Tough ones from Barrons HF 333

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1.

ameliorate: to improve

39.

opprobrium: a state of extreme dishonor

2.

appropriate: acquire; take possession of for one's own use

40.

platitude: a trite or obvious remark

3.

attenuate: make thin; weaken

41.

prevaricate: (v.) to lie, tell an untruth; to mislead on purpose

4.

austere: severe or stern in manner; without adornment or luxury,

42.

probity: uprightness; honesty; incorruptibility

43.

propitiate: to soothe or satisfy; to appease

5.

burgeon: grow and flourish

44.

qualified: limited or restricted

6.

buttress: (v.) to support, prop up, strengthen; (n.) a supporting

45.

recalcitrant: marked by stubborn resistance to authority

46.

recant: formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually

simple, plain; harsh or sour in flavor

structure
7.

coda: concluding section of a musical or literary composition

8.

cogent: convincing

47.

recondite: difficult to understand; profound

9.

complaisant: trying to please; obliging; willing to please others

under pressure

48.

refractory: stubbornly resistant to authority or control

10.

condone: overlook; forgive; give tacit approval; excuse

49.

reprobate: a person without moral scruples, scoundrel

11.

contrite: extremely apologetic, remorseful, repentant

50.

repudiate: refuse to acknowledge, ratify, or recognize as valid

12.

craven: cowardly; a coward

51.

secrete: hide away or cache; produce and release a substance

13.

deference: courteous regard for people's feelings

14.

desiccate: dry up

15.

desultory: aimless; haphazard; digressing at random

16.

diffuse: to spread or scatter freely or widely; wordy, long-

53.

stint: be thrifty; set limits

winded, or unfocused; scattered or widely spread

54.

striated: marked with parallel bands; grooved

dirge: a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a

55.

torpor: laziness; inactivity; dullness

memorial to a dead person

56.

tortuous: marked by repeated turns and bends

17.

18.

disabuse: correct a false impression; undeceive; free from a

wrong belief

19.

disinterested: unprejudiced; free from bias and self-interest;

objective

20.

dissemble: make believe with the intent to deceive

21.

distend: expand; swell out

22.

divest: strip; deprive

23.

dogmatic: opinionated; holding stubbornly to one's opinion;

arbitrary; doctrinal

24.

eclectic: selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas

25.

effrontery: shameless boldness, impudence

26.

elegy: a mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead

27.

engender: to cause, to produce, to create

28.

facetious: joking (often inappropriately); humorous

29.

fatuous: foolish; inane

30.

felicitous: appropriate, apt, well chosen; marked by well-being

31.

forestall: prevent by taking action in advance

32.

goad: to drive or urge on

33.

gouge: overcharge

34.

inchoate: in an initial stage; not fully formed

35.

inured: made tough by habitual exposure

36.

levity: feeling an inappropriate lack of seriousness

37.

morose: showing a brooding ill humor

38.

obdurate: showing unfeeling resistance to tender feelings

or good fortune, happy

into an organism
52.

specious: seemingly reasonable but incorrect; misleading (often

intentionally)