A Snake Falls to Earth: List 3

by Darcie Little Badger
When she was a child, Nina heard stories about shape-shifters from her great-great-grandmother; at 16, Nina encounters a shape-shifter who has come to Earth seeking a cure for his companion's illness.

This list covers "Nina, Age 15"–"Cottonmouth Meets the Scribes."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 43 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. exuberant
    joyously unrestrained
    Once, when her father was watching basketball in the living room, he cheered so exuberantly at a three-pointer that his voice infiltrated Nina's story about the alley raccoons.
  2. curate
    organize and oversee items in a collection or exhibit
    Thus, one side of the room was a mess, while the other was clean and clutter-free, with a self- curated selection of posters taped to the wall.
  3. gimmick
    any clever maneuver
    That was their gimmick: they told tales as they cut hair. Jess claimed that anyone who wanted a chance at fame on the app had to have an appealing gimmick.
  4. introspection
    contemplation of your own thoughts and desires and conduct
    In moments of introspection, Nina assumed she was being influenced by popular St0ryte11er videos; universe-tier St0ryte11ers assumed that a million strangers would listen in, and they chose their words accordingly.
  5. solemn
    characterized by a firm belief in your opinions
    “I’m not one of those conspiracy theorists who believes the two worlds are still actively connected. The joined era is over.” A solemn shrug.
  6. conspicuous
    obvious to the eye or mind
    She conspicuously placed a shoebox on the desk, in view of the camera.
  7. gait
    a person's manner of walking
    They’re father and son, I think, ’cause they look similar and walk with the same long gait.
  8. grating
    unpleasantly harsh in sound
    The older guy laughed in a shrill, kinda grating way, and the younger one cried out, ‘Can’t see with these.’
  9. parlance
    a manner of speaking natural to a language's native speakers
    Thanks to the influence of the daredevil world-journeyers in their pack, she and Risk dropped the most obscure Earth terms in their parlance.
  10. poised
    marked by balance or equilibrium and readiness for action
    I slowly turned my head, careful not to jostle the pins poised to sting the inexplicably tender skin of my false form.
  11. caricature
    a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect
    After glancing between the paper and me a couple times, she flipped it around to reveal an ink caricature of a bespectacled, leering cottonmouth.
  12. perfunctory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    The hunter smiled in a tight, perfunctory manner.
  13. consequential
    having important effects or results
    Trainees don’t get the consequential jobs. That doesn’t mean this work is easy.
  14. patronizing
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
    And—based on her patronizing grin and the lack of force behind her kicks and punches—I got the sense that she was playing, much like an adult bear play-fights with a cub.
  15. earnest
    not distracted by anything unrelated to the goal
    Instead of listening to me, they collided in an earnest exchange of blows, deflections, and dodges.
  16. contrite
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    I did my best, and before long, the hunter’s clipboard carried a bounty for my blanket and one handwritten apology: Sorry about your toe. It won’t happen again.
    “Guess that’s contrite enough,” the hunter said.
  17. placate
    cause to be more favorably inclined
    She raised her free hand in a placating manner. “Relax. Nobody knows, and I’m a professional.”
  18. adversarial
    characterized by feelings of intense dislike or hostility
    The last thing I needed was an adversarial relationship with a porcupine. He might put quills in my bedroll.
  19. wheelhouse
    a person’s area of interest, skill, or expertise
    She specializes in finding lost children, but I figure a lost sibling is in her wheelhouse.
  20. trundle
    move slowly or heavily
    I watched the hunter trundle away, her body quickly merging with the texture of the forest.
  21. skiff
    a small boat propelled by oars or by sails or by a motor
    “I think it's time,” I told Ami, surveying my new rivercraft, a wide skiff with two benches.
  22. blight
    something that spoils, destroys, or impairs
    But Paul had complained that her wall was a blight. There were steep fines for blights. Didn’t matter that the graffiti had been left by strangers.
  23. covet
    wish, long, or crave for
    Plus, if he really wanted to collect plots of South Texas, there were nearby sellers itching for a deal. Yet it was Grandma’s he coveted.
  24. purport
    have the often misleading appearance of being or intending
    There, she could see her phone screen, as direct sunlight turned it into a blank-looking rectangle, despite purported “outdoor-friendly” technology.
  25. elusive
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    One of the top links was a pop-science essay entitled “Millennia after the Joined Era, the Science of Two Worlds Remains Elusive.”
  26. anomaly
    deviation from the normal or common order, form, or rule
    Researchers hypothesize that the largest, strongest crossing zones—through which most spirits journey—exert an influence on Earth, resulting in measurable magnetic and temperature anomalies.
  27. vie
    compete for something
    Beverage companies were always vying for new sources of freshwater.
  28. privy
    informed about something secret or not generally known
    It seemed as if the twins were privy to a secret, catchy beat, an internal soundtrack that was so captivating, they couldn’t help but move.
  29. preen
    clean with one's bill
    Brightest, still in their bird form, waited on the roof, idly preening their fluffy leg feathers.
  30. somberly
    in a serious and solemn manner
    “I’ve never seen a toad like Ami before,” Reign commented somberly.
  31. complement
    make perfect or supply what is wanting
    She’d also applied bright coral lipstick, a color that complemented her skin tone better than the rose-toned pinks in her mother's makeup cabinet.
  32. sustenance
    a source of food or nourishment
    Despairing, Fearless sprinted back to the night watch bonfire and flung her shortbow into the sparking flames. That weapon was built for sustenance hunting. It could not kill beastly monsters with metal bodies and glowing eyes.
  33. encompass
    include in scope
    You know the way these old stories go. Usually, there is no single, all- encompassing end. There are little resolutions and enduring questions. One story bleeds into the next.
  34. novelty
    originality by virtue of being refreshingly new
    Sometimes, I almost forgot that Earth existed. Other times, it was just a source of vanishing novelties.
  35. pallor
    an unnatural lack of color in the skin
    Although my friend's pallor had improved slightly, his eyes were tightly shut, with moisture welling along his eyelids, as if Ami was dreaming of a sandstorm, of being pelted by grains of dust.
  36. incredulity
    doubt about the truth of something
    “Reverse the irreversible,” Risk restated, her bushy eyebrows squishing with incredulity.
  37. harried
    troubled persistently, especially with petty annoyances
    Their minder, a harried young coyote man who wore an ink-stained apron, seemed torn between greeting us and supervising the rowdy babies.
  38. transcriber
    someone who makes a written version of spoken material
    The new chemistry books are in, and Zale’s one of our fastest transcribers. He’s racing to copy a textbook before it vanishes.
  39. gauzy
    so thin as to transmit light
    Their sharp nails tore holes in the gauzy fabric of her capes, but she didn’t seem to mind.
  40. inextricably
    in a manner incapable of being disentangled or untied
    Reign hunched over the sleeping puppies, as if subconsciously trying to shield them from the horrors of two worlds: here and there, inextricably tethered together.
Created on Wed Dec 01 14:54:40 EST 2021 (updated Fri Dec 03 13:10:46 EST 2021)

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