10th Grade Roots & Words + Units 16-20 Vocab

Busman's holiday

Holiday spent in an activity the same as, or similar to one's occupation, as a bus driver who takes his family for a Sunday drive

Come home to roost

Have a disagreeable repercussion; boomerang

Dutch treat

Meal or entertainment for which each participant pays his or her own share

Eat crow

Be forced into a humiliating or extremely disagreeable situation

Fish or cut bait

Proceed wholeheartedly or drop out altogether; stop procrastinating or temporizing

French leave

Unauthorized, hasty, or secret departure

Have an ax to grind

Have a selfish motive or ulterior purpose to promote

Hold a candle to

Compare favorably with

Hold water

Remain sound, logical, or consistent; stand up

Lame duck

Elected official who remains in office for a brief period after a successor has been elected

Pay the piper

Suffer the unfavorable consequences of one's actions

Play possum

playing dead or asleep; dissemble (Opossums feign death when threatened)

Play the devil's advocate

Uphold the wrong side of a case for the sake of argument

Poker face

Expressionless face, as that of an experienced poker player

Red herring

Something used to distract attention from the real issue (from the practice of drawing a red herring across a trail to confuse hunting dogs)

Roll out the red carpet

Show impressive courtesy (from the practice of rolling out a red carpet for arriving dignitaries to step on)

Stick to one's craw

Be intolerable and unacceptable to one

Stick to one's last

Keep to one's own trade or field (from the proverb "Let the cobbler stick to his last," a last being a shaped form on which a shoe is made or repaired)

Whistle in the dark

Put on a show of confidence in the face of impending danger or defeat; try to keep up one's courage

White elephant

Possession entailing expense and trouble far greater than its usefulness to the owner

Carpal

(adj.) Having to do with the caprus (wrist) or bones of the wrist

Cerebral

(adj.) Having to do with the cerebrum (brain); intellectual

Cervical

(adj.) Pertaining to the cervix (neck)

Corporal

(adj.) Having to do with or inflicted on the body; bodily

Digital

1. Involving a finger or fingers;

2. Involving digits (the numbers 1 though 0 and zero)

Eviscerate

(v.) Remove the viscera (entrails, intestines, guts) from; disembowel; gut

Genuflect

(v.) Bend the knee, as in reverence or worship; kneel

Gustatory

(adj.) Having to do with the sense of taste or tasting

Guttural

(adj.) Produced in the throat; harsh; rasping; throaty

Labial

(adj.) Involving the lips; pronounced with the help of one or both lips

Lachrymose

(adj.) Given to shedding or causing tears; tearful; mournful

Lingual

(adj.) Having to do with the tongue, language, or languages; pronounced with the aid of the tongue

Manual

(adj.) Having to do with a hand or the hands; worked by hand

Olfactory

(adj.) Concerned with the sense of smell

Plantar

(adj.) Having to do with the sole of the foot

Prone

(adj.) 1. Lying face downward;

2. Having a bent or inclination predisposed

Pulmonary

(adj.) Having to do with the lungs

Sanguinary

(adj.) Bloody; having to do with bloodshed; bloodthirsty

Spleen

(n.) 1. Ductless organ, near the stomach, containing many blood vessels;

2. Malice; anger; bad temper (the spleen was once regarded as the seat of many emotions)

Subcutaneous

(adj.) Situated, occurring, or applied beneath the skin

Supine

(adj.) 1. Lying on the back, face upwards;

2. Mentally or morally inactive; lethargic; listless

Tactile

(adj.) Having to do with the sense of touch

Vascular

(adj.) Having to do with, composed of, or provided with vessels that convey blood or lymph

Visceral

(adj.) Having to do with or occurring in the viscera (internal organs, intestines, guts, etc.)

