Sadlier Vocabulary Workshop level G Unit 2

Accost

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

S: Buttonhole, approach

A: Avoid, shun

Animadversion

(n) a comment indicating strong criticism or disapproval

S: rebuke, reproof

A: praise, compliment

Avid

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

S: keen, enthusiastic, grasping

A: reluctant, indifferent, unenthusiastic

Brackish

(adj) having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink

S: saline

A: clear, sweet

celerity

(n) swiftness, rapidity of motion or action

S: promptness, speed

A: slowness, sluggishness, dilatoriness

Devious

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

S: Roundabout, indirect, tricky, sly, artful

A: 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

S: 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

S: (adj.) tranquil, placid, palmy

A: (adj.) turbulent, tumultuous

Histrionic

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

S: affected, stagy

A: muted, untheatrical, subdued

Incendiary

(adj.) deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife or rebellion; (n.) one who deliberately sets fires, arsonist; one who causes strife

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

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

Maelstrom

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

S: Chaos, turbulence, tumult

Myopic

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

S: shortsighted

A: farsighted

Overt

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

S: clear, obvious, manifest, patent

A: clandestine, covert, concealed

Pejorative

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

A: Complimentary, ameliorative

Propriety

(n.) the state of being proper, appropriateness; (pl.) standards of what is proper or socially acceptable

S: fitness, correctness

A: unseemliness, inappropriateness

Sacrilege

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

S: desecration, profanation, defilement

Summarily

(adv) without delay or formality; briefly, concisely S: 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 a 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

S: fluctuate, rise and fall