S's Flashcards
Sanction
Permission or approval, or to give permission or approval. Alternatively, a legal action by one or more countries against another country to get it to comply (or the act of placing those sanctions on another country). Whoa! Yes, that’s right - sanction can mean two different things that are basically opposites. Use context to figure it out - if it’s plural (sanctions), it’s definitely the negative meaning.
Professional boxers may only fight in sanctioned matches - fighting outside the ring is prohibited.
Canada’s sanction on North Korea man that it is illegal for Canadians to do business with North Korean companies.
Satire
Literary device in which foolishness or badness is attacked through humor, irony, or making fun of something or someone.
Save
But or except. As a verb, save means keep safe, store up, set aside. As a preposition or conjunction, though, save can be used as follows:
All of the divisions of the company are profitable save the movie-rental division. (This means that the movie-rental division was not profitable.)
He would have been elected President, save for the scandal that derailed his campaign at the last minute. (Here, save means “except.”)
Scant
Not enough or barely enough. Scanty is used in the same way (both are adjectives).
The hew intern was scant help at the conference - he disappeared all day to smoke and didn’t seem to realize that he was there to assist his coworkers.
The soldiers were always on the verge of hunger, complaining about their scanty rations.
Scarcely
Hardly, barely, by a small margin. Scarce is the adjective form.
She lived a lavish lifestyle she could scarcely afford.
Scrutiny
Close, careful observation.
Seemingly
Apparently, outwardly appearing to be a certain way. If an author says that something is seemingly X, the author is probably about to say that it is actually Y. The word seemingly means that something seems a certain way (but maybe isn’t really).
He’s a seemingly honest man - I’ll need to get to know him better to say for sure.
Settled
Fixed, established, concluded. Sediment can settle in water, people who marry can settle down, and a settled judgement is one that has been firmly decided.
Siphon
Tube for sucking liquid out of something (some people steal gasoline from other people’s cars by siphoning it). To siphon finds is to steal money, perhaps in a continuous stream.
Skeptical
Doubting, especially in a scientific way (needing sufficient evidence before believing).
Don’t confuse skeptical and cynical (thinking the worst of others’ motivations; bitterly pessimistic). In a GRE Reading Comprehension passage, an author might be skeptical (a very appropriate attitude for a scientist, for instance), but would never be cynical.
Sketchy
Like a sketch: incomplete, imperfect, superficial.
Skirt
Border, lie along the edge of, go around; evade.
Melissa spent all of Thanksgiving skirting the issue of whom she was dating and when she might get married.
The creek skirts our property on the west, so it’s easy to tell where our farm ends.
Slew
A large number or quantity. Slew is also the past tense of slay (kill), so you could actually say She slew him with a slew of bullets.
As soon as we switched software packages, we encountered a whole slew of problems.
Slight
Small, not very important, slender or delicate; treat as though not very important; snub, ignore; a discourtesy.
She was very sensitive, always feeling slighted and holding a grudge against her coworkers for a variety of slights, both real and imagined.
Natalie Portman has always been slight, but she became even thinner to portray a ballerina in Black Swam.
Smelt
Fuse or melt ore in order to separate out metal.
