The Golden Compass: Chapters 5–9

by Philip Pullman
This first book of His Dark Materials trilogy starts off at Oxford's Jordan College, where eleven-year-old Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon Pantalaimon are given a device called an alethiometer that Lyra learns to interpret in order to discover truths, especially in connection to the kidnapping of children.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–9, Chapters 10–13, Chapters 14–17, Chapters 18–23

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cleric
    a religious leader or other person in religious orders
    Mrs. Coulter knew a great many people, and they met in all kinds of different places: in the morning there might be a meeting of geographers at the Royal Arctic Institute, and Lyra would sit by and listen; and then Mrs. Coulter might meet a politician or a cleric for lunch in a smart restaurant, and they would be very taken with Lyra and order special dishes for her, and she would learn how to eat asparagus or what sweetbreads tasted like.
  2. rudiment
    the elementary stage of any subject
    In the intervals between all these other activities Mrs. Coulter would teach her the rudiments of geography and mathematics.
  3. subtly
    in a manner difficult to detect or grasp
    And finally, there were other kinds of lessons so gently and subtly given that they didn’t feel like lessons at all.
  4. protege
    a person who receives support from an influential patron
    I'm sure he’d like to meet Mrs. Coulter’s protégée—
  5. pretext
    a fictitious reason that conceals the real reason
    And as if in answer to that last wish, she heard his name mentioned, and wandered closer to the group talking nearby with the pretext of helping herself to a canapé from the plate on the table.
  6. formidable
    inspiring fear or dread
    Guarded by panserbjørne—you know, armored bears. Formidable creatures! He won’t escape from them if he lives to be a thousand.
  7. emanation
    something that is emitted or radiated
    “The last experiments have confirmed what I always believed—that Dust is an emanation from the dark principle itself, and—”
  8. lavish
    characterized by extravagance and profusion
    Mrs. Coulter had given her money like sweets, and although she had spent it lavishly, there were still several sovereigns left, which she put in the pocket of the dark wolfskin coat before tiptoeing to the door.
  9. brazier
    large metal container in which coal or charcoal is burned
    Endless streets of little identical brick houses, with gardens only big enough for a dustbin; great gaunt factories behind wire fences, with one anbaric light glowing bleakly high up on a wall and a night watchman snoozing by his brazier; occasionally a dismal oratory, only distinguished from a warehouse by the crucifix outside.
  10. truss
    secure with or as if with ropes
    One man was swiftly lashing cords around her, around her limbs, her throat, body, head, bundling her over and over on the wet ground. She was helpless, exactly like a fly being trussed by a spider.
  11. swathe
    wrap in or as if in strips of cloth
    Before she could go out on deck, the outer door opened and Ma Costa came down, swathed in an old tweed coat on which the damp had settled like a thousand tiny pearls.
  12. soporific
    inducing sleep
    “Why didn’t their dæmons find me, though?” she asked afterward, and Ma showed her the lining of the secret space: cedarwood, which had a soporific effect on dæmons; and it was true that Pantalaimon had spent the whole time happily asleep by Lyra’s head.
  13. incessant
    uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing
    The gyptians ruled in the fens. No one else dared enter, and while the gyptians kept the peace and traded fairly, the landlopers turned a blind eye to the incessant smuggling and the occasional feuds.
  14. enthralled
    filled with wonder and delight
    Lyra listened enthralled to tales of the fen dwellers, of the great ghost dog Black Shuck, of the marsh fires arising from bubbles of witch oil, and began to think of herself as gyptian even before they reached the fens.
  15. steadfast
    marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
    Take the anchor, there. The first meaning of that is hope, because hope holds you fast like an anchor so you don’t give way. The second meaning is steadfastness. The third meaning is snag, or prevention. The fourth meaning is the sea.
  16. recompense
    the act of making amends for service or loss or injury
    He might have had it in mind to ask Lyra to return it to Lord Asriel, as a kind of recompense for trying to poison him.
  17. statute
    an act passed by a legislative body
    They weren’t visible, because the clouds were low and by statute airships had to keep a certain height above fen country, but who knew what cunning spy devices they might carry?
  18. wayward
    unpredictable; following no clear pattern
    Instead of its wayward divagations around the dial it swung smoothly from one picture to another.
  19. coffer
    a chest especially for storing valuables
