Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary: Level G: Unit 2

accost

(v.) to approach and speak first, to confront in a challenging or aggressive way

SYN: buttonhole, approach

ANT: avoid, shun

animadversion

(n.) a comment indicating strong criticism or disapproval

SYN: rebuke, reproof

ANT: praise, compliment

avid

(adj.) desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager

SYN: keen, enthusiastic, grasping

ANT: reluctant, indifference, unenthusiastic

brackish

(adj.) having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink

SYN: saline

ANT clear, sweet

celerity

(n.) swiftness, rapidity of motion or action

SYN: promptness, speed

ANT: slowness, sluggishness, dilatoriness

devious

(adj.) straying or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way

SYN: roundabout, indirect, tricky, sly, artful

ANT: direct, straightforward, open, aboveboard

gambit

(n.) in chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type

SYN: ploy, ruse, maneuver

halcyon

(n.) a legendary bird identified with the kingfisher

(adj.) of or relating to the halcyon; calm, peaceful, happy, golden; prosperous, affluent

SYN: (adj.) tranquil, placid, palmy

ANT: (adj.) turbulent, tumultuous

histrionic

(adj.) pertaining to actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial, melodramatic

SYN: affected, stagy

ANT: muted, untheatrical, subdued

incendiary

(adj.) deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife per rebellion

(n.) one who deliberately sets fires, arsonists, one who causes strife

SYN: (adj.) inflammatory, provocative; (n.) firebrand

ANT: (adj.) soothing, quieting; (n.) peacemaker

maelstrom

(n.) a whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirlpool in violence and destruction

SYN: chaos, turbulence, tumult

myopic

(adj.) nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment

SYN: shortsighted

ANT: farsighted

overt

(adj.) open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized

SYN: clear, obvious, manifest, patent

ANT: clandestine, covert, concealed

pejorative

(adj.) tending to make worse; expressing disapproval or disparagement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittling

ANT: complimentary, ameliorative

propriety

(n.) the state of being proper, appropriateness

(pl.) standards of what is proper or socially acceptable

SYN: fitness, correctness

ANT: unseemliness, inappropriateness

sacrilege

(n.) improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred

SYN: desecration, profanation, defilement

summarily

(adv.) without delay or formality; briefly, concisely

SYN: promptly, peremptorily

suppliant

(adj.) asking humbly and earnestly

(n.) one who makes a request humbly and earnestly, a petitioner, suitor

talisman

(n.) an object that serves as charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish

undulate

(v.) to move in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form

SYN: fluctuate, rise and fall