Nine Stories: "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" by J.D. Salinger

by J.D. Salinger
In this story, Lee receives a phone call in the middle of the night from Arthur, who is upset at his wife for leaving a party without him.

Here are links to our lists for other short stories in Nine Stories: A Perfect Day for Bananafish,
Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, Just Before the War with the Eskimos, The Laughing Man, Down at the Dinghy, For Esmé–with Love and Squalor, Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes, De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period, Teddy

Here is a link to our lists for J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. deference
    courteous regard for people's feelings
    When the phone rang, the gray-haired man asked the girl, with quite some little deference, if she would rather for any reason he didn’t answer it.
  2. disingenuous
    not straightforward or candid
    The girl heard him as if from a distance, and turned her face toward him, one eye—on the side of the light—closed tight, her open eye very, however disingenuously, large, and so blue as to appear almost violet.
  3. perfunctory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    The gray-haired man asked her to hurry up, and she raised up on her right forearm just quickly enough so that the movement didn’t quite look perfunctory.
  4. grope
    feel about uncertainly or blindly
    To reach it without groping, he had to raise himself somewhat higher, which caused the back of his head to graze a corner of the lampshade.
  5. graze
    scrape gently
    To reach it without groping, he had to raise himself somewhat higher, which caused the back of his head to graze a corner of the lampshade.
  6. vivid
    having striking color
    In that instant, the light was particularly, if rather vividly, flattering to his gray, mostly white, hair.
  7. conventional
    conforming with accepted standards
    The neckline and temples had been trimmed conventionally close, but the sides and top had been left rather more than just longish, and were, in fact, a trifle “distinguished-looking.”
  8. resonant
    characterized by a loud deep sound
    “Hello?” he said resonantly into the phone.
  9. speculative
    showing curiosity
    Her eyes, more just open than alert or speculative, reflected chiefly their own size and color.
  10. chiefly
    for the most part
    Her eyes, more just open than alert or speculative, reflected chiefly their own size and color.
  11. obscene
    offensive to the mind
    A man’s voice—stone dead, yet somehow rudely, almost obscenely quickened for the occasion—came through at the other end: “Lee? I wake you?”
  12. scintillating
    brilliantly clever
    We’ve had some scintillating goddam conversations.
  13. gaiety
    a joyful feeling
    They all get this godawful Connecticut gaiety when they get in to New York.
  14. dilate
    become wider
    The gray-haired man, his nostrils dilating, appeared to take a fairly deep breath.
  15. tactless
    lacking what is considerate in dealing with others
    “In the first place,” he said, into the phone, “for a helluvan intelligent guy, you’re about as tactless as it’s humanly possible to be.”
  16. incidentally
    by the way (used to introduce a new topic)
    “Just incidentally,” he said, exhaling smoke through his nostrils, “how’d you make out today?”
  17. summation
    a concluding statement that presents the main ideas
    “About two minutes before I’m all set to start my summation, the attorney for the plaintiff, Lissberg, trots in this crazy chambermaid with a bunch of bedsheets as evidence—bedbug stains all over them.”
  18. plaintiff
    a person who brings an action in a court of law
    “About two minutes before I’m all set to start my summation, the attorney for the plaintiff, Lissberg, trots in this crazy chambermaid with a bunch of bedsheets as evidence—bedbug stains all over them.”
  19. ruckus
    the act of making a noisy disturbance
    “Yeah. I was gonna tell you about it. I didn’t get a chance at the party, with all the ruckus.”
  20. stoic
    seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive
    The gray-haired man turned his head again toward the girl, perhaps to show her how forbearing, even stoic, his countenance was.
  21. countenance
    the appearance conveyed by a person's face
    The gray-haired man turned his head again toward the girl, perhaps to show her how forbearing, even stoic, his countenance was.
  22. oblivion
    total forgetfulness
    “Yeah. I may. I don’t know yet. I’m not crazy about the idea, naturally, and I won’t go if I can possibly avoid it. But I may have to. I don’t know. At least, it’s oblivion. If they gimme back my little helmet and my big, fat desk and my nice, big mosquito net, it might not—”
  23. sincerity
    the quality of being open and truthful
    “For a helluvan—For a supposedly intelligent guy, you talk like an absolute child. And I say that in all sincerity. You let a bunch of minor little things snowball to an extent that they get so bloody paramount in your mind that you’re absolutely unfit for any—”
  24. paramount
    more important than anything else; supreme
    “For a helluvan—For a supposedly intelligent guy, you talk like an absolute child. And I say that in all sincerity. You let a bunch of minor little things snowball to an extent that they get so bloody paramount in your mind that you’re absolutely unfit for any—”
  25. jurisdiction
    the territory within which power can be exercised
    “Well, I don’t know. I mean that’s out of my jurisdiction,” the gray-haired man said.
  26. lather
    the froth produced by soaps or detergents
    "I’ll go see what’s the matter—right in the middle of shaving, lather all over my goddam face. You know what she’ll want? She’ll want to ask me if I think she has a good mind."
  27. pathetic
    deserving or inciting pity
    "You know what she’ll want? She’ll want to ask me if I think she has a good mind. I swear to God. She’s pathetic, I tellya."
  28. in a nutshell
    summed up briefly
    "That’s the whole thing in a nutshell.”
  29. fluctuate
    move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern
    "She doesn’t respect me. She doesn’t even love me, for God’s sake. Basically—in the last analysis—I don’t love her anymore, either. I don’t know. I do and I don’t. It varies. It fluctuates."
  30. accumulation
    several things grouped together or considered as a whole
    He picked his cigarette out of the ashtray—that is, selected it from an accumulation of smoked and half-smoked cigarettes.
  31. brisk
    quick and energetic
    “I think you’re on fire'' She gave the back of his hand a short, brisk, brushing stroke with the flats of her fingers.
  32. rat race
    an exhausting routine that leaves no time for relaxation
    Anyway, so she’s home. What a rat race.
  33. neurotic
    a person suffering from a mental disturbance causing worry
    I mean—except you—who do we know in New York except a bunch of neurotics?
  34. undermine
    weaken or impair, especially gradually
    It’s bound to undermine even a normal person sooner or later. Know what I mean?
  35. under the weather
    somewhat ill or prone to illness
    “Anyway, I’m gonna talk to her about it tonight. Or tomorrow, maybe. She’s still a little under the weather."
Created on Mon Oct 30 12:06:42 EDT 2017 (updated Mon Apr 08 16:31:15 EDT 2019)

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