Vocabulary List #13: 12/9/97
arbitrary | selected at random and without reason |
astringent | able to draw together the soft organic tissues; puckery |
bromide | a commonplace or tiresome person; bore |
destitute | lacking something needed or desirable; poverty; poor |
droll | having a humorous, whimsical, or odd quality; funny |
eulogy | a commendatory formal statement or set oration |
exodus | a mass departure; immigration |
felicity | quality or state of being happy; apt expression or thought |
heresy | an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma |
hierarchy | a body of persons in authority |
inductive | leading on; persuasive; introductory |
iterate | to say or do again |
liaison | a close bond or connection |
melee | a confused struggle; hand to hand fight with several people |
opportune | occurring at an appropriate time |
pestilence | something destructive or pernicious; violent or fatal disease |
preclude | to make impossible by necessary consequence |
quorum | a select group of people; minimum number to transact business |
rampant | marked by menacing wildness; extravagance or absence of restraint |
rapport | relationship, especially a close sympathetic one; agreement |
renege | to back out of an agreement; to deny |
reparation | the act of making amends; repairs; compensation |
respite | to put off; delay; interval of rest from work |
ruse | a stratagem or trick |
soporific | to crave sleep or characterized by sleeplessness |
stoical | firmly restraining response to pain or distress; impassive |
subsidize | to aid or promote with public money |
tractable | capable of being easily led, taught, or controlled |
vociferous | so loud of insistence as to comply attention |
wry | having a bent or twisted shape or condition; perverse; contrary |