SAT D

daunting

intimidating, causing one to lose courage (He kept delaying the daunting act of asking for a promotion.)

dearth

a lack, scarcity (An eager reader, she was dismayed by the dearth of classic books at the library.)

debacle

a disastrous failure, disruption (The elaborately designed fireworks show turned into a debacle when the fireworks started firing in random directions.)

debase

to lower the quality or esteem of something (The large raise that he gave himself debased his motives for running the charity.)

debauch

to corrupt by means of sensual pleasures (An endless amount of good wine and cheese debauched the traveler.)

debunk

to expose the falseness of something (He debunked her claim to be the world’s greatest chess player by defeating her in 18 consecutive matches.)

decorous

socially proper, appropriate (The appreciative guest displayed decorous behavior toward his host.)

decry

to criticize openly (The kind video rental clerk decried the policy of charging 

customers late fees.)

deface

to ruin or injure something’s appearance (The brothers used eggs and 

shaving cream to deface their neighbor’s mailbox.)

defamatory

harmful toward another’s reputation (The defamatory gossip spreading about the actor made the public less willing to see the actor’s new movie.)

defer

to postpone something( Ron deferred to Diane, 

the expert on musical instruments, when he was asked about buying a piano.)

deferential

showing respect for another’s authority (His deferential attitude toward her made her more confident in her ability to run the company.)

defile

to make unclean, impure (She defiled the calm of the religious building by playing her banjo.)

deft

skillful, capable (Having worked in a bakery for many years, Marcus was a deft bread maker.)

defunct

no longer used or existing (They planned to turn the defunct schoolhouse into a community center.)

delegate

to hand over responsibility for something (The dean delegated the task of finding a new professor to a special hiring committee.)

deleterious

harmful (She experienced the deleterious effects of running a marathon without stretching her muscles enough beforehand.)

deliberate

intentional, reflecting careful consideration (Though Mary was quite upset, her actions to resolve the dispute were deliberate.)

delineate

to describe, outline, shed light on (She neatly delineated her reasons for canceling the project’s funding.)

demagogue (n.)

a leader who appeals to a people’s prejudices (The demagogue strengthened his hold over his people by blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs.)

demarcation (n.)

the marking of boundaries or categories (Different cultures have different demarcations of good and evil.)

demean (v.)

to lower the status or stature of something (She refused to demean her secretary by making him order her lunch.)

demure (adj.)

quiet, modest, reserved (Though everyone else at the party was dancing and going crazy, she remained demure.)

denigrate (v.)

to belittle, diminish the opinion of (The company decided that its advertisements would no longer denigrate the company’s competitors.)

denounce (v.)

to criticize publicly (The senator denounced her opponent as a greedy politician.)

deplore (v.)

to feel or express sorrow, disapproval (We all deplored the miserable working conditions in the factory.)

depravity (n.)

wickedness (Rumors of the ogre’s depravity made the children afraid to enter the forest.)

deprecate (v.)

to belittle, depreciate

(Always over-modest, he deprecated his

contribution to the local charity.)

derelict (adj.)

abandoned, run

deride (v.)

to laugh at mockingly, scorn (The bullies derided the foreign student’s accent.)

derivative (adj.)

taken directly from a source, unoriginal (She was bored by his music because she felt that it was derivative and that she had heard it before.)

desecrate (v.)

to violate the sacredness of a thing or place (They feared that the construction of a golf course would desecrate the preserved wilderness.)

desiccated (adj.)

dried up, dehydrated (The skin of the desiccated mummy looked like old paper.)

desolate (adj.)

deserted, dreary, lifeless (She found the desolate landscape quite a contrast to the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded city.)

despondent (adj.)

feeling depressed, discouraged, hopeless (Having failed the first math test, the despondent child saw no use in studying for the next and failed that one too.)

despot (n.)

one who has total power and rules brutally (The despot issued a death sentence for anyone who disobeyed his laws.)

destitute (adj.)

impoverished, utterly lacking (The hurricane destroyed many homes and left many families destitute.)

deter (v.)

to discourage, prevent from doing (Bob’s description of scary snakes couldn’t deter Marcia from traveling in the rainforests.)

devious (adj.)

not straightforward, deceitful (Not wanting to be punished, the devious girl blamed the broken vase on the cat.)

dialect (n.)

a variation of a language (In the country’s remote, mountainous regions, the inhabitants spoke a dialect that the country’s other inhabitants had difficulty understanding.)

diaphanous (adj.)

light, airy, transparent (Sunlight poured in through the diaphanous curtains, brightening the room.)

didactic 1. (adj.)

intended to instruct (She wrote up a didactic document showing new employees how to handle the company’s customers.)

