contempt for others, that he claims for himself greater attention, consideration, or respect than he is entitled to.  To say that he is presumptuous makes him an inferior (or at least not a superior) who claims privileges or takes liberties improperly.  To say that he is haughty means that he assumes a disdainful superiority to others, especially through fancied or actual advantage over them in birth or social position.  To say that he is supercilious means that he maintains toward others an attitude of lofty indifference or sneering contempt.  To say that he is insolent means that he is purposely and perhaps coarsely disrespectful toward others, especially toward his superiors.  To say that he is insulting means that he gives or offers personal affront, probably in scornful or disdainful speech.

Assignment for further discrimination:  scornful, imperious, contumelious, impudent, impertinent.

Sentences:  He was ____ in replying to the questions.  She paid no
attention to his words, but kept looking at him with a[n] ____ smile.  He
was ____ in acting as if he were their equal.  The hot-tempered fellow
answered this ____ remark with a blow.  She resented his presuming to speak
to her, and turned away in a[n] ____ manner.  The servant was ____ to her
mistress.  Are you not very ____ of your family connections?  The old man
was so ____ that he expected people to raise their hats to him and not to
sit down till he gave permission.

Punish, chastise, chasten.

To punish a person is to inflict pain or penalty upon him as a retribution for wrong-doing.  There may be, usually is, no intention to improve the offender.  To chastise him is to inflict deserved corporal punishment upon him for corrective purposes.  To chasten him is to afflict him with trouble for his reformation or spiritual betterment.  The word is normally employed in connection with such affliction from God.

Assignment for further discrimination:  castigate, scourge.

Sentences:  “Hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power To ____ and subdue.”  Ichabod
Crane freely used his ferule in ____ his pupils.  “Whom the Lord loveth he
____.”  A naughty child should be ____.

Rich, wealthy, affluent, opulent.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  Substitute wealthy for rich.  Is the meaning exactly the same?  Is Goldsmith’s description of the village preacher—­“passing rich with forty pounds a year”—­as effective if wealthy is substituted?  What is the difference between riches and wealth?  Which implies the greater degree of possession, which the more permanence and stability?  Which word suggests the more personal relationship with money?