n. inhabitant or resident; regular visitor
Sometimes this throat uttered Yes, sometimes it uttered No; sometimes it made inquiries about a time worn denizen of the place.
Return of the Native By Thomas HardyContext Highlight In BOOK 2: 3 How a Little Sound Produced a Great Dream The small denizens of the wilderness hardly took pains to move out of her path.
The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel HawthorneContext Highlight In XVIII. A FLOOD OF SUNSHINE He was well known to the sallow denizens of the lane; for such of them as were on the look-out to buy or sell, nodded, familiarly, as he passed along.
a. of very poor quality or condition; bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure
There will be a deplorable scene, whenever we are married.
David Copperfield By Charles DickensContext Highlight In CHAPTER 41. DORA'S AUNTS Now, I am aware that there was a most deplorable occurrence in our house last night.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In XIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SECOND STAIN He was a tearful boy, and broke into such deplorable lamentations, when a cessation of our connexion was hinted at, that we were obliged to keep him.
n. testimony under oath; act of depositing, especially laying down of matter by natural process
Yes, yes, the mortuary deposition.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 28. The Prison Register. The dying man had signed a deposition declaring Benedetto to be the assassin.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 84. Beauchamp. The servant instantly showed it to one of the others, who, without saying a word to any of the family, went to a magistrate; and, upon their deposition, Justine was apprehended.
Frankenstein By Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) ShelleyContext Highlight In Chapter 7 v. lessen price or value of; think or speak of as being of little worth; belittle
I depreciated Paris; I depreciated France.
David Copperfield By Charles DickensContext Highlight In CHAPTER 26. I FALL INTO CAPTIVITY But what further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish, is his exceeding richness.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContext Highlight In CHAPTER 65. The Whale as a Dish. He carried his head on one side, partly in modest depreciation of himself, partly in modest propitiation of everybody else.
a. unoriginal; derived from another source
I derived that, from the look they interchanged.
We always derived profound satisfaction from making an appointment for this purpose.
He was as mute and senseless as the box, from which his form derived the only expression it had.
v. indicate or specify; point out; assign a name or title to
You know with what idle designs I began; but this is the end of them.
But now, after such dishonorable usage, who can tell what were his designs on her.
I wanted to be for the tenth time, but the post was taken, said Count Siniavin to the pretty Princess Tcharskaya, who had designs on him.
v. become progressively worse; decline
And from what I heard, Joseph contributed much to his deterioration, by a narrow-minded partiality which prompted him to flatter and pet him, as a boy, because he was the head of the old family.
v. ruin; lay waste; destroy; make desolate
There was something devastatingly true in what he said.
They had nursed the wounded, closed dying eyes, suffered war and fire and devastation, known terror and flight and starvation.
In wandering round the shattered walls and through the devastated interior, I gathered evidence that the calamity was not of late occurrence.
n. vocabulary that is for a specific group of people
I did; but they were uttered in the Romaic dialect.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 34. The Colosseum. dialect, they usually gave different names to the same.
No outlaw in this land uses the dialect in which thou hast spoken.
n. a thin disk that vibrates when receiving or producing sound waves, as in a telephone, microphone, speaker, or the like
n. a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source
n. an important or influential person, and often overbearing
Among the latter was the Prior of Jorvaulx, in the most gallant trim which a dignitary of the church could venture to exhibit.
This was the time for Wemmick to produce a little kettle, a tray of glasses, and a black bottle with a porcelain-topped cork, representing some clerical dignitary of a rubicund and social aspect.
At the end were the signatures of the high dignitaries who had signed it.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In XI. The Adventure of The Naval Treaty v. make wider or larger; cause to expand; enlarge; widen
The count felt his heart dilate and throb; he opened his arms, and Haidee, uttering a cry, sprang into them.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 117. The Fifth of October. On the other hand, the stately form of the Norman appeared to dilate in magnitude, like that of the eagle, which ruffles up its plumage when about to pounce on its defenceless prey.
The pupils of his eyes, as he gazed at Monte Cristo dilated horribly.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 46. Unlimited Credit. n. knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress; trait of judging wisely and objectively
If I were you, whatever I did should be done at my own discretion entirely.
Use your own discretion, however, in communicating to her what I have told you.
In our boyish want of discretion I dare say we took too much to drink, and I know we talked too much.
v. cause being in bad temper; disappoint; disconcert
Besides, the dashing blockade runners were bringing in these very things under the Yankees' disgruntled noses, and that made the possession of them many times more thrilling.
n. a freeing or a being freed from illusion or conviction
Night witchery and morning disillusion were alike forgotten in the march of realities and days.
He turned his slow, rather full eyes, that had been drowned in such fathomless disillusion, on Connie, and she trembled a little.
