The Moth Essay by Annie Dillard

Paula B. (United States of America)
96 words 6 learners

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words only definitions & notes
  1. abdomen
    the region of the body between the thorax and the pelvis
    The spider herself is of uncertain lineage, bulbous at the abdomen and drab.
  2. aluminum
    a silvery, flexible, metallic element
    These I could release by a quick flip with a stick; in the morning I would find my cooking stuff gilded with torn flecks of moth wings, triangles of shiny dust here and there on the aluminum.
  3. amaze
    affect with wonder
    Her six-inch mess of a web works, works somehow, works miraculously, to keep her alive and me amazed.
  4. amazed
    filled with the emotional impact of overwhelming surprise
    Her six-inch mess of a web works, works somehow, works miraculously, to keep her alive and me amazed.
  5. antenna
    one of a pair of mobile appendages on the head of insects
    And her head jerked in spasms, making a spattering noise; her antennae crisped and burned away and her heaving mouth parts crackled like pistol fire.
  6. arch
    a curved masonry construction for spanning an opening
    And the moths, the empty moths, stagger against each other, headless, in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnish, like a jumble of buttresses for cathedral domes, like nothing resembling moths, so that I should hesitate to call them moths, except that I have had some experience with the figure Moth reduce to a nub.
  7. armadillo
    a burrowing mammal whose body is covered with strong plates
    The corpses appear to be mostly sow bugs, those little armadillo creatures who live to travel flat out in houses, and die round.
  8. bend
    form a curve
    She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning—only glowing within, like a building glimpsed through silhouetted walls, like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet.
  9. boil
    change from a liquid to vapor
    So I read, and boiled water, and replenished candles, and read on.
  10. brain
    the organ that is the center of the nervous system
    She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning—only glowing within, like a building glimpsed through silhouetted walls, like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet.
  11. bristle
    a stiff hair
    So I read, lost, every day sitting under a tree by my tent, while warblers swung in the leaves overhead and bristle worms trailed their inches over the twiggy dirt at my feet; and I read every night by candlelight, while barred owls called in the forest and pale moths massed round my head in the clearing, where my light made a ring.
  12. brittle
    having little elasticity
    The sow bugs beside him are hollow and empty of color, fragile, a breath away from brittle fluff.
  13. buttress
    a support usually of stone or brick
    And the moths, the empty moths, stagger against each other, headless, in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnish, like a jumble of buttresses for cathedral domes, like nothing resembling moths, so that I should hesitate to call them moths, except that I have had some experience with the figure Moth reduce to a nub.
  14. cathedral
    the principal Christian church building of a diocese
    And the moths, the empty moths, stagger against each other, headless, in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnish, like a jumble of buttresses for cathedral domes, like nothing resembling moths, so that I should hesitate to call them moths, except that I have had some experience with the figure Moth reduce to a nub.
  15. cease
    put an end to a state or an activity
    At the same time her six legs crawled, curled, blackened, and ceased, disappearing utterly.
  16. clear
    readily apparent to the mind
    So I read, lost, every day sitting under a tree by my tent, while warblers swung in the leaves overhead and bristle worms trailed their inches over the twiggy dirt at my feet; and I read every night by candlelight, while barred owls called in the forest and pale moths massed round my head in the clearing, where my light made a ring.
  17. collapse
    break down, literally or metaphorically
    All that was left was the glowing horn shell of her abdomen and thorax—a fraying, partially collapsed gold tube jammed upright in the candle’s round pool.
  18. connect
    fasten or put together two or more pieces
    The web itself is in a corner behind the toilet, connecting tile wall to tile wall and floor, in a place where there is, I would have thought, scant traffic.
  19. contract
    a binding agreement that is enforceable by law
    At once the light contracted again and the moth’s wings vanished in a fine, foul smoke.
  20. contracted
    reduced in size or pulled together
    At once the light contracted again and the moth’s wings vanished in a fine, foul smoke.
  21. corner
    the point where three areas or surfaces meet or intersect
    The web itself is in a corner behind the toilet, connecting tile wall to tile wall and floor, in a place where there is, I would have thought, scant traffic.
  22. crackle
    make a crackling sound
    And her head jerked in spasms, making a spattering noise; her antennae crisped and burned away and her heaving mouth parts crackled like pistol fire.
  23. create
    bring into existence
    Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewelweed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pine.
