Grade 9 College Vocabulary, Week 8

Definition: Furiously angry; dark bluish-gray in color, like a bruise.

From the reading: "Five little livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed upon the white wrist." (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, selected)

Synonyms:

ashen, blanched, bloodless

Antonyms:

calm, pleased

Root:Latin lividus, from livere to be of a blush color, to be black and blue: compare French livide. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Be a sign or indication of; have as a meaning.

From the reading: "I saw my wife looking towards us; and the flag, which denoted their safety, floating in the breeze." (The Swiss Family Robinson)

Synonyms:

refer, announce

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin denotare; de- + notare to mark, nota mark, sign, note: compare French dénoter. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: In a deep sleep or inactive state, but able to become active later.

From the reading: "Supper over, the tables dormant were cleared away as by magic and trestles and bancals arranged around the blazing fire, for there was a bitter nip in the air." (The White Company)

Synonyms:

inactive, sleeping, latent

Antonyms:

active, awake

Root:French, present participle of dormir to sleep, from Latin dormire; compare Greek dra, OSlav. dr. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Concerned with or seeking to promote the welfare of people in need.

From the reading: "He was one of the great humanitarian French freethinkers; and the only thing wrong with them is that they make mercy even colder than justice." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

charitable, benevolent, philanthropic

Antonyms:

cruel, selfish

Root:From Humanity. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To cause to feel awkward, self-conscious, or ashamed.

From the reading: "Having thus materials of every kind lying strewed around him, there was little, you observed, to embarrass the author, but the difficulty of choice." (Ivanhoe)

Synonyms:

abash, shame, discomfit

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French embarrasser (compare Spanish embarazar, Pg. embara, Pr. barras bar); pref. em- (Latin in) + Late Latin barra bar. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To spend or use up money, energy, or time.

From the reading: "The Spanish slinger, seeing the youth lie slain, and judging from his dress that he was no common man, rushed forward to plunder him, knowing well that the bowmen above him had expended their last shaft." (The White Company)

Synonyms:

spend, use up, consume

Antonyms:

save, conserve

Root:Latin expendere, expensum, to weigh out, pay out, lay out, lay out; ex out + pendere to weigh. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To make a liquid thinner or weaker by adding water; to weaken the force of.

From the reading: "These are further purified by pressure at a higher temperature, and washing in warm dilute sulphuric acid, when they are ready to be made into candles." (The Chemical History of a Candle)

Synonyms:

thin, water down, weaken

Antonyms:

concentrate, strengthen

Root:Latin dilutus, past participle of diluere to wash away, dilute; di- = dis- + luere, equiv. to lavare to wash, lave. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To lie next to or share a boundary with.

From the reading: "Immediately on your left hand is the corner of a glass office, which abuts upon the lounge--a house within a house, so to speak, like the old hotel bar which probably once occupied its place." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

border, adjoin, touch

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French abouter, aboter; compare French aboutir, and also abuter; a (Latin ad) + Old French boter, buter, to push: compare French bout end, and but end, purpose. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Hard but liable to break or shatter easily.

From the reading: "All that thickly wooded and sparsely tenanted countryside was stiff with a bitter and brittle frost." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

breakable, fragile, crisp

Antonyms:

flexible, tough

Root:Old English britel, brutel, Old English (Anglo-Saxon) bryttian to dispense, from breótan to break; akin to Icelandic brytja, Sw. bryta, Dan. bryde. Cf. Brickle. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To add to something in a way that completes or improves it.

From the reading: "Lord George Beaumont was one of his squires of honor; the other, by way of a fitting complement to the courage of the chivalrous lad, was the Sieur de la Montaigne, his opponent soon to be." (Men of Iron)

Synonyms:

complete, round off, supplement

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin complementun: compare French complément. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Thinking about the future with imagination or wisdom; having visions.

From the reading: "President Olivier might be called a visionary or a nuisance; but even his enemies admitted that he was magnanimous to the point of knight errantry." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

imaginative, farsighted, idealistic

Antonyms:

shortsighted

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

Definition: Very old or old-fashioned; belonging to an earlier time.

From the reading: "This is a pity, for these old plays hide under their archaic dress the human interest that all dramatic art, no matter how crude, can claim when it is touched with our real emotions and sensations." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play)

Synonyms:

antiquated, obsolete, ancient

Antonyms:

modern, current

Root:Greek archaikos, old-fashioned, from arche, beginning: belonging to an earlier time.

Definition: Belonging to or typical of the middle class, especially in a conventional or materialistic way.

From the reading: "As always happens, the invention grew wilder and wilder through the very tameness of the bourgeois conventions from which it had to create." (The Innocence of Father Brown)

Synonyms:

middle-class, conventional, conformist

Antonyms:

unconventional

Root:French, from bourg town; of German origin. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Involving heavy effort and difficulty; burdensome.

From the reading: "Young, handsome, rich, but recently from the patrician circles of Roman society, it is easy to think of the world besetting him with appeals not to give more to onerous duty or ambition attended with outlawry and danger." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

burdensome, taxing, heavy

Antonyms:

easy, light

Root:Latin onerosus, from onus, oneris, a load, burden: compareFrench onéreux. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To consist of; to be made up of.

From the reading: "It comprised the crown of one of the large massive buttresses, and from it opened the row of arched windows which could be seen from below through the green shimmering of the ivy leaves." (Men of Iron)

Synonyms:

consist of, include, contain

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:From French compris, comprise, past participle of comprendre, Latin comprehendere. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Quick and light in movement or thought.

From the reading: "The thieves, however, were too nimble for him, and again secured both the bag and the trusty Gurth." (Ivanhoe)

Synonyms:

agile, spry, quick

Antonyms:

clumsy, sluggish

Root:Old English numol, quick to take, from niman, to take: quick and light.

Definition: To hinder or impede the movement or progress of.

From the reading: "In the houdah, the old man moved to escape; but he was hampered with age, and could not, even in the face of danger, forget the dignity which was plainly his habit." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

hinder, impede, obstruct

Antonyms:

help, assist

Root:Contr. from hanaper. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To bring to life; to give energy or spirit to.

From the reading: "Of course, as chatelaine of the castle, I was bound to animate my men." "You have done bravely and well, indeed, Marjory, and I am proud of my wife." (In Freedom's Cause)

Synonyms:

enliven, invigorate, inspire

Antonyms:

deaden, dull

Root:Latin animatus, p. p. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Measured or judged by comparison with something else; relative.

From the reading: "Suddenly, against the comparative whiteness of the garden wall, the figure of a man was seen, like a faint Chinese shadow, violently signalling with both arms." (The Black Arrow)

Synonyms:

relative, proportional

Antonyms:

absolute

Root:Latin comparativus: compare French comparatif. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To pull down or destroy completely; to overwhelm an argument.

From the reading: "Only between these two hearts there lay a strong, impassable barrier, built up of pride on both sides, which neither of them cared to be the first to demolish." (The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Synonyms:

destroy, raze, overturn

Antonyms:

build, construct

Root:Latin demoliri, to tear down, from de-, down + moliri, to build (moles, a mass): to pull down a structure.