-
Corpses: dead bodies (esp of a human being)(‘laash/shav’)
-
Protégé: person whose welfare and career are looked after by an influential person esp over a long period.(‘rakshit’)
Mr. Modi seen as Mr. Advani’s protégé
A studio boss is asked by the mafia to cast one of its protégés, a singing star called Johny Fountain, in his next movie.
-
Untenable: (of a theory, etc) that cannot be defended (‘samarthan na karne yogya’)
On the one hand it would, make the position of the NDA allies untenable, and on the other, not go down very well with some sections of the party.
-
Disenchantment: cause (sb) to lose his good opinion of sb’sth; disillusion.
(‘mohbhang’; ‘virakti’)
-
Oblique: not horizontal or vertical; sloping; slanting; not going straight to the point; indirect (ápra-tyaksh’; ‘tircha’)
-
Reprieve: postpone or cancel punishment for (sb), esp the death sentence; give temporary relief from danger, trouble, etc to (sb/sth) (dand-sthagan aadesh)
By the time Vajpayee defended Modi obliquely at a public rally, it was a foregone conclusion that the Gujarat chief minister would be given a reprieve.
-
Travail: painful effort; pains of giving birth to a child. (‘prasav’; ‘kasht’; ‘kathor parishram’)
Home minister L.K Advani said the BJP’s Travail had been brought about by the failure of the NDA government; which has contributed to the people’s disenchantment.
Mollify:[fied] lessen the anger of (sb); soothe (mollification) (‘shant/naram karna’)
But this did not mollify the TDP leader Chandra Babu Naidu expressed anger at the BJP’S decision to retain Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
-
Oust: sb (from sth) remove sb (from a position , job, etc) (ádhikar se hatana’, ouster = bedakhal larna)
Ally’s (“mitra paksh/rashtra’) demanded Modi ouster.
-
Quid-pro-quo: that given in return for something else. (‘prati-daan’)
There is a speculation (ánu-maan’) that Vajpayee and Advani have settled for a quid-pro-quo with respect to Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
-
Faction: (usu derog) small united group within a larger one, esp in politics (‘gut,’ ‘dal-bandi’)
-
Bereave: deprive sb (espof a relative by death) (chin lena’; ‘van-chit karna’, ‘shok-shan-tapt hona’)
-
Aberration: deviation from what is accepted as normal or right; moral or mental loss; temporary lapse of memory. (‘buddhi bhrast’; á-samnya-ta’)
But the more we have waited, the clearer it has become that whatever changes we were asked to look at were no more than aberrations.
-
Avuncular: of or like an uncle, esp in manner. (‘bade-budhon-jaisa’)
Vajpayee may be a kind and avuncular figure.
-
Volte-face: (usu sing) complete change or reversal of one’s attitude towards sth. (‘mat pari-var-tan’; ‘kaaya palat’)
The volte-face followed a telephone call from defense minister George Fernandes to chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.
-
Brinkmanship: art of practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety, eg to the brink of war (brink= ‘kagaar’)
-
Brass: a group of people in an orchestra who play
In fact, what made the BJP Brass lose nerve rather early in their self-triggered game of brinkmanship was TDP chief Chandra Babu Naidu’s plain talk with the PM on night.
-
Belie: give a wrong or an untrue idea of (sth); fail to justify or fulfill (a hope, promise etc) (‘jhuth-lana’)
I expected you to take this position to a logical conclusion, but subsequent events have belied my hope
-
Denouncement: last part, esp of a novel , play, etc , in which everything is settled or made clear. (‘sama-pti’; ‘nin-da’)
Naidu, sources said has only refrained (‘door rahna’’bachna’) from hastening (‘jald-baazi’) the denouncement by not formalizing the withdrawal of support.
-
Melee: confused struggle; confused crowd of people. (‘hangama’; ‘bhra-mit bheedh’)
In the melee, some cameraman and journalists were injured when DCP A.V. Parghi led a lathi charge.
-
Rendezvous: (with sb) (place chosen for a ) meeting at an agreed time; place where people often meet. (‘manoranjan sthal’; ‘purva-nischit mulakat’; ‘milan-sthal’)
-
Remorse: (for sth) sense of deep and bitter regret for having done sth wrong; mercy or pity. (‘paschataap’; ‘prayas-chit’)
The average Gujarati hindu feels no remorse at what has happened.
-
Strife: state of conflict; angry or violent disagreement; quarrelling (‘sanghursh’; ‘taal mel ki kami’; ‘vivaad’; ‘virodh’)
He is also worried about rising tensions in Hyderabad, which has a history of communal strife.
