A Farewell To Arms: Chapters 11–20

by Ernest Hemingway
Caught up in the brutality of World War I, an American ambulance driver on the Italian front falls in love with an English nurse.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–10, Chapters 11–20, Chapters 21–32, Chapters 33–41

Here is a link to our list for The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
30 words 328 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. sheaf
    a package of several things tied together
    I held up one of the sheaf of English papers.
  2. ally
    a friendly nation
    But, they said, Japan is an ally of England.
  3. serenade
    a song played outside the house of a love interest
    When the young men serenaded only the flute was forbidden.
  4. errand
    a short trip taken in the performance of a necessary task
    He also ran errands for the ward and in his spare time made me a cigarette lighter out of an empty Austrian rifle cartridge.
  5. blaspheme
    speak of in an irreverent or impious manner
    Don’t blaspheme.
  6. porter
    a person employed to carry luggage and supplies
    The porter came out with them.
  7. mortar
    a muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel
    “They’re full of trench-mortar fragments, old screws and bed-springs and things.”
  8. snooty
    overly conceited or arrogant
    But she was snooty."
  9. domineer
    rule or exercise power over in a cruel and autocratic manner
    “She said you were domineering and rude.”
  10. lather
    the froth produced by soaps or detergents
    Miss Gage was finished with me and went out and the barber lathered my face and shaved.
  11. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    He was very solemn and refrained from talking.
  12. efficient
    being effective without wasting time, effort, or expense
    The X-ray was taken at the Ospedale Maggiore and the doctor who did it was excitable, efficient and cheerful.
  13. gaunt
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    “How do you do?” said the tall gaunt doctor with the beard.
  14. gingerly
    with extreme care or delicacy
    Two of them took hold of my right leg very gingerly and bent it.
  15. noble
    having high or elevated character
    “You are a noble young man.”
  16. bile
    a digestive juice secreted by the liver
    It is not like dying it is just a chemical choking so you do not feel, and afterward you might as well have been drunk except that when you throw up nothing comes but bile and you do not feel better afterward.
  17. malaria
    a disease caused by parasites transmitted by mosquito bite
    There were three other patients in the hospital now, a thin boy in the Red Cross from Georgia with malaria, a nice boy, also thin
  18. shrapnel
    shell containing lead pellets that explodes in flight
    a fine boy who had tried to unscrew the fuse-cap from a combination shrapnel and high explosive shell for a souvenir.
  19. formality
    a requirement of etiquette or custom
    I wanted to be really married but Catherine said that if we were they would send her away and if we merely started on the formalities they would watch her and would break us up.
  20. marsh
    low-lying wet land with grassy vegetation
    On the Carso they were going forward but there were marshes and swamps down by the sea.
  21. cordial
    politely warm and friendly
    He was being cordial.
  22. aviator
    someone who operates an aircraft
    There were a couple of British and some aviators.
  23. consul
    a diplomat appointed to protect a government's interests
    Outside the little bar up the street from the Scala there were some people I knew, a vice-consul, two fellows who studied singing, and Ettore Moretti, an Italian from San Francisco who was in the Italian army.
  24. merit
    any admirable or beneficial attribute
    I’m going to be a captain for merit of war.
  25. conceited
    having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
    “I wouldn’t mind him if he wasn’t so conceited and didn’t bore me, and bore me, and bore me.”
  26. exalt
    raise in rank, character, or status
    “Wouldn’t you like me to have some more exalted rank?”
  27. penitentiary
    a correctional institution for those convicted of crimes
    “He’s supposed to have been in the penitentiary at home.
  28. obligated
    caused by law or conscience to follow a certain course
    Meyers’ information was good but I hated to ask him because sometimes he did not answer, and always you could see it hurt him to tell you, but he felt obligated to tell us for some reason and he hated less to tell Crowell.
  29. paddock
    a pen for horses
    We left the carriage, bought programmes, and walked across the infield and then across the smooth thick turf of the course to the paddock.
  30. mannered
    having unnatural behavioral attributes
    These Italians were also very mannered and matched manners with the two we had collected before.
Created on Tue Aug 13 11:51:29 EDT 2013 (updated Wed Aug 08 16:47:30 EDT 2018)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.