Psat Vocab

Psat Vocab

Abase

• V. Lower, humiliateI will not abase myself by going to a base with you on the first date.

adulate

• To flatter and praise so much it’s sickening.• “Brad, dual eight hundreds on your math and

critical reading SATs? You’re a god!” she adulated.

Aesthetic

• Artistic, pertaining to a sense of what is beautiful.

As the tick was sucking blood from my arm, I squashed it. The dead insect was not aesthetically pleasing.

Awry

• Twisted; crooked; out of whack; askew; wrong• There is something awry in my bread; it is just

a rye seed.

begrudge

• To envy, to resent• To be holding a grudge for so long means that

you must begrudge me my happy life.

berate

• To scold severely. • If you don’t do A work, your teachers will

berate you (B-rate) you.

boisterous

• Rowdy• We have male cheerleaders at our school

When they get in front of a crowd, those boys stir us up until we’re boisterous.

brevity

• Briefness• When Janet had a 20 page paper due, but

wanted to go out, her friends suggested, “You can write your paper with great brevity and brave a D.”

cache

• Hiding place (pronounced cash)• The thieves stashed the cash in the cache.

cajole

• To coax• “Yes, you can Joel.” They cajoled him.

Callous

• Unfeeling, unsympthetic• Brian complained of the callus on his big toe,

but Meg remained callous

candor

• Frankness, candidness• Speaking with complete candor, Hansel, said

the wicked witch, I have chopped Gretel up and canned her.

dearth

• Scarcity (nothing to deal with death)• Because of Darth Vader, there was a dearth of

laughter on the Death Star.

Depraved

• Morally corrupt; debased, perverted• As a prank, the depraved criminal de-paved

the highway.

Derogate

• To detract, to take away• The effect of the spear protruding from Bob’s

forehead was to derogate from his usually good looking face.

disseminate

• To dispense objects such as seeds, newspapers, to distribute

• While making his stock boy walk the plank, the captain explained, “Dis seaman ate all of the supplies that he was supposed to disseminate.”

emaciated

• Excessively thin; weak• In May she ate it, but now it’s June and she’s

still emaciated.

emulate

• To imitate closely• When the tornado began, Dorothy called out,

“Aunty Em, you late. Emulate Toto and hurry up.”

epitome

• Something that perfectly represents and entire class of things; embodiment

• “You’re the epitome of stupidity,” she screamed after I spilled baloney dip all over her dress.

equivocal

• Capable of two interpretation; ambigous• Equi-equal• Vocal-voice• “A good meal from this cook is a rare treat,” is

an equivocal statement.

facetious

• Joking or teasing• She’s so facetious that you should not take

what she says at face value.

fawning

• Groveling; overly admiring• The hunter who killed Bambi’s mother should

have come back and made a fawning plea for forgiveness.

feasible

• Workable, plausible, possible• Homer’s idea of opening a hair salon for bald

people was not feasible-who would pay the $30 fee.

Forbearance

• Patience• He played dead with forbearance until the

four bears got antsy and went away.

futile

• Completely ineffective• The one –armed floor layer felt his work was

futile because he could lay only a few tiles a day.

Genial

• Friendly, affable

• Although Jean is always considerte, he was not genial to my mom.

Grandiose

• Excessively impressive, grand• Barbara Streisand has a grandiose nose.

Gregarious

• Adj, drawn to the company of others, sociable• Well, Greg, how hilarious, you at a singles

party; you are not gregarious .

Garrulous

• Adj talkative, words• Gary, Spongebob is so garrulous that his

guests can not get a word in edgewise.

Hackneyed

• Overused; trite• The plot of the movie The Texas Chainsaw

Massacre was hackneyed. It was just another horror movie about an axe murderer who hacked knees off.

Hallowed

• Holy, sacred• I was hanging out in a cemetery, but I didn’t

know I was on hollowed hallowed ground until I fell into a grave.

Haughty

• Proud; vain; arrogant He thinks he’s hot. He shouldn’t be so haughty.

Hiatus

• N. a beak or gap in duration or continuity.The hiatus in service should last two or three months, until the cable lines are repaired.

Hypothetical

• Supposed or assumed true, but unproven• It is hypothetical if the drug will work.

Iconoclastic

• Destroyer of tradition• The crown yelled “down with the iconoclast”

he answered with I cannot last.

Ignominious

• Dishonor, humiliating• He couldn’t bear the ignominy of getting a 100

on the PSAT.

Impeccable

• Flawless faultlessWoody is not an impeccable woodpecker; he is always making mistakes.

inept

• Incompetent • The inept astronomy student thought unicorns

live on Neptune.

Jubilant

• Extremely joyful, happy• The crowd was jubilant when the firefighter

saved the cat from the tree.

Juxtaposition

• N. the act of placing two things next to each other for comparison.

• The designer admired the juxtaposition of the yellow couch and green table.

Knavery

• Dishonest, mischievous dealingCan Avery joing the navy? Neverm he is always up to some kind of knavery.

Laceration

• A cut, tear• Alas, when Arthur ate pickled razor blades, he

lacerated his tongue.

Larceny

• Stealing • Stealing from the cartoonist who created The

Far Side is Larson-y