[Word Powers] Daily Words - May 2009

Forestall (fohr-stawl) (verb): To prevent, hinder, or thwart by action in advance To buy up (goods) in advance in order to increase the price when resold. To forestall a riot by deploying police.
Forswear (fawr-swair) (verb): To reject or renounce under oath To deny vehemently or under oath To forswear an injurious habit.
Cajole (ca-JOL) (verb): To persuade someone to do something they might not want to do, by pleasant talk and (sometimes false) promises. I managed to cajole her into staying back to complete this module.
Rankle (RAN-kl) (verb): To cause annoyance or anger which lasts a long time. It still rankles that she got promoted, and I didn't.
Bowdlerize (bohd-luh-rayz) (verb): To expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered objectionable. Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land”, first published in 1961, was bowdlerized by some 60,000 words
Bawl (bôl) (noun): A loud shout or cry. Both Harbhajan and Sreesanth are known for their antics. What’s a little slap-and-bawl between two theatrically inclined buddies?
Contiguous (kuhn-tig-yoo-uhs)(adjective): Touching; in contact. In close proximity without actually touching; near. Adjacent in time: contiguous events.
Construe (kuhn-stroo)(verb): 1. To give the meaning or intention of, explain, interpret. 2. To deduce by inference or interpretation, infer. My son knows a boy who was once kidnapped by guerillas in Colombia, except that he thought guerillas were gorillas. I tried to construe the difference but he didn't quite get it. So he asked me to draw him a picture
Peeve (peev) (verb): 1. (verb) to annoy. 2. (noun) a source of annoyance or irritation Tardiness is one of my greatest peeves
Expound (ik-SPOUND) (verb): 1. To set forth or state in detail. 2. To explain; interpret. She uses her newspaper column to expound her views on environmental issues.
Din (din) (verb): 1. (noun) a loud, confused noise; a continued loud or tumultuous sound; noisy clamor. 2. (verb) to sound or utter with clamor or persistent repetition. I had to shout to make myself heard above the din of the traffic.
Halcyon (HAL-see-uhn) (adj): 1. calm; peaceful; tranquil 2. happy; joyful; wealthy; prosperous She recalled the halcyon days of her youth.
Brainchild (breyn-chahyld) (noun): An original idea or plan attributed to a person or group. The IPL is the brainchild of Lalit Modi and is modeled along the lines of club football in Europe.
Caper (key-per) (noun): A high spirited escapade/prank Set in the year 1999, 99 is a wholly caper film that takes an interesting look at match fixing.
Sardonic (sahr-don-ik) (Adj): Characterized by bitter or scornful derision; mocking; cynical; sneering Professor Snape had a sardonic smirk on his face after Harry melted his cauldron.
Satire (sat-ahyuhr) (noun): 1. The use of irony or ridicule, in exposing/denouncing vice and folly. 2. A literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule. Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, is a satire of eighteenth-century British society.
Hedonism (heed-n-iz-uhm) (Noun): The doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good. Devotion to pleasure as a way of life The later Roman emperors were notorious for their hedonism.
Asceticism (uh-set-uh-siz-uhm) (Noun): The doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial, self-mortification, and the like. Hedonism and Asceticism are opposing philosophies of human behavior
Archaic (ahr-key-ik) (adjective): Marked by the characteristics of an earlier period; antiquated: an archaic manner; an archaic notion. Primitive; ancient; old: an archaic form of animal life In a few select regions of Western Mongolian, an archaic Chinese dialect is still spoken.
Archetypal (ahr-ki-tahypal) (noun): The original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype The most representative or typical example of something. Some believe George Washington, with his flowing white hair and commanding stature was the archetypal politician.
Frieze (freez) (noun): A narrow piece of decoration along a wall, either inside a room or on the outside of a building just under the roof Frieze decorations may depict scenes from an event in a sequence of discrete panels.
Froward (FROH-werd) (adj): Stubbornly contrary and disobedient; obstinate. He is always worried about his froward, intractable child.
Fickle (fik-uhl) (Adjective): Characterized by erratic changeableness or instability, especially with regard to affections or attachments. Olive Oyl is Popeye's girlfriend, although she could be extremely fickle, depending on who could woo her best or had the flashier possessions, and was prone to get angry over the tiniest things.
Fecund (fee-kuhnd) (Adjective): Very productive or creative intellectually. Rahul Dravid's most fecund phase as India's most dependable middle order batsman began after the 1999 World Cup in England.
Impetus (im-pi-tuhs) (noun): A moving force; impulse; stimulus. The momentum of a moving body, esp. with reference to the cause of motion. The grant for building the opera house gave impetus to the city's cultural life.
Immure (i-myoor) (verb): To enclose within walls. To shut in; to imprison. John's body was immured in the mausoleum.
Antic (an-tik) (noun): A playful trick or prank. A buffoon; clow The boys antics during the class were unacceptable and quite annoying.
Rebut (ri-BUHT) (verb): To argue that a statement or claim is not true. When Woody said that Buzz’s wings are just plastic and that he can’t fly, Buzz rebutted by saying, “They are a terillium-carbonic alloy and I CAN fly.”
Propinquity (proh-PING-kwi-tee) (noun): 1. Nearness in place (proximity) or nearness of relation (kinship) 2. Affinity of nature; similarity. The propinquity effect is the tendency for people to form friendships or romantic relationships with those whom they encounter often. In other words, relationships tend to be formed between those who have a high propinquity.
Fugacious (fyoo-GEY-shuhs) (adj): Passing away quickly; evanescent; fleeting; transitory A sensational story with but a fugacious claim on the public's attention.
Tergiversate (tur-ji-ver-seyt) (verb): To be evasive or ambiguous, equivocate When asked to explain his team's loss in the IPL, MS Dhoni refused to tergiversate and openly blamed his bowlers.
Terse (turs) (Adjective): Brief and to the point; effectively concise In Tuesday's court hearing, Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi looked pale and weak as she answered judges' questions for less than half an hour, giving terse one word replies about the incident earlier this month that could lead to her being sent to prison for five years.
Stipulate (stip-yuh-leyt) (verb): To require as an essential condition in making an agreement. Guarantees often stipulate certain conditions that must be met if the guarantee is to be valid.
Stricture (strik-cher) (noun): 1. A restraint, limit, or restriction. 2. An adverse remark or criticism; censure. Despite the strictures of apartment living, we enjoyed the years we spent in the New York City.