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n. a roof-like structure, often made of canvas or plastic, that serves as a shelter, as over a storefront, window, door, or deck "There was empty dry-goods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting on them all day long" (1338). |
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n. a bed on a ship or train, usually set up in tiers "But before they got in, I was up in the upper berth, cornered, and sorry I come" (1266). |
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adj. 1. showing or expressing boldness and complete lack of shame; 2. with an unpleasantly loud and resonant sound; 3. made of brass or resembling it, especially in color or hardness "It's the brazen serpent in the wilderness!" (1332?). |
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n. a state of deep distress or misery caused by major misfortune or loss ". . . the Child of Calamity chipped in again, bigger than every; then they both got at it at the same time, swelling round and round each other and punching . . . and whooping and jawing like Injuns" (1299) |
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n. 1a. a coarse, brightly printed cloth; 1b. Chiefly British. A plain white cotton cloth, heavier than muslin, imported from India; 2. an animal, such as a cat, having a coat that is mottled in tones of white with red and black. "And don’t go about in that old calico" (1281). |
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v. 1. to prance; 2. to engage in extravagant behavior. ". . . but always at the fag end of the race she’d get excited and desperate-like, and come cavorting and straddling up, and scattering her legs around limber, sometimes in the air, and sometimes out to one side among the fences" (1241). |
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v. 1. to use the Arabic numerals in the processes of arithmetic; to work the elementary rules of arithmetic; now chiefly a term of elementary education; 2. to calculate, cast in the mind, think out; 3. to express by characters of any kind; 4. to express, show forth, make manifest by any outward signs, portray, delineate; 5. to decipher. "So the duke said it was kind of hard to have to lay roped all day, and he’d cipher our some way to get around it" (1349). |
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adj. 1. grieving and penitent for sing or shortcoming; 2. proceeding from contrition. "Come all that’s worn, and soiled, and suffering!—come all with a broken spirit! come with a contrite heart! come in your rags and sin and dirt!" (1333). |
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n. a machine for hoisting and moving heavy objects, consisting of a moveable boom equipped with cables and pulleys and connected to the base of an upright stationary beam. "The lightening showed us the wreck again, just in time, and we fetched the starboard derrick, and made fast there" (1284). |
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n. 1. oratorical or literary expression of thought; 2. oral utterance; way or manner of speaking; 3. the art of public speaking so far as it regards delivery, pronunciation, tones, and gestures; manner or style of oral delivery. "Another time they tried a go at yellocution; but they didn’t yellocute long till the audience got up and give them a solid good cussing and made them skip out" (1381). |
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n. a room on the uppermost floor of a house; an apartment formed either partially or wholly within the roof; an attic "She would turn into the room with her sisters and sleep on a cot; and up garret was a little cubby with a pallet in it" (1357). |
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n. 1. boldness of enterprise; initiative or aggressiveness; 2. guts; spunk; 3. common sense "Does I shin aroun’ mongs’ de neighbors en fine out which un you de bill do b’long to . . . de way dat anybody dat had any gumption would" (1291). |
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adj. high in one’s own estimation; blatantly and disdainfully proud "Misfortune has broken my once haughty spirit" (1331). |
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adj. 1. deliberately affected; theatrical; 2. of or relating to actors, acting, or the theater. "Don’t ever tell me any more that a [slave] ain’t got any histrionic talent" (1366). |
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adj. 1. hellish; fiendish; diabolical; 2. extremely troublesome, annoying, outrageous; 3. of or belonging to the world or 'regions' below "Here's a government that . . . lets on to be a government, . . . and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take ahold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white shirted free nigger . . . " (1260) |
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adj. producing wealth; profitable. "Clemens satisfied a boyhood ambition when he became a pilot himself, practicing this lucrative and prestigious trade until the Civil War virtually ended commercial river traffic in 1861" (1237). |
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n. an announcement, especially in a newspaper, of somebody's death, often with a short biography "This young girl kept a scrap-book when she was alive, and used to paste obituaries and accidents and cases of patient suffering in it out of the Presbyterian Observer, and write poetry after them out of her own head" (1315). |
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npl. funeral or burial rites "Obsequies ain’t used in England no more, now-it’s gone out" (1356). |
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adj. 1. uncooperative and irritable; 2. meager, whether out of poverty or lack of generosity "The other fellow was about thirty and dressed about as ornery" (1326). |
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n. a straw bed or mattress; an inferior bed or sleeping place "She would turn into the room with her sisters and sleep on a cot; and up garret was a little cubby with a pallet in it" (1357). |
