Never Let Me Go: Chapters 1-4

by Kazuo Ishiguro
In Ishiguro's chilling dystopian novel, three students at a secluded boarding school learn the truth about their identities and their futures.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-4, Chapters 5-9, Chapters 10-17, Chapters 18-23

Here are links to our lists for other works by Kazuo Ishiguro: A Village After Dark, The Remains of the Day
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. resentful
    full of or marked by indignant ill will
    If you’re one of them, I can understand how you might get resentful—about my bedsit, my car, above all, the way I get to pick and choose who I look after.
  2. languorous
    lacking spirit or liveliness
    The other boys were all moving around the field in that deliberately languorous way they have when they’re warming up, but Tommy, in his excitement, seemed already to be going full pelt.
  3. quip
    witty remark
    This time Ruth heard me, but she must have thought I’d meant it as some kind of joke, because she laughed half-heartedly, then made some quip of her own.
  4. daft
    foolish or mentally irregular
    There was something comical about Tommy at that moment, something that made you think, well, yes, if he’s going to be that daft, he deserves what’s coming.
  5. prolific
    intellectually productive
    The rule was you could only buy work done by students in your own year, but that still gave us plenty to choose from, since most of us could get pretty prolific over a three-month period.
  6. crestfallen
    brought low in spirit
    I could see he was bewildered and crestfallen, but after the months I’d spent worrying about him, I felt betrayed, and didn’t care how he felt.
  7. reproachful
    expressing disapproval, blame, or disappointment
    I gave him a reproachful look and walked off without responding, but already, I suppose, I’d begun to entertain the possibility that he wasn’t, after all, making it up about Miss Lucy.
  8. clammy
    unpleasantly cool and humid
    I remember a time when I could only have been five or six, sitting at a low table beside Amanda C., our hands clammy with modelling clay.
  9. snooty
    overly conceited or arrogant
    For years we thought of her as “snooty,” but then one night, around when we were eight, Ruth came up with another theory.
  10. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    At a signal from Ruth we all sauntered out, moving straight for her, but like we were all in a dream.
  11. acquisitive
    eager to attain and possess material possessions
    The tokens controversy was, I suppose, all part of our getting more acquisitive as we grew older.
  12. ambivalent
    uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow
    But by the time we were ten, we’d grown more ambivalent about it.
  13. nostalgic
    unhappy about being away and longing for familiar things
    When you come across old students from Hailsham, you always find them, sooner or later, getting nostalgic about their collections.
  14. dodgy
    of uncertain outcome; especially fraught with risk
    The atmosphere around the table had become one of deep embarrassment, and curious as we were to hear more, we wanted most for the talk to get away from this dodgy territory.
  15. coerce
    cause to do through pressure or necessity
    She might then resume with a gentle sigh—a signal that we were going to be forgiven—or just as easily explode out of her silence with: “But I will not be coerced! Oh no! And neither will Hailsham!”
Created on Wed Jan 17 09:40:07 EST 2018 (updated Fri Aug 01 11:12:14 EDT 2025)

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