Sounder: Chapter I

by William H. Armstrong
In this powerful and heart-wrenching book, a sharecropper's family, including devoted dog Sounder, struggles to survive.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapter I, Chapters II–III, Chapters IV–VII, Chapter VIII
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ajar
    slightly open
    The father turned to the cabin door. It was ajar.
  2. peer
    look searchingly
    Three small children, none as high as the level of the latch, were peering out into the dark.
  3. punctuate
    interrupt periodically
    No dim lights from other cabins punctuated the night.
  4. sharecropper
    a tenant farmer who owes a portion of each harvest for rent
    The white man who owned the vast endless fields had scattered the cabins of his Negro sharecroppers far apart, like flyspecks on a whitewashed ceiling.
  5. successive
    following in order without gaps
    Two successive Octobers the boy had started, walking the eight miles morning and evening.
  6. persimmon
    orange fruit resembling a plum; edible when fully ripe
    Sounder was well named. When he treed a coon or possum in a persimmon tree or on a wild-grape vine, his voice would roll across the flatlands.
  7. waver
    emit unsteady sounds, alternating in amplitude or frequency
    It wavered through the foothills, louder than any other dog’s in the whole countryside.
  8. clamp
    fasten with or as with a device that holds things tightly
    Sounder would clamp and set his jaw-vise just behind the animal’s head.
  9. bulge
    swell or protrude outwards
    Then he would spread his front paws, lock his shoulder joints, and let the bulging neck muscles fly from left to right.
  10. puncture
    a small hole made by a sharp object
    The limp body, with not a torn spot or a tooth puncture in the skin, would be laid at his master’s feet.
  11. callus
    cause a thick or hard area of skin to form on
    His master’s calloused hand would rub the great neck, and he’d say “Good Sounder, good Sounder.”
  12. cavity
    a natural hollow or sinus within the body
    It came out of the great chest cavity and broad jaws as though it had bounced off the walls of a cave.
  13. mellow
    soften
    It mellowed into half-echo before it touched the air.
  14. coarse
    of low or inferior quality or value
    The mists of the flatlands strained out whatever coarseness was left over from his bulldog heritage, and only flutelike redbone mellowness came to the listener.
  15. heritage
    an attribute that is inherited from ancestors
    The mists of the flatlands strained out whatever coarseness was left over from his bulldog heritage, and only flutelike redbone mellowness came to the listener.
  16. precision
    the quality of being exact
    The trail barks seemed to be spaced with the precision of a juggler.
  17. quarry
    animal hunted or caught for food
    The warmer the trail grew, the longer the silences, for, by nature, the coon dog would try to surprise his quarry and catch him on the ground, if possible.
  18. skillet
    a pan used for frying foods
    She browned them in a skillet and put them on the tin-topped table in the middle of the room.
  19. stern
    strict and demanding
    The stern order to the coon hound to go back under the porch came in through the cabin door, and Sounder’s whining continued long after the footsteps on the frozen path had died out.
  20. kernel
    the inner and usually edible part of a seed, grain, or nut
    Inside the cabin, the boy’s mother sat by the stove, picking kernels of walnuts with a bent hairpin.
  21. ooze
    release in drops or small quantities
    The brownish-green husks, oozing their dark purple stain, were beaten off on a flat rock outside the cabin.
  22. whimper
    a complaint uttered in a plaintive whining way
    The troubled whimper of a child came through the little door that led to the shed-room where the children slept.
  23. addle
    mix up or confuse
    “Your little brother gets addled in his sleep when you ain’t in bed with him.”
  24. hull
    dry outer covering of a fruit or seed or nut
    “You eat the crumbs from the bottom of the hull basket,” she said.
  25. slat
    a thin strip of wood or metal
    He buried himself deep in his side of the straw tick; he felt where the wooden slats of the bed crossed under his body.
  26. scarce
    deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand
    When flour was scarce, the boy’s mother would wrap the leftover biscuits in a clean flour sack and put them away for the next meal.
  27. draft
    a regulator for controlling the flow of air in a fireplace
    The boy had cleaned up the shavings and slipped them under the door of the stove when the draft was open.
  28. whet
    sharpen by rubbing
    The father sharpened the butcher knife with the whetstone he used to whet his scythe and his goose-necked brier hook in the summer when he cut brambles and young sumac in the fencerows.
  29. scythe
    an edge tool for cutting grass
    The father sharpened the butcher knife with the whetstone he used to whet his scythe and his goose-necked brier hook in the summer when he cut brambles and young sumac in the fencerows.
  30. bramble
    any of various rough thorny shrubs or vines
    The father sharpened the butcher knife with the whetstone he used to whet his scythe and his goose-necked brier hook in the summer when he cut brambles and young sumac in the fencerows.
Created on Thu Nov 15 19:38:11 EST 2018 (updated Wed Nov 28 10:28:06 EST 2018)

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