But kalam may be too much of the RSS’s ‘poster-boy muslim’ to serve even as a fig-leaf.
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Lop sth off/away: temove, (branches, twigs, etc) from a tree, etc by cutting. (‘katna’; çhattna’; ‘katauti karna’)
The scientist has shot down suggestions from friends that he lop off his rock star hair to look more presidential.
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Mane: long hair on the neck of a horse, lion , etc persons long hair (‘ghane baal’)
Kalam is proud of mane.
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Thatch: thick growth of hair on the head. (‘ghaas phoos ka chappar’’ghane baal’)
Nor has anyone the foggiest idea why or when kalam began to grow his thatch.
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Fiasco: complete and ridiculous failure (‘ghor asafalta’)
Much of the blame for this fiasco lies with the government.
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Clasp: device for fastening things (eg the ends of a belt or necklace) together; firm hold with the hand; grasp; grip (‘bak-kal’ ‘bandhna,)
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Bosom: person’s chest, esp a women’s breast; part of the dress covering the bosom; [sing] of sth loving, care and protection of sth.(çhaati’; ‘man me rakhna’)
The mystery (‘rahasya’) is why did the BJP’s national leadership also eagerly clasp his candidacy to its bosom?
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Naïve: natural and innocent in speech and behavior; unaffected (esp derog) two ready to believe what is told; credulous; showing lack of experience, wisdom or judgment- a naïve person (ánubhaw-hin’’bhola’’buddhu’)
Some naïve person in the BJP actually believed that if India had a Christian president , the BJP could then tell voters during the next election campaign that there was no point voting for the congress because that way , they would only be making another Christian prime minister.
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Log-jam: deadlock; standstill (‘kathinai’; ‘karya me pragati na hona’ýatha-sthiti’)
A key ruling on Friday by the judge appeared to break log jam that had kept the jury from reaching a verdict(‘faisla’) for more than a week.
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Evade: get or keep out of the way of (sb/sth); find the way of not doing (sth, esp sth that legally or morally ought (çhahiye’) to be done; avoid answering a question fully or honestly. (‘taal matol karna’; ‘taalna’)
Lanka struggling to evade defeat.
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Co-opt: sb (onto sth) (of the members of a committee) vote for the appointment of sb as an extra member of the committee. (‘sah-varan’)
The ruling NDA is expected to co-opt some of its key allies for Kalam’s nomination.
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Tint: shade or variety of color; apply or give a tint to sth; (‘halka rang chadha’)
Kalam is already travelling in a four car cavalcade (‘karwan’; ‘julus’) with tinted windows.
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Miffed: slightly annoyed (‘naaraz’; çhidha hua’)
After learning that others were invited as well he was quiet miffed.
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Faux-pas: (French) embarrassing mistake; indiscreet(a-vivek-purn) remark; etc (‘samajik galti’; áshist-ta’)
Swati, on the other hand, admits that her confidence was indeed shaken by CBSE’s faux pas.
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Hog: [gg] (infml) take more than one’s fair share of (sth) use (sth) selfishly; excluding others. (‘swarth se paripurn’; ‘suwar’; ‘hathiya lena’)
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Interject: (sth into sth) make (a sudden remark) that interrupts (‘badha dalna’; ‘tokna’) what sb else is saying. (‘beech me rai dena’; ‘tokna’; interjection = kast-ak-chep)
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Pat: at once without hesitation (‘thapki’; úpyukt’)
“we socialist haven’t yet learnt the art of hogging the limelight”, interjected samata Party’s George Fernandes. Pat came home minister L.K.Advani’s retort (‘prat-yuttar’) “If that is so, I’d rather follow the socialist”.
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Dooms-day:- day of the last judgement; the end of the world; (idm) till dooms ‘day : forever; a long time
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Concoction: concocting; thing that is concocted (esp liquid)
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Concoct: (often derog) make (sth) by mixing ingredients (esp ones that do not usu go together); (derog) invent (a story, an excuse, etc) (‘rachna’; ‘gadhna’; ‘taiyar karna’; ‘pakana’; ‘mishran’)
The external affairs ministry spokesperson said such comments were a “continued concoction of doomsday theories to justify Pakistan’s use of nuclear blackmail.
