Daddy-Long-Legs: List 5

by Jean Webster
While she attends college, an orphaned young woman writes letters to her mysterious benefactor.

This list covers 10th June–6th October.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
35 words 9 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. repudiate
    refuse to acknowledge, ratify, or recognize as valid
    I have no right to borrow on credit, for there will come a time when the World will repudiate my claim.
  2. flounder
    have difficulties; behave awkwardly
    I seem to be floundering in a sea of metaphor—but I hope you grasp my meaning?
  3. quixotic
    not sensible about practical matters
    He said I was a silly, foolish, irrational, quixotic, idiotic, stubborn child (those are a few of his abusive adjectives; the rest escape me), and that I didn't know what was good for me; I ought to let older people judge.
  4. concise
    expressing much in few words
    A letter comes from Mr. Jervis Pendleton in Paris, rather a short concise letter; I'm not quite forgiven yet for refusing to follow his advice.
  5. infer
    conclude by reasoning
    However, if he gets back in time, he will see me for a few days at Lock Willow before college opens, and if I am very nice and sweet and docile, I shall (I am led to infer) be received into favour again.
  6. raiment
    especially fine or decorative clothing
    Julia has a trunkful of the most ravishing new clothes—an evening gown of rainbow Liberty crepe that would be fitting raiment for the angels in Paradise.
  7. unprecedented
    novel; having no earlier occurrence
    And I thought that my own clothes this year were unprecedentedly (is there such a word?) beautiful.
  8. contempt
    open disrespect for a person or thing
    Did you ever hear about the learned Herr Professor who regarded unnecessary adornment with contempt and favoured sensible, utilitarian clothes for women?
  9. utilitarian
    having a useful function
    Did you ever hear about the learned Herr Professor who regarded unnecessary adornment with contempt and favoured sensible, utilitarian clothes for women?
  10. blight
    a state or condition being devastated or run-down
    Such a blight has fallen over my literary career.
  11. dejected
    affected or marked by low spirits
    I went to bed last night utterly dejected; I thought I was never going to amount to anything, and that you had thrown away your money for nothing.
  12. omniscient
    knowing, seeing, or understanding everything
    Don't you think it would be interesting if you really could read the story of your life—written perfectly truthfully by an omniscient author?
  13. alimentary
    of or providing nourishment
    I'm going on with biology again this year—very interesting subject; we're studying the alimentary system at present.
  14. evanescent
    short-lived; tending to vanish or disappear
    Also we've arrived at philosophy—interesting but evanescent.
  15. copious
    large in number or quantity
    This pen is weeping copiously.
  16. aggregation
    several things grouped together or considered as a whole
    I don't agree at all with the philosophers who think that every action is the absolutely inevitable and automatic resultant of an aggregation of remote causes.
  17. fatalism
    a doctrine that all events are predetermined in advance
    If a man believed in fatalism, he would naturally just sit down and say, 'The Lord's will be done,' and continue to sit until he fell over dead.
  18. abstruse
    difficult to understand
    This is a very abstruse letter—does your head ache, Daddy?
  19. strait
    a bad or difficult situation or state of affairs
    There is a family here who are in awfully desperate straits.
  20. impotent
    lacking power or ability
    Humility or resignation or whatever you choose to call it, is simply impotent inertia.
  21. inertia
    a disposition to remain inactive
    Humility or resignation or whatever you choose to call it, is simply impotent inertia.
  22. trousseau
    clothes and linens that a bride brings to a marriage
    She has steady work ahead for two months—someone's getting married, and there's a trousseau to make.
  23. purgatory
    a temporary state of the dead in Roman Catholic theology
    But anyway, Daddy, I trust the good Lord will reward you suitably. You deserve ten thousand years out of purgatory.
  24. converse
    carry on a discussion
    Sallie and Julia and I converse now in the language of 1660.
  25. denomination
    a group of religious congregations with its own organization
    It doesn't matter what part of the United States or Canada they come from, or what denomination they are, we always get the same sermon.
  26. incorrigible
    impervious to correction by punishment
    You will begin to believe that I am incorrigible—I am writing a book.
  27. conducive
    tending to bring about; being partly responsible for
    The board is cheap; the surroundings quiet and conducive to a literary life.
  28. conceited
    having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
    You don't think me conceited, do you, Daddy dear?
  29. dingy
    discolored by impurities; not bright and clear
    Also his neckties are quite dingy—black and brown, where they used to be scarlet and purple.
  30. hydrophobia
    a morbid fear of water
    This letter sounds as though I had hydrophobia, but I haven't.
  31. apathetic
    marked by a lack of interest
    I'm entirely apathetic.
  32. antagonistic
    incapable of harmonious association
    He and I always think the same things are funny, and that is such a lot; it's dreadful when two people's senses of humour are antagonistic.
  33. antecedent
    someone from whom you are descended
    It didn't seem right for a person of my lack of antecedents to marry into any such family as his.
  34. tangible
    perceptible by the senses, especially the sense of touch
    I can't believe that I am really going to see you—I've been just THINKING you so long that it hardly seems as though you are a tangible flesh-and-blood person.
  35. burnish
    polish and make shiny
    The woods today are burnished bronze and the air is full of frost.
Created on Fri Jul 19 16:52:06 EDT 2019 (updated Fri Jul 19 16:57:28 EDT 2019)

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