All 10 Uses of
yoke
in
Don Quixote
- The carter yoked his oxen and made Don Quixote comfortable on a truss of hay, and at his usual deliberate pace took the road the curate directed, and at the end of six days they reached Don Quixote's village, and entered it about the middle of the day, which it so happened was a Sunday, and the people were all in the plaza, through which Don Quixote's cart passed.†
Chpt 1.51-52
- As I was returning to my village I fell in on the road with this good dame, and the devil who makes a coil and a mess out of everything, yoked us together.†
Chpt 2.45-46 *
- Cunning cords the holy Church has, Cords of softest silk they be; Put thy neck beneath the yoke, dear; Mine will follow, thou wilt see.†
Chpt 1.11-12 *
- They then took him on their shoulders, and as they passed out of the room an awful voice—as much so as the barber, not he of the pack-saddle but the other, was able to make it—was heard to say, "O Knight of the Rueful Countenance, let not this captivity in which thou art placed afflict thee, for this must needs be, for the more speedy accomplishment of the adventure in which thy great heart has engaged thee; the which shall be accomplished when the raging Manchegan lion and the white Tobosan dove shall be linked together, having first humbled their haughty necks to the gentle yoke of matrimony.†
Chpt 1.45-46
- The carter at once unyoked the oxen and left them to roam at large about the pleasant green spot, the freshness of which seemed to invite, not enchanted people like Don Quixote, but wide-awake, sensible folk like his squire, who begged the curate to allow his master to leave the cage for a little; for if they did not let him out, the prison might not be as clean as the propriety of such a gentleman as his master required.†
Chpt 1.49-50unyoked = unburdenedstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unyoked means not and reverses the meaning of yoked. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Such was the soliloquy Sancho held with himself, and all the conclusion he could come to was to say to himself again, "Well, there's remedy for everything except death, under whose yoke we have all to pass, whether we like it or not, when life's finished.†
Chpt 2.9-10
- The carter got down and with all speed unyoked the mules, and the keeper called out at the top of his voice, "I call all here to witness that against my will and under compulsion I open the cages and let the lions loose, and that I warn this gentleman that he will be accountable for all the harm and mischief which these beasts may do, and for my salary and dues as well.†
Chpt 2.17-18unyoked = unburdenedstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unyoked means not and reverses the meaning of yoked. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Moreover, to take an unjust revenge (and there cannot be any just one) is directly opposed to the sacred law that we acknowledge, wherein we are commanded to do good to our enemies and to love them that hate us; a command which, though it seems somewhat difficult to obey, is only so to those who have in them less of God than of the world, and more of the flesh than of the spirit; for Jesus Christ, God and true man, who never lied, and could not and cannot lie, said, as our law-giver, that his yoke was easy and his burden light; he would not, therefore, have laid any command upon us that it was impossible to obey.†
Chpt 2.27-28
- The woman was cowed and went off disconsolately, hanging her head; and the governor said to the man, "Honest man, go home with your money, and God speed you; and for the future, if you don't want to lose it, see that you don't take it into your head to yoke with anybody."†
Chpt 2.45-46
Uses with a meaning too rare to warrant foucs:
- And I say once more, if your ladyship does not like to give me the island because I'm a fool, like a wise man I will take care to give myself no trouble about it; I have heard say that 'behind the cross there's the devil,' and that 'all that glitters is not gold,' and that from among the oxen, and the ploughs, and the yokes, Wamba the husbandman was taken to be made King of Spain, and from among brocades, and pleasures, and riches, Roderick was taken to be devoured by adders, if the verses of the old ballads don't lie.†
Chpt 2.33-34 *
Definitions:
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(1)
(yoke as in: the yoke of bondage) an oppressive burden or something that limits freedom
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(2)
(yoke as in: oxen yoke) a wooden frame used to join beasts of burden so they pull together, or a connected pair, or the connecting of a pair
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(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) See a comprehensive dictionary for less common senses of the word including:
- a clothing item from which fabric is hung
- a control apparatus for an airplane or ship