destitute
adjective 1. Without resources or possessions, especially the necessities of life. Winter is especially painful for destitute people in the cities of the Northeast. 2. Lacking; devoid of. Staring at the blank sheet of paper on which I was supposed to write a poem, I found myself destitute of ideas. destitution noun The state of lack of resources. Destitution caused by the mid-nineteenth-century potato famine forced many Irish families to seek better lives in the United States. |
emancipate
verb To set free from slavery; to liberate. Some teenagers feel emancipated when they get a driver’s license. emancipation noun The act of emancipating/freeing/liberating In 1863, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation stated that all slaves in the Confederacy were, from then on, free.. |
flamboyant
adjective Excessively showy; unrestrained. My conservative aunt considered her husband’s brightly colored, boldly patterned necktie too flamboyant for the governor’s reception. flamboyance/flamboyancy noun The act of being flamboyant/excessively showy. With an air of flamboyance, the actor flung out her arm and pointed to the door.. |
impetus
noun 1. A driving force; anything that causes an action; a catalyst. Her hope of winning an athletic scholarship provided the impetus for years of grueling training on the swim team. 2. Increased activity resulting from a driving force. The drop in interest rates gave impetus to the real estate market after last year’s slump in sales. |
plumb
verb 1. To measure the depth of water. The lake was too deep for us to plumb. 2. To reach the deepest part of. The bathyscaphe is a vessel designed to plumb the oceans of the world. 3. To understand by examining closely; to solve. Her latest book of poems is a valiant attempt to plumb the human soul. adjective Straight up and down; vertical. The bricklayer keeps checking to make sure that the wall being built is plumb. |
wheedle
verb 1. To coax by using sly persuasion or insincere praise. He tried to wheedle his father into lending him the new sports car. 2. To gain by using sly persuasion or insincere praise. The agent wheedled several thousand dollars from the couple for a life insurance policy that was practically worthless. |