VOCABULARY UNIT 9

Auxiliary

• (adj) giving assistance or support; (n) a helper, aid
• Syn: (adj) additional; (n) reserve, accessory
• Ant: (adj) main, primary, principal
• The assistant principal is an auxiliary to the principal.

Candid

• (adj) frank, sincere; impartial; unposed
• Syn: forthright, plainspoken, unbiased
• Ant: insincere, evasive, misleading, artful
• People should be candid with their emotions toward others.

Cubicle

• (n) a small room or compartment
• Syn: hole-in-the-wall
• Ant: vast hall, auditorium
• The office worker worked in a cubicle with many other people around him.

Drudgery

• (n) work that is hard and tiresome
• Syn: toil, labor, grind
• Ant: play, frolic, amusement, recreation, fun
• Farmers usually do drudgery that is often long and tiring.

Envoy

• (n) a representative or messenger (as of a government)
• Syn: ambassador, emissary, minister
• The young man spoke as a envoy to the United Nations.

Escalate

• (v) to elevate; to increase in intensity
• Syn: raise, ascend, mount
• Ant: decrease, lessen, descend, defuse
• The coach tried to escalate the team by giving them a long speech and listening to music.

Expedient

• (n) a means to an end; (adj) advantageous, useful
• Syn: (n) contrivance, device; (adj) servicable
• Ant: (adj) inconvenient, untimely, disadvantageous
• Running everyday is expedient for your health and body.

Feign

• (v) to pretend
• Syn: fake, sham, affect simulate
• Children tend to feign and use their imagination.

Flair

• (n) a natural quality, talent, or skill; a distinctive style
• Syn: bent, knack, gift, style, panache
• Ant: inability, incapacity
• The player was a flair and went to a division 1 college.

Grievous

• (adj) causing sorrow or pain; serious
• Syn: painful, heartrending, onerous, flagrent
• Ant: joyful, uplifting, cheery, upbeat, comforting
• The cut himself while chopping, causing grievous.

heterogeneous

• (adj) composed of different kinds, diverse
• Syn: miscellaneous, mixed, variegated
• Ant: uniform, homogeneous, of a piece
• The box of legos spilled on the floor and left them heterogeneous.

Horde

• (n) a vast number (as of people); a throng
• Syn: crowd, mass, multitude, host, swarm
• Ant: few, handful
• The concert with a horde of over 100,000 people.

Impel

• (v) to force, drive forward
• Syn: urge, push, spur, propel, incite
• Ant: discourage, check, restrain, curb
• The US tried to impel the Germans when they stormed the beaches of Normandy.

Incredulous

• (adj) disbelieving, skeptical
• Syn: mistrustful, doubting
• Ant: believing, trustful
• The man was incredulous during the court and was not trustworthy.

Inscribe

• (v) to write or engrave; to enter a name on a list
• Syn: enroll, enlist
• Ant: erase, rub out, delete, efface, obliterate
• The tablet was inscribed with the laws of the people.

Monolouge

• (n) a speech by one actor; a long talk by one person
• Syn: soliloquy
• Ant: conversation, colloquy
• Marc Antony gave a monologue that swayed the crowds against the conspirators.

Prognosis

• (n) a forecast of the probable course and outcome of a disease or situation
• Syn: projection
• The doctor's prognosis about the death made everyone sad.

Rasping

• (adj) with a harsh, grating sound; (n) a harsh sound
• Syn: (adj) scraping, abrasive, gravelly
• Ant: (adj) smooth, satiny, silky
• The thunder made a rasping sound that shook the whole house.

Repugnant

• (adj) offensive
• Syn: hateful, odious, revolting, repulsive
• Ant: pleasing, attractive, tempting wholesome
• The man's thoughts on the topic of marriage were pugnacious.

Scuttle

• (v) to sink a ship by cutting holes in it; to get rid of something in a decisive way; to run hastily, scurry; (n) a pail
• Syn: (v) abandon, discard, scrap, ditch, dump
• Ant: (v) keep afloat, salvage, rescue, preserve
• The iceberg scuttle the Titanic even though it was thought to be unsinkable.