Vocabulary Unit 3

Adversary An enemy or opponent. A best friend off the tennis court can also be a fierce adversary on it.

Alienate To turn away or make indifferent. Gossiping is a bad habit that can alienate friends.

Artifice A clever skill; dishonest or insincere behavior that is meant to deceive. The story was just an artifice to win our sympathy.

Coerce To compel, force. Dictators try to coerce their subjects into obedience by threatening them or their families with punishment.

Craven Cowardly It is a mistake to assume that everyone who refuses to go to war is a craven who lacks patriotism.

Culinary Related to cooking or the kitchen. Cooking shows have helped many people master the secrets of culinary arts.

Delete To erase, wipe out, cut out. Crime labs can determine whether an attempt has been made to delete material from audiotapes.

Demise Death, especially of a person in a lofty position. The tolling of church bells has announced the demise of a monarch.

Exhilarate To give spirit or liveliness to. The first landing on the moon exhilarated the nation.

Fallow Inactive; land that has been ploughed but not seeded. After a month without a date, I decided that my social life was definitely in a fallow period.

Harass To disturb; to trouble by repeated attacks. You should not harass someone just because they disagree with you.

Inclement Stormy, harsh; severe in attitude or action. School was closed because of inclement weather.

Muse To think about in a dreamy way; to ponder. Philosophers have always mused on the meaning of life.

Negligible So unimportant that it can be disregarded. After inspecting the cars it was determined that a negligible amount of damage was done.

Perpetuate To cause to continue. He perpetuates the myth that his house is haunted.

Precedent An example that may serve as a basis for imitation or later action. We hope other schools will follow our precedent in volunteer work.

Punitive Inflicting or aiming at punishment. The general led a punitive expedition against rebel forces.

Redress To set right, remedy. The accident victims will seek redress for the injuries they suffered in the train crash.

Sojourn A temporary stay. No matter how short your sojourn in Paris, you must take time to go to the museum.

Urbane Refined in manner or style, suave. An urbane host puts guest at ease by appearing confident and unruffled no matter what happens.