WOD current Flashcards
prehensile
1 adapted for seizing or grasping especially by wrapping around
2 gifted with mental grasp or moral or aesthetic perception
- The seahorse has a long, tubular snout with a round, toothless mouth. Normally they remain motionless, holding onto coral, rocks or seaweed with their prehensile tail.
- All his life, Freud was … a compelling presence, a brilliant conversationalist and a munificent host…. The art historian John Richardson was struck by his phenomenal memory for verse, from Lord Rochester to W. H. Auden. Delving in the prehensile memory also speaks to serious self-awareness.
efficacious
1 having the power to produce a desired effect
- And as I mentioned, at the conference today, vaccines are close by. They’re coming. I said ‘Help is on the way,’ which to me, I think, should motivate people, even more, to double down because pretty soon we’re going to get a heck of a lot of help from a very efficacious vaccine.
- Facebook also employs fact-checking tags, but there are mixed opinions about whether these efforts are efficacious or cause users to double-down on their preconceptions.
presage
1 to give an omen or warning of, foreshadow
2 foretell, predict
3 to make or utter a prediction
- The sudden gloom and ominous dark clouds clearly presaged a nasty storm..
- With its ominous soundtrack and use of abrupt black screens to presage dark events, the film evokes a mood of inevitability and gloom..
ulterior
1 a. going beyond what is is openly said of shown and especially what is proper
2 a. further, future; b. more disptant; c. situated on the farther side
- People need someone in office that they can trust, that they know has no ulterior motives or is beholden to any entities other than the city.
- Dreyer describes Seuss’s personal collection of paintings and sculptures as ‘secret art.’ Geisel literally kept them in the closet … and his widow, Audrey Geisel, has never sold an original Seuss. She authorized high-quality lithograph prints so the public can see the ulterior side of her late husband.
feckless
1 weak, ineffective
2 worthless, irresponsible
- Many years ago, in my feckless youth, I took a 20-hour Greyhound bus trip across the Midwest to Boston.
- The story of Tom Cruise’s feckless young test pilot, Top Gun was that rare sort of high-octane action movie that despite its flashy, fast-paced theatrics managed to resonate deeply with audiences in the mid-80s.
apologia
1 a defense especially of one’s opinions, position, or actions
- Susan Sontag, probably the most influential writer on the intersection of violence and photography, didn’t buy this argument. With forensic prose, she cut through complacent apologias for war photography and set photojournalistic images of violence squarely in the context of viewers’ voyeurism.
- And then there are the countless physicists and biologists who, throughout the 20th century, contributed expertise to building and improving weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps this explains why [Neil deGrasse] Tyson eventually co-wrote a book called Accessory to War, the subtitle of which—’The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military’—surely stands as an apologia for his previous blunder.
capitulate
1a: to surrender often after negotiated of terms
1b. to cease resisting
- Real estate experts say retailers are increasingly looking to pay rent as a percentage of sales, making it a variable expense on their balance sheets rather than a fixed one.… While there could be some hesitation to strike a deal like this, landlords could end up capitulating to keep a space occupied.
- And remember, Rivera didn’t draft Haskins last year. His predecessor, Jay Gruden, didn’t want to, either, but capitulated to owner Daniel Snyder.
ambient
1 existing or present on all side: encompassing
2 of electronic music: quiet and relaxing with melodies that repeat many times
- These sophisticated spaces are stocked with elements to lure homeowners outdoors: water and fire features; … ambient lighting to set the mood.
- The fear might go away after a couple of scenes, or even right after a first entrance. ‘Sort of like in movies when all ambient noise fades away and everything goes out of focus but the path ahead,’ says Leontyne Mbele-Mbong.
doyen
1a: the senior member of a body or group
1b. a person considered to be knowledgeable or uniquely skilled as a result of long experience in some field of endeavor
2. the oldest example of a category
- We watched a TV documentary by Jacques Cousteau, the doyen of undersea explorers.
- Opening night will feature the saxophonist and spiritual-jazz doyen Pharoah Sanders, who turns 80 next month…
grandiloquence
a lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner, or quality especially in language
- The film finds its grounding in the closing scene when it strips away its grandiloquence and Beyoncé sings an a cappella version of ‘Spirit’ backed by a gospel choir….
- There will be plenty more rhetoric, pomposity and grandiloquence in the next few weeks as negotiations between the union and MLB get hot and heavy.
