Bad Boy: List 1

by Walter Dean Myers
In this memoir, acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers recounts his early life in Harlem in the 1940s and 50s.

This list covers the following chapters: "Roots"–"Mr. Irwin Lasher."

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5

Here are links to our lists for other works by Walter Dean Myers: 145th Street, Fallen Angels, Monster, Slam!
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bustle
    move or cause to move energetically or busily
    We could be born in a crowded, bustling city or in a rural area.
  2. scoff
    treat with contemptuous disregard
    When trucks began to replace horses and wagons, he scoffed at the idea, labeling the trucks as a mere fad that would never last.
  3. fad
    an interest followed with exaggerated zeal
    When trucks began to replace horses and wagons, he scoffed at the idea, labeling the trucks as a mere fad that would never last.
  4. tenement
    a run-down apartment house barely meeting minimal standards
    It was a magical place, alive with music that spilled onto the busy streets from tenement windows and full of colors and smells that filled my senses and made my heart beat faster.
  5. welt
    a raised mark on the skin
    Instead she covered my legs and hands with welts with the strap.
  6. yodel
    sing by changing register rapidly
    Once she told me that she liked to yodel and that she had done so as a child.
  7. thoroughfare
    a public road from one place to another
    We lived between 121st and 122nd Streets, just three blocks from 125th Street, Harlem’s main thoroughfare.
  8. draft
    engage somebody to enter the army
    My father was drafted into the Navy, and Mama and my sisters all got jobs in the garment industry.
  9. lanyard
    a cord worn around the neck to hold a whistle, badge, etc.
    In Bible school, which I attended summers at the Church of the Master, I had learned to weave a lanyard out of plastic strips.
  10. serial
    a sequential set of programs
    The radio serials were like an extension of the comics, and Mama liked to listen to them with me.
  11. rote
    memorization by repetition
    Frank’s idea of arithmetic was rote learning.
  12. matron
    a married woman who is staid and dignified
    Or if you played Chinese handball against the wall during a funeral, he would send Mrs. Bellinger, one of the big-bosomed matrons, out to yell at you.
  13. bravado
    a swaggering show of courage
    The punch was more out of fear than bravado, but it knocked me down.
  14. strenuous
    characterized by or performed with much energy or force
    I could listen to the big radio, but I wasn’t allowed to do anything strenuous, including going outside to play, until I had been cleared by the doctor.
  15. ward
    block forming a division of a hospital shared by patients
    He picked me up and rushed me to the emergency ward.
  16. lynch
    kill without legal sanction
    Johnny Lightbourne, a boy close to my age, suggested we beat him up, but then we read in the Amsterdam News about a black man in the South who had been lynched by hanging.
  17. rouge
    makeup consisting of powder applied to the cheeks
    She reminded me of a great white turtle with just a dash of rouge and a touch of eye shadow.
  18. drawl
    a slow speech pattern with prolonged vowels
    In Harlem the precise accents of northern-born blacks mixed with the slow drawls of recent southern immigrants and the lilting accents from the islands.
  19. lilting
    characterized by a buoyant rhythm
    In Harlem the precise accents of northern-born blacks mixed with the slow drawls of recent southern immigrants and the lilting accents from the islands.
  20. deem
    judge or regard in a particular way
    In Harlem, where the laborers lived, people wore the bright colors deemed inappropriate for offices.
  21. gospel
    a genre of evangelical Christian music
    It became common to hear loudspeakers in the music stores fill the area with the sounds of jazz and to see strollers adjust their rhythms to the beat set down by Count Basie or even some gospel group.
  22. orthodox
    adhering to what is commonly accepted
    Black businessmen walked side by side with black orthodox Jews.
  23. jostle
    make one's way by pushing or shoving
    White nuns from St. Joseph’s jostled with fat black women in Blumstein’s for bargains, and the butchers in Raphael’s meat market pushed slices of cold cuts across the counter for black children to nibble on while their mamas shopped.
  24. cache
    a secret store of valuables or money
    With school out and me not having access to Mrs. Conway’s cache of books, I rediscovered the George Bruce Branch of the public library on 125th Street.
  25. vice
    moral weakness
    As much as I enjoyed reading, in the world in which I was living it had to be a secret vice.
  26. bevy
    a large gathering of people of a particular type
    We often played ball in the church gym, and one rainy day, along with my brother Mickey and some of “my guys,” I went to the gym, only to find a bevy of girls exercising on one half of the court.
  27. limber
    capable of moving or bending freely
    Not one of us was limber enough to do the stretching exercises, and soon we were all trying to look as disgusted as we could while we hopped around the floor to the music.
  28. skimpy
    containing little excess
    He didn’t think young boys should be dancing around a stage in skimpy outfits.
  29. transgression
    the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle
    I firmly believed that God saw everything and duly noted all transgressions, big and small.
  30. ledger
    an accounting journal as a physical object
    But as spring rolled around that year, I found myself barely hanging on to that side of the ledger.
  31. pallet
    a portable platform for storing or moving goods
    Few families on the side streets had refrigerators, and halfway down the block was a wooden pallet on which sat kegs of ice.
  32. resolute
    firm in purpose or belief
    “What’s wrong with you, boy?” My father’s voice again, deeper, more resolute.
  33. gingerly
    in a manner marked by extreme care or delicacy
    I had changed pants and now undid my belt and gingerly let the changed pants down.
  34. berate
    censure severely or angrily
    I sat in the hot water and listened as my father berated Mama.
  35. vestibule
    a large entrance or reception room or area
    We were playing stickball on 122nd Street, and a foul ball went up on the flat roof over the church vestibule.
Created on Tue Nov 06 13:28:41 EST 2018 (updated Tue Nov 06 14:33:50 EST 2018)

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