Cat's Cradle: Chapters 29–54

by Kurt Vonnegut
This satirical novel, in which Vonnegut interrogates religion and technology, is narrated by a man who travels to an unusual island society and learns about a mysterious substance called ice-nine.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–28, Chapters 29–54, Chapters 55–81, Chapters 82–104, Chapters 105–127
35 words 217 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. incredulously
    in a disbelieving manner
    "Mother?” asked the driver, incredulously.
  2. peevishness
    a cranky, irritable, or petulant feeling or disposition
    I wasn’t a Bokononist then, so I agreed with some peevishness. As a Bokononist, of course, I would have agreed gaily to go anywhere anyone suggested.
  3. turret
    a self-contained weapons platform housing guns
    "...I expect the reason the cops haven’t found him is he’s dead. He just heard too much while he was sticking turrets on the battleship Missouri with Duco Cement.”
  4. gawky
    awkward and clumsy in movement or posture
    And, in that same miserable family, there’s that great big, gawky girl, over six feet tall.
  5. preside
    act as executive officer
    I went in and found Jack himself presiding over his teeny-weeny fire engines, railroad trains, airplanes, boats, houses, lampposts, trees, tanks, rockets, automobiles, porters, conductors, policemen, firemen, mommies, daddies, cats, dogs, chickens, soldiers, ducks, and cows.
  6. cadaverous
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    He was a cadaverous man, a serious man, a dirty man, and he coughed a lot.
  7. reverent
    feeling or showing profound respect or veneration
    “Look at the doors of the houses,” said Jack reverently.
  8. solder
    join or fuse with an alloy
    “He did some of the soldering underneath.”
  9. trestle
    a supporting tower used to support a bridge
    “He’d see things you and I wouldn’t see. He’d all of a sudden tear down a hill that would look just as real as any hill you ever saw—to you and me. And he’d be right, too. He’d put a lake where that hill had been and a trestle over the lake, and it would look ten times as good as it did before.”
  10. copious
    large in number or quantity
    “That’s right!” said Jack passionately. The passion cost him another coughing fit. When the fit was over, his eyes were watering copiously.
  11. debauch
    a wild gathering
    When I returned to my apartment, still twanging with the puzzling spiritual implications of the unclaimed stone angel in Ilium, I found my apartment wrecked by a nihilistic debauch.
  12. nihilism
    a doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system
    But after I saw what Krebbs had done, in particular what he had done to my sweet cat, nihilism was not for me.
  13. sublime
    worthy of adoration or reverence
    I opened the supplement, hoping for more pictures of this sublime mongrel Madonna.
  14. pompadour
    a hair style in which the hair is swept up from the forehead
    He had a wiry pompadour, a sort of cube of hair, marcelled, that arose to an incredible height.
  15. florid
    elaborately or excessively ornamented
    A little more light was shed by another essay in the supplement, a florid essay titled, “What San Lorenzo Has Meant to One American.”
  16. cleave
    separate or cut with a tool, such as a sharp instrument
    “All I’d eaten for four days was two biscuits and a sea gull. The dorsal fins of man-eating sharks were cleaving the warm seas around me, and needle-teethed barracuda were making those waters boil...."
  17. tabloid
    sensationalist journalism
    In his selfish days he had been as familiar to tabloid readers as Tommy Manville, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Barbara Hutton.
  18. lechery
    unrestrained indulgence in sexual activity
    His fame had rested on lechery, alcoholism, reckless driving, and draft evasion.
  19. chagrin
    strong feelings of embarrassment
    He had had a dazzling talent for spending millions without increasing mankind’s stores of anything but chagrin.
  20. wan
    lacking vitality as from weariness or illness or unhappiness
    “Yes,” winced Minton, “I’m very pleased.” He smiled wanly. “I’m deeply honored.”
  21. delinquency
    an antisocial misdeed in violation of the law by a minor
    “I don’t say it’s good,” said Crosby, “but I don’t say it’s bad, either. I sometimes wonder if something like that wouldn’t clear up juvenile delinquency..."
  22. indignant
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    The Crosbys didn’t know Minton, but they knew his reputation. They were indignant about his appointment as Ambassador.
  23. intrigue
    cause to be interested or curious
    But it was San Lorenzo—the land, the history, the people—that intrigued me...
  24. trappings
    ornaments; embellishments to or characteristic signs of
    As a youth, for all his interest in the outward trappings of organized religion, he seems to have been a carouser...
  25. carouse
    celebrate or enjoy something in a noisy or wild way
    As a youth, for all his interest in the outward trappings of organized religion, he seems to have been a carouser...
  26. dispatch
    an official report, usually sent in haste
    He enlisted in the infantry, fought with distinction, was commissioned in the field, was mentioned four times in dispatches.
  27. aft
    near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane
    So I went aft to talk to Angela Hoenikker Conners and little Newton Hoenikker, members of my karass.
  28. shrewd
    marked by practical hardheaded intelligence
    He was as nicely scaled as Gulliver among the Brobdingnagians, and as shrewdly watchful, too.
  29. amiable
    diffusing warmth and friendliness
    Angela persisted in treating Newt like an infant and he forgave her for it with an amiable grace I would have thought impossible for one so small.
  30. placate
    cause to be more favorably inclined
    I placated her some by telling her that the book would probably never be done anyway, that I no longer had a clear idea of what it would or should mean.
  31. homely
    lacking in physical beauty or proportion
    Angela flipped through the photographs, giving me glimpses of little Newt on a Cape Cod beach, of Dr. Felix Hoenikker accepting his Nobel Prize, of Angela’s own homely twin girls, of Frank flying a model plane on the end of a string.
  32. purport
    have the often misleading appearance of being or intending
    He was a little person, the purported sire of a midget and a giantess.
  33. galosh
    a waterproof overshoe that protects shoes from water or snow
    My favorite picture of the old man in Angela’s fossil collection showed him all bundled up for winter, in an overcoat, scarf, galoshes, and a wool knit cap with a big pom-pom on the crown.
  34. rapture
    a state of elated bliss
    He was a snappy dresser, and had the lazy rapture of a Don Juan about the eyes.
  35. partisan
    a fervent and even militant proponent of something
    He was not returned home by his liberators, but was forced to serve in a Wehrmacht engineer unit that was sent to fight the Yugoslav partisans.
Created on Tue Feb 04 19:03:59 EST 2020 (updated Wed Feb 12 14:02:25 EST 2020)

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