Word Meanings 2

Question 1

Alloy

Answer 1

To commingle; to debase by mixing something inferior; unalloyed means pure
“an ethnic alloy of many peoples”

Question 2

Appropriate

Answer 2

To take for one’s own use; to confiscate
“the accused had appropriated the property”

Question 3

Arrest

Answer 3

To suspend; to engage; holding one’s attention
“An arresting portrait”

Question 4

August

Answer 4

Majestic, venerable
“she was in august company”

Question 5

Broach

Answer 5

To bring up; to announce; to begin to talk about
“he broached the subject he had been avoiding all evening”

Question 6

Brook

Answer 6

To tolerate; to endure; to countenance
“She’d had a plan of action, one that would brook no interference.”

Question 7

Cardinal

Answer 7

Of great importance, as in cardinal sin

Question 8

Chauvinist

Answer 8

A blindly devoted patriot
“she now reports to a new boss, who is a chauvinist”

Question 9

Color

Answer 9

Influence

The attitude of the parents must colour the way children approach school.

Question 10

Essay

Answer 10

To test or try; to attempt; to experiment
“Donald essayed a smile”

Question 11

Exact

Answer 11

To demand; to call for; to require; to take
“he exacted promises that another Watergate would never be allowed to happen”

Question 12

Fell

Answer 12

Inhumanly cruel, lethal

A fell disease

Question 13

Flip

Answer 13

Sarcastic, impertinent

A flip remark

Question 14

Ford

Answer 14

To wade across the shallow part of a river or stream without a boat

They were guarding the bridge, so we forded the river.

Question 15

Grouse

Answer 15

To complain or grumble
“groused about the higher prices.”

Question 16

Guy/ guyed

Answer 16

A rope or cord, or cable attached to something as a brace or guide

“We have to have guy ropes and hoardings to stop it from falling over and hitting somebody.”

Question 17

Intimate

Answer 17

To imply, suggest, or insinuate
He went on to intimate that he was indeed contemplating a shake-up of the company.

Question 18

List

Answer 18

of a ship) lean over to one side, typically because of a leak or unbalanced cargo.

“the ship was listing badly”

Question 19

Lumber

Answer 19

To move heavily and clumsily

Question 20

Meet

Answer 20

Fitting, proper

Question 21

Milk

Answer 21

To exploit; to squeeze every last ounce of

Question 22

Mince

Answer 22

to speak too carefully; to take tiny steps
“there were plenty of secretaries mincing about”

Question 23

Nice

Answer 23

Exacting, fastidious, extremely precise

I’ll explain it nice and simply so you can understand

Question 24

Occult

Answer 24

Hidden, concealed, beyond comprehension

The countries are drawn together by some occult footballing force.

Question 25

Pedestrian

Answer 25

Commonplace, trite, unremarkable, quotidian

Question 26

Pied

Answer 26

Multicoloured, usually in blotches. a pied horse

Question 27

Plastic

Answer 27

Moldable, pliable, not rigid

Question 28

Pluck

Answer 28

Courage, spunk, fortitude "it must have taken a lot of pluck to walk along a path marked ‘Danger’"

Question 29

Prize

Answer 29

To pry, to press or force with a lever; something taken by force, spoils "I tried to prize Joe's fingers away from the stick"

Question 30

Rail

Answer 30

To complain about bitterly "he railed at human fickleness"

Question 31

Rent/rend (past tense)

Answer 31

Torn; an opening or tear caused by such "Eddie was dismayed by the rent in the roof of the tent"

Question 32

Quail

Answer 32

To lose courage; to turn frightened The very words make many of us quail.

Question 33

Qualify

Answer 33

If you qualify a statement, you make it less strong or less general by adding a detail or explanation to it. I would qualify that by putting it into context

Question 34

Sap

Answer 34

1. To enervate (verb) 2. A fool or nitwit (noun) "our energy is being sapped by bureaucrats and politicians"

Question 35

Scurvy

Answer 35

Contemptible, despicable

Question 36

Singular

Answer 36

Exceptional, unusual, odd

Question 37

Stand

Answer 37

A group of trees

Question 38

Steep

Answer 38

To saturate or completely soak, as in to let a tea bag steep

Question 39

Strut

Answer 39

The supporting structural cross-part of a wing

Question 40

Table

Answer 40

To remove from consideration (as a parliamentary motion)

Question 41

Tender

Answer 41

To proffer or offer ...the consortium that has won the tender to build the bridge.

