General Vocabulary 21 Flashcards
Patter (n)
A speech designed to produce a specific response for its audience.
The witty gentleman’s patter is now introduced on a cassette.
Straggle (v)
Move slowly so as to be some distance behind others.
OR
Grow untidily, be messy.
A few old men straggled along behind the group.
Lubber (n)
A big clumsy person.
Privateer (n)
A private ship permitted by its government to engage in maritime warfare under a commission of war.
Dragnet (n)
A systematic search for someone or something especially criminals.
He was able to escape the police dragnet by retreating to a mountain hideout.
Pontoons (n)
A flat bottom boat used to build floating bridges.
Coffles (n)
A line of slaves or animals chained or driven along.
Uplands (n)
An area on a highland or hill
Promontory (n)
A point of highland jutting out into the open sea.
Automata (n)
One or more mechanical devices made in the imitation of humans.
19th century French automata were seen at the museum.
Serried (v)
To crowd or press together.
Heft (v)
To lift or carry.
He lifted crates and hefted boxes.
Incarnadine (n)
Bright crimson or pinkish red colour.
Corslets (n)
A piece of armour covering a trunk.
Babel (n)
A confused noise made by numerous voices.
The babel of voices on the road.
Commissariat (n)
A department for supply of food and equipment in a communist setup.
Ford (n)
A shallow place in a river allowing one to cross across.
Patsies (n)
Person who is easily taken advantage of or blamed.
His mischievous simple suggested he was no patsy.
Onomatopoeia (n)
The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.
E.g Sizzle, cuckoo, gurgle.
Misbegotten (adj)
Badly conceived or planned.
The misbegotten attacks only led to further recriminations.
Artificer (n)
A skilled technician in the army or generally a skilled craftsman.
Irruption (v)
Migrate into an area in unusually large numbers.
Suborn (v)
Bribe or induce someone to do something illegal.
They attempted to suborn the witnesses.
Spectre (n)
Ghost.
Chaplain (n)
A member of the clergy attached to a secular institution or a chapel
Bridles (n)
Headgear attached to a horse.
Athwart (adv)
From side to side or across.
A table was place athwart the entrance.
Skein (n)
Length of thread or coil loosely knotted.
Loosely knotted skein of fable that had no relevance.
Awl (n)
A small pointed tool for piercing holes especially into leather.
Discrepant (n)
Lack of compatibility or similarity.
Hugely discrepant prophets have laid claim to the same revelation.
Encyclical (n)
A papal letter sent to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.
At least one encyclical expressed reservations on the issue of Jews.
Gelded (v)
To castrate.
They had been gutted and gelded as a political force.
Regnant (n)
Having the greatest influence or dominance.
Early human history, the totalitarian principle was the regnant one.
Tripe (n)
Nonsense.
Islamic voice sites recycle this tripe.
Onanism (n)
Masturbation
The exhortations of the mufti against onanism are repeated once too often.
Esurient (adj)
Hungry or greedy.
The esurient student devoured the book eager to learn all he could.
Atomism (n)
Anything that’s is interpretable through analysis into distinct individual elementary components.
Atomism has given a better explanation of the natural world than religion
Daimon (n)
An oracle or guide.
Socrates believed he had a daimon whose opinion was worth having.
Hemlock (n)
A highly poisonous plant native to Europe and North Africa.
He was condemned to swallow the hemlock on his death bed.
Borne (v)
To carry or display
Water borne diseases were wide spread before the pandemic.
Catalepsy (n)
A medical condition resulting in loss of consciousness and rigidity of body.
Had tendencies to catalepsy.
Entrails (n)
A person’s internal organs or intestines.
Studying the entrails of animals is useful to understand the workings of the digestive system.
Conjuncture (n)
A combination of events.
I mention the conjuncture of the destruction of society and the emergence of a new order.
Encyclical (n)
A papal letter sent to all bishops of a Roman Catholic Church.
An encyclical was prepared but not circulated for reasons of political propriety.
Monophysitism (n)
Christian theology that considers one undivided nature of Christ (wholly divine or wholly human).
Monophysitism (n)
Christian theology that considers one undivided nature of Christ (wholly divine or wholly human).
Summa (n)
Summary of a subject.
Secular totalitarianism has provided us with a summa of human evil.
Infibulation (n)
The practise of removing female sexual organs and stitching up the vulva to prevent sexual intercourse.
Excising (v)
To remove surgically.
The precision with which surgeons can excise a tumour.
Pudenda (n)
The external genitalia.
Religious ritual has long practised the ritual of taking the knife to a child’s pudenda.
Intrauterine (adj)
Within the uterus.
An intrauterine device used to prevent the egg from attaching to the wall of the uterus.
Prophylaxis (n)
Treatment given to prevent disease.
A measure of control is sought by prophylaxis which is now relatively painless.
Schismatic (adj)
Breakaway or dissident.
The proliferation of schismatic religions in the recent past.
Abject (adj)
Present to the maximum degree (of something bad)
Abject poverty in our times is a cause of concern.
