Unbroken Vocabulary

"Unbroken," Vocabulary from Chapters 1-5
In "Unbroken," Lauren Hillenbrand recounts the tumultuous and amazingly true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who after surviving being stranded at sea for 40 days, becomes a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II.

dirigible a steerable self-propelled aircraft What he saw was the German dirigible Graf Zeppelin.
tout advertize in strongly positive terms The ship passed over Nuremberg, where fringe politician Adolf Hitler, whose Nazi Party had been trounced in the 1928 elections, had just delivered a speech touting selective infanticide.
typhoon a tropical cyclone in the western Pacific or Indian oceans Four days later, as the German and Japanese anthems played, the ship rose into the grasp of a typhoon that whisked it over the Pacific at breathtaking speed, toward America.
pneumonia respiratory disease characterized by lung inflammation In 1919, when two-year-old Louie was down with pneumonia, he climbed out his bedroom window, descended one story, and went on a naked tear down the street with a policeman chasing him and a crowd watching in amazement.
testament strong evidence for something It is a testament to the content of Louie’s childhood that his stories about it usually ended with “. . . and then I ran like mad."
avuncular resembling a uncle in kindness or indulgence Pete Zamperini was handsome, popular, impeccably groomed, polite to elders and avuncular to juniors, silky smooth with girls, and blessed with such sound judgment that even when he was a child, his parents consulted him on difficult decisions.
smattering a slight or superficial understanding of a subject Louie, who knew only a smattering of English until he was in grade school, couldn’t hide his pedigree.
goad provoke as by constant criticism Bullies, drawn by his oddity and hoping to goad him into uttering Italian curses, pelted him with rocks, taunted him, punched him, and kicked him.
exasperated greatly annoyed; out of patience Adoring his son but exasperated by his behavior, Anthony delivered frequent, forceful spankings.
melee a noisy riotous fight Little Louise Zamperini, mother of four, was deep in the melee when the cops picked her up for brawling.
surreptitious conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods Knowing that punishing Louie would only provoke his defiance, Louise took a surreptitious route toward reforming him.
euthanasia the act of killing someone painlessly Some eugenicists advocated euthanasia, and in mental hospitals, this was quietly carried out on scores of people through “lethal neglect” or outright murder.
eugenics the study of improving qualities by selective breeding A more popular tool of eugenics was forced sterilization, employed on a raft of lost souls who, through misbehavior or misfortune, fell into the hands of state governments.
discrepancy a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions When basketball season began, there was an inexplicable discrepancy between the number of ten-cent tickets sold and the considerably larger number of kids in the bleachers.
cheeky offensively bold It was a cheeky thing for a sixteen-year-old to say to his principal, but Pete was the one kid in Torrance who could get away with such a remark, and make it persuasive.
forte an asset of special worth or utility But it was track, in which he earned four varsity letters, tied the school half-mile record, and set its mile record of 5:06, that was his true forte.
incipient only partly in existence; imperfectly formed Looking at Louie, whose getaway speed was his saving grace, Pete thought he saw the same incipient talent.
incentive a positive motivational influence He hated running, but the applause was intoxicating, and the prospect of more was just enough incentive to keep him marginally compliant.
prodigy an unusually gifted or intelligent person The sports pages of the Los Angeles Times and Examiner were striped with stories on the prodigy, whom the Times called the “Torrance Tempest” and practically everyone else called the “Torrance Tornado.”
audacious disposed to venture or take risks Now he latched onto a wildly audacious goal: the 1936 Olympics, in Berlin.
pundit a person with special knowledge who performs skillfully Even conservative track pundits were beginning to think that Louie might be the one to shatter precedent, and after Louie won every race in his senior season, their confidence was strengthened.
deity a supernatural being worshipped as controlling the world Mindful of being a teenaged upstart in the company of such seasoned track deities as Jesse Owens and Glenn Cunningham, Louie curbed his coltish impulses and began growing a mustache.
dissipate to cause to separate and go in different directions Feeling a swell of nausea, Louie slowed and slid out a bit, and the stench dissipated.
