List 43 Flashcards
sequester
sequesterV. /隐退；隔离/isolate; retire from public life; segregate; seclude. Banished from his kingdom, the wizard Prospero sequestered himself on a desert island. To prevent the jurors from hearing news broadcasts about the case, the judge decided to sequester the jury.
serendipity
serendipityN. /有发现意外之财的运气/gift for finding valuable or desirable things by accident; accidental good fortune or luck. Many scientific discoveries are a matter of serendipity. Newton was not sitting under a tree thinking about gravity when the apple dropped on his head.
serenity
N. /平静/calmness; placidity. The sound of air raid sirens pierced the serenity of the quiet village of Pearl Harbor
serpentine
ADJ. winding; twisting. The car swerved at every curve in the serpentine road.
serrated
serratedADJ. /锯齿状的/having a sawtoothed edge. The beech tree is one of many plants that have serrated leaves.
servile
servileADJ. /奴隶的；奴性的/slavish; cringing. Constantly fawning on his employer, humble Uriah Heap was a servile creature.
servitude
servitudeN. /奴隶身份；苦工/slavery; compulsory labor. Born a slave, Frederick Douglass resented his life of servitude and plotted to escape to the North.
sever
severV. /切断/cut; separate. The released prisoner wanted to begin a new life and sever all connections with his criminal past. Dr. Guillotin invented a machine that could neatly sever an aristocratic head from its equally aristocratic body. Unfortunately, he couldn’t collect any severance pay. severance, N.
shackle
shackleV. /手铐；枷锁；脚镣/chain; fetter. The criminal’s ankles were shackled to prevent his escape. also N.
sham
shamV. /佯装；假的；赝品/pretend. He shammed sickness to get out of going to school. also N.
shambles
shamblesN. /混乱的地方；肉铺/wreck; mess. After the hurricane, the Carolina coast was a shambles. After the New Year’s Eve party, the apartment was a shambles.
shard
shardN. /碎片（陶瓷的）/fragment, generally of pottery. The archaeologist assigned several students the task of reassembling earthenware vessels from the shards he had brought back from the expedition.
sheaf
sheafN. /捆；扎（秸秆）/bundle of stalks of grain; any bundle of things tied together. The lawyer picked up a sheaf of papers as he rose to question the witness.
shear
shearV. /剪；修剪/cut or clip (hair, fleece); strip of something. You may not care to cut a sheep’s hair, but Sarah shears sheep for Little Bo Peep.
sheathe
sheatheV. /插入鞘/place into a case. As soon as he recognized the approaching men, he sheathed his dagger and hailed them as friends.
shimmer
shimmerV. /微光/glimmer intermittently. The moonlight shimmered on the water as the moon broke through the clouds for a moment. also N.
shirk
shirkV. /逃避，推卸；避免/avoid (responsibility, work, etc.); malinger. Brian has a strong sense of duty; he would never shirk any responsibility.
shoddy
shoddyADJ. /以次充好的；赝品/sham; not genuine; inferior. You will never get the public to buy such shoddy material.
shun
shunV. /避免/keep away from. Cherishing his solitude, the recluse shunned the company of other human beings.
shyster
shyster N. /讼棍；政界的奸诈之徒/lawyer using questionable methods. On L.A. Law, Brackman is horrified to learn that his newly-discovered half brother is nothing but a cheap shyster.
simian
simianADJ. /像猴的/monkeylike. Lemurs are nocturnal mammals and have many simian characteristics, although they are less intelligent than monkeys.
simile
simileN. /明喻；比较/comparison of one thing with another, using the word like or as. “My love is like a red, red rose” is a simile.
sinecure
sinecure N. /闲职，报纸茶水的工作/well-paid position with little responsibility. My job is no sinecure; I work long hours and have much responsibility.
sinewy
sinewy ADJ. /结实；硬朗的/tough; strong and firm. The steak was too sinewy to chew.
sinuous
sinuousADJ. /蜿蜒的；弯曲复杂的；不老实的/winding; bending in and out; not morally honest. The snake moved in a sinuous manner.
skiff
skiff N. /小船/small, light sailboat or rowboat. Tom dreamed of owning an ocean-going yacht but had to settle for a skiff he could sail in the bay.
skimp
skimpV. /节约的使用/provide scantily; live very economically. They were forced to skimp on necessities in order to make their limited supplies last the winter.
skinflint
skinflintN. /守财奴；吝啬鬼/stingy person; miser. Scrooge was an ungenerous old skinflint until he reformed his ways and became a notable philanthropist.
