"The Help" list 1

Jon B. (United States of America)
Three Southern women—two black domestic workers and one white socialite—join forces to write a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as the help.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–18, Chapters 19–26, Chapters 27–34
17 words 96 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. tote
    carry with difficulty
    I tote Mae Mobley into the kitchen and put her in her high chair
  2. fray
    wear away by rubbing
    thinking about two chores I need to finish today fore Miss Leefolt have a fit: separate the napkins that started to fray and straighten up the silver service in the cabinet.
  3. congeal
    solidify, thicken, or come together
    I spoon out the congealed salad and the ham sandwiches, can’t help but listen to the chatter.
  4. sorority
    a social club for female undergraduates
    “I put up with the new clothes, all the damn trips to New Orleans with your sorority sisters, but this takes the goddamn cake.”
  5. hussy
    a woman adulterer
    When my husband Clyde left me for that no-count hussy up on Farish Street, one they call Cocoa, I figured I better shut the door for good on that kind a business.
  6. rheumatism
    any painful disorder of the joints or muscles
    My Mae Mobley got the number one rung, then they’s Fanny Lou at church, ailing from the rheumatism.
  7. fiasco
    a complete failure or collapse
    I follow her inside and that’s when I see Miss Celia Rae Foote’s suffered only a minor injury in the flour fiasco.
  8. reverie
    an abstracted state of absorption
    But what with the juice running down my hand and me near about drunk on the butter smell, I am lost in a peach-peeling reverie.
  9. gumption
    fortitude and determination
    “If you’d just show a little gumption, Eugenia—”
  10. spinster
    an elderly unmarried woman
    What I needed to do was find an apartment in town, the kind of building where single, plain girls lived, spinsters, secretaries, teachers.
  11. cartilage
    tough elastic tissue, mostly converted to bone in adults
    Also, there’s a slight bump of cartilage along the top of my nose.
  12. petite
    very small
    Mrs. Charlotte Phelan’s Guide to Husband-Hunting, Rule Number One: a pretty, petite girl should accentuate with makeup and good posture.
  13. berate
    censure severely or angrily
    After Mother berates me about finding a husband every other day, I have to sleep in a wedding cake.
  14. catechism
    an elementary book summarizing the principles of a religion
    If I begged and practiced my catechism, Mother would sometimes let me go home with Constantine on Friday afternoons.
  15. mundane
    found in the ordinary course of events
    She wrote me every mundane detail of Longleaf: My back pains are bad but it’s my feet that are worse, or The mixer broke off from the bowl and flew wild around the kitchen and the cat hollered and ran off.
  16. prestigious
    having an excellent reputation; respected
    Dear Miss Phelan, I am responding personally to your resume because I found it admirable that a young lady with absolutely no work experience would apply for an editing job at a publisher as prestigious as ours.
  17. mandatory
    required by rule
    A minimum of five years in the business is mandatory for such a job.
Created on Tue Oct 22 10:37:46 EDT 2019

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