Billy Bud, SailorHerman Melville

Interactive DictionaryBy: Shea Przywieczerski

Demur Pallid

Shrewd

Erectness

Twain

Disquietude

Mania

Incog.

Reiteration

Bulwarks

20

1819

Yeoman

27

26

25

Visage

22

23

28

24

31

32

30

33

34

21

29

Austerity

Clerical

Dubieties

WizenedAnnul

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35

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Demur

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Sentence:To the surprise of the ships company, though much to the lieutenants satisfaction, Billy made no demur.

Pg. 6

Definition:the act of making objection.

Part of Speech:Noun

Pallid

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Sentence:On Claggart’s always pallid complexion, thick black blood was now oozing from nostril and ear.

Pg. 83

Definition:pale; faint or deficient in color

Part of Speech:Adjective

Shrewd

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Sentence:Yes, shrewd ones may so think.

Pg. 69

Definition:Bad, malicious.

Part of Speech:Adjective

Erectness

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Sentence:Regaining erectness, Captain Vere with one hand covering his face stood to all appearance as impassive as the object at his feet.

Pg. 82

Definition:Upright in position or posture

Part of Speech:Adjective

Twain

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Sentence:The twain raised the felled one from the loins up into a sitting position.

Pg. 82Definition:Two

Part of Speech: Noun

Disquietude

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Sentence:Full of disquietude and misgiving, the surgeon left the cabin.

Pg. 85Definition:Uneasiness.

Part of Speech: Noun

Mania

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Sentence:Now something such an one was Claggart, in whom was the mania of an evil nature, engendered by vicious trading or corrupting books or licentious living, but born with him innate, in short “a depravity according to nature.”

Pg. 49Definition:mental illness marked by periods of great excitement, euphoria, delusions, and over activity.

Part of Speech: Noun

Incog.

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Sentence:But his general aspect and manner were so suggestive of an education and career incongruous with his naval function that when not actively engaged in it he looked like a man of high quality, social and moral, who for reasons of his own he was keeping incog.

Pg. 33Definition:short for incognito- having one's true identity concealedPart of Speech: Adverb

Reiteration

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Sentence:Such reiteration , along with the manner of iy, incomprehensible to a novice, disturbed Billy almost as much as the mystery for which he had sought explanation.

Pg. 42Definition:To say or do again or repeatedly

Part of Speech: Verb

Bulwarks

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Sentence:; the twain, silent for the most part, sitting together on the deck, their heads propped against the bulwarks.

Pg. 62

Definition:Any protection against external danger, injury, or annoyance

Part of Speech: Noun

Austerity

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Sentence:The spirit that ‘spite its philosophic austerity may yet have indulged in the most secret of passion, ambitions, never attained to the fullness of fame.

Pg. 123Definition:Severe in manner or appearance

Part of Speech: Adjective

Visage

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Sentence:Pinching and shriveling the visage into the momentary semblance of a wrinkled walnut.

Pg. 67Definition: A person’s face.

Part of Speech: Noun

Wizened

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Sentence:His wizened face, time-tined and weather-stained to the complexion of an antique parchment, was here and there peppered blue by the chance explosion of a gun cartridge in action.

Pg. 40Definition: To have become dry, shrunken, and wrinkled often as a result of aging or of failing vitality.

Part of Speech: Adjective

Annul

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Sentence:With no power to annul the element evil in him, though readily enough he could hide it;Pg. 52

Definition:To say officially that something is no longer valid

Part of Speech: Transitive verb

Planets:

Dubieties

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Sentence:Yet now as to Claggart and what was really going on in him his feeling partook less of intuitional convection than of strong suspicion clogged by strange dubieties.

Pg. 77Definition:A usually hesitant uncertain or dought that tends to cause vacillation.

Part of Speech: Noun

Clerical

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Sentence:And this sailor way of taking clerical discourse is not wholly unlike the way in which the primer of Christianity, full of transcendent miracles, was received long ago on tropic isles by any superior savage, so called---a Tahitian, say of Captain Cook’s time or shortly after that time.

Pg. 111Definition: Of or relating to members of the clergy.

Part of Speech: Adjective

Yeoman

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Sentence:Never did it occur to Billy as a thing to be noted or a thing suspicious, though he well knew the fact, that the armored and captain of the hold, with the ship’s yeoman, apothecary, and others of that grade, were by naval usage messmates of the master-at-arms, men with ears convenient to his confidential tongue.Pg. 68Definition:An officer in the US Navy who works as a clerk.

Part of Speech: Noun

Extenuate

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Sentence:And before a court less arbitray and more merciful than martial one, that plea would largely extenuate.

Pg. 98

Definition:Try to lessen the seriousness or extent of by making partial excuses

Part of Speech: Transitive verb

Tacitly

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Sentence:With that, crossing the deck he resumed his place by the sashed porthole, tacitly leaving the three to come to a decision

Pg. 99Definition:Having the qualities of being express/ understand without being directly stated

Part of Speech: Adverb

word20

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Sentence:The twain raised the felled one from the loins up into a sitting position.

Pg. 82Definition:Two

Part of Speech: Noun

word21

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Word 35

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