Recently Added Articles Page #120

probity - vocabulary

nounVirtue or integrity tested and confirmed; honesty; the trait of having strong moral principles. Once regarded as the model of probity, Mayor Bradley, now 71 years old, is under investigation by the City Attorney's Office for possible conflict of ...

prodigious - vocabulary

adjectiveImmense, extraordinary in size; wonderful, marvelous. America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’...

prodigy - vocabulary

nounA person, especially a child, with remarkable gifts or qualities; a marvelous example; a wonder. Today’s pressures on middle-class children to grow up fast begin in early childhood. Chief among them is the pressure for early intellectual attain...

proffer - vocabulary

verbTo offer to another for acceptance.nounThe offer itself. During my employment of seven years or more in Washington after the war (1865–72) I regularly saved part of my wages: and, though the sum has now become about exhausted by my expenses of ...

profligacy, profligate - vocabulary

nounProfligacy: the trait of spending lavishly or extravagantly; unrestrained indulgence in sensual pleasure.adjectiveProfligate: characterized by wild spending or by engaging in sensual pleasure; as a noun, the person so characterized, a wastrel. Up...

profuse - vocabulary

adjectivePlentiful, copious, abundant; giving or spending freely, often to excess, as in profuse praise. The little flower which at this season stars our woods and roadsides with its profuse blooms, might attract even eyes as stern as theirs with its...

progeny - vocabulary

nounDescendant, offspring, child; something originating or resulting from something else. Preschoolers sound much brighter and more knowledgeable than they really are, which is why so many parents and grandparents are so sure their progeny are gifted...

prolific - vocabulary

adjectiveAbundantly producing offspring or fruit, as in a prolific orange tree; very productive, producing in large quantities. Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.—Benjamin Disraeli Henrietta Temple...

prolix - vocabulary

adjectiveVerbose, wordy, extended to unnecessary and tedious length. In a succinct 354 pages (shockingly brief for the normally prolix [Susan] Faludi), she argues that in the months and years following the 9/11 attacks, the rhetoric surrounding vario...

propitious - vocabulary

adjectivePresenting favorable conditions; favorably inclined, auspicious. The time is now propitious, as he guesses, The meal is ended, she is bored and tired, Endeavours to engage her in caresses Which still are unreproved, if undesired. Flushed and...

prosaic - vocabulary

adjectiveUnimaginative, dull, commonplace, matter-of-fact; vapid; humdrum; tiresome. It is better to have a prosaic husband and to take a romantic lover.—Stendhal (Marie Henri Beyle) “Various Fragments” De l’Amour (1822)...

proscribe - vocabulary

verbTo denounce or condemn something as dangerous or harmful; to prohibit, forbid. The public is harmed when lawmakers proscribe the use of a product that has been proved safe and useful. Inevitably, manufacturers will turn to—and consumers will be...

prostrate - vocabulary

adjectiveLying prone, or with the head to the ground, as in a gesture of humility, adoration, or subservience; physically weak or exhausted; utterly depressed or disconsolate.verbTo cast oneself on the ground in humility, adoration, or subservience; ...

prototype - vocabulary

nounThe model or original on which something else is based or formed; a thing or person serving to illustrate typical qualities of a larger class or group; something analogous to a later thing. The Ancient Mariner seizes the guest at the wedding feas...

protract - vocabulary

verbTo prolong, draw out, lengthen the duration of.Note: The past-participial adjective protracted often appears, as in protracted negotiations. That life protracted is protracted woe.—Samuel Johnson The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth Satire of ...

proverbial - vocabulary

adjectiveDerives from the noun proverb, which means a popular saying, usually of ancient and unknown origin, that expresses a commonplace truth. In the Bible, a proverb is a profound saying. The word proverbial thus means widely referred to, as if th...

prowess - vocabulary

nounExceptional strength, skill, and courage in battle; superior skill or ability. I am really greatly pleased at your standing so high in your form, and I am sure that this year it is better for you to be playing where you are in football. I suppose...

prurient - vocabulary

adjectiveInclined to lascivious or lustful thoughts and desires. Nothing is more repulsive than a furtively prurient spirituality; it is just as unsavory as gross sensuality.—Carl Jung Marriage as a Psychological Relationship (1925)...

puerile - vocabulary

adjectivePertaining to childhood; childish, immature, or trivial. The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. . . . The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the ...

punctilious - vocabulary

adjectiveStrictly observant of the rules or forms prescribed by law or custom; precise, scrupulous. His courtesy was somewhat extravagant. He would write and thank people who wrote to thank him for wedding presents and when he encountered anyone as p...

punitive - vocabulary

adjectivePertaining to punishment.Note: In law, punitive damages are awarded in civil suits to punish the wrongdoer and serve as an example to deter others from similar, egregious conduct. Punitive damages are in excess of the actual damages suffered...

purport - vocabulary

nounThe meaning or sense or import, as in the main purport of the article; also the purpose or intent, as in the purport of the trip to Italy.verbTo present, especially deliberately, the appearance of being something; to profess or claim, often false...

pusillanimous - vocabulary

adjectiveWithout spirit or bravery; lacking courage; timid; faint-hearted. A Prince is despised when he is seen to be fickle, frivolous, effeminate, pusillanimous, or irresolute, against which defects he ought therefore most carefully to guard, striv...

query - vocabulary

verbTo inquire, to submit a question.nounAn inquiry, a question. To the query, “What is a friend?” his reply was “A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”—Aristotle Quoted in Lives of Eminent Philosophers, “Aristotle,” by Diogenes Laertiu...

queue - vocabulary

verbTo get in line.nounA file of persons waiting in order of their arrival, as for admittance.Note: The word queue appears more frequently in Great Britain than in America. An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.—George M...