c/d

debonair

(of a man) confident, stylish, and charming. SYNONYMS: suave, urbane, sophisticated, cultured, self-possessed, self-assured, confident, charming, gracious, courteous, gallant, chivalrous, gentlemanly, refined, polished, well-bred, genteel, dignified, courtly; well-groomed, elegant, stylish, smart, dashing; informal smooth, sharp, cool, slick, fly. ANTONYMS unsophisticated.

decrepit

(of a person) elderly and infirm: a decrepit old drunk. • worn out or ruined because of age or neglect: centuries-old buildings, now decrepit and black with soot. SYNONYMS: 1 a decrepit old man: feeble, infirm, weak, weakly, frail; disabled, incapacitated, crippled, doddering, tottering; old, elderly, aged, ancient, senile; informal past it, over the hill, no spring chicken. ANTONYMS strong, fit. 2 a decrepit house: dilapidated, rickety, run-down, tumbledown, beat-up, ramshackle, derelict, ruined, in (a state of) disrepair, gone to rack and ruin; battered, decayed, crumbling, deteriorating. ANTONYMS sound.

corpulent

(of a person) fat SYNONYMS: fat, obese, overweight, plump, portly, stout, chubby, paunchy, beer-bellied, heavy, bulky, chunky, well-upholstered, well padded, well covered, meaty, fleshy, rotund, broad in the beam; informal tubby, pudgy, beefy, porky, roly-poly, blubbery, corn-fed; rare abdominous. ANTONYMS thin.

congenial

(of a person) pleasant because of a personality, qualities, or interests that are similar to one's own: his need for some congenial company. • (of a thing) pleasant or agreeable because suited to one's taste or inclination: he went back to a climate more congenial to his cold stony soul. SYNONYMS: 1 very congenial people: hospitable, genial, personable, agreeable, friendly, pleasant, likable, amiable, nice; companionable, sociable, sympathetic, comradely, convivial, simpatico; like-minded, compatible, kindred, well-suited. ANTONYMS disagreeable. 2 a congenial environment: pleasant, pleasing, agreeable, enjoyable, pleasurable, nice, appealing, satisfying, gratifying, delightful, relaxing, welcoming, hospitable; suitable, well-suited, favorable. ANTONYMS unpleasant.

deciduous

(of a tree or shrub) shedding its leaves annually. Often contrasted with evergreen. • informal (of a tree or shrub) broadleaved. • denoting the milk teeth of a mammal, which are shed after a time.

curmudgeon

a bad-tempered or surly person. SYNONYMS:he really isn't a curmudgeon after all. See grouch.

conundrum

a confusing and difficult problem or question: one of the most difficult conundrums for the experts. • a question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer; a riddle. SYNONYMS: 1 the conundrums facing policy-makers: problem, difficult question, difficulty, quandary, dilemma; informal poser. 2 Rod enjoyed conundrums and crosswords: riddle, puzzle, word game; informal brainteaser.

declivity

a downward slope: a thickly wooded declivity.

crescendo

a gradual increase in loudness in a piece of music. • Music a passage of music marked to be performed with a gradual increase of loudness. • the loudest point reached in a gradually increasing sound: Debra's voice was rising to a crescendo.

cynosure

a person or thing that is the center of attention or admiration: the Queen was the cynosure of all eyes.

defeatist

a person who expects or is excessively ready to accept failure. adjective demonstrating expectation or acceptance of failure: we have a duty not to be so defeatist. SYNONYMS: pessimistic, fatalistic, negative, cynical, despondent, despairing, hopeless, bleak, gloomy. ANTONYMS optimistic.

deference

humble submission and respect: he addressed her with the deference due to age. SYNONYMS: respect, respectfulness, dutifulness; submissiveness, submission, obedience, surrender, accession, capitulation, acquiescence, complaisance, obeisance. ANTONYMS disrespect.

delude

impose a misleading belief upon (someone); deceive; fool: too many theorists have deluded the public | (as adj. deluded) : the poor deluded creature. SYNONYMS Arthur's children were convinced that his young bride was deluding him: mislead, deceive, fool, take in, trick, dupe, hoodwink, gull, lead on; informal con, pull the wool over someone's eyes, lead up the garden path, take for a ride, sucker, snooker.

