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protract - vocabulary

verbTo prolong, draw out, lengthen the duration of.Note: The past-participial adjective protracted often appears, as in protracted negotiations. That life protracted is protracted woe.—Samuel Johnson The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth Satire of ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

proverbial - vocabulary

adjectiveDerives from the noun proverb, which means a popular saying, usually of ancient and unknown origin, that expresses a commonplace truth. In the Bible, a proverb is a profound saying. The word proverbial thus means widely referred to, as if th...

added by edgood
7 years ago

prowess - vocabulary

nounExceptional strength, skill, and courage in battle; superior skill or ability. I am really greatly pleased at your standing so high in your form, and I am sure that this year it is better for you to be playing where you are in football. I suppose...

added by edgood
7 years ago

prurient - vocabulary

adjectiveInclined to lascivious or lustful thoughts and desires. Nothing is more repulsive than a furtively prurient spirituality; it is just as unsavory as gross sensuality.—Carl Jung Marriage as a Psychological Relationship (1925)...

added by edgood
7 years ago

puerile - vocabulary

adjectivePertaining to childhood; childish, immature, or trivial. The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. . . . The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

punctilious - vocabulary

adjectiveStrictly observant of the rules or forms prescribed by law or custom; precise, scrupulous. His courtesy was somewhat extravagant. He would write and thank people who wrote to thank him for wedding presents and when he encountered anyone as p...

added by edgood
7 years ago

punitive - vocabulary

adjectivePertaining to punishment.Note: In law, punitive damages are awarded in civil suits to punish the wrongdoer and serve as an example to deter others from similar, egregious conduct. Punitive damages are in excess of the actual damages suffered...

added by edgood
7 years ago

purport - vocabulary

nounThe meaning or sense or import, as in the main purport of the article; also the purpose or intent, as in the purport of the trip to Italy.verbTo present, especially deliberately, the appearance of being something; to profess or claim, often false...

added by edgood
7 years ago

pusillanimous - vocabulary

adjectiveWithout spirit or bravery; lacking courage; timid; faint-hearted. A Prince is despised when he is seen to be fickle, frivolous, effeminate, pusillanimous, or irresolute, against which defects he ought therefore most carefully to guard, striv...

added by edgood
7 years ago

query - vocabulary

verbTo inquire, to submit a question.nounAn inquiry, a question. To the query, “What is a friend?” his reply was “A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”—Aristotle Quoted in Lives of Eminent Philosophers, “Aristotle,” by Diogenes Laertiu...

added by edgood
7 years ago

queue - vocabulary

verbTo get in line.nounA file of persons waiting in order of their arrival, as for admittance.Note: The word queue appears more frequently in Great Britain than in America. An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.—George M...

added by edgood
7 years ago

quiescent - vocabulary

adjectiveBeing quiet, at rest, still, motionless, as in quiescent thoughts. There is a brief time for sex, and a long time when sex is out of place. But when it is out of place as an activity there still should be the large and quiet space in the con...

added by edgood
7 years ago

quintessence - vocabulary

nounThe most essential part of anything; the pure essence of a substance; the most typical example of something. O my lady Dulcinea of Toboso! the sun of all beauty, the end and quintessence of discretion, the treasury of sweet countenance and carria...

added by edgood
7 years ago

raillery - vocabulary

nounGood-humored satire, ridicule, or banter. There is a simple but effective test of satire, one that hails back to Aristotle. "Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor," he said, "for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspici...

added by edgood
7 years ago

rapacious - vocabulary

adjectiveDisposed to seize by violence or by unlawful or greedy methods; extremely greedy, predatory, extortionate. The American goes to Paris, always has, and comes back and tells his neighbor, always does, how exorbitant and inhospitable it is, how...

added by edgood
7 years ago

ravenous - vocabulary

adjectiveExtremely hungry, voracious, famished. The will to domination is a ravenous beast. There are never enough warm bodies to satiate its monstrous hunger. Once alive, this beast grows and grows, feeding on all the life around it, scouring the ea...

added by edgood
7 years ago

recant - vocabulary

verbTo formally withdraw or disavow one's belief, position, or statement about something previously believed or maintained. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other...

added by edgood
7 years ago

recapitulate - vocabulary

verbTo repeat again the principal points of; to summarize. “But, for heaven’s sake, don’t get hot!” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, touching his brother-in-law’s knee. “The matter is not ended. If you will allow me to recapitulate, it was like ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

recluse - vocabulary

nounOne who lives in seclusion, often for religious meditation.Note: The adjective form is either recluse or reclusive. Henry David Thoreau and Charles Darwin form both a spectacular comparison and contrast. Both Thoreau and Darwin were voyagers. One...

added by edgood
7 years ago

redolent - vocabulary

adjectiveSmelling sweet and agreeable; also, suggestive or reminiscent.Note: The word redolent is often followed by the preposition of. They are very proper forest houses, the stems of the trees collected together and piled up around a man to keep ou...

added by edgood
7 years ago

redoubtable - vocabulary

adjectiveArousing awe or fear, formidable; commanding respect or reverence. In "Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King," Brooklyn College film historian Foster Hirsch weaves interviews with industry players and family members into a straightforwar...

added by edgood
7 years ago

regale - vocabulary

verbTo entertain agreeably or lavishly, with food or drink; delight.Note: The word regale also acts as a noun, as in steaks were grilled for the regale of the guests. Going along the narrow path to a little uncut meadow covered on one side with thick...

added by edgood
7 years ago

relegate - vocabulary

verbTo send off or consign to an inferior position or remote destination; to assign or commit a task to a person; to banish or exile. Children need people in order to become human . . . . It is primarily through observing, playing, and working wi...

added by edgood
7 years ago

remiss - vocabulary

adjectiveNegligent, slow, careless in performing a task or duty; also, languid, sluggish. Perhaps this hut has never been required to shelter a shipwrecked man, and the benevolent person who promised to inspect it annually, to see that the straw and ...

added by edgood
7 years ago

repertory - vocabulary

nounA place where things are stored or gathered together, a collection; also, a type of theatrical presentation in which the theater group presents several works. Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 pl...

added by edgood
7 years ago

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    Quiz

    Are you a grammar master?

    »
    Identify the sentence with correct use of the modal verb "must":
    A She must finish her homework before going out.
    B They musts arrive on time.
    C He must to study for the exam.
    D I must to go to the store.