As I Lay Dying

1. undulations (plural noun):

actions of moving smoothly up and down, like a wave

“Between the shadow spaces they are yellow as gold, like soft gold, bearing on the flanks in smooth undulations the marks of the adze blade: a good carpenter, Cash is.” (Chapter 1, Page 4)

2. bazaar (noun):

market

“‘Maybe I can sell them at the bazaar Saturday,’ I say.” (Chapter 2, Page 7)

3. beholden (adjective):

owing someone something in return for a service or help

“We would be beholden to no man,’ he says, ‘me and her.’” (Chapter 5, Page 19)

4. bounteous (adjective):

given generously

“He just looked at her, and I felt the bounteous love of the Lord again and His mercy.” (Chapter 6, Page 24)

5. victuals (noun):

food

“And now I got to pay for it, me without a tooth in my head, hoping to get ahead enough so I could get my mouth on God’s own victuals, and as hale and well as ere a woman in the land until that day.” (Chapter 9, Page 37)

6. sulphurous (adjective):

characterized by oppressive heat or humidity

“With the rope they will haul him up the path, balloon-like up the sulphurous air.” (Chapter 10, Page 40)

7. juxtaposition (noun):

two things placed close to one another for the purpose of revealing their differences

“He drags the second plank into position and slants the two of them into their final juxtaposition, gesturing toward the ones yet on the ground, shaping with his empty hand in pantomime the finished box.” (Chapter 12, Page 48)

8. stertorous (adjective):

loud and labored, usually when referring to breathing

“The cow breathes upon my hips and back, her breath warm, sweet, stertorous, moaning.” (Chapter 14, Page 63)

9. nigh (adverb):

almost; near or nearly

“And when I think about that, I think that if nothing but being married will help a man, he’s durn nigh hopeless.” (Chapter 16, Page 71)

10. impalpable (adjective):

not able to be felt or comprehended

“Upon the impalpable plane of [the sky] their shadows form as upon a wall, as though like sound they had not gone very far away in falling but had merely congealed for a moment, immediate and musing.” (Chapter 17, Page 76)

11. ford (noun):

an area of a stream or river that is shallow enough to cross on foot

“I went down to the old ford and swum my horse over, the Lord protecting me.” (Chapter 20, Page 88)

12. lax (adjective):

relaxed; not strict

“We stop at the steps, clumped, holding our hats between our lax hands in front or behind, standing with one foot advanced and our heads lowered, looking aside, down at our hats in our hands and at the earth or now and then at the sky and at one another’s grave, composed face.” (Chapter 20, Page 91)

13. retrograde (noun):

backward movement

“Motionless, the tall buzzards hang in soaring circles, the clouds giving them the illusion of retrograde.”  (Chapter 20, Page 95)

14. volitional (adjective):

related to the use of one’s will

“For an instant it resists, as though volitional, as though within it her pole-thin body clings furiously, even though dead, to a sort of modesty, as though she would have tried to conceal a soiled garment that she could not prevent her body soiling.” (Chapter 22, Page 97)

15. parcel (noun):

something wrapped to be sent by mail or carried

“She sits on the seat beside Vardaman and sets the parcel on her lap.” (Chapter 25, Page 104)

16. soporific (adjective): causing drowsiness or sleep

“We go on, with a motion so soporific, so dreamlike as to be uninferant of progress, as though time and not space were decreasing between us and it.” (Chapter 27, Page 107)

17. travail (noun):

difficult effort or task

“I sit naked on the seat above the unhurrying mules, above the travail.” (Chapter 30, Page 121)

18. levee (noun):

embankment designed to prevent the overflowing of a body of water

“They was setting in the wagon at the end of the levee.” (Chapter 31, Page 123)

19. gaunt (adjective):

very thin, especially due to suffering or age

“After that I thought it was right comical: he acting so bewildered and willing and dead for sleep and gaunt as a bean-pole, and thinking he was so smart with it.” (Chapter 32, Page 131)

20. myriad (adjective):

very great in number

“[The current] talks up to us in a murmur become ceaseless and myriad, the yellow surface dimpled monstrously into fading swirls travelling along the surface for an instant [...].” (Chapter 34, Page 141)

21. shoat (noun):

young pig

“There was a shoat came by, blowed up like a balloon: one of those spotted shoats of Lon Quick’s.” (Chapter 36, Page 155)

22. rapt (adjective):

extremely fascinated by something

“At the edge of the stream, knee-deep, Vardaman stands, bent forward a little, watching Vernon with rapt absorption.” (Chapter 37, Page 157)

23. gallant (adjective):

heroic or brave

“Over in the sense that he was gone and I knew that, see him again though I would, I would never again see him coming swift and secret to me in the woods dressed in sin like a gallant garment already blowing aside with the speed of his secret coming.” (Chapter 40, Page 175)