n. one who is very reluctant to spend money; miser; selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend
E.g. Scrooge was an ungenerous old skinflint until he reformed his ways and became a notable philanthropist.
v. become slower; loosen; become less vigorous, intense, or severe
E.g. As they passed the finish line, the runners began to slacken their pace.
v. make less active or intense; satisfy thirst
E.g. When we reached the oasis, we were able to slake our thirst.
a. haphazard; careless; done hastily
E.g. From the number of typos and misspellings I've found in it, it's clear that Mario proofread the report in a remarkably slapdash fashion.
n. vessel engaged in the slave trade; slave ship; person engaged in the purchase and sale of slaves; slave merchant
E.g. My guess is you are a thief, you just never before considered yourself a slaver and thief, but that is in fact what you apparently are.
n. single-mast sailing boat
E.g. In earlier part of the 19th centuries, a sloop of war was a small sailing warship with a single gun deck that carried anything up to eighteen cannon.
a. untidy; careless in work habits
E.g. Unshaven, sitting around in his bathrobe all afternoon, Gus didn't seem to care about the slovenly appearance he presented.
n. lazy person; person habitually lazy, idle, and slow; sluggish; lazy
E.g. "You are a sluggard, a drone, a parasite," the angry father shouted at his lazy son.
v. burn without flame; be liable to break out at any moment
E.g. The rags smolder for hours before they burst into flame.
a. of or pertaining to a snob; vulgarly pretentious
E.g. But there are certain snobbish types who would resent the intrusion of mere laymen into sorceral affairs.
n. a mass of snow heaped up by the wind
E.g. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between snowdrift and wind flow.
n. nickname; familiar name for person, typically shortened version of given name
E.g. The former president Ronald Reagan had a sobriquet: The Gipper.
a. thoroughly soakedsoaked; expressionless, stupid, or dull, especially from drink
E.g. He set his sodden overcoat near the radiator to dry.
n. temporary stay; brief period of residence; place of temporary stay
E.g. After his sojourn in Florida, he began to long for the colder climate of his native New England home.
v. repair or unite by using fusible metal alloy, usually tin and lead
E.g. To fix the leak in the pipes, the plumber planned to solder a couple of joints from which water had been oozing.
n. error in use of language, especially intentional use of misspelling or incorrect grammar ; violation of the conventional rules of society
E.g. I cannot give this paper an excellent mark because it contains an critical solecism.
n. seriousness; gravity; religious or ritual ceremony
E.g. The minister was concerned that nothing should disturb the solemnity of the marriage service.
a. worried or concerned; full of desire; expressing care or concern
E.g. The employer was very solicitous about the health of her employees as replacements were difficult to get.
a. half asleep; inclined to drowsiness; tending to induce sleep
E.g. The heavy meal and the overheated room made us all somnolent and indifferent to the speaker.
a. having or producing full, loud, or deep sound; impressive in style of speech; easy to feel
E.g. We witnessed Professor Obama explaining the intricacies of the policy options in sonorous tones.
n. argument for exercise merely; plausible but misleading argument; art or process of reasoning; logic
E.g. Instead of advancing valid arguments, he tried to overwhelm his audience with a sophistry.
a. sleep-causing; marked by sleepiness
E.g. Professor Pringle's lectures were so soporific that even he fell asleep in class.
n. small metallic piece sewn to clothing for ornamentation
E.g. Each spangle on her dress sparkled in the glare of the stage lights.
a. affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; periodic
E.g. The spasmodic coughing in the auditorium annoyed the performers.
a. seemingly reasonable but incorrect; misleading intentionally
E.g. To claim that, because houses and birds both have wings, both can fly, is extremely specious reasoning.
n. one who spends money recklessly or wastefully
E.g. Easy access to credit encourages one to turn into spendthrift who shops till he drops.
n. slender stalk or blade in vegetation; tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting; top, or uppermost point, of anything; summit
E.g. We could see the spire of the church in the distance.
a. occurring at irregular intervals; having no pattern or order in time
E.g. Although you can still hear sporadic outbursts of laughter and singing outside, the big Halloween parade has passed; the party's over till next year.
a. false; counterfeit; forged; illogical
E.g. Natasha's claim to be the lost heir of the Romanoffs was spurious: the only thing Russian about her was the vodka she drank!.
v. reject disdainfully or contemptuously; scorn
E.g. The heroine had to spurn the villain's advances.
a. played in abrupt manner; marked by abrupt sharp sound
E.g. His staccato speech reminded one of the sound of a machine gun.
a. sober; serious, organized, and professional; characterized by dignity and propriety
E.g. Her conduct during the funeral ceremony was staid and solemn.
v. make involuntary stops in uttering syllables or words; hesitate or falter in speaking; speak with stops and difficulty
E.g. He did not hear what Amy was saying, and whenever she paused expectantly he could only stammer an awkward assent, which was as often misplaced as otherwise.
v. stop or check flow of liquid; stop flow of blood from wound
E.g. It is imperative that we stanch the gushing wound before we attend to the other injuries.
v. accuse; condemn; mark as wicked
E.g. I do not want to stigmatize this young offender for life by sending her to prison.
a. stiff and artificially formal; inflated
E.g. His stilted rhetoric did not impress the college audience; they were immune to bombastic utterances.
n. fixed and regular payment, such as salary for services or allowance.
E.g. There is a nominal stipend for this position, it is a good job for you.
a. dull; impassive; having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
E.g. The earthquake shattered Stuart's usual stolid demeanor; trembling, he crouched on the no longer stable ground.
n. depository for goods
E.g. The storehouse was built close to the docks.
a. squeezed or confined
E.g. So he returned his straitened means to his pocket, and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys.