Grade 9 College Vocabulary, Week 25

Definition: To move something from its proper or usual place; to take the place of.

From the reading: "The pressure was strong enough to displace the outer piece, which started to fall." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

dislodge, supplant, replace

Antonyms:

hire

Root:Pref. dis- + place: compare French déplacer. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Too bad or horrific to express in words; beyond description.

From the reading: "It was the unspeakable joy of souls on the shores of the River of Life, resting with the Redeemed in God’s presence." (Ben-Hur)

KJV link: "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Synonyms:

indescribable, ineffable; appalling

Antonyms:

expressible, good, profane

Root:Pref. un- not + speakable. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way.

From the reading: "The charm is not in the figure, which not even love can make beautiful; nor in the movement, the noiseless stepping, or the broad careen." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

lurch, hurtle, reel

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old French cariner, French caréner, from Old French carène, the bottom of a ship, keel, from Latin carina. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Incapable of being put up with.

From the reading: "They clung to their God; and when the persecution became intolerable, they were delivered in a manner never to be forgotten." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

unbearable, unendurable, impossible

Antonyms:

tolerable

Root:French intolérable, Latin intolerabilis. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Deserving or arousing pity; miserable.

From the reading: "The cries of the domestics, some of whom had been born in the house, were most pitiable." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

pathetic, pitiful, contemptible

Antonyms:

estimable, fortunate

Root:Cf. Old French pitiable, French pitoyable. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To display prominently or proclaim; to describe or paint a coat of arms.

From the reading: "Life and business traverse it by paths along which the bones of things dead are strewn as so many blazons." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

emblazon

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English blason, blasoun, shield, from French blason coat of arms, Old French shield, from the root of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) blæse blaze, i. e., luster, splendor, MHG. blas torch. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To happen or take place; to become known.

From the reading: "How much of Jewish history, how many of the many exciting incidents in that history, had transpired in caves!" (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

happen, occur, come to light

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:French transpirer; Latin trans across, through + spirare to breathe. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Unable to be felt by touch; not easily grasped by the mind.

From the reading: "To these charms of feature and person were added others more indefinable—an air of purity which only the soul can impart, and of abstraction natural to such as think much of things impalpable." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

intangible, elusive, subtle

Antonyms:

tangible

Root:Pref. im- not + palpable: compare French impalpable. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A large waterfall; a sudden rush of water; a clouding of the lens of the eye.

From the reading: "Above the fifth cataract, above the meeting of rivers in Sennar, up the Bahr el Abiad, into the far unknown of Africa, I went." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

waterfall, cascade, torrent

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek katarrhaktes, a downrushing, from kata, down + rhassein, to strike: a great waterfall.

Definition: The ability to feel or perceive; sensitiveness to beauty or to the feelings of others.

From the reading: "Cæsar was not content with deposing Archelaus; he struck the people of Jerusalem in a manner that touched their pride, and keenly wounded the sensibilities of the haughty habitues of the Temple." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

sensitivity, feeling, perception

Antonyms:

insensibility

Root:Cf. French sensibilité, Late Latin sensibilitas. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A state of confused and noisy disturbance.

From the reading: "When the hands of the worshippers fell down, the commotion broke forth again; everybody hastened to bread, or to make his pallet." (Ben-Hur)

KJV link: "Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons." (Jeremiah 10:22)

Synonyms:

tumult, uproar, disturbance

Antonyms:

calm, peace

Root:Latin commotio: compare French commotion. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: The worship of idols or of any created thing in place of God; extreme admiration.

From the reading: "It is a relic of idolatry, forbidden every believing son and daughter of Abraham." (Ben-Hur)

KJV link: "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king." (1 Samuel 15:23)

Synonyms:

idol worship, image worship, heathenism

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Greek eidololatreia, from eidolon, an image + latreia, worship: the worship of images.

Definition: The state of resembling; likeness.

From the reading: "Tirzah was her name, and as the two looked at each other, their resemblance was plain." (Ben-Hur)

KJV link: "And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth." (Zechariah 5:6)

Synonyms:

likeness, similarity

Antonyms:

difference

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

Definition: Light or heat as emitted or reflected; great joy or beauty that seems to shine.

From the reading: "Afterwhile the khan and everything thereabout lay under the intolerable radiance." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

glow, brilliance, splendor

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Latin radiare, to shine, from radius, a ray: shining brightness.

Definition: Effectively conveying thought or feeling.

From the reading: "“Have you not wished to go?” “No.” “Ah, how little there has been of your life!” The sigh that succeeded the exclamation could not have been more piteously expressive had the loss been the Egyptian’s own." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

eloquent, vivid, meaningful

Antonyms:

expressionless

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

Definition: A long tapering flag; a flag symbolizing a championship.

From the reading: "As he stepped upon the bridge, the trumpets sounded, and over the aplustre rose the vexillum purpureum, or pennant of a commander of a fleet." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

banner, pennon, streamer

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:Old English penon, penoun, pynoun, Old French penon, French pennon, from Latin penna feather. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: Hard, menial, or dull work.

From the reading: "So now; but, in the days of which we are writing, for captivity there was drudgery on walls, and in the streets and mines, and the galleys both of war and commerce were insatiable." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

toil, grind, labor

Antonyms:

(none exact)

Root:drudge (Middle English druggen, to toil, origin uncertain) + -ery: dull toil.

Definition: Vague or not clearly defined or stated; not decided or not known.

From the reading: "Elsewhere in this volume the reader may have observed a term of somewhat indefinite meaning used reverently in a sacred connection; we repeat it now with a general application." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

vague, unfixed, undetermined

Antonyms:

definite, certain

Root:Latin indefinitus. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: To knock or force out of position.

From the reading: "At midnight the entrances were thrown wide, and the rabble, surging in, occupied the quarters assigned to them, from which nothing less than an earthquake or an army with spears could have dislodged them." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

remove, displace, oust

Antonyms:

lodge

Root:Old French deslogier, French déloger; pref. des- (Latin dis-) + Old French logier, French loger. (Webster, 1913)

Definition: A projecting support of stone or brick built against a wall; something that supports or strengthens.

From the reading: "There, directly under the bridge, was the merchant’s house, a mass of gray stone, unhewn, referable to no style, looking, as the voyager had described it, like a buttress of the wall against which it leaned." (Ben-Hur)

Synonyms:

prop, support, reinforce

Antonyms:

undermine

Root:Old English butrasse, boterace, from French bouter to push; compare Old French bouteret (nom. sing. and acc. pl. bouterez) buttress. (Webster, 1913)