Jenny's Vocabulary

1.       “Brent marvelled that people could publicly root for such perennial losers.”
- constantly recurring, or lasting for an indefinite time
=The basketball team was on a losing streak for 3 weeks in a row now and I wondered if that would occur perennially.

2.       “The human chess game will commence in thirty-minutes.”
- to begin happening, or begin something
= The human chess game will begin or commence in thirty-minutes

3.       “He tried to fight through the accordion music and the fog in his brain.
- a musical instrument with a keyboard or buttons on one side, buttons on the other, and a bellows in the middle that forces air through metal reeds
=The instrumental accordion was playing and now she wished the music would never stop.

4.       “Two days later the probation officers called”
- The supervision of the behaviour of a young or first-time criminal offender by a probation officer
=The young miscreant was sentenced to 6 months probation for attempting grand theft auto.

5.       “Miss Gill repeated that restitutions weren’t imposed, but accepted voluntarily by the officers.”
- the return of something to its rightful owner
= The school was having a restitution for lost items in the past year.

6.       “Brent wondered what his own eulogy would sound like.”
- a speech or piece of writing that praises somebody or something very highly, especially a tribute to somebody who has recently died
=Katherine eulogy to her mother who was fighting cancer was beautiful and emotional.

7.       “It would also give him a chance to do penance.”
- self-punishment or an act of religious devotion performed to show sorrow for having committed a sin
= I broke the vase and now I am going to do penance by staying in my room

8.       “Brent hefted his pack from the truck and stood on the side walk after the cab left.”
- to lift up something heavy, especially with a burst of effort
=He hefted the luggage but even that was too heavy for the young boy.

9.       “He reconnoitred his father’s long handsome face and studied the wrinkles, fine as if scratched in with a burin feeding into his eyes.”
- to explore an area in order to gather information
= I reconnoitred my dog and saw she has brown eyes.

10.   “Her wavy hair flowed exuberantly over her shoulders”
- growing in great abundance or profusion
=The flower bud grew exuberantly into a beautiful rose.

11.   “He followed, emboldened by the alcohol to try to overcome her coolness.”
- to give someone more confidence to do something
= I emboldened my dog to walk across the bridge.

12.   “He added drop by drop to his store of perseverance, which supplied both task.”
- steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks
= She continued to study hard for her math test because she believed perseverance would help her be more confident in completing the test with the least amount of mistakes as possible.

13.   “The book’s previous owner had been there before him, leaving penciled annotations like footprints”
- The addition of explanatory or critical comments to a text
= The annotation showed the steps in completing the task assigned.

14.    “...He instinctively stepped forward, bent over the book, studied the microscopic writing-then caught a flash of movement and turned.
      -relating to, prompted by, or based on a strong natural impuls
      =The bear was staring right at me and I instinctively knew to remain calm and not run away so I stood absolutely still until the bear turned around and walked away.

15.   “He sipped his coffee, fought back a grimace, and reached for the sugar bowl.”
      - a contorted twisting of the face that expresses disgust or pain
       = Luke could see the grimace on his sister’s face when he asked her to clean his room.

16.    “He studied the diagrams apprehensively.”     - worried that something bad will happen

       = She looked at the unstable table apprehensively, praying that it would not topple over, taking valuable items with it.

17.   “It was as big as a box kite and mounted on a pole, gesticulating wildly with moving arms, vanes , and wheel.”
    - to move the arms or hands when speaking, or express something with movements of the arms or  hands
= I explained to my mom what had happened, gesticulating that her jewellery box had been stolen.

18.   “He examined the pattern embroidered.”
 - transitive and intransitive verb to do decorative needlework, or decorate fabric with needlework
 = I just finish sewing and then I embroidered jewels on it.

19.   “He scrutinized her smile from close range.”
 - to examine somebody or something closely and carefully
= She scrutinized her dog because she thought she saw a scar on the dog’s face.

20.   “He studied the clouds calligraphy”
- beautiful writing done using special pens or brushes
= He looked over the piece of calligraphy carefully and not quite understanding the message contained, he brought it to a college professor to translate it for him.