Reaching out to Africa – The Hindu (May 27, 2016)

Reaching out to Africa – The Hindu (May 27, 2016)

The Ministry of External Affairs, in the end, was mobilised sufficiently to persuade African envoys to call off their proposed boycott of the Africa Day event in the national capital on Thursday. But by then, by their extreme threat of rebuffing the host country’s invitation, they had made their point — and for India, embarrassingly so. For further reading, visit “The Hindu”.

Today’s Words: 

1. Mobilise (verb) –  bring into service, awaken, deploy, encourage.
2. Persuade (verb) – induce, convince, influence.
3. Envoy (noun) – representative, delegate, agent, spokesperson.
4. Call off (phrasal verb) – cancel, abandon, shelve.
5. Boycott (verb) – refuse to take part in, reject, avoid, spurn.
6. Rebuff (verb) – reject, refuse, decline.
7. Embarrassingly (adverb) – awkwardly, disconcertingly.
8. Centring (noun) – center on, centric, centering.
9. Forge (verb) – proceed, progress, move along, advance firmly.
10. Brutal (adjective) – savage, cruel, barbaric.
11. Latent (adjective) – hidden, concealed.
12. Discrimination (noun) – prejudice, racism, chauvinism.
13. Sting (verb) – upset, distress, pain.
14. Afro-phobia (noun) – fear, hatred and dislike of the people of Africa.
15. Diplomatic (adjective) – consular, political, ambassadorial.
16. Introspection (noun) – (self) observation, thought, (self) analysis.
17. Dehumanising (adjective) – preventing someone from good human qualities.
18. Prejudice (noun) –  partiality, intolerance, discrimination.
19. Render (verb) – provide, offer, present.
20. Splash (noun) – article, feature, display.
21. Diplomat (noun) – ambassador, envoy, consul.
22. Sedate (adjective) – calm, composed, unflappable.
23. Roster (noun) – list, schedule, directory.
24. Remit (noun) – task, duty, responsibility, ambit.
25. Scaling up (phrasal verb) – increase, expand, escalate, boost.
26. Tackle (verb) – manage, handle, deal with.

Note:

• Click each one of the words above for their definition, more synonyms, pronunciation, example sentences, phrases, derivatives, origin and etc from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ .
• Synonyms provided for the words above are my personal work and not that of Oxford University Press.