BELIE

contradict; give a false impression

be in contradiction with; represent falsely

SYN - misrepresent, contradict, negate

"After having been so firm, consistent and honest, he had now seemed to belie his positions."

"It wasn't that he thought he was a terrible evil person, Jen hated him becuase he belied his personality."

"His SUV belies his pro-environment stance."

"Violence in Iraq belies claims of calm."

"He spoke roughly in order to belie his air of gentility"

BELLICOSE

belligerent, pugnacious, warlike

having or showing a ready disposition to fight

SYN - battleful, combative

"He loved his new follower's bellicose approach."

"He was so bellicose that any sort of peace talks had been a practice of futility."

"The pacificist Tony, knew he must abscond when his bellicose adversary entered the room."

BELLIGERENT

An opposing army, a party waging war

someone who fights or is fighting

characteristic of an enemy or one eager to fight

engaged in war

SYN - battler, combatant, fighter, scrapper, aggressive

"It was his belligerent attitude that sent a bolt of energy through the fighting spirit of Winston."

"They wanted the event ot be open to everybody but it would have spoiled the peaceful atmosphere had they let the belligerents from the neighboring coutnry attend."

"Knowing the opposing army would be fixed on the center of the camp and the small army that appeared there, the other divisions spread out quickily and surrounded the belligerent."

"It was the presence of this belligerent that made Pinky abscond through the arabesque doorway."

BENT

leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency

a relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way

fixed in your purpose

a special way of doing something

SYN - hang, knack, set

"He had such a liberal bent that no-one believed his claims of political independence."

"It was the fact that he had a bent for putting the thread through her needles that she kept him around."

"The fact he was bent on the sport of basketball and had a bent for the mental aspects of the went a long ways in getting him the history teacher/basketball coach for the high school."

BERATE

to scold or criticize harshly censure severely or angrily

SYN - bawl out, call down, chew out, chide, lambast, reprimand, scold, take to task

"to berate the little theif was one thing, to throw lawn darts at him was an entirely different ballgame."

"he had been berated so many times for not going to school that the blow of the words no longer effected him."

"He wanted to hurt him much more than any fist ever could he wanted to berate him and his actions publicly and watch him suffer humiliation."

BROACH

bring up, announce, begin to talk about

SYN - initiate

"He knew that someone at some time durign the evening was going to have to broach the adulterious situation which had been the reason for their get together. His hope was to abscond from the room before the topic came up and thus avoid lying about his involvement."

"He had been waiting for just the right time to broach the release of his latest book."

"Without himself broaching the topic, the not-so-humble Brad had hoped someone would mention his once dominating performance on the golf course."

"He intended to broach the burgeoning prices of pastoral land at this meeting of bucolics."

BOORISH

rude; insensitive

ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance

SYN - neanderthal, oafish

"It was this boorish man that had made the classy civilized ladies at the party leave so early."

"It was his ability to brook such boorish people that gave him a competitive advantage over other salespeople who disregarded them."

"He knew he was thought of as boorish by the people at the party, but he was confident that what he said was not only needed but the most honest appraisal of current situations."

BROOK

to tolerate, endure, countenance

put up with something or somebody unpleasant

SYN - abide, bear, digest, endure, put up, stand, stick out, stomach, suffer, support, tolerate

"After having worked so hard to get to this point, he was just hoping to brook a few more months of this unpleasant work."

"Max refused to brook this man and left immediately."

"It is essential in life to not get too caught up with some ideal world that you refuse to brook that which would acheive only some of your goals, but is the better of two alternatives."

"Free-thinking lovers of democracy have two options, be stubborn idealist and vote for Nader or brook the inconsistencies and shortcomings of Obama and vote for someone who has a real chance to win the election and inact real change."

BUCOLIC

rustic and pastoral

characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants

a country person

a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life

idyllically rustic

related to shephards and herdsman devoted to raising sheep/cattle

SYN - peasant, provincal, idyl

"It was these bucolic parts of the country that were being left behind when it came to this majority rules democracy."

