Chapter 3

Question 1

intransigent/ intransigeant

Answer 1

adj.
Refusing to moderate a position, especially an extreme position; uncompromising.

He remained intransigent, no matter what the others said.

Question 2

fractious

Answer 2

adj.

1. Inclined to make trouble; unruly.
2. Having a peevish nature; cranky.

Question 3

querulous

Answer 3

adj.

1. Given to complaining; peevish.
2. Expressing a complaint or grievance; grumbling: a querulous voice; querulous comments

Question 4

predicate

Answer 4

v.

1. To base or establish (a statement or action, for example): I predicated my argument on the facts.
2. To state or affirm as an attribute or quality of something: The sermon predicated the perfectibility of humankind.
3. To carry the connotation of; imply.
4. To proclaim or assert; declare.

Question 5

abhor

Answer 5

v.

To regard with horror or loathing; detest

Question 6

bigot

Answer 6

n.

One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

Question 8

bilk

Answer 8

v.
1. a. To defraud, cheat, or swindle: made millions bilking wealthy clients on art sales.
b. To evade payment of: bilk one’s debts.
2. To thwart or frustrate: “Fate … may be to a certain extent bilked”.
3. To elude.
n.
1. One who cheats.
2. A hoax or swindle.

Question 9

covert

Answer 9

adj.

1. Not openly practiced, avowed, engaged in, accumulated, or shown: covert military operations; covert funding for the rebels
2. Covered or covered over; sheltered.
   n. 1. A covering or cover.
3. a. A covered place or shelter; hiding place.
   b. Thick underbrush or woodland affording cover for game.

Question 10

engender

Answer 10

v.

1. To bring into existence; give rise to: “Every cloud engenders not a storm” (Shakespeare).
2. To procreate; propagate.

Question 11

abase

Answer 11

v.

To lower in rank, prestige, or esteem.

Question 12

harangue

Answer 12

n.

1. A long pompous speech, especially one delivered before a gathering.
2. A speech or piece of writing characterized by strong feeling or expression; a tirade.

Question 13

plaintiff

Answer 13

n.

Law: The party that institutes a suit in a court.

Question 14

replete

Answer 14

adj.

1. Abundantly supplied; abounding: a stream replete with trout
2. Filled to satiation; gorged.

Question 15

abrogate

Answer 15

v.

To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority

Question 16

enigma

Answer 16

n.

1. One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.
2. A perplexing speech or text; a riddle.

Question 17

harbinger

Answer 17

n.

One that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; a forerunner.

Question 18

enfranchise

Answer 18

v.1. To endow with the rights of citizenship, especially the right to vote.2. To free, as from bondage.3. To bestow a franchise on.

Question 19

reprehensible

Answer 19

adj.

Deserving rebuke or censure; shameful

Question 20

absolution

Answer 20

n.

1. The act of absolving or the state of being absolved.
2. The formal remission of sin imparted by a priest, as in the sacrament of penance.

Question 21

laceration

Answer 21

n.

A jagged wound or cut.

Question 22

obdurate

Answer 22

adj.

1. Not changing in response to argument or other influence; obstinate or intractable
2. a. Hardened in wrongdoing or wickedness; stubbornly impenitent
   b. Hardened against feeling; hardhearted: an obdurate miser.

Question 23

reprieve

Answer 23

n.

1. a. The prevention or suspension of a scheduled or expected punishment.
   b. A court order or other official notification preventing or suspending a scheduled or expected punishment.
2. Temporary relief, as from danger or pain.

Question 24

tawdry

Answer 24

adj.

1. Gaudy and cheap in nature or appearance.
2. Shameful or indecent: tawdry secrets.

Question 25

blight

Answer 25

n.

1. a. An agent or action that harms or ruins the value or success of something: “the heavy-handed, moralistic parenting that was the blight of the traditional family”.
   b. A condition or result of harmful or ruinous action: policies that lifted the city from economic blight.

Question 26

plaudit

Answer 26

n.Enthusiastic expression of praise or approval: a new play that opened to the plaudits of the critics.