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Great Gatsby Vocab
Chapt 1-9
74
English
10th Grade
04/28/2013

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Cards

Term
Supercilious
Definition

Behaving or looking as though you think you are superior

Text: Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner.

Term
Fractiousness
Definition

Being troublesome or quarrelsome

Text: His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed.

Term
Languidly
Definition

Lacking energy

Text: Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out onto a rosy-colored proch, open toward the sunset, where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind.

Term
Fervent
Definition

Having or showing great warmth, enthusiasm

Text: "We've got to beat them down," whispered Daisy, winking ferociously toward the fervent sun.

Term
Complacency
Definition

Often without awareness of danger

Text: There was something pathetic in his concentration, as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more.

Term
Extemporizing
Definition

To speak broadly

Text: She was only extemporizing, but a stirring warmth flowed from her, as if her heart was trying to come out to you conceled in one of those breathless, thrilling words.

Term
Desolate
Definition
Barren
Text: About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter mile, so as to shrink away from the certain desolate area of land.
Term
Brood
Definition
A number of young
Text: But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.
Term
Strident
Definition
Loud or harsh sound
Text: I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the Park through the soft twilight, but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair.
Term
Deft
Definition
Skillful
Text: Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.
Term
Innuendo
Definition
Indirect comment about a person
Text: The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names.
Term
Credulity
Definition
Inclination to believe with little evidence
Text: As our credulity switched back to her she leaned forward with enthusiasm.
Term
Ascertain
Definition
To find out definitely
Text: As a matter of fact you needn't bother to ascertain.
Term
Corpulent
Definition
Fat
Text: I had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years.
Term
Provincial
Definition
Narrow-minded
Text: But young men didn't-at least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn't-drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on the Long Island Sound.
Term
Jovial
Definition
Hearty, joyous humor
Text: He smiled with jovial condescension, and added: "Some sensation!" Whereupon everybody laughed.
Term
Dissension
Definition
Strong disagreement
Text: Even Jordan's party, the quartet from East Egg, were rent asunder by dissension.
Term
Malevolence
Definition
Hatred state
Text: In spite of this wives' agreement that such malevolence was beyond credibility, the dispute ended in a short struggle, and both wives were lifted, kicking, into the night.
Term
Jaunty
Definition
Easy in manner or bearing
Text: She was hurrying off as she talked-her brown hand waved a jaunty salute as she melted her party at the door.
Term
Discordant
Definition
Disagreement
Text: However, as they had left their cars blocking the road, a harsh, discordant din from those in the rear had been audible for some time, and added to the already violent confusion of the scene.
Term
Incessant
Definition
Without interruption, unending
Text: Blinded by the glare of the headlights and confused by the incessant groaning of the horns, the apparition stood swaying for a moment before he perceived the man in the duster.
Term
Insolent
Definition
Boldly rude or disrespectful
Text: She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body.
Term
Punctilious
Definition
Strict or exact
Text: This quality was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness.
Term
Disconcerting
Definition
Upsetting
Text: And then came that disconcerting ride.
Term
Incredulous
Definition
Skeptical, disbelief
Text: With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter.
Term
Modish
Definition
Current fashion, stylish
Text: As we crossed Blackwell's Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl.
Term
Somnambulatory
Definition
Sleep walking
Text: Gatsby took an arm of each of us and moved forward into the restaurant, whereupon Mr. Wolfsheim swallowed a new sentence he was starting and lapsed into a somnambulatory abstraction.
Term
Juxtaposition
Definition
Placement side by side
Text: The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling.
Term
Benediction
Definition
Closing blessing at worship service
Text: Mr. Wolfsheim raised his hand in a sort of benediction.
Term
Denizen
Definition
A person who regularly frequents a place
Text: He's quite a character around New York-a denizen of Broadway.
Term
Reproachfully
Definition
Fault with
Text: I took him into the pantry, where he looked a little reproachfully at the Finn.
Term
Defunct
Definition
No longer in use
Text: His head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock.
Term
Obstinate
Definition
Inflexible, stubborn
Text: Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.
Term
Recurrent
Definition
Appearing again