"Born, bred and living in the city there was a part of him that felt incomplete and yearned for the a more bucolic existence."

"It was an odd life indeed - after having grown up on a farm, Abe had moved to the city, got a high paying job and lived in high-class civilized society, only to know want to return to the farm and what he remembered as a bucolic existence."

BURGEON

to grow rapidly or flourish

"he wanted to burgeon and establish himself amongst the greats in humanity"

"The army had burgeoned to extremely large numbers, nothing could stop them now."

"He had been hoping that the number of followers his new philosophy had would continue to burgeon."

"This burgeoning flower captivated the workers every morning on their way into the office."

BANAL

hackneyed; commonplace; trite; lacking originality

repeated too often

SYN - old hat, stock, cliche

"the once exilherating sex had become banal."

"He was a real nice guy, numerous people would tell him so, but he was just too banal to ever turn a woman on."

"He just wanted something to fuck, to fight, to love, to cry - anything to break out of the banal way of life he had settled into."

AXIOMATIC

taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth

evident w/out proof or argument

"What axiomatic groudwork of this philosophy was what had won Scott over."

"There was a sort of trickery involved here, the professor had begun with axiomatic stances which could not be argued and then slowly but without warning had moved into more controversial claims."

"He felt silly having to explain and argue for such an axiomatic stance, but this was the life of someone who wanted to be powerful and honest in a world filled with idiots."

AXIOM

a universally recognized principle

a saying that is widely accepted on it's own merits

SYN - maxim

"He had always thought that the princple of love your neighbor as your self was an axiom which cultures from all around the world agreed upon."

"What bothered him about this leftist proffessor was not so much that he had views that went against his own but that he presented many things as axiom which Bill thought were rather controversial."

"He knew he had won the argument when he had buttressed his view with this axiom."

AVER

to state as a fact; to declare or assert

report or maintain; to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true

SYN - affirm, assert, avow, swear, swan, verify, allege, say

"what they needed was someone from the cigarette industry to aver that they had illegally marketed to kids."

"This was not one of the things he was wobbling about, he averred the truth and correctness of his stance."

"I would like to once and for all aver that I had nothing at all to do with the alleged conspiracy to overthrow our beloved dictator."

AVOW

to declare boldly

to state positively

to say as something you believe to be right

to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true

admit openly and bluntly

SYN - aver, affirm, assert, swear, verify

"I will right now avow that accepting this merger is what we must do."

"Whereas most of the other experts on the topic had been opposed to the idea, the scientist he was doing research under had avowed that this was the best way to get the results they wanted."

"Little did he know then that later on that day in a speech he would avow that the idea he was entertaining now was ludicrous."

ATTENUATE

make thinner; weaken or lessen

weaken the consistency of (a chemical substance)

becom weaker, in strength, value, or magnitude

reduced in strength

SYN - rarefy, faded

"He had to attenuate the oatmeal after having tried it the first time and it was too thick."

"the attenuating potion had taken its affect and the giant's strength was being reduced."

"He needed to find some way to attenuate this substance so that it could flow more smoothly down the thin, flat-lying pipes."

AVARICE

greed, esp. for wealth

extreme greed for material wealth

SYN - covetousness

"He had only one person to turn to in this time of dire need and that was his Uncle Leo and he knew his avarice would probably mean Leo too would be of no help."

"Normally considered a vice, it was her avarice that made her such a great candidate for the companies CFO."

"She was repulsed with him now, his audacious rise to financial success was what was originally so appealing about him, but now she saw it for what it was....an insatiable avarice"

AUSTERE

without adornment; bare; severely simple ascetic

of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor

practicing great self-denial

SYN - stern, severe, stark

ANT - fancy

"after such a chaotic bombardment of the senses, haley was happy to be in such an austere room."

