One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

1. deaf and dumb (adjective phrase):

(dated; offensive) an out-of-use expression that in earlier times was used to describe a person unable to hear or speak

“They don’t bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when I’m nearby because they think I’m deaf and dumb. Everybody thinks so. I’m cagey enough to fool them that much” (3).

2. ward (noun):

in medicine, a room or floor set aside for a particular group of patients; in law, a person under the control of a legal guardian

“I hear noise at the ward door, off up the hall out of my sight. That ward door starts opening at eight and opens and closes a thousand times a day, kashash, click” (9).

3. acute (adjective):

in medicine, characterizing a brief, serious bout of illness (in the novel, a person with such symptoms)

“One side of the room younger patients, known as Acutes because the doctors figure them still sick enough to be fixed, practice arm wrestling and card tricks where you add and subtract and count down so many and it’s a certain card” (13).

4. chronic (adjective):

in medicine, characterizing an ongoing illness (in the novel, a patient with such a condition)

“Chronics are in for good, the staff concedes. Chronics are divided into Walkers like me, can still get around if you keep them fed, and Wheelers and Vegetables” (14).

5. combine (noun):

a large machine for harvesting; a group of people organized to achieve specific political, social, or economic aims

“Working alongside others like her who I call the ‘Combine,’ which is a huge organization that aims to adjust the Outside as well as she has the Inside, has made her a real veteran at adjusting things” (26).

6. insubordination (noun):

refusal to obey authority

“A dishonorable discharge, afterward, for insubordination. Followed by a history of street brawls and barroom fights and a series of arrests for Drunkenness, Assault and Battery, Disturbing the Peace, repeated gambling, and one arrest—for Rape” (42).

7. psychiatric (adjective):

relating to mental illness or its treatment

“I was wondering if you’ve any previous psychiatric history. Any analysis, any time spent in any other institution?” (44).

8. psychopath (noun):

in medicine and law, a person who displays amoral, antisocial, and hostile behavior, lacks empathy, and often gets into conflict with others and/or engages in criminal behavior

“I forgot to add that I noticed your primitive brutality also this morning. Psychopath with definite sadistic tendencies, probably motivated by an unreasoning egomania” (57).

9. electroshock therapy (noun):

a treatment for severe mental disorders involving an electric current applied to the brain to induce a seizure

“The Shock Shop, Mr. McMurphy, is jargon for the EST machine, the Electro Shock Therapy. A device that might be said to do the work of the sleeping pill, the electric chair, and the torture rack. It’s a clever little procedure, simple, quick, nearly painless it happens so fast, but no one ever wants another one. Ever” (66-67).

10. hallucinating (participial adjective):

experiencing sensory images that do not exist, especially while under the influence of drugs or mental disturbances

“McMurphy, I don’t see how you can concentrate with Martini sitting there hallucinating a mile a minute” (111).

11. stuttering (participial adjective):

demonstrating a speech pattern that contains numerous hesitations and repeated letters and syllables

“I recognize Billy’s voice, stuttering worse than ever because he’s nervous” (127-28).

12. schizophrenic (adjective):

pertaining to schizophrenia, a mental disorder that includes disorganized thinking and hallucinations

“‘You know what I think, observing him these few days?’ ‘Schizophrenic reaction?’ Alvin asks. Pipe shakes his head” (148).

13. lobotomy (noun):

in medicine, the cutting off of a lobe, especially severing the prefrontal lobes of the brain from the rest of the brain in patients with severe mental illnesses (a practice now largely obsolete)

“‘Now lobotomy, that’s chopping away part of the brain?’ ‘You’re right again. You’re becoming very sophisticated in the jargon. Yes; chopping away the brain. Frontal-lobe castration’” (180).

14. leave (noun):

in a compulsory institutional setting, permission to be absent from the grounds of the institute

“He would ask her nice as you please if he could use her fountain pen to write a request for an Unaccompanied Leave from the hospital […]” (194).

15. gaff (noun):

a large hook with handle for grabbing fish and hauling them onto a boat or dock

“Harding finally saw McMurphy wasn’t going to do anything, so he got the gaff and jerked my fish into the boat with a clean, graceful motion like he’s been boating fish all his life” (236).

16. reel (noun, verb):

in fishing, a spool with a crank, attached to a fishing pole, from which fishing line is wound and unwound; to turn the crank on a fishing reel and pull a hooked fish from water

“She’s on her feet, got the butt of the pole scissored in her crotch and both arms wrapped below the reel and the reel crank knocking against her as the line spins out: ‘Oh no you don’t!’” (237).