vocabulary for the red badge of courage
DESCRIPTION
Vocabulary words drawn from The Red Badge of Courage, organized by chapter. Each word is used in a contextual sentence, followed by a definition.TRANSCRIPT
The Red Badge of Courage
Vocabulary
The Red Badge of Courage
VocabularyChapters 1-2
Use clues in the following sentences combined with your prior knowledge,
to make informed guesses about what the underlined words mean.
For a time he was obliged to labor to make himself believe.
Obliged: to constrain by physical, moral, or legal force
Others spoke of tattered and eternally hungry men who fired despondent powders.
Despondent: feelingor showing extreme discouragement, dejection, or depression
Or, on the other hand, he might be a man heretofore doomed to peace and obscurity, but, inreality, made to shine in war.
Obscurity: the state of being shrouded in or hidden by darkness; not able to be clearly seen or easily distinguished
As he looked all about him and pondered upon the mystic gloom, he began to believe that at any moment the ominous distance might be aflare and the rolling crashes of an engagement come to his ears.
Ominous: foreboding or foreshadowing evil
He was despondent and sullen, and threw shifting glances about him.
Sullen: gloomily or resentfully silent or repressed
The youth, considering himself as separated from the others, was saddened by the blithe and merry speeches that went from rank to rank.
Blithe: of a happy lighthearted character or disposition
The young girl, with pink cheeks and shining eyes, stood like a dauntless statue.
Dauntless: not made afraid; not discouraged
"No, I ain't," exclaimed the loud solder indignantly; "and I didn't say I was the bravest manin the world, neither.
Indignantly: filled with anger aroused by something unjust, unworthy, or mean
The Red Badge of Courage
VocabularyChapters 3-5
Use clues in the following sentences combined with your prior knowledge,
to make informed guesses about what the underlined words mean.
There was a sudden change from the ponderous infantry of theory to the light and speedyinfantry of practice.
Ponderous: unwieldy or clumsy because of weight and size
A house standing placidly in different fields had to him an ominous look
Placidly: serenely or calmly free of interruption or disturbance
The shadows of the woods were formidable.
Formidable: causing fear, dread, or apprehension
With the passionate song of the bullets and the banshee shrieks of shells were mingled loud catcalls and bits of facetious advice concerning places of safety..
Facetious: joking or jesting often inappropriately
He suddenly lost concern for himself, and forgot to look at a menacing fate.
Menacing: : to make a show of intention to harm
If he had thought the regiment was about to be annihilated perhaps he could have amputated himself from it.
Annihilated: destroyed; caused to cease to exist
He developed the acute exasperation of a pestered animal, a well-meaning cow worried by dogs.
Exasperation: a feeling of irritation or annoyance or anger
They lay twisted in fantastic contortions. Arms were bent and heads were turned in incredible ways.
Contortions: violent twistings into a strained shape or expression
The Red Badge of Courage
VocabularyChapters 6-9
Use clues in the following sentences combined with your prior knowledge,
to make informed guesses about what the underlined words mean.
The red, formidable difficulties of war had been vanquished.
Vanquished: being overcome in battle : subdued completely
Into the youth's eyes there came a look that one can see in the orbs of a jaded horse.
Orbs: eyes, spherical objects
The men there seemed to be in conventional moods, altogether unaware of the impendingannihilation.
Impending: being about to occur
Perhaps the general, unable to comprehend chaos, might call upon him for information.
Chaos: disorder, confusion, an unpredictable state of things
For a time he was obliged to labor to make himself believe.
It suddenly occurred to the youth that the fight in which he had been was, after all, butperfunctory popping.
Perfunctory: characterized by lacking in interest or enthusiasm; characterized by routine or superficiality
The sergeant, taking not of this, gave pause to his elaborate history while he administered asardonic comment. "Be keerful, honey, you'll be a-ketchin' flies," he said.
Sardonic: : disdainfully or skeptically humorous
He became again the grim, stalking specter of a soldier.
Specter: something that haunts or perturbs the mind
Then it was shaken by a prolonged ague. He stared into space.
Ague: a fever (as malaria) marked by paroxysms of chills, fever, and sweating that recur at regular intervals
Pronunciation: ā-gyü
The Red Badge of Courage
VocabularyChapters 10-13
Use clues in the following sentences combined with your prior knowledge,
to make informed guesses about what the underlined words mean.
