5. 100 Top Action Verbs for Mind Games, Mental Panache, Mastermind Monkey Business, Meeting MENSAs, or Just Showing Off
Abnegate
(1) extremely sad; surrender or deny oneself
(2) give up rights; reject; relinquish; renounce;
(3) hopeless; servile
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Scientists, being people of cognitive complexity, must start making their own decisions as to whether what they’re doing adds to human happiness or detracts from it, and not abnegate moral responsibility.”
—Weldon, Fay. “A ‘Profile’ of the Creator,” Washington Post, July 19, 1992.
Collocates to: moral, otherwise, responsibility, serve
Abrogate
(1) abolish; get rid of; negate; nullify by authority; repeal
—Harlan Ellison, American writer (1934–)
(1) “The reports of Kim Jong Eun’s base visits follow more than a week of aggressive rhetoric from Pyongyang, which on Monday said it had abrogated the 1953 armistice that suspended the Korean War...”
—Gale, Alastair. “Kim’s Visit to Bases Raises Tensions,” Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2013.
(1) He should not abrogate that responsibility, which is inherent to the Chairman of the Board.
Collocates to: contracts, laws, rights, states, treaties
Abjure
(1) disown; reject or disavow a previously held belief or view usually under pressure or oath; renounce or turn one’s back on a position once held; repudiate; to formally recant
(2) foreswore; give up one’s rights under oath; profess to abandon; reject; renounce
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Foreign-born individuals who want to become U.S. citizens must take an oath of allegiance in which they swear to absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty.
(1) “Criticism of the King, let us begin with the colonists’ criticism of monarchy, for this also furnishes us with a commentary about how men in a republican democracy should embrace civility and abjure hypermasculinity. Thomas Paine delivered the most incisive criticisms against monarchic rule. Paine denied that kings began from ‘an honorable origin,’ (n222) for theirs is founded on an arrogant and dangerous masculinity.”
—Kang, John M. “Manliness and the Constitution,” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Volume 32, Issue 1, Winter 2009: pg. 261–332.
Collocates to: allegiance, forced, renounced, should, sort, test
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) In the early days of fire insurance, the insurance companies also ran fire houses and would sometimes show up at a fire. If the burning home wasn’t a policyholder, the fire brigade would try to sell a policy. If the policy couldn’t be sold, many instances the fire brigade would absquatulate, leaving the building to burn.
Abjure
(1) disavow or reject a formerly held belief; swear off or to foreswear something
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “‘I abjure you,’ Alcide said. Colonel Flood winced, and young Sid, Amanda, and Culpeper looked both astonished and impressed, as if there were a ceremony they’d never thought to witness. ‘I see you no longer, I hunt with you no longer. I share flesh with you no longer.’”
—Charlaine Harris in the Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead to the World, New York: Berkley Publishing, 2004.
(1) “I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.”
—Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, and musician (1452–1519)
Collocates to: allegiance, forced, renounced, sort, test
Acquiesce
(1) accept; agree; assent; comply with passively; concede; concur; consent; give in; go along with; submit; yield
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence.”
—Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. President (1856–1924)
(1) “Men acquiesce in a thousand things, once righteously and boldly done, to which, if proposed to them in advance, they might find endless objections.”
—Robert Dale Owen, American politician (1801–1877)
Collocates to: choice, compelled, council, demands, forced, must, refused, quietly
Adumbrate
(1) foreshadow; give a general description of something but not the details; obscure; overshadow; predict; prefigure; presage; summary
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The global political troubles adumbrated an eventual world-wide economic recession.
(1) It is never good for a manager to adumbrate news of a partial layoff to just a few employees.
Agglomerate
(1) accumulate; cluster; gather together; jumbled collection
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Common property campesino communities fit very uncomfortably in the neoliberal discourse, but in the Mexican context, ejidos and comunidades agrarias are irrevocable, at least in the short and medium term. The reformers, therefore, also created new legal mechanisms for private capital to associate with common property through joint ventures, made it easier to agglomerate land within ejidos, and established new mechanisms for associations of individuals within ejidos and comunidades to exploit common properties (Wexler and Bray 1996; Cornelius and Myhre 1998; World Bank 1995, 69).”
—Koolster, Dan. “Campesinos and Mexican Forest Policy During the Twentieth Century,” Latin American Research Review, Volume 38, Issue 2, 2003: pg. 94.
(2) correct a deficiency or defect; take action that makes up for one’s negative or improper actions; to make right a wrong
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Kathy demonstrated her strength of character by ameliorating the errors in the project that she caused before anyone else discovered them.
(1) Phillip ameliorated the issues in the business plan prior to the meeting with the investors.
(1) “For more than 100 years, psychologists have attempted, with modest success, to ameliorate mental problems from depression to low intelligence by changing patients’ attitudes and by exploring their childhood angst. Now, pharmacological approaches are used, also with only moderate success. Recent evidence suggests a more fruitful path tied to the fact that human behavior—sexual orientation, alcoholism, intelligence, the propensity for violence—has a genetic component.”
—Nemko, Marty. “Choosing the Career Path Less Traveled: Many Jobs Look Great on the Big Screen,” U.S. News & World Report, Volume 146, Issue 4, May 1, 2009: pg. 22.
Collocates to: conditions, economic effects, efforts, help, might, prevent, problems
Analyze
(1) consider; dissect; evaluate; examine; explore; interpret; investigate; probe; question; scrutinize; study
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Randi analyzed the situation from all positions before making her decision.
(1) Rick will be given the responsibility of analyzing the impact of the new quotas on the sales department’s budget.
(1) “You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success—or are they holding you back?”
