The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage: Chapters 11–15

by Philip Pullman
In the first volume of The Book of Dust, a companion trilogy to Pullman's His Dark Materials series, a boy named Malcolm and a barmaid named Alice attempt to keep baby Lyra safe from the cruel Gerard Bonneville.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–10, Chapters 11–15, Chapters 16–20, Chapters 21–25

Here are links to our lists for other books by Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
35 words 6 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. inexorably
    in a manner impervious to change or persuasion
    The wind gave it the appearance of flowing, although she knew it couldn’t be: a great mass of water flowing inexorably towards the houses and businesses of Jericho behind her.
  2. bleak
    offering little or no hope
    It was too bleak and depressing to stand and look at for long, and besides, the rain was coming down harder than ever, so she turned back, intending to shut her door and put another log on the fire and sit with her studies and a cup of coffee.
  3. habeas corpus
    the right to a writ protecting against illegal imprisonment
    They could lock her up with no warrant and keep her there with no charge; the old act of habeas corpus had been set aside, with little protest from those in Parliament who were supposed to look after English liberty, and now one heard tales of secret arrests and imprisonment without trial, and there was no way of finding out whether the rumors were true.
  4. rivalrous
    competitive and eager to surpass others
    These agencies and half-hidden powers were fiercely rivalrous.
  5. lope
    run easily
    She took a lurching step forward, propping her weight on her one front leg, and looked at Malcolm for a moment more before turning and loping clumsily back into the shadow.
  6. contempt
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    Even if he’d found the right words, he wouldn’t have been able to express the contempt and hatred in the action.
  7. complicity
    guilt as a confederate in a crime or offense
    It was a smile of warmth and complicity. It seemed to say, We know a thing or two, the pair of us...
  8. carrion
    the dead and rotting body of an animal; unfit for human food
    Then...a hyena is a scavenger. It feeds on carrion and dead bodies left by other animals, as well as killing prey itself.
  9. thwart
    a crosspiece spreading the gunnels of a boat
    I won’t show you now, but under the thwart amidships you’ll find a tarpaulin.
  10. scullery
    a small room next to the kitchen for household jobs
    When he took them through to Alice in the scullery, where he normally just put them down on the counter and left without saying a word, something made him stop and look at her.
  11. impermeable
    preventing especially liquids to pass or diffuse through
    The tarpaulin of coal silk was as light and impermeable (he tried it) as Mr. Van Texel had said, and the clips to attach it to the gunwales were easy to work and firmly fixed.
  12. noncommittal
    refusing to bind oneself to a particular course of action
    He didn’t want to keep things from his parents, but then they didn’t usually have the time to ask anything more than once. A noncommittal answer normally satisfied them.
  13. uncanny
    suggesting the operation of supernatural influences
    That uncanny laughter tormented Malcolm’s ears; it sounded like a high hiccupping yell of agony.
  14. disdain
    look down on with contempt
    The philosophical instruments of the Weather Office, so highly regarded by some of the drinkers at the Trout and so disdained by others, did what they always did and told their attendants exactly what they could have seen by looking at the sky.
  15. inundation
    the overflowing of a body of water onto normally dry land
    Further out in the Atlantic than they could perceive, there might have been all sorts of bad weather; there might have been the mother of all depressions, and it might have been heading towards Brytain to bring about just the sort of inundation that Coram van Texel had predicted to Malcolm; but there were no instruments that could see it, except perhaps an alethiometer.
  16. enigmatic
    not clear to the understanding
    She wondered if this was Papadimitriou’s own house: it would be interesting to see how this enigmatic figure lived.
  17. galling
    causing irritation or annoyance
    But if I make no progress with my official—my proper—research, I’ll be asked to leave the group and let someone else have my alethiometer time. As it is, I’m one of the slowest because of the work I do for you. And that’s... It’s galling.
  18. indignation
    a feeling of righteous anger
    “Professor, you can see what this would mean!” she said, and Jesper, expressing her indignation, bristled all over.
  19. covert
    secret or hidden
    I know all the Oxford alethiometer group. Frankly—well, covertly—I have been following the group’s reports.
  20. legacy
    a gift of personal property by will
    “An uncle you didn’t know very well...a legacy—something like that. We haven’t got much money, but we can certainly keep you from starvation.”
  21. innocuous
    not causing disapproval
    It couldn’t have been Lord Nugent’s words, which seemed to be innocuous; or was she missing what they meant?
  22. refectory
    a communal dining-hall, usually in a monastery
    But that meant long services in the oratory rather than well-filled tables in the refectory.
  23. daft
    foolish or mentally irregular
    “They got secret plans that no one else knows about.”
    “Don’t talk daft,” said Malcolm.
  24. chasten
    censure severely
    Some of the teachers who had left in protest or by being required to take leave had come back, sullen or chastened; others had vanished and been replaced.
  25. miasma
    an unwholesome atmosphere
    It was as if it had always been there, as if it would be strange for a school not to be pervaded by this half-enthralling, half-frightening miasma.
  26. hector
    talk to or treat someone in a bossy or bullying way
    The pictures that had hung in the corridors and classrooms—mostly reproductions of famous paintings, or paintings of historical scenes—had been taken down and replaced with posters bearing quotations from the Bible in rather hectoring color.
  27. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    He was a monkey with long golden fur, and if there was an expression in his black eyes, it was unfathomable.
  28. disconcert
    cause to lose one's composure
    That was sarcastic. He didn’t like it, so he thought he’d disconcert her.
  29. equable
    not easily irritated
    “No, I just help out in the evenings,” Malcolm said in his most equable tone. “I hear lots of people saying all sorts of things. If he comes back, shall I tell him I’ve seen you and you don’t know him?”
  30. patrician
    characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy
    And she saw Lord Nugent in a new light too: under that patrician charm and friendliness, he was ruthless.
  31. haughty
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    He wanted to tell Alice what had happened earlier that afternoon with Mrs. Coulter, but not while Sister Fenella was there; and in any case the girl was so haughty and cold he didn’t find it easy to say anything to her at all.
  32. parapet
    a low wall along the edge of a roof or balcony
    Almost at once a flash of lightning dazzled him, like an inscription on the heavens of his own private aurora, and such a crash of thunder hammered his ears that he felt dizzy and nearly fell, and he clutched the stone parapet in alarm.
  33. awash
    covered with water
    The water was surging at the foot of it, and when he shoved it open, he found the kitchen already flooded—the fire in the range hissing and steaming, the floor awash.
  34. canopy
    a covering (usually of cloth) that shelters an area
    In the lean-to, La Belle Sauvage sat snugly under her coal-silk canopy.
  35. moor
    secure with cables or ropes
    There was so much water streaming over the grass that he was pretty sure this would work, and indeed La Belle Sauvage was straining at her mooring rope already, as if she sensed what Malcolm wanted.
Created on Fri Sep 21 16:42:12 EDT 2018 (updated Wed Sep 26 16:59:05 EDT 2018)

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