Grade 11 College Vocabulary, Week 4

Definition: Sad and disappointed.

From the reading: "Look, how muddy his horse is, flouncing about in the swamp; the dogs, too, look rather crestfallen." (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Synonyms:

downcast, dejected, dispirited

Antonyms:

elated

Root:crest + fallen: with the crest drooping, as a beaten gamecock.

Definition: To drink plenty of alcohol and enjoy oneself with others in a noisy, lively way.

From the reading: "The night after Tom’s body had been carried away, he rode to the next town for a carouse, and had a high one." (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Synonyms:

revel, make merry, roister

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French carrousse, earlier carous, from German garaus finishing stroke, the emptying of the cup in drinking a health; gar entirely + aus out. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Not having or showing foresight; spendthrift.

From the reading: "It takes no spectacles to see that a great class of vicious, improvident, degraded people, among us, are an evil to us, as well as to themselves." (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Synonyms:

thriftless, shortsighted, prodigal

Antonyms:

provident, prudent

Root:Pref. im- not + provident: compare Latin improvidus. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To come or bring together for a meeting.

From the reading: "About a month after this, one morning, all the servants of the Shelby estate were convened together in the great hall that ran through the house, to hear a few words from their young master." (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Synonyms:

assemble, summon, convoke

Antonyms:

adjourn

Root:Latin convenire; con- + venire to come: compare French convenir to agree, to be fitting, Old French also, to assemble. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Extremely distasteful; unacceptable.

From the reading: "His antique sword, Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, Repugnant to command." (Hamlet)

Synonyms:

abhorrent, revolting, odious

Antonyms:

pleasant, agreeable

Root:Latin repugnare, to fight against.

Definition: Unable to meet or discharge financial obligations.

From the reading: "Having died insolvent, it had been purchased, at a bargain, by Legree, who used it, as he did everything else, merely as an implement for money-making." (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Synonyms:

bankrupt, ruined, penniless

Antonyms:

solvent

Root:Pref. in- not + solvent: compare Old French insolvent. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A Mass for the souls of the dead; a musical composition or song of mourning.

From the reading: "Voice and instrument seemed both living, and threw out with vivid sympathy those strains which the ethereal Mozart first conceived as his own dying requiem." (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Synonyms:

dirge, coronach, lament

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin requiem, accusative of requies, rest, the first word of the Mass for the dead ("Requiem aeternam," eternal rest): a song for the dead.

Definition: Being or serving as an illustration of a type; serving as a visible symbol for something abstract.

From the reading: "Quicker than the thoughts could follow those unexpected and audacious movements, an image, armed in the emblematic panoply of death, glided before their eyes, and assumed a threatening attitude at the other’s side." (The Last of the Mohicans)

Synonyms:

emblematical, symbolic, symbolical

Antonyms:

nonrepresentative, atypical

Root:Greek emblema, an inlaid ornament (en-, in + ballein, to throw) + -atic: serving as a symbol.

Definition: To make more entertaining, interesting, or appealing.

From the reading: "The drawing will be better for your presence; You will enliven me." (Christmas Bells)

Synonyms:

inspire, animate, invigorate

Antonyms:

deaden

Root:Pref. en- + liven. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Prolonged and idle discussion; to talk at length.

From the reading: "Don’t stand there palavering all day, but out with you and see if there’s a fish on the lines for breakfast." (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

Synonyms:

chatter, prattle, fuss

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Spanish palabra, or Pg. palavra, from Latin parabola a comparison, a parable, Late Latin, a word. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Of the same period.

From the reading: "Such an eye was not born when the bird was, but is coeval with the sky it reflects." (Walden, selected)

Synonyms:

coetaneous, contemporaneous, synchronous

Antonyms:

asynchronous

Root:Latin coaevus; co- + aevum lifetime, age. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To destroy completely.

From the reading: "Besides, from the ashes of the burned scraps of the whale, a potent lye is readily made; and whenever any adhesiveness from the back of the whale remains clinging to the side, that lye quickly exterminates it." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

annihilate, eradicate, wipe out

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin exterminare, to drive out beyond the boundaries, from ex-, out + terminus, boundary: to destroy utterly.

Definition: Intense aversion.

From the reading: "They were fearfully—they were inconceivably hideous; but out of Evil proceeded Good; for their very excess wrought in my spirit an inevitable revulsion." (Poe, selected tales and poems)

Synonyms:

repugnance, repulsion, horror

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French révulsion, Latin revulsio, from revellere, revulsum, to pluck or pull away; pref. re- re- + vellere to pull. Cf. Convulse. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Lack of sophistication or worldliness.

From the reading: "Ten or twelve thousand crowns.” Then she said with naivete “It was not a great sum to carry on a war with.” “You have it yet?” “No." (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc)

Synonyms:

naivety, naiveness

Antonyms:

sophistication

Root:F. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A wild and exciting undertaking (not necessarily lawful); any carefree episode.

From the reading: "The reckoning with his wife at the end of an escapade was something he counted on—like the last powerful liqueur after a long dinner." (My Antonia)

Synonyms:

adventure, lark

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French, from Spanish escapada escape, from escapar to escape; or French, from Italian scappata escape, escapade, from scappare to escape. see Escape. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: An experience of seeming to perceive something that is not present.

From the reading: "How glad and how grateful the relief from this unnatural hallucination of the night, and the fatal contingency of being brought by the lee!" (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

delusion

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin hallucinatio compare French hallucination. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A disorderly retreat of defeated troops; a decisive defeat.

From the reading: "With fates averse, the rout in arms resort, To force their monarch, and insult the court." (The Aeneid)

Synonyms:

defeat, retreat, debacle

Antonyms:

victory

Root:Old French route, a detachment.

Definition: The action of raising someone in rank or power; a feeling of extreme happiness.

From the reading: "For there example teacheth, company comforteth, emulation quickeneth, glory raiseth: so as in such places the force of custom is in his exaltation." (Essays)

Synonyms:

ecstasy, rapture, transport

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin exaltatio: compare Frenchexaltation. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions; fearfulness in venturing into new and unknown places or activities.

From the reading: "But this occasional timidity is characteristic of almost all herding creatures." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

timidness, timorousness

Antonyms:

boldness

Root:Latin timiditas: compare French timidité. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The act of purging of sin or guilt; moral or spiritual cleansing; the act of cleaning by getting rid of impurities.

From the reading: "And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;" (Luke 2:22)

Synonyms:

refining, refinement, purgation

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French purification, Latin purificatio. (Webster, 1913)