—W. Clement Stone, American author (1902–2002)
(1) “There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings.”
—Dorothy Thompson, American writer (1893–1961)
(1) “The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, lecturer, and essayist (1803–1882)
Collocates to: ability, collect, data, evaluate, identify, information, results, sample, situation, used
Anodyne
(1) capable of showing comfort; eliminating pain
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Illusion is an anodyne, bred by the gap between wish and reality.”
—Herman Wouk, American author (1915–)
Collocates to: connotations, dominance, imagined, less, making, nothing, rather
Articulate
(1) convey; enunciate; express thoughts, ideas, or feelings coherently; pronounce; put into words; say; speak clearly; speech; utter
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “For the past 30 years, a group of social scientists around the world—from pioneers like Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, at the University of Rochester, to a new generation of scholars such as Adam Grant, at Wharton—have articulated a more subtle view of what motivates people in a variety of settings, including work.”
—Pink, Daniel. “A Radical Prescription for Sales,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 2012: pg. 77.
(1) “Leaders articulate a lucid sense of purpose, create effective leadership teams, prioritize, and sequence their initiatives carefully, redesign organizational structures to make good execution easier, and most importantly, integrate these tactics into one coherent strategy.”
—Wheeler, Steven, Walter McFarland, and Art Kleiner. “A Blueprint for Strategic Leadership,” Strategy+Business, Issue 49, Winter 2007: pg. 46.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) I won’t arrogate to teach you about life.
(1) He is the type of man who will arrogate, assume, and ascribe such powers to himself.
Assuage
(1) appease; erase doubts and fears; mollify; pacify; satisfy; soothe
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Judy was extremely annoyed, angry, and fearful that Tom showed up unannounced. She had previously kept him away by a restraining order and to avoid further trouble and to assuage her, Tom left.
(1) I worked to assuage my own guilt over the incident.
(1) “I’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.”
—Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788–1860)
Collocates to: anger, anguish, anxiety, concerns, consciences, curiosity, doubt, fears, feelings, guilt, hunger, hurt, loneliness, pride, worries
Augur
(1) betoken; bode; divine; forebode; foreshadow; foretell; portend; predict
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The improved weather augured for a better hunting season.
(1) A growing third-party movement is auguring for a far greater voter turnout in the next election.
(1) “These readings augur well in the very near term for supportive bond price action. We, however, still look for core inflation to tick up modestly and for overall labor market conditions to improve gradually.”
—Chris Sullivan, chief investment officer at the United Nations Federal Credit Union and UNFCU Financial Advisors
Collocates to: does, future, might, not, poorly, well
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Some philosophers aver that both moral blame and legal responsibility should be based on prior behavior.
(1) President Bill Clinton averred that he smoked grass in college but did not inhale.
(1) “The anti-reformer is Chuck Schumer, the Senator from Wall Street, New York, who averred at the National Press Club last week that his party will have nothing to do with tax reform of the kind that Ronald Reagan negotiated with Democrats in 1989, or that the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission proposed in 2010, or that the Gang of Six Senators have been working on. It’s Chuck’s way or no way.”
—“Schumer to Tax Reform: Drop Dead,” editorial, Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2012.
(1) “I know the thing that’s most uncommon
(Envy be silent and attend!);
I know a reasonable woman,
Handsome and witty, yet a friend.
Not warped by passion, awed by rumor,
Not grave through pride, or gay through folly;
An equal mixture of good humor
And sensible soft melancholy.
‘Has she no faults, then (Envy says), sir?’
Yes, she has one, I must aver:
When all the world conspires to praise her,
The woman’s deaf, and does not hear.”
—Alexander Pope, British poet, taken from “On a Certain Lady at Court” (1688–1744)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The Play, “Death of a Salesman” could have easily been subtitled “the end of one man’s bafflegab.”
Be Argus-eyed
(1) In Greek mythology, Argus was a giant with one hundred eyes, each looking in a different direction. Argus was employed by the goddess Hera as a watchman to guard the nymph Io. Zeus had Argus killed by Hermes so he could pursue his passionate love, Io.
(2) having keen eyes; keenly watchful for danger; sleepless; vigilant; wary; watchful; wide awake
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(2) Corporate espionage costs firms billions of dollars, so it is imperative that all employees be Argus-eyed and report any suspicious activity.
Belie
(1) disprove; to give false impression or to contradict
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The small, unassuming building belied the global Internet business that was taking place inside.
(1) “Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.”
—Tom Clancy, American novelist (1947–)
(1) “Our very hopes belied our fears, our fears our hopes belied—we thought her dying when she slept, and sleeping when she died!”
—Thomas Hood, English poet and humorist (1799–1845)
Collocates to: fact, image, notion, numbers, seem, words
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Labor also has started to bifurcate, as minimum-wage workers have begun to see their interests as distinct from—and often opposed to—those of relatively well-paid unionized workers in industry and the public sector.”
—Armijo, Leslie Elliott. “Inflation and Insouciance: The Peculiar Brazilian Game,” Latin American Research Review, Volume 31, Issue 3, 1996: pg. 7, 40p.
(1) “We bifurcate the society, with people who are so-called ‘smart’ getting pushed toward book learning, and everyone else getting pushed toward the trades. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the guys who owned things wore suits, and the guys who ran the lathes wore work clothes. If an engineer wanted something made, he’d draw it and give the drawing to a machinist who then made it. I wanted to be the guy who designed it and made it.”
—Sulkis, Brian. “Oakland: Sculpting a Hands-on Life,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 2005: pg. F1.