"Hannah being such a jovial person was put off by the austere Ian"

"He was attracted to austere environments like this because it helped him focus his attention on what matters"

"She was most in her element around austere people who dealt with facts and told her exactly how it was - no frills."

AUGUST

majestic, venerable

of or befitting a lord

profoundly honored

SYN - revered, venerable, grand, loyal

"His had such an august persona that people never questioned whether his story about being a lord was true."

"It was because of her august lineage that she was able to live such a grandiloquent lifestyle."

"It was an august occasion, with royal families from all over indulging in the most grand of events."

AUGURY

omen, portent

an event that is experienced as indicating important things to come

SYN - foretoken, sign, preindication

"The black cat scowled at them as they accidently walked under a ladder - it was these auguries so early in their trip that worried Scott."

"They knew now that the rainy weather they just passed wasn't the low point of the trip but rather served as only an augury for the events to come."

"Every little abnormality they would come upon was seen as an augry of some sort by the superstituous Magdeline."

AUDACIOUS

daring and fearless; reckelessly bold

invulnerable to fear or intimidation

unrestrained by convention or propriety

disposed to venture or take risks

SYN - daring, venturesome, brazen, brave, intrepid, bald face, insolent

"Like most women, she was turned on by his audacity."

"She was normally very conservative and overly safe, but today was different, today she decided she would be audacious."

"Where others would cower from such a challenge, the audacious brad, invulnerable to fear and intimidation rose up and accepted the dangerous task."

"The most successful/healthy attitude: never a coward, but never stupid - a healthy audacity"

ASTRINGENT

having a tightening effect on living tissue; harsh; severe; something with a tightening effect on tissue

sour or bitter in taste

SYN - acerbic

ANT - sweet

"The candy he had been used as an astringent so that they could get a picture of his funny-looking tightened face."

"What she enjoyed most about going through this cabinet was the feeling she would get when applying her grandmother's astringent lotions - her face would tighten up and lips pucker."

"The very descriptive gross story had an astringent effect upon its audience."

ASSUAGE

to ease or lesson; to appease or pacify

cause to be more favorably inclined

satisfy (thirst)

provide physical relief, as from pain

SYN - alleviate, quench, allay, pacify

"The teacher rushed across the room to the two boys in an attempt to assuage the conflict."

"He was in a drug-fueled rage and only Sarah could assuage him"

"The alcohol wasn't going to do much to help save his leg but it would atleast assuage his pain."

ASSEVERATE

to aver, allege, assert

state categorically

SYN - mantain

"I would like to make clear that Daniels has continued to asseverate that he was not at the scene of the crime and no-one has been able to provide evidence to prove otherwise."

"He asseverated his superiority over the other gymnasts."

"It was these sorts of confident asseverations that Jerry made which annoyed him, no one could be sure sure of the truth while discussing these topics."

APPROPRIATE 2

to take for one's own use, confiscate

give or assign a resource to a particular person or cause

take possession of by force, as in after an invasion

SYN - Allow, earmark, reserve, set, capture, conquer, seize

"The police officers followed the smell of pot into the stoner's basement and appropriated the goods. They were'nt worried about fining or iving a ticket to these two deadheads they just wanted the pot for the imax movie they were oging to see."

"The obvious down side of a centralised system like the soviets is the many times that the government would appropriate the goods and resources of its citizens."

"His parents burst in the door saying they came wiht the intention of appropriating his stash of Pinneaple Express."

ARBITRARY

based on random or merely personal preference

based on, or subject to, individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice

"Instead of taking time to figure out the facts and make the best possible decision, George choose entirely arbitrarily."

"Arbitrarily choose any state and i will show you what i mean by the government having more power than the states."

"After having labored hard he realize that vast similarities between the two options made the choice rather arbitrary."

ARTLESS

without guile; open and honest

characterized by an inability to mask your feelings

simple and natural

SYN - ingenuous

"What he enjoyed about Jenny is that she was artless - he never had to guess what she was thinking or if she was hiding something."

