Unit 14

beatific

(adj.) blissful, angelic, saint-like That blissful grin on your face? It could be described as beatific, meaning it projects a peaceful sense of joy. If you have a beatific smile on your face, then the happiness it shows is the real thing. This word doesn't describe phony smiles or quick grins that show a little amusement. Use beatific to describe something characterized by complete and perfect joy. It's often used to describe a smile, but it can be used to describe anything in a state of bliss. "beatific peace" "a beatific smile"

bleak

(adj.) depressing, discouraging, harsh, cold, barren, raw Something that is bleak is gloomy and depressing. If it's raining and dark, you might describe the night as bleak. If you have looked for work and no one will hire you, you could describe your prospects as bleak. If you and the ten people sharing your lifeboat have been adrift for ten days and are down to your last cracker, your situation is bleak. A near synonym is dismal. Bleak is from Middle English bleik, from Old Norse bleikr "white, pale." This word is related to the English word bleach. "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes" "bleak winds of the North Atlantic" "prospects were bleak" ""Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge"

malleable

(adj.) easy to shape or bend, easily influenced (*amenable, *tractable) A malleable personality is capable of being changed or trained, and a malleable metal is able to be pounded or pressed into various shapes. It's easier to learn when you're young and malleable. Similarly, there are ductile metals that can be hammered out into wire or thread; gold, silver, and platinum are examples. "malleable metals such as gold"

avid

(adj.) enthusiastic; extremely interested, zealous, wishful, positively greedy Avid usually means very eager or enthusiastic. If you're an avid reader, it means you read as much as you can, whenever you can. But this adjective can also mean wanting something so much that you can be thought of as greedy. For example, a person can be avid for success or power. Avid is from French avide, from Latin avidus, from avere "to desire, crave." "an avid sports fan" "avid for adventure" "an avid ambition to succeed" "the esurient eyes of an avid curiosity"

lugubrious

(adj.) extremely mournful; gloomy Funerals are lugubrious. So are rainy days and Mondays. Anything that makes you sad, gloomy, or mournful can be called lugubrious. Vocabulary Shout-Out Lugubrious comes from the Latin verb lūgēre, "to mourn." You can also listen to the sound of the word: lugubrious sounds slow, heavy, and sad. Sometimes, just the "feel" of a word is enough to clue you in to its meaning, and lugubrious is one of those words. I was feeling great when I got to the concert, but the lugubrious music left me in a terrible mood.

amiable

(adj.) friendly, (*affable), cordial, genial "an amiable gathering" A friendly, pleasant person could be described as amiable. Airline flight attendants tend to be amiable. The people monitoring the school's cafeteria? Maybe not. An amiable person is good-natured and easy to get along with. Add one letter and you get amicable, a word with a common ancestor (Latin amicabilis) and a similar meaning. But while amiable refers to friendly people, amicable refers to friendly relations between them; two amiable people who no longer want to be married to one another might have an amicable divorce. The adjective amicable means "friendly" — but in particular, use it when describing relations one might otherwise expect to be unfriendly. The end of a romantic relationship that's less than amicable might involve broken dishes or broken bones.

dilapidated

(adj.) in poor condition from neglect or age, broken-down, derelict, ramshackle, outdated Falling down and in total disrepair, something that's dilapidated is going to need a lot of fixing up. Sure, there might be crooked floorboards, mice scurrying underfoot, and pieces missing from the ceiling, but that dilapidated house does come with one perk: a cheaper price tag! Dilapidated is a word that implies deterioration, often because of neglect. So if you don't take care of things, they can become dilapidated. That goes for houses, tree forts, relationships, health — you name it!

benign

(adj.) kind and gentle Someone or something that is benign is gentle, kind, mild, or unharmful: a benign soul wouldn't hurt a fly. Benign describes a range of qualities, all of them positive. When talking about a person, it means "gentle." In reference to weather or climate, it means "mild." In some other contexts, it simply means "not harmful"; you might speak of "a benign tumor" or "an environmentally benign chemical." "the benign ruler of millions" "benign intentions" "a benign smile" "the benign sky" "the benign influence of pure air"

antic

(adj.) ludicrously odd, (n.) caper, joke, prank, put-on, trick, grotesque An antic is a prank to the extreme. It's outrageous, but it's usually meant to be funny. When the senior class steals the principal's car and manages to get it inside the gym, the antic may be condemned by the school, but everyone else probably thinks it's hilarious. The noun antic is most commonly used in the plural form, as in "the coach was growing tired of his star player's silly antics after scoring." Sometimes antics can lean toward the not-so-funny side as well. Really ridiculous behavior, that is more foolish than funny, can also be called antics. Antic can also be used an as adjective, as in "her antic stand-up routine had everyone rolling in the aisles." It more infrequently can be used as a verb meaning basically "to act like a clown."

amok(amuck)

