Old Yeller: Chapters 5-8

by Fred Gipson
When their father goes off on a cattle drive, a family survives with a little help from a beloved pet dog. Learn these words from the classic novel by Fred Gipson.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-4, Chapters 5-8, Chapters 9-12, Chapters 13-16
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. spasm
    a painful and involuntary muscular contraction
    And once he turned out of his pocket a wadded-up baby copperhead that nearly threw Mama into spasms.
  2. sulk
    be in a huff and display one's displeasure
    Like cottontail rabbits and chaparral birds and a baby possum that sulked and lay like dead for the first several hours until he finally decided that Arliss wasn’t going to hurt him.
  3. shrill
    having or emitting a high-pitched and sharp tone or tones
    Little Arliss’s second scream, when it came, was louder and shriller and more frantic-sounding than the first.
  4. marrow
    network of connective tissue filling the cavities of bones
    And what I saw sent a chill clear through to the marrow of my bones.
  5. prowl
    move about in or as if in a predatory manner
    How the bear cub ever came to prowl close enough for Little Arliss to grab him, I don’t know.
  6. hunch
    round one's back by bending forward
    Old Yeller hadn’t let the bear get close enough. He couldn’t handle her; she was too big and strong for that. She’d stand there on her hind feet, hunched over, and take a roaring swing at him with one of those big front claws.
  7. rowdy
    disturbing the public peace; loud and rough
    The way he acted, you might have thought that bear fight hadn’t been anything more than a rowdy romp that we’d all taken part in for the fun of it.
  8. embedded
    enclosed firmly in a surrounding mass
    I searched his feet and pulled out a long mesquite thorn that had become embedded between his toes.
  9. scurry
    move about or proceed hurriedly
    Then he’d stand yelling at me to come back and look at all the yellow ants and centipedes and crickets and stinging scorpions that went scurrying away, hunting new hiding places.
  10. seep
    pass gradually or leak or as if through small openings
    Another time he fell down and struck his elbow on a rock and didn’t say a word about it for several minutes—until he saw blood seeping out of a cut on his arm.
  11. wring
    twist and press out of shape
    For a second, I was so mad at Little Arliss I could have wrung his neck like a frying chicken’s.
  12. splatter
    dash a liquid upon or against
    Right away, he puckered up and went to crying and leaking tears all over the place. Some of them splattered clear down on his bare feet, making dark splotches in the dust that covered them.
  13. yonder
    in an indicated distant place
    “I don’t think you’ve lost your gobbler yet. Look yonder!”
  14. sumptuous
    rich and superior in quality
    So in spite of the fact that Little Arliss had caused me to make a bad shot, we had us a real sumptuous supper that night.
  15. hydrophobia
    a symptom of rabies consisting of an aversion to liquids
    This sure looked like a case of hydrophobia to Searcy, as anybody knew that no fox in his right mind was going to jump on a hunter.
  16. rile
    disturb, especially by minor irritations
    Salt Licks folks were getting pretty riled about it, Searcy said, and guessed it would go hard with whatever or whoever was doing the raiding if they ever learned what it was.
  17. liable
    likely to be affected with
    If Lisbeth had caught Old Yeller stealing stuff at the settlement, then somebody else might, too. And if they did, they were sure liable to shoot him.
  18. rogue
    a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
    “Why, that old rogue!” she said. “We’ll have to try to figure some way to keep him from prowling. Everybody in the settlement will be mad at us if we don’t.”
  19. pester
    annoy persistently
    About that time, too, the varmints got to pestering us so much that a lot of times Old Yeller and I were kept busy nearly all night long.
  20. rustle
    make a dry crackling sound
    We’d lie there on the cowhide and look up at the stars and listen to the warm night breeze rustling the corn blades.
  21. uproar
    a state of commotion and noise and confusion
    He’d be yelling and the coon would be squawling and they’d go wallowing and clawing and threshing through the corn, popping the stalks as they broke them off, making such an uproar in the night that it sounded like murder.
  22. satisfied
    filled with contentment
    But, generally, when the fight was all over, the coon went one way and Old Yeller the other, both of them pretty well satisfied to call it quits.
  23. heifer
    young cow
    I had to admit Papa had been right when he’d told me how bad I needed a dog. I saw that even more clearly when the spotted heifer had her first calf.
  24. bawl
    make a raucous noise
    She came straight for me with her horns lowered, bawling her threats as she came.
  25. graze
    feed as in a meadow or pasture
    He said that he’d come from down San Antonio way with a little bunch of cattle that he was grazing over in the Devil’s River country.
  26. urge
    urge or force in an indicated direction
    “Go on, Son,” Mama urged. “I think he and Little Arliss must be playing down about the creek somewhere.”
  27. flank
    the side between ribs and hipbone
    He grabbed up a bunch of rocks and went to throwing them at Burn Sanderson. One hit Sanderson’s horse in the flank.
  28. commotion
    a disorderly outburst or tumult
    And what with Mama running after Little Arliss, hollering for him to shut up and quit throwing those rocks, it was altogether the biggest and loudest commotion that had taken place around our cabin for a good long while.
  29. plague
    any epidemic disease with a high death rate
    But there’s a plague of hydrophobia making the rounds, and I want you to be on the lookout for it.
  30. reel
    walk as if unable to control one's movements
    Not until they have already gone to foaming at the mouth and are reeling with the blind staggers. Any time you see a critter acting that way, you know for sure. But you watch for others that aren’t that far along.
Created on Tue Aug 15 18:03:29 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Aug 23 10:06:54 EDT 2017)

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