HEART OF DARKNESS Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation
Joseph Conrad
PSAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE, AP and Advanced Placement are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
Heart of Darkness Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation
Joseph Conrad
PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
ICON CLASSICS Published by ICON Group International, Inc. 7404 Trade Street San Diego, CA 92121 USA www.icongrouponline.com Heart of Darkness: Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005 Printed in the United States of America. Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc. Edited by Philip M. Parker, Ph.D. (INSEAD); Copyright ©2005, all rights reserved. All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Copying our publications in whole or in part, for whatever reason, is a violation of copyright laws and can lead to penalties and fines. Should you want to copy tables, graphs, or other materials, please contact us to request permission (E-mail:
[email protected]). ICON Group often grants permission for very limited reproduction of our publications for internal use, press releases, and academic research. Such reproduction requires confirmed permission from ICON Group International, Inc. PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved. ISBN 0-497-25288-0
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Contents PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR .......................................................................................... 1 PART I .............................................................................................................................. 3 PART II ........................................................................................................................... 37 PART III .......................................................................................................................... 65 GLOSSARY ..................................................................................................................... 95
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PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this edition of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was edited for students who are actively building their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced Placement®), GRE®, 1 LSAT®, GMAT® or similar examinations. Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult, and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language, and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary. Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-onlinedictionary.org. Please send suggestions to
[email protected] The Editor Webster’s Online Dictionary www.websters-online-dictionary.org
PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved. 1
Joseph Conrad
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PART I The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.% The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth. The Director of Companies was our captain and our host. We four affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward. On the whole river there was nothing that looked half so nautical. He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified. It was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom. Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea. Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns--and even convictions. The
Thesaurus flatness: (n) dullness, monotony, plain, flat, tedium, sameness, insipidness, tediousness, platitude, smoothing, smooth. ANTONYM: (n) unevenness. mournful: (adj) sad, miserable, melancholy, funereal, dolorous, dark, pensive, gloomy, lugubrious, lamentable; (adj, n) plaintive. ANTONYMS: (adj) joyful, happy, emotionless. offing: (n) ocean, high seas, sea,
hereafter, billows, deep, future, brine, water, watery waste, body of water. personified: (adj) embodied. rested: (adj) comfortable. seaward: (adj) inshore, onshore, coastal; (adv) toward the sea. ANTONYM: (adj) offshore. trustworthiness: (n) reliability, faithfulness, credibility, responsibility, honesty, trustiness, loyalty, constancy, devotion, dependence, creditworthiness.
ANTONYMS: (n) untrustworthiness, disloyalty, infidelity, dishonesty. varnished: (adj) sullied, polished, spotted, shiny, lustrous, smooth, painted, besmirched, glossy, tainted, flyblown. ANTONYM: (adj) dull. waterway: (n) ditch, watercourse, channel, stream, trench, canal, drain, rapid, tailrace, conduit, headrace. yawl: (v) yap, wawl, howl, growl, roar, ululate, wail, waul; (n) corvette, foist, cutter.
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Lawyer--the best of old fellows--had, because of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was lying on the only rug. The Accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones. Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol. The Director, satisfied the anchor had good hold, made his way aft and sat down amongst us. We exchanged a few words lazily. Afterwards there was silence on board the yacht. For some reason or other we did not begin that game of dominoes. We felt meditative, and fit for nothing but placid staring. The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. Only the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more somber every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun.% And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing white changed to a dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to go out suddenly, stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a crowd of men. Forthwith a change came over the waters, and the serenity became less brilliant but more profound. The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever, but in the august light of abiding memories. And indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as the phrase goes, "followed the sea" with reverence and affection, than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames. The tidal current runs to and fro in its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men and ships it had borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea. It had known and served all the
Thesaurus diaphanous: (adj) sheer, filmy, gauzy, enormousness, immenseness, thin, translucent, lucid, clear, hyaline, infinity, bulk, largeness, infiniteness, gossamer, dainty, hyaloid. infinitude, vastness, grandeur, ANTONYMS: (adj) thick, opaque, grandness. ANTONYM: (n) lightness. pacifically: (adv) peacefully, serenely, heavy, robust. folds: (n) laps. stilly, quietly, placidly, moderately, gauzy: (adj) filmy, transparent, sheer, conciliatorily, blandly, softly, meekly, flimsy, thin, delicate, fine, tranquilly. somber: (adj) gloomy, melancholy, translucent, lucid, cobwebby, ethereal. ANTONYMS: (adj) opaque, solemn, dull, grave, drab, sober, robust, heavy. dark, sullen, dim, dismal. immensity: (n) greatness, ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, funny,
cheery, frivolous, fussy. tidal: (adj) flowing. unstained: (adj) unblemished, unspotted, clean, unsoiled, pure, stainless, immaculate, unsullied, untainted, chaste, undefiled. ANTONYM: (adj) stained. uttermost: (adj, n) extreme; (adj, adv) farthest; (n) maximum, level best; (adj) furthest, utter, last, farthermost, furthermost, ultimate, most. ANTONYM: (adj) moderate.
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men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled and untitled--the great knights-errant of the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels flashing in the night of time, from the Golden Hind returning with her round flanks full of treasure, to be visited by the Queen's Highness and thus pass out of the gigantic tale, to the Erebus and Terror, bound on other conquests-- and that never returned. It had known the ships and the men. They had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith-the adventurers and the settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men on `Change; captains, admirals, the dark "interlopers" of the Eastern trade, and the commissioned "generals" of East India fleets. Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.% The sun set; the dusk fell on the stream, and lights began to appear along the shore. The Chapman lighthouse, a three-legged thing erect on a mud-flat, shone strongly. Lights of ships moved in the fairway--a great stir of lights going up and going down. And farther west on the upper reaches the place of the monstrous town was still marked ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom in sunshine, a lurid glare under the stars. "And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth." He was the only man of us who still "followed the sea." The worst that could be said of him was that he did not represent his class. He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer, too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life. Their minds are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them--the ship; and so is their country--the sea. One ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful
Thesaurus germs: (n) bacteria, germ, infection, microbes, microorganisms. glide: (adj, n, v) slide; (n, v) coast, slip; (v) float, run, fly, flow, drift, lapse, slink, skid. ANTONYMS: (v) lurch, hurtle, flounder, sink. immutability: (n) changelessness, invariability, majesty, infinity, unchangeableness, sovereignty, unchangeability, unchangingness, fixedness, fixity, permanency. ANTONYM: (n) mutability.
lighthouse: (n) light, pharos, beacon bargeman, boatswain, bosun. sedentary: (adj) lazy, sluggish, light, tower, Pharo, phare, beacon motionless, stationary, domestic; (v) fire, Very lights, flare, balize, faro. ominously: (adv) inauspiciously, untraveled. ANTONYM: (adj) mobile. portentously, forbiddingly, balefully, titled: (adj) highborn, patrician, threateningly, menacingly, blackly, coroneted, aristocratic, named, direly; (adj, adv) gloomily, fatefully, generous, posh, upright, worthy, fair; unpromisingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) (n) princely. ANTONYM: (adj) petty. wanderer: (n) vagabond, roamer, favorably, innocently. reaches: (n) recess. tramp, nomad, drifter, traveler, seaman: (n) seafarer, tar, gob, sailor, wayfarer, stranger, hobo, traveller; (n, v) rambler. bluejacket, jack, navigator, bargee,
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ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny. For the rest, after his hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree on shore suffices to unfold for him the secret of a whole continent, and generally he finds the secret not worth knowing. The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.% His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow. It was accepted in silence. No one took the trouble to grunt even; and presently he said, very slow-"I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago--the other day. . . . Light came out of this river since--you say Knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker--may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. Imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine--what d'ye call `em?--trireme in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly to the north; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry; put in charge of one of these craft the legionaries,--a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been too-used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or two, if we may believe what we read. Imagine him here-- the very end of the world, a sea the color of lead, a sky the color of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina-- and going up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like. Sandbanks, marshes, forests, savages,--precious little to eat fit for a civilized man, nothing but Thames water to drink. No Falernian wine here, no going ashore. Here and there a military camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle in a bundle of hay--cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death,-- death skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush. They must have been dying like flies here. Oh yes--he did it. Did it
Thesaurus color: (n, v) flush, blush, tint, tinge, grunt: (v) growl, croak, mutter, paint, stain; (adj, n, v) colour; (v) complain, murmur, moan, clamor, redden; (n) guise, complexion; (adj, n) mumble; (n, v) cry; (n) groan, tone. ANTONYMS: (v) discolor, pale, cottonwick. inscrutable: (adj) inexplicable, show, whiten, untwist, denote, depict, represent, blanch, blench. incomprehensible, mysterious, weird, enveloping: (n) envelopment, cryptic, cryptical, deep, enigmatic, enclosure, boxing, enclosing, uncanny, hidden, arcane. encasement; (prep) about; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) transparent, comprehensive, roundabout, expressive, clear, straightforward. circuitous. ANTONYM: (adj) skulking: (adj) surreptitious, stealthy, contained. lurking, hiding, clandestine,
backstairs, concealed, cowardly; (n) malingering, dodging, evasion. spectral: (adj) ghostly, phantasmal, apparitional, unearthly, ghostlike, supernatural, ghastly, shadowy, insubstantial, eerie, cadaverous. unfold: (v) spread, open, extend, develop, stretch, spread out, reveal, display, stretch out; (adj, v) expound, explain. ANTONYMS: (v) fold, block, stagnate, stop, hide, withhold, check, wrap, conceal.
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very well, too, no doubt, and without thinking much about it either, except afterwards to brag of what he had gone through in his time, perhaps. They were men enough to face the darkness. And perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye on a chance of promotion to the fleet at Ravenna by-and-by, if he had good friends in Rome and survived the awful climate. Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga--perhaps too much dice, you know--coming out here in the train of some prefect, or tax-gatherer, or trader even, to mend his fortunes. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him,-- all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination--you know. Imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate." He paused.% "Mind," he began again, lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower--"Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency--the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-- nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind--as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but an idea;
Thesaurus brag: (n, v) bluster, vaunt, crow; (v) despicable, execrable, horrible, infamous; (adj, v) cursed; (adj, adv) pride, gasconade, blow, show off, rodomontade; (n) boasting, bragging; atrocious. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adj) great. admirable, adorable, sweet, loveable, brute: (adj) brutal, harsh, gruff, lovable, likable, delightful, cherished, brutish; (adj, n) animal, savage; (n) honorable, desirable, nice. jungles: (n) jungle. barbarian, fiend, creature, monster; (adv) beastly. ANTONYMS: (adj) prefect: (n) chief, proconsul, provost, weak, refined, mild, gentle; (n) syndic, governor, warden, archon, administrator, lieutenant; (v) disclose, gentleman. detestable: (adj) hateful, abhorrent, further. pretense: (n) affectation, pretension, damnable, odious, offensive,
deception, show, cover, masquerade, hypocrisy, mask, facade, sham; (adj, n) feint. ANTONYMS: (n) reality, honesty, humility, sincerity, genuine. regrets: (n) regret, declination, RSVP regrets only, acknowledgement, acknowledgment, celestial latitude, excuse, Dec. savagery: (n) atrocity, barbarism, barbarity, ferociousness, savageness, cruelty, ferocity, inhumanity, viciousness, harshness, violence.
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and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. . . ." He broke off. Flames glided in the river, small green flames, red flames, white flames, pursuing, overtaking, joining, crossing each other-- then separating slowly or hastily. The traffic of the great city went on in the deepening night upon the sleepless river. We looked on, waiting patiently-there was nothing else to do till the end of the flood; but it was only after a long silence, when he said, in a hesitating voice, "I suppose you fellows remember I did once turn fresh-water sailor for a bit," that we knew we were fated, before the ebb began to run, to hear about one of Marlow's inconclusive experiences.% "I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally," he began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would best like to hear; "yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap. It was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience. It seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about me-- and into my thoughts. It was somber enough too--and pitiful-- not extraordinary in any way-not very clear either. No, not very clear. And yet it seemed to throw a kind of light. "I had then, as you remember, just returned to London after a lot of Indian Ocean, Pacific, China Seas--a regular dose of the East--six years or so, and I was loafing about, hindering you fellows in your work and invading your homes, just as though I had got a heavenly mission to civilize you. It was very fine for a time, but after a bit I did get tired of resting. Then I began to look for a ship--I should think the hardest work on earth. But the ships wouldn't even look at me. And I got tired of that game too. "Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that)
Thesaurus civilize: (v) civilise, educate, improve, certain, predestined, damned, loafing: (n) idleness, dalliance, dolce train, refine, foster, tame, enlighten, unavoidable, predestinate, cursed, far niente, faineance, inaction, domesticate, humanize; (adj) polish. inactivity; (adj) lazy, unemployed. intended, forthcoming, sure. deepening: (n) amplification, hesitating: (adj) indecisive, irresolute, overtaking: (n) passing, overtake, aggravation. undecided, doubtful, hesitate, pass, going, expiration, loss, don't: (adv) not; (n) taboo, prohibition. reluctant, faltering, unwilling, departure, exit. farthest: (adj) ultimate, extreme, unselfish: (adj) selfless, altruistic, hesitancy, backward, hesitatingly. farthermost, utmost, uttermost, last, hindering: (adj) obstructive, clogging, disinterested, liberal, magnanimous, furthermost, endmost, greatest, most preclusive, meddlesome, philanthropic, considerate, distant; (adj, adv) remotest. impedimental, counter, obstruent, beneficent, charitable, kind, helpful. ANTONYMS: (adv) closest, nearest. blocking up; (n) hindrance, ANTONYMS: (adj) greedy, fated: (adj) inevitable, destined, impedition; (v) hinder. uncharitable, thoughtless.
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I would put my finger on it and say, `When I grow up I will go there.' The North Pole was one of these places, I remember. Well, I haven't been there yet, and shall not try now. The glamour's off. Other places were scattered about the Equator, and in every sort of latitude all over the two hemispheres. I have been in some of them, and . . . well, we won't talk about that. But there was one yet-the biggest, the most blank, so to speak-- that I had a hankering after.% "True, by this time it was not a blank space any more. It had got filled since my boyhood with rivers and lakes and names. It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery--a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness. But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land. And as I looked at the map of it in a shopwindow, it fascinated me as a snake would a bird-- a silly little bird. Then I remembered there was a big concern, a Company for trade on that river. Dash it all! I thought to myself, they can't trade without using some kind of craft on that lot of fresh water--steamboats! Why shouldn't I try to get charge of one? I went on along Fleet Street, but could not shake off the idea. The snake had charmed me. "You understand it was a Continental concern, that Trading society; but I have a lot of relations living on the Continent, because it's cheap and not so nasty as it looks, they say. "I am sorry to own I began to worry them. This was already a fresh departure for me. I was not used to get things that way, you know. I always went my own road and on my own legs where I had a mind to go. I wouldn't have believed it of myself; but, then--you see--I felt somehow I must get there by hook or by crook. So I worried them. The men said `My dear fellow,' and did nothing. Then--would you believe it?--I tried the women. I, Charlie Marlow, set the women to work-- to get a job. Heavens! Well, you see, the notion drove me. I had an aunt, a dear enthusiastic soul. She wrote: `It will be delightful. I am ready to do anything, anything for you. It is a glorious idea. I know the wife of a
Thesaurus afar: (adv) off, away, far away, hankering: (n) craving, desire, wish, captive, beguiled, infatuated, distantly, beyond, Afar off, in the absorbed, enamored, captive hours. eagerness, yen, thirst, avidity, distance, by far, apart; (adj) outlying, curving: (adj) curved, winding, appetite, yearning, urge, hunger. far. ANTONYMS: (adv) close, nearby, crooked, bowed, devious, falciform, ANTONYMS: (n) aversion, dislike. near; (prep) within. smooth, serpentine; (n) bending, latitude: (n) freedom, scope, breadth, boyhood: (n) babyhood, adolescence, curve, curvature. ANTONYMS: (adj) room, expanse, range, compass, youth, youthhood, infancy, girlhood, straight, jerky. climate, clime, space, reach. gloriously: (adv) brilliantly, grandly, ANTONYM: (n) constraint. age, boyism, puberty. ANTONYM: (n) adulthood. uncoiled: (adj) unbowed, unbent, true, magnificently, illustriously, ceased: (adj) finished. marvelously, superbly, wonderfully, right, not homosexual, not charmed: (adj) enchanted, delighted, gorgeously, radiantly, greatly, disorderly, neatly arranged, neat, fascinated, spellbound, entranced, renownedly. level, consecutive, accurately fitted.
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Heart of Darkness
very high personage in the Administration, and also a man who has lots of influence with,' &c., &c. She was determined to make no end of fuss to get me appointed skipper of a river steamboat, if such was my fancy.% "I got my appointment--of course; and I got it very quick. It appears the Company had received news that one of their captains had been killed in a scuffle with the natives. This was my chance, and it made me the more anxious to go. It was only months and months afterwards, when I made the attempt to recover what was left of the body, that I heard the original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens. Yes, two black hens. Fresleven--that was the fellow's name, a Dane--thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. Oh, it didn't surprise me in the least to hear this, and at the same time to be told that Fresleven was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs. No doubt he was; but he had been a couple of years already out there engaged in the noble cause, you know, and he probably felt the need at last of asserting his selfrespect in some way. Therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people watched him, thunderstruck, till some man,-- I was told the chief's son,--in desperation at hearing the old chap yell, made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man-- and of course it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades. Then the whole population cleared into the forest, expecting all kinds of calamities to happen, while, on the other hand, the steamer Fresleven commanded left also in a bad panic, in charge of the engineer, I believe. Afterwards nobody seemed to trouble much about Fresleven's remains, till I got out and stepped into his shoes. I couldn't let it rest, though; but when an opportunity offered at last to meet my predecessor, the grass growing through his ribs was tall enough to hide his bones. They were all there. The supernatural being had not been touched after he fell. And the village was deserted, the huts gaped black, rotting, all askew within the fallen enclosures. A calamity had come to it, sure enough. The people had vanished. Mad terror had scattered them, men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had never returned. What became of the hens I don't know either. I should think the cause of progress got them, anyhow. However, through this glorious affair I got my
Thesaurus askew: (adj) lopsided, cockeyed, crooked, oblique, askant, catawampus; (adj, adv) wrong, crookedly; (adj, v) wry; (adv) skew, agley. ANTONYMS: (adj) level, plumb, true, centered, aligned, even. calamity: (n) disaster, adversity, affliction, misfortune, plague, catastrophe, tragedy, blow, bale, distress; (n, v) trouble. ANTONYMS: (n) blessing, boon, luck, joy, opportunity.
personage: (n) person, notable, boat, steamship, cruise ship, ocean celebrity, personality, individual, liner. thunderstruck: (adj) astonished, bigwig, figure, somebody, human, character, being. flabbergasted, dumbfounded, ribs: (n) dinner, chest, bosom. amazed, stupefied, stunned, scuffle: (n, v) tussle, fight, scrap, speechless, dumfounded, aghast, struggle, disturbance, encounter; (v) dazed; (v) awestruck. grapple, shuffle; (n) melee, scramble, whacked: (adj) exhausted, worn out, fighting. spent, shattered, fatigued, done in, self-respect: (n) pride, self-esteem, weary. ANTONYM: (adj) fresh. wronged: (adj) upset, hurt, indignant, dignity, face, honesty. steamboat: (n) liner, steamer, steam offended.
Joseph Conrad
11
appointment, before I had fairly begun to hope for it.% "I flew around like mad to get ready, and before forty-eight hours I was crossing the Channel to show myself to my employers, and sign the contract. In a very few hours I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulcher. Prejudice no doubt. I had no difficulty in finding the Company's offices. It was the biggest thing in the town, and everybody I met was full of it. They were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade. "A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting between the stones, imposing carriage archways right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar. I slipped through one of these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase, as arid as a desert, and opened the first door I came to. Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. The slim one got up and walked straight at me-- still knitting with downcast eyes--and only just as I began to think of getting out of her way, as you would for a somnambulist, stood still, and looked up. Her dress was as plain as an umbrella-cover, and she turned round without a word and preceded me into a waiting-room. I gave my name, and looked about. Deal table in the middle, plain chairs all round the walls, on one end a large shining map, marked with all the colors of a rainbow. There was a vast amount of red--good to see at any time, because one knows that some real work is done in there, a deuce of a lot of blue, a little green, smears of orange, and, on the East Coast, a purple patch, to show where the jolly pioneers of progress drink the jolly lager-beer. However, I wasn't going into any of these. I was going into the yellow. Dead in the center. And the river was there--fascinating--deadly--like a snake. Ough! A door opened, a white-haired secretarial head, but wearing a compassionate expression, appeared, and a skinny forefinger beckoned me into the sanctuary. Its light was dim, and a heavy writing-desk squatted in the middle. From behind that structure came out an impression of pale plumpness in a frock-coat. The great man himself. He was five feet six, I should judge, and had his grip on the handle-end of ever so many millions. He shook hands, I fancy, murmured
Thesaurus colors: (n) flag, colours, paints, banner, color, colour, ensign, pigment, tint, dye, paint. deuce: (n) devil, couple, two, dyad, demon, duo, duet, Twain, Dickens, brace, craps. downcast: (adj) depressed, dejected, dispirited, blue, desolate, disconsolate, gloomy, low, sad, downhearted, discouraged. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, vivacious, cheery, elated, joyous, up,
positive. lager-beer: (n) lager. plumpness: (n) embonpoint, obesity, roundness, fatness, fleshiness, chubbiness, portliness, fullness, rotundity, stoutness, globularness. ANTONYM: (n) thinness. ponderously: (adv) weightily, heavily, gravely, unwieldily, cumbrously, slowly, dully, hardly, oppressively, stuffily, arduously. ANTONYM: (adv) rashly.
sepulcher: (n) crypt, vault, mausoleum, tomb, burial chamber, repository, sepulchre, catacomb, burial, interment, pit. somnambulist: (n) sleepwalker, somnambulator, somnambule, slumberer, sleeper, refugee, fugitive, emigrant, hypnobate. swept: (adj) clean. ungarnished: (adj) undecked, untrimmed, unvarnished, bare, unornamented.
12
Heart of Darkness
vaguely, was satisfied with my French. Bon voyage.% "In about forty-five seconds I found myself again in the waiting-room with the compassionate secretary, who, full of desolation and sympathy, made me sign some document. I believe I undertook amongst other things not to disclose any trade secrets. Well, I am not going to. "I began to feel slightly uneasy. You know I am not used to such ceremonies, and there was something ominous in the atmosphere. It was just as though I had been let into some conspiracy-- I don't know--something not quite right; and I was glad to get out. In the outer room the two women knitted black wool feverishly. People were arriving, and the younger one was walking back and forth introducing them. The old one sat on her chair. Her flat cloth slippers were propped up on a foot-warmer, and a cat reposed on her lap. She wore a starched white affair on her head, had a wart on one cheek, and silver-rimmed spectacles hung on the tip of her nose. She glanced at me above the glasses. The swift and indifferent placidity of that look troubled me. Two youths with foolish and cheery countenances were being piloted over, and she threw at them the same quick glance of unconcerned wisdom. She seemed to know all about them and about me too. An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny and fateful. Often far away there I thought of these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant. Not many of those she looked at ever saw her again--not half, by a long way. "There was yet a visit to the doctor. `A simple formality,' assured me the secretary, with an air of taking an immense part in all my sorrows. Accordingly a young chap wearing his hat over the left eyebrow, some clerk I suppose,--there must have been clerks in the business, though the house was as still as a house in a city of the dead,-- came from somewhere up-stairs, and led me forth. He was shabby and careless, with ink-stains on the sleeves of his jacket, and his cravat was large and billowy, under a chin shaped like the toe of an old boot. It was a
Thesaurus billowy: (adj) rolling, puffy, stormy, surging. boot: (n, v) kick; (n) boots, Wellingtons, bang, gain, jackboot, buskin, kicking, charge, shoe, bootikin. cravat: (n) neckerchief, neckcloth, stock, ascot, collar, handkerchief, scarf, neckwear, necktie, ruff. feverishly: (adv) excitedly, hotly, febrilely, hecticly, feverously, hysterically, passionately, frantically,
fanatically, heatedly, frenziedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) indifferently, peacefully, sluggishly. knitter: (n) needleworker. pall: (v) cloy, tire, jade, fatigue; (n) curtain, coffin, shroud, cloak, cerement, mantle; (adj, v) disgust. placidity: (n) peace, equanimity, calm, serenity, tranquility, calmness, tranquillity, placidness, repose, quiet, ataraxia. propped: (adj) fulcrate.
scrutinizing: (adj) exploring thoroughly, inquisitive, searching, penetrating. secrets: (n) secrecy. starched: (adj) formal, starch, punctilious, ceremonious, majestic, solemn, inflexible, prim, stately, severe, ritual. wart: (n) verruca, condyloma acuminatum, bulge, tit, growth, lump, swelling, exostosis, bump, protuberance, venereal wart.
Joseph Conrad
13
little too early for the doctor, so I proposed a drink, and thereupon he developed a vein of joviality. As we sat over our vermouths he glorified the Company's business, and by-and-by I expressed casually my surprise at him not going out there. He became very cool and collected all at once. `I am not such a fool as I look, quoth Plato to his disciples,' he said sententiously, emptied his glass with great resolution, and we rose.% "The old doctor felt my pulse, evidently thinking of something else the while. `Good, good for there,' he mumbled, and then with a certain eagerness asked me whether I would let him measure my head. Rather surprised, I said Yes, when he produced a thing like calipers and got the dimensions back and front and every way, taking notes carefully. He was an unshaven little man in a threadbare coat like a gaberdine, with his feet in slippers, and I thought him a harmless fool. `I always ask leave, in the interests of science, to measure the crania of those going out there,' he said. `And when they come back, too?' I asked. `Oh, I never see them,' he remarked; `and, moreover, the changes take place inside, you know.' He smiled, as if at some quiet joke. `So you are going out there. Famous. Interesting too.' He gave me a searching glance, and made another note. `Ever any madness in your family?' he asked, in a matter-of-fact tone. I felt very annoyed. `Is that question in the interests of science too?' `It would be,' he said, without taking notice of my irritation, `interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals, on the spot, but . . .' `Are you an alienist?' I interrupted. `Every doctor should be--a little,' answered that original, imperturbably. `I have a little theory which you Messieurs who go out there must help me to prove. This is my share in the advantages my country shall reap from the possession of such a magnificent dependency. The mere wealth I leave to others. Pardon my questions, but you are the first Englishman coming under my observation. . . .' I hastened to assure him I was not in the least typical. `If I were,' said I, `I wouldn't be talking like this with you.' `What you say is rather profound, and probably erroneous,' he said, with a laugh. `Avoid irritation more than exposure to the sun. Adieu. How do you English say, eh? Good-by. Ah! Good-by. Adieu. In the tropics one must before everything keep calm.' . . . He lifted a warning forefinger. . . . `Du calme, du calme. Adieu.'
Thesaurus adieu: (int, n) farewell; (n) vale, sententiously: (adv) concisely, overestimated, hyped, haloed, valediction, goodbye, leave, cheerio, canonised, blessed, authorized. succinctly, laconically, pithily, briefly, adios, bye, so long, parting; (int) bon imperturbably: (adv) dispassionately, aphoristically, shortly, tersely. voyage. ANTONYM: (n) greeting. unflappably, serenely, indifferently, thereupon: (adv) hereupon, next, then, calipers: (n) callipers, calliper, roller impassively, emotionlessly, coolly, immediately, therefore, therewith, in gauge, micrometer; (v) compass, rule, casually. the sequel, close upon, upon which, joviality: (n) glee, cheerfulness, standard, foot rule, measure, yard whereupon, accordingly. measure. happiness, mirth, merriment, gaiety, unshaven: (adj) unshaved, bearded, gaberdine: (n) coverall, duster, dust festivity, conviviality, hilarity, rough, not shaved, hairy, bristly, geniality; (adj) jocundity. coat, dustcloth, smock, dustrag. stubbly. glorified: (adj) celebrated, holy, ANTONYMS: (n) misery, sadness. quoth: (v) quod. overvalued, puffed up, overrated,
14
Heart of Darkness
"One thing more remained to do--say good-by to my excellent aunt. I found her triumphant. I had a cup of tea--the last decent cup of tea for many days--and in a room that most soothingly looked just as you would expect a lady's drawing-room to look, we had a long quiet chat by the fireside. In the course of these confidences it became quite plain to me I had been represented to the wife of the high dignitary, and goodness knows to how many more people besides, as an exceptional and gifted creature-- a piece of good fortune for the Company--a man you don't get hold of every day. Good heavens! and I was going to take charge of a two-penny-halfpenny river-steamboat with a penny whistle attached! It appeared, however, I was also one of the Workers, with a capital-- you know. Something like an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle. There had been a lot of such rot let loose in print and talk just about that time, and the excellent woman, living right in the rush of all that humbug, got carried off her feet. She talked about `weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,' till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit.% "`You forget, dear Charlie, that the laborer is worthy of his hire,' she said, brightly. It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over. "After this I got embraced, told to wear flannel, be sure to write often, and so on--and I left. In the street--I don't know why--a queer feeling came to me that I was an impostor. Odd thing that I, who used to clear out for any part of the world at twenty-four hours' notice, with less thought than most men give to the crossing of a street, had a moment--I won't say of hesitation, but of startled pause, before this commonplace affair. The best way I can explain it to you is by saying that, for a second or two, I felt as though, instead of going to the center of a continent, I were about to set off for the center of the earth.
Thesaurus confounded: (adj) bemused, accursed, execrable, baffled, cursed, befuddled, confused, puzzled, aghast, perplexed; (adj, v) abashed. contentedly: (adv) gladly, satisfiedly, contently, gratifiedly, pleasedly, cheerfully, joyfully, smugly, easily, complacently, placidly. ANTONYMS: (adv) crossly, awkwardly, unhappily, discontentedly, sadly. dignitary: (n) notable, celebrity, big
shot, dignity, officer, grandee, very important person, public figure, personage, person, panjandrum. emissary: (n) ambassador, courier, agent, spy, messenger, delegate, representative, legate, diplomat, detective, deputy. fireside: (n) fireplace, home, family, habitation, dwelling, abode, domicile, country, dwelling house, fire, habitat. humbug: (n) deceit, cheat, claptrap, fake, faker, deception, boloney; (n, v)
hoax, cant, duplicity; (v) hum. impostor: (n) fraud, cheat, hypocrite, fake, imposter, sham, charlatan, deceiver, faker, cheater, pretender. laborer: (n) hand, labourer, operative, drudge, labor, employee, manual laborer, peon, navvy, docker, day laborer. soothingly: (adv) softly, quietly, calmingly, lullingly, lightly, tenderly, kindly, blandly, calmly, comfortingly, sedatively.
Joseph Conrad
15
"I %left in a French steamer, and she called in every blamed port they have out there, for, as far as I could see, the sole purpose of landing soldiers and custom-house officers. I watched the coast. Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you-- smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, `Come and find out.' This one was almost featureless, as if still in the making, with an aspect of monotonous grimness. The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam. Here and there grayish-whitish specks showed up, clustered inside the white surf, with a flag flying above them perhaps. Settlements some centuries old, and still no bigger than pin-heads on the untouched expanse of their background. We pounded along, stopped, landed soldiers; went on, landed custom-house clerks to levy toll in what looked like a God-forsaken wilderness, with a tin shed and a flag-pole lost in it; landed more soldiers--to take care of the custom-house clerks, presumably. Some, I heard, got drowned in the surf; but whether they did or not, nobody seemed particularly to care. They were just flung out there, and on we went. Every day the coast looked the same, as though we had not moved; but we passed various places--trading places--with names like Gran' Bassam Little Popo, names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister backcloth. The idleness of a passenger, my isolation amongst all these men with whom I had no point of contact, the oily and languid sea, the uniform somberness of the coast, seemed to keep me away from the truth of things, within the toil of a mournful and senseless delusion. The voice of the surf heard now and then was a positive pleasure, like the speech of a brother. It was something natural, that had its reason, that had a meaning. Now and then a boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with reality. It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks--these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along their
Thesaurus backcloth: (n) background, countryside, land, scene, scenery, setting, site. chaps: (n) chops, fauces, crack. featureless: (adj) lackluster, plain, monotonous, indistinctive, uninteresting, colorless, characterless, mediocre, unoriginal, uninspired, unimaginative. ANTONYMS: (adj) imaginative, inspired, interesting, distinctive. fringed: (adj) fibrillated, bounded,
feathered, bushy, decorated, watery, flavorless, uninteresting, fimbriate, fimbricate, laciniate, vapid, savorless, boring, tame, humdrum. ANTONYMS: (adj) befringed, rough, laciniated. glisten: (n, v) gleam, sparkle, flash, exciting, tasty, interesting, flavorful, glance, shimmer, glitter, glister; (v) spicy, lively, colorful, dark, bright, glimmer, beam, coruscate, glint. inspired, imaginative. grimness: (n) asperity, austerity, rigor, slips: (n) pad. somberness: (n) gloom, sombreness, sternness, rigour, ghastliness, strictness, bleakness, hardness, soberness, solemnity, sobriety, gloominess, harshness. ANTONYMS: graveness, earnestness, seriousness, (n) brightness, pleasantness, warmth. gravity, sombre, starkness. insipid: (adj) tasteless, bland, dull, ANTONYM: (n) cheerfulness.
16
Heart of Darkness
coast. They wanted no excuse for being there. They were a great comfort to look at. For a time I would feel I belonged still to a world of straightforward facts; but the feeling would not last long. Something would turn up to scare it away. Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long eight-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the eight-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech--and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives--he called them enemies!-- hidden out of sight somewhere.% "We gave her her letters (I heard the men in that lonely ship were dying of fever at the rate of three a day) and went on. We called at some more places with farcical names, where the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthy atmosphere as of an overheated catacomb; all along the formless coast bordered by dangerous surf, as if Nature herself had tried to ward off intruders; in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair. Nowhere did we stop long enough to get a particularized impression, but the general sense of vague and oppressive wonder grew upon me. It was like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares. "It was upward of thirty days before I saw the mouth of the big river. We anchored off the seat of the government. But my work would not begin till some two hundred miles farther on. So as soon as I could I made a start for a place thirty miles higher up.
Thesaurus appears: (n) appearing. ensign: (n) banner, badge, insignia, catacomb: (n) crypt, tomb, catacombs, emblem, national flag, colours, sign, mausoleum, grave, tunnel, narrow standard, colors, enzie, sublieutenant. formless: (adj) shapeless, unformed, house, house of death, ossuary, Golgotha, pit. indistinct, unstructured, unbodied, contorted: (adj) crooked, bent, nebulous, vague, indistinguishable, soft, fuzzy, rude. ANTONYMS: (adj) writhed, writhen, deformed, distorted, wry, twist, misshapen, organized, clear, distinct. lugubrious: (adj) dismal, gloomy, perverted, malformed. drollery: (n) buffoonery, whim, doleful, dark, funereal, melancholy, waggery, joke, sport, wit, clowning, grievous, somber, dolorous, jocularity, tomfoolery, frolic, humor. plaintive, miserable. ANTONYM:
(adj) cheerful. man-of-war: (n) warship. particularized: (adj) specific, particular, minute, full, descriptive, thorough, for one person. projectile: (n) bullet, shot, pellet, arrow, bolt, weapon, quoit, slug, cartridge, cannonball; (adj) propulsive. writhe: (adj, v) distort, wrest; (v) contort, wriggle, squirm, wrench, worm, coil, wiggle, thrash, warp.
Joseph Conrad
17
"I %had my passage on a little sea-going steamer. Her captain was a Swede, and knowing me for a seaman, invited me on the bridge. He was a young man, lean, fair, and morose, with lanky hair and a shuffling gait. As we left the miserable little wharf, he tossed his head contemptuously at the shore. `Been living there?' he asked. I said, `Yes.' `Fine lot these government chaps--are they not?' he went on, speaking English with great precision and considerable bitterness. `It is funny what some people will do for a few francs a month. I wonder what becomes of that kind when it goes up country?' I said to him I expected to see that soon. `So-o-o!' he exclaimed. He shuffled athwart, keeping one eye ahead vigilantly. `Don't be too sure,' he continued. `The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too.' `Hanged himself! Why, in God's name?' I cried. He kept on looking out watchfully. `Who knows? The sun too much for him, or the country perhaps.' "At last we opened a reach. A rocky cliff appeared, mounds of turned-up earth by the shore, houses on a hill, others, with iron roofs, amongst a waste of excavations, or hanging to the declivity. A continuous noise of the rapids above hovered over this scene of inhabited devastation. A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants. A jetty projected into the river. A blinding sunlight drowned all this at times in a sudden recrudescence of glare. `There's your Company's station,' said the Swede, pointing to three wooden barrack-like structures on the rocky slope. `I will send your things up. Four boxes did you say? So. Farewell.' "I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found a path leading up the hill. It turned aside for the bowlders, and also for an undersized railwaytruck lying there on its back with its wheels in the air. One was off. The thing looked as dead as the carcass of some animal. I came upon more pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails. To the left a clump of trees made a shady spot, where dark things seemed to stir feebly. I blinked, the path was steep. A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run. A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all. No change appeared on the face of the rock. They were building a
Thesaurus athwart: (adj, adv, n, prep) across; (adv, prep) aslant, cross; (adj, adv, prep) thwart; (adj, adv) crosswise; (adv) sideways, obliquely, transversely, traverse, overthwart, crossways. declivity: (n) decline, fall, downhill, downgrade, incline, dip, slope; (n, v) gradient; (v) acclivity, ascent, bank. detonation: (adj, n, v) explosion, burst; (n) bang, report, roar, blowback; (adj, v) discharge; (adj) blow up, bounce, rush; (v) salvo.
lanky: (adj) rangy, lean, tall, scrawny, skinny, thin, gangling, bony, emaciated, gaunt, angular. ANTONYMS: (adj) rounded, stocky, rotund, plump, fat. recrudescence: (n) return, recurrence, revival, relapsing, recrudency, outbreak. shuffled: (adj) disorganized. undersized: (adj) little, undersize, short, diminutive, stunted, tiny, puny, dwarf, underweight, weak,
underdeveloped. ANTONYMS: (adj) big, robust. vigilantly: (adv) watchfully, warily, alertly, attentively, observantly, cautiously, carefully, wakefully, circumspectly, guardedly, awakely. ANTONYM: (adv) recklessly. watchfully: (adv) attentively, carefully, observantly, cautiously, wakefully, warily, alertly, mindfully, circumspectly, guardedly, heedfully. ANTONYM: (adv) recklessly.
18
Heart of Darkness
railway. The cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on.% "A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind wagged to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking. Another report from the cliff made me think suddenly of that ship of war I had seen firing into a continent. It was the same kind of ominous voice; but these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from over the sea. All their meager breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. Behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, carrying a rifle by its middle. He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be. He was speedily reassured, and with a large, white, rascally grin, and a glance at his charge, seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust. After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings. "Instead of going up, I turned and descended to the left. My idea was to let that chain-gang get out of sight before I climbed the hill. You know I am not particularly tender; I've had to strike and to fend off. I've had to resist and to attack sometimes--that's only one way of resisting-- without counting the exact cost, according to the demands of such sort of life as I had blundered into. I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but,
Thesaurus clinking: (adj) tinkle, jingle, tinkling, ampulliform. infinite. meager: (adj, v) lean, gaunt, bare, rascally: (adj) dirty, contemptible, cacophonous, reverberant, ringing. deathlike: (adj) deadly, deathly, spare, frugal; (adj) emaciated, feeble, abject, mean, mischievous, ghastly, dead, cadaverous, thanatoid, inadequate, insufficient, scant; (adj, scoundrelly, roguish, scabby, scurvy, ghostly, pale; (v) awful, soft, solemn. adv) stingy. ANTONYMS: (adj) shabby, paltry. despondently: (adv) sadly, dejectedly, abundant, lavish, generous, fat, stonily: (adv) icily, pitilessly, despairingly, unhappily, hopelessly, strong, luxurious, filling, large, unfeelingly, cruelly, hardly, roughly, glumly, downheartedly, sorrowfully, plentiful, ample, privileged. rockily, heartlessly, frigidly, objectless: (adj) purposeless, endless, forlornly, disappointedly, insensitively, mercilessly. disconsolately. ANTONYMS: (adv) endless bliss, endless clamor, endless ANTONYM: (adv) kindly. toiling: (adj) labouring, drudging, happily, hopefully, enthusiastically. praise, endless time, excessive, dilated: (adj) wide, inflated, fruitless, interminable, random, busy.
Joseph Conrad
19
by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men--men, I tell you. But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months later and a thousand miles farther. For a moment I stood appalled, as though by a warning. Finally I descended the hill, obliquely, towards the trees I had seen.% "I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn't a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don't know. Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside. I discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there. There wasn't one that was not broken. It was a wanton smashup. At last I got under the trees. My purpose was to stroll into the shade for a moment; but no sooner within than it seemed to me I had stepped into a gloomy circle of some Inferno. The rapids were near, and an uninterrupted, uniform, headlong, rushing noise filled the mournful stillness of the grove, where not a breath stirred, not a leaf moved, with a mysterious sound--as though the tearing pace of the launched earth had suddenly become audible. "Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair. Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die. "They were dying slowly--it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now,-- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became
Thesaurus confusedly: (adv) obscurely, corpulent, potent, virile, vigorous, disorderedly, perplexedly, cloudily, hearty, sturdy, bouncing, dynamic. ANTONYM: (adj) feeble. dazedly, befuddledly, muddily, pitiless: (adj) merciless, brutal, harsh, bemusedly, dizzily, bewilderedly, puzzledly. cruel, ruthless, implacable, effaced: (adj) obliterated. remorseless, inexorable, inhuman, flabby: (adj) feeble, flaccid, limp, heartless, hard. ANTONYMS: (adj) languid, baggy, drooping, faint, lax, merciful, charitable, soft, heavy, soft, slack. ANTONYMS: (adj) compassionate, warmhearted, slim, skinny, fit. sympathetic, flexible, caring, tolerant. foresaw: (v) foresee. rapacious: (adj) avid, voracious, lusty: (adj) energetic, stout, lustful, predatory, edacious, acquisitive,
ravenous, gluttonous, ferocious, raptorial; (adj, v) covetous, avaricious. recesses: (n) penetralia, bowels, inside. sandpit: (n) cavity. sickened: (adj) aghast, horrified, appalled, shocked. smash-up: (n) crash. uncongenial: (adj) unfriendly, hostile, incongenial, cold, unfit, unsuited, contrastive, chilly, cool, unsociable, distant. ANTONYMS: (adj) friendly, hospitable.
20
Heart of Darkness
inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. These moribund shapes were free as air--and nearly as thin. I began to distinguish the gleam of eyes under the trees. Then, glancing down, I saw a face near my hand. The black bones reclined at full length with one shoulder against the tree, and slowly the eyelids rose and the sunken eyes looked up at me, enormous and vacant, a kind of blind, white flicker in the depths of the orbs, which died out slowly. The man seemed young--almost a boy--but you know with them it's hard to tell. I found nothing else to do but to offer him one of my good Swede's ship's biscuits I had in my pocket. The fingers closed slowly on it and held--there was no other movement and no other glance. He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck--Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge--an ornament--a charm--a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it? It looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the seas.% "Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up. One, with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner: his brother phantom rested its forehead, as if overcome with a great weariness; and all about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink. He lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in front of him, and after a time let his woolly head fall on his breastbone. "I didn't want any more loitering in the shade, and I made haste towards the station. When near the buildings I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get-up that in the first moment I took him for a sort of vision. I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clear necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. He was amazing, and had a penholder behind his ear. "I shook hands with this miracle, and I learned he was the Company's chief accountant, and that all the bookkeeping was done at this station. He had come
Thesaurus alpaca: (n) textile, material, cloth, truant, trifling, tardy; (v) loiter; (adv) fabric, llama, wool. loiteringly. bookkeeping: (n) accountancy, double moribund: (adj) expiring, dull, inert, entry bookkeeping, reckoning, inactive, heavy, Acherontic, sluggish, clerking; (adj) clerical, office, stagnant, torpid, adynamic; (v) morient. ANTONYMS: (adj) well, secretarial. breastbone: (n) sternum, os, bone. active. get-up: (n) outfit, garb, costume, necktie: (n) cravat, bolo, neckwear, clothing, guise, disguise, attire, linkup, link, affiliation, crosstie, bow apparel. tie, bolo tie, bolas, bola tie. loitering: (n) delay, dalliance; (adj) oiled: (adj) intoxicated, oily. ANTONYM: (adj) unoiled. slow, dilatory, delaying, inactive,
parasol: (n) sunshade, canopy, awning, umbrella, marquee, beach umbrella, shade, cover, tilt, tent. pestilence: (n) pest, epidemic, blight, disease, curse, infectious disease, contagion, infection, virus; (adj) murrain, pox. propitiatory: (adj) conciliatory, conciliative, expiative, propitiative, apologetic. worsted: (adj) disappointed; (n) fabric, knitting worsted, cloth.
Joseph Conrad
21
out for a moment, he said, `to get a breath of fresh air.' The expression sounded wonderfully odd, with its suggestion of sedentary desk-life. I wouldn't have mentioned the fellow to you at all, only it was from his lips that I first heard the name of the man who is so indissolubly connected with the memories of that time. Moreover, I respected the fellow. Yes; I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That's backbone. His starched collars and got-up shirt-fronts were achievements of character. He had been out nearly three years; and, later on, I could not help asking him how he managed to sport such linen. He had just the faintest blush, and said modestly, `I've been teaching one of the native women about the station. It was difficult. She had a distaste for the work.' This man had verily accomplished something. And he was devoted to his books, which were in apple-pie order.% "Everything else in the station was in a muddle,--heads, things, buildings. Strings of dusty niggers with splay feet arrived and departed; a stream of manufactured goods, rubbishy cottons, beads, and brass-wire set into the depths of darkness, and in return came a precious trickle of ivory. "I had to wait in the station for ten days--an eternity. I lived in a hut in the yard, but to be out of the chaos I would sometimes get into the accountant's office. It was built of horizontal planks, and so badly put together that, as he bent over his high desk, he was barred from neck to heels with narrow strips of sunlight. There was no need to open the big shutter to see. It was hot there too; big flies buzzed fiendishly, and did not sting, but stabbed. I sat generally on the floor, while, of faultless appearance (and even slightly scented), perching on a high stool, he wrote, he wrote. Sometimes he stood up for exercise. When a truckle-bed with a sick man (some invalided agent from up-country) was put in there, he exhibited a gentle annoyance. `The groans of this sick person,' he said, distract my attention. And without that it is extremely difficult to guard against clerical errors in this climate.' "One day he remarked, without lifting his head, `In the interior you will no
Thesaurus brushed: (adj) napped, fleecy. buzzed: (n) woozy; (adj) intoxicated, drunk. demoralization: (n) confusion, corruption, decadence, retrogression, depression, degeneration, prostitution, perversion; (adj) backsliding, pravity, pollution. ANTONYM: (n) encouragement. faultless: (adj) blameless, correct, immaculate, clean, spotless, innocent, flawless, unblemished, absolute,
infallible, consummate. ANTONYMS: (adj) blemished, imperfect, faulty, shameful, soiled, blameworthy. fiendishly: (adv) devilishly, satanically, infernally, demonically, hellishly, wickedly, cruelly, deucedly, atrociously, inhumanly, unholy. invalided: (v) bedridden, laid up. perching: (adj) insessorial. rubbishy: (adj) cheap, worthless,
trashy, shabby, crummy, flashy, brassy, flash, loud, garish, tasteless. shutter: (n, v) close, shade; (n) curtain, shut, blind, window, skylight, deadlight, lid, louver, jalousie. splay: (v) dislocate, expand, flare, slip, displace, slope, slant, spay, diffuse; (adj) flat, clumsy. verily: (adj, adv) really; (adv) indeed, in reality, genuinely, quitely, actually, selfly, truely, identically, exactly; (adv, int) in truth.
22
Heart of Darkness
doubt meet Mr. Kurtz.' On my asking who Mr. Kurtz was, he said he was a firstclass agent; and seeing my disappointment at this information, he added slowly, laying down his pen, `He is a very remarkable person.' Further questions elicited from him that Mr. Kurtz was at present in charge of a trading post, a very important one, in the true ivory-country, at `the very bottom of there. Sends in as much ivory as all the others put together. . . .' He began to write again. The sick man was too ill to groan. The flies buzzed in a great peace.% "Suddenly there was a growing murmur of voices and a great tramping of feet. A caravan had come in. A violent babble of uncouth sounds burst out on the other side of the planks. All the carriers were speaking together, and in the midst of the uproar the lamentable voice of the chief agent was heard `giving it up' tearfully for the twentieth time that day. . . . He rose slowly. `What a frightful row,' he said. He crossed the room gently to look at the sick man, and returning, said to me, `He does not hear.' `What! Dead?' I asked, startled. `No, not yet,' he answered, with great composure. Then, alluding with a toss of the head to the tumult in the station-yard, `When one has got to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages-- hate them to the death.' He remained thoughtful for a moment. `When you see Mr. Kurtz,' he went on, `tell him from me that everything here'--he glanced at the desk--'is very satisfactory. I don't like to write to him--with those messengers of ours you never know who may get hold of your letter--at that Central Station.' He stared at me for a moment with his mild, bulging eyes. `Oh, he will go far, very far,' he began again. `He will be a somebody in the Administration before long. They, above--the Council in Europe, you know--mean him to be.' "He turned to his work. The noise outside had ceased, and presently in going out I stopped at the door. In the steady buzz of flies the homeward-bound agent was lying flushed and insensible; the other, bent over his books, was making correct entries of perfectly correct transactions; and fifty feet below the doorstep I could see the still tree-tops of the grove of death. "Next day I left that station at last, with a caravan of sixty men, for a twohundred-mile tramp.
Thesaurus babble: (n, v) drivel, gossip, chat, (adj) sensible, conscious, sensitive, burble, prattle; (v) ripple, gab, talk, awake, alive, compassionate, blab, smatter, bubble. ANTONYMS: concerned, aware. (n, v) stillness, quietness; (n) sense. lamentable: (adj) grievous, pitiful, elicited: (adj) evoked, elicit. distressing, sad, dismal, sorrowful, groan: (n, v) grumble, murmur, cry, piteous, unfortunate, lugubrious; (adj, sigh, mutter, squeak, rumble, scrape; v) pitiable, mournful. ANTONYMS: (v) howl, complain; (n) complaint. (adj) laudable, fortunate. insensible: (adj) imperceptible, numb, tearfully: (adv) tearily, weepily, unconscious, callous, dull, unaware, dolorously, lachrymosely, waterily, apathetic, impassive, indiscernible, sadly, sorrowfully, maudlinly, comatose, impassible. ANTONYMS: mournfully, wetly, whimperingly.
tramping: (adj) moving. tumult: (adj, n, v) hubbub, disturbance; (n) stir, commotion, bustle, din, fuss, excitement; (n, v) clamor, disorder, brawl. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, push, serenity, order, calm. uncouth: (adj) rough, rude, barbarous, vulgar, crude, awkward, clumsy, gross, unrefined, ungainly, common. ANTONYMS: (adj) refined, couth, polite, sophisticated, pleasant, proper, genteel.
Joseph Conrad
23
"No %use telling you much about that. Paths, paths, everywhere; a stampedin network of paths spreading over the empty land, through long grass, through burnt grass, through thickets, down and up chilly ravines, up and down stony hills ablaze with heat; and a solitude, a solitude, nobody, not a hut. The population had cleared out a long time ago. Well, if a lot of mysterious niggers armed with all kinds of fearful weapons suddenly took to traveling on the road between Deal and Gravesend, catching the yokels right and left to carry heavy loads for them, I fancy every farm and cottage thereabouts would get empty very soon. Only here the dwellings were gone too. Still I passed through several abandoned villages. There's something pathetically childish in the ruins of grass walls. Day after day, with the stamp and shuffle of sixty pair of bare feet behind me, each pair under a 60-lb. load. Camp, cook, sleep, strike camp, march. Now and then a carrier dead in harness, at rest in the long grass near the path, with an empty water-gourd and his long staff lying by his side. A great silence around and above. Perhaps on some quiet night the tremor of far-off drums, sinking, swelling, a tremor vast, faint; a sound weird, appealing, suggestive, and wild-and perhaps with as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian country. Once a white man in an unbuttoned uniform, camping on the path with an armed escort of lank Zanzibaris, very hospitable and festive-- not to say drunk. Was looking after the upkeep of the road, he declared. Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullethole in the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles farther on, may be considered as a permanent improvement. I had a white companion too, not a bad chap, but rather too fleshy and with the exasperating habit of fainting on the hot hillsides, miles away from the least bit of shade and water. Annoying, you know, to hold your own coat like a parasol over a man's head while he is coming-to. I couldn't help asking him once what he meant by coming there at all. `To make money, of course. What do you think?' he said, scornfully. Then he got fever, and had to be carried in a hammock slung under a pole. As he weighed sixteen stone I had no end of rows with the carriers. They jibbed, ran away, sneaked off with their loads in the night-- quite a mutiny. So, one evening, I made a speech in English with gestures, not one of which was lost to the sixty
Thesaurus exasperating: (adj) annoying, bedstead. approximately, in the region of, more bothersome, maddening, infuriating, lank: (adj) gaunt, angular, emaciated, or less, something like, almost, so; (adv, n) hereabouts. trying, irritating, tedious, vexatious, meager, thin, skinny, spindly, spare, scrawny; (adj, v) lean, barren. traveling: (n) travel, journey, vexing, galling, exacerbating. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, pathetically: (adv) pitifully, piteously, travelling, commuting, commutation, peregrination, circumnavigation; (adj) pleasant, satisfying. sorrily, wretchedly, pitiably, fainting: (n) swoon, syncope, touchingly, sadly, poorly, miserably, riding, touring, nomadic, road. unbuttoned: (adj) unobstructed, deliquium, lipothymy, prostration, plaintively, distressingly. stupor; (adj) lipothymic. ANTONYMS: (adv) intelligently, untrammeled, unchecked, hammock: (n) berth, hill, cot, cradle, convincingly. unconfined, unprevented, thereabouts: (adj, adv) about; (adv) bed, crib, to lash a hammock, unhindered, uncaught, unrestrained, stretcher, shakedown, litter, nearly, generally, around, unlaced, unfastened, unconstrained.
24
Heart of Darkness
pairs %of eyes before me, and the next morning I started the hammock off in front all right. An hour afterwards I came upon the whole concern wrecked in a bush-man, hammock, groans, blankets, horrors. The heavy pole had skinned his poor nose. He was very anxious for me to kill somebody, but there wasn't the shadow of a carrier near. I remembered the old doctor,--'It would be interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals, on the spot.' I felt I was becoming scientifically interesting. However, all that is to no purpose. On the fifteenth day I came in sight of the big river again, and hobbled into the Central Station. It was on a back water surrounded by scrub and forest, with a pretty border of smelly mud on one side, and on the three others inclosed by a crazy fence of rushes. A neglected gap was all the gate it had, and the first glance at the place was enough to let you see the flabby devil was running that show. White men with long staves in their hands appeared languidly from amongst the buildings, strolling up to take a look at me, and then retired out of sight somewhere. One of them, a stout, excitable chap with black mustaches, informed me with great volubility and many digressions, as soon as I told him who I was, that my steamer was at the bottom of the river. I was thunderstruck. What, how, why? Oh, it was `all right.' The `manager himself' was there. All quite correct. `Everybody had behaved splendidly! splendidly!'--'you must,' he said in agitation, `go and see the general manager at once. He is waiting!' "I did not see the real significance of that wreck at once. I fancy I see it now, but I am not sure--not at all. Certainly the affair was too stupid--when I think of it--to be altogether natural. Still. . . . But at the moment it presented itself simply as a confounded nuisance. The steamer was sunk. They had started two days before in a sudden hurry up the river with the manager on board, in charge of some volunteer skipper, and before they had been out three hours they tore the bottom out of her on stones, and she sank near the south bank. I asked myself what I was to do there, now my boat was lost. As a matter of fact, I had plenty to do in fishing my command out of the river. I had to set about it the very next day. That, and the repairs when I brought the pieces to the station, took some months.
Thesaurus excitable: (adj) nervous, irritable, torpidly, indolently, impassively. abysmally, modestly, simply, ANTONYMS: (adv) dynamically, combustible, hasty, edgy, fiery, meagerly. steamer: (n) steamship, boat, liner, sensitive, volatile, passionate, warm, vigorously. quick. ANTONYMS: (adj) rushes: (n) rush, grasses. ship, Mya Arenaria, steam engine, skinned: (adj) scraped, dartos, unexcitable, calm, unflappable, sports car, roadster, clam, paddle easygoing, easy, tranquil, reliable, frustrated, raw, scratched, sensitive, steamer, cruise ship. tore: (v) tare; (n) moulding, molding. mild. sore, tender, painful. inclosed: (adj) confined, entrails, splendidly: (adv) gallantly, brilliantly, volubility: (adj, n) fluency; (n) included, internal, intestine. famously, beautifully, gloriously, eloquence, articulateness, gab, gift of languidly: (adv) languorously, gorgeously, resplendently, superbly, gab, smoothness, communicativeness, readiness; (adj) listlessly, wearily, lethargically, sumptuously, excellently, grandly. ANTONYMS: (adv) badly, terribly, slowly, dreamily, limply, weakly, flippancy.
Joseph Conrad
25
"My %first interview with the manager was curious. He did not ask me to sit down after my twenty-mile walk that morning. He was commonplace in complexion, in features, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an ax. But even at these times the rest of his person seemed to disclaim the intention. Otherwise there was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy--a smile--not a smile--I remember it, but I can't explain. It was unconscious, this smile was, though just after he had said something it got intensified for an instant. It came at the end of his speeches like a seal applied on the words to make the meaning of the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable. He was a common trader, from his youth up employed in these parts-- nothing more. He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was it! Uneasiness. Not a definite mistrust--just uneasiness--nothing more. You have no idea how effective such a . . . a . . . faculty can be. He had no genius for organizing, for initiative, or for order even. That was evident in such things as the deplorable state of the station. He had no learning, and no intelligence. His position had come to him--why? Perhaps because he was never ill . . . He had served three terms of three years out there . . . Because triumphant health in the general rout of constitutions is a kind of power in itself. When he went home on leave he rioted on a large scale-pompously. Jack ashore--with a difference--in externals only. This one could gather from his casual talk. He originated nothing, he could keep the routine going--that's all. But he was great. He was great by this little thing that it was impossible to tell what could control such a man. He never gave that secret away. Perhaps there was nothing within him. Such a suspicion made one pause- for out there there were no external checks. Once when various tropical diseases had laid low almost every `agent' in the station, he was heard to say, `Men who come out here should have no entrails.' He sealed the utterance with that smile of his, as though it had been a door opening into a darkness he had in his keeping. You fancied you had seen things--but the seal was on. When annoyed at meal-times by the constant quarrels of the white men about
Thesaurus checks: (n) dibs, cent. deplorable: (adj) sad, wretched, criminal, calamitous, abominable, pitiful, lamentable, miserable, regrettable, sorry; (adj, v) woeful. ANTONYMS: (adj) acceptable, pleasing, laudable, happy, cheerful, admirable, agreeable, excellent, fortunate, praiseworthy. disclaim: (v) deny, renounce, abjure, disavow, disown, abdicate, gainsay, waive, repudiate, disaffirm,
abnegate. ANTONYMS: (v) acknowledge, admit, accept. indefinable: (adj) ineffable, unspeakable, vague, indeterminate, undefinable, inexpressible, elusive, indefinite, undefined, nondescript, equivocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) concrete, precise. rout: (adj, n, v) defeat; (n, v) discomfiture, overthrow, discomfit; (v) conquer, overpower, overcome, crush, beat, overwhelm; (n) flight.
ANTONYMS: (v) lose, surrender. trenchant: (adj) incisive, keen, caustic, searching, acute; (adj, v) distinct, cutting, biting, severe, emphatic, pointed. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, kind, mild. uneasiness: (n) disquiet, discomfort, inquietude, anxiety, unease, malaise, disquietude, apprehension, unrest, impatience; (n, v) agitation. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, calm, confidence.
26
Heart of Darkness
precedence, he ordered an immense round table to be made, for which a special house had to be built. This was the station's mess-room. Where he sat was the first place--the rest were nowhere. One felt this to be his unalterable conviction. He was neither civil nor uncivil. He was quiet. He allowed his `boy'--an overfed young negro from the coast--to treat the white men, under his very eyes, with provoking insolence.% "He began to speak as soon as he saw me. I had been very long on the road. He could not wait. Had to start without me. The up-river stations had to be relieved. There had been so many delays already that he did not know who was dead and who was alive, and how they got on--and so on, and so on. He paid no attention to my explanations, and, playing with a stick of sealing-wax, repeated several times that the situation was `very grave, very grave.' There were rumors that a very important station was in jeopardy, and its chief, Mr. Kurtz, was ill. Hoped it was not true. Mr. Kurtz was . . . I felt weary and irritable. Hang Kurtz, I thought. I interrupted him by saying I had heard of Mr. Kurtz on the coast. `Ah! So they talk of him down there,' he murmured to himself. Then he began again, assuring me Mr. Kurtz was the best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the Company; therefore I could understand his anxiety. He was, he said, `very, very uneasy.' Certainly he fidgeted on his chair a good deal, exclaimed, `Ah, Mr. Kurtz!' broke the stick of sealing-wax and seemed dumbfounded by the accident. Next thing he wanted to know `how long it would take to' . . . I interrupted him again. Being hungry, you know, and kept on my feet too, I was getting savage. `How could I tell,' I said. `I hadn't even seen the wreck yet-- some months, no doubt.' All this talk seemed to me so futile. `Some months,' he said. `Well, let us say three months before we can make a start. Yes. That ought to do the affair.' I flung out of his hut (he lived all alone in a clay hut with a sort of veranda) muttering to myself my opinion of him. He was a chattering idiot. Afterwards I took it back when it was borne in upon me startlingly with what extreme nicety he had estimated the time requisite for the `affair.' "I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back on that station. In
Thesaurus assuring: (adj) ensuring, insure, exactitude, justness, precision, immutable, permanent, invariable, insuring, assure, ensure, giving correctness, daintiness, elegance. firm, changeless, rigid, stable, overfed: (adj) swollen, distended, full, irrevocable, unchangeable. confidence, securing, likely, ANTONYMS: (adj) alterable, promising. overstuffed, overweight, replete, dumbfounded: (adj) astounded, stuffed. impermanent, temporary, fluid, startlingly: (adv) wonderfully, amazed, staggered, stupefied, flexible. uncivil: (adj) discourteous, speechless, stunned, bewildered, astonishingly, amazingly, dazed, taken aback, flabbergasted, astoundingly, shockingly, disrespectful, impolite, coarse, surprised. ANTONYMS: (adj) aware, remarkably, unexpectedly, brusque, curt, blunt, barbarous, short; (adj, n) rough, harsh. unsurprised. staggeringly, marvelously, nicety: (n) detail, exactness, ANTONYMS: (adj) polite, courteous, alarmingly, strikingly. unalterable: (adj) constant, inalterable, gracious. fastidiousness, nuance, refinement,
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that way only it seemed to me I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life. Still, one must look about sometimes; and then I saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. I asked myself sometimes what it all meant. They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. The word `ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. By Jove! I've never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.% "Oh, these months! Well, never mind. Various things happened. One evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and I don't know what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you would have thought the earth had opened to let an avenging fire consume all that trash. I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high, when the stout man with mustaches came tearing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that everybody was `behaving splendidly, splendidly,' dipped about a quart of water and tore back again. I noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail. "I strolled up. There was no hurry. You see the thing had gone off like a box of matches. It had been hopeless from the very first. The flame had leaped high, driven everybody back, lighted up everything-- and collapsed. The shed was already a heap of embers glowing fiercely. A nigger was being beaten near by. They said he had caused the fire in some way; be that as it may, he was screeching most horribly. I saw him, later on, for several days, sitting in a bit of shade looking very sick and trying to recover himself: afterwards he arose and went out-- and the wilderness without a sound took him into its bosom again. As I approached the glow from the dark I found myself at the back of two men, talking. I heard the name of Kurtz pronounced, then the words, `take advantage
Thesaurus avenging: (adj) justificatory, vindictive, vengeful, rigorous, ruthless, retributive, retributory; (n) revenge, vengeance, eye for an eye, reprisal. bewitched: (adj) enchanted, fascinated, infatuated, magical, ensorcelled, doomed, captive, rapt, enamored, obsessed. ANTONYM: (adj) disgusted. calico: (n) cambric, fabric, cashmere, chintz, cloth; (adj) motley,
varicoloured, pied, assorted. cannikin, pails, skeel, tankard, pot, faithless: (adj) dishonest, false, pipkin, vessel. quart: (n) quartile, quartic, traitorous, treacherous, unfaithful, deceitful, untrustworthy, untrue, quartilunar, quartole, quartlet, truthless, mendacious, perfidious. quarts, quarto, quarter. ANTONYMS: (adj) loyal, steadfast, rapacity: (adj, n) greed, avarice; (n) true, honest. cupidity, edacity, covetousness, imbecile: (adj) foolish, idiotic, fatuous, rapaciousness, esurience, extortion, dumb, imbecilic, simple; (n) idiot, gluttony, voracity; (adj) avidity. moron, cretin, ass, oaf. ANTONYM: screeching: (n) screaming, screech, (adj) genius. shrieking, belly laugh, howler, shriek, pail: (n) bucketful, jug, tub, pailful, riot; (adj) shrill, harsh, strident.
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of %this unfortunate accident.' One of the men was the manager. I wished him a good evening. `Did you ever see anything like it-- eh? it is incredible,' he said, and walked off. The other man remained. He was a first-class agent, young, gentlemanly, a bit reserved, with a forked little beard and a hooked nose. He was stand-offish with the other agents, and they on their side said he was the manager's spy upon them. As to me, I had hardly ever spoken to him before. We got into talk, and by-and-by we strolled away from the hissing ruins. Then he asked me to his room, which was in the main building of the station. He struck a match, and I perceived that this young aristocrat had not only a silver-mounted dressing-case but also a whole candle all to himself. Just at that time the manager was the only man supposed to have any right to candles. Native mats covered the clay walls; a collection of spears, assegais, shields, knives was hung up in trophies. The business intrusted to this fellow was the making of bricks-- so I had been informed; but there wasn't a fragment of a brick anywhere in the station, and he had been there more than a year--waiting. It seems he could not make bricks without something, I don't know what--straw maybe. Anyways, it could not be found there, and as it was not likely to be sent from Europe, it did not appear clear to me what he was waiting for. An act of special creation perhaps. However, they were all waiting-- all the sixteen or twenty pilgrims of them--for something; and upon my word it did not seem an uncongenial occupation, from the way they took it, though the only thing that ever came to them was disease-- as far as I could see. They beguiled the time by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way. There was an air of plotting about that station, but nothing came of it, of course. It was as unreal as everything else--as the philanthropic pretense of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work. The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages. They intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on that account,-- but as to effectually lifting a little finger--oh, no. By heavens! there is something after all in the world allowing one man to steal a horse while another must not look at a halter. Steal a horse straight out. Very well. He has done it. Perhaps he can ride. But there is a way of looking at a halter that would
Thesaurus aristocrat: (n) noble, swell, patrician, magnate, lord, leader, courtier, nobleman, rajah, princess, prince. backbiting: (n) scandal, defamation, slander, disparagement, aspersion, calumny, denigration, traducement, obloquy, depreciation, criticism. ANTONYMS: (n) praise, acclaim; (adj) kind. beguiled: (adj) entranced, rapt, fascinated, infatuated, enchanted, delighted, charmed, captive,
captivated. rude, unbecoming. bricks: (n) walk, highway. halter: (n) gibbet, rein, bridle, gallows, effectually: (adv) efficaciously, rope, noose, cestus, collar, drop; (v) effectively, validly, adequately, confine, cramp. philanthropic: (adj) benevolent, potently, tellingly, strongly, decisively; (adj) nicely, fully, head charitable, humanitarian, humane, and shoulders. ANTONYM: (adv) kind, eleemosynary, generous, ineffectually. beneficent, kindly, munificent, good. gentlemanly: (adj) courteous, polite, ANTONYMS: (adj) selfish, miserly, chivalrous, refined, gallant, suave, nasty, mean. mannerly, genteel, gentle, well-bred; slandered: (adj) bespattered, (n) gentleman. ANTONYMS: (adj) calumniated.
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provoke the most charitable of saints into a kick.% "I had no idea why he wanted to be sociable, but as we chatted in there it suddenly occurred to me the fellow was trying to get at something-- in fact, pumping me. He alluded constantly to Europe, to the people I was supposed to know there--putting leading questions as to my acquaintances in the sepulchral city, and so on. His little eyes glittered like mica discs-- with curiosity,--though he tried to keep up a bit of superciliousness. At first I was astonished, but very soon I became awfully curious to see what he would find out from me. I couldn't possibly imagine what I had in me to make it worth his while. It was very pretty to see how he baffled himself, for in truth my body was full of chills, and my head had nothing in it but that wretched steamboat business. It was evident he took me for a perfectly shameless prevaricator. At last he got angry, and to conceal a movement of furious annoyance, he yawned. I rose. Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was somber--almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister. "It arrested me, and he stood by civilly, holding a half-pint champagne bottle (medical comforts) with the candle stuck in it. To my question he said Mr. Kurtz had painted this--in this very station more than a year ago-- while waiting for means to go to his trading-post. `Tell me, pray,' said I, `who is this Mr. Kurtz?' "`The chief of the Inner Station,' he answered in a short tone, looking away. `Much obliged,' I said, laughing. `And you are the brickmaker of the Central Station. Everyone knows that.' He was silent for a while. `He is a prodigy,' he said at last. `He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else. We want,' he began to declaim suddenly, `for the guidance of the cause intrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.' `Who says that?' I asked. `Lots of them,' he replied. `Some even write that; and so HE comes here, a special being, as you ought to know.' `Why ought I to know?' I interrupted, really surprised. He paid
Thesaurus acquaintances: (n) associates. singleness: (n) sincerity, boy. civilly: (adv) politely, respectfully, mica: (n) lepidolite, biotite, nacre, bachelorhood, bachelorship, graciously, complaisantly, urbanely, mineral, glimmer, Muscovite, unmarried, single, loyalty, oneness, polishedly, considerately, phlogopite, paragonite, glist, spinsterhood, concentration, unity, domestically, genteelly, obligingly, Muscovy glass. straightforwardness. refinedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) prevaricator: (n) liar, fabricator, superciliousness: (n) arrogance, abruptly, uncivilly. perjurer, fibber, trickster, cheater, haughtiness, condescension, declaim: (v) recite, denounce, perform, cheat, deceiver, false witness. disdainfulness, pride, discourse, lecture, condemn, execute, sepulchral: (adj, v) hollow, hoarse; (v) contemptuousness, narrate, inveigh; (n) speechify, mortuary, harsh, rough, horrisonous, condescendingness, airs, conceit, grum; (adj) ghastly, raucous, husky; insult, loftiness. ANTONYMS: (n) flourish. half-pint: (adj) puny, stunted; (n) lad, (n) funeral. humility, respect.
30
Heart of Darkness
no %attention. `Yes. To-day he is chief of the best station, next year he will be assistant-manager, two years more and . . . but I dare say you know what he will be in two years' time. You are of the new gang--the gang of virtue. The same people who sent him specially also recommended you. Oh, don't say no. I've my own eyes to trust.' Light dawned upon me. My dear aunt's influential acquaintances were producing an unexpected effect upon that young man. I nearly burst into a laugh. `Do you read the Company's confidential correspondence?' I asked. He hadn't a word to say. It was great fun. `When Mr. Kurtz,' I continued severely, `is General Manager, you won't have the opportunity.' "He blew the candle out suddenly, and we went outside. The moon had risen. Black figures strolled about listlessly, pouring water on the glow, whence proceeded a sound of hissing; steam ascended in the moonlight, the beaten nigger groaned somewhere. `What a row the brute makes!' said the indefatigable man with the mustaches, appearing near us. `Serve him right. Transgression--punishment--bang! Pitiless, pitiless. That's the only way. This will prevent all conflagrations for the future. I was just telling the manager . . .' He noticed my companion, and became crestfallen all at once. `Not in bed yet,' he said, with a kind of servile heartiness; `it's so natural. Ha! Danger--agitation.' He vanished. I went on to the river-side, and the other followed me. I heard a scathing murmur at my ear, `Heap of muffs--go to.' The pilgrims could be seen in knots gesticulating, discussing. Several had still their staves in their hands. I verily believe they took these sticks to bed with them. Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through the dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one's very heart,--its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life. The hurt nigger moaned feebly somewhere near by, and then fetched a deep sigh that made me mend my pace away from there. I felt a hand introducing itself under my arm. `My dear sir,' said the fellow, `I don't want to be misunderstood, and especially by you, who will see Mr. Kurtz long before I can have that pleasure. I wouldn't like him to get a false idea of my disposition. . . .'
Thesaurus crestfallen: (adj) dejected, gloomy, depressed, disconsolate, discouraged, dispirited, downcast, chopfallen, downhearted, low, despondent. ANTONYMS: (adj) up, cheered, cheerful, elated, happy, euphoric, inspirited, idealistic, enthusiastic. gesticulating: (adj) communicative. heartiness: (n) eagerness, fervor, geniality, zeal, sincerity, wholeheartedness, inwardness, ardor, avidity, craving; (adj, n)
nigger: (adj) blackamoor, Negro, man hospitality. indefatigable: (adj) tireless, assiduous, of color; (n) darky, spade, darkie, unflagging, untiring, inexhaustible, boy, jigaboo, black person, Ethiop, energetic, unremitting, indomitable, nigra. servile: (adj) abject, obsequious, base, laborious, unwearying, unwearied. ANTONYMS: (adj) idle, feeble, fawning, ignoble, sordid, subservient, cringing, slavish; (adj, n) mean, low. unrelenting, weary. listlessly: (adv) sluggishly, spiritlessly, ANTONYMS: (adj) bossy, assertive. spectrally: (adv) shadowily, ghastly, indifferently, languidly, slowly, weakly, indolently, supinely, lazily, visionarily, insubstantially, inanimately, slackly. ANTONYMS: phantasmally, spiritually, (adv) brightly, nimbly. supernaturally.
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"I %let him run on, this papier-mache Mephistopheles, and it seemed to me that if I tried I could poke my forefinger through him, and would find nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe. He, don't you see, had been planning to be assistant-manager by-and-by under the present man, and I could see that the coming of that Kurtz had upset them both not a little. He talked precipitately, and I did not try to stop him. I had my shoulders against the wreck of my steamer, hauled up on the slope like a carcass of some big river animal. The smell of mud, of primeval mud, by Jove! was in my nostrils, the high stillness of primeval forest was before my eyes; there were shiny patches on the black creek. The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver-- over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple, over the great river I could see through a somber gap glittering, glittering, as it flowed broadly by without a murmur. All this was great, expectant, mute, while the man jabbered about himself. I wondered whether the stillness on the face of the immensity looking at us two were meant as an appeal or as a menace. What were we who had strayed in here? Could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us? I felt how big, how confoundedly big, was that thing that couldn't talk, and perhaps was deaf as well. What was in there? I could see a little ivory coming out from there, and I had heard Mr. Kurtz was in there. I had heard enough about it too-- God knows! Yet somehow it didn't bring any image with it-- no more than if I had been told an angel or a fiend was in there. I believed it in the same way one of you might believe there are inhabitants in the planet Mars. I knew once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, there were people in Mars. If you asked him for some idea how they looked and behaved, he would get shy and mutter something about `walking on all-fours.' If you as much as smiled, he would--though a man of sixty-- offer to fight you. I would not have gone so far as to fight for Kurtz, but I went for him near enough to a lie. You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavor of mortality in lies,-- which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world-- what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do. Temperament, I suppose. Well, I went near
Thesaurus carcass: (n) body, frame, corpse, flavor: (n) relish, tang, smell, aroma, impulsively, foolhardily, salt; (n, v) taste, flavour, smack; (v) prematurely; (adj, adv) headlong. cadaver, framework, shell, carrion, ANTONYM: (adv) deliberately. remains, dead body, skeleton, bomb. spice, season, sauce. ANTONYMS: confoundedly: (adj) tremendously, (n) staleness, blandness, emptiness. sailmaker: (n) blacksmith, matted: (adj) entangled, tangled, severely, desperately, with a wheelwright, shaper, maker. vengeance; (adv) confusedly, taint: (n, v) blemish, disgrace, corrupt, knotted, flat, matt, matte, knotty, spot, blot; (adj, v) defile, sully, accursedly, abashedly, bewilderedly, fixed, kinky, twisted; (v) crossed. ANTONYMS: (adj) tidy, straight, pollute, contaminate; (n) pollution, cursedly, puzzledly, extremely. fiend: (n) monster, devil, fanatic, contamination. ANTONYMS: (v) free. precipitately: (adv) rashly, brute, deuce, incubus, goblin, ogre, enhance, right, respect, disinfect, enthusiast, daemon, addict. immediately, instantly, passionately, clean; (n) perfection, cleanliness; (adv) ANTONYM: (n) angel. rapidly, precipitously, impetuously, cheerfully.
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enough to it by letting the young fool there believe anything he liked to imagine as to my influence in Europe. I became in an instant as much of a pretense as the rest of the bewitched pilgrims. This simply because I had a notion it somehow would be of help to that Kurtz whom at the time I did not see--you understand. He was just a word for me. I did not see the man in the name any more than you do. Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything? It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream--making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams. . . ." He was silent for a while.% ". . . No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence,--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone. . . ." He paused again as if reflecting, then added-"Of course in this you fellows see more than I could then. You see me, whom you know. . . ." It had become so pitch dark that we listeners could hardly see one another. For a long time already he, sitting apart, had been no more to us than a voice. There was not a word from anybody. The others might have been asleep, but I was awake. I listened, I listened on the watch for the sentence, for the word, that would give me the clew to the faint uneasiness inspired by this narrative that seemed to shape itself without human lips in the heavy night-air of the river. ". . . Yes--I let him run on," Marlow began again, "and think what he pleased about the powers that were behind me. I did! And there was nothing behind me! There was nothing but that wretched, old, mangled steamboat I was leaning against, while he talked fluently about `the necessity for every man to get on.' `And when one comes out here, you conceive, it is not to gaze at the moon.' Mr. Kurtz was a `universal genius,' but even a genius would find it easier to work
Thesaurus absurdity: (n) absurdness, nonsense, introvenient. damaged, blasted. epoch: (n) era, date, period, day, penetrating: (adj) astute, sharp, silliness, nonsensicality, meaninglessness, illogicality, season, time, term, cycle, crisis, date cutting, discerning, incisive, piercing, stupidity, folly, fatuity, idiocy, of reference, times. perceptive, discriminating, trenchant; preposterousness. ANTONYMS: (n) fluently: (adv) easily, glibly, (adj, v) biting, acute. ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, soft, mellow, low, gentle, logic, reasonableness, worthiness, eloquently, liquidly, flowingly, solemnity, sensibleness. articulately, clearly, persuasively, dull, dense. clew: (n) cue, clod, glob, knob, tremor: (n, v) shiver, quake, shudder, verbosely, talkatively, fluidly. footmark, footprint, vestige; (v) point ANTONYM: (adv) awkwardly. shake; (n) agitation, vibration, out; (adj) pellet, globule, Pelote. mangled: (adj, prep) lacerated, rent; earthquake, convulsion; (adj, v) commingling: (n) intercourse, (adj) deformed, mutilated, lacerate, flutter; (adj, n) trepidation; (v) association, commerce; (adj) disabled, broken, maimed, distorted, tremble.
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with `adequate tools--intelligent men.' He did not make bricks--why, there was a physical impossibility in the way--as I was well aware; and if he did secretarial work for the manager, it was because `no sensible man rejects wantonly the confidence of his superiors.' Did I see it? I saw it. What more did I want? What I really wanted was rivets, by heaven! Rivets. To get on with the work--to stop the hole. Rivets I wanted. There were cases of them down at the coast-- cases-piled up--burst--split! You kicked a loose rivet at every second step in that station yard on the hillside. Rivets had rolled into the grove of death. You could fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble of stooping down-- and there wasn't one rivet to be found where it was wanted. We had plates that would do, but nothing to fasten them with. And every week the messenger, a lone negro, letterbag on shoulder and staff in hand, left our station for the coast. And several times a week a coast caravan came in with trade goods,-- ghastly glazed calico that made you shudder only to look at it, glass beads value about a penny a quart, confounded spotted cotton handkerchiefs. And no rivets. Three carriers could have brought all that was wanted to set that steamboat afloat.% "He was becoming confidential now, but I fancy my unresponsive attitude must have exasperated him at last, for he judged it necessary to inform me he feared neither God nor devil, let alone any mere man. I said I could see that very well, but what I wanted was a certain quantity of rivets--and rivets were what really Mr. Kurtz wanted, if he had only known it. Now letters went to the coast every week. . . . `My dear sir,' he cried, `I write from dictation.' I demanded rivets. There was a way--for an intelligent man. He changed his manner; became very cold, and suddenly began to talk about a hippopotamus; wondered whether sleeping on board the steamer (I stuck to my salvage night and day) I wasn't disturbed. There was an old hippo that had the bad habit of getting out on the bank and roaming at night over the station grounds. The pilgrims used to turn out in a body and empty every rifle they could lay hands on at him. Some even had sat up o' nights for him. All this energy was wasted, though. `That animal has a charmed life,' he said; `but you can say this only of brutes in this country. No man--you apprehend me?--no man here bears a charmed life.' He stood there for a moment in the moonlight with his delicate hooked nose set a
Thesaurus apprehend: (v) arrest, comprehend, grasp, catch, understand, fathom, realize, sense, follow, nail; (adj, v) conceive. ANTONYMS: (v) misunderstand, discharge, free, liberate. hippo: (n) hippopotamus amphibius, artiodactyl mammal, river horse; (adj) obese. hippopotamus: (adj) behemoth, elephant, cachalot, leviathan, porpoise; (n) hippopotamus
corrupt; (n) patronage. amphibius, artiodactyl mammal, unresponsive: (adj) cold, apathetic, Hippo Regius, pachyderm, zeekoe, river horse. insensitive, unaffected, cool, dull, rivet: (v) focus, concentrate, clinch, unreactive, chill, dead, unemotional, undemonstrative. ANTONYMS: (adj) fascinate, center, absorb, engross, enthrall; (adj) nail, pin, clamp. enthusiastic, sympathetic, spirited, roaming: (adj) wandering, roving, alive, sensitive, expressive, errant, itinerant, Peripatetic, concerned, emotional. traveling, vagabond, astray; (n) wantonly: (adv) licentiously, loosely, ramble, journey, ubiquity. lasciviously, recklessly, lightly, stooping: (adj) hunched, crooked, wildly, dissolutely, dissipatedly, asymmetrical, not erect, not straight, easily, sportively, waywardly.
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Heart of Darkness
little askew, and his mica eyes glittering without a wink, then, with a curt Good night, he strode off. I could see he was disturbed and considerably puzzled, which made me feel more hopeful than I had been for days. It was a great comfort to turn from that chap to my influential friend, the battered, twisted, ruined, tin-pot steamboat. I clambered on board. She rang under my feet like an empty Huntley & Palmer biscuit-tin kicked along a gutter; she was nothing so solid in make, and rather less pretty in shape, but I had expended enough hard work on her to make me love her. No influential friend would have served me better. She had given me a chance to come out a bit--to find out what I could do. No, I don't like work. I had rather laze about and think of all the fine things that can be done. I don't like work--no man does-- but I like what is in the work,--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself, not for others--what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.% "I was not surprised to see somebody sitting aft, on the deck, with his legs dangling over the mud. You see I rather chummed with the few mechanics there were in that station, whom the other pilgrims naturally despised--on account of their imperfect manners, I suppose. This was the foreman--a boiler-maker by trade--a good worker. He was a lank, bony, yellow-faced man, with big intense eyes. His aspect was worried, and his head was as bald as the palm of my hand; but his hair in falling seemed to have stuck to his chin, and had prospered in the new locality, for his beard hung down to his waist. He was a widower with six young children (he had left them in charge of a sister of his to come out there), and the passion of his life was pigeon-flying. He was an enthusiast and a connoisseur. He would rave about pigeons. After work hours he used sometimes to come over from his hut for a talk about his children and his pigeons; at work, when he had to crawl in the mud under the bottom of the steamboat, he would tie up that beard of his in a kind of white serviette he brought for the purpose. It had loops to go over his ears. In the evening he could be seen squatted on the bank rinsing that wrapper in the creek with great care, then spreading it solemnly on a bush to dry.
Thesaurus connoisseur: (n) critic, authority, civil, lengthy, rambling, voluble, specialist, expert, cognoscenti, caring, loquacious, convoluted. expended: (adj) spent, finished, dead, savant, scholar, gourmet, arbiter, epicurean; (v) judge. ANTONYMS: departed, unpursed, bypast, bygone, (n) dabbler, tyro. deceased, gone, completely creek: (n) brook, cove, bay, stream, exhausted; (v) expending. inlet, river, bayou, rivulet; (v) burn, laze: (v) loaf, lounge, slug, bask, loll, runnel, beck. slouch, loiter, dawdle, stretch out, curt: (adj) concise, brief, abrupt, short, rest; (n) idleness. ANTONYM: (v) brusque, crisp, terse, laconic, rude, work. churlish, crusty. ANTONYMS: (adj) rinsing: (n) flushing, washing, polite, friendly, courteous, gracious, spraying, removal, remotion.
serviette: (n) table napkin, bib, diaper, dinner napkin, napery, nappy, protect clothing, paper napkin. widower: (n) adult male, widowman, man. wink: (n, v) twinkle, blink, flash; (n) instant, twinkling, trice; (v) sparkle, nictitate, flicker, nictate, leer. wrapper: (n) cover, wrap, cloak, peignoir, housecoat, neglige, envelope, wrapping, covering, dust cover, mantle.
Joseph Conrad
35
"I slapped him on the back and shouted, `We shall have rivets!' He scrambled to his feet exclaiming `No! Rivets!' as though he couldn't believe his ears. Then in a low voice, `You . . . eh?' I don't know why we behaved like lunatics. I put my finger to the side of my nose and nodded mysteriously. `Good for you!' he cried, snapped his fingers above his head, lifting one foot. I tried a jig. We capered on the iron deck. A frightful clatter came out of that hulk, and the virgin forest on the other bank of the creek sent it back in a thundering roll upon the sleeping station. It must have made some of the pilgrims sit up in their hovels. A dark figure obscured the lighted doorway of the manager's hut, vanished, then, a second or so after, the doorway itself vanished too. We stopped, and the silence driven away by the stamping of our feet flowed back again from the recesses of the land. The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of plants, piled up, crested, ready to topple over the creek, to sweep every little man of us out of his little existence. And it moved not. A deadened burst of mighty splashes and snorts reached us from afar, as though an ichthyosaurus had been taking a bath of glitter in the great river. `After all,' said the boiler-maker in a reasonable tone, `why shouldn't we get the rivets?' Why not, indeed! I did not know of any reason why we shouldn't. `They'll come in three weeks,' I said confidently.% "But they didn't. Instead of rivets there came an invasion, an infliction, a visitation. It came in sections during the next three weeks, each section headed by a donkey carrying a white man in new clothes and tan shoes, bowing from that elevation right and left to the impressed pilgrims. A quarrelsome band of footsore sulky niggers trod on the heels of the donkeys; a lot of tents, campstools, tin boxes, white cases, brown bales would be shot down in the courtyard, and the air of mystery would deepen a little over the muddle of the station. Five such installments came, with their absurd air of disorderly flight with the loot of innumerable outfit shops and provision stores, that, one would think, they were lugging, after a raid, into the wilderness for equitable division. It was an inextricable mess of things decent in themselves but that human folly made look like the spoils of thieving.
Thesaurus deadened: (adj) dead, numb, numbed, without sensation, duller, unfeeling, under, frozen, insensible, insensitive, knocked out. entangled: (adj) complicated, intricate, embroiled, complex, foul, confused, matted, tangled, inextricable, knotty; (v) entangle. exclaiming: (n) deuce, Dickens, ejaculation, exclaim, devil, interjection, ecphonesis. footsore: (adj) tired, fatigued; (v)
toilworn. bottomless, fathomless, inextricable: (adj) insoluble, intricate, unfathomable, hushed, motionless. thieving: (n) larceny, stealing, robbery, involved, perplexed, inaccessible, entangled, impervious, impassable, embezzlement, misapplication, knotty; (v) inseparable, infrangible. misappropriation, peculation, infliction: (adj) affliction; (n) defalcation, burglary, thievery; (adj) punishment, annoyance, imposition, thievish. ANTONYMS: (adj) discipline, worry, penalty, nuisance, philanthropic, benevolent. visitation: (v) visit, examination; (n) bother, hardship, misery. lugging: (n) food. tribulation, calamity, annoyance, soundless: (adj) silent, dumb, misfortune, irritation, infliction, noiseless, still, mute, voiceless, inspection, test, ordeal.
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Heart of Darkness
"This devoted band called itself the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, and I believe they were sworn to secrecy. Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world. To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe. Who paid the expenses of the noble enterprise I don't know; but the uncle of our manager was leader of that lot.% "In exterior he resembled a butcher in a poor neighborhood, and his eyes had a look of sleepy cunning. He carried his fat paunch with ostentation on his short legs, and during the time his gang infested the station spoke to no one but his nephew. You could see these two roaming about all day long with their heads close together in an everlasting confab. "I had given up worrying myself about the rivets. One's capacity for that kind of folly is more limited than you would suppose. I said Hang!--and let things slide. I had plenty of time for meditation, and now and then I would give some thought to Kurtz. I wasn't very interested in him. No. Still, I was curious to see whether this man, who had come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort, would climb to the top after all, and how he would set about his work when there."
Thesaurus audacity: (n) nerve, audaciousness, gossip, consult, confer, collogue, claver, chatter; (n, v) talk; (n) effrontery, arrogance, temerity, cheek, impertinence, insolence, confabulation, discussion. courage; (n, v) impudence; (adj, n) hardihood: (v) audacity; (n) courage, presumption. ANTONYMS: (n) daring, boldness, temerity, fearlessness, fortitude, brass; (adj, n) cowardice, propriety, decorum, face, guts; (n, v) assurance. circumspection, courtesy, fear, ANTONYMS: (n) frailty, timidity. respect, spinelessness, reticence. bowels: (n) gut, compassion, pity, infested: (adj) crawling, swarming, inside, bowel, viscera, innards, belly, polluted, overrun, malodorous, beset, guts, insides, intestines. diseased, contaminated, infected. confab: (v) chitchat, confabulate, legs: (v) pegs, trotters, pins; (n)
patience, pedestal, stamina. neighborhood: (n) vicinity, district, area, community, locality, place, quarter, environs, section; (adj) neighboring, local. ostentation: (n) affectation, bravado, parade, showiness, flourish, vanity, pomp, splendor, bluster, state, show. ANTONYM: (n) unpretentiousness. paunch: (n) belly, abdomen, stomach, corporation, pot, breadbasket, maw, fat, gut, ventricle, potbelly.
Joseph Conrad
PART
37
%II
"One evening as I was lying flat on the deck of my steamboat, I heard voices approaching--and there were the nephew and the uncle strolling along the bank. I laid my head on my arm again, and had nearly lost myself in a doze, when somebody said in my ear, as it were: `I am as harmless as a little child, but I don't like to be dictated to. Am I the manager--or am I not? I was ordered to send him there. It's incredible.' . . . I became aware that the two were standing on the shore alongside the forepart of the steamboat, just below my head. I did not move; it did not occur to me to move: I was sleepy. `It IS unpleasant,' grunted the uncle. `He has asked the Administration to be sent there,' said the other, `with the idea of showing what he could do; and I was instructed accordingly. Look at the influence that man must have. Is it not frightful?' They both agreed it was frightful, then made several bizarre remarks: `Make rain and fine weather-one man--the Council--by the nose'-- bits of absurd sentences that got the better of my drowsiness, so that I had pretty near the whole of my wits about me when the uncle said, `The climate may do away with this difficulty for you. Is he alone there?' `Yes,' answered the manager; `he sent his assistant down the river with a note to me in these terms: "Clear this poor devil out of the country, and don't bother sending more of that sort. I had rather be alone than have the kind of men you can dispose of with me." It was more than a year ago. Can you imagine such impudence!' `Anything since then?' asked the other, hoarsely. `Ivory,' jerked the nephew; `lots of it--prime sort--lots--most annoying, from him.' `And
Thesaurus annoying: (adj) galling, vexatious, aggravating, vexing, worrying, awkward, trying, bothersome, disagreeable; (adj, v) irritating; (n) annoyance. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, delightful, pleasant, charming, satisfying, welcome, convenient. doze: (n, v) snooze, sleep, slumber, drowse, siesta, forty winks, rest; (v) catnap, nod, coma, nod off. ANTONYM: (v) wake.
drowsiness: (n) sleepiness, lethargy, ANTONYMS: (adj) wonderful, dullness, doziness, laziness, calming, soothing, pleasant, lovely, somnolency, inertia, drowse, fair. hoarsely: (adv) roughly, huskily, lassitude, languor, sluggishness. ANTONYM: (n) alertness. raucously, gruffly, throatily, forepart: (n) front, fore, head, side, gratingly, stridently, gutturally, face, bow, figurehead, fore part, front thickly, croakily, raggedly. ANTONYM: (adv) smoothly. end, battlefront. frightful: (adj, v) fearful; (adj) wits: (n) intellect, mind, wit, brains, formidable, awful, fearsome, common sense, presence, appalling, gruesome, horrible, percipience, observation, mother wit, terrible, dread, frightening, grim. right mind, judgment.
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Heart of Darkness
with that?' questioned the heavy rumble. `Invoice,' was the reply fired out, so to speak. Then silence. They had been talking about Kurtz.% "I was broad awake by this time, but, lying perfectly at ease, remained still, having no inducement to change my position. `How did that ivory come all this way?' growled the elder man, who seemed very vexed. The other explained that it had come with a fleet of canoes in charge of an English half-caste clerk Kurtz had with him; that Kurtz had apparently intended to return himself, the station being by that time bare of goods and stores, but after coming three hundred miles, had suddenly decided to go back, which he started to do alone in a small dug-out with four paddlers, leaving the half-caste to continue down the river with the ivory. The two fellows there seemed astounded at anybody attempting such a thing. They were at a loss for an adequate motive. As to me, I seemed to see Kurtz for the first time. It was a distinct glimpse: the dug-out, four paddling savages, and the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters, on relief, on thoughts of home--perhaps; setting his face towards the depths of the wilderness, towards his empty and desolate station. I did not know the motive. Perhaps he was just simply a fine fellow who stuck to his work for its own sake. His name, you understand, had not been pronounced once. He was `that man.' The half-caste, who, as far as I could see, had conducted a difficult trip with great prudence and pluck, was invariably alluded to as `that scoundrel.' The `scoundrel' had reported that the `man' had been very ill--had recovered imperfectly. . . . The two below me moved away then a few paces, and strolled back and forth at some little distance. I heard: `Military post--doctor-two hundred miles--quite alone now-- unavoidable delays--nine months--no news--strange rumors.' They approached again, just as the manager was saying, `No one, as far as I know, unless a species of wandering trader-- a pestilential fellow, snapping ivory from the natives.' Who was it they were talking about now? I gathered in snatches that this was some man supposed to be in Kurtz's district, and of whom the manager did not approve. `We will not be free from unfair competition till one of these fellows is hanged for an example,' he said. `Certainly,' grunted the other; `get him hanged! Why not? Anything--anything can be done in this country. That's what I say; nobody here, you understand,
Thesaurus astounded: (adj) amazed, stunned, flabbergasted, bewildered, dumbfounded, surprised, staggered, astonied, dazed, astound, aghast. imperfectly: (adv) faultily, defectively, badly, deficiently, incompletely, partially, poorly, inadequately, sketchily, incorrectly, halfway. ANTONYMS: (adv) perfectly, flawlessly, correctly, well. inducement: (n) enticement, attraction, cause, incitement, impulse,
temptation, bait, impetus, occasion, motive, goad. ANTONYMS: (n) disincentive, deterrent. paddling: (n) defeat, boating. pestilential: (adj) pernicious, pestiferous, noxious, contagious, infectious, malignant, deadly, destructive, baneful, harmful, catching. pluck: (adj, n) nerve; (v) cull, jerk, gather, pick, fleece, grab; (n) grit, courage, boldness; (n, v) pull.
ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, gutlessness; (v) undercharge. rumble: (n, v) murmur, roll, roar, grumble, mutter, bang, brawl, sound; (v) growl; (n) peal, noise. snapping: (adj) noisy. snatches: (n) grasp, gain, catch. vexed: (adj) troubled, irritated, angry, pestered, peeved, harassed, sore, harried, uneasy, cross, offended. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, uncomplicated.
Joseph Conrad
39
HERE, can endanger your position. And why? You stand the climate--you outlast them all. The danger is in Europe; but there before I left I took care to--' They moved off and whispered, then their voices rose again. `The extraordinary series of delays is not my fault. I did my possible.' The fat man sighed, `Very sad.' `And the pestiferous absurdity of his talk,' continued the other; `he bothered me enough when he was here. "Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a center for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing." Conceive you--that ass! And he wants to be manager! No, it's--' Here he got choked by excessive indignation, and I lifted my head the least bit. I was surprised to see how near they were--right under me. I could have spat upon their hats. They were looking on the ground, absorbed in thought. The manager was switching his leg with a slender twig: his sagacious relative lifted his head. `You have been well since you came out this time?' he asked. The other gave a start. `Who? I? Oh! Like a charm--like a charm. But the rest--oh, my goodness! All sick. They die so quick, too, that I haven't the time to send them out of the country-- it's incredible!' `H'm. Just so,' grunted the uncle. `Ah! my boy, trust to this--I say, trust to this.' I saw him extend his short flipper of an arm for a gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the river,-seemed to beckon with a dishonoring flourish before the sunlit face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart. It was so startling that I leaped to my feet and looked back at the edge of the forest, as though I had expected an answer of some sort to that black display of confidence. You know the foolish notions that come to one sometimes. The high stillness confronted these two figures with its ominous patience, waiting for the passing away of a fantastic invasion.% "They swore aloud together--out of sheer fright, I believe--then pretending not to know anything of my existence, turned back to the station. The sun was low; and leaning forward side by side, they seemed to be tugging painfully uphill their two ridiculous shadows of unequal length, that trailed behind them slowly over the tall grass without bending a single blade. "In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that
Thesaurus beckon: (n, v) attract; (v) signal, summon, call, motion, sign, invite, gesture, nod, brandish, lure. ANTONYM: (v) repel. dishonoring: (adj) opprobrious, derogatory; (n) dehonestation. endanger: (v) imperil, hazard, venture, menace, scupper, queer, peril, jeopardise; (n, v) risk, danger, expose to danger. ANTONYMS: (v) protect, shelter, aid, assist, guard, preserve, help, save, safeguard.
flipper: (n) flippers, fins, filler strip, destructive, irritating, bothersome, bead flipper, flapper, arm, hand, pesky. sagacious: (adj, v) judicious, prudent, paw, shoe, wing, extension bar. humanizing: (adj) humane, exalting, discreet; (adj) rational, astute, acute, civilizing, benevolent, cultural. discerning, keen, perspicacious, outlast: (v) outlive, endure, outstay, intelligent, shrewd. ANTONYMS: (adj) foolish, stupid, dense. outwear, live through, remain, hold out, come through, continue, live on, sunlit: (adj) bright, light, sunstruck, lighter. ANTONYM: (adj) dark. go. pestiferous: (adj) annoying, twig: (n) sprig, bough, limb, shoot, pernicious, contagious, noisome, offshoot, spray, branchlet, scion, stalk; (n, v) stick; (v) grasp. harmful, vexing, vexatious,
40
Heart of Darkness
closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver. Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals. They, no doubt, like the rest of us, found what they deserved. I did not inquire. I was then rather excited at the prospect of meeting Kurtz very soon. When I say very soon I mean it comparatively. It was just two months from the day we left the creek when we came to the bank below Kurtz's station.% "Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of overshadowed distances. On silvery sandbanks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once--somewhere--far away--in another existence perhaps. There were moments when one's past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence. And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect. I got used to it afterwards; I did not see it any more; I had no time. I had to keep guessing at the channel; I had to discern, mostly by inspiration, the signs of hidden banks; I watched for sunken stones; I was learning to clap my teeth smartly before my heart flew out, when I shaved by a fluke some infernal sly old snag that would have ripped the life out of the tin-pot steamboat and drowned all the pilgrims; I had to keep a look-out for the signs of dead wood we could cut up in the night for next day's steaming. When you have to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality--the reality, I tell you--fades. The inner truth is hidden-luckily, luckily. But I felt it all the same; I felt often its mysterious stillness
Thesaurus alligators: (n) Crocodilia, order Crocodilia. clap: (n, v) blast, boom, slam, rumble; (n) applause, clapping, gonorrhoea, smash; (v) acclaim, applaud, hit. ANTONYMS: (v) hiss, jeer. diver: (n) frogman, divers, swimmer, explorer, scuba diver, urinator, underwater diver, loon, ducker, birdbrain, adventurer. fluke: (n) trematode, chance, luck, accident, coincidence, windfall,
break, fortune, crutch, elbow, ankle. implacable: (adj) cruel, remorseless, irreconcilable, pitiless, merciless, grim, unappeasable, deadly, mortal, relentless, unforgiving. ANTONYMS: (adj) placable, unrelenting. infernal: (adj) devilish, fiendish, diabolical, demonic, damned, cursed, blasted, unholy, wicked; (adj, v) diabolic, satanic. shoals: (n) shelf. sunken: (adj) concave, depressed,
submerged, empty, underwater, cavernous, recessed, gaunt, low, depression, submarine. ANTONYM: (adj) convex. unrestful: (adj) fidgety, nervous, unsettled, jumpy, high-strung. vengeful: (adj) vindictive, unforgiving, malicious, spiteful, rancorous, unfriendly, unmerciful, despiteful, resentful, avengeful, malevolent. ANTONYMS: (adj) pardoning, condoning, forgiving.
Joseph Conrad
41
watching me at my monkey tricks, just as it watches you fellows performing on your respective tight-ropes for--what is it? half-a-crown a tumble--" "Try to be civil, Marlow," growled a voice, and I knew there was at least one listener awake besides myself.% "I beg your pardon. I forgot the heartache which makes up the rest of the price. And indeed what does the price matter, if the trick be well done? You do your tricks very well. And I didn't do badly either, since I managed not to sink that steamboat on my first trip. It's a wonder to me yet. Imagine a blindfolded man set to drive a van over a bad road. I sweated and shivered over that business considerably, I can tell you. After all, for a seaman, to scrape the bottom of the thing that's supposed to float all the time under his care is the unpardonable sin. No one may know of it, but you never forget the thump--eh? A blow on the very heart. You remember it, you dream of it, you wake up at night and think of it--years after--and go hot and cold all over. I don't pretend to say that steamboat floated all the time. More than once she had to wade for a bit, with twenty cannibals splashing around and pushing. We had enlisted some of these chaps on the way for a crew. Fine fellows--cannibals--in their place. They were men one could work with, and I am grateful to them. And, after all, they did not eat each other before my face: they had brought along a provision of hippo-meat which went rotten, and made the mystery of the wilderness stink in my nostrils. Phoo! I can sniff it now. I had the manager on board and three or four pilgrims with their staves-- all complete. Sometimes we came upon a station close by the bank, clinging to the skirts of the unknown, and the white men rushing out of a tumble-down hovel, with great gestures of joy and surprise and welcome, seemed very strange,-- had the appearance of being held there captive by a spell. The word ivory would ring in the air for a while--and on we went again into the silence, along empty reaches, round the still bends, between the high walls of our winding way, reverberating in hollow claps the ponderous beat of the stern-wheel. Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little
Thesaurus blindfolded: (adj) blinded, unsighted; (n) blinder; (adv) blindly. heartache: (n) sorrow, distress, anguish, woe, heartbreak, dolor, affliction, pain, brokenheartedness, concern, bitterness. hovel: (n) hut, cot, booth, hole, cottage, hutch, shanty, bothy, shed, shack, croft. ANTONYM: (n) mansion. nostrils: (n) naris, nose. ponderous: (adj) heavy, grave, onerous, burdensome, massive,
odor; (n) malodour, fetor, malodor, unwieldy, bulky, stodgy, hard, tedious, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj) niff, odour, foetor; (v) fume, Pong. tumble-down: (adj) run-down, shaky, elegant, graceful, lively, brisk, manageable. rickety, decrepit. reverberating: (adj) resounding, unpardonable: (adj) irremissible, reverberant, ringing, resonating, unforgivable, indefensible, terrible, deep, rumbling, muted, appalling, unwarranted, awful, reverberative, booming, rolling, dull. unacceptable, shocking, not splashing: (n) spatter, spattering, remissible; (v) inexpiable. painting, splattering, dab, plash; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) pardonable, liquid. excusable, justified, excellent, stink: (adj, n, v) stench; (n, v) smell, justifiable.
