English Synonyms and Antonyms - James Champlin Fernald (christmas read aloud TXT) 📗

If you will use the lance, take ground for your career.... The four horsemen met in full career.

Scott Quentin Durward ch. 14, p. 194. [D. F. & CO.]

In its figurative use career signifies some continuous and conspicuous work, usually a life-work, and most frequently one of honorable achievement. Compare BUSINESS.

CARESS. Synonyms: coddle, embrace, fondle, pamper, court, flatter, kiss, pet.

To caress is less than to embrace; more dignified and less familiar than to fondle. A visitor caresses a friend's child; a mother fondles her babe. Fondling is always by touch; caressing may be also by words, or other tender and pleasing attentions.

Antonyms:

See synonyms for AFFRONT.

Prepositions:

Caressed by or with the hand; caressed by admirers, at court.

CARICATURE. Synonyms: burlesque, extravaganza, mimicry, take-off, exaggeration, imitation, parody, travesty.

A caricature is a grotesque exaggeration of striking features or peculiarities, generally of a person; a burlesque treats any subject in an absurd or incongruous manner. A burlesque is written or acted; a caricature is more commonly in sketch or picture. A parody changes the subject, but keeps the style; a travesty keeps[96] the subject, but changes the style; a burlesque does not hold itself to either subject or style; but is content with a general resemblance to what it may imitate. A caricature, parody, or travesty must have an original; a burlesque may be an independent composition. An account of a schoolboys' quarrel after the general manner of Homer's Iliad would be a burlesque; the real story of the Iliad told in newspaper style would be a travesty. An extravaganza is a fantastic composition, musical, dramatic, or narrative. Imitation is serious; mimicry is either intentionally or unintentionally comical.

CARRY. Synonyms: bear, convey, move, sustain, transmit, bring, lift, remove, take, transport.

A person may bear a load either when in motion or at rest; he carries it only when in motion. The stooping Atlas bears the world on his shoulders; swiftly moving Time carries the hour-glass and scythe; a person may be said either to bear or to carry a scar, since it is upon him whether in motion or at rest. If an object is to be moved from the place we occupy, we say carry; if to the place we occupy, we say bring. A messenger carries a letter to a correspondent, and brings an answer. Take is often used in this sense in place of carry; as, take that letter to the office. Carry often signifies to transport by personal strength, without reference to the direction; as, that is more than he can carry; yet, even so, it would not be admissible to say carry it to me, or carry it here; in such case we must say bring. To lift is simply to raise from the ground, tho but for an instant, with no reference to holding or moving; one may be able to lift what he could not carry. The figurative uses of carry are very numerous; as, to carry an election, carry the country, carry (in the sense of capture) a fort, carry an audience, carry a stock of goods, etc. Compare CONVEY; KEEP; SUPPORT.

Antonyms: drop, fall under, give up, let go, shake off, throw down, throw off. Prepositions:

To carry coals to Newcastle; carry nothing from, or out of, this house; he carried these qualities into all he did; carry across the street, over the bridge, through the woods, around or round the corner; beyond the river; the cable was carried under the sea.

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CATASTROPHE. Synonyms: calamity, denouement, mischance, mishap, cataclysm, disaster, misfortune, sequel.

A cataclysm or catastrophe is some great convulsion or momentous event that may or may not be a cause of misery to man. In calamity, or disaster, the thought of human suffering is always present. It has been held by many geologists that numerous catastrophes or cataclysms antedated the existence of man. In literature, the final event of a drama is the catastrophe, or denouement. Misfortune ordinarily suggests less of suddenness and violence than calamity or disaster, and is especially applied to that which is lingering or enduring in its effects. In history, the end of every great war or the fall of a nation is a catastrophe, tho it may not be a calamity. Yet such an event, if not a calamity to the race, will always involve much individual disaster and misfortune. Pestilence is a calamity; a defeat in battle, a shipwreck, or a failure in business is a disaster; sickness or loss of property is a misfortune; failure to meet a friend is a mischance; the breaking of a teacup is a mishap.

Antonyms: benefit, boon, favor, pleasure, prosperity, blessing, comfort, help, privilege, success. Preposition:

The catastrophe of a play; of a siege; rarely, to a person, etc.

CATCH. Synonyms: apprehend, comprehend, grasp, overtake, snatch, capture, discover, grip, secure, take, clasp, ensnare, gripe, seize, take hold of. clutch, entrap, lay hold of (on, upon),

To catch is to come up with or take possession of something departing, fugitive, or illusive. We catch a runaway horse, a flying ball, a mouse in a trap. We clutch with a swift, tenacious movement of the fingers; we grasp with a firm but moderate closure of the whole hand; we grip or gripe with the strongest muscular closure of the whole hand possible to exert. We clasp in the arms. We snatch with a quick, sudden, and usually a surprising motion. In the figurative sense, catch is used of any act that brings a person or thing into our power or possession; as, to catch a criminal in the act; to catch an idea, in the sense of apprehend or comprehend. Compare ARREST.

