blue book #06

Question 1

carp

Answer 1

1.
to find fault or complain querulously or unreasonably; be niggling in criticizing; cavil:
to carp at minor errors.

2.
a peevish complaint.

Question 2

carte blanche

Answer 2

unconditional authority; full discretionary power:
The government appears to have given the military carte blanche in Afghanistan.
She was given carte blanche to decorate her room as she wished, perhaps an unwise decision on the part of her parents.

Question 3

cartography

Answer 3

the production of maps, including construction of projections, design, compilation, drafting, and reproduction.

Question 4

cast

Answer 4

1.
to throw or hurl; fling:
The gambler cast the dice.

2.
to throw off or away:
He cast the advertisement in the wastebasket.

3.
to direct (the eye, a glance, etc.), especially in a cursory manner:
She cast her eyes down the page.

4.
to cause to fall upon something or in a certain direction; send forth:
to cast a soft light; to cast a spell; to cast doubts.

Question 5

caste

Answer 5

1.
any of the social divisions into which Hindu society is traditionally divided, each caste having its own privileges and limitations, transferred by inheritance from one generation to the next.

2.
any class or group of society sharing common cultural features:
low caste; high caste.

3.
social position conferred upon one by a caste system:
to lose caste.

Question 6

castigate

Answer 6

1.
to criticize or reprimand severely.

2.
to punish in order to correct.

Question 7

cataclysm

Answer 7

1.
any violent upheaval, especially one of a social or political nature.

2.
(geography) a sudden and violent physical action producing changes in the earth’s surface.

3.
an extensive flood; deluge.

Question 8

catalogue

Answer 8

1.
a list or record, as of items for sale or courses at a university, systematically arranged and often including descriptive material:
a stamp catalog.

2.
something that contains such a list or record, as a book, leaflet, or file.

3.
a list of the contents of a library or a group of libraries, arranged according to any of various systems.

4.
any list or record:
a catalog of complaints.

Question 9

catalyst

Answer 9

1.
something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected.

2.
a person or thing that precipitates an event or change:
His imprisonment by the government served as the catalyst that helped transform social unrest into revolution.

3.
a person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic.

Question 10

catastrophe

Answer 10

1.
a sudden and widespread disaster:
the catastrophe of war.

2.
any misfortune, mishap, or failure; fiasco:
The play was so poor our whole evening was a catastrophe.

3.
a final event or conclusion, usually an unfortunate one; a disastrous end:
the great catastrophe of the Old South at Appomattox.

Question 11

catatonic

Answer 11

1.
having catatonia, a syndrome characterized by muscular rigidity and mental stupor:
The schizophrenic remained in a catatonic state.

2.
appearing to be in a daze or stupor; unresponsive:
She had the catatonic expression of an avant-garde model.

Question 12

categorical

Answer 12

1.
without exceptions or conditions; absolute; unqualified and unconditional:
a categorical denial.

2.
of, relating to, or in a category.

Question 13

catharsis

Answer 13

the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.

Question 14

caucus

Answer 14

1.
a meeting of party leaders to select candidates, elect convention delegates, etc.

2.
a meeting of party members within a legislative body to select leaders and determine strategy.

3.
a faction within a legislative body that pursues its interests through the legislative process:
the Women’s Caucus; the Black Caucus.

Question 15

caulk

Answer 15

1.
to fill or close seams or crevices of (a tank, window, etc.) in order to make watertight, airtight, etc.

2.
to make (a vessel) watertight by filling the seams between the planks with oakum or other material driven snug.

Question 16

causality

Answer 16

the relation of cause and effect:

The result is the same, however differently the causality is interpreted.

Question 17

caustic

Answer 17

1.
capable of burning, corroding, or destroying living tissue.

2.
severely critical or sarcastic:
a caustic remark.

Question 18

cavalier

Answer 18

1.
a horseman, especially a mounted soldier; knight.

2.
one having the spirit or bearing of a knight; a courtly gentleman; gallant.

3.
haughty, disdainful, or supercilious:
an arrogant and cavalier attitude toward others.

4.
offhand or unceremonious:
The very dignified officials were confused by his cavalier manner.

Question 19

caveat

Answer 19

a warning or caution; admonition.

Question 20

cavort

Answer 20

1.
to frolic or prance about.

2.
to behave in a high-spirited, festive manner; make merry.

Question 21

cede

Answer 21

to yield or formally surrender to another:

to cede territory.

Question 22

celestial

Answer 22

1.
pertaining to the sky or visible heaven, or to the universe beyond the earth’s atmosphere, as in celestial body.

2.
pertaining to the spiritual or invisible heaven; heavenly; divine:
celestial bliss.

Question 23

censorious

Answer 23

severely critical; faultfinding; carping.

