Gullivers Travels

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS
Webster's Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,

GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation
Jonathan Swift
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product. All rights reserved.
Gulliver’s Travels
Webster's Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation
Jonathan Swift
PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and
Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses
this product. All rights reserved.
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Gulliver’s Travels: Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP®
English Test Preparation
This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005

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ISBN 0-497-25287-2
iii
Contents
PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR .......................................................................................... 1
THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER ................................................................................... 3
PART I— A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT .................................................................................... 9

CHAPTER I .............................................................................................................. 11
CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................. 21
CHAPTER III ............................................................................................................ 31
CHAPTER IV ............................................................................................................ 39
CHAPTER V ............................................................................................................. 45
CHAPTER VI ............................................................................................................ 53
CHAPTER VII ........................................................................................................... 63
CHAPTER VIII .......................................................................................................... 73
PART II— A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG....................................................................... 79

CHAPTER I .............................................................................................................. 81
CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................. 93
CHAPTER III ............................................................................................................ 99
CHAPTER IV .......................................................................................................... 109
CHAPTER V ........................................................................................................... 115
CHAPTER VI .......................................................................................................... 125
CHAPTER VII ......................................................................................................... 135
CHAPTER VIII ........................................................................................................ 143
PART III— A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB, AND

JAPAN .......................................................................................................................... 155
CHAPTER I ............................................................................................................ 157
CHAPTER II ........................................................................................................... 163
CHAPTER III .......................................................................................................... 171
CHAPTER IV .......................................................................................................... 177
CHAPTER V ........................................................................................................... 183
CHAPTER VI .......................................................................................................... 191
CHAPTER VII ......................................................................................................... 197
CHAPTER VIII ........................................................................................................ 201
iv
CHAPTER IX .......................................................................................................... 207
CHAPTER X ........................................................................................................... 211
CHAPTER XI .......................................................................................................... 219
PART IV— A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS .............................. 223

CHAPTER I ............................................................................................................ 225
CHAPTER II ........................................................................................................... 233
CHAPTER III .......................................................................................................... 239
CHAPTER IV .......................................................................................................... 245
CHAPTER V ........................................................................................................... 251
CHAPTER VI .......................................................................................................... 257
CHAPTER VII ......................................................................................................... 265
CHAPTER VIII ........................................................................................................ 273
CHAPTER IX .......................................................................................................... 279
CHAPTER X ........................................................................................................... 285
CHAPTER XI .......................................................................................................... 293
CHAPTER XII ......................................................................................................... 301
GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................... 309

1
PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR
Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on
standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently
assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift was edited for students who are actively building
their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced Placement®), GRE®,
LSAT®, GMAT® or similar examinations.1
Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in
other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic
words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult,
and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided
for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language,
and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within
context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not
already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it
has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the
book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.
Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-

dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to websters@icongroupbooks.com
The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org
1 PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Jonathan Swift 3
THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER
[As given in the original edition.]
The author of these Travels, Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, is my ancient and intimate
friend; there is likewise some relation between us on the mother’s side. About
three years ago, Mr. Gulliver growing weary of the concourse of curious people
coming to him at his house in Redriff, made a small purchase of land, with a
convenient house, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, his native country; where
he now lives retired, yet in good esteem among his neighbours.%
Although Mr. Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire, where his father dwelt,
yet I have heard him say his family came from Oxfordshire; to confirm which, I
have observed in the churchyard at Banbury in that county, several tombs and
monuments of the Gullivers.
Before he quitted Redriff, he left the custody of the following papers in my
hands, with the liberty to dispose of them as I should think fit. I have carefully
perused them three times. The style is very plain and simple; and the only fault I
find is, that the author, after the manner of travellers, is a little too circumstantial.
There is an air of truth apparent through the whole; and indeed the author was
so distinguished for his veracity, that it became a sort of proverb among his
Thesaurus
churchyard: (n) graveyard, burial dispose: (n, v) incline, order, influence; abominate, abhor, dislike, reject; (n)
ground, yard, necropolis, cloisters, (v) adjust, predispose, position, place, disesteem, disapproval.
kirkyard. lead, tend; (n) bias, array. heard: (n) hearing.
circumstantial: (adj) particular, ANTONYMS: (v) disturb, disqualify, proverb: (n) adage, byword, aphorism,
detailed, incidental, thorough, displace, disorder, disincline, dictum, saying, axiom, parable,
presumptive, precise, coincidental, disarrange. motto, expression; (n, v) maxim, saw.
elaborate, exact, special, specific. dwelt: (v) dwell, inhabit. veracity: (n) truth, accuracy, exactness,
ANTONYM: (adj) concrete. esteem: (n) deference, admiration; (n, truthfulness, fact, reality, precision;
concourse: (n) assemblage, swarm, v) respect, value, consideration, (adj) probity; (adj, n) faithfulness,
multitude, throng, company, account; (v) appreciate, deem, adore, sincerity, candor. ANTONYMS: (n)
merging, crowd, aggregation, admire, count. ANTONYMS: (v) mendacity, falsehood, falsity,
meeting, gathering, legion. scorn, hate, disdain, insult, despise, dishonesty.
4 Gulliver’s Travels
neighbours at Redriff, when any one affirmed a thing, to say, it was as true as if
Mr. Gulliver had spoken it.%
By the advice of several worthy persons, to whom, with the author’s
permission, I communicated these papers, I now venture to send them into the
world, hoping they may be, at least for some time, a better entertainment to our
young noblemen, than the common scribbles of politics and party.
This volume would have been at least twice as large, if I had not made bold
to strike out innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides, as well as to
the variations and bearings in the several voyages, together with the minute
descriptions of the management of the ship in storms, in the style of sailors;
likewise the account of longitudes and latitudes; wherein I have reason to
apprehend, that Mr. Gulliver may be a little dissatisfied. But I was resolved to fit
the work as much as possible to the general capacity of readers. However, if my
own ignorance in sea affairs shall have led me to commit some mistakes, I alone
am answerable for them. And if any traveller hath a curiosity to see the whole
work at large, as it came from the hands of the author, I will be ready to gratify
him.
As for any further particulars relating to the author, the reader will receive
satisfaction from the first pages of the book.
RICHARD SYMPSON.
A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN GULLIVER

TO HIS COUSIN SYMPSON,
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1727
I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it,
that by your great and frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very
loose and uncorrect account of my travels, with directions to hire some young
gentleman of either university to put them in order, and correct the style, as my
Thesaurus
affirmed: (adj) acknowledged, misunderstand, discharge, free, indulge, cater; (n, v) humor; (adj)
avowed, guaranteed. liberate. contented. ANTONYMS: (v)
answerable: (adj, v) amenable, liable, dissatisfied: (adj) discontent, dissatisfy, displease, disappoint.
responsible, subject, exposed, bound; disgruntled, disappointed, put out, innumerable: (adj) countless,
(v) uncommendable, exceptionable; displeased, malcontent, grumpy, numberless, incalculable,
(adj) conformable, adequate, annoyed, disaffected; (adj, v) multitudinous, infinite, innumerous,
responsal. ANTONYMS: (adj) querulous, complaining. unnumbered, uncounted, myriad,
irrefutable, unaccountable. ANTONYMS: (adj) content, immeasurable, untold. ANTONYM:
apprehend: (v) arrest, comprehend, contented, happy, fulfilled, gratified, (adj) finite.
grasp, catch, understand, fathom, pleased, idealistic. travels: (n) actions, expedition.
realize, sense, follow, nail; (adj, v) gratify: (v) delight, please, appease, wherein: (adv) in what, in which,
conceive. ANTONYMS: (v) accommodate, satisfy, amuse, suit, where.
Jonathan Swift 5
cousin %Dampier did, by my advice, in his book called “A Voyage round the
world.” But I do not remember I gave you power to consent that any thing
should be omitted, and much less that any thing should be inserted; therefore, as
to the latter, I do here renounce every thing of that kind; particularly a
paragraph about her majesty Queen Anne, of most pious and glorious memory;
although I did reverence and esteem her more than any of human species. But
you, or your interpolator, ought to have considered, that it was not my
inclination, so was it not decent to praise any animal of our composition before
my master Houyhnhnm: And besides, the fact was altogether false; for to my
knowledge, being in England during some part of her majesty’s reign, she did
govern by a chief minister; nay even by two successively, the first whereof was
the lord of Godolphin, and the second the lord of Oxford; so that you have made
me say the thing that was not. Likewise in the account of the academy of
projectors, and several passages of my discourse to my master Houyhnhnm, you
have either omitted some material circumstances, or minced or changed them in
such a manner, that I do hardly know my own work. When I formerly hinted to
you something of this in a letter, you were pleased to answer that you were
afraid of giving offence; that people in power were very watchful over the press,
and apt not only to interpret, but to punish every thing which looked like an
innuendo (as I think you call it). But, pray how could that which I spoke so
many years ago, and at about five thousand leagues distance, in another reign, be
applied to any of the Yahoos, who now are said to govern the herd; especially at
a time when I little thought, or feared, the unhappiness of living under them?
Have not I the most reason to complain, when I see these very Yahoos carried by
Houyhnhnms in a vehicle, as if they were brutes, and those the rational
creatures? And indeed to avoid so monstrous and detestable a sight was one
principal motive of my retirement hither.
Thus much I thought proper to tell you in relation to yourself, and to the trust
I reposed in you.
I do, in the next place, complain of my own great want of judgment, in being
prevailed upon by the entreaties and false reasoning of you and some others,
Thesaurus
detestable: (adj) hateful, abhorrent, innuendo: (n, v) hint, suggestion; (n) reverence: (n, v) respect, regard, fear,
damnable, odious, offensive, allusion, implication, inkling, cue, worship, honor, esteem, adore; (n)
despicable, execrable, horrible, insinuation, reference, intimation, deference, adoration, admiration,
infamous; (adj, v) cursed; (adj, adv) slur, sarcasm. awe. ANTONYMS: (n) despise,
atrocious. ANTONYMS: (adj) minced: (adj) ground, crushed, broken disrespect, irreverence, disdain,
admirable, adorable, sweet, loveable, up. disparagement, contempt; (v)
lovable, likable, delightful, cherished, renounce: (v) abandon, abdicate, dishonor.
honorable, desirable, nice. abjure, relinquish, desert, reject, give successively: (adv) in turn, one after
hinted: (adj) veiled, roundabout, not up, disown, deny, quit, forgo. the other, in succession, sequentially,
explicit, implicit, coded, oblique. ANTONYMS: (v) acknowledge, serially, running, in order, gradually,
hither: (adv) here, whither, reassert, assert, continue, retain, subsequently, repeatedly, one after
hitherward, thither. persist. another.
very %much against my own opinion, to suffer my travels to be published. Pray

bring to your mind how often I desired you to consider, when you insisted on
the motive of public good, that the Yahoos were a species of animals utterly
incapable of amendment by precept or example: and so it has proved; for,
instead of seeing a full stop put to all abuses and corruptions, at least in this little
island, as I had reason to expect; behold, after above six months warning, I
cannot learn that my book has produced one single effect according to my
intentions. I desired you would let me know, by a letter, when party and faction
were extinguished; judges learned and upright; pleaders honest and modest,
with some tincture of common sense, and Smithfield blazing with pyramids of
law books; the young nobility’s education entirely changed; the physicians
banished; the female Yahoos abounding in virtue, honour, truth, and good sense;
courts and levees of great ministers thoroughly weeded and swept; wit, merit,
and learning rewarded; all disgracers of the press in prose and verse condemned
to eat nothing but their own cotton, and quench their thirst with their own ink.
These, and a thousand other reformations, I firmly counted upon by your
encouragement; as indeed they were plainly deducible from the precepts
delivered in my book. And it must be owned, that seven months were a
sufficient time to correct every vice and folly to which Yahoos are subject, if their
natures had been capable of the least disposition to virtue or wisdom. Yet, so far
have you been from answering my expectation in any of your letters; that on the
contrary you are loading our carrier every week with libels, and keys, and
reflections, and memoirs, and second parts; wherein I see myself accused of
reflecting upon great state folk; of degrading human nature (for so they have still
the confidence to style it), and of abusing the female sex. I find likewise that the
writers of those bundles are not agreed among themselves; for some of them will
not allow me to be the author of my own travels; and others make me author of
books to which I am wholly a stranger.
I find likewise that your printer has been so careless as to confound the times,
and mistake the dates, of my several voyages and returns; neither assigning the
true year, nor the true month, nor day of the month: and I hear the original
manuscript is all destroyed since the publication of my book; neither have I any
Thesaurus
abounding: (adj) rich, abundant, full, confuse, stupefy. ANTONYMS: (v) n) rule.
rife, replete, affluent, wealthy, explain, clarify, comfort, lose, quench: (adj, v) extinguish, allay,
plentiful, ample, fraught, prolific. distinguish; (n) understanding. slake; (v) appease, quash, put out,
ANTONYM: (adj) poor. deducible: (adj, v) inferential, destroy, assuage, annihilate, calm,
according: (adj) pursuant, consonant, following; (adj) deductive, chill. ANTONYMS: (v) stimulate,
equal, agreeable, harmonious, consequential, consectary, logical, light.
conformable, consistent, deductible, dogmatic, demonstrable, swept: (adj) clean.
corresponding, respondent; (adv) consequent. tincture: (n, v) dye, tint, taste; (n)
correspondingly, accordingly. judges: (n) judge, adjudicators, jury. shade, color, hue, tinct; (adj, n, v)
confound: (v) bewilder, baffle, precept: (n) canon, decree, command, smack, dash; (adj) spice; (v)
nonplus, perplex, astonish, puzzle, mandate, charge, lesson, injunction, impregnate.
amaze, astound, mistake; (adj, v) law, commandment, principle; (adj, weeded: (adj) weedless.
Jonathan Swift 7
copy left: however, I have sent you some corrections, which you may insert, if
ever there should be a second edition: and yet I cannot stand to them; but shall
leave that matter to my judicious and candid readers to adjust it as they please.%
I hear some of our sea Yahoos find fault with my sea-language, as not proper
in many parts, nor now in use. I cannot help it. In my first voyages, while I was
young, I was instructed by the oldest mariners, and learned to speak as they did.
But I have since found that the sea Yahoos are apt, like the land ones, to become
new-fangled in their words, which the latter change every year; insomuch, as I
remember upon each return to my own country their old dialect was so altered,
that I could hardly understand the new. And I observe, when any Yahoo comes
from London out of curiosity to visit me at my house, we neither of us are able to
deliver our conceptions in a manner intelligible to the other.
If the censure of the Yahoos could any way affect me, I should have great
reason to complain, that some of them are so bold as to think my book of travels
a mere fiction out of mine own brain, and have gone so far as to drop hints, that
the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos have no more existence than the inhabitants of
Utopia.
Indeed I must confess, that as to the people of Lilliput, Brobdingrag (for so
the word should have been spelt, and not erroneously Brobdingnag), and Laputa,
I have never yet heard of any Yahoo so presumptuous as to dispute their being,
or the facts I have related concerning them; because the truth immediately strikes
every reader with conviction. And is there less probability in my account of the
Houyhnhnms or Yahoos, when it is manifest as to the latter, there are so many
thousands even in this country, who only differ from their brother brutes in
Houyhnhnmland, because they use a sort of jabber, and do not go naked? I
wrote for their amendment, and not their approbation. The united praise of the
whole race would be of less consequence to me, than the neighing of those two
degenerate Houyhnhnms I keep in my stable; because from these, degenerate as
they are, I still improve in some virtues without any mixture of vice.
Do these miserable animals presume to think, that I am so degenerated as to
defend my veracity? Yahoo as I am, it is well known through all
Thesaurus
approbation: (n, v) praise; (n) untruely, misguidedly, amiss. reckless, illogical, extreme, untimely.
applause, agreement, approval, ANTONYMS: (adv) accurately, oldest: (n) elder, doyen; (adj) older.
acclaim, sanction, commendation, rightly. presumptuous: (adj) arrogant,
admiration, permission, appreciation, jabber: (n, v) babble, gabble; (adj, n, v) audacious, forward, assuming,
favor. ANTONYMS: (n) chatter, prattle; (n) drivel, gibberish; insolent, impertinent, assumptive,
condemnation, disapproval, (v) rave, tattle, utter; (adj) clack, familiar, haughty, proud; (adj, n)
criticism. palaver. ANTONYM: (n) sense. bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectful,
degenerated: (adj) kinky, shabby, judicious: (adj, v) discreet; (adj) shy, timid, humble, modest.
crumbly. careful, discerning, sensible, prudent, yahoo: (n) barbarian, chawbacon,
erroneously: (adv) mistakenly, falsely, rational, sagacious, sound, cautious, hayseed, Goth, bumpkin, hick,
incorrectly, faultily, inaccurately, reasonable, advisable. ANTONYMS: Hottentot, clown, vandal, savage,
fallaciously, wrong, inexactly, (adj) stupid, tactless, indiscriminate, rube.
Houyhnhnmland, that, by the instructions and example of my illustrious master,

I was able in the compass of two years (although I confess with the utmost
difficulty) to remove that infernal habit of lying, shuffling, deceiving, and
equivocating, so deeply rooted in the very souls of all my species; especially the
Europeans.%
I have other complaints to make upon this vexatious occasion; but I forbear
troubling myself or you any further. I must freely confess, that since my last
return, some corruptions of my Yahoo nature have revived in me by conversing
with a few of your species, and particularly those of my own family, by an
unavoidable necessity; else I should never have attempted so absurd a project as
that of reforming the Yahoo race in this kingdom: But I have now done with all
such visionary schemes for ever.
April 2, 1727
Thesaurus
deceiving: (adj) deceptive, deceitful, diabolical, demonic, damned, cursed, vexatious: (adj) annoying, pesky,
cheating, fallacious, dishonest, lying, blasted, unholy, wicked; (adj, v) troublesome, tiresome, galling,
treacherous, imposing, delusive, diabolic, satanic. irritating, untoward, thorny,
sanctimonious, mistaken. shuffling: (n) shuffle, evasion, burdensome, pestiferous, vexing.
ANTONYM: (adj) correct. shambling, make, shamble; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) aiding, assisting,
equivocating: (adj) mendacious, lying, evasive, moral turpitude, milling, helpful, soothing.
evasive; (n) evasion. laxity, abjection; (n, v) prevarication. visionary: (adj, n) utopian; (adj, v)
forbear: (v) refrain, desist, help, troubling: (adj) worrying, disquieting, imaginary; (adj) airy, fanciful, unreal,
tolerate, abide, eschew, endure, distressing, distressful, disconcerting, dreamy, ideal, romantic; (n) seer,
relinquish; (n) predecessor, alarming, perturbing, bad, annoying, dreamer, prophet. ANTONYMS: (adj)
progenitor, forebear. sad, worrisome. ANTONYM: (adj) foolish, unromantic, practical, real,
infernal: (adj) devilish, fiendish, reassuring. realistic, unimaginative.
Jonathan Swift 9
PART I—
A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT
Jonathan Swift 11
CHAPTER %I
[The author gives some account of himself and family. His first inducements
to travel. He is shipwrecked, and swims for his life. Gets safe on shore in the
country of Lilliput; is made a prisoner, and carried up the country.]
My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire: I was the third of five sons.
He sent me to Emanuel College in Cambridge at fourteen years old, where I
resided three years, and applied myself close to my studies; but the charge of
maintaining me, although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great for a
narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon
in London, with whom I continued four years. My father now and then sending
me small sums of money, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts
of the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it
would be, some time or other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went
down to my father: where, by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some
other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to
maintain me at Leyden: there I studied physic two years and seven months,
knowing it would be useful in long voyages.
Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recommended by my good master,
Mr. Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannel, commander;
with whom I continued three years and a half, making a voyage or two into the
Thesaurus
apprentice: (n) trainee, disciple, insignificant, humble, ordinary. narrow, scant, light; (adj, v) spare,
beginner, prentice, novice, student, navigation: (n) sailing, steering, lean. ANTONYMS: (adj) generous,
greenhorn, follower, recruit, amateur, shipping, seafaring, cabotage, abundant, ample, strong.
neophyte. ANTONYMS: (n) expert, astronavigation, work, shipwrecked: (adj, v) stranded; (adj)
master, mentor, trainer, guru. transportation, transport, travel, castaway, stuck, rejected, high and
eminent: (adj) high, celebrated, flight. dry; (v) wrecked, cast away, capsized,
elevated, brilliant, illustrious, noble, physic: (n) medicine, aperient, grounded, foundered, swamped.
big, famous, renowned, conspicuous, cathartic, medication, healing, sums: (n) estimate, calculation,
dignified. ANTONYMS: (adj) medicament, drug; (n, v) cure, doctor, arithmetic.
undistinguished, obscure, low, remedy; (v) heal. voyage: (n, v) travel, cruise, tour; (n)
unremarkable, common, scanty: (adj) insufficient, few, trip, passage, expedition, flight,
uncelebrated, unimportant, inadequate, bare, deficient, poor, crossing, quest; (v) sail, navigate.
Levant, and some other parts. When I came back I resolved to settle in London;
to which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged me, and by him I was recommended
to several patients. I took part of a small house in the Old Jewry; and being
advised to alter my condition, I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to
Mr. Edmund Burton, hosier, in Newgate-street, with whom I received four
hundred pounds for a portion.%
But my good master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few friends,
my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the
bad practice of too many among my brethren. Having therefore consulted with
my wife, and some of my acquaintance, I determined to go again to sea. I was
surgeon successively in two ships, and made several voyages, for six years, to the
East and West Indies, by which I got some addition to my fortune. My hours of
leisure I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always
provided with a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the
manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language;
wherein I had a great facility, by the strength of my memory.
The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the sea,
and intended to stay at home with my wife and family. I removed from the Old
Jewry to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business
among the sailors; but it would not turn to account. After three years expectation
that things would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William
Prichard, master of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea.
We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage was at first very
prosperous.
It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the
particulars of our adventures in those seas; let it suffice to inform him, that in our
passage from thence to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the
north-west of Van Diemen’s Land. By an observation, we found ourselves in the
latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead by
immoderate labour and ill food; the rest were in a very weak condition. On the
5th of November, which was the beginning of summer in those parts, the
Thesaurus
advantageous: (adj) expedient, useful, tradesman, shopkeeper, hatter. climate, clime, space, reach.
auspicious, helpful, gainful, imitate: (n, v) duplicate; (v) forge, ape, ANTONYM: (n) constraint.
serviceable, convenient, lucky, emulate, follow, feign, counterfeit, mend: (adj, v) improve; (v) correct,
worthwhile, beneficial; (adj, v) mimic, mock, assume, act. cure, heal, doctor, better, amend,
profitable. ANTONYMS: (adj) immoderate: (adj) excessive, restore, convalesce; (n, v) fix, patch.
useless, disadvantageous, extravagant, undue, exorbitant, ANTONYMS: (v) worsen, tear,
detrimental, unhelpful, unfortunate, extreme, unreasonable, inordinate, smash, decline, deteriorate; (n)
inauspicious, worthless, unpleasant. intemperate, unrestrained, fanatical, fracture.
brethren: (n) congregation, assembly, fulsome. ANTONYMS: (adj) thence: (adv) therefore, thus,
brother, people, laity, family, flock, moderate, frugal. therefrom, thereof, consequently,
fold. latitude: (n) freedom, scope, breadth, then, so, thereafter, thenceforth,
hosier: (n) cordwainer, storekeeper, room, expanse, range, compass, since, on account of.
Jonathan Swift 13
weather being very hazy, the seamen spied a rock within half a cable’s length of
the ship; but the wind was so strong, that we were driven directly upon it, and
immediately split.%
Six of the crew, of whom I was one, having let down the boat into the sea,
made a shift to get clear of the ship and the rock. We rowed, by my computation,
about three leagues, till we were able to work no longer, being already spent
with labour while we were in the ship. We therefore trusted ourselves to the
mercy of the waves, and in about half an hour the boat was overset by a sudden
flurry from the north. What became of my companions in the boat, as well as of
those who escaped on the rock, or were left in the vessel, I cannot tell; but
conclude they were all lost.
For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by
wind and tide. I often let my legs drop, and could feel no bottom; but when I was
almost gone, and able to struggle no longer, I found myself within my depth; and
by this time the storm was much abated. The declivity was so small, that I
walked near a mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was about eight
o’clock in the evening. I then advanced forward near half a mile, but could not
discover any sign of houses or inhabitants; at least I was in so weak a condition,
that I did not observe them. I was extremely tired, and with that, and the heat of
the weather, and about half a pint of brandy that I drank as I left the ship, I found
myself much inclined to sleep. I lay down on the grass, which was very short and
soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remembered to have done in my life, and,
as I reckoned, about nine hours; for when I awaked, it was just day-light. I
attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for, as I happened to lie on my back, I
found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and
my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt
several slender ligatures across my body, from my arm-pits to my thighs. I could
only look upwards; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes. I
heard a confused noise about me; but in the posture I lay, could see nothing
except the sky. In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which
advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin; when,
Thesaurus
abated: (adj) slack. gradient; (v) acclivity, ascent, bank. ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, distinct,
computation: (n, v) calculation, fastened: (adj) tied, fast, buttoned, precise, sunny, thick, detailed,
estimation, reckoning; (n) compute, closed, tight, secure, pinned, binding, definite, strong.
estimate, account, arithmetic, empight, steady, firm. ANTONYMS: offended: (adj) angry, affronted,
figuring, count, computing; (v) (adj) unfastened, unbuttoned. aggrieved, pained, wronged,
enumeration. ANTONYMS: (n) flurry: (n) commotion, stir, bother, annoyed, insulted, shocked, vexed,
guesswork, guessing, conjecture, squall, breeze, ado; (adj, n) bustle, resentful, injured. ANTONYMS: (adj)
estimation. fuss, hurry; (n, v) fluster; (v) indifferent, proud, unconcerned.
conjectured: (adj) supposed, disconcert. ANTONYM: (n) quiet. overset: (v) overturn, reverse, upset,
opinionative. hazy: (adj) fuzzy, cloudy, vague, invert, destroy, tip; (adj, v)
declivity: (n) decline, fall, downhill, blurred, foggy, nebulous, misty, overthrow, overpower; (adj)
downgrade, incline, dip, slope; (n, v) indistinct, blurry, faint, dull. overmaster, overcome, overmatch.
bending %my eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human

creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands, and a quiver at
his back. In the mean time, I felt at least forty more of the same kind (as I
conjectured) following the first. I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so
loud, that they all ran back in a fright; and some of them, as I was afterwards told,
were hurt with the falls they got by leaping from my sides upon the ground.
However, they soon returned, and one of them, who ventured so far as to get a
full sight of my face, lifting up his hands and eyes by way of admiration, cried
out in a shrill but distinct voice, Hekinah degul: the others repeated the same
words several times, but then I knew not what they meant. I lay all this while, as
the reader may believe, in great uneasiness. At length, struggling to get loose, I
had the fortune to break the strings, and wrench out the pegs that fastened my
left arm to the ground; for, by lifting it up to my face, I discovered the methods
they had taken to bind me, and at the same time with a violent pull, which gave
me excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair on the
left side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two inches. But the
creatures ran off a second time, before I could seize them; whereupon there was a
great shout in a very shrill accent, and after it ceased I heard one of them cry
aloud Tolgo phonac; when in an instant I felt above a hundred arrows
discharged on my left hand, which, pricked me like so many needles; and
besides, they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof
many, I suppose, fell on my body, (though I felt them not), and some on my face,
which I immediately covered with my left hand. When this shower of arrows
was over, I fell a groaning with grief and pain; and then striving again to get
loose, they discharged another volley larger than the first, and some of them
attempted with spears to stick me in the sides; but by good luck I had on a buff
jerkin, which they could not pierce. I thought it the most prudent method to lie
still, and my design was to continue so till night, when, my left hand being
already loose, I could easily free myself: and as for the inhabitants, I had reason
to believe I might be a match for the greatest army they could bring against me, if
they were all of the same size with him that I saw. But fortune disposed
otherwise of me. When the people observed I was quiet, they discharged no
Thesaurus
buff: (n) devotee, fan, addict, freed, disengaged, extricated, screech, scream, yell; (adj, v) high,
enthusiast, afficionado, admirer; (adj, unsnarled. sharp. ANTONYMS: (adj) low, quiet,
n) tan, beige; (v) shine, furbish, pierce: (n, v) cut, prick, stick; (v) resonant.
polish. ANTONYMS: (v) corrode, perforate, bore, enter, thrust, uneasiness: (n) disquiet, discomfort,
dull, erode; (n) detractor. puncture, penetrate; (adj, v) stab, inquietude, anxiety, unease, malaise,
groaning: (adj) moaning, groaningly, wound. ANTONYM: (v) seal. disquietude, apprehension, unrest,
inarticulate. quiver: (adj, n, v) shudder, shiver, impatience; (n, v) agitation.
jerkin: (n) jacket, doublet, barbe, tremble, shake; (v) flicker, flutter, ANTONYMS: (n) peace, calm,
CHUDDER, waistcoat, jubbah, talma vibrate; (n, v) palpitate, quaver; (n) confidence.
jacket, pilot jacket, pajamas, oilskins, vibration, tremor. wrench: (n, v) pull, jerk, strain, turn,
gabardine. shrill: (adj) piercing, penetrating, twist, tug, yank; (n) spanner; (v)
loosened: (adj) disentangled, loose, strident, keen, shrewd; (v) shriek, distort, contort, force.
Jonathan Swift 15
more %arrows; but, by the noise I heard, I knew their numbers increased; and
about four yards from me, over against my right ear, I heard a knocking for
above an hour, like that of people at work; when turning my head that way, as
well as the pegs and strings would permit me, I saw a stage erected about a foot
and a half from the ground, capable of holding four of the inhabitants, with two
or three ladders to mount it: from whence one of them, who seemed to be a
person of quality, made me a long speech, whereof I understood not one syllable.
But I should have mentioned, that before the principal person began his oration,
he cried out three times, Langro dehul san (these words and the former were
afterwards repeated and explained to me); whereupon, immediately, about fifty
of the inhabitants came and cut the strings that fastened the left side of my head,
which gave me the liberty of turning it to the right, and of observing the person
and gesture of him that was to speak. He appeared to be of a middle age, and
taller than any of the other three who attended him, whereof one was a page that
held up his train, and seemed to be somewhat longer than my middle finger; the
other two stood one on each side to support him. He acted every part of an
orator, and I could observe many periods of threatenings, and others of promises,
pity, and kindness. I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive
manner, lifting up my left hand, and both my eyes to the sun, as calling him for a
witness; and being almost famished with hunger, having not eaten a morsel for
some hours before I left the ship, I found the demands of nature so strong upon
me, that I could not forbear showing my impatience (perhaps against the strict
rules of decency) by putting my finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I
wanted food. The hurgo (for so they call a great lord, as I afterwards learnt)
understood me very well. He descended from the stage, and commanded that
several ladders should be applied to my sides, on which above a hundred of the
inhabitants mounted and walked towards my mouth, laden with baskets full of
meat, which had been provided and sent thither by the king’s orders, upon the
first intelligence he received of me. I observed there was the flesh of several
animals, but could not distinguish them by the taste. There were shoulders, legs,
and loins, shaped like those of mutton, and very well dressed, but smaller than
the wings of a lark. I ate them by two or three at a mouthful, and took three
Thesaurus
famished: (adj) ravenous, starving, mite. pegs: (v) legs, feet, trotters, pins.
starved, empty, voracious, greedy, mutton: (n) lamb, em, mouton, mut, submissive: (adj) obedient, passive,
malnourished, thin; (adj, v) esurient; sheep, pork, red meat, white meat, meek, dutiful, obsequious, docile,
(v) peckish, lickerish. ANTONYMS: beef, area unit; (v) pilot bread. compliant, resigned, subject, lowly,
(adj) full, satisfied, satiated, gorged, oration: (n) discourse, harangue, servile. ANTONYMS: (adj) assertive,
healthy. lecture, speech, declamation, homily, resistant, disobedient, defiant,
ladders: (n) washboard. tirade, say, recitation, oratory, obstinate, rebellious, wild,
loins: (n) waist, body part, haunch, language. intractable, proactive; (adv) bossily.
lends, pubic region, area, pubes. orator: (n) elocutionist, speechmaker, thither: (adv) hither, whither, on that
morsel: (n, v) bite, mouthful; (n) speaker, lecturer, Cicero, speechifier, point, in that respect, at that place, in
crumb, chew, particle, fragment, demagog, demagogue, eulogist; (v) that location; (adj) further, ulterior,
taste, piece, nibble; (adj, v) gobbet, oratrix, oratress. remoter, succeeding, more distant.
loaves %at a time, about the bigness of musket bullets. They supplied me as fast
as they could, showing a thousand marks of wonder and astonishment at my
bulk and appetite. I then made another sign, that I wanted drink. They found by
my eating that a small quantity would not suffice me; and being a most
ingenious people, they slung up, with great dexterity, one of their largest
hogsheads, then rolled it towards my hand, and beat out the top; I drank it off at
a draught, which I might well do, for it did not hold half a pint, and tasted like a
small wine of Burgundy, but much more delicious. They brought me a second
hogshead, which I drank in the same manner, and made signs for more; but they
had none to give me. When I had performed these wonders, they shouted for joy,
and danced upon my breast, repeating several times as they did at first, Hekinah
degul. They made me a sign that I should throw down the two hogsheads, but
first warning the people below to stand out of the way, crying aloud, Borach
mevolah; and when they saw the vessels in the air, there was a universal shout of
Hekinah degul. I confess I was often tempted, while they were passing
backwards and forwards on my body, to seize forty or fifty of the first that came
in my reach, and dash them against the ground. But the remembrance of what I
had felt, which probably might not be the worst they could do, and the promise
of honour I made them—for so I interpreted my submissive behaviour—soon
drove out these imaginations. Besides, I now considered myself as bound by the
laws of hospitality, to a people who had treated me with so much expense and
magnificence. However, in my thoughts I could not sufficiently wonder at the
intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who durst venture to mount and walk
upon my body, while one of my hands was at liberty, without trembling at the
very sight of so prodigious a creature as I must appear to them. After some time,
when they observed that I made no more demands for meat, there appeared
before me a person of high rank from his imperial majesty. His excellency,
having mounted on the small of my right leg, advanced forwards up to my face,
with about a dozen of his retinue; and producing his credentials under the signet
royal, which he applied close to my eyes, spoke about ten minutes without any
signs of anger, but with a kind of determinate resolution, often pointing
forwards, which, as I afterwards found, was towards the capital city, about half a
Thesaurus
bigness: (n) bulk, size, largeness, adroitness, address. ANTONYMS: (n) glory.
vastness, roominess, magnitude, clumsiness, awkwardness, hogshead: (n) cask, barrel, vat.
grandness, bulkiness, ampleness, ineptitude, inability, uselessness, intrepidity: (n) bravery,
dimensions, volume. inexperience, ineptness, inaccuracy. dauntlessness, courage, audacity,
determinate: (adj) definitive, diminutive: (adj) minute, Lilliputian, valor, heroism, pluck, nerve; (adj, n)
conclusive, certain, clear, special, small, petite, tiny, bantam, baby, daring, prowess; (adj) fearlessness.
decided, final, fixed; (v) absolute, exiguous, short, miniature, midget. mortals: (n) people.
unqualified, express. ANTONYM: ANTONYMS: (adj) big, huge, musket: (n) fusil, blunderbuss, gun,
(adj) indeterminate. gigantic, large, giant, tall. rifle.
dexterity: (n) agility, cleverness, excellency: (n) highness, merit, signet: (n) sigil, completion, key,
ability, aptitude, skill, deftness, majesty, mightiness, virtue, splendor, ratification, signature, imprint,
expertise; (adj, n) art, cunning; (n, v) superiority, worship, grace, chastity, talisman, mark, cachet, stamp, arms.
Jonathan Swift 17
mile %distant; whither it was agreed by his majesty in council that I must be
conveyed. I answered in few words, but to no purpose, and made a sign with my
hand that was loose, putting it to the other (but over his excellency’s head for
fear of hurting him or his train) and then to my own head and body, to signify
that I desired my liberty. It appeared that he understood me well enough, for he
shook his head by way of disapprobation, and held his hand in a posture to
show that I must be carried as a prisoner. However, he made other signs to let
me understand that I should have meat and drink enough, and very good
treatment. Whereupon I once more thought of attempting to break my bonds;
but again, when I felt the smart of their arrows upon my face and hands, which
were all in blisters, and many of the darts still sticking in them, and observing
likewise that the number of my enemies increased, I gave tokens to let them
know that they might do with me what they pleased. Upon this, the hurgo and
his train withdrew, with much civility and cheerful countenances. Soon after I
heard a general shout, with frequent repetitions of the words Peplom selan; and I
felt great numbers of people on my left side relaxing the cords to such a degree,
that I was able to turn upon my right, and to ease myself with making water;
which I very plentifully did, to the great astonishment of the people; who,
conjecturing by my motion what I was going to do, immediately opened to the
right and left on that side, to avoid the torrent, which fell with such noise and
violence from me. But before this, they had daubed my face and both my hands
with a sort of ointment, very pleasant to the smell, which, in a few minutes,
removed all the smart of their arrows. These circumstances, added to the
refreshment I had received by their victuals and drink, which were very
nourishing, disposed me to sleep. I slept about eight hours, as I was afterwards
assured; and it was no wonder, for the physicians, by the emperor’s order, had
mingled a sleepy potion in the hogsheads of wine.
It seems, that upon the first moment I was discovered sleeping on the ground,
after my landing, the emperor had early notice of it by an express; and
determined in council, that I should be tied in the manner I have related, (which
was done in the night while I slept;) that plenty of meat and drink should be sent
to me, and a machine prepared to carry me to the capital city.
Thesaurus
civility: (n) politeness, courtesy, anger, dislike. abundantly, profusely, richly, fully,
comity, attention, propriety, nourishing: (adj) alimentary, healthy, liberally, opulently, amply,
affability, amenity, cultivation, nutrient, healthful, wholesome, rich, prolifically. ANTONYM: (adv)
complaisance, courteousness, nutritive, hearty, alimental, good, meagerly.
civilization. ANTONYMS: (n) beneficial. ANTONYMS: (adj) potion: (n) drink, beverage, medicine,
rudeness, incivility, coarseness. unhealthy, unwholesome, meager, draft, elixir, dose, dram, philter; (n, v)
daubed: (adj) beplastered, covered, insufficient. swill, essence; (v) drench.
greasy. ointment: (n) cream, salve, balm, victuals: (n) food, fare, viands, victual,
disapprobation: (n) condemnation, unguent, unction, oil, lotion, grease, edible, provender, grub, sustenance,
animadversion, displeasure, plaster, embrocation, liniment. support, diet, nutriment.
discountenance, disapproval, blame, plentifully: (adv) plenteously, whither: (adv) hither, thither,
objection, dissatisfaction, disfavor, bountifully, bounteously, whereunto, whereto, for.
This resolution perhaps may appear very bold and dangerous, and I am
confident would not be imitated by any prince in Europe on the like occasion.
However, in my opinion, it was extremely prudent, as well as generous: for,
supposing these people had endeavoured to kill me with their spears and arrows,
while I was asleep, I should certainly have awaked with the first sense of smart,
which might so far have roused my rage and strength, as to have enabled me to
break the strings wherewith I was tied; after which, as they were not able to
make resistance, so they could expect no mercy.%
These people are most excellent mathematicians, and arrived to a great
perfection in mechanics, by the countenance and encouragement of the emperor,
who is a renowned patron of learning. This prince has several machines fixed on
wheels, for the carriage of trees and other great weights. He often builds his
largest men of war, whereof some are nine feet long, in the woods where the
timber grows, and has them carried on these engines three or four hundred
yards to the sea. Five hundred carpenters and engineers were immediately set at
work to prepare the greatest engine they had. It was a frame of wood raised
three inches from the ground, about seven feet long, and four wide, moving
upon twenty-two wheels. The shout I heard was upon the arrival of this engine,
which, it seems, set out in four hours after my landing. It was brought parallel to
me, as I lay. But the principal difficulty was to raise and place me in this vehicle.
Eighty poles, each of one foot high, were erected for this purpose, and very
strong cords, of the bigness of packthread, were fastened by hooks to many
bandages, which the workmen had girt round my neck, my hands, my body, and
my legs. Nine hundred of the strongest men were employed to draw up these
cords, by many pulleys fastened on the poles; and thus, in less than three hours, I
was raised and slung into the engine, and there tied fast. All this I was told; for,
while the operation was performing, I lay in a profound sleep, by the force of
that soporiferous medicine infused into my liquor. Fifteen hundred of the
emperor’s largest horses, each about four inches and a half high, were employed
to draw me towards the metropolis, which, as I said, was half a mile distant.
About four hours after we began our journey, I awaked by a very ridiculous
Thesaurus
cords: (n) trousers, bands, line, strings, imitated: (adj) mimical. somniferous, drowsy, sleepy; (adj)
corduroys, raised bands. infused: (adj) mixed. narcotic, somnific, slumberous, sleep
countenance: (n) aspect, expression, metropolis: (n) city, capital, town, inducing, narcotizing, narcotising; (n)
brow, complexion; (n, v) face, municipality, buffalo, meshed, heavy.
sanction, support, favor; (v) allow, borough, burgh, independence, hull, supposing: (adv) admitting,
tolerate, uphold. ANTONYMS: (v) bale. conditionally, in case; (n)
reject, oppose, discourage, packthread: (n) cord, twine, twist, supposition, conjecture, thought,
disapprove, prohibit. thread, wire. theory, assumption; (conj) although,
girt: (n, v) girth, girdle; (v) gird, roused: (adj) excited, awake, what if; (v) suppose.
begird, encircle, environ; (n) band, susceptible, emotional, elated, wheels: (n) vehicle, truck, car, brush,
belt, zone, cingle; (adj) braced. interested. force.
hooks: (n) maulers, meat hooks. soporiferous: (adj, v) soporific; (adj, n) wherewith: (adv) therewith, herewith.
Jonathan Swift 19
accident; for the carriage being stopped a while, to adjust something that was out
of order, two or three of the young natives had the curiosity to see how I looked
when I was asleep; they climbed up into the engine, and advancing very softly to
my face, one of them, an officer in the guards, put the sharp end of his half-pike a
good way up into my left nostril, which tickled my nose like a straw, and made
me sneeze violently; whereupon they stole off unperceived, and it was three
weeks before I knew the cause of my waking so suddenly. We made a long
march the remaining part of the day, and, rested at night with five hundred
guards on each side of me, half with torches, and half with bows and arrows,
ready to shoot me if I should offer to stir. The next morning at sun-rise we
continued our march, and arrived within two hundred yards of the city gates
about noon. The emperor, and all his court, came out to meet us; but his great
officers would by no means suffer his majesty to endanger his person by
mounting on my body.%
At the place where the carriage stopped there stood an ancient temple,
esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom; which, having been polluted
some years before by an unnatural murder, was, according to the zeal of those
people, looked upon as profane, and therefore had been applied to common use,
and all the ornaments and furniture carried away. In this edifice it was
determined I should lodge. The great gate fronting to the north was about four
feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could easily creep. On each
side of the gate was a small window, not above six inches from the ground: into
that on the left side, the king’s smith conveyed fourscore and eleven chains, like
those that hang to a lady’s watch in Europe, and almost as large, which were
locked to my left leg with six-and-thirty padlocks. Over against this temple, on
the other side of the great highway, at twenty feet distance, there was a turret at
least five feet high. Here the emperor ascended, with many principal lords of his
court, to have an opportunity of viewing me, as I was told, for I could not see
them. It was reckoned that above a hundred thousand inhabitants came out of
the town upon the same errand; and, in spite of my guards, I believe there could
not be fewer than ten thousand at several times, who mounted my body by the
help of ladders. But a proclamation was soon issued, to forbid it upon pain of
Thesaurus
errand: (n) chore, mission, job, task, weasand, nozzle, port, throat, tickled: (adj) tickled pink, overjoyed,
assignment, embassy, duty, charge, trachea, naris, anterior naris, nare. delighted, detective novel, ecstatic,
messenger, communication, work. profane: (v) desecrate, abuse, violate, elated, jubilant, happy, glad, excited.
esteemed: (adj) dear, reputable, defile, outrage, debauch; (adj) ANTONYM: (adj) disappointed.
respected, honorable, noble, honored, irreverent, impious, sacrilegious, turret: (adj) steeple, spire, campanile,
prestigious, important, distinguished, unholy; (adj, v) foul. ANTONYMS: obelisk, pillar, monument, minaret,
August, respect. ANTONYM: (adj) (adj) devout, sacred, moral, religious, column; (n) gun turret, gun
disreputable. reverent. enclosure, garret.
fronting: (n) facing; (adj) apparent, sneeze: (n) sneezing, physiological unperceived: (v) unheeded, unthought
evident, exposed, obvious; (prep) reaction, reflex; (v) arrest, despise, of, unregarded; (adj) unremarked,
against, toward. loathe, act involuntarily, Neese, act unnoted, unobserved, unmarked,
nostril: (n) flue, chimney, funnel, reflexively. unknown, stealthy, sly, secret.
death. When the workmen found it was impossible for me to break loose, they
cut all the strings that bound me; whereupon I rose up, with as melancholy a
disposition as ever I had in my life. But the noise and astonishment of the
people, at seeing me rise and walk, are not to be expressed. The chains that held
my left leg were about two yards long, and gave me not only the liberty of
walking backwards and forwards in a semicircle, but, being fixed within four
inches of the gate, allowed me to creep in, and lie at my full length in the
temple.%
Thesaurus
astonishment: (n) admiration, ANTONYMS: (v) race, dash, hasten, optimism; (adj) happy, bright, cheery,
wonder, wonderment, surprise, hurry, speed, fly. satisfied.
marvel, stupefaction, confusion, disposition: (n) attitude, character, semicircle: (n) arch, semi-circles, half
consternation, awe, alarm, startle. disposal, tendency, predisposition, circle, half-circle, plane figure, arc,
ANTONYMS: (n) calmness, belief, inclination, propensity, bias, curve.
contempt. arrangement, direction, aptitude. strings: (n) string, string section, sway,
chains: (n) fetters, bond, chain, bonds, melancholy: (adj, v) dreary; (adj, n) control, dealings, domination,
handcuffs, irons, manacles, shackles, gloom, melancholic; (adj) depressed, jurisdiction, terms, condition,
iron, confine, trammel. dejected, dismal, gloomy, doleful; (n, command, provision.
creep: (v) grovel, sneak, steal, fawn, v) low spirits; (n) gloominess, whereupon: (adv) thereupon,
lurk, truckle, cringe; (n) creeping, depression. ANTONYMS: (n) hereupon, upon which, at what, at
crawling, toady, sycophant. happiness, cheerfulness, hopefulness, which.
Jonathan Swift 21
CHAPTER II
[The emperor of Lilliput, attended by several of the nobility, comes to see the
author in his confinement. The emperor’s person and habit described. Learned
men appointed to teach the author their language. He gains favour by his mild
disposition. His pockets are searched, and his sword and pistols taken from him.]
When I found myself on my feet, I looked about me, and must confess I never
beheld a more entertaining prospect. The country around appeared like a
continued garden, and the enclosed fields, which were generally forty feet square,
resembled so many beds of flowers. These fields were intermingled with woods
of half a stang, and the tallest trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet
high. I viewed the town on my left hand, which looked like the painted scene of a
city in a theatre.%
I had been for some hours extremely pressed by the necessities of nature;
which was no wonder, it being almost two days since I had last disburdened
myself. I was under great difficulties between urgency and shame. The best
expedient I could think of, was to creep into my house, which I accordingly did;
and shutting the gate after me, I went as far as the length of my chain would
suffer, and discharged my body of that uneasy load. But this was the only time I
was ever guilty of so uncleanly an action; for which I cannot but hope the candid
reader will give some allowance, after he has maturely and impartially
Thesaurus
attended: (adj) attent, fraught, tended disencumbered, unburdened, maturely: (adv) mellowly, adultly,
to. unembarrassed. perfectly, completely, fully, readily,
beheld: (adj) visual. emperor: (n) sovereign, ruler, agedly, oldly, primely, correctly,
candid: (adj) blunt, outspoken, monarch, imperator, mikado, king, conscientiously. ANTONYMS: (adv)
ingenuous, direct, sincere, open, Saturnia pavonia, crowned head, childishly, irresponsibly.
forthright, artless, equitable, honest, emperors, protector, saturniid. necessities: (n) supplies, necessity,
guileless. ANTONYMS: (adj) gains: (n) income, proceeds, profits, essential, wants, support,
scheming, tricky, artful, deceitful, winnings, receipts, revenue. subsistence, requirement, bread.
dishonest, guarded, indirect, intermingled: (adj) amalgamated, uncleanly: (adv) foully, impurely,
insincere, inhibited, disingenuous, integrated, coalesced, blended, grubbily, dirtily, dingily, squalidly,
evasive. incorporated, assorted, consolidated, muddily, grimily, messily; (adj)
disburdened: (adj) disembarrassed, incorporate, amalgamate, fused. impure; (v) slovenly.
considered my case, and the distress I was in. From this time my constant
practice was, as soon as I rose, to perform that business in open air, at the full
extent of my chain; and due care was taken every morning before company came,
that the offensive matter should be carried off in wheel-barrows, by two servants
appointed for that purpose. I would not have dwelt so long upon a circumstance
that, perhaps, at first sight, may appear not very momentous, if I had not thought
it necessary to justify my character, in point of cleanliness, to the world; which, I
am told, some of my maligners have been pleased, upon this and other occasions,
to call in question.%
When this adventure was at an end, I came back out of my house, having
occasion for fresh air. The emperor was already descended from the tower, and
advancing on horseback towards me, which had like to have cost him dear; for
the beast, though very well trained, yet wholly unused to such a sight, which
appeared as if a mountain moved before him, reared up on its hinder feet: but
that prince, who is an excellent horseman, kept his seat, till his attendants ran in,
and held the bridle, while his majesty had time to dismount. When he alighted,
he surveyed me round with great admiration; but kept beyond the length of my
chain. He ordered his cooks and butlers, who were already prepared, to give me
victuals and drink, which they pushed forward in a sort of vehicles upon wheels,
till I could reach them. I took these vehicles and soon emptied them all; twenty
of them were filled with meat, and ten with liquor; each of the former afforded
me two or three good mouthfuls; and I emptied the liquor of ten vessels, which
was contained in earthen vials, into one vehicle, drinking it off at a draught; and
so I did with the rest. The empress, and young princes of the blood of both sexes,
attended by many ladies, sat at some distance in their chairs; but upon the
accident that happened to the emperor’s horse, they alighted, and came near his
person, which I am now going to describe. He is taller by almost the breadth of
my nail, than any of his court; which alone is enough to strike an awe into the
beholders. His features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian lip and
arched nose, his complexion olive, his countenance erect, his body and limbs
well proportioned, all his motions graceful, and his deportment majestic. He
was then past his prime, being twenty-eight years and three quarters old, of
Thesaurus
attendants: (n) entourage, followers, dismount: (v) alight, light, get off, trooper, trainer, knight, cavalryman,
retinue, tendance, persons present, disembark, get down, fall, come animal fancier, postilion.
suite. down, unhorse, go down; (adj, v) majestic: (adj) grand, awesome,
bridle: (n, v) curb, check, control, dismantle; (adj) dismast. stately, imperial, royal, exalted,
snaffle, rein, leash; (n) arrest, reins, ANTONYMS: (v) mount, ascend. glorious, kingly, August; (adj, v)
brake; (v) inhibit, contain. earthen: (adj) clay, ceramic, imposing; (adj, adv) regal.
ANTONYMS: (v) unbridle, earthenware. ANTONYMS: (adj) pathetic, pitiful,
unharness, release. emptied: (adj) empty, void, depleted, modest, lowly, undignified.
deportment: (n, v) bearing, demeanor, emptier, annulled, open, vacuous. proportioned: (adj) attemperate,
conduct, carriage; (n) manner, horseback: (n) hogback, body part. shapely, regular, properly adapted,
attitude, demeanour, behaviour, horseman: (n) cavalier, rider, jockey, even, balanced. ANTONYM: (adj)
comportment, dealing, air. horse fancier, horseback rider, asymmetrical.
Jonathan Swift 23
which he had %reigned about seven in great felicity, and generally victorious. For
the better convenience of beholding him, I lay on my side, so that my face was
parallel to his, and he stood but three yards off: however, I have had him since
many times in my hand, and therefore cannot be deceived in the description. His
dress was very plain and simple, and the fashion of it between the Asiatic and
the European; but he had on his head a light helmet of gold, adorned with jewels,
and a plume on the crest. He held his sword drawn in his hand to defend himself,
if I should happen to break loose; it was almost three inches long; the hilt and
scabbard were gold enriched with diamonds. His voice was shrill, but very clear
and articulate; and I could distinctly hear it when I stood up. The ladies and
courtiers were all most magnificently clad; so that the spot they stood upon
seemed to resemble a petticoat spread upon the ground, embroidered with
figures of gold and silver. His imperial majesty spoke often to me, and I returned
answers: but neither of us could understand a syllable. There were several of his
priests and lawyers present (as I conjectured by their habits), who were
commanded to address themselves to me; and I spoke to them in as many
languages as I had the least smattering of, which were High and Low Dutch,
Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca, but all to no purpose. After
about two hours the court retired, and I was left with a strong guard, to prevent
the impertinence, and probably the malice of the rabble, who were very
impatient to crowd about me as near as they durst; and some of them had the
impudence to shoot their arrows at me, as I sat on the ground by the door of my
house, whereof one very narrowly missed my left eye. But the colonel ordered
six of the ringleaders to be seized, and thought no punishment so proper as to
deliver them bound into my hands; which some of his soldiers accordingly did,
pushing them forward with the butt-ends of their pikes into my reach. I took
them all in my right hand, put five of them into my coat-pocket; and as to the
sixth, I made a countenance as if I would eat him alive. The poor man squalled
terribly, and the colonel and his officers were in much pain, especially when they
saw me take out my penknife: but I soon put them out of fear; for, looking
mildly, and immediately cutting the strings he was bound with, I set him gently
on the ground, and away he ran. I treated the rest in the same manner, taking
Thesaurus
beholding: (n) fusion, seeing, visual effrontery, assurance. ANTONYMS: plume: (n) feather, plumage, quill,
perception, look. (n) cowardice, reticence. panache, aigrette, crest, feathering;
deceived: (adj) mistaken, misguided. penknife: (adj, n) blade; (n) (v) pride, pluck, dress, preen.
impertinence: (n) audacity, gall, switchblade, pocketknife, clasp knife, rabble: (n) crowd, masses, trash, herd,
impudence, insolence, disrespect, pocket knife, carving knife, stiletto; canaille, people, rout, ragtag, horde,
effrontery, brass, boldness, (adj) cutlery, edge tool, whittle, razor. gang, riffraff.
impertinency, sauciness, freshness. petticoat: (adj, n) female; (n) scabbard: (n) case, vagina, casing, pod,
ANTONYMS: (n) politeness, underskirt, skirt, she, woman, her, covering, cover, pouch, pocket, fob.
seriousness, reticence. crinoline, wife, undergarment, apron; smattering: (n) touch, sciolism, hint,
impudence: (adj, n) boldness, brass; (n) (adj) petty. tinge, smatter, bit, dash, discernment,
cheek, gall, audacity, impertinence, pikes: (n) muskellunges, pickerels, suggestion, small indefinite quantity,
insolence, face, cheekiness, family Esocidae. sprinkle.
them one by one out of my pocket; and I observed both the soldiers and people
were highly delighted at this mark of my clemency, which was represented very
much to my advantage at court.%
Towards night I got with some difficulty into my house, where I lay on the
ground, and continued to do so about a fortnight; during which time, the
emperor gave orders to have a bed prepared for me. Six hundred beds of the
common measure were brought in carriages, and worked up in my house; a
hundred and fifty of their beds, sewn together, made up the breadth and length;
and these were four double: which, however, kept me but very indifferently
from the hardness of the floor, that was of smooth stone. By the same
computation, they provided me with sheets, blankets, and coverlets, tolerable
enough for one who had been so long inured to hardships.
As the news of my arrival spread through the kingdom, it brought
prodigious numbers of rich, idle, and curious people to see me; so that the
villages were almost emptied; and great neglect of tillage and household affairs
must have ensued, if his imperial majesty had not provided, by several
proclamations and orders of state, against this inconveniency. He directed that
those who had already beheld me should return home, and not presume to come
within fifty yards of my house, without license from the court; whereby the
secretaries of state got considerable fees.
In the mean time the emperor held frequent councils, to debate what course
should be taken with me; and I was afterwards assured by a particular friend, a
person of great quality, who was as much in the secret as any, that the court was
under many difficulties concerning me. They apprehended my breaking loose;
that my diet would be very expensive, and might cause a famine. Sometimes
they determined to starve me; or at least to shoot me in the face and hands with
poisoned arrows, which would soon despatch me; but again they considered,
that the stench of so large a carcass might produce a plague in the metropolis,
and probably spread through the whole kingdom. In the midst of these
consultations, several officers of the army went to the door of the great council-
chamber, and two of them being admitted, gave an account of my behaviour to
Thesaurus
apprehended: (adj) arrested, seized, (n) blame, cruelty, harshness, enthusiastically, sympathetically.
understood, under arrest, in custody, strictness, unkindness, inured: (adj) accustomed, callous,
detained, appreciated, vindictiveness, mercilessness. enured, habituated, casehardened,
comprehended. hardships: (n) difficulty. confirmed, emotionally hardened,
carcass: (n) body, frame, corpse, indifferently: (adv) carelessly, coldly, broken in, given, tough, trained.
cadaver, framework, shell, carrion, nonchalantly, listlessly, sewn: (adj) stitched, sew, sewen,
remains, dead body, skeleton, bomb. unconcernedly, uninterestedly, seamed.
carriages: (n) carriage. neutrally, middlingly, casually, tillage: (n) agriculture, farming,
clemency: (n) charity, tenderness, unbiasedly, disinterestedly. cultivated land, tilth, husbandry,
leniency, compassion, pardon, pity, ANTONYMS: (adv) passionately, culture, land, fallow, vintage,
benevolence, quarter, grace; (adj, n) obsessively, carefully, eagerly, farmland, plowland.
kindness, benignity. ANTONYMS: energetically, warmly, anxiously, whereby: (adv) how, hereby.
Jonathan Swift 25
the %six criminals above-mentioned; which made so favourable an impression in

