| 1 |
"libretto" - the words of an opera or musical play. In many great operas, composers have had to whittle down an epic literary work into a suitable libretto. "flail" - thresh about. Exercise is prescribed, but when she joins an aqua aerobics class, she flails embarrassingly. |
| 2 |
"bandy" - discuss lightly. Hillary Clinton's name has been bandied about, but she's made it clear she's not interested. "gratis" - costing nothing. "Would you admit them gratis?" asked Mr. Castlemaine with a smile, "or would they have to pay, like ordinary residents in an hotel?" |
| 3 |
"upshot" - a phenomenon that is caused by some previous phenomenon. The inevitable upshot of their growing social power was that brands wanted an expanded visual presence. "aphorism" - a short pithy instructive saying. General Sherman's famous aphorism that "War is Hell," has become classic. |
| 4 |
"redoubtable" - worthy of respect or honor. Captain Miles Standish was a redoubtable soldier, small in person, but of great activity and courage. "corpulent" - excessively fat. Obesity is very common, but chiefly among the women, who while still quite young often become enormously corpulent. |
| 5 |
"benighted" - lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture. I alone was magnificently and absurdly aware—everyone else was benightedly out of it. "sententious" - abounding in or given to pompous or aphoristic moralizing. He is the village wise man; very sententious; and full of profound remarks on shallow subjects. |
| 6 |
"cabal" - a clique that seeks power usually through intrigue. Supposedly, see, there's this global cabal of scientists conspiring to bring about socialist one-world government. "paraphernalia" - equipment consisting of miscellaneous articles. It's outfitted with cricket bats and other antique sports paraphernalia. |
| 7 |
"vitiate" - make imperfect. His talent in writing is vitiated by his affectation and other faults. "adulation" - servile flattery; exaggerated and hypocritical praise. And celebrities get all this adulation for something that is not about character, it's about talent. |
| 8 |
"quaff" - to swallow hurriedly or greedily or in one draught. Meanwhile the officers under the tree had got served, and, cups in hand, were quaffing joyously. "unassuming" - not arrogant. Parr's conduct after his most heroic actions was thoroughly modest and unassuming. |
| 9 |
"libertine" - a dissolute person. Still, Mr. Awlaki was neither among the most conservative Muslim students nor among the libertines who tossed aside religious restrictions on drinking and sex. "maul" - injure badly. Hundreds of concert goers were mauled as they left by what The New York Times called "bands of roving youths." |
| 10 |
"adage" - a condensed but memorable saying embodying an important fact. So he focuses on the fans and embraces the adage, "Living well is the best revenge." "expostulation" - the act of expressing earnest opposition or protest. He even believed he saw visions with his own bodily eyes, and no expostulations of his friends could drive this belief out of his head. |
| 11 |
"tawdry" - tastelessly showy. It was a tawdry affair, all Cupids and cornucopias, like a third-rate wedding cake. "trite" - repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse. The subject—a deathbed scene—might seem at first sight to be a trite and common one. |
| 12 |
"hireling" - a person who works only for money. Why should I?—a mere police detective, who had been hired to do a service and paid for it like any other hireling. "ensconce" - fix firmly. Though she is firmly ensconced in a writing career, Ms. Freud, 48, said that in the early days she missed acting terribly. |
| 13 |
"egregious" - conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible. "These offenses are very serious, even egregious," the judge said. "cogent" - powerfully persuasive. His thesis was too cogent, and appealed too powerfully to all classes of the Upper Canada community, to be anything but irresistible. |
| 14 |
"incisive" - demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions. A half-hour of informed and incisive questioning by Mr. Russert would have demolished Mr. Trump. "errant" - straying from the right course or from accepted standards. As the crowd voiced its displeasure, the referees made sure Wisconsin got the ball, but pass was errant and rolled out of bounds at midcourt. |
| 15 |
"sedulous" - marked by care and persistent effort. Sedulous attention and painstaking industry always mark the true worker. "incandescent" - characterized by ardent emotion or intensity or brilliance. Kirkwood's anger cooled apace; at worst it had been a flare of passion— incandescent. |
| 16 |
"derelict" - in deplorable condition. Others are clustered under a tin awning by a derelict railway station or in similarly run-down school buildings. "entomology" - the branch of zoology that studies insects. From the department of entomology you expect to learn something about the troublesome insects, which are so universal an annoyance. |
| 17 |
"execrable" - unequivocally detestable. But minds were so overexcited at the time that the parties mutually accused each other, on all occasions, of the most execrable crimes. "sluice" - pour as if from a conduit that carries a rapid flow of water. At 4:15 p.m., as the rain was sluicing off roofs in sheets, the firemen moved the trucks to higher ground. |
| 18 |