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adj. thinking deeply about something, especially in a sad or serious manner) "One was a woman in a slim back dress. . . and she was leaning pensive on a tombstone on her right elbow, under a weeping willow" (1314). |
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n. 1. an open excavation usually for obtaining building stone, slate, or limestone; 2. a rich source "They ha come up from the quarry and stood around the stile a while, and then went on around the garden fence" (1253). |
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n. 1. a garment or article of clothing; 2. white cloth or sheet in which a corpse is laid out for burial "The lid was shoved along about a foot, showing the dead man’s face down in there, with a wet cloth over it, and his shroud on" (1363. |
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n. 1. moderation and self restraint, as in behavior or expression; 2. restrain in the use of or abstinence from alcoholic liquors "First they done a lecture on temperance" (1381). |
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n. 1. voluntary social relationship; companionship, alliance, association; 2. a natural friendliness, liking, or attractiveness; an attraction drawing to anything; 3. causal relationship or connection (as flowing the one from the other, or having a common source), or such agreement or similarity of nature or character as might result from such relationship if it existed. “ By accident, combined perhaps with some natural affinity, the society consisted of individuals who were, generally speaking, more white than black” (Chestnutt 1639). |
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a. the strangely mixed, fantastic; a species of mural or surface decoration in color or low relief, composed in flowing lines of branches, leaves, and scroll-work fancifully intertwined “The outside pattern is a florid arabesque, reminding one of a fungus” (Gilman 1666) |
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v. to attack violently with physical blows or with words “There were those who had been known to assail it violently as a glaring example of the very prejudice from which to colored race had suffered most…” (Chesnutt 1639). |
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adj. pertaining to, or of the nature of, a bulb; bulb-shaped; swollen “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Gilman 1662). |
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n. 1. Speaking in a roundabout or indirect way; the use of several words instead of one, or many instead of few; 2. A phrase or sentence in which circumlocution is used; a roundabout expression. “It loses no time in circumlocutions” (Hurston 2099). |
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adj. partially split or divided “Two white streamers of cleft water rolled themselves out behind it” (Fitzgerald 2132). |
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adj. 1a. suave, urban, having a sophisticated charm; 1b. lighthearted, nonchalant “…He knew the sort of men they were—the men who when he first went to college entered from great prep-schools with graceful clothes and the deep tan of healthy summer, who did nothing or anything with the same debonair ease” (Fitzgerald 2133). |
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n. 1. the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel; 2. the place in the plot at which this occurs; 3. the outcome or resolution of a doubtful series of occurrences “It began like that—and continued…right up to the denouement” (Fitzgerald 2135) |
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. 1. The action of deriding or laughing to scorn; ridicule, mockery; 2. An object of ridicule; a laughing-stock “All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision!”(Gilman 1670). |
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adj. 1a. designed or intended to teach; 1b. intended to convey instruction and information; 2. making moral observations “In other, connected literary essays, Eliot denigrated didactic . . . poets like Milton and the Victorians” (“T. S. Eliot” 1975). |
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v. 1. To go aside or depart from the course or track; to diverge, deviate, swerve; 2. To deviate from the subject in discourse or writing “Is it a perfume from a dress / That makes me so digress?” (Eliot 1977). |
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n. 1. the reflux of the tide; the return of tide-water towards the sea; 2. a flowing away backward or downward; decline, decay; a change from a better to a worse state [may also be used as a v.: to flow back] “When covered by the waters, I am; but the ebb but reveals me again” (Hurston 2099). |
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adj. partially excusing or justifying; represent (a fault, offense, etc.) as less serious. [adj. form of extenuate (v.): underestimate, underrate, or make light of] “I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only…” (Hurston 2097). |
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n. 1. folly, silliness, stupidity; 2. idiocy, mental imbecility, dementia “. . . go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity” (Gilman 1664). |
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n. 1. the state of being happy; happiness (in mod. use with stronger sense, intense happiness, bliss); a particular instance or kind of this; 2. that which causes or promotes happiness; a source of happiness, a blessing; 3. prosperity: good fortune, success “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would be asking too much of fate!” (Gilman 1659.) |
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adj. 1. Characterized by waved lines of contrary flexure in flame-like forms; 2. Florid, floridly decorated; 3. Of wavy form, suggesting the outline of a flame; 4. Flamingly or gorgeously colored “One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin (Gilman 1661). |
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adj. 1. happening or produced by chance, accidental; 2. lucky, fortunate “The situation was resolved by the fortuitous appearance of the caddy-master…” (Fitzgerald 2129). |