the breast of his majesty and the whole board, in my behalf, that an imperial
commission was issued out, obliging all the villages, nine hundred yards round
the city, to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals
for my sustenance; together with a proportionable quantity of bread, and wine,
and other liquors; for the due payment of which, his majesty gave assignments
upon his treasury:—for this prince lives chiefly upon his own demesnes; seldom,
except upon great occasions, raising any subsidies upon his subjects, who are
bound to attend him in his wars at their own expense. An establishment was also
made of six hundred persons to be my domestics, who had board-wages allowed
for their maintenance, and tents built for them very conveniently on each side of
my door. It was likewise ordered, that three hundred tailors should make me a
suit of clothes, after the fashion of the country; that six of his majesty’s greatest
scholars should be employed to instruct me in their language; and lastly, that the
emperor’s horses, and those of the nobility and troops of guards, should be
frequently exercised in my sight, to accustom themselves to me. All these orders
were duly put in execution; and in about three weeks I made a great progress in
learning their language; during which time the emperor frequently honoured me
with his visits, and was pleased to assist my masters in teaching me. We began
already to converse together in some sort; and the first words I learnt, were to
express my desire “that he would please give me my liberty;” which I every day
repeated on my knees. His answer, as I could comprehend it, was, “that this
must be a work of time, not to be thought on without the advice of his council,
and that first I must lumos kelmin pesso desmar lon emposo;” that is, swear a
peace with him and his kingdom. However, that I should be used with all
kindness. And he advised me to “acquire, by my patience and discreet behaviour,
the good opinion of himself and his subjects.” He desired “I would not take it ill,
if he gave orders to certain proper officers to search me; for probably I might
carry about me several weapons, which must needs be dangerous things, if they
answered the bulk of so prodigious a person.” I said, “His majesty should be
satisfied; for I was ready to strip myself, and turn up my pockets before him.”
This I delivered part in words, and part in signs. He replied, “that, by the laws of
Thesaurus
above-mentioned: (adj) prior, instruct: (v) charge, educate, teach, stupendous, exceptional, colossal,
preceding. advise, enlighten, direct, drill, immense, gargantuan; (adj, v)
accustom: (v) acquaint, habituate, inform, command, indoctrinate, monstrous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
season, adjust, teach, acclimate, tutor. unexceptional, normal, average, tiny,
harden, adapt, inure, train, custom. obliging: (adj, v) complaisant, weak.
converse: (n, v) chat, discourse, argue; courteous; (adj) amiable, affable, proportionable: (v) proportional; (adj)
(v) confer, confabulate, speak; (n) gentle, kind, good, benign, pleasant, metely.
conversation, colloquy, contrast; (adj, gracious, compliant. ANTONYMS: sustenance: (n) living, food,
n) opposite; (adj) counter. (adj) uncooperative, unkind, contrary, maintenance, subsistence, fare,
ANTONYMS: (adj, n) equal; (adj) reticent. sustentation, provisions,
similar, complementary; (n) prodigious: (adj) gigantic, enormous, nourishment, nutriment, aliment,
similarity. huge, phenomenal, portentous, livelihood. ANTONYM: (n) extras.
the kingdom, I must be searched by two of his officers; that he knew this could
not be done without my consent and assistance; and he had so good an opinion
of my generosity and justice, as to trust their persons in my hands; that whatever
they took from me, should be returned when I left the country, or paid for at the
rate which I would set upon them.” I took up the two officers in my hands, put
them first into my coat-pockets, and then into every other pocket about me,
except my two fobs, and another secret pocket, which I had no mind should be
searched, wherein I had some little necessaries that were of no consequence to
any but myself. In one of my fobs there was a silver watch, and in the other a
small quantity of gold in a purse. These gentlemen, having pen, ink, and paper,
about them, made an exact inventory of every thing they saw; and when they
had done, desired I would set them down, that they might deliver it to the
emperor. This inventory I afterwards translated into English, and is, word for
word, as follows:%
Imprimis: In the right coat-pocket of the great man-mountain” (for so

I interpret the words quinbus flestrin,) “after the strictest search, we
found only one great piece of coarse-cloth, large enough to be a foot-
cloth for your majesty’s chief room of state. In the left pocket we saw a
huge silver chest, with a cover of the same metal, which we, the
searchers, were not able to lift. We desired it should be opened, and one
of us stepping into it, found himself up to the mid leg in a sort of dust,
some part whereof flying up to our faces set us both a sneezing for
several times together. In his right waistcoat-pocket we found a
prodigious bundle of white thin substances, folded one over another,
about the bigness of three men, tied with a strong cable, and marked
with black figures; which we humbly conceive to be writings, every
letter almost half as large as the palm of our hands. In the left there was a
sort of engine, from the back of which were extended twenty long poles,
resembling the pallisados before your majesty’s court: wherewith we
conjecture the man-mountain combs his head; for we did not always
trouble him with questions, because we found it a great difficulty to
Thesaurus
conceive: (v) think, imagine, humbly: (adv) lowly, meanly, of life, necessity, must.
comprehend, design, apprehend, modestly, submissively, low, shyly, purse: (n) bag, pouch, money,
realize, discover, cogitate, appreciate, lowlily, naturally, regretfully, handbag, sac, currency, pocketbook,
invent, catch. ANTONYMS: (v) remorsefully, repentantly. pelf; (v) wrinkle, pucker, crease.
destroy, doubt, misunderstand, ANTONYMS: (adv) conceitedly, resembling: (adj, prep) like; (adj)
question, ruin. haughtily, pompously, analogous, parallel, similar,
conjecture: (n) supposition, ostentatiously, unrepentantly, conformable, approximate,
speculation, assumption, surmise, affluently, brashly, pretentiously. semblative, other, probable; (prep)
hypothesis; (v) suppose, believe, inventory: (n) catalogue, index, stock, similar to, reminiscent of.
anticipate, assume, speculate; (n, v) catalog, account, enumeration, roll, ANTONYM: (prep) unlike.
estimate. ANTONYMS: (n) certainty; schedule, bill, table, inventorying. sneezing: (n) sternutation, reflex,
(v) demonstrate, know, learn, prove. necessaries: (n) necessary, necessaries physiological reaction, neesing.
Jonathan Swift 27
make %him understand us. In the large pocket, on the right side of his
middle cover” (so I translate the word ranfulo, by which they meant my
breeches,) “we saw a hollow pillar of iron, about the length of a man,
fastened to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar; and upon one
side of the pillar, were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into strange
figures, which we know not what to make of. In the left pocket, another
engine of the same kind. In the smaller pocket on the right side, were
several round flat pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk; some
of the white, which seemed to be silver, were so large and heavy, that my
comrade and I could hardly lift them. In the left pocket were two black
pillars irregularly shaped: we could not, without difficulty, reach the top
of them, as we stood at the bottom of his pocket. One of them was
covered, and seemed all of a piece: but at the upper end of the other
there appeared a white round substance, about twice the bigness of our
heads. Within each of these was enclosed a prodigious plate of steel;
which, by our orders, we obliged him to show us, because we
apprehended they might be dangerous engines. He took them out of
their cases, and told us, that in his own country his practice was to shave
his beard with one of these, and cut his meat with the other. There were
two pockets which we could not enter: these he called his fobs; they were
two large slits cut into the top of his middle cover, but squeezed close by
the pressure of his belly. Out of the right fob hung a great silver chain,
with a wonderful kind of engine at the bottom. We directed him to draw
out whatever was at the end of that chain; which appeared to be a globe,
half silver, and half of some transparent metal; for, on the transparent
side, we saw certain strange figures circularly drawn, and thought we
could touch them, till we found our fingers stopped by the lucid
substance. He put this engine into our ears, which made an incessant
noise, like that of a water-mill: and we conjecture it is either some
unknown animal, or the god that he worships; but we are more inclined
to the latter opinion, because he assured us, (if we understood him right,
for he expressed himself very imperfectly) that he seldom did any thing
Thesaurus
circularly: (adv) spherically, flawlessly, correctly, well. eccentrically, fitfully. ANTONYMS:
orbicularly, rotundly, globularly, incessant: (adj) endless, continual, (adv) evenly, systematically,
annularly, orbiculately, roundedly, everlasting, eternal, constant, constantly, frequently, honestly,
fully, cyclically, circinately, cyclicly. continuous, perpetual, unremitting, peacefully, recurrently.
globe: (n) earth, world, orb, circle, interminable, persistent; (adj, v) lucid: (adj) clear, transparent, limpid,
eyeball, round, planet, bolus, fireball, frequent. ANTONYMS: (adj) coherent, distinct, evident, explicit,
bulb; (adj, n) sphere. intermittent, occasional, sporadic, crystalline, light, diaphanous, bright.
imperfectly: (adv) faultily, defectively, broken, finite. ANTONYMS: (adj) opaque,
badly, deficiently, incompletely, irregularly: (adv) erratically, unintelligible, muddled, unclear,
partially, poorly, inadequately, occasionally, abnormally, irrational, confusing, illogical,
sketchily, incorrectly, halfway. sporadically, crookedly, unequally, ambiguous, confused, vague,
ANTONYMS: (adv) perfectly, randomly, atypically, roughly, incoherent.
without consulting it. He called it his oracle, and said, it pointed out the
time for every action of his life. From the left fob he took out a net almost
large enough for a fisherman, but contrived to open and shut like a purse,
and served him for the same use: we found therein several massy pieces
of yellow metal, which, if they be real gold, must be of immense value.%
Having thus, in obedience to your majesty’s commands, diligently
searched all his pockets, we observed a girdle about his waist made of
the hide of some prodigious animal, from which, on the left side, hung a
sword of the length of five men; and on the right, a bag or pouch divided
into two cells, each cell capable of holding three of your majesty’s
subjects. In one of these cells were several globes, or balls, of a most
ponderous metal, about the bigness of our heads, and requiring a strong
hand to lift them: the other cell contained a heap of certain black grains,
but of no great bulk or weight, for we could hold above fifty of them in
the palms of our hands.
This is an exact inventory of what we found about the body of the
man-mountain, who used us with great civility, and due respect to your
majesty’s commission. Signed and sealed on the fourth day of the eighty-
ninth moon of your majesty’s auspicious reign.
CLEFRIN FRELOCK
MARSI FRELOCK
When this inventory was read over to the emperor, he directed me, although
in very gentle terms, to deliver up the several particulars. He first called for my
scimitar, which I took out, scabbard and all. In the mean time he ordered three
thousand of his choicest troops (who then attended him) to surround me at a
distance, with their bows and arrows just ready to discharge; but I did not
observe it, for mine eyes were wholly fixed upon his majesty. He then desired me
to draw my scimitar, which, although it had got some rust by the sea water, was,
in most parts, exceeding bright. I did so, and immediately all the troops gave a
shout between terror and surprise; for the sun shone clear, and the reflection
dazzled their eyes, as I waved the scimitar to and fro in my hand. His majesty,
Thesaurus
auspicious: (adj) lucky, favorable, diligently: (adv) busily, assiduously, mass, beamy.
propitious, happy, prosperous, sedulously, attentively, pieces: (n) debris, trash.
providential, successful, opportune; industriously, earnestly, actively, ponderous: (adj) heavy, grave,
(adj, n) fortunate, helpful; (adj, v) laboriously, tirelessly, carefully, onerous, burdensome, massive,
auspicial. ANTONYMS: (adj) studiously. ANTONYMS: (adv) unwieldy, bulky, stodgy, hard,
unfortunate, inopportune, wearily, hastily. tedious, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj)
unfavorable, untimely, ominous, girdle: (v) encircle, circle, compass, elegant, graceful, lively, brisk,
unlucky, insignificant. gird, enclose, encompass; (n, v) zone, manageable.
choicest: (adj) optimum, best. ring; (n) cincture, cummerbund, sash. scimitar: (n) sabre, cutlass, falchion,
dazzled: (adj) confused, dazzle, massy: (adj) bulky, ample, sword, broadsword, cavalry sword,
bewildered, blind, blinder, voluminous, heavy, considerable, knife, scimiter.
fascinated, unsighted. weighty, ponderous, compacted, in therein: (adv) in this, in there.
Jonathan Swift 29
who %is a most magnanimous prince, was less daunted than I could expect: he
ordered me to return it into the scabbard, and cast it on the ground as gently as I
could, about six feet from the end of my chain. The next thing he demanded was
one of the hollow iron pillars; by which he meant my pocket pistols. I drew it out,
and at his desire, as well as I could, expressed to him the use of it; and charging it
only with powder, which, by the closeness of my pouch, happened to escape
wetting in the sea (an inconvenience against which all prudent mariners take
special care to provide,) I first cautioned the emperor not to be afraid, and then I
let it off in the air. The astonishment here was much greater than at the sight of
my scimitar. Hundreds fell down as if they had been struck dead; and even the
emperor, although he stood his ground, could not recover himself for some time.
I delivered up both my pistols in the same manner as I had done my scimitar,
and then my pouch of powder and bullets; begging him that the former might be
kept from fire, for it would kindle with the smallest spark, and blow up his
imperial palace into the air. I likewise delivered up my watch, which the
emperor was very curious to see, and commanded two of his tallest yeomen of
the guards to bear it on a pole upon their shoulders, as draymen in England do a
barrel of ale. He was amazed at the continual noise it made, and the motion of
the minute-hand, which he could easily discern; for their sight is much more
acute than ours: he asked the opinions of his learned men about it, which were
various and remote, as the reader may well imagine without my repeating;
although indeed I could not very perfectly understand them. I then gave up my
silver and copper money, my purse, with nine large pieces of gold, and some
smaller ones; my knife and razor, my comb and silver snuff-box, my
handkerchief and journal-book. My scimitar, pistols, and pouch, were conveyed
in carriages to his majesty’s stores; but the rest of my goods were returned me.
I had as I before observed, one private pocket, which escaped their search,
wherein there was a pair of spectacles (which I sometimes use for the weakness
of mine eyes,) a pocket perspective, and some other little conveniences; which,
being of no consequence to the emperor, I did not think myself bound in honour
to discover, and I apprehended they might be lost or spoiled if I ventured them
out of my possession.
Thesaurus
conveniences: (n) creature comforts, descry; (adj, v) recognize. miserly, unforgiving, petty.
comforts, convenience, living, ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, neglect, pouch: (n, v) bag; (n) pocket, poke,
support, livelihood, keep, sustenance, disregard, observe, overlook. mailbag, sac, pod, purse, sack,
facility, facilities, device. kindle: (adj, v) inflame; (v) fire, excite, bladder; (v) bulk, bulge.
conveyed: (v) borne, sent. arouse, burn, flame, awaken, incite, spoiled: (adj) bad, rotten, stale, spoil,
daunted: (adj) downcast, dispirited, enkindle, stir; (n, v) light. coddled, pampered, corrupt,
discouraged, frightened, intimidated, ANTONYMS: (v) enkindle, dampen, damaged, spoilt, putrid, rancid.
disheartened, dismayed, afraid, calm, extinguish, quench, stifle. ANTONYM: (adj) unspoiled.
abashed, bashful, discomposed. magnanimous: (adj) generous, great, wetting: (n) moistening, damping,
discern: (v) differentiate, see, noble, bountiful, exalted, big, watering, splash, leak, passing water,
comprehend, detect, distinguish, handsome, lofty, large, charitable, ducking, making water, immersion,
make out, perceive, find, note; (n, v) considerate. ANTONYMS: (adj) dousing, leakage.
Jonathan Swift 31
CHAPTER %III
[The author diverts the emperor, and his nobility of both sexes, in a very
uncommon manner. The diversions of the court of Lilliput described. The author
has his liberty granted him upon certain conditions.]
My gentleness and good behaviour had gained so far on the emperor and his
court, and indeed upon the army and people in general, that I began to conceive
hopes of getting my liberty in a short time. I took all possible methods to
cultivate this favourable disposition. The natives came, by degrees, to be less
apprehensive of any danger from me. I would sometimes lie down, and let five
or six of them dance on my hand; and at last the boys and girls would venture to
come and play at hide-and-seek in my hair. I had now made a good progress in
understanding and speaking the language. The emperor had a mind one day to
entertain me with several of the country shows, wherein they exceed all nations I
have known, both for dexterity and magnificence. I was diverted with none so
much as that of the rope-dancers, performed upon a slender white thread,
extended about two feet, and twelve inches from the ground. Upon which I shall
desire liberty, with the reader’s patience, to enlarge a little.
This diversion is only practised by those persons who are candidates for great
employments, and high favour at court. They are trained in this art from their
youth, and are not always of noble birth, or liberal education. When a great office
Thesaurus
apprehensive: (adj) anxious, fearful, brutalize, stunt, retard, pollute, benevolence, mercy. ANTONYMS:
uneasy, alarmed, worried, timid, ignore, harm, discourage. (n) severity, harshness, fierceness,
doubtful, shy, insecure, jealous; (adj, enlarge: (v) expand, aggrandize, cruelty, ferocity, brusqueness,
n) nervous. ANTONYMS: (adj) augment, dilate, distend, widen, abruptness, rage, callousness,
assured, unworried, calm, unafraid, increase, elaborate, extend, blow up, sharpness, roughness.
cocksure, trusting, serene, grow. ANTONYMS: (v) reduce, magnificence: (adj, n) splendor,
unconcerned, fearless, carefree, shrink, contract, decrease, compress, brilliancy, gorgeousness; (n) glory,
brave. condense, diminish, lessen, pomp, brilliance, grandness,
cultivate: (v) civilize, educate, train, minimize, narrow, abridge. greatness, dignity, majesty, loftiness.
produce, polish, farm, crop, develop, gentleness: (adj, n) kindness, courtesy, ANTONYMS: (n) paucity, modesty,
domesticate, raise; (adj, v) promote. benignity, compassion; (n) kindliness, shabbiness, poverty, austerity,
ANTONYMS: (v) neglect, sterilize, lenity, mildness, sweetness, softness, unattractiveness.
is vacant, either by death or disgrace (which often happens,) five or six of those
candidates petition the emperor to entertain his majesty and the court with a
dance on the rope; and whoever jumps the highest, without falling, succeeds in
the office. Very often the chief ministers themselves are commanded to show
their skill, and to convince the emperor that they have not lost their faculty.
Flimnap, the treasurer, is allowed to cut a caper on the straight rope, at least an
inch higher than any other lord in the whole empire. I have seen him do the
summerset several times together, upon a trencher fixed on a rope which is no
thicker than a common packthread in England. My friend Reldresal, principal
secretary for private affairs, is, in my opinion, if I am not partial, the second after
the treasurer; the rest of the great officers are much upon a par.%
These diversions are often attended with fatal accidents, whereof great
numbers are on record. I myself have seen two or three candidates break a limb.
But the danger is much greater, when the ministers themselves are commanded
to show their dexterity; for, by contending to excel themselves and their fellows,
they strain so far that there is hardly one of them who has not received a fall, and
some of them two or three. I was assured that, a year or two before my arrival,
Flimnap would infallibly have broke his neck, if one of the king’s cushions, that
accidentally lay on the ground, had not weakened the force of his fall.
There is likewise another diversion, which is only shown before the emperor
and empress, and first minister, upon particular occasions. The emperor lays on
the table three fine silken threads of six inches long; one is blue, the other red,
and the third green. These threads are proposed as prizes for those persons
whom the emperor has a mind to distinguish by a peculiar mark of his favour.
The ceremony is performed in his majesty’s great chamber of state, where the
candidates are to undergo a trial of dexterity very different from the former, and
such as I have not observed the least resemblance of in any other country of the
new or old world. The emperor holds a stick in his hands, both ends parallel to
the horizon, while the candidates advancing, one by one, sometimes leap over
the stick, sometimes creep under it, backward and forward, several times,
according as the stick is advanced or depressed. Sometimes the emperor holds
Thesaurus
caper: (n, v) skip, bound, frolic, hop, excel: (v) top, surpass, cap, outdo, officers: (n) executive committee, staff.
romp, leap, play, gambol; (n) prank, pass, eclipse, beat, transcend, lead, silken: (adj) glossy, silk, sleek, soft,
joke, antic. ANTONYM: (v) restrain. outshine; (adj, v) better. satiny, satin, shiny, smooth, slick,
commanded: (adj) lawful. ANTONYMS: (v) flunk, trail. downy, mild. ANTONYMS: (adj)
contending: (adj) contentious, infallibly: (adv) unerringly, coarse, dull, rough.
conflicting, competitive, competing, unfailingly, inerrably, assuredly, summerset: (n) somersault.
competitory, combatant, challenging, certainly, firmly. threads: (n) duds, clothing, apparel,
factious, militant, warlike, fighting. jumps: (n) fit, nervousness, tension, clothes, wear, vesture, coat, cords,
empress: (n) emperor, margravine, anxiety, jitters. dress, garb, garment.
sultana, infanta, queen, princess, limb: (n) arm, branch, member, bough, trencher: (n) dish, platter, chopping
noble, monarch, lady, ruler, extremity, offshoot, part, leg, wing, board, porringer, potager, ditch
emperess. appendage, edge. digger, saucer, calabash, crucible.
Jonathan Swift 33
one end of the stick, and his first minister the other; sometimes the minister has it
entirely to himself. Whoever performs his part with most agility, and holds out
the longest in leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the blue-coloured silk; the
red is given to the next, and the green to the third, which they all wear girt twice
round about the middle; and you see few great persons about this court who are
not adorned with one of these girdles.%
The horses of the army, and those of the royal stables, having been daily led
before me, were no longer shy, but would come up to my very feet without
starting. The riders would leap them over my hand, as I held it on the ground;
and one of the emperor’s huntsmen, upon a large courser, took my foot, shoe
and all; which was indeed a prodigious leap. I had the good fortune to divert the
emperor one day after a very extraordinary manner. I desired he would order
several sticks of two feet high, and the thickness of an ordinary cane, to be
brought me; whereupon his majesty commanded the master of his woods to give
directions accordingly; and the next morning six woodmen arrived with as many
carriages, drawn by eight horses to each. I took nine of these sticks, and fixing
them firmly in the ground in a quadrangular figure, two feet and a half square, I
took four other sticks, and tied them parallel at each corner, about two feet from
the ground; then I fastened my handkerchief to the nine sticks that stood erect;
and extended it on all sides, till it was tight as the top of a drum; and the four
parallel sticks, rising about five inches higher than the handkerchief, served as
ledges on each side. When I had finished my work, I desired the emperor to let a
troop of his best horses twenty-four in number, come and exercise upon this
plain. His majesty approved of the proposal, and I took them up, one by one, in
my hands, ready mounted and armed, with the proper officers to exercise them.
As soon as they got into order they divided into two parties, performed mock
skirmishes, discharged blunt arrows, drew their swords, fled and pursued,
attacked and retired, and in short discovered the best military discipline I ever
beheld. The parallel sticks secured them and their horses from falling over the
stage; and the emperor was so much delighted, that he ordered this
entertainment to be repeated several days, and once was pleased to be lifted up
and give the word of command; and with great difficulty persuaded even the
Thesaurus
adorned: (adj) decorated, ornate, beat, birch, thrash, lash; (n) stick, bat, beguile, depart, disport, digress,
bedecked, decked out, fancy, rattan, twig. sidetrack. ANTONYMS: (v) bore,
garnished, ornamented, decked, courser: (n) shorebird, steed, hunter, irritate, maintain, set, upset, stay,
beautiful, inscribed, festooned. thoroughbred, palfrey, nag, displease, sadden.
agility: (n) quickness, lightness, Galloway, blood horse, beast of leaping: (n) jump, bounce, bound,
alacrity, adroitness, promptitude, burden, beast; (adj) eagle. leap, spring, saltation, bouncing; (v)
mobility, legerdemain, liveliness, creeping: (n) creep, crawl, locomotion, jumping; (adj, v) bounding; (adj)
rapidity, speed, activity. spreading; (v) lentor; (adj) reptile, springing; (adv) leapingly.
ANTONYMS: (n) slowness, slow, reptant, reptatory, serpiginous, quadrangular: (adj) square, tetragonal.
oafishness, inflexibility, heaviness, moving. troop: (n) group, corps, gang, crowd,
awkwardness. divert: (adj, v) distract; (v) entertain, band, brigade, crew, herd, swarm,
cane: (n, v) scourge, whip; (v) flog, avert, delight, deflect, deviate, horde; (n, v) flock.
empress herself to let me hold her in her close chair within two yards of the stage,
when she was able to take a full view of the whole performance. It was my good
fortune, that no ill accident happened in these entertainments; only once a fiery
horse, that belonged to one of the captains, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole
in my handkerchief, and his foot slipping, he overthrew his rider and himself;
but I immediately relieved them both, and covering the hole with one hand, I set
down the troop with the other, in the same manner as I took them up. The horse
that fell was strained in the left shoulder, but the rider got no hurt; and I repaired
my handkerchief as well as I could: however, I would not trust to the strength of
it any more, in such dangerous enterprises.%
About two or three days before I was set at liberty, as I was entertaining the
court with this kind of feat, there arrived an express to inform his majesty, that
some of his subjects, riding near the place where I was first taken up, had seen a
great black substance lying on the around, very oddly shaped, extending its
edges round, as wide as his majesty’s bedchamber, and rising up in the middle
as high as a man; that it was no living creature, as they at first apprehended, for
it lay on the grass without motion; and some of them had walked round it
several times; that, by mounting upon each other’s shoulders, they had got to the
top, which was flat and even, and, stamping upon it, they found that it was
hollow within; that they humbly conceived it might be something belonging to
the man-mountain; and if his majesty pleased, they would undertake to bring it
with only five horses. I presently knew what they meant, and was glad at heart
to receive this intelligence. It seems, upon my first reaching the shore after our
shipwreck, I was in such confusion, that before I came to the place where I went
to sleep, my hat, which I had fastened with a string to my head while I was
rowing, and had stuck on all the time I was swimming, fell off after I came to
land; the string, as I conjecture, breaking by some accident, which I never
observed, but thought my hat had been lost at sea. I entreated his imperial
majesty to give orders it might be brought to me as soon as possible, describing
to him the use and the nature of it: and the next day the waggoners arrived with
it, but not in a very good condition; they had bored two holes in the brim, within
an inch and half of the edge, and fastened two hooks in the holes; these hooks
Thesaurus
bedchamber: (n) bedroom, dormitory, fervid, impassioned, peppery; (adj, v) pawing: (n) intimacy.
room, sleeping room, master fierce, violent. ANTONYMS: (adj) repaired: (adj) reconditioned,
bedroom, boudoir. calm, passionless, dispassionate, maintained, mended, fastened,
brim: (n) rim, periphery, verge, edge, indifferent, placid, gentle, cool; (adv) serviced, intent, frozen, flat,
lip, hem, rand, margin, perimeter, easygoing. serviceable.
brink, limit. hoof: (n) toe, sole, hooves, bottom, rowing: (n) boating, athletics, dustup,
feat: (n) deed, accomplishment, keel, root, leg, ungula, unguis, animal quarrel, course; (adj) nautical.
achievement, act, effort, performance, foot; (v) step. shipwreck: (n, v) ruin; (adj, v) sink; (v)
action, triumph, attainment, trick; mounting: (n, v) mount; (adj, n) defeat, scuttle, destroy, fail; (n) hulk,
(adj) fetis . ANTONYM: (n) inaction. climbing; (n) ascent, setting, climb, accident, wreckage, wrack, ruination.
fiery: (adj, n) burning, passionate, frame, assembly, chassis, framework, stamping: (n) impression, blocking,
glowing; (adj) fervent, ablaze, hot, ascension; (adj, adv) rising. coin, postage, stamping of rail.
Jonathan Swift 35
were tied by a long cord to the harness, and thus my hat was dragged along for
above half an English mile; but, the ground in that country being extremely
smooth and level, it received less damage than I expected.%
Two days after this adventure, the emperor, having ordered that part of his
army which quarters in and about his metropolis, to be in readiness, took a fancy
of diverting himself in a very singular manner. He desired I would stand like a
Colossus, with my legs as far asunder as I conveniently could. He then
commanded his general (who was an old experienced leader, and a great patron
of mine) to draw up the troops in close order, and march them under me; the
foot by twenty-four abreast, and the horse by sixteen, with drums beating,
colours flying, and pikes advanced. This body consisted of three thousand foot,
and a thousand horse. His majesty gave orders, upon pain of death, that every
soldier in his march should observe the strictest decency with regard to my
person; which however could not prevent some of the younger officers from
turning up their eyes as they passed under me: and, to confess the truth, my
breeches were at that time in so ill a condition, that they afforded some
opportunities for laughter and admiration.
I had sent so many memorials and petitions for my liberty, that his majesty at
length mentioned the matter, first in the cabinet, and then in a full council; where
it was opposed by none, except Skyresh Bolgolam, who was pleased, without
any provocation, to be my mortal enemy. But it was carried against him by the
whole board, and confirmed by the emperor. That minister was galbet, or
admiral of the realm, very much in his master’s confidence, and a person well
versed in affairs, but of a morose and sour complexion. However, he was at
length persuaded to comply; but prevailed that the articles and conditions upon
which I should be set free, and to which I must swear, should be drawn up by
himself. These articles were brought to me by Skyresh Bolgolam in person
attended by two under-secretaries, and several persons of distinction. After they
were read, I was demanded to swear to the performance of them; first in the
manner of my own country, and afterwards in the method prescribed by their
laws; which was, to hold my right foot in my left hand, and to place the middle
Thesaurus
abreast: (adv) opposite, acquainted, knickerbockers, brogues, short, singular: (adj, n) extraordinary; (adj)
off, au fait, alongside, on one side, smalls, overalls, small clothes, pants, odd, individual, particular, peculiar,
abeam; (adj) near, aligned, trousers, pantaloons. phenomenal, rare, queer, single,
knowledgeable; (prep) against. diverting: (adj, v) entertaining; (adj) quaint, exceptional. ANTONYMS:
ANTONYMS: (adv) uninformed, lost, comical, fun, amusive, droll, comic, (adj) ordinary, normal, together,
unaware. laughable, funny, humorous, usual, customary.
asunder: (adj, v) separate; (adv) aside, recreative, intriguing. versed: (adj) skillful, skilled,
in two; (adj, adv) in Twain; (adj) loose, memorials: (n) memoir. knowledgeable, proficient, expert,
distant, adrift, aloof; (v) discrete, far morose: (adj) grim, dismal, glum, dark, adept, conversant, old, learned,
between, free. ANTONYM: (adv) moody, grumpy, dour, depressed, adroit, practised. ANTONYMS: (adj)
together. sullen, blue, dejected. ANTONYMS: green, immature, inexperienced,
breeches: (n) knickers, inexpressibles, (adj) happy, cheery, stable. unversed.
finger of my right hand on the crown of my head, and my thumb on the tip of
my right ear. But because the reader may be curious to have some idea of the
style and manner of expression peculiar to that people, as well as to know the
article upon which I recovered my liberty, I have made a translation of the whole
instrument, word for word, as near as I was able, which I here offer to the
public.%
“Golbasto Momarem Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue, most mighty
Emperor of Lilliput, delight and terror of the universe, whose dominions extend
five thousand blustrugs (about twelve miles in circumference) to the extremities
of the globe; monarch of all monarchs, taller than the sons of men; whose feet
press down to the centre, and whose head strikes against the sun; at whose nod
the princes of the earth shake their knees; pleasant as the spring, comfortable as
the summer, fruitful as autumn, dreadful as winter: his most sublime majesty
proposes to the man-mountain, lately arrived at our celestial dominions, the
following articles, which, by a solemn oath, he shall be obliged to perform:—
“1st, The man-mountain shall not depart from our dominions, without our
license under our great seal.
“2d, He shall not presume to come into our metropolis, without our express
order; at which time, the inhabitants shall have two hours warning to keep
within doors.
“3d, The said man-mountain shall confine his walks to our principal high
roads, and not offer to walk, or lie down, in a meadow or field of corn.
“4th, As he walks the said roads, he shall take the utmost care not to trample
upon the bodies of any of our loving subjects, their horses, or carriages, nor take
any of our subjects into his hands without their own consent.
“5th, If an express requires extraordinary despatch, the man-mountain shall
be obliged to carry, in his pocket, the messenger and horse a six days journey,
once in every moon, and return the said messenger back (if so required) safe to
our imperial presence.
“6th, He shall be our ally against our enemies in the island of Blefuscu, and
Thesaurus
bodies: (n) people, public. confine: (n, v) bound, border, limit; (v) liberty, authority, authorization,
celestial: (adj) ethereal, divine, bind, restrain, circumscribe, tie, certificate; (v) certify. ANTONYMS:
supernal, angelic, holy, sacred, incarcerate, hold; (n) boundary, (v) decertify; (n) restriction.
astronomical, unworldly, bounds. ANTONYMS: (v) release, monarchs: (n) royals, royalty.
superlunary, from on high; (n) free, liberate, broaden. sublime: (adj, v) majestic; (adj)
heaven. ANTONYMS: (adj) despatch: (n) shipment, expedition, dignified, grand, lofty, magnificent,
mundane, secular, terrestrial, mortal. communique, mission, consignment, elevated, noble, exalted, glorious; (v)
circumference: (n) circuit, border, sending, forwarding; (v) transmit, sacred, sublimate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
perimeter, boundary, periphery, expedite, quicken, send. poor, ridiculous.
outline, brim, compass, circle, edge, knees: (n) knee. trample: (v) oppress, stamp, squash,
rim. ANTONYMS: (n) middle, inside, license: (n, v) permit, allow, licence; crush, tread, flatten, defeat, suppress,
interior, center. (n) allowance, freedom, permission, step, frustrate; (n) trampling.
Jonathan Swift 37
do his utmost to destroy their fleet, which is now preparing to invade us.%
“7th, That the said man-mountain shall, at his times of leisure, be aiding and
assisting to our workmen, in helping to raise certain great stones, towards
covering the wall of the principal park, and other our royal buildings.
“8th, That the said man-mountain shall, in two moons’ time, deliver in an
exact survey of the circumference of our dominions, by a computation of his own
paces round the coast.
“Lastly, That, upon his solemn oath to observe all the above articles, the said
man-mountain shall have a daily allowance of meat and drink sufficient for the
support of 1724 of our subjects, with free access to our royal person, and other
marks of our favour. Given at our palace at Belfaborac, the twelfth day of the
ninety-first moon of our reign.”
I swore and subscribed to these articles with great cheerfulness and content,
although some of them were not so honourable as I could have wished; which
proceeded wholly from the malice of Skyresh Bolgolam, the high-admiral:
whereupon my chains were immediately unlocked, and I was at full liberty. The
emperor himself, in person, did me the honour to be by at the whole ceremony. I
made my acknowledgements by prostrating myself at his majesty’s feet: but he
commanded me to rise; and after many gracious expressions, which, to avoid the
censure of vanity, I shall not repeat, he added, “that he hoped I should prove a
useful servant, and well deserve all the favours he had already conferred upon
me, or might do for the future.”
The reader may please to observe, that, in the last article of the recovery of
my liberty, the emperor stipulates to allow me a quantity of meat and drink
sufficient for the support of 1724 Lilliputians. Some time after, asking a friend at
court how they came to fix on that determinate number, he told me that his
majesty’s mathematicians, having taken the height of my body by the help of a
quadrant, and finding it to exceed theirs in the proportion of twelve to one, they
concluded from the similarity of their bodies, that mine must contain at least
1724 of theirs, and consequently would require as much food as was necessary to
support that number of Lilliputians. By which the reader may conceive an idea of
Thesaurus
aiding: (adj) healthy, subventitious, cheerfulness: (n) glee, happiness, assault. ANTONYMS: (v) withdraw,
subsidiary, serviceable, auxiliary, exhilaration, hilarity, mirth, surrender.
convenient. merriment, gladness, cheer, good malice: (n) spite, animosity, enmity,
censure: (n, v) accuse, reprimand, spirits, pleasure, joviality. venom, ill will, hatred, malevolence,
reproach, attack, animadversion, ANTONYMS: (n) sadness, grimness, cruelty, envy, hate, spleen.
abuse; (n) accusation, condemnation; seriousness, misery, resentment, ANTONYMS: (n) goodwill,
(v) carp, condemn, berate. uncheerfulness, solemnity, lethargy, benevolence, affection, goodness.
ANTONYMS: (v) approve, bleakness, gravity, gloominess. quadrant: (n) quarter, sector, sextant,
commend, allow, endorse, laud, conferred: (adj) given, presented. right angle, measuring instrument,
permit, sanction; (n) approval, invade: (v) infringe, intrude, occupy, line, intermediate gear bracket,
blessing, commendation; (n, v) overrun, impinge, encroach upon, measuring system, a quarter of a
compliment. raid, infest; (n, v) assail, attack, period, angular unit, area.
the ingenuity of that people, as well as the prudent and exact economy of so
great a prince.%
Thesaurus
economy: (adj) economic, economical; approximate, inexact, rough, careless, imagination, acumen, resource,
(n) saving, thrift, parsimony, thoughtless, indeterminate; (v) originality, skill, wit, inventiveness.
conservation, curtailment, business, tender, give. ANTONYM: (n) ineptness.
economics, providence, thriftiness. great: (adj) eminent, gigantic, big, prudent: (adj, v) discreet; (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) extravagance, distinguished, large, extensive, cautious, circumspect, reasonable,
generosity, spending, squandering, extreme, grand, chief, ample, chary, economical, careful, frugal,
wastefulness, lavishness; (adj) luxury. massive. ANTONYMS: (adj) awful, deliberate, advisable, canny.
exact: (adj, n) correct; (v) demand, insignificant, tiny, mild, poor, minor, ANTONYMS: (adj) imprudent,
claim, command, ask; (n, v) require; useless, ordinary, slight, weak, reckless, spendthrift, stupid, careless,
(adj, v) close, direct; (adj) precise, unknown. unwise, unsafe, tactless.
detailed, faithful. ANTONYMS: (adj) ingenuity: (adj, n) ability; (n)
wrong, vague, imprecise, adroitness, ingeniousness, cunning,
Jonathan Swift 39
CHAPTER %IV
[Mildendo, the metropolis of Lilliput, described, together with the emperor’s

palace. A conversation between the author and a principal secretary, concerning
the affairs of that empire. The author’s offers to serve the emperor in his wars.]
The first request I made, after I had obtained my liberty, was, that I might
have license to see Mildendo, the metropolis; which the emperor easily granted
me, but with a special charge to do no hurt either to the inhabitants or their
houses. The people had notice, by proclamation, of my design to visit the town.
The wall which encompassed it is two feet and a half high, and at least eleven
inches broad, so that a coach and horses may be driven very safely round it; and
it is flanked with strong towers at ten feet distance. I stepped over the great
western gate, and passed very gently, and sidling, through the two principal
streets, only in my short waistcoat, for fear of damaging the roofs and eaves of
the houses with the skirts of my coat. I walked with the utmost circumspection,
to avoid treading on any stragglers who might remain in the streets, although the
orders were very strict, that all people should keep in their houses, at their own
peril. The garret windows and tops of houses were so crowded with spectators,
that I thought in all my travels I had not seen a more populous place. The city is
an exact square, each side of the wall being five hundred feet long. The two great
streets, which run across and divide it into four quarters, are five feet wide. The
Thesaurus
circumspection: (n) care, wariness, dome, noggin, classical Greek. proclamation: (n) announcement,
chariness, cautiousness, calculation, peril: (n, v) hazard, risk, endanger, decree, edict, annunciation, notice,
precaution, vigilance, discernment, menace, adventure; (n) danger, statement, promulgation, report,
judgment; (adj, n) discretion, jeopardy, chance; (v) imperil, expose, publication, manifesto, propagation.
prudence. ANTONYM: (n) compromise. ANTONYM: (n) spectators: (n) spectator, gallery,
recklessness. security. viewer, viewers, attendance.
eaves: (n) arch, balcony, cupola, dome, populous: (adj) multitudinous, stepped: (v) advanced, gone, stopen.
penthouse, eave, overhang, attic, loft, crowded, densely populated, towers: (n) edifice.
projection, roof space. multiple, thick, inhabited, numerous, waistcoat: (n) CHUDDER, barbe,
encompassed: (adj) bounded. manifold, multiplied; (adj, v) teeming; garment, jerkin, jubbah, oilskins,
garret: (n) cockloft, loft, attic, house (v) closely packed. ANTONYM: (adj) pilot jacket, pajamas, cardigan,
top, storey, level, upper story, story, uninhabited. singlet, talma jacket.
lanes and alleys, which I could not enter, but only view them as I passed, are
from twelve to eighteen inches. The town is capable of holding five hundred
thousand souls: the houses are from three to five stories: the shops and markets
well provided.%
The emperor’s palace is in the centre of the city where the two great streets
meet. It is enclosed by a wall of two feet high, and twenty feet distance from the
buildings. I had his majesty’s permission to step over this wall; and, the space
being so wide between that and the palace, I could easily view it on every side.
The outward court is a square of forty feet, and includes two other courts: in the
inmost are the royal apartments, which I was very desirous to see, but found it
extremely difficult; for the great gates, from one square into another, were but
eighteen inches high, and seven inches wide. Now the buildings of the outer
court were at least five feet high, and it was impossible for me to stride over
them without infinite damage to the pile, though the walls were strongly built of
hewn stone, and four inches thick. At the same time the emperor had a great
desire that I should see the magnificence of his palace; but this I was not able to
do till three days after, which I spent in cutting down with my knife some of the
largest trees in the royal park, about a hundred yards distant from the city. Of
these trees I made two stools, each about three feet high, and strong enough to
bear my weight. The people having received notice a second time, I went again
through the city to the palace with my two stools in my hands. When I came to
the side of the outer court, I stood upon one stool, and took the other in my hand;
this I lifted over the roof, and gently set it down on the space between the first
and second court, which was eight feet wide. I then stept over the building very
conveniently from one stool to the other, and drew up the first after me with a
hooked stick. By this contrivance I got into the inmost court; and, lying down
upon my side, I applied my face to the windows of the middle stories, which
were left open on purpose, and discovered the most splendid apartments that
can be imagined. There I saw the empress and the young princes, in their several
lodgings, with their chief attendants about them. Her imperial majesty was
pleased to smile very graciously upon me, and gave me out of the window her
hand to kiss.
Thesaurus
contrivance: (n) device, appliance, politely, courteously, benevolently, intimate, private, inner, interior,
gadget, artifice, plot, dodge, resource, benignantly, civilly, sympathetically, internal, personal, secret, intrinsic.
plan, contraption, machine, mercifully, leniently, suavely. ANTONYM: (adj) outermost.
apparatus. ANTONYMS: (adv) bitterly, coarsely, lodgings: (n) digs, accommodation,
desirous: (adj) wistful, avid, poorly, ungraciously, harshly. domiciliation, lodging, billet,
ambitious, greedy, longing, eager, hewn: (adj) downed. housing, quarters, residence, pad,
hungry, covetous, envious, agog; (adj, hooked: (adj) bent, curved, aquiline, living quarters, launchpad.
v) willing. ANTONYMS: (adj) addicted, infatuated, obsessed, stools: (n) shit, excrement, evacuation,
undesirous, reluctant, undesiring, enamored, dependent, dependant, dejection.
unconcerned. engrossed, uncinate. ANTONYM: stride: (n, v) pace, tread, walk, stalk,
gates: (n) bill Gates. (adj) unenthusiastic. rate, toddle, stump; (n) footstep, gait,
graciously: (adv) gracefully, mildly, inmost: (adj) innermost, inward, deep, progress; (v) march.
Jonathan Swift 41
But I shall not anticipate the reader with further descriptions of this kind,
because I reserve them for a greater work, which is now almost ready for the
press; containing a general description of this empire, from its first erection,
through along series of princes; with a particular account of their wars and
politics, laws, learning, and religion; their plants and animals; their peculiar
manners and customs, with other matters very curious and useful; my chief
design at present being only to relate such events and transactions as happened
to the public or to myself during a residence of about nine months in that
empire.%
One morning, about a fortnight after I had obtained my liberty, Reldresal,
principal secretary (as they style him) for private affairs, came to my house
attended only by one servant. He ordered his coach to wait at a distance, and
desired I would give him an hours audience; which I readily consented to, on
account of his quality and personal merits, as well as of the many good offices he
had done me during my solicitations at court. I offered to lie down that he might
the more conveniently reach my ear, but he chose rather to let me hold him in my
hand during our conversation. He began with compliments on my liberty; said
“he might pretend to some merit in it;” but, however, added, “that if it had not
been for the present situation of things at court, perhaps I might not have
obtained it so soon. For,” said he, “as flourishing a condition as we may appear
to be in to foreigners, we labour under two mighty evils: a violent faction at
home, and the danger of an invasion, by a most potent enemy, from abroad. As
to the first, you are to understand, that for about seventy moons past there have
been two struggling parties in this empire, under the names of Tramecksan and
Slamecksan, from the high and low heels of their shoes, by which they
distinguish themselves. It is alleged, indeed, that the high heels are most
agreeable to our ancient constitution; but, however this be, his majesty has
determined to make use only of low heels in the administration of the
government, and all offices in the gift of the crown, as you cannot but observe;
and particularly that his majesty’s imperial heels are lower at least by a drurr
than any of his court (drurr is a measure about the fourteenth part of an inch).
The animosities between these two parties run so high, that they will neither eat,
Thesaurus
agreeable: (adj) accordant, nice, sweet, ANTONYM: (v) doubt. healthy, successful, luxuriant,
consistent, suitable, amusing, compliments: (n) respects, booming, verdant, lush, auspicious,
enjoyable, affable; (adj, v) pleasant, commendation, wish, greetings, favorable, rich. ANTONYMS: (adj)
desirable; (adj, n) acceptable. salutation, respect, applause, flattery, arid, declining, fading, poor,
ANTONYMS: (adj) disagreeable, acclamation, regards, approbation. unhealthy.
discordant, unpleasant, nasty, erection: (n, v) building, structure; (n) majesty: (adj, n) grandeur, splendor,
unwilling, resistant, aggressive, assembly, construction, erecting, nobility; (n) dignity, loftiness,
repugnant, averse, stubborn, architecture, installation, creation, magnificence, stateliness, greatness,
unacceptable. foundation, framework; (adj) king, royalty, highness.
anticipate: (v) expect, foretell, think, elevation. ANTONYMS: (n) austerity,
forecast, forestall, calculate, estimate, evils: (n) mala. simplicity.
predict, prevent, presume, guess. flourishing: (adj) thriving, palmy, merits: (n) qualities.
nor %drink, nor talk with each other. We compute the Tramecksan, or high heels,
to exceed us in number; but the power is wholly on our side. We apprehend his
imperial highness, the heir to the crown, to have some tendency towards the
high heels; at least we can plainly discover that one of his heels is higher than the
other, which gives him a hobble in his gait. Now, in the midst of these intestine
disquiets, we are threatened with an invasion from the island of Blefuscu, which
is the other great empire of the universe, almost as large and powerful as this of
his majesty. For as to what we have heard you affirm, that there are other
kingdoms and states in the world inhabited by human creatures as large as
yourself, our philosophers are in much doubt, and would rather conjecture that
you dropped from the moon, or one of the stars; because it is certain, that a
hundred mortals of your bulk would in a short time destroy all the fruits and
cattle of his majesty’s dominions: besides, our histories of six thousand moons
make no mention of any other regions than the two great empires of Lilliput and
Blefuscu. Which two mighty powers have, as I was going to tell you, been
engaged in a most obstinate war for six-and-thirty moons past. It began upon the
following occasion. It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking
eggs, before we eat them, was upon the larger end; but his present majesty’s
grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according
to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the
emperor his father published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great
penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs. The people so highly resented
this law, that our histories tell us, there have been six rebellions raised on that
account; wherein one emperor lost his life, and another his crown. These civil
commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs of Blefuscu; and when
they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to that empire. It is
computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death,
rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred large
volumes have been published upon this controversy: but the books of the Big-
endians have been long forbidden, and the whole party rendered incapable by
law of holding employments. During the course of these troubles, the emperors
of Blefusca did frequently expostulate by their ambassadors, accusing us of
Thesaurus
ambassadors: (n) ambassador. make. scrape.
compute: (v) cipher, count, measure, expostulate: (v) argue, dissuade, obstinate: (adj) obdurate, inflexible,
account, cast, enumerate, gauge, add, admonish, exhort, protest, deprecate, intractable, determined, inveterate,
reckon, assess, tally. ANTONYMS: reason, cry out against, dehort, disobedient, willful, stubborn,
(v) guess, suppose, surmise, estimate. intercede for, warn. contrary, wayward, dogged.
edict: (n) act, command, writ, fruits: (n) revenue. ANTONYMS: (adj) flexible,
declaration, ruling, rule, regulation, gait: (n, v) pace, step, tread, footstep, amenable, irresolute, cooperative,
directive, order, dictate, law. rate, stride, action; (n) walk, carriage, easygoing, docile, biddable,
exceed: (v) beat, pass, surpass, movement, velocity. agreeable, accommodating,
transcend, outdo, surmount, cap, hobble: (n, v) limp, hitch, fetter; (v) malleable, gentle.
outshine, overrun, top, outweigh. hamper, hopple, handcuff, bridle, quelled: (adj) quenched, allayed,
ANTONYMS: (v) follow, fail, trail, manacle, hinder; (adv) toddle; (adj) extinguished, extinct.
Jonathan Swift 43
making a schism in religion, by offending against a fundamental doctrine of our

