William Makepeace Thackeray
Novelist, 1811-1863
Cited as Thackeray. — 141 quotations
Affect
One of the domestics was affected to his special service.
Agonize
He agonized his mother by his behavior.
Allow
I allow, with Mrs. Grundy and most moralists, that Miss Newcome's conduct . . . was highly reprehensible.
Allowance
I can give the boy a handsome allowance.
Anathema
Finally she fled to London followed by the anathemas of both [families].
Attempt
It made the laughter of an afternoon That Vivien should attempt the blameless king.
background
A husband somewhere in the background.
baggage
The baronet's baggage on the roof of the coach.
A disreputable, daring, laughing, painted French baggage.
Bearing
A carriage covered with armorial bearings.
Becoming
A low and becoming tone.
Beggary
The freedom and the beggary of the old studio.
Belonging
Few persons of her ladyship's belongings stopped, before they did her bidding, to ask her reasons.
Best
Had I not best go to her?
Better
He thought to better his circumstances.
Blackball
He was blackballed at two clubs in succession.
Blood
It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood.
Bloom
A new, fresh, brilliant world, with all the bloom upon it.
Blue
The ladies were very blue and well informed.
Bohemian
She was of a wild, roving nature, inherited from father and mother, who were both Bohemians by taste and circumstances.
Bolt
[He] came bolt up against the heavy dragoon.
Boottree
The pretty boots trimly stretched on boottrees.
Bounce
Bounced off his arm+chair.
Bouncing
Many tall and bouncing young ladies.
Brace
I embroidered for you a beautiful pair of braces.
Braiding
A gentleman enveloped in mustachios, whiskers, fur collars, and braiding.
Break
He had broken down almost at the outset.
Bristle
The hill of La Haye Sainte bristling with ten thousand bayonets.
Bruise
Bruising was considered a fine, manly, old English custom.
Buck
The leading bucks of the day.
Buckskin
I have alluded to his buckskin.
Bucktooth
When he laughed, two white buckteeth protruded.
Buzz
There is a buzz all around regarding the sermon.
Cackle
There is a buzz and cackle all around regarding the sermon.
Calling
The humble calling of ter female parent.
Cancel
The indentures were canceled.
Cantankerous
The cantankerous old maiden aunt.
Cap
Tom . . . capped the proctor with the profoundest of bows.
Card
Our first cards were to Carabas House.
Chaff
Morgan saw that his master was chaffing him.
Chit
A little chit of a woman.
Clack
We heard Mr.Hodson's whip clacking on the ahoulders of the poor little wretches.
Clamp
The policeman with clamping feet.
Claver
Emmy found herself entirely at a loss in the midst of their clavers.
Click
She clicked back the bolt which held the window sash.
Cocktail
It was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail.
Coddle
How many of our English princes have been coddled at home by their fond papas and mammas!
Collogue
He had been colloguing with my wife.
Congé
Should she pay off old Briggs and give her her congé?
Consumedly
He's so consumedly proud of it.
Convenient
Hereties used to be brought thither, convenient for burning.
Cover
Letters . . . dispatched under cover to her ladyship.
Cravatted
The young men faultlessly appointed, handsomely cravatted.
Dance
Then, 'tis time to dance off.
Dare
Who dared to sully her sweet love with suspicion.
Darkling
His honest brows darkling as he looked towards me.
Dawdle
We . . . dawdle up and down Pall Mall.
Daydream
Mrs. Lambert's little daydream was over.
Deathbed
That often-quoted passage from Lord Hervey in which the Queen's deathbed is described.
Decorate
Her fat neck was ornamented with jewels, rich bracelets decorated her arms.
Demean
Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.
Demeanor
The men, as usual, liked her artless kindness and simple refined demeanor.
Demoniac
Sarcastic, demoniacal laughter.
Deserve
John Gay deserved to be a favorite.
Discomfortable
A labyrinth of little discomfortable garrets.
Disconcert
The embrace disconcerted the daughter-in-law somewhat, as the caresses of old gentlemen unshorn and perfumed with tobacco might well do.
Distort
Whose face was distorted with pain.
Divagation
Let us be set down at Queen's Crawley without further divagation.
do
Suspicions regarding his loyalty were entirely done away.
Some folks are happy and easy in mind when their victim is stabbed and done for.