    As for the gold, I make no doubt from the weight of it that you’ve all dug deep in your coffers, and my warm thanks go out for that as well.
  20. cunning
    marked by skill in deception
    From what we know, there might be some fighting to do. It won’t be the first time, nor it won’t be the last, but we never had to fight yet with people who kidnap children, and we shall have to be uncommon cunning.
  21. rescind
    cancel officially
    I heard there’s a move in Parliament this very day to rescind our ancient privileges on account of this child.
  22. obstinate
    refusing to change one's mind or ways; difficult to convince
    The man stood obstinately frowning, but said nothing.
  23. intercede
    act between parties with a view to reconciling differences
    For them as has forgotten, it were Lord Asriel who interceded with the Turk for the life of Sam Broekman.
  24. headlong
    with the upper or anterior part of the body foremost
    And it were Lord Asriel who fought day and night in the floods of ’53, and plunged headlong in the water twice to pull out young Ruud and Nellie Koopman.
  25. apportionment
    the act of distributing according to a plan
    Simon Hartmann, you be treasurer, and account to us all for a proper apportionment of our gold.
  26. breach
    a failure to perform some promised act or obligation
    She longed to touch that fur, to rub her cheeks against it, but of course she never did; for it was the grossest breach of etiquette imaginable to touch another person’s dæmon.
  27. speculate
    reflect deeply on a subject
    So although she admired the fur of Sophonax and even speculated on what it might feel like, she never made the slightest move to touch her, and never would.
  28. crucible
    a vessel used for high temperature chemical reactions
    Because I thought the serpent was cunning, like a spy ought to be, and the crucible could mean like knowledge, what you kind of distill, and the beehive was hard work, like bees are always working hard; so out of the hard work and the cunning comes the knowledge, see, and that’s the spy’s job; and I pointed to them and I thought the question in my mind, and the needle stopped at death.
  29. reprovingly
    in a disapproving, disappointing, or critical manner
    “There’s more than one kind of spirit,” said Lyra reprovingly.
  30. inclination
    an attitude of mind that favors one alternative over others
    I think we’re going to have to take you with us after all, against my inclinations.
  31. tedious
    so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
    Busily, but not quickly, for there were tedious stretches of waiting, of hiding in damp crabbed closets, of watching a dismal rain-soaked autumn landscape roll past the window, of hiding again, of sleeping near the gas fumes of the engine and waking with a sick headache, and worst of all, of never once being allowed out into the air to run along the bank or clamber over the deck or haul at the lock gates or catch a mooring rope thrown from the lockside.
  32. despondency
    feeling downcast and disheartened and hopeless
    Lyra heard these tales at first with glee and later with despondency. All those people hating and fearing her!
  33. estuary
    the wide part of a river where it nears the sea
    It was nearly dark, and they were traveling along the last stretch of inland water before reaching the coast. Wide brown scummed expanses of an estuary extended under a dreary sky to a distant group of coal-spirit tanks, rusty and cobwebbed with pipework, beside a refinery where a thick smear of smoke ascended reluctantly to join the clouds.
  34. desolation
    a bleak atmosphere
    But it was getting dark, and in the wide desolation of the creek nothing was moving but their own boat and a distant coal barge laboring toward the refinery; and Lyra was so flushed and tired, and she’d been inside for so long...
  35. exult
    feel extreme happiness or elation
    Lyra exulted in it, feeling with him as he flew, and urging him mentally to provoke the old tillerman’s cormorant dæmon into a race.
  36. subdued
    restrained in style or quality
    There was no life out on this bitter brown expanse, and only the steady chug of the engine and the subdued splashing of the water under the bows broke the wide silence.
  37. cormorant
    large, dark-colored, long-necked seabird
    Pantalaimon held it firmly down with a needle-filled paw and looked up at the darkening sky, where the black wing flaps of the cormorant were circling higher as she cast around for the other.
  38. solder
    an alloy used when melted to join two metal surfaces
    “As soon’s we get about the ship I’ll run some solder round the edge to make sure of it,” Farder Coram said.
  39. stifle
    smother or suppress
    He wrapped the tin in a flannel cloth to stifle the incessant buzzing and droning, and stowed it away under his bunk.
  40. reproach
    express criticism towards
    John Faa shook his great head, but didn’t reproach them.
Created on Fri Jul 14 12:22:22 EDT 2017 (updated Thu Aug 17 10:00:23 EDT 2023)

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