"roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry" Miscellaneous Informational Vocabulary

Front 1

bolls

Back 1

seed pods, flax, or in this case, cotton

Front 2

traipsing

Back 2

walking purposelessly

Front 3

akimbo

Back 3

with the hands on the hips and the elbows turned out

Front 4

sharecropping

Back 4

system in which a tenant farmer gives a share of the crops as rent

Front 5

loitering

Back 5

standing around idly; lingering without purpose

Front 6

clabber milk

Back 6

sour milk

Front 7

belfry

Back 7

tower or steeple housing a bell

Front 8

bridge

Back 8

to cross over (as if on a bridge)

Front 9

Reconstruction

Back 9

the period after the Civil War (1865-1877), when the southern states were reorganzied and re-established in the Union

Front 10

red-neck

Back 10

a member of the white laboring class in the rural South {a derogatory term)

Front 11

tawny

Back 11

lighy brown to brownish orange

Front 12

switch

Back 12

thin rod, stick or twig used for whipping

Front 13

compound

Back 13

a group of buildings

Front 14

Uncle Tomming

Back 14

a black's showing humiliating respectfulness toward whites )after Uncle Tom, the title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Front 15

ginned

Back 15

removed seeds from cotton by using machine called a gin

Front 16

interminable

Back 16

seemingly without end; drawn out unreasonably

Front 17

collateral

Back 17

property used to guarantee a loan

Front 18

burning

Back 18

an act of deliberately setting fire to another's person or property; in this case, a crime perpretrated by whites against blacks

Front 19

shantytown

Back 19

a town or part of town with run-down huts or cabins

Front 20

ashen

Back 20

the color of ashes

Front 21

persnickety

Back 21

demanding strict attention to detail; fussy

Front 22

towheaded

Back 22

having white-blond hair

Front 23

despondently

Back 23

with feeling of despair or dejection

Front 24

scoffed

Back 24

mocked; scorned

Front 25

en masse

Back 25

all together, as one body

Front 26

knell

Back 26

the sounding of a bell as a signal

Front 27

ebony

Back 27

black; the color of ebony wood

Front 28

clinched

Back 28

held together tightly, as a fist or jaw

Front 29

condoned

Back 29

forgave; overlooked a wrong

Front 30

chignon

Back 30

a roll or knot of hair at the back of the head or nape of the neck

Front 31

cauldron

Back 31

large kettle

Front 32

tarpaulin

Back 32

a waterproof cover

Front 33

fleeted

Back 33

passed swiftly

Front 34

bootleg

Back 34

illegal

Front 35

chiffonier

Back 35

high chest of drawers

Front 36

crescendo

Back 36

a gradual increase in volume or intensity

Front 37

verandas

Back 37

roofed porches along the outsides of buildings

Front 38

Mercantile

Back 38

having to do with trade or merchants; here specifically to the store Barnett's Mercantile

Front 39

cockatoo

Back 39

a kind of parrot