vulnerable: open to criticism or attack; easily hurt.
“ In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice…”
privy: private, secret or clandestine.
“… I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.”
feigned: pretended or simulated; sham.
levity: lightness or gaiety of disposition, conduct or speech.
“…frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity …”
parcelled: to separate into parts and distribute; apportion.
“… a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.”
conferred: granted or bestowed.
“He had casually conferred on me the freedom of the neighborhood.”
epigram: a short poem; a terse witty, pointed statement.
“This isn’t just an epigram – life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.”
anticlimax: disappointing contrast to a preceding rise.
“… a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anticlimax.”
supercilious: disdainful or contemptuous.
“Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner.”
effeminate swank: swaggering, ostentatious behavior of a feminine nature.
“Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body…”
fractiousness: condition of being hard to manage, rebellious or unruly; causing to make irritable or cross.
“His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed.”
buoyed: to keep afloat.
“The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon.”
reciprocal: done in return.
“Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming discontented face.”
claret: purplish red burgundy wine.
“… I confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret.”
complacency: quiet satisfaction or smugness.
“There was something pathetic in his concentration as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more.”
extemporizing: improvising; contriving in a makeshift way to meet a pressing need.
“She was only extemporizing but a stirring warmth flowed from her as if her heart was trying to come out to you…”
ether: an anesthetic.
“I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl.”
rotogravure: a print or newspaper section printed on a rotary press.
“… its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out a me from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life …”
anon: soon or shortly.
“See you anon.”
libel: anything that gives an unflattering or damaging picture of the subject; a false statement made to damage a reputation.
“It’s a libel.”
Chapter 2: pg 27-42
contiguous: in close proximity without actually touching; near.
“The only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the waste land, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it and contiguous to absolutely nothing.”
sensuously: perceived by, or affecting the senses.
“… she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can.”
deferred: to put off action or consideration to a future time.
“Tom deferred that much to the sensibilities of those East Eggers …”
interposed: to place between; cause to intervene.
“ ‘No you don’t ,’ interposed Tom quickly.”
apathetically: not interested; indifferent.
“… he added on his own initiative a tin of large hard dog biscuits – one of which decomposed apathetically in the saucer of milk all afternoon.”
hauteur: haughty manner or spirit; arrogance; snobbery.
“The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur.”
ambiguously: open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations.
“ ‘Well, I married him,’ said Myrtle ambiguously.”
Chapter 3: pg 43-64
omnibus: pertaining to, including, or dealing with numerous objects or items at once.
“On weekends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city…”
fortnight: the space of fourteen nights and days; two weeks.
“At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down…”
harlequin: fancifully varied in color, decoration, etc.
“On the buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors d’oeurve, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs…”
prodigality: an instance of it.
“Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word.”
eddies: to move or whirl in water.
“…I went over to his lawn a little after seven and wandered around rather ill-at-ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know…”
vehemently: zealous; ardent; impassioned.
”.. the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements…”
credulity: willingness to believe or trust too readily; gullibility.
“As our credulity switched back to her she leaned forward with enthiusiasm.”
innuendo: an indirect intimation about a person or thing, esp. of a disparaging or a derogatory nature.
“…Jordan’s escort, a persistent undergraduate given to violent innuendo and obviously under the impression that sooner or later Jordan was going to yield him up her person…”
staid: of settled or sedate character; not flighty or capricious.
spectroscopic: displaying a continuous range or entire extent.
“… and assume to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside – East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety.”
bona fide: authentic; true.
“ ‘It’s a bona fide piece of printed matter.’ ”
corpulent: large or bulky of body; portly; stout; fat.
“I had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years.”
jovial: endowed with or characterized by a hearty, joyous humor or a spirit of good fellowship.
“He smiled with jovial condescension…”
convivial: friendly; agreeable.
“… girls were putting their heads on men’s shoulders in a puppyish, convivial way…”
vinous: of, resembling, or pertaining to wine.
“… she threw up her hands, sank into a chair and went off into a deep vinous sleep.”
malevolence: ill will; malice; hatred.
“In spite of the wives’ agreement that such malevolence was beyond credibility the dispute ended in a short struggle …”
discordant: disagreeing, conflicting, not in agreement.
“… a harsh discordant din from those in the rear had been audible for some time …”
poignant: sharply painful to the feelings; evoking pity, emotionally touching.
“… young clerks in the dusk wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.”
divergence: departure from a particular viewpoint; difference of opinion.
“…she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible.”
subterfuges: any plan, action or device used to hide one's true objective; evade a difficult situation.
“…she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool insolent smile turned to the world …”
Chapter 4: pg 65-85
knickerbockers: short, loose trousers gathered in at or just below the knee.
“He came only once, in white knickerbockers, and had a fight with a bum…”
punctilious: very careful about every detail of behavior, ceremony.
