Vocab #6

abase - verb to belittle or degrade (someone)

• The bully abased the nerd into giving him lunch money.

abdicate - verb give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations

• The teacher accused the student of abdicating her studies.

abomination - noun an action that is vicious or vile; an action that arouses disgust or abhorrence; a person who is loathsome or disgusting; hate coupled with disgust

• Henry looked at his colleague with abomination as the colleague spread false rumours about him.  

brusque - adj. abrupt or offhand in speech or manner

• She brusquely walked past him as she hurried to her next class.

saboteur - noun someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks

• He calls himself THE saboteur, always deliberately causing havoc to the tourists.

debauchery - noun excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures

• Plague by dream’s of his fiancee, Jason’s debauchery led to his downward spiral.

proliferate - verb cause to grow or increase rapidly; grow rapidly

• The proliferation of babies during the ‘20s was a result of WWII.

anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred

• Looking around the ancient Greek artifacts, she noticed an anachronism, Nestled by the swords was an out-of-placed gun.

nomenclature - noun a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline

• Nomenclatures are necessary to distinguishing the different subdivisions of biology.

expurgate - verb edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate; to censur  

• Some countries expurgate internet access in order to monitor the things that “come in and out” of there.

bellicose - adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight

• He is angry and lost, a bellicose man with a drinking problem.

gauche - adj. lacking social polish; socially awkward

• Gauche and inept, the girl accidently hit her hip on the table when put into the spotlight which caused the $5,000 vase to crash onto the floor.

rapacious - adj. excessively greedy and grasping

• Mr. Krabs is rapacious, the type of person that will backstab his friends for a measly 2 cents.  

paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself

• “Wise fool” and “Bittersweet”
• “Deep down, you’re really shallow”

conundrum - noun a difficult problem

• The physics homework was a conundrum; one problem took ½ hour to finish.  

anomaly - noun a person who is unusual; deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule

• The extra limb was an anomaly.

ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived

• The 100m race was ephemeral, but felt like it lasted longer than 20 seconds.

rancorous - adj. showing deep-seated resentment

• Rancorous disputes between the woman and her partner caused the two colleagues to talk it out in front of the CEO.

churlish - adj. having a bad disposition; surly; rude and boorish

• She has a churlish attitude, always snapping at people that try to talk to her.

precipitous - adj. extremely steep; done with very great haste and without due deliberation

• Running away from killer, the boy almost fell into a precipitous drop.