Term
|
Definition
| rule by the wealthy (1830 England, nominally a monarchy, was in reality a plutocracy of about a hundred thousand men--landed nobles, gentry, and wealthy merchants--whose privileges dated back to fifteenth century conditions.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| excessively particular, critical, demanding, or hard to please; possessing or displaying careful, meticulous attention to detail. (How was it that a man so exact and fastidious could have made this error of a day?) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| meal; mealtime (...Athos advised him to order a good repast at the Pomme-de-Pin, Porthos to engage a lackey, and Aramis to provide himself with a suitable mistress.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| an office or position requiring little or no work, esp. one yielding profitable returns. (He received a salary on the staff of the National Guard, where he held a sinecure which was paid for by the city of Paris...) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| any disfiguring outgrowth, abnormal addition (It is true that several of the States, separately, are encumbered with considerable debts, which are an excrescence of the late war.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| to flee, abscond (The accountant absquatulated with the cash from the safe.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| not stylish, drab, shabby (She dressed in a dowdy gray outfit.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| secure against harm, loss, or damage (No one was allowed to dispute the prices fixed by the white trader upon his articles; who took care to indemnify himself five times over for the goods set apart by the chief.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| free from concern or worry (The ladies of Watteau, gay and insouciant, seemed to wander with their cavaliers among the great trees, whispering to one another careless, charming things, and yet somehow oppressed by a nameless fear.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| of or relating to the morning ("Ata," explained So-ta, when I questioned her as to the purpose of this matutinal rite; but that was later.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| relating to or resembling twilight (...we may see here and there, in the gray throng, some figure glowing with a faint radiance, as though it had caught all the light of our already crepuscular sky.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| of or pertaining to an ape or monkey (He appears to me less human than simian, and whenever I hear him talk I seem to myself to have paused in the street to listen....) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| dry; withered (Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him and show the wavering track of his footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| to defend, secure, or protect; to fend off, avert, or prevent (Heaven forfend that such a thing should come to pass.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
a neckpiece or collar of lace, lawn, or the like, gathered or drawn into deep, full, regular folds, worn in the 16th and 17th centuries;
something resembling such a piece in form or position (His garb, like that of his predecessors, was of an antique fashion, and there was a stain of blood upon his ruff.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| to hit hard; to walk or plod heavily; to toil (He slogged through both volumes of the book. He slogged through the heavy snowfall.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant (He made an egregious mistake. She was an egregious liar.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| required; essential ("We have not the requisite data," chimed in the professor, and he went back to his argument.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1. Out of or being beyond the normal course of nature; supernatural
2. Surpassing the normal or usual; extraordinary (Nevertheless, the old sea-traditions, the immemorial credulities, popularly invested this old Manxman with preternatural powers of discernment.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| marked by a ready flow of speech; fluent (She always besieged the bench with voluble excuses, explanations, apologies and prayers.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
a. Appealingly provocative (a piquant wit)
b. Charming, interesting, or attractive (a piquant face) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| swiftness of action or motion; speed (For the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the counsel, and celerity in the execution.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| honest, truthful; accurate, precise (I doubt not the captain had this veracious picture taken for the benefit of his marines.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| pressed or crowded together, especially in rows (The Russians stood in serried ranks behind Semenovsk village and its knoll....) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| easily intelligible, clear; characterized by transparency, clear; calm and untroubled (From this great treasury of waters issue forth limpid streams, which, augmenting as they descend, become....) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| conducive or favorable to health or well-being (The atmosphere down here may be salubrious, but I am unaccustomed to it.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| vulgar, lewdly humorous language or joking or an instance of it (The second point is: I hate ribaldry and ribald talkers.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1. A recent convert to a belief; a proselyte.
2. A beginner or novice
(I had all the ardour of a neophyte and the pride of an apt learner.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1. To take or claim for oneself without right; appropriate (Are you sure you don't arrogate too much of the credit to yourself?) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily, disposed to be silent or not to speak freely; reserved (I found Montgomery very reticent about his purpose with these creatures, and about his destination; and though I was sensible of a growing curiosity as to both, I did not press him.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| to remove material that is considered offensive or objectionable from something (The Clintonites' outrage forced the filmmakers--or rather, forced ABC to force them--to bowdlerize the show in order to make it less offensive.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1. A controversial argument, especially one refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine.
2. A person engaged in or inclined to controversy, argument, or refutation.
(As with any conflict, this period has produced considerable polemic.) (Thus the Islamic polemic against Christianity has centered on the doctrine of Trinity.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| characterized by or subject to whim; impulsive and unpredictable (The trunk of a tree is immovable; the foliage is capricious.) (With the highest admiration for Poe's genius, and a willingness to let it alone for more than ordinary irregularity, we were led by common report to expect a very capricious attention to his duties, and occasionally a scene of violence and difficulty.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1. Long and thin; slender: tenuous strands.
2. Having a thin consistency; flimsy: a tenuous argument.
(The dream of the ultimate brain had receded into a tenuous haze far in the background of his thoughts.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| quick and changeable in temperament; volatile: a mercurial nature (They have neither the matured and systematically trained powers of the Polygonal Bachelors and Masters of Arts, nor yet the native precocity and mercurial versatility of the youthful Tradesman.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1. Manifesting or characterized by unusually early development or maturity, especially in mental aptitude.
(Why therefore not make my first experiment with my little precocious Grandson, whose casual remarks on the meaning of 3^3 had met with the approval of the Sphere?) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| to give a false representation, to misrepresent; to show to be false, to contradict (However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
excessive wordiness or longwindedness in speech or writing (ext
Here I will not trouble you with what past at our first interview; for I would avoid prolixity as much as possible.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1. Characterized by sudden and forceful energy or emotion; impulsive and passionate.
2. Having or marked by violent force
(Therefore Julius with his impetuous action accomplished what no other pontiff with simple human wisdom could have done.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| marked by a ready flow of speech, fluent; the quality of being facile in speech and writing (He greeted Philip with enthusiasm, and with his usual volubility told him that he had come to live in London, Ruth Chalice was a hussy, he had taken a studio, Paris was played out, he had a commission for a portrait, and they'd better dine together and have a good old talk.) |
|
|