Question 42

Waffle

Answer 42

Prattle There was some bloke on the phone waffling about an airline ticket.

Question 43

Wag

Answer 43

A wag is someone who makes jokes. He's a bit of a wag, his dad

Question 44

Abjure

Answer 44

To renounce or reject solemnly; He abjured the Protestant faith and became King in 1594

Question 45

Adumbrate

Answer 45

1. represent in outline. "Hobhouse had already adumbrated the idea of a welfare state" 2. foreshadow (a future event). "tenors solemnly adumbrate the fate of the convicted sinner"

Question 46

likened

Answer 46

similar; same

Question 47

anathema

Answer 47

If something is anathema to you, you strongly dislike it. Violence was anathema to them.

Question 48

anodyne

Answer 48

soothing; something that assuages or allays pain or comforts

Question 49

apogee

Answer 49

farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith

Question 50

apostate

Answer 50

one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions "after fifty years as an apostate he returned to the faith"

Question 51

apotheosis

Answer 51

deification; glorification to godliness; an exalted example; a model of excellence or perfection

Question 52

asperity

Answer 52

severity; rigor; harshness; acrimony

Question 53

asseverate

Answer 53

to aver, allege, or assert

Question 54

assiduous

Answer 54

diligent, hardworking, sedulous

Question 55

augury

Answer 55

omen, portent

Question 56

captious

Answer 56

tending to find fault or raise petty objections. "a captious teacher"

Question 57

cavil

Answer 57

to find fault without good reason

Question 58

celerity

Answer 58

speed, alacrity; think accelerate

Question 59

chimera

Answer 59

an illusion; an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster

Question 60

contumacious

Answer 60

insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means insult, scorn, aspersion

Question 61

denouement

Answer 61

an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot

Question 62

descry

Answer 62

to catch sight of "she descried two figures"

Question 63

desultory

Answer 63

random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose

Question 64

diaphanous

Answer 64

transparent, gauzy

Question 65

dirge

Answer 65

a song of grief or lamentation

Question 66

encomium

Answer 66

panegyric, eulogy

Question 67

eschew

Answer 67

to shun or avoid

Question 68

exegesis

Answer 68

critical examination, explication

Question 69

expiate

Answer 69

to atone or make amends for

Question 70

fractious

Answer 70

quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly

Question 71

gainsay

Answer 71

to deny, to dispute, to contradict, to oppose

Question 72

heterodox

Answer 72

unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic

Question 73

imbroglio

Answer 73

difficult or embarrassing situation

Question 74

insouciant

Answer 74

unconcerned, carefree, heedless

Question 75

lubricious

Answer 75

lewd, slippery

Question 76

mendicant

Answer 76

a beggar, supplicant

Question 77

minatory

Answer 77

menacing, threatening

Question 78

nadir

Answer 78

low point, perigee

Question 79

nonplussed

Answer 79

baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think

Question 80

obstreperous

Answer 80

noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous

Question 81

palliate

Answer 81

to make something seem less serious, to make less severe or intense

Question 82

pellucid

Answer 82

transparent, easy to understand, limpid

Question 83

peroration

Answer 83

the concluding part of a speech; flowery

Question 84

prolix

Answer 84

long-winded, verbose

Question 85

puerile

Answer 85

childish, immature, jejune, nugatory

Question 86

remonstrate

Answer 86

to protest, to object

Question 87

sagacious

Answer 87

having sound judgment

Question 88

salutary

Answer 88

remedial, causing improvement; beneficial "it failed to draw salutary lessons from Britain's loss of its colonies"

Question 89

saturnine

Answer 89

gloomy, dark, sullen, morose

Question 90

sententious

Answer 90

aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively

Question 91

stentorian

Answer 91

extremely loud and powerful

Question 92

stygian

Answer 92

gloomy, dark

Question 93

tendentious

Answer 93

biased; showing marked tendencies

Question 94

vitiate

Answer 94

to corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective "development programmes have been vitiated by the rise in population"

Question 95

voluble

Answer 95

fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language