Washington Irving

The army before Boston was designated as the Continental army, in contradistinction to that under General Gage, which was called the “Ministerial army.”

Convention

A convention of delegates from all the States, to meet in Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of reserving the federal system, and correcting its defects.

Coquettish

A pretty, coquettish housemaid.

Coxcombical

Studded all over in coxcombical fashion with little brass nails.

Coy

Coy and furtive graces.

Crimp

The comely hostess in a crimped cap.

crone

The old crone [a negro man] lived in a hovel, . . . which his master had given him.

crony

He soon found his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time.

Crustiness

Old Christy forgot his usual crustiness.

Curmudgeon

A gray-headed curmudgeon of a negro.

Currency

The bare name of Englishman . . . too often gave a transient currency to the worthless and ungrateful.

Curt

The curt, yet comprehensive reply.

Curtain

A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering.

Cut

Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, snapped his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed.

Dark

There is, in every true woman-s heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

Delineation

Their softest delineations of female beauty.

Delirium

The popular delirium [of the French Revolution] at first caught his enthusiastic mind.

Desperation

In the desperation of the moment, the officers even tried to cut their way through with their swords.

devil

A deviled leg of turkey.

Dictatorial

Military powers quite dictatorial.

Diffidence

An Englishman's habitual diffidence and awkwardness of address.

Dimension

Gentlemen of more than ordinary dimensions.

Ding

The fretful tinkling of the convent bell evermore dinging among the mountain echoes.

Diseased

It is my own diseased imagination that torments me.

Distance

Easily managed from a distance.

Distant

A distant glimpse.

Dose

I am for curing the world by gentle alteratives, not by violent doses.

Dressy

A neat, dressy gentleman in black.

Drum

Drumming with his fingers on the arm of his chair.

Dry

He was rather a dry, shrewd kind of body.

Earnestness

An honest earnestness in the young man's manner.

Economize

Calculating how to economize time.

Effect

The effect was heightened by the wild and lonely nature of the place.

Embarrassment

The embarrassment which inexperienced minds have often to express themselves upon paper.

Emotion

How different the emotions between departure and return!

Enamor

Passionately enamored of this shadow of a dream.

Encomium

His encomiums awakened all my ardor.

Enthusiast

Enthusiasts soon understand each other.

Enthusiastic

A young man . . . of a visionary and enthusiastic character.

Equipage

The rumbling equipages of fashion . . . were unknown in the settlement of New Amsterdam.

Equitation

The pretender to equitation mounted.

eruption

All Paris was quiet . . . to gather fresh strength for the next day's eruption.

Essence

He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until . . . he had and ideal world of his own around him.

Establishment

Exposing the shabby parts of the establishment.

Evidently

He was evidently in the prime of youth.

Expiation

His liberality seemed to have something in it of self-abasement and expiation.

Game

I was game . . . .I felt that I could have fought even to the death.

Gem

England is . . . gemmed with castles and palaces.

Getterup

A diligent getter-up of miscellaneous works.

Habit

A man of very shy, retired habits.

Habitan

General Arnold met an emissary . . . sent . . . to ascertain the feelings of the habitans or French yeomanry.

Harry

To harry this beautiful region.

Humor

A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplexities of mine host.

Hutch

The troops hutted among the heights of Morristown.

Idea

I shortly afterwards set off for that capital, with an idea of undertaking while there the translation of the work.

Inn

The miserable fare and miserable lodgment of a provincial inn.

Inviting

Nothing is so easy and inviting as the retort of abuse and sarcasm.

Jolly

The coachman is swelled into jolly dimensions.

Junketing

All those snug junketings and public gormandizings for which the ancient magistrates were equally famous with their modern successors.

Mellow

As merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever followed a hound.

Monotony

At sea, everything that breaks the monotony of the surrounding expanse attracts attention.

Muzzy

The whole company stared at me with a whimsical, muzzy look, like men whose senses were a little obfuscated by beer rather than wine.

Notwithstanding

These days were ages to him, notwithstanding that he was basking in the smiles of the pretty Mary.

Oblivion

The origin of our city will be buried in eternal oblivion.

Occupy

The better apartments were already occupied.

Pipe

A robin . . . was piping a few querulous notes.

Plume

Pluming her wings among the breezy bowers.

Ply

Boswell, and others of Goldsmith's contemporaries, . . . did not understand the secret plies of his character.

Precipitate

She and her horse had been precipitated to the pebbled region of the river.

The light vapor of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold.

Promise

My native country was full of youthful promise.

Provedore

Busied with the duties of a provedore.

Quaint

An old, long-faced, long-bodied servant in quaint livery.

Quarter

The banter turned as to what quarters each would find.

Radeau

Three vessels under sail, and one at anchor, above Split Rock, and behind it the radeau Thunderer.

Realize

Wary men took the alarm, and began to realize, a word now first brought into use to express the conversion of ideal property into something real.

Recess

A bed which stood in a deep recess.

Regret

From its peaceful bosom [the grave] spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.

Reliable

According to General Livingston's humorous account, his own village of Elizabethtown was not much more reliable, being peopled in those agitated times by “unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty-looking Tories, and very knavish Whigs.”

Romping

A little romping girl from boarding school.

Rooster

Nor, when they [the Skinners and Cow Boys] wrung the neck of a rooster, did they trouble their heads whether he crowed for Congress or King George.

Run

His whole appearance was something out of the common run.

Scarce

He had scarcely finished, when the laborer arrived who had been sent for my ransom.

Scathe

Strokes of calamity that scathe and scorch the soul.

Scenery

Never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.

Siren

Consumption is a siren.

Starve

Starving with cold as well as hunger.

Supple-jack

He was in form and spirit like a supple-jack, . . . yielding, but tough; though he bent, he never broke.

Swagger

He gave a half swagger, half leer, as he stepped forth to receive us.

Trump

Put the housekeeper to her trumps to accommodate them.

Urbanity

The marquis did the honors of his house with the urbanity of his country.

Verbiage

Verbiage may indicate observation, but not thinking.

Volume

Undulating billows rolling their silver volumes.

Waggery

A drollery and lurking waggery of expression.

Wait

The sound of the waits, rude as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mild watches of a winter night with the effect of perfect harmony.

Warm

Warm householders, every one of them.

Web

Such has been the perplexing ingenuity of commentators that it is difficult to extricate the truth from the web of conjectures.

Yelp

At the least flourish of a broomstick or ladle, he would fly to the door with a yelping precipitation.