Dress Coded: List 3

by Carrie Firestone
Eighth-grader Molly is fed up with her school's unfair dress code policy, so she starts a podcast to protest it, sparking a rebellion.

This list covers "The Bully Box"–"The Amended Fisher Middle School Dress Code."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3
30 words 26 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. adrenaline
    hormone secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress
    We’re full of adrenaline and a fair amount of fear.
  2. confidential
    given in secret
    “Who were the several students? I have a right to know.”
    “I’m going to go ahead and keep that confidential.”
  3. vandalism
    willful and malicious destruction of the property of others
    “And you’re getting detention for sneaking in and vandalizing our school.”
    “I didn’t sneak in, and posters are not vandalism.”
  4. tasteful
    in keeping with what is considered appropriate and stylish
    We look forward to a tasteful and celebratory evening.
  5. hypochondriac
    a patient with imaginary symptoms and ailments
    Sorry, my mom is a hypochondriac.
  6. allot
    make possible to have
    “There’s usually time allotted for public comment at the end of each meeting. You may have an opportunity to go up to the mic and say a few words, depending on how long the meeting goes.”
  7. forage
    collect or look around for, as food
    At my house, Liza and I forage for food and find three peanut butter energy bars, two bananas, and water.
  8. vile
    exceptionally bad or unpleasant
    She looked at me like I was the most vile creature on earth...
  9. steep
    greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation
    It’s four days away, and some parents are threatening to take their kids out because “twenty-five dollars is steep.”
  10. furrow
    make or become wrinkled or creased
    Tom furrows his eyebrows, and I can’t tell if he’s confused or hurt.
  11. advocacy
    active support of an idea or cause
    Since Dad and Danny left, Mom has been humming and baking and talking to her anti-vaping- advocacy friends and weeding the flowers and playing tug-o’-war with Tibby.
  12. frumpy
    drab, old-fashioned, and unattractive
    So I dressed all frumpy the rest of the year, and everything was fine until I got sick.
  13. dejected
    affected or marked by low spirits
    We file out one by one, dejected and annoyed.
  14. bluff
    deceive someone about your strength or intentions
    “We’re not leaving until you take our request seriously. And just so you know, the TV news will be here soon.”
    Olivia is bluffing.
  15. presume
    take upon oneself; act without permission
    “How do you presume we drag all these people out?” Mae Dunn asks.
  16. earful
    an outpouring of gossip
    “Oh, for sure. I’ve stayed out of it, but I know a lot of your teachers aren’t happy about all the dress coding and body shaming that’s happening. I don’t want to step on any toes, but I get an earful at our monthly potlucks.”
  17. coronary
    an obstruction of blood flow in an artery of the heart
    “What if I can get you all a proper emergency board meeting tomorrow night? One open to the public so you all can make your case. And in return, you kids pack it up and stop giving Dr. Couchman a coronary?”
  18. flurry
    a sudden and overwhelming outpouring or amount
    Meanwhile, I get a flurry of messages from Pearl.
  19. stifle
    smother or suppress
    ME: Dr. Couchman, Mr. Dern, the lady we call Fingertip [my friends stifle laughter], and the other dress coders have made our school very stressful.
  20. appeal
    request earnestly; ask for aid or protection
    “So we are here to listen to the comments of students from Fisher Middle School as they appeal to our board to terminate the dress code.”
  21. midriff
    the central area of the human torso (usually in front)
    No exposed midriffs will be permitted. No T-back tank tops, camisoles, or shirts with large armholes will be permitted.
  22. mortify
    cause to feel shame
    Liza tells the story of her very first mortifying day at Fisher Middle School.
  23. preposterous
    inviting ridicule
    A junior boy comes up and tells us that he is distracted by girls all day every day (everyone laughs), but it has nothing to do with the thickness of their shoulder straps or whether their shorts are longer than their fingertips. “That, my friends, is preposterous.”
  24. decent
    according with custom or propriety
    You’re being disrespectful. It’s disgusting that you kids can’t even wear decent clothes without protesting.
  25. compelling
    tending to persuade by forcefulness of argument
    While all the comments were compelling, a couple of things stood out.
  26. consistent
    steady and reliable in performance or behavior
    Next, we were especially concerned that a number of people shared stories and photographs of two or more students wearing the exact same outfit with very different outcomes. Enforcement of the dress code at Fisher Middle School was not, in fact, consistent.
  27. deliberation
    (usually plural) discussion of all sides of a question
    After much deliberation, we have decided with a vote of 5–2 to remove the school dress code from the FMS and FHS student handbooks.
  28. corral
    collect or gather
    I work up a sweat trying to corral my friends for a picture.
  29. formerly
    at a previous time
    This is Mary Kate Murphy, and I’m taking over Molly Frost’s podcast, formerly known as Dress Coded, because Molly is going to high school and we both agree Fisher could still use a podcast.
  30. lewd
    suggestive of or tending to moral looseness
    STUDENTS MAY NOT WEAR:
    —CLOTHING THAT DEPICTS HATE SPEECH, PROFANITY, OR ILLEGAL, LEWD, OR VIOLENT ACTIVITY.
Created on Tue Aug 30 11:31:44 EDT 2022 (updated Tue Oct 04 13:18:49 EDT 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.