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the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings
Vivian's ebullience was contagious, which is what made her such a great tour guide; her infectious enthusiasm for her subject always communicated itself to her listeners. |
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departing from norms or conventions
Although he was often described by colleagues as a bit eccentric, it was precisely the unconventionallity of his bedside manner that made the doctor so beloved by his young patients. |
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composed of elements drawn from various sources
it was easy to get a sense of Alison's eclectic taste from looking at her music collection, which contained everything from Mahler to Metallica. |
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enlightening, informative.
The lecture we attended on the consequences of globalization was highly edifying, but what I learned only made me want to know more. |
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Extreme boldness; presumptuousness
The effrontery of her demand astonished everyone; no one had ever dared ask the head of the department to explain his reasoning before. |
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gushing; excessively demonstrative.
Her effusive good wishes seemed a bit forced; it was hard to believe she was no longer bitter about having had her own grant proposal turned down. |
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exit.
Egress can either be a noun, meaning an exit or going out, or a verb, meaning to exit or emerge. Ingress is the opposite of egress.
The dancer's final egress from the stage brought the audience to its feet in a standing ovation. |
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a mounrful poem, especially one lamenting the dead; any mournful writing or piece of music.
His elegy for the long-lost carefree days of his youth was moving, if somewhat cliched. |
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well-spoken; expressive; articulate
it was hard to believe English wasn't her native language given her eloquent use of it. |
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soothing, especially to the skin; making less harsh; mollifying.
Oatmeal's emollient qualities when added to bath water make it an effective aid in soothing the discomfort of poison oak. |
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based on observation or experiment.
Skeptics demanded empirical evidence before accepting the psychic's claims that he was communicating with representatives from beyond the grave. |
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glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy.
The recently released tribute album was created as an encomium to the singer many considered the grandfather of soul music. |
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characteristic of or often found in a particular locality, region, or people; restricted to or peculiar to that region; indigenous.
Some pudits argue that the corruptoin endemic to politics today is responsible for the public apathy evident in record low voter turnouts. |
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| means occurring over a large area or affecting an unusually large percentage of the population. |
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to weaken; to reduce in vitality
We were so enervated by the heat and humidity that we didn't even have the energy to turn on the fan. |
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to cause, produce, give rise to
Clyde's announcement that he plans to retire at the end of the year engendered intense speculation about whom he will appoint as his successor. |
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mysterious; obscure; difficult to understand.
Some archaeologists speculate that the enigmatic markings on the cave wall may be the earliest known human representations of religious worship. |
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dissatisfaction and restlessness resulting from boredom or apathy.
the end-of-summer ennui had set in, making Hannah and Jeremy almost look forward to the distration of going back to school...almost |
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Excessive wickedness; evilness
Be very careful not to confuse this weith enormousenss. Enourousness means huge size; enormity does not. Thus, if we talk about the enormity of a crime we are never talking about its size; we're talking about its wickedness.
The enormity of the terrorist act stunned and eouraged the world. |
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brief; fleeting, short-lived.
My ephemeral first romance lasted precisely as long as summer camp did. |
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one devoted to sensual pleasure, particularly in food and drink; gourmand, sybarite.
After watching too many cooking shows, Larry became such an epicure that he lost his ability to appreciate the gustatory pleasures of a frozen pizza |
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loosely connected, not flowing logically, occurring at intermavs.
The episodic structure of the novel mirrored the main character's fragmented experience of events during the war. |
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disparaging word or phrase
The epithets he flung in drunken anger came back to haunt him the next morning when everyone refused to talk to him. |
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embodiment; quintessence
To me, Lauren Bacall was the epitome of sophistication. |
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composure, self-possession
Liam strove unsuccessfully of the equanimity in the face of the massive and unprovoked tickle attack. |
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to use ambiquous language with a deceptive intent.
She argued that the company was guilty of equivocating when it claimed it could "teach you to type in one hour or less" because it was unclear whether that meant they guaranteed you would be able to hit a single key or type fifty words a minute at the end of that hour. |
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traveling, itinerant, peripatetic.
A knight-errant was guy in armor who wandered around looking for adventures to prove his general studliness |
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very learned; scholarly
All six volumes of Gibbon's erudite Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire have long been required reading in Professor Smith's course on the histroy of classical scholarship. |
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to shun or avoid.