42
Heart of Darkness
begrimed %steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. It made you feel very small, very lost, and yet it was not altogether depressing, that feeling. After all, if you were small, the grimy beetle crawled on--which was just what you wanted it to do. Where the pilgrims imagined it crawled to I don't know. To some place where they expected to get something, I bet! For me it crawled toward Kurtz--exclusively; but when the steam-pipes started leaking we crawled very slow. The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there. At night sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if hovering in the air high over our heads, till the first break of day. Whether it meant war, peace, or prayer we could not tell. The dawns were heralded by the descent of a chill stillness; the woodcutters slept, their fires burned low; the snapping of a twig would make you start. We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet. We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil. But suddenly, as we struggled round a bend, there would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling, under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. The steamer toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy. The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us--who could tell? We were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse. We could not understand, because we were too far and could not remember, because we were traveling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign-- and no memories. "The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there-- there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were--No, they were not
Thesaurus accursed: (adj) execrable, abominable, bloom. chops, balcony, orifice. shackled: (adj) in bonds, in fetters, detestable, accurst, hateful, damned, grimy: (adj) dirty, filthy, grubby, damnable, maledict, blasted; (v) dingy, unclean, impure, nasty, bound. unearthly: (adj) weird, ghostly, atrocious, stranded. begrimed, squalid, messy, muddy. begrimed: (adj) grubby, dirty, ANTONYMS: (adj) pure, pleasant. uncanny, ethereal, unworldly, madhouse: (n) bedlam, loony bin, besmirched, unclean, raunchy, preternatural, spectral, eerie, discolored, grungy, filthy, stained, booby hatch, asylum, funny farm, spiritual, strange, heavenly. dingy, soiled. ANTONYM: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, physical, insane asylum, mental hospital, clean. nuthouse, funny house, crazy house, acceptable, normal, human. droop: (adj, v) decline; (v) dangle, wilt, chaos. whirl: (n, v) spin, turn, eddy, roll, wheel, twist, swirl; (v) reel, gyrate; (n) hang, flag, sink, slump, loll, collapse; portico: (n) portal, arcade, entrance, (n, v) sag, pine. ANTONYMS: (v) rise, veranda, corridor, mouth, lips, inlet, go, fling.
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inhuman. %Well, you know, that was the worst of it--this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity-- like yours--the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you--you so remote from the night of first ages--could comprehend. And why not? The mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage--who can tell?-- but truth--truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder--the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff--with his own inborn strength. Principles? Principles won't do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags--rags that would fly off at the first good shake. No; you want a deliberate belief. An appeal to me in this fiendish row--is there? Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced. Of course, a fool, what with sheer fright and fine sentiments, is always safe. Who's that grunting? You wonder I didn't go ashore for a howl and a dance? Well, no-I didn't. Fine sentiments, you say? Fine sentiments, be hanged! I had no time. I had to mess about with white-lead and strips of woolen blanket helping to put bandages on those leaky steam-pipes--I tell you. I had to watch the steering, and circumvent those snags, and get the tin-pot along by hook or by crook. There was surface-truth enough in these things to save a wiser man. And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was fireman. He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind-legs. A few months of training had done for that really fine chap. He squinted at the steam-gauge and at the water-gauge with an evident effort of intrepidity--and he had filed teeth too, the poor devil, and the wool of his pate shaved into queer patterns, and three ornamental scars
Thesaurus edifying: (adj) enlightening, didactic, n) stare; (n, v) look. grunting: (n) inarticulate, grunting instructive, educational, advantageous, rewarding, benignant, respiration, growl, grunt. improving, profitable, illuminating, inborn: (adj) native, born, connatural, helpful. ANTONYM: (adj) connate, congenital, hereditary, unedifying. inherent, constitutional, indigenous, fiendish: (adj, v) infernal, diabolic, natural, instinctive. ANTONYMS: satanic, hellish; (adj) demonic, (adj) acquired, spiritual. diabolical, cruel, atrocious, inhuman, leaky: (adj) leak, cracked, permeable, wicked, brutal. porous, holey, blabbermouthed, gape: (v) gawk, yawn, open, glare, unseaworthy, tattling, talebearing, goggle, split, dehisce, ogle, see; (adj, incontinent, faulty. ANTONYMS:
(adj) tight, watertight. snags: (n) reefs, coral reef, sunken rocks. spun: (adj) spined; (v) rotate, revolve. valor: (n) bravery, courage, heroism, valiancy, daring, spirit, pluck, audacity, boldness; (adj, n) gallantry, prowess. whiles: (n) while. woolen: (adj, n) woollen; (n) fleece, tweed, fabric, cloth, woolen goods; (adj) woolly.
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on each of his cheeks. He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank, instead of which he was hard at work, a thrall to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge. He was useful because he had been instructed; and what he knew was this--that should the water in that transparent thing disappear, the evil spirit inside the boiler would get angry through the greatness of his thirst, and take a terrible vengeance. So he sweated and fired up and watched the glass fearfully (with an impromptu charm, made of rags, tied to his arm, and a piece of polished bone, as big as a watch, stuck flatways through his lower lip), while the wooded banks slipped past us slowly, the short noise was left behind, the interminable miles of silence-- and we crept on, towards Kurtz. But the snags were thick, the water was treacherous and shallow, the boiler seemed indeed to have a sulky devil in it, and thus neither that fireman nor I had any time to peer into our creepy thoughts.% "Some fifty miles below the Inner Station we came upon a hut of reeds, an inclined and melancholy pole, with the unrecognizable tatters of what had been a flag of some sort flying from it, and a neatly stacked woodpile. This was unexpected. We came to the bank, and on the stack of firewood found a flat piece of board with some faded pencil-writing on it. When deciphered it said: `Wood for you. Hurry up. Approach cautiously.' There was a signature, but it was illegible--not Kurtz--a much longer word. `Hurry up.' Where? Up the river? `Approach cautiously.' We had not done so. But the warning could not have been meant for the place where it could be only found after approach. Something was wrong above. But what--and how much? That was the question. We commented adversely upon the imbecility of that telegraphic style. The bush around said nothing, and would not let us look very far, either. A torn curtain of red twill hung in the doorway of the hut, and flapped sadly in our faces. The dwelling was dismantled; but we could see a white man had lived there not very long ago. There remained a rude table--a plank on two posts; a heap of rubbish reposed in a dark corner, and by the door I picked up a book. It had lost its covers, and the pages had been thumbed into a state of extremely dirty softness; but the back had been lovingly stitched afresh with white cotton thread, which looked clean yet. It was an extraordinary find. Its title was, `An Inquiry into
Thesaurus creepy: (adj) uncanny, eerie, ghostly, extempore, extemporaneous, crawly, scary, frightening, sinister, unprepared, improvised, spooky, macabre, disgusting, fearful. extemporary, makeshift; (adj, adv, v) ANTONYMS: (adj) normal, nice, ad-lib. ANTONYMS: (adj) planned, pleasant, reassuring. rehearsed. dismantled: (adj) razed, destroyed. stitched: (adj) sewed, bound in paper imbecility: (n) folly, foolishness, covers, seamed. idiocy, fatuity, weakness, stupidity, sulky: (adj) gloomy, grouchy, morose, feeblemindedness, lunacy; (adj, n) surly, peevish, moody, dismal, cross, debility, feebleness; (adj) infirmity. petulant, crabby; (adj, v) glum. impromptu: (adj, adv) off the cuff, ad ANTONYMS: (adj) resigned, lib, offhand, ad libitum; (adj) cheerful; (n) cheeriness.
tatters: (n) rags, clothing. telegraphic: (v) eagle winged, electric, winged; (adj) concise, telegraphical, semaphorical. thrall: (n) bondage, slavery, thraldom, helot, serf, enslavement, thralldom, villein, captivity, slave; (v) enslave. twill: (adj, v) curl, wrinkle; (adj) corded, crisp; (v) braid, plexus, felt, plat, plait, mesh; (n) cloth. unrecognizable: (adj) bewitched, not recognisable, not recognizable.
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some Points of Seamanship,' by a man Tower, Towson--some such name-Master in his Majesty's Navy. The matter looked dreary reading enough, with illustrative diagrams and repulsive tables of figures, and the copy was sixty years old. I handled this amazing antiquity with the greatest possible tenderness, lest it should dissolve in my hands. Within, Towson or Towser was inquiring earnestly into the breaking strain of ships' chains and tackle, and other such matters. Not a very enthralling book; but at the first glance you could see there a singleness of intention, an honest concern for the right way of going to work, which made these humble pages, thought out so many years ago, luminous with another than a professional light. The simple old sailor, with his talk of chains and purchases, made me forget the jungle and the pilgrims in a delicious sensation of having come upon something unmistakably real. Such a book being there was wonderful enough; but still more astounding were the notes penciled in the margin, and plainly referring to the text. I couldn't believe my eyes! They were in cipher! Yes, it looked like cipher. Fancy a man lugging with him a book of that description into this nowhere and studying it--and making notes--in cipher at that! It was an extravagant mystery.% "I had been dimly aware for some time of a worrying noise, and when I lifted my eyes I saw the wood-pile was gone, and the manager, aided by all the pilgrims, was shouting at me from the river-side. I slipped the book into my pocket. I assure you to leave off reading was like tearing myself away from the shelter of an old and solid friendship. "I started the lame engine ahead. `It must be this miserable trader-- this intruder,' exclaimed the manager, looking back malevolently at the place we had left. `He must be English,' I said. `It will not save him from getting into trouble if he is not careful,' muttered the manager darkly. I observed with assumed innocence that no man was safe from trouble in this world. "The current was more rapid now, the steamer seemed at her last gasp, the stern-wheel flopped languidly, and I caught myself listening on tiptoe for the next beat of the boat, for in sober truth I expected the wretched thing to give up every moment. It was like watching the last flickers of a life. But still we
Thesaurus aided: (adj) power, favored. decode, code, scramble. astounding: (adj) amazing, enthralling: (adj) captivating, miraculous, wonderful, incredible, attractive, engrossing, bewitching, tremendous, spectacular, sensational, fascinating, absorbing, charming, breathtaking, awesome, staggering, enchant, gripping, riveting, prodigious. ANTONYMS: (adj) entrancing. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, unremarkable, comforting, boring, tedious, unappealing, predictable, boring, insignificant. repellent. cipher: (n) zero, nothing, number, nil, inquiring: (adj) inquisitive, quizzical, nobody, null; (n, v) figure, cypher, interested, analytical, probing, code; (v) calculate; (adj, n) nonentity. intrusive; (adj, n) questioning; (v) ANTONYMS: (n) infinity; (v) encode, inquire; (n) enquiry, question,
examination. ANTONYM: (adj) uninquiring. malevolently: (adv) spitefully, malignantly, malignly, hatefully, rancorously, viciously, bitterly, wickedly, perniciously, sinisterly, evilly. ANTONYMS: (adv) benevolently, friendly. tiptoe: (v) tip, tippytoe, creep, patter, skirt, skip, tilt, sidle, lean; (adj) alert; (n) quieter. ANTONYM: (v) clump.
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crawled. Sometimes I would pick out a tree a little way ahead to measure our progress towards Kurtz by, but I lost it invariably before we got abreast. To keep the eyes so long on one thing was too much for human patience. The manager displayed a beautiful resignation. I fretted and fumed and took to arguing with myself whether or no I would talk openly with Kurtz; but before I could come to any conclusion it occurred to me that my speech or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility. What did it matter what anyone knew or ignored? What did it matter who was manager? One gets sometimes such a flash of insight. The essentials of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my power of meddling.% "Towards the evening of the second day we judged ourselves about eight miles from Kurtz's station. I wanted to push on; but the manager looked grave, and told me the navigation up there was so dangerous that it would be advisable, the sun being very low already, to wait where we were till next morning. Moreover, he pointed out that if the warning to approach cautiously were to be followed, we must approach in daylight-- not at dusk, or in the dark. This was sensible enough. Eight miles meant nearly three hours' steaming for us, and I could also see suspicious ripples at the upper end of the reach. Nevertheless, I was annoyed beyond expression at the delay, and most unreasonably too, since one night more could not matter much after so many months. As we had plenty of wood, and caution was the word, I brought up in the middle of the stream. The reach was narrow, straight, with high sides like a railway cutting. The dusk came gliding into it long before the sun had set. The current ran smooth and swift, but a dumb immobility sat on the banks. The living trees, lashed together by the creepers and every living bush of the undergrowth, might have been changed into stone, even to the slenderest twig, to the lightest leaf. It was not sleep--it seemed unnatural, like a state of trance. Not the faintest sound of any kind could be heard. You looked on amazed, and began to suspect yourself of being deaf-- then the night came suddenly, and struck you blind as well. About three in the morning some large fish leaped, and the loud splash made me jump as though a gun had been fired. When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the
Thesaurus blinding: (adj) dazzling, blazing, amazingly impressive, bisson, blatant, fulgent, glary; (n) clogging, blind blocking, blindage. clammy: (adj) viscous, sweaty, sticky, muggy, moist, humid, damp, viscid, sultry, dank; (n) ropy. ANTONYMS: (adj) arid, dried, fresh. creepers: (n) Certhiidae. fretted: (adj) latticed, haggard, magged, latticelike, reticulated, reticular, interlaced. ANTONYM:
(adj) unfretted. flight, glissando; (v) slither; (adv) futility: (n) emptiness, inanity, glidingly. immobility: (adj, n) fixity; (n) worthlessness, vanity, uselessness, fruitlessness, frivolity, unusefulness, fixedness, stillness, stationariness, purposelessness, hollowness, motionlessness, immovability, insignificance. ANTONYMS: (n) immovableness; (adj) vitality, importance, worth, worthiness, stiffness, stabiliment, solidity. ANTONYMS: (n) bustle, movement. fruitfulness, effectiveness, steaming: (adj) hot, sweltering, competence, usefulness. gets: (n) getting. roasting, baking, hot under the collar, gliding: (adj) sliding, flying, slipping, hazy, scorching; (adv) piping; (n) labent, elusory; (n) sailing, soaring, fumigation.
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night. It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all round you like something solid. At eight or nine, perhaps, it lifted as a shutter lifts. We had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees, of the immense matted jungle, with the blazing little ball of the sun hanging over it--all perfectly still--and then the white shutter came down again, smoothly, as if sliding in greased grooves. I ordered the chain, which we had begun to heave in, to be paid out again. Before it stopped running with a muffled rattle, a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly in the opaque air. It ceased. A complaining clamor, modulated in savage discords, filled our ears. The sheer unexpectedness of it made my hair stir under my cap. I don't know how it struck the others: to me it seemed as though the mist itself had screamed, so suddenly, and apparently from all sides at once, did this tumultuous and mournful uproar arise. It culminated in a hurried outbreak of almost intolerably excessive shrieking, which stopped short, leaving us stiffened in a variety of silly attitudes, and obstinately listening to the nearly as appalling and excessive silence. `Good God! What is the meaning--?' stammered at my elbow one of the pilgrims,--a little fat man, with sandy hair and red whiskers, who wore side-spring boots, and pink pyjamas tucked into his socks. Two others remained open-mouthed a whole minute, then dashed into the little cabin, to rush out incontinently and stand darting scared glances, with Winchesters at `ready' in their hands. What we could see was just the steamer we were on, her outlines blurred as though she had been on the point of dissolving, and a misty strip of water, perhaps two feet broad, around her--and that was all. The rest of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. Just nowhere. Gone, disappeared; swept off without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind.% "I went forward, and ordered the chain to be hauled in short, so as to be ready to trip the anchor and move the steamboat at once if necessary. `Will they attack?' whispered an awed voice. `We will all be butchered in this fog,' murmured another. The faces twitched with the strain, the hands trembled slightly, the eyes forgot to wink. It was very curious to see the contrast of expressions of the white men and of the black fellows of our crew, who were as much strangers to that part of the river as we, though their homes were only
Thesaurus clamor: (n, v) outcry, cry, clamour, unbearably, insufferably, hullabaloo, roar, shout; (n) noise, unendurably, insupportably, racket, uproar, exclamation, hubbub. unfeasibly, impossibly, horribly, ANTONYMS: (n) silence, serenity, unpardonably, inexcusably, tranquility; (v) whisper, mutter. unforgivably. ANTONYMS: (adv) darting: (adj) arrowy, moving; (v) tolerably, excusably, bearably, Sally. acceptably, pleasantly, greased: (adj) greasy. understandably. incontinently: (adv) directly, at once, obstinately: (adv) obdurately, immediately, helter-skelter, pell-mell, mulishly, persistently, perversely, incontinent, rakishly, meretriciously. doggedly, refractorily, unyieldingly, intolerably: (adv) excruciatingly, willfully, pigheadedly, waywardly,
firmly. ANTONYM: (adv) helpfully. shrieking: (n) shriek, screeching, screech, scream, belly laugh, shright, howler, riot; (adj) sharp. tumultuous: (adj, n) boisterous, tempestuous; (adj) disorderly, riotous, turbulent, noisy, furious, loud, troubled, disturbed; (adj, v) tumultuary. ANTONYMS: (adj) peaceful, calm. unexpectedness: (n) extraordinariness, inexpectedness, abruptness.
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eight %hundred miles away. The whites, of course greatly discomposed, had besides a curious look of being painfully shocked by such an outrageous row. The others had an alert, naturally interested expression; but their faces were essentially quiet, even those of the one or two who grinned as they hauled at the chain. Several exchanged short, grunting phrases, which seemed to settle the matter to their satisfaction. Their headman, a young, broad-chested black, severely draped in dark-blue fringed cloths, with fierce nostrils and his hair all done up artfully in oily ringlets, stood near me. `Aha!' I said, just for good fellowship's sake. `Catch `im,' he snapped, with a bloodshot widening of his eyes and a flash of sharp teeth--'catch `im. Give `im to us.' `To you, eh?' I asked; `what would you do with them?' `Eat `im!' he said curtly, and, leaning his elbow on the rail, looked out into the fog in a dignified and profoundly pensive attitude. I would no doubt have been properly horrified, had it not occurred to me that he and his chaps must be very hungry: that they must have been growing increasingly hungry for at least this month past. They had been engaged for six months (I don't think a single one of them had any clear idea of time, as we at the end of countless ages have. They still belonged to the beginnings of time--had no inherited experience to teach them as it were), and of course, as long as there was a piece of paper written over in accordance with some farcical law or other made down the river, it didn't enter anybody's head to trouble how they would live. Certainly they had brought with them some rotten hippo-meat, which couldn't have lasted very long, anyway, even if the pilgrims hadn't, in the midst of a shocking hullabaloo, thrown a considerable quantity of it overboard. It looked like a high-handed proceeding; but it was really a case of legitimate self-defense. You can't breathe dead hippo waking, sleeping, and eating, and at the same time keep your precarious grip on existence. Besides that, they had given them every week three pieces of brass wire, each about nine inches long; and the theory was they were to buy their provisions with that currency in river-side villages. You can see how THAT worked. There were either no villages, or the people were hostile, or the director, who like the rest of us fed out of tins, with an occasional old he-goat thrown in, didn't want to stop the steamer for some more or less recondite reason. So, unless they swallowed
Thesaurus accordance: (n) harmony, agreement, conformity, unison, concordance, coincidence, accordancy, admission, fitness, consensus, concent. artfully: (adv) cunningly, foxily, ingeniously, trickily, shrewdly, skillfully, cleverly, disingenuously, deceitfully, sly, schemingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) innocently, openly. bloodshot: (n) inflamed. discomposed: (adj) disturbed,
perturbed, doubtful, excited, distraught, uncomfortable, fearful. headman: (n) head, chieftain, headsman, pendragon, head boss, elder, major, header, captain, commander, master. hullabaloo: (n) disturbance, hubbub, noise, commotion, din, racket, disorder, pandemonium, uproar, tumult; (n, v) outcry. overboard: (adj) exorbitant, rabid. pensive: (adj) contemplative,
meditative, musing, wistful, dreamy, melancholy, abstracted, broody, reflective, moody; (adj, v) sad. ANTONYMS: (adj) shallow, satisfied, carefree. recondite: (adj) esoteric, deep, occult, hidden, mysterious, obscure, concealed, profound, dark, cryptic; (adj, v) secret. ANTONYMS: (adj) familiar, straightforward, simple, mainstream. self-defense: (n) protection.
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the %wire itself, or made loops of it to snare the fishes with, I don't see what good their extravagant salary could be to them. I must say it was paid with a regularity worthy of a large and honorable trading company. For the rest, the only thing to eat-- though it didn't look eatable in the least--I saw in their possession was a few lumps of some stuff like half-cooked dough, of a dirty lavender color, they kept wrapped in leaves, and now and then swallowed a piece of, but so small that it seemed done more for the looks of the thing than for any serious purpose of sustenance. Why in the name of all the gnawing devils of hunger they didn't go for us--they were thirty to five-- and have a good tuck in for once, amazes me now when I think of it. They were big powerful men, with not much capacity to weigh the consequences, with courage, with strength, even yet, though their skins were no longer glossy and their muscles no longer hard. And I saw that something restraining, one of those human secrets that baffle probability, had come into play there. I looked at them with a swift quickening of interest-- not because it occurred to me I might be eaten by them before very long, though I own to you that just then I perceived-- in a new light, as it were-how unwholesome the pilgrims looked, and I hoped, yes, I positively hoped, that my aspect was not so-- what shall I say?--so--unappetizing: a touch of fantastic vanity which fitted well with the dream-sensation that pervaded all my days at that time. Perhaps I had a little fever too. One can't live with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse. I had often `a little fever,' or a little touch of other things-- the playful paw-strokes of the wilderness, the preliminary trifling before the more serious onslaught which came in due course. Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity. Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear--or some kind of primitive honor? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its somber and brooding ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really
Thesaurus chaff: (v) tease, jest, rally, mock, kid, jolly, joke; (n) bran, raillery, husk; (n, v) ridicule. devilry: (n) mischief, devilment, evil, atrocity, roguery, rascality, blaze, brutality, heartless, ruthless, ferocious. eatable: (adj, n) comestible; (n) pabulum, victual, food, victuals, aliment, viands, sustenance; (adj) palatable, esculent, good. ANTONYMS: (adj) uneatable,
unpalatable, disgusting, indigestible, reputable, ethical, honor; (adj, v) great, noble. ANTONYMS: (adj) unappetizing, yucky. everlastingly: (adv) perpetually, shameful, disgraceful, corrupt, always, lastingly, continually, degenerate, immoral, humiliating, endlessly, unendingly, incessantly, dishonest, unethical, decadent, bad, permanently, constantly, undyingly; deceitful. (adj, adv) forever. unwholesome: (adj) noxious, harmful, gnawing: (v) corroding, biting; (n) noisome, morbid, injurious, arrosion. detrimental, sickly, insalubrious, half-cooked: (adj) tough. corrupting, diseased, damaging. honorable: (adj) good, estimable, ANTONYMS: (adj) healthy, decent, exalted, respectable, fair, decent, wholesome, pleasant.
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easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one's soul--than this kind of prolonged hunger. Sad, but true. And these chaps too had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple. Restraint! I would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield. But there was the fact facing me--the fact dazzling, to be seen, like the foam on the depths of the sea, like a ripple on an unfathomable enigma, a mystery greater--when I thought of it-- than the curious, inexplicable note of desperate grief in this savage clamor that had swept by us on the river-bank, behind the blind whiteness of the fog.% "Two pilgrims were quarreling in hurried whispers as to which bank. `Left.' `No, no; how can you? Right, right, of course.' `It is very serious,' said the manager's voice behind me; `I would be desolated if anything should happen to Mr. Kurtz before we came up.' I looked at him, and had not the slightest doubt he was sincere. He was just the kind of man who would wish to preserve appearances. That was his restraint. But when he muttered something about going on at once, I did not even take the trouble to answer him. I knew, and he knew, that it was impossible. Were we to let go our hold of the bottom, we would be absolutely in the air--in space. We wouldn't be able to tell where we were going to--whether up or down stream, or across--till we fetched against one bank or the other,--and then we wouldn't know at first which it was. Of course I made no move. I had no mind for a smash-up. You couldn't imagine a more deadly place for a shipwreck. Whether drowned at once or not, we were sure to perish speedily in one way or another. `I authorize you to take all the risks,' he said, after a short silence. `I refuse to take any,' I said shortly; which was just the answer he expected, though its tone might have surprised him. `Well, I must defer to your judgment. You are captain,' he said, with marked civility. I turned my shoulder to him in sign of my appreciation, and looked into the fog. How long would it last? It was the most hopeless look-out. The approach to this Kurtz grubbing for ivory in the wretched bush was beset by as many dangers as though he had been an enchanted princess sleeping in a fabulous castle. `Will they attack, do you think?' asked the manager, in a confidential tone.
Thesaurus desolated: (adj) devastated, ravaged, ruined, destroyed, blasted, forlorn, damned, damn, darned, cadaverous, bony. dishonor: (n, v) shame, discredit, degrade, affront, abuse, taint; (v) defile, violate; (n) disrepute, infamy, degradation. ANTONYMS: (n, v) respect; (n) laurels, reverence, esteem, admiration, worthiness; (v) revere, dignify, credit, reward, award. grubbing: (adj) studious.
hyena: (n) wild beast, aardwolf, hyen, hangman, canine, canid, butcher, brown hyena, tiger. perdition: (adj, n) downfall, fall, ruin; (n) hell, inferno, infernal region, nether region, deperdition, bane, destruction, overthrow. ANTONYM: (n) heaven. quarreling: (adj) brawling, noisy, discordant; (n) disagreement; (v) argue. scruple: (adj, v) hesitate, demur, pause;
(n) hesitation, qualm, misgiving, distrust, objection; (n, v) mistrust; (v) falter, question. unfathomable: (adj) incomprehensible, inexplicable, inscrutable, unintelligible, impenetrable, abysmal, deep, immeasurable, unaccountable, obscure, enigmatic. ANTONYMS: (adj) fathomable, shallow, explicable, explainable, comprehensible, believable, straightforward, understandable, legible, clear.
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"I did not think they would attack, for several obvious reasons. The thick fog was one. If they left the bank in their canoes they would get lost in it, as we would be if we attempted to move. Still, I had also judged the jungle of both banks quite impenetrable-- and yet eyes were in it, eyes that had seen us. The river-side bushes were certainly very thick; but the undergrowth behind was evidently penetrable. However, during the short lift I had seen no canoes anywhere in the reach--certainly not abreast of the steamer. But what made the idea of attack inconceivable to me was the nature of the noise--of the cries we had heard. They had not the fierce character boding of immediate hostile intention. Unexpected, wild, and violent as they had been, they had given me an irresistible impression of sorrow. The glimpse of the steamboat had for some reason filled those savages with unrestrained grief. The danger, if any, I expounded, was from our proximity to a great human passion let loose. Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence--but more generally takes the form of apathy. . . .% "You should have seen the pilgrims stare! They had no heart to grin, or even to revile me; but I believe they thought me gone mad--with fright, maybe. I delivered a regular lecture. My dear boys, it was no good bothering. Keep a look-out? Well, you may guess I watched the fog for the signs of lifting as a cat watches a mouse; but for anything else our eyes were of no more use to us than if we had been buried miles deep in a heap of cotton-wool. It felt like it too-choking, warm, stifling. Besides, all I said, though it sounded extravagant, was absolutely true to fact. What we afterwards alluded to as an attack was really an attempt at repulse. The action was very far from being aggressive--it was not even defensive, in the usual sense: it was undertaken under the stress of desperation, and in its essence was purely protective. "It developed itself, I should say, two hours after the fog lifted, and its commencement was at a spot, roughly speaking, about a mile and a half below Kurtz's station. We had just floundered and flopped round a bend, when I saw an islet, a mere grassy hummock of bright green, in the middle of the stream. It was the only thing of the kind; but as we opened the reach more, I perceived it
Thesaurus boding: (n) presentiment, eyot, breaker, coral reef, coral Island, taunt, vituperate, attack, denounce; (n, v) malign; (adj, v) profane, premonition, foreboding, portent, wight. penetrable: (adj) permeable, pervious, blaspheme. ANTONYM: (v) praise. augury, forewarning, hunch, apprehensiveness, apprehension. absorbent, liable, porous, vulnerable; unrestrained: (adj, n, v) loose; (adj) bothering: (v) teasing, tormenting, (v) doughy, spongy. ANTONYM: unconstrained, wild, uncontrolled, carking; (n) harassment, provocation. (adj) impenetrable. immoderate, extravagant, bushes: (n) underbrush, thicket, repulse: (n, v) rebuff, defeat; (v) repel, unconfined, mad, uninhibited; (adj, v) undergrowth, minor league. nauseate, disgust, drive back, revolt, dissolute, wanton. ANTONYMS: hummock: (adj, n) knoll; (n) hillock, reject, refuse, beat back; (n) refusal. (adj) restrained, restricted, contained, ANTONYMS: (v) attract, accept, mound, barrow, kopje, hammock, limited, partial, biddable, frugal, delight, yield, please; (n, v) welcome. hidden, inhibited, manageable, ledge, spur, hump, heap, cumulus. islet: (n) island, ait, reef, holm, atoll, revile: (v) abuse, rail, vilify, reproach, reserved.
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was the head of a long sandbank, or rather of a chain of shallow patches stretching down the middle of the river. They were discolored, just awash, and the whole lot was seen just under the water, exactly as a man's backbone is seen running down the middle of his back under the skin. Now, as far as I did see, I could go to the right or to the left of this. I didn't know either channel, of course. The banks looked pretty well alike, the depth appeared the same; but as I had been informed the station was on the west side, I naturally headed for the western passage.% "No sooner had we fairly entered it than I became aware it was much narrower than I had supposed. To the left of us there was the long uninterrupted shoal, and to the right a high, steep bank heavily overgrown with bushes. Above the bush the trees stood in serried ranks. The twigs overhung the current thickly, and from distance to distance a large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream. It was then well on in the afternoon, the face of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip of shadow had already fallen on the water. In this shadow we steamed up--very slowly, as you may imagine. I sheered her well inshore--the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding-pole informed me. "One of my hungry and forbearing friends was sounding in the bows just below me. This steamboat was exactly like a decked scow. On the deck there were two little teak-wood houses, with doors and windows. The boiler was in the fore-end, and the machinery right astern. Over the whole there was a light roof, supported on stanchions. The funnel projected through that roof, and in front of the funnel a small cabin built of light planks served for a pilot-house. It contained a couch, two camp-stools, a loaded Martini-Henry leaning in one corner, a tiny table, and the steering-wheel. It had a wide door in front and a broad shutter at each side. All these were always thrown open, of course. I spent my days perched up there on the extreme fore-end of that roof, before the door. At night I slept, or tried to, on the couch. An athletic black belonging to some coast tribe, and educated by my poor predecessor, was the helmsman. He sported a pair of brass earrings, wore a blue cloth wrapper from the waist to the ankles, and thought all the world of himself. He was the most unstable kind of
Thesaurus astern: (adv) aft, after, aback, behind, sternmost, rearwards; (adj, adv) backward; (adj) back, rear. ANTONYM: (adv) forward. decked: (adj) bedecked, decked out, ornamented, decorated, festooned. discolored: (adj) wan, blond, flecked, flawed, faded, dirty, rusty, dingy, dark, freckled, crusty. ANTONYMS: (adj) clean, plain, unblemished. forbearing: (adj) patient, clement, tolerant, lenient, easy, indulgent,
permissive, charitable, merciful, compassionate, meek. ANTONYMS: (adj) impatient, unforgiving. funnel: (n) flue, tunnel, funnel shape, shaft, cone, hopper, trachea, weasand; (v) channel, move, pipe. helmsman: (n) coxswain, cox, wheelman, steersman, steerer, tar, mariner, seafarer, seaman, wheelsman, navigator. sandbank: (n) shoal, bar, reef, cay, sandbar, shallow.
scow: (n) flatboat, punt, lighter, gig, boat, dingy, funny, wherry, skiff, shallop, lerret. serried: (v) compact, close, dense, closely packed, thickset, teeming, swarming; (adj) packed, serrated, crowded, populous. steamed: (adj) squiffy, miffed, irritated, irate, indignant, incensed, harried, harassed, stung, sozzled, soused. twigs: (n) sprays.
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fool I had ever seen. He steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk, and would let that cripple of a steamboat get the upper hand of him in a minute.% "I was looking down at the sounding-pole, and feeling much annoyed to see at each try a little more of it stick out of that river, when I saw my poleman give up the business suddenly, and stretch himself flat on the deck, without even taking the trouble to haul his pole in. He kept hold on it though, and it trailed in the water. At the same time the fireman, whom I could also see below me, sat down abruptly before his furnace and ducked his head. I was amazed. Then I had to look at the river mighty quick, because there was a snag in the fairway. Sticks, little sticks, were flying about--thick: they were whizzing before my nose, dropping below me, striking behind me against my pilot-house. All this time the river, the shore, the woods, were very quiet-- perfectly quiet. I could only hear the heavy splashing thump of the stern-wheel and the patter of these things. We cleared the snag clumsily. Arrows, by Jove! We were being shot at! I stepped in quickly to close the shutter on the land side. That fool-helmsman, his hands on the spokes, was lifting his knees high, stamping his feet, champing his mouth, like a reined-in horse. Confound him! And we were staggering within ten feet of the bank. I had to lean right out to swing the heavy shutter, and I saw a face amongst the leaves on the level with my own, looking at me very fierce and steady; and then suddenly, as though a veil had been removed from my eyes, I made out, deep in the tangled gloom, naked breasts, arms, legs, glaring eyes,--the bush was swarming with human limbs in movement, glistening, of bronze color. The twigs shook, swayed, and rustled, the arrows flew out of them, and then the shutter came to. `Steer her straight,' I said to the helmsman. He held his head rigid, face forward; but his eyes rolled, he kept on lifting and setting down his feet gently, his mouth foamed a little. `Keep quiet!' I said in a fury. I might just as well have ordered a tree not to sway in the wind. I darted out. Below me there was a great scuffle of feet on the iron deck; confused exclamations; a voice screamed, `Can you turn back?' I caught shape of a V-shaped ripple on the water ahead. What? Another snag! A fusillade burst out under my feet. The pilgrims had opened with their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that
Thesaurus abject: (adj) contemptible, pitiful, low, wretched, despicable, sordid, base, mean, vile; (n) ignominious, dirty. ANTONYMS: (adj) honorable, hopeful, magnificent, esteemed, proud, dignified, commendable, noble, exalted, worthy, happy. confound: (v) bewilder, baffle, nonplus, perplex, astonish, puzzle, amaze, astound, mistake; (adj, v) confuse, stupefy. ANTONYMS: (v) explain, clarify, comfort, lose,
distinguish; (n) understanding. gab, vernacular, jargon. fairway: (n) channel, tract, site, parcel, squirting: (adj) spouting, jetting, path, route, seaway, narrows. running. funk: (n) coward, horror, fear, dread, swagger: (n, v) strut, prance; (adj, n, v) depression; (v) cringe, flinch, cower, bluster; (v) boast, show off, parade, ruffle, flourish; (adj, v) bully; (adj) quail, recoil, shrink. fusillade: (n) burst, barrage, volley, groovy; (n) bragging. swarming: (adj) full, crowded, alive, firing, salvo, discharge, shooting, bombardment, explosion, storm; (v) packed, populous, sensitive, thick; (v) noyade. dense, crowded to suffocation, patter: (v) clatter, rumble, roll, rattle, serried, closely packed. drum, scuttle, skip, tiptoe; (n) line of ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, deserted.
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bush. A deuce of a lot of smoke came up and drove slowly forward. I swore at it. Now I couldn't see the ripple or the snag either. I stood in the doorway, peering, and the arrows came in swarms. They might have been poisoned, but they looked as though they wouldn't kill a cat. The bush began to howl. Our woodcutters raised a warlike whoop; the report of a rifle just at my back deafened me. I glanced over my shoulder, and the pilot-house was yet full of noise and smoke when I made a dash at the wheel. The fool-nigger had dropped everything, to throw the shutter open and let off that Martini-Henry. He stood before the wide opening, glaring, and I yelled at him to come back, while I straightened the sudden twist out of that steamboat. There was no room to turn even if I had wanted to, the snag was somewhere very near ahead in that confounded smoke, there was no time to lose, so I just crowded her into the bank-- right into the bank, where I knew the water was deep.% "We tore slowly along the overhanging bushes in a whirl of broken twigs and flying leaves. The fusillade below stopped short, as I had foreseen it would when the squirts got empty. I threw my head back to a glinting whizz that traversed the pilot-house, in at one shutter-hole and out at the other. Looking past that mad helmsman, who was shaking the empty rifle and yelling at the shore, I saw vague forms of men running bent double, leaping, gliding, distinct, incomplete, evanescent. Something big appeared in the air before the shutter, the rifle went overboard, and the man stepped back swiftly, looked at me over his shoulder in an extraordinary, profound, familiar manner, and fell upon my feet. The side of his head hit the wheel twice, and the end of what appeared a long cane clattered round and knocked over a little camp-stool. It looked as though after wrenching that thing from somebody ashore he had lost his balance in the effort. The thin smoke had blown away, we were clear of the snag, and looking ahead I could see that in another hundred yards or so I would be free to sheer off, away from the bank; but my feet felt so very warm and wet that I had to look down. The man had rolled on his back and stared straight up at me; both his hands clutched that cane. It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side just below the ribs; the blade had gone in out of sight, after making a frightful gash; my shoes were full;
Thesaurus deafened: (adj) dead, deaf corn, stunned, deadened. evanescent: (adj) passing, temporary, fleeting, transitory, fugitive, momentary, transient, cursory, temporal, intangible, short-lived. gash: (n, v) slash, scratch, tear, wound, slit, break, rip, slice, crack, score; (n) fissure. glinting: (adj) glittering, scintillating, lustrous, aglitter, fulgid, glitter, coruscant, sparkly, bright, bubbling,
luminous. aggressive, armigerous, hostile, howl: (n, v) cry, roar, scream, bark, unfriendly, unpacific, militant. shout, yell, bay, yelp; (v) bawl, growl, ANTONYMS: (adj) harmonizing, yawl. ANTONYM: (v) laugh. friendly. overhanging: (adj, v) projecting; (v) whizz: (n, v) whiz; (v) whir, zoom, beetling; (adj) covering, imminent, birr, whirr, speed, purr, rain cats and dogs; (n) magician, ace, puzzle. impending, pendent, obumbrant, whoop: (n, v) shout, call; (v) howl, yell, hanging over, overspreading, depending, hanging. shriek, roar, bellow, halloo, cough, peering: (adj) nosy, prying, snoopy. hack; (n) vociferation. warlike: (adj) military, belligerent, wrenching: (n) extraction; (adj) bellicose, pugnacious, combative, painful.
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a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shone with an amazing luster. The fusillade burst out again. He looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of being afraid I would try to take it away from him. I had to make an effort to free my eyes from his gaze and attend to the steering. With one hand I felt above my head for the line of the steam-whistle, and jerked out screech after screech hurriedly. The tumult of angry and warlike yells was checked instantly, and then from the depths of the woods went out such a tremulous and prolonged wail of mournful fear and utter despair as may be imagined to follow the flight of the last hope from the earth. There was a great commotion in the bush; the shower of arrows stopped, a few dropping shots rang out sharply--then silence, in which the languid beat of the stern-wheel came plainly to my ears. I put the helm hard astarboard at the moment when the pilgrim in pink pyjamas, very hot and agitated, appeared in the doorway. `The manager sends me--' he began in an official tone, and stopped short. `Good God!' he said, glaring at the wounded man.% "We two whites stood over him, and his lustrous and inquiring glance enveloped us both. I declare it looked as though he would presently put to us some question in an understandable language; but he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a muscle. Only in the very last moment, as though in response to some sign we could not see, to some whisper we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black deathmask an inconceivably somber, brooding, and menacing expression. The luster of inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness. `Can you steer?' I asked the agent eagerly. He looked very dubious; but I made a grab at his arm, and he understood at once I meant him to steer whether or no. To tell you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. `He is dead,' murmured the fellow, immensely impressed. `No doubt about it,' said I, tugging like mad at the shoe-laces. `And, by the way, I suppose Mr. Kurtz is dead as well by this time.' "For the moment that was the dominant thought. There was a sense of
Thesaurus inconceivably: (adv) unthinkably, amazingly, astoundingly, beyond belief, impenetrably, implausibly, unintelligibly, unfathomably, unbelievably, inexplicably. ANTONYM: (adv) conceivably. luster: (n) gloss, light, glitter, brightness, brilliance, sheen, radiance, splendor, lustre, chandelier; (n, v) burnish. ANTONYM: (n) dullness. lustrous: (adj, v) bright, splendent;
(adj) glossy, brilliant, lucid, shiny, shaking, fearful, apprehensive, quavering, fidgety, shivering; (n) shining, light, luminous, sleek, radiant. ANTONYM: (adj) unhealthy. nervous, diffident, coy. ANTONYMS: morbidly: (adv) sickly, unhealthily, (adj) stable, confident, steady. twitching: (n) tic, fibrillation, cramp, diseasedly, frightfully, unwholesomely, ghoulishly, fasciculation, spasm, contraction, corruptly, macabrely, gruesomely, vellication, spasmodic tic. wail: (n, v) howl, cry, lament, moan, ghastly, ailingly. screech: (n, v) cry, shout, shriek, yell, scream, bellow, whine; (v) ululate, screak, yelp, yowl, roar; (n) weep, whimper, mewl. ANTONYMS: screaming; (v) squawk, pipe. (v) whimper, laugh. tremulous: (adj) shaky, trembling, whites: (n) thirds.
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extreme disappointment, as though I had found out I had been striving after something altogether without a substance. I couldn't have been more disgusted if I had traveled all this way for the sole purpose of talking with Mr. Kurtz. Talking with. . . . I flung one shoe overboard, and became aware that that was exactly what I had been looking forward to-- a talk with Kurtz. I made the strange discovery that I had never imagined him as doing, you know, but as discoursing. I didn't say to myself, `Now I will never see him,' or `Now I will never shake him by the hand,' but, `Now I will never hear him.' The man presented himself as a voice. Not of course that I did not connect him with some sort of action. Hadn't I been told in all the tones of jealousy and admiration that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory than all the other agents together? That was not the point. The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out pre-eminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words-- the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness.% "The other shoe went flying unto the devil-god of that river. I thought, `By Jove! it's all over. We are too late; he has vanished-- the gift has vanished, by means of some spear, arrow, or club. I will never hear that chap speak after all,'-and my sorrow had a startling extravagance of emotion, even such as I had noticed in the howling sorrow of these savages in the bush. I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life. . . . Why do you sigh in this beastly way, somebody? Absurd? Well, absurd. Good Lord! mustn't a man ever--Here, give me some tobacco." . . . There was a pause of profound stillness, then a match flared, and Marlow's lean face appeared, worn, hollow, with downward folds and dropped eyelids, with an aspect of concentrated attention; and as he took vigorous draws at his pipe, it seemed to retreat and advance out of the night in the regular flicker of the tiny flame. The match went out.
Thesaurus beastly: (adj) animal, disgusting, worthy, honorable, respectable, fantastic, gross, glaring, marvelous, horrid, bestial, brute; (adj, v) nasty, wonderful, wondrous; (adj, n) respectful, noble, generous, abominable, offensive; (adv) ugly, commendable, good. weeping, sniveling. brutally, brutely. ANTONYMS: (adv) deceitful: (adj) false, fraudulent, pre-eminently: (adv) principally, civilized, cultured, kind, good, insincere, crooked, dishonest, untrue, eminently. refined, humane, inoffensive; (adj) sly, artful, untrustworthy, unreliable, pulsating: (adj) vibrant, beating, treacherous. ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, pleasant. vivacious, resonant, rhythmical, contemptible: (adj) abject, mean, base, straightforward, genuine, rhythmic, animated, exciting, lively, pulsatile, pulsing. ANTONYM: (adj) pitiful, little, worthless, unworthy, trustworthy, truthful, loyal, open, miserable, ignoble, abominable, principled, straight, upright, faithful, listless. shameful. ANTONYMS: (adj) traveled: (adj) travel, passable, dependable. howling: (n) howl, cry; (adj) fierce, estimable, admired, deserving, cultured, cosmopolitan.
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"Absurd!" he cried. "This is the worst of trying to tell. . . . Here you all are, each moored with two good addresses, like a hulk with two anchors, a butcher round one corner, a policeman round another, excellent appetites, and temperature normal--you hear--normal from year's end to year's end. And you say, Absurd! Absurd be--exploded! Absurd! My dear boys, what can you expect from a man who out of sheer nervousness had just flung overboard a pair of new shoes. Now I think of it, it is amazing I did not shed tears. I am, upon the whole, proud of my fortitude. I was cut to the quick at the idea of having lost the inestimable privilege of listening to the gifted Kurtz. Of course I was wrong. The privilege was waiting for me. Oh yes, I heard more than enough. And I was right, too. A voice. He was very little more than a voice. And I heard--him--it-this voice-- other voices--all of them were so little more than voices--and the memory of that time itself lingers around me, impalpable, like a dying vibration of one immense jabber, silly, atrocious, sordid, savage, or simply mean, without any kind of sense. Voices, voices--even the girl herself--now--" He was silent for a long time.% "I laid the ghost of his gifts at last with a lie," he began suddenly. "Girl! What? Did I mention a girl? Oh, she is out of it--completely. They--the women, I mean-- are out of it--should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse. Oh, she had to be out of it. You should have heard the disinterred body of Mr. Kurtz saying, `My Intended.' You would have perceived directly then how completely she was out of it. And the lofty frontal bone of Mr. Kurtz! They say the hair goes on growing sometimes, but this--ah specimen, was impressively bald. The wilderness had patted him on the head, and, behold, it was like a ball--an ivory ball; it had caressed him, and--lo!-- he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation. He was its spoiled and pampered favorite. Ivory? I should think so. Heaps of it, stacks of it. The old mud shanty was bursting with it. You would think there was not a single tusk left either above or below the ground in the whole country. `Mostly fossil,' the
Thesaurus devilish: (adj, v) diabolic, satanic, infernal, mephistophelian, demoniacal; (adj) demonic, wicked, diabolical, terrific; (v) Stygian; (adv) devilishly. ANTONYMS: (adj) cherubic, godlike, good, saintly, virtuous. embraced: (adj) popular. favorite: (adj, n) darling, favourite, dear, number one; (adj) favored, beloved, popular; (n) pet, choice, pick, preference. ANTONYMS: (n)
indifference, superior, underdog; precious, untold, costly, beyond (adj) unwanted, despised, disliked, measure. ANTONYMS: (adj) hated, unusual. worthless, slight, minor, limited. impalpable: (adj) imperceptible, jabber: (n, v) babble, gabble; (adj, n, v) chatter, prattle; (n) drivel, gibberish; shadowy, invisible, efflorescent, (v) rave, tattle, utter; (adj) clack, gritty, insubstantial, incorporeal, palaver. ANTONYM: (n) sense. inscrutable, ethereal, pampered: (adj) indulged, spoiled, inapprehensible, elusive. ANTONYMS: (adj) tangible, definite. soft, bad, fed luxuriously, luxurious. inestimable: (adj) incalculable, tusk: (n) ivory, fang, torsk, dentine, dentin, bone, tush; (adj) nib; (v) immeasurable, invaluable, infinite, priceless, incomputable, valuable, detusk, horn, take away.
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manager %had remarked disparagingly. It was no more fossil than I am; but they call it fossil when it is dug up. It appears these niggers do bury the tusks sometimes--but evidently they couldn't bury this parcel deep enough to save the gifted Mr. Kurtz from his fate. We filled the steamboat with it, and had to pile a lot on the deck. Thus he could see and enjoy as long as he could see, because the appreciation of this favor had remained with him to the last. You should have heard him say, `My ivory.' Oh yes, I heard him. `My Intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my--' everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him-but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. It was impossible--it was not good for one either--trying to imagine. He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land-- I mean literally. You can't understand. How could you?-- with solid pavement under your feet, surrounded by kind neighbors ready to cheer you or to fall on you, stepping delicately between the butcher and the policeman, in the holy terror of scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums--how can you imagine what particular region of the first ages a man's untrammeled feet may take him into by the way of solitude--utter solitude without a policeman-- by the way of silence, utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbor can be heard whispering of public opinion? These little things make all the great difference. When they are gone you must fall back upon your own innate strength, upon your own capacity for faithfulness. Of course you may be too much of a fool to go wrong--too dull even to know you are being assaulted by the powers of darkness. I take it, no fool ever made a bargain for his soul with the devil: the fool is too much of a fool, or the devil too much of a devil-- I don't know which. Or you may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds. Then the earth for you is only a standing place-and whether to be like this is your loss or your gain I won't pretend to say. But most of us are neither one nor the other. The earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells too, by Jove!--
Thesaurus assaulted: (adj) molested, mistreated, ANTONYMS: (n) disloyalty, raped, beaten. unfaithfulness, inaccuracy, devils: (n) unclean spirits. dishonesty, disobedience, disparagingly: (adv) contemptuously, wickedness, indifference. scornfully, slightingly, pejoratively, gallows: (n) gibbet, gallous, gallowsunsympathetically, disapprovingly, bitts, hanging, noose, scaffold, halter, judgmentally, reproachfully, tree, rope, gallowstree, bough. disdainfully, derogatively, abusively. neighbor: (v) abut, adjoin, populate, faithfulness: (n) devotion, constancy, touch; (n) acquaintance, neighborhood, national; (adj) allegiance, truth, accuracy, loyalty, dedication, faith, exactness, neighborly, neighbouring, adherence; (adj, n) honesty. neighboring, adjacent. ANTONYM:
(n) foreigner. neighbors: (n) neighbourhood. peal: (n) ding, noise, clang, dingdong, blast; (v) chime, knell, toll, echo; (adj, n) swell; (n, v) bang. thunderingly: (adv) hulkingly, whoppingly, spankingly. untrammeled: (adj) unconstrained, untrammelled, unloaded, unrestrained, unobstructed, unbound, unhindered, unconfined, unchecked, uncaught, unbuttoned.
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breathe %dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated. And there, don't you see? Your strength comes in, the faith in your ability for the digging of unostentatious holes to bury the stuff in--your power of devotion, not to yourself, but to an obscure, back-breaking business. And that's difficult enough. Mind, I am not trying to excuse or even explain--I am trying to account to myself for--for--Mr. Kurtz-- for the shade of Mr. Kurtz. This initiated wraith from the back of Nowhere honored me with its amazing confidence before it vanished altogether. This was because it could speak English to me. The original Kurtz had been educated partly in England, and--as he was good enough to say himself--his sympathies were in the right place. His mother was half-English, his father was half-French. All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz; and byand-by I learned that, most appropriately, the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs had intrusted him with the making of a report, for its future guidance. And he had written it too. I've seen it. I've read it. It was eloquent, vibrating with eloquence, but too high-strung, I think. Seventeen pages of close writing he had found time for! But this must have been before his- let us say--nerves, went wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites, which--as far as I reluctantly gathered from what I heard at various times-- were offered up to him--do you understand?--to Mr. Kurtz himself. But it was a beautiful piece of writing. The opening paragraph, however, in the light of later information, strikes me now as ominous. He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, `must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings--we approach them with the might as of a deity,' and so on, and so on. `By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded,' &c., &c. From that point he soared and took me with him. The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember, you know. It gave me the notion of an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence. It made me tingle with enthusiasm. This was the unbounded power of eloquence--of words-- of burning noble words. There were no practical hints to interrupt the magic current of phrases, unless a kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much later, in an unsteady hand,
Thesaurus high-strung: (adj) sensitive, tense, fidgety, jumpy, nervous, edgy, temperamental, feverish; (adv) on edge. honored: (adj) esteemed, reputable, respected, honoured, privileged, glorious, distinguished, honorable, worshipful, exalted, revered. ANTONYMS: (adj) disadvantaged, disreputable. peroration: (n) harangue, close, conclusion, speech, formal speech,
unostentatious: (adj) unassuming, lecture, delivery, epilogue, say, tirade, tag. unpretentious, unobtrusive, humble, rites: (n) money, finances, wake, restrained, understated, simple, homely, lowly, unpretending; (adj, n) religion. scrawled: (adj) scribbled, hard to plain. decipher, incomprehensible, written, vibrating: (adj) tremulous, vibratory, unreadable, indecipherable, vibrant, swinging, hollow, moving, impossible to read. oscillating, that oscillates, resonant; unbounded: (adj) immeasurable, (n) shaking system. limitless, endless, infinite, immense, wraith: (n) shade, specter, phantom, measureless, unlimited, vast, spook, apparition, spectre, spirit, illimitable, unmeasured, absolute. vision, shadow, comb, fetch.
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may be regarded as the exposition of a method. It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: `Exterminate all the brutes!' The curious part was that he had apparently forgotten all about that valuable postscriptum, because, later on, when he in a sense came to himself, he repeatedly entreated me to take good care of `my pamphlet' (he called it), as it was sure to have in the future a good influence upon his career. I had full information about all these things, and, besides, as it turned out, I was to have the care of his memory. I've done enough for it to give me the indisputable right to lay it, if I choose, for an everlasting rest in the dust-bin of progress, amongst all the sweepings and, figuratively speaking, all the dead cats of civilization. But then, you see, I can't choose. He won't be forgotten. Whatever he was, he was not common. He had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honor; he could also fill the small souls of the pilgrims with bitter misgivings: he had one devoted friend at least, and he had conquered one soul in the world that was neither rudimentary nor tainted with self-seeking. No; I can't forget him, though I am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him. I missed my late helmsman awfully,--I missed him even while his body was still lying in the pilot-house. Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara. Well, don't you see, he had done something, he had steered; for months I had him at my back--a help--an instrument. It was a kind of partnership. He steered for me--I had to look after him, I worried about his deficiencies, and thus a subtle bond had been created, of which I only became aware when it was suddenly broken. And the intimate profundity of that look he gave me when he received his hurt remains to this day in my memory--like a claim of distant kinship affirmed in a supreme moment.% "Poor fool! If he had only left that shutter alone. He had no restraint, no restraint--just like Kurtz--a tree swayed by the wind. As soon as I had put on a dry pair of slippers, I dragged him out, after first jerking the spear out of his side, which operation I confess I performed with my eyes shut tight. His heels leaped
Thesaurus figuratively: (adv) allegorically, insult; (v) break, ignore, disrespect, symbolically, tropically, typically, discredit. indisputable: (adj) incontestable, representatively, parabolically, parabolicly, flowerily, symbolicly, incontrovertible, sure, irrefutable, floridly, figurally. ANTONYM: (adv) undeniable, firm, absolute, positive, factually. decided, obvious, unmistakable. honor: (n, v) respect, reputation, glory, ANTONYMS: (adj) dubious, fame, reward; (n) award, accolade, doubtful, questionable, disputable, reverence; (v) celebrate; (adj, n, v) equivocal, debatable, imitation, worship, grace. ANTONYMS: (n, v) tenuous, weak. dishonor, disgrace; (n) shame, profundity: (n) deepness, humiliation, wickedness, contempt, profoundness, abstruseness,
penetration, wisdom, obscurity, astuteness, abstrusity, erudition; (adj) profound, extensive. ANTONYMS: (n) superficiality, banality, flippancy, height, mildness, simplicity. self-seeking: (adj) selfish, sordid, selfcentered, unscrupulous; (n) individualism, self-love, egoism. sweepings: (adj, n) trash; (n) waste, rubbish, garbage, debris, riffraff, markings, rubble, detritus; (adj) rags, orts.
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together over the little door-step; his shoulders were pressed to my breast; I hugged him from behind desperately. Oh! he was heavy, heavy; heavier than any man on earth, I should imagine. Then without more ado I tipped him overboard. The current snatched him as though he had been a wisp of grass, and I saw the body roll over twice before I lost sight of it for ever. All the pilgrims and the manager were then congregated on the awning-deck about the pilothouse, chattering at each other like a flock of excited magpies, and there was a scandalized murmur at my heartless promptitude. What they wanted to keep that body hanging about for I can't guess. Embalm it, maybe. But I had also heard another, and a very ominous, murmur on the deck below. My friends the wood-cutters were likewise scandalized, and with a better show of reason-though I admit that the reason itself was quite inadmissible. Oh, quite! I had made up my mind that if my late helmsman was to be eaten, the fishes alone should have him. He had been a very second-rate helmsman while alive, but now he was dead he might have become a first-class temptation, and possibly cause some startling trouble. Besides, I was anxious to take the wheel, the man in pink pyjamas showing himself a hopeless duffer at the business.% "This I did directly the simple funeral was over. We were going half-speed, keeping right in the middle of the stream, and I listened to the talk about me. They had given up Kurtz, they had given up the station; Kurtz was dead, and the station had been burnt--and so on--and so on. The red-haired pilgrim was beside himself with the thought that at least this poor Kurtz had been properly revenged. `Say! We must have made a glorious slaughter of them in the bush. Eh? What do you think? Say?' He positively danced, the bloodthirsty little gingery beggar. And he had nearly fainted when he saw the wounded man! I could not help saying, `You made a glorious lot of smoke, anyhow.' I had seen, from the way the tops of the bushes rustled and flew, that almost all the shots had gone too high. You can't hit anything unless you take aim and fire from the shoulder; but these chaps fired from the hip with their eyes shut. The retreat, I maintained-- and I was right--was caused by the screeching of the steam-whistle. Upon this they forgot Kurtz, and began to howl at me with indignant protests.
Thesaurus bloodthirsty: (adj) murderous, brutal, bloody, barbarous, cruel, savage, fierce, ferocious, violent, slaughterous, sanguineous. ANTONYM: (adj) pleasant. duffer: (n) dunce, lubber, blockhead, stick, bungler, fathead, marplot, fence, fumbler, receiver of stolen goods, dudder. eaten: (v) eat. embalm: (n) perfume, scent; (v) mummify, kyanize, pickle, tin, salt,
season, pot, mummy, wrap. gingery: (adj) hot, racy, peppery, spicy, pungent, spirited, juicy, piquant, savoury, warm, coloured. heard: (n) hearing. inadmissible: (adj) ineligible, improper, unqualified, inappropriate, inconvenient, unfit, impermissible, unbearable, inadequate, undesirable; (v) illtimed. ANTONYMS: (adj) admissible, allowable. magpies: (n) geophagy, em,
geophagia, genus pica. promptitude: (n) expedition, speed, readiness, promptness, velocity, haste, agility, rapidity, celerity, hurry, dispatch. second-rate: (adj) second-class, mediocre, secondary, mean, ordinary, lousy, unimportant, shoddy, low, poor; (n) second best. wisp: (n) lock, fagot, strand, curl, tress, piece, whisp, piece of hair, puff, slip, small person.
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"The manager stood by the wheel murmuring confidentially about the necessity of getting well away down the river before dark at all events, when I saw in the distance a clearing on the river-side and the outlines of some sort of building. `What's this?' I asked. He clapped his hands in wonder. `The station!' he cried. I edged in at once, still going half-speed.% "Through my glasses I saw the slope of a hill interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free from undergrowth. A long decaying building on the summit was half buried in the high grass; the large holes in the peaked roof gaped black from afar; the jungle and the woods made a background. There was no inclosure or fence of any kind; but there had been one apparently, for near the house half-adozen slim posts remained in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamented with round carved balls. The rails, or whatever there had been between, had disappeared. Of course the forest surrounded all that. The riverbank was clear, and on the water-side I saw a white man under a hat like a cartwheel beckoning persistently with his whole arm. Examining the edge of the forest above and below, I was almost certain I could see movements--human forms gliding here and there. I steamed past prudently, then stopped the engines and let her drift down. The man on the shore began to shout, urging us to land. `We have been attacked,' screamed the manager. `I know--I know. It's all right,' yelled back the other, as cheerful as you please. `Come along. It's all right. I am glad.' "His aspect reminded me of something I had seen--something funny I had seen somewhere. As I maneuvered to get alongside, I was asking myself, `What does this fellow look like?' Suddenly I got it. He looked like a harlequin. His clothes had been made of some stuff that was brown holland probably, but it was covered with patches all over, with bright patches, blue, red, and yellow,-patches on the back, patches on front, patches on elbows, on knees; colored binding round his jacket, scarlet edging at the bottom of his trousers; and the sunshine made him look extremely gay and wonderfully neat withal, because you could see how beautifully all this patching had been done. A beardless, boyish face, very fair, no features to speak of, nose peeling, little blue eyes, smiles
Thesaurus beardless: (adj) callow, youthful, personally, clandestinely, in secret, in young, green, hairless, under age, private, surreptitiously, occultly. puisne, sappy, budding, whiskerless. ANTONYMS: (adv) publicly, openly, beckoning: (adj) irresistible. familiarly, commonly. colored: (adj) chromatic, black, tinged, inclosure: (n) enclosing, fence, tinted, colorful, dyed, coloured, incasement, encasement, partial, dark, bleached, biased. circumscription, boxing, ANTONYMS: (adj) truthful, white, envelopment, introduction, intromission, papers; (n, v) boundary. uncolored, unbiased, pale, objective, ornamented: (adj) embellished, honest, genuine, real. confidentially: (adv) privately, closely, beautified, fancy, flowery, ornate, privily, intimately, familiarly, adorned, bedecked, decked,
festooned, feathered, florid. patching: (n) patch, tiling, fix, repair, reparation, plugging, connection, burning, fixing. peaked: (adj) pointed, sharp, spiky, ensiform, peaky, poorly, salient, unwell, gaunt, wan, emaciated. withal: (adv) nevertheless, notwithstanding, however, even so, all the same, nonetheless, with; (adj) likewise; (n) sufficiency, adequacy, enough.
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and%frowns chasing each other over that open countenance like sunshine and shadow on a windswept plain. `Look out, captain!' he cried; `there's a snag lodged in here last night.' What! Another snag? I confess I swore shamefully. I had nearly holed my cripple, to finish off that charming trip. The harlequin on the bank turned his little pug nose up to me. `You English?' he asked, all smiles. `Are you?' I shouted from the wheel. The smiles vanished, and he shook his head as if sorry for my disappointment. Then he brightened up. `Never mind!' he cried encouragingly. `Are we in time?' I asked. `He is up there,' he replied, with a toss of the head up the hill, and becoming gloomy all of a sudden. His face was like the autumn sky, overcast one moment and bright the next. "When the manager, escorted by the pilgrims, all of them armed to the teeth, had gone to the house, this chap came on board. `I say, I don't like this. These natives are in the bush,' I said. He assured me earnestly it was all right. `They are simple people,' he added; `well, I am glad you came. It took me all my time to keep them off.' `But you said it was all right,' I cried. `Oh, they meant no harm,' he said; and as I stared he corrected himself, `Not exactly.' Then vivaciously, `My faith, your pilot-house wants a clean up!' In the next breath he advised me to keep enough steam on the boiler to blow the whistle in case of any trouble. `One good screech will do more for you than all your rifles. They are simple people,' he repeated. He rattled away at such a rate he quite overwhelmed me. He seemed to be trying to make up for lots of silence, and actually hinted, laughing, that such was the case. `Don't you talk with Mr. Kurtz?' I said. `You don't talk with that man--you listen to him,' he exclaimed with severe exaltation. `But now--' He waved his arm, and in the twinkling of an eye was in the uttermost depths of despondency. In a moment he came up again with a jump, possessed himself of both my hands, shook them continuously, while he gabbled: `Brother sailor . . . honor . . . pleasure . . . delight . . . introduce myself . . . Russian . . . son of an arch-priest . . . Government of Tambov . . . What? Tobacco! English tobacco; the excellent English tobacco! Now, that's brotherly. Smoke? Where's a sailor that does not smoke?' "The pipe soothed him, and gradually I made out he had run away from
Thesaurus exaltation: (n) elation, ecstasy, apotheosis, worship, praise, rapture, deification, grandeur, adoration; (n, v) sublimation; (v) laud. ANTONYMS: (n) abasement, belittlement, debasement, degradation, humiliation, sorrow, derogation, disparagement. hinted: (adj) veiled, roundabout, not explicit, implicit, coded, oblique. lodged: (adj) wedged, stuck fast, stuck, jammed.
natives: (n) nation, populace, community, citizens, public. overcast: (adj) dark, cloudy, dim, dull, gloomy, heavy, muddy, dismal; (n, v) cloud; (adj, v) obscure; (v) darken. ANTONYMS: (adj) sunny, clear. rifles: (n) chasseur, light infantry. shamefully: (adv) ignominiously, ingloriously, scandalously, infamously, shockingly, discreditably, basely, outrageously; (adv, v) dishonorably, foully, nastily.
ANTONYMS: (adv) commendably, compassionately, nobly. shouted: (adj) screamed, loud. soothed: (adj) composed. toss: (n, v) throw, fling, pitch, chuck, cast, flip; (v) agitate, hurl, shake, convulse, discard. ANTONYM: (v) catch. vivaciously: (adv) actively, vitally, gaily, bouncily, spiritedly, briskly, buoyantly, animatedly, alively, energetically; (adv, v) happily.
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school, had gone to sea in a Russian ship; ran away again; served some time in English ships; was now reconciled with the arch-priest. He made a point of that. `But when one is young one must see things, gather experience, ideas; enlarge the mind.' `Here!' I interrupted. `You can never tell! Here I have met Mr. Kurtz,' he said, youthfully solemn and reproachful. I held my tongue after that. It appears he had persuaded a Dutch trading-house on the coast to fit him out with stores and goods, and had started for the interior with a light heart, and no more idea of what would happen to him than a baby. He had been wandering about that river for nearly two years alone, cut off from everybody and everything. `I am not so young as I look. I am twenty-five,' he said. `At first old Van Shuyten would tell me to go to the devil,' he narrated with keen enjoyment; `but I stuck to him, and talked and talked, till at last he got afraid I would talk the hind-leg off his favorite dog, so he gave me some cheap things and a few guns, and told me he hoped he would never see my face again. Good old Dutchman, Van Shuyten. I've sent him one small lot of ivory a year ago, so that he can't call me a little thief when I get back. I hope he got it. And for the rest I don't care. I had some wood stacked for you. That was my old house. Did you see?'% "I gave him Towson's book. He made as though he would kiss me, but restrained himself. `The only book I had left, and I thought I had lost it,' he said, looking at it ecstatically. `So many accidents happen to a man going about alone, you know. Canoes get upset sometimes--and sometimes you've got to clear out so quick when the people get angry.' He thumbed the pages. `You made notes in Russian?' I asked. He nodded. `I thought they were written in cipher,' I said. He laughed, then became serious. `I had lots of trouble to keep these people off,' he said. `Did they want to kill you?' I asked. `Oh no!' he cried, and checked himself. `Why did they attack us?' I pursued. He hesitated, then said shamefacedly, `They don't want him to go.' `Don't they?' I said, curiously. He nodded a nod full of mystery and wisdom. `I tell you,' he cried, `this man has enlarged my mind.' He opened his arms wide, staring at me with his little blue eyes that were perfectly round."
Thesaurus ecstatically: (adv) happily, blissfully, reconciled: (adj) consistent, resigned, serene, meet; (v) made friends, ravishingly, raptly, elatedly, affriended. ANTONYM: (adj) enrapturedly, joyfully, joyously, overjoyedly, gladly, cheerily. unreconciled. enlarge: (v) expand, aggrandize, reproachful: (adj, v) condemnatory, disparaging, vituperative; (adj) augment, dilate, distend, widen, increase, elaborate, extend, blow up, admonitory, opprobrious, grow. ANTONYMS: (v) reduce, disgraceful, shameful, reproving, shrink, contract, decrease, compress, objurgatory, contumelious; (v) condense, diminish, lessen, denunciatory. shamefacedly: (adv) sheepishly, minimize, narrow, abridge. narrated: (adj) oral, narrative. guiltily, bashfully, shily, hangdogly,
modestly, awkwardly, diffidently, embarrassedly, skittishly. stacked: (adj) buxom, curvaceous, prepared, shapely, voluptuous. thief: (n) burglar, bandit, pirate, plunderer, filcher, stealer, pickpocket, pilferer, crook, brigand, despoiler. youthfully: (adv) greenly, vigorously, youngly, vernally, immaturely, freshly, adolescently, callowly, newly, sappily, tenderly.
Joseph Conrad
PART
65
%III
"I looked at him, lost in astonishment. There he was before me, in motley, as though he had absconded from a troupe of mimes, enthusiastic, fabulous. His very existence was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. He was an insoluble problem. It was inconceivable how he had existed, how he had succeeded in getting so far, how he had managed to remain-- why he did not instantly disappear. `I went a little farther,' he said, `then still a little farther--till I had gone so far that I don't know how I'll ever get back. Never mind. Plenty time. I can manage. You take Kurtz away quick--quick--I tell you.' The glamour of youth enveloped his particolored rags, his destitution, his loneliness, the essential desolation of his futile wanderings. For months--for years--his life hadn't been worth a day's purchase; and there he was gallantly, thoughtlessly alive, to all appearance indestructible solely by the virtue of his few years and of his unreflecting audacity. I was seduced into something like admiration-- like envy. Glamour urged him on, glamour kept him unscathed. He surely wanted nothing from the wilderness but space to breathe in and to push on through. His need was to exist, and to move onwards at the greatest possible risk, and with a maximum of privation. If the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled this be-patched youth. I almost envied him the possession of this modest and clear flame. It seemed to have consumed all thought of self so completely, that, even while he was talking to you, you forgot that it was he--the man before your eyes--who had gone through
Thesaurus gallantly: (adv) courageously, intrepidly, chivalrously, splendidly, valiantly, heroically, fearlessly, finely, doughtily, pluckily, courteously. ANTONYMS: (adv) unchivalrously, poorly, timidly. particolored: (adj) calico, colored, assorted, piebald, varicoloured, varicolored, colorful, pied, particoloured, painted, multicoloured. privation: (n) hardship, need,
deprivation, necessity, poverty, deficiency, misery, impoverishment, destitution, dearth; (n, v) loss. ANTONYM: (n) affluence. seduced: (adj) profaned, infatuated, fascinated. thoughtlessly: (adv) carelessly, inconsiderately, heedlessly, rashly, imprudently, inattentively, hastily, negligently, indiscreetly, unheedingly; (adj, adv) foolishly. ANTONYMS: (adv) considerately,
carefully, cautiously, prudently, sensibly, wisely. unpractical: (adj) impractical, insane, abstract, chimerical, delirious, fanciful, not sane, viewy, mad, spectacular. unreflecting: (adj) thoughtless, dizzy, indistinct, brainsick, unreflective, intuitive, inconsiderate, confused, giddy, heedless, impetuous. wanderings: (n) peregrination. went: (v) walked, proceeded.
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these things. I did not envy him his devotion to Kurtz, though. He had not meditated over it. It came to him, and he accepted it with a sort of eager fatalism. I must say that to me it appeared about the most dangerous thing in every way he had come upon so far.% "They had come together unavoidably, like two ships becalmed near each other, and lay rubbing sides at last. I suppose Kurtz wanted an audience, because on a certain occasion, when encamped in the forest, they had talked all night, or more probably Kurtz had talked. `We talked of everything,' he said, quite transported at the recollection. `I forgot there was such a thing as sleep. The night did not seem to last an hour. Everything! Everything! . . . Of love too.' `Ah, he talked to you of love!' I said, much amused. `It isn't what you think,' he cried, almost passionately. `It was in general. He made me see things--things.' "He threw his arms up. We were on deck at the time, and the headman of my wood-cutters, lounging near by, turned upon him his heavy and glittering eyes. I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness. `And, ever since, you have been with him, of course?' I said. "On the contrary. It appears their intercourse had been very much broken by various causes. He had, as he informed me proudly, managed to nurse Kurtz through two illnesses (he alluded to it as you would to some risky feat), but as a rule Kurtz wandered alone, far in the depths of the forest. `Very often coming to this station, I had to wait days and days before he would turn up,' he said. `Ah, it was worth waiting for!--sometimes.' `What was he doing? exploring or what?' I asked. `Oh yes, of course;' he had discovered lots of villages, a lake too--he did not know exactly in what direction; it was dangerous to inquire too much-- but mostly his expeditions had been for ivory. `But he had no goods to trade with by that time,' I objected. `There's a good lot of cartridges left even yet,' he answered, looking away. `To speak plainly, he raided the country,' I said. He nodded. `Not alone, surely!' He muttered something about the villages round that lake. `Kurtz
Thesaurus amused: (adj) amusing, smiling, simple, sparse, vulnerable, accessible, impassively, jokingly, gently. recollection: (n, v) mind; (n) tickled pink, pleased, diverted. transparent, understandable, open. appeared: (n) appearing. inquire: (v) demand, ask, explore, reminiscence, recall, anamnesis, becalmed: (v) stagnant; (adj) enquire, inspect, research, consult, remembrance, recognition, memento, pry, request, wonder; (n, v) question. memorial, commemoration, memoir, unmoving, nonmoving, motionless. fatalism: (n) determinism. ANTONYM: (v) answer. retrospect. impenetrable: (adj) impassable, thick, passionately: (adv) fervently, unavoidably: (adv) inescapably, incomprehensible, hard, mysterious, vehemently, violently, fiercely, necessarily, ineluctably, by necessity, unfathomable, unintelligible, eagerly, zealously, fervidly, fierily, of necessity, automatically, needs, impervious, opaque, heavy, obscure. enthusiastically, heatedly, stormily. inevitable, relentlessly, true to form, ANTONYMS: (adj) penetrable, ANTONYMS: (adv) mildly, unsurprisingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) readable, straightforward, apparent, apathetically, calmly, halfheartedly, surprisingly, unnecessarily.
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got %the tribe to follow him, did he?' I suggested. He fidgeted a little. `They adored him,' he said. The tone of these words was so extraordinary that I looked at him searchingly. It was curious to see his mingled eagerness and reluctance to speak of Kurtz. The man filled his life, occupied his thoughts, swayed his emotions. `What can you expect?' he burst out; `he came to them with thunder and lightning, you know-- and they had never seen anything like it--and very terrible. He could be very terrible. You can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man. No, no, no! Now--just to give you an idea-- I don't mind telling you, he wanted to shoot me too one day-- but I don't judge him.' `Shoot you!' I cried. `What for?' `Well, I had a small lot of ivory the chief of that village near my house gave me. You see I used to shoot game for them. Well, he wanted it, and wouldn't hear reason. He declared he would shoot me unless I gave him the ivory and then cleared out of the country, because he could do so, and had a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom he jolly well pleased. And it was true too. I gave him the ivory. What did I care! But I didn't clear out. No, no. I couldn't leave him. I had to be careful, of course, till we got friendly again for a time. He had his second illness then. Afterwards I had to keep out of the way; but I didn't mind. He was living for the most part in those villages on the lake. When he came down to the river, sometimes he would take to me, and sometimes it was better for me to be careful. This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away. When I had a chance I begged him to try and leave while there was time; I offered to go back with him. And he would say yes, and then he would remain; go off on another ivory hunt; disappear for weeks; forget himself amongst these people-- forget himself--you know.' `Why! he's mad,' I said. He protested indignantly. Mr. Kurtz couldn't be mad. If I had heard him talk, only two days ago, I wouldn't dare hint at such a thing. . . . I had taken up my binoculars while we talked and was looking at the shore, sweeping the limit of the forest at each side and at the back of the house. The consciousness of there being people in that bush, so silent, so quiet--as silent and quiet as the ruined house on the hill-- made me uneasy. There was no sign on the face of nature of this amazing tale that was not so much told as suggested to me in desolate exclamations, completed by shrugs, in
Thesaurus adored: (adj) loved, respected, enthusiasm, avidity, cupidity, precious, idolized, idolised, readiness, passion, keenness, acclaimed, blessed, favorite, dearly ambition, fervor, avidness. ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, loved, beloved, venerated. desolate: (adj, v) desert, forlorn; (adj) unwillingness, aloofness, disinterest, bare, barren, alone, bleak, deserted, lethargy, listlessness, patience, cheerless, disconsolate; (v) devastate, gloom, reluctance. destroy. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, indignantly: (adv) irately, angrily, inhabited, happy, sheltered, mobbed, wrathfully, enragedly, sorely, overcrowded, ecstatic, hopeful; (v) acrimoniously, cynically, sulkily, create, construct, build. hotly, exasperatedly, furiously. eagerness: (n, v) desire, aspiration; (n) mingled: (adj) miscellaneous, complex,
indiscriminate, heterogeneous, medley, confused, eclectic, motley, different; (v) blended, blent. searchingly: (adv) closely, piercingly, cuttingly, inquisitively, penetratingly, trenchantly, acutely, exhaustively, curiously, inquiringly, exploratorily. suffered: (adj) permitted, permissive. swayed: (adj) persuaded, susceptible, touched, convinced. ANTONYM: (adj) doubtful.
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interrupted %phrases, in hints ending in deep sighs. The woods were unmoved, like a mask--heavy, like the closed door of a prison--they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence. The Russian was explaining to me that it was only lately that Mr. Kurtz had come down to the river, bringing along with him all the fighting men of that lake tribe. He had been absent for several months--getting himself adored, I suppose-- and had come down unexpectedly, with the intention to all appearance of making a raid either across the river or down stream. Evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the better of the-- what shall I say?--less material aspirations. However he had got much worse suddenly. `I heard he was lying helpless, and so I came up-- took my chance,' said the Russian. `Oh, he is bad, very bad.' I directed my glass to the house. There were no signs of life, but there was the ruined roof, the long mud wall peeping above the grass, with three little square window-holes, no two of the same size; all this brought within reach of my hand, as it were. And then I made a brusque movement, and one of the remaining posts of that vanished fence leaped up in the field of my glass. You remember I told you I had been struck at the distance by certain attempts at ornamentation, rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of the place. Now I had suddenly a nearer view, and its first result was to make me throw my head back as if before a blow. Then I went carefully from post to post with my glass, and I saw my mistake. These round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing-- food for thought and also for the vultures if there had been any looking down from the sky; but at all events for such ants as were industrious enough to ascend the pole. They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house. Only one, the first I had made out, was facing my way. I was not so shocked as you may think. The start back I had given was really nothing but a movement of surprise. I had expected to see a knob of wood there, you know. I returned deliberately to the first I had seen--and there it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids,--a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that
Thesaurus ascend: (n, v) mount; (v) arise, scale, uprise, climb, go up, come up, increase, elevate; (n) ascending, ascent. ANTONYMS: (v) descend, drop, decline, fall, lower, set, sink. attempts: (adj) trying. brusque: (adj) blunt, curt, discourteous, short, gruff, surly, brief, bluff, rude, uncouth, hasty. ANTONYMS: (adj) gracious, courteous, considerate, kind, civil, gentle, friendly, rambling, hesitant.
jocose: (adj) humorous, facetious, beneficial, fortunate, harmless. shrunken: (adj) wizened, shrivelled, jesting, funny, frolicsome, witty, pleasant, gay, jovial, joking, coltish. shrunk, withered, contracted, wizen, ornamentation: (n) adornment, narrow, dried, thin, lean, sear. ANTONYMS: (adj) plump, bloated. decoration, garnish, embellishment, decor, polish, trimming, embroidery, unapproachable: (adj) aloof, distant, cockade, arabesque, beading. remote, interminable, unreachable, ruinous: (adj) harmful, baleful, immeasurable, incalculable, disastrous, calamitous, injurious, inexhaustible, illimitable, deleterious, dilapidated, blasting, innumerable, out of reach. baneful, pernicious; (adj, n) ANTONYMS: (adj) accessible, subversive. ANTONYMS: (adj) friendly, easy, affable.
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eternal slumber.% "I am not disclosing any trade secrets. In fact the manager said afterwards that Mr. Kurtz's methods had ruined the district. I have no opinion on that point, but I want you clearly to understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him-some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence. Whether he knew of this deficiency himself I can't say. I think the knowledge came to him at last--only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude--and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core. . . . I put down the glass, and the head that had appeared near enough to be spoken to seemed at once to have leaped away from me into inaccessible distance. "The admirer of Mr. Kurtz was a bit crestfallen. In a hurried, indistinct voice he began to assure me he had not dared to take these--say, symbols--down. He was not afraid of the natives; they would not stir till Mr. Kurtz gave the word. His ascendency was extraordinary. The camps of these people surrounded the place, and the chiefs came every day to see him. They would crawl. . . . `I don't want to know anything of the ceremonies used when approaching Mr. Kurtz,' I shouted. Curious, this feeling that came over me that such details would be more intolerable than those heads drying on the stakes under Mr. Kurtz's windows. After all, that was only a savage sight, while I seemed at one bound to have been transported into some lightless region of subtle horrors, where pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being something that had a right to exist--obviously-- in the sunshine. The young man looked at me with surprise. I suppose it did not occur to him Mr. Kurtz was no idol of mine. He forgot I hadn't heard any of these splendid monologues on, what was it? on love, justice, conduct of life--or what not. If it had come to crawling before Mr. Kurtz, he
Thesaurus arose: (v) happen, occur. cloudy, dark. ANTONYMS: (adj) facundity, way with words. ascendency: (n) ascendant, ANTONYM: (n) inarticulateness. clear, slight, separate, certain, precise, gratification: (adj, n) delight; (n, v) predominance, sway, ascendance, audible, strong, definite. content; (n) enjoyment, pleasure, irresistibly: (adv) charmingly, advantage, ascendent, control, dominance, dominion, influence, satisfaction, fruition, complacency, necessarily, overwhelmingly, mastery. joy, luxury, treat, fulfillment. charismatically, fiercely, temptingly, began: (v) Gan. ANTONYMS: (n) dissatisfaction, overpoweringly, appealingly, disclosing: (n) confession, disenchantment, dismay, discontent, beguilingly. lightless: (adj) gloomy, dim, obscure, communication. anxiety. eloquence: (n) style, fluency, oratory, indistinct: (adj) indefinite, inarticulate, sunless, unlit, unlighted, rhetoric, articulateness, expression, faint, dull, fuzzy, indeterminate, unilluminated, tenebrous, dusky, volubility, persuasiveness, articulacy, hazy, neutral; (adj, n) confused, invisible.
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crawled as much as the veriest savage of them all. I had no idea of the conditions, he said: these heads were the heads of rebels. I shocked him excessively by laughing. Rebels! What would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers--and these were rebels. Those rebellious heads looked very subdued to me on their sticks. `You don't know how such a life tries a man like Kurtz,' cried Kurtz's last disciple. `Well, and you?' I said. `I! I! I am a simple man. I have no great thoughts. I want nothing from anybody. How can you compare me to . . .?' His feelings were too much for speech, and suddenly he broke down. `I don't understand,' he groaned. `I've been doing my best to keep him alive, and that's enough. I had no hand in all this. I have no abilities. There hasn't been a drop of medicine or a mouthful of invalid food for months here. He was shamefully abandoned. A man like this, with such ideas. Shamefully! Shamefully! I--I-- haven't slept for the last ten nights. . . .' "His voice lost itself in the calm of the evening. The long shadows of the forest had slipped down hill while we talked, had gone far beyond the ruined hovel, beyond the symbolic row of stakes. All this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendor, with a murky and overshadowed bend above and below. Not a living soul was seen on the shore. The bushes did not rustle.% "Suddenly round the corner of the house a group of men appeared, as though they had come up from the ground. They waded waist-deep in the grass, in a compact body, bearing an improvised stretcher in their midst. Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying straight to the very heart of the land; and, as if by enchantment, streams of human beings--of naked human beings--with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances and savage movements, were poured into the clearing by the dark-faced and pensive forest. The bushes shook, the grass swayed for a time, and then everything stood still in attentive
Thesaurus disciple: (n) adherent, follower, informal, unplanned; (adj) luster, glory, ostentation, glitter; (n, v) brightness; (adj, n) radiance. devotee, scholar, pupil, believer, extemporaneous, improvisatory, ANTONYMS: (n) dullness, proselyte, cohort, learner, partisan, offhand, makeshift, spontaneous, votary. ANTONYMS: (n) leader, unrehearsed, temporary, ordinariness, paucity, austerity, extemporized. ANTONYMS: (adj) teacher, God, instructor. understatement, shabbiness, enchantment: (n) attraction, prepared, permanent. simplicity, unattractiveness. shrillness: (n) timbre, timber, acumen, stretcher: (n) litter, cot, cradle, panel captivation, charm, conjuration, sorcery, spell, bewitchment, acuteness, sharpness, keenness, brick, pallet, hurdle, hammock, incantation, delight, bewitchery; (adj, stridency, stridence, high pitch, shakedown, crate, capstone, n) rapture. ANTONYMS: (n) sensitiveness, quality. brancard. splendor: (adj, n, v) brilliancy; (n) veriest: (adj) of mark, pointed, displeasure, discomfort. improvised: (adj, adv) off the cuff, magnificence, pomp, sheen, lustre, remarkable.
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immobility.% "`Now, if he does not say the right thing to them we are all done for,' said the Russian at my elbow. The knot of men with the stretcher had stopped too, halfway to the steamer, as if petrified. I saw the man on the stretcher sit up, lank and with an uplifted arm, above the shoulders of the bearers. `Let us hope that the man who can talk so well of love in general will find some particular reason to spare us this time,' I said. I resented bitterly the absurd danger of our situation, as if to be at the mercy of that atrocious phantom had been a dishonoring necessity. I could not hear a sound, but through my glasses I saw the thin arm extended commandingly, the lower jaw moving, the eyes of that apparition shining darkly far in its bony head that nodded with grotesque jerks. Kurtz-Kurtz--that means short in German-- don't it? Well, the name was as true as everything else in his life--and death. He looked at least seven feet long. His covering had fallen off, and his body emerged from it pitiful and appalling as from a winding-sheet. I could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving. It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze. I saw him open his mouth wide--it gave him a weirdly voracious aspect, as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him. A deep voice reached me faintly. He must have been shouting. He fell back suddenly. The stretcher shook as the bearers staggered forward again, and almost at the same time I noticed that the crowd of savages was vanishing without any perceptible movement of retreat, as if the forest that had ejected these beings so suddenly had drawn them in again as the breath is drawn in a long aspiration. "Some of the pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his arms-- two shot-guns, a heavy rifle, and a light revolver-carbine-- the thunderbolts of that pitiful Jupiter. The manager bent over him murmuring as he walked beside his head. They laid him down in one of the little cabins--just a room for a bed-place and a camp-stool or two, you know. We had brought his belated correspondence, and a lot of torn envelopes and open letters littered his bed. His hand roamed feebly amongst
Thesaurus apparition: (n) ghost, phantom, spirit, ANTONYM: (adv) weakly. spectre, hallucination, spook, shade, ejected: (adj) evicted, dispossessed. eidolon, wraith, advent; (n, v) vision. uplifted: (adj) high, raised, noble, not astir: (adj) agog, lively, wakeful; (adv) inverted, not prone, proud, afoot, abroach, about; (v) sparkling, undismayed, stately, lofty, sublime, up the qui vive, wrought up. animated. ANTONYM: (adj) asleep. vanishing: (n) disappearance, commandingly: (adv) peremptorily, vanishment, dissipation; (adj) dying, commanding, impressively, fleeting, momentary, breaking up, imperiously, superiorly, imposingly, declining, diminishing, dissolving, evanescent. ANTONYMS: (adj) grandly, domineeringly, imperatively, bossily, overbearingly. thriving, increasing.
voracious: (adj) greedy, rapacious, ravenous, hungry, gluttonous, esurient, edacious, avid, ravening, grasping, insatiable. ANTONYMS: (adj) quenched, disinterested, moderate. weirdly: (adv) strangely, curiously, peculiarly, quaintly, uncannily, eccentrically, unusually, mysteriously, queerly, bizarrely, supernaturally. ANTONYM: (adv) ordinarily.
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these papers. I was struck by the fire of his eyes and the composed languor of his expression. It was not so much the exhaustion of disease. He did not seem in pain. This shadow looked satiated and calm, as though for the moment it had had its fill of all the emotions.% "He rustled one of the letters, and looking straight in my face said, `I am glad.' Somebody had been writing to him about me. These special recommendations were turning up again. The volume of tone he emitted without effort, almost without the trouble of moving his lips, amazed me. A voice! a voice! It was grave, profound, vibrating, while the man did not seem capable of a whisper. However, he had enough strength in him-- factitious no doubt--to very nearly make an end of us, as you shall hear directly. "The manager appeared silently in the doorway; I stepped out at once and he drew the curtain after me. The Russian, eyed curiously by the pilgrims, was staring at the shore. I followed the direction of his glance. "Dark human shapes could be made out in the distance, flitting indistinctly against the gloomy border of the forest, and near the river two bronze figures, leaning on tall spears, stood in the sunlight under fantastic headdresses of spotted skins, warlike and still in statuesque repose. And from right to left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman. "She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though
Thesaurus charms: (n) trinkets, jewelry, jewels. indistinctly: (adv) vaguely, dimly, factitious: (adj) artificial, unnatural, hazily, mistily, inarticulately, fictitious, man-made, ostensible, shadowily, obscurely, unclearly, bogus, unreal, synthetic, fuzzily, confusedly, ambiguously. ANTONYMS: (adv) precisely, surreptitious, forced, false. fecund: (adj) productive, prolific, audibly, coherently, distinctly. fruitful, rich, luxuriant, fat, pregnant, languor: (adj, n) inactivity, inertia, feebleness; (n) lethargy, fatigue, fructuous, reproductive, exuberant, plenteous. ANTONYMS: (adj) infirmity, lassitude, weakness, indifference, ennui; (adj) atony. infertile, sterile, impotent, ANTONYM: (n) energy. unproductive. gauntlets: (n) gauntlet, gantlet. satiated: (adj) full, replete, gorged,
satisfied, jaded, sated, glutted, fat, fed up, corpulent, disgusted. ANTONYM: (adj) insatiate. sorrowful: (adj) melancholy, doleful, sad, rueful, lugubrious, gloomy, dreary, grievous, piteous, unhappy, mournful. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, content, joyful, successful. statuesque: (adj) shapely, Junoesque, noble, imposing, monumental, trim, tall, formal, elegant, courtly, beautiful.
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it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul.% "She came abreast of the steamer, stood still, and faced us. Her long shadow fell to the water's edge. Her face had a tragic and fierce aspect of wild sorrow and of dumb pain mingled with the fear of some struggling, half-shaped resolve. She stood looking at us without a stir and like the wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose. A whole minute passed, and then she made a step forward. There was a low jingle, a glint of yellow metal, a sway of fringed draperies, and she stopped as if her heart had failed her. The young fellow by my side growled. The pilgrims murmured at my back. She looked at us all as if her life had depended upon the unswerving steadiness of her glance. Suddenly she opened her bared arms and threw them up rigid above her head, as though in an uncontrollable desire to touch the sky, and at the same time the swift shadows darted out on the earth, swept around on the river, gathering the steamer into a shadowy embrace. A formidable silence hung over the scene. "She turned away slowly, walked on, following the bank, and passed into the bushes to the left. Once only her eyes gleamed back at us in the dusk of the thickets before she disappeared. "`If she had offered to come aboard I really think I would have tried to shoot her,' said the man of patches, nervously. `I had been risking my life every day for the last fortnight to keep her out of the house. She got in one day and kicked up a row about those miserable rags I picked up in the storeroom to mend my clothes with. I wasn't decent. At least it must have been that, for she talked like a fury to Kurtz for an hour, pointing at me now and then. I don't understand the dialect of this tribe. Luckily for me, I fancy Kurtz felt too ill that day to care, or there would have been mischief. I don't understand. . . . No--it's too much for me. Ah, well, it's all over now.' "At this moment I heard Kurtz's deep voice behind the curtain, `Save me!-save the ivory, you mean. Don't tell me. Save ME! Why, I've had to save you. You are interrupting my plans now. Sick! Sick! Not so sick as you would like to believe. Never mind. I'll carry my ideas out yet--I will return. I'll show you what can be done. You with your little peddling notions--you are interfering with me.
Thesaurus bared: (adj) naked, unclothed, exposed. fortnight: (n) two weeks, period, amount of time. jingle: (n, v) ring, chime, ding, clank; (v) clang, clink, tinkle, rattle, sound, peal; (n) chink. ANTONYM: (n) silence. peddling: (n) hawking, vendition, peddlery, selling; (adj) mean, piddling, shabby, parsimonious, miserly, penny wise, scrubby.
risking: (n) daily double, gaming, perfecta, place bet, exacta. steadiness: (adj, n) stability, firmness, steadfastness; (n) regularity, equilibrium, consistency, resolution, permanence, persistence, sureness; (adj) stableness. ANTONYMS: (n) unsteadiness, instability, unreliability. storeroom: (n) store, storehouse, warehouse, storage, storage room, larder, cupboard, buttery, depot,
stockroom, chandlery. tenebrous: (adj) dark, gloomy, tenebrific, tenebrious, dusky, murky, sullen, dismal, obscure, somber, equivocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) light, inviting. unswerving: (adj) unfaltering, firm, steady, unwavering, direct, constant, staunch, unflinching, resolute, unshakable; (adj, v) undeviating. ANTONYMS: (adj) undependable, unreliable, irresolute, inconsistent.
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I will return. I . . .' "The manager came out. He did me the honor to take me under the arm and lead me aside. `He is very low, very low,' he said. He considered it necessary to sigh, but neglected to be consistently sorrowful. `We have done all we could for him--haven't we? But there is no disguising the fact, Mr. Kurtz has done more harm than good to the Company. He did not see the time was not ripe for vigorous action. Cautiously, cautiously--that's my principle. We must be cautious yet. The district is closed to us for a time. Deplorable! Upon the whole, the trade will suffer. I don't deny there is a remarkable quantity of ivory--mostly fossil. We must save it, at all events--but look how precarious the position is--and why? Because the method is unsound.' `Do you,' said I, looking at the shore, `call it "unsound method"?' `Without doubt,' he exclaimed, hotly. `Don't you?' . . . `No method at all,' I murmured after a while. `Exactly,' he exulted. `I anticipated this. Shows a complete want of judgment. It is my duty to point it out in the proper quarter.' `Oh,' said I, `that fellow--what's his name?--the brickmaker, will make a readable report for you.' He appeared confounded for a moment. It seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief--positively for relief. `Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,' I said with emphasis. He started, dropped on me a cold heavy glance, said very quietly, `He WAS,' and turned his back on me. My hour of favor was over; I found myself lumped along with Kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: I was unsound! Ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares.% "I had turned to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz, who, I was ready to admit, was as good as buried. And for a moment it seemed to me as if I also were buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night. . . . The Russian tapped me on the shoulder. I heard him mumbling and stammering something about `brother seaman--couldn't conceal-- knowledge of matters that would affect Mr. Kurtz's reputation.' I waited. For him evidently Mr. Kurtz was not in
Thesaurus disguising: (n) cover-up. ANTONYMS: (adv) impassively, faulty, rotten, unreliable, invalid, favor: (n, v) countenance, aid, grace, mildly. unsafe, imperfect, unreasonable, support, benefit, boon; (adj, n) mumbling: (n) gumming, diction, weak. ANTONYMS: (adj) valid, kindness; (n) advantage; (v) befriend, enunciation, chewing, mussitation, sound, well, safe, steady, strong, mastication; (adj) inarticulate, encourage, patronize. ANTONYMS: logical, watertight, stable, good, (v) hinder, contradict, dislike, hurt, incoherent. perfect. differ, thwart, reject, demean; (n) stammering: (n) hesitation, hesitancy, unspeakable: (adj) ineffable, dreadful, derogation, disapproval, unkindness. psellism, indistinct pronunciation, awful, terrible, inexpressible, nasty, hotly: (adv) heatedly, passionately, doubt; (adj) halting, hesitating, horrible, atrocious, indefinable, shocking; (adj, v) unutterable. fervidly, fervently, pepperily, inarticulate, incoherent, broken, ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, wonderful, sultrily, intensely, sharply, torridly; ashamed. (adj, adv) violently, vehemently. unsound: (adj) false, shaky, fallacious, pleasant, good, lovely, bearable.
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his grave; I suspect that for him Mr. Kurtz was one of the immortals. `Well!' said I at last, `speak out. As it happens, I am Mr. Kurtz's friend--in a way.' "He stated with a good deal of formality that had we not been `of the same profession,' he would have kept the matter to himself without regard to consequences. `He suspected there was an active ill-will towards him on the part of these white men that--' `You are right,' I said, remembering a certain conversation I had overheard. `The manager thinks you ought to be hanged.' He showed a concern at this intelligence which amused me at first. `I had better get out of the way quietly,' he said, earnestly. `I can do no more for Kurtz now, and they would soon find some excuse. What's to stop them? There's a military post three hundred miles from here.' `Well, upon my word,' said I, `perhaps you had better go if you have any friends amongst the savages near by.' `Plenty,' he said. `They are simple people--and I want nothing, you know.' He stood biting his lips, then: `I don't want any harm to happen to these whites here, but of course I was thinking of Mr. Kurtz's reputation--but you are a brother seaman and--' `All right,' said I, after a time. `Mr. Kurtz's reputation is safe with me.' I did not know how truly I spoke.% "He informed me, lowering his voice, that it was Kurtz who had ordered the attack to be made on the steamer. `He hated sometimes the idea of being taken away--and then again. . . . But I don't understand these matters. I am a simple man. He thought it would scare you away--that you would give it up, thinking him dead. I could not stop him. Oh, I had an awful time of it this last month.' `Very well,' I said. `He is all right now.' `Ye-e-es,' he muttered, not very convinced apparently. `Thanks,' said I; `I shall keep my eyes open.' `But quiet-eh?' he urged, anxiously. `It would be awful for his reputation if anybody here--' I promised a complete discretion with great gravity. `I have a canoe and three black fellows waiting not very far. I am off. Could you give me a few MartiniHenry cartridges?' I could, and did, with proper secrecy. He helped himself, with a wink at me, to a handful of my tobacco. `Between sailors-- you know-good English tobacco.' At the door of the pilot-house he turned round--' I say, haven't you a pair of shoes you could spare?' He raised one leg. `Look.' The
Thesaurus biting: (adj, v) acute, acrid, sarcastic, sharp, acrimonious, pungent, severe, cutting; (adj) acid, bitter, barbed. ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, blunt, kind, bland, nice, soothing, sweet, hot, complimentary, faint, sympathetic. canoe: (n) dugout, pirogue, canoes, caique, birchbark, dugout canoe, birchbark canoe, felucca; (adj) selfsufficient. earnestly: (adj, adv) seriously; (adv) eagerly, intently, zealously, solemnly,
ardently, fervently, heartily, gravely, warmly, passionately. ANTONYMS: (adv) indifferently, insincerely, unconcernedly, jokingly. fellows: (n) fellow, membership, faculty. formality: (n) ceremony, formalities, decorum, etiquette, custom, ceremoniousness, starch, ritual, rite, observance; (n, v) stiffness. ANTONYMS: (n) casualness, possibility, warmth, friendliness.
ill-will: (n) enmity. lowering: (adj) heavy, dismal, gloomy, threatening, dark, glum, murky; (n) fall, drop, cut, decline. muttered: (adj) garbled, incoherent, broken, inarticulate. scare: (adj, n, v) panic; (adj, n) dread; (v) intimidate, daunt, frighten, appall, horrify; (adj, v) dismay, awe; (n, v) fright; (adj) consternation. ANTONYMS: (v) comfort, soothe, encourage; (n) reassurance, bravery.
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soles were tied with knotted strings sandal-wise under his bare feet. I rooted out an old pair, at which he looked with admiration before tucking it under his left arm. One of his pockets (bright red) was bulging with cartridges, from the other (dark blue) peeped `Towson's Inquiry,' &c., &c. He seemed to think himself excellently well equipped for a renewed encounter with the wilderness. `Ah! I'll never, never meet such a man again. You ought to have heard him recite poetry- his own too it was, he told me. Poetry!' He rolled his eyes at the recollection of these delights. `Oh, he enlarged my mind!' `Goodby,' said I. He shook hands and vanished in the night. Sometimes I ask myself whether I had ever really seen him-- whether it was possible to meet such a phenomenon! . . .% "When I woke up shortly after midnight his warning came to my mind with its hint of danger that seemed, in the starred darkness, real enough to make me get up for the purpose of having a look round. On the hill a big fire burned, illuminating fitfully a crooked corner of the station-house. One of the agents with a picket of a few of our blacks, armed for the purpose, was keeping guard over the ivory; but deep within the forest, red gleams that wavered, that seemed to sink and rise from the ground amongst confused columnar shapes of intense blackness, showed the exact position of the camp where Mr. Kurtz's adorers were keeping their uneasy vigil. The monotonous beating of a big drum filled the air with muffled shocks and a lingering vibration. A steady droning sound of many men chanting each to himself some weird incantation came out from the black, flat wall of the woods as the humming of bees comes out of a hive, and had a strange narcotic effect upon my half-awake senses. I believe I dozed off leaning over the rail, till an abrupt burst of yells, an overwhelming outbreak of a pent-up and mysterious frenzy, woke me up in a bewildered wonder. It was cut short all at once, and the low droning went on with an effect of audible and soothing silence. I glanced casually into the little cabin. A light was burning within, but Mr. Kurtz was not there. "I think I would have raised an outcry if I had believed my eyes. But I didn't believe them at first--the thing seemed so impossible. The fact is I was completely unnerved by a sheer blank fright, pure abstract terror, unconnected with any
Thesaurus chanting: (n) cantillation, vocalizing, magnificently, finely, marvelously, enchantment, witchcraft, conjuration, sing, singing, intonation. goodly, worthily, grandly, primely, magic spell, chant, wizardry, open columnar: (adj) columned, stelene, superbly. ANTONYMS: (adv) poorly, sesame, adjuration. narcotic: (adj, n) soporific, opiate, columnlike, columniform, badly, terribly. fitfully: (adv) intermittently, hypnotic; (adj) anodyne; (n) drug, basaltiform. droning: (adj) buzzing, humming, spasmodically, inconstantly, anaesthetic, opium, stupefacient, abuzz, booming, monotonous, noisy; sporadically, unsteadily, unevenly, sedative, methadone, meperidine. (n) bourdon, dawdler, drone pipe, uncertainly, randomly, interruptedly, starred: (adj) marked. unnerved: (v) relaxed; (adj) enervated, idleness, monotone. ANTONYM: flickeringly, occasionally. (adj) varied. ANTONYMS: (adv) recurrently, afraid, alarmed, anxious, fearful, excellently: (adv) splendidly, peacefully. hysterical, scared, tense, terrified, incantation: (n) spell, magic, sorcery, timid. ANTONYM: (adj) confident. beautifully, exquisitely,
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distinct shape of physical danger. What made this emotion so overpowering was-- how shall I define it?--the moral shock I received, as if something altogether monstrous, intolerable to thought and odious to the soul, had been thrust upon me unexpectedly. This lasted of course the merest fraction of a second, and then the usual sense of commonplace, deadly danger, the possibility of a sudden onslaught and massacre, or something of the kind, which I saw impending, was positively welcome and composing. It pacified me, in fact, so much, that I did not raise an alarm.% "There was an agent buttoned up inside an ulster and sleeping on a chair on deck within three feet of me. The yells had not awakened him; he snored very slightly; I left him to his slumbers and leaped ashore. I did not betray Mr. Kurtz-it was ordered I should never betray him-- it was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice. I was anxious to deal with this shadow by myself alone,-and to this day I don't know why I was so jealous of sharing with anyone the peculiar blackness of that experience. "As soon as I got on the bank I saw a trail--a broad trail through the grass. I remember the exultation with which I said to myself, `He can't walk--he is crawling on all-fours--I've got him.' The grass was wet with dew. I strode rapidly with clenched fists. I fancy I had some vague notion of falling upon him and giving him a drubbing. I don't know. I had some imbecile thoughts. The knitting old woman with the cat obtruded herself upon my memory as a most improper person to be sitting at the other end of such an affair. I saw a row of pilgrims squirting lead in the air out of Winchesters held to the hip. I thought I would never get back to the steamer, and imagined myself living alone and unarmed in the woods to an advanced age. Such silly things--you know. And I remember I confounded the beat of the drum with the beating of my heart, and was pleased at its calm regularity. "I kept to the track though--then stopped to listen. The night was very clear: a dark blue space, sparkling with dew and starlight, in which black things stood very still. I thought I could see a kind of motion ahead of me. I was strangely cocksure of everything that night. I actually left the track and ran in a wide
Thesaurus awakened: (adj) excited, aroused, awakens, awoke, interested. cocksure: (adj, v) assured, sure, certain; (adj) confident, dogmatic, overconfident, cocky, arrogant, pragmatical, opinionated, convinced. composing: (v) compose, comprise, constitute; (adj, v) component; (n) composition, arranging, arrangement, placement, makeup, constitution, manufacturing. drubbing: (n) debacle, defeat,
walloping, slaughter, thrashing, flogging, whipping, discomfiture, rout, hiding, licking. exultation: (n) jubilation, joy, delight, ecstasy, elation, rejoicing, revelling, transport, joyousness, bliss, glee. ANTONYMS: (n) depression, desolation, misery, sorrow. odious: (adj, v) hateful, obnoxious; (adj) detestable, hideous, nasty, execrable, disgusting, abhorrent, abominable, heinous, forbidding.
ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, delightful, agreeable, lovable, nice. overpowering: (adj) overwhelming, oppressive, resistless, compelling, intense, heavy, strong, onerous, devastating, uncontrollable, depressing. ANTONYMS: (adj) light, subtle, imperceptible, insignificant, shallow, weak, faint, bland. pacified: (adj) appeased. starlight: (n) rushlight, moonlight, firelight, candlelight.
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semicircle (I verily believe chuckling to myself) so as to get in front of that stir, of that motion I had seen--if indeed I had seen anything. I was circumventing Kurtz as though it had been a boyish game.% "I came upon him, and, if he had not heard me coming, I would have fallen over him too, but he got up in time. He rose, unsteady, long, pale, indistinct, like a vapor exhaled by the earth, and swayed slightly, misty and silent before me; while at my back the fires loomed between the trees, and the murmur of many voices issued from the forest. I had cut him off cleverly; but when actually confronting him I seemed to come to my senses, I saw the danger in its right proportion. It was by no means over yet. Suppose he began to shout? Though he could hardly stand, there was still plenty of vigor in his voice. `Go away-hide yourself,' he said, in that profound tone. It was very awful. I glanced back. We were within thirty yards from the nearest fire. A black figure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving long black arms, across the glow. It had horns-antelope horns, I think-- on its head. Some sorcerer, some witch-man, no doubt: it looked fiend-like enough. `Do you know what you are doing?' I whispered. `Perfectly,' he answered, raising his voice for that single word: it sounded to me far off and yet loud, like a hail through a speaking-trumpet. `If he makes a row we are lost,' I thought to myself. This clearly was not a case for fisticuffs, even apart from the very natural aversion I had to beat that Shadow--this wandering and tormented thing. `You will be lost,' I said--'utterly lost.' One gets sometimes such a flash of inspiration, you know. I did say the right thing, though indeed he could not have been more irretrievably lost than he was at this very moment, when the foundations of our intimacy were being laid--to endure-- to endure-even to the end--even beyond. "`I had immense plans,' he muttered irresolutely. `Yes,' said I; `but if you try to shout I'll smash your head with--' There was not a stick or a stone near. `I will throttle you for good,' I corrected myself. `I was on the threshold of great things,' he pleaded, in a voice of longing, with a wistfulness of tone that made my blood run cold. `And now for this stupid scoundrel--' `Your success in Europe is
Thesaurus chuckling: (n) laughter. all time, irremediably, forever, fisticuffs: (n, v) boxing, pugilism; (n) irrecoverably, once and for all, fistfight, fight, bout, slugfest, quarrel, irrevocably, irreversibly. semicircle: (n) arch, semi-circles, half disturbance, event, prize fight, athletics. circle, half-circle, plane figure, arc, irresolutely: (adv) waveringly, curve. undecidedly, indecisively, hesitantly, sorcerer: (n) magician, magus, uncertainly, hesitatingly, weakly, necromancer, enchanter, conjurer, infirmly, spinelessly, unsteadily, wizard, conjuror, sorcer , diviner, unsettledly. ANTONYMS: (adv) exorciser, exorcist. vapor: (n) fog, cloud, steam, haze, decisively, firmly. irretrievably: (adv) permanently, for evaporation, vapour, fume; (adj, n)
gas, air; (adj, v) bluster; (v) boast. vigor: (n, v) energy; (adj, n) intensity; (n) spirit, vitality, force, life, strength, power, might, vim, stamina. ANTONYMS: (n) weakness, apathy, frailty, laziness, enervation, inactivity, indifference, illness, lifelessness, sluggishness, tardiness. wistfulness: (n) nostalgia, yearning, melancholy, homesickness, abstraction, reminiscence, vagueness, pensiveness.
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assured %in any case,' I affirmed, steadily. I did not want to have the throttling of him, you understand--and indeed it would have been very little use for any practical purpose. I tried to break the spell--the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness-- that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions. This alone, I was convinced, had driven him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations; this alone had beguiled his unlawful soul beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations. And, don't you see, the terror of the position was not in being knocked on the head-- though I had a very lively sense of that danger too-but in this, that I had to deal with a being to whom I could not appeal in the name of anything high or low. I had, even like the niggers, to invoke him-himself his own exalted and incredible degradation. There was nothing either above or below him, and I knew it. He had kicked himself loose of the earth. Confound the man! he had kicked the very earth to pieces. He was alone, and I before him did not know whether I stood on the ground or floated in the air. I've been telling you what we said-- repeating the phrases we pronounced,--but what's the good? They were common everyday words,--the familiar, vague sounds exchanged on every waking day of life. But what of that? They had behind them, to my mind, the terrific suggestiveness of words heard in dreams, of phrases spoken in nightmares. Soul! If anybody had ever struggled with a soul, I am the man. And I wasn't arguing with a lunatic either. Believe me or not, his intelligence was perfectly clear--concentrated, it is true, upon himself with horrible intensity, yet clear; and therein was my only chance--barring, of course, the killing him there and then, which wasn't so good, on account of unavoidable noise. But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad. I had--for my sins, I suppose--to go through the ordeal of looking into it myself. No eloquence could have been so withering to one's belief in mankind as his final burst of sincerity. He struggled with himself, too. I saw it,--I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself. I kept my head pretty well; but when I had him at
Thesaurus drone: (n, v) hum, murmur; (v) whine, content, complacent, comfortable, throb: (n, v) quiver, ache, pulse, idler, purr; (n) dawdler, droning, pound, thrill, tingle; (v) pulsate, cheerful. laggard, sluggard, roll; (adv, n) lunatic: (n) madman, maniac, palpitate, flutter, shudder; (n) bedlamite; (adj) insane, foolish, bourdon. pulsation. exalted: (adj) elevated, eminent, noble, moonstruck, mad, mental, deranged, throttling: (n) strangulation, choking, high, August, elated, dignified, great, idiotic; (adj, n) madcap. ANTONYM: suffocation, constriction, (adj) sensible. sublime, grand, big. ANTONYMS: asphyxiation. (adj) belittled, condemned, criticized, mute: (adj) dumb, silent, inarticulate, withering: (adj) devastating, dummy, tongueless; (v) muffle, extortionate, grinding; (v) dry, debased, humble, humiliated, low, dampen, deaden, hush; (adj, v) quiet, sarcastic, sharp, severe, satirical, lowly, minor, ridiculed, base. gratified: (adj) glad, satisfied, pleased, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj) talkative, sardonic, cutting; (n) shrinkage. speaking, spoken; (v) amplify. ANTONYM: (adj) hopeful. delighted, happy, thankful, grateful,
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last stretched on the couch, I wiped my forehead, while my legs shook under me as though I had carried half a ton on my back down that hill. And yet I had only supported him, his bony arm clasped round my neck-- and he was not much heavier than a child.% "When next day we left at noon, the crowd, of whose presence behind the curtain of trees I had been acutely conscious all the time, flowed out of the woods again, filled the clearing, covered the slope with a mass of naked, breathing, quivering, bronze bodies. I steamed up a bit, then swung down-stream, and two thousand eyes followed the evolutions of the splashing, thumping, fierce riverdemon beating the water with its terrible tail and breathing black smoke into the air. In front of the first rank, along the river, three men, plastered with bright red earth from head to foot, strutted to and fro restlessly. When we came abreast again, they faced the river, stamped their feet, nodded their horned heads, swayed their scarlet bodies; they shook towards the fierce river-demon a bunch of black feathers, a mangy skin with a pendent tail--something that looked like a dried gourd; they shouted periodically together strings of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language; and the deep murmurs of the crowd, interrupted suddenly, were like the response of some satanic litany. "We had carried Kurtz into the pilot-house: there was more air there. Lying on the couch, he stared through the open shutter. There was an eddy in the mass of human bodies, and the woman with helmeted head and tawny cheeks rushed out to the very brink of the stream. She put out her hands, shouted something, and all that wild mob took up the shout in a roaring chorus of articulated, rapid, breathless utterance. "`Do you understand this?' I asked. "He kept on looking out past me with fiery, longing eyes, with a mingled expression of wistfulness and hate. He made no answer, but I saw a smile, a smile of indefinable meaning, appear on his colorless lips that a moment after twitched convulsively. `Do I not?' he said slowly, gasping, as if the words had been torn out of him by a supernatural power. "I pulled the string of the whistle, and I did this because I saw the pilgrims on
Thesaurus colorless: (adj) achromatic, neutral, drab, dull, monotonous, wan, tame, pallid, bloodless, white, colourless. ANTONYMS: (adj) rosy, interesting, rich, vivid, brilliant, vibrant, stimulating, lively, glamorous, exciting, distinctive. convulsively: (adv) spasmodically, paroxysmally, spasticly, with convulsions. evolutions: (n) evolution. gourd: (n) bottle gourd, pumpkin,
melon, Lagenaria, gord, vine, noddle, exploding cucumber, fruit, flask, calabash tree. horned: (adj) cornuted, somm, horny, sharp, cuckolded, cornigerous, bearing horns, having horns. ANTONYM: (adj) hornless. litany: (n) collect, speech, supplication, paternoster, address, repetition, rogation, hymn. mangy: (adj) shabby, seedy, scruffy, scabby, squalid, paltry; (v)
contaminated, tainted, peccant, vitiated, poisoned. pendent: (adj) pendulous, suspended, pendant, dangling, pending, unsettled, undecided, pensile, drooping, projecting; (n) stipend. stamped: (adj) beaten, marked, pressed, printed; (v) fixed, engraved. tawny: (n) tan, buff; (adj, n) brown, auburn; (adj) luteous, golden, sallow, russet, chestnut, creamy, moderately black.
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deck getting out their rifles with an air of anticipating a jolly lark. At the sudden screech there was a movement of abject terror through that wedged mass of bodies. `Don't! Don't you frighten them away,' cried someone on deck disconsolately. I pulled the string time after time. They broke and ran, they leaped, they crouched, they swerved, they dodged the flying terror of the sound. The three red chaps had fallen flat, face down on the shore, as though they had been shot dead. Only the barbarous and superb woman did not so much as flinch, and stretched tragically her bare arms after us over the somber and glittering river.% "And then that imbecile crowd down on the deck started their little fun, and I could see nothing more for smoke. "The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swiftly too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. The manager was very placid, he had no vital anxieties now, he took us both in with a comprehensive and satisfied glance: the `affair' had come off as well as could be wished. I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of `unsound method.' The pilgrims looked upon me with disfavor. I was, so to speak, numbered with the dead. It is strange how I accepted this unforeseen partnership, this choice of nightmares forced upon me in the tenebrous land invaded by these mean and greedy phantoms. "Kurtz discoursed. A voice! a voice! It rang deep to the very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart. Oh, he struggled! he struggled! The wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now--images of wealth and fame revolving obsequiously round his unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression. My Intended, my station, my career, my ideas-- these were the subjects for the occasional utterances of elevated sentiments. The shade of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mold of primeval earth. But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated fought for the possession of
Thesaurus barbarous: (adj) barbaric, savage, gothic, brutal, heathen, truculent, rude, fell, ferocious, fierce, uncivilized. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, cultured, civilized, sophisticated, refined, humane. diabolic: (adj) devilish, demonic, fiendish, hellish, infernal, wicked, unholy, diabolical, demoniacal; (adj, v) satanic, mephistophelian. ANTONYMS: (adj) saintly, kind, angelic, heavenly.
disconsolately: (adv) unhappily, gloomily, sadly, dismally, dolefully, melancholy, forlornly, dispiritedly, downcastly, glumly, downheartedly. ANTONYM: (adv) contentedly. disfavor: (n) disapproval, displeasure, disaffection, aversion, disrepute, disesteem; (n, v) disgrace, disfavour, discredit; (v) discountenance, hate. ANTONYMS: (n) favor, liking, regard, respect, service, kindness; (v) advantage.
ebbing: (n) wane, ebb, diminution, disappearance; (adj) dying, refluent. obsequiously: (adv) subserviently, submissively, fawningly, slavishly, compliantly, sycophantically, respectfully, cringingly, politely, admiringly, courteously. penetrated: (adj) perforated, entered. sentiments: (n) breast. wedged: (adj) impacted, cuneiform, jammed, fast, compacter, stuck, compact. ANTONYM: (adj) free.
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that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power.% "Sometimes he was contemptibly childish. He desired to have kings meet him at railway-stations on his return from some ghastly Nowhere, where he intended to accomplish great things. `You show them you have in you something that is really profitable, and then there will be no limits to the recognition of your ability,' he would say. `Of course you must take care of the motives-- right motives--always.' The long reaches that were like one and the same reach, monotonous bends that were exactly alike, slipped past the steamer with their multitude of secular trees looking patiently after this grimy fragment of another world, the forerunner of change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres, of blessings. I looked ahead--piloting. `Close the shutter,' said Kurtz suddenly one day; `I can't bear to look at this.' I did so. There was a silence. `Oh, but I will wring your heart yet!' he cried at the invisible wilderness. "We broke down--as I had expected--and had to lie up for repairs at the head of an island. This delay was the first thing that shook Kurtz's confidence. One morning he gave me a packet of papers and a photograph,-- the lot tied together with a shoe-string. `Keep this for me,' he said. `This noxious fool' (meaning the manager) `is capable of prying into my boxes when I am not looking.' In the afternoon I saw him. He was lying on his back with closed eyes, and I withdrew quietly, but I heard him mutter, `Live rightly, die, die . . .' I listened. There was nothing more. Was he rehearsing some speech in his sleep, or was it a fragment of a phrase from some newspaper article? He had been writing for the papers and meant to do so again, `for the furthering of my ideas. It's a duty.' "His was an impenetrable darkness. I looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines. But I had not much time to give him, because I was helping the engine-driver to take to pieces the leaky cylinders, to straighten a bent connecting-rod, and in other such matters. I lived in an infernal mess of rust, filings, nuts, bolts, spanners, hammers, ratchet-drills--things I abominate, because I don't get on with them. I tended the little forge we fortunately had aboard; I toiled wearily in a wretched
Thesaurus abominate: (v) loathe, detest, hate, meanly, shamefully, cruelly, execrate, despise, dislike, nauseate, callously, shockingly, nastily, disgust, condemn, resent, can't bear. spitefully, offensively, unkindly, ANTONYMS: (v) love, adore. disgracefully. ANTONYMS: (adv) avid: (adj) greedy, zealous, ardent, respectfully, commendably. filings: (adj) fine powder, magistery, anxious, enthusiastic, hungry, insatiable, keen, voracious, desirous, scobs; (n) detritus, debris. craving. ANTONYMS: (adj) mutter: (n, v) mumble, grumble, whisper; (v) growl, maunder, grouch, lukewarm, bored, unenthusiastic, snarl, croak; (n) murmuration, Blase, disinterested, generous. blessings: (n) blessing, godsend. grumbling, complaint. contemptibly: (adv) despicably, precipice: (n) abyss, chasm,
escarpment, gulf, steep, crag, verge, brink, abysm, ravine, drop. prying: (adj) inquisitive, meddlesome, nosy, inquiring, nosey, intrusive, busy, snoopy; (n) nosiness, curiosity; (adj, n) meddling. ANTONYMS: (adj) apathetic; (n) apathy. rehearsing: (n) rehearsal. repairs: (n) upkeep. wring: (n, v) squeeze; (v) twist, wrench, wrest, torture, torment, distort, extract, twine, contort, rack.
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scrap-heap--unless I had the shakes too bad to stand.% "One evening coming in with a candle I was startled to hear him say a little tremulously, `I am lying here in the dark waiting for death.' The light was within a foot of his eyes. I forced myself to murmur, `Oh, nonsense!' and stood over him as if transfixed. "Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision,--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath-"`The horror! The horror!' "I blew the candle out and left the cabin. The pilgrims were dining in the mess-room, and I took my place opposite the manager, who lifted his eyes to give me a questioning glance, which I successfully ignored. He leaned back, serene, with that peculiar smile of his sealing the unexpressed depths of his meanness. A continuous shower of small flies streamed upon the lamp, upon the cloth, upon our hands and faces. Suddenly the manager's boy put his insolent black head in the doorway, and said in a tone of scathing contempt-"`Mistah Kurtz--he dead.' "All the pilgrims rushed out to see. I remained, and went on with my dinner. I believe I was considered brutally callous. However, I did not eat much. There was a lamp in there--light, don't you know--and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark. I went no more near the remarkable man who had pronounced a judgment upon the adventures of his soul on this earth. The voice was gone. What else had been there? But I am of course aware that next day the pilgrims buried something in a muddy hole. "And then they very nearly buried me.
Thesaurus dining: (n) feeding, eating; (v) eat. insolent: (adj) impertinent, abusive, disrespectful, impudent, fresh, arrogant, brazen, defiant, offensive, brassy, bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectful, modest, gracious, meek, submissive. meanness: (n) parsimony, closeness, pettiness, avarice, selfishness, baseness, stinginess, niggardliness, miserliness, nastiness; (adj, n) degeneracy. ANTONYMS: (n)
generosity, extravagance, decency. hypnotized, mesmerised, scathing: (adj) caustic, sharp, mordant, mesmerized, hypnotised, stranded; (v) engrossed in, wrapped in, sarcastic, severe, cutting, incisive, absorbed, rapt; (adv) aground. ironic, abusive, pungent, bitter. ANTONYMS: (adj) complimentary, tremulously: (adv) fearfully, gentle, approving. shiveringly, tremblingly, shakingly, sealing: (n) Spiritual wife, jointing, quiveringly, quaveringly, fidgetily, packing, seal, weatherstrip, vibratingly. unexpressed: (adj) implicit, tacit, mute, waterproofing, protection, aerosol implied, unvoiced; (v) undisclosed, closure, leakproofing, cementation, welding. unexposed, unbreathed, unsung, transfixed: (adj) fascinated, untalked of; (adj, v) untold.
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"However, %as you see, I did not go to join Kurtz there and then. I did not. I remained to dream the nightmare out to the end, and to show my loyalty to Kurtz once more. Destiny. My destiny! Droll thing life is-- that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself--that comes too late--a crop of unextinguishable regrets. I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be. I was within a hair's-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it. Since I had peeped over the edge myself, I understand better the meaning of his stare, that could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness. He had summed up--he had judged. `The horror!' He was a remarkable man. After all, this was the expression of some sort of belief; it had candor, it had conviction, it had a vibrating note of revolt in its whisper, it had the appalling face of a glimpsed truth--the strange commingling of desire and hate. And it is not my own extremity I remember best-- a vision of grayness without form filled with physical pain, and a careless contempt for the evanescence of all things--even of this pain itself. No! It is his extremity that I seem to have lived through. True, he had made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge, while I had been permitted to draw back my hesitating foot. And perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible. Perhaps! I like to think my summing-up would not have been a word of careless contempt. Better his cry--much better. It was an affirmation, a moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats, by abominable
Thesaurus candor: (adj, n) honesty, sincerity, truth, abandon, fidelity, uprightness; (n) frankness, integrity, fairness, candidness, outspokenness. ANTONYMS: (n) unfairness, indirectness, deception, doublespeak, delicacy, conformity, caution, tact. evanescence: (n) ephemerality, evaporation, occultation, volatility, fugacity, caducity, transience, transiency, fugitiveness, ephemeralness.
grayness: (n) gray, greyness, grey, charcoal, discoloration, silver, griminess, gray clothing, gloom, drabness, ash gray. hearts: (n) Black Maria, spades. inappreciable: (adj) impalpable, invisible, insignificant, negligible, inconsiderable, trivial, evanescent, intangible, slight, trifling, inconsequential. penetrate: (v) bore, imbue, fathom, infiltrate, pierce, permeate, cut, filter,
interpenetrate, get through, enter. skepticism: (n) doubt, incredulity, distrust, hesitation, misgiving, scepticism, mistrust, suspicion, uncertainty, reservation, mental rejection. ANTONYMS: (n) faith, certainty, trust, belief. stride: (n, v) pace, tread, walk, stalk, rate, toddle, stump; (n) footstep, gait, progress; (v) march. summing-up: (n) resume. underfoot: (adj) abject, downtrodden.
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terrors, %by abominable satisfactions. But it was a victory! That is why I have remained loyal to Kurtz to the last, and even beyond, when a long time after I heard once more, not his own voice, but the echo of his magnificent eloquence thrown to me from a soul as translucently pure as a cliff of crystal. "No, they did not bury me, though there is a period of time which I remember mistily, with a shuddering wonder, like a passage through some inconceivable world that had no hope in it and no desire. I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretense, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so full of stupid importance. I dare say I was not very well at that time. I tottered about the streets--there were various affairs to settle--grinning bitterly at perfectly respectable persons. I admit my behavior was inexcusable, but then my temperature was seldom normal in these days. My dear aunt's endeavors to `nurse up my strength' seemed altogether beside the mark. It was not my strength that wanted nursing, it was my imagination that wanted soothing. I kept the bundle of papers given me by Kurtz, not knowing exactly what to do with it. His mother had died lately, watched over, as I was told, by his Intended. A clean-shaved man, with an official manner and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, called on me one day and made inquiries, at first circuitous, afterwards suavely pressing, about what he was pleased to denominate certain `documents.' I was not surprised, because I had had two rows with the manager on the subject out there. I had refused to give up the smallest scrap out of that package, and I took the same attitude with the spectacled man. He became darkly menacing at last, and with much heat argued that the Company had the
Thesaurus denominate: (v) designate, entitle, nominate, style, christen, denote, title, dub; (n, v) name, appoint; (n) term. endeavors: (n) activities, deeds, events, Comings and Goings, undertakings, accomplishments, happenings. filch: (v) pilfer, steal, pinch, rob, purloin, cabbage, swipe, lift, palm, poach, cop. inexcusable: (adj) irremissible,
unpardonable, reprehensible, unwarrantable, unforgivable, unwarranted, unfair, untenable, not excusable, intolerable, unexcusable. ANTONYMS: (adj) understandable, forgivable, justifiable, justified, laudable, wonderful. mistily: (adv) foggily, vaguely, dimly, shadowily, indistinctly, obscurely, vaporously, blearily, murkily, darkly, faintly. ANTONYMS: (adv) distinctly, clearly.
refused: (adj) forbidden, refuse, prohibited, hence. spectacled: (adj) monocled, decorated. suavely: (adv) blandly, courteously, tactfully, graciously, elegantly, pleasantly, urbanely, genially, gentlely, debonairly, sophisticatedly. ANTONYM: (adv) tactlessly. translucently: (adv) clearly, gauzily, lucently, lucidly, semitransparently, transparently, brightly, thinly, flimsily, delicately, daintily.
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right%to every bit of information about its `territories.' And, said he, `Mr. Kurtz's knowledge of unexplored regions must have been necessarily extensive and peculiar--owing to his great abilities and to the deplorable circumstances in which he had been placed: therefore'--I assured him Mr. Kurtz's knowledge, however extensive, did not bear upon the problems of commerce or administration. He invoked then the name of science. `It would be an incalculable loss if,' &c., &c. I offered him the report on the `Suppression of Savage Customs,' with the postscriptum torn off. He took it up eagerly, but ended by sniffing at it with an air of contempt. `This is not what we had a right to expect,' he remarked. `Expect nothing else,' I said. `There are only private letters.' He withdrew upon some threat of legal proceedings, and I saw him no more; but another fellow, calling himself Kurtz's cousin, appeared two days later, and was anxious to hear all the details about his dear relative's last moments. Incidentally he gave me to understand that Kurtz had been essentially a great musician. `There was the making of an immense success,' said the man, who was an organist, I believe, with lank gray hair flowing over a greasy coat-collar. I had no reason to doubt his statement; and to this day I am unable to say what was Kurtz's profession, whether he ever had any--which was the greatest of his talents. I had taken him for a painter who wrote for the papers, or else for a journalist who could paint--but even the cousin (who took snuff during the interview) could not tell me what he had been--exactly. He was a universal genius--on that point I agreed with the old chap, who thereupon blew his nose noisily into a large cotton handkerchief and withdrew in senile agitation, bearing off some family letters and memoranda without importance. Ultimately a journalist anxious to know something of the fate of his `dear colleague' turned up. This visitor informed me Kurtz's proper sphere ought to have been politics `on the popular side.' He had furry straight eyebrows, bristly hair cropped short, an eye-glass on a broad ribbon, and, becoming expansive, confessed his opinion that Kurtz really couldn't write a bit--'but heavens! how that man could talk! He electrified large meetings. He had faith--don't you see?--he had the faith. He could get himself to believe anything--anything. He would have been a splendid leader of an extreme party.' `What party?' I asked. `Any party,' answered the
Thesaurus bristly: (adj) barbed, thorny, rough, spiny, stiff, hairy, setaceous, briery, bristled, barbellate, briary. ANTONYM: (adj) soft. confessed: (adj) known. cropped: (adj) close. incalculable: (adj) countless, innumerable, numberless, boundless, inestimable, immense, infinite, myriad, numerous, invaluable, unpredictable. ANTONYMS: (adj) calculable, negligible, limited,
worthless, tiny, slight, finite, few, geriatric, elderly, doddery, decrepit, definite, small, minor. crazy, demented, disabled, dotty. interview: (n) consultation, audience, snuff: (v) smell, kill, douse, slay, scent, conversation, hearing, examination, snuffle, bump off, smother, snort; appointment, dialogue; (v) question, (adj) tobacco, nicotine. interrogate; (n, v) talk, encounter. unexplored: (adj) unexplained, memoranda: (n) memorandum, note. unapprehended, unascertained, organist: (n) instrumentalist, undiscovered, unheard of; (v) accordionist, player, violinist, pianist, unexamined, uninvented, flautist, musician. unsearched, unstudied, unweighed, regions: (n) area, region, parts. unsifted. senile: (adj) doddering, gaga, aged, whether: (pron) where.
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other. `He was an--an--extremist.' Did I not think so? I assented. Did I know, he asked, with a sudden flash of curiosity, `what it was that had induced him to go out there?' `Yes,' said I, and forthwith handed him the famous Report for publication, if he thought fit. He glanced through it hurriedly, mumbling all the % time, judged `it would do,' and took himself off with this plunder. "Thus I was left at last with a slim packet of letters and the girl's portrait. She struck me as beautiful--I mean she had a beautiful expression. I know that the sunlight can be made to lie too, yet one felt that no manipulation of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate shade of truthfulness upon those features. She seemed ready to listen without mental reservation, without suspicion, without a thought for herself. I concluded I would go and give her back her portrait and those letters myself. Curiosity? Yes; and also some other feeling perhaps. All that had been Kurtz's had passed out of my hands: his soul, his body, his station, his plans, his ivory, his career. There remained only his memory and his Intended-- and I wanted to give that up too to the past, in a way,-- to surrender personally all that remained of him with me to that oblivion which is the last word of our common fate. I don't defend myself. I had no clear perception of what it was I really wanted. Perhaps it was an impulse of unconscious loyalty, or the fulfillment of one of these ironic necessities that lurk in the facts of human existence. I don't know. I can't tell. But I went. "I thought his memory was like the other memories of the dead that accumulate in every man's life,--a vague impress on the brain of shadows that had fallen on it in their swift and final passage; but before the high and ponderous door, between the tall houses of a street as still and decorous as a well-kept alley in a cemetery, I had a vision of him on the stretcher, opening his mouth voraciously, as if to devour all the earth with all its mankind. He lived then before me; he lived as much as he had ever lived--a shadow insatiable of splendid appearances, of frightful realities; a shadow darker than the shadow of the night, and draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence. The vision seemed to enter the house with me--the stretcher, the phantom-bearers, the wild crowd of obedient worshipers, the gloom of the forests, the glitter of the reach
Thesaurus decorous: (adj) decent, appropriate, voraciously: (adv) greedily, attainment, execution, conventional, sedate, correct, modest, consummation, contentment, gluttonously, rapaciously, hungrily, prim, proper; (adj, v) becoming, observance, discharge. ANTONYMS: avidly, raveningly, edaciously, seemly, comely. ANTONYMS: (adj) (n) disobedience, dissatisfaction, graspingly, famishedly, covetously, impolite, improper, misbehaving, abandonment, dismay. wolfishly. truthfulness: (adj, n) honesty, unsuitable, unrefined, relaxed, sincerity, probity, honor; (n) truth, inappropriate, rowdy, undignified, defiant, unseemly. openness, frankness, candor, faith, don't: (adv) not; (n) taboo, prohibition. loyalty; (adj) integrity. ANTONYMS: fulfillment: (n) completion, fruition, (n) untruthfulness, inaccuracy, achievement, satisfaction, fulfilment, evasiveness, caution, deceit.
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between the murky bends, the beat of the drum, regular and muffled like the beating of a heart--the heart of a conquering darkness. It was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful rush which, it seemed to me, I would have to keep back alone for the salvation of another soul. And the memory of what I had heard him say afar there, with the horned shapes stirring at my back, in the glow of fires, within the patient woods, those broken phrases came back to me, were heard again in their ominous and terrifying simplicity. I remembered his abject pleading, his abject threats, the colossal scale of his vile desires, the meanness, the torment, the tempestuous anguish of his soul. And later on I seemed to see his collected languid manner, when he said one day, `This lot of ivory now is really mine. The Company did not pay for it. I collected it myself at a very great personal risk. I am afraid they will try to claim it as theirs though. H'm. It is a difficult case. What do you think I ought to do--resist? Eh? I want no more than justice.' . . . He wanted no more than justice--no more than justice. I rang the bell before a mahogany door on the first floor, and while I waited he seemed to stare at me out of the glassy panel-- stare with that wide and immense stare embracing, condemning, loathing all the universe. I seemed to hear the whispered cry, `The horror! The horror!' "The dusk was falling. I had to wait in a lofty drawing-room with three long windows from floor to ceiling that were like three luminous and bedraped columns. The bent gilt legs and backs of the furniture shone in indistinct curves. The tall marble fireplace had a cold and monumental whiteness. A grand piano stood massively in a corner, with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a somber and polished sarcophagus. A high door opened--closed. I rose.% "She came forward, all in black, with a pale head, floating towards me in the dusk. She was in mourning. It was more than a year since his death, more than a year since the news came; she seemed as though she would remember and mourn for ever. She took both my hands in hers and murmured, `I had heard you were coming.' I noticed she was not very young--I mean not girlish. She had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering. The room seemed to have grown darker, as if all the sad light of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on
Thesaurus condemning: (adj) inculpative, censorious, inculpatory, critical; (n) conviction, reproachful. conquering: (adj) triumphant, winning, overcoming, glorious, proud, successful; (n) conquest, seizure, reverse, subjection, subjugation. girlish: (adj) boyish, childish, kittenish, juvenile, adolescent, innocent, schoolgirlish, babyish, immature, youthful, female.
languid: (adj) lazy, dull, indolent, feeble, lethargic, lackadaisical, sluggish, faint, torpid, inert, apathetic. ANTONYMS: (adj) active, lively, exciting, vigorous. loathing: (n, v) abomination, aversion, dislike, distaste; (n) hate, hatred, abhorrence, detestation, nausea, antipathy, execration. ANTONYMS: (n) love, adoration, liking, delight, goodwill. mourn: (v) bewail, grieve, deplore, cry,
bemoan, regret, distress, sad, wail, mourning, weep. ANTONYMS: (v) rejoice, celebrate, applaud. sarcophagus: (n) casket, urn, tomb, shell, pall, cinerary urn, bier, hearse, catafalque. tempestuous: (adj, n) rough, boisterous, severe; (adj) raging, furious, wild, angry, windy, fierce, gusty; (adj, v) turbulent. ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, moderate, relaxed.
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her forehead. This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me. Their glance was guileless, profound, confident, and trustful. She carried her sorrowful head as though she were proud of that sorrow, as though she would say, `I--I alone know how to mourn for him as he deserves. But while we were still shaking hands, such a look of awful desolation came upon her face that I perceived she was one of those creatures that are not the playthings of Time. For her he had died only yesterday. And, by Jove! the impression was so powerful that for me too he seemed to have died only yesterday--nay, this very minute. I saw her and him in the same instant of time--his death and her sorrow--I saw her sorrow in the very moment of his death. Do you understand? I saw them together--I heard them together. She had said, with a deep catch of the breath, `I have survived;' while my strained ears seemed to hear distinctly, mingled with her tone of despairing regret, the summing-up whisper of his eternal condemnation. I asked myself what I was doing there, with a sensation of panic in my heart as though I had blundered into a place of cruel and absurd mysteries not fit for a human being to behold. She motioned me to a chair. We sat down. I laid the packet gently on the little table, and she put her hand over it. . . . `You knew him well,' she murmured, after a moment of mourning silence.% "`Intimacy grows quick out there,' I said. `I knew him as well as it is possible for one man to know another.' "`And you admired him,' she said. `It was impossible to know him and not to admire him. Was it?' "`He was a remarkable man,' I said, unsteadily. Then before the appealing fixity of her gaze, that seemed to watch for more words on my lips, I went on, `It was impossible not to--' "`Love him,' she finished eagerly, silencing me into an appalled dumbness. `How true! how true! But when you think that no one knew him so well as I! I had all his noble confidence. I knew him best.' "`You knew him best,' I repeated. And perhaps she did. But with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white,
Thesaurus ashy: (adj) wan, ashen, pale, sallow, trustworthy, unsuspecting; (n) trust, forthright, sincere, innocent, pallid, grey, livid, gray, cadaverous, ingenuous, honest, pure, simple, private conversation, bold, belief. pasty, white. open, straightforward. ANTONYMS: unsteadily: (adv) precariously, dumbness: (n) denseness, mutism, (adj) dishonest, sly, evasive. unevenly, irregularly, insecurely, halo: (n) halation, aura, glory, ring, density, stupidity, speechlessness, erratically, falteringly, dizzily, muteness, ignorance, compactness, circle, corona, nimbus, hoop, aureola, shakily, volatilely, giddily, waveringly. ANTONYMS: (adv) concentration. band, anchor ring. fixity: (n) fixedness, fastness, firmness, packet: (n) bundle, bale, container, firmly, alertly, securely. fixing, immutability, constancy, parcel, pack, wad, carton, mail boat, visage: (n) face, look, mug, inalterability, inflexibility, wrap, deck, envelope. physiognomy, expression, kisser, trustful: (adj) confiding, unsuspicious, appearance, aspect, brow, smiler, immobility, stronghold, fixture. guileless: (adj) candid, artless, credulous, gullible, trusty, forehead.
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remained illumined by the unextinguishable light of belief and love.% "`You were his friend,' she went on. `His friend,' she repeated, a little louder. `You must have been, if he had given you this, and sent you to me. I feel I can speak to you--and oh! I must speak. I want you--you who have heard his last words-- to know I have been worthy of him. . . . It is not pride. . . . Yes! I am proud to know I understood him better than anyone on earth--he told me so himself. And since his mother died I have had no one--no one--to--to--' "I listened. The darkness deepened. I was not even sure whether he had given me the right bundle. I rather suspect he wanted me to take care of another batch of his papers which, after his death, I saw the manager examining under the lamp. And the girl talked, easing her pain in the certitude of my sympathy; she talked as thirsty men drink. I had heard that her engagement with Kurtz had been disapproved by her people. He wasn't rich enough or something. And indeed I don't know whether he had not been a pauper all his life. He had given me some reason to infer that it was his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out there. "`. . . Who was not his friend who had heard him speak once?' she was saying. `He drew men towards him by what was best in them.' She looked at me with intensity. `It is the gift of the great,' she went on, and the sound of her low voice seemed to have the accompaniment of all the other sounds, full of mystery, desolation, and sorrow, I had ever heard--the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of wild crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness. `But you have heard him! You know!' she cried. "`Yes, I know,' I said with something like despair in my heart, but bowing my head before the faith that was in her, before that great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow in the darkness, in the triumphant darkness from which I could not have defended her-- from which I could not even defend
Thesaurus bowing: (n) obeisance, playing, gesticulation, capitulation, genuflection, scraping, submission; (adj) bowed, bent, fawning, submissive. certitude: (n) assurance, trust, conviction, determination, persuasion, faith, security, firmness, assuredness, resolution, confidence. ANTONYM: (n) indecision. deepened: (adj) concentrated, gathered.
desolation: (n) devastation, misery, destruction, depression, grief, wretchedness, bleakness, loneliness, waste, ruin; (adj, n) desertion. ANTONYMS: (n) ecstasy, joy, productiveness, fertileness, fecundity, cheer, fruitfulness, preservation, hopefulness, cheerfulness. disapproved: (adj) old-fashioned, contraband, chid. pauper: (n) poor man, mumper, bum,
poor person, starveling; (adj) poor, indigent, penniless; (v) bust, fold. ripple: (v) bubble, murmur, gurgle, billow, surge, burble, cockle; (n, v) wave, swell, riffle, purl. soughing: (adj) murmurous, rustle, murmur, susurrous. thirsty: (adj) eager, arid, parched, avid, keen, athirst, greedy, absorbent, ambitious; (v) craving, hungry. ANTONYMS: (adj) quenched, satisfied, disinterested, wet.
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myself.% "`What a loss to me--to us!'--she corrected herself with beautiful generosity; then added in a murmur, `To the world.' By the last gleams of twilight I could see the glitter of her eyes, full of tears--of tears that would not fall. "`I have been very happy--very fortunate--very proud,' she went on. `Too fortunate. Too happy for a little while. And now I am unhappy for--for life.' "She stood up; her fair hair seemed to catch all the remaining light in a glimmer of gold. I rose too. "`And of all this,' she went on, mournfully, `of all his promise, and of all his greatness, of his generous mind, of his noble heart, nothing remains--nothing but a memory. You and I--' "`We shall always remember him,' I said, hastily. "`No!' she cried. `It is impossible that all this should be lost-- that such a life should be sacrificed to leave nothing--but sorrow. You know what vast plans he had. I knew of them too--I could not perhaps understand,--but others knew of them. Something must remain. His words, at least, have not died.' "`His words will remain,' I said. "`And his example,' she whispered to herself. `Men looked up to him,-- his goodness shone in every act. His example--' "`True,' I said; `his example too. Yes, his example. I forgot that.' "`But I do not. I cannot--I cannot believe--not yet. I cannot believe that I shall never see him again, that nobody will see him again, never, never, never.' "She put out her arms as if after a retreating figure, stretching them black and with clasped pale hands across the fading and narrow sheen of the window. Never see him! I saw him clearly enough then. I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live, and I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar Shade, resembling in this gesture another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness. She said suddenly very low, `He died as he lived.'
Thesaurus bedecked: (adj) decked out, decorated, bigness, enormity, grandness, hum, whisper, mutter, whine, babble, magnitude, fame. ANTONYMS: (n) drone; (v) complain, bubble, breathe. ornate, ornamented. glimmer: (adj, n, v) flicker, twinkle; (n, obscurity, austerity, commonness, phantom: (n, v) apparition, phantasm, v) gleam, shimmer, flash, sparkle, vision, phantasma; (n) spectre, mildness, moderation, simplicity. beam, glow, shine; (v) blink; (n) knew: (adj) known; (v) recognize, wist. specter, appearance, shade, shadow, mournfully: (adv) sadly, sorrowfully, gleaming. wraith, spirit. glitter: (n, v) flash, beam, shine, retreating: (n) flight; (adj) moving glumly, woefully, unhappily, glisten, glimmer, glow, sparkle, plaintively, grievously, funereally, back. flicker, shimmer; (v) glance; (n) sheen: (n, v) shine, gleam; (n) polish, dejectedly, dolorously, poignantly. radiance. ANTONYM: (n) dullness. ANTONYMS: (adv) cheerfully, gloss, light, glow, lustre, glitter, greatness: (n) excellence, dimension, brightness, brilliance; (v) burnish. joyfully. murmur: (n, v) grumble, mumble, ANTONYM: (n) dullness. dignity, bulk, size, enormousness,
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"`His end,' said I, with dull anger stirring in me, `was in every way worthy of his life.' "`And I was not with him,' she murmured. My anger subsided before a feeling of infinite pity.% "`Everything that could be done--' I mumbled. "`Ah, but I believed in him more than anyone on earth--more than his own mother, more than--himself. He needed me! Me! I would have treasured every sigh, every word, every sign, every glance.' "I felt like a chill grip on my chest. `Don't,' I said, in a muffled voice. "`Forgive me. I--I-- have mourned so long in silence--in silence. . . . You were with him--to the last? I think of his loneliness. Nobody near to understand him as I would have understood. Perhaps no one to hear. . . .' "`To the very end,' I said, shakily. `I heard his very last words. . . .' I stopped in a fright. "`Repeat them,' she said in a heart-broken tone. `I want-- I want--something-something--to--to live with.' "I was on the point of crying at her, `Don't you hear them?' The dusk was repeating them in a persistent whisper all around us, in a whisper that seemed to swell menacingly like the first whisper of a rising wind. `The horror! The horror!' "`His last word--to live with,' she murmured. `Don't you understand I loved him--I loved him--I loved him!' "I pulled myself together and spoke slowly. "`The last word he pronounced was--your name.' "I heard a light sigh, and then my heart stood still, stopped dead short by an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable triumph and of unspeakable pain. `I knew it--I was sure!' . . . She knew. She was sure. I heard her weeping; she had hidden her face in her hands. It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my
Thesaurus exulting: (adj) jubilant, flushed, menacingly: (adv) sinisterly, precariously, unsteadily, quakingly, triumphant, experiencing triumph, minaciously, ominously, minatorily, ricketily, unsafely, crazily, rejoicing, prideful, elated, disdainful, frighteningly, forebodingly, totteringly, uncertainly. ANTONYM: triumphal; (v) exult; (n) joy. (adv) firmly. seriously, menacing, threatening, inconceivable: (adj, v) unbelievable, sigh: (n, v) groan, suspire, murmur; (v) warningly, intimidatingly. hard to believe; (adj) impossible, muffled: (adj) hushed, muted, hollow, breathe, languish, pine; (n) breath, implausible, incomprehensible, inarticulate, faint, soft, subdued, low, wail, whimper, whine, suspiration. quiet; (v) allusive, covert. treasured: (adj) precious, prized, dear, unimaginable, unthinkable, ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, distinct, improbable, unintelligible, beloved, loved, valued, appreciated, inscrutable, fabulous. ANTONYMS: audible, slight. favorite, etched in your mind, (adj) conceivable, believable, likely, shakily: (adv) tremulously, esteemed, invited. ANTONYM: (adj) understandable, credible. tremblingly, unsoundly, unremarkable.
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head. But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they have fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which was his due? Hadn't he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark--too dark altogether. . . ."% Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time. "We have lost the first of the ebb," said the Director, suddenly. I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky-- seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.
Thesaurus barred: (adj) prohibited, forbidden, barricaded, barry, banned, illicit, streaked; (v) striated, areolar, veined; (n) Bart. ANTONYMS: (adj) admissible, legitimate, eligible, open. clouds: (n) exhaust, fumes, gas, smoke, vapors. heavens: (n) firmament, heaven, sky, welkin, sphere, atmosphere, celestial sphere, space, skies, area, vault of heaven. immense: (adj) vast, enormous, great,
gigantic, immeasurable, colossal, boundless, big, large, giant, infinite. ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny, small, insignificant, miniature, slight, negligible, compact, narrow, short, minor. meditating: (n) conception. pose: (n, v) position, masquerade, posture; (v) attitudinize, place, perplex, impersonate, lay; (n) affectation, bearing, airs. tranquil: (adj, v) quiet, unruffled,
smooth; (adj, n) peaceful; (adj) placid, still, serene, sedate, collected, composed, equable. ANTONYMS: (adj) noisy, tense, agitated, anxious, troubled, bustling, loud, perturbed, frenetic, moving, bothered. trifle: (n, v) play; (adj, n, v) trinket; (v) dally, fiddle, flirt, fool, frivol; (n) nothing, triviality, detail; (adj, n) bagatelle.
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GLOSSARY abandoned: (adj) immoral, profligate, deserted, stranded, empty, shameless, wicked, lonely, depraved, corrupt, licentious. ANTONYMS: (adj) inhabited, orderly, overcrowded, used, pure, virtuous, upright, seemly, reserved, principled, moral abandonment: (n) resignation, renunciation, desertion, neglect, withdrawal, surrender, exposure, forsaking, relinquishment, rejection, leaving. ANTONYMS: (n) attention, accomplishment, arrival, acceptance abiding: (adj) immortal, stable, constant, everlasting, lasting, enduring, perpetual, eternal, perennial, continuing, imperishable. ANTONYMS: (adj) ephemeral, fleeting, impermanent, temporary, passing, mortal, erratic, inconstant abject: (adj) contemptible, pitiful, low, wretched, despicable, sordid, base, mean, vile; (n) ignominious, dirty. ANTONYMS: (adj) honorable, hopeful, magnificent, esteemed, proud, dignified, commendable, noble, exalted, worthy, happy ablaze: (adj, v) afire, alight, blazing; (adj) flaming, burning, on fire, passionate, bright, flushed, fiery; (v) splendid. ANTONYMS: (adj) dark, dispassionate, dull, dim, smothered, unexcited, extinguished aboard: (adv) afloat, afield, at home, there, everywhere, here, on base, onboard, where abominable: (adj, v) odious, foul; (adj) abhorrent, detestable, dreadful, awful, execrable, terrible, loathsome, cursed, wicked. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, lovable, admirable, alluring, appealing, commendable, laudable, delightful, desirable, enjoyable, likable abominate: (v) loathe, detest, hate, execrate, despise, dislike, nauseate,
disgust, condemn, resent, can't bear. ANTONYMS: (v) love, adore abreast: (adv) opposite, acquainted, off, au fait, alongside, on one side, abeam; (adj) near, aligned, knowledgeable; (prep) against. ANTONYMS: (adv) uninformed, lost, unaware abrupt: (adj) sudden, brusque, sharp, precipitous, steep, instantaneous, unexpected, swift, instant, hasty; (n) bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) gentle, gradual, rambling, gracious, courteous, polite, anticipated, kind, calm, protracted, deliberate abruptly: (adv) precipitously, rudely, brusquely, curtly, gruffly, shortly, sharply, bluntly, hastily, unexpectedly, steeply. ANTONYMS: (adv) gradually, civilly, attentively, kindly, politely, verbosely, eventually, pleasantly, slowly, indirectly absent: (adj) wanting, inattentive, not present, preoccupied, lost, missing, faraway, nonexistent, absentminded, out; (adj, adv) off. ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, attendant, attending, existing, here, real, attentive; (adv) in, visible absolutely: (adv) entirely, completely, fully, purely, utterly, perfectly, totally, categorically, definitely, thoroughly; (adv, int) certainly. ANTONYMS: (adv) partly, doubtfully, questionably, somewhat, moderately, indefinitely, incompletely, fairly, conditionally, probably, possibly absorbed: (adj) rapt, intent, immersed, fixed, deep, engaged, preoccupied, pensive, fascinated, enthralled, held. ANTONYMS: (adj) bored, disinterested, distracted, restless, unfocused, uninterested, indifferent, shallow, superficial, detached
abstract: (adj) theoretical; (n) abridgement, epitome, summary, abridgment, precis; (v) abridge, filch, purloin; (n, v) digest, extract. ANTONYMS: (adj) concrete, real, literal, material, physical, specific, objective; (v) expand, lengthen, strengthen, insert absurd: (adj) ridiculous, foolish, unreasonable, irrational, meaningless, inept, senseless, nonsensical, illogical, ludicrous; (adj, n) silly. ANTONYMS: (adj) rational, reasonable, logical, wise, weighty, sound, consistent, serious, plausible, credible, acceptable absurdity: (n) absurdness, nonsense, silliness, nonsensicality, meaninglessness, illogicality, stupidity, folly, fatuity, idiocy, preposterousness. ANTONYMS: (n) logic, reasonableness, worthiness, solemnity, sensibleness accepted: (adj) standard, acceptable, orthodox, acknowledged, assumed, established, understood, received, approved, current, proper. ANTONYMS: (adj) concealed, unusual, unorthodox, unconventional, refused, questionable, irregular, rejected, unknown, innovative, incorrect accident: (n) casualty, crash, coincidence, fortune, smash, incident, hazard, hap, luck, event, fortuity. ANTONYMS: (n) certainty, design, intention, intent, calculation accompaniment: (n) concomitant, part, backing, escort, support, occurrence, protection, companionship, addition; (adv) second, bass accomplish: (v) perform, reach, do, compass, perfect, attain, make, fulfill, realize, execute, carry out. ANTONYMS: (v) abandon, neglect, choke, blow, lose
96 accomplished: (adj) proficient, able, skillful, gifted, finished, experienced, completed, adept, fine, versed, competent. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfinished, amateur, untrained, unskilled, unseasoned, unable, inexpert, green, clumsy, bad, mediocre accordance: (n) harmony, agreement, conformity, unison, concordance, coincidence, accordancy, admission, fitness, consensus, concent according: (adj) pursuant, consonant, equal, agreeable, harmonious, conformable, consistent, corresponding, respondent; (adv) correspondingly, accordingly accordingly: (adv) therefore, thus, so, then, ergo, as a result, correspondingly, according, appropriately, as a consequence, properly. ANTONYM: (adv) unsuitable accountant: (n) auditor, teller, controller, bookkeeper, cashier, almoner, businessperson, liquidator, public accountant, clerk, actuary accumulate: (v) pile, gather, collect, amass, heap, hoard, compile, assemble, lay up, accrue, cumulate. ANTONYMS: (v) distribute, dwindle, spend, lose, waste, dissipate, lessen, scatter, shuck, shed, decrease accursed: (adj) execrable, abominable, detestable, accurst, hateful, damned, damnable, maledict, blasted; (v) atrocious, stranded accustomed: (adj, n) habitual; (adj) familiar, normal, wonted, usual, natural, everyday, ordinary, habituated, common, traditional. ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual, green, unseasoned, unconventional, untrained, abnormal, uncharacteristic, exceptional acquaintances: (n) associates acquainted: (adj) knowledgeable, informed, aware, cognizant, conversant, hand and glove, intimate, thick; (adv) abreast; (v) inform, acquaint acute: (adj, n, v) sharp; (adj) incisive, intense, penetrating, keen, severe, critical; (adj, v) high, shrewd; (adj, n) strong, smart. ANTONYMS: (adj) obtuse, insignificant, stupid, unimportant, moderate, blunt, slow, slight, mild, minor, imperceptive acutely: (adv) sharply, keenly, severely, astutely, piercingly, shrilly, cleverly; (adj, adv) intensely,
Heart of Darkness extremely, gravely, critically. ANTONYMS: (adv) chronically, mildly, slightly, faintly, vaguely, unexceptionally addresses: (n) wooing, suit, courtship adequate: (adj) right, enough, acceptable, condign, satisfactory, passable, agreeable, full, competent, abundant; (adj, n) effectual. ANTONYMS: (adj) insufficient, unsatisfactory, intolerable, unfit, exceptional, faulty, deficient, useless, poor, unacceptable, unsuitable adieu: (int, n) farewell; (n) vale, valediction, goodbye, leave, cheerio, adios, bye, so long, parting; (int) bon voyage. ANTONYM: (n) greeting administration: (n, v) management; (n) running, organization, direction, power, reign, leadership, government, executive, execution, supervision admiration: (n) esteem, adoration, appreciation, reverence, estimation, amazement, liking, awe, compliment; (adj, n) regard; (v) laud. ANTONYMS: (n) disdain, criticism, disapproval, contempt, abhorrence, loathing, disgust, despising, dishonor, disparagement, detestation admire: (v) revere, look up to, idolize, appreciate, adore, wonder, praise, worship, admiring, esteem, honor. ANTONYMS: (v) despise, loathe, scorn, hate, condemn, abhor, disrespect, detest, disregard, disapprove, deprecate admired: (adj) respected, admirable, estimable, favorite, pet, beloved, honored, August, loved, accepted, popular. ANTONYM: (adj) disreputable admirer: (n) enthusiast, fan, devotee, supporter, votary, worshiper, wooer, beau, fancier; (adj) suitor; (adj, n) lover admit: (n, v) allow; (adj, v) acknowledge; (v) concede, accede, grant, affirm, confess, include, permit, take, welcome. ANTONYMS: (v) reject, exclude, bar, dispute, gainsay, withhold, refuse, oust, hide, eject, dismiss adored: (adj) loved, respected, precious, idolized, idolised, acclaimed, blessed, favorite, dearly loved, beloved, venerated advance: (v) accelerate, proceed, encourage, lend; (adv, v) further; (adj, v) promote; (n, v) rise,
approach, raise, offer; (n) improvement. ANTONYMS: (v) recede, demote, regress, delay, retard, prevent, reverse; (n) deterioration, recession; (n, v) decrease, downgrade advanced: (adj) progressive, senior, higher, precocious, modern, new, late, superior, ripe, cultured, developed. ANTONYMS: (adj) inferior, fundamental, slow, traditional, simple, obsolete, neurotic, behind, after, backwards, incomplete adventure: (n, v) venture, chance; (n) accident, escapade, incident, event, undertaking, consequence, essay; (v) risk, jeopardize. ANTONYMS: (n) stillness, passiveness, inactivity, inaction, avoidance, inertia, bore adventures: (n) experiences, fortunes, confessions, journal, life, biography, autobiography, personal narrative adversary: (n) antagonist, foe, enemy, competitor, rival, opposition, opposer, contestant, match, somebody; (adj) hostile. ANTONYMS: (n) ally, supporter, friend, partner, helper, assistant adversely: (adv) contrarily, detrimentally, unfortunately, disadvantageously, inimically, injuriously, untowardly, badly, antagonistically, hostilely; (adj, adv) inauspiciously advisable: (adj) eligible, desirable, advantageous, suitable, sound, prudent, acceptable, sensible, fitting, convenient, appropriate. ANTONYMS: (adj) inappropriate, unwise, imprudent, improper, worthless advised: (adj) studied, considered, premeditated, deliberate, calculated, intended; (v) determinate, express, designed afar: (adv) off, away, far away, distantly, beyond, Afar off, in the distance, by far, apart; (adj) outlying, far. ANTONYMS: (adv) close, nearby, near; (prep) within affair: (n) occurrence, event, business, concern, occasion, job, topic, duty, subject, amour, thing affect: (v) move, impress, pretend, act, strike, fake, feign, stir, dispose; (n) sentiment; (n, v) regard affection: (n) charity, attachment, fondness, heart, love, disease, nature, feeling, affectionateness, tenderness, kindness. ANTONYMS: (n) disgust, neglect, malice, loathing,
Joseph Conrad dislike, detachment, coldness, roughness affectionately: (adv) lovingly, tenderly, warmly, dearly, caringly, devotedly, kindly, ardently, cordially, amorously, dotingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) disapprovingly, frostily, roughly affirm: (v) prove, assert, declare, protest, avow, maintain, approve, accept, assure, profess, promise. ANTONYMS: (v) negate, veto, nullify, refute, repress affirmation: (n) assertion, statement, affirmance, admission, avowal, certificate, claim, allegation, evidence, declaration, testimony. ANTONYMS: (n) refutation, reversal affirmed: (adj) acknowledged, avowed, guaranteed afloat: (adj) buoyant, floating, current, in circulation, directionless, undirected, rudderless; (adv) adrift, aboard; (v) afoot; (n) on foot afraid: (adj) fearful, timid, shy, apprehensive, anxious, worried, scared, frightened, nervous, terrified; (adj, adv) cowardly. ANTONYMS: (adj) brave, venturesome, calm, confident, cool, courageous, eager, unafraid, valiant, bold, carefree afresh: (adv) again, newly, over again, new, once again, freshly, once more, often; (adj) the other day, just now, only yesterday afterwards: (adv) afterward, subsequently, later, thereafter, later on, next, behind, thereupon; (adj) following, subsequent; (n) termination agent: (n, v) broker, actor; (n) medium, deputy, mediator, instrument, factor, surrogate, attorney, channel, procurator. ANTONYMS: (n) principal, patriot ages: (n) time out of mind, time immemorial, coon's age, blue moon, month of Sundays aggravated: (adj) angry, infuriated, incensed, annoyed, vexed, intense, grievous, provoked, exasperated, afflictive. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, pleased agitated: (adj) upset, excited, nervous, restive, tumultuous, distressed, tense, jumpy, overwrought, anxious, alarmed. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, lethargic, tranquil, relaxed, assured, cool, still agitation: (n) disturbance,
excitement, tumult, stirring, convulsion, stir, commotion, emotion, unrest, shake, turmoil. ANTONYMS: (n) serenity, calm, equanimity, rest, peace, deterrent ahead: (adv) in advance, formerly, beforehand, previously, along, onward, beyond, in the van; (adj) front; (adj, adv) forward; (v) precede. ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) late; (adv) subsequently, following, back, before, after, ago, backward, losing, later; (adj) behindhand aided: (adj) power, favored aimlessly: (adv) indiscriminately, pointlessly, without aim, randomly, haphazardly, driftingly, blindly, erratically, objectlessly, desultorily, vagrantly ajar: (v) dissentient, unclosed, unstopped, wide open, out of tune; (adj) open, gaping, partly open, not closed alacrity: (n) rapidity, speed, promptness, activity, preparedness, velocity, haste, swiftness, quickness, expedition; (adj) life. ANTONYMS: (n) aversion, reservation, reluctance, indifference, hesitance, dullness, disinclination, apathy, tardiness, delay alarm: (n, v) alert, scare, awe, panic; (n) consternation, alarm clock, fright, alarum, terror; (v) agitate, horrify. ANTONYMS: (n, v) comfort; (v) reassure, soothe, assure; (n) reassurance, composure, nonchalance, assurance, bravery, confidence, order alert: (adj) active, agile, quick, lively, intelligent, aware, vigilant, clever, animated, ready; (adj, v) awake. ANTONYMS: (adj) drowsy, absentminded, dazed, tired, sleepy, unconscious, slow, asleep, unobservant, forgetful, dim alike: (adj) corresponding, equal, equivalent, cognate, analogical, parallel, analogous, identical, similar, the same, duplicate. ANTONYMS: (adj) different, dissimilar, contrasting, unalike, disparate, unlike, opposite; (adv) differently, unequally, unevenly alive: (adj) live, vivacious, living, sensible, delicate, snappy, animated, lively, spry, responsive; (n) life. ANTONYMS: (adj) deceased, inanimate, unanimated, dispirited, dull, inactive, lethargic, lifeless, listless, nonfunctioning, sluggish alley: (n) track, road, passage, lane,
97 alleyway, aisle, path, runway, pathway, street, back street alligators: (n) Crocodilia, order Crocodilia allowing: (adj) permissive; (n) acknowledgment alone: (adj) forlorn, individual, lonely, lonesome; (adj, adv) only, apart; (adv) solely, entirely, exclusively, separately, individually. ANTONYMS: (adj) overshadowed, ordinary, mobbed, equaled, crowded, accompanied, common, grouped, surpassed; (adv) jointly; (n) foe alongside: (adv, n, prep) beside; (adv) aboard, along, nearby, aside; (adv, prep) next to; (adj) next; (n) at; (prep) by, at the side of, along with aloud: (adv) loud, out loud, strong, out, audibly, hard, forte. ANTONYMS: (adv) softly, inaudibly, quietly alpaca: (n) textile, material, cloth, fabric, llama, wool altogether: (adv) absolutely, all, wholly, perfectly, purely, all in all, completely, entirely, totally, simply, ensemble. ANTONYMS: (adv) incompletely, partially altruistic: (adj) unselfish, charitable, generous, humanitarian, kind, magnanimous, philanthropic, benevolent, openhanded, beneficent, big. ANTONYMS: (adj) egoistic, coldhearted, greedy, nasty amazed: (adj) astounded, astonished, stunned, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, shocked, staggered, bewildered, surprised, thunderstruck, aghast amazing: (adj) astonishing, terrific, wonderful, incredible, awesome, astounding, breathtaking, extraordinary, fabulous, impressive, tremendous. ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary, boring, predictable, unremarkable, modest, insignificant, comforting, dire, humdrum amongst: (prep) amid, between, amidst, surrounded by, in the midst of, in the middle of, along with, with; (v) inter amused: (adj) amusing, smiling, tickled pink, pleased, diverted anchor: (n) mainstay, armature, grappling iron, grapnel, chapelet; (v) fasten, secure, cast anchor, fix; (adj) refuge, rest. ANTONYMS: (v) release, detach anchored: (adj) fixed, immobile, stationary, secure, stable, firm; (v)
98 rock solid, moored, on a rock, tethered angel: (n, v) sponsor, support; (n) backer, cherub, messenger, patron, benefactor, saint; (adj) Dulcinea, goddess; (adj, n) darling. ANTONYMS: (n) fiend, devil, jerk, demon anger: (n) fury, rage, displeasure, resentment, indignation; (v) incense, offend, irritate, exasperate; (adj) angry; (n, v) wrath. ANTONYMS: (v) placate, pacify, tickle; (n) pleasure, composure, glee, affection, serenity, goodwill, forbearance; (n, v) calm angered: (adj) enraged, annoyed, angry, furious, incensed, anger, vexed, irritated, raging, exasperated, huffy angry: (adj) anger, furious, provoked, incensed, vehement, fierce, irate, raging, maddened, shirty, indignation. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleased, gentle, joyful, content, euphoric, mild, happy, resigned, joyous, gleeful, quiet anguish: (n, v) pain, ache; (n) torment, agony, torture, distress, misery, suffering, despair, grief, sorrow. ANTONYMS: (n) pleasure, happiness, calm, euphoria, joyfulness, ecstasy, content, peace, hopefulness animal: (adj, n) brute; (n) beast, organism, living thing, being, fauna; (adj, adv) fleshly; (adj) bodily, carnal, corporeal, physical. ANTONYMS: (adj) refined, mineral, genteel, mental, rational, intellectual, vegetable, delicate, factual, spiritual; (n) plant animated: (adj) alive, lively, animate, perky, spirited, sprightly, brisk, cheerful, quick, vivacious, airy. ANTONYMS: (adj) lethargic, dull, blank, lifeless, spiritless, stiff, unanimated, bored, impassive, unexciting, dead annoyance: (n) anger, harassment, aggravation, disturbance, inconvenience, pain, bother, botheration, temper, displeasure, vexation. ANTONYMS: (n) calm, satisfaction, patience, calmness, delight, equanimity, advantage, balm annoyed: (adj) irritated, vexed, irate, aggravated, angered, cross, disgruntled, exasperated, infuriated, displeased, resentful. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleased, unprovoked, smiling,
Heart of Darkness patient, unconcerned, contented annoying: (adj) galling, vexatious, aggravating, vexing, worrying, awkward, trying, bothersome, disagreeable; (adj, v) irritating; (n) annoyance. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, delightful, pleasant, charming, satisfying, welcome, convenient anticipated: (adj) expected, foreseen, predictable, due, estimated, appointed, awaited, coming, forthcoming, natural, planned anticipating: (v) anticipate; (adj) pregnant, anticipant, hopeful, ready, oracular antiquity: (n) ancientness, ancientry, past, relic, status quo, artefact, artifact, oldness, old age, hoariness; (adj, n) age. ANTONYMS: (n) today, newness, modernity ants: (n) family Formicidae, Formicidae, hymenoptera, impatience, order hymenoptera, restlessness, tension anxiety: (n) disquiet, trouble, fear, care, alarm, anxiousness, uneasiness, worry, anguish, concern; (adj, n) solicitude. ANTONYMS: (n) calm, bravery, confidence, reassurance, security, relaxation, indifference, serenity, tranquility, peace, satisfaction anxious: (adj) uneasy, alarmed, thoughtful, fearful, apprehensive, agitated, keen; (adj, v) nervous, tense, solicitous, jumpy. ANTONYMS: (adj) relaxed, carefree, confident, rational, unconcerned, undisturbed, untroubled, assured, comfortable, cool, apathetic anxiously: (adv) uneasily, restlessly, carefully, worriedly, fearfully, nervously, concernedly, solicitously, timidly, keenly, enthusiastically. ANTONYMS: (adv) calmly, confidently, merrily, indifferently, fearlessly, nonchalantly, patiently, unconcernedly anybody: (adv) any, each; (n, pron) any person, a person; (n) everyone, somebody, nobody, everybody, someone; (pron) whoever anyhow: (adv) somehow, at any rate, in any case, whatever, in any event, regardless, however, though, besides, nonetheless, one way or another anywhere: (adv, n) anyplace; (adv) someplace, wherever, everywhere apart: (adj, adv) aloof; (adv) aside, asunder, especially; (adj) alone,
distant, detached, isolated, only; (adj, v) separate; (v) segregate. ANTONYMS: (adv) adjoining, near, surrounded; (adj) connected, nearby apathy: (n) indifference, inactivity, lassitude, inertia, lethargy, passivity, supineness, passiveness, lukewarmness, emotionlessness, impassivity. ANTONYMS: (n) keenness, energy, interest, inquisitiveness, vitality, drive, eagerness, concern, involvement, enjoyment, desire apostle: (n) disciple, follower, propagandist, believer, missionary, adherent, advocate, proselyte, saint, munshi, messenger. ANTONYM: (n) opponent appalled: (adj) dismayed, scared, shocked, horrified, afraid, fright, amazed, astonished, stunned, outraged, scandalized. ANTONYM: (adj) indifferent appalling: (adj, v) shocking, grim, terrific; (adj) alarming, dire, ghastly, dreadful, frightful, terrible, atrocious, vile. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, admirable, lovely, encouraging, laudable, comforting, pleasing, agreeable, honorable, appealing, humane apparition: (n) ghost, phantom, spirit, spectre, hallucination, spook, shade, eidolon, wraith, advent; (n, v) vision appealing: (adj) charming, adorable, prepossessing, enchanting, inviting, fascinating, engaging, absorbing, likable, pretty, magnetic. ANTONYMS: (adj) unappealing, repellent, disgusting, unattractive, unpleasant, horrifying, unsympathetic, uninteresting, repulsive, modern, forgettable appearance: (n) look, face, shape, show, apparition, advent, form, image, surface, impression; (adj, n) semblance. ANTONYMS: (n) departure, vanishing appearances: (n) show, semblance, outlook, indicia appeared: (n) appearing appearing: (adj) seeming, beseen, emergent, accomplished; (n) coming into court; (prep) liking; (adj, adv) prima facie appetite: (n, v) desire; (n) appetence, appetency, relish, inclination, stomach, taste, thirst, passion, liking, gusto. ANTONYMS: (n) dislike, repulsion, revulsion, apathy, distaste
Joseph Conrad applied: (adj) pragmatic, useful, used, concrete. ANTONYMS: (adj) unrelated, untested, unused, unenforced appointed: (adj) specified, prescribed, destined, ordained, fit, set, fitted, commissioned, nominated, designated; (v) appoint appointment: (n) assignment, date, post, designation, rendezvous, engagement, appointments, fitting, berth, blind date, conference. ANTONYM: (n) dismissal appreciation: (n) admiration, acknowledgment, recognition, approval, taste, understanding, awareness, conception, grasp, feeling; (n, v) sense. ANTONYMS: (n) depreciation, loss, ungratefulness, ignorance, disrespect, disregard, disapproval, deflation, dislike, discomfort, condemnation apprehend: (v) arrest, comprehend, grasp, catch, understand, fathom, realize, sense, follow, nail; (adj, v) conceive. ANTONYMS: (v) misunderstand, discharge, free, liberate approaching: (adj) future, forthcoming, impending, imminent, oncoming, near; (adj, n) coming; (n, v) approach; (adv) nearly, almost; (prep) toward appropriately: (adv) befittingly, fittingly, rightly, becomingly, fitly, aptly, correctly, appositely, pertinently, decently, relevantly. ANTONYMS: (adv) unsuitably, incorrectly, wrongly approve: (v) adopt, allow, accept, acknowledge, ratify, let, agree, endorse, admit, support, applaud. ANTONYMS: (v) condemn, censure, disapprove, veto, forbid, invalidate, disallow, disrespect, deny, desecrate, oppose arch: (n, v) curve, bow, bend; (n) dome, curvature, acute; (adj) wily, shrewd, sly; (v) vault; (adj, n, v) round. ANTONYMS: (adj) smallest, petty, modest, minor, frank, least, lesser, inferior, forthright, guileless, humble arguing: (n) controversy, contention, disputation, contestation, polemics, tilt; (v) argue; (adj) quarrelsome, argumentative arid: (adj, v) dry, dull, monotonous, uninteresting; (adj) barren, tedious, parched, fruitless, sterile, unproductive, boring. ANTONYMS:
(adj) verdant, fertile, humid, interesting, colorful, damp, lively, moist, spirited, animated, exciting arise: (v) appear, emerge, result, issue, mount, proceed, originate, get up, ascend, awake, stand up. ANTONYMS: (v) end, sit, recline, stop, retire, disappear, descend, cease, fade arising: (n) emanation aristocrat: (n) noble, swell, patrician, magnate, lord, leader, courtier, nobleman, rajah, princess, prince armed: (n) arms, arming; (adj, v) armed to the teeth; (adj) equipped, military, fitted, aggressive, prepared, violent, forcible, weaponed. ANTONYMS: (adj) unarmed, unprotected, armless, unprepared, peaceful arose: (v) happen, occur arrangement: (n) order, settlement, array, distribution, design, system, adjustment, sequence, contract, alignment; (adj, n) method. ANTONYMS: (n) disarray, individual arrested: (adj) apprehended, halted, backward, in remission, inactive, intermittent arrived: (adv) here, at home; (adj) accepted arriving: (n) arrival; (adj) incoming, inbound, received, external, homeward bound, inward, new, inward bound. ANTONYM: (adj) outgoing arrow: (n) missile, bolt, dart, barb, gun, spear, bullet, cursor; (adj, n) rocket; (adj) hydrargyrum, quicksilver artfully: (adv) cunningly, foxily, ingeniously, trickily, shrewdly, skillfully, cleverly, disingenuously, deceitfully, sly, schemingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) innocently, openly article: (n) thing, object, chapter, feature, commodity, composition, ware, entity, discourse, essay, column articulated: (adj) jointed, voiced, expressed, skip loader, spoken, uttered, vocal, segmented artificial: (adj) affected, theatrical, unreal, unnatural, strained, manmade, bogus, forced, phony, feigned, false. ANTONYMS: (adj) genuine, real, sincere, authentic, organic, untreated ascend: (n, v) mount; (v) arise, scale, uprise, climb, go up, come up,
99 increase, elevate; (n) ascending, ascent. ANTONYMS: (v) descend, drop, decline, fall, lower, set, sink ascendency: (n) ascendant, predominance, sway, ascendance, advantage, ascendent, control, dominance, dominion, influence, mastery ascetic: (adj) abstemious, austere, Spartan, ascetical, severe; (n) hermit, abstinent, monk, recluse, eisel, abstainer. ANTONYMS: (adj) sumptuous, fussy, hedonistic, lavish ashore: (adv, pron) aground; (adj) beached, stranded; (adv) aland, on land, onto land, toward land ashy: (adj) wan, ashen, pale, sallow, pallid, grey, livid, gray, cadaverous, pasty, white aside: (adv) apart, away, beside, alongside, in reserve, off, abreast; (adj, adv) by; (n) digression, divagation, parenthesis. ANTONYMS: (adv) erectly, uprightly, vertically askew: (adj) lopsided, cockeyed, crooked, oblique, askant, catawampus; (adj, adv) wrong, crookedly; (adj, v) wry; (adv) skew, agley. ANTONYMS: (adj) level, plumb, true, centered, aligned, even asking: (v) ask; (n) invitation, prayer, suit, application, begging, supplication, entreaty, billing; (adj) interrogatory, interrogative asleep: (adj) sleeping, deceased, sleepy, dormant, numb, dead, sound asleep, snoozing, slumbering, napping, gone. ANTONYMS: (adj) up, attentive, alert, conscious aspect: (n) look, surface, view, prospect, expression, side, manner, bearing, vista, feature; (n, v) regard aspiration: (n) ambition, longing, ambitiousness, purpose, dream, wish, hankering, inhalation, want, goal; (n, v) desire assaulted: (adj) molested, mistreated, raped, beaten asserting: (v) affirm; (adj) declaratory, declarative, evidentiary; (n) assertion assistant: (n, v) assist, aid, assistance; (adj, n) subordinate; (n) acolyte, accomplice, colleague, auxiliary, helper, adjutant; (adj) ancillary. ANTONYM: (adj) chief assumed: (adj) sham, affected, fictitious, fake, feigned, counterfeit, pretended, reputed, artificial, hypothetical, spurious. ANTONYMS: (adj) true, authentic,
100 explicit, known, real, natural assurance: (n) confidence, guarantee, belief, pledge, security, promise, sureness, poise, conviction, nerve, warrant. ANTONYMS: (n) doubt, uncertainty, mistrust, lie, fiction, awkwardness, timidity, clumsiness assure: (n, v) certify, warrant, vouch; (v) secure, persuade, satisfy, reassure, affirm, promise, ascertain; (adj, v) ensure. ANTONYMS: (v) alarm, disclaim, deny, disbelieve, undermine assured: (adj, v) certain, sure; (adj) confident, guaranteed, positive, definite, assertive, confirmed, convinced, reliable, safe. ANTONYMS: (adj) uncertain, doubtful, unsure, troubled, timid, questionable, hesitant, confused, halting, unlikely assuring: (adj) ensuring, insure, insuring, assure, ensure, giving confidence, securing, likely, promising astern: (adv) aft, after, aback, behind, sternmost, rearwards; (adj, adv) backward; (adj) back, rear. ANTONYM: (adv) forward astir: (adj) agog, lively, wakeful; (adv) afoot, abroach, about; (v) sparkling, up the qui vive, wrought up. ANTONYM: (adj) asleep astonished: (adj) astonish, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, stunned, aghast, bewildered, astounded, taken aback, thunderstruck, astonied; (v) amaze astonishment: (n) admiration, wonder, wonderment, surprise, marvel, stupefaction, confusion, consternation, awe, alarm, startle. ANTONYMS: (n) calmness, belief, contempt astounded: (adj) amazed, stunned, flabbergasted, bewildered, dumbfounded, surprised, staggered, astonied, dazed, astound, aghast astounding: (adj) amazing, miraculous, wonderful, incredible, tremendous, spectacular, sensational, breathtaking, awesome, staggering, prodigious. ANTONYMS: (adj) unremarkable, comforting, predictable, boring, insignificant athletic: (adj) vigorous, gymnastic, strong, brawny, sportive, robust, acrobatic, stalwart, healthy, stout, strapping. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfit, weak, feeble, frail, sedentary, inactive
Heart of Darkness athwart: (adj, adv, n, prep) across; (adv, prep) aslant, cross; (adj, adv, prep) thwart; (adj, adv) crosswise; (adv) sideways, obliquely, transversely, traverse, overthwart, crossways atmosphere: (n) ambience, ambiance, mood, aura, feel, environment, feeling, background, quality, medium, setting atom: (n) grain, speck, molecule, particle, mite, bit, mote, monad, crumb, corpuscle, iota atrocious: (adj) monstrous, awful, heinous, abominable, wicked, dreadful, frightful, terrible, bad, horrible; (adj, n) outrageous. ANTONYMS: (adj) humane, benevolent, drivable, elegant, virtuous, good, passable, fine, kind, admirable, tasteful attached: (adj) affectionate, committed, affiliated, associated, devoted, fond, loving, loyal, near, added; (n) attachment. ANTONYMS: (adj) separate, unmarried, unattached, vagile, free, distant attempted: (adj) unsuccessful attempts: (adj) trying attend: (n, v) tend, escort, nurse, conduct; (v) assist, serve, minister, aid, look, partake, follow. ANTONYMS: (v) neglect, leave, ignore, disregard, desert, abandon attentive: (adj) assiduous, diligent, heedful, watchful, observant, advertent, mindful, careful, aware, alert, respectful. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfocused, negligent, neglectful, forgetful, heedless, unobservant, rude, unprepared, unconscious, uncaring, inconsiderate attitude: (n) aspect, posture, behavior, mind, notion, approach, air, bearing, disposition, point of view, outlook audacity: (n) nerve, audaciousness, effrontery, arrogance, temerity, cheek, impertinence, insolence, courage; (n, v) impudence; (adj, n) presumption. ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, propriety, decorum, circumspection, courtesy, fear, respect, spinelessness, reticence audible: (adj) plain, hearable, distinct, detectable, sounding, sharp, sonic, definite, discernible, perceptible, sensory. ANTONYMS: (adj) inaudible, unintelligible, undetectable, silent, faint audience: (n) hearing, attendance,
house, listener, meeting, turnout, hearer, spectators, gallery, following; (n, v) auditory aunt: (n) uncle, auntie, aunty, father's younger brother's wife, father's older brother's wife, mother's sister, kinswoman, nephew, niece, paternal aunt, maternal uncle's wife australia: (n) Commonwealth of Australia, Australian sword lily, bitter pea, America, flame pea, macrozamia, Psilotum nudum, skeleton fork fern, star grass, kangaroo paw authorize: (n, v) empower, license; (v) pass, certify, delegate, assign, sanction, commission, permit, approbate, authorise. ANTONYMS: (v) reject, deny, disallow, veto, cancel, prohibit autumn: (n) fall, season, downfall, descent, declivity, harvest avenging: (adj) justificatory, vindictive, vengeful, rigorous, ruthless, retributive, retributory; (n) revenge, vengeance, eye for an eye, reprisal aversion: (n) antipathy, distaste, abhorrence, disinclination, dislike, grudge, aversation, nausea, enmity, revulsion; (n, v) disgust. ANTONYMS: (n) attraction, love, inclination, predilection, desire, fondness, goodwill avid: (adj) greedy, zealous, ardent, anxious, enthusiastic, hungry, insatiable, keen, voracious, desirous, craving. ANTONYMS: (adj) lukewarm, bored, unenthusiastic, Blase, disinterested, generous avoided: (adj) unpopular awake: (v) wake, awaken, realize, waken; (adj) alive, alert, attentive, conscious, keen, intelligent; (adj, v) broad awake. ANTONYMS: (adj) unconscious, sleeping, comatose, sleepy, relaxed; (v) deaden, lull, sleep awakened: (adj) excited, aroused, awakens, awoke, interested awakening: (n) arousal, waking up, revival, disenchantment, awakenment, introduction, provocation; (adj) arousing, moving, animating; (v) awake. ANTONYM: (n) suppression awash: (adj) overflowing, full, flooded, big, replete, packed, brimming, crowded, covered with water awed: (adj) frightened, groveling, reverential, reverent, overwhelmed,
Joseph Conrad overcome, intimidated, worshipful, impressed, fearful, abominable. ANTONYMS: (adj) unawed, irreverent awful: (adj) fearful, dreadful, terrible, abominable, appalling, nasty, abhorrent, atrocious, bad, horrible, lousy. ANTONYMS: (adj) excellent, wonderful, marvelous, great, lovely, nice, pleasant, beautiful, pleasing, good, minor awfully: (adv) atrociously, hideously, appallingly, frightfully, fearfully, ghastly, terribly, horrifically, horrendously, badly; (adj, adv) amazingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly, hardly, little, mildly, satisfactorily, slightly, well, adequately, superbly, somewhat babble: (n, v) drivel, gossip, chat, burble, prattle; (v) ripple, gab, talk, blab, smatter, bubble. ANTONYMS: (n, v) stillness, quietness; (n) sense backbiting: (n) scandal, defamation, slander, disparagement, aspersion, calumny, denigration, traducement, obloquy, depreciation, criticism. ANTONYMS: (n) praise, acclaim; (adj) kind backbone: (n) back, strength, nerve, courage, mainstay, pluck, spine, vertebral column, grit, stamina; (adj, n) bottom. ANTONYMS: (n) powerlessness, spinelessness, timidity, weakness backcloth: (n) background, countryside, land, scene, scenery, setting, site background: (n) groundwork, backdrop, education, basis, context, scene, environment, backcloth, panorama, ground, situation. ANTONYM: (n) future badly: (adv) poorly, severely, awfully, wrongly, seriously, naughtily, wickedly, hardly, corruptly, injuriously; (adj, adv) gravely. ANTONYMS: (adv) skillfully, obediently, perfectly, giftedly, flawlessly, satisfactorily, admirably, superbly, shamelessly, excellently, pleasingly baffle: (v) discomfit, astonish, bewilder, perplex, nonplus, mystify, stump, puzzle, confound, foil, frustrate. ANTONYMS: (v) explain, aid, support, help, clarify, assist, encourage baffled: (adj) bewildered, puzzled, perplexed, confounded, at sea, frustrated, befuddled, beaten, bemused, preoccupied, helpless.
ANTONYM: (adj) clear balancing: (adj, n) matching; (n) bringing into state of equilibrium, adjustment, equalization, equipoise, reconciliation, redress, wheel balancing, balancing accountancy, comparison; (adj) libratory bald: (adj) hairless, simple, austere, meager, raw, barefaced, stark, plain, nude, naked; (adj, v) threadbare. ANTONYMS: (adj) ornate, furry, hirsute, woolly, embellished, adorned, decorated balls: (n) guts, family jewels, intestinal fortitude, nerve, spirit, tenacity, valor, audacity, prowess band: (n) cluster, set, party, swathe, lace, knot, collar, circle, strip, zone, company. ANTONYMS: (v) disperse, divide, scatter, disband banks: (n) thumb index, sir Joseph Banks, sidewalls, bank shares, bank balance barbarous: (adj) barbaric, savage, gothic, brutal, heathen, truculent, rude, fell, ferocious, fierce, uncivilized. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, cultured, civilized, sophisticated, refined, humane bare: (adj) naked, austere, bald, stark, bleak, exposed, desolate, plain; (adj, v) empty, vacant; (v) show. ANTONYMS: (adj) cultivated, ornate, concealed, elaborate, adorned, decorated, dressed, clothed, embellished; (v) cover, conceal bared: (adj) naked, unclothed, exposed bargain: (adj, n, v) cheap; (n, v) covenant, deal; (n) agreement, treaty, arrangement, buy, chaffer; (v) exchange, stipulate, agree. ANTONYM: (adj) inflated barred: (adj) prohibited, forbidden, barricaded, barry, banned, illicit, streaked; (v) striated, areolar, veined; (n) Bart. ANTONYMS: (adj) admissible, legitimate, eligible, open barren: (adj, n) sterile; (adj) infertile, deserted, arid, void, dry, stark, meagre, fruitless, abortive; (n) waste. ANTONYMS: (adj) productive, lush, fruitful, developing, growing, profitable, rewarding, rich, sheltered, humid, populous batch: (n) band, lot, body, battery, charge, suite, squad, heap, bevy, covey, set. ANTONYMS: (n) single, individual bath: (n, v) wash, clean; (v) bathe,
101 immersion; (n) bathroom, tank, dip, tub, bathtub, ablution, bate battered: (adj) worn, damaged, hurt, maltreated, tattered, ragged, shabby, injured; (v) seedy, pulled down, shattered battlefield: (n) field, arena, battle, cockpit, tract, parcel, front line, combat zone, field of battle, Armageddon, athletic field beacon: (n, v) guide; (n) cairn, flare, pharos, lighthouse, signal, light, watchtower, beacon light, buoy, sign beads: (n) pearls, chaplet, censer, pax, patera, host, cross, pyx, reliquary, rood, thurible bear: (v) accept, take, stand, acquit, abide, allow, wear, comport, tolerate, convey, teem. ANTONYMS: (v) release, avoid, destroy, dodge, take, eradicate, evade, kill, refuse, erase; (n) bull beard: (v) defy, dare; (adj, v) brave; (adj, n) hair; (n) whiskers, moustache, sloven, facial hair; (n, v) camouflage, disguise, mask. ANTONYM: (n) shaven beardless: (adj) callow, youthful, young, green, hairless, under age, puisne, sappy, budding, whiskerless bearing: (n, v) demeanor; (n) manner, direction, deportment, conduct, attitude, aspect, approach, appearance, respect, air. ANTONYMS: (n) insignificance, irrelevance; (adj) nonbearing bears: (n) fissiped, badgers, Carnivora, order Carnivora beastly: (adj) animal, disgusting, horrid, bestial, brute; (adj, v) nasty, abominable, offensive; (adv) ugly, brutally, brutely. ANTONYMS: (adv) civilized, cultured, kind, good, refined, humane, inoffensive; (adj) lovely, pleasant beat: (n, v) pulse, throb, tick, flap, knock; (v) batter, whip, trounce, pulsate, bat; (n) round. ANTONYMS: (v) protect, help, divide, cede, aid, separate, surrender; (adj) invigorated, energized; (n) caress, pat beaten: (adj) overpowered, routed, conquered, overcome, prostrate, frothy, trounced, worsted; (v) beat, lose, fail. ANTONYMS: (adj) heartened, uplifted, triumphant, encouraged, loose beating: (n) reverse, defeat, whipping, thrashing, battery, flogging, pounding, pulsation, pulse, rout; (adj) pulsing.
