Lord of the Flies - Shortened Vocab
proffer: offer "The fat boy waited to be asked his name in turn but his proffer of acquaintance was not made.”
enmity: ill-will "He [Ralph] trotted through the sand, enduring the sun's enmity, crossed the platform and found his scattered clothes.”
strident: harsh and loud "The note boomed again; and then at his firmer pressure, the note, fluking up an octave, became a strident blare more penetrating than before.”
incredulous: unbelieving: skeptical "They [Sam and Eric] were twins, and the eye was shocked and incredulous at such cheery duplication."
furtive: sly, devious "There was a slight, furtive boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy."
gesticulated: gestured with one's hands "He gesticulated widely.”
clambering: climbing, scrambling "Ralph was already clambering over the first smashed swathes of the scar.”
officious: too eager to serve or advise "There was pushing and pulling and officious cries."
avidly: eagerly, with passion "Then the trail, the frustration, claimed him again and he searched the ground avidly."
inscrutable: not easily understood "Jack lifted his head and stared at the inscrutable masses of creeper that lay across the trail."
vicissitudes: difficulties or hardships "Jack stood there, streaming with sweat, streaked with brown earth, stained by all the vicissitudes of a day's hunting.”
contrite: sincerely sorry for shortcomings "Simon's contrite face appeared in the hole.”
rapt: completely absorbed "Ralph gazed bewildered at his [Jack's] rapt face.”
blatant: noisy; clamorous "Strange things happened at midday. The glittering sea rose up, moved apart in planes of blatant impossibility..."
generic: without distinction; in general "The smaller boys were know no by the generic title of 'littlun.'"
chastisement: punishment "In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand."
myriad: innumerable "Like a myriad of tiny teeth in a saw, the transparencies (baby crabs) came scavenging over the beach."
malevolently: with hostility "Piggy grabbed and put on the glasses. He looked malevolently at Jack.”
jeeringly: mockingly "...remembering that first enthusiastic exploration as though it were part of a brighter childhood, he smiled jeeringly."
effigy: representation "At first he was a silent effigy of sorrow; but then the lamentation rose out of him.”
interminable: seemingly without end "An interminable dawn faded the stars out, and at last light, sad and gray, filtered into the shelter."
brandishing: waving about in a threatening manner "Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife."
sagely: wisely "Everybody agreed [with Ralph] sagely.”
sanctity: holiness; inviolability "The wood he fetched was close at hand, a fallen tree on the platform that they did not need for the assembly, yet to the others the sanctity of the platform had protected even what was useless there.”
demure: modest "Each of them [Jack & Roger] wore the remains of a black cap and ages ago they had stood in two demure rows and their voices had been the song of angels.”
fervor: intensity "If Jack was astonished by their fervor he did not show it.”
demented: insane "Piggy and Ralph under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society."
ensconce: conceal "At first the twisted stems, ensconce himself so deep that only a crawler like himself could come through, and that crawler would be jabbed."
Critical Terms