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adv. 1. taken, done, used, etc. surreptitiously or by stealth; secret; 2. slyly, shiftily “Well, it's certainly a nice day, Hilda," Dexter heard her say. She drew down the corners of her mouth, smiled, and glanced furtively around, her eyes in transit falling for an instant on Dexter” (Fitzgerald 2128). |
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n. 1a. grain to be ground; 1b. a quantity of grain for grounding at one time; the amount of meal from one grinding; 2. a required or usual amount; 3. a matter or interest of value forming the basis of a story or analysis; 4. something turned to advantage or use—used especially in the phrase grist for one’s mill. “October filled him with hope which November raised to a sort of ecstatic triumph, and in this wood the fleeting brilliant impressions of the summer at Lake Erminie were ready grist to his will” (Fitzgerald 2127) |
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n. 1. lack of pertinence; irrelevance; 2. out of place, unsuitable, improper, or irrational; inappropriateness; unmannerly and offensive intrusion or taking of liberty; presumptuous rudeness of behavior or speech, especially to a superior; insolence; incivility ”I get positively angry with the impertinence of it” (Gilman 1662.) |
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adj. Full of wiles or plots; lying in wait or seeking to entrap or ensnare; proceeding or operating secretly or subtly so as not to excite suspicion; sly, treacherous, deceitful, underhand, artful, cunning, crafty, wily. (Of persons and things.) “Streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent / To lead you to an overwhelming question…” (Eliot 1976). |
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adj. not open to blame; free from blame; faultless, impeccable “. . . his manners were irreproachable, and his morals above suspicion” (Chestnutt 1640). |
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n. 1. looseness of texture or cohesion; openness, un-compact structure or arrangement; 2. looseness or slackness in the moral and intellectual spheres; want of firmness, strictness, or precision “He had observed of late a growing liberality, almost a laxity, in social matters, even among members of his own set” (Chestnutt 1640). |
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adj. 1a. wan and ghastly pale in appearance; 1b. of any of several light or medium grayish colors ranging in hue from yellow to orange; 2. shining with the red glow of fire seen through smoke or cloud; 3a. causing horror or revulsion; gruesome; 3b. melodramatic, sensational “It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others” (Gilman 1661). |
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n. 1. ill-temper, sullenness, brooding, anger; 2. sadness, dejection, esp. of a pensive nature; gloominess; pensiveness or introspection; an inclination or tendency to this [may also be used as an adj.]. “At these times the country gave him a feeling of profound melancholy—it offended him that the links should lie in enforced fallowness” (Fitzgerald 2127). |
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adj. 1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the world; earthly; 2. characterized by the practical, transitory, and ordinary; commonplace; average “Does this sound horribly mundane?” (Fitzgerald 2137). |
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adj. Of the nature of or characteristic of neurasthenia; affected or caused by neurasthenia. (neurasthenia defined as: A disorder characterized by feelings of fatigue and lassitude, with vague physical symptoms such as headache, muscle pain, and subjective sensory disturbances, originally attributed to weakness or exhaustion of the nerves and later considered a form of neurotic disorder.) “Some of the caddies were poor as sin and lived in one-room houses with a neurasthenic cow in the front yard, but Dexter Green’s father owned the second best grocery store in Dillard…” (Fitzgerald 2127). |
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n. 1. an estate inherited from one’s father or ancestors; 2. any quantity or characteristic, etc. that is inherited; heritage; 3. the estate or endowment of a church or religious house “All about him rich men’s sons were peddling bonds precariously, investing patrimonies precariously, or plodding through two dozen volumes of canned rubbish” (Fitzgerald 2130). |
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adj. 1. sorrowfully thoughtful; gloomy, sad, melancholy; 2. more generally: full of thought; meditative, reflective “There was a pensive look in Mr. Ryder’s eyes as he took the floor and adjusted his eye glasses” (Chestnutt 1645). |
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adj. 1. passing or spreading through; present throughout; spread through the whole extent of; diffused throughout “They were more real because he could feel them all about him, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotion” (Fitzgerald 2133). |
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n. 1. the state or quality of being unreasonably irritableness, crabbiness, peevishness; 2. ; insolence or rudeness in speech or behavior “Whatever petulance she uttered in her throaty voice worried him” (Fitzgerald 2134). |
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n. a person who is under the protection of someone with greater experience or influence “Mason had firm ideas about what she wanted her protégés to produce; she required them all to get her permission before publishing any of the work that she had subsidized” (“Zora Neale Hurston” 2097). |
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adj. complaining, given to complaining, full of complaints; fault-finding; peevish “I don’t feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I’m getting dreadfully fretful and querulous.” (1663). |
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adj. 1. of or befitting a slave or a menial position; 2. meanly or cravenly submissive; abject “. . . their history presented enough romantic circumstances to rob their servile origin of its grosser aspects” (Chestnutt 1639). |