Collocates to: expressed, margining, may, occurrence, or, terminology
Blandish
(1) cajole; coax; induce or persuade by gentle flattery; influence
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A leader most likely would not attempt to blandish a follower into accepting his point of view but rather resort to the use of influence.
(1) When Susan stood and brandished the by-laws, everyone knew the executive session was going to be a long one.
Bloviate
(1) speak pompously and at length; to hold forth in a pompous self-centered way; to orate verbosely
(1) To bloviate is not recommended when you are among experts on the current topic.
(1) “Warren Harding invented the word ‘normalcy’, and the lesser known ‘bloviate’ meaning one imagines, to spout, to spew aimless verbiage.”
—John Ashbery, U.S. poet and critic (1927–)
Bowdlerize
(1) censor; edit; expurgate; remove obscenity or other inappropriate content
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “John Nance Garner, FDR’s first vice president, famously said ‘the job of second-in-command wasn’t worth a warm bucket of spit.’ Well, that’s not exactly what Garner said, but in an era before hot microphones, newspapermen were kind enough to bowdlerize it for him.”
—Mark Hemingway, American writer for The Washington Examiner
Bullyrag
(1) dominate; force into agreement or compliance; intimidate
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) It was the kind of neighborhood in which it was standard practice for young teens to be bullyragged into joining a street gang.
Cachinnate
(1) laugh convulsively or hard; laugh loudly or immoderately
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “He looked in at the door and snickered, then in at the window, then peeked down from between the rafters and cachinnated till his sides must have ached.”
—John Burroughs, American author of A Bed of Boughs (1837–1921)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I am not to order the Natural Sympathies of my own Breast, and of every honest breast to wait until the Tales and all the anecdotes of the Coffeehouses of Paris and of the dissenting meeting houses of London are scoured of all the slander of those who calumniate persons, that afterwards they may murder them with impunity. I know nothing of your Story of Messalina. What, are not high Rank, great Splendour of descent, great personal Elegance and outward accomplishments ingredients of moment in forming the interest we take in the misfortunes of Men?”
—Bromwich, David. “The Context of Burke’s Reflections,” Social Research, Volume 58, Issue 2, Summer 1991: pg. 313–354.
Collocates to: afterwards, person, slander, that, those, who
Cavil
(1) quibble; raise petty and irritating objections; trivial and frivolous objection
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The lawyers never caviled throughout the entire proceedings.
(1) “Bluster, sputter, question, cavil; but be sure your argument be intricate enough to confound the court.”
—William Wycherley, English dramatist of the Restoration period (1640–1715)
Cogitate
(1) consider; deliberate; meditate; muse; ponder; reflect; ruminate
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “While I thus cogitate in disquiet and perplexity, half submerged in dark waters of a well in an Arabian oasis, I suddenly hear a voice from the background of my memory, the voice of an old Kurdish nomad: If water stands motionless in a pool it grows stale and muddy, but when it moves and flows it becomes clear: so, too, man in his wanderings. Whereupon, as if by magic, all disquiet leaves me. I begin to look upon myself with distant eyes, as you might look at the pages of a book to read a story from them; and I begin to understand that my life could not have taken a different course. For when I ask myself, ‘What is the sum total of my life?’ something in me seems to answer, ‘You have set out to exchange one world for another—to gain a new world for yourself in exchange for an old one which you never really possessed.’ And I know with startling clarity that such an undertaking might indeed take an entire lifetime.”
—Muhammad Asad, journalist, traveler, writer (Road to Mecca), social critic, linguist, thinker, reformer, diplomat (1900–1992)
Concatenate
(1) integrate; link together; unite or join in a series or chain
Concinnate
(1) show skill and harmony especially in a literary work; to show an elegant arrangement
Confabulate
(1) chat, converse, or talk informally
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau—If birds confabulate or no?”
—William Cowper, English poet (1731–1800)
Conflagrate
(1) enflame; enkindle; ignite; kindle; start to burn
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “In fact, she was the one who got him the job with Janus. And he’s the one who’s supposed to investigate this. Dammit. By the time Rebecca arrived at the refinery, the automatic fire-suppression systems had dealt with the resultant conflagration—which barely had a chance to conflagrate. The different section chiefs started reporting in that their sections were okay, with the obvious exception of Yinnik regarding the refinery. One of T’Lis’s assistants said the computer core was fine.”
—DeCandido, Keith R. A. A Singular Destiny, NY: Pocket Books, Edition: 1st Pocket Books paperback ed. 2009.
Confute
(1) prove to be false; refute
(2) make useless
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Certain terms referring to emotion do not translate across cultures. ‘They have a word for it that we lack.’ Or, ‘they’ use a word that seems to mean something like our word, but just don’t apply it in the same way. English lacks a clear translation for the Malaysian term marah—a word that to English speakers seems to confute anger and envy.”
—Eaton, Marcia Muelder. “Instilling Aesthetic Values.” Arts Education Policy Review, Volume 95, Issue 2, November/December: pg. 30.
Conjure
(1) appeal; beg; make earnest or urgent appeal
(2) bring or summon into being as by magic
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) She conjured him to give up the life of drugs.
(2) “No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human beast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.”
—Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding father
of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)
Connote
(1) imply meanings or ideas beyond the explicit meaning; suggest or convey a meaning
(2) involve as a condition or accompaniment
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Hal Rothman explained how Las Vegas was built on industries of vice by offering visitors something they could not have at home, and it thus took on the label of ‘Sin City.’ Las Vegas, he wrote, ‘is a code for self-indulgence and sanctioned deviance’ (2002, xviii). Indeed, ‘vice’ is common in the local vernacular in reference to the activities for which the city is known. Of course, ‘vice’ and ‘sin’ connote different things to different religions and cultures.”