Levin had not the heart to disillusion him of the notion that there could be something delightful apart from her, and so said nothing.
v. fall apart; become reduced to components, fragments, or particles
If lack of sex is going to disintegrate you, then go out and have a love-affair.
If lack of a child is going to disintegrate you, then have a child if you possibly can.
She had had a premonition of it in the blind motions of her mating-instinct; but they had been checked by the disintegrating influences of the life about her.
v. scatter; drive away; cause to vanish
I thought, if I had caused the cloud, it was my duty to make an effort to dispel it.
Employment, even melancholy, may dispel melancholy, and her occupations were hopeful.
Now that the deed was done, she realized this with a wave of homesickness hard to dispel.
n. clinic where medicine and medical supplies are dispensed
In the first place, the dispensary is needed.
His residence and principal consulting-room is at Kennington Road, but he has a branch surgery and dispensary at Lower Brixton Road, two miles away.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIX NAPOLEONS Doctors and dispensaries are no use to me.
v. distribute; prepare and give out; deal out in parts or portions
Let us dispense with useless words.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 107. The Lions' Den. I was so much better that I thought I could dispense with one.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In XI. The Adventure of The Naval Treaty This treasure, as in duty bound, I laid at the feet of Steerforth, and begged him to dispense.
David Copperfield By Charles DickensContext Highlight In CHAPTER 7. MY 'FIRST HALF' AT SALEM HOUSE n. act of removing from office or employment
The reason of her sudden displacement now appeared.
Return of the Native By Thomas HardyContext Highlight In BOOK 1: 2 Humanity Appears upon the Scene, Hand in Hand with Trouble As long as the criminal remains upon two legs so long must there be some indentation, some abrasion, some trifling displacement which can be detected by the scientific searcher.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In VI. THE ADVENTURE OF BLACK PETER I appeared to feel the warm breath of it displacing the sleet-laden wind.
v. make uneasy or anxious; trouble
I am far from happy, Miss Havisham; but I have other causes of disquiet than any you know of.
Yet Estella was so inseparable from all my restlessness and disquiet of mind, that I really fell into confusion as to the limits of my own part in its production.
In vain should I attempt to describe the astonishment and disquiet of Herbert, when he and I and Provis sat down before the fire, and I recounted the whole of the secret.
a. lacking respectability in character or behavior or appearance
However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly respectable self.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET When the first hour was out, Stephen even began to have an uncomfortable sensation upon him of being for the time a disreputable character.
Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several places.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE v. cut open or cut apart; make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
He might dissect, anatomize, and give names; but, not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him.
Frankenstein By Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) ShelleyContext Highlight In Chapter 2 I confess, that since Jonah, few whalemen have penetrated very far beneath the skin of the adult whale; nevertheless, I have been blessed with an opportunity to dissect him in miniature.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContext Highlight In CHAPTER 102. A Bower in the Arsacides. He had no time for dissections, but he knew that he thought of the bullets only as things that could prevent him from reaching the place of his endeavor.
n. the state of something that has been unused and neglected
The house seemed as dreary as a disused street.
Moreover, fifty yards off stood a hut, built of clods and covered with thin turves, but now entirely disused.
Return of the Native By Thomas HardyContext Highlight In BOOK 4: 7 The Tragic Meeting of Two Old Friends Not a blind was raised; no sign of life was in the dull paved court, with its covered way leading to the disused door.
David Copperfield By Charles DickensContext Highlight In CHAPTER 56. THE NEW WOUND, AND THE OLD a. differing in some characteristics; various
His meditations were of the most complex and diverse character.
All the most diverse sections of the educated public, hostile before, are merged in one.
The most diverse suppositions as to what he was about to speak of to her flashed into her brain.
a. obedient; ready and willing to be taught; easily managed or handled
You always were my docile daughter.
It seemed to me that he despised him for being so simple and docile.
At last he tapped his way upstairs, after bowing to everybody, docile and happy.
a. determined; stubbornly persevering; unyielding
He now dogged her footsteps, like Vaska.
The noise of firing dogged their footsteps.
The guns, stolid and undaunted, spoke with dogged valor.
a. stubbornly adhering to insufficiently proven beliefs; inflexible, rigid
He stated that his discourses to people were to be sometimes secular, and sometimes religious, but never dogmatic; and that his texts would be taken from all kinds of books.
Return of the Native By Thomas HardyContext Highlight In BOOK 6: 4 Cheerfulness Again Asserts Itself at Blooms-End, and Clym Finds His This sort of nose is usually a short and coarse one, but there is a sufficient number of exceptions to prevent me from being dogmatic or from insisting upon this point in my description.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE GOLDEN PINCE-NEZ His gentleness was never tinged by dogmatism, and his instructions were given with an air of frankness and good nature that banished every idea of pedantry.