(adj., adv.) in a frenzied or uncontrolled state, amuck, berserk, demoniac, demoniacal, possessed You think Mittens the kitten is gentle and sweet, and then one day she runs amok, ripping up Grandma's favorite armchair until its cottony guts are hanging out. Time to take Mittens to get her claws trimmed. In the 1500s, a Portuguese writer and explorer named Duarte Barbosa described a murderous tribe on the island of Java as the "Amuco," and the word passed on into English. Amuco came from Amuk, a Malay word meaning "attacking furiously." When things go amuck, they are wildly out of control. Someone running amuck is showing no self-control. This is a word that has to do with chaos and disorder. A riot is an example of people running amuck. In a cafeteria, if people are yelling and throwing food, they are going amuck. This word applies to times when control has been lost: people are showing no self-control, and the situation is out of hand. Sometimes, going amuck is positive, though. If a football player scores five touchdowns in a game, you could say he's running amuck. "rioters running amuck and throwing sticks and bottles and stones" "when the restaurant caught fire the patrons ran amuck, blocking the exit" "the soldier was completely amuck"

boon

(n.) a gift or blessing, a desirable state (adj.) very close and convivial Boon means something beneficial to a specific person, entity, or cause. "Getting called out of school on the day of the test was a boon for Sam, as he hadn't remembered to study." Boon derives from the Old Norse bón, a request for a favor. Think of boon as a favor that no one has necessarily asked for, something extra. "We'd just spent our last dollar on a cup of coffee so it was a real boon to find a ten dollar bill lying on the sidewalk." Boon can also be an adjective for someone friendly and welcoming, as in "a boon companion." "boon companions" "a spanking breeze is a boon to sailors"

foible

(n.) a weak point, failing, minor flaw, peculiarity, (*idiosyncrasy, *eccentricity) If you repeat foible out loud enough times, it sounds so funny that you can laugh at it and maybe remember to laugh at the odd and distinctive weaknesses of others — the foible or two or a hundred that we all have. Sometimes a foible helps make a person who they are, even if the foible, or weakness ("feeble" is a close relative), is a little odd. Synonyms for foible in a negative sense are "failing," "shortcoming," and in a more positive sense "quirk," "eccentricity." It can likewise be annoying or endearing. Most people have a foible, or idiosyncrasy, that stands out to others, but interestingly, a person rarely sees his or her own characteristic foible.

ascendancy

(n.) dominance When you assume ascendancy over someone else, you become more powerful than they are. Ascendancy is the state of being in a higher position. If you look at ascendancy, you see the word, ascend, which means to go up. Ascendancy is not so much about going up, but about being up. Another word for it is dominance, especially in the context of foreign or domestic relations. In school, if you question a teacher's ascendancy, you might be told to go to the principal's office. In this case, you're challenging the teacher's authority.

balk

(v.) Refuse to proceed or to do something (n.) something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress, hindrance, If you balk at your mother's suggestion that you take on more responsibility, you're saying no to added chores. To balk means to refuse to go along with. A donkey balks when it refuses to move forward. This is a good picture for balk which is often used in conjunction with demands. Demands are something people often balk at like a donkey refusing to move. In baseball, a pitcher balks when he or she begins a pitch by winding up, but does not complete it. It is as if he is refusing to complete a started pitch, and it is against the rules.

antidate

(v.) precede in time; come before, antecede, forego, forgo, precede, predate When things antedate something else, they come before it, or happen earlier than it does. World War I antedates World War II. Another way to say antedate is precede or predate. It's common to find the word antedate when people talk about history, for obvious reasons. Papyrus antedates modern paper, and paper antedates the desktop computer, which antedates the smartphone and tablet. Your parents' birth antedates your own, and your great-grandparents' lives antedate both yours and your parents'. In Latin, the prefix ante means "before."

irk

(v.) to annoy, trouble, make weary, (*gall, *exasperate) The verb irk means "annoy," so if the incessant barking of your next door neighbor's pug is driving you crazy, you can say that the noise irks you. Being irked is an individual thing — what drives you crazy might be something your friend doesn't even notice. For example, it might irk your grammarian friend every time he hears someone says "ain't," but other people don't mind it. The earliest version of the word irk, irken, meant "to feel weary or tired," but it later came to mean "to tire of or to be disgusted with." If your little brother keeps saying the same phrase over and over again, you might find it irksome — that is, annoying in a tiresome way.

ascribe

(v.) to assign or refer to (as a cause or source), attribute, to give credit to, Ascribe means to give credit to, like if you ascribe the A you got on your group project to the hard work of your partners! Ascribe's Latin root is ascribere, meaning basically "to write in.'' Makes sense, because ascribe is often used to link writers to their words. Many a quirky quote, like "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter," is ascribed to that famous scribe Mark Twain. It can also be a way of blaming something — you might ascribe your bad attitude to your mom because she won't let you have cupcakes for dinner.

