Macbeth Vocabulary: Essential Words and Definitions

Macbeth Vocabulary: Words and Definitions

• Chalice: A cup
• Cistern: A tank for storing water
• Cloistered: Secluded from the world
• Chide: To put down; to tell someone off
• Carousing: Drinking and becoming noisy
• Compunctious: Deserving of shame; deeply wrong
• Chastise: To punish by beating; to criticize severely
• Dwindle: To make or become gradually less until little remains
• Dire: A severe, serious, or desperate situation or circumstance
• Dauntless: Fearless, unable to be intimidated
• Desolate: Without inhabitants
• Dolor: Intense sadness
• Divine: Connecting or relating to God or gods
• Entrails: Internal organs, especially the intestines
• Fruitless: Unproductive or unsuccessful
• Grapple: Wrestle or struggle with
• Gild: To cover with a substance; usually gold or gold-like
• Gentry: People of good family or high social position
• Harbinger: One that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; forerunner
• Implored: Involved by logical necessity; entailed; appealed to; beseeched
• Ingratitude: Lack of gratitude; ungratefulness
• Interim: A period between two events
• Incensed: Made extremely angry
• Jovial: Cheerful
• Lamenting: Expression(s) of grief or sorrow
• Laudable: Praiseworthy
• Mettle: Strength of character
• Minion: A submissive follower or dependent
• Malice: Intention or desire to cause great harm to someone
• Malevolence: Great evil or harm
• Malady: A physical or psychological disorder or disease
• Mar: To damage
• Murky: Thick, gloomy, and hard to see through
• Plight: A difficult or adverse situation
• Prophetic: Of, or a characteristic of, a prophet or prophecy
• Palpable: Able to be felt, touched
• Parley: To talk or negotiate; speak with
• Predominance: Appearing as most important, powerful; strongest or more common in number or amount
• Provoke: To stir emotion in someone; arouse
• Pious: Religious; devout
• Purged: Removed something undesirable or imperfect
• Pernicious: Deadly or destructive
• Pestered: Annoyed constantly
• Pristine: Remaining in a pure state; uncorrupted
• Quenched: Satisfied thirst
• Quarry: An animal or bird that is hunted
• Recoil: Move back suddenly
• Revolts: Rebellions against authority
• Resolute: Having or motivated by determination
• Relish: To enjoy or take pleasure in something
• Surmise: To infer with little evidence; guess
• Scruples: Moral or ethical considerations
• Summons: Calling for service or action
• Scepter: Ceremonial staff or rod
• Sundry: Various