Animal Farm
Vocabulary

1 use

After a little thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows fairly successfully, their trotters being well adapted to this task.

adapted = suited

2 uses

1 use

And in many ways the animal method of doing things was more efficient and saved labour. Such jobs as weeding, for instance, could be done with a thoroughness impossible to human beings. And again, since no animal now stole, it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable land, which saved a lot of labour on the upkeep of hedges and gates. Nevertheless, as the summer wore on, various unforeseen shortages began to make them selves felt.

arable = of farmland:  capable of being farmed productively

1 use

1 use

For five days the hens held out, then they capitulated and went back to their nesting boxes.

capitulated = gave up

1 use

2 uses

They could not understand, they said, how even animals could bring themselves to sing such contemptible rubbish.

contemptible = very bad (deserving no respect)

All Book Uses  Typical Usage

1 use

Several nights a week, after Mr. Jones was asleep, they held secret meetings in the barn and expounded the principles of Animalism to the others.

expounded = discussed in detail

1 use

Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.

foal = horse to which she'd given birth

1 use

The banknotes were forgeries!

forgeries = fakes

1 use

The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally.

frugally = without waste or luxury

2 uses

And so within five minutes of their invasion they were in ignominious retreat by the same way as they had come, with a flock of geese hissing after them and pecking at their calves all the way.

ignominious = disgraceful or shameful

All Book Uses  Typical Usage

1 use

4 uses

These Seven Commandments would now be inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after.

inscribed = formally written

All Book Uses  Typical Usage

1 use

Bulls which had always been tractable suddenly turned savage,

tractable = easy to manage or control

2 uses

A cry of lamentation went up.

lamentation = passionate grief or sorrow

All Book Uses  Typical Usage

1 use

They had all the more reason for doing so because the news of their defeat had spread across the countryside and made the animals on the neighbouring farms more restive than ever.

restive = impatient and difficult to control

2 uses

Napoleon had commanded that once a week there should be held something called a Spontaneous Demonstration, the object of which was to celebrate the struggles and triumphs of Animal Farm.

spontaneous = happening or arising without plan

(editor's note:  Orwell is being ironic here since it is contradictory to command that something happen and then describe it as spontaneous.)

All Book Uses  Typical Usage

1 use

Only old Benjamin was much the same as ever, except for being a little greyer about the muzzle, and, since Boxer's death, more morose and taciturn than ever.

taciturn = reserved and uncommunicative

1 use

Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character.

vivacious = lively and engaging