Vocab #5

Question 1

Specious

Answer 1

(adj) Apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible: specious arguments.

Pleasing to the eye but deceptive.
• “Ralph had been deceived before now by the specious appearance of depth in a beach pool and he approached this one preparing to be disappointed.”

Question 2

Enmity

Answer 2

(n) A feeling or condition of hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity; antagonism.

• “He [Ralph] trotted through the sand, enduring the sun’s enmity, crossed the platform and found his scattered clothes.”

Question 3

Interpose

Answer 3

(v – with object) To place between; cause to intervene: to interpose an opaque body between a light and the eye.

To put (a barrier, obstacle, etc.) between or in the way of. (v –without object) To put in (a remark, question, etc.) in the midst of a conversation, discourse, or the like.

To between. To mediate. To put in or make a remark by way of interruption.

• “The shell was interesting and pretty and worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-
dream still interposed between him and Piggy…”

Question 4

Strident

Answer 4

(adj) Making or having a harsh sound; grating; creaking: strident insects; strident hinges.

Having an irritating quality or character: a strident tone in his writings.

• “The note boomed again; and then at his firmer pressure, the note, fluking up an octave, became a
strident blare more penetrating than before.”

Question 5

Furtive

Answer 5

(adj) Sly, devious. Taken, done, or used surreptitiously or secretively.

• “There was a slight, furtive boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity
of avoidance and secrecy.”

Question 6

Officious

Answer 6

Aggressive in offering one’s services; meddlesome. Excessively forward.

• “There was pushing and pulling and officious cries.”

Question 7

Recrimination

Answer 7

(n) An accusation made in retaliation. A countercharge.

• “His [Piggy’s] voice lifted into the whine of virtuous recrimination.”

Question 8

Inscrutable

Answer 8

(adj) Incapable of being investigated, analyzed, or scrutinized; impenetrable. Not easily understood; mysterious; unfathomable: an inscrutable smile.

Incapable of being seen through physically; physically impenetrable: the inscrutable depths of the ocean.

• “Jack lifted his head and stared at the inscrutable masses of creeper that lay across the trail.”

Question 9

Tacit

Answer 9

(adj) Understood without being openly expressed; implied: tacit approval. Silent; saying nothing: a tacit partner.

Unvoiced or unspoken: a tacit prayer.

• Jack nodded, as much for the sake of agreeing as anything, and by tacit consent they left the shelter and went toward the bathing pool.

Question 10

Contrite

Answer 10

(adj) Caused by or showing sincere remorse. Filled with a sense of guilt and the desire for atonement; penitent: a contrite sinner.

• “Simon’s contrite face appeared in the hole.”

Question 11

Rapt

Answer 11

(adj) Deeply engrossed or absorbed: a rapt listener. Transported with emotion; enraptured: rapt with joy.

• “Ralph gazed bewildered at his [Jack’s] rapt face

Question 12

Belligerent

Answer 12

(adj) Warlike; given to waging war. Of warlike character; aggressively hostile; bellicose: a belligerent tone.

Waging war; engaged in war: a peace treaty between belligerent powers. Pertaining to war or to those engaged in war: belligerent rights.

• “Johnny was well built, with fair hair and a natural belligerence.”

Question 13

Myriad

Answer 13

(n) A very great or indefinitely great number of persons or things.
(adj) Of an indefinitely great number; innumerable: the myriad stars of a summer night. Having innumerable phases, aspects, variations, etc.: the myriad mind of Shakespeare.

• “Like a myriad of tiny teeth in a saw, the transparencies (baby crabs) came scavenging over the beach.”

Question 14

Malevolent

Answer 14

(adj) Wishing evil or harm to another or others; showing ill will; ill-disposed; malicious: His failures made him malevolent toward those who were successful.

Evil; harmful; injurious: a malevolent inclination to destroy the happiness of others.

• “Piggy grabbed and put on the glasses. He looked malevolently at Jack.”

Question 15

Effigy

Answer 15

(n) A representation or image, especially sculptured, as on a monument. A crude representation of someone disliked, used for purposes of ridicule.

• “At first he was a silent effigy of sorrow; but then the lamentation rose out of him.”

Question 16

Interminable

Answer 16

(adj) Unending: an interminable job. Monotonously or annoyingly protracted or continued; unceasing; incessant: I can’t stand that interminable clatter.

Having no limits: an interminable desert.

• “An interminable dawn faded the stars out, and at last light, sad and gray, filtered into the shelter.”

Question 17

Diffident

Answer 17

(adj.) Lacking confidence in one’s own ability, worth, or fitness; timid; shy. Restrained or reserved in manner, conduct, etc.

• “Diffidently, Simon allowed his pace to slacken until he was walking side by side with Ralph and
looking up a him through the coarse black hair…”

• Don’t confuse with indifferent!

Question 18

Brandish

Answer 18

(v – with object) To shake or wave, as a weapon; flourish: Brandishing his sword, he rode into battle.

(n) A flourish or waving, as of a weapon.

• “Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife.”

Question 19

Sage

Answer 19

(n) A profoundly wise person; a person famed for wisdom.
(adj) Wise, judicious, or prudent: sage advice.

• “Everybody agreed [with Ralph] sagely.”

Question 20

Omnipotent

Answer 20

(adj.) (of a deity) having unlimited power; able to do anything.