VOCAB 05 FEB 12, 2016 Flashcards
ABEYANCE
əˈbāəns |
A state of temporary inactivie or to stop for a period of time.
Temporary suspension, as of an activity or function.
The condition of being temporarily set aside; suspension: held the plan in abeyance.
noun
a state of temporary disuse or suspension: matters were held in abeyance pending further inquiries.
• Law the position of being without, or waiting for, an owner or claimant.
abeyance
An abeyance is a temporary halt to something, with the emphasis on “temporary.” It is usually used with the word “in” or “into”; “in abeyance” suggests a state of waiting or holding.
— Mr. Widodo’s energies also have been focused on a declining economy, not militancy, which had appeared in abeyance.
— Utley was suspended for two games, a punishment that was held in abeyance pending an appeal by the players’ union.
— That admission is held in abeyance while he completes the program, his lawyer said.
— But administration officials acknowledged privately that non-urgent decisions are being held in abeyance.
ABJURE
abˈjo͝or |
To take back or claim that something insn’t true, or to give up on your previous beliefs.
To give up (rights, allegiance, etc.) under oath; renounce
Abjure means to swear off, and it applies to something you once believed. You can abjure a religious faith, you can abjure your love of another person, and you can abjure the practice of using excessive force in interrogation.
verb [with obj.] formal solemnly renounce (a belief, cause, or claim): his refusal to abjure the Catholic faith.
Abjure is a more dramatic way to declare your rejection of something you once felt or believed. When you see its Latin roots, it makes sense: from ab- (meaning “away”) and jurare (“to swear”). When you abjure something, you swear it away and dissociate yourself with it. You might abjure the field of astrology after receiving a bad fortune, or you might abjure marriage after a bitter divorce.
— In court, the accused thief denied any wrongdoing, abjuring a confession that he’d made.
— The consuls, in the name of the community, secretly abjured heresy.
— Scientists in the West generally abjure this sort of research on the grounds that it amounts to genetic engineering of humans.
— Here are two of the children killed by religious parents who abjured doctors:
— Many hellenizers rallied round those who were minded to die rather than abjure their religion.
— He was asked whether certain books had been written by him and whether he was prepared to maintain or to abjure what he had written.
BACCHANALIAN
ˌbäkəˈnālyən, -ˈnālēən, ˌbakə- |
Related to a drunken festival or wild partying.
Drunken party or feast.
adjective
characterized by or given to drunken revelry; riotously drunken: a bacchanalian orgy.
bacchanalian
The Greek god Bacchus was no teetotaler. A bacchanalian party is a wild, wine-soaked, rowdy affair. Bacchanalian is used to describe any event that Bacchus would have enjoyed.
The Romans celebrated Bacchus with wine, songs, dances and more wine — not the kind of behavior you would expect from self-respecting adults (and probably not the kind of thing they would tell their kids about). Bacchanalian sounds like “back-and-nail” yen so you might want to think of it as a description of party where everyone has one drink too many and wants to give each other a back rub.
— What happens is that we go through the holidays abandoning most – if not all – restraint, while indulging our bacchanalian impulses.
— It has been a grueling shared journey involving four-hour sleeping shifts, a bacchanalian celebration at the Equator and even a rescue mission.
— Long banquet tables with black tablecloths and gold chairs were adorned with a cornucopia of real and gold-gilded fruits and vegetables, a bacchanalian scene.
— A charmer with an authentically impressive palate, Kurniawan, like Rodenstock, established himself by throwing astounding, bacchanalian tastings at his own expense.
— Olympic villages have a reputation for morphing from temples of athletic virtue into bacchanalian party zones as the Games wear on.
— In ancient times, Dec. 25 was the date of the lavish Roman festival of Saturnalia, a sort of bacchanalian thanksgiving.
BADINAGE
ˌbadnˈäZH |
Playfull conversation or speak in a witty manner.
noun
humorous or witty conversation: cultured badinage about art and life.
Stiff corporate types don’t tend to be too fond of badinage, or playful conversation, during important meetings, but sometimes a witty joke about the manager’s ugly tie is just the right thing to lighten the mood.
Badinage comes from the French word badiner, which means “to joke.” In literature, there is no better place to find examples of badinage and witty wordplay than in Shakespeare’s comedic plays. You can also find great examples in sitcom television, stand-up comedy, and the everyday frivolous banter among siblings and friends.
