The Sea of Monsters: Chapters 1–4

by Rick Riordan
In this second book of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, the thirteen-year-old demigod must travel through dangerous waters to save his best friend and retrieve the magical cure for the poison destroying Camp Half-Blood.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–8, Chapters 9–12, Chapters 13–16, Chapters 17–20

Here are links to our lists for the Percy Jackson & the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus series.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. gangly
    tall, thin, and awkward
    From the waist up, he looks like a typical gangly teenager with a peach-fuzz goatee and a bad case of acne.
  2. falter
    move hesitatingly, as if about to give way
    Grover dashed around a street corner and faltered. He'd run into a dead-end courtyard full of shops.
  3. rickety
    inclined to shake as from weakness or defect
    A fifth-story window with a rickety old fire escape...there couldn’t have been anyone out there.
  4. maroon
    leave stranded or isolated with little hope of rescue
    The whole middle school had read this book called Lord of the Flies, where all these kids get marooned on an island and go psycho.
  5. misshapen
    so badly formed or distorted as to be ugly
    His face was kind of misshapen and brutal-looking. I couldn’t tell you what color his eyes were, because I could never make myself look higher than his crooked teeth.
  6. grimy
    thickly covered with ingrained dirt
    He wore tattered jeans, grimy size-twenty sneakers, and a plaid flannel shirt with holes in it.
  7. earnestly
    in a sincere and serious manner
    Matt Sloan nodded earnestly, then gave me a chip-toothed grin.
  8. latitude
    an imaginary line around the Earth parallel to the equator
    In social studies, while we were drawing latitude/longitude maps, I opened my notebook and stared at the photo inside—my friend Annabeth on vacation in Washington, D.C.
  9. aggravated
    provoked to anger, especially deliberately
    “Oh. Yeah.” I tried not to sound aggravated about it.
  10. perforated
    having a number or series of holes
    He waved his hand and a new batch of dodgeballs appeared on the center line—but these balls weren’t made of red rubber. They were bronze, the size of cannon balls, perforated like wiffle balls with fire bubbling out the holes.
  11. searing
    extremely hot
    They must’ve been searing hot, but the giants picked them up with their bare hands.
  12. obscure
    make unclear or less visible
    A magical force called the Mist obscures the true appearance of monsters and gods from their vision, so mortals tend to see only what they can understand.
  13. dissipate
    go away, scatter, or disappear
    Monsters don’t die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.
  14. interference
    electrical or acoustic activity that disturbs communication
    He tapped his hearing aid like the explosions were giving him interference, but he kept his eyes on his magazine.
  15. deflect
    turn from a straight course or fixed direction
    Tyson couldn’t deflect all those balls at once.
  16. gloat
    dwell on with satisfaction
    “Well!” Joe Bob gloated. “I’m the last one standing! I’ll have enough meat to bring Babycakes a doggie bag!"
  17. dumbfounded
    as if rendered speechless with astonishment and surprise
    Matt Sloan, who'd been standing there dumbfounded the whole time, finally came to his senses.
  18. garbled
    lacking orderly continuity
    I heard sirens wailing and a garbled voice over the intercom.
  19. sheathe
    enclose with a protective covering
    She sheathed her bronze knife.
  20. distaste
    a feeling of intense dislike
    Annabeth gave him a look of distaste that I didn’t quite understand.
  21. billow
    rise up as if in waves
    Together the three of us sneaked through the side streets of downtown while a huge column of smoke billowed up behind us from my school gymnasium.
  22. grizzled
    having gray or partially gray hair
    She had a mop of grizzled hair covering her eyes, and she spoke in a weird mumbling way, like she’d just had a shot of Novocain.
  23. squabble
    argue over petty things
    The three gray ladies were too busy squabbling to pay me any attention.
  24. acquire
    come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
    Anger grinned in the rearview mirror, showing off her newly acquired tooth.
  25. swathe
    an enveloping cloth or bandage
    The grass was burning in huge swathes around the pine tree.
  26. plume
    a feather or cluster of feathers worn as an ornament
    One hero screamed and waved his arms as he ran in circles, the horsehair plume on his helmet blazing like a fiery Mohawk.
  27. embedded
    enclosed firmly in a surrounding mass
    She was fighting with a broken spear shaft, the other end embedded uselessly in the metal joint of one bull’s shoulder.
  28. rummage
    search haphazardly
    Annabeth rummaged through her backpack and cursed.
  29. phalanx
    a body of troops in close array
    Tyson tried to protest, but I was already running up the hill toward Clarisse, who was yelling at her patrol, trying to get them into phalanx formation.
  30. muster
    call to duty, such as military service
    Unfortunately, Clarisse could only muster six campers.
  31. taunt
    harass with persistent criticism or carping
    She taunted one of the bulls into chasing her, then turned invisible, completely confusing the monster.
  32. smolder
    burn slowly and without a flame
    Clarisse went flying backward and landed in a smoldering patch of grass.
  33. flank
    the side between ribs and hipbone
    I gave it a good swipe with Riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.
  34. disoriented
    having lost your bearings
    Still, I managed to slash with my sword and lop off part of the monster’s snout. It galloped away, wild and disoriented.
  35. grungy
    thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot
    But when the fire died, Tyson was still standing there, completely unharmed. Not even his grungy clothes were scorched.
  36. feeble
    pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness
    The bull staggered and fell on its back. Its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places.
  37. canteen
    a flask for carrying water; used by soldiers or travelers
    My ankle felt like it was filled with acid, but she gave me some Olympian nectar to drink from her canteen, and I immediately started to feel better.
  38. singe
    burn superficially or lightly
    There was a burning smell that I later learned was me. The hair on my arms had been completely singed off.
  39. trudge
    walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud
    "I’ll be back,” she growled, then trudged off to assess the damage.
  40. forge
    a workplace where metal is worked by heating and hammering
    “He’s a Cyclops.” Annabeth paused, as if she were remembering something unpleasant. "They work the forges of the gods. They have to be immune to fire. That’s what I was trying to tell you.”
Created on Tue Jul 05 15:28:39 EDT 2016 (updated Tue Aug 08 09:17:13 EDT 2023)

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