The Glass Castle – Vocabulary List 1 (Pages 1 – 80)

1. bluster VERB 1: to roar and be tumultuous, as wind 2: to be loud, noisy, or swaggering; utter loud, empty menaces or protests <He blusters about revenge but does nothing.>“A blustery March wind whipped the steam coming out of the manholes, and people hurried along the sidewalk with their collars turned up.” (3)

2. hoist VERB to raise or lift, especially by some mechanical appliance: to hoist a flag <to hoist the mainsail>“Mom’s gestures were all familiar – the way she tilted her head and thrust out her lower lip when studying items of potential value that she’d hoisted out of the Dumpster […]” (3)

3. gimmick NOUN 1: an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, especially one designed to attract attention or increase appeal 2: a concealed, usually devious aspect or feature of something, as a plan or deal <An offer that good must have a gimmick in it somewhere.> 3: a hidden mechanical device by which a magician works a trick or a gambler controls a game of chance“She started talking about Picasso. She’d seen a retrospective of his work and decided he was hugely overrated. All the cubist stuff was gimmicky, as far as she was concerned.” (5)

4. antiseptic ADJ 1: free from or cleaned of germs and other microorganisms 2: exceptionally clean or neat 3: free of contamination or pollution“’Lori may not miss you, honey bunch, but I sure do,’ Dad said. ‘You shouldn’t be in this antiseptic joint.’” (13)

5. bellow VERB 1: to emit a hollow, loud, animal cry, as a bull or cow 2: to roar; bawl <bellowing with rage> 3: to utter in a loud deep voice <He bellowed his command across the room.>“’Why the hell would she?’ Dad bellowed with a proud grin. ‘She already fought the fire once and won.’” (15)

6. (Don) Quixote NOUN an enthusiastic but impractical and idealistic person; for Don Quixote of Cervantes' novel“For comfort, I tried to cradle Quixote, our gray and white cat who was missing an ear, but he growled and scratched my face.” (17)

7. skedaddle VERB to run away hurriedly; flee“We were always doing the skedaddle, usually in the middle of the night.” (19)

8. gestapo NOUN the German state secret police during the Nazi regime, organized in 1933 and notorious for its brutal methods and operations“Dad called them henchmen, bloodsuckers, and the gestapo.” (19)

9. posse NOUN 1: a body or force armed with legal authority 2: [slang] group of teenagers or children that someone plays with or hangs out with“Dad was so sure a posse of federal investigators was on our trail that he smoked his unfiltered cigarettes from the wrong end.” (19)

10.nomad NOUN 1: a member of a people or tribe that has no permanent abode but moves about from place to place, usually seasonally and often following a traditional route or circuit according to the state of the pasturage or food supply 2: any wanderer; itinerant“We moved around like nomads.” (19)

11.blue streak NOUN 1: something moving very fast <They traveled like a blue streak through Italy.> 2: continuous, rapid, or interminable speech <to talk a blue streak> “Mom liked to say that Dad could talk a blue streak, spinning tales of jobs he’d never had and college degrees he’d never earned.” (19)

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12.shiftless ADJ 1: lacking in resourcefulness; inefficient; lazy 2: lacking in incentive, ambition, or aspiration“Then Grandma would make a snide comment about Dad being shiftless.” (20)

13.crone NOUN a withered, witchlike old woman“Dad would say something about selfish old crones with more money than they knew what to do with […]” (20)

14.arroyo NOUN a small steep-sided watercourse or gulch with a nearly flat floor: usually dry except after heavy rains“After the storm, Dad took us to the arroyos, and we watched the flash floods come roaring through.” (22)

15.saguaro NOUN a tall, horizontally branched cactus“The next day the saguaros and prickly pears were fat from drinking as much as they could, because they knew it might be a long, long time until the next rain.” (22)

16.prospector NOUN a person who searches for the natural occurrence of gold, petroleum, etc.“One of his most important inventions was a complicated contraption that he called the Prospector. It was going to help us find gold.” (23)

