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| abeyance | –noun 1. temporary inactivity, cessation, or suspension: Let’s hold that problem in abeyance for a while. 2. Law. a state or condition of real property in which title is not as yet vested in a known titleholder: an estate in abeyance. |
| abnegate | –verb (used with object), -gat·ed, -gat·ing. 1. to refuse or deny oneself (some rights, conveniences, etc.); reject; renounce. 2. to relinquish; give up. |
| abrogate | 1. to abolish by formal or official means; annul by an authoritative act; repeal: to abrogate a law. 2. to put aside; put an end to. |
| abstemious | sparing in eating and drinking; temperate |
| acerbic | –adjective 1. sour or astringent in taste: Lemon juice is acerbic. 2. harsh or severe, as of temper or expression: acerbic criticism. |
| acuity | –noun sharpness; acuteness; keenness: acuity of vision; acuity of mind. |
| adulterate | make impure by adding inferior or tainted substances |
| affable | –adjective 1. pleasantly easy to approach and to talk to; friendly; cordial; warmly polite: an affable and courteous gentleman. 2. showing warmth and friendliness; benign; pleasant: an affable smile. |
| alacrity | cheerful promptness; eagerness |
| ambivalence | the state of having contradictory or conflicting emotional attitudes |
| anachronism | something or someone misplaced in time |
| analagous | comparable |
| antipathy | aversion; dislike |
| apocryphal | 1. of doubtful authorship or authenticity. 2. Ecclesiastical. a. (initial capital letter) of or pertaining to the Apocrypha. b. of doubtful sanction; uncanonical. 3. false; spurious: He told an apocryphal story about the sword, but the truth was later revealed. |
| apotheosis | 1. the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god. 2. the ideal example; epitome; quintessence: This poem is the apotheosis of lyric expression. |
| approbation | –noun 1. approval; commendation. 2. official approval or sanction. |
| artless | without guile, open and honest |
| ascetic | practicing self-denial; austere |
| asperity | 1. harshness or sharpness of tone, temper, or manner; severity; acrimony: The cause of her anger did not warrant such asperity. 2. hardship; difficulty; rigor: the asperities of polar weather. 3. roughness of surface; unevenness. 4. something rough or harsh. |
| assiduity | –noun, plural -ties. 1. constant or close application or effort; diligence; industry. 2. assiduities, devoted or solicitous attentions. |
| aster | –noun 1. any composite plant of the genus Aster, having rays varying from white or pink to blue around a yellow disk. 2. a plant of some allied genus, as the China aster. |
| atelier | a workshop or studio, esp. of an artist, artisan, or designer. |
| attenuate | make thinner; waken or lessen (in density, force, degree) |
| auger | a boring tool, similar to but larger than a gimlet, consisting of a bit rotated by a transverse handle. |
| avaricious | –adjective characterized by avarice; greedy; covetous. |
| aver | assert confidently or declare; as used in law, state formally as a fact |
| awl | –noun a pointed instrument for piercing small holes in leather, wood, etc. |
| begrudge | 1. to envy or resent the pleasure or good fortune of (someone): She begrudged her friend the award. 2. to be reluctant to give, grant, or allow: She did not begrudge the money spent on her children’s education. |
| beguile | 1. to influence by trickery, flattery, etc.; mislead; delude. 2. to take away from by cheating or deceiving (usually fol. by of): to be beguiled of money. 3. to charm or divert: a multitude of attractions to beguile the tourist. 4. to pass (time) pleasantly: beguiling the long afternoon with a good book. |
| belie | contradict; give a false impression |
| blackguard | –noun 1. a low, contemptible person; scoundrel. 2. Obsolete. a. a group of menial workers in the kitchen of a large household. b. the servants of an army. c. camp followers. –verb (used with object) 3. to revile in scurrilous language. |
| blithe | –adjective, blith·er, blith·est. 1. joyous, merry, or gay in disposition; glad; cheerful: Everyone loved her for her blithe spirit. 2. without thought or regard; carefree; heedless: a blithe indifference to anyone’s feelings. |
| bolt | 6. a length of woven goods, esp. as it comes on a roll from the loom. 7. a roll of wallpaper. |
| brook | –verb (used with object) to bear; suffer; tolerate: I will brook no interference. |
