SAT 41-60

ascetic

(adj.) practicing restraint as a means of self-discipline, usually religious (The priest lives an ascetic life devoid of television, savory foods, and other pleasures.)

cerebral

(adj.) related to the intellect (The books we read in this class are too cerebral— they don't engage my emotions at all.)

circuitous

(adj.) roundabout (The bus's circuitous route took us through numerous outlying suburbs.)

clandestine

(adj.) secret (Announcing to her boyfriend that she was going to the gym, Sophie actually went to meet Joseph for a clandestine liaison.)

brusque

(adj.) short, abrupt, dismissive (The captain's brusque manner offended the passengers.)

canny

(adj.) shrewd, careful (The canny runner hung at the back of the pack through much of the race to watch the other runners, and then sprinted past them at the end.)

bashful

(adj.) shy, excessively timid (Frankie's mother told him not to be bashful when he refused to attend the birthday party.)

cloying

(adj.) sickeningly sweet (Though Ronald was physically attractive, Maud found his constant compliments and solicitous remarks cloying.)

choreography

(n.) the arrangement of dances (The plot of the musical was banal, but the choreography was stunning.)

cacophony

(n.) tremendous noise, disharmonious sound (The elementary school orchestra created a cacophony at the recital.)

bilk

(v.) cheat, defraud (The lawyer discovered that this firm had bilked several clients out of thousands of dollars.)

attain

(v.) to achieve, arrive at (The athletes strived to attain their best times in competition.)

augment

(v.) to add to, expand (The eager student seeks to augment his knowledge of French vocabulary by reading French literature.)

carp

(v.) to annoy, pester (The husband divorced his wife after listening to her carping voice for decades.)

ascribe

(v.) to assign, credit, attribute to (Some ascribe the invention of fireworks and dynamite to the Chinese.)

assail

(v.) to attack (At dawn, the war planes assailed the boats in the harbor.)

avenge

(v.) to seek revenge (The victims will take justice into their own hands and strive to avenge themselves against the men who robbed them.)

calibrate

(v.) to set, standardize (The mechanic calibrated the car's transmission to make the motor run most efficiently.)

balk

(v.) to stop, block abruptly (Edna's boss balked at her request for another raise.)

capitulate

(v.) to surrender (The army finally capitulated after fighting a long costly battle.)

coagulate

(v.) to thicken, clot (The top layer of the pudding had coagulated into a thick skin.)

beguile

(v.) to trick, deceive (The thief beguiled his partners into surrendering all of their money to him.)

cajole

(v.) to urge, coax (Fred's buddies cajoled him into attending the bachelor party.)

chide

(v.) to voice disapproval (Lucy chided Russell for his vulgar habits and sloppy appearance.)

atrophy

(v.) to wither away, decay (If muscles do not receive enough blood, they will soon atrophy and die.)

canvas

1. (n.) a piece of cloth on which an artist paints (Picasso liked to work on canvas rather than on bare cement.) 2. (v.) to cover, inspect (We canvassed the neighborhood looking for clues.)

asylum

1. (n.) a place of refuge, protection, a sanctuary (For Thoreau, the forest served as an asylum from the pressures of urban life.) 2. (n.) an institution in which the insane are kept (Once diagnosed by a certified psychiatrist, the man was put in an asylum.)

blight

1. (n.) a plague, disease (The potato blight destroyed the harvest and bankrupted many families.) 2. (n.) something that destroys hope (His bad morale is a blight upon this entire operation.)

chronicle

1. (n.) a written history (The library featured the newly updated chronicle of World War II.) 2. (v.) to write a history (Albert's diary chronicled the day-to-day growth of his obsession with Cynthia.)

censure

1. (n.) harsh criticism (The frustrated teenager could not put up with anymore of her critical mother's censure.) 2. (v.) to rebuke formally (The principal censured the head of the English Department for forcing students to learn esoteric vocabulary.)

clamor

1. (n.) loud noise (Each morning the birds outside my window make such a clamor that they wake me up.) 2. (v.)to loudly insist (Neville's fans clamored for him to appear on stage, but he had passed out on the floor of his dressing room.)

attribute

1. (v.) to credit, assign (He attributes all of his success to his mother's undying encouragement.) 2. (n.) a facet or trait (Among the beetle's most peculiar attributes is its thorny protruding eyes.)

