- dilapidationnounChapter 1 →
A state of serious disrepair and decay, where a structure has fallen into ruin through neglect and the wearing away of time.
“with a broken roof set at a single pitch, it leans in empty and shimmering dilapidation in the sunlight, a single broad window in two opposite walls giving on to”
- candlesticksnounChapter 2 →
Holders, here made of iron, designed to hold candles upright while they burn down into the sockets.
“Her eyes are like two candles when you watch them gutter down into the sockets of iron candlesticks.”
- turkey-buzzardnounChapter 7 →
A large scavenging bird that circles and waits near dying or dead creatures; here used as an insult comparing a person to something that feeds on death.
“And old turkey-buzzard Tull coming to watch her die but I can fool them.”
- imperviousnessnounChapter 17 →
The quality of being completely unaffected by outside forces or feelings, moving steadily through everything without being stopped or disturbed.
“the saw again; again it moves up and down, in and out of that unhurried imperviousness as a piston moves in the oil; soaked, scrawny, tireless, with the lean light”
- circumventingverbChapter 33 →
Going around an obstacle rather than directly through it; here referring to traveling around flooded land to avoid crossing dangerous water.
“Well, they got to finish circumventing the land before they can dare the water,” I said.”
- circumscribedadjectiveChapter 34 →
Strictly bounded or enclosed within a fixed limit, so that the desolation is vast yet contained within a definite, bordered space.
“surface they stand —trees, cane, vines —rootless, severed from the earth, spectral above a scene of immense yet circumscribed desolation filled with the voice of the waste and mournful water.”
- infinitesimaladjectiveChapter 37 →
Immeasurably tiny and slow, so small as to be almost impossible to detect with the eye.
“violate the surface at all; it is as though it had severed them both at a single blow, the two torsos moving with infinitesimal and ludicrous care upon the surface.”
- acknowledgmentnounChapter 39 →
An open admission or recognition of something, here of one's own sin or fault, accepted and owned rather than denied.
“And she said “My daily life is an acknowledgment and expiation of my sin” and I said “Who are you, to say what is sin and what is not sin?”
- circumspectionnounChapter 40 →
Careful, cautious behavior that considers all consequences before acting, especially to avoid drawing unwanted attention or judgment from others.
“I would think of the clothes we both wore in the world’s face, of the circumspection necessary because he was he and I was I; the sin the more utter”
- transgressionnounChapter 41 →
A serious moral or religious wrong; a sin or violation of a law, especially one involving betrayal of a sacred duty.
“of the man whom I betrayed,” I prayed; “let me not be too late; let not the tale of mine and her transgression come from her lips instead of mine.”
- interrogatoryadjectiveChapter 46 →
Expressing a question or close inquiry; describing a look or expression that seems to be searching for or demanding an answer.
“He is watching us, his eyes interrogatory, intent, and sad.”
- fundamentalistsnounChapter 11 →
People who hold strictly to a traditional religious belief, here contrasted with nihilists in a debate about what death actually means.
“The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or”
- juxtapositionnounChapter 12 →
The placement of two things side by side so that their differences or similarities become clear and striking.
“drags a second plank into position and slants the two of them into their final juxtaposition, gesturing toward the ones yet on the ground, shaping with his empty hand in”
- surreptitiousadjectiveChapter 25 →
Done in a secret, sneaky way to avoid being noticed, here describing worms that work quietly and steadily without being seen.
“round peas in two thimbles: perhaps in Peabody’s back two of those worms which work surreptitious and steady through you and out the other side and you waking suddenly from”
- capitulationnounChapter 27 →
A surrender or giving-in; here used to describe worn, faded lettering on a signboard that looks like it has given up its message.
“He is motionless now, sitting the horse at the junction, upright, watching us, no less still than the signboard that lifts its fading capitulation opposite him.”
- recapitulantadjectiveChapter 46 →
Repeating or summarizing something that has gone before; here describing gestures that mechanically replay old, habitual actions with no real purpose or feeling left in them.
“How do our lives ravel out into the no-wind, no-sound, the weary gestures wearily recapitulant: echoes of old compulsions with no-hand on no-strings: in sunset we fall into furious attitudes”
- murmurousadjectiveChapter 48 →
Filled with a continuous soft, low murmuring sound, like a quiet stream of bubbling or whispering noise.
“tree, where the moonlight can dapple the apple tree upon the long slumbering flanks within which now and then she talks in little trickling bursts of secret and murmurous bubbling.”
- emaciationnounChapter 23 →
The condition of being extremely thin and wasted away, usually from illness or starvation; here the body's thinness makes it lighter.
“Then it breaks free, rising suddenly as though the emaciation of her body had added buoyancy to the planks or as though, seeing that the garment was about to be”
- cattymountnounChapter 25 →
A regional term for a wildcat or mountain lion; used here as a comparison to describe an animal as fierce and completely untamable.
“A durn spotted critter wilder than a cattymount.”
- chastisethverbChapter 28 →
An archaic third-person form of 'chastise,' meaning to punish or discipline; used here in biblical-style speech about God punishing those He loves.
“I am the chosen of the Lord, for who He loveth, so doeth He chastiseth.”
- dassentverbChapter 7 →
A dialect form of 'dares not' or 'doesn't dare'; the speaker means that someone is too afraid or cautious to do something.
“Pa dassent sweat because he will catch his death from the sickness so everybody that comes to help us.”
- grabblernounChapter 35 →
A regional term for someone who catches fish by hand, reaching into the water or under banks to grab them directly.
“grabble for her so I knew he could catch her because he is the best grabbler even with the mules in the way again they dived up rolling their feet”
- ludicrositiesnounChapter 37 →
Invented plural noun meaning things that are absurdly ridiculous; here used to describe the female body's curves as comically out of place in a serious context.
“Squatting, Dewey Dell’s wet dress shapes for the dead eyes of three blind men those mammalian ludicrosities which are the horizons and the valleys of the earth.”
- voicelessnessnounChapter 40 →
A state of complete silence or the absence of spoken words; here suggesting a darkness beyond language where actions replace words.
“dark land talking of God’s love and His beauty and His sin; hearing the dark voicelessness in which the words are the deeds, and the other words that are not”
- horse-physicnounChapter 43 →
A rural term for veterinary medicine or remedies intended for horses, used here dismissively to suggest a doctor who treats animals as much as people.
“Peabody had gone down below Inverness somewhere, but Uncle Billy come back with him, with his satchel of horse-physic.”
- passelnounChapter 26 →
A dialect word meaning a large, often unruly group or number of something; here referring to a large bunch of sons.
“flesh and blood even if you haven’t, even if I have raised such a durn passel of boys, and when you fixes it so folks can say such about you”
- ministrationnounChapter 2 →
The act of giving care or service to someone who is helpless or in need, especially in a religious or attendant sense.
“Maybe it will reveal her blindness to her, laying there at the mercy and the ministration of four men and a tomboy girl.”
- single-footnounChapter 27 →
A particular gait of a horse in which each foot hits the ground separately in sequence, producing a smooth, swift pace.
“A mile farther along he passes us, the horse, arch-necked, reined back to a swift single-foot.”
As I Lay DyingNovel by William Faulkner