Week 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

abate

A

v. subside or moderate.

“Rather than leaving immediately, they waited for the storm to abate.”

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2
Q

aberrant

A

adj. abnormal or deviant

“Given the aberrant nature of the data, we came to doubt the validity of the entire experiment.”

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3
Q

abeyance

A

n. suspended in action

“The deal was held in abeyance until her arrival.”

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4
Q

abscond

A

v. depart secretly and hide

“The teller who absconded with the bonds went uncaptured until someone recognized him from America’s Most Wanted.”

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5
Q

abstemious

A

adj. sparing in eating or drinking; temperate
“Concerned whether her vegetarian son’s abstemious diet provided him with sufficient protein, the worried mother pressed food on him.”

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6
Q

admonish

A

v. warn, reprove
“When her courtiers questioned her religious beliefs, Mary Stuart admonished them, declaring that she would worship as she pleased.”

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7
Q

adulterate

A

v. to make impure by adding inferior or tainted substances; n. adulteration
“It is a crime to adulterate foods without informing the buyer; when consumers learned that Beechnut had adulterated its apple juice by mixing the juice with water, they protested vigorously.”

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8
Q

aesthetic

A

adj. artistic, dealing with or capable of appreciating the beautiful; n. aesthete
“The beauty of Tiffany’s stained glass appealed to Alice’s aesthetic sense.

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9
Q

aggregate

A

v. gather, accumulate; n. aggregation
“Before the Wall Street scandals, dealers in so-called junk bonds managed to aggregate great wealth in short periods of time.”

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10
Q

alacrity

A

n. cheerful promptness, eagerness
“Phil and Dave were raring to get off to the mountains; they packed up their ski gear and climbed into the van with alacrity.”

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11
Q

alleviate

A

v. relieve

“This should alleviate the pain; if it does not we shall have to use stronger drugs.”

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12
Q

amalgamate

A

v. combine; unite in one body

“The unions will attempt to amalgamate their groups into one national body.”

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13
Q

ambiguous

A

adj. unclear or doubtful in meaning; n. ambiguity

“His ambiguous instructions misled us; we did not know which road to take”

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14
Q

ambivalence

A

n. the state of having contradictory or conflicting emotional attitudes; adj. ambivalence
“Torn between loving her parents one minute and hating them the next, she was confused by the ambivalence of her feelings.”

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15
Q

ameliorate

A

v. improve

“Many social workers have attempted to ameliorate the living conditions of people living in the slums.”

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16
Q

anachronism

A

n. something or someone misplaced in time; adj. anachronistic
“Shakespeare’s reference to clocks in Julias Caesar is an anachronism; no clocks existed in Caesar’s time.”

17
Q

analogous

A

adj. comparable
“She called our attention to the things that had been done in an analogous situation and recommended that we do the same.”

18
Q

anarchy

A

n. absence of governing body; state of disorder

“The assassination of the leaders led to a period of anarchy.”

19
Q

anomalous

A

adj. abnormal or irregular

“Researchers could not explain the anomalous test results”

20
Q

antipathy

A

n. aversion; dislike

“Tom’s extreme antipathy for disputes keeps him from getting into arguments with his temperamental wife.”

21
Q

apathy

A

n. lack of caring; adj. apathetic

“A firm believer in democratic goverment

22
Q

appease

A

v. pacify or soothe, relieve; n. appeasement

“Tom and Jody tried to appease the crying baby by offering him one toy after another.”

23
Q

apprise

A

v. to inform
“When NASA was apprised of the dangerous weather conditions, the head of the space agency decided to postpone the shuttle launch.”

24
Q

approbation

A

n. approval
“Benjamin Franklin, that shrewd observer of mankind, once wrote, ‘We must not in the course of public life expect immediate approbation and immediate grateful acknowledgement of our services.’”

25
Q

appropriate

A

v. acquire; take possession for one’s own use

“The ranch owners appropriated the lands that had originally been set aside for the Indian’s use.”

26
Q

arduous

A

adj. hard, strenuous

“Her arduous efforts had sapped her energy.”

27
Q

artless

A

adj. without guile, open and honest
“Red Riding Hood’s artless comment, ‘Grandma, what big eyes you have!’ indicates the child’s innocent surprise at her ‘grandmother’s’ changed appearance.”

28
Q

ascetic

A

adj. practicing self-denial, austere; n. asceticism

“The wealthy, self-indulgent young man felt oddly drawn to the strict, ascetic life led by some monastic orders.”

29
Q

assiduous

A

adj. diligent

“It took Rembrandt weeks of assiduous labor before he was satisfied with his portrait of his son.”

30
Q

assuage

A

v. ease or lessen (pain), satisfy (hunger), soothe (anger); n. assuagement
“Jilted by Jane, Dick tried to assuage his heartache by indulging in icecream.”

31
Q

attenuate

A

v. make thinner, weaken or lessen (in density, force, degree)
“The long, dry spell attenuated the creek to the merest trickle.”

32
Q

audacious

A

adj. daring, bold; n. audacity
“Audiences cheered as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia made their audacious, death-defying leap to freedom and escaped Darth Vader’s troops.”