The Rebel Girls of Rome: Chapters 8–11

by Jordyn Taylor
This multi-timeline novel follows the story of two young women: Lilah, a college student visiting Rome with her grandfather in pursuit of a family secret, and Bruna, a Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied Rome.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–7, Chapters 8–11, Chapters 12–16, Chapters 17–23
15 words 1 learner

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. defer
    yield to another's wish or opinion
    Dario is an engineering student at the Sapienza, which is how he was able to defer his conscription in the military.
  2. conscription
    compulsory military service
    Dario is an engineering student at the Sapienza, which is how he was able to defer his conscription in the military.
  3. size up
    look at closely in order to form an opinion about
    I glance back at the restaurant terrace, sizing up the men and their many weapons.
  4. meander
    move or cause to move in a winding or curving course
    After paying the check, Grandpa suggests we meander our way home instead of taking another taxi.
  5. spacious
    having ample room
    The apartment is spacious, but with its wooden floors and ceilings, plush furniture, and stone fireplace as tall as me, it’s also warm and cozy.
  6. wreak
    cause to happen or to occur as a consequence
    Nonna Carla talks wistfully about her decades of memories in this apartment with her late husband, and shares hilarious stories of Tommaso and his cousins wreaking havoc as little kids.
  7. mutual
    common to or shared by two or more parties
    There’s a mutual, sad understanding in the way they look at one another—two people who endured things no child ever should.
  8. procure
    get by special effort
    Dario recently procured them from another resistance contact, who stripped the photo off my old identity card and transplanted it onto a new one with the name “Anna Valente.”
  9. cavernous
    being or suggesting a large dark enclosed space
    When we walk into the cavernous workspace, Enrico stands by the fire with a metal poker in his gloved hands.
  10. dispel
    force to go away
    I have the frantic urge to dispel whatever assumptions Dario might have.
  11. pilfer
    make off with belongings of others
    When we’ve pilfered as much as we can carry, I lead the way in leaping down to the pavement, gasping as a round whizzes up the left side of the truck.
  12. obscenity
    an offensive or indecent word or phrase
    He yells in German what sound like obscenities, based on the way he spits out the words.
  13. feign
    make believe with the intent to deceive
    My brain tells me to feign ignorance, but the ache in my core says otherwise.
  14. tentative
    hesitant or lacking confidence; unsettled in mind or opinion
    I push off the ground with my good leg, and he catches it in his arm. Holding me firmly against his back, he takes a few tentative steps, trying hard not to jostle me.
  15. retaliation
    action taken in return for an injury or offense
    The next day, in retaliation, the Germans took 335 Italian men—some of them prisoners, some of them innocent people snatched off the street—to a suburb of Rome, executed them in a cave, and then sealed the cave with explosives to hide what they’d done.
Created on Mon Mar 23 06:51:21 EDT 2026 (updated Mon Jun 01 19:10:34 EDT 2026)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.