Lord of the Flies Flashcards
Specious
(Adj) Misleading in appearance, especiallymisleadingly attractive “Ralph had been deceived before now by the specious appearance of depth in a beach pool and he approached this one preparing to be disappointed” (12).
Effulgence
(n) a brilliant radiance or shining forth; “With that word the heat seemed to increase till it became a threatening weight and the lagoon attacked them with a blinding effulgence” (14).
Enmity
(n) The state of being or feeling actively opposed or hostile to someone or something; “He trotted through the sand, enduring the sun’s enmity, crossed the platform, and found his scattered clothes” (14).
Decorous
(adj) in keeping with good taste and propriety; polite and restrained; “Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement” (15).
Indignation
(n) anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair treatment; “Piggy stood and the rose of indignation faded slowly from his cheeks” (25).
Hiatus
(n) a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process; “There came a pause, a hiatus, the pig continued to scream and the creepers to jerk, and the blade continued to flash at the end of the bony arm” (31).
Ebullience
(n) the quality of being cheerful and full of energy; exuberance; “Then, with the martyred expression of a parent who has to keep up with the senseless ebullience of the children, he picked up the conch, turned toward the forest, and began to pick his way over the tumbler scar” (38).38).
Recrimination
(n) An accusation to response to one from someone else; ‘’That’s what I said! I said about our meetings and things and then you say shut up—’ His voice lifted into the whine of virtuous recrimination” (43).
Tumult
(n) confusion or disorder; “He paused in the tumult, standing, looking beyond them and down the unfriendly side of the mountain to the great patch where they had found dead wood” (43).
Furtive
(adj) attempting to avoid notice or attention, typically because of guilt or a belief that discovery would lead to trouble; secretive; “Jack himself shrank at this cry with a hiss of indrawn breath, and for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees” (49).
Inscrutable
(adj) impossible to understand or interpret; “Jack lifted his head and stared at the inscrutable masses of creeper that lay across the trail” (49).
Incredulous
(adj) (of a person or their manner) unwilling or unable to believe something; “‘But you can feel as if you’re not hunting, but–-being hunted, as if something’s behind you all the time in the jungle.’ They were silent again: Simon intent, Ralph incredulous and faintly indignant” (53).
Belligerence
(n) aggressive or warlike behavior; “Percival was mouse-colored and had not been very attractive even to his mother; Johnny was well built, with fair hair a natural belligerence” (60).
Chastisement
(n) severe criticism and punishment; a rebuke or strong reprimand; “In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand. Now, though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand, Maurice still felt the unease of wrongdoing” (60).
Incursion
(n) an invasion or attack, especially sudden or brief one; “Perhaps food had appeared where at the last incursion there had been none; bird droppings, insects perhaps, any of the strewn detritus of landward life” (61).
Disinclination
(n) a reluctance or lack of enthusiasm; “There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor” (65).
Derisive
(adj) expressing contempt or ridicule; “‘There’s enough silly talk about the beasts, without the littluns seeing you gliding about like a—’ The derisive laughter that rose had fear in it and condemnation” (86).
Discursive
(adj) digressing from subject to subject; “The assembly shredded away and became a discursive and random scatter from the palms to the water and away along the beach, beyond night-sight” (92).
Incantation
(n) a series of words said as a magic spell or charm; “Percival Wemys Madison, of the Vicarage, Harcourt St. Anthony, lying in the long grass, was living through circumstances in which the incantation of his address was powerless to help him” (94).
Interminable
(adj) endless; “Soon the darkness was full of claws, full of the awful unknown and menace. An interminable dawn faded the stars out, and at last light, sad and grey, filtered into the shelter” (99)
Tremulously
(adverb) to a very great extent; “‘Sam ‘n Eric. Call them to an assembly. Quietly. Go on.’ The twins, holding tremulously to each other, dared the few yards to the next shelter and spread the dreadful news” (99).
Leviathan
(n) a very large aquatic creature, especially a whale; “Then the sleeping leviathan breathed out, the water rose, the weed steamed, and the water boiled over the table rock with a roar” (105).
Decorum
(n) behavior in keeping with good taste and propriety; “Not one of them was an obvious subject for a shower, and yet–hair, much too long, tangled here and there, knotted round a dead leaf or a twig; faces cleaned fairly well by the process of eating and sweating but marked in the less accessible angles with a kind of shadow; clothes, worn away, stiff like his own with sweat, put on, not for decorum or comfort but out of custom; the skin of the body, scurfy with brine–” (110).
