GRE Barron's 13-14 Flashcards
deciduous
falling off, as of leaves. The oak is a deciduous tree.
decimate
kill, usually one out of ten. We do more to decimate our population in automobile accidents than we do in war
declivity
downward slope. The children loved to ski down the declivity.
decorum
propriety; orderliness and good taste in manners. Even the best-mannered students have trouble behaving with decorum on the last day of school.
decoy
lure or bait. The wild docks were not fooled by the decoy.
decrepitude
state of collapse caused by illness or old age. I was unprepared for the state of decrepitude in which I had found my old friend; he seemed to have aged twenty years in six months.
decry
express strong disapproval of; disparage. The founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman, strongly decries the lack of financial and moral support for children in America today.
deducible
derived by reasoning. If we accept your premise, your conclusions are easily deducible.
deface
mar; disfigure; の外観を損なう. If you deface a library book you will have to pay a hefty fine.
default
failure to act. When the visiting team failed to show up for he big game, they lost the game by default.
defeatist
resigned to defeat; accepting defeat as a natural outcome. If you maintain your defeatist attitude, you will never succeed.
defection
desertion; 亡命、逃亡、減退、欠如. The children, who had made him an idol, were hurt most by his defection from our cause.
defer
delay till later; exempt temporarily. In wartime, some young men immediately volunteer to serve; others defer making plans until they hear from their draft boards.
defer
give in respectfully; submit; 任せる、委ねる. When it comes to making decisions about purchasing software, we must defer to Michael, our computer guru; he has the final word.
deference
courteous regard for another’s wish; 尊敬、敬意、服従. In deference to the minister’s request, please do not take photographs during the wedding service.
defiance
refusal to yield; resistance. When John reached the “terrible two’s,” he responded to every parental request with howls of defiance.
defile
pollute; profane. The hoodlums defiled the church with their scurrilous writing.
deflect
turn aside; そらす、屈折させる. His life was saved when his cigarette case deflected the bullet.
defray
provide for the payment of. Her employer offered to defray the costs of her postgraduate education.
deft
neat; skillful. The deft waiter uncorked the champagne without spilling a drop.
defunct
dead; no longer in use or existence. The lawyers sought to examine the books of the defunct corporation.
degenerate
become worse; deteriorate. As the fight dragged on, the champion’s style degenerated until he could barely keep on his feet.
degradation
humiliation; debasement; degeneration. Some secretaries object to fetching the boss a cup of coffee because they resent the degradation of being made to perform such lowly tasks.
deleterious
harmful. If you believe that smoking is deleterious to your health, then quit!
deliberate
consider; ponder. Offered the new job, she asked for time to deliberate before she made her decision.
delineate
portray; depict; sketch. Using only a few descriptive phrases, Austen delineates the character of Mr. Collins so well that we can predict his every move.
delude
deceive. The mistress deludes herself into believing that her lover will leave his wife and marry her.
deluge
flood; rush. When we advertised the position we received a deluge of applications.
delusive
deceptive; raising vain hopes. Do not raise your hopes on the basis of his delusive promises.
delve
dig; investigate. Delving into old books and manuscripts is part of a researcher’s job.
demean
degrade; humiliate. Standing on his dignity, he refused to demean himself by replying to the offensive letter.
demeanor
behavior; bearing. His sober demeanor quieted the noisy revelers.
demented
insane. Doctor Demento was a radio personality who liked to act as if he were truly demented.
demise
death. Upon the demise of the dictator, a bitter dispute about succession to power developed.
demolition
destruction. One of the major aims of the air force was the complete demolition of all means of transportation by the bombing of rail lines and terminals.
demotic
pertaining to the people. He lamented the passing of aristocratic society and maintained that a demotic society would lower the nation’s standards.
demur
objection; protest. Michelangelo regularly denied that Leonardo Da Vinci had influenced him, and critics have usually accepted his statements without demur.
demure
grave; serious; coy. She was demure and reserved, a nice modest girl whom any young man would be proud to take home to his mother.
