GRE Vocab 4

hapless

Use the adjective hapless to describe someone unlucky and deserving of pity, like the hapless used car buyer who gives in to the fast-talking salesperson. A drawing showed an angry buffalo chasing a hapless human.

hoary

Use the adjective hoary to describe something that is old and worn out — like the hoary jokes your great uncle Albert clings to. The mountain was there, but clouds covered his hoary head.

declaim

Use the verb declaim when someone is speaking very passionately against something, like when you declaim having to be home at an early hour. "Our hero!" declaimed Mrs. Daw, looking up at him in gratitude.

doff

Use the verb doff to describe removing something. You probably always doff your cap before the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner." He had barely doffed his driving-coat, however, before his thoughts were swept in another direction. Before the spring break revelers could consider doffing their clothes, they saw the sign: "No skinny dipping."

dictum

"You are what you eat" is a dictum, and so is a law requiring you to curb your dog. A dictum is a formal pronouncement, a rule, or a statement that expresses a truth universally acknowledged. "Putting a twist on George Orwell's famous dictum: All Centurions are equal. "A stitch in time saves nine" is an old dictum meaning that it's easier to solve a problem before it gets too big.

idyllic

A week at the beach that goes perfectly is an idyllic vacation. Idyllic means so wonderful it seems almost magical. But trouble and change soon broke into this idyllic home.

demagogue

A demagogue is someone who becomes a leader largely because of skills as a speaker or who appeals to emotions and prejudices. It would have qualified them later to be Temperance fanatics or Trade Union demagogues.

dichotomy

A dichotomy is an idea or classification split in two. When you point out a dichotomy, you draw a clear distinction between two things. In many ways there is this dichotomy in technology today.

dirge

A dirge is a song of mourning, performed as a memorial to someone who's died. As you might imagine, a dirge is usually quite sad. Another word with a similar meaning that you might know is "requiem." At midnight dirges were sung, while eager multitudes passed by looking upon the face of the dead.

fledgling

A fledgling is a fuzzy baby bird just learning to fly, or someone (like a baby bird) who's brand new at doing something. Awww. It preserved his fledgling career in the United States.

goad

A goad is a pointy stick or other instrument used to prod something along. To goad is to poke something with that pointy stick. Either way, the pointiness is really essential for making things leap into action. Though the audience goaded him to continue, Mr. Morgan said, "I can't.

hallmark

A hallmark is a distinctive characteristic of something or someone. That can mean a literal symbol on the bottom of a piece of pottery, or just a rock star's signature hair style. Gracious exits in defeat are not a hallmark of Israel's politics.

distend

A soda and pizza binge might make your stomach distend, meaning your stomach will swell as a result of pressure from the inside. Ragged clothes, distended stomachs: image follows image as in a Brueghel painting.

dither

Act indecisively (verb); a state of fear or trembling excitement After years of dithering, India's creaky justice system lurched into action.

echelon

An echelon is a stepped formation with objects arranged in a diagonal. Birds flying in a V shape create echelons so that they can draft behind each other and conserve energy — except for the guy up front, who's super tired. Among the items from the upper echelons of society were Christmas gifts from the Royal Family.

elegy

An elegy is a sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead. Although a speech at a funeral is a eulogy, you might later compose an elegy to someone you have loved and lost to the grave. "Many an unsung elegy," he tells us, "Sleeps in the reeds that fringe our winding Thames."

implacable

An implacable person just can't be appeased. If you really offended your best friend and tried every kind of apology but she refused to speak to you again, you could describe her as implacable.

halcyon

An old man watching his grandchildren play might look back fondly on his halcyon days, remembering the peaceful, happy time of his youth. Her thoughts too were flying back to those halcyon days before the war.

husband

As a verb, husband means to conserve resources and use them frugally. Because of the flooding in the area, roads are cut off and everyone is being asked to husband their supplies. This conservation of resources sense of husband also occurs in the related noun husbandry. As we are dealing with cutbacks, I am calling on you as the office manager to husband our resources.

