Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All: List 5

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

This list covers "1945: Doorways."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
35 words 21 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. marionette
    a figure operated from above with strings by a puppeteer
    The girl jumped up and down like a marionette.
  2. impromptu
    with little or no preparation or forethought
    Frankie walked home through impromptu celebrations—people kissing and laughing, waltzing and hugging—her emotions seesawing between happiness and grief.
  3. distinguish
    mark as different
    Nancy served her toast, and she bit into it without tasting it, her mouth so dry that she couldn’t distinguish the bread from her tongue.
  4. disembodied
    not having a material form
    Though Frankie couldn’t see the ghosts, in some deep and wordless place she sensed their disembodied pain, their anxious agitation.
  5. pendulum
    an apparatus in which an object is mounted to swing freely
    The giant purse swung on Marion’s wrist like a pendulum.
  6. emaciated
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    “I am Jesus Christ returned,” said an emaciated woman shuffling in mismatched house slippers.
  7. rile
    disturb, especially by minor irritations
    “Sorry about the noise!” the nurse said cheerfully. “They’re not normally so riled up.”
  8. oblivion
    total forgetfulness
    Worse than the angry and unsettled ones were the silent ones drugged into slack-jawed oblivion, heads lolling in their wheelchairs.
  9. fray
    wear away by rubbing
    I wasn’t even trying to do it, and yet I felt myself unstitching, little spirals of silver spitting. My own fraying moon.
  10. deranged
    driven insane
    He said, “She broke into the house and attacked me, she’s deranged and hysterical, I have no idea who she is, she’s a stranger to us all.”
  11. roost
    sit, rest, or settle, as on a branch or perch
    My father’s voice boomed: “With all these crows roosting here, this building is nothing but a rookery.”
  12. atrium
    the central area in a building, open to the sky
    I was floating on the ceiling of the glass atrium with the birds that had found their way in.
  13. wily
    marked by skill in deception
    He said I was the whitest girl he’d ever seen, he asked me the name of my wily red fox, he said we looked like we’d stepped out of a fairy tale, “The Girl and the Wolf.”
  14. cobbler
    a person who makes or repairs shoes
    Frankie’s father cobbled shoes in the shop and his hammer said liar, liar, liar.
  15. convent
    a religious residence especially for nuns
    “Hey, I know!” said Cora, through a mouthful of oatmeal. “Why don’t Frankie and Toni join a convent! That’s what girls like them do anyway. I mean, what man would want to—”
  16. ruthless
    without mercy or pity
    The angel told me of the ruthless furnace of the world, the endless suffering that was its fuel.
  17. minion
    a servile or fawning dependent
    She spoke of Hitler’s suicide in his underground bunker, how he tested the cyanide on his favorite dog, Blondi, before he and his wife swallowed the capsules themselves, leaving the Allies with only his minions to punish.
  18. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    She told me of the most powerful bombs the world had ever seen, the plan to unleash them, the mushroom clouds, the radiation, the unspeakable, unfathomable tragedy of it all.
  19. writhing
    moving in a twisting or snake-like or wormlike fashion
    Frankie didn’t see her, couldn’t hear her, but sensed...something, someone, writhing on the stones, hair ropy with blood.
  20. eddy
    a miniature whirlpool or whirlwind
    The ghost floated back to the building, and Frankie followed the trail of her chill, rode along that icy eddy.
  21. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    She didn’t see the ghost in the corner, hair ropy with blood, she didn’t hear her plaintive keening.
  22. beseech
    ask for or request earnestly
    But she had a vision nonetheless, of a girl in the bed, feet in the stirrups, arms pinned, beseeching the nun who was walking away with her baby, “No, please, wait.”
  23. sprawling
    spreading out in different directions
    The Kents lived in a sprawling mansion on the far north side of the city, miles from the house in which I had first laid eyes on him.
  24. cavernous
    being or suggesting a large dark enclosed space
    In the cavernous foyer, Mrs. Charles Kent handed her parcels and her hat to the maid, asked for a cup of tea in the parlor.
  25. foyer
    a large entrance or reception room or area
    In the cavernous foyer, Mrs. Charles Kent handed her parcels and her hat to the maid, asked for a cup of tea in the parlor.
  26. parcel
    a wrapped package
    In the cavernous foyer, Mrs. Charles Kent handed her parcels and her hat to the maid, asked for a cup of tea in the parlor.
  27. taxidermy
    the art of mounting the skins of animals
    An enormous portrait of Charles Kent with two hounds hung over the bed, the head of a deer glared at me from the wall in the sitting room, an enormous taxidermied bear lurked in the corner.
  28. languish
    lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
    I found him in the bath, languishing in bubbles and steam.
  29. chafe
    tear or wear off the skin or make sore by abrading
    His downturned pouting mouth had the same too-pink cast, as if his lips were chafed, or stained.
  30. asphyxiate
    deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
    The flu had drowned me too, asphyxiated me with my own toxic fluids, my own blood, and his drowning echoed my drowning.
  31. mortar
    a substance used as a bond in masonry or for covering a wall
    The brick was dull and dusty, mortar falling in gray fingers to the dirt.
  32. piebald
    having sections or patches colored differently and brightly
    The shrubs and lawns were patchy and piebald and brown, the woods behind razed and sold off in lots.
  33. raze
    tear down so as to make flat with the ground
    The shrubs and lawns were patchy and piebald and brown, the woods behind razed and sold off in lots.
  34. transgress
    commit a sin; violate a law of God or a moral law
    I had transgressed, but she wasn’t a transgression. She was everything good and beautiful in the world.
  35. blanch
    turn pale, as if in fear
    Ada’s face blanched when she saw Dewey’s bloody arm.
Created on Mon Oct 14 09:57:07 EDT 2019 (updated Tue Oct 15 15:53:59 EDT 2019)

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