Vocabulary List 13 Flashcards
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Woebegone
adj. sad or miserable in appearance
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Pendulous
adj. hanging down loosely
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Leaden
adj. dull, heavy, or slow
adj. dull gray
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Landloper
n. a vagrant
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Asphyxiate
v. kill (someone) by depriving them of air
v. die by asphyxiation
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Chronic
adj. (of a person) having a particular bad habit
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About-face
n. a turn made so as to face the other direction
n. a complete change of opinion or policy: he threatened to stop us, but did a complete about-face
v. turn so as to face the opposite direction
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Demerit
n. a feature or fact deserving censure: the merits and demerits of the proposals
n. a mark awarded against someone for a a fault or offense
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Travail
n. painful or laborious effort: advice for those who wish to save great sorrow and travail
n. labor pains: a woman in travail
v. engage in painful and laborious effort
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Sheet
v. (of rain) fall in large quantities: rain sheeted down
v. [with obj.] cover with or wrap in sheets: we sheeted a narrow bed
n. a broad moving mass of flame or water
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Slough
n. a swamp
n. a side channel or inlet, or a natural channel that is only sporadically filled with water
n. a situation characterized by lack of progress or activity: the economic slough of the interwar years
v. shed or remove (a layer of dead skin)
v. get rid of (something undesirable or no longer required)
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Argental
adj. containing silver
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Lope
v. run or move with a long bounding stride: the dog was loping by his side
n. a long bounding stride: they set off at a fast lope
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Irradiate
v. illuminate (something) by or as if by shining light on it: irradiated the faces of family and friends
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Instate
v. set up in position, install or establish: the restoration of those very authoritorian forms against which democracy had been instated
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Reproof
n. an expression of blame or disapproval
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Reprove
v. reprimand or censure (someone)
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Superintend
v. oversee: he superintended a land reclamation program
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Baste
v. beat (someone) soundly; thrashed
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Wholesale
n. the selling of goods in large quantities to be retailed by others
adv. being sold in large quantities to be retailed by others: bottles from this region sell wholesale at about $72 a case
adv. on a large scale
adj. done on a large scale; extensive
v. sell (goods) at large quantities at low prices to be retailed by others
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Abroad
adv. out of doors: few people ventured abroad from their warm houses
adv. in different directions; over a wide area: millions of seeds are annually scattered abroad
adv. (of a feeling or rumor) widely current: there is a new buccaneering spirit abroad
adv. freely moving about: con artists abroad on the streets of town
adv. wide of the mark; in error
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Fount
n. a source of a valuable quality or commodity: a fount of knowledge
n. a spring or fountain
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Snap
v. [with obj.] fasten with a snap
n. [in sing.] a hurried tone or manner: he said with a snap
n. vigor or liveliness of style or action; zest
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Charge
v. [with clause] make an accusation or assertion that: opponents charged that below-cost pricing would reduce safety
v. load or fill (a container, gun, etc.) to the full or proper extent
n. a responsibility or onerous duty assigned to someone
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Athwart
adv. across from side to side; transversely: one table running athwart was all the room could hold
adv. so as to be perverse or contradictory: our words ran athwart and we ended up at cross purposes
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Sable
n. black
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Constabulary
n. an armed police force organized as a military unit
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Interpolate
v. insert (something) between two fixed points: illustrations were interpolated in the text
v. alter (a book or text) by insertion of new material
v. interject (a remark) in a conversation: “I dare say!” interpolated her employer
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Acquisition
n. an asset or object bought or obtained, typically by a library or museum
n. buying or obtaining an object or asset
n. the learning or developing of a skill, habit, or quality
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Hair-trigger
n. (as modifier) liable to change suddenly and violently: a hair-trigger personality
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Cockade
n. a rosette or knot of ribbons worn in a hat as a badge of office or party, or as part of a livery
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Cipher
n. a secret or distingushed way of writing; a code: the information may be given in cipher
n. a thing written in cipher
n. a key to such a cipher
n. a zero; a figure 0
n. a person or thing of no importance, especially a person who does the bidding of others and seems to have no will of their own
n. a continuous sounding of an organ pipe caused by a mechanical error
v. put (a message) into secret writing; encode
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Coriaceous
adj. of or like leather
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Duello
n. a duel
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Single
adj. free from duplicity and deceitfulness: a pure and single heart
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Eiderdown
n. small, soft feathers from the breast of the female eider duck
n. a quilt filled with down (usually from the eider) or some other soft material
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Manumit
v. release from slavery; set free: Old Agnus had never manumitted a single slave and had never committed the unpardonable social breach of selling some of his negroes to passing slave traders en route to the cane fields of Louisiana, but the rumors persisted
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Rabbit
v. talk at length, especially about trivial matters
v. move quickly; run away
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Spasmodic
adj. occuring or done in brief, irregular bursts
adj. caused by, subject to, or in the nature of a spasm or spasms: a spasmodic cough
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Subsist
v. [no obj.] sustain or support oneself, especially at a minimal level
v. [with obj.] provide sustenance for: subsisting the poor
v. remain in being, force, or effect