102 ANTONYMS: (n) victory, win beautifully: (adv) exquisitely, nicely, gorgeously, splendidly, handsomely, attractively, superbly, charmingly, divinely, grandly, elegantly. ANTONYMS: (adv) unappealingly, tastelessly, abysmally, harshly, horribly, badly becalmed: (v) stagnant; (adj) unmoving, nonmoving, motionless beckon: (n, v) attract; (v) signal, summon, call, motion, sign, invite, gesture, nod, brandish, lure. ANTONYM: (v) repel beckoning: (adj) irresistible becoming: (adj, v) seemly, proper, befitting; (adj) decorous, decent, adequate, apposite, due, agreeable, fit, relevant. ANTONYMS: (adj) inappropriate, unattractive, unflattering, improper, unbefitting, unsuitable, ugly, unseemly bedecked: (adj) decked out, decorated, ornate, ornamented beer: (v) wine, heavy wet, stingo, spirits; (n) lager, ale, brewage, malt liquor, suds, alcoholic beverage, alcoholic drink bees: (n) Apoidea, superfamily Apoidea beetle: (v) project, jut, bulge; (adj) beetling, impend, bestride, mount, ride, protrusive; (n) mallet; (adj, v) hang over beggar: (n) mendicant, mumper, pauper, tramp, sponger, joker, poor man, cadger, bloke; (v) beg, pauperize. ANTONYM: (n) giver beginnings: (n) origin, root, early stages, early period, first phase begrimed: (adj) grubby, dirty, besmirched, unclean, raunchy, discolored, grungy, filthy, stained, dingy, soiled. ANTONYM: (adj) clean beguiled: (adj) entranced, rapt, fascinated, infatuated, enchanted, delighted, charmed, captive, captivated begun: (adj) present behavior: (n, v) bearing, demeanor; (n) carriage, conduct, deportment, act, behaviour, manner, character, action, morality behold: (v) see, view, contemplate, regard, perceive, observe, look, consider, discern, descry, watch. ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, disregard, ignore, overlook belated: (adj) late, tardy, behindhand, slow, overdue, benighted, delayed, posthumous, too late, untimely; (adj,
Heart of Darkness adv) behind. ANTONYMS: (adj) prompt, early, punctual, timely, premature belief: (n) feeling, doctrine, supposition, opinion, idea, thought, impression, trust, view, confidence, assumption. ANTONYMS: (n) unbelief, doubt, disavowal, distrust, denial, rejection, uncertainty, independence, innovation beliefs: (n) philosophy, persuasion, creed, thinking, values, principles, way of life, morals, viewpoint, attitude, ideas believed: (adj) whispered, alleged, thought, held bell: (n, v) chime; (n) gong, Alexander Graham Bell, ring, doorbell, handbell, tocsin, alarum, Alexander Bell, buzz, angelus bells: (n) addition, approval, matrimony, marriage, approbation, wedding belong: (v) appertain, pertain, lie, go, belong to, attach, dwell, consist, come, rank, stand. ANTONYMS: (v) separate, disagree, disassociate, leave, quit, differ belonging: (adj) appertaining, appertinent, apropos, apposite; (n) household, family, appendage, appurtenance, intimacy, commodity, closeness. ANTONYM: (n) antipathy bend: (n, v) bow, turn, arch, arc, crook, twist, elbow; (adj, n, v) curve; (v) stoop, crouch; (adj, v) flex. ANTONYMS: (n, v) square; (v) align, unbend, leave bending: (n) bow, bend, deflection, deflexion, refraction, flexure, crook; (adj) flexible, supple, winding, pliant. ANTONYM: (adj) stiff bends: (n) caisson disease, aeroembolism, air embolism, bend, gas embolism, compressed air sickness benevolence: (n) beneficence, affection, favor, mercy, compassion, favour, kindness, benefaction, pity, kindliness, generosity. ANTONYMS: (n) malevolence, meanness, cruelty, misanthropy, wickedness, nastiness, malice benign: (adj, n) benevolent, nice, gentle, humane; (adj) kind, affable, amiable, charitable, merciful, soft, beneficial. ANTONYMS: (adj) unkind, malevolent, malign, unfortunate, severe, selfish, misanthropic, mean, malignant, malicious, hurtful
bent: (adj) curved, arched, deformed, crooked; (n) propensity, inclination, fancy, leaning, flair, gift, curvature. ANTONYMS: (n) weakness, inability, aversion; (adj) undetermined, undecided, uncurved, uncaring, rigid, unbent bereavement: (n) mourning, loss, sorrow, sadness, privation, deprivation, death, grief, sorrowfulness, decease, demise beset: (v) beleaguer, afflict, assault, siege, molest, worry, attack, plague, obsess, assail; (adv, v) surround beside: (adv) on, abreast, aside, closely, nearly; (prep) about; (adv, prep) besides; (adj) adjacent; (n) while, at; (adj, prep) near besides: (adv) as well, moreover, too, furthermore, again, as well as, anyway, additionally; (prep) apart from, beside; (adj, adv) more betray: (v) deceive, bewray, sell, grass, dupe, reveal, mislead, disclose, accuse, befool, bamboozle. ANTONYMS: (v) protect, undeceive, hide, defend, withhold bewildered: (adj) bemused, confused, confounded, perplexed, befuddled, puzzled, dumbfounded, taken aback, addled, disoriented; (adj, v) lost. ANTONYMS: (adj) unimpressed, clear, oriented, precise, understanding, alert bewildering: (adj) astonishing, puzzling, perplexing, confusing, marvelous, mystifying, amazing, astounding, discomfit, upsetting, staggering. ANTONYMS: (adj) enlightening, simple, soothing bewilderment: (n) astonishment, quandary, confusion, surprise, wonder, bemusement, maze, chaos, jumble, mess; (adj, n) perplexity. ANTONYMS: (n) order, clarity bewitched: (adj) enchanted, fascinated, infatuated, magical, ensorcelled, doomed, captive, rapt, enamored, obsessed. ANTONYM: (adj) disgusted bigger: (adj) greater, larger, better, major, largest, biggest, big, large, great, vast, wide. ANTONYM: (adj) lesser biggest: (adj) utmost, largest, bigger, greatest, major, most, best, superlative, top, big, main billowy: (adj) rolling, puffy, stormy, surging binding: (n) band, dressing, tying, linkage, binder, wrapping, bond; (adj) obligatory, necessary, valid,
Joseph Conrad mandatory. ANTONYMS: (adj) voluntary, alterable, flexible, revocable, unbinding, unconfining, unnecessary, unfastened, temporary binoculars: (n) telescope, field glasses, opera glasses, spyglass, field glass, opera glass bird: (n) wench, poultry, fowl, girl, birdie, hen, chick, Bronx cheer, shuttlecock, archaeornis, archeopteryx biscuits: (n) biscuit, cracker; (adj) crackers biting: (adj, v) acute, acrid, sarcastic, sharp, acrimonious, pungent, severe, cutting; (adj) acid, bitter, barbed. ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, blunt, kind, bland, nice, soothing, sweet, hot, complimentary, faint, sympathetic bits: (n) odds and ends, scraps, debris bitter: (adj, v) acrimonious, acrid; (adj) sharp, acid, malicious, caustic, virulent, sour, resentful, keen, acerbic. ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, charitable, hot, sugary, kind, wonderful, warm, pleasant, nice, agreeable, gentle bitterly: (adv) bitingly, sourly, fiercely, cruelly, caustically, harshly, poignantly, piercingly, cuttingly, rancorously, acrimoniously. ANTONYMS: (adv) harmoniously, sweetly, warmly, gladly, agreeably, kindly, friendly bitterness: (n) acerbity, animosity, gall, malice, resentment, enmity, acridity, acidity, bitter, rancor, sharpness. ANTONYMS: (n) joy, happiness, harmony, kindness, blandness, friendliness, goodwill, idealism, affection bizarre: (adj) grotesque, eccentric, fanciful, singular, odd, outlandish, outre, queer, freakish, curious, fantastic. ANTONYMS: (adj) normal, everyday, usual, real, outdated, natural, mainstream, consistent, sensible, reasonable, explicable blackness: (n) black, darkness, sable, gloom, nigritude, night, inkiness, dark, murk, murkiness, obscurity blade: (n) knife, beau, foil, falchion, cutlass, sword, leaf, shaft, razor, brand, steel blamed: (adj) goddamned, goddamn, damned, goddam, infernal, damnable, ageless, answerable, beatified, blessed, aeonian blank: (adj) bare, empty, unfilled, pure, vacant, clean; (n) space,
blankness, form, vacuity; (v) addle. ANTONYMS: (adj) full, expressive, used, understanding, thoughtful, incomplete, marked, filled, excited, lively, aware blanket: (adj) sweeping, overall, comprehensive, global, wholesale, generic; (n, v) cloak; (n) sheath, sheet, bedding; (v) clothe. ANTONYMS: (adj) uncomprehensive, discerning, incomplete, partial, specific blasting: (adj) ruinous, blaring, cold, destructive; (n) grit blasting, burst, explosion, excavation, mining, getting, advertising blaze: (n, v) flash, glare, flame, mark, scintillation; (n) fire, light, burning, inflammation, sheen; (adj, v) burn blazing: (adj) flaming, afire, burning, ardent, aflame, glaring, bright, blatant, alight, passionate; (n) blaze. ANTONYMS: (adj) freezing, quiet blessings: (n) blessing, godsend blind: (n) curtain, shutter, veil, drape, awning, trick; (v) bedazzle, dazzle, daze; (adj) sightless; (adj, v) obscure. ANTONYMS: (adj) sighted, uncovered, understanding, sharp, seeing, revealed, quick, perceptive, open, controlled, cautious blindfolded: (adj) blinded, unsighted; (n) blinder; (adv) blindly blinding: (adj) dazzling, blazing, amazingly impressive, bisson, blatant, fulgent, glary; (n) clogging, blind blocking, blindage blindly: (adv) darkly, dimly, blindfoldly, purblindly, obscurely, heedlessly, unreasoningly, blindfold, unsightedly, inconsiderately, ignorantly. ANTONYMS: (adv) sensibly, carefully, considerately, purposely bloodshot: (n) inflamed bloodthirsty: (adj) murderous, brutal, bloody, barbarous, cruel, savage, fierce, ferocious, violent, slaughterous, sanguineous. ANTONYM: (adj) pleasant blow: (n) beat, knock, shock, wallop, gust, jolt; (adj, n, v) gasp, puff; (n, v) blast, slap; (v) squander. ANTONYMS: (n, v) calm; (v) save, conserve, store, stillness, inhale, come, arrive; (n) luck, comfort, caress blown: (adj) puffy, panting, swollen, winded, inflated, moving, high, haughty lofty, late; (v) puffing and blowing; (n) blowen blurred: (adj) fuzzy, indistinct, foggy,
103 blurry, bleary, vague, out of focus, blear, cloudy, clouded, dim. ANTONYMS: (adj) sharp, definite, distinct, precise, certain blush: (n, v) glow, color; (v) redden, crimson; (n) red, bloom, rosiness, ruddiness, redness; (adj) bashful; (adv) blushingly. ANTONYMS: (v) blanch, pale, blench; (n) paleness boast: (v) bluster, brag, blow, crow, gasconade, show off, rodomontade, exult; (n, v) vaunt, pride; (n) arrogance. ANTONYMS: (n) deprecation; (v) downplay, lack boat: (n) yacht, steamship, ark, scull, craft, steamboat, dinghy, pinnace, ship, gondola, hoy bodies: (n) people, public boding: (n) presentiment, premonition, foreboding, portent, augury, forewarning, hunch, apprehensiveness, apprehension boiler: (n) pan, kettle, cauldron, vessel, seething caldron, furnace, heater, tank, steam generator, generator, pot bond: (n) association, alliance, deed, agreement, bail, attachment, joint; (v) bind; (n, v) cement, band, link. ANTONYMS: (v) unstick, open, unfasten, loosen, disconnect, clash; (n) separation, divorce bone: (n) framework, os, skeleton, anatomy, ivory, astragal, true middlings; (adj, n, v) cartilage; (v) swot, gristle, prepare bones: (n) bone, frame, corpse, dry bones, framework, maraca, physician, finger cymbals, tymbal, wreck, timbrel bony: (adj) osseous, gaunt, lean, thin, emaciated, scrawny, skinny, angular, lanky, meager, boney. ANTONYMS: (adj) plump, boneless, fat, stout bookkeeping: (n) accountancy, double entry bookkeeping, reckoning, clerking; (adj) clerical, office, secretarial boot: (n, v) kick; (n) boots, Wellingtons, bang, gain, jackboot, buskin, kicking, charge, shoe, bootikin boots: (n) Bootes, bell boy, bootblack, counterjumper, boy, shoeblack, footwear border: (n, v) verge, skirt; (n) margin, fringe, brink, extremity, bed, boundary, limit; (v) surround, abut. ANTONYMS: (n) middle, inside, interior, mainstream bordered: (adj) fringed, edged,
104 delimited, surrounded borne: (adj) weak, wanting, spoony, soft, sappy, shallow, little, limited bosom: (n) heart, interior, boob, thorax, chest, bust, tit; (n, v) embrace; (v) cherish, hug; (adj) intimate. ANTONYMS: (n) outside, exteriority bother: (n, v) trouble, torment, worry, hassle, pain; (adj, n, v) fuss, bore; (v) vex, annoy, irritate; (n) nuisance. ANTONYMS: (n, v) delight; (v) soothe, please, help, aid, comfort, placate, encourage, defend; (n) accord, satisfaction bothered: (adj) troubled, disturbed, nervous, distraught, uneasy, concerned, upset, annoyed, harassed, vexed, fazed. ANTONYMS: (adj) peaceful, unconcerned, pleased, serene, untroubled, content bothering: (v) teasing, tormenting, carking; (n) harassment, provocation bottle: (n) container, jug, flask, cruet, vial, pot, phial, jar, decanter, carboy; (n, v) can bottom: (n) basis, backside, bed, behind, foot, footing, back, foundation, posterior, floor; (n, v) ground. ANTONYMS: (n) pinnacle, summit, peak, roof, apex, ceiling, middle; (adj) highest bound: (n, v) leap, jump, border, bounce, limit, edge, vault, recoil; (n) boundary, barrier, compass. ANTONYMS: (v) allow, amble, crawl, limp, permit; (adj) permitted, released, unbound, allowed, unlikely bounds: (n) boundary, border, limit, bound, margin, borderline, end, bourn, Bourne, brink, edge. ANTONYMS: (n) center, middle bowels: (n) gut, compassion, pity, inside, bowel, viscera, innards, belly, guts, insides, intestines bowing: (n) obeisance, playing, gesticulation, capitulation, genuflection, scraping, submission; (adj) bowed, bent, fawning, submissive boxes: (n) auditory, pit, parquet, gallery, box, case, front of the house, bleachers, stalls boyhood: (n) babyhood, adolescence, youth, youthhood, infancy, girlhood, age, boyism, puberty. ANTONYM: (n) adulthood boyish: (adj) young, puerile, adolescent, youthful, babyish, childish, girlish, kittenish, boylike,
Heart of Darkness callow, immature. ANTONYM: (adj) mature brag: (n, v) bluster, vaunt, crow; (v) pride, gasconade, blow, show off, rodomontade; (n) boasting, bragging; (adj) great brain: (n) mastermind, genius, head, mind, reason, wit, psyche, noddle, intelligence, nous, brains. ANTONYMS: (n) emotion, moron, body, dummy, imbecile, idiot, physicality branches: (n) branch, brushwood brass: (n, v) face; (adj, n) boldness; (n) nerve, cheek, administration, audaciousness, insolence, arrogance; (adj) bronze; (v) assurance, impudence breaking: (n) breakage, breach, violation, infringement, contravention, smash, rift, scutching, shift, intermission; (v) deaden breast: (n) boob, udder, tit, titty, chest, knocker, mammilla, bust, pap, heart; (n, v) front breastbone: (n) sternum, os, bone breasts: (n) chest, booby breath: (n) wind, air, inspiration, puff, soul, aspiration, respite, airflow; (v) breathe, respire; (adj, n) whisper breathe: (n, v) respire, subsist, imply; (n) breath, bespeak; (adj, n, v) live; (v) exhale, exist, emit, rest, be. ANTONYMS: (v) suffocate, hide, choke, asphyxiate, drain, die, inhale breathed: (adj) unvoiced, inaudible, breathing, aphonic breathing: (adj) animate, live, living, respiratory, alive, above ground; (v) breathe, respire; (n) respiration, instant, moment. ANTONYMS: (adj) inanimate, breathless, dead breathless: (adj, adv) out of breath; (adj) panting, inanimate, breathtaking, winded, choking, puffing; (v) all agog, aghast; (adj, n) eager; (n) in hysterics. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, expected, boring breeches: (n) knickers, inexpressibles, knickerbockers, brogues, short, smalls, overalls, small clothes, pants, trousers, pantaloons breeze: (n) breath, air, gust, gale, flurry, zephyr, rumor, wind, blow, bise; (v) move brick: (n) adobe, block, rough diamond, ugly duckling, lump, unit, red; (adj) trump, concrete; (v) pot, terra cotta bricks: (n) walk, highway
bridge: (n, v) span, stretch; (n) pontoon, tie, nosepiece, footbridge, crossing; (v) bridge over, connect, link, traverse. ANTONYMS: (n) split, separation, chasm, break, division; (v) unlink, detach, disjoin bright: (adj) alive, vivid, intelligent, apt, shining, brilliant, lustrous, luminous, light, beaming, shiny. ANTONYMS: (adj) cloudy, stupid, gloomy, dim, unintelligent, dreary, dark, overcast, shadowy, thick, leaden brightly: (adv) vividly, luminously, radiantly, gaily, clearly, shiningly, intensely, cheerfully, smartly, bright, lustrously. ANTONYMS: (adv) gloomily, drearily, bleakly, stupidly, dully, blankly, seriously, pessimistically brilliance: (n) splendor, blaze, gloss, brightness, light, glow, magnificence, flash, luster, glare, glory. ANTONYMS: (n) mediocrity, stupidity brilliant: (adj, v) splendid, glorious, illustrious, smart; (adj) sunny, intelligent, magnificent, luminous, spectacular, vivid, beautiful. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, dim, awful, dark, unexceptional, typical, tarnished, grimy, unintelligent, normal, useless bringing: (n) delivery, consignment, serving, service, passage, post brink: (n, v) edge; (n) border, hem, threshold, boundary, brim, shore, periphery, lip, margin, limit. ANTONYMS: (n) middle, interior, end bristly: (adj) barbed, thorny, rough, spiny, stiff, hairy, setaceous, briery, bristled, barbellate, briary. ANTONYM: (adj) soft broad: (adj) wide, sweeping, comprehensive, vast, general, extensive, large, ample, free, big; (n) female. ANTONYMS: (adj) specific, thin, restricted, polite, minor, limited, exclusive, dogmatic, decent, cultured, confined broadening: (n) widening, extension, expansion, increase, enlargement, lengthening; (v) widen; (adj) cultural. ANTONYM: (n) narrowing broadly: (adv) widely, extensively, largely, comprehensively, fully, spaciously, thickly, expansively, freely, extendedly, roomily. ANTONYMS: (adv) narrowly, slightly, specifically broke: (adj) bankrupt, poor,
Joseph Conrad insolvent, impecunious, penniless, impoverished, skint, bust, destitute, strapped, ruined. ANTONYMS: (adj) solvent, wealthy, affluent broken: (adj) torn, tame, damaged, intermittent, uneven, imperfect, rugged, rough, out of order; (adj, v) busted, ruined. ANTONYMS: (adj) unbroken, intact, wild, whole, working, uplifted, uninterrupted, triumphant, running, indomitable, incessant bronze: (adj, n, v) tan; (n) brown, brass, sculpture, statuette; (v) terra cotta, discolour, discolor, marble, plate; (adj) bronzed brooding: (adj) pondering, thoughtful, contemplative, hatching, meditative, pensive, wistful; (v) brewing, batching; (n) chick management, parturition. ANTONYMS: (adj) shallow, cheerful brotherly: (adj) brotherlike, sympathetic, cordial, neighborly, harmonious, amicable, affectionate, sisterly, fatherly; (adv) sympathetically, fraternally. ANTONYMS: (adj) sisterly, uncompassionate, unfriendly, unneighborly, sororal, antagonistic, uncompanionable brow: (n) peak, brink, brows, height, summit, forehead, eyebrow, edge, crown, brim, border. ANTONYM: (n) trough brushed: (adj) napped, fleecy brusque: (adj) blunt, curt, discourteous, short, gruff, surly, brief, bluff, rude, uncouth, hasty. ANTONYMS: (adj) gracious, courteous, considerate, kind, civil, gentle, friendly, rambling, hesitant brutal: (adj) barbaric, barbarous, bestial, hard, cruel, unkind, vicious, savage, harsh, truculent, barbarian. ANTONYMS: (adj) merciful, kind, liberal, humane, generous, caring, friendly, nice, pleasant brutally: (adv) fiercely, ferociously, cruelly, savagely, viciously, pitilessly, mercilessly, barbarically, rudely, inhumanly, ruthlessly. ANTONYMS: (adv) humanely, kindly, nicely, peacefully, attentively, mercifully, tamely brute: (adj) brutal, harsh, gruff, brutish; (adj, n) animal, savage; (n) barbarian, fiend, creature, monster; (adv) beastly. ANTONYMS: (adj) weak, refined, mild, gentle; (n) gentleman
buddha: (n) the Buddha, Siddhartha, Gautama, Buddhism, Vishnu, Gautama Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha, Juggernaut, Krishna, Siva, shiva build: (n, v) make, shape; (v) erect, establish, raise, rise, found, base, fabricate, fashion; (n) frame. ANTONYMS: (v) destroy, dismantle, raze, overturn, obliterate, decrease, decelerate, ruin, disassemble buildings: (n) edifice, construction, lane, passage, place, property, quad, quadrangle, parade, rents, road bulging: (adj) convex, bellied, bulgy, swollen, gibbous, protuberant, baggy, bellying, round, inflated, protrusive bunch: (n, v) crowd, clump, pack, bundle, group, huddle; (n) batch, lot, band, troop, gang. ANTONYMS: (v) spread, separate, scatter; (n) individual bundle: (n, v) pack, cluster, clump, wad; (n) sheaf, pile, batch, stack, package, group, heap. ANTONYMS: (v) scatter, separate, disperse, divide buried: (adj) hidden, covert, interred, underground, inhumed, profound, covered, ulterior; (v) perdu, imbed, embed. ANTONYMS: (adj) explicit, overt burned: (adj) baked, scorched, tempered, sore, hurt, heated, hardened, destroyed, bleak, parched, adust burning: (adj) blazing, ablaze, boiling, afire, flaming, hot; (n) combustion, firing; (adj, n) passionate, zealous, glowing. ANTONYMS: (adj) cold, trivial, cool, out, painless, quenched, soothing, unimportant, apathetic, insignificant, unconcerned burnt: (adj) adust, heated, baked, torrid, sunburnt, seared, scorched, well done, tempered, overdone, combust. ANTONYMS: (adj) underdone, unburned, wet burst: (adj, n, v) crack; (adj, v) split, blow up, explode, splinter, detonate; (n, v) rupture, blast; (adj, n) flash; (v) break out, belch. ANTONYMS: (v) attach, join, connect, fasten, trickle bursting: (adj) explosive, teeming, chock-full, full, complete, paroxysmal, exploding, disruptive, detonating, crowded; (n) outbreak. ANTONYM: (adj) hungry bury: (v) inter, overwhelm, lay to rest, hide, mask, secrete, conceal,
105 cloak, entomb, suppress; (n) burial. ANTONYMS: (v) exhume, unearth, uncover, dig, disclose, distract, expose, ignore, reveal, air, remember bush: (n) shrub, wild, jungle, hedge, outback, scrub, heath, plant, thicket, wilderness, chaparral bushes: (n) underbrush, thicket, undergrowth, minor league butcher: (v) slaughter, kill, murder, slay; (n, v) massacre, botch; (n) assassin, bungler, slaughterer, meatman, murderer. ANTONYMS: (v) develop, create, grow, build button: (n, v) knob; (adj, n) tie; (n) knop, push button, push, key, fastening, clasp, bud, buckle; (v) fasten buzz: (n, v) rumor, call, ring, hiss, drone, gossip, purr, whisper, murmur; (n) report, hearsay. ANTONYM: (n) bore buzzed: (n) woozy; (adj) intoxicated, drunk cabin: (n) booth, cabana, cot, lodge, stall, shed, chamber, bothy, room, apartment, cell. ANTONYMS: (n) chateau, mansion, palace cage: (n, v) jail; (n) basket, birdcage, hutch, gaol, frame, corral, cell; (v) confine, imprison, enclose. ANTONYMS: (v) release; (n) freedom, liberation calamity: (n) disaster, adversity, affliction, misfortune, plague, catastrophe, tragedy, blow, bale, distress; (n, v) trouble. ANTONYMS: (n) blessing, boon, luck, joy, opportunity calico: (n) cambric, fabric, cashmere, chintz, cloth; (adj) motley, varicoloured, pied, assorted calipers: (n) callipers, calliper, roller gauge, micrometer; (v) compass, rule, standard, foot rule, measure, yard measure calling: (n) business, occupation, call, avocation, job, trade, career, employment, walk, pursuit; (n, v) profession. ANTONYMS: (n) entertainment, hobby callous: (adj) heartless, insensible, relentless, cruel, brutal, obdurate, hard, hardened, hardhearted, indifferent, insensitive. ANTONYMS: (adj) caring, merciful, compassionate, sensitive, sympathetic, tender, nice, thoughtful, affectionate, concerned, flattering calm: (adj, n, v) assuage, appease,
106 lull; (adj, v) cool, pacify, peaceful, easy, steady; (adj, adv, n, v) still; (n, v) allay; (v) mollify. ANTONYMS: (adj) agitated, wild, stormy, nervous, angry, scared, terrified, tense; (v) agitate, provoke; (adj, v) upset camp: (n) faction, encampment, base, barracks, cantonment, laager, side; (v) pitch, tent, camp out; (adj) campy camping: (n) bivouac, camp, encampment, bivouacking, inhabitancy, inhabitation, habitation, campsite, camping site, tenting, campground candle: (n) candela, light, taper, bougie, CD, candlepower, lamp, wax light, Standard candle; (v) examine, illuminate candor: (adj, n) honesty, sincerity, truth, abandon, fidelity, uprightness; (n) frankness, integrity, fairness, candidness, outspokenness. ANTONYMS: (n) unfairness, indirectness, deception, doublespeak, delicacy, conformity, caution, tact cane: (n, v) scourge, whip; (v) flog, beat, birch, thrash, lash; (n) stick, bat, rattan, twig canoe: (n) dugout, pirogue, canoes, caique, birchbark, dugout canoe, birchbark canoe, felucca; (adj) selfsufficient canvas: (n) duck, sail, sheet, tarpaulin, cloth, tarp, burlap; (n, v) canvass; (v) painting, tableau, solicit capable: (adj) competent, adequate, apt, adept, accomplished, fit, gifted, qualified, proficient, trained; (adj, n) efficient. ANTONYMS: (adj) incapable, inept, unable, helpless, lacking, bad, unimaginative, unqualified, untrained capacity: (adj, n) capability, talent, endowment; (n) aptitude, capacitance, function, intelligence, dimension, authority, faculty; (n, v) might. ANTONYMS: (n) incapability, incapableness, incapacity, incompetence captain: (n) head, master, leader, guide, commodore, commander, boss, skipper, chieftain; (v) govern, manage. ANTONYM: (n) minion captive: (n) convict, prisoner of war, slave, detainee, jailbird, gaolbird; (adj) confined, imprisoned, rapt, jailed, amoroso. ANTONYMS: (adj) free, uninterested, unconfined, liberated, emancipated,
Heart of Darkness disillusioned; (n) guard, captor caravan: (n) camper, carriage, van, trailer, motor home, camping bus, column; (n, v) procession; (v) cortege, file, cavalcade. ANTONYM: (n) individual carcass: (n) body, frame, corpse, cadaver, framework, shell, carrion, remains, dead body, skeleton, bomb careful: (adj, v) attentive, anxious; (adj) thrifty, thoughtful, frugal, mindful, prudent, deliberate, alert, economical, guarded. ANTONYMS: (adj) reckless, slapdash, neglectful, wasteful, unconcerned, tactless, stupid, spendthrift, rash, negligent, inaccurate careless: (adj) forgetful, inattentive, insouciant, haphazard, cursory, reckless, lax, unwary, sloppy; (adj, adv) thoughtless; (adj, v) heedless. ANTONYMS: (adj) cautious, prudent, meticulous, thoughtful, diligent, attentive, thorough, wary, guarded, methodical, strict carriage: (n) attitude, conveyance, cab, air, walk, position, mien, shipping; (n, v) transport, behavior, port carrier: (n) carrier wave, bearer, messenger, carter, postman, common carrier, vehicle, courier, mailman, porter, charged particle carrying: (n) transport, conveyance, carriage, transportation, haulage, hauling, shipping; (adj) bearing, gerent; (v) convey, bring carved: (adj) cut, incised, sculptured; (v) graven, engraved, stamped, fixed, imprinted. ANTONYM: (adj) uncarved castle: (n) fortification, stronghold, castling, fort, palace, mansion, tower, house; (n, v) fortress, citadel, keep. ANTONYMS: (n) shack, cottage casual: (adj) adventitious, careless, chance, occasional, nonchalant, irregular, easy, cursory, coincidental, passing, random. ANTONYMS: (adj) deliberate, formal, thorough, careful, rushed, premeditated, predetermined, planned, serious, permanent, intense casually: (adv) incidentally, haphazardly, fortuitously, carelessly, occasionally, by chance, cursorily, nonchalantly, adventitiously, contingently, indifferently. ANTONYMS: (adv) anxiously, formally, politely,
seriously, distantly, considerately, attentively catacomb: (n) crypt, tomb, catacombs, mausoleum, grave, tunnel, narrow house, house of death, ossuary, Golgotha, pit catch: (n, v) capture, hook, haul, hitch, trick, grab, snatch; (v) get, apprehend, intercept; (n) pawl. ANTONYMS: (n, v) release; (v) misunderstand, unhitch, mistake, Miss, misinterpret, free, give, lose; (n) advantage, boon catching: (adj) communicable, infectious, epidemic, gripping, transferable, zymotic; (n) discovery, take, playing, uncovering, getting. ANTONYM: (adj) noncommunicable cats: (n) Felidae, cates, public, people, order Carnivora, fissiped mammal, fissiped, Carnivora, bears, badgers, family Felidae caught: (adj) fixed, guilty, accomplished, wedged, trapped, interested, exposed, defenseless, culpable; (v) seize, get. ANTONYM: (adj) loose caution: (n) advice, carefulness, warning, wariness, precaution, vigilance, prudence, admonition, commandment; (v) warn, advise. ANTONYMS: (n) carelessness, rashness, incaution, honesty, foolishness, encouragement, irresponsibility, openness, approval; (v) dare, approve cautious: (adj) guarded, conservative, prudent, watchful, attentive, reserved, shy, provident, judicious, circumspect, chary. ANTONYMS: (adj) rash, open, impulsive, impetuous, careless, irresponsible, wasteful, incautious, thoughtless, imprudent, unwary cautiously: (adv) guardedly, prudently, warily, circumspectly, charily, discreetly, vigilantly, timidly, attentively, watchfully, sparingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) openly, irresponsibly, imprudently, bravely, recklessly, incautiously, thoughtlessly, wastefully, tactlessly, rashly, liberally ceased: (adj) finished ceiling: (n) cap, limit, maximum, overhead, upper limit, top, roof, limitation, confine, tile, thatch. ANTONYMS: (n) minimum, floor cemetery: (n) graveyard, tomb, burial ground, burying ground, churchyard, necropolis, burial site,
Joseph Conrad resting place, site, burial place, grave center: (n, v) centre, focus; (adj, n) middle; (n) heart, core, pivot, midst, kernel, substance, seat; (v) concentrate. ANTONYMS: (n) edge, outside, exterior, circumference; (adj, n) border; (adj) extreme, right, left; (v) scatter, dissipate, disperse centuries: (n) century certitude: (n) assurance, trust, conviction, determination, persuasion, faith, security, firmness, assuredness, resolution, confidence. ANTONYM: (n) indecision chaff: (v) tease, jest, rally, mock, kid, jolly, joke; (n) bran, raillery, husk; (n, v) ridicule chain: (n) network, rope, cable, band, catena, range; (adj, n, v) tether; (v) bind, fetter; (adj, v) tie; (n, v) handcuff. ANTONYMS: (v) emancipate, liberate, unchain, detach chains: (n) fetters, bond, chain, bonds, handcuffs, irons, manacles, shackles, iron, confine, trammel chairs: (n) seats champagne: (v) chain lightning, cocktail; (n) sparkling wine, blonde changing: (adj) unsettled, shifting, variable, dynamic, moving, choppy, uncertain, various, varying, inconstant, fickle. ANTONYMS: (adj) usual, fixed channel: (n, v) canal, conduct; (n) conduit, groove, trough, waterway, drain, line, passage; (v) carry, convey. ANTONYMS: (v) keep; (n) ridge chanting: (n) cantillation, vocalizing, sing, singing, intonation chaos: (n) disarray, jumble, maze, mess, muddle, clutter, uproar, disorder, bedlam, pandemonium, mix-up. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, orderliness, regulation, regularity, organization, tranquility, serenity, neatness, calm chap: (n) fellow, blighter, guy, crevice, cranny, crack, lad, man, scissure, beau, chink chapman: (n) hawker, dealer, merchant, peddler, packman, pedlar, chap, buyer, blow, John chapman, johnny Appleseed chaps: (n) chops, fauces, crack charitable: (adj) kind, clement, gentle, benevolent, liberal, bountiful, philanthropic, generous, humane, kindly, lenient. ANTONYMS: (adj) uncharitable, mean, nasty,
tightfisted, inhumane, selfish, miserly, hard, cruel, commercial, cheap charm: (n, v) allure, captivate, appeal, spell, fascinate, bewitch, conjure; (adj, v) attract; (n) amulet; (v) enchant, entrance. ANTONYMS: (n) ugliness, repulsion, repulsiveness, awkwardness, hatefulness, unpleasantness; (v) repulse, offend, irritate, disgust, bore charmed: (adj) enchanted, delighted, fascinated, spellbound, entranced, captive, beguiled, infatuated, absorbed, enamored, captive hours charming: (adj) beautiful, lovely, captivating, winning, attractive, enchanting, delightful, pleasing, nice, magic, cute. ANTONYMS: (adj) repellent, unpleasant, unappealing, repulsive, charmless, disgusting, gross, irritating, offensive, uninteresting, annoying charms: (n) trinkets, jewelry, jewels chasing: (n) chase, engraving; (v) follow, pursue chat: (n, v) converse, talk, chatter, chitchat, confab, prattle; (n) conversation, causerie, gab; (v) confabulate, chaffer chattering: (n) chatter, cackle, yak, grabbing, claver; (adj) talkative, loquacious, noisy, gabby, garrulous; (v) natter cheap: (adj) tacky, low, stingy, base, flashy, worthless, sleazy, shabby, niggardly, mean, economical. ANTONYMS: (adj) expensive, costly, tasteful, generous, luxurious, quality, noble, inflated, precious, dear, steep checked: (adj) checkered, chequered, check, plaid, examine, temperate, tartan, silent, safe, pent-up, numbered checks: (n) dibs, cent cheek: (n) audacity, nerve, brass, boldness, impertinence, face, lip, mouth, gall, insolence, impudence. ANTONYMS: (n) respect, cowardice, timidity, humbleness, meekness, reticence, seriousness; (v) praise cheeks: (n) Gemini, twins, couple, posterior, pair, deuce, two, duet cheer: (v) animate, applaud, amuse, hearten, inspire, lighten; (n, v) comfort, delight, cry; (adj, v) embolden; (n) consolation. ANTONYMS: (n) sadness, boo, uncheerfulness, hiss, pessimism, raspberry; (v) depress, discourage,
107 dissuade, complain, jeer cheerful: (adj, v) buoyant; (adj) breezy, merry, optimistic, pleasant, glad, blithe, carefree, bright, lively, happy. ANTONYMS: (adj) depressed, gloomy, sad, depressing, grim, hopeless, miserable, morose, somber, dejected, unwelcoming cheery: (adj) bright, joyful, jovial, buoyant, sunny, gay, genial, glad, upbeat, vivacious, blithe. ANTONYMS: (adj) sad, depressing, miserable, funereal, unwelcoming, unfriendly, serious, dull, downbeat, down, troubled chest: (n) bosom, ark, bust, box, chest of drawers, case, hutch, bureau, caisson, casket, dresser childish: (adj) childlike, naive, babyish, immature, simple, puerile, infantile, juvenile, silly, frivolous, young. ANTONYMS: (adj) sensible, old, wise, adult, jaded chill: (adj, v) cool; (adj, n) cold; (adj) bleak, icy, chilly, frosty, depressing; (v) freeze, dispirit, damp; (n) coolness. ANTONYMS: (adj, v) warm; (n) warmth, warmness; (v) encourage, hearten, inspirit, thaw; (adj) hot, gregarious, friendly, sociable chilly: (adj, adv) unfriendly; (adv) coolly, frigidly; (adj) cool, bleak, algid, freezing, frozen, icy, frosty; (adj, n) cold. ANTONYMS: (adj) hot, tropical, responsive, mild, welcoming, friendly, balmy, torrid chin: (n) jaw, Kuki, jawbone, lineament, rap, jowl; (v) elevate, speak, chin up, confer, bring up china: (v) porcelain, ceramics, crockery, pottery, ceramic ware; (n) mainland China, chinaware, magnetism, Korea, earthenware, Communist China choked: (adj) clogged, smothered, congested, annoyed, high-strung, strained, neurotic, tense, angry, anxious, insecure choose: (v) adopt, elect, select, pick, prefer, take, appoint, assign, decide, excerpt; (n) picking. ANTONYMS: (v) refuse, waver, decline, forgo, spurn, dislike, elect chorus: (n, v) choir; (v) chant; (n) ensemble, coir, refrain, chorale, acclamation, Greek chorus; (adv) descant, glee, madrigal. ANTONYMS: (n) disagreement, discord christian: (adj) Catholic, scriptural, pietist, monotheistic, divine,
108 evangelical, Christianly, moral, theist; (n) Christianity, devotee chuckling: (n) laughter cipher: (n) zero, nothing, number, nil, nobody, null; (n, v) figure, cypher, code; (v) calculate; (adj, n) nonentity. ANTONYMS: (n) infinity; (v) encode, decode, code, scramble circle: (n) association, field, range, beat, set; (n, v) ring, band, compass, turn, whirl; (v) encircle circuitous: (adj) roundabout, winding, devious, tortuous, meandering, oblique, complicated, labyrinthine, crooked, collateral, circumlocutional. ANTONYMS: (adj) straight, direct circumvent: (v) elude, avoid, evade, besiege, cheat, skirt, escape, dodge, outwit; (adv, v) surround, compass. ANTONYMS: (v) assist, confront, aid, help citizen: (n) national, inhabitant, denizen, resident, burgher, the people, subject, freeman, native, nationality, voter. ANTONYMS: (n) foreigner, immigrant, tourist, alien, stranger civility: (n) politeness, courtesy, comity, attention, propriety, affability, amenity, cultivation, complaisance, courteousness, civilization. ANTONYMS: (n) rudeness, incivility, coarseness civilization: (n) culture, civilisation, enlightenment, humanity, education, customs, town, mores; (n, v) cultivation; (adj) civility, civilized. ANTONYMS: (n) barbarity, savagery, wilderness, wildness, uncouthness civilize: (v) civilise, educate, improve, train, refine, foster, tame, enlighten, domesticate, humanize; (adj) polish civilized: (adj) civil, refined, polite, civilised, cultivated, educated, courteous, urbane, kind, gentle, genteel. ANTONYMS: (adj) uncouth, noncivilized, discourteous, loutish, rude, inhumane, wild civilly: (adv) politely, respectfully, graciously, complaisantly, urbanely, polishedly, considerately, domestically, genteelly, obligingly, refinedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) abruptly, uncivilly clammy: (adj) viscous, sweaty, sticky, muggy, moist, humid, damp, viscid, sultry, dank; (n) ropy. ANTONYMS: (adj) arid, dried, fresh clamor: (n, v) outcry, cry, clamour,
Heart of Darkness hullabaloo, roar, shout; (n) noise, racket, uproar, exclamation, hubbub. ANTONYMS: (n) silence, serenity, tranquility; (v) whisper, mutter clap: (n, v) blast, boom, slam, rumble; (n) applause, clapping, gonorrhoea, smash; (v) acclaim, applaud, hit. ANTONYMS: (v) hiss, jeer clapping: (n) clap, acclaim, hand, clapping of hands, cheering, handclap, ovation, slapping, plaudit, round, approval clatter: (n, v) rattle, jingle, bang, clank, clang, roll, clink; (v) clash, chatter; (n) noise, racket. ANTONYM: (n) quiet clay: (n) soil, remains, adobe, loam, dust, dirt, mud, bentonite, ashes; (adj, n) pottery; (adj) earthen clean: (adj, adv) fair; (v) cleanse, brush, bathe, disinfect; (adj) antiseptic, blank, pure, chaste, unblemished; (n, v) wash. ANTONYMS: (adj) filthy, unclean, muddy, unhygienic, tainted, unwholesome, syrupy, full; (v) soil, contaminate, pollute cleared: (adj) absolved, clean, empty, exculpated, bleak, innocent, exempt, vindicated, exonerated, guiltless, let off. ANTONYMS: (adj) full, uncleared, guilty clearing: (n) clarification, clearance, purgation, purging, purge, clearmelting, correction, tract, improvement, release, freeing clenched: (adj) tight, clinched clerical: (adj) accounting, bookkeeping, administrative, church, ministerial, priestly, sacerdotal, secretarial; (n) minister, preacher, office. ANTONYM: (adj) lay clerk: (n, v) writer, secretary, transcriber; (n) servant, shop assistant, salesclerk, employee, accountant, recorder; (v) scrivener, scribe cleverly: (adv) cunningly, expertly, smartly, shrewdly, adroitly, intelligently, dexterously, handily, craftily, skillfully, acutely. ANTONYMS: (adv) clumsily, foolishly, honestly, ineptly, awkwardly, openly, incompetently clew: (n) cue, clod, glob, knob, footmark, footprint, vestige; (v) point out; (adj) pellet, globule, Pelote cliff: (adj, n) precipice; (n) boulder, hill, escarpment, promontory, crag,
mountain, bank, face; (adj) wall, pike climate: (n) atmosphere, clime, ambience, latitude, mood, milieu, weather, environment, zone, conditions, isobar climb: (v) ascend, arise, scale, escalate, go up, scramble; (n, v) clamber, mount, increase; (n) ascent, jump. ANTONYMS: (n, v) drop; (n) descent; (v) wane, dismount, plummet clinging: (adj) adhering, sticky, adherent, devoted, adhering closely, affectionate, dependent, tenacious, osculant; (n) coherence clink: (n, v) clank, jingle, chink, ring, rattle; (v) tinkle, sound; (n) clang, jail, clash, click clinking: (adj) tinkle, jingle, tinkling, cacophonous, reverberant, ringing cloak: (n, v) veil, mask, camouflage, wrap, masquerade, screen, pall; (n) cape; (v) conceal, dissemble, hide. ANTONYMS: (v) reveal, uncloak, unmask; (n, v) uncover closed: (v) close, tight; (adj) blind, finished, blocked, shut, congested, enclosed, folded, fastened, not open. ANTONYMS: (adj) beginning, running, started, starting, welcoming, continuing cloth: (n) drapery, fabric, clothes, clothing, rag, stuff, linen, tapestry, silk, flannel; (v) napkin clouds: (n) exhaust, fumes, gas, smoke, vapors cloudy: (adj) dull, gloomy, nebulous, murky, dark, turbid, foggy, muddy, misty, sunless, vaporous. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, bright, sunny, cloudless clump: (n, v) cluster, bundle; (n) lump, group, clot, knot, tuft, chunk, clod, ball; (v) plod clumsily: (adv) awkwardly, ineptly, crudely, ungracefully, maladroitly, gawkily, inelegantly, gauchely, inexpertly, unwieldily, roughly. ANTONYMS: (adv) skillfully, cleverly, coherently, deftly, elegantly, gracefully, carefully, expertly, competently, tactfully, urbanely clustered: (adj) agglomerated, agglomerative, bunched, bunchy, gregarious, concentrated, conglomerate, collective clutched: (adj) tense, worried, anxious, neurotic coast: (n) shore, bank, seaside, beach, seashore, waterside, brink; (n, v)
Joseph Conrad slide, glide; (adj) coastal; (v) drift. ANTONYMS: (v) bump, lurch, struggle; (n) inland, Midlands coat: (v) cloak, blanket; (n, v) sheath, plaster; (n) coating, fur, film, crust, jacket, layer, bark. ANTONYMS: (v) reveal, expose cocksure: (adj, v) assured, sure, certain; (adj) confident, dogmatic, overconfident, cocky, arrogant, pragmatical, opinionated, convinced coin: (v) invent, mint, originate, create, strike, cast; (n, v) forge; (n) specie, money, penny, piece collapse: (n, v) slump, fall, flop, subsidence; (n) breakdown; (v) break, break down, buckle, crumple, crack, crumble. ANTONYMS: (n, v) rise; (v) build, grow, invigorate, withstand, improve, hold; (n) growth, success, triumph, making collapsed: (adj) broken, warped, misshapen, folded, fallen, distorted, depleted, buckled, bent, bowed, malformed collar: (n, v) arrest, catch, capture, pinch; (n) choker, ruff, lapel; (v) apprehend, nail, grab, clutch. ANTONYMS: (v) free, release colleague: (n) associate, buddy, collaborator, partner, friend, assistant, brother, acquaintance, companion, fellow, mate. ANTONYMS: (n) opponent, antagonist, detractor, superior, rival, foe, stranger collected: (adj) calm, accumulated, amassed, tranquil, sober, assembled, cool, poised, unflappable, peaceful; (adj, v) composed. ANTONYMS: (adj) nervous, worried, upset, uncollected, flustered, scatterbrained, anxious, excitable color: (n, v) flush, blush, tint, tinge, paint, stain; (adj, n, v) colour; (v) redden; (n) guise, complexion; (adj, n) tone. ANTONYMS: (v) discolor, pale, show, whiten, untwist, denote, depict, represent, blanch, blench colored: (adj) chromatic, black, tinged, tinted, colorful, dyed, coloured, partial, dark, bleached, biased. ANTONYMS: (adj) truthful, white, uncolored, unbiased, pale, objective, honest, genuine, real colorless: (adj) achromatic, neutral, drab, dull, monotonous, wan, tame, pallid, bloodless, white, colourless. ANTONYMS: (adj) rosy, interesting, rich, vivid, brilliant, vibrant, stimulating, lively, glamorous, exciting, distinctive
colors: (n) flag, colours, paints, banner, color, colour, ensign, pigment, tint, dye, paint colossal: (adj) huge, gargantuan, prodigious, Brobdingnagian, vast, enormous, great, mammoth, immense, massive, monstrous. ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny, small, insignificant, minute, compact, microscopic, miniature, slight columnar: (adj) columned, stelene, columnlike, columniform, basaltiform comfort: (n, v) ease, allay, support, aid, alleviate; (n) consolation, relief, amenity, assistance; (adj, n, v) assuage; (v) cheer. ANTONYMS: (n) discomfort, aggravation, agony; (v) alarm, annoy, frighten, afflict, aggravate, bother, burden, disappoint comforts: (n) amenities, bread and butter, convenience, conveniences command: (n, v) order, charge, call, control, decree; (n) instruction, bidding, direction, behest; (v) direct, commission. ANTONYMS: (v) obey, follow, contradict, countermand, revoke, recall, oppose; (n) beg, plead, plea commanded: (adj) lawful commander: (n) chief, leader, commandant, head, governor, chieftain, commanding officer, conductor, major, skipper, master. ANTONYMS: (n) underling, follower, subordinate commandingly: (adv) peremptorily, commanding, impressively, imperiously, superiorly, imposingly, grandly, domineeringly, imperatively, bossily, overbearingly. ANTONYM: (adv) weakly commencement: (n) opening, start, origin, birth, kickoff, inauguration, inception, onset, outset, origination, source. ANTONYMS: (n) middle, termination, finishing, finish, ending, conclusion, culmination commerce: (n, v) trade, barter; (n) business, exchange, connection, dealings, intercourse, association, conversation, communication; (v) affair commingling: (n) intercourse, association, commerce; (adj) introvenient commissioned: (adj) accredited, appointed, commissions, authorized, licenced, specially made, vicarious, licensed commonplace: (adj, v) trite,
109 hackneyed; (adj) banal, ordinary, humdrum, common, average, plain, mundane, dull; (n) platitude. ANTONYMS: (adj) extraordinary, unusual, exceptional, infrequent, rare, romantic, uncommon, weird; (n) deepness, profundity, profoundness commotion: (n) tumult, ado, disturbance, turmoil, stir, din, flurry, fuss, bedlam, tempest; (n, v) agitation. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, order, calm, serenity, calmness, stillness, quiet, tranquility, inactivity compact: (n) arrangement, covenant, bargain; (adj, v) close, condense; (v) compress; (n, v) contract; (adj) dense, solid, thick, compendious. ANTONYMS: (adj) loose, sprawling, sparse, bulky, large, cumbersome, long, lengthy, unwieldy; (v) expand, loosen companion: (adj, n) associate; (n) colleague, buddy, mate, peer, chum, partner, fellow, comrade, assistant, brother. ANTONYMS: (n) foe, stranger, adversary comparative: (adj) qualified, proportionate, illustrative, approximate, near. ANTONYMS: (adj) absolute, unlike, far, unequal comparatively: (adv) rather, somewhat, reasonably, quite, approximately, some, pretty, fairly, to some extent, to a certain extent, moderately. ANTONYM: (adv) absolutely compare: (adj, v) liken; (v) confront, equate, to compare, associate, contrast, correlate, equalize, resemble, equal; (n, v) comparison. ANTONYMS: (v) imbalance, contrast compassionate: (adj) merciful, clement, benevolent, kind, humane, tender; (adj, v) pitiful; (v) pity; (adj, n) gentle, sympathetic, caring. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfeeling, harsh, severe, cruel, indifferent, mean, uncompassionate, nasty, merciless, uncaring, unhelpful complaining: (adj) irritable, peevish, petulant, whining, moaning, complaintive, repining; (adj, v) querulous; (n, v) lamenting; (adv) complainingly; (n) plaintive. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, uncomplaining, cheerful, willing completed: (adj, adv, v) done; (adj) accomplished, perfect, ready, whole, through, terminated, fulfilled; (adj, adv) finished, over, ended
110 complexion: (n, v) tint; (n) cast, character, appearance, look, hue, aspect, flush, glow, dye, fashion composed: (adj) calm, dispassionate, cool, peaceable, pacific, staid, imperturbable, temperate, level, impassive, unflappable. ANTONYMS: (adj) distressed, trembling, nervous, excited, tense, ruffled, jumpy, intemperate, discomposed, upset, worried composing: (v) compose, comprise, constitute; (adj, v) component; (n) composition, arranging, arrangement, placement, makeup, constitution, manufacturing composure: (n) calmness, serenity, poise, calm, equanimity, temper, aplomb, tranquillity, peace, temperament, disposition. ANTONYMS: (n) panic, discomposure, anger, nervousness, perturbation, anxiety, agitation, turbulence, awkwardness comprehend: (v) grasp, catch, see, comprise, appreciate, feel, sense, apperceive, read; (adj, v) understand; (n, v) embrace. ANTONYMS: (v) mistake, misapprehend, exclude, misunderstand, misconceive comprehension: (n) knowledge, inclusion, conception, understanding, intelligence, grasp, wit, capacity, familiarity, discernment, uptake. ANTONYMS: (n) incomprehension, ignorance comprehensive: (adj) broad, inclusive, extensive, full, large, detailed, thorough, total, exhaustive, universal, wide. ANTONYMS: (adj) partial, restricted, limited, sketchy, minor, selective, local, incomprehensive, incomplete, careless, exclusive compressed: (adj) flat, condensed, dense, concentrated, compacted, tight, pointed, packed, concise, close, brief conceal: (v) hide, disguise, bury, screen, cloak, smother, shield, suppress, mask, obscure; (n, v) veil. ANTONYMS: (v) reveal, show, expose, divulge, clarify, uncover, disclose, tell, admit, spotlight, flaunt concealed: (adj) covert, clandestine, blind, occult, secret, mysterious, obscure, buried, invisible, secreted, surreptitious. ANTONYMS: (adj) unconcealed, available, overt, open, divulged, Shown, revealed, disclosed, uncovered, noticeable,
Heart of Darkness mainstream conceive: (v) think, imagine, comprehend, design, apprehend, realize, discover, cogitate, appreciate, invent, catch. ANTONYMS: (v) destroy, doubt, misunderstand, question, ruin concentrated: (adj) intense, solid, compressed, condensed, deep, compact, heavy, thick, dense, intent, intensive. ANTONYMS: (adj) dispersed, unsaturated, uncondensed, moderate, diluted, weakened, watery, sketchy, relaxed, distributed, diffuse conception: (n) concept, idea, view, thought, creation, mind, design, imagination, impression, understanding, fancy. ANTONYMS: (n) termination, finish, ending, concrete, abortion, ignorance, destruction concluded: (adj, adv) finished, done, completed, ended; (adj) over, closed, terminated, accomplished, all over, consummate, set conclusion: (n) end, close, result, termination, sequel, completion, cessation, dissolution, finish, finale; (n, v) closing. ANTONYMS: (n) beginning, opening, preface, inauguration, foreword, launch, commencement, head condemnation: (n) animadversion, anathema, conviction, blame, rebuke, judgment, disapprobation, deprecation, disapproval; (n, v) doom; (v) condemn. ANTONYMS: (n) praise, absolution, approbation, confirmation, commendation, defense, support condemning: (adj) inculpative, censorious, inculpatory, critical; (n) conviction, reproachful condensed: (adj) concise, compressed, concentrated, succinct, compact, summary, compendious, short, shortened; (adj, v) condense; (n) tabloid. ANTONYMS: (adj) loose, uncondensed, diluted, expanded, convoluted, long conduct: (v) bring, direct, carry, show; (n, v) act, administration, manage, administer, carriage, bearing; (adj, v) acquit. ANTONYMS: (v) mismanage, leave, follow conducted: (adj) directed, guided confab: (v) chitchat, confabulate, gossip, consult, confer, collogue, claver, chatter; (n, v) talk; (n) confabulation, discussion
confess: (adj, v) own, allow, admit, avow; (v) concede, profess, recognize, divulge, disclose, reveal, receive. ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, hide, dispute, conceal, repress, harbor confessed: (adj) known confidence: (n) assurance, certainty, certitude, belief, faith, hope, nerve, credit, conviction, reliance, expectation. ANTONYMS: (n) insecurity, doubt, nervousness, anxiety, diffidence, distrust, fear, timidity, hopelessness, aimlessness, embarrassment confident: (adj) bold, brave, secure, sanguine, audacious, forward, fearless; (adj, v) certain, positive, sure; (adj, n) hopeful. ANTONYMS: (adj) insecure, timid, pessimistic, frightened, anxious, unsure, hesitant, unintelligent, doubtful, diffident, bland confidential: (adj) secret, classified, private, intimate, privileged, clandestine, furtive, thick, inner, esoteric, confident. ANTONYMS: (adj) open, familiar, known, external, accessible, official, unrestricted confidentially: (adv) privately, closely, privily, intimately, familiarly, personally, clandestinely, in secret, in private, surreptitiously, occultly. ANTONYMS: (adv) publicly, openly, familiarly, commonly confidently: (adv) hopefully, surely, securely, assuredly, intrepidly, boldly, courageously, certainly, sanguinely, bravely, definitely. ANTONYMS: (adv) powerlessly, weakly, hesitantly, anxiously, uncertainly, timidly, despairingly, tentatively, pessimistically, irresolutely, awkwardly confound: (v) bewilder, baffle, nonplus, perplex, astonish, puzzle, amaze, astound, mistake; (adj, v) confuse, stupefy. ANTONYMS: (v) explain, clarify, comfort, lose, distinguish; (n) understanding confounded: (adj) bemused, accursed, execrable, baffled, cursed, befuddled, confused, puzzled, aghast, perplexed; (adj, v) abashed confoundedly: (adj) tremendously, severely, desperately, with a vengeance; (adv) confusedly, accursedly, abashedly, bewilderedly, cursedly, puzzledly, extremely
Joseph Conrad confronting: (n) braving, facing, tackling, opposition, grappling, coping with; (adj) opposed confused: (adj) abashed, baffled, befuddled, bemused, dizzy, chaotic, confounded, deranged, incoherent, disjointed, indistinct. ANTONYMS: (adj) enlightened, orderly, alert, clearheaded, organized, oriented, precise, systematic, ordered, unimpressed, methodical confusedly: (adv) obscurely, disorderedly, perplexedly, cloudily, dazedly, befuddledly, muddily, bemusedly, dizzily, bewilderedly, puzzledly connect: (v) bind, bond, join, attach, associate, annex, conjoin, relate, unite, combine, affiliate. ANTONYMS: (v) separate, disconnect, detach, unplug, undo, dissociate, clash, divide, clear connected: (adj, v) related; (adj) attached, allied, affiliated, coherent, linked, committed, conjoint, combined, relevant, consecutive. ANTONYMS: (adj) unrelated, separate, unimportant, disjoined, unaffiliated, disconnected, unattached, irrelevant connoisseur: (n) critic, authority, specialist, expert, cognoscenti, savant, scholar, gourmet, arbiter, epicurean; (v) judge. ANTONYMS: (n) dabbler, tyro conquered: (adj) overcome, vanquished, overwhelmed, crushed, subdued, profligate, routed, overthrown, done for, under enemy control, baffled. ANTONYMS: (adj) victorious, liberated conquering: (adj) triumphant, winning, overcoming, glorious, proud, successful; (n) conquest, seizure, reverse, subjection, subjugation conquest: (n) defeat, triumph, conquering, achievement, reduction, coup, rout, overthrow, subjection, mastery, success. ANTONYMS: (n) failure, defeat, loss, victory conscious: (adj) alive, premeditated, mindful, deliberate, cognizant, calculated, intended, discerning, self-conscious, studied, voluntary. ANTONYMS: (adj) unaware, ignorant, unintentional, dead, accidental, inanimate, spontaneous, subconscious, unplanned, inadvertent, oblivious consciousness: (n) feeling, sense, conscience, cognizance, mind,
notion, knowledge, sensibility, feel, Consciousness of kind, self. ANTONYMS: (n) ignorance, oblivion, certainty, numbness consequences: (n) result, cost, impact, penalty considerably: (adv, v) well, fully; (adv) much, very, substantially, hugely, largely, rather, noticeably, markedly, immensely. ANTONYMS: (adv) insignificantly, somewhat, faintly, unremarkably, modestly, barely consistently: (adv) uniformly, solidly, logically, persistently, constantly, always, regularly, consonantly, homogeneously, accordantly, customarily. ANTONYMS: (adv) erratically, unusually, unsystematically, unevenly, illogically, carelessly, unreliably constant: (adj) ceaseless, perpetual, continual, faithful, changeless, steadfast, eternal, uninterrupted, continuous; (adj, n) steady, invariable. ANTONYMS: (adj) irregular, intermittent, changeable, variable, inconstant, erratic, episodic, fickle, temporary, disloyal, inconsistent constantly: (adv) continually, firmly, incessantly, eternally, steadily, endlessly, unremittingly, ceaselessly, steadfastly; (adj, adv) always, forever. ANTONYMS: (adv) inconsistently, intermittently, acutely, erratically, infrequently consume: (v) exhaust, absorb, dissipate, use, squander, fritter, expend, eat, swallow, burn; (adj, v) waste. ANTONYMS: (v) save, abstain, conserve, make, store, accumulate, produce, manufacture, hoard, gather, fast consumed: (adj) exhausted, finished, used up, worn, depleted, obsessed, possessed, lost, tired, immersed, gone contained: (adj) implicit, unspoken, unexpressed, latent, understood, numbered, inside, confined to a small area, being within, limited to a small area. ANTONYMS: (adj) unrestrained, generalized, pervasive contaminated: (adj) dirty, infected, unclean, foul, polluted, soiled; (adj, v) poisoned; (v) tainted, tabid, leprous, mangy. ANTONYMS: (adj) hygienic, uncontaminated, harmless, healthy contempt: (n, v) scorn; (v) despise; (n)
111 disrespect, derision, mockery, disregard, ridicule, shame, slight, reproach, discourtesy. ANTONYMS: (n) approval, admiration, regard, honor, esteem contemptible: (adj) abject, mean, base, pitiful, little, worthless, unworthy, miserable, ignoble, abominable, shameful. ANTONYMS: (adj) estimable, admired, deserving, worthy, honorable, respectable, respectful, noble, generous, commendable, good contemptibly: (adv) despicably, meanly, shamefully, cruelly, callously, shockingly, nastily, spitefully, offensively, unkindly, disgracefully. ANTONYMS: (adv) respectfully, commendably contemptuously: (adv) scornfully, sneeringly, insultingly, disparagingly, superciliously, derisively, condescendingly, disrespectfully, haughtily, contumeliously, sardonically. ANTONYM: (adv) approvingly contentedly: (adv) gladly, satisfiedly, contently, gratifiedly, pleasedly, cheerfully, joyfully, smugly, easily, complacently, placidly. ANTONYMS: (adv) crossly, awkwardly, unhappily, discontentedly, sadly contest: (v) compete, contend; (n) bout, competition, contention; (n, v) combat, conflict, fight, dispute, altercation, struggle. ANTONYMS: (n) tranquility, quiet, peace, calm, cooperation; (v) surrender, agree, acquiesce, accede, favor, prove continent: (adj) chaste, celibate, abstemious, pure, temperate, abstinent, sober, austere; (n) land, peninsula, delta. ANTONYMS: (adj) impure, unchaste continental: (adj) midland, riparian, coastal, earthy; (n) mainland, landmass, romance language continuous: (adj) continual, ceaseless, perpetual, endless, running, unrelenting, everlasting, incessant, uninterrupted, unending, continued. ANTONYMS: (adj) temporary, discontinuous, sporadic, broken, ending, interrupted, halting, fitful, finished, disjointed, ceasing continuously: (adv) continually, incessantly, ceaselessly, endlessly, unceasingly, persistently, uninterruptedly, unremittingly, steadily, perpetually, permanently.
112 ANTONYMS: (adv) sporadically, inconsistently contorted: (adj) crooked, bent, writhed, writhen, deformed, distorted, wry, twist, misshapen, perverted, malformed contracts: (n) business contrary: (adj, n) contradictory, reverse; (adj) adverse, conflicting, unfavorable, perverse, cross, disobedient, alien, different, obstinate. ANTONYMS: (adj) similar, harmonious, helpful, obliging, compatible, complaisant, concordant, parallel, agreeable, cooperative, favorable contrast: (n) distinction, comparison, antithesis, difference, variation, opposite, collation; (adj, v) differ; (v) conflict, oppose, collate. ANTONYMS: (n) sameness, likeness, alikeness; (v) accord, agree, compare, distance, conform contributed: (adj) collatitious, unpaid conversation: (n) talk, conference, communication, colloquy, confabulation, discussion, language, discourse, speech, talking, palaver convey: (v) communicate, channel, bring, conduct, transfer, fetch, express, transmit, bear, transport, take. ANTONYMS: (v) keep, maintain, withhold, retain, refrain, hold, absorb, receive conveyed: (v) borne, sent conviction: (n) belief, confidence, certainty, condemnation, persuasion, faith, trust, certitude, firmness, doctrine, determination. ANTONYMS: (n) acquittal, doubt, release, absolution, disbelief, justification, insecurity, distrust convinced: (adj, v) sure, positive, confident, firm; (v) cocksure, persuaded, satisfied, assured, bold; (adj) clear, definite. ANTONYMS: (adj) doubtful, unconvinced, uncertain, cynical convulsively: (adv) spasmodically, paroxysmally, spasticly, with convulsions cook: (v) boil, prepare, brew, bake, make, stew, simmer, grill, falsify, concoct; (n) chef cookery: (n) cuisine, kitchen, gastronomy, browning, broiling, preparation, culinary art, roasting, toasting, frying, braising cool: (adj, v) chill, assuage, soothe; (adj) chilly, cold, collected, composed, fine, aloof; (v) quench; (n) poise. ANTONYMS: (v) heat;
Heart of Darkness (adj) hot, agitated, excited, friendly, feverish, enthusiastic, tepid, temperate, bad, upset copy: (n, v) counterfeit, duplicate, pattern, trace; (v) imitate, ape, follow; (adj, n, v) model; (n) imitation, transcription, reproduction. ANTONYMS: (v) create, originate; (n) master core: (n) heart, essence, bosom, center, stone, kernel, mind, base; (adj, n) gist, marrow, quintessence. ANTONYMS: (n) exterior, outside, perimeter, surface, body, periphery, edge; (adj) secondary corpse: (n) carcass, body, carcase, dead person, stiff, dead body, remains, corse, clay, dry bones; (adj) lich correct: (adj, v) right; (adj, n) accurate; (v) amend, chastise, adjust, castigate, chasten, better; (adj) appropriate, becoming, proper. ANTONYMS: (adj, v) wrong; (adj) incorrect, faulty, mistaken, false, inappropriate, improper, inaccurate; (v) spoil, coddle, baby corrected: (adj) amended, reformed, purified, educated, altered, chastened, disciplined correspondence: (n) accord, connection, agreement, communication, coincidence, concord, affinity, parallelism, parallel, similarity, symmetry. ANTONYMS: (n) dissimilarity, asymmetry, disagreement, incongruity, divergence, imbalance, contrast, clash corruption: (n) depravity, pollution, adulteration, filth, infection, vitiation, taint, bribery, canker, blight, foulness. ANTONYMS: (n) purification, incorruptness, decency, honesty, morality, pureness, incorruption, purity, righteousness, scruples, virtue cottage: (n) cabin, bungalow, crib, hut, villa, lodge, shanty, chalet, country house, house, cot cotton: (n) absorbent cotton, yarn, thread, cotton cloth, cotton plant, cotton wool, upland cotton, cord, string, fiber; (v) agree couch: (n) bed, sofa, settee, divan; (adj, v) lie; (v) express, put, frame, lower, repose; (adj) recline counsel: (v) advise, consult, admonish, confer, warn; (n, v) caution, advocate; (n) barrister, advisement, consultation, admonition. ANTONYMS: (v)
betray, trick, deceive, conceal, oppose; (n) warning countenance: (n) aspect, expression, brow, complexion; (n, v) face, sanction, support, favor; (v) allow, tolerate, uphold. ANTONYMS: (v) reject, oppose, discourage, disapprove, prohibit counting: (n) calculation, count, reckoning, computation, enumeration, numbering, numeration, tally, nosecount; (adj) calculating, including. ANTONYM: (prep) excluding countless: (adj) innumerable, multitudinous, many, endless, myriad, measureless, uncounted, legion, untold, infinite, incalculable. ANTONYMS: (adj) finite, limited, numbered, counted, countable, small courage: (n) audacity, fortitude, boldness, nerve, spirit, backbone, valor, heroism, gallantry, mettle, chivalry. ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, faintheartedness, weakness, wimpiness, yellowness courtyard: (n) yard, area, square, backyard, atrium, forecourt, bailey, cloister, grounds, patio, quad cousin: (n) nephew, cousins, friend, cousinship, relation, akin, relative, full cousin, companion covered: (adj) veiled, concealed, covert, coated, secret, wrapped, thick, obscured, masked, shrouded; (adj, prep) cloaked. ANTONYMS: (adj) bare, uncovered, open, plain, exposed, outdoor, empty covering: (n) cover, coating, blanket, coat, casing, wrapper, case, concealment, awning; (adj, n, v) clothing; (n, v) apparel. ANTONYMS: (prep) exactly, beneath cracked: (adj) nutty, batty, crazy, chapped, balmy, wacky, dotty, crackled, deranged, loony, crackers. ANTONYMS: (adj) resonant, sane craft: (n) trade, ability, artfulness, guile, fraud, shift, occupation, vessel, skill; (adj, n) cunning, art. ANTONYMS: (n) naivety, clumsiness, avocation, hobby, incompetence, incompetency, inaptitude, inability, honesty, honestness; (v) destroy cravat: (n) neckerchief, neckcloth, stock, ascot, collar, handkerchief, scarf, neckwear, necktie, ruff craven: (n) coward, poltroon, chicken; (adj, n) recreant, apostate, renegade;
Joseph Conrad (adj) base, gutless, yellow, spineless, fearful. ANTONYMS: (adj) brave, fearless, courageous, daring, heroic, strong crawl: (adv, v) grovel, lag; (n, v) clamber, climb; (v) sneak, fawn, cringe, teem, swarm, scramble, inch. ANTONYMS: (v) fly, rush, hurry, hasten, dart, dash, lead, soothe, speed crawling: (adj, n) creeping; (n) creep, itch; (adj) slow, teeming, thick, swarming, reptant, populous, packed, moving crazy: (adj) wild, mad, brainsick, absurd, eccentric, silly, wacky, cracked, crazed, demented; (adj, n) madcap. ANTONYMS: (adj) sensible, sane, rational, indifferent, stable, reasonable, realistic, balanced, levelheaded, cool, calm created: (adj) create, composed, shaped, produced, wrought, legendary, mythical, fictitious, bent, romantic, fashioned creation: (n) world, production, invention, composition, conception, fabrication, foundation, formation, founding, piece, creature. ANTONYMS: (n) end, annihilation creature: (n) being, brute, animal, tool, individual, person, body, entity, human, puppet, somebody creek: (n) brook, cove, bay, stream, inlet, river, bayou, rivulet; (v) burn, runnel, beck creepers: (n) Certhiidae creeping: (n) creep, crawl, locomotion, spreading; (v) lentor; (adj) reptile, slow, reptant, reptatory, serpiginous, moving creepy: (adj) uncanny, eerie, ghostly, crawly, scary, frightening, sinister, spooky, macabre, disgusting, fearful. ANTONYMS: (adj) normal, nice, pleasant, reassuring crested: (adj) cristate, peak, conical, copped, caespitose, cespitose, topknotted, plumed, decorated crestfallen: (adj) dejected, gloomy, depressed, disconsolate, discouraged, dispirited, downcast, chopfallen, downhearted, low, despondent. ANTONYMS: (adj) up, cheered, cheerful, elated, happy, euphoric, inspirited, idealistic, enthusiastic crew: (n) cluster, gang, bunch, party, band, faction, crowd, assemblage, team, group, set crimson: (adj, n) carmine, ruby, scarlet, maroon; (v) blush, flush,
redden; (adj) bloody, ruddy, cherry; (n) deep red cripple: (adj, v) maim, prostrate; (v) mutilate, enfeeble, injure, incapacitate, weaken, becripple; (n, v) damage; (n) invalid; (adj) paralyze. ANTONYMS: (v) support, strengthen, invigorate, help, fortify, enable, aid crook: (adj, n, v) bend, curve; (n) criminal, cheat, scoundrel, gangster, robber; (n, v) turn, hook; (v) bow, wind crooked: (adj) bent, corrupt, dishonest, curved, unfair, deformed; (adj, n, v) awry; (adj, v) irregular, askew, wry, indirect. ANTONYMS: (adj) straight, honest, principled, even, aboveboard, lawful, level, moral, flat, aligned, honorable crop: (adj, v) clip, reap, shave; (v) browse, top, graze, cultivate, cut; (n, v) fruit, harvest; (n) craw cropped: (adj) close crossed: (adj) crossbred, mixed, hybrid, interbred, decussated, intercrossed; (v) matted, disconcerted dashed, unhinged, frustrated crossing: (n) transit, ford, intersection, hybridization, crossbreeding, passage, voyage, mating, crossway, crosswalk, cruise crouched: (v) subjacent, squat; (adj) crutched, hunkered down, hunkered, low, huddled crowd: (n, v) huddle, flock, swarm, press, squeeze, cluster, mob; (n) crew, collection, circle, army. ANTONYMS: (v) disperse, empty, retreat, scatter, desert; (n) dispersal, scattering, trickle, few crowded: (adj) compact, congested, full, packed, busy, dense, populous, jammed, cramped, tight; (adj, n) thronged. ANTONYMS: (adj) sparse, deserted, uncrowded, loose cruel: (adj, v) hard, harsh, sharp, severe; (adj) barbarous, unkind, brutal, bloody, bitter, savage, atrocious. ANTONYMS: (adj) merciful, gentle, sympathetic, humane, liberal, compassionate, charitable, friendly, caring, considerate, libertarian cruising: (n) flirtation, boating, brushing; (adj) nautical crying: (adj, v) exigent, instant, pressing, urgent; (adj) insistent, clamant, imperative, blatant; (n) weeping; (v) weep; (adj, n) sniveling crystal: (adj) clear, bright, translucent,
113 pebble, crag, stone; (n) watch glass, quartz, gem, vitrite; (adj, n) rock. ANTONYMS: (adj) foggy, murky cuffs: (n) handcuffs, manacles, manacle, handcuff, shackles, fetters, bond, bonds, handlock, chains culminating: (adj) uppermost, best, crowning, perfect, supreme, top cunning: (adj) crafty, canny, adroit, wily, sly, shrewd, tricky, artful; (n) craftiness, craft, cleverness. ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, honest, stupid, unimaginative, gullible, ingenuous, straightforward, candid, sincere; (n) frankness, straightforwardness curiosity: (n) curiousness, rarity, interest, curio, oddity, prying, nosiness, peculiarity, novelty, marvel; (adj, n) prodigy. ANTONYMS: (n) emotionlessness, indifference, disinterest curious: (adj) odd, unusual, abnormal, strange, peculiar, interested, quizzical, quaint, queer, inquiring, inquisitive. ANTONYMS: (adj) incurious, ordinary, apathetic, uninterested, unconcerned, typical, indifferent, everyday, disinterested, conventional, common curiously: (adv) inquisitively, peculiarly, unusually, strangely, nosily, pryingly, queerly, funnily, weirdly; (adj, adv) singularly, particularly. ANTONYMS: (adv) ordinarily, typically currency: (n) cash, money, coin, circulating medium, circulation, vogue, legal tender, coinage, distribution, dollar; (adj) monetary cursing: (adj) cursed, execrative; (n) blasphemy, anathema, swearing, swear word, malediction, execration, denunciation, cursedness; (v) beshrew curt: (adj) concise, brief, abrupt, short, brusque, crisp, terse, laconic, rude, churlish, crusty. ANTONYMS: (adj) polite, friendly, courteous, gracious, civil, lengthy, rambling, voluble, caring, loquacious, convoluted curtain: (n, v) cover; (n) barrier, drapery, blind, screen, mantle, mask, shade, pall, shroud; (v) hide curtly: (adv) abruptly, brusquely, briefly, tersely, rudely, gruffly, snappishly, sharply, succinctly, offhandly, laconically. ANTONYMS: (adv) kindly, pleasantly, politely, verbosely, civilly curved: (adj) crooked, arched, curve,
114 round, deformed, curvy, curving, rounded, hooked, tortuous; (v) bowed. ANTONYMS: (adj) concave, flat, sharp, square, unbent curving: (adj) curved, winding, crooked, bowed, devious, falciform, smooth, serpentine; (n) bending, curve, curvature. ANTONYMS: (adj) straight, jerky cushion: (n, v) pad, buffer; (v) insulate, soften, protect, bolster, mollify; (n) shock absorber, mat, pincushion; (adj, n) wadding. ANTONYMS: (v) harm, hurt, injure, exacerbate, expose customs: (n) custom house, impost, customs duty, duty, civilization, mores, duties, manners, morals, toll, tariff cutting: (adj) biting, keen, caustic, bitter, acrimonious, incisive, raw; (adj, n) acute; (n) cut, slip; (adj, v) satirical. ANTONYMS: (adj) blunt, complimentary, flattering, kind, pleasant, hot, consoling; (n) extension, freedom, expansion, addition damp: (adj) moist, muggy, clammy, cool, dank; (v) check, chill, deaden, break; (n) moisture, dampness. ANTONYMS: (n) dryness; (adj) parched, arid, dried, fresh, hard dance: (v) caper, bop, to dance, cavort, play, skip, to show courage, step; (n, v) hop, jump, shake danger: (n) risk, peril, hazard, chance, jeopardy, threat, trouble, precariousness, slipperiness, disaster, insecurity. ANTONYMS: (n) security, ease, privilege dangerous: (adj, n) critical; (adj) severe, serious, grave, adventurous, unhealthy, precarious, hazardous, perilous, threatening, chancy. ANTONYMS: (adj) stable, secure, protected, unhazardous, slight, weak, harmless, friendly, favorable, calm, pleasant dangling: (adj) suspended, pendent, pendant, limp, floppy, pendulous; (n) suspension, abeyance, break, abatement; (adv) adangle. ANTONYM: (adj) upright dare: (n, v) venture; (v) defy, brave, hazard, confront, risk, resist, make bold; (n) adventure, daring, defiance. ANTONYMS: (v) avoid, flee, pass, refrain, retreat, obey darkly: (adv) murkily, dimly, obscurely, duskily, somberly, shadily, mistily, secretly, dismally, heavily, overcastly. ANTONYM:
Heart of Darkness (adv) openly darkness: (n) dark, shade, shadow, blindness, gloom, blackness, duskiness, murk, cloud, blackout, dimness. ANTONYMS: (n) brightness, lightness, glow, comprehension, knowledge, day, clearness dart: (n, v) dash, run, flit; (v) bound, flash, shoot, rush, race, gallop; (adj, n) arrow, rocket. ANTONYMS: (v) plod, trudge, slog, linger, dawdle, dally, delay, amble; (n) tonic darting: (adj) arrowy, moving; (v) Sally dash: (adj, n, v) rush; (n, v) touch, sprint, strike, splash, jog; (v) dart, break; (n) tinge, beat; (adj, n) animation. ANTONYMS: (v) dawdle, inspirit, languish, saunter, encourage, linger; (n) stagnation, languor, listlessness, mass, dullness dashed: (v) ashamed, cut up, sunk; (adj) broken, done for, dejected, discouraged, dotted dazzling: (adj) brilliant, blinding, splendid, glaring, vivid, stunning, dazzlingly, striking, sparkling, fulgent, resplendent. ANTONYMS: (adj) dim, ugly, uninspired, unremarkable, unexceptional, gradual, abysmal, humdrum, dark deadened: (adj) dead, numb, numbed, without sensation, duller, unfeeling, under, frozen, insensible, insensitive, knocked out deadly: (adj, adv) deathly; (adj) baneful, lethal, fatal, destructive, mortal, pernicious, virulent, toxic; (adv) lifelessly, lethally. ANTONYMS: (adj) interesting, uplifting, readable, mild, healthy, healthful, benign, innocuous, exciting deaf: (adj) earless, hard of hearing, blind, unhearing, indifferent, deafened, regardless, surd; (v) deafen, desensitize; (n) deafness. ANTONYMS: (adj) listening, aware, attentive deafened: (adj) dead, deaf corn, stunned, deadened dear: (adj, adv) close, near; (adj, n) darling; (adj) costly, expensive, lovely, precious, affectionate, adorable, cherished; (n) love. ANTONYMS: (adj) worthless, inexpensive, valueless, despised, modest, loathed, hateful, distant; (n) rival, foe, enemy deathlike: (adj) deadly, deathly, ghastly, dead, cadaverous,
thanatoid, ghostly, pale; (v) awful, soft, solemn decaying: (adj) rotten, decayed, rotting, stale, decadent, stinking, decomposed, smelly, shabby, seedy; (n) fading. ANTONYM: (adj) pristine deceitful: (adj) false, fraudulent, insincere, crooked, dishonest, untrue, sly, artful, untrustworthy, unreliable, treacherous. ANTONYMS: (adj) straightforward, genuine, trustworthy, truthful, loyal, open, principled, straight, upright, faithful, dependable decent: (adj) adequate, appropriate, becoming, decorous, sufficient, honest, acceptable, modest, seemly, comely; (adj, adv) right. ANTONYMS: (adj) immoral, inappropriate, disreputable, indecent, unsuitable, inadequate, filthy, undressed, unkind, smutty, selfish deck: (v) clothe, embellish, beautify, bedeck, ornament, array, attire, dress, decorate, grace; (n, v) floor. ANTONYMS: (v) strip, unclothe decked: (adj) bedecked, decked out, ornamented, decorated, festooned declaim: (v) recite, denounce, perform, discourse, lecture, condemn, execute, narrate, inveigh; (n) speechify, flourish declare: (v) advertise, assert, allege, attest, aver, admit, acknowledge, proclaim, avow; (n, v) affirm, say. ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, revoke, suppress, retract, repress, disclaim, withhold, request, refute, block declared: (adj) stated, apparent, state, public, professed, proclaimed, explicit, ostensible, expressed, confirmed, alleged decline: (n, v) wane, fall, dip, decrease, ebb; (v) reject, refuse, fail; (adj, n, v) drop; (adj, v) sink; (n) declension. ANTONYMS: (n, v) increase; (v) accept, flourish, improve; (n) improvement, recovery, development, growth, rebirth, ascent, upturn declivity: (n) decline, fall, downhill, downgrade, incline, dip, slope; (n, v) gradient; (v) acclivity, ascent, bank decorous: (adj) decent, appropriate, conventional, sedate, correct, modest, prim, proper; (adj, v) becoming, seemly, comely. ANTONYMS: (adj) impolite, improper, misbehaving, unsuitable, unrefined, relaxed, inappropriate,
Joseph Conrad rowdy, undignified, defiant, unseemly deepen: (v) intensify, amplify, develop, rise, redouble, heighten, strengthen, raise, magnify, increase, darken. ANTONYMS: (v) lower, contract, shorten, reduce, lessen, decrease, lighten, diminish deepened: (adj) concentrated, gathered deepening: (n) amplification, aggravation deepest: (adj) inmost, center, cordial, earnest, genuine, hearty, warm, sincere, innermost. ANTONYM: (adj) outermost defeat: (v) overcome, conquer, beat, rout, abolish; (n, v) ruin, foil; (n) frustration, beating; (adj, n, v) repulse; (adj, n) rebuff. ANTONYMS: (v) lose, surrender, help, succumb, inspirit, encourage, concede; (n) success, win, triumph, conquest defend: (n, v) guard, shield, advocate; (v) justify, protect, assert, support, maintain, champion, apologize, shelter. ANTONYMS: (v) prosecute, abandon, endanger, surrender, renounce, oppose, forsake, assault, contradict, destroy, expose defended: (adj) shielded, secured, watched over, secure, sacred defensive: (n) defence, defense, security; (adj) preventive, apologetic, safeguarding, protecting, defending, vindicatory, suspicious, excusatory. ANTONYMS: (adj) offensive, aggressive, receptive defer: (v) adjourn, postpone, comply, procrastinate, bow, suspend, retard, accede, protract; (adj, v) put off; (n, v) delay. ANTONYMS: (v) advance, rush, hurry, hasten, forge, disagree, expedite, continue, resist deficiency: (adj, n) defect, blemish, imperfection; (n) dearth, lack, failing, deficit, shortcoming, inadequacy, absence; (n, v) want. ANTONYMS: (n) excess, perfection, provision, enough, adequacy, supply, strength, virtue, surplus, gain, glut define: (v) characterize, explain, clarify, bound, name, interpret, limit, construe, restrict, circumscribe, outline. ANTONYMS: (v) obscure, confuse, confound, conceal, tangle definite: (adj) certain, clear, distinct, concrete, plain, conclusive, specific,
precise, categorical, decisive; (adj, v) absolute. ANTONYMS: (adj) imprecise, unclear, vague, undefined, doubtful, indeterminate, qualified, evasive, indefinite, indescribable, dubious definition: (n) explanation, account, interpretation, limitation, Abundant definition , definiteness, settlement, resolution, definement, rendering, translation. ANTONYMS: (n) blurriness, fuzziness, haziness degradation: (n) fall, abasement, degeneracy, corruption, abjection, debasement, decadence, degeneration, humiliation, deposition, disgrace. ANTONYMS: (n) elevation, glorification, honor delay: (adj, v) defer, linger; (n, v) arrest, wait, check, stay; (n) deferment, interruption; (v) postpone, reserve, adjourn. ANTONYMS: (n, v) rush; (n) decisiveness, promptness; (v) advance, hurry, begin, hasten, go, expedite, speed, prompt deliberate: (v) cogitate, consult, debate, think, confer, contemplate; (adj) careful, circumspect, slow, thoughtful, calculated. ANTONYMS: (adj) unintentional, accidental, hasty, ingenuous, involuntary, spontaneous, rushed, automatic, unwitting, unstudied, subliminal deliberately: (adv) consciously, intentionally, designedly, knowingly, carefully, on purpose, purposely, willfully, slowly, premeditatedly, purposefully. ANTONYMS: (adv) accidentally, involuntarily, furtively, arbitrarily, automatically, naively, secretly, unconsciously, unwittingly, innocently, covertly delicate: (adj) accurate, tender, dainty, refined, breakable, fragile, beautiful, brittle, soft, nice, frail. ANTONYMS: (adj) inelegant, robust, heavy, sturdy, tough, careless, inaccurate, rough, well, substantial, unscrupulous delicately: (adv) exquisitely, softly, tenderly, gracefully, subtlely, sensitively, daintily, precisely, elegantly, ticklishly, weakly. ANTONYMS: (adv) inelegantly, tactlessly, thickly, imprecisely, clumsily, ungracefully, unsubtly, heavily, carelessly, roughly, severely delicious: (adj, v) delicate; (adj) tasteful, pleasing, delightful,
115 appetizing, agreeable, sweet, toothsome, savory, enjoyable, dainty. ANTONYMS: (adj) tasteless, distasteful, yucky, unsavory, unpleasant, unappetizing, revolting, nauseating, inedible, gross, dry delight: (n) joy, pleasure, amusement, rejoicing, gladness; (v) ravish, amuse, please, captivate, transport, enrapture. ANTONYMS: (n) misery, dismay, dissatisfaction, sadness, nuisance, discontent; (v) depress, displease, sadden, irk; (n, v) bore delightful: (adj) delicious, delectable, charming, pleasing, grateful, blissful, amiable, adorable, lovely, nice, gorgeous. ANTONYMS: (adj) unpleasant, unwelcome, hateful, miserable, unhappy, unappealing, horrific, horrible, disagreeable, depressing, annoying delights: (n) delices delusion: (n) hallucination, deception, cheat, chimera, misunderstanding, mirage, trick, fallacy, error, aberration, falsehood. ANTONYMS: (n) comprehension, fact, truth demanded: (adj) urgent, popular, requisitory demands: (n) strain, weight, stress, anxiety demoralization: (n) confusion, corruption, decadence, retrogression, depression, degeneration, prostitution, perversion; (adj) backsliding, pravity, pollution. ANTONYM: (n) encouragement denominate: (v) designate, entitle, nominate, style, christen, denote, title, dub; (n, v) name, appoint; (n) term deny: (v) controvert, rebuff, contradict, disavow, gainsay, reject, oppose, refuse, disown, abnegate, renounce. ANTONYMS: (v) affirm, claim, acknowledge, declare, maintain, agree, spoil, accept, accede, allow, argue departed: (adj) dead, bygone, late, former, bypast, defunct, past, left; (adj, v) gone, extinct; (n) decedent. ANTONYMS: (adj) remaining, alive departure: (n, v) decease, demise; (n) exit, leave, deviation, divergence, depart, parting, aberration, passing, takeoff. ANTONYMS: (n) appearance, conformity, greeting, ingress, influx, homecoming, regularity, entrance, birth, coming, advance
116 dependency: (adj, n) dependence; (n) colony, addiction, dependance, subordination, settlement, relationship, reliance, relative position, bondage; (adj) contingency deplorable: (adj) sad, wretched, criminal, calamitous, abominable, pitiful, lamentable, miserable, regrettable, sorry; (adj, v) woeful. ANTONYMS: (adj) acceptable, pleasing, laudable, happy, cheerful, admirable, agreeable, excellent, fortunate, praiseworthy depressing: (adj) sad, gloomy, dark, dismal, oppressive, desolate, blue, bleak, grim, dreary, chill. ANTONYMS: (adj) inspiring, heartening, cheery, bright, exhilarating, uplifting, cheering, happy, encouraging, hopeful, constructive depth: (n) abyss, profoundness, profundity, chasm, intensity, abstruseness, wisdom, extent, strength, width; (adj) profound. ANTONYMS: (n) height, superficiality, weakness, tallness, shallowness, narrowness, thinness, flippancy depths: (n) bottom, abyss, depth, lowest point, low point, depression, bowels, rock bottom, slump, midst, nadir. ANTONYM: (n) peak descended: (v) extraught descent: (adj, n) ancestry; (n) decline, birth, fall, declivity, declination, declension, drop, pedigree, blood, derivation. ANTONYMS: (n) improvement, rise, hike, upgrade, elevation, boost, ascension, gradient description: (n) account, type, picture, depiction, explanation, brand, delineation, story, recital, report; (adj, n) kind desert: (adj, n, v) waste; (v) escape, forsake, relinquish, ditch, defect, leave; (adj, v) desolate; (adj, n) worth, merit; (adj) barren. ANTONYMS: (v) stay, support, remain, inhabit, assist, aid, help, keep; (adj) cultivated, productive, fertile deserted: (adj) desert, solitary, empty, lonely, isolated, forsaken, lonesome, desolate, bleak, vacant; (adj, v) forlorn. ANTONYMS: (adj) occupied, packed, crowded, mobbed, populated, populous, overcrowded deserved: (v) merited, richly deserved; (adj) appropriate, due, fitting, just, earned, suitable,
Heart of Darkness rightful, adequate, required desire: (n) ambition, aspiration, craving, dream; (adv, n, v) will; (n, v) fancy, wish, aim; (v) want, aspire, seek. ANTONYMS: (n, v) dislike, hate; (n) aversion, reality, revulsion, apathy; (v) spurn, abhor, answer, command, insist desired: (adj) coveted, desirable, favorite, wanted, welcome, needed, beloved, required, most wanted; (adj, v) chosen; (v) consenting desires: (n) requirements, needs desk: (n) bench, box, coffer, table, secretary, bureau, writing desk, escritoire, caisson, caddy, case desolate: (adj, v) desert, forlorn; (adj) bare, barren, alone, bleak, deserted, cheerless, disconsolate; (v) devastate, destroy. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, inhabited, happy, sheltered, mobbed, overcrowded, ecstatic, hopeful; (v) create, construct, build desolated: (adj) devastated, ravaged, ruined, destroyed, blasted, forlorn, damned, damn, darned, cadaverous, bony desolation: (n) devastation, misery, destruction, depression, grief, wretchedness, bleakness, loneliness, waste, ruin; (adj, n) desertion. ANTONYMS: (n) ecstasy, joy, productiveness, fertileness, fecundity, cheer, fruitfulness, preservation, hopefulness, cheerfulness despair: (n) disappointment, desolation, dejection, melancholy, gloom, desperation, depression, dismay, discouragement, pessimism, sorrow. ANTONYMS: (n) happiness, hopefulness, expectation, joy, cheer, cheerfulness, resilience, elation, joyfulness despairing: (adj) hopeless, desperate, despondent, forlorn, desolate, dejected, pessimistic, sad, brokenhearted, miserable, inconsolable. ANTONYMS: (adj) hopeful, optimistic, rosy, happy, confident, cheerful desperate: (adj) despairing, dire, critical, abject, dangerous, in despair, grave, awful, despondent, drastic; (adj, v) forlorn. ANTONYMS: (adj) hopeful, optimistic, rational, promising, minor, cautious, casual, careful, trivial, secure, satisfied desperately: (adv) forlornly, despairingly, hopelessly, terribly,
extremely, despondently, recklessly, seriously, wretchedly; (adj, adv) severely, madly. ANTONYMS: (adv) hopefully, easily, optimistically, trivially, cheerfully, slightly, sluggishly, hardly desperation: (adj, n) despair, fury, rage; (n) recklessness, foolhardiness, desperateness, burst, confusion, trouble, misery; (adj) raving. ANTONYMS: (n) optimism, confidence, hopefulness, hope, happiness, caution, prudence, calmness despondency: (n) despair, desperation, dejection, despondence, melancholy, gloom, sadness, hopelessness, desolation, anguish, grief. ANTONYMS: (n) happiness, hopefulness, cheerfulness, joy, resilience, delight, cheer despondently: (adv) sadly, dejectedly, despairingly, unhappily, hopelessly, glumly, downheartedly, sorrowfully, forlornly, disappointedly, disconsolately. ANTONYMS: (adv) happily, hopefully, enthusiastically destiny: (n) fate, chance, fortune, kismet, luck, lot, destination, portion, weird, life; (n, v) doom. ANTONYMS: (n) chance, design destitution: (n, v) want, deficiency; (n) deprivation, indigence, penury, poverty, need, pauperism, lack, hardship, famine. ANTONYMS: (n) affluence, luxury, prosperity detail: (v) describe, enumerate, relate, appoint, itemize, recite, cast, assign; (n) point, feature, item. ANTONYMS: (v) keep, withhold, generalize, guess, approximate; (n) total, sum, emptiness, aggregate determined: (adj) constant, definite, decided, stubborn, certain, inflexible, decisive, determinate, ambitious, set; (adj, v) resolved. ANTONYMS: (adj) uncertain, irresolute, unmotivated, feeble, indecisive, waffling, undetermined, undecided, wavering, vacillating, fickle detest: (n, v) hate; (v) abominate, loathe, despise, execrate, dislike, nauseate, contemn, dislike intensely; (n) loathing, abhorrence. ANTONYMS: (v) adore, like, cherish, admire detestable: (adj) hateful, abhorrent, damnable, odious, offensive, despicable, execrable, horrible,
Joseph Conrad infamous; (adj, v) cursed; (adj, adv) atrocious. ANTONYMS: (adj) admirable, adorable, sweet, loveable, lovable, likable, delightful, cherished, honorable, desirable, nice detonation: (adj, n, v) explosion, burst; (n) bang, report, roar, blowback; (adj, v) discharge; (adj) blow up, bounce, rush; (v) salvo deuce: (n) devil, couple, two, dyad, demon, duo, duet, Twain, Dickens, brace, craps devastation: (n) demolition, desolation, ruin, catastrophe, havoc, obliteration, damage, disaster, wreck, annihilation; (n, v) waste. ANTONYMS: (n) construction, building, creation, order, preservation devil: (n) fiend, demon, ghost, monster, Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, deuce, daemon; (v) torment, rag. ANTONYM: (n) angel devilish: (adj, v) diabolic, satanic, infernal, mephistophelian, demoniacal; (adj) demonic, wicked, diabolical, terrific; (v) Stygian; (adv) devilishly. ANTONYMS: (adj) cherubic, godlike, good, saintly, virtuous devilry: (n) mischief, devilment, evil, atrocity, roguery, rascality, blaze, brutality, heartless, ruthless, ferocious devils: (n) unclean spirits devoted: (adj, v) addicted, ardent, fond; (adj) affectionate, constant, loyal, pious, faithful, reliable, zealous; (adj, prep) consecrated. ANTONYMS: (adj) disloyal, indifferent, unfaithful, neglectful, uncaring, unenthusiastic, unattached, lukewarm, inconstant, halfhearted, disobedient devotion: (n) allegiance, attachment, dedication, loyalty, worship, affection, enthusiasm, fondness, devotedness; (adj, n) veneration, passion. ANTONYMS: (n) disloyalty, negligence, apathy, disobedience, neglect, hatred, separation, dishonesty, infidelity devour: (v) eat, bolt, gulp, demolish, guzzle, swallow, gorge, ingurgitate, gobble, use up, absorb. ANTONYMS: (v) avoid, abstain, regurgitate, nibble, fast, sip diabolic: (adj) devilish, demonic, fiendish, hellish, infernal, wicked, unholy, diabolical, demoniacal; (adj, v) satanic, mephistophelian. ANTONYMS: (adj) saintly, kind,
angelic, heavenly dialect: (n) language, speech, vernacular, tongue, accent, lingo, conversation, say, talk, patois, phraseology diaphanous: (adj) sheer, filmy, gauzy, thin, translucent, lucid, clear, hyaline, gossamer, dainty, hyaloid. ANTONYMS: (adj) thick, opaque, heavy, robust dice: (v) cube, cut, chop, cut up, play dice, bet; (n) die, dice box, bone, dees dictated: (adj) set, hard-and-fast, compulsive; (n) contumely, blameworthy, abuse dictation: (n) command, bidding, bid, dictate, control, behest, charge, commission, order, direction, commandment difficulty: (n) trouble, bother, asperity, jam, barrier, difficultness, fix, hardship; (n, v) hindrance, obstacle; (adj, n) strait. ANTONYMS: (n) simplicity, advantage, help, assurance, easiness, accommodation, effortlessness, gentleness, reassurance, agreement, resolution digging: (n) excavation, excavating, digs, dug, excavate, take, locality, mining, barb, creating by removal, attack reception dignified: (adj) exalted, majestic, noble, grand, lofty, respectable, solemn, distinguished, lordly, high; (adj, v) great. ANTONYMS: (adj) undignified, foolish, dishonorable, boisterous, unceremonious, unseemly, vulgar, poor, lowly, modest, base dignitary: (n) notable, celebrity, big shot, dignity, officer, grandee, very important person, public figure, personage, person, panjandrum dignity: (n) degree, prestige, glory, decorum, face, distinction, honor, majesty, eminence, solemnity; (adj, n) decency. ANTONYMS: (n) lowliness, indecency, impropriety, simplicity, cheerfulness, austerity dilated: (adj) wide, inflated, ampulliform dimensions: (n) size, capacity, volume, magnitude, extent, measurement, shape, range, physique, gauge, figure dimly: (adv) obscurely, darkly, faintly, dully, duskily, vaguely, shadowily, hazily, gloomily, somberly; (adj, adv) palely. ANTONYMS: (adv) clearly,
117 strongly, distinctly dining: (n) feeding, eating; (v) eat dinner: (n) banquet, lunch, dinner party, meal, party, beanfeast, spread; (v) tiffin, dejeuner, bever; (adj) dinnerly dipped: (adj) immersed, unfit, swaybacked, lordotic, curved in, swayback directed: (adj) oriented, manageable, destined, concentrating, intent, formal, absorbed, prescript, focussed; (v) instruct; (adv) under dirt: (n, v) soil, grime; (n) filth, dust, scandal, garbage, ground, earth, crap, mire, contamination. ANTONYMS: (n) cleanness, purity, luxury, cleanliness, newness dirty: (adj, v) muddy, dirt; (v) corrupt, contaminate; (n, v) soil, defile; (adj) contemptible, bawdy, contaminated, dingy, impure. ANTONYMS: (adj) spotless, hygienic, pure, immaculate, sanitary, pleasant, sparkling, fair, wholesome, washed; (v) purify disappear: (v) vanish, melt, fade, depart, dematerialize, sink, die out, pass, go, end, extinguish. ANTONYMS: (v) appear, stay, arrive, show, materialize, grow, surge, wax, continue, increase disappeared: (adj) lost, missing, extinct, vanished, left. ANTONYM: (adj) remaining disappointment: (n) anticlimax, failure, letdown, comedown, frustration, shame, disillusionment, annoyance, dismay, setback, misfortune. ANTONYMS: (n) satisfaction, boost, happiness, pleasure, hopefulness, fulfillment, comfort, idealism, climax, bonus, gratification disapproved: (adj) old-fashioned, contraband, chid discern: (v) differentiate, see, comprehend, detect, distinguish, make out, perceive, find, note; (n, v) descry; (adj, v) recognize. ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, neglect, disregard, observe, overlook disciple: (n) adherent, follower, devotee, scholar, pupil, believer, proselyte, cohort, learner, partisan, votary. ANTONYMS: (n) leader, teacher, God, instructor disclaim: (v) deny, renounce, abjure, disavow, disown, abdicate, gainsay, waive, repudiate, disaffirm, abnegate. ANTONYMS: (v) acknowledge, admit, accept
118 disclose: (v) declare, betray, reveal, detect, divulge, discover, convey, announce, air; (n, v) impart; (adj, v) confess. ANTONYMS: (v) secrete, withhold, hide, cover, deny, fold, suppress disclosing: (n) confession, communication discolored: (adj) wan, blond, flecked, flawed, faded, dirty, rusty, dingy, dark, freckled, crusty. ANTONYMS: (adj) clean, plain, unblemished discomposed: (adj) disturbed, perturbed, doubtful, excited, distraught, uncomfortable, fearful disconsolately: (adv) unhappily, gloomily, sadly, dismally, dolefully, melancholy, forlornly, dispiritedly, downcastly, glumly, downheartedly. ANTONYM: (adv) contentedly discovered: (adj) revealed, disclosed, exposed, naked, detected, determined, observed, open, unconcealed, bare. ANTONYM: (adj) concealed discovery: (n) detection, disclosure, breakthrough, finding, revelation, catching, revealing, invention, find, development, exploration discretion: (n) circumspection, prudence, delicacy, diplomacy, calculation, free will, discernment, discreetness, tact, confidentiality, choice. ANTONYMS: (n) tactlessness, rashness, indiscretion, foolishness, vulgarity, openness, clumsiness disdainful: (adj) supercilious, haughty, scornful, arrogant, proud, cavalier, derogatory, lordly, condescending, derisive, sneering. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectful, admiring, humble, approving, warm, reverential, praising, deferential disfavor: (n) disapproval, displeasure, disaffection, aversion, disrepute, disesteem; (n, v) disgrace, disfavour, discredit; (v) discountenance, hate. ANTONYMS: (n) favor, liking, regard, respect, service, kindness; (v) advantage disguising: (n) cover-up disgust: (n) antipathy, aversion, abhorrence, abomination, detestation, dislike, repugnance; (n, v) shock, distaste; (v) nauseate, displease. ANTONYMS: (n, v) delight; (n) love, attraction, liking, adoration; (v) attract, allure, charm, entice, please
Heart of Darkness disgusted: (adj) fed up, ill, weary, sickened, nauseated, queasy, indisposed, demented, shocked, crazy, horrified. ANTONYMS: (adj) attracted, happy, pleased dishonor: (n, v) shame, discredit, degrade, affront, abuse, taint; (v) defile, violate; (n) disrepute, infamy, degradation. ANTONYMS: (n, v) respect; (n) laurels, reverence, esteem, admiration, worthiness; (v) revere, dignify, credit, reward, award dishonoring: (adj) opprobrious, derogatory; (n) dehonestation dismantled: (adj) razed, destroyed disorderly: (adj) wild, disordered, chaotic, boisterous, jumbled, disorganized, unruly, rowdy, untidy, irregular; (adj, v) lawless. ANTONYMS: (adj) orderly, neat, arranged, peaceful, organized, systematized, conforming, ordered, restrained, behaved, coherent disparagingly: (adv) contemptuously, scornfully, slightingly, pejoratively, unsympathetically, disapprovingly, judgmentally, reproachfully, disdainfully, derogatively, abusively display: (n, v) exhibit, parade, array, scene; (v) disclose, produce, expose, flaunt; (n) presentation, appearance, screen. ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, hide, cover, mask, disguise, camouflage, fold, absorb; (n) hiding, understatement, modesty displayed: (adj) extendant, expanded, splay dispose: (n, v) incline, order, influence; (v) adjust, predispose, position, place, lead, tend; (n) bias, array. ANTONYMS: (v) disturb, disqualify, displace, disorder, disincline, disarrange disposition: (n) attitude, character, disposal, tendency, predisposition, inclination, propensity, bias, arrangement, direction, aptitude dissipated: (adj, v) fast; (adj) dissolute, immoral, abandoned, profligate, prodigal, gay, rakish, degenerate, squandered, licentious. ANTONYMS: (adj) upright, moral dissolve: (v) break up, disperse, dissipate, evaporate, fuse, melt, disband, fade, vanish, resolve, dispel. ANTONYMS: (v) solidify, appear, harden, thicken, coagulate, congeal, continue, integrate, materialize, open, start dissolving: (n) dissolution, breakup,
dissipation, disintegration, destruction, cancellation, adjournment; (adj) solvent, diffluent, deliquescent distance: (n, v) remove; (n) space, way, gap, aloofness, interval, altitude, measure, mileage; (adj, n) length; (v) dissociate. ANTONYMS: (v) associate, attach, involve; (n) proximity, nearness, intimacy, closeness, warmth, bias, lovingness distant: (adj) remote, aloof, chill, detached, far, reserved, cool, long, icy, removed; (adv) afar. ANTONYMS: (adj) close, neighboring, adjacent, friendly, near, nearby, warm, pending, intimate, involved, alert distaste: (n, v) disgust, aversion, disinclination; (n) antipathy, dissatisfaction, repulsion, hatred, disrelish, revulsion, displeasure, disfavor. ANTONYMS: (n) attraction, liking, taste, desire, love distinct: (adj) different, discrete, articulate, distinctive, palpable, definite, apparent, dissimilar, tangible; (adj, prep) separate; (adj, v) marked. ANTONYMS: (adj) indistinct, similar, unclear, vague, shapeless, inaudible, connected, general, resembling, associated, amorphous distinction: (n) discrimination, contrast, difference, rank, dissimilarity, demarcation, prestige, celebrity, reputation, consequence, variation. ANTONYMS: (n) mediocrity, resemblance, likeness, indistinction, insult, disgrace, commonness, obscurity distinctly: (adv) clearly, particularly, evidently, expressly, obviously, markedly, definitely, precisely, manifestly, separately, decidedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) inaudibly, faintly, vaguely, silently, imperceptibly, poorly distinguish: (v) discriminate, perceive, know, describe, make out, discover, descry, behold, identify, recognize, separate. ANTONYMS: (v) mistake, confound, ignore, Miss, unite, demean distract: (adj, v) confuse, bewilder; (v) disorder, ail, disturb, deflect, craze, disquiet, molest, annoy, agitate. ANTONYMS: (v) center, explain, concentrate, clarify disturbed: (adj, v) concerned; (adj) anxious, disquieted, upset, confused, worried, restless,
Joseph Conrad disordered, unsettled, distressed, turbulent. ANTONYMS: (adj) rational, relaxed, calm, sane, unaffected, unbroken, peaceful, stable, carefree, unconcerned, untroubled diver: (n) frogman, divers, swimmer, explorer, scuba diver, urinator, underwater diver, loon, ducker, birdbrain, adventurer divine: (adj) sacred, wonderful, blessed, holy, exquisite; (n) clergyman; (v) guess, conjecture, augur, anticipate; (adj, n) almighty. ANTONYMS: (adj) imperfect, profane, earthly, dreadful, physical, ugly, secular document: (n) charter, deed, credential, credentials, text, papers, writing; (v) list, report, file, prove documents: (n) papers, file, archive, documentation, dossier, id, travel document, credentials, proof, proceedings, permit dominant: (adj) overriding, leading, influential, powerful, principal, paramount, primary, major, main; (adj, v) rampant, prevalent. ANTONYMS: (adj) submissive, subordinate, secondary, recessive, unassuming, lower, sorrowful, inferior, meek, weak, unimportant donkey: (n) ass, idiot, fool, moke, dicky, simpleton, jackass, dizzard, domestic ass, donkeys, hinny don't: (adv) not; (n) taboo, prohibition doorstep: (n) threshold, sill, brink, door, curbside doorway: (n) door, entrance, entry, passage, entryway, way in, access, driveway, gate, gateway, lobby dose: (n) potion, share, draught, dosage, medicine, batch, doctor, allotment, measure, shot, portion double: (adj, n) twin; (adj) dual, duple, twofold; (v) fold, bend, geminate; (adj, v) reduplicate; (n) substitute, mate, image. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) single; (v) decrease, divide, halve; (adj) multivalent, univalent, lone doubt: (n, v) suspicion, question, query, dispute; (n) disbelief, misgiving, incertitude, apprehension, uncertainty; (adj, n) skepticism; (v) suspect. ANTONYMS: (n) certainty, confidence, conclusiveness, belief, certitude, faith, approval; (v) accept, believe, consider, swallow dough: (n) cash, money, batter, kale,
lucre, pastry, pelf, shekels, gelt; (adj) clay, butter downcast: (adj) depressed, dejected, dispirited, blue, desolate, disconsolate, gloomy, low, sad, downhearted, discouraged. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, vivacious, cheery, elated, joyous, up, positive downward: (adv) underneath, under, below, downwards, downwardly, beneath, down below; (adj) downcast, sloping, depressed, downright. ANTONYMS: (adv) up; (adj) rising doze: (n, v) snooze, sleep, slumber, drowse, siesta, forty winks, rest; (v) catnap, nod, coma, nod off. ANTONYM: (v) wake dragged: (adj) depressed, dejected, upset, unhappy, spent, dispirited, somber, melancholy, gloomy, joyless, low drake: (n) cock, stallion, stag, horse, hart, entire horse, gander, Francis drake, sir Francis drake, boar; (adj) mallard draped: (adj) mantled, covered, cloaked, clothed, curtained, disguised, absorbed, clad draw: (n, v) drag, pull, delineate, tie, design, puff; (v) depict, describe, derive, bring; (n) attraction. ANTONYMS: (v) repel, deposit, shove, shorten, thrust, cut, curtail, contract, alienate; (n) repulsion, win dream: (n) aspiration, ambition, reverie, desire, fantasy, figment, nightmare; (n, v) vision, sleep; (v) muse, imagine. ANTONYMS: (n) alertness, nightmare dreary: (adj) depressing, drab, dull, cheerless, drear, miserable, gloomy, dark, dismal, stuffy, disconsolate. ANTONYMS: (adj) interesting, cheerful, sunny, brilliant, lively, light, exciting, clear, cheery, pleasant, exotic dress: (n, v) attire, costume, clothe, apparel, clothing, array, trim, garb, rig, cover; (n) dressing. ANTONYMS: (n, v) undress; (v) uncover, disrobe, rumple, strip, wrinkle drew: (n) move, John Drew dried: (adj) arid, desiccated, dehydrated, shriveled, shrunken, drained, torrid, parched, withered; (n) drier, dryer drift: (adj, n) stream; (n) current, course, tendency, tone, intent; (adj, n, v) flow; (n, v) aim, blow; (v)
119 ramble, float. ANTONYMS: (v) guide, struggle, set, sink, aim, repel drifting: (adj, adv) aimless, wandering; (adv) adrift; (adj) floating, nomadic, vagabond, rootless, roaming, wayfaring, migratory; (n) running with the regulator closed. ANTONYM: (adj) resident drink: (n, v) beverage, draught, swallow; (n) alcohol, brew, potion, intoxicant; (v) booze, carouse, bib, swig. ANTONYMS: (v) regurgitate, sip, abstain drip: (n, v) drop, trickle, leak, escape; (n) leakage; (v) distill, weep, seep, trill, fall, percolate. ANTONYMS: (v) flow, pour, surge, flood driven: (v) drive, impel, operate, propel; (adj) impelled, compulsive, motivated, involuntary, dynamic, successful; (n) drove droll: (adj) comical, humorous, funny, laughable, burlesque, ludicrous, ridiculous; (adj, n) comic, witty; (n) buffoon, clown. ANTONYMS: (adj) dramatic, dull, grave, tragic, solemn drollery: (n) buffoonery, whim, waggery, joke, sport, wit, clowning, jocularity, tomfoolery, frolic, humor drone: (n, v) hum, murmur; (v) whine, idler, purr; (n) dawdler, droning, laggard, sluggard, roll; (adv, n) bourdon droning: (adj) buzzing, humming, abuzz, booming, monotonous, noisy; (n) bourdon, dawdler, drone pipe, idleness, monotone. ANTONYM: (adj) varied droop: (adj, v) decline; (v) dangle, wilt, hang, flag, sink, slump, loll, collapse; (n, v) sag, pine. ANTONYMS: (v) rise, bloom drop: (n, v) decline, dribble, deposit, decrease, jump, ebb; (adj, n, v) collapse; (v) droop, sink, cast, drip. ANTONYMS: (n, v) increase; (v) lift, pour, sharpen, raise, recuperate; (n) growth, mass, lot, upswing, elevation dropped: (adj) dropping, fallen, decreased, drop, fall, degraded, dead, born, abandoned dropping: (adj) dropped, down, fatigued, plunging, plummeting, dipping; (n) sagging, reducing, sinking, dropping of the launcher stages, dispatching drove: (adj, n) flock, swarm, shoal; (n) horde, crowd, covey, mob, throng, multitude; (adj) bevy, driven
120 drowned: (adj) prostrate, sunken; (v) drenched, drent drowsiness: (n) sleepiness, lethargy, dullness, doziness, laziness, somnolency, inertia, drowse, lassitude, languor, sluggishness. ANTONYM: (n) alertness drubbing: (n) debacle, defeat, walloping, slaughter, thrashing, flogging, whipping, discomfiture, rout, hiding, licking drum: (adj, n) barrel; (n) cask, tympan, cylinder, timbrel, tambour, tambourine; (v) beat, roll, bone up, ram drums: (n) drumming drunk: (adj) tipsy, wet, tight, blotto, drunken, inebriated; (adj, n) inebriate; (n) boozer, dipsomaniac, drunkard, drinker. ANTONYMS: (adj) straight, clearheaded; (n) teetotaler drying: (n) curing, desiccation, seasoning, dryness, ventilation, drying up, aeration, airing; (adj) desiccative, siccative, parching dubious: (adj) uncertain, questionable, debatable, ambiguous, vague, unlikely, unsure, unreliable, incredulous, skeptical, undecided. ANTONYMS: (adj) trustworthy, certain, definite, unambiguous, sure, clear, positive, settled, unequivocal, significant, decided duffer: (n) dunce, lubber, blockhead, stick, bungler, fathead, marplot, fence, fumbler, receiver of stolen goods, dudder dull: (adj) dreary, dense, sluggish, dismal, slack, torpid; (adj, v) blunt, stupid; (v) deaden, dampen; (adj, n) cold. ANTONYMS: (adj) lively, sharp, stimulating, exciting, lustrous, interesting, exhilarating, varied, glossy, glittery, luminous dumb: (adj) mute, speechless, dense, dim, silent, dull, slow, stupid, inarticulate, foolish, obtuse. ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, communicative, intelligent, loquacious, sharp, smart, speaking, brilliant, talkative dumbfounded: (adj) astounded, amazed, staggered, stupefied, speechless, stunned, bewildered, dazed, taken aback, flabbergasted, surprised. ANTONYMS: (adj) aware, unsurprised dumbness: (n) denseness, mutism, density, stupidity, speechlessness, muteness, ignorance, compactness, concentration
Heart of Darkness dummy: (adj) sham, spurious, artificial, fictitious; (adj, n) model; (n) puppet, booby, dope, boob, dumbbell, blank. ANTONYMS: (n) scholar, intellectual, genius, original dusk: (n) nightfall, twilight, darkness, gloaming, sunset, gloom, night, shade, shadow, sundown; (adj) dusky. ANTONYMS: (n) dawn, light, daybreak, morning, afternoon dusty: (adj) dirty, sandy, mealy, dry, unclean, pulverulent, branny, uninteresting, vague, psammous; (adj, v) sooty. ANTONYMS: (adj) dusted, clean dutch: (n) Hollander, Dutchman, the Netherlands, Dutchmen; (adj) Hollandish dutchman: (n) Netherlander, mynheer, make up piece; (adj) dago, tenderfoot, slant, wop, greaser, Polak, mick, easterner dwelling: (n) domicile, home, residence, house, place, accommodation, address, building, lodge, habitation; (adj, n) dwell dying: (n) death, demise, decease, mortality; (adj) vanishing, moribund, last, final, ultimate, failing, ebbing. ANTONYMS: (adj) thriving, well, opening, aborning, developing, flourishing, growing, reviving, rejuvenating; (n) birth eager: (adj) avid, ardent, agog, acute, zealous, enthusiastic, keen, ambitious, industrious, studious; (adj, n) earnest. ANTONYMS: (adj) indifferent, unconcerned, apathetic, disinterested, unwilling, unenthusiastic, lukewarm, patient, reluctant, listless, bored eagerly: (adv) zealously, readily, keenly, fervently, avidly, greedily, enthusiastically, intently, earnestly, impatiently, actively. ANTONYMS: (adv) apathetically, nonchalantly, grudgingly, patiently, halfheartedly, reluctantly, unenthusiastically eagerness: (n, v) desire, aspiration; (n) enthusiasm, avidity, cupidity, readiness, passion, keenness, ambition, fervor, avidness. ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, unwillingness, aloofness, disinterest, lethargy, listlessness, patience, gloom, reluctance earliest: (adj) earlier, early, initial, primordial, matutinal, original, primitive, aboriginal, chief, foremost, opening. ANTONYMS: (adj) latest, subsequent, contemporary
