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.