v. decide upon and express in words
He lay down, tucked his fore hoofs beneath him, shut his eyes, and with a hard effort managed to formulate his thoughts.
Animal Farm - Chapter 7
n. place to discuss public concerns; meeting or medium for open discussion
a. furnished or equipped; sufficient to satisfy
Meanwhile, councils went on in the kitchen at home, fraught with almost insupportable aggravation to my exasperated spirit.
Great Expectations - Chapter 12
By Charles Dickens
Contexta. lacking in seriousness; not serious; relatively unimportant
They do live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface, change, and frivolous external things.
Wuthering Heights - Chapter 7
Though he said all this in his frivolous way, the way seemed, for that once, a conscious polishing of but an ugly surface.
Hard Times - Chapter 22
By Charles Dickens
ContextShe has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner, and to adopt any opinions that came in her way.
Pride and Prejudice - Chapter 47
n. the direction in which something, such as a building, faces; the face or front of a building
v. exude or expel foam; make froth or foam and become bubbly
Soon there were five buckets of frothing creamy milk at which many of the animals looked with considerable interest.
Animal Farm - Chapter 2
The green plaid taffeta, frothing with flounces and each flounce edged in green velvet ribbon, was most becoming, in fact her favorite dress, for it darkened her eyes to emerald.
Gone With The Wind - Chapter 5
By Margaret Mitche
ContextYou can trifle with your breakfast and seem to disdain your dinner if you are full to the brim with roasted eggs and potatoes and richly frothed new milk and oatcakes and buns and heather honey and clotted cream.
The Secret Garden - Chapter 24
By Frances Hodgson Burnett
Contexta. sparing; economical; costing little; inexpensive
My friend rubbed his thin hands together with an appearance of avidity which was a surprise to me, who knew his frugal tastes.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Chapter 5
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Contextv. make null; bring to nothing; prevent from taking effect or attaining fulfillment
Clifford fascinated her because he always, or so often, frustrated her will, as if by a finer instinct.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - Chapter 9
a. marked by quiet and caution and secrecy
So his rather prominent pale eyes had a queer look, furtive, and yet a little cruel, so cold: and at the same time, almost impudent.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - Chapter 10
James Wilder, demure and courtly, but with some trace of that wild terror of the night before still lurking in his furtive eyes and in his twitching features.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Chapter 5
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Contexta. useless; having no useful result; vain
As his signal had been rendered futile by this uproarious rapping Wildeve withdrew, passed out at the gate, and walked quickly down the path without thinking of anything except getting away unnoticed.
Return of the Native - Chapter 0
v. speak against; contradict; oppose in words; deny or declare not to be true
There was no gainsaying this difficulty, and we relinquished all thoughts of pursuing Orlick at that time.
Great Expectations - Chapter 53
By Charles Dickens
Contextn. a social occasion with special entertainments or performances
a. of gas; gas-like; lacking substance or concreteness
a. well-bred; marked by refinement in taste and manners
It occurred to me several times that we should have got on better, if we had not been quite so genteel.
David Copperfield - Chapter 25
By Charles Dickens
ContextFour thousand a year is a pretty estate, and he seems a very genteel, steady young man, so I hope Miss Julia will be very happy.
Mansfield Park - Chapter 12
He receives these wares not only from treacherous valets or maids, but frequently from genteel ruffians, who have gained the confidence and affection of trusting women.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Chapter 7
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Contextv. cause to sprout or grow; come into existence
n. distance around something; circumference; size; bulk
n. thin smooth shiny coating; glassy film, as one over the eyes
v. gather; collect gradually and bit by bit; pick up
A visit to the boy suggested itself as a means of gleaning new particulars; though it might be quite unproductive.
Return of the Native - Chapter 0
a. performed with a natural or offhand ease
n. person who eats too much food and drink
n. dirt; mud; blood; especially, blood that after effusion has become thick or clotted; wedge-shaped or triangular piece of cloth
The terrible descriptions were so real and vivid, that the sallow pages seemed to turn red with gore; and the words upon them, to be sounded in his ears, as if they were whispered, in hollow murmurs, by the spirits of the dead.
Oliver Twist - Chapter 20
By Charles Dickens
Contextv. form into grains or small masses; make rough on surface
v. give pleasure to; satisfy; indulge; make happy
She did not mean, however, to derive much more from it to gratify her vanity, than Mary might have allowed.
Persuasion - Chapter 18
He knew that in her heart his aunt was on her knees to him, and he was morosely gratified by the consciousness of it.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Chapter 3
And although my sister instantly boxed my ears, it was highly gratifying to me to see that the answer spoilt his joke, and brought him to a dead stop.
Great Expectations - Chapter 9
By Charles Dickens
Contexta. fantastic; comically hideous; unnatural in shape or size; abnormal
Those whom Nature had depicted as merely quaint became grotesque, the grotesque became preternatural; for all was in extremity.
Return of the Native - Chapter 0
Holmes bent over this grotesque frieze for some minutes, and then suddenly sprang to his feet with an exclamation of surprise and dismay.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Chapter 3
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Contextv. crawl or creep on ground; remain prostrate
It was altogether unaccountable that a young gentleman whose imagination had been strangled in his cradle, should be still inconvenienced by its ghost in the form of grovelling sensualities; but such a monster, beyond all doubt, was Tom.
Hard Times - Chapter 16
By Charles Dickens
Contextn. a member of an irregular armed force that fights a stronger force by sabotage and harassment
With the exception of the guerrilla warfare carried on by Aunt Pitty against Uncle Henry, which had been a matter for hilarious laughter within the family for years, there had never been an open breach in the pleasant relations.
Gone With The Wind - Chapter 55
By Margaret Mitche
Contexta. without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy
I told her that I believed she had given me a faithful account of herself, and that we had both been hapless instruments in designing hands.
