- aitsnounChapter 1 →
Small islands in a river, typically low-lying and covered with grass or reeds. Dickens uses the word to describe the natural scenery along the Thames.
“Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping”
- defiledverbChapter 1 →
Made dirty or polluted; corrupted and fouled by contact with filth. Here it describes the fog rolling through the grimy, industrial riverside.
“fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty…”
- blightedadjectiveChapter 1 →
Ruined, damaged, or made worthless — as if struck by a disease or blight. The Court of Chancery is said to have left lands in this ruined condition.
“which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in every shire; which has its worn-out lunatic in every madhouse”
- hoaryadjectiveChapter 1 →
Very old and long-established, often with a sense of something ancient and disreputable. Used here to describe Chancery as an ancient, corrupt institution.
“this High Court of Chancery, most pestilent of hoary sinners”
- pestilentadjectiveChapter 1 →
Deeply harmful and morally corrupting, like a plague or disease spreading through society. Dickens uses it to condemn Chancery as a destructive force.
“this High Court of Chancery, most pestilent of hoary sinners”
- mirenounChapter 1 →
Deep, sticky mud or swampy ground that traps and slows everything in it. Used both literally for London's muddy streets and as a symbol of Chancery's entangling corruption.
“Never can there come fog too thick, never can there come mud and mire too deep, to assort with the groping and floundering condition”
- assort withphraseChapter 1 →
To match, suit, or be in keeping with something else. Dickens means that no amount of fog or mud could be too extreme to fit the wretched state of Chancery.
“never can there come mud and mire too deep, to assort with the groping and floundering condition which this High Court of Chancery”
- sappedverbChapter 2 →
Gradually undermined or weakened from below, as water erodes the foundation of a structure. Here it describes how floodwater has eaten away at the base of a bridge arch.
“An arch of the bridge in the park has been sapped and sopped away”
- goutnounChapter 2 →
A painful disease causing swelling and inflammation in the joints, especially the feet, associated in the Victorian era with wealthy older men. Sir Leicester suffers occasional attacks of it.
“He has a twist of the gout now and then, and walks a li…”
- well-bredadjectiveChapter 2 →
Having the polished manners and composed behaviour expected of the upper classes; raised to behave with perfect social propriety. Applied to Lady Dedlock to emphasise her cold, aristocratic self-control.
“She is perfectly well-bred. If she could be translated to Heaven to-morrow, she might be expected to ascend without any rapture.”
- rapturenounChapter 2 →
Intense joy or ecstatic delight. The joke is that Lady Dedlock is so emotionally controlled she would feel no excitement even at entering Heaven.
“If she could be translated to Heaven to-morrow, she might be expected to ascend without any rapture.”
- noticing wayphraseChapter 3 →
A habit of quietly observing and taking careful note of everything around one, without drawing attention to oneself. Esther uses it to describe her own watchful, reflective nature.
“I had always rather a noticing way — not a quick way, O no! — a silent way of noticing what passed before me”
- disgracenounChapter 3 →
A condition of shame and social dishonour brought on by behaviour considered scandalous. Here it refers to Esther's illegitimate birth, which her aunt treats as a source of permanent shame.
“Your mother, Esther, is your disgrace, and you were hers.”
- drudgenounChapter 4 →
A person forced to do hard, tedious, or menial work with little reward or recognition. Used here as a self-pitying complaint about being treated as a servant.
“I am a slave. I am a donkey. I am a drudge.”
- crossingnounChapter 5 →
A designated spot where pedestrians cross a muddy or busy street, kept swept clean by a crossing-sweeper in exchange for small tips. Jo earns his living this way.
“He knows that it's hard to keep the mud off the crossing in dirty weather, and harder still to live by keeping it off.”
- arrested for debtphraseChapter 6 →
Taken into legal custody because one owes money one cannot pay. In Victorian England, debtors could be imprisoned until their debts were settled or discharged.
“I am the most unfortunate dog. I have been arrested for debt this morning.”
- ChancerynounChapter 1 →
A division of the English court system that handled disputes over wills, estates, and trusts. In this novel it is portrayed as a slow, ruinously expensive institution that destroys the people caught up in its cases.
“This is the Court of Chancery; which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in every shire”
- law-writernounChapter 10 →
A person employed to copy out legal documents by hand for a fee. Before typewriters, such copyists were essential to the legal trade but were poorly paid and low in status.
- pestiferousadjectiveChapter 12 →
Carrying disease and moral corruption; dangerously foul and contaminating. Used to describe the filthy slum neighbourhood around the pauper burial ground.
“She stands there in the pestiferous and obscene neighbourhood... with her face toward the place of burial.”
- obsceneadjectiveChapter 12 →
Morally offensive and disgusting, shocking to any decent person. Here it describes the degraded, filthy conditions of the slum, not anything sexual.
“She stands there in the pestiferous and obscene neighbourhood... with her face toward the place of burial.”
- paupernounChapter 11 →
A person so desperately poor that they depend on public charity or the parish for basic survival. A pauper burial ground is a cheap, often overcrowded cemetery for the destitute.
- abominationnounChapter 11 →
Something regarded as utterly disgusting, morally repellent, and deeply offensive. Dickens uses it to condemn the wretched state of the pauper burial ground.
“Into a beastly scrap of ground which a Turk would reject as a savage abomination and a Caffre would shudder at”
- shirenounChapter 1 →
A county or administrative region of England. Dickens uses the word to stress that Chancery's ruinous reach extends across the entire country.
“which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in every shire; which has its worn-out lunatic in every madhouse”
- deportmentnounChapter 14 →
The way a person holds and carries themselves — their posture, bearing, and social manners. In Chapter 14, Mr. Turveydrop treats it as a high art and the most important quality a person can possess.
- flounderingverbChapter 1 →
Struggling helplessly and without direction, like someone thrashing in deep mud or water. Dickens applies it to the confused, directionless state of those trapped in Chancery.
“never can there come mud and mire too deep, to assort with the groping and floundering condition which this High Court of Chancery”
- solicitornounChapter 24 →
A type of lawyer in the English legal system who advises clients, prepares legal documents, and manages cases, as opposed to a barrister who argues in court. Vholes is Richard Carstone's solicitor in the Chancery suit.
- spontaneous combustionphraseChapter 25 →
The supposed phenomenon of a human body catching fire and burning from within, without any external flame. Dickens uses it as the dramatic cause of Krook's death in Chapter 25.
Bleak HouseNovel by Charles Dickens