anticipate (verb)
to give advance thought, discussion, or treatment to
example: "Ideally, a driver is a master of all that is around him, Denny says. Ideally, a driver controls the car so completely that he corrects a spin before it happens, he anticipates all possibilities" (Enzo, 50).
candid (adjective)
marked by honest sincere expression
example: "And she rarely spoke to me candidly like that. Like how Denny talks to me, as if I’m his true friend, his soul mate. The last time she had talked to me like that was when Zoë was born," (Enzo, 47).
circuit (noun)
a usually circular line encompassing an area; in the context of the novel, the course of a race
example: "Denny and I continued watching the cars on the video as they drove around and around the circuit drenched in darkness" (Enzo, 42).
dismay (noun)
sudden loss of courage or resolution from alarm or fear
example: " In order to make my point understood without question. I have no words I can rely on because, much to my dismay, my tongue was designed long and flat and loose, and therefore, is a horribly ineffective tool for pushing food around my mouth while chewing, and an even less effective tool for making clever and complicated polysyllabic sounds that can be linked together to form sentences" (Enzo, 1).
distraught (adjective)
agitated with doubt or mental conflict or pain
example: "Denny was distraught, and I wasn’t sure why until Mike came over later that night and he and Denny opened their beers together" (Enzo, 28).
enduro (noun)
short for endurance race; a long race (as for automobiles or motorcycles) stressing endurance rather than speed
example: "He put on a tape of an enduro he had been asked to co-drive in Portland a few weeks earlier" (Enzo, 38).
expedient (adjective)
suitable for achieving a particular end in a given circumstance
example: "I marveled at them both; how difficult it must be to be a person. To constantly subvert your desires. To worry about doing the right thing, rather than doing what is most expedient" (Enzo, 122).
expel (verb)
to force out
example: "It continued dismantling itself, seam by seam, handful by handful, until it expelled whatever demon’s blood had brought it to life and was nothing more than a pile of fabric and stuffing that undulated on the floor, beating like a heart ripped from a chest, slowly, slower, and then nothing," (Enzo, 53).
frigid (adjective
intensely cold; or of a person, cold in demeanor
"Down she would go, squealing and squirming, splashing into the frigid pool at Denny’s feet; he would snatch her up and whisk her back to Eve, who would slide her down again" (Enzo, 95).
hot lap (noun)
in racing, a lap driven at full speed when the tires have been heated up by previous laps
example: "Sometimes, to this day, in my sleep I bark twice because I am dreaming of Denny driving me around Thunderhill, the two of us laying down a hot lap, and I bark twice to say faster" (Enzo, 157).
muzzle (noun)
the projecting jaws and nose of an animal
example: "He turned on the hose and rinsed the blood from my muzzle in a rough and joyless manner; it was not a bath, it was a scrubbing" (Enzo, 167).
perfunctory (adjective)
lacking in interest or enthusiasm
example: "I greeted him, and he gave me a perfunctory pat on the head. He continued over to Denny and sat down in my spot on the berm" (Enzo, 100-101).
privy (adjective)
admitted as one sharing in a secret
example: "I was not privy to much, being a dog" (Enzo, 107).
renewable (adjective)
capable of being replaced by natural ecological cycles or sound management practices
example: "My third favorite actor is Paul Newman, for his excellent car-handling skills in the film Winning, and because he is a fantastic racer in his own right and owns a Champ Car racing team, and finally, because he purchases his palm fruit oil from renewable sources in Colombia and thereby discourages the decimation of vast tracts of rain forest in Borneo and Sumatra" (Enzo, 125).
rival (noun)
one of two or more striving to reach or obtain something that only one can possess
example: " I never cared for that zebra, as it was something of my rival for Zoë’s affection" (Enzo, 52).
spindle (spindle)
the long slender pin by which the thread is twisted in a spinning wheel
example: "It was one of those old clocks with the numbers on little plastic tabs that rotate around a spindle, illuminated by a small bulb, the only source of light in the room" (Enzo, 125).
savor (verb)
to take one's time to fully enjoy a sensory experience, usually applied to food or drink
example: "I tried to eat slowly, savoring each bite, but I was too hungry and swallowed them so quickly I barely got to taste them" (Enzo, 99).
sluice (noun)
an artificial passage for water (as in a millstream) fitted with a valve or gate for stopping or regulating flow
example: "Children love the Slippery Slabs as they slide and slice through the sluices and slate," (Enzo, 95).
solicit (verb)
to approach with a request or plea
example: "Denny was in Daytona, Florida, for the drive of his career. He had spent the entire year soliciting sponsors, begging, pleading, hustling, until he got lucky and found the right person in the right hotel lobby to say, 'You’ve got balls, son. Call me tomorrow'" (Enzo, 24).
susceptible (adjective)
capable of submitting to an action, process, or operation
example: "When God gave men big brains, he took away the pads on their feet and made them susceptible to salmonella" (Enzo, 51).
traction (noun)
the adhesive friction of a body on a surface on which it moves
example: "If the tires lose traction, nothing else matters. Horsepower, torque, braking. All is moot when a skid is initiated" (Enzo, 48).
undulate (verb)
to form or move in waves
example: "It continued dismantling itself, seam by seam, handful by handful, until it expelled whatever demon’s blood had brought it to life and was nothing more than a pile of fabric and stuffing that undulated on the floor, beating like a heart ripped from a chest, slowly, slower, and then nothing" (Enzo, 53).
unpredictable (adjective)
behaving or occurring in a way that is not expected
example: "When something unpredictable happens you have to react to it; if you’re reacting at speed, you’re reacting too late. And so you should be afraid" (Denny, 41).