"The fact that he was artless was both his greatest trait and his greatest downfall. It made him by default a real and honest person, but on the flip side not too many people are smart enough to apreciate such uninhibited honest."

"He realized in that last fatal moment that he had mistaken Patrice to be an artless women, when in fact she was a complex being full of deceitful cunning."

ASPERITY

severity, rigor; roughness, harshness; acrimony, irritability

something hard to endure

harshness of manner

SYN - sharpness, grimness

"He could no longer handle the asperity of the voices down three computers down and decided to take action."

"It wasn't so much the content of his message but the asperity of his delivery that made people worry."

"The asperity of her assail was overwhelming and brought the normally strong man to tears."

ASSAY

to analyze for aparticular components; to determine weight, quality, etc.

an appraisal of the state of affairs

a substance that is undergoing an analysis of its components

a test to determine a substances components

SYN - check

"The first thing he did as he stepped off the spaceship was to assay this foreign planet."

"After determing the object was no longer harmful to touch, the captain began to assay the object and found out that it was 3 lbs and made of notebook paper, marshmallows, and alluminum cans."

"It was during this intial assay of the community that it was decided action would need to occur immediately."

ASSIDUOUS

diligent, hard-workign, sedulous

marked by care and persistent effort

"He was so assiduous in his preparation for the GRE that he had no doubt in his mind whether he would succeed.'

"It was because Robert had seen how assiduous she was in going after her previous goals, that he was confident she was the right person for the job."

"Once he clearly defined his goal and purpose, Brad was assiduous in his efforts to acheive it."

ASSAIL

To attack with blows or words

Attack someone physically or emotionally

Launch an attack or assault on

Attack in speech or writing.

SYN - assault, lash out, attack

"After her latest assail, the broken hearted tim had reached the lowest point of his depression."

"It would be better, he thought, if she were to violently assail him, than continue her current course of complete silence and indifference."

"Not having an adequate understanding of her innocence in the case, Phil continued to assail the Debra."

ARREST

to suspend; to engage; holding one's attention: as in arrested adolescence, an arresting portrait.

The state of inactivity following an interruption.

SYN - check, halt, hitch, stoppage.

"All was quiet in the moment of arrest that followed the gun shot."

"The man had the ability to put Katelyn in a state of arrest."

"The lady had arresting eyes"

ARDUOUS

strenous, taxing; requiring significant effort

characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion

difficult to accomplish

taxing to the utmost

SYN - straining, grueling, hard, laborious, punishing, toilsome

ANT - effortless

"Before him laid the arduous task of carrying these twenty bookshelves ten blocks to his new apartment."

"It was an arduous journey ahead, but the group had banded together and accepted the challenge."

"Tommy enjoyed such arduous activities because it was a chance for him to use his full potential and push himself to the limit, whereas effortless activities only bored him and made him feel like he was wasting his talents."

ARDOR

A strong feeling of passion, energy, or zeal

A feeling of strong eagerness (usually in favor of a person or cause)

Intense feeling of love

Feelings of great warmth and intensity

SYN - fervor, fire

"It was moments like this, where he was filled with an overwhleming ardor, that he needed to hold on to and take advantage of."

"She would never know the ardor he had for her."

"The monotony he had lived with for the last five years was broken by the ardor that had overcome him when Gabrielle walked into the room."

"Inside he could feel himself full of an indescribable ardor."

ARABESQUE

Intimate decorative patterns involving intertwining lines and sometimes incorporating flowers, animals and fruits.

An ornament that interlaces simulated foilage in an intricate design.

"These beautiful paintings with arabesque borders left a deep impression on Ashley who felt they expressed the interconnectedness of nature whcih she felt so much a part of."

"Above the door there was an arabesque that greeted the guests."

