31st July Flashcards
moniker
A nick name.
A moniker is a nickname or pet name for a person.
Though Paris gets the ‘city of lights’ moniker, Manhattan is electrified at night.
fractious
If you’re prone to picking fights, making snarky comments, and being frustratingly stubborn, you’re fractious.
We rarely invite fractious Uncle for dinner, he always complains about the food and usually launches into a tirade on some touchy subject.
aphoristic
Something that is concise and instructive of a general truth or principle.
Sometimes I cant stand Nathan because he tries to impress everyone by being aphoristic, but he states the obvious.
obstinate
When someone is beyond stubborn, use the word obstinate.
While stubborn may have positive or negative connotations, obstinate is most definitely negative, because it implies a kind of hard-headed determination not to change your mind even when it might be best to rethink your position.
But lawyers for the other men described Oliva as obstinate in refusing to comply with repeated requests for identification and said the officers acted appropriately.
squander
To squander means to spend extravagantly, thoughtlessly, or wastefully.
Squander used to mean scatter, and the way we use it now implies throwing something (like money) all over the place.
Meanwhile, the delta variant is taking hold and filling hospitals in states such as Louisiana and Florida, while New York City is worried it will squander hard-won gains after a nightmarish 2020.
Opposite words : Frugal, economical
exasperate
To exasperate someone is to annoy him or her to the point of impatience, frustration and irritation.
Exasperate a busy waiter by asking questions like “what are all the ingredients in the salad dressing?
Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, at times forwarded public claims of potential voter fraud to Justice Department officials, which some officials found exasperating, according to previously released emails.
Related words -> rile, hound, dogged
convoluted
Highly complex or intricate.
Convoluted policy which is really complex to understand.
You’ll need to read over your brother’s convoluted investment scheme a few times before deciding whether or not to go in on it.
travail
If you’ve had to bust your behind, burn the midnight oil, and shed blood, sweat, and tears to get where you are today, you could say you’ve endured significant travail.
Travail means you’re not just exerting monumental effort but suffering as you do so.
Stories of painfully long waits, nonexistent cars, astronomical prices and other travails are common on social media.
Ms. Dama started posting on TikTok about a year ago, documenting the travails of workers like her in the Middle East.
connive - (kannive)
To connive is to plan or plot to do something illegal or wrong.
Conniving usually occurs in secret, and people who connive are up to no good.
Criminals planning a bank robbery are conniving. Crooked politicians looking for a bribe are conniving.
peevish
When you’re peevish, you’re easily irritated and grumpy.
Know someone who always seems annoyed, grumpy, cranky, or irritated? That person is peevish.
Labour former Cabinet minister Lord Reid said it would be seen by the international community as “peevish and vindictive”, urging ministers to “reverse this blunder and do the honourable thing”.
presumption
The noun presumption pretty much means jumping to conclusions.
Making a presumption means assuming something is true or false without getting all the information necessary for verification.
The presumption is that Mr. Trump may resume posting on Facebook in two years, but he will trigger a series of escalating sanctions that end in permanent removal should he step afoul again.
It is taking something for granted — an idea, an answer, an event — without having any real knowledge about it, and that is usually not a good thing
