General Vocabulary 3 Flashcards
Midges (n)
Minute two-winged mosquito-like fly lacking biting mouth parts.
Assignation (n)
A secret rendezvous (especially between lovers).
The assignation is for nine o’clock in the Bois de Boulogne,
Indelible (adj)
Cannot be removed or erased.
An indelible stain.
Awning (n)
A canopy made of canvas to shelter people or things from rain or sun.
Treadles (n)
A lever that is operated with the foot.
Operate (machinery) by a treadle.
Torpid (adj)
Slow and apathetic.
She was fat and inert, a torpid worker.
Peevish (adj)
Easily irritated or annoyed.
The young people in Girls are miserable and peevish.
Chortled (n)
A soft partly suppressed laugh.
I stuck him with the fork, he chortled, and he squealed like a pig!
Acerbic (adj)
Harsh or corrosive in tone.
An acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose.
Facile (adj)
Easily done or performed.
A facile victory; a facile method.
Infelicities (n)
Inappropriate and unpleasing manner or style.
She winced at their infelicities.
Benignant (adj)
Characterized by kindness and warm courtesy.
An old man with a benignant expression.
Monition (n)
A firm rebuke.
His wife heaved a deep sigh of apprehension, of renunciation, of monition.
Voile (n)
A thin, semi-transparent fabric of cotton, wool, or silk.
A delicate cream voile blouse.
Restitution (n)
A sum of money paid in compensation for loss or injury.
He was ordered to pay £6,000 in restitution.
Foist (v)
To force onto another.
He foisted his work on me.
Scooting (v)
Run or move very quickly or hastily.
She dashed into the yard.
Parturition (n)
The process of giving birth.
The weeks following parturition are the hardest.
Snapdragon (n)
A garden plant of the genus Antirrhinum having showy white or yellow or crimson flowers resembling the face of a dragon.
Tumescent (adj)
Abnormally distended especially by fluids or gas.
Our pregnant kitty’s tumescent middle.
Braid (n)
A hairdo formed by braiding or twisting the hair.
Her hair curled neatly in blonde braids.
Mange (n)
A persistent and contagious disease of the skin causing inflammation and itching and loss of hair.
Gnarl (n)
Something twisted and tight and swollen.
Their muscles stood out in gnarls.
Crepitating (v)
Make a crackling sound.
My rice crispies crepitated in the bowl.
Corncob (n)
The hard cylindrical core of a ear of corn to which grains are attached.
Rueful (adj)
Feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for sins or offenses.
She gave a rueful grin.
Bombast (n)
Pompous or pretentious talk or writing.
There was a certain frankness underneath all the bombast and platitudes.
Cadence (n)
A recurrent rhythmical series, the close of a musical section OR a modulation or inflection of the voice.
The final cadences of the Prelude.
Chagrined (adj)
Feeling vexed at disappointment or humiliation .
The rejection of his proposal chagrined him deeply.
Gristle (n)
Cartilage, especially when found as tough inedible tissue in meat.
Swill (n)
Wet feed (especially for pigs) consisting of mostly kitchen waste mixed with water or skimmed or sour milk.
Effluent (n)
Water mixed with waste matter.
Industrial effluent must be disposed of harmlessly.
Sniveling (V)
Whining in a tearful manner.
Kate started to snivel, looking sad.
Proscenium (n)
[Proseenium]
The wall that separates the stage from the auditorium in a modern theater.
Bellows (n)
A mechanical device that blows a strong current of air.
Wastrel (n)
Someone who dissipates resources self-indulgently.
I have no intention of seeing my dues gambled away by your wastrel of a son.
Reprise (v)
Repeat an earlier theme of a composition.
He reprises his role as the vigilante architect.
Callus (n)
A thickened and hardened part of the skin or soft tissue.
The exposed surface will quickly form healing callus.
Caper (n)
Gay or light-hearted dance or skip.
Children were capering about the room.
Parasol (n)
A handheld collapsible source of shade.
Trestle (n)
A framework consisting of a horizontal beam supported by two pairs of sloping legs to support a flat surface like a table top.
Phallus (n)
The male sex organ.
Joust (v)
Compete closely for superiority.
The guerrillas jousted for supremacy.
Jaunty (adj)
Having a cheerful, lively, and self-confident air.
There was no mistaking that jaunty walk.
Delinquent (adj)
Guilty of a misdeed or offense.
A juvenile delinquent.
Scowled (n)
Frown in an angry or bad-tempered way.
She scowled at him defiantly.
Unguent (n)
[UNɡwənt]
A soft greasy or viscous substance used as ointment or for lubrication.
Horripilate (v)
Cause (someone’s) hair to stand on end and to have goosebumps.
Pestle (n)(v)
A club-shaped hand tool for grinding and mixing substances in a mortar.
She measured seeds into the mortar and pestled them to powder.
Lulling (adj)
Causing to become tranquil, a period of calm weather.
There was a lull in the storm.