-
Afloat: floating in water or air; out of debt or difficulties; functioning; (of rumour) being generally talked about; circulating. (áshant’; ‘pra-chalit’; ‘tairta/behta hua’; ‘karz mukt’)
TDP chief Naidu seems to be losing patience with the BJP led NDA, whose government he has kept afloat for over four years.
-
Augur: (in ancient Rome) religious officials who foretold future events by watching the behavior of birds, etc; be a sign of (sth), foretell; (idm) augur well/ill for sb/sth (fml) be a good/bad sign for sb/sth in near future. (‘purva suchna dena’; ‘shukun’)
Naidu’s remarks at a press conference in Hyderabad do not augur well for the TDP’s ties with NDA.
-
Distraught: very troubled in mind with grief or worry (‘pareshaan’)
A transcript of his comment in Hyderabad shows an extremely distraught leader who is willing to support Vajpayee only if he follows the NDA agenda.
-
Ipso facto: (latin) (fml) by that very fact (‘swa-tah siddh’)
He felt it was wrong to draw boundaries between NDA allies and the BJP on Gujarat. “the effect of the event there ipso facto extended to other NDA partners” he said.
-
Lure: a thing that attracts or invites; bait (çhara’; ‘pra-lobhan’) or decoy (‘phasane wala jaanwar yaa chidiya’; ‘pralobhan ene wala vyakti’; çhara’) used to attract wild animals; devices used to make a trained hawk (‘baaz pakshi’; ‘hinsak vyakti’) return to its trainer or master; attract or tempt (a person or an animal) (lure-‘pralobhan’; ‘lubhana’)
-
Intriguing: full of interest, esp because unusual; fascinating (‘paheli-numa’; ‘lubhaw-na’)
-
Juvenile: (fml or law) young person who is not yet adult; actor or actress who plays such a part; of, characteristics of or suitable for young people; (derog) immature and foolish; childish (‘tarun’; ‘kishore vyakti’; ‘bach-kana’)
Her nightmare began when she was lured, drugged and molested by a juvenile and his friend.
-
Venture: project or undertaking; esp a commercial one when there is a risk of failure. (úp-kram’; ‘sah-shik karya’; ‘jaane ka sahas karna’)
-
Petrify: [esp passive] sb (with sth) make sb unable to think, move, act, etc because of fear, surprise, etc (ásh-mi-krit hona’; ‘path-rana’)
The incident has left Amrita so scared that she is too petrified to venture out of home even for school.
-
Intrigue: (with sb) (against sb) make and carry out secret plans or plot to do sth bad; arouse sb interest or curiosity; secret plans to do sth bad. (íntrigue’; ‘gupt prem sambandh’)
Intrigued, Amrita set out and (‘pras-than karna’) at the park she met Nakul and his friend.
-
Gulp: sth (down) swallow (‘ghont jaana’) (food or drink) quickly or greedily. (‘nigalna’)
An unsuspecting Amrita gulped down the soft drink.
-
Extricate: free/release (‘nikalna’; ‘mukt hona’)
Somehow, this student of standard 8th managed to extricate herself from their grip.
-
Conciliate: make (sb) less angry or more friendly (esp by being pleasant or make some concessions); bring (people who are disagreeing) into agreement. (‘manana’; ‘shant karna’)
-
Morose: very unhappy; bad tempered and silent (çhid-chida’)
TDP keeps up pressure, BJP conciliatory.
-
Spineless: (of an animal, etc) having no spine , invertebrate, (derog) (of people) weak, cowardly or easily frightened (‘kaayar’, ‘kantak hin’; ‘bina kaaton ka’)
-
Gutless: cowardly (‘kkayar’)
Why is the overwhelming majority of Indian industrialists and business tycoons (‘shakti-shali udyog-pati’; )so gutless or to be more precise (‘spasht’; ékdum sahi’)
-
Plank: long flat piece of sawn timber, 50-150 mm thick and at least 200 mm wide, used for making floors, etc (esp politics) any of the main principle of the policy or the program of a political parties; put down heavily (‘takhta’; ‘ghoshna-ptra’; ‘mud-da’)
These legislators (‘vidhayak’) have told their party leaders that the main election plank in their areas would be the ongoing water crisis (sankat)
-
Apprise: (fml) inform of something (‘suchit karna’)
“we have apprised everyone, from the chief minister to the DVB officials, but to no avail”(‘laabh uthana’; ‘prap-ti’)
-
Trudge: walk slowly or with difficulty because one is tired(‘thaka hua hona’), on a long journey, etc; (usu sing) long tiring walk (‘dheere/ pair ghasit kar chalna’)
Trains and buses were stopped miles away from Ayodhya forcing them to trudge a long long distance to reach the holy city.
