"The Minister's Black Veil": List 2

by Nathaniel Hawthorne
When a minister begins to wear a veil over his face, his community reacts with gossip, suspicion, and fear.

This list covers vocabulary from the paragraph beginning "From the coffin..." to the end of the story.

Here are links to our lists for this short story: List 1, List 2
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. portend
    indicate by signs
    When Mr. Hooper came, the first thing that their eyes rested on was the same horrible black veil which had added deeper gloom to the funeral and could portend nothing but evil to the wedding.
  2. tremulous
    quivering as from weakness or fear
    The bridal pair stood up before the minister, but the bride's cold fingers quivered in the tremulous hand of the bridegroom, and her death-like paleness caused a whisper that the maiden who had been buried a few hours before was come from her grave to be married.
  3. censure
    harsh criticism or disapproval
    If he erred at all, it was by so painful a degree of self-distrust that even the mildest censure would lead him to consider an indifferent action as a crime.
  4. remonstrance
    the act of expressing earnest opposition or protest
    Yet, though so well acquainted with this amiable weakness, no individual among his parishioners chose to make the black veil a subject of friendly remonstrance.
  5. expedient
    appropriate to a purpose
    There was a feeling of dread, neither plainly confessed nor carefully concealed, which caused each to shift the responsibility upon another, till at length it was found expedient to send a deputation of the church, in order to deal with Mr. Hooper about the mystery before it should grow into a scandal.
  6. abashed
    feeling or caused to feel uneasy and self-conscious
    Finally, the deputies returned abashed to their constituents, pronouncing the matter too weighty to be handled except by a council of the churches, if, indeed, it might not require a General Synod.
  7. discern
    perceive, recognize, or detect
    After he had seated himself she fixed her eyes steadfastly upon the veil, but could discern nothing of the dreadful gloom that had so overawed the multitude; it was but a double fold of crape hanging down from his forehead to his mouth and slightly stirring with his breath.
  8. typify
    embody the essential characteristics of
    "If it be a sign of mourning," replied Mr. Hooper, "I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil."
  9. obscurity
    the state of being indistinct due to lack of light
    He even smiled again—that same sad smile which always appeared like a faint glimmering of light proceeding from the obscurity beneath the veil.
  10. preternatural
    existing outside of or not in accordance with nature
    Their instinctive dread caused him to feel more strongly than aught else that a preternatural horror was interwoven with the threads of the black crape.
  11. antipathy
    a feeling of intense dislike
    In truth, his own antipathy to the veil was known to be so great that he never willingly passed before a mirror nor stooped to drink at a still fountain lest in its peaceful bosom he should be affrighted by himself.
  12. irreproachable
    free of guilt; not subject to blame
    In this manner Mr. Hooper spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved and dimly feared; a man apart from men, shunned in their health and joy, but ever summoned to their aid in mortal anguish.
  13. sable
    a very dark black
    As years wore on, shedding their snows above his sable veil, he acquired a name throughout the New England churches, and they called him Father Hooper.
  14. hoary
    having gray or white hair as with age
    And there lay the hoary head of good Father Hooper upon the death-pillow with the black veil still swathed about his brow and reaching down over his face, so that each more difficult gasp of his faint breath caused it to stir.
  15. solicitude
    a feeling of excessive concern
    But in his most convulsive struggles and in the wildest vagaries of his intellect, when no other thought retained its sober influence, he still showed an awful solicitude lest the black veil should slip aside.
Created on Thu Apr 23 13:55:25 EDT 2026 (updated Mon Aug 24 17:29:12 EDT 2026)

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