Act 1

1. usurp seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession EXAMPLE SENTENCE: What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak! 2. moiety

one of two basic subdivisions of a tribe EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Against the which, a moiety competent Was gaged by our king; which had return'd To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher; 3. portentous

of momentous or ominous significance EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I think it be no other but e'en so: Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; so like the king That was and is the question of these wars. 4. harbinger

something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone EXAMPLE SENTENCE: And even the like precurse of fierce events, As harbingers preceding still the fates And prologue to the omen coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climatures and countrymen.

5.

partisan

a pike with a long tapering double-edged blade with lateral projections; 16th and 17th centuries EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Shall I strike at it with my partisan? 6. hallowed

worthy of religious veneration EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. 7. auspicious

auguring favorable circumstances and good luck EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, The imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,-With an auspicious and a dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole,-Taken to wife: 8. filial

relating to or characteristic of or befitting an offspring EXAMPLE SENTENCE: 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father: But, you must know, your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound

In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow: 9. obsequious

attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner EXAMPLE SENTENCE: 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father: But, you must know, your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious stubbornness; 10. retrograde

moving or directed or tending in a backward direction or contrary to a previous direction EXAMPLE SENTENCE: For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire: And we beseech you, bend you to remain Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. 11. jocund

full of or showing high-spirited merriment EXAMPLE SENTENCE: This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. 12. discourse

extended verbal expression in speech or writing

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month: 13. truant

absent without permission EXAMPLE SENTENCE: A truant disposition, good my lord. 14. countenance

the appearance conveyed by a person's face EXAMPLE SENTENCE: A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. 15. tenable

based on sound reasoning or evidence EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I pray you all, If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still; And whatsoever else shall hap to-night, Give it an understanding, but no tongue: 16. besmirch

smear so as to make dirty or stained EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will: but you must fear, His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own; 17. prodigal

recklessly wasteful EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The chariest maid is prodigal enough, If she unmask her beauty to the moon. 18. libertine

a dissolute person; usually a man who is morally unrestrained EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede. 19. unfledged

young and inexperienced EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. 20. censure

harsh criticism or disapproval EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 21. husbandry

the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 22. parley

a negotiation between enemies

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Set your entreatments at a higher rate Than a command to parley. 23. beguile

attract; cause to be enamored EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, Not of that dye which their investments show, But mere implorators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, The better to beguile. 24. traduce

speak unfavorably about EXAMPLE SENTENCE: This heavy-headed revel east and west Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations. 25. canonize treat as a sacred person EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cerements. 26. sovereignty

royal authority; the dominion of a monarch EXAMPLE SENTENCE: What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness?

27.

adulterate

mixed with impurities EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast. 28. enmity

a state of deep-seated ill-will EXAMPLE SENTENCE: And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment; whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body. 29. pernicious

exceedingly harmful EXAMPLE SENTENCE: O most pernicious woman! 30. antic

ludicrously odd EXAMPLE SENTENCE: How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on.

Act 2

1.

assay
a quantitative or qualitative test of a substance (especially an ore or a drug) to determine its components; frequently used to test for the presence or concentration of infectious agents or antibodies etc.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, With windlasses and with assays of bias, By indirections find directions out.

2.

purport
have the often specious appearance of being, intending, or claiming

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors

3.

fetter
a shackle for the ankles or feet

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
No, my good lord, but, as you did command, I did repel his fetters and denied His access to me.

4.

entreat
ask for or request earnestly

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I entreat you both, That, being of so young days brought up with him, And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior, That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court Some little time: so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather, So much as from occasion you may glean, Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus, That, open'd, lies within our remedy.

5.

vouchsafe
grant in a condescending manner

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I entreat you both, That, being of so young days brought up with him, And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior, That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court Some little time: so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather, So much as from occasion you may glean, Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus, That, open'd, lies within our remedy.

6.

gentry
the most powerful members of a society

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

If it will please you To show us so much gentry and good will As to expend your time with us awhile, For the supply and profit of our hope, Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king's remembrance.

7.

beseech
ask for or request earnestly

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz: And I beseech you instantly to visit My too much changed son.

8.

liege
a feudal lord entitled to allegiance and service

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I assure my good liege, I hold my duty, as I hold my soul.

