The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: List 1

by Ann Brashares
A pair of magical jeans helps four best friends feel close even when they can't be together.

This list covers Prologue–"Can you make yourself love?"

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
30 words 134 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. socialist
    advocating the state ownership of industry
    Tibby went to a socialist day camp for a while and helped build low-income houses.
  2. debutante
    a young woman making her formal entrance into society
    I mean, they were a strange group when you think of it: Tibby's mom, the young radical; Lena's mom, the ambitious Greek putting herself through social work school; Bridget’s mom, the Alabama debutante; and my mom, the Puerto Rican with the rocky marriage.
  3. hunker down
    take shelter
    It’s not enough to stay in Bethesda, Maryland, and hunker down in air-conditioned houses. We promised one another that someday we'd get out in the world and figure some stuff out.
  4. wanton
    not restrained or controlled
    Carmen glanced at the structured canvas bag splayed wantonly in the middle of her bed.
  5. sullenly
    in a manner showing a brooding ill humor
    These were just jeans. "You mean these?” They were creased in three places from inattention. Tibby nodded sullenly. "Those."
  6. unconditional
    not modified or restricted
    Tibby was demanding a little display of unconditional love.
  7. benevolent
    intending or showing kindness
    “Fine,” Carmen said benevolently, handing them over. Tibby absently hugged the pants, slightly deflated at getting her way so fast.
  8. huffy
    roused to anger
    “Fine,” Tibby said, glad to be huffy again.
  9. dilapidated
    in a state of decay, ruin, or deterioration
    Tibby pulled off her dilapidated brown cargo pants...
  10. warily
    in a manner marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    Lena looked at the pants warily. She shed her own khakis and pulled them on. She made sure they were buttoned and sitting straight on her hips before she glanced in the mirror.
  11. reflexive
    without volition or conscious control
    "Jesus, Lena,” Carmen said. Sorry, Jesus, she added to herself reflexively.
  12. reverent
    feeling or showing profound respect or veneration
    “They’re nice pants," Lena said reverently, almost whispering. They were used to Lena, but Carmen knew that to the rest of the world she was fairly stunning.
  13. aspersion
    a disparaging remark
    Carmen chewed the inside of her cheek. “Are you casting aspersions on my butt?"
  14. diaspora
    the dispersion of something that was originally localized
    “On the last night before the diaspora”—she paused briefly so everyone could admire her use of the word—“we discovered some magic.”
  15. intone
    speak carefully, as with rising and falling pitch
    “Tonight we are Sisters of the Pants,” Bridget intoned when they’d formed a ring.
  16. posterity
    all future generations
    They ate snacks, and Tibby filmed for posterity, while they constructed the rules. The Manifesto, as Carmen called it.
  17. motley
    consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds
    By the time they’d agreed on ten rules, Lena held a motley list that ranged from sincere to silly.
  18. infuse
    fill, as with a certain quality
    The Pants seemed to be infused with the promises of the summer.
  19. swoon
    pass out from weakness or physical or emotional distress
    He was standing by his car, an antique seventies muscle car that practically made her swoon.
  20. facsimile
    an exact copy or reproduction
    She ducked into the store, hoping maybe he’d think he’d been mistaken, that maybe the loser girl in the polyester smock...was not the actual Tibby, but a much less cool facsimile.
  21. maim
    injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration
    In part, I enjoyed maiming the garment, and in part, I just wanted you to see how thick 2-ply polyester really is.
  22. jut
    extend out or project in space
    Lena looked down at the whitewashed buildings, much like this one, clinging to cliffs jutting down to the water. She hadn’t realized before how steep it was, how strange a spot it was to make a home.
  23. lore
    knowledge gained through tradition or anecdote
    She knew from family lore that it was the site of the worst explosion in history and countless tidal waves and earthquakes.
  24. sprawling
    spreading out in different directions
    Though Lena had grown up in a flat, sprawling, grassy suburb where people feared no natural disaster worse than mosquitoes or traffic on the beltway, she’d always known her roots were here.
  25. atavistic
    characteristic of a throwback
    And now, looking out at the water, some deep atavistic memory bubbled up, and it did feel like home.
  26. linoleum
    a floor covering made from linseed oil, cork, and resin
    Tibby imagined a string of drool dangling from the side of her mouth all the way down to the scuffed linoleum squares.
  27. don
    put on clothes
    "Now don your headsets, and let's get to work,” Duncan commanded importantly.
  28. pastiche
    a work of art that imitates the style of some previous work
    She’d decided the morning after the vow of the Pants that she was going to record her summer of discontent in a movie—a suckumentary, a pastiche of lameness.
  29. barrage
    an overwhelming or vigorous outpouring
    She took off her smock, turned in her headset, and strode through the doors, to a deafening barrage of bleeps.
  30. idealize
    consider or render as the best or most appropriate type
    I guess when you have close blood relatives you’ve never met, you can’t help but kind of idealize them in your mind.
Created on Tue Oct 19 17:37:37 EDT 2021 (updated Tue Oct 26 16:15:49 EDT 2021)

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