Apprehension
(n) anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen; “The boar was floundering away from them. They found another pig-run parallel to the first and Jack raced away. Ralph was full of fright and apprehension and pride” (113).
Sagely
(adverb) in a profoundly wise manner; “‘So the pig-run must be somewhere in there.’ Ralph nodded. He pointed at the forest. Everybody agreed, sagely” (118)
Antagonism
(n) active hostility or opposition; “‘The mountain,’ said Jack, ‘I told you.’ he sneered. ‘Don’t you want to go to the mountain?’ Ralph sighed, sensing the rising antagonism, understanding that this was how Jack felt as soon as he ceased to lead” (118).
Impervious
(adj) unable to be affected by; “So they sat, the rocking, tapping, impervious Roger and Ralph, fuming; round them the close sky was loaded with stars, save where the mountain punched up a hole of blackness” (121).
Bravado
(n) a bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress or intimidate; “Ralph surprised himself, not so much by the quality of his voice, which was even, but by the bravado of its intention” (122).
Contemptuous
(adj) manifesting, feeling, or expressing deep hatred or disapproval: feeling or showing contempt; scornful; ‘’Go up and see,’ said Jack contemptuously, ‘and good riddance’” (124).
Cynicism
(n) an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest; skepticism; “Even if he shut his eyes the sow’s head still remained like an after-image. The half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life. They assured Simon that everything was a bad business” (137).
Indignity
(n) treatment or circumstances that cause one to feel shame or to lost one’s dignity; “Simon discovered that he had spoken aloud. He opened his eyes quickly and there was the head grinning amusedly in the strange daylight, ignoring the flies, the spilled guts, even ignoring the indignity of being spiked on a stick” (137).
Iridescent
(adj) showing luminous colors that seem to change when seen from different angles; “They tickled under his nostrils and played leapfrog on his thighs. They were black and iridescent green and without number; and in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned ‘’ (138).
Corpulent
(n) (of a person) fat; “Then as the blue material of the parachute collapsed the corpulent figure would bow forward, sighing, and the flies settle once more” (146).
Parody
(n) an imitation of the style of a particular artist, writer, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect; “He crawled forward and soon he understood. The tangle of lines showed him the mechanics of this parody; he examined the white nasal bones, the teeth, the colors of corruption” (146).
Succulent
(adj) tender, juicy, and tasty; “‘Take them some meat.’ The boys with the spit gave Ralph and Piggy each a succulent chunk. They took the gift, dribbling. So they stood and ate beneath a sky of thunderous brass that rang with the storm-coming” (149).
Gesticulating
(v) use gestures, especially dramatic ones, instead of speaking or to emphasize one’s words; “‘We was scared!’ said Piggy excitedly. ‘Anything might have happened. It wasn’t—what you said.’ He was gesticulating, searching for a formula” (156).
Stricken
(adj) seriously affected by an undesirable condition or unpleasant feeling; “‘Oh, Piggy!’ Ralph’s voice, low and stricken, stopped Piggy’s gestures. He bent down and waited. Ralph, cradling the conch, rocked himself to and fro” (156-157).
Convulsively
(adj) of the nature or characterized by convulsions or spasms; “Memory of the dance that none of them had attended shook all four boys convulsively. ‘We left early’” (158).
Torrid
(adj) very hot and dry; “Sitting on the tremendous rock in the torrid sun, Roger received this news as an illumination” (160).
Luminous
(adj) full of or shedding light; bright or shining, especially in the dark; “The twins watched anxiously and Piggy sat expressionless behind the luminous wall of his myopia” (169).
Myopia
(n) lack of imagination, foresight, or intellectual insight; “The twins watched anxiously and Piggy sat expressionless behind the luminous wall of his myopia” (169).
Propitiatingly
(adverb) to make favorably inclined, appease; conciliate; “Piggy nodded propitiatingly. ‘You’re chief, Ralph. You remember everything’” (173).
Truculent
(adj) eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant; “Truculently they squared up to each other but kept just out of fighting distance. ‘You come on and see what you get!’” (177).
Inimical
(adj) tending to obstruct or harm; “To carry he must speak louder; and this would rouse those striped and inimical creatures from their feasting by the fire” (187)
Ululation
(n) a long, high-pitched sound resembling a howl; “Eric raised his head and achieved a faint ululation by beating on his open mouth” (189).
Crepitation
(n) crackling or rattle sound; “He heard a curious trickling sound and then a louder crepitation as if someone were unwrapping great sheets of a cellophane” (194).
