Unit 4: Vocabulary from Readings

This list covers The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, White Teeth, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Les Miserables, and Oedipus Rex.
20 words 64 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. vile
    morally reprehensible
    Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
  2. fray
    a noisy fight
    Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
  3. withal
    together with this
    Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink
    How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
    Your high displeasure: all this uttered
    With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd
  4. spleen
    a feeling of resentful anger
    Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
    Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
    With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast,
    Who all as hot, turns deadly point to point
  5. retort
    answer back
    And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
    Cold death aside, and with the other sends
    It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity,
    Retorts it
  6. exile
    expel from a country
    And for that offence
    Immediately we do exile him hence
  7. amerce
    punish by a fine imposed arbitrarily by the discretion of the court
    But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine
    That you shall all repent the loss of mine
  8. destiny
    the circumstances or condition to which someone is fated
    Our children will be born of our actions. Our accidents will become their destinies.
  9. inter
    place in a grave or tomb
    I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
    The evil that men do lives after them;
    The good is often interred with their bones.
  10. grievous
    causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm
    The noble Brutus
    Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
    If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
    And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
  11. coffer
    the funds of a government, institution, or individual
    He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
    Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
  12. stern
    serious and harsh in manner or behavior
    When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
    Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
  13. vanquish
    defeat in a competition, race, or conflict
    For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
    Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms,
    Quite vanquished him.
  14. mantle
    a sleeveless garment like a cloak but shorter
    Then burst his mighty heart,
    And in his mantle muffling up his face,
    Even at the base of Pompey's statue,
    Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.
  15. beseech
    ask for or request earnestly
    Monsieur Javert, I beseech your mercy.
  16. bourgeois
    a member of the middle class
    That gentleman, the Bourgeois, whom I do not know, put snow in my back.
  17. vivacity
    high spirits and animation
    Perhaps I did wrong to get angry. You know that one is not master of one’s self at the first moment. One gives way to vivacity; and then, when someone puts something cold down your back just when you are not expecting it!
  18. harbor
    secretly shelter, as a fugitive or criminal
    They have received news from the Oracle of Delphi that the plague on the city is a punishment from the gods for harboring a murderer in the city.
  19. edict
    a formal or authoritative proclamation
    Moreover: If anyone knows the murderer to be foreign,
    Let him not keep silent: he shall have his reward from me.
    However, if he does conceal it; if any man
    Fearing for his friend or for himself disobeys this edict
  20. lustrate
    purify by means of a ritual
    I solemnly forbid the people of this country,
    Where power and throne are mind, ever to receive that man
    Or speak to him, no matter who he is, or let him
    Join in sacrifice, lustration, or in prayer.
Created on Thu Jan 14 16:12:01 EST 2021 (updated Tue Jan 19 10:44:45 EST 2021)

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