 | Term | Definition |
| |
copious |
large in quantity, abundant |
| |
prate |
empty, foolish, or trivial talk; idle chatter |
| |
slattern |
untidy, dirty woman |
| |
fulsome |
offensively/insincerely flattering; unctuous |
| |
zealot |
fanatically committed person |
| |
petulance |
unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered; peevish |
| |
dissolution |
decomposition into fragments or parts; disintegration; extinction (of life)/death; termination/annullment |
| |
ostler |
(hostler) one who is employed to tend horses; one who services a large vehicle/engine |
| |
sardonic |
scornfully or cynically mocking |
| |
cavil |
to find fault unnecessarily; raise trivial objections; quibble |
| |
carp |
cavil; to find fault unnecessarily; complain fretfully |
| |
cupidity |
excessive desire, especially for wealth; covetousness/avarice |
| |
paucity |
smallness of number; fewness; scarceness; dearth |
| |
timorous |
full of apprehensiveness/fear; timid |
| |
temerity |
foolhardy disregard of danger; recklessness |
| |
sated |
to satisfy (an appetite) fully; to satisfy to excess |
| |
impious |
lacking reverence; not pious; lacking due respect or dutifulness |
| |
avarice |
immoderate desire for wealth; cupidity |
| |
blithe |
carefree and lighthearted; happy; casual |
| |
sinuous |
winding; not direct; characterized by supple and lithe movements |
| |
truculent |
disposed to fight; pugnacious; expressing bitter opposition; fierce |
| |
voluminous |
having great volume, fullness, size or number |
| |
pander |
to act as a go-between or liaison in sexual intrigues; to cater to the lower tastes and desires of others or exploit their weaknesses |
| |
whim |
a sudden or capricious idea; a fancy; arbitrary thought or impulse |
| |
admonition |
mild, kind yet earnest reproof; cautionary advice or warning |
| |
bestial |
beastly; lacking in intelligence or reason; subhuman |
| |
filch |
snitch; steal; pilfer (especially something of little value) |
| |
venial |
easily excused or forgiven; pardonable |
| |
restitution |
the act of restoring to the rightful owner something that has been taken away, lost or surrendered; reparation; compensating for loss; restoration of a previous state or position |
| |
obsequious |
full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning; obedient; dutiful |
| |
overt |
open & observable; not hidden, concealed or secret |
| |
inordinate |
exceeding reasonable limits; immoderate; excessive; not regulated; disorderly; uncontrolled |
| |
surmise |
to infer (something) without sufficiently conclusive evidence; to make a guess or conjecture |
| |
lethargy |
a state of sluggishness, inactivity and apathy; a state of unconsciousness resembling deep sleep |
| |
pernicious |
tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly; evil, wicked; causing great harm; destructive |
| |
lascivious |
given to or expressing lust; lecherous; exciting sexual desires; salacious |
| |
alacrity |
cheerful willingness; eagerness; liveliness; briskness; speed or quickness; celerity |
| |
dilatory |
intended to delay; tending to postpone or delay; tending to procrastinate; slow; tardy |
| |
inference |
deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true |
| |
construe |
to explain the meaning of; interpret; to translate, especially aloud/orally |
| |
amorous |
strongly attracted or disposed to love, especially sexual love; indicative of love or sexual desire; being in love; enamored |
| |
iniquity |
gross immorality or injustice; wickedness; a grossly immoral act; a sin |
| |
discern |
to perceive with the eyes or intellect; detect; to recognize or comprehend mentally; to perceive differences |
| |
politic |
crafty; cunning; shrewdness; artful; judicious |
| |
tranquil |
free from commotion or disturbance; calm; free from anxiety, tension, or restlessness; composed; steady |
| |
censure |
an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism; an official rebuke/disapproval |
| |
extenuate |
to lessen or attempt to lessen the magnitude of seriousness of, especially by providing partial excuses; to underestimate, underrate, or make light of |
| |
mountebank |
a hawker or quack medicines who attracts customers with stories, jokes or tricks; a flamboyant charlatan |
| |
descry |
(physical) to catch sight of |
| |
ruminate |
to turn a matter over and over in the mind; to reflect over and over again; to meditate or muse; ponder |
| |
castigate |
to inflict severe punishment; to criticize severely |
| |
peevish |
querulous or discontented; ill-tempered; contrary; fractious |
| |
malice |
a desire to harm others or to see other suffer; extreme ill will or spite |
| |
conjure |
to summon (a devil or a spirit) by magical or supernatural power; to call or bring to mind; evoke |
| |
egregious |
conspicuously bad or offensive; flagrant ; extraordinary in some bad way |
| |
alliteration |
repetition of identical initial consonant sounds (e.g. Sarah slung the stone) |
| |
allusion |
a reference to an earlier literary work or to an historical event |
| |
assonance |
repetition of identical vowel sounds within words (e.g. the child is mine) |
| |
ballad |
a song-like narrative poem |
| |
blank verse |
un-rhymed iambic pentameter |
| |
caesura |
a pause, usually marked by punctuation, within a poetic line |
| |
conceit |
a surprising, very clever, and elaborately extended metaphor |
| |
connotation |
implied meaning of a word |
| |
consonance |
the repetition of final consonant sounds with different final vowel sounds (e.g. fallen upon) |
| |
denotation |
literal meaning of a word (as opposed to connotation) |
| |
elegy |
poem that mourns a death |
| |
end-stop (line) |
to end a line with a punctuation mark, thus calling attention to the line as a structure within the poem |
| |
enjamb |
to carry a thought from one line to the next without the interruption of punctuation |
| |
end rhyme |
rhyme coming at the end of lines |
| |
heroic couplet |
rhyming iambic pentameter couplet |
| |
hyperbole |
figure of speech that exaggerates what is true |
| |
lyric (poem) |
short poem where speaker expresses his/her feelings or thoughts (as opposed to narrative poem) |
| |
iambic |
e.g. occur, hotel, lacrosse, sincere |
| |
anapestic |
e.g. in july, on the hill, and a child |
| |
trochaic |
e.g. bullet, soccer, engine, open |
| |
dactyllic |
e.g. recently, loveliest, industry |
| |
spondaic |
e.g. staircase, hothead, fence post |
| |
off rhyme |
e.g stone and comb, piece and race |
| |
octave |
stanza with 8 lines |
| |
onomatopoeia |
e.g. thwack, thunk, pow, meow |
| |
paradox |
figure of speech that makes an apparently contradictory statement that is in some way true, e.g. the harder one works the less one accomplishes |
| |
quatrain |
stanza with 4 lines |
| |
refrain |
repeated phrase or line (chorus?) |
| |
sestet |
stanza with 6 lines |
| |
sonnet |
14-line poem written in iambic pentameter |
| |
tercet |
stanza with 3 lines |
| |
theme |
literary work's central idea |
| |
understatement |
figure of speech that represents less than the actual case or circumstance |
| |
villanelle |
19-line poem written in iambic pentameter and composed of 5 tercets and 1 ending quatrain. |
| Add or remove terms from this set |
