Vocabulary #6

abase - verb cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of

Ex. God's love does not abase his majesty, nor his majesty diminish his love.
abdicate - verb give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations

Ex. He agreed to abdicate and retire in favor of the next in line for the throne.
abomination - noun an action that is vicious or vile; an action that arouses disgust or abhorrence; a person who is loathsome or disgusting; hate coupled with disgust

Ex. His abusive treatment of the children was an abomination.
brusque - adj. marked by rude or peremptory shortness

Ex. If service seems a little brusque sometimes that is because the waiter is always so busy.
saboteur - noun someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks; a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader

Ex. Anyone caught without an identity card would be treated with suspicion as a possible enemy saboteur.
debauchery - noun a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity

Ex. Because he was looking forward to four years of debauchery, he could not wait to go to college.
proliferate - verb cause to grow or increase rapidly; grow rapidly

Ex. As problems with the business continued to proliferate, Edward decided to chuck it all and go into retirement.
anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred

Ex. These days the habit of introducing yourself to a new neighbor with a welcome gift has become an anachronism.
nomenclature - noun a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline

Ex. The language of sculpture is an example of a nomenclature.
expurgate - verb edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate

Ex. The rapper was told that if he did not expurgate the offensive lyrics from his new song, it would never be played on the radio.
bellicose - adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight

Ex. His bellicose behavior at the party ensured that he would not be invited again.
gauche - adj. lacking social polish

Ex. His gauche table manners make me cringe, especially when he tries to talk with his mouth full.
rapacious - adj. excessively greedy and grasping; devouring or craving food in great quantities; living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey

Ex. Our rapacious neighbors have maxed out five different credit cards because they always have to have something newer and better.
paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself

Ex. In a strange paradox, the medicine made Preston sick before it made her better.
conundrum - noun a difficult problem

Ex. Trying to solve the conundrum caused him to waste a lot of time on his SAT.
anomaly - noun (astronomy) position of a planet as defined by its angular distance from its perihelion (as observed from the sun); a person who is unusual; deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule

Ex. In order to find the anomaly, scientists had to repeat the experiment over a hundred times.
ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

Ex. I'm happy that the movie can give some pleasure to people, but acting is ephemeral.
rancorous - adj. showing deep-seated resentment

Ex. There are equally rancorous arguments about how best to stimulate supply.
churlish - adj. having a bad disposition; surly; rude and boorish

Ex. A husband telling his wife she looks fat is an example of churlish.
precipitous - adj. characterized by precipices; extremely steep; done with very great haste and without due deliberation

Ex. The classical financial models used for most of this century predict that such precipitous events should never happen.