vocab lotf Flashcards
specious
misleading in appearance, especially misleadingly attractive.
adjective
“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.”
effulgence
adjective
shining brightly; radiant.
“With that word the heat seemed to increase till it became a threatening weight and the lagoon attacked them with a blinding effulgence.”
enmity
the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something
decorous
adjective
in keeping with good taste and propriety; polite and restrained.
“Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement.”
Indignation
noun
anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair treatment.
“Indignation took away Ralph’s control.”
hiatus
a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process.
ebullience
noun
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 tumbled scar”
recrimination
noun
an accusation in response to one from someone else.
“ ‘That’s what I said! I said about our meetings and things and then you said shut up–’ His voice lifted into the whine of virtuous recrimination”
tumult
noun
a loud, confused noise, especially one caused by a large mass of people.
“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. Then he laughed so strangely that they were hushed, looking at the flash of his spectacles in astonishment.”
furtive
attempting to avoid
inscrutable
impossible to understand or interpret.
incredulous
(of a person or their manner) unwilling or unable to believe something.
belligerence
noun
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 and a natural belligerence.”
chastisement
a severe criticism or punishment
incursion
noun
an invasion or attack, especially a sudden or brief one.
“With impalpable organs of sense they examined this new field. 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.”
disinclination
noun
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”.
derisive
adjective
expressing contempt or ridicule.
“The derisive laughter that rose had fear in it and condemnation.The derisive laughter that rose had fear in it and condemnation.”
discursive
adjective
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.”
incantation
noun
a series of words said as a magic spell or charm.
“Then the wail rose, remote and unearthly, and turned to an inarticulate gibbering. Percival Wemys Madison, of the Vicarage, Home Page Title Page Contents !! “” ! Harcourt St. Anthony, lying in the long grass, was living through circumstances in which the incantation of his address was powerless to help him.”
interminable
Endless
tremulously
Adverb
Of a person/object shaking or quivering
“The twins, holding tremulously to each other, dared the few yards to the next shelter and spread the dreadful news” (99)
leviathan
A biblical sea monster
decorum
noun
behavior in keeping with good taste and propriety.
“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”
apprehension
anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen.
sagely
adverb
in a profoundly wise manner.
“ ‘I found a pig-run. It went for miles.’ ‘So the pig-run must be somewhere in there.’ Ralph nodded. He pointed at the forest. Everybody agreed, sagely.”
antagonism
active hostility or opposition.
impervious
not allowing fluid to pass through.
bravado
a bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress or intimidate.
contemptuous
adjective
showing contempt; scornful.
“ ‘You couldn’t light them,’ said Ralph. ‘They just look like candles.’ ‘Green candles,’ said Jack contemptuously. ‘We can’t eat them. Come on.’ ”
cynicism
an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest; skepticism.
indignity
treatment or circumstances that cause one to feel shame or to lose one’s dignity.
iridescent
showing luminous colors that seem to change when seen from different angles.
corpulant
(of a person) fat.
parody
an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.`
succulent
adjective
(of food) tender, juicy, and tasty.
“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.”
gesticulating
use gestures, especially dramatic ones, instead of speaking or to emphasize one’s words.
stricken
seriously affected by an undesirable condition or unpleasant feeling.
convulsively
resembling a convulsion in being violent, sudden, frantic, or spasmodic.
torrid
very hot and dry.
luminous
full of or shedding light; bright or shining, especially in the dark.
myopia
nearsightedness.
propitiatingly
adverb
in a propitiating manner : so as to appease or conciliate.
“ ‘I hadn’t,” said Ralph loudly. “I knew it all the time. I hadn’t forgotten.” Piggy nodded propitiatingly.”
adejctive
eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant.
“adejctive
eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant.
“Truculently they squared up to each other but kept just out of fighting distance.”
they squared up to each other but kept just out of fighting distance.”
inimical
Adjective
tending to obstruct or harm.
“There was no reply. To carry he must speak louder; and this would rouse those striped and inimical creatures from their feasting by the fire.”
ululation
“:He had just time to realize that the age-long nightmares of falling and death were past and that the morning was come, when he heard the sound again. It was an ululation over by the seashore— and now the next savage answered and the next. The cry swept by him across the narrow end of the island from sea to lagoon, like the cry of a flying bird.”
to utter a loud, usually protracted, high-pitched, rhythmical sound especially as an expression of sorrow, joy, celebration, or reverence : HOWL
verb