cleave

1. (v.) to divide into parts (Following the scandalous disgrace of their leader, the entire political party cleaved into warring factions.) 2. (v.) to stick together firmly (After resolving their marital problems, Junior and Rosa cleaved to one another all the more tightly.)

catalog

1. (v.) to list, enter into a list (The judge cataloged the victim's injuries before calculating how much money he would award.) 2. (n.) a list or collection (We received a catalog from J. Crew that displayed all of their new items.)

audible

(adj.) able to be heard (The missing person's shouts were unfortunately not audible.)

clairvoyant

(adj.) able to perceive things that normal people cannot (Zelda's uncanny ability to detect my lies was nothing short of clairvoyant.)

chronological

(adj.) arranged in order of time (Lionel carefully arranged the snapshots of his former girlfriends in chronological order, and then set fire to them.)

caustic

(adj.) bitter, biting, acidic (The politicians exchanged caustic insults for over an hour during the debate.)

circumspect

(adj.) cautious (Though I promised Rachel's father I would bring her home promptly by midnight, it would have been more circumspect not to have specified a time.)

bereft

(adj.) devoid of, without (His family was bereft of food and shelter following the tornado.)

banal

(adj.) dull, commonplace (The client rejected our proposal because they found our presentation banal and unimpressive.)

brazen

(adj.) excessively bold, brash (Critics condemned the novelist's brazen attempt to plagiarize Hemingway's story.)

bombastic

(adj.) excessively confident, pompous (The singer's bombastic performance disgusted the crowd.)

auspicious

(adj.) favorable, indicative of good things (The tennis player considered the sunny forecast an auspicious sign that she would win her match.)

benign

(adj.) favorable, not threatening, mild (We were all relieved to hear that the medical tests determined her tumor to be benign.)

assiduous

(adj.) hard-working, diligent (The construction workers erected the skyscraper during two years of assiduous labor.)

callous

(adj.) harsh, cold, unfeeling (The murderer's callous lack of remorse shocked the jury.)

boisterous

(adj.) loud and full of energy (The candidate won the vote after giving several boisterous speeches on television.)

benevolent

(adj.) marked by goodness or doing good (Police officers should be commended for their benevolent service to the community.)

circumscribed

(adj.) marked off, bounded (The children were permitted to play tag only within a carefully circumscribed area of the lawn.)

atypical

(adj.) not typical, unusual (Screaming and crying is atypical adult behavior.) audacious (adj.) excessively bold (The security guard was shocked by the fan's

capricious

(adj.) subject to whim, fickle (The young girl's capricious tendencies made it difficult for her to focus on achieving her goals.)

austere

(adj.) very bare, bleak (The austere furniture inside the abandoned house made the place feel haunted.)

astute

(adj.) very clever, crafty (Much of Roger's success in politics results from his ability to provide astute answers to reporters' questions.)

capacious

(adj.) very spacious (The workers delighted in their new capacious office space.)

bane

(n.) a burden (Advanced physics is the bane of many students' academic lives.)

aspersion

(n.) a curse, expression of ill-will (The rival politicians repeatedly cast aspersions on each others' integrity.)

boon

(n.) a gift or blessing (The good weather has been a boon for many businesses located near the beach.)

ballad

(n.) a love song (Greta's boyfriend played her a ballad on the guitar during their walk through the dark woods.)

caucus

(n.) a meeting usually held by people working toward the same goal (The ironworkers held a caucus to determine how much of a pay increase they would request.)

bourgeois

(n.) a middle-class person, capitalist (Many businessmen receive criticism for their bourgeois approach to life.)

aversion

(n.) a particular dislike for something (Because he's from Hawaii, Ben has an aversion to autumn, winter, and cold climates in general.)

cobbler

(n.) a person who makes or repairs shoes (I had my neighborhood cobbler replace my worn-out leather soles with new ones.)

bard

(n.) a poet, often a singer as well (Shakespeare is often considered the greatest bard in the history of the English language.)

cadence

(n.) a rhythm, progression of sound (The pianist used the foot pedal to emphasize the cadence of the sonata.)

