Week 9  5/23

1.      Formidable (adj.)

Meaning 1: very powerful or strong : deserving serious attention and respect

Meaning 2: very difficult to deal with

Meaning 3: large or impressive in size or amount

Sample sentence: He has mastered a formidable amount of material.

Synonyms: alarming, dire, direful, dread, dreadful, fearsome, forbidding, fearful, frightening, frightful, ghastly, hair-raising, horrendous, horrible, horrifying, intimidating

Antonyms: cheap, easy, effortless, facile, light, mindless, simple, soft, undemanding

 

2.      Grunt (v.) (n.)

Meaning 1: to make a short, low sound : to make a grunt

Meaning 2: to say (something) with a grunt

Meaning 3: a short, low sound from the throat

Meaning 4: a U.S. soldier especially in the Vietnam War

Meaning 5: a person who does ordinary and boring work

Sample sentence: I could hear the grunts of the movers as they lifted the heavy furniture.

Synonyms: mumble, grunting, murmur, murmuring, mutter, muttering

Antonyms: speak out, speak up

 

3.      Snarl (v.) (n.)

Meaning 1: to cause to become knotted and intertwined: tangle

Meaning 2: to make excessively complicated

Meaning 3: a tangle especially of hairs or thread: knot

Meaning 4: a tangled situation

 

4.      Leash (n.)

Meaning: a long, thin piece of rope, chain, etc., that is used for holding a dog or other animal

Sample sentence: The dog saw a cat and was straining at its leash trying to get at it.

 

5.      Frailty (n.)

Meaning 1: physical weakness: the quality or state of being frail

Meaning 2: weakness of character that causes a person to do things that are morally wrong

Sample sentence: We can no longer be surprised by the frailties of our political leaders.

Synonyms: demerit, dereliction, failing, foible, fault, shortcoming, sin, vice, want, weakness

Antonyms: merit, virtue

 

6.      Menace (n.) (v.)

Meaning 1: a dangerous or possibly harmful person or thing

Meaning 2: someone who causes trouble or annoyance

Meaning 3: a dangerous or threatening quality

Meaning 4: to threaten harm to (someone or something)

Sample sentence: She could hear the menace in his voice.

Synonyms: hazard, imminence, danger, peril, pitfall, risk, threat, trouble

Antonyms: guard, protect, shelter, shield; preserve, resume, save

 

7.      Nostril (n.)

Meaning: one of the two openings of the nose

Sample sentence: She left in a rage, her nostrils flaring.

 

8.      Sideways (adj.) (adv.)

Meaning 1: with one side facing forward

Meaning 2: to or toward the right or left side

 

9.      Narrate (v.)

Meaning 1: to tell (a story)

Meaning 2: to say the words that are heard as part of (a movie, television show, etc.) and that describe what is being seen: to do the narration for (something)

Sample sentence: The author narrates her story in great detail.

Synonyms: chart, chronicle, describe, tell, recite, recount, rehearse, relate, report

 

10.  Irony (n.)

Meaning 1: the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think especially in order to be funny

Meaning 2: a situation that is strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what you expected

Sample sentence: She described her vacation with heavy irony as “an educational experience.”

 

11.  Hyena (n.)

Meaning: a large animal of Asia and Africa that eats the flesh of dead animals

 

12.  Twitching (v.) (n.)

Meaning 1: to make a slight, sudden movement that is not controlled or deliberate

Meaning 2: to move or pull (something) with a sudden motion

Sample sentence: Her mouth was twitching as she began to cry.

Synonyms: fiddle, jerk, jig, jiggle, squiggle, squirm, thrash, thresh, toss, twist, fidget, wiggle, wriggle

 

13.  Tabby (n.) (adj.)

Meaning: archaic: a plain silk taffeta especially with moiré finish

 

14.  Snort (v.) (n.)

Meaning 1: to force air noisily through your nose

Meaning 2: to express dislike, disapproval, anger, or surprise by snorting

Meaning 3: to say (something) with a snort or while snorting

Meaning 4: an act or the sound of noisily forcing air through the nose : an act or the sound of snorting

Meaning 5: an amount of a drug taken into the body by inhaling it through the nose

Sample sentence: The old dog snorted like a pig when it smelled food.

