by Homer
Gytrash NOUN a Gytrash is an omen of misfortune to the superstitious, usually taking the form of a hound I remembered certain of Bessie’s tales, wherein figured a North-of-England spirit, called a “Gytrash” (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)
hackney-cabriolet NOUN a two-wheeled carriage with four seats for hire and pulled by a horse A hackney-cabriolet was in waiting; with the same vehemence which she had exhibited in addressing Oliver, the girl pulled him in with her, and drew the curtains close. (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)
hackney-coach NOUN a four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for hire The twilight was beginning to close in, when Mr. Brownlow alighted from a hackney-coach at his own door, and knocked softly. (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)
haggler NOUN a haggler is someone who travels from place to place selling small goods and items when I be plain Jack Durbeyfield, the haggler (Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy)
halter NOUN a halter is a rope or strap used to lead an animal or to tie it up I had of course long been used to a halter and a headstall (Black Beauty by Anna Sewell)
hamlet NOUN a hamlet is a small village or a group of houses in the countryside down from the hamlet (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
hand-barrow NOUN a hand-barrow is a device for carrying heavy objects. It is like a wheelbarrow except that it has handles, rather than wheels, for moving the barrow his sea chest following behind him in a hand-barrow (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
handspike NOUN a handspike was a stick which was used as a lever a bit of stick like a handspike (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
haply ADV haply means by chance or perhaps And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne (Ode on a Nightingale by John Keats)
harem NOUN the harem was the part of the house where the women lived mostly they hang round the harem (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
hautboys NOUN hautboys are oboes sausages and puddings resembling flutes and hautboys (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
hawker NOUN a hawker is someone who sells goods to people as he travels rather than from a fixed place like a shop to buy some stockings from a hawker (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
hawser NOUN a hawser is a rope used to tie up or tow a ship or boat Again among the tiers of shipping, in and out, avoiding rusty chain-cables, frayed hempen hawsers (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)
headstall NOUN the headstall is the part of the bridle or halter that goes around a horse’s head I had of course long been used to a halter and a headstall (Black Beauty by Anna Sewell)
hearken VERB hearken means to listen though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of each other and hearken (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
heartless ADJ here heartless means without heart or dejected I am not heartless (The Prelude by William Wordsworth)
hebdomadal ADJ hebdomadal means weekly It was the hebdomadal treat to which we all looked forward from Sabbath to Sabbath (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)
highwaymen NOUN highwaymen were people who stopped travellers and robbed them We are highwaymen (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
hinds NOUN hinds means farm hands, or people who work on a farm He called his hinds about him (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
histrionic ADJ if you refer to someone’s behaviour as histrionic, you are being critical of it because it is dramatic and exaggerated But the histrionic muse is the darling (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
hogs NOUN hogs is another word for pigs Tom called the hogs “ingots” (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
horrors NOUN the horrors are a fit, called delirium tremens, which is caused by drinking too much alcohol I’ll have the horrors (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
huffy ADJ huffy means to be obviously annoyed or offended about something They will feel that more than angry speeches or huffy actions (Little Women by Louisa May Alcott)
hulks NOUN hulks were prison-ships The miserable companion of thieves and ruffians, the fallen outcast of low haunts, the associate of the scourings of the jails and hulks (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)
humbug NOUN humbug means nonsense or rubbish “Bah,” said Scrooge. “Humbug!” (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)
humours NOUN it was believed that there were four fluids in the body called humours which decided the temperament of a person depending on how much of each fluid was present other peccant humours (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
husbandry NOUN husbandry is farming animals bad husbandry were plentifully anointing their wheels (Silas Marner by George Eliot)
huswife NOUN a huswife was a small sewing kit but I had put my huswife on it (Emma by Jane Austen)
ideal ADJ ideal in this context means imaginary I discovered the yell was not ideal (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)
If our two PHRASE if both our If our two loves be one (The Good-Morrow by John Donne)
ignis-fatuus NOUN ignis-fatuus is the light given out by burning marsh gases, which lead careless travellers into danger it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication. (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)
imaginations NOUN here imaginations means schemes or plans soon drove out those imaginations (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
impressible ADJ impressible means open or impressionable for Marner had one of those impressible, self-doubting natures (Silas Marner by George Eliot)
in good intelligence PHRASE friendly with each other that these two persons were in good intelligence with each other (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
inanity NOUN inanity is silliness or dull stupidity Do we not wile away moments of inanity (Silas Marner by George Eliot)
incivility NOUN incivility means rudeness or impoliteness if it’s only for a piece of incivility like to-night’s (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
