vocabulary #3

apostate: In the book Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith becomes disillusioned with the ruling party's doctrine and becomes an apostate.

effusive: I had nothing but effusive praise for the woman who found my wallet in the park.

impasse: Our congress has been stuck at an impasse for quite a while now. They have not been able to pass many laws because of trivial disagreements.

euphoria: She gives me a feeling of such euphoria when I'm with her that all my problems and worries just seem to fade. 

lugubrious: Jane wrote such a lugubrious eulogy for Sam, that it invoked feelings of sadness in even the most dispassionate person.

bravado: Beowulf was so full of bravado that he went and fought Grendel naked.

consensus: The group came to a consensus to eat at Fatburger after the game.

dichotomy: The dichotomy between the two yards was staggering; one had a nicely pedicured lawn while the other was full of weeds and patches of dirt and dry grass.

constrict: The killer slowly constricted his victim's throat until he could no longer breathe.

Gothic: Marry Shelley's Frankenstein is often regarded as a defining piece of Gothic fiction.

punctilio: Drinking with your little finger up is often seen as a punctilio.

metamorphosis: After not seeing John for the entirety of summer, it seemed as if he went through a metamorphosis; he used to be scrawny now he was ripped and chiseled. 

raconteur: My grandpa was quite the raconteur; his stories would keep you at the edge of your seat.

sine qua non: Patience is a sine qua non when dealing with children.

quixotic: He had quixotic dreams about getting into Harvard even though he only had a 3.3 GPA.

vendetta: The reason Romeo and Juliet could not be together is that there was a vendetta between their two families.

non sequitur: When we were discussing physics, she threw in a non sequitur about her dog.

mystique: There's a certain mystique to space, which only makes it that much more interesting to explore. 

quagmire: The situation in Syria is seen as a quagmire to much of the western world. They want to intervene to help the civilians but do not want to get stuck in another Iraq situation.

parlous: With what seems to be World War III right around the corner, the world is in an extremely parlous place.