B Flashcards
boring, ordinary, and not original
He just sat there making _____ remarks all evening.
banal
poison, torment, cause of harm
the _____ of something:
a cause of continuous trouble or unhappiness
The lack of accurate locality data for samples is the _____ of museum curators’ lives.
Inflation is the _____ and the blight of this country’s economy, and that of many other countries too.
the _____ of my existence:
something that poisons my enjoyment of life
bane
something that keeps or defends a belief or a way of life that is disappearing or threatened
The ownership of property by as many people as possible is one of the main ______s of liberty.
or
a part of the wall of a castle that sticks out from it in order to protect it
The robbers terrorized the village for several weeks and then escaped to their
______ high in the treacherous mountains.
bastion
to cause, create, or to give birth to
Poverty ____s hunger, and hunger ______s crime.
beget
to explain something more than necessary
I don’t want to ______ the point, but I still don’t think you understand.
For more than an hour, the boring speaker ______ed her point about study skills.
belabor
to cause a lot of problems or difficulties for someone
The city’s once extensive library system has been _______ed by financial difficulties.
A plague of doves hit the town in 1896, devouring crops and ________ing the people.
or
to surround someone in order to attack them
They were _______ed by enemy armies.
They are charged to lie in wait, _______ the enemy, and attack him when he is inattentive.
beleaguer
to show something to be false, or to hide something such as an emotion
Her calm face ____ed the terror she was feeling.
However, the initial lyrics build from empathy to an assertion that the rapper is deeply wounded and vulnerable in a manner _____ing his tough image.
belie
*belying, belied
to make to seem little, to put someone down
Though she had spent hours fixing the computer, he ______d her efforts.
belittle
wishing to fight or argue
+ [disapproving]
The Army Medical Corps was appealing to those who wished to offer aid to fellow men in time of war, but not to join them in ________ acts.
fighting a war
The ________ countries are having difficulties funding the war.
belligerent
slightly confused
He was looking from one face to the other with an air of ________ disbelief.
bemused
someone who gives money to help an organization, society, or person
Exhibitions held at most institutions were largely or entirely made up of objects donated by local private __________.
benefactor
*A malefactor is a person who does bad things.
Batman and Robin made life hell for malefactors in Gotham City.
pleasant and kind; not harmful or severe; not causing harm; mild
a _____ smile
His humor was ______, never cruel or hurtful.
+ medical (of a disease or tissue growing because of a disease) not likely to result in death
a ______ tumor
benign
+ Different from benevolent,
Benevolence is being actively kind and generous
Benignancy is just not causing harm
+ an opposite would be malign/malignant
Nasty, evil, full of ill will
To malign someone is to say unfairly bad things about that person.
