A Likely Story: "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber

Mild-mannered Walter Mitty escapes his mundane life by developing a rich inner fantasy world.
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words only definitions & notes
  1. rakish
    marked by a carefree unconventionality or disreputableness
    He wore his full-dress uniform, with the heavily braided white cap pulled down rakishly over one cold gray eye.
  2. lieutenant
    an officer holding a commissioned rank in the U.S. Navy
    "I'm not asking you, Lieutenant Berg," said the Commander.
  3. cylinder
    a chamber within which a piston moves
    The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.
  4. auxiliary
    functioning in a supporting capacity
    "Switch on No. 8 auxiliary!" he shouted.
    In this example sentence, the word refers to an engine.
  5. turret
    a self-contained weapons platform housing guns
    "Full strength in No. 3 turret!" shouted the Commander.
  6. hurtle
    move with or as if with a rushing sound
    The crew, bending to their various tasks in the huge, hurtling eight-engined Navy hydroplane, looked at each other and grinned.
  7. astonishment
    the feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising
    "Hmm?" said Walter Mitty. He looked at his wife, in the seat beside him, with shocked astonishment.
  8. intimate
    innermost or essential
    Walter Mitty drove on toward Waterbury in silence, the roaring of the SN202 through the worst storm in twenty years of Navy flying fading in the remote, intimate airways of his mind.
    Here, the adjective "intimate" is synonymous with "remote" in describing the far away spaces in Mitty's mind.
  9. tense
    in or of a state of physical or nervous strain
    "You're tensed up again," said Mrs. Mitty.
  10. hastily
    in a hurried manner
    "Pick it up, brother!" snapped a cop as the light changed, and Mitty hastily pulled on his gloves and lurched ahead.
  11. aimlessly
    without a specific goal or focus
    He drove around the streets aimlessly for a time, and then he drove past the hospital on his way to the parking lot.
  12. distraught
    deeply agitated especially from emotion
    He looked distraught and haggard.
    "Haggard" means "showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering"--paired with "distraught" it describes a doctor who needs almost as help as his millionaire patient (which is when Mitty in his daydream steps in).
  13. tertiary
    coming third in position
    "Hello, Mitty," he said. "We're having the devil's own time with McMillan, the millionaire banker and close personal friend of Roosevelt. Obstreosis of the ductal tract. Tertiary. Wish you'd take a look at him."
    Mitty is not actually a skilled surgeon, so a lot of the medical terms are made up: "obstreosis" is not a real word; "duct" is "a bodily passage or tube" and "tract" is "a system of body parts that serve some particular purpose" so individually, they could refer vaguely to the body; "tertiary" has a lot of syllables that could sound like the position of the obstruction ("the physical condition of blocking or filling a passage").
  14. intern
    an advanced student or graduate in medicine
    "The new anesthetizer is giving way!" shouted an intern.
  15. delicate
    marked by great skill especially in meticulous technique
    He began fingering delicately a row of glistening dials.
  16. craven
    lacking even the rudiments of courage; abjectly fearful
    Mitty looked at him and at the craven figure of Benbow, who drank, and at the grave, uncertain faces of the two great specialists.
  17. insolent
    marked by casual disrespect
    The attendant vaulted into the car, backed it up with insolent skill, and put it where it belonged.
  18. cocky
    overly self-confident or self-assertive
    They're so damn cocky, thought Walter Mitty, walking along Main Street; they think they know everything.
  19. referendum
    a legislative act referred for approval to a popular vote
    No. Toothpaste, toothbrush, bicarbonate, cardorundum, initiative and referendum?
    "Referendum" is not a personal item one can purchase, but its inclusion in the list reveals the way Mitty's mind works and the author's playful use of words: an "initiative" is the "power to introduce a new legislative measure" that could lead to a "referendum", which sounds like "cardorundum", which should be "carborundum," which Mitty could metaphorically use to sand down the abrasively irritating nature of his wife.
  20. automatic
    a pistol that will keep firing until the ammunition is gone
    The District Attorney suddenly thrust a heavy automatic at the quiet figure on the witness stand.
  21. insinuate
    introduce or insert in a subtle manner
    "You are a crack shot with any sort of firearms, I believe?" said the District Attorney, insinuatingly.
  22. bicker
    argue over petty things
    Walter Mitty raised his hand briefly and the bickering attorneys were stilled.
  23. bedlam
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    A woman's scream rose above the bedlam and suddenly a lovely, dark-haired girl was in Walter Mitty's arms.
  24. tousle
    disarrange or rumple; dishevel
    Captain Mitty looked up at him through tousled hair.
  25. ammunition
    projectiles to be fired from a gun
    "Somebody's got to get that ammunition dump," said Mitty.
    An "ammunition dump" is a place that holds large supplies of ammunition for an army.
  26. barrage
    the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area
    "The box barrage is closing in," said the sergeant.
  27. menacing
    threatening evil or danger
    The pounding of the cannon increased; there was the rat-tat-tatting of machine guns, and from somewhere came the menacing pocketa-pocketa-pocketa of the new flame-throwers.
  28. derisive
    expressing contempt or ridicule
    They went out through the revolving doors that made a faintly derisive whistling sound when you pushed them.
  29. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad;
  30. inscrutable
    difficult or impossible to understand
    erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.
    Mitty's mind is inscrutably obscure ("not clearly understood or expressed") to his wife. In his mind, Mitty can picture himself being disdainful to the firing squad (which could represent his wife's scolding and demands); but in his real life, Mitty obeys and waits for his wife, and does not show any arrogant superiority or contempt.
Created on Wed Oct 09 01:41:50 EDT 2013 (updated Mon Aug 06 16:16:17 EDT 2018)

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