It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit: List 1

by Justin A. Reynolds
When twelve-year-old beach-loving Ohioan Eddie Gordon Holloway runs out of clean clothes, he must finally do his laundry in the basement, where suddenly, the lights go dark.

This list covers "An extremely brief note..."–Chapter 1000.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3
35 words 118 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. irreverent
    showing lack of due respect or veneration
    Yep, you heard me—this story kicks off at Chapter 100. That way, if anyone asks, you can tell the truth. “I’m on chapter fifty-seven hundred” and you won’t be lying. My mom says this is called being irreverent. I just call it doing what we want. So, ha! In your face, regular ole chapter numbers!
  2. devise
    come up with after a mental effort
    On the third day of summer vacation, I devised THEE perfect three-month plan.
  3. delicate
    easily broken or damaged or destroyed
    First, you sort—whites, colors—and if you have my mom—reds and pinks, partial whites, pastels, earth tones, delicates, etc.
  4. decisive
    characterized by resoluteness and firmness
    Except if my Real Dad were here, he’d say, “Stop all that hemming and hawing and pick a side already. The best decision you’ll ever make is to be decisive.”
  5. spindly
    long, thin, and often weak or fragile
    I treat all mornings equally—which is to say, you know the day’s started when you hear me trip down the stairs. Then I’m staggering into the kitchen like a newborn giraffe getting used to its spindly legs, my eyes cracked open just barely enough to identify large blurry objects, like the fridge, the kitchen table, and most walls.
  6. disposition
    your usual mood
    So if this guy thinks I’m gonna be able to match his “cheerfulness” and “sunny disposition”—Mom’s words, not mine—he’s in for a rude awakening.
  7. sashay
    walk with a lofty proud gait, often to impress others
    He sashays around the kitchen, belting the wrong notes into his slightly melted plastic blue spatula...and then, when he thinks he’s caught me off guard, he unleashes a surprise attack, thrusting some other kitchen utensil in my face—as if for even one second I’d pretend to sing along.
  8. croon
    sing softly
    “Coooomeeee on, joiiiin meeee, youuuu knoooow you wannnaaa,” WBD croons into his poor spatula, while extending the slotted spoon toward me like a bouquet of flowers.
  9. incidental
    minor or casual or subordinate in significance or nature
    “Hit? Who said anything about hit? No, I asked if you rubbed. Rubbed. Which is an easy incidental thing to do.”
  10. sustainable
    using methods that do not cause harm to the environment
    I just don’t think it’s the responsible way to go if we wanna continue enjoying this planet for a long time, is all. Sustainable living and all that jazz?
  11. falsetto
    a male singing voice with artificially high tones
    Whether it’s him pestering me about us doing fun bonding things together, or him insisting on raising his voice several octaves too high, making his already upsettingly pitchy “falsetto” so squeaky and so screechy that I swear he’s Alvin, Simon, and Theodore’s little-known, long-lost bro, Calvin Chipmunk, except with way less vocal range and you know...talent.
  12. waft
    be driven or carried along, as by the air
    If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I can already hear those soulful melodies wafting through the air...oh wait, it’s because I can hear them.
  13. genuinely
    in accordance with truth or fact or reality
    They’re just a bunch of old people trying to relive their youth, The Bronster likes to say, because it genuinely hurts his heart to see other people happy.
  14. culmination
    a final climactic stage
    “What are you seeing?” I repeat. “Umm, only the culmination of my most brilliant plan yet, that's what you’re seeing.”
  15. advocate
    a person who pleads for a person, cause, or idea
    I mean, I’m an advocate for being respectful or whatever, but every time I hear someone say “ma’am” or “sir” it’s like I’m ripped back in time to 1734.
  16. stance
    standing posture
    Mom shifts her weight to her other leg and is now posed in a position I like to call the “Boy, I’m not playing with you” stance.
  17. transpire
    come about, happen, or occur
    I nod again, prepared for a full-blown lecture. But entirely not prepared for what actually transpires next—
  18. dingy
    thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot
    The rumbling rises to a sharp, roaring crescendo as an avalanche of my dirty clothes collapses, sweeping me and Mom off our feet in a wave of dingy tank tops and grass-stained blue jeans crashing to the floor.
  19. funky
    having an offensive or unpleasant smell
    When the rumbling finally stops, there’s not a single spot in my room that isn’t blanketed in funky laundry.
  20. cul de sac
    a street with only one way in or out
    Come over to my house—it’s the one at the end of the cul-de-sac with the plastic pink penguins tap-dancing in bright red mulch in the front yard—yep, I said pink penguins—you can’t miss it.
  21. render
    cause to become
    Now please hurry up and render me unconscious, appreciate it.
  22. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    I watch as he swivels toward our coffee cup cabinet, his back now to me, except I can just make out the move—if I weren’t paying close attention I would’ve missed it, but there it is, subtle and small.
  23. inconspicuous
    not prominent or readily noticeable
    WBD inconspicuously glides his flattened palm down the front of his shirt, a quick “gut check,” a smile spreading across his face as he thinks to himself, Hmm, could Eddie be right?
  24. modest
    humble in spirit or manner
    “You’re just being modest,” I add, prepared to lay it on as thick as necessary, prepared to double-, triple-, quadruple-stack as many ridiculously thick layers of compliments as are required.
  25. frolic
    play boisterously
    Eddie, don’t you wanna be frolicking in my glorious golden shine today?
  26. composure
    steadiness of mind under stress
    “Eddie, I...you have no idea...I’m sorry.” WBD pauses, attempting to regain his composure, his voice cracking a bit more with each word.
  27. muster
    summon up, call forth, or bring together
    And I shake his hand with all the enthusiasm I can muster.
  28. latter
    the second of two or the second mentioned of two
    “Good one, gerbil.” And I can’t tell if he’s genuinely complimenting me or being his normal jerk self, but if I were forced to guess, I’d go with the latter. Also, did he just call me a gerbil?
  29. sole
    not divided or shared with others
    Nope, instead I’m being Super Positive and displaying an Awesome Attitude, not even thinking about how my entire family—you know, the people whose sole job and purpose in life is to support you and make you happy—has betrayed me, treating me like a human trash can, tossing all their garbage this is why I'm betraying you right now excuses.
  30. drafty
    not airtight; exposed to currents of air
    So then, doesn’t the fact that we keep our washers and dryers in the saddest, draftiest, most depressing room in the house tell us all we need to know about how unimportant laundry really is?
  31. unassailable
    without flaws or loopholes
    Eddie’s Unassailable Insights Into Why Laundry Is a Scam/Hoax/Con
  32. dank
    unpleasantly cool and humid
    Most basements are dark, dank, and vulnerable to every sort of infestation—mice, ants, roaches, squirrels, etc.
  33. codex
    a written manuscript, typically from ancient times
    To those familiar with Latin, the Dead Sea Codex—one of the foremost discoveries of the eighteenth century, mind you—there we learn the true origin for the word basement.
  34. aberration
    a state or condition markedly different from the norm
    But, Eddie, there are laundry rooms that aren’t in basements—what about those? We call those aberrations—which is a fancy way of saying, for every rule, there are exceptions.
  35. confines
    a bounded scope
    And if you are one of those rare (and super-privileged) souls who doesn’t have to do their laundry in the creepy confines of a basement, well, congratulations, you are better (and safer) than the rest of us.
Created on Thu Feb 16 11:14:59 EST 2023 (updated Thu Feb 16 19:27:57 EST 2023)

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