All 4 Uses of
consequence
in
The Help
- "Was he…colored?" I gulp at the thought of the consequences, because even to me, that would be horrific, disastrous.
Chpt 20consequences = results
- It was almost four months ago that the door was sealed shut between Hilly and me, a door made of ice so thick it would take a hundred Mississippi summers to melt it. It's not as if I hadn't expected consequences. I just hadn't thought they'd last so long.
Chpt 27 *consequences = undesired side effects (results other than those intended) of an action taken
- Those people have children and don't think about the consequences until it's too late.
Chpt 27consequences = effects (results)
- We haven't talked about this in a while, and besides Winnie's comment about tongues, we haven't really discussed the actual consequences besides the maids losing their jobs.
Chpt 27consequences = results
Definitions:
-
(1)
(consequence as in: a direct consequence of) a result of something (often an undesired side effect)
-
(2)
(consequence as in: of little consequence) importance or relevance
-
(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In classic literature, consequential may refer to someone with too much feeling of self-importance as when Dickens wrote "Because he's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-up-nosed peacock."
Self-consequence was used in a similar manner, but is more easily understood by modern readers since important is one of the modern senses of consequence.
Another classic sense of consequent that is similar to importance or significance refers to "material wealth or prominence" as when Jane Austen wrote: "They had each had money, but their marriages had made a material difference in their degree of consequence."