Man Made Monsters: List 1

by Andrea L. Rogers
In eighteen stories spanning two centuries and territories throughout North America, members of a Cherokee family battle human and supernatural monsters.

This list covers "An Old-Fashioned Girl"–"Man Made Monsters."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 78 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. pallet
    a mattress filled with straw or a pad made of quilts
    I placed it next to my pallet in the wagon and covered the whole thing with a lightweight cotton cloth we had woven.
  2. whinny
    make a characteristic sound, of a horse
    Our horses whinnied and their ears and bodies turned toward the road.
  3. satiate
    fill to satisfaction
    In my confusion, the blood tasted first of salty water, then milk. I found myself sucking in spite of my horror, and as I sucked, hunger gave me a strength rooted in satiating my thirst.
  4. brandish
    exhibit aggressively
    The boy stood over her, brandishing a large knife.
  5. flux
    a flow or discharge
    I believed the doctor had infected me with the bloody flux.
  6. permeate
    spread or diffuse through
    In the fire, grease popped and smoke from burning flesh permeated my hair and clothing from the burning of my family.
  7. smolder
    burn slowly and without a flame
    Using the lance to poke at the smoldering blanket, I tried to count the skulls in the dying fire.
  8. immolate
    kill as a sacrifice, especially by fire
    In the past my tribe burned the homes of the dead. I wondered if Herr Doktor had immolated my family because he knew that, or simply to destroy the evidence of his feeding.
  9. thicket
    a dense growth of bushes
    My people had been headed for the brush thicket around Caddo Lake.
  10. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    Her brown pupils were dark and her soft pink tongue darted tentatively to taste the salt on my cheek.
  11. venison
    meat from a deer used as food
    How many times had we needed meat, been grateful for a butchered deer brought to us when our kettle was empty? It made me sick to leave the venison to rot on the ground.
  12. avarice
    reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth
    Greed and avarice have no mercy.
  13. sporadic
    recurring in scattered or unpredictable instances
    For many citizens, the sporadic payments for the seizure of our lands in the south creates a hardship citizens shouldn’t encumber and can’t afford.
  14. encumber
    hold back, impede, or weigh down
    For many citizens, the sporadic payments for the seizure of our lands in the south creates a hardship citizens shouldn’t encumber and can’t afford.
  15. tortuous
    marked by repeated turns and bends
    Our people were promised money for the soil and homes and livestock left behind (though not for the children and elders who died on the tortuous walk to Indian Territory).
  16. compensate
    make amends for
    Money could never compensate for our dead.
  17. seminary
    a private place of education for the young
    Father says the Cherokee Female Seminary will not be able to enroll students in the fall, as the Nation can’t continue to pay teachers or cover the students’ board.
  18. akin
    similar in quality or character
    Lila seemed to be under the impression that marrying a man who was a step away from the Nation’s Chief would be akin to being the wife of a president, or at least a senator, in Washington.
  19. relent
    give in, as to influence or pressure
    I will live there, by God, she said, stomping her well-heeled foot until he relented.
  20. abhor
    feel hatred or disgust toward
    The house is huge, much like the plantation homes my Eastern-born stepmother claims to abhor.
  21. rabid
    marked by excessive enthusiasm for a cause or idea
    He would talk of science and medical experiments and get a glazed, nearly rabid look in his eyes.
  22. unguent
    preparation applied externally as a remedy or for soothing
    There is quite a treasure trove of scientific papers and books and unguents and equipment tucked away in a large wooden crate.
  23. prevalent
    most frequent or common
    Cherokees do not, generally, have the low opinion of women’s intellect I see so prevalent in American society.
  24. noxious
    injurious to physical or mental health
    There is a paper on “Observations on Apparent Death from Drowning, Hanging, Suffocation by Noxious Vapours, Fainting-Fits, Intoxication, Lightning, Exposure to Cold, etc., and an account of the Proper Means to be employed for recovery” published in 1815 by James Curry.
  25. ail
    be unwell
    You would have wept to have seen my poor mother when she ailed after losing yet another baby boy in the year before she died.
  26. vagary
    an unexpected and inexplicable change in something
    How I used to worry over Charles when he was a baby, his thin thread of breath, his tiny beating heart. To have a child is to become twice as vulnerable to the world’s vagaries.
  27. precariously
    in a manner affording no ease or reassurance
    Then the toad jumped, hitting the book covering the jar, causing it to tilt precariously off the jar’s top.
  28. vellum
    fine parchment prepared from the skin of a young animal
    We hastened back to the house and I carefully gathered up the glass still covered in the oil, using a piece of vellum, then some crockery to hold it.
  29. resuscitation
    reviving a person and returning them to consciousness
    There is so much here. All of Dippel’s notes he made in self-study and later at the University of Giessen. Dr. Henry’s later copies of the Royal Society reports, especially articles on the resuscitation of the drowned.
  30. benign
    pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence
    My own learning is a mere by-product of my father’s benign neglect.
  31. feign
    give a false appearance of
    Today, I feigned a headache so we might return home.
  32. writhe
    move in a twisting or contorted motion
    But before it breathed its last breath, I held it down in the liquid in the jar. How horrible to feel it writhe in agony, as all creatures fear death, even in its sedated state.
  33. languidly
    in a lethargic manner
    It seemed the toad began to move about languidly. I took the poor creature out and warmed it more aggressively, wrapping it in warm cloths before the fire. Within the hour, it had begun to hop about and seemed well recovered from its week of death.
  34. precedent
    an example that is used to justify similar occurrences
    It is not as if resurrection is without precedent. Why would he write such a thing if it were not true?
  35. wean
    gradually deprive of mother's milk
    Charley was thrilled with the tiny rabbits which are almost ready to be weaned.
  36. ken
    range of what one can know or understand
    The poor rabbit’s broken neck remained so and I am no surgeon. Repairing an injury such as that is beyond my ken.
  37. dispatch
    kill without delay
    Yet, the poor kit lived. She lives still, for in the month since this happened, I haven’t had the heart to dispatch her.
  38. loath
    strongly opposed
    We took turns sitting with him through the day. I was loath to leave him with his own mother.
  39. wan
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    He ran to her, wailing, salty tears streaming down his wan cheeks, his flour- and dough-covered hands reaching for her.
  40. elicit
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    I watched to see if it was a mere reflex, and if it was, she does it when she is pleased, as a fresh strawberry elicited the same reaction.
Created on Fri Jan 05 09:45:01 EST 2024 (updated Sat Jan 06 10:39:00 EST 2024)

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