Self-Made Boys: Letters–Chapter 6

by Anna-Marie McLemore
Based on the classic novel The Great Gatsby, this work follows the story of Nicolás Caraveo, a seventeen-year-old transgender boy who moves to New York and meets his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, another transgender boy with an extravagant and decadent lifestyle.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Letters–Chapter 6, Chapters 7–14, Chapters 15–22, Chapters 23–28, Chapters 29–40
40 words 24 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. quagmire
    a situation from which extrication is difficult
    By my lights, this letter finds you in a quagmire of a decision.
  2. modest
    marked by simplicity; having a humble opinion of yourself
    I know all about what a genius he is (he hates when I use the word, but we all know it's true). He's so painfully modest, I had to pry from him that the school had run out of math classes for him by the time he was fourteen.
  3. presumption
    audacious behavior that you have no right to
    I may have only a year on Nicky, but it's enough for me to play the big sister. And I hope you won't fault your favorite sobrina the slightest presumption, because I already found the sweetest little cottage for him.
  4. contour
    any spatial attributes, especially as defined by outline
    But I could recognize the shape by touch, the contours of the felt coin at the bottom, the pillar base, the notches of the horse’s head.
  5. unadorned
    not decorated with something to increase its beauty
    The West Egg station had a plain, unadorned look not so different from where I’d started.
  6. sheen
    the visual property of something that shines
    She stopped in front of an open-topped roadster in a color I’d never seen on a car, like the sheen of a blue-gray pearl.
  7. florid
    inclined to a healthy reddish color
    “The first man tried to sell me a color called florid red, can you imagine? He said it was perfect for women with the Latin kind of coloring.”
  8. garish
    tastelessly showy
    “Garish, isn’t it? I don’t know who he is, but they say his money is fresh as lettuce and just as soft.”
  9. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    Daisy Fabrega-Caraveo made things beautiful, starting with herself, her efforts then billowing ever outward.
  10. temperance
    the act of abstaining, especially from drinking alcohol
    When it came to Daisy, such an introduction could preface anything, from What do you think of the Temperance Union? No, I mean it, what do you really think of it? to Tom says I look like Marion Davies, don’t you think I look a little like Marion Davies?
  11. chemise
    a long, loose, sleeveless undergarment
    “I wear it right under a fitted chemise. All the girls with chests like mine wear them. And I see no reason a boy like you can’t use one for your purposes. It’s a world safer than what you’re doing. And I found plain ones special for you. You can wear them right beneath your undershirt. They’re terribly comfortable, you wouldn’t believe.”
  12. fairway
    the area between the tee and putting green on a golf course
    Her letters spoke of bold East Egg men wearing orange or fairway green.
  13. vapid
    lacking significance or liveliness or spirit or zest
    Our cousins said a lot of things about Daisy. That she was vapid, shallow, lovely as an angel but stupid as a basket.
  14. disdain
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    She regarded a white wrought-iron table and its candlesticks with mournful disdain.
  15. paragon
    model of excellence or perfection of a kind
    She’s just a paragon of virtue—the face of an actress, the self-discipline of a nun. At least if there’s not a party she can’t miss.
  16. tactless
    revealing lack of perceptiveness or judgment or finesse
    “Where did you get that stuff?” It was a tactless way to ask where she’d bought illegal alcohol, but the question had tumbled out.
  17. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    The vacant registering in Tom Buchanan’s face made me sure it was my brownness, but even that was fleeting. He seemed to forget me as fast as he’d seen me.
  18. deferential
    showing courteous regard for people's feelings
    “Thank you,” I said, in as deferential a way as I could to Tom.
  19. eyesore
    something very ugly and offensive
    “That’s who bought that carnival palace,” Tom said. “The eyesore. You’ve seen it. You can’t miss the thing unless you look straight up.”
  20. crude
    conspicuously and tastelessly indecent
    “What does he do?” I asked, and knew instantly that it was a crude question in rich company. It was the sort of fact you waited for someone to offer rather than asking.
  21. debut
    the presentation of a young woman in society
    So a debut was a debutante ball. I’d heard about those fluffy white affairs put on in the London court and imitated in New York and Chicago. I’d just never heard of it called a debut.
  22. earnest
    devout or heartfelt
    “Do you think she’ll like it?” Tom asked, with such earnest 
hope that I paused my deliberations about whether I could swim to West Egg when I was this drunk.
  23. deliberation
    careful consideration
    “Do you think she’ll like it?” Tom asked, with such earnest 
hope that I paused my deliberations about whether I could swim to West Egg when I was this drunk.
  24. iridescent
    varying in color when seen in different lights
    The pistol was smaller than a butter dish, the body polished wood, the handle iridescent like the inner curve of an abalone.
  25. wistful
    showing pensive sadness
    Then he put it away, and his face was so wistful I knew he meant Daisy. That look was always about Daisy. She’d left it on men who met her once and never forgot her.
  26. sprig
    a small branch or stem, usually with leaves or flowers
    Nothing as prim as a mint sprig. Maybe bay leaves, or overgrown rosemary.
  27. diversion
    an activity that amuses or stimulates
    I’m having a little party tonight, so if you should find yourself without diversion this evening, please do stop by.
  28. buff
    polish and make shiny
    Men piled up crates of oranges and grapefruits and lemons with smoother rinds than I’d ever seen, as though they’d been buffed.
  29. taut
    pulled or drawn tight
    I could prop the collar taut with stays, and if I didn’t move too much, no one would notice the tiny hole I’d darned up just under the arm.
  30. render
    show in, or as in, a picture
    Women flashed fingernails painted with question marks or renderings of their own faces.
  31. magnate
    a very wealthy or powerful businessperson
    Two men with skin a darker brown than mine were talking about some telegraph magnate.
  32. lacquer
    a hard glossy coating
    The brown of my eyes held wet earth and worn barn wood. Hers held the richness of fountain pen ink and nail lacquer.
  33. flounce
    walk in an emphatic or exaggerated way
    Her skin was light, but not the flour-pale of the blond woman now flouncing away.
  34. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    And it was in this way that I learned my cousin had come by her status partly through beauty, partly through her impending engagement to a Buchanan, and partly by an accident on a yacht.
  35. roil
    be agitated
    I only found my neighbor by how he turned, and stilled, in the roiling crowd.
  36. vein
    a layer of ore between layers of rock
    Strands of tinsel had landed in his hair and stayed, like veins of ore in rock.
  37. gilt
    having the deep slightly brownish color of gold
    The space was gray satin wallpaper and autumn-leaf wood, gray bedding and gilt edging, a mix of masculine and glittering I had never seen.
  38. pristine
    immaculately clean and unused
    He opened a set of double doors, revealing a closet of deep wood shelves. A full column held shirts in pristine squares.
  39. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    If I hadn’t known what it was ahead of time, I would have missed it. If I hadn’t been wearing one myself, if I wasn’t familiar with the subtle outline, I wouldn’t have noticed.
  40. lapse
    a mistake resulting from inattention
    I had erred in some way that made it obvious. A lapse in how low I held my voice, or a nervous laugh pitched the wrong way, or a gesture that was perhaps familiar to him because he’d had to train himself out of it.
Created on Fri Oct 28 11:16:19 EDT 2022 (updated Fri Nov 18 17:54:57 EST 2022)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.