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Synonym of the day

mortify

mortify is a synonym of embarrass

verb [ mawr-tuh-fahy ]

mortify is another word for embarrass

To embarrass someone is to make them uncomfortably self-conscious about something. A friend’s bad table manners at a fancy restaurant might embarrass you, for instance. While embarrassment is no picnic, it’s mild compared to the feeling of mortification. To mortify someone is to humiliate or shame someone, as by injury to their pride or self-respect. If you go to a fancy restaurant and this same friend (though we’re second guessing the label) yells about how slow the service is and then upends a table—well, that might mortify you. The sense of embarrassment implied by this verb is so intense, it may make you want to disappear—or worse. You see, mortify comes from the Late Latin verb mortificāre “to put to death,” and early uses of the word in English deal quite literally with matters of life and death.

Commonly found as

mortify + teenage(r)
The father mortified his teenage daughter by trying to use the latest slang in front of her friends.
absolutely mortified
The college student was absolutely mortified to find out that the contents of his private journal had been read aloud on the campus radio show.

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flee

flee is a synonym of escape

verb [ flee ]

flee is another word for escape

When you’ve escaped, congratulations are due, because you’ve managed to get away from or out of something threatening or dangerous. Escape means to free yourself from confinement or restraint (an ingenious plan to escape from jail, a need to escape from reality) or to succeed in avoiding capture or any other danger (escaped the police, escaped detection). Fleeing does not necessarily entail escape, although people certainly flee with the intention of escaping. When you flee, you run away—on foot or using any means of transportation. Flee usually implies running away from peril or from pursuers, whether the danger is explicitly stated or not (waited for a chance to flee, fled from the police). Flee can also mean to leave a dangerous person or place (fled the country, fled the scene).

Commonly found as

flee a country
These refugees have been forced to flee their country because they are members of a persecuted ethnic group.
urge/encourage to flee
Although her parents urged her to flee ahead of the storm, she wanted to hole up in her boyfriend’s basement apartment and work on her philosophy paper.

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redolent

redolent is a synonym of suggestive

adjective [ red-l-uhnt ]

redolent is another word for suggestive

When we describe something as suggestive, we mean it suggests or calls up thoughts or ideas of other things. (His recommendation was suggestive of his boss’s thinking.) Redolent can be used to similar effect, although redolent denotes calling up memories as well as thoughts of something else (verse redolent of Shakespeare, an atmosphere redolent of the McCarthy era). You may have encountered redolent in its more common literal meaning of “pleasantly fragrant” (redolent lilacs) or “odorous or smelling of” (redolent of garlic). Given the unique power of olfactory memory, it is not surprising redolent acquired a meaning similar to suggestive. Redolent is also used with the preposition “with,” to mean steeped in or imbued with either a smell or a quality (a song redolent with nostalgia).

Commonly found as

atmosphere redolent of
We finally found the Parisian cafe of our dreams, its atmosphere redolent of that bygone era celebrated by Hemingway.
redolent with history
In Beijing, we ate at an American fried chicken chain, but had only to cross the street to enter an alleyway lined with traditional residences and redolent with history.

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