"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act III

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act I, Act II, Act III, Act IV, Act V

Here are links to other plays by William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. apt
    being of striking appropriateness and relevance
    An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man
    should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.
  2. consort
    keep company
    Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo.
  3. villain
    someone who does evil deliberately
    Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford
    No better term than this,--thou art a villain
  4. excuse
    overlook or make allowances for
    Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
    Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
    To such a greeting
  5. vile
    morally reprehensible
    Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
    Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
    To such a greeting
  6. haste
    a condition of urgency making it necessary to hurry
    Will you pluck your sword out of his pitcher
    by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your
    ears ere it be out.
  7. plague
    any large-scale calamity
    A plague o' both your houses!
  8. scratch
    cut, scrape, or wear away the surface of
    Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough.
    Note Mercutio is playing with words here -- it's more than just a scratch!
  9. scorn
    reject with contempt
    That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,
    Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
  10. fatal
    bringing death
    O noble prince, I can discover all
    The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl
  11. stout
    having rugged physical strength
    ...Underneath whose arm
    An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
    Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled
  12. exile
    the act of expelling a person from their native land
    And for that offence
    Immediately we do exile him hence,
  13. garish
    tastelessly showy
    All the world will be in love with night
    And pay no worship to the garish sun.
  14. wound
    an injury to living tissue
    I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,--
    God save the mark!--here on his manly breast.
  15. banish
    expel, as if by official decree
    Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished.
  16. fiend
    a cruel wicked and inhuman person
    Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
    Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
    Note the wordplay here -- calling someone both a "fiend" and "angelical" is an oxymoron
  17. grief
    intense sorrow caused by loss of a loved one
    If sour woe delights in fellowship
    And needly will be rank'd with other griefs,
    Why follow'd not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,'
    Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
    Which modern lamentations might have moved?
  18. comfort
    a feeling of freedom from worry or disappointment
    And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband:
    All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?
  19. fellowship
    an association of people who share beliefs or activities
    If sour woe delights in fellowship
    And needly will be rank'd with other griefs,
    Why follow'd not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,'
    Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
    Which modern lamentations might have moved?
  20. torture
    subject to intense feelings of suffering
    There is no world without Verona walls,
    But purgatory, torture, hell itself
    Not it's not physical torture here, but emotional
  21. murder
    kill intentionally and with premeditation
    Calling death banishment,
    Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
    And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
  22. mercy
    something for which to be thankful
    This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.
  23. carrion
    the dead and rotting body of an animal; unfit for human food
    More validity,
    More honourable state, more courtship lives
    In carrion-flies than Romeo.
  24. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
    An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
    Doting like me and like me banished,
    Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair,
    And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
    Taking the measure of an unmade grave.
  25. shape
    a perceptual structure
    Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit;
  26. wit
    mental ability
    Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit
  27. dismember
    divide into pieces
    Thy wit... Is set afire by thine own ignorance,
    And thou dismember'd with thine own defence
  28. lamentation
    the passionate activity of expressing grief
    Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back
    With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
    Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.
  29. woo
    make amorous advances towards
    These times of woe afford no time to woo.
  30. fickle
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle.
  31. beseech
    ask for or request earnestly
    Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
    Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
Created on Thu Oct 18 22:39:01 EDT 2012 (updated Fri Aug 23 10:40:41 EDT 2019)

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