Ms. G.O. Johnson's wicked and wonderful words pt. 1

Prof. Ginger (United States of America)
All the words you need.
304 words 91 learners

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words only definitions & notes
  1. abase
    cause to feel shame
    He had so abased himself that he seems to have been regarded as no longer an element of weight in the situation. Lea, Henry Charles
  2. abhorrence
    hate coupled with disgust
    Both liberals, with their emphasis on individual liberty, and McCarthyite right-wingers, with their abhorrence of totalitarianism, have tried to embrace him.
  3. abject
    of the most contemptible kind
    "Regretfully, they are an abject necessity in the prison society environment," he said, citing the gang problem.
  4. abominable snowman
    a large hairy humanoid creature said to live in the Himalayas
    In recent years, locals there have reported sightings of the yeti, also known as the abominable snowman.
  5. abominable
    unequivocally detestable
    The problem is, the games community has found ways to explain away abominable online behaviour.
  6. abrasive
    sharply disagreeable, unpleasant, or harsh
    "There's something abrasive in me because I have often made people very cross," she once said.
  7. abscond
    run away, often taking something or somebody along
    Police have arrested a man who absconded from an open prison earlier this month while serving a six-year sentence for attempted murder.
  8. abysmal
    exceptionally bad or displeasing
  9. acerbic
    harsh or corrosive in tone
    The Tom Sharpe I knew was generous, acerbic, engaging, and full of wicked fun.
  10. acidulous
    being sour to the taste
    Ms. Poplavskaya’s voice is more interesting than beautiful; it can be thin and acidulous, and her breathing is a mess. New York Times (Aug 17, 2011)
  11. acephalous
    lacking a head or a clearly defined head
    A spirituality must appear to crown and complete this great continental body; otherwise America is acephalous. Various
  12. acrimonious
    marked by strong resentment or cynicism
    But an increasingly acrimonious stalemate between the officials and Afghanistan's recalcitrant president has made the prospect quite real.
  13. acrid
    strong and sharp, as a taste or smell
    At the school, desks are rusty, smoggy air seeps in through broken windows and the acrid smell of broken plumbing fills the hallways.
  14. acquisitive
    eager to attain and possess material possessions
    Above all, Gekoski understands how acquisitive lust, great gusts of History and occasional necessary discretion can make the most precious objects vanish into thin air.
  15. effrontery
    audacious behavior that you have no right to
    In the course of various visits Hahn has built up a meticulous family portrait, betraying deep affection but also a form of lucid effrontery.
  16. affront
    a deliberately offensive act
    Hitchens, most notably, before his death titled his atheist handbook as a deliberate affront to Islam: “God Is Not Great.” Salon (Dec 15, 2013)
  17. agrestic
    characteristic of the fields or country
    Cowley retreated into solitude, where he found none of the agrestic charms of the landscapes of his muse. Disraeli, Isaac
  18. aloof
    distant, cold, or detached in manner
    The artist is hands-off, aloof, kind of like an impartial journalist; only presenting emotional, visual poetry without guiding you to a specific emotion. Scientific American (Aug 29, 2013)
  19. ambivalent
    uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow
    Americans are ambivalent about global involvement, not opposed to it.
  20. anachronistic
    chronologically misplaced
    “For so long, drawing has been considered laughably anachronistic in an age of computer-generated everything,” he said.
  21. anachronism
    locating something at a time when it couldn't have existed
    There are anachronisms: clothes in late medieval England didn't have zips; but to make the middle ages look fully convincing today is an impossible task.