Altruistic

(adj.) Concerned for the welfare of others; unselfish

Biased

(adj.) Prejudiced; unduly or unfairly influenced

Captious

(adj.) Quick to find fault, especially over petty matters; carping

Contrite

(adj.) Sorrowful for a misdeed that one has committed; deeply repentant

Diffident

(adj.) Lacking confidence; timid; shy

Gregarious

(adj.) Seeking or enjoying the company of others; sociable

Gullible

(adj.) Easily deceived or tricked; credulous

Impassive

(adj.) Feeling or revealing no emotion; calm; unmoved

Impetuous

(adj.) Acting suddenly without forethought; rash; impulsive

Indolent

(adj.) Inclined to avoid work; lazy; idle

Intrepid

(adj.) Not afraid; bold; dauntless

Irrational

(adj.) Not rational (capable of reasoning); illogical; absurd; senseless

Obsequious

(adj.) Much too attentive (to a superior); excessively submissive; servile; fawning

Obstreperous

(adj.) Excessively noisy; boisterous; unruly

Opinionated

(adj.) Holding obstinately to one's own opinion

Parsimonious

(adj.) Extremely frugal; miserly; stingy

Sanguine

(adj.) Confident optimistic; hopeful

Skeptical

(adj.) Disbelieving; doubting; not easily convinced

Supercilious

(adj.) Showing haughty contempt; disdainful; full of pride and scorn

Vindictive

(adj.) Inclined to seek vengeance; unforgiving; spiteful

Accessory

(n.) Person who, though, not present at the time of the crime, aids in its commission or helps the perpetrator to escape; accomplice

Capital

(adj.) (literally, "having to do with the head") involving or punishable by death penalty

Charlatan

(n.) Person who fraudulently claims to have expert skill or knowledge; fake; quack; imposter

Contraband

(n.) Goods illegally imported or exported; smuggled merchandise

Culpability

(n.) Quality or state of being culpable (deserving blame or censure); blameworthiness

Embezzlement

(n.) Stealing of money, securities, etc., entrusted to one's care

Exculpate

(v.) Free from blame or fault; prove guiltless; exonerate

Extradition

(n.) Surrender of an alleged by one state or country to the jurisdiction of another for trial

Felony

(n.) Major crime such as murder, rape, arson, or burglary, for which the penalty ranges from execution to imprisonment of more than a year

Incarceration

(n.) Imprisonment; jailing; confinement

Inculpate

(v.) Incriminate; make appear guilty

Larceny

(n.) Unlawful taking away of another's property, with intent to defraud the owner; theft

Misdemeanor

(n.) Minor offense punishable by fine or imprisonment of usually less than a year; misdeed

Penal

(adj.) Involving punishment; having to do with penalties or correctional institutions

Plagiarism

(n.) Act of plagiarizing (stealing the writing of another and passing it off as one's own)

Poacher

(n.) One who poaches (hunts or fishes illegally)

Recidivist

(n.) (literally, "one who falls back") person with a tendency to relapse; chronic offender; habitual criminal

Subpoena

(n.) (literally, "under penalty") order summoning a person to testify in court under a penalty for failure to appear

Vandal

(n.) Person who maliciously defaces, spoils, or destroys public or private property

Venue

(n.) Locality from which a jury is drawn and in which the trial is held

Amble

(n.) Walk unhurriedly; go leisurely; saunter

Concomitant

(adj.) Accompanying; concurrent

Congregate

(v.) Gather into a crowd; assemble

Exodus

(n.) Going out; mass departure (Israelites from Egypt)

Flounder

(v.) Struggle awkwardly to move or obtain a footing; proceed clumsily with frequent mistakes

Founder

(v.) Come to grief; go to the bottom; sink; collapse

Incursion

(n.) Sudden, brief invasion; inroad; raid

Itinerary

(n.) Route of a journey

Labyrinth

(n.) Place full of confusing interconnecting passageways and blind alleys; maze; anything extremely intricate and perplexing

Meander

(v.) Follow a winding intricate course (Meader River in Asia Minor->Menderes); wander aimlessly; ramble

Obituary

(n.) Published notice of death ("going"), including a short biographical account

Obsolescent

(adj.) Going out of use; becoming obsolete (outmoded)

Peregrination

(n.) Travel; journey

Peripatetic

(adj.) Walking about from place to place; itinerant

Retrogress

(v.) Move backwards to an earlier or worse condition; degenerate

Safari

(n.) Journey or hunting expedition, especially in eastern Africa; any lengthy, adventurous expedition