Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All: List 3

by Laura Ruby
Sisters Frankie and Toni struggle to survive on their own in the shadow of World War II.

This list covers "1943: Wolves."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 29 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. dank
    unpleasantly cool and humid
    I drifted through the door into the dark, dank space inside.
  2. wiry
    lean but strong
    She was also tall, white arms thin and wiry, with brown hair and blue eyes so bright they burned with a strange energy.
  3. lope
    run easily
    As the bartender passed through her, she stiffened, yelled, Kiss me where I sat on Saturday, you loping ape!
  4. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    Tentatively, I took a sip of the bourbon.
  5. decolletage
    a low-cut neckline on a woman's dress
    The fish on her chest snapped its tail at me before diving into what Mother would have referred to as her “décolletage.”
  6. bodice
    part of a dress above the waist
    So I tucked a copy of Detective Story given to me by my friend Harriet into the bodice of my day dress and took myself to the woods.
  7. diverting
    providing enjoyment; pleasantly entertaining
    My mother would have burned that magazine for trash had she caught me with it, but I found it only mildly diverting.
  8. lull
    make calm or still
    It was shockingly cold, but the cold numbed my cuts and the scrapes, and the gentle lapping of the water lulled and cradled me.
  9. gild
    decorate with, or as if with, gold leaf or liquid gold
    The intervening year had sharpened her cheekbones, gilded her strawberry-blond hair with bright veins of gold, and given her gaze a knowing calm that made some of the girls believe she could read their minds.
  10. rivet
    fasten with a metal fastener
    What did she do all day? Rivet things? How did one rivet a thing? What kind of thing needed to be riveted? A boat? A plane?
  11. retribution
    a justly deserved penalty
    I giggled at my own joke, more lunacy because there was no Mad Maureen here to appreciate it, and also because I’d died because of it. Divine intervention, my mother called it, divine retribution.
  12. torrent
    an overwhelming number or amount
    Shock that she saw me, shock that she heard me, made the words tumble out in a torrent.
  13. hearth
    a built-in space in a wall where a fire can be built
    Inside the house was a tidy bed, a warm hearth, and a spindle. The fairy told the girl to spin moss into yarn every day, and every day, when her work was done, she would be paid in food and wood for that hearth.
  14. spindle
    a stick or pin used to twist the yarn when making thread
    Inside the house was a tidy bed, a warm hearth, and a spindle. The fairy told the girl to spin moss into yarn every day, and every day, when her work was done, she would be paid in food and wood for that hearth.
  15. loll
    hang loosely or laxly
    The fox smiled, its tongue lolling like a party favor.
  16. stark
    providing no shelter or sustenance
    Instead of finding the orphanage comfortably, soothingly, punishingly gray and somber, stark and sad, churchy and still, I stumbled into a parade, the Parade of Corpus Christi.
  17. bramble
    any of various rough thorny shrubs or vines
    The fox dodged and darted, evading outstretched hands, as if they were nothing but branches and brambles, insignificant and harmless.
  18. rueful
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    She gave me a rueful smile.
  19. upstanding
    meriting respect or esteem
    My parents had a young man in mind for me, she said. A fine, upstanding man.
  20. ebb
    fall away or decline
    Light! more light! the shadows deepen,
    And my life is ebbing low,
    Throw the windows widely open:
    Light! more light! before I go.
  21. balmy
    mild and pleasant
    Softly let the balmy sunshine
    Play around my dying bed,
    E’er the dimly lighted valley
    I with lonely feet must tread.
  22. wane
    become smaller
    Light! more light! for Death is weaving
    Shadows ’round my waning sight,
    And I fain would gaze upon him
    Through a stream of earthly light.
  23. fain
    in a willing manner
    Light! more light! for Death is weaving
    Shadows ’round my waning sight,
    And I fain would gaze upon him
    Through a stream of earthly light.
  24. astray
    away from the right path or direction
    I didn't tell her about the fairy lights that led the hobbits astray, how they had become lost from one another.
  25. abolitionist
    a reformer who favors putting an end to slavery
    That’s a poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. She was an abolitionist and suffragist.
  26. suffragist
    an advocate of the extension of voting rights
    That’s a poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. She was an abolitionist and suffragist.
  27. subdued
    quieted and brought under control
    The girls of Frankie’s cottage were subdued.
  28. pert
    characterized by a lightly saucy or impudent quality
    Sister was tired these days—less tart, less pert.
  29. cipher
    a message written in a secret code
    Next to me, Wolf yawned—in imitation or in boredom, I couldn’t be sure.
    A cipher, that Wolf.
  30. wayward
    resistant to guidance or discipline
    I was mildly curious if she would have an embolism and have to haunt the museum, forever flapping and shouting at a wayward orphan in an airplane.
  31. stifle
    smother or suppress
    The rest of the orphans giggled, but then tried to stifle themselves when Sister Bert came over.
  32. dispatch
    an official report, usually sent in haste
    Frankie didn’t know that the boys opened every letter, any letter, as if it were a dispatch from another world, a kinder one, a pleasant dream they’d once had when they were young.
  33. auxiliary
    functioning in a supporting capacity
    “I’m telling ya, Fran-ces-ca, it’s the life. I’m going to join up, Frankie. They have a women’s auxiliary.”
  34. wan
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    His face was wan and drawn, and there were lines around his eyes, like he’d gotten old overnight.
  35. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    Somehow hearing that happy song at such a sad time made her that much sadder, as if happy songs were nothing but wishes, fleeting as the first blooms of spring.
  36. shorthand
    a method of writing rapidly
    Frankie was supposed to be doing her chores, she was supposed to be practicing her shorthand.
  37. undermine
    weaken or impair, especially gradually
    She was arrested and found guilty of undermining morale.
  38. burnish
    polish and make shiny
    We sat in the light court, the muted sunshine through the glass ceiling burnishing everything in gold.
  39. shoddy
    of inferior workmanship and materials
    After the Great Fire, I said, there was a temporary city hall on this site. Some said it was so shoddily built, crows built their nests everywhere.
  40. rook
    deprive of by deceit
    My father told me that since city hall was full of crooks, any citizen who entered was bound to be rooked. The architects never cared for the name, but it stuck.
    Was your father rooked?
Created on Mon Oct 14 09:56:09 EDT 2019 (updated Tue Oct 15 16:04:43 EDT 2019)

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