GRE Barron's 33-34 Flashcards
obstinate
stubborn; hard to control or treat. We tried to persuade him to give up smoking, but he was obstinate and refused to change.
obstreperous
boisterous; noisy; 手に負えない、騒々しい. What do you do when an obstreperous horde of drunken policemen carouses through your hotel, crashing into potted plants and sinning vulgar songs?
obtrude
push (oneself or one’s ideas) forward or intrude; butt in; stick out or extrude. Because Fanny was reluctant to obtrude her opinions about child-raising upon her daughter-in-law, she kept a close watch on her tongue.
obtuse
blunt; stupid. What can you do with somebody who’s so obtuse that he can’t even tell that you’re insulting him?
odious
hateful; vile. Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters had the odious habit of popping their zits in public.
odium
detestation; hatefulness; disrepute. Prince Charming could not express the odium he felt toward Cinderella’s stepsisters because of their mistreatment of poor Cinderella.
odoriferous
giving off an odor. The odoriferous spices stimulated her jaded appetite.
odorous
having an odor. This variety of hybrid tea rose is more odorous than the one you have in your garden.
offhand
casual; done without prior thought. Expecting to be treated with due propriety by her hosts, Great-Aunt Maud was offended by their offhand manner.
ogle
look at amorously; make eyes at. At the coffee house, Walter was too shy to ogle the pretty girls openly; instead, he peeked out at them from behind a rubber plant.
ominous
threatening. Those clouds are ominous; they suggest that a severe storm is on the way.
omnipresent
universally present; ubiquitous. On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus is omnipresent.
omniscient
all-knowing. I do not pretend to be omniscient, but I am positive about this fact.
onslaught
vicious assault. We suffered many casualties during the unexpected onslaught of the enemy troops.
onus
burden; responsibility. The emperor was spared the onus of singing the surrender papers; instead, he relegated the assignment to his generals.
opaque
dark; not transparent. The opaque window shade kept the sunlight out of the room.
opiate
medicine to induce sleep or deaden pain; something that relieves emotions or causes inaction. To say that religion is the opiate of the people is to condemn religion as a drug that keeps the people quiet and submissive to those in power.
opportune
timely; well-chosen. Cher looked at her father struggling to balance his checkbook; clearly this would not be an opportune moment to ask him for an increase in her allowance.
opportunist
individual who sacrifices principles for expediency by taking advantage of circumstances; 日和見主義者、都合のいい時を知っている人. Forget about ethics! He’s such an opportunist that he’ll vote in favor of any deal that will give him a break.
opulence
extreme wealth; luxuriousness; abundance. The glitter and opulence of the ballroom took Cinderella’s breath away.
opus
work. Although many critics hailed his Fifth Symphony, he did not regard it as his major opus.
oracular
prophetic; uttered as if with divine authority; mysterious or ambiguous. Like many others who sought divine guidance from the oracle at Delphi, Oedipus could not understand the enigmatic oracular warning he received.
orator
public speaker. The abolitionist Frederick Douglass was a brilliant orator whose speeches brought home to his audience the evils of slavery.
ordeal
severe trial or affliction. June was so painfully shy that it was an ordeal for her to speak up when the teacher called on her in class.
ordinance
decree; 条例、しきたり. Passing a red light is a violation of a city ordinance.
orgy
wild, drunken revelry; unrestrained indulgence; 飲めや歌えの大騒ぎ、熱狂. The Roman emperor’s orgies were far wilder than the toga party in the movie Animal House. When her income tax refund check finally arrived, Sally indulged in an orgy of shopping.
orifice
mouthlike opening; small opening. The Howe Caverns were discovered when someone observed that a cold wind was issuing from an orifice in the hillside.
ornate
excessively or elaborately decorated. With its elaborately carved, convoluted lines, furniture of the Baroque period was highly ornate.
ostensible
apparent; professed; pretended. Although the ostensible purpose of this expedition is to discover new lands, we are really interested in finding new markets for our products.
ostracize
exclude from public favor; ban. As soon as the newspapers carried the story of his connection with the criminals, his friends began to ostracize him.
oust
expel; drive out. The world wondered if Aquino would be able to oust Marcos from office.
outlandish
bizarre; peculiar; unconventional. The eccentric professor who engages in markedly outlandish behavior is a stock figure in novels with an academic setting.
