Glossary of Terms
Acquiesce: to accept, comply, or submit tacitly or passively
Ardent: characterized by warmth of feeling typically expressed in eager zealous support or activity
Barrow: a cart with a shallow box body, two wheels, and shafts for pushing it
Befit: to be proper or becoming to
Betroth: to promise to marry, to give in marriage
Cauldron: a large kettle or boiler
Clamber: to climb awkwardly (as by scrambling)
Consternation: amazement or dismay that hinders or throws into confusion
Despondent: having lost all or nearly all hope, a deep dejection arising from a conviction of the uselessness of further effort
Firewagon: The method of transportation that takes Wang Lung and his family to the South. A steam engine. "[W]agons, chained one to the other and drawn neither by man nor beast, but by a machine beathing forth fire and water like a dragon." (91)
Frugal: characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources
Fruition: the state of bearing fruit
Girdle: an article of dress encircling the body usually at the waist
Gourmand: who is excessively fond of eating and drinking
Haggard: having a worn or emaciated appearance
Harlot: a prostitute
Hoe: any of various implements for tilling, mixing, or raking; especially an implement with a thin flat blade on a long handle used especially for cultivating, weeding, or loosening the earth around plants
Imperturbable: marked by extreme calm, impassivity, and steadiness
Importunate: troublesomely urgent, overly persistent in request or demand
Impudent: marked by contemptuous or cocky boldness or disregard of others
Locust: a migratory grasshopper often traveling in vast swarms and stripping the areas passed of all vegetation, cicada
Malignant: evil in nature, influence, or effect
Moat: a deep and wide trench around the rampart of a fortified place (as a castle) that is usually filled with water
Obeisance: a movement of the body made in token of respect or submission, acknowledgment of another's superiority or importance
Petulant: insolent or rude in speech or behavior
Ricksha: a small covered 2-wheeled vehicle usually for one passenger that is pulled by one man
Scythe: an implement used for mowing (as grass) and composed of a long curving blade fastened at an angle to a long handle
Tarry: to delay or be tardy in acting or doing, to linger in expectation
Unctuous: fatty, oily, smooth and greasy in texture or appearance
ClassicNote on The Good Earth
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