Hit Parade Extra Flashcards
Alloy
to commingle, to debase by mixing with something inferior (unalloyed means pure)
Appropriate
to take for one’s own use, to confiscate
Arrest
to suspend, to engage, holding one’s attention
August
majestic, venerable
Bent
leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency
Broach
to bring up, to announce, to begin to talk about
Brook
to tolerate, to endure
Cardinal
major, as in cardinal sin
Chauvinist
a blindly devoted patriot
Color
to change as if by dyeing to distort gloss or affect
Consquential
pompous, self important
Damp
to diminish the intensity or check the vibration of sound
Die
a tool used for shaping, as in a tool and die shop
Essay
to test or try, to attempt, to experiment
Exact
to demand, to call for, to require, to take (exact revenge)
Fell
to cause to fall by striking
Flag
to sag or droop, to become spiritless, to decline
Flip
sarcastic, impertinent as in flippant
Ford
to wade across the shallow part of a river or stream
Grouse
to complain or grumble
Guy
a rope cord or cable attached to something as a brace or guide
Intimate
to imply, suggest or insinuate
List
to tilt or lean to one side
Lumber
to move heavily and clumsily
Meet
fitting, proper
Milk
to exploit, to squeeze every last ounce of
Mince
to pronounce or speak affectedly, to euphemize, to speak too carefully - also to take tiny steps, tip toe
Nice
exacting, fastidious, extremely precise
Obtain
to be established, accepted or customary
Occult
hidden, concealed, beyond comprehension
Pedestrian
commonplace, trite, unremarkable, quotidian
Pine
to lose vigor (as through grief) to yearn
Plastic
moldable pliable, not rigid
Pluck
courage, spunk, fortitude
Prize
to pry or press or force with a lever, something taken by force, spoils
Rail
to complain about bitterly
Rent
torn (past tense rend) an opening or tear caused by such
Quail
to lose courage, to turn frightened
Sap
to enervate or weaken the quality of
Scurvy
contemptible, despicable
Singular
exceptional, unusual, odd
Stand
a group of trees
Steep
to saturate or completely soak, as in to let a tea bag steep
Strut
the supporting structural cross part of a wing
Table
to remove (as a parliamentary motion) from consideration
Tender
to proffer or offer
Waffle
to equivocate, to change one’s position
Wag
wit, joker
Abjure
to renounce or reject solemnly, to recant, to avoid
Adumbrate
to foreshadow vaguely
Anathema
a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse, accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing
Anodyne
soothing, something that assuages or allays pain or comforts
Apogee
farthest or highest point, culmination, zenith
Apostate
one who abandons long-held religious or politically convictions
Apothesis
deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model of excellence or perfection
Asperity
severity, rigor, roughness, harshness, acrimony, irritability
Asseverate
to aver, allege or assert
Assiduous
diligent, hard-working, sedulous
Augury
omen, portent
Bellicose
belligerent, pugnacious, warlike
Calumniate
to slander, to make a false accusation
Captious
disposed to point out trivial faults; calculated to confuse or entrap in argument
Cavil
to find fault without good reason
Celerity
speed, alacrity (think accelerate)
Alacrity
brisk and cheerful readiness
Chimera
an illusion (originally an imaginary fire breathing she-monster)
Contumacious
insubordinate, rebellious
Contumely
insult, scorn, aspersion
Debacle
rout, fiasco, complete failure
Denouement
an outcome or solution, unraveling of a plot
Descry
to discriminate or discern
Desuetude
disuse
Desultory
random, aimless, marked by a lack of plan or purpose
Diaphanous
transparent, gauzy
Diffident
reserved, shy unassuming, lacking in self-confidence
Dirge
a song of grief or lamentation
Encomium
glowing and enthusiastic praise, panegyric, tribute, eulogy
Eschew
to shun or avoid
Excoriate
to censure scathing, to upbraid
Exercrate
to denounce, to feel loathing for, to cure, to declare to be evil (like exorcism)
Exegesis
critical examination, explication
Expiate
to atone or make amends for
Extirpate
to destroy, to exterminate, to cut out, to exscind
Fatuous
silly, inanely foolish
Fractious
quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable
Gainsay
to deny, to dispute to contradict or oppose
Heterodox
unorthodox, heretical, inconoclastic
Imbroglio
difficult or embarrassing situation
Indefatigable
not easily exhaustible, tireless, dogged
Inelecutable
certain, inevitable
Inimitable
one of a kind, peerless
Insouciant
unconcerned, carefree, heedless
Inveterate
deep rooted, ingrained, habitual
Jejune
vapid, uninteresting, nugatory, childish, immature, puerile
Lubricious
lewd, wanton, greasy slippery
Lewd
crude and offensive in a sexual way
Mendicant
a beggar, supplicant
Meretricious
cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy, attracting by false show
Minatory
menacing threatening (like Minotaur threatening creature indeed)
Nadir
low point, below zenith, perigee
Nonplussed
baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or thing
Obstreperous
noisily and stubbornly defiant
Ossified
tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile and reactionary with age (literally = turned to bone)
Palliate
to make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense
Panegyric
formal praise, eulogy
Encomium
Expressing elaborate praise
Parsimonious
cheap, miserly
Pellucid
transparent, easy to understand, limpid
Peroration
the concluding part of a speech, flowery rhetorical speech
Plangent
pounding, thundering, resounding
Prolix
long-winded, verbose
Propitiate
to appease, to conciliate, (propitious means auspicious, favorable)
Puerile
childish, immature, jejune, nugatory
Puissance
power, strength (puissant means powerful and strong)
Pusillanimous
cowardly, craven
Remonstrate
to protest, to object
Sagacious
having sound judgement, perceptive, wise like a sage
Salutary
remedial, wholesome, causing improvement
Sanguine
cheerful, confident, optimistic
Saturnine
gloomy, dark, sullen, morose
Sententious
aphoristic or moralistic, epigrammatic, tending to moralize excessively
Stentorian
extremely loud and powerful
Stygian
gloomy, dark
Sycophant
self-seeking flatterer, toady, servile, parasite
Tendentious
biased, showing marked tendencies
Timorous
timid, fearful, diffident
Tyro
novice, greenhorn, rank amateur
Vitiate
to corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective
Voluble
fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language
