WEEK 2 VOCABULARY

Distend: Verb  To swell, to expand  Your stomach will distend if you eat too much Halloween candy!  The balloon distended when I blew air into it.

Fecund: Adjective  To be fertile or productive  Zebra fish are fecund because they lay over 2000 eggs at a time!  Rabbits are often considered to be fecund.

Sage: Noun, Adjective  A wise man, to gain wisdom through experience and reflection, wise  The sage helped me find the path to nirvana.  That is sage advice; I shall try to follow it.

Vacuous: Adjective  Lacking ideas or intelligence  Frankly, your idea for the party is vacuous.  He had a vacuous look on his face when I asked him for directions.

Deride: Verb  To insult or ridicule  The bullies derided the little boy because he was two feet shorter than them.  You should not deride people when they make mistakes.

Assail: Verb  To attack with words or force  Please do not assail me in the hallway to ask about your grades!  The loud fireworks assailed my ears as I was trying to sleep.

Benevolent: Adjective  Generous, kind  The benevolent gentleman gave the charity $5,000.  If you are benevolent, even when you don’t want to be, you will be rewarded.

Scrutinize: Verb  To examine very carefully  You should carefully scrutinize a college before you apply.  Sherlock Holmes scrutinizes every clue he receives in order to solve a case.

Histrionic: Adjective  Overly dramatic  You don’t have to be so histrionic; it was only a spider!  My sister is so histrionic about everything that I’ve stopped listening to her.

Didactic: Adjective  Intending to teach, morally instructive  Going to religious education classes is a didactic practice.  Teachers try to be didactic with many of their lessons.