Zeitoun: Part III

by Dave Eggers
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the Zeitoun family faced not only the aftermath of the storm, but also the sudden and inexplicable arrest of Adbulrahman Zeitoun, a small business owner and father of four. Learn these words from their story, as reported by acclaimed writer Dave Eggers.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. hooligan
    a rowdy, violent, and typically youthful troublemaker
    We have people standing out there that have been in that...Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans...
  2. desolate
    crushed by grief
    The rings began to sound hollow, desolate.
  3. implode
    burst inward
    She held herself together for a few seconds but then imploded.
  4. tether
    tie with a rope
    If Ahmad, made of the same stuff her husband was—and both of them made of the stuff of their father Mahmoud, who could survive two days at sea tethered to a barrel—felt this to be a dire situation, then if anything, Kathy was underreacting.
  5. dire
    fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
    If Ahmad, made of the same stuff her husband was—and both of them made of the stuff of their father Mahmoud, who could survive two days at sea tethered to a barrel—felt this to be a dire situation, then if anything, Kathy was underreacting.
  6. bawl
    cry loudly
    In the bathroom, Kathy covered her face in a towel and bawled.
  7. convulse
    move or stir about violently
    Her body convulsed, but she tried not to make a sound.
  8. composure
    steadiness of mind under stress
    Otherwise they would all lose their composure.
  9. assuage
    provide physical relief, as from pain
    Safiya and Aisha were harder to read, but for the time being her kids’ fears had been assuaged and now Kathy only had to worry about her own.
  10. anarchy
    a state of lawlessness and disorder
    It was chaos, anarchy.
  11. triage
    sorting and allocating aid on the basis of need
    Yuko and her husband Ahmaad took Kathy and the kids to Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the Red Cross had set up a shelter and triage unit for New Orleanians.
  12. sedate
    cause to be calm or quiet
    He could be in a hospital somewhere, heavily sedated.
  13. porous
    full of holes
    She wasn’t strong enough. She felt weak, porous.
  14. fatalistic
    accepting that everything that happens is inevitable
    She seemed to swing between worry and fatalistic resignation.
  15. resignation
    acceptance of an unpleasant but inevitable situation
    She seemed to swing between worry and fatalistic resignation.
  16. meditative
    deeply or seriously thoughtful
    It was soothing, meditative for both mother and daughter.
  17. calamity
    an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
    He could not have fallen victim to any other sort of calamity.
  18. console
    give moral or emotional strength to
    Yuko and Ahmaad consoled her.
  19. cosmopolitan
    composed of people from many parts of the world
    She’d pictured deserts, donkeys, and carts—not so many busy, cosmopolitan cities, not so many Mercedes and BMW dealerships lining the highway heading north, not so many women in tight clothes and uncovered hair.
  20. vestige
    an indication that something has been present
    But there were vestiges of a less modern life, too—merchants selling sardines and cabbage by the roadside, crude homes of brick and mud.
  21. cascade
    rush down in big quantities
    As they drove north to Jableh, the road soon met the coastline, and they traveled along a beautiful seaside stretch, hills cascading to the sea, mosques perched above the road, side by side with churches, dozens of them.
  22. quintessential
    representing the perfect example of a class or quality
    She loved being surprised, coming to realize that in many ways Syria was a quintessentially Mediterranean country, connected to the sea and in love with food and new ideas and reflecting the influence of Greece, Italy, so many cultures.
  23. gregarious
    temperamentally seeking and enjoying the company of others
    They stayed with Kousay, Abdulrahman’s wonderfully life-loving and gregarious brother, who still lived in their childhood home.
  24. folly
    foolish or senseless behavior
    Their brother was surely one of them; to believe otherwise was folly.
  25. mercenary
    a person hired to fight for another country than their own
    Kathy’s mind spun as she read about the unprecedented concentration of armed men and women in the city. First she read about the mercenaries.
  26. surmise
    infer from incomplete evidence
    As well as she could surmise, there were at least twenty thousand National Guard troops in New Orleans, with more arriving every day.
  27. bode
    indicate by signs
    And if Governor Blanco was right, that these were vets coming straight from Afghanistan and Iraq, it could not bode well for her husband.
  28. deputize
    appoint as a substitute
    Four hundred Customs and Border Protection agents and officers deputized for local law enforcement.
  29. sniper
    a marksman who shoots from a concealed place
    There were five hundred FBI special agents and a U.S. marshals special-ops team. And snipers.
  30. jut
    extend out or project in space
    He had taken notice of a small rock formation in the distance, jutting into the sea a few miles down the shore.
  31. idle
    not in action or at work
    She wanted a vacation—idleness, frivolity even.
  32. frivolity
    the trait of being not serious or sensible
    She wanted a vacation—idleness, frivolity even.
  33. promontory
    a natural elevation
    And they had come upon a low promontory that separated one part of the beach from the next.
  34. faze
    disturb the composure of
    Zeitoun wasn’t fazed.
  35. exasperating
    extremely annoying or displeasing
    He could be exasperating in his sense of destiny.
  36. thrive
    make steady progress
    She had grown up in a small Baton Rouge house with nine siblings, and now she and her husband had four thriving kids, had been to Spain, to Syria, could seemingly achieve any of the goals they conjured.
  37. conjure
    summon into action or bring into existence
    She had grown up in a small Baton Rouge house with nine siblings, and now she and her husband had four thriving kids, had been to Spain, to Syria, could seemingly achieve any of the goals they conjured.
  38. brazen
    not held back by conventional ideas of behavior
    As the city emptied out, the looting likely grew more brazen and engulfed neighborhoods like Uptown.
  39. serenity
    the absence of mental stress or anxiety
    All morning she felt a new serenity.
  40. missionary
    someone who attempts to convert others to a doctrine
    “He’s in prison. I’m a missionary. I was at Hunt, the prison up in St. Gabriel. He’s there. He gave me your number.”
Created on Tue Apr 10 16:25:24 EDT 2018 (updated Wed Apr 11 11:00:59 EDT 2018)

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