Romeo & Juliet Vocabulary*

Randy L. (United States of America)
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words only definitions & notes
  1. adversary
    someone who offers opposition
    "So I be manly," retorted Billy, glaring angrily and defiantly at his adversary. Meade, L. T.
    adversary
    noun
    once his devoted comrade at West Point, Arthur was now his adversary at Bull Run: opponent, rival, enemy, antagonist, combatant, challenger, contender, competitor, opposer; opposition, competition, foe. ANTONYMS ally, supporter.

    BENVOLIO

    Here were the servants of your adversary,
    And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  2. esteem
    the condition of being honored
    The drumbeat is growing louder daily, as my esteemed colleague Sally Jenkins’s most recent column shows. Washington Post (Feb 9, 2012)
    "Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
    Are made already mothers:"
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1


    A “Breaking Bad” fan, Hand initially could not reconcile Walter White — a character with “no redeeming qualities” — playing someone Hand held in such esteem.
  3. disposition
    your usual mood
    LADY CAPULET Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet, How stands your disposition to be married? Romeo & Juliet Act 1 Because I rarely smile, I am not known for my agreeable disposition.
    "How stands your disposition to be married?"
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  4. forfeit
    something that is lost or surrendered as a penalty
    "Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
    "Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace"
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  5. nuptials
    the social event at which the marriage ceremony is performed
    'Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio...
    Some five and twenty years...
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1


    "The nuptials of our great Quixote and the fair Sophia," and Granville's ostentatious performance of the part of lover, were ridiculed by Horace Walpole.
  6. transgression
    the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle
    "Why, such is love's transgression."
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1

    To make up for her transgression, Eileen has to fulfill community service hours.
  7. augment
    enlarge or increase
    Many a morning hath he there been seen,
    With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew.
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  8. solemnity
    a trait of dignified seriousness
    Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
    To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  9. exquisite
    delicately beautiful
    'Tis the way
    To call hers exquisite, in question more:
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  10. languish
    become feeble
    Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
    One desperate grief cures with another's languish:
    Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
    And the rank poison of the old will die.
    -Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  11. pernicious
    exceedingly harmful
    Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
    That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
    With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
    -Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  12. valiant
    having or showing heroism or courage
    That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief:
    The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
    Romeo & Juliet Act 1
  13. jest
    activity characterized by good humor
    ROMEO "He jests at scars that never felt a wound." MERCUTIO I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.
  14. jocund
    full of or showing high-spirited merriment
    ROMEO It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east: Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
  15. warrant
    show to be reasonable or provide adequate ground for
    I warrant he kept an eye on the wench. —Strang, Herbert That ridiculous question doesn't even warrant a response
    Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
    To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
    And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
    A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
    Romeo & Juliet Act I

    I saw no man use you a pleasure; if I had, my weapon
    should quickly have been out, I warrant you: I dare
    draw as soon as another man, if I see occasion in a
    good quarrel, and the law on my side.
    Romeo & Juliet Act II
  16. felon
    someone who has been legally convicted of a crime
    PARIS I do defy thy conjurations, And apprehend thee for a felon here.
  17. beguile
    attract; cause to be enamored
    JULIET Wash they his wounds with tears: mine shall be spent, When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment. Take up those cords: poor ropes, you are beguiled, Both you and I; for Romeo is exiled:
  18. grievance
    a complaint about a wrong that causes resentment
    BENVOLIO We talk here in the public haunt of men: Either withdraw unto some private place, And reason coldly of your grievances, Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us.
  19. shroud
    burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped
    JULIET O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower; Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears; Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house, O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones, With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls; Or bid me go into a new-made grave And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
  20. purge
    rid of impurities
    ROMEO Why, such is love's transgression. Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
  21. inter
    place in a grave or tomb
    A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter'd youth, For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light. Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.
  22. sepulcher
    a chamber that is used as a grave
    Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains The stony entrance of this sepulchre? What mean these masterless and gory swords To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?
  23. thwart
    hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
    A greater power than we can contradict/Hath thwarted our intents Act 5 Romeo & Juliet
  24. rigor
    excessive sternness
    Act 5 FRIAR LAURENCE and, if aught in this Miscarried by my fault, let my old life Be sacrificed, some hour before his time, Unto the rigor of severest law.
  25. oppression
    the state of being kept down by unjust use of authority
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET BENVOLIO At thy good heart's oppression.
  26. conjure
    summon into action or bring into existence
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET MERCUTIO The ape is dead, and I must conjure him. I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
  27. perjury
    criminal offense of making false statements under oath
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say 'Ay,' And I will take thy word: yet if thou swear'st, Thou mayst prove false; at lovers' perjuries
  28. procure
    get by special effort
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET JULIET Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. If that thy bent of love be honourable, Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow, By one that I'll procure to come to thee,
  29. variable
    something that is likely to change
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET JULIET O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
  30. wanton
    indulge in a carefree or voluptuous way of life
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET JULIET 'Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone: And yet no further than a wanton's bird;
  31. banishment
    exclusion or rejection from a place or group
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Nurse Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; Romeo that kill'd him, he is banished.
  32. calamity
    an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man: Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts, And thou art wedded to calamity.
  33. commend
    present as worthy of regard, kindness, or confidence
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto thee--
  34. dexterity
    adroitness in using the hands
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity, Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud, 'Hold, friends! friends, part!' and, swifter than
  35. prevail
    be larger in number, quantity, power, status or importance
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom, It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more.
  36. reconcile
    come to terms
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
  37. vile
    morally reprehensible
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET By some vile forfeit of untimely death. But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
  38. abate
    become less in amount or intensity
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear, Abate thy valour in the acting it.
  39. array
    an impressive display or assortment
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Happiness courts thee in her best array; But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench, Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:
  40. bier
    a stand to support a corpse or a coffin prior to burial
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
  41. dirge
    a song or hymn of mourning as a memorial to a dead person
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast, Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change, Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,
  42. distraught
    deeply agitated especially from emotion
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught, Environed with all these hideous fears?
  43. fester
    generate pus
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say, At some hours in the night spirits resort;--
  44. prostrate
    stretched out and lying at full length along the ground
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Where I have learn'd me to repent the sin Of disobedient opposition To you and your behests, and am enjoin'd By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here, And beg your pardon: pardon, I beseech you!
  45. receptacle
    a container that is used to put or keep things in
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Together with the terror of the place,-- As in a vault, an ancient receptacle, Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
  46. abhor
    feel hatred or disgust toward
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet, Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous, And that the lean abhorred monster keeps Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
  47. amorous
    inclined toward or displaying love
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous,
  48. conspire
    act in agreement and in secret towards a deceitful purpose
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath: What further woe conspires against mine age?
  49. devise
    come up with after a mental effort
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET then comes she to me, And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean To rid her from this second marriage,
  50. paramour
    a lover, especially a secret or illicit one
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET And that the lean abhorred monster keeps Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
  51. tedious
    so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
  52. unsavory
    morally offensive
    FROM ROMEO & JULIET A dateless bargain to engrossing death! Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
  53. rapier
    a straight sword with a narrow blade and two edges
Created on Wed Feb 01 13:11:33 EST 2012 (updated Thu Apr 16 11:15:49 EDT 2015)

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