General Vocabulary 10 Flashcards
Contusion (n)
An injury in which the subsurface tissue is injured but the skin is not broken.
Crested (adj)
A ridge or ridge-like formation.
Deicing (v)
Remove ice formation as on the wings of an airplane.
Ruminate (v)
To meditate or ponder.
Duvets (n)
A thick cover filled with feathers or another soft material that you sleep under to keep warm in bed
Strollers (n)
A person who takes a leisurely walk.
Cabal (n)
A small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority.
Disenfranchise (v)
To deprive (a person) of the right to vote or other rights of citizenship
Masochistic (adj)
Gratified by pain, degradation, deprivation.
Skyjack (v)
To hijack (an airliner), especially in order to hold the plane for ransom.
Bejesus (n)
[bih-jee-zuh s]
Devil
The goal should not be to terrify the bejesus out of the public, lest they scrunch their noses and give up.
Halon (n)
Any of a class of chemical compounds derived from hydrocarbons by replacing one or more hydrogen atoms by bromine atoms and other hydrogen atoms by other halogen atoms (chlorine, fluorine, or iodine)
Heft (n)
Weight; heaviness
It was a rather flimsy chair, without much heft to it.
Telegenic (adj)
Having physical qualities or characteristics that televise well
He has long been hailed as a polished and telegenic African American Republican.
Pyroclastic (adj)
Formed from the solid fragments ejected during a volcanic eruption.
Showboat (v)
A person, who performs in an ostentatiously sensational manner calculated to draw attention.
Steerage (n)
Part of the ship providing accommodation for the cheapest tickets.
Mesomorph (n)
A person with a compact and muscular body.
Endomorph (n)
A person with a soft round build with fat.
Delouse (v)
To free from lice.
Fallow (adj)
Inert or inactive.
My creative energies remained fallow.
Gruel (n)
A light cereal made generally with oatmeal in milk.
Restive (adj)
To grow impatient or restless.
The crowd had been waiting for hours and many were becoming restive.
Irredentism (n)
A political doctrine that advocates merging foreign proximity land into ones own country because of racial similarities.
Disavow (v)
To deny or repudiate.
He disavowed the remark attributed to him.
Chicanery (n)
Cleaver deception or trickery.
He resorted to the worst chicanery to win the job.
Polymath (n)
A person of great learning in diverse fields.
Usury (n)
Practice of lending at high interest.
The medieval prohibition on usury.
Fait Accompli (n)
An accomplished fact.
He accepted the outcome as a fait accompli.
Provenance (n)
The place or source of origin.
The provenance of the manuscript has never been established.
Portentous (adj)
Of ominous or momentous significance.
The impending realization of a portentous defeat.
Legatee (n)
A person to whom a legacy is bequeathed.
Valediction (n)
The act of bidding farewell.
He lifted his hand and spread his palm in valediction.
Effete (adj)
Lacing in wholesome vigor. Degenerate or decadent.
A effete aristocracy.
Heathen (n)
An apostate or disbeliever of God.
Drily (adv)
In a matter-of-fact or ironically humorous way.
How very observant, he said drily.
Realpolitik (n)
The politics of practical considerations rather than ideals.
Suzerainty (n)
The domain under the rule of a suzerain.
Amity (n)
Friendship peaceful harmony.
The presence of French troops in Scotland had produced hostility rather than amity.
Injunction (n)
A judicial act requiring to do or abstain from doing a certain act.
Axiomatic (adj)
Self evident truth.
It is axiomatic that dividends have to be financed.
Inveigh (v)
To protest strongly or use words of criticism.
To inveigh against imprudent taxes.
Hagiography (n)
The writings and the study of the lives of saints.
Fissiparous (adj)
Inclined to cause or undergo division into separate parts or groups.
The fissiparous tendencies innate in tribalism.
Peroration (n)
The concluding part of an oration.
Sine qua non (n)
Anything essential and indispensable.
Her presence was the sine qua non of social parties.
Excrescences (n)
An abnormal outgrowth or disfigurement.
The males often have a strange excrescence on the tip of the snout.
Mercator (adj)
A form of map projection that is cylindrical.
Endogamy (n)
The act of marring within a race.
Comity (n)
Mutual courtesy or civility.
The comity of nations.
Pluck (n)
Courage or resolution in the face of difficulties.
It must have taken a lot of pluck to walk along a path marked ‘Danger’.
Congegries (n)
[Congeries]
The disorderly collection of items.
A congeries of European states
Mimeograph (n)
A duplicating machine which produces copies from a stencil, now superseded by the photocopier.
Incommensurability (adj)
Having no common ground for comparison.
