Everyday Use

1. homely (adjective):

plain, when referencing a person’s looks

“[Maggie] will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe.” (Paragraph 2)

2. tottering (verb):

wobbling or moving unsteadily

“You’ve no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has ‘made it’ is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage.” (Paragraph 3)

3. enveloped (past tense verb):

entirely wrapped or enclosed

“‘How do I look, Mama?’ Maggie says, showing just enough of her thin body enveloped in pink skirt and red blouse for me to know she’s there, almost hidden by the door.” (Paragraph 7)

4. sidle (verb):

move cautiously or secretively, often by approaching at an angle

“Have you ever seen a lame animals, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him?” (Paragraph 9)

5. organdy (noun):

a sheer and relatively stiff kind of cotton fabric often used decoratively or in formal wear

“Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school” (Paragraph 12)

6. furtive (adjective):

secretive or surreptitious in a way intended to avoid attracting attention

“She had a few [friends]. Furtive boys in pink shirts hanging about on washday after school.” (Paragraph 15)

7. lye (noun):

an alkaline solution often used in soap

"Impressed with [Dee] they worshipped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye.” (Paragraph 15)

8. stout (adjective):

in reference to a person, heavyset or sturdily built

“‘Don’t get up,’ says Dee. Since I am stout it takes something of a push.” (Paragraph 22)

9. cowering (verb):

shrinking or cringing in fear

“She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me.” (Paragraph 22)

10. chitlins (noun):

a dish made from boiled pig intestines, often served battered and fried alongside condiments 

“Wangero, though, went on through the chitlins and corn bread, the greens and everything else.” (Paragraph 45)

11. talked a blue streak (idiomatic past tense expression):

spoke constantly, quickly, and at length

“She talked a blue streak over the sweet potatoes.” (Paragraph 45)

12. clabber (noun):

soured and curdled milk

“She jumped up from the table and went over in the corner where the churn stood, the milk in it clabber by now.” (Paragraph 46)

13. rifling (verb):

searching or rummaging through something quickly, often in order to steal

“After dinner Dee (Wangero) went to the trunk at the foot of my bed and started rifling through it.” (Paragraph 55)

14. priceless (adjective):

costly because of rarity or quality; precious

“‘But they’re priceless!’ she was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper. ‘Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!’” (Paragraph 68)

15. hangdog (adjective):

depressed, defeated, or guilty-looking, usually in reference to a person’s face or expression

“She had filled her bottom lip with checkerberry snuff and it gave her face a kind of dopey, hangdog look.’” (Paragraph 75)

16. snuff (noun):

as a noun, ground tobacco for chewing or snorting

“After we watched the car dust settle I asked Maggie to bring me a dip of snuff.” (Paragraph 83)