GRE Barron's 7-8 Flashcards
blunder
error. The criminal’s fatar blunder led to his capture.
blurt
utter impulsively; うっかり口走る. Before she could stop him, he blurted out the news.
bluster
blow in heavy gusts; threaten emptily; bully. “Let the stormy winds bluster,” cried Jack, “we’ll set sail tonight.”
bode
foreshadow; portend; の前兆となる、を予告する. The gloomy skies and the sulfurous odors from the mineral springs seemed to bode evil to those who settled in the area.
bogus
counterfiet; not authentic. The police quickly found the distributors of the bogus twenty-dollar bills.
bohemian
unconventional (in an artistic way). Gertrude Stein ran off to Paris to live an eccentric, bohemian life with her writer friends.
boisterous
violent; rough; noisy. The unruly crowd became even more boisterous when he tried to quiet them.
bolster
support; reinforce. The debaters amassed file boxes full of evidence to bolster their arguments.
bolt
dash or dart off; fasten (a door); gobble down. Jack was set to bolt out the front door, but Jill bolted the door.
bombardment
attack (as with missiles). The enemy bombardment demolished the town.
bombastic
pompous; using inflated language. Puffed up with conceit, the orator spoke in such a bombastic manner that we longed to deflate him.
boon
blessing; benefit. The recent rains that filled our empty reservoirs were a boon to the whole community.
boorish
rude; insensitive. Though Mr. Potts constantly interrupted his wife, she ignored his boorish behavior, for she had lost hope of teaching him courtesy.
bountiful
abundant; graciously generous. Thanks to the good harvest, we had a bountiful supply of food and we could be as bountiful as we liked in distributing food to the needy.
bowdlerize
expurgate; （本などから不穏当な部分を）削除する. After the film editors had bowdlerized the language in the script, the motion picture’s rating was changed from “R” to “RG.”
boycott
refrain from buying or using. To put pressure on grape growers to stop using pesticides that harmed the farm worker’s health, Ceasar Chavez called for consumers to boycott grapes.
braggadocio
boasting; 自慢屋、ほら吹き. He was disliked because his manner was always full of braggadocio.
brandish
wave around; flourish. Alarmed, Doctor Watson wildly brandished his gun until Holmes told him to put the thing away before he shot himself.
bravado
swagger; assumed air of defiance; 虚勢、強がり、威力の誇示. The bravado of the young criminal disappeared when he was confronted by the victims of his brutal attack.
brawn
muscular strength; sturdiness. It takes brawn to become a champion weight-lifter.
brazen
insolent; 厚かましい、恥知らずの. Her brazen contempt for authority angered the officials.
breach
breaking of contract or duty; fissure or gap. Jill sued Jack for breach of promise, claiming he had broken their engagement.
brevity
conciseness. Brevity is essential when you send a telegram or cablegram; you are charged for every word.
bristling
rising like bristles; showing irritation. The dog stood there, bristling with anger.
brittle
easily broken; difficult. My employer’s brittle personality made it difficult for me to get along with her.
broach
introduce; open up. Jack did not even try to broach the subject of religion with his in-laws. If you broach a touchy subject, the result may be a breach.
brook
tolerate; endure. The dean would brook no interference with his disciplinary actions.
browbeat
bully; intimidate. Billy resisted Ted’s attempts to browbeat him into handing over his lunch money.
brunt
main impact or shock. Tom Sawyer claimed credit for painting the fence, but the brunt of the work fell on others. However, Tom bore the brunt of Aunt Polly’s complaints when the paint began to peel.
brusque
blunt; abrupt; ぶっきらぼうな、無愛想な. She was offended by his brusque reply.
bucolic
rustic; pastoral; 羊飼いの、田舎風の. Filled with browsing cows and bleating sheep, the meadow was a charmingly bucolic sight.
buffoonery
clowning; おどけ. In the Ace Ventura movies, Jim Carrey’s buffoonery was hilarious.
bugaboo
bugbear; object of baseless terror. If we become frightened by such bugaboos, we are no wiser than the birds who fear scarecrows.
bulwark
earthwork or other strong defense; person who defends. The navy is our principal bulwark against invasion.
bungle
mismanage; blunder. Don’t botch this assignment, Bumstead; if you bungle the job, you’re fired.
buoyant
able to float; cheerful and optimistic. When the boat capsized, her buoyant life jacket kept Jody afloat.
burgeon
grow forth; send out buds; 新芽を出す. In the spring, the plants that burgeon are a promise of the beauty that is to come.
burlesque
give an imitation that ridicules. In Galaxy Quest, Alan Rickman burlesques Mr. Spock of Star Trek, outrageously parodying Spock’s unemotional manner and stiff bearing.
burnish
make shiny by rubbing; polish. The maid burnished the brass fixtures until they reflected the lamplight.
buttress
support; prop up. Just as architects buttress the walls of cathedrals with flying buttresses, debaters buttress their arguments with facts.
buxom
Full-bosomed; plump; jolly; 快活な、陽気な、胸が豊かな. High-fashion models usually are slender rather than buxom.
cacophonous
discordant; inharmonious. Do the students in the orchestra enjoy the cacophonous sounds they make when they’re tuning up? I don’t know how they can stand the racket.
cadence
rhythmic rise and fall (of words or sounds); beat. Marching down the road, the troops sang out, following the cadence set by the sergeant.
cadge
beg; mooch; panhandle. While his car was in the shop, Bob had to cadge a ride to work each day. Unwilling to be a complete moocher, however, he offered to pay for the gas.
calamity
disaster; misery. As news of the calamity spread, offers of relief poured in to the stricken community.
caliber
ability; quality. Einstein’s cleaning the blackboards again? Albert, quit it! A man of your caliber shouldn’t have to do such menial tasks.