  22. antiquated
    so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
  23. apathetic
    showing little or no emotion or animation
  24. archaic
    so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
  25. arriviste
    an ambitious social climber or status seeker
  26. arrogant
    having or showing feelings of unwarranted importance
  27. antebellum
    belonging to a period before a war
  28. antediluvian
    of or relating to the period before the biblical flood
  29. anthropomorphic
    suggesting human features for animals or inanimate things
  30. anthropocentric
    focused on human needs and values
  31. antipathy
    a feeling of intense dislike
  32. antithesis
    exact opposite
  33. asinine
    devoid of intelligence
  34. aspersion
    a disparaging remark
  35. astigmatic
    of or relating to a defect in the eye or in a lens caused by a deviation from spherical curvature which prevents light rays from meeting at a common focus and so results in distorted images
  36. audacious
    disposed to venture or take risks
  37. Augean
    extremely filthy from long neglect
  38. Augean stables
    (Greek mythology) the extremely dirty stables that were finally cleaned by Hercules who diverted two rivers through them
  39. authoritarian
    characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule
  40. autocratic
    characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule
  41. avaricious
    immoderately desirous of acquiring something
  42. babbling
    gibberish resembling the sounds of a baby
  43. bacchanalian
    used of riotously drunken merrymaking
  44. Bacchanalia
    an orgiastic festival in ancient Greece in honor of Dionysus
  45. badger
    sturdy carnivorous burrowing mammal with strong claws
  46. baleful
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
  47. baneful
    evil or sinister
  48. bathetic
    very sentimental or emotional
  49. bawdy
    humorously vulgar
  50. bedraggled
    limp, untidy, and soiled
  51. beetling
    jutting or overhanging
  52. begrudge
    be envious of or feel annoyance toward
  53. belittling
    tending to diminish or disparage
  54. serendipitous
    lucky in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries
  55. blithe
    carefree and happy and lighthearted
  56. bellicose
    having or showing a ready disposition to fight
  57. belladonna
    perennial Eurasian herb with reddish bell-shaped flowers and shining black berries; extensively grown in United States; roots and leaves yield atropine
  58. belligerent
    characteristic of an enemy or one eager to fight
  59. benighted
    overtaken by darkness
  60. berate
    censure severely or angrily
  61. bestial
    resembling an animal, especially by being vicious or cruel
  62. bete noire
    a detested person or thing
  63. bibulous
    given to or marked by the consumption of alcohol
  64. biddable
    willing to carry out the wishes of another without protest
  65. bilious
    relating to a digestive juice secreted by the liver
  66. bland
    lacking taste or flavor or tang
  67. blank verse
    unrhymed poetry, usually in iambic pentameter
  68. blasphemy
    profane language
  69. blandishment
    flattery intended to persuade
  70. blatant
    without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious
  71. blither
    to talk foolishly
  72. blowsy
    characteristic of or befitting a slut or slattern
  73. blusterous
    blowing in violent and abrupt bursts
  74. Boeotian
    of or relating to ancient Boeotia or its people or to the dialect spoken there in classical times
    Also means stupid or dim-witted. Boeotia is a town outside of Athens that got a reputation for its people being dull and thick headed and therefore not as sophisticated and refined as the Athenians.