great prophet Lustrog, in the fifty-fourth chapter of the Blundecral (which is
their Alcoran). This, however, is thought to be a mere strain upon the text; for the
words are these: ‘that all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end.’
And which is the convenient end, seems, in my humble opinion to be left to
every man’s conscience, or at least in the power of the chief magistrate to
determine. Now, the Big-endian exiles have found so much credit in the emperor
of Blefuscu’s court, and so much private assistance and encouragement from
their party here at home, that a bloody war has been carried on between the two
empires for six-and-thirty moons, with various success; during which time we
have lost forty capital ships, and a much a greater number of smaller vessels,
together with thirty thousand of our best seamen and soldiers; and the damage
received by the enemy is reckoned to be somewhat greater than ours. However,
they have now equipped a numerous fleet, and are just preparing to make a
descent upon us; and his imperial majesty, placing great confidence in your
valour and strength, has commanded me to lay this account of his affairs before
you.”%
I desired the secretary to present my humble duty to the emperor; and to let
him know, “that I thought it would not become me, who was a foreigner, to
interfere with parties; but I was ready, with the hazard of my life, to defend his
person and state against all invaders.”
Thesaurus
eggs: (n) seed, ball, ballock, roe, ANTONYMS: (adj) impressive, seer, predictor, diviner, forecaster,
bollock. arrogant, haughty, imposing, visionary, foreteller, priest,
foreigner: (adj, n) stranger; (n) conceited, pompous, snooty, clairvoyant.
outlander, outsider, unknown, overbearing, presumptuous, proud, schism: (n) division, split, rift,
barbarian, gringo, newcomer, exalted. cleavage, heresy, faction, discord,
immigrant, deportee, traveler; (adj) magistrate: (n) judge, jurist, justiciary, rupture, estrangement,
foreign. ANTONYMS: (n) inhabitant, adjudicator, beak, official, provost, Protestantism, breach. ANTONYMS:
domestic, citizen. recorder, archon, doge, chancellor. (n) convergence, heresy.
humble: (v) demean, humiliate, offending: (adj) opprobrious, criminal, valour: (n) valor, valiancy, valiance,
mortify; (n, v) disgrace, debase; (adj, aberrant, guilty, delinquent, heroism, courage, bravery,
n, v) abase; (adj) base, lowly, antisocial, scurrilous, errant. valorousness, prowess, daring, pluck,
unassuming, docile, low. prophet: (n) augur, oracle, vaticinator, spirit.
Jonathan Swift 45
CHAPTER %V
[The author, by an extraordinary stratagem, prevents an invasion. A high title

of honour is conferred upon him. Ambassadors arrive from the emperor of
Blefuscu, and sue for peace. The empress’s apartment on fire by an accident; the
author instrumental in saving the rest of the palace.]
The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the north-east of Lilliput, from

which it is parted only by a channel of eight hundred yards wide. I had not yet
seen it, and upon this notice of an intended invasion, I avoided appearing on that
side of the coast, for fear of being discovered, by some of the enemy’s ships, who
had received no intelligence of me; all intercourse between the two empires
having been strictly forbidden during the war, upon pain of death, and an
embargo laid by our emperor upon all vessels whatsoever. I communicated to
his majesty a project I had formed of seizing the enemy’s whole fleet; which, as
our scouts assured us, lay at anchor in the harbour, ready to sail with the first
fair wind. I consulted the most experienced seamen upon the depth of the
channel, which they had often plumbed; who told me, that in the middle, at
high-water, it was seventy glumgluffs deep, which is about six feet of European
measure; and the rest of it fifty glumgluffs at most. I walked towards the north-
east coast, over against Blefuscu, where, lying down behind a hillock, I took out
my small perspective glass, and viewed the enemy’s fleet at anchor, consisting of
Thesaurus
anchor: (n) mainstay, armature, kopje, hammock, elevation, heap; seizing: (v) seize; (n) seizure, clutches,
grappling iron, grapnel, chapelet; (v) (adj, n) knoll, hummock; (adj) mole. prehension, taking, apprehension,
fasten, secure, cast anchor, fix; (adj) intercourse: (n) contact, coition, capture, infection; (adj) catching,
refuge, rest. ANTONYMS: (v) release, conversation, communication, coitus, galling, controlling.
detach. dealings, converse, commerce, stratagem: (n) scheme, ruse, plan,
embargo: (n) veto, sanction, liaison, congress; (adj, n) trick, dodge, ploy; (n, v) contrivance,
prohibition, inhibition, injunction, acquaintance. maneuver, deceit, intrigue; (adj, n)
prohibit, proscription, restraint, bar, parted: (adj) divided, separate, artifice.
exclusion; (v) proscribe. distributed, separated, divisible, whatsoever: (adj) any, at all, possible;
ANTONYMS: (n) allowance, disunited, compounder, compound, (pron) what, anything, no matter
permission. dividable. what, partly, somewhat, anything
hillock: (n) hill, mound, rise, barrow, plumbed: (adj) sounded. that, whatso.
about fifty %men of war, and a great number of transports: I then came back to
my house, and gave orders (for which I had a warrant) for a great quantity of the
strongest cable and bars of iron. The cable was about as thick as packthread and
the bars of the length and size of a knitting-needle. I trebled the cable to make it
stronger, and for the same reason I twisted three of the iron bars together,
bending the extremities into a hook. Having thus fixed fifty hooks to as many
cables, I went back to the north-east coast, and putting off my coat, shoes, and
stockings, walked into the sea, in my leathern jerkin, about half an hour before
high water. I waded with what haste I could, and swam in the middle about
thirty yards, till I felt ground. I arrived at the fleet in less than half an hour. The
enemy was so frightened when they saw me, that they leaped out of their ships,
and swam to shore, where there could not be fewer than thirty thousand souls. I
then took my tackling, and, fastening a hook to the hole at the prow of each, I
tied all the cords together at the end. While I was thus employed, the enemy
discharged several thousand arrows, many of which stuck in my hands and face,
and, beside the excessive smart, gave me much disturbance in my work. My
greatest apprehension was for mine eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I
had not suddenly thought of an expedient. I kept, among other little necessaries,
a pair of spectacles in a private pocket, which, as I observed before, had escaped
the emperor’s searchers. These I took out and fastened as strongly as I could
upon my nose, and thus armed, went on boldly with my work, in spite of the
enemy’s arrows, many of which struck against the glasses of my spectacles, but
without any other effect, further than a little to discompose them. I had now
fastened all the hooks, and, taking the knot in my hand, began to pull; but not a
ship would stir, for they were all too fast held by their anchors, so that the
boldest part of my enterprise remained. I therefore let go the cord, and leaving
the looks fixed to the ships, I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened
the anchors, receiving about two hundred shots in my face and hands; then I
took up the knotted end of the cables, to which my hooks were tied, and with
great ease drew fifty of the enemy’s largest men of war after me.
The Blefuscudians, who had not the least imagination of what I intended,
were at first confounded with astonishment. They had seen me cut the cables,
Thesaurus
bars: (n) grinding media, gymnastics, expedient: (adj) fit, advisable, tangled, matted, knobbed, fastened;
parallel bars. becoming, desirable, adequate, apt, (adj, v) kinky. ANTONYMS: (adj)
confounded: (adj) bemused, accursed, convenient, suitable; (n) contrivance, straight, tidy, relaxed.
execrable, baffled, cursed, befuddled, resource, artifice. ANTONYMS: (adj) prow: (n) bow, stem, fore, beak, nose,
confused, puzzled, aghast, perplexed; inappropriate, inexpedient, obeisance, forepart, curtain call,
(adj, v) abashed. impractical, futile, detrimental, bowknot, bowing, arc.
discompose: (v) confuse, discomfit, inconvenient, foolish. spite: (n) malice, grudge, hatred,
ruffle, agitate, abash, derange, fastening: (n) clasp, clip, buckle, malevolence, rancour, venom, rancor,
disturb, disorder, unsettle, upset, attachment, lock, catch, link, maliciousness, ill will, animosity; (n,
embarrass. ANTONYMS: (v) bonding; (n, v) bond; (v) tie, bind. v) pique. ANTONYMS: (v) please; (n)
compose, soothe, alleviate, calm, knotted: (adj) knotty, gnarled, gnarly, benevolence, goodwill, love,
quiet, settle. involved, entangled, complicated, affection, harmony.
Jonathan Swift 47
and thought my design was only to let the ships run adrift or fall foul on each
other: but when they perceived the whole fleet moving in order, and saw me
pulling at the end, they set up such a scream of grief and despair as it is almost
impossible to describe or conceive. When I had got out of danger, I stopped
awhile to pick out the arrows that stuck in my hands and face; and rubbed on
some of the same ointment that was given me at my first arrival, as I have
formerly mentioned. I then took off my spectacles, and waiting about an hour,
till the tide was a little fallen, I waded through the middle with my cargo, and
arrived safe at the royal port of Lilliput.%
The emperor and his whole court stood on the shore, expecting the issue of
this great adventure. They saw the ships move forward in a large half-moon, but
could not discern me, who was up to my breast in water. When I advanced to the
middle of the channel, they were yet more in pain, because I was under water to
my neck. The emperor concluded me to be drowned, and that the enemy’s fleet
was approaching in a hostile manner: but he was soon eased of his fears; for the
channel growing shallower every step I made, I came in a short time within
hearing, and holding up the end of the cable, by which the fleet was fastened, I
cried in a loud voice, “Long live the most puissant king of Lilliput!” This great
prince received me at my landing with all possible encomiums, and created me a
nardac upon the spot, which is the highest title of honour among them.
His majesty desired I would take some other opportunity of bringing all the
rest of his enemy’s ships into his ports. And so unmeasureable is the ambition of
princes, that he seemed to think of nothing less than reducing the whole empire
of Blefuscu into a province, and governing it, by a viceroy; of destroying the Big-
endian exiles, and compelling that people to break the smaller end of their eggs,
by which he would remain the sole monarch of the whole world. But I
endeavoured to divert him from this design, by many arguments drawn from the
topics of policy as well as justice; and I plainly protested, “that I would never be
an instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery.” And, when the
matter was debated in council, the wisest part of the ministry were of my opinion.
This open bold declaration of mine was so opposite to the schemes and
Thesaurus
adrift: (adj, adv) directionless; (adv) fascinating, compulsive, cogent. tzar, Danaus Plexippus; (adj) prince.
afloat, wrong; (adj, v) astray; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) weak, boring, puissant: (adj) powerful, mighty,
disoriented, isolated, undirected, unconvincing, dull, repellent. forcible, hard, robust, vigorous,
rudderless, planless, insular, in destroying: (v) destroy; (adj) deadly, strong, stout, efficacious,
Twain. ANTONYMS: (adv) anchored, deleterious, murderous; (n) disposal. adamantine, cogent.
determined, purposeful, stable, drowned: (adj) prostrate, sunken; (v) spectacles: (n) glasses, specs, spectacle,
moored. drenched, drent. eyeglass, goggles, lorgnette, monocle,
awhile: (adj) in transitu, en passant; eased: (adj) relieved, mitigated, bifocals, dark glasses, optical
(adv) briefly. cloaked, palliate, disguised. instrument, shades.
compelling: (adj) forcible, effective, half-moon: (n) curve, arc. viceroy: (n) vicereine, satrap, exarch,
forceful, captivating, commanding, monarch: (n) sovereign, lord, emperor, nymphalid, nymphalid butterfly,
powerful, stringent, convincing, ruler, czar, despot, autocrat, tsar, regent, delegate.
politics of his imperial majesty, that he could never forgive me. He mentioned it
in a very artful manner at council, where I was told that some of the wisest
appeared, at least by their silence, to be of my opinion; but others, who were my
secret enemies, could not forbear some expressions which, by a side-wind,
reflected on me. And from this time began an intrigue between his majesty and a
junto of ministers, maliciously bent against me, which broke out in less than two
months, and had like to have ended in my utter destruction. Of so little weight
are the greatest services to princes, when put into the balance with a refusal to
gratify their passions.%
About three weeks after this exploit, there arrived a solemn embassy from
Blefuscu, with humble offers of a peace, which was soon concluded, upon
conditions very advantageous to our emperor, wherewith I shall not trouble the
reader. There were six ambassadors, with a train of about five hundred persons,
and their entry was very magnificent, suitable to the grandeur of their master,
and the importance of their business. When their treaty was finished, wherein I
did them several good offices by the credit I now had, or at least appeared to
have, at court, their excellencies, who were privately told how much I had been
their friend, made me a visit in form. They began with many compliments upon
my valour and generosity, invited me to that kingdom in the emperor their
master’s name, and desired me to show them some proofs of my prodigious
strength, of which they had heard so many wonders; wherein I readily obliged
them, but shall not trouble the reader with the particulars.
When I had for some time entertained their excellencies, to their infinite
satisfaction and surprise, I desired they would do me the honour to present my
most humble respects to the emperor their master, the renown of whose virtues
had so justly filled the whole world with admiration, and whose royal person I
resolved to attend, before I returned to my own country. Accordingly, the next
time I had the honour to see our emperor, I desired his general license to wait on
the Blefuscudian monarch, which he was pleased to grant me, as I could perceive,
in a very cold manner; but could not guess the reason, till I had a whisper from a
certain person, “that Flimnap and Bolgolam had represented my intercourse
Thesaurus
artful: (adj) crafty, cunning, scheming, conspiracy, coterie, camarilla, pack, malignantly, rancorously,
wily, shrewd, insidious, designing, ring, Camorra, combination, ingroup. venomously, vindictively, bitterly,
sly, adroit, subtle, disingenuous. justly: (adv) accurately, fairly, meanly, virulently. ANTONYMS:
ANTONYMS: (adj) artless, unskillful, correctly, honestly, lawfully, (adv) kindly, harmlessly,
inept, ingenuous, unskilled, open, properly, exactly, uprightly, benevolently, friendly, genially,
straight. legitimately, impartially, purely. mercifully.
entertained: (adj) diverted, pleased. ANTONYMS: (adv) wrongly, renown: (n, v) fame; (n) glory,
intrigue: (n, v) cabal, contrivance, unfairly, unjustifiably, unjustly, distinction, eminence, notoriety,
scheme; (v) fascinate, connive, unlawfully, sinfully, falsely, kudos, name, popularity, prestige,
captivate, attract, charm; (n) immorally. prominence, honor. ANTONYMS: (n)
conspiracy, trick, plot. maliciously: (adv) malevolently, infamy, commonness; (adj)
junto: (n) faction, junta, clique, malignly, viciously, nastily, anonymity.
Jonathan Swift 49
with those ambassadors as a mark of disaffection;” from which I am sure my

heart was wholly free. And this was the first time I began to conceive some
imperfect idea of courts and ministers.%
It is to be observed, that these ambassadors spoke to me, by an interpreter,
the languages of both empires differing as much from each other as any two in
Europe, and each nation priding itself upon the antiquity, beauty, and energy of
their own tongue, with an avowed contempt for that of their neighbour; yet our
emperor, standing upon the advantage he had got by the seizure of their fleet,
obliged them to deliver their credentials, and make their speech, in the
Lilliputian tongue. And it must be confessed, that from the great intercourse of
trade and commerce between both realms, from the continual reception of exiles
which is mutual among them, and from the custom, in each empire, to send their
young nobility and richer gentry to the other, in order to polish themselves by
seeing the world, and understanding men and manners; there are few persons of
distinction, or merchants, or seamen, who dwell in the maritime parts, but what
can hold conversation in both tongues; as I found some weeks after, when I went
to pay my respects to the emperor of Blefuscu, which, in the midst of great
misfortunes, through the malice of my enemies, proved a very happy adventure
to me, as I shall relate in its proper place.
The reader may remember, that when I signed those articles upon which I
recovered my liberty, there were some which I disliked, upon account of their
being too servile; neither could anything but an extreme necessity have forced
me to submit. But being now a nardac of the highest rank in that empire, such
offices were looked upon as below my dignity, and the emperor (to do him
justice), never once mentioned them to me. However, it was not long before I had
an opportunity of doing his majesty, at least as I then thought, a most signal
service. I was alarmed at midnight with the cries of many hundred people at my
door; by which, being suddenly awaked, I was in some kind of terror. I heard the
word Burglum repeated incessantly: several of the emperor’s court, making their
way through the crowd, entreated me to come immediately to the palace, where
her imperial majesty’s apartment was on fire, by the carelessness of a maid of
Thesaurus
avowed: (adj) acknowledged, attested, economy, regard, prudence, boundless, capable, flawless.
ostensible, sworn, stated, confirmed, forethought. incessantly: (adv) constantly,
declared, pretended, known, dwell: (adj, v) inhabit; (v) reside, bide, endlessly, continually, perpetually,
authenticated, apparent. live, stay, lodge, delay, occupy, continuously, unceasingly, eternally,
carelessness: (n) negligence, continue, be, settle. ANTONYM: (v) persistently, unremittingly,
inattention, indifference, wander. unendingly, steadily. ANTONYMS:
nonchalance, thoughtlessness, imperfect: (adj) faulty, deficient, (adv) sporadically, briefly.
abandon, incaution, disregard, defective, unfinished, incomplete, misfortunes: (n) misfortune.
omission, forgetfulness, dereliction. poor, flawed, partial, inadequate, servile: (adj) abject, obsequious, base,
ANTONYMS: (n) attention, caution, broken, fallible. ANTONYMS: (adj) fawning, ignoble, sordid, subservient,
alertness, vigilance, carefulness, perfect, whole, unblemished, cringing, slavish; (adj, n) mean, low.
thoughtfulness, assiduousness, adequate, complete, sound, ANTONYMS: (adj) bossy, assertive.
honour, who fell asleep while she was reading a romance. I got up in an instant;
and orders being given to clear the way before me, and it being likewise a
moonshine night, I made a shift to get to the palace without trampling on any of
the people. I found they had already applied ladders to the walls of the
apartment, and were well provided with buckets, but the water was at some
distance. These buckets were about the size of large thimbles, and the poor
people supplied me with them as fast as they could: but the flame was so violent
that they did little good. I might easily have stifled it with my coat, which I
unfortunately left behind me for haste, and came away only in my leathern jerkin.
The case seemed wholly desperate and deplorable; and this magnificent palace
would have infallibly been burnt down to the ground, if, by a presence of mind
unusual to me, I had not suddenly thought of an expedient. I had, the evening
before, drunk plentifully of a most delicious wine called glimigrim, (the
Blefuscudians call it flunec, but ours is esteemed the better sort,) which is very
diuretic. By the luckiest chance in the world, I had not discharged myself of any
part of it. The heat I had contracted by coming very near the flames, and by
labouring to quench them, made the wine begin to operate by urine; which I
voided in such a quantity, and applied so well to the proper places, that in three
minutes the fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that noble pile, which
had cost so many ages in erecting, preserved from destruction.%
It was now day-light, and I returned to my house without waiting to
congratulate with the emperor: because, although I had done a very eminent
piece of service, yet I could not tell how his majesty might resent the manner by
which I had performed it: for, by the fundamental laws of the realm, it is capital
in any person, of what quality soever, to make water within the precincts of the
palace. But I was a little comforted by a message from his majesty, “that he
would give orders to the grand justiciary for passing my pardon in form:” which,
however, I could not obtain; and I was privately assured, “that the empress,
conceiving the greatest abhorrence of what I had done, removed to the most
distant side of the court, firmly resolved that those buildings should never be
Thesaurus
abhorrence: (n) odium, antipathy, ANTONYMS: (adj) acceptable, working, busy, toiling.
detestation, hatred, aversion, disgust, pleasing, laudable, happy, cheerful, moonshine: (adj, n) moonlight,
execration, hate, loathing, revulsion, admirable, agreeable, excellent, rubbish; (adj) moonbeam, bosh,
horror. ANTONYMS: (n) attraction, fortunate, praiseworthy. moonglade; (n) bootleg, moon, rot, all
adoration, delight, liking, diuretic: (adj) uretic, diuretical, talk, corn liquor, nonsense.
attractiveness. emictory, urinative; (n) diuretic drug, precincts: (n) entourage, arena,
conceiving: (n) fantasy, daydream; mannitol, chlorothiazide. outskirts, neighbourhood, walk,
(adj) imaginant, original. erecting: (n) construction, building, neighborhood, proximity,
deplorable: (adj) sad, wretched, erection. surroundings, vicinity, limitations,
criminal, calamitous, abominable, justiciary: (n) justiciar, judge, suburbs.
pitiful, lamentable, miserable, jurisdiction, jurist, magistrate. trampling: (n) trample; (adj) moving.
regrettable, sorry; (adj, v) woeful. labouring: (adj) drudging, work, voided: (adj) cancelled, emptied.
Jonathan Swift 51
repaired for her use: and, in the presence of her chief confidents could not
forbear vowing revenge.”%
Thesaurus
chief: (adj, n) principal, head, cardinal, presence: (n) front, manner, mien,
capital, arch, essential, paramount; bearing, carriage, figure, air,
(n) administrator, boss, executive, comportment, demeanor, company;
leader. ANTONYMS: (adj) associate, (n, v) attendance. ANTONYMS: (n)
secondary, junior, smallest, absence, nonattendance.
inessential, unimportant, least, repaired: (adj) reconditioned,
trivial; (n) subordinate, underling, maintained, mended, fastened,
inferior. serviced, intent, frozen, flat,
forbear: (v) refrain, desist, help, serviceable.
tolerate, abide, eschew, endure,
relinquish; (n) predecessor,
progenitor, forebear.
Jonathan Swift 53
CHAPTER %VI
[Of the inhabitants of Lilliput; their learning, laws, and customs; the manner
of educating their children. The author’s way of living in that country. His
vindication of a great lady.]
Although I intend to leave the description of this empire to a particular

treatise, yet, in the mean time, I am content to gratify the curious reader with
some general ideas. As the common size of the natives is somewhat under six
inches high, so there is an exact proportion in all other animals, as well as plants
and trees: for instance, the tallest horses and oxen are between four and five
inches in height, the sheep an inch and half, more or less: their geese about the
bigness of a sparrow, and so the several gradations downwards till you come to
the smallest, which to my sight, were almost invisible; but nature has adapted
the eyes of the Lilliputians to all objects proper for their view: they see with great
exactness, but at no great distance. And, to show the sharpness of their sight
towards objects that are near, I have been much pleased with observing a cook
pulling a lark, which was not so large as a common fly; and a young girl
threading an invisible needle with invisible silk. Their tallest trees are about
seven feet high: I mean some of those in the great royal park, the tops whereof I
could but just reach with my fist clenched. The other vegetables are in the same
proportion; but this I leave to the reader’s imagination.
Thesaurus
clenched: (adj) tight, clinched. gambol; (v) rollick. sparrow: (n) hedge sparrow, sparrows,
educating: (adj) taming, humanizing, oxen: (n) bull, ox, cows, cow, cattle, passerine, house sparrow, accentor,
calming. Bos Taurus, bullock, kine, milker, true sparrow, spur, snag, passeriform
exactness: (n) correctness, accuracy, beef, dairy cow. bird, incitement.
exactitude, truth, rigor, trueness, sharpness: (n, v) keenness, edge; (n) treatise: (n) tract, thesis, essay,
accurateness, fidelity, punctuality, severity, bitterness, asperity, acumen, discourse, paper, article, monograph,
veracity, strictness. ANTONYMS: (n) poignancy, pungency, quickness, piece, pamphlet, review, book.
inexactness, fuzziness, inaccuracy, perspicacity; (adj, n) roughness. vindication: (n) defense, apology,
negligence, inexactitude, ANTONYMS: (n) dullness, haziness, excuse, defence, plea, alibi, acquittal,
incorrectness. softness, slowness, indistinctness, assertion, reason, exoneration,
lark: (n) joke, fun, trick, prank, antic, gentleness, evenness, courtesy, protection. ANTONYM: (n)
caper, game; (n, v) romp, frolic, blandness, stupidity, kindness. accusation.
I shall say but little at present of their learning, which, for many ages, has
flourished in all its branches among them: but their manner of writing is very
peculiar, being neither from the left to the right, like the Europeans, nor from the
right to the left, like the Arabians, nor from up to down, like the Chinese, but
aslant, from one corner of the paper to the other, like ladies in England.%
They bury their dead with their heads directly downward, because they hold
an opinion, that in eleven thousand moons they are all to rise again; in which
period the earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upside down, and by
this means they shall, at their resurrection, be found ready standing on their feet.
The learned among them confess the absurdity of this doctrine; but the practice
still continues, in compliance to the vulgar.
There are some laws and customs in this empire very peculiar; and if they
were not so directly contrary to those of my own dear country, I should be
tempted to say a little in their justification. It is only to be wished they were as
well executed. The first I shall mention, relates to informers. All crimes against
the state, are punished here with the utmost severity; but, if the person accused
makes his innocence plainly to appear upon his trial, the accuser is immediately
put to an ignominious death; and out of his goods or lands the innocent person
is quadruply recompensed for the loss of his time, for the danger he underwent,
for the hardship of his imprisonment, and for all the charges he has been at in
making his defence; or, if that fund be deficient, it is largely supplied by the
crown. The emperor also confers on him some public mark of his favour, and
proclamation is made of his innocence through the whole city.
They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail
to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very
common understanding, may preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty
has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there
should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit,
where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest
dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. I remember, when I
was once interceding with the emperor for a criminal who had wronged his
Thesaurus
accuser: (n) complainant, informer, obliquely, athwart. ANTONYMS: upside: (n) crest, crown, poll, top side,
disputant, controversialist, accusant, (adj) level; (adv) straight. upper side, pate, round top, acme,
pursuer, delator, petitioner, ignominious: (adj) dishonorable, summit, superlative, teetotum.
prosecutor, claimant, appeacher. shameful, disreputable, infamous, vigilance: (n) caution, alertness,
allege: (v) maintain, plead, say, affirm, base, discreditable, dishonourable, prudence, attention, watchfulness,
argue, confirm, assert, aver, claim, inglorious, black, despicable, surveillance, jealousy, vigil, watch,
certify, declare. ANTONYMS: (v) degrading. ANTONYMS: (adj) circumspection; (adj) vigilant.
deny, contradict, disagree, dissent, honorable, glorious. ANTONYMS: (n) carelessness,
object, protest, repudiate, contravene. interceding: (adj) intercessory. indiscretion, negligence,
aslant: (adj) oblique, inclined, slanting, knave: (n) cheat, jack, blackguard, inattentiveness, recklessness.
diagonal, sloping, wry, awry; (adj, crook, rascal, villain, cad, scalawag, wronged: (adj) upset, hurt, indignant,
adv) aslope; (adv) slantingly, scallywag, scoundrel, varlet. offended.
Jonathan Swift 55
master of a great sum of money, which he had received by order and ran away
with; and happening to tell his majesty, by way of extenuation, that it was only a
breach of trust, the emperor thought it monstrous in me to offer as a defence the
greatest aggravation of the crime; and truly I had little to say in return, farther
than the common answer, that different nations had different customs; for, I
confess, I was heartily ashamed.%
Although we usually call reward and punishment the two hinges upon
which all government turns, yet I could never observe this maxim to be put in
practice by any nation except that of Lilliput. Whoever can there bring sufficient
proof, that he has strictly observed the laws of his country for seventy-three
moons, has a claim to certain privileges, according to his quality or condition of
life, with a proportionable sum of money out of a fund appropriated for that use:
he likewise acquires the title of snilpall, or legal, which is added to his name, but
does not descend to his posterity. And these people thought it a prodigious
defect of policy among us, when I told them that our laws were enforced only by
penalties, without any mention of reward. It is upon this account that the image
of Justice, in their courts of judicature, is formed with six eyes, two before, as
many behind, and on each side one, to signify circumspection; with a bag of gold
open in her right hand, and a sword sheathed in her left, to show she is more
disposed to reward than to punish.
In choosing persons for all employments, they have more regard to good
morals than to great abilities; for, since government is necessary to mankind,
they believe, that the common size of human understanding is fitted to some
station or other; and that Providence never intended to make the management of
public affairs a mystery to be comprehended only by a few persons of sublime
genius, of which there seldom are three born in an age: but they suppose truth,
justice, temperance, and the like, to be in every man’s power; the practice of
which virtues, assisted by experience and a good intention, would qualify any
man for the service of his country, except where a course of study is required.
But they thought the want of moral virtues was so far from being supplied by
superior endowments of the mind, that employments could never be put into
Thesaurus
aggravation: (n) deterioration, comprehended: (adj) understood, consistory, soc, bench.
irritation, bother, heightening, apprehended. sheathed: (adj) invaginated, enclosed.
exacerbation, annoyance, harassment, endowments: (n) beneficence, ANTONYM: (adj) unsheathed.
aggrandizement, aggression, accomplishments, advantage. temperance: (n) moderation,
botheration, complication. extenuation: (n, v) excuse, apology; (n) abstinence, abstemiousness, control,
ANTONYMS: (n) satisfaction, palliation, mitigation, diminution, restraint, moderateness, soberness,
improvement, pleasure, comfort, justification, extenuating forbearance, measure, gravity,
delight, relieving, lessening, balm, circumstances, extenuating excuse, asceticism. ANTONYMS: (n)
support. easement, abatement, alleviation. intemperance, wildness.
appropriated: (adj) taken, destined, judicature: (n) judgeship, court, virtues: (n) brawn, sinew, qualities,
taken over, confiscate, confiscated, jurisdiction, judiciary, tribunal, nerve, manner, habit, disposition,
condemned, seized, reserved. chancery, judgship, judicatory, custom.
such dangerous hands as those of persons so qualified; and, at least, that the
mistakes committed by ignorance, in a virtuous disposition, would never be of
such fatal consequence to the public weal, as the practices of a man, whose
inclinations led him to be corrupt, and who had great abilities to manage, to
multiply, and defend his corruptions.%
In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a man incapable
of holding any public station; for, since kings avow themselves to be the deputies
of Providence, the Lilliputians think nothing can be more absurd than for a
prince to employ such men as disown the authority under which he acts.
In relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to mean
the original institutions, and not the most scandalous corruptions, into which
these people are fallen by the degenerate nature of man. For, as to that infamous
practice of acquiring great employments by dancing on the ropes, or badges of
favour and distinction by leaping over sticks and creeping under them, the
reader is to observe, that they were first introduced by the grandfather of the
emperor now reigning, and grew to the present height by the gradual increase of
party and faction.
Ingratitude is among them a capital crime, as we read it to have been in some
other countries: for they reason thus; that whoever makes ill returns to his
benefactor, must needs be a common enemy to the rest of mankind, from whom
he has received no obligation, and therefore such a man is not fit to live.
Their notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ extremely
from ours. For, since the conjunction of male and female is founded upon the
great law of nature, in order to propagate and continue the species, the
Lilliputians will needs have it, that men and women are joined together, like
other animals, by the motives of concupiscence; and that their tenderness
towards their young proceeds from the like natural principle: for which reason
they will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father for
begetting him, or to his mother for bringing him into the world; which,
considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself, nor
intended so by his parents, whose thoughts, in their love encounters, were
Thesaurus
avow: (v) affirm, assert, declare, concupiscence: (n) libido, passion, feeling. ANTONYM: (n) gratitude.
protest, confess, attest, asseverate; carnality, desire, prurience, propagate: (v) disseminate, spread,
(adj, v) admit, acknowledge, own; (n, sensualism, sensuality, sexual desire, disperse, procreate, distribute, breed,
v) aver. ANTONYMS: (v) disavow, cacoethes, anaphrodisia, broadcast, diffuse, beget, produce,
renounce, refute, disclaim, condemn, amorousness. sow.
censure. disown: (v) disavow, disinherit, reigning: (adj) regnant, predominant,
benefactor: (n) sponsor, patron, abandon, renounce, disclaim, forsake, overruling, reign, sovereign,
backer, supporter, giver, Good refuse, recant, repudiate, retract, controlling, royal, dominant,
Samaritan, contributor, benefactress, disallow. ANTONYMS: (v) bequeath, ascendant, prevalent, chief.
philanthropist, helper, humanitarian. accept, avow, adopt, admit, claim. weal: (n) wale, wheal, welt, prosperity,
ANTONYMS: (n) antagonist, ingratitude: (n) oblivion of benefits, happiness, good, wealth, riches,
opposer, detractor. thanklessness, ungratefulness, welfare, injury, trauma.
Jonathan Swift 57
otherwise employed. Upon these, and the like reasonings, their opinion is, that
parents are the last of all others to be trusted with the education of their own
children; and therefore they have in every town public nurseries, where all
parents, except cottagers and labourers, are obliged to send their infants of both
sexes to be reared and educated, when they come to the age of twenty moons, at
which time they are supposed to have some rudiments of docility. These schools
are of several kinds, suited to different qualities, and both sexes. They have
certain professors well skilled in preparing children for such a condition of life
as befits the rank of their parents, and their own capacities, as well as inclinations.
I shall first say something of the male nurseries, and then of the female.%
The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth, are provided with grave
and learned professors, and their several deputies. The clothes and food of the
children are plain and simple. They are bred up in the principles of honour,
justice, courage, modesty, clemency, religion, and love of their country; they are
always employed in some business, except in the times of eating and sleeping,
which are very short, and two hours for diversions consisting of bodily exercises.
They are dressed by men till four years of age, and then are obliged to dress
themselves, although their quality be ever so great; and the women attendant,
who are aged proportionably to ours at fifty, perform only the most menial
offices. They are never suffered to converse with servants, but go together in
smaller or greater numbers to take their diversions, and always in the presence of
a professor, or one of his deputies; whereby they avoid those early bad
impressions of folly and vice, to which our children are subject. Their parents are
suffered to see them only twice a year; the visit is to last but an hour; they are
allowed to kiss the child at meeting and parting; but a professor, who always
stands by on those occasions, will not suffer them to whisper, or use any
fondling expressions, or bring any presents of toys, sweetmeats, and the like.
The pension from each family for the education and entertainment of a child,
upon failure of due payment, is levied by the emperor’s officers.
The nurseries for children of ordinary gentlemen, merchants, traders, and
handicrafts, are managed proportionably after the same manner; only those
Thesaurus
docility: (n) obedience, tractability, servant. ANTONYMS: (adj) elevated, leaving, segregation, dying, rupture;
meekness, flexibility, docibleness, noble. (adj) valedictory. ANTONYMS: (n)
submission, deference, humility, modesty: (n) reserve, bashfulness, joining, meeting, connection,
gentleness, willingness, tractableness. humility, diffidence, humbleness, Reunion.
fondling: (n) caressing, pet, caress, demureness, coyness, gentleness, professors: (n) faculty.
cuddling, dalliance, foreplay, continence; (adj, n) decency, honesty. rudiments: (n) grammar,
stimulation, indulgence, darling, ANTONYMS: (n) arrogance, fundamentals, elements, alphabet,
kissing, necking. immodesty, spectacle, flamboyance, abecedary, primer, vade mecum,
infants: (n) brood. abandon, bigheadedness, pretension, bedrock, element, fundamental
menial: (adj, n) inferior; (adj) lowly, decadence, boldness. principle, rudiment.
abject, ignoble, humble, low, mean; parting: (n) adieu, division, leave, sweetmeats: (n) rapier, plait, pastry,
(n) henchman, domestic, lackey, departure, disunion, goodbye, lugging, food, tuck.
designed for trades are put out apprentices at eleven years old, whereas those of
persons of quality continue in their exercises till fifteen, which answers to
twenty-one with us: but the confinement is gradually lessened for the last three
years.%
In the female nurseries, the young girls of quality are educated much like the
males, only they are dressed by orderly servants of their own sex; but always in
the presence of a professor or deputy, till they come to dress themselves, which is
at five years old. And if it be found that these nurses ever presume to entertain
the girls with frightful or foolish stories, or the common follies practised by
chambermaids among us, they are publicly whipped thrice about the city,
imprisoned for a year, and banished for life to the most desolate part of the
country. Thus the young ladies are as much ashamed of being cowards and fools
as the men, and despise all personal ornaments, beyond decency and cleanliness:
neither did I perceive any difference in their education made by their difference
of sex, only that the exercises of the females were not altogether so robust; and
that some rules were given them relating to domestic life, and a smaller compass
of learning was enjoined them: for their maxim is, that among peoples of quality,
a wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion, because she
cannot always be young. When the girls are twelve years old, which among them
is the marriageable age, their parents or guardians take them home, with great
expressions of gratitude to the professors, and seldom without tears of the young
lady and her companions.
In the nurseries of females of the meaner sort, the children are instructed in
all kinds of works proper for their sex, and their several degrees: those intended
for apprentices are dismissed at seven years old, the rest are kept to eleven.
The meaner families who have children at these nurseries, are obliged,
besides their annual pension, which is as low as possible, to return to the steward
of the nursery a small monthly share of their gettings, to be a portion for the
child; and therefore all parents are limited in their expenses by the law. For the
Lilliputians think nothing can be more unjust, than for people, in subservience to
their own appetites, to bring children into the world, and leave the burthen of
Thesaurus
burthen: (v) weight, angle, weight formidable, awful, fearsome, maturer, full-grown.
down; (n) loading, plumbing, white appalling, gruesome, horrible, ornaments: (n) stuff, trim,
elephant. terrible, dread, frightening, grim. ornamentation, equipments, dress,
desolate: (adj, v) desert, forlorn; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) wonderful, disposition, custom, curios,
bare, barren, alone, bleak, deserted, calming, soothing, pleasant, lovely, condition, clothing, gaudery.
cheerless, disconsolate; (v) devastate, fair. subservience: (n) obsequiousness,
destroy. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, lessened: (adj) diminished, hurt, dependence, submissiveness,
inhabited, happy, sheltered, mobbed, lower, mitigated, pointed, tapering, sycophancy, subsidiarity,
overcrowded, ecstatic, hopeful; (v) vitiated, atrophied, short, attenuate, submission, subordination,
create, construct, build. attenuated. obedience, subserviency, humility,
enjoined: (adj) lawful. marriageable: (adj) nubile, mature, application.
frightful: (adj, v) fearful; (adj) viripotent, eligible, marriable, thrice: (adv) three times, thirdly.
Jonathan Swift 59
supporting them on the public. As to persons of quality, they give security to

appropriate a certain sum for each child, suitable to their condition; and these
funds are always managed with good husbandry and the most exact justice.%
The cottagers and labourers keep their children at home, their business being
only to till and cultivate the earth, and therefore their education is of little
consequence to the public: but the old and diseased among them, are supported
by hospitals; for begging is a trade unknown in this empire.
And here it may, perhaps, divert the curious reader, to give some account of
my domestics, and my manner of living in this country, during a residence of
nine months, and thirteen days. Having a head mechanically turned, and being
likewise forced by necessity, I had made for myself a table and chair convenient
enough, out of the largest trees in the royal park. Two hundred sempstresses
were employed to make me shirts, and linen for my bed and table, all of the
strongest and coarsest kind they could get; which, however, they were forced to
quilt together in several folds, for the thickest was some degrees finer than lawn.
Their linen is usually three inches wide, and three feet make a piece. The
sempstresses took my measure as I lay on the ground, one standing at my neck,
and another at my mid-leg, with a strong cord extended, that each held by the
end, while a third measured the length of the cord with a rule of an inch long.
Then they measured my right thumb, and desired no more; for by a
mathematical computation, that twice round the thumb is once round the wrist,
and so on to the neck and the waist, and by the help of my old shirt, which I
displayed on the ground before them for a pattern, they fitted me exactly. Three
hundred tailors were employed in the same manner to make me clothes; but they
had another contrivance for taking my measure. I kneeled down, and they raised
a ladder from the ground to my neck; upon this ladder one of them mounted,
and let fall a plumb-line from my collar to the floor, which just answered the
length of my coat: but my waist and arms I measured myself. When my clothes
were finished, which was done in my house (for the largest of theirs would not
have been able to hold them), they looked like the patch-work made by the ladies
in England, only that mine were all of a colour.
Thesaurus
begging: (n) mendicancy, request, higher, more, greater. automaticly, intuitively, impulsively,
plea; (v) asking, beg; (adj) beseeching, folds: (n) laps. technically, technologically.
entreating, mendicant, imploring, husbandry: (n) cultivation, farming, ANTONYMS: (adv) manually,
suppliant, vagabond. economy, frugality, culture, consciously.
cord: (n) band, bond, tie, twine, tape, conservation, thrift, tillage, dairying, quilt: (n) blanket, comforter, duvet,
whipcord, thread, yarn, lace, rope, horticulture, gardening. bedding, cover, bedspread,
leash. linen: (n) fabric, flax, lingerie, doily, counterpane, quilting, eiderdown,
diseased: (adj) bad, ailing, sickly, doyley, doyly, cambric, underwear, sheet; (adj, v) embroider.
unsound, sick, ill, unhealthy, underclothes, hemp; (v) muslin. thirteen: (n) long dozen, large integer.
pathological, infected, unwholesome, mechanically: (adv) mechanistically, wrist: (n) wrist joint, radiocarpal joint,
infirm. ANTONYMS: (adj) well, fit. instinctively, routinely, involuntarily, neaf, gliding joint, fist, articulatio
finer: (adj) superior, advanced, bigger, industrially, unconsciously, Plana, neif; (v) paw, hand, finger.
I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals, in little convenient huts built
about my house, where they and their families lived, and prepared me two
dishes a-piece. I took up twenty waiters in my hand, and placed them on the
table: a hundred more attended below on the ground, some with dishes of meat,
and some with barrels of wine and other liquors slung on their shoulders; all
which the waiters above drew up, as I wanted, in a very ingenious manner, by
certain cords, as we draw the bucket up a well in Europe. A dish of their meat
was a good mouthful, and a barrel of their liquor a reasonable draught. Their
mutton yields to ours, but their beef is excellent. I have had a sirloin so large,
that I have been forced to make three bites of it; but this is rare. My servants were
astonished to see me eat it, bones and all, as in our country we do the leg of a
lark. Their geese and turkeys I usually ate at a mouthful, and I confess they far
exceed ours. Of their smaller fowl I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of
my knife.%
One day his imperial majesty, being informed of my way of living, desired
“that himself and his royal consort, with the young princes of the blood of both
sexes, might have the happiness,” as he was pleased to call it, “of dining with
me.” They came accordingly, and I placed them in chairs of state, upon my table,
just over against me, with their guards about them. Flimnap, the lord high
treasurer, attended there likewise with his white staff; and I observed he often
looked on me with a sour countenance, which I would not seem to regard, but
ate more than usual, in honour to my dear country, as well as to fill the court
with admiration. I have some private reasons to believe, that this visit from his
majesty gave Flimnap an opportunity of doing me ill offices to his master. That
minister had always been my secret enemy, though he outwardly caressed me
more than was usual to the moroseness of his nature. He represented to the
emperor “the low condition of his treasury; that he was forced to take up money
at a great discount; that exchequer bills would not circulate under nine per cent.
below par; that I had cost his majesty above a million and a half of sprugs” (their
greatest gold coin, about the bigness of a spangle) “and, upon the whole, that it
would be advisable in the emperor to take the first fair occasion of dismissing
me.”
Thesaurus
cent: (adj) picayune, mill, pistareen; (n) hen, fowls, rooster. evidently, extrinsically, outerly,
subunit, rupee, red cent, centime. moroseness: (n) glumness, sullenness, outsidely. ANTONYMS: (adv)
consort: (n, v) associate, husband; (n) grumpiness, sullen, asperity, internally, underneath.
companion; (v) agree, affiliate, assort, moodiness, tartness, gloom, sirloin: (n) cut of meat.
accord, mix, keep company, socialize, petulance, surliness, sulk. spangle: (n, v) tinsel; (v) sparkle, shine,
group. ANTONYMS: (v) disagree, ANTONYM: (n) cheeriness. gloss, flash, bespangle; (n) gewgaw,
estrange, differ, dissociate, avoid; (n) mouthful: (n) gulp, morsel, swallow, decoration, finery, frippery,
foe, rival, antagonist, enemy. gobbet, nip, bit, sip, piece, drink; (adj, gimcrack.
dismissing: (v) dismiss; (n) acquittal, n) handful; (adj) thimbleful. turkeys: (n) order Galliformes,
denial, dimission. outwardly: (adv) exteriorly, partridges, brush turkeys, chickens,
fowl: (n) poultry, bird, domestic fowl, superficially, apparently, outside, curassows, Galliformes, hoatzins,
chick, cochin, birds, partlet, poult, seemingly, without, ostensibly, pheasants, grouse, quails.
Jonathan Swift 61
I %am here obliged to vindicate the reputation of an excellent lady, who was
an innocent sufferer upon my account. The treasurer took a fancy to be jealous of
his wife, from the malice of some evil tongues, who informed him that her grace
had taken a violent affection for my person; and the court scandal ran for some
time, that she once came privately to my lodging. This I solemnly declare to be a
most infamous falsehood, without any grounds, further than that her grace was
pleased to treat me with all innocent marks of freedom and friendship. I own she
came often to my house, but always publicly, nor ever without three more in the
coach, who were usually her sister and young daughter, and some particular
acquaintance; but this was common to many other ladies of the court. And I still
appeal to my servants round, whether they at any time saw a coach at my door,
without knowing what persons were in it. On those occasions, when a servant
had given me notice, my custom was to go immediately to the door, and, after
paying my respects, to take up the coach and two horses very carefully in my
hands (for, if there were six horses, the postillion always unharnessed four,) and
place them on a table, where I had fixed a movable rim quite round, of five
inches high, to prevent accidents. And I have often had four coaches and horses
at once on my table, full of company, while I sat in my chair, leaning my face
towards them; and when I was engaged with one set, the coachmen would
gently drive the others round my table. I have passed many an afternoon very
agreeably in these conversations. But I defy the treasurer, or his two informers (I
will name them, and let them make the best of it) Clustril and Drunlo, to prove
that any person ever came to me incognito, except the secretary Reldresal, who
was sent by express command of his imperial majesty, as I have before related. I
should not have dwelt so long upon this particular, if it had not been a point
wherein the reputation of a great lady is so nearly concerned, to say nothing of
my own; though I then had the honour to be a nardac, which the treasurer
himself is not; for all the world knows, that he is only a glumglum, a title inferior
by one degree, as that of a marquis is to a duke in England; yet I allow he
preceded me in right of his post. These false informations, which I afterwards
came to the knowledge of by an accident not proper to mention, made the
treasurer show his lady for some time an ill countenance, and me a worse; and
Thesaurus
agreeably: (adv) enjoyably, pleasantly, honesty, reality. flexible, active; (v) shifting.
sympathetically, pleasingly, suitably, incognito: (adv) incog; (adj) covert, ANTONYMS: (adj) immovable,
well, melodically, accordingly, secret, nameless, disguised, unchangeable.
affably, genially; (adv, v) happily. undercover, concealed; (n) postillion: (n) equestrian, horseback
ANTONYMS: (adv) disagreeably, pseudonym. rider, horseman.
incongruously, uncooperatively, lodging: (n) abode, apartment, servants: (n) staff, suite.
unhelpfully, badly, stubbornly, accommodation, housing, hostel, vindicate: (adj, v) absolve, clear,
harshly. residence, quarter, home, lodgement, exonerate, exculpate; (v) excuse,
falsehood: (n) fable, fabrication, address, hospice. acquit, defend, maintain, uphold,
deception, untruth, lie, fib, fiction, movable: (adj) portable, transferable, assert, rationalize. ANTONYMS: (v)
invention, dishonesty; (adj, n) deceit, mercurial, adjustable, ambulatory, punish, blame, accuse, condemn.
falsity. ANTONYMS: (n) fact, changeable, transportable, moveable, whether: (pron) where.
although he was at last undeceived and reconciled to her, yet I lost all credit
with him, and found my interest decline very fast with the emperor himself,
who was, indeed, too much governed by that favourite.%
Thesaurus
credit: (n) credence, recognition, belief, accept, flourish, improve; (n) (adv) under.
commendation, appreciation, improvement, recovery, himself: (pron) herself, themselves,
advance, fame; (v) accredit; (n, v) development, growth, rebirth, ascent, yourself, itself; (adj) myself; (n)
reputation; (adj, n) worth, merit. upturn. yourselves.
ANTONYMS: (n, v) discredit; (n) fast: (adj, v) firm; (adj) dissolute, reconciled: (adj) consistent, resigned,
cash, blame, fault, disrepute, instant, agile, staunch, quick, hurried, serene, meet; (v) made friends,
disgrace, withdrawal; (v) disbelieve, fixed, rapid; (adv) soon, hard. affriended. ANTONYM: (adj)
question, mistrust, distrust. ANTONYMS: (adv) slowly, loosely, unreconciled.
decline: (n, v) wane, fall, dip, decrease, sluggishly; (n) binge; (adj) sluggish, undeceived: (adj) disillusioned,
ebb; (v) reject, refuse, fail; (adj, n, v) loose, unattached, plodding; (adj, adv) disenchanted.
drop; (adj, v) sink; (n) declension. leisurely; (v) gorge, eat.
ANTONYMS: (n, v) increase; (v) governed: (adj) subject; (n) citizenry;
Jonathan Swift 63
CHAPTER VII
[The author, being informed of a design to accuse him of high-treason, makes

his escape to Blefuscu. His reception there.]
Before I proceed to give an account of my leaving this kingdom, it may be

proper to inform the reader of a private intrigue which had been for two months
forming against me.%
I had been hitherto, all my life, a stranger to courts, for which I was
unqualified by the meanness of my condition. I had indeed heard and read
enough of the dispositions of great princes and ministers, but never expected to
have found such terrible effects of them, in so remote a country, governed, as I
thought, by very different maxims from those in Europe.
When I was just preparing to pay my attendance on the emperor of Blefuscu,
a considerable person at court (to whom I had been very serviceable, at a time
when he lay under the highest displeasure of his imperial majesty) came to my
house very privately at night, in a close chair, and, without sending his name,
desired admittance. The chairmen were dismissed; I put the chair, with his
lordship in it, into my coat-pocket: and, giving orders to a trusty servant, to say I
was indisposed and gone to sleep, I fastened the door of my house, placed the
chair on the table, according to my usual custom, and sat down by it. After the
Thesaurus
admittance: (n) access, accession, indisposed: (adj) ill, ailing, loath, sick, handy, profitable, beneficial,
introduction, door, matriculation, averse, poorly, sickly, reluctant, effective, useful, convenient, efficient,
inlet, permit, entrance, entree, entry, unwilling, unwell, diseased. operative, practicable. ANTONYMS:
input. ANTONYMS: (adj) inclined, willing, (adj) impractical, unusable,
displeasure: (n) resentment, keen, disposed. unserviceable, useless, flimsy,
discomfort, dissatisfaction, dislike, meanness: (n) parsimony, closeness, worthless.
discontent, exasperation, disfavor, pettiness, avarice, selfishness, trusty: (adj) trustworthy, honest,
annoyance, offense, pique, baseness, stinginess, niggardliness, faithful, dependable, responsible,
disapproval. ANTONYMS: (n) miserliness, nastiness; (adj, n) constant, loyal, true, authentic, solid,
satisfaction, pleasure, enjoyment, degeneracy. ANTONYMS: (n) sure. ANTONYMS: (adj)
happiness, delight, contentment, generosity, extravagance, decency. untrustworthy, inconstant, corrupt,
equanimity, approval. serviceable: (adj) practical, helpful, disloyal.
common salutations were over, observing his lordship’s countenance full of

concern, and inquiring into the reason, he desired “I would hear him with
patience, in a matter that highly concerned my honour and my life.” His speech
was to the following effect, for I took notes of it as soon as he left me:—
“You are to know,” said he, “that several committees of council have been
lately called, in the most private manner, on your account; and it is but two days
since his majesty came to a full resolution.%
“You are very sensible that Skyresh Bolgolam” (galbet, or high-admiral) “has
been your mortal enemy, almost ever since your arrival. His original reasons I
know not; but his hatred is increased since your great success against Blefuscu,
by which his glory as admiral is much obscured. This lord, in conjunction with
Flimnap the high-treasurer, whose enmity against you is notorious on account of
his lady, Limtoc the general, Lalcon the chamberlain, and Balmuff the grand
justiciary, have prepared articles of impeachment against you, for treason and
other capital crimes.”
This preface made me so impatient, being conscious of my own merits and
innocence, that I was going to interrupt him; when he entreated me to be silent,
and thus proceeded:—
“Out of gratitude for the favours you have done me, I procured information
of the whole proceedings, and a copy of the articles; wherein I venture my head
for your service.
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST

QUINBUS FLESTRIN
(THE MAN-MOUNTAIN)
ARTICLE I
Thesaurus
conjunction: (n) coincidence, love, kindness, affection, adoration, obscured: (adj) hidden, blind, covered,
concurrence, association, coalition, amity, cooperation, goodwill. clouded, darkened, covert, dim,
alliance, cohesion, anastomosis, impeachment: (n) charge, accusation, intangible, unnoticed, ulterior, privy.
concomitance, confluence, arraignment, censure, impeach, reasons: (n) proof.
amalgamation; (v) joinder. indictment, prosecution, citation, salutations: (n) respects.
ANTONYMS: (n) detachment, instrument, blame, complaint. took: (adj) taken; (v) receive.
disconnection, division, separation. inquiring: (adj) inquisitive, quizzical, treason: (n) treachery, perfidy, high
enmity: (n, v) animosity; (n) interested, analytical, probing, treason, sabotage, lese majesty,
antagonism, animus, hostility, intrusive; (adj, n) questioning; (v) traitorousness, subversiveness,
aggression, rancor, ill will, antipathy, inquire; (n) enquiry, question, duplicity; (adj, n) disloyalty, sedition,
hatred, war, dislike. ANTONYMS: examination. ANTONYM: (adj) prodition. ANTONYMS: (n) loyalty,
(n) friendship, friendliness, affinity, uninquiring. faithfulness, fidelity.
Jonathan Swift 65
“ ‘Whereas, by a statute made in the reign of his imperial majesty Calin

Deffar Plune, it is enacted, that, whoever shall make water within the precincts of
the royal palace, shall be liable to the pains and penalties of high-treason;
notwithstanding, the said Quinbus Flestrin, in open breach of the said law, under
colour of extinguishing the fire kindled in the apartment of his majesty’s most
dear imperial consort, did maliciously, traitorously, and devilishly, by discharge
of his urine, put out the said fire kindled in the said apartment, lying and being
within the precincts of the said royal palace, against the statute in that case
provided, etc. against the duty, etc.%
ARTICLE II
“ ‘That the said Quinbus Flestrin, having brought the imperial fleet of
Blefuscu into the royal port, and being afterwards commanded by his imperial
majesty to seize all the other ships of the said empire of Blefuscu, and reduce that
empire to a province, to be governed by a viceroy from hence, and to destroy and
put to death, not only all the Big-endian exiles, but likewise all the people of that
empire who would not immediately forsake the Big-endian heresy, he, the said
Flestrin, like a false traitor against his most auspicious, serene, imperial majesty,
did petition to be excused from the said service, upon pretence of unwillingness
to force the consciences, or destroy the liberties and lives of an innocent people.
ARTICLE III
“ ‘That, whereas certain ambassadors arrived from the Court of Blefuscu, to

sue for peace in his majesty’s court, he, the said Flestrin, did, like a false traitor,
aid, abet, comfort, and divert, the said ambassadors, although he knew them to
be servants to a prince who was lately an open enemy to his imperial majesty,
and in an open war against his said majesty.
Thesaurus
abet: (v) assist, countenance, support, excused: (adj) privileged, immune. false doctrine, nonconformity,
help, incite, favor, aid, back, instigate, extinguishing: (n) quenching, dampen revisionism, unbelief, orientation,
encourage, provoke. ANTONYMS: out, extermination, stamp out, apostasy, fallacy, schism, dissent.
(v) hinder, impede, undermine, conclusion, extinguished, kindled: (adj) enkindled, lighted, lit,
thwart, prohibit, obstruct, frustrate, experimental extinction, ending, burning.
dissuade, discourage, denounce, destruction, defunctness, complete liberties: (n) freedoms, familiarity,
counter. annihilation. intimacy.
devilishly: (adv) diabolically, forsake: (v) abandon, ditch, relinquish, traitorously: (adv) disloyally, falsely,
satanically, infernally, devilish, abdicate, fail, leave, forgo, chuck, treacherously, false, treasonously,
hellishly, demoniacally, madly, disclaim; (n, v) drop; (adj, v) quit. unfaithfully, perfidiously, untruely,
wickedly; (adj, adv) deucedly; (adj) ANTONYM: (v) support. treasonably. ANTONYM: (adv)
desperately, confoundedly. heresy: (n) paganism, heathenism, faithfully.
ARTICLE IV
“ ‘That the said Quinbus Flestrin, contrary to the duty of a faithful subject, is
now preparing to make a voyage to the court and empire of Blefuscu, for which
he has received only verbal license from his imperial majesty; and, under colour
of the said license, does falsely and traitorously intend to take the said voyage,
and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the emperor of Blefuscu, so lately an enemy,
and in open war with his imperial majesty aforesaid.’
“There are some other articles; but these are the most important, of which I
have read you an abstract.%
“In the several debates upon this impeachment, it must be confessed that his
majesty gave many marks of his great lenity; often urging the services you had
done him, and endeavouring to extenuate your crimes. The treasurer and
admiral insisted that you should be put to the most painful and ignominious
death, by setting fire to your house at night, and the general was to attend with
twenty thousand men, armed with poisoned arrows, to shoot you on the face
and hands. Some of your servants were to have private orders to strew a
poisonous juice on your shirts and sheets, which would soon make you tear your
own flesh, and die in the utmost torture. The general came into the same opinion;
so that for a long time there was a majority against you; but his majesty
resolving, if possible, to spare your life, at last brought off the chamberlain.
“Upon this incident, Reldresal, principal secretary for private affairs, who
always approved himself your true friend, was commanded by the emperor to
deliver his opinion, which he accordingly did; and therein justified the good
thoughts you have of him. He allowed your crimes to be great, but that still there
was room for mercy, the most commendable virtue in a prince, and for which his
majesty was so justly celebrated. He said, the friendship between you and him
was so well known to the world, that perhaps the most honourable board might
Thesaurus
commendable: (adj, n) praiseworthy; abate. mercy, moderation.
(adj) admirable, creditable, good, falsely: (adv) incorrectly, fraudulently, resolving: (n) factoring, resolve,
worthy, deserving, meritorious, deceptively, dishonestly, wrongly, settlement, solving, solution,
applaudable; (adv) praiseworthily, erroneously, misleadingly, factorization, diagonalization,
laudably, admirably. ANTONYMS: deceitfully, unfaithfully, spuriously, declaration, firmness, resoluteness;
(adj) unworthy, despicable, fictitiously. ANTONYMS: (adv) (v) solve.
contemptible, disgraceful, rotten, honestly, truthfully, faithfully, sheets: (n) rain, bed linen.
lamentable, poor. authentically, correctly, naturally, strew: (v) scatter, spread, disperse,
confessed: (adj) known. rightly. disseminate, distribute, diffuse, sow,
extenuate: (v) alleviate, palliate, lenity: (n) clemency, lenience, grace, sprinkle, bestrew, circulate,
diminish, reduce, mitigate, excuse, indulgence, compassion, forbearance, propagate. ANTONYM: (v)
attenuate, allay, detract, mollify, gentleness, mildness, tolerance, concentrate.
Jonathan Swift 67
think him partial; however, in obedience to the command he had received, he

would freely offer his sentiments. That if his majesty, in consideration of your
services, and pursuant to his own merciful disposition, would please to spare
your life, and only give orders to put out both your eyes, he humbly conceived,
that by this expedient justice might in some measure be satisfied, and all the
world would applaud the lenity of the emperor, as well as the fair and generous
proceedings of those who have the honour to be his counsellors. That the loss of
your eyes would be no impediment to your bodily strength, by which you might
still be useful to his majesty; that blindness is an addition to courage, by
concealing dangers from us; that the fear you had for your eyes, was the greatest
difficulty in bringing over the enemy’s fleet, and it would be sufficient for you to
see by the eyes of the ministers, since the greatest princes do no more.%
“This proposal was received with the utmost disapprobation by the whole
board. Bolgolam, the admiral, could not preserve his temper, but, rising up in
fury, said, he wondered how the secretary durst presume to give his opinion for
preserving the life of a traitor; that the services you had performed were, by all
true reasons of state, the great aggravation of your crimes; that you, who were
able to extinguish the fire by discharge of urine in her majesty’s apartment
(which he mentioned with horror), might, at another time, raise an inundation
by the same means, to drown the whole palace; and the same strength which
enabled you to bring over the enemy’s fleet, might serve, upon the first
discontent, to carry it back; that he had good reasons to think you were a Big-
endian in your heart; and, as treason begins in the heart, before it appears in
overt-acts, so he accused you as a traitor on that account, and therefore insisted
you should be put to death.
“The treasurer was of the same opinion: he showed to what straits his
majesty’s revenue was reduced, by the charge of maintaining you, which would
soon grow insupportable; that the secretary’s expedient of putting out your eyes,
was so far from being a remedy against this evil, that it would probably increase
it, as is manifest from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowls, after
which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat; that his sacred majesty and the
Thesaurus
blinding: (adj) dazzling, blazing, difficulty, delay; (n) bar, hitch, flooding, overflow, debacle, torrent,
amazingly impressive, bisson, barrier, obstruction, drawback, alluvion, downpour, cloudburst,
blatant, fulgent, glary; (n) clogging, encumbrance, block. ANTONYMS: alluvium, flowage. ANTONYM: (n)
blind blocking, blindage. (n) benefit, boost, incentive, strength. trickle.
extinguish: (v) destroy, exterminate, insupportable: (adj, v) insufferable, merciful: (adj) humane, gracious,
eradicate, douse, annihilate, intolerable; (adj) indefensible, lenient, compassionate, kind,
consume, wipe out, end, suppress, unbearable, excruciating, clement, benign, kindly, gentle,
quash; (adj, v) allay. ANTONYMS: (v) unjustifiable, unendurable, beneficent, forgiving. ANTONYMS:
ignite, build, create, encourage, impossible, unsupportable, heavy, (adj) pitiless, merciless, unforgiving,
inflame, sustain, protect. obnoxious. ANTONYM: (adj) spiteful, harsh, impatient, severe,
fowls: (n) poultry. bearable. hardhearted.
impediment: (n, v) hindrance, check, inundation: (n, v) deluge, freshet; (n) pursuant: (adj) agreeable.
council, who are your judges, were, in their own consciences, fully convinced of
your guilt, which was a sufficient argument to condemn you to death, without
the formal proofs required by the strict letter of the law.%
“But his imperial majesty, fully determined against capital punishment, was
graciously pleased to say, that since the council thought the loss of your eyes too
easy a censure, some other way may be inflicted hereafter. And your friend the
secretary, humbly desiring to be heard again, in answer to what the treasurer
had objected, concerning the great charge his majesty was at in maintaining you,
said, that his excellency, who had the sole disposal of the emperor’s revenue,
might easily provide against that evil, by gradually lessening your
establishment; by which, for want of sufficient for you would grow weak and
faint, and lose your appetite, and consequently, decay, and consume in a few
months; neither would the stench of your carcass be then so dangerous, when it
should become more than half diminished; and immediately upon your death
five or six thousand of his majesty’s subjects might, in two or three days, cut
your flesh from your bones, take it away by cart-loads, and bury it in distant
parts, to prevent infection, leaving the skeleton as a monument of admiration to
posterity.
“Thus, by the great friendship of the secretary, the whole affair was
compromised. It was strictly enjoined, that the project of starving you by degrees
should be kept a secret; but the sentence of putting out your eyes was entered on
the books; none dissenting, except Bolgolam the admiral, who, being a creature
of the empress, was perpetually instigated by her majesty to insist upon your
death, she having borne perpetual malice against you, on account of that
infamous and illegal method you took to extinguish the fire in her apartment.
“In three days your friend the secretary will be directed to come to your
house, and read before you the articles of impeachment; and then to signify the
great lenity and favour of his majesty and council, whereby you are only
condemned to the loss of your eyes, which his majesty does not question you will
gratefully and humbly submit to; and twenty of his majesty’s surgeons will
attend, in order to see the operation well performed, by discharging very sharp-
Thesaurus
admiral: (n) admiralty, nymphalid, (adj) conformist, cooperative. everlastingly, always, incessantly,
flagship, administration, perry, full hereafter: (adv) thereafter, from now continually, endlessly, permanently,
admiral, drake. on, hence, henceforth, hereinafter, unceasingly, ceaselessly, ever; (adj,
desiring: (adj) envious, insatiable, afterwards; (n) afterlife, futurity, time adv) forever. ANTONYMS: (adv)
desirous, eager; (adv) fleshly. to come, great beyond, future life. erratically, sporadically.
discharging: (n) unloading, discharge, lessening: (n) diminution, cutback, posterity: (n) race, descendants, issue,
fulfillment, acquittal; (v) unload. alleviation, contraction, abatement, offspring, descendant, future,
dissenting: (adj) dissident, heretical, mitigation, shrinking, reduction, cut; generation, progeny, breed,
discordant, profane, unorthodox, (adj) decreasing, diminishing. descendent, spat.
uncooperative, skeptical, ANTONYMS: (n) growth, stench: (n, v) reek, smell; (n) niff, fetor,
sacrilegious, recalcitrant; (v) restoration; (adj) increasing. odor, malodour, malodor, mephitis,
disagreeing, disagree. ANTONYMS: perpetually: (adv) eternally, odour, foetor, fetidness.
Jonathan Swift 69
pointed arrows into the balls of your eyes, as you lie on the ground.
“I leave to your prudence what measures you will take; and to avoid
suspicion, I must immediately return in as private a manner as I came.”
His lordship did so; and I remained alone, under many doubts and
perplexities of mind.%
It was a custom introduced by this prince and his ministry (very different, as
I have been assured, from the practice of former times,) that after the court had
decreed any cruel execution, either to gratify the monarch’s resentment, or the
malice of a favourite, the emperor always made a speech to his whole council,
expressing his great lenity and tenderness, as qualities known and confessed by
all the world. This speech was immediately published throughout the kingdom;
nor did any thing terrify the people so much as those encomiums on his
majesty’s mercy; because it was observed, that the more these praises were
enlarged and insisted on, the more inhuman was the punishment, and the
sufferer more innocent. Yet, as to myself, I must confess, having never been
designed for a courtier, either by my birth or education, I was so ill a judge of
things, that I could not discover the lenity and favour of this sentence, but
conceived it (perhaps erroneously) rather to be rigorous than gentle. I sometimes
thought of standing my trial, for, although I could not deny the facts alleged in
the several articles, yet I hoped they would admit of some extenuation. But
having in my life perused many state-trials, which I ever observed to terminate
as the judges thought fit to direct, I durst not rely on so dangerous a decision, in
so critical a juncture, and against such powerful enemies. Once I was strongly
bent upon resistance, for, while I had liberty the whole strength of that empire
could hardly subdue me, and I might easily with stones pelt the metropolis to
pieces; but I soon rejected that project with horror, by remembering the oath I
had made to the emperor, the favours I received from him, and the high title of
nardac he conferred upon me. Neither had I so soon learned the gratitude of
courtiers, to persuade myself, that his majesty’s present seventies acquitted me of
all past obligations.
At last, I fixed upon a resolution, for which it is probable I may incur some
Thesaurus
courtier: (n) aristocrat, official, connection, affair, point, time, extravagance.
attendant, suckling. conjuncture; (v) joining. subdue: (adj, n, v) conquer; (v)
decreed: (adj) appointed, lawful, pelt: (n) hide, skin, fell, coat; (v) overpower, crush, defeat, quell,
prescribed, legal, inevitable, pepper, bombard, hurry, beat, hit, quash, suppress, restrain; (n, v)
appointive. batter, pour. reduce; (adj, v) repress; (adv, v)
inhuman: (adj) heartless, cruel, prudence: (n) foresight, economy, control. ANTONYMS: (v) incite,
atrocious, brutal, cold, harsh, frugality, caution, care, forethought, enliven, resist, submit.
ferocious, remorseless, barbarous, providence, circumspection, terrify: (n, v) frighten, alarm, fright,
relentless, barbaric. ANTONYMS: judgment, deliberation; (adj, n) affright; (v) panic, dismay, startle,
(adj) sympathetic, kind, humane. wisdom. ANTONYMS: (n) horrify, intimidate, terrorize, daunt.
juncture: (n, v) joint; (adj, n) crisis; (n) imprudence, profligacy, generosity, ANTONYMS: (v) please, delight,
articulation, event, junction, hindsight, recklessness, calm, soothe, comfort.
censure, and not unjustly; for I confess I owe the preserving of mine eyes, and
consequently %my liberty, to my own great rashness and want of experience;
because, if I had then known the nature of princes and ministers, which I have
since observed in many other courts, and their methods of treating criminals less
obnoxious than myself, I should, with great alacrity and readiness, have
submitted to so easy a punishment. But hurried on by the precipitancy of youth,
and having his imperial majesty’s license to pay my attendance upon the
emperor of Blefuscu, I took this opportunity, before the three days were elapsed,
to send a letter to my friend the secretary, signifying my resolution of setting out
that morning for Blefuscu, pursuant to the leave I had got; and, without waiting
for an answer, I went to that side of the island where our fleet lay. I seized a large
man of war, tied a cable to the prow, and, lifting up the anchors, I stripped
myself, put my clothes (together with my coverlet, which I carried under my
arm) into the vessel, and, drawing it after me, between wading and swimming
arrived at the royal port of Blefuscu, where the people had long expected me:
they lent me two guides to direct me to the capital city, which is of the same
name. I held them in my hands, till I came within two hundred yards of the gate,
and desired them “to signify my arrival to one of the secretaries, and let him
know, I there waited his majesty’s command.” I had an answer in about an hour,
“that his majesty, attended by the royal family, and great officers of the court,
was coming out to receive me.” I advanced a hundred yards. The emperor and
his train alighted from their horses, the empress and ladies from their coaches,
and I did not perceive they were in any fright or concern. I lay on the ground to
kiss his majesty’s and the empress’s hands. I told his majesty, “that I was come
according to my promise, and with the license of the emperor my master, to have
the honour of seeing so mighty a monarch, and to offer him any service in my
power, consistent with my duty to my own prince;” not mentioning a word of
my disgrace, because I had hitherto no regular information of it, and might
suppose myself wholly ignorant of any such design; neither could I reasonably
conceive that the emperor would discover the secret, while I was out of his
power; wherein, however, it soon appeared I was deceived.
I shall not trouble the reader with the particular account of my reception at
Thesaurus
alacrity: (n) rapidity, speed, precipitancy: (n) haste, temerity, forethought.
promptness, activity, preparedness, hastiness, rashness, hurriedness, signifying: (adj) indicative, implying,
velocity, haste, swiftness, quickness, abruptness, indiscretion, representative, suggestive of,
expedition; (adj) life. ANTONYMS: inconsideration, precipitation, demonstrating, symptomatic of,
(n) aversion, reservation, reluctance, brusqueness; (adj, n) precipitousness. showing, indicatory, representing; (n)
indifference, hesitance, dullness, rashness: (n) temerity, precipitation, abuse.
disinclination, apathy, tardiness, recklessness, hastiness, imprudence, unjustly: (adv) wrongly, wrongfully,
delay. heedlessness, folly, precipitancy, wickedly, iniquitously, inequitably,
coverlet: (n) blanket, bedspread, cover, indiscretion, carelessness, undeservedly, illegally, foully,
bedcover, bed cover, tarpaulin, adventurism. ANTONYMS: (n) injuriously, unrighteously,
drugget, coverlid, spread, mantle, caution, consideration, deliberation, unjustifiedly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
quilt. patience, discretion, carefulness, rightly, reasonably.
Jonathan Swift 71
this court, which was suitable to the generosity of so great a prince; nor of the
difficulties I was in for want of a house and bed, being forced to lie on the
ground, wrapped up in my coverlet.%
Thesaurus
difficulties: (n) hardships, problems, favor; (n) benevolence, eligible, pertinent, desirable, correct,
trouble, difficulty, troubles, necessity, bounteousness, chivalry, nobility, fitting. ANTONYMS: (adj)
privation, bother, lack. munificence. ANTONYMS: (n) inappropriate, wrong, improper,
forced: (adj) compelled, bound, stinginess, greed, meanness, thrift, inconvenient, untimely, amiss,
constrained, artificial, involuntary, thriftiness, avarice, unfriendliness, unwise, unsatisfactory, unpleasant,
unnatural, forcible, farfetched, bareness, malevolence, miserliness, unflattering, unfit.
strained, obligatory, labored. nastiness. wrapped: (prep) covered; (adj) clothed,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unprovoked, prince: (n) lord, potentate, sovereign, draped, rapt, intent, absorbed,
spontaneous, voluntary, natural, duke, king, chief, maharaja, engrossed, mantled, packed,
genuine, willing, optional. maharajah, ruler, magnate, archduke. immersed; (adj, prep) cloaked.
generosity: (n, v) charity, liberality; suitable: (adj, v) fit, proper,
(adj, n) bounty, kindness, beneficence, convenient; (adj) good, apt, right,
Jonathan Swift 73
CHAPTER %VIII
[The author, by a lucky accident, finds means to leave Blefuscu; and, after
some difficulties, returns safe to his native country.]
Three days after my arrival, walking out of curiosity to the north-east coast of
the island, I observed, about half a league off in the sea, somewhat that looked
like a boat overturned. I pulled off my shoes and stockings, and, wailing two or
three hundred yards, I found the object to approach nearer by force of the tide;
and then plainly saw it to be a real boat, which I supposed might by some
tempest have been driven from a ship. Whereupon, I returned immediately
towards the city, and desired his imperial majesty to lend me twenty of the
tallest vessels he had left, after the loss of his fleet, and three thousand seamen,
under the command of his vice-admiral. This fleet sailed round, while I went
back the shortest way to the coast, where I first discovered the boat. I found the
tide had driven it still nearer. The seamen were all provided with cordage, which
I had beforehand twisted to a sufficient strength. When the ships came up, I
stripped myself, and waded till I came within a hundred yards off the boat, after
which I was forced to swim till I got up to it. The seamen threw me the end of the
cord, which I fastened to a hole in the fore-part of the boat, and the other end to a
man of war; but I found all my labour to little purpose; for, being out of my
depth, I was not able to work. In this necessity I was forced to swim behind, and
Thesaurus
beforehand: (adv) previously, ahead, up, confused, broken, wrong side up, least, irascible, lowest, most direct.
in advance, in anticipation, first; (adj, topsy-turvy, disturbed, disquieted. stripped: (adj) naked, nude, exposed,
adv) early, aforehand; (adj) advance, plainly: (adv) evidently, manifestly, fleeced, undressed, unclothed, stark,
already, afore; (n) prior. clearly, distinctly, openly, obviously, desolate, denuded, bald, stript.
ANTONYMS: (adv) afterwards, patently, overtly, definitely; (adj, adv) tempest: (adj, n) storm, gust; (n) gale,
afterward, later, late, subsequently. frankly, honestly. ANTONYMS: (adv) hurricane, squall, disturbance,
came: (v) arrive, come. imperceptibly, vaguely, obscurely, cyclone, typhoon, agitation, tornado,
cordage: (n) rope, quantity, measure, figuratively, unclearly, politely, blizzard. ANTONYM: (n) serenity.
quantum, ropes, cord fabric, amount, incoherently, implicitly, finely, wailing: (n, v) lamentation, lament,
twine. ambiguously, covertly. moaning; (adj) lamenting, weeping,
overturned: (adj) upturned, upside shortest: (adj) direct, brusk, brusque, crying, wailful, howling, sobbing;
down, inverted, reversed, wrong way choleric, curt, directer, hotheaded, (adj, n) bawling; (n) cry.
push the boat forward, as often as I could, with one of my hands; and the tide
favouring me, I advanced so far that I could just hold up my chin and feel the
ground. I rested two or three minutes, and then gave the boat another shove, and
so on, till the sea was no higher than my arm-pits; and now, the most laborious
part being over, I took out my other cables, which were stowed in one of the
ships, and fastened them first to the boat, and then to nine of the vessels which
attended me; the wind being favourable, the seamen towed, and I shoved, until
we arrived within forty yards of the shore; and, waiting till the tide was out, I got
dry to the boat, and by the assistance of two thousand men, with ropes and
engines, I made a shift to turn it on its bottom, and found it was but little
damaged.%
I shall not trouble the reader with the difficulties I was under, by the help of
certain paddles, which cost me ten days making, to get my boat to the royal port
of Blefuscu, where a mighty concourse of people appeared upon my arrival, full
of wonder at the sight of so prodigious a vessel. I told the emperor “that my
good fortune had thrown this boat in my way, to carry me to some place whence
I might return into my native country; and begged his majesty’s orders for
getting materials to fit it up, together with his license to depart;” which, after
some kind expostulations, he was pleased to grant.
I did very much wonder, in all this time, not to have heard of any express
relating to me from our emperor to the court of Blefuscu. But I was afterward
given privately to understand, that his imperial majesty, never imagining I had
the least notice of his designs, believed I was only gone to Blefuscu in
performance of my promise, according to the license he had given me, which
was well known at our court, and would return in a few days, when the
ceremony was ended. But he was at last in pain at my long absence; and after
consulting with the treasurer and the rest of that cabal, a person of quality was
dispatched with the copy of the articles against me. This envoy had instructions
to represent to the monarch of Blefuscu, “the great lenity of his master, who was
content to punish me no farther than with the loss of mine eyes; that I had fled
from justice; and if I did not return in two hours, I should be deprived of my title
Thesaurus
afterward: (adv, conj) then, after that; consultation; (v) consult. exhausting, formidable, tough.
(adv) thereafter, afterwards, later, dispatched: (adj) fulfilled, finished. ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, effortless,
subsequently, later on, next, soon; envoy: (n) diplomat, minister, undemanding, light, brisk.
(adj) following; (n) future. delegate, ambassador, agent, courier, rested: (adj) comfortable.
ANTONYMS: (adv) now, previously, messenger, representative, legate, shove: (n, v) thrust, jostle, poke, elbow,
before. deputy, runner. prod, boost, hustle; (v) press, impel,
appeared: (n) appearing. imagining: (n) conception, daydream, shift, stuff. ANTONYMS: (v) pull,
cabal: (n) scheme, junto, faction, fantasy, opinion; (v) imagine; (adj) leave.
conspiracy, plot, intrigue, ring, imaginant. whence: (adv) wherefrom, hence,
camarilla; (v) conspire, machinate, laborious: (adj) hard, arduous, because, for, why, wherefore, how,
complot. backbreaking, heavy, industrious, then, then thence so, how comes it,
consulting: (adj) consultative; (n) diligent, grueling, assiduous, how happens it.
Jonathan Swift 75
of nardac, and declared a traitor.” The envoy further added, “that in order to
maintain the peace and amity between both empires, his master expected that his
brother of Blefuscu would give orders to have me sent back to Lilliput, bound
hand and foot, to be punished as a traitor.”
The emperor of Blefuscu, having taken three days to consult, returned an
answer consisting of many civilities and excuses. He said, “that as for sending
me bound, his brother knew it was impossible; that, although I had deprived him
of his fleet, yet he owed great obligations to me for many good offices I had done
him in making the peace. That, however, both their majesties would soon be
made easy; for I had found a prodigious vessel on the shore, able to carry me on
the sea, which he had given orders to fit up, with my own assistance and
direction; and he hoped, in a few weeks, both empires would be freed from so
insupportable an encumbrance.”
With this answer the envoy returned to Lilliput; and the monarch of Blefuscu
related to me all that had passed; offering me at the same time (but under the
strictest confidence) his gracious protection, if I would continue in his service;
wherein, although I believed him sincere, yet I resolved never more to put any
confidence in princes or ministers, where I could possibly avoid it; and therefore,
with all due acknowledgments for his favourable intentions, I humbly begged to
be excused. I told him, “that since fortune, whether good or evil, had thrown a
vessel in my way, I was resolved to venture myself on the ocean, rather than be
an occasion of difference between two such mighty monarchs.” Neither did I
find the emperor at all displeased; and I discovered, by a certain accident, that he
was very glad of my resolution, and so were most of his ministers.%
These considerations moved me to hasten my departure somewhat sooner
than I intended; to which the court, impatient to have me gone, very readily
contributed. Five hundred workmen were employed to make two sails to my
boat, according to my directions, by quilting thirteen folds of their strongest
linen together. I was at the pains of making ropes and cables, by twisting ten,
twenty, or thirty of the thickest and strongest of theirs. A great stone that I
happened to find, after a long search, by the sea-shore, served me for an anchor. I
Thesaurus
amity: (n) friendship, concord, contented, satisfied, calm. dispatch. ANTONYMS: (v) linger,
companionship, benevolence, peace, gracious: (adj) genial, benign, good, retard, amble.
harmony, friendliness, brotherhood, courteous, compassionate, kind, quilting: (n) stitch, textile, padding,
fellowship, sympathy, camaraderie. accommodating, civil; (adj, n) filler, batt, batting, cloth, fabric,
ANTONYMS: (n) hostility, discord, benevolent, congenial, gentle. filling, material, embroidery.
antagonism, war, animosity. ANTONYMS: (adj) ungracious, ropes: (n) weight, pressure, leverage,
civilities: (n) propriety. boorish, discourteous, reserved, rude, form, authority, dealings, control,
displeased: (adj) disgruntled, abrupt, critical, unkind, hardhearted, influence.
dissatisfied, angry, annoyed, harsh, poor. twisting: (adj) tortuous, winding,
unhappy, peeved, irritated, hasten: (adj, n, v) speed, quicken; (v) sinuous, crooked, zigzag,
disgusted, indignant; (v) pained, expedite, advance, hurry, hie, dash, meandering; (n) distortion, turn, spin,
afflicted. ANTONYMS: (adj) rush; (n, v) further, forward, torsion, overrefinement.
had the tallow of three hundred cows, for greasing my boat, and other uses. I
was at incredible pains in cutting down some of the largest timber-trees, for oars
and masts, wherein I was, however, much assisted by his majesty’s ship-
carpenters, who helped me in smoothing them, after I had done the rough
work.%
In about a month, when all was prepared, I sent to receive his majesty’s
commands, and to take my leave. The emperor and royal family came out of the
palace; I lay down on my face to kiss his hand, which he very graciously gave
me: so did the empress and young princes of the blood. His majesty presented
me with fifty purses of two hundred sprugs a-piece, together with his picture at
full length, which I put immediately into one of my gloves, to keep it from being
hurt. The ceremonies at my departure were too many to trouble the reader with
at this time.
I stored the boat with the carcases of a hundred oxen, and three hundred
sheep, with bread and drink proportionable, and as much meat ready dressed as
four hundred cooks could provide. I took with me six cows and two bulls alive,
with as many ewes and rams, intending to carry them into my own country, and
propagate the breed. And to feed them on board, I had a good bundle of hay,
and a bag of corn. I would gladly have taken a dozen of the natives, but this was
a thing the emperor would by no means permit; and, besides a diligent search
into my pockets, his majesty engaged my honour “not to carry away any of his
subjects, although with their own consent and desire.”
Having thus prepared all things as well as I was able, I set sail on the twenty-
fourth day of September 1701, at six in the morning; and when I had gone about
four-leagues to the northward, the wind being at south-east, at six in the evening
I descried a small island, about half a league to the north-west. I advanced
forward, and cast anchor on the lee-side of the island, which seemed to be
uninhabited. I then took some refreshment, and went to my rest. I slept well,
and as I conjectured at least six hours, for I found the day broke in two hours
after I awaked. It was a clear night. I ate my breakfast before the sun was up; and
heaving anchor, the wind being favourable, I steered the same course that I had
Thesaurus
assisted: (adj) aided. mutter. ANTONYM: (adj) deserted. bland, not rough, moving equably,
diligent: (adj) busy, active, assiduous, northward: (adj, adv) north; (adj) mild.
painstaking, careful, earnest, northbound; (adv) northerly, steered: (adj) directed.
studious, attentive, laborious, northwards, in the north, to the tallow: (n) grease, lard, oil, suet,
industrious, zealous. ANTONYMS: north. cream, butter, cicatrix, beef tallow,
(adj) careless, negligent, dilatory, idle, refreshment: (n) bite, drink, dubbin, animal oil, scar.
inactive, languid, slack, sluggish, recreation, collation, repose, relief, uninhabited: (adj) empty, desert,
lethargic, weary, indolent. rest, entertainment, treat; (v) desolate, vacant, unoccupied,
greasing: (n) scumming. invigoration; (n, v) regalement. unpopulated, uninhabitable, lonely,
heaving: (v) tremor, twitter; (adj) smoothing: (n) fine cutting, untenanted, unsettled, waste.
swelling, full, full up, jammed; (n) smoothness, sleeking; (adj) sleek, ANTONYMS: (adj) inhabited,
murmur, forcing out, groan, grumble, even, not harsh, smooth porcelain, overcrowded, populous.
Jonathan Swift 77
done the day before, wherein I was directed by my pocket compass. My

intention was to reach, if possible, one of those islands. which I had reason to
believe lay to the north-east of Van Diemen’s Land. I discovered nothing all that
day; but upon the next, about three in the afternoon, when I had by my
computation made twenty-four leagues from Blefuscu, I descried a sail steering
to the south-east; my course was due east. I hailed her, but could get no answer;
yet I found I gained upon her, for the wind slackened. I made all the sail I could,
and in half an hour she spied me, then hung out her ancient, and discharged a
gun. It is not easy to express the joy I was in, upon the unexpected hope of once
more seeing my beloved country, and the dear pledges I left in it. The ship
slackened her sails, and I came up with her between five and six in the evening,
September 26th; but my heart leaped within me to see her English colours. I put
my cows and sheep into my coat-pockets, and got on board with all my little
cargo of provisions. The vessel was an English merchantman, returning from
Japan by the North and South seas; the captain, Mr. John Biddel, of Deptford, a
very civil man, and an excellent sailor.%
We were now in the latitude of 30 degrees south; there were about fifty men
in the ship; and here I met an old comrade of mine, one Peter Williams, who
gave me a good character to the captain. This gentleman treated me with
kindness, and desired I would let him know what place I came from last, and
whither I was bound; which I did in a few words, but he thought I was raving,
and that the dangers I underwent had disturbed my head; whereupon I took my
black cattle and sheep out of my pocket, which, after great astonishment, clearly
convinced him of my veracity. I then showed him the gold given me by the
emperor of Blefuscu, together with his majesty’s picture at full length, and some
other rarities of that country. I gave him two purses of two hundreds sprugs each,
and promised, when we arrived in England, to make him a present of a cow and
a sheep big with young.
I shall not trouble the reader with a particular account of this voyage, which
was very prosperous for the most part. We arrived in the Downs on the 13th of
April, 1702. I had only one misfortune, that the rats on board carried away one
Thesaurus
beloved: (adj, n) dear, darling, ANTONYMS: (n) stranger, enemy, (n) joy, bonus, opportunity, privilege,
favorite, pet; (adj) precious, loved, foe, opponent. success, happiness.
cherished; (n) love, dearest, honey, hung: (n) hanging; (v) Heng; (adj) raving: (adj, v) wild; (adj) frantic,
sweetheart. ANTONYMS: (adj) fatigued, puzzled, decorated. delirious, furious, mad, insane; (adj,
detested, despised, disliked. merchantman: (n) freighter, bottom, n) madness, distraction, rage; (n)
compass: (n) scope, range, room, merchant vessel, trader, keister, rabid, delirium.
extent, area, circumference, reach; (n, hindquarters, buns, butt, bed, behind, slackened: (adj) leisurely.
v) round, grasp, circle; (v) get. merchant. steering: (n) management, steerage,
ANTONYM: (v) lose. misfortune: (n) accident, hardship, direction, navigation, driving,
comrade: (n) colleague, chum, buddy, misadventure, disaster, calamity, pilotage, control, aim, attitude
fellow, compeer, partner, brother, mischance, catastrophe, mishap, bad control, piloting, managing.
mate, familiar; (adj, n) associate, ally. luck, misery, affliction. ANTONYMS: underwent: (v) endure, tolerate.
of my sheep; I found her bones in a hole, picked clean from the flesh. The rest of
my cattle I got safe ashore, and set them a-grazing in a bowling-green at
Greenwich, where the fineness of the grass made them feed very heartily,
though I had always feared the contrary: neither could I possibly have preserved
them in so long a voyage, if the captain had not allowed me some of his best
biscuit, which, rubbed to powder, and mingled with water, was their constant
food. The short time I continued in England, I made a considerable profit by
showing my cattle to many persons of quality and others: and before I began my
second voyage, I sold them for six hundred pounds. Since my last return I find
the breed is considerably increased, especially the sheep, which I hope will prove
much to the advantage of the woollen manufacture, by the fineness of the
fleeces.%
I stayed but two months with my wife and family, for my insatiable desire of
seeing foreign countries, would suffer me to continue no longer. I left fifteen
hundred pounds with my wife, and fixed her in a good house at Redriff. My
remaining stock I carried with me, part in money and part in goods, in hopes to
improve my fortunes. My eldest uncle John had left me an estate in land, near
Epping, of about thirty pounds a-year; and I had a long lease of the Black Bull in
Fetter-Lane, which yielded me as much more; so that I was not in any danger of
leaving my family upon the parish. My son Johnny, named so after his uncle,
was at the grammar-school, and a towardly child. My daughter Betty (who is
now well married, and has children) was then at her needle-work. I took leave of
my wife, and boy and girl, with tears on both sides, and went on board the
Adventure, a merchant ship of three hundred tons, bound for Surat, captain John
Nicholas, of Liverpool, commander. But my account of this voyage must be
referred to the Second Part of my Travels.
Thesaurus
carried: (adj) conveyed, imported. beauty, superiority, subtlety, insatiate, gluttonous, avaricious,
contrary: (adj, n) contradictory, slimness, slenderness, narrowness. quenchless, avid, unquenchable,
reverse; (adj) adverse, conflicting, ANTONYMS: (n) stoutness, unsatiable, grasping, sateless.
unfavorable, perverse, cross, thickness, vulgarity, inaccuracy, ANTONYM: (adj) moderate.
disobedient, alien, different, coarseness, width. mingled: (adj) miscellaneous, complex,
obstinate. ANTONYMS: (adj) similar, heartily: (adv) cordially, sincerely, indiscriminate, heterogeneous,
harmonious, helpful, obliging, enthusiastically, warmly, strongly, medley, confused, eclectic, motley,
compatible, complaisant, concordant, earnestly, vigorously, ardently, different; (v) blended, blent.
parallel, agreeable, cooperative, soundly, devoutly, eagerly. towardly: (adj) timely, seasonable.
favorable. ANTONYMS: (adv) feebly, woollen: (n) wool, cloth, fabric, fleece,
fineness: (n) refinement, elegance, languorously. tweed; (adj) woolly.
daintiness, thinness, choiceness, insatiable: (adj) ravenous, voracious, yielded: (v) yold, yolden.
Jonathan Swift 79
PART II—
A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG
Jonathan Swift 81
CHAPTER %I
[A great storm described; the long boat sent to fetch water; the author goes
with it to discover the country. He is left on shore, is seized by one of the natives,
and carried to a farmer’s house. His reception, with several accidents that
happened there. A description of the inhabitants.]
Having been condemned, by nature and fortune, to active and restless life, in
two months after my return, I again left my native country, and took shipping in
the Downs, on the 20th day of June, 1702, in the Adventure, Captain John
Nicholas, a Cornish man, commander, bound for Surat. We had a very
prosperous gale, till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for
fresh water; but discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods and wintered
there; for the captain falling sick of an ague, we could not leave the Cape till the
end of March. We then set sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the Straits
of Madagascar; but having got northward of that island, and to about five
degrees south latitude, the winds, which in those seas are observed to blow a
constant equal gale between the north and west, from the beginning of December
to the beginning of May, on the 19th of April began to blow with much greater
violence, and more westerly than usual, continuing so for twenty days together:
during which time, we were driven a little to the east of the Molucca Islands, and
about three degrees northward of the line, as our captain found by an
Thesaurus
ague: (n) acute, symptom, sickness, leak: (n) crevice, disclosure, breach, underprivileged, impoverished.
malady, illness, malaria, paludism, hole, chink; (v) leak out, dribble, restless: (adj) fidgety, uneasy,
swamp fever, chills and fever; (adj) reveal, disclose, trickle; (n, v) release. impatient, restive, agitated, fretful,
appendicitis, angina pectoris. ANTONYM: (v) flood. turbulent, feverish; (adj, n) nervous,
discovering: (adj) observant, oracular. natives: (n) nation, populace, apprehensive; (adj, v) unquiet.
fetch: (v) carry, bring, bring in, community, citizens, public. ANTONYMS: (adj) relaxed, peaceful,
convey, draw, elicit, deliver, catch, prosperous: (adj, n) lucky, auspicious, lethargic, unbroken, still, contented.
get, attract; (adj, n) feint. fortunate; (adj) flourishing, favorable, westerly: (adj) western, westbound,
gale: (n) blast, blow, tempest, storm, opulent, easy, comfortable, affluent, hillbilly; (n) west wind, prevailing
squall, hurricane, gust, wind, advantageous, successful. westerly, wester; (adv) westwards; (v)
thunderstorm, blizzard, fresh gale. ANTONYMS: (adj) depressed, to the west. ANTONYM: (adv)
ANTONYM: (n) breeze. unsuccessful, failing, easterly.
observation he took the 2nd of May, at which time the wind ceased, and it was a
perfect calm, whereat I was not a little rejoiced. But he, being a man well
experienced in the navigation of those seas, bid us all prepare against a storm,
which accordingly happened the day following: for the southern wind, called the
southern monsoon, began to set in.%
Finding it was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and stood by to
hand the fore-sail; but making foul weather, we looked the guns were all fast,
and handed the mizen. The ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better
spooning before the sea, than trying or hulling. We reefed the fore-sail and set
him, and hauled aft the fore-sheet; the helm was hard a-weather. The ship wore
bravely. We belayed the fore down-haul; but the sail was split, and we hauled
down the yard, and got the sail into the ship, and unbound all the things clear of
it. It was a very fierce storm; the sea broke strange and dangerous. We hauled off
upon the laniard of the whip-staff, and helped the man at the helm. We would
not get down our topmast, but let all stand, because she scudded before the sea
very well, and we knew that the top-mast being aloft, the ship was the
wholesomer, and made better way through the sea, seeing we had sea-room.
When the storm was over, we set fore-sail and main-sail, and brought the ship to.
Then we set the mizen, main-top-sail, and the fore-top-sail. Our course was east-
north-east, the wind was at south-west. We got the starboard tacks aboard, we
cast off our weather-braces and lifts; we set in the lee-braces, and hauled forward
by the weather-bowlings, and hauled them tight, and belayed them, and hauled
over the mizen tack to windward, and kept her full and by as near as she would
lie.
During this storm, which was followed by a strong wind west-south-west, we
were carried, by my computation, about five hundred leagues to the east, so that
the oldest sailor on board could not tell in what part of the world we were. Our
provisions held out well, our ship was staunch, and our crew all in good health;
but we lay in the utmost distress for water. We thought it best to hold on the
same course, rather than turn more northerly, which might have brought us to
the north-west part of Great Tartary, and into the Frozen Sea.
Thesaurus
began: (v) Gan. septentrionally, to the north, unbound: (adj) uncontrolled,
ceased: (adj) finished. northernly; (adj) boreal. unconstrained, open, untied,
hulling: (n) husking. spooning: (n) dalliance. untrammeled, exempt, unchained,
laniard: (n) line, roband, cord. starboard: (n) dexter, offside; (adj) released, unfettered, unobstructed;
mizen: (n) mast, mizenmast, mizzen. proper, good, ripe, correct. (v) unencumbered. ANTONYMS:
monsoon: (n) hurricane, cyclone, ANTONYM: (adj) port. (adj) bound, restricted.
harmattan, downpour, sirocco, wind, staunch: (adj) faithful, loyal, constant, whereat: (adv) upon which.
rainfall, trade wind, tramontane, solid, resolute, devoted, stalwart, windward: (adv) downwind; (n)
rainy season, tropical storm. secure, sturdy; (n, v) stanch; (adj, n) weatherboard, to windward, weather
northerly: (adj, adv, n) north; (adj, n) hardy. ANTONYM: (adj) disloyal. side, direction; (adj) tempestuous,
northern; (adv) northwards, topmast: (n) topgallant, mast, royal flatulent, empty, airy, windy,
northward, in the north, mast, topgallant mast. boisterous.
Jonathan Swift 83
On the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-mast discovered land. On the
17th, we came in full view of a great island, or continent (for we knew not
whether;) on the south side whereof was a small neck of land jutting out into the
sea, and a creek too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons. We cast
anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain sent a dozen of his men
well armed in the long-boat, with vessels for water, if any could be found. I
desired his leave to go with them, that I might see the country, and make what
discoveries I could. When we came to land we saw no river or spring, nor any
sign of inhabitants. Our men therefore wandered on the shore to find out some
fresh water near the sea, and I walked alone about a mile on the other side,
where I observed the country all barren and rocky. I now began to be weary, and
seeing nothing to entertain my curiosity, I returned gently down towards the
creek; and the sea being full in my view, I saw our men already got into the boat,
and rowing for life to the ship. I was going to holla after them, although it had
been to little purpose, when I observed a huge creature walking after them in the
sea, as fast as he could: he waded not much deeper than his knees, and took
prodigious strides: but our men had the start of him half a league, and, the sea
thereabouts being full of sharp-pointed rocks, the monster was not able to
overtake the boat. This I was afterwards told, for I durst not stay to see the issue
of the adventure; but ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and then climbed
up a steep hill, which gave me some prospect of the country. I found it fully
cultivated; but that which first surprised me was the length of the grass, which,
in those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty feet high.%
I fell into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served to the inhabitants
only as a foot-path through a field of barley. Here I walked on for some time, but
could see little on either side, it being now near harvest, and the corn rising at
least forty feet. I was an hour walking to the end of this field, which was fenced
in with a hedge of at least one hundred and twenty feet high, and the trees so
lofty that I could make no computation of their altitude. There was a stile to pass
from this field into the next. It had four steps, and a stone to cross over when you
came to the uppermost. It was impossible for me to climb this stile, because
every step was six-feet high, and the upper stone about twenty. I was
Thesaurus
barley: (n) barleycorn, bear, bere, oats, protrusive, salient, protuberant, stile: (n) bar, flight of stairs, upright,
cereal, grain, barley fodder. hence; (n) protrusion, protuberance, vertical, step, barrier, montant.
creek: (n) brook, cove, bay, stream, extrusion, hump, gibbosity. thereabouts: (adj, adv) about; (adv)
inlet, river, bayou, rivulet; (v) burn, lofty: (adj, v) high, elevated; (adj) nearly, generally, around,
runnel, beck. exalted, eminent, arrogant, grand, approximately, in the region of, more
dozen: (adj, n) XII; (n) dozens, boxcars. tall, haughty, great, distinguished, or less, something like, almost, so;
fenced: (adj) hedged in, provisional, majestic. ANTONYMS: (adj) short, (adv, n) hereabouts.
guarded, bounded. lowly, base, modest, deferential, uppermost: (adj) top, upmost, upper,
holla: (n) bellowing, bellow, humble. highest, chief, maximum, supreme,
vociferation, outcry, yell, shout, overtake: (v) catch, attain, catch up greatest, major, outermost; (n) main.
yowl, boom, holler, roaring, roar. with, exceed, overpower, overcome, ANTONYMS: (adj) bottom, lowest,
jutting: (adj) prominent, protruding, go by, gain, devastate, outstrip, beat. trivial, lower.
endeavouring to find %some gap in the hedge, when I discovered one of the
inhabitants in the next field, advancing towards the stile, of the same size with
him whom I saw in the sea pursuing our boat. He appeared as tall as an ordinary
spire steeple, and took about ten yards at every stride, as near as I could guess. I
was struck with the utmost fear and astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the
corn, whence I saw him at the top of the stile looking back into the next field on
the right hand, and heard him call in a voice many degrees louder than a
speaking-trumpet: but the noise was so high in the air, that at first I certainly
thought it was thunder. Whereupon seven monsters, like himself, came towards
him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the largeness of six
scythes. These people were not so well clad as the first, whose servants or
labourers they seemed to be; for, upon some words he spoke, they went to reap
the corn in the field where I lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could,
but was forced to move with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of the corn were
sometimes not above a foot distant, so that I could hardly squeeze my body
betwixt them. However, I made a shift to go forward, till I came to a part of the
field where the corn had been laid by the rain and wind. Here it was impossible
for me to advance a step; for the stalks were so interwoven, that I could not creep
through, and the beards of the fallen ears so strong and pointed, that they
pierced through my clothes into my flesh. At the same time I heard the reapers
not a hundred yards behind me. Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly
overcome by grief and dispair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily
wished I might there end my days. I bemoaned my desolate widow and
fatherless children. I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in attempting a
second voyage, against the advice of all my friends and relations. In this terrible
agitation of mind, I could not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants
looked upon me as the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world; where I
was able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and perform those other actions,
which will be recorded for ever in the chronicles of that empire, while posterity
shall hardly believe them, although attested by millions. I reflected what a
mortification it must prove to me, to appear as inconsiderable in this nation, as
one single Lilliputian would be among us. But this I conceived was to be the least
Thesaurus
betwixt: (n) midst; (prep) among, fatherless: (adj) bastard, unfathered, magnitude, volume. ANTONYMS:
amid; (adv) atwixt. misbegotten, bereaved, childless, (n) compactness, shortness.
dispair: (v) disconnect, disengage, parentless, orbate, unparented; (v) mortification: (n) chagrin,
despond, disunite, dissociate. helpless, unfriended. embarrassment, shame, gangrene,
dispirited: (adj) depressed, inconsiderable: (adj) inconsequential, disappointment, disgrace, corruption,
disconsolate, downcast, discouraged, immaterial, small, petty, slight, necrosis, degradation; (adj, n)
blue, crestfallen, dismal, down, negligible, trivial, fractional, minute, vexation; (adj) grievance.
downhearted, disheartened, imperceptible, slender. ANTONYM: wilfulness: (n) fractiousness,
melancholy. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adj) major. contrariness, perverseness,
cheerful, optimistic, euphoric, largeness: (n) size, bigness, vastness, perversity, unruliness, wilful,
enthused, heartened, happy, fullness, ampleness, bulkiness, intractableness, intractability,
enthusiastic, positive. immensity, grandness, extent, wilfully, spite, malice.
Jonathan Swift 85
of my misfortunes; for, as human creatures are observed to be more savage and

