The Scarlet Letter Vocab

Question 1

Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent.

Answer 1

Demeanor; facial expression or attitude, especially one which is intended by its bearer.

Question 2

Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely, wreaking itself in every variety of insult.

Answer 2

Offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.

Question 3

“What should ail me to harm this misbegotten and miserable babe?”

Answer 3

Born out of wedlock, illegitimate; (by extension) ill-conceived, bad, worthless [corresponding verb: “to beget,” meaning “to father,” and, by extension, “to produce or bring forth”]

Question 4

“Dost thou know me so little, Hester Prynne? Are my purposes wont to be so shallow?”

Answer 4

Accustomed to, used to, in the habit of (doing something) [“wont to be” here means, in effect, “customarily” or “usually”]

Question 5

Hester repelled the offered medicine, at the same time gazing with strongly marked apprehension into his face.

Answer 5

Anticipation, especially of unfavorable things such as dread or fear or the prospect of something unpleasant in the future.

Question 6

After her return to the prison, Hester Prynne was found to be in a state of nervous excitement that demanded constant watchfulness lest she should perpetrate violence on herself, or do some half-frenzied mischief to the poor babe.

Answer 6

For fear that; that not; in order to prevent something from happening; in case.

Question 7

“My old studies in alchemy,” observed he, “and my sojourn, for above a year past, among a people well versed in the kindly properties of simples, have made a better physician of me than many that claim the medical degree.”

Answer 7

A temporary stay somewhere

Question 8

“Thou hast kept the secret of thy paramour.”

Answer 8

An illicit lover

Question 9

On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore.

Answer 9

Imagination [corresponding verb: “to fancy” often means “to imagine or suppose”]

Question 10

Then she was supported by an unnatural tension of the nerves, and by all the combative energy of her character, which enabled her to convert the scene into a kind of lurid triumph.

Answer 10

Shocking, horrifying, especially when it comes to violence or sex

Question 11

As night approached, it proving impossible to quell her insubordination by rebuke or threats of punishment, Master Brackett, the jailer, thought fit to introduce a physician.

Answer 11

A harsh criticism. [corresponding verb: “to rebuke”]

Question 12

“I might have known that, as I came out of the vast and dismal forest, and entered this settlement of Christian men, the very first object to meet my eyes would be thyself, Hester Prynne, standing up, a statue of ignominy, before the people.”

Answer 12

Great dishonor, shame, or humiliation [corresponding adjective: ignominious]

Question 13

“As night approached, it proving impossible to quell her insubordination by rebuke or threats of punishment, Master Brackett, the jailer, thought fit to introduce a physician.”

Answer 13

Disobedience to authority [corresponding adjective: insubordinate]

Question 14

“I have thought of death,” said she,—“have wished for it,—would even have prayed for it, were it fit that such as I should pray for anything.”

Answer 14

Proper, suitable, fitting

Question 15

“I promise you, Mistress Prynne shall hereafter be more amenable to just authority than you may have found her heretofore.”

Answer 15

Willing to comply; easily led

Question 16

“Administer this draught, therefore, with thine own hand.”

Answer 16

(also spelled “draft”) A quantity of liquid drunk in one swallow; a dose (of alcohol, medicine, etc.)

Question 17

Without further expostulation or delay, Hester Prynne drained the cup, and, at the motion of the man of skill, seated herself on the bed where the child was sleeping.

Answer 17

The act of reasoning earnestly in order to dissuade or remonstrate. [corresponding verb: expostulate; you “expostulate with” someone to express disapproval and maybe change their mind]

Question 18

He drew the only chair which the room afforded, and took his own seat beside her.

Answer 18

To provide, supply, or offer, usually in a passive or natural manner

Question 19

“It may be,” he replied, “because I will not encounter the dishonor that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman.”

Answer 19

To tarnish something, especially someone’s reputation

Question 20

“Thou knowest,” said Hester,–for, depressed as she was, she could not endure this last quiet stab at the token of her shame,–“thou knowest that I was frank with thee. I felt no love, nor feigned any.”

Answer 20

To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.

Question 21

“But, as for me, I come to the inquest with other senses than they possess.”

Answer 21

A formal investigation, often held before a jury, especially one into the cause of a death; An inquiry, typically into an undesired outcome

Question 22

A clump of scrubby trees, such as alone grew on the peninsula, did not so much conceal the cottage from view, as seem to denote that here was some object which would fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed.

Answer 22

Gladly, with joy; by will or choice [usually in the construction “would fain,” meaning “would like” to be or do something]

Question 23

It was like nothing so much as the phantasmagoric play of the northern lights.

Answer 23

Characterized by or pertaining to rapid changes in light intensity and colour; Characterized by or pertaining to a dreamlike blurring of real and imaginary elements [corresponding noun: phantasmagoria]

Question 24

Her only real comfort was when the child lay in the placidity of sleep.

Answer 24

Peacefulness, calm, serenity [corresponding adjective: placid]

Question 25

It could have betokened nothing short of the anticipated execution of some noted culprit, on whom the sentence of a legal tribunal had but confirmed the verdict of public sentiment.

Answer 25

To signify by some visible object; show by signs or tokens. To foreshow by present signs; indicate something future by that which is seen or known. [corresponding noun: “token,” meaning sign or symbol]

Question 26

Baby-linen–for babies then wore robes of state–afforded still another possibility of toil and emolument.

