Words 0010 Flashcards
Destitute
without money, food, a home or possessions
- The floods left thousands of people destitute.
- Destitution has become a major problem in the capital.
Scrunch
- to make the noise produced by hard things being pressed together, or to press hard things together so that they make a noise
- The pebbles scrunched beneath our feet.
- We scrunched snow under our feet.
- to crush material such as paper or cloth into a rough ball in the hand
• She scrunched the letter up and threw it in the bin.
- to make something or yourself smaller to fit into a small space
•The cat was hiding, scrunched up under the sofa.
- to make your face or part of your face into a tight shape in order to show an emotion, or to go into a tight shape which expresses an emotion
• He was red with anger and his face was all scrunched up.
Shingle
- small round stones that cover a beach or the ground by the edge of a river
- a shingle beach
- I love the noise of the waves on the shingle.
- a thin flat tile usually made of wood, that is fixed in rows to make a roof or wall covering
• shingly - shingles: a disease caused by a virus that infects particular nerves and that produces a line or lines of painful red spots, especially around the waist
Broach
- to begin a discussion of something difficult
• At some point we’ve got to discuss money but I don’t know quite how to broach the subject with him.
- to open a bottle or barrel in order to drink its contents
• Shall we broach another cask of wine?
Console
- to make someone who is sad or disappointed feel better by giving them comfort or sympathy
- He tried to console her, but she kept saying it was all her own fault.
- I tried to console her with a box of chocolates.
- I was consoling Liz on having broken up with her boyfriend.
- a surface on which you find the controls for a piece of electrical equipment or a machine
• a computer console
Bloated
swollen and rounded because of containing too much air, liquid or food
- a bloated stomach
- a bloated (= uncomfortably full) feeling
- [disapproving] larger or richer than necessary
- a bloated bureaucracy
- a bloated capitalist
Rue
- to feel sorry about an event and wish it had not happened
- She’ll rue the day (that) she bought that house.
- rueful
Smite
to hit someone forcefully or to have a sudden powerful or destructive effect on someone
-> smite, smote, smitten
Unnerve
to make someone feel less confident and slightly frightened
- I think it unnerved me to be interviewed by so many people.
- Meeting a twin brother I didn’t know I had was an unnerving experience.
- unnervingly
Remonstrate
to complain to someone or about something
- I went to the boss to remonstrate against the new rules.
- The barrister remonstrated with the judge about the amount of the fine.
- remonstrance /rɪˈmɒnt .strənt s/
Straggle
to move or spread untidily and in small numbers or amounts
- I tie my hair up because I don’t like it straggling down my back.
- A year after the hurricane, tourists are beginning to straggle (= come in small numbers) back to the region.
Waver
to lose strength, determination or purpose, especially temporarily
- I’m afraid my concentration began to waver as lunch approached.
- He has never wavered in his support for the leader.
- If you waver between two possibilities, you cannot decide which of them to choose or you keep choosing one way and then the other
- “What are you having?” “Er, I’m wavering between the fish soup and the mushroom tart.”
- It’s the party’s last attempt to persuade some of the nation’s wavering voters to support them.
Insidious
(of something unpleasant or dangerous) gradually and secretly causing harm
- High-blood pressure is an insidious condition which has few symptoms.
- insidiously, insidiousness
Stifle
- to (cause to) be unable to breathe because you have no air
- He is said to have stifled his victim with a pillow.
- We almost stifled in the heat of the city.
- to prevent something from happening, being expressed or continuing
- She stifled a cough/yawn/scream/sneeze.
- I don’t know how I managed to stifle my anger.
- We should be encouraging new ideas, not stifling them.
Prostrate
- lying with the face down and arms stretched out, especially in obedience or worship
- having lost all strength or all determination because of an illness or an extremely bad experience
- A woman, prostrate with grief, lay wailing on the ground.
- Prostration
