Vocabulary unit 7

Question 1

Austere

Answer 1

(adj.)
1. severe or stern in manner; harsh or sour
2. without adornment or luxury; simple, plain

(The adjective austere is used to describe something or someone stern or without any decoration. You wouldn’t want someone to describe you or your home as austere.)

Question 2

Beneficent

Answer 2

(adj.) performing acts of kindness or charity; conferring benefits, doing good

Question 3

Cadaverous

Answer 3

(adj.) pale, gaunt, resembling a corpse

Question 4

Concoct

Answer 4

(v.)
to prepare by combining ingredients, make up (as dish); to devise, invent, fabricate

Question 5

Crass

Answer 5

(adj.) coarse, unfeeling; stupid

(A crass comment is very stupid and shows that the speaker doesn’t care about other people’s feelings. In today’s day and age, you don’t have to wear black to a funeral, but to show up in clown pants is simply crass.)

Question 6

Debase

Answer 6

(v.) to lower in character, quality or value; to degrade, adulterate; to cause to deteriorate

(To debase something is to make it corrupt or impure. If your lemonade stand sells “pure lemonade,” you’d insist on using real lemons instead of a mix; using a mix would debase your product.)

Question 7

Desecrate

Answer 7

(v.) to commit sacrilege (unholy acts) upon , treat irreverently; to contaminate, pollute

(To desecrate means to treat a sacred place or thing with violent disrespect. The news sometimes reports on vandals who have desecrated tombstones or places of worship)

Question 8

Disconcert

Answer 8

(v.) to confuse; to disturb the composure of

(To disconcert is to unsettle someone, or make them feel confused and out of sorts. Finding a soup ladle in your sock drawer would definitely disconcert you!)

Question 9

Grandiose

Answer 9

(adj.) grand in an impressive or stately way; marked by pompous affectation or grandeur, absurdly exaggerated

Question 10

Inconsequential

Answer 10

(adj.) trifling, unimportant

(If something is considered of little worth or importance, it is inconsequential.)

Question 11

Infraction

Answer 11

(n.) a breaking of a law or obligation

(When you break school rules about gum chewing, you commit an infraction. An infraction is a petty crime or a minor breaking of rules.)

Question 12

Mitigate

Answer 12

(v.) to make milder or softer, to moderate in force or intensity

(Choose the verb mitigate when something lessens the unpleasantness of a situation. You can mitigate your parents’ anger by telling them you were late to dinner because you were helping your elderly neighbor.)

Question 13

Pillage

Answer 13

(v.) to rob of goods by open force (as in war)

(To pillage is a term of war that means to take everything of value from a place that you’ve conquered.)

Question 14

Prate

Answer 14

(v.) to talk a great deal in a foolish or aimless fashion

To prate means to talk on and on about something. While it may be interesting to hear about other people’s vacations, when they prate about them until the wee hours, it becomes intolerable.

Question 15

Punctiliious

Answer 15

(adj.) very careful and extract, attentive to fine points of etiquette or propriety

(A punctilious person pays attention to details. Are you always precisely on time? Is your room perfectly neat? Do you never forget a birthday or a library book’s due date? Then you are one of the punctilious people.)

Question 16

Redoubtable

Answer 16

(adj.) inspiring fear or awe; illustrious, eminet

(Redoubtable means honorable, maybe even intimidatingly so. If your grandmother worked tirelessly to raise four kids on her own and started her own taxi cab business and to this day, keeps all of her cabbies in line, she is without a doubt redoubtable.)

Question 17

Reprove

Answer 17

(v.) to find fault with, scold, rebuke

(If you get into trouble and are sent to the principal’s office, be prepared for the principal to reprove you for your behavior. To reprove is to scold.)

Question 18

Restitution

Answer 18

(n.) the act of restoring someone or something to the rightful owner or to a former state or position; making good on a loss or damage

(Restitution is the act of making up for damages or harm. Remember the time you knocked the ball out of the park, breaking a house’s window in the process? You had to make restitution for the broken window, paying for its replacement.)

Question 19

Stalwart

Answer 19

(adj.) strong and sturdy; brave; resolute; (n.) a brave, strong person; a strong supporter; one who takes an uncompromising position

(To be stalwart is to be courageous and dependable, like a stalwart knight who defends a kingdom from a ferocious dragon.)

Question 20

Vulnerable

Answer 20

(adj.) open to attack; capable of being wounded or damaged; unprotected