The Selected Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: "Little Red Riding Hood" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Sent into the woods to visit her sick grandmother, a young girl with a red cap meets a wolf who pretends to be kind to her. Read the full text here. Translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes.
15 words 130 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. velvet
    a silky densely piled fabric with a plain back
    Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called ‘Little Red-Cap.’
  2. league
    an obsolete unit of distance of around 3 miles
    The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red-Cap entered the wood, a wolf met her.
  3. tender
    easy to cut or chew
    What a tender young creature! What a nice plump mouthful—she will be better to eat than the old woman.
  4. crafty
    marked by skill in deception
    I must act craftily, so as to catch both.
  5. gravely
    in a serious or solemn manner
    I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing; you walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while everything else out here in the wood is merry.
  6. fancy
    imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind
    And whenever she had picked one, she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.
  7. latch
    spring-loaded doorlock that can be opened from the outside
    ‘Lift the latch,’ called out the grandmother, ‘I am too weak, and cannot get up.’
  8. devour
    eat greedily
    The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went straight to the grandmother’s bed, and devoured her.
  9. bound
    a light, self-propelled movement upwards or forwards
    ‘The better to eat you with!’
    And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red-Cap.
  10. appease
    overcome or allay
    When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loud.
  11. occur
    come to one's mind
    Then just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did not fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach of the sleeping wolf.
  12. scarcely
    almost not
    When he had made two snips, he saw the little Red-Cap shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little girl sprang out, crying: ‘Ah, how frightened I have been! How dark it was inside the wolf’; and after that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe.
  13. relate
    give an account of
    It also related that once when Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path.
  14. entice
    provoke someone to do something through persuasion
    It also related that once when Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path.
  15. trough
    a concave shape with an open top
    Then the smell of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was drowned.
Created on Wed Nov 01 11:52:35 EDT 2023 (updated Thu Nov 02 12:17:53 EDT 2023)

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