Oliver Goldsmith

Accumulate

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Adorn

At church, with meek and unaffected grace, His looks adorned the venerable place.

Affright

He looks behind him with affright, and forward with despair.

After

Our eldest son was named George after his uncle.

Agreeable

A train of agreeable reveries.

Art

Four years spent in the arts (as they are called in colleges) is, perhaps, laying too laborious a foundation.

Avarice

All are taught an avarice of praise.

Awake

I was soon awaked from this disagreeable reverie.

Bask

Basks in the glare, and stems the tepid wave.

Bat

Silent bats in drowsy clusters cling.

Belgic

How unlike their Belgic sires of old.

Beplaster

Beplastered with rouge.

Bloomy

But all the bloomy flush of life is fled.

Blunder

I was never distinguished for address, and have often even blundered in making my bow.

Bode

A raven that bodes nothing but mischief.

Both

A masterpiece both for argument and style.

Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound.

Bout

The prince . . . has taken me in his train, so that I am in no danger of starving for this bout.

Breath

A breath can make them, as a breath has made.

Bribe

The bard may supplicate, but cannot bribe.

Brighten

And, all his prospects brightening to the last, His heaven commences ere world be past.

Broken

The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay, Sat by his fire, and talked the night away.

Brush

Snatching his hat, he brushed off like the wind.

Bundle

The fable of the rods, which, when united in a bundle, no strength could bend.

Bunter

Her . . . daughters, like bunters in stuff gowns.

Burst

To burst upon him like an earthquake.

Buzzard

It is common, to a proverb, to call one who can not be taught, or who continues obstinately ignorant, a buzzard.

Calculated

The only danger that attends multiplicity of publication is, that some of them may be calculated to injure rather than benefit society.

Canvas

To suit his canvas to the roughness of the see.

Challenge

A challenge to controversy.

Change

He pulled out a thirty-pound note and bid me change it.

Chill

When winter chilled the day.

Chirrup

The criket chirrups on the hearth.

Choose

The landlady now returned to know if we did not choose a more genteel apartment.

Cipher

'T was certain he could write and cipher too.

Cleanly

Displays her cleanly platter on the board.

Click

The varnished clock that clicked behind the door.

Clime

Turn we to sutvey, Where rougher climes a nobler race display.

Closet

A chair-lumbered closet, just twelve feet by nine.

Clothe

The naked every day he clad, When he put on his clothes.

Cloud-built

So vanished my cloud-built palace.

Combat

Minds combat minds, repelling and repelled.

Commence

His heaven commences ere the world be past.

Compound

Rare compound of oddity, frolic, and fun.

Condemn

No flocks that range the valley free, To slaughter I condemn.

Confess

As an actor confessed without rival to shine.

Connubial

Kind, connubial tenderness.

Contaminate

I would neither have simplicity imposed upon, nor virtue contaminated.

Contiguous

Sees no contiguous palace rear its head.

Contribute

These men also contributed to obstruct the progress of wisdom.

Cool

For a patriot, too cool.

Coolish

The nights began to grow a little coolish.

Copse

Near yonder copse where once the garden smiled.

Coronet

Without a star, a coronet, or garter.

Cosmogony

The cosmogony or creation of the world has puzzled philosophers of all ages.

Cot

The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm.

Counterfeit

Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee At all his jokes, for many a joke had he.

Courtship

This method of courtship, [by which] both sides are prepared for all the matrimonial adventures that are to follow.

Cower

Like falcons, cowering on the nest.

Coxcomb

Fond to be seen, she kept a bevy Of powdered coxcombs at her levee.

Coy

Nor the coy maid, half willings to be pressed, Shall kiss the cup, to pass it to the rest.

Cream

In vain she tries her paste and creams, To smooth her skin or hide its seams.

Creditable

This gentleman was born of creditable parents.

Creek

Lesser streams and rivulets are denominated creeks.

Cress

To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread.

Crisp

The cakes at tea ate short and crisp.

Customer

He has got at last the character of a good customer; by this means he gets credit for something considerable, and then never pays for it.

Dab

One excels at a plan or the titlepage, another works away at the body of the book, and the third is a dab at an index.

Dead

I had them a dead bargain.

Decamp

The fathers were ordered to decamp, and the house was once again converted into a tavern.

Decay

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.

Decoy

E'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy.

Depopulate

Whether the country be depopulating or not.

Despondence

The people, when once infected, lose their relish for happiness [and] saunter about with looks of despondence.

deteriorate

Under such conditions, the mind rapidly deteriorates.

Devastation

Even now the devastation is begun, And half the business of destruction done.

Dismal

Full well the busy whisper, circling round, Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frowned.

Dispossess

Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain.

Disroot

A piece of ground disrooted from its situation by subterraneous inundations.

Dissuade

Mr. Burchell, on the contrary, dissuaded her with great ardor: and I stood neuter.

Distant

He passed me with a distant bow.

Distract

Mixed metaphors . . . distract the imagination.

Divest

Wretches divested of every moral feeling.

Dizen

Like a tragedy queen, he has dizened her out.

doctrine

Unpracticed he to fawn or seek for power By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour.

Draught

Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired.

draw

A flattering painter who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.

Earthborn

All earthborn cares are wrong.

Feeder

A couple of friends, his chaplain and feeder.

Flattering

A flattering painter, who made it his care, To draw men as they ought be, not as they are.

