Great Expectations: Chapters 26–35

by Charles Dickens
Pip's life is changed when an anonymous benefactor pays for an expensive education in London, but he quickly discovers that you can't escape who you really are. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–15, Chapters 16–25, Chapters 26–35, Chapters 36–47, Chapters 48–59
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. exhort
    urge or force in an indicated direction
    Hereupon Startop took him in hand, though with a much better grace than I had shown, and exhorted him to be a little more agreeable.
  2. choleric
    characterized by anger
    Hereupon, a choleric gentleman, who had taken the fourth place on that seat, flew into a most violent passion, and said that it was a breach of contract to mix him up with such villainous company...
  3. slovenly
    negligent of neatness especially in dress and person
    The whole had a slovenly confined and sleepy look, like a cage for a human dormouse: while he, looming dark and heavy in the shadow of a corner by the window, looked like the human dormouse for whom it was fitted up, — as indeed he was.
  4. disparity
    inequality or difference in some respect
    I fancied, as I looked at her, that I slipped hopelessly back into the coarse and common boy again. O the sense of distance and disparity that came upon me, and the inaccessibility that came about her!
  5. engender
    call forth
    He added as a self-evident proposition, engendering low spirits, “But you can’t marry, you know, while you’re looking about you.”
  6. admonish
    warn strongly; put on guard
    Mr. Wopsle in a comprehensive black cloak, being descried entering at the turnpike, the gravedigger was admonished in a friendly way, “Look out! Here’s the undertaker a coming, to see how you’re a getting on with your work!”
  7. approbation
    official recognition or commendation
    “I am glad to have your approbation, gentlemen,” said Mr. Waldengarver, with an air of dignity, in spite of his being ground against the wall at the time, and holding on by the seat of the chair.
  8. bereft
    sorrowful through loss or deprivation
    I forget in detail what they were, but I have a general recollection that he was to begin with reviving the Drama, and to end with crushing it; inasmuch as his decease would leave it utterly bereft and without a chance or hope.
  9. suppliant
    one praying humbly for something
    Mr. Wemmick and I parted at the office in Little Britain, where suppliants for Mr. Jaggers’s notice were lingering about as usual, and I returned to my watch in the street of the coach-office, with some three hours on hand.
  10. chary
    characterized by great caution
    I should have been chary of discussing my guardian too freely even with her; but I should have gone on with the subject so far as to describe the dinner in Gerrard Street, if we had not then come into a sudden glare of gas.
  11. staid
    characterized by dignity and propriety
    We came to Richmond all too soon, and our destination there was a house by the green, — a staid old house, where hoops and powder and patches, embroidered coats, rolled stockings, ruffles and swords, had had their court days many a time.
  12. treatise
    a formal text that treats a particular topic systematically
    Mr. Pocket was out lecturing; for, he was a most delightful lecturer on domestic economy, and his treatises on the management of children and servants were considered the very best text-books on those themes.
  13. copious
    affording an abundant supply
    Dinner over, we produced a bundle of pens, a copious supply of ink, and a goodly show of writing and blotting paper.
  14. obsequious
    attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner
    Standing at this table, I became conscious of the servile Pumblechook in a black cloak and several yards of hatband, who was alternately stuffing himself, and making obsequious movements to catch my attention.
  15. cogent
    powerfully persuasive
    For which cogent reason I kept Biddy at a distance during supper, and when I went up to my own old little room, took as stately a leave of her as I could...
Created on Mon Jul 25 09:58:27 EDT 2022 (updated Wed Jul 30 18:14:09 EDT 2025)

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