Johnny Tremain: Chapters 10–12

by Esther Forbes
The year is 1773, and fourteen-year-old Johnny is an apprentice silversmith in Boston. When a terrible accident threatens his future, Johnny must quickly adapt — just as the American colonists join forces to break free from British rule.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–4, Chapters 5–6, Chapters 7–9, Chapters 10–12
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. firebrand
    someone who deliberately foments trouble
    But did the British know that both these firebrands were staying at the Clarks’ out in Lexington?
  2. garret
    floor consisting of open space at the top of a house
    He went back to his garret and flung himself on his bed.
  3. punctilious
    marked by precise accordance with details
    Seemingly Gage, a punctilious man, had chosen Francis Smith because he had been in service longer than any of the other (and smarter) colonels.
  4. haggard
    showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
    The young man’s usually fresh-colored face was haggard. He knew the seriousness of this day for himself and for his country.
  5. lenient
    characterized by tolerance and mercy
    Then, too, I’d rather die fighting than on a gallows. Gage won’t be so lenient now—soon as he learns war has begun.
  6. shrewd
    marked by practical hardheaded intelligence
    Shops and schools were closed, and Johnny met a wreath of tiny children advancing and chanting, ‘School’s done. War’s begun.’ It looked to him they were shrewder guessers than their elders who were trying to believe that not a shot had been, or would be, fired.
  7. animosity
    a feeling of ill will arousing active hostility
    Tears streamed down her thick, red cheeks and, all old animosity forgotten, she flung herself upon Johnny.
  8. jubilation
    a feeling of extreme joy
    And every minute the temper of the soldiers was growing shorter and a queer feeling of jubilation was apparent among the people.
  9. insurrection
    organized opposition to authority
    They are all going to London until this insur­rection, as they call it, is over.
  10. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    He said it tentatively.
    ‘Aunt Lavinia?’
  11. casualty
    someone injured or killed in a military engagement
    Johnny would not be able to tell Doctor Warren the exact number of casualties the British had suffered, but he could tell him that they thought they were heavy.
  12. reinforcement
    additional support for an existing military operation
    Obviously Smith had been a little afraid of leaving the safety of the village. He would wait where he was for the reinforcements he had sent for, even before Lexington.
  13. invincible
    incapable of being overcome or subdued
    He had seen so much of the British army he had come half to believe that they were, even as they said, invincible. No Yankee farmers could stand up to them.
  14. desolate
    having few or no inhabitants
    He took the road for Cambridge, crossing desolate Charlestown Common with its salt marshes, clay pits, gallows, and gibbet.
  15. epaulet
    an ornamental cloth pad worn on the shoulder
    A man, who told Johnny he was a colonel—he did have a pair of home-made epaulets sewed to his old hunting shirt—said that the Committee of Safety was sitting at the Hastings’ house, trying to work out some way these civilians might be turned into soldiers.
Created on 一月 14, 2016 (updated 四月 3, 2026)

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