 (adj.) overly moralistic (His didacticstyle of teaching made it seem like he wanted to persuade his students not to understand history fully, but to understand it from only one point of view.)

diffident (adj.)

shy, quiet, modest (While eating dinner with the adults, the diffident youth did not speak for fear of seeming presumptuous.)

diffuse 1. (v.)

to scatter, thin out, break up (He diffused the tension in the room by making in a joke.) 2. (adj.) not concentrated, scattered, disorganized (In her writings, she tried unsuccessfully to make others understand her diffuse thoughts.)

dilatory (adj.)

tending to delay, causing delay (The general’s dilatory strategy enabled the enemy to regroup.)

diligent (adj.)

showing care in doing one’s work (The diligent researcher made sure to check her measurements multiple times.)

diminutive (adj.)

small or miniature (The bullies, tall and strong, picked on the diminutive child.)

dirge (n.)

a mournful song, especially for a funeral (The bagpipers played a dirge as the casket was carried to the cemetery.)

disaffected (adj.)

rebellious, resentful of authority (Dismayed by Bobby’s poor behavior, the parents sent their disaffected son to a military academy to be disciplined.)

disavow (v.)

to deny knowledge of or responsibility for (Not wanting others to criticize her, she disavowed any involvement in the company’s hiring scandal.)

discern (v.)

to perceive, detect (Though he hid his emotions, she discerned from his body language that he was angry.)

disclose (v.)

to reveal, make public (The CEO disclosed to the press that the company would have to fire several employees.)

discomfit (v.)

to thwart, baffle (The normally cheery and playful children’s sudden misery discomfited the teacher.)

discordant (adj.)

not agreeing, not in harmony with (The girls’ sobs were a discordant sound amid the general laughter that filled the restaurant.)

discrepancy (n.)

difference, failure of things to correspond (He was troubled by the discrepancy between what he remembered paying for the appliance and what his receipt showed he paid for it.)

discretion (n.)

the quality of being reserved in speech or action; good judgment (Not wanting her patient to get overly anxious, the doctor used discretion in deciding how much to tell the patient about his condition.)

discursive (adj.)

rambling, lacking order (The professor’s discursive lectures seemed to be about every subject except the one initially described.)

disdain

1. (v.) to scorn, hold in low esteem (Insecure about their jobs, the older employees disdained the recently hired ones, who were young and capable.) 2. (n.) scorn, low esteem (After learning of his immoral actions, Justine held Lawrence in disdain.)

disgruntled (adj.)

upset, not content (The child believed that his parents had unjustly grounded him, and remained disgruntled for a week.)

disheartened (adj.)

feeling a loss of spirit or morale (The team was disheartened after losing in the finals of the tournament.)

disparage (v.)

to criticize or speak ill of (The saleswoman disparaged the competitor’s products to persuade her customers to buy what she was selling.)

disparate (adj.)

sharply differing, containing sharply contrasting elements (Having widely varying interests, the students had disparate responses toward the novel.)

dispatch (v.)

to send off to accomplish a duty (The carpenter dispatched his assistant to fetch wood.)

dispel (v.)

to drive away, scatter (She entered the office as usual on Monday, dispelling the rumor that she had been fired.)

disperse (v.)

to scatter, cause to scatter (When the rain began to pour, the crowd at the baseball game quickly dispersed.)

disrepute (n.)

a state of being held in low regard (The officer fell into disrepute after it was learned that he had disobeyed the orders he had given to his own soldiers.)

dissemble (v.)

to conceal, fake (Not wanting to appear heartlessly greedy, she dissembled and hid her intention to sell her ailing father’s stamp collection.)

disseminate (v.)

to spread widely (The politician disseminated his ideas across the town before the election.)

dissent 1. (v.)

to disagree (The principal argued that the child should repeat the fourth grade, but the unhappy parents dissented.) 2. (n.) the act of disagreeing (Unconvinced that the defendant was guilty, the last juror voiced his dissent with the rest of the jury.)

dissipate

1. (v.) to disappear, cause to disappear (The sun finally came out and dissipated the haze.) 2. (v.) to waste (She dissipated her fortune on a series of bad investments.)

dissonance (n.)

lack of harmony or consistency (Though the president of the company often spoke of the company as reliant solely upon its workers, her decision to increase her own salary rather than reward her employees revealed a striking dissonance between her alleged beliefs and her actions.)

dissuade (v.)

to persuade someone not to do something (Worried that he would catch a cold, she tried to dissuade him from going out on winter nights.)

distend (v.)

to swell out (Years of drinking beer caused his stomach to distend.)

dither (v.)

to be indecisive (Not wanting to offend either friend, he dithered about which of the two birthday parties he should attend.)

divine (adj.)

godly, exceedingly wonderful (Terribly fond of desserts, she found the rich chocolate cake to be divine.)

divisive (adj.)

causing dissent, discord (Her divisive tactics turned her two friends against each other.)

divulge (v.)

to reveal something secret (Pressured by the press, the government finally divulged the previously unknown information.)

docile (adj.)

easily taught or trained (She successfully taught the docile puppy several

tricks.)

dogmatic (adj.)

aggressively and arrogantly certain about unproved principles (His dogmatic claim that men were better than women at fixing appliances angered everyone.)

dormant (adj.)

sleeping, temporarily inactive (Though she pretended everything was fine, her anger lay dormant throughout the dinner party and exploded in screams of rage after everyone had left.)

dour (adj.)

stern, joyless (The children feared their dour neighbor because the old man would take their toys if he believed they were being too loud.)

dubious (adj.)

doubtful, of uncertain quality (Suspicious that he was only trying to get a raise, she found his praise dubious.)

duplicity (n.)

crafty dishonesty (His duplicity involved convincing his employees to let him lower their salaries and increase their stock options, and then to steal the money he saved and run the company into the ground.)

duress (n.)

hardship, threat (It was only under intense duress that he, who was normally against killing, fired his gun.)

dynamic (adj.)

actively changing (The parents found it hard to keep up with the dynamic music scene with which their children had become very familiar.)