ANOMALY

deviation from the normal order, form, or rule; abnormalty

a person who is unusual

"He was a genetic anomaly having been born with 6 fingers"

"This sort of outburst of anger was an anomaly for the normally subdued, quiet group"

"She was an anomaly, and it was this - her being so unusual - that intrigued Mr. Jones so much."

AMBIVALENCE

the state of having contradictory or conflicting emotional attitudes

mixed feelings or emotions

"It was always hard to talk with his ex-girlfriend because of his ambivalence towards her."

"His problem was that with his deep understanding and wisdom of the complexity of all things, his understanding that there is good and bad, positive and negative to almost everything in the world, he had created for himself an attitude of ambivalence towards everything."

"He could have standed hated her, he could have standed loving her, but what he couldn't stand was living with this ambivalence."

"What he couldn't understand is why ambivalence towards a topic like this was considered such a horrible thing. Ambivalence seemed to him as the most honest approach."

AMALGAMATE

to combine several elements into a whole

to bring together or with something else

SYN - commix, mingle, mix, unify, consolidate, fuse

"What gave the power rangers strength was the same thing that gave captain planet strength, the ability to amalgamate many individuals into one superhero."

"The last thing the downtown Madisonians wanted was for their enemies on both sides to amalgamate their forces."

"His task was to amalgamate these four very different things into one piece of art."

ALACRITY

eager and entusiastic willingness

liveliness and eagerness

SYN - briskness, smartness

"Unlike his normal lazy and slugish attitude towards chorse, he went about this task with alacrity."

"Everything you do in life should be done with alacrity or not done at all."

"The alacrity that Jim approached the subject with surprised his teachers who had been trying to motivate him into action for years."

AGGRANDIZE

to increase in intensity, power, influence or prestige

to make appear great or greater: praise highly

add details to

SYN - blow up, dramatize, embellish, embroider, pad

"They had a plan first figure out a way to aggrandize Mr. Taylor's position in the community, then when his power, influence and prestige were at their highest start their campaign to build the school."

"It was this sort of self-aggrandizement, where bill would rob and kill his rivals to increase his influence, power and presitige, that would prevent bill from having a chance with the one women he loved."

"The last thing anyone wanted was for the conflict to aggrandize any further."

"By creating this simple illusion he was able to agrandize the emporer's height."

AFFABILITY

the quality of being easy to talk to and gracious

a disposition to be friendly and approachable

SYN - amiability, geniality

"It was due to the affability of the senator that made him such a great dinner guest."

"Dressed with a mohawk and a sharp glare you would have never guessed it but john was very affable."

"Not having many friends, Brad was constantly trying to be more affable."

AESTHETE

someone devoted to beauty and beautiful things

one who professes great sensitivity to the beauty of art and nature

"She was an aesthete, having devoted herself to running the art museum."

"Like all true aesthete's who would visit this landscape she was speechless for almost an hour while she took in the great beauty."

ADVERSARY

an enemy or opponent

SYN - antagonist, resister

"Having devouted his life to christianity the anti-christian talk of this man made him his adversary"

"A man can only become as good as his greatest adversary."

"He felt sorry for the man because in such a time of peace it was hard to understand the joy of having a great adversary to fight with."

ADULTERATE

to reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients

SYN - debase, dilute, load, stretch

"It only took one small touch of Jimmy's finger to adulterate the homemade brew that had been prepared."

"Unlike the delicious organic vegetables they had had the night before, these vegetables had been adulterated many times over by chemicals, preservatives and substitutes."

"The group was in an interesting position, to accept any more new applicants would adulterate their scholastic work, but to continue to deny applicants would prevent them from acheiving their goals of expansion."

ADROIT

quick, skillful, adept in handling situations

"When the garbage can burst into flames, the classroom and possibly some of the children's lives were saved by the adriotness of the teacher."

"One reason he had such a popular following was becuase many people viewed the candidate as adroit, something necessary for someone who was going to have to quickily handle many situations each day."