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adj. 1a. inferior, imitative, or pretentious articles or matter; careless, messy, disheveled; 1b. pretentious vulgarity [from n.: a fabric often of inferior quality manufactured wholly or partly from reclaimed wool] ”But do not get the impression, because his winter dreams happened to be concerned at first with musings on the rich, that there was anything shoddy in the boy” (Fitzgerald 2130). |
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adj. 1. having many curves, bends, or turns; winding; 2. indirect; devious; 3. characterized by a series of graceful curving motions “Her arms, burned to butternut, moved sinuously among the dull platinum ripples, elbow appearing first, casting the forearm back with a cadence of falling water, then reaching out and down, stabbing a path ahead” (Fitzgerald 2132). |
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n. 1. The study of the rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences; 2. A publication, such as a book, that presents such rules; 3.The pattern of formation of sentences or phrases in a language; 4. A systematic, orderly arrangement “-he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners” (Hemingway 31). |
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adj. 1. wearisome by continuance; long and tiresome; tiresome because of length or dullness, esp. of a speech or narrative, or the speaker or writer; boring “Streets that follow like a tedious argument/ Of insidious intent” (Eliot). |
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n. 1. personal attitude or nature as manifested by peculiarities of feeling, temper, action, often with a disinclination to submit to conventional rules or restraints; 2. a moderate and proportionable mixture of elements in a compound “There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours.” (Gilman 1666). |
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adj. having wavelike or rippled form, surface, edge, etc. “John was asleep and I hated to waken him, so I kept still and watched the moonlight on that undulating wall-paper until I felt creepy” (Gilman 1665). |
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n. 1. a fever (as malaria) marked by paroxysms of chills, fever, and sweating that recur at regular intervals; 2. a fit of shivering ”I had as well die with ague as the fever” (Douglass 957). |
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adj. 1. determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason or principle; 2. based on or subject to individual judgment or preference; 3. established by a court or judge rather than by a specific law or statute; 4. not limited by law; despotic. “My lover wanted to buy me; but I knew Dr. Flint was too willful and arbitrary a man to consent to that arrangement” (Jacobs 816). |
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v. 1. To give or leave by will; to give by testament; -- said especially of personal property; 2. To hand down; to transmit. ”After a brief period of suspense, the will of my mistress was read, and we learned that she had bequeathed me to her sister’s daughter, a child of five years old” (Jacobs 815) |
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v. 1. to hand down, pass on; 2. to dispose of (personal property, esp. money) by last will; 3. to commit, entrust "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow form the grass I love" (Whitman 1046). |
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n. 1.a plant disease, esp. one caused by fungi; 2. a thing that spoils or damages something; 3. ugly or neglected urban landscape ”The slave child had no thought for the morrow; but there came that blight, which too surely waits on every human being born to be a chattel” (Jacobs 815). |
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n. 1. an item of tangible moveable or immoveable property except real estate, freehold, and things (like buildings) connected with real property; 2. slave, bondsman “But there came that blight which too surely waits on every human being born to be a chattel” (Jacobs 815). |
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n. 1a. an act of compelling: the state of being compelled [to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly]; 1b. a force that compels; 2. an irresistible impulse to perform an irrational act ”I will not try to screen myself behind the plea of compulsion from a master; for it was not so." |
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adj. 1. easy to notice; obvious; 2. attracting attention, as by being unusual or remarkable; noticeable. “In all things noble which he attempted, his own meanness shone most conspicuous” (Douglass 978). |
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deference n. 1. submission or courteous yielding to the opinion, wishes, or judgment of another; 2. courteous respect “The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out of deference to the feelings of his white wife; and, as cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so. . . “ (Douglass 971). |
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v. to indicate; display (a quality, feeling, etc.) “But as she grew older, she evinced so much intelligence, and was so faithful, that her master and mistress could not help seeing it was for her interest to take care of such a valuable piece of property” (Jacobs 814). |
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adj. something extremely light, flimsy, or delicate "The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about his face, I could not, even with effort, connect its arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity" (Poe 717). |
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adv. 1. without cessation; unceasingly; 2. forever; perpetually; 3. without pausing; instantly; immediately "With angry moans the fierce old mother incessantly moaning" (Whitman 1069). |
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v. to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions; implant ”for years, my master had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images, and to destroy the pure principles inculcated by my grandmother” (821). |
