Truly Devious: Chapters 9–19

by Maureen Johnson
When Stevie Bell is admitted to the exclusive Ellingham Academy, she hopes to solve the mystery of the famous crimes that took place at the school years ago. But then another murder takes place, and Stevie realizes that her life and the lives of her friends may depend on her sleuthing skills.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–8, Chapters 9–19, Chapters 20–30
40 words 17 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ottoman
    a low seat or a stool to rest the feet of a seated person
    Everything was nooks and corners, every direction just racks of metal shelving that went from floor to ceiling. Archive boxes and books in one direction. Trunks in another. Lamps, vases, extra pieces of furniture—bedsteads stacked by a window, chairs clustered together in a tight communion, ottomans, dressers pushed back to back.
  2. tycoon
    a very wealthy or powerful businessperson
    “Think, Florie. Think. Have you noticed where we are? We are in the remote home of Albert Ellingham, tycoon. Anyone who likes money could have taken Iris and Alice, and everyone likes money. And anyone could do it because we are up on the side of a mountain. Albert will pay them.”
  3. commandeer
    take arbitrarily or by force
    Ellie had commandeered a picnic table and began waving at them to come over.
  4. abject
    most unfortunate or miserable
    Maybe she had given up her life before and come up this mountain and no one would like her and she would have to go home an abject failure.
  5. undercurrent
    a feeling or tendency that is not explicitly expressed
    As he spoke, Stevie felt a ripple in the air around them. People had been looking, and now there was an undercurrent of chatter.
  6. endocrine
    of or belonging to glands that secrete hormones
    “The bones themselves have their own geography, peaks and valleys where they associate with muscle and tissue. You are going to learn the relationship of these things, all of these systems—skeletal to muscular, nervous and endocrine, digestive, reproductive, excretory, integumentary, cardiovascular, respiratory. Once you learn what these things are, you will learn how they work.”
  7. integument
    an outer protective covering
    “The bones themselves have their own geography, peaks and valleys where they associate with muscle and tissue. You are going to learn the relationship of these things, all of these systems—skeletal to muscular, nervous and endocrine, digestive, reproductive, excretory, integumentary, cardiovascular, respiratory. Once you learn what these things are, you will learn how they work.”
  8. cupola
    a roof or part of a roof in the form of a dome
    She put up the umbrella, but the battering was too severe. She made it as far as the cupola on the bottom end of the green, where she found herself stranded for a few minutes.
  9. meticulous
    marked by extreme care in treatment of details
    “The first Ellingham librarian, Diana Cloakes, was a remarkable person—one of the top research librarians at the New York Public Library. Albert Ellingham hired her to come work here. Everyone he hired was the best at what they did. She bought an incredible collection, and she took meticulous notes on everything.”
  10. conspicuous
    obvious to the eye or mind
    In Minerva, he stuck to his room. But now he was here, smiling, his hair flopping and unruly, his navy blue T-shirt looking conspicuously worn.
  11. lope
    run easily
    “Sure,” he said, loping along. “You can’t control your parents. I mean, my mother is a beekeeper and my father invented the smorgasbord.”
  12. smorgasbord
    an assortment of foods served as a buffet meal
    “Sure,” he said, loping along. “You can’t control your parents. I mean, my mother is a beekeeper and my father invented the smorgasbord.”
  13. patella
    a small flat triangular bone in front of the knee
    It didn’t look even remotely comfortable; it just showed off the tone of his leg muscles and the outline of his patellae.
  14. mote
    a tiny piece of anything
    Dust motes danced in the air between Hayes and Stevie.
  15. coy
    showing marked and often playful evasiveness or reluctance
    “See, my agent...” He dug a neatly manicured fingernail coyly into the wooden floor as he said this word. “...thinks I should make another series. I’ve been thinking about what to do, and I thought...what about the stuff that happened here? The crimes. The kidnapping thing. You know about that.”
  16. unfurl
    unroll, unfold, or spread out
    Hayes unfurled his smile slowly.
