Funeral Songs for Dying Girls: List 3

by Cherie Dimaline
Living in the Toronto cemetery where her father works and her mother is buried, sixteen-year-old Winifred Blight often wanders around the graves at night, which leads to the belief that they would be a good moneymaking addition to a haunted ghost tour.

This list covers "Ghost of a Chance"–"Making a Deal with Satan."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 8 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. haphazard
    dependent upon or characterized by chance
    He had a large head but a short torso, the kind of haphazard anatomical pairing that changes the way a person moves.
  2. tousle
    disarrange or rumple; dishevel
    War wounds, he called them, tousling my hair with pride.
  3. consistency
    the degree of density, firmness, or viscosity of a substance
    It was Floyd Flynn’s opinion that the reason behind the grass’s curious consistency was all the bones buried beneath it.
  4. progressive
    favoring or promoting modern or innovative ideas
    “Though Winterson isn’t really known for being progressive or involved now, is it?”
  5. stifle
    conceal or hide
    I cupped my hand over my mouth to stifle the laughter.
  6. capitalize
    draw advantages from
    “But anyway, as the cemetery manager, you can certainly capitalize on this opportunity. For one, you set up a website advertising the place and it’s a well-known fact that your sales will increase.”
  7. akimbo
    with hands on hips and elbows extending outward
    She pursed her red lips and folded her arms akimbo, raising both eyebrows.
  8. surly
    unfriendly and inclined toward anger or irritation
    “By the way, the surly groundskeeper I met up by the front?”
  9. reprimand
    an act or expression of criticism and censure
    “Oh no, no, don’t mind Floyd. I can talk to him. A reprimand maybe, about his, uh, disposition.”
    “No, no, not at all.” Isaacs laughed, perhaps remembering the way Floyd had stabbed the ground like he was committing murder.
  10. disposition
    your usual mood
    “Oh no, no, don’t mind Floyd. I can talk to him. A reprimand maybe, about his, uh, disposition.”
    “No, no, not at all.” Isaacs laughed, perhaps remembering the way Floyd had stabbed the ground like he was committing murder.
  11. sham
    something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be
    “Absolutely no funny business. We get one fraud complaint and the whole operation, MY whole operation, looks like a sham. So, no managers in sheets wandering the grounds, strictly the real deal, or we’re out.”
  12. austere
    severely simple
    I left the admin building and walked over to the Peak. Something about the grubby and the austere back here put me at ease, even if it was the site of my recent humiliation.
  13. scalable
    capable of being climbed
    I sat on the edge of the drop-off, feet dangling, even though the hill was gradual and, if you really tried and had good shoes, scalable.
  14. precipice
    a very steep cliff
    This was a precipice, and I teetered at the edge.
  15. stilted
    stiff and strained; lacking natural ease
    There was something stilted about her pace; like she was on a film sped up or slowed down, just enough to exist in a stutter.
  16. procession
    the action of a group moving ahead in regular formation
    I ran straight through a funeral procession, through the empty chapel, and all the way home.
  17. curator
    the custodian of a collection, as a museum or library
    “My name is John Leung, and I am a curator with the early Canadian galleries.”
  18. devolve
    grow worse
    The scream devolved to a whimper as I rocked it out of me, head buried in forearms across my knees.
  19. blather
    talk foolishly
    I’d blathered on about Isaacs and what I’d overheard and he was convinced this was the root of it.
  20. grotesque
    distorted and unnatural in shape or size
    This new, cold tumor was a heft in my joints, pinning me to the couch like a grotesque paperweight.
  21. oblivion
    total forgetfulness
    It is the cicadas that pull me from oblivion to the window, little violinists cracking their own backs for the octave.
  22. facsimile
    an exact copy or reproduction
    We are slowed down and words come out wrong. We are in a bad facsimile run through a dry copier machine, all fade and cut.
  23. whorl
    a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles
    She holds my hand and I pet the pads of her fingertips with my own, searching for the whorls that will show me her DNA.
  24. arbitrary
    based on or subject to individual discretion or preference
    Language makes its own arbitrary rules here and it chooses to remain hieroglyphic.
  25. pallet
    a portable platform for storing or moving goods
    She shows me an upended crate, a broken pail open-side down, a stack of creaking pallets all set around an ashy firepit with a kicked-in perimeter.
  26. squelch
    make a sucking sound
    My knees hit ground, squelching into the mud, leaving indented cups for raccoons to drink rainwater from.
  27. elation
    a feeling of joy and pride
    In the back of my mind, behind the elation of home, was the small joy of having news for Jack.
  28. discreet
    unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic
    Penny had never been discreet about her feelings for me. I was annoying, a nuisance.
  29. credenza
    a flat-topped piece of furniture for storage
    Cleaning out the apartment, my father had shown her the note while she rummaged around in the credenza drawers.
  30. predicament
    an unpleasant or difficult situation
    Maybe she wouldn’t bother to respond now. Even in my predicament, this gave me some peace.
  31. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    Dealing with Penny was always assumptions and guesses. Unless she really wanted to make sure you knew how she felt. Then she was as subtle as a shotgun.
  32. in earnest
    in a serious manner
    Later, when there were more visits to compare, I would realize that Phil was different at night. But the night of that first visit, the night she began her haunt in earnest, I had no idea.
  33. appease
    cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of
    Instead, I made equations out of the digital alarm clock numbers for twenty minutes, straightened all the jars on my shelves again, and washed my face three times, just to be sure, just to appease the numbers and sequences that could pop the stitches of sleep if they wanted, if I didn’t address them and put them into some sort of order.
  34. intimate
    marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
    I wanted to touch the glass between us, but there was something too intimate about that.
  35. mirth
    great merriment
    She laughed without mirth.
  36. profoundly
    to a great depth psychologically
    I was profoundly and fully loved.
  37. amicable
    characterized by friendship and good will
    We sat there a moment, side by side, not speaking. It was as amicable as we could manage.
  38. spire
    a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building
    We were just past the last spire of the chapel, near the Soldiers’ Memorial wall, when someone called out.
  39. tinge
    affect as in thought or feeling
    I was filled with a relief that was still tinged with guilt from my meeting with Penny.
  40. brackish
    slightly salty
    It was still early enough, and in the glare of the late afternoon sun there was nothing romantic about the ravine. I saw it for what it was—brackish water trickling over debris, weeds grown feral grasping garbage in prickly fingers, a broken chain-link fence...
Created on Wed May 29 10:15:45 EDT 2024 (updated Thu May 30 10:57:16 EDT 2024)

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