| 1 |
"lout" - an awkward stupid person. But this question was beyond the poor lout's intelligence; he could only blubber and fend off possible chastisement. "simper" - smile affectedly or derisively. Mrs. Barnett's mouth simpered at the implied flattery; but her eyes, always looking calculatingly for substantial results, were studying Reedy Jenkins. |
| 2 |
"iniquitous" - characterized by injustice or wickedness. This was some piece of wickedness concocted by the venomous brain of the iniquitous Vicar, more abominable than all his other wickednesses. "rile" - disturb, especially by minor irritations. The prospect of seeing Ms. Palin tour Alaska's wild habitats may rile some people who oppose her opinions about climate change. |
| 3 |
"sentient" - endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness. The money fluttered from his hand to the floor, where it lay like a sentient thing, staring back as if mocking him. "garish" - tastelessly showy. With its opulently garish sets and knee-jerk realism, the production dwarfed the cast, no matter what stars were singing. |
| 4 |
"readjustment" - the act of correcting again. While earpieces are not uncomfortable, they do sometimes come loose, requiring readjustment. "erstwhile" - belonging to some prior time. Sony, whose erstwhile dominance in consumer electronics has been eroded by the likes of Samsung, could beat rivals to a potentially new generation of devices. |
| 5 |
"aquiline" - curved down like an eagle's beak. The nose slightly aquiline, curving at the nostril; while luxuriant hair, in broad plaits, fell far below her waist. "bilious" - irritable as if suffering from indigestion. But his sleep had not refreshed him; he waked up bilious, irritable, ill-tempered, and looked with hatred at his room. |
| 6 |
"vilify" - spread negative information about. The trial was televised and the victim's identity became known, resulting in her being vilified by almost the entire town. "nuance" - a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude. By working so hard to simplify things, we lose any nuance or ability to deal with folks' individual circumstances. |
| 7 |
"gawk" - look with amazement. He speaks mainly of his humiliation at lying on the sidewalk as hipsters gawked. "refectory" - a communal dining-hall, usually in a monastery. Meanwhile, the soup was getting cold in the refectory, so that the assembled brotherhood at last fell to, without waiting any longer for the Abbot. |
| 8 |
"palatial" - suitable for or like a large and stately mansion. The house was very large; its rooms almost palatial in size, had been finished in richly carved hardwood panels and wainscoting, mostly polished mahogany. "mincing" - affectedly dainty or refined. She went, carrying her little head very high indeed, and taking dainty, mincing steps. |
| 9 |
"trenchant" - having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought. They are written in a serio-comic tone, and for sparkling wit, trenchant sarcasm, and dramatic dialectics surpass anything ever penned by Lessing. "emboss" - raise in a relief. Requests may also be made of the stationer to use an embossed plate so that the letters stand out in relief. |
| 10 |
"proletarian" - a member of the working class. As yet, the true proletarian wage-earner, uprooted from his native village and broken away from the organization of Indian society, is but insignificant. "careen" - pitching dangerously to one side. I turned the steering wheel all the way to one side, and found myself careening backward in a violent arc. |
| 11 |
"debacle" - a sound defeat. The Broncos are coming off their worst season in franchise history, a 4-12 debacle that included issues on and off the field. "sycophant" - a person who tries to please someone to gain an advantage. The people around the king are sycophants who are looking after their own personal advantage. |
| 12 |
"crabbed" - annoyed and irritable. He grew crabbed and soured, his temper flashing out on small provocation. "archetype" - something that serves as a model. Newport, R.I., looks like a perfect archetype of a small, seaside New England town. |
| 13 |
"cryptic" - of an obscure nature. The authorities, beyond some cryptic language about the death being sudden but not suspicious, have released no details. "penchant" - a strong liking. But sometimes, old Wall Street habits — including a penchant for expensive luxuries — are hard to break. |
| 14 |
"bauble" - cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing. But men were buying Valentine's baubles for their honeys long before the first Zales ever opened its doors in a suburban shopping mall. "mountebank" - a flamboyant deceiver. They are singularly clever, these Indian mountebanks, especially in sleight of hand tricks. |
| 15 |
"fawning" - attempting to win favor by flattery. "As any cult leader, he was extremely good at milking the rich, at flattering and fawning," Ms. Gordon said. "hummock" - a small natural hill. Captain Bill leaned back on a hummock of earth, his arms folded behind his head. |
| 16 |
"apotheosis" - model of excellence or perfection of a kind. Contrary to popular belief, however, she said Ms. Deen's fat-laden cooking does not in fact represent the apotheosis of Southern cuisine. "discretionary" - not earmarked; available for use as needed. Steeper prices for basic necessities have forced many to cut back on more discretionary purchases. |
| 17 |
"pithy" - concise and full of meaning. As Moore isolated finer points of the passing game, Keller in neat penmanship jotted down pithy phrases and punchy quotes, basic ideas and specific concepts. "comport" - behave in a certain manner. Ironically, the one man on stage who did comport himself with dignity, John Huntsman, is now being dismissed as having not made an impact. |
