Pax: Chapters 5–7

by Sara Pennypacker
After a war breaks out, Peter is forced to abandon Pax, his beloved pet fox — but Peter and Pax are determined to find one another again.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–7, Chapters 8–13, Chapters 14–17, Chapters 18–24, Chapters 25–34
35 words 347 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. vixen
    a female fox
    Pax was so startled that he nearly toppled from the oak trunk he’d been drowsing on: all day he’d been keeping watch and seen nothing larger than a grasshopper, and now here was a bright-furred vixen.
  2. submission
    the act of surrendering power to another
    Instinct told him also that the way she held her ears and tail erect meant she expected his submission.
  3. crude
    not carefully or expertly made
    Pax felt an urge to run back to his crude nest and press himself into the remaining stalks, as if retreating to his pen, but he resisted it—what if his boy came back and he wasn’t here?
  4. bristle
    rise up as in fear
    She sniffed and bristled in distrust at the human scent on him.
  5. gangly
    tall, thin, and awkward
    Pax had been only sixteen days old when Peter had rescued him—a fatherless, motherless curl of charcoal fur, his eyes barely opened—and it wasn’t long before he’d come to trust the quiet, gangly boy who’d brought him home.
  6. wean
    gradually deprive of mother's milk
    Orphaned before he’d been weaned, Pax had never eaten raw prey.
  7. foliage
    the collective amount of leaves of one or more plants
    It was followed by a red streak of fur that hurtled from the dried foliage, flew over the weeds, and landed on her back.
  8. punctuate
    interrupt periodically
    The little fox flipped to his back and gave his belly in submission, but this seemed only to make Bristle angrier, her chattering now punctuated by jabs and nips.
  9. poised
    marked by balance or equilibrium and readiness for action
    The runty little fox stepped out along the branch, tail poised for balance, then coiled himself and leaped out over the heads of the earthbound foxes.
  10. meek
    evidencing little spirit or courage
    He struggled a little but never really tried to upset her, and he protested only meekly when she began to groom him.
  11. subdued
    quieted and brought under control
    After a while, her brother now properly subdued and her irritation spent, Bristle retrieved the morsel of rat and dropped it in front of him.
  12. morsel
    a small amount of solid food; a mouthful
    After a while, her brother now properly subdued and her irritation spent, Bristle retrieved the morsel of rat and dropped it in front of him.
  13. sparse
    not dense or plentiful
    His fur was sparse and tufty in places, and his hip bones protruded at sharp angles.
  14. protrude
    extend out or project in space
    His fur was sparse and tufty in places, and his hip bones protruded at sharp angles.
  15. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    He knew his boy would not venture out during a storm.
  16. lob
    propel in a high arc
    Below, the coach started lobbing fungoes into the field.
  17. piteous
    deserving or inciting a feeling of sympathy and sorrow
    The kit mewed piteously all through the night, and hearing him, Peter had thought that if he could visit the kind-eyed therapist again, he’d smash those toy cars together all day and all night, all day and all night, forever.
  18. sapling
    young tree
    He pushed in a good safe thirty feet, until the saplings rose up taller than he was, until his anxiety let him breathe right again, before turning to parallel the road.
  19. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    But a few minutes later the road turned a corner and began to run along an old pasture dotted with gnarled fruit trees in ragged bloom.
  20. shingle
    building material used as siding or roofing
    The barn looked freshly painted, and some of the roof shingles were the raw pink of new wood.
  21. graze
    feed as in a meadow or pasture
    They began to graze, and a few nibbled delicately at the low branches of the trees.
  22. fawn
    a young deer
    Peter squatted back down, and the closest one, a doe with a spindly spotted fawn beside her, turned her head to look directly at him.
  23. clamber
    climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
    And then, clambering back to higher ground, he made another, much worse, mistake.
  24. undergrowth
    the brush beneath taller trees in a wood or forest
    Pax bolted up the hill and plunged into the forest undergrowth.
  25. caravan
    a procession traveling together in single file
    There, Pax caught the lingering scent of the military transport caravan from the day before, but no other traffic had passed since then.
  26. gait
    an animal's manner of moving
    The fox’s gait was deliberate, showing neither hesitation nor wasted energy.
  27. deliberate
    unhurried and with care and dignity
    The fox’s gait was deliberate, showing neither hesitation nor wasted energy.
  28. taut
    subjected to great tension; stretched tight
    He drank and drank, and he didn’t step away until his belly was taut.
  29. colony
    a place where a group of people are concentrated
    There are vast human colonies there.
  30. comportment
    manner of behaving or conducting oneself; bearing
    Again, the old fox’s comportment soothed Pax.
  31. larder
    a small storeroom for storing foods or wines
    Gray rose to his haunches, agitated, and shared the behavior he had seen: A human turning away a starving neighbor, acting as if there were no food in his larder when it was full.
  32. feign
    make believe with the intent to deceive
    A human feigning indifference to a mate she’d chosen.
  33. indifference
    apathy demonstrated by an absence of emotional reactions
    A human feigning indifference to a mate she’d chosen.
  34. skittish
    unpredictably excitable, especially of horses
    Not long after his boy had rescued him, when he was still a skittish kit, a stranger had come to the door.
  35. dominant
    exercising influence or control
    But she’s not dominant.
Created on Wed Nov 14 09:22:21 EST 2018 (updated Wed Nov 14 10:18:14 EST 2018)

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