WORD LISTS

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum, Chapters 16–24

Fri Jul 07 12:16:38 EDT 2023
By Vocabulary.com (NY)Visual Thesaurus Moderator
During a cyclone, Dorothy Gale and her dog are transported from Kansas to a strange land where she seeks a wizard to help them get home. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–10, Chapters 11–15, Chapters 16–24

For more of our lists about the adventures in Oz, click your mouse once here.
engaged
The Scarecrow went in and found the little man sitting down by the window, engaged in deep thought.
thoroughly
Then he entered the back room and took up a measure of bran, which he mixed with a great many pins and needles. Having shaken them together thoroughly, he filled the top of the Scarecrow’s head with the mixture and stuffed the rest of the space with straw, to hold it in place.
fulfillment
The Scarecrow was both pleased and proud at the fulfillment of his greatest wish, and having thanked Oz warmly he went back to his friends.
mourn
“Truly I should be ungrateful if I failed to mourn for the man who gave me my lovely heart. I should like to cry a little because Oz is gone, if you will kindly wipe away my tears, so that I shall not rust.”
summon
So the soldier was summoned and entered the Throne Room timidly, for while Oz was alive he never was allowed to come farther than the door.
steeple
All they could see was a mass of towers and steeples behind the green walls, and high up above everything the spires and dome of the Palace of Oz.
headlong
So he walked forward to the tree, but just as he came under the first branches they bent down and twined around him, and the next minute he was raised from the ground and flung headlong among his fellow travelers.
prim
“My lady fair,
Why do you stare
At poor old Mr. Joker?
You’re quite as stiff
And prim as if
You’d eaten up a poker!”
brittle
Another definition of "brittle" is "lacking warmth and generosity of spirit"—this could describe the emotional nature of the china animals and people; because they are so physically brittle, they are more likely to run away than welcome strangers into their country.
"That was too bad," said Dorothy, "but really I think we were lucky in not doing these little people more harm than breaking a cow's leg and a church. They are all so brittle!"
rank
After climbing down from the china wall the travelers found themselves in a disagreeable country, full of bogs and marshes and covered with tall, rank grass. It was difficult to walk without falling into muddy holes, for the grass was so thick that it hid them from sight.
assemblage
As he spoke several of the beasts caught sight of him, and at once the great assemblage hushed as if by magic.
foe
The great spider was lying asleep when the Lion found him, and it looked so ugly that its foe turned up his nose in disgust.
boisterous
A chorus of boisterous laughter came from the other rocks, and Dorothy saw hundreds of the armless Hammer-Heads upon the hillside, one behind every rock.
presentable
When they were all quite presentable they followed the soldier girl into a big room where the Witch Glinda sat upon a throne of rubies.
deprive
"By means of the Golden Cap I shall command the Winged Monkeys to carry you to the gates of the Emerald City," said Glinda, "for it would be a shame to deprive the people of so wonderful a ruler."

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