Vocabulary for Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Chapter 1)

privy

Aware of or informed about, esp. something not generally known.

feign

To pretend to be something; to act or give a false impression of being some way.

restless

Possessed by a feeling of nervous agitation or dissatisfaction; unable to relax.

colossal

Enormous; astonishingly large; resembling a colossus.

fractious

Full of anger and hard to control.

intimate

To communicate indirectly; to hint at or suggest something.

buoy

To keep afloat; to support or uplift; to raise the spirits of.

extemporize

To improvise verbally; to speak without having planned one’s remarks.

devoid

Empty of something; lacking or void of something; completely without something.

sedative

Tending to calm or soothe; tending to reduce a person’s nervous excitement.

corroborate

To support with evidence; to help prove something by offering evidence.