penultimate next to the last Nearing the finish line for the penultimate time, Louie fixed his eyes on the gleaming head of the pomaded competitor, who was many runners ahead.
entourage the group following and attending to some important person Nearby, Adolf Hitler sat in his box, among his entourage.
anodyne capable of relieving pain Among Louie’s friends, no one would remember what Sasaki studied at USC, but they all recalled his quiet, anodyne presence; saying almost nothing, he smiled without interruption.
imbue fill or soak totally “ Imbuing violence with holy meaning,” wrote the historian Iris Chang, “the Japanese imperial army made violence a cultural imperative every bit as powerful as that which propelled Europeans during the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition.”
ravaged having been robbed and destroyed by force and violence America, long isolationist, found itself pulled into both conflicts: In Europe, its allies lay in Hitler’s path; in the Pacific, its longtime ally China was being ravaged by the Japanese, and its territories of Hawaii, Wake, Guam, and Midway, as well as its commonwealth of the Philippines, were threatened.
blitzkrieg a military offensive with intensive aerial bombardment Hitler had unleashed his blitzkrieg across Europe, his Soviet allies had followed, and the continent had exploded into total war.
embargo a government order imposing a trade barrier In an effort to stop Japan, President Franklin Roosevelt imposed ever-increasing embargoes on materiel, such as scrap metal and aviation fuel.

"Unbroken," Vocabulary from Chapters 6-11
In "Unbroken," Lauren Hillenbrand recounts the tumultuous and amazingly true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who after surviving being stranded at sea for 40 days, becomes a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II.

conquest the act of conquering There was one snag: Wake, surely expected to be an easy conquest, wouldn’t give in.
abort terminate before completion The little group of defenders shoved them back, sinking two destroyers and damaging nine other ships, shooting down two bombers, and forcing the Japanese to abort, their first loss of the war.
sophisticated complex or intricate For flat runs, he had the Norden bombsight, an extremely sophisticated analog computer that, at $8,000, cost more than twice the price of the average American home.
guerrilla a member of an irregular army that fights a stronger force He snuck around his neighborhood with bags full of flour, launching guerrilla attacks on windshields of passing cars, and one Memorial Day weekend, he wedged himself into a car trunk to sneak into the infield of the Indy 500.
buoyant characterized by liveliness and lightheartedness She had auburn hair, a curvy figure, a buoyant disposition, a quick mind, and a family cat named Chopper.
deploy place troops or weapons in battle formation Crazy in love, the two talked about running off to get hitched right then, but reconsidered, deciding to marry at his next training venue and live together there until he was deployed.
ebullient joyously unrestrained The crew’s girl magnet was Harry Brooks, a good-looking, ebullient radioman and waist gunner from Michigan.
myopic unable to see distant objects clearly Flat-faced, rectangular, and brooding, the B-24 had looks only a myopic mother could love.
turbulence instability in the atmosphere Navigating the nine-inch-wide bomb bay catwalk could be difficult, especially in turbulence; one slip and you’d tumble into the bay, which was fitted with fragile aluminum doors that would tear away with the weight of a falling man.
prowess a superior skill learned by study and practice The COs soon learned of the squadron’s prowess; angry farmers came calling after the 372nd’s hundred-pound bombs flattened an outhouse and one unfortunate cow.
camouflage exploit the natural surroundings to disguise something The island was on constant alert for air raids or invasion, and was so heavily camouflaged, a ground crewman wrote in his diary, that “one sees only about 1/2 of what is actually there.”
placidly in a quiet and tranquil manner One morning on sea search, Phil’s crew passed over an American submarine sitting placidly on the surface, crewmen ambling over the deck.
synchronize make happen at the same time After each day of sea search, he and another pilot synchronized their returns to Oahu.
reconnaissance the act of scouting Tooling around the island in borrowed cars, they came upon several airfields, but when they drew closer, they realized that all of the planes and equipment were fake, made of plywood, an elaborate ruse designed to fool Japanese reconnaissance planes.
garish tastelessly showy The islands, sealed in blackness a moment before, were a blaze of garish light.