cruel in proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel in the
mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that should happen to seize
me? Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us that nothing is
great or little otherwise than by comparison. It might have pleased fortune, to
have let the Lilliputians find some nation, where the people were as diminutive
with respect to them, as they were to me. And who knows but that even this
prodigious race of mortals might be equally overmatched in some distant part of
the world, whereof we have yet no discovery.%
Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with these
reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching within ten yards of the ridge
where I lay, made me apprehend that with the next step I should be squashed to
death under his foot, or cut in two with his reaping-hook. And therefore, when
he was again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me:
whereupon the huge creature trod short, and, looking round about under him
for some time, at last espied me as I lay on the ground. He considered awhile,
with the caution of one who endeavours to lay hold on a small dangerous animal
in such a manner that it shall not be able either to scratch or bite him, as I myself
have sometimes done with a weasel in England. At length he ventured to take
me behind, by the middle, between his fore-finger and thumb, and brought me
within three yards of his eyes, that he might behold my shape more perfectly. I
guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much presence of mind,
that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he held me in the air above sixty feet
from the ground, although he grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip
through his fingers. All I ventured was to raise mine eyes towards the sun, and
place my hands together in a supplicating posture, and to speak some words in
a humble melancholy tone, suitable to the condition I then was in: for I
apprehended every moment that he would dash me against the ground, as we
usually do any little hateful animal, which we have a mind to destroy. But my
good star would have it, that he appeared pleased with my voice and gestures,
and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much wondering to hear me
pronounce articulate words, although he could not understand them. In the
Thesaurus
behold: (v) see, view, contemplate, despicable, repulsive, distasteful, squashed: (adj) packed together,
regard, perceive, observe, look, foul; (adj, v) odious, obnoxious. compacted, condensed, dense,
consider, discern, descry, watch. ANTONYMS: (adj) delightful, kind, compressed, packed in.
ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, disregard, nice, benign, desirable. supplicating: (adj) imploring,
ignore, overlook. posture: (n) attitude, condition, stance, soliciting, beseeching, entreating,
grievously: (adv) seriously, heavily, deportment, aspect, circumstance, petitioning, apologetic, begging,
sorrowfully, gravely, severely, manner, figure, mien; (n, v) pose, manifesting entreaty, petitory,
mortally, mournfully, heinously, place. piteous; (v) supplicate.
weightily; (adj, adv) painfully, pronounce: (v) articulate, declare, weasel: (n) muishond, informer,
bitterly. affirm, say, assert, express, vocalize, whittret, vare, troublemaker, shorttail
hateful: (adj) disgusting, execrable, proclaim; (n, v) allege; (adj, v) deliver, weasel; (v) equivocate, evade, hedge,
nasty, abominable, hideous, utter. ANTONYM: (v) mumble. pussyfoot, dodge.
mean time I was not able to forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning
my head towards my sides; letting him know, as well as I could, how cruelly I
was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger. He seemed to apprehend my
meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of his coat, he put me gently into it, and
immediately ran along with me to his master, who was a substantial farmer, and
the same person I had first seen in the field.%
The farmer having (as I suppose by their talk) received such an account of me
as his servant could give him, took a piece of a small straw, about the size of a
walking-staff, and therewith lifted up the lappets of my coat; which it seems he
thought to be some kind of covering that nature had given me. He blew my hairs
aside to take a better view of my face. He called his hinds about him, and asked
them, as I afterwards learned, whether they had ever seen in the fields any little
creature that resembled me. He then placed me softly on the ground upon all
fours, but I got immediately up, and walked slowly backward and forward, to
let those people see I had no intent to run away. They all sat down in a circle
about me, the better to observe my motions. I pulled off my hat, and made a low
bow towards the farmer. I fell on my knees, and lifted up my hands and eyes,
and spoke several words as loud as I could: I took a purse of gold out of my
pocket, and humbly presented it to him. He received it on the palm of his hand,
then applied it close to his eye to see what it was, and afterwards turned it
several times with the point of a pin (which he took out of his sleeve,) but could
make nothing of it. Whereupon I made a sign that he should place his hand on
the ground. I then took the purse, and, opening it, poured all the gold into his
palm. There were six Spanish pieces of four pistoles each, beside twenty or thirty
smaller coins. I saw him wet the tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and take
up one of my largest pieces, and then another; but he seemed to be wholly
ignorant what they were. He made me a sign to put them again into my purse,
and the purse again into my pocket, which, after offering it to him several times,
I thought it best to do.
The farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational creature. He
spoke often to me; but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of a water-
Thesaurus
backward: (adj, adv) late, behindhand; mercifully, sympathetically, tamely, moth.
(adj) tardy, retarded, reluctant, coy, peacefully, humanely, pierced: (adj) punctured, perforate,
slow, laggard, dilatory; (adv) behind, compassionately, sensitively, penetrated, cut, cleft.
backwardly. ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) respectfully, innocently, genially. poured: (adj) concrete.
ahead; (adv) onward; (adj) quick, hairs: (n) hair. shedding: (n) molting, abscission,
developing, advanced, confident, intent: (n) idea, intention, design, fluffing, effusion, moulting,
brilliant, bold. spirit, meaning, import, goal, biological process, desquamation,
cruelly: (adv) harshly, ferociously, purpose; (adj, n) attentive; (adj) sloughing, emission; (adj, n) peeling;
fiercely, viciously, inhumanly, absorbed, engrossed. (adj) flaking.
mercilessly, pitilessly, heartlessly, lappet: (n) wattle, lap, overlap, therewith: (adv) herewith, moreover,
roughly, unkindly; (adj, adv) bitterly. trappings, lasiocampid, lobe, skirt, therewithal, forthwith, with that,
ANTONYMS: (adv) kindly, embroidery, caruncle, cortege, lappet besides, wherewith.
Jonathan Swift 87
mill, yet his words were articulate enough. I answered as loud as I could in
several languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me: but all in
vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other. He then sent his servants
to their work, and taking his handkerchief out of his pocket, he doubled and
spread it on his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground with the palm
upward, making me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it was not
above a foot in thickness. I thought it my part to obey, and, for fear of falling, laid
myself at full length upon the handkerchief, with the remainder of which he
lapped me up to the head for further security, and in this manner carried me
home to his house. There he called his wife, and showed me to her; but she
screamed and ran back, as women in England do at the sight of a toad or a spider.
However, when she had a while seen my behaviour, and how well I observed
the signs her husband made, she was soon reconciled, and by degrees grew
extremely tender of me.%
It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner. It was only one
substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain condition of a husbandman,) in a dish of
about four-and-twenty feet diameter. The company were, the farmer and his wife,
three children, and an old grandmother. When they were sat down, the farmer
placed me at some distance from him on the table, which was thirty feet high
from the floor. I was in a terrible fright, and kept as far as I could from the edge,
for fear of falling. The wife minced a bit of meat, then crumbled some bread on a
trencher, and placed it before me. I made her a low bow, took out my knife and
fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding delight. The mistress sent her
maid for a small dram cup, which held about two gallons, and filled it with
drink; I took up the vessel with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most
respectful manner drank to her ladyship’s health, expressing the words as loud
as I could in English, which made the company laugh so heartily, that I was
almost deafened with the noise. This liquor tasted like a small cider, and was not
unpleasant. Then the master made me a sign to come to his trencher side; but as I
walked on the table, being in great surprise all the time, as the indulgent reader
will easily conceive and excuse, I happened to stumble against a crust, and fell
flat on my face, but received no hurt. I got up immediately, and observing the
Thesaurus
crumbled: (adj) rotten, fragmented. (adj) intolerant, unsympathetic, stumble: (adj, n, v) slip; (n, v) lurch,
deafened: (adj) dead, deaf corn, severe, restrained, harsh, fall, err, stagger; (adj, v) blunder,
stunned, deadened. hardhearted, abstemious, flounder, fumble; (n) misstep; (v) hit,
dram: (n) drachma, nip, ankus, spot, disapproving. falter.
dynamic random access memory, respectful: (adj) deferential, mannerly, unintelligible: (adj) opaque,
snifter, blast, apothecaries' weight; (n, dutiful, courteous, attentive, inarticulate, unfathomable,
v) potion; (v) drench, swill. obedient, reverential, regardful, impenetrable, unaccountable,
drank: (v) absorb. reverent, polite, humble. ambiguous, not clear, obscure,
indulgent: (adj) forgiving, gentle, ANTONYMS: (adj) cheeky, indistinct, inconceivable, secret.
clement, lenient, soft, kind, gracious, impudent, insolent, rude, ANTONYMS: (adj) understandable,
tolerant, merciful, compassionate; contemptuous, disobedient, scornful, clear, comprehensible, intelligible,
(adj, v) permissive. ANTONYMS: nasty, sneering, irreverent, impolite. obvious.
good people to be in much concern, I took my hat (which I held under my arm
out of good manners,) and waving it over my head, made three huzzas, to show I
had got no mischief by my fall. But advancing forward towards my master (as I
shall henceforth call him,) his youngest son, who sat next to him, an arch boy of
about ten years old, took me up by the legs, and held me so high in the air, that I
trembled every limb: but his father snatched me from him, and at the same time
gave him such a box on the left ear, as would have felled an European troop of
horse to the earth, ordering him to be taken from the table. But being afraid the
boy might owe me a spite, and well remembering how mischievous all children
among us naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs, I
fell on my knees, and pointing to the boy, made my master to understand, as
well as I could, that I desired his son might be pardoned. The father complied,
and the lad took his seat again, whereupon I went to him, and kissed his hand,
which my master took, and made him stroke me gently with it.%
In the midst of dinner, my mistress’s favourite cat leaped into her lap. I heard
a noise behind me like that of a dozen stocking-weavers at work; and turning my
head, I found it proceeded from the purring of that animal, who seemed to be
three times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of her head, and one of
her paws, while her mistress was feeding and stroking her. The fierceness of this
creature’s countenance altogether discomposed me; though I stood at the farther
end of the table, above fifty feet off; and although my mistress held her fast, for
fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her talons. But it happened there
was no danger, for the cat took not the least notice of me when my master placed
me within three yards of her. And as I have been always told, and found true by
experience in my travels, that flying or discovering fear before a fierce animal, is
a certain way to make it pursue or attack you, so I resolved, in this dangerous
juncture, to show no manner of concern. I walked with intrepidity five or six
times before the very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her;
whereupon she drew herself back, as if she were more afraid of me: I had less
apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three or four came into the room, as
it is usual in farmers’ houses; one of which was a mastiff, equal in bulk to four
elephants, and another a greyhound, somewhat taller than the mastiff, but not
Thesaurus
discomposed: (adj) disturbed, henceforth: (adv) hence, in future, (adj) harmless, serious.
perturbed, doubtful, excited, after this; (adj) following. purring: (adj) whining, humming; (n)
distraught, uncomfortable, fearful. kittens: (n) dust, fuzz. drone.
elephants: (n) Elephantidae. mischief: (adj, n) evil, hurt, harm; (n) sparrows: (n) sparrow, finches, order
fierceness: (n) ferocity, violence, damage, ill, detriment, disadvantage, Passeriformes, Passeriformes, robins,
cruelty, force, brutality, rage, devilry, caper, devilment, rooks, etc.
intensity, strength, vehemence, maleficence. ANTONYMS: (n) stroking: (v) caress, strike, blow; (n)
wildness, ferociousness. obedience, beneficence, help. cam stroke, feeling, effleurage,
ANTONYMS: (n) friendliness, mischievous: (adj) bad, injurious, diagonal, CVA, commendation,
calmness, meekness. detrimental, naughty, deleterious, glide, slash.
greyhound: (adj) race horse, gazelle, impish, harmful, playful, maleficent, talons: (v) claws, tenaculum, unguis,
courser, eagle; (n) grayhound. arch; (adj, v) hurtful. ANTONYMS: tentacle, teeth; (n) clutches.
Jonathan Swift 89
so large.
When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a year old in
her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a squall that you might have
heard from London-Bridge to Chelsea, after the usual oratory of infants, to get
me for a plaything. The mother, out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put me
towards the child, who presently seized me by the middle, and got my head into
his mouth, where I roared so loud that the urchin was frighted, and let me drop,
and I should infallibly have broke my neck, if the mother had not held her apron
under me. The nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle which was a kind of
hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a cable to the child’s waist:
but all in vain; so that she was forced to apply the last remedy by giving it suck. I
must confess no object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her monstrous
breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as to give the curious reader
an idea of its bulk, shape, and colour. It stood prominent six feet, and could not
be less than sixteen in circumference. The nipple was about half the bigness of
my head, and the hue both of that and the dug, so varied with spots, pimples,
and freckles, that nothing could appear more nauseous: for I had a near sight of
her, she sitting down, the more conveniently to give suck, and I standing on the
table. This made me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies, who appear
so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their defects not to
be seen but through a magnifying glass; where we find by experiment that the
smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse, and ill-coloured.%
I remember when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those diminutive
people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and talking upon this subject
with a person of learning there, who was an intimate friend of mine, he said that
my face appeared much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the
ground, than it did upon a nearer view, when I took him up in my hand, and
brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very shocking sight. He said,
“he could discover great holes in my skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten
times stronger than the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up of several
colours altogether disagreeable:” although I must beg leave to say for myself,
Thesaurus
babe: (n) infant, baby, chick, sweetie, ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, cockhorse, doll, dollhouse, dolly,
suckling, nursling, child, newborn, charming, pleasant. playhouse, hobby, hobbyhorse,
chit, girl, darling. ANTONYMS: (n) nipple: (n) teat, dug, mamilla, breast, kaleidoscope.
grownup, adult, adolescent. pap, boob, papilla, titty, tit, knocker, skins: (n) cash, folding money.
bristles: (n) beard, five o'clock Soldering nipple. smoother: (n) drum sander, electric
shadow. oratory: (n) elocution, rhetoric, sander, sander, power tool.
magnifying: (adj) cumulative. declamation, speech, oration, church, squall: (n, v) cry; (v) shriek, howl,
nauseous: (adj, v) fulsome; (v) chapel, tabernacle, valediction, scream, screech, shrill, bawl, holler;
abhorrent; (adj) distasteful, cathedral, public speaking. (n) gust, blast, gale.
loathsome, disgusting, nasty, pimples: (n) acne vulgaris, hives, rash, urchin: (n) brat, imp, elf, ragamuffin,
sickening, nauseating, obnoxious, skin complaint. pixy, rogue, bairn, scamp, fairy; (adj,
repugnant, abominable. plaything: (n) bauble, trifle, gewgaw, n) chit, dwarf.
that I am as fair as most of my sex and country, and very little sunburnt by all
my travels. On the other side, discoursing of the ladies in that emperor’s court,
he used to tell me, “one had freckles; another too wide a mouth; a third too large
a nose;” nothing of which I was able to distinguish. I confess this reflection was
obvious enough; which, however, I could not forbear, lest the reader might think
those vast creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them the justice to say,
they are a comely race of people, and particularly the features of my master’s
countenance, although he was but a farmer, when I beheld him from the height
of sixty feet, appeared very well proportioned.%
When dinner was done, my master went out to his labourers, and, as I could
discover by his voice and gesture, gave his wife strict charge to take care of me. I
was very much tired, and disposed to sleep, which my mistress perceiving, she
put me on her own bed, and covered me with a clean white handkerchief, but
larger and coarser than the mainsail of a man-of-war.
I slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife and children,
which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and found myself alone in a vast
room, between two and three hundred feet wide, and above two hundred high,
lying in a bed twenty yards wide. My mistress was gone about her household
affairs, and had locked me in. The bed was eight yards from the floor. Some
natural necessities required me to get down; I durst not presume to call; and if I
had, it would have been in vain, with such a voice as mine, at so great a distance
from the room where I lay to the kitchen where the family kept. While I was
under these circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling
backwards and forwards on the bed. One of them came up almost to my face,
whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself. These
horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both sides, and one of them
held his fore-feet at my collar; but I had the good fortune to rip up his belly
before he could do me any mischief. He fell down at my feet; and the other,
seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape, but not without one good
wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled, and made the blood run
trickling from him. After this exploit, I walked gently to and fro on the bed, to
Thesaurus
boldness: (n) prowess, face, daring, deformed: (adj) distorted, misshapen, perceiving: (n) feeling, sensing,
valor, nerve, assurance, heroism, bent, malformed, ugly, crippled, hearing, looking at, recognition,
audaciousness, spirit, cheek, valour. contorted, warped, shapeless, thought, vision, lipreading; (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, shyness, twisted, deform. ANTONYMS: (adj) conscious, percipient, reasonable.
timidity, meekness, reticence. beautiful, flawless, unflawed, perfect, sixty: (adj) threescore; (n) three score,
comely: (adj) beautiful, good-looking, straight. large integer, lux.
decent, fair, attractive, decorous, hanger: (n) strap, hook, dropper, smelling: (n) smell, flavor, scent,
shapely, proper; (adj, adv, v) seemly; suspension, support, coat hanger, olfactory modality, sensing, sense of
(adj, adv) sightly, lovely. rack, hangman, suspender, peg, smell; (adj) redolent, scented,
ANTONYMS: (adj) repulsive, dowel. odorous, stinking, rotten.
homely, plain, revolting, unattractive, mainsail: (n) main course. sunburnt: (adj) brown, burnt, gloomy,
ugly. man-of-war: (n) warship. fiery, sallow, adust.
Jonathan Swift 91
recover my breath and loss of spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large
mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken off my belt
before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to pieces and devoured. I
measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting an
inch; but it went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed, where it lay
still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but with a strong slash across the
neck, I thoroughly despatched it.%
Soon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all bloody, ran
and took me up in her hand. I pointed to the dead rat, smiling, and making other
signs to show I was not hurt; whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the
maid to take up the dead rat with a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the window.
Then she set me on a table, where I showed her my hanger all bloody, and
wiping it on the lappet of my coat, returned it to the scabbard. I was pressed to
do more than one thing which another could not do for me, and therefore
endeavoured to make my mistress understand, that I desired to be set down on
the floor; which after she had done, my bashfulness would not suffer me to
express myself farther, than by pointing to the door, and bowing several times.
The good woman, with much difficulty, at last perceived what I would be at, and
taking me up again in her hand, walked into the garden, where she set me down.
I went on one side about two hundred yards, and beckoning to her not to look or
to follow me, I hid myself between two leaves of sorrel, and there discharged the
necessities of nature.
I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like
particulars, which, however insignificant they may appear to groveling vulgar
minds, yet will certainly help a philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and
imagination, and apply them to the benefit of public as well as private life, which
was my sole design in presenting this and other accounts of my travels to the
world; wherein I have been chiefly studious of truth, without affecting any
ornaments of learning or of style. But the whole scene of this voyage made so
strong an impression on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that, in
committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance: however, upon
Thesaurus
bashfulness: (n) diffidence, shyness, groveling: (adj) abject, dirty, sorrel: (n) russet buff, shamrock,
coyness, humility, abashment, contemptible, grovelling, abased, carroty, goatsfoot, oxalis, murrey,
backwardness, reserve, timidity, wormy, fawning, mean, oily, rascally, common sorrel, brown, pier, red
constraint, embarrassment, stage scrubby. sorrel, reddish brown.
fright. maid: (n) damsel, chambermaid, lass, studious: (adj) scholarly, bookish,
beckoning: (adj) irresistible. lassie, girl, domestic, amah, virgin, academic, assiduous, erudite,
bowing: (n) obeisance, playing, maiden, housemaid, handmaid. diligent, learned, careful, deliberate;
gesticulation, capitulation, nimble: (adj) lively, adroit, agile, brisk, (adj, v) thoughtful, reflective.
genuflection, scraping, submission; spry, alert, expeditious, energetic, ANTONYM: (adj) negligent.
(adj) bowed, bent, fawning, clever, lithe; (adj, v) light. tongs: (n) forceps, pincers, pliers,
submissive. ANTONYMS: (adj) clumsy, heavy, nippers, poker, lifter, pair of tongs,
devoured: (adj) eaten up. stiff, slow, awkward, sluggish, unfit. trivet, vice, ice tongs; (v) clutches.
a strict review, I blotted out several passages. Of less moment which were in my
first copy, for fear of being censured as tedious and trifling, whereof travellers
are often, perhaps not without justice, accused.%
Thesaurus
censured: (adj) guilty, appropriated. strict: (adj) severe, stern, rigid, correct, concise, exotic, pleasant.
copy: (n, v) counterfeit, duplicate, austere, rigorous, harsh, scrupulous; trifling: (adj) paltry, slight, petty,
pattern, trace; (v) imitate, ape, follow; (adj, v) exact, accurate, precise. negligible, immaterial, worthless,
(adj, n, v) model; (n) imitation, ANTONYMS: (adj) lenient, lax, free, trivial, minor, small; (adj, v)
transcription, reproduction. negligent, imprecise, flexible, relaxed, inconsequential; (adj, n) frivolity.
ANTONYMS: (v) create, originate; (n) loose, gentle, inaccurate, liberal. ANTONYMS: (adj) significant,
master. tedious: (adj) tiresome, boring, dreary, worthwhile, major, considerable,
justice: (adj, n) equity, right, integrity, slow, heavy, humdrum, irksome, crucial, enormous, great, mature,
honesty; (n) judge, impartiality, lifeless; (adj, v) monotonous, arid, profound, substantial; (n)
judicature, jurist, morality, justness; dry. ANTONYMS: (adj) exciting, importance.
(adj) just. ANTONYMS: (n) varied, easy, readable, lively,
unfairness, wickedness. entertaining, enthralling, brisk,
Jonathan Swift 93
CHAPTER %II
[A description of the farmer’s daughter. The author carried to a market-town,

and then to the metropolis. The particulars of his journey.]
My mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of towardly parts for
her age, very dexterous at her needle, and skilful in dressing her baby. Her
mother and she contrived to fit up the baby’s cradle for me against night: the
cradle was put into a small drawer of a cabinet, and the drawer placed upon a
hanging shelf for fear of the rats. This was my bed all the time I staid with those
people, though made more convenient by degrees, as I began to learn their
language and make my wants known. This young girl was so handy, that after I
had once or twice pulled off my clothes before her, she was able to dress and
undress me, though I never gave her that trouble when she would let me do
either myself. She made me seven shirts, and some other linen, of as fine cloth as
could be got, which indeed was coarser than sackcloth; and these she constantly
washed for me with her own hands. She was likewise my school-mistress, to
teach me the language: when I pointed to any thing, she told me the name of it in
her own tongue, so that in a few days I was able to call for whatever I had a mind
to. She was very good-natured, and not above forty feet high, being little for her
age. She gave me the name of Grildrig, which the family took up, and afterwards
the whole kingdom. The word imports what the Latins call nanunculus, the
Thesaurus
contrived: (adj) affected, unnatural, uncoordinated, incompetent, useless. solemn, sober, demure; (adj) calm,
false, forced, labored, spurious, good-natured: (adj) kindly, friendly, quiet, composed, somber, decorous.
feigned, unreal, strained, built, kind, obliging, gracious, kind- ANTONYMS: (adj) frivolous,
artificially formal. ANTONYM: (adj) hearted, genial, good, bland, sweet, exciting, funny, daring, playful,
sincere. good-tempered. bright, relaxed.
cradle: (n) cot, birthplace, nursery, sackcloth: (n) bagging, bag cloth, undress: (v) strip, unclothe, divest,
berth, crib, nest, hammock, bassinet, sacking, cloth, garment. discase, doff, unrobe, strip down,
origin; (v) hold, groundwork. skilful: (adj) adroit, practised, uncase; (n) dishabille, disarray,
dexterous: (adj) adept, deft, skillful, experienced, cunning, expert, morning dress. ANTONYMS: (v)
expert, clever, able, agile, cunning, dextrous, clever, adept, proficient, dress, clothe.
handy, neat; (adj, v) crafty. practiced, good. washed: (adj) wash, cleaner, colored,
ANTONYMS: (adj) inept, awkward, staid: (adj, v) serious, sedate, grave, refined, wet, watery.
Italians homunceletino, and the English mannikin. To her I chiefly owe my

preservation in that country: we never parted while I was there; I called her my
Glumdalclitch, or little nurse; and should be guilty of great ingratitude, if I
omitted this honourable mention of her care and affection towards me, which I
heartily wish it lay in my power to requite as she deserves, instead of being the
innocent, but unhappy instrument of her disgrace, as I have too much reason to
fear.%
It now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood, that my
master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a splacnuck,
but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature; which it likewise
imitated in all its actions; seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had
already learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and
gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest
limbs in the world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman’s daughter of three
years old. Another farmer, who lived hard by, and was a particular friend of my
master, came on a visit on purpose to inquire into the truth of this story. I was
immediately produced, and placed upon a table, where I walked as I was
commanded, drew my hanger, put it up again, made my reverence to my
master’s guest, asked him in his own language how he did, and told him he was
welcome, just as my little nurse had instructed me. This man, who was old and
dim-sighted, put on his spectacles to behold me better; at which I could not
forbear laughing very heartily, for his eyes appeared like the full moon shining
into a chamber at two windows. Our people, who discovered the cause of my
mirth, bore me company in laughing, at which the old fellow was fool enough to
be angry and out of countenance. He had the character of a great miser; and, to
my misfortune, he well deserved it, by the cursed advice he gave my master, to
show me as a sight upon a market-day in the next town, which was half an
hour’s riding, about two-and-twenty miles from our house. I guessed there was
some mischief when I observed my master and his friend whispering together,
sometimes pointing at me; and my fears made me fancy that I overheard and
understood some of their words. But the next morning Glumdalclitch, my little
nurse, told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her
Thesaurus
complexion: (n, v) tint; (n) cast, pry, request, wonder; (n, v) question. hunks, muckworm, niggard,
character, appearance, look, hue, ANTONYM: (v) answer. skinflint, cheapskate, parsimony,
aspect, flush, glow, dye, fashion. mannikin: (n) mannequin, moneygrubber, Jew, miserliness.
cunningly: (adv) craftily, artfully, homunculus, manakin, form, fashion requite: (adj, v) pay, gratify, satisfy; (v)
cleverly, ingeniously, trickily, model, framework, flesh, model, recompense, reciprocate, compensate,
shrewdly, astutely, insidiously, exemplar, example, frame. reward, remunerate, reimburse,
smartly, foxily, slipperily. mirth: (adj, n) merriment, jollity; (n) return, refund.
ANTONYMS: (adv) ineptly, openly. amusement, happiness, delight, joy, whispering: (n) whisper, murmur,
drew: (n) move, John Drew. hilarity, cheerfulness, festivity, susurration, rustle, report, stage
guessed: (adj) rude, inscrutable. gladness, exhilaration. ANTONYMS: whisper; (adj, n) rustling; (adj)
inquire: (v) demand, ask, explore, (n) gloom, sadness, misery. susurrant, tranquil, hoarse,
enquire, inspect, research, consult, miser: (n) stinginess, curmudgeon, susurrous.
Jonathan Swift 95
mother. The poor girl laid me on her bosom, and fell a weeping with shame and
grief. She apprehended some mischief would happen to me from rude vulgar
folks, who might squeeze me to death, or break one of my limbs by taking me in
their hands. She had also observed how modest I was in my nature, how nicely I
regarded my honour, and what an indignity I should conceive it, to be exposed
for money as a public spectacle, to the meanest of the people. She said, her papa
and mamma had promised that Grildrig should be hers; but now she found they
meant to serve her as they did last year, when they pretended to give her a lamb,
and yet, as soon as it was fat, sold it to a butcher. For my own part, I may truly
affirm, that I was less concerned than my nurse. I had a strong hope, which
never left me, that I should one day recover my liberty: and as to the ignominy
of being carried about for a monster, I considered myself to be a perfect stranger
in the country, and that such a misfortune could never be charged upon me as a
reproach, if ever I should return to England, since the king of Great Britain
himself, in my condition, must have undergone the same distress.%
My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a box the next
market-day to the neighbouring town, and took along with him his little
daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion behind him. The box was close on every side,
with a little door for me to go in and out, and a few gimlet holes to let in air. The
girl had been so careful as to put the quilt of her baby’s bed into it, for me to lie
down on. However, I was terribly shaken and discomposed in this journey,
though it was but of half an hour: for the horse went about forty feet at every
step and trotted so high, that the agitation was equal to the rising and falling of a
ship in a great storm, but much more frequent. Our journey was somewhat
farther than from London to St. Alban’s. My master alighted at an inn which he
used to frequent; and after consulting awhile with the inn-keeper, and making
some necessary preparations, he hired the grultrud, or crier, to give notice
through the town of a strange creature to be seen at the sign of the Green Eagle,
not so big as a splacnuck (an animal in that country very finely shaped, about six
feet long,) and in every part of the body resembling a human creature, could
speak several words, and perform a hundred diverting tricks.
Thesaurus
affirm: (v) prove, assert, declare, hers: (pron) she, his; (adj) own. mamma: (n) breast, mother, ma,
protest, avow, maintain, approve, ignominy: (n) disgrace, dishonor, knocker, boob, mum, mammy, mom,
accept, assure, profess, promise. shame, reproach, contempt, momma, mommy, mummy.
ANTONYMS: (v) negate, veto, disrepute, degradation, discredit, meanest: (adj) last, least.
nullify, refute, repress. scandal; (adj, n) odium; (adj) pillion: (n) saddle, pannel, seat.
crier: (n) herald, town crier, bellman, opprobrium. ANTONYMS: (n) reproach: (n, v) blame, rebuke, charge,
announcer, weeper, trumpeter, success, glorification, pride. abuse, disgrace, reprimand,
roarer, pursuivant, unfortunate, indignity: (n) dishonor, contumely, invective; (v) accuse, chide, condemn;
messenger, yeller. humiliation, contempt, outrage, (n) condemnation. ANTONYMS: (n,
gimlet: (n) auger, borer, wimble, drill, disdain, offence, disgrace, v) praise; (v) commend, approve; (n)
bore, probe, trepan, awl, corkscrew, degradation; (n, v) insult, abuse. compliment, commendation,
cocktail, gimblet. ANTONYMS: (n) honor, glory, pride. approval.
I was placed upon a table in the largest room of the inn, which might be near
three hundred feet square. My little nurse stood on a low stool close to the table,
to take care of me, and direct what I should do. My master, to avoid a crowd,
would suffer only thirty people at a time to see me. I walked about on the table
as the girl commanded; she asked me questions, as far as she knew my
understanding of the language reached, and I answered them as loud as I could.
I turned about several times to the company, paid my humble respects, said they
were welcome, and used some other speeches I had been taught. I took up a
thimble filled with liquor, which Glumdalclitch had given me for a cup, and
drank their health, I drew out my hanger, and flourished with it after the manner
of fencers in England. My nurse gave me a part of a straw, which I exercised as a
pike, having learnt the art in my youth. I was that day shown to twelve sets of
company, and as often forced to act over again the same fopperies, till I was half
dead with weariness and vexation; for those who had seen me made such
wonderful reports, that the people were ready to break down the doors to come
in. My master, for his own interest, would not suffer any one to touch me except
my nurse; and to prevent danger, benches were set round the table at such a
distance as to put me out of every body’s reach. However, an unlucky school-
boy aimed a hazel nut directly at my head, which very narrowly missed me;
otherwise it came with so much violence, that it would have infallibly knocked
out my brains, for it was almost as large as a small pumpkin, but I had the
satisfaction to see the young rogue well beaten, and turned out of the room.%
My master gave public notice that he would show me again the next market-
day; and in the meantime he prepared a convenient vehicle for me, which he had
reason enough to do; for I was so tired with my first journey, and with
entertaining company for eight hours together, that I could hardly stand upon
my legs, or speak a word. It was at least three days before I recovered my
strength; and that I might have no rest at home, all the neighbouring gentlemen
from a hundred miles round, hearing of my fame, came to see me at my master’s
own house. There could not be fewer than thirty persons with their wives and
children (for the country is very populous;) and my master demanded the rate of
a full room whenever he showed me at home, although it were only to a single
Thesaurus
benches: (n) bleachers. head, punkin, pumpion, pumpkin disastrous, unfavorable; (adj, v)
entertaining: (adj) enjoyable, fun, vine. untoward. ANTONYMS: (adj)
funny, diverting, witty, merry, rogue: (n, v) rascal; (n) knave, imp, fortunate, happy, auspicious,
comical, laughable, convivial, miscreant, crook, cheat, impostor, successful.
humorous, droll. ANTONYMS: (adj) swindler, cad, villain, scoundrel. vexation: (adj, n) annoyance, nuisance;
dull, boring, heavy, slow, tiresome, thimble: (n) tablespoon, spoon, (n) irritation, worry, aggravation,
tiring, unentertaining. spatula, shovel, ladle, dipper, stirrer, displeasure, chagrin, chafe, anger,
liquor: (n) fluid, broth, alcohol, booze, cinder pot, containerful; (v) gauntlet, frustration, botheration.
brew, brandy, arrack, spirits, bulletproof vest. weariness: (n) exhaustion, tiredness,
schnapps; (n, v) drink; (adj, n) liquid. unlucky: (adj) luckless, hapless, lassitude, languor, asthenopia,
pumpkin: (n) Autumn pumpkin, unhappy, sinister, inauspicious, defatigation, grogginess, listlessness,
vegetable, veggie, squash, gourd, unsuccessful, ominous, adverse, boredom, ennui, prostration.
Jonathan Swift 97
family; so that for some time I had but little ease every day of the week (except
Wednesday, which is their Sabbath,) although I were not carried to the town.%
My master, finding how profitable I was likely to be, resolved to carry me to
the most considerable cities of the kingdom. Having therefore provided himself
with all things necessary for a long journey, and settled his affairs at home, he
took leave of his wife, and upon the 17th of August, 1703, about two months
after my arrival, we set out for the metropolis, situate near the middle of that
empire, and about three thousand miles distance from our house. My master
made his daughter Glumdalclitch ride behind him. She carried me on her lap, in
a box tied about her waist. The girl had lined it on all sides with the softest cloth
she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it with her baby’s bed,
provided me with linen and other necessaries, and made everything as
convenient as she could. We had no other company but a boy of the house, who
rode after us with the luggage.
My master’s design was to show me in all the towns by the way, and to step
out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles, to any village, or person of quality’s
house, where he might expect custom. We made easy journeys, of not above
seven or eight score miles a-day; for Glumdalclitch, on purpose to spare me,
complained she was tired with the trotting of the horse. She often took me out of
my box, at my own desire, to give me air, and show me the country, but always
held me fast by a leading-string. We passed over five or six rivers, many degrees
broader and deeper than the Nile or the Ganges: and there was hardly a rivulet
so small as the Thames at London-bridge. We were ten weeks in our journey,
and I was shown in eighteen large towns, besides many villages, and private
families.
On the 26th day of October we arrived at the metropolis, called in their
language Lorbrulgrud, or Pride of the Universe. My master took a lodging in the
principal street of the city, not far from the royal palace, and put out bills in the
usual form, containing an exact description of my person and parts. He hired a
large room between three and four hundred feet wide. He provided a table sixty
feet in diameter, upon which I was to act my part, and pallisadoed it round three
Thesaurus
a-day: (n) target date. thickness, windage, diametral, windswept. ANTONYMS: (adj)
cloth: (n) drapery, fabric, clothes, length. smooth, plain, unlined, straight.
clothing, rag, stuff, linen, tapestry, furnished: (adj) fitted, arranged, luggage: (n) baggage, bag, gear, grip,
silk, flannel; (v) napkin. privileged, instruct, carrying thing, goods, stuff, things, trunk,
custom: (n) habit, convention, usage, weapons, equipt, enlightened; (v) suitcase, pack.
practice, consuetude, fashion, provide, furnish, begone, beset. quilted: (adj) thick.
method, mores; (n, v) use, accustom; hired: (adj) leased, chartered, rivulet: (n) stream, creek, streamlet,
(adj) bespoke. ANTONYMS: (n) fad, mercenary, hackneyed, hack; (v) brook, arroyo, brooklet, rillet, runnel,
innovation, phenomenon, rage, contented, compensated, paid. watercourse, gill, river.
rarity. lined: (adj) wrinkled, creased, wrinkly, situate: (v) place, locate, put, lay,
diameter: (n) calibre, bore, width, striped, streaked, ruled, banded, position, posit, deposit, lodge,
diam, radius, breadth, diameters, paved, worn, with stripes, localize, post; (adj, v) set.
feet from the edge, and as many high, to prevent my falling over. I was shown
ten times a-day, to the wonder and satisfaction of all people. I could now speak
the language tolerably well, and perfectly understood every word, that was
spoken to me. Besides, I had learnt their alphabet, and could make a shift to
explain a sentence here and there; for Glumdalclitch had been my instructor
while we were at home, and at leisure hours during our journey. She carried a
little book in her pocket, not much larger than a Sanson’s Atlas; it was a common
treatise for the use of young girls, giving a short account of their religion: out of
this she taught me my letters, and interpreted the words.%
Thesaurus
alphabet: (n) rudiments, rudiment, student, pupil. recompense. ANTONYMS: (n)
elements, grammar, ABC, interpreted: (adj) exactly limited, displeasure, discontent, aggravation,
fundamentals, basics, first rudiment, exact, drawn close, accurate, taken, sorrow, dismay, anxiety.
first principle, outlines, abecedary. strict, confined. tolerably: (adv) well enough, passably,
besides: (adv) as well, moreover, too, learnt: (adj) learned. acceptably, reasonably, enough,
furthermore, again, as well as, religion: (n) piety, faith, creed, cult, moderately, to a tolerable degree,
anyway, additionally; (prep) apart sect, denomination, church, devotion, pretty, to an adequate degree; (adj,
from, beside; (adj, adv) more. paganism, persuasion, holiness. adv) somewhat; (adj) pretty well.
instructor: (n) trainer, coach, satisfaction: (n, v) pleasure, ANTONYMS: (adv) unbearably,
preceptor, don, educator, tutor, gratification, contentment, content; intolerably, unacceptably,
demonstrator, lecturer, master, (n) enjoyment, joy, complacency, unreasonably, insufficiently,
mentor, guru. ANTONYMS: (n) amends, reparation, redress, inadequately.
Jonathan Swift 99
CHAPTER %III
[The author sent for to court. The queen buys him of his master the farmer,
and presents him to the king. He disputes with his majesty’s great scholars. An
apartment at court provided for the author. He is in high favour with the queen.
He stands up for the honour of his own country. His quarrels with the queen’s
dwarf.]
The frequent labours I underwent every day, made, in a few weeks, a very
considerable change in my health: the more my master got by me, the more
insatiable he grew. I had quite lost my stomach, and was almost reduced to a
skeleton. The farmer observed it, and concluding I must soon die, resolved to
make as good a hand of me as he could. While he was thus reasoning and
resolving with himself, a sardral, or gentleman-usher, came from court,
commanding my master to carry me immediately thither for the diversion of the
queen and her ladies. Some of the latter had already been to see me, and reported
strange things of my beauty, behaviour, and good sense. Her majesty, and those
who attended her, were beyond measure delighted with my demeanour. I fell on
my knees, and begged the honour of kissing her imperial foot; but this gracious
princess held out her little finger towards me, after I was set on the table, which I
embraced in both my arms, and put the tip of it with the utmost respect to my
lip. She made me some general questions about my country and my travels,
Thesaurus
commanding: (adj) imperative, finishing, reasoning. ANTONYMS: fondling, arousal, foreplay, necking;
imperious, peremptory, bossy, (adj) opening, former, first. (adj) embracing, adhering closely,
imposing, ascendant, compelling, demeanour: (n) behavior, behaviour, billing, clinging, interosculant.
magnificent; (adj, n) grand, conduct, demeanor, comportment, skeleton: (n) carcass, frame,
impressive; (adv) commandingly. deportment, manner, citizenship, framework, bones, anatomy, scaffold,
ANTONYMS: (adj) inferior, correctitude, carriage, attitude. body, cadaver, chassis, corpse; (n, v)
unassertive, indecisive, diversion: (n) amusement, outline.
unimpressive, insignificant, entertainment, pastime, deviation, utmost: (adj, n) maximum, extreme,
subservient. distraction, detour, fun, sport, uttermost, furthermost, best, highest;
concluding: (adj) last, terminal, recreation, digression, deflexion. (adj, adv) farthest; (adj, v) supreme;
ultimate, closing, definitive, embraced: (adj) popular. (adj) last, furthest; (adj, n, v) greatest.
conclusive, latest; (n) ending, dying, kissing: (n) hugging, cuddling, ANTONYMS: (adj) moderate, worst.
which I answered as distinctly, and in as few words as I could. She asked,

“whether I could be content to live at court?” I bowed down to the board of the
table, and humbly answered “that I was my master’s slave: but, if I were at my
own disposal, I should be proud to devote my life to her majesty’s service.” She
then asked my master, “whether he was willing to sell me at a good price?” He,
who apprehended I could not live a month, was ready enough to part with me,
and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which were ordered him on the spot,
each piece being about the bigness of eight hundred moidores; but allowing for
the proportion of all things between that country and Europe, and the high price
of gold among them, was hardly so great a sum as a thousand guineas would be
in England. I then said to the queen, “since I was now her majesty’s most humble
creature and vassal, I must beg the favour, that Glumdalclitch, who had always
tended me with so much care and kindness, and understood to do it so well,
might be admitted into her service, and continue to be my nurse and instructor.”
Her majesty agreed to my petition, and easily got the farmer’s consent, who
was glad enough to have his daughter preferred at court, and the poor girl
herself was not able to hide her joy. My late master withdrew, bidding me
farewell, and saying he had left me in a good service; to which I replied not a
word, only making him a slight bow.%
The queen observed my coldness; and, when the farmer was gone out of the
apartment, asked me the reason. I made bold to tell her majesty, “that I owed no
other obligation to my late master, than his not dashing out the brains of a poor
harmless creature, found by chance in his fields: which obligation was amply
recompensed, by the gain he had made in showing me through half the kingdom,
and the price he had now sold me for. That the life I had since led was laborious
enough to kill an animal of ten times my strength. That my health was much
impaired, by the continual drudgery of entertaining the rabble every hour of the
day; and that, if my master had not thought my life in danger, her majesty would
not have got so cheap a bargain. But as I was out of all fear of being ill-treated
under the protection of so great and good an empress, the ornament of nature,
the darling of the world, the delight of her subjects, the phoenix of the creation,
Thesaurus
amply: (adj, adv) abundantly, reserve, frost, frigidity, unconcern; slavery, travail, donkeywork,
sufficiently; (adv) fully, well, lavishly, (adj, n) cold. ANTONYMS: (n) fagging, hammering; (adj, n) hard
plentifully, richly, generously, friendliness, sympathy, sensitivity, work; (n, v) sweat. ANTONYM: (adj)
enough, adequately, capaciously. hotness, heat, responsiveness, cramped.
ANTONYMS: (adv) meagerly, concern, brightness, kindness. ornament: (n) decoration, adornment,
inadequately, illiberally, sparingly, dashing: (adj) stylish, dapper, gallant, embellishment, decor; (v) beautify,
poorly. showy, smart, snappy, impetuous, decorate, deck, embellish, adorn; (n,
bidding: (n) behest, order, dictate, rakish, raffish, brave; (adj, n) spruce. v) garnish, dress. ANTONYM: (v)
charge, bid, request, call, dictation, ANTONYMS: (adj) boring, unstylish, strip.
direction, fiat; (adj) imperative. dull, bumbling, bland, awkward, vassal: (n) feudatory, liegeman, liege,
coldness: (n) chilliness, coolness, drab, graceless. serf, helot, dependent, subject, liege
indifference, distance, apathy, iciness, drudgery: (n) toil, work, grind, swink, subject, follower, bondman, homager.
Jonathan Swift 101
so I hoped my late master’s apprehensions would appear to be groundless; for I

already found my spirits revive, by the influence of her most august presence.”
This was the sum of my speech, delivered with great improprieties and
hesitation. The latter part was altogether framed in the style peculiar to that
people, whereof I learned some phrases from Glumdalclitch, while she was
carrying me to court.%
The queen, giving great allowance for my defectiveness in speaking, was,
however, surprised at so much wit and good sense in so diminutive an animal.
She took me in her own hand, and carried me to the king, who was then retired
to his cabinet. His majesty, a prince of much gravity and austere countenance,
not well observing my shape at first view, asked the queen after a cold manner
“how long it was since she grew fond of a splacnuck?” for such it seems he took
me to be, as I lay upon my breast in her majesty’s right hand. But this princess,
who has an infinite deal of wit and humour, set me gently on my feet upon the
scrutoire, and commanded me to give his majesty an account of myself, which I
did in a very few words: and Glumdalclitch who attended at the cabinet door,
and could not endure I should be out of her sight, being admitted, confirmed all
that had passed from my arrival at her father’s house.
The king, although he be as learned a person as any in his dominions, had
been educated in the study of philosophy, and particularly mathematics; yet
when he observed my shape exactly, and saw me walk erect, before I began to
speak, conceived I might be a piece of clock-work (which is in that country
arrived to a very great perfection) contrived by some ingenious artist. But when
he heard my voice, and found what I delivered to be regular and rational, he
could not conceal his astonishment. He was by no means satisfied with the
relation I gave him of the manner I came into his kingdom, but thought it a story
concerted between Glumdalclitch and her father, who had taught me a set of
words to make me sell at a better price. Upon this imagination, he put several
other questions to me, and still received rational answers: no otherwise defective
than by a foreign accent, and an imperfect knowledge in the language, with some
rustic phrases which I had learned at the farmer’s house, and did not suit the
Thesaurus
austere: (adj) ascetic, stern, severe, together. ANTONYMS: (adj) wanton, idle, vain, ungrounded,
harsh, plain, rigorous, rigid, individual, uncoordinated, weak, unjustifiable, unjustified, unreal.
abstemious, stark, astringent, stiff. disorganized, disordered, solitary. ANTONYMS: (adj) proven, true,
ANTONYMS: (adj) ornate, luxurious, defectiveness: (n) inadequacy, justified, rational, sound.
frivolous, hedonistic, extravagant, bugginess, imperfectness, fault, rustic: (n) countryman, peasant; (adj)
lush, elaborate, spending, sunny, imperfection, defect, incompleteness, rural, pastoral, boorish, country,
warm, indulgent. failing, failure, incompetence. bucolic, provincial, hick, agrestic,
conceived: (adj) formed. framed: (adj) counterfeit, prepared, countrified. ANTONYMS: (adj) town,
concerted: (adj) joint, united, orderly, methodical, spurious. urbane, cultured, city, sophisticated.
cooperative, unanimous, concurrent, ANTONYM: (adj) unframed. scrutoire: (n) clothespress, chest on
accordant, joined, collective, groundless: (adj) unfounded, chest, cellaret, bunker, buffet, till,
undivided, accommodative, acting gratuitous, unwarranted, false, sideboard, bin, safe, press, lowboy.
polite style of a court.%

