Great Expectations: Chapters 36–47

by Charles Dickens
Pip's life is changed when an anonymous benefactor pays for an expensive education in London, but he quickly discovers that you can't escape who you really are. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–15, Chapters 16–25, Chapters 26–35, Chapters 36–47, Chapters 48–59
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. auspicious
    indicating favorable circumstances and good luck
    I had taken care to have it well understood in Little Britain when my birthday was. On the day before it, I received an official note from Wemmick, informing me that Mr. Jaggers would be glad if I would call upon him at five in the afternoon of the auspicious day.
  2. sprightly
    full of spirit and vitality
    He threw me into the greatest confusion by laughing heartily and replying in a very sprightly manner, “No, to be sure; you’re right.”
  3. untenable
    incapable of being defended or justified
    This left me no course but to regret that I had been “betrayed into a warmth which,” and on the whole to repudiate, as untenable, the idea that I was to be found anywhere.
  4. predecessor
    one who goes before you in time
    “You know he has nothing to recommend him but money and a ridiculous roll of addle-headed predecessors; now, don’t you?”
  5. repugnance
    intense aversion
    The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the repugnance with which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast.
  6. physiognomy
    the human face
    But it was by no means so plain to Mr. Provis (I resolved to call him by that name), who reserved his consent to Herbert's participation until he should have seen him and formed a favourable judgment of his physiognomy.
    Studying "physiognomy" used to be a way to assess a person's personality from his outer appearance. This idea makes character descriptions more significant. Today, this idea is not considered to have any basis in reality, and although Dickens might have used it as a writing technique, he seems to mock it as a science here, because he connects it to an uneducated convict.
  7. expatriate
    expel from a country
    I cautioned him that I must hear no more of that; that he was not at all likely to obtain a pardon; that he was expatriated for the term of his natural life; and that his presenting himself in this country would be an act of felony, rendering him liable to the extreme penalty of the law.
  8. extricate
    release from entanglement or difficulty
    Then you must get him out of England before you stir a finger to extricate yourself. That done, extricate yourself, in Heaven’s name, and we’ll see it out together, dear old boy.
  9. credence
    the mental attitude that something is believable
    And I should be false and base if I did not tell you, whether it is acceptable to you or no, and whether you are inclined to give credence to it or no, that you deeply wrong both Mr. Matthew Pocket and his son Herbert, if you suppose them to be otherwise than generous, upright, open, and incapable of anything designing or mean.
  10. conjecture
    the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence
    “—By disappearing from such place, and being no more heard of thereabouts. From which,” said Wemmick, “conjectures had been raised and theories formed. I also heard that you at your chambers in Garden Court, Temple, had been watched, and might be watched again.”
  11. tacit
    implied by or inferred from actions or statements
    As there seemed to be a tacit understanding that the Aged was not in a presentable state, and was therefore to be considered invisible, I made a pretence of being in complete ignorance of these proceedings.
  12. truculent
    defiantly aggressive
    She really was a most charming girl, and might have passed for a captive fairy, whom that truculent Ogre, Old Barley, had pressed into his service.
  13. unconscionable
    lacking a sense of right conduct
    “There is an unconscionable old shark for you!” said Herbert. “What do you suppose he wants now, Handel?”
  14. propensity
    a disposition to behave in a certain way
    And Herbert had seen him as a predatory Tartar of comic propensities, with a face like a red brick, and an outrageous hat all over bells.
  15. plenipotentiary
    a diplomat with full powers to take action or make decisions
    This led to Mr. Wopsle’s (who had never been heard of before) coming in with a star and garter on, as a plenipotentiary of great power direct from the Admiralty, to say that the Swabs were all to go to prison on the spot, and that he had brought the boatswain down the Union Jack, as a slight acknowledgment of his public services.
Created on Sat Jul 13 03:04:00 EDT 2013 (updated Wed Jul 30 18:28:25 EDT 2025)

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