The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate: Chapters 16–22

by Jacqueline Kelly
The year is 1899, and 11-year-old Callie enjoys studying Darwin and exploring the natural world with her grandfather — but her traditional mother wants Callie to spend her time engaged in "ladylike" pursuits like cooking and sewing. As a new century dawns, Callie must struggle to balance her desires and interests with the expectations of society.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–6, Chapters 7–8, Chapters 9–15, Chapters 16–22, Chapters 23–28
35 words 29 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. stipulate
    make an express demand or provision in an agreement
    The advertisement also stipulated that the young lady had to be tall, setting off all kinds of speculation, both polite and otherwise.
  2. rebuff
    reject outright and bluntly
    Sam Houston tried to cadge a beer and was properly rebuffed.
  3. onerous
    burdensome or difficult to endure
    Since there was still only the one telephone in town, her duties were not onerous.
  4. stoutly
    in a resolute manner
    “I know how to cook,” I said stoutly.
  5. dross
    worthless or dangerous material that should be removed
    I fancied that a malevolent Rumpelstiltskin crept into my room at night and undid my best work, turning the gold of my efforts into pathetic dross on a wheel perversely spinning backward.
  6. perverse
    marked by a disposition to oppose and contradict
    I fancied that a malevolent Rumpelstiltskin crept into my room at night and undid my best work, turning the gold of my efforts into pathetic dross on a wheel perversely spinning backward.
  7. diurnal
    of or belonging to or active during the day
    There wasn’t much light left. Too late to collect diurnal samples.
  8. spurn
    reject with contempt
    There was a wicked point to all the sewing and cooking that they were trying to impress upon me, the tedious lessons I had been spurning and ducking.
  9. pare
    strip the skin off
    I held the knife and apple in imitation and, with the first paring motion, sliced my thumb open.
  10. quagmire
    a situation from which extrication is difficult
    Since I’d heard my domestic life sentence delivered, I had sunk into the deepest quagmire of ill temper and low spirits, keeping apart from the others as much as possible, so much so that there had been the occasional talk of cod-liver oil.
  11. efficacious
    producing or capable of producing an intended result
    I dropped the needles, ran from my room, and slid down the banister. Granddaddy smiled. “An efficacious method of transportation. Remind me to talk with you some other time about Newton’s laws of physics and how they apply to banister travel.”
  12. detritus
    the remains of something that has been destroyed or finished
    You’d think it would be difficult to lose an oak barrel, even a small one, in the laboratory, but the space had become so crowded with failed samples and the detritus of various old and new experiments that it took a few minutes of pawing through it all before we located it buried deep under one of the counters.
  13. ferment
    cause to undergo the breakdown of sugar into alcohol
    Calmly, Granddaddy said, “I have managed to take perfectly good pecans and ferment them into something approximating cat piss.”
  14. traipse
    walk or tramp about
    In the shrinking scraps of free time I had left, I traipsed after Granddaddy as often as I could.
  15. lofty
    having or displaying great dignity or nobility
    “Callie Vee could help her cook,” Lamar said loftily.
  16. pique
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    Our initial collective pique melted away as the party began, and why not?
  17. assiduously
    with care and persistence
    There were mounds of dainty sandwiches and sausage rolls; there were cool aspics and hot ham served with apricot preserves; cold roast beef sliced thin and served with fiery horseradish, which the children assiduously avoided...
  18. decorous
    characterized by propriety and dignity and good taste
    Things started out decorously enough but deteriorated into unprecedented pandemonium.
  19. convivial
    occupied with or fond of the pleasures of good company
    Granddaddy stood with the adults and had a convivial glass of beer.
  20. cataract
    a large waterfall; violent rush of water over a precipice
    Lula stood talking with her mother, the tiniest beads of sweat on her nose, her loose hair a silver-and-gold cataract in the sun.
  21. trestle
    sawhorses used in pairs to support a horizontal tabletop
    As we passed the groaning trestle tables of food, I saw Sul Ross head for the trees with two mounded plates of cake.
  22. preen
    clean with one's bill
    It preened a long iridescent feather, shook its head, raised and lowered its crest in a gesture that was somehow threatening, and turned to gaze at us with a perfectly round, yellow eye.
  23. trill
    a note that alternates with another note a semitone above it
    Mother looked at the creature with some alarm, but then, as if realizing its future was at stake, the bird broke into an amazing whistling rendition of “When You and I Were Young, Maggie,” complete with trills and cadenzas.
  24. cadenza
    a solo passage occurring near the end of a piece of music
    Mother looked at the creature with some alarm, but then, as if realizing its future was at stake, the bird broke into an amazing whistling rendition of “When You and I Were Young, Maggie,” complete with trills and cadenzas.
  25. jaundiced
    affected by yellowing of the skin
    There was some cruel intelligence in its jaundiced eye that made me ponder this and made me grateful for the chain.
  26. dyspeptic
    irritable as if suffering from indigestion
    He spent his days muttering dyspeptically to himself and singing naughty sea chanteys, with the occasional random earsplitting screech thrown in just to make you jump.
  27. dub
    give a nickname to
    He had once kept an ancient raven, which he’d dubbed Edgar Allan Crow, and he’d labored for years to get the bird to speak the word nevermore.
  28. semaphore
    send signals by lights or mechanically moving arms
    I half expected to see the few remaining insects circling him and semaphoring their romantic intentions.
  29. drudgery
    hard, monotonous, routine work
    Would he commute my life sentence of domestic drudgery?
  30. galvanize
    stimulate to action
    It was galvanizing information.
  31. profusion
    the property of being extremely abundant
    Father had bought it for her on their honeymoon in Galveston, a city into which an unimaginable profusion of fabulous goods flowed every day.
  32. anneal
    bring to a desired consistency by heating and cooling
    I would have made a better choice than Travis, now that I had been annealed in the furnace of the Scientific Method.
  33. maunder
    speak in a rambling or incoherent way
    We put up a small handwritten notice at the newspaper office and made sure that old Backy Medlin, the gin’s most maundering gossip, knew what we were looking for.
  34. redolent
    having a strong pleasant odor
    Finally, by six o’clock, the house redolent of enticing smells, Viola rang her bell at the back door and pounded the gong.
  35. pall
    a sudden feeling of dread or gloominess
    Despite the pall hanging over us, small pockets of spontaneous merriment broke out here and there.
Created on Wed Aug 22 10:55:26 EDT 2018 (updated Thu Aug 23 11:28:38 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.