Emaciated

"For a construction worker, he's emaciated, and without his dentures in there's not a tooth in his head" (226)

The poor dog was emaciated, it was abnormally thin and weak due to lack of food.

Crescendo

"The whispering in his ears reached a kind of crescendo-he could hear it through the screams of the two kids"(200)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWkJ86JqlPA

1. a gradual increase in loudness in a piece of music.

Raucous

"The baroness laughed.  It was a terrible sound, wet and raucous." (203)

We all know one person with that annoying, loud, raucous voice who can't shut up.

Rigmarole, Manic

"The smart answer is probably later, after we've gone through a lot of rigmarole" (193)

It was a rigmarole just to get the door open, it was a long, complicated process to open all the locks.


"There was a manic excitement to him now that made everything before look like snoozing" (195)

Jim Carrey had a manic excitement to him when he found out his role for the new movie.

Candelabra

"Howard was hunched at the long table in the great hall, using the light from a candelabra to study the framed map Danny had bought in town" (190).

The candelabra was in the center of the table and provided light for all the members of the table.

"The panic rose back up in him like bile" (205)

This actress felt bile after the amount of time she spent on her computer. She felt irritable, nauseous, and ill tempered.

Real anguish!!

"It came out snide, mocking" (173)

The boy made a remark that was snide and it hurt the young man it was directed at.

Anguish

"There's some kind of distress, or despair, or something, pushing out from her face. Even with just her eyes to go on, I see it. Anguish. It's not a word I use, but that's it" (186)

Miley Cyrus' face was full of anguish during her Wrecking Ball music video, she seemed to be in great mental pain.

siesta

"Some kind of afternoon siesta was starting up, and the streets were thinning out"(170)

The dog took a siesta after he went for a walk and chased the cat down the block.

Siesta: an afternoon rest or nap, especially one taken during the hottest hours of the day in a hot climate.

Supermax

"Yeah I guess Tom-Tom's gone too.  I heard they moved him to the supermax (186)"

In order to make sure he was absolutely isolated from other inmates and secured, Sean was put into the prison's supermax after stabbing Jack multiple times in a fit of his adolescent rage.

Virtuoso

"If Danny didn't know what he knew- that Howard had brought him over here to mess with his head- he would have bought this act completely because it was fantastic. A virtuoso performance of being worried" (164)

The pianist gave a virtuoso performance in front of a sold out crowd.

Commissary

"Normally Davis won't go near it - he survives on seafood ramen noodles he stockpiles from commissary" (148).

All the good food doesn't come from the dining hall, it comes from the commissary, the restaurant inventory. 

Jalopy

"I shut my eyes: redneck and juicehead and fuckwad and crapshoot and hothead, words floating around me like leaves coming off a tree, like i'm a kid lying on my back in the grass watching them come down: jive and joystick and jalopy and hollow and holy and Merry Christmas and Whose turn is it to put the star on the tree? (149).

The guys jalopy was so trashy that he abandoned it in the desert.

Horticultural

"The path from the admissions to the prison lobby has flower beds on one side from the horticultural program, and they're blooming like crazy" (141).

The man is part of his horticultural program where they grow various types of flowers.

Siphon

"Danny tried to answer, but tensing the muscles of his gut to say even one word would siphon vital energy away from his feet" (119)

In the science experiment, the water was siphoned from one test tube and went into another.

Berserk

"So you know. She's berserk. I have no sense of what her limits are" (129).

This young little girl may normally seem young and innocent but is actually berserk.

Crone

"She smiled at Danny, this ancient crone, alone and weak, nuts if she thought she could operate a battering ram on her own" (92).

The old crone struggled to get up the stairs, she was not only thin, but very ugly.

Kook

"Danny couldn't keep the smile off his face. Not just because the baroness was a kook and he liked kooks but because what she was saying did something to him, filled up his brain with kings and knights and guys fighting battles on horses" (90).

Johnny was different then most people; he was a kook.