Answer 26

Payment for employment or an office; compensation for a job, which is usually monetary

Question 27

She bore on her breast, in the curiously embroidered letter, a specimen of her delicate and imaginative skill, of which the dames of a court might gladly have availed themselves, to add the richer and more spiritual adornment of human ingenuity to their fabrics of silk and gold.

Answer 27

“to avail” means to be of use or to serve a given purpose effectively; the reflexive, “to avail oneself of” something, means to make use of something or turn it to one’s advantage

Question 28

It may seem marvellous, that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs be the type of shame.

Answer 28

An ideal representation or embodiment of something; A symbol or emblem of something.

Question 29

Vanity, it may be, chose to mortify itself, by putting on, for ceremonials of pomp and state, the garments that had been wrought by her sinful hands.

Answer 29

To discipline (one’s body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.

Question 30

Dames of elevated rank, likewise, whose doors she entered in the way of her occupation, were accustomed to distil drops of bitterness into her heart; sometimes through that alchemy of quiet malice, by which women can concoct a subtile poison from ordinary trifles.

Answer 30

Anything that is of little importance or worth [corresponding verb: to trifle, “to trifle with” something means to treat it as if it were not important]

Question 31

She was patient,—a martyr, indeed,—but she forbore to pray for her enemies; lest, in spite of her forgiving aspirations, the words of the blessing should stubbornly twist themselves into a curse.

Answer 31

past tense of “forbear”: to refrain from doing something, to avoid doing something

Question 32

Continually, and in a thousand other ways, did she feel the innumerable throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly contrived for her by the undying, the ever-active sentence of the Puritan tribunal.

Answer 32

To invent by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise [corresponding adjective: “contrived,” meaning unnatural, forced, or artificial]

Question 33

There dwelt, there trode the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, that, unrecognized on earth, would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make that their marriage-altar, for a joint futurity of endless retribution.

Answer 33

Punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance.

Question 34

Whenever that look appeared in her wild, bright, deeply black eyes, it invested her with a strange remoteness and intangibility; it was as if she were hovering in the air and might vanish, like a glimmering light that comes we know not whence, and goes we know not whither.

Answer 34

The state of being incapable of being perceived by the senses. [corresponding adjective: intangible]

Question 35

Sometimes, the red infamy upon her breast would give a sympathetic throb as she passed near a venerable minister or magistrate.

Answer 35

Commanding respect because of age, dignity, character or position; Worthy of reverence. [corresponding verb: to venerate]

Question 36

Often, nevertheless, more from caprice than necessity, she demanded to be taken up in arms, but was soon as imperious to be set down again, and frisked onward before Hester on the grassy pathway, with many a harmless trip and tumble.

Answer 36

An impulsive, seemingly unmotivated action, change of mind, or notion. [corresponding adjective: capricious]

Question 37

We have as yet hardly spoken of the infant; that little creature, whose innocent life had sprung, by the inscrutable decree of Providence, a lively and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion.

Answer 37

Difficult or impossible to comprehend, fathom, or interpret. [corresponding noun: inscrutability]

Question 38

“I shall seek this man, as I have sought truth in books; as I have sought gold in alchemy.”

Answer 38

“Sought” is the past tense of “to seek”: to try to find, to search for, to try to acquire

Question 39

Could they be other than the insidious whispers of the bad angel, who would fain have persuaded the struggling woman, as yet only half his victim, that the outward guise of purity was but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne’s?

Answer 39

Only, merely, no more than [learn to recognize this adverbial usage of the common conjunction “but”]

Question 40

But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it.

Answer 40

Every time; always, without change.

Question 41

She stood apart from moral interests, yet close beside them, like a ghost that revisits the familiar fireside, and can no longer make itself seen or felt; no more smile with the household joy, nor mourn with the kindred sorrow; or, should it succeed in manifesting its forbidden sympathy, awakening only terror and horrible repugnance.

Answer 41

Exteme aversion; repulsion [corresponding adjective: repugnant, meaning “repulsive, arousing disgust or aversion”]

Question 42

“God gave me the child!” cried she. “He gave her, in requital of all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!–she is my torture, none the less!”

Answer 42

Compensation for damage or loss; amends. [corresponding verb: “to requite,” meaning “to pay back or reciprocate”]

Question 43

The pine trees, aged, black and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze , needed little transformation to figure as Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their children, whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmercifully.

Answer 43

“Smote” is the past tense of “to smite”: to hit or strike powerfully or violently (often used in the case of divine force)

Question 44

Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from human society.

Answer 44

The state of being secluded or shut out, as from company, society, the world, etc.; solitude. [corresponding verb: to seclude]

Question 45

Her ill-omened physiognomy seemed to cast a shadow over the cheerful newness of the house.

Answer 45

The face or countenance, with respect to the temper of the mind; particular configuration, cast, or expression of countenance, as denoting character.

Question 46

The wide circumference of an elaborate ruff, beneath his gray beard, in the antiquated fashion of King James’s reign, caused his head to look not a little like that of John the Baptist in a charger.

Answer 46

Old fashioned, out of date

Question 47

Her needle work was seen on the ruff of the Governor; military men wore it on their scarfs, and the minister on his band; it decked the baby’s little cap; it was shut up, to be mildewed and moulder away, in the coffins of the dead.

Answer 47

To decay or rot.