— Whiel we were paying for our grocereis, Vic engaged in some light badinage wtih the cute cashier.
— After a half hour of badinage and flirting, Bryan worked up the nerve to ask her out.
BANE
bān |
Something taht cause deadly harm or ruin.
noun [usu. in sing.]
a cause of great distress or annoyance: the bane of the decorator is the long, narrow hall | the depressions that were the the bane of her existence .
• archaic something, typically poison, that causes death.
The noun bane refers to anything that is a cause of harm, ruin, or death. But we often use it for things that aren’t that bad, just feel like it. You might say mosquitoes are the bane of your existence.
The source of this word is Middle and Old English bana, meaning “destroyer, murderer.” The now obsolete meaning of “deadly poison” is seen in the names of poisonous plants such as wolfsbane and henbane. Although “bane of my existence” is a commonly heard phrase, there’s something deliciously archaic about the word bane. It conjures up villages preyed upon by dragons, or witches adding one bane or another to a steaming kettle.
— There are many banes in the world that you must be carefull to avaoid, such as poisonous snakes or scorpions.
— This is what’s most worrying about the block grant strategy to address the bane of poverty: It allows the assistance to wither while poverty survives.
— This is the bane of any open world game, whether it’s Skyrim or Assassin’s Creed.
— A board of directors can be a boon or a bane for CEOs.
— Indeed, churn is the bane of Netflix’s main competitor, HBO, which commands a larger premium on top of the price of a basic cable package.
— But it’s the bane of coaches who lose so much teaching time.
— The bane of many a vegan and vegetarian drinker, stealthy isinglass gives old school, cask ales their ice-clear iridescence.
— There has been a bit of bird pecking but none of the banes of terrestrial gardens — rats, squirrels, chipmunks or voles.
— Cracked and broken screens are the bane of smartphone users.
— Fogs are common on the coast, and east wind drizzles; the north-east winds being the weather bane of spring and late autumn.
CANDID
ˈkandid |
Honest in what one writes or says.
Openly straightforward and direct without reserve or secretiveness.
Characterized by directness in manner or speech; without subtlety or evasion.
A person truthfully telling why their marriage ended is an example of candid.
adjective
1 truthful and straightforward; frank: his responses were remarkably candid | a candid discussion.
2 (of a photograph of a person) taken informally, esp. without the subject’s knowledge.
Straightforward and truthful talk might be described with the adjective candid. If you’re always candid, your parents will know that they can trust you.
A serious-minded politician might suggest engaging in a “candid discussion” about a complicated topic like health care or the environment, because candid means “open” or “frank.” Remember that TV show Candid Camera? It was called that because its hidden cameras supposedly showed a candid view of reality. In photography, candid has become a noun meaning “an unposed photo.” The word comes from Latin candidus, meaning “white,” which was later extended to mean “pure.” Candid talk provides the pure, unvarnished truth.
— When Linda asked how she looked in her new dress, Russ couldn’t help but offer a candid reply.
— In an interview, Mr. Robb talked about Whole Foods’s candid culture and what’s ahead for the grocery business.
— “And I’m a direct and candid guy myself. There’s no kind of gray area in certain things.”
— I write about this in the book and some of his own people have been candid about this.
— This candid disclosure ensured that the authors will not have to eat their words.
— In Liar’s Poker, Lewis offers a candid look at Wall Street in the 1980s.
— In his most candid public comments about the ups and downs of the tumultuous bid process, Blackmun used his speech at the U.S.
— Footballers are not usually comfortable discussing psychological frailty, but Gerrard is bluntly candid.
— Matthew Perry is getting candid about his difficult past.
— For Moshe and other Hasidim, the app provides a window into the outside world, and a forum for candid debate and discussion.
CASTIGATE
ˈkastəˌgāt |
To critisize or punish serverly, especially to correct a behaviour.
To inflict severe punishment on.
To castigate is to criticize or punish someone severely.
To punish or rebuke severely.
— Little Johny’s father castigated him for accidentally breaking the bowl.
verb [with obj.] formal
reprimand (someone) severely: he was castigated for not setting a good example.
DERIVATIVES
Use castigate when you mean reprimand but in an especially harsh way. If you take a mean teacher’s books, even accidentally, you might worry that she’s going to castigate you as soon as she finds out.