harrow

Being attacked by a hungry shark or being chased by an unruly mob on the streets can be described as harrowing, which means "provoking feelings of fear or horror." Some immigrants tell harrowing tales of cruelty by Bedouin smugglers in Sinai.

diffuse

Diffuse mean spread out, or the action of spreading out. If lots of people in school believe invisible angels are everywhere, you could say that opinion is diffuse. You might even think angels are diffuse as well. When something is diffused, it's mixed in, and when you drop propaganda pamphlets out of airplanes you're diffusing the propaganda.

discrete

Discrete means separate or divided. A discrete unit is a separate part of something larger. A room is a discrete space within a house, just as the transmission is a discrete part of a car engine. If something is discrete, it has its own space. An ice cube comes from an ice tray, but it has its own discrete compartment. "Humans don't discriminate each chemical substance," he says, but rather classify a discrete set of tastes.

dyspeptic

Dyspeptic is an old-fashioned word not often used anymore. It describes someone who is irritable due to depression or indigestion. Three United States Senate primaries on Tuesday offer new signs of the election-year intentions of America's dyspeptic voters.

engender

Engender is a fancy way of saying "to make happen," like when you engender the spirit of teamwork and cooperation by encouraging others and doing your share of the group's work. Walking in public holding hands invariably engenders stares and second looks.

ethos

Ethos, a noun, is the fundamental set of beliefs that you, or a society, or group live by. A free spirit might live by the ethos of "anything goes." Like that film, "The Long Ride Home," was intended to capture the American ethos at a moment in time, Wright said.

extemporaneous

Extemporaneous means spoken without preparation. The orator's performance was impressive, but only after we learn that his speech was extemporaneous did we realize the true depth of his talent. His special forte, his biographer says, was extemporaneous speaking and debate.

fatuous

Fatuous means lacking intelligence. When your mother outlaws calling your brother stupid, use fatuous instead. Sadly, every philosophy class seems to have one person who responds to every discussion, from metaphysics to ethics, with the fatuous question, "But what if we don't really exist?"

felicitous

Felicitous describes something that's really pleasant. If someone behaves in a felicitous manner, she's being agreeable and appropriate. You know, the way you should behave when your great aunt offers you those stale candies. Marked by good fortune. But the current talks on unity have hardly been felicitous.

distaff

Female, esp. relating to the maternal side of the family; women or women's work; a staff that holds wool or flax for spinning If the distaff side want equal pay, they should provide equal entertainment.

fervid

Fervid can be used to describe something that is physically hot such as "a fervid day in August," but it is more often used to describe heated emotions like anger, love, or desire. He had never heard any words in his life so fervid, so full of awed and hesitating tenderness.

fortuitous

Fortuitous means by chance, like a lucky accident. If you and your best friend's families happen to go on vacation to the same place at the same time, that's a fortuitous coincidence! The initial advantage proved to be fortuitous once again.

gouge

Gouge means stealing by overcharging. If your local gas station puts the price of gas way up because a storm is coming, you may say that the station owner gouges prices — and that's illegal. Scooping or digging tool, like a chisel, or a hole made with such a tool; cut or scoop out; force out a person's eye with one's thumb; swindle, extort money from. He has people eating their sons in pies, men with their eyes gouged out, and merciless sexual jealousy.

graft

Graft can mean bribery or corruption. It's also a way of transplanting skin or bones in medicine, as in a skin graft. At the same time, it has shrugged off corrosive graft accusations against Mr. Chaudhry's son.

grandiloquent

Grandiloquent is a fancy term for, well, being fancy or pretentious. In fact, you might say grandiloquent is itself a pretty grandiloquent word. Kasabian Brief bio: Grandiloquent rockers, based in Leicester.

