Day 20 Flashcards
Calamity
a serious accident or bad event causing damage or suffering:
- A series of calamities ruined them - floods, a failed harvest, and the death of a son.
Substantial
large in size, value, or importance:
- The findings show a substantial difference between the opinions of men and women.
- She inherited a substantial fortune from her grandmother.
- The first draft of his novel needed a substantial amount of rewriting.
Distort
to change the shape of something so that it looks strange or unnatural:
- The map distorted Greenland to appear four times its actual size.
- a distorting mirror
To repel
to force someone or something to stop moving towards you or attacking you:
- It is not true that eating garlic repels mosquitoes.
- The defenders repelled the attack without losing any men.
(of a material) to not allow a substance to be absorbed into it:
- This coat has a special surface that repels moisture.
- The sprays contain a water repelling ingredient known as a fluoropolymer.
To yield
to supply or produce something positive such as a profit, an amount of food or information:
- an attempt to yield increased profits
- The investigation yielded some unexpected results.
- Favourable weather yielded a good crop.
To devise
to invent a plan, system, object, etc., usually using your intelligence or imagination:
- He’s good at devising language games that you can play with students in class.
- The cartoon characters Snoopy and Charlie Brown were devised by Charles M. Schultz.
To overlook
to fail to notice or consider something or someone:
- I think there is one key fact that you have overlooked.
- No one will be overlooked when we select players for the team.
Harbour
an area of water next to the coast, often protected from the sea by a thick wall, where ships and boats can shelter:
- Our hotel room overlooked a pretty little fishing harbour.
To gauge
to calculate an amount, especially by using a measuring device:
- Use a thermometer to gauge the temperature.
- I tried to gauge (= guess) the weight of the box.
To garble
to make words or messages unclear and difficult to understand:
- It’s bad when phones garble conversations.
Mix sth up
to fail to recognize two people or things correctly by thinking that one person or thing is the other person or thing:
- People often mix us up because we look so similar.
- I think you’re mixing me up with my sister.
In accordance
To suspend
to stop something from being active, either temporarily or permanently:
- The ferry service has been suspended for the day because of bad weather.
- The country’s president has suspended the constitution and assumed total power.
- When you go to the theatre, you have to be willing to suspend disbelief (= to act as if you believe that what you are seeing is real or true, although you know that it is not).
- I’m suspending judgment (= not forming an opinion) on the book I’m reading until - - I’ve finished it.
- Mr Young was given a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years (= if he commits another crime within two years, he will have to go to prison for six months for his original crime).
Forgery
an illegal copy of a document, painting, etc. or the crime of making such illegal copies:
- These banknotes are forgeries.
- He increased his income by forgery.
Counterfeiting
the activity of making illegal copies of things such as bank notes, DVDs, or official documents:
- allegations of counterfeiting and money laundering
- the growing problem of counterfeiting and piracy