Question 24

censure

Answer 24

1.
strong or vehement expression of disapproval:
The newspapers were unanimous in their censure of the tax proposal.

2.
an official reprimand, as by a legislative body of one of its members.

3.
to criticize or reproach in a harsh or vehement manner:
She is more to be pitied than censured.

4.
to give censure, adverse criticism, disapproval, or blame.

Question 25

centennial

Answer 25

1.
pertaining to, or marking the completion of, a period of 100 years.

2.
pertaining to a 100th anniversary.

3.
lasting 100 years.

4.
100 years old.

Question 26

centrifugal

Answer 26

1.
moving or directed outward from the center (opposed to centripetal).

2.
pertaining to or operated by centrifugal force:
a centrifugal pump.

Question 27

centripetal

Answer 27

1.
directed toward the center (opposed to centrifugal).

2.
operating by centripetal force.

Question 28

cerebral

Answer 28

1.
of or relating to the cerebrum or the brain.

2.
betraying or characterized by the use of the intellect rather than intuition or instinct:
His is a cerebral music that leaves many people cold.

Question 29

cessation

Answer 29

a temporary or complete stopping; discontinuance:

a cessation of hostilities.

Question 30

cession

Answer 30

1.
act of ceding or surrendering, as by treaty.

2.
something that is ceded, as territory.

Question 31

confer

Answer 31

1.
to consult together; compare opinions; carry on a discussion or deliberation.

2.
to bestow upon as a gift, favor, honor, etc.:
to confer a degree on a graduate.

Question 32

chafe

Answer 32

1.
to wear or abrade by rubbing:
He chafed his shoes on the rocks.

2.
to make sore by rubbing:
Her collar chafed her neck.

3.
to irritate; annoy:
The dripping of the faucet chafed her nerves.

4.
to warm by rubbing:
to chafe cold hands.

5.
to become worn or sore from rubbing:
His neck began to chafe from the starched collar.

6.
to rub; press with friction:
The horse chafed against his stall.

7.
to be irritated or annoyed:
He chafed at their constant interruptions.

Question 33

chagrin

Answer 33

1.
a feeling of vexation, marked by disappointment or humiliation.

2.
to vex by disappointment or humiliation:
The rejection of his proposal chagrined him deeply.

Question 34

chalice

Answer 34

1.
a drinking cup or goblet.

2.
a cuplike blossom.

Question 35

champion

Answer 35

1.
a person who fights for or defends any person or cause:
a champion of the oppressed.

2.
a fighter or warrior.

3.
to act as champion of; defend; support:
to champion a cause.

Question 36

chaos

Answer 36

1.
a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.

2.
any confused, disorderly mass:
a chaos of meaningless phrases.

3.
the infinity of space or formless matter supposed to have preceded the existence of the ordered universe.

Question 37

charge

Answer 37

1.
to attack by rushing violently against:
The cavalry charged the enemy.

2.
to accuse formally or explicitly:
They charged him with theft.

3.
to impute; ascribe the responsibility for:
He charged the accident to his own carelessness.

Question 38

charisma

Answer 38

1.
a spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people.

2.
the special virtue of an office, function, position, etc., that confers or is thought to confer on the person holding it an unusual ability for leadership, worthiness of veneration, or the like.

Question 39

charlatan

Answer 39

a person who pretends or claims to have more knowledge or skill than he or she possesses; quack.

Question 40

chary

Answer 40

1.
cautious or careful; wary:
He was chary of investing in oil wells.

2.
shy; timid.

3.
fastidious; choosy:
She is excessively chary about her friends.

4.
sparing (often followed by of):
chary of his praise.

Question 41

chasm

Answer 41

1.
a yawning fissure or deep cleft in the earth’s surface; gorge.

2.
a breach or wide fissure in a wall or other structure.

3.
a marked interruption of continuity; gap:
a chasm in time.

4.
a sundering breach in relations, as a divergence of opinions, beliefs, etc., between persons or groups.

Question 42

chaste

Answer 42

1.
refraining from sexual intercourse that is regarded as contrary to morality or religion; virtuous.

2.
free from obscenity; decent:
chaste conversation.

3.
undefiled or stainless:
chaste, white snow.

4.
pure in style; not excessively ornamented; simple.

Question 43

chasten

Answer 43

1.
to inflict suffering upon for purposes of moral improvement; chastise.

2.
to restrain; subdue:
Age has chastened his violent temper.

3.
to make chaste in style.

Question 44

chastise

Answer 44

1.
to discipline, especially by corporal punishment.

2.
to criticize severely.

Question 45

chauvinism

Answer 45

1.
zealous and aggressive patriotism or blind enthusiasm for military glory.

