Round 9 - Vocab.com top 1000

Question 1

stricture

Answer 1

severe criticism or sharp contraction; either means intense pain for the person experiencing the stricture

Question 2

emblazon

Answer 2

inscribe conspicuously; decorate with heraldic arms

Question 3

augury

Answer 3

sign of what’s to come; an event that is experienced as indicating important things to come; usually bad

“augurs well for the future” suggests good, but more often than not, it seems, an augury is a sign that the future will be none too rosy

Question 4

abut

Answer 4

lie adjacent to another or share a boundary; border something

Question 5

banal

Answer 5

repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse

Question 6

sublimate

Answer 6

direct energy or urges into useful activities; to divert the energy of (a sexual or other biological impulse) from its immediate goal to one of a more acceptable social, moral, or aesthetic nature or use

to make nobler/purer; refine or purify

Question 7

eugenic

Answer 7

pertaining to or causing improvement in the offspring produced

ie Nazi’s eugenic plans or eugenics to select hair or eye color

Question 8

lineament

Answer 8

the characteristic parts of a person’s face: eyes and nose and mouth and chin

Question 9

firebrand

Answer 9

someone who deliberately foments trouble; passionately devoted to a cause or idea; known for pushing buttons and stirring up passions

Question 10

foolhardy

Answer 10

defiant disregard for danger or consequences

Question 11

retrench

Answer 11

tighten one’s belt; use resources carefully and tighten budget

Question 12

equable

Answer 12

not varying; steady/not easily irritated

Question 13

inured

Answer 13

made tough by habitual exposure; become tolerant/accustomed by habituation

Question 14

invidious

Answer 14

containing or implying a slight or showing prejudice; something that’s resentful, discriminatory or envious

“Fred was angered by the invidious gossip about his divorce being spread by his ex-wife’s allies.”

Question 15

concomitant

Answer 15

accompanying; an event or situation that happens at the same time as or in connection with another

“If you run into someone that you have a crush on you might feel nervousness with a concomitant forgetfulness.”

Question 16

cozen

Answer 16

mislead; trick; defraud; cheat or fool through lies

if you say you had two wrong answers on your math test, but you really had a dozen, you might be trying to cozen your parents.

Question 17

phlegmatic

Answer 17

showing little emotion; dull

Question 18

disport

Answer 18

occupy in an agreeable, entertaining or pleasant fashion; to play in a carefree way or to amuse yourself in a lighthearted fashion.

Question 19

apologist

Answer 19

a person who argues to defend or justify some unpopular policy or institution

Question 20

abeyance

Answer 20

temporary inactivity, cessation or suspension:
Let’s hold that problem in abeyance for a while.

Law. a state or condition of real property in which title is not as yet vested in a known titleholder: an estate in abeyance.

Question 21

enclave

Answer 21

an enclosed territory that is culturally distinct from the foreign territory that surrounds it

Question 22

improvident

Answer 22

not provident; not providing for the future; doesn’t worry about the future — or plan wisely for it

Question 23

disquisition

Answer 23

an elaborate analytical or explanatory essay or discussion

Question 24

categorical

Answer 24

absolute; unqualified; unconditional; not modified or restricted by reservations

Question 25

redolent

Answer 25

“stinks of” like something reeks of malpractice
serving to bring to mind; makes you think of that thing by making a pretty strong impression on you. “He had a shifty eye redolent of years of lying and petty crime.”

Question 26

felicitous

Answer 26

really pleasant; exhibiting an agreeably appropriate manner or style

Question 27

buxom

Answer 27

(of a female body) healthily plump and vigorous

Question 28

herculean

Answer 28

displaying superhuman strength or power

Question 29

burgeon v.

Answer 29

grow and flourish

If you have a green thumb, in the spring your flower gardens will burgeon in a cacophony of color.

Question 30

crone

Answer 30

an ugly evil-looking old woman

Question 31

prognosticate

Answer 31

make a prediction about; tell in advance

When a lot of natural disasters start happening close together, you might prognosticate that the world is ending, a prediction that’s actually thousands of years old.

Question 32

lout

Answer 32

an awkward stupid person; bumbling, annoying and pitiful

Question 33

simper

Answer 33

smile affectedly or derisively

To simper means to smile in an artificial, coy or self-conscious way. If you hope to please someone by simpering, you may wind up annoying him or her.

Question 34

derisive/derision

Answer 34

contemptuous and mocking; ridicule/mockery

Question 35

iniquitous

Answer 35

characterized by iniquity; wicked because it is believed to be a sin

Question 36

sentient

Answer 36

conscious; endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness; able to feel or sense things

sentient beings

Question 37

garish

Answer 37

gaudy; ostentatious; tacky; chintzy; tawdry

Question 38

raffish

Answer 38

mildly or sometimes engagingly disreputable or nonconformist; rakish

gaudily vulgar or cheap; tawdry; flashy; vulgar

careless or unconventional in dress, manners,

Question 39

rakish

Answer 39

smart; jaunty; dashing; dapper; debonair

dissolute; profligate

Question 40

profligate

Answer 40

utterly and shamelessly immoral or dissipated; thoroughly dissolute.

recklessly prodigal or extravagant.

Question 41

chintzy

Answer 41

cheap, inferior, or gaudy.

stingy; miserly:
“a chintzy way to entertain guests.”

Question 42

erstwhile

adj.

Answer 42

former; belonging to some prior time

If your dad used to play in a punk band, but is now a computer programmer, you could call him an erstwhile punk rocker.

Question 43

aquiline

Answer 43

(of the nose) shaped like an eagle’s beak; hooked

Question 44

bilious

Answer 44

irritable as if suffering from indigestion; looking a sickly green shade

Question 45

vilify

Answer 45

spread negative information about; gossip nastily

Question 46

nuance

Answer 46

a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude, color or tone

ex. Now, he stops frequently to take in every nuance, even in practice rounds.

One day a misunderstood writer encounters someone who appreciates every nuance of what he writes.

Question 47

refectory

Answer 47

a communal dining-hall (usually in a monastery)

Question 48

palatial

Answer 48

suitable for or like a palace; magnificent, reminiscent of a home fit for a king

Question 49

mincing

Answer 49

unnaturally/affectedly dainty or refined; an adjective that describes someone who is being especially dainty or refined in an odd way

Question 50

trenchant

adj.

Answer 50

having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought, expression, or intellect

If you’re trenchant, it means you think or say smart, sharply worded things that cut right to the heart of the matter. A trenchant observation is one that makes people scratch their chins thoughtfully, or wince with embarrassment for whomever you’re talking about, or both.