denigrate
blacken; を傷つける、中傷する. All attempts to denigrate the character of our late president have failed; the people still love him and cherish his memory.
denizen
inhabitant or resident; regular visitor. In The Untouchables, Eliot Ness fights Al Capone and the other denizens of Chicago’s underworld.
denotation
meaning; distinguishing by name. A dictionary will always give us the denotation of a word; frequently, it will also give us its connotation.
denouement
outcome; final development of the plot of a play or other literary work. The play was childishly written; the denouement was obvious to sophisticated theatergoers as early as the middle of the first act.
denounce
condemn; criticize. The reform candidate denounced the corrupt city officers for having betrayed the public’s trust.
deplete
reduce; exhaust. We must wait until we deplete our present inventory before we order replacements.
deplore
regret. Although I deplore the vulgarity of your language, I defend your right to express yourself freely.
depose
dethrone; remove from office. The army attempted to depose the king and set up a military government.
depravity
extreme corruption; wickedness. The depravity of Caligula’s behavior eventually sickened even those who had willingly participated in his earlier, comparatively innocent orgies.
depreciate
lesson in value. If you neglect this property, it will depreciate.
depredation
plundering; 略奪行為、損傷、破壊. After the depredations of the invaders, the people were penniless.
derange
make insane; disarrange. Hamlet’s cruel rejection deranged poor Ophelia; in her madness, she drowned herself.
derelict
abandoned; negligent. The derelict craft was a menace to navigation.
deride
ridicule; make fun of. The critics derided his pretentious dialogue and refused to consider his play seriously.
derogatory
expressing a low opinion; 相手を見下した. Because the word Eskimo has come under strong attack in recent years for its supposedly derogatory connotations, many Americans today either avoid the term or feel uneasy using it.
descry
catch sight of. In the distance, we could barely descry the enemy vessels.
desecrate
profane; violate the sanctity of. Shattering the altar and trampling the holy objects underfoot, the invaders desecrated the sanctuary.
desolate
unpopulated; joyless. After six months in the crowded, bustling metropolis, David was so sick of people that he was ready to head for the most desolate patch of wilderness he could find.
despise
look on with scorn; regard as worthless or distasteful. Mr. Bond, I despise spies; I look down on them as mean, despicable, honorless men, whom I would wipe from the face of the earth with as little concern as I would scrape dog droppings from the bottom of my shoe.
despoil
strip of valuables; rob. Seeking plunder, the raiders despoiled the village, carrying off any valuables they found.
despondent
depressed; gloomy. To the distress of his parents, William became seriously despondent after he broke up with Jan.
destitute
extremely poor. Because they had no health insurance, the father’s costly illness left the family destitute.
detached
emotionally removed; calm and objective; physically separate. A psychoanalyst must maintain a detached point of view and stay uninvolved with her patients’ personal lives.
detraction
slandering; aspersion; 減損. Because Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton dared to fight for women’s rights, their motives, manners, dress, personal appearance, and character were held up to ridicule and detraction.
detrimental
harmful; damaging. The candidate’s acceptance of major financial contributions from a well-known racist ultimately proved detrimental to his campaign, for he lost the backing of many of his early grassroots supporters.
devious
roundabout; erratic; not straightforward. The Joker’s plan was so devious that it was only with great difficulty we could follow its shifts and dodges.
devise
think up; invent; plan. How clever he must be to have devised such a devious plan!
devoid
lacking. You may think Cher’s mind is a total void, but she’s actually not devoid of intelligence.
devolve
be transferred to another; delegate to another; gradually worsen. Because Humpty Dumpty was too shattered by his fall to clean up his own mess, all the work of picking up the pieces devolved upon poor Alice.
devotee
enthusiastic follower. A devotee of the opera, she bought season tickets every year.
devout
pious; 敬虔な、熱心な、誠実な. The devout man prayed daily.
dexterous
skillful. The magician was so dexterous that we could not follow his movements as he performed his tricks.
