot was so acute.)
(Because she was so acute, Libby instantly figured out how the magician pulled off his “magic.”)
impervious, immovable, unyielding
adamant
(Though public pressure was intense, the President remained adamant about his proposal.)
extremely skilled
adept
(Tarzan was adept at jumping from tree to tree like a monkey.)
(n.) to stick to something
n.) to follow devoutly
adhere
(He adhered to the dictates of his religion without question.)
to caution, criticize, reprove
warn or reprimand someone firmly.
“she admonished me for appearing at breakfast unshaven”
to tell someone that you disapprove of their bad or silly behaviour:
reprove
The teacher gently reproved the boys for not paying attention.
to decorate
adorn
(We adorned the tree with ornaments.)
(adj.) skillful, dexterous
adroit
(The adroit thief could pick someone’s pocket without
attracting notice.)
(n.) extreme praise
adulation
(Though the book was pretty good, Marcy did not believe it deserved the adulation it received.)
(v.) to sketch out in a vague way
adumbrate
(The coach adumbrated a game plan, but none of the players knew precisely what to do.)
(adj.) antagonistic, unfavorable, dangerous
adverse
(Because of adverse conditions, the hikers decided to give up trying to climb the mountain.)
(v.) to argue in favor of something
advocate 1.
(Arnold advocated turning left at the stop sign, even though everyone else thought we should turn right.)
(adj.) somehow related to the air
aerial
(We watched as the fighter planes conducted aerial maneuvers.)
(adj.) artistic, related to the appreciation of beauty
aesthetic
(We hired Susan as our interior decorator because she has such a fine aesthetic sense.)
(n.) an insult
affront
(Bernardo was very touchy, and took any slight as an affront to his honor.)
(v.) to increase or make greater
aggrandize
(Joseph always dropped the names of the famous people his father knew as a way to aggrandize his personal stature.)
a whole formed by combining several (typically disparate) elements.
aggregate
“the council was an aggregate of three regional assemblies”
(adj.) quick, nimble
agile
(The dogs were too slow to catch the agile rabbit.)