—Rowley, Rex. “Religion in Sin City,” Geographical Review, Volume 102, Issue 1, January 2012: pg. 76–92.
Collocates to: came, differently, does, names, necessarily, status, term, uses
Coruscate
(1) brilliant in style; flashy; showy; sparkle
Cross the Rubicon
(1) decision that cannot be reversed; die is cast; no turning back; pass a point of no return; take the plunge
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A great statesman crosses the Rubicon without considering the depth of the river. Once he or she declares to cross it they must face any challenges and risks during the journey. Fretting on the shore won’t make the dangers go away.”
—Chang Dal-Joong, Korea JoongAng Daily
Debauch
(1) corrupt; debase; degrade; deprave; lead astray morally; lower in character; ruin
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.”
—Vladimir Lenin, Russian Communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist (1870–1924)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The fact that I couldn’t recall the last name of even one of our daughter’s so-called friends made me feel guiltier than ever. How can you call yourself a good mother, I could already hear the police declaim, when you don’t even know who your daughter’s friends are?”
—Fielding, Joy. Missing Pieces, NY: Bantam Books, 1997.
Collocates to: against, banners, here, honeyed, now-grown, orations, scantly, soliloquy, vainly
Deign
(1) condescend; lower oneself; unsuitable role for one’s position
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) She would not deign to discuss the matter in a public forum.
(1) “Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, and pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar’s life assail—Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.”
—Samuel Johnson, English writer (1709–1784)
Collocates to: answer, did, does, even, give, look, notice, themselves, would
Demur
(1) balk; be reluctant; doubt; express doubts; object on the grounds of scruples; protest; raise objections; voice opposition to
(2) delay decision or action because of doubts
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Those more likely to demure would probably be older and more conservative.
Collocates to: accepted, carried, does, felt, made, surely, tried, without
(2) play a melody or part different than the main
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “These to their nests,
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;
She all night long her amorous descant sung.”
—John Milton, English poet, polemicist, scholar, and author of Paradise Lost (1608–1674)
(1) “The police amusingly descant on these jottings: ‘I can’t believe he’d ever write a sentence like ‘I shall be compelled to take steps to silence you!’”
—Christopher Buckley, “The Chekhov of Coldsands-on-Sea,” New York Times, November 16, 1997.
Descry
(1) catch sight of something others missed; discern something difficult to catch sight of; notice; see what other’s miss
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “All that you may achieve or discover you will regard as a fragment of a larger pattern of the truth which from the separate approaches every true scholar is striving to descry.”
—Abbott L. Lowell, American educator and legal scholar (1856–1943)
“I descried a sail.”
—Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet, and cleric (1167–1745)
Devolve
(1) become someone else’s obligation; pass on to a deputy or successor; transfer to another
(2) deteriorate
—Dalai Lama, Tibean, high lama in the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism (1935–)
(1) “When a detailed prototype was built, the discussion rapidly devolved into arguments. Everyone kept saying ‘why doesn’t it have this feature or that feature?’ One participant said the haggling went on for years.”
—Leonardi, Paul. “Early Prototypes Can Hurt a Team’s Creativity,” Harvard Business Review, December 2011: pg. 28.
Collocates to: authority, into, power, responsibility, soon, upon
Discomfit
(1) confuse; deject; disconcert; foil; frustrate; mix-up; thwart
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The protesters can continue to argue, but their points will not discomfit me—my mind is made up.
Divagate
(1) digress; diverge; lose clarity; stray; turn aside from the main point; wander off the ranch
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) It is important for the speaker to not divagate from the critical point with too many side issues.
Drink from the waters of the River Lethe
(1) have no memory of something; to be in oblivion; to forget absolutely
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) In Virgil’s Aeneid, the souls of the dead drank from the waters of the River Lethe to erase the traces of their past lives before they could be born again into new bodies.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) His soothing tone dulcified the rising panic within the crowd.
Educe
(1) come to a conclusion; derive; evoke; solve a problem based on thoughtful consideration of facts
(2) deduce; draw out; elicit; infer
(3) bring out or develop; elicit from
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “In other words, apartheid becomes shorthand for the most egregious instances of systemic and overt racism that necessarily and automatically educe (or should educe) severe international condemnation.”
—Editors. “The Ethnicity of Caste,” Anthropological Quarterly, Volume 78, Issue 3, Summer 2005: pg. 543–584, 42p.
Edify
(1) educate; enlighten; illuminate; improve; inform; instruct; teach
(2) to uplift morally, spiritually, or intellectually
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) To edify students is one of the most important goals of a teacher.
Effectuate
(1) bring about; cause or accomplish something; effect
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “...opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency...”
—Morris J. MacGregor Jr., Integration of the Armed Forces (1940–1965)
(1) “...when it is such as we have been more accustomed to contemplate. This opinion is indeed plausible at the first view, because it may be said that we go half-way to meet that Author, who proposeth to reach an end by means which have an apparent probability to effectuate it; but it will appear upon reflection, that this very circumstance, instead of being serviceable, is in reality detrimental...”
—John Ogilvie, Scottish Roman Catholic Jesuit martyr and author of “An Essay on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients” (1579–1615)
Collocates to: able, design, intent, justice, necessary, policy, purpose
Elucidate
(1) clarify; explain to make something clear; explicate; expose; expound; illuminate; lucid; reveal; throw light on it
(1) “The recognition of dynamic urban spatial restructuring enables two significant actions for sustainability. First, understanding the urban historical geography of a city allows the contemporary investigator to identify key points or moments in the past where opportunities in the development path might have enabled or enhanced sustainability options. And second, once those past points or moments are recognized and appreciated, they might help elucidate current or future opportunities for sustainability planning efforts.”
