The Subtle Knife: Chapters 13-15

by Philip Pullman
In the second book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Lyra and her new friend Will learn how to open windows into different worlds. They discover truths that will change their lives and the universe.

Here are links to our lists for The Subtle Knife: Chapters 1-3, Chapters 4-6, Chapters 7-9, Chapters 10-12, Chapters 13-15

Here are links to our lists for works by Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ululation
    a long, loud, emotional howl or cry
    And Serafina stamped again and clapped her hands with the other witches, and they shook their throats to make a wild ululation that tore at the air like claws.
  2. daub
    cover by smearing
    She daubed some of the steaming liquid into the split, then closed up the wood, easing it together from the root to the tip.
  3. horizon
    the line at which the sky and Earth appear to meet
    Never having been this high above the city, they weren’t aware of how the coastline curved, and the mountains had been below the horizon; but now when the trees thinned, or when a slope fell away below them, they could look out to the empty blue sea and to the high blue mountains beyond, which were their destination.
  4. wistful
    showing pensive sadness
    And she looked wistful. “I might have done once,” she said, “but I’m changing, I think, Pan.”
  5. mantle
    the cloak as a symbol of authority
    And my mother used to tell me that I was going to take up my father’s mantle. She used to say that to make me feel good. I didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded important.
  6. harsh
    disagreeable to the senses
    The land was harsher now; for shade they had to rest in the shadow of rocks, not under wide-spreading trees, and the ground underfoot was hot through the soles of their shoes.
  7. astringent
    acidic or bitter in taste or smell
    She gave him a handful of soft bitter-tasting leaves somewhat like sage, and he chewed them silently and forced them down. They were astringent, but he felt more awake and less cold, and the better for it.
  8. stolid
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    Lyra returned her gaze stolidly, though she felt a quickening of her heart, for Ruta Skadi lived so brilliantly in her nerves that she set up a responding thrill in the nerves of anyone close by.
  9. outlandish
    noticeably or extremely unconventional or unusual
    Men and women, yes, and fighting spirits, too, and armed creatures such as I had never seen—lizards and apes, great birds with poison spurs, creatures too outlandish to have a name I could guess at.
  10. cruelty
    a deliberate infliction of pain and suffering
    And I thought of the Bolvangar children, and the other terrible mutilations I have seen in our own southlands; and he told me of many more hideous cruelties dealt out in the Authority’s name—of how they capture witches, in some worlds, and burn them alive, sisters.
  11. carrion
    the dead and rotting body of an animal; unfit for human food
    It seemed that I’d stumbled on the nesting place of the oldest of all cliff-ghasts. He was blind, and they were bringing him food: some stinking carrion from far below.
  12. complacent
    contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions
    But the Authority is age-old, far older even than me, children, and His troops are frightened, and complacent where they’re not frightened.
  13. rarefied
    having low density
    That was how these creatures looked now, these beautiful pilgrims of rarefied light, standing around the girl with the dirty face and the tartan skirt and the boy with the wounded hand who was frowning in his sleep.
  14. sumptuous
    rich and superior in quality
    A few minutes later, as the balloon drifted on, Lee saw first a lighthouse, then the curve of a stone breakwater, then the towers and domes and red-brown roofs of a beautiful city around a harbor, with a sumptuous building like an opera house in lush gardens, and wide boulevards with elegant hotels, and little streets where blossom-bearing trees hung over shaded balconies.
  15. tenuous
    lacking substance or significance
    Lee had to rub his eyes when he saw them first, but there was no doubt about it: columns of mist—or something more tenuous than mist—a thickening of the air....
  16. immaturity
    the state of not having reached full development
    The immaturity of children is less attractive to them.
  17. obsessed
    having excessive or compulsive concern with something
    The Oblation Board fears and hates Dust, and the Specters feast on it, but it’s Dust both of them are obsessed by.
  18. aeronaut
    someone who operates an aircraft
    Or is that wrong, Dr. Grumman? I’m only an ignorant aeronaut.
  19. altimeter
    an instrument that measures the height above ground
    The compass was still gyrating loosely, but the altimeter was functioning accurately, as far as he could judge, and showed them to be floating about a thousand feet above the seashore and parallel with it.
  20. haze
    dust or smoke in the air that causes reduced visibility
    Some way ahead a line of high green hills rose into the haze, and Lee was glad he’d provided plenty of ballast.
  21. jettison
    throw, as from an airplane
    He set Hester down again and leaned out to jettison three bags of ballast.
  22. flare