callous
hardened; unfeeling. He had worked in the hospital for so many years that he was callous to the suffering in the wards.
callow
youthful; immature; inexperienced. As a freshman, Jack was sure he was a man of the world; as a sophomore, he made fun of freshman as callow youths. In both cases, his judgement showed just how callow he was.
calorific
Heat-producing. Coal is much more calorific than green wood.
calumny
malicious misrepresentation; slander. He could endure his financial failure, but he could not bear the calumny that his foes heaped upon him.
camaraderie
Good-fellowship. What he loved best about his job was the sense of camaraderie he and his coworkers shared.
canard
false or unfounded story; fabricated report. Rather than becoming upset by the National Enquirer story about Tony’s supposed infidelity, Tina refused to take the canard seriously.
candor
frankness; open honesty. Jack can carry candor too far: when he told Jill his honest opinion of her, she nearly slapped his face.
canker
any ulcerous sore; any evil. Poverty is a canker in the body politic; it must be cured.
canny
shrewd; thrifty; 抜け目ない、慎重な. The canny Scotsman was more than a match for the swindlers.
canon
collection or authoritative list of books (e.g., by an author, or accepted as scripture)
canon
rule or principle, frequently religious.
cant
insincere expression of piety; jargon of thieves; うわべだけの言葉、偽善の言葉. Shocked by news of the minister’s extramarital love affairs, the worshippers dismissed his talk about the sacredness of marriage as mere cant.
cantankerous
Ill-humored; irritable. Constantly complaining about his treatment and refusing to cooperate with the hospital staff, he was a cantankerous patient.
canvass
determine or seek opinions, votes, etc. After canvassing the sentiments of his constituents, the congressman was confident that he represented the majority opinion of his district.
capacious
spacious. In the capacious areas of the railroad terminal, thousands of travelers lingered while waiting for their trains.
capitulate
surrender. The enemy was warned to capitulate or face annihilation.
caprice
whim; 気まぐれ、移り気. She was an unpredictable creature, acting on caprice, never taking thought of the consequences.
capricious
unpredictable; fickle. The storm was capricious: it changed course constantly.
captious
faultfinding. His criticisms were always captious and frivolous, never offering constructive suggestions.
careen
lurch; sway from side to side. The taxicab careened wildly as it rounded the corner.
caricature
distortion; burlesque; パロディー. The caricatures he drew always emphasized personal weaknesses of the people he burlesqued.
carnage
destruction of life. The film The Killing Fields vividly depicts the carnage wreaked by Pol Pot’s followers in Cambodia.
carnal
fleshly. Is the public more interested in carnal pleasures than in spiritual matters? Compare the number of people who read Playboy daily to the number of those who read the Bible every day.
carping
petty criticism; fault-finding. Welcoming constructive criticism, Lexy appreciated her editor’s comments, finding them free of carping.
castigation
punishment; severe criticism. Sensitive even to mild criticism, Woolf could not bear the castigation that she found in certain reviews.
cataclysm
deluge; upheaval; 大変動、激変. A cataclysm such as the French Revolution affects all countries.
catcall
shout of disapproval; boo. Every major league pitcher has off days during which he must learn to ignore catcalls and angry hisses from the crowd.
catharsis
purging or cleansing of any passage of the body; (精神の)浄化、便通. Aristotle maintained that tragedy created a catharsis by purging the soul of base concepts.
cathartic
purgative; 排便作用のある、浄化作用のある. Some drugs act as laxatives when taken in small doses but act as cathartics when taken in much larger doses.
catholic
universal; wide-ranging; liberal. He was extremely catholic in his taste and read everything he could find in the library.
caustic
burning; sarcastically biting. The critic’s caustic remarks angered the hapless actors who were the subjects of his sarcasm.
cavalier
casual and offhand; arrogant. Sensitive about having her ideas taken lightly, Marcia felt insulted by Mark’s cavalier dismissal of her suggestion.
cavil
make frivolous objections; 難癖をつける. I respect your sensible criticisms but I dislike the way you cavil about unimportant details.
cede
yield (title, territory) to; surrender formally. Eventually the descendants of England’s Henry II were forced to cede their French territories to the King of France.
celerity
speed; rapidity. Hamlet resented his mother’s celerity in remarrying within a month after his father’s death.
celestial
heavenly. She spoke of the celestial joys that awaited virtuous souls in the hereafter.
celibate
abstaining fro sexual intercourse; unmarried; 禁欲主義の、独身の. Though the late Havelock Elis wrote extensively about sexual customs and was considered an expert in such matters, recent studies maintain he was celibate throughout his life.
censorious
severely critical; fault-finding. Censorious people delight in casting blame.
censure
blame; criticize. The senator was censured for behavior inappropriate to a member of Congress.
cerebral
pertaining to the brain or intellect. The content of philosophical works is cerebral in nature and requires much thought.
cerebration
thought. Mathematics problems sometimes require much cerebration.
ceremonious
marked by formality. Ordinary dress would be inappropriate at so ceremonious an affair.
certitude
certainty. Though there was no certitude of his getting the job, Lou thought he had a good chance of being hired.
cessation
stoppage. The airline’s employees threatened a cessation of all work if management failed to meet their demands.
cession
yielding (something) to another; ceding; 譲渡、割譲. The Battle of Lake Erie, a major U.S. Naval victory in the War of 1812, ensured U.S. Control over Lake Erie and ruled out any territorial cession in the Northwest to Great Britain in the peace settlement.
chaff
worthless products of an endeavor. When you separate the wheat from the chaff, be sure you throw out the chaff.
chagrin
vexation (caused by humiliation or injured pride); disappointment. Embarrassed by his parents’ shabby, working-class appearance, Doug felt their visit to his school would bring him nothing but chagrin.
