bintang

koleksi buku

2010-08-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
3 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
4 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Breaking The Da Vinci Code By Darrell L Bock
Computer Dictionary
Frogs into Princes - neuro linguistic programming
Hackers Handbook
How to Improve Self-Confidence
How to Start Conversation and Make Friends
Lasting Leadership
Methods for Solving Mathematical Physics Problems
Parential Guide
The Da Vinci Code
The Guru Guide to Marketing
The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Art of Public Speaking
The Basis of Morality
The Foundations of Personality
Things We Wished We Had
29 Leadership Secrets From Jack Welch

Confusion Inducing Questions

2010-08-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

1. What’s something really important that you’re just not thinking about right now?
2. If there’s no future in the past should you forget this tomorrow?
3. When can you continue to change if you’re about to decide that isn’t now a good time?
4. What wouldn’t happen if you didn’t?
5. How do you find that?
6. Where does that come from?
7. Only you’ll know what you’ve found until after you’ve found it.
8. And you know why I say that for?
9. What’s problem spelled backwards?
10. Is melborp problem spelled backwards?
11. What kind of problem would you have if you were only to STOP and actually realized that there is no difference between now and then?
12. If this is next week’s last week or next week’s last week this week, where would we put this weeks last week’s next week’s problem?
13. Have you failed to overcome the solution to your problem?
14. When we get out this far the only thing left is right.
15. If your problem is this and the solution is that, then this and not that is the solution to this or that problem?
16. Well that’s simple, how does corn grow?
17. How can you have a process without a functional structure?
18. What are all the things you won’t do to have your problem?
19. … Where was I…?
20. What’s sex spelled inwards?

How Embedded Commands

2010-08-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Influence Reader Awareness
(Special Note: This report was written in a rather «scholarly» format
for the purpose of presenting these strategies to the academic
community. This report will teach you the reasons these
types of Influence strategies work. Enjoy!)

Influencing people with language has been the object of study since at least the 5th century B.C., when the early Greeks developed the science of rhetoric as a way of persuading people. The following data is based on experimental findings in social psychology and information-processing theory.
Embedded commands are sophisticated techniques for communicating with readers subliminally, to help satisfy the needs of both the reader and the writer. They are hidden suggestions that fit into the sentence without calling attention to their existence. They are designed to create positive reader expectancies, while reducing the internal resistance of the reader and enhancing movement towards successful closure. Some of the forms these subliminal persuaders might take include:

• Use of italics
• Underlined words
• Hidden suggestions in a quote
• Embedded questions
• Implications
• Presuppositions
• Implied cause and effect statements
• Hidden double binds
• Embedded indirect commands within an anecdote
• Word associations
• Affect bridges
• Use of ambiguity
• Analogy
• Multiple-level communication
• Polarized yes/no responses
• Yes-sets
• Use of partial remarks

Embedded commands are composed of small segments of larger statements, which are marked out for the attention of the reader’s unconscious mind. Like post-hypnotic suggestions, subliminal commands evade scrutiny by normal waking consciousness and are retained in unconscious secondary memory, and may influence subsequent behavior without the reader being aware of what is determining his responses (Dixon, 1981)
According to Johnson (1988), embedded commands can reinforce potential behavior and help the reader come to a faster decision. These hidden commands are used effectively and frequently in newspaper and television advertising. In Buick commercials we hear «wouldn’t you really rather «have a Buick?» Of course, the embedded command used in the sentence is «have a Buick.»
According to a study conducted at Harvard University and reported by Johnson (1988), certain trigger words have a positive impact on motivating people to take action. Using subliminal commands acts similarly to these motivating triggers.

How Embedded Commands Work

The purpose of embedded commands is to by-pass the observing critical ego, to direct inner experience while modifying the reader’s awareness, and finally, to help alter his point of view on the topic presented. Utilizing both indirect and covert modification of reader attention, the casual writing style weaves suggestions for conscious alterations of reader awareness. The use of slight confusion depotentiates the reader’s habitual frame of reference. Then, as the reader follows the dialogue, the acquisition of right hemispheric functioning begins providing modifications of internal images. The writer’s use of questions, and direct and indirect suggestions, creates expectancies of behavioral changes in the reader. These implications to the reader’s subconscious mind help create an internal reality that is amenable to further modification using the linguistic techniques described above (Erickson and Rossi, 1979).
Thus, through a consistent series of linguistic maneuvers, the reader is taken further and further away from a rigid and resistant frame of reference and closer and closer to an ‘open-mindedness’ regarding the outcomes suggested by the writer.
Watzlawick (1985) describes the use of these linguistic patterns as practicing hypnotherapy without trance, and states «the use of these linguistic structures has a virtual hypnotic effect.»

Some Examples and Suggestions

Any and all of the techniques centered around the use of suggestions and language patterns contained in my Home Study course will increase the power of your writing exponentially. Care needs to be taken so as not to «load up» your writing with too many commands and language patterns. Some of the better patterns to use are:

A. Embedded Commands
B. Cause and Effect and Implied Cause and Effect
C. Single Binds
D. Any and all of the 18 most powerful words (Presuppositions)
E. Pacing and Leading
F. Time-released Suggestions/ Future-Pacing

Here are some examples of the use of Embedded Commands, along with some additional language patterns. Embedded Commands are marked out by both bolding and italicizing the commands. Note that the commands make sense on their own.

1. As you read this information, letting your eyes follow each word, you’ll discover the benefits of how this information can significantly make your life easier.
2. The ability to eliminate resistance in learning to persuade is paramount. In fact, the more you understand how to make someone believe in these concepts, the more success you’ll have in getting them to do what you want.
3. Reading this information enables you to understand why you are starting to become convinced that you should take the kind of action I’m suggesting you take and to do it now!
4. Thank you for having read this so far. Having done this identifies you as the kind of person who really wants to get ahead and is willing to take the kind of action necessary for that to happen. As you become aware of just how powerfully this information has affected you, now and into the future, have you decided just what will continue to signal you and remind you of your excitement about this? I could suggest that getting in your car, or talking with a business associate or friend, or just sitting and relaxing will be the signal that creates this – however – I think that you should decide for yourself what will cause that to happen.
5. Of the three most powerful techniques for persuading other, the one I’d like you to learn quickly is the subtle use of Verbal Pacing and Leading. In doing this, you can experience results fast so that your writing takes on a much more powerful and compelling personality. As this starts to take place and you find yourself starting to feel great about your ability, remember to use this knowledge more and more and also in all that you write that will be used to influence others.

Why You Should Use Embedded Commands In Your Writing

The literature is rich in experimental evidence in the area of subliminal perception (Zeig, 1985). This body of data suggests that information can be processed without conscious awareness.
The research in subliminal perception indicates that a stimulus of which the individual is unaware can elicit a response. Experimental psychology research supports the view that the unconscious mind can work autonomously and lead to behavioral change, without conscious awareness (Erickson, Rossi, and Rossi, 1976).
Embedded commands can circumvent and go beyond ego-defense boundaries. Defense mechanisms/resistance, exist within a linguistic framework, and therefore, alterations of resistance can be accomplished linguistically.
Wester (1985), reports these methods are extremely effective. The effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy, which is related to these techniques, is well documented, (Maultsby and Ellis, 1974, Wilson, 1977, Meichenbaum, 1977).
As Wester further states convincingly, «imagery techniques and cognitive restructuring methods are actually hypnotic and we have mountainous evidence as to its efficacy, and in professional consulting, pragmatism is paramount, that which has been accepted at least since the early 1940’s has a validity that would be foolish to dismiss. When hypnosis is applied naturalistically, it may be used effectively by business people at all levels.»

Embedded Commands Can Improve Your Marketing Letters

The use of embedded commands allows the writer to:

• By-pass reader resistance
• Covertly give instructions
• Persuade on both conscious and unconscious levels
• Create positive reader expectancies
• Reduce the internal resistance of the reader
• Enhance movement towards successful closure
• Influence subsequent behavior without the reader being aware of what is determining his responses
• Help the reader come to a faster decision
• Motivate the reader to take action

Increases of 10-20% in the effectiveness of your marketing letters would not be an unrealistic expectation.

Brain 101: How to Play the Brain Game for Fun and Profit

2010-08-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
The Brain Game
How Do We Run Our Own Brain?
So you want to run your own brain? Good for you. What a wonderful objective! And so rare. Many people talk about running their own brain and taking charge of their own mind, but just watch them when criticized or insulted. They go to pieces. Let one of their closely held beliefs be questioned, and watch out. Sudden it becomes semantic reaction time. They explode with rage, anger, stress, fear, shock, etc. If they truly "run their own brains," how is it that they lack state management skills in the moments when managing one's reactions really counts?
Running our own brain, and thinking freely in independent ways apart from rehashing worn-out or spoon fed thoughts necessitates several things. It necessitates that we develop mindfulness about our brains (or more accurately, our minds) so that we actually develop state management skills. It means we learn to play a new Game, The "Running My Own Brain" Game. So, with that in mind:
• What do you need to understand about brains to be able to run yours?
• Would you like to play the Brain Game?
SEVEN BRAIN FACTS
Here are seven things about your brain. They provide a description about how brains work. They also establish an understanding of the Game of Running Your Own Brain and so lead to the Rules of the Game.
#1: Brains Follow Directions
Brains follow directions. They take the directions that you give them and they follow them.
"John, did you see that red, white and blue cat yesterday? Yes, red, white and blue? in fact, the American Flag colors were bright red, white, and blue. Someone in the neighborhood must have thought it would be a patriotic thing to do. Where did I see it? On Linda's yellow car. It was being chased by a pair of French Poodles across the greenbelt by the swimming pool. That was just before King Kong climbed to the top of the school and beat his chest at the circling plane."
Provide a little description and the brain goes to work representing the information on our internal mental screen. Like a movie director, brains use the information as instructions for our mental Cinema. This explains why the following are very important questions for our states:
What directions are you giving your brain?
What are the default instructions that you've learned to give your brain?
What instructions did your parents or teachers provide you about yourself, life, others, etc.?
How useful, ecological, healthy, balanced, valuable, true, etc. are those instructions?
Do those instructions create empowering states for you?
Would you want to give those instructions to your children?
Do they map out an exciting and loving life?
Why are these questions so important? Because the quality of our lives is a function of the quality of the information processed by our brain. The quality of that information flows from the quality of its instructions. The most important thing you do in life then are the instructions that you give your brain. Are the instructions those that you would use to create a world-class movie?
Recently a young man wrote to me.
"I'm an extremely shy person. When I see a social situation, I avoid it because I say to myself that I'll have nothing to say and that I'll be a complete idiot because they will find me boring, then I'll feel depressed. So I just don't go. Every time I make a mistake, I feel stupid, then depressed. And that's what causes me to procrastinate. It's really stupid, and I know better, and I see it causing me to produce sub-optimally. I feel like these are insurmountable problems...."
I copied the words from the email, cut and pasted them back into my reply. I then asked him to step back from the words and view them as brain instructions.
"Just pretend for a moment that these are instructions for your brain. Are these ideas healthy or sick ones? Would you recommend this way of thinking? Suppose the most popular kid at the university thought this way. How much of a party would these instructions make his or her life?"
There's a principle in this. Namely, feed your brain toxic ideas and you enter into a toxic world. Your brain will go there because that's what brains do. Brains go places. Just this week I caught a Brain (thank God it wasn't mine) going to "Worst Case Scenario!" The person was talking about terrorism in the world. He then entertained unimaginable scenarios. Then he freaked out. Then he said, "This shouldn't happen!"
And I can tell you, these instructions did not put him in a very resourceful state.
Brains use words, pictures, sounds, tones, volumes, smells, tastes, all kinds of things as the basis for swishing us places. Mention a word and off your brain goes. But where? It depends on your learning history, experiences, memories, imaginations, hopes, etc. Brains are phenomenal at linking things. They do so very, very quickly. Actually, this is one of the chief problems we have with our brains. The problem is not that they don't learn, but that they learn too quickly. It's just what they learn that often times is just not true or useful.
Brains are also incredible instruments that never shut down. Even in sleep, we dream as brain wave activity continues. This becomes a problem if we don't give the brain lots of interesting things to process. The stimulus hunger of brains will trigger them to play the old B-rated movies or hallucinate freely.
#2: Brains Externalize Instructions
We can see a person's internal world of ideas and frames by noticing the person's external Games. External life reflects internal frames. The behavioral, speech, and action Games that we play on the outside are expressions of our internal frames of mind. They go together. Games and Rules of the Games.
The old proverb put it this way: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." The Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius put this yet another way:
"As thy thoughts are so will thy mind be also; for the soul takes its coloring from thought."
"If you are pained by an external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you?but your judgment about it." (The Meditations, 160 AD).
Brains manifest internal representation into the external world so that we externalize our internal frames and representations. What does this mean? Namely, that our external world will only be as exciting, vibrant, dramatic, and powerful as our internal frames of mind. So, as you decorate your internal world of mind, imagination, and memory with hopes, desires, wonders, delights, etc., you alter the quality and content of the instructions that you give to your brain.
This brings up several excellent questions for those of us who want to run our own brain to create a quality life:
What kind of images, sounds, words, sensations, etc. do you have running on the inside of your brain?
What kind of internal movies are you showing in the Cinema of your Mind?
Who does your interior decorating?
Does your internal world of frames need some better interior decorating?
#3: Brains Run on Representations
The cognitive and neuro-sciences have discovered that brains represent our external sensed experiences. It is not that we literally have an internal movie screen in our mind, yet it seems that we do. This phenomena of consciousness is how we experience thoughts and awareness's. It seems that we internally recall what our home, car, work, friends, parents, dogs, etc. look like, sound like, smell like, feel like, taste like. This sensory awareness on the inside of our brain has led neuro-scientists to designate parts of the brain the visual cortex, auditory cortex, the cortex where we process smells, tastes, sensations, balance, etc.
Korzybski and others noted that we operate upon the world, not directly, but via a map of the world. In NLP, Bandler and Grinder revolutionized psychology by putting the foundation of thought in terms of the sensory representations systems and using these modalities of awareness as the first "languages" of the mind. This facet of running our own brain seems so simple, yet it is so profound.
If we picture a beautiful day with blue sky and billowy white clouds and a green grass lawn facing the white sands of a gorgeous ocean view and imagine feeling the warm ocean breeze blowing through our hair and the smell of the salt water and the sounds of children playing and enjoy our favorite drink while getting a neck and back massage from our special loved one ...
Well, it doesn't take long before our body and neurology responds to those representations as if they were instructions about how to feel. Because brains run on representations, the more expressive, vivid, dramatic, and sensory-specific, the easier it is for us to tell our brains where to go and what to feel. Then the screen play is clearer and easier to follow.
Our brains represent things as it were on a mental screen of the mind. It's like there's an internal movie playing and we fill in the sensory details of that movie. Of course, we do not play out everything in that Cinema. We can't. We can't even input all that comes in. Our eyes only scan a very narrow part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Our ears only receive a very narrow band of sound wave frequencies. So we have to be pretty selective, as a movie director, about what we play on our internal Cinema. Choose well. It's your brain.
#4: Brains Transition In and Out of the Present Moment
With that last induction (three paragraphs above), did you leave where you are now and go somewhere else? If you didn't, perhaps you could use the words to do that. Try it out. Because we represent things, we can represent realities that are not immediately present and go there. This is the foundation of all day-dreaming, night-dreaming, fantasizing, learning, creativity, invention, thinking, conceptualizing, mathematizing, theorizing, etc. This is what we humans do best. We can leave our current situation and travel to distance places, times, and worlds.
We call this thinking. It's also hypnosis. It's also trance. It's many things: imagination, fantasy, creativity, and hallucination. This means that we are not stuck or limited to his present moment. We can represent things not present, never present, and even impossible things. What freedom of mind we have! It's a freedom of consciousness that's unique to our species. We have a consciousness that can transition from our current state to other states, hence the word "trance." Anytime we shift our awareness to something that is not part of our current awareness, we enter a trance state.
This means that most of our states of mind are trances. We mostly live in hypnotic states not sensory aware states in this present moment. Hypnosis is the norm, our default situation, not present time sensory acuity. We call hypnosis or trance "downtime" in NLP because we are down inside ourselves thinking, feeling, and experiencing other times, places, people, and ideas. We call present time sensory acuity "uptime" because we are "up" and noticing what our eyes see, ears hear, skin feels, etc.
"Hey, Tom! Tom, Earth to Tom!"
"What?"
Our brains love to zone out. Doesn't yours? It happens when you drive on long trips, it happens even when you drive to the grocery store. It happens when you wait in line, in an elevator, and when you're listening to a speech. Brains do that. It's no big deal. Well, it's not unless you have no guidance or control over it. Then it is a big deal. If you lack awareness of when you are present and when you're off on some mind-trip, then you are doing out-of-control hallucinating.
We all hallucinate. Those who do so mindfully and by choice are our greatest scholars, inventors, creators, designers, teachers, CEOs, etc. Those who don't do it by choice suffer from under-achieving and the ineffectiveness of not being able to manage their own mind. They don't run their own brains.
#5: Brains Induce States
Brains put us into neurological states. They affect our physiology, breathing, movement, and internal chemistry. To work up a good mad, we only have to think angry thoughts of injustice and violation. We only have to think about a dangerous threat and off we go into a fear state. And some representations of sexuality can induce our body to experience desire and lust.
Brains do this because they are part of the body. They sit at the top of the spinal cord and nervous system and bring in all of the nervous impulses processed by the end receptors. Out of the structure of our multi-layered brains emerge our sense of awareness we call "mind." Mind is an emergent property in the neurology of our brain. So it is always mind-body or body-mind, and never one without the other.
This explains why we mostly think or represent ourselves into our states but why we also can act our way into states. This gives us two royal roads into a mind-body state of consciousness whether it is confidence and joy and love or fear, anger, and sadness. We can use mind and all of our internal representations and we can use body (breathing, posture, movement, activity, etc.).
What state are you in? What state do you go into when any given stimulus or trigger occurs? You need look no further than the instructions you give yourself at the mental dimension or what you do in terms of your posture, muscle tension, breathing, etc. at the physiological dimension.
#6: Brains Go in Circles
Not only do our brains represent the world, go places, and put us into states, but brains also do flips, they roll over, they flip back on themselves, they go in circles. As there are feed forward and feedback loops in the physical structure of the brain so that nervous impulses are sent to the thalamus and the amygdala they are simultaneously passed on to the escorted and after processing there back to the lower brain structures. It's all inter-connected. We even have an associative cortex that keeps everything connected with everything else so that we have more cortical connections in the three trillion brain cells than atoms in the universe.
No wonder we loop around. No wonder we can worry about our humor and wonder if we are caring too much and then become afraid of our worry and then think something must be wrong with us that we are worry about something so silly as that. We get caught up in down spirals of negative thoughts and can become obsessive compulsive. We can get caught up in positive spiral of thoughts and suffer from insomnia due to our excitement.
Our brains are not strictly logical. To think in a straightforward way and to stay on that path for more than a few seconds is very difficult for our brains. That's why mathematics and formal logic seem so foreign to us. It's not the natural habit of our mind. We think in circles. Our brains go around in loops and spirals. We keep reprocessing the same tired old thoughts.
This reflexivity is what allows us to layer thought upon thought, feeling upon feeling, thought upon feeling, memory upon imagination, fear upon anger, dread upon worry, joy upon learning, etc. This creates the whole domain of our meta-states?our states of thoughts and feelings about other thoughts and feelings. And that's what creates the layering effect of our awareness so that we can create great complexity in our experiences.
We begin with a reference experience, bring it in and represent it, then develop thoughts and feelings about that, and so on until what was "out there" becomes a frame of reference, a frame of mind and then the very frameworks of four personality and orientation. This creates the Rules of the Game, or our highest frames of mind.
#7: Brains Frame Things
This is one of the greatest powers of our brain for health and sanity and for insanity and destructiveness. Our brains frame. They do so to create contextual meaning. Things, events, people, even words do not mean anything in and of themselves. It takes a brain to create meaning, a "thing" that does not exist out there but is a production of the brain.
Actually, the brain creates two levels of meaning. Associative meaning arises when we link up one thing with another thing. What does a cookie mean? It depends on what you have associated with a cookie. It could mean a sweet or junk food. It could mean reward or lack of nutrition. It could mean delight and fun, it could mean threat to my diet. It could mean survival, it could mean fat.
Because brains link ideas, images, feelings, etc., things easily become associated. This creates triggers or anchors. One thing (a sight, sound, sensation, word, etc.) triggers another thing. Stimulus? Response. In this way we create structures of the mind that we call understandings or knowledge. These are not "things," but organizations of associations?how we have sequenced or ordered the frames in our movies.
What does an "authority figure" mean? Where does your brain go when you think about an "authority figure?" What state does it evoke? Pleasant or unpleasant? Resourceful or unresourceful? Just thoughts ... connected in your brain to memories, awareness's, meanings.
Then there is contextual or frame meaning. Once we have linked up and associated things and bring that association into our mind as our frame of reference, we develop higher level thoughts about it. We call these ideas "concepts." In this way we now look at things through a conceptual frame of mind. It becomes a filter. We call them meta-states and meta-programs. This establishes a mental context for thinking and feeling. This is how we turn associations into higher level maps. Doing so establishes the mental Rules of the Games that we then play.
We first associate a harsh tone of voice with being spanked. Later we develop ideas and concepts that people who strain their vocal chords are mean, hurtful, and nasty. Then we develop higher frames that "criticism is bad," "confrontation always ruins things," "I'm sensitive to criticism," "I cannot handle that tone of voice," etc. These thoughts create the higher frames of mind about an event and semantically load that event. So when someone strains the vocal chords, the meanings I experience in relation to that event puts me into very unresourceful states. All of this happens so quickly that on the inside it seems like and feels like "the criticism" (or harsh tonality) makes me upset, angry, or frustrated. This is how we set up and play the Games that we do.
Brains deal with data overload by making generalizations. They create categories for items; they organize things into groups. This allows us to develop contextual meanings from our frames, giving us an even higher way to interpret things.
"Oh, that's just information. Good. For a minute I thought that was criticism."
How we categorize a thing determines what it "is" to us? in our neurology. Yet as we frame, so we become. What we organize on the inside, in-forms us. We are all psychologically organized by our belief frame, value frames, identity frames, decision frames, etc. And the thing about the brain framing is that as we frame, so we play the frame games that we do.
HOW TO PLAY THE BRAIN GAME
Now that you know about brains (minds), what they do and how they work, you're ready to play the Brain Game. This is the Running Your Own Brain Game, one of the original visions of NLP. With Neuro-Semantics we take this even further to run our own brain at the highest levels of the mind (The Secrets of Personal Mastery <../Books/Personal_Mastery.htm>, 2000).
Rule #1: Quality Control Your Brain's Instructions.
Consider anything that isn't Top-Notch Quality for your Brain as Absurd.
Did I mention that brains are stupid? At least in one sense they are very stupid, in the aspect of quality. In that area, they are less intelligent than stomachs. Really. After all, if we feed our stomach garbage, it at least knows how to vomit. Not so the brain. Feed it garbage and it doesn't think twice, it just processes the garbage. Feed it toxic ideas, poisonous thoughts, limiting beliefs, irrational conclusions, and inaccurate mapping and it doesn't know any better than to represent it, assume it is real, and then believe it. Brains themselves are not discriminating about quality, at least not near as much as the stomach. Whether the information is accurate, useful, true, productive, hurtful, stupid, etc., it doesn't seem to matter.
So, given this stupidity of brains, we have to take charge of the Quality Control of the information we feed it. We call this "running an ecology check." Reality test the value, health, and balance of an idea in the whole system of your body, relationships, energy, etc. This is the first Rule of the Game.
If you don't do this, prepare yourself for trouble because trouble, problems, ill-health, incongruent, sabotage, conflict, etc. you will get. This Brain Game Rule says,
"Anything that does not create personal power, health, balance, joy, compassion, wealth, love, etc. is absurd."
Do you play the Game of Life by that rule?
I highly recommend it.
Consider anything that your brain produces in your body, emotions, speech, behavior, relationships that puts you in constant conflict, that keeps repeating patterns that don't work, that creates incongruity, ineffectiveness, unresourcefulness, etc. as absurd. Then stop it! If you follow this first rule, your life will probably radically change and transform in a matter of weeks. This is an extremely powerful and pervasive Rule.
If what you are doing, whether in communication to yourself or others, whether in relationship to your work, career, relationships, health, etc. is not working as an ongoing pattern, STOP. To keep repeating long term patterns that don't work while hoping for different results is a practical definition of "insanity." It is absolutely ludicrous to keep replaying the old movies of hurt and pain in the theater of your mind. Wasn't once enough? It's ludicrous because while the first time it happen to you, after that first time you have been doing it to yourself! It's your brain doing it. It's not happening "out there" anymore. If you're still watching that B-rated movie, and you are the director of the movie.
Quality control your thinking, higher frames of mind, beliefs, states, etc.
Does this enhance my life over the long-run?
Does this empower me as a person?
Does this make life a party?
This Rule will radically challenge everybody still whining over childhood aches and pains, feeling like a victim to a failed marriage or business, or blaming others for their lack of success. This Rule enables you to live in a different way and to play a different Game? a more passionate and ferocious Game, one where you move out into life looking for opportunities and taking risks and playing to your strengths.
Rule #2: Rise Up in your Mind to Become Aware of the Games
You Only Get to Run Your Own Brain if You have Meta-Awareness
Everybody does not get to run his or her own brain. There is one primary condition for getting to run your own brain, you have to know that you have a brain to run and awareness of how you are currently running it. The brain creates first level "awareness," awareness of the world. This is the consciousness of animals and small children. Awareness of that awareness, meta-awareness, moves us to a higher level of mind. If you don't know that you are running your own brain or how you are running it, then your unawareness will be unconscious. Then you won't get to run your own brain. Your Brain will run you!
This Rule ought to scare the hell out of out you! Does it? Unconsciousness means that you are not mindful of what's going on. Use that as a cue. Do you ever scratch your head wondering that? Do you have ask:
Hey, what's going on here? Why do I feel this way?
Why can't I seem to get ahead?
Why am I always running around in circles and never getting on with things?
I don't know what came over me; I just flipped out?
I don't seem to have control of my emotions.
When Rule #2 says that you only get to run your own brain when you develop meta-awareness of what you're doing, it posits awareness as the key condition. This is a big challenge for many. Over the years many have asked, "Would you just hypnotize me and make this problem go away?" I played that Game for awhile. Then I realized the toxicity in that attitude. It's the wrong attitude if you really want to have control over your own life. That attitude will not lead you on to personal mastery. That attitude indicates the failure to actively participate in your own life. And that's why it has to be refused.
In NLP and NS we know that the magic is in the structure. The structure of an experience itself is the magic. That's why we model. We model experts to learn how they do it. Do what? Run their own brain with regard to a specific area (selling, parenting, relating, communicating, wealth building, health and fitness, leadership, etc.). Once we know that, we know how to find the magic in any field or expertise.
This explains why we do the kind of trainings that we do. We seek to teach to the conscious mind. We want consciousness involved. So while we utilize processes for working with facets of mind outside of conscious awareness, we focus on empowering people to run their own brains without becoming dependent upon us. So we facilitate their self-awareness and ego-strength to look reality in the face, and laugh, and feel ferocious.
This rule leads to various questions and orientations.
What is the basic attitude that drives this experience?
What frame of mind do I need in order to experience this orientation?
How does he do that?
How can I adopt her frame of mind about that?
Rule #3: Beware of Your Frame Referencing
Just Because Your Brain Framed it Does Not Make it Useful
If your brain frames, and if the frames that you set create the Games that you play, take care what you reference and how. We all know people (perhaps we have been such) who experience one or more negative events in life and then (to make things worse), build their lives around that event. Talk about a program that sucks. This is the structure of sick magic: Center your life around a Tragedy, Misfortune, or Injustice! This violates Rule #1 for the Brain Game. It is failing to consider this way of representing and framing things as totally absurd.
Decided to build your life around great events. Find (or invent) wonderful references that you can center you life around.
What wonderful event could I build my life around?
What inspiring referent experience (real or imagined) would I like to commission at the center of my attention
and focus?
If I did, what else would have to change?
And what other supporting ideas or beliefs would enable me to frame things this way?
What you reference, how you reference in terms of the representation richness you encode it in and what you set as your governing frames makes all the difference in the world. It controls and governs the Games that you play. Are you playing the Games that you want to play? If not, then take a look at the entire referencing and framing sequence and design a more empowering one.
As everything habituates so do the neuro-pathways and the internal processing of the brain. When we habituate a way of thinking, an information processing style, or a direction for sending our brain, it eventually becomes our meta-programs or sorting styles. This defines our current trance that organizes our mind-body states. Frames become our software programs or default maps for how to operate in any given arena of life.
Rule #4: Lighten Up and Have Lots of Fun with your Brain
If you don't enjoy the process, you will get stupid.
Here's another rule in the Brain Frame Game. If you get serious about things, you will get stupid. Stupidity is the occupational hazard of getting serious about things. Getting serious typically undermines such graces as humor, laughter, enjoyment, playfulness, silliness, and ludicrousness. And yet these are the saving graces that keep us human. These are the saving graces for being real, being spiritual, and being authentic. Lose these and you will not be able to run your own brain with any dignity or grace.
Lose humor and laughter and you loose perspective. You'll even begin to be seduced into playing the God Game, thinking you are perfect (or should be), know it all (or should), and be everywhere and do everything (hence, indispensable). If any of that seems legitimate, you are in danger of getting stupid very rapidly.
Now the stupidity of seriousness causes people to become stiff and rigid. They get "right" (or so they think), then proud of being right. That leads to stuffiness, arrogance, and the closing of the mind. It's a pitiful thing to see. Yet it happens all too often. Many people pursue an advanced degree and then think the degree bestows upon them an All-Knowingness. They actually think that their every opinion is somehow sacred and should never be question. Doctors, educators, and bureaucrats often fall into this fallacy. All of this increases their stupidity because not only do they not know it all, but they cannot know it all, no one can, and if they did, it would make life less worth living. The fun is in the pursuit.
Rigid serious arrogance makes these people clowns when it comes to making a mistake. Talk about watching a fallible human being make an ass of himself. Watch one of these people do something wrong. The problem is that they can't be wrong. It's not allowed. Yet their pomposity won't allow them to simply say, "Oops. Missed that one."
This Rule in the Game of Running Your Own Brain says you have to enjoy and delight yourself in your complete fallibility. Your brain is fallible and that makes all you think fallible, all of your emotions, speech, behavior, and actions. It is all "liable to error." Don't just accept this, enjoy it. How easy is it for you to have fun with it? To poke fun at your own silliness? To be ridiculous, make a fool of yourself, blow it, and still maintain all of your dignity?
Serious people not only believe, they believe in their beliefs. This is what makes them dangerous. That leads them to being fanatical "true believers" who have closed their minds to the possibility of being wrong. Such serious people never see the high comedy of their ridiculous position. It's their lack of humor that leaves them with no perspective. So it is humor that's our saving grace, that frees us up, that allows us to lighten up and to know that all of our mental mapping is just that?fallible human mapping, at the best, the highest thinking we can do at the moment.
Lighten up and enjoy the ride especially when you get into a loop. Just flow with it. If you fight it, if you resist it, you add negative energy to the loop. The quickest and easiest way out is paradoxical? welcome it and enjoy the ride. It's just a loop of the mind. Play with it.
#5: Keep Teaching Your Brain New Tricks
Yes, your brain can (and will) learn new tricks. Count on it. Brains are always learning, that's the good news. The bad news is that if you don't take charge of what they are learning, they will learn trash. So in playing the Brain Game, aim to constantly be teaching your brain more productive things. Feed it the best data available: inspiring ideas, awesome thoughts, empowering beliefs, and supporting understandings. Keep coding and recoding the Cinema in your mind so that your internal world is dramatic, exciting, bigger than life, full of grace and love, power and energy, make it alive and vital. Create one new empowering frame of mind every week?in a year's time you'll have 52 enhancing frames for the Matrix of your Mind.
Set out on the exciting adventure of discovering, unpacking and replicating the strategies of the experts. Forget "why" things go wrong and people are stupid, focus on those who are producing excellence and search out their strategy. Find out what movies are playing in the Cinema of their Minds. Find out all of the cinematic features that make that movie so entertaining and the states and higher level states it creates. After you do that for a year or two, you'll have habituated the Movies of the Experts in your mind ... and body and emotions and life.
Summary
There's a new Game in town. It's the Game of Running Your Own Brain. Nor does it take a rocket scientist to understand the Game. Mostly it takes self-awareness, meta-awareness, and the willingness to have fun exploring how the brain creates the Matrix of Frames that then governs the Games of our lives.