hand-wringing

Grasping, squeezing, etc. of the hands as an expression of nervousness, guilt, etc.; extend debate over what to do about an issue. There has been much hand-wringing (or wringing of hands) over falling test scores, with so-called "experts" acting as if the world will end if students do 1% worse in math and science.

coterie

Have you noticed how so many of the best TV shows concentrate on a group of friends who seem to mesh together perfectly, to the exclusion of all others? This, then, is a coterie, an exclusive group with common interests. Old coteries were thus broken up; old friendships, if not severed, yet rendered less intimate.

hegemony

Hegemony is political or cultural dominance or authority over others. The hegemony of the popular kids over the other students means that they determine what is and is not cool. No American president ever seriously challenged Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe.

idolatry

Idolatry means the worship of images as if they were gods. Many religions prohibit idolatry, some even to the extent of forbidding any representational objects in houses of worship. He scarcely learned more than popish superstition and idolatry. After a year in an education Ph.D. program, she'd had enough with the idolatry of Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences.

diaphanous

If a dress is so see-through that light shines through it revealing the goods beneath, it's diaphanous. Also known as "sheer," "transparent," or just plain "sexy," but diaphanous is so much classier. The Eternal Godmother Of 'La Bayadère' ONE by one, clad in diaphanous white, they enter to a flowing adagio musical phrase.

diurnal

If it's 9:00 at night and your mom wants you to do the dishes, you could try to put it off until the next day by politely pointing out that you are a diurnal animal. That means you get most of your activities done during the day. Robins — usually diurnal singers — switch to nighttime in areas that are chaotic by day.

impermeable

If you have a waterproof raincoat, you could say that your coat is impermeable to the rain. Something that is impermeable does not allow water or liquid to pass through it. For one thing, the public and private sectors don't have some impermeable wall between them.

confound

If you have an identical twin, you've probably tried dressing alike so that people confound you with, or mistake you for, one another. You've also probably learned that, unfortunately, this trick doesn't work on your mom. He was positively confounded by a map that seemed to show "East Bethlehem" as being to the west of "West Bethlehem."

disparage

If you haven't got anything nice to say, then it's time to disparage someone. It means to belittle or degrade a person or idea. Their boss said their Facebook thread violated HUB's harassment policy by disparaging a co-worker.

desultory

If you lack a definite plan or purpose and flit from one thing to another, your actions are desultory. Some people call such desultory wanderings spontaneous. Others call it "being lost." For the next three hours there was only desultory firing.

imprecation

If you really don't like someone you can shout out an imprecation at them. More than simply the use of bad language (although that can be involved, too), an imprecation is a damning curse wishing them nothing but ill. They took their seats again, and reviled him with indescribable insults, and imprecations.

effrontery

If you rudely behave as if you have a right to something that you have no right to, you're committing effrontery. When a couple stroll into a crowded restaurant, demand the best table, and threaten the staff unless they're seated right away, that's effrontery. She was the perfect celebrity, sustained by effrontery and unblessed by talent.

glower

If you see someone glower at you, you might consider glowering back, but no one likes an angry staring contest. To glower is not only to stare, it's to stare angrily, as if you're going to throttle someone. Mr. Northey glowered at the girl as if she had already broken all bounds.

equanimity

If you take the news of your brother's death with equanimity, it means you take it calmly without breaking down. Equanimity refers to emotional calmness and balance in times of stress. Gordon maintained a perfect equanimity, but he wanted to laugh badly.

fastidious

If you want to describe a person who insists on perfection or pays much attention to food, clothing and cleanliness, the right word is fastidious. She said Tom was very fastidious in regard to dress.

egress

If you want to leave a place, you need a means of egress, or a way to exit, such as a door or window. It was a beautiful old house, but without enough ways of egress, they needed outdoor fire-stairs for reaching the upper floors. These court officers it was whom his imagination pictured as "cutting off all egress" at the Winter Palace.

