11 uses
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Definition
to think deeply or carefully about something
- The more I pondered over this harpooneer, the more I abominated the thought of sleeping with him.Chapters 1-3 — Loomings; The Carpet-Bag; The Spouter-Inn (60% in)
- But by dint of much and earnest contemplation, and oft repeated ponderings, and especially by throwing open the little window towards the back of the entry, you at last come to the conclusion that such an idea, however wild, might not be altogether unwarranted.Chapters 1-3 — Loomings; The Carpet-Bag; The Spouter-Inn (40% in)
- I pondered some time without fully comprehending the reason for this.Chapters 7-9 — The Chapel; The Pulpit; The Sermon (28% in)
- ...cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colourless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge—pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear coloured and colouring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud...Chapters 40-42 — Midnight, Forecastle; Moby Dick; The Whiteness of the Whale (99% in)
- But it was not this night in particular that, in the solitude of his cabin, Ahab thus pondered over his charts.Chapters 43-45 — Hark!; The Chart; The Affidavit (9% in)
- And here, his mad mind would run on in a breathless race; till a weariness and faintness of pondering came over him; and in the open air of the deck he would seek to recover his strength.Chapters 43-45 — Hark!; The Chart; The Affidavit (32% in)
- And yet still further pondering—while I jerked him now and then from between the whale and ship, which would threaten to jam him—still further pondering, I say, I saw that this situation of mine was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes; only, in most cases, he, one way or other, has this Siamese connexion with a plurality of other mortals.Chapters 70-72 — The Sphynx; The Jeroboam's Story; The Monkey-Rope (78% in)
- And yet still further pondering—while I jerked him now and then from between the whale and ship, which would threaten to jam him—still further pondering, I say, I saw that this situation of mine was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes; only, in most cases, he, one way or other, has this Siamese connexion with a plurality of other mortals.Chapters 70-72 — The Sphynx; The Jeroboam's Story; The Monkey-Rope (78% in)
- There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one pause:—through infancy's unconscious spell, boyhood's thoughtless faith, adolescence' doubt (the common doom), then scepticism, then disbelief, resting at last in manhood's pondering repose of If.Chapters 112-114 — The Blacksmith; The Forge; The Gilder (94% in)
- Then gazing at his quadrant, and handling, one after the other, its numerous cabalistical contrivances, he pondered again, and muttered: "Foolish toy! babies' plaything of haughty Admirals, and Commodores, and Captains; the world brags of thee, of thy cunning and might; but what after all canst thou do, but tell the poor, pitiful point, where thou thyself happenest to be on this wide planet, and the hand that holds thee: no! not one jot more!Chapters 118-120 — The Quadrant; The Candles; The Deck (12% in)
- What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts?Chapters 127-129 — The Deck; The Pequod meets the Rachel; The Cabin—Ahab and Pip (22% in)
There are no more uses of "ponder" in Moby Dick.
Typical Usage
(best examples)