-
Mundane: (often derog)ordinary and typically unexciting ( ‘saadharan’’’niras)
-
Rancor: deep long lasting bitterness or ill-will; spite (‘vid-wesh’)
It is not open to the government of a state to dissolve the state assembly ahead of time and ask the EC to hold elections in a situation so charged (áaweshit’) with tension and rancor as to affect the conduct of a fair and free election.
-
Spite: desire to hurt, annoy or offend another person. (‘vidwesh’; ‘haani pahuchana’; ‘jaan bujh ka tang karna’)
-
Unstinting: giving freely and generously (údaar’; ‘prachur’, ‘jyada maatra me’)
The Ram sevaks normally come from a class which carries on with its mundane existence (ás-tit-va’) without any rancor thanks to its unstinting devotion to the Indian traditions of the Ramayna and the Mahabharta.
-
Ratify: make (an agreement, a treaty, etc) officially valid, usu by signing it. (‘pra-ma-nit karna’; ábhi-pushti karna’)
-
Fogies: person with old fashioned ideas which he is unwilling to change.
The drop-out rate, even among the old knickers-clad, bathe wielding fogies, is alarming. (clad= ‘kapde pehne hue’; ‘dhaka hua’; ‘lipta hua’)
-
Attenuation: facts that weaken the strength of an argument (‘tanu-karan’) attenuate= kam karna, kamjor hona.
-
The organization’s conclave (‘gupt sabha’) in Bangalore, have showed an alarming attenuation of commitment among both adult swayam sevaks as well as the new converts (‘dharm badalna’)
-
Jettison: throw or eject (unwanted goods or material) from a ship in distress, or from an aeroplane, a spacecraft, etc; abandon (unmukt, bahishkaar) or reject (sth that is not wanted (‘phenk dena’; ‘nahi lena’)
The alliance has outlived its usefulness, and the TDP must jettison the BJP before its too late.
-
Outlive: live longer than (sb); no longer useful (‘se adhik samay tak tika rehna’; ádhik jeena’)
-
Ilk: (idm) of that/the same/his, her, etc ilk (‘kism’;’usi ka’; pra-kri-ti ya swa-bhaw’)
What Mr. Modi and his ilk are really saying is this: because the riots were a response to a horrific and immoral act at Godhra, they are somehow less morally reprehensible (‘dosh-ropan karne yogya’; ‘nind-niya’)
-
Numb: without the power to feel of move (‘sunn kar/ho dena/jaana’; ‘stabdh’)
Our problem is that we are still to numb to come to terms with the enormity (‘maha-paap’; ‘bhaya-wahta’; ‘nri-sansh-ta’)
Imposition of President’s rule in Gujarat where “recent happenings have numbed the nation”; was justifiable because many lives could have been saved.
-
Mince: chop or cut (esp meat) into very small pieces in a machine with revolving blades; (çhot chota katna’; ‘keema banana’) (usu derog) walk or speak in an affected manner, trying to appear delicate or refined; (idm) not mince matters; not mince (one’s ) words: speak plainly or bluntly esp when condemning (‘ninda/khandan karna’) sb/sth
They do not mince words.
-
Feeder: (preceded by an adjective) thing, esp an animal or a plant, that feeds in a specified way; subsidiary route or means of transport that links outside, areas with the main route, service, etc; feeding apparatus in a machine (‘sahayak’; ‘mukhya dhara se milne wali’; ‘machine me saman pahuchane wali’; ‘bhojan karane wala’; ‘khadya padarth’)
In the new system, passengers will have to takr feeder buses from their colonies (‘muhhalla’) to the ring roads.
-
Vouch: take responsibility for or express confidence in (a person, his behavior, etc); confirm (a claim, etc) by producing evidence or drawing on one’s own experience. (‘guarantee dena’; ‘pramanit karna’; úttar-dayitwa lena’)
“I can’t voiuch for the system yet”.
-
Gory: [ier’iest] full of violence and bloodshed (‘rakhtmay’; ‘lahu-luhan’)
It brings back memory of the gory incident.
