click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Canterbury Tales Voc
Seniors 2010
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Heath | an area of open wasteland overgrown with heather, low shrubs, etc. |
| Hostelry | a lodging place |
| Grace | attractive quality; favor or goodwill; divine love given freely to human beings |
| Prioress | the woman in charge of a priory of nuns |
| Smart | sting painfully |
| Garnish | to decorate or trim |
| Pillar | the person who is the main support of an institution or group |
| Accrue | to increase or accumulate |
| Estimable | worthy of esteem |
| Barge | large boat, generally flat-bottomed |
| Nutritive, victuals | food |
| Buckler | small round shield held or worn on the arm |
| Extort | to get money, etc., from someone by threats |
| Mire | wet, soggy ground; deep mud |
| Disdainful; contemptuous | scornful |
| Lore | accumulated information on a particular subject |
| Wrangler | quarrelsome person |
| Marvel | a wonderful thing; a miracle |
| Frugal | thrifty |
| Bailiff | a district official who has the power to collect taxes, keep the peace, etc. |
| Splay | to spread out; expand |
| Brimstone | sulfur |
| Grope | to search or feel about blindly or uncertainty |
| driblet | small amount |
| scurrility | coarseness or vulgarity of language |
| defer | to put off to a future time |
| strand | a foreign country |
| boorish | awkward; coarse; clumsy in manners |
| joust | to fight with another person with lances on horseback |
| courtliness | elegance of manners |
| bridle | a head harness for a horse; to draw one’s head back quickly in anger, pride |
| supple | able to move and bend easily |
| penitent | feeling and expressing shame for having done something wrong |
| farthing | a small British coin |
| rote | memory; a mechanical or routine process |
| apothecary | a person who prepares and sells drugs |
| pestilence | highly contagious disease, usually fatal |
| parishioner | member of a parish |
| sufficiency | an adequate amount |
| mercenary | a person working for payment only; greedy |
| discreet | careful |
| repine | to feel discontented |
| buffoon | a person given to clowning |
| abstruse | hard to understand |
| dock(ed) | to cut short |
| serf | person bound to a master |
| cavalcade | procession, generally of horsemen or carriages |
| boracic | boric acid |
| shriving | penance, confession |
| prevarication | lying |
| marshal | a high official of a royal household |
| evensong | evening worship service |
| sundry | miscellaneous; of an indefinite small number |
| squire | a young man of good birth who attends a knight |
| yeoman | a servant in a noble household |
| zest | relish; wholehearted enjoyment |
| prior | the head of a religious house |
| absolution | forgiveness |
| arbitrate | to settle a dispute as an impartial judge |
| asunder | apart |
| amble | to walk in a slow, relaxed way |
| adversity | a state of misfortune |
| arrears | debts that are unpaid and overdue |
| burgess | formerly a member of British Parliament |
| brawn | powerful, muscular strength |
| cadet | a younger son or brother |
| cloister | a place of religious seclusion |
| diligent | hardworking; industrious |
| duress | harshness; restraint |
| decree | an official decision made previously |
| ecclesiast | clergyman |
| encumber | to hinder; hamper |
| friar | a member of a begging religious order |
| guile | cunning; slyness |
| garner | a place for storing grain |
| garland | a circlet or string of flowers |
| manure | to fertilize soil |
| matins | morning prayers |
| motley | composed of many different unrelated elements or colors |
| offertory | the collection of money at a church service |
| prelate | a high-ranking cleric, such as a bishop or archbishop |
| parish | a district of British local civil government |
| prudent | exercising sound judgment; cautious |
| peer | a noble, especially a member of an hereditary legislative body |
| quicksilver | mercury |
| rebuke | to scold sharply |
| rash | reckless |
| reckoning | a calculation; a final settlement of rewards and penalties |
| reckon | to count; consider |
| steward | a manager of a large household or estate |
| sward | grass-covered earth |
| shire | a county |
| sheathe | to enclose in a casing |
| solicitous | showing concern |
| scum | worthless matter or people regarded as worthless |
| superfluity | an excess |
| scrupulosity | conscientious honesty |
| tag | a short, familiar quotation |
| tartar | a white substance used in laxatives |
| virtuous | morally upright |