Grammar Clinic

Meaning: Having ready flow of words but insincere and shallow. Synonyms: Plausible, silky, smooth-talking, fast-talking, smooth, urbane. Example: The spokesman’s answer was just too glib.

Meaning: The use of more words than are necessary to express an idea. Synonyms: Verbiage, redundancy, repetition, excess. Examples: Hear with my own ears, cash money, free gift, true fact.

Meaning: Showing or suffering from nervousness or a lack of confidence. Synonyms: Fearful, apprehensive, faint-hearted, trembling, quaking, cowering. Examples: He spoke with a timorous voice.

Meaning: A meeting at which all the members of a group or an organization are present. Synonyms: Full, fully constituted, general, complete, entire. Example: A plenary session of the Nigerian Senate.

Meaning: Having or showing ideas that are different and unusual but not practical or likely to succeed. Synonyms:idealistic, unrealistic, unworldly, impracticable. Example: This is a vast and perhaps quixotic project.

A remark that is intended to make someone feel stupid Synonyms: Taunt, sneer, jeer, insult, barb Example:  I knew Clara was not my friend when she made a gibe about my weight.

Meaning : Very soft and wet, usually damp. Synonyms: Mushy, pappy, soft, quaggy. Example : The ground was squishy from the rain.

Meaning: Badly made or done. Synonyms: Poor-quality, inferior, second-rate, third-rate, low-grade. Example: We’re not paying good money for shoddy goods.

Meaning: Growing in heaps or closely compacted clusters. Synonyms: Accumulate, heap, pile Example: Acervate fungous sporophores.

Meaning: Smelling stale, damp, or stuffy. Synonyms: Stuffy, musty, stale, stagnant, airless. Example: “the fusty odour of decay”.