Day 41 Flashcards
Slash
to cut with a sharp blade using a quick, strong movement:
- The museum was broken into last night and several paintings were slashed.
- She tried to commit suicide by slashing her wrists.
- We had to slash (our way) through the long grass to clear a path.
To wail
to make a long, high cry, usually because of pain or sadness:
- The women gathered around the coffin and began to wail, as was the custom in the region.
- [ + speech ] “My finger hurts,” wailed the child.
Giggle
to laugh repeatedly in a quiet but uncontrolled way, often at something silly or rude or when you are nervous:
- Stop that giggling in the back row!
Grinding
grinding poverty
- a situation in which people are extremely poor over a long period
Solitare
a single jewel (= precious stone) that is part of a piece of jewellery, especially a ring, or the ring itself:
- a solitaire diamond
Bequeath
to arrange for money or property to be given to somebody after your death:
- Her father bequeathed her the family fortune in his will.
- Picasso bequeathed most of his paintings and sculptures to Spain and France.
Wretch
a person who experiences something unpleasant:
- a poor/miserable wretch
Immense
extremely large in size or degree:
- immense wealth/value
- They spent an immense amount of time getting the engine into perfect condition.
Grimly
in a way that is without hope:
- Companies grimly hang on to markets at negligible profit margins, and finally give up.
- His assessment of the war is grimly pessimistic.
Drizzle
rain in very small, light drops:
- Tomorrow will be cloudy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle.
Eccentric
strange or unusual, sometimes in a humorous way:
- eccentric behaviour
- eccentric clothes
Tempting
If something is tempting, you want to do or have it:
- a tempting offer
- That pie looks very tempting.
- [ + to infinitive ] It’s tempting to blame video games for violent behaviour in young men.
Hysterical
unable to control your feelings or behaviour because you are extremely frightened, angry, excited, etc.:
- Calm down, you’re getting hysterical.
- The police were accused of hysterical over-reaction.
- hysterical laughter (= uncontrolled laughter)
Exploit
to use something in a way that helps you:
- We need to make sure that we exploit our resources as fully as possible.
- More examples
Devious
Devious people or plans and methods are dishonest, often in a complicated way, but often also clever and successful:
- You have to be devious if you’re going to succeed in business.
Sly
deceiving people in a clever way in order to get what you want:
- He’s a sly old devil - I wouldn’t trust him with my money.
Moniker
a name or nickname
Liability
the fact that someone is legally responsible for something:
- He denies any liability for the damage caused.
Spread out
If people spread out, they move from being close together in a group to being in different places across a larger area:
- They spread out to search the whole area.
Stab
to injure someone with a sharp pointed object such as a knife:
- She was stabbed several times in the chest.
- He was jailed for 15 years for stabbing his wife to death.
Distraught
extremely worried, nervous, or upset:
- The missing child’s distraught parents made an emotional appeal for information on TV.
Woe
big problems or troubles:
- The country has been beset by economic woes for the past decade.
- Unusually poor harvests have added to the country’s woes.
extreme sadness:
- Her face was lined and full of woe.
- He told me a real tale of woe about how he had lost both his job and his house in the same week.
Excruciatingly
in a way that is extreme and difficult to bear:
- Progress has been excruciatingly slow.
- excruciatingly painful/uncomfortable
- excruciatingly embarrassing/boring/funny
Ransack
to search a place or container in a violent and careless way:
- The burglars ransacked the house but found nothing valuable.
- I ransacked the cupboard for my ski boots.
Withhold
to refuse to give something or to keep back something:
to withhold information/support
- During the trial, the prosecution was accused of withholding crucial evidence from the defence.
- Police are withholding the dead woman’s name until her relatives have been informed.
- She withheld her rent until the landlord agreed to have the repairs done.
- The government is planning to withhold benefit payments from single mothers who refuse to name the father of their child.
Foreboding
a feeling that something very bad is going to happen soon:
- There’s a sense of foreboding in the capital, as if fighting might at any minute break out.
- Her forebodings about the future were to prove justified.
[ + (that) ] He had a strange foreboding (that) something would go wrong.