Frankenstein By Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) ShelleyContext Highlight In Chapter 4 n. the exercise of control or influence over someone or something
An understanding of what such domination would mean, and of the disadvantages accruing from her rejection of it, was brought home to Lily with increasing clearness during the early weeks of the winter.
Now he is in his glory, dominating the scene.
Money was the obsession dominating her mind these days.
a. sleeping; not active but capable of becoming active
The house was dormant; one thread of smoke thickened against the trees.
This roused me from my nearly dormant state, and I ate some berries which I found hanging on the trees or lying on the ground.
Frankenstein By Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) ShelleyContext Highlight In Chapter 11 v. be excessively fond of; show signs of mental decline
Melanie especially doted on him.
No one except the doting father could see anything beautiful about her, but the neighbors were charitable enough to say that all ugly babies turned out pretty, eventually.
It is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old Egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that you see the mummies of those creatures in their huge bake-houses the pyramids.
n. sediment settled at bottom of liquid; waste or worthless matter
When he finally spoke his voice was as bitter as dregs.
There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs.
The bitter cup of adversity has been drained by me to the very dregs, and I feel that the grave is not far distant.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 112. The Departure. a. queer; amusingly odd; comical
There now; you see how droll he is.
His expression was droll; it dismissed me lightly.
His droll expression seemed to say that he had found the secret of contentment.
n. a bodily passage or tube lined with epithelial cells and conveying a secretion or other substance; an enclosed conduit for a fluid
n. easily deceived person; duplicate of photographic image
A woman who could betray me for such a rival was not worth contending for; she deserved only scorn; less, however, than I, who had been her dupe.
These despised themselves, as being the dupes of a wily fraud, a guileful snake in the grass.
Cease, then, to allow yourself to be duped by vain hopes, that even your own excellent heart refuses to believe in.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 17. The Abbe's Chamber. a. energetic; vigorously active
All the great words, it seemed to Connie, were cancelled for her generation: love, joy, happiness, home, mother, father, husband, all these great, dynamic words were half dead now, and dying from day to day.
a. departing from a recognized, conventional, or established norm or pattern
I am afraid your principles on some points are eccentric.
Doubtless you wish to make me appear a very eccentric character.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 88. The Insult. Because, my dear fellow, you understand one must never be eccentric.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 78. We hear From Yanina. a. composed of elements from a variety of sources
His habitual touch was that of the eclectic, who lightly turns over and compares; and she was moved by this sudden glimpse into the laboratory where his faiths were formed.
n. flow under pressure; an unrestrained expression of emotion
She could not finish the generous effusion.
Come, come; this is all an effusion of immediate want of spirits, Edward.
Her daughters listened in silence to this effusion, sensible that any attempt to reason with her or soothe her would only increase the irritation.
a. caring only about oneself; selfish; self-centered
He was reading one of the latest scientific-religious books: he had a streak of a spurious sort of religion in him, and was egocentrically concerned with the future of his own ego.
v. lengthen; extend; make or grow longer
How tempting, how very tempting, to let the view triumph; to reflect its ripple; to let their own minds ripple; to let outlines elongate and pitch over--so--with a sudden jerk.
So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature united us.
She persuaded him not to wear the small bow ties which made him look like an elongated Sunday School scholar.
a. vividly or movingly expressive; persuasive
Mr. Collins was eloquent in her praise.
Villefort had never been so concise and eloquent.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 110. The Indictment. At this letter the eloquent eye of Noirtier gave her notice that she was to stop.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 59. The Will. v. free from bondage, oppression, or restraint; liberate
It neither made him to be humane to his slaves, nor to emancipate them.
I indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to emancipate his slaves, and that, if he did not do this, it would, at any rate, make him more kind and humane.
The more I see of emancipation the more criminal I think it is.
v. adorn; make beautiful, as by ornamentation; decorate
You have shown your relish for it by the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own little adventures.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE She heard it all under embellishment.
Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In XI. The Adventure of The Naval Treaty v. mold or carve in relief; decorate with or as if with a raised design
She tapped on the window with her embossed hairbrush.
She held out for him a massive gold watch, heavily embossed, from which dangled a chain with many fobs and seals.
So did they all--hand glasses, tin cans, scraps of scullery glass, harness room glass, and heavily embossed silver mirrors--all stopped.
n. completely undeveloped form; an animal organism in the early stages of growth
One of these virtuosi seemed to think that I might be an embryo, or abortive birth.
Gulliver's Travels(V1) By Jonathan SwiftContext Highlight In PART 2: CHAPTER III. The Little Theaters, which were to give piquancy to American drama three or four years later, were only in embryo.
a. standing out above other things; high in rank, office, or worth
He had the advice of an eminent oculist; and he eventually recovered the sight of that one eye.