Question 48

The young minister, on ceasing to speak, had withdrawn a few steps from the group, and stood with his face partially concealed in the heavy folds of the window-curtain; while the shadow of his figure, which the sunlight cast upon the floor, was tremulous with the vehemence of his appeal.

Answer 48

A wild or turbulent ferocity or fury. [corresponding adjective: vehement]

Question 49

The young minister, on ceasing to speak, had withdrawn a few steps from the group, and stood with his face partially concealed in the heavy folds of the window-curtain; while the shadow of his figure, which the sunlight cast upon the floor, was tremulous with the vehemence of his appeal.

Answer 49

Trembling, quivering, or shaking.

Question 50

Governor Bellingham, in a loose gown and easy cap, - such as elderly gentelmen loved to indue themselves with, in their domestic privacy, - walked formost, and appeared to be showing off his estate, and expatiating on his projected improvements.

Answer 50

“to expatiate”: To write or speak at length; to be copious in argument or discussion. [the usual construction is “expatiate on” a subject, like in this example]

Question 51

We have spoken of Pearl’s rich and luxuriant beauty; a beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints; a bright complexion, eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glossy brown, and which, in after years, would be nearly akin to black.

Answer 51

Abundant in growth or detail. [corresponding noun: luxuriance]

Question 52

By its perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried limbs, the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in Eden; worthy to have been left there, to be the plaything of the angels after the world’s first parents were driven out.

Answer 52

Skill in performing tasks, especially with the hands. [corresponding adjective: dexterous]

Question 53

It was wonderful, the vast variety of forms into which she threw her intellect, with no continuity, indeed, but darting up and dancing, always in a state of preternatural activity,—soon sinking down, as if exhausted by so rapid and feverish a tide of life,—and succeeded by other shapes of a similar wild energy.

Answer 53

Beyond or not conforming to what is natural or according to the regular course of things; strange.

Question 54

This outward mutability indicated, and did not more than fairly express, the various properties of her inner life.

Answer 54

Changeability, tendency or inclination to change, evolve, or mutate. [corresponding adjective: mutable]

Question 55

She came forth into the sunshine, which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast.

Answer 55

Diseased or relating to disease; (by extension) Taking an interest in, or fixating on, unhealthy or unwholesome subjects, such as death, decay, disease. [corresponding noun: morbidity]

Question 56

She could recognize her wild, desperate, defiant mood, the flightiness of her temper, and even some of the very cloud-shapes of gloom and despondency that had brooded in her heart.

Answer 56

The loss of hope or confidence; dejection; A feeling of depression. [corresponding adjective: despondent]

Question 57

There was fire in her and throughout her; she seemed the unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment.

Answer 57

Not planned or thought out in advance (despite being performed or completed). [note: the positive (not negated) form “premeditated” is often used to describe crimes thought out or planned in advance]

Question 58

At home, within and around her mother’s cottage, Pearl wanted not a wide and various circle of acquaintance.

Answer 58

In this usage, “to want” means to lack something; to be in need of or require something. [corresponding noun: want, e.g. “a want of sympathy” meaning “a lack of sympathy”]

Question 59

Whenever that look appeared in her wild, bright, deeply black eyes, it invested her with a strange remoteness and intangibility; it was as if she were hovering in the air and might vanish, like a glimmering light, that comes we know not whence, and goes we know not whither.

Answer 59

“to invest,” meaning to clothe, wrap, cover, envelop [often used in the construction “invest with” something]

Question 60

It was inexpressibly sad—then what depth of sorrow to a mother, who felt in her own heart the cause!—to observe, in one so young, this constant recognition of an adverse world, and so fierce a training of the energies that were to make good her cause, in the contest that must ensue.

Answer 60

Antagonistic in purpose or effect; hostile; actively opposing one’s interests or wishes; working in an opposing direction. [corresponding noun: adversity]

Question 61

Her Pearl!—For so had Hester called her; not as a name expressive of her aspect, which had nothing of the calm, white, unimpassioned lustre that would be indicated by the comparison.

Answer 61

In this way, like this, in that way, like that, thus

Question 62

Closely following the jailer into the dismal apartment appeared that individual, of singular aspect, whose presence in the crowd had been of such deep interest to the wearer of the scarlet letter.

Answer 62

One of a kind, unique; (by extension) out of the ordinary, peculiar, curious [corresponding noun: singularity]

Question 63

Pearl’s aspect was imbued with a spell of infinite variety; in this one child there were many children, comprehending the full scope between the wild-flower prettiness of a peasant-baby, and the pomp, in little, of an infant princess.

Answer 63

One’s appearance or expression.

Question 64

They seldom, it would appear, partook of the religious zeal that brought other emigrants across the Atlantic.

Answer 64

The fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.

Question 65

They seldom, it would appear, partook of the religious zeal that brought other emigrants across the Atlantic.

Answer 65

Past tense of “to partake”: to take a share in something, to participate in something

[usually in the construction “partake of” as seen here]

Question 66

We have as yet hardly spoken of the infant; that little creature, whose innocent life had sprung, by the inscrutable decree of Providence, a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion.

Answer 66

The will of God, particularly as manifested in his careful governance and guidance of earthly affairs [corresponding adjective: providential]

Question 67

But the proprietor appeared already to have relinquished as hopeless, the effort to perpetuate on this side of the Atlantic, in a hard soil, and amid the close struggle for subsistence, the native English taste for ornamental gardening.