Folly

When lovely woman stoops to folly.

Fondly

My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee.

Forfeit

Country dances and forfeits shortened the rest of the day.

Forlorn

For here forlorn and lost I tread.

Freshman

He drank his glass and cracked his joke, And freshmen wondered as he spoke.

Frippery

Fond of gauze and French frippery.

Generalship

Your generalship puts me in mind of Prince Eugene.

Gestic

And the gay grandsire, skilled in gestic lore.

Gloom

The black gibbet glooms beside the way.

What sorrows gloomed that parting day.

Gloss

To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm than all the gloss of art.

Gobble

He . . . gobbles out a note of self-approbation.

Goose

The pictures placed for ornament and use, The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.

Grit

The sanded floor that grits beneath the tread.

Grocery

A deal box . . . to carry groceries in.

Gunning

The art of gunning was but little practiced.

Hack

Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, Who long was a bookseller's hack.

Harpy

The harpies about all pocket the pool.

Hospitable

To where you taper cheers the vale With hospitable ray.

Humor

For thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humor, I'd almost said wit.

Ill

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.

Keen

Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.

Kind

Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was his fault.

Kraken

To believe all that has been said of the sea serpent or kraken, would be credulity; to reject the possibility of their existence, would be presumption.

Land

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.

Laugh

And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

Lean

The fat was so white and the lean was so ruddy.

Learned

Words of learned length and thundering sound.

Lucubration

After long lucubration I have hit upon such an expedient.

Miser

As some lone miser, visiting his store, Bends at his treasure, counts, recounts it o'er.

Mistrustless

The swain mistrustless of his smutted face.

Mump

Old men who mump their passion.

Nail

When they came to talk of places in town, you saw at once how I nailed them.

Palmy

His golden sands and palmy wine.

Pedant

A scholar, yet surely no pedant, was he.

Plan

Even in penance, planning sins anew.

Plenty

Those countries where shrubs are plenty.

Pluck

E'en children followed, with endearing wile, And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile.

Prerequisite

The necessary prerequisites of freedom.

Pride

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride.

A bold peasantry, their country's pride.

Quill

His cravat seemed quilled into a ruff.

Reception

What reception a poem may find.

Remembrancer

Premature consiolation is but the remembrancer of sorrow.

Remove

When we had dined, to prevent the ladies' leaving us, I generally ordered the table to be removed.

And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

Require

Just gave what life required, and gave no more.

Retirement

O, blest Retirement, friend of life's decline.

Reverence

Make twenty reverences upon receiving . . . about twopence.

Ridicule

I 've known the young, who ridiculed his rage.

Rushy

My rushy couch and frugal fare.

Sassarara

Out she shall pack, with a sassarara.

Scoff

Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.

Scribbling

Ye newspaper witlings! ye pert scribbling folks!

Scrub

We should go there in as proper a manner as possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.

Seedy

Little Flanigan here . . . is a little seedy, as we say among us that practice the law.

Shrill

No sounds were heard but of the shrilling cock.

Shudder

The shuddering tennant of the frigid zone.

Sicken

The toiling pleasure sickens into pain.

Sidelong

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love.

Sinew

Wretches, now stuck up for long tortures . . . might, if properly treated, serve to sinew the state in time of danger.

Slyboots

Slyboots was cursedly cunning to hide 'em.

So-so

In some Irish houses, where things are so-so, One gammon of bacon hangs up for a show.

Solitude

O blest retirement, friend to life's decline.

Spontaneous

Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, The soul adopts, and owns their firstborn away.

Sporter

As this gentleman and I have been old fellow sporters, I have a friendship for him.

Squib

Who copied his squibs, and reechoed his jokes.

Sympathetic

Far wiser he, whose sympathetic mind Exults in all the good of all mankind.

Talking

The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, For talking age and whispering lovers made.

Teach

The village master taught his little school.

Tense

The temples were sunk, her forehead was tense, and a fatal paleness was upon her.

Theatric

Woods over woods in gay, theatric pride.

Thesis

I told them of the grave, becoming, and sublime deportment they should assume upon this mystical occasion, and read them two homilies and a thesis of my own composing, to prepare them.

Tidings

Full well the busy whisper, circling round, Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned.

Toil

How often have I blessed the coming day, When toil remitting lent its turn to play.

Trim

The hermit trimmed his little fire.

Troll

With patient angle trolls the finny deep.

Tuneless

How often have I led thy sportive choir, With tuneless pipe, beside the murmuring Loire!

Understrapper

This was going to the fountain head at once, not applying to the understrappers.

Unsay

You can say and unsay things at pleasure.

Urchin

You did indeed dissemble, you urchin you; but where's the girl that won't dissemble for an husband?

Vanquish

For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still.

Virtu

I had thoughts, in my chambers to place it in view, To be shown to my friends as a piece of virtù.

Virtue

H. I believe the girl has virtue. M. And if she has, I should be the last man in the world to attempt to corrupt it.

Warm

You shall have a draft upon him, payable at sight: and let me tell you he as warm a man as any within five miles round him.

Where

But where does this tend?

Within about twenty paces of where we were.

Why

The how and the why and the where.

Winter

Winter lingering chills the lap of May.

With

With receiving your friends within and amusing them without, you lead a good, pleasant, bustling life of it.

Witling

Ye newspaper witlings! ye pert scribbling folks!