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June 7 & 8, 2003 spruce up The phrasal verb spruce up means to improve the appearance of someone or something. City Hall will spend 28 million baht to spruce up Bangkok ahead of the Apec summit in October. The plan is to create an authority that will build power plants and spruce up aging ones. He had received reports that army ambulances were being "spruced up" in case force was needed to end the three-week dispute. His children want to spruce up the place before their 83-year-old father makes it his home. June 6, 2003 replenish (re PLEN ish) The verb replenish means to make something full or complete again. Faced with temperatures rising to about 50 Celsius, officials in the state of Andhra Pradesh are rushing to replenishing salts to health centres and urging residents to stay inside. Every several minutes the turtle must surface to replenish her oxygen supply. Supplies were replenished and prices returned to more normal levels. Much of the IMF loan was used to replenish Thailand's foreign exchange reserves. June 5, 2003 hub The noun hub refers an important centre of activity. Hub also can refer to the centre part of a wheel. With 730 million baht allocated from the 2004 budget and an additional 500 million baht in the succeeding years, Chiang Rai is slated to become a hub of trade and tourism-related activities in five years. Boston appears to be a central hub for the plane hijacking operation. For a time in the 19th century, Manila was the commercial hub of Asia. Before setting out they greased the hubs and adjusted the brakes. June 3, 2003 exempt The verb exempt means to excuse someone or something from having to perform a duty or make a payment of some kind. The noun form is exemption. "They should have passed the law that exempts the businesses owned by the Shinawatra family from paying taxes," he said sarcastically. Farmers are exempt from many environmental laws. No one coming from Iran is exempt; even grandmothers are fingerprinted when they enter the country to visit relatives. Family members were not allowed to move out of the city unless special exemptions were granted. June 2, 2003 tarnish (TAR nish) The verb tarnish means to do or say something that causes people to have a worse opinion of someone or something. Tarnish can also mean to stain the surface of a metal and make it less bright or shiny. Mr Thaksin said he did not fear that his remarks would tarnish Thailand's image or worry that Ms Jilani's would report on Thailand's human rights situation to the UN. The country's international reputation was severely tarnished by the government's bloody suppression of protests in the capital. Whatever the outcome of the investigations, the allegations are already enough to tarnish the prime minister's clean image. He was wearing a hat that was half covered with a tarnished silver band. Click here to see our words in the news for the previous week. Return to our home page | Comments to Terry F. at terryfrd@ksc15.th.com | |© The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. All rights reserved 2003 | Last modified: June 8, 2003