English III Vocabulary List #5

Animosity- ill will or resentment tending toward active hostility

Chortle- to sing or chant exultantly

Contrite- feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming

Cower- to shrink away or crouch especially for shelter from something that menaces, domineers, or dismays

Dilatory- tending or intended to cause delay

Diversion- something that diverts or amuses

Ethereal- of or relating to the regions beyond the earth

Exploitation- an act or instance of exploiting

Gambol- Skipping or leaping in play

Gout- a metabolic disease

Ingenious- marked by originality, resourcefulness, and cleverness in conception or execution

Patrimony- an estate inherited from one's father or ancestor b: anything derived from one's father or ancestors

Pique- to excite or arouse especially by a provocation, challenge, or rebuff

Promontory- a high point of land or rock projecting into a body of water b: a prominent mass of land overlooking or projecting into a lowland

Pyre- a combustible heap for burning a dead body as a funeral rite ; broadly : a pile of material to be burned

Sordid- marked by baseness or grossness

Sultry- very hot and humid

Transverse- acting, lying, or being across

Treatise- a systematic exposition or argument in writing including a methodical discussion of the facts and principles involved and conclusions reached

Urchin- a mischievous and often poor and raggedly clothed youngster

Young Tommy awoke one day; an urchin, for the gout took his parents away.
But little Tommy knew, oh so very well, that if he cowered in a corner, there would be no tale to tell.
An ingenious plan, Tommy had in his hands, pyre and exploitation once he ruled the land.
But how was a boy, so small and so frail, going to rule the world without going to jail?
"Dilatory diversions," he said, "are the answer; although my parents could have done so very much better."
It was their legacy to which he rose, and a sordid republic would soon chortle his woes.
A treatise is what he needed, and his pants could use pleated,
so Tommy walked into town with a contrite-looking frown.
Tommy's battered appearance took the heart of the magistrate, and he brought the whole town downtown to congregate.
"This boy," he proclaimed, "needs help from our town. By the next time the world once circles around,
we shall find him food, clothing, and perhaps a sleeping gown."
The town belied him, he became renowned, and forever gone away was Tommy's fake frown.
He began his evil plans while the town fell into his hands, old ladies and widows would haunt his window.
They'd insure his good health; unknowing he would cost them their wealth.
Transverse to his plans was perhaps his revenge,
but who could he blame for his parent's deaths, so strange?
The sultry weather, or something wetter? Perhaps a separate plan would turn out better.
Tommy gamboled about town, knowing it was only days from its town-wide frown,
and by the time the world once again went around, he would poison the magistrate of the boring old town.
But something ethereal had doused his animosity, for it was love he found, in a girl named Audrey.
On the front steps of the Magistrate's home, her petite form sat singing, alone.
He offered her candied tarts, his patrimony and smarts, but what piqued her interest was his darkened young heart.
So it was that fateful day, that a young blonde belle, exploited that Tommy boy and saved the town with wedding bells.