Milkman

1. apprise (verb):

inform someone about something

“[Eldest sister] was to apprise me and warn me. She said I had been seen talking with this man.” (Chapter 1, Page 4)

2. encroachment (noun):

a usually slow or subtle intrusion into someone else’s space, rights, property, etc.

“At eighteen, I had no proper understanding of the ways [milkman’s behavior] constituted encroachment.” (Chapter 1, Page 6)

3. lewd (adjective):

sexually suggestive in an offensive way, vulgar

“Other things about [third brother-in-law] were that he never gossiped, never came out with lewd remarks or sexual sneers or sneers about anything.” (Chapter 2, Page 11)

4. ambivalent (adjective):

having mixed or contradictory feelings about something

“At this [maybe-boyfriend's neighbors] cast a last look, now more of an ambivalent look, towards the supercharger.” (Chapter 2, Page 33)

5. spurious (adjective):

fake, baseless, or having only the appearance of truth

“The motor-trade aspect [of middle sister’s love interest] came across as spurious, as artificial, as a weak and fabricated attempt by [ma’s] good friend Jason and those other kindly neighbours to cheer her up in the midst of this bombshell.” (Chapter 2, Page 49)

6. osmosis (noun):

figuratively, the gradual or unconscious absorption of surrounding ideas, beliefs, culture, etc.

“I myself paid little attention to the [political] problems, but I paid at least the minimum, something I could not have avoided because of osmosis.” (Chapter 2, Page 59)

7. circumvention (noun):

the act of avoiding or getting around something, especially in a quiet or clever way

“So much for inner boasting. Only a week gone by and already my circumvention of [milkman] had disintegrated.” (Chapter 3, Page 78)

8. eschewing (verb):

avoiding, forgoing, or abstaining from

“Neither in this workaday world, in this little human-being world, did we spend time counting blessings and eschewing the relative in favour of the eternal.” (Chapter 3, Page 88)

9. cumbersome (adjective):

burdensome; awkwardly heavy, large, complex

“It was great hatred, the great Seventies hatred. One must set aside too, the misleading and cumbersome inadequacy of the political problems, and all rationalisations and choice conclusions about the political problems, in order appropriately to gauge the weight of this hatred.” (Chapter 3, Page 96)

10. patina (noun):

figuratively, a veneer or outward appearance of something, especially something beautiful, esteemed, or respectable

“I accepted he was [a renouncer] simply because amongst all the unmentionables here that managed all the same to get mentioned whilst retaining a patina of not being mentioned, there existed a widespread ‘taking for granted’ which in this case—the case of whether or not this milkman was a renouncer—the unmentionable on the grapevine was, ‘Don’t be silly, of course he is.’” (Chapter 3, Page 116)

11. homily (noun):

a sermon or lecture on morality

“[Ma] ended this homily with her usual, ‘Mark my words, you think you’re having this cake and eating it, believing this is what brings you alive, that ordinary life is boring, that the rest of us are boring, but the truth will cut across your life, wee girl, whether you want it to or not.” (Chapter 3, Page 123)

12. nascent (adjective):

new, fledgling, still emerging or coming into existence

“These women, constituting the nascent feminist group in our area—and exactly because of constituting it—were firmly placed in the category of those way, way beyond-the-pale.” (Chapter 3, Page 152)

13. aquiescence (noun):

consent or acceptance (usually passive in nature)

“And this taking me for granted was without my acquiescence.” (Chapter 4, Page 167)

14. circumscribed (past tense verb/adjective):

restricted, limited to very narrow confines

“The scandal of this milkman had mushroomed to the point where it was now rabid and raging and fast becoming a best-seller and because of it, because of all those compounding violations, I was finding myself more and more circumscribed into an incoherent, debilitated place.” (Chapter 4, Page 170)

15. dissembling (verb):

concealing one’s intentions or nature, deceiving, telling lies

“The only way though, I knew how to counter [people’s questions and insinuations] was by doing my own dissembling myself.” (Chapter 4, Page 174)

16. accruing (verb):

accumulating, gathering, or collecting in regular amounts over a period of time

“In case I didn’t know, she said, I was more than a bit questionable, sinister and scary myself. I thought she meant by my not keeping my eyes open, by not accruing information and disseminating local commentary” (Chapter 4, Page 196)

17. cursory (adjective):

quick or brief, and consequently lacking in thoroughness or detail

“Initially it was just routine, she said, cursory stoppings, the usual thing that they carry out on everybody who comes into and goes out of renouncer areas.” (Chapter 4, Page 208)

18. intimated (verb):

hinted, communicated indirectly

“‘It’s Friday night,’ one subliminal might have intimated to the other subliminal, ‘so why not keep this simple? How about you go in first, then you leave, then we’ll go in? Then next week we’ll go in first, then leave, then you go in.’” (Chapter 5, Page 216)

19. verbose (adjective):

wordy

“Then [tablets girl’s] trajectory changed and she started poisoning people on other days besides Friday, also becoming verbose as to why.” (Chapter 5, Page 218)

20. gallivanting (verb):

going from place to place for one’s amusement, usually in an irresponsibly carefree way

“[Wee sisters] listed what I wasn’t to do which was to fall out of bed, to try to get out of bed, to eat or drink, also I was not to attempt gallivanting.” (Chapter 5, Page 232)

21. listless (adjective):

lacking energy or spirit; lethargic or unenthusiastic

“Ach, she’s done it again, I thought. Who’s she poisoned this time? I didn’t want to know though, not really, because these things go on so long that you end up getting listless with them.” (Chapter 5, Page 234)

22. equivocation (noun):

ambiguous speech or the use of ambiguous speech, typically with the intent to confuse or deceive

“The renouncers responded by saying they would not be drawn into equivocation, nor would they be dictated to.” (Chapter 5, Page 235)

23. abrasive (adjective):

harsh, rough, literally or figuratively irritating

“[K]ind people here, not used to phones, not trustful of them either, didn’t want to be rude or abrasive by hanging up after just one goodbye in case the other’s leave-taking was still travelling its way, with a delay, over the airwaves to them.” (Chapter 6, Page 244)

24. rebuffed (past tense verb):

turned down, rejected, or declined (often in a rude or curt way)

“So [milkman had] gone to the aid of others, many others, tablets girl too, who’d rebuffed him, though surprisingly she hadn’t poisoned him.” (Chapter 6, Page 254)

25. incumbent (adjective):

required of, obligatory

“It is incumbent upon us to list you your fears lest you forget them” (Chapter 6, Page 263)

26. expedient (adjective):

convenient or useful, often with the implication of shortsightedness or amorality

“Given I was the sister of the ex-lover who’d ditched her to go and marry some expedient unknown, might she not have wanted any reminder of this terrible event from her past?” (Chapter 6, Page 269)

27. derisive (adjective):

expressing scorn; mocking or contemptuous

“Here he sounded derisive and self-righteous, so I said, ‘You’d better not push it, maybe-boyfriend.’” (Chapter 6, Page 285)

28. lucidity (noun):

clarity (especially of thoughts or expression); brightness and transparency

“Somewhat unaware in my feverish excitement that instead of lucidity and upliftment, however, I might instead be swinging from one extreme of despondency and powerlessness over to the other extreme of sudden and incongruous jollity, I scribbled a note for wee sisters.” (Chapter 6, Page 288)

29. sycophants (plural noun):

flatterers, people who fawn over those in power to advance their own interests

“I knew though, that in there, underneath the numbness, the anger must exist. […] At the sycophants who resented me and the chip-shop keepers and all those general storekeepers, who in time would feel pressured to present to me anything of their wares they thought I might like to have.” (Chapter 6, Page 297)