demystify

make (a difficult or esoteric subject) clearer and easier to understand: this book attempts to demystify technology. SYNONYMS:

décolleté

(of a woman's dress or top) having a low neckline.

demure

(of a woman or her behavior) reserved, modest, and shy: a demure little wife who sits at home minding the house. • (of clothing) lending a modest appearance. SYNONYMS: a demure Victorian miss: modest, unassuming, meek, mild, reserved, retiring, quiet, shy, bashful, diffident, reticent, timid, shrinking, coy; decorous, decent, seemly, ladylike, respectable, proper, virtuous, pure, innocent, chaste; sober, sedate, staid, prim, goody-goody, strait-laced. ANTONYMS brazen.

convivial

(of an atmosphere or event) friendly, lively, and enjoyable. • (of a person) cheerful and friendly; jovial. SYNONYMS: friendly, genial, affable, amiable, congenial, agreeable, good-humored, cordial, warm, sociable, outgoing, gregarious, companionable, clubby, hail-fellow-well-met, cheerful, jolly, jovial, lively; enjoyable, festive.

delectable

(of food or drink) delicious: delectable handmade chocolates. • chiefly humorous extremely beautiful or attractive: the delectable Ms. Davis. SYNONYMS: 1 a delectable meal: delicious, mouthwatering, appetizing, flavorful, toothsome, palatable; succulent, luscious, tasty; informal scrumptious, delish, yummy, finger-licking, lip-smacking, melt-in-your-mouth. ANTONYMS unpalatable. 2 the delectable Ms. Davis: delightful, pleasant, lovely, captivating, charming, enchanting, appealing, beguiling; beautiful, attractive, ravishing, gorgeous, stunning, alluring, sexy, seductive, desirable, luscious; informal divine, heavenly, dreamy, -licious. ANTONYMS unattractive.

dapper

(typically of a man) neat and trim in dress, appearance, or bearing. SYNONYMS: smart, spruce, trim, debonair, neat, well-dressed, well-groomed, well turned out, elegant, chic, dashing; informal snazzy, snappy, natty, sharp, spiffy, fly. ANTONYMS scruffy.

definitive

1 (of a conclusion or agreement) done or reached decisively and with authority: a definitive diagnosis. • (of a book or other text) the most authoritative of its kind: the definitive biography of Harry Truman. 2 (of a postage stamp) for general use and typically of standard design, not special or commemorative. SYNONYMS: 1 a definitive decision: conclusive, final, ultimate; unconditional, unqualified, absolute, categorical, positive, definite. 2 the definitive guide: authoritative, exhaustive, best, finest, consummate; classic, standard, recognized, accepted, official.

crabbed

1 (of handwriting) ill-formed and hard to decipher. • (of style) contorted and difficult to understand: crabbed legal language. 2 ill-humored: a crabbed, unhappy middle age. SYNONYMS: cramped, ill-formed, bad, illegible, unreadable, indecipherable, hieroglyphic; shaky, spidery.

decoy

1 a bird or mammal, or an imitation of one, used by hunters to attract other birds or mammals: [ as modifier ] : a decoy duck. • a person or thing used to mislead or lure an animal or person into a trap. • 2 a pond from which narrow netted channels lead, into which wild ducks may be enticed for capture. SYNONYMS: a decoy to distract their attention: lure, bait, red herring; enticement, inducement, temptation, attraction, carrot; snare, trap. verb he was decoyed to the mainland: lure, entice, allure, tempt; entrap, snare, trap.

countenance

1 a person's face or facial expression: his impenetrable eyes and inscrutable countenance give little away. 2 support: she was giving her specific countenance to the occasion. SYNONYMS: his strikingly handsome countenance: face, features, physiognomy, profile; (facial) expression, look, appearance, aspect, mien; informal mug, puss; literary visage, lineaments. verb he would not countenance the use of force: tolerate, permit, allow, agree to, consent to, give one's blessing to, go along with, hold with, put up with, endure, stomach, swallow, stand for; formal brook.

coquette

1 a woman who flirts. 2 a crested Central and South American hummingbird, typically with green plumage, a reddish crest, and elongated cheek feathers.

continence

1 able to control movements of the bowels and bladder. 2 exercising self-restraint, esp. sexually.

