Contronym Quiz

Yesterday in Church, the word 'garnish' was used quite frequently in talks and lessons. It was from the new Young Men and Young Women's theme of "Let Virtue Garnish Your Thoughts Unceasingly". Kind of wordy, but an important concept all the same. In an attempt to make the theme a bit more interesting, I tried to convey to the kids that the word 'garnish' was cool because it is a contronym. Contronyms (also called autoantonyms) are words that have two definitions that are the opposite of each other. Garnish means both to enhance (e.g., food) or to curtail (e.g., wages). My friend Garrett pointed me to the word 'hardly' which means both to do something with great effort or to do something with little effort.

So class, your assignment is to take the list of words below and figure out the two meanings. You can go to Rinkworks.com if you need a little help.


apology
bolt
custom
dust
enjoin
fast
give out
handicap
left
off
put out
quite
rent
screen
transparent
variety
weather


For a bit of history on the contronym, see this Wiki article.