From the heaving tangle issued exhortations, commands, imprecations.
Imprecations: curses
Avoiding the obstructions gave it the sinuous movement of a serpent.
Sinuous: a serpentine or wavy form
He searched about in his mind for an adequate malediction for the indefinite cause, the thingupon which men turn the words of final blame.
Malediction: curse, speak evil of
4. In a defeat there would be a roundabout vindication of himself. He thought it would prove, in a manner, that he had fled early because of his superior powers of perception.
Vindication: justification against a denial or censure
They were heedless of his appeals. They did not seem to see him.
Heedless: careless, paying no attention
There was a mighty altercation.
Altercation: a noisy, heated, angry dispute
. . . then he heard a cheerful and audacious whistling as the man strode away.
Audacious: intrepidly daring, adventurous, recklessly bold
After the reproof the youth said no more.
Reliance: something or someone depended on
The Red Badge of Courage
VocabularyChapters 14-17
Use clues in the following sentences combined with your prior knowledge,
to make informed guesses about what the underlined words mean.
There was about him now a fine reliance.
Reproof: criticism for a fault
The youth was quite disconcerted at this surprising reception of his remarks.
Disconcerted: to throw into confusion, to disturb the composure of
The latter felt immensely superior to his friend, but he inclined to condescension.
Condescension: voluntary descent from one's rank or dignity in relations with an inferior
He presently began a long and intricate denunciation of the commander of the forces.
Denunciation: a public condemnation; an act of denouncing
Inwardly he was reduced to an abject pulp by these chance words.
Abject: sunk to or existing in a low state or condition
In the regiment there was a peculiar kind of hesitation denoted in the attitudes of the men.
Denoted: to serve as an indication of
For today he felt that he had earned opportunities for contemplative repose.
Repose: to lie at rest
The Red Badge of Courage
VocabularyChapters 18-21
Use clues in the following sentences combined with your prior knowledge,
to make informed guesses about what the underlined words mean.
The voices of the cannon were mingled in a long and interminable row.
Interminably: having or seeming to have no end
There was the delirium that encounters despair and death, and is heedless and blind to the odds.
Delirium: an acute mental disturbance characterized by confused thinking and disrupted attention
. . . and off to the right an ominous demonstration could sometimes be dimly discerned.
Discerned: to detect with the eyes, to recognize or identify
. . and then with a long, wailful cry the dilapidated regiment surged forward and began itsnew journey.
Dilapidated: decayed, deteriorated, or fallen into partial ruin
The dead man, swinging with bended back, seemed to be obstinately tugging, in ludicrousand awful ways, for the possession of the flag.
Ludicrous: amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration
. . it was derived that they had been unaware of the proximity of their dark-suited foes or hadmistaken the direction.
Proximity: nearness
The impetus of enthusiasm was theirs again.
Impetus: a driving force
The youth in this contemplation was smitten with a large astonishment.
Smitten: to strike sharply or heavily especially with the hand
The Red Badge of Courage
VocabularyChapters 22-24
Use clues in the following sentences combined with your prior knowledge,
to make informed guesses about what the underlined words mean.
Having stirred this prodigious uproar, ... the brigade, after a little time, came marching airilyout again.
Prodigious: enormous; extraordinary in bulk, quantity, or degree himself believe.
. . . he saw wild and desperate rushes of men perpetually backward and forward in riotous surges.
Perpetually: continuing forever, occurring continually
But at one part of the line there was a grim and obdurate group that made no movement.
Obdurate: stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing, resistant to persuasion
The third captive sat with a morose countenance.
Morose: having a sullen and gloomy disposition
For a time this pursuing recollection of the tattered man took all elation from the youth's veins.
Incorrigible: not reformable, incapable of being corrected or amended
For a time this pursuing recollection of the tattered man took all elation from the youth's veins.
Elation: a state of being extremely happy
The procession of weary soldiers became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with churning effort in a trough of liquid brown mud under a low, wretched sky.
Bedraggled: wet and limp by or as if by rain, soiled and stained
The Red Badge of Courage
Vocabulary