12 Again: List 1

by Sue Corbett
After making a birthday wish, forty-year-old Bernadette wakes up as a twelve-year-old — and attends seventh grade with her son Patrick.

This list covers Patrick's story, Labor Day, September 7–Wednesday, September 9.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
35 words 211 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. concession
    a small business that operates in a larger business or public place
    “Okay. Meet me at the concession stand at Field Four at one o’clock,” Patrick said.
  2. plume
    anything that resembles a feather in shape or lightness
    Patrick watched them disappear in a plume of dust spun up by their tires.
  3. frazzle
    exhaust physically or emotionally
    She looked frazzled. “Do you know how to get this stupid thing to unfreeze? I forgot to save the work I already did, and now the cursor won’t budge.”
  4. fringe
    decorate with an ornamental border
    “As soon as you three are off to college, I’m getting a fringed skirt, a guitar, and heading to Nashville,” he’d heard her say, more than once.
  5. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    She doted on Patrick and told him stories.
  6. splay
    widen or spread apart
    “Where did you get him, Grandma?” Patrick had asked her as the pup splayed his small paws across Patrick’s chest, tucking his soft head right under Patrick’s chin.
  7. threshold
    the entrance for passing through a room or building
    His mother stood at the threshold, an overnight bag and her laptop in its carrying case looped over her shoulder.
  8. cul de sac
    a street with only one way in or out
    Her mother’s house was at the end of a cul-de-sac and backed up to a stretch of empty woods.
  9. humble
    low or inferior in station or quality
    Fiona Downey's house was the only one on William Street that resembled its humble, original self.
  10. dormer
    a gabled extension built out from a sloping roof
    The neighbors had added dormers and dug swimming pools.
  11. concoction
    any foodstuff made by combining different ingredients
    Fiona had believed in ghosts but not doctors, and had treated coughs and stomachaches with concoctions she cooked up on the stove.
  12. eccentric
    conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual
    Neighbors had always considered her eccentric, but Bernadette never believed it was as benign as that. Bernadette was ten when her father left, and her mother had cursed him.
  13. benign
    pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence
    Neighbors had always considered her eccentric, but Bernadette never believed it was as benign as that. Bernadette was ten when her father left, and her mother had cursed him.
  14. flue
    a conduit to carry off smoke
    Bernadette made sure the flue was open and struck a match to the kindling.
  15. inexplicable
    incapable of being explained or accounted for
    Almost as quickly, the air settled, and Bernadette felt inexplicably exhausted, far too tired to write.
  16. percolate
    pass through
    They voted to learn “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” and the music was still percolating through Patrick's head when he met Duffy at his locker to walk to the cafeteria.
  17. congeal
    solidify, thicken, or come together
    The pizza was a square of red-and-orange congealed cheese.
  18. lilting
    characterized by a buoyant rhythm
    In her hazy state of half-waking, she tried to remember the last time she had heard her mother’s lilting voice: Was it the day before she died?
  19. wispy
    thin and weak
    She saw her twelve-year-old self. The wispy brown hair. The fair skin.
  20. chenille
    a heavy fabric woven from soft tufted cord
    She sat back down on the bed, the nubby chenille spread crumpling beneath her thin legs.
  21. subconscious
    psychic activity just below the level of awareness
    Wow, the subconscious is powerful. My brain must have figured out the only way to get that assignment finished was inside a dream in which I have no children.
  22. incorrigible
    impervious to correction by punishment
    “Your last year as a child. Next year, you’ll be a teenager and incorrigible.”
  23. stifled
    held in check or kept back with difficulty
    Even with their heads turned, Bernadette could hear the stifled giggles.
  24. inoculate
    inject or treat with the germ of a disease to render immune
    “You need proof you’ve been inoculated against measles, mumps, rubella, smallpox, tetanus, whooping cough, tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, and hepatitis B—it’s all here, Form 144. Unless you want to be jabbed a bunch of times, I’d try to come up with the records.”
  25. navel
    a scar where the umbilical cord was attached
    No bellybuttons, Miss Downey, we do all our navel gazing in the privacy of our own homes here in the USA.
  26. appendage
    an external body part that projects from the body
    No pierced appendages, other than earlobes.
  27. brogue
    a strong regional accent, especially an Irish or Scottish accent
    “No, I was born here. We were in Ireland for...a while.”
    “Hallelujah! So you have a Social Security number? That would help because there’s another raft of forms for aliens. I noticed you don’t have much of a brogue.”
  28. beeline
    the most direct route
    The seats on either side of Patrick were taken, but there was an empty terminal behind him, and Bernadette made a beeline for it.
  29. alignment
    the spatial property possessed by things in a straight line
    The computers were on long tables, and the slight stagger of their alignment meant Bernadette could see the back of his head and his screen.
  30. intently
    with strained or eager attention
    Kevin was at the table, reading the cornflakes box intently, as if there would be a quiz on it come Monday.
  31. amble
    walk leisurely
    His father ambled in, looking bad, smelling sour.
  32. toupee
    a small hairpiece to cover partial baldness
    “What’s a midlife crisis?” Neil wanted to know.
    “This happened to George on Seinfeld,” Kevin offered. “He got a toupee.”
  33. catatonic
    characterized by unresponsiveness or lack of movement
    Kevin was his usual catatonic self, but Neil had been whining more than ever.
  34. artful
    marked by skill or cunning in achieving a desired end
    Kevin artfully avoided chores with his selective deafness, tuning out things it wasn’t in his interest to hear, usually by turning up the volume on the TV.
  35. furrow
    a slight depression in the smoothness of a surface
    Now Patrick studied his father’s profile, the furrows in his brow and the faint, crisscrossed lines around his eyes.
Created on Thu Aug 19 11:09:19 EDT 2021 (updated Wed Aug 25 10:04:24 EDT 2021)

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