abnegate
2 uses
They went on, in steady single file, the two backs in their rigid abnegation of all compromise more alike than actual blood could have made them.†
abnegation = renunciation (rejection) — often self-denial of luxuries
(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)
(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)
Definition
Generally abnegate means:to renounce or reject
The exact meaning of abnegate can depend upon its context. For example:
- "to abnegate his responsibilities as a father" — to reject or ignore a duty
- "to practice self-abnegation" — to deny oneself (voluntarily give something up such as a luxury)
- "to abnegate her faith" — to reject a belief
- "to abnegate her legal rights" — to give up a claim, title, or position of power
Word Statistics
| Book | 2 uses |
| Library | 0 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 7 |
abrogate
2 uses
Then sweat, heat, mirage, all, rushes fused into a finality which abrogates all logic and justification and obliterates it like fire would: I will not!†
abrogates = formally abolishes (does away with)
Definition
Generally abrogate means:to abolish (do away with) something
Word Statistics
| Book | 2 uses |
| Library | 0 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 13 |
amorous
1 use
The dietitian was twenty-seven—old enough to have to take a few amorous risks but still young enough to attach a great deal of importance not so much to love, but to being caught at it.†
amorous = romantic or sexual
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 6 |
ascetic
1 use
He looks across the desk at the other's still, stubborn, ascetic face: the face of a hermit who has lived for a long time in an empty place where sand blows.†
ascetic = someone who practices self-denial; or something that is severely plain
Definition
Generally ascetic means:someone who practices self-denial (often to encourage spiritual growth); or relating to such self-denial
or:
severely plain (without decoration)
or:
severely plain (without decoration)
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 13 |
askance
1 use
And now, with the hysteria passed away and the ones who had been loudest in the hysteria and even the ones, the heroes who had suffered and served, beginning to look at one another a little askance, he had no one to tell it, to open his heart to.†
askance = with disapproval or distrust; or directed to one side
Definition
Generally askance means:with disapproval, distrust, or suspicion
or:
directed to one side — especially a sideways glance
or:
directed to one side — especially a sideways glance
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 19 |
cessation
1 use
There was no cessation of mirth in that, either.†
cessation = a stopping
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 8 |
consonant
1 use
1 —1 use as in:
consonant or vowel?
...only at wide intervals filled with homesickness for the sheer boards and nails, the earth and trees and shrubs, which composed the place which was a foreign land to her and her people; when she spoke even now, after forty years, among the slurred consonants and the flat vowels of the land where her life had been cast, New England talked as plainly as it did in the speech of her kin who had never left New Hampshire and whom she had seen perhaps three times in her life, her forty years.†
consonants = letters of the alphabet (or a speech sounds) that are not a vowels
Definition
Generally this sense of consonant means:a letter of the alphabet (or a speech sound) that is not a vowel
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 11 |
defunct
1 use
He walked fast, in time to it; he seemed to be aware that the group were negroes before he could have seen or heard them at all, before they even came in sight vaguely against the defunctive dust.†
defunctive = no longer in force; or having ceased to exist or live
(editor's note: The suffix "-ive" converts a word into an adjective; though over time, what was originally an adjective often comes to be used as a noun. The adjective pattern means tending to and is seen in words like attractive, impressive, and supportive. Examples of the noun include narrative, alternative, and detective.)
(editor's note: The suffix "-ive" converts a word into an adjective; though over time, what was originally an adjective often comes to be used as a noun. The adjective pattern means tending to and is seen in words like attractive, impressive, and supportive. Examples of the noun include narrative, alternative, and detective.)
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 5 |
desist
3 uses
He desisted; he seemed to be leaning a little toward the horse.†
desisted = stopped
Definition
Generally desist means:to not do something
Word Statistics
| Book | 3 uses |
| Library | 0 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 9 |
diffident
4 uses
It is not diffidence, shyness.†
diffidence = hesitancy and unassertiveness due to a lack of self-confidence
Definition
Generally diffident means:hesitant and unassertive — often due to a lack of self-confidence
Word Statistics
| Book | 4 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 1 |
dissociate
1 use
He lives dissociated from mechanical time.†
dissociated = ended association with
Definition
Generally dissociate means:end association with
The expression: "dissociate with" means to publicly state one is not associated with someone or something
The expression: "dissociate with" means to publicly state one is not associated with someone or something
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 16 |
effigy
3 uses
He was lying so, on his back, his hands crossed on his breast like a tomb effigy, when he heard again feet on the cramped stairs.†
effigy = a model or other representation
Definition
Generally this sense of effigy means:a model or other representation — typically of a person — often of someone hated, so that it can be mocked an abused
Word Statistics
| Book | 3 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 1 |
epitaph
1 use
They were now briefer than epitaphs and more terse than commands.†
epitaphs = short texts in memory of dead people
Definition
Generally epitaph means:a short text in memory of a dead person — especially text written on a tombstone
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 12 |
exemplify
1 use
It was she who trusted him, who insisted on trusting him as she insisted on his eating: by conspiracy, in secret, making a secret of the very fact which the act of trusting was supposed to exemplify.†
exemplify = to act as an example
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 1000 |
| 1st use | Chapter 7 |
expiate
5 uses
To what I done and what I suffered to expiate it, what you done and are womansuffering ain't no more than a handful of rotten dirt.†
expiate = atone (demonstrate sorrow for a wrong either by doing something good to make up for the wrong, or accepting punishment)
Word Statistics
| Book | 5 uses |
| Library | 0 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 7 |
fatuous
2 uses
He did not even have to be told in words that he had surely found the lost Lucas Burch; it seemed to him now that only crassest fatuousness and imbecility should have kept unaware.†
fatuousness = without intelligence — often implying a smugness or complacency
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
Word Statistics
| Book | 2 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 4 |
flaccid
1 use
Then there seems to come over his whole body, as if its parts were mobile like face features, that shrinking and denial, and Byron sees that the still, flaccid, big face is suddenly slick with sweat.†
flaccid = lacking in firmness or strength
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 0 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 4 |
parsimonious
2 uses
But Joe knew that parsimony had no part in this.†
parsimony = extreme reluctance to spend money or use resources
Word Statistics
| Book | 2 uses |
| Library | 0 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 8 |
quibble
2 uses
I just wanted peace; I paid them their price without quibbling.†
quibbling = arguing (about unimportant things)
Definition
Generally quibble means:to argue about unimportant things; or an argument or complaint about something unimportant
Word Statistics
| Book | 2 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 13 |
sheer
1 use
1 —1 use as in:
sheered to the left
But the horse slowed, sheering into the curb.†
sheering = change direction abruptly; or to cause such a change of direction — (usually said of a boat)
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 0 uses in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 1000 |
| 1st use | Chapter 9 |