SKIP TO CONTENT

"The Sea-Wolf" by Jack London, Chapters 18–25

When a San Francisco ferry collides with another ship, literary gentleman Humphrey Van Weyden falls into the bay and is picked up by a hunting ship captained by the cruelly powerful Wolf Larsen. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–10, Chapters 11–17, Chapters 18–25, Chapters 26–39
40 words 0 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Full list of words from this list:

  1. cull
    look for and gather
    Two of our boats, with men all safe, we took off the Cisco, and, to Wolf Larsen’s huge delight and my own grief, he culled Smoke, with Nilson and Leach, from the San Diego.
  2. pertinacious
    stubbornly unyielding
    Thomas Mugridge, so strangely and pertinaciously clinging to life, was soon limping about again and performing his double duties of cook and cabin-boy.
  3. fitful
    intermittently stopping and starting
    The wind was fair but fitful, and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack to raise that tiny boat out of the blue immensity.
  4. agog
    highly excited
    We were agog with excitement, all except Wolf Larsen, who was too evidently disappointed in that it was not his own boat with the two victims of his malice.
  5. ethereal
    characterized by lightness and insubstantiality
    Indeed, she was a slender, delicate woman as women go, but to me she was so ethereally slender and delicate that I was quite prepared for her arm to crumble in my grasp.
  6. appropriate
    take possession of by force
    She aroused, smiled drowsily, and was off to sleep again; and asleep I left her, under a heavy pair of sailor’s blankets, her head resting on a pillow I had appropriated from Wolf Larsen’s bunk.
  7. temporize
    draw out a discussion or process in order to gain time
    Louis gave a spoke and temporized. “They’d never iv made the land, sir, I’m thinkin’.”
  8. fastidious
    giving careful attention to detail
    I know not why, but I was aware of a twinge or pang like the cut of a knife when he mentioned her. I thought it a certain silly fastidiousness on my part, but it persisted in spite of me, and I merely shrugged my shoulders in answer.
  9. consummate
    complete and utter; without qualification or limitation
    “Then here’s a compact,” he went on, consummate actor. “If I promise not to lay my hands upon Leach will you promise, in turn, not to attempt to kill me?”
  10. plight
    a situation from which extrication is difficult
    The boat was close at hand now, and in desperate plight. Johnson was steering, Leach bailing.
  11. implacable
    incapable of being appeased or pacified
    I did not see into the eyes of Leach, for he was looking at Wolf Larsen, the old and implacable snarl of hatred strong as ever on his face.
  12. careen
    move sideways or in an unsteady way
    The spritsail filled with the wind, suddenly, careening the frail open craft till it seemed it would surely capsize.
  13. travail
    use of physical or mental energy; hard work
    For Johnson and Leach the travail of existence had ceased.
  14. estimable
    deserving of honor and respect
    While really very estimable, Mr. Van Weyden is sometimes—how shall I say?—er—quarrelsome, and harsh measures are necessary.
  15. wherewithal
    the necessary means (especially financial means)
    People eat, therefore they must procure the wherewithal. These men here shoot seals in order to live; for the same reason I sail this schooner; and Mr. Van Weyden, for the present at any rate, earns his salty grub by assisting me.
  16. visage
    the appearance conveyed by a person's face
    “Yes, I have,” she answered slowly, and I could have laughed aloud at his crestfallen visage.
  17. equanimity
    steadiness of mind under stress
    She was too unused as yet to the whims of the man to accept them with equanimity.
  18. chagrin
    a feeling of annoyance or distress due to disappointment or failure
    The chagrin Wolf Larsen felt from being ignored by Maud Brewster and me in the conversation at table had to express itself in some fashion, and it fell to Thomas Mugridge to be the victim.
  19. veneer
    an outward appearance that is deliberately misleading
    Mugridge’s face turned white under its sooty veneer, and when Wolf Larsen called for a rope and a couple of men, the miserable Cockney fled wildly out of the galley and dodged and ducked about the deck with the grinning crew in pursuit.
  20. unwonted
    out of the ordinary
