Chapter 3 Flashcards
intransigent/ intransigeant
adj.
Refusing to moderate a position, especially an extreme position; uncompromising.
He remained intransigent, no matter what the others said.
fractious
adj.
- Inclined to make trouble; unruly.
- Having a peevish nature; cranky.
querulous
adj.
- Given to complaining; peevish.
- Expressing a complaint or grievance; grumbling: a querulous voice; querulous comments
predicate
v.
- To base or establish (a statement or action, for example): I predicated my argument on the facts.
- To state or affirm as an attribute or quality of something: The sermon predicated the perfectibility of humankind.
- To carry the connotation of; imply.
- To proclaim or assert; declare.
abhor
v.
To regard with horror or loathing; detest
bigot
n.
One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
bilk
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.
covert
adj.
- Not openly practiced, avowed, engaged in, accumulated, or shown: covert military operations; covert funding for the rebels
- Covered or covered over; sheltered.
n. 1. A covering or cover. - a. A covered place or shelter; hiding place.
b. Thick underbrush or woodland affording cover for game.
engender
v.
- To bring into existence; give rise to: “Every cloud engenders not a storm” (Shakespeare).
- To procreate; propagate.
abase
v.
To lower in rank, prestige, or esteem.
harangue
n.
- A long pompous speech, especially one delivered before a gathering.
- A speech or piece of writing characterized by strong feeling or expression; a tirade.
plaintiff
n.
Law: The party that institutes a suit in a court.
replete
adj.
- Abundantly supplied; abounding: a stream replete with trout
- Filled to satiation; gorged.
abrogate
v.
To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority
enigma
n.
- One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.
- A perplexing speech or text; a riddle.
harbinger
n.
One that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; a forerunner.
enfranchise
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.
reprehensible
adj.
Deserving rebuke or censure; shameful
absolution
n.
- The act of absolving or the state of being absolved.
- The formal remission of sin imparted by a priest, as in the sacrament of penance.
laceration
n.
A jagged wound or cut.
obdurate
adj.
- Not changing in response to argument or other influence; obstinate or intractable
- a. Hardened in wrongdoing or wickedness; stubbornly impenitent
b. Hardened against feeling; hardhearted: an obdurate miser.
reprieve
n.
- 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. - Temporary relief, as from danger or pain.
tawdry
adj.
- Gaudy and cheap in nature or appearance.
- Shameful or indecent: tawdry secrets.
blight
n.
- 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.
plaudit
n.Enthusiastic expression of praise or approval: a new play that opened to the plaudits of the critics.