abut lie adjacent to another or share a boundary For loaded B-24S, which needed well over four thousand feet for takeoff, the cropped island runways, often abutted by towering palm trees, were a challenge.
kamikaze a pilot trained and willing to cause a suicidal crash When these failed, some Zero pilots rammed their planes into bombers, kamikaze-style; one B-24 returned to base with half of a Zero hanging from his wing.
posthumous occurring or coming into existence after a person's death Almond, who had died at twenty-one, was nominated for a posthumous medal for bravery.
daunting discouraging through fear The military was dedicated to finding crash and ditching survivors, but in the sprawling Pacific theater, the odds of rescue were extremely daunting.
purgatory a temporary condition of torment or suffering Canton was a seething purgatory in the shape of a pork chop, consisting mostly of coral and scrubby plants huddled close to the ground, as if cringing from the heat.
relentless never-ceasing Louie, still in the greenhouse, saw rounds ripping through the Zeros’ fuselages and wings, but the planes were relentless.
excruciating extremely painful The first he knew of it was an earsplitting ka-bang! ka-bang! ka-bang!, a sensation of everything tipping and blowing apart, and excruciating pain.
perforated having a number or series of holes No one knew the condition of the landing gear, but with the entire plane perforated, it was likely that the tires had been struck.
rudimentary being in the earliest stages of development Brooks was laid on a stretcher, placed on a jeep, and driven to a rudimentary, one-room infirmary.
acrid strong and sharp, as a taste The ground heaved, and the air whooshed around, carrying an acrid smell.
anesthetic a drug that causes temporary loss of bodily sensations Surgery was necessary, but there was no anesthetic, so Pillsbury was just going to have to do without.
haggard showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering One of them, Green Hornet, looked haggard, its sides splattered with something black, the paint worn off the engines.
relegate assign to a lower position The bomber was relegated to errands, and the ground crewmen began prying parts off it for use on other planes.
disintegrate break into parts or components or lose cohesion or unity As the plane disintegrated around him, Louie felt himself being pulled deep underwater.
stupor marginal consciousness There was an oncoming stupor, a fading, as he tore at the wires and clenched his throat against the need to breathe.

"Unbroken," Vocabulary from Chapters 12-17
In "Unbroken," Lauren Hillenbrand recounts the tumultuous and amazingly true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who after surviving being stranded at sea for 40 days, becomes a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II.

hydraulic moved or operated or effected by liquid The ocean was a jumble of bomber remains, the life-blood of the plane—oil, hydraulic fluid, and some one thousand gallons of fuel—slopped about on the surface.
debris the remains of something that has been destroyed Phil looked at the head bobbing across the debris field and registered that it was Louie.
carotid of a major artery supplying blood to the head and neck Remembering what he had learned in Boy Scouts and his Honolulu first aid course, Louie ran his fingers down Phil’s throat until he felt a pulse, the carotid artery.
stanch stop the flow of a liquid Louie kept his hand on Phil’s head, stanching the bleeding.
fiance a man who is engaged to be married He flew back to Oahu, thinking of his friend Cecy and all the pain she would feel when she learned that her fiance was missing.
obituary a notice of someone's death The Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express ran a feature on the “Life of Zamp,” which looked an awful lot like an obituary.
shrapnel shell containing lead pellets that explodes in flight The doctors had been unable to remove all of the shrapnel from his leg, and he could feel every shard, burning.
corrosive capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action Their bodies were slashed with open cracks that formed under the corrosive onslaught of sun, salt, wind, and fuel residue.
atrophy undergo weakening or degeneration as through lack of use He kept thinking of a college physiology class he had taken, in which the instructor had taught them to think of the mind as a muscle that would atrophy if left idle.
recount narrate or give a detailed account of They shared their histories, from first memories onward, recounted in minute detail.
despair a state in which all hope is lost or absent Given the dismal record of raft-bound men, Mac’s despair was reasonable.
adversity a state of misfortune or affliction Perhaps the men’s histories had given them opposing convictions about their capacity to overcome adversity.
vigor forceful exertion Louie and Phil’s hope displaced their fear and inspired them to work toward their survival, and each success renewed their physical and emotional vigor.