besiege

(v.) to attack by surrounding with military forces; to cause worry or trouble To besiege means to attack with an army, or to pester with many requests. When all your teachers ask you to hand in assignments on the same day, you can end up feeling besieged. The source of the word besiege in its military sense is the Latin word for "seat." When an army settles down in front of a fort or other site of attack, they are besieging it or taking a seat there. Picture them continually bombarding the fortress with arrows and cannon shot, and you've got the picture of the figurative sense of the word, "to pester with requests, etc." If you get a lot of spam in your e-mail, you are besieged with advertisements — and maybe also besieged with worries that you' "The Turks besieged Vienna" "The press photographers besieged the movie star" "She was besieged by so many problems that she got discouraged" Your city is under siege (n.) if it is surrounded on all sides by an opposing force on attack. Think of a castle surrounded by a legion of armed knights.

assail

(v.) to attack, assault To assail is to attack or assault — with throwing stars, fists, words or, less tangibly but just as violently, with troubles or doubts. Believe it or not, assail evolved from the ancient Latin word assilire, which means "to jump on." So picture an attacker jumping on you, throwing punches and maybe some insults, too. Because assail also means to ridicule or heap your worries upon someone. As novelist Charlotte Bronte noted, "Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last." Think on that. "Serbian forces assailed Bosnian towns all week" "Nightmares assailed him regularly"

behoove

(v.) to be necessary or proper for To behoove someone to do something is to make it advisable or necessary to do so, for their own good or that of others. It would behoove you to study hard and work for the future you desire. It would behoove the legislature to pass a law behooving citizens to pay their taxes earlier. "It behooves us to reflect on this matter"

hobble

(v.) to hold back the progress of something, walk impeded by some physical limitation or injury (n.) the uneven manner of walking that results from an injured leg When you hobble, you walk awkwardly or unsteadily because you're in pain. You might wipe out on your bike and then hobble back home, pushing it in front of you. People who hobble, walking with a limp or a shuffle, have most often been injured in some way, though a disabled or elderly person might hobble as well. You can call the walk itself a hobble as well: "I knew that football tackle hurt when I saw your hobble as you left the field." "The old woman hobbles down to the store every day" "The chairman was hobbled by the all-powerful dean"

besmirch

(v.) to make dirty; to stain, (*calumniate,*denigrate) defame, sully To besmirch means to dirty or tarnish, particularly someone's reputation — like when you call Billy a cheater at kickball (even though you know he's just better at bunting than you). Besmirch may sound kind of funny, but it goes hand in hand with other hurtful words like defame and slander. It can also mean to literally stain something. So that time you tracked mud all over the new white carpet and then blamed it on your little brother? That was a double besmirching — dirtying the rug and then falsely accusing a sibling.

badger

(v.) to pester, nag, annoy persistently Badger is to bother. Persistently. On and on. Without stop. Relentlessly. Over and over. Endlessly. It comes from the name of that chipmunk-like animal that burrows into the ground. If you badger someone, you get under their skin. A badger is an animal that digs tunnels under ground to keep warm. To badger can also mean to persuade someone through constant annoying efforts. You might badger your mom to add another hour to your curfew or badger your friend to give you a turn with a video game he has been hogging.

proscribe

(v.) to prohibit To proscribe something is to forbid or prohibit it, as a school principal might proscribe the use of cell phones in class. Proscribe sounds similar to the word prescribe, but be careful: these words are essentially opposite in meaning. While proscribe means forbid, prescribe is used when a doctor recommends a medicine or remedy. Of course, if you want an excuse for not following your doctor's orders, you could say you were confused about the meaning of these two words — but that would be lying, which is proscribed by most people's value systems. And it would also be bad for your health.

begrudge

(v.) to resent another's success; to envy, to wish ill or allow unwillingly To begrudge someone for something is to wish them ill for it or to envy them. Try not to begrudge his getting the promotion over you — he's been at the company longer. An understudy might begrudge the lead her role and even go so far as to put glass in her shoes so she can't perform. An easy way to remember the meaning of this verb is to note the noun grudge lurking inside it. A grudge is ill will that you hold toward someone: to begrudge is to hold that grudge. If you begrudge your friend his happiness because he got the nicer car, your friendship will suffer.

avert

(v.) to turn aside, turn away; to prevent, to avoid, (Avert- kinda Divert) To avert is to turn away or to prevent. You might avert your gaze or avert a disaster — either way, you are avoiding something. The verb avert comes from Latin roots that mean "to turn away from." Averting has that sense of deflecting, turning away, or preventing something (usually bad) from happening. You might put salt on an icy sidewalk to avert accidents, or you might avert a toddler's meltdown by supplying a lollipop. "They averted their eyes when the King entered" "avert a strike"

augment

(v.)make larger, increase (Augmentation-Segmentation) Do you need to make something bigger, better, or stronger? Then you need to augment it. To augment is to increase the amount or strength of something. Maybe your bike isn't getting around very well on hills: the bike needs to be augmented with a better set of tires. People augment their computers and phones all the time, adding new gadgets and apps. They augment the storage space in their cars by buying roof racks. If the President decides to augment taxes, taxes are going up. When you see the word augment, think "More!" "The pressure augmented" "The recent speech of the president augmented tensions in the Near East"

affluent

wealthy, (*opulent)