To Kill A Mockingbird Vocabulary

Auspicious (adjective) [aw-spish-uh s] Promising success; favorable; fortunate

Auspicious Her auspicious new job was celebrated with balloons. I smiled and scratched the ticket hoping for an auspicious outcome. We jumped up and down screaming after winning the lottery. Auspiciously, we wished for peace as we broke the wishbone. The auspiciousness of the occasion was celebrated for the entire week.

Melancholy (noun) a gloomy state of mind, prolonged depression. I was in a melancholy mood after I lost the wrestling match. He was sad, so I gave him a cookie. Everybody in the room was depressed due to the melancholies of the season.

Asinine (adjective) Extremely stupid or foolish The students ignored the class clown’s asinine remark. It was asinine to walk across the street like that with traffic coming. Her stupid behavior annoyed the rest of the group.

Boast (Verb) to speak with exaggeration and excessive pride, especially about oneself. She boasted about bowling a 300 game. He bragged about himself so much that nobody would hang out with him. She grew tired of his boasts and snuck away when he wasn’t paying attention. In the locker room, the team was boastful about the victory. As he was boasting I saw people rolling their eyes.

perpetrate (verb) To carry out; to commit (a crime or deception) She perpetrated an act of cruelty by posting something mean about a classmate online. The perpetrator was caught after he wore the very shoes he had stolen. His numerous perpetrations caused him to be well-known to local authorities.

evasion (verb) The act of avoiding doing or answering something directly When her mother asked her to fold the laundry, her evasion was subtle. In order to evade the principal, the student hid in the media center until the bell rang. Her clever avoidance, that she had a math test tomorrow, saved her about an hour’s worth of extra chores.

obstreperous (adjective) Noisy and unruly The obstreperous group of fans were nearly ejected from the game. Her obstreperousness always put her at odds with the teacher The unruly teachers were the worst students at the meeting.

ingenuous (adjective) Innocent and unsuspecting (as in a person or action) Her ingenuous nature made her an easy target for being taken advantage of. When the boy held the door open, the old woman was surprised by his ingenuous gesture. Her trustfulness and ingenuousness were her best qualities.

able to speak and express oneself Articulate (adj.): able to speak and express oneself articuLATE - (v): to express oneself articulation (n): something expressed The articulate student always had just the right world to use in expressing his answer. When you are choking and unable to articulate that you need help, put your hands around your neck as that is a universal sign indicating choking.

Gingerly adverb carefully; cautiously He gingerly picked through the bowl of skittles, eating only the red ones. He stepped gingerly around the Powerade bottle rather than just picking it up.