MOCKINGBIRD VOCAB

CONSULT

• Seek information from
• Ex. We were too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus.

UNSULLIED

• Spotlessly clean and fresh
• Atticus's office in the courthouse contained little more than a hat rack, a spittoon, a checkerboard and an unsullied code of Alabama.

SATISFACTORY

• Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment.
• Meeting requirements

TYRANNICAL

• Characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule
• She had been with us ever since Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical prescience as long as I could remember.

ABSENCE

• Failure to be present
• Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence.

REVELATION

• An enlightening or astonishing disclosure
• Dill had seen Dracula, a revelation that moved Jim to eye him with the beginning of respect.

CONCEDE

• Be willing to yield
• It was all right to shut him up, Mr.Radely conceded, but insisted that Boo not be charged with anything: he was not a criminal.

EMPLOY

• Put into service
• Nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr.Radely employed to keep Boo out of sight, but Jem figured that Mr.Radely kept him chained to the bed most of the time.

DECLINE

• Refuse to accept
• In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare.

FORAY

• A sudden short attack
• Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us, not waiting to see if his foray was successful.

MISERABLE

• Very unhappy
• We saw him off on the five o'clock bus and I was miserable without him.

CONDESCEND

• Do something that one considers to be below ones dignity
• Jem condescended to take me to school the first day, a job usually done by ones parents.

COMPEL

• Force somebody to do something
• Now that I was compelled to think about it, reading was something that just came to me.

EXPOUND

• Add details, as to an account or idea
• Atticus was expounding upon farm problems when Walter interrupted to ask if there was any molasses in the house.

ERRATIC

• Liable to sudden unpredictable change
• She was furious, and when she was furious Calpurnia's grammar became erratic.

CONTRADICT

• Prove negative, show to be false
• "There's some folks who don't eat like us," she whispered fiercely, "but you ain't called on to contradict 'em at the table when they don't.

HUMILIATION

• Strong feelings of embarrassment
• I retrieved my plate and finished dinner in the kitchen, thankful, though, that I was spared humiliation of facing them again.

AMIABLE

• Diffusing warmth and friendless
• He waited in amiable silence, and I sought to reinforce my position: "you never went to school and you do all right, so I'll stay home too.

EXCLUSIVE

• Not divided or shared with others
• He said that the Ewells were members of an exclusive society's made of Ewells.

WITHDRAW

• Remove something, as by lifting, pushing or taking off
• I stood on tiptoe, hastily looked around once more, reached into the hole, and withdrew two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers.

UNANIMOUS

• Incomplete agreement
• Mrs.Dubose lived two doors up the street from us, neighborhood opinion was unanimous that Mrs. Dubose was the meanest old woman who had ever lived.

ARBITRATE

• Act between parties with a view to reconciling differences
• Jem arbitrated, awarded me first push with an extra time for Dill, and I folded myself inside the tire.

INQUISITIVE

• Showing curiosity
• If he wanted to stay inside his own house he had the right to stay inside free from the attentions of inquisitive children, which was a mild term for the likes of us.

PECULIAR

• Beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
• What Mr. Radely might seem peculiar to us, but it was not peculiar to him.

RAMSHACKLE

• In deplorable condition
• The back of the Radely house was less inviting than the front: a ramshackle porch ran the width of the re were two doors and two dark windows between the doors