Castigate means punish, and punish harshly, but the punishment is always a severe scolding. Sometimes it means criticize severely. Politicians in the Senate are always castigating each other for their alliances and opinions. Castigate and chasten, which also means “to reprimand” but is less severe, share the Latin root castus which means “pure.” Ideally, if you castigate someone, you mean to guide someone away from the wrong path and toward a more pure one. But it sure doesn’t feel like that when you’re being castigated!
— He castigated politicians who touted their refusal to compromise as “an accomplishment in and of itself.”
— The news media castigates them, other parents shun them and the medical community can’t understand them.
— He wants to break up the biggest financial institutions and has no qualms about castigating their motives.
— We should celebrate rather than castigate Utah’s pioneers.
— Or when Generation X-ers were castigated for their lack of loyalty and belief that they could have it all?
— It probably misses the point, though, to castigate McCandless for being ill prepared.
— They don’t overtly chant the good name of Phil Jackson at home games, perhaps too polite to castigate one of their own.
— Yet he refused to castigate the Colombian who has endured a torrid start to life in MLS.
— Our political class castigates public schools, teachers, and parents for our lackluster academic performance.
— The news media castigates them, other parents shun them and the medical community can’t understand them.
— The fact that he castigates firms that, by all appearances, seem to be responsible corporate citizens represents a hypocrisy all its own.
— He castigated politicians who touted their refusal to compromise as “an accomplishment in and of itself.”
DEBAUCH
diˈbôCH |
To corrupt, or lead away from morals.
To corrupt morally. Seduce.
Corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
A wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity.
Debauch is defined as the act of indulging in sensual pleasures.
When you love good food and fine wine and you are always going out for extravagant dinners, this is an example of debauch.
To debauch is defined as to seduce or corrupt someone’s morality.
When a man seduces a woman and tricks her into doing inappropriate sexual acts, this is an example of when he debauches her.
verb [with obj.]
destroy or debase the moral purity of; corrupt.
• dated seduce (a woman): he debauched sixteen schoolgirls.
noun
a bout of excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures, esp. eating and drinking.
• the habit or practice of such indulgence; debauchery: his life had been spent in debauch.
— Many of the men at the club were debauched by the barely-clothed dancer’s illicit performance.
— It’s one thing to remember your friend’s birthday because you took him out a decade ago for his drunken 21st birthday debauch.
— Don takes Lane for a debauched night out, taking in a Japanese monster movie, massive steaks, much whisky, a comedy club and two call girls.
— Debauching the currency is actually the best way to destroy the socialist, not the capitalist, system.
— It can’t mean that New York City and state are somehow more debauched or morally pliant than the rest of the country.
— We’ve not had a debasement of the currency, a debauch of the exchange rate, so those fears and warnings aren’t all that well founded.
— It’s unusual to have central bankers going around insisting that their aim is to debauch the currency, this is true.
— Yet let it be noted that there is more than one way to debauch a currency:
— The real long-term cost of a weak currency is the debauching of a nation’s wealth or savings pool.
— In plain terms, he was an exceedingly dissipated—I fear I may say debauched young man.
— Several friends once e-mailed him a copy of one of his own pieces, a column about a debauched weekend in Las Vegas.
— The Cup embarked on a dizzying tour of area fun spots that would have taxed the most debauched rock star.
— Throughout the 1970s, he was less a citizen of New York than a debauched tourist, directing his limo to Max’s, Paradise Garage and Reno Sweeney.
— Alongside Apollo and Athena came images of craftsmen, poets and sulky aristocrats, in all their fleshy, paunchy and debauched glory.
— In fact, the debauched idiocy of SantaCon offers spectators some surprising cultural and historic value.
— At 80, he is now something of a mythic figure on the more debauched end of the unofficial Great American Songbook.
— It can’t mean that New York City and state are somehow more debauched or morally pliant than the rest of the country.
EMANATE
ˈeməˌnāt |
To derive or to originate.
Give out (breath or an odor).
To come from a source; issue from. Fragrance emanates from flowers.
Proceed or issue forth, as from a source
To come or send forth, as from a source: light that emanated from a lamp; kindness that emanated from a teacher; a stove that emanated a steady heat; a singer who emanated deep sadness. See Synonyms at stem1.
verb [no obj.] (emanate from)
(of something abstract but perceptible) issue or spread out from (a source): warmth emanated from the fireplace | she felt an undeniable charm emanating from him.