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Nimble: able to move quickly and neatly; agile; (of the mind) able to think quickly; sharp. [nimbleness; nimbly] (‘furtila’; çhan-chal’; ‘ku-shagra’)
He nimbly avoided stepping on dangerous ground when answering question on Gujarat.
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Parry: turn aside or ward off (a blow, or an attack) by using one’s own weapon or one’s hand to block it; avoid having to answer (sth) (‘taal-matol’; ‘bachav’)
Kalam, however , parried questions on the handling of the situation in Gujarat and imposition of president’s rule in the state.
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Moratorium: (on sth) temporary stopping of an activity , esp by official agreement; legal authorization to delay payment of a debt (‘sthagan’)
The government has already declared a moratorium on nuclear tests, he said.
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Confab: private friendly conversation; chat (confabulate = bak-bak karna)
Kptak’s team is already confabulating with the three constituents the government of India, Suzuki motor and mul.
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Aroma: (esp pleasant) distinctive smell; fragrance (‘sugandh’; ‘mithi sugandh’)
Aroma therapy is gender biased (‘pakshpat purn’)
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Humungous : huge, very great
Despite humungous investment the movie failed to succeed.
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Guillotine: machine of a French origin for cutting people’s heads off, (brit politics) setting of a time limit for discussion of a bill in parliament so as to prevent it from being obstructed by too much debate; use the guillotine on (sb/sth)
UP Bureaucrats are staring at the guillotine.
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Feeble: weak, faint; (derog) lacking force [a feeble argument, etc (‘durbal’; ‘shakti-heen’; ‘kamzot’)
The only voice of kashmiri people in Delhi is the six parliament members, but they are so weak and feeble that they cannot do anything.
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Senile: suffering from bodily or mental weakness because of old age. Senility= state of being senile. (‘budhape ke karan sathi-yaya hua’)
I suggest the minimum should be 50 so that the person has experience of people and ways of the world. And the maximum should be 75 to ensure against the decline into senility.
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Intricacy: quality of being intricate- made up of many small parts put together in a complex way , and therefore difficult to follow or understand. (‘kathinta’; úljhao’; ‘pech’)
I would not be in favor of having retired civil servants or soldiers or scientists because their knowledge of politics is second hand, whereas a president should have solid grounding of its intricacies.
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Endemic: (disease) that is regularly found in a particular country or area, or among a particular group of people. (‘sthanik’; )
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Taint: trace of some bad quality or decay or infection; (‘kalank’; ‘maila-pan’; ‘dushit karna’)
The general view was that though corruption had become endemic, the judiciary was completely untainted.
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Repository: place where things are stored or may be found, esp a ware house or museum; person or book that receives and stores confidential , secrets , information , etc. (‘kosh’; ‘bhandar’; ‘sanghralay’; ‘godam’’kabra/samadhi’)
Court, by and large (‘samanya-tah’) has remained untainted and the last repository of hope that the rule of law and justice still prevail in our country.
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Progenitor: (fml) ancestor ( of a person, an animal or a plant); originator (of an idea, an intellectual or political movement, etc) (janak’; ‘pur-vaj’)
It was easier for us. Our lives were determined by our progenitors.
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Trodden: (past participle of tread) manner or sound of walking; upper surface of a step or stair; outer grooved (‘khancha’) surface of a tyre that is in contact with the road. (‘kuchla hua’)
As the mother of two highly individualistic (‘vyakti-parak’) young boys, I am afraid of failure and insecure about allowing them to venture on path less trodden.
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Verbatim: exactly as spoken or written, word for word. (‘shabd-sah’’kafz-ba-lafz’)
I am told that the shiv sena mouthpiece (‘mukh-patra’pravakta’) (daily samna) has reported it verbatim.
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Schism: (sizem) strong disagreement , esp in a religious organization over doctrine (‘sidhant’), in which one group stops recognizing the authority (ádhi-kar’) of the other. (‘phoot’; ‘vich-edh’)
The schism between the community concerns of Bhagat singh and the individual concerns of the youth today is that patriotism (desh-bhakti) to Bhagat Singh meant to do or die for your country but if someone wants a job abroad , then they obviously don’t believe in the do or die ideal.
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Concur: (with sb/sth) (in sth) agree, express agreement; (of events, etc) happen together; coincide (‘sah-mat hona’)
Concur Parma: “patriotism is not so simple that you come up with ‘the other’, “she says. “Roza was a success because ‘the other’ was kept in the background.
