Oral Quiz

1. Guileless (Adjective)

• Innocent and Naive

• “Mother and daughter had been preparing a dance for the upcoming powwow in Tusa, and Roki–who boasts a guileless smile” (Abele) (Merriam-Webster).

2. Reticent (Adjective)

• Inclined to be silent or uncommunicative in speech: Reserved

• “An extremely reticent man, Morris does not like to talk about his experience in personal terms” (Dudar) (Merriam-Webster).

3. Lampoon (Noun)

• Specifically: a harsh satire usually directed against an individual.

• “He said such ridiculous things that he was often the target of lampoons in the press.” (Merriam-Webster).

4. Delineate (Verb) 

• To describe, portray, or set forth with accuracy or in detail.

• “He plants his stakes millimeters outside of the blue-tinted 44-square-foot arena that delineates the crease and refuses to budge” (Farber) (Merriam-Webster).

5. Modest (Adjective)

• Placing a moderate estimate on one’s abilities or worth

• “She enjoyed modest success with her singing career” (Merriam-Webster)

6. Demurely (Adverb)

• Reserved, Modest 

• “The churches vary from log-huts to those like Shepherd’s, and the schools from nothing to this little house that sits demurely on the country line.” (Du Bois

7. Forlorn (Adjective)

• Bereft, Forsake, sad because of isolation

• The shadow of an old plantation lies at its edge, forlorn and dark.” (Du Bois 

8. Lofty (Adjective)

• Elevated in character and spirit

• “In all cases the aim was identical,--to maintain the standards of the lower training by giving teachers and leaders the best practicable training; and above all, to furnish the black world with adequate standards of human culture and lofty ideals of life.” (Du Bois

9. Sneer (Verb)

• To smile or laugh with facial contortions that express scorn or contempt

• “The Sanctuary of our fathers has, to be sure, few Gods,—some sneer, ‘all too few.” (Du Bois 

10. Peril (Noun)

• Exposure to the risk of being injured destroyed, or last: DANGER

• “Since then a new adjustment of relations in economic and political affairs has grown up,—an adjustment subtle and difficult to grasp, yet singularly ingenious, which leaves still that frightful chasm at the color-line across which men pass at their peril.” (Du Bois

11. Vermin (Noun)

• Small common harmful or objectionable animals (such as lice or fleas) that are difficult to control. Or, an offensive person 

• “Then Dr. Johnson blandly assured us that education was needful solely for the embellishments of life, and was useless for ordinary vermin.” (Du Bois

12. Upheaval (Noun)

• Extreme agitation or disorder: radical change

• “His fervid imagination was stirred as never before, by the tramp of armies, the blood and dust of battle, and the wail and whirl of social upheaval.” (Du Bois 

13. Listlessness (Noun)

• Characterized by lack of interest, energy, or spirit

• “What can it expect but crime and listlessness, offset here and there by the dogged struggles of the fortunate and more determined who are themselves buoyed by the hope that in due time the country will come to its senses?” (Du Bois)

14. Thwart (Verb)

• To oppose successfully: Defeat the hopes or aspirations of

• “ How were they to be protected from those who did not believe in their freedom and were determined to thwart it?” (Du Bois)

15. Philanthropy (Noun)

• An act or gift done or made for humanitarian purposes

• “The white man, as well as the Negro, is bound and barred by the color-line, and many a scheme of friendliness and philanthropy, of broad-minded sympathy and generous fellowship between the two has dropped still-born because some busybody has forced the color-question to the front and brought the tremendous force of unwritten law against the innovators.” (Du Bois)

16. Prodigious (Adjective)

• Causing amazement or wonder

• “I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance…” (Swift, p.621)

17. Deplorable (Adjective)

• Deserving censure or contempt 

• “I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance…” (Swift, p.621)

18. Hitherto (Adverb)

• Up to this or that time

• “Which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed.” (Swift, p. 623)

19. Scrupulous (Adjective)

• Having moral integrity: acting in strict regard for what is considered right

• “And besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice, (although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, how well soever intended.” (Swift, p.623)

20. Gibbet (Verb)

• To expose to infamy or public scorn

• “And that, in his time, the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified fro an attempt to poison the Emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty’s prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court in joints from the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. (Swift, p. 624)

21. Episcopal (Adjective)

• Of or relating to a bishop

• “...hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good Protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country, than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.” (Swift, p. 624)

22. Parismany (Noun) 

• The quality of being careful with money or resources

• “...Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence, and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders…” (Swift, p. 625)

23. Raiment (Noun 

• Clothing, garments

• “First, As things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for a hundred thousand useless mouths and backs.” (Swift, p. 626)

24. Trepidation (Noun)

• A nervous or fearful feeling or uncertain agitation

• “With trepidation–and resentment: I hope you do not mean we go to Satan here! Slight pause.” (Miller, p. 589)

25. Licentious (Adjective)

• Lacking legal or moral restraints 

• “How can it be the Devil? Why would he choose my ho house to strike? We have all manner of licentious people in the village!” (Miller, p. 590)