THE BRAIN GAME
BRAIN FACTS BRAIN GAME RULES #1: Brains Follow Directions #2: Brains Externalize their Instructions #3: Brains run on Representations #4: Brains Transition in and out of the present moment #5: Brains Induce States #6: Brains Go in Circles #7: Brains Frame Things #1: Quality Control your Brain Instructions #2: Rise Up in your Mind to become aware of the Games #3: Beware of your Frame Referencing #4: Lighten Up and Have Lots of Fun with Your #5: Keep Teaching Your Brain New Tricks References
Bodenhamer, Bob; Hall, L. Michael. (2000). Users manual of the brain <../Books/contents.htm>. Wales, UK: Crown House Publications.
Hall. L. Michael (2000). Meta-States: Managing the higher levels of your mind <../Books/MetaStates.htm>. Grand Jct. CO: Neuro-Semantics Publications.
Hall, L. Michael. (2000). Secrets of personal mastery: Advanced techniques for accessing your higher levels of consciousness <../Books/Personal_Mastery.htm>. Wales, UK: Crown House Publications.
Author:
L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., cognitive psychologist, international NLP trainer, entrepreneur; prolific author and international training; developer of Meta-States and co-developer of Neuro-Semantics. (P.O. Box 8, Clifton CO 81520), (970) 523-7877. www.neurosemantics.com .

©2002 L. Michael Hall, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

NLP Opening Lines For Conversation

2010-08-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

I saw someone do this once...
I wonder if...
I don't know how soon...
I wonder could you...
I would like to suggest that...
I want you to bear in mind...
I want you to become aware...
I can remember...
I'd like you to pretend that...
I'm wondering...
I'm curious to know...
If you could...
In my experience...
Is it that you are...
Is it possible...
Is it that you have...
Is it that there is...
It is useful that...
It's just like...
It's impossible...
It's good to know that...
It's useful that...
It's good that...
It's either (A) or (B); which is it...
It's not important that...
It's as if...
People can loosen up easily...
Perhaps you are...
Perhaps you can...
Perhaps you could...
Perhaps you're wondering...
This can be learned easily...
What do you think would happen if...
What would happen if...
What's it like to...
When you notice... ...then...
Will you...
Would you...
You come to...
You are learning to anticipate...
You can become aware that...
You know about these things...
You will feel...
After you come to....
After you've...
And the more you (X)...the more you (Y)
And as you...
Are you curious about...
Are you aware that...
Are you still interested in...
As you hear these words they...
As you... ...then...
As you consider this...
Be aware of what you can sense...
Before you think...
Can you imagine...
Can I ask you to...
Can you visualise...
Can you...
Can you remember...
Could you...
Do you think that...
Do you remember when...
Do you...
Do you ever...
Don't think of...
Has it ever occurred to you that...
Have you noticed that...
Have you ever wondered...
Have you...
Have you ever...
How would you feel if...
How do you know that...
How do you feel when...
I don't want you to be...
I want you to learn...
I know you are curious...
I saw someone do this in minutes once...
I wonder if...
I don't know how soon...
I wonder could you...
I would like to suggest that...
I want you to bear in mind...
I want you to become aware...
I can remember...
I'd like you to pretend that...
I'm wondering...
I'm curious to know...
If you could...
In my experience...
Is it that you are...
Is it possible...
Is it that you have...
Is it that there is...
It is useful that...
It's just like...
It's impossible...
It's good to know that...
It's useful that...
It's good that...
It's either (A) or (B); which is it...
It's not important that...
It's as if...
People can loosen up easily...
Perhaps you are...
Perhaps you can...
Perhaps you could...
Perhaps you're wondering...
This can be learned easily...
What do you think would happen if...
What would happen if...
What's it like to...
When you notice... ...then...
Will you...
Would you...
You come to...
You are learning to anticipate...
You can become aware that...
You know about these things...
You will feel...

NLP AND ADVANCED TECHNIQUES OF RAPPORT

2010-08-25T22:10:00.000-07:00

NLP boosts the power of rapport building techniques, allowing you to gain total leadership in any situation.

Are you experiencing relationship problems? Facing difficulties in conquering beautiful women? Well, now you are about to learn the key to solving all your relationship problems with a powerful set of communicational tools!

Rapport And The Art of Clear Communication
We will see how people process information and make sense out of things. In order to get people to understand what you mean, you first need to understand how they understand, or at least how they try to understand. When you understand how other people process information, you can organise your communication in a way that fits their modes of perception. We’ve still going to be talking about pacing (and leading), but we’ll be dealing mainly with less visible behaviour, that which goes on inside other people. In the latter part of this section, we’ll relate the information about how people understand to one of the most powerful techniques ever devised for mutual understanding and clear communication. This is the technique of active listening, pioneered in the early 1950’s by Carl Rogers. We’ll then take a step beyond active listening to probing for hidden meanings.

Understanding How Other People Understand

“Misunderstandings can result when people automatically assume that others think as they do.” — Robert Sommer, The Mind’s Eye, p.67, 68, 69.

A way of looking at the different modes of perception was suggested by Carl Jung. He placed thinking and feeling at opposite ends of one axis and intuition and sensation at opposite ends of a cross-axis.

He felt that everyone uses all four of these modes, but that, for example, a person could be typed by his or her using predominantly thinking and sensation, and using less intuition and feeling. In addition, Jung felt that a person could be more introverted than extroverted, or vice versa.

One of the major uses Jung made of this model of human character was to describe some differences in the way women and men are trained to behave in society.

Women- trained to act on intuition and feeling.

Men- trained to act on thinking and sensation (using sensory data).

These differences can be very significant for both personal and business relationships. Jung, as well as many other leading thinkers today, believed that a person can become whole by learning to function in modes they are not trained to. Again, having requiste variety and the range to cover all modes of perception will help you establish rapport more easily.

The feeling mode is the one most people in our culture have most difficulty understanding. This, no doubt, is a major reason why body and emotive theories have become so popular in recent years. We want to get back in touch with our bodies and feelings, and it seems we need the help of professionals to do so. Perhaps the cause of this is that as children we were often punished for expressing our feelings, especially when those feelings went counter to the desires of our parents and other adult authority figures. And for safety’s sake, small children are often admonished to look but don’t touch.

The fact that different people process information in different modes is, of course, critically important. Communication means different things to different people. Couples go into counselling because of communication problems arising from the differences over what communication means. In a typical interview the counsellor would ask what the problem is -- the wife may say that her husband doesn’t listen to her whilst he may say she doesn’t look at him when he talks to her. Or either may feel that the other’s unfeeling or uncaring because they’re not very affectionate or emotionally responsive. When a mismatching of perceptual modes is involved in the problem, the counsellor would first make the couple aware of what’s going on, to point out to them that each is asking something alien for the other. The next step might be to get each person to learn to communicate in ways that are meaningful to the other. In the case above, for example, the counsellor might encourage the husband to pay more attention to what the wife is saying. The wife might be advised to establish eye contact with her husband more frequently to show him that she’s paying attention to him.

NLP Basics:
Seeing Is Believing,
Hearing Is Believing, Feeling Is Believing

Each of us has, at any one time, a dominant or primary mode of perception. Bandler and Grinder observed psychiatrist Erikson and therapists Satir and Perl and referred to the three ways people generally process information as representational systems. They describe the process this way ; When you make initial contact with a person, they will probably be thinking in one of the three main representational systems. Internally they will be generating visual, images, having feelings, or talking to themselves and hearing sounds.

How To Identify Perceptual Modes With NLP

One of the simplest ways to identify another person’s dominant perceptual mode is to pay close attention to the words, phrases, and images he uses.

Predominant Modes:

VISUAL- words used, “I see what you mean,” “This idea looks good to me,” “ I want the big picture……we’ll focus on details later,” “ My point of view is….,” and so on.

AUDITORY- words used, “ Tell me again….I’m not sure I heard you right,” “That sounds like a good idea,” “Let me use you as a sounding board for an idea I have,” “ Yes that’s clear as a bell,” or, “Something just went click in my mind.”

FEELING- words used, “I sense what you mean,” “That idea feels right,” “I can’t get a handle on this concept,” and “He’s the kind of guy who can take an idea and run with it.”

Semantically, “That idea looks good,” “That idea sounds good,” and “That idea feels good,” all mean the same thing. But psychologically they involve entirely different processes. Identifying which mode is dominant in other people at any given time is an important key to their pattern of understanding, and is therefore an important element both in understanding them and getting them to understand you.

Another way to find out which perceptual mode is preferred by another person is simply to ask, “How would you like this information presented to you?” people are usually aware enough of their own process to give fairly accurate answers to this question. Some people, for example, will ask you to write it down for them (including graphs, charts, or pictures). Whilst others will just ask you to tell them what you want. Still, others will tell you that they want to get a good feeling for the situation and that it’s important for them to know they can trust you (such individuals may often say that they’d appreciate it if you’d stay in touch with them).

How To Get Others To Understand You With NLP

When you use the other person’s dominant perceptual mode, he or she will respond.

Sometimes it’s not readily apparent which form of communication a person will respond to. In such cases you may require using a trial and error approach. For example, if you’re not sure whether another person is responding to you in a visual, auditory, or feeling mode, you might pause periodically to ask, “Does this idea look good to you?” or, “Can you see yourself using this system?” or, “How does this sound to you?” or, “Does it answer some of the questions you have been asking yourself?” or, “I’d like to know: how you feel about this program?” or, “Does this seem like something you can run with?”

If you don’t get a meaningful response to the question presented in a visual mode, switch to auditory and if there’s still no response move to the feeling level. A frequent mistake people make when they’re presenting ideas to others is to interpret a lack of meaningful responses as resistance, when in fact the other person’s response may simply mean that you have failed to communicate in a way that they can make sense of. By having flexibility (requisite variety) to switch from one perceptual mode to another, you will be able to reach most people most of the time, and they will clearly understand what you want. This will enable you to get their co-operation and support more easily.

NLP And Custom-Designed Word Pictures

Having correctly identified and made the necessary connection to someone’s mode, you can then proceed to more sophisticated use of perceptual modes, that of perceptual overlap. The basic idea is to heighten other people’s receptivity to an idea by presenting it so that they can see, hear and feel themselves experiencing the benefits of the idea.

Perceptual overlapping allows you to custom-design the word picture to fit the primary and secondary perceptual modes of the person you are attempting to persuade.

NLP And Active Listening For Building Rapport

We’ve seen how different people organise their perceptions, in the visual, auditory, or feeling modes and how to gain greater trust and understanding by being aware of these differences and then matching the other person’s dominant perceptual mode.

An important strategy in effectively communicating what you mean to another person and ensuring that you understand what the other person means is active listening. The term grew out of research and practice in the 1940’s and 1950’s. One of the best statements on this technique is in an article by Carl Rogers, that appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 1952, entitled “Barriers and Gateways to Communication.” Rogers identifies what he believes to be the major barrier to effective communication: our tendency to evaluate or judge the ideas of another person or group.

The way to accomplish empathic understanding according to Rogers, is by following this rule, “Each person can speak up for himself only after he has first restated the ideas and feelings of the previous speaker accurately and to that speaker’s satisfaction.”

To listen actively to another person means, then, that you learn to see, hear, and feel in the same way that he or she sees, hears, and feels. In effect, it is another form of pacing, of establishing rapport. We believe that active listening, as described by Rogers, can be enhanced by pacing some of the other behaviours mentioned in part one. By pacing, or synchronising, your mood, body language, speech rate, and even breathing with the other person, you achieve strong rapport while maximising mutual understanding. In addition, by matching perceptual modes you further ensure that you and the other person are communicating on the same level.

Sometimes when you paraphrase what you think someone has said, they will modify or clarify what was actually intended. In other words, you might not have misunderstood but, on hearing you restate it, they will realise that they have left something out. This statement summarises nicely the problems of clear communication. “I know you think you understood what you think I said, but I wonder if you realise what I said is not what I meant.”

Clear communication can be difficult.

Probing With NLP For Hidden Messages

Active listening means listening emphatically so that you share, insofar as possible, the other person’s experience, so that you receive his or her communication in precisely the way it is intended. This is an extremely useful practice. But there is a potential problem here, even if you receive the speaker’s intended meaning, because people are not always completely aware of what they mean when they make statements. For example in the statement, “I’m confused,” the speaker is probably confused because they are not aware of something that they want or need to be conscious of. In this case active listening is not likely to produce much more than mutual confusion.

Most people know that almost every sentence we utter omits something either intentionally or unintentionally. When someone speaks to us our choice is either to guess at what is missing or ask for clarification.

A question used to probe for hidden meanings is “Why?” This useful question unearths a wealth of information about another person. But “Why?” can also be a potential barrier to effective probing. When asked to justify a certain action or behaviour, the form of the question is usually, for example, “Why are you so late?” or “Why did / didn’t you do that?” such questions can be intimidating and may generate defensiveness in another person. Coupled with an accusing tone, they strongly convey judgement and evaluation of a negative kind. One limitation involves the structure of our language. A “Why?” question can easily be answered with the “Because….” construction.

Q: “Why are you confused?”

A: “Because I don’t understand.”

The answers would not give any additional information. A more effective approach to probing for the unexpressed or hidden is to ask “What” questions (and it’s variations- Who, Which, when, Where, and How)-asked in a non threatening tone will usually produce a specific response:

Q: “What, specifically are you confused about?”

A: “Well, I don’t quite understand the exact relation between A and B.”

Note however that “Why?” questions are not always inappropriate nor that “What?” questions will always get you the specific information you want. But “Why?” will frequently result in generalisations, rationalisations, denials, or justifications. “What?” questions tend to produce specifics.

Person A: “I’ve made my decision and it’s final.”

Person B: “Why?”

A: “Because I said so!”

Now see the “What” approach-

A: “I’ve made my decision and it’s final.”

B: “What could cause you to change your mind?” or “Under what circumstances might you change your mind?”

A: “Well, I might change my mind if ………”

Summary on Rapport and NLP

People organise their experiences in three perceptual modes; the visual, the auditory, or the feeling. Bandler and Grinder have observed in their work with Erikson , that each of us has, at any one time a dominant perceptual mode, or representational system, to which the others are secondary. In our culture, for most people most of the time, the visual mode is primary. The expressions, “Seeing is believing,” and, “I saw it with my own eyes” are indicative of the importance we attach to visually processed information.

Auditory mode; the next most frequently used mode, a person attends to tonal qualities (sounds) of the information being processed, or constructs dialogues to organise his or her perceptions. These dialogues may be silent, internal ones, or they be uttered aloud. Often, people having conversations with themselves are not consciously aware of what they’re doing. In contrast to the visualizer, who is creating mental pictures, the person in an auditory mode is continually talking to themselves.

Still other people tend to organize their perceptions primarily around their feelings and sensations in their responses to the world.

Everyone uses and has access to all these modes regardless of what their bias is. What’s important to note is that this phenomenon of (unconscious) bias exists. As communicators, we can dramatically increase the effectiveness of our communicators.

By using active listening techniques, you can reach closer mutual understandings with others. Active listening involves a reflection back to other people of what you understand them to be saying.

By combining active listening with an awareness of perceptual modes and other pacing techniques, you can help to ensure that you see, hear, and feel what the other person is experiencing.

To move beyond active listening, to probe for hidden meanings, it is necessary to ask questions. “What?” questions produce more specific responses than “why?” questions which often result in defensiveness or generalisations.

Suggestions For Practice of NLP-Rapport Techniques

1) During conversations with clients, colleagues, and friends and while listening to radio or television pay attention to the words and phrases people use to describe their experiences. Try to identify their dominant perceptual modes.

2) Keep a notebook to jot down words and phrases that indicate perceptual modes.

3) Practice using the same words and phrases as others in your conversations with them. Vary this practice by choosing different words while remaining within the same perceptual mode.

4) In your conversations with others, practice active listening. Reflect back to them your understanding of what they’ve said or intended. Remain in their dominant perceptual mode while doing this. You might also pace some of their other behaviours to strengthen the bond of rapport you are creating.

5) Whenever someone says something important that you don’t fully understand, probe for hidden meaning by asking “What?” questions. Vary this by asking “Why?” questions to determine the difference in responses.

NLP Anchoring:

2010-08-25T22:04:00.002-07:00

A Powerful Unconscious Resource
Anchoring is one of the most useful nlp techniques, it's a method for using the powerful unconscious resources of others to get the responses you desire.
It is the process by which a memory, a feeling or some other response is associated with (anchored to) something else. Anchoring is a natural process that usually occurs without our awareness. For examole, when you were young, you undoubdtedly participated in family activities that gave you great pleasure. The pleasure was assssociated with the activity itself, so when you think of the activity or are reminded of it you tend to re-experience some pleasurable feeling. In this way anchors are reactivated or, triggered.
Anchoring Examples in Everyday Life
Here are a few examples:
• Flicking through an old family photo album stirs pleasant memories and some of the feelings associated with them.
• An old love song re-awakens a romantic mood.
• The smell of freshly baked apple pies brings back memories of a happy care-free childhood.

The Power of NLP Anchoring
NLP anchoring is a process that goes on around and within us all the time, whether we are aware of it or not. Most of the time we are not aware of it, which makes it a much more powerful force in our lives. NLP training enables you to take counscious partecipation in establishing/removing anchors within yourself and/or others.
Anchoring is also used by skillful film makers to evoke suspense in the audience. Think of your own psychological changes that occurred when you heard the soundtrack’s amplified, pounding heartbeat rhythm in the moments leading up to each of the appearances of the huge killer shark in the movie ‘Jaws.’ What anchor was established in you by the crescendo of the sound of the music meeting the shark? Did your heartbeat increase? Did your palms begin to sweat? Did you have to see the shark, or was the thumping music enough to start your slide to the edge of your seat?
Leitmotivs —recurring themes— in music and literature also serve to restimulate a previously established response.
This same anchoring process appears naturally and spontaneously in our dealings with others, and often determines the outcome of these interactions.

An Example of NLP Anchoring From Real-Life Salesmanship
Before taking a client to see a house, California real estate dealer Gael Himmah always visits the property owners for the purpose of discovering the ‘emotional appeal’ their homes particularly hold for them. Who else could better know? “what,” he asks, “do you like best about your home? What features mean the most to you? One answer given in an especially run down house, led to an incident that reveals the powerful effects of the emotional recollections.
His question to the women of the house led to a trip into the kitchen where she pointed proudly out of the window towards a colourless, run down garage. In the springtime, “I plant sweet peas in that bed. There’s something in the soil, and the temperature against the side of the garage, we’re not sure what causes it, but the sweet peas grow all over the side of the garage and onto the roof and they’re the biggest sweet peas anyone has evcer seen. People from all over come to see our sweet peas,” she explained.
Himmah now had his emotional feature neatly tucked away, and before too long he had the house sold to another couple. Some time later, he returned to find out from the new owners just what had prompted them to buy. In this case, however, he was not prepared for the husband’s angry answer.
“Do you now what you’ve done to me?” he asked, his voice seething with menace.
“I just wandered how you like your new house?” I countered.
He wasn’t having any. “Do you now what you’ve done to me?” he repeated.
“Not really,” I said. It was a totally honest statement. I didn’t have the slightest idea what he was talking about. Buyers can get strange.
“You and your damn sweet peas,” he exploded. “That’s all my wife could talk about after you showed us this house. Those damn sweet peas. When she was a little girl in New Jersey, she and her mother used to plant sweet peas and Iceland poppies every year. They took care of them together. She hadn’t seen sweet peas since we moved to California ten years ago.”
“This spring,” he went on, fire in his eyes. “I’m going to have to send an airline ticket to my mother in law in New Jersey and she’s flying out here and she and my wife are going to plant those damn sweet peas and she’s going to stay all summer with us to watch them grow.” By this time he was breathless, the thought of his mother in law’s prolonged visit working him into a rage.

How We Anchor And Are Anchored
When we are with another person which experiences some strong emotion, whatever we are doing or saying becomes associated with that emotion. Usually this process occurs at the unconscious level. Subsequently, whenever we do or say the same thing in the same way in his presence we will tend to re-stimulate for him/her some portion of the previous feeling.
Being aware of this phenomenon through knowledge of neurolinguistic programming enables us to be aware of the kinds of responses we are anchoring in others, how we are doing it, and conversely, what kinds of responses are being anchored in ourselves and how. This awareness enables us to anchor for mutually productive outcomes.

How To Elicit Desired Responses With NLP
The process of eliciting and re-eliciting desired responses from bosses, clients, friends, or spouses is a fairly simple one. Ask the particular individual involved to recall a past experience that is likely to contain the desired response. For example – if you want the other person to experience a pleasure response ask him/her to recall a pleasant incident. In doing so, the person will bring up, with that memory, many of the feelings felt at the time of the incident.
The purpose of eliciting certain responses is to establish a more favourable and receptive ground for communicating your ideas effectively. The person’s state of mind – his/her feelings, the things he/she is attending to (both consciously and unconsciously) will be of critical significance with regard to how they receive your ideas and suggestions. By eliciting the kinds of responses you want when you present your idea, you increase the chances of having your idea favourably received and acted on. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever tried to sell anything, but even the most sophisticated salesperson often ignores this basic fact.

Summary:
The Process of Anchoring With NLP
1) Wait for the desired response to occur spontaneously, or evoke the response by making appropriate suggestions or by asking questions such as:
• “What excites you about…..?”
• “What do you like about…..?”
• “Can you recall the last time you felt….?”
By asking the other person to recall a specific experience, some of the feelings associated with that memory will be reactivated and can then be nlp-anchored.
2) Anchor the response with the following nlp technique: when the response reaches its peak anchor it with some behaviour of your own, such as one or more of the following:
• Verbal marking (“That’s a great story!”)
• A touch on the other person’s arm
• A sound, such as snapping your fingers, or a particular expressive facial expression.
3) Trigger the anchor at the desired moment by performing exactly the same action as in step two (in the case of the verbal anchor, you might change the wording to “Let me tell you a great story!” In any case, the anchor here is primarily the word ‘great’ and should itself suffice as an anchor).

‘Practice Makes Perfect’
NLP anchoring, like any new skill, requires a certain amount of practice. Practice anchoring good feelings on your family, friends and business associates. It will make both them and you feel good. It will also enable you eventually to do it unconsciously and appropriately to create a more receptive climate for your ideas and suggestions.
When you’ve learned to time your anchoring correctly, you should be able to anchor a response with only one attempt. In the meantime, just enjoy the pleasure of practising a new skill that will give you and the people you live and work with many happy hours. With experience, you will be able to effectively and appropriately anchor responses without even thinking about it, which is the ultimate goal.
An effectively established nlp anchor will last until some stronger emotional event intervenes to weaken the response. If this happens, simply re-establish the anchor in the same manner.
A Word of Advice...
As nlp anchoring is such a powerful process, and therefore of all the techniques known so far offers the greatest opportunity for misuse —manipulation in the negative sense of the word— you are advised to be particularly careful when and how you use it. Remember misused tools have a habit of boomeranging or blowing up in your face. Your self-respect is one of your greatest assets, if you lose it, you really do lose

NLP’s Embedded Commands

2010-08-25T22:04:00.001-07:00

Embedded nlp commands/suggestions are words and phrases enclosed (embedded) within a larger context. They are units of meaning that can often have an impact beyond that which is apparent in or intended by the larger structure within which they appear.
For example, ‘A’ says to ‘B’: “I feel really bad today, B.” What is happening here goes beyonds what is intended. The phrase, “feel really bad today, B,” is an embedded suggestion to ‘B’ to feel bad — even though the apparent reference is to the speaker ‘A’ and not to the listener ‘B’. If the speaker uses enough of these embedded commands, very soon you will begin to respond to these suggestions, perhaps without being consciously aware of doing so.
NLP teaches you how to master the art of embedding commands in ordinary everyday conversations.

Examples of Embedded Commands
• “This place is enough to drive you crazy.”
• “I wish I had a penny for every time that guy gave me a hard time.”
• “This environment is really depressing.”
• “Don’t let me keep you from working.”
So pay attention to the embedded suggestions people give you and avoid, insofar as possible, those people who are practising (however unwittingly) black magic on you. If your work demands that you be around such people for extended periods of time, you can neutralise their effect on you by embedding positive suggestions of your own.

Embedded Commands in Pacing & Leading
For example, you might pace the other person by saying “Yes I know how you feel. I’ve felt that way before, too,” and then lead with, “but I could feel better, (his name), by making myself get out of here for a while.”

Embedded Commands in Commercial Ads
Any word or phrase can be thought of as an embedded suggestion. The next time you turn on the radio or television, pay attention to the words, phrases, and images used in the commercials. If the commercial has been skillfully constructed, the language used will be carefully crafted to produce a desired response. In this respect, embedded suggestions tug at the unconscious, awakening associations. These associations have the particular state of mind, or set of experiences. Words such as warm, soft, clean, powerful, bigger, and better, when repeated in varios combinations, have the cumulative effect of leading the listener to particular state of mind, or set experiences. Words such as tight, tense, anxious, afraid, weak, and helpless, can cause us to have the feelings associated with the words.
Similarly, the words, phrases, and images we use in conversation also lead our listeners to a particular state of mind or set of experiences. The critical question, “Is it the result we want?”

NLP-Embedded Questions And Commands
Two types of nlp embedded suggestions — questions and commands — deserve special attention.
1. NLP Embedded Questions
An nlp embedded questions is an implied questions that is embedded in a larger context — usually a statement.
For example:
• “I wonder what your name is.”
• “I’m curious to know how old you are.”
• “I don’t know what your income is.”
• “Whether you’d like to come me is something we haven’t discussed yet.”
2. NLP Embedded Commands
An nlp embedded command is simply a command that is embedded in a larger context ;
• “I think you’ll be wise if you invest in this property today.”
• “My mother used to tell me that the best way to get over a cold is stay in bed and get plenty of rest.”
• “If anyone has any questions, I’d appreciate it if you’d wait until after the lecture and come up to talk to me then.”
As you can see we use embedded suggestions — both questions and commands — all of the time. They’re so pervasive as to be virtually invisible. Therein lies their power.
This is a good reason for learning with nlp how to use them constructively, to help us communicate more effectively with others.

The Secret of NLP Embedded Commands
NLP’s embedded questions and commands work so effectively because, being almost invisible, they operate for the most part at the unconscious level, and thus they are not likely to cause resistance.
They will be responded-to below the level of awareness. The cumulative effect is to gently lead the other person in the direction we want them to go. This operates whether the person is consciously paying attention or not. So nlp embedded suggestions is an excellent approach to use with people who always seem too busy to give us their full attention.
Consider the boss who fiddles with paperwork when you’re trying to get him to listen to an idea. Instead of being frustrated by his behaviour, you might welcome it as an opportunity to embed suggestions using NLP. His mind is already distracted, you can easily continue talking while embedding appropriate nlp suggestions that will be responded-to unconsciously.
The net effect will be to give some ‘food for thought’ to be digested unconsciously later on! You might be pleasantly surprised to hear him voicing your ideas as if he had thought of them himself, or spontaneously acting on the suggestions you embedded earlier.

NLP Embedded Command Techniques
The tone of your voice and the emphasis suggestions are also very important. As you deliver the nlp embedded suggestions, it’s a good idea to tonally mark the parts you especially want the other person to respond to.
Additionally, by inserting someone’s name next to the suggestion you want him to attend to, you are further ensuring that he will respond to it. Our name is perhaps the most important word in our vocabulary. When we hear it mentioned, we listen more attentively.
Embedded nlp suggestions will work wonders for you when you use them with the people in your life. They will be responded to at the unconscious level, so that resistance by the other person is avoided.

How To Control A Conversation With NLP
There are at least two useful observations to keep in mind when you’re dealing with other people.
1) People like to talk more than to listen.
2) The listener controls the conversation.
The first idea hardly needs documentation. The second is a bit more elusive.
The NLP Power of Active Listening
The reason why the listener controls it is that the listener is similar to the driver of a car. The speaker is the engine, which provides the motive power, but the listener is at the wheel and provides the direction. By judiciously asking questions or making appropriate statements, the listener can guide the flow of conversation.
Speaker: “What we need is the marketing group to come up with a game plan for our region.”
Listener: “That’s an interesting idea. Can you tell me how that will generate more sales in the region?”
Speaker: “Sure, first of all it will...”
The NLP Power of Active Questioning
The listener can also establish and maintain control of the flow of conversation by asking questions to clarify or re-direct:
• “Does that mean...?”
• “What specifically do you mean by...?”
or by paraphrasing:
• “What I understand you to say is ... Is that correct?”
In addition to being an excellent active listening technique, paraphrasing has the effect of reinforcing the speaker, so that he/she continues to talk more.
The NLP Power of Agreement
Another NLP way to get the speaker to say more is to voice agreement. We’ve discussed at some length in the section on rapport the importance of being in agreement or alignment, with the other person. By verbally agreeing with the speaker, you are reinforcing him/her, thereby increasing the likelihood that he/she will continue talking.

Silence Imposition Technique
If you want someone to stop talking, short of asking them to be quiet, there are at least two effective nlp methods of winding down their continuos urge to speak.
You can remain perfectly silent, or you can disagree. Either of these will usually prompt the other to seek companionship elsewhere.
1. The No-Feedback NLP Technique
Silence is the absence of any verbal feedback whatever. In behaviourist jargon, it is a form of ‘extinction,’ which is simply the refusal to reinforce a particular behaviour. Extinction has been shown to be the most effective method for eliminating a behaviour from a person’s repertoire, even more effective than punishment (which, to be effective, must be administrated with each instance of the undesirable behaviour).
This is why solitary confinement, the absence of any reinforcement or feedback from other humans, is even more feared than physical punishment. One mistake many parents make when they want to quiet down noisy children is that they attempt to ‘punish’ children for making noise, but often only succeed to reinforce the very behaviour they want to eliminate. Punitive attention, it seems, is preferable to none at all. so if you want someone else to be quiet, don’t pay attention to him/her, and they will eventually go away.
2. The Negative-Feedback NLP Technique
The other effective nlp means of getting someone go away and leave you alone is to disagree. This being the opposite of pacing and building rapport.
Initially you might get an argumentative response, but if you maintain your contrariness long enough the other person will eventually go away and find someone else to talk with. It’s important for us to find people who will validate our beliefs and opinions, and we all tend to ‘drop’ people who disagree.
Silence and disagreement, of course, are rather drastic measures. Usually, simply telling the other person you’ve had enough for now will be sufficient. Still, it’s useful to know there are other options if candor fails to work.

Summary:
How To Get What You Want With NLP
The first rule is to know what you want, then ask for it. In addition, make sure that you ask in a way that makes sense to the other person. If you’ve paced him, you have an inner feeling about him, because you have established an emphatic bond of rapport. In addition, emphasise to the other the benefits of going along with your idea.
Identify and use his decision strategies in order to design an nlp-engineered presentation that is virtually irresistible. Anchor desirable responses during the course of your interactions with the other person, and then trigger those anchors appropriately to create an even more receptive climate for your ideas. Use embedded suggestions, questions and commands to produce favourable responses and to avoid resistance at the unconscious level.
The listener controls the flow of the conversation by asking questions to redirect or clarify. By paraphrasing or agreeing with other people, you get them to talk more. By remaining silent or disagreeing with them, you terminate the discussion.
Finally, because of the power inherent in these techniques, use them wisely for mutually productive outcomes.

Suggestions For Practice
1. Practice asking for what you want. Regard rejection as a positive rather than a negative thing. It simply means getting closer to acceptance.
2. Identifying the decision strategy of friends until the process becomes comfortable and natural for you. Then begin to identify the strategies of people you work with. Translate these decision strategies into presentation strategies when you want them to accept an idea. Notice how much easier it is to get your ideas accepted.
3. Anchor and then trigger pleasurable responses in the people you live and work with. Notice how much better you and they feel when your in each other’s presence.
4. Pay attention to embedded suggestions people give you. This will help you identify your real friends.
Make a list of words and phrases that suggest the kind of attitudes and feeling you’d like other people to have while being with you or thinking of you. For example: “Feel comfortable,” “Have a nice day,” “keep an open mind,” “Learn more,” “be more productive,” “feel more confident.” Consciously embed these phrases in your conversations with others until you’ve developed the habit. Then notice how people begin to ‘magically’ transform around you.

NLP and Rapport

2010-08-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

This free tutorial on rapport provides you useful techniques to master building rapport. Establishing rapport is an art, so keep in mind these experts' tips.

Remember that rapport is the key to succesful relationships!

The Verbal Language of Rapport
Pacing verbal communication strongly influences the depth of rapport you establish with another person

Pacing volume is also a useful tactic. Someone who speaks softly will appreciate someone else who speaks softly. Likewise someone who speaks loudly will often have more respect for you and will recognise a kindred spirit if you match their volume. As a matter of fact , on occasion you might even want to exceed the others’ volume to get them to speak more softly.

By giving somebody a reflection of themselves and even exaggerating that reflection somewhat you can often cause them to modify their behaviour.

