Vocab Lesson 2
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Created by:
grace_stonecipher on June 6, 2010
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20 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 accost | (v.) to approach and speak to first; to confront in a challenging way |
| animadversion | (n.) a comment indicating strong criticism or disapproval |
| avid | (adj.) desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager |
| brackish | (adj.) having a salty taste and unpleasant to drink |
| celerity | (n.) swiftness, rapidity of motion or action |
| devious | (adj.) straying or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way |
| gambit | (n.) in chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain later advantage; any opening move of this type |
| halcyon | (n.) a legendary bird identified with the kingfisher; (adj.) of or relating to the halcyon; calm, peaceful; happy, golden; prosperous, affluent |
| histrionic | (adj.) pertaining to actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial; melodramatic |
| 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 |
| maelstrom | (n.) a whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirlpool in violence and destruction |
| myopic | (adj.) nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment |
| overt | (adj.) open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized |
| 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 |
| sacrilege | (n.) improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred |
| summarily | (adv.) without delay or formality; briefly, concisely |
| 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, and amulet, fetish |
| undulate | (v.) to move in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form |
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