Vocabulary #6

abase - verb cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of
When I lost the competition, I felt abased when the other team laughed at me.
abdicate - verb give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations
When the king got old, he abdicated the throne to his son.
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
Having our enemies win the homecoming game is an abomination.
brusque - adj. marked by rude or peremptory shortness
His brusque movements made him seem like a giant.
saboteur - noun someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks; a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader
The undercover cop was a saboteur in disguise that made the bad guys get caught.
debauchery - noun a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity
A lot of times debauchery is involved in bachelor parties.
proliferate - verb cause to grow or increase rapidly; grow rapidly
Academic scholars have been able to proliferate at Righetti.
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
Cell phones being used in the sixteenth century is an anachronism.
nomenclature - noun a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline
Biology has a nomenclature for naming species, it starts with the domain.
expurgate - verb edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
When an essay is very long and ranting, its good to expurgate it.
bellicose - adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight
When guys fight over a girl, there is an unseen bellicose in the air.
gauche - adj. lacking social polish
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
People who have starved themselves are rapacious around food.
paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself
Turn off the lights so I can see it is a pparadox.
conundrum - noun a difficult problem
That physics problem was a conundrum.
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
The white sheep is an anomaly among the black ones.
ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
Baking for hungry people , means that food will be ephemeral.
rancorous - adj. showing deep-seated resentment
Many girls have a rancorous attitude towards the bete noire of their class.
churlish - adj. having a bad disposition; surly; rude and boorish
Having churlish table manners at your boyfriend's house is a bad reputation for the parent's to know you as.
precipitous - adj. characterized by precipices; extremely steep; done with very great haste and without due deliberation
Mount Everest is a precipitous mountain range.