AP Lit Handmaids Tale Vocab

Pedantic

One who annoys others by correcting small errors, caring excessively about minor details, or emphasizing their own expertise especially in narrow or boring subjects.

Fraternize

To associate or form a friendship with someone, especially when one is not supposed to.

Covet

To want to have something very much, especially something that belongs to someone else.

Anachronism

Something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time.

Quagmire

A situation from which it is hard to escape.

Nondescript

Undistinguished or uninteresting; dull.

Demure

Characterized by shyness and modesty; reserved.

Effigy

A crude representation of someone disliked, used for purposes of ridicule.

Profusion

Abundance.

Approbation

Approval.

Ingratiate

To establish (oneself or someone else) in the favor or good graces of someone, usually by deliberate effort (followed by 'with').

Plaintively

Expressing sorrow or melancholy; mournful.

Peccadillo

A very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault.

Quailing

To shrink with fear.

Prodigal

Spending money or resources freely and recklessly; a person who leaves home and behaves recklessly, but later makes a repentant return.

Uncouth

Lacking good manners, refinement, or grace.

Filch

To steal.

Amalgamate

To combine, unite, or blend.

Abject

(Of a person or their behavior) completely without pride or dignity.

Penultimate

Next to last.

Insatiable

(Of an appetite or desire) impossible to satisfy.

Flippant

Frivolously disrespectful, shallow, characterized by levity.

Voracious

Craving or consuming large quantities of food.

Semaphore

A system of sending messages by holding the arms or two flags or poles in certain positions.

Precocious

Showing the qualities or abilities of an adult at an unusually early age.

Lassitude

A state of weariness accompanied by lack of energy.

Peremptory

Authoritative and expecting obedience.

Adroit

Skillful, practiced.

Sordid

The worst, most immoral sides of human nature; disgusting.

Infinitesimal

Minute and unimportant.