<Slander, defame, asperse, calumniate, traduce, vilify, malign, libel, backbite>.
Sentences: A newspaper must be careful not to ____ any one. Too many supposedly religious people ____ their fellow believers. I do not ____ your motives. He ____ the character of everybody who chances to possess one.
<Smell, odor, savor, scent, fragrance, aroma, perfume, redolence, tang, stench>.
Sentences: The ____ of the flowers in the vase mingled with the ____ of boiling cabbage in the kitchen. The ____ of spring is on the meadows. So keen was the hound's sense of ____ that he quickly picked up the ____ again. Any smoker likes the ____ of a good cigar. The ____ of the handkerchief was delicate. Though it was a disagreeable ____, I should hardly call it a[n] ____. The ____ of spices told him that his mother was baking his favorite cake, and he also detected the ____ of coffee. The ____ of the ocean was in the air. He sniffed the ____ of frying bacon.
<Song, ballad, ditty, lullaby, hymn, anthem, dirge, chant, paean, lay, carol, lilt>.
Sentences: "They learn in suffering what they teach in ____." The mother crooned a[n] ____ to her babe. The Highland girl sang a moving old ____. The worshipers sang a[n] ____ of praise. Charles Wesley wrote many ____. As I approached the cathedral, I could hear the ____ of larks outside and the ____ of the choir within. "Our sweetest ____ are those that tell of saddest thought." "A[n] ____ for her the doubly dead in that she died so young."
<Speak, discourse, expatiate, descant, comment, argue, persuade, plead, lecture, preach, harangue, rant, roar, spout, thunder, declaim, harp>. (With this group compare the Say group, above, and the Talk group, below.)
Sentences: "His virtues Will ____ like angels trumpet-tongu'd against The deep damnation of his taking-off." "Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, … Come I to ____ in Caesar's funeral." "Ay me! what act, That ____ so loud and ____ in the index?" "Hadst thou thy wits and didst ____ revenge, It could not move thus." "Thou canst not ____ of that thou dost not feel." "Nay, if thou'lt mouth, I'll ____ as well as thou." While the politician ____ in the senate chamber upon theoretical ills, the agitator outside ____ the mob about actual ones. "For murder, though it have no tongue, will ____ With most miraculous organ."
<Spend, expend, disburse, squander, waste, lavish>.
Sentences: Large sums were ____ in rebuilding the devastated regions of France. ____ your money, but do not ____ it. One should not ____ more than one earns. The king ____ great sums upon his favorites. The political boss ____ the money among his henchmen. "The younger son … ____ his substance with riotous living."