ISEE Vocab Prep C-D

caustic (adj.) bitter, biting, acidic (The politicians exchanged caustic insults for over an hour during the debate.) 

cavort (v.) to leap about, behave boisterously (The adults ate their dinners on the patio, while the children cavorted around the pool.) 

censure 1. (n.) harsh criticism (The frustrated teenager could not put up with anymore of her critical mother’s censure.) 2. (v.) to rebuke formally (The principal censured the head of the English Department for forcing students to learn esoteric vocabulary.)

chide (v.) to voice disapproval (Lucy chided Russell for his vulgar habits and sloppy appearance.)

circuitous (adj.) roundabout (The bus’s circuitous route took us through numerous outlying suburbs.) 

circumlocution (n.) indirect and wordy language (The professor’s habit of speaking in circumlocutions made it difficult to follow his lectures.)

clairvoyant (adj.) able to perceive things that normal people cannot (Zelda’s uncanny ability to detect my lies was nothing short of clairvoyant.)

clandestine (adj.) secret (Announcing to her boyfriend that she was going to the gym, Sophie actually went to meet Joseph for a clandestine liaison.) 

cloying (adj.) sickeningly sweet (Though Ronald was physically attractive, Maud found his constant compliments and solicitous remarks cloying.) 

coagulate (v.) to thicken, clot (The top layer of the pudding had coagulated into a thick skin.)

coalesce (v.) to fuse into a whole (Gordon’s ensemble of thrift-shop garments coalesced into a surprisingly handsome outfit.)

cogent (adj.)intellectually convincing (Irene’s arguments in favor of abstinence were so cogent that I could not resist them.) 

cognizant (adj.) aware, mindful (Jake avoided speaking to women in bars because he was cognizant of the fact that drinking impairs his judgment.)

compunction (n.) distress caused by feeling guilty (He felt compunction for the shabby way he’d treated her.)

concomitant (adj.) accompanying in a subordinate fashion (His dislike of hard work carried with it a concomitant lack of funds.)

confidant (n.) a person entrusted with secrets (Shortly after we met, she became my chief confidant.)

confound (v.) to frustrate, confuse (MacGuyver confounded the policemen pursuing him by covering his tracks.)

consecrate (v.) to dedicate something to a holy purpose (Arvin consecrated his spare bedroom as a shrine to Christina.)

constrain (v.)to forcibly restrict (His belief in nonviolence constrained him from taking revenge on his attackers.) 

construe (v.) to interpret (He construed her throwing his clothes out the window as a signal that she wanted him to leave.) 

consummate (v.) to complete a deal; to complete a marriage ceremony through sexual intercourse (Erica and Donald consummated their agreement in the executive boardroom.)

contrite (adj.) penitent, eager to be forgiven (Blake’s contrite behavior made it impossible to stay angry at him.) 

contusion (n.) bruise, injury (The contusions on his face suggested he’d been in a fight.)

convivial (adj.) characterized by feasting, drinking, merriment (The restaurant’s convivial atmosphere put me immediately at ease.)

corpulence (adj.)extreme fatness (Henry’s corpulence did not make him any less attractive to his charming, svelte wife.) 

corroborate (v.) to support with evidence (Luke’s seemingly outrageous claim was corroborated by witnesses.)

covert (adj.)secretly engaged in (Nerwin waged a covert campaign against his enemies, while outwardly appearing to remain friendly.)

cupidity (n.) greed, strong desire (His cupidity made him enter the abandoned gold mine despite the obvious dangers.)

curtail (v.) to lessen, reduce (Since losing his job, he had to curtail his spending.)

debacle (n.) a disastrous failure, disruption (The elaborately designed fireworks show turned into a debacle when the fireworks started firing in random directions.)

debauch (v.) to corrupt by means of sensual pleasures (An endless amount of good wine and cheese debauched the traveler.)

decorous (adj.)socially proper, appropriate (The appreciative guest displayed decorous behavior toward his host.) 

decry (v.) to criticize openly (The kind video rental clerk decried the policy of charging customers late fees.)

defile (v.) to make unclean, impure (She defiled the calm of the religious building by playing her banjo.) 

deft (adj.) skillful, capable (Having worked in a bakery for many years, Marcus was a deft bread maker.) 

defunct (adj.) no longer used or existing (They planned to turn the defunct schoolhouse into a community center.)

demagogue (n.) a leader who appeals to a people’s prejudices (The demagogue strengthened his hold over his people by blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs.)

demean (v.) to lower the status or stature of something (She refused to demean her secretary by making him order her lunch.)

denigrate (v.) to belittle, diminish the opinion of (The company decided that its advertisements would no longer denigrate the company’s competitors.)

depravity (n.) wickedness (Rumors of the ogre’s depravity made the children afraid to enter the forest.)

derelict (adj.) abandoned, run-down (Even though it was dangerous, the children enjoyed going to the deserted lot and playing in the derelict house.) 

deride (v.) to laugh at mockingly, scorn (The bullies derided the foreign student’s accent.)

desiccated (adj.) dried up, dehydrated (The skin of the desiccated mummy looked like old paper.)

despot (n.) one who has total power and rules brutally (The despot issued a death sentence for anyone who disobeyed his laws.)

diaphanous (adj.) light, airy, transparent (Sunlight poured in through the diaphanous curtains, brightening the room.)

diffident (adj.) shy, quiet, modest (While eating dinner with the adults, the diffident youth did not speak for fear of seeming presumptuous.)

dilatory (adj.) tending to delay, causing delay (The general’s dilatory strategy enabled the enemy to regroup.)

dirge (n.) a mournful song, especially for a funeral (The bagpipers played a dirge as the casket was carried to the cemetery.)

discern (v.)to perceive, detect (Though he hid his emotions, she discerned from his body language that he was angry.)

discomfit (v.) to thwart, baffle (The normally cheery and playful children’s sudden misery discomfited the teacher.)

discursive (adj.) rambling, lacking order (The professor’s discursive lectures seemed to be about every subject except the one initially described.)

disparate (adj.) sharply differing, containing sharply contrasting elements (Having widely varying interests, the students had disparate responses toward the novel.)

dispel (v.) to drive away, scatter (She entered the office as usual on Monday, dispelling the rumor that she had been fired.)

disrepute (n.) a state of being held in low regard (The officer fell into disrepute after it was learned that he had disobeyed the orders he had given to his own soldiers.)

dissuade (v.) to persuade someone not to do something (Worried that he would catch a cold, she tried to dissuade him from going out on winter nights.) 

distend (v.) to swell out (Years of drinking beer caused his stomach to distend.) 

dither (v.) to be indecisive (Not wanting to offend either friend, he dithered about which of the two birthday parties he should attend.)

dogmatic (adj.) aggressively and arrogantly certain about unproved principles (His dogmatic claim that men were better than women at fixing appliances angered everyone.)

dour (adj.)stern, joyless (The children feared their dour neighbor because the old man would take their toys if he believed they were being too loud.)

duplicity (n.) crafty dishonesty (His duplicity involved convincing his employees to let him lower their salaries and increase their stock options, and then to steal the money he saved and run the company into the ground.) 

duress (n.) hardship, threat (It was only under intense duress that he, who was normally against killing, fired his gun.)