The Golden Compass: Chapters 18–23

by Philip Pullman
This first book of His Dark Materials trilogy starts off at Oxford's Jordan College, where eleven-year-old Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon Pantalaimon are given a device called an alethiometer that Lyra learns to interpret in order to discover truths, especially in connection to the kidnapping of children.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–9, Chapters 10–13, Chapters 14–17, Chapters 18–23

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. mayhem
    violent and needless disturbance
    “So I’d like to know what we can expect in the way of mayhem and ructions,” he finished.
  2. unwieldy
    difficult to use or handle because of size or weight
    Normally, of course, a balloon remained still with respect to the wind, floating at whatever speed the air itself was moving; but now, pulled by the witches, the balloon was moving through the air instead of with it and resisting the movement, too, because the unwieldy gas bag had none of the streamlined smoothness of a zeppelin.
  3. bivouac
    temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers
    He had been colder than this, but not much, and he didn’t want to get any colder now; so he unrolled the canvas sheet he used as an emergency bivouac, and spread it in front of the sleeping children to keep off the wind, before lying down back to back with his old comrade in arms, Iorek Byrnison, and falling asleep.
  4. roiling
    (of a liquid) agitated vigorously; in a state of turbulence
    When Lyra woke up, the moon was high in the sky, and everything in sight was silver-plated, from the roiling surface of the clouds below to the frost spears and icicles on the rigging of the balloon.
  5. insolent
    marked by casual disrespect
    Pantalaimon became a tern and flew to her branch for a second, to acknowledge that perhaps they had been insolent.
  6. buffet
    strike against forcefully
    It was swinging wildly as strong winds buffeted the gas bag, and the witches pulling the rope were barely managing to hold it.
  7. wraith
    a ghostly figure, especially one seen shortly before death
    She saw a world of gray, of pale grays and dark grays and blacks, where fog drifts wandered like wraiths.
  8. facade
    the front of a building
    At least, that was what the bear sergeant told her the carvings showed. She had to take his word for it, because every projection and ledge on the deeply sculpted façade was occupied by gannets and skuas, which cawed and shrieked and wheeled constantly around overhead, and whose droppings had coated every part of the building with thick smears of dirty white.
  9. rancid
    having an offensive smell or taste
    The smell in Iofur’s palace was repulsive: rancid seal fat, dung, blood, refuse of every sort.
  10. constituent
    essential in the structure of something
    With a part of her, she found it remarkable that she could sit here in terrible danger and yet sink into the calm she needed to read the alethiometer; and yet it was so much a part of her now that the most complicated questions sorted themselves out into their constituent symbols as naturally as her muscles moved her limbs: she hardly had to think about them.
  11. duplicitous
    marked by deliberate deceptiveness
    They should have forced his resignation long ago. Duplicitous plagiarist!
  12. blackguard
    someone who is morally reprehensible
    “Scoundrel! Thief! Blackguard! Rogue!” shouted the old man, and he shook so violently that Lyra was afraid he’d have a fit.
  13. lethargic
    deficient in alertness or activity
    His dæmon slithered lethargically off his lap as the Professor beat his fists against his shanks.
  14. popinjay
    a vain and talkative person
    I should say he boasts! He’s nothing but a popinjay!
  15. filch
    make off with belongings of others
    And a pirate! Not a scrap of original research to his name! Everything filched from better men!
  16. correspondence
    similarity by virtue of being equivalent
    There is a correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm! The stars are alive, child. Did you know that? Everything out there is alive, and there are grand purposes abroad!
  17. calumny
    an abusive attack on a person's character or good name
    Spread lies and calumny about my qualifications. Calumny! Slander!
  18. spurn
    reject with contempt
    I’ll be Vice-Chancellor, oh yes. Let Trelawney come to me then begging for mercy! Let the Publications Committee of the Royal Arctic Institute spurn my contributions then!
  19. equilibrium
    a stable situation in which forces cancel one another
    He’s kept Lord Asriel isolated, to please Mrs. Coulter; and he’s let Lord Asriel have all the equipment he wants, to please him. Can’t last, this equilibrium. Unstable.
  20. cloying
    overly sweet
    It was no cleaner here, and in fact the air was even harder to breathe than in the cell, because all the natural stinks had been overlaid by a heavy layer of cloying perfume.
