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English > Into the Wild Vocab > Flashcards

Into the Wild Vocab Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

taiga

A

coniferous evergreen forest

“Alaskan taiga”

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2
Q

peregrination

A

wandering, meandering

“details of his peregrinations”

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3
Q

dispassionate

A

calm, devoid of feeling

“dispassionate rendering was impossible”

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4
Q

asceticism

A

practice of self-denial, simplicity, nonmaterialism

“emulated Tolstoy’s asceticism”

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5
Q

fulminate

A

to denounce or condemn

“they fulminated him as a reckless idiot”

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6
Q

muskeg

A

a bog

“expanse of windswept muskeg”

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7
Q

unsullied

A

unsoiled, pure

“unsullied enormity of alaska”

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8
Q

enormity

A

monstrousness

“unsullied enormity of alaska”

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9
Q

sonorous

A

rich and full in sound

“Gallien’s low, sonorous drawl”

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10
Q

dissuade

A

to persuade against

“Gallien tried to dissuade him”

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11
Q

futility

A

uselessness

“laughing at the futility of life”

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12
Q

escarpment

A

cliff

“crests of the outermost escarpments”

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13
Q

amalgam

A

an alloy

“carpeted in a boggy amalgam of muskeg”

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14
Q

cordillera

A

chain of mountains

“northernmost cordillera of the Outer Range”

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15
Q

anomaly

A

a deviation from the norm

“a few locals know of the anomaly”

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16
Q

opaque

A

not allowing light to pass through

“waters opaque with glacial till”

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17
Q

till

A

glacial drift

“waters opaque with glacial till”

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18
Q

contumacious

A

willfully disobedient

“the three locals are contumacious Alaskans”

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19
Q

posit

A

to assume as fact

“starvation was posited as the cause of death”

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20
Q

mawkish

A

overly sentimental

“walls filled with mawkish paintings”

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21
Q

fickle

A

not constant, not loyal

“fickle weather”

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22
Q

visage

A

face

“Ross Perot’s sneering visage”

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23
Q

itinerant

A

traveling from place to place

“Alex had the physique of an itinerant laborer”

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24
Q

surrogate

A

a substitute

“found a surrogate family”

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25
Q

stasis

A

state of inactivity

“Alex liked carthage’s community stasis”

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26
Q

plebian

A

common, ordinary

“carthage’s plebian virtues”

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27
Q

bequest

A

legacy, something left in a will

“final years of college paid by a bequest from a family friend”

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28
Q

odyssey

A

a long journey

“trip was to be an odyssey”

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29
Q

onerous

A

burdensome

“graduating college was an onerous duty”

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30
Q

detritus

A

debris

“detrital wash”

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31
Q

austere

A

simple, severe, nonmaterialistic

“desert is sensorily austere”

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32
Q

inimical

A

hostile

“desert is historically inimical”

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33
Q

dun

A

grey-brown

“concealed under a dun-colored tarp”

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34
Q

interdiction

A

a prohibition

“car would be perfect for drug interdiction”

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35
Q

bore

A

an abrupt rise of tidal water

“bore of brown water came rushing down”

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36
Q

egress

A

to exit, means of going out

“only route of egress was now a full-blown river”

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37
Q

flout

A

to treat with disdain

“his moral responsibility to flout the laws of the state”

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38
Q

emasculate

A

to weaken

“river was emasculated with dams and canals”

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39
Q

indolent

A

lazy

“the river burbles indolently from reservoir to reservoir”

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40
Q

saline

A

salty

“landscape’s saline beauty”

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41
Q

portage

A

carrying a boat overland

“decides to portage to the canal”

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42
Q

plaintive

A

mournful

“took photos of plaintive sunset”

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43
Q

perfunctory

A

hasty and superficial

“journal entries become short and perfunctory”

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44
Q

hummock

A

a small hill

“left the boat on a hummock of dune grass”

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45
Q

primordial

A

existing from the very beginning

“dominant, primordial beast”

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46
Q

idiom

A

dialect, distinctive style

“Bullhead city was in the late 20th century idiom”

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47
Q

garrulous

A

talkative

“McDonald’s manager was a flashy, garrulous man”

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48
Q

raze

A

to tear down

“old navy base had been abandoned and razed

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49
Q

sundry

A

various

“snowbirds and drifters and sundry vagabonds congregate here”

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50
Q

turgid

A

swollen, pompous

“London’s turgid portrayal of life in alaska”

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51
Q

fatuous

A

silly or foolish

“London was a fatuous drunk”

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52
Q

recluse

A

a hermit

“alex was no recluse”

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53
Q

denizen

A

an inhabitant

“alex spoke to the denizens of the slabs about alaska”

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54
Q

anachronistic

A

out of place in time

“penned in a shaky, anachronistic script”

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55
Q

spectral

A

ghostly

“rattle of wind interrupts the spectral quiet”

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56
Q

nexus

A

a means of connection, a link

“market-liquor store-post office was the cultural nexus”

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57
Q

endemic

A

native to a particular place

“endemic idiocracy of mainstream American life”

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58
Q

missive

A

a letter or epistle

“Alex wrote a missive to burres”

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59
Q

emanate

A

to send forth

“wrong to think joy emanates only from human relations”

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60
Q

cant

A

insincere talk, hypocrisy

“canted slope?”

