Vocabulary Flashcards
CROUCH
= to bend your knees and lower yourself so that you are close to the ground and leaning forward slightly.
Ex.: She saw him coming and crouched (down) behind a bush
TAKE PRECEDENCE
= deal with sth before other things because it is considered more important than these other things
Ex.: Business people often think that fluency and communication take precedence over grammar when speaking.
BLESSED
= bringing you happiness, luck, or something you need
Ex.: She found the routine of a regular job a blessed relief.
OBSESSION
= someone or something that you think about all the time
Ex.: They have an obsession with making money.
PERMEATE
= to spread through something and be present in every part of it.
Ex.: Dissatisfaction with the government seems to have permeated every section of society.
IMPULSE
= a sudden feeling that you must do something
Ex.: Her first impulse was to run away.
REINFORCEMENT
= the act of making something stronger.
Ex.: The harbour walls need urgent reinforcement.
ERODE
= to rub or be rubbed away gradually.
Ex.: The cliffs are eroding several feet a year.
FALLIBLE
= able or likely to make mistakes.
Ex.: We place our trust in doctors, but they are fallible like everyone else.
MUNDANE
= very ordinary and therefore not interesting.
Ex.: Mundane matters such as paying bills and shopping for food do not interest her.
INITIATIVE
= the power or ability to begin or to follow through energetically with a plan or task; enterprise and determination.
Ex: I’m talking to the physicist Alicia Graham and science enthusiast Jeremy Ingles, both of whom are involved a scientific initiative called ‘open science’.
BE UP TO SPEED WITH (sth)
= be well-informed about something, especially with the latest details; up-to-date on the state of someone or something.
Typically: be ~; bring someone ~; get ~; get someone ~.
Ex:
Please bring me up to speed on this matter.
I’ll feel better about it when I get up to speed on what’s going on.
COLLABORATION
= to work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort
Ex:
But I can’t help but think that a little more collaboration wouldn’t go amiss.
People need to see the advantage in collaboration.
GO AMISS
= to be helpful and appreciated
Ex:
But I can’t help but think that a little more collaboration wouldn’t go amiss.
SPONSOR
= a person who vouches for, is responsible for or supports a person or thing
EX: Corporations which sponsor research projects expect a return on their investment.
VOUCH FOR (sth/sb)
= to support or back someone or something; to endorse someone or something
Ex.: I can vouch for Tom.
Irene will vouch for my honesty.
VOUCHER
= (Commerce) Brit a ticket or card serving as a substitute for cash
“Corona” voucher
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
= to have new and unusual ideas.
Ex.: We need to think outside the box and imagine science conducted without such constraints.
CONSTRAINT
= limitation or restriction.
Ex.: We need to think outside the box and imagine science conducted without such constraints.
TINKERER
= a person who enjoys fixing and experimenting with machines and their parts
Ex.:
I’m a ‘tinkerer’ – out in my garage, conducting experiments till late at night, and all that.
STIFLE
= to suppress, curb, or withhold;
Ex.: Because although some breakthroughs did come about as a result of rivalries between scientists, many more might’ve been stifled by them.
DIEHARD
= one who stubbornly resists change or tenaciously adheres to a seemingly hopeless or outdated cause
Ex.: There are still plenty of diehard opponents.
BARRIER
= anything built or serving to bar passage, as a railing, fence, or the like; anything that obstructs progress, access.
Ex.: This is already breaking down barriers, and encouraging professionals to view us ‘tinkerers’ with a lot less suspicion!
BASED ON THE PREMISE
= to state or assume (a proposition) as a premise for a conclusion
Ex.: Open science is based on the premise that scientific data should be released from the restrictions of the past.
PREMISES
= a building or part of a building together with its grounds or other appurtenances
Ex: Is your mother on the premises?
KEEP ALL AVENUES OPEN
EXPLORE EVERY AVENUE
= To investigate every conceivable possibility
Ex.: But in the real world of scientific research, we need to keep all avenues for funding open, even if that does mean accepting some restrictions on what we do.
FIND A WAY ROUND
= to discover a way to move around something or some place without getting lost
Ex.: Now the problem can be posted online, so that others can bring ideas to it, and maybe a way round them can be found that saves both time and other resources.
AVANT-GARDE
= radically new or original, modern for the time it was launched, exposed, shown, etc
New York is the international capital of the musical avant-garde.
BREAKTHROUGH
= a major achievement or success that permits further progress, as in technology.
Scientists are hoping for a breakthrough in the search for a cure for cancer.
CUTTING-EDGE
= the position of greatest advancement or importance; the forefront.
California is on the cutting edge of trends that spread nationwide.
MIND-BOGGLING
= extremely surprising and difficult to understand or imagine.
She was paid the mind-boggling sum of ten million dollars for that film.
MIND-BLOWING
= extremely exciting or surprising.
The special effects in this film are pretty mind-blowing
BE BETTER OFF (-ing)
= to be in a bettersituation or condition if or after something happens
French thinker Blaise Pascal argued that if we can’t prove God exists we are better off believing in him.
LOO
= n. pl. loos Chiefly British: a toilet.
“I even get followed to the loo.” How big families are coping with the lockdown.
GET THE KNACK OF
= to learn how to do something competently or well after a certain period of practice or development.
What’s called communicative competence is the knack of saying what you mean succinctly, yet clearly enough to avoid your being misunderstood.
ABOUND (v.)
= to exist or occur in abundance; be plentiful.
the gardens abound with flowers;
the fields abound in corn.
ENSUE (v.)
= to follow or occur as a consequence; result.
After what he said much speculation has ensued.
SPECULATION (n.)
= a conclusion, opinion, or theory reached by conjecture.
After what he said much speculation has ensued.
STACK (v./n.)
(v. ) to arrange in a stack; pile.
(n. ) an orderly pile, especially one arranged in layers.
It’s not just about stacking books on a bookcase, it’s how you stack them.
DEEM (v.)
= to regard as; consider.
In the era of the internet, books are deemed redundant.
TANGIBLE (adj.)
= possible to be treated as fact; real or concrete.
The police have found a piece of tangible evidence.
RELEGATE (v.)
= to consign to an inferior or obscure place, rank, category, or condition.
Moro has been relegated to the Communist group.
DEPLOY (v.)
= to arrange, place, or move strategically or appropriately, as along a front or line in a battle formation.
“Samuel Beckett’s friends suspected that he was a genius, yet no one knew … how his abilities would be deployed” (Richard Ellmann).
ODDS (pl.n.)
= the probability, expressed as a ratio, that a certain event will take place.
The odds against the outsider are a hundred to one.
WHAT’S THE ODDS?
(informal Brit.) what difference does it make?
AT ODDS
= in bad terms, in disagreement; in conflict.
“The artist and the self-critic … are, with a few felicitous exceptions, forever at odds” (Joyce Carol Oates).
