English 1111-Sadlier Vocabulary Unit 14

amenable

(adj.) willing to follow advice or authority, tractable, submissive; responsive; liable to be held responsible

S: agreeable, compliant, docile

A: unresponsive, resistant, recalcitrant

berate

(v.) to scold sharply

S: chide, rebuke, reprove, reprimand

A: praise, compliment, pat on the back

carnage

(n.) large-scale slaughter or loss of life

S: butchery, bloodbath, massacre

credulous

(adj.) too ready to believe, easily deceived

S: gullible

A: dubious, skeptical

criterion

(n.) a rule, test; a standard of judgement or evaluation

S: yardstick, touchstone, gauge, canon

deplete

(v.) to use up as a result of spending or consumption; to diminish greatly

S: exhaust, empty, drain, bankrupt

A: replenish, refill, restock, resupply

expatiate

(v.) to expand on, write or talk at length or in detail; to move about freely

S: elaborate, enlarge, descant, wander, roam

A: sketch roughly, summarize, condense, adumbrate

extraneous

(adj.) coming from the outside, foreign,; present but no essential, irrelevant

S: incidental, extrinsic

A: intrinsic, relevant, pertinent, germane

inception

(n.) the beginning, start, earliest stage of some process, institution, etc.

S: commencement, inauguration, outset

A: completion, conclusion, termination

infirmity

(n.) a weakness or ailment (physical, mental, moral, etc.)

S: affliction, malady, defect

A: stimulating, mature

jejune

(adj.) lacking in nutritive value; lacking in interest or substance, immature, juvenile

S: vapid, insipid, puerile, childish

A: stimulating, mature

obdurate

(adj.) stubborn, unyielding

S: obstinate, adamant

A: yielding, tractable, flexible

potpourri

(n.) a collection of diverse or miscellaneous items; a general mixture; petals mixed with spices for scent

S: hodgepodge, melange, farrago, medley

A: homogenous or uniform group

precocious

(adj.) showing unusually early development (especially in talents and mental capacity)

S: forward, gifted, advanced

A: backward, retarded, slow

sadistic

(adj.) delighting in cruelty, excessively cruel

S: brutal, vicious, inhuman, fiendish

A: masochistic, clement, humane, mericful

sententious

(adj.) self-righteous, characterized by moralizing; given to use of maxims or adages; saying much in few words, pithy

S: aphoristic, epigrammatic, moralistic

A: discursive, diffuse, episodic

supplicate

(v.) to beg earnestly and humbly

S: plead, petition, implore, entreat

surfeit

(n.) an excess or overindulgence, as in eating or drinking, causing disgust (v.) to feed or supply with anything to excess

S: (n.) excess, glut; (v.) cloy, satiate

A: (n.) dearth, paucity, lack

tortuous

(adj.) winding, twisted, crooked,; highly involved, complex; devious

S: circuitous, serpentine, labyrinthine

A: direct, straight, straightforward

turgid

(adj.) swollen, blated, filled to excess; overdecorated or excessive in language

S: inflated, pompous, bombastic, overblown

A: muted, understated, unadorned, austere