v. (subsist in) be attributable to: the effect of genetic maldevelopment may subsist in chromosomal mutation
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Vice
n. immoral or wicked behavior
n. an immoral or wicked personal characteristic
n. a weaknesss of character or behavior; a bad habit
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Adjure
v. urge or request (someone) solemnly or earnestly to do something
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Nobility
n. the quality of being noble in character, mind, birth, or rank
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Provisional
adj. arranged or existing for the future, possibly to be changed later
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Minatory
adj. expressing or conveying a threat: he is unlikely to be deterred by minatory finger-wagging
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Oblation
n. a thing presented or offered to God or to a god
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Extraneous
adj. irrelevant or unrelated to the subject being dealt with
adj. extrinsic; of outside origin
adj. seperate from the object to which it is attached
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Parlance
n. a particular way of speaking or using words, especially a way common with those with a particular job or interest: dated terms that were in common parlance; medical parlance
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Concordat
n. an agreement or treaty
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Embroil
v. involve (someone) deeply in an argument, conflict, or difficult situation: she became embroiled in a dispute between two women she hardly knew
v. bring into a state of confusion or disorder
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Sedulous
adj. (of a person or action) showing dedication and diligence: he watched himself with the most sedulous care
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Sidereal
adj. of or with respect to the distant stars
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Artifice
n. cunning or clever devices or expedients, especially as used to trick or decieve others: the style is free from the artifices of the period
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Inviolable
adj. never to be broken, infringed, or dishonored: an inviolable rule of chastity
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Belie
v. (of an appearance) fail to give a true notion or impression of (something); disguise or contradict
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Discreet
adj. careful and circumspect in one’s speech or actions, especially in order to avoid causing offense or to gain an advantage
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Gibe
n. an insulting or mocking remark; a taunt: a gibe at his old rivals
v. [no obj.] make insulting or mocking remarks; jeer: some cynics in the media might gibe
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Ignominous
adj. deserving or causing public disgrace or shame
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Sunder
v. split apart: the crunch of bone when it is sundered
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Scuttle
n. a metal container with a sloping hinged lid and a handle, used to fetch and store coal for a domestic container
n. the amount of coal held in a scuttle: carrying endless scuttles of coal up from the cellar
n. an act or sound of scuttling
v. run hurriedly or furtively with short quick steps
v. deliberately cause (a scheme) to fail: some of the stockholders are threatening to scuttle the deal
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Shackle
v. limit or restrain
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Superannuated
v. retire (someone) with a pension
adj. obsolete through age or new technological or intellectual developments: superannuated computing equipment
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Vie
v. compete eagerly with someone in order to do or achieve something
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Feculent
adj. of or containing dirt, sediment, or waste matter: their feet were forever slipping on feculent bog
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Pastoral
adj. (especially of land or a farm) used for or related to the grazing or keeping of sheep or cattle
adj. associated with country life
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Equable
adj. (of a person) not easily disturbed or angered; calm and even-tempered
adj. not varying or fluctuating easily: an equable climate
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Sleazy
adj. (of a person or situation) sordid, corrupt, or immoral
adj. (of a place) squalid or seedy
adj. (of textiles and clothes) flimsy
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Seedy
adj. sordid and disreputable
adj. shabby and squalid
adj. unwell
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Prehensile
adj. (chiefly of an animal’s limb or tail) capable of grasping
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Coincident
adj. occuring together in space or time: an increasing specialization of discourse coincident with the progress of the Industrial Revolution
adj. in agreement or harmony
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Concomitant
adj. naturally accompanying or associated: she loved travel, with all its concomitant worries
n. a phenomenon that naturally accompanies or follows something: some of us look on pain and illness as concomitant of the stresses of living
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Cauterize
v. burn the skin or flesh of (a wound) with a heated instrument or caustic substance, typically to stop bleeding or prevent the wound from becoming infected
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Bowdlerize
v. remove material that is considered improper or offensive from (a text or other material), especially with the result that it becomes weaker or less effective
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Marionette
n. a puppet controlled by strings
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Shoal
n. a large number of fish swimming together: a shoal of bream
n. a large number of people
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Stick
n. a piece of basic furniture: every stick of furniture just vanished
n. severe criticism or treatment: I took a lot of stick from the press
n. (the sticks) rural areas far from the cities
n. [with adj.] a person of a specified kind: he’s a bad old stick
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Roil
v. [with obj.] make (a liquid) turbid or muddy by disturbing the sediment: winds roil these waters
v. [no obj.] (of a liquid) move in a turbulent, swirling matter: a kind of fear roiled in her
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Bid
v. [no obj.] (bid for) make an effort or attempt to achieve
n. an attempt or effort to achieve something: an investigation would be carried out in a bid to establish what happened
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Consolidate
v. make (something) physically stronger or more solid
v. reinforce or strengthen (one’s position or power)
v. combine (a number of things) into a single more effective or coherent whole
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Recondite
adj. dealing with very profound, difficult, or abstruse subject matter: a recondite treatise
adj. beyond ordinary knowledge or understanding
