The Marrow Thieves: List 3

by Cherie Dimaline
In this dystopian novel, indigenous people of North America are hunted by sinister Recruiters who hope to harvest the bone marrow that allows them to dream.

This list covers Wab’s Coming-to Story–The Other Indians.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
35 words 467 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. jaunt
    a journey taken for pleasure
    I charged a tin of soup for a short jaunt, a full loaf of bread and a jar of pasta sauce for a trip any longer than the immediate neighborhood.
  2. opiate
    a narcotic drug
    They caught me on a bogus run they’d put in, sending a stupid hillbilly-lookin’ Indian hopped up on opiates to commission a run.
  3. commission
    place an order for
    They caught me on a bogus run they’d put in, sending a stupid hillbilly-lookin’ Indian hopped up on opiates to commission a run.
  4. venture
    an undertaking with an uncertain outcome
    "You see, runner, I have a new business venture I’ve been trying to get off the ground. I have this idea that we can provide services where the fair city of Toronto has decided to rescind theirs.”
  5. rescind
    cancel officially
    "You see, runner, I have a new business venture I’ve been trying to get off the ground. I have this idea that we can provide services where the fair city of Toronto has decided to rescind theirs.”
  6. infallibility
    the quality of never making an error
    So much laid to waste from the miscalculation of infallibility in the face of a planet’s revolt.
  7. gauge
    an instrument for measuring and indicating a quantity
    They stopped dreaming. And a man without dreams is just a meaty machine with a broken gauge.
  8. humble
    cause to be unpretentious
    They asked to come to ceremony. They humbled themselves when we refused.
  9. uncanny
    surpassing the ordinary or normal
    How could they best appropriate the uncanny ability we kept to dream?
  10. honorarium
    a fee paid for a nominally free service
    They’d give you room and board for a week and a small honorarium to pay for your time off work.
  11. siphon
    convey, draw off, or empty by or as if by a tube
    It began as a rumor, that they had found a way to siphon the dreams right out of our bones, a rumor whispered every time one of us went missing, a rumor denounced every time their doctors sent us to hospitals and treatments centers never to return.
  12. denounce
    speak out against
    It began as a rumor, that they had found a way to siphon the dreams right out of our bones, a rumor whispered every time one of us went missing, a rumor denounced every time their doctors sent us to hospitals and treatments centers never to return.
  13. hone
    refine or make more perfect or effective
    They kept sending us away, enticing us to seek medical care and then keeping us locked up, figuring out ways to hone and perfect their ‘solution’ for sale.
  14. cull
    look for and gather
    Soon, they needed too many bodies, and they turned to history to show them how to best keep us warehoused, how to best position the culling.
  15. rend
    tear or be torn violently
    And sleeping inside just made me dream about my brother. It was nice to see him, but always by the end of the dream he was gone, and in some horrible rending kind of way.
  16. shroud
    cover as if with a burial garment
    Better to be in the forest, I thought. Where the dreams were shrouded in fog and cold and the group knew its order and stride by the weight of our want.
  17. contempt
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    Their contempt for Miig and his power over the group seeped to the surface.
  18. speculation
    a hypothesis that has been formed by conjecturing
    It was still early days—all rumors and speculation—so we probably weren't as careful as we should have been.
  19. adversity
    a state of misfortune or affliction
    Isaac was a poet, you see, and in the adversity the words kept coming.
  20. adage
    a condensed but memorable saying embodying an important fact
    It was about the time literature was going through a bit of a renaissance, people clinging to that old adage about bedtime stories and the dreams they might bring.
  21. meticulous
    marked by extreme care in treatment of details
    I should have guessed from the way he wasn’t meticulous about packing up and almost left behind a precious tin of canned meat, like it was nothing.
  22. skittish
    unpredictably excitable, especially of horses
    But in the evening in front of the fire, while he nursed a glass of our rare whiskey (he asked for a second glass even, how rude), the man told Isaac she was his wife’s sister. And she always seemed skittish...scared, maybe.
  23. duvet
    a soft quilt usually filled with down
    “Oh, Mimi, you’re so suspicious,” Isaac told me that night under our duvet, the weight of his calf over my ankle.
  24. unencumbered
    free of anything that impedes or is burdensome
    He shrugged his shoulders and took a few steps towards me, steps that were unencumbered by the limp that had made him a useless guest who couldn’t help gather wood or leave with his odd family in tow.
  25. haphazard
    without care; in a slapdash manner
    Five Arctic Cat quads were parked, lengthwise and haphazard, out front, and men, all wearing identical white parkas with round, red logos were scattering about the yard.
  26. plausible
    apparently reasonable, valid, or truthful
    I wanted to know the rest, wanted the story of Miigwans’ escape, because I thought just by knowing about it, somehow, it would make our escape seem all the more plausible.
  27. coherent
    capable of thinking in a clear and consistent manner
    Her face was smooth with stress, and she looked as coherent as I'd seen her in a while.
  28. toque
    a small round hat
    Miig's hair was tucked up into a grey woolen toque, and with the wide grey scarf wrapped around his neck several times so that his entire mouth was obscured, he looked much older.
  29. obscure
    make unclear or less visible
    Miig's hair was tucked up into a grey woolen toque, and with the wide grey scarf wrapped around his neck several times so that his entire mouth was obscured, he looked much older.
  30. afterthought
    an addition that was not included in the original plan
    Almost as an afterthought he said, “And we’ll see whatever there is to see.”
  31. blatant
    without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious
    They were lazy and messy, and we’d walked over more blatant tracks and litter than we’d seen for months.
  32. altruistic
    showing unselfish concern for the welfare of others
    Why did I have to be looking for anything in particular? Why couldn’t I be altruistically scouting like him?
  33. cerulean
    bright blue in color, like a clear sky
    Evening was coloring in the sky from the corners, navy over cerulean.
  34. unfurl
    unroll, unfold, or spread out
    Chi-Boy unfurled and straightened to his full height behind Miig, who still sat beside Travis, calmly finishing his smoke.
  35. cranny
    a small opening or crevice
    We had barely an hour before the dark tumbled down into every nook and cranny in these woods.
Created on Sat Dec 29 13:49:38 EST 2018 (updated Wed Jan 09 16:41:57 EST 2019)

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