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Denigrate: claim (unfairly) that (sb/sth) is inferior, worthless, etc., belittle (denigration) (‘badnam karna’; ‘nicha dikhana’)
It is not that we wish to denigrate his achievement as a scientific administrator or to deny him credit for the success of India’s missile program.
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Skeptic/ sceptic: person who doubts that a claim, statement , etc is true; person who does not think religious teachings are true. (áwishwasi’’sansaywadi’)
Now, skeptics are beginning to ask, will he represent India when he meets world leaders.
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Hector: try to frighten (sb) by bullying (‘dhamkana’; ‘dhauns dena)
It focused on that silly hair style and that school treacheries hectoring manner.
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Astute: clever and quick at seeing how to gain advantage ; shrewd (çhatur’; ‘dhurt’)
Vajpayee can best be described as the veteran (ánubhawi’) strategist, the astute manipulator (ápni baat manwa lene wala’) and the quietly determined manipulator who has managed to last longer than any other non congress prime minister despite having to keep a coalition together and fight the enemies in his own parivar.
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Sinister: suggesting evil, or that sth bad may happen; suggesting an evil nature (ásubh’; ‘daraw-na’)
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Buffon: ridiculous but amusing person; clown
Mulayam is now a substantial (ách-chi matra me’’bahut jaroori’; ‘santosh janak’) but slightly sinister, figure where as Laloo is this great joker, this lovable buffon.
This is deliberate and tactical, she is not a buffon.
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Antipodes: places on the opposite sides of the earth to each other; the antipodes the Australian region in relation to Europe. (‘prati-dhruv’)
While all teams will be grateful for this unique burst f antipodean generosity, the team to benefit the most will be Pakistan, their most dangerous opponent.
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Echelons: level of authority or responsibility; rank in an organization; step-like formation of troops, aircrafts, ships, etc. (úpadhi-star’)
Those were the days of single party rule and Indira’s decision was guided by her desire to check dissidence (‘mat-bhed’)in her government’s top echelons.
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Amok: rush about in a wild and angry frenzy (‘pagal hona’ frenzy= unmaad, paagalpan)
Thakur supporters run amok in Patna.
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Rile: (infml) annoy (sb); irritate (çhidh hona’)
What really riled Anand was that the government released correspondence between them before the committee had met.
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Interpolate: sth (into sth) make (a remark, etc) which interrupts a conversation, speech, etc . add (sth) to a text book, etc sometimes misleadingly. (‘beech me daalna’)
What can anybody do if the censor interpolate scenes after the cuts.
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Rite: religious or some other solemn ceremony (‘reeti’; ‘dharmik riwaz’)
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Solemn: not happy or smiling; looking very serious; done, said, etc in a serious and committed way, after deep thought; performed with religious or other ceremony. (‘mahaan’; ‘pavitra’; ‘ritik’)
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Trip: (over/up) catch one’s foot on sth and stumble (‘ladkharana’) or fall ; sb (up) cause sb to do this; walk, run or dance with quick light steps; release (a switch or catch) ; operate (a mechanism –prakriya, tarika) by doing this; (trip sb up) (cause sb to) make a mistake, reveal a secret, etc (ýatra’, ‘button’; ‘larkharahar’; ‘girna’; ‘galti karna’; ýantra kholna’; ‘sakriya karna’; )
Monsoon trips power in large parts of Delhi.
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Parlous: (fml or rhet) full of danger or uncertainity; dangerous; very bad (‘shankat-purn’)
The EC will not shut its eyes to the parlous conditions in which very many voters live in Gujarat- in dread (‘bhay’; ‘dar’) , enforced (‘laagoo kiya’) penury (‘garibi’) , and with no hope of redress
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Redress: (fml) put right (a wrong); compensate for (sth); (idm) redress the ‘balance’ make things equal again; (for sth) (fml) redressing or being redressed. ((‘harjana’; ‘sudhaarna’; ‘thick kar dena’)
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Destitution: being destitute i.e without money, food, etc and other things necessary for life; impoverished; lacks something (‘bad-hali’; ‘ni-sahay’)
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Sham: pretend (sth); feign; [usu derog] person who pretends what he is not, [usu sing] thing, feeling, etc that is not what sb pretends that it is; pretence; not genuine (‘banawti’; ‘dikhawti’)
“his secularism has always been a sham”.