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v. to become liable or subject to as a result of one’s actions; to bring upon oneself “He hoped I had become convinced of the injury I was doing myself by incurring his displeasure” (Jacobs 818). |
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n. 1. A rising against civil or political authority, or the established government; open and active opposition to the execution of law in a city or state; 2. A rising in mass to oppose an enemy. ”I have not the slightest doubt it would lead to an immediate insurrection among the slaves” (Douglass 961). |
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v. 1. to place between (in space or time); to put or set between or in an intermediate position; to cause to intervene. Often with implications of obstruction or delay; 2. to place (things) with intervals, or in alternation; to cause to alternate; 3. to move (a man) so as to obstruct the line of action of an opposing piece, esp. when the latter is giving check; 4. to place or station oneself between; to come between in position, to stand in the way. "There interposed a Fly/between the light and me" (Dickinson 1179). |
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adj. 1. full of excessive talk; wordy; 2. given to fluent or excessive talk; garrulous “But though his lips disdained to address me, his eyes were very loquacious” (Jacobs 818). |
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n. 1. the body of knowledge, esp. of a traditional, anecdotal, or popular nature, on a particular subject; 2. learning, knowledge, or erudition. "Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore" (Poe 701). |
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n. noxious vapor rising from putrescent organic matter, marshland, etc., which pollutes the atmosphere; a cloud of such vapor "Or it may be that they have their ghastly origin in the rank miasma of the tarn" (Poe 724). |
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n. 1. a dealer in a specific commodity; 2. a person promoting something undesirable or discreditable. “The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out of deference to the feelings of his white wife; and, as cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so. . . “ (Douglass 971). |
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n. the quality of being offensive ”The fact remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that slave holders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers” (Douglass 943). |
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n. 1. strong dislike, aversion, or contempt: 2. state of disgrace resulting from hateful or detestable conduct. ”Few are willing to incur the odium attaching to the reputation of being a cruel master” (Douglass 946). |
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adj. 1a. tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly; 1b. causing great harm; destructive; 2. evil, wicked. ”My city life, he said, had had a very pernicious effect upon me” (Douglass 953). |
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adj. 1. open; outspoken; lively; 2. of opening countenance; unreserved; approachable 3. of behavior, speech, features, etc: impertinent, cheeky; 4. alert, lively, sprightly, cheerful. [Used by Whitman, below, as a noun, meaning a pert person/people] "The Pert may suppose it meaningless; but I listening close. . ." (Whitman 1012) |
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adj. 1. having or exhibiting religious reverence; earnestly compliant in the observance of religion; devout; 2. marked by conspicuous devoutness: a pious and holy observation; 3. marked by false devoutness; solemnly hypocritical: a pious fraud; 4. professing or exhibiting a strict, traditional sense of virtue and morality; high-minded. “When separations come by the hand of death, the pious soul can bow in resignation and say, ‘Not my will, but thine be done, O Lord’” (Jacobs 816). |
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n. plausible but fallacious argument ”There may be sophistry in all this, but the condition of a slave confuses all principles of morality, and, in fact, renders the practice of them impossible” (Jacobs 821). |
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adj. firm and steadfast; true ”She took care of his children and became particularly close to his second wife, a staunch abolitionist” (Jacobs 812). |
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adj. 1. barren; not producing fruit or offspring; 2. of soil, a country, a period of time: unproductive of vegetation; 3. producing no offspring; incapable of producing offspring (chiefly said of females) "Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wandered alone, bareheaded, barefoot" (Whitman 1066). |
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adv. 1. done with brooding ill humor or silent resentment; morosely, sulkily; 2. sluggishly, slowly "To the boy's soul's questions sullenly timing, some drown'd secret hissing" (Whitman 1069). |
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adv. in a confused, riotous, disorderly, violent manner "The love in the heart long pent, now loose, now at last tumultuously bursting" (Whitman 1069). |
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Definition
adj. sustaining an original intensity or maintaining full force with no decrease. ”These were choice documents to me. I read them over and over again with unabated interest” (Douglass 948). |
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Term
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Definition
n. a trace, mark, or sign of something that once existed but has passed away or disappeared ”There is a vestige of decency a sense of shame, that does much to curb and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly enacted upon the plantation” (Douglass 946) |
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Term
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Definition
n. The defense, such as evidence or argument, that serves to justify a claim or deed. ”What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a power vindication of human rights” (Douglass 977). |
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