Advance Vocabulary – Part 2

Grievous: very seriously harmful.

Sentence – He will appear in court today charged with grievous bodily harm and intimidation.

Hinge: to depend on; have as a necessary condition.

Sentence – The hinge connecting the front and rear pieces sits under the instep and lessens the chance of failure due to the metal flexing.

Circumscribe: to keep within narrow limits

Sentence – The grounds for such a review are circumscribed by the tribunal’s rules of procedure.

Lax:   careless.

Sentence – Unhindered by the country’s lax competition rules, they built up complex webs of cross-shareholdings across an astonishing array of businesses.

Brazen:  without shame; immodest.

Sentence – The shrill blast of their brazen trumpets echoed triumphantly through the heart of the land.

Obtuse: annoyingly slow in understanding.

Sentence – Maybe I’m being obtuse, but I don’t understand what you’re so upset about.

Nemesis: punishment or defeat that is deserved and cannot be avoided.

Sentence – To follow the proposed course of action is to invite nemesis.

Meticulous:   fastidious; thorough.

Sentence – Some persons objected that announcers’ articulation was too meticulous to be natural.

Ignominious: bringing or deserving strong (especially public) disapproval damaging to one’s pride.

Sentence – The majority of people do some ignominious matters, Carroll Saunders have not been exceptional.

Psychosis: Psychosis: (n) a serious mental illness that affects the whole personality.

Sentence – The symptoms of psychosis as we know them today appear in all literatures from the earliest times.

Legion:  very many.

Sentence – A legion of policemen and border officials are required to preserve this happy feature of a benevolent nature.

Malice:   the wish, desire or intention to harm someone.

Sentence – I searched my soul for any malice that could have provoked his words, but found none.

Detonate: to (cause to) explode using special apparatus.

Sentence – The warhead is set to detonate just above the target to maximise the damage.

futile:  useless; unsuccessful.

Sentence – The idea was sound, but events of 14 July made it futile, for Bismarck’s telegram had the desired effect.

Neurosis:  anxiety.

Sentence – She got a neurosis about chemicals and imagined them everywhere doing her harm.

Largesse: [something given in] generosity to people who do not have enough.

Sentence – As it is, the industry’s fortunes rise and fall with the level of official largesse.

Proliferation:   a rapid increase or spreading.

Sentence – The proliferation of these diminutive shows will soon be in inverse proportion to the theatres still open to receive them.

Euphoria: a feeling of extreme happiness usually last on a short time.

Sentence – Indeed, a euphoria seems to reign among those directly involved in the organisation of Expo.

Execrable:  very bad or unpleasant.

Sentence – To Western ears, the wind playing in the slow movement will probably sound execrable.

Levity: lack of seriousness.

Sentence – It also reintroduces much-needed levity to an act that can be overbearingly self-serious

Dynamics: the way in which people or things behave and react to each other in a particular situation.

Sentence – If the dynamics of the whole ecosystem fail in this respect, changes will inevitably occur, until finally self-consistency is achieved.

Antithesis: the direct opposite.

Sentence – Joe was the antithesis of Leslie – big and blond, with considerable colonial machismo.

Latitude: freedom to do, say, etc. what one likes.

Sentence – She was given considerable latitude in how she spent the money.

Morose: not willing to talk.

Sentence – He became a bit morose for a while a bit inside himself which is fairly natural under the circumstances I suppose.

Muster: to gather or collect.

Sentence – I mustered (up) my courage and walked onto the stage.