Vocab Set 2 Flashcards
Abnegation
Self denial
Abstruse
Hard to grasp/understand
Acrophobia
Fear of heights
Adroit
Showing skill or resourcefulness
Affable
Friendly
Androphobia
Fear of men
Aquiline
Hooked, like an eagle
Assuage
To appease or pacify
Antonym: exacerbate
Benison
A spoken blessing
Bifurcate
Forked
Brook
To tolerate or put up with
Cassock
A loose robe worn by priests
Cajole
To coax
Canonical
Orthodox, authoritative
Bathos
Overdone pathos, anti climax
Cavil
To nitpick
Chauvinism
Excessive or blind patriotism
Circumspect
Cautious, considering all options
Cognizant
Observant
Contentious
Argumentative
Croupier
Collector and payer of debts at a casino
Dearth
Severe shortage
Deliquesce
To dissolve, become soft especially with age
Desiccate
To dry out
Dexterous
Mentally skillful, artful or clever
Diatribe
A bitter denunciation
Antonym: panegyric
Diminution
A decrease
Discourse
Conversation
Dissemble
To pretend
Dray
A vehicle used to haul goods
Efface
To wear away, erase or remove
Egress
Exit, or to go out from
Endue
To endow, provide
Equivocal
Deliberately confusing, able to be interpreted in more than one way
Excoriate
To wear off the skin
Expunge
To strike out or erase
Factitious
Artificial
Antonym: authentic
Feckless
Worthless, feeble
Fiduciary
A trustee
Foible
Minor flaw or weakness in a character
Fractious
Unruly, quarrelsome
Frenetic
Frantic, frenzied
Fulsome
Abundant, or morally offensive/disgusting
Gamut
Entire range
Gauche
Lacking social grace, awkward
Gorgon
One of three snake haired sisters whose glance turned the beholder into stone
Harbinger
Someone or something who foreshadows things to come
Hirsute
Hairy
Antonym: glabrous
Hypocritical
Pretending to have qualities or virtues that are not possessed
Iconoclast
One who destroys religious images or attacks beliefs
Imbue
To permeate or influence
Impecunious
Having little or no money
Improvident
Careless, not providing for the future
Incarnadine
Blood red
Incommodious
Troublesome
Indemnify
To secure against loss, to compensate for hurt or loss
Insurgent
Someone who rebels against established authority
Intrepid
Fearless
Antonym: timorous
Jenny
Female donkey
Junta
Political group or committee, ESP after revolution
Laconic
Concise
Antonym: verbose, redundant
Libertine
A person not restrained by convention or morality
Littoral
Shore or coastal region
Lucre
Monetary gain, profit
Lurid
Gruesome, shocking, ghastly pale
Malfeasance
Wrongdoing, official misconduct
Maudlin
Foolishly sentimental or morose
Mercurial
Inconstant, quickly changing
Mitigate
To soften
Napery
Table linens
Necropolis
Cemetery
Noisome
Offensive, harmful
Nugatory
Inconsequential
Obfuscate
Confuse
Antonym: clarify
Obloquy
Abusive language or bad repute
Ochlophobia
Fear of crowds
Oligarchy
Form of government where control is placed in the hands of few - usually corrupt
Onus
Burden, obligation
Osmosis
To purify through a membrane
Palliate
To cover up with excuses
Pariah
Outcast
Partisan
One committed to a person, cause or idea
Pedantic
Characterised by an ostentatious display of learning
Peripatetic
Wandering
Piscatorial
Relating to fish
Polemic
Strong argument in refutation of another, practice of engaging in controversy
Precipitous
Steep
Prevaricate
Lie
Prognosticate
Forecast, prophesy
Puce
Dark red
Purloin
To steal
Quaff
To drink heartily
Quisling
Traitor
Quotidian
Daily
Recidivism
Repeated relapse, as in to repeat criminal activity
Recusant
Refusal to obey authority
Reprobate
Villain, immoral person
Ribald
Rude or offensive
Sagacious
Wise
Sanguine
Hopeful
Scintilla
Minute trace or jot, iota
