Walden: "The Pond in Winter"–"Conclusion"

by Henry David Thoreau
In this classic of the transcendentalist movement, Thoreau explains what he learned by living simply and in seclusion near a pond in eastern Massachusetts. Read the full text here.

This list covers "The Pond in Winter"–"Conclusion."

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6
15 words 449 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cadaverous
    of or relating to a corpse
    They possess a quite dazzling and transcendent beauty which separates them by a wide interval from the cadaverous cod and haddock whose fame is trumpeted in our streets.
  2. capacious
    large in the amount that can be contained
    It is surprising that they are caught here,—that in this deep and capacious spring, far beneath the rattling teams and chaises and tinkling sleighs that travel the Walden road, this great gold and emerald fish swims.
  3. convulsive
    affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions
    Easily, with a few convulsive quirks, they give up their watery ghosts, like a mortal translated before his time to the thin air of heaven.
  4. shoal
    a sandbank in a stretch of water that is visible at low tide
    Cape becomes bar, and plain shoal, and valley and gorge deep water and channel.
  5. vitiate
    take away the legal force of or render ineffective
    If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation.
  6. conversant
    well informed about or knowing thoroughly
    It is true, we are such poor navigators that our thoughts, for the most part, stand off and on upon a harborless coast, are conversant only with the bights of the bays of poesy, or steer for the public ports of entry, and go into the dry docks of science, where they merely refit for this world, and no natural currents concur to individualize them.
  7. solder
    join or fuse with an alloy
    It was a small cavity under ten feet of water; but I think that I can warrant the pond not to need soldering till they find a worse leak than that.
  8. infinitesimal
    immeasurably small
    When two legs of my level were on the shore and the third on the ice, and the sights were directed over the latter, a rise or fall of the ice of an almost infinitesimal amount made a difference of several feet on a tree across the pond.
  9. epitome
    a standard or typical example
    The day is an epitome of the year. The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer.
  10. transcend
    go beyond the scope or limits of
    The very globe continually transcends and translates itself, and becomes winged in its orbit.
  11. invective
    abusive language used to express blame or censure
    They were wholly deaf to my arguments, or failed to perceive their force, and fell into a strain of invective that was irresistible.
  12. precursor
    something indicating the approach of something or someone
    In almost all climes the tortoise and the frog are among the precursors and heralds of this season, and birds fly with song and glancing plumage, and plants spring and bloom, and winds blow, to correct this slight oscillation of the poles and preserve the equilibrium of Nature.
  13. suppliant
    humbly entreating
    Punishment and fear were not; nor were threatening words read
    On suspended brass; nor did the suppliant crowd fear
    The words of their judge; but were safe without an avenger.
  14. repast
    the food served and eaten at one time
    We are cheered when we observe the vulture feeding on the carrion which disgusts and disheartens us and deriving health and strength from the repast.
  15. untenable
    incapable of being defended or justified
    Compassion is a very untenable ground. It must be expeditious. Its pleadings will not bear to be stereotyped.
Created on Fri Mar 01 15:33:59 EST 2013 (updated Wed Jul 02 15:54:16 EDT 2025)

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