Chapter 23 Flashcards
niggardly
adj.
- Grudging and petty in giving or spending.
- Meanly small; scanty or meagre: left the waiter a niggardly tip.
capricious
adj.
Characterized by, arising from, or subject to caprice; impulsive or unpredictable: capricious decisions; capricious weather.
contrite
adj.
- Feeling regret and sorrow for one’s sins or offences; penitent.
- Arising from or expressing contrition: contrite words.
emancipate
v.
- To free from bondage, oppression, or restraint; liberate.
- Law: To release (a child) from the control of parents or a guardian.
philistine
n.
- A member of a people, perhaps of Aegean origin, who settled ancient Philistia around the 12th century BC.
- A person who is smugly indifferent or hostile to art and culture; uncultured person
redolent
adj.
- Having or emitting an odor or fragrance; aromatic
- Suggestive; reminiscent: a campaign redolent of machine politics.
surreptitious
adj.
Obtained, done, or made by clandestine or stealthy means; sneaky; secret.
wilful
adj.
- Said or done on purpose; deliberate: wilful disregard of the rules.
- Obstinately bent on having one’s own way; stubborn: exasperated by his wilful child.
jingoism
n.
Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism.
phlegmatic
adj.
- Of or relating to phlegm; phlegmy.
- Having or suggesting a calm, sluggish temperament; unemotional or apathetic imperturbable.
redress
v.
- To set right (an undesirable situation, for example); remedy or rectify.
- To make amends to: felt he should be redressed for the loss.
benign
adj.
1.
a. Having little or no detrimental effect; harmless: a benign chemical; benign indifference.
b. Of no danger to health; not malignant or disease-causing: a benign tumour.
2. Tending to exert a beneficial influence; favourable: a policy with benign consequences for the economy.
3.
a. Gentle or kind
b. Showing gentleness or kindness: a benign smile.
contumacious
adj.
Obstinately disobedient or rebellious; insubordinate.
embroil
v.
- To involve in argument, contention, or hostile actions.
- To throw into confusion or disorder; entangle.
guileless
adj.
Free of guile; artless; frank; straightforward; honest.
jocular
adj.
- Characterized by joking.
- Given to joking.
pillage
v.
- To rob of goods by force, especially in time of war; plunder.
- To take as spoils.
benignity
n.
- The quality or condition of being kind and gentle.
- A kindly or gracious act.
contusion
n.
An injury in which the skin is not broken; a bruise.
jollity
n.
Convivial merriment or celebration.
nonentity
n.
- A person regarded as being of no importance or significance.
- Nonexistence.
- Something that does not exist or that exists only in the imagination.
bequeath
v.
- Law: To leave or give (personal property) by will.
- To pass (something) on to another; hand down: bequeathed to their children a respect for hard work.
conundrum
n.
- A riddle in which a fanciful question is answered by a pun.
- A paradoxical, insoluble, or difficult problem; a dilemma.
pious
adj.
1.
a. Earnestly compliant in the observance of religion; reverent or devout; very religious: a pious nun.
b. Showing or characterized by religious devotion: pious observance.
c. Expressive of or used in religious devotion; devotional: pious readings.
2.
a. Done for the benefit of others or with the intention of encouraging good: practicers of the noble lie and the pious fraud.
b. Sincere but wishful or far-fetched: a pious hope that the new method will work.
3. Self-righteous or sanctimonious: pious denunciations of sexual harassment.
sybarite
n.
- A person devoted to pleasure and luxury; a voluptuary.
- A native or inhabitant of Sybaris.