degenerate

1 having lost the physical, mental, or moral qualities considered normal and desirable; showing evidence of decline: a degenerate form of a higher civilization. 2 technical lacking some property, order, or distinctness of structure previously or usually present, in particular: • Mathematics relating to or denoting an example of a particular type of equation, curve, or other entity that is equivalent to a simpler type, often occurring when a variable or parameter is set to zero. • Physics relating to or denoting an energy level that corresponds to more than one quantum state. SYNONYMS: 1 a degenerate form of classicism: debased, degraded, corrupt, impure; formal vitiated. ANTONYMS pure. 2 her degenerate brother: corrupt, decadent, dissolute, dissipated, debauched, reprobate, profligate; sinful, ungodly, immoral, unprincipled, amoral, dishonorable, disreputable, unsavory, sordid, low, ignoble. ANTONYMS moral.

contention

1 heated disagreement: the captured territory was one of the main areas of contention between the two countries. 2 an assertion, esp. one maintained in argument: statistics bear out his contention that many runners are undertrained for this event. SYNONYMS: 1 a point of contention: disagreement, dispute, disputation, argument, discord, conflict, friction, strife, dissension, disharmony. ANTONYMS agreement. 2 we questioned the validity of his contention: argument, claim, plea, submission, allegation, assertion, declaration; opinion, stand, position, view, belief, thesis, case.

decimate

1 kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of: the project would decimate the fragile wetland wilderness | the American chestnut, a species decimated by blight. • drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something): plant viruses that can decimate yields. 2 historical kill one in every ten of (a group of soldiers or others) as a punishment for the whole group.

covert

1 not openly acknowledged or displayed: covert operations against the dictatorship. 2 Law (of a woman) married and under the authority and protection of her husband. noun |ˈkəvər(t), ˈkōvərt | 1 a thicket in which game can hide. 2 Ornithology any of the feathers covering the bases of the main flight or tail feathers of a bird. SYNONYMS: secret, furtive, clandestine, surreptitious, stealthy, cloak-and-dagger, hole-and-corner, backstairs, backroom, hidden, under-the-table, concealed, private, undercover, underground; informal hush-hush. ANTONYMS overt.

demagogue

a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument. • (in ancient Greece and Rome) a leader or orator who espoused the cause of the common people. SYNONYMS: rabble-rouser, agitator, political agitator, soapbox orator, firebrand, fomenter, provocateur.

corollary

a proposition that follows from (and is often appended to) one already proved. • a direct or natural consequence or result: the huge increases in unemployment were the corollary of expenditure cuts. adjective forming a proposition that follows from one already proved. • associated; supplementary. SYNONYMS: consequence, result, end result, upshot, effect, repercussion, product, by-product, offshoot.

deluge

a severe flood. • (the Deluge) the biblical Flood (recorded in Genesis 6-8). • a heavy fall of rain: a deluge of rain hit the plains. • a great quantity of something arriving at the same time: a deluge of complaints. verb [ with obj. ] (usu. be deluged) inundate with a great quantity of something: he has been deluged with offers of work. SYNONYMS 1 homes were swept away by the deluge: flood, torrent, spate. 2 the deluge turned the field into a swamp: downpour, torrential rain; thunderstorm, thundershower, rainstorm, cloudburst. 3 a deluge of complaints: barrage, volley; flood, torrent, avalanche, stream, spate, rush, outpouring, niagara. verb 1 homes were deluged by the rains: flood, inundate, submerge, swamp, drown. 2 we have been deluged with calls: inundate, overwhelm, overrun, flood, swamp, snow under, engulf, bombard.

cornucopia

a symbol of plenty consisting of a goat's horn overflowing with flowers, fruit, and corn. • an ornamental container shaped like a goat's horn. • an abundant supply of good things of a specified kind: the festival offers a cornucopia of pleasures. SYNONYMS: an abundance, a profusion, a plentifulness, a profuseness, a copiousness, an amplitude, a lavishness, a bountifulness, a bounty; a host, a riot; plenty, quantities, scores, a multitude; informal millions, a sea, oceans/an ocean, a wealth, lots/a lot, heaps/a heap, masses/a mass, stacks/a stack, piles/a pile, loads/a load, mountains/a mountain, tons/a ton, a slew; formal a plenitude.