  24. Day
    United States writer best known for his autobiographical works (1874-1935)
    I had hauled myself and gear up there to read, among other things, James Ramsey Ullman’s The Day on Fire, a novel about Rimbaud that had made me want to be a writer when I was sixteen; I was hoping it would do it again.
  25. dome
    a concave shape whose concavity faces downward
    And the moths, the empty moths, stagger against each other, headless, in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnish, like a jumble of buttresses for cathedral domes, like nothing resembling moths, so that I should hesitate to call them moths, except that I have had some experience with the figure Moth reduce to a nub.
  26. dorsal
    on or near the back of an animal or organ
    Today the earwig shines darkly and gleams, what there is of him: a dorsal curve of thorax and abdomen, and a smooth pair of cerci by which I knew his name.
  27. drab
    a dull greyish to yellowish or light olive brown
    The spider herself is of uncertain lineage, bulbous at the abdomen and drab.
  28. empty
    holding or containing nothing
    There is also a new shred of earwig, three old spider skins crinkled and clenched, and two moth bodies, wingless and huge and empty, moth bodies I drop to my knees to see.
  29. energy
    forceful exertion
    And all this energy, for as long as I can remember.
  30. experience
    the content of observation or participation in an event
    And the moths, the empty moths, stagger against each other, headless, in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnish, like a jumble of buttresses for cathedral domes, like nothing resembling moths, so that I should hesitate to call them moths, except that I have had some experience with the figure Moth reduce to a nub.
  31. figure
    alternate name for the body of a human being
    And the moths, the empty moths, stagger against each other, headless, in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnish, like a jumble of buttresses for cathedral domes, like nothing resembling moths, so that I should hesitate to call them moths, except that I have had some experience with the figure Moth reduce to a nub.
  32. final
    an exam administered at the end of an academic term
    (Is this what we live for, I thought; is this the only final beauty: the color of any skin in any light, and living, human eyes?)
  33. flame
    combustion of materials producing heat and light and smoke
    A golden female moth, a biggish one with a two-inch wingspan, flapped into the fire, dropped her abdomen into the wet wax, stuck, flamed, frazzled and fried in a second.
  34. flap
    move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
    A golden female moth, a biggish one with a two-inch wingspan, flapped into the fire, dropped her abdomen into the wet wax, stuck, flamed, frazzled and fried in a second.
  35. fleck
    a small contrasting part of something
    These I could release by a quick flip with a stick; in the morning I would find my cooking stuff gilded with torn flecks of moth wings, triangles of shiny dust here and there on the aluminum.
  36. flutter
    flap the wings rapidly or fly with flapping movements
    Or they would singe their wings and fall, and their hot wings, as if melted, would stick to the first thing they touched—a pan, a lid, a spoon—so that the snagged moths could flutter only in tiny arcs, unable to struggle free.
  37. forest
    a large, densely wooded area filled with trees and plants
    So I read, lost, every day sitting under a tree by my tent, while warblers swung in the leaves overhead and bristle worms trailed their inches over the twiggy dirt at my feet; and I read every night by candlelight, while barred owls called in the forest and pale moths massed round my head in the clearing, where my light made a ring.
  38. foul
    highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
    At once the light contracted again and the moth’s wings vanished in a fine, foul smoke.
  39. fragile
    easily broken or damaged or destroyed
    The sow bugs beside him are hollow and empty of color, fragile, a breath away from brittle fluff.
  40. fray
    wear away by rubbing
    All that was left was the glowing horn shell of her abdomen and thorax—a fraying, partially collapsed gold tube jammed upright in the candle’s round pool.
  41. gear
    a toothed wheel that engages another toothed mechanism
    I had hauled myself and gear up there to read, among other things, James Ramsey Ullman’s The Day on Fire, a novel about Rimbaud that had made me want to be a writer when I was sixteen; I was hoping it would do it again.
  42. gear up
    make ready or suitable or equip in advance for a particular purpose or for some use, event, etc
    I had hauled myself and gear up there to read, among other things, James Ramsey Ullman’s The Day on Fire, a novel about Rimbaud that had made me want to be a writer when I was sixteen; I was hoping it would do it again.
  43. glimpse
    a brief or incomplete view
    She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning—only glowing within, like a building glimpsed through silhouetted walls, like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet.
  44. haul
    draw slowly or heavily
    I had hauled myself and gear up there to read, among other things, James Ramsey Ullman’s The Day on Fire, a novel about Rimbaud that had made me want to be a writer when I was sixteen; I was hoping it would do it again.
