Beloved: Part 2

by Toni Morrison
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Morrison's novel tells the story of Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman who is haunted by her past.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Here are links to our lists for other works by Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye, Sula, Jazz
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. forewarning
    an early notification about a future event
    Maybe he should have left it alone; maybe Sethe would have gotten around to telling him herself; maybe he was not the high-minded Soldier of Christ he thought he was, but an ordinary, plain meddler who had interrupted something going along just fine for the sake of truth and forewarning, things he set much store by.
  2. conflagration
    a violent clash or conflict
    Out on Bluestone Road he thought he heard a conflagration of hasty voices—loud, urgent, all speaking at once so he could not make out what they were talking about or to whom.
  3. cipher
    convert ordinary language into code
    But something was wrong with the order of the words and he couldn’t describe or cipher it to save his life.
  4. manumission
    the formal act of freeing from slavery
    No more discussions, stormy or quiet, about the true meaning of the Fugitive Bill, the Settlement Fee...antislavery, manumission...Republicans, Dred Scott, book learning, Sojourner’s high-wheeled buggy, the Colored Ladies of Delaware, Ohio, and the other weighty issues that held them in chairs, scraping the floorboards or pacing them in agony or exhilaration.
  5. exhilaration
    the feeling of lively and cheerful joy
    No more discussions, stormy or quiet, about the true meaning of the Fugitive Bill, the Settlement Fee...antislavery, manumission...Republicans, Dred Scott, book learning, Sojourner’s high-wheeled buggy, the Colored Ladies of Delaware, Ohio, and the other weighty issues that held them in chairs, scraping the floorboards or pacing them in agony or exhilaration.
  6. plait
    a hairdo formed by braiding or twisting the hair
    Her hair, which Denver had braided into twenty or thirty plaits, curved toward her shoulders like arms.
  7. exhume
    dig up for reburial or for medical investigation
    No smashing with an ax head before it is decently exhumed from the grave that has hidden it all this time.
  8. rebuke
    censure severely or angrily
    Her authority in the pulpit, her dance in the Clearing, her powerful Call (she didn’t deliver sermons or preach—insisting she was too ignorant for that—she called and the hearing heard)—all that had been mocked and rebuked by the bloodspill in her backyard.
  9. contentious
    involving or likely to cause controversy
    Now, eight years after her contentious funeral and eighteen years after the Misery, he changed his mind.
  10. exhort
    spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts
    “That’s one other thing took away from me,” she said, and that was when he exhorted her, pleaded with her not to quit, no matter what.
  11. upbraid
    express criticism towards
    Mistaking her, upbraiding her, owing her, now he needed to let her know he knew, and to get right with her and her kin.
  12. crotchety
    having a difficult and contrary disposition
    But each year, following the death of his son in the War, he grew more and more crotchety.
  13. cogitation
    a carefully considered thought about something
    “My cogitation right now is Sweet Home.”
  14. rectify
    make right or correct
    “If I did you harm, I’m here to rectify it.”
  15. cameo
    engraving or carving in low relief on a stone
    He give Vashti that to wear. A cameo on a black ribbon.
Created on Sat Dec 14 16:58:39 EST 2013 (updated Mon Jul 28 10:48:15 EDT 2025)

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