Webster Essential Vocabulary

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

procrastinate (proh CRAS tin AYT) vi. to put off doing something to a future
time and to do this habitually; to often postpone



  • When it comes to doing homework, the better students are generally not
    the ones who procrastinate.

  • The motto of the true procrastinator (one who procrastinates) is “Never do
    today what you can put off ’til tomorrow.”
    [-d, procrastinating]
    procure (proh KYUR mint) vt. to get or bring about by some effort; obtain; secure

  • It was the sergeant’s job to procuresupplies.

  • We must procurethe right tools for doing the job.
    [-d, procuring, -ment* n.] [Syn. get]
    profundity(pruh FUHN di tee) n. 1. of great depth, especially intellectually;



  1. a profound matter, idea, etc.



  • Some people find great profundityin the works of Salvadore Dali; others
    just find them funny or clever.

  • The works of Gilbert and Sullivan are generally lacking in profundity,yet
    they are very entertaining.

  • Do not underestimate the profundityof needing to solve the problem of
    global warming.
    profusion(PRUH FYOO zhin) n. 1. a pouring forth with great abundance;



  1. great liberalness and wastefulness; 3. a rich or lavish amount



  • Strawberries, which are scarce throughout the winter, are available in
    profusioncome spring.

  • Every Congress passes a profusionof bills that waste taxpayers’ money on
    local projects.

  • Wild blackberries and black raspberries may be found growing in great
    profusionby roadsides throughout the Northeast every summer.
    prolific (pruh LIF ik) adj. 1. producing an abundance of fruit or offspring;



  1. producing many works of the mind (writings, musical compositions, art, etc.)



  • Some breeds of cat are very prolific,having litters of six to eight kittens at a
    time.

  • Franz Joseph Haydn was prolificenough to produce over 150 symphonies
    during his lifetime, 104 of which still exist in today’s repertoire, although
    only the last 16 are performed frequently.

  • Shakespeare has to have been one of the most prolificplaywrights of the
    seventeenth century.
    [-ally adv.] [Syn. fertile]
    protagonist(pruh TAG uhn ist) n. 1. the main character in a story, play,
    drama, etc. around whom the action takes place; 2. the actor who plays that role

  • Sam Spade, the protagonistcreated by Dashiell Hammett, first appeared in
    1929 and made it big in The Maltese Falcon.

  • Spade appeared in a few films, with Humphrey Bogart as the protagonist,
    and when the Hammett stories were exhausted, Bogart continued as
    Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.


P – Q: SAT Words 193

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