  21. gaudy
    tastelessly showy
    He was wearing a heavy gold chain around his neck, with a gaudy jewel hanging from it, and his claws—a good six inches long—were each covered in gold leaf.
  22. burnished
    made smooth and bright by or as if by rubbing
    Every rivet was examined, every link tested, and the plates were burnished with the finest sand.
  23. rebuke
    censure severely or angrily
    All she could do was consult the alethiometer: he is an hour away, it told her, and again, she must trust him; and (this was harder to read) she even thought it was rebuking her for asking the same question twice.
  24. prevailing
    most frequent or common
    Were they out of favor now? How should they behave?
    Because that was the prevailing mood in his court, she was beginning to see. They weren’t sure what they were.
  25. pall
    a sudden feeling of dread or gloominess
    They weren’t like Iorek Byrnison, pure and certain and absolute; there was a constant pall of uncertainty hanging over them, as they watched one another and watched Iofur.
  26. hindrance
    any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome
    Iofur was hampered now by that chainmail, because from a protection it had changed all at once into a hindrance: it was still fastened at the bottom, and trailed around his rear legs.
  27. treachery
    betrayal of a trust
    Her dear, her brave one, her fearless defender, was going to die, and she would not do him the treachery of looking away, for if he looked at her he must see her shining eyes and their love and belief, not a face hidden in cowardice or a shoulder fearfully turned away.
  28. acclamation
    enthusiastic approval or recognition
    Then there was acclamation, pandemonium, a crush of bears surging forward to pay homage to Iofur’s conqueror.
  29. stanch
    stop the flow of a liquid
    Besides, Lyra’s hands were deft, and she was desperate to help; so the small human bent over the great bear-king, packing in the bloodmoss and freezing the raw flesh till it stopped bleeding. When she had finished, her mittens were sodden with Iorek’s blood, but his wounds were stanched.
  30. imperious
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    Besides, the bears had never met anything quite like Lord Asriel’s own haughty and imperious nature.
  31. bemused
    perplexed by many conflicting situations or statements
    He gave the bears a design of the accommodation he wanted, and told them where it should be; and he bribed them with gold, and he flattered and bullied lofur Raknison, and with a bemused willingness the bears set to work.
  32. prodigal
    recklessly wasteful
    Glass was expensive, and large sheets of it were prodigal of heat in these fierce latitudes; so to see them here was evidence of wealth and influence far greater than Iofur Raknison’s vulgar palace.
  33. unorthodox
    breaking with tradition or typical norms
    Naturally she couldn’t take the route a man could have taken—priesthood and so on—it had to be unorthodox; she had to set up her own order, her own channels of influence, and work through that.
  34. precedent
    an example that is used to justify similar occurrences
    But the Church wouldn’t flinch at the idea of a little cut, you see. There was a precedent. And this would be so much more hygienic than the old methods, when they didn’t have anesthetics or sterile bandages or proper nursing care.
  35. dissipate
    go away, scatter, or disappear
    The energy that links body and dæmon is immensely powerful. When the cut is made, all that energy dissipates in a fraction of a second.
  36. excommunicate
    expel from a church or a religious community
    One of uncountable billions of parallel worlds. The witches have known about them for centuries, but the first theologians to prove their existence mathematically were excommunicated fifty or more years ago.
  37. lurid
    shining with an unnatural red glow
    In the lurid flicker from the sky Lyra watched as they swiftly unloaded their fire hurler.
  38. undulate
    move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
    All this Lyra saw by starlight alone; but then, as Lord Asriel connected his wires, the Aurora blazed all of a sudden into brilliant life. Like the long finger of blinding power that plays between two terminals, except that this was a thousand miles high and ten thousand miles long: dipping, soaring, undulating, glowing, a cataract of glory.
  39. turbid
    clouded as with sediment
    Both children were fighting her, too; or fighting the forms in the turbid air, those dark intentions, that came thick and crowding down the streams of Dust—
  40. inexorably
    in a manner impervious to change or persuasion
    But they couldn’t stop.
    The cliff was sliding away beneath them.
    An entire shelf of snow, sliding inexorably down—
Created on Fri Jul 14 14:12:35 EDT 2017 (updated Thu Aug 17 10:00:42 EDT 2023)

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