Gone: Chapters 17–26

by Michael Grant
In the first book of the Gone series, the children of Perdido Beach wake up one morning to discover that everyone over the age of 14 has disappeared and many of town's remaining inhabitants have developed strange supernatural powers.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–16, Chapters 17–26, Chapters 27–37, Chapter 38–Final
40 words 7 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. squalid
    foul and run-down and repulsive
    In the three days since she had accidentally become the person responsible for this squalid, dark, windowless, joyless, subterranean kingdom of misery beneath the church, Dahra had done all sorts of things she never thought she could do.
  2. subterranean
    being or operating under the surface of the earth
    In the three days since she had accidentally become the person responsible for this squalid, dark, windowless, joyless, subterranean kingdom of misery beneath the church, Dahra had done all sorts of things she never thought she could do.
  3. hallowed
    worthy of religious veneration
    “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
  4. foreboding
    a feeling of evil to come
    Albert stood with his keys in one hand and his McDonald’s-issue cap in his other hand—he had taken it off out of respect for the dead—and let a sense of gloom and foreboding wash over him.
  5. disquiet
    a feeling of mild anxiety about possible developments
    None of which changed the fact that right now, with the smell of fresh-turned earth in his nostrils and disquiet boring holes in his brain, he would have loved to be watching one of his mother’s favorite gruesome crime shows and sneaking popcorn out of the bowl on her lap.
  6. meager
    deficient in amount or quality or extent
    He popped one in his mouth and began to walk the meager stacks.
  7. lurid
    horrible in fierceness or savagery
    It turned over and over, swirling through memories of pain, memories of terror, flashes of her grandfather’s empty seat, the tumble down the slope, the buzzards, the lion. But as lurid as all those images were, they were just fresh paint splashed on more permanent images.
  8. naive
    marked by or showing unaffected simplicity
    She wasn’t naïve: She never thought Tony loved her or anything. She knew he was using her.
  9. garbled
    lacking orderly continuity
    And then Lana heard, or thought she heard, a garbled whisper.
  10. poised
    marked by balance or equilibrium and readiness for action
    Quinn was poised to knock on the door of their third house that morning.
  11. render
    cause to become
    It was going to be a while before every home in Perdido Beach had been searched and rendered safe.
  12. cipher
    a person of no influence
    She wore the Coates uniform and had seemed, up until this moment, almost a cipher. She never joked or played around, just did what she was supposed to do, following Sam’s lead.
  13. nonplussed
    filled with bewilderment
    Caine looked nonplussed. “What? Oh. Great. I have bigger problems. Give it to Diana. And get out.”
  14. guttural
    relating to or articulated in the throat
    “Remember who’s the boss, Drake,” Caine said, his voice low, guttural, like it was coming from an animal.
  15. listless
    lacking zest or vivacity
    There was an open umbrella blowing listlessly down the street, moving an inch or two at a time.
  16. tamp
    press down tightly
    He could see his own fear reflected in her and now he was trying to tamp it down.
  17. aback
    by surprise
    He was clearly taken aback. His eyes twinkled in a way she liked, and he smiled lopsidedly.
  18. apt
    being of striking appropriateness and relevance
    “I am, a little. It may turn out to be an apt analogy.”
    “You’re only saying ‘apt analogy’ to remind me you’re smarter than I am,” he teased.
  19. slough
    cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers
    He shrugged. He had a way of doing that in a way that didn’t express doubt or uncertainty but was more like a person sloughing off a heavy burden, freeing himself up to act.
  20. inflection
    the modification of pitch, tone, or volume when speaking
    “You have to think about yourself,” Astrid said without inflection.
  21. seethe
    be in an agitated emotional state
    For the ten minutes it took Astrid to soothe her little brother and redirect him to his video game, Sam just seethed.
  22. tout
    advertise in strongly positive terms
    Brightly colored posters still hung over their heads touting specials and price reductions.
  23. surreptitiously
    in a secretive manner
    He rolled over onto his hands and knees and tried to surreptitiously scrape the Mylar against the concrete.
  24. laconic
    brief and to the point
    “Yeah,” Diana said laconically.
  25. rile
    disturb, especially by minor irritations
    To Astrid, she said, “Better behave yourself, he’s all riled up now.”
  26. insouciant
    marked by unconcern
    Astrid felt ashamed of her own fear. Ashamed that she couldn’t look at the thug who leaned insouciantly against the wall.
  27. sap
    deplete
    Astrid felt dread sap her strength.
  28. opine
    express one's view openly and without fear or hesitation
    “No way he presses two hundred,” Orc opined.
  29. lope
    a slow pace of running
    They were moving at an easy lope, not an all-out run, but a jog they could sustain.
  30. intuitive
    obtained through instinctive knowledge
    And there was a matter of tactics that Sam understood intuitively: Caine had more power, so Sam would need more speed.
  31. marina
    a fancy dock for small yachts and cabin cruisers
    The marina wasn’t large, just forty slips, about half of them full.
  32. ungainly
    lacking grace in movement or posture
    A lot of boats were up out of the water on blocks, looking ungainly and like a stiff breeze might topple them.
  33. ratchet
    move by degrees in one direction only
    The loading of shells into the clip. Sliding the clip into the butt of the gun. Ratcheting the slide to lift a round into place. Clicking the safety.
  34. recess
    put into an enclosure that is set back
    She shoved the recliner aside and rolled up the rug. There was a recessed steel ring. She pulled it up.
  35. aversion
    a feeling of intense dislike
    Lana felt a profound aversion to the idea of venturing into the wild again. She’d come very, very close to dying the last time.
  36. gunwale
    a plank or ridge at the top of the side of a boat
    Sam swam at full speed and soon had his hand on the gunwale of the Boston Whaler. Quinn hauled him aboard.
  37. prow
    the front part of a vessel
    The tall, dagger-sharp prow ran up over the left half of the Boston Whaler’s stern.
  38. askew
    turned or twisted to one side
    The Whaler had taken a bad beating. The stern was crushed, the railings on the left side were gone, the black-cowled engine was askew but still attached.
  39. starboard
    located on the right side of a ship or aircraft
    Sam swam, snagged the starboard gunwale, and held on.
  40. tiller
    lever used to turn the rudder on a boat
    He set the tiller on a course that followed the long, curved barrier.
Created on Wed Aug 12 08:58:41 EDT 2020 (updated Wed Aug 19 12:00:00 EDT 2020)

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