Unit 8: Aquatic Robotics – Technical Essay

1. Unit 8: Aquatic Robotics – Technical Essay Set A: abut, attire, crony, divergent, gaunt, nullify, plummet, rankle, scavenger, stoical

2. Abut (v): to join at one end or next to; to support or prop up • My summer home abuts a beautiful lake. • It is never a good idea to build a school that abuts a major road or highway.

3. Attire (n): clothes, apparel, garb; (v): to dress, adorn, or bedeck • Every house in the neighborhood was attired in beautiful holiday decorations. • Firefighters must wear special attire to protect them from smoke and flames. • The business interns wore their finest attire.

4. Crony (n): very close friend, chum, buddy • My dad loves to golf with his childhood cronies. • On hot summer days I sit around the pool with my crony, Allison, and talk about our plans for the future. • Snoopy and Woodstock make a unique pair of cartoon cronies.

5. Divergent (adj.): going in different directions; different from each other; departing from convention, deviant • The police are having great difficulty solving the crime because of the divergent stories told by the witnesses. • Even though Thomas Edison and Henry Ford had divergent backgrounds, they became incredibly successful businessmen.

6. Gaunt (adj.): thin and bony, starved looking; bare, barren • The animal rescue worker gave the gaunt, abandoned dog food and water. • The gaunt prisoners of war escaped during the night and were given life-saving food by the villagers.

7. Nullify (v): to make of no value or consequence; cancel, wipe out • My low-paying job nullified my goal of saving some extra money. • The team's championship was nullified because of an ineligible player.

8. Plummet (v): to plunge straight down; (n): a weight attached to a line • The osprey plummeted into the waves and emerged with a fish. • The skydiver plummeted to earth before opening his parachute.

9. Rankle (v): to cause anger, irritation, or bitterness • Excessive teasing can rankle a person. • The players on the team became rankled as they continued to lose games.

10. Scavenger (n): a person who collects or removes usable items from waste materials' an animal that feeds on refuse or dead bodies • Scavengers such as the blue crab help keep the ocean clean. • The pickers scavenged through the junk pile looking for valuable antiques.

11. Stoical (adj.): self-controlled; not showing emotion or feeling in response to pleasure or pain • The warriors of ancient Sparta were expected to remain stoical even facing great pain. • I have a great deal of difficulty keeping calm and stoical when I'm sitting in the dentist's chair.