Improving Vocabulary SkillsUnit 2 Chapter 11

blightSomething that damages

The rats in the street are a real blight on the neighborhood.

The open sewers in the slum blight the area.

GloatExpressing spiteful delight

Don’t gloat when you win. It isn’t nice.Little Tommy gloats when he wins in chess. Hopefully he’ll learn to be a gallant winner before he grows up.

blatantObvious in an offensive manner

Tommy stole the opponent’s queen in his last chess match.

Blatant cheating like that cost him the game.

gauntBony; very skinny

Michael Jordon was a gaunt basketball player,But he was still unbeatable even though he was really thin.

immaculateSuper clean

My mother will only eat at immaculate restaurants. Very few restaurants are as clean as her kitchen, so we rarely eat out.

qualmdoubt

President Bush had no qualms about using waterboarding to get information from captives.

Most people have qualms about using any kind of torture to get information.

plagiarismStealing someone else’s ideas

If you commit plagiarism, you could be expelled from school.

Plagiarism is a serious offense, akin to stealing.

contrivePlan cleverly; think up

Fatou contrived a clever excuse as to why she didn’t complete her

homework: the computer froze.

The teacher soon contrived of a way to double check the excuses her students gave for being late: she checked the date of the document.

garbleJumble; mix up

The computer sent a garbled error message, which only made the problem more difficult to solve.

Since she didn’t hold the microphone close to her mouth, what she said was just a garbled mess.

retaliatePay back; get revenge

Their team beat us last time, so we hope to retaliate and win this time.

When Mohamed hit Hannatou with a snowball, Hannatou retaliated by throwing a snowball back at him.