Grade 9 College Vocabulary, Week 15

Definition: Argue over petty things.

From the reading: "He joins a queue of bickering passengers and boards a bus that flies upward, out of the gloom, and lands at the edge of a bright country of grass, rivers and distant mountains." (the lesson)

Synonyms:

squabble, quibble, wrangle

Antonyms:

agree

Root:. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Deliberate and intentional; stubbornly determined to have one's own way.

From the reading: "No weakness is it, but wilful working all, That reigneth in man through mind diabolical." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

willful, headstrong, deliberate

Antonyms:

accidental, obedient

Root:will (Old English willa, desire) + -ful: set on having one's own way (British spelling of willful).

Definition: Speaking irreverently or contemptuously about God or sacred things.

From the reading: "Oh, froward people, given all to superstitions, Unnatural children, expert in blasphemies, Provoke me into hate, by their idolatries." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

KJV link: "And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth." (2 Kings 19:3)

Synonyms:

profanation, desecration, sacrilege

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin blasphemia, Greek : compare Old French blasphemie. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: An intervening period of time; a short piece of music or entertainment between parts of a longer work.

From the reading: "In these religious and moral interludes, the dramatic colouring, however crude, is real and sincere." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

interval, pause, intermission

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English enterlude, Late Latin interludium; Late Latin inter between + ludus play, from ludere to play: compare French interlude. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Spiritually reborn or renewed.

From the reading: "They that receive him, are God's true children plain, In spir't regenerate, and all grace shall attain." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

born-again, converted, reborn

Antonyms:

unregenerate

Root:Latin regeneratus, past participle of regenerare to regenerate; pref. re- re- + generare to beget. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Causing one to feel bored or annoyed.

From the reading: "The shepherd's are from the life, and contrast well with the stilted and rather tiresome prophets." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

tedious, boring, dull

Antonyms:

interesting

Root:tire (Old English teorian, to fail or weary) + -some: tending to weary.

Definition: To roll or toss about, as in waves; to lie soaked in something.

From the reading: "Lies weltering! by the rood! by the fire, lo!" (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

wallow

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Cf. Wilt, v. i. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To prevent from functioning normally; to disable.

From the reading: "Consider also how momentous is the powerlessness which incapacitates the wicked." (The Consolation of Philosophy)

Synonyms:

disable, cripple, immobilize

Antonyms:

enable

Root:in- + capacity, Latin capax, able to hold.

Definition: Relating to the earth or to land rather than sea or air.

From the reading: "O gracious God, in the high seat celestial, Have mercy on me in this most need; Shall I have no company from this vale terrestrial Of mine acquaintance that way me to lead?" (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

KJV link: "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." (1 Corinthians 15:40)

Synonyms:

earthly, worldly, land

Antonyms:

celestial, heavenly

Root:Latin terrestris, from terra the earth. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To confuse.

From the reading: "Sit he never so high in saddle, But I shall make his brain addle, And here with my pot ladle, With him will I fight." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

muddle, confuse, befuddle

Antonyms:

clarify

Root:Old English adel, Old English (Anglo-Saxon) adela, mud. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To quench or satisfy one's thirst.

From the reading: "Little chambers therein thou make, And binding pitch also thou take, Within and out, thou ne slake To anoint it thro' all thy might." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

quench, allay, assuage

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English slaken to render slack, to slake, Old English (Anglo-Saxon) sleacian, from sleac slack. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To split apart.

Context (original sentence): The earthquake sundered the old bridge.

Synonyms:

split, sever, divide

Antonyms:

unite, join

Root:Old English sundrian, to separate.

Definition: To stand or sit astride something; to dominate.

From the reading: "Hail, the most mightiest that ever bestrode a steed!" (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

straddle, dominate, mount

Antonyms:

hop out

Root:Old English (Anglo-Saxon) bestridan; pref. be- + stridan to stride. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Relating to or contained in the Bible.

From the reading: "The humours of a broad folk-comedy break through the scriptural web continually in the guild plays like those in which Noah the shipbuilder, or the proverbial three shepherds, appear in the pageant." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

biblical

Antonyms:

unscriptural

Root:Latin scriptura, a writing, from scribere, to write + -al: of the Holy Scriptures.

Definition: To run or jump about playfully.

From the reading: "Lord, I am ready at your bidding, To serve thee as my lord and king, For joy thereof, lo, how I spring, With light heart and fresh gambolling, Aloft here on this mould." (The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play - Christmas)

Synonyms:

frolic, caper, romp

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French gambade, a leap, from Italian gamba, leg (Late Latin gamba, a horse's hoof): to skip about playfully.

Definition: Weak and easily damaged; unconvincing.

From the reading: "They were flimsy shelters, most of them poorly built of light wood, with spindle porch-posts horribly mutilated by the turning-lathe." (My Antonia)

Synonyms:

fragile, rickety; feeble

Antonyms:

sturdy, solid

Root:perhaps from film.

Definition: Causing repulsion or horror.

From the reading: "Then says I to myself--'John Ridd, these trees, and pools, and lonesome rocks, and setting of the sunlight are making a gruesome coward of thee." (Lorna Doone)

Synonyms:

ghastly, grisly, hideous

Antonyms:

pleasant

Root:Scots grue, to shudder (of Scandinavian origin) + -some: making one shudder.

Definition: Great in importance, extent, or size.

From the reading: "Great Caesar sits sublime upon his throne, Before Apollo’s porch of Parian stone; Accepts the presents vow’d for victory, And hangs the monumental crowns on high." (The Aeneid)

Synonyms:

massive, enormous, significant

Antonyms:

insignificant, small

Root:Latin monumentalis: compare French monumental. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Using humor, irony, or ridicule to criticize folly.

From the reading: "Certainly, he that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his wit, so he had need be afraid of others' memory." (Essays)

Synonyms:

mocking, ironic, sarcastic

Antonyms:

unsarcastic

Root:Latin satura, a medley (see satire) + -ical: mocking by satire.

Definition: The quality of quickly fading or disappearing.

From the reading: "And it is not my own extremity I remember best—a vision of greyness without form filled with physical pain, and a careless contempt for the evanescence of all things—even of this pain itself." (Heart of Darkness)

Synonyms:

transience, impermanence, fleetingness

Antonyms:

permanence

Root:Latin evanescere, to vanish.