—Solecki, William D. and Robim M. Leichenko. “Urbanization and the Metropolitan Environment: Lessons from New York and Shanghai,” Environment, Volume 48, Issue 4, May 2006: pg. 8–23, 16p.
Collocates to: help, further nature, needed, order, relationship, research, role, study
Envisage
(1) create a mental picture; envision; foresee; form an image in the mind; imagine; visualize
(2) confront; face
—Tiger Woods, American pro golfer (1975–)
(1) “Running for President is physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually the most demanding single undertaking I can envisage unless it’s World War III.”
—Walter F. Mondale, American politician, lawyer, and U.S. Vice President (1928–)
Collocates to: ability, difficult, impossible, situation, seems
Eschew
(1) abstain; avoid; distain; give up; have nothing to do with; keep away from; shun; steer clear of; turn your back on
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Sandra eschewed vendors that gave even a hint that bribes were part of their plan.
(1) In today’s reform-minded political climate, elected officials are eschewing lobbyists with poor reputations.
(1) “An important part of Chief Executive Ron Johnson’s Strategy at JC Penney has been to eschew sales and promotions in favor of everyday low prices.”
—Lahart, Justin. “Penney Must Endure Pain Before Gain,” Wall Street Journal Money & Investing, November 9, 2012.
(1) “In their own ways, Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama embody the obsessions of modern liberalism. Each holds an advanced Ivy League degree. Each believes he would make better choices for others than they could for themselves. Each has consequently eschewed the gradual and modest—the unglamorous improvements that might have better prepared Staten Island, for a dangerous storm.”
—McGurn, William. “Sandy and the Failures of Blue-Statism,” Wall Street Journal, November 6, 2012.
(2) deprive of strength; weaken
(3) blanch or bleach by depriving of sunlight
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Sitting indoors playing games and becoming addicted to social media can easily lead one to appear etiolated.
Evince
(1) reveal or indicate the presence of a particular feeling or condition; show plainly
(2) indicate; make manifest without a doubt
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1”) “Most community colleges evince a strong interest in how their various publics view their program offerings. However, for an organization like a community college, both shaping and changing an image are difficult tasks.”
—Cowles, Deborah. “Understanding and Measuring the Public’s Image of a Community College,” Community College Review, Volume 18, Issue 4, Spring 1991: pg. 21.
Excogitate
(1) contrive; devise; discover; find; invent; study or think something through carefully and in detail
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “By evening, there were still groups fighting in the outlying neighborhoods. Fires and looting were involved and a certain amount of gunfire. Nobody could say when it began to quieten, but by nine P.M. the streets were silent and the fires had been extinguished. White billowy clothes, sheets mainly, blew around the streets for a few days before they were all picked up. Need I excogitate upon this?”
—Wightman, Wayne. “A Foreign Country,” Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume 115, Issue 6; December 2008: pg. 7, 31p.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I’m disappointed we won’t get the witnesses, because they exculpate my client.”
—Frank Dunhan, American lawyer (1946–2006)
Collocates to: also, any, client, defendants, people, responsibility
Execrate
(1) hate; regard with extreme dislike; swear; use profane language
(2) curse or call evil down upon
(3) be contemptuous of; denounce scathingly; speak abusively of
(4) abhor; detest; loathe
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Whenever we encounter the Infinite in man, however imperfectly understood, we treat it with respect. Whether in the synagogue, the mosque, the pagoda, or the wigwam, there is a hideous aspect which we execrate and a sublime aspect which we venerate. So great a subject for spiritual contemplation, such measureless dreaming—the echo of God on the human wall!”
—Victor Hugo, French romantic poet, novelist, and dramatist (1802–1885)
Expatiate
(1) cover a wide scope of topics; elaborate
(2) add details to an account or an idea
(3) roam or wander freely
(4) speak or write in great detail
—Herman Melville, American author of Moby Dick (1819–1891)
(1) “When people are too well off they always begin to long for something new. And so it came to pass, that the bird, while out one day, met a fellow bird, to whom he boastfully expatiated on the excellence of his household arrangements. But the other bird sneered at him for being a poor simpleton, who did all the hard work, while the other two stayed at home and had a good time of it. For, when the mouse had made the fire and fetched in the water, she could retire into her little room and rest until it was time to set the table. The sausage had only to watch the pot to see that the food was properly cooked, and when it was near dinnertime, he just threw himself into the broth, or rolled in and out among the vegetables three or four times, and there they were, buttered, and salted, and ready to be served. Then, when the bird came home and had laid aside his burden, they sat down to table, and when they had finished their meal, they could sleep their fill till the following morning: and that was really a very delightful life.”
—Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859) Grimm, German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors, The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage
(1) “Robert E. Lee was generally described as antislavery. This assumption rests not on any public position he took but on a passage in an 1856 letter to his wife. The passage begins: ‘In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages.’”
—Blount, Roy. “Making Sense of Robert E. Lee,” Smithsonian, Volume 34, Issue 4, July 2004: pg. 58, 8p, 2c, 6bw.
Expiate
(1) apologize; atone; make amends; make up; pay the penalty for; redress; suffer
—Andrew Lang, Scottish poet, novelist (Arabian Nights), literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology (1844–1912)
(1) “Thou whose injustice hath supplied the cause that makes me quit the weary life I loathe, as by this wounded bosom thou canst see how willingly thy victim I become, let not my death, if haply worth a tear, cloud the clear heaven that dwells in thy bright eyes; I would not have thee expiate in aught the crime of having made my heart thy prey; but rather let thy laughter gaily ring and prove my death to be thy festival.”
