Vocabulary Unit 3

1. Vocabulary Unit 3 Iskills Level 3

2. Adversary (n): an enemy or opponent • The adversary of my adversary is my friend. • Adversarial (adj)

3. Alienate (v): to turn away; to make indifferent or hostile; to transfer or convey (like the deed to a house) • High school students are good at alienating anyone who is too different from them. • Alien (n): a stranger • Alienation (n): the condition of being alienated • Alienated (adj)

4. Artifice (n): a skillful or ingenious device; a clever trick or skill; trickery • The duplicitous secretary used artifice to make us believe she was a sweet old grandmother, all while stealing money every chance she had. • Artificial (adj): fake, not real, not natural but made by people

5. Coerce (v): to compel or force; to force someone to do something by threatening them. • He had to coerce his daughter to go to school on Monday morning. • Coercion (n) • Coercive (adj)

6. Craven (adj): cowardly, not brave (n): a coward • The craven general was dismissed from the Army. • Don’t be a craven, dude! It’s only a little test.

7. Culinary (adj): related to food, cooking, or the kitchen. • ESLI’s Fall Festival will be a feast of culinary diversity!

8. Demise (n): a death, especially of an important person • The demise of a president always causes a National Day of Mourning. • The victims met their demise in a great holocaust. • Her demise was painful and unhappy. • You CANNOT use demise as a verb!

9. Exhilarate (v): to enliven, give spirit or life to; to excite; to make feel happy or excited • The news of her acceptance to Harvard exhilarated Sarah so much she jumped for joy. • Stepping outside on a cold morning exhilarates me! • Exhilaration (n) • Exhilarating (adj)

10. Fallow (adj): plowed but not seeded; inactive; reddish-yellow (v): to plow something but not seed; to let the land rest. • A good farmer knows when to fallow his fields and when to plant them. • The fallow deer is a very sweet animal to look at.

11. Harass (v): to annoy or threaten someone again and again • The students harassed their teacher repeatedly because they wanted their grades. • Harassment (n) • Harassed (adj)

12. Inclement (adj): stormy, harsh; severe in attitude or action • The inclement weather kept us all cooped up inside the whole week. • No one who has committed a crime wants an inclement judge. • Inclemency (n)

13. Liquidate (v): to pay a debt or settle an account; to eliminate; to turn inventory into cash • After making a good profit, the business was able to liquidate its loan. • The nervous investor decided to liquidate his stock and put his money in the bank instead. • Liquidation (n)

14. Muse (v): to think about in a dreamy way; to daydream, ponder • When I was young, I liked to spend long hours musing about what I would be when I grew up. • She mused for a moment, then answered his question with a certain “Yes.” • Musings (n): the results of musing

15. Negligible (adj): so unimportant that it can be ignored. • The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe had so many children already that finding another added a negligible amount of work to her day.

16. Perpetuate (v): to make something continue; to make permanent or long-lasting • Repeating nasty gossip only perpetuates it. • We hope that having a Fall Festival will be perpetuated. • Perpetual (adj): something that is repeated or has no end.

17. Precedent (n): an action or official decision that is used as an example for a similar action or decision at a later time • You do not want to set the precedent of letting students use their cell phones on one test, because they will want to use them on every test.

18. Punitive (adj): intended as punishment • The teacher was so angry with her students for not doing their homework that the quiz she gave them was definitely punitive! • The judge’s precedent helped later judges decide punitive damages for people who stole music.

19. Redress (v): to make something right(n): relief from wrong or injury; the act of making something right. • The child tried to redress breaking the lamp by fixing lunch for his mother. • Mother accepted her little boy’s redress and kissed him. • The judge ordered the man to pay a punitive fine of $2500 to redress his crime.

20. Sojourn (n): a temporary stay or visit(v): to stay for a period of time but not forever • If there is anything I can do to make your sojourn here easier, please tell me. • International students sojourn in the US while they finish college.

21. Urbane (adj): behaving in a relaxed and confident way in social situations • His urbane charm puts everyone at ease. • I wish I were more urbane at parties, but I never know what to say!