vocab 5

• loud
• applause; approval. (When used as a verb, acclaim means “to applaud; to
• praise”) Jonas Salk won great acclaim for his medical discovery

• ]
• to advise against something; to warn; to scold gently; to urge strongly.  The irate teacher admonished his
• students about the consequences of throwing spit-balls

• resembling
• humans.  Assuming an anthropoid
• posture, Grendal rose onto his rear legs and burst into Herot to attack the
• sleeping Danes

• strikingly
• odd in appearance or style; grotesque.  I
• thought it rather bizarre of Mrs. Greene to will her entire fortune to
• her cats

• complaining, fault finding.  Even though we enjoyed Cousin Hillary, her
• constant carping about the weather made us happy when she returned to Oregon.

to try to equal or surpass; to imitate.  When they were in high school together, Dudley’s kid brother always tried to emulate him.

• organization by rank, class, or grade.  In the hierarchy of this company, I’m
• low man on the totem pole.

• wise; careful; showing sound judgment, prudent.  Gary
• thought it more judicious to speak to his mother rather than father
• about letting him stay out till 1:00 a.m.

• ] coarse; vulgar. 
• (from the Latin name for the lower classes).  Despite his cultivated accent and meticulous
• table manners, Hortence’s plebeian humor revealed a crudeness he could
• not suppress.

• ] speaking many languages; (n) a mixture of
• languages; someone who speaks many languages. 
• Stepping into the London Tube, the tourist was surrounded by the polyglot
• conversations in languages unknown to him.

• having or showing much more ability or knowledge
• than is usual at such a young age; early or prematurely ripe or developed.  The precocious Mozart is said to have
• composed music at the age of three.

• disgusting;
• loathsome; objectionable.  The idea of
• eating snails was repugnant to Herbert who had too vivid memories of
• poisoning them in his garden.

• flimsy,
• weak.  Under ferocious attack, the Union
• troops saw their tenuous hold on Little Round Top gradually weakening as
• the afternoon progressed

• to oppose directly; to baffle; to block; to
• frustrate.  The tight defense was able to
• thwart a touchdown in the last thirty seconds of play.

• word
• for word; exact quotation.  The court
• recorder read a verbatim transcription of the knave’s response after he
• denied admitting he had eaten the tarts.