Beloved
Vocabulary

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It made him the most visible and memorable person at every gathering, and cartoonists had fastened onto the theatricality of his white hair and big black mustache whenever they depicted local political antagonism.

antagonism = hostility

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...asked how he might get North. Free North. Magical North. Welcoming, benevolent North.

benevolent = kind

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Out on Bluestone Road he thought he heard a conflagration of hasty voices—loud, urgent, all speaking at once so he could not make out what they were talking about or to whom.

conflagration = a large, violent, uncontrolled event

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Now, eight years after her contentious funeral ... he changed his mind.

contentious = combative (involving argument or heated differences)

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Maybe they were sorry for the years of their own disdain. Maybe they were simply nice people who could hold meanness toward each other for just so long and...

disdain = disrespect and rejection

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It was only a tiny disturbance anyway—not strong enough to divert her from the ambition welling in her now:

divert = distract (change the direction of attention)

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No smashing with an ax head before it is decently exhumed from the grave that has hidden it all this time.

exhumed = unburied

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Plotting has changed Denver markedly. Where she was once indolent, resentful of every task, now she is spry, executing, even extending the assignments Sethe leaves for them.

indolent = lazy (disinclined to work)

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Privacy was an adult indulgence, but when he got to be one, he seemed not to need it.

indulgence = thing enjoyed

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Quiet, primate and completely secret except for the noisome cologne signal that thrilled the rabbits before it confused them.

noisome = bad (causing or able to cause nausea — often from odor)

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Together they waged a perfunctory battle against the outrageous behavior of that place; against turned-over slop jars, smacks on the behind, and gusts of sour air.

perfunctory = done quickly without concern or attention to detail

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she dispensed with rancor, was indiscriminately polite, saving her real affection for the unpicked children of Cincinnati,

rancor = deep and bitter anger or hatred

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all that had been mocked and rebuked by the bloodspill in her backyard.

rebuked = criticized severely

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Nothing since was as stimulating as the old days of letters, petitions, meetings, debates, recruitment, quarrels, rescue and downright sedition.

sedition = illegal acts encouraging resistance to government authority — especially overthrow of the government

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Later he punctured her calf to simulate snakebite so she could use it in some way as an excuse for not being on time to shake worms from tobacco leaves.

simulate = imitate