SKIP TO CONTENT

Frankie & Bug: List 4

Middle graders Bug and Frankie form a close friendship when they team up to uncover the identity of the LA-area criminal called the Midnight Marauder.

This list covers "The Beach Day"–"Zeus."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
35 words 21 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Full list of words from this list:

  1. balk
    show unwillingness towards
    Who showers before the beach? Bug thought, but she held her tongue. She was realizing you didn’t always have to say the things you thought. She didn’t even balk when Danny asked if he could stop by Muscle Beach first.
  2. magnanimous
    generous and understanding and tolerant
    “Of course,” she said, enjoying how magnanimous she felt. She turned to Frankie. “If it’s okay by you.”
  3. unitard
    a garment that covers the body from shoulders to thighs
    Zeus was out with his boom box, skating with a group of people, each one taking a turn at the center of the scrum in a sort of skate dance-off. Bug and Frankie walked over to watch. The tricks were impressive, spins and leaps. At one point, a very tall, very dark-skinned skater wearing a spangled unitard and a hot-pink wig took the center.
  4. baritone
    the second lowest adult male singing voice
    Frankie gasped. At first Bug thought he was reacting to the outfit, but then she heard the skater say something to Zeus in a baritone voice.
  5. tentative
    hesitant or lacking confidence; unsettled in mind or opinion
    She expected Frankie to be tentative in the water, given his fears of sharks and being from Ohio, where they didn’t have oceans, just Great Lakes, but Frankie ran in without hesitating, same as she and Danny did, whooping, like they always did when the first shock of cold licked at their skin.
  6. fret
    worry unnecessarily or excessively
    Bug sometimes fretted about things happening to Mama, or to Danny, and usually she had to scrunch her eyes shut and push the worries away. Because it was just too scary to contemplate. They were all she had.
  7. contemplate
    consider as a possibility
    Bug sometimes fretted about things happening to Mama, or to Danny, and usually she had to scrunch her eyes shut and push the worries away. Because it was just too scary to contemplate. They were all she had.
  8. unison
    the act of occurring together or simultaneously
    “Who did this?” Hedvig asked.
    “Was it the Midnight Marauder?” Frankie and Bug asked in unison.
  9. subdued
    restrained in style or quality
    Frankie didn’t answer. He was subdued. “Phillip’s going to be okay,” Bug insisted. “On St. Elsewhere, once people are awake, they don’t die.”
  10. ravenous
    extremely hungry
    They got into the cafeteria line and Bug was suddenly ravenous.
  11. grim
    harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance
    She couldn’t tell if Frankie had ever really believed they’d catch the Midnight Marauder either. But by the way he was looking at her now, his eyes pinpoint focused, his mouth set into a grim line, Bug understood that this time he meant it.
  12. preempt
    take action to prevent someone else from acting
    Mama laid a hand on his shoulder. “They want to keep him for observation for a few days.”
    “You’ll stay with us,” Bug said to Frankie, to preempt any discussion.
  13. lag
    hang or fall in movement, progress, development, etc.
    “A taxi?” Aunt Teri tsked to Bug as they walked from the bus station to the parking lot, Mama lagging behind them under the weight of Aunt Teri’s flowered suitcase.
  14. operative
    producing a desired effect
    “My office is a mile away, Teri,” Mama said. “And no one’s attacked me yet.”
    “'Yet' being the operative word.”
  15. cesspool
    a corrupt or disgusting place or state
    Teri clucked her tongue at all the homeless people pushing shopping carts full of their belongings. “I don’t understand how you can live in this cesspool.”
  16. poverty
    the state of having little or no money and possessions
    “There’s poverty everywhere,” Mama said. “Even in Visalia.”
  17. interrogate
    pose a series of questions to
    They’d only just begun discussing their plan to catch Phillip’s attacker when Aunt Teri began interrogating Frankie.
  18. sullenly
    in a manner showing a brooding ill humor
    “I have to go with Aunt Teri on a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous tour,” Bug said sullenly.
  19. affiliate
    join in a social or business relationship
    “Welcome to the Lifestyles of Wealthy Celebrities tour,” the guide began after they’d climbed onto the bus, “which is not affiliated with the television show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”
  20. respectable
    deserving of esteem
    “Your mother was so beautiful,” Aunt Teri said. “Prettiest girl in town. Prettier than any Hollywood actress. She was homecoming queen. She could’ve had the pick of the litter. Married someone respectable. Lived in a mansion like this.”
  21. naive
    marked by or showing unaffected simplicity
    “Your mother was always so naive, always trying to save the world.” Aunt Teri frowned, like saving the world was a bad thing.
  22. pungent
    strong and sharp to the sense of taste or smell
    “Phillip is being discharged in the morning.”
    “Hooray!” Bug said, dousing her French fries with vinegar, which made them deliciously mushy and pungent.
  23. immaculate
    completely neat and clean
    Bug wasn’t clear what they were fighting about. Phillip’s place was immaculate—everyone knew that, even if Teri didn’t believe it.
  24. despicable
    morally reprehensible
    “Why would Phillip deserve it?” Bug asked as Frankie kicked her under the table.
    “He doesn’t. Nobody does,” Mama replied before turning to Teri. “What a despicable thing to say!”
  25. blase
    uninterested because of frequent exposure or indulgence
    “They’re just people,” she’d often said in the blasé tone of someone who regularly saw famous TV reporters like Tad Draper, not to mention the mayor, who was always on TV.
  26. interject
    speak abruptly, especially as an interruption
    “We go to a good school,” Bug interjected, before she remembered that Danny wouldn’t be going there this fall.
  27. stammer
    speak haltingly
    As if he could read her thoughts, Phillip teased, “I don’t look that bad, do I?”
    “Y-you look great,” Bug stammered.
  28. wince
    draw back, as with fear or pain
    She made a great show of pouring a glass and handing it to Phillip, who hesitated and then took a sip and winced.
  29. distinguish
    mark as different
    Maybe there were no crisp fall days, no snow, but the seasons at the beach distinguished themselves just as surely as they did anywhere. Maybe not in temperatures, but by the shorter lines at the food stands, the empty spaces on the sand. The crowds were thinning.
  30. melancholy
    a feeling of thoughtful sadness
    As Bug watched an airplane take off over the water, her melancholy deepened.
  31. commission
    the state of being in working order and ready for operation
    Unless she could convince Mama and Phillip he should stay, Frankie would soon be on such a plane. Before Phillip got hurt, this was going to be hard enough. But now that he was out of commission, Mama said, for at least a month, it was even more complicated.
  32. fervently
    with strong emotion or zeal
    “We have to find out who did this to Phillip!” she said fervently.
  33. patron
    a regular customer
    They caught up with Zeus in front of Sidewalk Café, where he was doing a dance routine to “Walk Like an Egyptian” for the patrons sitting at the outdoor tables.
  34. arabesque
    position in which the dancer has one leg raised behind
    “The fearful fear what they do not know and become the thing the rest of us fear,” Zeus said, holding his toe stopper in one hand as he extended his leg into a gliding arabesque in front of the impressed diners.
  35. posse
    a temporary police force
    “We lost track of time,” Frankie explained.
    “We were about to send a posse out to look for you,” Duane said.
Created on Thu Feb 03 20:35:25 EST 2022 (updated Thu Feb 10 14:31:26 EST 2022)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.