A Streetcar Named Desire Vocabulary
1) attenuate (v.)
a. I’ve found that being on my phone while doing work attenuates my attention span and
lengthens the amount of time I have to spend working.
b. The sky that shows around the dim white building is a peculiarly tender blue, almost a turquoise,
which invests the scene with a kind of lyricism and gracefully attenuates the atmosphere of decay (3).
Definition:
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2) raffish (adj.)
a. Many people still think Johnny Depp, with his long hair, tattoos, and facial hair, is
raffishly good-looking even though he’s fifty.
b. The section is poor but, unlike corresponding sections in other American cities, it has a raffish charm
(3).
Definition:
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3) incongruous (adj.)
a. Seeing a big football player like Rob Gronkowski with a tiny Chihuahua would be an
incongruous sight.
b. Her appearance is incongruous in this setting (5).
Definition:
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4) reproachful (adj.)
a. Teachers don’t want to give reproachful speeches when the entire class doesn’t do the
homework.
b. “I’m not meaning this in any reproachful way, but all the burden descended on my shoulders (20).
Definition:
Your own sentence:
5) improvident (adj.)
a. The improvident celebrity didn’t hesitate to spend ten thousand dollars on a new handbag
because she had so much money.
b. “There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece
by piece, our improvident grandfathers and fathers and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for
their epic fornications—to put it plainly!” (44).
Definition:
Your own sentence:
6) lurid (adj.)
a. Every movie in the Saw series contains lurid scenes where characters have to harm
themselves in really gross ways.
b. The kitchen now suggests that sort of lurid nocturnal brilliance, the raw colors of childhood’s
spectrum (46).
Definition:
Your own sentence:
7) vulgar (adj.)
a. Most of the jokes in a Seth McFarlane movie or TV show are vulgar and inappropriate for
the classroom.
b. “I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (60).
Definition:
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8) maternity (n.)
a. It’s strange that courts depend so much on paternity tests but don’t really ask for
maternity tests.
b. He falls to his knees on the steps and presses his face to her belly, curving a little with maternity
(67).
Definition:
Your own sentence:
9) bestial (adj.)
a. In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast learns not to act on his bestial impulses like growling
when he’s angry.
b. “There’s something downright—bestial—about him!” (82).
Definition:
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10) stolid (adj.)
a. After Serena Williams lost in the U.S. Open, her attitude during the press conference was
stolid and unemotional.
b. Mitch is stolid but depressed (100).
Definition:
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11) locomotive (n.)
a. You can find many locomotives at South Station.
b. A locomotive is heard approaching.
Definition:
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12) saccharine (adj.)
a. Many Hallmark cards have really saccharine messages and overly cute pictures of flowers,
puppies, and rainbows.
b. Blanche is singing in the bathroom a saccharine popular ballad which is used contrapuntally with
Stanley’s speech.
Definition:
Your own sentence:
13) cleft (n.)
a. The squirrel hid from the over friendly dog in the cleft of the tree.
b. “I thanked God for you, because you seemed to be gentle—a cleft in the rock of the world that I could
hide in!” (147).
Definition:
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14) recrimination (n.)
a. The two criminals who were on trial threw recriminations at each other and insisted that
the other criminal was the guilty one.
b. “Crumble and fade and—regrets—recriminations” (149).
Definition:
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15) exhilaration (n.)
a. Because I lived in San Francisco for a few years and knew how much the Golden State
Warriors had struggled as a team, I felt great exhilaration when they finally won a
championship after forty years.
b. As the drinking and packing went on, a mood of hysterical exhilaration came into her and she had
decked herself out in a somewhat soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown and a pair of scuffed
silver slippers with brilliant sets in their heels (151).
Definition:
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