VOCAB WEEK 8

1. marauder At the war's end, marauders raided the town and lit it on fire. They were marauders – brutal in their search for gold.

1. marauder (n.) a raider, plunderer

2. obesity One major cause of obesity is overeating. There is growing concern over obesity in our nation, especially with overweight children.

2. obesity (n.) extreme fatness

3. pauper Years of bad financial planning, turned the trust fund child into a pauper. The Prince and the Pauper is a famous novel about a royal boy trading places with a poor peasant.

3. pauper (n.) an extremely poor person

4. pilfer The employee pilfered $20 a day from the register. I pilfered a piece of candy from the jar before Halloween.

4. pilfer (v.) to steal in small quantities

5. rift There has been a rift in our family ever since we had a huge altercation. Our country needs to repair the rift between the rich and the poor.

5. rift (n.) a split, break, breach

6. semblance I checked history books for a semblance of precedent for this terror. His paragraphs did not have any semblance of a topic sentence.

6. semblance (n.) a likeness; an outward appearance; an apparition

7. surmount You are able to surmount any obstacles you come across. Even Ayala can surmount the shame from losing our rival football game.

7. surmount (v.) to overcome, rise above

8. terminate My position at the store was terminated because I pilfered. I had to terminate my Disneyland pass because it was too expensive.

8. terminate (v.) to bring to an end

9. trite My grandfather’s jokes are rather trite because they’re always the same. Nicholas Sparks’ novels can be trite since he continues to use similar plot elements.

9. trite (adj.) commonplace; overused, stale

10. usurp If one tried to usurp the throne, they would be accused of treason. My stepdad usurped the role of father once he married my mom.

10. usurp (v.) to seize and hold a position by force or without right.