earn: (v) acquire, deserve, get, attain, win, bring in, bring, achieve, bear, merit, yield. ANTONYMS: (v) spend, cost, scatter earnestly: (adj, adv) seriously; (adv) eagerly, intently, zealously, solemnly, ardently, fervently, heartily, gravely, warmly, passionately. ANTONYMS: (adv) indifferently, insincerely, unconcernedly, jokingly earrings: (n) charms, bracelets, rings, ornaments, necklaces, jewels, jewelry, costume jewelry, trinkets ears: (n) antenna earthly: (adj, n) terrestrial; (adj) carnal, worldly, conceivable, human, geotic, secular, terrene, temporal, telluric, sublunary. ANTONYMS: (adj) spiritual, divine, ethereal, immortal, impossible, improbable, inconceivable, celestial earthy: (adj) coarse, mundane, earthly, realistic, vulgar, worldly, gross, terrestrial, natural, terrene, rude. ANTONYMS: (adj) sophisticated, cultured, clean ease: (v) alleviate, assuage, relieve, allay; (n) convenience, rest, leisure, relief, satisfaction; (adj, v) facilitate; (n, v) relax. ANTONYMS: (n) discomfort, formality, awkwardness, worry, toil, problem, pain, maladroitness; (v) aggravate, worsen, impede easing: (n) easement, decrease, palliation, reduction, relief, detente, disembarrassment, mitigation, modification, lessening, ease eastern: (adj) easterly, orient, orientals, oriental, eastward, eastern countries, ortive, bright, Levant. ANTONYM: (adj) western eatable: (adj, n) comestible; (n) pabulum, victual, food, victuals, aliment, viands, sustenance; (adj) palatable, esculent, good. ANTONYMS: (adj) uneatable, unpalatable, disgusting, indigestible, unappetizing, yucky eaten: (v) eat eating: (n) ingestion, intake, feeding, browsing, banqueting, food, lunching, supping, pica, repletion; (v) eat ebbing: (n) wane, ebb, diminution, disappearance; (adj) dying, refluent echo: (n, v) answer, repeat, resound, rebound, reply; (v) reproduce, reverberate, imitate; (n) repercussion, reaction, replication ecstatically: (adv) happily, blissfully,
Joseph Conrad ravishingly, raptly, elatedly, enrapturedly, joyfully, joyously, overjoyedly, gladly, cheerily eddy: (n, v) purl, twirl, spin, gurge; (v) whirlpool, swirl, turn; (n) vortex, maelstrom, twist, whir edged: (adj) cutting, sharp, bordered, pointed, bounded, keen, penetrating, sharper, stinging, unkind, bleak edging: (n) border, edge, brim, brink, lace, trimming, boundary, galloon, hem, list, frame edifying: (adj) enlightening, didactic, instructive, educational, advantageous, rewarding, benignant, improving, profitable, illuminating, helpful. ANTONYM: (adj) unedifying educated: (adj, v) erudite, lettered; (adj) learned, enlightened, trained, refined, informed, taught, cultivated, intellectual; (v) instructed. ANTONYMS: (adj) uneducated, ignorant, naive, illiterate, uncouth, uninformed, unlearned, wild eerie: (adj) strange, fearsome, uncanny, frightful, ghostly, ghastly, unearthly, weird, spooky, dire, frightening. ANTONYMS: (adj) normal, silly, ordinary, natural, funny, human effaced: (adj) obliterated effectually: (adv) efficaciously, effectively, validly, adequately, potently, tellingly, strongly, decisively; (adj) nicely, fully, head and shoulders. ANTONYM: (adv) ineffectually efficiency: (n) capability, ability, effect, capacity, competence, competency, economy, adequacy, aptitude; (adj, n) efficacy; (n, v) agency. ANTONYMS: (n) incompetence, largeness, ineffectiveness, inadequacy, messiness, tardiness, awkwardness ejected: (adj) evicted, dispossessed elbow: (n, v) poke, nudge, jolt; (n) cubitus, elbow joint, angle, articulation; (v) jostle, push, shove, crowd elder: (adj) older, big, adult; (n) dean, doyen, patriarch, ancient, boss, elderberry, superior, presbyter. ANTONYMS: (n) youngster, minor, child, inferior; (adj) youngest, younger, little eldorado: (n) gold mine, El Dorado, mother lode elegance: (adj, n) daintiness; (n)
refinement, beauty, chic, grace, style, flair, courtliness, courtesy, polish, panache. ANTONYMS: (n) awkwardness, ugliness, inelegance, bareness, roughness, scruffiness, untidiness, rudeness, vulgarity, tackiness, tastelessness elephant: (adj) behemoth, cachalot, hippopotamus; (n) camel, dromedary, elephant bean, giant, proboscidian, emblem, proboscidean; (adj, n) whale elevated: (adj) exalted, towering, noble, lofty, grand, great, majestic, tall, elated, magnanimous; (adj, v) steep. ANTONYMS: (adj) base, lowly, decreased, humble, inferior, lessened, low, sunken, undignified, lowered elevation: (n) height, highness, exaltation, ascent, climb, hill, aggrandizement, raise, El, Alt, stature. ANTONYMS: (n) degradation, descent, levelness, depression, downgrading, demotion, drop, depth elicited: (adj) evoked, elicit eloquence: (n) style, fluency, oratory, rhetoric, articulateness, expression, volubility, persuasiveness, articulacy, facundity, way with words. ANTONYM: (n) inarticulateness eloquent: (adj) glib, fluent, persuasive, expressive, meaningful, significant, graphic, vivid, speaking, forcible, moving. ANTONYMS: (adj) incoherent, innocent, straightforward, weak embalm: (n) perfume, scent; (v) mummify, kyanize, pickle, tin, salt, season, pot, mummy, wrap embers: (v) cinder, ash, scoriae; (n) fire, ashes embrace: (v) comprise, adopt, comprehend, contain, admit, espouse, include; (n, v) clasp, hug, grip, bosom. ANTONYMS: (v) reject, exclude, spurn, shun, renounce, release, loose, disbelieve embraced: (adj) popular embracing: (n) embrace, hugging, kissing, taking on, implementation, espousal, clutches; (adj) twining, osculant, grasping, close emissary: (n) ambassador, courier, agent, spy, messenger, delegate, representative, legate, diplomat, detective, deputy emotion: (n) love, feeling, passion, heart, commotion, mood, pathos, excitement, sensibility; (n, v)
121 sensation; (v) impression. ANTONYMS: (n) detachment, coldness, unfeelingness, calmness emotions: (n) reputation, emotion, feeling, temperament, personality, character, disposition, breast, bosom emphasis: (n) stress, accentuation, importance, prominence, import, vehemence, weight, intensity, significance, force, power empire: (adj, n) rule, authority, control; (n) kingdom, domain, realm, reign, nation, sway, command, territory employed: (adj) engaged, working, occupied, hired, used, made use of, rapt, affianced, earnest, betrothed. ANTONYMS: (adj) unemployed, unoccupied, idle employers: (n) management emptied: (adj) empty, void, depleted, emptier, annulled, open, vacuous emptiness: (n) blankness, blank, void, vanity, vacuity, worthlessness, futility, space, inanity, inanition, hollowness. ANTONYMS: (n) richness, fullness, value, importance, clutter empty: (adj, v) clear, discharge, destitute, void; (adj) hollow, bare, blank, barren, abandoned; (v) deplete, pour. ANTONYMS: (adj) crowded, meaningful, packed, occupied, inhabited, swarming, brimming, laden, filled, cultivated; (v) fill enchanted: (adj) bewitched, delighted, charmed, fascinated, rapt, spellbound, blissful, happy, enamored, possessed; (v) entranced. ANTONYMS: (adj) disenchanted, unhappy enchantment: (n) attraction, captivation, charm, conjuration, sorcery, spell, bewitchment, incantation, delight, bewitchery; (adj, n) rapture. ANTONYMS: (n) displeasure, discomfort encounter: (n) collision, conflict, battle, action, confrontation, brush; (n, v) combat, contest, rencounter; (v) confront, face. ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, surrender, evade, avoid, yield; (n) shunning, avoidance, withdrawal encouragingly: (adv) promisingly, inspiritingly, encourage, hopefully, propitiously, positively, sympathetically, cheeringly, hortatorily, brightly, kindly. ANTONYMS: (adv) negatively, inauspiciously
122 endanger: (v) imperil, hazard, venture, menace, scupper, queer, peril, jeopardise; (n, v) risk, danger, expose to danger. ANTONYMS: (v) protect, shelter, aid, assist, guard, preserve, help, save, safeguard endeavors: (n) activities, deeds, events, Comings and Goings, undertakings, accomplishments, happenings ended: (adj) concluded, finished, over, done, completed, closed, through, terminated, consummate, all over; (adj, v) past ending: (n) conclusion, end, closure, close, completion, finish, termination, dissolution, death; (adj, n) closing, last. ANTONYMS: (n) beginning, middle, commencement, inauguration, kickoff, prelude, establishment; (adj) first endless: (adj) constant, perpetual, interminable, continuous, ceaseless, eternal, uninterrupted, everlasting, incessant, vast, unrelenting. ANTONYMS: (adj) temporary, restricted, limited, intermittent, ending, finishing, sporadic, mortal, inconstant, few, slight ends: (n) tops, crook, band, bend, bind, limits, clippings, curve, trimmings, boundaries engaged: (adj) occupied, betrothed, employed, affianced, engrossed, reserved, absorbed, working, pledged, involved, committed. ANTONYMS: (adj) free, unengaged, unemployed, uncommitted, unattached, single, detached, idle engagement: (n, v) combat, battle, action, fight, contest; (n) conflict, commitment, appointment, contract, duty, date. ANTONYM: (n) disengagement engine: (n) locomotive, contrivance, utensil, organ, mechanism, tool, instrument, implement, device, tank engine, gin engineer: (v) conduct, organize, direct, contrive, plan, construct, finagle; (n) architect, engine driver, technologist; (n, v) mastermind englishman: (n) Sassenach, British, Briton, Britisher, Englander, English, Saxon, limey, burgher, Jacobean, burgess enigma: (adj, n) mystery, riddle; (n) puzzle, secret, perplexity, poser, question, problem, closed book, nut to crack, logogriph. ANTONYMS: (n) clearness, explanation enjoy: (v) hold, have, relish, bask,
Heart of Darkness appreciate, own, rejoice, revel, love, experience; (adj, v) like. ANTONYMS: (v) need, suffer, loathe, lack, hate, detest, despise, want enjoyment: (n) delight, appreciation, gratification, comfort, relish, satisfaction, happiness, delectation, gusto, amusement, diversion. ANTONYMS: (n) dislike, abhorrence, antipathy, apathy, aversion, discomfort, displeasure, dissatisfaction, misery, repulsion, sorrow enlarge: (v) expand, aggrandize, augment, dilate, distend, widen, increase, elaborate, extend, blow up, grow. ANTONYMS: (v) reduce, shrink, contract, decrease, compress, condense, diminish, lessen, minimize, narrow, abridge enlarged: (adj) inflated, magnified, extended, expanded, puffy, increased, augmented, amplified, distended, wide, swollen. ANTONYM: (adj) atrophied enlighten: (v) advise, edify, educate, inform, clarify, apprise, instruct, illuminate, clear, notify; (adj, v) lighten. ANTONYMS: (v) puzzle, obfuscate, mystify, confound, cloud, brutalize, bewilder, muddle enormous: (adj) huge, big, colossal, vast, prodigious, excessive, exorbitant, great, large, tremendous, stupendous. ANTONYMS: (adj) small, minute, insignificant, miniature, measly, diminutive, affordable, little, slim, ordinary, minor ensign: (n) banner, badge, insignia, emblem, national flag, colours, sign, standard, colors, enzie, sublieutenant entangled: (adj) complicated, intricate, embroiled, complex, foul, confused, matted, tangled, inextricable, knotty; (v) entangle enter: (v) enroll, embark, chronicle, book, record, input, arrive, come, pierce, register, penetrate. ANTONYMS: (v) depart, exit, delete, stop, refrain, erase, egress, abstain, cancel, exclude, disembark enterprise: (n) business, company, concern, endeavor, activity, adventure, energy, effort, courage, venture, endeavour. ANTONYMS: (n) lethargy, apathy, laziness, passiveness, sloth, idleness enthralling: (adj) captivating, attractive, engrossing, bewitching,
fascinating, absorbing, charming, enchant, gripping, riveting, entrancing. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, boring, tedious, unappealing, repellent enthusiasm: (adj, n) devotion; (n, v) ardor, zeal; (adj, n, v) passion; (n) ardour, animation, craze, ebullience, gusto, inspiration, interest. ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, lethargy, passivity, unwillingness, boredom, unconcern, detachment, gloom, gloominess, patience, reluctance enthusiast: (n) addict, fanatic, fiend, fan, admirer, freak, aficionado, advocate, fancier, buff; (adj, n) zealot. ANTONYMS: (n) skeptic, depreciator, disparager, opponent enthusiastic: (adj, n) hearty, cordial, passionate, buoyant; (adj) eager, active, anxious, excited, avid, fiery, devoted. ANTONYMS: (adj) apathetic, indifferent, lukewarm, lethargic, halfhearted, disinterested, unexcited, passive, disheartened, reluctant, weak entrails: (n) bowels, gut, bowel, viscera, innards, internal organs, insides, intestines, guts, tripe, inside enveloped: (adj) convoluted, enclosed, cover, bounded, Byzantine, clothed, involved, misty, swallowed, vestured, emotionally involved enveloping: (n) envelopment, enclosure, boxing, enclosing, encasement; (prep) about; (adj) comprehensive, roundabout, circuitous. ANTONYM: (adj) contained envy: (v) begrudge, want; (n) enviousness, desire, heartburning, resentment, envies, heartburn, jealousy, hatred; (adj) jealous. ANTONYM: (n) generosity episode: (n) affair, incident, chapter, event, occurrence, occasion, installment, happening, circumstance, subdivision, anecdote epoch: (n) era, date, period, day, season, time, term, cycle, crisis, date of reference, times equator: (n) circle, colures, midriff, orbit, round, diaphragm, celestial equator, ecliptic equipped: (adj) equiped, armed, equipt, furnished, fitted, carrying weapons, ready, weaponed, complete, set, standing by. ANTONYMS: (adj) unequipped, unfurnished, unprepared
Joseph Conrad equitable: (adj) fair, impartial, just, even-handed, right, correct, objective, balanced, unprejudiced, unbiassed, unbiased. ANTONYMS: (adj) inequitable, unfair, biased, partial, unequitable, prejudiced, unjust, unreasonable erebus: (n) Rhadamanthus erect: (adj) upright, vertical, straightforward; (v) build, raise, rear, construct, assemble, lift, put up, put together. ANTONYMS: (v) dismantle, wreck, topple, level, demolish, destroy; (adj) prostrate, drooping, prone, flaccid, flat escape: (v) elude, avoid, evade, circumvent, bolt; (n, v) break, dodge, leak, run; (n) avoidance, evasion. ANTONYMS: (n, v) return; (v) remain, catch, stay, face, block, attend; (n) incarceration, imprisonment, endurance, abidance escort: (n, v) chaperon, attend, convoy, guard, guide, conduct, date; (v) accompany, see; (n) suite, attendant. ANTONYMS: (v) abandon, desert, leave, follow essence: (n) core, perfume, being, gist, aroma, crux, hypostasis, extract, spirit, substance; (v) stuff. ANTONYMS: (n) body, surface essentially: (adv) fundamentally, substantially, primarily, principally, necessarily, inherently, mainly, importantly, chiefly; (adj, adv) naturally, intrinsically. ANTONYMS: (adv) superficially, insignificantly, slightly essentials: (n) basics, rudiments, details, facts, information, introduction, necessaries, particulars, the whole story, brass tacks, specifics estimated: (adj) approximate, rough, anticipated, expected, rated, sketchy, reputed, theoretical, rough and ready, projected, ballpark estuary: (n) creek, mouth, inlet, bight, cove, armlet, gulf, bayou, frith, firth, arm eternal: (adj) constant, perpetual, ceaseless, everlasting, lasting, continual, aeonian, immortal, boundless, deathless, enduring. ANTONYMS: (adj) mortal, finite, brief, ephemeral, fleeting, terminable, ending, fragile, inconstant eternity: (n) aeon, afterlife, forever, perpetuity, timelessness, endlessness, everlasting, endless time, everlastingness, everness,
existence. ANTONYMS: (n) finiteness, impermanence evanescence: (n) ephemerality, evaporation, occultation, volatility, fugacity, caducity, transience, transiency, fugitiveness, ephemeralness evanescent: (adj) passing, temporary, fleeting, transitory, fugitive, momentary, transient, cursory, temporal, intangible, short-lived everlasting: (adj) eternal, ceaseless, endless, constant, continual, perpetual, immortal, deathless, ageless, aeonian; (adj, n) lasting. ANTONYMS: (adj) finite, ephemeral, fleeting, mortal, ending, terminating, inconstant, fragile, perishable everlastingly: (adv) perpetually, always, lastingly, continually, endlessly, unendingly, incessantly, permanently, constantly, undyingly; (adj, adv) forever everybody: (adv) each, any; (n, pron) anyone, anybody; (n) every person, world, everything, horde, throng; (pron) any person, someone. ANTONYMS: (n, pron) nobody everyday: (adj, v) ordinary, usual; (adj) familiar, customary, routine, accustomed, average, regular, casual, prosaic, commonplace. ANTONYMS: (adj) extraordinary, exquisite, special, rare, exciting, different, exceptional, occasional, uncommon, formal, imaginative everywhere: (adv) everyplace, all over, far and wide, overall, somewhere, far and near, about, where; (adv, pron) anywhere; (adv, n) anyplace; (adj) throughout. ANTONYM: (adv) nowhere evident: (adj) obvious, distinct, discernible, clear, manifest, conspicuous, patent, plain, noticeable, open, certain. ANTONYMS: (adj) unnoticed, obscure, concealed, hidden, inconspicuous, uncertain, unknown, imperceptible, disputable, ambiguous, undetectable evidently: (adv) clearly, patently, plainly, obviously, manifestly, openly, certainly, overtly, markedly, conspicuously, palpably. ANTONYMS: (adv) doubtfully, imperceptibly, obscurely, questionably, actually, ambiguously, inconspicuously evil: (adj) bad, criminal, corrupt, wicked, destructive, depraved; (adj,
123 n) ill, detriment; (n) adversity, disaster, depravity. ANTONYMS: (n) goodness, righteousness, morality; (adj) kindhearted, righteous, benign, moral, pure, upright, virtuous, sinless evoke: (v) educe, conjure up, elicit, enkindle, arouse, excite, call forth, entail, provoke, raise, prompt. ANTONYMS: (v) stem, silence, repress, quell, hold, halt, suppress, forget evolutions: (n) evolution exact: (adj, n) correct; (v) demand, claim, command, ask; (n, v) require; (adj, v) close, direct; (adj) precise, detailed, faithful. ANTONYMS: (adj) wrong, vague, imprecise, approximate, inexact, rough, careless, thoughtless, indeterminate; (v) tender, give exaltation: (n) elation, ecstasy, apotheosis, worship, praise, rapture, deification, grandeur, adoration; (n, v) sublimation; (v) laud. ANTONYMS: (n) abasement, belittlement, debasement, degradation, humiliation, sorrow, derogation, disparagement exalted: (adj) elevated, eminent, noble, high, August, elated, dignified, great, sublime, grand, big. ANTONYMS: (adj) belittled, condemned, criticized, debased, humble, humiliated, low, lowly, minor, ridiculed, base examining: (v) examine, investigate; (adj) investigative, curious, disquisitive, exploratory, inquiring exasperated: (adj) incensed, annoyed, enraged, angered, indignant, mad, irate, irritated, cheesed off, testy; (adj, prep) provoked. ANTONYM: (adj) pleased exasperating: (adj) annoying, bothersome, maddening, infuriating, trying, irritating, tedious, vexatious, vexing, galling, exacerbating. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, pleasant, satisfying excellent: (adj, n) estimable, worthy, capital; (adj) superior, admirable, beautiful, distinctive, superb, great, good, splendid. ANTONYMS: (adj) poor, abysmal, awful, mediocre, terrible, imperfect, inadequate, middling, shoddy, bad, used excellently: (adv) splendidly, beautifully, exquisitely, magnificently, finely, marvelously, goodly, worthily, grandly, primely, superbly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
124 poorly, badly, terribly except: (adj, conj, prep) save; (v) exclude, demur, omit, elide; (adv, conj, prep) but; (adv, prep) besides; (prep) excepting, excluding, aside from; (conj, n) without. ANTONYMS: (prep) including; (v) receive, admit exceptional: (adj) abnormal, excellent, particular, prodigious, extraordinary, uncommon, singular, unusual, outstanding, unique, superior. ANTONYMS: (adj) common, ordinary, average, normal, usual, poor, abysmal, inferior, unexceptional, regular, everyday excessive: (adj) exaggerated, intense, superfluous, undue, exorbitant, unreasonable, immoderate, enormous, profuse, extravagant, extreme. ANTONYMS: (adj) moderate, affordable, deficient, underdone, insignificant, insufficient, thrifty, skimpy, meager, basic, small excessively: (adj, adv) immoderately, exorbitantly, inordinately; (adv) extremely, enormously, exceedingly, very, profusely, overly, exaggeratedly, intemperately. ANTONYMS: (adv) justifiably, moderately, insufficiently exchanged: (adj) counterchanged, bartered, substituted excitable: (adj) nervous, irritable, combustible, hasty, edgy, fiery, sensitive, volatile, passionate, warm, quick. ANTONYMS: (adj) unexcitable, calm, unflappable, easygoing, easy, tranquil, reliable, mild excited: (adj, v) animated, ardent; (adj) ablaze, enthusiastic, emotional, frantic, warm, heated, delirious, fervent, passionate. ANTONYMS: (adj) cool, unexcited, bored, tranquil, easygoing, disappointed, despairing, comatose, apathetic, sedate, composed exclaiming: (n) deuce, Dickens, ejaculation, exclaim, devil, interjection, ecphonesis excuse: (n, v) pardon, palliate; (v) absolve, exculpate, condone, acquit, justify, forgive; (n) alibi, pretext, evasion. ANTONYMS: (v) blame, accuse, chide, discipline, include, reprimand, castigate; (n) accusation exert: (v) wield, employ, act, use, apply, strain, operate, have recourse to, profit by; (n) excite, energize exhaustion: (n) consumption,
Heart of Darkness enervation, tiredness, lassitude, attrition, weakening, weariness, inanition, weakness; (adj, n) collapse; (adj) prostration. ANTONYMS: (n) vitality, pep, restoration, vim exhibited: (adj) ostensible, avowed, apparent, declared exile: (n, v) expatriate; (v) banish, deport, drive out, expel, proscribe; (n) expulsion, deportation, refugee, deportee, outcast. ANTONYMS: (v) restore, welcome, appoint exist: (v) lie, be, endure, abide, consist, belong, continue, occur, come, breathe, live. ANTONYMS: (v) expire, fail, perish existence: (n) being, entity, life, subsistence, living, essence, lifetime, aliveness, actuality, occurrence, availability. ANTONYMS: (n) nonbeing, nonexistence, absence, extinction exotic: (adj) alien, foreign, strange, outlandish, unusual, extraneous, different, odd, curious, extrinsic, unknown. ANTONYMS: (adj) familiar, ordinary, usual, native expanse: (n) breadth, expansion, space, region, compass, extent, orbit, latitude, acreage, dilation, length. ANTONYM: (n) closeness expansive: (adj) comprehensive, broad, effusive, communicative, outgoing, open, capacious, extensive, ample, spacious, demonstrative. ANTONYMS: (adj) restricted, restrained, reserved, withdrawn, silent, quiet, mean, inhibited, cramped, constricted, confined expectant: (adj) hopeful, enceinte, anticipative, big, gravid, eager, heavy, confident, with child, watchful; (adj, v) pregnant. ANTONYMS: (adj) uninterested, apathetic, indifferent expectation: (n) expectancy, belief, hope, possibility, outlook, trust, confidence, arithmetic mean, thought, suspense; (n, v) prospect. ANTONYMS: (n) despair, hopelessness, discouragement, distrust expecting: (adj) pregnant, confident, with child, heavy, hopeful; (n) family way expedition: (n) dispatch, travel, celerity, speed, haste, readiness, quest, tour; (n, v) campaign, journey, crusade. ANTONYMS: (n) delay, procrastination, slowing
expended: (adj) spent, finished, dead, departed, unpursed, bypast, bygone, deceased, gone, completely exhausted; (v) expending expenses: (n) expenditure, expense, charge, costs, fee, spending, disbursement, overheads, payment, outlay, upkeep experiences: (n) life, biography, journal, personal narrative, fortunes explaining: (n) amplification, illumination, clearing up, defense exploration: (n) search, probe, discovery, inquiry, expedition, investigation, quest, scrutiny, study, research, reconnaissance exploring: (adj) indagative, emissary, excursive exposition: (n) comment, exhibition, show, explanation, elucidation, clarification, exhibit, description, demonstration, dissertation, fair exposure: (n, v) disclosure, exposition; (n) detection, exhibition, peril, risk, danger, expose, discovery, showing, demonstration. ANTONYMS: (n) concealment, safeguard, shelter, shield, resistance, security express: (adj) explicit, direct, definite, distinct, especial; (n, v) declare; (v) demonstrate, convey, articulate, display, mean. ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, hide, retain; (adj) vague, slow, unexpressed, roundabout, unsaid, uncertain, indirect; (n) local expressed: (adj) express, spoken, phrased, explicit, voiced, expresssed, verbal, verbalized, verbalised, unequivocal, graphic expressions: (n) vocabulary, terms, language expressive: (adj) significant, meaningful, descriptive, mobile, revelatory, indicative, articulate, graphic, emphatic, suggestive, vivid. ANTONYMS: (adj) unemotional, undemonstrative, nondescript, cold, expressionless, empty, emotionless, inarticulate, innocent, impassive, reserved exquisite: (adj) beautiful, delicate, excellent, dainty, gorgeous, admirable, acute, heavenly, choice, wonderful; (adj, v) delightful. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, inferior, ugly, subdued, rough, poor, coarse, mild, imperfect, horrible, flawed extend: (v) enlarge, broaden, widen, dilate, amplify, augment, go, continue, spread, draw out; (adj, v) stretch. ANTONYMS: (v) withdraw,
Joseph Conrad shorten, narrow, shrink, limit, contract, curtail, hold, reduce, abridge, keep extended: (adj) broad, expanded, ample, extensive, wide, long, protracted, lengthened, prolonged, elongated, enlarged. ANTONYMS: (adj) brief, unextended, condensed, contracted, shortened, reduced, narrow, partial, abridged, abbreviated, tiny extensive: (adj) comprehensive, broad, extended, commodious, ample, considerable, major, copious, large, wide, capacious. ANTONYMS: (adj) restricted, small, partial, short, minor, limited, conservative, slight, sketchy, uncomprehensive, cramped exterior: (adj, n) outside, surface, outward; (n) appearance, skin, front; (adj) external, superficial, outlying, outer, outdoor. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) interior, inside; (adj) inner, internal, intrinsic, middle, deep exterminate: (v) annihilate, eliminate, destroy, obliterate, extirpate, liquidate, slay, slaughter, massacre, uproot, wipe out. ANTONYMS: (v) generate, revive, protect external: (adj, n, prep) exterior; (adj) outside, extrinsic, extraneous, outward, outlying, foreign, peripheral, superficial, formal, objective. ANTONYMS: (adj) inner, internal, domestic, inmost, inside, indoor, outgoing, inward, intrinsic, deep, relevant extraordinary: (adj) odd, exceptional, curious, rare, special, phenomenal, amazing, astonishing, unusual, strange, abnormal. ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary, normal, everyday, usual, common, mundane, regular, undistinguished, unremarkable, insignificant, natural extravagance: (n) dissipation, luxury, excess, profligacy, lavishness, squandering, recklessness, waste, prodigality, magnificence, immoderateness. ANTONYMS: (n) economy, frugality, parsimony, prudence, paucity, moderation, austerity, necessity, bareness extravagant: (adj) wasteful, luxurious, prodigal, exaggerated, profligate, costly, expensive, lavish, immoderate, profuse, undue. ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained, frugal, parsimonious, plain, stingy, understated, thrifty, reasonable, moderate, cautious, tasteful
extreme: (adj) deep, excessive, enormous, supreme, terrible, uttermost, ultimate, utmost, intense, immoderate; (n) edge. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) mild, slight; (adj) middle, reasonable, near, limited, close, conventional, ordinary, normal, insignificant extremely: (adv) enormously, excessively, greatly, extraordinarily, utterly, severely, hugely, intensely, desperately; (adj, adv) highly, very. ANTONYMS: (adv) quite, fairly, slightly, moderately, unremarkably, sensibly, hardly, somewhat, commonly, reasonably, insufficiently extremity: (n) end, member, boundary, bound, close, appendage, limit, limb, ending, fringe, conclusion. ANTONYMS: (n) trunk, average, minimum, head, leniency exuberant: (adj) abundant, ample, opulent, ebullient, excessive, extravagant, profuse, bountiful, prolific, generous, hearty. ANTONYMS: (adj) depressed, blue, unenthusiastic, scarce, needing, lacking, dispirited, insufficient, down, unexcited, lethargic exultation: (n) jubilation, joy, delight, ecstasy, elation, rejoicing, revelling, transport, joyousness, bliss, glee. ANTONYMS: (n) depression, desolation, misery, sorrow exulting: (adj) jubilant, flushed, triumphant, experiencing triumph, rejoicing, prideful, elated, disdainful, triumphal; (v) exult; (n) joy eyebrow: (n) supercilium, eyebrows, forehead, strap line, hair fabric: (n) composition, cloth, construction, material, framework, fiber, performance, anatomy; (n, v) edifice, building, structure fabulous: (adj) mythical, legendary, fabled, mythological, wonderful, marvelous, spectacular, fab, terrific, amazing, imaginary. ANTONYMS: (adj) normal, prosaic, routine, ordinary, factual, common, humdrum, dire, unimpressive, abysmal facing: (n) revetment, face, coating, lining, veneer, cladding, front, covering; (prep) against, before; (adj) fronting factitious: (adj) artificial, unnatural, fictitious, man-made, ostensible, bogus, unreal, synthetic, surreptitious, forced, false
125 facts: (n) reality, details, proof, grounds, premises, praecognita, truth, testimony, particulars, physical constraints, reasonableness faculty: (adj, n) capacity, cleverness; (n) aptitude, capability, bent, power, staff, facility; (adj, n, v) talent; (n, v) endowment, gift. ANTONYMS: (n) students, pupils, ineptness, incompetence, incapacity faded: (adj) pale, bleached, dull, exhausted, faint, washy, withered, colorless, discoloured, attenuate; (adj, v) dilapidated. ANTONYMS: (adj) vivid, Colored, colorful, fresh, vigorous, strong, bright fading: (n) attenuation, bleaching, discoloration, disappearance, evaporation, colour fading, decay; (adj) disappearing, paling, weakening, decaying. ANTONYMS: (adj) thriving, increasing, growing failed: (adj) unsuccessful, failing, abortive, bankrupt, fruitless, futile, declining, deteriorating, ineffective, insolvent faint: (adj, n, v) swoon; (adj) dim, feeble, dizzy, indistinct, vague, soft, dull; (adj, v) weak; (v) languish, pass out. ANTONYMS: (adj) distinct, clear, obvious, loud, considerable, pungent, invigorated, hearty, energetic, defined; (v) revive fainting: (n) swoon, syncope, deliquium, lipothymy, prostration, stupor; (adj) lipothymic faintly: (adv) dimly, vaguely, indistinctly, lightly, weakly, hazily, slightly, softly, shadowily, infirmly, palely. ANTONYMS: (adv) clearly, intensely, distinctly, overpoweringly, harshly, considerably, powerfully, strongly, brightly, obviously, audibly fair: (adj) clear, beautiful, sweet, reasonable, dispassionate, average, fine, impartial; (adj, v) bright; (adj, adv) clean; (n) blonde. ANTONYMS: (adj) biased, unjust, exceptional, dark, partial, mismatched, unwarranted, foul, imbalanced, prejudiced, poor fairly: (adj, adv) justly; (adv) moderately, honestly, completely, purely, impartially, somewhat, righteously, lightly, rightly, squarely. ANTONYMS: (adv) unjustly, extremely, subjectively, very, dishonestly, unreasonably, completely, entirely, unlawfully, excessively, wholly fairway: (n) channel, tract, site,
126 parcel, path, route, seaway, narrows faith: (n) confidence, belief, conviction, trust, credence, credit, creed, assurance, cult, expectation, dependence. ANTONYMS: (n) disbelief, distrust, dubiosity, skepticism, despair, uncertainty, doubt, independence faithfulness: (n) devotion, constancy, allegiance, truth, accuracy, loyalty, dedication, faith, exactness, adherence; (adj, n) honesty. ANTONYMS: (n) disloyalty, unfaithfulness, inaccuracy, dishonesty, disobedience, wickedness, indifference faithless: (adj) dishonest, false, traitorous, treacherous, unfaithful, deceitful, untrustworthy, untrue, truthless, mendacious, perfidious. ANTONYMS: (adj) loyal, steadfast, true, honest fallen: (adj) drop, decline, prostrate, flat, destroyed, down, lapsed, alight, degenerate, lose, get. ANTONYMS: (adj) esteemed, honorable, honored, lauded, prestigious falling: (n) descent, fall, downfall, degradation, depreciation; (adj) descending, decreasing, declining, tumbling, ebb, down. ANTONYMS: (adj) standing, increasing, burgeoning false: (adj, n) bastard; (adj, adv) counterfeit, deceitful; (adj) untrue, dishonest, erroneous, sham, assumed, artificial, fictitious, deceptive. ANTONYMS: (adj) real, genuine, faithful, factual, correct, natural, truthful, honest, valid, just, loyal fame: (n, v) credit, celebrity, report, reputation, renown, cry; (n) distinction, bruit, honor, prestige, buzz. ANTONYMS: (n) infamy, obscurity, anonymity, ignominy, dishonor, commonness, oblivion, criticism familiar: (adj) conversant, everyday, usual, ordinary, commonplace; (adj, n) customary, common, intimate, habitual, accustomed; (n) companion. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfamiliar, strange, foreign, unaccustomed, new, unknown, ignorant, formal, shy, rare, distant famous: (adj) celebrated, splendid, distinguished, renowned, illustrious, famed, capital, prominent, well-known, fine, stunning. ANTONYMS: (adj) infamous, ordinary, anonymous,
Heart of Darkness insignificant, obscure, inglorious, undistinguished fancied: (adj) unreal, chimerical, fictional, fanciful, fictitious, fabricated, preferred, assumed, illusory, imagined, ideal fancy: (n, v) desire, fantasy, caprice, dream, wish, daydream; (v) imagine, consider; (adj, v) conceive; (n) conception, conceit. ANTONYMS: (n) reality, certainty, actuality, conviction; (adj) unadorned, common; (v) hate, demonstrate, detest, disapprove, test fantastic: (adj) bizarre, extraordinary, antic, marvelous, fantastical, grotesque, wonderful, extravagant, terrific, strange, illusory. ANTONYMS: (adj) awful, ordinary, real, unpleasant, tiny, plausible, normal, lousy, little, Lilliputian, poor farce: (n) comedy, travesty, joke, mockery, sham, play, charade, caricature, dressing, forcemeat, buffoonery. ANTONYMS: (n) tragedy, drama farcical: (adj) ridiculous, comical, droll, absurd, comic, ludicrous, laughable, funny, humorous, odd, stupid. ANTONYMS: (adj) tragic, serious, deep, sensible farewell: (int, n) adieu; (n) bye, leave, valediction, adios, parting, goodbye, separation, departure, aloha; (int) bon voyage. ANTONYMS: (n) hello, salutation, welcome farm: (n) farming, grange, dairy, croft, farmstead, estate; (v) raise, cultivate, hire, plant, produce far-off: (adj) distant, far, faraway, outlying, extreme, inaccessible, last, long, obscure, unknown, wide farther: (adj, adv, prep) beyond; (adj) additional, more, distant; (adv) furthermore, besides, abroad, in addition, too; (adj, prep) outside; (pron) another. ANTONYMS: (prep) within; (adv) nearer, closer farthest: (adj) ultimate, extreme, farthermost, utmost, uttermost, last, furthermost, endmost, greatest, most distant; (adj, adv) remotest. ANTONYMS: (adv) closest, nearest fascinated: (adj) captivated, absorbed, gripped, engrossed, interested, attentive, preoccupied, entranced, attracted, enchanted, enthralled. ANTONYMS: (adj) indifferent, disinterested, disenchanted, detached fascinating: (adj, v) captivating,
charming, engaging, interesting; (adj) engrossing, absorbing, attractive, delightful, alluring, bewitching, seductive. ANTONYMS: (adj) boring, dull, repellent, unappealing, repulsive fascination: (n) charm, glamor, bewitchment, glamour, enchantment, enthrallment, charisma, magnetism, allure, magic, captivation. ANTONYMS: (n) disinterest, boredom, disenchantment, disenthrallment, repulsion fasten: (adj, v) attach, fix, affix; (v) connect, bind, tie, tack, pin, stick, clasp, anchor. ANTONYMS: (v) detach, undo, unlock, loosen, release, open, disconnect, untie, separate, unscrew fatalism: (n) determinism fate: (n, v) doom; (n) chance, luck, fatality, fortune, kismet, allotment, portion, lot; (v) destine, designate. ANTONYMS: (n) will, design, choice, accident, chance fated: (adj) inevitable, destined, certain, predestined, damned, unavoidable, predestinate, cursed, intended, forthcoming, sure fateful: (adj) decisive, fatal, disastrous, crucial, foreboding, ominous, black, conclusive, calamitous, inauspicious, momentous. ANTONYMS: (adj) healthy, trivial, unimportant, auspicious, fortunate, lucky, favorable fault: (adj, n, v) deficiency; (n) error, blot, delinquency, flaw, break, blunder; (adj, n) failing, blemish; (n, v) blame, crime. ANTONYMS: (n) strength, virtue, capability, innocence, perfection, credit, ease; (v) praise, absolve faultless: (adj) blameless, correct, immaculate, clean, spotless, innocent, flawless, unblemished, absolute, infallible, consummate. ANTONYMS: (adj) blemished, imperfect, faulty, shameful, soiled, blameworthy favor: (n, v) countenance, aid, grace, support, benefit, boon; (adj, n) kindness; (n) advantage; (v) befriend, encourage, patronize. ANTONYMS: (v) hinder, contradict, dislike, hurt, differ, thwart, reject, demean; (n) derogation, disapproval, unkindness favorite: (adj, n) darling, favourite, dear, number one; (adj) favored,
Joseph Conrad beloved, popular; (n) pet, choice, pick, preference. ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, superior, underdog; (adj) unwanted, despised, disliked, hated, unusual fearful: (adj, n) afraid; (adj, v) dreadful, cowardly; (adj) terrible, apprehensive, awful, timid, anxious, craven, frightful, eerie. ANTONYMS: (adj) rational, calm, confident, bold, unimpressed, charming, fearless, courageous, reassuring, unafraid, wonderful fearfully: (adv) timidly, timorously, awfully, apprehensively, horrendously, hideously, anxiously, appallingly, terribly; (adj, adv) shockingly, dreadfully. ANTONYMS: (adv) bravely, calmly, confidently, wonderfully, rationally, unconcernedly feather: (n) pen, feathering, pinion, nib, plumage, quill, kind, spline; (n, v) plume; (adj, n, v) fringe; (v) fledge feathers: (n) plumage, fur, indument, garment, garb, fine hair, clothing, dress, apparel, attire, array featureless: (adj) lackluster, plain, monotonous, indistinctive, uninteresting, colorless, characterless, mediocre, unoriginal, uninspired, unimaginative. ANTONYMS: (adj) imaginative, inspired, interesting, distinctive fecund: (adj) productive, prolific, fruitful, rich, luxuriant, fat, pregnant, fructuous, reproductive, exuberant, plenteous. ANTONYMS: (adj) infertile, sterile, impotent, unproductive feeble: (adj) delicate, decrepit, ailing, helpless, powerless, poor, mild, lax, thin; (adj, v) faint, debilitated. ANTONYMS: (adj) strong, vigorous, hearty, tough, effective, powerful, unrelenting, robust, potent, persuasive, able feebly: (adv) faintly, unenthusiastically, dimly, hopelessly, unproductively, unpersuasively, unconvincingly, uncertainly, reluctantly, powerlessly, insipidly. ANTONYMS: (adv) robustly, confidently, domineeringly, vehemently, stubbornly, strongly, effectively, convincingly, competently, admirably, wholeheartedly feelings: (n) emotions, opinion, bosom, emotion, thought, reputation, honor, feeling,
sentiments, thoughts, manner fellow: (adj, n) comrade, associate; (n) boy, equal, brother, peer, chap, colleague, compeer, buddy; (adj, n, v) concomitant. ANTONYMS: (n) female, woman, girl, foe, enemy, antagonist, competitor fellows: (n) fellow, membership, faculty fence: (n, v) hedge, wall, bar; (n) barrier, hurdle, pale, boundary; (v) quibble, enclose, parry, contend. ANTONYMS: (v) challenge, face, confront fend: (v) repel, resist, dispel, guard, counteract, obstruct, ward off, protect, safeguard, fend off; (n) fen ferocity: (n) violence, cruelty, ferociousness, fury, rage, truculence, atrocity, fierceness, wildness, vehemence, anger. ANTONYMS: (n) meekness, friendliness, serenity fever: (n) malaria, delirium, pyrexia, heat, frenzy, feverishness, febricity, Bilious typhoid fever, Levant fever, Hectic infantile fever, Typhoid fever feverishly: (adv) excitedly, hotly, febrilely, hecticly, feverously, hysterically, passionately, frantically, fanatically, heatedly, frenziedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) indifferently, peacefully, sluggishly fidelity: (n) constancy, devotion, faithfulness, adherence, allegiance, loyalty, faith, dedication, exactness; (adj, n) honesty, truth. ANTONYMS: (n) infidelity, unfaithfulness, disloyalty, inaccuracy, faithlessness, dishonesty, unreliability fiend: (n) monster, devil, fanatic, brute, deuce, incubus, goblin, ogre, enthusiast, daemon, addict. ANTONYM: (n) angel fiendish: (adj, v) infernal, diabolic, satanic, hellish; (adj) demonic, diabolical, cruel, atrocious, inhuman, wicked, brutal fiendishly: (adv) devilishly, satanically, infernally, demonically, hellishly, wickedly, cruelly, deucedly, atrociously, inhumanly, unholy fierce: (adj) bitter, acute, cruel, ferocious, brutal, grim, nasty, intense, ardent; (adj, v) savage, furious. ANTONYMS: (adj) gentle, mild, calm, quiet, tame, docile, weak, peaceful, pleasant fiercely: (adv) violently, bitterly, strongly, savagely, brutally, intensely, wildly, cruelly,
127 vehemently, grimly, furiously. ANTONYMS: (adv) mildly, dully, tame, docilely, tamely, calmly, feebly fiery: (adj, n) burning, passionate, glowing; (adj) fervent, ablaze, hot, fervid, impassioned, peppery; (adj, v) fierce, violent. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, passionless, dispassionate, indifferent, placid, gentle, cool; (adv) easygoing fight: (n, v) battle, dispute, contest, quarrel, engagement, feud, squabble, argue, struggle, clash; (adj, n, v) brawl. ANTONYMS: (n, v) withdrawal, retreat; (n) fear, surrender, agreement; (v) compromise, favor, submit fighting: (adj) belligerent, militant; (n) fight, contest, combat, action, affray, strife, engagement, war; (n, v) conflict. ANTONYMS: (adj) peaceful, meek; (n) calm, withdrawal, retreat, friendliness, agreement, peace, surrender figuratively: (adv) allegorically, symbolically, tropically, typically, representatively, parabolically, parabolicly, flowerily, symbolicly, floridly, figurally. ANTONYM: (adv) factually filch: (v) pilfer, steal, pinch, rob, purloin, cabbage, swipe, lift, palm, poach, cop file: (n) document, roll, series; (v) rasp, order, scrape; (n, v) list, procession, string, record; (adj, n) rank. ANTONYM: (v) blunt filings: (adj) fine powder, magistery, scobs; (n) detritus, debris fill: (v) block, clog, stuff, line, charge, execute, accomplish, complete, brim, fulfill; (n) crowd. ANTONYMS: (v) empty, free, deplete, unpack, unload, notch, deflate, desert filled: (adj) replete, packed, fraught, teeming, laden, abundant, congested, charged, stuffed; (adj, adv) crowded; (n) fuller. ANTONYMS: (adj) lacking, clear finding: (n) detection, judgment, determination, discovery, verdict, ruling, breakthrough, resolution, doom, decree, find finger: (v) feel, handle, touch, thumb, indicate, point; (n) digit, dactyl, forefinger, pointer; (n, v) hand. ANTONYM: (v) clear finish: (n, v) close, complete, consummate; (v) achieve, execute, discontinue, cease, accomplish, determine; (n) conclusion, death.
128 ANTONYMS: (n) beginning, opening, inception, middle, creation; (v) begin, continue, sustain, save, renew, conserve finished: (adj, adv) ended, completed; (adj) complete, consummate, absolute, accomplished, ruined, spent, ripe, polished; (adj, v) done. ANTONYMS: (adj) incomplete, remaining, rough, leftover, uncultured fired: (adj) discharged, unemployed, passionate, interested, heated, enthusiastic, ablaze, zealous fireman: (n) stoker, relief pitcher, reliever, firefighter, twirler, guard, protector, pitcher, hurler, fire marshal, agitator fireplace: (n) chimney, fire, hearth, oven, stove, fire place, fireside, kitchen, niche, recess, furnace fireside: (n) fireplace, home, family, habitation, dwelling, abode, domicile, country, dwelling house, fire, habitat firewood: (n) backlog, brand, firebrand, fuelwood, lumber, brushwood, wood, kindling, fuel, cordwood, bobbing firing: (n, v) discharge, explosion; (n) dismissal, fire, combustion, sack, lighting, dismission, release; (adj) combustible; (v) burst first-class: (adj) excellent, grand, crack, fine, capital, dandy, splendid, superior, fantastic, high-class, top fishes: (n) amphibians, Craniata, Subphylum Vertebrata, Vertebrata, birds fishing: (n) fishery, casting, fishing job, piscary, piscation, rodding, halieutics, sport fishing; (v) coursing, hawking; (adj) halieutic fisticuffs: (n, v) boxing, pugilism; (n) fistfight, fight, bout, slugfest, quarrel, disturbance, event, prize fight, athletics fitfully: (adv) intermittently, spasmodically, inconstantly, sporadically, unsteadily, unevenly, uncertainly, randomly, interruptedly, flickeringly, occasionally. ANTONYMS: (adv) recurrently, peacefully fitted: (adj) capable, efficient, competent, able, finished, qualified, trained, primed, outfitted, initiated; (adj, v) convenient fixed: (adj, v) determined, durable; (adj, adv, v) stable; (adj) definite, intent, fast, determinate, certain, set;
Heart of Darkness (adj, adv, n) steady; (adj, n, v) constant. ANTONYMS: (adj) flexible, separate, adaptable, adjustable, changeable, movable, variable, compliant, temporary, removable, portable fixity: (n) fixedness, fastness, firmness, fixing, immutability, constancy, inalterability, inflexibility, immobility, stronghold, fixture flabby: (adj) feeble, flaccid, limp, languid, baggy, drooping, faint, lax, heavy, soft, slack. ANTONYMS: (adj) slim, skinny, fit flag: (adj, v) decline, fade, drop, fail; (n) banner, ensign, colors, colours; (v) sag; (n, v) sign; (adj, n, v) languish. ANTONYMS: (v) increase, rise, rally, strengthen flame: (adj, n) fire, sweetheart; (adj, v) burn, glow; (n, v) flash; (n) ardour, burning, fervor, enthusiasm, combustion, sheen flames: (n) fire, blaze, firestorm, hellhole flannel: (n) washcloth, cloth, face cloth, pants, trousers, flannelette, white, tweed, gabardine; (v) blanket, fur flared: (adj) aflare, increasing flash: (n, v) flicker, blaze, shimmer, glitter, gleam, glimmer, blink, flame; (adj, n, v) twinkle; (n) instant; (v) coruscate. ANTONYMS: (adj) tasteful; (n) age; (v) dawdle flashing: (adj) bright, sparkling, blinking, meteoric, scintillating, light, brilliant, dazzling, gleaming; (n) flare, flashes flat: (n) apartment; (adj) even, bland, insipid, level, tasteless, dreary, boring; (adj, n) plain, plane; (adj, v) uninteresting. ANTONYMS: (adj) bumpy, emotional, hilly, variable, sharp, negative, natural, lively, contrasty, choppy; (adv) indirectly flatness: (n) dullness, monotony, plain, flat, tedium, sameness, insipidness, tediousness, platitude, smoothing, smooth. ANTONYM: (n) unevenness flatter: (v) fawn, adulate, wheedle, cajole, soap, kowtow, blandish, grovel, butter up; (n, v) court; (n) caress. ANTONYMS: (v) insult, disparage, criticize, discourage flavor: (n) relish, tang, smell, aroma, salt; (n, v) taste, flavour, smack; (v) spice, season, sauce. ANTONYMS: (n) staleness, blandness, emptiness fleet: (adj) fast, expeditious, quick,
agile, brisk, rapid, speedy; (n) armada, float, navy; (v) flit flesh: (adj) carnality, concupiscence; (n) mortality, beef, form, figure, frame, person, mankind, humanity, meat fleshy: (adj) corpulent, brawny, chubby, overweight, obese, heavy, stout, round, succulent; (adj, adv) plump; (adv) portly. ANTONYMS: (adj) slim, slender flicker: (n, v) waver, flare, blaze, sparkle, glimmer, shine, flash; (v) shake, blink, flick, shimmer flight: (adj, n) herd, flying, bevy, drove; (n) escape, run, exodus, evasion, elopement, departure; (n, v) avolation flinch: (v) cower, quail, recoil, recede, blench, shrink; (n, v) cringe, start, retreat, jump, jerk flipper: (n) flippers, fins, filler strip, bead flipper, flapper, arm, hand, paw, shoe, wing, extension bar flitting: (adj) fleeting, fugitive, momentary, transient, ephemeral; (v) migration float: (v) drift, swim, waft, hover, ride, fly; (n, v) buoy, blow; (n) raft, floater, bobber. ANTONYM: (v) reject floating: (adv) afloat; (adj, v) buoyant; (adj, adv) aimless; (adj) current, loose, moving, fluid, in circulation, going about, flying, light flock: (n, v) crowd, cluster, pack, mass; (adj, n) bevy; (adj, n, v) swarm; (n) band, horde, congregation, herd; (v) assemble. ANTONYM: (v) disperse flood: (n, v) flow, torrent, pour, stream, glut, rush, gush; (v) drench, inundate, drown; (n, prep) tide. ANTONYMS: (n) drought, shortage, slump, deficit; (v) disperse, dry flourish: (n, v) display; (v) thrive, prosper, boast, wave, brag, wield, boom, grow; (adj, v) bloom; (adv, v) shake. ANTONYMS: (v) decline, struggle, deteriorate, wilt, pine, fade, flounder, decrease, dwindle flow: (n, v) stream, course, flux, surge, run, jet; (n) current, discharge; (v) float, emanate, well. ANTONYMS: (n) drought; (v) trickle flowing: (adj) fluent, running, graceful, smooth, fluid, soft, liquid; (n) current, flux, flow; (adj, v) loose. ANTONYMS: (adj) secure, ugly, still, stilted, jerky, harsh, halting fluently: (adv) easily, glibly,
Joseph Conrad eloquently, liquidly, flowingly, articulately, clearly, persuasively, verbosely, talkatively, fluidly. ANTONYM: (adv) awkwardly fluke: (n) trematode, chance, luck, accident, coincidence, windfall, break, fortune, crutch, elbow, ankle flush: (adj, n, v) blush, glow; (adj) flat, affluent, rich; (adj, v) even, smooth, level; (n) bloom; (n, v) color; (v) redden. ANTONYMS: (n) pallor; (v) blanch, blench; (adj) empty, low, poor flushed: (adj, n) red, sanguine; (adj) feverish, glowing, aroused, aflame, burning, exultant, exulting; (n) flush, elated. ANTONYM: (adj) cool flutter: (adj, n, v) bustle, flurry; (n, v) beat, palpitate, flap, wave, waver, quiver; (v) flit, flitter; (n) excitement flying: (adj) fast, quick, rapid, swift, moving, flaring, aflare; (n) fly, flight, aviation, ballooning foam: (n, v) froth, bubble, spume; (adj, v) boil, seethe; (v) effervesce, suds, fizz, ferment; (n) lather, bubbles folded: (adj) plaited, pleated, doubled, artful, braided, corrugated, doubled over, fluted folds: (n) laps foliage: (n) verdure, foliation, greenery, leaf, frond, cotyledon, ramage, tigella, stem, blade, leaves folly: (n) fatuity, foolishness, silliness, tomfoolery, nonsense, stupidity, craziness, density, freak; (adj, n) irrationality, trifling. ANTONYM: (n) sense fool: (n) blockhead, dunce, clown, idiot, ass, booby, buffoon; (v) deceive, bamboozle; (n, v) joke, gull. ANTONYM: (n) savant foolish: (adj) childish, fool, crazy, dumb, daft, fatuous, stupid, unwise, preposterous, dopey; (adj, n) silly. ANTONYMS: (adj) wise, sensible, shrewd, prudent, visionary, diplomatic, levelheaded, sane, rational, mature, judicious footsore: (adj) tired, fatigued; (v) toilworn footsteps: (n) road, footprints, way, trail, path, track, footpath forbearing: (adj) patient, clement, tolerant, lenient, easy, indulgent, permissive, charitable, merciful, compassionate, meek. ANTONYMS: (adj) impatient, unforgiving forced: (adj) compelled, bound, constrained, artificial, involuntary, unnatural, forcible, farfetched,
strained, obligatory, labored. ANTONYMS: (adj) unprovoked, spontaneous, voluntary, natural, genuine, willing, optional forefinger: (n) index finger, index, forefingers, paw, thumb, hand, exponent, antenna, feeler forehead: (n) brow, front, foreland, lineament, mut, phiz, physiognomy, visage, eyebrow, skull; (adv) foremost forepart: (n) front, fore, head, side, face, bow, figurehead, fore part, front end, battlefront forerunner: (n) ancestor, herald, harbinger, messenger, predecessor, antecedent, augury, progenitor, prodrome, parent, leader. ANTONYMS: (n) successor, descendant foresaw: (v) foresee foreseen: (v) foresee, long expected; (adj) envisioned, foretold, contingent, concourse, coming, casual, adventitious, accidental, predictable foresight: (n) prevision, forecast, caution, prospicience, calculation, prescience, prediction, precaution, vision, foresightedness; (n, v) expectation. ANTONYM: (n) hindsight forest: (v) afforest, reforest; (n) woodland, jungle, wood, timberland, woods, grove, greenwood, bush, coppice forests: (n) country forge: (adj, v) falsify; (v) fake, devise, fabricate, fashion, contrive, coin, invent, construct, mould; (n, v) mint forget: (v) leave, miss, blank out, bury, to forget, overlook, neglect, ignore, fail, unlearn, abandon. ANTONYMS: (v) mind, attend forgotten: (adj) lost, disregarded, elapsed, past, abandoned, gone, Gone With the Wind, irrecoverable, lapsed, disoriented, no more. ANTONYM: (adj) remembered forked: (adj) bifurcate, divided, branching, bifurcated, furcated, biramous, double, forked road, furcate, tined, forky formality: (n) ceremony, formalities, decorum, etiquette, custom, ceremoniousness, starch, ritual, rite, observance; (n, v) stiffness. ANTONYMS: (n) casualness, possibility, warmth, friendliness formidable: (adj) grim, appalling, awful, difficult, forbidding, heavy, dreadful, fearful, uphill, trying,
129 tough. ANTONYMS: (adj) insignificant, easy, comforting, feeble, cheerful formless: (adj) shapeless, unformed, indistinct, unstructured, unbodied, nebulous, vague, indistinguishable, soft, fuzzy, rude. ANTONYMS: (adj) organized, clear, distinct forth: (adv) away, along, onward, ahead, before, on, off, on the high road, on the road, on the way, under way forthwith: (adv) directly, immediately, at once, now, instantly, straight, presently, straightaway, incontinently; (adj, adv) quickly; (adj) immediate fortitude: (n) bravery, endurance, grit, pluck, backbone, determination, tenacity, firmness, strength; (adj, n) guts, spunk. ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, frailty, impatience fortnight: (n) two weeks, period, amount of time fortunate: (adj) favorable, lucky, auspicious, advantageous, favored, happy, prosperous, fortuitous, well, successful; (adj, n) blessed. ANTONYMS: (adj) unlucky, disadvantaged, disastrous, unfavorable, underprivileged, inauspicious, unenviable, unsatisfactory fortunately: (adv) happily, prosperously, propitiously, fortuitously, providentially, successfully, auspiciously, opportunely, felicitously, blessedly, advantageously. ANTONYMS: (adv) disastrously, unluckily, inauspiciously, negatively fortune: (n) estate, fate, fluke, destiny, luck, accident, means, assets, riches, abundance, doom. ANTONYM: (n) design fortunes: (n) adventures, fortune, personal narrative, life, journal fossil: (n) fogey, petrifaction, ammonoid, ammonite, dodo, belemnite, oldster, remains; (adj) flint, obsolete, quartz foundations: (n) fundamentals, foundation, practicalities, brass tacks, details fraction: (n, v) divide; (n) part, bit, share, section, division, proportion, piece, faction, ratio; (adj, n) constituent. ANTONYM: (n) whole fragment: (n) fraction, crumb, morsel, part, division, rag; (n, v) chip, scrap, splinter; (v) shiver, crumble.
130 ANTONYM: (n) chunk franklin: (n) frank, landowner, landholder, Benjamin Franklin, John hope Franklin frankness: (n) honesty, truth, forthrightness, candidness, freedom, sincerity, candour, plainness, bluffness, outspokenness, ingenuousness. ANTONYMS: (n) cunning, tact, delicacy, deceit, conformity, reticence, indirectness, evasiveness frenzy: (n) fury, anger, insanity, mania, hysteria; (adj, n) distraction, aberration, alienation, phrensy, derangement; (n, v) craze. ANTONYMS: (n) calmness, calm, order fresh: (adj) clean, bracing, novel, bright, recent, original, airy, bold, pure, green; (adj, v) brisk. ANTONYMS: (adj) stale, decayed, hot, tired, worn, rotten, off, musty, muggy, humid, exhausted fretted: (adj) latticed, haggard, magged, latticelike, reticulated, reticular, interlaced. ANTONYM: (adj) unfretted friendly: (adj, n) favorable; (adj) amiable, affectionate, decent, goodnatured, kind, convivial, companionable, benevolent, amicable; (adj, adv) comradely. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfriendly, distant, disagreeable, aggressive, aloof, formal, frosty, belligerent, curt, reserved, impersonal friendship: (n) association, familiarity, affection, companionship, friendliness, intimacy, company, attachment, relationship; (n, v) amity, concord. ANTONYMS: (n) hostility, animosity, antagonism, conflict, formality, rivalry, hatred, detachment, distance, isolation fright: (n, v) dismay, alarm, scare, affright; (n) awe, fear, dread, terror, horror, consternation, apprehension. ANTONYMS: (n) calm, fearlessness, courage, confidence, security frighten: (v) cow, alarm, daunt, terrify, appall, scare, affright, intimidate, terrorize, appal; (n, v) fright. ANTONYMS: (v) comfort, reassure, soothe, calm frightful: (adj, v) fearful; (adj) formidable, awful, fearsome, appalling, gruesome, horrible, terrible, dread, frightening, grim. ANTONYMS: (adj) wonderful, calming, soothing, pleasant, lovely,
Heart of Darkness fair fringed: (adj) fibrillated, bounded, feathered, bushy, decorated, fimbriate, fimbricate, laciniate, befringed, rough, laciniated frontal: (adj) anterior, fore, forward, metopic, discoid, candid; (n) facade, frontlet, frontage, face, adornment. ANTONYM: (adj) posterior frown: (adj, v) lower; (adj, n) scowl; (n, v) pout, grimace, glower, glare; (adj) black looks, gloam, glout; (v) sulk, gnash. ANTONYM: (v) approve frowning: (adj) dismal, dark, gloomy, lowering, scowling, frowny, clouded; (adv) frowningly; (n) austere, boisterous, coarse fulfillment: (n) completion, fruition, achievement, satisfaction, fulfilment, attainment, execution, consummation, contentment, observance, discharge. ANTONYMS: (n) disobedience, dissatisfaction, abandonment, dismay funeral: (n) entombment, interment, sepulture, funeral rite, wake, pyre, observance, funeral sermon, funeral pile; (adj) sepulchral; (v) bury funk: (n) coward, horror, fear, dread, depression; (v) cringe, flinch, cower, quail, recoil, shrink funnel: (n) flue, tunnel, funnel shape, shaft, cone, hopper, trachea, weasand; (v) channel, move, pipe funny: (adj) amusing, strange, peculiar, facetious, droll, eccentric, fishy, diverting, queer, suspicious, unusual. ANTONYMS: (adj) serious, grave, obvious, tragic, ordinary, normal, easy, dull furious: (adj, v) fierce, violent, vehement, wild, rampant; (adj) frantic, enraged, ferocious, boisterous, raging, frenzied. ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, mild, gentle, pleased, mellow, quiet, slow furnace: (n) forge, heater, blast furnace, fireplace, hearth, stove, oven, kiln, electric furnace, cupola, crematorium furniture: (n) fitment, equipment, appliance, fixture, appointments, furnishings, goods, dresser, article of furniture, cabinet; (v) stuff furry: (adj) furred, hirsute, soft, velvety, downy, shaggy, bushy, fuzzy, smooth, like velvet, covered with hair. ANTONYM: (adj) rough fury: (n) anger, exasperation, force, resentment, delirium, furor, frenzy,
indignation, craze; (adj, n) wrath, ferocity. ANTONYMS: (n) composure, calmness, mildness, calm, pleasure, serenity fusillade: (n) burst, barrage, volley, firing, salvo, discharge, shooting, bombardment, explosion, storm; (v) noyade fuss: (n, v) flurry, bicker, fidget, hubbub; (adj, n) stir; (n) flap, commotion, ado, bother, disturbance; (v) fret. ANTONYM: (n) peace futile: (adj) useless, empty, ineffective, frivolous, idle, abortive, bootless, hopeless, meaningless, vain, hollow. ANTONYMS: (adj) successful, useful, fruitful, meaningful, worthwhile, promising, productive, effective futility: (n) emptiness, inanity, worthlessness, vanity, uselessness, fruitlessness, frivolity, unusefulness, purposelessness, hollowness, insignificance. ANTONYMS: (n) importance, worth, worthiness, fruitfulness, effectiveness, competence, usefulness gaberdine: (n) coverall, duster, dust coat, dustcloth, smock, dustrag gain: (n, v) profit, benefit, win, catch, advance; (v) derive, earn, get, attain, reach; (n) earnings. ANTONYMS: (n) loss, deficit, disadvantage, setback; (n, v) decrease; (v) reduce, scatter, collapse gait: (n, v) pace, step, tread, footstep, rate, stride, action; (n) walk, carriage, movement, velocity gallantly: (adv) courageously, intrepidly, chivalrously, splendidly, valiantly, heroically, fearlessly, finely, doughtily, pluckily, courteously. ANTONYMS: (adv) unchivalrously, poorly, timidly gallows: (n) gibbet, gallous, gallowsbitts, hanging, noose, scaffold, halter, tree, rope, gallowstree, bough gang: (n) band, company, crowd, circle, pack, faction, mob, team, bunch, association, clique gape: (v) gawk, yawn, open, glare, goggle, split, dehisce, ogle, see; (adj, n) stare; (n, v) look gash: (n, v) slash, scratch, tear, wound, slit, break, rip, slice, crack, score; (n) fissure gasp: (n, v) pant; (v) puff, blow, breathe, sigh, heave, wheeze, breathe heavily, gag; (n) inhalation, breath gasping: (adj) panting, winded,
Joseph Conrad blown, out of breath, thirsty, pursy; (v) spavined, touched in the wind gate: (n) door, mouth, entry, doorway, port, exit, goal, barrier, approach, inlet, threshold gather: (n, v) fold, tuck; (v) convene, garner, congregate, compile, assemble, accumulate, collect, meet, flock. ANTONYMS: (v) disperse, scatter, spread, distribute, disband, decrease, part, smooth gathered: (adj) deepened, congregated, accumulated, amassed, assembled, concentrated, equanimous, congregate, collective gathering: (n) collection, accumulation, concourse, congregation, assemblage, crowd, compilation, meeting, crew, gather, throng. ANTONYMS: (n) dismantling, scattering gauntlets: (n) gauntlet, gantlet gauzy: (adj) filmy, transparent, sheer, flimsy, thin, delicate, fine, translucent, lucid, cobwebby, ethereal. ANTONYMS: (adj) opaque, robust, heavy gaze: (n, v) stare, regard, look, behold; (v) gape, see, contemplate, face, pry, view, glance. ANTONYMS: (v) glance, peek generosity: (n, v) charity, liberality; (adj, n) bounty, kindness, beneficence, favor; (n) benevolence, bounteousness, chivalry, nobility, munificence. ANTONYMS: (n) stinginess, greed, meanness, thrift, thriftiness, avarice, unfriendliness, bareness, malevolence, miserliness, nastiness generous: (adj) ample, abundant, copious, benevolent, bountiful, kind, charitable, flush, fair, liberal; (adj, n) free. ANTONYMS: (adj) meager, tightfisted, miserly, measly, mean, small, ungenerous, avaricious, greedy, petty, pitiful genius: (adj, n) capacity, ability, endowment, faculty, gift, cleverness; (n) flair, brain, prodigy, bent, aptitude. ANTONYM: (n) amateur gentle: (adj) easy, friendly, soft, kind, affable, balmy, mild, feeble, compassionate; (adj, adv) calm; (adj, v) tame. ANTONYMS: (adj) harsh, loud, fierce, caustic, violent, rough, hardhearted, abrupt, heavy, steep, sheer gentlemanly: (adj) courteous, polite, chivalrous, refined, gallant, suave, mannerly, genteel, gentle, well-bred; (n) gentleman. ANTONYMS: (adj)
rude, unbecoming gently: (adv) tenderly, slowly, mildly, soft, slow, kindly, delicately, softly, lightly, meekly, quietly. ANTONYMS: (adv) sharply, fiercely, forcefully, harshly, abruptly, violently, severely, roughly, intensely, meanly, heavily germs: (n) bacteria, germ, infection, microbes, microorganisms gesticulating: (adj) communicative gesture: (n, v) sign, signal, motion; (n) beck, gesticulation, indication, movement; (v) gesticulate, beckon, wave, bless get-up: (n) outfit, garb, costume, clothing, guise, disguise, attire, apparel ghastly: (adj) awful, fearful, cadaverous, dreadful, grisly, gruesome, macabre, hideous, appalling, atrocious; (adv) gruesomely. ANTONYMS: (adj) wonderful, lovely, attractive, delightful ghost: (n, v) apparition, specter; (n) shade, spirit, demon, soul, spook, spectre, goblin, appearance, monster gift: (adj, n, v) endowment, faculty, ability, talent; (n) donation, flair, bestowal; (n, v) award, present, boon; (adj, n) capacity. ANTONYMS: (n) penalty, forfeiture, failing gifted: (adj) capable, accomplished, talented, able, apt, proficient, brilliant, ingenious, expert, intelligent, adept. ANTONYMS: (adj) inept, dim, incompetent, mediocre, slow, clumsy gifts: (n) money, generosity, contributions, charity, caliber, aid, munificence, bounty. ANTONYM: (n) meanness gigantic: (adj) colossal, enormous, large, huge, giant, stupendous, monstrous, vast, big, immense, massive. ANTONYMS: (adj) small, tiny, little, insignificant, short, miniature gilt: (n) gilding, plating, money, decoration; (adj) aureate, golden, gold, florid; (v) tesselated, ornate, rich gingery: (adj) hot, racy, peppery, spicy, pungent, spirited, juicy, piquant, savoury, warm, coloured girlish: (adj) boyish, childish, kittenish, juvenile, adolescent, innocent, schoolgirlish, babyish, immature, youthful, female glad: (adj) jubilant, cheerful, gay,
131 blithe, delighted, festive, content, delightful, genial, bright, willing. ANTONYMS: (adj) unhappy, apologetic, dismayed, unwilling, disappointed, sorry glamour: (n, v) charm; (n) allure, enchantment, appeal, beauty, spell, glamor, attraction; (v) fascinate, enchant, bewitch. ANTONYMS: (n) attractiveness, ugliness glance: (n, v) look, peek, flash, peep; (n) gaze, glimpse, coup d'oeil, gander; (v) bounce, glint, ricochet. ANTONYMS: (n, v) study; (n) examination, perusal; (v) stick, stare glancing: (adj) passing glare: (n) glance, brilliance, radiance, brightness; (n, v) glower, flash, shine, scowl, beam, frown; (v) flame. ANTONYMS: (n) dullness, dimness glaring: (adj) conspicuous, bright, blatant, egregious, obvious, plain, flaming, garish, crying, gross, glary. ANTONYMS: (adj) soft, inconspicuous, dull, minor glasses: (n) spectacles, eyeglasses, glass, specs, spectacle, eyeglass, barnacles, lens, pair of glasses, mirror, goggles glassy: (adj, v) glossy; (adj) clear, glazed, smooth, flat, crystalline, dead, dull, hyaline, transparent; (v) glabrous. ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, bumpy, dull, expressive, murky, rough glazed: (adj) glossy, glassed, glazen, vitreous, vitrified, icy, lustrous, shiny, empty, slippery, glasslike. ANTONYMS: (adj) unglazed, alert, dull gleam: (n, v) glance, beam, blaze, shine, glimmer, glow, flash, flicker, sparkle, glitter; (v) twinkle gleaming: (adj) brilliant, shiny, radiant, glossy, lustrous, glowing, beaming, resplendent; (n) gleam, glimmer; (adj, adv) agleam. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, dirty, rough glide: (adj, n, v) slide; (n, v) coast, slip; (v) float, run, fly, flow, drift, lapse, slink, skid. ANTONYMS: (v) lurch, hurtle, flounder, sink gliding: (adj) sliding, flying, slipping, labent, elusory; (n) sailing, soaring, flight, glissando; (v) slither; (adv) glidingly glimmer: (adj, n, v) flicker, twinkle; (n, v) gleam, shimmer, flash, sparkle, beam, glow, shine; (v) blink; (n) gleaming glimpse: (n, v) look, peek; (v) blink,
132 see, notice, spy, spot, espy; (n) coup d'oeil, view, peep. ANTONYMS: (n) scrutiny, observation, perusal; (v) scrutinize, survey, Miss, study glint: (n, v) glimmer, flash, sparkle, glance, beam, glitter, twinkle, shimmer, shine; (v) gleam; (n) brilliance glinting: (adj) glittering, scintillating, lustrous, aglitter, fulgid, glitter, coruscant, sparkly, bright, bubbling, luminous glisten: (n, v) gleam, sparkle, flash, glance, shimmer, glitter, glister; (v) glimmer, beam, coruscate, glint glistening: (adj) shining, glossy, shiny, glisten, brilliant, beaming, sleek, lustrous, sparkling, reflecting light, gleaming. ANTONYM: (adj) dull glitter: (n, v) flash, beam, shine, glisten, glimmer, glow, sparkle, flicker, shimmer; (v) glance; (n) radiance. ANTONYM: (n) dullness glittering: (adj, v) brilliant; (adj) sparkling, flashing, dazzling, glistering, glistening, glinting, shining, scintillating, splendid; (adj, adv) aglitter gloom: (n) desolation, dark, darkness, blackness, depression, dimness, dusk, dreariness, despair, dejection; (n, v) cloud. ANTONYMS: (n) brightness, happiness, cheerfulness, glee, ecstasy, joy, optimism, cheer gloomy: (adj) black, desolate, dejected, cheerless, depressing, dismal, downcast, disconsolate, melancholy, funereal, downhearted. ANTONYMS: (adj) encouraging, cheery, cheerful, bright, hopeful, light, promising, uplifting, joyful, sunny, clear glorified: (adj) celebrated, holy, overvalued, puffed up, overrated, overestimated, hyped, haloed, canonised, blessed, authorized glorious: (adj) distinguished, beautiful, bright, celebrated, brilliant, eminent, magnificent, super, great, splendid; (adj, v) illustrious. ANTONYMS: (adj) sorrowful, despicable, horrible, shameful, lowly gloriously: (adv) brilliantly, grandly, magnificently, illustriously, marvelously, superbly, wonderfully, gorgeously, radiantly, greatly, renownedly glory: (n) celebrity, brightness, honor, distinction, glorification, eclat, dignity; (n, v) halo, pride; (v) exult,
Heart of Darkness boast. ANTONYMS: (v) blasphemy, lament, profanity; (n) dishonor, disrepute, ugliness, blame, criticism glossy: (adj, v) sleek; (adj) smooth, bright, glazed, brilliant, flat, glistening, burnished, resplendent, lustrous, glassy. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, rough, coarse, shoddy glow: (n, v) flush, gleam, shine, glimmer, glare, color, sparkle, beam; (v) burn, flare, kindle. ANTONYMS: (n) wanness, darkness, paleness; (v) pale, struggle glowing: (adj, n) enthusiastic, cordial, passionate; (adj) burning, fervent, blazing, flaming, fiery, dazzling; (adj, v) warm; (adj, adv) aglow. ANTONYMS: (adj) pale, wan, unhappy, unenthusiastic, derogatory, dispassionate, unwell gnawing: (v) corroding, biting; (n) arrosion gold: (n) Au, money, riches, wealth, bullion, treasure, yellow, amber; (adj) aureate, gilt, golden golden: (adj) aureate, fortunate, gilded, auspicious, gold, gilt, lucky, advantageous, fair, favorable, favored. ANTONYM: (adj) inauspicious goodness: (adj, n) generosity, kindness, gentleness; (n) good, excellence, benefit, virtue, worth, morality; (adj) favor, beneficence. ANTONYMS: (n) evil, wickedness, badness, corruptness, bad, immorality, corruption gorgeous: (adj) luxurious, gaudy, attractive, brilliant, wonderful, glorious, gay, florid, palatial, dressy; (adj, v) rich. ANTONYMS: (adj) ugly, unattractive, detestable, shabby gourd: (n) bottle gourd, pumpkin, melon, Lagenaria, gord, vine, noddle, exploding cucumber, fruit, flask, calabash tree grab: (n, v) catch, arrest, snatch, capture; (v) get, grapple, clutch, clasp, seize, fascinate, appropriate. ANTONYMS: (v) surrender, baulk, repel gradually: (adv) bit by bit, slowly, inchmeal, progressively, unhurriedly, moderately, gently, little by little, increasingly, step by step; (adj, adv) piecemeal. ANTONYMS: (adv) abruptly, midstream, quickly, rapidly, conspicuously, obviously grain: (adj, n) crumb; (n) bit, berry, fragment, cereal, scrap, kernel,
speck, atom, grist, character. ANTONYM: (n) lot gran: (n) grandmother, grannie, granny, nan grand: (adj, n) glorious, excellent; (adj, n, v) noble; (adj) gorgeous, August, superb, important, majestic, exalted; (adj, v) great, dignified. ANTONYMS: (adj) unimpressive, humble, modest, unimportant, poor, base, inferior, limited, incomplete, restricted, small grass: (v) denounce, betray; (n) forage, cannabis, hay, pasture, fink, sward, pasturage; (adj, n) green, marijuana. ANTONYM: (n) patriot grassy: (adj) verdant, gramineous, weedy, herby, woody, fertile, blossoming, abundant, leafy, lush, flourishing. ANTONYMS: (adj) grassless, urban, withering grateful: (adj, n) welcome; (adj) agreeable, appreciative, beholden, pleasing, pleasant, acceptable, indebted, obliged, pleasurable; (v) appreciate. ANTONYMS: (adj) ungrateful, unwelcome, unappreciative gratification: (adj, n) delight; (n, v) content; (n) enjoyment, pleasure, satisfaction, fruition, complacency, joy, luxury, treat, fulfillment. ANTONYMS: (n) dissatisfaction, disenchantment, dismay, discontent, anxiety gratified: (adj) glad, satisfied, pleased, delighted, happy, thankful, grateful, content, complacent, comfortable, cheerful grave: (adj) solemn, serious, critical, earnest, dangerous, sedate, sad, grand; (adj, v) severe, acute; (v) engrave. ANTONYMS: (adj) frivolous, funny, cheerful, carefree, slight, nonchalant, trivial, stable, minor, insignificant, favorable gravity: (n) solemnity, earnestness, gravitation, graveness, gravitational attraction, weight, seriousness, significance, severity, sedateness; (n, v) poise. ANTONYMS: (n) insignificance, lightheartedness, triviality, cheerfulness, levity gray: (adj) dull, dim, bleak, gloomy, pale, grizzled, hoary, leaden, old, overcast; (n) grizzle. ANTONYMS: (adj) sunny, cheerful, clear, youthful grayness: (n) gray, greyness, grey, charcoal, discoloration, silver, griminess, gray clothing, gloom, drabness, ash gray greased: (adj) greasy
Joseph Conrad greasy: (adj) fatty, dirty, oily, tallowy, slick, sebaceous, unclean, unctuous, slippery, adipose, oleaginous. ANTONYM: (adj) lean greatest: (adj) top, superlative, biggest, utmost, largest, extreme, first; (adj, n) maximum, most; (adj, v) paramount, supreme. ANTONYMS: (adj) inferior, secondary greatly: (adv) badly, enormously, considerably, extremely, highly, vastly, immensely, mightily, hugely; (adj, adv) far, deeply. ANTONYMS: (adv) mildly, hardly, superficially, poorly, lightly, insignificantly, barely, moderately greatness: (n) excellence, dimension, dignity, bulk, size, enormousness, bigness, enormity, grandness, magnitude, fame. ANTONYMS: (n) obscurity, austerity, commonness, mildness, moderation, simplicity greed: (n) cupidity, covetousness, avariciousness, desire, appetite, rapacity, voracity, voraciousness, gluttony, stinginess, insatiability. ANTONYMS: (n) moderation, temperance greedy: (adj) avid, gluttonous, desirous, grasping, acquisitive, glutton, piggish, voracious, selfish; (adj, v) avaricious, covetous. ANTONYMS: (adj) temperate, ascetic, unconcerned, abstemious, moderate greenish: (adj) green, virescent, viridescent, fleeceable, envious, covetous, chromatic, porraceous grew: (v) become, develop; (adj) grown grief: (adj, n, v) affliction; (n) dolor, anguish, distress, agony, pain, wound, chagrin, concern; (n, v) regret; (adj) sore. ANTONYMS: (n) joy, happiness, comfort, content, peace grimness: (n) asperity, austerity, rigor, sternness, rigour, ghastliness, strictness, bleakness, hardness, gloominess, harshness. ANTONYMS: (n) brightness, pleasantness, warmth grimy: (adj) dirty, filthy, grubby, dingy, unclean, impure, nasty, begrimed, squalid, messy, muddy. ANTONYMS: (adj) pure, pleasant grin: (n, v) beam; (v) laugh, sneer, leer, quib, quip, satire, skit; (n) smirk, grinning, simper. ANTONYM: (v) frown grip: (n, v) clutch, clasp, hold, gripe;
(v) catch, cling, apprehend, fascinate, embrace; (n) handle, bag. ANTONYMS: (n, v) release; (n) separation gripping: (adj) fascinating, absorbing, interesting, riveting, thrilling, enchanting, enthralling, exciting, captivating; (n) grip; (v) seize. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, unconvincing groan: (n, v) grumble, murmur, cry, sigh, mutter, squeak, rumble, scrape; (v) howl, complain; (n) complaint grotesque: (adj) fantastic, bizarre, funny, antic, absurd, droll, strange, baroque, weird, ugly, hideous. ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, normal, commonplace, attractive grounds: (n) cause, reason, account, basis, motive, justification, foundation, evidence, field, rationale; (adj, n) dregs. ANTONYM: (n) effect grove: (n) forest, orchard, thicket, coppice, wood, gardens, residences, Holt, bosquet, park, Hurst grow: (v) expand, advance, augment, enlarge, come, emerge, spring, become, farm, turn, get. ANTONYMS: (v) decrease, weaken, shrink, decline, drop, collapse, struggle, wane, plummet, dwindle, deteriorate grown: (adj) mature, big, growed, grown-up, developed, ripe, grownup, fully grown, full-grown, growth, become. ANTONYM: (adj) unripe grubbing: (adj) studious grunt: (v) growl, croak, mutter, complain, murmur, moan, clamor, mumble; (n, v) cry; (n) groan, cottonwick grunting: (n) inarticulate, grunting respiration, growl, grunt guard: (n) defense, protection, escort, bulwark, watchman, custody, fender; (n, v) care, shield, cover; (adj, n, v) ward. ANTONYMS: (v) endanger, expose, neglect, reveal; (n) attacker guarding: (n) surveillance, conservation, precaution, shielding, marking, civil defense, patrol, accompaniment, guardianship; (adj) preserving, defensive guess: (n, v) surmise, estimate, forecast; (v) suppose, deem, reckon, divine, believe, foretell; (n) assumption, supposition guessing: (adv) guessingly; (n) dead reckoning, guesswork,
133 approximation, supposition, gibe, shot, blastoff, barb, estimation, dig guidance: (n, v) direction, government, control, management, administration, charge; (n) advice, counsel, lead, instruction, regulation guileless: (adj) candid, artless, forthright, sincere, innocent, ingenuous, honest, pure, simple, open, straightforward. ANTONYMS: (adj) dishonest, sly, evasive gulp: (v) gobble, devour, bolt, gorge, sip, quaff, swallow, down; (n, v) swig, gasp; (n) draft. ANTONYMS: (v) nibble, regurgitate, exhale guns: (n) weapons, weaponry, arms, arsenal, armaments, artillery gutter: (n) groove, trough, ditch, drain, chute, trench, canal, furrow, conduit, waterway, gully habit: (n) clothing, practice, dress, garb, attire, convention, character, ritual, addiction, clothes; (n, v) use. ANTONYM: (n) innovation hail: (v) address, cry, acclaim, applaud, summon, accost, fall, cheer, salute; (n, v) call; (n) greeting. ANTONYMS: (v) ignore, criticize half-cooked: (adj) tough half-pint: (adj) puny, stunted; (n) lad, boy halo: (n) halation, aura, glory, ring, circle, corona, nimbus, hoop, aureola, band, anchor ring halter: (n) gibbet, rein, bridle, gallows, rope, noose, cestus, collar, drop; (v) confine, cramp hammer: (v) strike, beat, knock, bang, tap, forge, thrash, hit; (n, v) pound, club; (n) gavel hammock: (n) berth, hill, cot, cradle, bed, crib, to lash a hammock, stretcher, shakedown, litter, bedstead handful: (n) smattering, armful, mouthful, capful, containerful, lump; (adj) thimbleful, company, several, maniple, strong handkerchief: (n) hankie, kerchief, bandanna, cravat, hanky, wipe, bandana, collar, shawl; (n, v) napkin; (v) sudary handle: (n, v) conduct, administer; (v) feel, wield, deal, treat, touch, control, manipulate, direct; (n) clutch. ANTONYMS: (n) blade, head; (v) mishandle, bungle, conceal, crumble, avoid handy: (adj) convenient, adroit, apt, expert, clever, deft, dexterous, good, accessible; (adj, n) available; (adj, n,
134 v) ready. ANTONYMS: (adj) clumsy, fixed, inept, unwieldy, inconvenient, faraway, far, difficult, distant, cumbersome, worthless hang: (adj, n, v) suspend; (v) dangle, depend, drape, float, fall, hover, append, string up; (n, v) delay; (adj) hung hanging: (n) execution, curtain, arras, wall hanging; (adj) suspended, pendent, pendant, pendulous, hung, pending; (n, v) suspension hankering: (n) craving, desire, wish, eagerness, yen, thirst, avidity, appetite, yearning, urge, hunger. ANTONYMS: (n) aversion, dislike hardihood: (v) audacity; (n) courage, daring, boldness, temerity, fearlessness, fortitude, brass; (adj, n) face, guts; (n, v) assurance. ANTONYMS: (n) frailty, timidity harlequin: (n) clown, jester, mime, mountebank, charlatan, acrobat, punch; (adj) Proteus, Ariel, Camilla, chameleon harm: (adj, n, v) damage, hurt; (adj, n) evil, detriment, injury; (n, v) abuse, wound, blemish, disadvantage; (n) bruise; (adj, v) injure. ANTONYMS: (n, v) benefit, respect, help; (n) reparation, service; (v) enable, spoil, protect, defend, repair harmless: (adj) safe, benign, inoffensive, hurtless, innocent, innoxious, intact, simple; (n) silly; (adj, n) foolish; (v) weaponless. ANTONYMS: (adj) lethal, damaging, destructive, poisonous, toxic, serious, offensive, malicious, hurtful, noxious, unpleasant harness: (adj, n) strap, tether; (n, v) yoke, rein, couple, check; (adj, v) hitch; (v) wear, equip, limit, use. ANTONYM: (v) undo haste: (n, v) hurry, dash, dispatch, rush; (n) celerity, expedition, rapidity, speed, bustle, hastiness, quickness. ANTONYMS: (n) delay, patience, forethought, caution hastened: (adj) careless hastily: (adv) hurriedly, rapidly, quickly, rashly, promptly, suddenly, thoughtlessly, impetuously, swiftly, imprudently, speedily. ANTONYMS: (adv) carefully, unhurriedly, industriously, sensibly, prudently, late, calmly, thoroughly, patiently, gradually, cautiously hate: (v) abhor, detest, loathe, abominate; (n) enmity, abhorrence, detestation, hatred, animosity,
Heart of Darkness antipathy, aversion. ANTONYMS: (n, v) like; (v) adore, cherish, admire; (n) attraction, liking, delight, adoration hated: (adj) despised, disliked, not liked, reviled, scorned, unloved, unpopular. ANTONYM: (adj) precious haul: (v) tow, drag, cart, carry, lug, draught, tug, transport; (n, v) pull, heave; (n) freight haunted: (adj) ghostly, ghostlike, phantom, taken up, preoccupied, possessed, unearthly, magical, mad, infatuated, concerned haze: (n) fog, cloud, confusion, vapor, blur, daze, film, cloudiness, turbidity; (n, v) mist; (v) dim. ANTONYMS: (n) clarity, brightness headed: (n) maturer; (adj) oriented. ANTONYM: (adj) unheaded headlong: (adj, adv) headfirst; (adv) directly, hastily, precipitately; (adj) rash, hurried, desperate, precipitous, impetuous, sudden, precipitate. ANTONYMS: (adj) cautiously, considered; (adv) carefully headman: (n) head, chieftain, headsman, pendragon, head boss, elder, major, header, captain, commander, master headquarters: (n) seat, central office, base, residence, office, head office, main office, center, abode, address, Home Office heads: (n) conspectus, contents, prospectus, syllabus, synopsis, public, textbook, people, outlines, head stick heap: (n, v) pile, aggregate, amass; (n) collection, accumulation, mound, mass, group, lot; (v) bank, collect. ANTONYM: (v) tidy heaps: (adj, n) lots, much; (n) masses, oodles, piles, stacks, many, tons, plenty, lot, accumulation. ANTONYM: (adj) inadequate hearing: (n) audition, ear, auditory sense, trial, consultation, reach, auscultation, inquiry; (n, v) earshot, sound; (adj, n) audience heartache: (n) sorrow, distress, anguish, woe, heartbreak, dolor, affliction, pain, brokenheartedness, concern, bitterness heartiness: (n) eagerness, fervor, geniality, zeal, sincerity, wholeheartedness, inwardness, ardor, avidity, craving; (adj, n) hospitality heartless: (adj) hardhearted, ruthless,
cruel, pitiless, obdurate, merciless, unfeeling, unkind, stony, insensitive, grim. ANTONYMS: (adj) kind, caring, hearted, warmhearted, compassionate, softhearted, merciful, sympathetic, concerned, flattering, generous hearts: (n) Black Maria, spades heat: (adj, n) fever, excitement, passion; (v) bake, burn; (n) warmth, fervor, summer, estrus; (n, v) fire; (adj) flush. ANTONYMS: (n) cold, chill, coldness, anestrus, apathy, coolness, dryness, indifference heave: (n, v) cast, fling, raise, gasp, toss, lift; (v) chuck, haul, elevate, pitch, billow. ANTONYMS: (v) push, drop heaven: (n) Eden, firmament, bliss, Elysium, sky, nirvana, glory, Elysian Fields, Garden of Eden, utopia; (adj) celestial. ANTONYM: (n) misery heavenly: (adj) celestial, blissful, ethereal, delightful, angelic, blessed, elysian, holy, unearthly, godlike, sacred. ANTONYMS: (adj) worldly, miserable, infernal, hellish, unappealing, dreadful, turbulent heavens: (n) firmament, heaven, sky, welkin, sphere, atmosphere, celestial sphere, space, skies, area, vault of heaven heavily: (adv) seriously, weightily, severely, ponderously, hard, firmly, thickly, grievously, sadly, strongly, compactly. ANTONYMS: (adv) gently, nimbly, briskly, sparsely, thinly, slightly helm: (n) wheel, haft, handle, tiller, shank, rudder, steering wheel, shaft, hilt, halm; (v) helmet helmet: (n, v) headpiece; (n) casque, helm, hood, armet, basinet, heaume, hard hat, Galea, cowl; (v) pickelhaube helmsman: (n) coxswain, cox, wheelman, steersman, steerer, tar, mariner, seafarer, seaman, wheelsman, navigator helped: (adj) aided, assisted; (v) HALP helping: (n) portion, share, plateful, serving, part, quota, drumstick; (adj) auxiliary, assistant, aiding, assisting helpless: (adj, v) forlorn, destitute, abandoned; (adj) powerless, weak, defenseless, disabled, impotent, feeble, hopeless, unable. ANTONYMS: (adj) strong, independent, capable, invulnerable, armed, powerful, impervious hers: (pron) she, his; (adj) own
Joseph Conrad hesitating: (adj) indecisive, irresolute, undecided, doubtful, hesitate, reluctant, faltering, unwilling, hesitancy, backward, hesitatingly hesitation: (n, v) falter, fear; (n) hesitance, faltering, delay, hesitate, diffidence, hesitancy, qualm, reluctance; (v) hesitating. ANTONYMS: (n) certainty, resolution, confidence, decisiveness, enthusiasm, inclination, willingness hidden: (adj) clandestine, concealed, obscure, dark, secret, latent, covert, invisible, arcane, covered; (adj, v) confidential. ANTONYMS: (adj) exposed, open, active, noticeable, overt, revealing, known, explicit, mainstream, transparent, visible hide: (n, v) cover, disguise, shelter, veil; (adj, v) obscure; (n) fur, fell, coat; (v) bury, mask; (adj, n, v) darken. ANTONYMS: (v) show, expose, express, divulge, unearth, amplify, advertise, clarify high-handed: (adj) domineering, arbitrary, masterful, lordly, imperious, peremptory, arrogant, imperative, proud, shameless, opinionated highness: (n) excellency, altitude, loftiness, nobility, greatness, eminence, size, stateliness, majesty, high, grandeur high-strung: (adj) sensitive, tense, fidgety, jumpy, nervous, edgy, temperamental, feverish; (adv) on edge hill: (n, v) gradient, bank, ascent, acclivity, rise; (n) mound, elevation, embankment, hillock, knoll, mountain. ANTONYMS: (n) valley, hollow hills: (n) home, dry land, foothills, earth, ground hillside: (n) acclivity, slope, bank, declivity, hill, gradient, hill-side, mountain waist, the area half way up a mountain, mountainside, side hind: (adj, n) rear; (adj) after, posterior, hindermost; (n) doe, clown, peasant, roe, countryman, servant; (v) hinder hindering: (adj) obstructive, clogging, preclusive, meddlesome, impedimental, counter, obstruent, blocking up; (n) hindrance, impedition; (v) hinder hint: (v) suggest; (adj, n) trace; (n) suggestion, intimation, inkling, cue, allusion; (n, v) tip, touch, dash; (adj, v) intimate. ANTONYM: (n) overtone
hinted: (adj) veiled, roundabout, not explicit, implicit, coded, oblique hippo: (n) hippopotamus amphibius, artiodactyl mammal, river horse; (adj) obese hippopotamus: (adj) behemoth, elephant, cachalot, leviathan, porpoise; (n) hippopotamus amphibius, artiodactyl mammal, Hippo Regius, pachyderm, zeekoe, river horse hissing: (adj) sibilant, sibilous, sibilatory; (n) whistling, heckling, scoffing, sibilance, taunts, sibilation, white noise; (v) fizzle. ANTONYM: (n) applause hive: (adj) swarm, herd; (v) store, SE nicher; (n) concourse, hiding place, cave, cell, den, aerie, eyry hoarsely: (adv) roughly, huskily, raucously, gruffly, throatily, gratingly, stridently, gutturally, thickly, croakily, raggedly. ANTONYM: (adv) smoothly holding: (n) keeping, belongings, hold, claim, property, asset, ownership, take, retention, capture; (adj) retaining hole: (adj, n) gap; (n) aperture, den, hollow, crack, pocket, break, lair, pit, fix, depression. ANTONYMS: (n) mansion, mend holes: (n) cavity, holes tow holland: (n) Netherlands, Dutch, hollands, Kingdom of the Netherlands hollow: (adj, n) blank; (n) cavity, depression, cave, dell; (adj) empty, false; (adj, n, v) concave; (n, v) excavate, dent, scoop. ANTONYMS: (adj) convex, sincere, true, full, meaningful, cramped, valid; (n) hump, bump, hill, lump holy: (adj) devout, divine, heavenly, religious, blessed, hallowed, spiritual, devotional, pure; (adj, adv) saintly; (adv) sacredly. ANTONYMS: (adj) irreligious, unholy honest: (adj) fair, genuine, sincere, good, equitable, artless, heartfelt, guileless, frank, forthright, faithful. ANTONYMS: (adj) lying, misleading, guarded, corrupt, disloyal, unwholesome, discourteous, disreputable, fictional, crafty, crooked honor: (n, v) respect, reputation, glory, fame, reward; (n) award, accolade, reverence; (v) celebrate; (adj, n, v) worship, grace. ANTONYMS: (n, v) dishonor,
135 disgrace; (n) shame, humiliation, wickedness, contempt, insult; (v) break, ignore, disrespect, discredit honorable: (adj) good, estimable, exalted, respectable, fair, decent, reputable, ethical, honor; (adj, v) great, noble. ANTONYMS: (adj) shameful, disgraceful, corrupt, degenerate, immoral, humiliating, dishonest, unethical, decadent, bad, deceitful honored: (adj) esteemed, reputable, respected, honoured, privileged, glorious, distinguished, honorable, worshipful, exalted, revered. ANTONYMS: (adj) disadvantaged, disreputable hook: (n, v) crook, catch, draw, bend, trap, lure; (n) fishhook, claw, crotchet; (v) fasten, hitch. ANTONYMS: (v) undercharge, detach, undo hooked: (adj) bent, curved, aquiline, addicted, infatuated, obsessed, enamored, dependent, dependant, engrossed, uncinate. ANTONYM: (adj) unenthusiastic hopeful: (adj) confident, auspicious, bright, optimistic, sanguine, rosy, probable, likely, expectant, upbeat; (n, v) candidate. ANTONYMS: (adj) desperate, pessimistic, gloomy, pained, doubtful, bad, unhopeful, unlikely, unpromising, down hopeless: (adj) incurable, despondent, forlorn, disconsolate, desperate, impossible, useless, abject, despair, dismal, irreparable. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, competent, promising, optimistic, encouraging, helpful, useful, successful, practical, laudable, effective horizontal: (adj) flat, level, straight, direct, prostrate, smooth, recumbent, flush, clear; (adj, n) plane; (n) orientation. ANTONYMS: (adj) sloping, perpendicular, inclined, standing horn: (n) car horn, antler, klaxon, cornet, French horn, ivory, foghorn, cornu, alarm, trumpet, arm horned: (adj) cornuted, somm, horny, sharp, cuckolded, cornigerous, bearing horns, having horns. ANTONYM: (adj) hornless horrible: (adj) awful, fearful, frightful, abominable, grisly, formidable, dire, ghastly, dreadful, fearsome; (adj, v) horrid. ANTONYMS: (adj) wonderful, lovely, nice, lovable, fair, delightful,
136 slight, appealing, minor, attractive, great horribly: (adv) horrifically, awfully, terrifically, hideously, atrociously, appallingly; (adj, adv) frightfully, terribly, fearfully, shockingly; (adj) ghastly. ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly, wonderfully, kindly, sweetly horrid: (adj) grisly, ghastly, ugly, gruesome, grim, fearful, dreadful, direful, dire, horrible, fearsome. ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, nice, appealing, attractive, kind horrified: (v) horrify, chagrined, cut up, terrify, frighten; (adj) scared, dismayed, alarmed, frightened, aghast, terrified. ANTONYM: (adj) proud horror: (n) abomination, abhorrence, dismay, fear, fright, revulsion, alarm, repulsion, anxiety; (adj, n) dread, terror. ANTONYMS: (n) delight, attraction, proclivity, bravery, calm, confidence, security horrors: (adj) pessimism, vapors, spleen, megrims; (n) delirium tremens hospitable: (adj) affable, receptive, gracious, cordial, generous, amiable, convivial, genial, pleasant, warm, to enjoy having guests. ANTONYMS: (adj) unwelcoming, inhospitable, sinister, hostile host: (n) horde, flock, army, mob, troop, multitude, throng, emcee, mass, swarm; (adj, n) legion. ANTONYMS: (n) guest, few hostile: (adj) aggressive, contrary, adverse, warlike, belligerent, unfavorable, averse, opposed, antagonistic, inimical, irreconcilable. ANTONYMS: (adj) soothing, warm, allied, open, amicable, favorable, sympathetic, gentle, harmonious, hospitable, lush hotly: (adv) heatedly, passionately, fervidly, fervently, pepperily, sultrily, intensely, sharply, torridly; (adj, adv) violently, vehemently. ANTONYMS: (adv) impassively, mildly hovel: (n) hut, cot, booth, hole, cottage, hutch, shanty, bothy, shed, shack, croft. ANTONYM: (n) mansion hovering: (adj) suspended, poised, impending, flying, high howl: (n, v) cry, roar, scream, bark, shout, yell, bay, yelp; (v) bawl, growl, yawl. ANTONYM: (v) laugh howling: (n) howl, cry; (adj) fierce,
Heart of Darkness fantastic, gross, glaring, marvelous, wonderful, wondrous; (adj, n) weeping, sniveling hugging: (n) caressing, fondling, stimulation, embracing, kissing, foreplay, gorgerin, necking, smooching, snuggling, arousal hulk: (n) giant, colossus, wreck, carcass, heavyweight, monster; (adj) hull, bole, skeleton greater part, principal part, main part hull: (n) crust, casing, hulk, husk, structure, body, dried parchment; (n, v) skin; (adj) torso, trunk, bole hullabaloo: (n) disturbance, hubbub, noise, commotion, din, racket, disorder, pandemonium, uproar, tumult; (n, v) outcry humanizing: (adj) humane, exalting, civilizing, benevolent, cultural humble: (v) demean, humiliate, mortify; (n, v) disgrace, debase; (adj, n, v) abase; (adj) base, lowly, unassuming, docile, low. ANTONYMS: (adj) impressive, arrogant, haughty, imposing, conceited, pompous, snooty, overbearing, presumptuous, proud, exalted humbug: (n) deceit, cheat, claptrap, fake, faker, deception, boloney; (n, v) hoax, cant, duplicity; (v) hum humiliation: (n) degradation, disgrace, chagrin, abjection, comedown, indignity, embarrassment, mortification, dishonor, discredit; (adj, n) shame. ANTONYMS: (n) glorification, aggrandizement, pride, success, making humming: (adj) droning, zippy, reeking, bustling, grunting, stinking; (n) buzzing, vocalizing, sound, murmur, growling hummock: (adj, n) knoll; (n) hillock, mound, barrow, kopje, hammock, ledge, spur, hump, heap, cumulus hung: (n) hanging; (v) Heng; (adj) fatigued, puzzled, decorated hunger: (n, v) thirst, want, wish, itch; (n) craving, appetite, eagerness, famine; (v) crave, ache; (adj) hungry. ANTONYMS: (n) moderation, aversion, dislike, apathy hungry: (adj) eager, avid, famished, starving, esurient, greedy, ravenous, desirous, meager, starveling; (v) starve. ANTONYMS: (adj) full, satiated, sated, thirsty, unconcerned, moderate, healthy, disinterested hunt: (n, v) search; (v) course, follow, hound, rummage, forage, prey, dog,
go after, persecute; (n) battue. ANTONYMS: (v) find, precede hurried: (adj) fast, sudden, speedy, rapid, quick, swift, headlong, abrupt, cursory, precipitate, prompt. ANTONYMS: (adj) unhurried, leisurely, considered, patient, meticulous, thorough hurriedly: (adv) rapidly, quickly, swiftly, abruptly, promptly, fast, in haste, suddenly, speedily, rashly, precipitately. ANTONYMS: (adv) calmly, unhurriedly, patiently, carefully, gradually, thoroughly hurry: (n) haste; (n, v) bustle, hasten, dispatch, flurry, rush; (v) scurry, dash, accelerate, expedite, run. ANTONYMS: (n) slowness, calmness, patience, unimportance; (v) dawdle, delay, linger, crawl, amble; (intj) wait hurrying: (n) hastening, speed, quickening, rushing, early, speeding, speeding up, stepping up, amphetamine, forward, eager hurt: (adj, n, v) damage, detriment; (adj, n) evil; (n, v) wound, pain, ache, distress; (n) disadvantage, lesion; (v) afflict; (adj, v) injure. ANTONYMS: (adj) unhurt, unaffected, healed; (v) encourage, please, protect, repair, defend; (n, v) help; (n) reparation, pleasure hush: (adj, n, v) calm, silence, quiet, still, lull; (n) peace; (v) shut up, gag, quieten, muffle; (adj, v) soothe. ANTONYMS: (n) noise, turmoil; (v) Louden hyena: (n) wild beast, aardwolf, hyen, hangman, canine, canid, butcher, brown hyena, tiger idiot: (n) dolt, blockhead, dunce, dimwit, moron, cretin, ass, imbecile, oaf, changeling, idiocy. ANTONYM: (n) intellectual idleness: (n) lethargy, laziness, torpor, inactivity, idling, unemployment, sloth, inaction, inertia, faineance, idlesse. ANTONYMS: (n) energy, activity, bustle, liveliness, responsibility idol: (n) fetish, deity, effigy, divinity, graven image, image, hero, favorite, star, simulacrum, beloved ignorance: (n) illiteracy, nescience, folly, unwisdom, innocence, denseness, ignorancy, stupidity, obtuseness, tabula rasa, unawareness. ANTONYMS: (n) intelligence, acquaintance, education ignorant: (adj) unconscious, unwitting, rude, illiterate,
Joseph Conrad uneducated, blind, dull, unaware, uninformed, unlearned, innocent. ANTONYMS: (adj) conscious, versed, cultured, educated, informed, wary, literate, aware, polite ignored: (adj) disregarded, unheeded, unnoticed, unattended, overlooked, unpopular, mistreated, undeveloped, forsaken, disliked, companionless. ANTONYM: (adj) popular illness: (n, v) ailment, disorder, distemper; (n) sickness, complaint, malady, attack, affliction, pain, bug, trouble. ANTONYMS: (n) wellness, health illuminating: (adj) illuminate, informative, edifying, illuminatingly, instructive, descriptive, brilliant, light, elucidate, illustrative, lighten. ANTONYMS: (adj) hidden, unilluminating, secretive illumination: (n) brightness, illuminance, lighting, light, explanation, elucidation, edification, luminousness, luminosity, illustration; (adj, n) irradiation. ANTONYMS: (n) education, knowledge, confusion illusion: (n, v) delusion; (n) fantasy, apparition, deception, magic, fancy, deceit, dissimulation, phantom, trick, vision. ANTONYMS: (n) reality, fact illustrative: (adj) demonstrative, descriptive, representative, expository, exemplary, instructive, graphic, exemplifying, clarifying, in point, explicatory ill-will: (n) enmity imagination: (n) vision, fancy, image, dream, conceit, imagery, originality, invention, resource, reflection, phantasy imagine: (v) believe, conjecture, fancy, conceive, daydream, assume, guess, consider, fantasize; (conj, v) suppose; (n, v) dream imagined: (adj) fanciful, notional, unreal, fancied, fictitious, nonexistent, unseen, hypothetical, feigned, dubious, doubtful imbecile: (adj) foolish, idiotic, fatuous, dumb, imbecilic, simple; (n) idiot, moron, cretin, ass, oaf. ANTONYM: (adj) genius imbecility: (n) folly, foolishness, idiocy, fatuity, weakness, stupidity, feeblemindedness, lunacy; (adj, n) debility, feebleness; (adj) infirmity
immediate: (adj) close, sudden, direct, near, quick, present, fast, proximate, forthwith, instant, immediately. ANTONYMS: (adj) slow, gradual, deliberate, consecutive, mediate, delayed, remote, far, distant, vague, considered immense: (adj) vast, enormous, great, gigantic, immeasurable, colossal, boundless, big, large, giant, infinite. ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny, small, insignificant, miniature, slight, negligible, compact, narrow, short, minor immensely: (adv) highly, infinitely, greatly, enormously, tremendously, extremely, mightily, hugely, massively, immeasurably, monstrously immensity: (n) greatness, enormousness, immenseness, infinity, bulk, largeness, infiniteness, infinitude, vastness, grandeur, grandness. ANTONYM: (n) lightness immobility: (adj, n) fixity; (n) fixedness, stillness, stationariness, motionlessness, immovability, immovableness; (adj) vitality, stiffness, stabiliment, solidity. ANTONYMS: (n) bustle, movement immutability: (n) changelessness, invariability, majesty, infinity, unchangeableness, sovereignty, unchangeability, unchangingness, fixedness, fixity, permanency. ANTONYM: (n) mutability impalpable: (adj) imperceptible, shadowy, invisible, efflorescent, gritty, insubstantial, incorporeal, inscrutable, ethereal, inapprehensible, elusive. ANTONYMS: (adj) tangible, definite impatience: (n) annoyance, eagerness, anger, intolerance, restlessness, fidget, nervousness, fidgetiness, enthusiasm, edginess; (adj) nonendurance. ANTONYMS: (n) calmness, endurance, apathy impending: (adj) forthcoming, close, future, coming, approaching, near, prospective, pending, at hand, upcoming, threatening. ANTONYMS: (adj) distant, unlikely, past impenetrable: (adj) impassable, thick, incomprehensible, hard, mysterious, unfathomable, unintelligible, impervious, opaque, heavy, obscure. ANTONYMS: (adj) penetrable, readable, straightforward, apparent,
137 simple, sparse, vulnerable, accessible, transparent, understandable, open imperceptible: (adj) invisible, intangible, insensible, faint, evanescent, inaudible, negligible, indiscernible, unseen, unnoticeable, gentle. ANTONYMS: (adj) obvious, overwhelming, clear, visible, perceptible, heavy, noticeable, definite, considerable, conspicuous, strong imperfect: (adj) faulty, deficient, defective, unfinished, incomplete, poor, flawed, partial, inadequate, broken, fallible. ANTONYMS: (adj) perfect, whole, unblemished, adequate, complete, sound, boundless, capable, flawless imperfectly: (adv) faultily, defectively, badly, deficiently, incompletely, partially, poorly, inadequately, sketchily, incorrectly, halfway. ANTONYMS: (adv) perfectly, flawlessly, correctly, well imperturbably: (adv) dispassionately, unflappably, serenely, indifferently, impassively, emotionlessly, coolly, casually implacable: (adj) cruel, remorseless, irreconcilable, pitiless, merciless, grim, unappeasable, deadly, mortal, relentless, unforgiving. ANTONYMS: (adj) placable, unrelenting imported: (adj) exotic, unaccustomed, extrinsic. ANTONYM: (adj) domestic imposing: (adj, n, v) impressive; (adj, n) noble, commanding, solemn; (adj) dignified, grandiose, stately, distinguished, regal, lofty, baronial. ANTONYMS: (adj) unimpressive, modest, unimposing, weak, undignified, lowly impossibility: (n) impossibleness, option, nonexistence, absurdity, inability, impracticability, alternative, choice, contradiction, contradiction in terms, doubtfulness. ANTONYMS: (n) possibility, probability impossible: (adj) unimaginable, insufferable, unbelievable, hopeless, impracticable, impractical, inconceivable, unlikely, unthinkable, unable, ridiculous. ANTONYMS: (adj) feasible, achievable, manageable, bearable, attainable, on, tolerable, probable, hopeful, easy, consistent impostor: (n) fraud, cheat, hypocrite,
138 fake, imposter, sham, charlatan, deceiver, faker, cheater, pretender impotent: (adj) helpless, feeble, frail, fragile, inadequate, weak, barren, slack, ineffective, incapable, unable. ANTONYMS: (adj) able, powerful impress: (n, v) mark, print, stamp; (v) move, affect, inscribe, instill, touch, emboss, inculcate; (n) impression impressed: (adj) touched, bewildered, amazed, susceptible, stupefied, stunned, confused, bemused; (v) imprinted, stamped, carved. ANTONYM: (adj) unimpressed impression: (n) feeling, idea, imprint, conception, depression, notion, mark, image, dent, feel, opinion. ANTONYMS: (n) certainty, hump, lump impressive: (adj) effective, commanding, striking, powerful, imposing, influential, exciting, formidable, spectacular; (adj, n) noble, grand. ANTONYMS: (adj) humble, ordinary, weak, unremarkable, insignificant, minor, pathetic, tiny, uninteresting, ineffective, average impressively: (adv) strikingly, splendidly, grandly, magnificently, majestically, movingly, massively, heroically, commandingly, remarkably, arrestingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) weakly, execrably, slightly, simply improbable: (adj) implausible, impossible, incredible, unbelievable, fishy, questionable, inconceivable, impractical, unthinkable, absurd; (adj, n) marvelous. ANTONYMS: (adj) probable, certain, plausible, truthful, ordinary, on, practical impromptu: (adj, adv) off the cuff, ad lib, offhand, ad libitum; (adj) extempore, extemporaneous, unprepared, improvised, extemporary, makeshift; (adj, adv, v) ad-lib. ANTONYMS: (adj) planned, rehearsed improper: (adj) false, illicit, illegitimate, unsuitable, wrong, indecent, bad, coarse, amiss, faulty; (adj, v) indecorous. ANTONYMS: (adj) suitable, fitting, polite, acceptable, sensitive, moral, correct, dignified, lawful, clean, honest improved: (adj) enhanced, new, reformed, finer, enlarged, greater, greater than before, more, higher, increased, transformed. ANTONYMS: (adj) inferior, lesser,
Heart of Darkness unimproved improvement: (n, v) advancement; (n) amelioration, betterment, correction, repair, development, amendment, gain, enhancement, adjustment, advance. ANTONYMS: (n) deterioration, downgrade, knock, setback, slump, worsening, decrease, disadvantage, retreat improving: (adv) recuperating, getting better; (adj) edifying, progressive, civilizing, cosmetic, evincing progress, helpful, moralistic, advancing; (v) improve improvised: (adj, adv) off the cuff, informal, unplanned; (adj) extemporaneous, improvisatory, offhand, makeshift, spontaneous, unrehearsed, temporary, extemporized. ANTONYMS: (adj) prepared, permanent impulse: (n) pulse, urge, impulsion, force, motive, whim, drive, goad, motivation, momentum, incentive. ANTONYMS: (n) aversion, disincentive, disinclination inaccessible: (adj) impervious, remote, impenetrable, distant, unapproachable, unattainable, untouchable, unobtainable, unaccessible, impossible, aloof. ANTONYMS: (adj) available, nearby, attainable, approachable, achievable inadmissible: (adj) ineligible, improper, unqualified, inappropriate, inconvenient, unfit, impermissible, unbearable, inadequate, undesirable; (v) illtimed. ANTONYMS: (adj) admissible, allowable inappreciable: (adj) impalpable, invisible, insignificant, negligible, inconsiderable, trivial, evanescent, intangible, slight, trifling, inconsequential inborn: (adj) native, born, connatural, connate, congenital, hereditary, inherent, constitutional, indigenous, natural, instinctive. ANTONYMS: (adj) acquired, spiritual incalculable: (adj) countless, innumerable, numberless, boundless, inestimable, immense, infinite, myriad, numerous, invaluable, unpredictable. ANTONYMS: (adj) calculable, negligible, limited, worthless, tiny, slight, finite, few, definite, small, minor incantation: (n) spell, magic, sorcery, enchantment, witchcraft,
conjuration, magic spell, chant, wizardry, open sesame, adjuration incidentally: (adv) casually, accidentally, in passing, by chance, occasionally, haphazardly, by the bye, apropos, incidently, indirectly; (adj, adv) en passant inclined: (adj, v) given; (adj) prone, willing, oblique, apt, predisposed, ready, minded, likely, liable, bowed. ANTONYMS: (adj) reluctant, unwilling, disinclined, horizontal, unbiased, vertical, impervious inclosed: (adj) confined, entrails, included, internal, intestine inclosure: (n) enclosing, fence, incasement, encasement, circumscription, boxing, envelopment, introduction, intromission, papers; (n, v) boundary incomplete: (adj) faulty, deficient, inadequate, imperfect, short, lacking, unfinished, half, insufficient, sketchy; (adj, adv) halfway. ANTONYMS: (adj) finished, whole, entire, comprehensive, boundless, adequate incomprehensible: (adj) inapprehensible, inscrutable, inarticulate, abstruse, cryptic, unfathomable, puzzling, obscure, inexplicable, inconceivable, unaccountable. ANTONYMS: (adj) comprehensible, explicable, understandable, intelligible, legible, obvious, straightforward inconceivable: (adj, v) unbelievable, hard to believe; (adj) impossible, implausible, incomprehensible, unimaginable, unthinkable, improbable, unintelligible, inscrutable, fabulous. ANTONYMS: (adj) conceivable, believable, likely, understandable, credible inconceivably: (adv) unthinkably, amazingly, astoundingly, beyond belief, impenetrably, implausibly, unintelligibly, unfathomably, unbelievably, inexplicably. ANTONYM: (adv) conceivably inconclusive: (adj) indeterminate, illogical, not conclusive, unsettled, vague, incorrect, doubtful, unconvincing, uncertain, equivocal, weak. ANTONYM: (adj) conclusive incontinently: (adv) directly, at once, immediately, helter-skelter, pellmell, incontinent, rakishly, meretriciously increasingly: (adv) gradually, more
Joseph Conrad and more, growingly, expandingly, swellingly, crescently, cumulatively, risingly, yet, spreadingly, steadily. ANTONYM: (adv) rapidly incredible: (adj, n) astonishing, marvelous; (adj, v) inconceivable; (adj) fabulous, extraordinary, unbelievable, implausible, fantastic, unlikely, preposterous, wonderful. ANTONYMS: (adj) credible, believable, conceivable, unspectacular, likely, mundane, unremarkable, plausible, awful, sensible, real indefatigable: (adj) tireless, assiduous, unflagging, untiring, inexhaustible, energetic, unremitting, indomitable, laborious, unwearying, unwearied. ANTONYMS: (adj) idle, feeble, unrelenting, weary indefinable: (adj) ineffable, unspeakable, vague, indeterminate, undefinable, inexpressible, elusive, indefinite, undefined, nondescript, equivocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) concrete, precise indestructible: (adj) immortal, eternal, everlasting, undestroyable, undying, durable, perdurable, permanent, indelible, incorruptible, lasting. ANTONYMS: (adj) fragile, destructible, vulnerable, ephemeral, soft, perishable, temporary india: (n) Indian, crotalaria spectabilis, Africa, Bharat, Dovyalis, genus Dovyalis, IND, Indian rattlebox indian: (n) American Indian, Red Indian, redskin, India, Amerindian, Shoshones, Aleut, squaw, sannup, creeks; (adj, n) Amerind indifference: (adj, n) coldness, phlegm; (n) detachment, impassiveness, disregard, aloofness, nonchalance, neglect, unconcern, impassivity, disinterest. ANTONYMS: (n) fervor, interest, eagerness, dedication, sympathy, favorite, compassion, anxiety, responsiveness, forcefulness, care indifferent: (adj) apathetic, impassive, cold, cool, callous, fair, insensible, unconcerned, careless, dull, average. ANTONYMS: (adj) enthusiastic, fervent, keen, obsessive, energetic, eager, involved, surprised, exceptional, concerned, shocked indignant: (adj) angry, incensed, furious, enraged, wrathful, hurt, rage, provoked, hot, anger, irate.