—Miguel Cervantes, Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright (1546–1616) Don Quixote
(1) “Some Republicans remain terminally uncomfortable with issues involving race. One can still find those who regard black Americans as a group apart—poor, exotic, faintly criminal, and not fully equipped for life in polite society. In the grips of remorse, these Republicans act like white liberals: anxious, guilt-besotted, stricken by low self-esteem. They try to expiate their sins by behaving like what Peggy Noonan once called ‘low-rent Democrats.’”
—Snow, Tony. “The Race Card,” New Republic, Volume 207, Issue 25, December 14, 1992: pg. 17–20, 3p.
Collocates to: against, desire, helped, sins, guilt
Explicate
(1) analyze logically; clarify; elucidate; explain; illuminate; interpret; make clear; spell out; write about something at great length
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The business plan components should explicate both the vision and mission of the firm.
(1) The term explicate means tell the whole truth. Make it plain to the reader and don’t leave anything out; but also don’t leave anything implied.
Collocates to: cognition, findings, issues, orders, plans, social behavior, text
(2) to reason with someone earnestly, objecting to that one’s actions or intentions
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The generous nature of Safie was outraged by this command; she attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left her angrily, reiterating his tyrannical mandate.”
—Mary Shelley, English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer (1797–1851), Frankenstein
(1) “Caroline drew in a breath to expostulate, then let it out again slowly as the necessity for realism overtook her.”
—Perry, Anne. Farriers’ Lane, NY: Fawcett Crest, 1993.
Flummox
(1) bewildered; confounded; in mystery
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Flummoxed by Failure or Focused”
—Bain, Ken. “Headlines,” Wall Street Journal Review, July 14, 2012: pg. C3.
(1) Some new digital applications can flummox even the savviest mobile users.
Fulminate
(1) expel; explode; turn against
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I confess that I do not see what good it does to fulminate against the English tyranny while the Roman tyranny occupies the palace of the soul.”
—James Joyce, Irish novelist and poet (1882–1941)
(1)“He lets other fulminate on his behalf while he maintains his gentlemanly demeanor.”
—Sandomir, Richard. “Cablevision’s Dolan Makes the Deal Only When He’s Ready,” New York Times, December 6, 1998.
Gainsay
(1) contradict; deny; dispute; refuse to believe or grant the truth of something
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) She was a founding member of the religion, yet the church leaders wanted her to gainsay her faith.
Glaver
(1) babble; complement excessively; flatter; jabber; prate; wheedle
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Here many, clepid filosophirs, glaver diversely.”
—John Wycliffe, English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer, and university teacher at Oxford University (1328–1384)
(1) “Yon glavering idiot has long ears to match his long tongue.”
—George W. Gough, author of The Yeoman Adventurer (1873–Unknown)
Gorgonize
(1) paralyze or mesmerize with one’s looks or personality; petrify or stupefy with a look
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Gorgonised me from head to foot with a stony British stare.”
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland (1809–1892)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) You will need to hie through the areas with little traffic if you plan to arrive on time.
Imbricate
(1) cover; overlap in layers
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Imbricate the roof tiles.
Immure
(1) build into a wall; confine someone; detain; enclose; jail; imprison; incarcerate; intern; put someone in a place with no escape; seclude; shut away; shut in
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “He who possesses the divine powers of the soul is a great being, be his place what it may. You may clothe him with rags, may immure him in a dungeon, may chain him to slavish tasks. But he is still great.”
—William Ellery Channing, American moralist, Unitarian clergyman, and author (1780–1842)
(1) “Few go to college, effectively sentencing most of them, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg tells the filmmakers, to lives of penury. And women are reared to become Jewish mothers, again and again and again. To outsiders, this is degrading; to Hasidim, it is exalting. ‘After 100 years who’s going to remember who ran Westinghouse, and who cares?’ explains Ms. Abromowitz, the haberdasher. ‘Your children will be a legacy forever.’ Of course, the Hasidim cannot immure themselves completely; the film is filled with scenes of them riding the subway, reading English-language newspapers, walking past X-rated-video stores.”
—Margolick, David. “Opening a Window on Hasidism,” New York Times, July 20, 1997.
(2) accuse; allege; assert; challenge; charge; cite; implicate
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Steve Jobs wanted customers to have a tactile experience when opening the box of an iPhone or iPad. Sometimes Jobs used the design of a machine to ‘impute’ a signal rather than to be merely functional.”
—Isaacson, Walter. “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs,” Harvard Business Review, April 2012: pg. 98.
Inculcate
(1) impress a belief or idea on someone by repeating it over and over again until the idea is accepted
(2) teach by persistent urging
(3) implant ideas through constant admonishing
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “When schools fail to inculcate American values, giving short shrift to the history of the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and the American Civil Rights Movement, while emphasizing the history of Africa, Latin America, or Asia, they are severing the ties that bind Americans together in the name of diversity.”
—Braceras, Jennifer. “Not Necessarily in Conflict: Americans Can Be Both United and Culturally Diverse,” Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Volume 29, Issue 1, Fall 2005: pg. 27–32, 6p.
(1) “As a researcher, I am interested in the behavior of digital natives. The question of privacy—even the illusion of it—does not appear to be a concern. Research indicates that the early inculcation to a digital interface (for example, children using iPads) may result in people never even thinking about privacy.”
—Lee Sr., Jim, Knowledge Management practice leader. “The Best Leaders Have Short Resumes,” Harvard Business Review, December 2012: pg. 19.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Politicians are aiming to ingratiate themselves with Hispanics.”
