Page 324 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary

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O – P: GRE Words
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peripatetic (PER i puh TET ik) adj. moving about from place to place; itinerant
• Peripatetic movie critics might move from theater to theater and check out
the comfort of the seats as well as what’s on the screen.
• A nomad lives a peripatetic existence.
[-ally adv.] [Syn. itinerant]
perish (PER ish) vt. 1. to be destroyed or wiped out; 2. to die; disappear
• Many people perished in the floods of 2004.
• As it passed over the horizon, the sun perished from view.
• Do not perish the thought of adding every one of these words to your
vocabulary.
[-ed, -ing] [Syn. disappear, die]
perjury (POER joer ee) n. lying under oath; failing to tell the truth under formal
oath (to a court of law)
• Perjury is a crime that is committed more frequently than those who commit
it are prosecuted.
• Witnesses who refused to say anything in court cannot be accused of perjury.
permeable (POER mee i bl) adj. capable of being passed through by fluids
(liquids and gases)
• Cell membranes are permeable so that dissolved nutrients can pass through
them.
• The most common permeable item in households today is the coffee filter.
[permeably adv.]
perturb (poer TOERB) vt. 1. to annoy, alarm, or upset; 2. to cause confusion or
disorder; unsettle (Imperturbable means not capable of being disturbed.)
• Francesco is perturbed when he thinks someone is hurting an animal.
• Many people are perturbed by the sight of blood.
• Shouting fire in a crowded theater might perturb the audience enough to
cause a riot and so is illegal.
[-ed, -ing] [Syn. disturb]
pervade (poer VAYD) vt. to be prevalent or widespread
• A feeling of relief pervaded the community after hearing the news that the
little girl had been rescued from the shaft.
• A case of blight pervaded the Irish potato crop at one time and caused wide-
spread famine.
[-d, pervading]
philistine (FIL is teen) adj. 1. uncultured and smugly conventional —n 1.
small-town people; locals 2. (P) the name of the ancient people who often fought
with the Israelites of biblical times, and among whose number was Goliath
• The diva’s response to a request that she perform a certain number was a
philistine, “I sang that yesterday.”
• Students in a college town often refer to the townspeople as philistines.
• Delilah was the Philistine woman who was responsible for Samson’s
haircut.