VOCAB UNIT 12

APPRECIABLE

• Sufficient to be noticed
• Syn: detectable
• Ant: slight, trivial
• Liesel's love for books is appreciable.

AUTOCRATIC

• Adj. absolute power
• Syn: tyrannical, bossy
• Ant: lenient, egalitarian
• Hitler was an autocratic ruler during WWII

BLANCH

• V. To remove color from, pale
• Syn: bleach, drain
• Ant: color, dye, blush
• By the time of his death, hitler was blanch and depressed.

BLASPHEMY

• N. An act/saying showing contempt to something sacred
• Syn: profanity, curse
• Ant: devotion, respect
• To the Germans, it was blasphemy that the aryans didn't win the Olympics.

BRAWNY

• Strong, muscular
• Syn: Burly, strapping
• Ant: frail, puny
• While Liesel isn't very brawny, she is the best wrestler in her class.

CONCERTED

• Adj. planned/preformed in coop with others
• Syn: combined, organized
• Ant: diffused, unilateral
• Deutscher makes a concerted effort to humiliate Rudy.

CONTEND

• V. To fight; compete; argue
• Syn: battle, assert
• Ant: yield, submit
• Max tends to dream about contending with Hitler in a boxing match.

HUMANE

• Adj. kind, merciful
• Syn: sympathetic, compassionate
• Ant: cruel, merciless
• The treatment of Jews in concentration camps was not humane.

ILLUSTRIOUS

• Adj. very famous
• Syn: eminent, renowned
• Ant: unknown, nameless
• Rudy is has an illustrious record for pretending to be Jesse Owens.

INTOLLERABLE

• Adj. unbearable
• Syn: insufferable
• Ant: pleasant
• It was intolerable that Liesel couldn't read when she went to school.

IRREVERENT

• Adj. disrespectful
• Syn: outrageous
• Ant: awed, respected
• To house Jews during nazi Germany was irreverent.

LABOURIOUS

• Adj. not easy
• Syn: difficult, strenuous
• Any: easy, effortless
• Liesel was tasked with the laborious work of cleaning the spot off the door.

LITHE

• Adj. bending easily
• Syn: flexible
• Ant: rigid
• Liesel was lithe enough to crawl through the window to the mayor's house.

MALTREAT

• V. To abuse
• Syn: misuse, harm
• Ant: pamper, indulge
• Until max moved into Hans' house, he was maltreated.

PONDER

• V. Consider carefully
• Syn: contemplate
• One must ponder as to why Rudy gave up his chance in the hitler youth games.

SUBVERSIVE

• Adj. meant to overthrow, n. One who tries to undermine politics
• Syn: traitorous
• Ant: loyal, patriotic
• Hans is considered subversive to the nazi party

SYNTHETIC

• Adj. made to put together
• Syn: artificial
• Ant: natural

TEMPERATE

• Adj. mild
• Syn: moderate, fair
• Ant: extreme, harsh
• There is rarely ever a temperate time in Liesel's childhood.

VENEMOUS

• Adj. poisonous, mean
• Syn: nasty, malicious
• Ant: kind, harmless
• Saumensch is quite a venomous word, but Liesel uses it often.

WITTY

• Adj. Sly, shrewd
• Syn: tricky, artful
• Ant: dull-witted
• Rosa doesn't take wily remakes, being very strict.