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61
Q

maw

A

mouth or stomach of a voracious carnivore

“shoes protrude from the maw of the combine”

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62
Q

surfeit

A

excess

“alex did not have a surfeit of common sense”

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63
Q

supplant

A

to replace

“alex had a variety of lust that supplanted sexual desire”

64
Q

succor

A

help or aid

“may have been tempted by the succor of women”

65
Q

opprobrium

A

reproach, scorn

“many letters heaped opprobrium on alex”

66
Q

epistle

A

a letter or missive

“dense, multipage epistle”

67
Q

burlesque

A

mocking treatment of a solemn subject

“alex is a 20th century burlesque of London’s protagonist”

68
Q

hubris

A

excessive pride

“alex commits big-time hubris”

69
Q

requisite

A

required

“overconfident men screw up because they lack the requisite humility”

70
Q

beatific

A

blissful; saintly

“the other hand raised in a brave, beatific farewell”

71
Q

emetic

A

causing vomiting

“the wild sweet pea proved emetic, so she recovered after her stomach rejected it”

72
Q

munificience

A

great generosity

“despite this apparent munificence, the meat was very lean”

73
Q

fecund

A

abundant

“the country was a fecund of plant and animal life”

74
Q

feckless

A

irresponsible

“McCandless was not some feckless slacker”

75
Q

modicum

A

a moderate or small amount

“loopy young man that lacked even a modicum of common sense”

76
Q

sobriquet

A

nickname

“franklin’s sobriquet was “the man who ate his shoes””

77
Q

metis

A

a person of mixed ancestry

“Franklin’s team was rescued by a band of metis”

78
Q

hauteur

A

haughtiness

“Sir John Franklin’s hauteur contributed to 140 deaths”

79
Q

ungulate

A

having hoofs

“the ungulate alex shot was exactly what he said it was”

80
Q

coppice

A

a small woods

“bus is parked beside a coppice of aspen”

81
Q

miasma

A

a death-like atmosphere

“feet churn the muck into a foul-smelling miasma”

82
Q

castigate

A

to criticize severely

“castigated himself for the waste of a life he’s taken”

83
Q

rictus

A

a gaping grin

“alex’s features were distorted in a rictus of esctacy and amazement”

84
Q

axiom

A

a self-evident truth that requires no proof

“fundamental axiom: winter is better for overland travel”

85
Q

rubicon

A

“crossing the Rubicon” is the point of no return

“in doing so, he was crossing his rubicon”

86
Q

laconic

A

using few words

“he began a laconic journal of blank pages of Tanaina Plantlore”

87
Q

gloaming

A

the twilight

“walked down to the highway in the predawn gloaming

88
Q

aperture

A

opening

“walt’s synthetic aperature radar”

89
Q

patina

A

film or covering

“i scraped away the patina of ice above my head”

90
Q

reprise

A

a repeat

“it was a reprise of my attempt on the north face”

91
Q

abate

A

a reduce in amount or intensity

“the blizzard finally abated”

92
Q

volition

A

will; choosing or deciding

“volition alone was not going to get me up the wall”

93
Q

spindrift

A

sea spray

“spindrift avalanches hissed down from the wall above”

94
Q

bivouac

A

a military encampment

“i crouched inside my bivouac sack”

95
Q

metastasize

A

the spread of disease

“squall metastasized into a major storm”

96
Q

faux

A

fake

“faux leather valise stuffed with pill bottles”

97
Q

epiphany

A

a sudden appearance or manifestation

“the epiphany occurred after time and misfortune

98
Q

hector

A

to harass or bully

“we were hectored to excel in every class”

99
Q

progeny

A

offspring

“his father’s aspirations extended to his progeny

100
Q

acrid

A

harsh or caustic

“acrid scent of singed hair”

101
Q

conflagration

A

a destructive fire

“bag or garbage flared into a small conflagration”

102
Q

chutzpah

A

audacity or nerve

“whole enterprise is held together with little more than chutzpah”

103
Q

rime

A

frost

“coated with 6 inches of feathery rime”

104
Q

dearth

A

lack of or scarcity

“the rock exhibited a dearth of holds”

105
Q

recumbent

A

lying down

“spent most of my time recumbent in my tent”

