One Flashcards
sanctum
Whether the man had emerged from the chapel’s inner sanctum through the bronze gate or mounted the steps unobtrusively from outside was uncertain.
A sanctum is the holiest place inside a holy building such as a temple or mosque.
snub-nosed
The man—of medium height, thin, beardless, and strikingly snub-nosed—was the red-haired type and had its milky, freckled pigmentation.
having a short turned-up nose
knapsack
He did, however, have the customary knapsack strapped to his shoulders,…
A knapsack is a canvas or leather bag that you carry on your back or over your shoulder, for example when you are walking in the countryside.
loden
He did, however, have the customary knapsack strapped to his shoulders, wore a yellowish belted suit of what appeared to be loden,…
- a thick heavy waterproof woollen cloth with a short pile, used to make garments, esp coats
- a dark bluish-green colour, in which the cloth is often made
crook
He did, however, have the customary knapsack strapped to his shoulders, wore a yellowish belted suit of what appeared to be loden, and carried a gray waterproof over his left forearm, which he pressed to his side, and an iron-tipped walking stick in his right hand, and having thrust the stick diagonally into the ground, he had crossed his feet and braced one hip on its crook.
a curved or hooked thing
perambulate
It may have been the stranger’s perambulatory appearance that acted upon his imagination or some other physical or psychological influence coming into play,…
When someone perambulates, they walk about for pleasure.
[old-fashioned]
wanderlust
It was wanderlust, pure and simple, yet it had come upon him like a seizure and grown into a passion—no, more, an hallucination.
Someone who has wanderlust has a strong desire to travel.
quagmire
He saw a landscape, a tropical quagmire beneath a steamy sky…
A quagmire is a soft, wet area of land which your feet sink into if you try to walk across it.
alluvial
a kind of primordial wilderness of islands, marshes, and alluvial channels;…
Alluvial soils are soils which consist of earth and sand left behind on land which has been flooded or where a river once flowed.
Bracken
saw hairy palm shafts thrusting upward, near and far, from rank clusters of bracken, from beds of thick, swollen, and bizarrely burgeoning flora;
Bracken is a large plant with leaves that are divided into many thin sections. It grows on hills and in woods.
promenade
If someone promenades somewhere, for example along a beach, the edge of a lake, or a main street, they go for a walk there.
Then the vision faded, and with a shake of the head Aschenbach resumed his promenade along the gravestone cutters’ fences.
gallivant
He had intended to reach a certain point in his work, which was his life, before moving to the country, and the thought of leaving his desk for months to go gallivanting around the world seemed too frivolous and disruptive to be taken seriously.
Someone who is gallivanting around goes to a lot of different places looking for amusement and entertainment.
[old-fashioned]
legerdemain
He thought of his work, of the point at which, yesterday and again today, he had had to abandon it since it had refused to yield to either patient attention or a swift bit of legerdemain.
- another name for sleight of hand
2. cunning deception or trickery
unwonted
There was no unwonted difficulty involved; no, he was paralyzed by the scruples arising from his distaste for the project, which made themselves felt in demands impossible to satisfy.
out of the ordinary; unusual
indentured
Could it be that his indentured sensibility was now taking its revenge, abandoning him and refusing henceforth to bear his art on its wings, depriving him of all pleasure, all delight in form and expression?
In the past, an indentured worker was one who was forced to work for someone for a period of time, because of an agreement made by people in authority.