outspoken
candid; blunt; 率直な、遠慮のない、辛口の. The candidate was too outspoken to be a successful politician; he had not yet learned to weigh his words carefully.
outstrip
surpass; outdo. Jesse Owens easily outstripped his competitors to win the gold medal at the Olympic Games.
overbearing
bossy; arrogant; decisively important. Certain of her own importance and of the unimportance of everyone else, Lady Bracknell was intolerably overbearing in manner.
overt
open to view. According to the United States Constitution, a person must commit an overt act before he may be tried for reason.
overwrought
extremely agitated; hysterical. When Kate heard the news of the sudden tragedy, she became too overwrought to work and had o leave the office early.
pacifist
one opposed to force; antimilitarist. During the war, pacifists, though they refused to bear arms, served in the front lines as ambulance drivers and medical corpsmen.
painstaking
showing hard work; taking great care. The new high-frequency word list is the result of painstaking efforts on the part of our research staff.
palatable
agreeable; pleasing to the taste. Neither Jack’s underbaked opinions nor his overcooked casseroles were palatable to me.
palatial
magnificent. He proudly showed us through his palatial home.
pall
grow tiresome. The study of word list can eventually pal and put one to sleep.
palliate
ease pain; make less severe or offensive. If we cannot cure this disease at present, we can, at least, try to palliate the symptoms.
palpable
tangible; easily perceptible. I cannot understand how you could overlook such a palpable blunder.
palpitate
throb; flutter; （心臓が）どきどきする、振動する、震える. As she became excited, her heart began to palpitate more and more erratically.
paltry
insignificant; petty; trifling. “One hundred dollars for a genuine imitation Rolex watch! Lady, this is a paltry sum to pay for such a high-class piece of jewelry.”
pan
criticize harshly. Hoping for a rave review of his new show, the playwright was miserable when the critics panned it unanimously.
panacea
cure-all; remedy for all diseases. There is no easy panacea that will solve our complicated international situation.
panache
flair; flamboyance; 威勢の良さ、堂々とした様子. Many performers imitate Noel Coward, but few have his panache and sense of style.
pandemonium
wild tumult; 悪魔の巣窟、大混乱（の場所）、地獄. When the ships collided in the harbor, pandemonium broke out among the passengers.
pander
cater to the low desires of others; (人の下劣さに)迎合する、(人の欲望などに)つけ込む. The reviewer accused the makers of Lethal Weapon of pandering to the masses’ taste for violence.
paraphernalia
equipment; odds and ends. Her desk was cluttered with paper, pen, ink, dictionary and other paraphernalia of the writing craft.
parched
extremely dry; very thirsty. The parched desert landscape seemed hostile to life.
pariah
social outcast. If everyone ostracized singer Mariah Carey, would she then be Mariah the pariah?
parity
equality; close resemblance. I find your analogy inaccurate because I do not see the parity between the two illustrations.
parlance
language; idiom. All this legal parlance confuses me; I need an interpreter.
parley
conference. The peace parley has not produced the anticipated truce.
parochial
narrow in outlook; provincial; related to parishes. Although Jane Austen writes novels set in small rural communities, her concerns are universal, not parochial.
paroxysm
fit or attack of pain, laughter, rage; （感情の）激発、発作. When he heard of his son’s misdeeds, he was seized by a paroxysm of rage.
parry
ward off a blow; deflect; かわす、受け流す. Unwilling to injure his opponent in such a pointless clash, Dartagnan simply tried to parry his rival’s thrusts.
parsimony
stinginess; excessive frugality; 極度の倹約. Silas Marner’s parsimony did not allow him to indulge in any luxuries.
partiality
inclination; bias. As a judge, not only must I be unbiased, but I must also avoid any evidence of partiality when I award the prize.
patent
open for the public to read; obvious. It was patent to everyone that the witness spoke the truth.
pathos
tender sorrow; pity; quality in art or literature that produces these feelings. The quiet tone of pathos that ran through the novel never degenerated into the maudlin or the overly sentimental.
patronize
support; act superior toward; be a customer of. Penniless artists hope to find some wealthy art lover who will patronize them.
pauper
very poor person. Though Widow Brown was living on a reduced income, she was by no means a pauper.
peccadillo
slight offense. Whenever Huck swiped a cookie from the jar, Miss Watson reacted as if he were guilty of armed robbery, not of some mere peccadillo.
