- foretopmannounChapter 1 →
A sailor assigned to work in the foretop, the platform near the top of the ship's foremast, handling the sails and rigging at that height.
- impressedverbChapter 1 →
Forcibly taken from one ship or civilian life and compelled to serve in the Royal Navy against one's will, a common practice in 18th-century Britain.
- urbaneadjectiveChapter 1 →
Smoothly polished and sophisticated in manner, used here to describe the Serpent's cunning social charm as something deceptively refined.
“much such perhaps as Adam presumably might have been ere the urbane Serpent wriggled himself into his company.”
- ereadverbChapter 1 →
An old-fashioned word meaning 'before,' used in literary or poetic writing to indicate something that happened at an earlier time.
“much such perhaps as Adam presumably might have been ere the urbane Serpent wriggled himself into his company.”
- barbariannounChapter 1 →
Here, a person who is naturally innocent and uncivilized in the sense of being untouched by corrupt social refinement, not savage or cruel.
“Billy in many respects was little more than a sort of upright barbarian”
- bypathsnounChapter 1 →
Side routes or digressions away from the main subject of a story or argument; tangents that a writer is tempted to follow.
“In this matter of writing, resolve as one may to keep to the main road, some bypaths have an enticement not readily to be withstood.”
- enticementnounChapter 1 →
A tempting attraction that draws someone away from their intended path or purpose, something hard to resist even when one tries.
“some bypaths have an enticement not readily to be withstood.”
- master-at-armsnounChapter 2 →
A senior petty officer on a warship responsible for maintaining discipline, enforcing rules, and overseeing the ship's police functions.
- antipathynounChapter 2 →
A deep, instinctive feeling of dislike or hostility toward someone, stronger than ordinary dislike and not easily explained by reason.
“Now envy and antipathy, passions irreconcilable in reason, nevertheless in fact may spring conjoined like Chang and Eng in one birth.”
- irreconcilableadjectiveChapter 2 →
Impossible to make compatible or consistent with each other; two things so opposed that logic cannot bring them together.
“Now envy and antipathy, passions irreconcilable in reason, nevertheless in fact may spring conjoined like Chang and Eng in one birth.”
- conjoinedadjectiveChapter 2 →
Joined together and existing at the same time in the same person, as if fused into a single thing despite being distinct.
“nevertheless in fact may spring conjoined like Chang and Eng in one birth.”
- annulverbChapter 2 →
To cancel, destroy, or make something cease to exist entirely; here, to wipe out or eliminate an inborn evil quality.
“With no power to annul the elemental evil in him, though readily enough he could hide it”
- elementaladjectiveChapter 2 →
Existing as a raw, primitive force of nature, fundamental and inborn rather than learned or acquired through experience.
“With no power to annul the elemental evil in him, though readily enough he could hide it”
- apprehendingverbChapter 2 →
Perceiving and understanding something intellectually, grasping its nature mentally without being able to act on or embody that understanding.
“apprehending the good, but powerless to be it”
- irenounChapter 2 →
Intense anger or wrath; a formal, literary word for a fierce, burning rage.
“Pale ire, envy and despair.”
- recoursenounChapter 2 →
A source of help or a course of action turned to when other options are unavailable; the only option left when everything else is impossible.
“what recourse is left to it but to …”
- drumhead courtnounChapter 3 →
A hasty military trial held in the field or at sea without full legal procedure, named for the drum used as an improvised table.
- mutinynounChapter 3 →
An open rebellion by sailors or soldiers against the authority of their commanding officers, a capital offense under naval law.
- free agentsphraseChapter 3 →
People who are free to act according to their own personal conscience and judgment, without being bound by an external authority or code.
“In receiving our commissions we in the most important regards ceased to be natural free agents.”
- commissionsnounChapter 3 →
Official authorizations granting naval officers their rank and legal authority, which also bind them to obey military law above personal morality.
“In receiving our commissions we in the most important regards ceased to be natural free agents.”
- yardarmnounChapter 3 →
Either of the outer ends of a horizontal spar (yard) attached to a ship's mast, from which a condemned sailor could be hanged.
- sparnounChapter 3 →
A strong pole of wood used as part of a ship's rigging to support the sails; here, the one from which Billy was hanged becomes a revered object.
- elegiacadjectiveChapter 3 →
Expressing mournful, tender sorrow for something or someone lost; having the tone of a lament for the dead.
- darbiesnounChapter 3 →
An old slang term for handcuffs or iron shackles used to restrain a prisoner, used here in the title of the closing ballad.
“Billy in the Darbies”
Billy Budd, SailorNovella by Herman Melville