Example: UN must call upon India to halt provocations, says Pak.
1. Halt [hawlt]
Verb: to stop; cease moving, operating, etc., either permanently or temporarily; to cause to stop temporarily or permanently; bring to a stop.
Noun: a temporary or permanent stop.
Synonyms: cutoff, freeze, interruption, layoff, letup, pause, standstill, termination, arrest, break, close, impasse, stand, stop, break-off, grinding halt, screaming halt, screeching halt.
Antonyms: continuation, beginning, , t, endurance.
Example: If the international community wishes to “avoid a dangerous escalation between India and Pakistan,” it must call upon India to halt its “provocations and aggressive actions,” Pakistan told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Saturday, responding to Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj’s scathing attack on Islamabad’s promotion of Islamist terrorism.
2. Scathing [skey-th ing]
Adjective: bitterly severe, as a remark; harmful, injurious, or searing.
Synonyms: biting, caustic, harsh, mordant, sarcastic, scorching, searing, trenchant, withering, belittling, brutal, burning, cruel, cutting, mordacious, salty, scornful, severe, sulphurous.
Antonyms: calm, gentle, kind, mild.
Example: The number of bags increased as his home-made bio-manure gave him bountiful harvests, free from paddy blast fungus and other diseases.
3. Bountiful [boun-tuh-fuh l]
Adjective: liberal in bestowing gifts, favors, or bounties; munificent; generous; abundant; ample.
Synonyms: ample, lavish, magnanimous, plentiful, aplenty, bounteous, copious, crawling with, dime a dozen, exuberant, free, galore, generous, handsome, liberal, luxuriant, munificent, no end of, plenteous.
Antonyms: meager, scarce, insufficient, lacking.
Example: Furor over lathi charge on BHU students.
4. Furor [fyoo r-awr, -er]
Noun: a general outburst of enthusiasm, excitement, controversy, or the like; a prevailing fad, mania, or craze; fury; rage; madness.
Synonyms: agitation, commotion, craze, enthusiasm, flap, free-for-all, frenzy, fury, fuss, hysteria, outburst, outcry, rage, ruckus, tumult, uproar, ado, bustle, fad, ferment, hullabaloo.
Antonyms: calm, calmness, happiness, harmony.
Example: Moscow, Paris, London, Delhi have all shared the sense of being novelesque, capturing in their character a sense of hope, a sense of the future.
5. NovelesqueAdjective: charming or quaint, as if resembling or suitable for a novel.
Example: Bombay and Calcutta have smelt of that slow decay, a period where the city grows like a cancer, explodes like an epidemic corroding the dreams of millions of its migrants.
6. Corrode [kuh-rohd]
Verb: to eat or wear away gradually as if by gnawing, especially by chemical action; to impair; deteriorate.
Synonyms: deteriorate, erode, impair, rot, rust, bite, canker, consume, corrupt, destroy, gnaw, oxidize, scour, waste.
Antonyms: build, construct, create, improve.
Example: There is a sense of loss, a silence of mourning which no amount of political bluster and brand bravura can conceal.
7. Bluster [bluhs-ter]
Verb: to roar and be tumultuous, as wind; to be loud, noisy, or swaggering; utter loud, empty menaces or protests; to force or accomplish by blustering.
Noun: boisterous noise and violence; noisy, empty threats or protests; inflated talk.
Synonyms: braggadocio, bravado, swagger, bluff, boasting, boisterousness, bombast, bragging, crowing, rabidity, swaggering, rampancy.
Antonyms: cowardice, fear, humility, irresolution.
8. Bravura [bruh-vyoo r-uh, -voo r-uh; Italian brah-voo-rah]
Noun: Music. a florid passage or piece requiring great skill and spirit in the performer; a display of daring; brilliant performance.
Adjective: Music. spirited; florid; brilliant (applied chiefly to vocal but occasionally to instrumental compositions).
Synonyms: audacity, bravery, daring, determination, endurance, fearlessness, firmness, fortitude, gallantry, grit, heroism, prowess, spirit, spunk, tenacity, valor, adventurousness, backbone, dash, dauntlessness, enterprise, gameness.
9. Conceal [kuh n-seel]
Verb: to hide; withdraw or remove from observation; cover or keep from sight; to keep secret; to prevent or avoid disclosing or divulging.
Synonyms: bury, camouflage, cloak, cover, cover up, harbor, lurk, mask, obscure, stash, stow, wrap, beard, burrow, cache, couch, dissemble, ditch, duck, ensconce, enshroud.
Antonyms: disregard, ignore, reveal, uncover.
Example: Today Bangalore is a desiccated myth.
10. Desiccate [des-i-keyt]
Verb: to dry thoroughly; dry up; to preserve (food) by removing moisture; dehydrate; to become thoroughly dried or dried up.
Synonyms: dehydrate, deplete, devitalize, divest, drain, dry, evaporate, exsiccate, parch, sear, shrivel, wither, anhydrate, dry up, wizen.
Antonyms: dampen, expand, fill, grow.