The Great Gilly Hopkins: List 3

by Katherine Paterson
When eleven-year-old Galadriel Hopkins is sent to live with Maime Trotter in Maryland, the latest in a series of foster parents, she hatches a plan to run away to her biological mother in California.

This list covers "Dust and Desperation"–"The Visitor."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. measly
    contemptibly small in amount
    Then she took out the special drawer and began to tape the money to the bottom with a sinking heart. Thirty-four dollars. Thirty-four measly dollars.
  2. exotic
    strikingly strange or unusual
    “Dust?” Trotter spoke the word as though it were the name of an exotic and slightly dangerous game.
  3. frenzy
    state of violent mental agitation
    The steady wiping and polishing with the “clean, dry cloth” fell into a rhythm that began to calm her inner frenzy.
  4. niche
    a small concavity
    By the time she got to the picture over the buffet, she not only cleaned out the niches of the carved frame but she hunted up Windex and paper towels to wash the faces and so forths of the baby angels who were tripping around on clouds with only a ribbon or a stray wing to cover their private parts (as Mrs. Nevins used to call them).
  5. painstaking
    characterized by extreme care and great effort
    She set the ladder up under Trotter’s chandelier, and as she painstakingly wiped each piece of glass with her ammonia-water rag, she would have to grab the ladder from time to time, dizzy as she was with the smell of the ammonia and the thought that by tomorrow night at this time she’d be on her way to California.
  6. awry
    turned or twisted to one side
    She knocked several times at Mr. Randolph’s door before he opened it, his tie and shirt awry and his face still clogged with sleep.
  7. thoroughly
    in an exhaustive manner
    “You certainly are doing a beautiful job. So careful. My, my, I don’t know when this room has been so thoroughly cleaned before.”
  8. steadfast
    marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
    Old Applegate would do things like lecture them on the Ten Commandments and then steadfastly refuse to explain what adultery was.
  9. glower
    look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval
    Trotter sucked in her breath and glowered down at her like Moses at the Israelites’ golden calf.
  10. anoint
    choose by or as if by divine intervention
    “Who am I,” she thundered, “to pass judgment on the Lord’s anointed?”
  11. futile
    producing no result or effect
    The Sunday after the futile dusting, Mr. Randolph surprised everyone by refusing seconds.
  12. exquisite
    lavishly elegant and refined
    “Oh, you must know, Mrs. Trotter, how it pains me to say No to this exquisite chicken, but my son is coming over about three.”
  13. gaudy
    tastelessly showy
    She chose the gaudiest one there—four-inch-high ballet dancers in purple tutus, their pink legs pirouetting on a greenish four-in-hand.
  14. appraise
    consider in a comprehensive way
    She stepped back to appraise the effect.
  15. reverent
    feeling or showing profound respect or veneration
    “It’s beautiful,” the boy whispered reverently.
  16. intact
    lacking nothing essential, not damaged
    “Good, good,” said Mr. Randolph, his dignity also once again intact.
  17. topographic
    relating to the natural and artificial features of the land
    She dried the dishes as Trotter washed them and put them to drain, her mind aboard the Greyhound bus skimming across something that looked like a three-dimensional version of the topographical map in her geography book.
  18. muffled
    being or made softer or less loud or clear
    He was on the phone a while, talking in a muffled voice.
  19. pore
    direct one's attention on something
    Then he was poring through his books.
  20. shabby
    showing signs of wear and tear
    Trotter was still shaking her head at Rhine as he brought her back around the counter, W.E. clutching at her shabby coat.
  21. botch
    make a mess of, destroy, or ruin
    Gilly the Great, who couldn't even run away? Botched the job.
  22. stricken
    affected by something overwhelming
    It was the closest to cursing Gilly had ever heard Trotter come to. She looked up into the fat, stricken face.
  23. deprive
    take away
    “Never, never, never!” Trotter was bellowing like an old cow deprived of its calf.
  24. notion
    an odd or fanciful or capricious idea
    If you was thinking of me, you’d never come to me with such a fool notion.
  25. engulf
    flow over or cover completely
    Gilly’s whole body was engulfed in a great aching.
  26. undue
    beyond normal limits
    At any rate, when Gilly gave the forty-four dollars to him, Trotter looming behind her like a mighty army, he accepted her mumbled explanation without showing shock or undue curiosity, but with a strange little dignity.
  27. feeble
    pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness
    “Pow,” he echoed softly, tentatively doubling up his fist and giving a feeble swing.
  28. wrath
    intense anger
    Before the sentence was out, Trotter was filling the doorway like the wrath of God Almighty.
  29. appalling
    causing shock, dismay, or horror
    Mr. Randolph was sure that if his son knew he was sick, he wouId be snatched away to Virginia never to return again. Trotter recognized this appalling possibility, but maintained that there was some moral obligation to inform next of kin when one took to one’s bed.
  30. coax
    influence or persuade by gentle and persistent urging
    One piece flew out of sight under the stove and the other piece, which she got down the boy’s throat with no little difficulty, came up again promptly, along with the bowl of soup she’d coaxed down earlier.
  31. relentless
    never-ceasing
    The turkey Trotter had bought was relentlessly defrosting on the refrigerator shelf, but there was nothing else to remind her as she sat at the kitchen table dressed in jeans and a shrunken T-shirt, chewing her late breakfast of bologna sandwich that the rest of the nation would soon be feasting and celebrating.
  32. unison
    the act of occurring together or simultaneously
    They both sat down in unison like string puppets, the lady right on the edge of the chair so that her short feet could touch the floor.
  33. perpetual
    uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing
    She had always been—existing from before time—like a goddess in perpetual perfection.
  34. sympathetic
    expressing compassion or friendly fellow feelings
    She tried to nod in a sympathetic manner.
  35. drowsy
    half asleep
    “Gilly, honey,” Trotter called drowsily as Gilly passed her door.
  36. inexorably
    in a manner impervious to change or persuasion
    Both of them sat stark still and listened as it drew inexorably nearer.
  37. apparition
    a ghostly appearing figure
    Swaying in the doorway was a huge barefoot apparition in striped men’s pajamas, gray hair cascading over its shoulders, a wild look in its eyes.
  38. faltering
    unsteady in speech or action
    Gilly grabbed the back of the striped pajamas with both hands and half dragged, half supported the faltering frame toward the couch.
  39. teeter
    move unsteadily, with a rocking motion
    The visitor, for her part, was teetering on the absolute brink of the brown chair in what Gilly took to be a state of total shock.
  40. fatigue
    temporary loss of strength and energy from hard work
    Fatigue had made Gilly stupid.
Created on Fri Sep 23 20:50:11 EDT 2016 (updated Tue Aug 01 10:25:21 EDT 2023)

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