-
Imbibe: drink (sth, esp alcohol); take in or absorb sth. (átm-shhat karna’; ‘sokhna’; ‘sharab pina’)
“forget about religion, imbibe Bharat Mata’s composite (‘sam-mishra’; ‘sanyojan’) culture (‘sans-kri-ti’)
-
Prerogative: right or privilege, esp one belonging to a particular person or group (‘vishes-adhikaar’; ‘param-adhikaar’)
-
Whimsical: fanciful, playful or capricious (‘jhakki’, ‘mam-mauji’; ‘sanki’)
She also wants that transfer and postings of bureaucrats be her sole prerogative. Given the whimsical manner in which IAS and IPS officers were transferred during her last stint as chief minister, UP’s bureaucrats are a worried lot (‘samuh’)
-
Coax: persuade sb gently or gradually. (‘manana’; ‘fus-lana’)
While BJP leaders, including home minister L.K. Advani, have tried to coax Mayawati into retaining outgoing speaker Kesari Nath Triparthi for the post, Mayawati will have none of it.
-
Souvenir: thing taken, brought or received as a gift, and kept to remind one of a person, a place or an event. (ýaad-gaar’; ‘nishani’)
Documents, photographs and souvenirs, which reportedly belonged to the bose family, were also found in Bhagwanji’s house).
After the victory, Andrew Flintoff was quick to grab a stump as a souvenir.
-
Buck: resist or oppose something. (‘nar-hiran’; ‘nar khargosh’’kisi cheez ka virodh/ saamna karna’)
Bucking, the trend (‘pra-cha-lan’) Reliance industries LTD has reported a 6.34 percent rise in net profit at Rs. 2814 crore in fiscal (‘rajasva sambandhi’; ‘fiscal year= ‘vitt-iya varsh’) 2001-02 as against Rs. 2646 crore in the previous year.
-
Conglomerate: materials gathered together into a round mass; rock made of small stones held together by cement, dried clay, etc, (commercial) large corporations formed by merging(‘vilay’áapas me mil jaana’) several different firms (‘vya-paa-rik company’ = firm)
The conglomerate’s market value , once $290 billion, is down to $86 billion)
-
Hawk: strong swift bird of prey with sharp eyesight; (politics) person who favors aggressive policies in foreign affairs; offer (goods) for sale by going from house to house (hawker: one who hawks goods); spread (news) by talking (‘hinsak vyakti’; ‘baaz pakshi’; ‘feri lagakar maal bechna’’hawker= feri wala’)
-
Rein: means of control (‘lagaam’; ‘baagdor’)
The hawks within the BJP want to rein in the rioters, but are powerless to do so.
-
Bout:short period of specified activities; attack (of an illness) boxing or wrestling contest. (‘muk-ke-baazi prati-yogita)
There seems to be a pattern (tarika) to the most recent bout of violence which has been aimed at slums(jhug-gi jhop-riyon ki bas-ti’) and shanties (shanty= ‘garibpon ki bas-ti), most of these belongs to muslims and dalits.
-
Heritage : (dharohar)
-
Enigma: question, person, thing, circumstance, etc that is difficult to understand; mystery (‘paheli’; ‘gurh prashna’enigmatic= ‘rahshya-may’)
-
Entail: make (sth) necessary involve. (áawash-yak bana dena’; sampat-ti ka uttara-dhikari is prakar sthir karna ki uttar-dhikari usko has-tan-trit na kar sake)
Sinha’s new proposal will entail a revenue loss of Rs. 2850 crore
-
Complicity: action of taking part with another person (in a crime or some other wrong doing); shared responsibility
-
Trigger: sth (off) be the cause of a sudden (often) violent reaction; set an action or a process in motion. (‘prerit karna’)
The riots were triggered off by a series of police arrests.
Azad’s notice is stringent (‘sakht’; ‘kathor’; ‘kathin aar-thik haalat’) in expressing serious concern on the internal disturbances’in Bihar and the complicity of the ministers and their relatives in triggering them.
-
Dearer: expensive, at a high cost (‘mahnga’; ‘kimti’)
CNG will be dearer by Rs. 3.72
-
Elicit: draw (facts, a response, etc) from sb, sometimes with difficulty. (‘prapt karna’; nikaal-na’)
Naidu has already started eliciting the opinions of his 41 lok sabha and rajya sabha members.
-
Charade: [singular] games in which one team acts a series of little plays containing syllables (‘shabd-ansh’; ákshar’)of a word which the other team tries to guess; absurd (‘nirar-thak’; ‘betuka’) and obvious (‘spasht’) pretence (‘dhong’; ‘dikhawa’) (‘paheli’; ‘bujh-bujhauwal’)
-
Stave: [staved or stove] stave sth is –break; smash or make a hole in sth. Stave sth off- keep sth off or away; delay st, esp temporarily.
