Vocab ELA

Amends - make minor changes in order to be fairer

Depot - a place where buses or trains or other vehicles are housed

Timid - easily frightened

Dormant - temporarily inactive or imperative

Sober - make or become more serious, sensitive, and solemn

Painstaking - done with or employing great care and thoroughness

Wiley - tricky

Plight - a dangerous, difficult, or otherwise unfortunate situation

Disposition - a person’s inherent qualities of mind or character

Codger - an elderly man

Jubilant - feeling or expressing great happiness and triumph

Heedless - showing a reckless lack of care or attention

Monotonous - dull, tedious, repetitious; lacking in variety and interest

Carcass - the dead body of an animal

Haggard - looking exhausted and unwell

Entrails - a person or animal’s intestines or internal

Crude - constructed in a rudimentary or makeshift way

Reared - raised itself upright on its hind legs

Bowed - cause to bend

Pangs - a sudden sharp pain or painful emotion

Sheen - shine or cause to shine softly

Allotted - assigned or distributed as a portion, share, or lot

Nestled - settle or lie comfortably within or against something

Grove - a small wood, orchard, or group of trees

Aromatic - having a pleasant, distinctive, smell

Currents - stream (referring to water)

Switch - a still - green, thin branch freshly cut from a large shrub or tree

Corncrib - a bin or ventilated building for storing ears of corn

Trapping - the use of a device to remotely catch and often kill an animal

Switchings - beat or flick with or as with a switch

Skin my game - to have incurred risk by being involved in achieving a goal

Tacked - fasten or fix in place with tacks

Mister Ringtail - the raccoon Billy is determined to catch

Festered - become septic; suppurate

Hoeing - a tool used to dig up plants, weeds, etc.

Mulled - think about deeply and at length

Haunches - a leg and loin of an animal, such as a deer, as food

Scampered - run with quick light steps, especially through fear or excitement

Eaves - the part of a roof that meets or overhangs the walls of a building

Tramped - walk heavily or noisily

Hitching Rack - a fixed horizontal rail to which a horse or team can be fastened to prevent staying

Mail Buggy - a delivery vehicle

Prowling - move around restlessly and stealthily

Riffle - turn over something, especially the pages of a book, quickly and casually

Provisions - providing

Harnesses - a set of straps and fittings by which a horse or other drafted animal is fastened to a cart, plow, etc.

Bridles - take offense / headgear

Sorghum - a widely cultivated cereal native to warm regions

Teeter - totters - a see saw

Gritted - move with or make a grating sound

Britches - trousers

Water Moccasin - a snake

Outskirts of town - outer edge of a city or town

Runt - an animal smaller than average

The Ozarks - mountains typically used for hunting

Querying - ask or put into question

Tin - a silvery - white metal

Bore - drill a hole into something

Peculiarity - odd

Thimble - a short metal tube or ferrule used for sewing

Squalling - cry noisily or continuously

Canebrake - a forest / snake

Matted mass - covered with a dense growth or tangled mass

Barred - closed or secured

Frizzle - the sound of frying

Cross - angry or annoyed

Undermined - weaken / wear away

Stout - strong and thick

Leverage - to get hold of a lever

Bawling treed - a coonhound barking at the base of a tree if it has chased an animal up it

Hog lard - a white solid / semisolid fat obtained by rendering fatty port

Limber - lithe or supple / warm up

Jarred - shake/irritate

Hog - Tie - secure by fastening together the hands and feet, for animals all four legs

Prowled - move around restlessly and stealthily

Bundled - push or carry forcibly / bunch / pack

Whoppers - unusually large / blatant lie

Spellbound - fascinate

Predicament - awkward situation

Cyclone - superstorm

Trough - long narrow open container

Ventilating - cause air to enter and circulate freely

Dirt dauber - the nest made by female wasps, which consist of mud molded into place

Non - accounts - worthless or of little use or importance

Disposition - a person’s inherent qualities of mind and character

Begrudgingly - reluctantly or resentfully

Leering - looking or gazing in a lascivious or unpleasant way

Mallards - a common duck

Slough - a swamp

Wallow - roll about or lie relaxed in mud or water

Surpassed - exceed; be greater than

Taut - stretched or pulled tight

Chicken - livered - easily frightened; cowardly

Model T - Ford - a car

Jubilant - feeling or expressing great happiness a triumph

Barring - except for; if not for

Reckon - calculate / think / judge

Dreaded - regard with great fear and anticipation

Grub - a bug / dig

Justly - fairly / justifiably