Vocab #1

adumbrate: to represent in outline; to indicate faintly
The students had to adumbrated the day's history topic in a brief summary for their teacher.

apotheosis: exaltation of a person to rank of god; ideal example; epitome
He was the apotheosis of a teacher, showing his students all of the ways they would be successful in the coming year.

ascetic: rigorously abstinent; austere
The Puritans had a very ascetic lifestyle, strictly conforming to their religion and a plain way of life.

bauble: a showy, usually cheap, ornament; trinket
I decorate my room with many baubles collected from different places I've visited.

beguile: mislead; delude; charm; take away by cheating or flattery


burgeon: sprout; grow quickly; flourish
The bud burgeoned into large, colorful flower in the spring.
  
complement: to complete; to make perfect; full quantity
Their personalities complemented each other; everything she lacked, he had.

contumacious: stubbornly rebellious; willfully disobedient
It was innate for the teenager to be contumacious towards her parents.

curmudgeon: a bad-tempered; cantankerous person
The town's librarian was such a curmudgeon that nobody wanted to ask him where anything was.

didactic: instructive; inclined to teach
The didactic approach he took in answering bored his friend.

disingenuous: insincere; lacking in candor
Her apology was so disingenuous; I don't know how she expected me to forgive her.

exculpate: to free from blame; vindicate
The prisoner was exculpated and released from jail after new evidence for his case surfaced.

faux pas: a blunder in conduct; an embarrassing indiscretion
Asking the overweight woman when her due date is, was an awful faux pas.

fulminate: to issue denunciations; to pronounce with condemnation
Abraham Lincoln fulminated against slavery.

fustian: inflated language in writing; worthless; cheap
The authors fustian hid the gaps in the plot.

hauteur: arrogance; haughty manner
In the beginning of the novel, Elizabeth disliked the hauteur with which Mr. Darcy regarded everything and everyone.

inhibit: to hinder; to forbid; to restrain
The rain inhibited further progress on the construction site.

jeremiad: prolonged lamentation; mournful complaint
The students' loud jeremiads did nothing to change the teacher's mind about the pop quiz.

opportunist: the policy of adapting actions and decisions
The opportunist in him couldn't help but feel happy that the one of the other contestants had been voted off the island.

unconscionable: unscrupulous; excessive; extortionate; not guided by conscience
The justice system is in place for people who execute unconscionable acts.