- manifestationsnounChapter 1 →
Outward signs or displays of a feeling or quality; visible expressions of something that might otherwise stay hidden inside a person.
“chord within that tells me it is nothing of the sort: I know, by instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling—to manifestations of mutual kindliness.”
- inhospitalitynounChapter 2 →
The quality of being unwelcoming and unfriendly to guests; a deliberate refusal to offer the basic courtesy expected of a host.
“I ejaculated, mentally, “you deserve perpetual isolation from your species for your churlish inhospitality.”
- preposterouslyadverbChapter 3 →
In a way that is absurdly unreasonable or contrary to common sense; used here to describe an action done to a ridiculous extreme.
“Seventy times seven times have I plucked up my hat and been about to depart—Seventy times seven times have you preposterously forced me to resume my seat.”
- liver-colouredadjectiveChapter 1 →
Dark reddish-brown in colour, like the organ; used to describe the coat of a dog.
“In an arch under the dresser reposed a huge, liver-coloured bitch pointer, surrounded by a swarm of squealing puppies; and other dogs haunted other recesses.”
- coal-scuttlesnounChapter 2 →
Metal buckets or containers kept near a fireplace and used to hold and carry lumps of coal for the fire.
“stepping into the room, I saw a servant-girl on her knees surrounded by brushes and coal-scuttles, and raising an infernal dust as she extinguished the flames with heaps of cinders.”
- clothes-pressnounChapter 3 →
A large piece of bedroom furniture, similar to a wardrobe or chest, used for storing folded clothes and linens.
“The whole furniture consisted of a chair, a clothes-press, and a large oak case, with squares cut out near the top resembling coach windows.”
- excommunicatedverbChapter 3 →
Officially expelled from a church and banned from taking part in its sacraments or community as a punishment for wrongdoing.
“Jabez Branderham preach, from the text—“Seventy Times Seven;” and either Joseph, the preacher, or I had committed the “First of the Seventy-First,” and were to be publicly exposed and excommunicated.”
- weather-cocksnounChapter 4 →
Weathervanes — devices mounted on a roof that spin to show which way the wind blows; used here figuratively for people who change their minds or feelings with every shift of circumstance.
“What vain weather-cocks we are!”
- close-handedadjectiveChapter 4 →
Unwilling to spend or give money; miserly and tight-fisted in financial dealings.
“yes, he’s rich enough to live in a finer house than this: but he’s very near—close-handed; and, if he had meant to flit to Thrushcross Grange, as soon as he”
- provincialismsnounChapter 7 →
Words, phrases, or pronunciations belonging to a particular region rather than standard educated speech; local dialect features that mark a speaker as coming from the country.
“Excepting a few provincialisms of slight consequence, you have no marks of the manners which I am habituated to consider as peculiar to your class.”
- out-and-outernounChapter 6 →
An informal period term for someone who is a thorough, through-and-through example of a type — here used by a character to mean a person who looks every inch a rogue or ruffian.
“Skulker has caught a little girl, sir,’ he replied; ‘and there’s a lad here,’ he added, making a clutch at me, ‘who looks an out-and-outer!”
- foster-sisternounChapter 8 →
A girl who was nursed and raised by the same woman as another child, though not related by blood; they share a wet-nurse or foster-mother.
“I had not the heart to leave my charge; and besides, you know, I had been his foster-sister, and excused his behaviour more readily than a stranger would.”
- fowling-piecenounChapter 8 →
A light gun used for shooting wild birds; a type of shotgun common in the nineteenth century.
“I went to hide little Hareton, and to take the shot out of the master’s fowling-piece, which he was fond of playing with in his insane excitement, to the hazard”
- justice-meetingnounChapter 10 →
A local magistrates' court session, held periodically in a nearby town, at which justices of the peace dealt with minor legal and administrative matters.
“The day after, there was a justice-meeting at the next town; my master was obliged to attend; and Mr.”
- self-complacentadjectiveChapter 10 →
Smugly satisfied with oneself and one's own qualities or actions; uncritically pleased with how one has behaved.
“In this self-complacent conviction she departed; and the success of her fulfilled resolution was obvious on the morrow: Mr.”
- pertinaciouslyadverbChapter 12 →
With stubborn, unyielding persistence; holding to a course of action or attitude in a way that refuses to give in.
“would come of her own accord to ask pardon, and seek a reconciliation—and she fasted pertinaciously, under the idea, probably, that at every meal Edgar was ready to choke for”
- misanthropicaladjectiveChapter 13 →
Showing a deep dislike or distrust of people in general; withdrawn and hostile toward human company.
“his hands in his pockets, apparently quite forgetting my presence; and his abstraction was evidently so deep, and his whole aspect so misanthropical, that I shrank from disturbing him again.”
- intercommunicationnounChapter 14 →
Regular contact and exchange between two households or groups of people; the ongoing communication that keeps a relationship going.
“for the grief you have occasioned; but he thinks that after this time his household and the household here should drop intercommunication, as nothing could come of keeping it up.”
- scintillatingadjectiveChapter 15 →
Flashing or sparkling with fierce light; here describing an eye that glitters with intense, almost feverish energy.
“present countenance had a wild vindictiveness in its white cheek, and a bloodless lip and scintillating eye; and she retained in her closed fingers a portion of the locks she”
- vindictivenessnounChapter 15 →
A fierce desire to hurt or punish someone in revenge; a bitter, unforgiving urge to pay back a wrong.
“Her present countenance had a wild vindictiveness in its white cheek, and a bloodless lip and scintillating eye; and she retained in her closed fingers a portion of the locks”
- sanctimoniousadjectiveChapter 19 →
Making an exaggerated show of being morally superior or piously virtuous; self-righteously disapproving in a way that feels hollow or hypocritical.
“He was donned in his Sunday garments, with his most sanctimonious and sourest face, and, holding his hat in one hand, and his stick in the other, he proceeded to”
- importunatelyadverbChapter 28 →
In a persistent, pressing way that will not be ignored; knocking or asking repeatedly and urgently without stopping.
“it is Green,” I said, recollecting myself—“only Green,” and I went on, intending to send somebody else to open it; but the knock was repeated: not loud, and still importunately.”
- hairbreadthsnounChapter 29 →
Extremely tiny fractions of distance, originally the breadth of a single hair; used here to mean the smallest possible gradual steps toward death.
“It was a strange way of killing: not by inches, but by fractions of hairbreadths, to beguile me with the spectre of a hope through eighteen years!”
- foregatheredverbChapter 30 →
Met by chance or came together informally in a place; an older or dialect word for happening to encounter someone.
“had a long talk with Zillah about six weeks ago, a little before you came, one day when we foregathered on the moor; and this is what she told me.”
- malappropriatedverbChapter 32 →
Picked up or used the wrong object through mistake; took something for a purpose it was not meant for, confusing it with the right tool.
“best; though she thrust the hearth-brush into the grates in mistake for the poker, and malappropriated several other articles of her craft: but I retired, confiding in her energy for”
- misanthropistsnounChapter 31 →
People who have a general hatred or deep distrust of other human beings and prefer to avoid their company.
“Living among clowns and misanthropists, she probably cannot appreciate a better class of people when she meets them.”
- denominationnounChapter 34 →
A particular branch or sect of the Christian church; here used to mean that any church affiliation will do, with no preference for one over another.
“Could it be hurtful to send for some one—some minister of any denomination, it does not matter which—to explain it, and show you how very far you have erred from”
Wuthering HeightsNovel by Emily Brontë