Unit 2
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Created by:
xoxogossipgirl28 on January 15, 2010
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20 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 accost | (v.) to approach and speak to first; to confront in a challenging or aggressive way; syn: buttonhole, approach, confront |
| animadversion | (n.) a comment indicating strong criticism or disapproval; syn: rebuke, reproof |
| avid | (adj.) desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager; syn: keen, enthusiastic, grasping |
| brackish | (adj.) having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink; syn: briny, saline |
| celerity | (n) swiftness, rapidity of motion or action; syn: promptness, alacrity, speed |
| devious | (adj.) straying or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way; syn: roundabout, indirect, tricky, sly, artful |
| gambit | (n.) in chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type; syn: ploy, stratagem, ruse, maneuver |
| halcyon | (n.) a legendary bird identified with the kingfisher; (adj.) of or relating to the halcyon; calm, peaceful; happy, golden; prosperous, affluent; syn: (adj) tranquil, serene, placid, palmy |
| histrionic | (adj.) pertaining to actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial; melodramatic; syn: affected, stagy |
| incendiary | (adj.) deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife or rebellion; (n.) one who deliberately sets fires, arsonist; one who causes strife; syn: (adj) inflammatory, provocative, (n) firebrand |
| maelstrom | (n) a whirlpool or great size and violence; a situation resmebling a whirlpool in violence and destruction; syn: vortex, chaos, turbulence, tumult |
| myopic | (adj.) nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment; syn: shortsighted |
| overt | (adj.) open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized; syn: clear, obvious, manifest, patent |
| pejorative | (adj.) tending to make worse; expressing disapproval or disparagement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittling |
| propriety | (n.) the state of being proper, appropriateness; (pl.) standards of what is proper or socially acceptable; syn: fitness, correctness, decorum |
| sacrilege | (n.) improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred; syn: desecration, profanation, defilement |
| summarily | (adv.) without delay or formality; briefly, concisely; syn: promptly, peremptorily, abruptly |
| suppliant | (adj) asking humbly and earnestly; (n) one who makes a request humbly and earnestly, a petitioner, suitor |
| talisman | (n.) an object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish |
| undulate | (v.) to move in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form; syn: ripple, fluctuate, rise and fall |
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