26. Reprimand (Verb)

• To reprove sharply or censure formally usually from a position of authority

• “With a sense of reprimanding herself for having forgot: Aye! She get up and goes and ours a glass for him. He now arches his back.” (Miller, p. 602)

27. Magistrate (Noun)

• An official entrusted with administration of the laws

• “I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John–with a smile–only somewhat bewildered.” (Miller, p. 605)

28. Pallor (Noun)

• Deficiency of color especially of the face: PALENESS

• “I am sick, I am sick, Mr. Proctor. Pray, pray, hurt me not. Her strangeness throws him off, and her evident pallor and weakness. He frees her. My insides are all shuddery; I am in the proceedings all day, sir.” (Miller, p. 605)

29. Ameliorate (Verb)

• To make better or more tolerable 

• “He sentenced her,He must. To ameliorate it. But not Sarah Good. For Sarah Good confessed, y’see.” (Miller, p. 606)

30: Jabber (Verb)

• To talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly 

• “But–surely you know what a jabberer she is. Did you tell them that?” (Miller, p. 606)

31. Stallion (Noun)

• A uncastrated male horse: a male horse kept for breeding

• “Then how do you charge me with such a promise? The promise that a stallion gives a mare I gave that girl!” (Miller, p. 610)

32. Clapboard (Noun)

• A narrow board usually thicker at one edge than the other used for siding. 

• “I think, sometimes, the man dreams cathedrals, not clapboard meetin’ houses.” (Miller, p. 613)

33. Trifle (Verb)

• To treat someone or something as unimportant

• “A trifle unsteadily: I–am sue I do, sir.” (Miller, p. 613)

34. Conjure (Verb)

• To change or entreat earnestly or solemnly 

• “May it be, perhaps that someone conjures you even now to say this?” (Miller, p. 620)

35. Treason (Noun)

• The betrayal of a trust: TREACHERY

• “Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.” (Henry, 1775)

36. Arduous (Adjective)

• Hard to accomplish or achieve: DIFFICULT

• Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?” (Henry, 1775)

37. Solace (Verb)

• To give comfort to in grief or misfortune: CONSOLE

• “And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House.” (Henry, 1775)

38. Beseech (Verb)

• To beg for urgently or anxiously

• “Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves.” (Henry, 1775)

39. Remonstrance (Noun)

• An earnest presentation of reasons for opposition or grievance/

• “Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!” (Henry, 1775)

40. Supine (Adjective)

• Lying on the back or with the face upward

• “Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supine on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?” (Henry, 1775)

41. Profane (Verb)

• To treat (something scared) with abuse, irreverence or contempt 

• “The once lovely landscape had been profaned by ugly factories” (Merriam-Webster)

42. Altruistic (Adjective)

• Having or showing an unselfish concern for the welfare of others

• “I’m not being altruistic in giving you theses books, since I was going to have to lug them with me if you hadn’t came along” (Merriam-Webster)

43. Waspish (Adjective)

• Resembling a wasp in behavior

• “Extremely waspish, she uses her wit viciously when irritated” (Merriam-Webster)

44. Urbane (Adjective)

• Notably polite or polished in manner

• “The dialogue is witty and urbane.” (Merriam-Webster)

45. Suave (Adjective)

• Smoothly though often superficially gracious and sophisticated 

• “A suave and sophisticated businessman” (Merriam-Webster)

51. Wade (Verb)

• To step in or through a medium (such as water) offering more resistance than air

• “My father and I were wading in an industrial cana;, reminiscent of a subway, as thousands of hatchery-raised fish were being released into it.” (Mead, 2023)

52. Spewed (Verb)

• To come forth in a flood or gush

• “But somewhere in my mind the vision of fish being spewed into water had lodged itself, resurfacing more than twenty-five years later.” (Mead, 2023)

53. Unprecedented (Adjective)

• Never done or known before 

• “We spend hours wading through streams of photos, many of which document, in unprecedented ways, our daily lives.” (Mead, 2023)

54. Cull (Verb)

• To select from a group

• “Growing up online, Eichhorn worries, might impede our ability to edit memories, cull what needs to be culled, and move on.” (Mead, 2023)

55. Perpetual (Adjective)

• Continuing forever

• “The potential danger is no longer childhood’s disappearance, but rather the possibility of a perpetual childhood,’ she writes.” (Mead, 2023)

56. Pervasive (Adjective)

• Existing in or spreading through every part of something 

• “Now that the Internet is more permanent, and more pervasive, it’s hard to avoid the relics of past identities.” (Mead, 2023)

57. Pseudonym (Noun)

• A fictitious name

• “Although he deactivated his social-media accounts and created new ones under a pseudonym, he continued to be tagged in old photos.” (Mead, 2023)

58. Moratorium (Noun)

• A temporary prohibition of an activity

• “During that time, we exist in what the psychoanalyst Erik Erkson called a psychosocial ‘moratorium’--a stage in which we hover ‘between the morality learned by the child and the ethics to be developed by the adult.” (Mead, 2023)

59. Endearing (Adjective)

• Inspiring love or affection

• “Forgetting — that once taken-for-granted built-in resource that all humans possessed – is now being pitted against the interests of technology companies,’ she writes, implying with an endearing idealism, that we have a right to forget.” (Mead, 2023)

60. Chasm (Noun)

• A profound difference between people, viewpoints, feelings, etc. 

