| Vocabulary for Macbeth Glossary |
|---|
A | C | E | G | I | K | M | O | Q | S | U | W | Y |
 absolute - positive |
| Acheron - A river in Hades (one of five, this one of woe), compared to the cave where he meets the witches |
| adder's fork - The forked tongue of the adder |
| adhere - agree |
| admired disorder - astonishing crazed behavior |
| affeered - affirmed |
| alack - an expression of dismay or surprise |
| alarum - battle noise not on the stage |
| alarm - call to arms |
| Aleppo - city in Syria |
| all-thing - in every way |
| amaking - in course of progress |
| angel - genius, demon |
| annoyance - self-injury |
| antic - old-fashioned |
| antic round - grotesque round dance |
| Mark Antony - Roman orator, politican and soldier around 80-30 BC. His
love affair with Cleopatra split the empire, and he lost the war to Octavian
(Augustus Caesar) |
| apace - quickly |
| argument - subject or theme |
| aroint thee - begone (go away) |
| artificial - made by art |
| assay - The greatest of skill |
| Augurs - A group of ancient Roman religious officials who foretold events
by observing and interpreting signs and omens |
| augur hole - obscure place |
| avarice - greed |
| Avaunt - go away |
| avouches - affirms |
| bane - evil, harm |
| bark - small ship |
| beard - to confront boldly |
| bedlams - hags |
| Beelzebub - the devil |
| before - ahead (in merit) |
| bellman - bellmen rang bells to announce a death in Elizabethean times |
| Bellona - the Roman goddess of war |
| bend up - stretch tight, like a bow - reference back to sticking place |
| benison - blessing |
| bent - determined |
| bestowed - housed |
| bestride - stands over |
| Birnam - A high hill twelve miles from Dunsinance |
| birthdom - native land |
| bladed - When the ear of the corn is still green |
| blind-worm - A glow worm |
| bodements - foretellings |
| boot - in addition |
| borne - handled |
| borne in hand - deluded |
| brainsickly - madly |
| briefly - quickly |
| bring - conduct |
| broad - plain spoken |
| broad words - plain speaking |
| broil - battle |
| bruited - to spread news, make noise |
| by - judging by |
| casing - enveloping |
| cat in the adage - "The cat would eat fish, but would not wet her feet." |
| censures - opinions |
| ceremony - courtesy |
| chalice - a cup or goblet |
| chamberlains - attendants in a bed chamber |
| chaps - jaws |
| charnel houses - houses for storing the bones of the dead |
| chaudron - entrails |
| cherubin - angels in the second order |
| cleave to my consent - lend support or allegiance |
| clept - called |
| closet - desk |
| coign of vantage - convenient corner |
| Colmekill - place where Scottish kings were buried, on the island of
Iona |
| colors - flags |
| compassed - surrounded |
| composition - a truce of peace treaty |
| compunctious - having feelings of pity |
| confounds - to ruin or destroy |
| constancy - firmness |
| continent - restraining |
| copyhold - a type of lease |
| countenance
-look at |
| course - a bout in bearbaiting, where a bear is tied to a stake and
attacked by dogs |
| coused - chased |
| coz - cousin |
| crack of doom - the thunder at the day of doom |
| cyme - A usually flat-topped or convex flower cluster in which the main
axis and each branch end in a flower that opens before the flowers below or to the side of it. Refers to senna |
| dainty of - particular about |
| dareful - boldly |
| dear - deeply felt |
| degrees - degrees of ranks |
| deliver thee - report to thee |
| delivers - communicates to us |
| demi-wolves - a cross between dogs and wolves |
| discovery - scouting reports |
| disjoint - fall to pieces |
| displaced - banished |
| dispute it - fight against it; reason upon it |
| disseat - unseat |
| distance - hostility |
| divers - diverse, varied |
| doff - do off, put off |
| dolor - sadness |
| doubt - fear, suspect |
| drab - whore |
| drowse - become drowsy |
| dudgeon - handle of a dagger |
| dunnest - darkest |
| durst - dared |
| earnest - pledge, money paid beforehand |
| easy - easily |
| ecstasy - any state of being beside one's self |
| Edward - Edward the Confessor, King of England |
| effects - act, actions |
| egg - term of contempt |
| eminence - distinction |
| enkindle - incite |
| enow - enough |
| epicures - a person devoted to luxury (especially with food), the root of
hedonisitic philosophy was Epicureanism as definde by the Greeks |
| equivocator - a person who speaks ambiguously, perhaps to mislead. Here is
