Grade 11 College Vocabulary, Week 28

Definition: Influence or power, especially in politics or business.

Context (original sentence): The old banker had enough clout to have the railroad routed through his town.

Synonyms:

influence, power, sway

Antonyms:

weakness

Root:Old English clut, a patch or lump; later, a heavy blow.

Definition: A line or circle of police, soldiers, or guards preventing access to an area.

From the reading: "A long cordon cleared the camp of all strangers, while the main body fell into four lines with under-officers and file-leaders in front and on either flank." (The White Company)

Synonyms:

barrier, ring, line

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French cordon, a ribbon or cord.

Definition: A statement of the beliefs or aims that guide someone's actions.

From the reading: "Pass the word that the men kneel, and that the under-officers repeat to them the pater, the ave, and the credo.”" (The White Company)

Synonyms:

creed, doctrine, principles

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin credo, "I believe," the first word of the Creeds.

Definition: Irritable, cranky, and difficult to please.

Context (original sentence): The crotchety old schoolmaster complained about the weather, the boys, and the soup.

Synonyms:

cantankerous, grumpy, irritable

Antonyms:

good-humored, easygoing

Root:from crotchet, a whim or perverse fancy (French crochet, a hook).

Definition: To beat with a short, thick stick; figuratively, to strain (one's brains).

From the reading: "He cut a stout hickory cudgel, with a knot on the end as big as his fist; this never left his hand." (Freckles)

Synonyms:

club, beat; rack

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English cycgel, a club.

Definition: Large or heavy and therefore difficult to carry or use; unwieldy.

From the reading: "The flat top of his cumbrous cylindrical helmet was unadorned with any crest." (The Talisman)

Synonyms:

cumbersome, unwieldy, awkward

Antonyms:

handy, manageable

Root:Middle English cumbren, to hinder (compare encumber).

Definition: To act or move slowly; to waste time.

From the reading: "Take up thy master; If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, With thine, and all that offer to defend him, Stand in assured loss." (King Lear)

Synonyms:

dawdle, linger, loiter

Antonyms:

hurry, hasten

Root:Old French dalier, to chat.

Definition: To make someone weak and infirm.

From the reading: "He turned on hearing a noise, and perceiving me, shrieked loudly, and quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly appeared capable." (Frankenstein)

Synonyms:

weaken, enfeeble, sap

Antonyms:

strengthen, invigorate

Root:Latin debilitare, to weaken (debilis, weak).

Definition: To kill or destroy a large proportion of (originally, to kill one in every ten).

Context (original sentence): The blight decimated the potato crop across the whole island.

Synonyms:

devastate, ravage, destroy

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin decimare, to punish every tenth man (decem, ten).

Definition: To research or make painstaking inquiries into something.

From the reading: "Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.”" (The White Company)

Synonyms:

probe, explore, investigate

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English delfan, to dig.

Definition: An inhabitant or occupant of a particular place.

From the reading: "O new-born denizen Of life's great city! on thy head The glory of the morn is shed, Like a celestial benison!" (Poems of Longfellow)

Synonyms:

inhabitant, resident, dweller

Antonyms:

visitor, stranger

Root:Anglo-French deinzein, one living within (deinz, within).

Definition: In a very poor condition as a result of disuse and neglect; also, shamefully negligent.

From the reading: "For this the Evangel and the mighty Doctors Are derelict, and only the Decretals So studied that it shows upon their margins." (The Divine Comedy)

Synonyms:

abandoned, dilapidated, neglected

Antonyms:

maintained; dutiful

Root:Latin derelinquere, to abandon wholly.

Definition: To remove the moisture from; to dry out thoroughly.

Context (original sentence): The desert wind desiccated the travelers' bread until it crumbled like sand.

Synonyms:

dry, dehydrate, parch

Antonyms:

moisten, saturate

Root:Latin desiccare, to dry up (siccus, dry).

Definition: Force or effort (chiefly in "by dint of").

From the reading: "CYRANO: By dint of seeing you at every turn Make friends,--and fawn upon your frequent friends With mouth wide smiling, slit from ear to ear!" (Cyrano de Bergerac)

Synonyms:

means, force, effort

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English dynt, a blow.

Definition: A stick for holding wool for spinning; figuratively, the female side of a family.

From the reading: "She turned round on the stairs and went back with her hand-maids to the chamber where her loom and her distaff were." (The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy)

Synonyms:

maternal (side)

Antonyms:

spear (side)

Root:Old English distaef, a staff for flax (dis-, flax + staef, staff).

Definition: To remove an item of clothing, especially a hat, as a gesture of respect.

From the reading: "The foreigner came here poor, beggarly, cringing, and subservient, ready to doff his cap to the meanest native of the household." (Ivanhoe)

Synonyms:

remove, take off, tip

Antonyms:

don, put on

Root:Middle English do off, take off.

Definition: A state of great sorrow or distress.

Context (original sentence): The poem expresses the dolor of a mother who has lost her son at sea.

Synonyms:

grief, sorrow, anguish

Antonyms:

joy, gladness

Root:Latin dolor, pain, grief.

Definition: The period of life in which a person is old and weak, sometimes with failing mind.

From the reading: "Never afflict yourself to know more of it; But let his disposition have that scope That dotage gives it." (King Lear)

Synonyms:

senility, decrepitude, old age

Antonyms:

youth, prime

Root:Middle English doten, to be foolish + -age.

Definition: Unfashionable and without style in appearance.

Context (original sentence): The dowdy old hotel had not changed its wallpaper since the war.

Synonyms:

frumpy, drab, shabby

Antonyms:

stylish, chic

Root:Middle English doude, an unattractive woman.

Definition: The sediment at the bottom of a liquid; the most worthless part of something.

From the reading: ""But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them."" (Psalms 75:8)

Synonyms:

sediment, residue, lees

Antonyms:

cream, elite

Root:Old Norse dregg, sediment.