All 4 Uses
equivocal
in
Selected Tales, by Poe
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- When reason returned with the morning—when I had slept off the fumes of the night's debauch—I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched.†
Scene 2equivocal = unclear in meaning
- It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with the accredited character of the people, and while speculating upon the possible influence which the one, in the long lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other—it was this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with the name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge the original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal appellation of the "House of Usher"—an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family†
Scene 3
- I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and equivocal hints, another singular feature of his mental condition.†
Scene 3 *
- Now, brought to this conclusion in so unequivocal a manner as we are, it is not our part, as reasoners, to reject it on account of apparent impossibilities.†
Scene 4unequivocal = unmistakably clear in meaningstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unequivocal means not and reverses the meaning of equivocal. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
Definitions:
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(1)
(equivocal) unclear in meaning -- especially where opposing interpretations are reasonable (sometimes intentionally)
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(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) The form unequivocal (not equivocal; or clean in meaning) is encountered much more frequently, but equivocal is seen on many more SAT review lists.