Vocab List 1

The Great Gatsby

Apathetic

 indifferent, disinterested, uncaring, lacking effort

Clad

dressed, covered

Complacent

self-satisfied and unaware of possible dangers; careless due to comfort/apathy, relaxed in a way which makes one vulnerable

Conscientious

showing care, attention, and industriousness in carrying out a task or role.  Thoughtful, painstaking, 

Contiguous

sharing a boundary/border, touching each other physically, neighboring, connected in an unbroken or uninterrupted sequence.

cower

To cringe or move backward defensively in fear.  

Cursory

hasty, superficial, careless.  Only in passing, quick and lacking focused attention

deft

quick and skillful, clever, dexterous

facile

Simplistic. Too easy (as in quick and careless and fairly thoughtless).  Readily achieved yet lacking sincerity, complexity, or depth. shallow.  

feign

to pretend. To make up or fabricate something

Incredulous

showing disbelief.  Unable or unwilling to believe something.  Unconvinced. **don’t try to use credulous as an antonym

ineffable

impossible to be expressed in words

interpose

to interrupt by doing something.  To intervene.  To place oneself in between. 

intimation

hint, suggestion, indication, discrete suggestion, subtle communication (usually meant for a small or private audience)

Languid

lacking vigor, without energy, sluggish, overly relaxed. 

minute

tiny, extremely small, miniscule, difficult to see or identify

signify

 to mean something, to be a sign of something, to indicate a particular meaning

Supercilious

contemptuously indifferent, full of contempt and arrogance.  snobby

Tangible

able to be touched or perceived; actual; able to be realized, realistic

Xenophobia

Fear/hatred/prejudice against strangers (foreigners)

Xenophobe

person with an irrational, prejudiced fear/hatred of people different from him (usually ethnicity, race, language, religion, native country, culture, origin)