    “As I was saying,” he went on, as though nothing unwonted had happened, “the shark was not in the reckoning. It was—ahem—shall we say Providence?”
  21. dissimulate
    hide feelings from other people
    We have not the strength with which to fight this man; we must dissimulate, and win, if win we can, by craft.
  22. animosity
    a feeling of ill will arousing active hostility
    Don’t arouse this man’s animosity. Be quite friendly with him, talk with him, discuss literature and art with him—he is fond of such things.
  23. glib
    artfully persuasive in speech
    “And it was a newspaper poem,” she said glibly.
  24. lithe
    moving and bending with ease
    He was cat-footed, and lithe, and strong, always strong.
  25. guerdon
    a reward or payment
    On the contrary, idealist that I was to the most pronounced degree, my philosophy had always recognized and guerdoned love as the greatest thing in the world, the aim and the summit of being, the most exquisite pitch of joy and happiness to which life could thrill, the thing of all things to be hailed and welcomed and taken into the heart.
  26. untoward
    not in keeping with accepted standards of what is proper
    “Sleep-walking, sunstroke,—what?” he barked.
    “No; indigestion,” I retorted, and continued my walk as if nothing untoward had occurred.
  27. disconcerted
    having self-possession upset; thrown into confusion
    “About what?” he asked, so innocently that Wolf Larsen was disconcerted, while the others smiled.
  28. athwart
    across the course, direction, or center line of a ship
    We knew she carried fourteen boats to our five (we were one short through the desertion of Wainwright), and she began dropping them far to leeward of our last boat, continued dropping them athwart our course, and finished dropping them far to windward of our first weather boat.
  29. innate
    not established by conditioning or learning
    “Their innate sense of right has been violated,” Maud Brewster said, joining the conversation.
  30. aureole
    an indication of radiant light around the head of a saint
    A boy’s cap was perched on her head, and her hair, light brown and arranged in a loose and fluffy order that caught the sun, seemed an aureole about the delicate oval of her face.
  31. jaded
    exhausted
    Emotional delight is more filling and lasting than intellectual delight; and, besides, you pay for your moments of intellectual delight by having the blues. Emotional delight is followed by no more than jaded senses which speedily recuperate.
  32. evince
    give expression to
    He nodded his head again, evincing even greater satisfaction than before.
  33. vim
    a healthy capacity for vigorous activity
    The sailors must have learned whatever project was on hand, and the vim and snap they put into their work attested their enthusiasm.
  34. garrulous
    full of trivial conversation
    “To gam,” among the sealing-schooners, is a substitute for the verbs “to visit,” “to gossip.” It expresses the garrulity of the sea, and is a pleasant break in the monotony of the life.
  35. propinquity
    the property of being close together
    But he reassured himself with a glance down at his host—a big man himself but dwarfed by the propinquity of the giant.
  36. belie
    be in contradiction with
    “Who knows? you may have to sail with me for a time,” he said, quite softly, with a silken threat that belied the softness, as they moved slowly to comply, “and we might as well start with a friendly understanding. Lively now! Death Larsen makes you jump better than that, and you know it!”
  37. qualm
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    It is because I am afraid, the flesh is afraid; and I am afraid in my mind because I do not wish to die. But my spirit masters the trembling flesh and the qualms of the mind.
  38. derisive
    expressing contempt or ridicule
    Our men, clustering amidships, waved their hats and raised a derisive cheer.
  39. filament
    a threadlike structure
    The grey mist drove by us like a rain. Every woollen filament of our garments, every hair of our heads and faces, was jewelled with a crystal globule.
  40. pall
    a dark covering or cloud, as of smoke
    And what little there was,—the slapping of a few reef-points and the creaking of a sheave in a block or two,—was ghostly under the hollow echoing pall in which we were swathed.
Created on 二月 18, 2023 (updated 二月 19, 2023)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner 一分钟极速历史开奖直播, gold-punch.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.