VOCABULARY UNIT 11

Brevity

• n. shortness
• syn: terseness
• ant: verbosity
• I had a brevity of breath when I got done with the race.

Comport

• v. to conduct or bear oneself, behave; to be in agreement
• syn: agree, concur
• Mr. Baber made announcements to comport ourselves before football games.

Concise

• adj. expressing much in a few words
• Syn: brief
• ant: verbase
• For a topic sentence, your thesis should be concise and to the point.

Demure

• adj. sober or serious in manner, modest
• syn: shy
• ant: forward
• At first I am a demure person but as you get to know me I am more outgoing.

Depreciation

• n. a lessening in value; a belittling
• syn: lowering
• ant: increase
• Used cars have a depreciation that is larger than new cars.

Deteriorate

• v. to lower in quality or value; to wear away
• syn: worsen
• ant: fix up
• The old buildings deteriorate quickly because they have been up for many years.

Divulge

• v. to tell, reveal; to make public
• syn: spill the beans
• ant: conceal
• Whenever I tell someone a secret I ask them not to divulge what I said.

Enlightened

• adj. free from ignorance and false ideas; possessing sound understanding
• syn: knowing
• ant: ignorant
• The government does not keep the people enlightened because it is corrupt.

Forestall

• v. to prevent by acting first
• syn: hinder
• ant: welcome
• I drink milk every night to forestall a broken bone.

Garble

• v. to distort in such a way as to make unintelligible
• syn: jumble
• ant: eludicate
• When I tell secrets and they get told, usually people think it's funny to garble what I say.

Proponent

• n. one who puts forward a proposal; one who supports a cause or belief
• syn: supporter
• ant: opponent
• Martin Luther King Jr. was a proponent of black rights.

Quaver

• v. to shake, tremble, trill
• syn: vibrate, shiver
• The house quavered when the earthquake hit.

Recoil

• v. to spring back, shrink (n. the act of springing back
• syn V: flinch; N. kickback
• ant V: advance
• When I shot the gun, it recoiled and almost hit my head.

Recoup

• v. to make up for, regain
• syn: recover
• ant: lose
• When the boys father left, he had to get a job and recoup what his father provided.

Reek

• n. an unpleasant smell; V. to give off unpleasant smells, to give a strong impression
• syn: n. Stench, V. smell
• ant: n. perfume
• Rotten eggs reek of something that is horrid.

Relentless

• adj. unyielding, harsh, without pity
• syn: stern
• ant: merciful
• My dad knows a relentless cop who never gives up on cracking bad guys.

Rivulet

• n. a small stream
• syn: creek
• In Ellicottville there are many rivulets in the woods.

Squander

• v. to spend foolishly, waste
• syn: misspend
• ant: save
• People who have a lot of money tend to squander it.

Staccato

• adj. detached or disconnected in sound or style
• syn: abrupt
• ant: continuous
• At my old school, we could always tell who one teacher was by her staccato clank of her shoes in the hallway.

Statute

• n. a law
• syn: rule, enactment
• People in ghetto neighborhoods tend to disobey their area's statutes.