Shakespeare: Words and Phrases
adapted from the Collins English Dictionary
abate 1 VERB to abate here means to lessen or diminish ▿ There lives within the very flame of love/A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it (Hamlet 4.7) 2 VERB to abate here means to shorten ▿ Abate thy hours (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 3.2) 3 VERB to abate here means to deprive ▿ She hath abated me of half my train (King Lear 2.4)
abjure VERB to abjure means to renounce or give up ▿ this rough magic I here abjure (Tempest 5.1)
abroad ADV abroad means elsewhere or everywhere ▿ You have heard of the news abroad (King Lear 2.1)
abrogate VERB to abrogate means to put an end to ▿ so it shall praise you to abrogate scurrility (Love’s Labours Lost 4.2)
abuse 1 NOUN abuse in this context means deception or fraud ▿ What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?/Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? (Hamlet 4.7) 2 NOUN an abuse in this context means insult or offence ▿ I will be deaf to pleading and excuses/Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase our abuses (Romeo and Juliet 3.1) 3 NOUN an abuse in this context means using something improperly ▿ we’ll digest/Th’abuse of distance (Henry II Chorus) 4 NOUN an abuse in this context means doing something which is corrupt or dishonest ▿ Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal that do nothing but their abuses in common houses, I know no law: bring them away. (Measure for Measure 2.1)
abuser NOUN the abuser here is someone who betrays, a betrayer ▿ I…do attach thee/For an abuser of the world (Othello 1.2)
accent NOUN accent here means language ▿ In states unborn, and accents yet unknown (Julius Caesar 3.1)
accident NOUN an accident in this context is an event or something that happened ▿ think no more of this night’s accidents (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 4.1)
accommodate VERB to accommodate in this context means to equip or to give someone the equipment to do something ▿ The safer sense will ne’er accommodate/His master thus. (King Lear 4.6)
according ADJ according means sympathetic or ready to agree ▿ within the scope of choice/Lies my consent and fair according voice (Romeo and Juliet 1.2)
account NOUN account often means judgement (by God) or reckoning ▿ No reckoning made, but sent to my account/With all my imperfections on my head (Hamlet 1.5)
accountant ADJ accountant here means answerable or accountable ▿ his offence is…/Accountant to the law (Measure for Measure 2.4)
ace NOUN ace here means one or first referring to the lowest score on a dice ▿ No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one./Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 5.1)
acquit VERB here acquit means to be rid of or free of. It is related to the verb quit ▿ I am glad I am so acquit of this tinderbox (The Merry Wives of Windsor 1.3)
afeard ADJ afeard means afraid or frightened ▿ Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make (Macbeth 1.3)
affiance NOUN affiance means confidence or trust ▿ O how hast thou with jealousy infected/The sweetness of affiance (Henry V 2.2)
affinity NOUN in this context, affinity means important connections, or relationships with important people ▿ The Moor replies/That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus,/And great affinity (Othello 3.1)
agnize VERB to agnize is an old word that means that you recognize or acknowledge something ▿ I do agnize/A natural and prompt alacrity I find in hardness (Othello 1.3)
ague NOUN an ague is a fever in which the patient has hot and cold shivers one after the other ▿ This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who hath got…an ague (The Tempest 2.2)
alarm, alarum NOUN an alarm or alarum is a call to arms or a signal for soldiers to prepare to fight ▿ Whence cometh this alarum and the noise? (Henry VI part I 1.4)
Albion NOUN Albion is another word for England ▿ but I will sell my dukedom,/To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm In that nook-shotten isle of Albion (Henry V 3.5)
all of all PHRASE all of all means everything, or the sum of all things ▿ The very all of all (Love’s Labours Lost 5.1)
amend VERB amend in this context means to get better or to heal ▿ at his touch…They presently amend (Macbeth 4.3)
anchor VERB if you anchor on something you concentrate on it or fix on it ▿ My invention…Anchors on Isabel (Measure for Measure 2.4)
anon ADV anon was a comm...