credulity

a tendency to be too ready to believe that something is real or true.

copious

abundant in supply or quantity: she took copious notes. • archaic profuse in speech or ideas: I had been a little too copious in talking of my country. SYNONYMS: abundant, superabundant, plentiful, ample, profuse, full, extensive, generous, bumper, lavish, fulsome, liberal, overflowing, in abundance, many, numerous; informal galore; literary plenteous. ANTONYMS sparse.

consonance

agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions: consonance between conservation measures and existing agricultural practice. • the recurrence of similar sounds, esp. consonants, in close proximity (chiefly as used in prosody). • Music the combination of notes that are in harmony with each other due to the relationship between their frequencies. SYNONYMS: agreement, accord, harmony, unison; compatibility, congruity, congruence; formal concord.

connotation

an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning: the word "discipline" has unhappy connotations of punishment and repression | the work functions both by analogy and by connotation. • Philosophy the abstract meaning or intension of a term, which forms a principle determining which objects or concepts it applies to. Often contrasted with denotation. SYNONYMS: overtone, undertone, undercurrent, implication, hidden meaning, nuance, hint, echo, vibrations, association, intimation, suggestion, suspicion, insinuation.

delusion

an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder: the delusion of being watched. • the action of deluding someone or the state of being deluded: what a capacity television has for delusion. SYNONYMS was her belief in his fidelity just a delusion? misapprehension, misconception, misunderstanding, mistake, error, misinterpretation, misconstruction, misbelief; fallacy, illusion, fantasy.

conjecture

an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information: conjectures about the newcomer were many and varied | the purpose of the opening in the wall is open to conjecture. • an unproven mathematical or scientific theorem: the Goldbach conjecture. • (in textual criticism) the suggestion or reconstruction of a reading of a text not present in the original source. verb [ with obj. ] form an opinion or supposition about (something) on the basis of incomplete information: he conjectured the existence of an otherwise unknown feature | many conjectured that she had a second husband in mind. • (in textual criticism) propose (a reading). SYNONYMS speculation, guesswork, surmise, fancy, presumption, assumption, theory, postulation, supposition; inference, (an) extrapolation; an estimate; informal a guesstimate, a shot in the dark, a ballpark figure. ANTONYMS fact. verb I conjectured that the game was over: guess, speculate, surmise, infer, fancy, imagine, believe, think, suspect, presume, assume, hypothesize, suppose. ANTONYMS know.

deducible

arrive at (a fact or a conclusion) by reasoning; draw as a logical conclusion: little can be safely deduced from these figures | [ with clause ] : they deduced that the fish died because of water pollution. • archaic trace the course or derivation of: he cannot deduce his descent wholly by heirs male.

deleterious

causing harm or damage: divorce is assumed to have deleterious effects on children. SYNONYMS: the deleterious effects of smoking: harmful, damaging, detrimental, injurious; adverse, disadvantageous, unfavorable, unfortunate, undesirable, bad. ANTONYMS beneficial.

contentious

causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial: a contentious issue. • involving heated argument: the socioeconomic plan had been the subject of contentious debate. • (of a person) given to arguing or provoking argument: a contentious amateur politician who has offended minority groups. • Law relating to or involving differences between contending parties. SYNONYMS: 1 a contentious issue: controversial, disputable, debatable, disputed, open to debate, vexed. 2 a contentious debate: heated, vehement, fierce, violent, intense, impassioned. 3 contentious people. See quarrelsome.

conform

comply with rules, standards, or laws: the kitchen does not conform to hygiene regulations | the changes were introduced to conform with international classifications. • (of a person) behave according to socially acceptable conventions or standards: the pressure to conform. • be similar in form or type; agree: the countryside should conform to a certain idea of the picturesque. SYNONYMS: 1.comply with, abide by, obey, observe, follow, keep to, stick to, adhere to, uphold, heed, accept, go along with, fall in with, respect, defer to; satisfy, meet, fulfill. ANTONYMS flout. 2 they refuse to conform: follow convention, be conventional, fit in, adapt, adjust, follow the crowd; comply, acquiesce, toe the line, follow the rules; submit, yield; informal play it by the book, play by the rules. ANTONYMS rebel. 3 goods must conform to their description: match, fit, suit, answer, agree with, be like, correspond to, be consistent with, measure up to, tally with, square with. ANTONYMS differ.

