Vocab, Acts 1-2 Macbeth

plight

noun - a situation from which extrication is difficult

What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.

disburse

verb - expend, as from a fund

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition. Nor would we deign him burial of his men Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s Inch Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

rapt

adjective - feeling great delight and interest

My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not

trifle

adjective - something of small importance

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s In deepest consequence

surmise

noun - a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man That function is smothered in surmise, And nothing is but what is not.

interim

noun - the time between one event, process, or period and another

Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time, The interim having weighed it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other.

harbinger

noun - something indicating the approach of something or someone

The rest is labor which is not used for you: I’ll be myself the harbinger and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach.

peerless

adjective - eminent beyond or above comparison

Let’s after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: It is a peerless kinsman.

chastise

verb - scold or criticize severely

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round

impede

verb - be a hindrance or obstacle to

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

beguile

verb - influence by slyness

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time.

sway

verb - controlling influence

Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

purveyor

noun - someone who supplies provisions, especially food

We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose To be his purveyor; but he rides well, And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us.

undaunted

adjective - resolutely courageous

Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males.

mettle

noun - the courage to carry on

Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males

augment

verb - enlarge or increase

So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counselled.

palpable

adjective - capable of being perceived

Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable as this which now I draw.

knell

noun - the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death

I go, and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

gild

verb - decorate with, or as if with, gold leaf or liquid gold

That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt.

multitudinous

adjective - too numerous to be counted

No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.

equivocate

verb - be deliberately ambiguous or unclear

Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator.

lechery

noun - unrestrained indulgence in sexual activity

Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery.

sacrilegious

adjective - grossly irreverent toward what is considered holy

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence The life o' th' building!

temperate

adjective - not extreme in behavior

Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.

breach

noun - an opening, especially a gap in a dike or fortification

Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murderers, Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breeched with gore.

frailty

noun - moral weakness

And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further.

malice

adjective - the desire to see others suffer

In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulged pretense I fight Of treasonous malice.

predominance

noun - the state of having superior power and influence over others

By th' clock ’tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. Is ’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame That darkness does the face of Earth entomb When living light should kiss it?

thriftless

adjective - wasteful or extravagant with money or resources

'Gainst nature still! Thriftless ambition, that will raven up Thine own lives' means! Then ’tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

invest

verb - provide with power and authority

The prince of Cumberland; which honor must Not unaccompanied invest him only, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers.