May 29th Flashcards
facetious
If someone is being facetious they’re being playful with an edge. A knock-knock joke isn’t facetious, but if you call it the most advanced form of comedy, you’re probably being facetious.
joking (often inappropriately); humorous.She was a facetious person, intending to be amusing
fatuous
Fatuous means lacking intelligence. When your mother outlaws calling your brother stupid, use fatuous instead.
brainless; inane; foolish, yet smug.This is going to sound completely fatuous, but it’s my honest answer.
gainsay
Gainsay, a verb, means “contradict” or “speak out against.” When you challenge authority, you gainsay, as in teachers don’t like it when unruly students gainsay them.
deny.Yet must he not gainsay the gods ‘ behest
indigence
Indigence is a synonym for extreme poverty. If you experience indigence, you have a critical need for food, money, and other resources.
poverty.”he did valuable work towards the relief of indigence”
indolent
indolent is an adjective meaning slow or lazy. It can take an indolent teenager hours to get out of bed on a weekend morning. Often it’s noon before he finally comes shuffling down to breakfast in his pajamas.
lazy.
intransigence
If you refuse to compromise with your sister about whose turn it is to do the dishes, your mother might accuse you both of intransigence. Intransigence is a stubborn refusal to change your views.
refusal of any compromise; stubbornness.No agreement can ever be reached when both parties are intransignent
lassitude
languor
If you are feeling lassitude, you’re weary and just can’t be bothered. Couch potatoes make lassitude into an art form.
neophyte
A neophyte is someone who’s brand new at something. You’re a neophyte the first time you pick up a guitar and start learning to play.
recent convert; beginner
obdurate
Obdurate is a formal word meaning stubborn. If you want to major in English, but your parents are obdurate that you should go premed, they might go so far as to threaten not to pay your tuition.
stubborn.I argued this point with him, but he was obdurate
penury
Penury means extreme poverty to the point of homelessness and begging in the streets. Economic downturns, job loss, shopping sprees, and weekends at the high rollers’ table in Vegas can lead to penury.
severe poverty;
prevaricate
When you prevaricate, you lie or mislead. Now, go ahead and tell me whether you already knew that meaning, and don’t prevaricate about it — give me the story straight!
lie
propitiate
If you forgot flowers on your Mom’s birthday, you can still propitiate her by sending a bouquet the next day. Propitiate means to appease someone or make them happy by doing a particular thing. Handy strategy for lovers, too.
appease.
proscribe
To proscribe something is to forbid or prohibit it, as a school principal might proscribe the use of cell phones in class.
ostracize; banish; outlaw.Adultery is proscribed in most countries.
quiescent
The adjective quiescent means “being quiet and still,” like the quiescent moments lying in a hammock on a beautiful summer Sunday.
at rest;
recalcitrant
refractory
If someone is so pig-headed that he won’t budge on an issue, call him recalcitrant. Not that it will make a difference…
obstinately stubborn; determined to resist authority; unruly
reprobate
There’s no way around it, a reprobate is a bad egg. The black sheep of the family, missing a moral compass — a reprobate’s been called everything from a deviant to an evildoer to a scoundrel.
person hardened by sin, devoid of a sense of decency
repudiate
To repudiate something is to reject it, or to refuse to accept or support it. If you grow up religious, but repudiate all organized religion as an adult, you might start spending holidays at the movies, or just going to work.
disown; disavow
solicitous
When you hear the word solicitous, think of your mom — attentive, caring, and concerned. It’s nice when your waiter gives you good service, but if he or she is solicitous, the hovering might annoy you.
