Catcher in the Rye
Vocabulary
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Hour: ______
Catcher in the Rye Vocabulary Words
Ch 1-14
Word
Ostracize
Sentence from book
The whole team ostracized
me the whole way back on
the train. (p.3)
"Do you have any particular
qualms about leaving
Pencey?" (p.14)
Definition
excluded; avoided
talking to
exhibitionist
All I need’s an audience.
I’m an exhibitionist. (p. 29)
Attention seeking
behavior.
Pacifist
I'm a pacifist, if you want to
know the truth. (p. 46)
Opposed to
war/violence
Modest
Because he's so darn shy
and modest and all.
(p. 57)
having a humble
opinion of yourself
Incognito
“I'm traveling incognito," I
said. (p.60)
Without revealing your
identity; disguised.
Suave
I said it suave as hell.
(p.65)
Smooth
Putrid
The band was putrid. (p.
69)
Stinking; rotting
Nonchalant
I just got very cool and
nonchalant. (p.90)
Casual; unconcerned
Sentence from book
I'm a goddam spendthrift
at heart. (P. 107)
Definition
a big spender
He kept saying they were
too new and bourgeois. (p.
108)
middle-class
Qualm
Ch 14-26
Word
Spendthrift
Bourgeois
Use it in a new sentence
Uneasiness (worry);
misgivings (doubt about
the future)
Use it in a new sentence
Sacrilegious
Sally said I was a
sacrilegious atheist. (p.
137)
Disrespectful toward
what is sacred
Inane
“Must we go on with this
inane conversation?" (p.
146)
silly; mindless
Digression
That digression business
got on my nerves. (p. 183)
Rambling/straying from
the point
Harrowing
"Apparently before he
phoned me he'd just had a
long, rather harrowing
letter from your latest
headmaster, to the effect
that you were making
absolutely no effort at all.”
(p. 186)
Disturbing; tormenting
Additional Literary Terms
Word
Sentence from book
Round
Examples from book:
Character
 Holden Caulfield
Flat Character
Examples from book:
 Those Holden
describes as “phonies”
Hyperbole
“It took him about five hours
to get ready.” (p. 36)
Colloquialism
“Strictly for the birds.” (p.2)
Allusion
Meaning: “Something that
only appeals to the simple
minded.”
Examples from book
 Shirley Beans Record
 Poem “If a body meet a
body coming through the
rye”
Definition
Characters that are
complex, possessing
conflicting traits.
Characters with few
traits, all of them
predictable, none
creating genuine
conflicts.
Exaggeration for
effect; effect may be
humorous, satiric, or
sentimental.
A word or phrase
appropriate to
conversation and other
informal situations.
A brief reference to a
person, event, or place,
real or fictitious, or to
a work of art.
Use it in a new sentence