"After having spent one day with the man he learned what made him so great at being an intercity teacher, he had psychological acumen was adriot at dealing with class disruptions."

ADJUNCT

somethign added to another thing, but not an essential part of it; an associate or assistant

SYN - accessory, auxillary

ANT - unsupportive


"The college had added three new gyms, it was this adjunct to the campus that pushed the scales in the favor of the college, amongst many high school seniors."

"Greg had agreed to be an adjunct for the group, supporting them and serving as a sort of associate or assistant."

"Having not wanted to hire a lot of full-time professor for the philosophy department just yet, the university had went out and hired adjunct professors to teach many of the classes."

ACUMEN

keen, accurate judgment or insight

shrewdness shown by keen insight

SYN - insightfulness

"Ted went to his old professor's house the day before his teaching becuase of the man's great educational acumen."

"His acumen when it came to matters such as this was why he had been hired and was why he was making the big bucks."

"When the situation was looking bad and it seemed everyone's judgment and insight was hopelessly blurred, it took the acumen of professor Marshall to bring the troubles to an end."

ACERBIC

having a sour or bitter taste or character; sharp; biting

harsh or corrosive in tone

SYN - bitter, virulent, astringent

ANT - sweet

"After having spent the whole first two hours of the party talking to old ladies who were overly sweet and incredibly dull, Tonya was for the first time happy to hear the acerbic personality of Jason talking from somewhere behind her."

"The acerbic candy that was given out made everyone's face tighten and eye's water."

"It was an acerbic speech, it was sharp, biting and harsh, which came as a shock to the audience who were mostly his friends."

ACCRETION

a gradual build-up or enlargement

an increase by natural growth or addition

something contributing to growth or increase

SYN - Accumulation

"Over the next few weeks his wife would notice quite fondly the accretion of her husbands arms due to the weight set she had gotten him for his birthday."

"'You have gone through a most incredible accretion my young fellow,' the old man said to the young growing boy at the end of their two years together at the academy."

"there was an accretion of leaves on the side of the rock the wind was blowing against."

"pillow after pillow where being brough and added to the pile, this accretion made the prospect of jumping off the house much more promising."

ABSCOND

to depart clandestinely; to steal off and hide

run away

SYN - bolt, go off, make off

"After having stolen the money from the back room, the daring theif absconded to the garden where his tunnel was."

"You must have absconded before i left."

"Dane would abscond whenever she entered the room. He knew he was a coward, but he just didnt have the strength to be anything else at that moment."

ABRIDGE

to shorten, to reduce

reduce in scope while retaining essential elements

lessen, diminish, curtail

SYN - abbreviate, cut

"After having accidently picked up the shortened version of the novel, he was now looking for the unabridged version."

"When Jack arrived for the ceremony he was schocked to learn that the decision had been made to abridge his speech. After reviewing it he realized that although it was shorter it still had all the essential elements."

"He would have to give the President the abridged version of his presentation, due to the limited amount of time."

ABERRANT

deviating form the norm

NOUN - one whose behavior departs substantially from the norm of the group

Syn - deviant, deviate

"Jimmy didnt himself change when he moved to the other side of the town, but while at McKinley he was just another bloke, at Jefferson he was an abberant."

"Such aberrant activity was why so many simple-minded people couldn't handle his presence, it went against the norms they had always known and been comfortable with."

"One day Billy refused to stand for the daily announcements, it was this sort of abberant activity which made the class president, Julie, so oddly attracted to him."

ABERRATION

a deviation from what is normal or natural, an abnormality

a disorder in one's natural state

an optical pehnomenon resulting from the failure of a lense/mirror to produce a good image

"Letting a person like Tony play was an abberration for the group of poker players, it made the place smell like fish."

"What made Jenny the better philosopher and a wiser person is that she was able to incorporate such abberations into her worldview, whereas the strict maxims of Greg and universals couldn't handle these deviations from what is normal or natural."

