Words 0017

Question 1

bespectacled

Answer 1

wearing glasses

• a small, bespectacled man in a drab suit

Question 2

besmeared

Answer 2

covered with marks from dirt, oil, etc.

• His face was besmeared with chocolate.

Question 3

beset

Answer 3

having a lot of trouble with something, or having to deal with a lot of something that causes problems

• With the amount of traffic nowadays, even a trip across town is beset by/with dangers.

Question 4

berth

Answer 4

If a ship or boat berths or if you berth it somewhere, it is tied up and stays in that place

• The ship berthed at Sydney.

a bed in a boat, train, etc., or a place for a ship or boat to stay in a port

• She booked a berth on the ferry from Palermo to Naples.

Question 5

to give sth/sb a wide berth

idiom

Answer 5

to avoid a person or place

• I tend to give the city centre a wide berth on Saturdays because it’s so busy.

Question 6

brandishing

Answer 6

to wave something in the air in a threatening or excited way

• She brandished a saucepan at me so I ran out of the kitchen.

Question 7

prurient

Answer 7

too interested in the details of another person’s sexual behaviour

• He denied that the article had been in any way prurient.

∆ prurience, pruriently

Question 8

smite

Answer 8

to hit someone forcefully or to have a sudden powerful or damaging effect on someone

Question 9

smirk

Answer 9

a smile that expresses satisfaction or pleasure about having done something or knowing something that is not known by someone else

• “Maybe your husband does things that you don’t know about,” he said with a smirk.
• “I told you it would end in disaster,” said Polly with a self-satisfied smirk on her face.

Question 10

smithereens

/ˌsmɪð.ərˈiːnz/

Answer 10

a lot of very small broken pieces

• Our city was bombed to smithereens during the war.
• So many films nowadays involve everyone and everything being blown to smithereens.

Question 11

smithy

Answer 11

a place where things are made out of metal, especially iron or steel, by heating and using a hammer

Question 12

smitten

Answer 12

having suddenly started to like or love something or someone very much:

• The story’s about a man smitten with love for his wife’s cousin.
• He was so smitten by her that he promised to move to Argentina to be near her.

Question 13

smock

Answer 13

a piece of clothing like a long shirt, worn loosely over other clothing to protect it when working, or a piece of women’s clothing that is similar to this

• an artist’s smock

Question 14

intrepid

Answer 14

extremely brave and showing no fear of dangerous situations

• a team of intrepid explorers

Question 15

suffrage

Answer 15

the right to vote in an election, especially for representatives in a parliament or similar organisation

• universal suffrage (= the right of all adults to vote)

Question 16

washbasin

Answer 16

a bowl that is fixed to the wall in a bathroom or near a toilet and has pipes to supply and carry away water, in which you wash your hands, face, etc.

Question 17

clairvoyant

Answer 17

(noun) a person who says they have powers to see the future or see things that other people cannot see

• She went to see a clairvoyant who said he could communicate with her dead husband.

clairvoyance, clairvoyant (adj)

Question 18

to plod

Answer 18

to walk taking slow steps, as if your feet are heavy

• We plodded through the mud.
• Despite the wind and the rain, they plodded on until they reached the cottage.

Question 19

flout

Answer 19

to intentionally not obey a rule, law, or custom

• Many motorcyclists flout the law by not wearing helmets.
• The orchestra decided to flout convention/tradition, and wear their everyday clothes for the concert.

Question 20

recluse

Answer 20

a person who lives alone and avoids going outside or talking to other people

• He is a millionaire recluse who refuses to give interviews.

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