Word: Valor
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: Great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle. Example: In recognition of this, my dad, then twenty-two years old, was issued the Bronze Star for valor.
Word: Vicinity
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: The area near or surrounding a particular place. Example: He commenced treating wounded men while shells continued to fall in the immediate vicinity.
Word: Relent
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Abandon or mitigate a harsh intention or cruel treatment. Example: Presented with the data, I relented.
Word: Prognosis
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: The likely course of a disease or ailment. Example: At the same time, given my prognosis, Jai says she’s learning to let some of the little stuff slide.
Word: Calibrate
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Adjust or correlate the readings of an instrument with those of a standard in order to check the instrument’s accuracy. Example: Dr. Reiss has a gift for helping people to recalibrate their home lives when one spouse has a terminal illness.
Word: Accordion
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A portable musical instrument with metal reeds blown by bellows, played by means of keys and buttons. Example: I found photos of him as a young man playing an accordion.
Word: Clutch
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Grasp or sieze something tightly or eagerly. Example: And as an older man, clutching a stuffed bear bigger than he was.
Word: Grin
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Smile broadly, especially in an unrestrained manner and with the mouth open. Example: He had this great grin on his face.
Word: Flourish
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Grow, thrive, prosper, do well, develop, proliferate. Example: He would present them with a flourish, building a bit of drama.
Word: Leap
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Jump over or spring in a long way. Example: Paush leaped from a covered position and commenced treating the wounded men.
Word: Staccato
Parts of Speech: Adjective/ Adverb / Noun Meaning: A series of short, sharply separated sounds or words. Example: I was gasping out of fear in staccato.
Word: Incubator
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: An enclosed apparatus providing a controlled environment for the care and protection of premature or unusually small babies. Example: He’d been in a so-called “closed-air bassinete,” which is a more benign description of an incubator.
Word: Hysterical
Parts of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Feeling or showing an extreme and uncontrolled emotion. Example: She could have gotten so hysterical that she’d thrown herself into shock.
Word: Stricken
Parts of Speech: Verb / Adjective Meaning: Seriously affected by an undesirable condition or an unpleasant feeling. Example: I could have been so stricken that I’d have been no help in the surgery room.
Word: Ordeal
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A painful or horrific experience, especially a protracted one. Example: Through the whole Ordeal, I don’t think we ever said to each other.
Word: Wail
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A prolonged high-pitched cry of pain, anger, or grief Example: And then the baby, our first child, Dylan, let out a wail like you’ve never heard before.
Word: Preemie
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A baby born prematurely Example: The preemies who come out limp often have the most trouble.
Word: Dissonant
Parts of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Lacking harmony Example: At Magee, they did a wonderful job of simultaneously communicating two dissonant things.
Word: Bassinet
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A baby’s wicker-cradle usually with a hood Example: One day, we arrived at the hospital, and Dylan’s bassinett was gone.
Word: Gasp
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Inhale suddenly with the mouth open, out of pain, or astonishment. Example: I was gasping out fear in staccato.
Word: Shrug
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Raise one’s shoulder slightly and momentarily to express doubt, ignorance, or indifference. Example: I just shrugged, and I could see that for Jai, an entire day’s worth of anxiety was just melting away.
Word: Gash
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A long deep slash, cut, or wound. Example: We would just live with dents and gashes.
Word: Placenta
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A flattened circular organ in the uterus of pregnant eutherian mammals, nourishing and maintaing the fetus through the umblical chord. Example: With the Placenta in such distress, the life support for the fetus was giving out.
Word: Riff
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A short repeated phrase in popular music and Jazz, typically used as an introduction, or refrain in a song. Example: I wondered how often she used her “hospital paperwork” riff to ease patients’ anxieties.
Phrase: Off the ledge
Parts of Speech: Meaning: "Off the ledge" is a figurative phrase that means avoiding a risky or harmful situation. It can also mean taking a risk, making a big decision, or doing something unexpected. Example: Just keep her off the ledge when she gets scared.
Word: Devise
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Plan or Invent a complex procedure, system, or mechanism by careful thought. Example: Your principal duty is to devise, implement, and manage a backup and recovery strategy.
