Vocab 1

Vocabulary Builder 

ABASH (uh BASH) v to make ashamed; to embarrass

• Meredith felt abashed by her inability to remember her lines in

the school chorus of “Old McDonald Had a Farm.”

To do something without shame or embarrassment is to do it unabashedly.

• Ken handed in a term paper that he had unabashedly copied

from the National Enquirer.

ABATE (uh BAYT) v to subside; to reduce

• George spilled a pot of hot coffee on his leg. It hurt quite a bit.

Then, gradually, the agony abated.

• Bad weather abates when good weather begins to return. A rainstorm that does not let up continues unabated.

A tax abatement is a reduction in taxes. Businesses are sometimes given tax abatements in return for building factories in places where there is a particular need for jobs.

ABDICATE (AB duh kayt) v to step down from a position of power or responsibility

• When King Edward VIII of England decided he would rather be married to Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorcée, than be king of England, he turned in his crown and abdicated.

Even people who aren’t monarchs can abdicate their duties and respon si bil i ties.

• Abby abdicated her responsibilities as a secretary by dumping in the garbage the reports she was supposed to type and flying to the Bahamas.

ABERRATION (ab uh RAY shun) n something not typical; a deviation from the standard

• SØren’s bad behavior was an aberration. So was Harry’s good behavior. That is, SØren’s was usually good and Harry’s was usually bad.

• The chef at this restaurant is dreadful; the good meal we just had was an aberration.

• A snowstorm in June is an aberration; snow doesn’t normally fall in June.

An aberration is an aberrant (uh BER unt) occurrence.

• SØren’s behavior was aberrant. The summer snowstorm was

aberrant.Note carefully the pronunciation of these words.

ABHOR (abHOR) v to hate very, very much; to detest

• Emanuel abhorred having anvils dropped on his head.

To abhor something is to view it with horror. Hating a person is

almost friendly in comparison with abhorring him or her.

To abhor raw chicken livers is to have an abhorrence of them or to

find them abhorrent.

ABJECT (AB jekt) adj hopeless; extremely sad and servile; defeated

• While most people would quickly recover from a banana-peel

accident, Mia felt abject humiliation.

An abject person is one who is crushed and without hope. A slave

would be abject, in all likelihood.

Perhaps 90 percent of the time, when you encounter this word

it will be followed by the word poverty. Abject poverty is hopeless,

desperate poverty. The phrase “abject poverty” is overused. Writers

use it because they are too lazy to think of anything original.

ABNEGATE (AB nuh gayt) v to deny oneself things; to reject; to renounce

• Ascetics practice self-abnegation because they believe it will bring them closer to spiritual purity.

Self-abnegation is giving up oneself, usually for some higher

cause.

ABORTIVE (uh BOR tiv) adj unsuccessful

• Marie and Elizabeth made an abortive effort to bake a birthday

cake; that is, their effort did not result in a birthday cake.

• Fred’s attempt to climb the mountain was abortive; he fell off

when he was halfway up.

To abort something is to end it before it is completed. An aborted pregnancy, called an abortion, is one that ends before the baby is born. An abortion in this sense doesn’t have to be the result of a controversial medical procedure.

ABRIDGE (uh BRIJ) v to shorten; to condense

• The thoughtful editor abridged the massive book by removing

the boring parts.

An abridged dictionary is one that has been shortened to keep it from crushing desks and people’s laps.

An abridgment is a shortened or condensed work.

ABSOLUTE (AB suh loot) adj total; unlimited

An absolute ruler is one who is ruled by no one else. An absolute mess is a total mess. An absolute rule is one that has no exceptions and that you must follow, no two ways about it.

Absolute is also a noun. It means something that is total, unlimited, or perfect. Death, for living things, is an absolute. There just isn’t any way around it.

ABSOLVE (ab ZOLV) v to forgive or free from blame; to free from sin; to

free from an obligation

• The priest absolved the sinner who had come to church to confess.

• Tom’s admission of guilt absolved Dick, who had originally been

accused of the crime.

It is also possible to absolve someone of a respon si bil i ty.

• Jake ab solved Ciara of her obligation to go to the prom with him; he told her it was all right if she went with the captain of the football team instead.

The act of absolving is called absolution (ab suh LOO shun).