Some people find that they can control others by going out of control, they exploit the predictable behaviour of those around them. The plan to go out of control in such a way that other people will acquiesce and placate Children may learn to scream and throw temper tantrums in order to control other people. If you pace that behaviour by also throwing a tantrum (not at the child, but with the child) a miraculous and amusing calm can set in. The child’s astonishment can then give way to humour and the act is broken.

The message to remember is –If you want to change someone else’s behaviour, the best approach is to change your own. The resulting change in the system will often prompt the other person to change themselves in order to re-establish the balance and the illusion of control.

Dig Speech and Unburry Rapport Treasures
Words, phrases and images people use give us important information about the inner worlds they inhabit. By pacing this aspect of their speech, you are telling them that you understand them and they can trust you. When you’re talking with other people, it’s a good idea to incorporate as many of their words, phrases, and their images into your conversation as comfortably as you can. Don't mimic other people's accent or speak a jargon you don’t have mastery of. You should be sensitive of their level of vocabulary and imagery and try to reflect it as closely as you comfortably can. Avoid in your own speech any jargon that the other person doesn’t understand.

Putting someone in the position of either appearing stupid or feeling stupid will only make them resent you. –pendantry blocks rapport. An individual may reject your idea not because it’s weak but because they may not understand it the way you’ve presented it. Having requisite variety means being able to avoid those styles that inadvertently turn other people away.

Having the flexibility to use words, phrases and images familiar to other people is important. If we listen carefully to the language other people use, we will know what words, phrases, and images they feel at home with.

In the world of business, it helps to learn a few words of a foreign associates language. It would be seen as a goodwill gesture. Also, body language can help to bridge the gap. However, be careful of gestures as they could bear different meaning in other cultures.

Speak more like others and you’ll see that they’ll respond more positively towards you. They’ll appreciate you more, you’ll dramatically increase your effectiveness in getting their co-operation and support.

Pacing Beliefs And Opinions
Keep in mind that the goal of pacing is to be able to lead the other person in the direction you want him to go.

Here come a fine technique from the repertory of the art of persuasion: Validate something other people know to be true, and then lead them to consider and finally to accept other possibilities.

However well intentioned and correct our efforts to enlighten others might be, they are doomed to be jeopardised from start if we begin by informing the erratic that they are in error. The most likely result of such a course is defensiveness. To an extent our reality is made up of our beliefs, therefore, to tamper with people’s beliefs is to tamper with their reality. Tread lightly. Pace the belief and then lead with your suggestion.

You should not compromise your integrity or pretend to believe in something you do not. Find some way of validating another part of their belief or some experience of theirs.

As Thomas Jefferson once said, “In matters of principle, stand firm like a rock; in matters of opinion flow like a river.”

Find a point of agreement on which to build your case, then if necessary move into areas of disagreement or misunderstanding.

Remember ;It’s much easier and much more effective to move from agreement to agreement than from disagreement to agreement.

Pacing Breathing
Nothing is more vital to us than the voluntary and involuntary inhaling and exhaling of air. But we seldom think about it.

The synchronisation of breathing is one of the oldest rapport building techniques on record. In some variations of tantra yoga, where the objective is to achieve a spiritual merging, two individuals hold each other gently and breathe together until the apparent barriers separating them drop away and the experience is one of unity, the inspiration and expiration of a single organism, not two separate entities.

Next Step: Leading
When you have achieved rapport with someone, the next step you take they are apt/likely to follow.

When you’re with someone you are either pacing (doing something similar ) or leading (doing something different). There are no other possibilities.

If your primary objective is to simply get along with another person then pacing some of their behaviour is sufficient. But if your objective is to persuade, to bring them to a new awareness, then you must lead. Using this model, the strategy is to pace first then lead. Meet the person where they already are and then suggest some new options. This approach works more frequently and more effectively than any other. Sometimes it’s not appropriate to lead quickly, sometimes it’s wiser to back off and not to lead at all. Different situations will dictate different approaches

As a rule, the “pace then lead” strategy is a very effective way to persuade.

How To Test For Rapport
Before trying to lead someone it’s a good idea to find out if you’ve effectively established rapport. This can be done unobtrusively at the non verbal level by synchronising with some aspect of their body language, such as posture. Mirror the other person for a short time (a few minutes are sufficient). Then change your posture and wait to see if they respond. Their response could be a move to mirror your new posture, or it might be a shifting, a settling in on their part to restore balance to the system. What you are looking for here is a congruent, or complementary, response by the other person.

When Not To Pace
Whenever you’re doing something that isn’t working, stop and do something else. That’s why it’s useful to have enough variety in your responses for your purposes. It’s a good idea not to pace something the other person is not comfortable with, such as stuttering, limping, or asthmatic breathing. Don’t pace accents. Avoid tics and nervous mannerisms that might call attention to what you’re doing. In a matter of beliefs don’t agree with something that violates your cherished principles. There’s usually enough in another persons belief system to align yourself with for the purpose of establishing common ground.

Should you pace resistant behaviour?

Some experts say that you shouldn’t; whilst others say you should pace and then lead the behaviour to become more open.

Also, remember that gestures and postures do not have a universal meaning.

Outcomes of Pacing And Rapport
Pacing creates a harmonious climate for your ideas and suggestions because what you are doing is: accepting the other person. You’re saying (whether literally or figuratively) that you both speak the same language, you’re on the same wave length and you are sharing a common experience. Your acceptance leads to their acceptance of you. Pacing reduces resistance because -- no matter what they do -- you can synchronise, go with the flow and then redirect it. When pacing you’re telling the other person that you’re alike and this creates rapport and with it an atmosphere of trust and credibility.

When pacing someone you also do significant things to and for yourself. Pacing effectively will take the attention off yourself. You don’t have to worry about what to do with your hands or feet, how to sit, how fast to move, at what rate to speak, what level of vocabulary to use and so on. You take the cues from the other person and get in synch with him. When you act like another person, you begin to feel many of that person’s feelings. One advantage of this is that you begin to know intuitively what to suggest and when to make the suggestion.

Pacing is one of the secrets of the power of suggestion.

Summary of Rapport Tutorial
Rapport is a relation marked by harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity. In persuasion, it is important that you are able to establish a strong bond of rapport with the person you want to influence. Pacing may be thought of as holding a mirror up to people so what they see, hear, or feel is consistent with their experience of themselves and their reality. Pacing involves getting into alignment or agreement with the other person and communicating the message “I’m like you, you can trust me, I’m on your side. Pacing, when used effectively enables you to achieve a profound level of empathy with other human beings. Pacing not only has a powerful effect on others, it has a dramatic effect on you. A major objective of pacing is to so closely match the other person’s ongoing experience so that the distinction between what they’re doing and what you’re doing becomes blurred (at the unconscious level). This enables you to successfully lead them into new areas of experience. When you’re in rapport with another person, the next step you take they are likely to follow it.

Suggestions For Practicing Establishing Rapport
1) Many people find that speech rate is the easiest thing to pace initially. Listen to the rate of people’s speech and reproduce it in your conversations with them. After a short while, you’ll find that you can do this without even thinking about it. You find that you are already doing it with people. The aim is to do it without conscious effort, so that it becomes an automatic part of your behaviour, like riding a bike or driving a car.

2) Speaking rates vary considerably. Some people speak slowly, pausing to find the words or phrases. Others speak rapidly and seem to have no trouble at all finding words, the only difficulty they seem to have is in getting the words out quickly enough. If your style is to speak more slowly, you might have difficulty pacing a rapid speaker, but with practice it can be done. You’ll find that your thought processes alter as you change your speech rate. This is one of the most effective ways you’ll ever find to approach another person’s mind. After you’ve become adept at pacing, you’ll begin to notice that you’ve become much more adept at anticipating what the other person is about to say. What happens when this occurs is that you have so attuned yourself to the other person’s way of speaking, thinking, and behaving that you are able to engage in a form of mind reading. The two of you will become one, so to speak.

3)As with any new skill, pacing is something that comes easily after you practice it systematically. It’s a good idea to practice one thing at a time -- mood, body language, rate of speech, and so on. After you become proficient at pacing, you will be able do it without thinking about it. It will come naturally and easily.

4) Every day, practice pacing some aspect of another person’s ongoing experience. Take one thing at a time until it becomes natural and comfortable for you.

5) As you watch television, practice sitting in the same position as someone you’re watching. Notice how your feelings and experience off yourself change as you assume different postures. Talk shows are good for this exercise, because you often have an opportunity to pace several different individuals.

25.0 Z

2010-08-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

25.1 zany...

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zany adj. 1 clownish, mad, wild, frolicsome, sportive, playful, gay,
merry, slapstick, crazy, funny, comic(al), amusing, hilarious,
absurd, nonsensical, ludicrous, silly, foolish, inane, Colloq
wacky, loony, madcap, crackpot, nutty, goofy, US kooky: The
buskers put on the zaniest show I have seen for some time.

--n. 2 clown, comic, jester, fool, joker, buffoon, wag,
comedian, merry andrew, laughing-stock, Slang nut, US screwball:
The two zanies kept the crowd in stitches while the pickpockets
stole their wallets.

zap v. destroy, kill, slaughter, annihilate, murder, slay,
assassinate, liquidate, erase; shoot, electrocute, Slang rub
out, polish off, knock off, bump off, snuff (out), waste, hit,
US ice: The baddies got zapped by the ray gun, one after the
other.

25.2 zealot...
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zealot n. fanatic, extremist, radical, bigot, maniac, militant: We
have to deal with ruthless zealots who are willing to die for
their cause.

zealotry n. fanaticism, extremism, radicalism, bigotry, militantism,
terrorism, single-mindedness, monomania, fervour, frenzy,
hysteria, obsession, obsessiveness: Their attacks on innocent
civilians show how far their zealotry can take them.

zenith n. meridian, summit, acme, apex, vertex, apogee, high point,
top, peak, pinnacle: The dictator reached the zenith of his
power very quickly.

zero n. 1 nil, null, nothing, nought or naught, aught, cipher,
Cricket duck, Colloq nix, US goose-egg, nada, niente, Slang Brit
(sweet) Fanny Adams or F.A., bugger-all, US zilch: Temperatures
have remained below zero all day. The visiting team won three
games, we won zero. 2 (rock) bottom, nadir: On a scale of one
to ten, she is a zero. 3 nobody, nothing, nonentity, Slang US

nebbish, bupkis: That fellow she married is a real zero.

--v. 4 zero in on. focus on, pinpoint, fix on, home in on,
concentrate on, bring to bear on: We zeroed in on the problem
and then rapidly found the answer.

zest n. 1 spice, relish, gusto, tang, pepper, ginger, piquancy,
pungency, edge, bite, flavour, Colloq zing, zip, pizazz: Put in
a little of my home-made sauce to add some zest. 2 eagerness,
zestfulness, exuberance, appetite, interest, enthusiasm, hunger,
thirst: Where does Sidney get his zest for life?

25.3 zone...
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zone n. area, quarter, district, region, sector, section, sphere,
belt, territory, province, realm, domain, precinct, bailiwick,
department, terrain, circle, locality, locale, Slang US turf: A
duty-free zone will allow for quicker transshipment of goods.
The northern and southern hemispheres each have a frigid,
temperate, and torrid zone.

zoo n. 1 zoological garden, menagerie, Tiergarten, (safari) park:
When I was a child, I enjoyed going to the zoo almost as much as
I do now. 2 madhouse, mess; chaos, pandemonium, bedlam, Colloq
US three-ring circus, Chinese fire-drill: When my husband and
the three children get ready in the morning the kitchen is like
a zoo.

24.0 Y

2010-08-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

24.1 yank...
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yank v. 1 jerk, jolt, tug, wrench, snatch, hitch: He yanked the
chair from beneath me just as I sat down.

--n. 2 jerk, jolt, tug, wrench, snatch, hitch: Give two yanks
on the rope when you want me to pull you up.

yap v. 1 bark, yelp: Their dog was yapping away all night. 2
gabble, babble, blither or blather, chatter, jabber, tattle,
prattle, prate, Colloq chiefly Brit witter, natter, Slang jaw,
run on, US run off at the mouth: I wish she'd stop her yapping
and give me some peace.

--n. 3 mouth, Slang trap, gob, US bazoo: If only Sam would
shut his big yap once in a while!

yardstick n. measure, benchmark, criterion, standard, gauge, basis,
touchstone, scale, exemplar: We thought she sang beautifully,
but then we had no yardstick against which to judge.

yarn n. 1 thread, fibre, strand: I haven't enough yarn to finish
knitting these socks. 2 tale, story, account, narrative,
anecdote; tall tale, fable, fabrication, fiction, cock-and-bull
story, Colloq whopper, Brit fishing story, US fish story, fish
tale: The old salt had many yarns to spin during the long
evenings by the fire.

24.2 yearly...

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yearly adv. 1 annually, perennially, every year, once a year, year
after year, year in (and) year out, regularly: We watch the
Canada geese migrate north yearly. 2 per year, per annum, by
the year, each year: What is the interest rate yearly?

--adj. 3 annual, perennial, once-a-year, regular: Those yearly
migrations told us when to plant the first crop.

yearn v. long, pine, ache, hanker, itch, hunger, thirst, crave, have
a craving, desire, wish, want, fancy, prefer: I yearn to see
the green-clad hills of home once more, Before my vessel bears
me from this mortal shore.

yell v. 1 shout, scream, bellow, howl, screech, yowl, roar, bawl,
caterwaul, squall, yelp, Colloq holler: 'Stop yelling at your
sister!', shouted my father.

--n. 2 shout, scream, cry, bellow, howl, screech, yowl, roar,
caterwaul, squall, yelp, Colloq holler: I think I heard a yell
for help.

yeomanly adj. yeoman, workmanlike, useful, staunch, courageous, loyal,
dedicated, faithful, steadfast, unswerving, unwavering, firm,
sturdy, reliable, solid: Carruthers certainly did a yeomanly
job on reorganizing the system.

yes-man n. toady, sycophant, toad-eater, time-server, hanger-on,
lickspittle, bootlicker, truckler, flunkey, courtier, jackal,
spaniel, lap-dog, Taboo slang Brit arse-kisser, arse-licker, US
ass-kisser, ass-licker, US brown-noser: He surrounds himself
with yes-men, then says he refuses to take no for an answer.

yet adv. 1 as yet, (up) till or until now, so far, thus far,
hitherto, to the present (time): She hasn't arrived yet. 2
still, up to this time, up to now, even now, till or until now,
to this day: She was there earlier and I think she's there yet.
3 moreover, furthermore, besides, further, still: He made yet
another excuse. 4 in the future, in time to come, later,
eventually: Despite the life I've led, I might yet get to
heaven. 5 still, notwithstanding, anyway, anyhow, nonetheless,

nevertheless, regardless, in spite of or despite everything,
just or all the same, even so, after all, US still and all:
Despite the life I've led, I might get to heaven yet.

--conj. 6 notwithstanding, in spite of or despite it or that or
the fact, still, nevertheless, but: He goes out every night,
yet never oversleeps in the mornings.

24.3 yield...
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yield v. 1 surrender, give up (the fight or struggle), give in,
knuckle under, submit, cede, cry quits, throw in the towel or
the sponge, capitulate, succumb, raise the white flag: The
captain of the enemy company asked if we would yield. 2 give
up, surrender, give over, hand in or over, abandon, relinquish,
renounce, cede: We agreed to yield our arms to the enemy. 3
agree, consent, comply, concede, relent, assent, give way,
accede, concur: He did his best to persuade me, and I finally
yielded. 4 earn, return, pay, bring in, supply, generate,
produce, net: She has investments that yield more than 15% a
year.

--n. 5 return, production, output, revenue, takings, gate,
earnings, income, proceeds, profit, gain: The yield from that
operation is not even enough to pay the rent.

yielding adj. 1 pliant, flexile, flexible, pliable, soft, plastic,
fictile, elastic, resilient, supple, springy, bouncy, spongy,
rubbery: The frame is of a yielding material that gives way
under pressure. 2 accommodating, docile, submissive, amenable,
tractable, compliant, obedient, flexible, acquiescent,
agreeable, obliging, manageable, manipulable: He wanted a wife
with a yielding temperament who would tolerate his foibles.

24.4 young...
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young adj. 1 youthful, teenage(d), adolescent, prepubescent,
pubescent, juvenile, minor, junior, under age: Would you
believe that she has young children? 2 boyish, girlish;

immature, callow, green, inexperienced, unfledged, uninitiated,
unsophisticated, childlike, innocent, na‹ve: This programme may
contain material unsuitable for young ears. 3 childish,
puerile, infantile, babyish, US sophomoric: He's too young to
invite to the party.

--n. 4 offspring, babies, issue, little ones, progeny, litter,
brood; children: The cat's young should stay with her for a few
weeks.

youth n. 1 childhood, boyhood, girlhood, young manhood, young
womanhood, prepubescence, pubescence, adolescence, salad days;
immaturity, minority: In our youth we do many foolish things we
might later regret. 2 child, youngster, schoolchild, teenager,
teen, minor, juvenile, adolescent; boy, schoolboy, stripling,
young boy or man, lad, laddie, whippersnapper; girl, lass,
lassie, schoolgirl, maid, maiden, Literary damsel, demoiselle,
mademoiselle, Colloq kid, (little) shaver, US and Canadian tad,
Slang teeny-bopper, Brit sprog: As youths, they used to spend
time at rock concerts. 3 children, youngsters, juveniles,
adolescents, young people, young, Colloq kids: The youth of
today have little respect for their elders.

24.5 yucky...
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yucky adj. yukky or US also yuchy, disgusting, repugnant, repellent,
unappetizing, vomit-provoking, sick-making, ill-making,
nauseous, nauseating, revolting, foul, mucky, revolting,
beastly, awful, Slang Brit grotty: We get this yucky mess at
school that we call 'mystery meat'.

yummy adj. delicious, mouth-watering, luscious, appetizing, tasty,
toothsome, savoury, delectable, ambrosial, Colloq scrumptious:
At our school tuck shop we get the most yummy ice-cream.

23.0 W

2010-08-25T21:56:00.002-07:00

23.1 wad...
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wad n. 1 pad, mass, lump, clod, ball, plug, chunk, hunk, block,
pack: He had a wad of cotton wool in each ear. 2 roll,
pocketful, heap, quantity, load, Colloq US bankroll: Over
coffee James handed him a wad of notes.

waddle v. toddle, shuffle, wobble or wabble, totter, paddle, pad,
waggle, duck-walk, Brit dialect wamble: He waddled down the
road, a shopping-bag on each arm.

wade v. 1 ford, cross, traverse, walk, make one's way: The water is
only knee-deep, and you can wade across. 2 paddle, play,

splash: There is a shallow pool where the little children can
wade. 3 wade in or into. a enter, get in (or into), join (in):
When the fight began, Patrick waded in with arms flailing. b
attack, approach, get or set to work, plunge or dive into: I
have to wade into an enormous pile of mail that accumulated
while I was away. 4 wade through. plough through, work (one's)
way through, hammer or pound away at, plod through, peg away at:
You really have to wade through that entire book to write your
report.

waffle v. 1 Often, waffle on. carry on, jabber (on), prattle (on),
prate, blather (on or away), Colloq run on, Brit witter (on),
natter (on), rabbit on, Slang run off at the mouth: He kept
waffling on about his new computer and, frankly, I wasn't
listening. 2 equivocate, hedge, quibble, shuffle, tergiversate,
hem and haw, prevaricate, Brit beat about the bush, US beat
around the bush, Colloq fudge: I wish he would stop waffling
and say what he means.

--n. 3 talk, palaver, verbiage, prattle, twaddle, blather,
prolixity, wordiness, jabber, jibber-jabber, Colloq hot air:
All I got was a lot of waffle when I asked for the best interest
rate on a loan.

waft v. 1 drift, float, blow, whiff, be borne or carried or
transported: The scent of jasmine wafted towards me on the warm
breeze.

--n. 2 breath, suggestion, puff, whiff, hint: A waft of cool,
fresh air momentarily eased the stench of the dungeon.

wagฐ v. 1 wave, waggle, oscillate, fluctuate, sway, undulate,
flutter, flap, flip, flicker, shake, vibrate, quiver, nod, rock,
dance, wobble, bob, bobble, waver, Rare vellicate: Misty's tail
wagged as I approached the house.

--n. 2 wave, waggle, oscillation, fluctuation, sway,
undulation, flutter, vellication, flap, flip, flicker, shake,
vibration, quiver, nod, wobble, bobble, waver: The dying animal
recognized me and gave a feeble wag of her tail.

wag n. comedian, wit, punster, pundit, joker, jester, comic,
jokester, droll, merry andrew, clown, Colloq card: A wag said

that tailors were like storks - known for their big bills.

wage n. 1 Often, wages. pay, compensation, emolument, remuneration,
payment, fee, salary, stipend, recompense, reward, earnings;
honorarium: The strikers wanted a ten per cent increase in
their hourly wage.

--v. 2 carry on, pursue, conduct, engage in, undertake,
practise, prosecute, proceed with: History shows that wars are
often waged over trifling differences.

wait v. 1 tarry, linger, hold on, stay, bide (one's) time, mark
time, stand by, Colloq cool (one's) heels, stick around, sit
tight, hang on, Brit hang about, US hang around: If you wait
till I've finished this, I'll join you for dinner. 2 be delayed
or postponed or deferred or shelved or put off, US be tabled,
Colloq be put on ice or on the back burner: The quarterly sales
figures can wait - we haven't yet completed those for this
month. 3 wait on or upon. serve, attend (to), minister (to):
Rose made such a fuss that the restaurant staff refused to wait
on her.

--n. 4 delay, pause, stay, hold-up, interval, halt, stop,
stoppage, break, hiatus, lacuna, gap, respite, rest (period),
intermission, discontinuation, recess: There was an extra long
wait between trains because of track repairs further up the
line.

waiter n. waitress, head waiter, maŒtre d'h“tel, host, hostess,
sommelier (des vins), wine steward, stewardess; cup-bearer,
Ganymede, Hebe: Marie asked the waiter to bring her a clean
plate.

waive v. 1 give up, relinquish, renounce, resign, forsake, forgo,
cede, sign away, surrender, abandon, yield, dispense with: I
waived my right to the inheritance in favour of my daughters. 2
set or put aside, except, ignore, disregard, overlook, abandon,
defer, postpone: We are happy to waive the rules in your case,
madam.

waiver n. renunciation, relinquishment, forgoing, ceding, cession,
resignation, surrender, abandonment, setting or putting aside,
deferral, remission, postponement: Her waiver of all rights to

the inheritance was duly recorded.

wakeฐ v. 1 Often, wake up. awaken, awake, rouse, waken, bring around;
stir, bestir (oneself), get up, come to, get going: Wake me
when it is over. She didn't wake up till noon. 2 awake, waken,
awaken, animate, stimulate, enliven, galvanize, fire, quicken,
inspirit, inspire, activate, liven up, vivify, kindle, vitalize,
stir, arouse, get (someone) going, bring to life: When I feel
this tired, it takes a lot to wake me up. Seeing Margo woke a
spark in me I thought had long since died.

--n. 3 vigil, watch, death-watch, funeral: If you have ever
been to an Irish wake, you will know what I mean.

wake n. 1 track, trail, aftermath, path, backwash, wash, bow wave;
trace, spoor, scent: The wake from the passing boats damages
the docks. No matter where he went, they followed in his wake. 2
in the wake of. following (on or upon), after, subsequent to; as
a result or consequence of, on account of, because of, owing to,
by virtue of: In the wake of the law's enactment, scores of
abortions were performed.

wakeful adj. 1 awake, sleepless, waking, unsleeping, restless, restive,
insomniac: The children were wakeful the entire night in
anticipation of a visit from Santa Claus. 2 watchful, (on the)
alert, on the qui vive, sharp, attentive, vigilant, wary,
cautious, observant, heedful, on the lookout: We remained
wakeful, alert to any footstep.

walk v. 1 advance, proceed, move, go, wend, go or make (one's) way
by foot, tread, step, perambulate, stalk, stride, tramp, stroll,
amble, ramble, ambulate, shamble, pad, shuffle, saunter, trudge,
trek, plod, slog, hike, parade, promenade, strut, swagger,
prance, march, goose-step, pace, trip, sidle, tiptoe, sashay,
flounce, stagger, lurch, limp, waddle, stamp, mince, slink,
steal, prowl, skulk, sneak, creep, Colloq go by or ride by
shanks's or shanks' mare or pony, hoof it, foot it, traipse,
pussyfoot, Slang US boogie: Guthrie certainly has a peculiar
way of walking. 2 take, convoy, accompany, escort, go with;
conduct, lead; empty: Let me walk you to the station. I have to
walk the dog twice a day. 3 patrol, trace out, stalk, cover,
haunt, prowl, wander, roam, rove or range about in or on,
frequent: Her mother could not understand why Maizie walked the

streets nightly. 4 walk out. a leave, depart, desert; walk out
on: She just walked out and no one has seen her since. b
strike, go (out) on strike, protest, take industrial action,
Brit down tools: Negotiations reached an impasse, so the
employees walked out.

--n. 5 path, lane, pathway, pavement, footpath, promenade,
esplanade, boardwalk, Brit footway, US sidewalk: We strolled
along the pleasant walks that lead through the park. 6 gait,
step, carriage, bearing, stride: He had great fun imitating
Groucho Marx's slinky walk. 7 constitutional, stroll, amble;
slog, tramp, hike: Lettie likes to take a walk in the park
after dinner. We had a five-day walk through the jungle before
reaching civilization.

wall n. 1 screen, partition, divider, enclosure, separator,
bulkhead, barrier, obstruction, obstacle, impediment, block,
fence: Marcie built round herself a wall of resentment which no
one could penetrate. 2 barricade, fortification, protection,
bulwark, breastwork, embankment, rampart, palisade, stockade:
It was questionable whether the walls would withstand the
cannon-balls. 3 drive up the wall. drive crazy or insane or
mad, madden, exasperate, derange, try, irritate, infuriate,
enrage: The constant caterwauling from the next flat is driving
me up the wall. 4 go to the wall. fail, collapse, be ruined,
face ruin, go bankrupt, lose everything, Colloq go broke, go
under, fold (up), Slang go bust: Unicold went to the wall
because of increased costs and decreased sales.

--v. 5 Often, wall up or off. enclose, partition (off), close
(off), brick up, immure: A bricklayer was hired to wall up the
openings where the windows had been.

wallet n. purse, pocketbook, Brit notecase, US billfold: An anonymous
good Samaritan found my wallet and sent it to me intact, with
all the money in it.

wallow v. 1 roll or loll about or around, welter, writhe, tumble,
splash or plash: He enjoys watching the pigs wallowing in the
mud. 2 Usually, wallow in. luxuriate in, bask in, revel in,
glory in, indulge (oneself) in, give (oneself) up to, succumb
to, take to, appreciate, fancy, enjoy, like, love, savour, Slang
get a kick or a bang or a boot from or out of: Now that Gabriel

is a big rock star, he simply wallows in all the attention he is
getting. 3 stumble, stagger, lurch, flounder, teeter, totter,
falter, pitch: Without its engines, the ship was lifted skyward
by a wave one moment only to wallow in a trough the next.

wan adj. 1 white, sickly, pale, pallid, livid, pasty, ashen,
bloodless, waxen, whey-faced, sallow, colourless, deathly,
ghostly, ghastly, cadaverous: I almost wept at seeing the
child's wan face against the pillow. 2 weary, weak, hollow,
feeble, frail, ineffectual, sorry, pitiful: She offered no more
than a wan smile in response to questions about her family.

wand n. baton, stick, staff, stick: The magician pointed with his
wand and a bottle of gin appeared.

wander v. 1 walk, go, roam, rove, range, stray, ramble, stroll,
saunter, meander, drift, cruise, prowl, Colloq mosey: We
wandered about the village square, chatting and window-shopping.
2 wind, meander, zigzag, turn this way and that: A trout stream
wanders past our house. 3 digress, go off, become
absent-minded, go wool-gathering, lose concentration or focus:
My mind wandered as the speaker droned on. 4 deviate, digress,
turn, divagate, stray, drift, depart, go off at a tangent, lose
(one's) train of thought, lapse: The speaker tended to wander
occasionally.

wane v. 1 decrease, diminish, grow less, lessen, decline, die out,
abate, ebb, subside, fade (away), dim, taper off, peter out,
wind down, weaken: The waning moon cast its pale light on the
dying knight. As his strength waned he could no longer lift his
sword. 2 draw to a close, end, terminate: The day waned into a
gloomy evening.

--n. 3 decrease, diminution, lessening, decline, abatement,
ebb, subsidence, fading, tapering off, petering out, winding
down, weakening, deterioration, degeneration: The 1970s saw the
wane in popularity of large, gas-guzzling cars. 4 on the wane.
on the decrease or decline or ebb, diminishing, decreasing,
declining, abating, subsiding, fading, tapering off, petering
out, winding down, weakening, deteriorating, degenerating: The
economy is recovering, and inflation is on the wane. Since that
latest illness, my energy has been on the wane.

wangle v. scheme, plot, work out, contrive, manoeuvre, engineer,
manage, manipulate, machinate, Colloq fix, fiddle, work, pull
off, finagle, swing: I hear that you were able to wangle an
audience with the pope.

want v. 1 desire, crave, wish (for), long for, pine for, hope (for),
fancy, covet, hanker after, lust after, hunger for or after,
thirst for or after, yearn for, Colloq have a yen for: I want
you near me. Ignore his crying - he just wants some ice-cream.
Maybe he's crying because he wants to go. 2 need, lack, miss,
require, call for, demand, be deficient in, be or stand in want
or in need of, necessitate; be or fall short of: This engine
wants proper maintenance. The bottle wants only a few more drops
to fill it.

--n. 3 need, lack, shortage, deficiency, dearth, scarcity,
scarceness, insufficiency, scantiness, inadequacy, paucity: For
want of good writers, the literary quarterly diminished in size
and finally disappeared. 4 appetite, hunger, thirst, craving,
desire, fancy, wish, longing, yearning, hankering, demand,
necessity, requirement, requisite, prerequisite, Colloq yen:
She gave up trying to satisfy his wants. 5 poverty, need,
indigence, homelessness, destitution, privation, pauperism,
penury, neediness, impecuniousness: The civilized nations are
trying to solve the problems of want, which seem to increase
daily.

wanting adj. 1 deficient, inadequate, not up to par or expectations,
insufficient, leaving much to be desired, unsatisfactory,
unsatisfying, disappointing, second-rate, inferior, poor,
shabby, shoddy, flawed, faulty, imperfect, incomplete,
unfinished, defective, patchy, impaired, damaged, broken,
unsound: These robots were tested at the factory and were found
wanting. 2 absent, missing, lacking, short (of), US and
Canadian shy (of): What good is a banjo wanting its strings?

wanton adj. 1 immoral, dissolute, profligate, dissipated, depraved,
loose, promiscuous, lustful, licentious, lecherous, wild,
libidinous, lewd, lascivious, unchaste: She is a wanton hussy
who is no better than she ought to be. 2 abandoned,
unrestrained, undisciplined, ungoverned, ungovernable,
unmanageable, outrageous, immoderate, intemperate, untempered:
It is not the boy's fault, it is the wanton company he keeps. 3

reckless, rash, uncaring, lavish, extravagant, wilful, heedless,
irresponsible, careless: This situation arises from the
parents' wanton disregard for their children's moral training. 4
wicked, evil, malevolent, malicious, merciless, inhumane,
vicious, cruel, violent, unjustified, unprovoked, uncalled-for,
purposeless, motiveless, unjustifiable, arbitrary, gratuitous:
We were subject to wanton attacks by the hill people.

--n. 5 vamp, strumpet, whore, harlot, loose woman, prostitute,
voluptuary, slut, trollop, Jezebel, Colloq tart, Slang hooker,
working girl, call-girl: Who invited that wanton, with her
tight-fitting, shamelessly low-cut dress?

war n. 1 warfare, combat, conflict, fighting, clash, hostilities,
battle, struggle, engagement, encounter, strife, contention:
The war, in which several millions died, lasted six years. 2 at
war. fighting, battling, in combat, in conflict; in
disagreement, in dispute, in contention, struggling,
antagonistic, at daggers drawn: They are at war because an
ambassador refused to retract some silly insult.

--v. 3 do battle or fight or struggle or (engage in) combat
with or against, make or wage war with or against, take up arms
or strive or campaign or tilt against, cross swords or contend
or joust with: We must continue to war against the forces of
evil.

ward n. 1 district, division, precinct, section, zone, quarter:
Perkin was running for re-election as councillor of the Eastgate
ward. 2 minor, dependant: The child was made a ward of the
court.