| burnish | make shiny by rubbing; polish |
| cacophonous | discordant; inharmonious |
| canto | –noun, plural -tos. one of the main or larger divisions of a long poem. |
| capricious | unpredictable; fickle |
| castigate | 1. to criticize or reprimand severely. 2. to punish in order to correct. |
| cavil | 1. to raise irritating and trivial objections; find fault with unnecessarily (usually fol. by at or about): He finds something to cavil at in everything I say. |
| celerity | –noun swiftness; speed |
| chary | 1. Careful; wary; cautious; not rash, or reckless; as, the latest internet IPO’s were shunned by investors made chary by the poor performance of the first wave of companies that went public. [1913 Webster +PJC] His rising reputation made him more chary of his fame. —Jeffrey. [1913 Webster] 2. Saving; frugal; sparing; not spendthrift;—often used with of; as, chary of his praise. [1913 Webster +PJC] 3. Fastidious; picky; choosy. [PJC] |
| chortle | –verb (used without object) 1. to chuckle gleefully. –verb (used with object) 2. to express with a gleeful chuckle: to chortle one’s joy. –noun 3. a gleeful chuckle. |
| coda | concluding section of a musical or literary composition; something that rounds out, summarizes, or concludes |
| cogent | convincing |
| commensurate | corresponding |
| compendium | brief, comprehensive summary |
| complaisant | trying to please; overly polite; obliging |
| conciliatory | reconciling; soothing |
| confound | confuse, puzzle |
| contrite | penitent |
| coven | –noun an assembly of witches, esp. a group of thirteen. |
| craven | –adjective 1. cowardly; contemptibly timid; pusillanimous. –noun 2. a coward. –verb (used with object) 3. to make cowardly. |
| credit (v) | 1. To regard as having performed an action or being endowed with a quality: had to credit them with good intentions. 2. To ascribe to a person; attribute: credit the invention to him. See Synonyms at attribute. 3. To enter as a credit: credited $500 to her account. 4. To make a credit entry in: credit an account. |
| default | failure to act |
| delineate | portray; depict; sketch |
| deride | ridicule; make fun of |
| derivative | unoriginal, obtained from another source |
| derive | –verb (used with object) 1. to receive or obtain from a source or origin (usually fol. by from). 2. to trace from a source or origin. 3. to reach or obtain by reasoning; deduce; infer. 4. Chemistry. to produce or obtain (a substance) from another. |
| descry | –verb (used with object), -scried, -scry·ing. 1. to see (something unclear or distant) by looking carefully; discern; espy: The lookout descried land. 2. to discover; perceive; detect. |
| desultory | –adjective 1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation. 2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark. |
| detritus | –noun 1. rock in small particles or other material worn or broken away from a mass, as by the action of water or glacial ice. 2. any disintegrated material; debris. |
| didactic | adjective 1. intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry. 2. inclined to teach or lecture others too much: a boring, didactic speaker. 3. teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson. 4. didactics, (used with a singular verb) the art or science of teaching. |
| diffidence | shyness |
| diffuse | wordy; rambling; spread out |
| dilatory | –adjective 1. tending to delay or procrastinate; slow; tardy. 2. intended to cause delay, gain time, or defer decision: a dilatory strategy. |
| dirge | (noun) lament with music |
| disabuse | correct a false impression; undeceive |
| discomfiture | –noun 1. disconcertion; confusion; embarrassment. 2. frustration of hopes or plans. |
| discordant | not harmonious; conflicting |
| discrete | separate; unconnected; consisting of distinct parts **don’t confuse with DISCREET (prudent in speech and actions) |
| disinterested | unpredjudiced |
| disjointed | 1. having the joints or connections separated: a disjointed fowl. 2. disconnected; incoherent: a disjointed discourse. |
| disparate | basically different; unrelated |
| dissemble | disguise; pretend |
| dissemble | –verb (used with object) 1. to give a false or misleading appearance to; conceal the truth or real nature of: to dissemble one’s incompetence in business. 2. to put on the appearance of; feign: to dissemble innocence. |
| dissolution | dinetegration; looseness in morals |
| dissonance | discord; opposite of harmony |
