Island of the Blue Dolphins: Chapters 10–19

by Scott O'Dell
Karana's people have left her behind on the island where she was born. Now she must learn to survive while contending with fearsome wild dogs, an unforgiving landscape, and her own loneliness.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–19, Chapter 20–Afterword
15 words 1946 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. idly
    in a lazy, casual, or aimless way
    The canoe drifted idly on the calm sea while these thoughts went over and over in my mind, but when I saw the water seeping through the crack again, I picked up the paddle.
  2. omen
    a sign of a thing about to happen
    Dolphins are animals of good omen.
  3. chafe
    tear or wear off the skin or make sore by abrading
    It made me happy to have them swimming around the canoe, and though my hands had begun to bleed from the chafing of the paddle, just watching them made me forget the pain.
  4. brackish
    slightly salty
    The spring was better than the one near the headland, being less brackish and having a steadier flow of water.
  5. clamor
    a loud, harsh, or strident noise
    At dawn when the clamor started again I left and went back to the headland.
  6. sinew
    a band of tissue connecting a muscle to its bony attachment
    I would have used seal sinew to bind the ribs together, for this is stronger than kelp, but wild animals like it and soon would have gnawed the fence down.
  7. gruel
    a thin porridge
    By heating small stones and dropping them into a mixture of water and seeds in the basket I could make gruel.
  8. ember
    a hot, smoldering fragment of wood left from a fire
    The next night I would remove the ashes and blow on the embers.
  9. haste
    a condition of urgency making it necessary to hurry
    He came toward me and, in haste to get out of his way, not knowing whether he was bent on attacking me, I stepped back.
  10. warily
    in a manner marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    At that moment, while he lay there on the grass with the dog circling warily and the pack moving slowly toward him, without knowing that I did so, I fitted an arrow to the bow.
  11. crevice
    a long narrow opening
    From the sunny cliffs, in crevices where no one would think anything could grow, sprang the little red and yellow fountains of the comul bush.
  12. stunted
    inferior in size or quality
    A pair of these birds made a nest in a stunted tree near my house.
  13. singe
    burn superficially or lightly
    After the Aleuts had killed our men at Coral Cove, all the women of our tribe had singed their hair short as a sign of mourning.
  14. mourning
    state of sorrow over the death or departure of a loved one
    After the Aleuts had killed our men at Coral Cove, all the women of our tribe had singed their hair short as a sign of mourning.
  15. flail
    thrash about
    The giant was flailing his arms, struggling to get back into the water.
Created on Mon Nov 23 21:10:47 EST 2015 (updated Thu Aug 14 15:27:25 EDT 2025)

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