Chapter 1-2
magistrate: "It might be, too, that a witch, like old mistress Hibbins, the bitter magistrate was to die upon the gallows."
Chapter 2, pg. 47
what is an official entrusted with administration of the laws.
convulsive: Again, at the first instant of peculiarity that visage, and the slight deformity of the figure, she pressed her infant into her bosom with so convulsive a force that the poor babe uttered a cry of pain.
Chapter 3, pg. 58
what is an abnormal violent and involuntary contraction or series of contractions of the muscles
ignominy: Her sin, her ignominy, were the roots which she had struck into the soil. It was as if a new birth, with stronger assimilations than the first, had converted the forest–land, still so uncongenial to every other pilgrim and wanderer, into Hester Prynne’s wild and dreary, but life–long home.
Chapter 5
what is deep personal humiliation and disgrace?
hither: ...Pearl stood outside of the window, together with her recollection of the prison rose–bush, which she had passed in coming hither.
Chapter 7
what is to this place?
exemplary: This learned stranger was exemplary as regarded at least the outward forms of a religious life; and early after his arrival, had chosen for his spiritual guide the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale.
Chapter 9
what is deserving imitation because of excellence?
inauspicious: "Which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal, we could hardly pluck one of its flowers and present it to the reader."
Chapter 1, Pg. 46.
what is not auspicious; boding ill; ill-omened; unfavorable.
sojourn: Truely, friend methinks it must gladden your heart, after your troubles and sojourn in the wilderness." Said the townsman.
Chapter 3, pg. 59
what is to stay as a temporary resident?
sumptuary: Deep ruffs, painfully wrought bands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves, were all deemed necessary to the official state of men assuming the reins of power, and were readily allowed to individuals dignified by rank or wealth, even while sumptuary laws forbade these and similar extravagances to the plebeian order.
Chapter 5
what is relating to personal expenditures and especially to prevent extravagance and luxury? (Points given if the law is spoken about ;)
invariably: All were characterised by the sternness and severity which old portraits so invariably put on, as if they were the ghosts, rather than the pictures, of departed worthies, and were gazing with harsh and intolerant criticism at the pursuits and enjoyments of living men.
Chapter 7
what is on every occasion, always?
delving: He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man’s bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption.
Chapter 10
was is to make a careful or detailed search for information?
rheumatic: "...Madame Hester's rich gown off her dainty shoulders; and as for the red letter which she hath stitched so curiously, I'll bestow a rag of mine own rhematic flannel to make a fitter one."
what is any of various conditions characterized by inflammation or pain in muscles, joints, or fibrous tissue. (Points given if someone says it in this context means bad, ugly, or sick)
sagacity: but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the somber sagacity of age; accomplishing so much, precisely because it imagined so little.
Chapter 3, pg. 62
what is caused by or indicating acute discernment?
martyrdom: So, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost: more saint–like, because the result of martyrdom.
Chapter 5
what is the suffering of death on account of adherence to a cause and especially to one's religious faith.
edifice: They approached the door, which was of an arched form, and flanked on each side by a narrow tower or projection of the edifice, in both of which were lattice–windows, the wooden shutters to close over them at need.
Chapter 7
what is a large or massive structure?
importunate: “They mostly do,” said the clergyman, griping hard at his breast, as if afflicted with an importunate throb of pain.
Chapter 9
what is troublesomely urgent : overly persistent in request or demand?
physiognomies: "Among any other population or at a later period in the history of New England, the bearded physiognomies of the good people would have been argued some awful business in hand."
Chapter 2, Pg. 47
What is the art of discovering temperament and character from outward appearance
Peradventure: “Madame Hester absolutely refuseth to speak, and the magistrates have laid their heads together in vain. Peradventure the guilty one stands looking on at this sad spectacle, unknown of man, and forgetting that God sees him."
What is Perhaps, Probably
caprice: As to any other kind of discipline, whether addressed to her mind or heart, little Pearl might or might not be within its reach, in accordance with the caprice that ruled the moment.
Chapter 6
what is a sudden, impulsive, and seemingly unmotivated notion or action?
folio: Here, on the cushion, lay a folio tome, probably of the Chronicles of England, or other such substantial literature; even as, in our own days, we scatter gilded volumes on the centre table, to be turned over by the casual guest.
Chapter 7
what is a page number? (If you say something book related I'll give you the points.
armorial: She now skipped irreverently from one grave to another; until coming to the broad, flat, armorial tombstone of a departed worthy—perhaps of Isaac Johnson himself—she began to dance upon it.
Chapter 10
what is of, relating to, or bearing heraldic arms?
phantasmagoric: "Possibly it was an instinctive device of her spirit, by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight and hardness of the reality."
What is having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
unadulterated: There he stood, with a border of grizzled locks beneath his skull–cap, while his grey eyes, accustomed to the shaded light of his study, were winking, like those of Hester’s infant, in the unadulterated sunshine.
Chapter 4
what is not adulterated, pure?
gesticulation: But while she said it, Pearl laughed, and began to dance up and down with the humoursome gesticulation of a little imp, whose next freak might be to fly up the chimney.
Chapter 6
what is the act of making gestures.
bedizen: "Prithee, young one, who art thou, and what has ailed thy mother to bedizen thee in this strange fashion?"
Chapter 8
what is to dress or adorn gaudily?
methinks: But still, methinks, it must needs be better for the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as this poor woman Hester is, than to cover it up in his heart.”
Chapter 10
what is it seems to me?