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TO CHOOSE NOT TO DO SOMETHING
**She ABSTAINED from choosing a mouthwatering dessert from the tray. |
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TO MAKE IMPURE
**The restaurateur made his ketchup last longer by ADULTERATING it with water. |
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LACK OF INTEREST OR EMOTION
**The APATHY of voters is so great that less than half the people who are eligible to vote actually bother to do so. |
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FEARLESS AND DARING
**Her AUDACIOUS nature allowed her to fulfill her dream of skydiving. |
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CHANGING ONE'S MIND QUICKLY AND OFTEN
**Queen Elizabeth I was quite CAPRICIOUS; her courtiers could never be sure which of their number would catch her fancy. |
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Term
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Definition
TO PROVIDE SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
**Fingerprints CORROBORATED the witness's testimony that he saw the defendant in the victim's apartment. |
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Definition
TO DRY OUT THOROUGHLY
**After a few weeks of lying on the desert's baking sands, the cow's carcass became completely DESICCATED. |
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Definition
TO PRODUCE, CAUSE, OR BRING ABOUT
**His fear and hatred of clowns was ENGENDERED when he witnessed the death of his father at the hands of a clown. |
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Term
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LASTING A SHORT TIME
**The lives of mayflies seem EPHEMERAL to us, since the flies' average life span is a matter of hours. |
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EASILY DECEIVED
**The con man pretended to be a bank officer so as to fool GULLIBLE bank customers into giving him their account information. |
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Term
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OF A SIMILAR KIND
**The class was fairly HOMOGENOUS, since almost all of the students were senior journalism majors. |
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Term
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USING FEW WORDS
**She was a LOCONIC poet who built her reputation on using words as sparingly as possible. |
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Term
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DESERVING PRAISE; PRAISEWORTHY; COMMENDABLE
**Reorganizing the flies was a LAUDABLE idea. |
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Term
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Definition
TALKATIVE
**She was naturally LOQUACIOUS, which was a problem in situations in which listening was more important than talking. |
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TO SOFTEN; TO LESSEN
**A judge may mitigate a sentence if she decides that a person committed a crime out of need. |
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SOMEONE WHO SHOWS OFF LEARNING
**The graduate instructor's tedious and excessive commentary on the subject soon gained her a reputation as a PEDANT. |
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Term
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Definition
PRACTICAL AS OPPOSED TO IDEALISTIC
**While daydreaming gamblers think they can get rich by frequenting casinos, PRAGMATIC gamblers realize that the odds are heavily stacked against them. |
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Term
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Definition
CORRECT BEHAVIOR; OBEDIENCE TO RULES AND CUSTOMS
**The aristocracy maintained a high level of PROPRIETY, adhering to even the most minor social rules. |
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Term
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Definition
TO SWAY PHYSICALLY; TO BE INDECISIVE
**The customer held up the line as he VACILLATED between ordering chocolate chip or rocky road ice cream. |
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Definition
EASILY AROUSED OR CHANGEABLE; LIVELY OR EXPLOSIVE
**His VOLATILE personality made it difficult to predict his reaction to anything. |
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