Time and Again: "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving

A villager in colonial America falls asleep for twenty years and misses the American Revolution. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for other works by Washington Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Devil and Tom Walker
30 words 1788 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. perseverance
    the act of continuing or repeating
    It could not be from the want of perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble.
  2. disposition
    your usual mood
    Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound.
    His name gives clues to his disposition. As a noun, "winkle" is a snail that is steamed in wine or baked (which connects to Winkle's everyday slowness, but especially to his drunken 20 year sleep). As a verb, "winkle" means "remove or displace from a position" (which connects to Winkle's waking to a changed life); it also means "emit or reflect light in a flickering manner" (which connects to Winkle's lack of energy that often results in more than forty winks).
  3. eloquence
    powerful and effective language
    Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence.
    While his wife's language is powerful enough to drive Rip out of the house, it is not effective enough to convince him that he should change and become a better worker. "Eloquence" also has a connotation of beauty, but here, connected to the adverb "incessantly" ("without interruption") and the noun "torrent" ("an overwhelming amount"), it takes on an unpleasant tone.
  4. virago
    a noisy or scolding or domineering woman
    From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his termagant wife, who would suddenly break in upon the tranquility of the assemblage, and call the members all to naught; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness.
    "Virago" and "termagant" are synonyms that refer to women who scold and dominate. But the Lain root of "virago" is "vir" which means "man" and medieval European Christians believed that a termagant was a violent Muslim god.
  5. rubicund
    having a healthy reddish color
    For a long while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual club of sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George III.
  6. sentiment
    tender, romantic, or nostalgic feeling or emotion
    Wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in his master’s face; and if dogs can feel pity, I verily believe he reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart.
  7. apprehension
    fearful expectation or anticipation
    Rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he looked anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange figure slowly toiling up the rocks, and bending under the weight of something he carried on his back.
  8. transient
    lasting a very short time
    He paused for an instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient thundershowers which often take place in mountain heights, he proceeded.
  9. outlandish
    noticeably or extremely unconventional or unusual
    They were dressed in a quaint, outlandish fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in their belts, and most of them had enormous breeches, of similar style with that of the guide’s.
    "Outlandish" could be a pun here: not only are the clothes of the men unusual to Rip because they're a style popular more than one hundred years before his birth, but they're also the clothes worn by the commander and crew who had crossed an ocean and discovered the Hudson River.
  10. desist
    stop performing some action
    As Rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly desisted from their play, and stared at him with such fixed, statue-like gaze, and such strange, uncouth countenances, that his heart turned within him, and his knees smote together.
  11. profound
    deep and complete, of sleep
    He obeyed with fear and trembling; they quaffed the liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game.
  12. reveler
    a celebrant who shares in a noisy party
    He now suspected that the grave revelers of the mountain had put a trick upon him and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun.
    "Grave reveler" is both an oxymoron and a pun. To Rip, the phrase is an oxymoron that connects to this observation: "though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed." The author uses the phrase as a pun that connects to the legend of the revelers rising from their graves every 20 years to celebrate their discovery.
  13. gambol
    light-hearted recreational activity for amusement
    He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening’s gambol, and if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun.
  14. impenetrable
    not admitting of passage into or through
    The rocks presented a high, impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad, deep basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest.
    "Impenetrable" also means "impossible to understand"--both definitions can fit and make the rocks represent both a literal and figurative wall to Rip. The torrent of water makes the rocks doubly impenetrable, and it represents the passage of time (the water was not tumbling down the first time Rip had crossed the ravine with the mysterious stranger). "Torrent" was also used to describe the wife's scolding, which can no longer penetrate Rip's ears.
  15. precipice
    a very steep cliff
    He again called and whistled after his dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows sporting high in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man’s perplexities.
  16. famished
    extremely hungry
    What was to be done?—the morning was passing away, and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast.
  17. invariably
    without change, in every case
    They all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins.
  18. recurrence
    event of happening again, especially at regular intervals
    The constant recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long!
  19. altered
    changed in form or character without becoming something else
    The very village was altered; it was larger and more populous.
  20. perplexed
    full of difficulty or confusion or bewilderment
    Rip was sorely perplexed.
    Rip's confusion is emphasized repeatedly in similar descriptions: Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Rip was equally at a loss... The poor fellow was now completely confounded.
  21. addle
    mix up or confuse
    “That flagon last night,” thought he, “has addled my poor head sadly!”
  22. cur
    an inferior dog or one of mixed breed
    A half-starved dog that looked like Wolf was skulking about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on.
    The cur's character is important because it develops an allusion and contrast to the Greek hero Odysseus:
    1) after 20 years, Odysseus's dog was the first to recognize him, while Wolf has forgotten Rip.
    2) Odysseus was away fighting the Trojan War, while Rip slept through the American Revolution.
    3) Odysseus had a loving wife he wanted to go home to, while Rip feared going home to a scold.
  23. forlorn
    marked by or showing hopelessness
    It was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned.
  24. singular
    beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
    Instead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall, naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red nightcap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes; all this was strange and incomprehensible.
  25. sage
    a mentor in spiritual and philosophical topics
    He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco smoke instead of idle speeches; or Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper.
  26. harangue
    address forcefully
    In place of these, a lean fellow, with his pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens—elections—members of congress—Bunker’s Hill—heroes of seventy-six—and other words, which were a perfect jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle.
  27. uncouth
    lacking refinement or cultivation or taste
    The appearance of Rip, with his long, grizzled beard, his rusty fowling piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians.
  28. austerity
    excessive sternness
    It was with great difficulty that the self-important man in the cocked hat restored order; and having assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit, what he came there for, and whom he was seeking!
    "Austerity" does not mean self-denial here; rather, it means a stern or strict manner, which was evident in the man's austere tone when he was demanding to know Rip's intentions, and which the man had to restore to the shouting crowd. The use of the adjective "tenfold" is a pun, because it refers to the man increasing his austerity by ten times, which is evident in the ten folds on his brow.
  29. precipitation
    overly eager speed (and possible carelessness)
    There was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief, at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in the cocked hat retired with some precipitation.
  30. corroborate
    support with evidence or authority or make more certain
    He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner.
Created on Thu May 15 12:13:46 EDT 2014 (updated Mon Aug 20 14:03:22 EDT 2018)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.