| drake | a male duck. |
| dupe | n. someone easily fooled |
| eclectic | selective; composed of elements drawn from disparate sources |
| efficacy | power to produce desired effect |
| effrontery | impudence; shameless boldness; sheer nerve; presumptuousness |
| elegy | –noun, plural -gies. 1. a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, esp. a funeral song or a lament for the dead. 2. a poem written in elegiac meter. 3. a sad or mournful musical composition. |
| empirical | based on experience |
| encomium | a formal expression of high praise; eulogy: An encomium by the President greeted the returning hero. |
| enervate | 1. to deprive of force or strength; destroy the vigor of; weaken. |
| engender | cause; produce |
| entreat | 1. to ask (a person) earnestly; beseech; implore; beg: to entreat the judge for mercy. 2. to ask earnestly for (something): He entreated help in his work. |
| equanimity | calmness of temperament; composure |
| euphemism | mild expression in place of an unpleasant one |
| exigency | urgent situation; pressing needs or demands |
| expurgate | –verb (used with object), -gat·ed, -gat·ing. 1. to amend by removing words, passages, etc., deemed offensive or objectionable: Most children read an expurgated version of Grimms’ fairy tales. 2. to purge or cleanse of moral offensiveness. |
| fallacious | false’ misleading |
| fatuous | brainless; inane; foolish, yet smug |
| felicitous | –adjective 1. well-suited for the occasion, as an action, manner, or expression; apt; appropriate: The chairman’s felicitous anecdote set everyone at ease. 2. having a special ability for suitable manner or expression, as a person. |
| forestall | prevent by taking action in advance |
| fret | –verb (used without object) 1. to feel or express worry, annoyance, discontent, or the like: Fretting about the lost ring isn’t going to help. –noun 1. an interlaced, angular design; fretwork. 2. an angular design of bands within a border. |
| gainsay | v. deny |
| gambol | –verb (used without object) 1. to skip about, as in dancing or playing; frolic. –noun 2. a skipping or frisking about; frolic. |
| gamely | acting in a couragous manner |
| gauche | –adjective lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless: Their exquisite manners always make me feel gauche. |
| gentility | 1. good breeding or refinement. 2. affected or pretentious politeness or elegance. 3. the status of belonging to polite society. 4. members of polite society collectively. |
| grandiloquent | pompous; bombastic’ using high-sounding language |
| guileless | without deceit |
| harbinger | –noun 1. a person who goes ahead and makes known the approach of another; herald. 2. anything that foreshadows a future event; omen; sign: Frost is a harbinger of winter. 3. a person sent in advance of troops, a royal train, etc., to provide or secure lodgings and other accommodations. |
| hedge | to avoid a rigid commitment by qualifying or modifying a position so as to permit withdrawal: He felt that he was speaking too boldly and began to hedge before they could contradict him. |
| hidebound | 1. narrow and rigid in opinion; inflexible: a hidebound pedant. 2. oriented toward or confined to the past; extremely conservative: a hidebound philosopher. 3. (of a horse, cow, etc.) having the back and ribs bound tightly by the hide. |
| high-handed | condescending or presumptuous; overbearing; arbitrary: He has a highhanded manner. |
| iconoclastic | attacking cherished traditions |
| ignominious | –adjective 1. marked by or attended with ignominy; discreditable; humiliating: an ignominious retreat. 2. bearing or deserving ignominy; contemptible. |
| immutable | unchangeable |
| impanel | –verb (used with object), -eled, -el·ing or (especially British) -elled, -el·ling. 1. to enter on a panel or list for jury duty. 2. to select (a jury) from the panel. 3. to enter names on a panel or other official list. |
| impassive | without feeling; imperturbable; stoical |
| impecunious | –adjective having little or no money; penniless; poor. |
| impermeable | impervious; not permitting passage through its substance |
| implicit | understood but not stated |
| inchoate | recently begun; rudimentary; elementary |
| incongruity | lack of harmony; absurdity |
| incorporate | introduce something into a larger whole; combine; unite |
| indolent | –adjective 1. having or showing a disposition to avoid exertion; slothful: an indolent person. 2. Pathology. causing little or no pain; inactive or relatively benign: an indolent ulcer that is not painful and is slow to heal. |
