- leapedverbChapter 1 →
Jumped forcefully into the air, here used to describe a man throwing himself off a rooftop in the belief that he could fly, not simply stepping off.
“he stood there on the hospital roof singing, his mouth open, his eyes wide, and then he leaped.”
- midwifenounChapter 1 →
A person, usually a woman, trained to assist women during childbirth, working outside of or alongside a hospital's regular medical staff.
“The dead doctor, his nurse, and the midwife had left the room and Ruth lay in a white bed with white sheets.”
- contraltonounChapter 4 →
The lowest natural singing voice a woman can have, rich and resonant in tone, here used to describe the deep, full quality of Pilate's voice.
“Pilate had a deep, powerful contralto that poured over them like oil.”
- kept promisephraseChapter 4 →
A pledge or vow that has been honored and fulfilled; used here as a simile to suggest the green bag hangs with a weighty, almost sacred significance.
“The green bag, which he could not keep his eyes from, hung from the ceiling like a kept promise.”
- affectionnounChapter 5 →
A gentle, warm feeling of fondness toward another person; used here in a formal letter to soften the blow of a romantic dismissal.
“I hope you will remember me as I will remember you—with affectio…”
- swollenadjectiveChapter 5 →
Puffed up and enlarged, here describing eyes made puffy and nearly shut from prolonged, heavy crying.
“her eyes were so swollen from crying that they looked like two raisins in a bun.”
- tore intophraseChapter 8 →
Attacked someone fiercely with angry, cutting words; to verbally assault or berate someone without holding back.
“Pilate put her hands on her hips and tore into him with a tongue that made him wish he'd never been born.”
- exhilarationnounChapter 9 →
A sudden, intense feeling of excitement and freedom, here mixed with guilt after Milkman strikes his father for the first time.
“The fact that he had struck his father filled him with a paralyzing mixture of guilt and exhilaration.”
- paralyzingadjectiveChapter 9 →
So overwhelming that it stops a person from thinking or acting normally; here describing an emotional conflict so powerful it leaves Milkman unable to move forward.
“The fact that he had struck his father filled him with a paralyzing mixture of guilt and exhilaration.”
- colorlessadjectiveChapter 10 →
Having lost all normal skin pigment or vitality; here used to convey that Circe is so extremely old that age itself has drained all color from her appearance.
“She was old. So old she was colorless.”
- distinguishverbChapter 13 →
To tell apart or identify one thing from another using the senses; here Milkman identifies individual men around him purely by the sounds they make in the dark.
“He could distinguish the men near him by sound alone: one by his breathing, one by the occasional scrape of his feet.”
- retributionnounChapter 7 →
Punishment deliberately inflicted in return for a wrong; here the organized killing of white people by the Seven Days as payback for racial murders.
- vigilantenounChapter 7 →
A person who takes the law into their own hands and punishes wrongdoers outside any legal system, acting without official authority.
- offverbChapter 7 →
Slang for killing someone; used here by Guitar to clarify that the Seven Days targets only white people, not Black people.
“We don't off Negroes. We kill whites.”
- materialismnounChapter 3 →
An excessive focus on owning money, property, and possessions as the main goal of life, at the expense of human relationships or spiritual values.
- patriarchnounChapter 2 →
The male head of a family who holds authority over all its members; here Macon Dead II rules his household with cold, unquestioned control.
- bootleggernounChapter 4 →
A person who makes or sells alcohol illegally; Pilate brews and sells wine outside the law, which is how she earns her living on the margins of society.
- inscribedverbChapter 4 →
Written or engraved onto a surface; here a name has been carved or marked permanently into a brass earring that Pilate wears.
- retaliateverbChapter 7 →
To strike back against someone who has harmed you or your group; here the Seven Days kills white people in direct response to the killing of Black people.
- potentialadjectiveChapter 7 →
Capable of becoming something in the future even if not yet so; here Guitar argues every white person could become a killer of Black people, whether or not they have done so yet.
“There are no innocent white people, because every one of them is a potential nigger-killer, if not an actual one.”
- obsessiveadjectiveChapter 8 →
Driven by a fixation so strong it controls all thought and behavior; here describing Milkman's single-minded, consuming desire to find the gold.
- lurenounChapter 12 →
A powerful, irresistible attraction that draws someone toward something, often dangerously; here the promise of hidden gold pulls Milkman back to the cave.
- condescendingadjectiveChapter 13 →
Behaving as though one is superior to others and treating them with patronizing disrespect; here Milkman's Northern manner makes the local Virginia men feel looked down upon.
- heritagenounChapter 15 →
The traditions, history, and identity passed down through generations of a family or people; here Milkman's discovery of his ancestor Solomon gives him a sense of who he truly is.
Song of SolomonNovel by Toni Morrison