GRE Word List
HOSTAGE
a person held by one party in a conflict as a pledge pending the fulfillment of an agreement
The meaning of the word hostage is a person held by one party in a conflict as a pledge pending the fulfillment of an agreement.
Random words
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| lackadaisical | lacking life, spirit, or zest : languid |
| invective | insulting or abusive language : vituperation |
| perjury | the voluntary violation of an oath or vow either by swearing to what is untrue or by omission to do what has been promised under oath : false swearing |
| foul | offensive to the senses : loathsome |
| swell | to expand (as in size, volume, or numbers) gradually beyond a normal or original limit |
| chant | to make melodic sounds with the voice |
| buccaneer | any of the freebooters preying on Spanish ships and settlements especially in 17th century West Indies |
| gyroscope | a wheel or disk mounted to spin rapidly about an axis and also free to rotate about one or both of two axes perpendicular to each other and to the axis of spin so that a rotation of one of the two mutually perpendicular axes results from application of torque to the other when the wheel is spinning and so that the entire apparatus offers considerable opposition depending on the angular momentum to any torque that would change the direction of the axis of spin |
| bewitch | to influence or affect especially injuriously by witchcraft |
| lament | to mourn aloud : wail |