EVERY DAY USE VOCUBULARY

                                  EVERY DAY USE VOCUBULARY WORDS

homely

lacking in physical beauty or proportion

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe.

1. confront
   be face to face with
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   You've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has "made it" is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage.
   
2. totter
   move without being stable, as if threatening to fall
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   You've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has "made it" is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage.
   
3. mercilessly
   without pity; in a merciless manner
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man.
   
4. glisten
   be shiny, as if wet
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   My hair glistens in the hot bright lights.
   
5. witty
   combining clever conception and facetious expression
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   Johnny Carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.
   
6. envelop
   enclose or enfold completely with or as if with a covering
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   "How do I look, Mama?" Maggie says, showing just enough of her thin body enveloped in pink skirt and red blouse for me to know she's there, almost hidden by the door.
   
7. sidle
   move sideways
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him?
   
8. dingy
   thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red hot brick chimney.
   
9. pity
   the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it
   EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

   She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice.
   
10. earnest
    characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    She will marry John Thomas (who has mossy teeth in an earnest face) and then I'll be free to sit here and I guess just sing church songs to myself.
    
11. soothing
    freeing from fear and anxiety
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    Cows are soothing and slow and don't bother you, unless you try to milk them the wrong way.
    
12. furtive
    secret and sly or sordid
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    Furtive boys in pink shirts hanging about on washday after school.
    
13. scald
    subject to harsh criticism
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    Impressed with her they worshiped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in Iye.
    
14. lye
    a strong solution of sodium or potassium hydroxide
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    Impressed with her they worshiped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in Iye.
    
15. stout
    euphemisms for `fat'
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    Since I am stout it takes something of a push.
    
16. cower
    show submission or fear
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me.
    
17. oppress
    come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me."
    
18. ream
    squeeze the juice out (of a fruit) with a reamer
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    "I know it might sound awkward at first," said Wangero. 
    "I'll get used to it," I said. " Ream it out again."
    
19. doctrine
    a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    "I accept some of their doctrines, but farming and raising cattle is not my style."
    
20. whittle
    cut small bits or pare shavings from
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    "Didn't Uncle Buddy whittle it out of a tree you all used to have?"
    
21. alcove
    a small recess opening off a larger room
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    "I can use the chute top as a centerpiece for the alcove table," she said, sliding a plate over the chute, "and I'll think of something artistic to do with the dasher."
    
22. rifle
    go through in search of something; search through someone's belongings in an unauthorized way
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    After dinner Dee (Wangero) went to the trunk at the foot of my bed and started rifling through it.
    
23. reckon
    expect, believe, or suppose
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." 
    "I reckon she would," I said.
    
24. heritage
    practices that are handed down from the past by tradition
    NOTES:

    What Dee doesn't understand is that Maggie is a living part of their heritage, since Maggie can remember Grandma Dee without the quilts because Grandma Dee had taught her how to quilt. Dee discards her birth name (which was also her aunt and grandma's name) for the more fashionable African-sounding Wangero, yet she wants to connect to her heritage by claiming and displaying handmade things from her family.
    EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

    "Your heritage," she said, And then she turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, "You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it."