--v. 3 ward off. fend off, repel, avert, avoid, block, thwart,
keep away or off or at bay or at arm's length, check, repulse,
chase away or off, forestall: This brandy should help ward off
the night chill.

wardrobe n. 1 (collection or stock of) clothing or clothes or attire or
apparel: At the time, my entire wardrobe consisted of a pair of
jeans, a shirt, and a dinner suit. 2 clothes-press, closet,
clothes-cupboard: In her wardrobe they found more than three
thousand pairs of shoes.

warehouse n. storehouse, store, storeroom, depository, stockroom, depot,
go-down: The books are kept in a warehouse and shipped to
customers as needed.

wares n.pl. merchandise, goods, commodities, manufactures, produce,
stock-(in-trade), supplies, lines: A blind man peddled his
wares on this corner for twenty years.

warlike adj. combative, belligerent, bellicose, aggressive, pugnacious,
hostile, bloodthirsty; hawkish, militaristic, jingoistic,
warmongering: Violation of the border was a warlike act that
must be punished. There are warlike factions in every
government.

warm adj. 1 heated, tepid, lukewarm, cosy, comfortable, not
uncomfortable, balmy: We chose a beautiful warm day for our
picnic. 2 passionate, impassioned, excited, animated, fervent,
fervid, spirited, lively, ardent, zealous, keen, eager,
emotional, heated, intense, irritated, annoyed, vexed, angry,
irate, furious, testy, short-tempered, touchy, quick-tempered,
irascible, irritable, stormy, turbulent, vigorous, violent,
Colloq worked up, hot under the collar, steamed up: Charles
occasionally became a bit warm on the subject of architecture.
The debate grew warm as we joined in. 3 amiable, friendly,
cordial, affable, pleasant, genial, cheerful, kindly,
hospitable, hearty; affectionate, tender, mellow, loving,
amorous: After a warm greeting from our host, we went in to
meet the other guests. Her generous gifts to charity revealed
that she really has a warm heart. 4 ardent, enthusiastic,
earnest, eager, sincere: Our ideas for the new campaign met
with warm approval from the client. 5 uncomfortable, awkward,
unpleasant, strained, tense: The people in this town tend to
make things a bit warm for strangers. 6 Often, getting warm.
close or near to making a discovery, about to make a discovery:
From her look as I approached the cabinet, I knew I was getting
warm.

--v. 7 heat (up), warm up or over: I warmed myself by the
fire. 8 Often, warm to. become less antagonistic or hostile to
or toward(s), become enthusiastic or supportive of, become
excited or animated about or over, be attracted to or toward(s),
like, feel affection for: Martin never did warm to my idea of
using the village notice-board for his message. 9 stir, move,

please, delight, make (one or someone) feel good: It warmed me
to know that she had at last found someone to love.

warm-blooded
adj. 1 Technical homoeothermic or homoeothermal or
homoiothermic or homoiothermal or homeothermic or homeothermal:
Birds and mammals are warm-blooded, reptiles and fish are
cold-blooded. 2 passionate, ardent, fervid, hot-blooded,
impetuous, Colloq randy: He tried to excuse his behaviour
towards her by saying that he was just a normal, warm-blooded
man.

warmly adv. 1 affectionately, tenderly, fondly, lovingly: Linda
kissed him warmly to thank him for the gift. 2 cordially,
amiably, amicably, solicitously, warm-heartedly: We were
greeted warmly by the manager on our arrival and shown to our
rooms. 3 earnestly, eagerly, fervently, enthusiastically, well,
kindly: The directors are warmly disposed to your plan for
reorganization. 4 vigorously, intensely, fiercely, intensively,
intently, energetically, doggedly, persistently, zealously,
fervently, fervidly, hotly, ardently, enthusiastically: We
learned that she was being warmly pursued by Interpol. 5
heatedly, vehemently, vociferously, forcefully, energetically,
vigorously, feverishly, frantically, furiously, angrily,
violently: The sending of a peace-keeping force was being
warmly debated in the UN.

warmth n. 1 heat: We basked in the welcome warmth of the sun. 2
cordiality, heartiness, friendliness, geniality, amiableness,
kindliness, tenderness, affability, love: Mother thrives on the
warmth of a family environment and should not be put in a
nursing home. 3 ardour, effusiveness, enthusiasm, zeal,
excitedness, fervour, vehemence, vigour, ebullience, passion: I
was taken aback by the warmth of the stranger's greeting. The
resolution was debated with considerable warmth. 4 irritation,
annoyance, pique: The warmth of his reaction to the accusation
is understandable.

warn v. 1 caution, admonish, advise, notify, apprise, inform, give
(fair) warning, alert, give (prior) notice, put (someone) on
notice or on guard or on the alert, make (someone) aware (of),
forewarn, tip off, Rare premonish: The entire population has
been warned about the imminent hurricane. 2 advise, counsel,

caution: You did warn me against investing in llama farms.

warning n. 1 caution, admonition, advice, counsel, caveat, word (to the
wise), tip, notification, notice, threat; lesson, example:
Cyril never took seriously his doctor's warning about his
cholesterol level. Let that be a warning to you not to drink and
drive. 2 omen, sign, signal, indication, augury, foretoken,
portent, foreshadowing, forewarning, prophecy: Sailors take
that kind of sky and a falling barometer as warning of a
hurricane.

warp v. 1 twist, contort, distort, deform, bend out of shape,
wrench, pervert, misshape: Using steam, the timber was warped
to fit the hull. You certainly have a warped idea of what Yvette
does for a living.

--n. 2 twist, contortion, distortion, bias, deformity,
deformation, bend, wrench, perversion, kink, idiosyncrasy,
quirk, deviation: There is too much of a warp in this veneer to
repair it. Harry has to overcome a serious warp in his attitude
towards food.

warrant n. 1 authorization, sanction, reason, justification, approval,
validation, licence, right, certification, entitlement, grounds,
cause, rationale, basis, assurance, carte blanche, guarantee,
pledge, security, charter, warranty: We demand to know what
warrant may exist for such an action. 2 writ, order, affidavit,
paper, document, credential, permit, entitlement, licence,
permit, summons, subpoena, mandate, decree, fiat, edict, ukase:
Do not let them search the premises without a warrant. A warrant
has been issued for her arrest.

--v. 3 guarantee, promise, assure, ensure or insure, answer
for, be answerable for, certify, vouch for, underwrite, back up,
uphold, stand by or behind: All these products are warranted by
the manufacturer for one year. 4 authorize, sanction, justify,
explain, approve, verify, validate, permit, allow, provide or
offer grounds or justification or cause or reason for, call for,
necessitate, entitle, empower, excuse, license: What is it that
warrants such accusations of malfeasance?

warranty n. guarantee, assurance, promise, commitment, covenant,
undertaking, agreement, pledge, bond: There is a maker's

warranty that repairs of any defects will be made at no cost to
the buyer.

wary adj. cautious, careful, on (one's) guard, circumspect, prudent,
apprehensive, chary, watchful, vigilant, on the qui vive,
heedful, observant, on (one's) toes, Colloq cagey, Slang leery
(of): Phoebe is wary of going out with someone she doesn't
know.

wash v. 1 wash up, clean (up), cleanse, bathe, shower, douche,
douse, scrub (up), shampoo, soap up, lather, launder, scour,
soak, rinse, flush, wet, drench, deterge, sponge (off),
Facetious perform (one's) ablutions, Archaic absterge, Formal or
literary lave, Brit bath: Please wash the dishes when you have
finished eating. I must wash before I do anything else. 2
Sometimes, wash away or out or off. remove, move, transport,
carry, bear, convey, deliver, deposit, drive, sweep: The silt,
with the gold dust, is washed downstream. In this process, the
impurities are washed away. 3 splash, spatter, splatter, plash,
dash, beat, pound, thrash, break, toss, surge, undulate, rush,
run, lap, ripple, roll, flow: We stood watching the sea washing
against the breakwater. 4 Usually, wash away or off. erode,
wear off or away, remove, delete, erase, expunge, destroy,
eradicate, obliterate, extinguish, blot out, wipe out: After
5000 years, the action of the waves had washed away all traces
of the Vengorian civilization. 5 Often, wash away or out. erode,
cut or dig or wear or eat or dredge (away or out), excavate,
channel: The river eventually washed out a new course, fifteen
miles to the west. 6 decontaminate, purify, sift, filter,
depurate: The wastes are thoroughly washed in these tanks
before being discharged into the ocean. 7 overlay, film, coat,
paint, glaze; plate: What do you think of colour they washed
the wall? 8 hold up, stand up, stand the test of time, carry
weight, bear scrutiny, prove true, make sense, be believable or
credible, Colloq hold water: I'm afraid that Helen's
explanation of her whereabouts at the time of the murder simply
won't wash. 9 wash down. swallow: Here, wash the pill down with
this. 10 wash (one's) hands of. stay or keep away from, disown,
repudiate, turn (one's) back on, have nothing more or further to
do with, get rid of, rid (oneself) of, desert, abandon, leave:
After Neil took the money, Violet washed her hands of him and
his problems.

--n. 11 washing, cleaning, cleansing, scrubbing, scrub,
scouring, shampoo, shampooing, bath, bathing, shower, sponge
bath, tub-bath; laundering; Facetious ablutions; Colloq Brit
tub, tubbing: He always likes a good wash and shave before
breakfast. 12 wave, wake, surge, backwash: The wash from
passing ships almost swamped our skiff. 13 lotion, rinse,
liniment, salve, embrocation, emulsion, preparation; mouthwash,
gargle; eyewash, collyrium: Use this wash twice a day till the
condition disappears. 14 flow, wave, swell, welling, sweep,
sweeping, ebb and flow, surge, surging, undulation, rise and
fall: Shellfish in the gap cleanse themselves of impurities in
the constant tidal wash running through there. 15 coat, coating,
film, overlay, glaze; plating: There is a microscopic wash of
gold over the tin to lend the bracelet a little cachet.

washed out
adj. 1 wan, pale, pallid, colourless, faded, lacklustre, flat;
blanched, bleached, etiolated: Gene looks washed out because he
never gets out in the sun. She was wearing washed-out jeans and
a torn t-shirt. 2 exhausted, spent, tired, tired out, weary,
worn out, fatigued, drained, Colloq dog-tired, bone-tired, done
in, all in, fagged out, bushed, Brit knocked up, US knocked out,
Slang beat, US and Canadian tuckered out, pooped: After a hard
day in the office, I feel completely washed out.

washed up adj. finished, through, failed, done for, played out, over (and
done with), Slang kaput, fini: After that last fiasco, he's no
more than a washed-up has-been.

washout n. failure, disaster, d‚bƒcle, (total) loss, fiasco,
disappointment, Colloq flop, dud, Brit damp squib, US lead
balloon: His attempts to revive the hula-hoop craze were a
washout.

waspish adj. irascible, bad-tempered, foul-tempered, temperamental,
testy, grouchy, sensitive, volatile, querulous, edgy, petulant,
spiteful, peevish, cantankerous, curmudgeonly, cross, crabby,
crabbed, crotchety, splenetic, grumpy, captious, cranky, crusty:
Elaine is feeling very waspish today - no one can do anything
right.

waste v. 1 squander, misuse, throw away, fritter away, misspend,
splurge, dissipate, Slang blow: Why I wasted so much time on

him I'll never know. Don't waste your money on such frivolities.
2 Often, waste away. diminish, deteriorate, dwindle, decline,
decay, atrophy, wither, shrink, weaken, become debilitated,
fade, become enervated or enfeebled, regress, ebb, sink: She is
just wasting away, and I am seriously worried that she may not
recover. 3 enervate, enfeeble, emaciate, gnaw, destroy, consume,
debilitate, exhaust, disable: Arkwright contracted a terrible
wasting disease while in the tropics. 4 assassinate, murder,
kill, Slang put away, rub out, US ice: Don't worry, Boss, we'll
waste Andy and you won't have no more trouble.

--n. 5 misuse, misapplication, squandering, dissipation,
misemployment, abuse, neglect: What a terrible waste of talent
to have such a person doing such lowly work! Do not let that
genius go to waste. 6 wasting, extravagance, prodigality,
wastefulness, squandering, indulgence, lavishness, profligacy,
dissoluteness, improvidence, overindulgence: Government waste
is one of our biggest problems. 7 refuse, rubbish, garbage,
dregs, debris, leavings, scrap, offscourings, sweepings, litter,
Archaic orts, US and Canadian trash: Techniques are being
developed to process the waste in order to avoid using
landfills, incineration, or dumping at sea. 8 wasteland, desert,
wilderness, barrens, wilds, emptiness, vastness: Beyond that
system were vast wastes of uninhabited space.

--adj. 9 extra, leftover, unused, superfluous, worthless,
useless: The waste food was usually fed to the animals. 10
barren, unproductive, unusable, unsalvageable, useless,
unrecyclable, unprofitable, worthless: The waste products of
manufacture are a big problem. 11 lay waste. devastate,
destroy, demolish, despoil, ruin, wreck, ravage, pillage, sack,
plunder, loot, rob, strip, spoil, gut, ransack, wreak havoc
(up)on, crush, raze, annihilate, eradicate, extirpate, wipe out:
These lands and cities, laid waste by the invaders, have never
recovered.

wasteful adj. extravagant, spendthrift, profligate, prodigal, lavish,
improvident, unthrifty, uneconomical, overindulgent,
open-handed, free-handed, penny wise and pound foolish: It was
very wasteful of you to buy me that expensive jewellery.

wastrel n. 1 spendthrift, profligate, waster, prodigal, big spender,
squanderer: That wastrel went through his inheritance in a

year. 2 idler, layabout, malingerer, loafer, shirker,
good-for-nothing, ne'er-do-well, Chiefly Brit drone, Slang Brit
skiver: The workhouse is the place for wastrels like you!

watch v. 1 observe, regard, look at, gaze at or on, take in,
contemplate: Daniel loves to watch the bears at the zoo. 2
look after, tend, mind, keep an eye on, watch over, mind, guard,
care for, take care of, safeguard, protect, shield, keep safe,
supervise, superintend; chaperon, accompany, attend; Colloq
babysit (for), sit (with): Could you please watch Suzie while I
go shopping? 3 observe, note, notice, make or take note of,
see, pay attention (to), attend (to), follow, (take) heed (of),
examine, inspect, scrutinize, pore over; eye, peer at; ogle,
make eyes at: Watch the way I bone this fish. Ted enjoys
watching the girls going by. 4 Often, watch (out) for. look for,
be on the watch or lookout or alert or qui vive (for), guard
(against), keep an eye open (for), be watchful (for), note, take
note or notice of, be vigilant (for or of), keep (one's) eyes
open (for), keep a (sharp) lookout (for), be prepared or ready
for, be careful of, anticipate, await, wait (for), look for,
Colloq keep (one's) eyes peeled or skinned (for), keep a weather
eye open (for): We were watching for irregularities in the test
results. Watch where you're going! Watch out for that last step!

--n. 5 vigil, surveillance, observation, lookout: Our six-hour
watch was rewarded by the appearance of a yellow-bellied
sapsucker. 6 clock, timepiece, pocket watch, wrist-watch;
chronometer: I always set my watch by the GMT time signal on
the radio. 7 sentry, sentinel, guard, watchman: The midnight
watch just returned from his rounds. 8 on the watch (for). on
the alert (for), on the lookout (for), on (one's) guard (for),
on the qui vive (for), alert (for or to), awake (to), observant
(of), watchful (of), cautious (of), wary (of), vigilant,
circumspect: We remained on the watch for the slightest
movement in the bushes.

watchman n. (security) guard, sentinel, sentry, watch, night-watchman,
custodian, caretaker; watchdog: After retiring from the police,
he worked as a watchman.

water n. 1 H2O; distilled water, tap water, drinking-water, bottled
water, spa water, still water, soda (water), effervescent water,
mineral water; sea water, salt water; ditch-water, dishwater,

bath-water, US branch water, Facetious Adam's ale, Technical or
Latin aqua; Technical heavy water or deuterium oxide or D2O;
Brit fizzy water: Pure water is odourless, tasteless, and
colourless. 2 not hold water. be illogical or unsound or
invalid, not be sensible, be inconsistent, not make sense, be
unbelievable or incredible, be indefensible, be unfeasible or
unworkable, not work, not function, not hold up under or bear
scrutiny or examination, not ring true, ring false, Colloq not
wash: Her account of her whereabouts that day just doesn't hold
water. 3 like water. lavishly, extravagantly, freely,
wastefully, profligately, open-handedly, liberally, excessively,
copiously, unstintingly, unreservedly: They've been spending
money like water since they won the football pools. 4 make
water. urinate, pass water, Colloq pee, piss: When a dog makes
water, it marks off a territory bounded by its scent. 5 of the
first water. of superior or excellent or first or top or A-one
or the finest or the highest or the best quality or grade;
first-grade, top-grade: These were not industrial stones but
diamonds of the first water.

--v. 6 inundate, flood, drench, saturate, soak, douse,
irrigate, hose, wet, shower, splash, spray, sprinkle, moisten,
damp, dampen, bedew: If you don't water the garden, the
vegetables will die. 7 Often, water down. dilute, weaken, thin
out, adulterate; cut; mollify, modify, soften, tone down,
qualify: We no longer go there because they water the drinks.
They told the children a watered-down version of what had
happened.

water-colour
n. aquarelle: John's water-colours sell as fast as he paints
them.

waterfall n. cascade, cataract, fall(s), chute, Niagara, No. Brit force,
Scots linn: In front of them, a waterfall tumbled down a
rock-face into a deep pool.

watertight
adj. 1 sealed, waterproof: The escape hatch has been made
watertight. 2 unassailable, impregnable, solid, airtight,
flawless, faultless, incontrovertible; without loopholes:
Landry has a watertight alibi for the night of the crime.

watery adj. 1 weak, dilute(d), watered down, tasteless, insipid,
flavourless, bland, flat, dull, thin, runny, pallid, anaemic,
Colloq wishy-washy: He asked me in, then gave me some watery
tea to drink. 2 weeping, teary, tearful, running, weepy,
lachrymose, rheumy: The child looked up at him with watery eyes
and then collapsed, sobbing. 3 wet, swampy, boggy, marshy,
aqueous, squelchy; soggy, moist, damp, humid; Colloq squushy or
squooshy: It took days to make our way across that watery plain
to the high ground.

wave n. 1 swell, undulation, billow, sea, heave, roller, whitecap,
white horse; ripple, wavelet, breaker, comber: A huge wave
tossed me up on the beach. 2 surge, swell, welling up, ground
swell, movement, flood, upsurge, uprising, current, tide: The
period is marked by a wave of materialism and greed that swamped
all morality and integrity. 3 signal, sign, gesticulation,
gesture: Was his wave intended for you or for me?

--v. 4 undulate, billow, move to and fro, flap, flutter,
quiver, flip-flop, swing, sway, ripple, oscillate, zigzag,
fluctuate, shake; wag, whiffle, wigwag, wiggle, waggle,
brandish: The streamer waved slowly in the quickening breeze.
Stop waving that knife at me! 5 signal, sign, indicate, signify;
gesture, gesticulate: Hazel waved goodbye from the train.

way n. 1 manner, method, mode, fashion, means, system, course (of
action), procedure, approach, scheme, technique, practice, modus
operandi, Colloq MO (= 'modus operandi'): That's no way to talk
to your mother! We have ways of making you talk. Is that any way
to treat a lady?! It's the wrong way to deal with the problem. 2
manner, spirit, feeling, sense, character, approach,
personality, temperament, disposition, modus vivendi (=
'lifestyle'), nature, technique, style, conduct, habit,
behaviour pattern, custom: He has such a pleasant way about
him. Lucinda certainly has a way with children and dogs. You
city people may not approve of our down-to-earth country ways. 3
path, road, street, avenue, course, route, trail, direction:
Show me the way to go home. The way to the village lies through
dark woods. 4 distance; route, trail, course, road: You've come
a long way since we last met. 5 progress, passage, advance,
headway; speed, velocity, motion, (forward) movement: We made
our way to the front of the crowd. Who has the right of way at
the crossing? The tide was too strong for us to get any way on.

6 aspect, respect, particular, detail, point, sense, feature:
In certain ways, you remind me of Attila the Hun. 7 clearance,
pathway, avenue, scope, freedom, opportunity: When you hear a
siren, drive to the side and give way. Make way for the Lord
High Executioner! 8 condition, situation: She prefers the
prissy 'in a family way' to the straightforward 'pregnant' and
the vulgar 'have a bun in the oven'. I saw Luke yesterday and he
was really in a bad way. 9 by the way. incidentally, moreover,
by the by, parenthetically: By the way, have I told you how
beautiful you look tonight? 10 by way of. a via, through, by
means of: We drove from London to Oxford by way of Reading. b
(functioning) as, in (the) way of, in the capacity of,
equivalent to, more or less, something like: Richard is by way
of being an expert on eccentric behaviour. 11 give way. a
collapse, break (down), fail, cave in, fall (down), crumble,
crumple, disintegrate, go to pieces: The cable gave way,
causing the bridge to collapse. b yield, surrender, retreat,
concede, withdraw, accede, make concessions, acquiesce,
acknowledge: The trouble is that they both think they are in
the right and neither will give way. 12 under way. proceeding,
progressing, on the move, moving, advancing, going, begun,
started, in progress, operating, functioning, at work, US in
work, Colloq in the works, US in the pipeline: Once under way,
it takes the ship three days to make the crossing. Plans are
under way to reclaim the slum area for a park.

waylay v. 1 ambush, lie in wait for, await, intercept, pounce upon or
on, swoop down on or upon, accost: You'll have to waylay him on
his way to lunch if you want to speak to him. 2 attack, mug,
seize, assault, accost, set upon: He was waylaid by a band of
thieves and stripped of his belongings.

way-out adj. 1 bizarre, mad, weird, crazy, strange, odd, peculiar,
freakish, freaky, eccentric, queer, abnormal, offbeat,
outrageous, wild, exotic, esoteric, Colloq kinky, Slang kooky,
off-the-wall, far-out, screwy, nutty, US flaky, screwball: The
police did not take kindly to the boys' way-out behaviour after
the party. 2 avant-garde, advanced, original, innovative,
unorthodox, unconventional, experimental, precedent-setting,
progressive, exploratory, ground-breaking, Slang far-out:
Spencer thinks that the way-out art of the 1960s will have great
value one day.

23.2 weak...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

weak adj. 1 feeble, frail, fragile, unsubstantial, flimsy,
breakable, frangible, delicate, rickety, unsteady, unsound,
decrepit, shaky, infirm: That chair is too weak for you to
stand on. 2 frail, infirm, debilitated, enervated, delicate,
sickly, anaemic, wasted, decrepit, puny, effete, worn out,
tired, exhausted: When I last saw Tindell he was so weak he
could hardly lift his brandy glass. 3 unassertive, retiring,
namby-pamby, spineless, irresolute, impotent, ineffectual,
ineffective, incompetent, feckless, inept, wishy-washy, timid,
meek, craven, timorous, cowardly, pusillanimous, lily-livered,
chicken-hearted, Colloq chicken, yellow: We know which is the
weaker partner in that marriage, don't we? 4 feeble, lame,
half-baked, poor, miserable, unconvincing, unpersuasive, empty,
shallow, flimsy, hollow, pathetic, pitiful, unbelievable,
untenable: Edward made some weak excuse for being late. I found
Mona's argument against birth control very weak indeed. 5
weak-minded, dim-witted, dull-witted, slow-witted, foolish,
feeble-minded, simple, simple-minded, soft-headed, stupid, dull,
moronic, imbecilic, Colloq dumb: They seek out people of weaker
intelligence and make fools of them. 6 faint, dim, poor, dull,
pale, faded, indistinct, vague, hazy, imperceptible,
indiscernible, unclear, blurred, blurry, muzzy, wavering,
faltering, ill-defined, feeble, flickering, subdued: I could
hardly see her face in the weak light of the candle. 7 feeble,
subdued, low, soft, hushed, muffled, muted, almost inaudible,
stifled, indistinct: When the victim finally spoke, his voice
was very weak. 8 See watery, 1, above. 9 weak point. See
weakness, 3, below.

weaken v. 1 debilitate, enfeeble, enervate, emasculate, mitigate,
moderate, dilute, deplete, diminish, lessen, depress, lower,
reduce, sap, undermine, exhaust, impoverish: The continuous
torture helped to weaken Errol's resolve. 2 fade, dwindle,
tire, droop, sag, fail, give way, crumble, flag: My
determination weakened when I saw what had happened to the
children. 3 give in, relent, acquiesce, give way, yield, accede,
consent, agree, assent, soften, bend, ease up, let up, ease off,
relax: If you ask very politely, she might weaken and allow you
to go out and play. 4 water (down), dilute, thin (out): Adding

the water so weakened the soup that it tasted like dishwater.

weakling n. milksop, baby, mollycoddle, lightweight, namby-pamby, US and
Canadian milquetoast, Colloq sissy or Brit also cissy, loser,
cream puff, jellyfish, pushover, softie or softy, Slang wimp,
twerp or twirp, US weak sister, schnook, schlemiel or schlemihl
or shlemiel: If you count on a weakling like Geoffrey, nothing
will ever get done.

weakness n. 1 feebleness, frailty, fragility, delicacy, delicateness,
vulnerability, infirmity, decrepitude: They discovered a
weakness in the structure of the bridge, so it had to be closed.
2 incapacity, irresolution, irresoluteness, impotence,
powerlessness, puniness: He is ashamed of his weakness in being
unable to stop smoking. 3 weak point, foible, failing, fault,
shortcoming, flaw, Achilles' heel, defect, imperfection,
liability: Her one great weakness is her inability to deny her
children anything. 4 soft spot, fondness, affection, liking,
preference, bent, leaning, inclination, fancy, penchant,
predilection, proneness, proclivity, predisposition, partiality,
appreciation, appetite, sweet tooth, taste, eye: The two of
them share a weakness for good food and wine.

wealth n. 1 affluence, riches, money, opulence, prosperity, property,
holdings, capital, assets, wherewithal, cash: Most of their
wealth comes from illicit trade in diamonds. 2 profusion,
abundance, bounty, plenteousness, bounteousness, copiousness,
mine, plenitude, fullness, store, cornucopia, richness: Janet
has a wealth of ideas for situation-comedy plots.

wealthy adj. rich, affluent, well off, prosperous, well-to-do, opulent,
comfortable, moneyed, Colloq in the money, on Easy Street,
flush, well-heeled, in clover, Slang loaded, stinking (rich),
filthy rich, quids in, rolling in it: Bill has a wealthy aunt
who sends him a little something now and then.

wear v. 1 be dressed or clothed in, dress in, put on, don, be in,
step or get into or in, have on, sport: I shall wear my new
suit tonight. 2 display, show, exhibit, have, adopt, assume: I
wondered why she wore such a curious expression. 3 Often, wear
down or away or off. damage, impair, harm, fray, erode, abrade,
corrode, rub (off): The water has worn down the rocks till they
are round and shiny. The inscription on the stone is worn away.

After years of use, the paint has worn off. 4 Often, wear well.
last, endure, survive, hold up, bear up, stand up: I wrote to
the makers telling them the shoes have worn well. 5 drag, pass
slowly, creep by or along, go by gradually or tediously: The
hours wore on as I waited for the test results. 6 Often, wear
out. tire, fatigue, exhaust, debilitate, weary, enervate, drain,
burden: You must be worn out from carrying those heavy books.
7 bore, exasperate, harass, vex, annoy, irritate, tax, strain:
I find it wearing to listen to that music all day long.

--n. 8 wearing, use, utilization; attire, garb, clothing,
clothes, apparel, dress, gear: Did you get much wear out of
your new hat? Suzanne is modelling a silver lam‚ dress for
evening wear. 9 wear and tear, attrition, deterioration, damage,
fraying, chafing, abrasion, erosion, corrosion, friction: As
the engine ages, heavier oil is needed to offset the normal
wear.

weary adj. 1 tired, fatigued, exhausted, worn out, drained, spent,
Colloq all in, ready to drop, fagged (out), done in, dead (on
(one's) feet), frazzled, dead beat, dog-tired, Brit knocked up,
US knocked out, Slang Brit whacked, knackered, US pooped, zonked
(out), shot: He is so weary after work that he can scarcely eat
his dinner. 2 boring, irksome, irritating, tedious, vexing,
annoying, exasperating, burdensome, wearying, tiring, fatiguing,
draining, taxing, wearisome: We walked many a weary mile before
reaching the oasis. 3 bored, impatient, jaded, blas‚, Colloq
fed up, sick and tired, Taboo slang browned off: I wish he
would wipe that weary expression off his smug face.

--v. 4 Often, weary of. tire (of), be or become bored (with or
by) or impatient (with) or jaded (with or by), Colloq be or
become fed up (with) or sick and tired (of): I soon wearied of
her nagging. 5 exhaust, enervate, fatigue, tire, debilitate,
drain, tax, wear or tire out: The long trek across country had
wearied us all.

weather n. 1 (meteorological) condition(s), climate: The weather
suddenly changed, and we arrived home cold and wet. 2 under the
weather. ailing, ill, sickly, unwell, indisposed, out of sorts,
sick, Colloq poorly, seedy: I didn't go sailing because I was
feeling a bit under the weather.

--v. 3 stand, survive, suffer, bear up against, endure,
withstand, rise above, ride out, live through, brave: Gemma
didn't think she could weather much more sarcasm from the
critics.

weave v. 1 loom; braid, plait, entwine, intertwine, interlace,
interweave, knit (together): These fabrics were woven by hand.
Weave these leather strands together to make a belt. 2 blend,
combine, fuse, merge, unite, intermingle, mesh, splice,
dovetail, join: The threads of their lives are inextricably
woven together. 3 construct, make, contrive, build, create,
fabricate, compose, spin, design: Oh, what a tangled web we
weave When first we practise to deceive! 4 zigzag, criss-cross,
wend or make (one's) way, dodge, bob and weave, shift: Look at
that motor cyclist weaving in and out of the traffic! 5 get
weaving. get started, get a move on, hurry (up), start, Colloq
shake a leg, Brit get or pull (one's) finger out, Chiefly US get
a wiggle on: If you're going to get to work on time, you'd best
get weaving.

web n. spider's web, cobweb; net, network, entanglement, snare,
trap: Don't you just hate getting those webs in your hair? She
became entangled in a web of deception.

wed v. 1 marry, espouse, get married, become husband and wife, say
or take (one's) (marriage) vows, join or unite in holy wedlock
or matrimony; lead down the aisle, lead to the altar, Archaic
wive; Colloq tie the knot, get hitched, get spliced: They were
wed on the fourth of July, 1921. That was when Harry wed
Annabel. 2 combine, unite, ally, marry, blend, merge, join,
mingle, intermingle, commingle, coalesce, mix, intermix,
amalgamate, compound, alloy, fuse, homogenize: As a chef, he is
extremely fortunate to be able to wed business to pleasure.

wedded adj. Usually, wedded to. intimately or obstinately attached or
connected (to), enamoured (of): He has always been wedded to
the notion of living alone on an island.

wedding n. 1 marriage (ceremony), wedding ceremony, nuptials;
confarreation: Our son's wedding was attended by members of the
royal family. 2 combining, combination, uniting, union,
joining, juncture, blending, blend, allying, alliance,
associating, association, marrying, marriage, merging, merger,

mingling, intermingling, commingling, coalescing, coalescence,
mixing, mixture, intermixing, amalgamating, amalgamation,
compounding, compound, alloying, alloy, fusing, fusion,
homogenizing, homogenization: Through her wedding of vision to
observation she has produced some truly remarkable paintings.

wedge n. 1 block, chock: A shoe with a wedge heel is called a
'wedgie'. We forced wedges into the cracks in the stone to split
it. 2 separation, separator, division, partition, split,
fissure, cleavage: That woman tried to drive a wedge between me
and my husband.