alludes to the 1606 trial of Henry Garnet, accused of treason. |
| equivocate to heaven - get to heaven by equivocation |
| ere - before |
| estate - royal dignity, succession to the crown |
| eternal jewel - immortal soul |
| eterne - perpetual |
| exasperate - exasperated |
| Exeunt - They leave the stage |
| expectation - those guests who are expected |
| expedition - haste |
| extend - prolong |
| fact - act deed |
| faculties - powers, prerogatives |
| fain - gladly |
| faith-breach - treachery |
| familiar - a witch's evil spirit who acts as a servant |
| fantastical - imaginary |
| farrow - litter of pigs |
| favor - pardon, countenance, face |
| fears - objects of fears |
| feed - feeding |
| fee-grief - "grief that hath a single owner" (private grief) |
| fell - scalp |
| fellow - equal |
| fen - swamp or marsh |
| fie - used to express distate or disapproval |
| Fife - a county in eastern Scotland, Macduff is the thane of Fife |
| file - list of qualities |
| filed - made foul, defiled |
| first - once for all from the beginning to the end |
| fits - caprices |
| flaws - storms of passion |
| flighty - fleeting |
| Flourish - trumpet fanfare announcing the king |
| flout - mock,defy |
| fly - fly from me |
| foisons - plenty, rich harvests, abundance |
| follows - attends |
| forbid - cursed, blasted |
| forced - strenghtened (reinforced) |
| forge - fabricate, invent |
| Forres - a town in northern Scotland |
| forsworn - perjured |
| founded - firmly fixed |
| frame of things - universe |
| franchised - free, unstained |
| free - freely |
| free - honorable |
| free - remove, do away |
| French hose - tight breeches |
| fright - frighten, terrify |
| fry - literally a swarm of young fishes; here used as a term of contempt |
| fry - offspring |
| function - power of action |
| furbish'd - burnished |
| gallowglasses - heavy-armed Irish troops |
| genius - guardian spirit which influences destiny |
| gentle senses - senses which are soothed (by the "gentle" air) |
| germins - germs, seeds, origins |
| get - beget |
| gibbet - gallows |
| gin - a trap to catch birds |
| gives out - proclaims |
| glass - mirror |
| golden round - the crown |
| Golgotha - Where Jesus was crucified, "place of the skull" |
| goodness - "the chance of success" |
| go off - die |
| goose - a tailor's smoothing iron, the handle resembling a goose's neck |
| Gorgon - A monster of Greek myth, whose look could turn a person to stone,
as with Medusa. |
| gospeled - versed in the first four books of the New Testament, the Gospels |
| gouts - drops |
| grace - honor |
| graced - gracious, full of graces |
| grandam - Grandmother |
| Graymalkin - The first witch's familiar, a gray
cat |
| great doom's image - a sight horrible like the end of the world or
Judgement Day |
| gripe - grasp |
| gulf - gullet (throat or esophagus) |
| Harbinger - forerunner, an officer of the king's household |
| hardly - with difficulty |
| harms - injuries |
| harp'd - hit, touched |
| Harpier - familiar of the third witch, maybe derived from harpy (a bird
with a woman's head, part of Greek myth) |
| hautboys - high-pitched win instruments, oboes |
| hear - talk with |
| heart - the heart of any man |
| heath - a large piece of land with just low shrubs and herbage, a moor |
| heavily - sadly |
| Hecate - goddess of hell |
| hedgepig - hedgehog (like Sonic, except real hedgehogs are not blue) |
| hermit - this is a person who leads a reclusive life, originally for
religious reasons being paid to pray; (in context) Lady Macbeth will pray for Duncan |
| hie thee - hasten |
| hit - matched |
| holds - withholds |
| holp - helped |
| homely - plain |
| hoodwink - blind |
| housekeeper - watchdog |
| howlet - small owl |
| how say'st thou - what do you think! |
| Hum! - a groan |
| humane - human |
| hurlyburly - tumult, uproar |
| husbandry - economy |
| Hyrcan - from Hyrcania, formerly a region south of the Caspian Sea |
| ill-composed - compounded of evil qualities |
| illness - evil |
| impress - force into his service |
| incarnadine - make blood-red |
| informs - takes visible form |
| insane root - hemlock, which can make you insane, or kill you like
Socrates |
| instant - present moment |
| interdiction - exclusion |
| intermission - delay |
| intrenchant - can't be cut or penetrated |
| invention - falsehood |
| Inverness - Macbeth's castle in Dunsinane, in northern Scotland. |
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© Margaret Stewart-Zimmerman
May 22, 1998 - 2010