"The aberration produced when he looked into the mirror made his head spin."

APPROBATION

an expression of praise of approval

official recognition or approval

"If you were really a man you wouldn't need approbation."

"The insecure person understands their self worth as the opinion others have of them, whereas the secure strong man does not need any sort of approbation to know he is great.

"As he grew up it was these small approbations that his parents believed were keeping him on the right track, in reality, these experssions of praise and approval were a crutch which prevented Tim from standing solely on his own two feet."

"He new it was silly but he attended these ceremonies because he couldn't resist the effect these approbations had on his self-esteem."

APOTHEOSIS

deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model of excellence or perfection of a kind

the elevation of a person (as to the status of a God).

SYN - ideal, paragon, saint

"One would be wrong to think that Nietzsche was hoping for some sort of apotheosis, this would mean that he cared about what others thought, that he longed to be revered by fellow humans. The success he had hoped for was an overcoming of one's self. You are the only audience required."

"It was because of his absolutely unamenable attitude and consistent action aligned with the virtues of the rebel movement that Greg had established himself as an apotheosis for these revolutionaries.

APOGEE

farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith

a final climactic point

"This is the moment he had worked for his whole career, the publication of this book was the apogee of his career."

"When the couple reached the apogee of their ascent they looked at eachother and realized this was also the highest point of their lives together."

ANTIPATHY

a long held feeling of dislike or aversion

SYN - distaste

"It didnt matter that he had had it proven to him that she wasn't responsible for his leg injury some twenty years ago, his antipathy was so ingrained that her presence still conjured up strong negative emotions."

ANODYNE

soothing, something that assuages or allays pain or comforts.

SYN - analgesic, painkiller

"the memory of her voice was the only thing that could be an anodyne to his loneliness."

"the only anodyne to a break up such as this is time."

"the problem became apparant to his friends when he stopped drinking casually to kick back in relax, but instead had turned his daily visits to the bar an anodyne to the pains of his depression."

ANATHEMA

a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing

"this notion was anathema to his countrymen" - S. J. Gould

"it was because of this anathema that Charles feared to go anywhere near the church anymore."

"Charles was anathema to these people now and there was nothing he could do about it."

AMORTIZE

to pay off or reduce a debt gradually through periodic payments

"His hope to amortize the 100,000 dollars he owed Tom quickily vanished when he noticed the 400 pound collector was carrying a .45 caliber and a devilish grin."

"One way to pay off your school debts while having money to start a family is to amortize the debts."

AMENABLE

aggreeable; responsive to suggestion

disposed or willing to comply; readily reacting to suggestions and influences; open to being acted upon in a certain way; liable to answer to a higher authority

SYN - tractable, conformable

ANT - defiant, non-compliant

"The face that he was so amenable is what made George a good employee, but also what made him in capable of being a great, powerful, creative force in his field."

"When people speak of my interaction with this terrible government, one thing no-one will ever accuse me of is being amenable."

"To be amenable in a event of such tyranny is to be a coward."

"He was a very amenable fellow, which is why his teacher found it so easy to work with him, but also why his fighting instinct remained unfulfilled."

AMELIORATE

to make better or more tolerable

get better

SYN - amend, better, improve

"There was only one man that had the adroitness to ameliorate this awful situation, and he was 2,000 miles away at this point."

"It was in this wretched terrible moment that he was learning the most about himself and the world, only in this chaos could he really see the truth, but it was too much for his will and his cowardice nature led by self-preservation quickily did everything it could to amerliorate the intolerable situation."

"Although his intentions were to ameliorate his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, every time he made contact with her it seemed to put their relationship in a worse more intolerable condition."

ALLOY

to commingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior

the state of impairing the quality or reducing the value of something

SYN - debase

"With black paint in hand the Joker would alloy the museum's paintings."

"All it took to alloy such a drink was his slight addition of tobasco. Her drink would never win the competition now!!"