"moot" - of no legal significance, as having been previously decided. The statement from Hermitage said even in the Soviet period no defendant had been tried after death, when charges were generally considered moot. "evanescent" - tending to vanish like vapor. Time seems stopped but it is moving on, and every glimmer of light is evanescent, flitting. |
| 19 |
"vat" - a large open vessel for holding or storing liquids. The cream remains in the large vat about twenty-four hours before it is churned. "dapper" - marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners. Thoroughly dapper, he took off his black-and-white pinstriped suit jacket — with its pocket-square flair — and weaved in and out among them, his voice ever rising. |
| 20 |
"asperity" - harshness of manner. All this proceeds from the old man, whose proper character it is to be angry and bitter, and to exhibit rancor and asperity. "flair" - a natural talent. In fact, while Lamarr qualified as an inventive genius for her artistic flair, she fell somewhat short on her scientific acumen. |
| 21 |
"mote" - a tiny piece of anything. He took his discharge out of his pocket, brushed every mote of dust from the table, and spread the document before their eyes. "circumspect" - heedful of potential consequences. Obama administration officials argue that new regulations are forcing insurers to be more circumspect about raising rates. |
| 22 |
"inimical" - not friendly. The Hindu idea is that so long as justice and equity characterise a king's rule, even beasts naturally inimical are disposed to live in friendship. "apropos" - of an appropriate or pertinent nature. I found myself thinking vaguely about things that were not at all apropos to the situation. |
| 23 |
"gruel" - a thin porridge. He says, keep them on just two pints of Indian-meal gruel—by which he appears to mean thin hasty pudding—a day, and no more. "gentility" - elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression. This was no rough bully of the seas; Carew's bearing and dandified apparel bespoke gentility. |
| 24 |
"disapprobation" - pronouncing as wrong or morally culpable. Mr Ruthven shook his head and declared that he regarded the conduct of her persecutors with grave moral disapprobation. "cameo" - engraving or carving in low relief on a stone. The trinket was a small round cameo cut out of mother-of-pearl and set in gold; it represented St. George and the dragon. |
| 25 |
"gouge" - obtain by coercion or intimidation. Shortages also have raised concerns about higher prices and gouging by wholesale drug companies that obtain supplies of hard-to-get drugs and jack up the costs. "oratorio" - a musical composition for voices and orchestra. Mendelssohn had no sooner completed his first oratorio, "St. Paul," than he began to think about setting another Bible story to music. |
| 26 |
"inclement" - severe, of weather. Be prepared for inclement weather and possible ice and snow on park roads. "scintilla" - a tiny or scarcely detectable amount. Gardner "never expressed one scintilla of remorse for his attack upon the victim" despite overwhelming evidence, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. |
| 27 |
"confluence" - a flowing together. And indeed, before the 13th century, there was an extraordinary confluence of genius and innovation, particularly around Baghdad. "squalor" - sordid dirtiness. What can be expected of human beings, crowded in such miserable habitations, living in filth and squalor, and often pinched with hunger? |
| 28 |
"stricture" - severe criticism. While gratefully accepting the generous praises of our friends, we must briefly reply to some strictures by our critics. "emblazon" - decorate with heraldic arms. His coat of arms was emblazoned on the cover. |
| 29 |
"augury" - an event indicating important things to come. This is always an encouraging sign, and an augury of success. "abut" - lie adjacent to another or share a boundary. It depicts a mountain landscape near Kingston, a historic town abutting the Hudson River. |
| 30 |
"banal" - repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse. Highly dramatic incidents are juxtaposed with comparatively banal ones; particular attention is given to tales of doomed love affairs. "congeal" - become gelatinous. Boil down the syrup to half its original quantity, but take care that it does not boil long enough to congeal or become thick. |
| 31 |
"pilfer" - make off with belongings of others. Many young people scavenge for reusable garbage, living on proceeds from pilfered construction material and other recyclables. "malcontent" - a person who is unsatisfied or disgusted. Now, unfortunately, some malcontents among the hands here have spread their ideas, and a strike has been called. |
| 32 |
"sublimate" - direct energy or urges into useful activities. They might instead have passionate friendships, or sublimate their urges into other pursuits. "eugenic" - causing improvement in the offspring produced. Eugenics was aimed at creating a better society by filtering out people considered undesirable, ranging from criminals to those imprecisely designated as "feeble-minded." |
| 33 |
"lineament" - the characteristic parts of a person's face. The tears stood in Muriel's eyes, and her face was very pale, but serenity marked every lineament. "firebrand" - someone who deliberately foments trouble. But Hassan is not some teenage firebrand hurling rocks; he's a slight, graying scholar committed to peace. |
| 34 |
