Clap When You Land: List 1

by Elizabeth Acevedo
After their father dies in a plane crash, two sisters who never met must come to terms with each other's existence.

This list covers “Camino – Yahaira” to “One Day After”.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
30 words 2966 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. unravel
    become undone
    Mud that suctions & slurps at the high heels
    of the working girls I once went to school with.
    Mud that softens, unravels into a road leading nowhere.
  2. barrio
    a district in a Spanish-speaking country
    To be from this barrio is to be made of this earth & clay:

    dirt-packed, water-backed, third-world smacked:
    they say, the soil beneath a country’s nail, they say.
  3. pry
    move or force in an effort to get something open
    I love my home. But it might be a sinkhole

    trying to feast quicksand

    mouth pried open; I hunger for stable ground,
    somewhere else.
  4. chafe
    feel extreme irritation or anger
    I do not chafe at her rules.
  5. machete
    a large knife used as a weapon or for cutting vegetation
    By the time Don Mateo’s rooster crows,
    we are locking up the house, Tía’s machete tucked into her bag.
  6. furrow
    make or become wrinkled or creased
    I do not furrow my brow or pinch my lips at the stench
    of an unwashed body.
  7. incense
    a substance that produces a fragrant odor when burned
    Tía burns incense in all the corners
    of the small house.
  8. inevitable
    incapable of being avoided or prevented
    So I do not say that her dying seems inevitable.
  9. callus
    form a thick or hard area of skin from pressure or friction
    Tía is the single love of my life,
    the woman I want to one day be,
    all raised eyebrows & calloused hands...
  10. livid
    furiously angry
    I'll make up the exam tomorrow, I convince myself.
    Papi’s homecoming, for me, is a national holiday,
    & I don’t rightly care that he’s going to be livid.
  11. elated
    exultantly proud and joyful; in high spirits
    I also know Papi will be secretly elated.
    He loves to be loved. & his favorite girl waiting at the airport
    with a sign & a smile—what better homecoming?
  12. ornery
    having a difficult and contrary disposition
    He works in the town right near the airfields,
    so I know he’s grumbling only because like his rooster
    he’s ornery & routinized down to every loud crow.
  13. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    A cold chill saunters through a doorway in my body,
    a tremble begins in my hands.
  14. linoleum
    a floor covering made from linseed oil, cork, and resin
    & as soon as the employee

    utters the word accident
    the linoleum opens...
  15. stead
    the place properly occupied or served by another
    But that year, the one I was born, he was busy
    in New York City. Wired us money & a name in his stead.
  16. tutorial
    a session of intensive instruction
    I hang out every Saturday with Dre,
    watching Netflix or reading fashion blogs

    or if she’s in charge of our entertainment,
    watching gardening tutorials on YouTube
  17. wring
    twist and compress, as if in pain or anguish
    The bodegueros & Danilo the tailor
    & the other store owners

    stand outside their shops
    making phone calls as viejitos

    wring their hands in front of their bellies
    & shake their heads.
  18. vigil
    the rite of staying awake for devotional purposes
    they shuffle onto the balcón,
    they wrap their fingers around the barred fence,
    they watch & wait & watch & wait an unrehearsed vigil.
  19. thicket
    a dense growth of bushes
    I hunch myself invisible. & then my favorite sight:
    the thicket of trees, & small path through them
  20. scoff
    laugh at with contempt and derision
    When I was younger, he gave me lessons,

    scoffing at the placidness of the nearby resort pool.
  21. placid
    calm and free from disturbance
    When I was younger, he gave me lessons,

    scoffing at the placidness of the nearby resort pool.
  22. inclined
    having a preference, disposition, or tendency
    Vira Lata wags his tail at me.

    I wish he was more inclined to bare his teeth.
  23. blue blood
    a member of the aristocracy or upper class
    The ones with American accents,

    their blue passports & blue blood
    both stamped with prestige & money;
    those are the boys I switch my hips at.
  24. pomp
    cheap or pretentious or vain display
    they act as if they could elevate my life with a
    taste of their powder-milk-tinged pomp.
  25. topography
    the configuration of a surface and its features
    & if a heart has topography,
    I know none of these boys know the coordinates
    to navigate & survive mine’s rough terrain.
  26. elicit
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    This thin body, better fed than most, curved softly
    in the places that elicit dog whistles & piropos...
  27. hone
    sharpen with a whetstone
    swimming
    has kept this body honed like Tía’s oft-sharpened machete.
  28. full-fledged
    (of a bird) having reached maturity; ready to fly
    I am a girl who does not look like a woman.
    I am a girl who looks like a girl.
    I am a girl who is not full-fledged yet.
  29. consistent
    in agreement or reliable
    He would catch her, swinging her in circles. & I was jealous.
    Jealous I didn’t have a consistent male figure like Cero in my life.
  30. sully
    place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
    But it feels like El Cero has sullied any sense of safety.
Created on Mon Jun 29 09:40:27 EDT 2020 (updated Fri Jul 10 17:08:13 EDT 2020)

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