  45. hollow
    not solid; having a space or gap or cavity
    The sow bugs beside him are hollow and empty of color, fragile, a breath away from brittle fluff.
  46. identical
    being the exact same one
    That candle had two wicks, two flames of identical height, side by side.
  47. ignite
    cause to start burning
    Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewelweed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pine.
  48. immolate
    kill as a sacrifice, especially by fire
    The wax rose in the moth’s body from her soaking abdomen to her thorax to the jagged hole where her head should be, and widened into a flame, a saffron-yellow flame that robed her to the ground like any immolating monk.
  49. indication
    the act of pointing out by name
    Next week, if the other bodies are any indication, he will be shrunken and gray, webbed to the floor with dust.
  50. jagged
    having a sharply uneven surface or outline
    The wax rose in the moth’s body from her soaking abdomen to her thorax to the jagged hole where her head should be, and widened into a flame, a saffron-yellow flame that robed her to the ground like any immolating monk.
  51. James
    disciple of Jesus
    I had hauled myself and gear up there to read, among other things, James Ramsey Ullman’s The Day on Fire, a novel about Rimbaud that had made me want to be a writer when I was sixteen; I was hoping it would do it again.
  52. kindle
    catch fire
    She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning—only glowing within, like a building glimpsed through silhouetted walls, like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet.
  53. lean
    incline or bend from a vertical position
    She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning—only glowing within, like a building glimpsed through silhouetted walls, like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet.
  54. lineage
    the kinship relation between an individual and progenitors
    The spider herself is of uncertain lineage, bulbous at the abdomen and drab.
  55. melt
    reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state
    Or they would singe their wings and fall, and their hot wings, as if melted, would stick to the first thing they touched—a pan, a lid, a spoon—so that the snagged moths could flutter only in tiny arcs, unable to struggle free.
  56. novel
    an extended fictional work in prose
    I had hauled myself and gear up there to read, among other things, James Ramsey Ullman’s The Day on Fire, a novel about Rimbaud that had made me want to be a writer when I was sixteen; I was hoping it would do it again.
  57. pan
    shallow container made of metal
    They would hiss and recoil, lost upside down in the shadows among my cooking pans.
  58. Paris
    (Greek mythology) the prince of Troy who abducted Helen from her husband Menelaus and provoked the Trojan War
    She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning—only glowing within, like a building glimpsed through silhouetted walls, like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet.
  59. pine
    a coniferous tree
    Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewelweed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pine.
  60. poem
    a composition in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines
    She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning—only glowing within, like a building glimpsed through silhouetted walls, like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet.
  61. pool
    a small body of standing water or other liquid
    All that was left was the glowing horn shell of her abdomen and thorax—a fraying, partially collapsed gold tube jammed upright in the candle’s round pool.
  62. Puget Sound
    an inlet of the North Pacific in northwestern Washington State
    I live on northern Puget Sound, in Washington State, alone.
  63. rate
    a quantity considered as a proportion of another quantity
    I must have been staring at the candle, or maybe I looked up when a shadow crossed my page; at any rate, I saw it all.
  64. rave
    talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
    ) They thought I was raving again.
  65. reduce
    make smaller
    And the moths, the empty moths, stagger against each other, headless, in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnish, like a jumble of buttresses for cathedral domes, like nothing resembling moths, so that I should hesitate to call them moths, except that I have had some experience with the figure Moth reduce to a nub.
  66. release
    grant freedom to; free from confinement
    These I could release by a quick flip with a stick; in the morning I would find my cooking stuff gilded with torn flecks of moth wings, triangles of shiny dust here and there on the aluminum.
  67. remind
    put in the mind of someone
    Her little outfit always reminds me of a certain moth I helped to kill.
  68. replenish
    fill something that had previously been emptied
    So I read, and boiled water, and replenished candles, and read on.
  69. resemble
    be similar or bear a likeness to
    And the moths, the empty moths, stagger against each other, headless, in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnish, like a jumble of buttresses for cathedral domes, like nothing resembling moths, so that I should hesitate to call them moths, except that I have had some experience with the figure Moth reduce to a nub.
  70. rub
    move over something with pressure
    Small usually avoids them, although once she came too close and her tail caught on fire; I rubbed it out before she noticed.
  71. saffron
    crocus with pungent orange stigmas used in flavoring food
    The wax rose in the moth’s body from her soaking abdomen to her thorax to the jagged hole where her head should be, and widened into a flame, a saffron-yellow flame that robed her to the ground like any immolating monk.
