Vocabulary in Storm on the Island

Low and wide rather than tall, built close to the ground so that wind cannot get underneath or topple the structure.

A hard, flat grey rock split into thin sheets and used as roofing tiles; chosen here because it is heavy and does not blow off in high winds.

Large outdoor piles of harvested hay or straw, stacked and stored in the open field; the islanders have none because the land is too bare to grow hay.

Small bundles of cut grain stood upright and leaned together in a field to dry after harvest; absent here because the island's poor soil grows no grain crops.

Shrunken, dried out, and twisted with age or harsh conditions; used of trees that are so stunted by the wind that they cannot even grow properly.

Strikes repeatedly and with great force, the way a fist pounds something; here the sea beats the cliffs again and again without letting up.

Attacks from above by sweeping low and firing repeatedly across a target, a military term for an aircraft's machine-gun run; here the wind attacks the island the same relentless way.

In a way that cannot be seen; the wind carries out its assault without taking any visible form, making it impossible to locate or confront.

Subjected to a heavy, continuous attack, as if under artillery or aerial bombardment in warfare; the islanders are assaulted without pause by the storm.

A vast, formless emptiness that nonetheless has real and terrifying power; the phrase captures the paradox that the islanders' greatest threat has no physical substance to resist.