We Are Okay: Chapters 4-6

by Nina LaCour
Marin moved across the country for college to try to escape her past. But when her best friend comes to visit, Marin must finally confront the memories she left behind. Learn key vocabulary from this novel, winner of the 2018 Printz Award.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-3, Chapters 4-6, Chapters 7-13, Chapters 14-30
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. immaculate
    completely neat and clean
    Mabel is learning as much about Hannah as our room can tell her. The pile of papers on her desk, her immaculate bed-making. The signed posters from Broadway shows and her bright, plush comforter.
  2. plush
    characterized by extravagance and softness
    Mabel is learning as much about Hannah as our room can tell her. The pile of papers on her desk, her immaculate bed-making. The signed posters from Broadway shows and her bright, plush comforter.
  3. aspire
    have an ambitious plan or a lofty goal
    "One of the first lectures my history professor gave us was about this guy William Morris. He said that everything you own should be either useful or beautiful. It's a lot to aspire to, but I figured why not try? I saw these in a potter's studio a couple days afterward and I bought them."
  4. litany
    a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the priest with responses from the congregation
    Before she gave up on me, Mabel sent me a litany of reasons not to like her roommate.
  5. tumultuous
    characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination
    Her terrible taste in music, her loud snoring, her tumultuous love life and messiness and ugly decorations.
  6. rife
    excessively abundant
    Stepping out with Mabel, I realize it's the kind of place the governess in The Turn of the Screw would find rife with ghostly possibilities.
  7. panoramic
    as from an altitude or distance
    From the tower windows we can see the rest of the campus, a panoramic view.
  8. insurmountable
    not capable of being overcome
    The distance between us and all of that living feels insurmountable.
  9. ornate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    Like so much of this building, every detail is ornate.
  10. motif
    a design that consists of recurring shapes or colors
    Etched brass with leaf motifs and plaster swirls above the door.
  11. descent
    a movement downward
    Until, mid-descent, when Mabel reaches toward the control panel and presses a button that makes us jolt to a stop.
  12. refract
    subject to change in direction of a propagating wave
    We've discussed the details of the buttons, the refracted light from the crystals on the chandelier.
  13. patronizing
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
    "Okay, I'm sorry. That sounds patronizing. I just mean those glasses! Those sweaters with the elbow patches! Real ones that he sewed on himself because the sleeves wore through. He was the real deal."
  14. semblance
    the outward or apparent appearance or form of something
    I ate all my meals in the same twenty-four-hour diner and I kept no semblance of a schedule.
  15. suspension
    temporary cessation
    She presses a button and here is movement after so many minutes of suspension.
  16. intricacy
    the quality of having elaborately complex detail
    While One Hundred Years of Solitude swept me up in its magic and its images, its intricacies and its breadth, Jane Eyre made my heart swell.
  17. breadth
    the capacity to understand a broad range of topics
    While One Hundred Years of Solitude swept me up in its magic and its images, its intricacies and its breadth, Jane Eyre made my heart swell.
  18. veranda
    a porch along the outside of a building
    I pictured her in a chair on a veranda, sipping iced teas and writing with perfect penmanship.
  19. devious
    indirect in departing from the accepted or proper way
    Maybe she was the kind of grandma who cursed and went out dancing, who had a devious spark in her eyes that would rival Gramps's.
  20. unfurl
    unroll, unfold, or spread out
    He came out with fabric folded in his hands, a deep green, and he let it unfurl and I saw it was a dress.
  21. shrill
    being sharply insistent on being heard
    Her voice over the intercom during the daily announcements had become shrill.
  22. fleck
    a small contrasting part of something
    She began to draw, and I looked at her as if I were drawing her, too. Her eyes and her ears and the slant of her nose. The flush in her cheeks and her laugh lines. The flecks of lighter brown in the darker brown of her eyes.
  23. furrow
    make or become wrinkled or creased
    Emily's brow furrowed.
  24. dredge
    search the bottom of a body of water for something valuable
    Did I dredge up memories he'd worked hard to forget?
  25. fare
    the sum charged for riding in a public conveyance
    It's the wrong landscape, the wrong color, the wrong bus name and number, the wrong fare, and the wrong accent when the driver says, "You heard about the storm, right?”
  26. halting
    proceeding in a fragmentary, hesitant, or ineffective way
    We take halting, interrupted steps, not knowing how far back we should go or who should duck into a row first.
  27. menorah
    a seven- or nine-branched candelabrum used in Jewish worship
    All my life, winter has meant gray skies and rain, puddles and umbrellas. Winter has never looked like this. Wreathes on every door. Menorahs on windowsills.
  28. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    It's a dusty-pink color, subtle enough that it would work in their brightest rooms.
  29. potter
    a craftsperson who makes ceramic objects
    The potter is sitting at the counter now, making notes on a piece of paper, and when I take the vase up to her I'm seized with the wish to stay.
  30. kiln
    a furnace for firing, burning, or drying porcelain or bricks
    "Are you interested in making pottery? Maybe we could work something out where you get to use the kiln. To make up for the fact I can't pay very much."
Created on Wed May 02 10:02:32 EDT 2018 (updated Wed May 02 10:53:23 EDT 2018)

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