Huckleberry Finn Vocabulary Ch 12-16

Jack-O'-lantern

a faint, deceptive light hovering over marshes or swamps; also called will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus (fool's fire).

jackstaff

a flagstaff on the front end of a ship.

stabboard derrick

a hoisting apparatus on the right- hand (starboard) side of a ship, looking forward.

headline

a long rope fastened to a raft for pulling or towing it.

towhead

a low, tree-covered sandbar or island in a river.

powwow

a noisy disturbance; a commotion.

wood-yard

a place where wood for sale is stored; on a riverbank, a storage area for the wood used as fuel in steamboats.

ell

an old English measure equal to 45 inches.

truck

assorted goods or merchandise.

a-billing

boiling.

saddle-baggsed

caught or snagged so as to hang draped on either side like a pair of saddlebags.

spunk

courage.

cretur

creature.

tuck

energy or spirit.

halter

hangman's noose.

labboard

larboard; the left-hand (also called port) side of a ship, looking forward.

raspcallions

lawbreakers or social outcasts.

careened

leaned or tilted to one's side.

looard

leeward; downwind, or in the direction toward which the wind is blowing.

sweeps

long, heavy oars.

spondulicks

money.

beatenest

most astonishing or amazing.

chimbly-guy

one of the cables fastening a tall chimney or smokestack to the roof

yonder

over there

p'simmons

persimmons; orange, plum like berries of the persimmon tree, edible only when very ripe

crawfished

retreated by scuttling backward like a crayfish, a small freshwater animal resembling a lobster.

sentimentering

sentimentalizing; indulging in one's emotions.

crabapples

small very sour apples.

good book

the Bible.

texas

the cabin for steamboat officers, usually beneath or just behind the pilothouse.

harrow-teeth

the metal spikes or teeth on a large farm implement used to break up and smooth the soil.

stern

the rear of a ship.

rustle

to move around vigorously; to steal, especially cattle.

aft

toward he rear of the ship.

treed

trapped or cornered up a tree.

staving

very great or remarkable.

bitts

wood or metal posts, fastened to a ship's deck, to which mooring lines are secured.

dingnation

a delicate form of "damnation"; a minced oath.

dolphin

Huck's confusion of "dauphin," the eldest son of a French king, with "dolphin," a small, long-snouted whale.