| Term | Definition |
|---|
| quaff | drink with relish |
| quail | cower; lose heart |
| quandary | dilemma |
| quarry | victim; object of a hunt |
| quay | dock; landing place |
| querulous | fretful; whining |
| quibble | minor objection or remonstrance |
| quiescent | at rest; dormant; temporarily inactive |
| quietude | tranquility |
| quixotic | idealistic but impractical |
| quirk | startling twist; caprice |
| quizzical | teasing; bantering; mocking; curious |
| quorum | number of members necessary to conduct a meeting |
| raconteur | storyteller |
| rail | scold; rant |
| raiment | clothing |
| ramification | branching out; subdivision |
| ramify | divide into branches or subdivisions |
| rancor | bitterness; hatred |
| rankle | irritate; fester |
| rapacious | excessively greedy; predatory |
| rapt | absorbed; enchanted |
| rarefied | made less dense (of a gas) |
| ratiocination | reasoning; act of drawing conclusions from premises |
| raucous | harsh and shrill; disorderly and boisterous |
| ravel | fall apart into tangles; unravel or untwist; entangle |
| rebuff | snub; beat back |
| recant | disclaim or disavow; retract a previous statement; openly confess error |
| recapitulate | summarize |
| recast | reconstruct (a sentence, story, etc.) |
| recidivism | habitual return to crime |
| recourse | resorting to help when in trouble |
| recrimination | countercharges |
| rectitude | uprightness; moral virtue; correctness of judgment |
| recumbent | reclining; lying down completely or in part |
| redolent | fragrant; odorous; suggestive of an odor |
| redoubtable | formidable; causing fear |
| redress | remedy; compensation |
| regale | entertain |
| rejoinder | retort; comeback; reply |
| remediable | reparable |
| remiss | negligent |
| remonstrance | protest; objection |
| remunerative | compensating; rewarding |
| rend | split; tear apart |
| renege | deny; go back on |
| rent | rip; split; rend |
| repast | meal; feast; banquet |
| replete | filled to the brim or to the point of being stuffed; abundantly supplied |
| repository | storehouse |
| reprehensible | deserving blame |
| reprisal | retaliation |
| reprobate | person hardened in sin, devoid of a sense of decency |
| reprise | musical repetition; repeat performance; recurrent action |
| requiem | mass for the dead; dirge |
| requite | repay; revenge |
| resigned | accepting one's fate; unresisting; patiently submissive |
| respite | interval of relief; time for rest; delay in punishment |
| resplendent | dazzling; glorious; brilliant |
| restitution | reparation; indemnification |
| resumption | taking up again; recommencement |
| reticence | reserve; uncommunicativeness; inclination to silence |
| retinue | following; attendants |
| retrench | cut down; economize |
| retroactive | taking effect before its enactment (as a law) or imposition (as a tax) |
| retrograde | go backwards; degenerate |
| reverie | daydream; musing |
| revile | attack with abusive language; vilify |
| revulsion | sudden violent change of feeling; reaction |
| rhapsodize | to speak or write in an exaggeratedly enthusiastic manner |
| ribald | wanton; profane |
| rife | abundant; current |
| rivulet | small stream |
| roil | to make liquids murk by stirring up sediment |
| roster | list |
| rostrum | platform for speech-making; pulpit |
| rote | repetition |
| rotundity | roundness; sonorousness of speech |
| rout | stampede; drive out |
| ruddy | reddish; healthy-looking |
| ruffian | bully; scoundrel |
| ruminate | chew over and over (mentally, or, like cows, physically); mull over; ponder |
| rustic | pertaining to country people; uncouth |
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