If you consume or injure something by bringing it in contact with fire or heat, you burn it. If you do not consume it but burn it superficially so as to change the texture or color of its surface, you scorch it. If you burn off ends or projections of it, you singe it. If you burn its surface to dryness or hardness, you sear it. If you dry or shrivel it with heat, you parch it. If through heat you reduce it to a state of charcoal, or cinders, you char it. If you burn it to ashes, you incinerate it. (This word is learned and but little used in ordinary discourse.) If you burn a dead body to ashes, you cremate it. If you burn or sear anything with a hot iron or a corrosive substance, you cauterize it.
Sentences: The hired girl ____ the cloth in ironing it. By getting too close to the fire he ____ the nap of his flannels. The doctor at once ____ the wound. The cook had picked the chicken and now ____ its down over the coals. I used to ____ grains of field corn on the cookstove, while my mother prepared dinner. Shelley's body was ____ on a funeral pyre. The lecturer spoke of the time when the whole earth might be ____. The earth was ____ and all growing things were ____ by the intense summer heat.
<Busy, industrious, diligent, assiduous, sedulous.>
From much of the talk that we hear nowadays it might be supposed that the earnest devotion of one's self to a task is a thing that has disappeared from the earth. But a good many people are exhibiting this very devotion. Let us see in what different degrees. The man who actively applies himself to something, whether temporarily or habitually, is busy. The man who makes continued application to work a principle or habit of life, is industrious. The man who applies himself aggressively to the accomplishment of some specific undertaking or pursuit, is diligent. The man who quietly and determinedly sticks to a task until it is accomplished, no matter what its difficulties or length, is assiduous. The man who makes steady and painstaking application to whatever he is about, is sedulous.
Sentences: Early in life he acquired ____ habits. By patient and ____ study you may overcome those defects of your early education. "How doth the ____ little bee improve each shining hour." The manager gave such ____ attention to details that he made few mistakes. He is ____ at present. Oh, yes, he is always ____. "Nowher so ____ a man has he ther has, And yet he seemed ____ than he was."
<Concise, terse, succinct, compendious, compact, sententious, pithy, laconic, curt.>
Words descriptive of brief utterance are, in nearly every instance, in their origin figurative. The brevity is brought out by comparison with something that is noticeably short or small. Let us examine the words of our list for their figurative qualities. A concise statement is one that is cut down until a great deal is said in a few words. A terse statement is rubbed off, rid of unessentials. A succinct statement has its important thoughts bound into small compass, as by a girdle. A compendious statement weighs together the various thoughts and aspects of a subject; it shows by means of a few effective words just what these amount to, gives a summary of them. A compact statement has its units of thought fastened together into firmness of structure; its brevity is well-knit. A sententious statement gives feelings or opinions in a strikingly pointed or axiomatic way, so that they can be easily grasped and remembered; if sententious is unfavorably used, the statement may be filled with paraded platitudes. A pithy statement gives the very pith, the heart of a matter; it is sometimes slightly quaint, always effective and arresting. A laconic statement is made in the manner of the Spartans, who hated talk and used as few words as possible. A curt statement is made short; its abruptness is oftentimes more or less rude.
Sentences: "A tale should be judicious, clear, ____, the language plain, and incidents well link'd." "Charles Lamb made the most ____ criticism of Spenser when he called him the poet's poet." With a ____, disdainful answer she turned away. The sermon was filled with ____ sayings. By omitting all irrelevant details, he made his statement of the case ____. It requires great skill to give a ____ statement of what such a treatise contains. A proverb is a ____ statement of a truth.
<Death, decease, demise.>
Men are as mindful of rank and pretension in their terms for the cessation of life as in their choice of tombstones for the departed. Death is the great, democratic, unspoilable word. It is not too good for a clown or too poor for an emperor. Decease is a more formal word. Its employment is often legal—the death proves to be of sufficient importance for the law (and the lawyers) to take notice. Demise, however, is outwardly the most resplendent term of all. It implies that the victim cut a wide swath even in death. It is used of an illustrious person, as a king, who transmits his title to an heir. Ordinary people cannot afford a demise. If the term is applied to their shuffling off of this mortal coil, the use is euphemistic and likely to be stilted.