- stepping-placesnounChapter 1 →
Flat stones or raised spots placed in a marshy or flooded area so a person can walk across without sinking into the wet ground.
“picking his way with his sore feet among the great stones dropped into the marshes here and there, for stepping-places when the rains were heavy or the tide was in.”
- gibbet-stationnounChapter 2 →
A spot where a gibbet stood — a wooden post with an arm from which the bodies of executed criminals were hung in chains as a public warning.
“Hulks; a ghostly pirate calling out to me through a speaking-trumpet, as I passed the gibbet-station, that I had better come ashore and be hanged there at once, and not”
- imprecationsnounChapter 3 →
Spoken curses or angry, bitter words calling down harm on someone or something; here, muttered oaths of frustration.
“The last I saw of him, his head was bent over his knee and he was working hard at his fetter, muttering impatient imprecations at it and at his leg.”
- interpositionnounChapter 5 →
The act of stepping in between two parties to prevent something from happening; physical intervention that stops a confrontation.
“At that point, my convict became so frantically exasperated, that he would have rushed upon him but for the interposition of the soldiers.”
- contumaciouslyadverbChapter 4 →
In a stubbornly defiant or rebellious way, refusing to comply with what is expected or demanded of one.
“had tumbled into, and all the injuries I had done myself, and all the times she had wished me in my grave, and I had contumaciously refused to go there.”
- excommunicatedverbChapter 6 →
Formally expelled or shut out from a group or community; here used loosely to mean he would have banned or cast out the whole party.
“knocked up, was in such a very bad temper that if the Church had been thrown open, he would probably have excommunicated the whole expedition, beginning with Joe and myself.”
- counteractionnounChapter 8 →
Something done to oppose or cancel out a harmful effect; a remedy or corrective response to a bad influence.
“cried, I kicked the wall, and took a hard twist at my hair; so bitter were my feelings, and so sharp was the smart without a name, that needed counteraction.”
- circumstantialadjectiveChapter 6 →
Describing evidence that does not directly prove guilt but strongly suggests it through a chain of related facts and details.
“that when his coat was taken off to be dried at the kitchen fire, the circumstantial evidence on his trousers would have hanged him, if it had been a capital”
- hail-fellow-well-metphraseChapter 19 →
Describing a manner that is loudly and instantly friendly in a way that feels forced or overly familiar rather than genuinely warm.
“Trabb, in a hail-fellow-well-met kind of way.”
- sticking-plasternounChapter 13 →
An adhesive bandage or strip of sticky material used to cover a wound; here used as a metaphor for something cheap and makeshift.
“or going to sleep, or writing, or reading the newspapers,—and with some shining black portraits on the walls, which my unartistic eye regarded as a composition of hardbake and sticking-plaster.”
- turnpike-keepernounChapter 18 →
A person employed to operate a toll gate on a road, collecting fees from travellers before allowing them to pass.
“in pointed imitation of our local practitioner; and he piped and shook, as the aged turnpike-keeper who had heard blows, to an extent so very paralytic as to suggest a”
- hand-portmanteaunounChapter 19 →
A small travelling bag or case, carried by hand, used to hold clothes and personal items when journeying away from home.
“I was to leave our village at five in the morning, carrying my little hand-portmanteau, and I had told Joe that I wished to walk away all alone.”
- tobacco-stoppersnounChapter 25 →
Small carved tools used to press down and tamp the tobacco in a pipe bowl; here displayed as decorative or sentimental objects.
“These were agreeably dispersed among small specimens of china and glass, various neat trifles made by the proprietor of the museum, and some tobacco-stoppers carved by the Aged.”
- dispositionsnounChapter 26 →
The natural tendencies or weakest points of a person's character — the parts of one's personality most easily exploited or exposed.
“Dinner went off gayly, and although my guardian seemed to follow rather than originate subjects, I knew that he wrenched the weakest part of our dispositions out of us.”
- architectooralooraladjectiveChapter 27 →
Joe's comically mangled pronunciation of 'architectural,' meaning relating to the design or structure of a building; used humorously to show his lack of education.
“it come up to its likeness in the red bills at the shop doors; which I meantersay,” added Joe, in an explanatory manner, “as it is there drawd too architectooralooral.”
- plenipotentiarynounChapter 47 →
An official given full authority to represent a government or powerful body and act on its behalf; here used mockingly of a theatrical character.
“never been heard of before) coming in with a star and garter on, as a plenipotentiary of great power direct from the Admiralty, to say that the Swabs were all”
- superscriptionnounChapter 44 →
Words written on the outside or top of a letter or package, typically the address or a special instruction to the recipient.
“It was directed to Philip Pip, Esquire, and on the top of the superscription were the words, “PLEASE READ THIS, HERE.””
- ballast-lightersnounChapter 54 →
Flat-bottomed river barges used to carry ballast — heavy material like gravel or stone — typically to stabilise larger ships.
“headed; and the last green barge, straw-laden, with a brown sail, had followed; and some ballast-lighters, shaped like a child’s first rude imitation of a boat, lay low in the”
- hackney-chariotnounChapter 52 →
A horse-drawn carriage available for hire to the public, the Victorian equivalent of a taxi cab.
“If I had taken a hackney-chariot and gone by the streets, I should have missed my aim; going as I did, I caught the coach just as it came out”
- coasting-tradersnounChapter 54 →
Small cargo vessels that sail along the coastline from port to port, carrying goods over short distances rather than making ocean voyages.
“Of barges, sailing colliers, and coasting-traders, there were perhaps, as many as now; but of steam-ships, great and small, not a tithe or a twentieth part so many.”
- irreconcilabilitynounChapter 32 →
The state of two things being so opposed to each other that they cannot be made to fit together or exist at the same time.
“I had so much time to spare, that the proposal came as a relief, notwithstanding its irreconcilability with my latent desire to keep my eye on the coach-office.”
- compassionatingverbChapter 49 →
Feeling or showing deep pity and sorrow for someone who is suffering; regarding another person with sympathetic grief.
“As I stood compassionating her, and thinking how, in the progress of time, I too had come to be a part of the wrecked fortunes of that house, her eyes”
- stumbling-blocknounChapter 57 →
An obstacle or difficulty that causes someone to make mistakes or fail to progress; here a word whose spelling trips up the writer.
“Occasionally, he was tripped up by some orthographical stumbling-block; but on the whole he got on very well indeed; and when he had signed his name, and had removed a”
Great ExpectationsNovel by Charles Dickens