All 8 Uses of
credulous
in
Moby Dick
- Nevertheless, the old sea-traditions, the immemorial credulities, popularly invested this old Manxman with preternatural powers of discernment.†
Chpt 28-30
- In good time, though, to his great delight, the three salt-sea warriors would rise and depart; to his credulous, fable-mongering ears, all their martial bones jingling in them at every step, like Moorish scimetars in scabbards.†
Chpt 34-36credulous = gullible (being too willing to believe)
- Nor, credulous as such minds must have been, was this conceit altogether without some faint show of superstitious probability.†
Chpt 40-42
- So far as what there may be of a narrative in this book; and, indeed, as indirectly touching one or two very interesting and curious particulars in the habits of sperm whales, the foregoing chapter, in its earlier part, is as important a one as will be found in this volume; but the leading matter of it requires to be still further and more familiarly enlarged upon, in order to be adequately understood, and moreover to take away any incredulity which a profound ignorance of the entire subject may induce in some minds, as to the natural verity of the main points of this affair.†
Chpt 43-45incredulity = a state of not believingstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incredulity means not and reverses the meaning of credulity. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- his credulous disciples believed that he had specifically fore-announced it, instead of only making a general prophecy
Chpt 70-72 *credulous = too willing to believe
- So that when I shall hereafter detail to you all the specialities and concentrations of potency everywhere lurking in this expansive monster; when I shall show you some of his more inconsiderable braining feats; I trust you will have renounced all ignorant incredulity, and be ready to abide by this; that though the Sperm Whale stove a passage through the Isthmus of Darien, and mixed the Atlantic with the Pacific, you would not elevate one hair of your eye-brow.†
Chpt 76-78incredulity = a state of not believingstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incredulity means not and reverses the meaning of credulity. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- The awe-stricken credulous slaves in the vicinity took it for the bones of one of the fallen angels.†
Chpt 103-105credulous = gullible (being too willing to believe)
- To the credulous mariners it seemed the same silent spout they had so long ago beheld in the moonlit Atlantic and Indian Oceans.†
Chpt 133-135