106
Q

self-possessed

A

in control of one’s emotions

“he was a self-possessed young man”

107
Q

mundane

A

common or ordinary

“even the mundane seemed charged with meaning”

108
Q

carapace

A

the bony shield covering the dorsal part of an animal

“ice cap rides the spine of the range like a carapace”

109
Q

gunwale

A

the upper edge of the side of a vessel

“hopped over the gunwale”

110
Q

desideratum

A

something wanted or needed

“these mountains heralded the approach of my desideratum”

111
Q

inveigle

A

to entice by artful talk

“i inveigled a ride on a salmon seiner”

112
Q

exfoliate

A

to peel off layers

“huge fin of exfoliated stone”

113
Q

sinister

A

evil or malignant

“the mountain looked particularly sinister”

114
Q

recalcitrant

A

disobedient

“chris has the same pensive, recalcitrant stare”

115
Q

histrionic

A

overly dramatic

“his notes read like the work of a histrionic high schooler”

116
Q

greenhorn

A

a newcomer

“mccandless was one more dreamy, half-cocked greenhorn

117
Q

recondite

A

esoteric, know or understood by only a few

“diary filled with recondite theory”

118
Q

eremitic

A

like a hermit

“Alaska is not the best place for eremitic experiments

119
Q

seine

A

a fishing net

“deckhand on a seine boat”

120
Q

bight

A

a bend in a river or shoreline

“Hippie cove is a bight of tidewater”

121
Q

purge

A

to cleanse or purify

“Rossellini purged his life of all but the most primitive tools”

122
Q

devolve

A

to become simpler or disappear

“humans have devolved into inferior beings”

123
Q

equanimity

A

composure

“Rossellini accepted the failure of his hypothesis with equanimity”

124
Q

Denali

A

Mt. McKinley

“Waterman climbed Denali”

125
Q

copious

A

abundant

“waterman took copious notes”

126
Q

lucrative

A

profitable

“McCunn found lucrative employment on the pipeline construction”

127
Q

paucity

A

dearth, lack of

“staggering paucity of common sense”

128
Q

defile

A

a narrow passage between mountains

“oasis exists at the bottom of this slotlike defile”

129
Q

ephemeral

A

not lasting very long

“ephemeral bloom of a lily”

130
Q

nom de plume

A

pen name

“everet ruess carved his nom de plume into the canyon wall”

131
Q

bohemian

A

artistic person who disregards convention

“Stella (ruess?) had bohemian tastes”

132
Q

maxim

A

a proverb, and adage

“Ruess family maxim: Glorify the hour”

133
Q

callow

A

immature and inexperienced

“Ruess was a callow romantic”

134
Q

atavism

A

reversion to an earlier type, a throwback

“callow romantic and an atavistic wanderer of the wilderness”

135
Q

incendiary

A

inflammatory

“Ruess’s almost incendiary passion for the country”

136
Q

vermilion

A

bright red

“vermilion sands of the desert”

137
Q

unscathed

A

unharmed

“i have always escaped unscathed”

138
Q

sever

A

to cut off

“captian nemo severs his every tie upon the earth”

139
Q

veracity

A

truth

“the veracity of these ruess sightings are extremely suspect”

140
Q

vestige

A

a trace of something no longer present

“vestiges of the monk’s ancient dwellings”

141
Q

taciturn

A

silent by nature

“walt maccandless is a bearded, taciturn man”

142
Q

scudding

A

moving quickly

“sailboat scudding on the water”

143
Q

arcane

A

known or understood by only a few, secret

“walt is an eminence in the ranks of his arcane field”

144
Q

mercurial

A

changeable, fickle

“walts moods can me dark and mercurial”

145
Q

vagary

A

an unpredictable or whimsical event

“exchanging steady paycheck for vagaries of self-employment”

146
Q

loath

A

hesitant

“walt and billie are tightly would and loath to give ground

147
Q

panache

A

flair, a grand manner

“chris belted out a song with impressive panache”

148
Q

obsequious

A

fawning, brown nosing

“rich food and wine are abundant, and obsequious attendance”

149
Q

monomania

A

obsession with a single thing

“chris’s darker side was characterized by monomania”

150
Q

philanderer

A

a womanizer

“heavy drinker and incorrigible philanderer”

151
Q

lenity

A

mildness or gentleness

“incapable of extending lenity to his father”

152
Q

sanctimonious

A

falsely religious

“chris thought walt was a sancitmonious hypocrite”

153
Q

lambaste

A

to reprimand harshly

“chris lambasted bible-thumpers”

154
Q

confrere

A

a colleague

“walts dwindling numbers of confreres”

155
Q

pellucid

A

clear, translucent

“alaska’s pellucid subarctic sky”

English (16 decks)

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