"fiasco" - a sudden and violent collapse. The Stuttgart protests became a national fiasco in late September, when protesters clashed with police wielding batons and water cannons. "foolhardy" - marked by defiant disregard for danger or consequences. Many mistakes—extravagant purchases, foolhardy investments—are made in the first months after a windfall. |
| 35 |
"retrench" - tighten one's belt; use resources carefully. But there was only one way open to me at present—and that was to retrench my expenses. "ulterior" - lying beyond what is openly revealed or avowed. Shop window displays may help prettify shopping thoroughfares, but any savvy retailer has the ulterior motive of self promotion. |
| 36 |
"equable" - not varying. His must have been that calm, equable temperament not easily ruffled, which goes with the self-respecting nature. "inured" - made tough by habitual exposure. But he had become inured to the rush and whirr of missiles, and now paid no heed whatever to them. |
| 37 |
"invidious" - containing or implying a slight or showing prejudice. "After an old-fashioned, all-round team performance ... it might seem invidious to single out one player," admits the paper before singling out one player. "unmitigated" - not diminished or moderated in intensity or severity. In order to be well directed, sympathy must consider all men, and not the individual alone; only then is it an unmitigated good. |
| 38 |
"concomitant" - an event or situation that happens at the same time. The conclusion must be drawn that every epidemic of bubonic plague is caused by the concomitant rat plague. "cozen" - cheat or trick. Dicing-houses, where cheaters meet, and cozen young men out of their money. |
| 39 |
"phlegmatic" - showing little emotion. Humanity, when surfeited with emotion, becomes calm, almost phlegmatic. "dormer" - a gabled extension built out from a sloping roof. Other features, such as the front French doors and two roof dormers with curved-top windows and operable shutters, give this home a pleasing, well-balanced presence. |
| 40 |
"pontifical" - denoting or governed by or relating to a bishop or bishops. The high priest made no resistance, but went forth in his pontifical robes, followed by the people in white garments, to meet the mighty warrior. "disport" - occupy in an agreeable, entertaining or pleasant fashion. Straightway the glade in which they sat was filled with knights, ladies, maidens, and esquires, who danced and disported themselves right joyously. |
| 41 |
"apologist" - a person who argues to defend some policy or institution. Tories, and apologists for Great Britain, have written much about a justification for this action, but there is no real justification. "abeyance" - temporary cessation or suspension. My feelings of home-sickness had returned with redoubled strength after being long in abeyance. |
| 42 |
"enclave" - an enclosed territory that is culturally distinct. And its suburban schools, rather than being exclusive enclaves, include children whose parents can't afford a house in the neighborhood. "improvident" - not supplying something useful for the future. He was industrious but improvident; he made money and he lost it. |
| 43 |
"disquisition" - an elaborate analytical or explanatory essay or discussion. Cumulatively, what emerges from To Kill a Mockingbird is a thoughtful disquisition that encompasses – and goes beyond – the question of racial bias at its worst. "categorical" - not modified or restricted by reservations. "European leaders were united, categorical and crystal clear: Gaddafi must go," British Prime Minister David Cameron said. |
| 44 |
"placate" - cause to be more favorably inclined. The East India Company was placated by the concession of further exemptions in its favour. "redolent" - serving to bring to mind. Here, however, are congregated a vast number of curious and interesting objects, while the place is redolent of vivid historical associations. |
| 45 |
"felicitous" - exhibiting an agreeably appropriate manner or style. The first book is the finest, sparkling with felicitous expressions and rising frequently to true poetry. "gusty" - blowing in puffs or short intermittent blasts. Winds could get gusty, occasionally blowing at more than 30 miles per hour. |
| 46 |
"natty" - marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners. He wore a checked suit, very natty, and was more than usually tall and fine-looking. "pacifist" - opposed to war. He was, furthermore, a real pacifist, believing that war is debasing morally and disastrous economically. |
| 47 |
"buxom" - healthily plump and vigorous. Mrs. Connelly—a round, rosy, buxom Irishwoman, with a mellow voice, laughing eye, and artist-red hair—was very much taken with their plan. "heyday" - the period of greatest prosperity or productivity. Playboy's most popular years are well behind it - the magazine enjoyed its heyday in the 1970s. |
| 48 |
"herculean" - displaying superhuman strength or power. He made herculean efforts to get on terms with his examination subjects, and worked harder than he had ever done in his life before. "burgeon" - grow and flourish. Brooklyn's burgeoning dining scene has even developed a following among Manhattan food lovers. |
| 49 |
"crone" - an ugly evil-looking old woman. The aged crone wrinkled her forehead and lifted her grizzled eyebrows, still without looking at him. "prognosticate" - make a prediction about; tell in advance. How strange it is that our dreams often prognosticate coming events! |
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