behemoth

(n.) something of tremendous power or size (The new aircraft carrier is among several behemoths that the Air Force has added to its fleet.)

bias

(n.) a tendency, inclination, prejudice (The judge's hidden bias against smokers led him to make an unfair decision.)

chaos

(n.) absolute disorder (Mr. Thornton's sudden departure for the lavatory plunged his classroom into chaos.)

calumny

(n.) an attempt to spoil someone else's reputation by spreading lies (The local official's calumny ended up ruining his opponent's prospect of winning the election.)

calamity

(n.) an event with disastrous consequences (The earthquake in San Francisco was a calamity worse than any other natural disaster in history.)

blemish

(n.) an imperfection, flaw (The dealer agreed to lower the price because of the many blemishes on the surface of the wooden furniture.)

camaraderie

(n.) brotherhood, jovial unity (Camaraderie among employees usually leads to success in business.)

avarice

(n.) excessive greed (The banker's avarice led him to amass a tremendous personal fortune.)

candor

(n.) honesty, frankness (We were surprised by the candor of the mayor's speech because he is usually rather evasive.)

circumlocution

(n.) indirect and wordy language (The professor's habit of speaking in circumlocutions made it difficult to follow his lectures.)

clergy

(n.) members of Christian holy orders (Though the villagers viewed the church rectory as quaint and charming, the clergy who lived there regarded it as a mildewy and dusty place that aggravated their allergies.)

clemency

(n.) mercy (After he forgot their anniversary, Martin could only beg Maria for clemency.)

beseech

(v.) to beg, plead, implore (The servant beseeched the king for food to feed his starving family.)

catalyze

(v.) to charge, inspire (The president's speech catalyzed the nation and resuscitated the economy.)

blandish

(v.) to coax by using flattery (Rachel's assistant tried to blandish her into accepting the deal.)

chastise

(v.) to criticize severely (After being chastised by her peers for mimicking Britney Spears, Miranda dyed her hair black and affected a Gothic style.)

assuage

(v.) to ease, pacify (The mother held the baby to assuage its fears.)

assess

(v.) to evaluate (A crew arrived to assess the damage after the crash.)

cherish

(v.) to feel or show affection toward something (She continued to cherish her red plaid trousers, even though they had gone out of style and no longer fit her.)

coalesce

(v.) to fuse into a whole (Gordon's ensemble of thrift-shop garments coalesced into a surprisingly handsome outfit.)

circumvent

(v.) to get around (The school's dress code forbidding navel-baring jeans was circumvented by the determined students, who were careful to cover up with long coats when administrators were nearby.)

captivate

(v.) to get the attention of, hold (The fireworks captivated the young boy, who had never seen such things before.)

cavort

(v.) to leap about, behave boisterously (The adults ate their dinners on the patio, while the children cavorted around the pool.)

aspire

(v.) to long for, aim toward (The young poet aspires to publish a book of verse someday.)

coerce

(v.) to make somebody do something by force or threat (The court decided that Vanilla Ice did not have to honor the contract because he had been coerced into signing it.)

carouse

(v.) to party, celebrate (We caroused all night after getting married.)

bequeath

(v.) to pass on, give (Jon's father bequeathed his entire estate to his mother.)

ascertain

(v.) to perceive, learn (With a bit of research, the student ascertained that some plants can live for weeks without water.)

burnish

(v.) to polish, shine (His mother asked him to burnish the silverware before setting the table.)

atone

(v.) to repent, make amends (The man atoned for forgetting his wife's birthday by buying her five dozen roses.)

berate

(v.) to scold vehemently (The angry boss berated his employees for failing to meet their deadline.)

buffet

1. (v.) to strike with force (The strong winds buffeted the ships, threatening to capsize them.) 2. (n.) an arrangement of food set out on a table (Rather than sitting around a table, the guests took food from our buffet and ate standing up.)

buttress

1. (v.) to support, hold up (The column buttresses the roof above the statue.) 2. (n.) something that offers support (The buttress supports the roof above the statues.)

battery

1.(n.) a device that supplies power (Most cars run on a combination of power from a battery and gasoline.) 2. (n.)assault, beating (Her husband was accused of assault and battery after he attacked a man on the sidewalk.)

audacious

attempt to offer him a bribe.)