Vocabulary List #20: 2/17/98
aegis | a shield or breast plate associated with majesty; protection |
annihilate | to reduce to nothing; to destroy |
appurtenance | an incidental right attached to a principle property right |
aspersion | a defaming, slanderous remark; innuendo |
avaricious | greedy for riches; grasping miserly |
badinage | playful repartee; banter |
curmudgeon | a crusty, ill-tempered and usually old man |
dexterous | skillful and competent with the hands; adroit |
effigy | a portrait, image, or likeness of a person often in contempt |
emaciated | physically wasted away or worn thin |
emolument | gain from employment or position; payment |
exigency | urgency; situation called for immediate action |
exuberance | the quality or state of being abundant; overflowing; luxuriant |
gnome | an ageless, often deformed dwarf of folklore |
honorarium | a payment on which no fee is set or legally attainable |
imperceptible | extremely slight; granule; subtle |
inept | lacking in fitness or aptitude; unsuitable |
knavery | roguish mischief |
multitudinous | consisting of innumerable elements; populous |
necromancy | foretelling the future by communicating with the dead |
obsolescent | going out of use; becoming obsolete |
propinquity | nearness of blood, kinship; nearness in time or place |
pusillanimous | lacking courage; cowardly |
recalcitrant | obstinately defiant of authority; resistant |
slake | to lessen; reduce; to become less active |
superannuated | to be old; incapacitated for duty by age |
tawny | of a warm, sandy, or tan color |
testy | easily annoyed; irritable |
transcendent | beyond the limits of ordinary experience; beyond material existence |
vehement | intensely emotional; forcibly expressed; bitterly antagonistic |