Answer 67

An owner. [corresponding adjective: proprietary]

Question 68

But the proprietor appeared already to have relinquished as hopeless, the effort to perpetuate on this side of the Atlantic, in a hard soil, and amid the close struggle for subsistence, the native English taste for ornamental gardening.

Answer 68

“to relinquish”: to give something up, to let something go, to surrender something

Question 69

“I might have known that, as I came out of the vast and dismal forest, and entered this settlement of Christian men, the very first object to meet my eyes would be thyself, Hester Prynne, standing up, a statue of ignominy, before the people.”

Answer 69

Depressing, dreary, cheerless

Question 70

Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion.

Answer 70

The quality of being weak or infirm, whether physically, mentally, or morally. [corresponding adjective: frail]

Question 71

Luther, according to the scandal of his monkish enemies, was a brat of that hellish breed; nor was Pearl the only child to whom this inauspicious origin was assigned, among the New England Purtitans.

Answer 71

Ill-omened; unlucky; portending bad things. [note: the positive (not negated) form, “auspicious,” means “of good omen, promising”]

Question 72

And then what a happiness would it have been, could Hester Prynne have heard her clear, bird-like voice mingling with the uproar of other childish voices, and have distinguished and unravelled her own darling’s tones, amid all the entangled outcry of a group of sportive children!

Answer 72

Playful, lively [corresponding noun: sportiveness]

Question 73

Hester Prynne, nevertheless, the lonely mother of this one child, ran little risk of erring on the side of undue severity.

Answer 73

“to err”: to make a mistake (often with the sense of deviation or straying to one side) [corresponding noun: error]

Question 74

Pearl’s aspect was imbued with a spell of infinite variety; in this one child there were many children, comprehending the full scope between the wild-flower prettiness of a peasant-baby, and the pomp, in little, of an infant princess.

Answer 74

Show of magnificence and splendor, as in a parade. [corresponding adjective: pompous, which is almost always used negatively, to criticize pretentious grandeur or self-importance]

Question 75

Certainly there was no physical defect. By its perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried limbs, the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in Eden.

Answer 75

Active strength or force of body or mind; capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; energy. [corresponding adjective: vigorous]

Question 76

What little bird of scarlet plumage may this be? Methinks I have seen just such figures, when the sun has been shining through a richly painted window, and tracing out the golden and crimson images across the floor.

Answer 76

(archaic) It seems to me [note: this word is NOT an old-fashioned way of saying “I think,” as many people incorrectly assume]

Question 77

The serf wore the blue coat, which was the customary garb of serving-men of that period, and long before, in the old hereditary halls of England.

Answer 77

Type of dress or clothing.

Question 78

This purpose once effected, new interests would immediately spring up, and likewise a new purpose; dark, it is true, if not guilty, but of force enough to engage the full strength of his faculties.

Answer 78

plural of “faculty”: An ability, power, or skill.

Question 79

He looked now more careworn and emaciated than as we described him at the scene of Hester’s public ignominy; and whether it were his failing health, or whatever the cause might be, his large dark eyes had a world of pain in their troubled and melancholy depth.

Answer 79

Thin or haggard, especially from hunger or disease.

Question 80

Her imagination was somewhat affected, and, had she been of a softer moral and intellectual fibre, would have been still more so, by the strange and solitary anguish of her life

Answer 80

To an even greater degree; even. [learn to recognize this usage of “still” as an intensifier of comparatives, so that, e.g. “still more so” means “even more so”]

Question 81

Under the appellation of Roger Chillingworth, the reader will remember, was hidden another name, which its former wearer had resolved should never more be spoken.

Answer 81

“to resolve”: To make a firm decision to do something. [corresponding noun: resolution]

Question 82

Old Roger Chillingworth, throughout life, had been calm in temperament, kindly, though not of warm affections, but never, and in all his relations with the world, a pure and upright man.

Answer 82

A person’s usual manner of thinking, behaving, or reacting.

Question 83

Alas for his own soul, if these were what he sought!

Answer 83

“alas” is an exclamatory interjection used to express sorrow, regret, compassion, or grief

Question 84

By those best acquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister’s cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotion to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp.

Answer 84

“vigil”: An instance of keeping awake during normal sleeping hours, especially to keep watch or pray. [corresponding adjective: vigilant, meaning “watchful or alert.”] [corresponding noun for the state of being vigilant: vigilance]

Question 85

Therefore, so far as his duties would permit, he trod in the shadowy by-paths, and thus kept himself simple and childlike; coming forth, when occasion was, with a freshness, and fragrance, and dewy purity of thought, which, as many people said, affected them like the speech of an angel.

Answer 85

past-tense of “to tread”: to step or walk (often on or upon something) [the past participle is “trodden”] [corresponding noun: tread]

Question 86

He was small in stature, with a furrowed visage which as yet could hardly be termed aged.

Answer 86

A person’s face or countenance.

Question 87

“He hath done a wild thing ere now, this pious Master Dimmesdale, in the hot passion of his heart!”

Answer 87

(archaic) before

Question 88

Then, after long search into the minister’s dim interior, and turning over many precious materials, in the shape of high aspirations for the welfare of his race, warm love of souls, pure sentiments, natural piety, strengthened by thought and study, and illuminated by revelation,—all of which invaluable gold was perhaps no better than rubbish to the seeker,—he would turn back.

