Cannery Row: Chapters 17-23

by John Steinbeck
Set during the Great Depression, Cannery Row tells the story of a struggling community that pulls together to throw a thank-you party for the friendly neighborhood genius.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Introduction-Chapter 8, Chapters 9-16, Chapters 17-23, Chapters 24-32

Here are links to our lists for works by John Steinbeck: Cannery Row, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, Travels with Charley
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. survey
    a detailed critical inspection
    Doc made a quick survey of the line and chose his company, a thin-faced salesman-like man in a blue suit.
  2. stale
    lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration
    And it wasn’t so bad—it just tasted like stale beer and milk.
  3. recede
    pull back or move away or backward
    The boulders show and seem to rise up and the ocean recedes leaving little pools, leaving wet weed and moss and sponge, iridescence and brown and blue and China red.
  4. listless
    marked by low spirits; showing no enthusiasm
    “You’ve got to look for them,” said Doc listlessly.
  5. stipulate
    make an express demand or provision in an agreement
    In front of the Palace he had a drink of the whiskey, inspected the damp sacks of frogs, and agreed to the transaction. He stipulated, however, that he would take no dead frogs.
  6. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    Eddie sauntered down and bought two frogs’ worth of Bull Durham.
  7. laudable
    worthy of high praise
    The poison of greed was already creeping into the innocent and laudable merchandising agreement.
  8. mercantile
    profit oriented
    Financial bitterness could not eat too deeply into Mack and the boys, for they were not mercantile men.
  9. coquette
    talk or behave amorously, without serious intentions
    She coquetted and played her owners against one another. They thought she was wonderful. Mack intended to teach her tricks and go in vaudeville and he didn’t even housebreak her.
  10. unorthodox
    breaking with tradition or typical norms
    And there was one other unorthodoxy in Lee’s way of doing business.
  11. remainder
    sell cheaply as remnants
    He never had a sale, never reduced a price and never remaindered.
  12. kleptomaniac
    someone with an irrational urge to steal
    His theory had been sound as far as burglars, snatch thieves, and kleptomaniacs were concerned, but it had been completely ineffective regarding his friends.
  13. notorious
    known widely and usually unfavorably
    Lee Chong joined the party for a while but his stomach was notoriously weak and he got sick and had to go home.
  14. evict
    expel from one's property or force to move out
    They were evicted by the outraged hosts but only after a long, happy, and bloody battle that took out the front door and broke two windows.
  15. culvert
    a transverse and enclosed drain under a road or railway
    A taxi which brought a very late customer to the Bear Flag squashed five frogs in the street. But well before dawn they had all gone. Some found the sewer and some worked their way up the hill to the reservoir and some went into culverts and some only hid among the weeds in the vacant lot.
  16. skitter
    move about or proceed hurriedly
    In the back room of the laboratory the white rats in their cages ran and skittered and squeaked.
  17. tentacle
    a flexible appendage adapted for grasping or feeling
    The anemones in the aquaria blossomed open, with green and purple tentacles and pale green stomachs.
  18. schism
    division of a group into opposing factions
    Feverishly he followed in periodicals the Dadaist movements and schisms, the strangely feminine jealousies and religiousness, the obscurantisms of the forming and breaking schools.
  19. flux
    a state of constant change
    The boat was sculptured rather than built. It was thirty-five feet long and its lines were in a constant state of flux. For a while it had a clipper bow and a fantail like a destroyer. Another time it had looked vaguely like a caravel.
  20. swarthy
    naturally having skin of a dark color
    Henri was swarthy and morose. He wore a beret long after other people abandoned them, he smoked a calabash pipe and his dark hair fell about his face.
  21. spurious
    intended to deceive
    Marine toilets obviously would not work in a shore-bound boat and Henri refused to compromise with a spurious landsman’s toilet.
  22. subside
    wear off or die down
    Henri, when his shaking had subsided a little, rushed out of his cabin, leaped over the side of the boat and hurried away down the hill through the pines.
  23. conscience
    a feeling of shame when you do something immoral
    “He’s got a problem,” said Doc. “He either has a ghost or a terrible conscience and he doesn’t know which. Tell her about it, Henri.”
  24. morosely
    in a sullen, moody manner
    Hughie and Jones sat for a while staring into space and then morosely they went over to the Hediondo Cannery and applied for jobs and got them.
  25. solidarity
    a union of interests or purposes among members of a group
    Only a sense of the solidarity and fighting ability of Mack and the boys saved them from some kind of reprisal.
  26. reprisal
    a retaliatory action against an enemy
    Only a sense of the solidarity and fighting ability of Mack and the boys saved them from some kind of reprisal.
  27. ostracism
    the act of excluding someone from society by general consent
    For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism—either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. This last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.
  28. stigma
    a symbol of disgrace or infamy
    For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism—either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. This last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.
  29. solvent
    capable of meeting financial obligations
    Financially they had become dull and solvent. Hughie and Jones were working and bringing home their pay.
  30. reprove
    reprimand, scold, or express dissatisfaction with
    They bought groceries up the hill at the Thrift Market because they could not stand the reproving eyes of Lee Chong.
  31. concomitant
    an event or situation that happens at the same time
    The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system.
  32. acquisitive
    eager to attain and possess material possessions
    And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success.
  33. invoke
    cite as an authority
    People in their black minds remember sins committed secretly and wonder whether they have caused the evil sequence. One man may put it down to sun spots while another invoking the law of probabilities doesn’t believe it.
  34. articulation
    the point of connection between two elements of a skeleton
    She wouldn’t eat and she wouldn’t drink and her fat little belly shriveled up against her spine, and even her tail showed the articulations through the skin.
  35. scrutinize
    look at critically or searchingly, or in minute detail
    Dora scrutinized him suspiciously. “Well—what can I do for you?” she demanded at last.
Created on Mon Sep 18 20:07:26 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Sep 27 11:20:26 EDT 2017)

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