—Meadows, Bob. “Race (Still) Matters,” Essence, Volume 41, Issue 7; November 2010: pg. 132, 5 p.
(1) “No book is perfect. But Sleeper’s citation of minor mistakes, especially when accompanied by his crude and pejorative ideological labeling, is where the real dishonesty resides. His effort represents one of the more unfortunate things a book critic can do: use a review to ingratiate himself with a certain ideological camp or to be more strongly identified with that camp’s views.”
—Anonymous. “Letter to the Editors,” in response to “The Next Generation of Technology: 35 Innovators under 35,” The Washington Monthly, July/August 2011.
Collocates to: herself, himself, myself, themselves, trying, with
Interlard
(1) diversify; insert something different; interpolate; interpose; intersperse; intertwine; interweave; introduce; mix together; vary, punctuate, or interrupt speech or writing by interspersing contrasting material
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) His speech pattern was colorful because he interlarded it with metaphors, similes, and quirky but interesting idioms.
Inveigle
(1) convince or persuade someone through trickery deception, dishonesty, or flattery
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Former President Clinton had a scheme to inveigle several big insurance firms to cover his legal costs of impeachment.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “There has rarely been a starker juxtaposition of evil and innocence than the moment George W. Bush received the news about 9/11 while reading the Pet Goat with second graders in Sarasota, Florida.”
—Padgett, Tim. “The Interrupted Reading: The Kids with George W. Bush on 9/11,” Time Magazine, May 3, 2011.
(1) “I’m very interested in the color of sound. And I’m very interested in the juxtaposition of different things, ethnic instruments juxtaposed with symphonic instruments, and I’m interested in the ancient and the modern. I don’t know why, but it has always been something that’s fascinated me, from when I first heard a symphony orchestra I wanted to know how those sounds were made.”
—Anne Dudley, English composer and pop musician (1956–)
Lucubrate
(1) produce a written work through lengthy, intensive effort; work, write, or study laboriously, especially at night; write learnedly
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) He lucubrated for years in order to complete the 20-volume work on Lord Byron.
Meliorate
(1) amend; improve; make something better or more tolerable; soften
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The book of Nature is the book of Fate. She turns the gigantic pages,—leaf after leaf,—never returning one. One leaf she lays down, a floor of granite; then a thousand ages, and a bed of slate; a thousand ages, and a measure of coal; a thousand ages, and a layer of marl and mud; vegetable forms appear; her first misshapen animals, zoophyte, trilobium, fish; then, saurians—rude forms, in which she has only blocked her future statue, concealing under these unwieldy monsters the fine type of her coming king. The face of the planet cools and dries, the races meliorate, and man is born. But when a race has lived its term, it comes no more again.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, lecturer, and poet (1803–1882)
Natter
(1) babble or talk ceaselessly; blather; chatter; gossip; grumble; have a chat; jaw; talk; to chit chat
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) We used to make fun of a few old women nattering across the backyard fence for a few minutes a couple times a week; now tens of millions of people of every age and type do the same thing for hours a day online.
Objurgate
(1) blame; castigate; chasten; chide vehemently; correct; decry; denounce; limit to a certain type of behavior; revile; upbraid harshly
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Everyone is looking for someone to objurgate for the high gas prices.
Obnubilate
(1) becloud; cloud; darken; make obscure, vague
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “In the room which Monsieur Jacques Parizeau vacated so suddenly, the ‘body odor of race,’ to quote Montreal poet A.M. Klein, will continue to obnubilate until a window breaks.”
—Reimann, Peter. Monsieur’s Lapse, Toronto, Canada: The Globe and Mail, November 3, 1995.
Obsecrate
(1) beg; beseech; implore; plead; supplicate
Opine
(1) discourse; go on; harangue; hold, express, or give an opinion; lecture; orate; preach; rant; speak out; stress something; suppose; think
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) You can opine about what employers should care about, but their primary concern is if you will fit in.
Oppugn
(1) challenge the accuracy, probity of
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Jorge had the audacity to oppugn the merits of the data privacy research, which is a subject he knows nothing about.
Pettifog
(1) argue over the details; engage in legal trickery; quibble
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Politicians will pettifog and try to make it sound like they are doing the people’s business.
Pontificate
(1) be a blowhard; express opinions in a pompous and dogmatic way
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate—and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish.”
—George Saunders, American writer of short stories, essays, novellas, and children’s books (1958–)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “In the present system of the National Institute of Health grants, there is no way to succeed. ‘No matter how much they prate in public about thinking outside the box and rewarding ‘high-risk’ proposals,’ the reviewers are the same and their self-interest is the same.”
—Bethell, Tom. “Challenging Conventional Wisdom,” American Spector, Volume 38, Issue 6, July/August 2005: pg. 50–53.
(1) “All periods prate against one another in your spirits; and the dreams and pratings of all periods were even realer than your awakeness!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist (1844–1900)
(1) “This I conceive to be no time to prate of moral influences. Our men’s nerves require their accustomed narcotics, and a glass of whiskey is a powerful friend in a sunstroke, and these poor fellows fall senseless on their heavy drills.”
—Clara Barton, American teacher, patent clerk, nurse, and humanitarian (1821–1912)
Propitiate
(1) favor; gain approval; like best; placate; win over
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The cloud was so dark that it needed all the bright lights that could be turned upon it. But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!”
—M. E. W. Sherwood, U.S. author of An Epistle to Posterity, Ch. 5 (1826–1903)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The duty of criticism is neither to depreciate nor dignify by partial representations, but to hold out the light of reason, whatever it may discover; and to promulgate the determinations of truth, whatever she shall dictate.”