snippet a small piece of anything He had no idea how to speak to God, so he recited snippets of prayers that he’d heard in movies.
alacrity liveliness and eagerness Mac suddenly shot his hand up and snagged the bird by the leg in midair, then handed the squirming animal to Louie, who was amazed at Mac’s alacrity.
squall sudden violent winds, often accompanied by precipitation Twice, the men rowed toward distant squalls, but each time, the rain sputtered out just as they reached it, leaving them exhausted and demoralized.
quench satisfy, as thirst If God would quench their thirst, he vowed, he’d dedicate his life to him.
inept generally incompetent and ineffectual If the Japanese are this inept, Phil thought, America will win this war.
fatigue temporary loss of strength and energy from hard work Hour after hour, the men worked, rotating the duties, clumsy with fatigue.
extrapolate gain knowledge of by generalizing Extrapolating from these figures, they made educated guesses of when they’d reach the islands.
prognostication a statement made about the future Mac didn’t join in on the prognostication.
leviathan monstrous sea creature symbolizing evil in the Old Testament Swelling up from under the water came a leviathan: a vast white mouth, a broad back parting the surface, and a long dorsal fin, ghostly in the moonlight.
jeopardy a source of danger Sergeant Francis McNamara had begun his last journey with a panicked act, consuming the rafts’ precious food stores, and in doing so, he had placed himself and his raft mates in the deepest jeopardy.
penchant a strong liking They knelt over the body and said aloud all of the good things they knew of Mac, laughing a little at his penchant for mess hall pie.
refraction the change in direction of a propagating wave He had thought it as he had watched hunting seabirds, marveling at their ability to adjust their dives to compensate for the refraction of light in water.
encumbrance an onerous or difficult concern Here, drifting in almost total silence, with no scents other than the singed odor of the raft, no flavors on his tongue, nothing moving but the slow procession of shark fins, every vista empty save water and sky, his time unvaried and unbroken, his mind was freed of an encumbrance that civilization had imposed on it.
unfettered not bound by shackles and chains In his head, he could roam anywhere, and he found that his mind was quick and clear, his imagination unfettered and supple.
kleptomania an impulse to steal in the absence of any economic motive Askim was notorious for his kleptomania; the Zamperinis lived above a grocery, and the dog made regular shoplifting runs downstairs, snatching food and fleeing.
ballast any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship To try to stop it from flipping, Louie and Phil bailed in water as ballast, positioned themselves on opposite sides to balance their weight, and lay on their backs to keep the center of gravity low.
parasite an animal or plant that lives in or on a host The vibrant, generous body that he had trained with such vigilance had shrunken until only the bones remained, draped in yellow skin, crawling with parasites.

"Unbroken," Vocabulary from Chapters 18-33
In "Unbroken," Lauren Hillenbrand recounts the tumultuous and amazingly true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who after surviving being stranded at sea for 40 days, becomes a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II.

odyssey a long wandering and eventful journey Sasaki asked a few questions about Louie’s odyssey, then began reminiscing about USC, meals at the student union, ten-cent movies on campus.
calisthenics light exercises designed to promote general fitness Then it was back outside, where the guards made the men run circles or perform calisthenics, often until they collapsed.
harangue a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion There was another inspection outside, another haranguing, and then the uneasy pause of night, the pacing of the guards, before the dawn again brought shouting and running and the thud of clubs.
caustic harsh or corrosive in tone Just as Allied soldiers, like the cultures they came from, often held virulently racist views of the Japanese, Japanese soldiers and civilians, intensely propagandized by their government, usually carried their own caustic prejudices about their enemies, seeing them as brutish, subhuman beasts or fearsome “Anglo-Saxon devils.”
foment try to stir up This racism, and the hatred and fear it fomented, surely served as an accelerant for abuse of Allied prisoners.
leniency mercifulness as a consequence of being tolerant One officer, upon learning that another guard had shown leniency to captives, assaulted the guard with a sword.
rancid having a rank smell or taste The thrice-daily meals usually consisted of a bowl of broth with a bit of vegetable and a bowl or half bowl of rancid rice, sometimes mixed with barley.