ALCHEMY

A medieval science aimed at the trasmuatation of metals into gold

the way two individuals relate to eachother

a power or process of transforming something common into something special

SYN - interpersonal chemistry

"It was by a sort of alchemy that he was hoping to turn the rather worthless heap of material he had inherited into something that he could sell to save the ranch."

"There was an alchemy between the two lovers that no amount of reasoning could contend with."

AFFINITY

A feeling of shared attraction, kinship; a similarity

A close connection marked by comunity of interests or simliarity in nature or character; The force attracting atoms to eachother and binding them together in a molecule; Inherent resemblence between persons or things

SYN - kinship, chemical attraction

"It was due to this affinity that the two made such a great team."

"They had a deep affinity towards eachother."

"The group noticed right away the affinity of this fruit to the nutritious apples they had found earlier."

AFFECTED

false, artificial

acted upon; speaking or behaving in an artificial way to make an impression; being excited or provoked to the expression of an emotion

SYN - unnatural, moved, stirred, touched

ANT - unaffected, unimpressed, uninfluenced, unswayed, untouched, superior

"He had an affected interest in art."

"Even though he appeared genuine and sincere, his interest in anything outside of her body was an affectation."

"Although it was necessary to be affected, it ate away at the politicians soul."

ADUMBRATE

to foreshadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow

give to understand

SYN - insinuate, intimate

"In this first lecture he was hoping only to adumbrate the topics covered in his book.'

"Although the words meant nothing to Tim, it was clear that Joan was attempting to adumbrate an important situation."

"The teacher refused to tell his students step by step the entire meaning of this important work, so this adumbration was all they would get."

"He needed to adumbrate the upcoming school events so that when the students encountered them they would not be in as much shock."

ADMONISH

warn; reprove gently

warn strongly; take to task

SYN - caution

"First they chose just to admonish Junior, but when he continued to do such destructive behavior they were forced to ground him for 3 months."

"She admonished the class about the harm of playing dogdeball in the street during reccess."

ABSTEMIOUS

sparing in eating and drinking; temperate

temperance in indulgence

SYN - light

ANT - gluttonous, hoggish, overgreedy, piggish

"It was his abstemious nature that made him such a good person, but also what made him boring and unattractive."

"In our world where everything is accessible and the lure to live like kings runs rampant, the virtues of being abstemious need to be preached more than ever."

"As she watched her beer-bellied husband devour the last chicken leg she thought how nice it would be if he could be just a little more abstemious"

ABROGATE

to nullify; to abolish

revoke formally

"of course now that they had all the information that they would ever need they abrogated the illegal spying act's"

"I wish to abrogate the anti-smoking regulations, since it is an infringement on our personal rights."

"The once promising rebel leader, has yet to abrogate even one of the many invasive laws of the preivious regime since he has taken power."

/ABATE

to lessen in intensity or degree

become less in amount or intensity

SYN - slack, die away, let up

"He was hoping that the heat would abate soon."

"To abate his workload he had decided to hire a secretary."

/ABEYANCE

a temporary lapse in activity; suspension

"He would wait for an abeyance to approach the beautiful redhead two rows in front of him."

"It was during any abeyance of their formal school activities, that Jared would be hard at the books and try to catch up with his classmates."

ABJURE

to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid

formerly reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure

SYN - recant, retract

"It was a terrible sight seeing their leader abjure from his hardlined belief against the totalitarian regime. Such a heroic man, now, clearly under pressure, recanting and avoiding his long held stance."

"Now that it was no longer popular the demagogue would abjure when his anti-war activities where brought up."

/ABRADE

to irritate by rubbing; to wear down in spirit

SYN - rubdown, corrade, rub off

"Her goal was simple: to abrade the heroic spirit in Ben by continuous rejection. Only she, hils lover and confidant, had the ability to do such evil and wear down the spirit of this great man."

"The only purpose the seatbelt seemed to serve was to abrade the skin on Jeff's neck."