The Great Gatsby 4

Serge K.
47 words 3 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. blackbuck
    common Indian antelope with a dark back and spiral horns
    And the Hornbeams and the Willie Voltaires, and a whole clan named Blackbuck, who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near.
  2. hammerhead
    the striking part of a hammer
    The Dancies came, too, and S. B. Whitebait, who was well over sixty, and Maurice A. Flink, and the Hammerheads, and Beluga the tobacco importer, and Beluga’s girls.
  3. bootlegger
    someone who makes or sells illegal goods
    “He’s a bootlegger,” said the young ladies, moving somewhere between his cocktails and his flowers.
  4. civet
    cat-like mammal typically secreting musk used in perfumes
    From East Egg, then, came the Chester Beckers and the Leeches, and a man named Bunsen, whom I knew at Yale, and Doctor Webster Civet, who was drowned last summer up in Maine.
  5. molar
    grinding tooth with a broad crown
    “Finest specimens of human molars,” he informed me.
  6. girder
    a beam used as a main support in a structure
    Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money.
  7. disconcert
    cause to feel embarrassment
    And then came that disconcerting ride.
  8. ferret
    a small domesticated mammal with a flexible, elongated body
    Ferret and the De Jongs and Ernest Lilly — they came to gamble, and when Ferret wandered into the garden it meant he was cleaned out and Associated Traction would have to fluctuate profitably next day.
  9. modish
    in the current fashion or style
    As we crossed Blackwell’s Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl.
  10. denizen
    a person who inhabits a particular place
    He’s quite a character around New York — a denizen of Broadway.”
  11. engross
    devote fully to
    They were so engrossed in each other that she didn’t see me until I was five feet away.
  12. olfaction
    the faculty that enables us to distinguish scents
    Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money.
  13. fascinated
    having your attention fixated as though witchcraft
    It was touching to see them together — it made you laugh in a hushed, fascinated way.
  14. punctilious
    marked by precise accordance with details
    This quality was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness.
  15. orchid
    any of numerous plants of the orchid family usually having flowers of unusual shapes and beautiful colors
    From West Egg came the Poles and the Mulreadys and Cecil Roebuck and Cecil Schoen and Gulick the state senator and Newton Orchid, who controlled Films Par Excellence, and Eckhaust and Clyde Cohen and Don S. Schwartze (the son) and Arthur McCarty, all connected with the movies in one way or another.
  16. succulent
    tasty and full of juice
    A succulent hash arrived, and Mr. Wolfsheim, forgetting the more sentimental atmosphere of the old Metropole, began to eat with ferocious delicacy.
  17. elicit
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    It appreciated fully the chain of national circumstances which had elicited this tribute from Montenegro’s warm little heart.
  18. anteroom
    a large entrance or reception area
    Blinking away the brightness of the street outside, my eyes picked him out obscurely in the anteroom, talking to another man.
  19. quad
    a rectangular area surrounded on all sides by buildings
    It was taken in Trinity Quad — the man on my left is now the Earl of Dorcaster.”
  20. roebuck
    male roe deer
    From West Egg came the Poles and the Mulreadys and Cecil Roebuck and Cecil Schoen and Gulick the state senator and Newton Orchid, who controlled Films Par Excellence, and Eckhaust and Clyde Cohen and Don S. Schwartze (the son) and Arthur McCarty, all connected with the movies in one way or another.
  21. evoke
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned “character.” leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.
  22. skim
    remove from the surface
    My incredulity was submerged in fascination now; it was like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines.
  23. threadbare
    thin and tattered with age
    The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned “character.” leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.
  24. lurch
    move suddenly or as if unable to control one's movements
    At nine o’clock, one morning late in July, Gatsby’s gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn.
  25. penitentiary
    a correctional institution for those convicted of crimes
    Snell was there three days before he went to the penitentiary, so drunk out on the gravel drive that Mrs. Ulysses Swett’s automobile ran over his right hand.
  26. leech
    carnivorous or bloodsucking aquatic or terrestrial worm
    From East Egg, then, came the Chester Beckers and the Leeches, and a man named Bunsen, whom I knew at Yale, and Doctor Webster Civet, who was drowned last summer up in Maine.
  27. burglar
    a thief who enters a building with intent to steal
    It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people — with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.
  28. pore
    any tiny hole admitting passage of a liquid
    The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned “character.” leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.
  29. benediction
    a blessing or ceremonial prayer invoking divine protection
    Mr. Wolfsheim raised his hand in a sort of benediction.
  30. spat
    a quarrel about petty points
    With fenders spread like wings we scattered light through half Long Island City — only half, for as we twisted among the pillars of the elevated I heard the familiar “jug — jug — spat!” of a motorcycle, and a frantic policeman rode alongside.
  31. pursue
    follow in an effort to capture
    The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned “character.” leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.
  32. leak
    enter or escape as through a hole or crack or fissure
    The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned “character.” leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.
  33. wan
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    Her wan, scornful mouth smiled, and so I drew her up again closer, this time to my face.
  34. haunt
    recur constantly and spontaneously to
    His voice was solemn, as if the memory of that sudden extinction of a clan still haunted him.
  35. lapse
    pass into a specified state or condition
    Gatsby took an arm of each of us and moved forward into the restaurant, whereupon Mr. Wolfsheim swallowed a new sentence he was starting and lapsed into a somnambulatory abstraction.
  36. authentic
    not counterfeit or copied
    To my astonishment, the thing had an authentic look.
  37. lump
    a compact mass
    Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money.
  38. creep
    move slowly
    At night when you’re are asleep Into your tent I’ll creep ——” “It was a strange coincidence,” I said.
  39. debut
    appear for the first time in public
    She had a debut after the Armistice, and in February she was presumably engaged to a man from New Orleans.
  40. sinister
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all.
  41. pomp
    cheap or pretentious or vain display
    In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago, with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before.
  42. frantic
    marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion
    With fenders spread like wings we scattered light through half Long Island City — only half, for as we twisted among the pillars of the elevated I heard the familiar “jug — jug — spat!” of a motorcycle, and a frantic policeman rode alongside.
  43. splendor
    the quality of being magnificent or grand
    He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.
  44. proprietor
    someone who owns a business
    I had talked with him perhaps half a dozen times in the past month and found, to my disappointment, that he had little to say: So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate road-house next door.
  45. haughty
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.
  46. gorgeous
    dazzlingly beautiful
    At nine o’clock, one morning late in July, Gatsby’s gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn.
  47. commissioner
    a member of a special group considering some matter
    “I was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year.”
Created on Tue Nov 15 14:32:11 EST 2011 (updated Tue Oct 16 11:49:31 EDT 2012)

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