Regardless of whether the dread and the destitution have been removed and full compensation (‘muawja’) awarded to the victims (‘pirit’) of the state sponsored carnage (‘hatya-kaand) . it will be a sham election.
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Shamble: walk or run awkwardly (atpate dhang se), without raising one’s feet properly. (‘pair ghasit kar chalna’)
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Shambles: (infml) scene of complete disorder; muddle; mess (‘gadbad ghotala’; ‘betartib sthan’; ‘kasai khana’)
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Shambolic: (brit infml) disorganized; chaotic (á-wyaw-asthit’)
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Pipe-down: (infml) be less noisy; stop talking (‘baat band karna’)
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Pipe-up: (infml) begin to sing or speak, esp suddenly and in a high pitched voice.(‘gaana gana’)
Mamta pipes down after PM’s word.
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Privy: [attrib] [arch] private; secret; to sth (fml) sharing in the secret of sth; primitive lavatory, esp out of doors. (‘gupt jaankaari se sambandhit’; ‘sauch ghar’; privy purse = raj-bhatta, privy council= sarvochh nyayalay)
Later, at the party briefing , spokes person Jaipal Reddy recalled that the Government was privy to the Rajya Sabha resolution (‘prastav’) urging the centre to invoke (‘laagoo’) Article 355 and issue directions to the state government.
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Prorogue: (fml) bring (a session of parliament) to an end without dissolving (‘bhan karna’) parliament (so that unfinished business may be continued in the next session) (‘sthagit karna’)
Article 174 of the constitution was clear that governor had the power to prorogue, dissolve and to ensure that the gap between two Assembly session was not more than six months.
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Ambit: [sing] bounds, scope or extent of power, authority, etc) (‘vis-taar kshetra’)
The dissolution of the Gujarat assembly is within the ambit of the constitution.
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Squeak: short high pitched cry or sound; (idm) a narrow squeak, [ier’iest] making a squeaky sound;(chu chu’char-char-aahat’ki-ki-yana) give secret information (esp to the police); become an informer
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Tumble: helpless or violent fall. (‘girawat’’ludhak ludhak kar girna’)
It’s not the kind of news that you would expect to tumble out of squeakily clean Infosys.
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Foster: help the growth or development of (sth); encourage or promote; take care of and bring up (a child that is not legally one’s own) (‘poshal’; ‘paalna’; ‘badhawa dena’; ‘prot-sahan dena’)
Niharika is PM’s foster granddaughter.
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Accentuate: make (sth) very noticeable or prominent; emphasize (‘jor dena’; ‘adhik spasht karna’)
The differences were accentuated after selective leaks to the media, which went to town with the report.
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Perennial: lasting for a long time; constantly recurring; living for more than two years (çhir-sthayi’; ‘sada bahar’; ‘sashwat’)
After all, why should a poor doctor lose a patient who is a perennial source of income !
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Rekindle: (cause sth) to light again. (‘phir se sulgana/jagana/roshan karna)
President K.R.Narayanan made an appeal to hindu to rekindle the tradition of tolerance (sahan-shakti, sahish-nuta) that he said was central to their religion.
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Milk-sop: (derog) man or boy who is weak and timid (timid= ghabrane wala , bujdil)
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Aisle: side passage in a church that is divided by a row of pillars from the nave (‘beech ka bhag’); passage between row of seats in a church, theatre , railway carriage , etc (‘galíyara’; ‘raasta’)
Kalam hesitated for a minute as he entered central hall’s main aisle.
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Impish: mischievous (‘natkhat’; ‘sharararti’)
A charming smile, it changes the contour (roop rekha, aakar) of his face , reaching up to the eyes, conveying the impishness of the man.
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Ordain: make (sb) a priest or minister; (of god, law, authority, fate, etc) order or command; decide in advance. (áadesh dena’;’abhishek karna’; ‘niyukt karna’; ‘nischay karna’)
We call it sookha (drought) and look upon it as we do on the monsoon as something divinely (‘daiwik roop se’) ordained.
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Detrimental: (to sb/sth) harmful. (adj detrimentally affected) (‘haanikarak’)
Some of the decision taken by Mayawati had left the impression that the BJP was at her mercy, which was detrimental to the morale of party workers.
