GRE_list#3

prune

To prune means to clip, crop, cut back, and weed out. Pruning usually happens to overgrown trees and bushes, but can also be helpful for wild eyebrows and guest lists that are too long.

fusty

Use the adjective fusty to describe something that's covered with dust and smells a little old and musty. Your grandmother's attic is probably full of fusty knickknacks.

schematic

Use the adjective schematic to describe a drawing that's very simple and symbolic. That drawing your cousin made of a house with a pointy roof, smiling stick figures, and a round yellow sun? Very schematic.

oblique

If something is oblique, it has a slanting position or direction. In figurative use, oblique means indirect or purposely misleading. "What is two plus two?" "Fish!" as an answer is completely oblique.

supplicate

If you don't get the grade you were hoping for on your paper, you could try to rewrite it, or you could meet with your teacher and supplicate. Your humble requests for an 'A' may or may not work.

rescind

If you get a call saying a company has decided to rescind your job offer, it's back to the classifieds for you. Rescind is an official reversal.

rubicund

If you tend to have red, rosy cheeks, you can be described as rubicund. An entire kindergarten class might be rubicund after an hour spent running around the playground.

refractory

Imagine yourself pulling a dog who doesn't want to walk. The dog is refractory, or stubbornly resisting your authority.

reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is checking out a situation before taking action. Often it's used as a military term, but you could also do reconnaissance on a new employee before you hire her, or a resort before you take a vacation.

plunder

Plunder can mean stolen goods or money obtained illegally, or the act of taking those things. A burglar might plunder a jewelry store and then sneak off with her plunder.

abet

To abet is to help someone do something, usually something wrong. If you were the lookout while your older sister swiped cookies from the cookie jar, you abetted her mischief.

flustered

To be flustered is to lose your cool. When you're flustered, you're embarrassed, agitated, or just confused.

demote

To demote someone is to move them into a less important job. Your coffee shop boss might demote you to wiping tables if your attempts to froth milk and pull espresso shots continuously fail.

encroach

To encroach is to overstep your bounds, to take over space or rights that belong to another, like your brother whose mess always encroaches on your side of the room you share.

expurgate

To expurgate is to censor. Usually, people talk about expurgating bad words from something written or on TV.

consonant

A consonant is a speech sound that is not a vowel. It also refers to letters of the alphabet that represent those sounds: Z, B, T, G, and H are all consonants.

demure

A demure person can be described as polite and a little shy. A demure outfit is a modest one — think high neckline and low hem.

fissure

A long fine crack in the surface of something is called a fissure. If you see a fissure in the ice on a frozen lake, you'll want to take off your skates and head back to the car.

rant

A rant is an argument that is fueled by passion, not shaped by facts. When the shouting starts on talk radio, or when a blog commenter resorts to ALL CAPS, you're almost certainly encountering a rant.

ream

A ream is a quantity of paper sold in a bundle, once comprised of 480 sheets but now rounded up to 500. If you write reams of love letters to your beloved, I hope she appreciates them. Or at least recycles.

shack

A shack is a small, rundown building used as a shelter. To shack is to live somewhere. If you tell your parents you want to shack up with your best friend, prepare to get grounded.

amnesty

Amnesty can mean a pardon for a wrongdoing, or it can also signal a government's willingness to overlook something.

bludgeon

As a noun, a bludgeon refers to a heavy club used as a weapon. Synonyms for bludgeon include truncheon, nightstick, cudgel, and billy club.

dour

Dour describes something sullen, gloomy, or persistent. You might look dour on your way to picking up your last check from the job you just got fired from, and people should get out of your way.

bereft

So, they took the thing you most loved, and you're never going to get it back. You've gone beyond just plain grief-stricken — you're bereft.

lope

Some words are fun to say: lope is one of them. It's also fun to think about, as it means to move with a casual, striding gait. Imagine a horse cantering along with an easy lope. A pleasant image indeed.

barrister

The Brits and Canadians prefer to say barrister instead of "lawyer," but they mean the same thing. A barrister is a person who goes to court on behalf of the defense or the prosecution.

sonorous

Used to describe sound or speech that is full, rich, and deep, sonorous is a great word for snoring, for bass voices, and for low notes on the tuba.

inflate

Using your own breath or an air pump, you can inflate a balloon — or anything else you need to pump air into. When you inflate something you fill it with air (or any other gas) to make it expand.

forbearance

When a teacher says, "Bear with me for a moment," while he writes on the board, he is asking for the class's forbearance. He wants them to wait patiently during the delay.

imperative

When something absolutely has to be done and cannot be put off, use the adjective imperative.

ruminate

When you ruminate, it means you are thinking very deeply about something. You're likely to be so lost in thought that you stare off into space and don't hear people when they call your name.

slink

When you slink, you move in a deliberately quiet and sneaky way. You might slink into your physics class, hoping the teacher won't notice how late you are.

requite

You can requite a friend's kindness by doing your friend a favor or by being kind in return. Requite means "to repay or return."

denouement

You know that part of every movie after the big action scene, where things get explained, and the characters tie up loose ends? That's called the denouement, or the showing of how the plot eventually turns out.

implore

You might ask your friend for a loan if you're short a few bucks, but if the bank is about to foreclose on your house you'll implore your friend for the money, desperately begging for the cash so you can keep your house.

mercenary

You might not want to call a mercenary a "hireling" to his face, but a mercenary is, after all, a soldier who gets paid to fight where needed, sometimes taking a heroic stand and other times just wanting payment for fighting.

ciliate

any of a phylum or subphylum (Ciliophora) of ciliated protozoans (such as paramecia) any of a phylum or subphylum (Ciliophora) of ciliated protozoans (such as paramecia) any of a phylum or subphylum (Ciliophora) of ciliated protozoans (such as paramecia) any of a phylum or subphylum (Ciliophora) of ciliated protozoans (such as paramecia)