Political observers say the charade of consultations is primarily aimed at staving off criticism that he did not consult the MP’s before taking a decision.
-
Gloat: express or feel selfish delight at one’s own success or good fortune or sb else’s failure (‘badi chah se dekhna’)
Modi gloats after vote.
The Rajasthan government has been gloating over the apparent success of its shiksha aapke dwar.
She gloats over our plight, such a shame!
-
Baritone: male voice between tenor and brass (‘madhyam sur’)
“sauda ghate me padega (you may be the loser)”. He even changed his voice to a menacing (‘darawna’) baritone
-
Abysmall: extrememely bad; extreme; utter (‘bahut hi bhad-da)
The marathon(‘bahut lamba’) 16 hour debate(‘tark-vitark’; ‘bahs’), which culminated with the vote at 4:25 am, often slipped to abysmally low levels.
It perhaps can best be illustrated (‘vyakha ) as abysmal lack of knowledge and the peculiar mindset of the killer disease.
-
Culminate: have the specified final conclusion or result (‘para-kash-tha par pahuchna’, ‘samapt hona’)
-
Bonhomie: (French) hearty cheerfulness of manner (‘saujanya’; ‘milan-saarita’)
BJP’s bonhomie with allies likely to change
-
Crude: in the natural state; unrefined; not well finished; not completely worked out (áshlil’; á-shisht’; á-sodh-it’; ‘a-parish-krit’)
-
Cerebral: of the brain; intellectual rather than emotional (‘dimaagi’)
Marathon lok sabha debate was more crude than cerebral
-
Nadir: point in the heaves directly beneath an observer; lowest point; time of greatest depression; despair, etc (‘sabse nimn star’)
In fact, Fernandes’s speech was his parliamentary nadir.
-
Effusive: (often derog) showing (too much) feeling; too emotional. (ádhik bhawuk’)
He was effusive in his praise for Omar. And rightly so, the NC leader had called a spade a spade.
-
Munificence: great generosity (údaar-ta’)
-
Profligacy: (fml derog) being profligate i.e recklessly (‘bina vichare ‘; ‘laapar-waahi se’; )extravagant (‘fijul-kharch’) or wasteful; (of a person or his behavior , shamelessly immoral; dissolute(áwara’; ‘kaam-uk’)
Such munificence might now end. Naidu’s profligacy has landed Andhra in a virtual debt trap and the state needs the centre more than ever.
-
Breach: breaking or neglect a law, friendly relations, agreement , etc (‘viched’; ‘bhang’; darar; ‘bhed dena’)
-
Holier than thou: (infml derog) thinking that one is more virtuous than others; self righteous (‘dikhaw-ti taur par nai-tik’)
While they were in opposition , leaddrs like Atal Behari Vajpayee had been adopting a holier than thou attitude towards ruling congress leaders who were in the habit of bending and stretching the constitutional provisions to feather their nest (‘be-immani kar ke dhani hona’)
-
A rags to a riches story: (‘rank se raja ban-ne ki kahani’)
-
Wreckage: remains of something that has been badly damaged (wrecked) (‘dhwansh-aw-sesh’)
The plane’s data recorder had been recovered from the wreckage.
-
Candid: not hiding one’s thought; frank and honest (‘spash-waadi’; ‘muh-fat’)
The Japanese are scrupulously (‘nishtha-purvak’; ‘’imman-daari se’) polite people, but they can also be pretty (‘manohar’; ‘sundar’; ‘kaafi’) candid. The BJP has found this out a hard way.
-
Filth: [ier, iest] disgustingly dirty; obscene (áshlil’; ‘fu-har’) filthy language; (esp of weather) very unpleasant (‘bahut hi kharab’; ‘ghin aane ki seema tak’)
They abused (‘pratarit’; ‘gaali galauj’; ‘dur-vyav-harit’)them In the filthiest language, shouting at them for not having the guts to open fire at the other community.
-
Frenzy: state of extreme excitement; extreme and wild activity or behavior. (ún-maad’’paagal-pan’) Mob frenzy in Ahmedabad.
-
Subvert: destroy the authority of (a political system’s religious faith, etc); corrupt the morals or loyalty of (sb)(‘takhta palat kar dena’; ‘nasht kar dena’)
-
Pliant: bending easily; supple; adapting easily, yielding (áashani se vash me aane wala’; ‘lachila’; ‘dabbu’)
-
Subservient: (often derog) giving too much respect; obedience; etc; submissive; less important; subordinate (‘’chaap-lus’’dash-vat’; ‘gaun mahtva ka’)
Share with your friends: |
