Unit 2 TRUTH

Term/Phrase Definition Example

Liar (n) a person who tells lies Shelley wasn’t a very good liar.

Contradictory (adj) containing or showing a lack of The advice I received was often
agreement between statements, contradictory.
facts, opinions or actions

Fidget (v) to keep moving your body, your Sit still and stop fidgeting!
hands or your feet because you
are nervous, bored, excited, etc.

Deception (n) the act of deliberately making He was accused of obtaining property
someone believe something that by deception.
is not true (= of deceiving them)

Betrayal (n) the act of betraying I saw her actions as a betrayal of my

somebody/something or the fact trust.
of being betrayed

Squirm (v) to move around a lot making The children were squirming
small twisting movements, restlessly in their seats.
because you are nervous,
uncomfortable, etc.

Persistence (n) the fact of continuing to try to do His persistence was finally rewarded
something despite difficulties, when the insurance company agreed
especially when other people are to pay for the damage.
against you and think that you
are being annoying or
unreasonable

Puzzling (adj) making somebody feel confused Deception is one of the most
because they do not understand puzzling aspects of the crime.
something

Sniff out (phrasal to discover where something or His dogs are trained to sniff out
verb) someone is by smelling drugs.

Polygraph (n) a lie detector (= a piece of We use a polygraph for criminals.

equipment that is used, for
example by the police, to find out
if somebody is telling the truth)

Accuracy (n) the state of being exact or They questioned the accuracy of the
correct; the ability to do information in the file.
something with skill and without
making mistakes

Deception (n) the act of deliberately making He was accused of obtaining property
somebody believe something that by deception.
is not true (= of deceiving them)

Implication (n) a possible effect or result of an They failed to consider the wider
action or a decision implications of their actions.

Uncover (v) to discover something that was It will be difficult to uncover the
previously hidden or secret truth.

Motive (n) a reason for doing something There seemed to be no motive for
the murder

Malicious (adj) having or showing a desire to He took malicious pleasure in telling

harm somebody or hurt their me what she had said
feelings, caused by a feeling of
hate

Rival (n) a person, company or thing that The two teams have always been
competes with another in sport, rivals.
business, etc.

Mistress (n) a person's (usually a married It was considered quite normal for a
man’s) mistress is a woman that man to have a mistress.
they have a regular sexual
relationship with and who is not
their wife

Concealment (n) the act of hiding something; the Many animals rely on concealment
state of being hidden for protection.

Obliqueness (n) the quality of being oblique and A kind of humor burbles within this
rambling indirectly obliqueness, a delight in visual play
and possibility.
Maturation (n) the process of becoming or being Making and breaking relationships is
made mature (= ready to eat or part of a young person’s normal
drink after being left for a period maturation.
of time)

Trait (n) a particular quality in your Awareness of class is a typically

personality British trait.

Be associated with if one thing is associated with The risks are associated with
(phrasal verb) another, the two things are taking drugs.
connected because they happen
together or one thing causes the
other

Evolution (n) the slow steady development of Deception is one trait associated with
plants, animals, etc. during the the evolution of higher intelligence.
history of the earth, as they
adapt to changes in their
environment

Primatologist (n) person who studies primates (= At one time he wanted to be a

intelligent mammals including primatologist.
apes, monkeys, and humans)

Hypothesis (n) an idea or explanation of There has been a hypothesis about

something that is based on a few the function of dreams.
known facts but that has not yet
been proved to be true or correct

Predator (n) an animal that kills and eats Some animals have no natural
other animals predators.

Trickery (n) the use of dishonest methods to She clearly suspected some kind of
trick people in order to achieve trickery.
what you want

Manipulation (n) behaviour that controls or Advertising like this is a cynical

influences somebody/something, manipulation of the elderly.
often in a dishonest way so that
they do not realize it

Skullduggery (n) dishonest behaviour or activities The company's apparently healthy

bottom line was merely an illusion,
 the result of years of accounting
skullduggery.

Deceit (n) dishonest behaviour that is Everyone was involved in this web of
intended to make somebody deceit.
believe something that is not true

Cooperation (n) the fact of doing something They offered their cooperation on
together or of working together the project.
towards a shared aim

Cunning (adj) able to get what you want in a He was as cunning as a fox.
clever way, especially by tricking
or cheating somebody

Empirical (adj) based on experiments or Pharmaceutical companies use

experience rather than ideas or empirical research to try out a
theories specific drug on controlled groups or
random groups to study the effect
and cause.

Counselor (n) someone who The college now has a counselor

is trained to listen to people and to help students with
give both personal and work problems.
them advice about their problems

Terminally (adv) If someone is terminally ill, they It's primarily for people who are
have a serious illness and will die terminally ill.
soon

Chemotherapy (n) The treatment of diseases using Chemotherapy is often used in the
chemicals treatment of cancer.

Doom (v) To make someone or something Are we doomed to repeat the

certain to do or experience mistakes of the past?
something unpleasant, or to
make something bad certain to
happen

Anti-terrorism (adj) Intended to prevent or reduce The anti-terrorism team have the
terrorism (= violent acts for equipment to quickly identify chemical
political purposes) or biological agents.

Tax audit (n) An official examination of the The firm handles complex state tax
information that a person or a audits for large companies.
business provides to the tax
authority to check that it is
 accurate and legal

Destabilizing (adj) making a government, area, At first, the trade deal seemed more
or political group lose power or c destabilizing than beneficial.
ontrol, or making
a political or economic situation l
ess strong or safe,
by causing changes and problems

Strip (v) to take something away from About 40,000 people may
someone, sometimes in a way be stripped of their pensions.
that seems unfair or dishonest

Foolproof (adj) (of a plan or machine) This new recipe is supposed to be

so simple and easy to understand foolproof.
that it is unable to go wrong or
be used wrongly

Abolish (v) to end I think bullfighting should be

an activity or custom officially abolished.

Felon (n) a person who is guilty of The felon undermining hand of dark
a serious crime corruption.

Plague (v) to cause worry, pain, Financial problems have been

or difficulty to someone or plaguing their new business partners
something over a period of time .

Morality (n) principles relating to right and Standards of morality seem to be

wrong or good and bad dropping.
behaviour

Raft (n) a flat structure made of pieces of He is on a raft floating down the
wood tied together and used as a river.
boat or floating platform

Abusive (adj) rude and offensive; criticizing He was fined for making abusive
rudely and unfairly comments to the referee.

Trembly (adj) shaking from fear, cold, He feels trembly after all.
excitement

Feverish (adj) showing strong feelings of He worked with feverish haste.

excitement or worry, often with a
lot of activity or quick movements

Conscience (n) the part of your mind that tells He won't let it trouble his
 you whether your actions are conscience.
right or wrong

Get around (phrasal to find a way of dealing with or The committee is looking for ways to
verb) avoiding a problem get around the funding problem.

Be/get in a sweat to be/become anxious or He tends to get in

(phrase) frightened about something a sweat about flying.

Take the tuck out of take the fight of out someone I was paddling off, all in a sweat to
someone (phrase) tell on him, but when he said this, it
seemed to take all the tuck out of
me.

Mean (adj) unkind or unpleasant I felt so mean and miserable I

wished I were dead.

Pretend (v) to behave in a particular way, in I'm tired of having to pretend all the
order to make other people time.
believe something that is not true

Smallpox (n) a serious disease that caused a In 1742 he suffered a fatal attack of
high temperature, left permanent smallpox.
marks on the skin and often
caused death

Mighty (adj) very strong and powerful I feel mighty mean to leave you.

Float (v) to move slowly on water or in the You will get twenty dollars when it
air floats by.