Seabiscuit: Preface–Chapter 6

by Laura Hillenbrand
In this engrossing work of nonfiction, Laura Hillenbrand recounts how three men teamed up to turn an unlikely racehorse into an American racing icon.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Preface–Chapter 6, Chapters 7–12, Chapters 13–19, Chapter 20–Epilogue

Here is a link to our lists forUnbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. adulation
    exaggerated flattery or praise
    In the latter half of the Depression, Seabiscuit was nothing short of a cultural icon in America, enjoying adulation so intense and broad-based that it transcended sport.
  2. parlay
    stake winnings from one bet on a subsequent wager
    Seabiscuit’s owner, a broad, beaming former cavalryman named Charles Howard, had begun his career as a bicycle mechanic before parlaying 21 cents into an automotive empire.
  3. unmitigated
    not diminished or moderated in intensity or severity
    The horseless carriage was just arriving in San Francisco, and its debut was turning into one of those colorfully unmitigated disasters that bring misery to everyone but historians.
  4. cacophony
    loud confusing disagreeable sounds
    The automobile, so sleekly efficient on paper, was in practice a civic menace, belching out exhaust, kicking up storms of dust, becoming hopelessly mired in the most innocuous-looking puddles, tying up horse traffic, and raising an earsplitting cacophony that sent buggy horses fleeing.
  5. coiffure
    the arrangement of the hair
    A few adventurous members of the gentler sex took to wearing ridiculous “windshield hats,” watermelon-sized fabric balloons, equipped with little glass windows, that fit over the entire head, leaving ample room for corpulent Victorian coiffures.
  6. attrition
    a wearing down to weaken or destroy
    At the turn of the century, well over three hundred tracks had been operating nationwide; by 1908, only twenty-five remained, and the attrition continued until World War I.
  7. aplomb
    great coolness and composure under strain
    Suddenly elevated into the world of the rich, she moved with an easy, charming propriety, yet had the rare grace and aplomb to make her frequent departures from convention seem amusing
  8. recalcitrant
    marked by stubborn resistance to authority
    His jaw had a recalcitrant jut to it that implied a run-in with something—an errant hoof or an ill-placed fence post—but maybe it was the only shape in which it could have been drawn.
  9. smattering
    a small number or amount
    For a time he provoked a smattering of discussion over ham-and-egg breakfasts on the backstretch benches.
  10. wager
    the act of gambling
    Thanks to the wagering ban, the only places for it to go were seedy tracks, backwater ovals so small they were called “bullrings,” and dirt roads, but this was Irwin’s kind of racing.
  11. racketeer
    someone who commits crimes for profit
    “The minute [a man] got any money, Irwin would rob him of it. He was an old racketeer in a way.”
  12. uncanny
    surpassing the ordinary or normal
    He carried a stopwatch, but left it in his pocket; he had an uncanny ability to judge a horse’s pace by sight
  13. nuance
    a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude
    he resented any distraction that might make him miss a nuance of movement.
  14. forebear
    a person from whom you are descended
    The colt was a descendant of the mighty Man o’ War through his sire, the brilliantly fast, exceptionally handsome Hard Tack, but his stunted build reflected none of the beauty and breadth of his forebears.
  15. flail
    thrash about
    Asked to run, he would drop low over the track and fall into a comical version of what horsemen call an egg-beater gait, making a spastic sideways flailing motion with his left foreleg as he swung it forward, as if he were swatting at flies.
  16. encumbrance
    any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome
    A man for whom words were encumbrances, Smith didn’t take note of the horse’s name, but he memorized him nonetheless.
  17. paragon
    model of excellence or perfection of a kind
    Owned by Gladys Phipps and her brother Ogden Mills, operators of the East’s legendary Wheatley Stable, Hard Tack was a copper-colored paragon of symmetry, grace, and blinding speed.
  18. misanthrope
    someone who dislikes people in general
    The characteristic had surfaced, to a greater or lesser degree, in nearly every horse to descend from his great-grandsire, Hastings, a thousand-pound misanthrope for the ages.
