Chapter 127 - The Deck — Vocabulary
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville — key words and definitions
Vocabulary Words from Chapter 127 - The Deck
- caulking (verb (gerund))
- Sealing seams or joints (especially in a ship or coffin) with waterproof material to prevent leaking.
- oakum (noun)
- Loose fiber obtained by unpicking old ropes, used for caulking the seams of wooden ships.
- ferrule (noun)
- A metal cap or band placed on the end of a handle, stick, or post to strengthen it or prevent splitting.
- arrant (adjective)
- Complete and utter; thoroughgoing (used to emphasize something bad or undesirable).
- intermeddling (adjective)
- Interfering or meddling in matters that are not one's concern.
- scamp (noun)
- A person who is mischievous or roguish; a rascal.
- Titans (noun)
- In Greek mythology, the elder gods who preceded the Olympians; here used to invoke primordial, godlike creative labor.
- bier (noun)
- A movable frame on which a coffin or corpse is placed before burial or cremation.
- shroud (noun)
- A cloth or sheet used to wrap a dead body for burial.
- malicious (adjective)
- Intending or intended to do harm; characterized by malice.
- imponderable (adjective)
- Difficult or impossible to estimate or assess; having no physical weight.
- immortality-preserver (noun)
- Melville's coined compound term suggesting something that preserves eternal life, playing on the nautical "life-preserver."