Elsewhere: List 1

by Gabrielle Zevin
After her death, fifteen-year-old Liz ends up in a strange place called Elsewhere, where she will have to live her life in reverse until she becomes a baby again.

This list covers the Prologue–Part I.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
35 words 97 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. despondent
    without or almost without hope
    The moment of the crash certainly must have been painful, Lucy reasons. And what if that one moment hadn’t been quick at all? She wanders into Lizzie’s room and surveys it despondently.
  2. prim
    affectedly dainty or refined
    Sitting primly on Alvy’s too-small lap, Lucy imagines that Lizzie is just away at college.
  3. defiantly
    in a rebellious manner
    “Well,” Alvy says, jutting his chin defiantly toward the sky, “I believe she is up there. And I believe there are angels there and harps and heaps of puffy clouds and white silky pajamas and everything.”
  4. erratic
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    When a family loses its only daughter, a pug’s mealtimes can be erratic.
  5. treacherous
    tending to betray
    Lucy curses her treacherous stomach: what kind of beast is she to be hungry when her best friend is dead?
  6. refined
    cultivated and genteel
    Bandit, a one-eyed all-American who in less refined circles would be called a mutt, offers his sympathies.
  7. thatch
    hair resembling roofing material made of plant stalks
    The sleeping girl, who is near Liz’s own age, wears a white nightgown and has long dark hair arranged in a thatch of intricately beaded braids.
  8. stifle
    smother or suppress
    “On a boat,” she answers, stifling another yawn.
  9. bureau
    furniture with drawers for keeping clothes
    Not wanting to further disturb the sleeping girl, Liz tiptoes across the room toward the bureau.
  10. cursory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    On the way out, Thandi casts a cursory glance at herself in the mirror.
  11. beeline
    the most direct route
    “Beats me, but they’re coming this way.” Sure enough, three women are making a beeline for Thandi and Liz.
  12. molt
    cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers
    Standing on her tiptoes, Doris reaches up to pat Liz’s molted head.
  13. truffle
    a highly prized edible subterranean fungus
    Thandi has sushi, truffles, and baked beans.
  14. reverie
    absentminded dreaming while awake
    Liz wonders where the ship is going and if she will wake up before it arrives and what her mother will say this dream probably means. Her mother is a child psychologist and knows about these things. Liz’s reverie is interrupted by a man’s voice.
  15. expanse
    a wide and open space or area, as of land, sea, or sky
    The water is too far away for her to see her reflection in it, but if she leans far enough over, she can sort of see her shadow—an indistinct, small darkness in the middle of an expanse of blue.
  16. objectively
    in a manner not influenced by emotion
    Looking at it objectively, she supposes she died in the dream.
  17. pestilence
    any epidemic disease with a high death rate
    The week before, she had been studying ancient Egypt in Mrs. Early’s world history class. While the lesson was entertaining enough (war, pestilence, plague, murder), Liz considered the whole pyramid thing a real waste of time and resources.
  18. abound
    exist in large quantities
    Although the Nile lacks modern electronic devices, tissue abounds.
  19. worldly
    very sophisticated and experienced
    And then in eighth grade, she invented a boyfriend to make herself appear more worldly to the popular girls in school.
  20. inexplicable
    incapable of being explained or accounted for
    In the summer before ninth grade, Liz met a boy at camp. A counselor named Josh, who once sort of held her elbow at a bonfire, a move which Liz found inexplicably delightful and astonishing.
  21. gingerly
    in a manner marked by extreme care or delicacy
    Liz gingerly touches the stitches with her hand. The stitches feel like they should hurt, but they don’t.
  22. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    Thandi lets out a long, plaintive sigh.
  23. vellum
    fine parchment prepared from the skin of a young animal
    Inside, she finds a plain card with a vellum overlay and an odd hexagonal coin with a round hole in the center.
  24. emboss
    raise in a relief
    The coin is embossed with the words ONE ETERNIM on the front and OFFICIAL CURRENCY OF ELSEWHERE on the back.
  25. rapt
    feeling great delight and interest
    The people using the binoculars are consistently rapt, although their individual reactions differ wildly.
  26. intermittent
    stopping and starting at irregular intervals
    The movie is set at a church. Liz recognizes it as the one she attended whenever her mother felt the intermittent need to “enhance Liz’s spiritual life.”
  27. pulpit
    a platform raised to give prominence to the person on it
    Dr. Frederick, her high school principal and a man Liz has never spoken to personally, stands at the pulpit.
  28. lectern
    desk or stand with a slanted top used to hold a text
    “But what can we learn from the death of a person so young, with so much potential?” Dr. Frederick bangs on the lectern with his fist for emphasis.
  29. hysterical
    characterized by a state of violent mental agitation
    At this point, Liz’s father erupts in an explosion of breathless, hysterical sobs.
  30. windbag
    a person who talks a great deal about uninteresting topics
    Dr. Frederick shows no signs of stopping. What a windbag, Liz thinks.
  31. lacquer
    a hard glossy coating
    Beside the lectern, she notices a rectangular white lacquer box with tacky pink roses carved into its side.
  32. tepid
    feeling or showing little interest or enthusiasm
    Using only one eye, he is looking in his binoculars with decidedly tepid interest.
  33. nonchalantly
    in a composed and unconcerned manner
    Liz tries to shrug nonchalantly.
  34. entail
    impose, involve, or imply as a necessary result
    Although she does not know exactly what “the afterlife” entails, she is fairly certain of one thing: she will never see her parents, her brother, or her friends again.
  35. kick the bucket
    die
    “Don’t you watch the news? All young people become perfect students when they kick the bucket. It’s a rule.”
Created on Mon Sep 27 14:50:59 EDT 2021 (updated Tue Oct 05 08:55:17 EDT 2021)

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