Answer 88

Reverence and devotion to God. [corresponding adjective: pious]

Question 89

Then, after long search into the minister’s dim interior, and turning over many precious materials, in the shape of high aspirations for the welfare of his race, warm love of souls, pure sentiments, natural piety, strengthened by thought and study, and illuminated by revelation,—all of which invaluable gold was perhaps no better than rubbish to the seeker,—he would turn back.

Answer 89

Having great or incalculable value.

Question 90

Beyond the shadow of a doubt, this venerable witch-lady had heard Mr. Dimmesdale’s outcry, and interpreted it, with its multitudinous echoes and reverberations, as the clamor of the fiends and night-hags, with whom she was well known to make excursions into the forest.

Answer 90

plural of “excursion”: A brief recreational trip; a journey out of the usual way.

Question 91

The public is despotic in its temper; it is capable of denying common justice when too strenuously demanded as a right; but quite as frequently it awards more than justice, when the appeal is made, as despots love to have it made, entirely to its generosity.

Answer 91

Of or pertaining to a tyrant. [corresponding noun: “despot,” a ruler with absolute power] [corresponding noun: “despotism,” rule by a despot]

Question 92

Certainly, if the meteor kindled up the sky, and disclosed the earth, with an awfulness that admonished Hester Prynne and the clergyman of the day of judgment, then might Roger Chillingworth have passed with them for the arch-fiend, standing there, with a smile and scowl, to claim his own.

Answer 92

to rebuke someone for wrongdoing or warn someone against wrongdoing [here, “admonish of” means “warn about”] [corresponding noun: admonition]

Question 93

Certainly, if the meteor kindled up the sky, and disclosed the earth, with an awfulness that admonished Hester Prynne and the clergyman of the day of judgment, then might Roger Chillingworth have passed with them for the arch-fiend, standing there, with a smile and scowl, to claim his own.

Answer 93

“to disclose”: to reveal, expose, uncover [corresponding noun: disclosure]

Question 94

An unvaried pall of cloud muffled the whole expanse of sky from zenith to horizon.

Answer 94

The point in the sky vertically above a given position or observer; (by extension) The highest point, the peak

Question 95

Nay; it would be sinful, in such a question, to follow the clew of profane philosophy.

Answer 95

Not sacred or holy; non-religious, secular. [corresponding noun: profanity] [corresponding verb: “to profane,” to violate (something sacred)]

Question 96

This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing or another, which interwined, in the same inextricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance.

Answer 96

Impossible to untie or disentangle [related verb: “to extricate” something, meaning to free or disentangle something from something else]

Question 97

“Why should not the guilty ones sooner avail themselves of this unutterable solace?”

Answer 97

Comfort or consolation in a time of loneliness or distress. [corresponding verb: “to solace” someone] [related verb: “to console” someone]

Question 98

Poor, miserable man! what right had infirmity like his to burden itself with crime?

Answer 98

A physical or moral weakness or defect [corresponding adjective: infirm]

Question 99

All were visible, but with a singularity of aspect that seemed to give another moral interpretation to the things of this world than they had ever borne before.

Answer 99

“borne” is the past participle of “to bear,” meaning to carry something or, by extension, to endure something [e.g. he bears it, he bore it, he has borne it]

Question 100

In such a case, it could only be the symptom of a highly disordered mental state, when a man, rendered morbidly self-contemplative by long, intense, and secret pain, had extended his egotism over the whole expanse of nature, until the firmament itself should appear no more than a fitting page for his soul’s history and fate!

Answer 100

The vault of the heavens, where the clouds, sun, moon, and stars can be seen; the heavens, the sky.

Question 101

As the light drew nearer, he beheld, within its illuminated circle, his brother clergyman–or, to speak more accurately, his professional father, as well as highly valued friend,–the Reverend Mr. Wilson; who, as Mr. Dimmesdale now conjectured, had been praying at the bedside of some dying man.

Answer 101

“to conjecture”: to guess, to infer on slight evidence [corresponding noun: conjecture]

Question 102

At all events, if it involved any secret information in regard to old Roger Chillingworth, it was in a tongue unknown to the erudite clergyman, and did but increase the bewilderment of his mind. The elvish child then laughed aloud.

Answer 102

Learned, scholarly, with emphasis on knowledge gained from books. [corresponding noun: erudition]

Question 103

The belief was a favorite one with our forefathers, as betokening that their infant commonwealth was under a celestial guardianship of peculiar intimacy and strictness.

Answer 103

heavenly, of or related to heaven and the divine; relating to the sky or outer space

Question 104

This morbid meddling of conscience with an immaterial matter betokened, it is to be feared, no genuine and steadfast penitence, but something doubtful, something that might be deeply wrong, beneath.

Answer 104

a feeling of regret or remorse for doing wrong or sinning [corresponding adjective: penitent, meaning “showing or feeling penitence”] [corresponding adjective: penitential, meaning “having to do with penitence”]

Question 105

To their high mountain-peaks of faith and sactity he would have climbed, had not the tendency been thwarted by the burden, whatever it might be, of crime or anguish, beneath which it was his doom to totter.

Answer 105

Extreme pain, either of body or mind; excruciating distress. [corresponding adjective: anguished]

Question 106

There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart.

Answer 106

Rightly, correctly.

Question 107

Their love for man, their zeal for God’s service–these holy impulses may or may not coexist in their hearts with the evil inmates to which their guilt has unbarred the door, and which must needs propagate a hellish breed within them.