Daniel was unwilling to eschew her company even though I reminded him of how many times she had stood him up in the past. |
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intended for or understood by a small, speciffic group.
Even though most of the sect's practices were well-documented by anthropologists, some of its most esotreric rites had never been witnessed by outsiders. |
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to test or try; attempt; experiment.
It was incredible to watch Valerie essay her first steps after her long convalescence; we were so proud of how hard she had worked at her rehabilitation. |
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worthy, formidable.
Despite his estimable efforts, Alvin was unable to finish his spinach; it really was an impressive attempt, though |
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a speech honoring the dead.
It was impossible for Sonya to conceal her grief at the funeral; she started weeping during the delivery of the eulogy. |
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tending to disappear like vapor; vanishing.
All trace of the evanescent first snow famished as soon as the midday sun appeared. |
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to show clearly, to indicate.
The expression on Jane's face evinced what she thought of the proposal; it's amazig how clearly "you must be kidding" can be communicated without speaking a word. |
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to make worse or more severe.
My brother insisted that going outside with wet hair would only exacerbate my cold, and she was probably right since now I have pneumonia. |
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to demand, call for, require, take.
Celebrities often complain that fame exacts a heavy price in loss of privacy, but their fans don't seem to care much, perhaps thinking that this is a reasonable exchange for the money and glory. |
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to censure scathingly, to up braid.
the editorial excoriated those artists who attended the event instead of observing the boycott called for by human rights groups. |
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exonerate; to clear of blame.
Far from exculpating him as he had hoped, the new evidence only served to convince the jury of his guilt. |
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typical or standard specimen; paradigm, model.
We were excited to find the perfect exemplar of the species of beetle we had studied in school; it conformed to the description in the guidebook in every way. |
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to incite, to make urgent appeals.
At the last second I realized that he was waving his arms frantically to exhort me to look down before I fell off the cliff. |
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urgent; pressing; requiring immediate action or attention.
Exigent circumstances require extreme action; if we didn't act soon we would lose the scavenger hunt, so we just went to the store bought the rest of the items. It may have been cheating, but we felt the situation required it. |
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to remove blame.
The number of death row inmates exonerated by DNA tests in the last few years has caused some to call for a moratorium on executions. |
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discuss or write about at lenght; to range feely.
My aunt and uncle expatiated on the subject of their Florida vacation for three hours, accompanied by slides, until we were all crazy with boredom. |
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to atone or make amends for.
He feared that nothing could expiate the insensitivity of his comments. |
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To remove obscennity, purify, censor
The expurgated version of the novel was incredibly boring; it turned out that the parts the censors remoed had been the only interesting ones. |
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existing, not destroyed or lost.
there are forty-eight copies of the Gutenberg Bible extant today. |
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to destroy, exterminate, cut out, pull outoby the roots.
the dodo bird was extirpated by a combination of hunting by humans and predation by non-native animals. |
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1. To express grief for or about; mourn: lament a death.
2. To regret deeply; deplore: He lamented his thoughtless acts. |
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1. To calm in temper or feeling; soothe. See Synonyms at pacify.
2. To lessen in intensity; temper.
3. To reduce the rigidity of; soften. |
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1. Gradual return to health and strength after illness.
2. The period needed for returning to health after illness. |
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1. A formal eulogistic composition intended as a public compliment.
2. Elaborate praise or laudation; an encomium. |
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1. often sybarite A person devoted to pleasure and luxury; a voluptuary.
2. A native or inhabitant of Sybaris. |
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| Of or relating to the sense of taste. |
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1. To speak of in a slighting or disrespectful way; belittle. See Synonyms at decry.
2. To reduce in esteem or rank. |
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| Flung -- past tence of fling |
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1. To throw with violence: flung the dish against the wall. See Synonyms at throw.
2. To put or send suddenly or unexpectedly: troops that were flung into battle.
3. To throw (oneself) into an activity with abandon and energy.
4. To cast aside; discard: fling propriety away. |
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| The pure, highly concentrated essence of a thing. |
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| Traveling from place to place, especially to perform work or a duty: an itinerant judge; itinerant labor. |
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| Walking about or from place to place; traveling on foot. |
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