What Beauty There Is: Chapters 10–19

by Cory Anderson
Idaho teenager Ava Bardem, daughter of a murderous thief, opposes her father by helping the sons of his imprisoned accomplice.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–19, Chapters 20–33, Chapters 32–25, Chapters 24–∞
40 words 7 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bracken
    large coarse fern often several feet high
    Beyond the hedge, a field of dead bracken.
  2. fathom
    come to understand
    I think sometimes I want to understand, but mostly I don't. I can't fathom him.
  3. sheen
    the visual property of something that shines
    A light sheen forms on his forehead.
  4. billowing
    characterized by great swelling waves or surges
    Quiet of the night and starlight at the window, between the billowing drapes.
  5. gritty
    composed of or covered with small particles
    General Electric oven buried in soot, and along the wall the scorched remains of cabinetry. Smell of wet ash. The gritty taste in his mouth.
  6. threshold
    the entrance for passing through a room or building
    Jack went to the door and moved the cinder block away and kicked snow from the threshold and swung the door shut.
  7. groove
    a long narrow furrow cut by a natural process or a tool
    The deadlatch looked rusted and dull, and he thought it wouldn’t budge, but with some pushing the metal bolt slid into the strike plate. Scrape of steel in the groove.
  8. dank
    unpleasantly cool and humid
    He searched the bedrooms. Empty. The carpet dank and rotting.
  9. cerulean
    a light shade of blue
    She gazed into the dark, her pale skin glowing in the moonlight. Almost cerulean.
  10. unkempt
    not neatly combed
    Her hair was tangled and unkempt.
  11. mauve
    a moderate purple
    She looked at him then, her eyes mauve.
  12. caliber
    diameter of a tube or gun barrel
    “Looks like a .40 caliber. Close range.”
  13. grudging
    unwilling or reluctant
    He looked out over the desert. Hills dark in the grudging light.
  14. pallid
    lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble
    Leaden shadows moving in the cold and the dark of the house. Slow and pallid.
  15. chafe
    tear or wear off the skin or make sore by abrading
    He stacked dry wood in his arms and then he just stood at the woodpile, his face to the chafing wind, and looked out over the yard.
  16. wan
    lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble
    Farther along, he could make out houses here and there. Not close but not very far either. Wan light in the windows.
  17. paltry
    contemptibly small in amount or size
    The small flame licked the dry wood and flared in the paltry light.
  18. hallowed
    worthy of religious veneration
    The bright and the deep hallowed dark. The valleys and cliffs of your soul. The loud and the silent. For what does your heart beat?
  19. haggard
    showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
    Red's place sat back in the trees, down a narrow draw along the Snake River's edge. Cloudy vapor coming off the water near the house. A haggard shape in the haze. Weathered planks. Nails rusted and walls patched by black tar paper.
  20. grisly
    shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    They’d meant to skin his scalp clean off, but in the end Red struck a deal. Folks didn’t speak of that grisly skirmish.
  21. skirmish
    a minor short-term fight
    They’d meant to skin his scalp clean off, but in the end Red struck a deal. Folks didn’t speak of that grisly skirmish.
  22. sable
    a very dark black
    He stared at Jack with a flat expression, his eyes dark as sable.
  23. diaphragm
    a muscular partition in the chest used in respiration
    He looked down and caught the rise and fall of his diaphragm. The quickness of his breath.
  24. sentry
    a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event
    The tall, thin trees on the slopes watched like scraggy sentries.
  25. waver
    move back and forth very rapidly
    What troubled him most was the dark silk that kept wavering in his head, concealing his sense of danger, making his brain dull...casting him over a black edge.
  26. emboss
    raise in a relief
    I was ten when my father gave me a book of poems. It was the nicest thing I’ve ever owned. The leather was all embossed with gold words.
  27. premonition
    an early warning about a future event
    Red looked like a man who had just seen a premonition.
  28. torrent
    a violently fast stream of water or other liquid
    He could not feel his legs. Weakened parts of him rushed away, like torrents of icy water beneath a frozen stream, surging downward to deep black.
  29. ensconce
    fix firmly
    He squeezed under the twisted branches, scrabbled low, scraped skin, ensconced himself deep.
  30. lupine
    of or relating to or characteristic of wolves
    Brisk pad of paws on snow. Then a whimper, lupine.
  31. wiry
    lean but strong
    There, between the branches—he could see gray fur disturb the dark mold. Then a leg. Lean, with wiry tendons.
  32. slate
    thin layers of rock used for roofing
    Just then came another noise: voices. Whispers drawn on the frozen air, sharp as scratches on slate.
  33. undulate
    move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
    Suddenly Jack’s head did something strange: He felt thinking gears unscrew, become loose and wonky, and the world undulated in his view until he closed his good eye and leaned his head against a tree trunk.
  34. gingerly
    in a manner marked by extreme care or delicacy
    Something cracked behind him. Gingerly. Snap of twig or tree limb.
  35. resentful
    full of or marked by indignant ill will
    The girl came to him as still as darkness and gave him sips of sugar water. Heat flushed through him and when the water hit his stomach, those resentful muscles clenched tight to heave rebellion.
  36. enticing
    highly attractive and able to arouse hope or desire
    Sleep caught him in a spiderweb grasp and pulled him down to enticing black, where time didn’t have to be lived through.
  37. suture
    thread used by surgeons to stitch tissues together
    Then she opened the grocery bag and laid a towel on the floor and put everything on the towel. Cotton swabs and tape and gauze. Pair of tweezers. A syringe, scissors. Needle and suture thread.
  38. curtly
    in an abrupt and discourteous manner
    “What did you tell him?”
    “Nothing.” She spoke curtly.
  39. engrossed
    giving or marked by complete attention to
    All this time Matty had been listening, engrossed.
  40. lucid
    capable of thinking in a clear and consistent manner
    This was crazy. Idiotic. Except, in some lucid part of his brain, he knew it had to be done.
Created on Thu Jun 13 09:44:55 EDT 2024 (updated Fri Jun 14 10:04:21 EDT 2024)

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