Junior Midterm Exam

1. Junior Midterm Exam Vocabulary Powerpoint

2. Charred Definition: to burn or reduce to charcoal (verb) + = “They scrabbled through the charred ruins of houses they would not have entered before.”(92) The house was charred to a crisp.

3. “…Slumped and cowled and shivering in their rags like mendicant friars sent forth to find their keep.” (McCarthy, 126) The mendicant hobo from New York desperately sought food from the soup kitchen. Mendicant Def: Noun; a person who lives by begging; a member of any several orders of friars that forbade ownership of property and lived solely on alms.

4. Emaciated “Emaciated, clothed in rags. Holding lengths of pipe” (McCarthy 185). Adjective; to cause, or to become thin and wasted. The girl looked extremely emaciated because she looked like she weighed 2 lbs.

5. Floundered “They struggled on for some hours and then floundered off through the roadside brush…” (McCarthy 187). Verb; To move clumsily or with difficulty. The fox floundered quickly into the woods after it saw a car coming down the road.

6. Sumptuous “They ate a sumptuous meal by candlelight” (McCarthy 154). Adjective; excessively costly, rich, or luxurious. Walker and Christina ate a very sumptuous meal at the fancy schmancy 5 star hotel.

7. Quaint “The quaint concerns,”(McCarthy,28). Adjective Attractively odd Old fashioned

8. Desolation “The dead grass thrashed softly. Out there a gray desolation. The endless seacrawl (McCarthy 221).” sorrow; grief; woe; devastation; ruin. Noun the barren fields, no food, desolation set on to the people.

9. Congealing “Light the color of wash water congealing in the dirty pines of glass (McCarthy 262).“ to change from a soft or fluid state to a rigid or solid state, as by cooling or freezing Verb As I watched the pan that I made breakfast in the bacon fat was congealing in front of me.

10. Bleak “ He stood in the back door and looked out at the fields and the road beyond and the bleak country” (McCarthy 132). The desert land was bleak. DEFINITION: Adjective; Barren, desolate, often windswept

11. Starkly “ The fire blacked boulders like the shapes of bears on the starkly wooded slopes.” (McCarthy 30). It was a very stark landscape. Adjective; harsh, grim, or desolate

12. Evasive • Adjective • tending or seeking to avoid; not straightforward; tricky

13. Trepidation • noun • fearful uncertainty, anxiety, apprehension

14. Defamation • noun • a false statement that harms the reputation of another

15. Contentious Adjective always ready to argue; quarrelsome

16. Prodigious • Adjective • wonderful; amazing of great size, power, extent, enormous; huge

17. Gaunt • Adjective • excessively thin and pale

18. Obstinate • Adjective • firmly or stubbornly sticking to one's purpose, or opinion; not yielding to argument

19. Irreverent • Adjective • lacking proper respect or seriousness

20. Formidable • Adjective • of great strength; forceful; powerful

21. Apathetic • Adjective • having or showing little or no emotion; not interested or concerned; indifferent

22. Intimation • Noun • to indicate or make known indirectly; hint; imply; suggest.

23. “The country was stripped and plundered years ago and they found nothing in the houses and buildings by the roadside” (McCarthy 181). Plundered The town was plundered by those leaving nothing left but dust. Definition: to rob of goods or valuables by open force, as in war, hostile raids, brigandage Part of Speech: verb

24. Dwindling Definition: to become smaller and smaller; shrink; waste away “When he looked back the old man had set out with his cane, tapping his way, dwindling slowly on the road behind them like some storybook peddler from an antique time, dark and bent and spider thin and soon to vanish forever” (McCarthy 174). Part of Speech: verb The flower was dwindling as time went on, dying and wasting away to almost nothing.

25. “He looked at the boy out of his sunken haggard eyes.”(McCarthy190) Haggard Part of Speech: Adjective Definition: Appearing worn and exhausted.