Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Chapters 12–15

by Philip K. Dick
This novel, famously adapted into the movie Blade Runner, explores the role of empathy in a futuristic world in which humans live alongside androids.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–6, Chapters 7–11, Chapters 12–15, Chapters 16–22
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. quarry
    a person who is the aim of an attack by a hostile influence
    Other humans, having no knowledge of the presence of androids among them, had to be protected at all costs—even that of losing the quarry.
  2. cadaverous
    of or relating to a corpse
    Luba Luft glanced at him idly, then violently as she recognized him; her eyes faded and the color dimmed from her face, leaving it cadaverous, as if already starting to decay.
  3. inhibition
    the conscious exclusion of unacceptable thoughts or desires
    Alone, with appalling abruptness, she could shed her inhibitions.
  4. tarry
    stay longer than you should
    At the end of the corridor near the elevators, a little storelike affair had been set up; it sold prints and art books, and Luba halted there, tarrying.
  5. respectively
    in the order given
    “Now they’re up to 4.0 and 6.0 respectively.”
  6. emphatically
    in a forceful manner; with emphasis
    “That’s an emphatically empathic response,” he said.
  7. succinctly
    with concise and precise brevity; to the point
    “—and then kill her,” Phil Resch said succinctly.
  8. overhaul
    periodic maintenance on a car or machine
    And his allegedly repaired car coughed and floundered, as it had been doing for months prior to overhaul.
  9. eddy
    flow in a circular current, of liquids
    The smell of peaches and cheese eddied about the car, filling his nose with pleasure.
  10. exuberant
    joyously unrestrained
    And then, seeing what he carried, she exclaimed; her face ignited with elfin, exuberant glee.
  11. listless
    lacking zest or vivacity
    Her voice, as she reopened the hall door, dropped even further into uselessness, listless and barren.
  12. accord
    concurrence of opinion
    “It’s not in accord with present-day Mercerian ethics,” he pointed out.
  13. rapture
    a state of being carried away by overwhelming emotion
    “We’re looking—” the small blond woman began, but then she saw past Isidore; her face dissolved in rapture and she whisked past him, calling, “Pris! How are you?”
  14. lithe
    moving and bending with ease
    “Food,” Irmgard Baty echoed, and trotted lithely into the kitchen to see.
  15. acumen
    shrewdness shown by keen insight
    Her voice bobbed, as, with birdish acumen, her blue eyes sparkled at him.
  16. dour
    showing a brooding ill humor
    Dourly—but still smiling his smile—Roy Baty said, “Well, they got Polokov.”
  17. perverse
    marked by a disposition to oppose and contradict
    He delivered the news as if, perversely, it pleased him to be telling this.
  18. malign
    evil or harmful in nature or influence
    As if a peculiar and malign abstractness pervaded their mental processes.
  19. pervade
    spread or diffuse through
    As if a peculiar and malign abstractness pervaded their mental processes.
  20. stilted
    artificially formal or stiff
    “Well,” Roy said stiltedly, “she wanted it that way; she believed she’d be safer as a public figure.”
  21. profundity
    the intellectual ability to penetrate deeply into ideas
    He rocked back and forth on his heavy heels, his face wise with profundity.
  22. enigmatic
    not clear to the understanding
    Her expression became enigmatic.
  23. slovenly
    negligent of neatness especially in dress and person
    Isidore, then, had a momentary, strange hallucination; he saw briefly a frame of metal, a platform of pullies and circuits and batteries and turrets and gears—and then the slovenly shape of Roy Baty faded back into view.
  24. chide
    scold or reprimand severely or angrily
    “If we get saved,” Irmgard said in a scolding, severe tone, as if chiding her, “it’ll be because of Roy.”
  25. meander
    move or cause to move in a winding or curving course
    She meandered about, hands thrust in her skirt pockets; on her face a sour expression, almost righteous in the degree of its displeasure, appeared.
  26. sacrosanct
    treated as if holy and kept free from violation or criticism
    “Insects,” he said, showing no embarrassment at overhearing them, “are especially sacrosanct.”
  27. laconic
    brief and to the point
    After a pause Roy Baty said laconically, “You wouldn’t enjoy Mars. You’re missing nothing.”
  28. stentorian
    very loud or booming
    “He doesn’t understand yet,” Pris said in a sharp, brittle, stentorian voice, “how we got off Mars. What we did there.”
  29. blighted
    affected by something that prevents growth or prosperity
    “So we hang our lives on a substandard, blighted—” Roy began, then gave up.
  30. culmination
    a final climactic stage
    It seemed to him a cinch, the culmination of his whole life—and of the new authority which he had manifested on the vidphone today at work.
  31. lurid
    glaringly vivid and graphic; marked by sensationalism
    As soon as he officially quit work that evening, Rick Deckard flew across town to animal row: the several blocks of big-time animal dealers with their huge glass windows and lurid signs.
  32. natty
    marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
    “Yes, sir,” a nattily dressed new animal salesman said to him chattily as he stood gaping with a sort of glazed, meek need at the displays.
  33. undaunted
    unshaken in purpose
    The salesman, undaunted, continued, “A goat is loyal. And it has a free, natural soul which no cage can chain up. And there is one exceptional additional feature about goats, one which you may not be aware of...."
  34. eclectic
    selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas
    A goat isn’t bothered by contaminated quasi-foodstuffs; it can eat eclectically, even items that would fell a cow or a horse or most especially a cat.
  35. furtively
    in a secretive manner
    On a slip of paper the salesman scribbled a price and then briefly, almost furtively, showed it to Rick.
  36. verisimilitude
    the appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true
    When he had landed on the roof of his building, he sat for a time, weaving together in his mind a story thick with verisimilitude.
  37. sap
    deplete
    We couldn’t go on with the electric sheep any longer; it sapped my morale.
  38. perspicacity
    intelligence manifested by being astute
    The goat, which had slid about during the transfer, regarded him with bright-eyed perspicacity, but made no sound.
  39. apathy
    the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things
    But when you get that depressed you don’t care. Apathy, because you’ve lost a sense of worth.
  40. rapt
    feeling great delight and interest
    At the black empathy box his wife crouched, her face rapt.
Created on Wed Sep 19 08:46:55 EDT 2018 (updated Wed Sep 19 15:32:44 EDT 2018)

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