His majesty sent for three great scholars, who were then in their weekly
waiting, according to the custom in that country. These gentlemen, after they
had a while examined my shape with much nicety, were of different opinions
concerning me. They all agreed that I could not be produced according to the
regular laws of nature, because I was not framed with a capacity of preserving
my life, either by swiftness, or climbing of trees, or digging holes in the earth.
They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness, that I was a
carnivorous animal; yet most quadrupeds being an overmatch for me, and field
mice, with some others, too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able
to support myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects, which they offered,
by many learned arguments, to evince that I could not possibly do. One of these
virtuosi seemed to think that I might be an embryo, or abortive birth. But this
opinion was rejected by the other two, who observed my limbs to be perfect and
finished; and that I had lived several years, as it was manifest from my beard, the
stumps whereof they plainly discovered through a magnifying glass. They
would not allow me to be a dwarf, because my littleness was beyond all degrees
of comparison; for the queen’s favourite dwarf, the smallest ever known in that
kingdom, was near thirty feet high. After much debate, they concluded
unanimously, that I was only relplum scalcath, which is interpreted literally
lusus naturae; a determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of
Europe, whose professors, disdaining the old evasion of occult causes, whereby
the followers of Aristotle endeavoured in vain to disguise their ignorance, have
invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the unspeakable
advancement of human knowledge.
After this decisive conclusion, I entreated to be heard a word or two. I
applied myself to the king, and assured his majesty, “that I came from a country
which abounded with several millions of both sexes, and of my own stature;
where the animals, trees, and houses, were all in proportion, and where, by
consequence, I might be as able to defend myself, and to find sustenance, as any
Thesaurus
carnivorous: (adj) phytivorous, littleness: (n) minuteness, smallness, overcharge.
graminivorous, granivorous, pettiness, puniness, delicacy, size, a swiftness: (n) speed, haste, rapidity,
herbivorous, insectivorous, few, a little bit, a smidgen, celerity, acceleration, quickness,
predaceous, predacious, zoophagous, insignificance, slightness. promptness, pace, velocity, agility,
hungry, omnivorous, sarcophagous. nicety: (n) detail, exactness, dispatch. ANTONYM: (n)
ANTONYMS: (adj) vegetarian, fastidiousness, nuance, refinement, clumsiness.
omnivorous, insectivorous. exactitude, justness, precision, unspeakable: (adj) ineffable, dreadful,
evince: (v) show, display, evidence, correctness, daintiness, elegance. awful, terrible, inexpressible, nasty,
argue, indicate, manifest, mark, overmatch: (adj) overcome, horrible, atrocious, indefinable,
express, prove, establish, exhibit. overpower, overthrow, overbalance, shocking; (adj, v) unutterable.
gentlemen: (n) sirs, messieurs. overset, overreach, overpass, ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, wonderful,
holes: (n) cavity, holes tow. override; (v) surcharge, overburden, pleasant, good, lovely, bearable.
Jonathan Swift 103
of %his majesty’s subjects could do here; which I took for a full answer to those
gentlemen’s arguments.” To this they only replied with a smile of contempt,
saying, “that the farmer had instructed me very well in my lesson.” The king,
who had a much better understanding, dismissing his learned men, sent for the
farmer, who by good fortune was not yet gone out of town. Having therefore
first examined him privately, and then confronted him with me and the young
girl, his majesty began to think that what we told him might possibly be true. He
desired the queen to order that a particular care should be taken of me; and was
of opinion that Glumdalclitch should still continue in her office of tending me,
because he observed we had a great affection for each other. A convenient
apartment was provided for her at court: she had a sort of governess appointed
to take care of her education, a maid to dress her, and two other servants for
menial offices; but the care of me was wholly appropriated to herself. The queen
commanded her own cabinet-maker to contrive a box, that might serve me for a
bedchamber, after the model that Glumdalclitch and I should agree upon. This
man was a most ingenious artist, and according to my direction, in three weeks
finished for me a wooden chamber of sixteen feet square, and twelve high, with
sash-windows, a door, and two closets, like a London bed-chamber. The board,
that made the ceiling, was to be lifted up and down by two hinges, to put in a
bed ready furnished by her majesty’s upholsterer, which Glumdalclitch took out
every day to air, made it with her own hands, and letting it down at night,
locked up the roof over me. A nice workman, who was famous for little
curiosities, undertook to make me two chairs, with backs and frames, of a
substance not unlike ivory, and two tables, with a cabinet to put my things in.
The room was quilted on all sides, as well as the floor and the ceiling, to prevent
any accident from the carelessness of those who carried me, and to break the
force of a jolt, when I went in a coach. I desired a lock for my door, to prevent
rats and mice from coming in. The smith, after several attempts, made the
smallest that ever was seen among them, for I have known a larger at the gate of
a gentleman’s house in England. I made a shift to keep the key in a pocket of my
own, fearing Glumdalclitch might lose it. The queen likewise ordered the
thinnest silks that could be gotten, to make me clothes, not much thicker than an
Thesaurus
chairs: (n) seats. ingenious: (adj) adroit, artful, clever, tending: (n) care, hairdressing, aid,
contrive: (v) plan, invent, design, cunning, deft, expert, creative, treatment, attention, babysitting,
concoct, devise, cast, concert, imaginative, cute, acute, able. incubation; (adj) apt, conducive,
excogitate, frame, formulate; (n, v) ANTONYMS: (adj) impulsive, naive, prone, disposed.
manage. ANTONYMS: (v) demolish, unoriginal, inept. upholsterer: (n) supporter,
destroy, ruin, waste, wreck, fail. ivory: (n) tusk, dentin, whiteness, journeyman, defender, sustainer,
frames: (n) framework, ribs. elephant, teeth, yellow, dentine; (adj) craftsman, broker, tapiser, upholder,
gotten: (v) receive, seize, get, acquire. chalk, lily, milk, paper. artisan, artificer, tradesman.
governess: (n) chaperon, preceptress, jolt: (n, v) jerk, shake, jog, jar, bump, workman: (n) laborer, working man,
nanny, trainer, tutor, professor, push, knock, thrust, shock; (n) hustle; worker, employee, hand, operative,
lecturer, rectoress, educator, rectrix, (v) agitate. artisan, working person, lather,
instructress. silks: (n) garment. mechanic, artificer.
English blanket, very cumbersome till I was accustomed to them. They were
after the fashion of the kingdom, partly resembling the Persian, and partly the
Chinese, and are a very grave and decent habit.%
The queen became so fond of my company, that she could not dine without
me. I had a table placed upon the same at which her majesty ate, just at her left
elbow, and a chair to sit on. Glumdalclitch stood on a stool on the floor near my
table, to assist and take care of me. I had an entire set of silver dishes and plates,
and other necessaries, which, in proportion to those of the queen, were not much
bigger than what I have seen in a London toy-shop for the furniture of a baby-
house: these my little nurse kept in her pocket in a silver box, and gave me at
meals as I wanted them, always cleaning them herself. No person dined with the
queen but the two princesses royal, the eldest sixteen years old, and the younger
at that time thirteen and a month. Her majesty used to put a bit of meat upon one
of my dishes, out of which I carved for myself, and her diversion was to see me
eat in miniature: for the queen (who had indeed but a weak stomach) took up, at
one mouthful, as much as a dozen English farmers could eat at a meal, which to
me was for some time a very nauseous sight. She would craunch the wing of a
lark, bones and all, between her teeth, although it were nine times as large as that
of a full-grown turkey; and put a bit of bread into her mouth as big as two
twelve-penny loaves. She drank out of a golden cup, above a hogshead at a
draught. Her knives were twice as long as a scythe, set straight upon the handle.
The spoons, forks, and other instruments, were all in the same proportion. I
remember when Glumdalclitch carried me, out of curiosity, to see some of the
tables at court, where ten or a dozen of those enormous knives and forks were
lifted up together, I thought I had never till then beheld so terrible a sight.
It is the custom, that every Wednesday (which, as I have observed, is their
Sabbath) the king and queen, with the royal issue of both sexes, dine together in
the apartment of his majesty, to whom I was now become a great favourite; and
at these times, my little chair and table were placed at his left hand, before one of
the salt-cellars. This prince took a pleasure in conversing with me, inquiring into
the manners, religion, laws, government, and learning of Europe; wherein I gave
Thesaurus
accustomed: (adj, n) habitual; (adj) heavy, hefty, weighty, clumsy, eldest: (adj) elder, older, oldest, eigne;
familiar, normal, wonted, usual, burdensome, inconvenient, inept, (n) offspring, progeny, doyen.
natural, everyday, ordinary, onerous; (adj, v) cumbrous. full-grown: (adj) mature, grown-up,
habituated, common, traditional. ANTONYMS: (adj) manageable, full-fledged.
ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual, green, light, graceful, insubstantial, small. miniature: (adj) tiny, diminutive,
unseasoned, unconventional, dine: (v) feed, lunch, breakfast, dining, slight, wee, small, minute, midget,
untrained, abnormal, meal, give, have supper, take tea, dwarf, teeny; (adj, n) model; (n) toy.
uncharacteristic, exceptional. grub, consume, entertain. ANTONYMS: (adj) large, enormous,
craunch: (v) crunch, bite, beat, champ, ANTONYM: (v) abstain. giant, gigantic, big.
press, nibble, mumble, crumble, draught: (n, v) draft, sketch, design, scythe: (n) crotch, crutch, crane,
disintegrate, gnaw, masticate. potation, plan; (n) dose, air current, elbow, ankle, fluke, groin, knee,
cumbersome: (adj) bulky, unwieldy, wind, gulp, outline; (v) blueprint. zigzag; (n, v) sithe; (v) reap.
Jonathan Swift 105
him the best account I was able. His apprehension was so clear, and his judgment
so exact, that he made very wise reflections and observations upon all I said. But
I confess, that, after I had been a little too copious in talking of my own beloved
country, of our trade and wars by sea and land, of our schisms in religion, and
parties in the state; the prejudices of his education prevailed so far, that he could
not forbear taking me up in his right hand, and stroking me gently with the other,
after a hearty fit of laughing, asked me, “whether I was a whig or tory?” Then
turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with a white staff, near as
tall as the mainmast of the Royal Sovereign, he observed “how contemptible a
thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive
insects as I: and yet,” says he, “I dare engage these creatures have their titles and
distinctions of honour; they contrive little nests and burrows, that they call
houses and cities; they make a figure in dress and equipage; they love, they fight,
they dispute, they cheat, they betray!” And thus he continued on, while my
colour came and went several times, with indignation, to hear our noble country,
the mistress of arts and arms, the scourge of France, the arbitress of Europe, the
seat of virtue, piety, honour, and truth, the pride and envy of the world, so
contemptuously treated.%
But as I was not in a condition to resent injuries, so upon mature thoughts I
began to doubt whether I was injured or no. For, after having been accustomed
several months to the sight and converse of this people, and observed every
object upon which I cast mine eyes to be of proportionable magnitude, the horror
I had at first conceived from their bulk and aspect was so far worn off, that if I
had then beheld a company of English lords and ladies in their finery and birth-
day clothes, acting their several parts in the most courtly manner of strutting,
and bowing, and prating, to say the truth, I should have been strongly tempted
to laugh as much at them as the king and his grandees did at me. Neither, indeed,
could I forbear smiling at myself, when the queen used to place me upon her
hand towards a looking-glass, by which both our persons appeared before me in
full view together; and there could be nothing more ridiculous than the
comparison; so that I really began to imagine myself dwindled many degrees
below my usual size.
Thesaurus
contemptible: (adj) abject, mean, base, rude, unrefined, unpolished, uncivil, wholehearted, lusty, enthusiastic,
pitiful, little, worthless, unworthy, churlish, impolite, rough. convivial; (adj, n) well. ANTONYMS:
miserable, ignoble, abominable, equipage: (n) carriage, chariot, (adj) unhealthy, frail, old, weak,
shameful. ANTONYMS: (adj) brougham, coach, barouche, rig, sluggish, unwholesome, meager.
estimable, admired, deserving, field-equipage, buggy, cab, cabriolet, prating: (n) trash, drivel, report; (v)
worthy, honorable, respectable, chaise. click, clack.
respectful, noble, generous, finery: (n) regalia, clothing, attire, scourge: (n) curse, blight, affliction,
commendable, good. decoration, dress, pinchbeck, plague, bane, calamity; (v) lash,
courtly: (adj) civil, stately, polite, spangle, trimmings, gimcrack; (adj, n) flagellate, castigate, punish; (n, v)
elegant, gallant, dignified, respectful, tinsel, gewgaw. ANTONYM: (n) rags. whip.
noble, formal; (adj, n) refined; (adv) hearty: (adj) heartfelt, healthy, genial, strutting: (n) boasting, stiffening,
wooly. ANTONYMS: (adj) boorish, sturdy, cheering, fervent, bracing; (adj) boastful.
Nothing angered and mortified me so much as the queen’s dwarf; who being
of the lowest stature that was ever in that country (for I verily think he was not
full thirty feet high), became so insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath
him, that he would always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me in
the queen’s antechamber, while I was standing on some table talking with the
lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed of a smart word or two upon
my littleness; against which I could only revenge myself by calling him brother,
challenging him to wrestle, and such repartees as are usually in the mouths of
court pages. One day, at dinner, this malicious little cub was so nettled with
something I had said to him, that, raising himself upon the frame of her majesty’s
chair, he took me up by the middle, as I was sitting down, not thinking any harm,
and let me drop into a large silver bowl of cream, and then ran away as fast as he
could. I fell over head and ears, and, if I had not been a good swimmer, it might
have gone very hard with me; for Glumdalclitch in that instant happened to be at
the other end of the room, and the queen was in such a fright, that she wanted
presence of mind to assist me. But my little nurse ran to my relief, and took me
out, after I had swallowed above a quart of cream. I was put to bed: however, I
received no other damage than the loss of a suit of clothes, which was utterly
spoiled. The dwarf was soundly whipt, and as a farther punishment, forced to
drink up the bowl of cream into which he had thrown me: neither was he ever
restored to favour; for soon after the queen bestowed him on a lady of high
quality, so that I saw him no more, to my very great satisfaction; for I could not
tell to what extremities such a malicious urchin might have carried his
resentment.%
He had before served me a scurvy trick, which set the queen a-laughing,
although at the same time she was heartily vexed, and would have immediately
cashiered him, if I had not been so generous as to intercede. Her majesty had
taken a marrow-bone upon her plate, and, after knocking out the marrow, placed
the bone again in the dish erect, as it stood before; the dwarf, watching his
opportunity, while Glumdalclitch was gone to the side-board, mounted the stool
that she stood on to take care of me at meals, took me up in both hands, and
squeezing my legs together, wedged them into the marrow bone above my waist,
Thesaurus
antechamber: (n) lobby, anteroom, embarrassed, abashed, gangrenous, scurvy: (adj) contemptible, paltry,
hall, foyer, hallway, waiting room, sheepish, chagrined, feeling shame, miserable, sordid, low, abject,
room, corridor, antichamber, cell, feeling guilty, guilty, hangdog, ignoble, dirty, scabby; (v) base,
entry. humbled. ANTONYM: (adj) scurfy.
ears: (n) antenna. unabashed. swagger: (n, v) strut, prance; (adj, n, v)
intercede: (v) arbitrate, interfere, nettled: (adj) annoyed, harried, stung, bluster; (v) boast, show off, parade,
negotiate, referee, reconcile, steamed, roiled, riled, pissed, peeved, ruffle, flourish; (adj, v) bully; (adj)
intermediate, intervene, interpose, miffed, loaded, huffy. ANTONYM: groovy; (n) bragging.
intrude, negociate, bring together to (adj) unconcerned. verily: (adj, adv) really; (adv) indeed, in
an agreement. ANTONYM: (v) quart: (n) quartile, quartic, reality, genuinely, quitely, actually,
provoke. quartilunar, quartole, quartlet, selfly, truely, identically, exactly;
mortified: (adj) humiliated, quarts, quarto, quarter. (adv, int) in truth.
Jonathan Swift 107
where I stuck for some time, and made a very ridiculous figure. I believe it was
near a minute before any one knew what was become of me; for I thought it
below me to cry out. But, as princes seldom get their meat hot, my legs were not
scalded, only my stockings and breeches in a sad condition. The dwarf, at my
entreaty, had no other punishment than a sound whipping.%
I was frequently rallied by the queen upon account of my fearfulness; and
she used to ask me whether the people of my country were as great cowards as
myself? The occasion was this: the kingdom is much pestered with flies in
summer; and these odious insects, each of them as big as a Dunstable lark,
hardly gave me any rest while I sat at dinner, with their continual humming and
buzzing about mine ears. They would sometimes alight upon my victuals, and
leave their loathsome excrement, or spawn behind, which to me was very visible,
though not to the natives of that country, whose large optics were not so acute as
mine, in viewing smaller objects. Sometimes they would fix upon my nose, or
forehead, where they stung me to the quick, smelling very offensively; and I
could easily trace that viscous matter, which, our naturalists tell us, enables those
creatures to walk with their feet upwards upon a ceiling. I had much ado to
defend myself against these detestable animals, and could not forbear starting
when they came on my face. It was the common practice of the dwarf, to catch a
number of these insects in his hand, as schoolboys do among us, and let them out
suddenly under my nose, on purpose to frighten me, and divert the queen. My
remedy was to cut them in pieces with my knife, as they flew in the air, wherein
my dexterity was much admired.
I remember, one morning, when Glumdalclitch had set me in a box upon a
window, as she usually did in fair days to give me air (for I durst not venture to
let the box be hung on a nail out of the window, as we do with cages in England),
after I had lifted up one of my sashes, and sat down at my table to eat a piece of
sweet cake for my breakfast, above twenty wasps, allured by the smell, came
flying into the room, humming louder than the drones of as many bagpipes.
Some of them seized my cake, and carried it piecemeal away; others flew about
my head and face, confounding me with the noise, and putting me in the utmost
Thesaurus
confounding: (adj) baffling, puzzling, consternation, timidness; (adj) nastily, revoltingly, distastefully,
contradictory, devious, difficult, apprehensiveness. ANTONYMS: (n) unpleasantly, shockingly, abusively,
marvelous, misleading, astounding; pleasantness, courage, bravery, insultingly, repellently, insolently.
(v) confound; (n) misunderstanding, confidence. ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly,
confusion. loathsome: (adj) foul, hideous, politely, defensively, kindly,
entreaty: (n) plea, prayer, request, distasteful, disgusting, hateful, acceptably, commendably, decently,
petition, adjuration, supplication, abominable, revolting, execrable, properly.
suit, demand, desire, invocation; (v) loathly, nauseous, horrible. pestered: (adj) harassed, harried,
solicitation. ANTONYMS: (adj) delightful, nice, vexed, peeved, nettled, irritated,
fearfulness: (n) fear, awe, dread, noble, inoffensive, pleasant, much disputed, miffed.
fright, horror, nervousness, admirable, good, attractive. scalded: (adj) scorched, overcooked,
pusillanimity, timidity, offensively: (adv) repulsively, rudely, burnt. ANTONYM: (adj) underdone.
terror of their stings. However, I had the courage to rise and draw my hanger,
and attack them in the air. I dispatched four of them, but the rest got away, and I
presently shut my window. These insects were as large as partridges: I took out
their stings, found them an inch and a half long, and as sharp as needles. I
carefully preserved them all; and having since shown them, with some other
curiosities, in several parts of Europe, upon my return to England I gave three of
them to Gresham College, and kept the fourth for myself.%
Thesaurus
courage: (n) audacity, fortitude, Hexapoda, centipedes. now, formerly.
boldness, nerve, spirit, backbone, needles: (adj) gratuitous, wanton, preserved: (adj) kept, conserved,
valor, heroism, gallantry, mettle, unwarranted, unprovoked, senseless; whole, pickled, condite, safe.
chivalry. ANTONYMS: (n) (n) nervousness, anxiety. ANTONYM: (adj) fresh.
cowardice, faintheartedness, partridges: (n) family Phasianidae, stings: (adj) stung.
weakness, wimpiness, yellowness. order Galliformes, curassows, terror: (n, v) alarm, scare; (adj, n)
inch: (n) in, bit, column inch, morsel; Phasianidae, chickens, Galliformes, dread, awe; (n) fear, dismay,
(v) crawl, creep, ease; (adj) tatter, hoatzins, grouse. consternation, horror, panic,
mite, seed, shive. presently: (adv) instantly, directly, apprehension, scourge.
insects: (n) Arthropoda, phylum currently, before long, shortly, soon, ANTONYMS: (n) peace, security,
Arthropoda, Insecta, Hexapoda, now, at present, readily, just, delight, calm, confidence.
crustaceans, class Insecta, class actually. ANTONYMS: (adv) later,
Jonathan Swift 109
CHAPTER %IV
[The country described. A proposal for correcting modern maps. The king’s
palace; and some account of the metropolis. The author’s way of travelling. The
chief temple described.]
I now intend to give the reader a short description of this country, as far as I
travelled in it, which was not above two thousand miles round Lorbrulgrud, the
metropolis. For the queen, whom I always attended, never went farther when
she accompanied the king in his progresses, and there staid till his majesty
returned from viewing his frontiers. The whole extent of this prince’s dominions
reaches about six thousand miles in length, and from three to five in breadth:
whence I cannot but conclude, that our geographers of Europe are in a great
error, by supposing nothing but sea between Japan and California; for it was ever
my opinion, that there must be a balance of earth to counterpoise the great
continent of Tartary; and therefore they ought to correct their maps and charts,
by joining this vast tract of land to the north-west parts of America, wherein I
shall be ready to lend them my assistance.
The kingdom is a peninsula, terminated to the north-east by a ridge of
mountains thirty miles high, which are altogether impassable, by reason of the
volcanoes upon the tops: neither do the most learned know what sort of mortals
inhabit beyond those mountains, or whether they be inhabited at all. On the
Thesaurus
charts: (n) catalogue. addition, too; (adj, prep) outside; exist; (n) habit. ANTONYMS: (v)
correcting: (n) amendment, correction, (pron) another. ANTONYMS: (prep) desert, vacate.
rectification, adjustment, within; (adv) nearer, closer. inhabited: (v) populous, full of people,
compensation, reading. frontiers: (n) boundary. arrayed, clothed, dressed,
counterpoise: (n) balance, impassable: (adj) impervious, accustomed, habited; (adj, v) peopled;
equilibration, poise, equilibrium, impenetrable, impracticable, (adj) occupied, settled, housing.
equipoise; (n, v) counterweight; (v) invincible, insuperable, inaccessible, ANTONYMS: (adj) unoccupied,
offset, counteract, compensate, unpassable, innavigable, inextricable, uninhabited, business.
countervail; (adj) ballast. closed, impossible. ANTONYMS: terminated: (adj) complete, all over,
farther: (adj, adv, prep) beyond; (adj) (adj) passable, open. over, extinct, accomplished, closed,
additional, more, distant; (adv) inhabit: (v) reside, abide, occupy, highly skilled; (adj, adv) ended,
furthermore, besides, abroad, in lodge, settle, people, live, indwell, be, finished, done; (adv) completed.
three other sides, it is bounded by the ocean. There is not one seaport in the
whole kingdom: and those parts of the coasts into which the rivers issue, are so
full of pointed rocks, and the sea generally so rough, that there is no venturing
with the smallest of their boats; so that these people are wholly excluded from
any commerce with the rest of the world. But the large rivers are full of vessels,
and abound with excellent fish; for they seldom get any from the sea, because
the sea fish are of the same size with those in Europe, and consequently not
worth catching; whereby it is manifest, that nature, in the production of plants
and animals of so extraordinary a bulk, is wholly confined to this continent, of
which I leave the reasons to be determined by philosophers. However, now and
then they take a whale that happens to be dashed against the rocks, which the
common people feed on heartily. These whales I have known so large, that a man
could hardly carry one upon his shoulders; and sometimes, for curiosity, they are
brought in hampers to Lorbrulgrud; I saw one of them in a dish at the king’s
table, which passed for a rarity, but I did not observe he was fond of it; for I
think, indeed, the bigness disgusted him, although I have seen one somewhat
larger in Greenland.%
The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one cities, near a hundred
walled towns, and a great number of villages. To satisfy my curious reader, it
may be sufficient to describe Lorbrulgrud. This city stands upon almost two
equal parts, on each side the river that passes through. It contains above eighty
thousand houses, and about six hundred thousand inhabitants. It is in length
three glomglungs (which make about fifty-four English miles,) and two and a
half in breadth; as I measured it myself in the royal map made by the king’s
order, which was laid on the ground on purpose for me, and extended a hundred
feet: I paced the diameter and circumference several times barefoot, and,
computing by the scale, measured it pretty exactly.
The king’s palace is no regular edifice, but a heap of buildings, about seven
miles round: the chief rooms are generally two hundred and forty feet high, and
broad and long in proportion. A coach was allowed to Glumdalclitch and me,
wherein her governess frequently took her out to see the town, or go among the
Thesaurus
abound: (v) swarm, teem, flow, unconfined, unlimited, free. clubhouse.
overflow, burst; (n) exuberate, dashed: (v) ashamed, cut up, sunk; rarity: (n) rareness, curiosity,
shower down, stream, rain, (adj) broken, done for, dejected, infrequency, curio, peculiarity,
abundance; (adj) abundant. discouraged, dotted. dearth, scarcity, tenuity, paucity,
ANTONYM: (v) disperse. disgusted: (adj) fed up, ill, weary, scarceness, antique. ANTONYM: (n)
barefoot: (adj) shoeless, unshod, bare sickened, nauseated, queasy, frequency.
footed. ANTONYM: (adj) shoed. indisposed, demented, shocked, seaport: (n) harbor, harbour, port, port
bounded: (adj) restricted, limited, crazy, horrified. ANTONYMS: (adj) of call, docks, oasis, coaling station.
delimited, encircled, enclosed, attracted, happy, pleased. whale: (n) monster, leviathan, blower,
confined, leap, spring, bordered, edifice: (n) building, structure, house, behemoth, hulk, heavyweight,
circumscribed, constrained. hall, fabric, aviary, bagnio, narwhal, narwal; (v) thrash, beat;
ANTONYMS: (adj) unbounded, bathhouse, abattoir, bawdyhouse, (adj) cachalot.
Jonathan Swift 111
shops; and I was always of the party, carried in my box; although the girl, at my
own desire, would often take me out, and hold me in her hand, that I might more
conveniently view the houses and the people, as we passed along the streets. I
reckoned our coach to be about a square of Westminster-hall, but not altogether
so high: however, I cannot be very exact. One day the governess ordered our
coachman to stop at several shops, where the beggars, watching their
opportunity, crowded to the sides of the coach, and gave me the most horrible
spectacle that ever a European eye beheld. There was a woman with a cancer in
her breast, swelled to a monstrous size, full of holes, in two or three of which I
could have easily crept, and covered my whole body. There was a fellow with a
wen in his neck, larger than five wool-packs; and another, with a couple of
wooden legs, each about twenty feet high. But the most hateful sight of all, was
the lice crawling on their clothes. I could see distinctly the limbs of these vermin
with my naked eye, much better than those of a European louse through a
microscope, and their snouts with which they rooted like swine. They were the
first I had ever beheld, and I should have been curious enough to dissect one of
them, if I had had proper instruments, which I unluckily left behind me in the
ship, although, indeed, the sight was so nauseous, that it perfectly turned my
stomach.%
Besides the large box in which I was usually carried, the queen ordered a
smaller one to be made for me, of about twelve feet square, and ten high, for the
convenience of travelling; because the other was somewhat too large for
Glumdalclitch’s lap, and cumbersome in the coach; it was made by the same
artist, whom I directed in the whole contrivance. This travelling-closet was an
exact square, with a window in the middle of three of the squares, and each
window was latticed with iron wire on the outside, to prevent accidents in long
journeys. On the fourth side, which had no window, two strong staples were
fixed, through which the person that carried me, when I had a mind to be on
horseback, put a leathern belt, and buckled it about his waist. This was always
the office of some grave trusty servant, in whom I could confide, whether I
attended the king and queen in their progresses, or were disposed to see the
gardens, or pay a visit to some great lady or minister of state in the court, when
Thesaurus
buckled: (v) wreathy, frizzly, crepe; dissect: (n, v) anatomize, scrutinize; (v) ball, cad, nit, parasite, sucking louse.
(adj) warped, misshapen, malformed, carve, dismember, cut, decompose, swelled: (adj) big, inflated, bloated,
distorted, askew, deformed. analyse, cut up, separate, parse, swollen, adult, boastful, bighearted,
coachman: (n) teamster, cabman, resolve. ANTONYMS: (v) mend, bad, fully grown, crowing, elder.
charioteer, carter, carman, Jehu, synthesize, join. unluckily: (adv) unfortunately,
postboy, drayman, wagoner, latticed: (adj) interlaced, fretted, inauspiciously, lucklessly, unhappily,
postilion; (v) whip. lattice, reticulate, reticulated, untowardly, unsuccessfully, alas,
confide: (v) commit, trust, entrust, latticelike, tabernacular, having frets, regrettably, ill-fatedly, tragically,
intrust, consign, rely, charge, common, reticular. haplessly. ANTONYM: (adv) luckily.
unbosom, whisper, lean, hope. lice: (n) fleas, parasites, vermin. vermin: (n) bug, varmint, louse, trash,
ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, keep, louse: (adj) vermin; (n) flea, worm, pest, brute, varment, scum, riffraff,
conceal, retain. insect, bird louse, biting louse, dirt ragtag and bobtail, rabble.
Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order; for I soon began to be known and

esteemed among the greatest officers, I suppose more upon account of their
majesties’ favour, than any merit of my own. In journeys, when I was weary of
the coach, a servant on horseback would buckle on my box, and place it upon a
cushion before him; and there I had a full prospect of the country on three sides,
from my three windows. I had, in this closet, a field-bed and a hammock, hung
from the ceiling, two chairs and a table, neatly screwed to the floor, to prevent
being tossed about by the agitation of the horse or the coach. And having been
long used to sea-voyages, those motions, although sometimes very violent, did
not much discompose me.%
Whenever I had a mind to see the town, it was always in my travelling-closet;
which Glumdalclitch held in her lap in a kind of open sedan, after the fashion of
the country, borne by four men, and attended by two others in the queen’s livery.
The people, who had often heard of me, were very curious to crowd about the
sedan, and the girl was complaisant enough to make the bearers stop, and to
take me in her hand, that I might be more conveniently seen.
I was very desirous to see the chief temple, and particularly the tower
belonging to it, which is reckoned the highest in the kingdom. Accordingly one
day my nurse carried me thither, but I may truly say I came back disappointed;
for the height is not above three thousand feet, reckoning from the ground to the
highest pinnacle top; which, allowing for the difference between the size of those
people and us in Europe, is no great matter for admiration, nor at all equal in
proportion (if I rightly remember) to Salisbury steeple. But, not to detract from a
nation, to which, during my life, I shall acknowledge myself extremely obliged, it
must be allowed, that whatever this famous tower wants in height, is amply
made up in beauty and strength: for the walls are near a hundred feet thick, built
of hewn stone, whereof each is about forty feet square, and adorned on all sides
with statues of gods and emperors, cut in marble, larger than the life, placed in
their several niches. I measured a little finger which had fallen down from one of
these statues, and lay unperceived among some rubbish, and found it exactly
four feet and an inch in length. Glumdalclitch wrapped it up in her handkerchief,
Thesaurus
complaisant: (adj, v) civil, polite; (adj) hammock: (n) berth, hill, cot, cradle, enumeration, account, estimation.
benign, accommodating, amiable, bed, crib, to lash a hammock, screwed: (adj) threaded, firm,
debonair, friendly, courteous, stretcher, shakedown, litter, maudlin, muddled, muzzy, raddled,
tractable, attentive, affable. bedstead. corned; (n) whittled.
ANTONYMS: (adj) antagonistic, pinnacle: (n) apex, top, height, crest, sedan: (n) saloon, car, automobile,
contrary, difficult, disagreeable, zenith, crown, summit, acme, auto, sedan chair, litter, brougham,
discontented. heyday, climax, culmination. jampan, limousine, saloon car,
detract: (v) depreciate, defame, ANTONYMS: (n) nadir, base, bottom, vehicle.
derogate, deprecate, traduce, trough. steeple: (adj, n) spire, tower; (n)
disparage, lose, cut, slander, subtract, reckoning: (n) calculation, campanile, minaret, turret, dome;
damage. ANTONYMS: (v) increase, computation, bill, score, computing, (adj) pyramid, column, obelisk,
heighten, enhance. liquidation, clearance; (n, v) count, monument, pillar.
Jonathan Swift 113
and carried it home in her pocket, to keep among other trinkets, of which the girl
was very fond, as children at her age usually are.%
The king’s kitchen is indeed a noble building, vaulted at top, and about six
hundred feet high. The great oven is not so wide, by ten paces, as the cupola at St.
Paul’s: for I measured the latter on purpose, after my return. But if I should
describe the kitchen grate, the prodigious pots and kettles, the joints of meat
turning on the spits, with many other particulars, perhaps I should be hardly
believed; at least a severe critic would be apt to think I enlarged a little, as
travellers are often suspected to do. To avoid which censure I fear I have run too
much into the other extreme; and that if this treatise should happen to be
translated into the language of Brobdingnag (which is the general name of that
kingdom,) and transmitted thither, the king and his people would have reason to
complain that I had done them an injury, by a false and diminutive
representation.
His majesty seldom keeps above six hundred horses in his stables: they are
generally from fifty-four to sixty feet high. But, when he goes abroad on solemn
days, he is attended, for state, by a military guard of five hundred horse, which,
indeed, I thought was the most splendid sight that could be ever beheld, till I
saw part of his army in battalia, whereof I shall find another occasion to speak.
Thesaurus
battalia: (n, v) battalion; (v) battle; (n) gall, gnash, fret, rub, aggravate, playful, flippant, relaxed.
corps d'armee, division, host, army. provoke; (n) lattice. transmitted: (adj) transmissible,
cupola: (adj, n) dome; (adj) turret, particulars: (n) specification, data, genetic, familial, inherited,
column, campanile, tower, minaret; nicety, minutiae, terms, patrimonial, ancestral, catching,
(n) furnace, eaves, balcony, cupola consideration, workings, fine points, communicable, contractable,
furnace, lookout. ins and outs. transmittable, figurative.
enlarged: (adj) inflated, magnified, solemn: (adj, n, v) serious; (adj, v) trinkets: (n) finery, jewels.
extended, expanded, puffy, sober, important, sedate, devout, vaulted: (adj) domed, hollow, hooked,
increased, augmented, amplified, formal, demure; (adj) heavy, testudinated, rounded, arcuated, in
distended, wide, swollen. dignified, sacred; (adj, n) earnest. the form of an arch, curved, concave,
ANTONYM: (adj) atrophied. ANTONYMS: (adj) frivolous, roofed.
grate: (v) grind, creak, scrape, abrade, cheerful, unceremonious, funny,
Jonathan Swift 115
CHAPTER %V
[Several adventurers that happened to the author. The execution of a criminal.

The author shows his skill in navigation.]
I should have lived happy enough in that country, if my littleness had not
exposed me to several ridiculous and troublesome accidents; some of which I
shall venture to relate. Glumdalclitch often carried me into the gardens of the
court in my smaller box, and would sometimes take me out of it, and hold me in
her hand, or set me down to walk. I remember, before the dwarf left the queen,
he followed us one day into those gardens, and my nurse having set me down,
he and I being close together, near some dwarf apple trees, I must needs show
my wit, by a silly allusion between him and the trees, which happens to hold in
their language as it does in ours. Whereupon, the malicious rogue, watching his
opportunity, when I was walking under one of them, shook it directly over my
head, by which a dozen apples, each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel,
came tumbling about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to
stoop, and knocked me down flat on my face; but I received no other hurt, and
the dwarf was pardoned at my desire, because I had given the provocation.
Another day, Glumdalclitch left me on a smooth grass-plot to divert myself,
while she walked at some distance with her governess. In the meantime, there
suddenly fell such a violent shower of hail, that I was immediately by the force
Thesaurus
allusion: (n) innuendo, reference, cue, ANTONYMS: (v) ignore, criticize. incentive, defiance. ANTONYMS: (n)
suggestion, mention, intimation, malicious: (adj) evil, vicious, conciliation, arbitration, deterrent,
pointer, insinuation, implication, venomous, spiteful, unkind, cruel, disincentive, pleasure.
indication, clue. poisonous, mean, mischievous, stoop: (v) crouch, bend, deign,
dwarf: (adj, n) midget, miniature; (n) pernicious, nasty. ANTONYMS: (adj) condescend, descend, squat, couch,
gnome, fairy, brownie, manikin, kind, harmless, kindhearted, loving, cringe, lean, lower oneself; (n) porch.
pygmy; (v) overshadow; (adj) little, unmalicious, compassionate, good, ANTONYM: (v) straighten.
runt, baby. ANTONYMS: (adj) large, merciful, pleasant, provoked. tumbling: (adj) falling, billowing,
big, huge; (v) maximize. provocation: (n) challenge, dropping, rolled; (adj, adv) plunging;
hail: (v) address, cry, acclaim, aggravation, exasperation, (n) gymnastics, acrobatics, stunting,
applaud, summon, accost, fall, cheer, incitement, instigation, annoyance, stunt flying, rumbling; (adv)
salute; (n, v) call; (n) greeting. excitement, stimulation, affront, headfirst.
of it, struck to the ground: and when I was down, the hailstones gave me such
cruel bangs all over the body, as if I had been pelted with tennis-balls; however, I
made a shift to creep on all fours, and shelter myself, by lying flat on my face, on
the lee-side of a border of lemon-thyme, but so bruised from head to foot, that I
could not go abroad in ten days. Neither is this at all to be wondered at, because
nature, in that country, observing the same proportion through all her
operations, a hailstone is near eighteen hundred times as large as one in Europe;
which I can assert upon experience, having been so curious as to weigh and
measure them.%
But a more dangerous accident happened to me in the same garden, when
my little nurse, believing she had put me in a secure place (which I often
entreated her to do, that I might enjoy my own thoughts,) and having left my box
at home, to avoid the trouble of carrying it, went to another part of the garden
with her governess and some ladies of her acquaintance. While she was absent,
and out of hearing, a small white spaniel that belonged to one of the chief
gardeners, having got by accident into the garden, happened to range near the
place where I lay: the dog, following the scent, came directly up, and taking me
in his mouth, ran straight to his master wagging his tail, and set me gently on the
ground. By good fortune he had been so well taught, that I was carried between
his teeth without the least hurt, or even tearing my clothes. But the poor
gardener, who knew me well, and had a great kindness for me, was in a terrible
fright: he gently took me up in both his hands, and asked me how I did? but I
was so amazed and out of breath, that I could not speak a word. In a few minutes
I came to myself, and he carried me safe to my little nurse, who, by this time, had
returned to the place where she left me, and was in cruel agonies when I did not
appear, nor answer when she called. She severely reprimanded the gardener on
account of his dog. But the thing was hushed up, and never known at court, for
the girl was afraid of the queen’s anger; and truly, as to myself, I thought it
would not be for my reputation, that such a story should go about.
This accident absolutely determined Glumdalclitch never to trust me abroad
for the future out of her sight. I had been long afraid of this resolution, and
Thesaurus
bruised: (adj) wounded, hurt, raw, hailstones: (n) sleet, frozen rain. clumber, bootlicker, springer,
sore, livid, tender, sensitive, rotten, hushed: (adj) calm, silent, still, groveller, gun dog, groveler; (v) snob,
surbet, sore to the touch, painful. subdued, placid, muffled, noiseless, lapdog.
fright: (n, v) dismay, alarm, scare, soft, soundless, tranquil, gentle. tearing: (adj) fierce, violent, vehement,
affright; (n) awe, fear, dread, terror, ANTONYM: (adj) noisy. furious, ripping, ferocious; (n)
horror, consternation, apprehension. observing: (adj) observant, mindful, lachrymation, lacrimation, riving
ANTONYMS: (n) calm, fearlessness, watchful, commemorative, conscious, ahead, tear, lancination.
courage, confidence, security. observative, perceptive, thoughtful; weigh: (v) press, study, measure,
gardener: (n) horticulturist, farmer, (n) investigation. matter, consider, count, deliberate,
florist, employee, hedger, reprimanded: (adj) reproved, contemplate, assess; (n, v) balance,
husbandman, transplanter. admonished, chastened. poise. ANTONYMS: (v) ignore,
hailstone: (adj) hail, ice, stone. spaniel: (n) sycophant, beagle, harrier, neglect.
Jonathan Swift 117
therefore concealed from her some little unlucky adventures, that happened in
those times when I was left by myself. Once a kite, hovering over the garden,
made a stoop at me, and if I had not resolutely drawn my hanger, and run under
a thick espalier, he would have certainly carried me away in his talons. Another
time, walking to the top of a fresh mole-hill, I fell to my neck in the hole, through
which that animal had cast up the earth, and coined some lie, not worth
remembering, to excuse myself for spoiling my clothes. I likewise broke my right
shin against the shell of a snail, which I happened to stumble over, as I was
walking alone and thinking on poor England.%
I cannot tell whether I were more pleased or mortified to observe, in those
solitary walks, that the smaller birds did not appear to be at all afraid of me, but
would hop about within a yard’s distance, looking for worms and other food,
with as much indifference and security as if no creature at all were near them. I
remember, a thrush had the confidence to snatch out of my hand, with his bill, a
of cake that Glumdalclitch had just given me for my breakfast. When I attempted
to catch any of these birds, they would boldly turn against me, endeavouring to
peck my fingers, which I durst not venture within their reach; and then they
would hop back unconcerned, to hunt for worms or snails, as they did before.
But one day, I took a thick cudgel, and threw it with all my strength so luckily, at
a linnet, that I knocked him down, and seizing him by the neck with both my
hands, ran with him in triumph to my nurse. However, the bird, who had only
been stunned, recovering himself gave me so many boxes with his wings, on
both sides of my head and body, though I held him at arm’s-length, and was out
of the reach of his claws, that I was twenty times thinking to let him go. But I was
soon relieved by one of our servants, who wrung off the bird’s neck, and I had
him next day for dinner, by the queen’s command. This linnet, as near as I can
remember, seemed to be somewhat larger than an English swan.
The maids of honour often invited Glumdalclitch to their apartments, and
desired she would bring me along with her, on purpose to have the pleasure of
seeing and touching me. They would often strip me naked from top to toe, and
lay me at full length in their bosoms; wherewith I was much disgusted because,
Thesaurus
cudgel: (n) bludgeon, truncheon, stick, tibia, shinbone, leg, alphabetic rumped thrush, candidiasis,
staff, switch, mace, baton; (v) beat, character, body part. blackbird, bluethroat, fieldfare, merl,
bat, hit, drub. snail: (v) sluggard, loiterer, lingerer, moniliasis, ousel, philomel.
espalier: (n) trellis tree, trellis, pull together; (n) conch, hodmandod, unconcerned: (adj) apathetic,
treillage. gastropod, garden snail, edible snail, detached, insouciant, casual, careless,
linnet: (n) Carduelis cannabina, house dodman; (adj) whelked. nonchalant, thoughtless, easygoing,
finch, lintwhite, finch. spoiling: (n) spoilage, spoilation, listless, carefree; (adj, n) cold.
peck: (n, v) nibble; (v) beak, pick, kiss, despoliation, deterioration, ANTONYMS: (adj) caring, eager,
pick up; (n) pile, plenty, mass, slew, detriment, erosion, indulgence, troubled, sensitive, uptight, craving,
lot, mint. injury; (v) withering; (adj) easy, involved, energetic, interested,
shin: (v) clamber, shinny, make lenient. annoyed, strict.
unintelligible, abrade, bark, beat; (n) thrush: (n) mavis, ouzel, White- wings: (n) insignia, agency.
to say the truth, a very offensive smell came from their skins; which I do not
mention, or intend, to the disadvantage of those excellent ladies, for whom I
have all manner of respect; but I conceive that my sense was more acute in
proportion to my littleness, and that those illustrious persons were no more
disagreeable to their lovers, or to each other, than people of the same quality are
with us in England. And, after all, I found their natural smell was much more
supportable, than when they used perfumes, under which I immediately
swooned away. I cannot forget, that an intimate friend of mine in Lilliput, took
the freedom in a warm day, when I had used a good deal of exercise, to complain
of a strong smell about me, although I am as little faulty that way, as most of my
sex: but I suppose his faculty of smelling was as nice with regard to me, as mine
was to that of this people. Upon this point, I cannot forbear doing justice to the
queen my mistress, and Glumdalclitch my nurse, whose persons were as sweet
as those of any lady in England.%
That which gave me most uneasiness among these maids of honour (when
my nurse carried me to visit then) was, to see them use me without any manner
of ceremony, like a creature who had no sort of consequence: for they would
strip themselves to the skin, and put on their smocks in my presence, while I was
placed on their toilet, directly before their naked bodies, which I am sure to me
was very far from being a tempting sight, or from giving me any other emotions
than those of horror and disgust: their skins appeared so coarse and uneven, so
variously coloured, when I saw them near, with a mole here and there as broad
as a trencher, and hairs hanging from it thicker than packthreads, to say nothing
farther concerning the rest of their persons. Neither did they at all scruple, while
I was by, to discharge what they had drank, to the quantity of at least two
hogsheads, in a vessel that held above three tuns. The handsomest among these
maids of honour, a pleasant, frolicsome girl of sixteen, would sometimes set me
astride upon one of her nipples, with many other tricks, wherein the reader will
excuse me for not being over particular. But I was so much displeased, that I
entreated Glumdalclitch to contrive some excuse for not seeing that young lady
any more.
Thesaurus
disagreeable: (adj) nasty, offensive, illustrious: (adj, n) glorious, supportable: (adj) bearable, tolerable,
uncomfortable, distasteful, celebrated, excellent, grand; (adj) sufferable, livable, acceptable,
cantankerous, cross, ungrateful, famous, bright, eminent, famed, confirmable, manageable,
abhorrent, horrible, bad, painful. distinguished, brilliant, well-known. demonstrable, provable, portable,
ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, friendly, ANTONYMS: (adj) unknown, easily transported. ANTONYMS:
amiable, inoffensive, acceptable, obscure, ordinary, undistinguished, (adj) moot, intolerable.
desirable, easygoing, happy, lowly. variously: (adv) differently,
pleasing, sweet, nice. scruple: (adj, v) hesitate, demur, pause; multifariously, sundrily, variedly,
frolicsome: (adj) frisky, frolic, (n) hesitation, qualm, misgiving, severally, assortedly, dissimilarly,
waggish, coltish, gay, rollicking, distrust, objection; (n, v) mistrust; (v) numerously, versatilely, diversly,
frolicky, jocose, airy, lively, jocular. falter, question. variegatedly.
ANTONYMS: (adj) serious, lethargic. sixteen: (n) large integer.
Jonathan Swift 119
One day, a young gentleman, who was nephew to my nurse’s governess,