  75. Boeotia
    a district of ancient Greece to the northwest of Athens
  76. boondoggle
    work of little or no value done merely to look busy
  77. boorish
    ill-mannered and coarse in behavior or appearance
  78. bootless
    unproductive of success
  79. bootlicker
    someone who humbles himself as a sign of respect
  80. braggadocio
    vain and empty boasting
  81. bourgeois
    being of the property-owning class
  82. bovine
    any of various wild or domestic cattle
  83. torpor
    a state of motor and mental inactivity
  84. brabble
    argue over petty things
  85. brackish
    slightly salty
  86. brackishness
    the quality of being salty, as the saltiness of water
  87. brash
    offensively bold
  88. brazen
    not held back by conventional ideas of behavior
  89. strumpet
    a woman adulterer
  90. trollop
    a woman adulterer
  91. bombastic
    ostentatiously lofty in style
  92. brusque
    rudely abrupt or blunt in speech or manner
  93. bumptious
    offensively self-assertive
  94. Byzantine
    highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
  95. Byzantium
    an ancient city on the Bosporus founded by the Greeks
  96. cachinnate
    laugh loudly and in an unrestrained way
  97. callipygian
    pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks
  98. cadaverous
    of or relating to a corpse
  99. cagey
    characterized by great caution and wariness
  100. calculating
    good at tricking people to get something
  101. callous
    emotionally hardened
  102. callow
    young and inexperienced
  103. calumnious
    harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign
  104. cantankerous
    stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate
  105. canter
    a smooth three-beat gait
  106. capricious
    determined by chance or impulse rather than by necessity
  107. captious
    tending to find and call attention to faults
  108. carping
    persistent petty and unjustified criticism
  109. carnal
    marked by the appetites and passions of the body
  110. cashier
    discharge with dishonor, as in the army
  111. castigate
    inflict severe punishment on
  112. castrate
    remove the testicles of a male animal
  113. castrato
    a male singer who was castrated before puberty and retains a soprano or alto voice
  114. changeling
    a person of subnormal intelligence
  115. chagrined
    feeling or caused to feel uneasy and self-conscious
  116. charlatan
    a flamboyant deceiver
  117. censorious
    harshly critical or expressing censure
  118. cavalier
    showing a lack of concern or seriousness
  119. caustic
    capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action
  120. categorical
    relating to or included in a class or classes
  121. casuistry
    argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle
  122. casuistic
    of or relating to the use of ethical principles to resolve moral problems
  123. chary
    characterized by great caution
  124. chastisement
    a rebuke for making a mistake
  125. chauvinist
    a person with a prejudiced belief in his own superiority
  126. cheeseparing
    giving or spending with reluctance
  127. chimerical
    like a grotesque product of the imagination
  128. choleric
    characterized by anger
  129. churlish
    having a bad disposition; surly
  130. Cimmerian
    intensely dark and gloomy as with perpetual darkness
  131. Circe
    (Greek mythology) a sorceress who detained Odysseus on her island and turned his men into swine
  132. cerulean
    bright blue in color, like a clear sky
  133. circumspect
    careful to consider potential consequences and avoid risk
  134. circuitous
    deviating from a straight course
  135. cloying
    overly sweet
  136. cocker
    treat with excessive indulgence
  137. coercive
    serving or intended to force
  138. collusive
    acting together in secret toward a fraudulent or illegal end
  139. complacent
    contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions
  140. concupiscent
    vigorously passionate
  141. condescending
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
  142. confabulate
    talk socially without exchanging too much information
  143. conniving
    acting together in secret toward a fraudulent or illegal end
  144. constrict
    squeeze or push together
  145. coquettishly
    in a flirtatious manner
  146. contentious
    showing an inclination to disagree
  147. contumacious
    willfully obstinate; stubbornly disobedient
  148. corpulent
    excessively large
  149. embonpoint
    the bodily property of being well rounded
  150. cosset
    treat with excessive indulgence
  151. cower
    show submission or fear
  152. crabbed
    annoyed and irritable
  153. crapulous
    given to gross intemperance in eating or drinking
  154. crass
    so unrefined as to be offensive or insensitive
  155. craven
    lacking even the rudiments of courage; abjectly fearful
  156. credulous
    showing a lack of judgment or experience
  157. crotchety
    having a difficult and contrary disposition
  158. codger
    an eccentric elderly man
  159. cringing
    totally submissive
  160. crusty
    blunt and ill-tempered
  161. crone
    an ugly, evil-looking old woman
  162. hirsute
    having or covered with hair
  163. hoary
    having gray or white hair as with age
  164. culpable
    deserving blame or censure as being wrong or injurious
  165. mea culpa
    an acknowledgment of your error or guilt
  166. cunctator
    someone who postpones work
  167. cupidity
    extreme greed for material wealth
  168. curmudgeon
    an irascible, cantankerous person full of stubborn ideas
  169. sang-froid
    great coolness and composure under strain
  170. sanguine
    confidently optimistic and cheerful
  171. cunning
    showing inventiveness and skill
  172. curt
    brief and to the point
  173. daft
    foolish or mentally irregular
  174. deft
    skillful in physical movements; especially of the hands
  175. dastardly
    extremely wicked
  176. dawdling
    the deliberate act of delaying and playing instead of working
    In France anyone dawdling in the overtaking lane will soon be flashed or tailgated.
