Lesson 5 Flashcards
Rampant (adj.)
Syn: widespread; going unchecked
- When the plague was rampant on this island, Dr. smith’s wife died.
Clandestine (adj.)
Syn: secret; undercover
- The spies thought their meeting was a clandestine one, but a throng of F.B.I agents gathered outside the building.
Ethics (n.)
Syn: code of principles; morality
- A special management committee was asked to investigate business ethics.
Inane (adj.)
Syn: foolish; stupid; silly
- Oliver wright was criticized for his inane desire to fly.
Concur (vi.)
Syn: agree; approve
- If I can get my parents to concur, I’ll join the peace corps.
Stock in trade (idiom)
The necessary equipment
- A quick wit and a warm smile were the salesmen’s stock in trade.
Culprit (n.)
Syn: The guilty person; criminal
- The culprit was caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.
Inexorable (adj.)
Syn: inflexible; unrelenting
- Television sleuths are inexorable in their pursuit of lawbreakers.
Duress (n.)
Syn: compulsion; force
- The confession was signed under duress, the attorney claimed.
Admonish (vt.)
Syn: to warm; to reprove; blame
- I suspect that my father will admonish me for coming home late.
Flagrant (adj.)
Syn: outrageous; glaringly bad; bad
- Parking in front of a hydrant is a flagrant violation of the city’s law.
To take down a peg (idiom)
To humiliate
- The alumni thought they had a great team, but our varsity take them down a peg.
Egregious (adj.)
Syn: remarkably bad
- The bank teller’s egregious error was difficult to correct.
Acrimonious (adj.)
Syn: bitter; sharp
- We tried to ignore her acrimonious comments, but that took considerable restraint.
Duplicity (n.)
Syn: cunning; trickery
- Duplicity is the stock in trade of all adroit counterspies
Paucity (n.)
Syn: scarcity; lack
- Although it was a creative writing class, the teacher complained about the paucity of talent there.
Distraught (adj.)
Syn: mentally confused; crazed; mad
- The soldiers were distraught to learn that their furloughs had been cancelled.
To pass the buck (idiom)
To refuse to take responsibility
- He always gives me a straight answer and never tries to pass the buck
Impunity (n.)
Syn: freedom from punishment; exemption
- The border guards allowed the doctor to cross the frontier with impunity.
Elicit (vt.)
Syn: to draw forth; extract
- It isn’t easy to elicit answers from a sleepy class on Monday morning.
Tolerate (vt.)
Syn: to put up with; to bear
- Dentists appreciate patients who can tolerate pain.
Construe (vt.) (vi.)
Syn: to make a deduction; to infer
- She hoped that we would not construed her decision to …
Pernicious (adj.)
Syn: harmful; injuries
- The dictator’s pernicious rules failed to intimidate the leaders of the underground.
To lionize a person (idiom)
To idolize
- He was lionized whenever he lectured.
