CAT Vocabulary Set 4

Strained

tense / difficult

Affront

insult

Injunctions

official orders, especially court orders

Pliant

easily influenced / flexible

Conscientious

careful and responsible

Vindication

proof that someone was right

Perched

sitting/placed high up

Zenith

highest point

Adjudicatory

related to judging/legal decisions

Critiqued

critically evaluated

Abnegation

self-denial / giving up

Incarceration

imprisonment

Edicts

official orders

Impinge

affect / interfere with

Collegium

group of people sharing authority

Battered

badly damaged / beaten

Dispelling

removing/destroying doubts or fears

Frayed

worn out / weakened

Touchstone

standard for judging something

Aberrations

deviations from what is normal

Visceral

deeply felt / instinctive

Animosities

strong hostility

Dialectical

involving opposing ideas

Eludes

escapes / remains difficult to understand

Atrocities

extremely cruel acts

Trite

overused / unoriginal

Indictment

formal accusation; strong criticism

Condones

accepts/allows bad behaviour

Ennobling

morally uplifting

Suffused

completely filled/spread through

Utopian

ideally perfect but usually unrealistic

Milieu

social environment

Lest

to prevent something from happening

Envisioned

imagined / planned

Acquiescence

reluctant acceptance

Nudge

gently push / encourage

Emblematic

symbolic / representative

Unenviable

difficult or unpleasant

Indecent

improper / offensive

Bastion

strong support / protected place

Tamed

controlled

Draconian

extremely harsh or severe

Dispensation

special permission / arrangement

Zeitgeist

spirit or mood of an era

Menace

threat / danger

Pilferage

stealing small amounts

Ramparts

defensive walls

Arduous

very difficult / tiring

Trinity

group of three

Deflating

discouraging

Clefts

cracks

Slogger

hard worker; in cricket, a hard-hitting batter

Wallops

hits very hard

Grappling

struggling with / trying to deal with

Woes

troubles / problems

Prudent

wise and careful

Dossier

collection of detailed information/documents

Disincentivising

discouraging

Mulls

considers carefully

Pent-up

suppressed / held inside

Innate

natural / inborn

Impede

hinder / slow down

Placebo

inactive treatment used as a comparison

Dementia

decline in memory/thinking ability

Enshrouded

covered / hidden

Spinoff

something created from an existing organization/work; a related offshoot

Divisive

causing disagreement

Lingering

lasting / remaining

Unrest

disorder / disturbance

Phantom

ghost / illusion

Purging

removing unwanted things/people

Critic

person who judges or reviews

Misapprehension

misunderstanding

Superficial

shallow / not deep

Overblown

exaggerated

Grafted

attached / added

Lame-duck

weak leader with little power

Distort

twist / misrepresent

Wield

use power/authority

Undercurrents

hidden feelings/trends

Subsumed

included / absorbed

Overarching

overall / broad

Rhetoric

persuasive language

Coerced

forced

Guise

appearance/disguise

Conflates

combines/confuses two things

Incurred

became responsible for (a cost/loss)

Austerity

strict reduction in spending

Egregious

shockingly bad

Scant

very little / insufficient

Fodder

material used for a purpose; often “material for discussion”

Creaky

old and weak / making creaking sounds

Headwinds

difficulties / obstacles

Subdued

quiet / less intense

Entail

involve / require

Beset

troubled by

Bullion

gold or silver in bulk

Devolution

transfer of power to lower levels

Extrapolated

estimated based on known information

Pragmatic

practical