Scarlet Letter Vocab for Essay

Question 1

antipathy

Answer 1

a natural, basic, or habitual repugnance; aversion

Question 2

balk

Answer 2

to stop short and stubbornly refuse to go

Question 3

confer

Answer 3

to consult together ; compare opinions ; to carry a discussion or deliberation

Question 4

ineffectual

Answer 4

unavailing; futile; powerless; impotent

Question 5

inimical

Answer 5

adverse in tendency or effect; unfavorable; harmful:

Question 6

latent

Answer 6

present but not visible, apparent, or actualized; existing as potential:

Question 7

lurid

Answer 7

gruesome; horrible; revolting:

Question 8

malice

Answer 8

desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness:

Question 9

odious

Answer 9

deserving or causing hatred; hateful; detestable.

Question 10

perchance

Answer 10

Literary. perhaps; maybe; possibly.

Question 11

perpetrate

Answer 11

to present, execute, or do in a poor or tasteless manner:

Question 12

piety

Answer 12

reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations:

Question 13

presentiment

Answer 13

a feeling or impression that something is about to happen, especially something evil; foreboding.

Question 14

propinquity

Answer 14

nearness in place; proximity.

Question 15

sentiment

Answer 15

an attitude toward something; regard; opinion.

Question 16

sexton

Answer 16

an official of a church charged with taking care of the edifice and its contents, ringing the bell, etc., and sometimes with burying the dead.

Question 17

studious

Answer 17

disposed or given to diligent study

Question 18

thine

Answer 18

the possessive case of thou, used as a predicate adjective, after a noun or without a noun.

Question 19

usurp

Answer 19

to seize and hold (a position, office, power, etc.) by force or without legal right:

Question 20

wreak

Answer 20

to inflict or execute (punishment, vengeance, etc.)