Chomp: Chapters 16–21

by Carl Hiaasen
When Wahoo Cray's father takes a job on a reality television show called Expedition Survival!, Wahoo finds himself caught up in a series of wild adventures.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–10, Chapters 11–15, Chapters 16–21, Chapter 22–Epilogue
40 words 106 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. flit
    move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart
    Tuna broke into a smile when she spotted three striped butterflies, flitting in a casual ballet through the hammock.
  2. rollicking
    given to merry frolicking
    Link was built like a refrigerator, and he didn’t have a rollicking sense of humor.
  3. lament
    express grief verbally
    “We’ve looked everywhere,” she lamented. “Derek’s gone! Vanished!”
  4. pompous
    puffed up with vanity
    It would be a humongous night for the show’s TV ratings if Derek Badger failed to survive one of his survival expeditions. It would also open the way for him to be replaced with another actor who wasn’t as pompous, demanding and clumsy.
  5. blather
    talk foolishly
    He could easily imagine the scene: Derek blathering and wild-eyed as deputies hauled him out of the marsh.
  6. seethe
    be in an agitated emotional state
    By the time Sickler’s other two airboats arrived at the tree island, Derek Badger had been gone for more than an hour and Link was seething.
  7. testy
    easily irritated or annoyed
    Nobody anticipated that the first boat would break down and require towing by the second. The result was a waste of the entire morning that put everybody in a testy mood.
  8. swath
    a path or strip (also figurative)
    The director stared hopelessly at the green, featureless swath of map that represented the area where Derek had gone missing.
  9. levee
    an embankment built to prevent a river from overflowing
    There were no roads, no canals, no levees to follow. It was pure swamp.
  10. strenuously
    strongly or vigorously
    Derek Badger had never picked up any of the books because he strenuously avoided reading.
  11. flabbergasted
    as if struck dumb with astonishment and surprise
    Believing the animal to be disabled, Derek had been flabbergasted when it clamped onto his tongue.
  12. varmint
    any usually predatory wild animal considered undesirable
    The pain was so piercing that he forgot about the lights and cameras and how ridiculous he must look on videotape with a flapping varmint attached to his face.
  13. scoff
    laugh at with contempt and derision
    Had he not been so ill, Derek would have scoffed at such an absurd idea.
  14. moor
    secure in or as if in a berth or dock
    When they passed beneath the old fig tree, none of them glanced up in the high boughs where Derek was hiding. Soon afterward, he scrambled to the ground and made his way to the moat, where Link’s airboat was moored.
  15. mired
    entangled or hindered
    In a panic he crawled back to the mired boat and scrunched beneath its broad bow, where he cowered like an overgrown mole, shielding his face with the freshly dented Helmet Cam.
  16. burly
    muscular and heavily built
    He was sitting alone, devouring a box of powdered donuts behind the counter, when a burly, unshaven man opened the screen door.
  17. gruff
    blunt and unfriendly or stern
    The man slapped a wallet-sized photograph on the countertop. “She’s not a woman,” he said gruffly. “She’s my daughter.”
  18. heedless
    characterized by careless unconcern
    Derek pawed through the items in the beached airboat until he came across Link’s jug of water, which he guzzled heedlessly.
  19. thrum
    make or cause to make a low, continuous sound
    The night air thrummed and ticked with insects, and an occasional rustle came from deep in the brushy hammock.
  20. gibberish
    unintelligible talking
    He was unable to speak regular words, of course, owing to the swollen condition of his tongue. He tried several times, but all that tumbled out was gibberish.
  21. brood
    think moodily or anxiously about something
    Eventually he turned off the Helmet Cam and lay back down to itch and brood.
  22. pamper
    treat with excessive indulgence
    Although the bat that had chomped him wasn’t carrying rabies, the germs from its saliva were toxic enough to blur his pampered sense of reality.
  23. loom
    appear very large or occupy a commanding position
    In his overheated mind, the Night Wing vampire movies now loomed as true to life as a National Geographic nature documentary.
  24. bleary
    tired to the point of exhaustion
    Mickey Cray came out of the tent. He looked bleary and haggard.
  25. haggard
    showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
    Mickey Cray came out of the tent. He looked bleary and haggard.
  26. insincere
    lacking the quality of being open and truthful
    The wrangler held out his right hand. “Name’s Mickey Cray. What’s yours?”
    “Gordon. Jared Gordon,” the man said. His handshake was limp and insincere.
  27. helm
    a position of leadership
    With a guy like Derek at the helm, anything could happen.
  28. stanch
    stop the flow of a liquid
    From practice Wahoo had learned how to quickly stanch bleeding, clean a wound and apply antibiotics.
  29. halting
    proceeding in a fragmentary, hesitant, or ineffective way
    “Was your dad trying to shoot you?” he asked Tuna. The question came out halting and raspy. It didn’t sound like his own voice.
  30. ebb
    fall away or decline
    His bat-punctured tongue had shrunk to a size that almost fit inside his cheeks. In addition, the dreadful itching rash that had tormented him all night seemed to be ebbing.
  31. whim
    a sudden desire
    Derek missed having the crew and the director to boss around. He missed Raven Stark hovering constantly, tending to his every whim.
  32. swanky
    impressively fashionable and elegant
    Most of all he missed the nightly helicopter flights back to the swanky hotel, where he could get a massage and soak in the soothing Jacuzzi.
  33. parchment
    a superior paper resembling sheepskin
    When a lovely butterfly with wings like white parchment landed on a vine, he snatched the unsuspecting traveler and popped it into his mouth.
  34. waylay
    wait in hiding to attack
    “I didn’t mean ‘hijacked.’ I meant waylaid.” Raven was in no mood to quibble. This was already the worst day of her entire adult life.
  35. quibble
    argue over petty things
    “I didn’t mean ‘hijacked.’ I meant waylaid.” Raven was in no mood to quibble. This was already the worst day of her entire adult life.
  36. wayward
    resistant to guidance or discipline
    Therefore, the executive producer wasn’t totally upset to learn that the police were more concerned with finding the disturbed gunman than tracking down a wayward celebrity.
  37. smolder
    burn slowly and without a flame
    For a while he failed to notice that the seat of his pants was smoldering, a wisp of smoke rising from the matted leaves where he sat.
  38. crusty
    blunt and ill-tempered
    That’s when they struck a cypress log and flew from the water, reminding Mickey of what crusty old Everglades poachers used to say about such mishaps:
    Why do you think they call ’em airboats?
  39. deluge
    a heavy rain
    Under a pelting deluge, the airboat coasted sluggishly to the bank.
  40. dejected
    affected or marked by low spirits
    Dejectedly, Wahoo said, “I can’t believe I cooked the motor.”
Created on Mon Sep 21 19:29:29 EDT 2020 (updated Wed Sep 30 11:02:26 EDT 2020)

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