• originate from; be produced by: the proposals emanated from a committee.
• [with obj.] give out or emit (something abstract but perceptible): he emanated a powerful brooding air.
emanate
When you use the word emanate, you’re usually talking about lights, sounds, or unseen forces coming out of a specific source. If you hear creepy sounds emanating from an old house, that might mean it’s haunted.
Emanate derives from the Latin e- ‘out’ and manare to flow. If that last word looks a little like manure to you, you might be interested to know that they’re not at all related. Thank goodness, too, because the idea of manure flowing out––or emanating––is not something to be discussed in polite company.
— As the delicious smell of homemade tomato sauce emanated from the pan, Andrew grew hungrier and looked forward to eatgin it soon.
— The stream of black smoke that emanated from the refinery grew tremendously as the fires caused by the initial shelling spread to giant storage tanks.
— But both Bennett and Perrantes made note of the “positive vibe” emanating throughout the team as a result of individual efforts.
— Sluggish seismic events have been recorded before, emanating from the deeper parts of subducting plate boundaries.
— There’s no proof that this emanated from the Cruz team, to be clear.
— It is important, however, to carefully manage risks to the economy, including those emanating from abroad.
— The tumult emanating from China even prompted the Federal Reserve to hold off raising interest rates at its Sept. 17 meeting.
— As the sun set, a glow began to emanate from the drivers around me: in each one, the white-blue light of a smart phone.
— During these discussions, reports began emanating from Europe that thalidomide, also being prescribed to pregnant women to prevent morning sickness, led to horrific birth defects.
— And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished
— And the faint light emanating from their pursuers made the oddity up ahead all the more apparent.
— At the same time, the drumbeat of ominous headlines emanating from Europe had begun to grow steadily louder and more insistent that spring.
— She crawls along the center beam, from which the narrow planks of flooring emanate, toward the stone bulk of the chimney at the far end.
— But both Bennett and Perrantes made note of the “positive vibe” emanating throughout the team as a result of individual efforts.
— It emanates from the maternal side of his Stanford tree.
— They emanate from portals and devices that were inconceivable in 1969.
— I cleaved the pills into quarters with my fingers, watching the driver to see if he noticed the soft clicks emanating from my hands.
— LEDs blinked and changed color behind the D.C. band, and green laser beams spun through the smoke that emanated from the stage.
— But instead, with a kind smile, a glow emanating from his head as though he created his own light just by existing, stood David Bowie.
— It creates the same sort of brain pattern that emanates from your thoughts.
— New terror threats emanating from the Middle East feel both confusing and very close to home.
— Turkey is still exposed to risks emanating from tighter U.S. monetary policy.
— When State governments increase the minimum wage one can see the uproar emanating from the Republicans.
— Spherical wavefronts emanate from wireless routers and distant cell towers.
— But to me, it felt very similar to my laptop keyboard, minus the sound that normally emanates from the keys.
— The gas is pulled into the galaxy — and then pushed back outward by the light emanating from all the stars.
— The first responders are the tiny floating drones that emanate a light and shoot lasers.
ENDEMIC
enˈdemik |
adjective
1 (of a disease or condition) regularly found among particular people or in a certain area: areas where malaria is endemic | complacency is endemic in industry today.
• [attrib.] denoting an area in which a particular disease is regularly found.
2 (of a plant or animal) native or restricted to a certain country or area: a marsupial endemic to northeastern Australia.
IMPASSE
ˈimˌpas, imˈpas |
A deadlock, a road with no exit.
A street with only one way in or out
Apassage open only at one end; blind alley
A situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible.
Something from which there is no escape or solution.
noun
a situation in which no progress is possible, esp. because of disagreement; a deadlock: the current political impasse.
After hours of driving around, lost and confused, Kent reached an impasse and cold travel no farther.
When two huge semi trailers met face-to-face on a one-lane mountain road, the drivers jumped out of their cabs and exclaimed, “We’re at an impasse! We can’t move forward — we can only reverse and go back in the direction from which we came.”
If you investigate impasse a little more closely, you’ll discover passer, the French word for to pass. The im- prefix is a negative, meaning that there’s no way any passing is going to occur. It’s impossible. An impasse is any situation in which the parties involved can’t, or won’t, move forward or make any sort of progress. Either they are literally stuck, like two big trucks trying to pass each other on a narrow road, or they are figuratively stuck, as in two politicians who are unable to reach an agreement on a new policy.