Answer 107

To generate, often in the sense of biological generation of offspring; to produce. [corresponding noun: propagation]

Question 108

After a brief pause, the physician turned away. But, with what a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror! With what a ghastly rapture, as it were, too mighty to be expressed only by the eye and features.

Answer 108

Extreme pleasure, happiness, or excitement [corresponding adjective: rapturous]

Question 109

Sometimes, a light glimmered out of the physician’s eyes, burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace, or let us say like one of those gleams of ghastly fire that darted from Bunyan’s awful door-way in the hill-side, and quivered on the pilgrim’s face.

Answer 109

Like a ghost in appearance; death-like; pale; pallid; (by extension) horrifyingly shocking, extremely bad

Question 110

Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him and show the wavering track of his footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure.

Answer 110

Past participle of “to blight,” meaning to afflict with blight–that is, the yellowing, withering, and death of plant tissue. [by extension, “blighted” can mean ruined or spoiled] [corresponding noun: blight]

Question 111

A mockery at which angels blushed and wept, while fiends rejoiced, with jeering laughter!

Answer 111

Plural of “fiend”: a devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit. [corresponding adjective: fiendish]

Question 112

She upbraided herself for the sentiment, but could not overcome or lessen it.

Answer 112

“to upbraid”: To criticize severely.

Question 113

There would have been no scandal, indeed, nor peril to the holy whiteness of the clergyman’s good fame, had she visited him in his own study: where many a penitent, ere now, had confessed sins of perhaps as deep a dye as the one betokened by the scarlet letter.

Answer 113

Serious and immediate danger; Something that causes or presents such danger. [corresponding adjective: perilous]

Question 114

I would have thee betake thyself to play, and leave me to speak with him that comes yonder.

Answer 114

(archaic) Over there.

Question 115

Even the attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. It might be partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners.

Answer 115

Freedom from adornment; plainness; severe simplicity. [corresponding adjective: austere]

Question 116

There was a listlessness in his gait; as if he saw no reason for taking one step farther, nor felt any desire to do so, but would have been glad, could he be glad of anything, to fling himself down at the root of the nearest tree, and lie there passive forevermore.

Answer 116

The state of apathetic indifference or lethargy.

[corresponding adjective: listless]

Question 117

Attempting to do so, she thought of those long-past days, in a distant land, when he used to emerge at eventide from the seclusion of his study, and sit down in the fire-light of their home, and in the light of her nuptial smile.

Answer 117

Of or pertaining to wedding and marriage. [corresponding noun: “nuptials,” meaning a wedding ceremony]

Question 118

Or might it suffice him, that every wholesome growth should be converted into something deleterious and malignant at his touch?

Answer 118

Harmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way.

Question 119

All these giant trees and boulders of granite seemed intent on making a mystery of the course of this small brook; fearing, perhaps, that, with its never-ceasing loquacity, it should whisper tales out of the heart of the old forest whence it flowed, or mirror its revelations on the smooth surface of a pool.

Answer 119

Talkativeness, especially of a very fluent or continuous kind [corresponding adjective: loquacious]

Question 120

Thus, Hester Prynne, whose heart had lost its regular and healthy throb, wandered without a clew in the dark labyrinth of mind; now turned aside by an insurmountable precipice; now starting back from a deep chasm.

Answer 120

A very steep cliff. [corresponding adjective: precipitous]

Question 121

None so self–devoted as Hester when pestilence stalked through the town.

Answer 121

Any epidemic disease that is highly contagious, infectious, virulent, and devastating. [corresponding adjective: pestilential]

Question 122

He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity.

Answer 122

Deviation from what is right; gross injustice, sin, wickedness. [corresponding adjective: iniquitous]

Question 123

“They mostly do,” said the clergyman, griping hard at his breast, as if afflicted with an importunate throb of pain.

Answer 123

Persistent or pressing, often annoyingly so. [corresponding verb: “to importune,” meaning to bother or irritate, especially with requests]

Question 124

They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime.

Answer 124

To embody, exemplify; to represent by a form, image, model, or resemblance

Question 125

“Yea, forsooth,” replied the bond-servant, staring with wide-open eyes at the scarlet letter, which, being a new-comer in the country, he had never before seen.

Answer 125

Indeed, really, truly.

Question 126

It kept him down, on a level with the lowest; him, the man of ethereal attributes, whose voice the angles might else have listened to and answered!

Answer 126

Exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc. [corresponding noun: “ether,” the substance once thought to fill the heavens as the native element of gods, angels, etc.]

Question 127

But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold protion, now, at the most inoppurtune moment, took through possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss.

Answer 127

The state of being obstinately in the wrong, stubborn, or intractable. [corresponding adjective: perverse]

Question 128

But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold protion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took through possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss.

Answer 128

To drive forward; to propel an object, to provide an impetus for motion or action; to directly cause or drive someone to do something. [corresponding noun: impulse]

Question 129

But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold protion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took through possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss.

Answer 129

Wrongly, mistakenly

Question 130

Her only justification lay in the fact, that she had been able to discern no method of rescuing him from a blacker ruin than had overwhelmed herself, except by acquiescing in Roger Chillingworth’s scheme of disguise.

Answer 130

“to acquiesce”: To agree upon being convinced; to assent to something, often reluctantly but giving up opposition. [usually in the construction “acquiesce in” something, as seen here] [corresponding noun: acquiescence]

Question 131

Her only justification lay in the fact, that she had been able to discern no method of rescuing him from a blacker ruin than had overwhelmed herself, except by acquiescing in Roger Chillingworth’s scheme of disguise.

