| bindle | a bag or sack, sometimes made from a rolled-up blanket |
| bindle stiff | a hobo, homeless man who has all his stuff in a bindle |
| bunk house | the sleeping quarters for workers, one big room with lots of beds |
| apple box | a shelf made from an apple box, where you put your stuff in the bunkhouse |
| scourges | an affliction, or epidemic |
| pants rabbits | term for lice in your underwear |
| graybacks | bedbugs, ticks or lice |
| liniment | a cream used on sore muscles or to relieve rashes on your skin |
| jerkline skinner | the lead driver of a team of mules hitched to a large work wagon |
| stable buck | a mean term for a black man who works with horses |
| Stetson hat | the number 1 brand of cowboy hats in the West |
| swamper | a worker or handyman who does all kinds of odd jobs like cleaning and fixing things |
| Murray and Ready | the employment agency where men would ‘watch the blackboard’ to find jobs |
| work slips | the ticket you got from Murray and Ready to show your new bossthat you had been hired officially |
| cultivator | large piece of farm equipment hooked to a tractor to get soil ready for planting |
| cesspool | a well or pit used for sewage |
| slough | a marshy or muddy area |
| tart | a woman who wears a lot of makeup and tempts men with her flirtatious ways |
| to buck barley | to throw large bags of barley up on a wagon or truck |
| to lynch | to hang a person, generally from a tree, who is almost always African-American |
| slug of whiskey | a big drink |
| gut ache | stomach ache |
| Airdale | a breed of dog |
| pulp magazine | short story fiction magazines made popular in the 1920s and 1930s before TV |
| luger | a German-manufactured pistol |
| euchre | a type of card game |
| two bits | 25 cents |
| rag rug | a rug made from old material and rags |
| kewpie doll | a style of doll usually won at a carnival game |
| phonograph | old-fashioned record player with a large horn-shaped speaker |
| parlor house | a bar with prostitutes, called a brothel |
| hutches | a piece of furniture like a closet but also a cage for keeping rabbits |
| welter | to be very drunk and depressed |
| Zane Grey | American adventure and cowboy writer from the 1920s and 1930s |
| nail keg | a huge barrel of nails |
| jack | another word for money |
| to put up a stake | to save up your money |
| hobo | from HOmeward BOund, a homeless person |
| hobo jungle | a place where hobos could hang out, have a fire, cook food, maybe wash a little |
| to jungle up | to camp out in a hobo jungle |
Of Mice and Men Vocab
April 30, 2020