Words of the day: I. ‘Gruesome as it is in itself, the incident is but the proverbial tip of the iceberg of a sordid modern day version of human trafficking and the slave trade, exploiting the most vulnerable and robbing them of their dignity.’ 1. ‘Gruesome’ refers to something that causes disgust or horror. A few synonyms of the word are ‘appalling’, ‘atrocious’ and ‘dreadful’. Appalling means bad in a way that causes fear, shock or disgust. For example: Smriti had an appalled look on her face after seeing the destruction the hurricane had caused to her house. Atrocious means cruel, shocking or unpleasant. For example: She speaks French with an atrocious accent. 2. ‘Tip of the iceberg’ is a proverb that means a small part of a much bigger problem. Another proverb related to the word tip is ‘on the tip of your tongue’. It is used when you are sure that you know something but you cannot remember it. For example: Shivani had the answer on the tip of her tongue, but Hitesh said it first. Tip has multiple meanings. It can be used in the sense of the extra money that one leaves for the waiter in a restaurant. A small piece of advice or a secret or expert piece of advice (about what the result of a competition, etc. would be) is called a tip. A place where one can take and leave off their garbage is also called tip. An untidy place is also referred to as tip. II. ‘With no toilets and no sources of drinking water, these sites are hotbeds of misery and disease.’ 3. A ‘hotbed’ refers to a place where something grows very easily or where something happens very commonly. The word can be used synonymously with ‘breeding ground’. For example: A laboratory is a breeding ground for new inventions. III. ‘The decision to accept support from the Congress has certainly dismayed a number of its adherents who identified the latter with malfeasance and as the “primary enemy” for the party, but for the poor, the AAP’s ability to make a difference by being in government outweighs such tactical concerns.’ 4. ‘Malfeasance’ refers to a dishonest or an illegal activity especially by a public official or a corporation. Two other related words are ‘nonfeasance’, which is the failure to act where action is required and ‘misfeasance’, which is the willful inappropriate action or intentional incorrect action or advice. IV. ‘The AAP has emerged as a political player by addressing a constituency that has been discomfited with the nature of the developmental process which has spawned corruption, crony capitalism and a new elite.’ 5. ‘Spawn’ means to begin or cause to begin something. To lay eggs in water is also called spawn. For example: Millions of salmon have spawned in these streams. [All the five words given above have been taken from recent newspapers.]
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 08:07:43 +0000
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