Funeral Songs for Dying Girls: List 5

by Cherie Dimaline
Living in the Toronto cemetery where her father works and her mother is buried, sixteen-year-old Winifred Blight often wanders around the graves at night, which leads to the belief that they would be a good moneymaking addition to a haunted ghost tour.

This list covers "Ancient Indian Burial Grounds from 1990"–"Ashes to Ashes."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 8 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. taper
    give a point to
    They illuminated my cousin—party-girl Penny, city-dwelling Penny who wouldn’t so much as go without WiFi—standing in a circle of white candles in a full friggin buckskin dress holding a hand drum and stick, like the kind of stick made for modern drum sets, with the tapered end wrapped in leather.
  2. manifest
    reveal its presence or make an appearance
    “Philomene, we beseech you to come forth from the bosom of the Creator, and to manifest now, here, with us.”
  3. guttural
    relating to or articulated in the throat
    More drumming, this time fast and low, not at all a real song, gaining speed and volume. She ended this spurt with a guttural sound—half scream, half sigh.
  4. demise
    the event of departure from life
    “Born March 5, 1975, who in 1990 met her untimely demise, overdosed, right here.”
  5. myriad
    too numerous to be counted
    And Penny raised her arms, drum in one hand, stick in the other, the myriad cheap beaded bracelets she wore tinkling against one another like wind chimes.
  6. specter
    a ghostly appearing figure
    But I am so pleased that we were all able to witness an actual Native American ritual and to have the great good fortune of seeing a specter!
  7. straggler
    someone who strays or falls behind
    Before he joined the group, pushing the last of the stragglers along, Isaacs spoke to those left—Penny, me, my dad, Jack, and Mr. Ferguson.
  8. exploit
    use or manipulate to one's advantage
    Tomorrow I had to come up with an excuse that did not involve the fact that there was a real ghost here they could exploit, but an excuse that would still keep the tours coming, if they even wanted to after tonight’s little performance.
  9. coveted
    greatly desired
    And then I was angry for crying, imaging Penny smug and bejeweled in Roberta’s coveted ring somewhere close.
  10. proximity
    the region close around a person or thing
    I needed to figure out how to pull my con artist cousin out of Phil’s proximity. I had to keep Phil safe.
  11. lilt
    a jaunty rhythm in music or speech
    Finally, the feeling changed to sound: a cutting lilt like a whistle then a kettle on the boil then an electronic alarm set to warn a town of attack.
  12. plume
    anything that resembles a feather in shape or lightness
    And then there was color, extra, crawling color—midnight plumes and the darkest eye.
  13. unorthodox
    breaking with tradition or typical norms
    Without the standard-issue womb, with all its design benefits and cushiony interior, I sought reassurance in the ridges and curves of unorthodox geometry.
  14. imperative
    requiring attention or action
    “I am, after all, not a scammer, but a businesswoman. It’s imperative to do your research. But then you must know that, Mr. Isaacs, as a fellow businessman.”
  15. iridescent
    varying in color when seen in different lights
    Phil, laying in the mud. Phil, with blood drying in stripes across her graying skin. Phil, in my bedroom last night as a scream beat black and iridescent in the tunnel of an angry breath.
  16. diminutive
    very small
    He double-checked, posture straight to bring him to his full diminutive height.
  17. staccato
    marked by or composed of disconnected parts or sounds
    Penny gave a quick, immature clap, a burst of staccato self-righteousness that poked into my brain.
  18. truncated
    terminating abruptly by having an end or point cut off
    Here he spread out his arms, demonstrating the expansiveness of his reach despite his truncated body.
  19. frenetic
    excessively agitated
    She was pacing. Her frenetic energy made me nervous even though I knew her.
  20. profess
    state freely
    I wasn’t sure which way I meant, which kind of love I was professing.
  21. indifference
    the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things
    I wanted her to be angry again, anything but this tired indifference.
  22. cadence
    a recurrent rhythmical series
    My heart beat loud in my ears and I counted that too, until the steadiness of its cadence brought me to a place where I could think without consciously counting and hold back thoughts of Phil.
  23. alight
    settle or come to rest
    Every noise made me jump down here—each bird alighting, every car swooshing by from the road—and I hid in the trees, listening.
  24. rustle
    make a dry crackling sound
    The wind rustled the trees and the bells gave a soft tinkle.
  25. careen
    move at high speed and in an uncontrolled way
    Chess Isaacs’s voice leaked out of the bass-heavy speaker, muffled words ping-ponging off mausoleums like verbal balls, careening and weighted.
  26. capacious
    large in the amount that can be contained
    Then she shook out both arms and, reaching for her phone inside one capacious sleeve, took a quick selfie, throwing up deuces and pushing out her lips.
  27. banter
    light teasing repartee
    But she was a professional, and I never doubted she’d stick to her script. The next part was a directive hidden in her crowd banter. “It will leave us soon, very soon. We have to stay still and focus.”
  28. headlong
    at breakneck speed
    I ran as fast as I could, ignoring the sharp rocks and bits of trash under foot. I ran straight into Phil’s clearing, jumping over bottles, moving headlong into the trees.
  29. muse
    reflect deeply on a subject
    I clicked in a corner piece and we mused over the fragments in silence for a minute.
  30. rivulet
    a small stream
    I walked as slowly as I could, listening, letting the rain run in rivulets through my hair, down my back.
  31. flashy
    tastelessly showy
    She smiles, that flashy smile that was all teeth and mischief, the one that never quite made it into photographs, the one Dad had tried once to explain by saying “it was like a fox had a really good joke he couldn’t tell.”
  32. plod
    walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud
    I focus on the left foot, and it too comes loose. I make my way like this, one plodding foot at a time, across the space between us.
  33. ermine
    mustelid of northern hemisphere in its white winter coat
    I hoped there were strings of lacy moss and giant ravens that carried whole ermines in their beaks.
  34. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    He grew more solemn. “When do you leave?”
  35. discernable
    able to be perceived by the senses or intellect
    “BC, near the coast in the middle of nowhere. My grandparents left my dad some land. We’re going to build.” I surprised myself with the discernable excitement in the answer.
  36. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    We hugged, awkwardly, and then, toward the end, with a fleeting sincerity, and I watched him pedal off, his wide back hunched over the bars, his shirt catching the wind like a jersey cape.
  37. indulgence
    the act of gratifying a desire
    On our last night in Winterson we ordered in a pizza. It wasn’t really an indulgence as much as a necessity; every pan, dish, and fork was packed away.
  38. ratchet
    move by degrees in one direction only
    My heart got suddenly heavy and ratcheted down a few ribs, unable to stay aloft.
  39. leeway
    a permissible difference
    “Aren’t you coming?”
    He watched my face for a moment, gauging his leeway.
  40. jaunty
    having a cheerful, lively, and self-confident air
    The first jaunty notes pounded into the cab through refurbished speakers.
Created on Wed May 29 10:16:05 EDT 2024 (updated Thu May 30 12:39:06 EDT 2024)

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