--v. 3 ram, jam, stuff, cram, crowd, force, squeeze, pack,
thrust: You couldn't have wedged another person into the back
seat of that Mini with a shoehorn.

wee adj. 1 tiny, small, diminutive, little, minuscule, midget,
minute, miniature, Lilliputian, microscopic, Colloq itty-bitty,
itsy-bitsy, teeny(-weeny), teensy(-weensy): Johnny caught his
wee little finger in the door. 2 unimportant, insignificant,
trivial, little, puny: It was only a wee thing, of no interest
to anyone but me.

weep v. 1 cry, shed tears, bawl, blubber, keen, sob, lament, mourn,
bemoan, bewail, moan, grieve, whine, whimper, mewl, pule,
snivel, Colloq blub, boohoo, Brit and Australian whinge: A
small child, sitting by herself, was weeping bitterly. 2 ooze,
seep, exude, drip: The wound had started weeping and needed
bandaging.

weigh v. 1 Sometimes, weigh in at or out at. Colloq tip the scales
at: The sailboard weighed in at 250 pounds. I weigh more than I
should. 2 consider, ponder, contemplate, think on or over or
about, mull over, turn over in the or (one's) mind, ruminate
over, chew over, reflect on or upon, brood over, pore over,
study, examine: After weighing the qualifications of the
candidates, we voted for you. Weigh your words carefully before
responding. 3 judge, estimate, assess, evaluate, value,
determine: It is not easy to weigh each person's contribution
to the effort. 4 Usually, weigh on or upon. lie heavy on,
burden, depress, prey on, oppress, disturb, perturb, upset:
Loneliness weighs heavily on Dave's widow. 5 matter, count,
have (an) effect or influence, carry weight, be of value or

account, Colloq cut any ice: Certain factors - like the sizes
of the bribes - are likely to weigh heavily with the judges of
this particular beauty contest. 6 weigh down. burden,
overburden, load, overload, encumber, tax, overtax, strain,
trouble, worry, depress, oppress: He's been weighed down by
financial worries since losing his job.

weight n. 1 heaviness, avoirdupois, mass, tonnage, Dialect heft: They
sell peaches by weight but melons are individually priced. The
weight of these books must be enormous. 2 burden, load,
millstone, onus, pressure, strain, albatross, cross: He has to
support the weight of the entire family's expenses. 3
influence, authority, power, substance, force, moment,
importance, consequence, impact, persuasiveness, value, worth,
Colloq clout: Clyde brought down his full weight in favour of
the liberal candidate. Clyde's opinion carries little weight
with me. He must stop throwing his weight around. 4 mass,
majority, preponderance or preponderancy, bulk, superiority:
The weight of the voters is in favour of reducing taxes. The
weight of the evidence is against us.

--v. 5 load, charge, ballast: The policemen's truncheons are
weighted with lead. 6 arrange, manipulate, bias, incline,
slant, Colloq rig: The statistics are weighted so as to make
the advertiser's product look superior.

weighty adj. 1 heavy, ponderous, massive, huge, bulky, substantial,
ample, large, mammoth, colossal, immense, enormous, gigantic,
prodigious; corpulent, fat, obese, adipose, Colloq hefty: I
found myself face to face with a rather weighty gentleman who
was blocking the doorway. 2 important, consequential,
significant, momentous, grave, crucial, portentous,
thought-provoking, provocative: These are weighty matters and
should be handled with circumspection. 3 influential,
convincing, persuasive, impressive, telling, powerful, potent,
leading; forceful: Weighty arguments have been put forward in
support of these proposals.

weird adj. strange, odd, peculiar, bizarre, unnatural, eerie, queer,
grotesque, freakish, outlandish, uncanny, unearthly,
other-worldly, supernatural, preternatural, Literary eldritch,
Colloq spooky, freaky, kinky, Slang far-out, way-out: There was
something decidedly weird about the creature at the door.

weirdo n. eccentric, madman, madwoman, lunatic, psychotic, Colloq
crazy, weirdie, nutcase, oddball, queer fish, crank, Slang
freak, loony, psycho, Brit nutter, US screwball, nut, kook: Why
belong to a club whose members are weirdos who refuse to talk to
one another?

welcome v. 1 greet, hail, meet, receive, accept, offer hospitality
(to): Everywhere she went she was welcomed with open arms.

--adj. 2 accepted, acceptable, well-received, desirable,
agreeable, gratifying, appreciated: Norma is always a welcome
guest at my house. Ice cream was a welcome relief from the
perennial plum duff. 3 freely permitted or allowed, invited,
entitled, suffered: At that hotel, guests are welcome to dine
when they please.

--n. 4 reception, greeting, salutation: We gave the ambassador
a warm welcome.

weld v. 1 unite, combine, merge, fuse, connect, link, join; solder,
braze, cement, bond: We felt welded together in a brotherhood
that would last forever. The brace must be welded all the way
along the edge.

--n. 2 seam, joint, juncture, commissure: The weld must be
filed down smooth.

welfare n. benefit, good, advantage, well-being, prosperity, (good)
fortune, profit, interest, (good) health, happiness, felicity:
It is up to the parents to look after their children's welfare.

wellฐ adv. 1 satisfactorily, sufficiently, adequately, agreeably,
nicely, (well) enough, Colloq OK or okay: Alan is doing well
these days. 2 successfully, famously, marvellously,
wonderfully, fabulously, incredibly, splendidly, admirably,
spectacularly, excellently, superbly: Barbara and David really
get along well together. 3 articulately, understandably,
expressively, correctly, accurately, properly, proficiently,
effectively, artistically, poetically; grammatically: Henry
will make a good announcer because he speaks well. 4
comfortably, luxuriously, prosperously, extravagantly, showily,
pretentiously, ostentatiously, sumptuously, grandly, opulently:

How can Rita live so well with no visible income? Living well is
the best revenge. 5 graciously, kindly, highly, favourably,
glowingly, approvingly, warmly, genially, cordially, amiably,
kind-heartedly, warm-heartedly, affectionately, lovingly:
Rudolph has always spoken well of you, Aileen. 6 skilfully,
expertly, adeptly, proficiently, ably: Does Anne play well
enough to compete professionally? Paul sings well. 7 far, by a
long way, immeasurably, (very) much; far and away, definitely,
positively, obviously, clearly, plainly, manifestly, evidently,
unquestionably, decidedly, beyond (the shadow of a) doubt,
Colloq by a long chalk: Keep well away from the fuel tank
before lighting that cigarette. She is well beyond the beginner
stage. This painting is well worth what you paid. 8
good-naturedly, equably, coolly, serenely, calmly, soberly,
unexcitedly, sedately: Burt took the bad news about his car
very well. 9 likely, probably, in all probability, doubtlessly,
without doubt, not unexpectedly, indeed: He might well say he
needs no help. 10 easily, without difficulty: Though he gave
her the money, he could not well spare it. 11 completely,
entirely, wholly: Before she could well finish her sentence, he
was out of the house. 12 thoroughly (cooked), (cooked) through
and through, completely (cooked): He likes his roast beef well
done. 13 intimately, closely, familiarly, personally;
thoroughly, profoundly, soundly, fully: Do you know Boris well?
I learnt my lesson well. 14 fairly, justly, suitably, properly,
adequately, reasonably, fully, generously, amply: James is well
paid for his work. 15 happily, mercifully, fortunately,
luckily: After the divorce, both said they were well rid of
each other.

--adj. 16 healthy, fit, hale, robust, vigorous, hearty, in fine
or good fettle, Colloq in good shape: Wendy felt really well
after her holiday. 17 satisfactory, pleasing, agreeable, good,
right, all right, fine, proper, OK or okay: When he phoned the
office, they told him all was well.

well n. 1 well-spring, spring, fountain, well-head, fountain-head,
fount, source, reservoir: The well provided a constant supply
of cool clear water.

--v. 2 Often, well up or out or forth. flow, spring, surge,
rise, stream, trickle, brim over, swell, start; gush, spurt,
jet, spout; ooze, seep, leak: Tears welled up in the child's

eyes when she saw the broken doll.

well-advised
adj. prudent, wise, sensible, intelligent, smart: You would be
well-advised to avoid Chichicastenango at this time of year.

well-balanced
adj. 1 rational, sane, sensible, rational, reasonable,
level-headed, sober, sound, well-adjusted, cool(-headed), Slang
together: Ray is as well-balanced as people seem to be these
days. 2 even, symmetric(al), harmonious, well-proportioned,
orderly, well-ordered, well-disposed: Note the well-balanced
arrangement of the windows in this Palladian fa‡ade.

well-bred adj. well brought up, well-mannered, polite, decorous,
mannerly, refined, courteous, cultivated, polished, cultured,
gentlemanly, ladylike, elegant, suave, urbane, sophisticated,
gracious, courtly, genteel, gallant, chivalrous: Jane prefers
bikers to the well-bred gentlemen her mother selects for her.

well-established
adj. long-standing, traditional, set, venerable, well-known,
accepted, well-founded: He works for a well-established firm of
solicitors. It's a well-established fact that the English
discuss the weather a lot.

well-fed adj. plump, chunky, thickset, chubby, rounded, rotund, portly,
stout, fleshy, overweight, adipose, fat, obese, gross, Brit
podgy or US pudgy: On the westward crossing we were seated with
a well-fed Austrian couple.

well-groomed
adj. neat, dapper, fastidious, tidy, trim, smart, clean-cut,
spruce, natty, well-dressed, Colloq nifty, Slang US and Canadian
spiffy: Well-groomed gentleman sought as escort to attractive
widow. Hourly rate. Driving licence essential.

well-informed
adj. knowledgeable, learned, well-read, well-versed,
well-educated, literate, educated, Colloq in the know, wise, US
vibrating on the right frequency, Slang hip or hep: With access
to all the media, what excuse have you for not being
well-informed?

well-known
adj. 1 known, familiar, (well-)established, acknowledged,
customary, everyday: Plain salt is a well-known remover of wine
stains. 2 famous, noted, notable, celebrated, renowned,
illustrious, famed, prominent, eminent, pre-eminent: The
scandal linked a former Cabinet Minister with several well-known
City names.

well off adj. comfortable, wealthy, rich, affluent, prosperous,
well-to-do, Colloq well-heeled, US well-fixed: They are well
off and live in a charming house on the edge of the Cotswolds.

well-thought-of
adj. admired, highly regarded, respected, reputable, venerated,
esteemed, revered, looked-up-to, valued: Timothy is a
well-thought-of member of the community.

well-timed
adj. timely, seasonable, opportune, auspicious, favourable,
advantageous, beneficial: Tax incentives gave a well-timed
boost to the economy.

welsher n. non-payer, cheat, cheater, swindler, Slang dead-beat, US
welcher: That welsher never paid the money he lost to me at
poker.

welt n. 1 bead, ridge, seam, edge, wale, stripe: The cushion has a
welt of contrasting colour binding it. 2 bruise, contusion,
bump, lump, scar, weal or wale or wheal: The boy's back was
covered with red welts where he had been birched.

welter n. 1 mass, mess, jumble, tangle, confusion, mishmash, muddle,
clutter, Brit hotchpotch or US also hodgepodge: Her assignment
was to sort out a welter of discarded clothing for the poor. My
mind was assailed by a welter of disorganized images.

--v. 2 be sunk or involved in, flounder, be bogged down in, be
entangled or ensnarled in: Till I found a new secretary, I
would have to continue weltering in a sea of correspondence and
unfiled papers.

wet adj. 1 moist, moistened, damp, dampened, soaked, soaking,

sopping, wringing, dripping, sodden, soppy, saturated, drenched:
During the rainy season, the ground is far too wet for planting.
2 rainy, raining, teeming, pouring, drizzling, showery: We have
had a very wet spring this year. 3 feeble, weak, irresolute,
effet, namby-pamby, foolish, ineffectual, ineffective,
spineless, timorous, cowardly: She considered some of her
colleagues too wet to take the tough action needed.

--n. 4 moisture, water, wetness, dampness, damp, humidity,
liquid: The wet stood out on his forehead. 5 rain, wetness,
mist, dew, fog, damp, humidity: Come in out of the wet, and
warm yourself by the fire. 6 milksop, softie or softy,
lightweight, Colloq drip, loser, Brit weed, Slang wimp, US weak
sister: Why is he such a wet about standing up for his rights?

23.3 wheedle...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

wheedle v. coax, cajole, inveigle, charm, beguile, persuade, talk;
butter up; Colloq con, sweet-talk: Irena always managed to
wheedle someone into taking her dancing.

wheel n. 1 disc, ring, annulus, circle, hoop: It seems odd that no
culture in the western hemisphere ever invented the wheel.

--v. 2 spin, turn, veer, swivel, pivot, swing, whirl: Medusa
wheeled to face him and he promptly turned to stone.

whereabouts
n.pl. or sg. 1 location, position, place, site, situation,
locale, neighbourhood, vicinity: Her present whereabouts are
unknown to me. The culprit concealed his whereabouts from the
police.

--adv. 2 where, in or at or to what place, whither:
Whereabouts are you going to spend your holiday? Whereabouts are
you going?

whet v. 1 sharpen, hone, grind, file, put an edge on, strop: He
whetted the knife on an oiled stone till it was razor-sharp. 2
pique, sharpen, awaken, arouse, stimulate, kindle, fire,
increase, excite, enhance: The cruise on Bill's yacht whetted

my appetite to own a small sailing-boat.

whimsical adj. 1 quaint, fey, fanciful, odd, curious, unusual,
chimeric(al), queer, singular, peculiar, funny, fantastic(al),
pixyish, playful, puckish, absurd, preposterous, Colloq offbeat:
When Andrew's whimsical drawings caught on they were bought by
greetings card makers. 2 capricious, erratic, eccentric,
wavering, flighty, unsettled, fickle, mercurial, wavering,
fluctuating, unpredictable, inconsistent, volatile, unsteady:
The buses in our village run on what could best be termed a
whimsical timetable.

whip v. 1 beat, thrash, lash, flog, horsewhip, scourge, switch,
cane, birch, flagellate, leather, spank, strap; castigate,
chastise, punish, discipline; Slang tan, US wale: They learnt
right from wrong because father whipped them when they were
wrong. 2 trounce, defeat, beat, conquer, overwhelm, rout,
overcome, overpower, thwart, check, best, worst, drub, stop,
outdo, Colloq lick, wipe the floor with, batter, Slang
pulverize, clobber, destroy, ruin, murder, slaughter, kill,
squash, smash, US cream: Karpilova whipped O'Meara 6-0, 6-2 at
today's match. 3 run, scamper, scoot, race, scurry, scramble,
hurry, flit, rush, dash, dart, Colloq zip, zoom, skedaddle: I
whipped round the corner and dived behind a tree to hide. 4
beat, whisk, fluff up: Whip the egg-whites till they are stiff.
5 Nautical seize, bind, wind, fasten, tie: The end of the line
is whipped to prevent its unravelling. 6 whip out. yank out,
jerk out, pull (out), whisk out, present, exhibit, flash,
produce: He suddenly whipped out a gun and started shooting. 7
whip up. a stir up, agitate, arouse, rouse, work up, excite,
incite: The rabble-rousers whipped the crowd into a frenzy. b
improvise, put together or assemble or prepare quickly or
hurriedly, Colloq knock together, knock up, US slap together:
Tina whipped up a snack while we were waiting for Ken to arrive.

--n. 8 scourge, knout, lash, cat-o'-nine-tails, rawhide, quirt,
horsewhip, bull-whip, cane, birch, switch, thong, (riding-)crop,
Colloq cat: We dreaded it when Dr Hazen eyed the whip hung
behind the classroom door.

whipping n. 1 beating, thrashing, lashing, flogging, horsewhipping,
scourging, switching, caning, birching, flagellation, spanking:
Once he had had a whipping, the boy would not misbehave again.

2 Nautical seizing, binding, tying, winding, fastening: The
whipping will prevent the end of the line from unravelling.

whirlpool n. maelstrom, vortex, eddy, whirl, swirl, Heraldry gurges: As
we watched in horror, the canoe was drawn down into the
whirlpool and disappeared.

whirlwind n. 1 waterspout, dust devil, cyclone, typhoon, anticyclone,
hurricane, extra-tropical cyclone, tropical cyclone,
Nontechnical tornado, Nautical white squall, Australian
willy-willy, Colloq US whirly: A whole row of houses was
destroyed in the whirlwind.

--adj. 2 speedy, quick, swift, sudden, precipitous, lightning,
headlong, hasty, rash, impetuous: It was one of those whirlwind
romances that last till the wind dies down.

whisk v. 1 rush, dart, sweep, brush: Agatha whisked about the room,
aimlessly moving small objects about on tables and shelves. 2
speed, rush, carry, whip, hasten, hustle, hurry: The taxi came
and whisked Fran off to the airport. 3 See whip, 4, above.

--n. 4 sweep, wave, brush, flick: With a whisk of his hand he
dismissed the servants. 5 brush, fly-whisk: The chief flicked
his whisk to signal that the audience was ended. 6 beater,
whip: It is quicker to whip cream with a whisk.

whisky n. whiskey, alcohol, spirits, John Barleycorn, usquebaugh,
Scotch, home-brew, mother's ruin (= 'gin'), Scots barley-bree,
Brit Scotch, US rye, bourbon, white lightning, white mule,
moonshine, Colloq booze, hooch, rot-gut, US corn, fire-water,
Slang US Sneaky Pete, smoke: Peter is a welcome guest who
always remembers to bring a bottle of whisky.

whisper v. 1 breathe, murmur, mutter, mumble, hiss, speak or say softly
or under (one's) breath, sigh, susurrate: He whispered sweet
nothings in her ear. 2 gossip, bruit about, noise abroad,
murmur, insinuate, hint, rumour, disclose, divulge, reveal,
breathe a word: We have all heard Corin whispering of your
wife's infidelities.

--n. 3 murmur, undertone, hushed tone(s): Why do you always
speak in whispers when talking about Nesta? 4 hint, suggestion,

soup‡on, suspicion: There was never the slightest whisper of
gossip about Eleanor.

white adj. 1 snow-white, snowy, chalk-white, chalky, ivory, creamy,
milky, milk-white, oyster-white, off-white; silver, hoary: Many
buildings in the tropics are painted white. Do you believe that
a person's hair can turn white overnight? 2 pale, pallid, pasty,
wan, whey-faced, ashen, bloodless, drained, whitish, waxen,
ghastly, ghostly, anaemic, dead white, deathly white,
cadaverous, corpse-like: Her black dress contrasted starkly
with her white complexion. 3 innocent, pure, unsullied,
stainless, unblemished, spotless, immaculate, virginal,
virtuous, undefiled, chaste: She came to you with white hands,
which you have sought to dirty with your vicious accusations. 4
Caucasian, Caucasoid, light-skinned, fair-skinned,
pale-complexioned: The American Indian was - and still is -
treated very unfairly by the White man.

whitewash v. gloss over, cover up, sugar-coat, hide, camouflage, conceal,
qualify, minimize, extenuate, diminish, play down, downplay,
make light of, rationalize, excuse: We are being accused of
whitewashing the dishonest actions of the previous
administration.

whittle v. 1 pare (down or away), shave, trim, cut, carve, hew, shape:
Remember when Grandpapa used to whittle those tiny figures of
elves when we were children? 2 Usually, whittle away at or down.
pare, shave, cut, trim, reduce, diminish, erode, eat away at:
If he keeps whittling away at his trust fund, he might have to
get a job.

whole adj. 1 entire, complete, uncut, full, intact, unbroken, total:
I can't believe she ate the whole chicken. Were you here the
whole time? 2 in one piece, intact, unharmed, undamaged,
unscathed, unimpaired, unhurt, uninjured: How could anyone
emerge whole from that smash-up? 3 well, healthy, sound, fit,
strong: The surgeons have made him whole again.

--n. 4 everything, aggregate, (sum) total, totality, lot,
entirety; ensemble; Colloq whole kit and caboodle: I look at
the whole and don't bother about petty details. 5 on the whole.
largely, mostly, usually, more often than not, for the most
part, in general, generally, by and large, with few exceptions,

all things considered, all in all, as a rule, chiefly, mainly,
in the main, predominantly: On the whole, our clients collect
only originals, not copies or prints.

wholehearted
adj. devoted, dedicated, committed, earnest, sincere,
unqualified, unmitigated, unreserved, complete, entire,
unstinting, real, true, genuine, hearty, heartfelt, serious,
enthusiastic, zealous, warm, fervent, ardent, spirited, eager,
energetic: Once I agree to help, you can rely on my
wholehearted support.

wholesome adj. 1 healthful, healthy, health-giving, nutritious,
nourishing, beneficial, tonic, salutary, salubrious,
strengthening, bracing, stimulating: Everyone should regularly
engage in wholesome exercise. 2 moral, ethical, righteous,
upright, honourable, decent, principled, proper, fit, meet: I
am not sure that the child is being brought up in a wholesome
atmosphere.

wholly adv. 1 altogether, entirely, absolutely, quite, totally,
thoroughly, completely, in toto, fully, in all respects, in
every way, all in all, utterly, unqualifiedly, every inch, 100%;
lock, stock, and barrel; root and branch; backwards and
forwards; from the ground up; Colloq bag and baggage; hook,
line, and sinker; to the nth degree; (the) whole hog, US up one
side and down the other: We are wholly on your side in this
matter. The company has been wholly reorganized. 2 only,
exclusively, solely, unexceptionally, categorically,
unequivocally, unambiguously, explicitly: The success or
failure of the plan depends wholly on you.

whoop n. 1 shout, shriek, yell, roar, bellow, hoot, (battle or war)
cry, war-whoop, outcry, scream, screech, squeal, yelp, yowl,
howl, bark; cheer, hurrah, huzzah; Colloq holler: At his whoop
of joy we knew he had passed the exam.

--v. 2 shout, shriek, yell, roar, bellow, hoot, cry (out),
scream, screech, squeal, yelp, yowl, howl, bark; cheer, hurrah,
huzzah; Colloq holler: He heard the tribesmen whooping as they
descended on the fort.

whopping adj. 1 huge, great, enormous, colossal, gigantic, immense,

tremendous, prodigious, monstrous, thumping, mammoth, massive,
Brobdingnagian: With that whopping Great Dane of yours in the
kitchen there's no room to move about. 2 flagrant, outrageous,
extravagant, terrible, awful: Jones tells such whopping lies I
don't know when to believe him.

23.4 wicked...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

wicked adj. 1 evil, bad, immoral, amoral, unprincipled, sinful,
impious, irreligious, blasphemous, profane, sacrilegious,
ungodly, godless, diabolic(al), satanic, Mephistophelian,
demonic, demoniac(al), hellish, infernal, accursed, damnable,
fiendish, ghoulish: How wicked must one be to murder one's own
child? She has done many wicked things, but this was the worst.
2 depraved, dissolute, villainous, black-hearted, iniquitous,
horrible, horrid, hideous, heinous, beastly, base, low, vile,
debased, degenerate, perverse, perverted, corrupt, foul,
offensive, abominable, disgraceful, shameful, dreadful, awful,
gross, gruesome, grim, appalling, grisly, loathsome, lawless,
unrepentant, unregenerate, incorrigible, criminal, felonious,
rascally, knavish, terrible, egregious, execrable: The Deluge
was regarded as divine vengeance on a wicked world. He was a
wicked man, in league with the devil himself. 3 dirty,
pornographic, filthy, erotic, obscene, lewd, offensive,
indecent, prurient, smutty, rude, taboo, blue, coarse, bawdy,
vulgar, salacious, licentious, nasty, X-rated, Colloq US
raunchy: The townspeople took the wicked books and burnt them
all. 4 vicious, beastly, savage, nasty, bad, violent, mean,
cruel: Graham has a wicked temper. The boys were subjected to
the most wicked treatment. 5 naughty, mischievous, impish, sly,
devilish, rascally, roguish, scampish, puckish; vexatious,
exasperating, annoying, irritating, irksome, trying, galling,
bothersome: What trouble have those wicked children got
themselves into now? It is wicked of you to make pig noises
every time I mention Bertha. 6 foul, offensive, pernicious,
baleful, mephitic, disgusting, revolting, sickening, repulsive,
repellent, nauseous, repugnant, rotten, pestilential, noxious:
That liniment the doctor prescribed has a wicked odour. 7
expert, ingenious, superior, superb, superlative, outstanding,
masterful, masterly, skilful, deft, adept: That chap Gough
plays a wicked game of tennis.

wide adj. 1 spacious, roomy, ample, extensive, broad: The road is
wide enough for two cars to pass. If the book is set in wider
type, it will have more pages. 2 broad, extensive,
comprehensive, encyclopedic or encyclopaedic, inclusive,
far-reaching, wide-ranging, widespread: He has wide interests,
from music to archaeology to sport. 3 extreme, considerable,
substantial, sizeable, major, big, large; widespread: There
have been wide fluctuations in market prices. 4 wide of the
mark. off the mark, astray, deviant, deviating, off (the)
target, not on target, inappropriate: Forecasts from analysts
were based on erroneous assumptions and proved to be very wide
of the mark.

--adv. 5 astray, afield, wide of the mark, off the mark, off
(the) target, to one side: He took careless aim and the shot
went wide. 6 all the way, as much as possible, fully,
completely, to the utmost: The dentist said, 'Open wide'. When
I heard the drill, I was suddenly wide awake.

widely adv. 1 extensively, thoroughly, universally, everywhere,
generally, by many: In the days when it was widely believed
that the earth was flat, perhaps it was. 2 to a large or a great
extent, greatly, largely, very much, extremely, considerably,
substantially: Opinions differ widely regarding the origin of
the universe.

widen v. distend, dilate, spread, stretch, enlarge, increase, expand;
extend, broaden, supplement, add to, augment: It will be
necessary to widen the opening to allow insertion of the device.
We are planning to widen the news coverage we provide our
readers.

width n. 1 breadth, wideness, compass, broadness, span; diameter,
calibre, bore; measure; Nautical beam: What is the standard
width of railway track in this country? The width of the
cannon-ball is three inches. 2 reach, scope, range, breadth,
extent, extensiveness: There is an impressive width of choice
at the restaurant.

wield v. 1 flourish, swing, brandish, wave, handle, use, employ: He
wields that machete as if he means business. 2 exercise, have,
employ, exert, use, utilize: Since Juan is the one who wields

the power, he is the one to deal with.

wife n. mate, helpmeet, helpmate, spouse, bride, partner, Colloq
better half, little woman, the missis or missus, old lady or
woman, ball and chain, Slang trouble and strife: Doesn't your
wife mind your going out every night?

wild adj. 1 undomesticated, untamed, unbroken, savage, feral: The
only four-legged animals inhabiting the island were wild pigs.
2 uncultivated, uninhabited, waste, desert, desolate, virgin,
unpopulated, empty, trackless, barren, lifeless; deserted: The
cottage overlooks an expanse of wild moorland. 3 savage,
uncivilized, barbarous, primitive, rude, uncultured,
uncultivated, brutish, barbaric, fierce, ferocious: Some early
explorers studied the wild people they encountered in far-off
lands. 4 uncontrolled, unrestricted, unrestrained, untrammelled,
unbridled, unfettered, unshackled, free, unchecked, lively,
impetuous, unconventional, undisciplined, disobedient,
insubordinate, self-willed, wayward, mutinous, rowdy(ish),
boisterous, unruly, tumultuous, turbulent, tempestuous,
uproarious; uncontrollable, unmanageable, ungovernable,
intractable, unrestrainable: Peter led quite a wild youth. We
cannot cope with their wild behaviour after they have had too
much to drink. 5 mad, maniac(al), crazed, crazy, irrational,
distracted, frenzied, frantic, distraught, hysterical, raving,
raging, unhinged, demented, delirious; berserk; run amok or
amuck: William had a wild look about him. Nellie has been
driven wild by the pressures of business. 6 exciting, excited,
vehement, passionate, romantic, turbulent, chaotic, tempestuous,
reckless, madcap: At the time, Ernest was having a wild love
affair with Charles's widow. 7 absurd, irrational, unreasonable,
extravagant, fantastic, imprudent, foolish, foolhardy,
impractical, impracticable, unpractical, unworkable, ridiculous,
reckless, silly, giddy, flighty, madcap, outrageous,
preposterous, bizarre, strange, odd, peculiar, Colloq offbeat:
He lost thousands on some wild scheme for reducing shipping
costs by filling bubble packing with helium. 8 tousled,
wind-blown, unkempt, dishevelled, untidy, disordered,
disorderly, messed-up, Colloq mussed-up: Her hair was in wild
disarray. 9 enthusiastic, avid, eager, agog, Colloq crazy, mad,
daft, dotty, Brit potty, Slang nutty, nuts: I'm just wild about
Harry, And Harry's wild about me.

--n. 10 Usually, wilds. wasteland, wilderness, desert,
vastness, emptiness, Colloq sticks, middle of nowhere, back of
beyond: His idea of adventure was to trek through the wilds of
Hyde Park.

wile n. Often, wiles. trick, stratagem, ruse, artifice, subterfuge,
dodge, trap, snare, manoeuvre, ploy, contrivance, move, gambit,
plot, scheme, machination, Colloq (little) game: You won't get
far trying to work your wiles on me, young lady.

wilful adj. 1 intentional, deliberate, voluntary, conscious, intended,
purposeful, premeditated, US willful: The jury decided that
such a wilful act of vandalism must be punished. She is accused
of wilful neglect of her children. 2 stubborn, headstrong,
pigheaded, obstinate, mulish, inflexible, adamant, obdurate,
intransigent, unyielding, self-willed, ungovernable,
recalcitrant, unruly, immovable, intractable, dogged,
determined, refractory, uncompromising, wayward, perverse,
contrary: Jim is far too wilful, and tends to have a tantrum if
he fails to get his own way.

will n. 1 desire, wish, longing, liking, inclination, disposition,
drive, purposefulness, purpose, intent, intention, resolve,
commitment, resolution, determination; will-power: Where
there's a will there's a way. Some believe that taking
medication is against God's will. Marguerite seems to have lost
the will to live. 2 choice, wishes, desire, inclination: He was
forced to submit against his will. 3 (last will and) testament,
last wishes: In accordance with his will, Josiah was buried at
sea. 4 at will. as or when (one) pleases or wishes or thinks
fit(ting), at (one's) desire or whim or pleasure or discretion:
If he brings his own car, then he can leave at will.

--v. 5 want, desire, wish, choose, see fit, make, compel,
force, command, order, ordain, require: When she willed him to
appear, there was a flash of lightning and he was there. 6
leave, bequeath, devise, hand down or on, pass on, transfer;
settle upon or on: My great-uncle Philip willed me his
collection of 19th-century theatre memorabilia.

willing adj. agreeable, acquiescent, compliant, amenable, consenting,
assenting, passive, complaisant, docile, ready, well-disposed,
happy, content, pleased, delighted, enthusiastic, avid, eager,

zealous, Colloq game: Albert might not have thought up the
pranks, but he was a willing accomplice.

willingly adv. readily, happily, contentedly, gladly, cheerfully,
amenably, agreeably, freely, passively, docilely, of (one's) own
accord or free will, on (one's) own, ungrudgingly, by choice,
voluntarily, unhesitatingly, nothing loath, eagerly,
enthusiastically, zealously, avidly, Colloq at the drop of a
hat: We did not coerce him in any way - he went along quite
willingly. You can rely on Hubert to give willingly and
generously to support any good cause.

willowy adj. 1 lissom or lissome, pliant, lithe, flexible, supple,
limber, loose-limbed: Everyone enjoys watching the willowy
athletes training for the Olympics. 2 slim, slender, graceful,
sylphlike, svelte, thin, long-limbed, clean-limbed: How does
Jeanne keep her willowy figure without dieting?

willy-nilly
adv. 1 whether one likes it or not, inevitably, necessarily, of
necessity, perforce, whether or no, like it or not, nolens
volens, bon gr‚, mal gr‚: Having borrowed the money, you must,
willy-nilly, repay it.

--adj. 2 necessary, unavoidable, inevitable, involuntary: He
joked about a willy-nilly choice, meaning one offering no
alternatives.

wilt v. 1 sag, droop, wither, shrink, shrivel (up or away),
diminish: My house-plants wilted because they weren't watered.
2 sag, droop, bow, weaken, sink, wane, wither, lose courage or
nerve, flag, dwindle, languish: The lad wilted under the stern
glare of the headmaster.

wily adj. shrewd, cunning, crafty, sly, artful, guileful, clever,
foxy, vulpine, disingenuous, shifty, scheming, plotting,
calculating, designing, sharp, canny, deceitful, deceiving,
deceptive, treacherous, perfidious, false, double-dealing,
dishonest, underhand(ed), tricky, smooth, slick, slippery, oily,
unctuous, Scots and No. Eng. pawky, Colloq cagey, crooked,
two-timing, Slang chiefly Brit fly: Rats are wily and cunning,
and have to be taken seriously.

win v. 1 come (in or out) first, carry the day, conquer, overcome;
carry off (the palm), finish first (in), achieve first place
(in), triumph (in), be victorious (in), be the victor (in), gain
a victory (in), prevail (in), succeed (in), take first prize
(in), Colloq bring home the bacon: Which team is more likely to
win today? We seem to have won the battle but not the war. 2
gain, carry off or away, attain, acquire, get, obtain, secure,
procure, receive, collect, net, bag, earn, realize, pick up,
glean: Look at all those trophies Gillian has won playing golf!
3 win over. influence, sway, incline, persuade, charm, prevail
upon, convert, induce, bring round or around, convince: Don't
think that Gilbert can be won over without a strong argument.