Answer 131

“to discern”: To see or make out using one’s vision; (by extension) To perceive or recognize using one’s mind; To distinguish or differentiate something from something else [corresponding adjective: discernible, meaning “able to be detected”] [corresponding noun: discernment, meaning “perceptiveness, judgment, ability to distinguish”]

Question 132

Vanity, it may be, chose to mortify itself, by putting on, for ceremonials of pomp and state, the garments that had been wrought by her sinful hands.

Answer 132

Clothes [the singular, “garment,” refers to a single article of clothing]

Question 133

He had striven to put a cheat upon himself by making the avowal of a guilty conscience, but had gained only one other sin, and a self-acknowledged shame without the momentary relief of being self-deceived.

Answer 133

past participle of “to strive”: To try to achieve a result; to make strenuous effort; to try earnestly and persistently. OR: To struggle in opposition. [simple past is “strove,” e.g. “he strives,” “he strove,” “he has striven”]

Question 134

Heretofore, the mother, while loving her child with the intensity of a sole affection, had schooled herself to hope for little other return than the waywardness of an April breeze; which spends its time in airy sport, and has its gusts of inexplicable passion, and is petulant in its best of moods, and chills ofterner than caresses you, when you take it to your bosom.

Answer 134

Childishly irritable or sulky [corresponding noun: petulance]

Question 135

“There is no law, nor reverence for authority, no regard for human ordinances or opinions, right or wrong, mixed up with that child’s composition,” remarked he, as much to himself as to his companion.

Answer 135

Veneration; profound awe and respect, most commonly in a sacred context. [corresponding verb: “to revere”] [corresponding adjective: “reverend,” commanding reverence or respect] [corresponding adjective: “reverent,” showing reverence or respect]

Question 136

The child had a native grace which does not invariably coexist with faultless beauty; its attire, however simple, always impressed the beholder as if it were the very garb that precisely became it best.

Answer 136

“to become” can mean: to be proper for, to suit or be suitable for; when applied to clothing in this way, it often means “to look attractive on” somebody [corresponding adjective: “becoming,” meaning suitable, appropriate to, or proper for, or, when applied to clothing, attractive]

Question 137

The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy, was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been nothing in the physician’s words to excuse or palliate.

Answer 137

(archaic) able to feel or perceive something; aware of something

[corresponding noun: sensibility] [corresponding negative adjective: insensible, meaning unfeeling or unable to feel or perceive something, sometimes with the meaning of “unconscious”]

Question 138

The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy, was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been nothing in the physician’s words to excuse or palliate.

Answer 138

Inappropriate or inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.

Question 139

Mr. Dimmsdale, whose sensibility of nerve often produced the effect of spiritual intuition, would become vaguely aware that something inimical to his peace had thrust itself into relation with him.

Answer 139

Unfriendly, hostile.

Question 140

Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man, which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.

Answer 140

Existing or present but concealed or inactive. [corresponding noun: latency]

Question 141

The unfortunate physician, while uttering these words, lifted his hands with a look of horror, as if he had beheld some frightful shape, which he could not recognize, usurping the place of his own image in a glass.

Answer 141

present participle of “to usurp”: To take the place rightfully belonging to someone or something else. [corresponding noun: usurper]

Question 142

In all seasons of calamity, indeed, whether general or of individuals, the outcast of society at once found her place.

Answer 142

An event resulting in great loss; disaster. [corresponding adjective: calamitous]

Question 143

An unvaried pall of cloud muffled the whole expanse of sky from zenith to horizon.

Answer 143

Something that covers or surrounds like a cloak; in particular, a cloud of dust, smoke, etc., or a feeling of fear, gloom, or suspicion.

Question 144

To-morrow would bring its own trial with it; so would the next day, and so would the next; each its own trial, and yet the very same that was now so unutterably grievous to be borne.

Answer 144

In a manner that cannot be expressed, described, or articulated; inexpressibly. [corresponding adjective: unutterable]

unspeakably

Question 145

“Nay, then, wear it, if it suit you better,” rejoined he. “A woman must needs follow her own fancy, touching the adornment of her person.”

Answer 145

past tense of “to rejoin”: to say in reply, especially as part of a back-and-forth, often wittily or in disagreement [corresponding noun: rejoinder]

Question 146

He marvelled, indeed, at the violence with which he had thrust back the kind old man, when merely proffering the advice which it was his duty to bestow, and which the minister himself had expressly sought.

Answer 146

present participle of “to proffer”: To offer for acceptance; to propose to give; to make a tender of. [corresponding noun: proffer]

Question 147

He marvelled, indeed, at the violence with which he had thrust back the kind old man, when merely proffering the advice which it was his duty to bestow, and which the minister himself had expressly sought.

Answer 147

To impart (something) gratuitously; to present (something) to someone or something, especially as a gift or an honor; to confer, to give. [corresponding noun: bestowal]

Question 148

Roger Chillingworth, however, was inclined to be hardly, if at all, less satisfied with the aspect of affairs, which Providence—using the avenger and his victim for its own purposes, and, perchance, pardoning where it seemed most to punish—had substituted for his black devices.

Answer 148

Perhaps, maybe [archaic synonym: peradventure]

Question 149

And thus, while standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind.