• “In some cases, retaining our sense of self across chasms that might destroy it is more important than having a rebellious phase.” (Mead, 2023)

61. Affluent (Adjective)

• Having an abundance of goods or riches

• “She liked, most of all, that in this place of affluent ease, she could pretend to be someone else, someone specially admitted into a hallowed American club, someone adorned with certainty” (Ngosi, 2013)

62. Twine (Noun)

• A strong string of two or more strands twisted together 

• “Once to a dreadlocked white man who sat next her on the train, his hair like old twine ropes that ended in a blond fuzz, his tattered shirt worn with enough piety to convince her…” (Ngosi, 2013)

63. Ghastly (Adjective)

• Terrifyingly horrible to the senses: FRIGHTENING

• “Aisha was almost whispering, a sexual suggestion in her tone, and int the mirror, the discoloration on her arms and neck became ghastly sores.” (Ngosi, 2013)

64. Perverse (Adjective)

• Turned away from what is right or good 

• “... knowing that Aisha would not understand what a fellowship was, and in the rare moment that AIsha looked intimidated, Ifemelu felt a perverse pleasure.” (Ngosi, 2013)

65. Frisson (Noun)

• A brief moment of emotional excitement 

• “I’m longing for ceiling, she once wrote on the back of his geography notebooks without a gathering frisson, a sense of secret excitement.” (Ngosi, 2013)

66. Waning (Verb) 

• To decrease in size, extent, or degree: DWINDLE

• “On Lekki Expressway, the traffic moved swiftly in the waning raina nd soon Gabriel was pressing the horn in front of the high black gates of his home.” (Ngosi, 2013)

67. Guffawing (Noun)

• A loud or boisterous burst of laughter 

• You know what to do,’ Chief saif, and his guests laughed, three guffawing, knowing men.” (Ngosi, 2013)

68. Pimp (Noun)

• A person and especially a man who controls one or more sex workers, arranges clients for them, and take as a cut of their earnings. 

• “She had been a pimp, as the story want providing young girls for the army officers who, in turn, gave her inflated supply contracts.” (Ngosi, 2013)

69. Gaucheness (Adjective)

• A lacking social experience or grace.

• Obinze was drawn to his gaucheness; in the young man;s clothes, and in the way that he stood, was an outsiderness he could nor shield even if he had wanted to.” (Ngosi, 2013)

70. Flaunt (Verb)

• To display or obtrude oneself to public notice

• “People often told him how humble he was, but they did not mean real humility, it was merely that he did not flaunt his membership in the wealthy club, did not exercise the rights it brought–to be rude.” (Ngosi, 2013)

71. Commodity (Noun)

• An economic good, something useful or valued

• “His major works, all of which investigate the role of poverty and inequality in the world, include… Commodities and Capabilities (1985)... Sen suggests that generalizations about ‘civilization’ tend to blur the realities of complex cultures.” (Sen, p. 253)

72. Befuddle (Verb)

• Make someone unable to think clearly 

• “The befuddling influence of a singular classification also traps those who dispute the theses of a clash: To talk about ‘the Islamic world’ or ‘the Western world’ is already to adopt an impoverished vision of humanity as unalterably divided.” (Sen, p. 253)

73. Futile (Adjective)

• Incapable of producing any useful result; pointless

• “It is futile to try to understand Indian art, literature, music, food, or politics without seeing the extensive interactions across barriers of religious communities.” (Sen, p. 253)

74. Coarseness (Noun)

• The quality of being rough or harsh

• “A similar coarseness can be seen in the other categories invoked, like ‘the Islamic world.” (Sen, p. 253)

75. Pronouncements (Noun)

• Usually formal declaration of opinion 

• “When Akbar was making his pronouncements on religious tolerance in Agra, in the 1590s, the Inquisitions were still going on…” (Sen, p. 254)

76. Quarry (Noun)

• A rich source 

• “It was clear that she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or source.” (Staples, p. 618)

77. Wayfarer (Noun)

• A traveler especially on foot

• “Suffering a bout of insomnia, however, I was stalking sleep, not defenseless wayfarers.” (Staples, p. 618)

78. Dismayed (Adjective)

• Experiencing or showing feeling of alarmed concern 

• “As a softly who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken - let alone hold on to a person’s throat - I was surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed all at once.” (Staples, p. 618)

79. Taut (Adjective) 

• (Especially of muscles or nerves) tense; not relaxed.

• “Elsewhere–in SoHo, for example, where sidewalks are narrow and tightly spaced buildings shut out the sky–things can get very taut indeed.” (Staples, p. 619)

80. Solace (Noun)

• Comfort or consolation in a time of distress or sadness

• “Yet these truths are no solace against the kind of alienation that comes of being ever the suspect, a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact.”(Staples, p. 619)