skirmish
skirmishN. /小规模战争；小打小闹/minor fight. Custer’s troops expected they might run into a skirmish or two on maneuvers; they did not expect to face a major battle. alsoV.
skulk
skulkV. /偷懒；偷偷的移动/move furtively and secretly. He skulked through the less fashionable sections of the city in order to avoid meeting any of his former friends.
slacken
slackenV. /放松；放慢/slow up; loosen. As they passed the finish line, the runners slackened their pace.
slag
slagN. /矿渣；炉渣；渣滓/residue from smelting metal; dross; waste matter. The blast furnace had a special opening at the bottom to allow the workers to remove the worthless slag.
slake
slakeV. /结束；平息；消除；伺候舒服/quench; sate. When we reached the oasis, we were able to slake our thirst.
slapdashADJ. /匆促的/haphazard; careless; sloppy. From the number of typos and misspellings I’ve found in it, it’s clear that Mario proofread the report in a remarkably slapdash fashion.
slapdash
sleight
sleight N. /灵巧的/dexterity. The magician amazed the audience with his sleight of hand.
slipshod
slipshodADJ. /邋遢的；慢吞吞的；漫不经心的/untidy or slovenly; shabby. As a master craftsman, the carpenter prided himself on not doing slipshod work.
slither
slitherV. /滑动/slip or slide. During the recent ice storm, many people slithered down this hill as they walked to the station.
slothful
slothfulADJ. /懒的/lazy. Lying idly on the sofa while others worked, Reggie denied he was slothful: “I just supervise better lying down.”
slough
sloughV. /脱落；蜕皮/cast off. Each spring, the snake sloughs off its skin.
slovenly
slovenlyADJ. /邋遢的；漫不经心的/untidy; careless in work habits. Unshaven, sitting around in his bathrobe all afternoon, Gus didn’t seem to care about the slovenly appearance he presented. The dark ring around the bathtub and the spider webs hanging from the beams proved what a slovenly housekeeper she was.
sluggard
sluggardN. /懒人/lazy person. “You are a sluggard, a drone, a parasite,” the angry father shouted at his lazy son.
sluggish
sluggishADJ. /行动迟缓的/Slow; lazy; lethargic. After two nights without sleep, she felt sluggish and incapable of exertion.
slur
slurV. /模糊不清的说/speak indistinctly; mumble. When Sol has too much to drink, he starts to slur his words: “Washamatter? Cansh you undershtand what I shay?”
slur
谤；侮辱/insult to one’s character or reputation; slander. Polls revealed that the front-runner’s standing had been badly damaged by the slurs and innuendoes circulated by his opponent’s staff. alsoV. (secondary meaning)
smolder
smolderV. /闷烧；随时准备爆发/burn without flame; be liable to break out at any moment. The rags smoldered for hours before they burst into flame.
snicker
snickerN. /窃笑/half-stifled laugh. The boy could not suppress a snicker when the teacher sat on the tack. alsoV.
snivel
snivelV. /流鼻涕；啜泣；鼻子一把泪一把/run at the nose; snuffle; whine. Don’t you come sniveling to me complaining about your big brother. sobriety N. moderation (especially regarding indulgence in alcohol); seriousness. Neither falling-down drunks nor stand-up comics are noted for sobriety. sober,ADJ.
sodden
soddenADJ. /湿透的/soaked; dull, as if from drink. He set his sodden overcoat near the radiator to dry.
sojourn
sojournN. /逗留/temporary stay. After his sojourn in Florida, he began to long for the colder climate of his native New England home.
solace
solaceN. /安慰/comfort in trouble. I hope you will find solace in the thought that all of us share your loss.
solder
solderV. /焊接/repair or make whole by using a metal alloy. The plumber fixed the leak in the pipes by soldering a couple of joints from which water had been oozing.
solecism
solecismN. /语法错误；谬误/construction that is flagrantly incorrect grammatically. I must give this paper a failing mark because it contains many solecisms.
solemnity
solemnityN. /严肃的；一本正经的/seriousness; gravity. The minister was concerned that nothing should disturb the solemnity of the marriage service. solemn,ADJ.
solicit
solicitV. /恳求/request earnestly; seek. Knowing she needed to have a solid majority for the budget to pass, the mayor telephoned all the members of the city council to solicit their votes.
solicitous
solicitousADJ. /担心的；关切的；期望的/worried; concerned. The employer was very solicitous about the health of her employees as replacements were difficult to get.
soliloquy
soliloquyN. /自言自语；独白/talking to oneself. The soliloquy is a device used by the dramatist to reveal a character’s innermost thoughts and emotions.