The two types of science are in commensurable and thus cannot be integrated.
Cretin (n)
A dull obtuse person.
Suffrage (n)
The right to vote in a political election.
Bund (n)
An embankment often providing a promenade.
Approbatory (adj)
Expressing approbation or approval.
Chorus of approbatory nods from the sympathizing audience.
Entente (n)
[ont]
An arrangement or understanding between two or more nations on international policy.
The emperor hoped to bring about an entente with Russia.
Doughtily (adv)
Steadfastly courageously.
His doughty spirit kept him going
Billiousness (adj)
Extremely unpleasant or distasteful.
Publish a bitter, bilious broadside against the right-wing hacks.
Vituperation (n)
Violent denunciation or condemnation.
There were shouts, followed by a furious exchange of vituperation.
Pathos (n)
Evoking pity.
This movie is a beautiful blend of pathos and comedy.
Coda (n)
A concluding section or part.
His new novel is a kind of coda to his previous books.
Vicarious (adj)
Felt or enjoyed through imagined participation in the experience of others.
A vicarious thrill.
Helotage (adj)
Of or relating to a serf or slave or bondage.
Yeomanry (n)
A group of men who held and cultivated small landed estates.
Declamatory (adj)
Merely oratorical or rhetorical.
A pompous, declamatory manner of speech.
Obscurantism (n)
Deliberate obscurity or evasion of clarity.
Allegations in the Press about government obscurantism.
Interloper (n)
A person who interferes or meddles in the affairs of others.
Japanese consumers have in the past been unreceptive to foreign interlopers in the cell phone market.
Homestead (n)
Any dwelling with its land and buildings where a family makes its home.
Withal (adv)
With it all; as well; besides.
It seemed to her the embodiment of evil, yet withal of wisdom, too.
Revisionist (n)
An advocate of theories, or practices that depart from established authority or doctrine.
The revisionists who sought to replace it were long denied.
Impelled (adj)
To move onward or impart motion to.
The country was impelled to act, not based on what was known, but what was feared.
Naïf (n)
A naive or inexperienced person.
Prurient (adj)
Causing lasciviousness or lust.
Monica Lewinsky, now 41, is once again the object of prurient curiosity.
Forsook (v)
To quit or leave entirely, abandon.
He forsook her completely.
Ecumenical (adj)
Pertaining to the whole Christian church.
He was a member of ecumenical committees
Disavowal (n)
Repudiation or denial.
England demanded a disavowal of the treat
Preceptor (n)
An instructor; teacher; tutor.
After receiving his degree he commenced his practice with his preceptor.
Lynchpin (n)
Something that holds the various elements of a complicated structure together.
The monarchy was the linchpin of the nation’s traditions and society.
Antedated (v)
Before in time.
The Peruvian empire antedates the Mexican empire.
Posit (v)
To lay down or assume as a fact or principle.
To posit that the war brings us closer makes fools of us all.
De rigueur (adj) [duh ri-gur]
Strictly required, as by etiquette.
There was a time when facial hair was de rigueur on Wall Street
Ogress (n)
A monstrously ugly, cruel, or barbarous woman.
Tartly (adj)
Sharp in character, spirit, or expression.
A tart remark.
Polemicized (adj)
To practice or engage in controversies.
His polemics against the cultural relativism of the Sixties.
Imputation(n)
An attribution, as of fault or crime.
She came forth with this imputation of careless work on the part of Dr. Lennon
Appellation (n)
A name, title, or designation.
The city fully justifies its appellation ‘the Pearl of the Orient’.
Hermaphrodite (n)
An organism in which reproductive organs of both sexes are present.
Niggardly (adj)
Meanly or ungenerous small or scanty.
A niggardly salary.
Nom de Guerre
[nom duh gair]
An assumed name, pseudonym.
It is headed by another shadowy figure using the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al Golani.
Moorings (n)
One’s stability or security.
After the death of his wife he lost his moorings.
Syncretism (n)
The attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles,
In these tales and legends we have syncretism in full swing.
Autarky (n)
An economically self-sufficient country aimed at removing dependency on imports.
Rural community autarchy is a Utopian dream.
Scuppered (v)
To prevent from happening or succeeding.
The bid was expected to be approved before it was scuppered by the scandal.
Dissolute (adj)
A person who is indifferent to moral restraints.
Unfortunately, his heir was feckless and dissolute.
Rakish (adj)
Like a rake, dissolute.
Rakish behavior.
Mofussil (n)
The provincial or rural districts of India.
An urgent need for more teachers who can get out to the farming areas in the mofussil.
Chafe (v)
To wear or abrade by rubbing.
He chafed his shoes on the rocks.
