Chasten

" It happened over one of those dinners that chasten all women sometimes."

Pg 71
Harper Perennial Modern Classics

Chasten means to correct by punishment

Hyperbole

"It was a contest in hyperbole and carried on for no other reason."

Pg 63
Harper Perennial Modern Classics

I think this means an exaggerated statement.

ribbon cane syrup

Us got plenty syrup in de barn. Ribbon-cane syrup.

Modern Classics
Page 28

Ribbon cane syrup is a type of sweetener made from ribbon cane and used in desserts.

rounder

You figger Ah'm uh rounder and uh pimp and you done wasted too much time talkin' wid me.

Modern Classics
Page 104

A rounder is a drunkard or wastrel.

box

Thought y'all might lak uh lil music this evenin' so Ah brought long mah box.

Modern Classics
Page 100

I think box is another word for an instrument.

swagger

He cautioned her about about the catches on the windows and doors and swaggered off to Winter Park.

Modern Classics
Page 94

Swagger means to walk or strut with a defiant or insolent air.

usurper

She almost apologized to the tenants the first time she collected the rents. Felt like a usurper.

Modern Classics
Page 92

Usurper means to seize and hold a position or power by force.

hint: use power

Ostentatiously

"They came to the store and ostentatiously looked over whatever things like"Mr. Starks need somebody tuh sorta look out for 'im till he kin git on his feet again and look for hisself."

Modern Classic
Pg. 83
Ostentatiously means excessive display

Diasticutis

"Just g'wan back home and set down on you' royal diasticutis and say nothin."

Modern Classic
Pg. 82

Diasticutis means ones buttocks

Commiserate

"Ah ruther be shot with tacks that tuh hear dat 'bout mahself," Lig Moss commiserated."

Modern Classic
Pg. 79

Commiserate just means to express pity

Varmint

"Aw 'tain't no sich a varmint nowhere dat kin eat no house!"

Modern Classic
Pg. 66

Varmint- is just an animal

Hint: some people call rats varmints; they'reanimals.

Coon-can

"Tea Cake and Janie playing checkers; playing coon-can; playingFlorida flip on the store porch all afternoon as if nobody else was there."

Modern Classics
Pg. 110

Coon- can is just a game that was played in the south back then.

Hint: raccoon in a can.

comparatively

" The minister grew comparatively calm".

Bantam Classic
Pg.136

i think comparison is the root word but im not quite sure how it fitsin twith the quote.

askance

"where, asked he, with a look askance at them".

Bantam Classic
Pg.119

i have no idea what this word means.

scrutinized

" Thus Roger Chillingworth scrutinized his patient carefully".

Bantam Classic
Pg.112

from the context i think it means to examine.

garb

" But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and indeed of the childs whole
appearance".

Bantam Classic
Pg.93

im pretty sure it means garment.

striven

" I have striven with my young brother here, under whose preaching of the word
you have been privelaged to sit".

Bantam Classic
Pg.61

i think striven is taken from the word strive. putting effort into something.

bade

Hester bade little Pearl run down to the margin of
the water.

Bantam Classic
Pg. 152

i beleive this means to ask or suggest.

blighted

"Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half-fantastic curiosity
to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath
him and show the wavering track of his footsteps..."

Bantam Classic
pg.170

I think this means destroyed or crushed.

hillock

"The leaves might bestrew him, and the soil gradually accumulate and form a little hillock over his frame, no matter whether there were life in it or no."

Bantam Classic

pg.170

I am assuming that because it sounds like "hill" this word is similar to it.
Maybe it is a mound of dirt or some kind of formation like that

.