Scarlet Letter Vocab 10-15

Inimical

hostile

“…Mr. Dimmesdale, who sensibility of nerve often produced the effect of spiritual intuition, would become vaguely aware that something (______) to his peace had thurst itself into relation with him.”

Inanimate

not endowed with life or spirit

“…looked straightforward at any object, whether humann or (_______)…”

Zeal

eagerness, fervor

“…guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a (____) for God’s glory and man’s welfare….”

Palliate

to make less severe

“the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper which there had been nothing in this physician’s words to excuse or (____).”

Somniferous

having tranquilizing effect

“It must have been a work of vast ability in the (_______) school of literature.”

Manifest

obvious

“…the disorder is a strange; not so much in itself, nor as outwardly (______) - in so far, at least, as the symptoms have been laid open to my observation.”

Presentiments

premonitions

“…the poison of one morbid spot was infecting his heart’s entire substance, attributed all his (_____) to no other cause.”

Grisly

gruesome

“At the waving of a magician’s wand, uprose a (___) phantom - uprose a thousand phantoms…”

Odious

causing or deserving hatred

Ethereal

heavenly, light and airy

“…now a group of shining angels, who flew upward heavily, as sorrow-laden, but grew more (____) as they rose.”

Purport

purpose

“the green letter, and on thy childish bosom, has no (____).”

Impalpable

incapable of being perceived by the sense of touch

“To the untrue man, the whole universe is false - it is (____) - it shrinks to nothing within his grasp.”

Somnambulist

sleepwalker

“…and perhaps actually under the influence of a species of (__________)…”

Inextricable

incapable of being disentangled

“…yet continually did one thing or another, which intertwined, in the same (____) knot, the agony…”

Decorous

marked by propriety, good taste

“The whole tribe of (_____) personages….”

Malevolence

showing i’ll will toward others

“The physician was not careful then to hide the (_____) with which he looked upon his victim.”

Luminary

a source of light

“The glimmer of this (____) suggested the above conceits to Mr. Dimmesdale…”

Scurrilous

grossly or obscenely abusive

“Satan dropped it there, I take it, intending a (_____) jest against your reverence.”

Acquiesce

to give in, submit to

“…except by (______) in Roger Chillingworth’s scheme of disguise…”

Auspicious

favorable, lucky

“…to be thrown into a position where so much evil was to be foreboded, and nothing (_________) to be hoped.”

Withal

besides, nevertheless

“…stooping along the ground, in quest of roots and herbs to concoct his medicines (________).”

Propinquity

nearness in blood or time

“But it was te constant shadow of my presence - the closest (_________) of the man whom he had so vilely wronge!”

Usurp

to seize without right

“…lifted his hands with a look of horror, as if he had beheld some frightful shape, which he could not recognize, (_______) the place of his own image in a glass.”

Sedulous

diligent in application

“She wondered what sort of herbs they were, which the old man was so (_______) to gather.”

Deleterious

having a harmful effect

“Or might it suffice him, that every wholesome growth should be converted into something (_________) and malignant at his touch?”

Perchance

perhaps

“Society was inclined to show its former victim a more benign countenance than she cared to be favored with, or (________) than she deserved.”

Implore

to beg, beseech

“nor do I percieve such advantages in his living any longer a life of ghastly emptiness that I stoop to (_____) thy mercy.”