Hollow City: Chapters 5–7

by Ransom Riggs
In this sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Jacob Portman and his friends travel to London in a race to find a cure for Miss Peregrine, who has been transformed into a bird.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–7, Chapters 8–10, Chapters 11–13

Here is a link to our lists for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. recommend
    push for something
    “I recommend you make yourselves disappear,” he said, “in whatever limited way you are able.”
  2. flee
    run away quickly
    Now and then the caravan would stop and we’d all hold our breath, ready to flee or fight, sure we were about to be discovered.
  3. impression
    an imitative portrayal of a person
    Bronwyn hid Miss Peregrine inside her coat while Emma leapt off the wagon and did her best impression of a pathetic orphan.
  4. massacre
    kill a large number of people indiscriminately
    Were they about to massacre us—or were they just naturally grumpy?
  5. arouse
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    We hadn’t aroused his pity—only his curiosity.
  6. specialty
    an asset of special worth or utility
    “Prowling and purloinment are my specialty,” he assured us, and with that he slipped away.
  7. emanate
    proceed or issue forth, as from a source
    “Ahhhh!” the boy screamed, pointing at the space Millard’s voice emanated from.
  8. oblige
    provide a service or favor for someone
    Bronwyn obliged, reaching through the cage to grab the boy’s arms, then pulling him off his feet and up against the bars.
  9. contend
    be engaged in a fight
    “And if you think you can contend with them, you haven’t met me!” and launched an egg into the air.
  10. paralyze
    cause to be immobile
    I thought at first that our display had paralyzed the Gypsies with awe—but then, when the ringing in my ears had faded, I realized they were listening for something.
  11. excruciating
    extremely painful
    It was excruciating to lie there and listen to people suffer—even if those same people had been ready to tear us limb from limb just minutes ago.
  12. distract
    draw someone's attention away from something
    Then I’ll throw an egg through the bars behind us. That’ll distract the wights long enough for Bronwyn to crack the skull of whichever one comes into the cage first, which should give the rest of us time to run.
  13. fathom
    come to understand
    I couldn’t fathom how a bear had gotten into the cage, only that I needed to get away from it, so I pressed myself hard against the bars.
  14. succession
    a following of one thing after another in time
    “You aren’t the only ones with unusual talents,” said a young man at the edge of the crowd, and then in quick succession he growled like a bear and yowled like a cat, throwing his voice from one place to another with slight turns of his head so that it sounded like we were being stalked from all directions.
  15. advantage
    benefit resulting from some event or action
    In fact, once you adjust to invisibility, I think you’ll find it has many advantages ...
  16. prediction
    a statement made about the future
    “Horace’s ability can be maddeningly useless. He’ll reel off lifetimes of predictions for strangers, but with us he’s almost totally blocked. It’s as if the more he cares about someone, the less he can see. Emotion clouds his vision.”
  17. overestimate
    assign too high a value to
    I figured they wanted to enslave us for our abilities, or at the very least sell us at auction—but then I’m always overestimating people.
  18. circumstance
    the set of facts that surround a situation or event
    “If circumstances were different, we’d welcome you with open arms. But as it stands, our entire civilization and way of life are in danger of being snuffed out. So it’s rather bad timing, you see.”
  19. manifest
    reveal its presence or make an appearance
    “Every peculiar’s ability manifests in its own time,” said Millard.
  20. established
    brought about or set up or accepted
    It was a well-established rule that we were to avoid unnecessary eye contact with normals, because looks could lead to conversations, and conversations to questions, and peculiar children found questions posed by normal adults difficult to answer in a way that didn’t invite still more questions.
  21. statute
    an act passed by a legislative body
    “If there were any such statute,” the clerk replied, his nose rising disdainfully, “it would certainly not apply to you.
  22. stray
    wander from a direct course or at random
    “Back in line!” the soldier behind me shouted, and I realized that it was me he was talking to—that in my fevered state I’d strayed too far from the center of the road.
  23. tension
    a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense
    We walked on in edgy silence, tension humming through us like an electric current.
  24. desperate
    dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or dismay
    It seemed like just a matter of time before one of us did something desperate and bullets started flying.
  25. clasp
    hold firmly and tightly
    The rest of us clenched our teeth and held our tongues, but I could see Emma plotting revenge already, clasping her hands together behind her back, getting them nice and warm.
  26. restrictive
    serving to limit
    Show us to the bird right now, and rather than hurting you, we’ll send you off to a nice facility where you’ll be well looked after. Fed every day, each with your own bed . . . a place no more restrictive than that ridiculous loop you’ve been hiding in all these years.
  27. venal
    capable of being corrupted
    But pride, venal pride, got the better of you.
  28. vicarious
    experienced at secondhand
    Olive screamed and several of us flinched in vicarious pain as Horace dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, loose change and train tickets spilling out of his pockets.
  29. defiantly
    in a rebellious manner
    He stood defiantly, staring through the window.
  30. reverberate
    ring or echo with sound
    It was dark and hot, and the alien whine of a million manic bees reverberated through the room like something out of a nightmare.
  31. opaque
    not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy
    At first I didn’t see the soldiers at all—just a giant, swirling mass of insects, so dense it was opaque, about fifty feet down the footpath.
  32. impeccable
    without error or flaw
    “I’d like to compliment Hugh on his impeccable timing. Really, if you’d arrived just a few seconds later ...”
  33. essential
    relating to or containing the most vital part of something
    “We don’t know a lot about hollows, having never had the chance to examine one in a controlled setting. But it’s thought that, like normals, they lack something which you and I and everyone in this train car possesses—some essential peculiarness—which is what allows us to interact with loops; to bind with and be absorbed into them.”
  34. substance
    the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists
    “Some believe that, like blood or spinal fluid, our peculiarness has physical substance. Others think it’s inside us but insubstantial. A second soul.”
  35. deficiency
    lack of an adequate quantity or number
    I liked this idea: that peculiarness wasn’t a deficiency, but an abundance; that it wasn’t we who lacked something normals had, but they who lacked peculiarness.
  36. distill
    extract by the process of purifying a liquid
    The theory goes that if somehow our peculiar essence could be distilled and captured—in a bottle, as he said, or more likely a petri dish—then perhaps that essence could also be transferred from one being to another.
  37. consume
    take in as food
    To my mind, there was only one compelling argument for its existence: that when a hollowgast consumes enough of us, it transforms into a different sort of creature—one that can travel through time loops.
  38. dilute
    reduced in strength or concentration or quality or purity
    “The story goes that over the years, as we multiplied, our power diluted. As we became less powerful, we got smaller, too.”
  39. participate
    be involved in
    My peculiarity had its challenges, but at least I could participate in society.
  40. struggle
    make a strenuous or labored effort
    Every peculiar had struggled through a period of painful uncertainty.
Created on Wed Jun 29 16:27:22 EDT 2016 (updated Mon Sep 24 13:18:18 EDT 2018)

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