VOCABULARY: LESSON 3

absent-minded

A person who often forget things or is having or showing an inattentive disposition.

Approachable

Someone who is friendly, so other people find it easy to talk to them.

Bitchy

Someone who often says unkind things about other people behind their backs.

Cynic

Is someone who does not believe that people are good or honest.

Hog

Keep something or use it yourself rather than sharing it with other people.

Laid-back

Someone who is very relaxed and doesn't get angry or upset easily.

Look down on

If you look down on someone, you think that you are better than they are.

Prone

If you are prone to something, you often do it, or it happens to you.

Stand up for

Support something

Strong-willed

Someone who is determined to do something even if other people do not want them to.

Thick-skinned

Someone who is not easily offended or upset when other people criticise them.

Acrimonious

Something that involves a lot of arguing. A speech or debate angry and bitter.

Backdrop

The backdrop to an event is the general situation in which it happens. Background

Burden

Something that you are responsible for or have to deal with.

Chronically

Something that continues to happen over a long period of time.

Comply

yo do what something asks you to do.

Dubious

Something that is not god, safe or honest

File

If you file a legal case, you officially start it and ask for it to happen. Like couples who file for divorce.

Go through

If a legal decision goes through, it is accepted or approved.

Grant

To officially allow something.

Grounds

The reasons for doing something. Like grounds for divorce.

Heir

The person who will get something when someone else dies.

High-profile

Something that gets a lot of attention from the public and press.

Instigate

To start, bring about, initiate a process

Maintenance

An amount of money that someone pays regularly to their former husband or wife after a divorce.

Sanction

To officialy allow something or accept it. Give official permission or approval for an action.

Answer back

If a child answers back, they answer an adult rudely.

Blow over

If an argument blows over, it ends.

To channel

To direct or encourage something in a particular way.

Drift apart

When a relationship gradually ends.

Frail

Someone who is physically weak and not very healthy.

Home

Is a place where people are looked after.

mercy

To be kind to someone and don't hurt or punish them.

Put up with

To accept something unpleasant.

Ruthless

Someone who is determined to get what they want and doesn't worry about hurting or offending other people.

Sake

If you do something for the sake of a person or thing, you do it to help that person or thing, or you do it for no particular reason.

Sibling

Your siblings are your brothers or sisters.

Single out

If you single someone out, you choose them and treat them in a different way.

Thrash

To defeat someone easily

Toddler

A young child who is just learning to walk.

Trait

A quality in someone's character.

Turn out

The way something is in the end.

Unsteady

Something that it is not very stable and is likely to fall.

Be getting on

Someone that is getting quite old.

Be hard work

Someone is hard work when you have to make a lot of effort to have a good relationship with them.

Cover a multitude of sins

To hide individual problems or faults. A sin is literally an action that is considered to be an offense against God.

Full of yourself

To have a very high opinion of yourself

Hit it off

When people get on well with each other.

Not lift a finger

Make not effort at all to help someone with a job. The image is of someone who doesn't move even one finger of their hand to do something.

Not mince your words

When you say exactly what you think even if this might offend or upset people.

Out of the blue

Something that happens very unexpectedly. the image is of something that falls suddenly from the sky

Put your foot down

To say very strongly that someone must do something.

Set your heart on

To very strongly want to have something or do it.

Stab someone in the back

To say or do something that will harm someone when they are not present. If you stab someone in the back literally, you stab them with a knife in their back.

Take it all in your stride

To accept something and deal with it easily. A stride is literally a step that you take, so if you take something in your stride, you keep walking and don't struggle or fall.