Travels with Charley: Part 2

by John Steinbeck
In this traveogue, acclaimed author John Steinbeck sets out on a roadtrip across America with his best friend, a French poodle named Charley.

Here are our word lists for the book: Part 1,
Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Appendix

Here are links to our lists for other books by John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, East of Eden, Cannery Row, The Grapes of Wrath, The Red Pony
15 words 3 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. articulate
    characterized by clear expressive language
    The clattering stream on the rocks was a good reposeful sound, but the conversation of the farmer stayed with me—a thoughtful, articulate man he was.
  2. blithe
    carefree and happy and lighthearted
    An early morning waitress in New England leads a lonely life, but I soon learned that if I tried to inject life and gaiety into her job with a blithe remark she dropped her eyes and answered “Yep” or “Umph.”
  3. elate
    fill with high spirits
    She said the autumn never failed to amaze her; to elate.
  4. avid
    marked by active interest and enthusiasm
    I have found many Readers more interested in what I wear than in what I think, more avid to know how I do it than in what I do.
  5. attest
    authenticate; affirm to be true, genuine, or correct
    I can never get used to the thousands of antique shops along the roads, all bulging with authentic and attested trash from an earlier time.
  6. taciturn
    habitually reserved and uncommunicative
    I have always heard that Maine people are rather taciturn, but for this candidate for Mount Rushmore to point twice in an afternoon was to be unbearably talkative.
  7. inseparable
    not capable of being split
    And with the few divided drops of that third there came into Rocinante a triumphant human magic that can bless a house, or a truck for that matter—nine people gathered in complete silence and the nine parts making a whole as surely as my arms and legs are part of me, separate and inseparable.
  8. pneumatic
    relating to or using air or a similar gas
    The minister, a man of iron with tool-steel eyes and a delivery like a pneumatic drill, opened up with prayer and reassured us that we were a pretty sorry lot.
  9. understatement
    something said in a restrained way for ironic contrast
    Not content with their names, they take descriptive titles also—the Empire State, the Garden State, the Granite State—titles proudly borne and little given to understatement.
  10. laconic
    brief and to the point
    The New England states use a terse form of instruction, a tight-lipped, laconic style sheet, wasting no words and few letters.
  11. labyrinth
    complex system of paths in which it is easy to get lost
    Well, he got me out of town by a route which, if I could have remembered it, let alone followed it, would have made the path into the Labyrinth at Knossos seem like a throughway.
  12. servitude
    the state of being required to labor for someone else
    Thus it was that one man wanted ownership of land and at the same time wanted servitude because someone had to work it.
  13. misdemeanor
    a crime less serious than a felony
    He says, ‘Trespassing ain’t a crime and ain’t a misdemeanor.’
  14. piscine
    of or relating to fish
    I have no desire to latch onto a monster symbol of fate and prove my manhood in titanic piscine war.
  15. imperceptible
    impossible or difficult to sense
    The straightness of the way, the swish of traffic, the unbroken speed are hypnotic, and while the miles peel off an imperceptible exhaustion sets in.
Created on Wed Jun 25 14:38:56 EDT 2025 (updated Wed Jun 25 16:49:49 EDT 2025)

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