ANTONYMS: (adj) cool, content, unaffected indignantly: (adv) irately, angrily, wrathfully, enragedly, sorely, acrimoniously, cynically, sulkily, hotly, exasperatedly, furiously indignation: (n) anger, resentment, displeasure, grudge, umbrage, rage, outrage, exasperation, choler, dudgeon; (adj, n) wrath. ANTONYMS: (n) contentment, pleasure indisputable: (adj) incontestable, incontrovertible, sure, irrefutable, undeniable, firm, absolute, positive, decided, obvious, unmistakable. ANTONYMS: (adj) dubious, doubtful, questionable, disputable, equivocal, debatable, imitation, tenuous, weak indistinct: (adj) indefinite, inarticulate, faint, dull, fuzzy, indeterminate, hazy, neutral; (adj, n) confused, cloudy, dark. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, slight, separate, certain, precise, audible, strong, definite indistinctly: (adv) vaguely, dimly, hazily, mistily, inarticulately, shadowily, obscurely, unclearly, fuzzily, confusedly, ambiguously. ANTONYMS: (adv) precisely, audibly, coherently, distinctly inducement: (n) enticement, attraction, cause, incitement, impulse, temptation, bait, impetus, occasion, motive, goad. ANTONYMS: (n) disincentive, deterrent industrious: (adj) diligent, assiduous, indefatigable, busy, energetic, hardworking, laborious, tireless, earnest, keen, enterprising. ANTONYMS: (adj) indolent, idle, destructive, weary, careless inefficient: (adj) inadequate, ineffective, ineffectual, incapable, inefficacious, shiftless, feeble, impotent, unfit, useless, unable. ANTONYMS: (adj) economical, competent, diligent, productive inestimable: (adj) incalculable, immeasurable, invaluable, infinite, priceless, incomputable, valuable, precious, untold, costly, beyond measure. ANTONYMS: (adj) worthless, slight, minor, limited inexcusable: (adj) irremissible, unpardonable, reprehensible, unwarrantable, unforgivable, unwarranted, unfair, untenable, not excusable, intolerable, unexcusable.
139 ANTONYMS: (adj) understandable, forgivable, justifiable, justified, laudable, wonderful inexorable: (adj) adamant, unrelenting, stern, cruel, relentless, austere, adamantine, inflexible, remorseless, stiff; (adj, v) inevitable. ANTONYM: (adj) gentle inexplicable: (adj) incomprehensible, mysterious, unaccountable, inscrutable, unfathomable, enigmatic, baffling, indecipherable, unexplained, incognizable, preternatural. ANTONYMS: (adj) understandable, explicable, mundane, apparent, explainable, straightforward, natural, legible inextricable: (adj) insoluble, intricate, involved, perplexed, inaccessible, entangled, impervious, impassable, knotty; (v) inseparable, infrangible infamous: (adj) disreputable, flagrant, notorious, disgraceful, dishonourable, contemptible; (adj, v) foul, shameful, base; (adj, n, v) scandalous; (adj, adv, v) nefarious. ANTONYMS: (adj) reputable, famous infer: (v) deduce, guess, derive, conclude, construe, imagine, conjecture, gather, deduct; (adj, v) understand, imply infernal: (adj) devilish, fiendish, diabolical, demonic, damned, cursed, blasted, unholy, wicked; (adj, v) diabolic, satanic inferno: (n) hell, blaze, abyss, fire, Gehenna, perdition, infernal regions, infernal region, hell on earth, Hades, shades below. ANTONYM: (n) heaven infested: (adj) crawling, swarming, polluted, overrun, malodorous, beset, diseased, contaminated, infected infinite: (adj) absolute, eternal, endless, countless, immense, incalculable, boundless, innumerable, immeasurable, everlasting, spaceless. ANTONYMS: (adj) finite, limited, restricted, small, tiny, slight infliction: (adj) affliction; (n) punishment, annoyance, imposition, discipline, worry, penalty, nuisance, bother, hardship, misery influential: (adj) potent, dominant, cogent, forcible, powerful, predominant, prevailing, effective, strong, impressive, efficacious. ANTONYMS: (adj) unconvincing, minor, unimportant, weak,
140 uninfluential, ineffective, frivolous inform: (v) acquaint, impart, advise, enlighten, announce, tell, familiarize, explain, advertise, apprise, warn informed: (adj) cognizant, educated, conscious, knowledgeable, familiar, apprised, wise, conversant, experienced, sensible; (adv) abreast. ANTONYMS: (adj) uninformed, unconcerned inhabitants: (n) population, citizens, populace, folk, country, community, abode, group, inhabitation, nation, natives inhabited: (v) populous, full of people, arrayed, clothed, dressed, accustomed, habited; (adj, v) peopled; (adj) occupied, settled, housing. ANTONYMS: (adj) unoccupied, uninhabited, business inheritance: (adj, n) heritage; (n) heredity, heirloom, birthright, bequest, legacy, dowry, estate, appanage, heirship; (v) descent inherited: (adj) inborn, genetic, familial, ancestral, transmissible, congenital, inherent, incarnate, transmitted, instinctive, intuitive inhuman: (adj) heartless, cruel, atrocious, brutal, cold, harsh, ferocious, remorseless, barbarous, relentless, barbaric. ANTONYMS: (adj) sympathetic, kind, humane initiated: (adj) capable, fitted, efficient, competent, fit for, primed, prepared, educated, experienced, finished, corpulent initiation: (n) inception, commencement, beginning, inauguration, foundation, induction, opening, origination, start, introduction, launch. ANTONYMS: (n) finish, departure, completion, suppression, culmination initiative: (n) enterprise, gumption, opening, first step, ambition, energy, drive, inventiveness; (adj, v) initiatory; (adj) inaugural, incipient. ANTONYM: (n) lethargy inland: (adj) interior, domestic, inner, inside, national, Mediterranean, home, indoor, native, intrinsic; (n) hinterland. ANTONYMS: (adj) foreign, exterior innate: (adj) inherent, congenital, inbred, indigenous, instinctive, natural, intrinsic, constitutional, essential, ingrained; (adj, v) born. ANTONYMS: (adj) learned, conditioned, acquired, trained, spiritual
Heart of Darkness inner: (adj) interior, mental, inward, intrinsic, inside, central, middle, within, in, privy, clandestine. ANTONYMS: (adj) outer, superficial, exterior innocence: (n) blamelessness, chastity, ignorance, ingenuousness, purity, gullibility, artlessness, innocent, simplicity, harmlessness, guiltlessness. ANTONYMS: (n) sophistication, experience, fault, dirtiness, wariness, dishonesty innumerable: (adj) countless, numberless, incalculable, multitudinous, infinite, innumerous, unnumbered, uncounted, myriad, immeasurable, untold. ANTONYM: (adj) finite inquire: (v) demand, ask, explore, enquire, inspect, research, consult, pry, request, wonder; (n, v) question. ANTONYM: (v) answer inquiries: (n) investigation, examination, study, enquiries, enquiry, inquiry, exploration inquiring: (adj) inquisitive, quizzical, interested, analytical, probing, intrusive; (adj, n) questioning; (v) inquire; (n) enquiry, question, examination. ANTONYM: (adj) uninquiring inquiry: (n, v) search; (n) investigation, enquiry, query, hearing, inquest, research, exploration, trial, question, demand insanity: (adj, n) craziness, derangement, frenzy, aberration; (n) delirium, dementia, mania, folly, lunacy, idiocy; (adj) madness. ANTONYMS: (n) sanity, sense insatiable: (adj) ravenous, voracious, insatiate, gluttonous, avaricious, quenchless, avid, unquenchable, unsatiable, grasping, sateless. ANTONYM: (adj) moderate inscrutable: (adj) inexplicable, incomprehensible, mysterious, weird, cryptic, cryptical, deep, enigmatic, uncanny, hidden, arcane. ANTONYMS: (adj) transparent, expressive, clear, straightforward insensible: (adj) imperceptible, numb, unconscious, callous, dull, unaware, apathetic, impassive, indiscernible, comatose, impassible. ANTONYMS: (adj) sensible, conscious, sensitive, awake, alive, compassionate, concerned, aware insidious: (adj) cunning, crafty, deceitful, deceptive, guileful, subtle, treacherous, devious; (adj, v) sly, wily, elusive. ANTONYMS: (adj)
straightforward, harmless insight: (n) vision, acumen, understanding, perception, penetration, brainwave, apprehension, acquaintance, knowledge, idea, foresight. ANTONYMS: (n) hindsight, foolishness, ignorance, clumsiness insignificant: (adj) inconsequential, inconsiderable, humble, poor, immaterial, trivial, unimportant, light, infinitesimal, indifferent, small. ANTONYMS: (adj) significant, enormous, major, important, huge, substantial, considerable, great, colossal, valuable, influential insipid: (adj) tasteless, bland, dull, watery, flavorless, uninteresting, vapid, savorless, boring, tame, humdrum. ANTONYMS: (adj) exciting, tasty, interesting, flavorful, spicy, lively, colorful, dark, bright, inspired, imaginative insolence: (n) impertinence, arrogance, audacity, impudence, effrontery, cheek, assumption, gall, disrespect, haughtiness, crust. ANTONYMS: (n) respect, politeness, meekness, shyness insolent: (adj) impertinent, abusive, disrespectful, impudent, fresh, arrogant, brazen, defiant, offensive, brassy, bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectful, modest, gracious, meek, submissive insoluble: (adj) inextricable, insolvable, irresoluble, unsolvable, indiscerptible, inaccessible, indissolvable, indivisible, inexplicable, hopeless, firm inspiration: (n) afflatus, encouragement, idea, incentive, revelation, breath, inhalation, notion; (n, v) illumination, infusion; (adj, n) genius inspired: (adj) ingenious, adopted, elysian, creative, imaginative, elected, inventive, unearthly, brilliant, stimulated, enthusiastic. ANTONYMS: (adj) bland, unimaginative, abysmal, mediocre instant: (adj, n) present; (adj) immediate, prompt; (n) flash, minute, jiffy, point, second; (adj, v) exigent; (adj, n, v) pressing, urgent. ANTONYMS: (n) age, eternity; (adj) considered, delayed, slow instantly: (adv, n) directly; (adj, adv) immediately, at once; (adv) instantaneously, promptly, forthwith, now, readily, quickly,
Joseph Conrad momently, momentarily. ANTONYMS: (adv) later, slowly, gradually instructed: (adj) taught, tutored, enlightened, intelligent, arranged, instruct, experienced, qualified; (v) erudite, lettered, leaned instructing: (adj) directory, directorial, enjoining, containing directions, improving instrument: (n) channel, deed, tool, pawn, apparatus, agency, document, expedient, appliance, gear; (n, v) implement intelligence: (n) cleverness, intellect, news, tidings, understanding, acumen, mentality, knowledge, brains, comprehension, brainpower. ANTONYMS: (n) stupidity, emotion, slowness, foolishness, ineptness intelligent: (adj) intellectual, astute, sensible, alert, rational, quickwitted, bright, cunning, gifted, knowledgeable, brilliant. ANTONYMS: (adj) dim, thick, slow, stupid, dull, foolish intended: (adj) deliberate, calculated, destined, knowing, meant, planned, premeditated, prospective, willful, designed; (adj, v) voluntary. ANTONYMS: (adj) accidental, involuntary, unintended, spontaneous, unconscious intense: (adj) acute, deep, brilliant, fervent, fierce, ardent, burning, severe, furious, extreme; (adj, v) vivid. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, calm, weak, slight, imperceptible, superficial, shallow, gentle, dim, insignificant, relaxed intensified: (adj) intense, resonant, furious intensity: (adj, n) strength; (n) force, forcefulness, volume, depth, fierceness, emphasis, energy, forte, fury, ferocity. ANTONYMS: (n) weakness, dullness, indifference, mildness, softness, scarcity, quietness, calmness, apathy, gentleness, faintness intention: (n) idea, intent, goal, purpose, cause, motive, mind; (n, v) aim, end, design, drift intercourse: (n) contact, coition, conversation, communication, coitus, dealings, converse, commerce, liaison, congress; (adj, n) acquaintance interfering: (adj, n) meddling; (adj) officious, busy, disturbing, meddlesome, nosy, busybodied,
curious, overbearing, domineering; (n) hindrance interior: (adj) inner, internal, inland, inward, midland, central, domestic, innermost; (n) hinterland, bosom; (adj, n) center. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) exterior; (adj) external, foreign, outer, outdoor; (n) shore, shoreline, edge interminable: (adj) endless, eternal, incessant, infinite, illimitable, immeasurable, unending, ceaseless, timeless, continual, unlimited. ANTONYMS: (adj) temporary, finite, intermittent, sporadic, concise interrupt: (v) disturb, break, hinder, intermit, stop, cut, break in, arrest, check; (n, v) suspend; (adj, v) pause. ANTONYMS: (v) cheer, respect, restore interrupted: (adj) discontinuous, fitful, intermittent, discontinued, disconnected, unsuccessive, intervallic, episodic, gaping, periodic; (prep) interrupt interrupting: (adj) cross, interchanged, interpelling, meddlesome, adverse, defensive, contrary, interpellant, interruptive interview: (n) consultation, audience, conversation, hearing, examination, appointment, dialogue; (v) question, interrogate; (n, v) talk, encounter intimacy: (adj, n) familiarity, acquaintance; (n) closeness, fellowship, association, friendship, intercourse, affair, camaraderie, conversance, confidence. ANTONYMS: (n) distance, formality intimate: (adj, adv, v) close; (n, v) express, imply; (v) hint, indicate, allude, suggest; (adj) informal, inner, internal; (adj, v) confidential. ANTONYMS: (adj) formal, cold, unfriendly, external, outermost, public, superficial intolerable: (adj) unbearable, insupportable, painful, obnoxious, detestable, inexcusable, deplorable, undesirable, hard, excruciating, difficult. ANTONYMS: (adj) bearable, tolerable, acceptable, reasonable, nice, understandable, lovable, excusable, inoffensive, manageable intolerably: (adv) excruciatingly, unbearably, insufferably, unendurably, insupportably, unfeasibly, impossibly, horribly, unpardonably, inexcusably, unforgivably. ANTONYMS: (adv) tolerably, excusably, bearably,
141 acceptably, pleasantly, understandably intriguing: (adj) interesting, absorbing, fascinating, designing, engrossing, scheming, enchanting, challenging, provocative, captivating, attractive. ANTONYMS: (adj) repellent, uninteresting, ordinary introduce: (v) interject, inject, advance, infuse, initiate, acquaint, implant, inaugurate, bring in, present, enter. ANTONYMS: (v) end, terminate, remove, export introducing: (n) introduction invading: (adj) invade, incursive, attacking, impertinent, abhorrent, abusive, aggressive, assailant, disgusting, disagreeable, distasteful invalid: (adj) false, illogical, unreasonable, null, weak, void, unhealthy, sick, flawed; (n) infirm; (v) disable. ANTONYMS: (adj) valid, legitimate, current, healthy, true, watertight, correct invalided: (v) bedridden, laid up invariably: (adv) constantly, ever, forever, permanently, continually, incessantly; (adj) never otherwise, unfailingly, without exception, without fail; (adj, adv) uniformly invasion: (n) assault, incursion, aggression, inroad, foray, intrusion, influx, descent, raid, encroachment, infringement. ANTONYMS: (n) retreat, surrender, withdrawal, defense invincible: (adj) insurmountable, unbeatable, insuperable, impregnable, irresistible, unconquerable, unyielding, unquenchable, proof against, impassable, invulnerable. ANTONYMS: (adj) defenseless, powerless, weak, feeble invisible: (adj) obscure, hidden, inconspicuous, intangible, sightless, concealed, impalpable, occult, indiscernible, inappreciable, unseen. ANTONYMS: (adj) obvious, conspicuous, noticeable, palpable invited: (adj) welcomer, wanted, cherished inviting: (adj) attractive, alluring, engaging, tempting, enticing, appealing, magnetic, captivating, prepossessing, seductive, appetizing. ANTONYMS: (adj) offensive, repellent, uninviting, unappealing, unwelcoming, bleak, uncomfortable invoke: (v) entreat, evoke, appeal,
142 conjure, pray, beseech, appeal to, summon, cite, arouse, name. ANTONYMS: (v) ignore, waive iron: (v) firm, flatten; (n) Fe, chain, cast iron, irons; (adj) hard, adamant, steel, harsh, tenacious ironic: (adj) wry, sarcastic, satirical, sardonic, mocking, ironical, derisive, cynical, dry, cutting, scathing. ANTONYMS: (adj) consistent, serious irresistible: (adj) resistless, invincible, irrefragable, irrefutable, overpowering, overwhelming, impregnable, indomitable, charming, fascinating; (adj, v) uncontrollable. ANTONYMS: (adj) resistible, insignificant, unappealing, weak irresistibly: (adv) charmingly, necessarily, overwhelmingly, charismatically, fiercely, temptingly, overpoweringly, appealingly, beguilingly irresolutely: (adv) waveringly, undecidedly, indecisively, hesitantly, uncertainly, hesitatingly, weakly, infirmly, spinelessly, unsteadily, unsettledly. ANTONYMS: (adv) decisively, firmly irretrievably: (adv) permanently, for all time, irremediably, forever, irrecoverably, once and for all, irrevocably, irreversibly irritable: (adj) fractious, irascible, edgy, cantankerous, touchy, petulant, excitable, cross, sensitive, grumpy, disagreeable. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, happy, cheerful, amiable, patient, pleasant, stable, courteous; (n) cheeriness irritating: (adj) infuriating, bothersome, annoying, exasperating, irksome, irritative, vexatious, aggravating, troublesome, irritant; (v) stinging. ANTONYMS: (adj) soothing, calming, delightful, pleasant irritation: (n) exasperation, anger, annoyance, displeasure, bother, excitation, temper, excitement, irritability, vexation, annoying. ANTONYMS: (n) satisfaction, balm, calm, calmness, equanimity, patience island: (n, v) isle; (n) islet, reef, safety zone, Cebu, Papua; (v) insulate, isolate, segregate, sequester, separate islet: (n) island, ait, reef, holm, atoll, eyot, breaker, coral reef, coral
Heart of Darkness Island, wight isolation: (n) estrangement, privacy, alienation, insulation, dissociation, secrecy, loneliness, solitude, seclusion, insularity, desolation. ANTONYMS: (n) companionship, inclusion, unity, kinship, company, cheerfulness, integration issued: (adj) executed, done ivory: (n) tusk, dentin, whiteness, elephant, teeth, yellow, dentine; (adj) chalk, lily, milk, paper jabber: (n, v) babble, gabble; (adj, n, v) chatter, prattle; (n) drivel, gibberish; (v) rave, tattle, utter; (adj) clack, palaver. ANTONYM: (n) sense jack: (n) flag, jackass, mariner, fellow, jackfruit, sailor, jackscrew, socket, blue Peter, amberfish, crevalle jack jacket: (n) sheath, cover, case, covering, envelope, coat, blazer, doublet, dust cover, skin, shield jealous: (adj) distrustful, envious, covetous, suspicious, jealousy, resentful, invidious, green, grudging, jaundiced, attentive. ANTONYM: (adj) trusting jealousy: (n) suspicion, jealous, jealousness, envy, envious, alertness, distrust, contention, competition, scruple, qualm jeopardy: (n) hazard, peril, chance, precariousness, insecurity, exposure, threat, venture, adventure; (n, v) risk, menace. ANTONYM: (n) security jerking: (adj) arrhythmic, arrhythmical, jerky, unsteady; (n) movement, jolt, dork, jar jetty: (n) groyne, pier, breakwater, dock, mole, bulwark, berth, quay, wharf, jutty, harbor jewels: (n) jewelry, gems, wealth, hoops, Perrie, riches, studs, fortune, fineness, earrings, decoration jingle: (n, v) ring, chime, ding, clank; (v) clang, clink, tinkle, rattle, sound, peal; (n) chink. ANTONYM: (n) silence jocose: (adj) humorous, facetious, jesting, funny, frolicsome, witty, pleasant, gay, jovial, joking, coltish joining: (n) connection, junction, connexion, union, combination, association, concatenation, attachment, assembly, fastening; (adj) connecting joint: (n) seam, articulation, hinge, connection; (n, v) join; (adj) mutual, communal, common, collective, cooperative; (v) articulate.
ANTONYMS: (adj) individual, unilateral, private, separate, solitary joke: (n, v) banter; (n) hoax, fun, quip, gag, caper, game, antic, prank, humor; (v) tease jolly: (adj) gay, cheerful, happy, festive, genial, bright, cheery, merry, jocund; (v) chaff; (adv) lively. ANTONYMS: (adj) gloomy, miserable, serious journalist: (n) reporter, correspondent, author, columnist, pressman, scribe, newscaster, diarist, diary keeper, chronicler, newsman jove: (n) Jovian, Jovinianist, thunderer joviality: (n) glee, cheerfulness, happiness, mirth, merriment, gaiety, festivity, conviviality, hilarity, geniality; (adj) jocundity. ANTONYMS: (n) misery, sadness judge: (v) consider, think, evaluate, believe, condemn, assess, calculate, guess; (n) arbitrator, arbiter; (n, v) umpire. ANTONYM: (v) doubt judged: (n) judging; (adj) guilty, deliberate, legal, lawful judgment: (n, v) decision, belief, discernment, condemnation, sense, discrimination; (n) determination, discretion, opinion, assessment, adjudication. ANTONYMS: (n) clumsiness, request, tastelessness jump: (n, v) bound, start, bounce, hop, caper, startle, dive, rise; (v) spring, hurdle; (adj, v) skip. ANTONYMS: (n, v) decrease; (v) surface, drop, hesitate jungle: (n) forest, tangle, maze, snarl, wood, woodland, thicket, labyrinth, prairie, primeval forest; (adj, n) wilderness jungles: (n) jungle jupiter: (n) Jove, blazon, deity, father, Zeus, solar system, thunderer justice: (adj, n) equity, right, integrity, honesty; (n) judge, impartiality, judicature, jurist, morality, justness; (adj) just. ANTONYMS: (n) unfairness, wickedness keen: (adj, v) eager, fresh, biting, brisk, avid; (adj) sharp, intense, intelligent, enthusiastic, exquisite, piercing. ANTONYMS: (adj) indifferent, apathetic, unenthusiastic, blunt, unwilling, reluctant, passive, stupid, unconcerned, lukewarm, disinterested keeping: (n) care, conservation,
Joseph Conrad charge, guardianship, maintenance, holding, observance, storage, conformation, consistency, conformity kernel: (n) gist, heart, essence, center, inwardness, quintessence, grain, marrow, substance, content, nucleus kick: (v) grumble, complain; (n) bitch, beef, thrill, gripe, charge, excitement; (n, v) recoil, spurn, protest. ANTONYMS: (v) start; (n) bore kill: (n, v) assassinate, destroy; (v) erase, annihilate, eliminate, extinguish, finish, blast, decimate, execute, eradicate. ANTONYMS: (v) revitalize, revive; (n) hunter killed: (n) casualty; (adj) fallen killing: (n) carnage, manslaughter, murder, kill, cleanup, bloodshed, assassination, massacre; (v) captivating; (adj) fatal, draining. ANTONYM: (n) preservation kinship: (n) consanguinity, affinity, connection, cognation, kin, relationship, relation, brotherhood, filiation, blood, alliance. ANTONYM: (n) isolation kiss: (n, v) caress, brush, embrace, touch; (n) osculation, salute, lip, Kiss of peace, kiss hands; (v) osculate, love knee: (n) bracket, articulation, joint, kneel, knee joint, genu, articulatio genus, scythe, zigzag, sickle, bend knees: (n) knee knitter: (n) needleworker knitting: (n) knitwork, needlework, needlecraft, knitted fabric, web, braid, weave, creating from raw materials, knit stitch knob: (n) button, swelling, hump, knop, protuberance, grip, nub, lump, node, bump; (adj, n) bulb knock: (n, v) hit, blow, bang, bump, tap, strike, whack, bash, punch, cuff; (n) crash. ANTONYMS: (n) improvement, boost; (v) encourage, bolster, approve knot: (n) bow, cluster, lump, gang, joint; (v) entangle, knit, bind; (n, v) tie, loop, tangle. ANTONYMS: (v) unravel, undo, unknot, disentangle knotted: (adj) knotty, gnarled, gnarly, involved, entangled, complicated, tangled, matted, knobbed, fastened; (adj, v) kinky. ANTONYMS: (adj) straight, tidy, relaxed knowing: (adj, v) canny, crafty, wise; (adj, n) clever; (adj) conscious, aware, ingenious, intelligent, bright, conversant, smart. ANTONYMS:
(adj) naive, uncomprehending, unconscious laborer: (n) hand, labourer, operative, drudge, labor, employee, manual laborer, peon, navvy, docker, day laborer lager-beer: (n) lager laid: (adj) layed, lay, place, placed, put, situated, arranged, determined, dictated, hardened, ordered lake: (n) pond, pool, lagoon, puddle, lough, reservoir, loke, bayou, crimson, lagune, carmine lame: (adj) crippled, disabled, halting, feeble, halt, weak, paralytic; (adj, n) game; (adj, v) paralyze, maim, becripple lamentable: (adj) grievous, pitiful, distressing, sad, dismal, sorrowful, piteous, unfortunate, lugubrious; (adj, v) pitiable, mournful. ANTONYMS: (adj) laudable, fortunate lamp: (n) light, lantern, beacon, headlight, flashbulb, flashgun, table lamp, oil lamp, storm lantern; (n, v) look; (v) behold landed: (adj) land, territorial, allodial, predial landing: (n) disembarkation, land, dock, touchdown, debarkation, disembarkment, floor, platform, landing place, bank, bankingground landscape: (n) sight, vista, scene, scenery, outlook, view, ground, lookout, landscape painting, countryside, perspective languid: (adj) lazy, dull, indolent, feeble, lethargic, lackadaisical, sluggish, faint, torpid, inert, apathetic. ANTONYMS: (adj) active, lively, exciting, vigorous languidly: (adv) languorously, listlessly, wearily, lethargically, slowly, dreamily, limply, weakly, torpidly, indolently, impassively. ANTONYMS: (adv) dynamically, vigorously languor: (adj, n) inactivity, inertia, feebleness; (n) lethargy, fatigue, infirmity, lassitude, weakness, indifference, ennui; (adj) atony. ANTONYM: (n) energy lank: (adj) gaunt, angular, emaciated, meager, thin, skinny, spindly, spare, scrawny; (adj, v) lean, barren lanky: (adj) rangy, lean, tall, scrawny, skinny, thin, gangling, bony, emaciated, gaunt, angular. ANTONYMS: (adj) rounded, stocky, rotund, plump, fat
143 lark: (n) joke, fun, trick, prank, antic, caper, game; (n, v) romp, frolic, gambol; (v) rollick lately: (adv) tardily, newly, freshly, belatedly, slowly, latterly, deadly; (adj, adv) anew, late, afresh; (adj) recent latitude: (n) freedom, scope, breadth, room, expanse, range, compass, climate, clime, space, reach. ANTONYM: (n) constraint laugh: (n, v) joke, giggle, chortle, titter, snicker; (v) smile; (n) jest, gag, jape, laughter, cackle. ANTONYM: (v) weep laughing: (adj) merry, smiling, laughable, jolly, gay, lighthearted, frolicsome, playful, pleased, dizzy; (adv) laughingly. ANTONYM: (adj) serious laughter: (n) amusement, fun, guffaw, merriment, chortle, chuckle, mirth, hilarity, giggle, derision, happiness. ANTONYMS: (n) sadness, gloom, despair, boredom, misery, despondency lavender: (adj) lilac, purple, puce, light purple, pale purple, indigo, chromatic; (adj, n) violet, amethyst; (n) shrub, genus Lavandula layer: (n) course, ply, coating, level, film, stratum, crust, floor, covering; (v) pile; (n, v) cover laying: (n) egg laying, placing, parturition, place, repose, setting, put, position, lay, oyster park, oviposition laze: (v) loaf, lounge, slug, bask, loll, slouch, loiter, dawdle, stretch out, rest; (n) idleness. ANTONYM: (v) work lazily: (adv) indolently, idly, slothfully, languidly, slowly, torpidly, supinely, lethargically, sleepily, drowsily, apathetically. ANTONYMS: (adv) dynamically, vigorously leaf: (n) page, folio, foliage, petal, frond, leafage, slip, verdure, leaflet; (n, v) sheet; (v) leave leaking: (n) leak, leakage; (adj) unseaworthy, blabbermouthed leaky: (adj) leak, cracked, permeable, porous, holey, blabbermouthed, unseaworthy, tattling, talebearing, incontinent, faulty. ANTONYMS: (adj) tight, watertight lean: (adj, v) gaunt; (adj) emaciated, thin, bony, lank; (n, v) bend, tilt, slant, list, careen; (n) inclination. ANTONYMS: (adj) plump, rich, chubby, greasy, stout; (v) straighten,
144 repel leaned: (v) erudite, lettered; (adj) tilted, inclined, educated leaning: (adj, n) bent, disposition, partiality; (n) propensity, bias, tendency, incline, lean; (adj) tilted, canted, inclined. ANTONYMS: (n) antipathy, dislike; (adj) upright leaping: (n) jump, bounce, bound, leap, spring, saltation, bouncing; (v) jumping; (adj, v) bounding; (adj) springing; (adv) leapingly learned: (adj) educated, knowledgeable, scholarly, academic, cultured, literary, bookish, lettered; (adj, v) enlightened, wise, knowing. ANTONYMS: (adj) innate, unconditioned, foolish, unlearned learning: (n, v) erudition, enlightenment; (n) acquisition, education, culture, scholarship, wisdom, acquirement, letter, literature; (v) learn least: (n) minimum; (adj) smallest, minimal, littlest, lowest, insignificant, minutest, negligible; (adj, n) smallest amount; (adv) at least, fully. ANTONYMS: (adj) maximum, greatest; (adj, adv) most leaves: (n) departure, leaving, plants, trees, vegetation lecture: (n, v) discourse, harangue, reprimand, sermon, rebuke, talk, censure; (n) speech, oration; (v) chide, preach. ANTONYMS: (v) praise; (n) compliment legality: (n) validity, right, lawfulness, justice, law, legitimacy, truth, guaranty, fairness, justify, warrant. ANTONYM: (n) illegality leggings: (n) gramashes, pedal pushers legitimate: (adj) authentic, genuine, just, justified, valid, orthodox, true, justifiable; (adj, v) lawful; (v) legalize, legitimatize. ANTONYMS: (adj) illegal, banned, informal, unlawful, bogus, invalid, illegitimate, unconstitutional, imitation, unreasonable; (v) outlaw legs: (v) pegs, trotters, pins; (n) patience, pedestal, stamina leisurely: (adj) slow, deliberate, easygoing, leisure, at ease, unhurried, measured, idle; (adv) deliberately, slowly, at leisure. ANTONYMS: (adj) rushed, hurried, formal, vigorous, speedy, fast; (adv) formally, quickly letting: (n) lease, rental, let, renting, hire, leasing, rent, belongings, permission; (adj) lenient
Heart of Darkness levy: (v) impose, raise, inflict, recruit; (n) duty, assessment, impost, tribute, toll, gathering; (n, v) charge lies: (n) fabrication, falsehood, lie, lying, deceit, defamation, denigration, dishonesty, slander, libel, treachery. ANTONYM: (n) truth lift: (n, v) raise, rise, elevator, boost, heave, hike, airlift, advance; (v) elevate, erect, filch. ANTONYMS: (v) lower, descend, drop, hinder, put, return, impose; (n, v) knock lifted: (adj) raised, elevated, lift, lofty, upraised, steep lifting: (n) rising, hoisting, plagiarism, restyling, copying, jacking; (adj) elating, enlivening, exciting, invigorating, thrilling lighted: (adj) illuminated, lit, light, ablaze, bright, ignited, burn, burning, ignite, kindled, lighten lighthouse: (n) light, pharos, beacon light, tower, Pharo, phare, beacon fire, Very lights, flare, balize, faro lightless: (adj) gloomy, dim, obscure, sunless, unlit, unlighted, unilluminated, tenebrous, dusky, invisible lightning: (n) levin, electricity, thunderbolt, Leven, ignis fatuus, heat lightning, forked lightning, fetter, dart, chain lightning; (adj) wind lights: (n) illumination, burn, lung, spacing material liked: (adj) popular, loved, favorite, preferred. ANTONYM: (adj) disliked likeness: (n) resemblance, copy, effigy, image, affinity, similarity, correspondence, facsimile; (adj, n) figure, form, semblance. ANTONYMS: (n) difference, diversity, dissimilarity, unlikeness, contrast likewise: (adv) besides, in addition, furthermore, alike, moreover, further, too, similarly; (adj, adv) as well, equally; (adj) even limb: (n) arm, branch, member, bough, extremity, offshoot, part, leg, wing, appendage, edge limit: (v) restrict, circumscribe, restrain, check; (n, v) border, curb, confine, boundary, close; (n, prep, v) extent; (n) edge. ANTONYMS: (v) broaden, extend, increase, derestrict, allow, encourage, express, promote; (n) minimum, extension, freedom limits: (n) confines, bounds, range, frontier, area, circumference,
perimeter, field, margin, boundaries; (v) confine. ANTONYM: (n) middle limp: (adv, n, v) hobble; (adj, v) flabby; (n, v) hitch; (adj) flaccid, slack, flexible, drooping, flimsy, weak, loose; (v) hop. ANTONYMS: (adj) taut, firm, hard, rigid, upright, alive, strong, stiff, tight linen: (n) fabric, flax, lingerie, doily, doyley, doyly, cambric, underwear, underclothes, hemp; (v) muslin lingering: (adj) long, chronic, extended, dilatory, protracted, prolonged, residual, lengthy, inactive, dull; (n) delay. ANTONYM: (adj) quick lips: (n) lip, inlet, logical inference per second, chops, porch, portal, portico, propylon, snout, door, orifice listen: (v) hear, heed, hearken, attend, harken, list, listening, eavesdrop, mind, concentrate, pay attention listener: (n, v) auditor; (n) eavesdropper, audience, observer, perceiver, hearkener, attender, attendee, attendant, beholder listeners: (n) listener, viewers, spectators, addressees listening: (v) listen, hear, obey; (n) auscultation, perception, sensing, audition, audience, earshot, auditory modality; (adj) attentive listlessly: (adv) sluggishly, spiritlessly, indifferently, languidly, slowly, weakly, indolently, supinely, lazily, inanimately, slackly. ANTONYMS: (adv) brightly, nimbly litany: (n) collect, speech, supplication, paternoster, address, repetition, rogation, hymn literally: (adv) precisely, plainly, faithfully, strictly, accurately, rightly, verbally; (adj, adv) word for word, really, sic, actually. ANTONYMS: (adv) metaphorically, loosely littered: (adj) untidy, under attack, beleaguered, beset, besieged, messy, plagued, topsy-turvy, tormented lively: (adj, adv) jolly, sprightly; (adj, v) active, cheerful; (adj) energetic, agile, keen, busy, gay, fresh, jovial. ANTONYMS: (adj) lethargic, listless, inactive, unexciting, lifeless, awkward, sad, gentle, tired, insipid, subdued load: (adj, n, v) charge, fill; (n) cargo, freight, weight, consignment; (n, v) stack, heap, pack, pile; (v) encumber. ANTONYMS: (v)
Joseph Conrad unpack, remove, eject, relieve, empty, alleviate; (n) lightness loaded: (adj) full, flush, moneyed, wealthy, affluent, rich, tipsy, tight, intoxicated, charged; (adj, prep) burdened. ANTONYMS: (adj) empty, lacking, unloaded, innocent, impoverished loads: (adj, n) lots, a lot, myriad, much; (n) plenty, heaps, oodles, masses, lashings, tons, lot. ANTONYMS: (n) few, scarcity; (adj) inadequate loafing: (n) idleness, dalliance, dolce far niente, faineance, inaction, inactivity; (adj) lazy, unemployed loathing: (n, v) abomination, aversion, dislike, distaste; (n) hate, hatred, abhorrence, detestation, nausea, antipathy, execration. ANTONYMS: (n) love, adoration, liking, delight, goodwill locality: (n) vicinity, area, place, spot, position, district, point, region, stead, section; (n, v) quarter lodged: (adj) wedged, stuck fast, stuck, jammed lofty: (adj, v) high, elevated; (adj) exalted, eminent, arrogant, grand, tall, haughty, great, distinguished, majestic. ANTONYMS: (adj) short, lowly, base, modest, deferential, humble logic: (n) argument, logical, sense, reasoning, reason, good sense, art of reasoning, order, logics, principle, coherence. ANTONYMS: (n) inconsistency, disorder loins: (n) waist, body part, haunch, lends, pubic region, area, pubes loitering: (n) delay, dalliance; (adj) slow, dilatory, delaying, inactive, truant, trifling, tardy; (v) loiter; (adv) loiteringly lone: (adj) forlorn, lonely, only, solitary, individual, single, sole, separate, isolated, one, solo. ANTONYM: (adj) attached loneliness: (n) desolation, aloneness, isolation, solitariness, lonesomeness, bleakness, forlornness, desolateness, temperament, unhappiness; (adj, n) solitude. ANTONYMS: (n) inclusion, cheerfulness, hopefulness lonely: (adj) deserted, lone, dreary, solitary, forsaken, desert; (adj, n) isolated, alone; (adv) lonesomely, solely, solitarily. ANTONYMS: (adj) sheltered, populous, cheerful, nearby; (n) foe longing: (n, v) desire, aspiration; (adj) eager, wistful, nostalgic; (n)
nostalgia, wish, hankering, urge, appetite; (adj, n) yearning. ANTONYMS: (n) apathy, disinclination; (adj) satisfied, unconcerned loose: (adj, v) lax, dissolute; (adj, n) limp, liberal, licentious; (adj) light, vague; (v) disengage, relax, release, liberate. ANTONYMS: (adj) dense, close, taut, compressed, strict, compact, wedged, secure, strong, similar; (v) confine loot: (n, v) pillage; (n) prey, booty, prize, kale; (v) despoil, rifle, foray, steal, rob, sack lose: (v) drop, forfeit, mislay, miss, sacrifice, fall behind, fail, to lose, forget, clear, hurt. ANTONYMS: (v) find, secure, recover, earn, obtain, acquire, get, win, beat, keep, succeed lots: (adj, n) plenty, heaps; (adj) a lot, galore; (n) many, scores, scads, oodles, much, masses; (adv) a great deal. ANTONYM: (n) few loud: (adj) flashy, garish, gaudy, blatant, brassy, boisterous, high, jazzy, brazen, piercing; (adj, adv) forte. ANTONYMS: (adj) tasteful, gentle, quiet, subtle, subdued, low, muted, weak, tranquil, thin; (adv) softly loudly: (adv) vociferously, noisily, loud, clamorously, showily, strongly, flamboyantly, obstreperously, luridly, boisterously; (adj, adv) forte. ANTONYMS: (adv) softly, thinly, silently, piano, pleasantly loved: (adj) beloved, pet, cherished, precious, liked, adored, respected, treasured, esteemed, valued; (n) darling. ANTONYM: (adj) hated lovingly: (adv) fondly, affectionately, tenderly, kindly, warmly, caringly, amorously, passionately, devotedly, romantically, dotingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) coldly, disgustedly, distastefully, disapprovingly lowering: (adj) heavy, dismal, gloomy, threatening, dark, glum, murky; (n) fall, drop, cut, decline loyal: (adj, v) firm; (adj, n) unwavering, true, accurate; (adj) fast, steady, constant, reliable, devoted, dependable, obedient. ANTONYMS: (adj) disloyal, unfaithful, unreliable, disobedient, inconstant, treacherous, uncommitted, unpatriotic, unhelpful, fickle
145 loyalty: (n) allegiance, faith, honesty, devotion, fealty, faithfulness, dedication, integrity, commitment, attachment; (adj, n) fidelity. ANTONYMS: (n) unfaithfulness, disobedience, infidelity, treachery, impoliteness, deceit, indifference, doubt, dishonesty, unreliability luckily: (adv) happily, prosperously, auspiciously, fortuitously, successfully, providentially, propitiously, opportunely, advantageously, felicitously, as luck would have it. ANTONYMS: (adv) unluckily, inauspiciously lugging: (n) food lugubrious: (adj) dismal, gloomy, doleful, dark, funereal, melancholy, grievous, somber, dolorous, plaintive, miserable. ANTONYM: (adj) cheerful luminous: (adj) glowing, brilliant, lustrous, lucent, sunny, lambent, radiant, light, aglow; (adj, n) lucid, clear. ANTONYMS: (adj) dark, obscure lumps: (n) repulse, deserts, due, grit, punishment lunatic: (n) madman, maniac, bedlamite; (adj) insane, foolish, moonstruck, mad, mental, deranged, idiotic; (adj, n) madcap. ANTONYM: (adj) sensible lurid: (adj) ghastly, grisly, gruesome, loud, frightful, sharp, shocking, gaudy, sensational, hideous, horrific. ANTONYMS: (adj) subtle, muted, bland, dull, modest lurk: (v) ambuscade, skulk, prowl, waylay, lie in wait, conceal, lurch, loiter, creep, wait, sneak lurking: (n) ambush; (adj) snaky, backstair, backstairs, clandestine, concealed, dormant, latent, potential, skulking, sneaky luster: (n) gloss, light, glitter, brightness, brilliance, sheen, radiance, splendor, lustre, chandelier; (n, v) burnish. ANTONYM: (n) dullness lustrous: (adj, v) bright, splendent; (adj) glossy, brilliant, lucid, shiny, shining, light, luminous, sleek, radiant. ANTONYM: (adj) unhealthy lusty: (adj) energetic, stout, lustful, corpulent, potent, virile, vigorous, hearty, sturdy, bouncing, dynamic. ANTONYM: (adj) feeble lying: (adj) false, deceptive, mendacious, untrue, misleading, fraudulent; (n) lie, falsehood,
146 fabrication, deceit, dishonesty. ANTONYMS: (n) honesty, truthfulness; (adj) truthful machinery: (n) machine, apparatus, enginery, equipment, plant, system, gear, tackle, mechanism, work, installation madhouse: (n) bedlam, loony bin, booby hatch, asylum, funny farm, insane asylum, mental hospital, nuthouse, funny house, crazy house, chaos madness: (n) frenzy, insanity, lunacy, idiocy, folly, delirium, insaneness; (adj, n) furor, rage, desperation, furore. ANTONYMS: (n) sense, calmness, order magic: (n) incantation, charm, enchantment, sorcery, legerdemain, conjuring, glamour, black magic, illusion, theurgy; (adj) magical. ANTONYMS: (n) dullness, science; (adj) everyday, prosaic, normal, natural magnificent: (adj) imposing, brilliant, splendid, grandiose, superb, elegant; (adj, n) grand, excellent, gorgeous, illustrious, glorious. ANTONYMS: (adj) awful, ridiculous, unimpressive, humble, inglorious, modest, meager, unattractive, boring, unexceptional, humdrum magpies: (n) geophagy, em, geophagia, genus pica mahogany: (n) brown, kalantas, hardtack, tree, wood, table, mahogany tree, cedar mahogany, mahogany wood malevolently: (adv) spitefully, malignantly, malignly, hatefully, rancorously, viciously, bitterly, wickedly, perniciously, sinisterly, evilly. ANTONYMS: (adv) benevolently, friendly manage: (n, v) direct, govern, guide; (v) do, administer, cope, accomplish, deal, work, arrange, lead. ANTONYMS: (v) fail, lose, bungle mangled: (adj, prep) lacerated, rent; (adj) deformed, mutilated, lacerate, disabled, broken, maimed, distorted, damaged, blasted mangy: (adj) shabby, seedy, scruffy, scabby, squalid, paltry; (v) contaminated, tainted, peccant, vitiated, poisoned manipulation: (n) handling, management, treatment, use, control, intrigue, touch, execution, fielding, massage, race mankind: (n) world, humanity,
Heart of Darkness humankind, human race, humans, person, flesh, mortality, people, human beings, humanness manner: (adj, n) kind; (n) bearing, demeanor, method, form, appearance, carriage, way; (n, v) custom, style, habit manners: (n) conduct, etiquette, propriety, behavior, deportment, manner, courtesy, custom, decorum, good manners, usage. ANTONYM: (n) vulgarity man-of-war: (n) warship manufactured: (adj) industrial, ersatz, insincere, contrived, unnatural, pretend, feigned, manmade, factory, affected, false marble: (n) taw, marver, leopard, heart of stone, granite, cheetah, marbling; (adj, n) stone; (v) foolscap; (adj) flint, quartz margin: (n, v) edge, border, brink, hem, verge, skirt; (n) boundary, brim, limit, bank, fringe. ANTONYMS: (n) inside, mainstream, middle marked: (adj) conspicuous, noticeable, pronounced, remarkable, distinguished, apparent, definite, notable, obvious, signal, striking. ANTONYMS: (adj) plain, imperceptible, unmarked, unclear, obscure, inconspicuous, ordinary, loose, slight mars: (v) grim visaged war; (n) solar system, terrestrial planet, Red Planet, Bellona mass: (adj, n) bulk, lump, block; (n, v) flock, crowd, cluster, pile, bunch; (n) magnitude, collection, majority. ANTONYMS: (n) lightness, few; (v) disperse massacre: (n, v) murder, carnage, butchery; (v) exterminate, kill, annihilate, butcher, slay; (n) mass murder, bloodshed, killing massive: (adj) large, gigantic, huge, big, great, monumental, immense, enormous, heavy, gross, impressive. ANTONYMS: (adj) small, insignificant, miniature, compact, minute, slight massively: (adv) hugely, enormously, immensely, extremely, solidly, monumentally, greatly, tremendously, impressively, colossally, substantially master: (n) captain, instructor, lord; (v) control, conquer, command, dominate, defeat; (adj, n) original, head, ace. ANTONYMS: (n) underling, servant, novice, amateur
matted: (adj) entangled, tangled, knotted, flat, matt, matte, knotty, fixed, kinky, twisted; (v) crossed. ANTONYMS: (adj) tidy, straight, free matter-of-fact: (adj) prosaic, practical, dry, commonplace, common, normal, ordinary, regular, pragmatic, trivial, realistic mature: (adj, v) ripe, ripen; (v) develop, age, mellow, season; (adj) complete, old, experienced, adult, perfect. ANTONYMS: (adj) childish, naive, young, unripe, sophomoric, unfledged, green, unclear, irresponsible, incomplete; (v) growing maximum: (adj, n) extreme, top, utmost, most; (adj) greatest, highest, supreme, ultimate; (n) limit, upper limit, height. ANTONYMS: (adj) least, minimal, bottom meager: (adj, v) lean, gaunt, bare, spare, frugal; (adj) emaciated, feeble, inadequate, insufficient, scant; (adj, adv) stingy. ANTONYMS: (adj) abundant, lavish, generous, fat, strong, luxurious, filling, large, plentiful, ample, privileged meaning: (n) intent, gist, implication, design, essence, consequence, significance, content, intention, connotation, aim. ANTONYM: (n) triviality meanness: (n) parsimony, closeness, pettiness, avarice, selfishness, baseness, stinginess, niggardliness, miserliness, nastiness; (adj, n) degeneracy. ANTONYMS: (n) generosity, extravagance, decency meant: (adj) destined, implied, sincere, preordained, intentional, predestined; (v) intend, designate measure: (n) amount, criterion, extent, measurement, estimate, degree, beat, benchmark, quantity, meter; (n, v) act. ANTONYMS: (v) guess, estimate measured: (adj) careful, moderate, calculated, temperate, reasonable, regular, rhythmic, metrical, sober, rhythmical, leisurely. ANTONYMS: (adj) rushed, unmeasured, fast, hurried, rapid, rash, thoughtless mechanics: (n) mechanism, aerodynamics, kinematics, hydraulics, kinetics, kinetic, statics, classical mechanics, theory of motion, pneumatics, hydraulic meddling: (adj) busy, inquisitive, curious, meddlesome, intrusive, officious, nosy, dabbling,
Joseph Conrad impertinent, busybodied; (adj, n) prying medicine: (n) drug, medication, medicament, therapy, physic, treatment, remedy, cathartic, medical science, preparation; (v) medicate meditating: (n) conception meditation: (n, v) contemplation, study; (n) consideration, reflection, deliberation, thought, introspection, musing, rumination, conception, reflexion. ANTONYM: (n) distraction meditative: (adj, v) thoughtful, pensive; (adj) wistful, reflective, broody, museful, ruminative, musing, brooding; (v) philosophical, sedate mediterranean: (adj) midland, equatorial; (n) Azores, canaries, Mediterranean Sea melancholy: (adj, v) dreary; (adj, n) gloom, melancholic; (adj) depressed, dejected, dismal, gloomy, doleful; (n, v) low spirits; (n) gloominess, depression. ANTONYMS: (n) happiness, cheerfulness, hopefulness, optimism; (adj) happy, bright, cheery, satisfied memoranda: (n) memorandum, note memories: (n) recollections, reminiscences, nostalgia, memento Mori menace: (n) threat, danger; (n, v) hazard, risk, peril; (v) endanger, imperil, intimidate, jeopardize, threaten, bully. ANTONYMS: (v) help, protect, guard; (n) pleasure menacing: (adj) threatening, sinister, ominous, imminent, impending, minatory, ugly, frightening, minacious, dangerous, formidable. ANTONYMS: (adj) auspicious, approachable, promising, reassuring, soothing, favorable menacingly: (adv) sinisterly, minaciously, ominously, minatorily, frighteningly, forebodingly, seriously, menacing, threatening, warningly, intimidatingly mend: (adj, v) improve; (v) correct, cure, heal, doctor, better, amend, restore, convalesce; (n, v) fix, patch. ANTONYMS: (v) worsen, tear, smash, decline, deteriorate; (n) fracture mental: (adj) ideal, psychic, inner, subjective, spiritual, psychical, psychological, insane, genial, cerebral, psychotic. ANTONYMS: (adj) physical, bodily, sane
mentally: (adv) spiritually, psychologically, rationally, ideally, innerly, psychically, lunatically, subjectively, madly, spiritual, inwardly. ANTONYMS: (adv) emotionally, physically mention: (n, v) comment, name, remark, call, hint; (v) cite, observe, commend; (n) allusion, citation, reference. ANTONYM: (v) conceal mentioned: (adj) spoken mephistopheles: (n) Moloch, devil, the Devil, Belial, Ahriman, Shedim, titan, fiend, Lucifer, Asmodeus, Satan merciless: (adj) brutal, pitiless, unmerciful, remorseless, heartless, implacable, inhuman, hard, grim, barbarous, unfeeling. ANTONYMS: (adj) charitable, kind, humane, soft, caring, tolerant mercilessly: (adv) remorselessly, heartlessly, unmercifully, ruthlessly, unfeelingly, cruelly, relentlessly, brutally, callously, unrelentingly, unkindly. ANTONYMS: (adv) humanely, mercifully mercy: (n) kindness, compassion, pity, favor, leniency, pardon, forgiveness, grace, charity, humanity; (n, v) quarter. ANTONYMS: (n) cruelty, harshness, unkindness, severity, mercilessness, ruthlessness, impatience, inhumanity mere: (adj, n) entire; (adj) bare, simple, pure; (n) loch, tarn, boundary, absolute; (n, v) downright; (adv) merely; (adj, v) clear merry: (adj) joyful, lively, cheerful, glad, jolly, facetious, frolicsome, lighthearted, festive; (adj, n) convivial, jovial. ANTONYMS: (adj) gloomy, miserable, serious, uptight mess: (n) jumble, clutter, hodgepodge, jam, difficulty, confusion, disorder, chaos; (v) soil, botch; (adj, n) scrape. ANTONYMS: (n) success, space, neatness, ease messenger: (n, v) herald; (n) harbinger, runner, emissary, bearer, ambassador, precursor, courier, carrier, apostle, errand metal: (n) gallium, calcium, europium, chromium, cm, cobalt, curium, dysprosium, erbium, caesium, cadmium. ANTONYM: (adj) nonmetallic mica: (n) lepidolite, biotite, nacre, mineral, glimmer, Muscovite, phlogopite, paragonite, glist,
147 Muscovy glass midnight: (n) dark, noon, hour midst: (adj, n) middle; (adv) mid, between; (prep) among, amid; (n) core, center, thick, interior, heart, waist mighty: (adj) immense, huge, grand, intense, high, big, forcible, strong, large, great; (adj, adv) powerful. ANTONYMS: (adj) puny, tiny, weak, insignificant mild: (adj, n) kindly, gracious; (adj) easy, lenient, benign, docile, humble, clement, sweet, balmy, delicate. ANTONYMS: (adj) extreme, pungent, spicy, sharp, severe, scathing, incisive, hot, powerful, great, passionate mile: (n) MI, nautical mile, land mile, knot, Swedish mile, international nautical mile, Admiralty mile, air mile, geographical mile, Roman mile; (v) furlong millions: (n) billions, jillions, trillions, large indefinite amount, zillions, myriad, large indefinite quantity mine: (adj, v) excavate, sap; (n) excavation, pit, fund, land mine, vein; (v) exploit, burrow; (adj) my, delve mingled: (adj) miscellaneous, complex, indiscriminate, heterogeneous, medley, confused, eclectic, motley, different; (v) blended, blent minute: (n, v) note; (adj) little, delicate, microscopic, small, atomic; (n) jiffy, flash, moment, second, memorandum. ANTONYMS: (adj) huge, big, gigantic, significant, cursory, immeasurable, tremendous, important, colossal, giant, large miracle: (adj, n) wonder, prodigy; (n) phenomenon, mystery, wonderwork, surprise, sensation, event, theurgy, astonishment, amazement mischief: (adj, n) evil, hurt, harm; (n) damage, ill, detriment, disadvantage, devilry, caper, devilment, maleficence. ANTONYMS: (n) obedience, beneficence, help miserable: (adj, v) forlorn, wretched, unhappy; (adj) mean, low, abject, deplorable, downcast, bad, desolate; (adj, adv) meager. ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, generous, cheerful, cheery, bright, fortunate, hopeful, jubilant, luxurious, overjoyed, heavenly misgivings: (n) anxiety, doubt,
148 misgiving, apprehension, fear, suspicion, doubts, concern, consternation, disbelief, foreboding. ANTONYM: (n) equanimity missed: (adj) lost, irretrievable, incomprehensible, bemused, confounded, befuddled, baffled, disoriented, helpless, at sea, bewildered mission: (n) job, delegation, deputation, goal, legation, assignment, duty, charge, chore, errand, task mist: (n, v) cloud; (v) blur, cover, obscure, befog, drizzle, bedim; (n) haze, vapor, brume; (adj) misty mistake: (n, v) miss, blunder, err, slip; (n) failure, error, misconception, misapprehension, defect, demerit; (v) misapprehend. ANTONYMS: (v) appreciate, distinguish, interpret mistily: (adv) foggily, vaguely, dimly, shadowily, indistinctly, obscurely, vaporously, blearily, murkily, darkly, faintly. ANTONYMS: (adv) distinctly, clearly mistress: (n) dame, concubine, madame, inamorata, lady, lover, fancy woman, doxy, girl, kept woman, missis misty: (adj) hazy, foggy, cloudy, brumous, dim, indistinct, nebulous, fuzzy, dark, dull, blurred. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, distinct misunderstanding: (n) misapprehension, disagreement, misconception, misinterpretation, error, misconstruction, dispute, quarrel, mistaking; (n, v) dissension, difference. ANTONYMS: (n) harmony, fact, agreement, understanding misunderstood: (adj) mistreated, confused modest: (adj) humble, lowly, moderate, gentle, low, meek, chaste, decent, unassuming; (adj, n) bashful, diffident. ANTONYMS: (adj) pretentious, arrogant, spectacular, conceited, showy, proud, pompous, elaborate, grand, conspicuous, ostentatious modestly: (adv) unassumingly, demurely, humbly, reservedly, retiringly, unpretentiously, diffidently, soberly, timidly, meekly, moderately. ANTONYMS: (adv) ostentatiously, arrogantly, immodestly, elaborately, boldly, radically, proudly, brashly,
Heart of Darkness boastfully, brazenly, excessively mold: (n, v) form, fashion, cast, frame, shape, stamp, mould, fit; (n) matrix, die; (v) carve momentary: (adj) brief, fugitive, transient, short, instantaneous, ephemeral, passing, momentaneous, temporary, impermanent, temporal. ANTONYMS: (adj) lasting, lengthy, long monkey: (n) imp, primate, scamp, rascal, battering ram; (v) tinker, meddle, tamper, trifle, cuckoo, echo monotonous: (adj) dull, flat, boring, dreary, tedious, insipid, monotone, monotonic; (adj, v) dry, uninteresting, stupid. ANTONYMS: (adj) exciting, varied, stimulating, lively, exotic, enthralling, brilliant, flexible monster: (n) beast, fiend, devil, freak, brute, demon, ogre, leviathan, behemoth, monstrosity; (adj) huge monstrous: (adj) huge, atrocious, heinous, monster, immense, gigantic, grievous, ugly, flagitious, dreadful; (adj, v) grotesque. ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny, minute, beautiful, good, small, lovely, attractive monumental: (adj) monstrous, immense, great, majestic, grand, tremendous, large, enormous, monolithic, mammoth, vast. ANTONYMS: (adj) small, minor, tiny moon: (adj) lunar; (n) month, moonshine, satellite, moonlight, luck, lunar month, GHURRY, epoch, orb of night; (v) daydream moonlight: (adj, n) moonshine; (n) moonbeam, moonglade, occupation, lunation, lunar month, labor; (n, v) work; (v) pilfer, do work; (adj) moonshiny moonshine: (adj, n) moonlight, rubbish; (adj) moonbeam, bosh, moonglade; (n) bootleg, moon, rot, all talk, corn liquor, nonsense moored: (v) on a rock, rock solid, tethered; (adj) stationary moral: (n) lesson, meaning; (adj) good, decent, right, honest, virtuous, proper, chaste, upright, righteous. ANTONYMS: (adj) bad, unwholesome, unethical, amoral, decadent, wrong, unjust, sinful, irreverent, dishonorable, degenerate morbidly: (adv) sickly, unhealthily, diseasedly, frightfully, unwholesomely, ghoulishly, corruptly, macabrely, gruesomely,
ghastly, ailingly moreover: (adv) again, besides, in addition, further, additionally, into the bargain, beyond, what is more; (adv, n) also; (adj, n) likewise; (adv, conj) and moribund: (adj) expiring, dull, inert, inactive, heavy, Acherontic, sluggish, stagnant, torpid, adynamic; (v) morient. ANTONYMS: (adj) well, active morose: (adj) grim, dismal, glum, dark, moody, grumpy, dour, depressed, sullen, blue, dejected. ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, cheery, stable mortality: (n) fatality, flesh, death rate, death, humanity, mankind, demise, mortality rate, morbidity; (adj) caducity, fugacity mostly: (adv) generally, chiefly, for the most part, ordinarily, in general, above all, mainly, primarily, principally, more often than not, by and large. ANTONYM: (adv) partially motion: (n) action, movement, gesticulation, play, exercise, passage; (n, v) wave, sign, signal; (v) beckon, gesticulate. ANTONYMS: (n) inertia, motionlessness, inactivity, stillness; (v) dismiss motionless: (adj) inactive, inert, immobile, stationary, fixed, unmoving, quiescent, dead, torpid; (adj, adv) calm, at rest. ANTONYMS: (adj) mobile, active, alive, flowing motive: (n, v) cause; (n) account, incentive, impulse, inducement, motif, motivation, incitement, reason, subject; (v) aim. ANTONYM: (n) disincentive motley: (adj) miscellaneous, mottled, assorted, colorful, heterogeneous, multicolored, checkered; (n) medley, miscellany, mixture, assortment. ANTONYM: (adj) homogeneous mourn: (v) bewail, grieve, deplore, cry, bemoan, regret, distress, sad, wail, mourning, weep. ANTONYMS: (v) rejoice, celebrate, applaud mournful: (adj) sad, miserable, melancholy, funereal, dolorous, dark, pensive, gloomy, lugubrious, lamentable; (adj, n) plaintive. ANTONYMS: (adj) joyful, happy, emotionless mournfully: (adv) sadly, sorrowfully, glumly, woefully, unhappily, plaintively, grievously, funereally,
Joseph Conrad dejectedly, dolorously, poignantly. ANTONYMS: (adv) cheerfully, joyfully mourning: (n) lament, lamentation, bereavement, gloom, woe, memorial, sorrowfulness, sadness, sorrow; (adj) grieving; (v) lamenting mouse: (v) sneak, creep, steal, snoop, seek; (n) track, hunt, field mouse, fieldmouse, trace; (adj) small fry mouthful: (n) gulp, morsel, swallow, gobbet, nip, bit, sip, piece, drink; (adj, n) handful; (adj) thimbleful muddle: (adj, n) mess; (n, v) clutter, disorder; (adj, v) confuse, fluster, bewilder, perplex; (adj, n, v) blunder; (v) addle, botch; (n) disarray. ANTONYMS: (v) enlighten, sharpen, soothe, organize, disentangle, tidy, clarify; (n) space, clarity, neatness muddy: (adj) turbid, filthy, boggy, cloudy, dark, unclean, dingy, grimy, miry; (adj, v) foul, sloppy. ANTONYMS: (adj) clean, dry; (v) clarify, cleanse muffled: (adj) hushed, muted, hollow, inarticulate, faint, soft, subdued, low, quiet; (v) allusive, covert. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, distinct, audible, slight multitude: (n) flock, horde, crowd, host, throng, concourse, mob, masses, mass, herd, swarm. ANTONYM: (n) trickle mumbled: (adj) inaudible, faint, broken, slurred, thick, garbled, unintelligible, muffled, low, incomprehensible. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, distinct mumbling: (n) gumming, diction, enunciation, chewing, mussitation, mastication; (adj) inarticulate, incoherent murder: (n, v) massacre, carnage, slaughter, homicide, butcher; (v) kill, slay, destroy, execute, dispatch, assassinate murky: (adj) dark, gloomy, cloudy, dusky, dingy, misty, dim, muddy, opaque, dirty, black. ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, light, obvious, sunny murmur: (n, v) grumble, mumble, hum, whisper, mutter, whine, babble, drone; (v) complain, bubble, breathe murmuring: (n) murmuration, murmur, complaint, grumble, muttering, mutter, murmur vowel; (adj) whispering, humming, droning, murmurous muscle: (n) potency, sinew, might,
power, strength, force, energy, flesh, beef; (adj, n) physique; (adj) nerve muscles: (n) sinew, strength musician: (n) singer, composer, instrumentalist, minstrel, clarinettist, lutenist, director, choirmaster, accompanist, harpsichordist, harpist mute: (adj) dumb, silent, inarticulate, dummy, tongueless; (v) muffle, dampen, deaden, hush; (adj, v) quiet, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj) talkative, speaking, spoken; (v) amplify mutiny: (n, v) insurrection, rebellion; (n) disobedience, uprising, revolution, outbreak, insubordination, defiance, rising; (v) rebel, rise. ANTONYMS: (n) loyalty, obedience mutter: (n, v) mumble, grumble, whisper; (v) growl, maunder, grouch, snarl, croak; (n) murmuration, grumbling, complaint muttered: (adj) garbled, incoherent, broken, inarticulate muttering: (n) grumbling, mutter, murmuring, grumble, murmuration, murmur vowel, complaint, heart murmur, cardiac murmur; (adj) mumbling, faint mysterious: (adj) inscrutable, incomprehensible, deep, eerie, inexplicable, obscure, abstruse, dark, cryptic, secret, arcane. ANTONYMS: (adj) known, apparent, normal, open, explicable, facile, obvious, simple, legible, familiar, transparent mysteriously: (adv) enigmatically, strangely, obscurely, secretly, uncannily, mystically, darkly, puzzlingly, weirdly, abstrusely, occultly. ANTONYM: (adv) normally mystery: (n) arcanum, enigma, mysteriousness, secrecy, puzzle, craft, perplexity, poser, inscrutability, whodunit; (adj, n) secret. ANTONYMS: (n) explanation, openness naked: (adj, v) bare; (adj) nude, exposed, open, barren, raw, bleak, unclothed, defenseless, au naturel, defenceless. ANTONYMS: (adj) covered, concealed, hidden, dressed narcotic: (adj, n) soporific, opiate, hypnotic; (adj) anodyne; (n) drug, anaesthetic, opium, stupefacient, sedative, methadone, meperidine narrated: (adj) oral, narrative narrative: (n, v) history, tale; (n) account, story, chronicle, legend,
149 yarn, recital, relation, report, anecdote narrow: (adj, adv, v) close; (adj) limited, insular, little, illiberal; (v) limit, contract, lessen, constrict, shrink; (adj, v) confined. ANTONYMS: (adj) wide, broad, comprehensive, extensive, worldwide, substantial, deep; (v) widen, extend, broaden, increase nasty: (adj) dirty, foul, filthy, disgusting, awful, mean, repulsive, raw, hurtful, coarse; (adj, n) obnoxious. ANTONYMS: (adj) agreeable, pleasant, nice, charitable, lovely, delightful, friendly, tasty, charming, safe, respectful nation: (n) state, country, kingdom, people, community, commonwealth, land, a people, body politic, nationality, tribe native: (adj, n) aboriginal, natural; (adj) inherent, inborn, innate, congenital, inbred, indigenous, domestic; (n) autochthon, aborigine. ANTONYMS: (n) stranger, migrant, foreigner; (adj) foreign, learned, acquired, nonnative, overseas, adopted; (adj, n) immigrant, imported natives: (n) nation, populace, community, citizens, public naturally: (adv, int) of course; (adv) spontaneously, unaffectedly, natively, openly, essentially, course, by nature, understandably, normally; (adj, adv) innately. ANTONYMS: (adv) artificially, surprisingly, uncharacteristically, pretentiously, unusually, abnormally, affectedly, shyly nautical: (adj) maritime, aquatic, oceangoing, yachting, naval, marine Shells, nautic; (v) seafaring; (n) sea, shipping navigation: (n) sailing, steering, shipping, seafaring, cabotage, astronavigation, work, transportation, transport, travel, flight navy: (n) armada, flotilla, dark blue, naval forces, army, Air Force, navy blue, wooden walls, squadron, argosy; (adj, n) blue nearer: (adj) adjacent, narre, hither; (adv) more rapidly, sooner, quicker, nigher, NER, faster, earlier, Neer nearest: (adj) proximate, immediate, close, near, next, adjoining, intimate, direct, adjacent; (adj, adv) nighest; (adv) fore. ANTONYM: (adj) distant neat: (adj) elegant, tidy, clear, natty,
150 graceful, dainty, pretty, clever, pure, straight, nifty. ANTONYMS: (adj) messy, scruffy, unkempt, clumsy, disordered, disorderly, diluted, large, lax, impulsive, loose neatly: (adv) sprucely, tidily, cleanly, adroitly, precisely, smartly, tastefully, gracefully, properly, nattily; (adj, adv) dexterously. ANTONYMS: (adv) messily, shabbily, untidily, clumsily, loosely, inelegantly, awkwardly necessarily: (adv) needfully, inevitably, requisitely, needs, obligatorily, vitally, absolutely, basically, compulsorily, consequentially, inescapably. ANTONYMS: (adv) possibly, doubtfully, superficially necessities: (n) supplies, necessity, essential, wants, support, subsistence, requirement, bread necessity: (n) demand, need, lack, exigency, essential, compulsion, emergency, distress, must, constraint, necessary. ANTONYMS: (n) inessential, treat, unimportance, luxury neck: (n) cervix, nape, neckband, neckline, isthmus; (v) make out, pet, love, cut; (adj) stricture, middle constriction necklaces: (n) costume jewelry, jewels, ornaments, trinkets necktie: (n) cravat, bolo, neckwear, linkup, link, affiliation, crosstie, bow tie, bolo tie, bolas, bola tie needle: (v) irritate, goad, sting, rile, gall, aggravate, nag; (n) injection, pointer, awl, plunger neglected: (adj) dilapidated, disregarded, ignored, deserted, derelict, forsaken, obsolete, antiquated, antique, shabby, unnoticed. ANTONYM: (adj) salubrious negro: (n) black, darky, blackamoor, nigger, Negroid, black person, darkie, coon, moke, lightlessness; (adj) dark neighbor: (v) abut, adjoin, populate, touch; (n) acquaintance, neighborhood, national; (adj) neighborly, neighbouring, neighboring, adjacent. ANTONYM: (n) foreigner neighborhood: (n) vicinity, district, area, community, locality, place, quarter, environs, section; (adj) neighboring, local neighbors: (n) neighbourhood nephew: (n) aunt, grandnephew,
Heart of Darkness brother's son, niece, cousin, uncle, kinsman nervously: (adv) edgily, anxiously, timidly, worriedly, uneasily, restlessly, timorously, skittishly, excitedly, neurotically, apprehensively. ANTONYMS: (adv) confidently, boldly, fearlessly, unconcernedly, nonchalantly, trustingly nervousness: (n) nerves, trepidation, disquiet, tension, jumpiness, restlessness, jitters, agitation, worry, fearfulness, edginess. ANTONYMS: (n) boldness, confidence, reassurance, calm, relief, peace, equanimity network: (n) mesh, grid, netting, web, meshwork, graticule, system, grating; (n, v) reticulation, link; (v) communicate newspaper: (n) magazine, paper, gazette, news, periodical, print, publisher, press, publication, newsprint, weekly nicety: (n) detail, exactness, fastidiousness, nuance, refinement, exactitude, justness, precision, correctness, daintiness, elegance nigger: (adj) blackamoor, Negro, man of color; (n) darky, spade, darkie, boy, jigaboo, black person, Ethiop, nigra nightmare: (n) incubus, fantasy, terror, trial, air drawn dagger, bugbear, fancy, vision, fear, horror, situation. ANTONYM: (n) reality nights: (adj) nightly; (n) night nineteen: (adj, n) XIX; (n) large integer noble: (adj, n) grand, glorious, patrician; (adj) imposing, impressive, elevated, majestic, generous, high; (adj, v) dignified, great. ANTONYMS: (adj) shameful, humble, dishonorable, lowly, lowborn, disgraceful, unimpressive, ignoble, modest, petty; (n) lady nobly: (adv) generously, magnificently, grandly, greatly, splendidly, honorably, heroically, aristocratically, bravely, magnanimously, courageously. ANTONYMS: (adv) immorally, poorly, timidly nobody: (n) cipher, naught, zero, nil, nothing, nonentity, cypher, zip, whippersnapper, none; (n, pron) no one. ANTONYMS: (n) celebrity, notable, somebody; (pron) everyone, anyone, everybody noise: (n, v) clatter, echo; (n) clamor,
hubbub, racket, sound, disturbance, uproar, din, buzz, clang. ANTONYMS: (n) silence, quiet, quietness, sense noisily: (adv) clamorously, boisterously, vociferously, riotously, raucously, uproariously, loudly, blatantly, rowdily, stridently, vocally. ANTONYMS: (adv) noiselessly, silently, calmly, peacefully, softly noisy: (adj) boisterous, loud, vociferous, clamorous, turbulent, tumultuous, strident, blatant, shrill, rowdy, vocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) silent, peaceful, tranquil, calm, noiseless, soft, restrained, placid, orderly, gentle noon: (n) high noon, noonday, noontide, afternoon, hour, dinnertime, crest, twelve noon; (adj) meridian, meridional; (adj, n) culmination nose: (n) hooter, neb, nozzle, proboscis, honker, bow, odour; (v) wind, pry, scent; (n, v) sniff nostrils: (n) naris, nose notes: (n) data, commentary, currency, paper, comments, remarks, annotation, information, ready money, observations, newspaper noticed: (adj) noted notion: (n) belief, idea, impression, fancy, image, imagination, opinion, conception, concept; (adj, n, v) judgment; (n, v) caprice. ANTONYMS: (n) trust, certainty, fact, reality notions: (n) belief, thinking, thought, sundries, opinion, concept, ideas, ribbon, philosophy, odds and ends; (adj) irrational nowhere: (n) obscurity, limbo; (adv) not anywhere, nowhither, without, not anywhither; (adj) tiresome, vapid, uninteresting, tasteless, prosaic noxious: (adj) injurious, deleterious, harmful, deadly, evil, inimical, noisome, destructive, poisonous, venomous, lethal. ANTONYMS: (adj) innocuous, pleasant, healthy nuisance: (adj, n) annoyance; (n) harassment, irritation, pain, pest, hassle, inconvenience, mischief, irritant, plague, pain in the neck. ANTONYMS: (n) pleasure, help, delight, blessing, balm, advantage, satisfaction, ease nurse: (n, v) nourish, nurture; (v) look after, entertain, attend, cherish,
Joseph Conrad lactate, harbor, foster, cultivate, cradle nursing: (n) attention, tending, care, breast feeding, treatment, nurture, suckling, nurse, feeding, treat, rearing nuts: (adj) crazy, insane, balmy, nutty, crackers, loopy, batty, barmy, loony, dotty, daft. ANTONYM: (adj) sensible obedient: (adj) submissive, compliant, good, conformable, tame, acquiescent, dutiful, meek, biddable, amenable, subservient. ANTONYMS: (adj) defiant, assertive, rebellious, crooked, intractable, naughty, wild, resistant objectless: (adj) purposeless, endless, endless bliss, endless clamor, endless praise, endless time, excessive, fruitless, interminable, random, infinite obliquely: (adj, adv) athwart, transversely, askew; (adv) aslant, indirectly, slopingly, slantingly, sideways, sidelong, skewly, askance. ANTONYM: (adv) straight oblivion: (n) limbo, Lethe, void, absolution, forgiveness, obliviousness, silence, remission, pardon; (n, v) amnesty; (adj) nonbeing. ANTONYMS: (n) consciousness, fame obscure: (adj, n) cloudy, dark; (adj) gloomy, mysterious, incomprehensible, hidden, ambiguous, concealed; (adj, v) darken, muddy; (v) hide. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, noticeable, simple, obvious, distinct, mainstream, famous, definite, overt, plain; (v) reveal obscured: (adj) hidden, blind, covered, clouded, darkened, covert, dim, intangible, unnoticed, ulterior, privy obsequiously: (adv) subserviently, submissively, fawningly, slavishly, compliantly, sycophantically, respectfully, cringingly, politely, admiringly, courteously observation: (adj, n) observance; (n) remark, comment, attention, contemplation, perception, conception; (n, v) inspection, notice, note, consideration. ANTONYMS: (n) disregard, omission, neglect observed: (adj) ascertained, empirical, discovered, viewed, experimental, experiential, determined, visual, disclosed obstinately: (adv) obdurately,
mulishly, persistently, perversely, doggedly, refractorily, unyieldingly, willfully, pigheadedly, waywardly, firmly. ANTONYM: (adv) helpfully occasion: (n, v) cause; (n) case, event, juncture, episode, incident; (v) bring about, create, beget, make, induce occasional: (adj) accidental, irregular, incidental, infrequent, episodic, intermittent, fortuitous, adventitious, contingent, rare, odd. ANTONYMS: (adj) frequent, recurrent, addicted, regular, common, continuous occupation: (n) occupancy, business, craft, calling, job, place, vocation, career, function, line; (n, v) affair. ANTONYM: (n) surrender occupied: (adj) busy, engaged, employed, diligent, active, absorbed, engrossed, working, industrious, affianced, betrothed. ANTONYMS: (adj) empty, vacant, uninhabited, available, free, idle, liberated, unoccupied occur: (v) happen, come, fall, befall, betide, chance, be, materialize, develop, come up, appear. ANTONYM: (v) disappear ocean: (n) deep, brine, salt water, main, waves, watery waste, multitude, lot; (adj) oceanic, many, marine odious: (adj, v) hateful, obnoxious; (adj) detestable, hideous, nasty, execrable, disgusting, abhorrent, abominable, heinous, forbidding. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, delightful, agreeable, lovable, nice offensive: (adj, v) foul, odious, nasty, aggressive, coarse, hateful; (adj) distasteful, disgusting, loathsome, abusive, nauseous. ANTONYMS: (adj) complimentary, pleasant, polite, defensive, tasteful, peaceful, pleasing, savory, euphemistic, decent; (n) defense offices: (n) kitchen, pantry, scullery official: (adj) formal, standard, regular, functional; (n) minister, bureaucrat, functionary, employee, officeholder; (n, v) executive; (adj, v) authoritative. ANTONYMS: (adj) private, informal, illegal, unauthorized, unceremonious, unlawful, invalid offing: (n) ocean, high seas, sea, hereafter, billows, deep, future, brine, water, watery waste, body of water oiled: (adj) intoxicated, oily. ANTONYM: (adj) unoiled
151 oils: (n) oil paint oily: (adj, v) bland, soapy; (adj) fatty, fat, oleaginous, unctuous, slick, buttery; (adv) unctuously, smoothly, oleaginously. ANTONYM: (adj) lean ominous: (adj) baleful, inauspicious, ill, menacing, threatening, black, sinister, minatory, unlucky, forbidding, minacious. ANTONYMS: (adj) promising, auspicious, reassuring, bright, lucky, wonderful ominously: (adv) inauspiciously, portentously, forbiddingly, balefully, threateningly, menacingly, blackly, direly; (adj, adv) gloomily, fatefully, unpromisingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) favorably, innocently onslaught: (n) attack, onset, charge, invasion, offensive, barrage, bombardment, incursion, onrush, blitz, attempt. ANTONYMS: (n) defense, retreat onwards: (adv) onward, ahead, forward, forwards, forrader, forth, before, frontward, frontwards, in anticipation; (adj) beyond opaque: (adj) dense, muddy, obscure, cloudy, hazy, murky, thick, unintelligible, milky, misty, vague. ANTONYM: (adj) transparent opening: (n) gap, break, aperture, beginning, door, commencement, entrance, hole, occasion, cleft; (adj, n) preliminary. ANTONYMS: (adj) final, last; (adj, n) closing; (n) exit, finale, finish, ending, shutting, postscript, conclusion openly: (adv) frankly, publicly, clearly, candidly, directly, straightforwardly, evidently, publically, plainly, outspokenly; (adj, adv) manifestly. ANTONYMS: (adv) furtively, secretively, clandestinely, mysteriously, ambiguously, reticently, covertly, discreetly, affectedly, craftily, deceitfully open-mouthed: (adj) spellbound opposite: (adj, n) contrary, contradictory, opponent; (adj) adverse, different, opposing, hostile, diametric, opposed; (adj, pron) other; (adj, adv) counter. ANTONYMS: (adj) allied, alternate, identical, like, same, parallel; (n) sameness, alikeness, confirmation oppressive: (adj, v) onerous, close, burdensome; (adj) sultry, stuffy, tyrannical, muggy, despotic, dictatorial, gloomy, domineering.