  72. silhouette
    a filled-in drawing of the outline of an object
    She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning—only glowing within, like a building glimpsed through silhouetted walls, like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet.
  73. skeleton
    the structure providing a frame for the body of an animal
    And then this moth-essence, this spectacular skeleton, began to act as a wick.
  74. smooth
    having a surface free from roughness or irregularities
    Today the earwig shines darkly and gleams, what there is of him: a dorsal curve of thorax and abdomen, and a smooth pair of cerci by which I knew his name.
  75. sound
    mechanical vibrations transmitted by an elastic medium
    I live on northern Puget Sound, in Washington State, alone.
  76. spasm
    a painful and involuntary muscular contraction
    And her head jerked in spasms, making a spattering noise; her antennae crisped and burned away and her heaving mouth parts crackled like pistol fire.
  77. stare
    look at with fixed eyes
    I must have been staring at the candle, or maybe I looked up when a shadow crossed my page; at any rate, I saw it all.
  78. struggle
    strenuous effort
    Or they would singe their wings and fall, and their hot wings, as if melted, would stick to the first thing they touched—a pan, a lid, a spoon—so that the snagged moths could flutter only in tiny arcs, unable to struggle free.
  79. surface
    the outer boundary of an artifact or a material layer
    The flames move light over everyone’s skin, draw light to the surface of the faces of my friends.
  80. thorax
    the body of an arthropod between the head and the abdomen
    Today the earwig shines darkly and gleams, what there is of him: a dorsal curve of thorax and abdomen, and a smooth pair of cerci by which I knew his name.
  81. tiny
    very small
    Or they would singe their wings and fall, and their hot wings, as if melted, would stick to the first thing they touched—a pan, a lid, a spoon—so that the snagged moths could flutter only in tiny arcs, unable to struggle free.
  82. tissue
    part of an organism consisting of an aggregate of cells
    Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewelweed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pine.
  83. touch
    make physical contact with, come in contact with
    Or they would singe their wings and fall, and their hot wings, as if melted, would stick to the first thing they touched—a pan, a lid, a spoon—so that the snagged moths could flutter only in tiny arcs, unable to struggle free.
  84. traffic
    vehicles or pedestrians traveling in a particular locality
    The web itself is in a corner behind the toilet, connecting tile wall to tile wall and floor, in a place where there is, I would have thought, scant traffic.
  85. translucent
    allowing light to pass through diffusely
    The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying in knots.
  86. trunk
    the main stem of a tree
    Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewelweed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pine.
  87. tube
    a hollow cylindrical shape
    All that was left was the glowing horn shell of her abdomen and thorax—a fraying, partially collapsed gold tube jammed upright in the candle’s round pool.
  88. vanish
    become invisible or unnoticeable
    At once the light contracted again and the moth’s wings vanished in a fine, foul smoke.
  89. Virginia
    one of the British colonies that formed the United States
    Two summers ago I was camping alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.
  90. warbler
    a singer
    So I read, lost, every day sitting under a tree by my tent, while warblers swung in the leaves overhead and bristle worms trailed their inches over the twiggy dirt at my feet; and I read every night by candlelight, while barred owls called in the forest and pale moths massed round my head in the clearing, where my light made a ring.
  91. Washington
    1st President of the United States
    I live on northern Puget Sound, in Washington State, alone.
  92. wax
    substance solid at normal temperature and insoluble in water
    A golden female moth, a biggish one with a two-inch wingspan, flapped into the fire, dropped her abdomen into the wet wax, stuck, flamed, frazzled and fried in a second.
  93. webbed
    having open interstices or resembling a web
    Next week, if the other bodies are any indication, he will be shrunken and gray, webbed to the floor with dust.
  94. wick
    a loosely woven cord (in a candle or oil lamp) that draws fuel by capillary action up into the flame
    And then this moth-essence, this spectacular skeleton, began to act as a wick.
  95. wing
    a movable organ for flying (one of a pair)
    Or they would singe their wings and fall, and their hot wings, as if melted, would stick to the first thing they touched—a pan, a lid, a spoon—so that the snagged moths could flutter only in tiny arcs, unable to struggle free.
  96. writer
    a person who is able to write and has written something
    I had hauled myself and gear up there to read, among other things, James Ramsey Ullman’s The Day on Fire, a novel about Rimbaud that had made me want to be a writer when I was sixteen; I was hoping it would do it again.
Created on Wed Jan 18 18:33:56 EST 2012 (updated Wed Jan 18 18:36:00 EST 2012)

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