Difficult Words : Laconic, Labyrinth, Lament, Lampoon and Languish





Difficult Words: Laconic, Labyrinth, Lament, Lampoon and Languish

Labyrinth (LAB uh rinth) n: a maze, something like a maze

Each of the fifty floors in the office building was a labyrinth of dark corridors and narrow passageways.

The bill took many months to pass through the labyrinth of congressional approval.

A labyrinth is labyrinthine or mazelike.

Before beginning construction on the new house, the contractor had to weave his way through the labyrinthine bureaucracy in order to obtain a building permit.




Laconic (luh KON ik) adj: using few words, especially to the point of seeming rude

The manager's laconic dismissal letter left the fired employees feeling angry and hurt.

When she went backstage, June discovered why the popular rock musician was so laconic in public: his voice was high and squeaky.




Lament (luh MENT) v: to mourn

From the balcony of the bullet-pocked hotel, the foreign correspondents could hear hundreds of women and children lamenting the fallen soldiers.

As the snowstorm gained in intensity, Stan lamented his decision that morning to dress in shorts and a T-shirt.

Lamentable means regrettable.




Lampoon (lam POON) v: to satirize, to mock, to parody

The irreverent students mercilessly lampooned their Latin teacher's lisp in a skit at the school talent show.

The Harvard Lampoon, the nation's oldest humor magazine, has lampooned just about everything there is to lampoon in its 112-year history.




Languish (LANG gwish) v: to become weak, listless, depressed

The formerly eager and vigorous accountant languished in his tedious job at the international conglomerate.

The longer Jill remained unemployed, the more she languished and the less likely it became that she would find another job.

To languish is to be languid.

The child seemed too languid that his father thought he was sick and called the doctor. It turned out that the little boy had simply had an overdose of television.




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