n. treatment; reception; entertainment
E.g. He knelt in front of the emperor with a look of entreaty.
v. list each one; mention one by one
E.g. Huck hung his head in shame as Miss Watson began to enumerate his many flaws.
v. speak distinctly; state or set forth precisely or systematically; pronounce; articulate
E.g. Stop mumbling! How will people understand you if you do not enunciate?.
n. parts or places which surround another place, or lie in its neighborhood; suburbs
E.g. I mounted the vehicle which was to bear me to new duties and a new life in the unknown environs of Millcote.
v. look in the face of; apprehend; consider or regard in a certain way
E.g. It is so warped by regulation that it is hard to envisage what a totally free-market system would be like, or whether it would be better.
n. a person with refined taste, especially in food and wine
E.g. The epicure frequents this restaurant because it features exotic wines and dishes.
n. outer, protective layer of skin of vertebrates
E.g. The thickness of the epidermis varies in different types of skin.
n. witty thought or saying, usually short; short, witty poem expressing a single thought or observation
E.g. The disadvantage of the epigram is the temptation it affords to good people to explain it to the others who are assumed to be too obtuse to comprehend it alone.
n. short speech at conclusion of dramatic work
E.g. The audience was so disappointed in the play that many did not remain to hear the epilogue.
n. a writing directed or sent to a person or persons; a written communication; letter
E.g. Her mother sends her a long epistle every week.
n. word or phrase characteristically used to describe a person or thing
E.g. So many kings of France were named Charles that you could tell one apart only by his epithet: Charles the Wise was someone far different from Charles the Fat.
a. tranquil; not varying; uniform; not easily disturbed
E.g. After the hot summers and cold winters of New England, he found the climate of the West Indies equable and pleasant.
n. calmness of temperament; steadiness of mind under stress.
E.g. Even the inevitable strains of caring for an ailing mother did not disturb Bea's equanimity.
a. be similar or bear likeness to horse; relating to horse
E.g. His long, bony face had an equine look to it.
v. lie; mislead; attempt to conceal the truth
E.g. The audience saw through his attempts to equivocate on the subject under discussion and ridiculed his remarks.
v. completely destroy; eliminate; exterminate
E.g. President Mbeki said that, for the first time in human history, society has the capacity, the knowledge and the resources to eradicate poverty.
a. being an artificial and inferior substitute or imitation
E.g. The ersatz strawberry shortcake tasted more like plastic than real cake.
a. learned; scholarly, with emphasis on knowledge gained from books
E.g. Though his fellow students thought him erudite, Paul knew he would have to spend many years in serious study before he could consider himself a scholar.
v. avoid; refuse to use or participate in; stand aloof from
E.g. Hoping to present himself to his girlfriend as a totally reformed character, he tried to eschew all the vices, especially chewing tobacco and drinking bathtub gin.
v. take in marriage; marry; give one's loyalty or support to; adopt
E.g. She was always ready to espouse a worthy cause.
v. catch sight of; glimpse; discover at a distance
E.g. Amidst a crowd in black clothing, I espy the colorful dress that my friend is wearing.
a. capable of being estimated or valued
E.g. Granby, one of the best connected and most estimable residents in S-, grandson and heir to Sir Frederic Granby: I had the intelligence from her father yesterday.
a. light as air; heavenly; unusually refined
E.g. In Shakespeare's The Tempest, the spirit Ariel is an ethereal creature, too airy and unearthly for our mortal world.
n. disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific person, people, culture, or movement
E.g. Seeing how tenderly ordinary Spaniards treated her small daughter made author Barbara Kingsolver aware of how greatly children were valued in the Spanish ethos.
n. study of historical development of languages, particularly as manifested in individual words
E.g. A knowledge of etymology can help you on many English tests: if you know what the roots and prefixes mean, you can determine the meanings of unfamiliar words.
a. pPleasing or agreeable to ear; having a pleasant sound
E.g. Euphonious even when spoken, the Italian language is particularly pleasing to the ear when sung.
a. fleeting; vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor
E.g. Brandon's satisfaction in his new job was evanescent, for he immediately began to notice its many drawbacks.
v. show or demonstrate clearly; overcome; conquer
E.g. When he tried to answer the questions, I heard he evince his ignorance of the subject matter.
v. raise in rank or dignity; praise
E.g. The queen will exalt the actor Alec Guinness to the rank of knighthood.
n. act of exalting or raising high; state of being exalted; elevation
E.g. His exaltation had but one alloy, and that record in sand was fast washing out, under the waves of happiness that were sweeping over it now.
v. make worse; irritate; make very angry or impatient; annoy greatly
E.g. Johnny brothers often exasperate their mother with pranks.
v. unearth; dig out; make a hole in; hollow out
E.g. The mining company wants to excavate the hill site.
a. open or liable to objection or debate; liable to cause disapproval
E.g. Do you find the punk rock band Green Day a highly exceptionable, thoroughly distasteful group, or do you think they are exceptionally talented performers?.
n. one of the superior courts of law; department of state having charge of the collection and management of the royal revenue
E.g. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the minister in charge of finance in Britain.
v. cut away; cut out; remove by or as if by cutting
E.g. When you excise the dead and dying limbs of a tree, you not only improve its appearance but also enhance its chances of bearing fruit.
v. scold with biting harshness; strip skin off; abrade
E.g. Seeing the holes in Bill's new pants, his mother furiously began to excoriate him for ruining his good clothes.
v. pronounce not guilty of criminal charges
E.g. The court will exculpate him of the crime after the real criminal confesses.
a. very bad; extremely inferiorl; intolerable; very hateful
E.g. The anecdote was in such execrable taste that it revolted the audience.
n. explanation; interpretation, especially of biblical or religious text
E.g. The minister based her sermon on her exegesis of a difficult passage from the book of Job.
v. cause to feel happily refreshed and energetic; fill with emotion
E.g. If this is true, that wine and strong drink have such virtue to expel fear and sorrow, and to exhilarate the mind, let's drink and be merry.