Doing Time Online: Tuesday, September 14–Tuesday, September 21

by Jan Siebold
When Mitchell is caught playing a mean-spirited prank on an elderly neighbor, his punishment is to chat online with a resident of a nursing home.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: September 14–September 21, September 23–October 1, October 5–October 12
25 words 309 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. foul
    highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
    No rudeness or foul language, understand?
  2. backfire
    return with an undesired effect
    A practical joke backfires, and suddenly you’re treated like Jack the Ripper.
  3. juvenile
    of or relating to children or young people
    Probably some social worker type of person had come up with this program called “O.L.D. Friend” for juvenile offenders.
  4. ancient
    very old
    I suppose you could also take it to mean “old” as in “longtime,” or “old” as in “ancient.”
  5. resident
    someone who lives at a particular place for a long period
    Basically, I had to show up at the police station every Tuesday and Thursday for a month to have a computer “chat” with a resident of the Maple Grove Nursing Home somewhere across the state.
  6. wisdom
    accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment
    I guess the logic behind the whole plan was that old people have a lot of wisdom to share.
  7. jagged
    having a sharply uneven surface or outline
    Near the ring, someone had carved the word “Rats” in jagged letters.
  8. miserable
    of very poor quality or condition
    I'll bet there's not a single maple tree, much less a whole grove of them, within a mile of this miserable place.
  9. bland
    lacking taste or flavor or tang
    The food is bland.
  10. chauffeur
    a man paid to drive a privately owned car
    I guess you could call him my wheelchair chauffeur.
  11. humanitarian
    someone concerned with the interests and welfare of people
    He’s not known for being a humanitarian.
  12. leer
    look suggestively or obliquely
    His large round face with its wide-set eyes leered down at me like a giant floating balloon that I’d seen in a Thanksgiving Day parade.
  13. shuffle
    walk by dragging one's feet
    Trotter laughed and shuffled away.
  14. eliminate
    remove from a contest or race
    I went on to the countywide competition, but I was eliminated there.
  15. trivia
    something of small importance
    It always has three parts: instructions for dinner, a reminder to do my homework, and a trivia question.
  16. caption
    brief description accompanying an illustration
    I looked up Lindbergh in the encyclopedia, and sure enough, the answer was right in the caption of the photo.
  17. haunt
    follow stealthily or pursue like a ghost
    The confused, frightened look on Mrs. Wheeler’s face that night still haunted me.
  18. peer
    look searchingly
    I peered out, straining to see if Mrs. Wheeler’s lights were on.
  19. mutter
    talk indistinctly; usually in a low voice
    “It’s not fair,” I muttered. “It was all his fault.”
  20. ramble
    continue talking or writing in a purposeless manner
    I figured out after our last two chats how you keep asking me questions so that I'll ramble on, and then you don't have to write so much.
  21. occur
    come to one's mind
    Has it occurred to you that this program might be important to Wootie Hayes?
  22. assign
    select something or someone for a specific purpose
    “Can’t you just assign someone else to be her O.L.D. Friend?”
  23. abolish
    do away with
    Didn’t your old man hear that slavery was abolished?”
  24. deliberately
    with intention; in an intentional manner
    Whenever my mom used to ask me to do anything around the house, I’d either deliberately mess it up or take forever to do it.
  25. smirk
    smile in a mocking or condescending way
    He smirked, and went on.
Created on Mon Mar 30 20:34:42 EDT 2015 (updated Wed Sep 05 16:52:12 EDT 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.