endemic

If you want to underscore just how commonly found and present something is within a particular place, try the word endemic. Tight pants are endemic in my lunch room! Incompetence, corruption and greed have been endemic in British banking.

fetid

If you want to understand the true meaning of fetid, leave your sweaty gym clothes in your locker for a few days. Fetid is a fancy way of saying that something smells really bad. the fe(e)t (d)id stink. Sleeping in the hot and almost fetid air had benumbed his brain.

hew

If you're a lumberjack, the word hew is nothing new. You hew things every day with one swift swing of the axe, chopping and shaping wood. Most starting pitchers hew to strict pregame routines.

imperturbable

If you're imperturbable you are not easily upset. If your goal is to be imperturbable, then you can't let things bother you or get you stressed, confused, or angry. Sheriff Taylor was the calm, imperturbable sounding board and problem solver.

furtive

If you're looking for a formal adjective to describe something sly or secret, sneak in furtive. Let's hope the teacher doesn't see your furtive attempts to pass notes in class! She noticed now that he was casting furtive glances about the dining-room.

erstwhile

If your dad used to play in a punk band, but is now a computer programmer, you could call him an erstwhile punk rocker. Erstwhile means "former." There are two other erstwhile US Open champions floating around with a very decent chance of winning today.

fracas

If your marching band gets into a fight with another school's pep squad, your principal might say the fracas was uncalled for and undignified. A fracas is a noisy quarrel. Such fracases are increasingly common at schools like P.S.

effigy

In modern usage, effigy most often refers to a likeness, such as a dummy, that is hanged, burned, or otherwise abused when protesting the despised person's actions. Cavaliers fans burned replicas of James's jersey in effigy.

grating

Irritating; harsh or discordant (of a noise); scraping Anyway, her blasé, bossy voice was grating on him this afternoon.

forestall

It takes a bit of planning to forestall something, meaning stop it from happening. To forestall the effects of aging, exercise and take care of your health all your life. "No, I won't bother about my hands," John put in hastily to forestall Beatrice's next suggestion.

ebullient

More than chipper, more than happy, more than delighted is ebullient — meaning bubbling over with joy and delight. But his school companions, and even his elders, often found these ebullient spirits of his by no means so delightful.

droll

Need a mental picture for the word droll? Think of one of those cute-homely troll dolls — blend those two words together — "doll" and "troll" — and you get droll, a description of a figure that is adorably strange and whimsically cute. Mr. Garcia enlivens every scene he's in and provides droll humor as well.

euphemism

Pardon me, but when a polite term is substituted for a blunt, offensive one, you should call it a euphemism. The military is also notorious for using euphemisms, like saying "neutralizing the target" instead of "killing someone." In a recent operations order, Commissioner Kelly explained departmental policy under the euphemism "performance goal."

impassive

Someone who doesn't seem to react — who is always "taking a pass" in the conversation of life can be described as impassive. The Chinaman's face became impassive again, though his eyes looked surprised.

emaciate

Someone who is dangerously skinny and skeletal-looking can be described as emaciated. It's probably how you'd start to look after a few weeks in the wilderness with only berries and bugs for dinner. It is often said, for instance, that all Gothic figures are stiff and emaciated.

imperious

Someone who is imperious gives orders in a way that shows they feel superior or more important than other people. You might want the smartest kid in the class as your lab partner, but not if they have an imperious attitude and boss you around. She was not to be intimidated by his imperious words or threatening looks.

dilatory

Something dilatory creates a delay. If you are a high school student, once in a while you might have used dilatory tactics if you forgot to do your homework. He has kept me waiting for more than a month—these dilatory French!

fallow

Something that is fallow is left unused. If you're smart but lazy, someone might say you have a fallow mind. All the years of his life, his deeper nature had been lying fallow. It is terribly important that we make college affordable for underprivileged students, lest great minds lie fallow, and the world never benefit from their genius.