Interloper (n)
A person who becomes involved in a place or situation where they are not wanted or are considered not to belong.
Japanese consumers have in the past not been receptive to foreign interlopers in the cell phone market.
Truncheon (n)
A short stout club used primarily by policemen.
Mutilations (n)
The act of damaging the appearance or surface of something.
A culture which found any mutilation of the body abhorrent.
Verge (n)
An edge or border.
They came down to the verge of the lake.
Tussocks (n)
A small area of grass that is thicker or longer than the grass growing around it.
Chagrined (adj)
Feeling or caused to feel ill at ease or self-conscious or ashamed.
He was chagrined when his friend poured scorn on him
Tributaries (n)
One or more smaller rivulets.
Gizzard (n)
Thick-walled muscular pouch below the crop in many birds and reptiles for grinding food.
Craw (n)
A pouch in many birds and some lower animals that resembles a stomach for storage and preliminary maceration of food.
Lopped (v)
Cut off (a branch or twig) from the main body of a tree.
They lopped off more branches to save the tree.
Plait (n)
Any of various types of fold formed by doubling fabric back upon itself and then pressing or stitching into shape.
Retching (n)
An involuntary spasm of ineffectual vomiting.
The sour taste in her mouth made her retch.
Hunker (v)
Sit on one’s heels.
In some cultures, the women give birth while hunkered .
Winsomely (adv)
In an engaging manner.
She played the role winsomely.
Stiles (n)
An arrangement of steps that allows people but not animals to climb over a fence or wall.
Rustled (n)
A light noise, like the noise of silk clothing or leaves blowing in the wind.
She came closer, her skirt swaying and rustling.
Writhed (adj)
Twisted (especially as in pain or struggle).
His mad contorted smile writhed in pain.
Wad (n)
A wad of something chew-able as tobacco, (often followed by `of’) a large number or amount or extent.
Tardiness (n)
The quality or habit of not adhering to time.
Forgive my tardiness, I had some very important business to attend to.
Panniers (n)
A basket, especially one of a pair carried by a beast of burden.
Assayed (n)
Determine the content or quality of (a metal or ore).
The man who assayed gold was more than a technician
Tousling (v)
[taʊz(ə)ling]
Disarrange or rumple, dishevel.
The strong wind tousled my hair.
Votive (adj)
Dedicated in fulfillment of a vow.
They offered votive prayers.
Puckering (n)
Tightly gather or contract into wrinkles or small folds.
The child’s face puckered, ready to cry.
Burlesque (n)
Any ludicrous parody or grotesque caricature.
Burlesque theater.
Awning (n)
A canopy made of canvas to shelter people or things from rain or sun.
Burlap (n)
Coarse jute fabric.
Goiter (n)
Abnormally enlarged thyroid gland.
Tabby (adj)
Having a grey or brown streak or a pattern or a patchy coloring.
A young tabby tomcat.
Threshing (n)
The separation of grain or seeds from the husks and straw.
Winnow (n)
The act of separating grain from chaff.
Women winnow the chaff from piles of unhusked rice.
Scimitars (n)
[simiter]
A curved oriental saber, the edge is on the convex side of the blade.
Tarpaulin (n)
Waterproofed canvas.
Groggy (adj)
Stunned or confused and slow to react (as from blows or drunkenness or exhaustion).
The sleeping pills had left her feeling groggy.
Straggly (adj)
Growing or spreading sparsely or irregularly.
His straggly dark hair.
Apotheosized (v)
Elevate to the rank of a god; idolize.
Roosevelt had not so much died as been apotheosized
Ghoulish (adj)
Suggesting the horror of death and decay.
She told the story with ghoulish relish.
Reverie (n)
A state of being lost in one’s thoughts.
A knock on the door broke her reverie.
Warren (n)
A network of interconnecting rabbit burrows or buildings in a district.
A warren of narrow gas-lit streets.
Scrounge (v)
Collect or look around for (food).
He had managed to scrounge a free meal.
Fetor (n)
A distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant.
The fetor of decay.
Reprise (v)
A repetition or further performance of something.
A stale reprise of past polemic.
Seethe (v)
Boil vigorously.
The liquid was seething, the water rolled.
Blanch (v)
Turn pale, as if in fear.
The cold light blanched her face.
Wryly (adv)
[rai-eli]
In a sarcastic or mocking manner.
I see, he commented wryly.
Coiffures (n)
[kwa-fiur]
The arrangement of the hair (especially a woman’s hair).
Diana’s intricately braided coiffure.
Catatonia (n)
A form of schizophrenia characterized by a tendency to remain in a fixed stuporous state for long periods.
Caterwauling (n)
The yowling sound made by a cat in heat.
The caterwauling of a pair of bobcats.
Dipsomaniac (n)
A person who drinks alcohol to excess habitually.
Mortified (adj)
Made to feel uncomfortable because of shame or wounded pride.
She was mortified to see her wrinkles in the mirror.
