capillary
1 use
The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton cringing from the heat, its wire, its nerves revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off to let the red veins and capillaries quiver in the scalded air.†
capillaries = a slender tube — especially the smallest blood vessels
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
cavort
1 use
Animals took shape: yellow giraffes, blue lions, pink antelopes, lilac panthers cavorting in crystal substance.†
cavorting = playing in a lively, unrestrained manner
Definition
Generally cavort means:to play in a lively, unrestrained manner — typically with someone — sometimes implying sexual play
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
emerge
1 use
The dirty dishes were dropped into a hot washer and emerged twinkling dry.†
emerged = came out of, or appeared
Definition
Generally emerge means:to come out, or to appear
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 58 uses in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 100 |
inquire
1 use
How carefully it had inquired, 'Who goes there?†
inquired = asked about or looked into
Definition
Generally inquire means:to ask about or look into something
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 19 uses in 10 avg bks |
manifest
1 use
1 —1 use as in:
manifest destiny
Martinis manifested on an oaken bench with egg salad sandwiches.†
manifested = made obvious (or shown)
Definition
Generally this sense of manifest means:obvious; or to make obvious; or to show or demonstrate
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 7 uses in 10 avg bks |
oblivious
1 use
In the last instant under the fire avalanche, other choruses, oblivious, could be heard announcing the time, playing music, cutting the lawn by remote-control mower, or setting an umbrella frantically out and in the slamming and opening front door, a thousand things happening, like a clock shop when each clock strikes the hour insanely before or after the other, a scene of maniac confusion, yet unity; singing, screaming, a few last cleaning mice darting bravely out to carry the horrid...†
oblivious = unaware of
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 11 uses in 10 avg bks |
parched
1 use
Now the walls dissolved into distances of parched weed, mile on mile, and warm endless sky.†
parched = dried out by heat or excessive exposure to sunlight; or very thirsty
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 5 uses in 10 avg bks |
perish
1 use
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, If mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn Would scarcely know that we were gone.†
perished = died, was destroyed, or ceased to exist
Definition
Generally perish means:to die — especially in an unnatural way
or:
to be destroyed or cease to exist
or:
to be destroyed or cease to exist
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 7 uses in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 500 |
tremulous
1 use
As I recall, your favorite... "There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white; Robins will wear their feathery fire, Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.†
tremulous = quivering (shaky)
Definition
Generally tremulous means:quivering (shaky) — usually from weakness or fear — especially of the voice
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 3 uses in 10 avg bks |
utter
1 use
1 —1 use as in:
utter stupidity
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, If mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn Would scarcely know that we were gone.†
utterly = completely or totally
Definition
Generally this sense of utter means:complete or total (used as an intensifier—typically when stressing how bad something is)
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 26 uses in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 500 |
waver
1 use
Over this ran aluminum roaches and iron crickets, and in the hot still air butterflies of delicate red tissue wavered among the sharp aroma of animal spoors!†
wavered = was unsure or weak; or moved back and forth
Definition
Generally waver means:to move back and forth (shake or quiver)
or:
to change, be unsure, or weak
or:
to change, be unsure, or weak
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 14 uses in 10 avg bks |
whim
1 use
As I recall, your favorite... "There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white; Robins will wear their feathery fire, Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.†
whims = sudden desires that arises without any logical explanation
Definition
Generally whim means:a sudden desire that arises without any logical explanation
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 5 uses in 10 avg bks |
wither
1 use
And one voice, with sublime disregard for the situation, read poetry aloud all in the fiery study, until all the film spools burned, until all the wires withered and the circuits cracked.†
withered = shriveled (wrinkled) or weakened
Definition
Generally wither means:to shrivel (wrinkle and contract — usually from lack of water)
or:
to become weaker; or feel humiliated
or:
to become weaker; or feel humiliated
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 12 uses in 10 avg bks |