Lord Of The Flies Flashcards
Lagoon
“The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon.”
Area of shallow water
Clamber
“He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another.”
To climb or shuffle using both hands and feet
Vainly
“He took off his glasses and looked vainly for something with which to clean them.”
Without success
Quiver
“The palms that still stood made a green roof, covered on the underside with a quivering tangle of reflections from the lagoon.”
Tremble or shake with a slightly rapid motion
Decorous
“Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement.”
Proper; marked by good taste
Interpose
“The shell was interesting and pretty and a worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy, who in this context was an irrelevance.”
Place or insert between two things
Strident
“The note boomed again: and then at his firmer pressure, the note, fluking up an octave, became a strident blare more penetrating than before.”
Loud and harsh
Scupper
To deliberately sink
Speculate
“Their heads clustered above the trunks in the green shade; heads brown, fair, black, chestnut, sandy, mouse-colored; heads muttering, whispering, heads full of eyes that watched Ralph and speculated.”
To casually talk and make predictions without firm evidence
Clamor
“The conch was silent, a gleaming tusk; Ralph’s face was dark with breathlessness and the air over the island was full of bird-clamor and echoes ringing.”
A loud and confused noise
Pallor
“Now that the pallor of his faint was over, he was a skinny, vivid little boy, with a glance coming up from under a hut of straight hair that hung down, black and coarse.”
An extreme or unnatural paleness
Indignation
“Piggy stood and the rose of indignation faded slowly from his cheeks.”
A feeling of righteous anger
Jumble
“There was a jumble of the usual squareness, with one great block sitting out in the lagoon.”
Untidy collection or pile
Grating
“This one, against which Jack leaned, moved with a grating sound when they pushed.”
Sounding unpleasant and annoying
Warped
“He stood now, warped out of the perpendicular by the fierce light of publicity, and he bored into the coarse grass with one toe. He was muttering and about to cry.”
Bent, distorted, pulled out
Conch
“A conch he called it.”
A large spiral shell of a mollusk, often used as a horn
Scornfully
“Like kids!” he said scornfully. “Acting like a crowd of kids!”
With contempt or derision
Officious
“There was pushing and pulling and officious cries.”
Intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner
Tumult
“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.”
A state of commotion, noise, and confusion
Irresistible
“At the sight of the flames and the irresistible course of the fire, the boys broke into shrill, excited cheering.”
Not capable of being refused
Nimble
Quick and agile
Festoon
“Smoke was rising here and there among the creepers that festooned the dead or dying trees.”
Decorate with strings of flowers
Tendril
“Here was loop of creeper with a tendril pendant from a node.”
A stemlike structure of climbing plants that holds onto walls and other objects
Oppressive
“The silence of the forest was more oppressive than the heat, and at this hour of the day there was not even the whine of insects.”
Weighing heavily on the senses or spirit
Inscrutable
“Jack lifted his head and stared at the inscrutable masses of creeper that lay across the trail.”
Impossible to understand or interpret
Barb
“But I shall! Next time! I’ve got to get a barb on this spear!”
A sharp tip
Bewildered
“Ralph gazed bewildered at his rapt face.”
Dumbfounded
Flaunt
“A great tree, fallen across one corner, leaned against the trees that still stood and a rapid climber flaunted red and yellow sprays right to the top.”
The act of displaying something ostentatiously
Furtive
“There was a slight, furtive boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy.”
Secret and sly or sordid
Glimmer
“The candle-buds opened their wide white flowers glimmering under the light that pricked down from the first stars.”
A flash of light (especially reflected light)
Blatant
“The glittering sea rose up, moved apart in planes of blatant impossibility; the coral reef and the few stunted palms that clung to the more elevated parts would float up into the sky, would quiver, be plucked apart, run like raindrops on a wire or be repeated as in an odd succession of mirrors.”
extremely obvious
Mirage
“Ralph lolled in the water. Sleep enveloped him like the swathing mirages that were wrestling with the brilliance of the lagoon.”
an optical phenomenon
Taboo
“Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law.”
something that is normally shunned by a society
Sinewy
“Beside the pool his sinewy body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling.”
related to muscular, strong, tendons
Malevolently
“Piggy grabbed and put on the glasses. He looked malevolently at Jack.”
implying ill will or wishing harm to someone
Ludicrous
But Piggy, “for all his ludicrous body, had brains. Ralph was a specialist in thought now, and could recognize thought in another.”
causing laughter because of absurdity
Ineffectual
“Piggy tiptoed to the triangle, his ineffectual protest made, and joined the others.”
without a satisfying result, not effectual
Jeer
“He stopped, facing the strip; and remembering that first enthusiastic exploration as though it were part of a brighter childhood, he smiled jeeringly.”
to speak or shout to put someone down
Indigo
“The assembly looked with him, considered the vast stretches of water, the high sea beyond, unknown indigo of infinite possibility, heard silently the sough and whisper from the reef.”
a color ranging from a deep violet blue to a grayish blue
Inarticulate
“Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness.”
lacking the ability to express one’s thoughts, feelings, or opinions
Theorem
“Ralph answered in the cautious voice of one who rehearses a theorem.”
an idea, belief, statement, or method generally believed to be true
Appalled
“Beside the pool his sinewy body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them.”
to be filled or overcame with horror
Leviathan
“Then the sleeping leviathan breathed out, the waters rose, the weed streamed, and the water boiled over the table rock with a roar.”
anything of immense size and power, such as ocean ships
Clamor
“The conch was silent, a gleaming tusk; Ralph’s face was dark with breathlessness and the air over the island was full of bird-clamor and echoes ringing.”
a loud uproar
Mutinously
“Mutinously, the boys fell silent or muttering.”
difficult to control, unenforced
Coverts
“If you could shut your ears to the slow suck down of the sea and boil of the return, if you could forget how dun and unvisited were the ferny coverts on either side, then there was a chance that you might put the beast out of mind and dream for a while.”
underbrush providing cover for game
Crestfallen
“I don’t remember this cliff,” said Jack, crestfallen, “so this must be the bit of the coast I missed.”
feeling shame or humiliation
Glowered
Jack glowered.
looked with annoyance or anger
Daunting
“The word was too good, too bitter, too successfully daunting to be repeated.”
discouraging; dismaying
Impervious
“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.”
incapable of being affected
Prefect
“He’s not a hunter. He’d never have got us meat. He isn’t a prefect and we don’t know “anything about him. He just gives orders and expects people to obey for nothing. All this talk―”
chief officer; monitor in private school
Rebuke
“Piggy gave up the attempt to rebuke Ralph.”
reprimand; criticize; reprove
Demure
“Hunting,” he said. He sized them up. Each of them wore the remains of a black cap and ages ago they had stood in two demure rows and their voices had been the song of angels.”
modest; reserved
Fervor
“If Jack was astonished by their fervor he did not show it.”
emotional intensity; passion
Demented
“One piglet, with a demented shriek, rushed into the sea trailing Roger’s spear behind it.”
mad; insane
Palled
“Beside the pool his sinewy body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling.”
lost its attraction
Corpulent
“Then as the blue material of the parachute collapsed the corpulent figure would bow forward, sighing, and the flies settle once more.”
obese; excessively fat
Derision
“Piggy once more was the center of social derision so that everyone felt cheerful and normal.”
contemptuous laughter; ridicule
Sauntered
“Seeing there was no immediate likelihood of a pause, Jack rose from the log that was his throne and sauntered to the edge of the grass.”
walked at a leisurely pace
Abominable
“It was crying out against the abominable noise something about a body on the hill.”
detestable; unpleasant
