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Having no importance or significance
"In population and size Pondicherry is an inconsequent part of India. |
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The basic, central, or critical point or feature: the crux of the matter
"Your story is emotionally dead, that's the crux of it." |
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Latin for "in the place."
"I had the great luck one summer of studying the three-toed sloth in situ in the equatorial jungles of Brazil." |
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laziness
"Its only real habit is indolence." |
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a theory of the origin of the universe
"My fourth-year thesis for religious studies concerned certain aspects of the cosmogony theory of Isaac Luria." |
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keenness of perception; sharpness
"On a scale of 2 to 10, where 2 represents unusual dullness and 10 extreme acuity.." |
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to draw out, bring out
"Beebe reported that firing guns next to sleeping or feeding sloths elicited little reaction." |
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| a state of servitude or submission
"..muddled agnostics who didn't know which way was up, who were in the thrall of reason.." |
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to remain stable or fixed in a state
"An abiding interest in animals led him to the zoo business." |
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to elevate by praise or in estimation; glorify
"The light of a gnu or of an aardvark is rarely exalted." |
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clothing
"Animals show their raiments." |
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to become disabled; especially : to go lame
"I wish I could convey the perfection of.. But language founders in such seas." |
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a sexual perversion in which gratification is obtained by the infliction of physical or mental pain on others
Antonym: masochist
"We were spared the sadists who plied European and American zoos. Nonetheless, our golden agouti vanished.." |
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feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming
"a contrite criminal"
"a contrite apology"
"contrite sighs" |
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difficult or irritating to deal with
"More cantankerous subordinates sit on their colourful barrels on the edge of the ring." |
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| constant, incessant
"It was a building unremittingly unrevealing of what it held inside, with thick, featureless walls." |
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a passage, hall, or room between the outer door and the interior of a building; lobby
"..large vestibule that evidently functioned as a room for receiving visitors." |
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to impair the quality or effect of
"Divinity should not be blighted by death." (God should not have let Jesus die.) |
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insolent or rude in speech or behavior
God is petulant, according to Pi, for cursing a fig tree that bore no fruit because it was not fig season. |
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not to be avoided, changed, or resisted
"Love works itself out sometimes not clearly, not cleanly, not immediately, nonetheless ineluctably." |
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a place for keeping birds confined
"It was a regular aviary of crows, mynahs.." |
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of or relating to the married state or to married persons and their relations
"I start noticing small signs of conjugal existence." (Narrator notices that Pi is married.) |
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Of, pertaining to, or having indigestion
"All around me was the vomit of a dyspeptic ship." |
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metal, plastic, or rubber rings that are inserted into a hole made through another material
"..a strong nylon rope that wove its way between metal grommets in the tarpaulin and blunt hooks on the side of the boat." |
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Roving and raiding in search of plunder.
"There was nothing. Only rain, marauding waves of black ocean and the flotsam of tragedy." |
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floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo
"There was nothing. Only rain, marauding waves of black ocean and the flotsam of tragedy." |
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a trancelike state marked by loss of voluntary motion in which the limbs remain in whatever position they are placed
"Orange Juice had seemed practically cataleptic. My guess was she was dying of shock." |
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1 : to cause to become viscous or thickened into a coherent mass : curdle, clot
2 : to gather together or form into a mass or group
"There was blood everywhere, coagulating to a deep red crust." |
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lightheartedly unconcerned : nonchalant
noun: insouciance
"But in the final set, when the challenger has nothing left to lose, he becomes relaxed again, insouciant, daring. Suddenly he's playing like the devil and the champion must work hard to get those last points." |
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1 a: the act of reprieving : the state of being reprieved
2 : to delay the punishment of (as a condemned prisoner)
"The strained, temporary peace between Orange Juice and the hyena, and my reprieve, were no doubt due to the same reason: in the face of such a superior predator, all of us were prey, and normal ways of preying were affected." |
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reddish
"..the one part of the face left untouched by it, the bridge, whose rufous lustre shone nearly with a radiance." |
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| bloodthirsty, murderous
"..while the excitement of actively capturing a great dorado made me sanguinary and self-assured."
sanguine= bloodred, related to blood, ruddy-complexioned |
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1: to set a value on : estimate the amount of
2: to evaluate the worth, significance
"It will appraise the situation. If it decides that there is no threat, it will turn away, feeling that its point has been made." |
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1: difficult to please
2: showing or demanding excessive delicacy or care
Whereas at first I gutted fish and peeled their skin fastidiously, soon I no more than rinsed off their slimy slipperiness before biting into them." |
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a period of temporary delay
"I looked upon a live sea turtle as a ten-course meal of great delicacy, a blessed respite from fish." |
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something of monstrous size, power, or appearance
"These gentle behemoths (whales) always lifted my spirits." |
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disemboweled
verb: eviscerate
"His eviscerated torso, with its broken ribs curving up like the frame of a ship.." |
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reserved, modest
"The earnest expressions of their faces.. make them look like patients in a doctor's office stripped naked and demurely trying to cover their genitals." |
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an erratic, unpredictable, or extravagant manifestation, action, or notion
"Such were their numbers and the vagaries of their excitement that the noise came and went like a flock of birds, at times very loud, swirling around me, then rapidly dying off." |
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| amazement or dismay that hinders or throws into confusion
"I noticed with consternation that the ones from the pond closest to me had surrounded my tree and were climbing up the trunk." |
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1 : of, relating to, or resembling a tree 2 : inhabiting or frequenting trees
"How many forlorn hours in the arboreal city with only meerkats for company?" |
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