9.

rebuke
an act or expression of criticism and censure

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

He sends out arrests On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys; Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine Makes vow before his uncle never more To give the assay of arms against your majesty.

10.

expostulate

reason with (somebody) for the purpose of dissuasion

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.

11.

brevity

the attribute of being brief or fleeting

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.

12.

carrion

the dead and rotting body of an animal; unfit for human food

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion,

13.

contrive

make or work out a plan for; devise

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.

14.

tedious

so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
These tedious old fools!

15.

strumpet

a woman adulterer

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
O, most true; she is a strumpet.

16.

mirth

great merriment

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises.

17.

promontory

a natural elevation (especially a rocky one that juts out into the sea)

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory.

18.

firmament

the apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

19.

paragon

an ideal instance; a perfect embodiment of a concept

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!

20.

gratis

without payment

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis;

21.

sere

(used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
the adventurous knight shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' the sere;

22.

rapier

a straight sword with a narrow blade and two edges

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

these are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.

23.

ducat

formerly a gold coin of various European countries

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.

24.

appurtenance

equipment consisting of miscellaneous articles needed for a particular operation or sport etc.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward, should more appear like entertainment than yours.

25.

indict

accuse formally of a crime

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I remember, one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation; but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine.

26.

rheum

a watery discharge from the mucous membranes (especially from the eyes or nose)

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames With bisson rheum.

27.

diadem

an ornamental jeweled headdress signifying sovereignty

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
a clout upon that head Where late the diadem stood.

28.

visage

the appearance conveyed by a person's face

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,

Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wann'd.

29.

offal

viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal often considered inedible by humans

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!

30.

rogue

a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
A pestilence on him for a mad rogue!

Act 3
1.

turbulent

characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Get from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

2.

affront
treat, mention, or speak to rudely

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
We have closely sent for Hamlet hither, That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia.

3.

espial
the act of detecting something; catching sight of something

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Her father and myself, lawful espials, Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge.

4.

pious
having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

'Tis too much proved--that with devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself.

5.

calamity
an event resulting in great loss and misfortune

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life.

6.

insolence
an offensive disrespectful impudent act

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes.

7.

spurn
reject with contempt

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes.

8.

quietus
euphemisms for death (based on an analogy between lying in a bed and in a tomb)

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?

9.

bodkin
a dagger with a slender blade

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?

10.

pith

the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry.

11.

awry

away from the correct or expected course

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry.

12.

orison

reverent petition to a deity

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd.

13.

inoculate

introduce an idea or attitude into the mind of

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.

14.

knave

a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.

15.

calumny

an abusive attack on a person's character or good name

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.

16.

melancholy

a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
There's something in his soul, O'er which his melancholy sits on brood.

17.

temperance

the trait of avoiding excesses

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.

18.

termagant

a scolding nagging bad-tempered woman

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

19.

lament

express grief verbally

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her.

20.

clemency

leniency and compassion shown toward offenders by a person or agency charged with administering justice

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently.

21.

withers

the highest part of the back at the base of the neck of various animals especially draft animals

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
'tis a knavish piece of work: but what o' that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.

22.

provincial

of or associated with a province

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers--if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

23.

gambol

play boisterously

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

It is not madness That I have utter'd: bring me to the test, And I the matter will re-word; which madness Would gambol from.

24.

unction

semisolid preparation (usually containing a medicine) applied externally as a remedy or for soothing an irritation

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Mother, for love of grace, Lay not that mattering unction to your soul, That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:

25.

prate

speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Indeed this counsellor Is now most still, most secret and most grave, Who was in life a foolish prating knave.

26.

perchance

through chance, "To sleep, perchance to dream.."

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I will watch to-night; Perchance 'twill walk again.

Act 4
1.

providence
the prudence and care exercised by someone in the management of resources

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt, This mad young man.

2.

discord
lack of agreement or harmony

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
My soul is full of discord and dismay.

3.

kin
related by blood

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.

4.

scourge
whip

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
He's loved of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd, But never the offence.

5.

convocation
a group gathered in response to a summons

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him.

6.

conveyance
the act of moving something from one location to another

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras Craves the conveyance of a promised march Over his kingdom.

