Chapter 22

Question 1

prelude

Answer 1

an action or event serving as an introduction to something more important: education cannot simply be a prelude to a career.

Question 2

premeditate

Answer 2

think out or plan (an action, especially a crime) beforehand: apparently he did not premeditate her murder.

Question 3

premise

Answer 3

a previous statement or proposition from which another is inferred or follows as a conclusion: if the premise is true, then the conclusion must be true.

Question 4

prepossessing

Answer 4

attractive or appealing in appearance: he was not a prepossessing sight.

Question 5

primal

Answer 5

1. relating to an early stage in evolutionary development; primeval: primal hunting societies.
2. essential; fundamental: rivers were the primal highways of life.

Question 6

prime

Answer 6

main

Question 7

principal

Answer 7

main; prime

Question 8

proclaim

Answer 8

announce officially or publicly

Question 9

prod

Answer 9

poke

Question 10

prodigal

Answer 10

spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant: prodigal habits die hard.

Question 11

prodigious

Answer 11

remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree: the stove consumed a prodigious amount of fuel.

Question 12

pronounced

Answer 12

very noticeable or marked; conspicuous: he had a pronounced squint.

Question 13

squint

Answer 13

verb: partly close (one’s eyes) in an attempt to see more clearly or as a reaction to strong light: he squinted sleepy eyes against the sudden light.
noun:
1 [in singular] a permanent deviation in the direction of the gaze of one eye: I had a bad squint.
2 [in singular] informal a quick or casual look: let me have a squint.
3 an oblique opening through a wall in a church permitting a view of the altar from an aisle or side chapel.

Question 14

prophaecy

Answer 14

a prediction: a bleak prophecy of war and ruin.

Question 15

prostrate

Answer 15

adj: lying stretched out on the ground with one’s face downward.
verb: 1 (prostrate oneself) lay oneself flat on the ground face downward, especially in reverence or submission: she prostrated herself on the bare floor of the church.
2 (of distress, exhaustion, or illness) reduce (someone) to extreme physical weakness: she was prostrated by a migraine that she could scarcely get up the stairs.

Question 16

prune

Answer 16

trim

Question 17

psychic

Answer 17

1 relating to or denoting faculties or phenomena that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, especially involving telepathy or clairvoyance: psychic powers.
• (of a person) appearing or considered to have powers of telepathy or clairvoyance: I could sense it—I must be psychic.
2 relating to the soul or mind: he dulled his psychic pain with gin.

Question 18

telepathy

Answer 18

clairvoyance

Question 19

pudge

Answer 19

fat on a person’s body

Question 20

pulverize

Answer 20

reduce to fine particles: the brick of the villages was pulverized by the bombardment.

Question 21

punctual

Answer 21

on time

Question 22

punitive

Answer 22

inflicting or intended as punishment: he called for punitive measures against the Eastern bloc.

Question 23

puny

Answer 23

small and weak: skeletal, white-faced, puny children.

• poor in quality, amount, or size: the army was reduced to a puny 100,000 men.

Question 24

purge

Answer 24

rid; remove

Question 25

quaint

Answer 25

attractively unusual or old-fashioned: quaint country cottages | a quaint old custom.

Question 26

cottage

Answer 26

a small simple house, typically one near a lake or beach

Question 27

quash

Answer 27

reject or void, especially by legal procedure: his conviction was quashed on appeal.
• put an end to; suppress: a hospital executive quashed rumors that nursing staff will lose jobs.

Question 28

quench

Answer 28

1 satisfy (one’s thirst) by drinking.
• satisfy (a desire): he only pursued her to quench an aching need.
2 extinguish (a fire): firemen hauled on hoses in a desperate bid to quench the flames.
• stifle or suppress (a feeling): fury rose in him, but he quenched it.

Question 29

quip

Answer 29

a witty remark

Question 30

quizzical

Answer 30

perplexed; amused

Question 31

rabid

Answer 31

fanatical; extreme; mad

having or proceeding from an extreme or fanatical support of or belief in something: the show’s small but rabid fan base | a rabid ideologue | she’s expecting more rabid support from the hometown fans.

Question 32

rack

Answer 32

verb: (also wrack) cause extreme physical or mental pain to; subject to extreme stress: he was racked with guilt.
noun: a framework, typically with rails, bars, hooks, or pegs, for holding or storing things: a spice rack | a magazine rack.

Question 33

rag

Answer 33

a piece of old cloth, especially one torn from a larger piece, used typically for cleaning things: he wiped his hands on an oily rag | a piece of rag.

Question 34

raid

Answer 34

a sudden attack on an enemy by troops, aircraft, or other armed forces in warfare: a bombing raid.

Question 35

rail

Answer 35

complain or protest strongly and persistently about: he railed at human fickleness.