Hick: Prologue and Part 1

by Sarah Miller
This biography covers the life of journalist Lorena "Hick" Hickok, whose life was changed by the love of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

This list covers vocabulary from the Prologue and Part 1.

Here are links to our lists for the book:

List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bombastic
    ostentatiously lofty in style
    Any other time Lorena tried to make friends, her eagerness came off as bombastic insincerity.
  2. doggerel
    a comic verse of irregular measure
    In one ill-fated attempt to impress, Lorena composed a few lines of disparaging doggerel about the teacher, Professor Johnson:
    His eyes are green, his hair is white, His nose is crooked, he’s a fright!
  3. becoming
    displaying or setting off to best advantage
    With Mrs. Dodd’s advice, Lorena carefully spent her wages on more becoming garments.
  4. tacit
    implied by or inferred from actions or statements
    “That change in his attitude gave tacit recognition that I was no longer a child, to be cuffed about and beaten,” Lorena realized.
  5. sordid
    morally degraded
    O’Malley regaled Lorena with endless tales of her sordid youth, “smacking her wicked old lips over each lewd detail.”
  6. milliner
    someone who makes and sells hats
    “The ‘unfortunate’ women who had not found husbands taught school, clerked in stores, became dressmakers or milliners or nurses, went into domestic service, or lived with relatives,” she recalled.
  7. comeuppance
    a usually negative outcome or fate that is well deserved
    That winter she published a cautionary tale called “The Reward of Stuffing”—a recollection of the comeuppance she’d received for
    trying to impress her grade school classmates back in Dakota with pure braggadocio—in the university’s literary magazine.
  8. impertinent
    improperly forward or bold
    “This means that she must be aggressive instead of gentle, pushing herself where she is not wanted. That she must be rude, if necessary, persistent, impertinent, callous—anything to gain her point. In short, she must forget that she is a woman.”
  9. shirtwaist
    a blouse with buttons down the front
    She had on a long skirt and shirtwaist, like any other woman.
  10. unequivocally
    in an unambiguous manner
    True, her clothes weren’t fancy or cut in the latest style, but they were unequivocally women’s clothes.
  11. echelon
    level of authority in a hierarchy
    Beer-brewing empires funded the luxurious homes on Grand Avenue, where families named Pabst, Schlitz, Uihlein, and Schandein ruled the upper echelons of capital-S Society.
  12. inured
    made tough by habitual exposure
    She wasn’t inured to the world, but she wasn’t fragile in mind or body, either.
  13. off-color
    in violation of good taste even verging on the indecent
    She’d...heard true tales lewder than any of the reporters’ off-color jokes.
  14. mien
    a person's appearance, manner, or demeanor
    Concealing that tender heart of hers was an unusually sturdy, levelheaded mien that gave her an edge.
  15. crackerjack
    extraordinarily good or great
    What she’d meant as a spiteful “stinger” read to him as “a crackerjack” piece of comedy.
Created on 三月 24, 2026 (updated 五月 26, 2026)

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