List 30 Flashcards
mawkish
mawkishADJ. /过分多愁善感；感情脆弱到令人作呕的/mushy and gushy; icky-sticky sentimental; maudlin. Whenever Gigi and her boyfriend would sigh and get all lovey-dovey, her little brother would shout, “Yuck!” protesting their mawkish behavior.
maxim
maximN. /至理名言；格言/proverb; a truth pithily stated. Aesop’s fables illustrate moral maxims.
meager
meagerADJ. /瘦的；贫乏的，不足的/scanty; inadequate. Still hungry after his meager serving of porridge, Oliver Twist asked for a second helping.
meander
meanderV. /弯曲；蜿蜒/wind or turn in its course. Needing to stay close to a source of water, he followed every twist and turn of the stream as it meandered through the countryside.
meddlesome
meddlesomeADJ. /爱管闲事的；好事的；好插手的/interfering. He felt his marriage was suffering because of his meddlesome mother-in-law.
medley
medleyN. /混合/mixture. To avoid boring dancers by playing any one tune for too long, bands may combine three or four tunes into a medley.
meek
meekADJ. /谦卑的，驯服的；温和的；顺从的/quiet and obedient; spiritless. Can Lois Lane see through Superman’s disguise and spot the superhero hiding behind the guise of meek, timorous Clark Kent? Mr. Barrett never expected his meek daughter would dare to defy him by eloping with her suitor.
mellifluous
mellifluousADJ. /优美的；流畅的；蜜一样的/sweetly or smoothly flowing; melodious. Italian is a mellifluous language, especially suited to being sung.
memento
mementoN. /有象征意义的物品；纪念品/token; reminder. Take this book as a memento of your visit.
menagerie
menagerieN. /动物园/collection of wild animals. Whenever the children run wild around the house, Mom shouts, “Calm down! I’m not running a menagerie!”
mendacious
mendaciousADJ. /撒谎成性的；撒谎的，假的/lying; habitually dishonest. Distrusting Huck from the start, Miss Watson assumed he was mendacious and refused to believe a word he said.
mendicant
mendicantN. /乞丐/beggar. “O noble sir, give alms to the poor,” cried Aladdin, playing the mendicant.
menial
menialADJ. /仆人的；卑贱的/suitable for servants; lowly; mean. Her wicked stepmother forced Cinderella to do menial tasks around the house while her ugly stepsisters lolled around painting their toenails.
mentor
mentorN. /门特；顾问；导师/teacher. During this very trying period, she could not have had a better mentor, for the teacher was sympathetic and understanding.
mercenary
mercenaryADJ. /唯利是图/interested in money or gain. Andy’s every act was prompted by mercenary motives: his first question was always “What’s in it for me?”
mercurial
mercurialADJ. /善变的；无常的/capricious; changing; fickle. Quick as quicksilver to change, he was mercurial in nature and therefore unreliable.
merger
mergerN. /合并；吞并/combination (of two business corporations). When the firm’s president married the director of financial planning, the office joke was that it wasn’t a marriage, it was a merger.
mesmerize
mesmerizeV. /施催眠术/hypnotize. The incessant drone seemed to mesmerize him and place him in a trance.
metallurgical
metallurgicalADJ. /冶金的/pertaining to the art of removing metals from ores. During the course of his metallurgical research, the scientist developed a steel alloy of tremendous strength.
metamorphosis
metamorphosisN. /变形/change of form; major transformation. The metamorphosis of caterpillar to butterfly is typical of many such changes in animal life. metamorphose,V.
metaphysical
metaphysicalADJ. /形而上学的/pertaining to speculative philosophy. The modern poets have gone back to the fanciful poems of the metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century for many of their images. metaphysics, N.
meticulous
meticulousADJ. /小心翼翼的/excessively careful; painstaking; scrupulous. Martha Stewart was a meticulous housekeeper, fussing about each and every detail that went into making up her perfect home.
mettle
mettleN. /勇气；精神/courage; spirit. When challenged by the other horses in the race, the thoroughbred proved its mettle by its determination to hold the lead.
miasma
miasma N. /沼气；瘴气，毒气；天然气/swamp gas; heavy, vaporous atmosphere, often emanating from decaying matter; pervasive corrupting influence. The smog hung over Victorian London like a dark cloud; noisome, reeking of decay, it was a visible miasma.
mimicry
mimicryN. /模仿/imitation. Her gift for mimicry was so great that her friends said that she should be in the theater.
mincing
mincingADJ. /装腔作势的/affectedly dainty. Yum-Yum walked across the stage with mincing steps.
minuscule
minusculeADJ. /极小的/extremely small. Why should I involve myself with a project with so minuscule a chance for success?
minutiae
minutiaeN. /细节；细微之处/petty details. She would have liked to ignore the minutiae of daily living.
mirage
mirage N. /曲解；海市蜃楼；虚影 /unreal reflection; optical illusion. The lost prospector was fooled by a mirage in the desert.
mire
mireV. /陷入（泥塘）；麻烦缠身/entangle; stick in swampy ground. Their rear wheels became mired in mud. also N.
mirth
mirthN. /欢笑/merriment; laughter. Sober Malvolio found Sir Toby’s mirth improper.
misanthrope
misanthropeN. /厌恶人类的人；憎人者/one who hates mankind. In Gulliver’s Travels, Swift portrays an image of humanity as vile, degraded beasts; for this reason, various critics consider him a misanthrope.
miscellany
miscellanyN. /杂记/mixture of writings on various subjects. This is an interesting miscellany of nineteenth-century prose and poetry.
mischance
mischanceN. /霉运；不幸/ill luck. By mischance, he lost his week’s salary.
misconstrue
misconstrueV. /曲解/interpret incorrectly; misjudge. She took the passage seriously rather than humorously because she misconstrued the author’s ironic tone.
misdemeanor
misdemeanorN. /轻罪/minor crime. The culprit pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor rather than face trial for a felony.
miserly
miserlyADJ. /吝啬的；贪婪的；坏的/stingy; mean. Transformed by his vision on Christmas Eve, mean old Scrooge ceased being miserly and became a generous, kind old man.
misgivings
misgivingsN. /担忧，疑虑/doubts. Hamlet described his misgivings to Horatio but decided to fence with Laertes despite his foreboding of evil.
mishap
mishapN. /意外，灾难/accident. With a little care you could have avoided this mishap.
misnomer
misnomer N. /错误的名字；写错名字；用词不当/wrong name; incorrect designation. His tyrannical conduct proved to all that his nickname, King Eric the Just, was a misnomer.
misrepresent
misrepresentV. /误传；有意制造误解/give a false or incorrect impression, often deliberately; serve unsatisfactorily as a representative. In his job application, Milton misrepresented his academic background; he was fired when his employers discovered the truth. The reformers accused Senator Gunbucks of misrepresenting his constituents and claimed he took bribes from the NRA.
