Unit 5: Selection Vocabulary 4

This list covers "The New Colossus," "The Third Elevator," and "Perseus."
16 words 84 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. brazen
    made of or resembling brass, as in color or hardness
    Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
    With conquering limbs astride from land to land
  2. exile
    a person who is voluntarily absent from home or country
    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
    Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
    Mother of Exiles.
  3. pomp
    cheap or pretentious or vain display
    "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
    With silent lips.
  4. wretched
    very unhappy; full of misery
    Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
  5. refuse
    worthless material that is to be disposed of
    Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
  6. mollify
    cause to be more favorably inclined
    The mollified queen came over and praised its size and shape.
  7. ascent
    a movement upward
    Birds eyed its slow ascent suspiciously but assumed it was a large rectangular bird, for it smelled like them and even fluttered slightly.
  8. melodramatic
    characteristic of acting or a stage performance
    He said every time he put the blade of his axe against the bark of a new tree and prepared to slice in, he felt a clanging in his chest and knew if he cut it down he would have a heart attack at that exact same moment.
    The other loggers then found him melodramatic.
  9. agitated
    troubled emotionally and usually deeply
    He'd even tried to help the telephone electrical crew but they just yelled at him to stop messing with the wires, and he felt so agitated by their yelling at him that he went and cut down a few more telephone poles about a mile away.
  10. claustrophobia
    a morbid fear of being closed in a confined space
    He asked the logger a few questions about claustrophobia and then gave him a corner of the cave to work on and told him the best way to get along in the mine was to play poker after dinner and lose.
  11. amiable
    diffusing warmth and friendliness
    It had taken so many trips with the swan down the elevator that it thought it belonged on the ground as well, and spent hours floating one inch above dirt level, amiable beside its paternal line.
  12. dire
    fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
    "Well, we need to get this cloud back to the sky," said the swan. "It's of dire importance..."
  13. gelid
    extremely cold
    Her sleeping head with its great gelid mass
    of serpents torpidly astir
    burned into the mirroring shield—
  14. torpid
    slow and apathetic
    Her sleeping head with its great gelid mass
    of serpents torpidly astir
    burned into the mirroring shield—
  15. scathing
    marked by harshly abusive criticism
    a scathing image dire
    as hated truth the mind accepts at last
    and festers on.
  16. fester
    gnaw into; make resentful or angry
    a scathing image dire
    as hated truth the mind accepts at last
    and festers on.
Created on Tue Nov 10 13:59:22 EST 2020 (updated Tue Apr 13 11:59:17 EDT 2021)

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