7.

garrison
the troops who maintain and guard a fortified place

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Yes, it is already garrison'd.

8.

bestial
resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward, I do not know Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'

9.

craven
lacking even the rudiments of courage; abjectly fearful

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward, I do not know Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'

10.

scruple

an ethical or moral principle that inhibits action

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward, I do not know Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'

11.

exhort

force or impel in an indicated direction

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Examples gross as earth exhort me.

12.

importunate

expressing earnest entreaty

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
She is importunate, indeed distract.

13.

conjecture

a hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence)

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

14.

conceit

an elaborate poetic image or a far-fetched comparison of very dissimilar things

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Conceit upon her father.

15.

inter

place in a grave or tomb

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
First, her father slain: Next, your son gone; and he most violent author Of his own just remove: the people muddied, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers, For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly, In hugger-mugger to inter him.

16.

superfluous

more than is needed, desired, or required

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

O my dear Gertrude, this, Like to a murdering-piece, in many places Gives me superfluous death.

17.

impetuous

marked by violent force

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head O'erbears your officers.

18.

riotous

characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O'erbears your officers.

19.

antiquity

the historic period preceding the Middle Ages in Europe

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

The rabble call him lord; And, as the world were now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be king:'

20.

incensed

angered at something unjust or wrong

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incensed.

21.

repast

the food served and eaten at one time

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms; And like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood.

22.

gallant

a man who is much concerned with his dress and appearance

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I've seen myself, and served against, the French, And they can well on horseback: but this gallant

Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat; And to such wondrous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured With the brave beast:

23.

abatement

an interruption in the intensity or amount of something

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
That we would do We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;

24.

remiss

failing in what duty requires

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
He, being remiss, Most generous and free from all contriving, Will not peruse the foils.

25.

mountebank

a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratch'd withal

Act 5
1.

heathen
a person who does not acknowledge your god

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
What, art a heathen?

2.

mason
a craftsman who works with stone or brick

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

3.

indenture

a concave cut into a surface or edge (as in a coastline)

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures?

4.

pestilence
a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once.

5.

flagon
a large metal or pottery vessel with a handle and spout; used to hold alcoholic beverages (usually wine)

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once.

6.

abhor
find repugnant

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!

7.

gibe
an aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?

8.

imperious
having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.

9.

betoken
be a signal for or a symptom of

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
This doth betoken The corse they follow did with desperate hand Fordo its own life.

10.

profane

violate the sacred character of a place or language

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
We should profane the service of the dead To sing a requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls.

11.

requiem

a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
We should profane the service of the dead To sing a requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls.

12.

churlish

having a bad disposition; surly

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering angel shall my sister be, When thou liest howling.

13.

asunder

widely separated especially in space

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Pluck them asunder.

14.

yeoman

officer in the (ceremonial) bodyguard of the British monarch

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair and labour'd much How to forget that learning, but, sir, now It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know The effect of what I wrote?

15.

tributary

paying tribute

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
An earnest conjuration from the king, As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm might flourish

16.

amity

a state of friendship and cordiality

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear And stand a comma 'tween their amities, And many such-like 'As'es of great charge

17.

changeling

a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I had my father's signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal; Folded the writ up in form of the other, Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely, The changeling never known.

18.

insinuation

the act of gaining acceptance or affection for yourself by persuasive and subtle blandishments

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Why, man, they did make love to this employment; They are not near my conscience; their defeat Does by their own insinuation grow:

19.

canker

a pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
And is't not to be damn'd, To let this canker of our nature come In further evil?

20.

perdition

(Christianity) the abode of Satan and the forces of evil; where sinners suffer eternal punishment

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail.

21.

umbrage

a feeling of anger caused by being offended

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

22.

infallible

incapable of failure or error

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

23.

imputation

a statement attributing something dishonest (especially a criminal offense)

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.

24.

edify

make understand

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

25.

augury

an event that is experienced as indicating important things to come

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

26.

foil

anything that serves by contrast to call attention to another thing's good qualities

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed

27.

palpable

capable of being perceived; especially capable of being handled or touched or felt

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
A hit, a very palpable hit.

28.

carouse

engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.

29.

felicity

state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story.

30.

havoc

violent and needless disturbance

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast struck?