#30 daunt ~ defame Flashcards
daunt
/dɔnt, dɑnt/
v. to make fearful; to intimidate
- The steepness of the mountain daunted the team of amateur climbers, because they hadn’t realized what they were in for.
- The size of the players on the visiting team was daunting; the players on the home team began to perspire nervously.
dauntless
/ˈdɔntlɪs, ˈdɑnt-/
undaunted
/ʌnˈdɔntɪd, -ˈdɑn-/
adj. fearless; unintimidated
- The rescue crew was undaunted by the flames and ran into the burning house to look for survivors. The entire crew was dauntless in its effort to save the people inside.
dearth
/dɜrθ/
n. lack; scarcity
- There is no dearth of comedy at a convention of clowns.
- When there is a dearth of food, many people may starve.
- There was a dearth of gaiety at the boring Christmas party.
debacle
/deɪˈbɑkəl, -ˈbækəl, də-/
n. violent breakdown; sudden overthrow; overwhelming defeat
- A political debate would become a debacle if the candidates began screaming and throwing dinner rolls at each other.
debauchery
/dɪˈbɔtʃəri/
n. wild living; excessive intemperance
- Debauchery can be expensive; fortunately for Jeff, his wallet matched his appetite for extravagant pleasures. He died a poor, albeit happy, man.
debauch
/dɪˈbɔtʃ/
v. to seduce; to corrupt
- Someone who is debauched has been seduced or corrupted.
debilitate
/dɪˈbɪlɪˌteɪt/
v. to weaken; to cripple
- The football player’s career was ended by a debilitating injury to his knee.
To become debilitated is to suffer a debility, which is the opposite of an ability.
- A surgeon who becomes debilitated is one who has lost the ability to operate on the debilities of other people.
decadent
/ˈdɛkədənt, dɪˈkeɪdnt/
adj. decaying or decayed, esp. in terms of morals
- A person who engages in decadent behavior is a person whose morals have decayed or fallen into ruin.
- Carousing in local bars instead of going to class is decadent.
Decadent behavior is often an affection of bored young people. The noun is decadence.
decimate
/ˈdɛsəˌmeɪt/
v. to kill or destroy a large part of
- To decimate an army is to come close to wiping it out.
- When locusts attack a crop, they sometimes decimate it, leaving very little that’s fit for human consumption.
- You might say in jest that your family had decimated its turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, leaving nothing but a few crumbs and a pile of bones.
decorous
/ˈdɛkərəs, dɪˈkɔrəs, -ˈkoʊr-/
adj. proper; in good taste; orderly
Decorous behavior is good, polite, orderly behavior.
To be decorous is to be sober and tasteful.
- The New Year’s Eve crowd was relatively decorous until midnight, when they went wild.
To behave decorously is to behave with decorum.
deduce
/dɪˈdus, -ˈdyus/
v. to conclude from the evidence; to infer
To deduce sth. is to conclude it without being told it directly.
- From the footprints on the ground, Clarice deduced that the criminal had feet.
- Daffy deduced from the shape of its bill that the duck was really a chicken. That the duck was really a chicken was Daffy’s deduction.
defame
/dɪˈfeɪm/
v. to libel or slander; to ruin the good name of
To defame someone is to make accusations that harm the person’s reputation.
- The local businessman accused the newspaper of defaming him by publishing an article that said his company was poorly managed.
To defame is to take away fame, to take away a good name.
To suffer such a loss of reputation is to suffer defamation.
- The businessman who believed he had been defamed by the newspaper sued the paper’s publisher for defamation.