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Capsized: (cause a boat to) overturn or be overturned. (ulat dena/jana)
29 people were killed , when a crowded (‘bhara hua’; ádhik bheed wali’; ‘bheed bhad’)
Passenger boat capsized in the Vemband lake.
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Squalor: squalid state (‘gandgi’) (squail= ghatiya, a-natikta-purn) squalid: (derog) very dirty and unpleasant (esp because of neglect or poverty); morally degrading; sordid.
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Treachery: (act of) betraying a person or cause , esp secretly (‘daga-baazi’;’vishwas-ghaat’)
The political squalor and the ruling establishment’s (‘neev’; ‘sanstha’; ‘daftar’; ‘parivar’) treacheries that vice-president Krishnakant had to suffer during the final days of his life will no doubt be written about in not too distant future.
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Erode: [esp passive] (of acids, rain, wind, etc) destroy or wean (doodh chudhana, alag karna) (sth) away gradually (‘kat jana’; ‘khatam karna’; ‘ghat jana’)
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Erosion: process of eroding or being eroded.
Also, he had no wish to contribute to the slow erosion of the quality of our political life.
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Stoic: (fml) person who has great self-control and who endures pain; discomfort or misfortune without complaining or showing signs of feeling it (‘sahan shil vyakti’aatm-sayami)
There scheme of things has benefitted more by the fact tham I am a stoic
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Stoical: like stoic
He took his setback stoically and with detachment .
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Detached: (álag thalag) not influenced by others; impartial (‘tat-asth’)
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Grotesque: strangely distorted (‘vikrit’; ‘dushit’) so as to arouse (‘jagana’; úttejit karna’;’vaasna jagana’) fear or laughter, fantastic (adbhut) , (art) combining human, animal and plants forms in a fantastic design; ridiculously (‘betuke dhang se’’haas-yaspad’) exaggerated (‘badha chadha ke) or unreasonable; absurd (‘nirarthak’; ‘betuka’) (‘vikrit’; ‘vilakshan’)
I told him that there was something grotesquely wrong with a scheme of things in which a father cremated (daah sanskaar karna) his young daughter.
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Waffle: talk or write, esp at great length, without saying anything very important or sensible; vague, wordy and often meaningless talk or writing. (‘kori gapp’)
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Dissemble: (fml) hide or disguise (one’s true thoughts and feelings); dissimulate; (‘bhavnao ya vicharon ko chipana’)
Ask them to be specific, and they’ll waffle- remind them of predictions (bhawishya-vaani) they’ve got wrong and they’ll dissemble.
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Chicanery: use of clever but misleading talk in order to trick sb, esp in legal matters; dishonest practice; trick or deception. (çhal-kapat’; ‘dhokha’)
Lest (kahin) you think that this kind of astrological chicanery is a purely Indian phenomenon (‘tathya’; ájibogarib’), let me direct you to the greatest fraud of all time: Nostradamus.
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Verse: (form of) writing arranged in lines, often with a regular rhythm or rhyme scheme; poetry (‘kavita’; ‘chandya’; ‘padya’ánuwakya’)
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Quatrain: poem, or verse of a poem consisting of four lines (çhau-pai’)
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Foul-up: (infml) spoiling or upsetting of arrangements, relationships, etc (‘bigad dena’)
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Cajole: sb (into/out of sth) sb (into/out of doing sth) persuade (‘manana’) sb (to do sth) by flattery (çhaap-lusi’; çhamcha-giri’) or deceit (‘dhokha’); coax sb ; sth out of sb get (information, etc) from sb in this way.(‘patana’; ‘khushamad karna’)
It takes a long time to get to the action because the girls apparently (úpri taur se’; áabhas se’; ‘spasht roop se’)need a lot of cajoling, even though many of them are said to be sex workers.
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Purveyor: (fml) person or firm that supplies goods or services.
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Willy-nilly: (adv) whether one wants it or not; willingly or unwillingly (zabardasti)
Willy-nilly, he ends up earning the dubious (‘sandeh-aaspad) distinction (‘pehchan’ ‘faurav prapt hona’) of being the first recorded case of death by Viagra/penegra overdose. (áawyashakta se adhik maatra me sewan’)
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Transit: process of going or being taken or transported from one place to another; (astronomy) movement of one object in space (ántriksh’) (eg a planet) between another and an observer, so that the first seems to pass across the surface of the second. (lana/le jana’; ‘paargaman’; ‘sank-raman’)
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