2.
biased devotion to any group, attitude, or cause:
religious chauvinism.

3.
the denigration, disparagement, and patronization of either sex based on the belief that one sex is inferior to the other and thus deserving of less than equal treatment or benefit.

Question 46

cherub

Answer 46

1.
a celestial being.

2.
a member of the second order of angels, often represented as a beautiful rosy-cheeked child with wings.

3.
a beautiful or innocent person, especially a child with a sweet, chubby face.

Question 47

chez

Answer 47

at or in the home of; with.

Question 48

chic

Answer 48

1.
attractive and fashionable; stylish:
a chic hat.

2.
style and elegance, especially in dress:
Paris clothes have such chic.

3.
stylishness; modishness:
the chic of the first-nighters.

4.
casual and understated style, as in dress or décor, that expresses a specified trendy lifestyle or activity:
Black-rimmed glasses bring some geek chic to your outfit.

Question 49

chicanery

Answer 49

1.
trickery or deception by quibbling or sophistry:
He resorted to the worst flattery and chicanery to win the job.

2.
a quibble or subterfuge used to trick, deceive, or evade.

Question 50

chide

Answer 50

1.
to express disapproval of; scold; reproach:
The principal chided the children for their thoughtless pranks.

2.
to harass, nag, impel, or the like by chiding:
She chided him into apologizing.

3.
to scold or reproach; find fault.

Question 51

chimera

Answer 51

1.
a mythological, fire-breathing monster, commonly represented with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.

2.
any similarly grotesque monster having disparate parts, especially as depicted in decorative art.

3.
a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination; a vain or idle fancy:
He is far different from the chimera your fears have made of him.

4.
an organism composed of two or more genetically distinct tissues, as an organism that is partly male and partly female, or an artificially produced individual having tissues of several species.

Question 52

chivalrous

Answer 52

1.
having the qualities of chivalry, as courage, courtesy, and loyalty.

2.
considerate and courteous to women; gallant.

3.
gracious and honorable toward an enemy, especially a defeated one, and toward the weak or poor.

Question 53

choleric

Answer 53

extremely irritable or easily angered; irascible:

a choleric disposition.

Question 54

chortle

Answer 54

1.
to chuckle gleefully.

2.
to express with a gleeful chuckle:
to chortle one’s joy.

Question 55

chromatic

Answer 55

1.
pertaining to color or colors.

2.
involving a modification of the normal music scale by the use of accidentals; progressing by semitones, especially to a tone having the same letter name, as in C to C sharp.

Question 56

chronic

Answer 56

1.
constant; habitual; inveterate:
a chronic liar.

2.
continuing a long time or recurring frequently:
a chronic state of civil war.

3.
having long had a disease, habit, weakness, or the like:
a chronic invalid.

4.
(of a disease) having long duration (opposed to acute).

Question 57

chronicle

Answer 57

1.
a chronological record of events; a history.

2.
to record in or as in a chronicle; to work as a historian.

Question 58

churlish

Answer 58

1.
like a churl; boorish; rude:
churlish behavior.

2.
of a churl; peasant-like; mean.

3.
difficult to work or deal with, as soil.

Question 59

circa

Answer 59

about; used especially in approximate dates:
The Venerable Bede was born circa 673.

abbreviations: ca, ca., c., c, cir., circ.

Question 60

circuitous

Answer 60

roundabout; not direct:

a circuitous route; a circuitous argument.

Question 61

circumlocution

Answer 61

1.
a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.

2.
a roundabout expression.

Question 62

circumnavigate

Answer 62

1.
to sail or fly around; make the circuit of by navigation:
to circumnavigate the earth.

2.
to go or maneuver around:
to circumnavigate the heavy downtown traffic.

Question 63

circumscribe

Answer 63

1.
to draw a line around; encircle:
to circumscribe a city on a map.

2.
to enclose within bounds; limit or confine, especially narrowly:
Her social activities are circumscribed by school regulations.

3.
to mark off; define; delimit:
to circumscribe the area of a science.

Question 64

circumspect

Answer 64

1.
watchful and discreet; cautious; prudent:
circumspect behavior.

2.
well-considered:
circumspect ambition.

Question 65

circumvent

Answer 65

1.
to go around or evade:
to circumvent the lake; to circumvent the real issues.

2.
to avoid (defeat, failure, unpleasantness, etc.) by artfulness or deception; avoid by anticipating or outwitting:
He circumvented capture by anticipating their movements.

3.
to surround or encompass, as by stratagem; entrap:
to circumvent a body of enemy troops.

Question 66

cistern

Answer 66

1.
a reservoir, tank, or container for storing or holding water or other liquid.

2.
a reservoir or receptacle of some natural fluid of the body.

