Unit 4: Vocabulary from Readings 2

This list covers “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” "Sweat," and Book Review 4.
16 words 80 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. first-nighter
    someone habitually a spectator at the openings of theatrical productions
    My favorite place was atop the gatepost. Proscenium box for a born first-nighter.
  2. oleander
    an ornamental but poisonous flowering shrub having narrow evergreen leaves and clusters of fragrant white to pink or red flowers: native to East Indies but widely cultivated in warm regions
    I left Eatonville, the town of the oleanders, as Zora.
  3. pigmentation
    coloration of living tissues
    Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less.
  4. circumlocution
    an indirect way of expressing something
    In the abrupt way that jazz orchestras have, this one plunges into a number. It loses no time in circumlocutions, but gets right down to business.
  5. veneer
    an outward appearance that is deliberately misleading
    I creep back slowly to the veneer we call civilization with the last tone and find the white friend sitting motionless in his seat, smoking calmly.
  6. first water
    the highest quality gems
    A first-water diamond, an empty spool, bits of broken glass, lengths of string, a key to a door long since crumbled away...
  7. galvanize
    cover with zinc
    She went out into the yard and returned with a galvanized tub and set it on the washbench.
  8. truculent
    defiantly aggressive
    She saw that Sykes had kicked all of the clothes together again, and now stood in her way truculently, his whole manner hoping, praying, for an argument.
  9. breeches
    trousers ending above the knee
    “Next time, Ah’m gointer kick ’em outdoors,” he threatened as he struck a match along the leg of his corduroy breeches.
  10. matrimonial
    of or relating to the state of marriage
    She lay awake, gazing upon the debris that cluttered their matrimonial trail.
  11. earthwork
    an earthen rampart
    After that she was able to build a spiritual earthworks against her husband.
  12. subscribe
    pay as a contribution to a charity or service
    The money was quickly subscribed and the huge melon brought forth.
  13. nullify
    make ineffective by counterbalancing the effect of
    She avoided the villagers and meeting places in her efforts to be blind and deaf. But Bertha nullified this to a degree, by coming to Delia's house to call Sykes out to her at the gate.
  14. smite
    inflict a heavy blow on, with the hand, a tool, or a weapon
    The heat streamed down like a million hot arrows, smiting all things living upon the earth.
  15. scimitar
    a curved saber used in Eastern countries
    One day as Delia came down the kitchen steps she saw his chalky-white fangs curved like scimitars hung in the wire meshes.
  16. sententious
    abounding in or given to pompous or aphoristic moralizing
    Indeed, from first to last this is a well nigh perfect story—a little sententious at the start, but the rest is simple and beautiful and shining with humor.
Created on Mon Nov 29 15:46:10 EST 2021 (updated Tue Jan 18 09:44:59 EST 2022)

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