| 18 |
"checkered" - marked by changeable fortune. Both restaurants have checkered histories with the health department; they were temporarily shut down for sanitary violations that included evidence of rodents. "ambrosia" - the food and drink of the gods. "Frieda represents the lovely goddess, Hebe, who served nectar and ambrosia to the high gods on Mount Olympus," she explained. |
| 19 |
"factious" - dissenting with the majority opinion. Will it be answered that we are factious, discontented spirits, striving to disturb the public order, and tear up the old fastnesses of society? "disgorge" - cause or allow to flow or run out or over. There are telephone poles and cinder blocks and living room chairs and large trash bins, overturned and disgorging their soggy contents. |
| 20 |
"filch" - make off with belongings of others. Then, in place of the real site, it displays a fake site created to filch account numbers, login names and passwords. "wraith" - a mental representation of some haunting experience. Whichever way he turns there loom past wraiths, restless as ghosts of unburied Grecian slain. |
| 21 |
"demonstrable" - capable of being proved. The linkage between deposits and trade is definite, causal, positive, statistically demonstrable. "pertinacious" - stubbornly unyielding. His temper, though yielding and easy in appearance, was in reality most obstinate and pertinacious. |
| 22 |
"emend" - make corrections to. The following were identified as spelling or typographic errors and have been emended as noted. "laggard" - someone who takes more time than necessary. Corporate data centers are the slowpoke laggards of information technology. |
| 23 |
"waffle" - pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness. A few days of waffling back and forth and I ended up going out to a mediocre bistro with my parents. "loquacious" - full of trivial conversation. Pan soon found it needful to make conversation, in order to keep the loquacious old stage driver from talking too much. |
| 24 |
"venial" - easily excused or forgiven. The confidence of ignorance, however venial in youth, is not altogether so excusable, in full grown men. "peon" - a laborer who is obliged to do menial work. For the most part, the men were wiry peons, some toiling half naked, but there were a number who looked like prosperous citizens. |
| 25 |
"effulgence" - the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light. Then, all at once, in a way that seemed to frighten her, the sunshine had burst the clouds, and dazzled her with its effulgence. "lode" - a deposit of valuable ore. Such local perturbations are regularly used in Sweden for tracing out the position of underground lodes of iron ore. |
| 26 |
"fanfare" - a gaudy outward display. It opened a month ago to considerable fanfare, with television cameras trailing government officials meandering proudly around the bright new stores filled with imported goods. "dilettante" - showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish. They dabbled in politics and art in the same dilettante fashion. |
| 27 |
"pusillanimous" - lacking in courage and manly strength and resolution. He was described by his friends as pusillanimous to an incredible extent, timid from excess of riches, afraid of his own shadow. "ingrained" - deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held. The narrow prejudices of his country were ingrained too deeply in his character to be disturbed by any change of surroundings. |
| 28 |
"quagmire" - a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot. The heavy rain had reduced this low-lying ground to a veritable quagmire, making progress very difficult even for one as unburdened as he was. "reprobation" - severe disapproval. Mr. Conway denounced this scheme as "utterly and flagrantly unconstitutional, as radically revolutionary in character and deserving the reprobation of every loyal citizen." |
| 29 |
"mannered" - having unnatural behavioral attributes. Nothing was mannered or pretentious; the texts came through with utter naturalness. "squeamish" - excessively fastidious and easily disgusted. But please note that this gunfire-fueled film is for mature audiences; given its content, young and or squeamish viewers should avoid this one. |
| 30 |
"proclivity" - a natural inclination. She received, under her father's supervision, a very careful education, and developed her proclivities for literary composition at an early age. "miserly" - characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity. Now, my uncle seemed so miserly that I was struck dumb by this sudden generosity, and could find no words in which to thank him. |
| 31 |
"vapid" - lacking significance or liveliness or spirit or zest. How vapid was the talk of my remaining fellow-passengers; how slow of understanding, and how preoccupied with petty things they seemed! "mercurial" - liable to sudden unpredictable change. Wind energy is notoriously mercurial, with patterns shifting drastically over the course of years, days, even minutes. |
| 32 |
"perspicuous" - transparently clear; easily understandable. The statements are plain and simple, a perfect model of perspicuous narrative. "nonplus" - be a mystery or bewildering to. I shook my head and rushed from his presence, completely nonplussed, bewildered, frantic. |
| 33 |