corroborate

confirm or give support to (a statement, theory, or finding): the witness had corroborated the boy's account of the attack. SYNONYMS: confirm, verify, endorse, ratify, authenticate, validate, certify; support, back up, uphold, bear out, bear witness to, attest to, testify to, vouch for, give credence to, substantiate, sustain. ANTONYMS contradict.

craven

contemptibly lacking in courage; cowardly: a craven abdication of his moral duty. noun :archaic a cowardly person. SYNONYMS: cowardly, lily-livered, faint-hearted, chicken-hearted, spineless, timid, timorous, fearful, pusillanimous, weak, feeble; informal yellow, chicken, weak-kneed, gutless, yellow-bellied, wimpish; contemptible, abject, ignominious. ANTONYMS brave.

cower

crouch down in fear: children cowered in terror as the shoot-out erupted. SYNONYMS: cringe, shrink, crouch, recoil, flinch, pull back, draw back, tremble, shake, quake, blench, quail, grovel.

contrived

deliberately created rather than arising naturally or spontaneously. • created or arranged in a way that seems artificial and unrealistic: the ending of the novel is too pat and contrived. SYNONYMS: forced, strained, studied, artificial, affected, put-on, phony, pretended, false, feigned, fake, manufactured, unnatural; labored, overdone, elaborate. ANTONYMS natural.

delirium

delirium |diˈli(ə)rēəm| noun an acutely disturbed state of mind that occurs in fever, intoxication, and other disorders and is characterized by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence of thought and speech. • wild excitement or ecstasy. SYNONYMS 1 she had fits of delirium: derangement, dementia, madness, insanity; incoherence, irrationality, hysteria, feverishness, hallucination. ANTONYMS lucidity. 2 the delirium of desire: ecstasy, rapture, transports, wild emotion, passion, wildness, excitement, frenzy, feverishness, fever; euphoria, elation.

controvert

deny the truth of (something): subsequent work from the same laboratory controverted these results. • argue about (something): the views in the article have been controverted.

delineate

describe or portray (something) precisely: the law should delineate and prohibit behavior that is socially abhorrent. • indicate the exact position of (a border or boundary). SYNONYMS 1 the aims of the study as delineated by the boss: describe, set forth/out, present, outline, sketch, depict, represent; map out, define, specify, identify. 2 a section delineated in red pen: outline, trace, block in, mark (out/off), delimit.

culpable

deserving blame: sometimes you're just as culpable when you watch something as when you actually participate. SYNONYMS: to blame, guilty, at fault, in the wrong, answerable, accountable, responsible, blameworthy, censurable. ANTONYMS innocent.

debauch

destroy or debase the moral purity of; corrupt. • dated seduce (a woman): he debauched sixteen schoolgirls. SYNONYMS: 1 public morals have been debauched: corrupt, debase, deprave, warp, pervert, lead astray, ruin. 2 dated he debauched many women: seduce, deflower, defile, violate; literary ravish.

deign

do something that one considers to be beneath one's dignity: she did not deign to answer the maid's question. • [ with obj. ] archaic condescend to give (something): he had deigned an apology. SYNONYMS: condescend, stoop, lower oneself, demean oneself, humble oneself; consent, vouchsafe; informal come down from one's high horse.

contrite

feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt: a broken and a contrite heart. SYNONYMS: remorseful, repentant, penitent, regretful, sorry, apologetic, rueful, sheepish, hangdog, ashamed, chastened, shamefaced, conscience-stricken, guilt-ridden.

cupidity

greed for money or possessions. SYNONYMS: greed, avarice, avariciousness, acquisitiveness, covetousness, rapacity, materialism, Mammonism; informal money-grubbing. ANTONYMS generosity.

cursory

hasty and therefore not thorough or detailed: a cursory glance at the figures. SYNONYMS; perfunctory, desultory, casual, superficial, token; sketchy, half-done, incomplete; hasty, quick, hurried, rapid, brief, passing, fleeting. ANTONYMS thorough.

