Illustrated glossary of vocabulary

1. Wretched
Adj. Of very poor quality or condition.
“They were in a wretched state, worn out and
worn down.”

2. Feigned
(v.) not genuine
“Pike, the malingerer, who, in his lifetime of
deceit, had often successfully feigned a hurt leg,
was now limping in earnest.”
-feigned money

3. Recuperation
(n.) gradual healing (through rest)
after sickness or injury
“There was no power of recuperation left, no
reserve strength to call upon.”
-this person is
recuperating,
probably after
injury

4. Salient
(adj.) striking; conspicuous
“This belt was the most salient thing about
him.”

5. Slipshod
(adj.) slovenly in appearance; shabby; seedy
“When driven with his mates to the new owners' camp, Buck
saw a slipshod and slovenly affair, tent half-stretched,
dishes unwashed, everything in disorder….”

6. Slovenly
(adj.) untidy especially in personal
appearance
“They were slack in all things, without
order or discipline. It took them half the
night to pitch a slovenly camp ….”

7. Unwieldy
(adj.) not easily managed, handled
or used
“The overloaded and unwieldy sled
forged ahead, Buck and his mates
struggling frantically under the rain of
blows.”

8. Superfluous
(adj.) being more than is sufficient or
required; unnecessary or needless.
“And so it went, the inexorable elimination of
the superfluous. Mercedes cried when her
clothes-bags were dumped on the ground
and article after article was thrown out.”

9. Formidable
(adj.) causing fear, apprehension, or dread
“This accomplished, the outfit, though cut in
half, was still a formidable bulk.”

10. Commence
(v.) To begin, to start
“...bringing the day nearer when underfeeding would
commence.”

11. Voracious
“The outsider dogs, whose digestions had not
been trained by chronic famine to make the
most of little, had voracious appetites.”
Adj. Having a great appetite

12. Wrangled
(verb) to argue or dispute, esp. in a
noisy or angry manner.
“Charles and Hal wrangled whenever
Mercedes gave them a chance.”

13. Copious
(adj.) large in quantity or number;
abundant; plentiful.”
“And that Charles's sister's tale-bearing tongue
should be relevant to the building of a Yukon
fire, was apparent only to Mercedes, who
disburdened herself of copious opinions upon
that topic….”

14. Perambulating
(adj.) strolling or walking around
“They were perambulating skeletons.”

15. Fissure
(noun) - a long narrow depression in the
earth’s surface; a long narrow opening
“Air holes formed, fissures sprang and
spread apart, while thin sections of ice fell
through bodily into the river.”

16. Sneering
(verb) A contemptuous facial expression, sound,
or statement.
"They told us up above that the bottom was dropping out of the trail
and that the best thing for us to do was to lay over," Hal said in
response to Thornton's warning to take no more chances on the
rotten ice. ‘They told us we couldn't make White River, and here
we are.’ This last with a sneering ring of triumph in it.” (p.70)

17. Monosyllabic
(adj) containing only one syllable or
characterized by monosyllables
“He whittled and listened, gave monosyllabic replies, and when
it was asked, terse advice. He knew the breed, and he gave his
advice in the certainty that it would not be followed.” (p.84)
Right
Wrong YES
NO

18. Impending
Adj. Close in time; about to occur
“He had a vague feeling of impending doom.”

19. Disclosed
Verb: Made known to the public information that
was previously only known to few people, or that
was meant to be kept a secret.
“By the time his search had disclosed, nothing
more than many bruises and the state of terrible
starvation, the sled was a quarter mile away.”