contumacious

That ornery horse that keeps heading back to the barn, no matter how much you coax and kick and try and convince him to stay on the trail? He's showing you his contumacious side, meaning he's stubbornly resisting authority. He was threatened with death by starvation in Jamaica, where the contumacious savages refused to give him provisions.

diffident

The adjective diffident describes someone who is shy and lacking in self-confidence. If you are shy and have a diffident manner, you should probably not choose one of these professions: substitute teacher, stand-up comic, or lion-tamer. All his school life Oliver was painfully diffident, but a good scholar.

expedient

The adjective expedient describes something that provides an easy way to achieve a goal or result, but it's not necessarily a moral solution. Politically expedient means something you do to advance yourself politically. I lay all night, thinking over all possible expedients for escape.

fecund

The adjective fecund describes things that are highly fertile and that easily produce offspring or fruit. Rabbits are often considered to be fecund animals, and you may hear jokes in poor taste about people reproducing like rabbits if they have a lot of children. The adjective fecund can also be used to describe someone who is innovative or highly intellectually productive. Despite years of physical torment, Mr. Price entered into a remarkably fecund phase as a writer.

frenetic

The adjective frenetic is another way to say frenzied, frantic, or totally worked up. Kind of how you'd run around the kitchen madly trying to cook a last-minute dinner for 30 of your closest friends. He was lucky to get a yellow and eventually settled down after a frenetic first half hour.

ersatz

The ersatz version of something is an inferior substitute or imitation. Instant coffee would be considered ersatz to a freshly brewed cup made from hand-ground Costa Rican beans. "When Harry Met Sally" remains an ersatz Woody Allen movie about two incredibly irritating people.

contraries

Things that are opposing; either of two opposite things. The Machiavellian among us would say that ethics and expedience are contraries—at some point, one must win out over the other.

glacial

Things that are glacial are super cold. A place can be glacial — like the South Pole — but a person can be glacial, too, like that unfriendly girl who gave you a glacial stare. If something or someone is glacial, that thing or person is icy. You can give someone you don't like a glacial look, or you can go skiing on a glacial morning. He has a very light touch with Caribbean, African and Brazilian percussion patterns at speeds that are positively glacial by current pop radio standards.

dilettante

Though dilettante might sound like a nice French word, don't use it on your friend who thinks he can play the guitar after several short lessons. A dilettante is an amateur, often one who pretends to be very knowledgeable. At least, in spite of his society leanings, Franconi was no mere dilettante inventor.

grievous

Though the 20th century was a time of great enlightenment, it was also an era of many of man's most grievous crimes. The adjective grievous means extremely sad or hurtful and is closely related to the verb "grieve." One man has been arrested and several are being questioned on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

impious

To be impious is to be disrespectful of god or duty. When someone is being impious they are doing things that their church, synagogue, temple, mosque, school principal, government or parents would find unacceptable. Chemistry was opposed as an impious prying into the secrets of God.

convoke

To convoke is "to call to a meeting," specifically one that is formal. There is no fun to be had when you're convoked; there is serious business to attend to. I have also convoked a few young laureates of the college, but only such as are little versed in affairs.

discomfiting

To discomfit someone is to make them feel uncomfortable or upset. An easy way to discomfit another person is to use the age-old, childish trick of ignoring them. (Of course, we're sure you would never do that, right? Right?) In 2000, USA Swimming officials heralded Ervin's multiracial background, which he found discomfiting.

dissemble

To dissemble is to hide under a false appearance, to deceive. "When confronted about their human rights record, the Chinese government typically dissembles." But she also dissembled her anger before the court and sat to watch what would befall.

edify

To edify is to help someone understand, whether it is books that edify those who want to learn a new language, or the explanations that hang beside paintings at a museum that edify visitors who aren't familiar with the artist. The pictures nailed up on the boards are not of an edifying description. Look, Son, I'm glad that you're reading, but I really wish you would read something more edifying than that magazine that gives tips for winning at violent video games.

