The Things They Carried : Vocabulary

1. Makeshift – adjective – page 3

“Each carried a green plastic poncho that could be used as a raincoat or

groundsheet or makeshift tent.”

Def : a temporary expedient or substitute

2. Sullen – adjective – page 12

“He was aware of how quiet the day was, the sullen paddies, yet he could not
bring himself to worry about matters of security.”

Def : showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve

3. Villes – noun – page 68

“Always raising hell and light up villes and bring smoke to bear every which
way.”

Def : combining form extracted from place names

4. Ordnance – noun – page 75

“What is with all the ordnances?”

Def : cannon or artillery

5. Diddly – adverb – noun 75

“He didn’t say diddly.”

Def : no value, nothing of worth

6. LP – noun – page 76

“What they need is to go out and listen to LP.”

Def : a phonograph record

7. LZ – noun – page 78

“It took nearly an house to cut an LZ for the dustoff.”

Def : Landing zone for aircraft.

8. Generalize – verb – page 81

“ How do you generalize?”

Def : to infer (a general principle, trend, etc.) from particular facts, statistics, or the like.

9. AO – noun – page 87

“The AO lay along the South China Sea.”

Def : To be account of.

10. Mundane – noun – page 89

“The border between trivia and bedlam, the mad and the mundane.”

Def : of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; worldly

11. Culottes – noun – page 90

“White culottes and this sexy pink sweater.”

Def : women's trousers, usually knee-length or calf-length, cut full to resemble a skirt.

12. ARVN – noun – page 91

“The ARVNs were useless and outright dangerous.”

Def : A soldier in the Vietnam War.

13. NCO – noun – page 91

“The highest ranking NCO was an E-16 named Eddie Diamond, whose pleasures
ran from dope to Darvon.”

Def : Noncommissioned Officer.

14. Vaporous – adjective – page 105

“Like spirits, vaporous and unreal.”

Def : so thin as to transmit light

15. Digressions – noun – page 107

“All these digressions, they just screw up your story’s sound.”

Def : Pauses and stops.

16. Greenie – noun/adjective – page 109

“I was you, though, no way I’d mess around with any Greenie types, not for
nothing.”

Def : Slang. an amphetamine pill, esp. one that is green in color.

17. Hootch – noun – page 111

“She moved her hand in a gesture that encompassed not just the hootch but
everything around it.”

Def : liquor illicitly distilled and distributed.

18. Rigidly – adverb – page 203

“I just went through the motions, rigidly, by the numbers, without any heart or
real emotions.”

Def : stiff or unyielding; not pliant or flexible; hard: a rigid strip of metal.

19. Gyroscope – noun – page 205

“The hours go by and your lose your gyroscope; your mind starts to roam.”

Def : an apparatus consisting of a rotating wheel

20. Napalm – noun – page 241

“A nurse, fried by napalm.”

Def : a highly incendiary jellylike substance used in fire bombs, flamethrowers, etc.