| Defendant: A person against whom a suit is brought. |
| The judge ruled in favour of the defendant. |
| Diminished: Made smaller |
| The print media has not been eliminated altogether with the advent of TV, nevertheless, it has been diminished to a great extent. |
| Fictitious: Imaginary |
| The practice of putting fictitious roll no. slips over genuine roll nos. was started with a view to hiding the real identity of the candidates, and thereby avoiding any unfair marking. |
| Gravity: Heaviness |
| The Office Manual prescribes different penalties for different types of misconduct, depending on their gravity. |
| Predator: That which lives off others |
| The Kanha National Forest Reserve is home to many predators, who have a bounty of deer, boar and other small animals to feed on. |
| Renovate: To redo |
| The old run-down haveli required complete renovation before it could become fit for occupation. |
| Sensual: Lewd |
| The pleasure-seeking king’s life was marked by wining, dining and in general enjoying himself - in short, a life devoted to sensual pleasures. |
| Annul: To void a contract |
| The Municipal Corporation has threatened to annul the contract awarded to the parking contractor if he does not go by its directives on not charging government vehicles. |
| Cache: A hiding place used especially for storing provisions |
| The police discovered a cache of arms. |
| Cartel: An industrial group |
| The petroleum ministry alleged that all oil-producing countries had formed an international cartel and were acting jointly to raise petroleum prices. |
| Crevice: Narrow crack |
| The crevice in the snow-clad mountain may be very deceptive. |
| Enactment: The making of a law |
| The NDA govt. succeeded in forcing the POTO Bill’s acceptance and immediate enactment. |
| Gruesome: Horrible |
| The site of the accident, with his badly mangled body, his scooter reduced to junk and his blood strewn all around, presented a gruesome sight. |
| Monstrous: Horrible, atrocious |
| The monstrous crimes committed by Idhi Amin in Uganda, rightfully deserved multiple death sentences. |
| Perseverance: Continued effort |
| The severe difficulties she faced in her path did tend to discourage her, but she persevered in her work and ultimately emerged victorious. |
| Placid: Undisturbed, peaceful, quiet |
| The placid waters of the lake reflected to her the stillness, which had come to characterize her not-so-exciting life. |
| Provocation: The act of inciting, something that excites or evokes |
| The sensible and sane citizenry defeated the designs of rumour-mongers by not getting aroused despite several provocations given by them. |
| Retaliate: to strike back |
| The police started firing on the unarmed people, but the mob retaliated by setting ablaze many shops, showrooms and buses. |
| Stipulate: Make express conditions specify |
| The court order stipulates that the accused must be produced by the police before the judge within two weeks. |
| Waver: To move to and fro, sway, to be unsettled in opinion |
| The current crisis requires us to take decisive action to defuse it, any wavering on the issue is likely to cost us dearly in the long run. |
| Allure: Attract |
| The job of an ad-maker is to create an advertisement which allures the customers to the product and convinces them to buy it. |
| Censure: An expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism |
| The move of the government to allowed FDI in retail drew censure from the opposition. |
| Charade: A pretense |
| The Rs. 500 monthly payment ordered by the court to the Bhopal tragedy victims was nothing but a charade in the name of justice considering the fact that the tragedy had virtually incapacitated the victims. |
| Chicanery: Trickery, deception |
| The judge, exposing the chicanery in the lawyer's argument, told him that clever arguments could never be a substitute for well-reasoned cases. |
| Dapple: Spotted |
| The dapple surface gave me an impression that the canvas had been carefully painted with small pink-coloured circles over a white background. |
| Deplore: To lament |
| The PM deplored the fact that the opposition was always trying to sabotage his efforts to do anything constructive. |
| Deprecate: To belittle |
| The opposition had planned the defamation campaign to deprecate him, but the plan backfired. |
| Expunge: Erase |
| The Speaker ordered the staff to expunge the abusive remarks of the MPs from records as such unparliamentary remarks could not be published. |
| Impel: To push |
| The motivating speech given by the Marketing Chief should impel the sales staff towards more hard work and better results. |
| Indelible: Inerasable, difficult to stamp out |
| The memory of my visit to the slum, with half-clad children frolicking around in filthy environ is indelibly etched in my mind. |
| Pinnacle: Peak |
| The pinnacle of success is easy to achieve but very difficult to retain, as any successful person would tell you. |
| Procrastinate: Put off, delay |
| The submission was procrastinated every time due to unavailability of requisite information. |
| Refurbish: Renovate |
| The old building is being refurbished these days in view of the PM's forthcoming visit to this place. |
| Remunerate: To pay |
| The person appointed to the post will be suitably remunerated as per his merits. |
| Secede: To withdraw |
| The opinion poll done by the ORG-MARG group in the Kashmir valley clearly proves that the Kashmiris do not wish to secede from India and are happy with Kashmir as part of it. |
| Sordid: Dirty |
| The sordid details of the fodder scam in the department were leaked to the media by an insider. |
| Succinct: Marked by briefness and clarity of expression, concise |
| The space available being short, we will have to be succinct in expressing our ideas while writing the article for publication. |
| Supplant: To take the place of, supersede |
| The coup in Fiji was an attempt by the businessman, George Speight, to supplant the President |
| Virulence: Very dangerous |
| The killing of two journalists is perhaps one of the most virulent attacks on free press. |
| Vituperate: To use harsh condemnatory language, to abuse or censure severely or abusively, berate |
| The opposition vituperated the government for the law and order situation in the state. |