exonerate

To exonerate someone is to declare him not guilty of criminal charges. This word is pretty much only used in reference to proceedings in a court of law. A word with a similar meaning that might be familiar is "acquit." At least he had to give up until last month when he was exonerated in California Superior Court.

flout

To flout is to scorn or show contempt for. "I flout the law and the concept of civilian safety by making a concerted effort to jaywalk every time I cross a street." Fire safety codes are routinely flouted in India both in private and government buildings.

forage

To forage is to wander around looking for food. When it's cold and snowy outside, birds may forage for food in your backyard, digging around for whatever they can find. Standing moose are, for the most part, foraging.

gambol

To gambol is to run around playing excitedly. There are some really fun-sounding synonyms for gambol, such as "frolic," "romp," and "cavort," and though it sounds like "gamble," when you gambol with an "ol" you never lose — you just have a great time! Young people gambol about in costumes resembling chic bathing wear.

garner

To garner means to gather or earn. If you want to run for office without belonging to a political party, you must garner enough signatures — usually a few thousand — to get onto the ballot. So far, the app has garnered about 25,000 users, purely by word of mouth.

grovel

To grovel is to beg like a hungry dog. You don't have to be a canine, though, you might grovel for a better grade (please don't). The man grovelling before me might deserve death; knowing the stakes, he had gambled and lost.

imbue

To imbue is to fill up with or become "soaked" in an idea or emotion, as a sponge takes in water. One visit to Africa might be enough to imbue ambitions in a medical student to return to heal the sick. Then he felt better and was imbued with fresh courage.

fulminate

Watch a bomb fulminate or explode and hope you're under safe cover. Have your parents fulminate or blow up at you for coming home past curfew and hope you're not grounded for too long. About fifty years later the Church of Rome fulminated a bull against witchcraft.

epicure

We call a person who truly loves food—food at the highest levels—an epicure. Occasionally, you might find the word epicure used for a person who loves something else, but an epicure is usually someone who delights in fine food. These are quite an epicure's dish, and care must be taken to cook them slowly.

florid

When people are red-cheeked with good health they are florid. Spending most of the year in the college library can give you a colorless, weary face, but after a mountain vacation, you'll be florid with the reddish color that comes from exercise and living well. Something overly decorated, such as a really ornate living room, is florid in the flowery sense, while people with rosy cheeks and a look of healthiness are florid because they are flourishing with a fullness of life. In general, the style is plain rather than florid.

impasse

When two huge semi trailers met face-to-face on a one-lane mountain road, the drivers jumped out of their cabs and exclaimed, "We're at an impasse! We can't move forward — we can only reverse and go back in the direction from which we came." Essentially this puts us at an economic impasse so investment isn't going into these shopping centres.

exigent

When you describe something as exigent, you are saying it requires attention: it can't be ignored. If there's a runaway train driving straight at you, that's an exigent situation. Yet her exigent heart was not altogether at ease.

doctrinaire

You've doubtless met someone doctrinaire at some point. You know them by their complete unwillingness to accept any belief other than their own. Only doctrinaires, slaves to formulæ, but blind to reality, could have sanctioned such separatism. The old science professor was so doctrinaire that he refused to even consider any evidence that flew in the face of his own research, and thereby failed to recognize when his graduate students made an exciting new discovery.

dovetail

fit together tightly, as if by means of a dovetail The events increasingly dovetail with Google's interests in publishing, broadcasting, music distribution and other media businesses.

grandstand

perform ostentatiously in order to impress the audience and with an eye to the applause Neither likes to grandstand on television news shows—perhaps because they are both drab public speakers.

delimit

set, mark, or draw the boundaries of something Total area is the sum of all land and water areas delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines.

cosset

treat with excessive indulgence The cosseted toddler was lovingly wrapped up in his snow gear. Also referenced as "Mother Love and Cossetting Songs."