VOCAB Unit 4

Affable

pleasantly easy to approach and to talk to; friendly; cordial; warmly polite

Aggrandize

1. to widen in scope; increase in size or intensity; enlarge; extend.

2. to make great or greater in power, wealth, rank, or honor.

Amorphous

lacking definite form; having no specific shape; formless

Aura

a distinctive and pervasive quality or character; air; atmosphere

Contraband

1. anything prohibited by law from being imported or exported.

2. goods imported or exported illegally.

Erudite

characterized by great knowledge; learned or scholarly

Gossamer

1. a fine, filmy cobweb seen on grass or bushes or floating in the air in calm weather, especially in autumn.

2. a thread or strand of a filmy cobweb seen outdoors.

Infer

to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence:

Inscrutable

1. incapable of being investigated, analyzed, or scrutinized; impenetrable.

2. not easily understood; mysterious; unfathomable

Insular

1. narrow-minded or illiberal; provincial

2. standing alone; detached; isolated

Irrevocable

not to be revoked or recalled; unable to be repealed or annulled; unalterable:

Propensity

a natural inclination or tendency

Querulous

1. full of complaints; complaining.

2. characterized by or uttered in complaint; peevish

Remonstrate

1. to say or plead in protest, objection, or disapproval.

2. Obsolete. to show

Repudiate

to reject as having no authority or binding force

Resilient

1. springing back; rebounding.

2. returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched

Reverberate

to reecho or resound

Scurrilous

grossly or obscenely abusive

characterized by or using low buffoonery; coarsely jocular or derisive

Sedulous

1. diligent in application or attention; persevering; assiduous.

2. persistently or carefully maintained

Sleazy

contemptibly low, mean, or disreputable

squalid; sordid; filthy; dilapidated