Unit 11 Vocabulary

Brevity

• n. shortness
• Syn: terseness, pithiness
• Ant: verbosity, long-windedness, prolixity
• Liesel should use Brevity.

Comport

• v. to conduct or bear oneself, behave; to be in agreement
• Syn: agree, concur
• Liesel must comport in public and never speak against Hitler.

Concise

• adj. expressing much in a few words
• Syn: brief, succinct, terse, pithy, to the point
• Ant: wordy, verbose, long-winded, prolix
• Liesel, at first, was very much concise with the Hubermans.

Demure

• adj. sober or serious in manner, modest
• Syn: shy, sedate, seemly, decorous
• Ant: forward, assertive, immodest
• Rosa always speaks in a demure manner.

Depreciation

• n. a lessening in value; a belittling
• Syn: cheapening, lowering
• Ant: increase, appreciation, enhancement
• The depreciation of Jews in this time is horrible.

Deterioate

• v. to lower in quality or value; to wear away
• Syn: worsen, decline, degenerate, debase
• Ant: fix up, enhance
• Han's customers slowly deteriorated away because he had not joined the Nazi Party.

Divulge

• v. to tell, reveal; to make public
• Syn: disclose, impart, spill the beans, "leak"
• Ant: hide, conceal, cover up, secrete, keep under wraps
• The Hubermanns cannot afford to divulge the idea of their "guest".

Enlightened

• adj. free from ignorance and false ideas; possessing sound understanding
• Syn: knowing, aware, cultivated
• Ant: ignorant, unaware, untaught, benighted
• Reading books enlightened Leisel and gave her the hunger for knowledge.

Forestall

• v. to prevent by asking first
• Syn: hinder, thwart, preclude, ward off
• Ant: welcome, accept, allow, submit, abide by
• Hans and Rosa forestalled Leisel from telling anyone about Max by keeping her home sick.

Garble

• v. to distort in a way as to make unintelligible
• Syn: jumble, confuse, misrepresent
• Ant: elucidate, articulate
• Most of the books that were burned were garbled.

Proponent

• n. one who puts forward a proposal; one who supports a cause or belief
• Syn: supporter, advocate, exponent
• Ant: opponent, critic, foe, adversary
• The proponent in this book is death because he supports the book with evidence.

Quaver

• v. too shake, tremble; to trill
• Syn: vibrate, shiver, quake, palpitate
• Liesel quavered at the sight of the mayor's wife at first.

Recoil

• v. to spring back, shrink; n. the act of springing back
• Syn: v. flinch; n. kickback
• Ant: advance, proceed, gain ground
• Max recoiled after finally eating some food.

Recoup

• v. to make up for, regain
• Syn: recover, retrieve
• Ant: lose, default, forfeit, kiss good-bye
• The mayor's wife had to recoup Liesel for the laundry.

Reek

• n. an unpleasant smell; v. to give off unpleasant smells; to give a strong impression
• Syn: n. stench; v. stink, smell
• Ant: n. perfume, fragrance, bouquet
• Max must have reeked after not bathing for over a week.

Relentless

• adj. unyielding, harsh, without pity
• Syn: stern, merciless, persistent
• Ant: merciful, accommodating, indulgent
• Rosa's punishments were sometimes relentless.

Rivulet

• n. a small stream
• Syn: creek, rill
• Rudy and Liesel both go swimming in the rivulet in the summer.

Squander

• v. to spend foolishly, waste
• Syn: misspend, dissipate
• Ant: save, economize, hoard, squirrel away
• Liesel and Rudy find money on the street and squander it on candy instead of saving it.

Staccato

• adj. detached or disconnected in sound or style
• Syn: abrupt
• Ant: comtinuous, flowing
• Hans was staccato from the nazi party.

Statute

• n. a law
• Syn: rule, enactment
• According to the Nazi statute, you could not own books that spoke of Jews.