The Girl Who Drank the Moon: Chapters 12-18

by Kelly Barnhill
In this Newbery Award-winning novel, baby Luna is abandoned by her village and raised by the witch Xan. As Luna tries to manage her growing magical powers, she learns about her true origins and joins forces with others to fight the corrupt Council of Elders.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-3, Chapters 4-11, Chapters 12-18, Chapters 19-31, Chapters 32-48
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. rapport
    a relationship of mutual understanding between people
    After making excuses, yet again, about missing the Day of Sacrifice, Antain had noticed a distinct difference in his rapport with the Elders. An increased muttering. A proliferation of side-eyed glances.
  2. proliferation
    a rapid increase in number
    After making excuses, yet again, about missing the Day of Sacrifice, Antain had noticed a distinct difference in his rapport with the Elders. An increased muttering. A proliferation of side-eyed glances.
  3. standoffish
    lacking cordiality; unfriendly
    He hadn’t set foot in the Tower since his apprenticeship days, but Antain felt that it was high time to visit the Sisters, who had been, for him, a sort of short-term family—albeit odd, standoffish, and, admittedly, murderous.
  4. formidable
    inspiring fear or dread
    Sister Ignatia was a formidable woman.
  5. wiry
    lean but strong
    “Why, my dear boy,” Sister Ignatia said as she got up from her desk and walked across the heavily perfumed room to take Antain’s face in her wiry, strong hands.
  6. disdain
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    Why must they treat his inquiries with such disdain?
  7. unfurl
    unroll, unfold, or spread out
    Her lips unfurled into a wide smile, as though this was most excellent news.
  8. sallow
    unhealthy looking
    Her lips were flat and drooping, as though they were too heavy to hold up, and her cheeks were sallow and dull.
  9. prodigious
    very impressive; far beyond what is usual
    And her swamp monster was sprawled out on the floor, snoring prodigiously.
  10. meander
    move or cause to move in a winding or curving course
    Three of the volcanic craters had thin ribbons of smoke lazily curling from their insides and meandering toward the sky.
  11. inexorable
    impossible to prevent, resist, or stop
    She looked back at Luna and pictured the mechanism inside that girl—rhythmically ticking its way toward her thirteenth birthday, as even and inexorable as a well-tuned clock.
  12. seizure
    a sudden attack characterized by spasms or convulsions
    It’s exactly what she told people in the Free Cities when they asked. A regular girl, she said. She also told them Luna was allergic to magic. Hives, she said. Seizures. Itchy eyes. Stomach upset. She asked everyone to never mention magic near the girl.
  13. replenish
    fill something that had previously been emptied
    My own magic is replenished—and I hardly ever use it in any case.
  14. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    Why would we speak of impending loss? Why would we introduce her to that kind of sorrow?
  15. humble
    low or inferior in station or quality
    He built a separate home for himself—smaller, simpler, and infinitely more humble, but comfortable all the same.
  16. peruse
    examine or consider with attention and in detail
    She needled and complained as she perused the different stalls, with their various selections of medicinal and beautifying flowers, as well as Zirin honey and Zirin jam and dried Zirin petals, which could be reconstituted with milk and slathered over the face to prevent wrinkles.
  17. gouge
    an impression in a surface, as made by a blow
    Antain did not comment, and instead let his gaze drift upward to the Tower, running his fingers over the deep gouges and gorges and troughs that marred his face, following the rivers of scars like a map.
  18. ream
    a quantity of paper
    These Zirin papers were lovely. He let his fingers drift across the reams and let his mind drift to the rustly sounds of paper wings flying across the face of the mountain and disappearing from sight.
  19. enclave
    an enclosed territory that is culturally distinct
    The carpentry shop remained a success—not only among the small, moneyed enclave of the Protectorate and the famously tightfisted Traders Association.
  20. hone
    refine or make more perfect or effective
    And as Antain honed his skills and as his eye became clear and cunning and as his designs became more and more clever, so too did his renown increase.
