Great Gatsby vocab chap: 2-4

saunter

To walk about in an idle or leisurely manner; to stroll.

supercilious

Patronizingly haughty; exhibiting an attitude of arrogant superiority.

contiguous

Next to something in geographical space; adjacent.

vicinity

The area around or near a particular place.

indeterminate

Not able to be determined or stated in a precise way; vague.

countenance

The face as an expression of mood, emotion, or character; a facial expression that offers approval or moral support.

discreetly

Unobtrusively; done without drawing undue attention to oneself.

shiftlessness

Laziness or passivity; an unwillingness to work; a lack of ambition or drive.

strident

Unpleasantly loud or harsh.

incredulously

Done in a manner that conveys a reluctance to believe; skeptically.

repel

To drive away, repulse; to cause aversion or disgust.

console

To give comfort to someone, esp. after that person has suffered a disappointment.

toil

To engage in long and tiresome work; to labor with great effort and at long length.

gaudy

Tastelessly showy or extravagant; marked by a garish ornamentation that reflects bad taste.

permeate

To spread throughout an area; to diffuse through something.

vehemently

Done with passionate emotion; fervidly.

homogeneity

The quality of being made up of the same kind of people or things; the opposite of heterogeneity or diversity.

vacuous

Empty of ideas or content; lacking meaning or substance; hollow, superficial.

provincial

Of or related to the provinces or country life; having a narrow mind or limited outlook.

convivial

Fond of the pleasure of good company.

dissension

Disagreement that causes people to argue.

elude

To escape one's perception or understanding; to avoid being grasped.

resourcefulness

The ability to cope with a difficult situation; the ability to find solutions to difficult problems.

punctilious

Very careful about behaving properly or conducting oneself in accordance with social conventions.

disconcerting

Causing a person to lose their composure or equanimity; upsetting or troubling.

threadbare

Worn out by overuse; used so often that its interest or freshness has been exhausted; hackneyed, trite, or clichéd.

breeding

Good manners that result from training in the kinds of behavior expected from wealthy people.

denizen

Someone who frequents a particular place; a regular.

strained

Done with effort; not friendly and relaxed.

engrossed

Completely attentive to someone or something; immersed or absorbed, esp. in some activity.

dispense

To give out, distribute, or provide.

disembodied

Detached from the body; bodiless.