indigenae NOUN indigenae means natives or people from that area an exotic that the surly indigenae will not recognise for kin (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)
indocible ADJ unteachable so they were the most restive and indocible (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
ingenuity NOUN inventiveness entreated me to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
ingots NOUN an ingot is a lump of a valuable metal like gold, usually shaped like a brick Tom called the hogs “ingots” (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
inkstand NOUN an inkstand is a pot which was put on a desk to contain either ink or pencils and pens throwing an inkstand at the Lizard as she spoke (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)
inordinate ADJ without order. To-day inordinate means “excessive”. Though yet untutored and inordinate (The Prelude by William Wordsworth)
intellectuals NOUN here intellectuals means the minds (of the workmen) those instructions they give being too refined for the intellectuals of their workmen (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
interview NOUN meeting By our first strange and fatal interview (On His Mistress by John Donne)
jacks NOUN jacks are rods for turning a spit over a fire It was a small bit of pork suspended from the kettle hanger by a string passed through a large door key, in a way known to primitive housekeepers unpossessed of jacks (Silas Marner by George Eliot)
jews-harp NOUN a jews-harp is a small, metal, musical instrument that is played by the mouth A jews-harp’s plenty good enough for a rat (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
jorum NOUN a large bowl while Miss Skiffins brewed such a jorum of tea, that the pig in the back premises became strongly excited (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)
jostled VERB jostled means bumped or pushed by someone or s
ome people being jostled himself into the kennel (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
keepsake NOUN a keepsake is a gift which reminds someone of an event or of the person who gave it to them. books and ornaments they had in their boudoirs at home: keepsakes that different relations had presented to them (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)
kenned VERB kenned means knew though little kenned the lamplighter that he had any company but Christmas! (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)
kennel NOUN kennel means gutter, which is the edge of a road next to the pavement, where rain water collects and flows away being jostled himself into the kennel (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
knock-knee ADJ knock-knee means slanted, at an angle. LOT 1 was marked in whitewashed knock-knee letters on the brewhouse (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)
ladylike ADJ to be ladylike is to behave in a polite, dignified and graceful way No, winking isn’t ladylike (Little Women by Louisa May Alcott)
lapse NOUN flow Stealing with silent lapse to join the brook (The Prelude by William Wordsworth)
larry NOUN larry is an old word which means commotion or noisy celebration That was all a part of the larry! (Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy)
laths NOUN laths are strips of wood The panels shrunk, the windows cracked; fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were shown instead (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)
leer NOUN a leer is an unpleasant smile with a kind of leer (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
lenitives NOUN these are different kinds of drugs or medicines: lenitives and palliatives were pain relievers; aperitives were laxatives; abstersives caused vomiting; corrosives destroyed human tissue; restringents caused constipation; cephalalgics stopped headaches; icterics were used as medicine for jaundice; apophlegmatics were cough medicine, and acoustics were cures for the loss of hearing lenitives, aperitives, abstersives, corrosives, restringents, palliatives, laxatives, cephalalgics, icterics, apophlegmatics, acoustics (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
lest CONJ in case. If you do something lest something (usually) unpleasant happens you do it to try to prevent it happening She went in without knocking, and hurried upstairs, in great fear lest she should meet the real Mary Ann (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)
levee NOUN a levee is an old term for a meeting held in the morning, shortly after the person holding the meeting has got out of bed I used to attend the King’s levee once or twice a week (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
life-preserver NOUN a club which had lead inside it to make it heavier and therefore more dangerous and with no more suspicious articles displayed to view than two or three heavy bludgeons which stood in a corner, and a “life-preserver” that hung over the chimney-piece. (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)
lighterman NOUN a lighterman is another word for sailor in and out, hammers going in ship-builders’ yards, saws going at timber, clashing engines going at things unknown, pumps going in leaky ships, capstans going, ships going out to sea, and unintelligible sea creatures roaring curses over the bulwarks at respondent lightermen (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)
livery NOUN servants often wore a uniform known as a livery suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the wood (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)
livid ADJ livid means pale or ash coloured. Livid also means very angry a dirty, livid white (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
lottery-tickets NOUN a popular card game and Mrs. Philips protested that they would have a nice comfortable noisy game of lottery tickets (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
lower and upper world PHRASE the earth and the heavens are the lower and upper worlds the changes in the lower and upper world (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
lustres NOUN lustres are chandeliers. A chandelier is a large, decorative frame which holds light bulbs or candles and hangs from the ceiling the lustres, lights, the carving and the guilding (The Prelude by William Wordsworth)
