| A | B |
|---|
| aquisitive | adj. able to get and retain ideas or information; concerned with aquiring wealth and property |
| arrogate | v. to claim or take without right |
| banal | adj. hackneyed, trite, commonplace |
| belabor | v. to work on excessively; to thrash soundly |
| carping | adj. tending to find fault, especially in a petty, nasty, or hairsplitting way; n. petty, nagging criticism |
| coherent | adj. holding or sticking together; making a logical whole; comprehensible, meaningful |
| congeal | v. to change from a solid to a liquid; thicken; to make inflexible or rigid |
| emulate | v. to imitate with the intent of equaling or surpassing the model |
| encomium | n. a formal expression of praise, a lavish tribute |
| eschew | v. to avoid, shun, keep away from |
| germane | adj. relevant, appropriate, apropos, fitting |
| insatiable | adj. so great or demanding as not to be satisfied |
| intransigent | adj. refusing to compromise, irreconiciable |
| invidious | adj. offensive, hateful; tending to cause bitterness and resentment |
| largesse | n. generosity in giving; lavish or bountiful contributions |
| reconnaissance | n. a survey made for purposes; any kind of prelimanary inspection or examination |
| substantiate | v. to establish by evidence; to prove; to give concrete or substantial form to |
| taciturn | adj. habitually silent or quiet, inclined to talk ver little |
| temporize | v. to stall or act evasively in order to gain time, avoid a confrontation, or postpone a decision; to compromise |
| tenable | adj. capable of being held or defended |
| accost | v. to approach and speak to first; to confront in a challenging or aggressive way |
| animadversion | n. a comment indicating strong criticism or dissaproval |
| avid | adj. desirous of something to the point of greed; intensely eager |
| brackish | adj. having a salty taste and unpleasent to drink |
| celerity | n. swiftness, rapidity of motion or action |
| devious | adj. straying or wandering from a straight or direct course; done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way |
| gambit | n. in chess, an opening move that involves risk or sacrifice of a minor piece in order to gain a later advantage; any opening move of this type |
| halcyon | n. a legendary bird identified with the kingfisher; adj. of or relating to the halcyon; calm, peaceful; happy, golden; prosperous, affluent |
| histronic | adj. pertaining ot actors and their techniques; theatrical, artificial; melodramatic |
| incendiary | adj. delibrately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife or rebellion; n. one who delibrately sets fires, arsonist; one who causes strife |
| maelstrom | n. a whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation resembling a whirlpool in violence and destruction |
| myopic | adj. nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment |
| overt | adj. open, not hidden, expressed or revealed in a way that is easily recognized |
| pejorative | adj. tending to make worse; expressing dissaproval or dispragement, derogatory, deprecatory, belittling |
| propriety | n. the state of being proper, appropriateness; pl. standards of what is proper or sociallly acceptable |
| sacrilege | n. improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred |
| summarily | adv. without delay or formality; briefly, concisely |
| suppliant | adj. asking humbly and earnestly; n. one who makes a request humbly and earnestly, a petitioner, suitor |
| talisman | n. an object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish |
| undulate | v. to mvoe in waves or with a wavelike motion; to have a wavelike appearance or form |