--n. 4 victory, conquest, triumph, success: So far this season
we have recorded six wins and one loss for the Surrey Scouts.

windฐ n. 1 breeze, zephyr, puff, gust, breath, draught, light air,
current (of air): A gentle wind wafted our little boat across
the bay. 2 puffery, bombast, rodomontade, bluster, boasting,
braggadocio, vain speech, blather, (idle or empty) talk,
fustian, nonsense, twaddle, humbug, babble, gibberish, Colloq
gab, hot air, claptrap, hogwash, rot, hooey, boloney, Slang Brit
(load of (old)) cobblers: I went there for advice and all I got
was a lot of wind. 3 gas, flatulence, windiness, flatus,
borborygmus (= 'stomach rumbling (as from gas)'), heartburn,
Taboo slang fart (= 'anal release of gas'): I have to take a
pill to relieve this wind. 4 before the wind. Nautical
downwind, off the wind: We were racing before the wind with
every scrap of sail flying. 5 break wind. Taboo slang fart:
It is considered rude to break wind. 6 get or have wind of.
hear of, learn of, come to know, pick up, be made or become
aware of, gather, understand, hear on the grapevine, Colloq hear
tell of: We got wind of the company's plans to close this
plant. 7 get or have the wind up. take fright, become
frightened or afraid or apprehensive: When I heard a window
being raised I got the wind up. 8 in the wind. around, about,
rumoured, in the air, detectable, discernible, discoverable,
imminent, impending, approaching, close (at hand), about to
happen or take place or occur, afoot, in the offing, near, on
the way, Colloq Brit on the cards, US in the cards: We knew
that a change was in the wind, but never expected the chairman
to resign. 9 off the wind. See 5, above. 10 on the or a wind.
Nautical upwind, windward, to the wind, into (the teeth or the

eye of) the wind; near the wind Because 'Syrena' was a sloop,
she could sail closer on the wind than the schooner. 11 put the
wind up. scare, frighten, alarm: The leakage at the nuclear
plant really put the wind up everyone living in the area. 12
sail close or near to the wind. take risks, throw caution to the
winds, play with fire, skate on thin ice, take (one's) life in
(one's) hands, Colloq stick (one's) neck out, Slang go for
broke: One nude scene is highly salacious, and we think the
director is sailing very close to the wind by including it. 13
take the wind out of (someone's) sails. deflate (someone),
disconcert (someone), destroy (someone's) advantage, ruin
(someone's) superiority or supremacy or ascendancy: It rather
took the wind out of her sails when he announced that he was
leaving anyway.

wind v. 1 turn, bend, twist, snake, worm, twine, zigzag, slew,
swerve, loop, coil, curve, meander, ramble, veer: The river
winds along the valley floor. 2 reel, roll, spiral, turn,
twist, curl, coil, wrap, twine, wreathe; crank (up), wind up:
The streamers are wound around the columns for decoration. 3
wind down. a taper off, slow down, diminish, reduce, close out,
slacken or slack off (on), ease (up on), decrease, cut back or
down (on); wind up: They were going to wind down their
sportswear department, but then business suddenly perked up. b
relax, become calm or tranquil, calm down, cool off or down,
regain (one's) equilibrium, ease up or off, Colloq unwind, let
(one's) hair down, take it easy: It takes me a couple of days
to wind down from the hectic activity in the office. 4 wind up.
a terminate, conclude, come or bring to an end or a close or a
conclusion, end (up), close down or up, finish (up), wrap up;
liquidate, settle: After calmly winding up his affairs, Evan
sailed off in his boat and was never seen again. b end up,
finish (up), become ultimately: I understand that Sally wound
up as a bar girl in Tampico. c excite, innervate, energize,
stimulate, invigorate, stir up: After getting us all wound up
about that weekend party in Paris, she called the whole thing
off. d agitate, fluster, disconcert, ruffle: Don't let such
trifles get you so wound up. e See 3 (a), above.

windfall n. bonanza, godsend, stroke of (good) fortune, serendipitous
find, boon, piece of (good) luck, jackpot, (lucky) strike: The
sale of the house provided a windfall that saved them from
imminent bankruptcy.

windy adj. 1 blustery, blowing, blowy, breezy, gusting, gusty, wild,
squally, tempestuous; windswept: It is quite windy today. I
waited at that windy corner for you and you never showed up! 2
talkative, long-winded, garrulous, wordy, verbose, prolix,
loquacious, rambling, voluble, fluent, effusive, glib, turgid,
bombastic, pompous, longiloquent: Potter does tend to be windy
at times.

winner n. victor, champion, prizewinner, title-holder, conqueror,
conquering hero, Colloq champ: The winner will receive a new
car.

winning adj. 1 engaging, attractive, alluring, captivating, endearing,
prepossessing, winsome, bewitching, fetching, taking,
enchanting, pleasing, delightful, charming, amiable, friendly,
pleasant, sweet: Maggie's winning ways are a tremendous asset
to making friends. 2 triumphant, conquering, victorious,
successful: The winning team is invited to dine at the Red
Lion.

wintry adj. 1 hiemal, brumal, hibernal; icy, snowy, freezing, frozen,
frosty, cold, frigid, bitter (cold), chilly, chilling, piercing,
cutting, glacial, Siberian, arctic, hyperborean: It was cold
and the sky was clear and wintry with premonitions of frost. 2
cold, frigid, chilly, cool, chilling, glacial: She got a very
wintry reception from Dan's parents, who disliked the idea of
their living together. 3 forbidding, bleak, dismal, cheerless,
dreary, harsh, unfriendly, ugly, menacing, ominous, threatening,
dark: His comment about her age evoked only a wintry look from
Margot.

wipe v. 1 Sometimes, wipe off or out or up. rub, clean (off or out
or up), cleanse; dry (off or out or up), dust (off), mop (up),
swab, sponge (off or up): For God's sake, wipe your nose!
Please wipe the crumbs off the table when you've finished
eating. Stop crying and wipe up the spilt milk. 2 Often, wipe
off. remove, erase, take off or away, get rid of: Wipe that
grin off your face, stranger. 3 wipe out. kill (off),
annihilate, massacre, destroy, finish (off), dispose of,
eradicate, obliterate, exterminate, do away with, stamp out, get
rid of, remove, wipe off the face of the earth: Scientists have
succeeded in wiping out smallpox.

wiry adj. muscular, sinewy, lean, lank, thin and strong, tough and
flexible: He was a stocky and wiry little man, rather like a
short-legged terrier.

wisdom n. 1 sagacity, sageness, judgement, discernment, reason,
prudence, judiciousness, (common) sense, insight, penetration,
sapience, understanding, rationality, clear-sightedness,
clear-headedness, perspicacity, perspicuity, percipience,
perception, perceptiveness, intelligence, acuteness, acumen,
astuteness, sharpness, shrewdness, long-headedness: At least
she had the wisdom not to shoot the intruder. Allen's wisdom
stems from long experience in such matters. 2 knowledge,
learning, erudition, lore, scholarship, enlightenment: The
wisdom of the ages is locked away in these books.

wise adj. 1 sage, sagacious, judicious, reasonable, commonsensical,
prudent, sensible, insightful, sapient, understanding, rational,
sound, clear-sighted, clear-headed, discerning, perspicacious,
perspicuous, percipient, perceptive, intelligent, acute, astute,
sharp, shrewd, crafty, clever, bright, quick-witted, smart,
brilliant, long-headed, Colloq brainy: Among the wisest of men
were Solomon, Confucius, Buddha, and, perhaps, Aristotle. 2
knowledgeable, learned, enlightened, informed, erudite;
(well-)educated, knowing, well-read, well-versed, lettered,
scholarly: We saw to it that they escaped, and the police were
none the wiser. Wise heads prevailed at the college on what
constituted worthwhile research. 3 well-advised, advisable,
judicious, sensible, expedient, reasonable, strategic, tactful,
tactical, prudent, politic, discreet, diplomatic,
well-thought-out, well-considered, proper, fitting, appropriate,
meet: Do you think it wise to punish the child so severely? 4
put wise (to). inform or advise or warn (of or about): If you
must know how he found out, it was Myrna who put him wise. Did
she also put him wise to where the money is hidden? 5 wise to.
aware or knowledgeable or informed of or about, sensitive to, on
to or onto, Colloq in the know about: You are wrong if you
think she isn't wise to your little tricks. Get wise to what's
going on, Man.

--v. 6 wise up (to). become informed or aware (of or about),
wake up (to), Colloq get wise (to) or in the know (about): If
Cooley doesn't wise up, he'll be in deep trouble. Was it you who

wised Meg up to the fact that Tom no longer cares?

wisecrack n. 1 joke, quip, rejoinder, witticism, pun, barb, jest, gibe or
jibe, Colloq gag; dig: Everything is a potential subject for a
wisecrack.

--v. 2 joke, quip, pun, gibe or jibe: Get serious and stop
wisecracking for a change.

wise guy n. wiseacre, smart alec or aleck, Archaic witling, Colloq
know-all or know-it-all, Brit Clever Dick or cleverdick, Slang
smarty-pants, smarty, Brit smart-arse, US smart-ass,
wisenheimer: There's always some wise guy waiting to make a
clever remark.

wish v. 1 desire, want; yearn, crave, long, hope, hanker, have a
mind, (have a) fancy, choose, care: I wish you'd go now. If you
had Aladdin's lamp, what would you wish for? 2 require, request,
demand, order, specify: Did you wish lemon or milk in your tea?
3 foist or force or thrust or impose upon, Colloq fob off on or
upon, palm off on: The job of treasurer was wished on me when
Jock left.

--n. 4 desire, request, whim, want, craving, longing,
hankering: Your every wish is my command. 5 desire, longing,
craving, need, yearning, hankering, passion, keenness, thirst,
appetite, hunger, whim, urge, liking, fondness, fancy,
preference, predisposition, disposition, inclination, Colloq
yen, Slang itch: She expressed a wish for nightingale tongues,
truffles, and champagne.

wishy-washy
adj. 1 neither here nor there, undecided, indecisive,
irresolute, half-hearted, shilly-shallying, tergiversating,
vacillating, uncertain, of or having mixed feelings, of two
minds: Make up your mind and stop being so wishy-washy about
everything! 2 feeble, weak, watery, watered down, thin, vapid,
flat, bland, runny, diluted, tasteless, insipid, flavourless,
stale: Isabel served me some wishy-washy tea and sent me on my
way.

wisp n. shred, scrap, strand, thread, snippet, tuft, lock: The
laboratory matched the wisp of hair found in the victim's hand

with the hair of the suspect.

wistful adj. 1 melancholy, mournful, sad, morose, sorrowful,
disconsolate, heartsick, forlorn, woeful, woebegone, desirous,
longing, yearning: She gave a last, wistful look at the
aeroplane as it rose into the clouds. 2 thoughtful,
contemplative, pensive, absent-minded, detached, absorbed, in a
brown study, preoccupied, meditating, meditative, reflective,
ruminating, ruminative, dreamy, dreaming, day-dreaming, musing:
Some might have misinterpreted his wistful gaze at her
photograph.

wit n. 1 intelligence, brains, mind, (common) sense, judgement,
understanding, discernment, wisdom, sagacity, insight,
astuteness, cleverness, Slang savvy: He hasn't the wit to know
when he's being insulted. 2 humour, drollery, levity, joking,
repartee, raillery, facetiousness, waggishness, badinage,
repartee, jocularity, wordplay, paronomasia; amusement,
entertainment: Some say that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
3 comedian, comedienne, humorist, comic, wag, joker, farceur,
farceuse, punster, madcap, zany; parodist, satirist,
caricaturist; Colloq pundit, card, character: In the face of
such a devastating remark, even the club wit was struck dumb.

witch n. 1 sorceress, enchantress, magician, sibyl, pythoness;
warlock: The witches prophesied that Macbeth would be king. 2
hag, fury, battleaxe, crone, gorgon, Medusa, ogress, Xanthippe,
shrew, virago, harridan, fishwife, termagant, Archaic beldam or
beldame, Offensive old bag, bitch: How could you stand living
with the old witch for so many years?

withdraw v. 1 draw back, retract, pull back, recoil, shrink back: He
would suddenly withdraw into his cocoon whenever she said the
name, 'Elsie'. 2 retract, recall, take back, cancel, rescind,
recant, disavow, disclaim, abjure, void, annul, go back on, back
down (on): If she doesn't withdraw that remark, I shall sue her
for slander. 3 pull out, extract, remove, Technical retrude:
Afterwards, she withdrew the knife, washed it, and replaced it
in the rack. The dentist withdrew the bad tooth. 4 retire,
retreat, go, repair: After dinner, we withdrew to the
drawing-room for brandy and cigars. 5 leave, depart, go, make
(oneself) scarce, absent (oneself), retire: We waited till the
servants withdrew before exchanging news about Cora.

withdrawn adj. 1 reserved, detached, distant, standoffish, aloof, shy,
diffident, bashful, timid, timorous, introverted, taciturn,
reticent, silent, quiet, retiring, shrinking: Why is Henry
acting so withdrawn tonight? 2 remote, distant, isolated,
solitary, hidden, secluded, private, out-of-the-way, reclusive:
Sarah and Ben have led a withdrawn existence since the children
married and moved away.

withering adj. destructive, devastating, death-dealing, murderous,
deadly: The enemy laid down a withering barrage of machine-gun
fire.

withhold v. 1 hold or keep back, retain, reserve, restrain, control,
repress, check, hide, conceal: He could withhold his anger no
longer. 2 hold or keep back, deduct, retain, reserve: The
company is required to withhold a percentage of wages and
salaries for taxes.

withstand v. resist, oppose, stand (up to), face, defy, confront, combat,
grapple with, fight (against), cope with, hold out against,
weather, suffer, survive, tolerate, take, bear, last through,
endure, brave, Colloq Brit stick: Can Brian withstand the
pressure of his new job? Our small force withstood the attack
for days.

witness n. 1 observer, onlooker, spectator, viewer, eyewitness,
bystander, watcher, Rare earwitness: Were you a witness to what
took place here? 2 deponent, testifier, corroborating witness,
corroborator: The defence will call its witnesses today. 3
bear witness (to or of). testify (to), attest (to), be or give
or provide or furnish or constitute evidence or proof or
testimony (of or to), verify, confirm, corroborate, show, prove:
The bent poker bears witness to the violence of the attack.

--v. 4 see, observe, watch, look on or at, view, behold, mark,
note, notice, take in, Colloq spot, catch: I did witness the
way they looked at each other. 5 countersign, sign, certify,
endorse, substantiate, document, certificate: Would you mind
witnessing our signatures, Miss Cabot? 6 See 3, above.

witticism n. pun, quip, play on words, bon mot, jest, joke, epigram,
clever remark, sally, Archaic or literary conceit, Colloq gag,

one-liner: Clive is just as likely to utter a witticism as say
something excruciatingly banal.

witty adj. ingenious, subtle, clever, humorous, sarcastic, sardonic,
piquant, humorous, comic(al), farcical, ludicrous, facetious,
amusing, jocular, waggish, droll, funny: Corbett, not ready
with his usual witty riposte, shouted an obscenity at the bus
driver.

wizened adj. wrinkled, shrunken, shrivelled (up), withered, gnarled,
dried up, wilted, faded, wasted: The wizened old crone is his
grandmother.

23.5 woe...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

woe n. trouble, hardship, adversity, misery, anguish, tribulation,
calamity, trial, wretchedness, grief, unhappiness, desolation,
dolour, melancholy, gloom, depression, sadness,
disconsolateness, misfortune, affliction, sorrow, distress: How
much more woe could beset one small family?

woebegone adj. troubled, miserable, anguished, wretched, grief-stricken,
unhappy, desolate, doleful, dolorous, melancholy, melancholic,
gloomy, mournful, sorrowful, depressed, dejected, sad, glum,
crestfallen, chap-fallen, lugubrious, downcast, disconsolate,
unfortunate, star-crossed, afflicted, distressed, woeful,
forlorn, downhearted, broken-hearted, heartbroken, disheartened,
Slang US bummed out: Timmy has been so woebegone since his
puppy was stolen!

woman n. 1 female, lady; girl: Elvira was the first woman to be
elected to the board. 2 wife, spouse, bride, lady-love,
sweetheart, lady, girl, girlfriend, mistress, concubine, mate,
helpmeet, helpmate, partner, Colloq sweetie, better half, little
woman, the missis or missus, old lady or woman, ball and chain,
Slang trouble and strife: In this scene, Porgy tells Bess that
she is his woman, now and forever. 3 lass, maid, maiden, miss,
lassie, Slang gal, dame, bird, skirt, chick, bit of fluff,
broad, piece (of work), number, baggage, moll, popsy: The
soldiers went into town to try to find some women for an
evening's entertainment. 4 domestic, housekeeper, maid, cleaning

woman or lady, maidservant, chambermaid, handmaiden, abigail,
lady-in-waiting, Brit charwoman, Colloq Brit char, daily: They
have a woman who comes in every other day.

wonder n. 1 marvel, prodigy, phenomenon, spectacle, rarity, sight,
curiosity, miracle, Slang knockout, stunner, mind-blower,
mind-boggler, trip: Surely, the wheel must rank high among the
wonders of technology. And still he gazed, and still the wonder
grew, / That one small head could carry all he knew. 2 awe,
astonishment, admiration, amazement, wonderment, surprise,
stupefaction, fascination: Facsimile transmission, which used
to excite so much wonder, is now used in offices all over the
world.

--v. 3 ponder, muse, meditate, think, theorize, conjecture,
puzzle, query, question, inquire, be inquisitive, be curious,
ask oneself, speculate, cudgel (one's) brains: I wondered if I
would be invited to the dance. Have you ever wondered what makes
the world go round? 4 marvel (at), goggle, gawk, gape, stare, be
awed, be thunderstruck, be amazed, be astonished: We wondered
at the death-defying skills of the trapeze artistes. 5 wonder
about. question or doubt the sanity or reason or reasonableness
of: I wondered about Tammy after that streaking episode.

wooded adj. sylvan, forested, bosky, tree-covered, woody, timbered:
We rested and had our lunch in the coolness of a wooded glen.

wooden adj. 1 wood, woody, ligneous, xyloid: The wooden cabinet for
the kitchen is almost finished. 2 stiff, rigid, artificial,
clumsy, stilted, unnatural, awkward, ungainly, spiritless,
unanimated, dead, lifeless, dry, passionless, unimpassioned,
impassive, vacant, empty, colourless, expressionless, deadpan:
The understudy gave a wooden performance as Uncle Vanya. 3
unintelligent, block-headed, stupid, dull, insensitive,
slow-witted, dull-witted, obtuse, oafish, doltish, tiny-minded,
dim-witted, dunderpated, Colloq thick, wooden-headed,
knuckle-headed: Clancy has some pretty wooden ideas about how
to run a business.

woolly adj. 1 fleecy, woollen, wool-bearing, laniferous, lanate or
lanose, lanuginose or lanuginous, downy, fuzzy, shaggy,
flocculent or floccose, flocky: He was wearing a woolly hat.
After two days one test tube contained a woolly precipitate. 2

hazy, fuzzy, unclear, obscure(d), foggy, indistinct, confused,
vague, cloudy, clouded, nebulous, ill-defined: My recollection
of the event is a bit woolly after all these years.

word n. 1 (little) talk, (brief) conversation, chat, discussion,
consultation, dialogue, huddle, parley, tˆte-…-tˆte, chit-chat,
confabulation, conference, interview, Colloq powwow, confab:
Could I have a word with you before you leave for the day? 2
news, intelligence, information, facts, data, report, story,
tidings, account, communiqu‚, bulletin, dispatch or despatch,
advice, message, Colloq low-down, Slang info, dope, Brit gen, US
poop: Have you had any word about the situation in the Middle
East? 3 name, term, designation, locution, appellation,
expression, phrase: What is the word for 'write' in Greek? 4
promise, pledge, vow, oath, (solemn) word of honour,
undertaking, assurance, warrant, guarantee or guaranty,
warranty: You have my word that I won't mention this to anyone.
5 utterance, expression, declaration, statement: Let me give
you a word of warning, my friend. 6 suggestion, hint,
scintilla, bit: I promise that I won't breathe a word of this
to anyone. 7 command, order, signal, direction, instruction,
Colloq US high sign: I shall not press the red button till you
give the word. 8 in a word. succinctly, briefly, in brief, in a
few words, concisely, in short, in summary, in sum, not to mince
words, to make a long story short, when all is said and done, in
the final analysis, not to beat about the bush, Colloq in a
nutshell: His bedside manner was, in a word, menacing. 9
words. a quarrel, dispute, argument, unpleasantness: Paul and
Kitty had words and are not on speaking terms. b lyrics, book,
libretto, text: Did Irving Berlin write the words as well as
the music to his songs?

--v. 10 put (forth), say, couch, express, phrase, utter, state,
term, style, set forth: Had you worded your complaint in
politer language, you might have spared yourself a punch in the
eye.

wording n. phraseology, language, phrasing, choice of words, word
choice: From the confused wording of this note I cannot tell
whether you are coming to my party or not.

wordy adj. verbose, prolix, rambling, long-winded; pleonastic,
redundant, garrulous, windy, talkative, loquacious: This

contract is too wordy and could be cut to two pages. Try to make
your replies less wordy.

work n. 1 labour, toil, effort, drudgery, travail, exertion,
industry: Few people make it to the top and stay there without
hard work. 2 employment, business, occupation, vocation,
calling, profession, trade, line, m‚tier, career, livelihood,
job, post, position, situation: Does your work as a test pilot
interfere much with your home life? 3 task, function, duty,
assignment, charge, responsibility, chore, commission,
undertaking, stint: When you are finished with that work, clean
out the cellar. 4 feat, achievement, creation, accomplishment,
opus, handiwork, oeuvre, production, composition, piece,
master-work, masterpiece, chef-d'oeuvre, magnum opus, output:
Some of Edwin's recent works have won prizes. 5 in work. in
production, under way, being done, in the works, being planned,
in the planning stage(s): The budget has been approved and the
project is already in work. 6 out of work. unemployed, idle,
jobless, at liberty, between engagements, available, free, Brit
redundant, Colloq Brit on the dole, US on or collecting
unemployment: How long have you been out of work?

--v. 7 labour, toil, exert oneself, sweat, moil, slave (away),
peg away, slog (away): His father worked in the mines from the
age of nine till he died of black-lung disease at forty. 8 till,
plough, farm, cultivate: Would he have been healthier and
longer-lived had he worked the land? 9 have a job, hold (down) a
post or position, earn a living, be employed: His wife works as
a designer in a Parisian fashion house. 10 control, manage,
manipulate, manoeuvre, wield, handle, operate, use, make use of,
utilize, exploit, deal with, bring into play: Are you sure you
know how to work all those dials and buttons? 11 function,
operate, run, go, develop, turn out, Colloq pan out: Are you
sure that the plan is working to your advantage? 12 function,
operate, run, go: The drill works better if you turn on the
power. 13 knead, mould, form, fashion, shape; mix, stir,
incorporate: Work the clay into long, narrow strips. Try to
work the colour in with your fingers.. 14 manoeuvre, manipulate,
guide: See if you can work him over into a corner where you can
grab him. 15 operate, use, employ, put to (good or effective)
use, wield, manipulate, ply, apply, exploit: Tanya must have
worked her magic on Eustace to make him that docile. 16 bring
about, effect, accomplish, carry out or off, make, produce,

achieve, engender, beget, create, do, put through, execute,
fulfil, effectuate, implement, realize: I doubt that the new
sports centre will work many changes in the area. 17 work in.
find time or space for, include, insert, introduce, fit in,
squeeze in, accommodate: I'll try and work in your comments
when I write up my report. 18 work on. wheedle, coax,
importune, press, Brit pressurize, US pressure; influence,
persuade, act on, prevail upon, induce, dispose, urge: Keep
working on him to try to change his mind. 19 work out. a
exercise, do callisthenics, do aerobics, warm up, do setting-up
exercises, do (one's) daily dozen, jog, lift weights, train,
drill: I try to work out for an hour every day. b Often, work
out at or to. equal, total (up to), result in, amount to, come
to: Let's see - that works out at one car for every 4.7 people.
c clear up, resolve, solve, Slang Brit and New Zealand suss out:
Thaddeus is old enough to work out his own problems. Can they
work out their differences? d evolve, develop, succeed, prosper,
come out all right, prove satisfactory, go well, be effective,
Colloq pan out: How can you be so sure that everything will
work out? e formulate, work up, contrive, draw up, detail,
plan, develop, devise, put together, elaborate, expand, enlarge
(on): The captain worked out a way for them to escape. 20 work
up. a excite, make excited, agitate, inflame, enkindle, arouse,
rouse, stir, move, animate, incite, spur, Colloq fire (up), get
(someone) (all) steamed or hopped or het up: Those
fire-and-brimstone preachers used to get the people all worked
up. b prepare, (make or get) ready, whip into shape, develop,
come up with, write up, put together, produce, turn out: Can
you work up that proposal in time for Monday's meeting? c
advance, ascend, rise, move up or ahead or on: In no time at
all, Greg worked his way up from assembler to foreman. d See 19
(e), above.

worker n. labourer, working man or woman, workman, hand, employee,
artisan, craftsman, tradesman, white-collar worker, blue-collar
worker, proletarian, breadwinner, wage-earner: It seems
unlikely that the workers would strike for longer hours and less
pay.

workmanship
n. handicraft, craft, craftsmanship, artistry, art, technique,
handiwork, skill, skilfulness, mastery, US artisanship: One
cannot help but admire the workmanship in those marquetry

tabletops.

works n.pl. 1 plant, factory, workshop, shop, mill: We were taken on
a tour of the works to see how the marble is carved. 2
mechanism, machinery, workings, (moving or working) parts;
clockwork, Colloq innards, insides, Slang guts: We once had a
clock with all the works exposed. 3 the works. a everything,
the lot, Colloq the whole kit and caboodle, the whole shooting
match, everything but the kitchen sink, Chiefly US and Canadian
the whole shebang: We ordered two hamburgers with the works. b
a thrashing, a beating, a drubbing, a battering, a flogging, a
lambasting: When he refused to tell them where the money was
hidden, they gave him the works.

world n. 1 earth, planet, sphere, globe, Terra; universe, cosmos,
existence, creation, life: Do you believe the world is round?
Buckland lives in his own, private world. 2 humanity, mankind,
people, the human race, society, the public, men, humankind,
everybody, everyone, the world at large: We know what he thinks
of the world, but what does the world think of him? 3 area,
sphere, domain, community, clique, crowd, circle, fraternity,
faction, set, coterie: What value does the art world place on
Longchamps' paintings? 4 period, time, age, era, epoch,
time(s): They have produced an excellent series of programmes
on the ancient world. 5 bring into the world. a deliver, have,
give birth to, beget, Rare or dialect birth: Grandmother
brought sixteen children into the world. b deliver, midwife:
The town family doctor brought hundreds of children into the
world in his long career. 6 for all the world. precisely,
exactly, in all respects, in every respect, in every way, just:
He behaved for all the world like a man possessed by the devil.
7 on top of the world. ecstatic, delighted, elated, happy,
exultant, overjoyed, rapturous, Brit in the seventh heaven, US
in seventh heaven, Colloq on cloud nine, Brit over the moon:
George has been on top of the world ever since Prudence agreed
to marry him. 8 out of this world. marvellous, wonderful,
exceptional, unbelievable, incredible, excellent, superb, Colloq
great, smashing, fantastic, fabulous, Slang out of sight,
far-out, Brit magic, US to the max: The place we stayed at
Ibiza was out of this world!

worldly adv. 1 mundane, earthly, terrestrial, temporal, physical,
carnal, fleshly, corporeal, human; lay, non-spiritual,

non-religious, civic, secular, profane: Theo indulged in
worldly pleasures in the fleshpots of the continent. Veronica
put aside worldly things and took the veil. 2 urbane, suave,
sophisticated, cosmopolitan, worldly-wise, Slang with it, hip,
cool: Behind that worldly manner is the heart of a peasant.

worn adj. 1 shabby, threadbare, tatty, tattered, ragged, frayed:
Burt wears an old, worn tweed jacket when he's around the house.
2 haggard, drawn: He looked anxiously at his mother's thin,
worn face. 3 worn out. tired, fatigued, exhausted, frazzled,
spent, jaded, played out, haggard, drawn, the worse for wear,
Colloq dog-tired, all in, done in, Slang dead (on one's feet),
beat, US pooped: I was completely worn out from climbing those
stairs.

worried adj. fearful, apprehensive, anxious, distressed, nervous,
uneasy, anguished, disquieted, agonized, agonizing, distraught,
on edge, on tenterhooks, ill at ease, troubled, fretful,
agitated, perturbed, upset, suffering: The two worried mothers
waited at the police station for news of their children.

worry v. 1 be anxious, be fearful, be concerned, fret, agonize, be
distressed, be vexed, Colloq stew, bite or chew (one's) nails,
go or get grey, get grey hair, Slang sweat blood, US sweat
bullets: I worry about you when you stay out so late. 2 annoy,
irk, pester, nettle, harry, harass, tease, bother, tantalize,
torment, plague, hector, badger, nettle, gall, peeve, Colloq
hassle: The police have been worrying me the way a dog worries
a bone.

--n. 3 concern, care, responsibility; problem, bother, trouble,
affliction, irritation, annoyance, vexation: I cannot see why
that is your worry. I am sorry to hear about your financial
worries. 4 anguish, anxiety, uneasiness, unease, nervousness,
distress, apprehension, disquiet, perturbation, agitation,
upset, misgiving: Your association with that crowd has caused
your mother and me a great deal of worry.

worsen v. 1 increase, exacerbate, heighten, intensify, aggravate: The
recent rains have worsened the drainage problem. 2 weaken,
deteriorate, decline, degenerate, decay, slip, sink, slide,
fail, disintegrate, take a turn for the worse, get worse, go
from bad to worse, Colloq go downhill: Her condition continues

to worsen.

worship v. 1 venerate, revere, reverence, extol, honour, exalt, praise,
admire, adore, adulate, glorify, deify, idolize, be devoted to,
pay homage to, bow down before, kneel before, put on a pedestal:
When he arrived, he found the people worshipping huge stone
idols.

--n. 2 veneration, reverence, adoration, devotion, homage,
honour, respect, esteem, exaltation, praise, admiration,
adulation, glorification, deification, idolatry: A healthy
respect for security should not be confused with the worship of
money.

worth n. quality, merit, value, advantage, benefit, good, importance,
significance, usefulness: You have underestimated Roberta's
worth to the community.

worthless adj. 1 valueless, unimportant, insignificant, inessential or
unessential, dispensable, disposable, paltry: His contribution
to the work of the committee proved utterly worthless. 2
pointless, bootless, silly, inane, vain, unavailing, useless,
futile, fruitless, unproductive, unprofitable: It is worthless
to try to salvage that wreck. 3 cheap, valueless, tawdry, poor,
trashy, rubbishy, shabby, wretched, Colloq tinny, crappy,
cheesy, Slang chintzy: The deceased's handbag contained only a
few items of worthless jewellery.

worthwhile
adj. 1 profitable, justifiable, productive, gainful, rewarding,
fruitful, cost-effective, remunerative: Would it be worthwhile
to buy up that land as a long-term investment? 2 useful,
valuable, good, helpful, beneficial, worthy, beneficent,
desirable, exemplary, matchless, honourable, upright, sterling,
irreproachable: Brian Smith is one of the most worthwhile
people I met at university.

worthy adj. 1 worthwhile, deserving, meriting, meritorious,
praiseworthy, good, estimable, qualified, creditable: He is a
worthy recipient of the honour. 2 See worthwhile, 2, above.

--n. 3 dignitary, personage, notable, eminence, luminary: The
dinner was attended by all the local worthies.

wound n. 1 damage, hurt, injury, trauma, traumatism; laceration,
puncture, cut, gash, slash, lesion, bruise, contusion: We
dressed and bandaged the wounds of the victims. 2 slight,
damage, injury, harm, blow, distress, mortification, torment,
torture, anguish, pain, insult: Hugh takes the slightest
criticism as a deep wound to his self-esteem.

--v. 3 damage, harm, injure, hurt, traumatize; cut, slash,
gash, lacerate, slit, stab, shoot, Colloq wing: He was wounded
in the leg in the war. 4 slight, distress, damage, mortify,
insult, hurt, pain, grieve, offend, aggrieve, wrong: I was
terribly wounded by the things she said about me.

23.6 wrap...
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wrap v. 1 Sometimes, wrap up. swathe, swaddle, bind, cover, enwrap,
envelop, wind, enshroud, shroud, enfold, fold, muffle, enclose,
sheathe, encase; pack, package, do up, gift-wrap: Wrap up well
- it's cold outside. I've just finished wrapping some Christmas
presents. 2 wrapped up in. immersed in, submerged in, buried in,
absorbed in, engrossed in, bound up in, involved in, occupied
with or by or in, engaged in, dedicated to, devoted to: While
Irma is completely wrapped up in her grandchildren, Henry is
wrapped up in his books. 3 wrap up. a complete, conclude,
finish, end, bring to a close, terminate, wind up, settle, tidy
up: We'll be able to wrap things up in an hour and go home. b
Wrap up! Be silent!, Be quiet!, Stop talking!, Hold your
tongue!, Slang Shut up!, Shut your face!, Shut your trap!, Shut
your mouth!, Brit Put a sock in it!: He would have kept on
wittering away if she hadn't told him to wrap up.

