SKIP TO CONTENT

Dubliners: The Dead

In James Joyce's short story, a man's experiences at a seemingly routine dinner party force him to examine his life. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for other works by James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Araby
35 words 571 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Full list of words from this list:

  1. palaver
    loud and confused and empty talk
    The girl glanced back at him over her shoulder and said with great bitterness:
    “The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you.”
  2. scintillate
    emit or reflect light in a flickering manner
    The high colour of his cheeks pushed upwards even to his forehead, where it scattered itself in a few formless patches of pale red; and on his hairless face there scintillated restlessly the polished lenses and the bright gilt rims of the glasses which screened his delicate and restless eyes.
  3. flaccid
    drooping without elasticity
    Her hair, drawn low over the tops of her ears, was grey; and grey also, with darker shadows, was her large flaccid face.
  4. solicitude
    a feeling of excessive concern
    The two aunts laughed heartily, too, for Gabriel’s solicitude was a standing joke with them.
  5. mirth
    great merriment
    The smile soon faded from Aunt Julia’s face and her mirthless eyes were directed towards her nephew’s face.
  6. swarthy
    naturally having skin of a dark color
    A tall wizen-faced man, with a stiff grizzled moustache and swarthy skin, who was passing out with his partner, said:
    “And may we have some refreshment, too, Miss Morkan?”
  7. viand
    a choice or delicious dish
    The top of the closed square piano served also as a sideboard for viands and sweets.
  8. wizened
    lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness
    His wizened face broke into a broader smile, and the three young ladies laughed in musical echo to his pleasantry, swaying their bodies to and fro, with nervous jerks of their shoulders.
  9. pallid
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    His face was fleshy and pallid, touched with colour only at the thick hanging lobes of his ears and at the wide wings of his nose.
  10. tumid
    abnormally distended especially by fluids or gas
    He had coarse features, a blunt nose, a convex and receding brow, tumid and protruded lips.
  11. imprecation
    the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil
    The only persons who seemed to follow the music were Mary Jane herself, her hands racing along the key-board or lifted from it at the pauses like those of a priestess in momentary imprecation, and Aunt Kate standing at her elbow to turn the page.
  12. curate
    a person authorized to conduct religious worship
    Thanks to her, Constantine was now senior curate in Balbrigan and, thanks to her, Gabriel himself had taken his degree in the Royal University.
  13. sullen
    showing a brooding ill humor
    A shadow passed over his face as he remembered her sullen opposition to his marriage.
  14. rankle
    make resentful or angry
    Some slighting phrases she had used still rankled in his memory; she had once spoken of Gretta as being country cute and that was not true of Gretta at all.
  15. paltry
    contemptibly small in amount or size
    The books he received for review were almost more welcome than the paltry cheque.
  16. advert
    make reference to
    While she was threading her way back across the room Mrs. Malins, without adverting to the interruption, went on to tell Gabriel what beautiful places there were in Scotland and beautiful scenery.
  17. acquiescence
    agreement with a statement or proposal to do something
    Freddy Malins, who had listened with his head perched sideways to hear her better, was still applauding when everyone else had ceased and talking animatedly to his mother who nodded her head gravely and slowly in acquiescence.
  18. refractory
    stubbornly resistant to authority or control
    She turned as if to appeal to the good sense of the others against a refractory child while Aunt Julia gazed in front of her, a vague smile of reminiscence playing on her face.
  19. draught
    a large and hurried swallow
    Everyone protested loudly so that he compromised by taking a long draught of stout for he had found the carving hot work.
  20. lugubrious
    excessively mournful
    As the subject had grown lugubrious it was buried in a silence of the table during which Mrs. Malins could be heard saying to her neighbour in an indistinct undertone: “They are very good men, the monks, very pious men.”
  21. actuate
    give an incentive for doing something
    “Ladies and Gentlemen, a new generation is growing up in our midst, a generation actuated by new ideas and new principles."
  22. brood
    think moodily or anxiously about something
    Our path through life is strewn with many such sad memories: and were we to brood upon them always we could not find the heart to go on bravely with our work among the living. We have all of us living duties and living affections...
  23. invidious
    containing or implying a slight or showing prejudice
    The task would be an invidious one and one beyond my poor powers.
  24. perennial
    lasting an indefinitely long time
    ...our chief hostess herself, whose good heart, whose too good heart, has become a byword with all who know her, or her sister, who seems to be gifted with perennial youth and whose singing must have been a surprise and a revelation to us all tonight, or, last but not least, when I consider our youngest hostess, talented, cheerful,...
  25. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    The voice, made plaintive by distance and by the singer’s hoarseness, faintly illuminated the cadence of the air with words expressing grief:
    O, the rain falls on my heavy locks And the dew wets my skin, My babe lies cold .
  26. cadence
    a recurrent rhythmical series
    The voice, made plaintive by distance and by the singer’s hoarseness, faintly illuminated the cadence of the air with words expressing grief:
    O, the rain falls on my heavy locks And the dew wets my skin, My babe lies cold .
  27. swathe
    wrap in or as if in strips of cloth
    Mr. D’Arcy stood swathing his neck carefully and frowning.
  28. quaint
    strange in an interesting or pleasing way
    Gabriel, trembling with delight at her sudden kiss and at the quaintness of her phrase, put his hands on her hair and began smoothing it back, scarcely touching it with his fingers.
  29. impetuous
    characterized by undue haste and lack of thought
    Perhaps she had felt the impetuous desire that was in him, and then the yielding mood had come upon her.
  30. diffident
    showing modest reserve
    Now that she had fallen to him so easily, he wondered why he had been so diffident.
  31. fatuous
    devoid of intelligence
    He saw himself as a ludicrous figure, acting as a pennyboy for his aunts, a nervous, well-meaning sentimentalist, orating to vulgarians and idealising his own clownish lusts, the pitiable fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse of in the mirror.
  32. impalpable
    incapable of being perceived by the senses, especially touch
    A vague terror seized Gabriel at this answer, as if, at that hour when he had hoped to triumph, some impalpable and vindictive being was coming against him, gathering forces against him in its vague world.
  33. obliquely
    not in a direct or straightforward manner
    He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight.
  34. mutinous
    characterized by a rebellion against authority
    It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves.
  35. swoon
    pass out from weakness or physical or emotional distress
    His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
Created on Fri Jun 23 16:07:19 EDT 2017 (updated Mon Sep 24 14:54:39 EDT 2018)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.