covetous

having or showing a great desire to possess something, typically something belonging to someone else: she fingered the linen with covetous hands. SYNONYMS: grasping, greedy, acquisitive, desirous, possessive, envious, green with envy, green-eyed.

crotchety

irritable: he was tired and crotchety. SYNONYMS: bad-tempered, irascible, irritable, grumpy, grouchy, cantankerous, short-tempered, tetchy, testy, curmudgeonly, ill-tempered, ill-humored, ill-natured, cross-grained, peevish, cross, fractious, pettish, waspish, crabbed, crabby, crusty, prickly, touchy, snappish, snappy, cranky, ornery. ANTONYMS good-humored.

debilitate

make (someone) weak and infirm: a weakness that debilitates him despite his overwhelming physical might | (as adj. debilitated) : a debilitated patient. • hinder, delay, or weaken: hard drugs destroy families and debilitate communities. synonyms: weaken, enfeeble, enervate, devitalize, sap, drain, exhaust, weary, fatigue, prostrate; undermine, impair, indispose, incapacitate, cripple, disable, paralyze, immobilize; informal knock out, do in. ANTONYMS invigorate.

dappled

marked with spots or rounded patches: the horse's dappled flank. SYNONYMS: speckled, blotched, blotchy, spotted, spotty, dotted, mottled, marbled, flecked, freckled; piebald, pied, brindle, pinto, tabby, calico; patchy, variegated; informal splotchy.

corporeal

of or relating to a person's body, esp. as opposed to their spirit: he was frank about his corporeal appetites. • having a body: a corporeal God. • Law consisting of material objects; tangible: corporeal property. SYNONYMS: bodily, fleshly, carnal, corporal, somatic, human, mortal, earthly, physical, material, tangible, concrete, real, actual, this-worldly.

connubial

of or relating to marriage or the relationship of husband and wife; conjugal: their connubial bed.

demeanor

outward behavior or bearing: a quiet, somber demeanor. SYNONYMS: manner, air, attitude, appearance, look; bearing, carriage; behavior, conduct; formal comportment.

defray

provide money to pay (a cost or expense): the proceeds from the raffle help to defray the expenses of the evening. SYNONYMS: pay (for), cover, meet, square, settle, clear, discharge.

demur

raise doubts or objections or show reluctance: normally she would have accepted the challenge, but she demurred. • Law, dated put forward a demurrer. SYNONYMS: Steve demurred when the suggestion was made: object, take exception, take issue, protest, cavil, dissent; voice reservations, be unwilling, be reluctant, balk, think twice; drag one's heels, refuse; informal boggle, kick up a fuss.

delve

reach inside a receptacle and search for something: she delved in her pocket. • research or make painstaking inquiries into something: as we delve further into the atom's secrets. • [ with obj. ] literary dig; excavate: (as adj. delved) : the approach from the surface above had awed her, so hugely delved were the tunnels. SYNONYMS: 1 she delved into her pocket: rummage (around/about) in, search, hunt in, scrabble around in, root around/about in, ferret (about/around) in, fish about/around in, dig into/in; go through, rifle through. 2 we must delve into the matter more deeply: investigate, inquire into, probe, explore, research, look into, go into.

debase

reduce (something) in quality or value; degrade: the love episodes debase the dignity of the drama. • lower the moral character of (someone): war debases people. • historical lower the value of (coinage) by reducing the content of precious metal. SYNONYMS: 1 the moral code has been debased: degrade, devalue, demean, cheapen, prostitute, discredit, drag down, tarnish, blacken, blemish; disgrace, dishonor, shame; damage, harm, undermine. ANTONYMS enhance. 2 the added copper debases the silver: reduce in value, reduce in quality, depreciate; contaminate, adulterate, pollute, taint, sully, corrupt; dilute, alloy.

countermand

revoke (an order): an order to arrest the strike leaders had been countermanded. • revoke an order issued by (another person): he was already countermanding her. • declare (a vote or election) invalid. the election commission has countermanded voting on the grounds of intimidation. SYNONYMS: revoke, rescind, reverse, undo, repeal, retract, withdraw, quash, overturn, overrule, cancel, annul, invalidate, nullify, negate; Law disaffirm, discharge, vacate; formal abrogate. ANTONYMS uphold.