Text: He smiled like a weather man, like an ecstatic patron of recurrent light.
Term
Corrugated
Definition
Bent into folds
Text: But outside Gatsby's window it began to rain again, so we stood in a row looking at the corrugated surface of the Sound.
Term
Nebulous
Definition
Vague
Text: He was now decently clothed in a sport shirt, open at the neck, sneakers, and duck trousers of a nebulous hue.
Term
Laudable
Definition
Deserving praise
Text: This was his day off and with laudable initiative he had hurried out to see.
Term
Insidious
Definition
Intended to trick
When he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior.
Term
Meretricious
Definition
Tawdrily attractive
Text:He must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.
Term
Ineffable
Definition
Indescribable
Text: A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the washstand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor.
Term
Turgid
Definition
Swollen, tumid
Text: Common knowledge to the turgid sub-journalism of 1902.
Term
Florid
Definition
Reddish, rosy
Text: A gray, florid man with a hard, empty face.
Term
Proximity
Definition
Close area
Text: It occurred to me that he had been very slowly bending toward her all evening to attain this proximity, and even while I watched I saw him stoop one ultimate degree and kiss at her cheek.
Term
Obtrusive
Definition
Imposing oneself or one's opinions on others
Text: Appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing.
Term
Dilatory
Definition
Tending to delay or procrastinate
Text: The dilatory came rolling up the drive.
Term
Dilatory
Definition
Tending to delay or procrastinate
After a pause he added sir in a dilatory, grudging way.
Term
Cynically
Definition
Distrusting or disparaging the motives of others
Text: Holding down the receiver, said Daisy cynically.
Term
Stagnant
Definition
Not flowing or running
Text: On the green Sound, stagnant in the heat, one small sail crawled slowly toward the fresher sea.
Term
Contingency
Definition
Dependence on chance
Text: The immediate contingency over took him, pulled him back from the edge of the theoretical abyss.
Term
Inviolate
Definition
Free from violation
Text: His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.
Term
Portentous
Definition
Momentous
Text: As Tom took up the receiver the compressed heat exploded into sound and we were listening to the portentous chords of Mendelssohn's Wedding March from the ballroom below.
Term
Intermittent
Definition
Stopping or ceasing for a time
Text: Followed by the intermittent cries of "Yea-ea-ea!"
Term
Prig
Definition
A person who demands of others precise conformity
Text: The transition from libertine to prig was complete.
Term
Rancor
Definition
Bitter
Text: Her voice was cold, but the rancor was gone from it.
Term
Expostulation
Definition
Earnest and kindly protest
Text: The circle closed up again with a running murmur of expostulation.
Term
Laden
Definition
Burdened
Text: His eyes would drop slowly from the swinging light to the laden table by the wall.
Term
Truculent
Definition
Fierce, cruel
Text: The policeman caught something in the tone and looked over with truculent eyes.
Term
Wanly
Definition
Of an unnatural or sickly pallor
Text: Nothing happened, he said wanly.
Term
Redolent
Definition
Having a pleasant odor
Text: Fresh and breathing and redolent of this year's shining motor cars and of dancing whose flowers were scarcely withered.
Term
Vestibule
Definition
A passage, hall, or antechamber between the outer door and the interior parts of a house or building
Text: He went out to the open vestibule and sat down on a folding chair.
Term
Benediction
Definition
Closing blessing at worship service
Text:
Term
Corroborate
Definition
To make more certain
Text: He looked at me anxiously, as if he hoped I'd corroborate this.
Term
Garrulous
Definition
Excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner
Text: Some garrulous man telling over and over what had happened.
Term
Forlorn
Definition
Desolate or dreary
Text: This was a forlorn hope.
Term
Amorphous
Definition
Lacking definite form
Text: Like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees.
Term
Corrugated
Definition
Drawn in folds
Text: A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated down the pool.
Term
Pasquinade
Definition
A satire or lampoon
Text: I though the whole tale would shortly be served up in racy pasquinade.
Term
Surmise
Definition
To think without certain evidence
Text: Every surmise about him, and every practical question, was referred to me.
Term
Superfluous
Definition
Being more sufficient than required
Text: That request seemed superfluous when I wrote it.
Term
Ulster
Definition
Coat
Text: Bundled up in a long cheap ulster against the warm September day.
Term
Reverent
Definition
Deeply respectful
Text: Remarking in a reverent voice that it was a sad time for all of us.
Term
Bulbous
Definition
Bulb-shaped
Text: He held up two bulbous fingers.
Term
Elocution
Definition
A person's manner of speaking in public
Text: Practice elocution, poise and how to attain it.
Term
Commensurate
Definition
Having the same measure
Text: Face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for woner.
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