The Joy Luck Club

1. ingots (noun, plural):

oblong blocks of metal, often gold or silver

“The hostess had to serve special dyansyin foods to bring good fortune of all kinds—dumplings shaped like silver money ingots, long rice noodles for long life, boiled peanuts for conceiving sons, and of course, many good-luck oranges for a plentiful, sweet life.” (Chapter 1)

2. halting (adjective):

slow and unsure, especially in speaking

“It is Auntie Ying who finally speaks. ‘I think your mother die with an important thought on her mind,’ she says in halting English.” (Chapter 1)

3. insolent (adjective):

rudely superior, arrogant, disrespectful

“She looked strange, too, like the missionary ladies at our school who were insolent and bossy in their too-tall shoes, foreign clothes, and short hair.” (Chapter 2)

4. concubine (noun):

a woman who lives with a man but does not have the official status of a wife; a sexual servant

“When my brother accused Auntie of frightening our mother away, Auntie shouted that our mother had married a man named Wu Tsing who already had a wife, two concubines, and other bad children.” (Chapter 2)

5. felicitous (adjective):

happy, lucky, well-selected

“She had even commissioned someone to write felicitous messages on red banners, as if my parents themselves had draped these decorations to congratulate me on my good luck.” (Chapter 3)

6. admonished (verb, past tense):

warned, scolded

"‘Slowly, go slowly,’ admonished Amah.” (Chapter 4)

7. acrid (adjective):

having a strong, sharp and unpleasant smell or taste; bitter

“And so the stale heat still remained in the shadows behind the curtains, heating up the acrid smells of my chamber pot, seeping into my pillow, chafing the back of my neck and puffing up my cheeks, so that I awoke that morning with a restless complaint.” (Chapter 4)

8. askew (adjective):

not in a straight line; crooked

“I sat up and saw Amah was still asleep, lying askew on her sleeping mat.” (Chapter 4)

9. brigands (noun, plural):

bandits, pirates

"‘Stop now,’ scolded the woman in the boat, ‘you've frightened her. She thinks we're brigands who are going to sell her for a slave.’" (Chapter 4)

10. malodorous (adjective):

having a bad smell

“I remember that his sweaty brow seemed to weep at my every move. He wore a dark, malodorous suit.” (Chapter 5)

11. careened (verb, past tense):

move quickly and unpredictably; move wildly, with no control over speed or direction

“Oranges and tin cans careened down the sidewalk.” (Chapter 5)

12. eluded (verb, past tense):

escape detection; cleverly avoid, dodge

“It was said that he once cured a woman dying of an ancestral curse that had eluded the best of American doctors.” (Chapter 5)

13. benevolently (adverb):

kindly, with good will

“‘Little sister, been a long time since I play with dolls,’ he said, smiling benevolently.” (Chapter 5)

14. ballooning (adjective):

puffing out, expanding quickly

“So the secret danger was a ballooning stomach, the source of my mother's imbalance.” (Chapter 6)

15. jauntily (adverb):

with joyful spirit; in a lively way

“In fact, as I watched her, she seemed quite happy, her two brown braids bouncing jauntily in rhythm to her walk.” (Chapter 6)

16. chagrined (adjective):

disappointed, humiliated, embarrassed

“Seventeen years ago, she was chagrined when I started dating Ted.” (Chapter 7)

17. verbatim (adverb):

word for word, exactly as said

“When he pressed me, I told him what his mother had said, verbatim, without comment.” (Chapter 7)

18. conjoined (adjective):

joined together, held together

“And that, as much as anything we ever did in bed, was how we made love to each other: conjoined where my weaknesses needed protection.” (Chapter 7)

19. discordant (adjective):

unpleasant sounding, without agreement or harmony

“But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant hymns.” (Chapter 8)

20. reverie (noun):

daydream

“And Old Chong kept conducting his own private reverie.” (Chapter 8)

21. avant-garde (adjective):

experimental, edgy, ahead of its time

“I told him how he should do more avant-garde thematic restaurant design, to differentiate himself from the other firms.” (Chapter 9)

22. disparaging (adjective):

looking to criticize; belittling

"‘Nothing is wrong with my heart,’ she huffed as she kept a disparaging eye on the waiter.” (Chapter 10)

23. sonorous (adjective):

producing a big sound

“He made everyone laugh and his own laugh was deep, sonorous, masculinely sexy.” (Chapter 10)

24. apathetic (adjective):

uninterested, uncaring

“It went from disappointment to contempt to apathetic boredom.” (Chapter 10)

25. inviolable (adjective):

unchangeable; never to be broken

“From the very moment she flung her fist away from her mouth to cry, I knew my feelings for her were inviolable.” (Chapter 10)

26. stifle (verb):

silence, suffocate, keep from showing a reaction

"‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘It's just that...’ and I was trying hard to stifle my giggles, but one of them escaped through my nose with a snort, which made me laugh more.” (Chapter 11)

27. chastise (verb):

scold, correct harshly

“She put water on for more tea and sat down at the small kitchen table. I waited for her to chastise me.” (Chapter 12)

28. covenant (noun):

sacred agreement, pact, treaty

“It's as though we were all sworn to the same secret covenant, so secret we don't even know what we belong to.”