Up Your Score (24 page)

snappy response

Note:
Quip =
qui
ck +
p
oint. A
quip
is a quick and witty point made during a conversation.

I said to him, “Be careful with those detergents.” He
quipped
, “Yeah, I know what you mean. I put some spot remover on my dog the other day and he disappeared.” (From comedian Steven Wright.)

having the same foolish, impractical, romantic idealism as Don Quixote
(Really, this isn’t a pun.)

Nestlé’s CEO had the
quixotic
notion of making
Quik exotic
by offering flavors like sun-dried tomato.

minimum number of people that have to be at a meeting in order for the meeting to be official
(It sounds like a video game, doesn’t it?)

Before the council can begin the boredom, it’s required that they have a
quorum
.

“
Quorum
,
quorum
, we must have a
quorum
!” shouted the leader.

“Why?” asked an idiot. “
Qualitatively
speaking, it’s quicker to
quantify
the quarks in a quarter.”

“Ahh, we are indeed in a
quagmire
. We need a
quantitative
estimate of how many quacks are here.”

“Yes, it is a bit of a
quandary
,” spoke another idiot. “I know, why don’t we vote on whether or not to begin the meeting?”

“I have
qualms
about doing that,” said the first idiot.

“Quiet, you idiots, or you’ll be
quarantined
!” quoth the leader.

They
quailed
before his wrath, and both felt a bit
queasy
.

“Now then,” said the leader, “don’t be
querulous
. I have a plan. You may think me somewhat
quixotic
, but I truly believe that if we burst forth with enough clever
quips
, we might be recognized as not being quite so stupid as we really are. And with that thought in mind, I’d like to close this meeting of the village idiots.”

(n.) course of wild behavior
(v.) to move wildly

The guy who was supposed to bring us a male sheep went on a
rampage
, then moved to Hawaii.

Grandma said, “No one at G
ramp
’s
age
should
rampage
.”

unrestrained

The
ram pant
ed after it ran
rampant
around the field for two days.

to rave; to speak wildly

My pa
rents
always
rant
and rave like the ty
rants
they are when I don’t wear socks. So I will buy bright orange socks to appease them.

plundering; ravenous; greedy

The
rapacious
veloci
rap
tor attacked the children while they were still on their bikes; it ate the fat kids first.

Are you still remembering to do the mnemonic thing? Okay, we’ll walk you through it one more time. Picture the velociraptor deep in the jungle, wearing a sweatshirt that says
rapacious
. It opens its frightening mouth and exhales its foul-smelling breath, and you see that its teeth spell out
rapacious
. Hear the wild shrieks (“
rapacious! rapacious!
”) as it pounces on the kids on their bikes, using its sharp claws to tear the word
rapacious
into the tender flesh. Blood gushes onto the ground, where it forms the word
rapacious
.

Yes, we know we’re sick and twisted. But we also know our vocab words.

reconciliation (think: re-approachment)

Carrying a PlayStation Portable as a peace offering, Julie
approached
her estranged little brother, but her attempt at
rapprochement
ended when he shot her with his squirt gun.

logical, methodical thinking

Through a process of
ratiocination
, you could have figured out this word because it sounds like
rational
.

to make rational; justify

It is impossible to
rationalize
the senseless crime of cat juggling.

plunder

SATilla the Hun
ravaged
the countryside.

hungry

The
raven
was so
ravenous
that he ate his own wing.

to tear down; demolish

The striking cereal workers used an enormous
razor
to
raze
the
rais
in bran factory.

kingdom

The king promised me half his
realm
if I would take the critical reading section for him, but I knew he was lying.

stubborn

I adamantly and obdurately refuse to admit that I am
recalcitrant
.

to repeat, or state again, in a form that is more laconic and much briefer than the manner in which it was initially stated

Now we are going to
recapitulate
the above definition: to repeat concisely.

Think: When a sportscaster
recaps
the game, she gives a brief summary of what has happened.

mutual

We have a
reciprocal
agreement not to spit watermelon seeds at each other.

abstruse; profound

If this story weren’t so
recondite
, I
reckon I’d
understand it.

concealed; hidden from sight

He kept his pet condor
recondite
for fear that his environ-mentalist sister would set it free.

to cor
rect
; set right

Tim had to visit the proctologist to
rectify
rec
urrent
rec
tal problems.

lying down

With both legs broken and his th
umb bent
, he spent most of the day
recumbent
.

fragrant

I use Pep
sodent
because it’s so
redolent
of peppermint.

frighteningly awe-inspiring; formidable

Un
doubtedly
, the prospect of serving 100 hungry murderers a Thanksgiving dinner with
out a table
is
redoubtable
, but we think you can do it.

to set right, remedy, compensate

When Cinderella arrived at the ball wearing only a slip and glass slippers, the prince suggested it was time to
redress
the situation.

repetitious; done over and over many times; repeatedly repetitive

The above definition is
redundant
.

disobedient; stubborn

The
refractory
prism refused to
refract
the light rays, so it was sent back to the factory.

shining; radiant

“It’s time to
refuel, gent
s,” said the driver, who loved gas stations, with a
refulgent
smile.

to disprove

“
Ref, you’d
better listen up while I
refute
your call,” said the irate player. “That ball was in.”

to repeat

Note:
Iterate
also means repeat.

I would like to
reiterate
my accusation—you are a noodle-head.

having significant importance

Peanuts are
relevant
to an
elephant
’s development.

bitter regret; guilt

having no remorse

When the
remorseless
spy catcher took away our telegraph machine for the second time, we were
re-Morse-less
.

coming into being again (see
NASCENT
)

During the
Renaissance
, classical culture was
renascent
.

silent; restrained in behavior

Scarlett said to Rhett, “Why are you so
reticent
?” He did not respond. “Is it because I didn’t write you a letter?” she asked. He nodded. “But
Rhett, I sent
you a postcard.”

moving backward to an earlier, usually inferior, position

After receiving an A
grade
in history first semester, Michael’s B
grade
second semester was
retrograde
.