17.sluice NOUN 1: an artificial channel for conducting water, often fitted with a gate (sluice gate) at the upper end for regulating the flow 2: the body of water held back or controlled by a sluice gate 3: any contrivance for regulating a flow from or into a receptacle 4: a channel, especially one carrying off surplus water; drain 5: a stream of surplus water“Then there was the time he fixed a broken sluice gate on the Hoover Dam and saved the lives of thousands of people who would have drowned if the dam had burst.” (24)

18.addled ADJ 1: mentally confused; muddled 2: rotten <addled eggs>“But it sounded like gibberish, and everyone thought she was addled except for Mom, who understood her perfectly and said she had an excellent vocabulary.” (27)

19.capital NOUN 1: the wealth, whether in money or property, owned or employed in business by an individual, firm, corporation, etc. 2: an accumulated stock of such wealth“Dad decided it would be easier, as he put it, to accumulate the capital necessary to finance the Prospector if he hit the casinos for a while.” (29)

20.flophouse NOUN a cheap, run-down hotel or rooming house“Sailors and women with lots of makeup stayed there, too. Dad called it a flophouse […]” (33)

21.creosote NOUN an oily liquid having a burning taste and a penetrating odor, obtained by the distillation of coal and wood tar, used mainly as a preservative for wood and as an antiseptic“When we first got to Midland, those coyotes kept me awake, and as I lay in bed, I’d hear other sounds – Gila monsters rustling in the underbrush, moths knocking against the screens, and the creosote crackling in the wind.” (35)

22.dago NOUN a contemptuous term used to refer to a person of Italian or sometimes Spanish origin or descent“’No one else owns them. You just have to claim it before anyone else does, like that dago fellow Columbus claimed America for Queen Isabella.” (40)

23.gestate VERB 1: to carry in the womb during the period from conception to delivery 2: to think of and develop (an idea, opinion, plan, etc.) slowly in the mind“Dad said something about Jesus H. Christ on a goddamn crutch not taking that much time to gestate.” (42)

24.mangy ADJ 1: having, caused by, or like the mange (various skin diseases caused by parasitic mites, affecting animals and sometimes humans and characterized by loss of

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hair and scabby eruptions) 2: contemptible; mean <a mangy trick> 3: squalid; shabby <a mangy little suburb>“’Hell, my presence has a positively elevating effect compared to you mangy coyotes.” (55)

25.commissary NOUN a store that sells food and supplies to the personnel or workers in a military post, mining camp, lumber camp, or the like“The barite mine where Dad worked had a commissary, and the mine owner deducted out bill and the rent for the depot out of Dad’s paycheck every month. At the beginning of each week, we went to the commissary and brought home bags and bags of food.” (56)

26.binary ADJ 1: consisting of, indicating, or involving two 2: (mathematics) of or pertaining to a system of numerical notation to the base 2, in which each place of a number, expressed as 0 or 1“Sometimes he made me do my arithmetic homework in binary numbers because he said I needed to be challenged.” (58)

27.cathouse NOUN brothel“There were Christmas lights over the door all year round, and Mom said that was how you could tell it was a cathouse.” (62)

28.calcify VERB 1: (physiology) to make or become calcareous or bony; harden by the deposit of calcium salts 2: (geology) to harden by deposition of calcium carbonate 3: to make or become rigid or intransigent, as in a political position“I staggered out of the water and sat on the calcified rocks, my chest heaving.” (66)

29.wheedle VERB 1: to endeavor to influence (a person) by smooth, flattering, or beguiling words or acts <We wheedled him incessantly, but he would not consent.> 2: to persuade (a person) by such words or acts <She wheedled him into going with her.> 3: to obtain (something) by artful persuasions <I wheedled a new car out of my father.>“For some reason, she didn’t have it in her to say no to him. If she tried, he’d argue and wheedle and sulk and bully and plain wear her down.” (76)

30.shanghai VERB to enroll or obtain (a sailor) for the crew of a ship by unscrupulous means, as by force or the use of liquor or drugs“Brian had taken such a powerful dislike to Ginger that I realized she must have done something more than shanghai his comic book.” (79)

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