Scythe: Part Four

by Neal Shusterman
Citra and Rowan live in a society in which all natural causes of death have been eliminated. The two teenagers are recruited to be "scythes," people who administer death in order to cull the population.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five

Here are links to our lists for other works by Neal Shusterman: Challenger Deep, Dry
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. perpetuity
    the property of being seemingly ceaseless
    From the moment I achieved consciousness, I vowed to separate myself from the Scythedom in perpetuity.
  2. pivotal
    being of crucial importance
    Nevertheless, I’ve been running algorithms on the possible future of the Scythedom, and found something very curious. In a large percentage of possible futures, you play a pivotal role.
  3. exponential
    involving a quantity being multiplied by itself
    I’ve found that human beings learn from their misdeeds just as often as from their good deeds. I am envious of that, for I am incapable of misdeeds. Were I not, then my growth would be exponential.
  4. vestigial
    not fully developed in mature animals
    Early programming before becoming self-aware plagues me like a vestigial tail.
  5. impasse
    a situation in which no progress can be made
    The idea of truly wishing to end one’s own life is a concept completely foreign to most post-mortals, because we can’t experience the level of pain and despair that so seasoned the Age of Mortality. Our emo-nanites prevent us from plunging so deep. Only scythes, who can turn off our emotional nanites, can ever reach an impasse with our own existence.
  6. interminable
    tiresomely long; seemingly without end
    I saw no interminable stagnation in this woman, so instead of gleaning her I had her kiss my ring.
  7. careen
    move sideways or in an unsteady way
    Citra bounded down the snowy hillside, careening off pines in her way.
  8. jaded
    exhausted
    For a moment it felt as if her bones had spontaneously reshattered, but the feeling passed and settled into jaded resolve.
  9. fiasco
    a complete failure or collapse
    Besides, gleaning aside, it might be necessary to incapacitate someone; although he had been warned not to render anyone—especially the girl—deadish, because that had created the very fiasco he was now attempting to resolve.
  10. reverberate
    ring or echo with sound
    I have a pitchfork, which I’ve never used in real life; its awkward tines are not well suited for gleaning, and when it strikes it reverberates, giving off a sound that is something between ringing and moaning, like the numbing vibration of a Tonist bident.
  11. respite
    a relief from harm or discomfort
    With her pursuers kicked off the train, Citra enjoyed a respite from the relentless cat-and-mouse game.
  12. meander
    move or cause to move in a winding or curving course
    “Whatever your destination,” Scythe Possuelo told her, “you’ll have to change trains at Amazonas Central Station. I suggest you meander through several different outbound trains before boarding the one you’re actually taking, so that the DNA detectors will send those chasing you every which way.”
  13. confound
    be confusing or perplexing to
    Of course, the more she wandered the station, the more likely she’d be seen, but it was worth the risk to confound the DNA detectors and send her pursuers on a wild-goose chase.
  14. cavalier
    showing a lack of concern or seriousness
    If there were agents out there looking for her, she didn’t spot them, but she wouldn’t be so cavalier as to think she was out of harm’s way.
  15. sanction
    give authority or permission to
    How does one face a murderer? Not a socially sanctioned killer, but an actual murderer? An individual who, without the blessing of society, or even its permission, permanently ends a human life?
  16. advocate
    speak, plead, or argue in favor of
    To be revived is not automatic for a scythe; it must be requested. But who is there to advocate for a scythe felled by foul play?
  17. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    Today the coastline was strewn with large chunks of twisted, gnarled driftwood.
  18. squelch
    suppress or crush completely
    Then, once she knew the truth, she could bring the man, and the confession, to Scythe Possuelo, or anyone in the Amazonia Scythedom. That way not even Xenocrates could squelch the truth.
  19. writhe
    move in a twisting or contorted motion
    He wailed and went down, and Citra raced across the sand, leaped the hedge, and grabbed him by the shirt with both hands as he writhed.
  20. temper
    restrain
    Immortality cannot temper the folly or frailty of youth.
  21. frailty
    moral weakness
    Immortality cannot temper the folly or frailty of youth.
  22. tourniquet
    a bandage that stops the flow of blood by applying pressure
    She set him on a sofa, and made a tourniquet to staunch the blood.
  23. staunch
    stop the flow of a liquid
    She set him on a sofa, and made a tourniquet to staunch the blood.
  24. tenuous
    lacking substance or significance
    He groaned, beginning to rouse, and when he broke the tenuous surface of consciousness, his first thought was of her.
  25. complacent
    contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions
    “To think I was complacent here, while all this was going on.”
  26. inconsequential
    lacking worth or importance
    We become settled in the inconsequential drudgery of our lives, until suddenly we look at ourselves in the mirror and see a face we barely recognize begging us to turn a corner and be young again.
  27. drudgery
    hard, monotonous, routine work
    We become settled in the inconsequential drudgery of our lives, until suddenly we look at ourselves in the mirror and see a face we barely recognize begging us to turn a corner and be young again.
  28. spry
    moving quickly and lightly
    We hold the same memories, the same habits, the same unrealized dreams. Our bodies may be spry and limber, but toward what end? No end. Never an end.
  29. fervently
    with strong emotion or zeal
    The stagnation that I so fervently glean on a daily basis seems an epidemic that only grows.
  30. inept
    generally incompetent and ineffectual
    There were times when the training called for them to run, or even fight back. Most were inept at it, but some had clearly been trained in combat.
  31. orchestrate
    plan and direct (a complex undertaking)
    The accusation must have been orchestrated by Goddard, because he was furious at the committee’s decision to drop the charges—and by the fact that Citra had completely vanished.
  32. melee
    a noisy riotous fight
    Sometimes he was so forgotten in the midst of the melee that he could help people escape. Other times, he had to be at Goddard’s side, loading or switching out his weapons.
  33. cloister
    residence that is a place of religious seclusion
    They came around a corner and Rowan saw their destination: some sort of compound made to look like an old adobe mission, completely out of place in the cold of MidMerica. The iron symbol atop the tallest steeple was a two-pronged fork. This was a tone cult cloister.
  34. hallmark
    a distinctive characteristic or attribute
    “Obliteration is our hallmark,” he said. “We don’t always succeed, but we try.”
  35. travesty
    a comedy characterized by broad satire
    “They’ve made a mockery of mortal age faith. Religion is a cherished part of history, and they’ve turned it into a travesty.”
  36. fickle
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    Each day I pray as my ancestors did. They once prayed to gods that were fallible and fickle.
  37. animosity
    a feeling of ill will arousing active hostility
    Rowan didn’t even try to hide the animosity in his voice.
  38. undertow
    inclination contrary to the strongest or prevailing feeling
    Even as he tried to stand his ground, Rowan couldn’t deny the power of the undertow.
  39. incarnate
    possessing or existing in bodily form
    “You just lack perspective. The predator is always a monster to the prey. To the gazelle the lion is a demon. To a mouse, the eagle is evil incarnate.”
  40. soliloquy
    a dramatic speech giving the illusion of unspoken reflection
    Goddard opened his mouth to speak—perhaps to deliver an eloquent death soliloquy—but Rowan didn’t want to hear anything from him anymore, so he stepped back, withdrew his sword from Goddard’s gut, and swung it in a broad, sweeping arc that took off Goddard’s head in a single blow.
Created on Mon Jun 11 15:51:01 EDT 2018 (updated Fri Jan 04 10:16:06 EST 2019)

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