Fahrenheit 451: Part II

Mackenzie S. (United States of America)
This classic novel imagines a dystopian future in which firemen burn banned books and people are constantly bombarded with mindless entertainment.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part I, Part II, Part III
15 words 41 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. patronage
    the act of providing approval and support
    The old man admitted to being a retired English professor who had been thrown out upon the world forty years ago when the last liberal arts college shut for lack of students and patronage.
  2. sieve
    a strainer for separating lumps from powdered material
    Once as a child he had sat upon a yellow dune by the sea in the middle of the blue and hot summer day, trying to fill a sieve with sand, because some cruel cousin had said, “Fill this sieve and you'll get a dime!”
  3. divert
    turn aside; turn away from
    Montag had only a glimpse, before Faber, seeing Montag's attention diverted, turned quickly and shut the bedroom door and stood holding the knob with a trembling hand.
  4. profusion
    the property of being extremely abundant
    This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion.
  5. insidious
    working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way
    “It's an insidious plan, if I do say so myself.”
  6. complement
    something added to embellish or make perfect
    My cowardice is of such a passion, complementing the revolutionary spirit that lives in its shadow, I was forced to design this.
  7. trifle
    a small amount
    The moon rose in the sky as Montag walked, his lips moving just a trifle.
  8. accompaniment
    an event or situation happening at the same time as another
    A minute later, three White Cartoon Clowns chopped off each other's limbs to the accompaniment of immense incoming tides of laughter.
  9. disperse
    distribute loosely
    He searched the house and found the books where Mildred had stacked them behind the refrigerator. Some were missing and he knew that she had started on her own slow process of dispersing the dynamite in her house, stick by stick.
  10. invigorate
    give life or energy to
    I must admit that your blind raging invigorated me. God, how young I felt!
  11. hone
    refine or make more perfect or effective
    Man, when I was young I shoved my ignorance in people's faces. They beat me with sticks. By the time I was forty my blunt instrument had been honed to a fine cutting point for me.
  12. manifest
    reveal its presence or make an appearance
    For these were the hands that had acted on their own, no part of him, here was where the conscience first manifested itself to snatch books, dart off with Job and Ruth and Willie Shakespeare, and now, in the firehouse, these hands seemed gloved with blood.
  13. reckoning
    a personal belief that is not founded on proof or certainty
    Truth is truth, to the end of reckoning, we've cried.
  14. rebut
    overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof
    ...I was doing a terrible thing in using the very books you clung to, to rebut you on every hand, on every point!
  15. perfunctorily
    in a set manner without serious attention
    He glanced perfunctorily at it, and shoved it in his pocket.
Created on Thu Nov 21 16:54:58 EST 2024 (updated Mon Sep 22 23:21:03 EDT 2025)

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