SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 17 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the most appropriate synonym of the given word. Confiscate

(a)Titivate
(b)Restock
(c)Seize
(d)Destroy

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Confiscate means to take someone's property away by authority — a customs officer confiscates goods, a teacher confiscates a phone.

Seize means to take possession of, and it is the word the law itself uses for the same act: goods are seized under a warrant.

The shared core is taking possession without the owner's consent, and that is what makes option (c) the match. The other three describe tidying, replenishing and wrecking — none of them is a taking.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Titivate — Titivate means to smarten up or spruce up an appearance. It has nothing to do with taking property, and its unfamiliarity is its only claim on the answer.
(b)
Restock — Restock means to replenish a supply. That is the opposite movement — goods going back in, not being taken away.
(d)
Destroy — Destroy means to ruin or wipe out. Confiscated property is taken into someone else's possession and still exists, which is the whole difference.

Concept

Confiscate belongs to the register of official action: it names a taking done by someone with the power to do it. Seize is its plainer equivalent, and also its legal one.

The near neighbours differ by who acts and how. Confiscate implies authority. Seize implies suddenness or force alongside it. Impound implies official custody, usually of a vehicle.

For this question the register is enough. You need the option that shares the core action, taking possession, and only one of the four does.

Titivate is the hard word in this set. When one option is a word you have never met, price the other three first — if one of them is a clean match, the unknown word is a decoy and can be left alone.

Key facts

Confiscate means to take property away by official authority.
Seize means to take possession of, and is the standard legal term for that act.
Titivate means to smarten up an appearance and is unrelated to taking.

Study next

Verbs of official taking: seize, impound, requisition, expropriateFormal Latinate verbs paired with a plain English equivalentUnfamiliar words used as decoys in synonym sets

Common traps

Marking the unfamiliar word, titivate, on the assumption that a hard word must be the answer.
Reading confiscate as destroy because in both cases the owner loses the object.

SSC's plain synonym stem pairs a formal verb with one plain equivalent. Condone keyed to Pardon on 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.15 is the same shape, and Repulse keyed to Repel on 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.15 is another.
The adjective version of this stem is English Q.16 of this same shift.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.