a. like corpse; pale; Having appearance or color of dead human body
E.g. By his cadaverous appearance, we could see how the disease had ravaged him.
v. influence or urge by gentle urging or flattering
E.g. Diane tried to cajole her father into letting her drive the family car.
a. youthful; immature; inexperienced; without feathers
E.g. As a freshman, Jack was sure he was a man of the world; as a sophomore, he made fun of freshmen as callow youths.
n. false statement maliciously made to injure another's reputation; slander
E.g. He could endure his financial failure, but he could not bear the calumny that his foes heaped upon him.
n. corroding or sloughing ulcer; anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroy; disease incident to trees, causing the bark to rot and fall off
E.g. Drug addiction is a dangerous canker in society.
a. ill humored; irritable; marked by ill-tempered contradiction or opposition; ugly; malicious
E.g. Constantly complaining about his treatment and refusing to cooperate with the hospital staff, he was a cantankerous patient.
n. story or poem set to music that can be sung by chorus
E.g. The choral society sang the new cantata composed by its leader.
a. capable of containing a large quantity; spacious or roomy
E.g. In the capacious rotunda of the railroad terminal, thousands of travelers lingered while waiting for their train.
v. surrender; end all resistance; give up; go along with or comply
E.g. The enemy was warned to capitulate or face annihilation.
a. intended to confuse in an argument
E.g. I resent the way he asked that was captious question.
v. charm; enthrall; seize by force, as an enemy in war, or anything belonging to enemy
E.g. The new nanny's winning manners captivate Bart and Lisa.
n. hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles
E.g. The top shell is the carapace while the bottom is called the plastron.
v. lean to one side, as a ship under press of sail; sway from side to side
E.g. He saw the taxicab careen wildly as it rounded the corner.
n. one who makes maps or charts
E.g. Though not a professional cartographer, Tolkien was able to construct a map of his fictional world.
v. criticize severely; punish; revise or make corrections to publication
E.g. When the teacher threatened that she would castigate the mischievous boys if they didn't behave, they shaped up in a hurry.
n. an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; deluge or overflowing of water
E.g. A cataclysm such as the French Revolution affects all countries.
a. absolute; having no exception; of using category or categories
E.g. Though the captain claimed he was never, never sick at sea, he finally had to qualify his categorical denial: he was "hardly ever" sick at sea.
v. make watertight by filling in cracks
E.g. Jack had to caulk the tiles in the shower stall to stop the leak into the basement below.
v. criticise for petty or frivolous reasons; raise trivial objections
E.g. It's fine when you make sensible criticisms, but it really bugs me when you cavil about unimportant details.
v. yield or formally resign and surrender to another
E.g. Eventually the descendants of England's Henry II were forced to cede their French territories to the King of France.
n. swiftness of action or motion; speed
E.g. Hamlet resented his mother's celerity in remarrying within a month after his father's death.
a. critical; addicted to censure; severe in making remarks on others, or on their writings or manners; implying or expressing censure
E.g. But it is childish to waste our time in censorious judgment on the individual who does no worse than represent a ruling type.
a. radiating; departing from the center
E.g. Many automatic drying machines remove excess moisture from clothing by centrifugal force.
a. tending toward center; moving or directed toward center or axis
E.g. Does centripetal force or the force of gravity bring orbiting bodies to the earth's surface?.
n. act of cerebrating; thinking, mental activity
E.g. Mathematics problems sometimes require much cerebration.
n. yielding to another; ceding or surrendering
E.g. The cession of Alaska to the United States is discussed in this chapter.
n. anxiety caused by humiliation or injured pride; disappointment
E.g. Embarrassed by his parents' shabby, working-class appearance, Doug felt their visit to his school would bring him nothing but chagrin.
a. cautious; sparing or restrained about giving
E.g. A prudent, thrifty, New Englander, DeWitt was as chary of investing money in junk bonds.
v. rid of excess; refine or purify; correct by punishment or reproof
E.g. But we're not writing to chasten you today, we're writing to thank you.
v. punish, as by beating; criticize severely; rebuke
E.g. I must chastise you for this offense.
n. mean or unfair artifice to obscure truth; deception by trickery or sophistry
E.g. Those sneaky lawyers misrepresented what occurred, made up all sorts of implausible alternative scenarios to confuse the jurors, and in general depended on chicanery to win the case.
v. scold mildly so as to correct or improve; express disapproval
E.g. Grandma began to chide Steven for his lying.
a. fantastically improbable; highly unrealistic; imaginative
E.g. As everyone expected, Ted's chimerical scheme to make a fortune by raising ermines in his back yard proved a dismal failure.
a. hot-tempered; easily angered; bad-tempered; expressing anger
E.g. His flushed, angry face indicated a choleric nature.
v. chuckle with delight; joyful laugh or chuckle; laugh quietly or with restraint
E.g. When she heard that her rival had just been jailed for embezzlement, we saw her chortle with joy. She was not a nice lady.
a. difficult to work with; rude; unyielding; unmanageable
E.g. Dismayed by his churlish behaviors at the party, the girls vowed never to invite him again.
a. being or taking a roundabout, lengthy course; going round in a circuit; not direct
E.g. To avoid the traffic congestion on the main highways, she took a circuitous route.
n. indirect or roundabout expression; evasion in speech or writing
E.g. He was afraid to call a spade a spade and resorted to circumlocution to avoid direct reference to his subject.
v. limit narrowly; confine; draw a line around; encircle
E.g. Although I do not wish to circumscribe your activities, I must insist that you complete this assignment before you start anything else.
a. carefully aware of all circumstances; cautious
E.g. Investigating before acting, she tried always to be circumspect.