"enamor" - attract. Young Indian audiences are so enamored with reality television that they will not watch the soap operas and dramas that their parents or grandparents watch. "hackneyed" - repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse. Many speakers become so addicted to certain hackneyed phrases that those used to hearing them speak can see them coming sentences away. |
| 34 |
"spate" - a large number or amount or extent. French authorities are already reporting a rising spate of calls to emergency services by homeowners whose once-frozen water mains have now burst. "pedagogue" - someone who educates young people. His old pedagogue, Mr. Brownell, had been unable to teach him mathematics. |
| 35 |
"acme" - the highest level or degree attainable. Scientifically speaking, it is the acme of absurdity to talk of a man defying the law of gravitation when he lifts his arm. "masticate" - bite and grind with the teeth. Food should be masticated quietly, and with the lips closed. |
| 36 |
"sinecure" - an office that involves minimal duties. He would have repudiated the notion that he was looking for a sinecure, but no doubt considered that the duties would be easy and light. "indite" - produce a literary work. She indited religious poems which were the admiration of the age. |
| 37 |
"emetic" - a medicine that induces nausea and vomiting. The juice of this herb, taken in ale, is esteemed a gentle and very good emetic, bringing on vomiting without any great irritation or pain. "temporize" - draw out a discussion or process in order to gain time. So he temporized and beat about the bush, and did not touch first on that which was nearest his heart. |
| 38 |
"unimpeachable" - beyond doubt or reproach. Whether we agree with the conclusions of these writers or not, the method of critical investigation which they adopt is unimpeachable. "genesis" - a coming into being. He found himself speculating on the genesis of the moral sense, how it developed in difficulties rather than in ease. |
| 39 |
"mordant" - harshly ironic or sinister. Even Morgan himself, intrepid as he was, shrank from the awful menace of the mordant words. "smattering" - a small number or amount. Only a smattering of fans remained for all four ghastly quarters. |
| 40 |
"suavity" - the quality of being bland and gracious in manner. His combativeness was harnessed to his suavity, and he could be forcible and at the same time persuasive. "stentorian" - with a booming voice. If a hundred voices shouted in opposition, his stentorian tones still made themselves heard above the uproar. |
| 41 |
"junket" - a trip taken by an official at public expense. Mr. Abramoff arranged for junkets, including foreign golfing destinations, for the members of Congress he was trying to influence. "appurtenance" - a supplementary component that improves capability. In the center of this space stood a large frame building whose courtyard, stables, and other appurtenances proclaimed it an inn. |
| 42 |
"nostrum" - patent medicine whose efficacy is questionable. Just here a native "medicine man" dispenses nostrums of doubtful efficacy, and in front a quantity of red Moorish pottery is exposed for sale. "immure" - lock up or confine, in or as in a jail. Political prisoners, numbering as many as three or four hundred at a time, have been immured within its massive walls. |
| 43 |
"astringent" - sour or bitter in taste. There was something sharply astringent about her then, like biting inadvertently into a green banana. "unfaltering" - marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable. Still unfaltering, the procession commenced to trudge back, the littlest boy and girl bearing themselves bravely, with lips tight pressed. |
| 44 |
"tutelage" - attention and management implying responsibility for safety. It will do so under German leadership that grows less hesitant with each crisis, and without the American tutelage it enjoyed for so many decades. "testator" - a person who makes a will. This will was drawn up by me some years since at the request of the testator, who was in good health, mentally and bodily. |
| 45 |
"elysian" - of such excellence as to suggest inspiration by the gods. Life seemed an elysian dream, from which care and sorrow must be for ever banished. "fulminate" - criticize severely. But with people looking for almost any excuse to fulminate against airlines these days, there's a certain risk of embellishment. |
| 46 |
"fractious" - easily irritated or annoyed. He was a fractious invalid, and spared his wife neither time nor trouble in attending to his wants. "pummel" - strike, usually with the fist. Another, with rubber bands wrapped tightly around his face, is pummelled by a plastic boxing kangaroo. |
| 47 |
"manumit" - free from slavery or servitude. Moreover, manumitted slaves enjoyed the same rights, privileges and immunities that were enjoyed by those born free. "unexceptionable" - completely acceptable; not open to reproach. All cowboys are from necessity good cooks, and the fluffy, golden brown biscuits and fragrant coffee of Red's making were unexceptionable. |
| 48 |
"triumvirate" - a group of three people responsible for civil authority. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. "sybarite" - a person addicted to luxury and pleasures of the senses. He was not used to travelling on omnibuses, being something of a sybarite who spared nothing to ensure his own comfort. |
| 49 |
"jibe" - be compatible, similar or consistent. Contemporary art has never quite jibed with mainstream media. "magisterial" - offensively self-assured or exercising unwarranted power. "Now look here," he said, making believe to take down my words and shaking his pencil at me in a magisterial way. |
Комментарии