  19. malevolence
    wishing evil to others
    Hastings passed both speed and malevolence down to his son Fair Play, who in turn bequeathed it to his incomparable son, Man o’ War.
  20. torpor
    inactivity resulting from lethargy and lack of energy
    Seabiscuit floated along in a state of contented, bovine torpor. Sleeping was his favorite pastime.
  21. recumbent
    lying down; in a position of comfort or rest
    Because of the size and configuration of their bodies, they suffer impeded breathing and circulation when recumbent, and as prey animals who have trouble getting to their feet quickly, they are instinctively disinclined to stay down.
  22. obstreperous
    boisterously and noisily aggressive
    Fitzsimmons began to wonder if this horse might be just as obstreperous as his sire, only much more cunning in his methods.
  23. trounce
    beat severely with a whip or rod
    Thoroughbreds run because they love to, but when overraced they can become stale and uninterested, especially when repeatedly trounced and bullied by their riders, as Seabiscuit was.
  24. coddle
    treat with excessive indulgence
    Granville was a temperamental animal who needed coddling, and little time was left over for the Seabiscuits and Grogs of the stable.
  25. pendulous
    hanging loosely or bending downward
    Red Pollard was sinking downward through his life with the pendulous motion of a leaf falling through still air.
  26. misnomer
    an incorrect or unsuitable name
    Though a misnomer, his nickname proved to be the one enduring thing about Pollard’s ring career.
  27. impale
    pierce with a sharp stake or point
    When the railroad police came through the train, impaling the haystacks to flush out stowaways, the trainers packed the boys into tack trunks.
  28. tutelage
    teaching pupils individually
    But under Acey’s tutelage, he began to find his niche.
  29. geriatric
    of or relating to the aged
    Devoid of talent—in three years and forty-six starts he had won just five races—Preservator was also a comparatively geriatric seven years old, roughly the equivalent of a human runner in his late thirties competing against twenty somethings.
  30. enamored
    marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness
    Whitey was equally enamored of Woolf’s riding.
  31. prescience
    the power to foresee the future
    He had an uncanny prescience, as if he lived twenty seconds ahead of himself, seeing the coming trap along the rail or the route to the outside.
  32. insouciant
    marked by unconcern
    Where other elite athletes betray their doubts about their capacities with displays of touchy egotism, Woolf was utterly insouciant.
  33. soiree
    a party of people assembled in the evening
    On the night after Woolf won a top stakes race, the owner of the winning horse called to invite him to a postrace soiree with the moneyed set.
  34. echelon
    a body of troops arranged in a line
    Riders competing in ordinary weekday events needed to whittle themselves down another 5 pounds or so, while those in the lowest echelons of the sport couldn’t weigh much more than 100.
  35. myopic
    unable to see distant objects clearly
    One pudgy 140-pound rider earned a place in reinsman legend by fooling a profoundly myopic clerk of scales by skewing the readout to register him at 110.
  36. topography
    the configuration of a surface and its features
    A horse’s body is a constantly shifting topography, with a bobbing head and neck and roiling muscle over the shoulders, back, and rump.
  37. euphemism
    an inoffensive expression substituted for an offensive one
    Finally, horses could break down, racing’s euphemism for incurring leg injuries.
  38. eccentric
    a person with an unusual or odd personality
    A small cadre of racetrack eccentrics gathered around him.
  39. aphorism
    a short pithy instructive saying
    In the jockeys’ room he orchestrated a string of clever practical jokes, sequestered himself in corners to pore over literature, and mystified his fellow jocks with aphorisms from Omar Khayyam and “Old Waldo” Emerson.
  40. halcyon
    idyllically calm and peaceful; suggesting happy tranquility
    The halcyon days at the Tijuana track came to a spectacular end.
Created on Fri May 01 15:46:38 EDT 2015 (updated Wed Sep 05 16:10:16 EDT 2018)

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