Word: Drape
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: The manner in which fabric hangs or falls; Place casually. Example: Within seconds, the deflating envelope draped onto the ground.
Word: Trotting
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: To trot is move faster than walking, but not quite a full-out run. Example: The ballooner came trotting over to us. “Wait wait!” he said. “You ordered the wedding package! It comes with a bottle of champagne!”.
Word: Obsess
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Be preoccupied with something; Haunt like a ghost; pursue. Example: Jai spent the entire day obsessing over how to explain everything to Ricky when he got home from Club Babalu.
Word: Root
Parts of Speech: Noun / Verb Meaning: Come into existence, Originate; Become settled or establishedand stable in one’s residence or life style. Example: As she’d soon learn, my measured response was rooted in my upbringing.
Word: Bluntness
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: Without sharpness or clearness of edge or point. Example: Though Jai wasn’t thrilled with my bluntness and my know-it-all attitude, she said I was the most positive, upbeat person she’d ever met.
Word: Rattle
Parts of Speech: Verb / Noun Meaning: Make a very rapid, short series of knocking or tapping sounds. Example: We did not leave the reception in a car with cans rattling from the rear bumper.
Word: Whisk
Parts of Speech: Verb / Noun Meaning: Move quickly and nimbly. Example: Instead, we got into a huge, multicolored hot-air-balloon that whisked us off into the clouds.
Word: Beam
Parts of Speech: Noun / Verb Meaning: Have a complexion with a strong bright color, such as red or pink. Shine, glow, radiate, Ray. Example: When we had stepped into the balloon, Jai was beaming.
Word: Disconcert
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Cause to lose one’s composure; Cause to feel embarrassment. Example: It didn’t sound like the destruction of the Hindenburg, but it was a little disconcerting.
Word: Intrigue
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: To arouse someone’s curiosity, desire, or interest. Example: She was intrigued enough to make a few phone calls to friends of hers in the community.
Word: Gun-shy
Parts of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Nervous and apprehensive (anxious or fearful that something bad or unpleasant will happen). Example: She was getting gun-shy about getting serious again.
Word: Impishness
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: Being playful and a little naughty. Example: She had this gorgeous long hair then, and this smile that said a lot about both her warmth and her impishness.
Word: Singling
Parts of Speech: Verb Meaning: Choose someone or something from a group for special treatment. Example: I couldn’t tell if you did that with everyone, or if you were singling me out.
Word: Machiavellian
Parts of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics Example: I’m either an incurable romantic or a bit Machiavellian.
Word: Blissfully
Parts of Speech: Adverb Meaning: In a manner characterized by extreme happiness or joy. Example: No woman, even the right kind, would expect to settle down blissfully into that.
Word: Offbeat
Parts of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Unconventional or Unusual. Example: She figured I’m obviously a pretty offbeat and exciting guy. She’s a little offbeat, but she’s a wonderful actress.
Word: Comparative
Parts of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Perceptable by comparison, relative. Example: A thirty-one-year-old grad student in comparative literature was working part-time in the UNC computer science department.
Word: Laureate
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A person who is honored with an award for an outstanding creative or intellectual achievement. Example: Her job was to host visitors, whether Nobel laureates or Girl Scout troops
Word: Funky
Parts of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Frightened, panicky, cool, trendy, fashionable, having or using a strong dance rhythm. Example: And then found the links to my funkier personal information.
Word: Formidable
Parts of Speech: Adjective / Noun Meaning: Inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable. Example: The most formidable brick wall I ever encountered in my life was just five feet, six inches tall, and absolutely beautiful.
Word: Adept
Parts of Speech: Adjective / Noun Meaning: Very proficient or skilled at something. Example: I was always pretty adept at charging through the brick walls in my academic and professional life.
Word: Courtship
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: A period during which a couple develops a romantic relationship. Example: I didn’t tell the audience the story about my courtship with my wife.
Word: Compulsion
Parts of Speech: Noun Meaning: The action or state of forcing or being forced to do something. Example: I felt no compulsion to settle down.
Word: Tenured
Parts of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Having or denoting a permanent post, especially as a teacher or a professor. Example: Even as a tenured professor who could afford something better.
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