The Parker Inheritance: Chapters 41–52

by Varian Johnson
While spending the summer at her grandmother's house in Lambert, South Carolina, Candice finds an intriguing old letter in the attic. She joins forces with a neighbor to follow the clues in the letter and find a hidden treasure — but solving the mystery means uncovering past injustices in Lambert.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–8, Chapters 9–18, Chapters 19–29, Chapters 30–40, Chapters 41–52
40 words 113 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. override
    prevail or be more important than
    Both Brandon and Tori had warned her not to eat two chili-cheese dogs, but the smell overrode her common sense, and she ended up scarfing them down.
  2. gritty
    composed of or covered with small particles
    Candice found a box of chewable antacid tablets in the cabinet. She washed down their chalky, gritty taste with a glass of water, and returned to her room.
  3. mahogany
    a reddish-brown wood commonly used to make furniture
    When people looked at James Parker sitting behind his large mahogany desk in his high-rise office, they always saw what they wanted to see.
  4. prosper
    make steady progress
    As the company prospered, Parker branched out into new areas.
  5. acquisition
    something gained
    When he was thirty-five (in real life, not on his birth certificate), he made his first corporate acquisition when Parker Holdings Inc. purchased a small construction company.
  6. confidant
    someone to whom private matters are told
    Her business card said Executive Secretary, but she was part mother, part assistant, part gopher, part confidant.
  7. hoard
    save up as for future use
    So he slowly pulled away from anyone who ever tried to befriend him, like a starving man hoarding his last scraps of bread.
  8. oust
    remove from a position or office
    He started with Allen Textiles Inc., buying up enough shares to oust the family from control.
  9. embolden
    give encouragement to
    But Mrs. Halliday’s words had emboldened him. They gave him the permission he’d been seeking for his entire life.
  10. upscale
    relating or appealing to wealthy or high-status consumers
    “You should let me buy you a new bracelet,” he said one night as they finished dinner at an upscale restaurant in DC.
  11. juvenile
    displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity
    “A woman of your beauty shouldn’t wear something so juvenile.”
  12. pang
    a sudden sharp feeling
    Every time she visited, he felt a pang for his own grandmother.
  13. problematic
    making great mental demands
    “I could see how introducing me to your mother could be problematic,” he said.
  14. repercussion
    a remote or indirect consequence of some action
    “I’m sorry,” he quickly replied. “Of course you don’t have to change. My board...they will be fine. I’ll deal with any fallout. I mean, there will be some financial repercussions....”
  15. valet
    a servant who acts as a personal attendant to his employer
    He handed the valet his ticket and waited for the car.
  16. audacity
    aggressive or outright boldness
    “The way I see it, you had twenty-nine years to find me. To prove my father was wrong when he said we didn’t belong together. And you have the audacity to say it’s his fault for keeping us apart?”
  17. devious
    characterized by insincerity or deceit
    “I promise, everything’s okay. We’re not up to anything devious.”
  18. inquisition
    a severe interrogation
    The questions were innocent enough, but to Candice, it felt like an inquisition.
  19. churn
    a vessel to separate butterfat from buttermilk
    Candice’s insides churned. “We’re wrong,” she said.
  20. stall
    deliberately delay an event or action
    “I’ll try to stall Ms. McMillian.”
  21. glint
    a momentary flash of light
    They could make out a small glint of silver beneath the green paint.
  22. hospice
    a program of medical care for the terminally ill
    She shivered, so he took her hands and blew warm air on them. Her fingers were so fragile and so beautiful. “I should get you back to the hospice.”
  23. statute
    an act passed by a legislative body
    “That’s a long story,” Tori said. “Look, is there any way we can open the box? It’s been here for a long time. Maybe there’s a clause in the box rental paperwork that says we can access it.”
    “Or perhaps a statute of limitations?” Brandon added.
  24. dictate
    determine, order, or control how something is done
    “I’m going to ask you one more question, Ms. Candice Miller. Just to be clear, how you answer will dictate what happens next.”
  25. liquidate
    convert into cash
    “I liquidated my stock and turned in my resignation.”
  26. resignation
    a formal document giving notice of your intention to leave
    “I liquidated my stock and turned in my resignation.”
  27. well-being
    a contented state of happiness, health, and prosperity
    “It was cancer. I didn’t know until she’d exhausted all her treatment options. I flew to her as soon as she told me. In typical Siobhan fashion, she spent most of our time talking about my well-being.”
  28. sham
    something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be
    “Tori is not an adult,” her father replied. “What if this turns out to be a sham?”
  29. glib
    marked by lack of intellectual depth
    “Don’t be glib, Candi.”
  30. chide
    scold or reprimand severely or angrily
    Candice waited for her mom to chide her for talking to her father like that.
  31. sneer
    a facial expression of contempt or scorn
    His sneer was audible all the way across the room.
  32. stipulate
    make an express demand or provision in an agreement
    At the top of the list was a new library building to be located on Darling Avenue, across from the park. Candice and Brandon stipulated that it had to be named after Siobhan Washington.
  33. podium
    a platform raised above the surrounding level
    A small crowd had already formed in front of a podium and stage outside City Hall by the time they reached downtown.
  34. ingenuity
    the property of showing inventiveness and skill
    The program began, with the current mayor telling a very long and very boring story about her grandmother’s bravery and ingenuity.
  35. excavate
    recover through digging
    “She sure did. She was a good boss too,” Odell said. “A lot of us could have lost our jobs over excavating the park, but she protected us all. Every man out there that night kept his job thanks to her.”
  36. infamous
    known widely and usually unfavorably
    She heard about the infamous tennis match of 1957.
  37. unravel
    disentangle
    It took a lot of late nights and early mornings, but she began to unravel the mysteries of the letter.
  38. beeline
    the most direct route
    But instead of heading to her grandmother, Candice was on a beeline to James Parker.
  39. emboss
    raise in a relief
    She also wore a matching red plastic bracelet on her arm. Her name had been embossed on the bracelet in glittery silver, making it shimmer.
  40. administrator
    someone who manages a business
    But while Abigail was a great administrator and fair leader, she was not made to solve puzzles.
Created on Fri Jun 29 20:28:29 EDT 2018 (updated Tue Jul 10 16:07:01 EDT 2018)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.