- grim about the mouthphraseChapter 1 →
Having a tight, joyless expression that signals a dark or bitter mood; here used to describe the narrator's inner state of gloom and restlessness that drives him toward the sea.
“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul...”
- counterpanenounChapter 3 →
A bedspread or quilt laid over the top of a bed; a decorative or practical covering used on top of other bedding.
“Throwing aside the counterpane, there lay the tomahawk sleeping by the savage's side, as if it were a hatchet-faced baby.”
- squitchyadjectiveChapter 2 →
Soft, wet, and yielding underfoot, like waterlogged ground; used here to describe the unpleasant, muddy quality of a painting in the inn.
“A boggy, soggy, squitchy picture truly, enough to drive a nervous man distracted.”
- grapnelsnounChapter 2 →
Small hooked anchors or grappling hooks used to probe or drag the bottom of something; used here as a metaphor for searching one's pockets for money.
“With anxious grapnels I had sounded my pocket, and only brought up a few pieces of silver.”
- soundedverbChapter 2 →
To measure the depth of something by lowering a weighted line; here used figuratively to mean searching the depths of one's pocket for coins.
“With anxious grapnels I had sounded my pocket, and only brought up a few pieces of silver.”
- cannibalnounChapter 2 →
A person who eats human flesh; used here without literal horror but as a blunt label for Queequeg, contrasted favorably with a drunken Christian to make a point about true character.
“Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”
- apparelledverbChapter 4 →
Dressed or decorated; used here to describe the way the ship was adorned and outfitted, as if clothed in exotic, barbaric finery.
“She was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, his neck heavy with pendants of polished ivory.”
- barbaricadjectiveChapter 4 →
Wildly ornate and foreign-looking, belonging to a culture outside the familiar Western world; used here admiringly to suggest fierce, exotic splendor rather than cruelty.
“She was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, his neck heavy with pendants of polished ivory.”
- terraqueousadjectiveChapter 4 →
Made up of both land and water; a formal, old-fashioned word for the earth's surface as a mixture of sea and dry ground.
“Two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's.”
- ManxmannounChapter 5 →
A man from the Isle of Man, a small island between Britain and Ireland; on the Pequod he is an old, experienced sailor associated with prophecy and sea lore.
“And there she blew! there she blew! — the old Manxman's cry, though not yet in earnest, seemed already to be heard in the hollow of that bitter Christmas wind.”
- starboard flukephraseChapter 6 →
The right-side lobe of a whale's tail; the fluke is either of the two flat, horizontal lobes that make up the tail, and starboard means the right side when facing forward.
“Whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke — look ye, w…”
- raisesverbChapter 6 →
To sight or spot something at sea; a nautical term meaning to bring something into view by sailing close enough to see it, used here for spotting the white whale.
“Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw...”
- quarter-decknounChapter 6 →
The rear upper deck of a sailing ship, traditionally reserved for officers and the captain; the place of command and authority on board.
- blasphemousadjectiveChapter 13 →
Showing disrespect or contempt toward God or sacred things; here used to describe the act of seeking personal revenge as a violation of divine order.
“Vengeance on a dumb brute! that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous.”
- cetologynounChapter 7 →
The branch of zoology that studies whales and other large sea mammals; Ishmael uses it to organize an elaborate, mock-scientific classification of whale species.
- infalliblyadverbChapter 7 →
Without any possibility of being wrong; certainly and inevitably, with no exceptions allowed.
“I promise nothing complete; because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that very reason infallibly be faulty.”
- appalledverbChapter 8 →
Filled with shock, dread, or horror; here describing the deep, almost supernatural terror that the whale's whiteness produces in the narrator.
“It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me.”
- indefinitenessnounChapter 8 →
The quality of having no clear boundaries, shape, or meaning; here used to explain why whiteness is frightening — it suggests a vast, formless emptiness rather than anything definite.
“Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe...”
- annihilationnounChapter 8 →
Complete destruction or total non-existence; the terrifying idea that everything, including the self, could simply cease to be.
“...and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation?”
- atheismnounChapter 8 →
The absence of belief in any god; used here not as a philosophical position but as an image of cold, empty nothingness — a universe with no divine presence or meaning.
“…a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink.”
- ciphernounChapter 9 →
A zero; something that has no value or meaning whatsoever. Here it means the world would be utterly meaningless if things contained no hidden significance.
“And some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher.”
- outlandishadjectiveChapter 10 →
Strangely foreign or bizarre, beyond what seems natural or normal; here used to describe the odd, almost grotesque irony of a man eating a whale by the light the whale itself provides.
“...this seems so outlandish a thing that one must needs go a little into the …”
- gamnounChapter 11 →
A social meeting between two or more whaling ships at sea, during which crews exchange news, letters, and company; a term specific to the whaling industry.
“The word GAM is of uncertain origin; but it seems to have been used by whalemen to mean a social meeting of two (or more) whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground.”
- congenialitiesnounChapter 11 →
Feelings of natural friendliness and compatibility that arise from shared interests or experiences; here referring to the special bond whalemen feel because they share the same dangerous work.
“...likewise with all the peculiar congenialities arising from a common pursuit and mutually shared privations and perils.”
- privationsnounChapter 11 →
Hardships caused by the lack of basic comforts or necessities; the suffering and deprivation endured during a long whaling voyage far from home.
“...mutually shared privations and perils.”
- smoteverbChapter 13 →
Past tense of 'smite': to strike hard; here meaning the whale hit or wounded Ahab not out of malice but purely by blind animal instinct.
“Vengeance on a dumb brute! that simply smote thee from blindest instinct!”
- pasteboard masksphraseChapter 13 →
Thin, flimsy coverings made of cardboard; used here as a metaphor for the visible surface of all things, which Ahab believes hides a deeper, possibly malevolent reality underneath.
“Hark ye yet again — the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks.”
- dumb brutephraseChapter 13 →
A creature that cannot speak or reason; an animal acting purely on instinct, with no conscious intent or moral awareness. Starbuck uses it to argue that the whale cannot be guilty of wrongdoing.
“Vengeance on a dumb brute! that simply smote thee from blindest instinct!”
- doubloonnounChapter 6 →
A large gold coin originally from Spain or Spanish America; Ahab nails one to the mast as a reward for whoever first spots the white whale.
Moby-DickNovel by Herman Melville