- To act autonomously is to act on your own authority. If something happens
autonomously, it happens all by itself.
CONTRABAND (KAHN truh band) n smuggled goods
- The military police looked for contraband in the luggage of the returning soldiers, and
they found plenty of it, including captured enemy weapons and illegal drugs. - The head of the dormitory classified all candy as contraband and then went from room to
room confiscating it so that he could eat it himself.
CONTRETEMPS (KAHN truh tahn) n an embarrassing occurrence; a mishap
- Newell lost his job over a little contretemps involving an office party, the photocopier, and
his rear end.
DEBASE (di BAYS) v to lower in quality or value; to degrade
- To deprive a single person of his or her constitutional rights debases the liberty of us all.
- The high school teacher’s reputation as a great educator was debased when it was
discovered that his students’ test scores dropped by five points after they utilized his test-
taking strategies.
The noun is debasement.
DEBILITATE (di BIL uh tayt) v to weaken; to cripple
- The football player’s career was ended by a debilitating injury to his knee.
- To become debilitated is to suffer a debility, which is the opposite of an ability.
- A surgeon who becomes debilitated is one who has lost the ability to operate on the
debilities of other people.
DEBUNK (di BUNK) v to expose the nonsense of
- The reporter’s careful exposé debunked the company’s claim that it had not been
dumping radioactive waste into the Hudson River. - Paul’s reputation as a philanthropist was a towering lie just waiting to be debunked.
Bunk, by the way, is nonsense or meaningless talk.
DECRY (di KRY) v to put down; to denounce
- The newspaper editorial decried efforts by the police chief to root out corruption in the
police department, saying that the chief was himself corrupt and could not be trusted. - The environmental organization quickly issued a report decrying the large mining
company’s plan to reduce the entire mountain to rubble in its search for uranium.
DEFAME (di FAYM) v to libel or slander; to ruin the good name of
To defame someone is to make accusations that harm the person’s reputation.
- The local businessman accused the newspaper of defaming him by publishing an article