ubiquitous being present everywhere at once Foodborne parasites and pathogens made diarrhea almost ubiquitous.
sympathetic showing or motivated by understanding and generosity Dragging himself ashore on the Japanese-occupied Bataan Peninsula, he had begun a run for China, hiking through jungles and over mountains, navigating the coast in boats donated by sympathetic Filipinos, hitching rides on burros, and surviving in part by eating ants.
purloin make off with belongings of others The cardboard had been cut from a Canadian Red Cross POW relief package; because the Red Cross didn’t know of Ofuna’s existence, the package had probably been brought from another camp by the Japanese, who routinely purloined the contents of such parcels for their own consumption.
incriminating charging or suggestive of guilt or blame Everyone knew what the consequences would be if anyone were caught stealing newspapers or hiding items as incriminating as Harris’s maps and dictionary.
intimidating discouraging through fear The idea of working around the guards was intimidating, but Louie had to eat.
nihilism complete denial of established authority and institutions After a childhood in Kobe, Mutsuhiro attended Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University, where he studied French literature and cultivated an infatuation with nihilism.
pummel strike, usually with the fist A Japanese officer stopped the attack, but that evening Watanabe turned on Bush, hurling him onto a scalding stove, then pummeling and kicking him.
haughtiness overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner Among the Japanese at Omori, Watanabe was despised for his haughtiness, his boasts about his wealth, and his curtness.
herculean extremely difficult; requiring great strength After a Herculean effort was put into clearing the sunken barge and bringing in a new one, the POWs sank it, too.
impunity exemption from punishment or loss In consequence, the Bird flaunted his impunity and virtually ran the camp.
retribution the act of taking revenge especially in the next life No POW was foolish enough to answer truthfully, knowing the retribution that would follow.
intolerable incapable of being put up with To Watanabe, whose life was consumed with forcing men into submission, Louie’s defiance was an intolerable, personal offense.
rectify make right or correct We hope we can rectify this mistake on someone’s part by saying that Louis Zamperini is alive and well as a prisoner of war here in Tokyo.
internment confinement during wartime Of course, she was astonished to hear that he was safe and held in an internment camp.
betray deliver to an enemy by treachery The Japanese had probably sent Louie to the crucible of Ofuna, then to Omori under the Bird, to make his life in camp unbearable so he’d be willing to do anything, even betray his country, to escape it.
undermine destroy property or hinder normal operations In doing so, they hoped to embarrass America and undermine American soldiers’ faith in their government.
incendiary a bomb that is designed to start fires Then came B-29S, 229 of them, carrying incendiary bombs.
empathy understanding and entering into another's feelings A notoriously sadistic camp official began speaking of his empathy for the POWs, and how a new camp was being prepared where there was ample food, medical care, and no more forced labor.
acquiesce to agree or express agreement While Louie hid upstairs on his bunk, sick with fever, he saw the Bird and Kono beat two sick POWs until they acquiesced to the Bird’s order to lick excrement from their boots.
vengeance harming someone in retaliation for something they have done Even if Japan surrendered, many POWs believed that the guards would kill them anyway, either out of vengeance or to prevent them from testifying to what had been done to them.
immolate offer as a sacrifice by giving up to destruction A week after Louie had left Omori, sixteen square miles of Tokyo, and tens of thousands of souls, had been immolated by B-29S.
subsist support oneself Until the snafu was straightened out, he had to subsist on candy bars from Red Cross nurses.
deplete use up, as resources or materials Louie was disturbed to see how the years of worry had depleted his brother.

"Unbroken," Vocabulary from Chapter 34-Epilogue
In "Unbroken," Lauren Hillenbrand recounts the tumultuous and amazingly true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who after surviving being stranded at sea for 40 days, becomes a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II.

