TC_SE_practice_words_3 Flashcards
coerce
verb: to persuade someone forcefully to do something that they are unwilling to do:
example: The court heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession.
discredit
verb: to cause people to stop respecting someone or believing in an idea or person:
example: Evidence of links with drug dealers has discredited the mayor.
intimidate
verb: to frighten or threaten someone, usually in order to persuade them to do something that you want them to do:
example: They were intimidated into accepting a pay cut by the threat of losing their jobs.
mettlesome
Mettlesome means full of spirit, courage, or determination.
lackluster
adj: without energy and effort:
example: The U.S. number-one tennis player gave a disappointingly lackluster performance.
domestic
adj: relating to a person’s own country:
adj: belonging or relating to the home, house, or family:
noun: a fight or attack that happens in a home between people who know each other:
intrigue
verb: to interest someone a lot, especially by being strange, unusual, or mysterious:
example: Throughout history, people have been intrigued by the question of whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
loquacity
noun: the fact of talking a lot:
example: Despite his loquacity, he had a lot of secrets.
guile
noun: Guile is the quality of being good at deceiving people in a clever way.
example: I love children’s innocence and lack of guile.
poised
adj: If a part of your body is poised, it is completely still but ready to move at any moment.
example: He studied the keyboard carefully, one finger poised.
adj: If someone is poised to do something, they are ready to take action at any moment.
example: U.S. forces are poised for a massive air, land and sea assault.
adj: If you are poised, you are calm, dignified, and self-controlled.
example: She was self-assured, poised, almost self-satisfied.
enigmatic
adj: mysterious and impossible to understand completely:
example:
- The Mona Lisa has a famously enigmatic smile.
- He left an enigmatic message on my answering machine.
univocal
Univocal means having only one possible meaning; clear and unambiguous.
momentous
adj: If you refer to a decision, event, or change as momentous, you mean that it is very important, often because of the effects that it will have in the future.
example: …the momentous decision to send in the troops.
multifaceted
adj: having many different parts or sides:
example: It’s a multifaceted business, offering a range of services.
interplay
noun: the effect that two or more things have on each other:
throwback
noun: a person or thing that is similar to an earlier type:
example: This year’s styles are throwbacks to the fashions of the 1940s.
impassivity
noun: the quality of not expressing emotion or of not reacting to a situation:
example: He is a bookish man of extreme impassivity.
personification
noun: a person who is a perfect example of something:
example: She played a character who was the personification of evil.
noun: the act of giving a human quality or characteristic to something which is not human, or an example of this:
example: In the scriptures, there is a very strong personification of wisdom as feminine.
salvation
noun: (a way of) being saved from danger, loss, or harm:
example: After the diagnosis, getting to know Mary was his salvation.
inured
If you become inured to something unpleasant, you become familiar with it and able to accept and bear it:
example: After spending some time on the island they became inured to the hardships.
caprice
noun: (the quality of often having) a sudden and usually silly wish to have or do something, or a sudden and silly change of mind or behaviour:
example: The $300 million palace was built to satisfy the caprice of one man.
encumber
verb: to weigh someone or something down, or to make it difficult for someone to do something:
example: Today, thankfully, women tennis players are not encumbered with/by long, heavy skirts and high-necked blouses.
resuscitate
verb: to bring someone or something back to life or wake someone or something:
example: Her heart had stopped, but the doctors successfully resuscitated her.
exterminate
verb: to kill all the animals or people in a particular place or of a particular type:
example: Once cockroaches get into a building, it’s very difficult to exterminate them.
conniving
adj: A conniving person deceives others for their own advantage:
example: He’s a conniving bastard!
cult of something
noun: a particular system of religious belief:
example: The Roman cult of Mithras admitted only men.
beneficent
adj: helping people and doing good acts:
example: a beneficent aunt
counterbalance
verb: to have an equal but opposite effect on something so that it does not have too much of a particular characteristic:
noun: something that has an equal but opposite effect on something so that it does not have too much of a particular characteristic:
rehabilitative
verb: To rehabilitate someone who has been ill or in prison means to help them to live a normal life again. To rehabilitate someone who has a drug or alcohol problem means to help them stop using drugs or alcohol.
verb: To rehabilitate a building or an area means to improve its condition so that it can be used again.
flagged
adj: A flagged path or area of ground is covered with large, flat, square pieces of stone.
riveting
adj: extremely interesting:
example: It was a riveting story.
universality
noun: the quality or state of being universal (= existing everywhere, or involving everyone):
example: She wrote about the universality of the themes of world mythology.
contravene
verb: to do something that a law or rule does not allow, or to break a law or rule:
example: The company knew its actions contravened international law.
unfettered
adj: not limited by rules or any other controlling influence:
example: Poets are unfettered by the normal rules of sentence structure.
transcendental
adj: A transcendental experience, event, object, or idea is extremely special and unusual and cannot be understood in ordinary ways:
example: a transcendental vision of the nature of God
indeterminate
not measured, counted, or clearly known:
example: An indeterminate number of workers have already been exposed to the danger.
ornamental
adj: beautiful rather than useful:
example: a bowl of ornamental china fruit
unintelligible
adj: not able to be understood:
He muttered something unintelligible.
falters
verb: to lose strength or purpose and stop, or almost stop:
example;
The dinner party conversation faltered for a moment.
stint
noun: a fixed or limited period of time spent doing a particular job or activity:
example: He has just finished a stint of compulsory military service.
verb: to provide, take, or use only a small amount of something:
example: The bride’s parents did not stint on the champagne - there was plenty for everyone.
delegate
noun: a person chosen or elected by a group to speak, vote, etc. for them, especially at a meeting:
example: Delegates have voted in favour of the motion.
verb: to give a particular job, duty, right, etc. to someone else so that they do it for you:
example: Authority to make financial decisions has been delegated to a special committee.
dampen
verb: to make feelings, especially of excitement or enjoyment, less strong:
example: Nothing you can say will dampen her enthusiasm.
depraved
adj: morally bad or evil:
example: a depraved character/mind
grudging
adj: A grudging action or feeling is one that you do or have unwillingly:
example: She won the grudging respect of her boss.
uni-dimensional
Unidimensional means having only one dimension or aspect; lacking depth or complexity.
literal
The literal meaning of a word is its original, basic meaning:
lavish something on someone/something
to give someone a lot, or too much, of something such as money, presents, or attention:
example: She lavishes money on her grandchildren.
sparing
adj: using very little of something:
example: Be sparing with the butter as there isn’t much left.
rekindle
verb: to make someone have a feeling that they had in the past:
example: The holiday was a last chance to rekindle their love.
rationing
noun: a system of limiting the amount of something that each person is allowed to have:
example; fuel rationing