152 ANTONYMS: (adj) liberal, democratic, humane, free, tolerant, airy, freezing, libertarian orange: (n) orangeness, orange tree, Methyl orange, bergamot, red and yellow, lemon, marmalade orange, orange river; (adj, n) reddish yellow; (adj) amber, ocher ordeal: (n) trial, suffering, experience, martyrdom, affliction, test, tribulation, misery, trouble, waterordeal, distress. ANTONYM: (n) pleasure ordered: (adj) regular, arranged, methodical, trim, orderly, lawful, logical, consistent, coherent, commanded, organized. ANTONYMS: (adj) disordered, disarranged, inconsistent orders: (n) holy orders, information, preparation, remit, briefing, guidelines ordinary: (adj, n, v) customary, usual; (adj) middling, mediocre, average, normal, everyday; (adj, n) familiar, accustomed, habitual; (adj, v) general. ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual, strange, peculiar, outstanding, incredible, special, famous, distinguished, abnormal, particular, exotic organist: (n) instrumentalist, accordionist, player, violinist, pianist, flautist, musician organizing: (v) organise; (n) organization, adjustment, regulation ornamental: (adj) fancy, florid, cosmetic, extravagant, elaborate, showy, enhancing, delicate, beautifying; (n) decoration, adornment. ANTONYMS: (adj) plain, unadorned ornamentation: (n) adornment, decoration, garnish, embellishment, decor, polish, trimming, embroidery, cockade, arabesque, beading ornamented: (adj) embellished, beautified, fancy, flowery, ornate, adorned, bedecked, decked, festooned, feathered, florid ornaments: (n) stuff, trim, ornamentation, equipments, dress, disposition, custom, curios, condition, clothing, gaudery ostentation: (n) affectation, bravado, parade, showiness, flourish, vanity, pomp, splendor, bluster, state, show. ANTONYM: (n) unpretentiousness ought: (n, v) need; (v) had better, should, have, possessed, owned,
Heart of Darkness owed, behoove; (n) aught, zero, duty ourselves: (pron) myself, herself, itself, oneself, themselves, yourself; (n) me, yourselves, usself outbreak: (n) explosion, eruption, onset, outburst, burst, mutiny, attack, flood, rash, revolt, spate outcry: (n, v) clamor, exclaim, call, shout, vociferation; (n) noise, exclamation, din, uproar, commotion, racket. ANTONYM: (n) acceptance outer: (adj) exterior, outward, outside, extrinsic, outdoor, outlying, peripheral, surface, utter, extraneous, outmost. ANTONYMS: (adj) internal, inner, interior, inward, inside outfit: (n, v) dress, gear, garb, attire, apparel; (n) kit, costume, company, ensemble; (v) furnish, equip outlast: (v) outlive, endure, outstay, outwear, live through, remain, hold out, come through, continue, live on, go outlines: (n) elements, conspectus, prospectus, syllabus, alphabet, grammar, contents, rudiments, synopsis, textbook, ABC outraged: (adj) angry, incensed, livid, enraged, mad, cross, annoyed, perverted, umbrageous, beside yourself, scandalized. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, indifferent outrageous: (adj) inordinate, atrocious, ridiculous, monstrous, offensive, gross, excessive, extravagant, absurd, unconscionable; (adj, v) furious. ANTONYMS: (adj) acceptable, reasonable, normal, credible, good, honorable, lovely, complimentary, appealing, commendable, admirable outwards: (adj) out, over, with out; (adv) beyond, out of doors. ANTONYM: (adv) inward overboard: (adj) exorbitant, rabid overcast: (adj) dark, cloudy, dim, dull, gloomy, heavy, muddy, dismal; (n, v) cloud; (adj, v) obscure; (v) darken. ANTONYMS: (adj) sunny, clear overcome: (v) crush, subdue, beat, vanquish, overpower, master, defeat, hurdle, get over, overwhelm; (adj) beaten. ANTONYMS: (v) fail, lose, comfort, protect, resist, surrender, capitulate; (adj) unimpressed overfed: (adj) swollen, distended, full, overstuffed, overweight,
replete, stuffed overgrown: (adj) excessive, exorbitant, inordinate, extravagant, monstrous, covered, exaggerated, dropsical, lush; (v) turgid, tumid overhanging: (adj, v) projecting; (v) beetling; (adj) covering, imminent, impending, pendent, obumbrant, hanging over, overspreading, depending, hanging overpowering: (adj) overwhelming, oppressive, resistless, compelling, intense, heavy, strong, onerous, devastating, uncontrollable, depressing. ANTONYMS: (adj) light, subtle, imperceptible, insignificant, shallow, weak, faint, bland overtaking: (n) passing, overtake, pass, going, expiration, loss, departure, exit overwhelmed: (adj) beaten, overpowered, vanquished, dumbfounded, inundated, flooded, overthrown, engulfed, conquered, bewildered; (v) overborne. ANTONYM: (adj) unimpressed overwhelming: (adj) devastating, irresistible, insurmountable, crushing, monumental, astounding, amazing, tremendous, resistless, formidable; (v) overwhelm. ANTONYMS: (adj) comfortable, comforting, weak, mild, shallow, insignificant, faint, disputable, easy pace: (n, v) walk, gait, rate, march, stride, footstep; (n) speed, tempo, rapidity, tread, celerity pacific: (adj) peaceable, calm, gentle, moderate, conciliatory, mild, peaceful, composed, imperturbable, bland, unruffled. ANTONYMS: (adj) hostile, troubled pacifically: (adv) peacefully, serenely, stilly, quietly, placidly, moderately, conciliatorily, blandly, softly, meekly, tranquilly pacified: (adj) appeased package: (v) wrap, wrap up; (n, v) box, pack; (n) parcel, packet, packaging, carton, wrapper, wrapping, packing. ANTONYMS: (n) hardware; (v) unbox packet: (n) bundle, bale, container, parcel, pack, wad, carton, mail boat, wrap, deck, envelope paddling: (n) defeat, boating pail: (n) bucketful, jug, tub, pailful, cannikin, pails, skeel, tankard, pot, pipkin, vessel painfully: (adv) sorely, grievously, distressingly, severely, tenderly,
Joseph Conrad badly, agonizingly, laboriously, sadly, bitterly, poignantly. ANTONYMS: (adv) easily, tolerably painted: (adj) colored, dyed, coloured, motley, stained, tinted, variegated, particoloured, delineated, graphic; (v) depaint. ANTONYM: (adj) unpainted painter: (n) artist, colorist, landscapist, impressionist, miniaturist, dauber, halser, Felis concolor, guy, cable, hawser pair: (n, v) match; (adj, n) brace; (n) duet, duo, dyad; (v) join, mate, link, copulate, equate, marry pairs: (n) quinze, brag, speculation, cassino, commerce, connections, Earl of Coventry, lift smoke, lottery, patience, blind hookey pale: (adj) faint, wan, dull, weak, light, bloodless, pallid; (adj, v) dim; (n) boundary, confine; (v) blanch. ANTONYMS: (adj) strong, rosy, brown, well, glowing, vivid, healthy, clear, colorful; (v) redden, darken pall: (v) cloy, tire, jade, fatigue; (n) curtain, coffin, shroud, cloak, cerement, mantle; (adj, v) disgust palm: (n) medal, decoration, prize, palm tree, victory, thenar, laurel wreath; (v) filch, cabbage, rob; (adj) totipalmate palmer: (n) lay brother, monk, nomad, mendicant, Gypsy, hadji, friar, beadsman, bohemian, cenobite, conventual pampered: (adj) indulged, spoiled, soft, bad, fed luxuriously, luxurious pamphlet: (n) book, leaflet, booklet, flyer, magazine, treatise, tract, writing, literature, folder, lampoon panel: (n) pane, jury, control panel, slab, control board, dashboard, caisson, defendant, coffer, wall; (n, v) empanel panic: (adj, n) dismay, horror, terror, dread; (n, v) alarm, scare, shock; (n) fright, anxiety, fear, flap. ANTONYMS: (n) calm, calmness, order, peace, bravery, security; (n, v) comfort; (v) relax, soothe papers: (n) paper, documents, document, credentials, identification, newspaper, credential, inclosure, copyright, confession, charter paragraph: (n, v) clause, passage; (n) item, section, chapter, head, sentence, piece, part, division, count parasol: (n) sunshade, canopy, awning, umbrella, marquee, beach
umbrella, shade, cover, tilt, tent parcel: (n) bale, pack, bundle, package, packet, section, division, batch; (n, v) portion; (v) distribute, apportion pardon: (v) excuse, condone, forgive, acquit, spare; (n) amnesty, forgiveness, grace; (adj, v) justify, exonerate, exculpate. ANTONYMS: (n, v) blame; (v) punish, castigate, condemn, convict; (n) intolerance parody: (n, v) caricature, lampoon, spoof; (v) mimic, mock; (n) imitation, mockery, charade, satire, travesty, farce parted: (adj) divided, separate, distributed, separated, divisible, disunited, compounder, compound, dividable particolored: (adj) calico, colored, assorted, piebald, varicoloured, varicolored, colorful, pied, particoloured, painted, multicoloured particularized: (adj) specific, particular, minute, full, descriptive, thorough, for one person partisan: (n) backer, champion, friend, bigot, disciple, advocate, adherent, enthusiast; (adj, n) sectarian, partizan; (adj) biased. ANTONYMS: (n) peacekeepers, opponent, rebel, turncoat; (adj) unbiased, nonpartisan, Standard, impartial, fair, disloyal partly: (adj) half, semi, quasi; (adv) part, constituently, in part, sidely, moderately, halfway, incompletely, relatively. ANTONYMS: (adv) completely, wholly, entirely; (adj) fully partnership: (n) company, alliance, association, copartnership, business, firm, participation, fellowship, fraternity, confederation, companionship pass: (adj, n, v) run; (v) flow, give, deliver, lead, happen, overtake, proceed; (adj, v) move; (n, v) offer, live. ANTONYMS: (v) reject, make, take, veto; (n) failing, rejection, exclusion passage: (n, v) course, journey; (n) gangway, corridor, hall, channel, entry, way, entrance, lobby, duct. ANTONYMS: (n) rejection, room passenger: (n) traveler, wayfarer, occupant, itinerant, rider, stowaway, voyager, hitchhiker, commuter, passer, pilgrim. ANTONYM: (n) driver passing: (adj) transient, ephemeral,
153 momentary, cursory, brief; (n) overtaking, departure, expiration, decease, passage, death. ANTONYMS: (adj) lasting, thorough, intended, lengthy, long; (n) birth, failing passion: (n) affection, fire, fervor, love, feeling, anger, enthusiasm, heat, craving, desire; (n, v) ardor. ANTONYMS: (n) apathy, hate, serenity, meekness, hatred, doubt, dislike, calmness, moderation passionate: (adj, v) ardent, impetuous; (adj) hot, excited, burning, angry, fervent, fierce, animated, earnest; (adj, adv) fiery. ANTONYMS: (adj) indifferent, mild, passionless, unenthusiastic, cold, calm, halfhearted, cool, lukewarm, weak, uninterested passionately: (adv) fervently, vehemently, violently, fiercely, eagerly, zealously, fervidly, fierily, enthusiastically, heatedly, stormily. ANTONYMS: (adv) mildly, apathetically, calmly, halfheartedly, impassively, jokingly, gently patch: (v) piece; (n) plot, fleck, darn, blot, freckle, bed, maculation, field; (n, v) botch, repair patching: (n) patch, tiling, fix, repair, reparation, plugging, connection, burning, fixing pate: (n) crown, noddle, nob, crest, chief, poll, cerebrum, brainpan, cranium, scull, upper story path: (n, v) course, passage, line; (n) way, direction, highway, orbit, track, lane, means, walk. ANTONYM: (n) room pathetically: (adv) pitifully, piteously, sorrily, wretchedly, pitiably, touchingly, sadly, poorly, miserably, plaintively, distressingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) intelligently, convincingly paths: (n) path patience: (n) endurance, fortitude, longanimity, equanimity, tolerance, resignation, restraint, composure, sufferance; (n, v) moderation, calmness. ANTONYMS: (n) impatience, eagerness, intolerance, annoyance patient: (adj) forbearing, passive, calm, enduring, resigned, uncomplaining, tolerant, stoical, lenient, meek, persistent. ANTONYMS: (adj) intolerant, annoyed, eager, harsh patiently: (adv) perseveringly, invalidly, quietly, uncomplainingly,
154 persistently, forbearingly, resignedly, steadily, doggedly, calmly, meekly. ANTONYM: (adv) eagerly patter: (v) clatter, rumble, roll, rattle, drum, scuttle, skip, tiptoe; (n) line of gab, vernacular, jargon paunch: (n) belly, abdomen, stomach, corporation, pot, breadbasket, maw, fat, gut, ventricle, potbelly pauper: (n) poor man, mumper, bum, poor person, starveling; (adj) poor, indigent, penniless; (v) bust, fold pause: (n, v) halt, interruption, adjournment, delay, respite, stop; (adj, n, v) rest; (n) intermission, gap; (adj, v) discontinue; (v) hesitate. ANTONYMS: (n) decisiveness, continuation, start; (v) proceed pavement: (n) walk, paving, path, pathway, road surface, pave, sidewalk, floor, curbside, trottoir, earth peaked: (adj) pointed, sharp, spiky, ensiform, peaky, poorly, salient, unwell, gaunt, wan, emaciated peal: (n) ding, noise, clang, dingdong, blast; (v) chime, knell, toll, echo; (adj, n) swell; (n, v) bang peculiar: (adj) particular, odd, exceptional, different, extraordinary, curious, eccentric, characteristic, anomalous, abnormal, distinctive. ANTONYMS: (adj) normal, typical, common, universal, explicable, conventional peddling: (n) hawking, vendition, peddlery, selling; (adj) mean, piddling, shabby, parsimonious, miserly, penny wise, scrubby peeling: (n) desquamation, shelling, hull, skiving, bark, shedding; (adj, n) flaking; (adj) damaged peeping: (n) cheeping, tweeting, chirping; (adj) inquisitive peer: (n, v) peep; (n) noble, mate, equal, equivalent, compeer, nobleman, fellow, associate; (v) peek, gaze. ANTONYMS: (v) glance, stare peering: (adj) nosy, prying, snoopy pendent: (adj) pendulous, suspended, pendant, dangling, pending, unsettled, undecided, pensile, drooping, projecting; (n) stipend penetrable: (adj) permeable, pervious, absorbent, liable, porous, vulnerable; (v) doughy, spongy. ANTONYM: (adj) impenetrable penetrate: (v) bore, imbue, fathom, infiltrate, pierce, permeate, cut,
Heart of Darkness filter, interpenetrate, get through, enter penetrated: (adj) perforated, entered penetrating: (adj) astute, sharp, cutting, discerning, incisive, piercing, perceptive, discriminating, trenchant; (adj, v) biting, acute. ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, soft, mellow, low, gentle, dull, dense penny: (n) change, coin, centime, copper, groat, subunit, money, mite, doit, small change, denomination pensive: (adj) contemplative, meditative, musing, wistful, dreamy, melancholy, abstracted, broody, reflective, moody; (adj, v) sad. ANTONYMS: (adj) shallow, satisfied, carefree peopled: (adj) multinominal, multiple, manifold, multiplied, multitudinous, populous, inhabited, thick, studded, teeming, crowded. ANTONYM: (adj) uninhabited perceived: (adj) sensed, apparent, supposed, professed, ostensible perceptible: (adj) conspicuous, appreciable, evident, discernible, obvious, visible, palpable, apparent, detectable, manifest, observable. ANTONYMS: (adj) intangible, unclear, inaudible, inconspicuous, obscure, undetectable, invisible perception: (n) conception, notion, idea, impression, feeling, discernment, insight, comprehension, taste, sensation, penetration. ANTONYMS: (n) unconsciousness, foolishness, dullness, clumsiness perched: (adj) perked, alert, on the edge, balanced, poised, on the brink, suspended, perked up perching: (adj) insessorial perdition: (adj, n) downfall, fall, ruin; (n) hell, inferno, infernal region, nether region, deperdition, bane, destruction, overthrow. ANTONYM: (n) heaven perfect: (adj, n, v) consummate, complete; (adj, n) absolute, full, entire; (adj) exact, utter, thorough, faultless, integral, exquisite. ANTONYMS: (adj) flawed, faulty, wrong, inferior, misshapen, incorrect, defective, used, everyday, unhappy, partial perfectly: (adj, adv) entirely; (adv) fully, thoroughly, consummately, utterly, flawlessly, absolutely, purely, totally, faultlessly, wholly. ANTONYMS: (adv) badly, imperfectly, incorrectly, wrong,
inaccurately, partially, partly, poorly, unpleasantly, wrongly performed: (adj, v) done, finished; (adj) fulfilled performing: (n) impersonation, byplay, enactment, hamming, business, implementation, executing, performance, activity; (v) perform, execute periodically: (adv) regularly, recurrently, now and then, frequently, intermittently, once in a while, sometimes, from time to time, seasonally, repeatedly, infrequently. ANTONYMS: (adv) frequently, constantly, regularly, spasmodically periods: (n) period perish: (v) expire, pass away, decease, go, fade, decay, depart, fall, pass, ruin, annihilate. ANTONYMS: (v) survive, live, appear permanent: (adj, v) lasting, fixed, fast, constant, continuous; (adj) everlasting, eternal, perennial, invariable, enduring, immutable. ANTONYMS: (adj) fleeting, temporary, transitory, provisional, impermanent, brief, superficial, fragile, freelance, ephemeral, mobile permitted: (adj) allowed, permissible, allowable, admissible, lawful, free, approved, legitimate, legal, legalized, venial. ANTONYMS: (adj) unlawful, constrained peroration: (n) harangue, close, conclusion, speech, formal speech, lecture, delivery, epilogue, say, tirade, tag persistent: (adj) lasting, obstinate, constant, continual, insistent, permanent, continuous, incessant, unrelenting, stubborn, chronic. ANTONYMS: (adj) contained, irresolute, temporary, gentle, intermittent, compliant, caducous, fickle, fleeting, feeble, inconsistent persistently: (adv) stubbornly, constantly, continually, firmly, tenaciously, unremittingly, continuously, incessantly, insistently, doggedly, pertinaciously. ANTONYMS: (adv) sporadically, acutely, aimlessly, inconsistently, spasmodically, halfheartedly personage: (n) person, notable, celebrity, personality, individual, bigwig, figure, somebody, human, character, being personally: (adv) privately, in person, intimately, directly, specially, confidentially, secretly,
Joseph Conrad self, oneself, subjectively, particularly. ANTONYMS: (adv) impersonally, indirectly, objectively, collectively, distantly, generally, universally personified: (adj) embodied persons: (n) folk, public, society, world perspiration: (n) diaphoresis, hidrosis, sudor, sweating, extravasation, secretion, exertion, exudation, effort, lather, water persuaded: (adj) sure, satisfied, easily affected, impressible, positive, delicate, sensible, intelligent, certain, in no doubt, definite. ANTONYMS: (adj) unsure, uncertain pestiferous: (adj) annoying, pernicious, contagious, noisome, harmful, vexing, vexatious, destructive, irritating, bothersome, pesky pestilence: (n) pest, epidemic, blight, disease, curse, infectious disease, contagion, infection, virus; (adj) murrain, pox pestilential: (adj) pernicious, pestiferous, noxious, contagious, infectious, malignant, deadly, destructive, baneful, harmful, catching petrified: (adj) mineralized, motionless, frightened, scared, numb, stiff, harder, firm, mineral, like a statue, lacking sensation. ANTONYMS: (adj) mobile, fearless phantom: (n, v) apparition, phantasm, vision, phantasma; (n) spectre, specter, appearance, shade, shadow, wraith, spirit phenomenon: (n) appearance, marvel, miracle, incident, wonder, prodigy, phenomena, development, occurrence, happening, apparition philanthropic: (adj) benevolent, charitable, humanitarian, humane, kind, eleemosynary, generous, beneficent, kindly, munificent, good. ANTONYMS: (adj) selfish, miserly, nasty, mean phrase: (v) formulate, couch, put, articulate; (n) expression, idiom, diction, speech, passage, locution; (n, v) word piano: (adj) soft, gentle, indulgent, lax; (n) grand piano, pianissimo, softness, upright piano, mechanical piano; (adv) quietly, gently pick: (n) alternative, best, option, selection, choice; (adj, n) cream, elite; (adj, v) select; (v) opt, harvest, gather. ANTONYMS: (v) reject,
refuse picked: (adj) select, chosen, best, recherche, rare, priceless, preferred, pointed, elected, named; (v) choose picket: (n) watch, pale, palisade, fence, post, stake, sentinel, sentry, guard, piquet; (adj, v) moor pieces: (n) debris, trash pierced: (adj) punctured, perforate, penetrated, cut, cleft piercing: (adj, n) sharp, cutting; (adj, v) keen, penetrating, biting, bitter, harsh, shrill; (adj) high, raw, loud. ANTONYMS: (adj) quiet, dull, soft, hot pigeons: (n) order Columbiformes, Columbiformes pile: (n, v) heap, stack, mass, pack, jam; (n) congeries, mound, bunch, accumulation; (v) amass; (adj, n) nap. ANTONYM: (v) unload piled: (adj) heaped, dense, aggregate, collective, concentrated, cumulous pilgrim: (n) hadji, passenger, journeyer, palmer, traveler, wanderer, conventual, monk, mendicant, lay brother, hajji pilgrimage: (n, v) expedition, excursion; (v) trip, tour, peregrination, ramble, discursion, circuit; (n) hajj, haj, career pilot: (n, v) guide, lead; (n) leader, aviator; (v) manage, direct, director, conduct, fly, navigate; (adj) experimental pink: (n) rose, crimson, gillyflower, paragon; (v) knock, gore, impale, stab, spike, spear; (adj) flower pipe: (n) conduit, duct, flue, passage, pipage; (n, v) channel, cry; (v) squeak, sing, peep, screech pitch: (n, v) fling, cast, degree, dip, tilt, lurch, toss, throw, slant; (v) chuck, hurl pitiful: (adj, n) abject; (adj) pathetic, lamentable, piteous, contemptible, miserable, distressing, mean, wretched, poor, sad. ANTONYMS: (adj) generous, heartwarming, admirable, cheerful, fine, happy, impressive pitiless: (adj) merciless, brutal, harsh, cruel, ruthless, implacable, remorseless, inexorable, inhuman, heartless, hard. ANTONYMS: (adj) merciful, charitable, soft, compassionate, warmhearted, sympathetic, flexible, caring, tolerant pity: (n, v) compassion, ruth; (n) mercy, commiseration, condolence, sympathy, clemency, remorse; (v)
155 sympathize, compassionate, feel sorry for. ANTONYMS: (n) blame, cruelty, indifference, harshness, joy placed: (adj) situated, laid, set, positioned, arranged, fixed, sited, collocate, determined, dictated, hardened placid: (adj) calm, composed, easygoing, equable, gentle, quiet, pacific, tranquil, cool, peaceable; (adj, v) peaceful. ANTONYMS: (adj) rough, energetic, stormy, frenetic, excitable, agitated, unstable, bothered, harsh, boisterous placidity: (n) peace, equanimity, calm, serenity, tranquility, calmness, tranquillity, placidness, repose, quiet, ataraxia plain: (adj) ordinary, comprehensible, intelligible, apparent, manifest, obvious, clear, simple; (adj, n) flat, homely, humble. ANTONYMS: (adj) elaborate, unclear, multicolored, mottled, ornate, concealed, attractive, confused, fussy, obscure, patterned plainly: (adv) evidently, manifestly, clearly, distinctly, openly, obviously, patently, overtly, definitely; (adj, adv) frankly, honestly. ANTONYMS: (adv) imperceptibly, vaguely, obscurely, figuratively, unclearly, politely, incoherently, implicitly, finely, ambiguously, covertly planet: (n) globe, satellite, world, asteroid, sphere, planets, follower, celestial body, minor planet, morning star, orbiter plank: (n) timber, beam, slat, girder, panel, parachute, matchboard, footbridge, hardboard; (v) flump; (n, v) planch plastered: (adj) drunk, tight, intoxicated, pixilated, loaded, soaked, sloshed, smashed, wet, inebriated, pissed plates: (n) dishes, tableware, flake powder, dishware, dinner service playful: (adj) frisky, humorous, kittenish, mischievous, skittish, impish, naughty, merry, lighthearted, frivolous, frolicsome. ANTONYMS: (adj) serious, lethargic, solemn, staid, subdued, heavy pleading: (adj) importunate, imploring, beseeching, appealing, suppliant; (n) defense, replication, demurrer, defence, advocacy, argument pleased: (adj) contented, glad,
156 delighted, content, joyful, thankful, gratified, appreciative, overjoyed, cheerful; (adj, v) elated. ANTONYMS: (adj) unhappy, annoyed, angry, worried, ashamed, disappointed, frustrated, sad, unsatisfied, ungrateful, uncomplimentary pleasure: (n) fun, enjoyment, delectation, joy, comfort, happiness, mirth, inclination; (n, v) contentment, content; (adj, n, v) gratification. ANTONYMS: (n) irritation, nuisance, boredom, ache, displeasure, dissatisfaction, misery, pain, sadness, worry, anguish plenty: (adj, n) affluence, opulence; (n) many, much, plenteousness, copiousness, plenitude, exuberance, galore; (adj, adv) enough; (adj) adequate. ANTONYMS: (adj) insufficient, inadequate; (n) scarcity, insufficiency; (adv) insufficiently plotting: (n) machinations, intrigues, evaluation; (adj) scheming, perfidious, sly, treacherous, deep, insidious, false, faithless pluck: (adj, n) nerve; (v) cull, jerk, gather, pick, fleece, grab; (n) grit, courage, boldness; (n, v) pull. ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, gutlessness; (v) undercharge plumpness: (n) embonpoint, obesity, roundness, fatness, fleshiness, chubbiness, portliness, fullness, rotundity, stoutness, globularness. ANTONYM: (n) thinness plunder: (n, v) pillage, spoil; (v) despoil, harry, devastate, maraud, destroy, strip, ransack; (n) booty, depredation pocket: (v) take, appropriate, steal, lift, catch; (n, v) sack, pouch; (n) cavity, hole, hollow; (adj) digest. ANTONYM: (v) return pointed: (adj) keen, poignant, acute, piquant, cutting, marked, pithy, biting, short, sharp, barbed. ANTONYMS: (adj) rounded, blunt, unpointed, pointless, mild, smooth, dull pointing: (n) punctuation, indication, scoring poisoned: (adj, v) tainted; (v) peccant, morbid, tabid; (adj) venenate, made virulent, rabid, resentful, sour, mangy, leprous poke: (n, v) dig, jab, nudge, push, punch, prod, thrust; (n) bag, sack, pocket; (v) shove pole: (n) picket, bar, magnetic pole, mast, rod, terminal, post, support,
Heart of Darkness axle, beam, axis policeman: (adj) patrolman; (n) officer, police officer, cop, fuzz, constable, police constable, trooper, detective, inspector; (adj, n) watchman polished: (adj) glossy, cultured, finished, refined, smooth, lustrous, genteel, courtly; (adj, v) courteous, civil, polite. ANTONYMS: (adj) rough, coarse, shoddy, unpolished, amateur, awkward, unsophisticated ponderous: (adj) heavy, grave, onerous, burdensome, massive, unwieldy, bulky, stodgy, hard, tedious, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj) elegant, graceful, lively, brisk, manageable ponderously: (adv) weightily, heavily, gravely, unwieldily, cumbrously, slowly, dully, hardly, oppressively, stuffily, arduously. ANTONYM: (adv) rashly pool: (n) plash, pond, lake, mere, cartel, swimming pool, syndicate, trust, kitty, basin; (v) merge port: (adj, n) larboard; (n) haven, pier, carriage, demeanor, asylum, mien, wharf, embrasure, gate; (adj) left. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) starboard portico: (n) portal, arcade, entrance, veranda, corridor, mouth, lips, inlet, chops, balcony, orifice portrait: (n) effigy, image, likeness, icon, delineation, depiction, figure, portraiture, picture, photograph, painting pose: (n, v) position, masquerade, posture; (v) attitudinize, place, perplex, impersonate, lay; (n) affectation, bearing, airs positively: (adv) absolutely, definitely, decidedly, unequivocally, expressly, emphatically, categorically, clearly, confidently; (adv, int) surely; (adj, adv) really. ANTONYMS: (adv) disapprovingly, pessimistically, uncertainly, doubtfully, inauspiciously, ill possessed: (adj) mad, obsessed, frantic, hysterical, furious, fanatical, infatuated, insane; (v) ought, owed, behoove. ANTONYM: (adj) uninterested possession: (n) occupation, ownership, keeping, goods, substance, tenure, property, grasp, estate, domain; (n, v) acquisition. ANTONYMS: (n) vacancy, sale pounded: (adj) beaten, ground, crushed, pulverized, minced, broken up, milled
poured: (adj) concrete pouring: (adj) gushing, teeming, flowing profusely, burbling, burbly; (n) casting, affusion, downpour, effusion, tapping, baptism. ANTONYM: (adj) light poverty: (n, v) lack, destitution, penury, need, indigence, want; (adj, n) distress; (n) pauperism, impoverishment, squalor, deprivation. ANTONYMS: (n) wealth, riches, affluence, smartness, luxury, prosperity, fertility, surplus powerless: (adj) impotent, unable, feeble, incapable, ineffective, ineffectual, infirm, inefficient, nerveless, weak, prostrate. ANTONYMS: (adj) powerful, strong, effective, capable, able powers: (n) authority, capacity, strength, administration practically: (adv) usefully, nearly, pragmatically, almost, effectively, functionally, conveniently, about, much, in reality, as a matter of fact. ANTONYMS: (adv) theoretically, unrealistically, foolishly, romantically, irrationally, barely, awkwardly, unreasonably, recklessly prayer: (n) invocation, plea, entreaty, appeal, orison, request, suit, litany, devotion, supplication, asking praying: (n) prayer preaching: (n) sermon, lecture, homily, preachment, baccalaureate, speech, pulpit, exhortation, kerygma; (v) preach; (adj) hence precarious: (adj) dangerous, insecure, hazardous, doubtful, unstable, unsafe, uncertain, delicate, disputable, tricky, risky. ANTONYMS: (adj) stable, secure, certain precedence: (n) lead, advantage, anteriority, pas, antecedency, preference, precession, superiority, supremacy; (adj, n) priority; (adj) rank precious: (adj, n) beloved; (adj) valuable, costly, cherished, invaluable, expensive, golden, choice, inestimable, exquisite; (n) darling. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheap, hated, shabby precipice: (n) abyss, chasm, escarpment, gulf, steep, crag, verge, brink, abysm, ravine, drop precipitately: (adv) rashly, immediately, instantly, passionately, rapidly, precipitously, impetuously, impulsively, foolhardily,
Joseph Conrad prematurely; (adj, adv) headlong. ANTONYM: (adv) deliberately precision: (n) accuracy, correctness, exactness, accurateness, preciseness, fidelity, nicety, delicacy, truth, exactitude; (adj) precise. ANTONYMS: (n) vagueness, inaccuracy, ambiguity, imprecision, clumsiness, impreciseness, neglect, messiness, incorrectness, faintness, carelessness predecessor: (n) forefather, forerunner, ancestor, antecedent, father, antecessor, precedent, forebear, former, primogenitor; (adj, n) elder. ANTONYMS: (n) successor, descendant pre-eminently: (adv) principally, eminently prefect: (n) chief, proconsul, provost, syndic, governor, warden, archon, administrator, lieutenant; (v) disclose, further prehistoric: (adj) archaic, ancient, primordial, primeval, antiquated, old, antediluvian, prehistorical, antique, dated, earliest. ANTONYM: (adj) contemporary prejudice: (n, v) harm, hurt, damage; (v) influence, predispose, injure; (n) disadvantage, partiality, preconceived notion, discrimination, preconception. ANTONYMS: (n) tolerance, fairness, impartiality, justice, broadmindedness; (v) enhance preliminary: (adj) prefatory, early, inaugural, elementary, preparatory, first; (n) prelude, prelim, preface, introduction, overture. ANTONYMS: (n) finale, closing; (adj) concluding prepared: (adj) willing, disposed, fitted, fain, finished, ready, ripe, primed, competent, inclined, efficient. ANTONYMS: (adj) spontaneous, unarmed, reluctant, unwilling presented: (adj) conferred, offered, given, presenting, existing, accessible, obtainable, to be had, on hand presently: (adv) instantly, directly, currently, before long, shortly, soon, now, at present, readily, just, actually. ANTONYMS: (adv) later, now, formerly preserve: (v) maintain, keep, save, guard, hold, defend, uphold, keep up; (n) jam, jelly, conserves. ANTONYMS: (v) neglect, discontinue, damage, lose, attack,
endanger, use, end preside: (v) manage, lead, conduct, command, control, direct, rule, moderate, guide, chair, preside over pressed: (adj) compact, urgent, printed, pressing, press, stamped, pushed, impelled, incited, bound, driven pressing: (adj, v) exigent, importunate, important; (adj) imperative, immediate, imperious, instant, critical, insistent; (n) dishing, press. ANTONYM: (adj) mild presumably: (adv) presumptively, apparently, supposedly, seemingly, probably, in all likelihood, in all probability, superficially, allegedly, no doubt; (adj) doubtless pretend: (adv, v) assume; (adj, v) sham, counterfeit, fake, play; (v) dissimulate, dissemble, make believe, imagine, affect, act. ANTONYMS: (adj, v) real; (adj) genuine, natural, sincere pretending: (n, v) pretense; (n) affectation, appearance, acting, pretence, mannerism, dissembling, pretension, deception, deceit; (adv) pretendingly pretense: (n) affectation, pretension, deception, show, cover, masquerade, hypocrisy, mask, facade, sham; (adj, n) feint. ANTONYMS: (n) reality, honesty, humility, sincerity, genuine pretty: (adj) fair, graceful, lovely, handsome, attractive, charming, good-looking, picturesque, dainty; (n) nice; (adv) very. ANTONYMS: (adj) plain, unattractive, modern, inelegant; (adv) extremely prevaricator: (n) liar, fabricator, perjurer, fibber, trickster, cheater, cheat, deceiver, false witness prevent: (n, v) hinder, bar; (v) anticipate, block, forbid, avert, avoid, preclude, arrest, hamper, obviate. ANTONYMS: (v) allow, permit, promote, advance, attract, cause, let, drive, help, support, include prey: (n) chase, game, victim, immolation, quarry, target, mark, capture; (n, v) plunder, raven; (v) eat. ANTONYMS: (n) hunter, predator pride: (n) arrogance, conceit, egotism, vanity, lordliness, assumption, insolence, disdain, hauteur; (n, v) boast; (v) plume. ANTONYMS: (n) modesty, sorrow, dregs, disgrace,
157 shame, baseness primeval: (adj) primitive, ancient, primordial, aboriginal, primal, original, primary, first, primaeval, prehistoric, antediluvian. ANTONYMS: (adj) modern, contemporary, factual primitive: (adj, v) primeval, primary; (adj) original, archaic, crude, first, early, antediluvian, aboriginal, primordial, primal. ANTONYMS: (adj) civilized, recent, complicated, factual, advanced princess: (n) queen, duchess, begum, czarina, maharani, monarch, archduchess, lady, patrician, maharanee, mopsey principles: (n) principle, cause, morals, conscience, law, philosophy, dogma, doctrine, honor, ideas, knowledge print: (n, v) mark, impress, photograph; (n) impression, engraving, printing, picture, lettering, copy; (v) issue, engrave privation: (n) hardship, need, deprivation, necessity, poverty, deficiency, misery, impoverishment, destitution, dearth; (n, v) loss. ANTONYM: (n) affluence privilege: (n) liberty, prerogative, immunity, freedom, grant, franchise, exemption, concession, claim; (n, v) license, permit. ANTONYM: (n) insult probability: (n) likelihood, chance, possibility, likeliness, opportunity, expectation, eventuality, prospect, expectancy, contingency; (adj, n) odds. ANTONYM: (n) improbability proceeded: (v) proceed, yode proceeding: (n) matter, transaction, affair, procedure, lawsuit, proceedings; (v) deed, act; (n, v) measure; (adv, n) happening; (adj, adv, v) going on proceedings: (n) lawsuit, minutes, dealings, proceeding, transactions, record, prosecution, trial, case, naturalization, bankruptcy prodigious: (adj) gigantic, enormous, huge, phenomenal, portentous, stupendous, exceptional, colossal, immense, gargantuan; (adj, v) monstrous. ANTONYMS: (adj) unexceptional, normal, average, tiny, weak producing: (n) production, output, making, birth, childbirth; (adj) fertile, generating, procreant; (v) produced, to produce; (adv) yieldingly
158 profession: (n) employment, declaration, occupation, affirmation, calling, career, vocation, job, position, assertion, assurance. ANTONYM: (n) denial profit: (n, v) gain, produce, net, increase, help; (adj, n, v) benefit, advantage; (n) account, earnings, lucre; (adj, n) good. ANTONYMS: (n) loss, detriment, insignificance profitable: (adj) helpful, beneficial, fruitful, advantageous, good, lucrative, useful, gainful, desirable, fat, valuable. ANTONYMS: (adj) dependent, disadvantageous, unhelpful, fruitless profound: (adj) abstruse, intense, heavy, important, sound, bottomless, grave, obscure, utter, abysmal; (adj, v) solid. ANTONYMS: (adj) shallow, trivial, lightweight, stupid, simple, mild, facile, slight, insignificant, prosaic profoundly: (adv) thoroughly, extremely, intensely, exhaustively, greatly, sincerely, gravely, deep, heavily, weightily, very. ANTONYMS: (adv) lightly, mildly profundity: (n) deepness, profoundness, abstruseness, penetration, wisdom, obscurity, astuteness, abstrusity, erudition; (adj) profound, extensive. ANTONYMS: (n) superficiality, banality, flippancy, height, mildness, simplicity projected: (adj) proposed, jutting, planned, deliberate, protruding, protrusive, sticking, sticking out, likely, anticipated, expected projectile: (n) bullet, shot, pellet, arrow, bolt, weapon, quoit, slug, cartridge, cannonball; (adj) propulsive prolonged: (adj) lengthy, chronic, extended, elongated, lengthened, continuous, continued, expanded, sustained; (adj, v) protracted, lingering. ANTONYMS: (adj) quick, short, temporary promise: (n, v) covenant, guarantee, contract, vow, bargain; (v) augur, assure; (n) engagement, assurance, plight, word promised: (adj) pledged, affianced, betrothed, busy, devoted, employed, greatly interested, intended, involved; (v) benempt, named promotion: (n) advancement, advance, advertising, boost, hype, encouragement, preferment, progress, cultivation, advertisement,
Heart of Darkness exaltation. ANTONYMS: (n) neglect, downgrade, relegation, hindrance promptitude: (n) expedition, speed, readiness, promptness, velocity, haste, agility, rapidity, celerity, hurry, dispatch pronounced: (adj) clear, emphatic, distinct, prominent, notable, obvious, salient, evident, definite, bold, palpable. ANTONYMS: (adj) faint, inconspicuous, indefinite, loose, slight, small pronouncement: (n) proclamation, affirmation, dictum, decree, assertion, ruling, judgment, sentence, announcement, directive, verdict propensity: (n) proclivity, leaning, disposition, bias, bent, aptitude, aptness, proneness, predisposition, predilection, penchant. ANTONYM: (n) inability proper: (adj) due, decent, modest, agreeable, fitting, legitimate, right; (adj, v) correct, fit, becoming; (adj, n) just. ANTONYMS: (adj) inappropriate, wrong, unseemly, rude, unconventional, unsuitable, false, relaxed, vulgar, unreasonable, undue properly: (adv) duly, decently, appropriately, neatly, exactly, rightly, becomingly, fittingly, fitly, seemly, aptly. ANTONYMS: (adv) improperly, incorrectly, inappropriately, unlawfully, unsuitably, unduly, informally, indecently, dishonorably, badly, jokingly propitiatory: (adj) conciliatory, conciliative, expiative, propitiative, apologetic proportion: (n) balance, degree, ratio, portion, slice, share, dimension, equilibrium, equipoise, fraction; (n, v) scale. ANTONYMS: (n) disproportion, asymmetry proposed: (adj) intended, projected, suggested, intentional, jutting, planned, future, projecting, predetermined, prospective; (n) moot propped: (adj) fulcrate prospect: (n) outlook, expectancy, lookout, aspect, anticipation, hope, possibility, perspective, probability, panorama, picture protective: (adj) preventive, motherly, caring, maternal, paternal, shielding, sheltering, affectionate, tender; (adj, adv) fatherly; (v) protecting. ANTONYMS: (adj)
aggressive, paternal proud: (adj) lofty, disdainful, haughty, exalted, egotistical, gallant, pompous, lordly, majestic, overbearing; (adj, v) dignified. ANTONYMS: (adj) humble, modest, ashamed, embarrassed, sorrowful, disappointed, miserable proudly: (adv) haughtily, arrogantly, superciliously, boastfully, vainly, splendidly, stately, loftily, snootily, disdainfully, conceitedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) humbly, modestly prove: (v) attest, manifest, evidence, establish, show, examine, verify, essay, check, corroborate; (adj, v) confirm. ANTONYMS: (v) refute, undermine proved: (adj) tried, established, tested, qualified, genuine, demonstrable, apparent, confirmed, reliable, faithful provisions: (n) provender, victuals, supplies, commissariat, fare, provision, nourishment, aliment, feed, nutriment, sustenance provoke: (n, v) excite; (v) defy, offend, enrage, anger, irritate, arouse, kindle, inflame, invite, get. ANTONYMS: (v) please, soothe, mollify, deter, inhibit, dampen, arbitrate, allay, defuse, discourage, douse provoking: (adj) provocative, annoying, aggravating, galling, maddening, vexatious, agitative, tempting, agitating; (adj, v) irritating, insulting. ANTONYMS: (adj) conciliatory, courteous, satisfying proximity: (n) propinquity, vicinity, adjacency, neighborhood, contiguity, presence, closeness, contact, nearby, juxtaposition, approach. ANTONYM: (n) remoteness prudence: (n) foresight, economy, frugality, caution, care, forethought, providence, circumspection, judgment, deliberation; (adj, n) wisdom. ANTONYMS: (n) imprudence, profligacy, generosity, hindsight, recklessness, extravagance prudently: (adv) wisely, cautiously, judiciously, discreetly, shrewdly, sparingly, charily, sagaciously, warily, frugally, circumspectly. ANTONYMS: (adv) recklessly, imprudently, extravagantly, generously, indiscreetly,
Joseph Conrad immaturely, stupidly prying: (adj) inquisitive, meddlesome, nosy, inquiring, nosey, intrusive, busy, snoopy; (n) nosiness, curiosity; (adj, n) meddling. ANTONYMS: (adj) apathetic; (n) apathy publication: (n) issue, book, proclamation, newspaper, periodical, journal, promulgation, volume, disclosure, declaration, magazine puff: (adj, n, v) gasp; (n, v) blow, whiff, gust, drag; (v) boast, inflate, huff, heave, brag, distend pulsating: (adj) vibrant, beating, vivacious, resonant, rhythmical, rhythmic, animated, exciting, lively, pulsatile, pulsing. ANTONYM: (adj) listless pulse: (n, v) throb; (n) pulsation, impulse, heartbeat, legume, rhythm, pounding, cadence; (v) pulsate, palpitate, pound purchase: (v) obtain, get, procure, bribe; (n) acquisition, leverage, bargain, acquirement, grip, buying; (n, v) contract. ANTONYMS: (v) sell, lose; (n) loss, sale pure: (adj) absolute, natural, faultless, innocent, immaculate, perfect, good, clean; (adj, n) chaste, genuine; (adj, v) mere. ANTONYMS: (adj) contaminated, dishonored, diluted, tainted, wicked, practical, polluted, flawed, marred, unsaturated, unchaste purely: (adv) utterly, merely, completely, perfectly, just, fairly, unmixedly, absolutely, virtuously, clearly; (adj, adv) simply. ANTONYMS: (adv) artificially, indecently, immorally, partly purple: (adj) violet, lilac, imperial, regal, royal; (adj, n) empurpled; (v) empurple; (n) magenta, purpleness, ermine, pall pursued: (n) hunted person pursuing: (n) pursuit, search, hunt; (adj) coming, engaged push: (n, v) press, thrust, impel, jolt, force, jab, nudge, crowd, prod, poke; (v) jostle. ANTONYMS: (v) drag, haul, unpack, inhibit, leave, oppose, prevent, restrain, understate, calm; (n) apathy pushing: (adj) enterprising, pushy, pushful, ambitious, officious, adventurous; (n) push, propulsion, thrusting, actuation; (v) meddlesome puzzled: (adj) bewildered, confused,
baffled, nonplussed, doubtful, bemused, at a loss, curious, mystified, nonplused, dazed. ANTONYM: (adj) clear puzzling: (adj) enigmatic, confusing, incomprehensible, mysterious, cryptic, obscure, knotty, enigmatical, complicated, ambiguous, abstruse. ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, straightforward, explicable, comprehensible, enlightening pyjamas: (n) pajama, nightclothes, nightwear, pyjama, jammies, lounging pajamas, lounging pyjamas quantity: (n) amount, quantum, extent, measure, sum, multitude, total, portion, heap, degree, deal quarrel: (adj, n, v) dispute; (n, v) fight, feud, brawl, row, altercation, argue, conflict, squabble; (n) dissension, difference. ANTONYMS: (n) agreement, reconciliation, acceptance, concord, consensus; (v) agree quarreling: (adj) brawling, noisy, discordant; (n) disagreement; (v) argue quarrelsome: (adj) argumentative, belligerent, combative, cantankerous, aggressive, disputatious, ugly, currish, termagant; (adj, n) contentious; (adj, v) fretful. ANTONYMS: (adj) agreeable, peaceful, amiable quarry: (n) prey, game, pit, target, stone pit, victim, fair game, lode, butt; (n, v) dig; (v) excavate quart: (n) quartile, quartic, quartilunar, quartole, quartlet, quarts, quarto, quarter queer: (adj) fantastic, odd, eccentric, funny, curious, gay, peculiar, strange, quaint, fishy, outlandish. ANTONYMS: (adj) conventional, normal, well questioning: (adj) inquisitive, curious, suspicious, quizzical, doubting; (n) question, inquiry, query, examination, interrogation, enquiry. ANTONYMS: (adj) illogical, certain, credulous quick: (adj) bright, hasty, agile, nimble, intelligent, clever, speedy, active, immediate, instant; (adj, v) prompt. ANTONYMS: (adj) leisurely, dull, dim, thick, unintelligent, thorough, inept, unobservant, lengthy, long, permanent quickening: (n) hurrying, hastening,
159 speedup; (v) hasten, lively, flowing, having life, ignited, laving; (adj) bracing, moving quiet: (adj, adv, v) still; (adj, n, v) lull, hush, pacify, compose, appease, assuage; (adj, v) moderate, cool; (adj, adv) gentle, motionless. ANTONYMS: (adj) noisy, talkative, vociferous, active, oratorical, fierce, vocal, unquiet, busy, disordered; (n) noise quietly: (adv) stilly, calmly, peacefully, silently, softly, smoothly, tranquilly, serenely, restfully, lully, moderately. ANTONYMS: (adv) loudly, harshly, raucously, vociferously, anxiously, energetically, manically, unquietly, clearly, heavily, brashly quivering: (adj, n) trembling, tremor, quaking, trepidation; (n) palpitation, quiver, vibration; (adj) flutter, quavering, shivering, tremulous. ANTONYM: (adj) steady quoth: (v) quod radiant: (adj, v) bright, glittering, lustrous, beamy, glorious; (adj) beaming, luminous, effulgent, lucid, glowing, beautiful. ANTONYMS: (adj) gloomy, dark, pale, unhappy rags: (adj) refuse, rubble, scourings, sweepings, trash, waste; (n) clothing, tatter, orts, odds and ends, dress raid: (n, v) foray, maraud, bust, assault, sortie; (n) inroad, incursion, onset, invasion, descent; (v) pillage. ANTONYM: (n) defense rail: (n) balustrade, handrail, railing, fence, banister, track, guardrail, path; (v) inveigh, vituperate, fulminate rails: (n) track, railroad, Gruiformes, railing, railway, bustards, Coots, course, gallinules, crakes, order Gruiformes rain: (n, v) stream, hail; (n) precipitation, wet, pelting, flow, downpour, rainwater; (v) precipitate, shower, rain down. ANTONYM: (v) drizzle rainbow: (n) tortoise shell, tulip, sunbow, spectrum, peacock, dream, chimera; (adj) multicolored, motley, kaleidoscopic, colorful raise: (n, v) lift, boost, increase; (v) erect, hoist, grow, enhance, build, elevate, promote, foster. ANTONYMS: (n, v) downgrade; (v) lessen, demote, decrease, level, reduce, dismantle, knock; (n) lowering, reduction, descent
160 raised: (adj) embossed, erect, convex, inflated, brocaded, high, uplifted, lifted, exultant; (v) in relief, repousse raising: (n) bringing up, nurture, elevation, lift, raise, culture, heave, ascent, ascension, upbringing, rearing rang: (n) rung rank: (n, v) range, order, place, position, grade, class, line, file; (v) arrange, classify; (n) gradation. ANTONYMS: (adj) sparse, pleasant, clean ranks: (n) rank and file rapacious: (adj) avid, voracious, predatory, edacious, acquisitive, ravenous, gluttonous, ferocious, raptorial; (adj, v) covetous, avaricious rapacity: (adj, n) greed, avarice; (n) cupidity, edacity, covetousness, rapaciousness, esurience, extortion, gluttony, voracity; (adj) avidity rapid: (adj, v) fast, swift, prompt, fleet; (adj) speedy, agile, hasty, cursory, expeditious, sudden; (adv) quickly. ANTONYMS: (adj) slow, gradual, considered, leisurely, thorough, lengthy, protracted, sluggish rapidly: (adv) promptly, speedily, swiftly, quick, fleetly, hastily, cursorily, readily, expeditiously, fast; (adj, adv) immediately. ANTONYMS: (adv) permanently, gradually, thoroughly, eventually, later, now rapids: (v) torrent, body of water, swash; (n) white water, cascade, cataclysm rare: (adj) uncommon, thin, unusual, seldom, scarce, precious, exceptional, infrequent, few, choice, fine. ANTONYMS: (adj) common, frequent, usual, plentiful, commonplace, recurrent rascally: (adj) dirty, contemptible, abject, mean, mischievous, scoundrelly, roguish, scabby, scurvy, shabby, paltry rattle: (n, v) jingle, jangle, clatter; (n) click, clang, clack; (v) bang, confuse, shake, patter, disconcert rattled: (adj) hot and bothered, perturbed, upset, unsettled, puzzled, disconcerted, discomposed, bewildered, beside oneself, abashed, addled. ANTONYM: (adj) calm rave: (adj, n, v) fume; (n, v) rant; (adj, n) foam; (v) wander, jabber, gush, storm, tear, bluster; (adj, v) boil;
Heart of Darkness (adj) flame. ANTONYM: (v) criticize ravine: (n, v) gap, cleft; (n) chasm, canyon, dell, defile, gully, glen, pass, abyss, valley rays: (n) light, sunlight, Selachii, dogfishes, elasmobranch, Elasmobranchii, emission, daylight, sunshine, selachian, subclass Elasmobranchii reaches: (n) recess readable: (adj) legible, interesting, decipherable, easy, graceful, clean, entertaining, tripping, plain, flowing, percipient. ANTONYMS: (adj) illegible, indecipherable, unreadable reality: (n, v) fact, efficiency, deed; (n) existence, certainty, actuality, realism, being, realness, truth, entity. ANTONYMS: (n) vision, imagination, delusion, dream, illusion, idealism, unreality, fiction realize: (v) achieve, perform, discover, attain, appreciate, make, execute, complete, accomplish, know, sense. ANTONYMS: (v) fail, neglect reap: (v) harvest, gain, glean, gather, obtain, cut, receive, earn, acquire; (adj, v) mow; (adj) clip. ANTONYMS: (v) lose, scatter reasonable: (adj) rational, just, fair, legitimate, judicious, sensible, sane, temperate, impartial, inexpensive, equitable. ANTONYMS: (adj) illogical, unfair, expensive, unsatisfactory, inadequate, excessive, intolerable, intemperate, inexplicable, ridiculous, obsessional reassured: (adj) hopeful, reinsured, secure, confident rebellious: (adj) insubordinate, mutinous, disaffected, defiant, disobedient, contrary, contumacious, insurgent, stubborn, unruly, malcontent. ANTONYMS: (adj) docile, conventional, obedient, conformist, content, conforming, cooperative, loyal, meek, submissive, obliging recesses: (n) penetralia, bowels, inside recite: (v) relate, enumerate, describe, narrate, recount, repeat, say, rehearse, detail, lecture; (n, v) declaim reckless: (adj) careless, rash, foolhardy, hasty, incautious, extravagant, daring, desperate, brash; (adj, v) imprudent, wanton. ANTONYMS: (adj) cautious, prudent, sensible, wise, responsible,
parsimonious, considered, safe, guarded, dutiful, discreet reclaimed: (adj) cultivated, tame, domestic, rescued, disciplined, domesticated recognition: (n, v) appreciation; (n) identification, perception, cognizance, acceptance, approval, remembrance, admission, acknowledgement, realization; (adj, n) reception. ANTONYMS: (n) rejection, concealment, infamy, blame, ignorance recollection: (n, v) mind; (n) reminiscence, recall, anamnesis, remembrance, recognition, memento, memorial, commemoration, memoir, retrospect recommended: (adj) registered, advisable, favored, not compulsory, optional, required reconciled: (adj) consistent, resigned, serene, meet; (v) made friends, affriended. ANTONYM: (adj) unreconciled recondite: (adj) esoteric, deep, occult, hidden, mysterious, obscure, concealed, profound, dark, cryptic; (adj, v) secret. ANTONYMS: (adj) familiar, straightforward, simple, mainstream recover: (v) reclaim, get back, recuperate, retrieve, regain, pick up, get well, restore, heal, convalesce, mend. ANTONYMS: (v) lose, die, decline, aggravate, abandon, worsen, scatter recovered: (adj) cured, retrieved, well, well again, healthier, aged, improved, whole, better, corned. ANTONYM: (adj) worse recrudescence: (n) return, recurrence, revival, relapsing, recrudency, outbreak reeds: (n) Poaceae, grass family, Graminaceae, family Gramineae, family Graminaceae, bamboo, Gramineae referring: (adj) relative, relevant, pertaining, not absolute; (v) refer; (n) delegation reflecting: (adv) reflectingly; (adj) reflective, thoughtful, calculating, reflected, shiny, shimmering, reflectent; (n) mirroring, reflection, reflexion reflection: (n) contemplation, thought, deliberation, meditation, musing, cogitation, idea, notion, introspection; (n, v) observation, reflexion. ANTONYMS: (n) impulsiveness, confirmation
Joseph Conrad refuge: (n) sanctuary, asylum, safety, retreat, cover, harborage, haven, shelter, harbor; (n, v) recourse, resort refuse: (v) deny, reject, decline, disallow, rebuff, turn down; (adj, n) waste, trash; (n) offal, litter; (n, v) dross. ANTONYMS: (v) allow, receive, permit, offer, dedicate, approve, agree, admit, choose, pass, affirm refused: (adj) forbidden, refuse, prohibited, hence regard: (n, v) respect, esteem, attention, heed, concern, note; (adj, n, v) notice; (v) estimate, believe; (adj, v) attend; (n) deference. ANTONYMS: (n) neglect, disesteem, inattentiveness, disdain, detachment, infamy; (v) ignore, scorn, disregard regarded: (adj) reputed regions: (n) area, region, parts regret: (n, v) grieve, sorrow; (v) bewail, lament, mourn, bemoan, deplore; (n) remorse, penitence, compunction, contrition. ANTONYMS: (v) welcome, praise; (n) idealism, shamelessness, joy, satisfaction regrets: (n) regret, declination, RSVP regrets only, acknowledgement, acknowledgment, celestial latitude, excuse, Dec regularity: (n) constancy, evenness, punctuality, orderliness, uniformity, steadiness, method, accuracy, discipline, system, exactness. ANTONYMS: (n) lateness, asymmetry, irregularity, disorder, variability, variety, abnormality rehearsing: (n) rehearsal rejects: (adj) culls; (n) castoffs relation: (n) narration, recital, association, affinity, description, rehearsal, kin, relative; (n, v) account, report, regard relative: (adj) related, comparative, proportionate, proportional, dependent; (n) cousin, kin, brother, connection, kinswoman; (v) kinsman. ANTONYM: (adj) absolute relief: (n, v) help, ease, aid, relaxation, assistance, solace; (n) consolation, release, respite, abatement, rest. ANTONYMS: (n) capture, discomfort, worry, aggravation, grief, hindrance, intensification, distress relieved: (adj) alleviated, thankful, mitigated, prominent, pleased, joyful, fresh, delighted, comfortable,
cheerful, happy. ANTONYM: (adj) worried reluctance: (n) aversion, hesitation, indisposition, distaste, disgust, dislike, opposition, unwillingness, repugnance, diffidence, scruple. ANTONYMS: (n) readiness, disposition, keenness, willingness, enthusiasm reluctantly: (adv) loathly, aversely, grudgingly, backwardly, hesitantly, reluctant, slowly, unenthusiastically, indisposedly, lothly, charily. ANTONYMS: (adv) freely, wholeheartedly remaining: (adj) leftover, left over, odd, surplus, extra, other, enduring, lasting, residual, spare; (adv) over. ANTONYMS: (adj) spent, finished, left, gross, fleeting, basic, transient remark: (n, v) comment, notice, note, mention, regard, mind; (adj, n, v) observe; (v) perceive, mark, discern; (n) observation remarkable: (adj) notable, odd, noteworthy, exceptional, distinguished, conspicuous, phenomenal, famous, illustrious, curious; (adj, n) memorable. ANTONYMS: (adj) insignificant, unremarkable, commonplace, usual, average, unimpressive, normal, inconspicuous, dreadful, dire, awful remarkably: (adj, adv) outstandingly, markedly, conspicuously, particularly, prominently; (adv) signally, uncommonly, surprisingly, extremely, wonderfully, curiously. ANTONYMS: (adv) normally, slightly, poorly, unexceptionally remarks: (n) commentary, explanation remembering: (n) recollection, recall, memory, identification, recognition, remember, association, connection, connexion, reminiscence, remembrance remote: (adj) aloof, inaccessible, outside, detached, faint, alien, unapproachable, secluded, far, foreign, isolated. ANTONYMS: (adj) near, nearby, accessible, likely, strong, neighboring, central, close, friendly, relevant, approachable removed: (adj) distant, remote, separate, far, detached, abstracted, absent, apart, aloof, separated, outlying. ANTONYMS: (adj) connected, together, worldly renewed: (adj) changed, born again, new, fresh, redintegrate, rehabilitated, transformed,
161 regenerate, reformed, Renate rent: (n, v) breach, fissure, lease, let; (adj, n) cleft; (n) crevice, tear, crack, break; (v) charter, engage repairs: (n) upkeep repeated: (adj) continual, recurrent, frequent, persistent, repeat, double, habitual, chronic, again, common, continuous. ANTONYMS: (adj) temporary, rare, unique, alternate, unusual, spasmodic repeatedly: (adv) often, recurrently, again, time and again, commonly, again and again, successively, regularly, repetitively, habitually, continually. ANTONYMS: (adv) intermittently, never, simultaneously, spasmodically, rarely, manually, infrequently repeating: (n) repeat, iteration, renewal, repetition, redundancy, copying, reduplication; (adj) repetitious, iterating, iterative, repetitive reply: (n) echo, response, reaction, repay; (n, v) return, rejoinder; (v) respond, react, rejoin, retort, counter. ANTONYMS: (n, v) question; (v) interrogate, ignore repose: (n, v) recline, peace, lie, calm; (n) composure, ease, quiet, leisure, recreation, relaxation; (v) lay. ANTONYMS: (n, v) work; (n) activity, panic, agitation represent: (adj, v) express; (v) depict, play, exemplify, act, be, illustrate, describe, embody, enact, make. ANTONYMS: (v) prosecute, oppose represented: (adj) delineate, depicted, representing, drawn, painted, pictured, diagrammatic representing: (adj) representative, represented, representant; (n) representation, imitation; (v) mock, pseudo, simulating; (prep) in place of, in lieu of, instead of reproachful: (adj, v) condemnatory, disparaging, vituperative; (adj) admonitory, opprobrious, disgraceful, shameful, reproving, objurgatory, contumelious; (v) denunciatory repulse: (n, v) rebuff, defeat; (v) repel, nauseate, disgust, drive back, revolt, reject, refuse, beat back; (n) refusal. ANTONYMS: (v) attract, accept, delight, yield, please; (n, v) welcome repulsive: (adj) offensive, detestable, ugly, disagreeable, nauseous, hideous, loathsome, abhorrent; (adj, v) abominable, hateful, obnoxious.
162 ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, delightful, desirable, reputable, lovely, lovable, humane, appealing, laudable reputation: (n) name, prestige, distinction, face, celebrity, credit, character; (n, v) honor, esteem, report; (adj, n) renown. ANTONYMS: (n) infamy, dishonor, obscurity requisite: (n) need, necessity, requirement, must; (adj, n) necessary, prerequisite; (adj) required, mandatory, needful, compulsory, obligatory. ANTONYMS: (adj) voluntary, optional, dispensable; (n) inessential, luxury resemble: (v) seem, imitate, compare, correspond, to resemble, agree, look, simulate; (adj) look like; (n) resemblance; (adv) alike resembling: (adj, prep) like; (adj) analogous, parallel, similar, conformable, approximate, semblative, other, probable; (prep) similar to, reminiscent of. ANTONYM: (prep) unlike reservation: (n) limitation, booking, condition, subscription, qualification, modesty, exception, constraint, order, misgiving; (adj) reserved. ANTONYM: (n) enthusiasm reserved: (adj, n) cold, distant, frigid; (adj) coy, reticent, diffident, bashful, aloof, retiring, quiet, shy. ANTONYMS: (adj) open, forthcoming, uninhibited, relaxed, warm, communicative, talkative, free, definite, cordial, forward resignation: (n) endurance, surrender, patience, renunciation, abdication, submission, acquiescence, compliance, renouncement, demission, cession. ANTONYM: (n) defiance resist: (n, v) oppose, confront; (v) rebel, defy, revolt, endure, reject, protest, refuse, impede, fight back. ANTONYMS: (v) surrender, yield, assent, agree, suppress, favor, accept, attract, obey, welcome resolution: (n) determination, purpose, firmness, conclusion, answer, solution, resolve, decomposition, resoluteness, perseverance, settlement. ANTONYMS: (n) problem, feebleness, indecision, irresoluteness, irresolution, weakness, indifference
Heart of Darkness resolve: (n, v) purpose; (v) determine, solve, decide, dissolve, decompose, settle; (n) determination, firmness, decision, resolution. ANTONYMS: (n) weakness, irresoluteness, vacillation, cowardice, flexibility, indecisiveness, indifference; (v) aggravate, complicate, exacerbate, waver respect: (adj, n, v) regard, worship; (n, v) esteem, heed, notice, reverence; (v) observe, keep, appreciate; (n) homage, deference. ANTONYMS: (n, v) scorn, dishonor, disregard; (n) cheek, insolence, impudence, disdain; (v) despise, humiliate, break, taint respectable: (adj) considerable, decorous, fair, estimable, decent, honorable, good, proper, creditable, passable, honest. ANTONYMS: (adj) bad, small, sordid, scruffy, inadequate, unrespectable, paltry, discourteous, inappropriate, sinful, unacceptable respected: (adj) illustrious, respectable, honored, appreciated, dear, revered, valued, redoubtable, celebrated, glorious, famous. ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary, unreliable, weak respective: (adj) individual, proper, relative, several, appropriate, peculiar, singular, corresponding, private, personal, regardful rested: (adj) comfortable resting: (adj) idle, quiescent, inactive, dormant, quiet, sleeping, reclining, obligatory, unemployed, asleep; (n) repose restlessly: (adv) fidgetily, apprehensively, agitatedly, fretfully, unquietly, sleeplessly, nervously, restively, edgily, anxiously, disturbedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) peacefully, unconcernedly restrained: (adj) reserved, quiet, modest, temperate, discreet, limited, reasonable, subdued, unemotional, reticent, guarded. ANTONYMS: (adj) unrestrained, open, flashy, immoral, ostentatious, wild, loud, theatrical, outgoing, extravagant, emotional restraining: (adj) binding, astringent, warning, abstemious, continuous, moderate, not interrupted, obligatory, opposing; (n) arrest, penning restraint: (n) bridle, reserve, moderation, modesty, constraint, control, restriction, curb; (n, v)
hindrance, check, limit. ANTONYMS: (n) excess, abandon, incentive, decadence, freedom, unrestraint, depravity, disorderliness, indulgence, expression, incitement retired: (adj) obscure, secluded, sequestered, solitary, emeritus, secret, lonely, withdrawn, superannuated, close; (adj, v) covert retreat: (v) retire, withdraw, depart; (n) refuge, departure, asylum, den, lair, retirement; (n, v) resort, return. ANTONYMS: (n) raid, development, extension, arrival, company; (v) progress, remain retreating: (n) flight; (adj) moving back returning: (adj) regressive, return, reversive, recurrent, coming back, ebbing, flowing back, new, newly appointed, newly elected, next. ANTONYMS: (adj) outgoing, unique, occasional reverberating: (adj) resounding, reverberant, ringing, resonating, deep, rumbling, muted, reverberative, booming, rolling, dull reverence: (n, v) respect, regard, fear, worship, honor, esteem, adore; (n) deference, adoration, admiration, awe. ANTONYMS: (n) despise, disrespect, irreverence, disdain, disparagement, contempt; (v) dishonor revile: (v) abuse, rail, vilify, reproach, taunt, vituperate, attack, denounce; (n, v) malign; (adj, v) profane, blaspheme. ANTONYM: (v) praise revolt: (n, v) mutiny, rebellion, insurrection; (v) sicken, nauseate, rebel, repel, repulse, offend; (adj, v) shock; (n) uprising. ANTONYMS: (n) attraction; (v) please, delight revolving: (adj) turning, rotating, vertiginous, rotary, gyratory, wheeling, rotative, rotatory, rotational; (n) revolution; (v) revolve ribbon: (n) band, riband, tape, strip, shred, decoration, medal, ribband, thread, fascia, belt ribs: (n) dinner, chest, bosom rich: (adj, n) copious, luxurious; (adj) productive, fruitful, full, deep, prolific, opulent, fat, affluent; (adj, v) fertile. ANTONYMS: (adj) poor, impoverished, destitute, broke, light, plain, lean, delicate, infertile, weak, barren riddle: (n) mystery, conundrum, puzzle, problem, poser; (n, v) screen, sieve; (v) puncture, strain, filter, sift.
Joseph Conrad ANTONYM: (n) explanation ride: (n, v) outing; (adj, v) bestride; (n) run, lift, jaunt; (v) mount, bait, float, rag, tease, harass ridiculous: (adj) foolish, preposterous, funny, laughable, ludicrous, inane, nonsensical, comical, farcical, amusing, comic. ANTONYMS: (adj) reasonable, inspiring, ordinary, sensitive, acceptable, generous, normal, possible, impressive, sane, worthwhile rifle: (v) plunder, pillage, despoil, loot, ransack, steal, foray, reave, take; (n) gun, firearm rifles: (n) chasseur, light infantry rightly: (adv) correctly, rightfully, properly, accurately, appropriately, exactly, fitly, straightly, fairly, really; (adv, v) adequately. ANTONYMS: (adv) wrongly, inappropriately, incorrectly, immorally, unjustly, partially, sinfully, unfairly, falsely rigid: (adj) inflexible, hard, fixed, stiff, strict, austere, firm, set, tense, tight, tough. ANTONYMS: (adj) flexible, soft, elastic, loose, nonrigid, limp, liberal, lenient, adaptable, irresolute, floppy rigidly: (adv) severely, sternly, strictly, firmly, stringently, unbendingly, rigorously, uncompromisingly, stubbornly, unyieldingly, strongly. ANTONYMS: (adv) loosely, amenably ring: (n, v) encircle, peal, call, loop, jingle; (v) resound, echo, reverberate; (n) gang, band, rim rinsing: (n) flushing, washing, spraying, removal, remotion rioting: (n) disorder, tumult, howler, insubordination, orgy, public violence, reveling, grassation, agitation, drunken revelry; (adj) rebellious ripe: (adj) adult, ready, advanced, prepared, good, grown, perfect, matured, finished, consummate; (adj, v) mellow. ANTONYMS: (adj) green, unripe, immature, dry, poisonous, young, unsuitable, sweet ripped: (adj) rent, blasted, lacerated, drugged, depressed, desolate, desolated, deuced, devastated, darned, distressed ripple: (v) bubble, murmur, gurgle, billow, surge, burble, cockle; (n, v) wave, swell, riffle, purl risen: (v) uprise rising: (n) revolt, rebellion, mutiny,
ascent, ascension, climb, rise, outbreak, insurrection; (adj) climbing, uphill. ANTONYMS: (adj) plummeting, plunging, decreasing, falling, setting, downward, content; (n) fall risking: (n) daily double, gaming, perfecta, place bet, exacta risky: (adj) dangerous, hazardous, chancy, unsafe, perilous, insecure, daring, dodgy, precarious, uncertain, venturesome. ANTONYMS: (adj) sensible, safety, simple, secure, harmless, cowardly, certain, timid, wise rites: (n) money, finances, wake, religion rivet: (v) focus, concentrate, clinch, fascinate, center, absorb, engross, enthrall; (adj) nail, pin, clamp roaming: (adj) wandering, roving, errant, itinerant, Peripatetic, traveling, vagabond, astray; (n) ramble, journey, ubiquity roaring: (n) bellowing, roar, bellow, thunder; (adj) booming, prosperous, thriving, flourishing, deafening, noisy, boisterous robbed: (adj) plundered, rubato, fleeced, borrowed, bereft robbery: (n) depredation, pillage, piracy, plunder, looting, burglary, theft, holdup, thieving, freebooting; (v) rob rock: (adj, n) stone; (n) boulder, calculus, cliff; (n, v) sway, jar; (v) waver, toss, jolt, shake, cradle rocky: (adj) unstable, rough, shaky, craggy, stony, flinty, wobbly, difficult, unsteady, rugged, obdurate. ANTONYMS: (adj) flat, flexible, solid, stable, easy, firm roll: (n, v) list, wheel, curl, turn; (v) reel, enfold, revolve, wind; (n) revolution, register; (adj, n, v) twist. ANTONYM: (v) unwind rolled: (adj) rolling, furled, involute, scroll, coiled, resonant, trilled, reverberative, reverberating, resounding, spiral rolling: (n) peal, curling, wheeling, rolling movement, finish rolling, pealing, crimping; (adj) resounding, rolled, tumbling, resonating romans: (n) epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans rome: (n) Eternal City, Italian capital, capital of Italy roof: (n, v) top, cover, shelter; (n) crown, housing, ceiling, dome, house, household, back, covering rooted: (adj, v) fixed; (adj) ingrained,
163 immovable, inveterate, firm, set, frozen, riveted, irremovable; (v) imbedded, posited rope: (n, v) lasso, leash, tie, tape; (n) lariat, noose, hawser, line, string, cord, thread rotten: (adj, v) decayed, musty; (adj) foul, poor, fetid, lousy, putrid, off, ill, shabby, wretched. ANTONYMS: (adj) fresh, superior, unrotten, good, incorruptible, honest, lovely, fair, great, respectful rotting: (adj) rotten, decaying, decayed, moldering, mouldering, decomposing, putrid; (n) rot, putrefaction, decomposition, deep etching roughly: (adv) coarsely, harshly, violently, rudely, unevenly, hardly, severely, crudely; (adj, adv) nearly; (adv, prep) about; (adj, adv, prep) just about. ANTONYMS: (adv) softly, gently, smoothly, exactly, finely, lovingly, precisely, well, evenly rout: (adj, n, v) defeat; (n, v) discomfiture, overthrow, discomfit; (v) conquer, overpower, overcome, crush, beat, overwhelm; (n) flight. ANTONYMS: (v) lose, surrender routine: (adj) ordinary, everyday, common, customary, normal, habitual; (n) round, process, procedure, method, habit. ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual, exciting, extraordinary, exotic, exceptional, interesting, irregular, abnormal; (n) abnormality, excitement rubbing: (n) friction, abrasion, grinding, detrition, rub, grip, resistance, chafe, sweat, travail, massage. ANTONYM: (n) smoothness rubbish: (adj, n) refuse, trash, litter, garbage, trumpery; (n) nonsense, junk, offal, debris, waste, drivel. ANTONYMS: (n) fact; (adj) valuable, helpful rubbishy: (adj) cheap, worthless, trashy, shabby, crummy, flashy, brassy, flash, loud, garish, tasteless rude: (adj, n) rough, impudent, coarse, abrupt, bold; (adj) blunt, discourteous, impolite, brutal, crude, mean. ANTONYMS: (adj) polite, refined, courteous, chivalrous, civil, proper, decent, exact, clean, gentle, inoffensive rudimentary: (adj) primary, basic, inchoate, fundamental, elementary, elemental, rudimental, embryonic,
164 original, imperfect, incomplete. ANTONYMS: (adj) advanced, complex, developed ruined: (adj, v) lost; (adj) dilapidated, desolate, broke, broken, bankrupt, finished, devastated, desolated, insolvent, spoiled. ANTONYMS: (adj) solvent, pure, rich, whole ruinous: (adj) harmful, baleful, disastrous, calamitous, injurious, deleterious, dilapidated, blasting, baneful, pernicious; (adj, n) subversive. ANTONYMS: (adj) beneficial, fortunate, harmless ruins: (n) debris, wreck, remains, remainder, carcass, wreckage, relics, rubbish, shell, remnants, hulk ruled: (adj) lined, lawful, subordinate, subject rumble: (n, v) murmur, roll, roar, grumble, mutter, bang, brawl, sound; (v) growl; (n) peal, noise runs: (n) Aztec two-step, sickness, Montezuma's revenge rush: (n, v) charge, flood, dash, flow, gush, race, run, speed, attack; (adj, n, v) burst; (n) onrush. ANTONYMS: (v) delay, dawdle, linger, wander, amble, hesitate, crawl, trickle; (n) shortage, slowness, unimportance rushed: (adj) hurried, rush, precipitate, rapid, unexpected, hassled, immediate, instant, instantaneous, quick, speedy. ANTONYMS: (adj) unhurried, slow, considered, gradual rushes: (n) rush, grasses rushing: (adv) rushingly; (n) haste, hurry, hurrying, running, hastening, flush, movement; (adj) flowing, headlong, moving rust: (v) corrode, eat, oxidise, tarnish, oxidize, gnaw; (n) decay, corrosion, fungus, oxidation; (adj) rusty rustle: (n, v) whisper; (v) lift, buzz, steal, pilfer, whiz, pinch, abstract, thieve, purloin; (n) rustling rusty: (adj) ancient, out of practice, intractable, old, corroded, deaf to reason, exceptious, cantankerous; (v) moldy, raw, mildewed ruthless: (adj) merciless, inhuman, remorseless, heartless, cruel, ferocious, unsparing, relentless, inexorable, harsh, grim. ANTONYMS: (adj) kind, charitable, gentle, compassionate, principled, unmotivated, tolerant sacred: (adj) holy, hallowed, dedicated, consecrated, divine, religious, pious, spiritual, inviolable,
Heart of Darkness blessed; (adj, v) solemn. ANTONYMS: (adj) profane, unconsecrated, cursed, breakable sacrifice: (n, v) oblation, forfeit; (v) offer, immolate, offer up, give, give up, relinquish; (n) immolation, loss, forfeiture sadly: (adv) pitifully, dolefully, unfortunately, mournfully, sorrowfully, woefully, dejectedly, pathetically, wretchedly, forlornly; (adj, adv) seriously. ANTONYMS: (adv) cheerfully, contentedly, gladly, joyfully, fortunately, luckily, enthusiastically safe: (adj) reliable, cautious, good, dependable, sound, harmless, innocuous, correct, innocent, inoffensive; (n) closet. ANTONYMS: (adj) dangerous, risky, unprotected, vulnerable, hurt, insecure, harmful, reckless, unreliable, toxic, injured sagacious: (adj, v) judicious, prudent, discreet; (adj) rational, astute, acute, discerning, keen, perspicacious, intelligent, shrewd. ANTONYMS: (adj) foolish, stupid, dense sahara: (adj, n) desert; (adj) howling wilderness, waste; (n) wilderness, Sahara desert sailmaker: (n) blacksmith, wheelwright, shaper, maker sailor: (n) seaman, seafarer, tar, bluejacket, gob, boatman, navigator, navy man, lascar, Panama, leghorn sake: (n, v) interest, reason, motive, ground; (v) advantage, cause; (n) object, account, design, purpose, saki salary: (n) pay, earnings, allowance, remuneration, fee, income, payment, emolument, gain, compensation, profit salvage: (v) save, recover, deliver, relieve, redemption, redeem, retrieve, free; (n) delivery, retrieval; (n, v) release. ANTONYMS: (v) lose, abandon, discard; (n) loss salvation: (n) redemption, rescue, delivery, preservation, savior, deliverance, liberation, expiation, propitiation; (adj, n) justification; (adj) conversion. ANTONYMS: (n) damnation, destruction sanctuary: (n) refuge, asylum, retreat, shrine, haven, safety, reservation, shelter, chancel, protection, church sand: (n) guts, beach, fortitude, earth, coast, seaside, dirt; (adj, n) powder, dust; (v) sandpaper, smooth sandbank: (n) shoal, bar, reef, cay, sandbar, shallow
sandpit: (n) cavity sandy: (adj) gritty, granular, sabulous, arenaceous, powdery, mealy, loose, farinaceous, dusty, sandy laverock, nimble. ANTONYM: (adj) argillaceous sane: (adj, n) reasonable, lucid; (adj) rational, judicious, right, sensible, normal, wise, wholesome, sound, prudent. ANTONYMS: (adj) unbalanced, insane, crazed, delirious, unreasonable, irrational, foolish sang: (n) panax quinquefolius, sing, herb, herbaceous plant sarcophagus: (n) casket, urn, tomb, shell, pall, cinerary urn, bier, hearse, catafalque satanic: (adj) infernal, hellish, fiendish, diabolical, diabolic, demonic, demoniacal, wicked, unholy; (adj, v) mephistophelian, Stygian satiated: (adj) full, replete, gorged, satisfied, jaded, sated, glutted, fat, fed up, corpulent, disgusted. ANTONYM: (adj) insatiate satisfaction: (n, v) pleasure, gratification, contentment, content; (n) enjoyment, joy, complacency, amends, reparation, redress, recompense. ANTONYMS: (n) displeasure, discontent, aggravation, sorrow, dismay, anxiety satisfactory: (adj) adequate, competent, sufficient, good, acceptable, ample, fair, tolerable, decent, presentable, plenty. ANTONYMS: (adj) inadequate, unacceptable, poor, appalling, disagreeable, bad, intolerable satisfied: (adj) happy, content, full, pleased, confident, complacent, persuaded, fulfilled; (adj, v) certain, sure; (v) convinced. ANTONYMS: (adj) frustrated, anxious, disgruntled, hungry, insistent, pensive, unsure, dissatisfied, ashamed savage: (adj, v) fierce, wild, furious; (adj) ferocious, brutal, cruel, bloodthirsty, rough, pitiless; (adj, n) brute; (n) vandal. ANTONYMS: (adj) civilized, gentle, nice savagery: (n) atrocity, barbarism, barbarity, ferociousness, savageness, cruelty, ferocity, inhumanity, viciousness, harshness, violence save: (v) rescue, hoard, conserve, keep, maintain, preserve, free, protect, liberate; (adv, conj, n, prep) except; (adj, v) economize.
Joseph Conrad ANTONYMS: (v) waste, squander, use, abandon, endanger, capture, asphyxiate, aggravate, destroy saving: (adj, n) frugal, economical; (adj) thrifty, save; (n) economy, conservation, salvation, rescue, preservation, cut, retrenchment. ANTONYMS: (n) extravagance, expenditure; (adj) spendthrift scandal: (n) disgrace, dishonor, gossip, outrage, discredit, rumor, infamy, disrepute, ignominy, detraction, shame scar: (n, v) mark, blemish, seam, stain, brand; (n) cicatrix, cicatrice, defect, scratch, injury; (v) disfigure. ANTONYM: (v) enhance scare: (adj, n, v) panic; (adj, n) dread; (v) intimidate, daunt, frighten, appall, horrify; (adj, v) dismay, awe; (n, v) fright; (adj) consternation. ANTONYMS: (v) comfort, soothe, encourage; (n) reassurance, bravery scared: (adj) afraid, frightened, fearful, anxious, nervous, timid, intimidated, terrified, horrified, panicky; (adj, adv) cowardly. ANTONYMS: (adj) confident, fearless, brave scarlet: (adj) crimson, ruddy, carmine, ruby, sanguine, rubicund, reddish, cerise; (n) vermilion, orange red, redness scars: (n) seams scathing: (adj) caustic, sharp, mordant, sarcastic, severe, cutting, incisive, ironic, abusive, pungent, bitter. ANTONYMS: (adj) complimentary, gentle, approving scattered: (adj) dissipated, thin, disordered, disconnected, confused, sparse, sporadic, distributed, rare, diffuse; (v) disperse scene: (n, v) aspect, view, outlook, lookout; (n) background, display, spectacle, picture, environment, panorama, perspective scientifically: (adv) technically, precisely, exactly, accurately, technologically, analytically, industrially, mechanically, punctually, experimentally, steadily. ANTONYM: (adv) randomly scornfully: (adv) disdainfully, disparagingly, haughtily, derogatorily, condescendingly, contumeliously, sneeringly, arrogantly, sarcastically, derisively, mockingly. ANTONYM: (adv) humbly scotch: (v) queer, bilk, thwart, chock, cross, foil, frustrate, notch, nick;
(adj) Scots, economical scoundrel: (n, v) rascal; (n) knave, blackguard, cad, villain, ruffian, miscreant, crook, rapscallion, varlet, scalawag scow: (n) flatboat, punt, lighter, gig, boat, dingy, funny, wherry, skiff, shallop, lerret scrambled: (adj) twisted, snarled, miscellaneous, knotted, jumbled scrap: (n, v) fight, brawl, clash, quarrel, junk; (adj, n) remnant, fragment; (n) end, remainder, bit, piece. ANTONYMS: (v) keep, restore, preserve, adopt, insert; (n) chunk, lot scrape: (n, v) scratch, graze, score, mark; (v) rub, pare, rake, grate, chafe, abrade; (n) abrasion scrawled: (adj) scribbled, hard to decipher, incomprehensible, written, unreadable, indecipherable, impossible to read screech: (n, v) cry, shout, shriek, yell, screak, yelp, yowl, roar; (n) screaming; (v) squawk, pipe screeching: (n) screaming, screech, shrieking, belly laugh, howler, shriek, riot; (adj) shrill, harsh, strident scrub: (adj, v) scour, mop; (v) scrape, clean, rub, polish, cleanse; (n) brush, bush, scouring; (n, v) wash. ANTONYMS: (v) restore, dirty, insert scruple: (adj, v) hesitate, demur, pause; (n) hesitation, qualm, misgiving, distrust, objection; (n, v) mistrust; (v) falter, question scrutinizing: (adj) exploring thoroughly, inquisitive, searching, penetrating scuffle: (n, v) tussle, fight, scrap, struggle, disturbance, encounter; (v) grapple, shuffle; (n) melee, scramble, fighting seal: (n, v) stamp; (v) plug, bar, caulk, stop, shut; (n) cachet, hallmark, imprint, signet; (adj) conclude. ANTONYMS: (n, v) open; (v) unseal sealed: (adj) hermetic, tight, certain, plastered, Solen, shut, impervious, irrevocable, tighter, still, preserved sealing: (n) Spiritual wife, jointing, packing, seal, weatherstrip, waterproofing, protection, aerosol closure, leakproofing, cementation, welding seaman: (n) seafarer, tar, gob, sailor, bluejacket, jack, navigator, bargee, bargeman, boatswain, bosun searching: (adj) piercing, inquisitive,
165 probing, acute, exhaustive, curious, inquiring, profound, exploratory; (adj, v) cutting; (v) excruciating searchingly: (adv) closely, piercingly, cuttingly, inquisitively, penetratingly, trenchantly, acutely, exhaustively, curiously, inquiringly, exploratorily seat: (n) bench, base, behind, bottom, buttocks, location, position, post, posterior; (v) locate, put seaward: (adj) inshore, onshore, coastal; (adv) toward the sea. ANTONYM: (adj) offshore second-rate: (adj) second-class, mediocre, secondary, mean, ordinary, lousy, unimportant, shoddy, low, poor; (n) second best seconds: (n) merchandise, retrees, goods; (adj) unacceptable, defective secrecy: (adj, n, v) privacy; (n) concealment, silence, confidentiality, darkness, seclusion, retirement, mystery, secretiveness, privateness, mum secret: (adj, v) mysterious, hidden, covert, secluded, confidential; (adj) concealed, furtive, occult, obscure; (adj, n) privacy, secrecy. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) known, public; (adj) open, overt, apparent, unrestricted, external, visible, outermost, transparent, blatant secretarial: (adj) directorial, administrative, managerial, organizational secretly: (adv) privately, confidentially, quietly, stealthily, surreptitiously, furtively, in secret, darkly, secretively, clandestinely, occultly. ANTONYMS: (adv) publicly, deliberately, brazenly secrets: (n) secrecy secular: (adj) profane, lay, worldly, earthly, laic, temporal, terrestrial, mundane, unconsecrated; (n) layman; (v) centennial. ANTONYMS: (adj) spiritual, religious, church, heavenly sedentary: (adj) lazy, sluggish, motionless, stationary, domestic; (v) untraveled. ANTONYM: (adj) mobile seduced: (adj) profaned, infatuated, fascinated seed: (n) issue, posterity, root, progeny, offspring, origin, nucleus, brood, embryo; (v) inseminate, plant seeing: (prep) because; (adj) Seely, considering; (n) sight, vision, beholding, fusion, visual sense; (v) conceive, comprehend, perceive
166 seldom: (adj) scarce, rare, few, infrequent; (adv) occasionally, infrequently, uncommonly, hardly, scarcely, not often, once in a blue moon. ANTONYMS: (adv) often, seldom self: (n) ego, person, me, individual, being; (pron) myself, herself, itself; (adj) same; (v) own; (adv) personally self-defense: (n) protection self-respect: (n) pride, self-esteem, dignity, face, honesty self-seeking: (adj) selfish, sordid, self-centered, unscrupulous; (n) individualism, self-love, egoism semicircle: (n) arch, semi-circles, half circle, half-circle, plane figure, arc, curve sending: (n) forwarding, dispatch, transmission, transmittal, send, despatch, mailing, transport, dispatching, dispatchment, conveyance senile: (adj) doddering, gaga, aged, geriatric, elderly, doddery, decrepit, crazy, demented, disabled, dotty sensation: (n, v) feeling, impression, sense; (v) affection; (n) emotion, feel, perception, wonder, sensibility, sensitivity, thrill. ANTONYMS: (n) deadness, flop, dud, calm, failure senseless: (adj) foolish, mindless, preposterous, pointless, irrational, absurd, stupid, insensible, idiotic, fatuous, purposeless. ANTONYMS: (adj) meaningful, wise, conscious, provoked, prudent, useful, worthwhile senses: (adj) sober senses, sound mind; (n) reason, mind, conception, consciousness, judgment, faculties, mother wit, right mind, sanity sensible: (adj) aware, sagacious, prudent, rational, judicious, perceptible, sane, wise, intelligent, appreciable, sage. ANTONYMS: (adj) ludicrous, crazy, unreasonable, stupid, silly, ridiculous, reckless, idiotic, outrageous, imprudent, mad sentence: (v) condemn, convict, judge, damn; (n) finding, phrase, conviction, punishment; (n, v) decision, doom, condemnation. ANTONYMS: (n) reward, absolution; (v) absolve, acquit sententiously: (adv) concisely, succinctly, laconically, pithily, briefly, aphoristically, shortly, tersely sentiment: (n) emotion, mind, notion, feeling, persuasion, opinion, judgment, sense, judgement,
Heart of Darkness attitude, impression sentimental: (adj) maudlin, mushy, romantic, tender, soft, mawkish, schmaltzy, sappy, schmalzy, bathetic, slushy. ANTONYMS: (adj) hardhearted, cool sentiments: (n) breast separating: (v) parting, partible; (n) division, separation, severance, unscrambling, unraveling, removal; (adj) separated, disjoining, graduating separation: (n) disjunction, detachment, disunion, seclusion, disconnection, rift, isolation, divorce, parting, departure; (n, v) division. ANTONYMS: (n) unification, closeness, marriage, union, unity, connection, bond, integration, synthesis, inclusion, meeting sepulcher: (n) crypt, vault, mausoleum, tomb, burial chamber, repository, sepulchre, catacomb, burial, interment, pit sepulchral: (adj, v) hollow, hoarse; (v) mortuary, harsh, rough, horrisonous, grum; (adj) ghastly, raucous, husky; (n) funeral serene: (adj) peaceful, calm, quiet, placid, composed, impassive, clear, pacific, gentle, cool; (adj, v) tranquil. ANTONYMS: (adj) agitated, anxious, noisy, nervous, impatient, excitable, scatterbrained, harsh, boisterous, excited, disturbed serenity: (n) quiet, peace, calm, quietness, equanimity, calmness, quietude, repose; (adj, n) composure, tranquility, placidity. ANTONYMS: (n) anxiety, uproar, chaos, anger, panic, bustle, disturbance, impatience, turbulence, turmoil serried: (v) compact, close, dense, closely packed, thickset, teeming, swarming; (adj) packed, serrated, crowded, populous serve: (adj, n, v) avail; (v) assist, aid, act, benefit, tend, attend, operate, function, do; (n, v) officiate serviette: (n) table napkin, bib, diaper, dinner napkin, napery, nappy, protect clothing, paper napkin servile: (adj) abject, obsequious, base, fawning, ignoble, sordid, subservient, cringing, slavish; (adj, n) mean, low. ANTONYMS: (adj) bossy, assertive setting: (n) scene, scenery, adjustment, position, background,
mount, backdrop, environment, scope, mounting, set settle: (adj, n, v) fix, establish, confirm; (n, v) place, set; (v) resolve, clarify, pay, regulate, adjudicate, agree. ANTONYMS: (v) float, wander, prolong, owe, bungle, open, provoke, rise, weaken, worsen, complicate settlement: (n) accommodation, colony, hamlet, payment, arrangement, conclusion, resolution, determination, contract, village, colonization seventeen: (n) large integer severe: (adj, n) rigid, austere, inclement, rough, hard; (adj, v) biting, cutting; (adj) rigorous, bad, intense, heavy. ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, lenient, slight, easy, lax, cordial, kindly, kind, approving, funny, moderate severely: (adv) seriously, gravely, badly, sternly, harshly, hardly, strictly, rigidly, violently, sharply, strongly. ANTONYMS: (adv) leniently, gently, elaborately, lightheartedly, slightly, mildly, compassionately, tenderly, warmly, superficially, modestly shabby: (adj) poor, abject, mean, mangy, low, sorry, decrepit, worn, sordid, ragged; (adj, v) frayed. ANTONYMS: (adj) pristine, elegant, opulent, honorable, decent, new, neat, comfortable, tasteful, strong, respectful shackled: (adj) in bonds, in fetters, bound shade: (n, v) screen, tinge, shadow, tint, color, cloud; (n) ghost, hue, blind, conceal, tone. ANTONYMS: (n) brightness, glare; (v) brighten, clarify, expose shadow: (n) ghost, darkness, apparition, follower, gloom, reflection; (n, v) eclipse, trace, tail, hint; (v) follow. ANTONYMS: (v) brighten, lead; (n) brightness, pallor shadows: (n) dark, darkness, night, dimness, dusk, fogginess, mistiness, gloom, cloudiness. ANTONYM: (n) brightness shadowy: (adj) indistinct, misty, dark, faint, obscure, hazy, gloomy, vague, shady, insubstantial, dusky. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, palpable, light, distinct, open shady: (adj) questionable, dark, fishy, doubtful, queer, suspicious, dim, uncertain, obscure, disreputable, dishonest. ANTONYMS: (adj)
Joseph Conrad sunny, trustworthy, bright, reputable, aboveboard shaft: (n) arrow, beam, axis, pole, arbor, dart, pillar, lance, well, axle; (adj, n) pit shake: (n, v) jolt, beat, jar, quiver, wave; (v) agitate, excite, disturb; (adv, v) brandish; (adj, v) quake, totter. ANTONYMS: (v) soothe, steady shakes: (n) hangover, jitters, nervousness, tension, anxiety shakily: (adv) tremulously, tremblingly, unsoundly, precariously, unsteadily, quakingly, ricketily, unsafely, crazily, totteringly, uncertainly. ANTONYM: (adv) firmly shaking: (adj, n) quivering, tremor, jarring; (n) quiver, palpitation, quake; (adj) quaking, shaky, flutter, unsteady, shivering shallow: (adj) superficial, low, cursory, petty, little, sketchy, flimsy, frivolous, simple, surface, perfunctory. ANTONYMS: (adj) bottomless, profound, intense, pensive, serious, inner, weighty sham: (adj, adv, n, v) counterfeit; (adj, n, v) fake; (adj, v) pretend, put on; (adj, n) imitation, phony; (v) feign; (adj) false; (n) fraud, impostor, falsehood. ANTONYMS: (adj, v) real; (n) original, truth, truthfulness, honesty; (adj) valid shamefacedly: (adv) sheepishly, guiltily, bashfully, shily, hangdogly, modestly, awkwardly, diffidently, embarrassedly, skittishly shamefully: (adv) ignominiously, ingloriously, scandalously, infamously, shockingly, discreditably, basely, outrageously; (adv, v) dishonorably, foully, nastily. ANTONYMS: (adv) commendably, compassionately, nobly shameless: (adj) bold, immodest, profligate, depraved, audacious, blatant, barefaced, unscrupulous, impudent, unblushing; (adj, v) graceless. ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained, abashed, ashamed, discreet, prudish, apologetic shanty: (n) cabin, hovel, cot, shack, chanty, hutch, booth, bothy, chalet, stall, shed shape: (n, v) cast, mold, fashion, mould, model, make, design; (n) pattern, figure; (v) determine, influence shaped: (adj) formed, fashioned,
shapen, made, created, beaten, educated, featured, having features, built, constructed sharing: (n) communion, dispensation, allotment, generosity, apportionment, pooling, allocation, division, show and tell, sharing out; (adj) sexual sharp: (adj, n, v) keen, acute, bitter; (adj) intelligent, intense, incisive; (adj, v) biting, acid, acrid, severe, harsh. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, mild, gentle, sweet, rounded, bland, round, smooth, blurred, naive, kind sharply: (adj, adv) piercingly, harshly, penetratingly; (adv) keenly, severely, abruptly, trenchantly, shrewdly, bitingly, cuttingly, bitterly. ANTONYMS: (adv) gently, kindly, sweetly, politely, gradually, pleasantly shaved: (adj) shave, lacking hair, hairless, beardless, shiny on top, bald, smooth on top, whiskerless. ANTONYM: (adj) unshaven shed: (v) discard, drop, moult, scatter, exuviate, molt, cast off, dismiss; (n) shack, hut, cabin. ANTONYMS: (v) keep, cover; (adj) persistent sheen: (n, v) shine, gleam; (n) polish, gloss, light, glow, lustre, glitter, brightness, brilliance; (v) burnish. ANTONYM: (n) dullness sheer: (adj) pure, filmy, bold, transparent, gauzy, simple, diaphanous, gossamer; (adj, n) complete, mere, perfect. ANTONYMS: (adj) thick, gentle, opaque, heavy, gradual, robust, partial shell: (n) rind, sheath, case, casing, bullet, bark, shot, crust; (n, v) bomb, pod; (v) bombard. ANTONYM: (n) middle shelling: (n) barrage, bombing, husking, battery, fire, barrage fire, bombarding, shelly rail, scaling, gunfire, peeling shelter: (n, v) guard, refuge, harbor, protect, shield; (adj, n, v) screen; (n) protection, asylum, sanctuary, security, hut. ANTONYMS: (n) danger, exposure; (v) endanger shift: (n, v) change, exchange, turn, interchange, quibble, switch, move; (v) remove, budge, convert, alter. ANTONYMS: (v) restore, leave, straighten; (n) preservation, stillness shining: (adj, v) brilliant; (adj) lustrous, radiant, glossy, luminous, glorious, glowing; (adj, n) lucid,
167 resplendent, clear; (v) shine. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, pale, blemished shiny: (adj, v) lustrous; (adj) glossy, smooth, sleek, slick, brilliant, glistening, clear, shining, sheeny, polished. ANTONYMS: (adj) rough, unglazed, matt, coarse ship: (v) send, forward, transport, send off, consign, carry, transfer, move; (n) boat, craft; (n, v) ferry. ANTONYM: (v) keep shipwreck: (n, v) ruin; (adj, v) sink; (v) defeat, scuttle, destroy, fail; (n) hulk, accident, wreckage, wrack, ruination shoal: (n) school, shelf, swarm, multitude, sandbar, bar, horde, drove, covey, sandbank; (adj) superficial shoals: (n) shelf shock: (n, v) daze, jar, collision, surprise, outrage, shake, scare; (n) impact; (v) startle, offend, revolt. ANTONYMS: (n, v) delight; (v) please, encourage; (n) boost, security, bonus shocked: (adj) dismayed, aghast, amazed, surprised, stunned, distressed, afraid, speechless, appalled, bewildered, dumbfounded. ANTONYMS: (adj) delighted, indifferent, unaffected shocking: (adj) frightful, shameful, formidable, ghastly, horrible, hideous, disgraceful, disgusting, scandalous; (adj, v) offensive, abominable. ANTONYMS: (adj) admirable, delightful, pleasing, lovely, comforting, honorable, wonderful, bland, inoffensive, decent, excellent shoe: (n) horseshoe, sandal, shoes, moccasin, footgear, footwear, skid, flippers, anklet, flipper, track shoe shoes: (n) footwear, shoe, place, position, situation, post, plaza, property, lieu, home, blank space shook: (adj) shake, vibrate, addled, barrel, cask, confused, distressed, hurt, passionate, puzzled shoot: (v) discharge, flash, drive, dart, dash, send, photograph; (n) scion, branch; (n, v) sprout, hunt. ANTONYM: (v) trickle shore: (n) coast, edge, beach, seashore, stay, seaside, brace, margin; (n, v) prop, land, buttress. ANTONYM: (n) sea shores: (n) coast, seaboard, seashore, shoreline. ANTONYM: (n) interior shortly: (adv) presently, curtly,
168 before long, soon, concisely, brusquely, abruptly, tersely, succinctly; (adj, adv) immediately, summarily. ANTONYMS: (adv) politely, pleasantly, verbosely, later shot: (n) injection, gunshot, go, fling, shoot, crack, ball, picture, bang, jab, discharge shoulder: (v) carry, push, hold, jostle, sustain, support, assume, accept; (n, v) elbow; (n) back, flange shout: (n, v) cry, clamor, scream, yell, roar, call, bellow, screech; (v) bawl, hollo; (n) cheer shouted: (adj) screamed, loud shouting: (adj, n) yelling; (adj) crying, howling, vociferous; (n) clamor, calling, noise, cheering, vociferation, tumult; (v) bawl shower: (n, v) wash, rain, hail, drizzle, bath; (v) sprinkle, bathe, shed, scatter; (n) rain shower, rainfall. ANTONYM: (n) trickle showing: (n) display, screening, exhibit, revelation, viewing, appearance, exhibition, exposition, presentation, exposure; (adj) exhibiting shrieking: (n) shriek, screeching, screech, scream, belly laugh, shright, howler, riot; (adj) sharp shrillness: (n) timbre, timber, acumen, acuteness, sharpness, keenness, stridency, stridence, high pitch, sensitiveness, quality shrunken: (adj) wizened, shrivelled, shrunk, withered, contracted, wizen, narrow, dried, thin, lean, sear. ANTONYMS: (adj) plump, bloated shudder: (adj, n, v) shake, quake, tremble; (n, v) quiver, twitch, thrill; (n) quivering, shivering, chill, frisson; (v) flutter shuddering: (adj, n) quivering, shaking; (adv) shudderingly; (n) cold sweat, tremor; (adj) rough, shaky, jumpy, quaking, shivery, bumpy. ANTONYM: (adj) smooth shuffle: (v) mingle, blend, hobble, muddle, drag, scuff, equivocate, prevaricate, ruffle, mix; (n, v) shamble. ANTONYMS: (v) remain, tidy, leave shuffled: (adj) disorganized shuffling: (n) shuffle, evasion, shambling, make, shamble; (adj) evasive, moral turpitude, milling, laxity, abjection; (n, v) prevarication shut: (v) seal, bar, fasten, obstruct, lock, exclude; (adj) closed, cut; (n) shutting, end, finish. ANTONYMS: (v) admit, undo
Heart of Darkness shutter: (n, v) close, shade; (n) curtain, shut, blind, window, skylight, deadlight, lid, louver, jalousie sick: (adj) ill, queasy, poorly, ailing, weary, diseased, sickly, morbid; (adj, v) indisposed, unwell; (adj, n) invalid. ANTONYMS: (adj) healthy, fond, wholesome sickened: (adj) aghast, horrified, appalled, shocked sickly: (adj, adv) poorly; (n) invalid; (adj) sick, ailing, pale, sallow, indisposed, morbid, diseased; (adj, n, v) infirm; (adj, v) faint. ANTONYMS: (adj) healthy, bitter, robust sigh: (n, v) groan, suspire, murmur; (v) breathe, languish, pine; (n) breath, wail, whimper, whine, suspiration sight: (n, v) vision, glimpse, show, aspect, appearance; (v) aim, spot, see; (n) view, prospect, scene signature: (v) sign; (n) mark, key signature, endorsement, subscription, earmark, ratification, stamp, sign manual, seal, scale significance: (n) sense, moment, purport, connotation, meaning, consequence, effect, intent, concern, importance, point. ANTONYMS: (n) insignificance, triviality, unimportance, meaninglessness signs: (n) situation, indications, signage, appearances, cipher, cryptogram, discriminating marks, indicia, secret code, secret language, symbols silence: (adj, n, v) calm, still; (int, n, v) hush; (n, v) lull; (n) mum; (adj, v) appease; (v) mute, allay, pacify, muzzle; (int, v) shut up. ANTONYMS: (n) sound, openness, uproar, movement; (v) amplify, Louden, encourage, rouse silenced: (adj) mute, muffled, disabled silent: (adj, adv) motionless; (adj) dumb, tacit, mute, noiseless, reserved, placid, reticent, mum, taciturn, hush. ANTONYMS: (adj) spoken, talkative, loud, explicit, open, live, forthcoming, verbal, audible, talking, moving silently: (adv) mutely, stilly, quietly, noiselessly, soundlessly, taciturnly, wordlessly, secretly, speechlessly, placidly, tacitly. ANTONYMS: (adv) loudly, audibly, openly, brazenly silly: (adj) ridiculous, absurd, childish, fatuous, irrational,
frivolous, idiotic, preposterous, unreasonable; (adj, n) fool; (n) imbecile. ANTONYMS: (adj) mature, wise, rational, clever, advisable, profound, reasonable, responsible, significant silvery: (adj) silvern, argent, bright, white, gray, rich, silverish, melodious, fair, Argentine, clear simplicity: (n) plainness, simpleness, easiness, ease, clarity, austerity, gullibility, severity, artlessness, ignorance; (adj, n) inexperience. ANTONYMS: (n) difficulty, complexity, ambiguity, magnificence, sophistication, dishonesty, clutter, warmth sincere: (adj, v) earnest, devout; (adj) genuine, faithful, heartfelt, honest, serious, open, artless, candid; (adj, n) cordial. ANTONYMS: (adj) insincere, dishonest, guarded, flippant, affected, disingenuous, hypocritical, cunning, unfaithful, unenthusiastic, unbelievable sincerity: (adj, n) candor, honesty, integrity, probity, faithfulness; (n) earnestness, heartiness, genuineness, candour, frankness, cordiality. ANTONYMS: (n) dishonesty, hypocrisy, flippancy, frivolity, affectedness, caution, reticence, deceit, doubt singleness: (n) sincerity, bachelorhood, bachelorship, unmarried, single, loyalty, oneness, spinsterhood, concentration, unity, straightforwardness sinister: (adj) dark, forbidding, black, menacing, wicked, baleful, threatening, malevolent, malign, inauspicious, vicious. ANTONYMS: (adj) innocent, hospitable, good, normal, favorable sink: (n, v) sag, dip; (v) decline, fall, set, descend, drop, fell, subside, settle; (adj, n, v) droop. ANTONYMS: (v) rise, float, improve, increase, recover, drift, ascend, raise sinking: (n) sinkage, settling, fall, descent, foundering, depression, immersion, submersion, submergence; (v) decrease, decline. ANTONYM: (adj) rising sixteen: (n) large integer sixty: (adj) threescore; (n) three score, large integer, lux skepticism: (n) doubt, incredulity, distrust, hesitation, misgiving, scepticism, mistrust, suspicion, uncertainty, reservation, mental
Joseph Conrad rejection. ANTONYMS: (n) faith, certainty, trust, belief sketch: (n, v) plan, outline, draft, scheme, picture, project; (n) drawing, cartoon, plot; (v) paint, draw skin: (n) hide, fur, rind, coating, shell, hull; (v) pare, scrape, excoriate, flay; (n, v) bark skinned: (adj) scraped, dartos, frustrated, raw, scratched, sensitive, sore, tender, painful skinny: (adj) meager, emaciated, thin, scrawny, underweight, scraggy, weedy, gaunt, niggardly, skimpy, lank. ANTONYMS: (adj) plump, brawny, chubby, healthy, obese skins: (n) cash, folding money skipper: (n) commander, master, shipmaster, head, leader, lieutenant, sea captain, commodore, executive, director; (v) navigate skulking: (adj) surreptitious, stealthy, lurking, hiding, clandestine, backstairs, concealed, cowardly; (n) malingering, dodging, evasion slandered: (adj) bespattered, calumniated slapped: (adj) mistreated slaughter: (n, v) murder, butcher, defeat; (n) carnage, butchery, bloodshed, drubbing, homicide; (v) kill, assassinate, slay. ANTONYMS: (n) preservation, victory; (v) lose, revive sleep: (n, v) nap, repose, doze, kip, slumber, catnap; (adj, n, v) lie; (v) hibernate, nod; (n) dream; (adj, v) lodge. ANTONYMS: (v) awaken; (n) alertness, agitation sleeping: (adj) asleep, inactive, latent, sleepy, vegetive, vegetative; (n) dormancy, noctambulism, quiescence, quiescency, short sleep. ANTONYMS: (adj) active; (n) waking sleepless: (adj) insomniac, lidless, vigilant, wakeful, awake, watchful, disturbed, alert, unquiet, uneasy, restive sleepy: (adj) drowsy, dozy, slow, lazy, hypnotic, inactive, comatose, dull, heavy, dreamy; (adv) asleep. ANTONYMS: (adj) awake, energetic, vigorous, clear, lively, refreshed slender: (adj, v) lean, meager; (adj) little, thin, fine, lithe, slight, delicate, lissom, flimsy, faint. ANTONYMS: (adj) stocky, fat, wide, considerable, short, substantial, good, adequate,
stout, thick slide: (n, v) slip, glide, fall, decline, slump; (n) chute, landslide, transparency; (v) slither, run, skid. ANTONYMS: (n) recovery; (v) rise sliding: (n) skating, shifting; (adj) gliding, down, downhill, slippery, labent, descending, downward; (v) to slide slight: (adj, adv) light; (adj) thin, flimsy, slender, fragile, petty, little; (adv, n, v) neglect; (n, v) insult, scorn; (v) ignore. ANTONYMS: (adj) considerable, major, obvious, thickset, severe, wide, fat, intense, heavy, likely; (v) acknowledge slightest: (adj) minimal, first, smallest amount slim: (adj, v) thin; (adj) slight, narrow, lean, remote, fine, skinny, tiny, meager; (v) reduce, lose weight. ANTONYMS: (adj) heavy, hefty, plump, stocky, wide, considerable, substantial, strong, stout; (v) gain slime: (adj) mud, silt; (n) mucus, ooze, phlegm, gook, muck, gunk, goo, filth; (adj, n) sludge slimy: (adj) greasy, slippery, muddy, sludgy, squalid, oily, oozy, ropy, viscous, slimed, sordid. ANTONYM: (adj) reputable slips: (n) pad slope: (n, v) pitch, slant, dip, tilt; (v) cant, lean; (n) declivity, acclivity, hill, gradient; (adj, n) inclination. ANTONYMS: (v) level; (n) descent, hollow, ascent slow: (adj, v) slack; (adj) dull, sluggish, heavy, stupid, lazy, indolent, inactive; (adj, adv) easy, behind; (adj, n) gradual. ANTONYMS: (adj) intelligent, rapid, bright, speedy, alert, brisk, quick, prompt, hasty, rushed; (v) accelerate sluggish: (adj) inert, indolent, inactive, idle, slow, torpid, slack, languid; (adj, n) lazy, drowsy, heavy. ANTONYMS: (adj) energetic, fast, brisk, lively, alert, speedy, industrious slumber: (n, v) rest, doze, snooze, nap, drowse, repose, catnap; (v) be asleep, kip, take a nap; (n) siesta smallest: (adj) least, minimal, littlest, lowest, last, first, negligible, smallest number of, bottom, littler. ANTONYM: (adj) maximum smartly: (adv) cleverly, quickly, sprucely, nattily, astutely, shrewdly, chicly, stylishly, trendily, wittily,
169 modishly. ANTONYMS: (adv) scruffily, clumsily, untidily, unattractively, tastelessly, stupidly, messily, ineptly, slowly smash: (n, v) crash, hit, bang, clash, knock; (v) shatter, crush, mash, break, defeat, ruin. ANTONYMS: (v) mend, preserve; (n) flop smash-up: (n) crash smell: (n, v) odor, scent, savor, perfume, stink, stench; (v) nose; (n) fragrance, bouquet, savour, odour smelly: (adj) putrid, fetid, noisome, malodorous, foul, stinking, foetid, funky, rank, rancid, rotten. ANTONYMS: (adj) aromatic, perfumed, fragrant, fresh smile: (n) grin, grinning, smiling, luck, facial expression; (v) laugh, beam, chuckle, simper; (n, v) grimace; (adv) smilingly. ANTONYMS: (n, v) scowl; (v) glower smiling: (adv) smilingly; (adj) bright, cheerful, jolly, joyful, of good cheer, twinkly, fair, sunny; (n) grinning, grin. ANTONYMS: (adj) sad, gloomy smoke: (n) fumes, cigarette, cigar, smog, fog; (n, v) reek, fumigate, puff; (v) exhale, cure; (adj) tobacco smoking: (n) fume, marijuana, respiration, roll of tobacco, sens; (v) candent, ebullient, glowing; (adj) smoky, rabid; (adv) on a roll smooth: (adj, v) quiet, level, facilitate; (adj) calm, oily, facile, fluent, flowing, flat, fluid, graceful. ANTONYMS: (adj) rough, uneven, wrinkled, peeling, jerky, ridged, flaking, abrasive, coarse, prickly; (v) wrinkle smoothly: (adv) easily, evenly, calmly, swimmingly, sleekly, fluently, flatly, softly, quietly, oily; (adj, adv) readily. ANTONYMS: (adv) unevenly, harshly, abrasively, awkwardly, huskily, hesitantly snag: (n, v) catch, trap; (n) hitch, hindrance, difficulty, obstruction, rub, bar, obstacle, disadvantage, impediment. ANTONYM: (n) ease snags: (n) reefs, coral reef, sunken rocks snake: (n) serpent, ophidian, viper, constrictor, hydra, elapid; (v) wind, twist, curl, weave; (n, v) sneak snapped: (adj) torn snapping: (adj) noisy snare: (n, v) mesh, gin, ambush, hook; (v) catch, ensnare, entrap, entangle, capture, enmesh; (n) lure
170 snatched: (adj) hasty, speedy, brief, hurried, quick, rapid, short, sudden, swift. ANTONYM: (adj) slow snatches: (n) grasp, gain, catch sniff: (v) nose, inhale, smell, breathe, breathe in, sniffle, smoke, smell out, despise; (n, v) snuff, whiff snowy: (adj) white, pure, clean, blank, hoary, achromatic, snowwhite, unblemished, wintry, wet, favorite snuff: (v) smell, kill, douse, slay, scent, snuffle, bump off, smother, snort; (adj) tobacco, nicotine sober: (adj, v) grave, sedate; (adj) sane, earnest, quiet, solemn, moderate, modest, serene, dull, somber. ANTONYMS: (adj) intoxicated, unrestrained, drunk, playful, sensational, emotional, cheerful, frivolous, funny, muddled, delirious sociable: (adj) outgoing, affable, amicable, genial, congenial, cordial, companionable, amiable, gracious, agreeable; (adj, n) social. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfriendly, reserved, lonely, introvert, discourteous, frosty, hostile, inhospitable, disagreeable, shy, inaccessible softness: (n) mildness, kindness, flabbiness, flaccidity, suavity, downiness, gentleness, tenderness, faintness; (adj, n) delicacy; (adj) smoothness. ANTONYMS: (n) rigidity, hoarseness, brightness, hardness, volume, harshness, tone, noise, heaviness, firmness, loudness soil: (adj, n) dirt; (adj, v) smudge; (v) pollute, dirty, contaminate, mire; (n, v) grime; (n) land, dust, earth; (adj, n, v) blot. ANTONYMS: (v) wash, cleanse, purify; (n) sea soldiers: (n) military, troop, force, the military, troops, defense force, military service, militia, soldiery, Territorial Army, armed forces sole: (n) bottom, flounder, base; (adj) single, singular, one, exclusive, individual, only, alone, solitary. ANTONYM: (adj) common solely: (adj, adv) exclusively, merely, only, alone, barely; (adv) just, but, entirely, wholly, purely, completely solemn: (adj, n, v) serious; (adj, v) sober, important, sedate, devout, formal, demure; (adj) heavy, dignified, sacred; (adj, n) earnest. ANTONYMS: (adj) frivolous, cheerful, unceremonious, funny, playful, flippant, relaxed
Heart of Darkness solemnly: (adv) earnestly, gravely, majestically, stately, sternly, staidly, thoughtfully, soberly, formally, ceremoniously, importantly. ANTONYMS: (adv) cheerfully, flippantly soles: (n) family Soleidae solid: (adj, v) dense, compact, consistent, close, fixed; (adj) hard, strong, real, good, secure, substantial. ANTONYMS: (adj) soft, unreliable, loose, permeable, runny, gaseous, transparent, watery, slim, weak, brittle solitude: (n) desolation, loneliness, seclusion, privacy, aloneness, isolation, retirement, lonesomeness, retreat, desert, solitariness. ANTONYMS: (n) companionship, closeness somber: (adj) gloomy, melancholy, solemn, dull, grave, drab, sober, dark, sullen, dim, dismal. ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, funny, cheery, frivolous, fussy somberness: (n) gloom, sombreness, soberness, solemnity, sobriety, graveness, earnestness, seriousness, gravity, sombre, starkness. ANTONYM: (n) cheerfulness somehow: (adv) anyhow, anyway, for some reason, somewhat, someway, someways, a little, in some manner, in some way, very, somehow or other somewhere: (adv) someplace, approximately, anyplace, about, wherever, where, roughly, everywhere, around, passim, ultimately somnambulist: (n) sleepwalker, somnambulator, somnambule, slumberer, sleeper, refugee, fugitive, emigrant, hypnobate sooner: (adj, adv) rather, earlier, before, preferably, instead; (adv) first, before now, faster, previously, beforehand; (adj) prior soothed: (adj) composed soothing: (adj) calming, soft, smooth, pacifying, quiet, restful, bland, calm, assuasive; (adj, n) softening; (n) alleviation. ANTONYMS: (adj) upsetting, disturbing, hostile, scary, worrying, stimulating, exasperating, annoying, invigorating, painful, intimidating soothingly: (adv) softly, quietly, calmingly, lullingly, lightly, tenderly, kindly, blandly, calmly, comfortingly, sedatively sorcerer: (n) magician, magus,
necromancer, enchanter, conjurer, wizard, conjuror, sorcer , diviner, exorciser, exorcist sordid: (adj) ignoble, nasty, foul, filthy, grimy, base, cheap, despicable, dishonorable, mucky, low. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectable, pleasant, wholesome, reputable, honorable, clean, attractive, humane sorrow: (n, v) regret, lament, grieve; (v) mourn; (n) mourning, heartache, repentance, remorse; (adj, n) sadness, misery; (adj, n, v) distress. ANTONYMS: (n) joy, delight, happiness, peace, hopefulness, cheerfulness, shamelessness, calm, content; (v) rejoice sorrowful: (adj) melancholy, doleful, sad, rueful, lugubrious, gloomy, dreary, grievous, piteous, unhappy, mournful. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, content, joyful, successful soughing: (adj) murmurous, rustle, murmur, susurrous soul: (n) creature, human, person, personification, ghost, individual, mind, essence, life, self; (adj, n) heart. ANTONYMS: (n) surface, body sounded: (adj) measured, oral sounding: (n) investigation, depth, exploration, test; (adj) resounding, resonant, looking, audible, sonant, voiceful, hollow soundless: (adj) silent, dumb, noiseless, still, mute, voiceless, bottomless, fathomless, unfathomable, hushed, motionless spaces: (n) seats, seating spare: (adj, v) free, reserve, save, thin; (adj) slender, slight, additional, lean; (adj, n) extra, excess; (v) exempt. ANTONYMS: (n) shortfall, original; (adj) principal, fat, basic, abundant, stout; (v) need, include spark: (n, v) flicker, flash, gleam, glint, glitter; (n) light, glimmer, arc, flame, fire; (v) activate sparkling: (adj, v) effervescent; (adj) bright, brilliant, radiant, glittery, bubbly, glittering, scintillating, shining, scintillant; (n) sparkle. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, dirty, lifeless, lethargic spat: (n, v) squabble, altercation, tiff, bicker, dispute, wrangle, row; (n) gaiter, argument, bickering, fuss. ANTONYM: (n) agreement speaking: (n) talk, discourse, speech, public speaking, reading, oral presentation, recital, recitation, disputation; (v) speak; (adj)
Joseph Conrad expressive. ANTONYMS: (adj) nonspeaking, silent spear: (n) harpoon, lance, pike, fizgig, prick, gig, javelin, shaft, halberd; (v) stab, spike specially: (adv) especially, peculiarly, specifically, extraordinarily, exceptionally, unusually, exclusively, expressly, in particular, particular, distinctively. ANTONYM: (adv) generally specimen: (n) exemplar, instance, example, copy, pattern, person, representative, individual, model, illustration, type speck: (adj, n) point, atom, particle; (n) blot, flaw, smudge, blotch, blemish, grain, mote, dot. ANTONYM: (n) lot spectacled: (adj) monocled, decorated spectacles: (n) glasses, specs, spectacle, eyeglass, goggles, lorgnette, monocle, bifocals, dark glasses, optical instrument, shades spectators: (n) spectator, gallery, viewer, viewers, attendance spectral: (adj) ghostly, phantasmal, apparitional, unearthly, ghostlike, supernatural, ghastly, shadowy, insubstantial, eerie, cadaverous spectrally: (adv) shadowily, ghastly, visionarily, insubstantially, phantasmally, spiritually, supernaturally speedily: (adj, adv) quickly, quick, immediately; (adv) rapidly, promptly, hastily, swiftly, fast, apace, hurriedly, fleetly. ANTONYMS: (adv) later, eventually spell: (n) magic, fascination, bout, conjuration, period, incantation, sorcery, enchantment, turn, span, bewitchment. ANTONYM: (n) alertness sphere: (n) region, range, province, domain, realm, area, department, round, ball, circle, globe spin: (n, v) whirl, twist, twirl, run, drive, roll; (v) revolve, reel; (n) revolution, ride, turning spirit: (n, v) courage, mind; (n) mood, ghost, apparition, disposition, energy, essence, soul, phantom; (adj, n) animation. ANTONYMS: (n) lethargy, body, cowardice, surface, sluggishness, lifelessness, defeatism splash: (n, v) spatter, dash, plash, spot, splatter, drop; (v) spill, slop, slosh, moisten, lap splashing: (n) spatter, spattering, painting, splattering, dab, plash; (adj) liquid
splay: (v) dislocate, expand, flare, slip, displace, slope, slant, spay, diffuse; (adj) flat, clumsy splendid: (adj, n, v) illustrious, glorious; (adj) gorgeous, beautiful, royal, gallant, proud; (adj, n) magnificent, noble, grand; (adj, v) brilliant. ANTONYMS: (adj) unimpressive, modest, humble, ordinary, undistinguished, meager, awful, dire, lowly, inglorious, shabby splendidly: (adv) gallantly, brilliantly, famously, beautifully, gloriously, gorgeously, resplendently, superbly, sumptuously, excellently, grandly. ANTONYMS: (adv) badly, terribly, abysmally, modestly, simply, meagerly splendor: (adj, n, v) brilliancy; (n) magnificence, pomp, sheen, lustre, luster, glory, ostentation, glitter; (n, v) brightness; (adj, n) radiance. ANTONYMS: (n) dullness, ordinariness, paucity, austerity, understatement, shabbiness, simplicity, unattractiveness spoiled: (adj) bad, rotten, stale, spoil, coddled, pampered, corrupt, damaged, spoilt, putrid, rancid. ANTONYM: (adj) unspoiled spoils: (n) prize, stolen goods, booty, plunder, haul, swag, pickings, trophy, boodle, prize money, treasure spoke: (n) bar, rung, radius, rule, shoe, skid, rundle, line, clog, round; (v) said spoken: (adj) verbal, expressed, speaking, speak, unwritten, vocal, voiced, talk, said, informal, conversational. ANTONYMS: (adj) written, unspoken, tacit, formal, silent sport: (n, v) play, pastime, jest, diversion, romp, joke, disport, gambol; (n) fun, amusement, recreation. ANTONYMS: (n) work; (v) conceal spot: (n, v) place, speck, blemish, speckle, fleck, dirty, dapple; (adj, n, v) stain, soil; (n) dot, space spotted: (adj) mottled, speckled, dappled, piebald, blotchy, dotted, flyblown, multicolored, stained, spotty, flecked. ANTONYM: (adj) uniform spread: (n, v) scatter, stretch, increase; (adj, n, v) reach; (v) disperse, expand, propagate, disseminate, diffuse, circulate; (adj,
171 v) extend. ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, gather, collect, fold, prevent, regress, shrink, specialize, concentrate; (n) decline; (n, v) decrease spreading: (n) dissemination, propagation, dispersion, circulation, spread, dispersal, extension, scatter, distribution; (adj) scattering, diffusing spree: (n, v) frolic; (n) revel, fling, revelry, prank, orgy, bout, merriment, glee, mirth; (v) splurge sprouting: (n) germination, growth, shooting, ontogenesis, maturation; (adj) growing, evolving, green, embryonic, emergent, nascent spun: (adj) spined; (v) rotate, revolve square: (n) area, rectangle; (adj) rectangular, fair, honest; (adj, v) even, correspond, agree; (v) settle; (adv, n) foursquare; (adj, adv) just. ANTONYMS: (adj) round, underhand, trendy, fresh, activist, relaxed squeeze: (n, v) hug, pinch, embrace, nip; (adj, v) compress, force; (adj, n, v) press; (v) extort, cram, crush, jam. ANTONYMS: (v) expand, extend squirting: (adj) spouting, jetting, running stack: (n, v) pile, heap, mound, load, lot, store; (n) accumulation, rick, mass, bunch; (v) pack. ANTONYMS: (v) unstack, empty, unload stacked: (adj) buxom, curvaceous, prepared, shapely, voluptuous stacks: (n) piles, set of bookshelves, rafts, plenty, oodles, mountain, scores; (adj, n) loads, myriad, lots; (adj) ample staggered: (adj) dumbfounded, astonished, flabbergasted, astounded, stunned, bewildered, surprised, thunderstruck, angular, dizzy, taken aback staggering: (adj) astounding, amazing, incredible, inconceivable, prodigious, marvelous, startling, ghastly, shocking, remarkable, extraordinary. ANTONYMS: (adj) unremarkable, normal, lovely, comforting staircase: (n) stair, ladder, flight, steps, flight of steps, stairs, backstairs, escalator, companionway, way, entrance stakes: (n) stake, ante, wager, kitty, jackpot, pool, pot, gamble, prize, interest, fence stammering: (n) hesitation, hesitancy,
172 psellism, indistinct pronunciation, doubt; (adj) halting, hesitating, inarticulate, incoherent, broken, ashamed stamp: (n, v) print, imprint, mark, seal, brand, impress, cast, punch, shape; (v) trample; (n) impression stamped: (adj) beaten, marked, pressed, printed; (v) fixed, engraved stamping: (n) impression, blocking, coin, postage, stamping of rail standing: (n) fame, position, importance, prestige, place, reputation, footing; (adj) erect, motionless, continuance; (n, v) stand. ANTONYMS: (adj) seated, moving, horizontal, falling, temporary starched: (adj) formal, starch, punctilious, ceremonious, majestic, solemn, inflexible, prim, stately, severe, ritual stare: (n, v) gaze, look; (v) gape, glare, peer, squint, goggle, see, outface; (n) regard, contemplation. ANTONYM: (v) glance staring: (adj) conspicuous, garish, agaze, vivid, noisy, showy, fixed, opened, glassy; (adv) staringly starlight: (n) rushlight, moonlight, firelight, candlelight starred: (adj) marked stars: (n) heavenly bodies, fate startled: (adj) dumbfounded, dismayed, distressed, aghast, frightened, astonished, amazed, terrified, afraid, shocked, astounded startling: (adj) wonderful, shocking, surprising, striking, alarming, appalling, marvellous, dramatic, frightful, sensational, lurid. ANTONYMS: (adj) unremarkable, soothing, comforting startlingly: (adv) wonderfully, astonishingly, amazingly, astoundingly, shockingly, remarkably, unexpectedly, staggeringly, marvelously, alarmingly, strikingly starvation: (n) inanition, famine, famishment, hungriness, privation, starving, malnutrition, dearth, poverty, scarcity, esurience stated: (adj) set, declared, explicit, regular, certain, established, settled, avowed, alleged, definite; (adv) given stately: (adj) solemn, imposing, elegant; (adj, v) noble, dignified, grand, proud, great; (adj, adv) regal, majestic, royal. ANTONYMS: (adj) boisterous, humble, modest, lowly
Heart of Darkness statuesque: (adj) shapely, Junoesque, noble, imposing, monumental, trim, tall, formal, elegant, courtly, beautiful steadily: (adv) constantly, stably, regularly, fixedly, strongly, continually, steadfastly, uniformly, tightly, calmly, determinedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) unsteadily, nervously, loosely, weakly, rapidly, suddenly, excitedly, haphazardly, inconsistently, unevenly steadiness: (adj, n) stability, firmness, steadfastness; (n) regularity, equilibrium, consistency, resolution, permanence, persistence, sureness; (adj) stableness. ANTONYMS: (n) unsteadiness, instability, unreliability steady: (adj, v) steadfast, even, secure, resolute, regular, calm, sedate; (adj, adv) stable; (adj) constant, continual, fixed. ANTONYMS: (adj) shaky, wobbly, intermittent, unreliable, irregular, fluctuating, inconsistent, unbalanced, unstable, unfaithful; (adv) unsteadily steal: (v) purloin, abstract, sneak, filch, pinch, creep, misappropriate, rob, pilfer; (n) bargain; (n, v) snatch steam: (n, v) mist, smoke, fume; (v) exhale, evaporate, cook, pull; (n) fog, haze, cloud; (adj, n) vapor steamboat: (n) liner, steamer, steam boat, steamship, cruise ship, ocean liner steamed: (adj) squiffy, miffed, irritated, irate, indignant, incensed, harried, harassed, stung, sozzled, soused steamer: (n) steamship, boat, liner, ship, Mya Arenaria, steam engine, sports car, roadster, clam, paddle steamer, cruise ship steaming: (adj) hot, sweltering, roasting, baking, hot under the collar, hazy, scorching; (adv) piping; (n) fumigation steep: (adj, v) immerse, soak; (v) douse, dip, imbue, saturate; (adj, adv) excessive; (adj, n) abrupt; (adj) sheer, outrageous, exorbitant. ANTONYMS: (adj) gradual, undulating, inexpensive, flat, lenient, reasonable, cheap; (v) dip steer: (v) navigate, guide, direct, drive, aim, conduct, maneuver, run, manage; (n, v) lead, point steered: (adj) directed steering: (n) management, steerage, direction, navigation, driving,
pilotage, control, aim, attitude control, piloting, managing stepped: (v) advanced, gone, stopen stepping: (n) steps steps: (n) step, stairs, staircase, stairway, flight, stepladder, scale, backstairs, companionway, escalator, stair stick: (adj, v) adhere, cohere; (n, v) stab, paste, staff; (v) cling, attach, fix, bind, affix; (n) bar. ANTONYMS: (v) detach, open, undo sticks: (n) backwoods, firewood, frontier, outskirts, suburb, town, wilderness, brushwood, high sticks; (adj) distant stifling: (adj) close, oppressive, sweltering, stuffy, heavy, hot, torrid, sticky; (n) crushing, quelling, suppression. ANTONYMS: (adj) fresh, airy, cool, temperate stillness: (n) hush, calmness, immobility, serenity, silence, quietness, peacefulness; (adj, n) calm, quiet, peace, still. ANTONYMS: (n) bustle, movement, uproar, motion, turbulence, turmoil, vigor, disturbance, chaos, agitation sting: (n, v) bite, hurt, con, pain; (v) prick, itch, irritate, prickle, goad, provoke, smart. ANTONYMS: (v) calm; (n) honesty stink: (adj, n, v) stench; (n, v) smell, odor; (n) malodour, fetor, malodor, niff, odour, foetor; (v) fume, Pong stir: (adj, n, v) move, bustle; (v) rouse, arouse, affect, agitate, inspire; (adj, n) movement; (n) commotion, excitement, disturbance. ANTONYMS: (v) dampen, retire, stultify, bore, steady, stifle, suppress; (n) quiet, peace; (n, v) calm stirred: (adj) excited, agitated, moved, affected, aroused, emotional, aflame, Stirn, horny, susceptible, stirred up stirring: (adj) lively, exciting, alive, rousing, spirited, touching, thrilling, active; (n) agitation; (v) eventful, brisk. ANTONYMS: (adj) depressing, boring, inactive, dull, conciliatory, asleep, uninspiring, unimpressive; (n) suppression stitched: (adj) sewed, bound in paper covers, seamed stolen: (adj) stealed, stole, stealing, steal, steals, furtive, stealthy, secret, taken, misbegotten, sly stones: (n) shingle, grit stonily: (adv) icily, pitilessly, unfeelingly, cruelly, hardly,
Joseph Conrad roughly, rockily, heartlessly, frigidly, insensitively, mercilessly. ANTONYM: (adv) kindly stony: (adj) rocky, hard, rough, callous, cold, pitiless, flinty, unfeeling, obdurate, bleak, icy. ANTONYMS: (adj) smooth, kind stool: (n) seat, bench, footstool, feces, dejection, faeces, ordure, fecal matter, droppings, bowel movement, form stooping: (adj) hunched, crooked, asymmetrical, not erect, not straight, corrupt; (n) patronage stopped: (adj) stopped up, stoped, congested, unmoving, stop, finished, stopen, stopt, blocked, stopping, stops. ANTONYMS: (adj) unstopped, moving storeroom: (n) store, storehouse, warehouse, storage, storage room, larder, cupboard, buttery, depot, stockroom, chandlery stores: (n) provisions, materials, provender, support, equipment, military issue, government issue, goods, food, commissariat stout: (adj, n) sturdy, stocky, hearty; (adj) hardy, strong, robust, obese, husky, bold, corpulent, fleshy. ANTONYMS: (adj) thin, slim, flimsy, cowardly, slight, skinny, fragile, weak straighten: (v) tidy, unbend, neaten, square away, extend, dress, adjust, stretch, unwind, right, straight. ANTONYMS: (v) bend, sink, withdraw, align, stoop, distort, confuse, complicate, tilt straightforward: (adj) direct, open, square, simple, candid, plain, honest, sincere, forthright, immediate, frank. ANTONYMS: (adj) difficult, tricky, deceitful, complex, mysterious, pompous, devious, ambiguous, dishonest, disingenuous, evasive strain: (n, v) stretch, sift; (adj, n, v) tax; (v) screen, filter, try, exert; (n) effort, breed, exertion, song. ANTONYMS: (v) laze; (n) ease, relief strained: (adj) tense, labored, intense, constrained, laboured, unnatural, nervous, affected, taut, artificial, tight. ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, calm strange: (adj) foreign, peculiar, unusual, abnormal, outlandish, irregular, odd, new, mysterious, extraordinary, curious. ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary,
normal, familiar, typical, usual, conventional, explicable, sensible, mainstream, known, human strangely: (adv) curiously, queerly, unusually, funnily, peculiarly, weirdly, marvelously, uncommonly, extraordinarily, singularly, bizarrely. ANTONYMS: (adv) typically, ordinarily, harmoniously strangers: (n) stranger strayed: (v) stray stream: (adj, n, prep, v) current, course; (n, prep, v) flood; (n, v) brook, run, crowd, jet, gush; (n) river; (v) pour, swarm. ANTONYMS: (n) shortage; (v) drizzle streets: (n) street stress: (n, v) strain, accent; (n) emphasis, tension, pressure, importance, force; (v) emphasize, punctuate, underline; (adj, n) pinch. ANTONYMS: (n) relaxation, unimportance, relief, ease; (v) relax, understate, deny, soothe stretch: (adj, n, v) strain; (adj, v) extend, elongate, lengthen; (n) extent, expanse; (v) prolong, draw; (n, v) run, spread, range. ANTONYMS: (v) shorten, shrink, withdraw, narrow, relax; (adj) inflexible stretched: (adj) extended, stiff, tight, tense, stretched out, strained, expanded, outstretched, elongated, outspread, prolonged. ANTONYMS: (adj) loose, short stretcher: (n) litter, cot, cradle, panel brick, pallet, hurdle, hammock, shakedown, crate, capstone, brancard stretches: (adj) stretched stretching: (n) tension, stretch, expansion, workout, reach, amplification, stretchiness, enlargement; (adj) stretched, long; (v) extend stricken: (adj) smitten, struck, beaten, laid low, affected, hurt, low, impaired, dotty; (v) heavy laden, victimized stride: (n, v) pace, tread, walk, stalk, rate, toddle, stump; (n) footstep, gait, progress; (v) march strike: (n, v) hit, beat, bang, knock, assault, slap, clap, rap, smash; (v) impress, move. ANTONYMS: (n) defense; (v) extinguish, defend striking: (adj) outstanding, dramatic, spectacular, salient, imposing, conspicuous, vivid, remarkable, notable, astonishing; (n) strike.