Answer 149

An act of atonement for a sin or wrongdoing. [corresponding verb: to expiate]

Repentance

Question 150

So great a vicissitude in his life could not at once be received as real.

Answer 150

A change, especially in one’s life or fortunes [corresponding adjective: vicissitudinous]

Question 151

But there lay the embroidered letter, glittering like a lost jewel, which some ill-fated wanderer might pick up, and thenceforth be haunted by strange phantoms of guilt, sinkings of the heart, and unaccountable misfortune.

Answer 151

Inexplicable; unable to be accounted for or explained.

Question 152

But in truth, as I have already told thee, children are not readily won to be familiar with me. They will not climb my knee, nor prattle in my ear, nor answer to my smile; but stand apart, and eye me strangely.

Answer 152

To speak incessantly and in an inconsequential or childish manner; to babble. [corresponding noun: prattle]

Question 153

Since that wretched epoch, he had watched, with morbid zeal and minuteness, not his acts,—for those it was easy to arrange,—but each breath of emotion, and his every thought.

Answer 153

A particular period of history, or of a person’s life, especially one considered noteworthy or remarkable. [corresponding adjective: epochal]

Question 154

She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate.

Answer 154

A conversation or dialogue. [corresponding adjective: colloquial] [related noun: colloquialism, meaning “a colloquial word or phrase”]

Question 155

The next day, however, being the Sabbath, he preached a discourse which was held to be the richest and most powerful, and the most replete with heavenly influences, that had ever proceeded from
his lips.

Answer 155

Abounding, gorged, filled to near the point of bursting [usually in the construction to be “replete with” something, as seen here]

Question 156

“Were I an atheist,–a man devoid of conscience–a wretch with coarse and brutal instincts,–I might have found peace, long ere now.”

Answer 156

Completely without or having none of. [usually in the construction to be “devoid of” something, as seen here]

Question 157

“A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.”

Answer 157

A disease; sickness. [corresponding verb: to ail, meaning “to cause to suffer, to afflict” (transitively) or “to be ill, to suffer” (intransitively)]

Question 158

At the head of the social system, as the clergymen of that day stood, he was only the more trammelled by its regulations, its principles, and even its prejudices.

Answer 158

past participle of “to trammel”: to confine, to hamper, to shackle [corresponding negated form: untrammeled]

Question 159

The minister, on the other hand, had never gone through an experience calculated to lead him beyond the scope of generally received laws; although, in a single instance, he had so fearfully transgressed one of the most sacred of them.

Answer 159

past tense of “to transgress”: To exceed or overstep some limit or boundary, especially a social norm or law. [corresponding noun: transgression] [corresponding adjective: transgressive] [corresponding noun: transgressor, meaning the person who transgresses]

Question 160

But Pearl, not a whit startled at her mother’s threats, any more than mollified by her entreaties, now suddenly burst into a fit of passion, gesticulating violently, and throwing her small figure into the most extravagant contortions.

Answer 160

past participle of “to mollify”: To appease (anger), to pacify, to gain the good will of. [elsewhere, “mollify” can also mean “To ease a burden, particularly worry; make less painful; to comfort.”]

Question 161

“Preach! Write! Act! Do anything, save to lie down and die!”

Answer 161

Except, with the exception of

Question 162

But Pearl, not a whit startled at her mother’s threats, any more than mollified by her entreaties, now suddenly burst into a fit of passion, gesticulating violently, and throwing her small figure into the most extravagant contortions.

Answer 162

The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota. [often used in negative constructions like the one seen here, “not a whit,” etc.]
OR a little bit

Question 163

“Of penance, I have had enough! Of penitence, there has been none!”

Answer 163

A voluntary self-imposed punishment for a sinful act or wrongdoing. It may be intended to serve as reparation for the act.

Question 164

There glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick-chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the sufferer’s hard extremity, across the verge of time.

Answer 164

A condition of extreme adversity or difficulty

[extended from the basic sense of an “extremity” as the most extreme or furthest point or limit of something, whence we also get the medical term “extremities” to refer to our hands and feet]

Question 165

There glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick-chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the sufferer’s hard extremity, across the verge of time.

Answer 165

An edge or border. [corresponding verb: “to verge” on something, meaning to be or come very close to something, to border on something]

Question 166

It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony.

Answer 166

Chiefly in sumptuary law: of a law, regulation, etc.: intended to limit or restrain the expenditure of citizens in apparel, food, furniture, etc.

Question 167

“She hath good skill at her needle, that’s certain,” remarked one of her female spectators; “but did ever a woman, before this brazen hussy, contrive such a way of showing it! Why, gossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates, and make a pride out of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for a punishment?”

Answer 167

A sexually immoral woman; a cheeky or disrespectful girl; a woman showing inappropriate or improper behavior.

Question 168

“Tis most true, and he beseeched me to entreat your Majesties to hear and see the matter.”

Answer 168

past tense of “to beseech”: To beg or implore

Question 169

“It was found,” said the sexton, “this morning, on the scaffold where evil-doers are set up to public shame. Satan dropped it there, I take it, intending a scurrilous jest against your reverence. But, indeed, he was blind and foolish, as he ever and always is. A pure hand needs no glove to cover it!”

Answer 169

(of a person) Given to vulgar verbal abuse; foul-mouthed.
(of language) Coarse, vulgar, abusive, or slanderous.