— The way out of the impasse is unclear.
— The impasse led to a partial shutdown of 29 West Coast ports and enormous cargo backlogs.
— Also, the union is able to strike any of the three automakers if negotiations reach an impasse.
— Apple and Ericsson have sued each other in federal courts after reaching an impasse over mobile patents.
— Hollywood’s war on piracy has reached a strange impasse.
— He is at an impasse with the university system’s Board of Curators over the amount and terms of a compensation package.
— Impasse resulted at the end of June as the second bailout expired.
— The impasse, as I saw it, was caused by the National Party’s continuing reluctance to submit their fate to the will of the majority.
— He was in such an impasse that he cared little what became of himself.
— Dayton has charged those involved to come up with a workable plan and he isn’t accepting impasse as an answer.
— Is there a way to overcome this impasse?
— Of course we did inevitably come to some impasse where there was no pretending.
— All of which leaves the two parties at an awkward impasse.
— It’s likely there’s a financial impasse between both companies which is also influencing Verizon’s decision.
—
INTRACTABLE
inˈtraktəbəl |
Hard to manage or stuborn
“an intractable disposition”
“intractable pain”
“the most intractable issue of our era”
“intractable metal”
adjective
hard to control or deal with: intractable economic problems | intractable pain.
• (of a person) difficult; stubborn.
Can’t manage your stubborn little brother who won’t do what anyone says? You could call him intractable, or you could call your mother. Problems are intractable when they can’t be solved.
Intractable means not tractable. Helpful, right? No? Let’s break it down. In both words you see the word tract. A contract is a written document that explains how a legal situation is to be managed together. When someone is tractable they are able to be managed or handled. When they are intractable, they are as unmanageable as a hungry two-year old.
— William’s intractable donkey proved to be a big problem during the bank robbery.
— And so, even when this dispute is over, we will still be left with an even more intractable problem.
— Kensington and its struggling neighbors are the most extreme and intractable manifestations of the poverty that tears at America’s fifth most populous city.
— What happened in between points to one of the more intractable problems in the digital music business.
— Finally, the sport’s intractable problem had to be faced.
— What can he do about an intractable corporate standoff?
— Our business affairs editor argues that the finance industry offers powerful methods for solving some of the world’s most intractable social problems.
— This was supposed to be an intractable problem.
— Her films are full of silences that register how intractable and painful everyday experiences can be.
— Like it, this mechanism, CRISPR-Cpf1, could become a tool that can deal with intractable genetic illnesses such as Huntington’s, and degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s.
– For a decade she suffered these attacks—a symptom of intractable epilepsy—as many as 30 or 40 times a month.
— Now, against an intractable Republican opposition, it’s far less clear.
— China’s leaders had worried about getting embroiled in the region’s intractable disputes.
— But last year, one game came as close as I’ve seen to solving this intractable dilemma, and from an unlikely source.
— But based on interviews with more than 150 current and former employees, part of a three-week investigation by The Verge, some issues seem intractable.
LANGUOR
ˈlaNG(g)ər |
A lack of energy, interest, movement or spirit. Indifference.
The condition of being still, sluggish, or dull.
Dullness, sluggishness; lack of vigor; stagnation.
(uncountable) a state of the body or mind caused by exhaustion or disease and characterized by a languid feeling: lassitude
An example of languor is someone sitting on the couch watching television all day.
noun
1 the state or feeling, often pleasant, of tiredness or inertia: he remembered the languor and warm happiness of those golden afternoons.
2 an oppressive stillness of the air: the afternoon was hot, quiet, and heavy with languor.
languor
When you are sick or heartbroken and too tired to get out of bed, the listlessness you feel is called languor. It’s sluggishness and slowness, but usually with cause.
The more commonly used word languish is closely related to languor. If you are languishing or becoming weaker, you are showing languor. Remember that languor implies a heaviness or slowness where there should be lightness or speed. There is no time for languor if you have an exam tomorrow, and you are just beginning to study now. And, a 100 degree day with 70% humidity can inspire languor in just about anyone.
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English
— With the temperatures reaching 95 degrees, the dogs lay around in a state of languor all day.