came and pressed them both to see an execution. It was of a man, who had
murdered one of that gentleman’s intimate acquaintance. Glumdalclitch was
prevailed on to be of the company, very much against her inclination, for she
was naturally tender-hearted: and, as for myself, although I abhorred such kind
of spectacles, yet my curiosity tempted me to see something that I thought must
be extraordinary. The malefactor was fixed in a chair upon a scaffold erected for
that purpose, and his head cut off at one blow, with a sword of about forty feet
long. The veins and arteries spouted up such a prodigious quantity of blood, and
so high in the air, that the great jet d’eau at Versailles was not equal to it for the
time it lasted: and the head, when it fell on the scaffold floor, gave such a bounce
as made me start, although I was at least half an English mile distant.%
The queen, who often used to hear me talk of my sea-voyages, and took all
occasions to divert me when I was melancholy, asked me whether I understood
how to handle a sail or an oar, and whether a little exercise of rowing might not
be convenient for my health? I answered, that I understood both very well: for
although my proper employment had been to be surgeon or doctor to the ship,
yet often, upon a pinch, I was forced to work like a common mariner. But I could
not see how this could be done in their country, where the smallest wherry was
equal to a first-rate man of war among us; and such a boat as I could manage
would never live in any of their rivers. Her majesty said, if I would contrive a
boat, her own joiner should make it, and she would provide a place for me to
sail in. The fellow was an ingenious workman, and by my instructions, in ten
days, finished a pleasure-boat with all its tackling, able conveniently to hold
eight Europeans. When it was finished, the queen was so delighted, that she ran
with it in her lap to the king, who ordered it to be put into a cistern full of water,
with me in it, by way of trial, where I could not manage my two sculls, or little
oars, for want of room. But the queen had before contrived another project. She
ordered the joiner to make a wooden trough of three hundred feet long, fifty
broad, and eight deep; which, being well pitched, to prevent leaking, was placed
on the floor, along the wall, in an outer room of the palace. It had a cock near the
bottom to let out the water, when it began to grow stale; and two servants could
Thesaurus
abhorred: (adj) disgusted, unpopular. convoy joiner. stand, transom, summer, trave,
arteries: (adj) arterial. leaking: (n) leak, leakage; (adj) Travis, stage.
cistern: (n) water tank, sump, storage unseaworthy, blabbermouthed. tender-hearted: (adj) kind, merciful,
tank, reservoir, container, cesspool, malefactor: (adj, n) felon, culprit, benevolent, kind-hearted, soft,
sac, pond, pool, sink, cesspit. convict; (n) crook, delinquent, tender.
first-rate: (adj) excellent, stunning, outlaw, hood, hoodlum, evildoer, trough: (n) chute, channel, manger,
capital, posh, tiptop, dandy, ace, lawbreaker, miscreant. depression, gutter, conduit, ditch,
superior, classic, fine, clinking. mariner: (n) sailor, gob, seafarer, tar, canal, crib, valley, bowl. ANTONYM:
forty: (adj, n) XL; (n) two score, forties; warrener, bosun, bargee, bargeman, (n) ridge.
(adj) twoscore. boatswain, lighterman, sea dog. wherry: (n) gig, shallop, scow, Norfolk
joiner: (n) cabinetmaker, woodworker, scaffold: (n) frame, scaffolding, wherry, skiff, dingy, cockleshell,
member, associate, cabinet maker, framework, foundation, gallows, rowboat, coble; (v) ferryboat, ferry.
easily fill it in half an hour. Here I often used to row for my own diversion, as
well as that of the queen and her ladies, who thought themselves well
entertained with my skill and agility. Sometimes I would put up my sail, and
then my business was only to steer, while the ladies gave me a gale with their
fans; and, when they were weary, some of their pages would blow my sail
forward with their breath, while I showed my art by steering starboard or
larboard as I pleased. When I had done, Glumdalclitch always carried back my
boat into her closet, and hung it on a nail to dry.%
In this exercise I once met an accident, which had like to have cost me my life;
for, one of the pages having put my boat into the trough, the governess who
attended Glumdalclitch very officiously lifted me up, to place me in the boat:
but I happened to slip through her fingers, and should infallibly have fallen
down forty feet upon the floor, if, by the luckiest chance in the world, I had not
been stopped by a corking-pin that stuck in the good gentlewoman’s stomacher;
the head of the pin passing between my shirt and the waistband of my breeches,
and thus I was held by the middle in the air, till Glumdalclitch ran to my relief.
Another time, one of the servants, whose office it was to fill my trough every
third day with fresh water, was so careless as to let a huge frog (not perceiving it)
slip out of his pail. The frog lay concealed till I was put into my boat, but then,
seeing a resting-place, climbed up, and made it lean so much on one side, that I
was forced to balance it with all my weight on the other, to prevent overturning.
When the frog was got in, it hopped at once half the length of the boat, and then
over my head, backward and forward, daubing my face and clothes with its
odious slime. The largeness of its features made it appear the most deformed
animal that can be conceived. However, I desired Glumdalclitch to let me deal
with it alone. I banged it a good while with one of my sculls, and at last forced it
to leap out of the boat.
But the greatest danger I ever underwent in that kingdom, was from a
monkey, who belonged to one of the clerks of the kitchen. Glumdalclitch had
locked me up in her closet, while she went somewhere upon business, or a visit.
The weather being very warm, the closet-window was left open, as well as the
Thesaurus
closet: (n) cupboard, cubicle, cell, odious: (adj, v) hateful, obnoxious; abolition.
latrine, bathroom, wardrobe, water (adj) detestable, hideous, nasty, pail: (n) bucketful, jug, tub, pailful,
closet; (adj) clandestine, confidential, execrable, disgusting, abhorrent, cannikin, pails, skeel, tankard, pot,
secret, private. ANTONYM: (adj) abominable, heinous, forbidding. pipkin, vessel.
open. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, slime: (adj) mud, silt; (n) mucus, ooze,
daubing: (n) coating, application, delightful, agreeable, lovable, nice. phlegm, gook, muck, gunk, goo, filth;
daubry, dubbing, pargeting, officiously: (adv) meddlesomely, (adj, n) sludge.
covering. overbearingly, busily, impertinently, stomacher: (n) garment, package,
larboard: (adj) left; (n) sinister, meddlingly, bossily, intrusively, hang, truss, bundle.
embrasure, interface, nearside. obtrusively, imperiously, rudely, waistband: (n) belt, cummerbund,
lifted: (adj) raised, elevated, lift, lofty, dictatorially. band, cincture, sash, waistcloth,
upraised, steep. overturning: (n) reverse, about-face, stays, panty girdle, corset.
Jonathan Swift 121
windows %and the door of my bigger box, in which I usually lived, because of its
largeness and conveniency. As I sat quietly meditating at my table, I heard
something bounce in at the closet-window, and skip about from one side to the
other: whereat, although I was much alarmed, yet I ventured to look out, but not
stirring from my seat; and then I saw this frolicsome animal frisking and leaping
up and down, till at last he came to my box, which he seemed to view with great
pleasure and curiosity, peeping in at the door and every window. I retreated to
the farther corner of my room; or box; but the monkey looking in at every side,
put me in such a fright, that I wanted presence of mind to conceal myself under
the bed, as I might easily have done. After some time spent in peeping, grinning,
and chattering, he at last espied me; and reaching one of his paws in at the door,
as a cat does when she plays with a mouse, although I often shifted place to
avoid him, he at length seized the lappet of my coat (which being made of that
country silk, was very thick and strong), and dragged me out. He took me up in
his right fore-foot and held me as a nurse does a child she is going to suckle, just
as I have seen the same sort of creature do with a kitten in Europe; and when I
offered to struggle he squeezed me so hard, that I thought it more prudent to
submit. I have good reason to believe, that he took me for a young one of his own
species, by his often stroking my face very gently with his other paw. In these
diversions he was interrupted by a noise at the closet door, as if somebody were
opening it: whereupon he suddenly leaped up to the window at which he had
come in, and thence upon the leads and gutters, walking upon three legs, and
holding me in the fourth, till he clambered up to a roof that was next to ours. I
heard Glumdalclitch give a shriek at the moment he was carrying me out. The
poor girl was almost distracted: that quarter of the palace was all in an uproar;
the servants ran for ladders; the monkey was seen by hundreds in the court,
sitting upon the ridge of a building, holding me like a baby in one of his
forepaws, and feeding me with the other, by cramming into my mouth some
victuals he had squeezed out of the bag on one side of his chaps, and patting me
when I would not eat; whereat many of the rabble below could not forbear
laughing; neither do I think they justly ought to be blamed, for, without question,
the sight was ridiculous enough to every body but myself. Some of the people
Thesaurus
chaps: (n) chops, fauces, crack. searching. howl, yell, yowl, screak; (v) bellow,
chattering: (n) chatter, cackle, yak, grinning: (n) grin, smile, facial caterwaul, shrill. ANTONYM: (v)
grabbing, claver; (adj) talkative, expression, facial gesture, smiling; sigh.
loquacious, noisy, gabby, garrulous; (adj) beaming. suckle: (v) lactate, suck, breastfeed,
(v) natter. kitten: (n) cat, foal, kitty, colt, foetus; foster, give suck, raise, nourish,
distracted: (adj) demented, inattentive, (v) teem, flower, fructify, bear fruit, draw, harbour; (n) nurture, dry
abstracted, crazy, frenzied, farrow, EAN. nurse.
distraught, preoccupied, distressed, meditating: (n) conception. uproar: (adj, n, v) hubbub, disturbance,
confused; (adj, v) mad, disconcerted. peeping: (n) cheeping, tweeting, tumult; (n) din, noise, turmoil,
ANTONYMS: (adj) attentive, alert, chirping; (adj) inquisitive. commotion, disorder, confusion; (adj,
assured, calm, mellow. retreated: (adj) withdrawn, people. n) row; (n, v) brawl. ANTONYMS: (n)
frisking: (n) search, hunt, hunting, shriek: (n, v) screech, cry, shout, call, calm, peace, serenity, order.
threw up stones, hoping to drive the monkey down; but this was strictly
forbidden, or else, very probably, my brains had been dashed out.%
The ladders were now applied, and mounted by several men; which the
monkey observing, and finding himself almost encompassed, not being able to
make speed enough with his three legs, let me drop on a ridge tile, and made his
escape. Here I sat for some time, five hundred yards from the ground, expecting
every moment to be blown down by the wind, or to fall by my own giddiness,
and come tumbling over and over from the ridge to the eaves; but an honest lad,
one of my nurse’s footmen, climbed up, and putting me into his breeches pocket,
brought me down safe.
I was almost choked with the filthy stuff the monkey had crammed down my
throat: but my dear little nurse picked it out of my mouth with a small needle,
and then I fell a-vomiting, which gave me great relief. Yet I was so weak and
bruised in the sides with the squeezes given me by this odious animal, that I was
forced to keep my bed a fortnight. The king, queen, and all the court, sent every
day to inquire after my health; and her majesty made me several visits during
my sickness. The monkey was killed, and an order made, that no such animal
should be kept about the palace.
When I attended the king after my recovery, to return him thanks for his
favours, he was pleased to rally me a good deal upon this adventure. He asked
me, “what my thoughts and speculations were, while I lay in the monkey’s paw;
how I liked the victuals he gave me; his manner of feeding; and whether the
fresh air on the roof had sharpened my stomach.” He desired to know, “what I
would have done upon such an occasion in my own country.” I told his majesty,
“that in Europe we had no monkeys, except such as were brought for curiosity
from other places, and so small, that I could deal with a dozen of them together,
if they presumed to attack me. And as for that monstrous animal with whom I
was so lately engaged (it was indeed as large as an elephant), if my fears had
suffered me to think so far as to make use of my hanger,” (looking fiercely, and
clapping my hand on the hilt, as I spoke) “when he poked his paw into my
chamber, perhaps I should have given him such a wound, as would have made
Thesaurus
choked: (adj) clogged, smothered, fortnight: (n) two weeks, period, hominids, suborder Anthropoidea.
congested, annoyed, high-strung, amount of time. monstrous: (adj) huge, atrocious,
strained, neurotic, tense, angry, giddiness: (n) flightiness, frivolity, heinous, monster, immense, gigantic,
anxious, insecure. vertigo, silliness, frivolousness, grievous, ugly, flagitious, dreadful;
clapping: (n) clap, acclaim, hand, levity, lightness, capriciousness, (adj, v) grotesque. ANTONYMS: (adj)
clapping of hands, cheering, rashness, symptom, swimming. tiny, minute, beautiful, good, small,
handclap, ovation, slapping, plaudit, ANTONYMS: (n) seriousness, lovely, attractive.
round, approval. reliability. sharpened: (adj) acute, pointed,
crammed: (adj) packed, full, hilt: (n) knob, grip, handgrip, haft, acuate, sharper, better, sensual.
overcrowded, chock-full, stuffed, helm, gripe, tiller, treadle, key, tile: (n) roof, thatch, bonnet, pantile,
jammed, brimming, congested, trigger, butt. castor, ceiling, roofing tile, wimple,
overflowing, saturated, teeming. monkeys: (n) Anthropoidea, tiling, paving stone; (v) cover.
Jonathan Swift 123
him glad to withdraw it with more haste than he put it in.” This I delivered in a
firm tone, like a person who was jealous lest his courage should be called in
question. However, my speech produced nothing else beside a laud laughter,
which all the respect due to his majesty from those about him could not make
them contain. This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to
endeavour to do himself honour among those who are out of all degree of
equality or comparison with him. And yet I have seen the moral of my own
behaviour very frequent in England since my return; where a little contemptible
varlet, without the least title to birth, person, wit, or common sense, shall
presume to look with importance, and put himself upon a foot with the greatest
persons of the kingdom.%
I was every day furnishing the court with some ridiculous story: and
Glumdalclitch, although she loved me to excess, yet was arch enough to inform
the queen, whenever I committed any folly that she thought would be diverting
to her majesty. The girl, who had been out of order, was carried by her governess
to take the air about an hour’s distance, or thirty miles from town. They alighted
out of the coach near a small foot-path in a field, and Glumdalclitch setting down
my travelling box, I went out of it to walk. There was a cow-dung in the path,
and I must need try my activity by attempting to leap over it. I took a run, but
unfortunately jumped short, and found myself just in the middle up to my knees.
I waded through with some difficulty, and one of the footmen wiped me as clean
as he could with his handkerchief, for I was filthily bemired; and my nurse
confined me to my box, till we returned home; where the queen was soon
informed of what had passed, and the footmen spread it about the court: so that
all the mirth for some days was at my expense.
Thesaurus
filthily: (adv) dirtily, uncleanly, patience, forethought, caution. vain: (adj) proud, arrogant, conceited,
nastily, sordidly, dingily, impurely, laud: (v) extol, glorify, eulogize, fruitless, idle, empty, abortive,
obscenely, grubbily, squalidly, acclaim, praise, bless, celebrate, ineffectual, unproductive,
smuttily; (adv, v) foully. eulogy, applaud, exalt; (n, v) narcissistic; (adj, v) useless.
furnishing: (n) provision, fixture, compliment. ANTONYMS: (v) ANTONYMS: (adj) shy, successful,
fitting, installation, equipment, condemn, denigrate, disparage. possible, persuasive, selfless, fruitful,
trimming, device, interior decoration, miles: (adj) far. humble, useful, responsible,
contents; (v) provide, furnish. presume: (v) dare, consider, believe, worthwhile, effective.
haste: (n, v) hurry, dash, dispatch, think, infer, guess, expect, esteem, varlet: (n) rascal, knave, page,
rush; (n) celerity, expedition, conclude, suppose, conjecture. attendant, scoundrel, mean wretch,
rapidity, speed, bustle, hastiness, ANTONYMS: (v) appreciate, despair, cullion, scalawag, scallywag,
quickness. ANTONYMS: (n) delay, speculate. rapscallion, scamp.
Jonathan Swift 125
CHAPTER %VI
[Several contrivances of the author to please the king and queen. He shows
his skill in music. The king inquires into the state of England, which the author
relates to him. The king’s observations thereon.]
I used to attend the king’s levee once or twice a week, and had often seen
him under the barber’s hand, which indeed was at first very terrible to behold;
for the razor was almost twice as long as an ordinary scythe. His majesty,
according to the custom of the country, was only shaved twice a-week. I once
prevailed on the barber to give me some of the suds or lather, out of which I
picked forty or fifty of the strongest stumps of hair. I then took a piece of fine
wood, and cut it like the back of a comb, making several holes in it at equal
distances with as small a needle as I could get from Glumdalclitch. I fixed in the
stumps so artificially, scraping and sloping them with my knife toward the
points, that I made a very tolerable comb; which was a seasonable supply, my
own being so much broken in the teeth, that it was almost useless: neither did I
know any artist in that country so nice and exact, as would undertake to make
me another.
And this puts me in mind of an amusement, wherein I spent many of my
leisure hours. I desired the queen’s woman to save for me the combings of her
majesty’s hair, whereof in time I got a good quantity; and consulting with my
Thesaurus
lather: (n, v) froth, bubble; (v) lash, appropriate; (adj, v) convenient; (adj, horizontal, upright.
flog, trounce, whip, soap, welt; (n) adv) early; (n) fit adapted, in loco, a suds: (n, v) foam, froth, spume; (n)
head, flap, spume. propos. ANTONYMS: (adj) untimely, lather, soapsuds, bubbles, head, beer,
levee: (n) dike, dam, dyke, unseasonable. bubble, lager, surf.
embankment, weir, dock, reunion, shaved: (adj) shave, lacking hair, tolerable: (adj) passable, mediocre,
jetty, wall; (adj, n) reception; (adj) hairless, beardless, shiny on top, bearable, fair, middling, reasonable,
entertainment. bald, smooth on top, whiskerless. adequate, respectable, endurable,
scraping: (n) scrape, scratching, ANTONYM: (adj) unshaven. sufferable; (adj, v) satisfactory.
scratch, rub, sizing, rament, incision, sloping: (adj, v) oblique, slope; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) intolerable,
mark, prick; (v) rubbing; (adj) grating. slanting, inclined, slanted, diagonal, exceptional, unbearable,
seasonable: (adj) timely, fit, well leaning, sloped; (adj, adv) aslope, unsatisfactory, bad, inadequate,
timed, favorable, timeful; (adj, n, v) aslant; (v) slant. ANTONYMS: (adj) appalling, inadmissible.
friend the cabinet-maker, who had received general orders to do little jobs for me,
I directed him to make two chair-frames, no larger than those I had in my box,
and to bore little holes with a fine awl, round those parts where I designed the
backs and seats; through these holes I wove the strongest hairs I could pick out,
just after the manner of cane chairs in England. When they were finished, I made
a present of them to her majesty; who kept them in her cabinet, and used to show
them for curiosities, as indeed they were the wonder of every one that beheld
them. The queen would have me sit upon one of these chairs, but I absolutely
refused to obey her, protesting I would rather die than place a dishonourable
part of my body on those precious hairs, that once adorned her majesty’s head.
Of these hairs (as I had always a mechanical genius) I likewise made a neat little
purse, about five feet long, with her majesty’s name deciphered in gold letters,
which I gave to Glumdalclitch, by the queen’s consent. To say the truth, it was
more for show than use, being not of strength to bear the weight of the larger
coins, and therefore she kept nothing in it but some little toys that girls are fond
of.%
The king, who delighted in music, had frequent concerts at court, to which I
was sometimes carried, and set in my box on a table to hear them: but the noise
was so great that I could hardly distinguish the tunes. I am confident that all the
drums and trumpets of a royal army, beating and sounding together just at your
ears, could not equal it. My practice was to have my box removed from the place
where the performers sat, as far as I could, then to shut the doors and windows
of it, and draw the window curtains; after which I found their music not
disagreeable.
I had learned in my youth to play a little upon the spinet. Glumdalclitch kept
one in her chamber, and a master attended twice a-week to teach her: I called it a
spinet, because it somewhat resembled that instrument, and was played upon in
the same manner. A fancy came into my head, that I would entertain the king
and queen with an English tune upon this instrument. But this appeared
extremely difficult: for the spinet was near sixty feet long, each key being almost
a foot wide, so that with my arms extended I could not reach to above five keys,
Thesaurus
coins: (v) coinage; (n) hard cash, disregard, ignore, banish, forget, tire, protesting: (adj) disinclined, opposed;
money, loose change, small change, displease. (n) clamor.
legal tender, ready money. genius: (adj, n) capacity, ability, sounding: (n) investigation, depth,
dishonourable: (adj) base, disgraceful, endowment, faculty, gift, cleverness; exploration, test; (adj) resounding,
shabby, dishonest, sordid, (n) flair, brain, prodigy, bent, resonant, looking, audible, sonant,
discreditable, ignoble, shameful, aptitude. ANTONYM: (n) amateur. voiceful, hollow.
crooked, opprobrious, black. obey: (v) comply, listen, keep, fulfill, spinet: (n) clavier, upright, vielle,
drums: (n) drumming. hear, conform, abide by, serve, virginals, Holt, Hurst, park, pianino,
entertain: (v) amuse, delight, bear, comply with; (n, v) mind, heed. thicket, weald, tope.
cherish, beguile, admit, ANTONYMS: (v) disobey, defy, trumpets: (n) Sarracenia flava, yellow
accommodate, harbor, hold, distract; break, transgress, infringe, challenge, pitcher plant, pitcher plant, yellow
(n, v) interest. ANTONYMS: (v) deny. trumpet.
Jonathan Swift 127
and to press them down required a good smart stroke with my fist, which would
be too great a labour, and to no purpose. The method I contrived was this: I
prepared two round sticks, about the bigness of common cudgels; they were
thicker at one end than the other, and I covered the thicker ends with pieces of a
mouse’s skin, that by rapping on them I might neither damage the tops of the
keys nor interrupt the sound. Before the spinet a bench was placed, about four
feet below the keys, and I was put upon the bench. I ran sideling upon it, that
way and this, as fast as I could, banging the proper keys with my two sticks, and
made a shift to play a jig, to the great satisfaction of both their majesties; but it
was the most violent exercise I ever underwent; and yet I could not strike above
sixteen keys, nor consequently play the bass and treble together, as other artists
do; which was a great disadvantage to my performance.%
The king, who, as I before observed, was a prince of excellent understanding,
would frequently order that I should be brought in my box, and set upon the
table in his closet: he would then command me to bring one of my chairs out of
the box, and sit down within three yards distance upon the top of the cabinet,
which brought me almost to a level with his face. In this manner I had several
conversations with him. I one day took the freedom to tell his majesty, “that the
contempt he discovered towards Europe, and the rest of the world, did not seem
answerable to those excellent qualities of mind that he was master of; that reason
did not extend itself with the bulk of the body; on the contrary, we observed in
our country, that the tallest persons were usually the least provided with it; that
among other animals, bees and ants had the reputation of more industry, art,
and sagacity, than many of the larger kinds; and that, as inconsiderable as he
took me to be, I hoped I might live to do his majesty some signal service.” The
king heard me with attention, and began to conceive a much better opinion of me
than he had ever before. He desired “I would give him as exact an account of the
government of England as I possibly could; because, as fond as princes
commonly are of their own customs (for so he conjectured of other monarchs, by
my former discourses), he should be glad to hear of any thing that might deserve
imitation.”
Thesaurus
ants: (n) family Formicidae, fist, feist, manus, grip, index; (v) sideling: (adj) steep; (adv) obliquely.
Formicidae, hymenoptera, finger, paw, neif, neaf. sticks: (n) backwoods, firewood,
impatience, order hymenoptera, interrupt: (v) disturb, break, hinder, frontier, outskirts, suburb, town,
restlessness, tension. intermit, stop, cut, break in, arrest, wilderness, brushwood, high sticks;
banging: (n) battering, flap; (adj) check; (n, v) suspend; (adj, v) pause. (adj) distant.
humongous, noisy. ANTONYMS: (v) cheer, respect, tops: (n) apex, pinnacle, pick; (adj)
bees: (n) Apoidea, superfamily restore. champion, elite, fabulous, leading,
Apoidea. sagacity: (n, v) discernment, judgment, outstanding, uppermost, superb,
deserve: (v) rate, warrant, gain, earn, penetration; (n) judiciousness, sense, superlative.
to deserve, demand, justify, bear; (n, prudence, gumption, acumen, treble: (adj) threefold, ternary, triplex,
v) reward; (n) richly deserve, worth. perspicacity; (adj, n) discretion, thribble, double, dual, high, voce di
fist: (n, v) hand; (n) duke, clenched wisdom. ANTONYM: (n) foolishness. testa, shrill; (adj, v) triple; (v) sing.
Imagine with thyself, courteous reader, how often I then wished for the
tongue of Demosthenes or Cicero, that might have enabled me to celebrate the
praise of my own dear native country in a style equal to its merits and felicity.%
I began my discourse by informing his majesty, that our dominions consisted
of two islands, which composed three mighty kingdoms, under one sovereign,
beside our plantations in America. I dwelt long upon the fertility of our soil, and
the temperature of our climate. I then spoke at large upon the constitution of an
English parliament; partly made up of an illustrious body called the House of
Peers; persons of the noblest blood, and of the most ancient and ample
patrimonies. I described that extraordinary care always taken of their education
in arts and arms, to qualify them for being counsellors both to the king and
kingdom; to have a share in the legislature; to be members of the highest court of
judicature, whence there can be no appeal; and to be champions always ready for
the defence of their prince and country, by their valour, conduct, and fidelity.
That these were the ornament and bulwark of the kingdom, worthy followers of
their most renowned ancestors, whose honour had been the reward of their
virtue, from which their posterity were never once known to degenerate. To
these were joined several holy persons, as part of that assembly, under the title of
bishops, whose peculiar business is to take care of religion, and of those who
instruct the people therein. These were searched and sought out through the
whole nation, by the prince and his wisest counsellors, among such of the
priesthood as were most deservedly distinguished by the sanctity of their lives,
and the depth of their erudition; who were indeed the spiritual fathers of the
clergy and the people.
That the other part of the parliament consisted of an assembly called the
House of Commons, who were all principal gentlemen, freely picked and culled
out by the people themselves, for their great abilities and love of their country, to
represent the wisdom of the whole nation. And that these two bodies made up
the most august assembly in Europe; to whom, in conjunction with the prince,
the whole legislature is committed.
I then descended to the courts of justice; over which the judges, those
Thesaurus
bulwark: (n, v) shield, safeguard, flourish, recuperate, uplift, upgrade. presentation, introduction; (v)
guard; (n) rampart, wall, barrier, deservedly: (adv) justly, condignly, inform; (adj) intelligencing, giving
breakwater, bastion, defense, worthily, rightfully, rightly, right, information.
battlement, buffer. ANTONYM: (n) justifiably, by merit, correctly, fairly, priesthood: (n) ministry, apostleship,
weakness. becomingly. clericals, profession, the desk, the
culled: (adj) preferred, assorted. erudition: (n) education, scholarship, cloth, church government, clerical,
degenerate: (adj) corrupt, debauched, letters, edification, reading, community, hierarch, presbytery.
depraved, dissolute; (v) decay, learnedness, culture, lore, sanctity: (n) sanctitude, godliness,
degrade, relapse, decline, drop, rot; eruditeness; (n, v) knowledge; (adj, n) sacredness, devotion, piety,
(adj, n) profligate. ANTONYMS: (adj) wisdom. ANTONYM: (n) simplicity. saintliness, purity, halidom,
upright, honorable, moral, healthy, informing: (n) briefing, disclosure, sanctimony, religion, innocence.
virtuous, regenerate; (v) develop, apprisal, warning, revelation, ratting, ANTONYM: (n) unholiness.
Jonathan Swift 129
venerable sages and interpreters of the law, presided, for determining the
disputed rights and properties of men, as well as for the punishment of vice and
protection of innocence. I mentioned the prudent management of our treasury;
the valour and achievements of our forces, by sea and land. I computed the
number of our people, by reckoning how many millions there might be of each
religious sect, or political party among us. I did not omit even our sports and
pastimes, or any other particular which I thought might redound to the honour
of my country. And I finished all with a brief historical account of affairs and
events in England for about a hundred years past.%
This conversation was not ended under five audiences, each of several hours;
and the king heard the whole with great attention, frequently taking notes of
what I spoke, as well as memorandums of what questions he intended to ask me.
When I had put an end to these long discources, his majesty, in a sixth
audience, consulting his notes, proposed many doubts, queries, and objections,
upon every article. He asked, “What methods were used to cultivate the minds
and bodies of our young nobility, and in what kind of business they commonly
spent the first and teachable parts of their lives? What course was taken to
supply that assembly, when any noble family became extinct? What
qualifications were necessary in those who are to be created new lords: whether
the humour of the prince, a sum of money to a court lady, or a design of
strengthening a party opposite to the public interest, ever happened to be the
motive in those advancements? What share of knowledge these lords had in the
laws of their country, and how they came by it, so as to enable them to decide the
properties of their fellow-subjects in the last resort? Whether they were always so
free from avarice, partialities, or want, that a bribe, or some other sinister view,
could have no place among them? Whether those holy lords I spoke of were
always promoted to that rank upon account of their knowledge in religious
matters, and the sanctity of their lives; had never been compliers with the times,
while they were common priests; or slavish prostitute chaplains to some
nobleman, whose opinions they continued servilely to follow, after they were
admitted into that assembly?”
Thesaurus
avarice: (n) cupidity, covetousness, delete, forget, exclude, except, leave. subservient, submissive, ignoble,
rapacity, avariciousness, avidity, ANTONYMS: (v) add, remember. contemptible, pliant.
eagerness, voracity, voraciousness, redound: (v) tend, conduce, reflect, teachable: (adj) tractable, dedicated,
stinginess; (adj, n) greediness; (adj) dominate, accrue, bear on, prevail, docible, eager to learn, gentle,
extortion. ANTONYMS: (n) bear upon; (adj) conducive; (n, v) instructible, apt, easily managed,
philanthropy, benevolence, charity. result. studious.
nobleman: (n) patrician, aristocrat, servilely: (adv) slavishly, menially, venerable: (adj) ancient, reverend,
lord, peer, marquis, nobility, subserviently, submissively, meanly, estimable, August, respectable, aged,
grandee, baron, duke, armiger, abjectly, cringingly, fawningly, distinguished, sacred, worthy, of
burgrave. sycophantically, obediently, lowly. long standing, revered. ANTONYMS:
omit: (adv, v) neglect, disregard; (adj, slavish: (adj) servile, menial, fawning, (adj) unworthy, unimpressive,
v) miss, skip, jump, pretermit; (v) cringing, abject, obsequious, undignified, disreputable.
He then desired to know, “What arts were practised in electing those whom I
called commoners: whether a stranger, with a strong purse, might not influence
the vulgar voters to choose him before their own landlord, or the most
considerable gentleman in the neighbourhood? How it came to pass, that people
were so violently bent upon getting into this assembly, which I allowed to be a
great trouble and expense, often to the ruin of their families, without any salary
or pension? because this appeared such an exalted strain of virtue and public
spirit, that his majesty seemed to doubt it might possibly not be always sincere.”
And he desired to know, “Whether such zealous gentlemen could have any
views of refunding themselves for the charges and trouble they were at by
sacrificing the public good to the designs of a weak and vicious prince, in
conjunction with a corrupted ministry?” He multiplied his questions, and sifted
me thoroughly upon every part of this head, proposing numberless inquiries
and objections, which I think it not prudent or convenient to repeat.%
Upon what I said in relation to our courts of justice, his majesty desired to be
satisfied in several points: and this I was the better able to do, having been
formerly almost ruined by a long suit in chancery, which was decreed for me
with costs. He asked, “What time was usually spent in determining between
right and wrong, and what degree of expense? Whether advocates and orators
had liberty to plead in causes manifestly known to be unjust, vexatious, or
oppressive? Whether party, in religion or politics, were observed to be of any
weight in the scale of justice? Whether those pleading orators were persons
educated in the general knowledge of equity, or only in provincial, national, and
other local customs? Whether they or their judges had any part in penning those
laws, which they assumed the liberty of interpreting, and glossing upon at their
pleasure? Whether they had ever, at different times, pleaded for and against the
same cause, and cited precedents to prove contrary opinions? Whether they were
a rich or a poor corporation? Whether they received any pecuniary reward for
pleading, or delivering their opinions? And particularly, whether they were ever
admitted as members in the lower senate?”
He fell next upon the management of our treasury; and said, “he thought my
Thesaurus
commoners: (n) masses, common lowly, minor, ridiculed, base. penning: (n) writing, composition,
herd, rabble. glossing: (n) mechanical colouring. authorship, fabrication, drafting,
corrupted: (adj) tainted, rotten, laws: (n) Pentateuch, Torah. lexicography, committal to writing,
spoiled, degraded, adulterated, numberless: (adj) countless, composing, musical composition,
depraved, distorted, decayed, innumerable, multitudinous, infinite, redaction, versification.
impaired, debased; (n) corrupter. incalculable, endless, uncounted, zealous: (adj) keen, enthusiastic,
ANTONYM: (adj) pure. unnumbered, innumerous, legion, fervent, ardent, avid, devoted,
exalted: (adj) elevated, eminent, noble, untold. ANTONYM: (adj) few. strenuous, vehement, glowing, fiery;
high, August, elated, dignified, great, pecuniary: (adj) financial, fiscal, (adj, n) passionate. ANTONYMS:
sublime, grand, big. ANTONYMS: commercial, economic, nummulary, (adj) indifferent, apathetic,
(adj) belittled, condemned, criticized, sumptuary, numismatical, pecunial, unenthusiastic, cool, halfhearted,
debased, humble, humiliated, low, crumenal. moderate.
Jonathan Swift 131
memory had failed me, because I computed our taxes at about five or six millions
a-year, and when I came to mention the issues, he found they sometimes
amounted to more than double; for the notes he had taken were very particular
in this point, because he hoped, as he told me, that the knowledge of our conduct
might be useful to him, and he could not be deceived in his calculations. But, if
what I told him were true, he was still at a loss how a kingdom could run out of
its estate, like a private person.” He asked me, “who were our creditors; and
where we found money to pay them?” He wondered to hear me talk of such
chargeable and expensive wars; “that certainly we must be a quarrelsome
people, or live among very bad neighbours, and that our generals must needs be
richer than our kings.” He asked, what business we had out of our own islands,
unless upon the score of trade, or treaty, or to defend the coasts with our fleet?”
Above all, he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing army, in the
midst of peace, and among a free people. He said, “if we were governed by our
own consent, in the persons of our representatives, he could not imagine of
whom we were afraid, or against whom we were to fight; and would hear my
opinion, whether a private man’s house might not be better defended by himself,
his children, and family, than by half-a-dozen rascals, picked up at a venture in
the streets for small wages, who might get a hundred times more by cutting their
throats?” %
He laughed at my “odd kind of arithmetic,” as he was pleased to call it, “in
reckoning the numbers of our people, by a computation drawn from the several
sects among us, in religion and politics.” He said, “he knew no reason why those,
who entertain opinions prejudicial to the public, should be obliged to change, or
should not be obliged to conceal them. And as it was tyranny in any government
to require the first, so it was weakness not to enforce the second: for a man may
be allowed to keep poisons in his closet, but not to vend them about for
cordials.”
He observed, “that among the diversions of our nobility and gentry, I had
mentioned gaming: he desired to know at what age this entertainment was
usually taken up, and when it was laid down; how much of their time it
Thesaurus
chargeable: (adj) guilty, amenable, ANTONYMS: (adj) altruistic, helpful.
indictable, responsible, due, philanthropic. quarrelsome: (adj) argumentative,
assessable, payable, rateable, midst: (adj, n) middle; (adv) mid, belligerent, combative, cantankerous,
attributable, accusable, answerable. between; (prep) among, amid; (n) aggressive, disputatious, ugly,
ANTONYM: (adj) innocent. core, center, thick, interior, heart, currish, termagant; (adj, n)
gaming: (n) play, game, diversion, waist. contentious; (adj, v) fretful.
speculation, wager, frolic, bet, neighbours: (n) neighborhood. ANTONYMS: (adj) agreeable,
gamble, recreation, vice, betting. prejudicial: (adj) pernicious, hurtful, peaceful, amiable.
mercenary: (adj, n) hireling; (adj, v) damaging, injurious, harmful, vend: (v) peddle, trade, monger,
sordid; (adj) mercantile, materialistic, noxious, disadvantageous, adverse, huckster, hawk, market, dispose of,
covetous, commercial, greedy, venal, mischievous, prejudicious, noisome. pitch, higgle, toss; (n) sale.
avaricious, selfish; (v) illiberal. ANTONYMS: (adj) beneficial, ANTONYMS: (v) buy, wholesale.
employed; whether it ever went so high as to affect their fortunes; whether mean,
vicious people, by their dexterity in that art, might not arrive at great riches, and
sometimes keep our very nobles in dependence, as well as habituate them to
vile companions, wholly take them from the improvement of their minds, and
force them, by the losses they received, to learn and practise that infamous
dexterity upon others?”%
He was perfectly astonished with the historical account gave him of our
affairs during the last century; protesting “it was only a heap of conspiracies,
rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the very worst effects
that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred,
envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.”
His majesty, in another audience, was at the pains to recapitulate the sum of
all I had spoken; compared the questions he made with the answers I had given;
then taking me into his hands, and stroking me gently, delivered himself in these
words, which I shall never forget, nor the manner he spoke them in: “My little
friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable panegyric upon your country;
you have clearly proved, that ignorance, idleness, and vice, are the proper
ingredients for qualifying a legislator; that laws are best explained, interpreted,
and applied, by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding,
and eluding them. I observe among you some lines of an institution, which, in its
original, might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly
blurred and blotted by corruptions. It does not appear, from all you have said,
how any one perfection is required toward the procurement of any one station
among you; much less, that men are ennobled on account of their virtue; that
priests are advanced for their piety or learning; soldiers, for their conduct or
valour; judges, for their integrity; senators, for the love of their country; or
counsellors for their wisdom. As for yourself,” continued the king, “who have
spent the greatest part of your life in travelling, I am well disposed to hope you
may hitherto have escaped many vices of your country. But by what I have
gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much pains
wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to
Thesaurus
eluding: (n) chemise, case, cutting, idleness: (n) lethargy, laziness, torpor, panegyric: (n, v) encomium, praise,
slip, berth; (adj) intangible. inactivity, idling, unemployment, commendation, applause; (adj, n)
erased: (adj) dead, forgotten. sloth, inaction, inertia, faineance, encomiastic; (v) laud, laudation; (adj)
habituate: (v) accustom, inure, idlesse. ANTONYMS: (n) energy, panegyrical; (n) kudos, paean, eloge.
exercise, season, familiarize, addict, activity, bustle, liveliness, perfidiousness: (n) perfidy, disloyalty,
drill, acclimate, train, employ, adapt. responsibility. faithlessness, infidelity, betrayal,
hypocrisy: (n, v) insincerity; (n) cant, legislator: (n) lawgiver, representative, treason, falsity, dishonesty,
dissimulation, falsity, deception, congressman, deputy, filibuster, insidiousness, duplicity.
falseness, sanctimony, deceit, lip frontbencher, backbencher, recapitulate: (v) repeat, sum up,
service; (v) double dealing; (adj) crossbencher, statist, statemonger, enumerate, reiterate, resume,
hypocritical. ANTONYMS: (n) parliamentarian. summarize, narrate, recite, brief,
sincerity, honesty. nobles: (n) landed gentry, upper class. restate, reword.
Jonathan Swift 133
be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to
crawl upon the surface of the earth.”%
Thesaurus
crawl: (adv, v) grovel, lag; (n, v) quality, creation, breed, suffered: (adj) permitted, permissive.
clamber, climb; (v) sneak, fawn, temperament, type, attribute; (adj, n) surface: (n) superficies, grain; (v)
cringe, teem, swarm, scramble, inch. character, class, manner. emerge, appear, coat, come out; (adj,
ANTONYMS: (v) fly, rush, hurry, pernicious: (adj) detrimental, evil, bad, n) exterior, outside; (n, v) face; (adj)
hasten, dart, dash, lead, soothe, injurious, fatal, noxious, deadly, external, superficial. ANTONYMS:
speed. baneful, mischievous, mortal, malign. (adj, n) interior, middle, inside; (n)
ever: (adj, adv) always, continually; ANTONYMS: (adj) favorable, core; (v) sink, submerge, fall; (adj)
(adj) constantly, still, forever; (adv) pleasant, harmless. deep, subsurface, overhead, inner.
never, e'er, before, once, perpetually; race: (adj, n) kind; (adj, n, v) dash, rush; upon: (adv, prep) above; (prep) up,
(n) Evers. ANTONYM: (adv) (n, v) course, run, career; (n) family, onto, against, towards; (adv) on, on
erratically. people; (v) hurry, hasten, fly. that occasion, then, before, by; (n) at.
nature: (n) disposition, essence, ANTONYMS: (v) linger, amble.
Jonathan Swift 135
CHAPTER %VII
[The author’s love of his country. He makes a proposal of much advantage to

the king, which is rejected. The king’s great ignorance in politics. The learning of
that country very imperfect and confined. The laws, and military affairs, and
parties in the state.]
Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from

concealing this part of my story. It was in vain to discover my resentments,
which were always turned into ridicule; and I was forced to rest with patience,
while my noble and beloved country was so injuriously treated. I am as heartily
sorry as any of my readers can possibly be, that such an occasion was given: but
this prince happened to be so curious and inquisitive upon every particular, that
it could not consist either with gratitude or good manners, to refuse giving him
what satisfaction I was able. Yet thus much I may be allowed to say in my own
vindication, that I artfully eluded many of his questions, and gave to every point
a more favourable turn, by many degrees, than the strictness of truth would
allow. For I have always borne that laudable partiality to my own country,
which Dionysius Halicarnassensis, with so much justice, recommends to an
historian: I would hide the frailties and deformities of my political mother, and
place her virtues and beauties in the most advantageous light. This was my
sincere endeavour in those many discourses I had with that monarch, although it
Thesaurus
artfully: (adv) cunningly, foxily, injuriously: (adv) detrimentally, partiality: (n) favor, fondness, leaning,
ingeniously, trickily, shrewdly, noxiously, mischievously, fancy, favour, predilection, liking,
skillfully, cleverly, disingenuously, perniciously, deleteriously, badly, prejudice, favoritism, bias, affection.
deceitfully, sly, schemingly. hurtfully, wrongfully, prejudicially, ANTONYMS: (n) impartiality,
ANTONYMS: (adv) innocently, damagingly, insultingly. fairness, indifference, horror,
openly. laudable: (adj) commendable, antipathy.
discourses: (n) talks. creditable, admirable, praiseworthy, strictness: (n) harshness, severity,
hindered: (adj) obstructed, blocked, worthy, deserving, good, honorable, rigor, hardness, austerity, exactness,
delayed, stalled, slowed down, slow, meritorious, applaudable, estimable. firmness, inclemency, stiffness,
in an inferior position, in a weak ANTONYMS: (adj) shameful, accuracy, precision. ANTONYMS: (n)
position, impedite, thwarted, regrettable, unimpressive, leniency, lenience, laxity, flexibility,
frustrated. lamentable, poor, despicable. vagueness, inaccuracy.
unfortunately failed of success.%

But great allowances should be given to a king, who lives wholly secluded
from the rest of the world, and must therefore be altogether unacquainted with
the manners and customs that most prevail in other nations: the want of which
knowledge will ever produce many prejudices, and a certain narrowness of
thinking, from which we, and the politer countries of Europe, are wholly
exempted. And it would be hard indeed, if so remote a prince’s notions of virtue
and vice were to be offered as a standard for all mankind.
To confirm what I have now said, and further to show the miserable effects of
a confined education, I shall here insert a passage, which will hardly obtain belief.
In hopes to ingratiate myself further into his majesty’s favour, I told him of “an
invention, discovered between three and four hundred years ago, to make a
certain powder, into a heap of which, the smallest spark of fire falling, would
kindle the whole in a moment, although it were as big as a mountain, and make
it all fly up in the air together, with a noise and agitation greater than thunder.
That a proper quantity of this powder rammed into a hollow tube of brass or iron,
according to its bigness, would drive a ball of iron or lead, with such violence
and speed, as nothing was able to sustain its force. That the largest balls thus
discharged, would not only destroy whole ranks of an army at once, but batter
the strongest walls to the ground, sink down ships, with a thousand men in each,
to the bottom of the sea, and when linked together by a chain, would cut through
masts and rigging, divide hundreds of bodies in the middle, and lay all waste
before them. That we often put this powder into large hollow balls of iron, and
discharged them by an engine into some city we were besieging, which would
rip up the pavements, tear the houses to pieces, burst and throw splinters on
every side, dashing out the brains of all who came near. That I knew the
ingredients very well, which were cheap and common; I understood the manner
of compounding them, and could direct his workmen how to make those tubes,
of a size proportionable to all other things in his majesty’s kingdom, and the
largest need not be above a hundred feet long; twenty or thirty of which tubes,
charged with the proper quantity of powder and balls, would batter down the
Thesaurus
batter: (v) hammer, baste, break, club, ingratiate: (v) fawn, hint, cozy up, harness, tackling, suit, paraphernalia,
slam, beat, mangle, buffet, smite, cotton up, control. caparison.
pound; (n) batsman. ingredients: (n) contents, element. spark: (n, v) flicker, flash, gleam, glint,
besieging: (n) encirclement, Syracuse, narrowness: (n) thinness, width, glitter; (n) light, glimmer, arc, flame,
Orleans, Atlanta, beleaguering, intolerance, illiberality, tightness, fire; (v) activate.
Corregidor, Lucknow, military smallness, pettiness, sheerness, unacquainted: (adj) unaware,
blockade. slimness, meanness, skinniness. unaccustomed, strange, oblivious,
compounding: (n) combination, ANTONYMS: (n) wideness, ignorant, unapprized, unapprised,
combining, blend, admixture, stoutness, thickness, width, unweeting, inexperienced, innocent,
composition, mix, mixture, coarseness, inaccuracy. not learned. ANTONYMS: (adj)
commixture, attachment, blending, rigging: (n) rig, tackle, apparatus, accustomed, knowledgeable,
combine. outfit, accouterment, trappings, conscious, informed.
Jonathan Swift 137
walls of the strongest town in his dominions in a few hours, or destroy the whole
metropolis, if ever it should pretend to dispute his absolute commands.” This I
humbly offered to his majesty, as a small tribute of acknowledgment, in turn for
so many marks that I had received, of his royal favour and protection.%
The king was struck with horror at the description I had given of those
terrible engines, and the proposal I had made. “He was amazed, how so
impotent and grovelling an insect as I” (these were his expressions) “could
entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a manner, as to appear wholly
unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation which I had painted as the
common effects of those destructive machines; whereof,” he said, “some evil
genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver. As for himself, he
protested, that although few things delighted him so much as new discoveries in
art or in nature, yet he would rather lose half his kingdom, than be privy to such
a secret; which he commanded me, as I valued any life, never to mention any
more.”
A strange effect of narrow principles and views! that a prince possessed of
every quality which procures veneration, love, and esteem; of strong parts, great
wisdom, and profound learning, endowed with admirable talents, and almost
adored by his subjects, should, from a nice, unnecessary scruple, whereof in
Europe we can have no conception, let slip an opportunity put into his hands
that would have made him absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the
fortunes of his people! Neither do I say this, with the least intention to detract
from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose character, I am sensible, will,
on this account, be very much lessened in the opinion of an English reader: but I
take this defect among them to have risen from their ignorance, by not having
hitherto reduced politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have
done. For, I remember very well, in a discourse one day with the king, when I
happened to say, “there were several thousand books among us written upon the
art of government,” it gave him (directly contrary to my intention) a very mean
opinion of our understandings. He professed both to abominate and despise all
mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a minister. He could not
Thesaurus
abominate: (v) loathe, detest, hate, contriver: (n) inventor, schemer, slack, ineffective, incapable, unable.
execrate, despise, dislike, nauseate, deviser, plotter, human, soul, ANTONYMS: (adj) able, powerful.
disgust, condemn, resent, can't bear. someone, somebody, person, professed: (adj) alleged, declared,
ANTONYMS: (v) love, adore. individual, mortal. apparent, avowed, pretended,
acknowledgment: (n) admission, fortunes: (n) adventures, fortune, seeming, supposed, affected, feigned,
acknowledgement, acceptance, personal narrative, life, journal. so-called, purported.
confession, greeting, credit, grovelling: (adj) groveling, base, veneration: (n) respect, awe, honor,
allowance, declaration, agreement, abject, menial, vulgar, slavish, servile, devotion, esteem, adoration,
thanks, gratitude. ANTONYMS: (n) obsequious, low, wormlike, deference, estimation, worship,
rejection, ungratefulness, oversight, earthbred. admiration, thaumatolatry.
snub, ignoring, invoice, blame, impotent: (adj) helpless, feeble, frail, ANTONYMS: (n) contempt,
defiance. fragile, inadequate, weak, barren, disapproval.
tell what I meant by secrets of state, where an enemy, or some rival nation, were
not in the case. He confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow
bounds, to common sense and reason, to justice and lenity, to the speedy
determination of civil and criminal causes; with some other obvious topics,
which are not worth considering. And he gave it for his opinion, “that whoever
could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of
ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do
more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put
together.”
The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in morality,
history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be allowed to excel. But the
last of these is wholly applied to what may be useful in life, to the improvement
of agriculture, and all mechanical arts; so that among us, it would be little
esteemed. And as to ideas, entities, abstractions, and transcendentals, I could
never drive the least conception into their heads.%
No law in that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their
alphabet, which consists only of two and twenty. But indeed few of them extend
even to that length. They are expressed in the most plain and simple terms,
wherein those people are not mercurial enough to discover above one
interpretation: and to write a comment upon any law, is a capital crime. As to the
decision of civil causes, or proceedings against criminals, their precedents are so
few, that they have little reason to boast of any extraordinary skill in either.
They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of mind:
but their libraries are not very large; for that of the king, which is reckoned the
largest, does not amount to above a thousand volumes, placed in a gallery of
twelve hundred feet long, whence I had liberty to borrow what books I pleased.
The queen’s joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch’s rooms, a kind of
wooden machine five-and-twenty feet high, formed like a standing ladder; the
steps were each fifty feet long. It was indeed a moveable pair of stairs, the lowest
end placed at ten feet distance from the wall of the chamber. The book I had a
mind to read, was put up leaning against the wall: I first mounted to the upper
Thesaurus
boast: (v) bluster, brag, blow, crow, wanting. ANTONYMS: (adj) sound, moveable: (adj) movable,
gasconade, show off, rodomontade, flawless, unbroken, adequate, intact, transportable, moving, transferable,
exult; (n, v) vaunt, pride; (n) capable, dependable, fine. transferrable, assignable, conveyable.
arrogance. ANTONYMS: (n) mankind: (n) world, humanity, printing: (n) print, impression, issue,
deprecation; (v) downplay, lack. humankind, human race, humans, edition, press, letterpress, type,
bounds: (n) boundary, border, limit, person, flesh, mortality, people, imprint, typography, publication,
bound, margin, borderline, end, human beings, humanness. mackle.
bourn, Bourne, brink, edge. mercurial: (adj) changeable, erratic, speedy: (adj, v) rapid, prompt, fleet,
ANTONYMS: (n) center, middle. fickle, quick, flighty, agile, swift; (adj) fast, agile, ready,
defective: (adj) bad, faulty, imperfect, inconstant, changeful, quicksilver, immediate, cursory, hurried, brisk.
broken, lacking, incomplete, fidgety; (v) mobile. ANTONYM: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) leisurely,
unsound, vicious, inaccurate, rotten, steady. plodding.
Jonathan Swift 139
step of the ladder, and turning my face towards the book, began at the top of the
page, and so walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces, according to
the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of mine eyes, and
then descending gradually till I came to the bottom: after which I mounted again,
and began the other page in the same manner, and so turned over the leaf, which
I could easily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and stiff as a pasteboard,
and in the largest folios not above eighteen or twenty feet long.%
Their style is clear, masculine, and smooth, but not florid; for they avoid
nothing more than multiplying unnecessary words, or using various expressions.
I have perused many of their books, especially those in history and morality.
Among the rest, I was much diverted with a little old treatise, which always lay
in Glumdalclitch’s bed chamber, and belonged to her governess, a grave elderly
gentlewoman, who dealt in writings of morality and devotion. The book treats of
the weakness of human kind, and is in little esteem, except among the women
and the vulgar. However, I was curious to see what an author of that country
could say upon such a subject. This writer went through all the usual topics of
European moralists, showing “how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an
animal was man in his own nature; how unable to defend himself from
inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beasts: how much he was excelled by
one creature in strength, by another in speed, by a third in foresight, by a fourth
in industry.” He added, “that nature was degenerated in these latter declining
ages of the world, and could now produce only small abortive births, in
comparison of those in ancient times.” He said “it was very reasonable to think,
not only that the species of men were originally much larger, but also that there
must have been giants in former ages; which, as it is asserted by history and
tradition, so it has been confirmed by huge bones and skulls, casually dug up in
several parts of the kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of men in
our days.” He argued, “that the very laws of nature absolutely required we
should have been made, in the beginning of a size more large and robust; not so
liable to destruction from every little accident, of a tile falling from a house, or a
stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a little brook.” From this
way of reasoning, the author drew several moral applications, useful in the
Thesaurus
abortive: (adj) fruitless, useless, futile, (adj) pale, plain. generation, calculation.
unsuccessful, vain, ineffective, foresight: (n) prevision, forecast, pasteboard: (n) card, cardboard,
disastrous, idle, rudimental, caution, prospicience, calculation, paperboard, board, composition
embryonic, premature. ANTONYMS: prescience, prediction, precaution, board, entertainment, thin cardboard.
(adj) successful, complete, vision, foresightedness; (n, v) vulgar: (adj) rude, coarse, plebeian,
productive, fruitful, efficient, expectation. ANTONYM: (n) nasty, common, foul, indecent, gross,
effectual, consummated, effective. hindsight. unrefined; (adj, n) low, vile.
beasts: (n) stock. gentlewoman: (n) lady, madam, ANTONYMS: (adj) refined,
florid: (adj) flamboyant, fancy, dame, woman, noblewoman, doll, sophisticated, tasteful, polite,
flowery, aureate, flashy, fresh, bird, adult female, noble, chick, aesthetic, muted, fashionable, decent,
figurative, gorgeous; (adj, v) ornate, ma'am. artistic, pleasant, clean.
gaudy; (adj, n) ruddy. ANTONYMS: multiplying: (adj) cumulative; (n) women: (n) sex, gentle sex.
conduct of life, but needless here to repeat. For my own part, I could not avoid
reflecting how universally this talent was spread, of drawing lectures in morality,
or indeed rather matter of discontent and repining, from the quarrels we raise
with nature. And I believe, upon a strict inquiry, those quarrels might be shown
as ill-grounded among us as they are among that people.%
As to their military affairs, they boast that the king’s army consists of a
hundred and seventy-six thousand foot, and thirty-two thousand horse: if that
may be called an army, which is made up of tradesmen in the several cities, and
farmers in the country, whose commanders are only the nobility and gentry,
without pay or reward. They are indeed perfect enough in their exercises, and
under very good discipline, wherein I saw no great merit; for how should it be
otherwise, where every farmer is under the command of his own landlord, and
every citizen under that of the principal men in his own city, chosen after the
manner of Venice, by ballot?
I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise, in a great
field near the city of twenty miles square. They were in all not above twenty-five
thousand foot, and six thousand horse; but it was impossible for me to compute
their number, considering the space of ground they took up. A cavalier,
mounted on a large steed, might be about ninety feet high. I have seen this whole
body of horse, upon a word of command, draw their swords at once, and
brandish them in the air. Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising,
and so astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were darting
at the same time from every quarter of the sky.
I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there is no
access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his people the
practice of military discipline. But I was soon informed, both by conversation
and reading their histories; for, in the course of many ages, they have been
troubled with the same disease to which the whole race of mankind is subject;
the nobility often contending for power, the people for liberty, and the king for
absolute dominion. All which, however happily tempered by the laws of that
kingdom, have been sometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have
Thesaurus
brandish: (n, v) flourish; (v) display, darting: (adj) arrowy, moving; (v) knight, courser, warhorse, pony,
wield, flaunt, shake, agitate, swing, Sally. stallion, mare.
bandy, beckon, raise, jerk. dominion: (n) authority, control, tempered: (adj) attempered,
ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, lower, domain, command, reign, rule, sway, temperate, moderated, toughened,
sheathe. power, kingdom, mastery, subdued, set, enured, proportioned,
cavalier: (adj) overbearing, arrogant, supremacy. ANTONYM: (n) properly adapted, emotionally
haughty, offhand, supercilious, subjugation. hardened, treated. ANTONYM: (adj)
domineering, bumptious, repining: (n) regret, plaintive, untempered.
adventurous, flippant; (n) escort, lamenting, mourning, grief, violated: (adj) profaned, seduced,
equestrian. ANTONYMS: (adj) mournful; (v) taking on; (adj) dishonored; (v) strained, disunited,
humble, conscientious, obliging, regretful. ruined financially, subjugated, rough,
careful, polite, considerate. steed: (n) horse, mount, charger, not continuous, humbled, fractured.
Jonathan Swift 141
more than once occasioned civil wars; the last whereof was happily put an end
to by this prince’s grand-father, in a general composition; and the militia, then
settled with common consent, has been ever since kept in the strictest duty.%
Thesaurus
composition: (n) texture, construction, happily: (adv) fortunately, joyously, ANTONYM: (adj) broken.
constitution, alloy, amalgam, joyfully, merrily, luckily, gladly, militia: (n) trainband, Sabaoth,
composing, compost, compound, blissfully, cheerfully, felicitously, soldiery, standing army, territorial,
compromise, harmony, combination. providentially, successfully. the army, troops, troops of the line,
consent: (adj, n, v) accord; (n, v) ANTONYMS: (adv) miserably, reserves, regulars, military unit.
acquiescence, agreement; (v) concur, unhappily, sadly, unfortunately, settled: (adj) definite, set, firm,
approve, agree, acquiesce, accept; (n) unsuccessfully, reluctantly, gloomily, permanent, certain, calm, established,
consensus, approval; (adj, v) allow. discontentedly, despondently, decided, formed, defined, finished.
ANTONYMS: (v) refuse, reject, negatively, grudgingly. ANTONYMS: (adj) unsettled,
protest, object, differ, oppose; (n, v) kept: (adj) reserved, preserve, exciting, temporary.
veto; (n) refusal, opposition, dissent, retained, remain, store, reserve, hold,
disagreement. lodge, keep, retain, detained.
Jonathan Swift 143
CHAPTER %VIII
[The king and queen make a progress to the frontiers. The author attends
them. The manner in which he leaves the country very particularly related. He
returns to England.]
I had always a strong impulse that I should some time recover my liberty,
though it was impossible to conjecture by what means, or to form any project
with the least hope of succeeding. The ship in which I sailed, was the first ever
known to be driven within sight of that coast, and the king had given strict
orders, that if at any time another appeared, it should be taken ashore, and with
all its crew and passengers brought in a tumbril to Lorbrulgrud. He was strongly
bent to get me a woman of my own size, by whom I might propagate the breed:
but I think I should rather have died than undergone the disgrace of leaving a
posterity to be kept in cages, like tame canary-birds, and perhaps, in time, sold
about the kingdom, to persons of quality, for curiosities. I was indeed treated
with much kindness: I was the favourite of a great king and queen, and the
delight of the whole court; but it was upon such a foot as ill became the dignity
of humankind. I could never forget those domestic pledges I had left behind me.
I wanted to be among people, with whom I could converse upon even terms, and
walk about the streets and fields without being afraid of being trod to death like
a frog or a young puppy. But my deliverance came sooner than I expected, and
Thesaurus
ashore: (adv, pron) aground; (adj) knot. successive, consequential; (adj, adv)
beached, stranded; (adv) aland, on humankind: (n) man, world, human later; (v) succeed. ANTONYMS: (adj)
land, onto land, toward land. race, mankind, humanity, humans, outgoing, preceding.
deliverance: (n) salvation, rescue, human beings, mortality, human tame: (v) break, subdue, soften,
release, freedom, escape, being, universe, humanness. domesticate; (adj) meek, docile,
emancipation, delivery, relief, puppy: (n) pup, cub, youth, doggy, bland, domestic, gentle, slow; (adj, v)
liberation, liberty, salvage. whelp, younker, dog, brat, child, moderate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) downfall, youngster, frankfurter. exciting, bright, unmanageable,
suppression. streets: (n) street. interesting, untamed, inspiring,
frog: (n) frogs, toad, chamois, epaulet, succeeding: (adj) following, brilliant, colorful, rebellious, lively.
crapaud, batrachian, anuran, aigulet, subsequent, after, consecutive, tumbril: (n) tipping tumbril,
grasshopper, Frenchman, shoulder posterior, ensuing, consequent, dumpcart.
in a manner not very common; the whole story and circumstances of which I
shall faithfully relate.%
I had now been two years in this country; and about the beginning of the
third, Glumdalclitch and I attended the king and queen, in a progress to the
south coast of the kingdom. I was carried, as usual, in my travelling-box, which
as I have already described, was a very convenient closet, of twelve feet wide.
And I had ordered a hammock to be fixed, by silken ropes from the four corners
at the top, to break the jolts, when a servant carried me before him on horseback,
as I sometimes desired; and would often sleep in my hammock, while we were
upon the road. On the roof of my closet, not directly over the middle of the
hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut out a hole of a foot square, to give me air in
hot weather, as I slept; which hole I shut at pleasure with a board that drew
backward and forward through a groove.
When we came to our journey’s end, the king thought proper to pass a few
days at a palace he has near Flanflasnic, a city within eighteen English miles of
the seaside. Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued: I had gotten a small cold,
but the poor girl was so ill as to be confined to her chamber. I longed to see the
ocean, which must be the only scene of my escape, if ever it should happen. I
pretended to be worse than I really was, and desired leave to take the fresh air of
the sea, with a page, whom I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been
trusted with me. I shall never forget with what unwillingness Glumdalclitch
consented, nor the strict charge she gave the page to be careful of me, bursting at
the same time into a flood of tears, as if she had some forboding of what was to
happen. The boy took me out in my box, about half an hours walk from the
palace, towards the rocks on the sea-shore. I ordered him to set me down, and
lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look towards the sea.
I found myself not very well, and told the page that I had a mind to take a nap in
my hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got in, and the boy shut the
window close down, to keep out the cold. I soon fell asleep, and all I can
conjecture is, while I slept, the page, thinking no danger could happen, went
among the rocks to look for birds’ eggs, having before observed him from my
Thesaurus
bursting: (adj) explosive, teeming, inaccurately. hesitancy, resistance, antipathy,
chock-full, full, complete, fatigued: (adj) tired, weary, beat, reluctancy, dislike, distaste,
paroxysmal, exploding, disruptive, worn, tired out, jaded, spent, worn irreconcilableness. ANTONYMS: (n)
detonating, crowded; (n) outbreak. out, done in, fagged, run-down. enthusiasm, disposition, keenness,
ANTONYM: (adj) hungry. ANTONYMS: (adj) refreshed, alert, inclination.
corners: (adj) cornered. lively, energized, energetic. went: (v) walked, proceeded.
faithfully: (adv) exactly, accurately, groove: (n, v) channel, rut, chamfer, wistful: (adj, v) reflective, meditative,
sincerely, staunchly, precisely, truly, score, crease; (v) flute; (n) ditch, cut, thoughtful; (adj) contemplative, sad,
authentically, dutifully, literally, track, custom, notch. ANTONYMS: melancholy, longing, plaintive,
steadfastly, truely. ANTONYMS: (n) bump, ridge. wishful, yearning; (v) anxious.
(adv) unfaithfully, approximately, unwillingness: (n) disinclination, ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, satisfied,
falsely, insincerely, carelessly, indisposition, aversion, hesitation, shallow.
Jonathan Swift 145
window searching about, and picking up one or two in the clefts. Be that as it
will, I found myself suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which
was fastened at the top of my box for the conveniency of carriage. I felt my box
raised very high in the air, and then borne forward with prodigious speed. The
first jolt had like to have shaken me out of my hammock, but afterward the
motion was easy enough. I called out several times, as loud as I could raise my
voice, but all to no purpose. I looked towards my windows, and could see
nothing but the clouds and sky. I heard a noise just over my head, like the
clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woful condition I was in; that
some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a
rock, like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body, and devour it: for the
sagacity and smell of this bird enables him to discover his quarry at a great
distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.%
In a little time, I observed the noise and flutter of wings to increase very fast,
and my box was tossed up and down, like a sign in a windy day. I heard several
bangs or buffets, as I thought given to the eagle (for such I am certain it must
have been that held the ring of my box in his beak), and then, all on a sudden,
felt myself falling perpendicularly down, for above a minute, but with such
incredible swiftness, that I almost lost my breath. My fall was stopped by a
terrible squash, that sounded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara; after
which, I was quite in the dark for another minute, and then my box began to rise
so high, that I could see light from the tops of the windows. I now perceived I
was fallen into the sea. My box, by the weight of my body, the goods that were in,
and the broad plates of iron fixed for strength at the four corners of the top and
bottom, floated about five feet deep in water. I did then, and do now suppose,
that the eagle which flew away with my box was pursued by two or three others,
and forced to let me drop, while he defended himself against the rest, who
hoped to share in the prey. The plates of iron fastened at the bottom of the box
(for those were the strongest) preserved the balance while it fell, and hindered it
from being broken on the surface of the water. Every joint of it was well grooved;
and the door did not move on hinges, but up and down like a sash, which kept
my closet so tight that very little water came in. I got with much difficulty out of
Thesaurus
beak: (n) neb, snout, bill, nose, prow, (v) avoid, abstain, regurgitate, nibble, adv) directly.
snoot, rostrum, proboscis, nib, fast, sip. pursued: (n) hunted person.
pecker; (v) peck. flutter: (adj, n, v) bustle, flurry; (n, v) sash: (n) girdle, cincture, band,
cataract: (n) waterfall, torrent, falls, beat, palpitate, flap, wave, waver, cummerbund, baldric, framing,
deluge, cataclysm, amaurosis, quiver; (v) flit, flitter; (n) excitement. waistband, framework, frame, fillet,
blindness, angel, flood, prestriction; grooved: (adj) fluted, ribbed, fascia.
(v) pour. channeled, established, flutelike, tortoise: (v) sluggard, loiterer, lingerer;
defended: (adj) shielded, secured, accustomed, methodical, ridged, fine. (n) gopher, desert tortoise, gopher
watched over, secure, sacred. perpendicularly: (adv) uprightly, tortoise, giant tortoise, gopher turtle,
devour: (v) eat, bolt, gulp, demolish, erectly, straightly, upright, testudo.
guzzle, swallow, gorge, ingurgitate, orthogonally, sheerly, precipitously, woful: (adj) sorrowful, lugubrious,
gobble, use up, absorb. ANTONYMS: normally, plumb; (adv, v) sheer; (adj, woeful, mournful, doleful, pitiable.
my hammock, having first ventured to draw back the slip-board on the roof
already mentioned, contrived on purpose to let in air, for want of which I found
myself almost stifled.%
How often did I then wish myself with my dear Glumdalclitch, from whom
one single hour had so far divided me! And I may say with truth, that in the
midst of my own misfortunes I could not forbear lamenting my poor nurse, the
grief she would suffer for my loss, the displeasure of the queen, and the ruin of
her fortune. Perhaps many travellers have not been under greater difficulties and
distress than I was at this juncture, expecting every moment to see my box
dashed to pieces, or at least overset by the first violent blast, or rising wave. A
breach in one single pane of glass would have been immediate death: nor could
any thing have preserved the windows, but the strong lattice wires placed on the
outside, against accidents in travelling. I saw the water ooze in at several
crannies, although the leaks were not considerable, and I endeavoured to stop
them as well as I could. I was not able to lift up the roof of my closet, which
otherwise I certainly should have done, and sat on the top of it; where I might at
least preserve myself some hours longer, than by being shut up (as I may call it)
in the hold. Or if I escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could I expect
but a miserable death of cold and hunger? I was four hours under these
circumstances, expecting, and indeed wishing, every moment to be my last.
I have already told the reader that there were two strong staples fixed upon
that side of my box which had no window, and into which the servant, who used
to carry me on horseback, would put a leathern belt, and buckle it about his
waist. Being in this disconsolate state, I heard, or at least thought I heard, some
kind of grating noise on that side of my box where the staples were fixed; and
soon after I began to fancy that the box was pulled or towed along the sea; for I
now and then felt a sort of tugging, which made the waves rise near the tops of
my windows, leaving me almost in the dark. This gave me some faint hopes of
relief, although I was not able to imagine how it could be brought about. I
ventured to unscrew one of my chairs, which were always fastened to the floor;
and having made a hard shift to screw it down again, directly under the
Thesaurus
buckle: (n, v) clasp, warp; (v) curve, discordant, gravelly, raspy, gruff, ooze: (v) exude, seep, dribble, drain,
crumple, distort, fasten; (adj, n) raucous; (n, v) lattice; (n) grate, grid. drop, trickle; (n) mire, muck; (n, v)
button; (n) screw, hook, fastener; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, leak; (adj) mud; (adj, n) slime.
strap. ANTONYMS: (v) unbuckle, soothing, smooth, harmonious. ANTONYM: (v) flood.
flatten, smooth, straighten. lamenting: (adj) weeping, wailing, pane: (n) window pane, paneling,
disconsolate: (adj) inconsolable, blue, sad, whining; (adj, n) plaintive; (adj, pane of glass, panelling,
cheerless, melancholy, dejected, v) bewailing, querulous; (n, v) windowpane, window-pane, board,
depressed, sad, miserable, dark, complaining; (n) grief, sorrow; (v) square, sheet of glass, leaf, box.
crestfallen, gloomy. ANTONYMS: dissatisfied. unscrew: (n, v) open; (n) break open,
(adj) happy, joyous, euphoric, lattice: (n) grill, grille, grid, net, uncap, unstop; (v) rotate, screw, turn,
consolable, enthusiastic. fretwork, network, gridiron, wicket, unfasten, unlock. ANTONYMS: (v)
grating: (adj) hoarse, strident, harsh, web, netting; (v) trellis. attach, screw; (n) seal.
Jonathan Swift 147
slipping-board that I had lately opened, I mounted on the chair, and putting my
mouth as near as I could to the hole, I called for help in a loud voice, and in all
the languages I understood. I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually
carried, and thrusting it up the hole, waved it several times in the air, that if any
boat or ship were near, the seamen might conjecture some unhappy mortal to be
shut up in the box.%
I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my closet to be
moved along; and in the space of an hour, or better, that side of the box where
the staples were, and had no windows, struck against something that was hard. I
apprehended it to be a rock, and found myself tossed more than ever. I plainly
heard a noise upon the cover of my closet, like that of a cable, and the grating of
it as it passed through the ring. I then found myself hoisted up, by degrees, at
least three feet higher than I was before. Whereupon I again thrust up my stick
and handkerchief, calling for help till I was almost hoarse. In return to which, I
heard a great shout repeated three times, giving me such transports of joy as are
not to be conceived but by those who feel them. I now heard a trampling over
my head, and somebody calling through the hole with a loud voice, in the
English tongue, “If there be any body below, let them speak.” I answered, “I was
an Englishman, drawn by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any
creature underwent, and begged, by all that was moving, to be delivered out of
the dungeon I was in.” The voice replied, “I was safe, for my box was fastened to
their ship; and the carpenter should immediately come and saw a hole in the
cover, large enough to pull me out.” I answered, “that was needless, and would
take up too much time; for there was no more to be done, but let one of the crew
put his finger into the ring, and take the box out of the sea into the ship, and so
into the captain’s cabin.” Some of them, upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought
I was mad: others laughed; for indeed it never came into my head, that I was
now got among people of my own stature and strength. The carpenter came, and
in a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet square, then let down a small
ladder, upon which I mounted, and thence was taken into the ship in a very
weak condition.
Thesaurus
calamity: (n) disaster, adversity, hoarse: (adj) gruff, husky, raucous, superfluous; (adj) futile, dispensable,
affliction, misfortune, plague, grating, strident, guttural, rough, bootless, excessive, preventable,
catastrophe, tragedy, blow, bale, throaty; (v) coarse; (adj, v) hollow, meaningless, pointless, wanton,
distress; (n, v) trouble. ANTONYMS: sepulchral. ANTONYMS: (adj) unavailing. ANTONYMS: (adj)
(n) blessing, boon, luck, joy, smooth, mellow, velvety, high. essential, worthwhile, inevitable,
opportunity. mortal: (adj) deadly, fatal, lethal, justifiable.
carpenter: (n) woodman, woodsman, deathly, earthly; (n) man, individual, stature: (n) height, altitude, standing,
woodworker, Joseph; (v) build. creature, person, human being, body. tallness, prestige, figure, growth,
dungeon: (n, v) keep; (n) prison, cell, ANTONYMS: (adj, n) immortal; (adj) status, quality, rank, greatness.
jail, penitentiary, fastness, oubliette, eternal, heavenly, mild, perfect, thrusting: (n) thrust, push, jab, poke,
Bastille, bridewell, detention, house spiritual. jabbing, stab, driving force, scoke,
of correction. needless: (adj, v) unnecessary, sack, punch, Phytolacca Americana.
The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions,

