Chapter 15 - Chowder — Vocabulary
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville — key words and definitions
Vocabulary Words from Chapter 15 - Chowder
- prodigious
- Remarkably great in extent, size, or degree; enormous.
- stultifying
- Causing to appear foolish or absurd; having a dulling or deadening effect on the mind.
- oblique
- Not direct or straightforward; indirect, slanting.
- ominous
- Giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen; threatening.
- repast
- A meal, especially a formal or substantial one.
- expedition
- Promptness or speed in doing something; efficiency.
- larboard
- The left-hand side of a ship when facing forward; an archaic term for "port."
- cross-trees
- A pair of horizontal timbers fitted over the head of a lower mast to support the topmast and spread the rigging.
- top-mast
- The second section of a sailing ship's mast, above the lower mast.
- Tophet
- A biblical place in the valley of Hinnom associated with burning and divine punishment; used as a synonym for hell.
- misgiving
- A feeling of doubt or apprehension about the outcome of something.
- brindled
- Having a brownish or tawny coat streaked with darker color; used especially of animals.
- surpassingly
- To a degree that exceeds all others; exceedingly.
- decapitated
- Having had the head cut off.
- vertebra
- One of the individual bones that make up the spinal column.