Vocab D, E Flashcards
Damp
To diminish the intensity or check something, such as a sound or feeling.
Her hopes were damped when she checked the mailbox and there was still no letter for the forth day in a row,
Daunt
to intimidate or dismay
At first, the protagonist of the fairy tale was daunted by the task given to him; he didn’t know how he would ever sort the gains of wheat and barley until the ants arrived to help him.
dearth
smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; lack
the dearth of snow this winter increase the likelihood of a drought next summer.
debacle
rout, fiasco, complete failure
The performance was a complete debacle, not only did i end up singing, but the cloud props we were using also fell down midway through the play, prompting the audience to shout “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”
debunk
to expose as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated
The notion that the earth is flat has been completely debunked.
decorum
a politeness or appropriateness of conduct or behavior
In Shaw’s Pygmalion, Henry Higgins attempts to train Eliza Doolittle in proper decorum for high society, with often very funny results.
deleterious
injurious;harmful
The symptoms originally seemed to indicate something as innocuous as the common cold, but eventually the disease’s deleterious effects were better understood.
demur
To question or oppose
I hesitated to demur from the professor, until he said things factually inaccurate, at which point I felt I had had to speak up.
denigrate
Blacken, belittle, sully, defame, disparage
Though some might have denigrated our efforts at cooking breakfast, which consisted of cold eggs, bitter coffee and burnt toast, out mother was very appreciative of our attempt and bravely ate all of it.
Denouement
An outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot
receiving the Nobel Prize was a fitting denouement to his brilliant research.
Deprecate
To disparage or belittle.
You can deprecate his work all you want but it won’t affect my opinion; I don’t care if his writing is sometimes amateurish, I still like it.
Depredate
to plunger, pillage, ravage or destroy; to exploit in a predatory manner.
The pirates depredated every ship that came through the straits for two years, until no captain was willing to risk that route and the port town became deserted.
derision
scorn, ridicule, contemptuous treatment
Her derision was all the more painful because I suspected that her review of my performance was accurate
Derivative
unoriginal, obtained from another source
Some people claime that there is nothing new under the sub and that all contemporary art therefore derivative of work that came before it.
desiccate
to dry out or dehydrate; to make dry or dull.
His skin was so desiccated by sun exposure that it looked like parchment.
Desuetude
disuse
After sitting abandoned for years, the house’s desuetude came to an end when the county bought it and turned it into a teen center.
desultory
random; thoughtless;marked by a lack of plan or purpose
His desultory efforts in studying for the test were immediately obvious to his teacher as soon as she began to score his exam.
detraction
slandering, verbal attack, aspersion
Terrence’s detraction of Raul’s performance only serve to reveal how jealous he was of Raul’s success.
diaphanous
transparent, gauzy
Her diaphanous gown left little to the imagination.
diatribe
a harsh denunciation
His anti-development diatribe was well-received by local residents who want to see the field preserved as an open space rather than turned into a shopping center.
didactic
intended to teach or instruct
His didactic tone grated on me; whom did he think he was to try to teach me something while we were on a date?
diffident
shy unassuming; lacking in self confidence
He was diffident reader of his own poetry, and which sometimes kept his audience from recognizing the real power of his writing.
digress
to stray from the point; to go off on a tangent
dilate
to become wider or more open
dilatory
causing delay, procrastinating
The legislator was able to create the dilatory effect he sought by means of a twenty-three-hour filibuster.
dilettante
one with an amateurish or superficial interest in the arts or a branch of knowledge
The negative connotation of a dilettante as one whose interest in a subject is trivial is relatively recant; it hasn’t always been a bad thing to be a dilettante
din
loud sustained noise
Because we couldn’t hear each other over the din coming from the kitchen, I thought she said she had met Sasquatch, when she had really asked whether I was wearing my watch.
Dirge
a mournful song or poem for the dead
Because grandma never wanted no dirge sung at her funeral, we hired a singer to reinterpret some of her favorite popular music from her teen years.
disabuse
to undeceive; to set right
The screws left over after he had assembled the bookcase, along with its tendency to tip over, disabused Joe of the idea that reading the instructions was optional.
Discomfit
to defeat, put down
The enemy’s superior planning and resources discomfited us. They defeated us easily, despite our hopes of discomfiting their attack.
Discordant
Conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound.
As one discordant note followed another, I started to get a headache from the noise.
discretion
cautious reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions.
The matchmaker’s discretion was the key to her remarkable success; her clients knew she would not reveal their identities inappropriately
disinterested
free from self interest; unbiased
We need a disinterested party to arbitrate the property dispute, since each of the participants has too much at stake to remain unbiased.
disparage
to slight or belittle.
I don’t think you have any right to disparage his attempts until you have tried riding the mechanical bull yourself.
disparate
fundamentally distinct or dissimilar
I found it amazing that two people with suck disparate taste could decorate a house together.
dissemble
to disguise or conceal; to mislead
Her coy attempts to dissemble her plagiarism were completely transparent; no one believed her.
Dissolution
disintegration, looseness in moral.
The dissolution of the warlord’s power left a power vacuum in its wake that many minor chieftains competed to filldissonance
dissonance
lack of harmony; conflict
Dissonance in the grunge album suit Kumiko’s foul mood perfectly.
Distrait
distracted, absentminded, especially due to anxiety
When he kept forgetting what he was talking about during dinner, it became clear that he was distrait, and was no doubt preoccupied with the meeting planned for the next day.