--n. 4 stole, shawl, mantle, poncho, serape, cloak, cape:
Sonia adjusted her evening wrap before going out to dinner.

wrapper n. 1 housecoat, robe, dressing-gown, bathrobe, kimono,
negligee, lounging robe, peignoir, US house-dress: Peggy threw
on a wrapper and went to answer the door. 2 envelope, package,
packing, wrapping, covering, jacket, case, casing, container:
Throw the wrapper in the dustbin.

wreak v. inflict, exercise, exert, carry out, bring (to bear), visit,
effect, work, unleash, execute, impose, force, vent, let go:
The tribesmen wreaked vengeance on the hill people for
destroying their farms.

wreck v. 1 destroy, ruin, devastate, demolish, smash, shatter, spoil,
dash (to pieces), reduce to nothing, turn into scrap,
annihilate: He drove my motor-bike into a tree and wrecked it.
2 sink, scuttle, run aground, founder, capsize: The ship was
wrecked on a reef near Rarotonga.

--n. 3 hulk, shipwreck, ruins: The wreck finally rusted away
to nothing. 4 mess, disaster, ruin; havoc: That man made a
wreck of her life. 5 destruction, loss, sinking, devastation,
foundering, grounding, capsize, capsizing, disabling,
disablement, wrecking; demolition, demolishing, levelling,
tearing down, razing, pulling down, obliteration: The wreck of
the Titanic was a major news event in 1912. The wreck of the old
tower block is scheduled for next month.

wreckage n. debris, fragments, remains, rubble, ruin(s): The wreckage
of the building is being searched for survivors.

wrench v. 1 yank, twist, jerk, force, pull, tug, tear, wring, rip,
wrest: The gun was wrenched from my grasp, breaking my finger.
2 strain, sprain, twist, overstrain: After she wrenched her
ankle on the ladder, Mary couldn't walk for a week. 3 extract,
wrest, wring, force, pry, draw: The only way they could wrench
the information from Michael was by torturing him.

--n. 4 yank, twist, jerk, pull, tug, rip: One wrench at the
doorknob and it came off in my hand. 5 pang, pain, agony,
torture, blow, ache, throe, anguish, sadness, grief, heartbreak:
The severest wrench at my heartstrings came when we had to part.
6 Brit spanner, shifting spanner, adjustable spanner, US monkey
wrench: We need metric wrenches to work on your car.

wrestle v. battle, fight, struggle, tussle, strive: After thirty years
Garth wrestled his way to the top in the company.

wretch n. 1 scoundrel, blackguard, worm, villain, cur, beast, dog,
swine, rogue, good-for-nothing, knave, varlet, scallywag or
scalawag, rascal, rapscallion, Archaic caitiff, whoreson, Colloq

rat, stinker, louse, creep, Slang bastard, Brit rotter, bounder,
blighter, US bum: That wretch not only stole my wife but asked
me for money to support her! 2 unfortunate, poor fellow or chap,
miserable creature, poor devil, pilgarlic, Slang poor bastard or
son of a bitch, Brit poor bugger or sod, US sad sack: The poor
wretch cannot keep a job and lives off others' charity.

wretched adj. 1 miserable, awful, terrible, atrocious, deplorable,
Colloq lousy, rotten: We had the most wretched weather
throughout our holiday. 2 unhappy, sad, miserable, woebegone,
woeful, dismal, downhearted, heartbroken, broken-hearted,
heartsick, dejected, depressed, melancholic, melancholy,
mournful, disconsolate, inconsolable, doleful, cheerless,
crestfallen, joyless, desolate: If you want to see a wretched
human being, look at a boy whose dog is lost. 3 pitiable,
pathetic, sorry, pitiful, hapless, hopeless, unfortunate,
miserable: The poor in these tropical paradises are some of the
most wretched people on earth. 4 vile, shameful, scurvy,
underhand(ed), treacherous, contemptible, despicable, base, low,
mean, paltry, mean-spirited, detestable: It was hard to see how
the people could support such a wretched little demagogue.

wriggle v. 1 wiggle, wobble, shake, tremble, quiver, jiggle, waggle,
writhe, twist, fidget: She managed to wriggle free of the ropes
and run away. The dog was wriggling with excitement at seeing
its master. 2 twist, squirm, snake, worm, writhe, slither,
crawl: He wriggled through the narrow opening into the
strongroom.

--n. 3 wiggle, zigzag, wavy line, Colloq squiggle, squiggly
line: The page had no writing on it, only a lot of wriggles. 4
wriggling, writhing, squirm, squirming, wiggle, wiggling,
shaking, trembling, quiver, quivering, shimmying, waggle,
waggling, twisting, twist: Don't confuse that rhythmic wriggle
of the hips with dancing.

wrinkleฐ n. 1 crease, fold, line, furrow, crinkle, crow's-foot,
corrugation, pucker, ridge: She hasn't a wrinkle on her face -
but then she's only nine.

--v. 2 crease, fold, line, furrow, crinkle, corrugate, pucker,
gather, ruck, crimp, screw up, rumple, crumple: I love the way
you wrinkle your nose when you're perplexed.

wrinkle n. dodge, gimmick, device, ploy, ruse, scheme, trick, idea,
plan, plot, stunt, way, approach, technique, method, Slang
chiefly Brit wheeze: Leave it to Edmund to come up with a new
wrinkle for fleecing pensioners.

write v. 1 pen, scribble, get off, dash off; indite, inscribe, make
out: I was writing you a note when you phoned. She wrote out a
cheque for œ1000. 2 correspond (with), send a letter or a note
or a postcard or US also a postal card, communicate (with): You
don't write home often enough. Write and let me know when you
get a job. 3 compose, create, make up, author: We saw the house
in which Elgar wrote the 'Enigma' Variations. 4 write down. a
register, list, catalogue, note, make a note or notation,
record, transcribe, set or jot or take down, note, put in
writing, put in black and white: The teacher was known for
Irish bulls like, 'All absent students must write down their
names'. b derogate, decry, disparage, put down, minimize, make
little of, play down, detract, belittle: Cumberland's
contributions have been written down by his critics. 5 write
off. delete, cancel, disregard, ignore, forgive, forget (about),
annul, eradicate, erase: The bad debts have been written off.

writer n. author, novelist, litt‚rateur, essayist, man of letters,
scribe, scribbler, wordsmith, freelancer, penny-a-liner, hack,
Grub Streeter, journalist, newsman, reporter, correspondent,
member of the fourth estate, (gossip) columnist, stringer, Brit
paragraphist, US paragrapher, Colloq pen-pusher, pencil-pusher,
sob sister, Brit journo: These days all those who know how to
write call themselves writers.

writing n. 1 handwriting, longhand, penmanship, script, calligraphy or
chirography, scribble: I sometimes have trouble reading your
writing. 2 Sometimes, writings. (literary) work(s),
composition, theme, book, article, critique, criticism, review,
editorial, column, expos‚, essay, poetry, poem, novel,
non-fiction, fiction, document, letter, correspondence,
publication, Chiefly Brit journalism leading article or leader,
Chiefly US journalism op-ed article: Her writing has been
widely published. Poe's writings are collected in this book. 3
literature, belles-lettres, letters: I don't agree that British
writing has declined since 1900.

wrong adj. 1 improper, unjust, unfair, injudicious, unethical,
terrible, foul, awful, bad, immoral, sinful, evil, iniquitous,
villainous, wicked, vile, diabolic(al), infernal, fiendish,
corrupt, dishonest, reprehensible, abominable, dreadful,
dishonourable, blameworthy, naughty, shameful, disgraceful,
opprobrious, criminal, felonious, illegal, illicit, unlawful,
illegitimate, Colloq crooked: They believe that all war is
wrong. It was wrong of you to come here while my husband was
away. 2 mistaken, in error, erroneous, incorrect, inaccurate,
imprecise, inexact, fallacious, askew, false, wide of the mark;
strange, odd, peculiar, curious; Colloq off target or US also
off the target, Brit off beam, US off the beam: The answers to
these four questions were all wrong. You certainly have some
wrong ideas about me. 3 incorrect, improper, unsuitable: They
must have given us the wrong baby at the hospital. 4
inappropriate, inapt, improper, indecorous, unseemly, unfitting,
unacceptable, undesirable, incongruous, unbecoming, out of
place, ill-considered, wrong-headed, imprudent, misguided,
inexpedient, impolitic, infelicitous, Colloq out of line: You
saw nothing wrong in inviting girls to stay with you in your
rooms? Your mother thinks she's the wrong girl for you. 5 out of
order, not working, faulty, awry, amiss, the matter, defective,
imperfect, unsound, flawed, deficient: Considering the noise my
car makes, there must be something wrong. 6 opposite, reverse,
incorrect, improper: That is the wrong direction to the post
office.

--adv. 7 awry, imperfectly, incorrectly, improperly,
inappropriately, amiss, badly, wrongly, Scots and No. Eng. and
literary agley, Colloq out of sync: You've wired up the video
all wrong. 8 go wrong. a go astray, falter, fail, lapse, err,
fall from grace, go to the bad, deteriorate, go downhill,
backslide, regress, retrogress, recidivate: Her father was
convinced that she would go wrong if she went into the theatre.
b fail, malfunction, break down, miscarry, backfire, fall
through, Colloq flop, come to grief, go kaput, Brit go phut:
The entire plan went wrong when Clara started screaming.

--v. 9 abuse, mistreat, injure, misuse, maltreat, ill-use,
ill-treat, discredit, asperse, calumniate, malign, dishonour,
impose upon, take advantage of, harm, damage, oppress: He
believes he was wronged by his commanding officer.

wry adj. 1 distorted, contorted, twisted, lopsided, deformed,
crooked, aslant, one-sided, askew, bent, tilted, off-centre: He
is afflicted by a rheumatic disorder, which gives his neck a wry
appearance. 2 dry, droll, witty, sardonic, sarcastic,
ironic(al), amusing; perverse, fey; Scots pawky: Bill has a wry
sense of humour that does not appeal to everyone.

22.0 V

2010-08-25T21:56:00.001-07:00

22.1 vacancy...
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vacancy n. 1 emptiness, void, gap, lacuna, hiatus, blank, deficiency,
opening, breach, vacuum: Only after she left did Hubert sense
the vacancy in his life. 2 (job) opening, slot, position, post,
situation: Her promotion created a vacancy in the personnel
department. 3 blankness, emptiness, vacuity, absent-mindedness,
inanity, vacuousness, incomprehension, fatuity, unawareness: I
knew by the vacancy of his look that he hadn't any idea of what
I was talking about.

vacant adj. 1 empty, void, hollow, unoccupied, untenanted,
uninhabited, abandoned, deserted: The house remained vacant all
summer. 2 blank, expressionless, deadpan, empty, vacuous, dull,
absent-minded, inane, uncomprehending, fatuous, unaware: After
the accident, she would just sit, for hours on end, with a
vacant look on her face. 3 unoccupied, free, unused, unutilized,
spare, extra, idle, unfilled, unengaged, unspoken for: The
doctor has a vacant hour tomorrow at ten and could see you then.

vacate v. 1 leave, depart (from), withdraw from, quit, evacuate, get
or go out of; desert, abandon: In a fire drill, employees must
vacate the building in five minutes. 2 give up, relinquish,
sacrifice, renounce, let go, resign, abdicate, cede, give up
right or claim to, abandon: We vacated all claims to my aunt's
property. 3 annul, declare null and void, nullify, void,
repudiate, override, overrule, rescind, revoke, recall, quash,
set aside, invalidate: The judge vacated the defendant's plea
of diminished capacity.

vade-mecum
n. handbook, manual, ready reference, book, guide: She always
had with her a vade-mecum on rare poisons.

vagabond n. 1 gypsy, tramp, vagrant, wayfarer, rover, wanderer,
itinerant, migrant, bird of passage, rolling stone, beachcomber,
derelict, Chiefly US and Canadian hobo, Australian swagman,
Colloq US bum, Slang US bindle-stiff: The police interviewed
every vagabond they could find for a clue to the murder.

--adj. 2 vagrant, wayfaring, roving, wandering, itinerant,
migrant, derelict, nomadic, gypsy, rambling, roaming, drifting,
peripatetic, transient, peregrinating: When will he give up his

vagabond ways and settle down?

vague adj. 1 indefinite, indistinct, imprecise, inexact, unclear,
confused, unspecified or non-specified, general, generalized,
unspecific or non-specific, inexplicit or unexplicit,
ill-defined, hazy, fuzzy, ambiguous, obscure, amorphous;
shapeless, blurred, blurry, filmy, dim, shadowy, veiled, bleary,
foggy, misty, cloudy, clouded, hardly or barely distinguishable
or discernible: I have only a vague recollection of our having
met. She must have had a vague idea of your intentions. Leon
could almost make out the vague shape of an approaching figure.
2 undetermined, indeterminate, unfixed, indefinite, inexact,
unspecified or non-specified, unspecific or non-specific,
ambiguous, doubtful, in doubt, uncertain, equivocal, ambiguous:
For security reasons, her time of arrival was left vague. 3
veiled, concealed, hidden, shrouded, obscure, ill-defined,
unspecific or non-specific, inexplicit or unexplicit, ambiguous:
There had been a vague threat of kidnapping, which should not
have been ignored. 4 subliminal, subconscious, indefinable,
unexplained: I had a vague sensation of being followed. 5
indefinite, ambiguous, wishy-washy, undecided, indecisive,
irresolute, vacillating, wavering, inconstant, unsettled,
uncertain, nebulous, up in the air: Leonore is vague about her
plans to run for re-election. 6 vacant, empty, blank,
expressionless, empty, vacuous, dull; puzzled: By their vague
expressions I could see they hadn't understood a word.

vaguely adv. 1 distantly, remotely, indefinitely, dimly, subliminally,
subconsciously, inexplicably: I became vaguely aware of another
presence in the room. 2 ambiguously, imprecisely, inexactly,
unclearly, confusedly, confusingly, hazily, fuzzily, nebulously,
obscurely: Kenston claims that he expresses his theories
vaguely to allow for broad interpretation. 3 idly, vacantly,
detachedly, absent-mindedly, dreamily, absently, distractedly:
Manton listened only vaguely to the judge's words.

vain adj. 1 proud, conceited, haughty, arrogant, boastful,
egotistical, cocky, self-important, vainglorious, narcissistic,
Colloq big-headed, swell-headed, stuck-up, swollen-headed: They
are so vain that they have mirrors in every room. 2 worthless,
profitless, bootless, pointless, unsuccessful, empty, futile,
useless, unavailing, unproductive, fruitless, ineffective,
abortive: Peter sent Carol flowers every day in a vain attempt

to win her back. 3 in vain. a vainly, futilely, unsuccessfully,
fruitlessly, bootlessly: In vain, we sought the help of the
police. b irreverently, blasphemously, disrespectfully,
improperly: Despite his mother's admonitions, he continues to
take the Lord's name in vain.

valley n. glen, dale, dell, vale, dingle, hollow, coomb or coombe or
combe or comb, No. Brit and Welsh cirque or corrie or cwm, Scots
strath: Oh, to stroll once again the cool valleys and the
heathered hills of home!

vanity n. 1 conceit, conceitedness, egotism, narcissism, arrogance,
cockiness, self-importance, vainglory, haughtiness, pride,
self-admiration, self-worship, Colloq swell-headedness,
big-headedness: It is disgraceful what some people do to
satisfy their vanity. 2 vainness, emptiness, hollowness,
worthlessness, futility, unreality, bootlessness, pointlessness,
uselessness, folly, vapidity, silliness, vacuousness, vacuity,
foolishness, fatuity, frivolousness: The vanity of trying to
complete the book in a year must be obvious by now.

vapid adj. insipid, flavourless, tasteless, bland, watery, watered
down, wishy-washy, jejune, colourless, unpalatable, flat, tame,
lifeless, boring, tedious, tiresome, uninteresting, trite,
wearisome, wearying, humdrum, Colloq blah, ho-hum: The minister
attacked green politics as vapid romanticism.

vapour n. 1 mist, fog, steam, cloud, smoke, smog, exhalation: There
arose from the bog a suffocating, miasmic vapour. 2 the
vapours. morbidity, hypochondria, hysteria, nervousness,
depression, rheuminess, Archaic distemper, Colloq the pip:
Charlotte suffered an attack of the vapours and retired to her
room.

variable adj. changeable, protean, changing, inconstant, varying,
wavering, mercurial, fickle, capricious, unsteady, unfixed,
unstable, uncertain, undependable, unpredictable, fluctuating,
vacillating, mutable, chameleonic, chameleon-like: The weather
can be quite variable depending on the season.

variance n. 1 variation, difference, disparity, discrepancy,
disagreement, deviation, inconsistency, divergence, incongruity:
The monitor takes account of minute variance in blood pressure.

2 disagreement, misunderstanding, discord, difference (of
opinion), dissension, contention, dispute, dissent, controversy,
quarrel, conflict, argument, debate, lack of harmony, falling
out, schism, rift: There has never been any variance between us
about the disciplining of the children. 3 at variance. in
dispute, in disagreement, quarrelling, in contention, in
conflict: The workforce was at variance with management in the
matter of day care.

variant n. 1 alternative, modification, variation: 'Labor' is an
American spelling variant of 'labour'.

--adj. 2 varying, variable, changing, altering, unstable,
deviant, deviating, different, differing; separate, distinct:
It is claimed that the law is given variant interpretations
depending on the social standing of the suspect.

variation n. 1 change, changing, alteration, altering, variety, varying,
modification, modifying, difference, differing, diversification,
diversity, diversifying, modulation, modulating, conversion,
converting, permutation, permuting: We have to allow for
variation in the intensity of the light. 2 variety, choice,
novelty, diversity, departure (from the norm or usual), change
of pace, divergence, variegation, deviation (from the norm):
This restaurant offers considerable variation in its menu.

varied adj. 1 diverse, diversified, mixed, miscellaneous, assorted,
heterogeneous: An insufficiently varied diet may lead to
malnutrition. 2 See various, below 3 See variegated, below.

variegated
adj. multicolour(ed), particolour(ed), varicoloured,
many-coloured, motley, pied, piebald, brindled, mottled,
polychrome, polychromatic; nacreous, changeant, opalescent,
opaline: Plants with variegated foliage always add interest to
a garden.

variety n. 1 diversity, diversification, multifariousness,
multiplicity, number, range, assortment, medley, mixture, mix,
miscellany, heterogeneity, choice, selection, collection: Don't
you find that the variety of foods in supermarkets today is
astonishing? There was certainly a wide variety of people at
their party. 2 difference, heterogeneity, discrepancy,

diversity, disparity, variation, contrast: The flora and fauna
of Australia display great variety. 3 sort, brand, make, mark,
kind, class, category, breed, type, order, genre, species,
genus, classification, strain: Which variety of washing powder
do you prefer? Rex cultivated only the rarest varieties of
orchid.

various adj. 1 different, a number of, a variety of, diversified,
diverse, several, many, numerous, sundry, heterogeneous,
miscellaneous, Literary divers: We are considering various
offers for the painting. Catherine held various executive
positions in the company. 2 different, distinct, individual:
There are various ways of looking at the problem.

vary v. 1 change, alter, diversify, transform, reshape, remodel,
restyle, modify, reorganize: We vary the programme each month
to make it more interesting. 2 change, switch, alternate,
fluctuate, vacillate: The manager's attitude varies from
helpful to downright rude. 3 depart, deviate, differ, diverge,
shift, veer: These results do not vary from the average by more
than five per cent.

vast adj. infinite, unlimited, boundless, limitless, unbounded,
interminable, endless, never-ending, inexhaustible,
indeterminate, immeasurable, incalculable, measureless; immense,
enormous, huge, tremendous, great, prodigious, stupendous,
gigantic, massive, voluminous, capacious, colossal, monumental,
mammoth, jumbo, elephantine, behemoth, Cyclopean,
Brobdingnagian, titanic, Literary vasty, Colloq ginormous,
humongous: It is difficult to comprehend the vast distances of
space. There is a vast difference between the climates of
California and the Midwest.

vastly adv. immensely, greatly, hugely, enormously, considerably,
substantially, (almost) entirely, infinitely, exceedingly,
extremely, very much, Colloq worlds: Their new house was vastly
different from the way I had pictured it. Katy looks vastly
better since she lost two stone.

22.2 vehicle...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

vehicle n. 1 conveyance: The police report that two vehicles were
damaged in the crash. 2 means, channel, mechanism, carrier,
conduit, agency, instrument: Water is the vehicle used in many
sprays.

veil n. 1 covering, cover, screen, camouflage, cloak, curtain, mask,
shroud: A veil of silence has been drawn over the meetings. He
stole away under the veil of darkness.

--v. 2 cover, conceal, hide, camouflage, cloak, mask, disguise,
shroud, shield, obscure: The writer's identity was veiled from
us till recently.

veiled adj. concealed, hidden, masked, obscure, unrevealed, covert,
disguised, secret, sub rosa, subtle: There seemed to be a
veiled threat in the way he said goodbye.

vein n. 1 blood-vessel; nervure: He killed himself by opening a
vein in his wrist. 2 streak, seam, stripe, striation, stria,
thread, line: The reddish vein gives this marble a warm
feeling. 3 seam, lode, stratum, course, deposit, bed: The
prospector discovered a vein of almost pure gold in the old
mine. 4 thread, hint, suggestion, touch, trace, streak, line,
strain, mood, spirit, tone, note, tenor, feeling, attitude,
disposition, humour, temper; tendency or inclination or
proclivity toward(s): Underlying her apparent kindness is a
vein of bitter hatred. 5 way, manner, course, fashion, style,
mode, pattern: He would have continued in that same vein if the
chairman hadn't stopped him.

velocity n. speed, swiftness, rapidity, fleetness, quickness, briskness,
alacrity, celerity, pace, rate of speed, miles per hour, m.p.h.,
kilometres per hour, km/hr: Our velocity slowed as we neared
the outer atmosphere.

venal adj. corrupt, corruptible, bribable or bribeable, buyable,
purchasable, mercenary, unprincipled, dishonourable, rapacious,
avaricious, greedy, simoniacal, Colloq crooked, Slang bent: All
we had to do was to find a venal official, cross his palm with
silver, and they would release our son.

vendetta n. (blood) feud, quarrel, dispute, conflict, rivalry, enmity,
bitterness, hatred, ill will, bad blood: Fifty years after

leaving Palermo, the vendetta between their families still
persisted.

veneer n. gloss, fa‡ade, finish, pretence, (false) front, (outward)
show or display, appearance, mask, guise, aspect, superficies:
Beneath that veneer of elegance and refinement lie the heart and
soul of a monstrous criminal.

venerable adj. respectable, honourable, estimable, respected, honoured,
esteemed, august, sedate, impressive, revered, reverenced,
worshipped: Venerable old military men were called on for
advice.

venerate v. respect, honour, esteem, revere, reverence, worship, hallow,
adore, admire, look up to: Schweitzer was widely venerated for
his charitable works.

veneration
n. respect, honour, esteem, reverence, deference, homage,
devotion, worship, admiration, adoration, idolization, awe:
Their veneration for their hero turned to contempt when his past
was revealed.

venereal adj. sexual; genital; social, sexually transmitted, gonorrhoeal
or gonorrhoeic, syphilitic: Reports indicate that venereal
disease has been on the decline since the advent of AIDS.

vengeance n. 1 revenge, retaliation, retribution, requital, reprisal:
Her vengeance for what he had done was to disinherit him. 2
with a vengeance. a violently, fiercely, ferociously, wildly,
vehemently, furiously, forcefully: The wind blew with a
vengeance all night. b energetically, to the fullest extent, to
the utmost or the fullest or the limit, (with) no holds barred,
enthusiastically, wholeheartedly: Give Richard a job to do and
he goes at with a vengeance.

venial adj. forgivable, excusable, pardonable, tolerable, tolerated,
minor, petty, insignificant, unimportant, remittable or
remissible: That hypocrite considers even his most heinous
crimes to be venial.

venom n. 1 poison, toxin: The snakes are 'milked' of their venom,
which is collected for research in antitoxins and

pharmaceuticals. 2 malice, maliciousness, malevolence, ill will,
malignity, animosity, hate, hatred, hostility, antagonism,
spite, spitefulness, spleen, rancour, bitterness,
embitteredness, gall, poison, poisonousness, virulence: Vinnie
was totally unprepared for the venom of the attack.

venomous adj. 1 poisonous, deadly, toxic, dangerous, life-threatening,
lethal: There are few venomous snakes in the British Isles. 2
poisonous, virulent, malicious, malevolent, malign, malignant,
savage, baleful, envenomed, hostile, antagonistic, spiteful,
splenetic, acerbic, rancorous, bitter, embittered, mean,
vicious: That venomous little man caused me to lose my job.

vent n. 1 opening, slit, slot, hole, aperture, air-hole, blow-hole,
spiracle, orifice, outlet, inlet, funnel, flue, duct, passage;
fumarole, fissure, pipe, mofette or moffette: The tepee has a
vent at the peak to let the smoke of the fire escape. 2 give
vent to. See 3, below.

--v. 3 give vent to, express, verbalize, air, articulate,
enunciate, declare, voice, announce, communicate, pronounce,
proclaim, reveal, release, let go, let loose, allow to become
known, make known, blurt out, make public, broadcast: Has
Margie ever vented her true feelings about your work as a bomb
disposal expert? Arnold vents his spleen on any unfortunate who
will stand for it. 4 discharge, release, emit, eject, issue,
empty, dump, expel, send or pour out or forth, throw out: It is
illegal to vent poisonous fumes into the atmosphere.

venture n. 1 risk, chance, hazardous undertaking, experiment,
speculation, gamble, plunge, fling: Their new publishing
venture turned out to be quite a success.

--v. 2 dare(say), make bold, hazard, volunteer, tender, offer,
broach, advance, proffer, put forward: Ambrose ventured some
nasty remark and was asked to leave. 3 jeopardize, risk,
endanger, hazard, imperil; gamble, bet, wager, plunge, put down:
Thomas ventured his last chip on the number four.

venturesome
adj. 1 daring, bold, intrepid, adventurous, courageous, plucky,
adventuresome, audacious, fearless, doughty, brave, spirited:
Henderson felt that he was being truly venturesome by sailing

single-handed round the Isle of Wight. 2 risky, rash, reckless,
sporting, game, daredevil: Taking one's family into the
American West was truly a venturesome undertaking - even in the
20th century.

verbal adj. 1 spoken, oral, vocal, said, uttered, expressed,
enunciated, articulated, colloquial, conversational, viva voce,
word-of-mouth, unwritten: We had a verbal agreement that you
would behave yourself. 2 word-for-word, verbatim, literal: We
have an accurate verbal transcript of the proceedings. 3 word,
lexical, vocabulary: She did very well on the verbal parts of
the examination but poorly on the mathematics.

verbatim adj. 1 word-for-word, verbatim et literatim (= 'word-for-word
and letter for letter'), literal, exact, precise, accurate,
faithful, strict: This verbatim translation may be accurate but
all the poetic expressiveness is lost.

--adv. 2 word for word, verbatim et literatim, literally,
exactly, precisely, accurately, faithfully, to the letter,
strictly: To make certain there would be no misunderstanding,
the speech was copied verbatim.

vergeฐ n. 1 edge, border, boundary, margin, brink, threshold, brim:
Frances is jealous of John to the verge of insanity. 2 on the
verge of. about to, ready to, on the (very) point of, preparing
to, soon to: Many smaller companies are on the verge of
bankruptcy.

--v. 3 Often, verge on. border (on), approach, come close or
near (to), Technical be asymptotic to: Cathy's idea of comfort
verges on what is more commonly thought of as luxury. Her
charitable contributions last year verged on zero.

verge v. incline, lean, tend, extend, stretch, turn; approach, draw,
move: The road verges southwards after the bridge.

verify v. affirm, confirm, testify to, attest (to), bear witness to,
vouch for, corroborate, support, substantiate, clinch or clench,
prove, demonstrate, show, bear out, authenticate, validate,
certify, guarantee, back up, warrant: Can you verify the
accuracy of his testimony?

veritable adj. real, true, virtual, genuine, actual, legitimate,
authentic: Frank becomes a veritable monster if denied his
daily doughnut.

vernacular
adj. 1 native, local, regional, indigenous, autochthonous: Old
Hebrew fell out of use, to be replaced by vernacular Aramaic. 2
popular, informal, colloquial, conversational, ordinary,
familiar, everyday, spoken, vulgar, vulgate; plain, simple,
straightforward, easy: We have both the vernacular and the
formal, literary, or clerical levels of language. Can you
translate this scientific gobbledegook into vernacular English
that we can understand?

--n. 3 jargon, patois, argot, cant, idiom, phraseology,
language, talk, speech: Alf occasionally slips into the
vernacular of a Billingsgate fishmonger (his former calling ) .

versatile adj. 1 adaptable, resourceful, all-round, all-purpose,
many-sided, multi-purpose, multifaceted, flexible, adjustable,
protean, dexterous, handy, facile: Everett is a versatile
painter who works in many media and styles. 2 variable,
changeable, protean, changing, flexible, fluctuating: Any
versatile organization should be able to accommodate staff
losses.

versed adj. Usually, well-versed in. well-read or (well-)informed in
or (well-)trained or (well-)grounded or (well-)schooled or
(well-)educated or (well-)tutored or learned or cultured or
lettered or cultivated or literate or competent or accomplished
or skilled in, (well) posted on, knowledgeable in or about,
proficient or experienced or practised or expert or good in or
at, conversant or familiar or (well-)acquainted with: The
applicant appears to be sufficiently well-versed in several
subjects to be qualified to teach them.

version n. 1 form, variant, variation, type, model, style, kind,
variety, manifestation, portrayal, adaptation, rendition,
interpretation, adaptation, construct, construction, conception,
idea: This is yet another modern designer's version of 1920s'
and 1930s' art deco. 2 story, account, rendering, rendition,
translation, interpretation, reading, understanding, view, side:
Simon's version of what happened is completely distorted.

vertex n. top, tip, extremity, zenith, meridian, apogee, peak, apex,
acme, summit, pinnacle, crest, crown, cap, height(s): The
building is surmounted by a pyramidal dome at the vertex of
which is a statue of Osiris.

vertigo n. dizziness, light-headedness, giddiness, instability, Colloq
wooziness: Vertigo suddenly overcame me, and I grabbed a rail
to steady myself.

verve n. spirit, vivacity, vivaciousness, vitality, life, liveliness,
animation, sparkle, energy, vigour, exuberance, briskness, brio,
esprit, ‚lan, dash, flair, panache, flourish, enthusiasm, zeal,
zest, gusto, Colloq pizazz, zip, vim, get-up-and-go, zing,
oomph: Helen's verve adds much to this production of Carmen .

very adv. 1 extremely, truly, really, to a great extent,
exceedingly, greatly, (very) much, profoundly, deeply, acutely,
unusually, extraordinarily, uncommonly, exceptionally,
remarkably, absolutely, completely, entirely, altogether,
totally, quite, rather, hugely, vastly, Dialect right, Brit
jolly, Colloq damn(ed), terribly, awfully, darned, US dialect
danged, plumb, Slang Brit bleeding , Chiefly Brit bloody: The
Bell Inn has a very fine wine list. Vicky was very attached to
her pony. I shall be there very soon. 2 most, extremely,
certainly, surely, definitely, decidedly, unequivocally,
unquestionably, quite, entirely, altogether: If you ask her
out, she is very likely to say no.

--adj. 3 exact, precise, perfect; same, selfsame, identical,
particular: Her hopes were the very opposite of his. I arrived
the very day she left. He is the very model of a hard-working
student. 4 least, mere, merest, bare, barest, sheer, sheerest;
utter, pure, simple: The very thought of war makes me ill. The
very mention of her name strikes terror into the hearts of the
local residents.

vessel n. 1 container, receptacle, utensil, holder: Food was stored
in vessels neatly arrayed around the sarcophagus. 2 craft,
boat, ship, ark, Literary barque or US also bark: The vessel
docked gently at the airlock of the space station.

vestige n. trace, suggestion, soup‡on, hint, glimmer, inkling,

suspicion, sign, evidence, mark, token, scent, whiff, tinge,
taste; remnant, scrap, fragment, memorial, residue, relic,
remains: Vestiges of an ancient city have been found in the sea
off Cyprus.

vestigial adj. imperfect, undeveloped, underdeveloped, rudimentary,
incomplete: Anatomists regard the coccyx in man and apes as a
vestigial tail.

vet v. examine, review, investigate, scrutinize, inspect, check
(out), look over, scan; validate, authenticate; Colloq give
(something or someone) the once-over, size up: We engaged an
expert to vet the definitions of culinary terms for the new
dictionary.

veteran n. 1 old hand, past master, old-timer, trouper, Colloq
warhorse: Barlow was a veteran of twenty years' experience in
the service.

