| crooks | curves behind the knees “The naked crooks of his knees were plump..” |
| lodgments | resting places “He came forward, searching out safe lodgments for his feet…” |
| proffer | offer “The fat boy waited to be asked his name in turn but his proffer of acquaintance was not made.” |
| garter | a band worn to hold up a stocking “He ripped off each stocking with his elastic garter…” |
| sidelong | sideways “Ralph looked at him [Piggy] sidelong and said nothing.” |
| motif | single or repeated design “Here the beach was interrupted abruptly by the square motif of the landscape…” |
| efflorescence | blossoming “It [ lagoon] was clear to the bottom and bright with the efflorescence of tropical weed and coral.” |
| specious | deceptive, false “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.” |
| lolled | lounged “Ralph lolled in the water.” |
| swathing | engulfing, enveloping, wrapping completely “Sleep enveloped him [Ralph] like the swathing mirages that were wrestling with the brilliance of the lagoon. “ |
| effulgence | brilliance “…the heat seemed to increase till it became a threatening weight and the lagoon attacked them with a blinding effulgence.” |
| enmity | ill-will, hatred, hostility “He [Ralph] trotted through the sand, enduring the sun’s enmity, crossed the platform and found his scattered clothes.” |
| fronds | large leaves with many divisions “When the breezes reached the platform the palm fronds would whisper…” |
| decorous | proper and in good taste “Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement.” |
| phantoms | ghosts, apparitions “The shell was an interesting and pretty and worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy…” |
| interposed | intruded: got between “The shell was an interesting and pretty and worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy…” |
| embossed | with a raised pattern, imprinted “…eighteen inches of shell with a slight spiral twist and covered with a delicate, embossed pattern.” |
| pursed | puckered, pressed together “Ralph pursed his lips and squirted air into the shell which emitted a low, farting noise.” |
| intricacies | details “A deep, harsh note boomed under the palms, spread through the intricacies of the forest and echoed back…” |
| fluking | changing by chance “The note boomed again; and then at his firmer pressure, the note, fluking up an octave, became a strident blare more penetrating than before.” |
| strident | harsh and loud “The note boomed again; and then at his firmer pressure, the note, fluking up an octave, became a strident blare more penetrating than before.” |
| wubber | blubber: cry “Ralph’s breath failed; the note dropped the octave, became a low wubber, was a rush of air.” |
| stupendous | amazing “[Ralph’s] He’s face was dark with violent pleasure of making this stupendous noise…” |
| tow | pale; straw-colored “The two boys [Sam and Eric], bullet-headed and with hair like tow, flung themselves down and lay grinning and panting at Ralph like dogs.” |
| incredulous | unbelieving: skeptical “They [Sam and Eric] were twins, and the eye was shocked and incredulous at such cheery duplication.” |
| eccentric | odd “…a party of boys, marching approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing.” |
| hambone frill | a collar frill, resembling that put on baked ham “Their bodies, from throat to ankle, were hidden by black cloaks which bore a long silver cross on the left breast and each neck was finished off with a hambone frill.” |
| matins | morning prayers “He’s [Simon] always throwing a faint,” said Merridew. “he did in Gib.; and Addis; and matins over the precentor.” |
| precentor | choir lead “He’s [Simon] always throwing a faint,” said Merridew. “he did in Gib.; and Addis; and matins over the precentor.” |
| sniggers | giggles; laughs “This last piece of shop [information] brought sniggers from the choir…” |
| furtive | sly, devious “There was a slight, furtive boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy.” |
| pallidly/pallid | without liveliness “…the choir boy who had fainted sat up against a palm trunk, smiled pallidly at Ralph and said that his name was Simon.” |
| obscurely | mysteriously “There was a stillness in Ralph as he sat that marked him out; there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.” |
| mortification | shame; humiliation “Even the choir applauded; and the freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification.” |
| suffusion | flush; blush, color “The suffusion drained away from Jack’s face.” |
| togs | clothes for a specific use “All right, choir. Take off your togs. As if released from class, the choir boys stood up, chattered, piled their black cloaks on the grass.” |
| pallor | paleness “Now that the pallor of his [Simon’s] faint was over, he was a skinny, vivid little boy…” |
| glamour | magic spell; enchantment “A kind of glamour was spread over them and the scene and they were conscious of the glamour and made happy by it.” |
| askew | crooked, out of the proper position “Some unknown force had wrenched and shattered these cubes [rocks] so they lay askew, often piled diminishingly on each other.” |
| pliant | bendable, pliable; flexible “Here the roots and stems of creepers were in such tangles that the boys had to thread through them like pliant needles.” |
| immured | walled in “Immured in these tangles, at perhaps their most difficult moment, …” |
| communion | unity “Again came the solemn communion of shining eyes in the gloom.” |
| defiles | gorges, ravines, valleys “The boys chose their way through defiles and over heaps of sharp stone.” |
| twining | twine: meandering; curving, twisting “Ralph sketched a twining line from the bald spot on which they stood down a slope, a gully, through flowers, round and down to a rock where the scar started.” |
| domination | power, control “Eyes shining, mouths open, triumphant, they savored the right of domination.” |
| plonking/plonk | plunking (onomatopoeia) “They were in the beginnings of the thick forest, plonking with wary feet on a track…” |
| traces | straps of a draft (work) animal’s harness (used here metaphorically) “They found a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers, throwing itself at the elastic traces in all the madness of extreme terror.” |
Lord of the Flies Chapter 1 Vocab
February 12, 2020