Johnny Tremain: Chapters 10–12

by Esther Forbes
The year is 1773, and fourteen-year-old Johnny is an apprentice silversmith in Boston. When a terrible accident threatens his future, Johnny must quickly adapt — just as the American colonists join forces to break free from British rule.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–4, Chapters 5–6, Chapters 7–9, Chapters 10–12
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. infantry
    an army unit consisting of soldiers who fight on foot
    The light infantry were the most active and cleverest men in each regiment. Lieutenant Stranger was a light infantry officer. These men were lightly armed and did scout and flanking work.
  2. firebrand
    someone who deliberately foments trouble
    But did the British know that both these firebrands were staying at the Clarks’ out in Lexington?
  3. sizable
    fairly large
    I’ll row over to Charlestown tonight, go to Lexington, and tell them a sizable force may soon move.
  4. negligence
    failure to act with the prudence of a reasonable person
    In the little light Johnny recognized the rolling black eye, poetic negligence of dress.
  5. disconsolate
    sad beyond comforting; incapable of being soothed
    He did not seem to feel any grief at abandoning Johnny, who sat disconsolately on his bed watching Rab.
  6. garret
    floor consisting of open space at the top of a house
    He went back to his garret and flung himself on his bed.
  7. lout
    an awkward, foolish person
    Says I’m a stupid lout not to know the difference between a parade saddle and a campaign saddle.
  8. punctilious
    marked by precise accordance with details
    Seemingly Gage, a punctilious man, had chosen Francis Smith because he had been in service longer than any of the other (and smarter) colonels.
  9. dilapidated
    in a state of decay, ruin, or deterioration
    The young man stuck a dilapidated hat with a broken feather on his head and his wife picked up a bottle of rum and poured it over the front of his torn jacket.
  10. jade
    an old or over-worked horse
    And falling off horses—I’ll not forget you and Parson Tomley’s ambling jade.
  11. inebriated
    stupefied or excited by a chemical substance
    It was also known that Billy Dawes had woven and bribed his inebriated way past the guards on the Neck.
  12. haggard
    showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
    The young man’s usually fresh-colored face was haggard. He knew the seriousness of this day for himself and for his country.
  13. lenient
    characterized by tolerance and mercy
    Then, too, I’d rather die fighting than on a gallows. Gage won’t be so lenient now—soon as he learns war has begun.
  14. shrewd
    marked by practical hardheaded intelligence
    Shops and schools were closed, and Johnny met a wreath of tiny children advancing and chanting, ‘School’s done. War’s begun.’ It looked to him they were shrewder guessers than their elders who were trying to believe that not a shot had been, or would be, fired.
  15. animosity
    a feeling of ill will arousing active hostility
    Tears streamed down her thick, red cheeks and, all old animosity forgotten, she flung herself upon Johnny.
  16. flaunt
    display proudly
    The sun was bright that day with only breeze enough to ruffle the horses’ manes, flaunt scarlet riding capes, float the flag of England.
  17. artillery
    large but transportable armament
    It was the Fourth, the Twenty-Third, and the Forty-Seventh who were being sent out, plus five hundred marines, plus a small artillery train, and a few baggage wagons.
  18. glib
    artfully persuasive in speech
    And their faces were so bland and they reassured the people so glibly that not a shot had been fired, not a person killed and begged all and sundry so smoothly to keep calm and go to their shops or their homes, Johnny was confident that the British as well as the inhabitants had heard now that the war had begun.
  19. jubilation
    a feeling of extreme joy
    And every minute the temper of the soldiers was growing shorter and a queer feeling of jubilation was apparent among the people.
  20. insurrection
    organized opposition to authority
    They are all going to London until this insur­rection, as they call it, is over.
  21. protege
    a person who receives support from an influential patron
    ‘Yes, dear, you will—when I am Lady Pryor-Morton and you my little protégée.’
  22. swindle
    the act of cheating by some fraudulent scheme
    First of all, Papa never meant to trick you out of your cup. He honestly thought it was an attempt at swindle.
  23. heretic
    a person whose religious beliefs conflict with church dogma
    Then his family, of course, would have none of her, she being a heretic.
  24. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    He said it tentatively.
    ‘Aunt Lavinia?’
  25. brood
    think moodily or anxiously about something
    He would have liked to sit quietly for a moment, brood over what Miss Lavinia had told him.
  26. bedraggled
    limp, untidy, and soiled
    Bedraggled, dirty, torn uniforms, torn flesh, lost equipment. Faces ghastly with fatigue and pain.
  27. casualty
    someone injured or killed in a military engagement
    Johnny would not be able to tell Doctor Warren the exact number of casualties the British had suffered, but he could tell him that they thought they were heavy.
  28. skirmish
    a minor short-term fight
    And there had been another skirmish. You might even call it a battle, at North Bridge.
  29. reinforcement
    additional support for an existing military operation
    Obviously Smith had been a little afraid of leaving the safety of the village. He would wait where he was for the reinforcements he had sent for, even before Lexington.
  30. harry
    annoy continually or chronically
    But by the time the British got back to Lexington from Concord, the Lexington men were ready for them. And they fit ’em and harried ’em all the way to Charlestown.
  31. invincible
    incapable of being overcome or subdued
    He had seen so much of the British army he had come half to believe that they were, even as they said, invincible. No Yankee farmers could stand up to them.
  32. gaudy
    tastelessly showy
    He had been impressed with their perfection of equipment, discipline, grand gaudy uniforms, the pride of their officers.
  33. desolate
    having few or no inhabitants
    He took the road for Cambridge, crossing desolate Charlestown Common with its salt marshes, clay pits, gallows, and gibbet.
  34. gibbet
    an instrument of public execution
    He took the road for Cambridge, crossing desolate Charlestown Common with its salt marshes, clay pits, gallows, and gibbet.
  35. pulpit
    a platform raised to give prominence to the person on it
    They had come as they were from the plow, the shop, even from the pulpit.
  36. epaulet
    an ornamental cloth pad worn on the shoulder
    A man, who told Johnny he was a colonel—he did have a pair of home-made epaulets sewed to his old hunting shirt—said that the Committee of Safety was sitting at the Hastings’ house, trying to work out some way these civilians might be turned into soldiers.
  37. doff
    remove
    Where should they be buried? The minister said they were to be laid in the lot set aside for slaves, but all who had hats doffed them as friend and foe passed by.
  38. surfeit
    become sickeningly sweet or excessive
    Tired as he was and surfeited with the sight of blood and suffering, he broke the news as best he could.
  39. larder
    a small storeroom for storing foods or wines
    Johnny went to the larder and found bread and sour milk for the animals.
  40. deride
    treat or speak of with contempt
    The old woman throwing stones at crows who cawed and derided her was his old woman—and they his crows.
Created on Thu Jan 14 14:53:29 EST 2016 (updated Thu Aug 11 11:47:36 EDT 2022)

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