The Marrow Thieves: List 1

by Cherie Dimaline
In this dystopian novel, indigenous people of North America are hunted by sinister Recruiters who hope to harvest the bone marrow that allows them to dream.

This list covers Frenchie’s Coming-to Story–Story: Part One.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 1531 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. truancy
    failure to attend, especially school
    I imagined the school truancy officers—Recruiters, we called them—coming for us, noses to the wind, sunglasses reflecting the row of houses behind which we were nestled in our wooden dream home.
  2. clamber
    climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
    I clambered out the window and folded upward to grasp the slats on the roof.
  3. halting
    proceeding in a fragmentary, hesitant, or ineffective way
    He’d gathered us around the kitchen table to talk, but spoke haltingly, like he’d rather not.
  4. borough
    one of the administrative divisions of a large city
    Unlike the smaller city outskirts where I’d later lose my brother, these suburbs were open and vast, amaze of darkened windows and burnt cars in kaleidoscopic boroughs that branched out like a geometric blossom of asphalt and curb and erupting driveways.
  5. tectonic
    pertaining to the structure or movement of the earth's crust
    I pulled myself back against the tree, hugging the craggy trunk so hard I had tectonic imprints on my cheek and thighs for three days after.
  6. sliver
    a thin fragment or slice that has been shaved from something
    I sat there a moment before the memory of the shrill siren of the Recruiter’s whistle shoved under my feet like slivers.
  7. adrenaline
    hormone secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress
    The morning after, when I was truly alone in the bright of day, I was all panic and adrenaline.
  8. torrential
    relating to or resulting from the action of a downpour
    Here the sidewalks were shot through with arterial cracks and studded with menacing weeds that had evolved to survive torrential rain and the lack of pollinators.
  9. feral
    wild and menacing
    Wildlife was limited to buzzards, raccoons the size of huskies, domestic pets left to run feral, and hordes of cockroaches that had regained the ability to fly like their southern cousins.
  10. modest
    not large but sufficient in size or amount
    So I built a modest fire just big enough to cut the chill and lay on my back, backpack under my head.
  11. cultivate
    foster the growth of
    The cough I’d been cultivating over the past few days was more insistent now.
  12. talisman
    a trinket thought to be a magical protection against evil
    I added them to my “available and edible” list and clomped on, the plastic compass pressed into my palm now like a toy talisman.
  13. gazebo
    a small roofed building affording shade and rest
    I was huddled against the side of the gazebo, peering through the wooden lattice, on the lookout for Recruiters.
  14. lattice
    framework consisting of an ornamental wood or metal design
    I was huddled against the side of the gazebo, peering through the wooden lattice, on the lookout for Recruiters.
  15. pungent
    strong and sharp to the sense of taste or smell
    We hadn’t been here more than a day, so the smell was pungent for us.
  16. bandana
    a large and brightly colored handkerchief
    We breathed into bandanas and built shelter from the stench with plywood and a tarp.
  17. forage
    the act of searching for food and provisions
    “We have to move, my boys. Tomorrow we move, after I do one last forage in the old Friendship Center."
  18. penance
    voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for something
    She reached for our hands and squeezed them, breathing deep and full like a prayer, chewing her bottom lip like penance.
  19. fitful
    intermittently stopping and starting
    This time I didn’t have enough strength to rebuild the fire that had been rained out while I fitfully slept.
  20. lilt
    a jaunty rhythm in music or speech
    Voices. Voices with the pulled vowels and cut lilt of my father.
  21. compliance
    the act of submitting, usually surrendering power to another
    I sputtered at first, a reaction to the intrusion, then the fist in my guts demanded it and my throat opened up in compliance.
  22. reverence
    a feeling of profound respect for someone or something
    I could see my father’s mouth pronouncing it with reverence, like he did for everything that had a touch of the old about it, the words from our language; like a prayer.
  23. reproach
    a mild rebuke or criticism
    If they were embarrassed for me, no one made a motion or mouthed a reproach.
  24. marrow
    network of connective tissue filling the cavities of bones
    “Dreams get caught in the webs woven in your bones. That’s where they live, in that marrow there.”
  25. frenetic
    fast and energetic in an uncontrolled or wild way
    He poked at the crackling wood with a pointy stick till the shadows were frenetic against his tan face, till they slid into the longer shoots of hair near the front of his mohawk, the tendrils he swept up and patted into place atop the shorter brush with the care of a pageant queen.
  26. motley
    consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds
    He didn't make eye contact with us, the motley group seated in a loose semicircle around the fire, beneath the trees where he commanded place.
  27. prod
    poke or thrust abruptly
    The flames tried to settle, and he prodded them to dance again.
  28. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    Those first few exhales were big and wasteful as Miig tried to get the damp paper to light, and smoke billowed across the clearing like messages.
  29. sprawling
    spreading out in different directions
    Not one of us was related by blood, which was a good thing for those closer in age, since, in the old days when our families were huge and sprawling, accidentally dating a second or third cousin had meant you had to ask about genealogy right off the bat.
  30. genealogy
    successive generations of kin
    Not one of us was related by blood, which was a good thing for those closer in age, since, in the old days when our families were huge and sprawling, accidentally dating a second or third cousin had meant you had to ask about genealogy right off the bat.
  31. mottled
    having spots or patches of color
    My clothes were also burnt from the sun and wear, a mottled brown from their original tones of black.
  32. cumulative
    increasing by successive addition
    I watched the word Story puff over the fire and spread into a cumulative haze that smelled of ground roots and acrid burn just above our dark heads.
  33. acrid
    strong and sharp, as a taste or smell
    I watched the word Story puff over the fire and spread into a cumulative haze that smelled of ground roots and acrid burn just above our dark heads.
  34. privy
    informed about something secret or not generally known
    The youngest weren't privy to Story, not yet anyway.
  35. perpetuity
    the property of being seemingly ceaseless
    It was his job to set the memory in perpetuity.
  36. blunt
    characterized by directness in manner or speech
    Other times he told a hundred years in one long narrative, blunt and without detail.
  37. imperative
    requiring attention or action
    But every week we spoke, because it was imperative that we know.
  38. relegate
    assign to a lower position
    Now that she was a real kid with her own duties and her own mind, it was becoming increasingly hard to relegate her to the shadows and to ignore her requests for information, for background to her difficult life.
  39. grudgingly
    in a reluctant manner
    I stopped talking until she grudgingly lay back on her side, facing me.
  40. mincing
    affectedly dainty or refined
    Here I pitched my voice high and wiggled my shoulder to imitate a mincing kind of movement, like how I imagined white ladies did as they pushed metal carts down long straight aisles to gather food from boxes lined up on shelves, all of it already dead.
Created on Fri Dec 28 21:33:32 EST 2018 (updated Wed Jan 09 16:42:18 EST 2019)

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