Lesson 20

Question 1

nebulous (adjective)

Answer 1

Syn: unclear; vague

• Because the contract offer was a nebulous one, the union leaders balked at it.

Question 2

reviled (adjective)

Answer 2

Syn: scolded; blame

• Ezra Pound, the expatriate poet, was reviled for his pro-Fascist remarks.

Question 3

indict (verb)

Answer 3

Syn: accuse; charge

• When the grand jury refused to indict him, the mobster was exonerated.

Question 4

pesky (adjective)

Answer 4

Syn: annoying; boring; teasing

• Every time his accountant called with pesky pecuniary problems, Ben was very blunt with him.

Question 5

derogatory (adjective)

Answer 5

Syn: belittling; disparaging

• The columnist was ordered to recant her derogatory statements.

Question 6

left holding the bag (idiom)

Answer 6

Syn: to be left to suffer the blame

• The profligate businessman left his distraught partner holding the bag.

Question 7

repose (noun)

Answer 7

Syn: state of rest; relaxation

• While the palace guards were in repose, the rebels’ coup began in earnest.

Question 8

abstemious (adjective)

Answer 8

Syn: moderate in eating or drinking; frugal

• Coach Fischer issued a fiat that required that his players be abstemious.

Question 9

redolent (adjective)

Answer 9

Syn: fragrant; balmy; perfumed

• The redolent scent that came from the bakery created in Eloise a sense of nostalgia for her grandmother’s bread.

Question 10

omnivorous (adjective)

Answer 10

Syn: eating any kind of food

• Omnivorous eaters find the dietary laws in some hotels to be too restrictive.

Question 11

disparate (adjective)

Answer 11

Syn: different; diverse; numerous

• Regardless of how disparate their crimes were, all the prisoners were freed by the general amnesty.

Question 12

a lick and a promise (idiom)

Answer 12

Syn: to do something in a hasty and superficial manner

• The meticulous housewife was in so much of a hurry that she could only give the apartment a lick and a promise.

Question 13

extant (adjective)

Answer 13

Syn: still existing; lasting

• Hundreds of extant copies of Shakespeare’s signature came from the same prolific forger.

Question 14

vicissitudes (noun)

Answer 14

Syn: difficulties; trouble; hardship

• The vicissitudes of life in the Medical Corps are not for the squeamish.

Question 15

edifice (noun)

Answer 15

Syn: a building; castle

• We originally planned on a skyscraper but had to settle for a truncated edifice.

Question 16

sultry (adjective)

Answer 16

Syn: extremely hot and moist; torrid; humid

• When he learned that the movie was to be replete with sultry scenes, the cautious banker refused to underwrite its cost.

Question 17

trenchant (adjective) -

Answer 17

Syn: keen; incisive; clear; sharp

General Fox submitted a trenchant report on the enemy’s latent strength.

Question 18

tongue in cheek (idiom)

Answer 18

Syn: insincerely

• Speaking with his tongue in his cheek, the parsimonious employer promised to double everyone’s wages.

Question 19

lugubrious (adjective)

Answer 19

Syn: very sad; depressed; mournful

• She advocated lugubrious music as appropriate background for the funeral scene.

Question 20

puissant (adjective)

Answer 20

Syn: powerful; dominant; forceful

• Although the debater’s rebuttal was puissant, it was totally irrelevant.

Question 21

unabated (adjective)

Answer 21

Syn: without subsiding; ceaseless; endless

• The plague continued unabated, and the hapless Friar John was unable to deliver the note to Romeo.

Question 22

maudlin (adjective)

Answer 22

Syn: sentimental; emotional

• A good barometer of the reunion’s success was the number of maudlin songs that the alumni sang.

Question 23

levity (noun)

Answer 23

Syn: lightness of disposition; silliness

• Dean Flanigan admonished us for our levity at the graduation exercises.

Question 24

to take the wind out of one’s sails (idiom)

Answer 24

Syn: to remove someone’s advantage

• Although Edna was bristling with anger when she stormed in, I took the wind out of her sails by voicing my own displeasure at the way she had been treated.