The Marrow Thieves: List 5

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 Loss–Locks Mean Nothing to Ghosts.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
35 words 223 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. rosary
    a series of prayers counted using a string of beads
    His rosary beads hung from a corner of the shelf, and in between a pile of sweaters and a stack of spineless books was a framed plastic ID card.
  2. reedy
    thin and high-pitched in tone
    I could hear his reedy snore through the canvas.
  3. steadfast
    marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
    Not that Miig was weak or cowardly. Not at all. Just that we expected him to be more skeptical, to calm our feverish ambition. To be the voice of steadfast reason.
  4. angst
    an acute but unspecific feeling of anxiety
    In here I could smell the angst and earth and awkward of my own body, and I was embarrassed.
  5. imminent
    close in time; about to occur
    But since they stayed there by the doorway, I guessed they weren’t too concerned and we weren’t in any imminent danger.
  6. coax
    influence or persuade by gentle and persistent urging
    We spent the morning in assigned chores: gathering water from the rain barrels to boil, coaxing the small vegetables in the garden to stay alive, washing clothes, checking the trap lines.
  7. ennui
    the feeling of being bored by something tedious
    I didn’t understand until he said it that part of my ennui had been resentment.
  8. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    They hit the drum tentatively at first, checking for tone and pitch.
  9. precarious
    not secure; beset with difficulties
    It was a precarious existence, to say the least.
  10. elicit
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    That elicited oohs and ahhs from the twins, who put their heads together to examine and admire the instrument.
  11. fluke
    a stroke of luck
    I didn’t want to tell him it had been a fluke.
  12. emulate
    strive to equal or match, especially by imitating
    I spent the day in complete silence, trying to emulate the grace of the older men through the woods.
  13. smug
    marked by excessive complacency or self-satisfaction
    I was more than a little smug, trundling down the hill, helping to maneuver the weight of a full-grown buck on the travois we’d strapped together out of branches and sinew.
  14. initiate
    set in motion, start an event or prepare the way for
    “We need to organize the families to start a pack-up. We’ll have to go into deep hiding after this. They'll come for us for sure, once we initiate a fight.”
  15. taut
    pulled or drawn tight
    We loaded up with every available weapon, mostly bows and arrows pulled taut with young wood and reinforced with repurposed wire.
  16. encroach
    impinge or infringe upon
    The rest of the group lined both sides of the road along a hundred-foot stretch where it narrowed from encroaching bush into a single lane.
  17. serrated
    notched like a saw with teeth pointing toward the apex
    Miig and the twins joined two of the main campers nearer the road, just before the serrated edge of asphalt began.
  18. candid
    openly straightforward and direct without secretiveness
    Father Carole had spoke candidly before rushing off.
  19. coup
    a brilliant and notable success
    Vehicles were a valuable coup, even one stuck full of arrows like a metal porcupine.
  20. reverie
    an abstracted state of absorption
    Afterwards, Rose, retreating a bit from her reverie, evened out my hair for me so that it hung about an inch below my ears.
  21. ensconce
    fix firmly
    We travelled for ten days before we were ensconced in Precambrian rock and vicious pine.
  22. muslin
    plain-woven cotton fabric
    There was even a grey muslin flag hung at half-mast by the bent bough archway into our spot.
  23. furrow
    make or become wrinkled or creased
    Her brow furrowed.
  24. upheaval
    a violent disturbance
    With so much moisture in the air and loose dirt from both tectonic upheavals and the new species of flora tearing up the topsoil, it was like thin mud being thrown constantly in your face.
  25. tandem
    one behind the other
    Bullet slowed a bit so that we were walking in tandem.
  26. nostalgic
    unhappy about being away and longing for familiar things
    They laughed together, and I grew nostalgic for my old life.
  27. reprieve
    a relief from harm or discomfort
    “Dude, all right, I’m just gonna stay here, just like this.” The man raised his hands above his head and folded them there, seeking reprieve.
  28. curator
    the custodian of a collection, as a museum or library
    He couldn’t help himself: Clarence was a curator of Cree. He loved his language the way Minerva had loved us, with pride and an enthusiasm of old potential repurposed.
  29. enshrine
    hold sacred
    That bundle I carried in my chest, the one that inflated when I heard about our triumphs, the one that ached with our losses, the same place where my love for Rose nested and the painful memories were enshrined and mourned: from there came the push, and I set off running.
  30. alight
    come down
    A crow, startled by my small commotion, alighted from a branch to the right, cawing his displeasure, a staccato of anxiety stitching the night a darker blue.
  31. staccato
    marked by or composed of disconnected parts or sounds
    A crow, startled by my small commotion, alighted from a branch to the right, cawing his displeasure, a staccato of anxiety stitching the night a darker blue.
  32. reconcile
    come to terms
    He slowed all his movements, as if focusing his eyes and reconciling what they saw took motion from his muscles.
  33. coagulate
    change from a liquid to a thickened or solid state
    Isaac’s words jumped up his throat like heartbeats, each bookended with a pause then settling in the grass like blood coagulating.
  34. chaff
    material consisting of seed coverings and pieces of stem
    The movement unhinged his legs and he fell to his knees, knocking down the grass like so much chaff.
  35. ebb
    a gradual decline in size or strength or power
    And I understood just what we would do for each other, just what we would do for the ebb and pull of the dream, the bigger dream that held us all.
Created on Sat Dec 29 14:16:07 EST 2018 (updated Wed Jan 09 16:41:36 EST 2019)

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