Skellig: Chapters 35-46

by David Almond
Michael's world is in flux: he's just moved into a new house, and his baby sister is suffering from a terrible illness. When he discovers a mysterious creature named Skellig near death in his garage, things only get stranger.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–10, Chapters 11–22, Chapters 23–34, Chapters 35–46
25 words 88 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. lumbering
    slow and laborious because of weight
    I drew the world as the baby might see it: the long hospital ward filled with lumbering adults, the networks of wires and tubes and bleeping instruments filling the foreground, the faces of nurses smiling down.
  2. ancient
    very old
    Some of them were songs of Blake’s, some were ancient folk songs.
  3. victim
    an unfortunate person who suffers from adverse circumstances
    “Owls eat their victims whole, Michael,” she said.
  4. regurgitate
    feed through the beak by bringing back swallowed food
    Then they regurgitate the parts that can’t be digested.
  5. fledgling
    young bird that has just become capable of flying
    We talked about the fledglings in the nest above us.
  6. plunder
    destroy and strip of its possession
    They’ll dream about vicious children plundering the nest.
  7. fragile
    easily broken or damaged or destroyed
    What would I feel when they opened the baby’s fragile chest, when they cut into her tiny heart?
  8. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    I wanted to be all alone in an attic like Skellig, with just the owls and the moonlight and an oblivious heart.
  9. blare
    make a loud noise
    And then Dad’s car came, with its blaring engine and its glaring lights, and the fear just increased and increased and increased.
  10. tepid
    moderately warm
    And then we fought, my dad and I, while we crunched burnt toast and swigged tepid tea.
  11. gape
    be wide open
    I started to ask what I was looking for, but then I saw the first of them, a little brown feathered ball with its beak gaping in the darkness beneath the hedge.
  12. wary
    marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    The parents waited, wary of us; then at last they dropped into the garden.
  13. despair
    a state in which all hope is lost or absent
    Sometimes she gave up in despair and she just lay weeping in the pitch darkness.
  14. burrow
    move through by or as by digging
    She burrowed past the tangled roots of great trees.
  15. astonishing
    so surprisingly impressive as to stun or overwhelm
    Birds were ragged and black against the astonishing sky.
  16. invalid
    someone who is incapacitated by a chronic illness or injury
    She held my arm, like I was an old man, or an invalid.
  17. hostile
    characterized by enmity or ill will
    In the lane, an unknown cat hunched behind a rubbish bin, and watched us pass with hostile eyes.
  18. overwhelm
    overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
    It was possible to be overwhelmed by the presence of so much beauty in the world.
  19. petty
    small and of little importance
    “And to be quite honest, Mrs. Dando, the last thing Michael needs is to be troubled by petty things like football and school.”
  20. remnant
    a small part remaining after the main part no longer exists
    It was long after dusk when Mina and I went out with the remnants of 27 and 53 and a bottle of brown ale in a paper bag.
  21. contentment
    happiness with one's situation in life
    He ate again, sighed with contentment.
  22. astounding
    so surprisingly impressive as to stun or overwhelm
    Then we went silently down through the house and we stepped out with Whisper into the astounding night.
  23. sprawl
    go, come, or spread in a rambling or irregular way
    Then he got me with a thumping tackle into the back of my legs that sent us both sprawling.
  24. gorge
    overeat or eat immodestly
    We watched the fledglings gorge themselves.
  25. vagrant
    a wanderer with no established residence or means of support
    Looks like you’ve had a vagrant spending a night or two in there.
Created on Thu Nov 14 20:26:47 EST 2013 (updated Tue Aug 07 15:46:57 EDT 2018)

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