cull

select from a large quantity; obtain from a variety of sources: anecdotes culled from Greek and Roman history. • reduce the population of (a wild animal) by selective slaughter: he sees culling deer as a necessity | (as noun culling) : kangaroo culling. • send (an inferior or surplus animal on a farm) to be slaughtered. SYNONYMS: 1 anecdotes culled from Greek history: select, choose, pick, take, obtain, glean. 2 he sees culling deer as a necessity: kill, slaughter, destroy, harvest.

contiguous

sharing a common border; touching: the 48 contiguous states. • next or together in sequence: five hundred contiguous dictionary entries. SYNONYMS: adjacent, neighboring, adjoining, bordering, next-door; abutting, connecting, touching, in contact, proximate.

congeal

solidify or coagulate, esp. by cooling: the blood had congealed into blobs | (as adj. congealed) : congealed egg white. • take shape or coalesce, esp. to form a satisfying whole: the ballet failed to congeal as a single oeuvre. SYNONYMS coagulate, clot, thicken, jell, cake, set, curdle.

deface

spoil the surface or appearance of (something), e.g., by drawing or writing on it; mar or disfigure: he defaced library books | the canyon's spectacular limestone walls have been defaced by the reservoir. SYNONYMS: vandalize, disfigure, mar, spoil, ruin, sully, damage, blight, impair, trash.

defile

sully, mar, or spoil: the land was defiled by a previous owner. • desecrate or profane (something sacred): the tomb had been defiled and looted. • archaic violate the chastity of (a woman). SYNONYMS: 1 her capacity for love had been defiled: spoil, sully, mar, impair, debase, degrade; poison, taint, tarnish; destroy, ruin. ANTONYMS purify. 2 the sacred bones were defiled: desecrate, profane, violate; contaminate, pollute, debase, degrade, dishonor. ANTONYMS sanctify. 3 archaic she was defiled by a married man: rape, violate; literary ravish; dated deflower

degradation

the condition or process of degrading or being degraded: a trail of human misery and degradation. • Geology the wearing down of rock by disintegration. SYNONYMS: 1 poverty brings with it degradation: humiliation, shame, loss of self-respect, abasement, indignity, ignominy. 2 the degradation of women: demeaning, debasement, discrediting. 3 the degradation of the tissues: deterioration, degeneration, atrophy, decay; breakdown; photodegradation.

confluence

the junction of two rivers, esp. rivers of approximately equal width: here at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers. • an act or process of merging: a major confluence of the world's financial markets. synonyms: convergence, meeting, junction.

cozen

trick or deceive: do not think to cozen your contemporaries. • obtain by deception: he was able to cozen a profit.

contravene

violate the prohibition or order of (a law, treaty, or code of conduct): this would contravene the rule against hearsay. • conflict with (a right, principle, etc.), esp. to its detriment: this contravened Washington's commitment to its own proposal. SYNONYMS: 1 he contravened several laws: break, breach, violate, infringe; defy, disobey, flout. ANTONYMS comply with, uphold. 2 the prosecution contravened the rights of the individual: conflict with, be in conflict with, be at odds with, be at variance with, run counter to.

dawdle

waste time; be slow: I couldn't dawdle over my coffee any longer. • [ with adverbial of direction ] move slowly and idly: Ruth dawdled back through the woods. SYNONYMS: 1 they dawdled over breakfast: linger, dally, take one's time, be slow, waste time, idle; delay, procrastinate, stall, dilly-dally, lollygag; archaic tarry. ANTONYMS hurry. 2 Ruth dawdled home: amble, stroll, trail, walk slowly, move at a snail's pace; informal mosey, toodle. ANTONYMS hurry, speed.

connivance

willingness to secretly allow or be involved in wrongdoing, esp. an immoral or illegal act: this infringement of the law had taken place with the connivance of officials. SYNONYMS: collusion, complicity, collaboration, involvement, assistance; tacit consent, conspiracy, intrigue.

deify

worship, regard, or treat (someone or something) as a god: she was deified by the early Romans as a fertility goddess. SYNONYMS: 1 she was deified by the early Romans: worship, revere, venerate, reverence, hold sacred; immortalize. 2 he was deified by the press: idolize, lionize, extol, hero-worship; idealize, glorify, aggrandize, overpraise, put on a pedestal. ANTONYMS demonize.