--adj. 2 experienced, practised, seasoned, mature,
long-serving, battle-scarred: Did it never occur to this
veteran politician that there are degrees of misconduct?

veto v. 1 stop, block, deny, ban, turn down, reject, disallow, rule
out, quash, prevent, prohibit, interdict, taboo, outlaw,
proscribe, preclude, Colloq put the kibosh on, kill, nix:
Father vetoed the idea that we go to Brighton for the holiday.
Any measure he proposed was summarily vetoed.

--n. 2 denial, ban, stoppage, block, embargo, turn-down,
rejection, disallowance, quashing, prevention, prohibition,
interdiction, taboo, proscription, preclusion, vetoing, Colloq
killing, nixing: The home secretary's veto of the abortion
measure greatly angered the women's groups.

22.3 viable...
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viable adj. sustainable, supportable, sensible, reasonable, practical,
practicable, applicable, workable, feasible, possible: We have
three days to come up with a viable plan for continuing the
research project.

vibes n.pl. vibrations, feelings, sensations, resonance(s), rapport,
empathy, sympathy: I felt the place had really good vibes the
minute I walked in.

vibrate v. quiver, shiver, shudder, fluctuate, quake, shake, tremble,
throb, pulsate, oscillate, pulse, reverberate, resonate, Brit
judder: The house began to vibrate, the windows rattled, and
the dishes danced off their shelves.

vicarious adj. surrogate, delegated, deputed, commissioned, assigned,
indirect, substituted: He derived vicarious pleasure from
seeing his children do the things that he no longer could.

vice n. 1 immorality, corruption, evil, badness, depravity,
degradation, degeneracy, iniquity, villainy, venality,
evil-doing, wickedness, profligacy, sin, sinfulness,
transgression: She described the town as a den of indecency,
exhibitionism, and vice. 2 flaw, defect, fault, imperfection,
blemish, shortcoming, failing, weakness, frailty, foible,
infirmity, deficiency: Rejection without due consideration is a
prejudicial vice of editors.

vice versa
adv. conversely, contrariwise, to or on the contrary, reversed,
the other way around: She made the facts fit her conclusions,
instead of vice versa.

vicinity n. area, neighbourhood, locale, vicinage, environs, locality,
precincts, purlieus, territory: All people living in the
vicinity of the nuclear plant were tested for radiation
poisoning.

vicious adj. 1 immoral, unprincipled, amoral, barbarous, corrupt, evil,
bad, base, depraved, vile, atrocious, execrable, degraded,
degrading, degenerate, venal, iniquitous, heinous, odious,
perverted, nefarious, wicked, flagitious, devilish,
diabolic(al), fiendish, monstrous, profligate, shameful,
shameless, abominable, sinful: The vicious, bloody dictatorship
on the island lasted only a dozen years. 2 malicious, spiteful,
mean, nasty, hateful, malevolent, malignant, bitter,
acrimonious, rancorous, venomous, vindictive, defamatory,
slanderous, scandalous, Slang rotten, bitchy: When they argued,

they said terribly vicious things to one another. 3 savage,
wild, untamed, ferocious, fearful, brutal, fierce, fiendish,
bestial, feral, brutish, ravening, Literary fell: The local
children were terrified of his vicious Rottweiler.

vicissitude
n. 1 change, mutation, alteration, changeability, mutability,
variation, variability, variety, alternation, flux, fluctuation,
unpredictability: Who seeks stability in life often encounters
its vicissitude. 2 vicissitudes. fluctuations, changes,
variations, contrasts, inconstancy, unpredictability,
uncertainties, Colloq ups and downs, flukiness: His success is
amazing in light of the vicissitudes he survived.

victim n. 1 sufferer, martyr, casualty, scapegoat, sacrificial lamb,
injured party: It is a pity that you had to be the victim of
her greed. 2 dupe, gull, fool, butt, fair game, Colloq chump,
fall guy, Slang sucker, sap, Chiefly US and Canadian patsy, US
schnook, schlemiel or schlemihl or shlemiel: She was an easy
victim for any confidence man.

victimize v. 1 prey on, pursue, go after, pick on, bully, take advantage
of, persecute, exploit, use: Increasingly, older people are
being victimized by unscrupulous relatives. 2 cheat, swindle,
bilk, defraud, dupe, hoodwink, deceive, gull, fool, trick,
outwit, outsmart, outfox, Colloq snooker, flimflam, Slang suck
or sucker in, screw, shaft, take (in), rook: The confidence
team used the old Spanish handkerchief trick to victimize
unsuspecting tourists.

victor n. winner, champion, conqueror, prizewinner: They came home
unchallenged victors by an overwhelming 11 point margin.

victorious
adj. triumphant, successful: Caesar was victorious over the
Gauls.

victory n. triumph, conquest, supremacy, superiority, success,
overcoming, mastery, winning, quelling, crushing: Alexander's
victory over Darius at Arbela was one of the decisive battles of
history.

vie v. compete, contend, struggle, strive: The brothers constantly

vied for their father's affection.

view n. 1 outlook, aspect, prospect, scene, perspective, vista,
panorama, spectacle, picture, tableau; landscape, seascape,
cityscape: From the tower we had a view of the devastation
below. 2 opinion, point of view, approach, position, judgement,
belief, way of thinking, conception, understanding, impression,
feeling, sentiment, notion: Denham's view is that the country's
defences are inadequate. 3 aspect, angle, position, prospect,
perspective, vision, representation, projection: Here is a
termite's-eye view of the timbers in your house. 4 inspection,
survey, vision, sight, observation, scrutiny, examination,
contemplation, study: The shroud was pulled away, exposing the
revolting object to our view. 5 aim, direction, intent,
intention, purpose, objective, object, expectation, prospect,
vision, hope, dream: We cultivated their friendship with a view
to being invited aboard their yacht. 6 in view of. in light of,
considering, in consideration of, because of, on account of: In
view of your failure to respond to our letters, we must refer
the matter to our lawyers.

--v. 7 look at or upon or over, see, take in, watch, observe,
scrutinize, examine, regard, behold: From this vantage point
one can view the entire valley. 8 witness, see, watch, observe,
take in: We viewed the entire robbery as it took place. 9
regard, consider, think of, look on or upon, judge, deem,
believe, hold, estimate, rate, gauge, assess: Control views
Craven as a threat.

viewpoint n. standpoint, (point of) view, attitude, angle, slant,
position, stance, vantage point, perspective, frame of
reference, way of thinking, context: From our viewpoint,
widening the road only encourages speeding.

vigilance n. watchfulness, alertness, observance, guardedness,
circumspection, attentiveness, caution: While the dog remains
loose, we must exercise vigilance.

vigilant adj. watchful, alert, sharp, observant, guarded, circumspect,
attentive, wakeful, cautious, careful, wary, chary, on one's
guard, on the alert, on the lookout, eagle-eyed, hawk-eyed,
Argus-eyed, on the qui vive, on one's toes, with one's eyes
open, Colloq with one's eyes skinned or peeled: As long as we

remain vigilant, they will never be able to take us by surprise.

vigorous adj. energetic, active, vivacious, dynamic, brisk, lively,
spirited, robust, strong, hardy, hale, hearty, vital, fit,
lusty, stalwart, in good or fine fettle, spry, sprightly,
resilient, Colloq peppy, full of pep, full of get-up-and-go,
full of beans: At 63, he is just as vigorous as he was at 40.

vigorously
adv. energetically, actively, vivaciously, dynamically,
briskly, spiritedly, robustly, strongly, hardily, heartily,
lustily, stalwartly, eagerly, with might and main, with a
vengeance, strenuously, Colloq like mad, like crazy, hammer and
tongs: It may not be good for you to exercise vigorously every
day.

vigour n. vitality, resilience, strength, power, energy, forcefulness,
force, stamina, endurance, mettle, mettlesomeness, pith,
dynamism, spirit, liveliness, animation, verve, vivacity,
exuberance, brio, briskness, zest, zealousness, enthusiasm,
gusto, eagerness, Colloq spunk, pep, pizazz, vim, oomph, zing,
get-up-and-go: When attacked, they defended themselves with
extraordinary vigour.

vile adj. 1 base, abject, contemptible, debased, degenerate,
depraved, bad, iniquitous, execrable, atrocious, sordid,
immoral, amoral, wicked, evil, sinful, hellish, fiendish,
ignoble, revolting, despicable, horrid, horrible, dreadful,
terrible, corrupt, mean, wretched, miserable, degrading,
ignominious, disgraceful, shameful, shameless: In every age,
the vilest specimens of human nature are to be found among
demagogues. 2 disgusting, nasty, sickening, nauseous,
nauseating, foul, loathsome, offensive, noxious, repulsive,
repellent, repugnant: It is, indeed, a vile disease, but at
least it is not contagious. She had prepared some vile cocktail
that I refused to drink.

vilify v. depreciate, devalue, deprecate, debase, disparage,
denigrate, diminish, traduce, defame, speak ill of, revile,
slander, libel, abuse, defile, sully, smear, tarnish, malign,
calumniate, asperse, run down, decry, Rare vilipend, Colloq US
bad-mouth: His political and religious views became notorious
and were often vilified.

villain n. wretch, evil-doer, criminal, miscreant, blackguard, rogue,
rascal, cad, scallywag or scalawag, malefactor, scoundrel, dog,
cur, viper, reptile, snake in the grass, rat, Archaic
rapscallion, Literary knave, caitiff, Colloq Brit bounder,
blighter, Slang bastard, son of a bitch, Brit rotter, US SOB or
s.o.b. (= 'son of a bitch'): The villain of the film is a
smooth-talking charmer who swindles old ladies out of their
savings.

villainous
adj. 1 treacherous, perfidious, dishonest, unscrupulous,
traitorous, corrupt, faithless, criminal, felonious, murderous,
Colloq crooked, bent: Few activities are more villainous than
being a double agent. 2 See vile, 1, above.

vindicate v. 1 clear, exonerate, absolve, acquit, exculpate, excuse: She
was vindicated of any complicity in the affair. 2 justify,
support, uphold, prove: Subsequent events vindicated his
actions.

vindictive
adj. avenging, vengeful, vindicatory, revengeful, retaliatory,
spiteful, unforgiving, splenetic, resentful, rancorous,
implacable: She later turned vindictive, attacking everyone for
real or imagined slights.

vintage n. 1 year, crop, harvest, origin, generation: Which vintage is
the better for Bordeaux, 1949 or 1954?

--adj. 2 quality, choice, superior, better, good, select, best,
classic; aged, seasoned, mature(d), mellow(ed): Mark has become
an expert in vintage wines. 3 antiquated, old-fashioned,
old-fogyish or old-fogeyish, antique, bygone, old-time,
collector or collector's, Colloq over the hill: Claud used to
drive his vintage car to work every day.

violate v. 1 break, breach, disobey, disregard, contravene, infringe,
ignore: He habitually violated the law by carrying a pistol. 2
dishonour, desecrate, profane, defile, degrade, debase, treat
irreverently: Vandals were found to have violated the sacred
shrine. 3 rape, debauch, ravish, ravage, molest, attack,
assault, outrage: The victim identified the man who had

violated her.

violation n. 1 infringement, breach, disregard, disobedience,
contravention, abuse; ignoring, infringing, breaching,
disregarding, disobeying, contravening, abusing, violating:
Parking here is a violation of the law. Violation of the rules
will be dealt with summarily. 2 profanation, profaning,
sacrilege, desecration, desecrating, defilement, defiling,
degradation, degrading, dishonour, dishonouring, debasement,
debasing, violating: The authorities take a serious view of the
violation of a place of worship or a cemetery. 3 rape,
ravishment, molestation, attack, outrage, assault, violating:
The defendant is charged with the violation of three women.

violence n. 1 (brute or physical) force, might, mightiness, power,
strength, severity, intensity, energy, vehemence, ferocity,
ferociousness, fierceness, fury, vigour; destructiveness,
virulence: The violence of the storm continued unabated
throughout the night. The violence of the seizures diminished
after she was given the medication. 2 bestiality, brutality,
barbarity, savagery, cruelty, bloodthirstiness, wildness,
ferocity, frenzy, fury, passion, fierceness, vehemence,
murderousness: The marauders attacked with a violence that
terrified the villagers. 3 do violence to. a harm, damage,
injure: The scandal did violence to her reputation. Humphrey's
singing could do violence to any melody. b warp, twist, distort:
In reporting that her views are antifeminist, the newspaper did
violence to the import of her speech.

violent adj. 1 wild, physical, destructive, vehement, brutal, brutish,
beastly, nasty, cruel, mean, barbarous, inhuman, savage, fierce,
ferocious, furious, frenzied, uncontrollable, untamed,
ungovernable, raging, raving, irrational, insane, crazed, Colloq
fit to be tied: Tony turned into a violent maniac when he
suspected her of seeing another man. 2 harmful, injurious,
damaging, detrimental, destructive, deleterious, catastrophic,
cataclysmic, ruinous, devastating: This was the most violent
earthquake to hit Mexico in recorded history. 3 acute, serious,
severe, extreme, harsh, trenchant, virulent, intense, energetic,
forceful, vehement, passionate, impetuous,tempestuous: The
proceedings were interrupted by an outburst of violent abuse
from the public gallery.

virtual adj. effective, essential; practical, understood, accepted: In
rush hours, the motorway traffic comes to a virtual standstill.

virtually adv. essentially, effectively, practically, almost, to all
intents and purposes, for all practical purposes, more or less,
nearly, as good as, substantially, in effect, in essence: He
had virtually won the Brisbane-London sailing race when he
passed the Lizard, but then he hit a rock.

virtue n. 1 morality, high-mindedness, honour, goodness, justness,
righteousness, fairness, integrity, right-mindedness, honesty,
probity, uprightness, rectitude, decency, worth, worthiness,
nobility, character, respectability: You will find the
Billingses to be people of unassailable virtue. 2 virginity,
chastity, chasteness, honour, innocence, purity: As Healey had
six daughters, he was kept quite busy protecting their virtue. 3
quality, credit, strength, good point, asset: Opposing the
seven deadly sins are the three theological virtues, faith,
hope, and charity, and the four cardinal virtues, fortitude,
justice, prudence, and temperance. 4 by virtue of. by dint of,
owing to, thanks to, by reason of, because of, on account of:
Gerry was a part owner by virtue of his investment in the
company.

virtuosity
n. (technical) skill, technique, ability, expertise, mastery,
excellence, brilliance, craftsmanship, craft, flair, dash, ‚lan,
‚clat, panache, pyrotechnics, showmanship, show, staginess,
Colloq razzle-dazzle: The concerto was performed with signal
virtuosity but little imagination or understanding.

virtuoso n. 1 master, maestro, expert, genius, talent, prodigy, old
hand, Colloq wizard, whiz or whizz or wiz, whiz-kid or
whizz-kid, Chiefly Brit dab hand, US maven or mavin: Walter is
a veritable virtuoso on the harmonica.

--adj. 2 masterful, masterly, expert, talented, brilliant,
dazzling, bravura, prodigious, excellent, superb, extraordinary,
exceptional, superior, first-rate, superlative, matchless,
peerless, sterling, marvellous, remarkable: His virtuoso
performance of the B minor sonata won him a standing ovation.

virtuous adj. 1 moral, honourable, ethical, honest, good, upstanding,

high-principled, upright, righteous, pure, uncorrupted,
incorruptible, just, fair, right-minded, fair-minded,
high-minded, scrupulous, trustworthy: Thomas has proved himself
a virtuous young man. 2 chaste, innocent, virginal, virgin;
decent, proper, unsullied, faithful, true, uncorrupted: A
virtuous woman makes a virtuous wife.

virulence n. 1 virulency, poisonousness, venomousness, toxicity,
noxiousness, deadliness, perniciousness, injuriousness,
destructiveness, malignity, malignancy, violence, balefulness:
The virulence of his affliction was not recognized till it was
too late. 2 virulency, acrimony, acrimoniousness, bitterness,
acerbity, rancour, spleen, poison, poisonousness, venom,
venomousness, malignity, malevolence, maliciousness, malice,
spite, hostility, resentment, antagonism, hatred: We were taken
aback by the virulence of the priest's attack on Miss Thompson's
morals.

virulent adj. 1 lethal, life-threatening, deadly, fatal, pernicious,
septic, poisonous, toxic, baleful, noxious, dangerous, harmful,
injurious, detrimental, deleterious, destructive, unhealthy,
unwholesome: He died from a virulent form of dysentery that he
caught in the tropics. 2 vicious, venomous, bitter, spiteful,
malignant, malign, malicious, malevolent, poisonous, splenetic,
acrimonious, acerbic, acid, mordant, sarcastic, nasty,
trenchant, caustic, antagonistic, hateful, hostile: What did I
do to the reviewer of The Herald to merit such a virulent
review?

visible adj. 1 seeable, perceivable, perceptible, discernible,
detectable, discoverable, noticeable, unmistakable or
unmistakeable, clear, obvious, observable; visual: The visible
part of the energy spectrum is relatively small. The entrance
holes to their burrows were clearly visible. 2 obvious,
conspicuous, evident, apparent, prominent, manifest, distinct,
patent, well-defined, identifiable: The consequences of the Act
of Union of 1707 are still visible in Scotland today.

vision n. 1 eyesight, perception, sight: The optician said there is
nothing wrong with MacKenzie's vision. 2 far-sightedness,
understanding, imagination, foresight, foresightedness, insight:
MacKenzie has brought great vision to this scheme for developing
the Australian outback. 3 view, perspective, perception,

envisioning, envisaging, dream, idea, plan, scheme: MacKenzie's
vision of making the desert bloom seemed impossibly remote. 4
phantom, apparition, chimera, delusion, hallucination, mirage,
spectre, shade, eidolon, revenant, phantasm, materialization,
illusion, ghost, wraith: A vision appeared to MacKenzie as he
slept, telling him that her name was Alice Springs. 5 sight for
sore eyes, (welcome) sight, dream, epitome: To MacKenzie Alice
was a vision of great beauty, and he proposed marriage.

visionary adj. 1 dreamy, speculative, unpractical, impractical, fanciful,
imaginary, unrealistic, unreal, romantic, idealistic,
unworkable, Utopian: It is a pity that none of MacKenzie's
visionary plans ever came to pass.

--n. 2 dreamer, idealist, romantic, fantast, wishful thinker,
Don Quixote: The world needs more visionaries like MacKenzie.

visit v. 1 (go or come to) see, call (in or on or upon), look in on,
stop in or by, Colloq pop in or by, drop in (on), take in: I
plan to visit Leslie. Did you visit the Smithsonian Institution?
2 afflict, attack, befall, fall upon, assail, seize, smite,
scourge, descend upon, inflict, affect: Horrible diseases and
tortures were said to visit those who denied God.

--n. 3 stay, call, sojourn, stop, stopover: The minister will
be here for only a brief visit.

visitation
n. 1 staying, calling, visiting, sojourning, stopping (over):
The father has visitation rights to his children on weekends. 2
affliction, ordeal, trial, punishment, disaster, catastrophe,
cataclysm, calamity, tragedy, curse, scourge, blight, plague,
pestilence: In the story, the tyrant succumbed finally to a
visitation from the Almighty.

visitor n. caller, guest, company; visitant: May I phone you back
after my visitors have gone?

vital adj. 1 imperative, essential, necessary, needed, requisite,
required, indispensable, mandatory, compulsory, cardinal,
fundamental, basic, critical, crucial, central, pivotal: Air
and water are vital for the existence of most known organisms.
2 important, key, central, critical, crucial, life-and-death or

life-or-death, pivotal, paramount, main: In an emergency, the
captain must make the vital decision whether to abandon ship.
This is a matter of vital concern for us all. 3 lively, full of
life, vivacious, spirited, vigorous, dynamic, alive, animated,
brisk, energetic: We have lost a vital member of the community.
She took a vital interest in community affairs. 4 invigorating,
quickening, life-giving, animating, vitalizing, reviving,
vivifying, enlivening, rejuvenating: I could feel the vital
energies returning to my limbs.

vitality n. 1 energy, life, life-force, vigour, power, intensity, force,
liveliness,, vivacity, vivaciousness, animation, sparkle,
spiritedness, exuberance, Colloq zing, pep, pizazz, oomph,
get-up-and-go, zip, vim: My great-grandfather has the vitality
of a forty-year-old. 2 stamina, hardiness, endurance, energy,
strength, robustness: Does this society have the vitality
needed to take it into the next decade?

vitalize v. stimulate, activate, arouse, vivify, animate, awaken,
inspirit, invigorate, enliven, inspire, revive, rejuvenate,
innervate, energize, fortify, reinvigorate, renew, refresh,
charge (up): The tonic vitalized him to the point where he felt
young again.

vitiate v. 1 spoil, ruin, harm, impair, mar, sully, corrupt, pervert,
contaminate, adulterate, weaken, degrade, downgrade, depreciate,
diminish, depress, vulgarize, lower, reduce, undermine: Words
appropriated from other languages tend to enrich rather than
vitiate modern English. 2 debase, deprave, pervert, corrupt,
demoralize, defile: Despite other strengths his entire
character was vitiated by overriding avarice. 3 invalidate,
destroy, delete, cancel, nullify, annul, revoke, void, abrogate,
abolish, withdraw, quash, suppress: The invoice was effectively
vitiated by the plaintiff's failure to deliver the goods.

vituperate
v. berate, rate, reproach, revile, vilify, execrate, abuse,
denounce, decry, deprecate, disparage, devalue, diminish, put
down, run down, devaluate, depreciate, blame, inculpate,
censure, find fault with, attack, assail, castigate, scold,
reprimand, upbraid, rebuke, chide, chasten: From the pulpit he
continued to vituperate the vices of the court.

vituperative
adj. abusive, calumniatory, calumnious, scurrilous, derogatory,
belittling, depreciatory, depreciative, detractory,
contemptuous, damning, denunciatory, denigrating, deprecatory,
censorious, aspersive, defamatory, slanderous, libellous,
castigatory, condemnatory, malign, scornful, withering, harsh,
sardonic, sarcastic, biting, acid, contumelious, opprobrious,
insulting, Formal vilipenditory, Colloq down-putting: Why
should he have directed this vituperative speech at the very
person whom he loves?

vivacious adj. lively, spirited, sprightly, energetic, animated, brisk,
ebullient, effervescent, bubbly, gay, cheerful, happy, blithe,
jaunty, light-hearted, sunny, merry, high-spirited, buoyant,
chipper, Colloq up, peppy, full of pep, full of beans, zippy:
Had he not gone on the cruise, Michael would never have met the
vivacious redhead who became his bride.

vivid adj. 1 intense, strong, brilliant, fresh, bright, dazzling,
lucid, rich, clear, colourful, glowing: Michel looked splendid
in a silk dress of vivid yellow. 2 clear, detailed, sharp,
realistic, graphic, true to life, lifelike, distinct, powerful,
strong, memorable, dramatic, striking: It brought back to me
vivid memories of our first meeting in 1985. 3 prolific,
fruitful, fertile, fecund, inventive, creative: That kiss,
which never took place, is a figment of Bagley's vivid
imagination.

22.4 vocalist...
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vocalist n. singer, soloist, choirboy, choir girl, choir member,
chorus-boy, chorus girl, chorus-member, chorister, caroller;
diva, prima donna, chanteuse; cantor, crooner; Colloq songbird,
canary, thrush, nightingale: It was sung by a female vocalist
with a high-pitched girlish voice.

vocation n. calling, trade, m‚tier, business, profession, occupation,
career, employment, job, pursuit, life's-work, life-work, line
(of work), Slang bag, thing: I left university with no
particular vocation in mind.

vogue n. 1 fashion, mode, style, look, taste, trend, rage, craze,
last word, dernier cri, (latest) thing, Colloq fad, the latest:
Black leather boots were in vogue once again. 2 popularity,
favour, preference, acceptance, currency, prevalence,
fashionableness: They are capitalizing on the vogue for torn
jeans.

voice n. 1 speech, utterance, articulation, words, expression: Keith
found it difficult to give voice to his innermost thoughts. 2
share, part, vote, participation, say, decision, option, turn,
chance: As a junior member of the board, Nicholas had no voice
in major decisions. 3 spokesman, spokeswoman, spokesperson,
representative, agent, agency, instrument; organ, medium,
vehicle, forum, publication: Throughout his time in government,
Logan had served as the voice of the miners. The Clarion views
itself as the voice of all the people, though it actually
represents only a few.

--v. 4 express, utter, articulate, enunciate, present,
verbalize, put into words, give utterance or voice or expression
or vent to, communicate, convey, declare, assert, make known,
reveal, disclose, raise, bring up, air: I must voice my
misgivings about the step you are planning to take.

void adj. 1 null and void, invalid, not (legally) binding,
inoperative, unenforceable, ineffectual, futile, ineffective,
vain, unavailing, idle, useless, pointless, bootless: Owing to
irregularities, the election was declared void. If a card is
turned face-up, the deal is void. 2 empty, vacant, unoccupied,
unused, unutilized, unfilled, blank, clear; deserted: It is up
to the council to appoint new members as places become void. 3
void of. devoid of, without, lacking, destitute of: The man was
utterly void of imagination. In a minute, the room was void of
people.

--n. 4 emptiness, vacantness, vacuum, blankness, nothingness:
Without a word, he leaped off the edge and plunged into the
void. 5 space, niche, slot, opening, place, vacancy, gap,
emptiness: Who will fill the void left by Edgar's departure?

--v. 6 nullify, annul, cancel, delete, disannul, declare or
render null and void, invalidate, quash, vacate, discharge,
abandon, disestablish, neutralize, disenact, set or put aside,

rescind, reverse, abnegate, abrogate: They had to void the
accusation for lack of evidence. 7 evacuate, discharge, expel,
emit, purge, clear, empty, drain, eject; pass, excrete, urinate,
defecate: The tanker went far out to sea before voiding its
tanks. This medication will help in voiding the patient's
bowels.

volatile adj. 1 vaporizing, evaporable, evaporative: A volatile
solvent, which evaporates quickly, is the vehicle for
thermosetting plastics. 2 changeable, fickle, flighty,
inconstant, erratic, restless, unstable, variable, mercurial,
capricious: She was so volatile that one could never predict
what she would do next. 3 explosive, hair-trigger, sensitive,
charged, eruptive, tense, tension-ridden: Be careful of
Christine's volatile temper.

volition n. (free) will, choice, option, choosing, choice, discretion,
preference: She pursued a course of her own volition.

volley n. 1 salvo, bombardment, barrage, cannonade, fusillade,
discharge, hail, shower: A volley of shot struck the tower,
which collapsed. 2 outpouring, torrent, flood, deluge,
inundation, burst, storm, outbreak: The cracks of the
muleteer's whip were accompanied by a volley of abuse. 3 give
and take, to-and-fro, interaction, reciprocity, exchange,
volleying, crossfire, badinage, bantering: Samuel enjoyed the
volley of haggling that accompanied every sale.

voluble adj. talkative, glib, fluent, loquacious, garrulous, chatty,
profuse, gossipy, exuberant, long-winded, bombastic, windy,
wordy, Colloq blessed with the gift of the gab: He is the House
of Commons' most voluble advocate of capital punishment.

volume n. 1 amount, quantity, supply, mass, bulk, abundance, sum
total, aggregate: The volume of ore from the mine created a
pile hundreds of feet high. Her volume of output is greater than
yours and mine together. 2 capacity, size, measure: The volume
of this bottle is not more than a litre. 3 loudness: Turn down
the volume on that ghetto-blaster. 4 book, tome: I bought a
twenty-volume set of Dickens.

voluminous
adj. 1 large, extensive, great, spacious, capacious, expansive,

roomy, loose, ample, big, ample, bulky, cavernous, copious,
massive, huge, substantial, tremendous, enormous, gigantic,
mammoth, vast: Rose's voluminous skirt was supported by a
farthingale. 2 oversized, out-sized, ample, billowing: The
voluminous spinnaker filled and we wafted down the estuary at
hull speed.

voluntarily
adv. freely, willingly, spontaneously, of (one's) own free
will, on (one's) own (initiative or recognizance or
responsibility), without prompting, without being prompted or
asked, gratis, gratuitously; by choice, intentionally,
purposely, on purpose, deliberately: Some of the students spent
their summer vacation voluntarily helping the needy.

voluntary adj. 1 free, elective, willing, spontaneous, unsolicited,
unbidden, unasked, gratuitous, contributed: All work done on
behalf of the cause is voluntary. 2 discretionary or
discretional, unconstrained, intentional, wilful, deliberate,
intended, premeditated, planned, volitional, optional: His
confession was entirely voluntary, and he was not coerced in any
way.

voluptuous
adj. 1 sensual, sensualistic, sensuous, luxurious, voluptuary,
sybaritic(al), hedonist(ic), pleasure-seeking, pleasure-loving,
luxury-loving, (self-)indulgent: He longed to taste once again
the voluptuous delights of the Corinthian court. 2 seductive,
attractive, desirable, beautiful, tempting, inviting, appealing,
enticing, alluring, ravishing, luscious, delicious, gorgeous,
shapely, buxom, well-proportioned, well-endowed, well-built,
Colloq curvaceous, sexy, eye-filling, Slang (well-)stacked,
busty, US built: As he lolled on silken cushions, voluptuous
houris danced round him in tightening circles.

vomit v. spew out or up, spit up, belch forth; regurgitate, throw up,
gag, retch, heave, US keck, Colloq puke, return (food), Brit
sick up, Slang chiefly Australian chunder, US barf, upchuck,
toss (one's) cookies, spiff (one's) biscuits: The ancient steam
engine vomited smoke and cinders from its huge stack. The very
thought of going on a sea voyage almost made me vomit.

voracious adj. 1 insatiable, gluttonous, ravenous, ravening, rapacious,

piggish, hoggish, cormorant, predacious, edacious, devouring,
greedy, avaricious, esurient, uncontrollable, uncontrolled,
unquenchable, enormous, prodigious, US cormorant: Is there no
satisfying the man's voracious appetite? 2 thirsty, hungry,
desirous, avid, eager, zealous, enthusiastic, fervent, fervid,
ardent, earnest, passionate, devoted: It was becoming difficult
to satisfy the public's voracious demand for gossip.

vote n. 1 ballot, ticket, show of hands; referendum, plebiscite: We
must have a vote on the issue. 2 suffrage, franchise: Women
did not have the vote in those days. 3 opinion; voter, elector:
Do you think your platform can win over the liberal vote?

--v. 4 opt, choose, come out (for or against), express or
signify (one's) opinion or preference or desire: Many people
vote for a party rather than an individual.

vouch v. Usually, vouch for. support, guarantee, back (up), endorse,
certify; uphold, sponsor, bear witness, attest to: My neighbour
will vouch for me. Can she vouch for your not leaving the house
all evening?

vouchsafe v. 1 offer, give (up), yield, accord, supply, grant, impart,
bestow, deign or condescend to give: The minister vouchsafed no
information regarding interest rates. 2 permit, allow, suffer:
The government vouchsafed the hostages safe passage out of the
country.

vow v. 1 swear, pledge, promise, assure, state, declare, give
(one's) (solemn) word (of honour): I vowed to return after the
war to care for those who had helped me escape.

--n. 2 oath, pledge, promise, agreement; (solemn) word (of
honour): She will keep her vow, you may be certain.

22.5 vulgar...
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vulgar adj. 1 indelicate, boorish, uncultured, uncultivated, low,
unrefined, common, plebeian, inelegant, unladylike,
ungentlemanly, gauche, uncouth, coarse, tasteless, ostentatious,
ignoble, low-class, Colloq flash: The boss's wife was known for

her vulgar behaviour at the dinner table. 2 tasteless,
indelicate, indecent, rude, crude, naughty, dirty, improper, off
colour, risqu‚, ribald, blue, indecorous, nasty, offensive,
gross, lustful, obscene, lewd, lascivious, licentious, smutty,
salacious, scatological, filthy, pornographic, Slang US raunchy:
He made a lot of money through publishing vulgar magazines and
videos. 3 popular, vernacular, ordinary, everyday, general,
homespun, commonplace, household, average: Dictionaries should
record the vulgar language as well as the literary.

vulgarity n. 1 coarseness, lack of refinement or sophistication,
crudeness, rudeness, indelicacy, tawdriness, baseness,
humbleness, unsophistication, gaucherie, gaucheness, ignobility:
When you consider his upbringing you can scarcely blame him for
his vulgarity. 2 impropriety, lewdness, grossness, foulness,
vileness, filthiness, obscenity, Slang US raunchiness: The
magazine was refused an import licence because of its vulgarity.

vulnerable
adj. exposed, defenceless, weak, sensitive, unprotected,
unguarded, unshielded, helpless, powerless: She felt vulnerable
to those who prey on the elderly.