Dodge
Some, who have a taste for good living, have many harmless arts, by which they improve their banquet, and innocent dodges, if we may be permitted to use an excellent phrase that has become vernacular since the appearance of the last dictionaries.
Dowagerism
Mansions that have passed away into dowagerism.
Drink
Bolingbroke always spoke freely when he had drunk freely.
The bowl of punch which was brewed and drunk in Mrs. Betty's room.
Drive
How . . . proud he was to drive such a brother!
The chaise drives to Mr. Draper's chambers.
Drop
That astonishing ease with which fine ladies drop you and pick you up again.
Dubious
A dubious, agitated state of mind.
Wiping the dingy shirt with a still more dubious pocket handkerchief.
Eat
His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.
Encore
[Rebecca] insisted upon encoring one of the duets.
Escape
To escape out of these meshes.
Ever
You spend ever so much money in entertaining your equals and betters.
Fancy
He fancied he was welcome, because those arounde him were his kinsmen.
Figure
With nineteen thousand a year at the very lowest figure.
File
Will is an old file in spite of his smooth face.
Flyblown
Wherever flyblown reputations were assembled.
Fogy
Notorious old bore; regular old fogy.
Fribble
A pert fribble of a peer.
The fools that are fribbling round about you.
Glum
I frighten people by my glun face.
Grandiloquence
The sin of grandiloquence or tall talking.
Gruff
Gruff, disagreeable, sarcastic remarks.
Hangdog
The poor colonel went out of the room with a hangdog look.
Harum-scarum
They had a quarrel with Sir Thomas Newcome's own son, a harum-scarum lad.
Havana
Young Frank Clavering stole his father's Havannahs, and . . . smoked them in the stable.
Him
Friends who have given him the most sympathy.
Irate
The irate colonel . . . stood speechless.
Junket
A new jaunt or junket every night.
Lady-killing
Better for the sake of womankind that this dangerous dog should leave off lady-killing.
Lordolatry
But how should it be otherwise in a country where lordolatry is part of our creed?
Modicum
Her usual modicum of beer and punch.
Multiplication
The increase and multiplication of the world.
Olden
She had oldened in that time.
One
The gentry received one another.
Outgush
A passionate outgush of emotion.
Parsimony
Awful parsimony presided generally at the table.
Pervert
That notorious pervert, Henry of Navarre.
Pluck
Decay of English spirit, decay of manly pluck.
Pompous
he pompous vanity of the old schoolmistress.
Pool
He plays pool at the billiard houses.
Pose
He . . . posed before her as a hero.
Princekin
The princekins of private life.
Pronounced
[His] views became every day more pronounced.
Proud
Are we proud men proud of being proud ?
Punt
She heard . . . of his punting at gaming tables.
Quiz
He quizzed unmercifully all the men in the room.
Raffish
A sad, raffish, disreputable character.
Ramshackle
There came . . . my lord the cardinal, in his ramshackle coach.
Rid
He rid to the end of the village, where he alighted.
Roadster
A sound, swift, well-fed hunter and roadster.
Rot
Rot, poor bachelor, in your club.
Rout cake
Twenty-four little rout cakes that were lying neglected in a plate.
Scrag
Lady MacScrew, who . . . serves up a scrag of mutton on silver.
Scrappy
A dreadfully scrappy dinner.
Simulacrum
Beneath it nothing but a great simulacrum.
Sucking
I suppose you are a young barrister, sucking lawyer, or that sort of thing.
Sudden
He withdrew his opposition all of a sudden.
Swallowtail
This Stultz coat, a blue swallowtail, with yellow buttons.
Tendre
You poor friendless creatures are always having some foolish tendre.
Tohubohu
Was ever such a tohubohu of people as there assembles?
Ton
If our people of ton are selfish, at any rate they show they are selfish.
Toot
Tooting horns and rattling teams of mail coaches.
Tot
The last two tot up the bill.
Transmogrification
Clive, who wrote me about the transmogrification of our schoolfellow, an attorney's son.
Trump
Alfred is a trump, I think you say.
Up
They had their ups and downs of fortune.
Wake
Several humbler persons . . . formed quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels.
Weigh
An expedition was got under weigh from New York.
Wicked
Pen looked uncommonly wicked.
Woman
Man is destined to be a prey to woman.