 | Term | Definition |
| |
Mnemonics |
assisting or intended to assist memory |
| |
billingsgate |
the use of coarse and vulgar language |
| |
cupidity |
inordinate desire, an excessive eagerness, especially to gain material wealth |
| |
guillotine |
device used to chop people's heads off |
| |
pander |
to provide gratification for another's desires |
| |
tenebrous |
dark, gloomy |
| |
plutocracy |
rule by the wealthy |
| |
gorgon |
an ugly, mean, repulsive woman, an absolutely terrible person |
| |
limbo |
an intermediate place or state |
| |
procustean |
an arbitrary standard to which conformity is forced |
| |
marathon |
any long contest with endurance as the primary factor |
| |
stygian |
a sense of infernal gloom |
| |
tawdry |
cheep, showy, and lacking in good taste |
| |
calliope |
a keyboard using steam to power whistles that make musical notes |
| |
apochrypha |
writings of doubtful authenticity |
| |
Byzantine |
intricate; involved |
| |
mesmerize |
to spellbind; to fascinate |
| |
Halloween |
the eve of All Saints' Day |
| |
vandal |
mischievious or malicious destuction or damage to property |
| |
bowlderize |
to expurgate, to edit by prudishly omitting parts considered indelicate |
| |
protean |
changeability |
| |
Cassandra |
a person who prophesises doom or disaster |
| |
maudlin |
crying at the slightest provocation |
| |
Parthian Shot |
to make a sharp telling remark or point as one is leaving |
| |
argonaut |
Sailors for the Golden Fleece / adventurer |
| |
utopia |
a perfect socitey in law, politics, social conventions, etc. |
| |
tantalize |
to torment, tease by heightening expectations that cannot be reached or attained |
| |
Pharisee |
a self-righteous or hypocrytical person |
| |
quixotic |
impractically foolish at chivalry |
| |
roentgen |
units that radiation is measured in |
| |
myrmidon |
a person who executes his master's orders without scruple |
| |
peripatetic |
characterized by constant moving or roaming around |
| |
narcissism |
excessive love or admiration for one's self |
| |
tarantella |
a very fast dance; once thought to be a disease from a spider |
| |
panacea |
a remedy for all ills |
| |
stentorian |
those who have loud, deep, resonating voices |
| |
Sisyphean |
requiring continued effort oftentimes without results that can justify the resources put into the effort |
| |
Sword of Damocles |
an impending disaster or threat of a calamitous happening |
| |
bedlam |
a place or situation of noisy uproar and confusion |
| |
Pandora's box |
that which is the source of many difficulties, none of which could have been foreseen |
| |
philippic |
any strong verbal denunciation characterized by bitter invective |
| |
draconian |
proverbially harsh and pitilessly severe laws |
| |
rodomontade |
pretentious, cockiness, empty boaster |
| |
epicure |
connoisseur that has a cultivated and refined taste for the arts and culinary pursuits |
| |
Pollyanna |
quixotic, nearly slavish, commitment to optimism |
| |
caesarean section |
a method of delivering a baby |
| |
sybarite |
a person who is devoted to luxury, opulence, and pleasure in general |
| |
shylock |
a lender of money at unlawfully exorbitant intrest rates |
| |
somniloquy |
talking in one's sleep |
| |
Lilliputian |
small in the sense of being petty or narrow |
| |
hades |
hell |
| |
jacquard |
a brocade, a heavy cloth |
| |
odyssey |
a series of journeys or wanderings |
| |
gargantuan |
gigantic; enormous |
| |
stoicism |
repression of emotions |
| |
herculean |
of exceptional strength, size, or courage |
| |
Kafkaesque |
sureal; bizzare (accompanied by a sense of impending danger) |
| |
halcyon |
peaceful; prosperous, |
| |
mercurial |
swift; changeable |
| |
Junoesque |
stately; imposing beauty |
| |
Achilles' heel |
an area, or part, perhaps even a feature that is exclusively or at the least especially vulnerable |
| |
titan |
a person or thing of colossal dimensions, strength, or influence |
| |
galvanize |
to arouse the awareness or action |
| |
flora and fauna |
all vegetation and animal life |
| |
euthanasia |
a good death |
| |
boycott |
to join in refusing to deal with or patronize a seller, employer, or any other person or group |
| |
laconic |
the sparing use of language |
| |
colossus |
anything of gigantic size or power |
| |
solecism |
an incorrect usage of language |
| |
babble |
unintelligible language, gibberish, or confusion of sounds or voices |