  177. debased
    mixed with impurities
  178. debauched
    unrestrained by convention or morality
  179. debauchery
    a wild gathering
  180. debacle
    a sound defeat
  181. decadent
    relating to indulgence in something pleasurable
  182. deceptive
    deliberately designed to mislead
  183. decrepit
    worn and broken down by hard use
  184. defalcate
    appropriate fraudulently to one's own use
  185. defamatory
    harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign
  186. defenestrate
    throw through or out of a window
  187. dejeuner
    a midday meal
  188. degenerate
    a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable
  189. degraded
    lowered in value
  190. dejected
    affected or marked by low spirits
  191. dejected
    affected or marked by low spirits
  192. deleterious
    harmful to living things
  193. demagogue
    a leader who seeks support by appealing to popular passions
  194. demean
    reduce in worth or character, usually verbally
  195. demented
    affected with madness or insanity
    Ow: is that the hysteric shriek of a demented cow or a man going through labour?
  196. deus ex machina
    an agent who appears unexpectedly to solve a difficulty
    Instead of the traditional deus ex machina, with the god descending in a cloud, Jupiter comes down riding a chandelier. New York Times (Jul 27, 2012)
  197. recalcitrant
    stubbornly resistant to authority or control
    I'd love to hear from readers who have successfully managed to convince a recalcitrant loved one get a checkup. Slate (Nov 12, 2013)
  198. jejune
    lacking interest or significance or impact
  199. otiose
    serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being
  200. odium
    hate coupled with disgust
  201. ennui
    the feeling of being bored by something tedious
  202. maudlin
    very sentimental or emotional
  203. Gaudi
    Spanish architect who was a leading exponent of art nouveau in Europe (1852-1926)
  204. gaudy
    tastelessly showy
  205. thespian
    a theatrical performer
  206. anglophile
    an admirer of England and English things
  207. acropolis
    the citadel in an ancient Greek city, usually on a hill
  208. ambrosia
    the food and drink of the gods
  209. infernal
    characteristic of or resembling Hell
  210. Tartarus
    a place where the wicked are punished after death
  211. tenacious
    stubbornly unyielding
  212. supine
    lying face upward
  213. superfluous
    more than is needed, desired, or required
  214. serendipity
    good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries
  215. diabolical
    showing cunning or ingenuity or wickedness
  216. diatribe
    thunderous verbal attack
  217. diaspora
    the dispersion of something that was originally localized
  218. cherub
    an angel portrayed as a winged child
  219. seraph
    an angel of the first order
  220. denigrating
    harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign
  221. lentiginous
    relating to or covered with or resembling freckles
  222. deprecate
    express strong disapproval of; deplore
  223. derelict
    a person without a home, job, or property
  224. derisive
    expressing contempt or ridicule
  225. derogatory
    expressive of low opinion
  226. despoiler
    someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war)
  227. despicable
    morally reprehensible
  228. destitute
    poor enough to need help from others
  229. despondent
    without or almost without hope
  230. zeugma
    rhetorical use of a word to govern two or more words
    One example at random: "You may not make the headlines, but you can always make the difference" – a zeugma there.