lynched VERB killed without a criminal trial by a crowd of people He’ll never know how nigh he come to getting lynched (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
malingering VERB if someone is malingering they are pretending to be ill to avoid working And you stand there malingering (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
managing PHRASE treating with consideration to think the honour of my own kind not worth managing (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
manhood PHRASE manhood means human nature concerning the nature of manhood (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
man-trap NOUN a man-trap is a set of steel jaws that snap shut when trodden on and trap a person’s leg “Don’t go to him,” I called out of the window, “he’s an assassin! A man-trap!” (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)
maps NOUN charts of the night sky Let maps to others, worlds on worlds have shown (The Good-Morrow by John Donne)
mark VERB look at or notice Mark but this flea, and mark in this (The Flea by John Donne)
maroons NOUN A maroon is someone who has been left in a place which it is difficult for them to escape from, like a small island if schooners, islands, and maroons (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
mast NOUN here mast means the fruit of forest trees a quantity of acorns, dates, chestnuts, and other mast (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)
mate VERB defeat Where Mars did mate the warlike Carthigens (Doctor Faustus Chorus by Christopher Marlowe)
mealy ADJ Mealy when used to describe a face meant pallid, pale or colourless I only know two sorts of boys. Mealy boys, and beef-faced boys (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)
middling ADV fairly or moderately she worked me middling hard for about an hour (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
mill NOUN a mill, or treadmill, was a device for hard labour or punishment in prison Was you never on the mill? (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)
milliner’s shop NOUN a milliner’s sold fabrics, clothing, lace and accessories; as time went on they specialized more and more in hats to pay their duty to their aunt and to a milliner’s shop just over the way (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
minching un’ munching PHRASE how people in the north of England used to describe the way people from the south speak Minching un’ munching! (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)
mine NOUN gold Whether both th’Indias of spice and mine (The Sun Rising by John Donne)
mire NOUN mud Tis my fate to be always ground into the mire under the iron heel of oppression (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
miscellany NOUN a miscellany is a collection of many different kinds of things under that, the miscellany began (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
mistarshers NOUN mistarshers means moustache, which is the hair that grows on a man’s upper lip when he put his hand up to his mistarshers (Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy)
morrow NOUN here good-morrow means tomorrow and a new and better life And now good-morrow to our waking souls (The Good-Morrow by John Donne)
mortification NOUN mortification is an old word for gangrene which is when part of the body decays or “dies” because of disease Yes, it was a mortification–that was it (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
mought VERB mought is an old spelling of might what you mought call me? You mought call me captain (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
move VERB move me not means do not make me angry Move me not, Faustus (Doctor Faustus 2.1 by Christopher Marlowe)
muffin-cap NOUN a muffin-cap is a flat cap made from wool the old one, remained stationary in the muffin-cap and leathers (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)
mulatter NOUN a mulatter was another word for mulatto, which is a person with parents who are from different races a mulatter, most as white as a white man (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
mummery NOUN mummery is an old word that meant meaningless (or pretentious) ceremony When they were all gone, and when Trabb and his men–but not his boy: I looked for him–had crammed their mummery into bags, and were gone too, the house felt wholesomer. (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)
nap NOUN the nap is the woolly surface on a new item of clothing. Here the surface has been worn away so it looks bare like an old hat with the nap rubbed off (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
natural NOUN a natural is a person born with learning difficulties though he had been left to his particular care by their deceased father, who thought him almost a natural. (David Copperfield by Charles Dickens) ADJ natural meant illegitimate Harriet Smith was the natural daughter of somebody (Emma by Jane Austen)
navigator NOUN a navigator was originally someone employed to dig canals. It is the origin of the word “navvy” meaning a labourer She ascertained from me in a few words what it was all about, comforted Dora, and gradually convinced her that I was not a labourer–from my manner of stating the case I believe Dora concluded that I was a navigator, and went balancing myself up and down a plank all day with a wheelbarrow–and so brought us together in peace. (David Copperfield by Charles Dickens)
necromancy NOUN necromancy means a kind of magic where the magician speaks to spirits or ghosts to find out what will happen in the future He surfeits upon cursed necromancy (Doctor Faustus chorus by Christopher Marlowe)
negus NOUN a negus is a hot drink made from sweetened wine and water He sat placidly perusing the newspaper, with his little head on one side, and a glass of warm sherry negus at his elbow. (David Copperfield by Charles Dickens)
nice ADJ discriminating. Able to make good judgements or choices consequently a claim to be nice (Emma by Jane Austen)
nigh ADV nigh means near He’ll never know how nigh he come to getting lynched (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
nimbleness NOUN nimbleness means being able to move very quickly or skilfully and with incredible accuracy and nimbleness (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)