diabolical
devilish. “What a friend I am, to devise such a diabolical scheme to destroy Gotham City,” chortled the Joker.
dialectical
relating to the art of debate; mutual or reciprocal. The debate coach’s students grew to develop great forensic and dialectical skill. Teaching, however, is inherently a dialectical situation: the coach learned at least as much from her students as they learned from her.
dictum
authoritative and weighty statement; saying; maxim. University administrations still follow the old dictum “Publish or perish.” They don’t care how good a teacher you are; if you don’t publish enough papers, you’re out of a job.
didactic
teaching; instructional. Pope’s lengthy poem An Essay on Man is too didactic for my taste: I dislike it when poets turn preachy and moralize.
diffuse
wordy; rambling; spread out (like a gas). If you pay authors by the word, you tempt them to produce diffuse manuscripts rather than brief ones.
dilapidated
ruined because of neglect. The dilapidated old building needed far more work than just a new coat of paint.
dilate
expand. In the dark, the pupils of your eyes dilate.
dilatory
tending to delay; intentionally delaying. If you are dilatory in paying your bills, your credit rating may suffer.
diminution
lessening; reduction in size. Old Jack was as sharp at eighty as he had been at fifty; increasing age led to no diminution of his mental acuity.
din
continued loud noise. The din of the jackhammers outside the classroom window drowned out the lecturer’s voice.
dingy
dull; not fresh; cheerless. Refusing to be depressed by her dingy studio apartment, Bea spent the weekend polishing the floors and windows and hanging bright posters on the walls.
dint
means; effort. By dint of much hard work, the volunteers were able to control the raging forest fire.
dire
disastrous. People ignored her dire predictions of an approaching depression.
disaffected
disloyal. Once the most loyal of Bradley’s supporters, Senator Moynihan found himself becoming increasingly disaffected.
disapprobation
disapproval; condemnation. The conservative father viewed his daughter’s radical boyfriend with disapprobation.
disarray
a disorderly or untidy state. After the New Year’s party, the once orderly house was in total disarray.
disavowal
denial; disclaiming. The novelist Andre Gide was controversial both for his early support of communism and for his subsequent disavowal of it after a visit to the Soviet Union.
disburse
pay out; 支出する、を分配する. When you disburse money on the company’s behalf, be sure to get a receipt.
discernible
distinguishable; perceivable. The ships in the harbor were not discernible in the fog.
disclaim
disown; renounce claim to; 否定する、放棄する、拒否する. If I grant you this privilege, will you disclaim all other rights?
discombobulated
confused; discomposed. The novice square dancer became so discombobulated that he wandered into the wrong set.
discomfit
put to rout; defeat; disconcert; を当惑させる、の裏をかいて失敗させる. This ruse will discomfit the enemy.
disconcert
confuse; upset; embarrass. The lawyer was disconcerted by the evidence produced by her adversary.
disconsolate
sad. The death of his wife left him disconsolate.
discord
conflict; lack of harmony. Watching Tweedledum battle Tweedledee, Alice wondered what had caused this pointless discord.
discordant
not harmonious; conflicting. Nothing is quite so discordant as the sound of a junior high school orchestra tuning up.
discount
disregard. Be prepared to discount what he has to say about his ex-wife.
discursive
digressing; rambling. As the lecturer wandered from topic to topic, we wondered what if any point there was to his discursive remarks.
disdain
view with scorn or contempt; を軽蔑する、を見下す. In the film Funny Face, the bookish heroine disdained fashion models for their lack of intellectual interests.
disengage
uncouple; separate; disconnect. A standard movie routine involves the hero’s desperate attempt to disengage a railroad car from a moving train.
disfigure
mar the appearance of; spoil; の外観を損なう. An ugly frown disfigured her normally pleasant face.
disgorge
surrender something; eject; vomit. Unwilling to disgorge the cash he had stolen from the pension fund, the embezzler tried to run away.
disgruntle
make discontented; を不満にさせる. The passengers were disgruntled by the numerous delays.
