Page 298 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary
P. 298

28_571656 ch23.qxd  11/10/04  12:43 PM  Page 289
                                                   G – H


                        gainsay (gayn SAY or GAYN say) vt. 1. to deny; 2. to contradict; 3. to oppose
                          • Mr. Jones gainsays any responsibility for the damage to Miss Wright’s
                             automobile.
                          • “I hate to gainsay your story,” Paul said, “but it didn’t happen like that.
                          • The loyal opposition gainsayed every attempt to get the new budget bill
                             through Parliament.
                             [gainsaid, -ing] [Syn. deny]
                        garrison (GAR is uhn) n. 1. troops stationed in a fort; 2. the entire fortified
                      place including troops and weapons —vt. to station troops in a place for its defense
                          • The garrison at Fort McHenry withstood bombardment by the British dur-
                             ing the War of 1812 while Francis Scott Key wrote the “Star-Spangled
                             Banner.”
                          • During the Vietnam War, garrisons were established at so-called strategic
                             hamlets.
                          • During the Revolutionary War, the British garrisoned troops in the homes
                             of the colonists.
                        garrulous (GAER yoo lis) adj. talkative; talking too much about generally
                      insignificant things
                          • Teenaged girls tend to be more garrulous than their male counterparts.
                          • Most company sales meetings are dominated by garrulous persons who love
                             to hear themselves speak.
                             [-ness n.] [Syn. loquacious, talkative]
                        genre (ZHAHN ruh) n. a kind or type, like literature, music, works of art, and so
                      on —adj. designating a class of film, book, or the like by its subject matter—for
                      example, science fiction, comedy
                          • Henry James was an artist of the literary genre.
                          • The Star Wars trilogy gave birth to the genre of big-budget sci-fi films.
                        geyser (GY zoer) n. a hot spring from which sprays of steam and or boiling
                      water gush into the air at intervals of time
                          • Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park is probably the best-known geyser in the
                             world.
                          • Giant, Grotto, Fountain, Castle, and Crested Pool are some other geysers in
                             Yellowstone.
                        gist (JIST) n. the main point or essence of an argument, article, and so on
                          • The gist of the thing is the crux of the matter, and that just about says it all.
                          • Frank did not understand everything the lecturer was saying about calcu-
                             lating the area under a curve, but he did get the gist of it.
                          • Take two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule, and you have the
                             gist of water.
                             [Syn. essence]


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