Julius Caesar: Act 2

by William Shakespeare
Brutus is a trusted confidant of the Roman general Julius Caesar, but when he becomes convinced that Caesar's ambitions are a threat to the republic, he plots his friend's assassination. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, Act 5

Here are links to our lists for other plays by William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. interim
    the time between one event, process, or period and another
    Between the acting of a dreadful thing
    And the first motion, all the interim is
    Like a phantasma or a hideous dream.
  2. faction
    a dissenting clique
    They are the faction. O conspiracy,
    Sham’st thou to show thy dang’rous brow by night,
    When evils are most free?
  3. affability
    a disposition to be friendly and approachable
    Seek none, conspiracy.
    Hide it in smiles and affability;
    For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
    Not Erebus itself were dim enough
    To hide thee from prevention.
  4. semblance
    the outward or apparent appearance or form of something
    Seek none, conspiracy.
    Hide it in smiles and affability;
    For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
    Not Erebus itself were dim enough
    To hide thee from prevention.
  5. interpose
    be or come between
    What watchful cares do interpose themselves
    Betwixt your eyes and night?
  6. whit
    a tiny or scarcely detectable amount
    Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
    But all be buried in his gravity.
  7. hew
    strike with an axe; cut down, strike
    And, gentle friends,
    Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully.
    Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
    Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.
  8. appertain
    be a part or attribute of
    Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
    Is it excepted I should know no secrets
    That appertain to you?
  9. conjure
    summon into action or bring into existence
    Soul of Rome,
    Brave son derived from honorable loins,
    Thou like an exorcist hast conjured up
    My mortifièd spirit.
  10. entrails
    internal organs collectively
    Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
    They could not find a heart within the beast.
  11. imminent
    close in time; about to occur
    And these does she apply for warnings and portents
    And evils imminent, and on her knee
    Hath begged that I will stay at home today.
  12. expound
    add details to clarify an idea
    And this way have you well expounded it.
    Expound in this sentence means "to explain or interpret."
  13. revel
    celebrate noisily or engage in uproarious festivities
    See, Antony that revels long a-nights
    Is notwithstanding up.
  14. notwithstanding
    despite anything to the contrary
    See, Antony that revels long a-nights
    Is notwithstanding up.
  15. emulation
    effort to equal or surpass another
    My heart laments that virtue cannot live
    Out of the teeth of emulation.
Created on Mon Mar 11 13:42:22 EDT 2019 (updated Tue Jul 15 17:08:02 EDT 2025)

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