Tom Sawyer Vocab Chapter 8

Front 1

Frivolity

Back 1

lack of seriousness

For __________ and jokes and spotted tights were an offense, when they intruded themselves upon a spirit that was exalted into the vague august realm of the romantic. No, he would be a soldier, and return after long years, all war–worn and illustrious. No—better still, he would join the Indians, and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the trackless great plains of the Far West, and away in the future come back a great chief, bristling with feathers, hideous with paint, and prance into Sunday–school, some drowsy summer morning, with a bloodcurdling war–whoop, and sear the eyeballs of all his companions with unappeasable envy.

Front 2

Vague

Back 2

of uncertain, indefinite, or unclear character or meaning

The idea of being a clown recurred to him now, only to fill him with disgust. For frivolity and jokes and spotted tights were an offense, when they intruded themselves upon a spirit that was exalted into the _________ august realm of the romantic. No, he would be a soldier, and return after long years, all war–worn and illustrious. No—better still, he would join the Indians, and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the trackless great plains of the Far West, and away in the future come back a great chief, bristling with feathers, ___________ with paint, and prance into Sunday–school, some drowsy summer morning, with a bloodcurdling war–whoop, and sear the eyeballs of all his companions with unappeasable envy. But no, there was something gaudier even than this.

Front 3

Hideous

Back 3

ugly or disgusting to look at

No—better still, he would join the Indians, and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the trackless great plains of the Far West, and away in the future come back a great chief, bristling with feathers, __________ with paint, and prance into Sunday–school, some drowsy summer morning, with a bloodcurdling war–whoop, and sear the eyeballs of all his companions with unappeasable envy. But no, there was something gaudier even than this. He would be a pirate! That was it!

Front 4

Boundless

Back 4

unlimited; immense.

Then he scraped away the dirt, and exposed a pine shingle. He took it up and disclosed a shapely little treasure–house whose bottom and sides were of shingles. In it lay a marble. Tom's astonishment was boundless! He scratched his head with a perplexed air, and said:

Front 5

Cogitating

Back 5

think deeply about something

Then he tossed the marble away pettishly, and stood ________ . The truth was, that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and all his comrades had always looked upon as infallible. If you buried a marble with certain necessary incantations, and left it alone a fortnight, and then opened the place with the incantation he had just used, you would find that all the marbles you had ever lost had gathered themselves together there, meantime, no matter how widely they had been separated.

Front 6

Fortnight

Back 6

a period of two weeks

Then he tossed the marble away pettishly, and stood cogitating. The truth was, that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and all his comrades had always looked upon as infallible. If you buried a marble with certain necessary incantations, and left it alone a ________, and then opened the place with the incantation he had just used, you would find that all the marbles you had ever lost had gathered themselves together there, meantime, no matter how widely they had been separated.

Front 7

Treacherous

Back 7

guilty of or involving betrayal or deception

This was satisfactory, and so these adventures were carried out. Then Tom became Robin Hood again, and was allowed by the __________ nun to bleed his strength away through his neglected wound. And at last Joe, representing a whole tribe of weeping outlaws, dragged him sadly forth, gave his bow into his feeble hands, and Tom said, "Where this arrow falls, there bury poor Robin Hood under the greenwood tree." Then he shot the arrow and fell back and would have died, but he lit on a nettle and sprang up too gaily for a corpse.