  21. drudgery
    hard, monotonous, routine work
    His mother now insisted that she always knew her son would be a great success, and how fortunate, she said again and again, he had been to escape a life of drudgery with those doddering old bores on the Council, and how much better it was to follow your talents and bliss and whatnot, and hadn’t she always said so.
  22. doddering
    mentally or physically infirm with age
    His mother now insisted that she always knew her son would be a great success, and how fortunate, she said again and again, he had been to escape a life of drudgery with those doddering old bores on the Council, and how much better it was to follow your talents and bliss and whatnot, and hadn’t she always said so.
  23. dandle
    gently or playfully move a baby up and down
    “What about your life, son? Here you are building cradles for other women’s grandchildren, and not my own. How am I supposed to bear the continuing shame of your un-Councilment without a beautiful grandchild to dandle upon my blessed knee?”
  24. mortify
    cause to feel shame
    Sometimes small children would shyly ask to touch his scars. If their families were nearby, the child would invariably be shooed away by a mortified parent, and the interaction would be over.
  25. terse
    brief and to the point
    Their correspondence had consisted of terse notes, hers likely penned by one of the other sisters and signed by Sister Ignatia.
  26. discerning
    having or revealing keen insight and good judgment
    “Indeed. It never does. And it will not ever again. I must have been deluded when she first came to us, wanting to enter our Order. I shall be more discerning next time.”
  27. modicum
    a small or moderate or token amount
    “You will help, won’t you? The girl doesn’t have the decency to show even the tiniest modicum of sorrow for her actions.”
  28. coax
    influence or persuade by gentle and persistent urging
    There once was a name that she treasured above all others. But it had flown away, like a bird. And she could not coax it back.
  29. accretion
    an increase by natural growth or addition
    Hope, said the bird in the young man’s hand and the look in his eye.
    Hope and light and motion, her soul whispered. Hope and formation and fusion. Hope and heat and accretion. The miracle of gravity. The miracle of transformation. Each precious thing is destroyed and each precious thing is saved. Hope, hope, hope.
  30. galling
    causing irritation or annoyance
    That she was barred from some journeys and not others was increasingly galling.
  31. husbandry
    the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock
    It was filled with books about metals and rocks and water, books about flowers and mosses and edible plants, books about animal biology and animal behavior and animal husbandry, books about the theories and principles of mechanics.
  32. obfuscate
    make obscure or unclear
    At least Fyrian never attempted to deflect or obfuscate Luna’s many questions.
  33. croon
    sing softly
    And all of a sudden, she had an image in her head of a house with hand-stitched quilts draped on the chairs and art on the walls and colorful jars arranged on shelves in bright, tempting rows. And a woman with black hair and a crescent moon birthmark on her forehead. And a man’s voice crooning, Do you see your mama? Do you, my darling?
  34. rheumatic
    of or pertaining to arthritis
    She loved that girl with every ache in her back; she loved her with every hacking cough; she loved her with every rheumatic sigh; she loved her with every crack in her joints.
  35. chastise
    scold or criticize severely
    Standing far above the sorrow cloud, Xan, in her clearheadedness, chastised herself.
  36. boorish
    ill-mannered and coarse in behavior or appearance
    He simply did not enjoy touching babies. They were loud, boorish, and, frankly, selfish.
  37. gravitas
    formality, dignity, or seriousness
    Gravitas was all fine and good, and it was important to maintain appearances, but—Gherland shifted the baby from one arm to the other—he was getting too old for this sort of thing.
  38. devolve
    grow worse
    The baby’s wails devolved into self-indulgent hiccups.
    “Ingrate” muttered Gherland.
  39. ingrate
    a person who shows no thankfulness or appreciation
    The baby’s wails devolved into self-indulgent hiccups.
    “Ingrate” muttered Gherland.
  40. sidle
    move sideways
    The puddle of magic, compounded now with fear and surprise and worry for the child that was on the other side of this dangerous stranger, enlarged suddenly into a tidal wave. It thrummed through Xan’s bones, lighting her muscles and tissues and skin. Even her hair sidled with magic.
Created on Thu Mar 01 19:18:55 EST 2018 (updated Fri Mar 09 11:26:57 EST 2018)

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