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Antonyms: fail of, give up, lose, release, throw aside, fall short of, let go, miss, restore, throw away. Prepositions:

To catch at a straw; to catch a fugitive by the collar; to catch a ball with the left hand; he caught the disease from the patient; the thief was caught in the act; the bird in the snare.

CAUSE. Synonyms: actor, causality, designer, occasion, precedent, agent, causation, former, origin, reason, antecedent, condition, fountain, originator, source, author, creator, motive, power, spring.

The efficient cause, that which makes anything to be or be done, is the common meaning of the word, as in the saying "There is no effect without a cause." Every man instinctively recognizes himself acting through will as the cause of his own actions. The Creator is the Great First Cause of all things. A condition is something that necessarily precedes a result, but does not produce it. An antecedent simply precedes a result, with or without any agency in producing it; as, Monday is the invariable antecedent of Tuesday, but not the cause of it. The direct antonym of cause is effect, while that of antecedent is consequent. An occasion is some event which brings a cause into action at a particular moment; gravitation and heat are the causes of an avalanche; the steep incline of the mountain-side is a necessary condition, and the shout of the traveler may be the occasion of its fall. Causality is the doctrine or principle of causes, causation the action or working of causes. Compare DESIGN; REASON.

Antonyms: consequence, development, end, fruit, outcome, product, creation, effect, event, issue, outgrowth, result. Prepositions:

The cause of the disaster; cause for interference.

CEASE. Synonyms: abstain, desist, give over, quit, bring to an end, discontinue, intermit, refrain, come to an end, end, leave off, stop, conclude, finish, pause, terminate.

Strains of music may gradually or suddenly cease. A man quits work on the instant; he may discontinue a practise gradually;[99] he quits suddenly and completely; he stops short in what he may or may not resume; he pauses in what he will probably resume. What intermits or is intermitted returns again, as a fever that intermits. Compare ABANDON; DIE; END; REST.

Antonyms: begin, enter upon, initiate, originate, set going, set on foot, commence, inaugurate, institute, set about, set in operation, start. Preposition:

Cease from anger.

CELEBRATE. Synonyms: commemorate, keep, observe, solemnize.

To celebrate any event or occasion is to make some demonstration of respect or rejoicing because of or in memory of it, or to perform such public rites or ceremonies as it properly demands. We celebrate the birth, commemorate the death of one beloved or honored. We celebrate a national anniversary with music and song, with firing of guns and ringing of bells; we commemorate by any solemn and thoughtful service, or by a monument or other enduring memorial. We keep the Sabbath, solemnize a marriage, observe an anniversary; we celebrate or observe the Lord's Supper in which believers commemorate the sufferings and death of Christ.

Antonyms: contemn, dishonor, forget, neglect, profane, despise, disregard, ignore, overlook, violate. Prepositions:

We celebrate the day with appropriate ceremonies; the victory was celebrated by the people, with rejoicing.

CENTER. Synonyms: middle, midst.

We speak of the center of a circle, the middle of a room, the middle of the street, the midst of a forest. The center is equally distant from every point of the circumference of a circle, or from the opposite boundaries on each axis of a parallelogram, etc.; the middle is more general and less definite. The center is a point; the middle may be a line or a space. We say at the center; in the middle. Midst commonly implies a group or multitude of surrounding objects. Compare synonyms for AMID.

Antonyms: bound, boundary, circumference, perimeter, rim.

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CHAGRIN. Synonyms: confusion, discomposure, humiliation, shame, disappointment, dismay, mortification, vexation.

Chagrin unites disappointment with some degree of humiliation. A rainy day may bring disappointment; needless failure in some enterprise brings chagrin. Shame involves the consciousness of fault, guilt, or impropriety; chagrin of failure of judgment, or harm to reputation. A consciousness that one has displayed his own ignorance will cause him mortification, however worthy his intent; if there was a design to deceive, the exposure will cover him with shame.

Antonyms: delight, exultation, glory, rejoicing, triumph. Prepositions:

He felt deep chagrin at (because of, on account of) failure.

CHANGE, v. Synonyms: alter, exchange, shift, transmute, commute, metamorphose, substitute, turn, convert, modify, transfigure, vary, diversify, qualify, transform, veer.

To change is distinctively to make a thing other than it has been, in some respect at least; to exchange to put or take something else in its place; to alter is ordinarily to change partially, to make different in one or more particulars. To exchange is often to transfer ownership; as, to exchange city for country property. Change is