Wringer: Chapters 32–40

by Jerry Spinelli
In Waymer, boys are trained to become "wringers" (killers of pigeons) on their tenth birthdays. When Palmer adopts a stray pigeon as a pet, he must decide whether to fulfill his duty as a wringer or to challenge his town's traditions.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–12, Chapters 13–22, Chapters 23–31, Chapters 32–40

Here are links to our lists for other works by Jerry Spinelli: Maniac Magee, Milkweed, Stargirl
35 words 48 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    “What’s it look like I’m doin’?”
    “Eatin’?” replied Beans tentatively.
  2. flank
    a subfigure consisting of a side of something
    The Dumpster’s metal flank felt cool and crusty against his bare back.
  3. implore
    beg or request earnestly and urgently
    She implored. “But why? Why can’t you just hide him in the house? Or in my house?”
  4. graze
    feed as in a meadow or pasture
    Palmer, leading the way, pulled off the road by a field where horses were grazing.
  5. beeline
    the most direct route
    This went on for many minutes when suddenly the bike bolted on a beeline into the woods beyond.
  6. dense
    hard to pass through because of heavy growth
    She could not see an inch into the dense treeline.
  7. lax
    without rigor or strictness
    He noted two white powdery droppings that he had neglected to clean up. And a cereal box on the floor. He had been getting lax lately.
  8. compose
    make calm or quiet
    He composed his face.
  9. embrace
    the act of clasping another person in the arms
    She held out her arms. “Come here.” He went to her and was swallowed entirely in her embrace.
  10. squall
    make high-pitched, whiney noises
    Still he could hear them, Beans and Mutto squalling like alleycats on the back porch roof.
  11. brazen
    not held back by conventional ideas of behavior
    While Beans and Mutto waited, sitting brazenly across the street on Dorothy’s front steps, he led Henry into his house.
  12. impression
    an outward appearance
    Henry was so tall that the top of his head grazed the basketball net. And yet, somehow, he did not give an impression of bigness.
  13. cicada
    stout-bodied insect with large membranous wings
    He tumbled lifelessly through July, feeling as dry and empty as the cicada husks on the trees.
  14. barrack
    a building or group of buildings to house military personnel
    He threw away the shoe box that had served as both the soldiers’ barracks and Nipper’s roost. He kept the soldiers in his sock drawer.
  15. formidable
    inspiring fear or dread
    Sometimes the enemy was large and formidable, such as a hippo slipper; sometimes it was one pink, defenseless eraser.
  16. deployment
    the distribution of forces in preparation for battle or work
    Usually it came to no more than this: a deployment of troops, twenty-seven soldiers leaning, twenty-seven tiny olive-green rifles aiming, poised on the brink of battle.
  17. poised
    marked by balance or equilibrium and readiness for action
    Usually it came to no more than this: a deployment of troops, twenty-seven soldiers leaning, twenty-seven tiny olive-green rifles aiming, poised on the brink of battle.
  18. fusillade
    rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms
    A merciless fusillade the machine gun laid down, and the troops regrouped and joined the fire and the roar of war did not cease until the eraser was dead and cut to ribbons.
  19. churn
    stir cream vigorously in order to make butter
    Little kids on pastel bikes pedaled furiously, churning the heat to butter, gasping stories of wooden crates piled higher than skyscrapers, of crates broken into, pigeons flushed and killed, security guards posted.
  20. throttle
    kill by squeezing the throat of so as to cut off the air
    Then an old woman with a watering can began to sprinkle the road, and the meat plumped up and came together again with the feathers, and the old woman took the reconstituted pigeon in her hands—only now it wasn’t an old woman, it was a kid, a wringer, throttling the pigeon by the neck, and the pigeon had a beak that was soft like lips and the pigeon was speaking...
  21. jostle
    the act of forcing your way by pushing
    Several times in the noise and jostle he thought he heard Beans’s voice.
  22. tenement
    a run-down apartment house barely meeting minimal standards
    The top crates towered high above him, and the whole slatted, gobbling tenement occupied more space than the boarded-up station.
  23. whittle
    cut small bits or pare shavings from
    In the shade of the old ticket window a man sat whittling a stick.
  24. shrill
    having or emitting a high-pitched and sharp tone or tones
    His dreams had been noise, the birdscream of thousands, a shrill wail that came on like day itself until his own voice was swept away with it.
  25. seldom
    not often
    In fact, the birds seldom flew more than shoulder-high to a man before a blast of pellets stopped them.
  26. demented
    affected with madness or insanity
    Summer has nearly two months to run, but the shooting field, covered in feathers, has a look of gray, demented autumn.
  27. deuce
    two
    He opens two hatches at once. Out fly a pair of pigeons—boom—knocked from the air with one shot. A double kill! A rare deuce!
  28. gorge
    overeat or eat immodestly
    He would see the swollen plastic bags across the way, gorged on pigeon corpses, and for an unspeakable moment he would be inside, in a stinking muggery of limp necks and orange eyes dead as buttons, and he was sure that his bird was one of them.
  29. jabber
    talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
    The kid swung and pointed. “Pow! Pow!” And kept jabbering at Palmer. “And then I’ll be—”
  30. outraged
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    The only sound was the outraged howl of the purple-plastered kid.
  31. rousing
    capable of stirring enthusiasm or excitement
    The annual Pigeon Day shoot held here on Saturday, was declared a rousing success by the event’s organizers.
  32. quip
    make jokes or witty remarks
    More than 300 sharpshooters—“not all of them so sharp,” quipped one official—took aim on some 5,000 birds released on the Memorial Park soccer field.
  33. revenue
    the entire amount of income before any deductions are made
    Proceeds from shoot entry fees, plus revenue from the weeklong Family Fest, netted the community almost $34,000 for maintaining its park.
  34. premises
    land and the buildings on it
    Shooting was immediately halted, and the reckless lad, perhaps seeking an unusual pet for himself, was allowed to leave the premises with the bird.
  35. marksman
    someone skilled in shooting
    Certainly that lucky pigeon had not fallen under the aim of Howard Eckert. Eckert, 36, a dairyman from Harmony Farms, won this year’s Sharpshooter’s trophy as best marksman.
Created on Fri Dec 07 12:45:30 EST 2018 (updated Tue Dec 11 09:52:11 EST 2018)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.