GRE Words Alternate Meanings

verb

to commingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior; unalloyed means pure

verb

to take for one's own use, confiscate

verb/adjective

to suspend; to engage; holding one's attention: as in arrested adolescence, an arresting portrait

adjective

majestic, venerable

noun

leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency: He had a naturally artistic bent

verb

bring up, announce, begin to talk about

verb

to tolerate, endure, countenance

adjective

major, as in cardinal sin

noun

a blindly devoted person

verb

to change as if by dyeing, i.e., to distort, gloss or affect: Yellow journalism colored the truth.

adjective

pompous, self-important

verb

to diminish the intensity or check the vibration of a sound

noun

a tool used for shaping, as in a tool-and-die shop

• verb
• to test or try; attempt, experiment: The newly born fawn essayed a few wobbly steps

verb

to demand, call for, require, take: Even a victorious war exacts a heavy price.

verb

to cause to fall by striking: The lumberjacks arrived and felled many trees.

adjective

inhumanly cruel: Fell beasts surrounded the explorers

verb

to sag or droop, to become spiritless, to decline: Think of a flag on a windless day, as in her flagging spirits

adjective

sarcastic, impertinent, as in flippant: a flip remark

verb

to wade across the shallow part of a river or stream

verb

to complain or grumble

noun/verb

a rope, cord, or cable attached to something as a brace or guide; to steady or reinforce using a guy: Think guide.

verb

to imply, suggest, or insinuate: Are you intimating that I cannot be trusted?

verb

to tilt or lean to one side: The ship's broken mast listed helplessly in the wind.

verb

to move heavily and clumsily: Lumbering giants on land, walruses are actually graceful swimmers.

adjective

fitting, proper: It is altogether meet that Jackie Robinson is in the baseball hall of fame.

verb

to exploit, to squeeze every last ounce of

verb

pronounce or speak affectedly, euphemize, speak too carefully: Don't mince words. Also, to take tiny steps, tiptoe

adjective

exacting, fastidious, extremely precise: He made a nice distinction between to cases.

adjective

to be established, accepted, or customary: Those standards no longer obtain.

adjective

hidden, concealed, beyond comprehension

adjective

commonplace, trite, unremarkable, quotidian

adjective

multicolored, usually in blotches

verb

to lose vigor (as through grief); to yearn

adjective

moldable, pliable, not rigid

noun

courage, spunk, fortitude

verb

to pry, to press or force with a lever; something taken by force, spoils

verb

to complain about bitterly

verb/noun

torn, past of rend; an opening or tear

verb

to lose courage, turn frightened

verb

to limit

verb

to enervate or weaken the vitality of

noun

a fool or nitwit

adjective

contemptible, despicable

adjective

exceptional, unusual, odd

noun

a group of trees

verb

to saturate or completely soak, as in to let a tea bag steep

noun

the supporting structural cross-part of a wing

verb

to remove (as a parliamentary motion) from consideration

verb

to proffer or offer

verb

to equivocate; to change one's position

noun

wit, joker

verb

to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid

verb

to foreshadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow

noun

a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing

adjective/noun

soothing, something that assuages or allays pain or comforts

noun

farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith

noun

one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions

noun

deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model of excellence or perfection

noun

severity, rigor; roughness

verb

to aver, allege, assert

adjective

diligent, hard-working, sedulous

noun

omen, portent

adjective

belligerent, pugnacious, warlike

verb

to slander, make a false accusation

adjective

disposed to point out trivial faults, calculated to confuse or entrap in argument

verb

to find fault without good reason

noun

speed, alacrity, think accelerate

noun

an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster

adjective

insubordinate, rebellious

noun

rout, fiasco, complete failure

noun

an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot

verb

to discriminate or discern

noun

disuse

adjective

random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose

adjective

random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose

adjective

reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in self-confidence

noun

a song of grief or lamentation

noun

glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy

verb

to shun or avoid

verb

to censure scathingly, to upbraid

verb

denounce, feel loathing for, curse, declare to be evil

noun

critical examination, explication

verb

to atone or make amends for

verb

to destroy, exterminate, cut out, exscind

adjective

silly, inanely foolish

adjective

quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable

verb

to deny, dispute, contradict, oppose

adjective

unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic

noun

difficult or embarrassing situation

adjective

not easily exhaustible; tireless, dogged

adjective

certain, inevitable

adjective

one of a kind, peerless

adjective

unconcerned, carefree, heedless

adjective

deep rooted, ingrained, habitual

adjective

vapid, uninteresting, nugatory; childish, immature

adjective

lewd, wanton, greasy, slippery

noun

a beggar, supplicant

adjective

cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy; attracting by false show

adjective

menacing, threatening

noun

low point, perigee

adjective

baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think

adjective

noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous

adjective

tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age; literally, turned into bone

verb

to make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense

noun

formal praise, eulogy, encomium

adjective

cheap, miserly

adjective

transparent, easy to understand, limpid

noun

the concluding part of a speech; flowery, rhetorical speech

adjective

pounding, thundering, resounding

adjective

long-winded, verbose

verb

to appease; to conciliate

adjective

childish, immature

noun

power, strength

adjective

cowardly, craven

verb

to protest, object

adjective

having sound judgment; perceptive, wise; like a sage

adjective

lustful, lascivious, bawdy

adjective

remedial, wholesome, causing improvement

adjective

cheerful, confident, optimistic

adjective

gloomy, dark, sullen, morose

adjective

aphoristic or moralistic

adjective

extremely loud and powerful

adjective

gloomy, dark

noun

toady, servile, self-seeking flatter; parasite

adjective

biased; showing marked tendencies

adjective

timid, fearful, diffident

noun

novice, greenhorn, rank amateur

verb

to corrupt, debase, spoil, make ineffective

adjective

fluent, verbal