| A | B |
|---|
| shrew | n. a mouselike animal that eats insects; a bad-tempered, nagging woman |
| lucrative | adj. profitable; producing money or wealth |
| garrulous | adj. talking too much, especially about unimportant things |
| abridge | v. to shorten the number of words; to condense |
| verbose | adj. wordy; using or containing more words than necessary |
| invoke | v. to call upon a higher power for assistance; to ask or appeal for; to call forth |
| finality | n. the quality or condition of being complete or settled; conclusiveness |
| impromptu | adj. without previous thought or preparation; spontaneous |
| supercilious | adj. showing scorn and haughtiness; disdainful; aloof or conceited |
| emendation | n. a correction; a change in a written text |
| intangible | adj. not capable of being touched; not material; vague or not easily defined |
| idiomatic | adj. characteristic of a particular language |
| expletive | n. an oath or exclamation, usually profane; a word with no meaning of its own, used to complete the pattern of a phrase or sentence |
| affable | adj. friendly, cordial, pleasant and easy to talk to; showing friendliness |
| bolster | n. a long, narrow pillow; anything used as a support; v. to prop up, support |
| reciprocate | v. to give, do, or take in return; to move with a backward-forward motion |
| wistful | adj. full of longing; yearning; wishful |
| furor | n. frenzied anger; rage; a public uproar or outburst of indignation; great enthusiasm |
| subterfuge | n. a trick, excuse, or deception used to escape something unpleasant |
| tawdry | adj. gaudy; showy and cheap |
| congenital | adj. present at birth but not hereditary; inborn; having a characteristic so strong as to be part of one’s nature |
| consensus | n. a general agreement or opinion; a majority opinion |
| interminable | adj. endless; occurring over and over again indefinitely |
| sallow | adj. grayish yellow in color; sickly pale |
| repugnant | adj. contradictory; offering resistance; distasteful; disgusting |
| sortie | n. a sudden attack by troops from a defensive position; a single mission of a lone airplane against an enemy |
| betrothed | adj. engaged to be married; n. a person who is engaged to be married |
| intrepid | adj. brave or resolute; showing great courage |
| beneficent | adj. kind; charitable; doing good |
| ambivalent | adj. having mixed, conflicting, or changing emotions or thoughts toward a person or thing |
| supplication | n. the act of asking humbly and earnestly; a prayer; a petition; an entreaty |
| resilient | adj. easily springing back to an original form; flexible; recovering quickly; buoyant |
| factious | adj. causing disunity, dissension, or disputes; quarrelsome |
| autocrat | n. a ruler with unlimited power; a dictator; a domineering person |
| archives | n. a place where public records or historical documents are kept; the records or documents kept in such a place; v. to keep or store such records |
| frustrate | v. to prevent from accomplishing; to cause feelings of discouragement |
| adamant | adj. unbreakable due to hardness; unrelenting; unyielding |
| procrastinate | v. to put off until later; to delay without a good reason |
| antagonize | v. to make an enemy of; to oppose or counteract |
| peremptory | adj. arrogant; allowing no denial or refusal; absolute |