Non sequitur (n)
A statement (or conclusion) that does not logically follow from a previous statement.
His use of mixed metaphors and no sequiturs.
Twinning (v)
The process of bearing twins.
This unusual twinning of traits has been well explained.
Parvenu (n)
An upstart or new comer to a high socioeconomic class.
We are just another parvenu in the global north seeking to please the US.
Elide (v)
Omission of a sound in a word or phrase as an e.g the silent t in “first light”.
Quixotry (n)
The act of pursuing an idealistic, impractical, or unrealistic goal or scheme.
His quixotry to become a professional soccer player, despite his lack of training, was admirable but unrealistic.
Deprecate (v)
To belittle OR disapprove.
Always over-modest, he deprecated his contribution to the local charity.
Iniquity (n)
Wickedness or sin.
“Your iniquities will be forgiven” said the priest.
Liminal (adj)
Related to the initial or transitional phase.
The liminal period in a child development when it’s old enough to follow rules but Is still young to do it consistently.
Liminal (adj)
Related to the initial or transitional phase.
The liminal period in a child development when it’s old enough to follow rules but Is still young to do it consistently.
Mandatary (n)
A person or state receiving a mandate.
She became the mandatary for the constituency.
Poppycock (n)
Nonsense.
His excuses for being late were just poppycock.
Flibbertigibbet (n)
Someone who is frivolous and flighty - easily distracted.
Her reputation as a flibbertigibbet made her an unreliable friend.
Cattywampus (adj)
Askew or disorderly.
After the earthquake everything in the room was cattywampus.
Assonant (n)
Sounds similar to another.
The poem used assonant words beautifully.
Pupilage (n)
Study period as a pupil.
His pupilage was filled with curiosity.
Confute (v)
Prove to be wrong.
She confuted the rumour easily.
Esurient (adj)
Hungry or greedy.
The esurient student devoured the book desperate to learn more.
Embrocation (n)
A liquid used on the body to relieve pains from sprains and strains.
Coronet (n)
A small crown worn by lesser royalty.
The duke wore his coronet at the ceremony.
Cygnet (n)
A young swan.
The cygnet swam closely to its mom.
Septenary (adj)
Related to the number seven
She celebrated her septenary birthday.
Irrefragable (adj)
Indisputable. Impossible to deny
Her arguments proved to be irrefragable.
Interoception (n)
Awareness of feelings inside your body
Yoga helps to improve interoception.
Miry (adj)
Wet and muddy.
The path was miry after the rains.
Venial (adj)
A pardonable sin or easily excused.
His mistake was considered venial.
Raillery (n)
Teasing in a playful way.
Their raillery made the evening enjoyable.
Sapiential (adj)
Showing great wisdom or knowledge.
Her advise was always sapiential and respected.
Transient (n)
Lasting for a short time.
Her transient joy left her depressed later.
Arcadian (adj)
Relating to or constituting an ideal rural paradise.
The region was not quite the Arcadian idyll he had depicted.
Orchidaceous (adj)
Ostentatious Showy.
The actress attended the premiere wearing an orchidaceous creation by a renowned fashion designer.
Contretemps (n)
[Kon tre tuhn]
A minor dispute or disagreement.
She had occasional contretemps with her staff
Blarney (n)
Talk which aims to charm, flatter, or persuade
It took all my Irish blarney to keep us out of court.
Lambert (n)
A former unit of luminance, equal to the emission or reflection of one lumen per square centimetre.
Scission (n)
A division or split between people or parties; a schism.
This decision caused a scission within the party.
Baronial (adj)
Relating to a baron or barons.
A great baronial family.
Taradiddle (n)
A petty lie.
No sane person would make up such a taradiddle.
Ambuscade (v)
Ambush (someone).
French and his companions were ambuscaded by the Indians
Dedolomitization (n)
The process in which magnesium is removed from the mineral dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate) leaving behind the minerals calcite (calcium carbonate) and periclase (magnesium oxide.)
Rhubarb (n)
The thick reddish or green leaf stalks of a cultivated plant of the dock family, which are eaten as a fruit after cooking.
A rhubarb pie
Requital (n)
A return or reward for service, kindness, etc.
OR A retaliation for a wrong or injury.
As requital for the Silly String attack, she put a whoopie cushion on her classmate’s chair.
Tergiversate (v)
Make conflicting or evasive statements; equivocate.
The more she tergiversated, the greater grew the ardency of the reporters for an interview.
Fissiparous (adj)
Inclined to cause or undergo division into separate parts or groups.
The fissiparous tendencies innate in tribalism.
Blasé (adj)
[Blah SE]
Unimpressed with or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before.
She was becoming quite blasé about the dangers.
Languorous (adj)
[Lan Go rous]
Characterized by tiredness or inactivity, especially of a pleasurable kind.
Summer has a slow, languorous feel to it here.
Stridulate (v)
Of an insect - make a shrill sound by rubbing legs, wings or other body parts.
Stridulate (v)
Of an insect - make a shrill sound by rubbing legs, wings or other body parts.
