Adapt and accommodate both mean to adjust or modify, or to make suitable to requirements or conditions. For instance, you might say you've adapted your behavior to a new country by learning the language and customs. You might also say you've accommodated yourself to your new country by learning the language and customs. The key difference between these verbs is that with this meaning, the direct object for adapt cannot be a person, while for accommodate, it can be a person as well as an inanimate object. Thus one cannot adapt other people, but one can accommodate them, adjusting oneself to do them a favor or meet their needs or wants in some way. Accommodate is also an elevated way for hotels or service providers to say they can host you or take care of you.

Every once in a while, we can all be a bit grumpy, which means “ill-tempered or grouchy.” When someone is grumpy on a more regular basis or in a particularly argumentative way, they could be described as cantankerous. Cantankerous means “disagreeable to deal with; contentious.” Being four syllables, cantankerous is a loftier-sounding word than grumpy, which is an expressive word akin to a grunt and has its origins in the phrase “humps and grumps.” Cantankerous was probably formed from a Middle English word that meant “quarrel” or “contention.” A machine can be personified humorously as cantankerous if it does not operate smoothly, and similarly, so can an animal that displays opposition or irritableness.

It’s been said that a mind is a terrible thing to waste! To waste something can be to fail to use it, or to consume, spend, or employ it uselessly or without adequate return. Waste may be used with physical objects or with something more abstract, such as time, effort, or even one’s mind. When seeking a verb that captures an intentionally reckless use of one’s resources (including monetary), squander may be more apt. Squander means to spend or use (money, time, etc.) wastefully or extravagantly, and suggests willfully foolish expenditure, as in, “Instead of honoring his parents’ legacy, he squandered their money on parties and fancy cars.”