—Samuel Johnson, English poet, critic, and writer (1709–1784)
(1) “Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will pledge with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by their world government.”
—Henry Kissinger, American political scientist, in an address to the Bilderberger meeting at Evian, France, May 21, 1992 (1923–)
Proselytize
(1) indoctrinate to another cause or idea; recruit converts to a cause
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “We do not need to proselytize either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.”
—Mohandas Gandhi, Indian, preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India (1869–1948)
Quaff
(1) drink with gusto and in large volume; guzzle; imbibe; swill
—Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, and critic (1854–1900)
Recrudesce
(1) become active again after a period of latency; break out
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Extremist political movements recrudesce from time to time.
Reify
(1) materialize; regard (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) There is an old saying that too many people reify the model and misunderstand the world, meaning that there is too much emphasis on models, causing people to miss what is really happening.
Repine
(1) complain; express unhappiness; feel or express dejection or discontent; fret
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Though love repine, and reason chafe, there came a voice without reply—’Tis man’s perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, lecturer, and essayist (1803–1882)
Remonstrate
(1) complain or object; make objection; plead or protest; repine; say in protest or show disapproval
Reprove
(1) accuse; admonish; censure; chide; correct; criticize others; disapprove; hall over the coals; rebuke; reprimand; scold; take to task; tell off
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) In years past, parents reproved their children for misdeeds, but today that would be deemed verbal abuse.
Reshape
(1) change or restore; reform; reformat; remake; remodel; restructure; rewrite; shape anew or again
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “On October 25, 2005, the Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Erickson announced the acquisition of key parts of Marconi’s telecom business—thus starting a wave of deals that would reshape the global industry.”
—Keil, Thomas and Tomi Llmanen. “When Rivals Merge, Think Before You Follow Suit,” Harvard Business Review, December 2011: pg. 25.
(1) “Business model innovations have reshaped entire industries and redistributed billions of dollars of value.”
—Johnson, Mark, Clayton Christensen, and Henning Kagermann. “Reinventing Your Business Model,” Harvard Business Review, December 2008: pg. 51.
Stultify
(1) impair or make ineffective
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Lucas waited until the company had stopped laughing over this; then he began again: ‘But look at it from the point of view of practical politics, comrade. Here is an historical figure whom all men reverence and love, whom some regard as divine; and who was one of us—who lived our life, and taught our doctrine. And now shall we leave him in the hands of his enemies—shall we allow them to stifle and stultify his example?’”
—Upton Sinclair, American author of The Jungle (1878–1978)
Unbosom
(1) disclose; give vent to feelings; reveal; tell all; tell one’s troubles and inner feelings
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Don Quixote wrapped the bedclothes round him and covered himself up completely, leaving nothing but his face visible, and as soon as they had both regained their composure he broke silence, saying, ‘Now, Senora Dona Rodriguez, you may unbosom yourself and out with everything you have in your sorrowful heart and afflicted bowels; and by me you shall be listened to with chaste ears, and aided by compassionate exertions.’”
—Miguel Cervantes, Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright, and author of Don Quixote (1547–1616)
Vituperate
(1) berate; harsh; scold; speak viciously about
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The Yugoslavian-born poet Charles Simic has said, ‘There are moments in life when true invective is called for, when it becomes an absolute necessity, out of a deep sense of justice, to denounce, mock, vituperate, lash out, in the strongest possible language.’ We have come to such a moment. Leaving aside invective, vituperation, and mockery, I believe that we need space for peaceful yet passionate outrage.”
—Tannen, Deborah. “We Need Higher Quality Outrage,” Christian Science Monitor, 2004.
Vitiate
(1) faulty; imperfect; impure; invalidate; make corrupt or unclean; pollute; spoil
(1) “Saint Augustine wished to exclude any necessarily illusory utopianism from human hope here below. Even with his full complement of secular pessimism, Augustine was not advocating cruel and arbitrary rule, for he knew well how wicked motives could vitiate an otherwise well-governed state.”
—Russell, Fredrick. “Only Something Good Can Be Evil: The Secular Genesis of Augustine’s Secular Ambivalence,” Theological Studies, Volume 51, Issue 4, December 1990: pg. 698, 19p.
(1) “The fact is that we had absolutely incompatible dispositions and habits of thought and action, and our danger and isolation only accentuated the incompatibility. At Halliford, I had already come to hate the curate’s trick of helpless exclamation, his stupid rigidity of mind. His endless muttering monologue vitiated every effort I made to think out a line of action, and drove me at times, thus pent up and intensified, almost to the verge of craziness.”
—H.G. Wells, English writer, author of The War of the Worlds (1866–1946)
Vociferate
(1) clamor; bawl; shout; speak or say loudly or nosily
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The constitutional right of assembly does not include the right to vociferate and disturb a speaker with whom your group disagrees.
(1) “I vociferated curses enough to annihilate any fiend in Christendom; and I got a stone and thrust it between his jaws, and tried with all my might to cram it down his throat. A beast of a servant came up with a lantern, at last, shouting—‘Keep fast, Skulker, keep fast!’”
—Emily Bronte, English novelist and poet (1818–1848) Wuthering Heights
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The Trojans were scared when they saw the two sons of Dares, one of them in fright and the other lying dead by his chariot. Minerva, therefore, took Mars by the hand and said, ‘Mars, Mars, bane of men, bloodstained stormer of cities, may we not now leave the Trojans and Achaeans to fight it out, and see to which of the two Jove will vouchsafe the victory? Let us go away, and thus avoid his anger.’”
—Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, revered as the greatest of ancient Greek epic poets (circa 800 BC–701 BC)