Ender's Game Vocabulary: Chapters 14&15

Someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline "A non-materialist. And yet you are unpleasantly fat. A gluttonous ascetic? Such a contradiction."

To confuse, upset, or cause to feel embarrassed "But the longer it went on, with no one coming to the door, no one looking for him, the more certain he became that this was something deliberate, meant to disconcert him."

Approaching the speed of light "So they sent you out in a starship, got you up to a relativistic speed-"

Not readily interpreted or understood "'Show me how you beat the buggers, Mazer.' Mazer's face went inscrutable."

Responsive; conscious; aware "They probably thought they were routinely shutting down our communications… Not murdering living, sentient beings with an independent genetic future."

To beat severely with a whip or with several blows "They've been flogging us through the simulator for three months now,"

A gap or break between something generally continuous "Take what pleasure you can in the interstices of your work, but your work is first, learning is first, winning is everything because without it there is nothing."

To cut (a body) open while still alive "He had been dreaming that buggers were vivisecting him. Only instead of cutting open his body, they were cutting up his memories…"

Small discrete elements that together constitute an image "Often he remembered the corpse of the Giant, decaying steadily; he did not remember it, though, in the pixels of the picture on his desk."

A gaping grimace "He dragged her out of the lake and onto the raft, where she lay with her face in the rictus of death."

Violent and needless disturbance "Crazy Tom brought his two surviving fighters in through the gap and caused havoc with the enemy…"

Cranky; easily annoyed; capricious ill humor "You can be as petulant as you want, tomorrow. Today, though, I'd appreciate it if you would keep your mind on the examination."

A retaliatory act; a payback where the opponent suffers equally or more "You decide whether it would be wise to adopt a strategy that would invite reprisals."

Something that requires immediate action and lots of effort "…we got the judges to agree that the prosecution had to prove beyond doubt that Ender would have won the war without the training we gave him. After that, it was simple. The exigencies of war."

A stupid, vulgar, or insensitive person "There was never a chance of that. No, even Demosthenes' mob of political cretins couldn’t persuade the Hegemon to bring Ender back to Earth."