The Girl on the Train: List 2

by Paula Hawkins
Despite losing her job, Rachel continues riding the commuter train every day—and becomes increasingly involved in the lives of the people she observes through the train window.

This list covers Rachel: July 16, 2013 – Anna: July 20, 2013 in the 2015 edition published by the Penguin Group.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 84 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. commit
    perform an act, usually with a negative connotation
    I must have committed some terrible act and blacked it out.
  2. convince
    make realize the truth or validity of something
    So it sounds ridiculous, but it’s not impossible, and by the time I got home last night I had convinced myself that I was in some way involved in Megan’s disappearance.
  3. elaborate
    add details to clarify an idea
    He waited, to see if I was going to elaborate.
  4. surreal
    resembling a dream
    It felt so surreal having her presented to me like that, the perfect blonde I’d watched, whose life I’d constructed and deconstructed in my head.
  5. obvious
    easily perceived by the senses or grasped by the mind
    He needs my help, because it’s obvious the police will suspect that he’s done something to her, and I know it isn’t true, because I know him.
  6. imperceptible
    impossible or difficult to sense
    The detectives were not impressed with my tale. Riley gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.
  7. deranged
    driven insane
    As though she thought I was completely deranged.
  8. pompous
    puffed up with vanity
    I sounded pompous and ridiculous.
  9. barren
    not bearing offspring
    The thing about being barren is that you’re not allowed to get away from it.
  10. overwhelm
    overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
    I was still young, there was still plenty of time, but failure cloaked me like a mantle, it overwhelmed me, dragged me under, and I gave up hope.
  11. distraught
    deeply agitated especially from emotion
    I was angry. I was distraught. Maybe I was vengeful. Maybe I thought I’d show them that my distress was real. I don’t know. I did a stupid thing.
  12. erratic
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    She said that you had behaved erratically, in an unstable manner, in the past.
  13. harass
    annoy continually or chronically
    She said that you have harassed both her and her husband, that you continue to call the house repeatedly.
  14. exaggeration
    extravagant embellishment
    I called Tom from time to time, but not every night, it was a total exaggeration.
  15. petty
    preoccupied with unimportant matters in a spiteful way
    “Well, maybe I’m not that petty.” I am that petty. I hate that she’s Anna Watson.
  16. outraged
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    I was outraged at the suggestion. Jess is nothing like Anna. Megan is nothing like Anna.
  17. distraction
    an entertainment that provokes pleased interest
    I am interested, for the first time in ages, in something other than my own misery. I have purpose. Or at least, I have a distraction.
  18. isolated
    remote and separate physically or socially
    I realize that perhaps, after all, she isn’t so different from me. She’s isolated and lonely, too.
  19. engrossed
    giving or marked by complete attention to
    I’ve been so engrossed in the newspapers that I haven’t been paying my usual attention to the journey; it seems as though I’ve only just sat down when the train grinds to its customary halt opposite the red signal.
  20. thwarted
    disappointingly unsuccessful
    And now I feel desperate, thwarted. I can’t see through the mob of people in the carriage across to their side of the tracks
  21. dispirited
    filled with melancholy and despondency
    But I’m feeling dispirited about ever recalling what happened on Saturday.
  22. hypnosis
    a state that resembles sleep induced by suggestion
    A few hours of (admittedly hardly exhaustive) Internet research this afternoon confirmed what I suspected: hypnosis is not generally useful in retrieving hours lost to blackout because, as my previous reading suggested, we do not make memories during blackout.
  23. therapy
    the act of providing treatment for an illness or disorder
    That’s what I’ve taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent.
  24. febrile
    of or relating to or characterized by fever
    The only time I feel like me is on those secret, febrile afternoons like yesterday, when I come alive in all that heat and hall-light.
  25. stifled
    held in check or kept back with difficulty
    Who’s to say I won’t end up feeling exactly the way I do right now—not safe, but stifled?
  26. encumbered
    loaded to excess or impeded by a heavy load
    I’m sure I haven’t actually lost an ounce, but I don’t feel encumbered.
  27. vulnerable
    susceptible to attack
    The other danger is that I might make myself vulnerable.
  28. psychopath
    a person with an antisocial personality disorder
    The fact that he smiled and waved doesn’t mean anything, he could be a psychopath for all I know.
  29. wary
    marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    She was obviously pleasantly surprised to find me sober, but she was wary, too, because we haven’t really spoken since the police came round on Tuesday.
  30. conjure
    summon into action or bring into existence
    I stared at the picture, trying to conjure up the image of the man I saw with her that day, his head bent as he stooped to embrace her.
  31. misinterpret
    construe wrongly
    “And there’s no way you could have misinterpreted what you saw'? It wasn’t a hug, say, or a ... a platonic kind of kiss?”
  32. disdain
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    One or two shot me sideways glances, there might have been a flicker of interest or disdain, I couldn’t be sure.
  33. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    I’m not sure I could bear to relive the stupid, awful things I’ve done, to hear the words I said in spite, to remember the look on Tom’s face as I said them. I’m too afraid to venture into that darkness.
  34. coincidence
    an accidental event that seems to have been arranged
    And I can feel at least that I may have helped, because I cannot believe it could be a coincidence that Megan disappeared the day after I saw her with that man.
  35. vindictive
    disposed to seek revenge or intended for revenge
    If Anna is collecting evidence that I am vindictive and obsessive, this could be a key piece in her dossier.
  36. version
    something a little different from others of the same type
    I hate me—that version of me, anyway, the version who wrote that email last night.
  37. expansive
    friendly and open and willing to talk
    Drunk Rachel sees no consequences, she is either excessively expansive and optimistic or wrapped up in hate.
  38. ethereal
    characterized by lightness and insubstantiality
    Megan is not a mystery to be solved, she is not a figure who wanders into the tracking shot at the beginning of a film, beautiful, ethereal, insubstantial.
  39. observation
    the act of noticing or paying attention
    What I know from my own observations, I don’t really know.
  40. unstable
    disposed to psychological variability
    But then everyone thought I was insane to get involved with a married man, let alone a married man whose wife was highly unstable, and I’ve proved them wrong on that one.
Created on Wed Mar 02 12:17:40 EST 2016 (updated Wed Sep 26 09:29:18 EDT 2018)

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