All 7 Uses of
palpable
in
Moby Dick
- Much might be ruminated here, concerning the essential dignity of this regal process, because in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing.†
Chpt 25-27 *
- Nor, in quite other aspects, does Nature in her least palpable but not the less malicious agencies, fail to enlist among her forces this crowning attribute of the terrible.†
Chpt 40-42
- So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.†
Chpt 43-45
- If this be so, fancy the irresistibleness of that might, to which the most impalpable and destructive of all elements contributes.†
Chpt 76-78
- So like a choice casket is it secreted in him, that I have known some whalemen who peremptorily deny that the Sperm Whale has any other brain than that palpable semblance of one formed by the cubic-yards of his sperm magazine.†
Chpt 79-81
- Upon this every soul was confounded; for the phenomenon just then observed by Ahab had unaccountably escaped every one else; but its very blinding palpableness must have been the cause.†
Chpt 124-126
- Soon that peculiar odor, sometimes to a great distance given forth by the living sperm whale, was palpable to all the watch; nor was any mariner surprised when, after inspecting the compass, and then the dog-vane, and then ascertaining the precise bearing of the odor as nearly as possible, Ahab rapidly ordered the ship's course to be slightly altered, and the sail to be shortened.†
Chpt 133-135
Definition:
-
(palpable) very apparent (so strong, it almost seems to take a material form that can be touched)editor's notes: "Palpable" is frequently used to describe the intensity of an emotion shared between people who can see each other. The implication is that the emotion is so strong, it almost takes a material form that can be touched.