Benevolent
(adjective) well-meaning and kindly
Example: "The sun fell across them and across the fire escape with a high, benevolent indifference..."
- From "The Rockpile"
Loiter
(verb) stand or wait around idly without apparent purpose
Example: "Below them, men and women, and boys and girls, sinners all, loitered; sometimes one of the church-members passed and saw them and waved."
- From "The Rockpile"
Latent
(adjective) (of a quality or state) existing but not yet developed or manifest; hidden; concealed
Example: "The passage of one of the redeemed made them consider, however vacantly, the wickedness of the street, their own latent wickedness in sitting where they sat..."
- From "The Rockpile"
Perdition
(noun) the action of propitiating or appeasing a god, spirit, or person
Example: "His eyes were struck alive, unmoving, blind with malevolence—she felt, like the pull of the earth at her feet, his longing to witness her perdition."
- From "The Rockpile"
Propitiation
(noun) the action of propitiating or appeasing a god, spirit, or person
Example: "Again, as though it might be propitiation, she moved the child in her arms."
- From "The Rockpile"
Helpmeet
(noun) a helpful companion or partner, especially one's husband or wife
Example: "And at this his eyes changed, he looked at Elizabeth, the mother of his children, the helpmeet given by the Lord."
- From "The Rockpile"
Sophisticate
(noun) 1. one who talks or reasons in an impressively complex and educated manner
2. one who is misled or corrupted by sophistry
Example: "These three tended to consider themselves sophisticates, no longer, like the old folks, at the mercy of the love or the wrath of God."
- From "The Outing"
Frivolous
(adjective) not having any serious purpose or value
Example: "And for weeks in the future the outing would provide interesting conversation. They did not consider this frivolous."
- From "The Outing"
Tract
(noun) a short treatise in pamphlet form, typically on a religious subject
Example: "Last year Sister McCandless had held an impromptu service in the unbelieving subway car; she played the tambourine and sang and exhorted sinners and passed through the train distributing tracts."
- From "The Outing"
Ostentatious
(adjective) characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice
Example: "Not everyone had found this admirable, to some it seemed that Sister McCandless was being a little ostentatious."
- From "The Outing"
Exhibitionistic
(adjective) behaving extravagantly in order to attract attention
Example: "The children, bored with the familiar spectacle, had already drawn apart and amused themselves by loud cries and games that were no less exhibitionistic than that being played by their parents."
- From "The Outing"
Asperity
(noun) harshness of tone or manner
Example: "From his knees on the deck he called back (putting into his voice as much asperity, as much fury and hatred as he dared)..."
- From "The Outing"
Iniquity
(noun) immoral or grossly unfair behavior
Example: "Then, in that moment, each of them might have mounted with wings like eagles far past the sordid persistence of the flesh, the depthless iniquity of the heart, the doom of hours and days and weeks..."
Clabber
(noun) milk that has naturally clotted on souring
Example: "Don’t let anybody ever tell you America hasn’t got a culture. Our culture is as thick as clabber milk."
- From "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon"
Incorrigible
(adjective) (of a person or their tendencies) not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed
Example: "The moral of the story, as she told it, was that women were weak, men incorrigible, and le bon Dieu appallingly clever."
- From "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon"
Fete
(verb) honor or entertain (someone) lavishly
Example: "You’re going to be feted, like an international movie star."
- From "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon"
Truculent
(adjective) eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant
Example: "He would come in, breathless and contrite—or else, truculently, not contrite—probably a little drunk, probably quite hungry."
- From "Come Out the Wilderness"
Maternal
(adjective) of or relating to a mother, especially during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth
Example: "She thought of Paul sleeping while she typed and became outraged, then thought of his painting and became maternal."
-From "Come Out The Wilderness"
Vindictive
(adjective) having or showing a strong or unreasonable desire for revenge
Example: "Their ambitions vitiated in them what her father called the “true” religion, and what remained of this religion, which was principally vindictiveness, prevented them from understanding anything whatever about those concrete Northern realities that made them at once so obsequious and so venomous."
- From "Come Out the Wilderness"
Vitiate
(verb) spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of
Example: "Their ambitions vitiated in them what her father called the “true” religion, and what remained of this religion, which was principally vindictiveness, prevented them from understanding anything whatever about those concrete Northern realities that made them at once so obsequious and so venomous."
- From "Come Out the Wilderness"
