House of the Scorpion Vocabulary
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humefoggy2016 on May 21, 2012
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83 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 pilaging | to strip ruthlessly of money or goods by open violence, as in war; plunder: The barbarians pillaged every conquered city |
| vanity | excessive pride in one's appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements |
| ecology | the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment |
| penance | a sacrament, as in the Roman Catholic Church, consisting in a confession of sin, made with sorrow and with the intention of amendment, followed by the forgiveness of the sin |
| sham | something that is not what it purports to be; a spurious imitation; fraud or hoax |
| DNA | A nucleic acid that carries the genetic information in the cell and is capable of self-replication and synthesis of RNA. DNA consists of two long chains of nucleotides twisted into a double helix and joined by hydrogen bonds between the complementary bases adenine and thymine or cytosine and guanine. The sequence of nucleotides determines individual hereditary characteristics. |
| disssmisive | indicating a lack of interest or approbation; scornful; disdainful |
| foxglove | pinkish-purple flowers and leaves that are the source of the drug digitalis |
| mercenary | a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army |
| grotto | a cave or cavern |
| plankton | microscopic animal or plant life found floating in the ocean; food for fish |
| earnest | showing depth and sincerity of feeling |
| communal | used or shared in common by everyone in a group |
| purgatory | any condition or place of temporary punishment, suffering |
| rancid | having a rank, unpleasant, stale smell or taste |
| crestfallen | dejected; dispirited; discouraged |
| drone | a person who lives on the labor of others; parasitic loafer; the male of the honeybee and other bees, stingless and making no honey |
| lackey | a servile follower; a footman or liveried manservant. |
| exhorting | to urge, advise, or caution earnestly; admonish urgently |
| euphoria | a feeling of happiness, confidence, or well-being |
| mausoleum | a burial place for the bodies or remains of many individuals, often of a single family, usually in the form of a small building |
| copal | any of several brittle aromatic yellow to red resins of recent or fossil origin, obtained from various tropical trees and used in certain varnishes |
| holographic | related to hologram, a truethree-dimensional image of the subject |
| mutiny | rebellion against any authority |
| squalid | foul and repulsive, as from lack of care or cleanliness; neglected and filthy |
| capitalist | a person who has capital, especially extensive money, invested in business enterprises |
| opium | the dried, condensed juice of a poppy that has a narcotic effect; a narcotic substance, poisonous in large doses |
| fervor | great warmth and earnestness of feeling: to speak with great fervor |
| domain | the territory governed by a single ruler or government; realm |
| furtively | done surreptitiously or by stealth; secret: a furtive glance |
| enraptured | to move to rapture; delight beyond measure: We were enraptured by her singing. |
| oblivion | the state of being completely forgotten or unknown: a former movie star now in oblivion |
| aristocrat | a member of a class or group of people considered to be superior, as through education, ability, wealth, or social prestige |
| harangue | a member of a class or group of people considered to be superior, as through education, ability, wealth, or social prestige |
| ensconced | to settle securely or snugly: I found her in the library, ensconced in an armchair. |
| ashen | - extremely pale; drained of color; pallid: His face was ashen. |
| jovial | characterized by a hearty, joyous humor or a spirit of good-fellowship: a wonderfully jovial host |
| mewling | crying, as a baby, young child, or the like; whimpering |
| cravenly | cowardly; contemptibly timid |
| servile | slavishly submissive or obsequious; fawning: servile flatterers. |
| grovel | to crawl with the face downward and beg, especially in abject humility, fear |
| laudanum | any liquid in which opium is the chief ingredient |
| rasping | harsh; grating: a rasping voice |
| paranoid | suffering from excessive suspicion of the motives of others |
| theological | related to the study of divine things or religious truth; divinity |
| indignation | strong displeasure at something considered unjust, offensive, insulting, or base; righteous anger |
| abomination | anything abominable; anything greatly disliked or abhorred |
| wraith | a visible spirit or ghost |
| decamped | to depart quickly, secretly, or unceremoniously: The band of thieves decamped in the night. |
| malevolence | ill will; malice; hatred |
| nationalists | a member of a political group advocating or fighting for national independence |
| ethics | moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence. |
| array | any multi cellular animal in a developmental stage preceding birth or hatching |
| embryo | any multi cellular animal in a developmental stage preceding birth or hatching |
| chupacabra | Spanish for 'goat-sucker', from its attacks and draining the blood of the victims; said to exist in parts of Mexico and on Puerto Rico. Physical descriptions of the creature vary. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1990 in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile. It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail. Biologists and wildlife management officials view the Chupacabra as a contemporary legend. |
| Aztalan | the American Southwest, specifically the territory of northern Mexico ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848; the term is used especially by Chicano-rights activists |
| consternation | a sudden, alarming amazement or dread that results in utter confusion; dismay |
| shard | a fragment, esp. of broken earthenware |
| rivulet | a small stream; brook |
| scorpion | an arachnid widely found in warmer parts of the world, having a long, narrow, segmented tail that terminates in a venomous sting |
| clone | a cell, cell product, or organism that is genetically identical to the unit or individual from which it was derived |
| warren | a building or area containing many tenants in crowded quarters |
| tetanus | an infectious, often fatal disease caused by a specific bacterium that enters the body through wounds and characterized by respiratory paralysis |
| La Llorona | is Spanish for "the weeping woman," and is a popular legend in Spanish-speaking cultures in the Americas, with many versions. The basic version is that La Llorona was a beautiful woman who killed her children to be with the man that she loved and was subsequently rejected by him. He might have been the children's father, and left their mother for another woman, or he might have been a man she loved, but who was uninterested in a relationship with a woman with children, and whom she thought she could win if the children were out of the way. She drowned the children then killed herself, and is doomed to wander, searching for her children, always weeping. In some cases, according to the tale, she will kidnap wandering children. |
| covey | a group, set, or company |
| senile | showing a decline or deterioration of physical strength or mental functioning, esp. short-term memory and alertness, as a result of old age or disease |
| disconsolate | hopelessly unhappy; inconsolable |
| bleating | the cry of a sheep, goat, or calf |
| taut | tightly drawn; tense; not slack |
| cower | to crouch, as in fear or shame |
| trundle | to roll along |
| cache | anything so hidden: The enemy never found our cache of food. |
| disarray | disorder; confusion |
| retching | to vomit |
| delusion | a false belief or opinion |
| burly | large in bodily size; stout; sturdy |
| typhoid | an infectious, often fatal, disease, usually of the summer months, characterized by intestinal inflammation and ulceration, caused by the typhoid bacillus, which is usually introduced with food or drink |
| revulsion | a strong feeling of repugnance, distaste, or dislike |
| loathing | strong dislike or disgust; intense aversion |
| lout | an awkward, stupid person; clumsy, ill-mannered boor; oaf |
| guieless | sincere; honest; straightforward; frank |
| weevil | a beetle which has the head prolonged into a snout and which is destructive to nuts, grain, fruit, etc. |
| wheedle | to endeavor to influence (a person) by smooth, flattering, or beguiling words or acts |
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