    a burst of light used to communicate or illuminate
    And a minute later he knew for certain they’d been sighted, for there was a stir of movement in the haze, which resolved itself into a line of smoke streaking up and away at an angle from the other balloon; and when it was some distance up, it burst into a flare.
  23. engulf
    flow over or cover completely
    The sky was now colored like a tiger; bands of gold alternated with patches and stripes of deepest brown-black, and the pattern changed by the minute, for the gold was fading rapidly as the brown-black engulfed it.
  24. phosphorescent
    emitting light without appreciable heat
    The sea behind was a patchwork of black water and phosphorescent foam, and the last of the burning zeppelin’s flames were dwindling into nothing as it sank.
  25. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    The wind was blowing them hard now, and the great gasbag swelled and billowed in the gusts.
  26. laconic
    brief and to the point
    Lee was too cool by nature to rage at fate; his manner was to raise an eyebrow and greet it laconically.
  27. precarious
    affording no ease or reassurance
    The basket tilted at once and a second later was crashing into the treetops, and amid the lashing of wet leaves and the snapping of twigs and the creak of tormented branches it jolted to a precarious halt.
  28. wrench
    twist or pull violently or suddenly
    The fall in fact made concealing the gasbag easier, since the lower part of it had been pulled down through the canopy; and working by flashes of lightning, tugging and wrenching and hacking, Lee managed to drag the whole body of the balloon down among the lower branches and out of sight.
  29. consume
    destroy completely
    At one point he was convinced he had awoken to see the shaman sitting cross-legged, wreathed in flames, and the flames were rapidly consuming his flesh to leave only a white skeleton behind, still seated in a mound of glowing ash.
  30. nausea
    disgust so strong it makes you feel sick
    The something, Lee saw with a touch of nausea, was a Specter, like the ones they’d seen from the balloon.
  31. phantasm
    a ghostly appearing figure
    Clearly this forest was a bad place, full of haunting phantasms.
  32. pallid
    lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble
    They were gliding, as if he too were a bird, on the turbulent updrafts above the forest, and Lee looked around through the dark air, now suffused with a pallid glow from the full moon that occasionally glared through a brief rent in the cloud cover and made the treetops ring with silver.
  33. sheer
    very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front
    The mountainside rose sheer and impassable ahead of them.
  34. impertinent
    improperly forward or bold
    “Excuse me for asking this if it’s impertinent, but I never knew anyone whose dæmon could do that except witches. But you’re no witch. Was that something you learned to do, or did it come natural?”
  35. gulch
    a narrow gorge or ravine cut by a stream
    Hester preferred to find her own way over the rocks, so Lee followed where she led, avoiding the loose stones and moving as swiftly as he could over the larger rocks, making all the time for the little gulch.
  36. conflagration
    a very intense and uncontrolled fire
    There was a roaring in Lee’s ears that had nothing to do with the conflagration in the forest below, or with the laboring drone of the zeppelin trying to rise again.
  37. plumb
    exactly
    He adjusted his position and sighted along the old Winchester until he had the port engine mounting plumb in view, and fired.
  38. scrawny
    being very thin
    Hester was no beauty; she was about as plain and scrawny as a hare could be; but her eyes were marvelously colored, gold-hazel flecked with rays of deepest peat brown and forest green.
  39. ricochet
    spring back; spring away from an impact
    Within a minute the crack of rifles, the whine of ricocheting bullets, the smash of pulverizing rock echoed and rang the length of the mountainside and along the hollow gulch behind.
  40. invulnerable
    immune to attack; impregnable
    Nothing, no one, matter, spirit, angel, air—nothing is invulnerable to the subtle knife.
  41. lassitude
    a feeling of lack of interest or energy
    Her last conscious thought was disgust at life; her senses had lied to her. The world was not made of energy and delight but of foulness, betrayal, and lassitude.
  42. tenacious
    stubbornly unyielding
    He cried out with shock and twisted away at once, but the grip was tenacious.
  43. stupefied
    as if struck dumb with astonishment and surprise
    Will could only sit stupefied.
  44. supplication
    a humble request for help from someone in authority
    Her astonishment was almost greater than her fear of him, which was real enough, and she pulled herself up, dazed, and seized his shirt in supplication.
  45. indifferent
    showing no care or concern in attitude or action
    There were several black-silk-clad bodies on the ground, too, and as he gazed in horror from one to another of them, Will saw what must have happened: they had been attacked in midair by the Specters, and had fallen to their deaths, indifferently.
Created on Thu Sep 07 12:05:45 EDT 2017 (updated Fri Sep 22 11:52:42 EDT 2017)

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