Eng. 2A: Vocab #13

Abstruse

Abstruse

extremely difficult to understand

Affront

an open or intentional insult; a slight

Canard

a deliberately misleading fabrication; a hoax

Captious

excessively ready to find fault; given to petty criticism; intended to trap, confuse, or show up

Cognizant

aware, knowledgeable, informed; having jurisdiction

Contrite

regretful for some misdeed or sin; plagued by a sense of guilty; thoroughly penitent

Cynosure

the center of attraction, attention or interest; something that serves to guide or direct

Decorous

well behaved, dignified, socially proper

Deign

to think it inappropriate or unsuitable to one’s dignity to do something; to condescend

Desiccated

thoroughly dried out; divested of spirit or vitality; uninteresting

Efficacy

the power to produce a desired result

Engender

to bring into existence, give rise to, produce; to come into existence or assume from

Ethereal

light, airy, delicate; highly refined; suggesting what is heavenly (rather than earthbound)

Facade

the front or face of a building; a surface appearance (as opposed to what may lie behind)

Ghoulish

revolting in an unnatural or morbid way; suggestive of someone who robs graves or otherwise preys on the dead

Incongruous

not in keeping, unsuitable, incompatible

Machination

a crafty, scheming, or underhanded action designed to accomplish some (usually evil) end

Mesmerize

to hypnotize, entrance; to fascinate, enthrall, bewitch

Opprobrium

disgrace arising from shameful conduct; contempt, reproach

Putative

generally regarded as such; reputed; hypothesized, inferred