Vocabulary

Sorry I finished this assignment on time but I just forgot to post it on blog.

Claim

“Find anything today?” Mum asked one night when she’d got back from her job on the checkout at Khan’s and me and Dad were relaxing after a hard afternoon’s work out at the claim.

N. something that is claimed, especially a piece of public land for which formal request is made for mining or other purposes.

Wobbling

 The noise of a car drove into our ears and a four-wheel-drive police jeep came wobbling down the creamy red track that leads to our claim.

Adj. that wobbles or causes to wobble.

Startled

My dad turned around, startled.

Adj. to disturb or agitate suddenly as by surprise or alarm.

Figment

Kellyanne glared at me through tears the way she did the time I slammed the door of the ute in Dingan’s face or the time I walked over to where Pobby was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Pobby was a figment of her imaginings. I don’t know how many times I had sat at the dinner table saying: “Mum, why do you have to set places for Pobby and Dingan? They aren’t even real.”

N. a feigned, invented, or imagined story, theory, etc.: biographical and historical figments. 

Rummaged

He rummaged through piles of rocks.

V. to search thoroughly or actively through (a place, receptacle, etc.), especially by moving around, turning over, or looking through contents.

Ute

Kellyanne glared at me through tears the way she did the time I slammed the door of the ute

N. Informal. a utility vehicle.

Crackpot

It made you want to be sick all over the place. Lightning Ridge was full of flaming crackpots as far as I could see.

N. a person who is eccentric, unrealistic, or fanatical.

Mello Yello

“Pobby and Dingan aren’t dead,” I said, hiding my anger in a swig from my can of Mello Yello.

N. Mello Yello is a highly-caffeinated, citrus-flavored soft drink

Mates

“I still say Kellyanne could do with some real-live mates,”

N. one of a pair

Opal

My dad would come back from the opal mines covered in dust, his beard like the back end of a dog that’s shat all over its tail.

N. a mineral, an amorphous form of silica, SiO 2 with some water of hydration, found in many varieties and colors, including a form that is milky white.

Fairdinkum

“Fairdinkum?” His excitement always caught ahold of me.

Adj. genuine, honest, fair and square.

Imaginary

Now, I was as much a rockhound as the next kid, but I wasn’t crazy enough to talk to imaginary friends, I’ll tell you that for nothing

Adj. existing only in the imagination or fancy; not real; fancied:

Grub

She said they were quieter and better behaved than me and deserved the grub.

Slang. food; victuals

Fossilized

There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth tooth with sun-flash in it.

V. to change as if into mere lifeless remains or traces of the past.

Mammoth 

There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth tooth with sun-flash in it.

any large, elephantlike mammal of the extinct genus Mammuthus, from the Pleistocene Epoch, having hairy skin and ridged molar teeth.