City by the sea, city of stories – The Hindu (July 24, 2016)
One of my earliest memories is from a year of my childhood spent in Faridabad in Haryana. My father used to travel a great deal on work. My mother, a Bombay girl (Mumbai was called Bombay then) who had grown up in a large, chattery family in a large, chattery building in the neighbourhood of Matunga, was alone with my sister and me in a house that felt too big just for the three of us. For further reading, visit “The Hindu”.
Word List:
- Chattery (adjective) – related to talking in a casual manner.
- Giggle (noun) – a light & repeated laugh in a childish way; titter, chuckle, snicker, hee-haw, tee-hee.
- Grin (verb) – smile broadly, smile from ear to ear.
- Twig (noun) – a small branch, offshoot, stem.
- Inscribe (verb) – write, carve, mark.
- Curl up (verb) – sit with legs bent and drawn up; close nestle, snuggle. cuddle.
- Gurgle (verb) – babble, burble, tinkle; (water bubbling sound).
- Dilapidate (verb) – make something ruined/decayed.
- Crumbling (adjective) – disintegrating, falling down, collapsing, decaying.
- Verdigris (noun) – a greenish-blue/ bluish green film on the surface of copper /brass because of oxidation.
- Wail (verb) – to make long & high piched sound.
- Heterogeneous (adjective) – diverse, varied, contrasting, different.
- Scrawny Kitten (noun) – a young cat that is very thin/ lean.
- Pi-dog (noun) – a stray dog that is cross breed.
- Cartographer (noun)- one who draws maps.
- Regard (noun) – look, observation, examination, inspection.
- Gentrify (verb) – Renovate and improve.
- Evict (verb) – expel, remove, oust, eject, force out.
- Anthology (noun) – a published collection of poems/stories by multiple authors.
- Rattling (adjective) – making quick and repeated sound continuously.
- Flutter (noun) – a quick and light move or flap.
- Haggling (adjective) – bargaining, disputing , arguing (over price).
- Macaulian educational system – the system of making English the medium of instruction for higher education is called Macaulian educational system and it was introduced by Lord Macaulay (1800-1859).
- Ornithologist (noun) – a person who is an expert on birds.
- Mend (verb) – repair, fix, restore.
- Ply (verb) – work at, engage in, practise, pursue.
Note:
- Click each one of the words above for their definition, more synonyms, pronunciation, example sentences, phrases, derivatives, origin and etc from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ .
- Definitions (elementary level) & Synonyms provided for the words above are my personal work and not that of Oxford University Press.