Thus it was with the men of rank, on whom their eminent position imposed the guardianship of the public morals.
The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel HawthorneContext Highlight In XIII. ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth, are provided with grave and learned professors, and their several deputies.
Gulliver's Travels(V1) By Jonathan SwiftContext Highlight In PART 1: CHAPTER VI. v. give off; send out; give out as sound
Each time, Marija would emit a howl and fly at them, shaking her fists in their faces, stamping upon the floor, purple and incoherent with rage.
Zeena continued to look from one to the other; then she emitted her small strange laugh.
Rain was still falling heavily, the whole expanse of heath before him emitting a subdued hiss under the downpour.
Return of the Native By Thomas HardyContext Highlight In BOOK 5: 8 Rain, Darkness, and Anxious Wanderers n. temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers; a site where people on holiday can pitch a tent
It had been resolved the night before to change their encampment.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 33. Roman Bandits. The whole encampment, in a moment, became a scene of the most violent bustle and commotion.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore CooperContext Highlight In CHAPTER 23 Just as she was preparing to start walking the long way across town to the Yankee encampment, a battered wagon appeared.
v. make better or more attractive; increase; improve
Treat my assertion of its truth as a mere stroke of art to enhance its interest.
Rumors of Abolitionist sympathies did not enhance the popularity of the MacIntoshes.
They stimulate him to greater watchfulness, and enhance his power to capture his slave.
n. puzzle; a person or thing that is mysterious or difficult to understand
The man was an enigma to Franz.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 36. The Carnival at Rome. To Scarlett, he was still an enigma but an enigma about which she no longer bothered her head.
Levin tried to understand him, and could not understand him, and looked at him and his life as at a living enigma.
n. union of parts in a whole; a coordinated outfit or costume; a coordinated set of furniture
v. capture; attract and hold by charm, beauty, or excellence; hold in bondage or subjection
Moreover, other ideas, much more enthralling, occupied his mind.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre DumasContext Highlight In Chapter 32. The Waking. Here he ended, and the guests sat all of them enthralled and speechless throughout the covered cloister.
After an interval of suspense on my part that was quite enthralling and almost painful, I saw his hand appear on the other side of Miss Skiffins.
n. a serious and urgent request; an earnest or humble request
Most earnestly did she then entreaty him to lose no more time before he wrote.
I could not have resisted its entreaty, if the assurance that it gave me had been less convincing.
David Copperfield By Charles DickensContext Highlight In CHAPTER 45. MR. DICK FULFILS MY AUNT'S PREDICTIONS But Mr. Peggotty made no such retort, only answering with another entreaty to Mrs. Gummidge to cheer up.
David Copperfield By Charles DickensContext Highlight In CHAPTER 3. I HAVE A CHANGE n. a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being; twelve days after Christmas
n. representative or perfect example of a class or type; brief summary, as of a book or article
Mr. Harthouse professed himself in the highest degree instructed and refreshed, by this condensed epitome of the whole Coketown question.
He hated Ellen O'Hara above anyone else, for she was the epitome of all that he hated in Southerners.
n. calmness of temperament; steadiness of mind under stress.
Miss Bart listened with admirable equanimity.
The little party recovered its equanimity at sight of the fragrant feast.
He would listen to the most pathetic appeals with the most discouraging politeness and equanimity.
n. mental or emotional balance; state of balance of any causes, powers, or motives
I tottered, and on regaining my equilibrium retired back a step or two from his chair.
Selden knew, however, that he could not long keep such violences in equilibrium; and he promised to meet Dorset, the next morning, at an hotel in Monte Carlo.
a. open to two or more interpretations and often intended to mislead
On his side the inclination was stronger, on hers less equivocal.
But there was less equivocal testimony, which the credulity of the assembly, or of the greater part, greedily swallowed, however incredible.
Thus, all things considered, Haley, with rather an equivocal grace, proceeded to the parlor, while Sam, rolling his eyes after him with unutterable meaning, proceeded gravely with the horses to the stable-yard.
n. intentionally vague or ambiguous; a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth
On his side the inclination was stronger, on hers less equivocal.
But there was less equivocal testimony, which the credulity of the assembly, or of the greater part, greedily swallowed, however incredible.
Thus, all things considered, Haley, with rather an equivocal grace, proceeded to the parlor, while Sam, rolling his eyes after him with unutterable meaning, proceeded gravely with the horses to the stable-yard.
v. completely destroy; eliminate; exterminate
Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.
But unimpressionable natures are not so soon softened, nor are natural antipathies so readily eradicated.
They know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives.
Frankenstein By Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) ShelleyContext Highlight In Chapter 24