Page 84 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary

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QUICK REVIEW #24 D: SAT Words 75

Match the word from column 2 with the word from column 1 that means most
nearly the same thing.

1. damage a. refuse
2. daze b. protect
3. debacle c. mislead
4. debatable d. appropriate
5. debunk e. loudness
6. deceive f. postponement

7. decibel g. injure
8. decline h. arguable
9. decorous i. failure
10. defend j. expose
11. deferment k. stupor
defiant (di FY int) adj. full of angry resistance; openly and boldly resisting (in
spite of opposition)
• The men defending the Alamo were defiant in the face of Santa Ana’s over-
whelmingly superior numbers.
• Rosa Parks sparked civil rights awareness by being defiant of the “Blacks
ride in the back” convention of the day.
[-ly adv., defiance n.]
deficit (DEF i sit) n. the amount of money less than the necessary amount; hav-
ing more liabilities than assets, losses than profits, or expenditures than income
• The U.S. government almost always has a financial deficit.
• Those in the high-tech sector of the stock market experienced a severe
deficit at the opening of the twenty-first century.
define (di FYN) vt. 1. to state or set down the boundaries of; to delineate; 2. to
determine or state the nature or extent of; 3. to differentiate; 4. to state the mean-
ing or meanings of a word (like we’re doing here)
• A couple needs to define what will be expected of each before rushing
blindly into a marriage.
• Mr. Smedley, our head of sales, will now define what your job here will be.
• Never define a word by using that word in the definition.
[-d, defining, definition n.]
deleterious (DEL it ir ee uhss) adj. bad for health or well-being; injurious;
harmful
• Smoking cigarettes is deleterious to everyone’s health, not just the smoker’s.
• An infestation of locusts can have a deleterious effect on a farmer’s crops.
[-ly adv., -ness n.] [Syn. pernicious]