  17. verbatim
    using exactly the same words
    Hayes read out the script from his computer, with Maris filling in the set directions. It was rough in spots, and most of it was just verbatim from the various case documents, but Nate had given it enough of a shape.
  18. amorphous
    having no definite form or distinct shape
    There was a rack thickly packed with men’s suiting of all kinds, a rack of coats, a rack of dresses from every era, racks of fuzzy things, plaster and plastic armor, amorphous items that probably made sense in some context like a giant foam French fry container and a brown sack covered in felt eyeballs.
  19. provenance
    where something originated or started
    The floor was a sea of shoes and boots, and the racks above were hats, helmets, purses, shields, feathers (just feathers? Just feathers. Why?) and items of no known nature or provenance.
  20. socialite
    one who is well known or prominent in fashionable circles
    They had come to have their champagne here, to dance under the stars. Actors, writers, artists, socialites.
  21. convey
    serve as a means for expressing something
    She couldn’t bring herself to say “thanks to you” out loud, but she tried to convey it in her eyes, and then by generally being awkward.
  22. fecund
    capable of producing offspring or vegetation
    The air was thick with the fecund smell of early dropping leaves and the fragrant decay of layers of undergrowth.
  23. stagnant
    not circulating or flowing
    There was an overwhelming smell of earth and age and stagnant air.
  24. reverie
    an abstracted state of absorption
    Nate slid up alongside Stevie and broke into her reverie.
  25. stimulus
    any information or event that acts to arouse action
    What was likely was that her anxious and excited brain, full of new stimuli, conjured up something bright and shiny for her, something so magical and odd that it stamped its impression on her brain cells for a little longer than normal.
  26. smolder
    burn slowly and without a flame
    A week after the trial concluded, there was a fire in the courthouse basement, most likely caused by a smoldering cigarette.
  27. perturbed
    thrown into a state of agitated confusion
    She wiped her eyes and looked at Janelle, who looked as perturbed as anyone can look while wearing baby-blue fleece pajamas covered in cat heads.
  28. retribution
    the act of taking revenge
    Maris was nervous, all of them were working on something that really benefited Hayes, Gretchen was literally seeking some kind of retribution.
  29. chagrin
    strong feelings of embarrassment
    Dinner was finished quickly, much to Nate’s chagrin, and the four of them—Maris, Dash, Stevie, and Nate—made their way back to the sunken garden.
  30. devolve
    grow worse
    A shout pierced her devolving thoughts.
  31. mundane
    found in the ordinary course of events
    Stevie felt like she was gently hovering over the scene like in a recurring dream she had in which she floated from room to room of a neighbor’s house, watching them do mundane things.
  32. portico
    porch or entrance to a building consisting of a covered area
    A state-police cruiser was parked under the portico and the officer inside was entering information into the computer.
  33. clinical
    detached or unemotional
    The collection of information, she knew, needs to be clinical.
  34. embellishment
    elaboration of an interpretation with decorative detail
    She tried to keep her answers clear, short, but complete. No embellishments. No editorializing on what it all meant.
  35. mottled
    having spots or patches of color
    She had seen the soles of a pair of shoes, his mottled skin...
  36. nondescript
    lacking distinct or individual characteristics
    Stevie most admired her shoes, which were utterly nondescript black flats.
  37. admonish
    scold or reprimand; take to task
    “About the Ellingham kidnappings, you mean?” the detective clarified. Stevie nodded and admonished herself internally. You were supposed to be clear.
  38. sublimate
    change directly from a solid into a vapor without melting
    Dry ice is solidified carbon dioxide...not normally dangerous but caution should be used in handling...sublimates into carbon dioxide...must be used in ventilated spaces or else there is danger of hypercapnia, as carbon dioxide displaces oxygen, especially in low-lying structures such as basements, due to its weight.
  39. grudging
    unwilling or reluctant
    There was a grudging agreement on this.
  40. knack
    a special way of doing something
    “Twenty years with the state police. I was a detective. You get a knack for these things.”
Created on Wed Apr 29 11:33:40 EDT 2020 (updated Wed Apr 29 11:52:30 EDT 2020)

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