Never Let Me Go: Chapters 10-17

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
15 words 382 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. tenuous
    lacking substance or significance
    We didn’t know then that all these places had only the most tenuous links with Hailsham.
  2. languid
    lacking spirit or liveliness
    If someone mentions the Cottages today, I think of easy-going days drifting in and out of each other’s rooms, the languid way the afternoon would fold into evening then into night.
  3. incongruous
    lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness
    But then again, when I think about it, there’s a sense in which that picture of us on that first day, huddled together in front of the farmhouse, isn’t so incongruous after all.
  4. mannerism
    a behavioral attribute that is distinctive to an individual
    There was, incidentally, something I noticed about these veteran couples at the Cottages—something Ruth, for all her close study of them, failed to spot—and this was how so many of their mannerisms were copied from the television.
  5. spiel
    artful or slick talk used to persuade
    There was a character—a large woman who lived next door to the main characters—who did exactly what Susie did, so when her husband went off on a big spiel, the audience would be waiting for her to roll her eyes and say “Gawd help us” so they could burst out with this huge laugh.
  6. blase
    nonchalantly unconcerned
    The veterans usually laughed when one showed up and flicked through it quickly in a blasé way before throwing it aside, so we did the same.
  7. advert
    a public promotion of some product or service
    Even in the little adverts for videos or whatever tucked away to the side, I checked each model’s face before moving on.
  8. spate
    a large number or amount or extent
    Weeks could go by with no one mentioning the subject, then one reported sighting would trigger off a whole spate of others.
  9. chortle
    laugh quietly or with restraint
    In any discussion, you knew he’d back up Chrissie’s angle, and if Chrissie ever said anything mildly amusing, he’d be chortling and shaking his head like he couldn’t believe how funny it was.
  10. pretext
    a fictitious reason that conceals the real reason
    For a moment, as he said this, the fear passed through me that we’d misjudged things badly; that for all we knew, veterans often used talk of possibles just as a pretext to go on trips, and didn’t really expect to take it any further.
  11. despondent
    without or almost without hope
    Regardless of what had been going on between us that day, deep down, none of us wanted Ruth to return home despondent, and at that moment we thought we were safe.
  12. astride
    with one leg on each side
    But Ruth did sit on it, knees on either side like she was astride a horse.
  13. lethargy
    weakness characterized by a lack of vitality or energy
    I remember a huge tiredness coming over me, a kind of lethargy in the face of the tangled mess before me.
  14. tiff
    a petty quarrel
    But I didn’t believe it to be anything so different from other tiffs we’d had.
  15. conciliatory
    intended to placate
    I’d made my voice conciliatory, and Ruth responded.
Created on Wed Jan 17 10:35:52 EST 2018 (updated Fri Aug 01 11:23:08 EDT 2025)

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