— Elise’s constant languor worried her family who didn’t think she was getting enough to eat.
— During our vacation at the beach, there was a general sense of languor and peacefulness that relaxed the whole family.
— His eyes gathered in and reflected the light and languor of the summer day.
— There has always been a subcontinental languor in the way India go about their cricket.
— They wanted to determine whether this physical languor would affect the body’s ability to control blood sugar levels.
— A languor of motion and speech, resulting from weakness, gave her a distinguished air which inspired respect.
— In the expression of his face, in his movements, in his walk, scarcely a trace was left of his former affected languor and indolence.
— His whole life was indeed one continued illness, but in this part of it his pain and languor had greatly increased.
LAP
lap |
To drink liquid, usually by dipping it up with one’s tongue.
Take up with the tongue.
To take in (a liquid or food) by lifting it with the tongue.
“The cat lapped up the milk”
noun
1 (usu. one’s lap) the flat area between the waist and knees of a seated person: come and sit on my lap.
• the part of an item of clothing, esp. a skirt, covering the lap.
2 archaic a hanging flap on a garment or a saddle.
PHRASES
fall (or drop ) into someone’s lap (of something unexpected) come someone’s way without any effort having been made: not many reporters are lucky enough to have stories fall into their laps.
in someone’s lap as someone’s responsibility: she dumped the problem in my lap.
in the lap of luxury in conditions of great comfort and wealth.
— The tired kitten quickly lapped the water from its bowl.
MACERATE
ˈmasəˌrāt |
To soften or break down into parts, usually by soaking in a liquid.
To soften and break down into component parts by soaking in liquid for some time
To make soft by soaking or steeping in a liquid.
To separate into constituents by soaking.
verb
1 (esp. with reference to food) soften or become softened by soaking in a liquid.
2 archaic cause to grow thinner or waste away, esp. by fasting.
macerate
When you macerate something, you soften it by soaking it in a liquid, often while you’re cooking or preparing food.
To macerate strawberries, all you have to do is sprinkle sugar on them, which draws out their juices so they become soft and sweet and deliciously saucy. Macerate is sometimes also used to mean “cause to grow thin or weak,” or in other words, to make someone feel like a soft, squishy strawberry.
— Every morning, while reading the newspaper, Jacob macerates his biscotti by dipping them into his coffee.
— It’s used in cooking too, for macerating velvety prunes, which are sometimes then used to make ice cream.
— They fear, among other things, that by macerating the apples the fruit pectin is released and a gelatinous layer will form in the wine.
— The peaches can be macerated up to 2 hours in advance.
— The survey data will be compiled and analyzed, and Gilbert will macerate the berries to extract compounds for analysis in the lab.
— Develop the flavor of the jam by macerating the berries; then, use a potato masher or a sturdy spoon to crush them.
— Let macerate five to 10 minutes, then whisk in olive oil.
— In the summer, a beautiful dessert can be made by macerating strawberries and other soft fruit with a little sugar, wine, rose or champagne.
— In a bowl, combine the shallots, orange and lime juices and salt and allow to macerate for about 15 minutes.
MALEFACTOR
ˈmaləˌfaktər |
Someone who does harm, a bad person, like a criminal.
A criminal or someone who does bad things.
Criminal. A wrongdoer or evildoer.
Someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime.
noun formal
a person who commits a crime or some other wrong.
malefactor
A malefactor has done something illegal and has been or will be convicted, such as the malefactor who was videotaped stealing money from a cash register.
To correctly pronounce malefactor, remember that the first syllable, mal rhymes with pal. A malefactor, however, is no friend you should have. Mal- comes from Latin and means “bad, evil,” and facere means “to perform.” A malefactor performs evil acts, or to put it a little less dramatically, does really bad things.
— The malefactor broke into the restaurant after closing and stole all the money.
— Microsoft provides security from malefactors, not privacy from corporate and governmental monitoring.
— Another aside: The diligence of the Justice Department, the F.B.I. and the I.R.S. in pursuing these soccer malefactors is admirable.
— Keeping up-to-date is hard—malefactors who spot weaknesses quickly sell or share their knowledge.
— But the emphasis can’t be only on prosecuting those malefactors, or protecting the whistleblowers who reveal their identities.
— With Uber and other services at least, you really can pinpoint the malefactors immediately.
