Random Flashcards
Arbitrary (adj)
- Based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice • an arbitrary choice
- (technical) having any value or form, of any degree or extent • an arbitrary function
Piquant (adj)
- Having an agreeably pungent taste
= savoury, spicy, zesty - Engagingly stimulating or provocative • a piquant wit
= salty - Attracting or delighting • a piquant face with large appealing eyes
= engaging
Sobriquet (n)
A familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person’s given name) • Joe’s mother would not use his sobriquet and always called him Joseph
= byname, cognomen, monicker, moniker, nickname, soubriquet
Denote (v)
- Be a sign or indication of • Her smile denoted that she agreed
~ denominate, designate - Have as a meaning • ‘multi-‘ denotes ‘many’
= refer
⇒ apply - Make known; make an announcement • She denoted her feelings clearly
= announce
Phosphorescent (adj)
Emitting light without appreciable heat as by slow oxidation of phosphorous • the phosphorescent glow of decaying wood
≈ light
Predispose (v)
Make susceptible • This illness predisposes you to gain weight
~ dispose, incline
Corpulent (adj)
Excessively fat • a corpulent man
= lardy, obese, rotund, weighty
Florid (adj)
- Elaborately or excessively ornamented • the senator’s florid speech
= aureate, flamboyant
≈ fancy - Inclined to a healthy reddish colour often associated with outdoor life • Santa’s florid cheeks
= rubicund, ruddy, sanguine
≈ healthy
Avow (v)
- To declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true • Before God I avow I am innocent
= affirm, assert, aver, swan, swear, verify - Admit openly and bluntly; make no bones about
= avouch
Archaic (adj)
- So extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period • archaic laws
= antediluvian, antiquated - Little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type • archaic forms of life
= primitive
Highfalutin (adj)
Affectedly genteel, marked by refinement in taste and manners • It might be a bit of an artsy lifestyle, but it’s not highfalutin
= grandiose, la-de-da
Proponent (n)
A person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea
=advocate, advocator
Expounds (v)
To state • to expound one’s reasons
Nebuchadnezzar (n)
A very large wine bottle holding the equivalent of 20 normal bottles of wine; used especially for display.
Incredulous (adj)
Not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving • the movie’s unlikely happy ending came to pass as the result of an incredulous series of lucky accidents
Indolent (adj)
Lazy
Putrefaction (v)
To rot
Precocious (adj)
Characterized by/characteristic of exceptionally early development or maturity (especially in mental aptitude) • a precocious child • a precocious achievement
Forage (n)
- Bulky food like grass or hay for grazing horses
2. The act of searching for food and provisions
Spur (n)
Anything that inspires, motivates or drives you to do something
=prod, prodding, goad, goading
Sundry (adj)
Miscellaneous • sundry sciences commonly known as social
Scope (v)
To evaluate, measure
Haste (n)
- Precipitation • he soon regretted his haste
- Hurry • in his haste he forgot his book
3, a condition of urgency making it necessary to move/act fast; hurry
Seminary (n)
- A private school of education for the young
2. A theological school for training ministers, priests or rabbis; a religious school
Oblique (adj)
- Slanting or inclined in direction or course or position - neither parallel nor perpendicular nor right-angled • acute and obtuse angles are oblique angles
- Indirect in departing from the accepted or proper way; misleading • gave oblique answers to direct questions; devious;
Momentum (n)
- Impulse • the car’s momentum carried it off the road
- the product of a body’s mass and its velocity
- enough activity to e=keep going; capacity for further growth • the campaign is gaining momentum
=steam
Tumult (n)
- A state of commotion, noise, and confusion; uproar;
- violent agitation, turmoil
- the act of making a noisy disturbance; a commotion;
Deployment (n)
- The distribution of forces in preparation for battle or work;
Agitate (v)
- try to stir up public opinion
- cause to be agitated, excited, or roused; charge up;
- be an advocate for; • she is agitating for women’s rights
- move very slightly • he agitated in his seat; to budge
- to shake
6, to disturb, to vex;
Tranquilly (adv)
Without emotional agitation • tranquilly she went on with her work
Vicissitude (n)
- A variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something • the project was subject to usual vicissitudes of exploratory research
- Mutability in life or nature