Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 27

Definition: Of or relating to an occasion or expression of farewell; of a speech expressing leave-taking.

From the reading: "Without evincing any inclination to come in again, he there delivered his valedictory remarks." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

exaugural

Antonyms:

inaugural

Root:Latin vale, farewell + dicere, to say: saying farewell.

Definition: State of being gratified or satisfied; the act or an instance of satisfying.

From the reading: "To whom my sister, more for the relief of her own mind than for the gratification of his, related my pretended experiences." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

satisfaction

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin gratificatio: compare French gratification. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Usable for a specific purpose; capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are.

From the reading: "We changed, and I had not made up my mind, and still reflected for my comfort that it would be quite practicable to get down and walk back, when we changed again." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

operable, practical, feasible

Antonyms:

impractical, impossible

Root:Late Latin practicare to act, transact, from Latin practicus active, Greek practicable, pratiquer to practice. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A gallows; an upright post with an arm from which the bodies of executed criminals were hung.

From the reading: "Under the low red glare of sunset, the beacon, and the gibbet, and the mound of the Battery, and the opposite shore of the river, were plain, though all of a watery lead colour." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

gallows, scaffold

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French gibet, a gallows, perhaps a diminutive of gibe, a staff or club: a gallows.

Definition: Lack of physical or natural qualifications; lack of intellectual power.

From the reading: "I had never seen any one then, and I have never seen any one since, who more strongly expressed to me, in every look and tone, a natural incapacity to do anything secret and mean." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

inability

Antonyms:

capacity

Root:Cf. French incapacité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To sit on eggs to keep them warm; to develop slowly without outward signs.

From the reading: "It appeared to me that the eggs from which young Insurers were hatched were incubated in dust and heat, like the eggs of ostriches, judging from the places to which those incipient giants repaired on a Monday morning." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

brood, hatch, cover

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin incubatus, past participle incubare to lie on; pref. in- in, on + cubare to lie down. Cf. Cubit, Incumbent. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The highest point in the development of something; the elevation of someone to divine status.

From the reading: "Up from the spray of thy ocean-perishing—straight up, leaps thy apotheosis!" (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

culmination, peak, epitome

Antonyms:

nadir

Root:Greek apotheoun, to make a god.

Definition: Incapable of being explained or accounted for; difficult to understand.

From the reading: "In the instant, I had seen a face that was strange to me, looking up with an incomprehensible air of being touched and pleased by the sight of me." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

inexplicable, cryptic, cryptical

Antonyms:

explicable, comprehensible

Root:Latin incomprehensibilis: compare French incompréhensible. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Lacking in insight or discernment; having greatly reduced vision.

From the reading: "But, at last I began, in a purblind groping way, to read, write, and cipher, on the very smallest scale." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

dim-sighted, near-blind, sand-blind

Antonyms:

sighted, discerning

Root:For pure-blind, i. e., wholly blind. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To submit or behave obsequiously to someone in power.

From the reading: "Looking in, I saw a lighted candle on a table, a bench, and a mattress on a truckle bedstead." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

kowtow, fawn, cringe

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Dim. of truck a wheel; or from the kindred Latin trochlea a block, sheaf containing one or more pulleys. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To officially exclude someone from the sacraments and fellowship of the church.

From the reading: "Wopsle, being knocked up, was in such a very bad temper that if the Church had been thrown open, he would probably have excommunicated the whole expedition, beginning with Joe and myself." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

unchurch, expel, cast out

Antonyms:

communicate

Root:Latin excommunicatus, past participle of communicare to excommunicate; ex out + communicare. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Lacking a conscience; greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation.

From the reading: "“There is an unconscionable old shark for you!” said Herbert." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

conscienceless, unconscientious, exorbitant

Antonyms:

conscientious, moderate

Root:un-, not + conscionable, fitting the conscience (Latin conscientia, knowledge within oneself, com-, with + scire, to know): beyond what conscience allows.

Definition: The action of sending someone to prison or a hospital; the burial of a body at a funeral.

From the reading: "He lay in prison very ill, during the whole interval between his committal for trial and the coming round of the Sessions." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

commitment, consignment; burial

Antonyms:

release

Root:Latin committere, to entrust (com-, with + mittere, to send) + -al: a handing over to custody or the grave.

Definition: Doubt concerning two or more possible alternatives or courses of action; the trait of irresolution; a lack of firmness of character or purpose.

From the reading: "Having settled that I must go to the Blue Boar, my mind was much disturbed by indecision whether or not to take the Avenger." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

indecisiveness, irresolution

Antonyms:

decisiveness, decision

Root:Pref. in- not + decision: compare French indécision. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The trait of being frivolous; not serious or sensible; something of little value or significance.

From the reading: "The mother looked young, and the daughter looked old; the mother’s complexion was pink, and the daughter’s was yellow; the mother set up for frivolity, and the daughter for theology." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

frivolousness, bagatelle, fluff

Antonyms:

seriousness

Root:Cg. French frivolité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Noisy quarrel.

From the reading: "Besides, there had been no altercation; the assailant had come in so silently and suddenly, that she had been felled before she could look round." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

affray, fracas

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French altercation, from Latin altercatio. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Temporary cessation or suspension.

From the reading: "Jaggers being highly dictatorial, and Wemmick obstinately justifying himself whenever there was the smallest point in abeyance for a moment." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

suspension

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French abeance expectation, longing; a (Latin ad) + baer, beer, to gape, to look with open mouth, to expect, French bayer, Late Latin badare to gape. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A disposition to be friendly and approachable (easy to talk to).

From the reading: "This occasion shall not entirely pass without that affability on your part.—May I, as an old friend and well-wisher?" (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

affableness, amiability, amiableness

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin affabilitas: compare French affabilité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong; righteous conduct.

From the reading: "I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuading arguments of my best friends." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

ethics, morals

Antonyms:

immorality

Root:Latin moralitas: compare French moralité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Of or associated with a church (especially a Christian Church).

From the reading: "My inn had once been a part of an ancient ecclesiastical house, and I dined in a little octagonal common-room, like a font." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

ecclesiastic

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:. (Webster, 1913)