The relationship between my mother, sister and me had been cold and inimical for as long as I could remember.
"Inimical" means harmful or hurtful or hostile. So the relationship is basically unfriendly and bad.
To me, my mother was irrational, often hurling hurtful invectives for the slightest infraction.
"Hurling" means throwing in a non-practical way. So her mother is shouting and throwing hurtful words and insults towards her by the force of her voice. Her words are so harsh and hurtful that it can be described as throwing. You throw something with force so her voice is throwing these words at her.
Tammy dithered about everything, incapable of making any firm decision. No matter how often my mother deprecated her -- “dumb, ugly, fat”—Tammy made futile attempts to fawn her way back into mother’s good graces.
"Dithered" means to be indecisive or unfocused.
I tend to say to my sister "Stop dithering about" It just means stop what you are doing and focus!! It is fairly hard to explain, sorry.
"Deprecated" means to disapprove of something. So her mother is constantly making her feel worthless and anything that Tammy does will not please her mother.
Another woman comes with great alacrity and offers her hand, but when I reach to grab it, she disappears.
"Alacrity" means to show willingness. So the lady is showing that she is eager to help her and to cheer her up in a time of sorrow.
The professor derides me for my poor performance.
"Derides" means to make fun of. The teacher mocks/taunts her performance. The teacher is basically being nasty about her performance.
I knew that they both reflected the pugnacious relationship I shared with my mother and sister.
"Pugnacious" means not nice or horrible. So the relationship between her mother and sister was horrible.
I was not cognizant of these details as I made my way through the doors of The Ursula Children’s
"Cognizant" means aware. So she was not aware/didn't know of/about these details.
I’m glad I wasn’t swayed though I would not realize until much later what a fortuitous decision this was.
"Swayed" means that one was persuaded or "drawn into" a situation and "Fortuitous" can mean accidental and lucky. So in the sentence she is glad she wasn't persuaded to go the other way and by choosing to go the other way she was lucky. "Fortuitous" has the same meaning as fortunate. So I could word the sentence differently:
"By not being persuaded I would realise later on just how lucky I was to do that"
The children’s theater, much to my boys’ chagrin, was more convenient for me to get to than the karate studio.
"Chagrin" means sorrow or sad. So the boys were sad because they weren't able to go to Karate.
