A Solitary Blue: Chapters 4–6

by Cynthia Voigt
This third book of the Tillerman Cycle follows Jefferson Greene, from age seven to sixteen, whose idea of family is shattered by his often-absent mother, until a move near a small town in Maryland puts him in the same school as Dicey.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–9, Chapters 10–12
40 words 10 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. taut
    pulled or drawn tight
    The six steel strings stretched taut up over the belly and along the fretted neck.
  2. hack
    chop or cut away
    The Professor couldn’t carve a chicken without hacking it into unrecognizable, unappetizing slabs; when the Professor carved, the chicken looked as if it had been torn apart by some inner explosion.
  3. ragout
    well-seasoned stew of meat and vegetables
    This year, he made them veal marengo, “A ragout, not a stew,” he told Jeff as he cut a veal roast up into chunks.
  4. assessment
    the act of judging a person or situation or event
    When it was time to set the table, Brother Thomas made his assessment: “You’re not very good now, but I’ll be surprised if you don’t turn out to be quite good. Do you want to call the Professor?”
  5. spire
    a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building
    It turned out to be an evening of surprises, because Brother Thomas told them, as they sat full over empty plates, that he was going to England for a year to study at Oxford. He beamed at them, “Can you imagine it? The dreaming spires and me. Me and the dreaming spires.”
  6. understatement
    something said in a restrained way for ironic contrast
    “You must be pleased to have won the grant.”
    “Pleased—that’s an understatement. This is Tommy Richardson from Peoria, whose father worked in an assembly line—the unsuccessful son, not the black sheep among the children, but certainly the maverick—you’ve been there, Horace, but I never thought I ever would.”
  7. maverick
    someone who exhibits independence in thought and action
    This is Tommy Richardson from Peoria, whose father worked in an assembly line—the unsuccessful son, not the black sheep among the children, but certainly the maverick—you’ve been there, Horace, but I never thought I ever would.
  8. scrawl
    write carelessly
    He did get postcards from Brother Thomas occasionally, pictures of castles, or the pages of illustrated manuscripts, with an informative message and the signature scrawled at the bottom, BroT.
  9. throng
    press tightly together or cram
    This time he had arrived during the evening commuter rush and the big room thronged with people.
  10. profusion
    the property of being extremely abundant
    It was curled into a frizzy profusion, cut shorter so that it came just to her shoulders, and a layer of curly bangs covered her forehead.
  11. mousy
    having a drab pale brown color
    The man behind the wheel had mousy brown hair that hung around his collar.
  12. freelance
    working for yourself
    I’m a journalist, when anybody has the courage to print what I write. Freelance. When they won’t, I’m a pretty good carpenter-handyman, or I do PR for people, lawn work, just about anything.
  13. adorn
    make more attractive, as by adding ornament or color
    She was dressed in silk and jewels, the diamond flashing on her left hand, the little jade adorning her right.
  14. essentially
    at bottom or by something's very nature
    But the more closely he looked at her, the more she looked about the same, essentially the same.
  15. flashy
    tastelessly showy
    “I told him it was too big, flashy, but he wouldn’t have it,” she said.
  16. crotchety
    having a difficult and contrary disposition
    “She’s crotchety this morning,” Melody said.
    “What can you expect?” Miss Opal asked, beating eggs in a little bowl. “She never likes it when you’re out with that young man.”
  17. flank
    be located at the sides of something or somebody
    Miss Opal set a plate of eggs down in front of Melody, flanked with strips of bacon and slices of buttered toast.
  18. confer
    have a meeting in order to talk something over
    When they had ordered their lunches, after conferring about how much money Jeff had, she leaned across the table to smile into his eyes.
  19. proceeds
    the income or profit arising from a transaction
    There’s a folk festival in the mountains, the first annual South Carolina folk festival and fiddling contest. All the proceeds, after expenses, are going to the environmental group that’s sponsoring it.
  20. rural
    living in or characteristic of farming or country life
    I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the eroded areas, the rural poverty—little children, Jeffie, who never get enough to eat, or medicine or shoes.
  21. distinguished
    befitting an eminent person
    Distinguished is the word I guess, he was so distinguished-looking.
  22. standoffish
    lacking cordiality; unfriendly
    He was so—good-looking, and shy and standoffish.
  23. frumpy
    drab, old-fashioned, and unattractive
    That horrible little house and all the stuffy professors and their horrible frumpy wives, and he didn’t do anything to make things better.
  24. livid
    furiously angry
    “And Gambo would be livid if she knew.”
  25. candid
    informal or natural
    “But that’s me,” Jeff said.
    “A candid portrait. Now will you believe I’m good?”
  26. dismay
    the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles
    He was confused, between guilt at failing her, dismay that she was going away again, and the desire that she not be angry at him.
  27. ramshackle
    in poor or broken-down condition
    There, he went into the ramshackle store where the screen was ripped and the dim air inside uncooled even by a fan.
  28. aground
    with the bottom lodged on land
    He had run aground on the shallow creek bottom often enough to know how little trouble that caused, had asked the nameless black man about currents and tides, had looked at a map of the area and found the island on it.
  29. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    For several days, Jeff stayed around the shell of the house, venturing up across what must once have been a well-kept lawn, where bushlike trees were overgrown with vines and the Spanish moss on the live oaks grew down to the earth like old men’s beards.
  30. hamper
    prevent the progress or free movement of
    Gradually, hampered by the occasional day of rain, Jeff explored inland, along a double rutted path he found leading away from the house.
  31. heedless
    characterized by careless unconcern
    Heedless of the noise he was making, he ran until he had climbed back into the safety of his boat.
  32. curtail
    place restrictions on
    He got back to the city in time to look up alligators at the library, to see how much the appearance of the creatures might curtail his exploration of the island.
  33. indifference
    the trait of remaining calm and seeming not to care
    At that thought, the spacious indifference of Gambo’s house to his presence started to swell out from his belly and threatened to take him over.
  34. abate
    become less in amount or intensity
    And a stamp, he reminded himself, feeling his tension abate as he planned out where he would go to get them.
  35. bureau
    furniture with drawers for keeping clothes
    She went into Jeff’s room, where only the brush and comb on the bureau and the picture of himself stuck into the edge of the mirror showed that anyone lived there.
  36. ventilate
    furnish with an opening to allow air to circulate or escape
    The pueblos are a disgrace, outhouses, garbage. Whole families live in one room where the smoke isn’t ventilated.
  37. turbulence
    unstable flow of a liquid or gas
    To the north, he saw a narrow spit of land and a turbulence of waves where the tip of the island made currents, marking the entrance of the creek into the ocean.
  38. succumb
    give in, as to overwhelming force, influence, or pressure
    The waves broke beside him, and he succumbed to the temptation to walk among them.
  39. mollusk
    aquatic invertebrate, often with a shell
    A shower of fragile mollusks poured down with the water that came to fill up the pools.
  40. recede
    pull back or move away or backward
    All morning long he walked, through puddles between sandflats left by the receding tide, until he came to the southern tip of the island.
Created on Mon Apr 15 11:54:54 EDT 2024 (updated Tue Apr 16 09:55:39 EDT 2024)

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