| inexorable | –adjective 1. unyielding; unalterable: inexorable truth; inexorable justice. 2. not to be persuaded, moved, or affected by prayers or entreaties: an inexorable creditor. |
| ingenue | 1. the part of an artless, innocent, unworldly girl or young woman, esp. as represented on the stage. 2. an actress who plays such a part or specializes in playing such parts. |
| ingenuous | naive and trusting; young; unsophisticated |
| iniquitous | –adjective characterized by injustice or wickedness; wicked; sinful. |
| insensible | unconscious; unresponsive |
| insipid | –adjective 1. without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid: an insipid personality. 2. without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland: a rather insipid soup. |
| insouciance | –noun the quality of being insouciant; lack of care or concern; indifference. |
| insularity | narrow-mindedness; isolation |
| intractable | unruly; stubborn; unyeilding |
| intransigence | –adjective 1. refusing to agree or compromise; uncompromising; inflexible. –noun 2. a person who refuses to agree or compromise, as in politics. |
| inured | accustomed; hardened |
| inveigh | denounce; utter censure or invective |
| irresolute | uncertain how to act; weak |
| killjoy | noun a person who spoils the joy or pleasure of others; spoilsport. |
| lachrymose | –adjective 1. suggestive of or tending to cause tears; mournful. 2. given to shedding tears readily; tearful. |
| laconic | brief and to the point |
| lament | –verb (used with object) 1. to feel or express sorrow or regret for: to lament his absence. 2. to mourn for or over. –verb (used without object) 3. to feel, show, or express grief, sorrow, or regret. 4. to mourn deeply. –noun 5. an expression of grief or sorrow. 6. a formal expression of sorrow or mourning, esp. in verse or song; an elegy or dirge. |
| lassitude | languor; weariness |
| last | –noun 1. a wooden or metal form in the shape of the human foot on which boots or shoes are shaped or repaired. 2. the shape or form of a shoe. –verb (used with object) 3. to shape on or fit to a last. |
| levity | lack of seriousness or steadiness |
| list (v.) | –verb (used without object) 2. (of a ship or boat) to incline to one side; careen: The ship listed to starboard. |
| litigant | –noun 1. a person engaged in a lawsuit. –adjective 2. litigating; engaged in a lawsuit. |
| loquacity | –noun, plural -ties. 1. the state of being loquacious; talkativeness; garrulity. 2. an instance of talkativeness or garrulity; a loquacious flow of talk: The sherry increased my loquacity. |
| macrame | –noun 1. an elaborately patterned lacelike webbing made of hand-knotted cord, yarn, or the like, and used for wall decorations, hanging baskets, garments, accessories, etc. |
| malingerer | one who feigns illness to escape duty |
| masthead | –noun 1. Also called flag. a statement printed in all issues of a newspaper, magazine, or the like, usually on the editorial page, giving the publication’s name, the names of the owner and staff, etc. 2. Also called nameplate. a line of type on the front page of a newspaper or the cover of a periodical giving the name of the publication. 3. Nautical. a. the head of a mast. b. the uppermost point of a mast. –verb (used with object) Nautical. 4. to hoist a yard to the fullest extent. 5. to hoist |
| mealymouthed | avoiding the use of direct and plain language, as from timidity, excessive delicacy, or hypocrisy; inclined to mince words; insincere, devious, or compromising. |
| mellifluous | 1. sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding: a mellifluous voice; mellifluous tones. 2. flowing with honey; sweetened with or as if with honey. |
| mendacity | –noun, plural -ties for 2. 1. the quality of being mendacious; untruthfulness; tendency to lie. 2. an instance of lying; falsehood. |
| mendicant | –adjective 1. begging; practicing begging; living on alms. 2. pertaining to or characteristic of a beggar. –noun 3. a person who lives by begging; beggar. 4. a member of any of several orders of friars that originally forbade ownership of property, subsisting mostly on alms. |
| misanthrope | one who hates mankind |
| munificent | 1. extremely liberal in giving; very generous. 2. characterized by great generosity: a munificent bequest. |
| nettle | –verb (used with object) 3. to irritate, annoy, or provoke. 4. to sting as a nettle does. |