— The real win here is Dispersive’s long-term ability to stay several steps ahead of hackers, even as the malefactors inevitably improve their own techniques.
— Motives were obvious, and the malefactors were never really evil.
PALLID
ˈpalid |
Unusally pale, weak, or lacking intensity or spirit.
Someone who is abnormally pale, especially someone lacking in color.
adjective
(of a person’s face) pale, typically because of poor health.
• feeble or insipid: an utterly pallid and charmless character.
pallid
- Santa looks a little pallid, meaning that he has a pale complexion, from spending too much time at the North Pole. A few days in Hawaii might do wonders to add color to his pale, bearded face.*
- Pallid means pale, or lacking color. It’s often used together with complexion to describe someone who has a pale face, either due to a lack of sunshine or some kind of emotional distress. A reclusive author could be pallid from spending too much time indoors. His books can also be called pallid if they’re lacking in color and excitement.*
— Mr. Simpson had been in bed for an entire week with the flu, and his face had a pallid color that reminded his family of a ghost.
— But Tweedy, who is forty-eight, seems notably indifferent to how he looks: uncombed, unshaven, pallid, husky in baggy jeans and a denim jacket.
— A combination of pallid skin, hoody and laptop is the biggest giveaway.
— Many are in emerging markets—including 11 in Brazil—where they often outperform pallid state-run competitors and help to widen access to higher education.
— Among those who would be searching for a new home was a pallid 35-year-old father of three who had taken the Italian name Enzo.
— She is a tall, languid young lady with a pallid, oval face and beautiful pale-blue-gray eyes; her hands are extraordinary—long-fingered, flexible, nervously elegant.
— Seattle reporters marveled at how sun-bronzed they looked when seen side by side with the pallid boys from Washington.
— His skin was pallid, with an undertone of grey.
— She spent interminable hours staring at the pallid landscape that stretched out before her window.
— An innovation-free future would be both economically pallid and boring.
PALPITATE
ˈpalpiˌtāt |
To beat rapidly, especially one’s heart.
verb [no obj.] (often as adj. palpitating)
(of the heart) beat rapidly, strongly, or irregularly: it wakened him in the night with a palpitating heart.
• shake; tremble: she was palpitating with terror.
When you watch scary movies, do you ever feel your heart palpitate? This means it beats quickly.
To correctly pronounce palpitate, say: “PAL-pih-tate.” Hearts aren’t the only thing that can palpitate; your whole body might palpitate, or shiver. You can also palpitate something, such as what a medical professional does to a patient’s heart to make it beat, potentially saving his or her life. Palpitate comes from the Latin word palpare, “to stroke.”
— The hot dog vendor’s heart palpitated as the beautiful girl strolled past his cart.
— If the second half of this season were the first half, sports writers and diehard fans would be palpitating about a championship season.
— Constantly tossing back his long hair, his lips quivering, his nostrils palpitating, he swept the auditorium with the glance of a smiling master.
— All these men’s hearts, united in the love of Allah, were now nothing more than a single heart, palpitating in different breasts.
— And although it made her heart palpitate temporarily, the remote danger of a heart attack seemed more bearable than losing her hearing.
— “My heart was palpitating out of my chest” during her first strike, she said.
RACONTEUR
ˌrakˌänˈtər, -ən- |
A person skilled at telling stories and anecdotes.
A person skilled in telling anecdotes.
A person who tells stories or anecdotes in an amusing and clever way.
noun
a person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way.
— Benjamin, the local raconteur, is always a hit at the children’s birthday parties.
raconteur.
— It’s no secret that Orson Bean, an actor who won fame as a “TV personality,” is a master raconteur.
— “He was a great raconteur — he had an endless bag of stories.
— She was a pioneer, an artist in the medium of life and a wild raconteur with a famous appetite for fun.
— He’s also funny, a terrific raconteur, and a real showman.
Raconteurs are gifted storytellers, able to spin amusing tales from everyday life. Who is the biggest raconteur in your group? He or she’s the one who always tells the best stories — or jumps in when another storyteller isn’t being vivid enough.
Do you make going to the store to buy groceries a fascinating experience? Do you offer witty observations of the people you pass on the street? If so, you’re a raconteur, someone who can regale his or her listeners with riveting stories, usually funny, sometimes dramatic. Raconteur comes from the French word “raconter,” meaning “to recount.” Note its “eur” ending, signaling its French origin.
