English Synonyms and Antonyms Part 126

EXAMPLES.

Wherefore do I ---- These royalties, and not refuse to reign.

---- a virtue if you have it not.

For well we know no hand of blood and bone Can gripe the sacred handle of our scepter, Unless he do profane, steal, or ----.

a.s.sURANCE (page 61).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is _a.s.surance_ in the good sense? 2. What is _a.s.surance_ in the bad sense? 3. How does _a.s.surance_ compare with _impudence_? with _effrontery_?

EXAMPLES.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full ---- of faith.

Some wicked wits have libel'd all the fair.

With matchless ---- they style a wife The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life.

With brazen ---- he denied the most indisputable facts.

ASTUTE (page 62).

QUESTIONS.

1. From what language is _acute_ derived? What is its distinctive sense?

2. From what language is _keen_ derived? What does it distinctively denote? 3. From what language is _astute_ derived, and what was its original meaning? 4. In present use what does _astute_ add to the meaning of _acute_ or _keen_? 5. What does _astute_ imply regarding the ulterior purpose or object of the person who is credited with it?

EXAMPLES.

You statesmen are so ---- in forming schemes!

He taketh the wise in their own ----ness.

The most ---- reasoner may be deluded, when he practises sophistry upon himself.

ATTACHMENT (page 63).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is _attachment_? How does it differ from _adherence_ or _adhesion_? from _affection_? from _inclination_? from _regard_?

EXAMPLES.

Talk not of wasted ----, ---- never was wasted.

You do not weaken your ---- for your family by cultivating ----s beyond its pale, but deepen and intensify it.

ATTACK, _v. & n._ (pages 63, 64).

QUESTIONS.

1. What special element is involved in the meaning of _attack_? 2. How do _a.s.sail_ and _a.s.sault_ differ? 3. What is it to _encounter_? how does this word compare with _attack_? How does _attack_ differ from _aggression_?

EXAMPLES.

We see time's furrows on another's brow, And death intrench'd, preparing his ----; How few themselves in that just mirror see!

Who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open ----?

Roger Williams ---- the spirit of intolerance, the doctrine of persecution, and never his persecutors.

ATTAIN (page 64).

QUESTIONS.

1. What kind of a word is _attain_, and to what does it point? 2. How does _attain_ differ from _obtain_? from _achieve_? 3. How does _obtain_ differ from _procure_?

EXAMPLES.

The heights by great men ---- and kept Were not ---- by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.

Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might ---- By fearing to attempt.