| nice (adj.) | # Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle: a nice distinction; a nice sense of style. # Done with delicacy and skill: a nice bit of craft. |
| nonplussed | –verb (used with object) 1. to render utterly perplexed; puzzle completely. –noun 2. a state of utter perplexity. |
| numismatics | –noun (used with a singular verb) the study or collecting of coins, medals, paper money, etc. |
| obdurate | stubborn |
| obliquity | the quality of being deceptive |
| obsequious | slavishly attentive; servile; sycophantic |
| obviate | make unecessary; get rid of |
| occlude | 1. to close, shut, or stop up (a passage, opening, etc.). 2. to shut in, out, or off. |
| officious | meddlesome; excessively pushy in offering one’s services |
| onerous | burdensome |
| opacity | 5. obscurity of meaning. 6. mental dullness. |
| opprobrium | infamy; villification |
| paragon | model of perfection |
| parsimony | 1. Unusual or excessive frugality; extreme economy or stinginess. 2. Adoption of the simplest assumption in the formulation of a theory or in the interpretation of data, especially in accordance with the rule of Ockham’s razor. |
| peccadillo | –noun, plural -loes, -los. a very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault. |
| penurious | –adjective 1. extremely stingy; parsimonious; miserly. 2. extremely poor; destitute; indigent. 3. poorly or inadequately supplied; lacking in means or resources. |
| perennial | something long-lasting |
| perfunctory | superficial; not thorough; lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm |
| perfunctory | –adjective 1. performed merely as a routine duty; hasty and superficial: perfunctory courtesy. 2. lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent or apathetic: In his lectures he reveals himself to be merely a perfunctory speaker. |
| peripatetic | –adjective 1. walking or traveling about; itinerant. |
| perspicacious | –adjective 1. having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning: to exhibit perspicacious judgment. 2. Archaic. having keen vision. |
| perspicacity | –noun 1. keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment; penetration. 2. Archaic. keen vision. |
| pertinacious | –adjective 1. holding tenaciously to a purpose, course of action, or opinion; resolute. 2. stubborn or obstinate. 3. extremely or objectionably persistent: a pertinacious salesman from whom I could not escape. |
| philately | –noun 1. the collecting of stamps and other postal matter as a hobby or an investment. 2. the study of postage stamps, revenue stamps, stamped envelopes, postmarks, postal cards, covers, and similar material relating to postal or fiscal history. |
| phlegmatic | calm; not easily disturbed |
| pilgrim | –noun 1. a person who journeys, esp. a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion: pilgrims to the Holy Land. 2. a traveler or wanderer, esp. in a foreign place. 3. an original settler in a region. |
| platitude | trite remark; commonplace statement |
| plebiscite | –noun 1. a direct vote of the qualified voters of a state in regard to some important public question. 2. the vote by which the people of a political unit determine autonomy or affiliation with another country. |
| polish (n.) | 9. superiority of manner or execution; refinement; elegance: the polish of a professional singer. |
| precept | –noun 1. a commandment or direction given as a rule of action or conduct. 2. an injunction as to moral conduct; maxim. 3. a procedural directive or rule, as for the performance of some technical operation. 4. Law. a. a writ or warrant. b. a written order issued pursuant to law, as a sheriff’s order for an election. |
| precipitate | –verb (used with object) 1. to hasten the occurrence of; bring about prematurely, hastily, or suddenly: to precipitate an international crisis. –adjective 8. headlong: a precipitate fall down the stairs. 9. rushing headlong or rapidly onward. 10. proceeding rapidly or with great haste: a precipitate retreat. 11. exceedingly sudden or abrupt: a precipitate stop; a precipitate decision. 12. done or made without sufficient deliberation; overhasty; rash: a precipitate marriage. |
| preponderance | –noun the fact or quality of being preponderant; superiority in weight, power, numbers, etc.: The preponderance of votes is against the proposal. |
| prevaricate | to speak falsely or misleadingly; deliberately misstate or create an incorrect impression; lie. |
