Lagerdemain Flashcards
Legerdemain
Sleight of hands (magic as performed by a megician); trickery or deception
Synonym: prestidigitation
Related word: thaumaturgy - working of miracle
Legerdemain - French - meaning light of hands
Diaphanous
Very sheer, fine, translucent
Imbue
Permeate or saturate, as dye in a fabric; influence throughout
Posit
Presume, suggest, put forward an idea
We pose a question but we posit an idea
Assuage
Make milder, relieve; soothe, pacify, or calm
Placate, mollify, appease
Aspersions
Damaging remarks, defamation, slander
Irascible
Irritable, easily angered
Slake
Satisfy thirst, cool, or refresh; make less active
Slake is related to slack (loose, negligent, lazy, weak)
Leery of
Suspicious or wary
Ex. You should be leery of any business opportunity that requires a startup fee.
Supplant
Take the place of, displace through sneaky tactics (to replace)
Gambol
Frolic; skip or leap playfully
Gambol comes from the Latin “gamba” a horse’s leg
Truce
An agreement between enemies
Fraught
Filled with; likely to result in something undesirable
Ex. Marketing a new product is fraught with danger.
Strut
A structural support or brace
Related words: bolster, fortify, buttress
To strut is to walk in a showy way, like in a fashion show.
Quibble
Make trivial arguments or criticisms, find faults in a petty way
This word is often associated with lawyers
Baying
Howling in a deep way, like a wolf
Ex. The lonely dog bayed all night.
When a person is at bay or brought to bay, that means he is in a captured position, powerless and unable to flee
Vitriol
Something highly caustic, such as criticism
Ex. After another embarrassing loss, the team’s shortstop was full of vitriol for the coach who had lead them to the worst season in history.
Related words: caustic, acrimony.
Grandstand
Perform showily an attempt to impress onlookers.
Hand-wringing
Grasping, squeezing of hands as an expression of nervousness, guilt; extend debate over what to do about an issue.
Goad
Spur on, stimulate, encourage; urge on (as cattle) with a pointed or electrically charged stick
Synonym: prod
Goad means to peer-pressure
Discordant
Harsh or inharmonious in sound ; disagreeing, incongruous
Related words: dissonance
The opposite of discord is accord
Credulous
Gullible; prone to believing or trusting too easily
Bygone
Past, former
Bygone days.
Prolix
Excessively long and wordy (of a person, piece or writing).
Ex. She is incredible verbose. She tells biting, prolix stories.
