#31 deference ~ deride Flashcards
deference
/ˈdɛfərəns/
n. submission to another’s will; respect; courtesy
To show deference to another is to place that person’s wishes ahead of your own.
- Dean showed deference to his grandfather: He let the old man have the first dibs on the birthday cake.
- Danny stopped texting at the dinner table in deference to the wishes of his mother.
To show deference to another is to defer to that person.
- Joe was supposed to go first, but her deferred to Steve, who had been waiting longer.
deferential
/ˌdɛfəˈrɛnʃəl/
adj. showing deference
- Joe was being deferential when he allowed Steve to go first.
definitive
/dɪˈfɪnɪtɪv/
adj. conclusive; providing the last word
- Walter wrote the definitive biography of Keats; nothing more could have been added by another book.
- The army completely wiped out the invaders; its victory was definitive.
- No one could find anything to object to in Cindy’s definitive explanation of how the meteorite had gotten into the bathtub.
degenerate
/v. dɪˈdʒɛnəˌreɪt; adj., n. dɪˈdʒɛnərɪt/
v. to break down; to deteriorate
- The discussion quickly degenerated into an argument.
- Over the years, the nice old neighborhood had degenerated into a terrible slum.
- The fans’ behavior degenerated as the game went on.
A person whose behavior has degenerated can be referred to as a degenerate.
- The mood of the party was spoiled when a drunken degenerate wandered in from off the street.
Degenerate can also be used as an adjective, meaning degenerated.
- The slum neighborhood was degenerate.
- The fans’ degenerate behavior prompted the police to make several arrests.
deleterious
/ˌdɛlɪˈtɪəriəs/
adj. harmful
- Smoking cigarettes is deleterious to your health.
- Is watching a lot of TV really deleterious? Of course not.
delineate
/dɪˈlɪniˌeɪt/
v. to describe accurately; to draw in outline
- After Jack had delineated his plan, we had no doubt about what he intended to do.
- Sharon’s peculiar feelings about her pet gorilla were delineated in the newspaper article about her.
- The portrait artist delineated Sarah’s features then filled in the shading.
The noun is delineation.
delude
/dɪˈlud/
v. to deceive
- The con man deluded us into thinking that he would make us rich. Instead, he tricked us into giving him several hundred dollars.
- The deluded mental patient believed that he was a chicken sandwich.
- Lori is so persuasive that she was able to delude Leslie into thinking she was a countess.
To be deluded is to suffer from a delusion
- That he was a great poet was the delusion of the English teacher, who could scarcely write two complete sentences in a row.
- Todd, the well-known jerk, suffered from the delusion that he was a genuinely nice man.
deluge
/ˈdɛlyudʒ, -yuʒ, ˈdɛludʒ, -uʒ, dɪˈludʒ, -ˈluʒ/
n. a flood; an inundation
A deluge is a flood, but the word is often used figuratively.
- The $1 million reward for the lost poodle brought in a deluge of hot leads. The distraught owner was deluged by phone calls all week.
demagogue
/ˈdɛməˌgɒg, -ˌgɔg/
n. a leader who uses prejudice to get more power
A demagogue is a leader, but not in a good sense of the word. He manipulates the public to support his aims, but he is little different from a dictator. A demagogue is often a despot.
This word can also be spelled demagog. The methods a demagogue uses are demagoguery or demagogy.
denizen
/ˈdɛnəzən/
n. inhabitant
To be a denizen of a country is to live there. A citizen of a country is usually also a denizen.
To be a denizen of a restaurant is to go there often - so often that people begin to wonder whether you live there.
Fish are sometimes referred to as “denizens of the deep.” Don’t refer to them this way yourself; the expression is a cliché.
depravity
/dɪˈprævɪti/
n. extreme wickedness or corruption
- Mrs. Prudinkle wondered whether the depravity of her class of eight-year-olds was the result of their watching Saturday morning television.
depraved
/dɪˈpreɪvd/
adj. exhibiting depravity; corrupt; wicked; perverted
deprecate
/ˈdɛprɪˌkeɪt/
v. to express disapproval of
- To deprecate a colleague’s work is to risk making yourself unwelcome in your colleague’s office.
“This stinks!” is a deprecating remark.
- The critic’s deprecating comments about my new novel put me in a bad mood for an entire month.
- To be self-deprecating is to belittle one’s own efforts, often in the hope that someone else will say, “No, you’re wonderful!”
deride
/dɪˈraɪd/
v. to ridicule; to laugh at contemptuously
- Gerald derided Diana’s driving ability after their hair-rising trip down the twisting mountain road.
- Sportswriters derided Columbia’s football team, which hadn’t won a game in three years.
- The boss derided his secretary mercilessly, so she quit her job. She was someone who could not accept derision.
