Vocabulary of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
contagious - Capable of transmitting disease; carrying a disease, catching, transmittable, infectious
Page 9 - "Right now?" Miss Hemphill stared. "Why, he shouldn't be in school with red spots! It could be measles or chicken pox . . . any number of things . . . contagious things."
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penitentiary - a prison for those convicted of major crimes, correctional institution, joint, keep, lockup, pen, penal institution, prison, reformatory, slammer
Page 14 - We figured they were headed straight for %*!#, by way of the state penitentiary . . . until they got themselves mixed up with the church, and my mother, and our Christmas pageant.
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privet - any of various Old World shrubs having smooth entire leaves and terminal panicles of small white flowers followed by small black berries; many used for hedges
Page 16 - One of the neighbor women called out, "Helen, are you in much pain?" and Mrs. Armstrong yelled back, "Yes, terrible! Don't let those children tear up my privet hedge!"
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sentiment - a thought, view, or attitude, especially one based mainly on emotion instead of reason, emotion, opinion, attitude, outlook, reaction
Page 21 - He shrugged. "I like all the other stuff but she said to write down what we liked best, and what I like best is no Herdmans."
"Not a very Christian sentiment," my father said.
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sacrilegious - grossly irreverent toward what is or is held to be sacred, disrespectful, profane, blasphemous, improper, godless, sinful
Page 35 - Alice's mother told the Ladies' Aid that it was sacrilegious to let Imogene Herdman be Mary.
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barge - to intrude or interrupt, especially rudely, break in, burst in, collide, infringe, muscle in, push
Page 36 - Some people said it wasn't fair for a whole family who didn't even go to our church to barge in and take over the pageant.
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espoused - to take as spouse; to take to wife; to marry, betrothed, engaged
Page 41 - ". . . Joseph and Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child . . ."
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vengeance - with great violence or force, punishment, revenge, settling of scores, retaliation
Page 45 - "Out of the black night with horrible vengeance, the Mighty Marvo---"
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villain - a wicked or evil person; a scoundrel, bad character, rogue
Page 50 - "No, their chief instinct was to get Mary and the baby out of the barn. But even so, it was Herod they wanted to do away with, and not Mary or Joseph. They picked out the right villain --that must mean something."
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hustle - to work or move energetically and rapidly, hurry up
Page 55 - You got the feeling these Wise Men were going to hustle back to Herod as fast as they could an squeal on the baby, out of pure meanness.
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congregation - a group of people gathered for religious worship, worshippers
Page 61- And that's what we're going to do, just as if we were doing it for the whole congregation.
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milling - moving about or around, shuffling
Page 68 - But by that time the kitchen was fuller of smoke than the ladies' room, because, while everybody was milling around in the street, all the applesauce cake burned up.
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charitable - generous in giving money or other help to the needy, giving, accommodating
Page 75 - My father was on the church charitable works committee --they give away food baskets at Christmas, and this was the Herdman's food-basket ham.
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confer - to meet in order to deliberate together or compare views, discuss, put heads together, have a conversation, consult
Page 76 - While we sang "What Child Is This?" the Wise Men were supposed to confer among themselves and then leave by a different door, so everyone would understand that they were going home another way.
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