| prim | –adjective 1. formally precise or proper, as persons or behavior; stiffly neat. –verb (used without object) 2. to draw up the mouth in an affectedly nice or precise way. |
| probity | uprightness; incorruptibility |
| problematic | doubtful; unsettled; questionable; perplexing |
| profundity | –noun, plural -ties for 2, 3. 1. the quality or state of being profound; depth. 2. Usually, profundities. profound or deep matters. |
| prolix | –adjective 1. extended to great, unnecessary, or tedious length; long and wordy. 2. (of a person) given to speaking or writing at great or tedious length. |
| propensity | natural inclination |
| propitiate | appease |
| prosaic | –adjective 1. commonplace or dull; matter-of-fact or unimaginative: a prosaic mind. 2. of or having the character or form of prose rather than poetry. |
| proscribe | ostracize; banish; outlaw |
| pseudopod | –noun Biology. a temporary protrusion of the protoplasm, as of certain protozoans, usually serving as an organ of locomotion or prehension. |
| pulchritude | –noun physical beauty; comeliness. |
| pusillanimous | –adjective 1. lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid. 2. proceeding from or indicating a cowardly spirit. |
| qualified | limited; restricted |
| quiescent | at rest; dormant; temporarily inactive |
| rampart | 1. Fortification. a. a broad elevation or mound of earth raised as a fortification around a place and usually capped with a stone or earth parapet. b. such an elevation together with the parapet. 2. anything serving as a bulwark or defense. |
| rapacious | –adjective 1. given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed. 2. inordinately greedy; predatory; extortionate: a rapacious disposition. 3. (of animals) subsisting by the capture of living prey; predacious. |
| ratiocinate | –verb (used without object), -nat·ed, -nat·ing. to reason; carry on a process of reasoning. |
| raucous | 1. harsh; strident; grating: raucous voices; raucous laughter. 2. rowdy; disorderly: a raucous party. |
| recondite | abstruse; profound; secret |
| recreant | –adjective 1. cowardly or craven. 2. unfaithful, disloyal, or traitorous. |
| redoubtable | –adjective 1. that is to be feared; formidable. 2. commanding or evoking respect, reverence, or the like. |
| refractory | stubborn; unmanageable |
| remonstrate | –verb (used with object) 1. to say or plead in protest, objection, or disapproval. 2. Obsolete. to show. –verb (used without object) 3. to present reasons in complaint; plead in protest. |
| repose | –verb (used with object), verb (used without object), -posed, -pos·ing. to pose again. |
| reprobate | person hardened in sin; devoid of a sense of decency |
| resolution | determination |
| restive | 1. impatient of control, restraint, or delay, as persons; restless; uneasy. 2. refractory; stubborn. 3. refusing to go forward; balky: a restive horse. |
| reverie | –noun 1. a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing: lost in reverie. 2. a daydream. 3. a fantastic, visionary, or impractical idea: reveries that will never come to fruition. 4. Music. an instrumental composition of a vague and dreamy character. |
| rococo | –noun 1. a style of architecture and decoration, originating in France about 1720, evolved from Baroque types and distinguished by its elegant refinement in using different materials for a delicate overall effect and by its ornament of shellwork, foliage, etc. 2. a homophonic musical style of the middle 18th century, marked by a generally superficial elegance and charm and by the use of elaborate ornamentation and stereotyped devices. |
| salubrious | healthful |
| sanguine | –adjective 1. cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident: a sanguine disposition; sanguine expectations. 2. reddish; ruddy: a sanguine complexion. |
| scad | 1. Informal. a great number or quantity: scads of money. 2. Archaic. a piece of money; dollar. |
| scrimshaw | –noun 1. a carved or engraved article, esp. of whale ivory, whalebone, walrus tusks, or the like, made by whalers as a leisure occupation. 2. such articles or work collectively. 3. the art or technique of carving or engraving whale ivory, whalebone, walrus tusks, etc. |
| secrete | hide away or cache; produce and release a substance in an organism |
