Grade 10 College Vocabulary, Week 28

Definition: Confine or restrain with or as if with manacles or handcuffs.

From the reading: "He was taken on board, and instantly manacled at the wrists and ankles." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

cuff, handcuff

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English manicle, Old French manicle, French manicle sort glove, manacle, Latin manicula a little hand, dim. of manus hand; compare Latin manica sleeve, manacle, frommanus. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To renovate and redecorate.

Context (original sentence): The new owner refurbished the old inn from cellar to roof.

Synonyms:

renovate, restore, overhaul

Antonyms:

neglect

Root:re- + furbish.

Definition: Inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life.

From the reading: "This was the time for Wemmick to produce a little kettle, a tray of glasses, and a black bottle with a porcelain-topped cork, representing some clerical dignitary of a rubicund and social aspect." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

ruddy, florid, sanguine

Antonyms:

unhealthy

Root:Latin rubicundus, from rubere to be red, akin to ruber red. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Taking heed; giving close and thoughtful attention; cautiously attentive.

From the reading: "Wemmick, more heedful of the future, put her white gloves in her pocket and assumed her green." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

attentive, thoughtful, careful

Antonyms:

heedless, unmindful, inattentive

Root:Old English hedan, to take care + -ful: full of care.

Definition: Easily impressed or influenced.

From the reading: "That she had done a grievous thing in taking an impressionable child to mould into the form that her wild resentment, spurned affection, and wounded pride found vengeance in, I knew full well." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

waxy, impressible, susceptible

Antonyms:

unimpressionable

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

Definition: Overcome with anger; furious.

From the reading: "The two ghastly casts on the shelf were not far from him, and their expression was as if they were making a stupid apoplectic attempt to attend to the conversation." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

(none exact)

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek apoplektikos, from apoplessein, to strike down (apo-, off + plessein, to strike): as if struck down by a stroke, as in fury.

Definition: Great and constant diligence and attention.

From the reading: "“They are mounting up, Handel,” Herbert would say; “upon my life, they are mounting up.” “Be firm, Herbert,” I would retort, plying my own pen with great assiduity." (Great Expectations)

Synonyms:

assiduousness, concentration

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin assiduitas: compare French assiduite. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone.

From the reading: "Who shall praise or honour princes who insult and calumniate each other?" (The Talisman)

Synonyms:

defame, slander, smirch

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin calumniatus, past participle of calumniari. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering.

From the reading: "I think she must have had a kind of notion that it was a coaxing, wheedling little stool." (The Cricket on the Hearth)

Synonyms:

cajole, coax, inveigle

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Cf. German wedeln to wag with the tail, as a dog, wedel a fan, tail, brush, OHG. wadal; akin to German wehen to blow, and English wind, n. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of; provide physical relief, as from pain.

From the reading: "Historians have striven to excuse and palliate his conduct toward Scotland." (In Freedom's Cause)

Synonyms:

extenuate, mitigate, relieve

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin palliatus, from pallium a cloak. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner.

From the reading: "Chauvelin had sworn to his colleagues in Paris that he would discover the identity of that meddlesome Englishman, entice him over to France, and then . . ." (The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Synonyms:

interfering, meddling, officious

Antonyms:

unintrusive

Root:meddle (Old French medler, to mix, from Latin miscere, to mix) + -some, tending to: tending to mix in others' affairs.

Definition: Relating to the place or time of one's birth.

From the reading: "Your pity, my darling, is the suffering mother of love: its anguish is the very natal pang of the divine passion." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

(none exact)

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin natalis, from natus, p.p. of nasci to be born: compare French natal. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To give someone a noble rank; to lend greater dignity to.

From the reading: "He began to enlarge his ancestry and spread it out all around, and ennoble it right and left, and it was not long until it consisted almost entirely of dukes." (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc)

Synonyms:

dignify, elevate, exalt

Antonyms:

degrade

Root:Pref. en- + noble: compare French ennoblir. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Disregarding accepted rules of conduct; lacking moral restraint.

From the reading: "He had also a wish to establish himself in the good graces of the lady; for John was at least as licentious in his pleasures as profligate in his ambition." (Ivanhoe)

Synonyms:

dissolute, debauched, unrestrained

Antonyms:

chaste, virtuous

Root:Latin licentiosus: compare French licencieux. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Relating to an oracle; uttered with great authority, but often hard to interpret.

From the reading: "Then follows Bishop Bale's oracular play of God's Promises, which is in effect a series of seven interludes strung on one thread, united by one leading idea, and one protagonist, the Pater Cœlestis." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play)

Synonyms:

Delphic, prophetic, prophetical

Antonyms:

unprophetic, unambiguous

Root:Latin oracularius. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Excessively unwilling to spend; not having enough money to pay for necessities.

From the reading: "It was too far to return to dinner, and an allowance of cold meat and bread, in the same penurious proportion observed in our ordinary meals, was served round between the services." (Jane Eyre)

Synonyms:

impecunious, penniless, pinched

Antonyms:

rich, generous

Root:From Penury. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Given to merry frolicking.

From the reading: "The handsomest among these maids of honour, a pleasant, frolicsome girl of sixteen, would sometimes set me astride upon one of her nipples, with many other tricks, wherein the reader will excuse me for not being over particular." (Gulliver's Travels, Parts I-II)

Synonyms:

coltish, frolicky, rollicking

Antonyms:

unplayful

Root:frolic (Dutch vrolijk, merry: vro, glad + -lijk, like) + -some: full of merry play.

Definition: To blame or insult someone in strong or violent language.

From the reading: "The judge and half the court were on their feet in a moment, and all shaking their fists at the prisoner, and all storming and vituperating at once, so that you could hardly hear yourself think." (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc)

Synonyms:

vilify, revile, rail

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin vituperatus, past participle of vituperare to blame, vituperate; vitium a fault + parare to prepare. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another.

From the reading: "Our client appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a desultory chat with me over his business affairs." (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, selected)

Synonyms:

purposeless

Antonyms:

purposeful

Root:Latin desultorius, from desultor a leaper, from desilire, desultum, to leap down; de + salire to leap. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Of or characteristic of or resembling a lion.

From the reading: "He would have looked merely blonde and leonine, but his blue eyes were sunk so deep in his face that they looked black." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

(none exact)

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin leoninus, from leo, leonis, lion: compare French léonin. (Webster, 1913)