An Abundance of Katherines: Chapters 9-14

by John Green
After graduation, child prodigy Colin and his best friend Hassan go on a road trip and attempt to understand the nature of love.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-6, Chapters 7-8, Chapters 9-14, Chapters 15-19

Here are links to our lists for other books by John Green: Paper Towns; Looking for Alaska; Will Grayson, Will Grayson; The Fault in Our Stars; Turtles All the Way Down
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. drawl
    speak in a slow and drawn out way
    Starnes looked over at Lindsey Lee Wells. “Your friend here is a regular fountain of knowledge.”
    “He sure God is," she said, drawling.
  2. sharecropper
    a tenant farmer who owes a portion of each harvest for rent
    It was a town for trouble back then before the factory brought in families. Just a rough sharecropper town.
  3. gruff
    blunt and unfriendly or stern
    "Don't take that truck out of park,” TOC said gruffly.
  4. pensive
    deeply or seriously thoughtful
    Pensive, he bit at the inside of his thumb.
  5. bearing
    the direction or path along which something moves or lies
    Colin considered lying. Staying in a hotel. Working in a restaurant here. Getting my bearings.
  6. transcend
    be superior or better than some standard
    His father wanted Colin to transcend all that stuff, but maybe even he was starting to see the unlikelihood of Colin ever becoming extraordinary.
  7. dander
    particles of animal skin or hair that may be allergenic
    “I'm allergic to pet dander,” Colin announced.
  8. willful
    done by design
    It didn't seem willful at first—it was just a series of odd coincidences.
  9. monotony
    the quality of wearisome constancy and lack of variety
    But monotony doesn't make for painlessness.
  10. strew
    spread by scattering
    When he made his way downstairs, he found Hollis wearing a hot pink muumuu, passed out on the couch with papers strewn across her chest and the floor.
  11. emboss
    raise in a relief
    Without speaking, he handed Colin a note written on stationery embossed with the words HOLLIS P. WELLS / CEO & PRESIDENT, GUTSHOT TEXTILES:
    Boys,
    I'm probably sleeping, but hopefully y'all got up on time.
  12. bounty
    the property of being richly abundant or plentiful
    ...yes, by all means, share with me this bounty of hilarious history.
  13. nexus
    the means of connection between things linked in series
    She was the nexus of all the connections his brain made—the wheel's hub.
  14. hub
    central part of a car wheel through which the axle passes
    She was the nexus of all the connections his brain made—the wheel's hub.
  15. dispassionate
    unaffected by strong emotion or prejudice
    “I’m not a genius,” Colin said dispassionately.
  16. reverent
    feeling or showing profound respect or veneration
    He said it softly, reverently.
  17. jut
    extend out or project in space
    A four-poster queen-size bed jutted up against the wall opposite the bulletin board.
  18. rouge
    makeup consisting of powder applied to the cheeks
    She wore dangly blue earrings and quite a bit of rouge, which made her look flushed.
  19. begrudge
    allow unwillingly or reluctantly
    “That's true, sitzpinkler. You don't have to come. I won't begrudge you sitting on your ass. God knows I have always loved it. I just feel like a little adventure lately.”
  20. sullen
    showing a brooding ill humor
    He told Colin this sometimes, when Colin would come home from school sullen, tired of the Abdominal Snowman, tired of pretending that his abject friendlessness didn't bother him.
  21. abject
    most unfortunate or miserable
    He told Colin this sometimes, when Colin would come home from school sullen, tired of the Abdominal Snowman, tired of pretending that his abject friendlessness didn't bother him.
  22. snide
    expressive of contempt
    They gave Colin a makeover when he arrived for the first taping, turning him into the cool, snide, troublemaking prodigy.
  23. scrawl
    poor handwriting
    They gave him five outfits—including a pair of designer jeans...and a T-shirt that read, in a hand-printed scrawl: SLACKER.
  24. perennial
    lasting an indefinitely long time
    And since Colin had, not too long before, been dumped by Katherine XVIII, Colin asked Marie out on a date, because Marie, a perennially tan Italian beauty who would have won Homecoming Queen if the Kalman School did that kind of thing, was the hottest girl he had ever, or would ever, come across.
  25. vault
    bound vigorously
    He imagined the best possible scenario: Marie actually, improbably, ends up liking him, whereupon Colin and Hassan vault up the social ladder and get to eat lunch at a different table, and get invited to some parties.
  26. vacuous
    devoid of intelligence
    Now, Colin had seen enough movies to know what happens when dorks go to cool-kid parties: generally, the dorks either get thrown into the pool or they become drunk, vacuous cool kids themselves.
  27. sap
    a person who lacks good judgment or is easily tricked
    Instead, he tutored Katherine I. And one session turned into one each week, and then into two each week, and by the next month, she came over to his house with Krazy Keith to watch, with Colin's parents and Hassan, as Colin annihilated a poor sap named Sanjiv Reddy in the first episode of KranialKidz.
  28. homage
    respectful deference
    So I told Hassan the story while he was reading the book and then he decided to start saying fug as an homage to Mailer—and because you can say it in class without getting in trouble.
  29. peripheral
    on or near an edge or constituting an outer boundary
    In his peripheral vision, Colin could see her smiling at him.
  30. dingy
    gloomy or depressing
    Only he made the mistake of dating the only person hotter than him in Middle Tennessee—Katrina. And he became the dingiest, neediest, whimperingest little puppy dog and finally Katrina had to ditch him.
  31. nonchalantly
    in an unconcerned manner
    “And really green eyes,” Lindsey added nonchalantly.
  32. stifling
    characterized by oppressive heat and humidity
    They sat in the car together with the windows down, the air warm and sticky but not stifling.
  33. inimitable
    matchless
    Distracted from the road, Colin watched as she gave him the slightest version of her inimitable smile.
  34. beeline
    the most direct route
    And she leaned across the truck and we hit a bump and she just sort of landed in my arms, and then she made a beeline for my mouth...
  35. compel
    force somebody to do something
    Colin didn't know why, but he felt compelled to keep pushing it.
  36. chastise
    scold or criticize severely
    His dad didn't chastise him, but Colin knew he'd failed.
  37. trite
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    “This sounds trite, but I just think you've changed," Colin said as they walked down the oldster's driveway.
  38. satiate
    fill to satisfaction
    He stayed quiet until he had a fully formulated response, one that would keep her interest alive without quite satiating it.
  39. amble
    walk leisurely
    Having successfully sneaked out of the house, Lindsey and Colin brushed themselves off, ambled to the front door, and opened it.
  40. conspiratorial
    relating to or characteristic of a secret plot or agreement
    “It was the warehouse.” Colin spoke softly, conspiratorially, as they climbed the stairs. “She goes to the warehouse on Thursdays.”
Created on Mon Apr 16 15:18:52 EDT 2018 (updated Tue Apr 17 13:20:53 EDT 2018)

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