Lesson 16 Flashcards
BABBLE
BABBLE Verb, Noun
to talk foolishly or inarticulately, to murmur continuously; people’s sound
Syn. blurb, gossip, prattle, chatter idly, pratter, twitter, ramble, drivel
You need to talk articulately and intelligently when presenting your case, not just babble.
His psycho-babble makes no sense to me.
His spiritual-babble is unbelievable!
BACCHANAL
a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity, an orgiastic revelry; a follower of Bacchus
Syn. unrestrained, limitless
Ant. restrained, controlled, discreet, sober, inhibited
Root : Greece ‡
Latin bacchanalis = from God Bacchus
The unrestrained doling out of subsidies in a bacchanalian fashion can easily bankrupt the government treasury.
BAFFLING
BAFFLING Adjective (BAFFLE Verb, Noun)
something not easy to understand, frustrating; confound and confuse, bewilder;
a device for controlling the flow of liquids
Syn. mysterious, difficult, arcane; impede, thwart, perplex, stymie
Ant. clear and lucid, easy to understand; ease
President Trump’s baffling behaviour
The girl’s baffling approach
Do not baffle me with your changing stand.
BAILIWICK
BAILIWICK Noun
distinct area, a person’s normal territory or jurisdiction
Syn. field, domain, dominion, terrain The MP had no decision making power outside of her bailiwick.
BAILIWICK Noun
distinct area, a person’s normal territory or jurisdiction
Syn. field, domain, dominion, terrain
The MP had no decision making power outside of her bailiwick.
In English the original French bailie combined with ‘‐wic’, the Anglo‐Saxon suffix (meaning a village) to produce a term meaning literally ‘bailiff’s village’— the original geographic scope of a bailiwick.
BALEFUL
BALEFUL Adjective
harmful, with evil intentions
Syn. menacing, malevolent, sinister, maleficent, hostile
Ant. benevolent, friendly, cooperative, jovial
The baleful attitude shown towards the natives by the Europeans ultimately climaxed in their decimation.
BALLAD
BALLAD Noun
a song accompanying a dance, a narrative composition in verse to suit the rhythm of a dance
Syn. folk song, canzone, tale, saga
(Root : French balade = song to dance to)
The valour of Laxmibai is beautifully described in the ballads of Bundelkhand.
BANAL
BANAL Adjective
overused and hence lost all originality, trite
Syn. clichéd, hackneyed, hoary, overdone,
run-of-the-mill, worn out, tired
Ant. original, uncommon, novel, new,
fresh
The banal logic that globalization benefits
everyone met its nemesis in Brexit and
Trump. Or did it?
BANDANA
BANDANA Noun
a large coloured spotted handkerchief often used as a
neckerchief
(Root : from Hindi and then Portuguese)
You can spot gypsies wearing bandanas on the beaches of Goa.
BANE
BANE Noun (BANEFUL Adjective)
source of bad luck or harm, cause of ruin
Syn. scourge, curse, pestilence,
disease, affliction, destruction, death, source of evil, curse
Ant. boon, benefit, advantage
Sloth and corruption are the bane of Indian administration, just like prolixity is of the Indian judiciary.
BANTER
BANTER Verb, Noun
to tease playfully and in good humour;
Syn. gossipry, small-talk, chit-chat
Ant. debate, deliberation
Gandhi’s banter with Charlie is a cherished page of history.
He was surprised to see the violent reaction of his friend on his banter.
HOLOCAUST
destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war.
“a nuclear holocaust”
synonyms: cataclysm, disaster, catastrophe, destruction, devastation, demolition, annihilation, ravaging;
the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime during the period 1941–5. More than 6 million European Jews, as well as members of other persecuted groups, were murdered at concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
noun: the Holocaust
2.
HISTORICAL
a Jewish sacrificial offering which was burnt completely on an altar.
MUSHROOM CLOUD
a mushroom-shaped cloud of dust and debris formed after a nuclear explosion.
ANNIHILATION
complete destruction or obliteration. “the threat of global annihilation” total defeat.” a show of independence is its only hope of avoiding annihilation in next year’s elections”
2.
PHYSICS
the conversion of matter into energy, especially the mutual conversion of a particle and an antiparticle into electromagnetic radiation.
DISARMAMENT
the reduction or withdrawal of military forces and weapons.
In the decades that followed, both the US and the USSR kept piling nuclear arsenals. But by 1980s, it was clear that the stupidity of that race was also potentially destructive. Hence, disarmament started. But, not all nuclear weapons were decommissioned. Many remained deployed.
Polygraph
a machine designed to detect and record changes in physiological characteristics, such as a person’s pulse and breathing rates, used especially as a lie detector.
“Soon, a polygraph to spot liars on FB, Tinder” Scientists are developing an online polygraph that could spot liars from the words they write on internet dating profiles, Facebook messages or Twitter posts. It is tricky enough to identify a lie in face-to-face conversations that offer facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice because those physical cues add context.