Question 67

citadel

Answer 67

1.
a fortress that commands a city and is used in the control of the inhabitants and in defense during attack or siege.

2.
any strongly fortified place; stronghold.

Question 68

civil

Answer 68

1.
of, relating to, or consisting of citizens:
civil life; civil society.

2.
of, or in a condition of, social order or organized government; civilized:
civil peoples.

3.
adhering to the norms of polite social intercourse; not deficient in common courtesy:
After their disagreement, their relations were civil though not cordial.

Question 69

clairvoyant

Answer 69

1.
psychic; having or claiming to have the power of seeing objects or actions beyond the range of natural vision:
Not being clairvoyant, I did not foresee the danger of ignoring her advice.

2.
of, by, or pertaining to clairvoyance:
Unlike more talented witches, I had to make do with love potions and occasional clairvoyant visions.

Question 70

clamor

Answer 70

1.
a loud uproar, as from a crowd of people:
the clamor of the crowd at the gates.

2.
a vehement expression of desire or dissatisfaction:
the clamor of the proponents of the law.

3.
popular outcry:
The senators could not ignore the clamor against higher taxation.

4.
any loud and continued noise:
the clamor of traffic; the clamor of birds and animals in the zoo.

6.
to drive, force, influence, etc., by clamoring:
The newspapers clamored him out of office.

7.
to utter noisily:
They clamored their demands at the meeting.

Question 71

clandestine

Answer 71

characterized by, done in, or executed with secrecy or concealment, especially for purposes of subversion or deception; private or surreptitious:
Their clandestine meetings went undiscovered for two years.

Question 72

cleave

Answer 72

1.
to adhere closely; stick; cling to.

2.
to remain faithful to:
to cleave to one’s principles in spite of persecution.

3.
to split or divide by or as if by a cutting blow, especially along a natural line of division, as the grain of wood.

4.
to make by or as if by cutting:
to cleave a path through the wilderness.

5.
to penetrate or pass through (air, water, etc.):
The bow of the boat cleaved the water cleanly.

6.
to cut off; sever:
to cleave a branch from a tree.

Question 73

clemency

Answer 73

1.
the quality of being clement; disposition to show forbearance, compassion, or forgiveness in judging or punishing; leniency; mercy.

2.
an act or deed showing mercy or leniency.

3.
(of the weather) mildness or temperateness.

Question 74

clergy

Answer 74

the group or body of ordained persons in a religion, as distinguished from the laity.

Question 75

cliché

Answer 75

1.
a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.

2.
(in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of color, musical expression, etc.

3.
anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.

Question 76

clientele

Answer 76

1.
the clients or customers, as of a professional person or shop, considered collectively; a group or body of clients:
This jewelry store has a wealthy clientele.

2.
dependents or followers.

Question 77

clinical

Answer 77

1.
pertaining to a clinic.

2.
concerned with or based on actual observation and treatment of disease in patients rather than experimentation or theory.

3.
extremely objective and realistic; dispassionately analytic; unemotionally critical:
She regarded him with clinical detachment.

4.
pertaining to or used in a sickroom:
a clinical bandage.

Question 78

clique

Answer 78

a small, exclusive group of people; coterie; set.

Question 79

cloister

Answer 79

1.
a place of religious seclusion, as a monastery or convent.

2.
to confine in a monastery or convent.

3.
to confine in retirement; seclude.

Question 80

cloying

Answer 80

1.
causing or tending to cause disgust or aversion through excess:
a perfume of cloying sweetness.

2.
overly ingratiating or sentimental.

Question 81

coagulate

Answer 81

1.
to change from a fluid into a thickened mass; curdle; congeal:
Let the pudding stand two hours until it coagulates.

2.
(of blood) to form a clot.

Question 82

coalesce

Answer 82

1.
to grow together or into one body:
The two lakes coalesced into one.

2.
to unite so as to form one mass, community, etc.:
The various groups coalesced into a crowd.

3.
to blend or come together:
Their ideas coalesced into one theory.

Question 83

coalition

Answer 83

1.
a combination or alliance, especially a temporary one between persons, factions, states, etc.

2.
a union into one body or mass; fusion.

Question 84

coddle

Answer 84

1.
to treat tenderly; nurse or tend indulgently; pamper:
to coddle children when they’re sick.

2.
to cook (eggs, fruit, etc.) in water that is just below the boiling point; cook gently.

Question 85

coerce

Answer 85

1.
to compel by force, intimidation, or authority, especially without regard for individual desire or volition:
They coerced him into signing the document.

2.
to bring about through the use of force or other forms of compulsion; exact:
to coerce obedience.

3.
to dominate or control, especially by exploiting fear, anxiety, etc.:
The state is based on successfully coercing the individual.