affidavit written declaration made under oath Investigators, gathering affidavits on war criminals, sat by as men told of abuses and atrocities that pushed the bounds of believability.
inflict impose something unpleasant Tojo was found in his home that day, sitting in a chair, blood gushing from a self- inflicted bullet wound in his chest.
surreal resembling a dream He had just completed the latest of many surreal liberation experiences, traveling to New York to fire the starting gun for Madison Square Garden’s Zamperini Invitational Mile, the race conceived to honor him when almost everyone thought he was dead.
repatriate admit back into the country Because Los Angeles was teeming with repatriated soldiers, inexpensive housing was all but impossible to find, so Louie was still living with his parents.
excoriate express strong disapproval of Louie sat by, listening as his bride was excoriated for marrying him, trying in vain to get her to hang up.
garrulous full of trivial conversation Louie was running again, full of big plans, as garrulous and breezy as he’d been before the war.
anemia a deficiency of red blood cells Tuberculosis, malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, anemia, eye ailments, and festering wounds were widespread.
debilitating impairing the strength and vitality The physical injuries were lasting, debilitating, and sometimes deadly.
insidious working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way As bad as were the physical consequences of captivity, the emotional injuries were much more insidious, widespread, and enduring.
exacerbate make worse A doctor confirmed that he had disastrously exacerbated his war injury.
unremitting uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing This would be his emphatic reply to the Bird’s unremitting effort to extinguish his humanity: I am still a man.
liaison a channel for communication between groups The police found Jimmie Sasaki working as a liaison between the Japanese navy and the occupying forces.
trepidation a feeling of alarm or dread Watanabe donned glasses to obscure his features and headed off, filled with trepidation.
enrapture hold spellbound Louie was so enraptured that he wouldn’t let anyone else hold her, and did all the diapering himself.
repentance remorse for your past conduct “Every head bowed and every eye closed,” said Graham, offering a traditional invitation to repentance, a declaration of faith, and absolution.
caveat a warning against certain acts Exhausted by her persistence, Louie finally agreed to go, with one caveat: When Graham said, “Every head bowed, every eye closed,” they were leaving.
omnipotent having unlimited power . . . I think to myself, my father, my heavenly father, hung them there with a flaming fingertip and holds them there with the power of his omnipotent hand, and he runs the whole universe, and he’s not too busy running the whole universe to count the hairs on my head and see a sparrow when it falls, because God is interested in me . . .
benevolent showing or motivated by sympathy and understanding That day, he had believed that what lay around them was the work of infinitely broad, benevolent hands, a gift of compassion.
intangible incapable of being perceived by the senses especially touch He spoke of God reaching into the world through miracles and the intangible blessings that give men the strength to outlast their sorrows.
resonate be received or understood When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him.
rapt feeling great delight When he wasn’t with his campers, Louie was happily walking the world, telling his story to rapt audiences in everything from grade school classrooms to stadiums.
incorrigible impervious to correction by punishment He remained infectiously, incorrigibly cheerful.
equanimity steadiness of mind under stress His conviction that everything happened for a reason, and would come to good, gave him a laughing equanimity even in hard times.
linger be about The two ancient men lingered together as they had as boys, lying side by side on their bed, waiting for the Graf Zeppelin.
amnesty a warrant granting release from punishment for an offense On December 24, 1948, as the occupation began to wind down, General MacArthur declared a “Christmas amnesty” for the last seventeen men awaiting trial for Class A war crimes, the designation for those who had guided the war.
reparation something done or paid in expiation of a wrong The treaty waived the right of former POWs and their families to seek reparations from Japan and Japanese companies that had profited from their enslavement.
mandate a document giving an official instruction or command America’s War Crimes Acts of 1948 and 1952 awarded each former POW $1 for each day of imprisonment if he could prove that he wasn’t given the amount and quality of food mandated by the Geneva Convention, and $1.50 per day if he could prove that he’d been subjected to inhumane treatment and/or hard labor.
reconciliation the reestablishing of cordial relations Residents formed a group dedicated to building a peace park to honor the dead POWs and bring reconciliation.
ostracism the act of excluding someone from society by general consent In keeping with the goal of reconciliation, the memorial council sought the participation of relatives of the guards who’d been convicted and hanged, but the families balked, fearing ostracism.
cenotaph monument to honor those whose remains are interred elsewhere To honor the grief of families on both sides of the war, the council proposed creating a single cenotaph for both the POWs and the hanged guards, but this deeply offended the former POWs.