173 ANTONYMS: (adj) ugly, ordinary, unimpressive, unremarkable, inconspicuous, unattractive, uninteresting, plain, insignificant, humble, obscure string: (n) chain, twine, strand, series, filament; (adj, n) file, row, range, rank; (n, v) run, thread. ANTONYM: (v) unstring strings: (n) string, string section, sway, control, dealings, domination, jurisdiction, terms, condition, command, provision strip: (v) deprive, despoil, peel, rifle, plunder, divest, denude, ransack, pillage; (n) band, slip. ANTONYMS: (v) decorate, cover, add striped: (adj) stripy, brindled, variegated, lined, banded, virgated, zoned, paled, with stripes stripped: (adj) naked, nude, exposed, fleeced, undressed, unclothed, stark, desolate, denuded, bald, stript striving: (n) nisus, pains, endeavor, strife, try, strain, attempt, strive, ambition, struggle, exertion. ANTONYM: (adj) unmotivated stroll: (n, v) ramble, saunter, walk, amble, wander, promenade, tramp, hike; (v) roam, go for a walk, range strongly: (adv) firmly, vigorously, robustly, violently, solidly, vehemently, sturdily, hardily, mightily, energetically, severely. ANTONYMS: (adv) mildly, dimly, faintly, feebly, gently, loosely, slightly, submissively, thinly, languorously, impassively struck: (adj, v) smitten; (v) stroke; (adj) affected, afflicted, doting, dotty, enamored, gaga, hurt, in love, infatuated struggling: (v) strive; (adj) harassed, hostile, under pressure, stressed, aggressive, agonizing, rebellious, belligerent, careworn; (n) colluctation stuck: (adj) stranded, jammed, delayed, fast; (adj, adv) aground; (n) stuck ware, thrust, sticking; (v) sticked, fasten, attach. ANTONYMS: (adj) unstuck, loose studying: (n) poring over, perusal, study, learning, reading, speculation stuff: (v) fill, jam, pack, ram, squeeze, pad; (n) material, cloth, matter, gear; (n, v) force. ANTONYMS: (v) starve, unpack, empty stupid: (adj, n) foolish, silly, simple, absurd; (adj, adv, n) dull; (adj) idiotic, ridiculous, senseless, fatuous, crass, insane. ANTONYMS:
174 (adj) wise, clever, bright, intelligent, shrewd, prudent, responsible, smart, great, sensitive, useful suavely: (adv) blandly, courteously, tactfully, graciously, elegantly, pleasantly, urbanely, genially, gentlely, debonairly, sophisticatedly. ANTONYM: (adv) tactlessly subdued: (adj) quiet, muffled, dull, restrained, muted, tame, faint, repressed, low, meek; (adj, v) resigned. ANTONYMS: (adj) enthusiastic, lively, uninhibited, unsubdued, rebellious, noisy, bright, elaborate, frivolous, upbeat substance: (adj, n) subject; (n) body, significance, import, material, matter, meaning, amount, means, gist, core. ANTONYMS: (n) meaninglessness, lightness, surface subtle: (adj) delicate, sharp, nice, acute, astute, insidious, exquisite, elusive; (adj, v) shrewd, sly, crafty. ANTONYMS: (adj) loud, bright, considerable, tactless, overpowering, harsh, concrete, dark successfully: (adv) victoriously, prosperously, happily, thrivingly, luckily, effectively, triumphantly, efficiently, well, swimmingly, rewardingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) ineffectively, unsuccessfully, fruitlessly, inefficiently sudden: (adj) precipitous, quick, abrupt, hasty, rash, unexpected, steep, unforeseen, drastic, immediate, swift. ANTONYMS: (adj) considered, slow, gentle, leisurely, protracted, sensible, smooth suffer: (v) encounter, stand, accept, undergo, brook, experience, have, endure, abide, sustain; (adj, v) allow. ANTONYMS: (v) enjoy, rejoice, flourish suffered: (adj) permitted, permissive suffering: (n) distress, agony, affliction, anguish, torture, grief, torment, misery, hardship; (adj, n) hurt; (adj) miserable. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) content; (n) peace, ecstasy, joy, pleasure suggestion: (n) advice, intimation, proposal, counsel, allusion, sign, trace, proposition, recommendation; (n, v) touch, dash. ANTONYMS: (n) warning, practice suggestive: (adj, v) expressive; (adj) obscene, spicy, allusive, graphic, smutty, significative, narrative, meaningful, epic, implicative
Heart of Darkness sulky: (adj) gloomy, grouchy, morose, surly, peevish, moody, dismal, cross, petulant, crabby; (adj, v) glum. ANTONYMS: (adj) resigned, cheerful; (n) cheeriness summing-up: (n) resume summit: (n) peak, apex, acme, top, height, crown, point, crest, tip, climax, culmination. ANTONYMS: (n) nadir, bottom, dip, trough sunk: (adj) sunken, undone, finished, ruined, profound, immersed, damaged, lowed, lying flat; (v) cut up, dashed sunken: (adj) concave, depressed, submerged, empty, underwater, cavernous, recessed, gaunt, low, depression, submarine. ANTONYM: (adj) convex sunlight: (n) sunshine, daylight, the sun, positive, solar, sunbeam, brightness, sunbeams, rays, shaft, beam sunlit: (adj) bright, light, sunstruck, lighter. ANTONYM: (adj) dark sunset: (n) dusk, sundown, nightfall, twilight, night, sunsetting, periodic event, crepuscule, atmospheric phenomenon, hour, recurrent event. ANTONYMS: (n) sunrise, daybreak sunshine: (n) sunlight, sun, day, light, fair weather, gladness, shine, glee, sunbeam, delight, brightness superb: (adj) beautiful, brilliant, magnificent, exquisite, gorgeous, super, rich, marvelous, grand, excellent, glorious. ANTONYMS: (adj) poor, inferior, terrible, meager, abysmal, dire, humble, inglorious, ugly, unattractive, unimpressive superciliousness: (n) arrogance, haughtiness, condescension, disdainfulness, pride, contemptuousness, condescendingness, airs, conceit, insult, loftiness. ANTONYMS: (n) humility, respect supernatural: (adj) mystical, preternatural, weird, superhuman, eerie, uncanny, unnatural, mysterious, ghostly, divine; (n) occult. ANTONYM: (adj) normal superstition: (n) superstitious, taboo, religion, old wives' tale, superstitious notion, lore, folklore, fanaticism, fallacy, belief, magic. ANTONYMS: (n) science, truth supported: (adj) sustained, backed, bolstered, based; (v) borne, carried, conveyed, supporting; (adv) on supposed: (adj) hypothetical, reputed, alleged, assumed,
imaginary, putative, apparent, ostensible, suppositional, supposititious, suppositious. ANTONYM: (adj) actual suppression: (n) repression, restraint, quelling, crushing, stifling, constraint, extinction, abolition, subjugation, prevention; (n, v) overthrow. ANTONYMS: (n) emancipation, development, expression, revelation supreme: (adj, n) maximum, utmost; (adj) dominant, sovereign, chief, principal, superlative, uppermost, consummate, preeminent; (adj, v) head. ANTONYMS: (adj) inferior, vulnerable, lowly, poor, secondary, worst, abysmal, powerless, provisional, weak surely: (adv) positively, definitely, confidently, securely, undoubtedly, clearly, firmly, assuredly, absolutely; (adj, adv) really; (adv, int) of course. ANTONYMS: (adv) questionably, uncertain, weakly surf: (n) foam, breaker, spray, wave, surge, swell, suds, bubble; (v) browse, beach comber, ground swell surprise: (n) fright, amazement, wonder, astonishment; (n, v) alarm, shock, jolt; (v) amaze, startle, astonish, stun. ANTONYMS: (n) expectation; (v) encourage, comfort surprised: (adj) amazed, dumbfounded, shocked, astounded, stunned, taken aback, bewildered, startled, surprise, aghast, to be astonished. ANTONYM: (adj) unsurprised surprising: (adj, n) marvelous, strange, incredible; (adj) amazing, remarkable, wonderful, shocking, extraordinary, striking, unusual; (adj, v) startling. ANTONYMS: (adj) predictable, comforting, ordinary, normal, unremarkable surrender: (v) concede, abandon, give up, capitulate, submit, deliver; (adj, n) resignation; (n, v) resign, render, release; (n) capitulation. ANTONYMS: (v) conquer, appropriate, persevere, subdue, enforce; (n, v) fight, win; (n) capture, confrontation, conquest, victory surrounded: (adj) enclosed, ingirt, not independent, ringed, inside, rooted, conditioned, circumstanced, bounded; (v) beset, furnished surrounding: (prep) round, about; (adj) encompassing, encircling, environmental, circumambient, adjoining; (adv) around; (n)
Joseph Conrad surroundings, circumstances, enclosing surroundings: (n) atmosphere, environment, environs, setting, neighborhood, habitat, milieu, neighbourhood, scene, background, ambiance suspect: (v) mistrust, suppose, distrust, conjecture, guess, surmise, divine, disbelieve; (adj) fishy, questionable, shady. ANTONYMS: (adj) trustworthy, trusted, innocent, reliable, credible, aboveboard; (n) plaintiff; (v) know, believe suspected: (adj) supposed, doubted, suspicious, suspicion, inspiring distrust, distrusted suspicion: (n) distrust, inkling, misgiving, hunch, qualm, scruple, surmise, supposition; (n, v) doubt, mistrust, fear. ANTONYMS: (n) certainty, knowledge, information, carelessness, recklessness, certitude suspicious: (adj) questionable, distrustful, shady, queer, doubtful, dubious, incredulous, fishy, funny, jealous, mistrustful. ANTONYMS: (adj) gullible, trustworthy, aggressive, aboveboard, certain, unsuspecting, unquestionable, believable, straight, palpable, innocent sustained: (adj) prolonged, long, continuous, constant, chronic, free burning, perennial, supported, permanent, sostenuto, protracted. ANTONYM: (adj) brief sustenance: (n) living, food, maintenance, subsistence, fare, sustentation, provisions, nourishment, nutriment, aliment, livelihood. ANTONYM: (n) extras swagger: (n, v) strut, prance; (adj, n, v) bluster; (v) boast, show off, parade, ruffle, flourish; (adj, v) bully; (adj) groovy; (n) bragging swallow: (n, v) drink, gulp, taste, sip, swig; (v) bolt, consume, devour, accept, stomach, endure. ANTONYMS: (n, v) sip; (v) doubt, expel, disbelieve, reject, express swallowed: (adj) engulfed, gulped, inundated, overcome, overwhelmed, flooded, overpowered, enclosed swamp: (v) flood, submerge, overwhelm, inundate, drench; (n) marsh, mire, quagmire, morass; (adj, v) sink, drown. ANTONYMS: (v) underwhelm, disperse, dry swarming: (adj) full, crowded, alive, packed, populous, sensitive, thick;
(v) dense, crowded to suffocation, serried, closely packed. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, deserted sway: (n, v) command, rule, control, rock, stagger, roll; (v) oscillate, reel, lurch, shake; (n) reign. ANTONYMS: (v) stay, dissuade, discourage swayed: (adj) persuaded, susceptible, touched, convinced. ANTONYM: (adj) doubtful swaying: (adj) swinging, convincing, oscillating, influential, persuasive, moving, lilting, groggy; (n) floating, manipulation swede: (n) kohlrabi, Swedish turnip, rutabaga plant, turnip, mangold, yellow turnip, turnip cabbage sweep: (adj, v) brush, rake; (n, v) range, reach, sway; (n) compass, expanse, scope, field; (v) sail; (adj, n) curve sweeping: (adj) broad, extensive, radical, wholesale, indiscriminate, exhaustive, blanket, thorough, general, wide; (adv) sweepingly. ANTONYMS: (adj) narrow, restricted, exclusive, specific, modest, isolated sweepings: (adj, n) trash; (n) waste, rubbish, garbage, debris, riffraff, markings, rubble, detritus; (adj) rags, orts swell: (n, v) rise, heave, increase, wave, billow; (v) enlarge, expand, puff, grow, bloat; (adj, n) dandy. ANTONYMS: (v) deflate, desiccate, shrink, compress, concentrate, wane; (n, v) decline; (adj) bad, horrible, shabby, awful swelling: (n) protuberance, lump, swell, intumescence, growth, projection, prominence, bulge, dropsy; (adj, v) inflated; (adj) growing. ANTONYM: (n) decline swept: (adj) clean swift: (adj, adv, v) fast; (adj) quick, fleet, speedy, alert, nimble, hasty, prompt, sudden, hurried; (adj, v) rapid. ANTONYMS: (adj) considered, leisurely, sluggish, gradual, delayed, clumsy swiftly: (adv) rapidly, speedily, fleetly, promptly, expeditiously, alertly, hastily, suddenly, readily; (adj, adv) quickly, fast. ANTONYMS: (adv) eventually, sluggishly, gradually swing: (n, v) sway, sweep, turn, change, beat; (v) fluctuate, oscillate, dangle, rock, vibrate; (adj, v) hang switching: (n) shift, switcheroo,
175 shunting, replacement, shifting, interchange, exchange, shimmy, duty period, displacement, coupling sword: (n) blade, sabre, brand, broadsword, falchion, cutlass, saber, steel, glaive, backsword, cutlas sworn: (adj) extreme, mortal, implacable, engaged, dedicated, committed, betrothed, bespoken, affianced, inveterate symbolic: (adj, v) representative, typical, symptomatic; (adj) emblematic, figurative, symbolical, characteristic, metaphorical, significant; (n) symbolics; (v) diacritical. ANTONYM: (adj) literal sympathy: (n) compassion, kindness, commiseration, mercy, feeling, understanding, rapport, benevolence, agreement; (adj, n) humanity, charity. ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, cruelty, coldness, disdain, incompatibility, thoughtlessness, mercilessness, callousness, incomprehension, inhumanity, insensitivity tackle: (n) equipment, rigging, kit, paraphernalia, rig, fishing tackle; (v) harness, deal with, handle, undertake, set about. ANTONYMS: (v) forget, ignore, dodge, neglect tail: (n, v) shadow, trail; (v) follow, track, pursue, dog, tag, chase; (n) behind, posterior, butt. ANTONYMS: (n, v) head, front; (v) lead tails: (n) dress suit, tail coat, full dress, tail, waste, evening dress, dress coat, coat, morning coat, cutaway, formalwear taint: (n, v) blemish, disgrace, corrupt, spot, blot; (adj, v) defile, sully, pollute, contaminate; (n) pollution, contamination. ANTONYMS: (v) enhance, right, respect, disinfect, clean; (n) perfection, cleanliness; (adv) cheerfully tainted: (adj, v) rotten, rancid, bad, musty, reasty, vitiated; (adj) rank, contaminated, faulty, putrid, dirty. ANTONYMS: (adj) unadulterated, unchanged, untarnished, clean tale: (n) account, narrative, narration, recital, fib, fable, report, fiction, lie, relation, yarn. ANTONYM: (n) fact talents: (adj) talent, ability, capacity, parts, ingenuity, cleverness, turn; (n) faculty, endowment, genius, accomplishment tall: (adj) elevated, high, exalted, big, lanky, towering, eminent,
176 unbelievable, strapping, long, gangling. ANTONYMS: (adj) low, small, sensible, reasonable, little, believable, easy, stocky tangled: (adj) involved, complex, knotted, intricate, complicated, entangled, knotty, convoluted, disheveled, tousled, matted. ANTONYMS: (adj) tidy, straightforward, untangled, neat, simple tanned: (adj) bronzed, suntanned, browned; (n) brunette. ANTONYMS: (adj) pale, untanned tapped: (adj) poor, powerless, helpless. ANTONYM: (adj) untapped tatters: (n) rags, clothing tawny: (n) tan, buff; (adj, n) brown, auburn; (adj) luteous, golden, sallow, russet, chestnut, creamy, moderately black teach: (v) enlighten, educate, instruct, coach, indoctrinate, drill, learn, lecture, school; (adj, v) guide, show teaching: (n) education, instruction, indoctrination, precept, pedagogy, schooling, doctrine, training, lesson, advice, tuition tear: (n, v) rip, break, split, rupture, crack, run, slit; (v) pull, rend, lacerate; (adj, v) rush. ANTONYMS: (v) wait, mend, idle, fix, amble, dawdle tearfully: (adv) tearily, weepily, dolorously, lachrymosely, waterily, sadly, sorrowfully, maudlinly, mournfully, wetly, whimperingly tearing: (adj) fierce, violent, vehement, furious, ripping, ferocious; (n) lachrymation, lacrimation, riving ahead, tear, lancination tears: (n) cry, crying, snivel, brine, weeping, activity, bawling, bodily function, bodily process, body process, lacerations teeth: (v) mortar and pestle, gristmill, nutmeg grater, grater, file, arrastra, rasp, mill, unguis, tentacle; (n) gear teeth telegraphic: (v) eagle winged, electric, winged; (adj) concise, telegraphical, semaphorical telling: (adj, v) significant; (adj) revealing, emphatic, impressive, effectual, effective, pregnant, cogent; (n) relation, recounting, notice. ANTONYMS: (adj) secretive, unimportant, insignificant, hidden temperament: (n) character, nature, disposition, constitution,
Heart of Darkness personality, quality, spirit, humor, equanimity, composure, mettle temperature: (n) warmth, heat, hotness, coldness, high temperature, body temperature, somatic sensation, climate, melting point, weather; (v) internal constitution tempestuous: (adj, n) rough, boisterous, severe; (adj) raging, furious, wild, angry, windy, fierce, gusty; (adj, v) turbulent. ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, moderate, relaxed temple: (n) church, place of worship, shrine, Fane, house of worship, pantheon, pagoda, synagogue, brow, sanctuary, mosque temptation: (n, v) lure, enticement, bait; (n) attraction, allurement, invitation, seduction, inducement, allure, appeal, pull. ANTONYMS: (n) dislike, discouragement tender: (n, v) offer, proffer, bid; (adj, v) affectionate; (adj) painful, sensitive, soft, loving, sore; (v) propose, present. ANTONYMS: (adj) hardhearted, rubbery, hard, rough, uncaring, healthy, mature, unfeeling, cold, experienced; (v) withdraw tenderness: (n) fondness, soreness, love, affection, sympathy; (adj, n) clemency, mildness, compassion, gentleness, softness, delicacy. ANTONYMS: (n) pleasure, dryness, hatred, strength, detachment tenebrous: (adj) dark, gloomy, tenebrific, tenebrious, dusky, murky, sullen, dismal, obscure, somber, equivocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) light, inviting tentative: (adj) doubtful, provisional, experimental, probationary, trial, shy, empirical, exploratory, undecided, provisionary, indefinite. ANTONYMS: (adj) sure, certain, conclusive, firm, ultimate, decisive, exact, mature, bold tents: (n) encampment tepid: (adj) warm, mild, cool, indifferent, moderately warm, hot, genial, unenthusiastic, unfrozen, warmish, half-hearted. ANTONYMS: (adj) cold, hot, enthusiastic terrible: (adj) horrible, dreadful, horrid, monstrous, abominable, ghastly, dire, appalling, fearful, awful, hideous. ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, pleasant, great, laudable, excellent, superb, mild, slight, minor, brilliant, insignificant
terrific: (adj) tremendous, fantastic, great, wonderful, dreadful, formidable, splendid, brilliant, marvellous; (adj, v) terrible, shocking. ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny, abysmal, bad, calm, moderate, nasty, dreadful, insignificant, ordinary, unremarkable terrifying: (adj) horrible, frightening, alarming, fearsome, scary, horrifying, terrific, appalling, formidable, ghastly, hideous. ANTONYMS: (adj) safe, pleasant, reassuring terror: (n, v) alarm, scare; (adj, n) dread, awe; (n) fear, dismay, consternation, horror, panic, apprehension, scourge. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, security, delight, calm, confidence thereabouts: (adj, adv) about; (adv) nearly, generally, around, approximately, in the region of, more or less, something like, almost, so; (adv, n) hereabouts therein: (adv) in this, in there thereupon: (adv) hereupon, next, then, immediately, therefore, therewith, in the sequel, close upon, upon which, whereupon, accordingly thick: (adj) compact, stupid, crowded, slow, opaque, dull, heavy, stocky, deep, close, familiar. ANTONYMS: (adj) thin, intelligent, sparse, bright, slight, clever, transparent, diluted, fine, clear, runny thickened: (adj) calloused, concentrated, incrassated, spissated, stiff, tough, becoming thicker, inspissated thickly: (adv) deeply, heavily, thick, viscously, thicksetly, solidly, dully, dumbly, compactly, closely, turbidly. ANTONYMS: (adv) thinly, finely, slightly, sparsely, loosely, distinctly thief: (n) burglar, bandit, pirate, plunderer, filcher, stealer, pickpocket, pilferer, crook, brigand, despoiler thieving: (n) larceny, stealing, robbery, embezzlement, misapplication, misappropriation, peculation, defalcation, burglary, thievery; (adj) thievish. ANTONYMS: (adj) philanthropic, benevolent thin: (adj) tenuous, flimsy, light, fine, emaciated; (adj, v) lean, gaunt, slight, sheer, meager, dilute.
Joseph Conrad ANTONYMS: (adj) fat, concentrated, chubby, plump, wide, heavy, broad, strong, resonant, solid; (v) thicken thirst: (n, v) hunger, lust, wish; (n) longing, yen, craving, hankering, dryness, appetite; (v) starve, crave. ANTONYM: (n) dislike thirsty: (adj) eager, arid, parched, avid, keen, athirst, greedy, absorbent, ambitious; (v) craving, hungry. ANTONYMS: (adj) quenched, satisfied, disinterested, wet thoughtful: (adj, v) serious, solemn, grave; (adj) kind, careful, pensive, heedful, attentive, discreet, sensible, courteous. ANTONYMS: (adj) thoughtless, careless, heedless, uncaring, unkind, tactless, superficial, stupid, negligent, idiotic, unthinking thoughtlessly: (adv) carelessly, inconsiderately, heedlessly, rashly, imprudently, inattentively, hastily, negligently, indiscreetly, unheedingly; (adj, adv) foolishly. ANTONYMS: (adv) considerately, carefully, cautiously, prudently, sensibly, wisely thoughts: (n) mind, opinion, depth of thought, feelings, reflection, ideas, workings of the mind, view, stance, position, considered opinion thrall: (n) bondage, slavery, thraldom, helot, serf, enslavement, thralldom, villein, captivity, slave; (v) enslave thread: (n) screw thread, yarn, rope, wire, twine, ligature; (adj, n, v) line, file; (n, v) string together; (adj, v) range; (v) penetrate threadbare: (adj, v) stale, shabby, dilapidated, bald, frayed, faded; (adj) hackneyed, worn, banal, trite, tattered. ANTONYMS: (adj) new, unused, reliable, fresh, unworn, pristine, original threat: (n) hazard, danger, risk, peril, commination, intimidation, jeopardy, coercion, warning, omen, terror. ANTONYMS: (n) safety, persuasion threshold: (n) brink, beginning, outset, entrance, entry, doorsill, doorstep, doorway, edge, vestibule, border. ANTONYM: (n) end thrilled: (adj) jubilant, excited, happy, overjoyed, elated, ecstatic, pleased, thrillful, contented, grateful, flattered. ANTONYMS: (adj) bored, unhappy, depressed,
desolate, sad, down, miserable throb: (n, v) quiver, ache, pulse, pound, thrill, tingle; (v) pulsate, palpitate, flutter, shudder; (n) pulsation throttle: (v) choke, asphyxiate, strangulate, smother, scrag, constrain, stifle, suffocate, restrain, cumber; (n) accelerator throttling: (n) strangulation, choking, suffocation, constriction, asphyxiation throw: (n, v) cast, pitch, push; (v) shed, hurl, heave, chuck, flip, pass, hurtle; (n) shot. ANTONYMS: (v) explain, help, receive, clarify, encourage thrown: (adj) puzzled, confused, thrown and twisted, upset, disconcerted, unnerved, terrified, scared out of your wits, mystified, frightened; (n) reminder. ANTONYM: (adj) calm thrust: (n, v) poke, stab, jab, drive, shove, force, punch, boost, cast, dig; (v) ram. ANTONYM: (n) inertia thump: (n, v) thud, bang, bump, knock, hit, strike, cuff, punch, crash, crack; (v) pound. ANTONYM: (v) tiptoe thumping: (adj) spanking, whacking, roaring, thudding, lubberly, walloping, lumpish, gaunt; (n) thud, thump, clump thunder: (adj, n, v) boom; (n, v) roar, bang, roll, bellow; (adj, n) peal; (adj, v) explode, detonate; (v) howl, rumble, fulminate thundering: (adj) thumping, whopping, lumpish, gaunt, hulky, lubberly, spanking, big, loud, striking terror; (n) thunder thunderingly: (adv) hulkingly, whoppingly, spankingly thunderstruck: (adj) astonished, flabbergasted, dumbfounded, amazed, stupefied, stunned, speechless, dumfounded, aghast, dazed; (v) awestruck tidal: (adj) flowing tide: (n, v) wave, flood, surge; (n) stream, flow, course, drift, time, high tide, run, piping times. ANTONYM: (v) ebb tied: (adj) bound, connected, laced, united, fixed, even, liable, tight, spiked, responsible, attached. ANTONYMS: (adj) untied, unlaced tight: (adj, v) narrow, parsimonious, compact, stingy; (adj, adv, v) fast, firm; (adj) mean, taut, secure, snug, tense. ANTONYMS: (adj) generous,
177 baggy, slack, wide, easy, open, leaky, giving, free, floppy; (adv) loosely till: (conj, prep) until, unto; (v) plow, hoe, farm, dig; (adj) up to; (n) tiller, drawer; (adv) so far; (prep) to tingle: (v) prickle, itch, tickle, smart, sting, burn, creep; (n) tremble, tingling; (n, v) twitter, pain tiny: (adj) minute, minuscule, small, diminutive, petty, infinitesimal, midget, teeny, puny, petite, slight. ANTONYMS: (adj) huge, enormous, vast, gigantic, large, big, considerable, roomy, significant, giant, immeasurable tipped: (adj) canted, tilted, leaning, atilt, oblique, inclined, sharp, sloping, having Angles tiptoe: (v) tip, tippytoe, creep, patter, skirt, skip, tilt, sidle, lean; (adj) alert; (n) quieter. ANTONYM: (v) clump tired: (adj, v) fatigued, weary, exhausted, stale; (adj) threadbare, commonplace, trite, banal, haggard, stock, jaded. ANTONYMS: (adj) invigorated, alert, refreshed, energetic, original, strong, awake, energized, lively, rested, relaxed titled: (adj) highborn, patrician, coroneted, aristocratic, named, generous, posh, upright, worthy, fair; (n) princely. ANTONYM: (adj) petty tobacco: (adj) nicotine; (n) filler, nicotian, plant product, mustard tree, herb, herbaceous plant, common tobacco, drug of abuse, street drug, smoking mixture toil: (n, v) labor, work, drudge, sweat, drudgery, grind, labour, travail; (v) plod; (n) effort, exertion. ANTONYMS: (n) pastime, entertainment, fun, relaxation; (v) laze, neglect toiling: (adj) labouring, drudging, busy tolerant: (adj) liberal, patient, lenient, broad, kind, understanding, forbearing, permissive, forgiving, merciful; (adj, v) meek. ANTONYMS: (adj) strict, impatient, chauvinistic, bigoted, oppressive, prejudiced, unforgiving, harsh, severe, unsympathetic, biased toll: (n, v) ring, chime; (n) price, fee, tax, cost, charge, impost, due, tariff; (v) peal tone: (n) note, accent, timbre, spirit, tinge, shade, air, sound, tint, manner; (n, v) color. ANTONYMS: (n) atonicity, flaccidity; (v) jar
178 tongue: (n) lingua, speech, idiom, dialect, clapper, glossa, natural language, striker, talk; (v) lick; (adj) flowing topple: (v) collapse, tumble, fall, stumble, overthrow, upset, overturn, pitch, capsize, tumble down, oust. ANTONYMS: (v) place, put, straighten, install, right tops: (n) apex, pinnacle, pick; (adj) champion, elite, fabulous, leading, outstanding, uppermost, superb, superlative torch: (n) brand, light, flambeau, burner, great mullein, blowlamp, Verbascum Thapsus, flannel mullein, common mullein, blowtorch; (v) burn tore: (v) tare; (n) moulding, molding torment: (n, v) tease, distress, harass, afflict, pain, annoy; (n) agony, anguish, suffering; (v) persecute, oppress. ANTONYMS: (v) please, delight, placate, comfort, soothe; (n) contentment, happiness, pleasure, calm, content tormented: (adj) worried, tortured, hagridden, troubled, beleaguered, beset, besieged, cruciate, cruciform, distraught, distressed. ANTONYM: (adj) calm torn: (adj, prep) lacerated, rent, mangled; (adj) ripped, tattered, blasted, lacerate, shabby, goddamned, infernal, made uninhabitable. ANTONYMS: (adj) pristine, sure, resolute, healed, decided, mended toss: (n, v) throw, fling, pitch, chuck, cast, flip; (v) agitate, hurl, shake, convulse, discard. ANTONYM: (v) catch touch: (v) hit, affect, border, adjoin, strike, reach; (n, v) contact, stroke, tinge, regard, tap. ANTONYMS: (v) shrink, secrete, separate, diverge, abstain, leave; (n) lot touched: (adj) insane, cracked, tinged, not right, daft, crazy, nutty; (v) compassionate, sympathetic, pitiful, mucid. ANTONYMS: (adj) untouched, sane, unemotional, unmoved, well toward: (prep) to, towards, approaching, headed for, just before, of, in the direction of; (adv, prep) on; (adv) about, around, by. ANTONYMS: (prep) from, away tower: (n) column, spire, steeple, pinnacle, pylon, castle; (adj, n) pillar; (v) ascend, rise, loom, arise towering: (adj) lofty, tall, eminent,
Heart of Darkness great, soaring, mighty, elevated, monumental, exalted, imposing, distinguished. ANTONYMS: (adj) short, dwarfed, little, low toying: (n) flirtation, coquetry, flirting, flirt, tease, romp, prickteaser, play, minx, gambol, frolic trace: (n, v) line, shadow, spot, hunt, trail; (n) dash, clue, indication, suggestion, sign; (v) pursue. ANTONYMS: (v) ignore; (n) lot, overtone track: (n, v) trail, course, path, hunt; (v) tail, chase, pursue, follow; (n) line, route, racetrack. ANTONYMS: (v) lead, precede trader: (n) merchant, monger, shopkeeper, trafficker, chandler, seller, merchandiser, seedman, seedsman, barterer, mercer trading: (n) business, commerce, round trip trading, bond trading, speculation, short selling, short covering, program trading, patronage, negotiation; (adj) mercantile traffic: (n, v) exchange, trade, commerce, barter, dealing, interchange; (n) dealings, business, intercourse; (v) deal, bargain tragic: (adj) calamitous, disastrous, dreadful, grievous, catastrophic, unlucky, unfortunate, woeful, tragical, comic, heartbreaking. ANTONYMS: (adj) humorous, heartwarming, blessed, advantageous, lucky, fortunate, joyous tragically: (adv) sadly, unluckily, calamitously, terribly, inauspiciously, dreadfully, devastatingly, disastrously, deplorably, woefully, miserably. ANTONYM: (adv) happily trail: (n, v) track, haul, trace, tail, hunt, path, train; (v) drag, pursue, chase, draw. ANTONYMS: (n) room; (v) push, precede tramp: (n) bum, hobo, beggar; (n, v) walk, trudge, vagabond, ramble, march; (v) roam, range, plod. ANTONYMS: (n, v) loyalist; (n) resident tramping: (adj) moving trance: (adj, n) ecstasy; (n, v) coma, charm; (n) fascination, daze, dream, captivation, spell, stupor, obstupefaction; (v) capture. ANTONYMS: (n) loyalist, reality, alertness tranquil: (adj, v) quiet, unruffled,
smooth; (adj, n) peaceful; (adj) placid, still, serene, sedate, collected, composed, equable. ANTONYMS: (adj) noisy, tense, agitated, anxious, troubled, bustling, loud, perturbed, frenetic, moving, bothered transactions: (n) minutes, dealings, records, traffic, business, memoir, legal proceeding, judicial proceeding, intercourse, Hansard, proceeding transfixed: (adj) fascinated, hypnotized, mesmerised, mesmerized, hypnotised, stranded; (v) engrossed in, wrapped in, absorbed, rapt; (adv) aground translucently: (adv) clearly, gauzily, lucently, lucidly, semitransparently, transparently, brightly, thinly, flimsily, delicately, daintily transparent: (adj) diaphanous, obvious, plain, limpid, sheer, filmy, gauzy, pellucid; (adj, n) lucid, luminous, bright. ANTONYMS: (adj) solid, unclear, cloudy, thick, vague, subtle, questionable, hidden, robust, heavy, furtive transported: (adj) ecstatic, rapt, elated, inspirited, spellbound, exultant, puffed up, proud, delighted, elate; (adv) on cloud nine. ANTONYM: (adj) dejected trash: (n) rubbish, litter, scum, garbage, refuse, rubble, debris; (n, v) scrap, junk; (v) destroy; (adj, n) trumpery. ANTONYMS: (n) valuables, sense, possessions, assets, fact; (v) renovate, conserve traveled: (adj) travel, passable, cultured, cosmopolitan traveling: (n) travel, journey, travelling, commuting, commutation, peregrination, circumnavigation; (adj) riding, touring, nomadic, road treacherous: (adj) unfaithful, deceitful, false, perfidious, dangerous, disloyal, unreliable, unsafe, Punic, fraudulent, faithless. ANTONYMS: (adj) faithful, loyal, honest, safe, true, genuine, forthright, stable, harmless, dependable, open treasure: (n) gem, fortune, riches, funds; (n, v) hoard, prize, store; (v) cherish, appreciate; (adj, n) jewel, precious stone. ANTONYMS: (v) dislike, disparage, scorn, neglect; (n) dud, poverty treasured: (adj) precious, prized, dear, beloved, loved, valued, appreciated, favorite, etched in your
Joseph Conrad mind, esteemed, invited. ANTONYM: (adj) unremarkable treat: (n, v) feast, manage, administer, regale; (v) process, deal, heal, nurse; (n) luxury, delicacy, tidbit. ANTONYMS: (v) harm, hurt, injure, neglect, exacerbate, deprive, deny, contaminate, cloud; (n) necessity tree: (n) gallows, gibbet, stem, pedigree, kurchee, quandong, poon, platan, lemonwood, lancewood, lacebark tremor: (n, v) shiver, quake, shudder, shake; (n) agitation, vibration, earthquake, convulsion; (adj, v) flutter; (adj, n) trepidation; (v) tremble tremulous: (adj) shaky, trembling, shaking, fearful, apprehensive, quavering, fidgety, shivering; (n) nervous, diffident, coy. ANTONYMS: (adj) stable, confident, steady tremulously: (adv) fearfully, shiveringly, tremblingly, shakingly, quiveringly, quaveringly, fidgetily, vibratingly trenchant: (adj) incisive, keen, caustic, searching, acute; (adj, v) distinct, cutting, biting, severe, emphatic, pointed. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, kind, mild tribe: (n) clan, house, race, kin, nation, people, kindred, folk, stock, lineage, breed trick: (n, v) deceive, cheat, fraud, deceit, joke, sham, con; (n) prank, deception, device; (v) mislead. ANTONYMS: (n) frankness, honesty, misunderstanding, seriousness, truthfulness; (adj) real, genuine, innocent trickle: (n, v) dribble, drip, distill, drool; (v) percolate, ooze, seep, flow, leak, filter, leach. ANTONYMS: (n) throng, deluge, onslaught; (v) gush, flow, flood tricks: (n) actions, behavior, thing, clowning around, fooling, magic, plunder, possession, activities trifle: (n, v) play; (adj, n, v) trinket; (v) dally, fiddle, flirt, fool, frivol; (n) nothing, triviality, detail; (adj, n) bagatelle trifling: (adj) paltry, slight, petty, negligible, immaterial, worthless, trivial, minor, small; (adj, v) inconsequential; (adj, n) frivolity. ANTONYMS: (adj) significant, worthwhile, major, considerable, crucial, enormous, great, mature, profound, substantial; (n)
importance trimmed: (adj) down, slashed, shortened, neat, mown, level, gelded, emasculated, demure, cunning, sly trip: (n, v) journey, excursion, tour, expedition, travel, jaunt; (adj, n, v) slip, stumble, blunder; (n) flight; (adj, v) fall. ANTONYMS: (n) correction; (v) correct triumph: (v) exult, prevail, crow, rejoice, succeed; (n, v) glory, win, joy; (n) victory, conquest, exultation. ANTONYMS: (n) failure, defeat, sorrow, unhappiness, dud, sadness, loss, flop; (v) fail, lose, forfeit triumphant: (adj) victorious, successful, triumphal, exulting, winning, joyful, rejoicing, elated, conquering, prideful; (adj, v) exultant. ANTONYMS: (adj) disappointed, failing, losing, defeated, miserable, sorrowful tropical: (adj) torrid, hot, figurative, sunny, steamy, metaphorical, not literal, sweltering, canicular, rank, boiling. ANTONYMS: (adj) arctic, frigid, temperate tropics: (n) climatic zone, Torrid Zone troubled: (adj, v) concerned, solicitous; (adj) distressed, anxious, worried, uneasy, uncomfortable, disconcerted, upset, apprehensive, restless. ANTONYMS: (adj) unconcerned, composed, calm, easy, relaxed, tranquil, assured, carefree, brave, stable, unaffected troupe: (n) troop, band, party, corps, ensemble, minstrelsy, circus, organization, theater company, chorus, cast trousers: (n) breeches, knickers, pantaloons, trews, bellbottoms, chinos, cords, denim, flannel, gabardine, knickerbockers truly: (adj, adv) really; (adv) sincerely, in truth, exactly, in fact, indeed, in reality, genuinely, right, certainly, honestly. ANTONYMS: (adv) insincerely, dubiously, doubtfully, apparently, inaccurately, indefinite, dishonestly, mildly, wrongly trunks: (n) short pants, pants, luggage, Jockey shorts, Jamaica shorts, Bermuda shorts, bathing trunks, bathing suit, costume, drawers, swimming trunks trustful: (adj) confiding, unsuspicious, credulous, gullible, trusty, trustworthy, unsuspecting;
179 (n) trust, private conversation, bold, belief trustworthiness: (n) reliability, faithfulness, credibility, responsibility, honesty, trustiness, loyalty, constancy, devotion, dependence, creditworthiness. ANTONYMS: (n) untrustworthiness, disloyalty, infidelity, dishonesty truthfulness: (adj, n) honesty, sincerity, probity, honor; (n) truth, openness, frankness, candor, faith, loyalty; (adj) integrity. ANTONYMS: (n) untruthfulness, inaccuracy, evasiveness, caution, deceit tuck: (n, v) crease, pleat; (v) insert, pucker, enclose, gather, inclose, ruck, enter; (n) wrinkle, rapier tumbled: (adj) disordered tumble-down: (adj) run-down, shaky, rickety, decrepit tumult: (adj, n, v) hubbub, disturbance; (n) stir, commotion, bustle, din, fuss, excitement; (n, v) clamor, disorder, brawl. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, push, serenity, order, calm tumultuous: (adj, n) boisterous, tempestuous; (adj) disorderly, riotous, turbulent, noisy, furious, loud, troubled, disturbed; (adj, v) tumultuary. ANTONYMS: (adj) peaceful, calm turning: (n) turn, revolution, bend, rotation, deviation, gyration, conversion, veering; (adj) rotating, revolving, rotary tusk: (n) ivory, fang, torsk, dentine, dentin, bone, tush; (adj) nib; (v) detusk, horn, take away twice: (adv) doubly, bis, two times, in two ways, once more; (adj) twenty twig: (n) sprig, bough, limb, shoot, offshoot, spray, branchlet, scion, stalk; (n, v) stick; (v) grasp twigs: (n) sprays twilight: (n) nightfall, night, sunset, gloaming, evening, sundown, eventide, fall, decline, evenfall; (adj) aurora. ANTONYMS: (n) daybreak, sunrise twill: (adj, v) curl, wrinkle; (adj) corded, crisp; (v) braid, plexus, felt, plat, plait, mesh; (n) cloth twinkling: (n) moment, jiffy, minute, second, flash, trice, twinkle, wink, split second, breath; (adj) sparkling. ANTONYM: (adj) dull twist: (n, v) turn, bend, curl, coil, wind, pervert, spin, wrench; (adj, v)
180 distort; (v) contort, deform. ANTONYMS: (v) untwist, undo, uncurl, explain, explicate, unbend, smooth, clarify, smile twisted: (adj) perverted, deformed, bent, distorted, misshapen, coiled, twined, curved, wry, contorted; (adj, v) winding. ANTONYMS: (adj) tidy, normal, perfect, wholesome twitching: (n) tic, fibrillation, cramp, fasciculation, spasm, contraction, vellication, spasmodic tic typical: (adj) characteristic, regular, model, classic, distinctive, natural, standard, figurative, emblematic; (adj, v) representative; (adj, n) average. ANTONYMS: (adj) atypical, unusual, uncharacteristic, unconventional, different, new, extraordinary, unique, exceptional, common, abnormal ugly: (adj, adv) surly; (adj) nasty, repulsive, frightful, forbidding, disagreeable, hideous, gruesome, evil, offensive, shocking. ANTONYMS: (adj) attractive, flowing, ornamental, nice, lovely, pleasant, safe, kind, gentle, appealing, agreeable ulster: (n) coat, wraprascal, overcoat, topcoat, pelerine, greatcoat, dreadnought, cardinal, poncho ultimate: (adj) conclusive, final, supreme, definitive, decisive, elemental, extreme, furthest; (adj, n, v) end; (n) maximum; (adj, adv) farthest. ANTONYMS: (adj) first, worst, tentative, introductory, beginning, lowest, extra, inessential, least, proximate, auxiliary ultimately: (adv) finally, lastly, in the end, at long last, at last, in the long run, conclusively, latterly, elementally, extremely, in the last analysis. ANTONYMS: (adv) never, directly unable: (adj) incapable, ineffective, incompetent, impotent, helpless, ineffectual, inefficient, inadequate, unqualified, unfit, not able. ANTONYMS: (adj) able, capable, competent, eligible, powerful unalterable: (adj) constant, inalterable, immutable, permanent, invariable, firm, changeless, rigid, stable, irrevocable, unchangeable. ANTONYMS: (adj) alterable, impermanent, temporary, fluid, flexible unapproachable: (adj) aloof, distant, remote, interminable, unreachable, immeasurable, incalculable,
Heart of Darkness inexhaustible, illimitable, innumerable, out of reach. ANTONYMS: (adj) accessible, friendly, easy, affable unarmed: (adj) naked, unprotected, open, simple, destitute, bare; (v) weaponless, harmless, unfortified, vincible, untenable unavoidable: (adj) necessary, inescapable, ineluctable, irresistible, obligatory, certain, indispensable, essential, sure, required, avoidless. ANTONYMS: (adj) escapable, unpredictable, optional, unlikely, uncertain unavoidably: (adv) inescapably, necessarily, ineluctably, by necessity, of necessity, automatically, needs, inevitable, relentlessly, true to form, unsurprisingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) surprisingly, unnecessarily unaware: (adj) ignorant, incognizant, unwitting, unknowing, unconscious, oblivious, blind, unmindful, unweeting, unknowledgeable, uninformed. ANTONYMS: (adj) cognizant, conscious, informed, witting, knowledgeable, mindful, wary unbounded: (adj) immeasurable, limitless, endless, infinite, immense, measureless, unlimited, vast, illimitable, unmeasured, absolute unbuttoned: (adj) unobstructed, untrammeled, unchecked, unconfined, unprevented, unhindered, uncaught, unrestrained, unlaced, unfastened, unconstrained uncanny: (adj) weird, eerie, strange, ghostly, unearthly, unnatural, eldritch, mysterious, odd, frightful, hideous. ANTONYMS: (adj) normal, common, ordinary unceasing: (adj) ceaseless, incessant, perpetual, continuous, constant, continual, everlasting, eternal, lasting, uninterrupted, endless. ANTONYMS: (adj) acute, intermittent, sporadic uncivil: (adj) discourteous, disrespectful, impolite, coarse, brusque, curt, blunt, barbarous, short; (adj, n) rough, harsh. ANTONYMS: (adj) polite, courteous, gracious uncle: (n) father's younger brother, elder uncle, father's older brother, father's sister's husband, husband of paternal aunt, maternal uncle, niece, benefactor, EME, helper, kinsman
uncoiled: (adj) unbowed, unbent, true, right, not homosexual, not disorderly, neatly arranged, neat, level, consecutive, accurately fitted uncomfortable: (adj) ill at ease, embarrassing, troubled, disagreeable, inconvenient, difficult, discomfited, anxious, uneasy, cheerless; (v) untoward. ANTONYMS: (adj) relaxed, comfy, happy, untroubled, painless, content, easy, straightforward uncomplicated: (adj) easy, unsophisticated, straightforward, elementary, naive, innocent, unproblematic, painless, facile, effortless, plain. ANTONYMS: (adj) convoluted, problematical, difficult, jaded, complicated, sophisticated, tricky, troublesome, complex, fussy unconcerned: (adj) apathetic, detached, insouciant, casual, careless, nonchalant, thoughtless, easygoing, listless, carefree; (adj, n) cold. ANTONYMS: (adj) caring, eager, troubled, sensitive, uptight, craving, involved, energetic, interested, annoyed, strict uncongenial: (adj) unfriendly, hostile, incongenial, cold, unfit, unsuited, contrastive, chilly, cool, unsociable, distant. ANTONYMS: (adj) friendly, hospitable unconnected: (adj) detached, disjointed, incoherent, unrelated, illogical, confused, irrelevant, incongruous; (adj, prep) separate, separated; (v) unattached. ANTONYMS: (adj) attached, pertinent, relevant, together unconscious: (adj) involuntary, unaware, ignorant, unwitting, subconscious, oblivious, automatic, insensible, unintentional, instinctive, senseless. ANTONYMS: (adj) conscious, awake, deliberate, aware, voluntary, intentional, alive, wary uncontrollable: (adj) unruly, incontrollable, ungovernable, unmanageable, intractable, undisciplined, disobedient, indocile, overwhelming, boisterous; (adj, v) uncontrolled. ANTONYMS: (adj) controllable, imperceptible, orderly, biddable, weak uncouth: (adj) rough, rude, barbarous, vulgar, crude, awkward, clumsy, gross, unrefined, ungainly, common. ANTONYMS: (adj) refined, couth, polite, sophisticated, pleasant, proper, genteel underfoot: (adj) abject, downtrodden
Joseph Conrad undergrowth: (n) brush, brushwood, underwood, groundcover, thicket, scrub, copse, ground cover, coppice, wood, grove undersized: (adj) little, undersize, short, diminutive, stunted, tiny, puny, dwarf, underweight, weak, underdeveloped. ANTONYMS: (adj) big, robust understandable: (adj) intelligible, apprehensible, plain, graspable, obvious, evident, lucid, clear, reasonable, perceivable, simple. ANTONYMS: (adj) indefensible, unintelligible, inexcusable, unpardonable, inexplicable, illegible, unclear, obscure, illogical, unreasonable, incomprehensible understood: (adj) tacit, implicit, implied, silent, assumed, accepted, appreciated, unstated, undeclared; (v) of course, admitted. ANTONYMS: (adj) explicit, spoken, written, explained unearthly: (adj) weird, ghostly, uncanny, ethereal, unworldly, preternatural, spectral, eerie, spiritual, strange, heavenly. ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, physical, acceptable, normal, human uneasiness: (n) disquiet, discomfort, inquietude, anxiety, unease, malaise, disquietude, apprehension, unrest, impatience; (n, v) agitation. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, calm, confidence uneasy: (adj) anxious, fidgety, restless, concerned, nervous, apprehensive, ill at ease, unquiet, awkward, fretful, restive. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, untroubled, composed, relaxed, easy, unconcerned, still, comfortable, carefree, confident, serene unequal: (adj) different, unlike, uneven, rough, lopsided, unfair, inadequate, disparate, disproportionate, unbalanced, unsymmetrical. ANTONYMS: (adj) equal, even, fair, identical, similar, same, level, constant, balanced, like, corresponding unexciting: (adj) boring, bland, tedious, uninteresting, dry, tame, uninspired, everyday, without incident; (v) unirritating; (n) dryer. ANTONYMS: (adj) interesting, lively, animated, stimulating, colorful, exotic, imaginative, brilliant unexpected: (adj) sudden, abrupt,
casual, unforeseen, unanticipated, accidental, strange, unsuspected; (adj, v) unlooked for, unpredicted; (n) surprise. ANTONYMS: (adj) expected, gradual, normal, commonplace, protracted, ordinary, typical, customary unexpectedly: (adv) by chance, suddenly, abruptly, casually, unforeseenly, unawares, surprisingly, unanticipatedly, hastily, strangely, circumstantially. ANTONYMS: (adv) intentionally, gradually, normally, predictably unexpectedness: (n) extraordinariness, inexpectedness, abruptness unexplored: (adj) unexplained, unapprehended, unascertained, undiscovered, unheard of; (v) unexamined, uninvented, unsearched, unstudied, unweighed, unsifted unexpressed: (adj) implicit, tacit, mute, implied, unvoiced; (v) undisclosed, unexposed, unbreathed, unsung, untalked of; (adj, v) untold unfair: (adj) unjust, dishonest, inequitable, foul, deceitful, wrongful, undeserved, dishonorable, fraudulent, underhand, unsporting. ANTONYMS: (adj) just, reasonable, balanced, rightful, honest, sporting, impartial, evenhanded, unbiased, innocent, justified unfamiliar: (adj) strange, new, unaccustomed, unacquainted, uncommon, novel, mysterious, foreign, unidentified, inexperienced, unusual. ANTONYMS: (adj) familiar, recognizable, known, usual, experienced, versed, accustomed unfathomable: (adj) incomprehensible, inexplicable, inscrutable, unintelligible, impenetrable, abysmal, deep, immeasurable, unaccountable, obscure, enigmatic. ANTONYMS: (adj) fathomable, shallow, explicable, explainable, comprehensible, believable, straightforward, understandable, legible, clear unfold: (v) spread, open, extend, develop, stretch, spread out, reveal, display, stretch out; (adj, v) expound, explain. ANTONYMS: (v) fold, block, stagnate, stop, hide, withhold, check, wrap, conceal
181 unforeseen: (adj, v) unexpected, unanticipated, unlooked for; (adj) sudden, accidental, contingent, casual, surprising, chance, incidental; (adj, adv) out of the blue. ANTONYMS: (adj) predicted, expected, direct unfortunate: (adj) inauspicious, sad, hapless, bad, inopportune, disastrous, adverse, deplorable, infelicitous, untoward, lamentable. ANTONYMS: (adj) lucky, auspicious, good, opportune, joyous, timely, appropriate, successful, easy, privileged ungarnished: (adj) undecked, untrimmed, unvarnished, bare, unornamented unhappy: (adj) gloomy, dismal, depressed, melancholy, sad, miserable, sorrowful, distressed, disconsolate, infelicitous, low. ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, cheerful, satisfied, pleased, glad, euphoric, fortunate, contented, joyful, timely, lucky uniform: (adj, v) even; (adj, n) constant, steady; (adj) equal, consistent, same, level, invariable, homogenous, equable, unchanging. ANTONYMS: (adj) varied, assorted, inconsistent, unequal, different, multiform, multicolored, differentiated, unlike, dissimilar, intermittent uninterrupted: (adj) ceaseless, continuous, continual, unbroken, incessant, perpetual, constant, unceasing, endless; (adj, adv) straight, nonstop. ANTONYMS: (adj) intermittent, temporary, broken, alternate, noisy, sporadic; (adv) indirectly universal: (adj) general, global, ecumenical, international, common, worldwide, public, ubiquitous, comprehensive, widespread, oecumenical. ANTONYMS: (adj) local, specific, idiosyncratic, confined, isolated, narrow, rare universe: (n) world, creation, cosmos, population, earth, macrocosm, space, globe, existence, outer space, mankind unknown: (adj, n) secret, alien; (adj) hidden, unfamiliar, unidentified, obscure, nameless, foreign, anonymous; (n) stranger, foreigner. ANTONYMS: (adj) familiar, recognized, famous, documented, identified, transparent; (n) native unlawful: (adj) illegal, illegitimate,
182 illicit, lawless, wrongful, prohibited, improper, unauthorized, criminal, outlaw, irregular. ANTONYMS: (adj) legal, legitimate, authorized, honest, rightful unmistakably: (adv) undoubtedly, manifestly, decidedly, signally, remarkably, evidently, apparently, visibly, palpably, unambiguously, markedly unmoved: (adj) apathetic, unaffected, indifferent, unconcerned, unimpressed, uninspired, dispassionate, imperturbable, calm, undisturbed, fixed. ANTONYMS: (adj) affected, compliant, uptight, concerned, enthusiastic, tolerant, sensitive unnatural: (adj) affected, artificial, grotesque, supernatural, forced, abnormal, eccentric, uncanny, stilted, mannered, anomalous. ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, normal, real, unaffected, commonplace, genuine, sincere unnerved: (v) relaxed; (adj) enervated, afraid, alarmed, anxious, fearful, hysterical, scared, tense, terrified, timid. ANTONYM: (adj) confident unostentatious: (adj) unassuming, unpretentious, unobtrusive, humble, restrained, understated, simple, homely, lowly, unpretending; (adj, n) plain unpardonable: (adj) irremissible, unforgivable, indefensible, terrible, appalling, unwarranted, awful, unacceptable, shocking, not remissible; (v) inexpiable. ANTONYMS: (adj) pardonable, excusable, justified, excellent, justifiable unpractical: (adj) impractical, insane, abstract, chimerical, delirious, fanciful, not sane, viewy, mad, spectacular unreal: (adj) illusory, fantastic, fanciful, imaginary, insubstantial, artificial, fictitious, visionary, untrue; (adj, v) ideal, fancied. ANTONYMS: (adj) genuine, natural, substantial, authentic, ordinary, plausible unreasonably: (adv) absurdly, irrationally, immoderately, unfairly, unscientifically, unjustly, undeservedly, unsuitably, without need, pointlessly; (adj) excessively. ANTONYMS: (adv) sensibly, reasonably, acceptably, sanely, appropriately, fairly, logically,
Heart of Darkness rationally unrecognizable: (adj) bewitched, not recognisable, not recognizable unreflecting: (adj) thoughtless, dizzy, indistinct, brainsick, unreflective, intuitive, inconsiderate, confused, giddy, heedless, impetuous unresponsive: (adj) cold, apathetic, insensitive, unaffected, cool, dull, unreactive, chill, dead, unemotional, undemonstrative. ANTONYMS: (adj) enthusiastic, sympathetic, spirited, alive, sensitive, expressive, concerned, emotional unrestful: (adj) fidgety, nervous, unsettled, jumpy, high-strung unrestrained: (adj, n, v) loose; (adj) unconstrained, wild, uncontrolled, immoderate, extravagant, unconfined, mad, uninhibited; (adj, v) dissolute, wanton. ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained, restricted, contained, limited, partial, biddable, frugal, hidden, inhibited, manageable, reserved unruffled: (adj) still, tranquil, composed, quiet, serene, cool, peaceful, placid, collected, sedate; (adj, v) undisturbed. ANTONYMS: (adj) agitated, bothered, disturbed, excitable, excited, fiery, frivolous, perturbed, scatterbrained, anxious unscathed: (adj) uninjured, unhurt, intact, safe, safe and sound, undamaged, unscratched, whole, unmarred, untouched; (n) untainted. ANTONYMS: (adj) hurt, injured, harmed unseen: (adj, v) unknown; (adj) invisible, concealed, hidden, unobserved, secret, veiled, latent; (v) unheeded, unperceived; (n) spiritual world. ANTONYMS: (adj) seen, visible, open, famous, noticeable unselfish: (adj) selfless, altruistic, disinterested, liberal, magnanimous, philanthropic, considerate, beneficent, charitable, kind, helpful. ANTONYMS: (adj) greedy, uncharitable, thoughtless unshaven: (adj) unshaved, bearded, rough, not shaved, hairy, bristly, stubbly unsound: (adj) false, shaky, fallacious, faulty, rotten, unreliable, invalid, unsafe, imperfect, unreasonable, weak. ANTONYMS: (adj) valid, sound, well, safe, steady, strong, logical, watertight, stable, good, perfect unspeakable: (adj) ineffable, dreadful, awful, terrible,
inexpressible, nasty, horrible, atrocious, indefinable, shocking; (adj, v) unutterable. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, wonderful, pleasant, good, lovely, bearable unstable: (adj) changeable, insecure, shaky, unsound, unsettled, fickle, unpredictable, fluid, erratic, irresolute; (adj, n) inconstant. ANTONYMS: (adj) steady, constant, secure, placid, strong, reliable, firm, calm, orderly, safe unstained: (adj) unblemished, unspotted, clean, unsoiled, pure, stainless, immaculate, unsullied, untainted, chaste, undefiled. ANTONYM: (adj) stained unsteadily: (adv) precariously, unevenly, irregularly, insecurely, erratically, falteringly, dizzily, shakily, volatilely, giddily, waveringly. ANTONYMS: (adv) firmly, alertly, securely unsteady: (adj) insecure, changeable, dizzy, unbalanced, rickety, unsettled, shaky, unsound, precarious, uneven; (adj, n) uncertain. ANTONYMS: (adj) steady, stable, alert, firm, secure, constant unswerving: (adj) unfaltering, firm, steady, unwavering, direct, constant, staunch, unflinching, resolute, unshakable; (adj, v) undeviating. ANTONYMS: (adj) undependable, unreliable, irresolute, inconsistent unto: (prep, v) to, till, up to; (prep) towards, before untouched: (adj) intact, unharmed, unmoved, unscathed, virgin, whole, unhurt, new, impervious, imperturbable, impassive. ANTONYMS: (adj) affected, touched, refined, vulnerable, used, spoiled, partial, injured, marred, tainted, impure untrammeled: (adj) unconstrained, untrammelled, unloaded, unrestrained, unobstructed, unbound, unhindered, unconfined, unchecked, uncaught, unbuttoned unwholesome: (adj) noxious, harmful, noisome, morbid, injurious, detrimental, sickly, insalubrious, corrupting, diseased, damaging. ANTONYMS: (adj) healthy, decent, wholesome, pleasant uphill: (adj) rising, hard, difficult, climbing, acclivitous, tough, arduous; (n) ascending, ascent,
Joseph Conrad acclivity; (adv) up. ANTONYMS: (adj) downhill, facile upkeep: (n) maintenance, support, sustentation, sustenance, keep, care, conservation, service, reparation, preservation, repair. ANTONYMS: (n) negligence, destruction uplifted: (adj) high, raised, noble, not inverted, not prone, proud, undismayed, stately, lofty, sublime, animated upper: (adj) top, higher, overhead, over, topmost, highest; (n) stimulant, bennie, meth, speed, amphetamine. ANTONYMS: (adj) lower, below, junior, under, bottom uproar: (adj, n, v) hubbub, disturbance, tumult; (n) din, noise, turmoil, commotion, disorder, confusion; (adj, n) row; (n, v) brawl. ANTONYMS: (n) calm, peace, serenity, order upset: (n, v) overturn, trouble, disquiet, overthrow; (v) agitate, subvert, perturb, confuse, reverse; (adj) unsettled; (n) disturbance. ANTONYMS: (v) please, soothe, encourage, delight, fail; (adj) pleased, confident, happy, content; (n) peace, happiness upward: (adv) upwards, upwardly, aloft; (adj) overhead, rising, upper, increasing, open, vertical, mounting, upright. ANTONYMS: (adj) descending, downward; (adv) down urging: (n) spur, encouragement, prod, prodding, goad, advocacy, spurring, goading, influence, exhortation; (adj) driving usual: (adj, n, v) ordinary, common, customary; (adj, n) habitual, accustomed, familiar, average, regular; (adj) everyday; (adj, v) frequent, general. ANTONYMS: (adj) unconventional, extraordinary, abnormal, irregular, atypical, exceptional, unprecedented, uncommon, rare, changing, unacceptable utter: (v) say, state, speak, breathe, articulate, deliver, voice, pronounce; (adj, n, v) express, declare; (adj, v) tell. ANTONYMS: (adj) qualified, incomplete, uncertain, rather, slight; (v) conceal, hide, block utterance: (n) pronunciation, expression, speech, exclamation, statement, remark, articulation, observation, language, phrase, speaking uttermost: (adj, n) extreme; (adj, adv) farthest; (n) maximum, level best;
(adj) furthest, utter, last, farthermost, furthermost, ultimate, most. ANTONYM: (adj) moderate vacant: (adj) blank, hollow, unfilled, void, free, unoccupied, bare, idle, expressionless, open; (adj, v) devoid. ANTONYMS: (adj) full, cognizant, overflowing, inhabited, aware, comprehending, animated, solid, expressive, knowing vague: (adj) obscure, indistinct, indeterminate, undefined, undetermined, indefinite, uncertain, faint, ambiguous; (adj, v) loose, equivocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, distinct, exact, particular, precise, specific, sure, certain, defined, alert, detailed vaguely: (adv) hazily, faintly, indistinctly, ambiguously, dimly, mistily, unclearly, loosely, shadowily, indeterminately, obscurely. ANTONYMS: (adv) clearly, definitely, unmistakably, exactly, closely, distinctly, alertly, calmly, considerably, intelligibly vain: (adj) proud, arrogant, conceited, fruitless, idle, empty, abortive, ineffectual, unproductive, narcissistic; (adj, v) useless. ANTONYMS: (adj) shy, successful, possible, persuasive, selfless, fruitful, humble, useful, responsible, worthwhile, effective valor: (n) bravery, courage, heroism, valiancy, daring, spirit, pluck, audacity, boldness; (adj, n) gallantry, prowess valuable: (adj) costly, beneficial, expensive, helpful, useful, admirable, important, invaluable; (adj, n) estimable, worthy; (n) treasure. ANTONYMS: (adj) useless, unimportant, valueless, insignificant, ineffectual, shabby, cheap, detrimental, disadvantageous; (n) trash, garbage vanish: (n, v) disappear; (adj, v) fade; (v) disperse, pass, go, die, dissipate, evaporate, depart, flee, melt away. ANTONYMS: (v) come, arrive, wax, stay vanished: (adj, v) extinct, lost; (adj) disappeared, departed, missing, died out, absent, dead, wiped out, bygone; (v) exhausted. ANTONYMS: (adj) found, living vanishing: (n) disappearance, vanishment, dissipation; (adj) dying, fleeting, momentary, breaking up, declining, diminishing, dissolving, evanescent. ANTONYMS: (adj)
183 thriving, increasing vanity: (n) egotism, pride, emptiness, arrogance, futility, inanity, vainglory, conceitedness, pretension, pomposity; (adj, n) amour propre. ANTONYMS: (n) selflessness, humility, importance, value, effectiveness vapor: (n) fog, cloud, steam, haze, evaporation, vapour, fume; (adj, n) gas, air; (adj, v) bluster; (v) boast varnished: (adj) sullied, polished, spotted, shiny, lustrous, smooth, painted, besmirched, glossy, tainted, flyblown. ANTONYM: (adj) dull vast: (adj) large, immense, spacious, extensive, immeasurable, enormous, gigantic, wide, boundless, colossal, great. ANTONYMS: (adj) narrow, tiny, cramped, small, miniature, affordable, bounded, insignificant, slight, shallow, restricted vegetation: (n) growth, plants, thicket, shrubbery, scrub, groundcover, foliage, copse, coppice, chaparral, brushwood veil: (n, v) cover, hide, disguise, mask, cloud, shroud, camouflage; (v) cloak, conceal; (n) curtain, blind. ANTONYMS: (v) disclose, unveil, expose veiled: (adj) hidden, unseen, covert, secret, masked, disguised, obscure, cryptic, covered, indistinct, oblique. ANTONYMS: (adj) overt, open, unveiled, blatant vein: (n) vena, strain, nervure, mine, temper, blood vessel, tone; (adj, n) mood, humor, strip, frame of mind venerable: (adj) ancient, reverend, estimable, August, respectable, aged, distinguished, sacred, worthy, of long standing, revered. ANTONYMS: (adj) unworthy, unimpressive, undignified, disreputable vengeance: (n) retribution, reprisal, retaliation, requital, avengement, wrath, vendetta, spite, revengeance; (n, v) avenge, resentment. ANTONYMS: (n) forgiveness, acceptance vengeful: (adj) vindictive, unforgiving, malicious, spiteful, rancorous, unfriendly, unmerciful, despiteful, resentful, avengeful, malevolent. ANTONYMS: (adj) pardoning, condoning, forgiving vent: (n) exit, opening, flue, chimney, escape, blowhole; (n, v) discharge, air, release; (v) emit, ventilate. ANTONYMS: (n) door, closure; (v)
184 block, suppress veranda: (n) gallery, porch, portico, verandah, terrace, patio, stope, stoop, piazza, deck, corridor veriest: (adj) of mark, pointed, remarkable verily: (adj, adv) really; (adv) indeed, in reality, genuinely, quitely, actually, selfly, truely, identically, exactly; (adv, int) in truth vertical: (adj) perpendicular, straight, erect, standing, plumb; (adj, v) sheer; (n) column, jamb, pillar, scantling, stile. ANTONYMS: (adj) prone, gentle, inclined, parallel vexed: (adj) troubled, irritated, angry, pestered, peeved, harassed, sore, harried, uneasy, cross, offended. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, uncomplicated vibrating: (adj) tremulous, vibratory, vibrant, swinging, hollow, moving, oscillating, that oscillates, resonant; (n) shaking system vibration: (n) tremor, shudder, quiver, beat, pulse, oscillation, shiver, pulsation, trembling, undulation, movement. ANTONYM: (n) stillness victorious: (adj) triumphant, successful, winning, jubilant, victor, fortunate, lifted up; (adj, v) triumphal, exultant, triumphing, on top. ANTONYMS: (adj) beaten, unsuccessful, failing, losing, sorrowful victory: (n) conquest, success, mastery, superiority, subjugation, win, laugher, achievement, checkmate, expugnation, fall. ANTONYMS: (n) defeat, loss, beating, failure, overthrow, forfeit vigil: (n) wake, lookout; (adj, n, v) watch; (adj, n) vigilance, surveillance; (v) wakefulness, guard; (adj) vigilant, eyes of Argus, watch and ward; (n, v) sentry vigilantly: (adv) watchfully, warily, alertly, attentively, observantly, cautiously, carefully, wakefully, circumspectly, guardedly, awakely. ANTONYM: (adv) recklessly vigor: (n, v) energy; (adj, n) intensity; (n) spirit, vitality, force, life, strength, power, might, vim, stamina. ANTONYMS: (n) weakness, apathy, frailty, laziness, enervation, inactivity, indifference, illness, lifelessness, sluggishness, tardiness vigorous: (adj, n) robust, hardy, powerful, brave; (adj) energetic,
Heart of Darkness strenuous, mighty, hearty, athletic; (adj, v) lively, brisk. ANTONYMS: (adj) feeble, weak, dull, inactive, impotent, enervated, unwell, uncommitted, unfit, weary, slow vile: (adj, n) contemptible, dirty, low; (adj, v) base; (adj) despicable, ignoble, evil, sorry, revolting, offensive, nasty. ANTONYMS: (adj) attractive, kind, nice, lovely, lovable, gentle, honorable, good, delightful, admirable, noble violence: (n) force, fury, fierceness, strength, vehemence, intensity, ferocity, impetuosity, might, outrage, power. ANTONYMS: (n) peacefulness, peace, passivity, nonviolence, friendliness, defense, indifference, orderliness, calmness, meekness violent: (adj, n) rough, furious, tempestuous, severe, turbulent, boisterous, powerful; (adj, v) vehement; (adj) raging, intense, sharp. ANTONYMS: (adj) gentle, calm, nonviolent, mild, passive, moderate, pleasant, slight, refined, relaxed, friendly violently: (adj, adv) vehemently, hotly, madly, ardently; (adv) wildly, passionately, strongly, hard, furiously, turbulently; (adv, n) vigorously. ANTONYMS: (adv) gently, nonviolently, feebly, impassively, peacefully, tamely virgin: (adj) pure, new, chaste, innocent, fresh, untouched, intact, virginal; (adj, n) vestal; (n) maid, girl. ANTONYMS: (adj) defiled, sullied virtue: (adj, n) merit, excellence, quality, attribute; (n) honor, goodness, honesty, morality, decency, probity, efficacy. ANTONYMS: (n) wickedness, guilt, vice, peccadillo, sin, dishonor, immorality, evil, demerit, inadequacy, disadvantage virtues: (n) brawn, sinew, qualities, nerve, manner, habit, disposition, custom visage: (n) face, look, mug, physiognomy, expression, kisser, appearance, aspect, brow, smiler, forehead visible: (adj) obvious, conspicuous, apparent, open, evident, clear, plain, manifest, discernible; (adj, adv) noticeable, observable. ANTONYMS: (adj) invisible, imperceptible, unclear, obscured, concealed, hidden, obscure,
undetectable, inconspicuous; (adv) absent vision: (n) view, dream, imagination, daydream, outlook, specter, ghost, spirit, image, apparition; (n, v) fancy. ANTONYMS: (n) sightlessness, fact, actuality, blindness visitation: (v) visit, examination; (n) tribulation, calamity, annoyance, misfortune, irritation, infliction, inspection, test, ordeal visitor: (n) visitant, tourist, company, traveler, caller, inspector, stranger, foreigner, alien, sightseer, surveyor vital: (adj) indispensable, critical, animated, crucial, fundamental, main, necessary, lively, alive, important, chief. ANTONYMS: (adj) trivial, unimportant, insignificant, optional, minor, sluggish, peripheral, listless, dull, dead, marginal vitality: (n) energy, life, animation, life force, vigor, liveliness, verve, sparkle, spirit, vigour, vim. ANTONYMS: (n) lethargy, apathy, sluggishness vivaciously: (adv) actively, vitally, gaily, bouncily, spiritedly, briskly, buoyantly, animatedly, alively, energetically; (adv, v) happily vivid: (adj) intense, graphic, lifelike, brilliant, rich, live, strong, acute, animated, glowing, colorful. ANTONYMS: (adj) weak, bland, light, vague, straightforward, dark, modest, secretive voices: (n) chorus volubility: (adj, n) fluency; (n) eloquence, articulateness, gab, gift of gab, smoothness, communicativeness, readiness; (adj) flippancy volume: (n) size, book, magnitude, mass, dimension, intensity, capacity, amount, tome; (adj, n) quantity, deal. ANTONYMS: (n) quietness, softness volunteer: (v) offer, proffer, tender, extend, propose, submit; (adj, n) voluntary; (adj) unpaid; (n) military volunteer, unpaid worker, worker. ANTONYMS: (v) force, obligate, compel, withdraw voracious: (adj) greedy, rapacious, ravenous, hungry, gluttonous, esurient, edacious, avid, ravening, grasping, insatiable. ANTONYMS: (adj) quenched, disinterested, moderate voraciously: (adv) greedily,
Joseph Conrad gluttonously, rapaciously, hungrily, avidly, raveningly, edaciously, graspingly, famishedly, covetously, wolfishly voyage: (n, v) travel, cruise, tour; (n) trip, passage, expedition, flight, crossing, quest; (v) sail, navigate v-shaped: (adj) angular vultures: (n) ospreys, hawks, Falconiformes, eagles, caracaras wade: (v) ride the storm, buffet the waves, skim, swim, splash, wallow; (n) Virginia wade wail: (n, v) howl, cry, lament, moan, scream, bellow, whine; (v) ululate, weep, whimper, mewl. ANTONYMS: (v) whimper, laugh waist: (n) waistline, shank, middle, belly, isthmus, hourglass, undersurface; (adj) stricture, middle constriction, neck, wasp waiting: (n) abeyance, suspense, expectancy, hold, time lag, postponement; (adj) ready and waiting, ready, expectant; (adv) to come, in the making wake: (v) awaken, awake, rouse, stir, vigil, provoke, arouse, waken, excite; (n) train, trail. ANTONYMS: (v) nap, dissuade, discourage, snooze, stifle waking: (adj) wakeful; (n) awakening, wakefulness, consciousness walked: (adj) exempt; (v) yode walking: (n) gait, ambulation, wading, shuffling, shambling, marching, noctambulism, traveling; (adv) afoot; (adj) moving, active walls: (n) brickwork, buttresses, defenses, masonry, ramparts, fortifications wanderer: (n) vagabond, roamer, tramp, nomad, drifter, traveler, wayfarer, stranger, hobo, traveller; (n, v) rambler wandering: (adj) itinerant, nomadic, erratic, rambling, errant, migratory; (adj, v) stray, vagrant, vagabond, unsettled; (n) peregrination. ANTONYM: (adj) resident wanderings: (n) peregrination wanting: (adj, v) missing; (adj) deficient, lacking, absent, defective, short, failing, insufficient, devoid, poor, incomplete. ANTONYMS: (adj) sufficient, satisfactory, adequate, full, present wanton: (adj) loose, dissolute, light, licentious, unchaste, lewd, debauched, unprovoked; (v) dally; (n, v) sport; (adj, v) flirt.
ANTONYMS: (adj) moral, wise, nice, kind, gentle, decent, clean, careful, observant, justifiable, involuntary wantonly: (adv) licentiously, loosely, lasciviously, recklessly, lightly, wildly, dissolutely, dissipatedly, easily, sportively, waywardly ward: (n) charge, protection, custody, care, quarter, neighborhood, district, defense, keep; (adj, v) shelter; (v) protect warlike: (adj) military, belligerent, bellicose, pugnacious, combative, aggressive, armigerous, hostile, unfriendly, unpacific, militant. ANTONYMS: (adj) harmonizing, friendly warm: (adj) hot, affectionate, tender, ardent, cordial, fervent, lively, fond, loving, earnest, tepid. ANTONYMS: (adj) cold, unfriendly, aloof, reserved, hostile, uncaring, unenthusiastic, unwelcoming, stale, offhand; (v) chill warning: (n) notice, indication, caution, advice, example, lesson, hint, premonition, caveat, admonition; (adj, n) monitory. ANTONYMS: (n) encouragement, recommendation, approval; (adj) promising wart: (n) verruca, condyloma acuminatum, bulge, tit, growth, lump, swelling, exostosis, bump, protuberance, venereal wart waste: (adj, n, v) spoil, damage; (adj, v) desolate; (n, v) squander, ruin, consume, ravage; (adj, n) refuse, trash; (v) exhaust, spend. ANTONYMS: (v) conserve, save, use, preserve, create, build; (n) saving, possessions, hoarding, development; (adj) cultivated wasted: (adj, v) squandered, rotten, decayed, effete; (adj) thin, cadaverous, emaciated, gaunt, devastated, pointless, haggard. ANTONYMS: (adj) bloated, hypertrophied, strong, plump, obese, fruitful, useful watchfully: (adv) attentively, carefully, observantly, cautiously, wakefully, warily, alertly, mindfully, circumspectly, guardedly, heedfully. ANTONYM: (adv) recklessly watching: (n) observation, stargazing, sighting, observance, watch, remark, notice, ambush, reflection, ceremonial occasion, ceremony
185 waters: (n) Clara Erskine Clement, amnionic fluid, amniotic fluid, body fluid, liquid body substance, Ethel waters, body of water, bodily fluid, boot waterway: (n) ditch, watercourse, channel, stream, trench, canal, drain, rapid, tailrace, conduit, headrace wave: (v) flap, undulate, swing, flourish; (n, v) gesture, billow, flutter, swell, motion, curl; (n) surge waved: (adj) undulating, wavy, curly, not dated, undated waving: (adj) flying, aflare, fluttering, flaring, flared, curly, burning, blazing, billowy, palpitating; (n) wafture weakness: (adj, n) failing, fault, debility, defect, infirmity, fragility, feebleness, deficiency, imperfection, foible; (n) flaw. ANTONYMS: (n) power, dislike, intensity, supremacy, determination, advantage, brightness, superiority, resistance, robustness, energy wealth: (adj, n) abundance, plenty, affluence, opulence; (n, v) money, gold; (n) treasure, property, fortune, capital; (adj) richness. ANTONYMS: (n) penury, scarcity, dearth, want, need, lack weaning: (n) exchange, substitution weapon: (n) arm, missile, arms, knuckles, spear, steel, tomahawk, firearm, flamethrower, projectile, hatchet weapons: (n) weaponry, weapon, ordnance, munitions, defense, guns, armaments, artillery wear: (n) clothing, clothes, apparel, attire, garb; (v) endure, fatigue, waste, bear, tire, fray. ANTONYMS: (v) refresh, reject, rebuild, please, freshen, disrobe, delight, cheer, refuse; (n) improvement wearily: (adv) sickly, boredly, dully, languidly, jadedly, exhaustedly, sadly, soberly, gravely, heavily, seriously. ANTONYMS: (adv) hopefully, untiringly, energetically, dynamically weariness: (n) exhaustion, tiredness, lassitude, languor, asthenopia, defatigation, grogginess, listlessness, boredom, ennui, prostration wearing: (adj) tiring, exhausting, tiresome, wearying, trying; (n) detrition, corrasion, attrition, abrasion, eroding, ablation. ANTONYMS: (adj) refreshing, undemanding, pleasant weary: (adj, n, v) fatigue; (v) exhaust,
186 tire out; (adj) tired, exhausted, fatigued, aweary, beat, languid; (n, v) jade, bore. ANTONYMS: (adj) energetic, fresh, lively, untiring, hopeful, refreshed; (v) refresh, enliven, energize, activate, rally wedged: (adj) impacted, cuneiform, jammed, fast, compacter, stuck, compact. ANTONYM: (adj) free weeping: (adj) tearful, lachrymose, dolourous, dolorous; (n, v) lament, lamentation; (v) wailing; (n) sobbing, tears, cry; (adj, n) howling. ANTONYM: (n) celebration weigh: (v) press, study, measure, matter, consider, count, deliberate, contemplate, assess; (n, v) balance, poise. ANTONYMS: (v) ignore, neglect weighed: (adj) determined, deliberate, tared weird: (adj) strange, uncanny, supernatural, unearthly, mysterious, odd, bizarre, unusual, curious, peculiar, eerie. ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary, typical, real, usual, regular, natural, commonplace, sensible, conventional, human weirdly: (adv) strangely, curiously, peculiarly, quaintly, uncannily, eccentrically, unusually, mysteriously, queerly, bizarrely, supernaturally. ANTONYM: (adv) ordinarily welcome: (adj) pleasant, acceptable, pleasing, agreeable; (n, v) accept; (n) hospitality, reception; (v) receive, greet, invite, hail. ANTONYMS: (adj) unwelcome, unwanted, unacceptable, displeasing, disagreeable, unpleasant; (v) reject, evict, bar; (n) unfriendliness, goodbye welcoming: (n) welcome, salutation; (adj) cordial, friendly, inviting, restful, attractive, pleasing, warm, affable, alluring. ANTONYMS: (adj) inhospitable, reserved, unwelcoming, unappealing, unapproachable, uncomfortable well-kept: (adj) neat, clean whacked: (adj) exhausted, worn out, spent, shattered, fatigued, done in, weary. ANTONYM: (adj) fresh wharf: (n) quay, harbor, port, pier, waterfront, jetty, nailery, bindery, beehive, basin; (n, v) berth wheel: (v) revolve, spin, trundle, gyrate, twirl; (n, v) turn, cycle, circle, bicycle, bike; (n) gear wheels: (n) vehicle, truck, car, brush, force
Heart of Darkness whence: (adv) wherefrom, hence, because, for, why, wherefore, how, then, then thence so, how comes it, how happens it whiff: (n, v) blow, smell, drag; (n) scent, breath, aroma, odor, trace, taste, touch; (v) sniff whiles: (n) while whirl: (n, v) spin, turn, eddy, roll, wheel, twist, swirl; (v) reel, gyrate; (n) go, fling whiskers: (n) fuzz, goatee, hair, imperial, face fungus, beaver, mustache, moustache, sideburns, facial hair, sideboards whisper: (n, v) murmur, hum, mumble, suggestion, hint, inkling; (v) breathe, hiss; (n) rustle, trace, breath. ANTONYM: (n) information whispered: (adj) low, voiceless, unvoiced, nonvocal, weak, unheard, surd, supposed, sharp, thought, quiet whispering: (n) whisper, murmur, susurration, rustle, report, stage whisper; (adj, n) rustling; (adj) susurrant, tranquil, hoarse, susurrous whistle: (v) sing, twitter, hiss, warble, tweet, cheep, chirp, wheeze; (n, v) cry; (n) whistling, tin whistle whiteness: (n) paleness, ivory, chalk, pearl, bone, bleach, alabaster, frostiness, hoariness, pallor, innocence. ANTONYM: (n) black whites: (n) thirds whizz: (n, v) whiz; (v) whir, zoom, birr, whirr, speed, purr, rain cats and dogs; (n) magician, ace, puzzle whoop: (n, v) shout, call; (v) howl, yell, shriek, roar, bellow, halloo, cough, hack; (n) vociferation widening: (n) growth, extension, amplification, change of shape, dilation, increment, output, outturn, turnout; (adj) cultural, increasing widower: (n) adult male, widowman, man wild: (adj, n, v) waste, desert; (adj, v) fierce, violent, reckless, raging; (adj) boisterous, untamed, stormy, rude, desolate. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, orderly, manageable, sane, domestic, cultivated, tame, restrained, mild, sensible, passive wilderness: (adj, n, v) desert; (adj, n) wild; (n) wasteland, solitude, badlands, wildness, frontier, boondocks, backwoods; (adj) Sahara; (v) squandering. ANTONYM: (n) metropolis winding: (n) twist, wind, turn; (adj)
indirect, crooked, circuitous, meandering, twisty, wandering; (adj, n) twisting, twisted. ANTONYMS: (adj) direct, unbent windswept: (adj) bleak, windy, austere, battered, blowy, bare, blustery, brisk, gusty, disheveled, deserted. ANTONYMS: (adj) tidy, sheltered, airless, calm wine: (n) vino, spirits, beer, saki, sake, Macon, maconnais, alcohol, liquor, dessert wine; (adj) mauve wink: (n, v) twinkle, blink, flash; (n) instant, twinkling, trice; (v) sparkle, nictitate, flicker, nictate, leer wire: (n) telegram, rope, line, string, thread, cord, ribbon, flex, moorings; (v) telegraph, electrify wisdom: (n) judiciousness, knowledge, sapience, sagacity, sense, prudence, discernment, insight, learning, depth, reasonableness. ANTONYMS: (n) stupidity, folly, inexperience, ignorance, flippancy, banality wisp: (n) lock, fagot, strand, curl, tress, piece, whisp, piece of hair, puff, slip, small person wistfulness: (n) nostalgia, yearning, melancholy, homesickness, abstraction, reminiscence, vagueness, pensiveness witchcraft: (n) incantation, sorcery, witchery, enchantment, spell, black magic, necromancy, fascination, charm, black art, glamour withal: (adv) nevertheless, notwithstanding, however, even so, all the same, nonetheless, with; (adj) likewise; (n) sufficiency, adequacy, enough withdrawn: (adj) reserved, retiring, solitary, indrawn, cloistered, reclusive, uncommunicative, taciturn, unsociable, lonely, shy. ANTONYMS: (adj) visible, forthcoming, forward, friendly, known, sociable, uninhibited, extroverted, seen, approachable, extrovert withered: (adj) wizened, sear, shriveled, thin, shrunken, dry, dried up, wilted, faded, wizen; (v) lame. ANTONYM: (adj) plump withering: (adj) devastating, extortionate, grinding; (v) dry, sarcastic, sharp, severe, satirical, sardonic, cutting; (n) shrinkage. ANTONYM: (adj) hopeful wits: (n) intellect, mind, wit, brains, common sense, presence, percipience, observation, mother
Joseph Conrad wit, right mind, judgment woke: (v) arouse wonder: (adj, n) prodigy; (n) astonishment, admiration, amazement, surprise, miracle, phenomenon, muse; (v) admire, reflect, question. ANTONYMS: (n) expectation, belief, disapproval; (v) know, believe, anticipate, decide wonderful: (adj, n) marvelous, astonishing, incredible; (adj) excellent, remarkable, phenomenal, amazing, fantastic, great, grand, super. ANTONYMS: (adj) terrible, unpleasant, dreadful, poor, rotten, abysmal, mundane, devastating, lousy, dire, ordinary wonderfully: (adv) superbly, astonishingly, terrifically, magnificently, fantastically, marvellously, wondrously, amazingly, excellently; (adj, adv) strangely, famously. ANTONYMS: (adv) awfully, unpleasantly, poorly, abysmally, unremarkably, mildly, horribly, badly, incompetently wondering: (adj) inquisitive, speculative, suspicious wood: (n) timber, tree, grove, lumber, jungle, coppice, walnut, linden, larch, guaiac; (adj, n) woods wooded: (adj) arboreous, sylvan, woody, timbered, densely forested, leafy wooden: (adj) wood, stilted, awkward, expressionless, inept, clumsy, dead, impassive, woody, timbered, made of wood. ANTONYMS: (adj) flexible, bending, pliable, emotional, natural, relaxed, expressive woods: (n) forest, woodland, grove, timber, jungle, sir Henry wood, vegetation, timberland, Natalie wood, virgin forest; (adj) wooden wool: (n) fur, coat, pile, down, woolen, woollen, yarn, hair, cashmere, alpaca, shoddy woolen: (adj, n) woollen; (n) fleece, tweed, fabric, cloth, woolen goods; (adj) woolly woolly: (adj) flocculent, fuzzy, hairy, downy, confused, wooly, hirsute, addled, befuddled, velvety; (n) Woolly bear. ANTONYM: (adj) clear worker: (n) employee, hand, proletarian, labourer, toiler, operative, workman, scab, throwster, quarrier, practitioner. ANTONYMS: (n) nonworker, unemployed worn: (adj) haggard, tired, tattered,
threadbare, ragged, drawn, jaded, fatigued, exhausted, faded, wasted. ANTONYMS: (adj) new, smart, unused, unworn, pristine, original worried: (adj) uneasy, distressed, nervous, apprehensive, upset, anxious, disturbed, concerned, afraid, troubled, bothered. ANTONYMS: (adj) carefree, reassured, relaxed, untroubled, fearless, unworried, unconcerned, content, confident, serene worry: (n, v) concern, torment, trouble, distress, tease, bother, burden, care, harass, fear; (v) disturb. ANTONYMS: (n) calmness, reassurance, pleasure, relief, unconcern, calm, confidence, hopefulness, peace; (v) reassure, delight worrying: (adj) disturbing, disquieting, worrisome, troubling, troublesome, anxious, distressful, perturbing; (v) bothering, harassing; (n) harassment. ANTONYMS: (adj) soothing, relaxing, promising, slight worst: (v) whip, trounce, defeat, overcome, vanquish, pip, rack up; (adj, v) best, rout; (adj) floor, lick. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) best; (adj) highest, first, secondary worsted: (adj) disappointed; (n) fabric, knitting worsted, cloth worthy: (adj) noble, good, meritorious, valuable, estimable, respectable, deserving, worthwhile, virtuous, honorable; (adj, n) celebrity. ANTONYMS: (adj) bad, unrespected, disreputable, mediocre, petty, poor, unimpressive, insignificant, dishonorable, despicable; (n) nobody wound: (n, v) bruise, cut, harm, pain, damage, scratch, stab, sting; (n) injury; (v) offend, injure. ANTONYMS: (v) heal, appease, aid, cure, repair wounded: (adj, v) hurt; (n) casualty, maimed; (adj) bruised, injured, bloody, aggrieved, saddened; (v) stricken, wound, struck. ANTONYM: (adj) unaffected wraith: (n) shade, specter, phantom, spook, apparition, spectre, spirit, vision, shadow, comb, fetch wrapped: (prep) covered; (adj) clothed, draped, rapt, intent, absorbed, engrossed, mantled, packed, immersed; (adj, prep) cloaked wrapper: (n) cover, wrap, cloak, peignoir, housecoat, neglige,
187 envelope, wrapping, covering, dust cover, mantle wreck: (n, v) smash, shipwreck, wrack; (v) damage, spoil, demolish, destroy, devastate; (n) crash, ruins, destruction. ANTONYMS: (v) build, preserve, create, repair, assist; (n) creation wrecked: (adv, v) aground; (adj) destroyed, shipwrecked, ruined, disabled, doomed, falling apart, falling down; (v) grounded, swamped, cast away. ANTONYMS: (adj) whole, pristine wrenching: (n) extraction; (adj) painful wretched: (adj) unfortunate, pitiful, sad, pitiable, woeful, pathetic, piteous, lamentable; (adj, v) poor, unhappy, forlorn. ANTONYMS: (adj) fine, strong, fortunate, overjoyed, nice, admirable, good, cheery, joyous, lucky, comfortable wring: (n, v) squeeze; (v) twist, wrench, wrest, torture, torment, distort, extract, twine, contort, rack writhe: (adj, v) distort, wrest; (v) contort, wriggle, squirm, wrench, worm, coil, wiggle, thrash, warp wronged: (adj) upset, hurt, indignant, offended yacht: (n) vessel, racing yacht, ship, cruiser, craft, dinghy, watercraft yard: (n) court, courtyard, garden, backyard, barnyard, grounds, farmyard, quadrangle, close, enclosure, junkyard yawl: (v) yap, wawl, howl, growl, roar, ululate, wail, waul; (n) corvette, foist, cutter yell: (n, v) cry, roar, scream, howl, call, bellow, whoop, shriek, outcry; (v) bawl, holler yelled: (adj) loud yelling: (adj) crying, howling, fantastic, noisy, marvelous, marvellous, instant, insistent, rank; (n) screaming, noise yellow: (adv) cowardly; (adj) amber, xanthous, chickenhearted, fearful, chicken, craven, spineless; (n) coward, saffron, maize. ANTONYMS: (adj) bold, brave, confident younger: (adj) Jr, little, petty, young, juvenile, Mickey Mouse, minor, minuscule, niggling, picayune, unskilled youth: (n) youngster, young person, lad, juvenile, boy, adolescence, kid, younker, stripling, juvenility; (adj, n) young. ANTONYMS: (n) adulthood,
188 adult, ripeness, maturity, aged youthfully: (adv) greenly, vigorously, youngly, vernally, immaturely, freshly, adolescently, callowly, newly, sappily, tenderly
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