The Poisonwood Bible: Book Two

by Barbara Kingsolver
Spanning three decades, this novel tells the story of the Prices, a missionary family that settles in the Belgian Congo in the late 1950s.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Book One, Book Two, Book Three, Book Four, Book Five, Books Six-Seven
15 words 399 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. invocation
    the act of appealing for help
    It’s comical, I know, but I carried through those days the image of a popular advertising campaign from home that pictured teams of very soiled children under the bold invocation: CLOROX NEEDED HERE!
  2. sustenance
    a source of food or nourishment
    There seemed to be no food to speak of, even on a market day when everybody came around to make the tallest possible pile out of what they had. It didn’t seem to stack up to enough sustenance for the two dozen families in our village.
  3. bandy
    curved outward at the knees
    The very first time I went into the kitchen house, a snake slithered away from the doorstep and a tarantula eyed me from the wall, hunkering down on his bandy legs like a football player on the offensive line.
  4. conscription
    compulsory military service
    I think he was well inclined toward stubbornness, and contemptuous of failure, long before his conscription into the war and the strange circumstances that discharged him from it.
  5. sprig
    ornament made of or resembling a spray of leaves or flowers
    If they’ve got an inch or two to work with, the hairdresser will wrap sprigs of it in black thread so it stands up in little spikes, like Mama Boanda Number Two’s.
  6. succor
    assistance in time of difficulty
    Father told him, “Why, the Lord will help us! We’ll receive His divine mercy as his servants who bring succor.”
  7. idolatry
    the worship of objects or images as gods
    “And, Anatole, do you not now sit at my table, translating the words of Tata Ndu’s bible of false idolatry and his sermon aimed at me in particular.”
  8. stalwart
    having rugged physical strength
    “First of all, young man, I do not fear any man in Kilanga. I am a messenger of God’s great good news for all mankind, and He has bestowed upon me a greater strength than the brute ox or the most stalwart among the heathen.”
  9. inter
    place in a grave or tomb
    Where his pectoral muscles should be, he has a breast weighed down with the words of human beings: by words interred, free-as-a-bird absurd, unheard!
  10. languish
    lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
    And now I might never find out who or what was as good as dead, for it looked as if we were going to have to languish on our cots forever while the rain poured down.
  11. motif
    a design that consists of recurring shapes or colors
    The cross-stitch itself was tedious, but the prospects were beautiful; Mother had the foresight to give me a botanical motif, knowing how I love green and growing things.
  12. manifest
    reveal its presence or make an appearance
    And in the very same way the Spirit long ago became manifest in the Body of Christ, the first cabbage rose began to materialize on my tablecloth.
  13. sashay
    walk with a lofty proud gait, often to impress others
    Leah went and fetched the owl back and sashayed around the house with it sitting on her shoulder, saying Father was sticking up for her side of things.
  14. traipse
    walk or tramp about
    What with the mongooses and lizards traipsing in and out of the house as they pleased, she had a lot more to be embarrassed about than just getting caught in her old clothes, it seems to me.
  15. revival
    an evangelistic meeting to reawaken interest in religion
    I have seen preachers at revival meetings speak like that, with voices rising in such a way that heaven and anger get mingled together.
Created on Thu Mar 29 16:38:42 EDT 2018 (updated Tue Aug 05 15:18:28 EDT 2025)

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