“This quality was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness.”
gilt: overlaid with gold or something glittery to hide an unpleasant reality.
“We … sped along a cobbled slum lined with the dark, undeserted saloons of the faded gilt nineteen hundreds.”
somnambulatory: occurring while sleep walking.
“…whereupon Mr. Wolfshiem swallowed a new sentence he was starting and lapsed into a somnambulatory abstraction.”
juxtaposition: side by side comparison.
“The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling.”
denizen: a frequenter of a particular place.
“ ‘He’s quite a character around New York – a denizen of Broadway.’ ”
amour: a love affair, especially of an illicit or secret nature.
“Perhaps Daisy never went in for amour at all – and yet there’s something in that voice of hers.”
wan: sickly, pale, pallid; colorless.
Her wan scornful mouth smiled and I drew her up again, closer, this time to my face.”
Ch 5: pg 86-102
rout: disorderly crowd.
“At first I thought it was another party, a wild rout that had resolved itself into hide-and-go-seek’…”
harrowed: mentally distressed.
“We both jumped up and, a little harrowed myself, I went out into the yard.”
defunct: no longer living or existing; extinct.
“His head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock….”
vestige: a trace, mark, or sign of something that once existed but has passed away or disappeared.
“…every vestige of embarrassment was gone.”
pompadour: a man's hairdo where the hair is brushed up high from the forehead.
“ ‘You never told me you had a pompadour – or a yacht.’ “
nebulous: hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused.
“He was now clothed in … duck trousers of a nebulous hue.”
Chapter 6: pg 103-118
laudable: deserving praise; commendable.
“This was his day off and with laudable initiative he had hurried out ‘to see.’ ”
insidious: intended to entrap or beguile.
“…when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior.”
meretricious: alluring by a show of flashy or vulgar attractions; tawdry.
“… he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of a vast , vulgar and meretricious beauty.
turgid: swollen; distended; pompous; inflated; overblown.
“The none too savory ramifications … were common knowledge to the turgid journalism of 1902.”
debauchee: a person addicted to excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures.
“…the pioneer debauchee who during one phase of American life brought back to the eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon.”
antecedent: a preceding circumstance, event, object, style, etc.
“… I’ve put it down here with the idea of exploding those first wild rumors about his antecedents…”
ingratiate: to bring into the favor or good graces of another.
“ trotting around with Jordan and trying to ingratiate myself with her senile aunt…”
euphemism: the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.
“…appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms …”
dilatory: tending to delay or procrastinate.
“The dilatory limousine came rolling up the drive.”
pap: an idea, talk, or book lacking substance or real value.
“… and once there he could suck on the pap of life…”
Chapter 7: pg 119-153
caravansary: any large inn or hotel.
“So the whole caravansary had fallen in like a card house at the disapproval in her eyes.”
precipitately: to hasten an occurrence; happen prematurely, hastily, or suddenly.
“His wife and his mistress … were slipping precipitately from his control.”
tumultuous: raising a great clatter or commotion; disorderly or noisy.
“The prolonged and tumultuous argument that ended by herding us into that room eludes me…”
rancour: bitter, rankling resentment or ill will; hatred; malice.
“Her voice was cold but the rancour was gone from it.”
magnanimous: generous in forgiving an insult or injury; high-minded; noble.
“She looked at Tom, alarmed now, but he insisted with magnanimous scorn.”
portentous: momentous; marvelous; amazing; prodigious.
Before me stretched the portentous menacing road of a new decade.”
expostulation: reasoning earnestly with someone and trying to correct/dissuade.
“The circle closed up again with a running murmur of expostulation…”
truculent: fierce, cruel, savagely brutal.
“… but the policeman caught something in the tone and looked over with truculent eyes.”
Chapter 8: pg 154-170
redolent: having a pleasant odor; fragrant.
“…of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor cars …”
strata: socioeconomic groups of a society as determined by birth, income, education, etc.
“… he let her believe that he was a person from much the same strata as herself…”
garrulous: excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner, esp. about trivial matters.
“…some garrulous man telling over and over what had happened …”
pneumatic: of or pertaining to air, gases, or wind.
“He stopped at the garage for a pneumatic mattress that had amused his guests …”
fortuitously: happening or produced by good chance; lucky; fortunate.
amorphous: lacking definite form; having no specific shape; formless.
“… where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about … like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees.”
Chapter 9: pg 171-189
adventitious: associated with something by chance rather than as an integral part.
“…the adventitious authority of his voice set the key for the newspaper reports next morning.”
pasquinade: a satire or sarcastic squib posted in a public place.
“… I thought the whole tale would shortly be served up in racy pasquinade – but Catherine, who might have said anything, didn’t say a word.”
provincial: narrow, limited, unsophisticated.
“… rid of my provincial squeamishness forever.”
