acquiesce
9 uses
She seemed not only to acquiesce, to be reconciled to her life and marriage, but to be actually proud of it.
acquiesce = reluctantly comply
Definition
Generally acquiesce means:reluctant or unenthusiastic compliance, consent, or agreement
Word Statistics
| Book | 9 uses |
| Library | 2 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 8 |
assuage
3 uses
...since both of the two people who could have given him a father had declined to do it, nothing mattered to him now, revenge or love or all, since he knew now that revenge could not compensate him nor love assuage.
assuage = soothe (make something less unpleasant)
Definition
Generally assuage means:to soothe (make something less unpleasant or frightening)
Word Statistics
| Book | 3 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 6 |
atrophy
2 uses
... the need, to communicate by speech atrophies from disuse and...
atrophies = withers or weakens
Definition
Generally atrophy means:to wither or weaken — especially from lack of use
Word Statistics
| Book | 2 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 4 |
credulous
2 uses
...to move the dreamer ... to credulity...
credulity = willingness to believe (in this case, that the dream is real)
Definition
Generally credulous means:gullible (being too willing to believe)
Word Statistics
| Book | 2 uses |
| Library | 2 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 1 |
decorum
10 uses
...the principles of honor, decorum and gentleness applied to perfectly normal human instinct which you Anglo-Saxons insist upon calling lust...
decorum = proper manners and conduct
Definition
Generally decorum means:manners and conduct considered to be proper and in good taste
Word Statistics
| Book | 10 uses |
| Library | 3 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 1 |
defer
1 use
1 —1 use as in:
deferred the decision
...if even deferred love could have supplied her with the will to exist,
deferred = postponed (not to be fulfilled until another time)
Definition
Generally this sense of defer means:delay or postpone (hold off until a later time)
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 2 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 3 |
despair
1 use
1 —1 use as in:
she felt despair
...must show neither surprise nor despair,
despair = hopelessness
Definition
Generally this sense of despair means:hopelessness; or distress (such as extreme worry or sadness from feeling powerless to change a bad situation)
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 8 uses in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 1000 |
| 1st use | Chapter 4 |
enigma
1 use
...he (Bon) seems to have withdrawn into a mere spectator, passive, a little sardonic, and completely enigmatic.
enigmatic = mysterious and seeming unexplainable
Definition
Generally enigma means:something mysterious that seems unexplainable
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 3 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 4 |
forbearance
3 uses
Sutpen never raised his voice at them, that instead he led them, caught them at the psychological instant by example, by some ascendancy of forbearance rather than by brute fear.
forbearance = refraining (holding back) from acting
or:
patience, tolerance, or self-control
or:
patience, tolerance, or self-control
Word Statistics
| Book | 3 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 2 |
impervious
14 uses
We led the busy eventless lives of three nuns in a barren and poverty-stricken convent: the walls we had were safe, impervious enough, even if it did not matter to the walls whether we ate or not.
impervious = not permitting passage through (to those not allowed in)
Definition
Generally impervious means:not admitting passage through; or not capable of being affected
Word Statistics
| Book | 14 uses |
| Library | 2 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 3 |
indolent
11 uses
...even if he was too dull or too indolent to suspect or find out about his father himself...
indolent = lazy
Definition
Generally this sense of indolent means:lazy; disinclined to work
Word Statistics
| Book | 11 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 2 |
intractable
4 uses
...as if he were trying to explain it to an intractable and unpredictable child:
intractable = difficult to manage or control
Definition
Generally intractable means:difficult
in various senses, including:
- of problems or disease — difficult to solve or cure
- of people or animals — difficult to manage or control
- of materials — difficult to manipulate
Word Statistics
| Book | 4 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 7 |
irony (2 meanings)
2 meanings, 2 uses
1 —1 use as in:
situational irony
...while he was still playing the scene to the audience, behind him fate, destiny, retribution, irony—the stage manager, call him what you will—was already striking the set and...
irony = when what happens is very different than what might be expected
Definition
Generally this sense of irony means:when what happens is very different than what might be expected; or when things are together that seem like they don't belong together — especially when amusing or an entertaining coincidence
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 16 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 3 |
2 —1 use as in:
verbal irony
...asking at last, interrupting maybe, courteous and affable—nothing of irony, nothing of sarcasm—
irony = saying one thing while meaning something else
Definition
Generally this sense of irony means:saying one thing, while meaning the opposite or something else — usually as humor or sarcasm
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 6 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 8 |
provincial
1 use
...to correct Henry's provincial manners and speech and clothing.
provincial = unsophisticated
Definition
Generally this sense of provincial means:unsophisticated (meant disapprovingly to refer to old-fashioned or narrow-minded attitudes and ideas)
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 3 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 3 |
redundant
2 uses
I wont say hungry because to a woman ... below Mason's and Dixon's in this year of grace 1865, that word would be sheer redundancy, like saying that we were breathing.
redundancy = more than is needed — especially repeating ideas
Definition
Generally redundant means:more than is needed — often something that is unnecessarily repeated
or in technical usage: a secondary component designed to work if the primary component fails; or of such a system
or in technical usage: a secondary component designed to work if the primary component fails; or of such a system
Word Statistics
| Book | 2 uses |
| Library | 2 uses in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 100 |
| 1st use | Chapter 4 |
repudiate
21 uses
...the son who had repudiated the very roof under which he had been born and to which he would return but once more before disappearing for good, and that as a murderer...
repudiated = strongly rejected
Definition
Generally repudiate means:strong rejection — especially when the idea or thing being rejected was once embraced
Word Statistics
| Book | 21 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 1000 |
| 1st use | Chapter 4 |
satiate
3 uses
...the return to grace heralded by Heaven-placating cries of satiated abasement and flagellation,
satiated = filled to satisfaction
Definition
Generally satiate means:to satisfy a hunger; or fill to satisfaction (typically said of hunger for food, but can be said of anything desired—such as of knowledge or sensual pleasure)
Word Statistics
| Book | 3 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 500 |
| 1st use | Chapter 4 |
somber
1 use
1 —1 use as in:
somber colors
...in a frock coat and a flowered waistcoat and a hat which would have created no furore on a Paris boulevard, all of which he was to wear constantly for the next two years—the sombrely theatric clothing and the expression of fatalistic and amazed determination—†
sombrely = dark or dull color
(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans use somberly.)
(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans use somberly.)
Definition
Generally this sense of somber means:lacking brightness or color — perhaps gloomy
Word Statistics
| Book | 1 use |
| Library | 3 uses in 10 avg bks |
| 1st use | Chapter 2 |
ubiquitous
3 uses
I can imagine her engineering that courtship, supplying Judith and Bon with opportunities for trysts and pledges with a coy and unflagging ubiquity which they must have tried in vain to evade and escape,
ubiquity = being present everywhere or all the time
Word Statistics
| Book | 3 uses |
| Library | 1 use in 10 avg bks |
| SAT®* | top 1000 |
| 1st use | Chapter 3 |