Beauty Queens: Chapters 10–17

by Libba Bray
When their plane crashes on a desert island, the fifty contestants of the Miss Teen Dream Pageant learn what it takes to survive the toughest challenge. Learn these words from Libba Bray's hilarious social satire.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue–Chapter 9, Chapters 10–17, Chapters 18–29, Chapter 30–Epilogue
40 words 37 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. mission
    a special assignment that is given to a person or group
    And what could be better and more in line with the Miss Teen Dream mission statement than having them find that we have tamed and beautified this island?
  2. admonish
    scold or reprimand; take to task
    “Miss Colorado, it was not your turn on the runway,” Taylor admonished.
  3. fraternize
    be on friendly terms with someone, as if with a brother
    We didn’t know. We were duped. But now that we do know, we can’t continue to fraternize with Miss Rhode Island.
  4. halting
    proceeding in a fragmentary, hesitant, or ineffective way
    “Well, um, I just want to say that I’ve read the rule book cover to cover and there’s no specific rule against a transgender contestant,” Mary Lou said in a halting voice.
  5. ostracize
    expel from a community or group
    “Look, I wasn’t trying to ostracize anybody. It’s just that she — he lied about who he was.”
  6. sanction
    a mechanism of social control for enforcing standards
    For this reason only, MoMo had a seat in the UN where, on more than one occasion, he had stood on the table in his platform shoes and ermine-trimmed bell-bottoms and danced out his protest against U.S. sanctions.
  7. raucous
    disturbing the public peace; loud and rough
    He hated everything about the country of the Miss Teen Dream Pageant, except for three things: Elvis Presley, the greatest entertainer who ever lived; reality TV, especially the raucous Captains Bodacious, and Ladybird Hope.
  8. don
    put on clothes
    He would don his Elvis Comeback Special black jumpsuit pajamas, crawl into his heart-shaped bed, and pretend that Ladybird was beside him, as if they were a couple on an American sitcom.
  9. inert
    unable to move or resist motion
    Harris kicked Benny’s inert body and sighed.
  10. exfoliation
    the act or process of peeling off in flakes or scales
    Starting today, we are adding a new survival skills portion to our pageant. I want you to treat this with the seriousness you would your other duties, like tanning and exfoliation.
  11. meager
    deficient in amount or quality or extent
    But the engineering was best-case scenario, and their meager resources were worst-case.
  12. plait
    make by braiding or interlacing
    Miss Montana, who turned out to be from a family of fishermen and women, showed them how to plait seaweed and vines to construct loose fishing lines, which had netted them a decent catch in addition to the straightening iron haul.
  13. brandish
    move or swing back and forth
    “Tiara and I caught the fish with these!” Brittani said, brandishing a pair of straightening irons.
  14. rehabilitation
    the restoration of someone to a useful place in society
    She knew what they thought when they saw her: Trash. Wrong side of the tracks. Dyke. Juvenile delinquent. Rehabilitation project.
  15. wily
    marked by skill in deception
    So far, the fish had proved wilier than they’d imagined.
  16. rickety
    inclined to shake as from weakness or defect
    The three girls moved to a mound of palm fronds, carefully removing them to reveal a rickety wooden trebuchet made of bamboo and counter-weighted with coconuts.
  17. ferocious
    marked by extreme and violent energy
    The coconut hit the ground and the trebuchet arm swung up, launching the pump through the air with a ferocious zip.
  18. stiletto
    a small dagger with a tapered blade
    It stuck, heel-first, into the bark of a small tree with such force, it split the tree in two.
    “Holy stiletto, Batman,” Jennifer said.
  19. swag
    valuable goods
    Nicole took her swag. “Cocoa butter! Thank you, universe!”
  20. lament
    express grief verbally
    “You got the best one,” Miss Ohio lamented.
  21. adversity
    a state of misfortune or affliction
    She figured out early that nobody liked an angry disabled person. It messed with their sympathy, with the story in their head about people overcoming adversity to be shining lights in the world.
  22. plucky
    marked by determination in the face of difficulties
    Sosie had played her part, being the smiling, plucky, don’t-worry-about-me, lip-reading Pollyanna.
  23. wield
    handle effectively
    Petra wielded the machete with surprising grace.
  24. wispy
    thin and weak
    The fire sent up wispy smoke messengers that vanished before they cleared the treetops.
  25. chide
    scold or reprimand severely or angrily
    “Thou shalt not say sorry!” Mary Lou chided in a deep voice.
  26. flail
    thrash about
    Miss Ohio flailed with excitement. “Makeovers are so fun! It’s like the Superman phone booth of girl.”
  27. denigrate
    cause to seem lesser or inferior
    “It’s denigrating and objectifying.”
  28. coy
    modestly or warily rejecting approaches or overtures
    She studied the coy girls, the ones who pretended not to get the dirty joke that made Mary Lou stifle a laugh.
  29. predicament
    an unpleasant or difficult situation
    Mary Lou was jolted back to her predicament — the plane crash, the survivors, the need for rescue.
  30. brooding
    deeply or seriously thoughtful
    The light dusting of freckles across her pert nose. The dark eyebrows that gave her face a brooding quality.
  31. arbitrary
    based on or subject to individual discretion or preference
    It seemed odd to Sosie that she had to make some hard-and-fast decision about such an arbitrary, individual thing as attraction, like having to declare an orientation major: I am straight with a minor in gay.
  32. tawdry
    tastelessly showy
    The Corporation would like you to know that they are deeply regretful of this tawdry display.
  33. coiffure
    the arrangement of the hair
    Nicole focused on the tub’s label, where a smiling black woman in pearls touched a hand to her shiny-straight coiffure.
  34. aggrieve
    cause to feel distress
    Her tone, aggrieved, aggravated, made it clear that this was simply one more cross the universe had asked her to bear.
  35. sassy
    improperly forward or bold
    Instead, she sat through countless DVR’d episodes of teen shows where the only girls of color were the sassy best friend, the Girl with Attitude who came in to swivel her head, snap out a one-liner, and fall back like a background singer.
  36. copious
    large in number or quantity
    When they were alone together in her aunt’s office at the clinic with her take-apart anatomical models of the uterus and copious medical books, Auntie Abeo held Nicole’s chin firmly but lovingly in her soft hand.
  37. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    Sometimes, her mother would come up behind her while Nicole sat at the kitchen table studying and wrap her arms around her daughter, kiss the top of her head, and for a fleeting moment, Nicole didn’t want to be separate from her.
  38. maul
    injure badly
    Instead, she would speak in chewed fingernails and mauled cuticles, nervous scratching and upset stomachs, habits that frustrated and angered her mother, but in the anger, there was space.
  39. trope
    language used in a nonliteral sense
    “I think this is quicksand!” Nicole rolled her eyes. “C’mon. That’s just a desert island trope.”
  40. avant-garde
    radically new or original
    It was a very cool hand clasp, the kind white kids across America will try to emulate in about six months, just before an avant-garde white pop starlet turns it into a hit single and makes lots of money.
Created on Wed Jan 06 16:19:24 EST 2016 (updated Mon Sep 17 16:43:02 EDT 2018)

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