Grade 12 College Vocabulary, Week 13

Definition: To disgust or sicken with an excess of sweetness, richness, or sentiment.

Context (original sentence): The novel's endless sweetness began to cloy by the third chapter.

Synonyms:

sicken, surfeit, satiate

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Middle English acloyen, to clog, from Old French encloer, to nail.

Definition: A conversation, especially a formal one; a conference.

From the reading: "The people in hearing of the colloquy became silent; and from them the hush spread afar." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

dialogue, conversation, conference

Antonyms:

monologue

Root:Latin colloquium, conversation (con- + loqui, to speak).

Definition: Able to catch fire and burn easily; excitable, easily angered.

From the reading: "If this blue solution were combustible, and we were to place a wick at the top of the salt, it would burn as it entered into the wick." (The Chemical History of a Candle)

Synonyms:

flammable, inflammable; volatile

Antonyms:

fireproof; calm

Root:Latin comburere, to burn up.

Definition: A punishment or fate that someone deserves.

Context (original sentence): The bully finally got his comeuppance when the new boy stood up to him.

Synonyms:

just deserts, retribution, due

Antonyms:

reward

Root:from come up, 19th-century American.

Definition: To take possession of something, especially by military authority, without the owner's consent.

Context (original sentence): The army commandeered every horse in the county.

Synonyms:

seize, requisition, appropriate

Antonyms:

return, release

Root:Afrikaans kommandeer, from Dutch, to command.

Definition: Containing all necessary or essential facts about a subject, but in a concise form.

From the reading: "I’ll get a crucible, and into it, and dissolve myself down to one small, compendious vertebra." (Moby-Dick)

Synonyms:

concise, succinct, comprehensive

Antonyms:

prolix, rambling

Root:Latin compendium, a saving, shortening.

Definition: To conduct oneself; to behave.

From the reading: "So soon as their visitor had passed, the observant warriors fell back from the entrance, and arranging themselves about him, they seemed patiently to await the moment when it might comport with the dignity of the stranger to speak." (The Last of the Mohicans)

Synonyms:

behave, conduct oneself, acquit oneself

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin comportare, to bring together.

Definition: A close friend or companion, especially one given unfair favors by someone in power.

From the reading: "But I take it that it is more likely to be some crony of the landlady’s.”" (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)

Synonyms:

companion, sidekick, henchman

Antonyms:

stranger, rival

Root:perhaps Greek khronios, long-lasting (an old friend); 17th-century university slang.

Definition: A private meeting; the assembly of cardinals for the election of a pope.

From the reading: "“Answer me not,” said the Templar, “by urging the difference of our creeds; within our secret conclaves we hold these nursery tales in derision." (Ivanhoe)

Synonyms:

assembly, council, private meeting

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin conclave, a room that can be locked (con- + clavis, key).

Definition: The junction of two rivers; an act or process of merging.

From the reading: "When he comes to the place appointed for the general rendezvous, he finds a great confluence of people, but misses his wife, whose ghost afterwards appears to him, and tells him the land which was designed for him." (The Aeneid)

Synonyms:

junction, convergence, meeting

Antonyms:

divergence

Root:Latin confluere, to flow together.

Definition: Willingness to allow or be secretly involved in wrongdoing.

From the reading: "How could it have come about without connivance on the part of others?" (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc)

Synonyms:

collusion, complicity, conspiracy

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin connivere, to close the eyes (to wink at).

Definition: The fact of being descended from the same ancestor; blood relationship.

Context (original sentence): The church law forbade marriage within certain degrees of consanguinity.

Synonyms:

kinship, blood relationship, lineage

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin con- + sanguis, blood.

Definition: To care for and protect in an overindulgent way.

Context (original sentence): The old woman cosseted her cat with cream and cushions.

Synonyms:

pamper, coddle, mollycoddle

Antonyms:

neglect

Root:Old English cotsaeta, a cottager; later, a pet lamb.

Definition: To offset the effect of something by countering it with something of equal force.

From the reading: "But I will beat my wings above the pitch; The height be left, and be the bank a shield To see if thou alone dost countervail us.”" (The Divine Comedy)

Synonyms:

counteract, offset, counterbalance

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French contrevaloir, to be worth against.

Definition: To trick or deceive.

From the reading: "What devil was’t That thus hath cozen’d you at hoodman-blind?" (Hamlet)

Synonyms:

cheat, swindle, trick

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:perhaps Italian cozzonare, to cheat.

Definition: The decisive or most important point at issue.

Context (original sentence): The crux of the argument was whether the will had been signed before or after the old man died.

Synonyms:

heart, core, nub

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin crux, cross.

Definition: To select from a large quantity; to reduce the population of animals by selective slaughter.

From the reading: "ROXANE: Must I then bid thee mount to cull this flower?" (Cyrano de Bergerac)

Synonyms:

select, pick; thin out

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French cuillir, to gather, from Latin colligere.

Definition: To waste time; to be slow.

From the reading: "I found D—— at home, yawning, lounging, and dawdling, as usual, and pretending to be in the last extremity of ennui." (The Works of Edgar Allan Poe)

Synonyms:

dally, linger, loiter

Antonyms:

hurry, hasten

Root:perhaps a variant of daddle, to toddle.

Definition: To gradually pour liquid from one container into another, especially without disturbing the sediment.

Context (original sentence): The butler decanted the old wine carefully, leaving the sediment in the bottle.

Synonyms:

pour, draw off

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Medieval Latin decanthare (de- + canthus, lip of a jug).

Definition: To let air or gas out of; to cause someone to suddenly lose confidence or spirits.

Context (original sentence): His teacher's single comment deflated the boy's pride in his essay.

Synonyms:

let down, puncture; humble

Antonyms:

inflate, bolster

Root:de- + inflate (Latin flare, to blow).