  231. synecdoche
    using part of something to refer to the whole thing
    There is the synecdoche “Chicago,” an inside-Washington way of saying “the Obama campaign” that casts the reporter more as campaign insider than skeptical outsider. New York Times (Aug 24, 2012)
  232. desultory
    marked by lack of definite plan, purpose, or enthusiasm
  233. devious
    turning away from a straight course
  234. diabolical
    showing cunning or ingenuity or wickedness
  235. desultory
    marked by lack of definite plan, purpose, or enthusiasm
  236. didactic
    instructive, especially excessively
  237. diffident
    showing modest reserve
  238. digressive
    (of e.g. speech and writing) tending to depart from the main point or cover a wide range of subjects
  239. dilatory
    wasting time
  240. discombobulated
    having self-possession upset; thrown into confusion
  241. disconsolate
    sad beyond comforting; incapable of being soothed
  242. discursive
    tending to cover a wide range of subjects
  243. disdainful
    having or showing arrogant superiority
  244. transcendentalism
    a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual
  245. disenfranchised
    deprived of the rights of citizenship, as the right to vote
  246. disheveled
    in disarray; extremely disorderly
  247. disgruntled
    in a state of sulky dissatisfaction
  248. disingenuous
    not straightforward or candid
  249. dismal
    causing dejection
  250. disparage
    express a negative opinion of
  251. disputatious
    showing an inclination to disagree
  252. dissident
    a person who objects to some established policy
  253. dissemble
    behave unnaturally or affectedly
  254. dissipated
    unrestrained by convention or morality
  255. dissolute
    unrestrained by convention or morality
  256. distrait
    having the attention diverted especially because of anxiety
  257. distraught
    deeply agitated especially from emotion
  258. dithering
    the process of representing intermediate colors by patterns of tiny colored dots that simulate the desired color
  259. divisive
    causing or characterized by disagreement or disunity
  260. docile
    easily handled or managed
  261. doctrinaire
    a stubborn person of arbitrary or arrogant opinions
  262. doddering
    mentally or physically infirm with age
  263. dogged
    stubbornly unyielding
  264. dogmatic
    pertaining to a code of beliefs accepted as authoritative
  265. dolorous
    showing sorrow
  266. delirium tremens
    acute delirium caused by alcohol poisoning
  267. delineate
    represented accurately or precisely
  268. Negritude
    an ideological position that holds Black culture to be independent and valid on its own terms; an affirmation of the African cultural heritage
  269. zaftig
    (of a female body) healthily plump and vigorous
  270. corpulent
    excessively large
  271. rotund
    excessively large
  272. lithe
    moving and bending with ease
  273. litheness
    the gracefulness of a person or animal that is flexible and supple
  274. viviparous
    producing living young and not eggs
  275. vivacious
    vigorous and animated
  276. scintillate
    be lively or brilliant or exhibit virtuosity
  277. pique
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
  278. piebald
    having sections or patches colored differently and brightly
  279. motley
    consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds
  280. myriad
    a large indefinite number
  281. dystopia
    state in which the conditions of life are extremely bad
  282. dyspeptic
    suffering from indigestion
  283. drivel
    saliva spilling from the mouth
  284. dour
    showing a brooding ill humor
  285. dowdy
    lacking in stylishness or taste
  286. Draconian
    imposing a harsh code of laws
  287. ductile
    capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out
  288. duplicitous
    marked by deliberate deceptiveness
  289. emasculated
    (of a male animal) having the testicles removed
  290. emaciated
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
  291. elitist
    one who is biased in favor of those with high status
  292. eldritch
    suggesting the operation of supernatural influences
  293. egregious
    conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible
  294. egocentric
    limited to or caring only about yourself and your own needs
  295. effrontery
    audacious behavior that you have no right to
  296. effete
    excessively self-indulgent, affected, or decadent
  297. edacious
    devouring or craving food in great quantities
  298. epicure
    a person who takes great pleasure in fine food and drink
  299. ephemeral
    anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day
  300. eristic
    given to disputation for its own sake
  301. uxorious
    foolishly fond of or submissive to your wife
  302. superannuated
    too old to be useful
  303. visceral
    relating to or affecting the internal organs
  304. logorrhea
    pathologically excessive and often incoherent talking
Created on Sat Dec 21 21:12:54 EST 2013 (updated Wed Dec 25 21:11:48 EST 2013)

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