week 10 Flashcards
(40 cards)
Abjure
(v.) to reject, renounce
(To prove his honesty, the President abjured the evil
policies of his wicked
predecessor.)
Accede
(v.) to agree
(When the class asked the teacher whether they could play baseball instead of learn grammar they expected him to refuse, but instead he acceded to their request.)
Acrimony
(n.) bitterness, discord
(Though they vowed that no girl would ever come between them, Biff and Trevor could not keep acrimony from overwhelming their friendship after they both fell in love with the lovely Teresa.)
Bereft
(adj.) devoid of, without (His family was bereft of food and shelter following the
tornado.)
Colloquial
(adj.) characteristic of informal conversation
(Adam’s essay on sexual
response in primates was marked down because it contained too many colloquial
expressions.)
Deferential
(adj.) showing respect for another’s authority
(His deferential attitude
toward her made her more confident in her ability to run the company.)
Eclectic
(adj.) consisting of a diverse variety of elements
(That bar attracts an eclectic
crowd: lawyers, artists, circus clowns, and investment bankers.)
Furtive
(adj.) secretive, sly
(Jane’s placement of her drugs in
her sock drawer was not as
furtive as she thought, as the sock drawer is the first place most parents look.)
Grandiose
(adj.) on a magnificent or exaggerated scale
(Margaret planned a grandiose
party, replete with elephants, trapeze artists, and clowns.)
Immutable
(adj.) not changeable
(The laws of physics are immutable and constant.)
Lurid
(adj.) ghastly, sensational (Gideon’s story, in which he described a character torturing his sister’s dolls, was judged too lurid to be printed in the school’s literary magazine.)
Maverick
(n.) an independent,
nonconformist person
(Andreas is a real maverick and
always does things his own way.)
Neophyte
(n.) someone who is young or inexperienced
(As a neophyte in the literary
world, Malik had trouble finding a publisher for his first novel.)
Pallid
(adj.) lacking color
(Dr. Van Helsing feared that Lucy’s pallid complexion was due to an unexplained loss of blood.)
Promulgate
(v.) to proclaim, make known
(The film professor promulgated that both in terms of sex appeal and political intrigue, Sean Connery’s James Bond was superior
to Roger Moore’s.)
Querulous
(adj.) whiny, complaining
(If deprived of his pacifier, young Brendan becomes querulous.)
Relegate
(v.) to assign to the proper place
(At the astrology conference, Simon was relegated to the Scorpio room.)
2. (v.) to assign to an inferior place
(After spilling a
drink on a customer’s shirt, the waiter found himself relegated to the least lucrative
shift.)
Sycophant
(n). one who flatters for self-gain (Some see the people in the cabinet as the president’s closest advisors, but others see them as sycophants.
Vapid
(adj.) lacking liveliness, dull
(The professor’s comments about the poem were
surprisingly vapid and dull.)
Zephyr
(n.) a gentle breeze
(If not for the zephyrs that were blowing and cooling us, our
room would’ve been unbearably hot.
(v.) to reject, renounce
(To prove his honesty, the President abjured the evil
policies of his wicked
predecessor.)
Abjure
(v.) to agree
Accede
(n.) bitterness, discord
Acrimony
(adj.) devoid of, without
Bereft