David Copperfield - Chapter 32
By Charles Dickens
Contextn. wide and general destruction; devastation; waste
n. something that has been in a family for generations
a. unable to help oneself; powerless or incompetent; powerless; weak
It was all done so swiftly and deftly that the fellow was helpless before he knew that he was attacked.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Chapter 3
By Arthur Conan Doyle
ContextBut, Oliver felt it not, as it beat against him; for he still lay stretched, helpless and unconscious, on his bed of clay.
Oliver Twist - Chapter 28
By Charles Dickens
Contextn. legacy; something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition
v. cut with an ax; fell with a sharp instrument; form or shape with a sharp instrument; cut
Some of them simply dreads those iron men, as they call them, those machines for hewing the coal, where men always did it before.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - Chapter 9
Then, she gave the knife a final smart wipe on the edge of the plaster, and then sawed a very thick round off the loaf: which she finally, before separating from the loaf, hewed into two halves, of which Joe got one, and I the other.
Great Expectations - Chapter 2
By Charles Dickens
Contextn. act intended to deceive or trick; practical joke
n. cultivation of plants; the art or practice of garden cultivation and management
n. small or simply constructed dwelling; small, wretched house
She looked, and saw a flickering firelight proceeding from the open side of a hovel a little way before them.
Return of the Native - Chapter 0
n. pretentious or silly talk or writing; something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage
a. lacking variety or excitement; monotonous
v. cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of
Really, if you looked closely at Clifford, he was a buffoon, and a buffoon is more humiliating than a bounder.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - Chapter 7
To own to the partial truth of what he had heard would be distressing as long as the humiliating position resulting from the event was unimproved.
Return of the Native - Chapter 0
Bumble opened the door, and walked in with a very fierce and angry manner: which was at once exchanged for a most humiliated and cowering air, as his eyes unexpectedly rested on the form of his lady wife.
Oliver Twist - Chapter 37
By Charles Dickens
Contextn. quality or condition of being humble; low estimate of one's self; self-abasement
Sparsit, with an affectation of humility the very opposite of his, and therefore in no danger of jostling it.
Hard Times - Chapter 5
By Charles Dickens
ContextThere was humility in her grief, no defiance in her attitude; and when this is the case a shaken spirit is apt to be stilled.
Return of the Native - Chapter 0
To call or to fancy it a loss, a disappointment, would be a presumption for which she had not words strong enough to satisfy her own humility.
Mansfield Park - Chapter 27
n. something of mixed origin or composition
n. one who puts on a false appearance of virtue; one who pretends to hold beliefs
It was bad enough that a Mrs Clay should be always before her; but that a deeper hypocrite should be added to their party, seemed the destruction of everything like peace and comfort.
Persuasion - Chapter 22
It was very remarkable that a young gentleman who had been brought up under one continuous system of unnatural restraint, should be a hypocrite; but it was certainly the case with Tom.
Hard Times - Chapter 16
By Charles Dickens
Contextn. behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic; mental disorder
This state of falsity had now brought on that crisis of falsity and dislocation, hysteria, which is a form of insanity.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - Chapter 19
n. expression whose meaning differs from meanings of its individual words; distinctive style
a. not according to law; not regular or authorized; unlawful; improper
a. lacking orderly continuity; lacking in correct logical relation
a. possessing luster or brightness; brilliant; luminous; splendid
Micawber, your humble servant, and I may add our children, have jointly and severally arrived, than by borrowing the language of an illustrious poet, to reply that our Boat is on the shore, and our Bark is on the sea.
David Copperfield - Chapter 54
By Charles Dickens
Contexta. not yet mature; in an early period of life or development or growth; not fully developed or mature; not ripe
a. impossible to measure; beyond calculation or measure
Scarlett had found that a drink of neat brandy before supper helped immeasurably and she would always chew coffee or gargle cologne to disguise the smell.
Gone With The Wind - Chapter 38
By Margaret Mitche
Contexta. not biased; fair; showing lack of favoritism
I did not believe her to be indifferent because I wished it; I believed it on impartial conviction, as truly as I wished it in reason.
Pride and Prejudice - Chapter 35
v. make an accusation against; challenge or discredit the credibility of
n. having power command or control; critically importance; some duty that is essential and urgent
Imperative mood, present tense: Do not thou go home, let him not go home, let us not go home, do not ye or you go home, let not them go home.
Great Expectations - Chapter 45
By Charles Dickens
Contexta. like an emperor; related to an empire; ruling over extensive territories
The speaker, and the schoolmaster, and the third grown person present, all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the inclined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.
Hard Times - Chapter 1
By Charles Dickens
Contexta. having no personal preference; objective
The drops which lashed her face were not scorpions, but prosy rain; Egdon in the mass was no monster whatever, but impersonal open ground.
Return of the Native - Chapter 0
a. improperly forward or bold; rude
He has a very satirical eye, and if I do not begin by being impertinent myself, I shall soon grow afraid of him.
Pride and Prejudice - Chapter 6
She saw with maternal complacency all the impertinent encroachments and mischievous tricks to which her cousins submitted.
Sense and Sensibility - Chapter 21
v. make poor; reduce to poverty or indigence; exhaust the strength, richness, or fertility of
Elinor had some difficulty here to refrain from observing, that she thought Fanny might have borne with composure, an acquisition of wealth to her brother, by which neither she nor her child could be possibly impoverished.
Sense and Sensibility - Chapter 41
v. infuse or fill completely; fertilize and cause to grow; make pregnant
She was helpless before his calm smile and his drawling remarks, for she had never before met anyone who was so completely impregnable.
Gone With The Wind - Chapter 12
By Margaret Mitche
Context