| shoal | –noun 1. a place where a sea, river, or other body of water is shallow. 2. a sandbank or sand bar in the bed of a body of water, esp. one that is exposed above the surface of the water at low tide. –adjective 3. of little depth, as water; shallow. –verb (used without object) 4. to become shallow or more shallow. –verb (used with object) 5. to cause to become shallow. 6. Nautical. to sail so as to lessen the depth of (the water under a vessel). |
| solicitous | –adjective 1. anxious or concerned (usually fol. by about, for, etc., or a clause): solicitous about a person’s health. 2. anxiously desirous: solicitous of the esteem of others. 3. eager (usually fol. by an infinitive): He was always solicitous to please. 4. careful or particular: a solicitous housekeeper. |
| sonnet | n. 1. A 14-line verse form usually having one of several conventional rhyme schemes. 2. A poem in this form. |
| soporific | –adjective 1. causing or tending to cause sleep. 2. pertaining to or characterized by sleep or sleepiness; sleepy; drowsy. –noun 3. something that causes sleep, as a medicine or drug. |
| splenetic | irritable; peevish; spiteful. |
| stigma | token of disgrace; brand |
| stilted | 1. stiffly dignified or formal, as speech or literary style; pompous. |
| stint | be thrifty; set limits |
| stolid | dull; impassive |
| stupefy | 1. to put into a state of little or no sensibility; benumb the faculties of; put into a stupor. 2. to stun, as with a narcotic, a shock, or a strong emotion. 3. to overwhelm with amazement; astound; astonish. |
| sumptuous | 1. entailing great expense, as from choice materials, fine work, etc.; costly: a sumptuous residence. 2. luxuriously fine or large; lavish; splendid: a sumptuous feast. |
| supercilious | –adjective haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression. |
| supplicate | –verb (used without object) 1. to pray humbly; make humble and earnest entreaty or petition. –verb (used with object) 2. to pray humbly to; entreat or petition humbly. 3. to seek or ask for by humble entreaty. |
| taciturnity | –noun 1. the state or quality of being reserved or reticent in conversation. |
| temerity | –noun reckless boldness; rashness. |
| tenuous | thin; rare; slim |
| titter | –verb (used without object) 1. to laugh in a restrained, self-conscious, or affected way, as from nervousness or in ill-suppressed amusement. |
| titular | –adjective 1. existing or being such in title only; nominal; having the title but none of the associated duties, powers, etc.: the titular head of the company. |
| tocsin | –noun 1. a signal, esp. of alarm, sounded on a bell or bells. 2. a bell used to sound an alarm. |
| torpor | lethargy; sluggishness; dormancy |
| tortuous | winding; full of curves |
| tractable | 1. easily managed or controlled; docile; yielding: a tractable child; a tractable disposition. 2. easily worked, shaped, or otherwise handled; malleable. |
| tractable | –adjective 1. easily managed or controlled; docile; yielding: a tractable child; a tractable disposition. 2. easily worked, shaped, or otherwise handled; malleable. |
| trenchant | –adjective 1. incisive or keen, as language or a person; caustic; cutting: trenchant wit. 2. vigorous; effective; energetic: a trenchant policy of political reform. 3. clearly or sharply defined; clear-cut; distinct. |
| trifle | –noun 1. an article or thing of very little value. 2. a matter, affair, or circumstance of trivial importance or significance. 3. a small, inconsiderable, or trifling sum of money. |
| truculent | –adjective 1. fierce; cruel; savagely brutal. 2. brutally harsh; vitriolic; scathing: his truculent criticism of her work. 3. aggressively hostile; belligerent. |
| turpitude | –noun 1. vile, shameful, or base character; depravity. 2. a vile or depraved act. |
| urbane | –adjective 1. having the polish and suavity regarded as characteristic of sophisticated social life in major cities: an urbane manner. 2. reflecting elegance, sophistication, etc., esp. in expression: He maintained an urbane tone in his letters. |
| veracious | truthfulness |
| vituperative | abusive; scolding |
| vouchsafe | 1. to grant or give, as by favor, graciousness, or condescension: to vouchsafe a reply to a question. 2. to allow or permit, as by favor or graciousness: They vouchsafed his return to his own country. –verb (used without object) 3. to condescend; deign. |
| welter | n. turmoil; bewildering jumble |
| willful | –adjective 1. deliberate, voluntary, or intentional: The coroner ruled the death willful murder. 2. unreasonably stubborn or headstrong; self-willed. |