Deck 5 Flashcards
Peruse
tr. v.
1. To read or examine, typically with great care., thoroughly.
2. Usage Problem To glance over; skim.
Pernicious
adj
Adj.
- exceedingly harmful, noxious.
- working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way; “an insidious disease”; “a subtle poison”
Squalid
adj
adj.
- Dirty or deteriorated, especially from poverty or lack of care. See Synonyms at dirty.
- Morally repulsive; sordid: “the squalid atmosphere of intrigue, betrayal, and counterbetrayal” (W. Bruce Lincoln).
Neophyte
n
- A beginner or novice: a neophyte at politics.
2. A recent convert to a belief; a proselyte.
Urbane
adj
Polite, refined, and often elegant in manner.
Dissemble
v
To disguise or conceal one’s real nature, motives, or feelings behind a false appearance.
To disguise or conceal behind a false appearance.
Vilify
v
tr. v.
1. To attack the reputation of (a person or thing) with strong or abusive criticism.
2. to revile with abusive or defamatory language; malign: “he has been vilified in the tabloid press.”
2. to make vile; debase; degrade
Fortuitous
adj
adj.
- Happening by accident or chance.
- Resulting in good fortune; lucky.
Rancorous
adj
Adj. 1. showing deep-seated resentment; “preserve…from rancourous envy of the rich”- Aldous Huxley
Pedantic
adj
adj.
Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for academic knowledge and formal rules: a pedantic attention to details.
Recondite
adj
adj.
- Not easily understood; requiring special knowledge; abstruse or obscure: “To gain a reputation for wisdom a man must seem to have a store of recondite knowledge” (Bertrand Russell).
- Concealed; hidden.
Pith
n
- The essential or central part; the heart or essence: The pith of your argument is controversial.
- Strength; vigor; mettle.
- Significance; importance: matters of great pith.
Spurious
adj
adj.
- Lacking authenticity or validity in essence or origin; not genuine: spurious poems attributed to Shakespeare.
- Not trustworthy; dubious or fallacious: spurious reasoning; a spurious justification.
- Archaic Born to unwed parents.
Contiguous
adj
adj.
1. Sharing an edge or boundary; touching.
2. Neighboring; adjacent.
3.
a. Connecting without a break: the 48 contiguous states.
b. Connected in time; uninterrupted: served two contiguous terms in office.
[From Latin contiguus, from contingere, contig-, to touch; see contact.]
Desiccate
v
- To dry out thoroughly.
- To preserve (foods) by removing the moisture. See Synonyms at dry.
- To make dry, dull, or lifeless: “Stalinism desiccated the grassroots of urban government” (Timothy J. Colton).
Surfeit
v) (n
v.tr. To feed or supply to excess, satiety, or disgust. v.intr. Archaic To overindulge. n. 1. a. Overindulgence in food or drink. b. The result of such overindulgence; satiety or disgust. 2. An excessive amount.
Inimical
adj
- Injurious or harmful in effect; adverse: habits inimical to good health.
- Unfriendly; hostile: a cold, inimical voice.
[C17: from Late Latin inimīcālis, from inimīcus, from in-1 + amīcus friendly; see enemy]
Ingratiating
adj
adj.
- Pleasing; agreeable: “Reading requires an effort…. Print is not as ingratiating as television” (Robert MacNeil).
- Calculated to please or win favor: an unctuous, ingratiating manner.
Astringent
adj
adj
- severe; harsh
- sharp or invigorating
- (Medicine) causing contraction of body tissues, checking blood flow, or restricting secretions of fluids; styptic
Trenchant
adj
adj
- keen or incisive: trenchant criticism.
- vigorous and effective: a trenchant foreign policy.
- distinctly defined: a trenchant outline.
- sharp: a trenchant sword.
Sedulous
adj
Diligent, persistent, persevering and constant in effort or application; assiduous.
Divulge
v
- To make known (something private or secret); disclose.
Color
v
- To misrepresent, especially by distortion or exaggeration: “color the facts.”
- To gloss over; excuse: “a parent who colored the children’s lies.”
- To exert an influence on; affect: “The war colored the soldier’s life.”
- To give a distinctive character or quality to; modify: “Both books are colored by the author’s childhood experiences” (Deborah M. Locke).
Tout
v
- To promote or praise energetically; publicize: “For every study touting the benefits of hormone therapy, another warns of the risks” (Yanick Rice Lamb).
- To solicit or importune: street vendors who were touting pedestrians.
Fell
adj
adj.
- Of an inhumanly cruel nature; fierce: fell hordes.
- Capable of destroying; lethal: a fell blow.
- Dire; sinister: by some fell chance.
- Scots Sharp and biting.
Inchoate
- Being in a beginning or early stage; incipient: “The country was developing an incipient national art, an inchoate national literature” (Jay Winik).
- Imperfectly formed or developed; disordered or incoherent: “A prophet must be a good public speaker, someone who can transform inchoate rage into eloquent diatribe” (David Leavitt).
Die
n
A device used for cutting out, forming, or stamping material.
Vexation
n
n.
- The condition of being vexed; annoyance: frowned in vexation.
- A source of irritation or annoyance: could no longer bear the vexations of the job.
Flip
adj
adj.
Marked by casual disrespect; impertinent; sarcastic: “a flip answer to a serious question.” (as in flippant)
Broach
v
1.
a. To bring up (a subject) for discussion or debate.
b. To announce: We broached our plans for the new year.
2. To pierce in order to draw off liquid: broach a keg of beer.
3. To draw off (a liquid) by piercing a hole in a cask or other container.
4. To shape or enlarge (a hole) with a tapered, serrated tool.
Intimate
v
1.
a. To state or express indirectly, insinuate. “She intimated that she did not want him to call back.”
b. To make evident indirectly: “His worn clothes intimated that he was in need of money.”
Vituperate
v
To rebuke or criticize harshly or angrily; berate; scold.
v.intr.
To use harshly critical or irate language; rail.
Lumber
v
- To walk or move clumsily or heavily.
2. To move with a rumbling noise.
Disparage
v
- To speak of in a slighting or disrespectful way.
- To reduce in esteem or rank.
Synonyms: disparage, denigrate, belittle, depreciate
These verbs mean to minimize the value or importance of someone or something. Disparage implies a critical or dismissive attitude often accompanied by disrespect: “Leaders who wouldn’t be caught dead making religious or ethnic slurs don’t hesitate to disparage the ‘godless’ among us” (Daniel C. Dennett).
Denigrate often adds a note of contempt: “elitist music critics who denigrated jazz by portraying it as inferior to the classical tradition” (Tyler Stovall).
Belittle means to reduce someone or something to a lowly status, often in an arrogant or hurtful manner: “those who would mock and belittle others simply on the basis of their physical appearance” (Tyler Dilts).
Depreciate implies the assignment of a low estimation of value or worth, though the judgment it expresses is generally less disdainful than in the previous terms: “[19th-century American] literature was still mainly subservient to English models and depreciated as secondhand and second rate” (Chronology of American Literature).
Brook
n
To put up with; tolerate: “We will brook no further argument.”
Nice
adj
- subtle, delicate, or discriminating: a nice point in the argument.
- precise; skilful: a nice fit.
- fastidious; respectable: he was not too nice about his methods.
Ford
v
to cross (a river, brook, etc) over a shallow area.
Grouse
v
To complain; grumble.
Meet
adj
adj. Archaic
Fitting; proper.
“It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place” (Shakespeare).
Sap
v) (n
(v)
To deplete gradually, to weaken the vitality of, enervate.
(n)
A fool, a nitwit, a gullible person.