Synonyms: bird [chiefly British], boo, Bronx cheer, hiss, hoot, jeer, raspberry, razz, catcall

Antonyms: cheer

 

15.  Petrifying (v.)

Meaning 1: to make (someone) very afraid

Meaning 2: to slowly change (something, such as wood) into stone or a substance like stone over a very long period of time

Sample sentence: The dead tree petrified into stone.

Synonyms: castrate, damp, dampen, deaden, desiccate, devitalize, enervate, geld, lobotomize

Antonyms: brace, energize, enliven, invigorate, quicken, stimulate, vitalize, vivify

 

16.  Throaty (adj.)

Meaning: of a sound: deep or rough: made in the back of the throat

Sample sentence: <had a bad cold and a throaty cough to go with it>

Synonyms: coarse, croaking, croaky, grating, gravel, gravelly, gruff, husky, rasping, raspy, rusty, scratchy, hoarse

Antonyms: acute, high, high-pitched, piping, sharp, shrill, treble

 

17.  Hiss (v.)

Meaning 1: to produce a sound like a long “s”: to make a hiss

Meaning 2: to show that you dislike or disapprove of someone (such as a performer or speaker) by making a hiss

Meaning 3: to say (something) in a loud or angry whisper

Sample sentence: The radiator hissed as it let off steam.

Synonyms: fizz, fizzle, sizzle, swish, whish, whiz (or whizz)

 

18.  Infuriate (v.) (adj.)

Meaning: to make (someone) very angry: to make (someone) furious

Sample sentence: I was infuriated by his arrogance.

Synonyms: enrage, incense, inflame (also enflame), anger, ire, madden, outrage, rankle, rile, roil, steam up, tick off

Antonyms: delight, gratify, please

 

19.  Rusty (adj.)

Meaning: affected by or as if by rust; especially: stiff with or as if with rust

 

20.  Purr (v.) (n.)

Meaning 1: the low, soft sound that a cat makes when it is happy

Meaning 2: a sound that is like the purr of a cat

Meaning 3: to make a purr or a sound like a purr

Meaning 4: to say (something) in a soft, low voice especially when you are pleased or trying to persuade someone to do something

Sample sentence: The cars were purring along the highway.

Synonyms: burr, buzz, chirr, drone, hum, thrum, whir (also whirr), whiz (or whizz), zoom

 

21.  Tame (adj.) (v.)

Meaning 1: not wild: trained to obey people

Meaning 2: not afraid of people

Meaning 3: not exciting or interesting

Meaning 4: to make (an animal) tame

Meaning 5: to make (something) less wild or difficult to control: to bring (something) under control

Sample sentence: It took a while to tame the horse.

Synonyms: bridle, check, constrain, contain, curb, govern, hold, inhibit, keep, measure, pull in, regulate, rein (in), restrain, rule, control

Antonyms: lose

 

22.  Frailty (n.)

Meaning 1: physical weakness: the quality or state of being frail

Meaning 2: weakness of character that causes a person to do things that are morally wrong

Sample sentence: We can no longer be surprised by the frailties of our political leaders.

Synonyms: demerit, dereliction, failing, foible, fault, shortcoming, sin, vice, want, weakness

Antonyms: merit, virtue

 

23.  Outlast (prefix)

Meaning: in a manner that is greater, better, or more than something else

 

24.  Retreat (n.) (v.)

Meaning 1: movement by soldiers away from an enemy because the enemy is winning or has won a battle

Meaning 2: movement away from a place or situation especially because it is dangerous, unpleasant, etc.

Meaning 3: the act of changing your opinion or position on something because it is unpopular

Meaning 4: to move back to get away from danger, attack, etc.

Meaning 5: to move or go away from a place or situation especially because it is dangerous, unpleasant, etc.

Meaning 6: to change your opinion or statement about something because it is unpopular

Sample sentence: When the enemy attacked, our troops were forced to retreat.

Synonyms: back away, drop back, fall back, pull out, recede, retire

Antonyms: advance

 

25.  Gaze (v.) (n.)

Meaning 1: to look at someone or something in a steady way and usually for a long time

Meaning 2: a long and steady look

Sample sentence: She gazed intently into his eyes.

Synonyms: blink, gawk, gawp [chiefly British], gape, goggle, peer, rubberneck, stare