which I had no inclination to answer. I was equally confounded at the sight of so
many pigmies, for such I took them to be, after having so long accustomed mine
eyes to the monstrous objects I had left. But the captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks,
an honest worthy Shropshire man, observing I was ready to faint, took me into
his cabin, gave me a cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own
bed, advising me to take a little rest, of which I had great need. Before I went to
sleep, I gave him to understand that I had some valuable furniture in my box, too
good to be lost: a fine hammock, a handsome field-bed, two chairs, a table, and a
cabinet; that my closet was hung on all sides, or rather quilted, with silk and
cotton; that if he would let one of the crew bring my closet into his cabin, I would
open it there before him, and show him my goods. The captain, hearing me utter
these absurdities, concluded I was raving; however (I suppose to pacify me) he
promised to give order as I desired, and going upon deck, sent some of his men
down into my closet, whence (as I afterwards found) they drew up all my goods,
and stripped off the quilting; but the chairs, cabinet, and bedstead, being
screwed to the floor, were much damaged by the ignorance of the seamen, who
tore them up by force. Then they knocked off some of the boards for the use of
the ship, and when they had got all they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the
sea, which by reason of many breaches made in the bottom and sides, sunk to
rights. And, indeed, I was glad not to have been a spectator of the havoc they
made, because I am confident it would have sensibly touched me, by bringing
former passages into my mind, which I would rather have forgot.%
I slept some hours, but perpetually disturbed with dreams of the place I had
left, and the dangers I had escaped. However, upon waking, I found myself
much recovered. It was now about eight o’clock at night, and the captain ordered
supper immediately, thinking I had already fasted too long. He entertained me
with great kindness, observing me not to look wildly, or talk inconsistently: and,
when we were left alone, desired I would give him a relation of my travels, and
by what accident I came to be set adrift, in that monstrous wooden chest. He said
“that about twelve o’clock at noon, as he was looking through his glass, he spied
it at a distance, and thought it was a sail, which he had a mind to make, being
Thesaurus
bedstead: (n) bed, berth, cot, debacle, wreckage, waste, chaos, appease; (adj, v) mollify, lull, soothe;
bedframe, furniture, shakedown, downfall; (n, v) carnage. (n, v) ease; (v) conciliate, placate,
pallet, stretcher, tester, stead, hatch. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, calm. moderate. ANTONYMS: (v) annoy,
cordial: (adj) genial, warm, affable, inconsistently: (adv) illogically, enrage, excite, infuriate, aggravate,
amiable, friendly, genuine, ardent, irrationally, contradictorily, displease, inflame, provoke.
unaffected, gracious, honest; (n) incongruously, irregularly, spectator: (n) eyewitness, observer,
liqueur. ANTONYMS: (adj) conflictingly, discrepantly, onlooker, witness, audience,
unfriendly, stern, cold, cool, inconstantly, incompatibly, unevenly, beholder, viewer, watcher,
disagreeable, aloof, reserved, distant, preposterously. ANTONYMS: (adv) spectators, looker, ogler.
rude, uncordial, unpleasant. constantly, logically, systematically, ANTONYM: (n) player.
havoc: (n) devastation, mayhem, reliably, steadily. waking: (adj) wakeful; (n) awakening,
destruction, damage, demolition, pacify: (adj, n, v) calm, allay, compose, wakefulness, consciousness.
Jonathan Swift 149
not %much out of his course, in hopes of buying some biscuit, his own beginning
to fall short. That upon coming nearer, and finding his error, he sent out his long-
boat to discover what it was; that his men came back in a fright, swearing they
had seen a swimming house. That he laughed at their folly, and went himself in
the boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with them. That the
weather being calm, he rowed round me several times, observed my windows
and wire lattices that defended them. That he discovered two staples upon one
side, which was all of boards, without any passage for light. He then
commanded his men to row up to that side, and fastening a cable to one of the
staples, ordered them to tow my chest, as they called it, toward the ship. When it
was there, he gave directions to fasten another cable to the ring fixed in the cover,
and to raise up my chest with pulleys, which all the sailors were not able to do
above two or three feet.” He said, “they saw my stick and handkerchief thrust
out of the hole, and concluded that some unhappy man must be shut up in the
cavity.” I asked, “whether he or the crew had seen any prodigious birds in the air,
about the time he first discovered me.” To which he answered, that discoursing
this matter with the sailors while I was asleep, one of them said, he had observed
three eagles flying towards the north, but remarked nothing of their being larger
than the usual size:” which I suppose must be imputed to the great height they
were at; and he could not guess the reason of my question. I then asked the
captain, “how far he reckoned we might be from land?” He said, “by the best
computation he could make, we were at least a hundred leagues.” I assured him,
“that he must be mistaken by almost half, for I had not left the country whence I
came above two hours before I dropped into the sea.” Whereupon he began
again to think that my brain was disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and
advised me to go to bed in a cabin he had provided. I assured him, “I was well
refreshed with his good entertainment and company, and as much in my senses
as ever I was in my life.” He then grew serious, and desired to ask me freely,
“whether I were not troubled in my mind by the consciousness of some
enormous crime, for which I was punished, at the command of some prince, by
exposing me in that chest; as great criminals, in other countries, have been forced
to sea in a leaky vessel, without provisions: for although he should be sorry to
Thesaurus
biscuit: (n) rusk, hardtack, cooky, open, disconnect, untie, separate, order, disposal, grading, adjustment,
cookie, bisque, tea biscuit, almond unscrew. management, decree, configuration,
cookie, wafer, tan, sea bread, oreo. handkerchief: (n) hankie, kerchief, classification; (adj) imperative.
eagles: (n) order Falconiformes, bandanna, cravat, hanky, wipe, refreshed: (adj) invigorated,
caracaras, Falconiformes. bandana, collar, shawl; (n, v) napkin; rejuvenated, reinvigorated, new,
exposing: (n) exposure, (v) sudary. novel, revived, impudent, energizing,
announcement; (adj) revealing, leaky: (adj) leak, cracked, permeable, overbold, energising, clean.
opposed. porous, holey, blabbermouthed, ANTONYM: (adj) tired.
fasten: (adj, v) attach, fix, affix; (v) unseaworthy, tattling, talebearing, swearing: (n) curse, expletive,
connect, bind, tie, tack, pin, stick, incontinent, faulty. ANTONYMS: profanity, oath, abuse, blasphemy,
clasp, anchor. ANTONYMS: (v) (adj) tight, watertight. swearword, execration, adjuration,
detach, undo, unlock, loosen, release, ordering: (n) disposition, sequence, asseveration; (v) swear.
have taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would engage his word to set me safe
ashore, in the first port where we arrived.” He added, “that his suspicions were
much increased by some very absurd speeches I had delivered at first to his
sailors, and afterwards to himself, in relation to my closet or chest, as well as by
my odd looks and behaviour while I was at supper.”%
I begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I faithfully did, from the
last time I left England, to the moment he first discovered me. And, as truth
always forces its way into rational minds, so this honest worthy gentleman, who
had some tincture of learning, and very good sense, was immediately convinced
of my candour and veracity. But further to confirm all I had said, I entreated him
to give order that my cabinet should be brought, of which I had the key in my
pocket; for he had already informed me how the seamen disposed of my closet. I
opened it in his own presence, and showed him the small collection of rarities I
made in the country from which I had been so strangely delivered. There was the
comb I had contrived out of the stumps of the king’s beard, and another of the
same materials, but fixed into a paring of her majesty’s thumb-nail, which served
for the back. There was a collection of needles and pins, from a foot to half a yard
long; four wasp stings, like joiner’s tacks; some combings of the queen’s hair; a
gold ring, which one day she made me a present of, in a most obliging manner,
taking it from her little finger, and throwing it over my head like a collar. I
desired the captain would please to accept this ring in return for his civilities;
which he absolutely refused. I showed him a corn that I had cut off with my own
hand, from a maid of honour’s toe; it was about the bigness of Kentish pippin,
and grown so hard, that when I returned England, I got it hollowed into a cup,
and set in silver. Lastly, I desired him to see the breeches I had then on, which
were made of a mouse’s skin.
I could force nothing on him but a footman’s tooth, which I observed him to
examine with great curiosity, and found he had a fancy for it. He received it with
abundance of thanks, more than such a trifle could deserve. It was drawn by an
unskilful surgeon, in a mistake, from one of Glumdalclitch’s men, who was
afflicted with the tooth-ache, but it was as sound as any in his head. I got it
Thesaurus
afflicted: (adj) miserable, distressed, hollowed: (adj) concave. suspicions: (adj) entertain doubts,
stricken, pitiful, sorrowful, ill, lastly: (adv) eventually, ultimately, have doubts; (n) doubts, misgivings,
woeful, dejected, sorry; (v) afflict, latterly, in conclusion, last, at last, reservations, qualms, worries, fears,
displeased. terminally, latestly, utmostly, uncertainties.
candour: (n) candidness, frankness, definitively, concludingly. trifle: (n, v) play; (adj, n, v) trinket; (v)
forthrightness, fairness, rectitude, ANTONYM: (adv) initially. dally, fiddle, flirt, fool, frivol; (n)
purity, straightforwardness, equity, paring: (adj) clipping, driblet, shiver; nothing, triviality, detail; (adj, n)
truth, sincerity, simplicity. (n) shaving, splinter, chip, rind, bagatelle.
comb: (v) brush, ransack, search, flinders, grazing; (adj, n) sliver; (v) wasp: (adj) stricture, neck, middle
dress, eliminate, groom; (adj) weed; pare. constriction, isthmus; (n) gallfly,
(n) crest, combing, caruncle, pins: (v) feet, legs, pegs, trotters. hornet, vespid, vespid wasp, cynipid
currycomb. pippin: (n) pip. gall wasp, cynipid wasp; (v) bee.
Jonathan Swift 151
cleaned, and put it into my cabinet. It was about a foot long, and four inches in
diameter.%
The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had given him,
and said, “he hoped, when we returned to England, I would oblige the world by
putting it on paper, and making it public.” My answer was, “that we were
overstocked with books of travels: that nothing could now pass which was not
extraordinary; wherein I doubted some authors less consulted truth, than their
own vanity, or interest, or the diversion of ignorant readers; that my story could
contain little beside common events, without those ornamental descriptions of
strange plants, trees, birds, and other animals; or of the barbarous customs and
idolatry of savage people, with which most writers abound. However, I thanked
him for his good opinion, and promised to take the matter into my thoughts.”
He said “he wondered at one thing very much, which was, to hear me speak
so loud;” asking me “whether the king or queen of that country were thick of
hearing?” I told him, “it was what I had been used to for above two years past,
and that I admired as much at the voices of him and his men, who seemed to me
only to whisper, and yet I could hear them well enough. But, when I spoke in
that country, it was like a man talking in the streets, to another looking out from
the top of a steeple, unless when I was placed on a table, or held in any person’s
hand.” I told him, “I had likewise observed another thing, that, when I first got
into the ship, and the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the most
little contemptible creatures I had ever beheld.” For indeed, while I was in that
prince’s country, I could never endure to look in a glass, after mine eyes had
been accustomed to such prodigious objects, because the comparison gave me so
despicable a conceit of myself. The captain said, “that while we were at supper,
he observed me to look at every thing with a sort of wonder, and that I often
seemed hardly able to contain my laughter, which he knew not well how to take,
but imputed it to some disorder in my brain.” I answered, “it was very true; and
I wondered how I could forbear, when I saw his dishes of the size of a silver
three-pence, a leg of pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not so big as a nut-shell;” and
so I went on, describing the rest of his household-stuff and provisions, after the
Thesaurus
barbarous: (adj) barbaric, savage, despicable: (adj) vile, base, oblige: (v) coerce, force, drive,
gothic, brutal, heathen, truculent, abominable, mean, abject, miserable, constrain, make, bind, accommodate,
rude, fell, ferocious, fierce, dishonorable, filthy, dirty, hateful, obligate, necessitate, enforce, impel.
uncivilized. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, ignoble. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (v) displease, request,
cultured, civilized, sophisticated, honorable, creditable, praiseworthy, hinder.
refined, humane. worthy, noble, loveable, likable, vanity: (n) egotism, pride, emptiness,
conceit: (n) pretension, vanity, self- laudable, endearing, commendable, arrogance, futility, inanity, vainglory,
esteem, pride, assumption, egotism, lovable. conceitedness, pretension,
fancy, haughtiness, conception, idolatry: (adj, n) devotion; (n) worship, pomposity; (adj, n) amour propre.
caprice, quip. ANTONYMS: (n) veneration, idol worship, iconolatry, ANTONYMS: (n) selflessness,
humility, timidity, selflessness, bibliolatry; (adj) infatuation, fervor, humility, importance, value,
humbleness, reserve. flame, enthusiasm, enchantment. effectiveness.
same manner. For, although he queen had ordered a little equipage of all things
necessary for me, while I was in her service, yet my ideas were wholly taken up
with what I saw on every side of me, and I winked at my own littleness, as
people do at their own faults. The captain understood my raillery very well, and
merrily replied with the old English proverb, “that he doubted mine eyes were
bigger than my belly, for he did not observe my stomach so good, although I had
fasted all day;” and, continuing in his mirth, protested “he would have gladly
given a hundred pounds, to have seen my closet in the eagle’s bill, and
afterwards in its fall from so great a height into the sea; which would certainly
have been a most astonishing object, worthy to have the description of it
transmitted to future ages:” and the comparison of Phaeton was so obvious, that
he could not forbear applying it, although I did not much admire the conceit.%
The captain having been at Tonquin, was, in his return to England, driven
north-eastward to the latitude of 44 degrees, and longitude of 143. But meeting a
trade-wind two days after I came on board him, we sailed southward a long time,
and coasting New Holland, kept our course west-south-west, and then south-
south-west, till we doubled the Cape of Good Hope. Our voyage was very
prosperous, but I shall not trouble the reader with a journal of it. The captain
called in at one or two ports, and sent in his long-boat for provisions and fresh
water; but I never went out of the ship till we came into the Downs, which was
on the third day of June, 1706, about nine months after my escape. I offered to
leave my goods in security for payment of my freight: but the captain protested
he would not receive one farthing. We took a kind leave of each other, and I
made him promise he would come to see me at my house in Redriff. I hired a
horse and guide for five shillings, which I borrowed of the captain.
As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses, the trees, the
cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in Lilliput. I was afraid of
trampling on every traveller I met, and often called aloud to have them stand out
of the way, so that I had like to have gotten one or two broken heads for my
impertinence.
When I came to my own house, for which I was forced to inquire, one of the
Thesaurus
admire: (v) revere, look up to, idolize, doit, small change; (adj) bulrush, merrily: (adv) gaily, cheerfully,
appreciate, adore, wonder, praise, pinch of snuff, peppercorn, old son, blithely, cheerily, gladly, gleefully,
worship, admiring, esteem, honor. jot. mirthfully, brightly, jovially, joyfully,
ANTONYMS: (v) despise, loathe, gladly: (adv, v) happily; (adv) gleefully, gayly. ANTONYMS: (adv) sadly,
scorn, hate, condemn, abhor, contentedly, cheerfully, fain, joyfully, anxiously, miserably, unhappily,
disrespect, detest, disregard, jovially, cheerily, delightedly, carefully, despondently.
disapprove, deprecate. gladsomely, readily. ANTONYMS: raillery: (n) mockery, joke, irony, quiz,
borrowed: (adj) foreign, rubato, (adv) reluctantly, unwillingly, sadly, persiflage, derision, ridicule,
secondary. resentfully, miserably. pleasantry, tease, jest, badinage.
coasting: (adj) drugged; (v) to slide. longitude: (n) line of longitude, southward: (adv) southwards,
doubted: (adj) distrusted, suspected. meridian, span, great circle, date line, southernly; (adj) southbound,
farthing: (n) craps, faro, ante, chuck, dateline, place. southern.
Jonathan Swift 153
servants opening the door, I bent down to go in, (like a goose under a gate,) for
fear of striking my head. My wife run out to embrace me, but I stooped lower
than her knees, thinking she could otherwise never be able to reach my mouth.
My daughter kneeled to ask my blessing, but I could not see her till she arose,
having been so long used to stand with my head and eyes erect to above sixty
feet; and then I went to take her up with one hand by the waist. I looked down
upon the servants, and one or two friends who were in the house, as if they had
been pigmies and I a giant. I told my wife, “she had been too thrifty, for I found
she had starved herself and her daughter to nothing.” In short, I behaved myself
so unaccountably, that they were all of the captain’s opinion when he first saw
me, and concluded I had lost my wits. This I mention as an instance of the great
power of habit and prejudice.%
In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right understanding:
but my wife protested “I should never go to sea any more;” although my evil
destiny so ordered, that she had not power to hinder me, as the reader may
know hereafter. In the mean time, I here conclude the second part of my
unfortunate voyages.
Thesaurus
arose: (v) happen, occur. assist, prompt, encourage, promote, provident, sparing, prudent, stingy,
destiny: (n) fate, chance, fortune, allow, support, accelerate. saving, spare, parsimonious, chary,
kismet, luck, lot, destination, portion, starved: (adj) famished, starving, scotch. ANTONYMS: (adj) wasteful,
weird, life; (n, v) doom. ravenous, meager, emaciated, spendthrift, profligate, extravagant,
ANTONYMS: (n) chance, design. malnourished, thin, esurient, generous.
goose: (n) goof, fathead, cuckoo, hungerly, lean, starveling. unaccountably: (adv) mysteriously,
barnacle, fool, jackass, brent, brant, ANTONYM: (adj) healthy. especially, curiously, bizarrely.
goosecap; (n, v) spur; (v) serpent. stooped: (adj) hunched, stoop, wits: (n) intellect, mind, wit, brains,
hinder: (v) impede, resist, check, stooping, crooked, bended, not common sense, presence,
hamper, obstruct, curb, handicap, straight, inclined, not erect, arched, percipience, observation, mother wit,
delay; (n, v) bar; (adj) posterior, hind. asymmetrical, droopy. right mind, judgment.
ANTONYMS: (v) help, facilitate, thrifty: (adj) careful, economical,
Jonathan Swift 155
PART III—
A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI,

LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB, AND JAPAN
Jonathan Swift 157
CHAPTER %I
[The author sets out on his third voyage. Is taken by pirates. The malice of a
Dutchman. His arrival at an island. He is received into Laputa.]
I had not been at home above ten days, when Captain William Robinson, a
Cornish man, commander of the Hopewell, a stout ship of three hundred tons,
came to my house. I had formerly been surgeon of another ship where he was
master, and a fourth part owner, in a voyage to the Levant. He had always
treated me more like a brother, than an inferior officer; and, hearing of my
arrival, made me a visit, as I apprehended only out of friendship, for nothing
passed more than what is usual after long absences. But repeating his visits often,
expressing his joy to find I me in good health, asking, “whether I were now
settled for life?” adding, “that he intended a voyage to the East Indies in two
months,” at last he plainly invited me, though with some apologies, to be
surgeon of the ship; “that I should have another surgeon under me, beside our
two mates; that my salary should be double to the usual pay; and that having
experienced my knowledge in sea-affairs to be at least equal to his, he would
enter into any engagement to follow my advice, as much as if I had shared in the
command.”
He said so many other obliging things, and I knew him to be so honest a man,
that I could not reject this proposal; the thirst I had of seeing the world,
Thesaurus
apologies: (n) regret. Lucifer, friction match, family unit, weak.
expressing: (adj) significant; (n) family, equal, dyad, duo. surgeon: (n) doctor, sawbones, doc,
speech. repeating: (n) repeat, iteration, reed, operating surgeon, medicine,
inferior: (adj) secondary, bad, humble, renewal, repetition, redundancy, neurosurgeon, plastic surgeon,
poor, junior, petty, lesser, cheap, copying, reduplication; (adj) medico, lister, general practitioner.
base, feeble, vulgar. ANTONYMS: repetitious, iterating, iterative, thirst: (n, v) hunger, lust, wish; (n)
(adj) better, choice, excellent, repetitive. longing, yen, craving, hankering,
premium, adscript, perfect, higher, stout: (adj, n) sturdy, stocky, hearty; dryness, appetite; (v) starve, crave.
quality, senior; (adj, n) superscript; (adj) hardy, strong, robust, obese, ANTONYM: (n) dislike.
(n) boss. husky, bold, corpulent, fleshy. tons: (n) loads, heaps, lots, scads,
knew: (adj) known; (v) recognize, wist. ANTONYMS: (adj) thin, slim, flimsy, scores, stacks, slews, dozens, many,
mates: (n) match, couple, mate, pair, cowardly, slight, skinny, fragile, gobs, lashings.
notwithstanding my past misfortunes, continuing as violent as ever. The only

difficulty that remained, was to persuade my wife, whose consent however I at
last obtained, by the prospect of advantage she proposed to her children.%
We set out the 5th day of August, 1706, and arrived at Fort St. George the
11th of April, 1707. We staid there three weeks to refresh our crew, many of
whom were sick. From thence we went to Tonquin, where the captain resolved
to continue some time, because many of the goods he intended to buy were not
ready, nor could he expect to be dispatched in several months. Therefore, in
hopes to defray some of the charges he must be at, he bought a sloop, loaded it
with several sorts of goods, wherewith the Tonquinese usually trade to the
neighbouring islands, and putting fourteen men on board, whereof three were of
the country, he appointed me master of the sloop, and gave me power to traffic,
while he transacted his affairs at Tonquin.
We had not sailed above three days, when a great storm arising, we were
driven five days to the north-north-east, and then to the east: after which we had
fair weather, but still with a pretty strong gale from the west. Upon the tenth day
we were chased by two pirates, who soon overtook us; for my sloop was so deep
laden, that she sailed very slow, neither were we in a condition to defend
ourselves.
We were boarded about the same time by both the pirates, who entered
furiously at the head of their men; but finding us all prostrate upon our faces (for
so I gave order), they pinioned us with strong ropes, and setting guard upon us,
went to search the sloop.
I observed among them a Dutchman, who seemed to be of some authority,
though he was not commander of either ship. He knew us by our countenances
to be Englishmen, and jabbering to us in his own language, swore we should be
tied back to back and thrown into the sea. I spoken Dutch tolerably well; I told
him who we were, and begged him, in consideration of our being Christians and
Protestants, of neighbouring countries in strict alliance, that he would move the
captains to take some pity on us. This inflamed his rage; he repeated his
threatenings, and turning to his companions, spoke with great vehemence in the
Thesaurus
companions: (n) circle, entourage, gibberish. update, comfort, regenerate,
people. laden: (adj) burdened, full, loaded, rejuvenate, cool, renew, restore; (adj)
defray: (v) disburse, reimburse, clear, ladened, filled, hampered, heavy, refreshing. ANTONYMS: (v) exhaust,
remunerate, make payment, cover, charged, encumbered; (v) lade, load. tire, weary, stagnate, drain, kill.
redeem, meet, spend, liquidate, ANTONYMS: (adj) empty, lacking. sloop: (n) raceabout, knockabout,
satisfy. overtook: (v) overtake. smack, boat, yawl, hoy, buss, cat,
inflamed: (adj) impassioned, excited, prostrate: (adj, v) prone, exhaust, level, clipper, corvette, cutter.
angry, hot, flaming, ablaze, irritated, fatigue; (v) fell, overwhelm, vehemence: (n) force, violence, fury,
passionate, painful, burning; (n) red. overcome, floor, overthrow; (adj) passion, eagerness, strength,
jabbering: (adj) babbling, blithering, deject, knock down. ANTONYM: impetuosity, enthusiasm, fierceness,
blathering, loquacious, voluble, (adj) upright. heat, fervor. ANTONYMS: (n)
gabby; (n) jabber, gabble, babble, refresh: (v) air, enliven, invigorate, indifference, meekness, serenity.
Jonathan Swift 159
Japanese language, as I suppose, often using the word Christianos.%

The largest of the two pirate ships was commanded by a Japanese captain,
who spoke a little Dutch, but very imperfectly. He came up to me, and after
several questions, which I answered in great humility, he said, “we should not
die.” I made the captain a very low bow, and then, turning to the Dutchman, said,
“I was sorry to find more mercy in a heathen, than in a brother christian.” But I
had soon reason to repent those foolish words: for that malicious reprobate,
having often endeavoured in vain to persuade both the captains that I might be
thrown into the sea (which they would not yield to, after the promise made me
that I should not die), however, prevailed so far, as to have a punishment
inflicted on me, worse, in all human appearance, than death itself. My men were
sent by an equal division into both the pirate ships, and my sloop new manned.
As to myself, it was determined that I should be set adrift in a small canoe, with
paddles and a sail, and four days’ provisions; which last, the Japanese captain
was so kind to double out of his own stores, and would permit no man to search
me. I got down into the canoe, while the Dutchman, standing upon the deck,
loaded me with all the curses and injurious terms his language could afford.
About an hour before we saw the pirates I had taken an observation, and
found we were in the latitude of 46 N. and longitude of 183. When I was at some
distance from the pirates, I discovered, by my pocket-glass, several islands to the
south-east. I set up my sail, the wind being fair, with a design to reach the
nearest of those islands, which I made a shift to do, in about three hours. It was
all rocky: however I got many birds’ eggs; and, striking fire, I kindled some heath
and dry sea-weed, by which I roasted my eggs. I ate no other supper, being
resolved to spare my provisions as much as I could. I passed the night under the
shelter of a rock, strewing some heath under me, and slept pretty well.
The next day I sailed to another island, and thence to a third and fourth,
sometimes using my sail, and sometimes my paddles. But, not to trouble the
reader with a particular account of my distresses, let it suffice, that on the fifth
day I arrived at the last island in my sight, which lay south-south-east to the
Thesaurus
curses: (n) abuse. destructive, bad, disadvantageous, reprobate: (adj, n) profligate,
heathen: (adj, n) gentile, ethnic; (n) detrimental, adverse, deleterious, miscreant; (adj) depraved, immoral,
infidel, idolater, paynim, heretic; (adj) inimical, damaging. ANTONYMS: corrupt, dissolute; (v) censure,
heathenish, irreligious, giaour, (adj) healing, favorable, healthy, condemn, reproach; (adj, v)
godless, barbaric. helpful, advantageous, beneficial. perverted; (n) scoundrel.
humility: (n) diffidence, modesty, pirate: (n) buccaneer, corsair, bandit, roasted: (adj) fried, baked.
submission, shyness, meekness, pillager, freebooter, sea robber, strewing: (n) scatter, spreading,
lowliness, timidity, trait, humiliation, robber, sea rover; (n, v) plagiarist; (v) spread, sprinkling, sprinkle,
resignation; (adj) veneration. hijack, infringe. dispersion.
ANTONYMS: (n) haughtiness, repent: (v) deplore, bewail, rue, suffice: (v) satisfy, do, answer,
affectation, conceit, arrogance. mourn, lament, atone, sorry, bemoan, content, fulfill, be sufficient, qualify,
injurious: (adj) evil, harmful, hurtful, feel remorse, grieve, be sorry. function, be enough, suit, fulfil.
former.%
This island was at a greater distance than I expected, and I did not reach it in
less than five hours. I encompassed it almost round, before I could find a
convenient place to land in; which was a small creek, about three times the
wideness of my canoe. I found the island to be all rocky, only a little
intermingled with tufts of grass, and sweet-smelling herbs. I took out my small
provisions and after having refreshed myself, I secured the remainder in a cave,
whereof there were great numbers; I gathered plenty of eggs upon the rocks, and
got a quantity of dry sea-weed, and parched grass, which I designed to kindle
the next day, and roast my eggs as well as I could, for I had about me my flint,
steel, match, and burning-glass. I lay all night in the cave where I had lodged my
provisions. My bed was the same dry grass and sea-weed which I intended for
fuel. I slept very little, for the disquiets of my mind prevailed over my weariness,
and kept me awake. I considered how impossible it was to preserve my life in so
desolate a place, and how miserable my end must be: yet found myself so listless
and desponding, that I had not the heart to rise; and before I could get spirits
enough to creep out of my cave, the day was far advanced. I walked awhile
among the rocks: the sky was perfectly clear, and the sun so hot, that I was
forced to turn my face from it: when all on a sudden it became obscure, as I
thought, in a manner very different from what happens by the interposition of a
cloud. I turned back, and perceived a vast opaque body between me and the sun
moving forwards towards the island: it seemed to be about two miles high, and
hid the sun six or seven minutes; but I did not observe the air to be much colder,
or the sky more darkened, than if I had stood under the shade of a mountain. As
it approached nearer over the place where I was, it appeared to be a firm
substance, the bottom flat, smooth, and shining very bright, from the reflection of
the sea below. I stood upon a height about two hundred yards from the shore,
and saw this vast body descending almost to a parallel with me, at less than an
English mile distance. I took out my pocket perspective, and could plainly
discover numbers of people moving up and down the sides of it, which appeared
to be sloping; but what those people where doing I was not able to distinguish.
Thesaurus
canoe: (n) dugout, pirogue, canoes, intermediation, interjection, location, parched: (adj, n) thirsty; (adj) arid,
caique, birchbark, dugout canoe, locating, placement. adust, torrid, barren, desiccated,
birchbark canoe, felucca; (adj) self- listless: (adj) indifferent, dull, dehydrated, scorched, baked,
sufficient. indolent, careless, languid, inert, withered, shriveled. ANTONYMS:
darkened: (adj) darkens, obscured, inattentive, dispirited, slow, (adj) quenched, humid.
old, obfuscate, murky, cloudy, uninterested, spiritless. sweet-smelling: (adj) aromatic,
opaque, overcast. ANTONYMS: (adj) lively, animated, fragrant, sweet, odorous.
desponding: (adj) despairing, energetic, strong, spirited. wideness: (n) width, broadness,
despondent. opaque: (adj) dense, muddy, obscure, extent, thickness, beam, heaviness,
interposition: (adj, n) mediation; (adj) cloudy, hazy, murky, thick, span, scope, largeness, fullness,
intercession; (n) intervention, unintelligible, milky, misty, vague. diffusiveness. ANTONYM: (n)
interpolation, insertion, interruption, ANTONYM: (adj) transparent. length.
Jonathan Swift 161
The natural love of life gave me some inward motion of joy, and I was ready
to entertain a hope that this adventure might, some way or other, help to deliver
me from the desolate place and condition I was in. But at the same time the
reader can hardly conceive my astonishment, to behold an island in the air,
inhabited by men, who were able (as it should seem) to raise or sink, or put it
into progressive motion, as they pleased. But not being at that time in a
disposition to philosophise upon this phenomenon, I rather chose to observe
what course the island would take, because it seemed for awhile to stand still.
Yet soon after, it advanced nearer, and I could see the sides of it encompassed
with several gradations of galleries, and stairs, at certain intervals, to descend
from one to the other. In the lowest gallery, I beheld some people fishing with
long angling rods, and others looking on. I waved my cap (for my hat was long
since worn out) and my handkerchief toward the island; and upon its nearer
approach, I called and shouted with the utmost strength of my voice; and then
looking circumspectly, I beheld a crowd gather to that side which was most in
my view. I found by their pointing towards me and to each other, that they
plainly discovered me, although they made no return to my shouting. But I could
see four or five men running in great haste, up the stairs, to the top of the island,
who then disappeared. I happened rightly to conjecture, that these were sent for
orders to some person in authority upon this occasion.%
The number of people increased, and, in less than half all hour, the island
was moved and raised in such a manner, that the lowest gallery appeared in a
parallel of less then a hundred yards distance from the height where I stood. I
then put myself in the most supplicating posture, and spoke in the humblest
accent, but received no answer. Those who stood nearest over against me,
seemed to be persons of distinction, as I supposed by their habit. They conferred
earnestly with each other, looking often upon me. At length one of them called
out in a clear, polite, smooth dialect, not unlike in sound to the Italian: and
therefore I returned an answer in that language, hoping at least that the cadence
might be more agreeable to his ears. Although neither of us understood the other,
yet my meaning was easily known, for the people saw the distress I was in.
Thesaurus
angling: (v) angle, hawking, fishing, drop, deign, subside, go down, warmly, passionately. ANTONYMS:
fleet angle, shooting. dismount, derive, get off, come (adv) indifferently, insincerely,
cadence: (n) beat, tempo, measure, down. ANTONYMS: (v) ascend, unconcernedly, jokingly.
rhythm, cadency, descent, time; (n, v) climb, float, scale, increase, level, inward: (adj) inner, intrinsic, internal,
pace; (v) gait, step, rate. mount. interior, intestine, inherent, domestic;
circumspectly: (adv) carefully, dialect: (n) language, speech, (adv) inwardly, inwards, in; (n)
cautiously, warily, deliberately, vernacular, tongue, accent, lingo, innards. ANTONYMS: (adj, adv)
discreetly, guardedly, charily, conversation, say, talk, patois, outward; (adj) outgoing, external.
watchfully, vigilantly, thoughtfully, phraseology. philosophise: (v) philosophize,
considerately. ANTONYMS: (adv) earnestly: (adj, adv) seriously; (adv) cogitate, cerebrate.
thoughtlessly, indiscreetly. eagerly, intently, zealously, solemnly, waved: (adj) undulating, wavy, curly,
descend: (v) settle, condescend, down, ardently, fervently, heartily, gravely, not dated, undated.
They made signs for me to come down from the rock, and go towards the
shore, which I accordingly did; and the flying island being raised to a
convenient height, the verge directly over me, a chain was let down from the
lowest gallery, with a seat fastened to the bottom, to which I fixed myself, and
was drawn up by pulleys.%
Thesaurus
accordingly: (adv) therefore, thus, so, commodious, handy, appropriate, last, minimal, nethermost, under,
then, ergo, as a result, expedient, timely, fit, useful, nearby, lowermost, undermost, poorest; (adj,
correspondingly, according, opportune; (adj, n) advantageous. n) minimum.
appropriately, as a consequence, ANTONYMS: (adj) unwieldy, fixed, shore: (n) coast, edge, beach, seashore,
properly. ANTONYM: (adv) useless, distant, troublesome, stay, seaside, brace, margin; (n, v)
unsuitable. unsuited, remote, unsuitable, prop, land, buttress. ANTONYM: (n)
chain: (n) network, rope, cable, band, unadaptable, unuseful, sea.
catena, range; (adj, n, v) tether; (v) inappropriate. verge: (n, v) edge, skirt; (n) boundary,
bind, fetter; (adj, v) tie; (n, v) flying: (adj) fast, quick, rapid, swift, brink, margin, limit, rim, bound,
handcuff. ANTONYMS: (v) moving, flaring, aflare; (n) fly, flight, brim, side; (v) bend. ANTONYMS:
emancipate, liberate, unchain, detach. aviation, ballooning. (n) end, middle; (v) retreat.
convenient: (adj) comfortable, lowest: (adj) least, bottom, smallest,
Jonathan Swift 163
CHAPTER %II
[The humours and dispositions of the Laputians described. An account of

their learning. Of the king and his court. The author’s reception there. The
inhabitants subject to fear and disquietudes. An account of the women.]
At my alighting, I was surrounded with a crowd of people, but those who

stood nearest seemed to be of better quality. They beheld me with all the marks
and circumstances of wonder; neither indeed was I much in their debt, having
never till then seen a race of mortals so singular in their shapes, habits, and
countenances. Their heads were all reclined, either to the right, or the left; one of
their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith. Their outward
garments were adorned with the figures of suns, moons, and stars; interwoven
with those of fiddles, flutes, harps, trumpets, guitars, harpsichords, and many
other instruments of music, unknown to us in Europe. I observed, here and there,
many in the habit of servants, with a blown bladder, fastened like a flail to the
end of a stick, which they carried in their hands. In each bladder was a small
quantity of dried peas, or little pebbles, as I was afterwards informed. With
these bladders, they now and then flapped the mouths and ears of those who
stood near them, of which practice I could not then conceive the meaning. It
seems the minds of these people are so taken up with intense speculations, that
they neither can speak, nor attend to the discourses of others, without being
Thesaurus
bladder: (n) vesica, balloon, utricle, garb, array, gear, anything worthless. inward; (adj) inner, internal, deep.
vesicle, capsule, urinary bladder, sac, habits: (n) behavior, decorum, peas: (n) beans, bean, bills.
newspaper, bellows, pod, cancelli. pratique. pebbles: (n) shingle, grit, gravel,
blown: (adj) puffy, panting, swollen, interwoven: (adj) interlinking, stones.
winded, inflated, moving, high, interlacing, interlocking, complex, quantity: (n) amount, quantum,
haughty lofty, late; (v) puffing and interwove, twine, contextural, extent, measure, sum, multitude,
blowing; (n) blowen. entangled, inseparable, knotted, total, portion, heap, degree, deal.
flail: (n, v) maul, flutter, wave; (v) related. zenith: (n) apex, peak, top, height,
thrash, flap, thresh, buffet, hit, beat outward: (adj) external, apparent, acme, pinnacle, summit, climax,
up, hurt; (n) hammer. extrinsic, outer, superficial, surface, vertex, culmination, prime.
garments: (n) attire, clothing, dress, outside, ostensible, foreign, outdoor; ANTONYMS: (n) base, bottom,
apparel, raiment, outfit, costume, (adv) out. ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) trough.
roused by some external taction upon the organs of speech and hearing; for
which reason, those persons who are able to afford it always keep a flapper (the
original is climenole) in their family, as one of their domestics; nor ever walk
abroad, or make visits, without him. And the business of this officer is, when two,
three, or more persons are in company, gently to strike with his bladder the
mouth of him who is to speak, and the right ear of him or them to whom the
speaker addresses himself. This flapper is likewise employed diligently to attend
his master in his walks, and upon occasion to give him a soft flap on his eyes;
because he is always so wrapped up in cogitation, that he is in manifest danger
of falling down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every post; and
in the streets, of justling others, or being justled himself into the kennel.%
It was necessary to give the reader this information, without which he would
be at the same loss with me to understand the proceedings of these people, as
they conducted me up the stairs to the top of the island, and from thence to the
royal palace. While we were ascending, they forgot several times what they were
about, and left me to myself, till their memories were again roused by their
flappers; for they appeared altogether unmoved by the sight of my foreign habit
and countenance, and by the shouts of the vulgar, whose thoughts and minds
were more disengaged.
At last we entered the palace, and proceeded into the chamber of presence,
where I saw the king seated on his throne, attended on each side by persons of
prime quality. Before the throne, was a large table filled with globes and spheres,
and mathematical instruments of all kinds. His majesty took not the least notice
of us, although our entrance was not without sufficient noise, by the concourse of
all persons belonging to the court. But he was then deep in a problem; and we
attended at least an hour, before he could solve it. There stood by him, on each
side, a young page with flaps in their hands, and when they saw he was at
leisure, one of them gently struck his mouth, and the other his right ear; at which
he startled like one awaked on the sudden, and looking towards me and the
company I was in, recollected the occasion of our coming, whereof he had been
informed before. He spoke some words, whereupon immediately a young man
Thesaurus
ascending: (adj) uphill, rising, detached, liberated, loosened. seated: (adj) sat, sedentary.
assurgent, climbing, ascendent; (n) flap: (v) flop, wave, beat, brandish, shouts: (n) cries.
ascension, ascent, rise, advance, shake; (n, v) fuss, flutter, pother; (n) taction: (n) contact, feel, tactility,
movement; (v) go up. slap, disturbance, valve. touch.
cogitation: (n) thought, cerebration, flapper: (n) missy, girl, flipper, fille; unmoved: (adj) apathetic, unaffected,
consideration, thinking, (v) remembrancer. indifferent, unconcerned,
contemplation, deliberation, flaps: (n) flapping, aerofoil, airfoil, unimpressed, uninspired,
speculation, study, mentation, dither, control surface. dispassionate, imperturbable, calm,
cogitations, reasoning. precipice: (n) abyss, chasm, undisturbed, fixed. ANTONYMS:
disengaged: (adj) vacant, unemployed, escarpment, gulf, steep, crag, verge, (adj) affected, compliant, uptight,
disentangled, free, freed, brink, abysm, ravine, drop. concerned, enthusiastic, tolerant,
untrammelled, devoid, unreserved, proceeded: (v) proceed, yode. sensitive.
Jonathan Swift 165
with a flap came up to my side, and flapped me gently on the right ear; but I
made signs, as well as I could, that I had no occasion for such an instrument;
which, as I afterwards found, gave his majesty, and the whole court, a very mean
opinion of my understanding. The king, as far as I could conjecture, asked me
several questions, and I addressed myself to him in all the languages I had.
When it was found I could neither understand nor be understood, I was
conducted by his order to an apartment in his palace (this prince being
distinguished above all his predecessors for his hospitality to strangers), where
two servants were appointed to attend me. My dinner was brought, and four
persons of quality, whom I remembered to have seen very near the king’s person,
did me the honour to dine with me. We had two courses, of three dishes each. In
the first course, there was a shoulder of mutton cut into an equilateral triangle, a
piece of beef into a rhomboides, and a pudding into a cycloid. The second course
was two ducks trussed up in the form of fiddles; sausages and puddings
resembling flutes and hautboys, and a breast of veal in the shape of a harp. The
servants cut our bread into cones, cylinders, parallelograms, and several other
mathematical figures.%
While we were at dinner, I made bold to ask the names of several things in
their language, and those noble persons, by the assistance of their flappers,
delighted to give me answers, hoping to raise my admiration of their great
abilities if I could be brought to converse with them. I was soon able to call for
bread and drink, or whatever else I wanted.
After dinner my company withdrew, and a person was sent to me by the
king’s order, attended by a flapper. He brought with him pen, ink, and paper,
and three or four books, giving me to understand by signs, that he was sent to
teach me the language. We sat together four hours, in which time I wrote down a
great number of words in columns, with the translations over against them; I
likewise made a shift to learn several short sentences; for my tutor would order
one of my servants to fetch something, to turn about, to make a bow, to sit, or to
stand, or walk, and the like. Then I took down the sentence in writing. He
showed me also, in one of his books, the figures of the sun, moon, and stars, the
Thesaurus
cycloid: (adj) cycloidal, rounded; (n) welcome, cordial reception, kindness, triangle: (n) trigon, trilateral, set
ellipsoid, trochoid, curate cycloid. amiability, warmth, solicitously, square, reed, submaxillary triangle ,
ducks: (n) geese, family Anatidae, politely. ANTONYMS: (n) frostiness, xylophone, triennium, trident,
birds, Anseriformes, Anatidae, game inhospitality. wooden horse, wheel, trisula.
birds, order Anseriformes, wildfowl. likewise: (adv) besides, in addition, trussed: (adj) bound, fastened, laced,
equilateral: (adj) square; (n) rhombus, furthermore, alike, moreover, further, even.
lozenge. too, similarly; (adj, adv) as well, tutor: (n) teacher, instructor, mentor,
harp: (n) lyre, harmonica, harper, lute, equally; (adj) even. trainer, master, guardian; (v) instruct,
mouth harp; (v) dwell, ingeminate, pudding: (n) dessert, sweet, duff, school, educate, train, teach.
iterate, restate, reiterate, retell. flummery, custard; (adj) pap, jam, veal: (n) calf, venison, veau, animal
hospitality: (n) entertainment, curd, clay, butter, dough. protein, beef, calves' feet, chicken,
generosity, friendliness, cordiality, sausages: (n) bond. ham, lamb, meat, mutton.
zodiac, the tropics, and polar circles, together with the denominations of many
plains and solids. He gave me the names and descriptions of all the musical
instruments, and the general terms of art in playing on each of them. After he
had left me, I placed all my words, with their interpretations, in alphabetical
order. And thus, in a few days, by the help of a very faithful memory, I got some
insight into their language. The word, which I interpret the flying or floating
island, is in the original Laputa, whereof I could never learn the true etymology.
Lap, in the old obsolete language, signifies high; and untuh, a governor; from
which they say, by corruption, was derived Laputa, from Lapuntuh. But I do not
approve of this derivation, which seems to be a little strained. I ventured to offer
to the learned among them a conjecture of my own, that Laputa was quasi lap
outed; lap, signifying properly, the dancing of the sunbeams in the sea, and
outed, a wing; which, however, I shall not obtrude, but submit to the judicious
reader.%
Those to whom the king had entrusted me, observing how ill I was clad,
ordered a tailor to come next morning, and take measure for a suit of clothes.
This operator did his office after a different manner from those of his trade in
Europe. He first took my altitude by a quadrant, and then, with a rule and
compasses, described the dimensions and outlines of my whole body, all which
he entered upon paper; and in six days brought my clothes very ill made, and
quite out of shape, by happening to mistake a figure in the calculation. But my
comfort was, that I observed such accidents very frequent, and little regarded.
During my confinement for want of clothes, and by an indisposition that
held me some days longer, I much enlarged my dictionary; and when I went next
to court, was able to understand many things the king spoke, and to return him
some kind of answers. His majesty had given orders, that the island should move
north-east and by east, to the vertical point over Lagado, the metropolis of the
whole kingdom below, upon the firm earth. It was about ninety leagues distant,
and our voyage lasted four days and a half. I was not in the least sensible of the
progressive motion made in the air by the island. On the second morning, about
eleven o’clock, the king himself in person, attended by his nobility, courtiers, and
Thesaurus
alphabetical: (adj) abecedarian. etymology. ANTONYMS: (n) result, obtrude: (v) impose, force, encroach,
ANTONYMS: (adj) analphabetic, outgrowth. inflict, protrude, stick out, infringe,
disordered, intermittent, interrupted. etymology: (n) pedigree, history, meddle, visit, barge, push.
clad: (adj) dressed, attired, clothed, linguistics, story; (v) engulf, engross, quasi: (adv) nearly, almost, partly,
coated, garbed; (n) cladding; (prep) attainment, Addison, acquisition, practically, just as; (adj) mock,
gowned; (v) costume, shod, dress, absorb. ostensible, similar, pseudo; (n) semi.
attire. ANTONYMS: (adj) undressed, indisposition: (adj, n, v) ailment; (n) sunbeams: (n) sunshine, light,
unclothed. disinclination, dislike, distaste, daylight, rays.
compasses: (n) aesthesiometer. aversion, reluctance, hesitation; (n, v) tropics: (n) climatic zone, Torrid Zone.
derivation: (n) ancestry, origin, birth, illness, disorder, disease; (adj, n) zodiac: (n) band, girth, constellation,
extraction, source, cause, lineage, infirmity. ANTONYM: (n) baldric, circle, tyre, Pleiades,
derivative, foundation, descent, inclination. diagram, girdle, Great Bear, girt.
Jonathan Swift 167
officers, having prepared all their musical instruments, played on them for three
hours without intermission, so that I was quite stunned with the noise; neither
could I possibly guess the meaning, till my tutor informed me. He said that, the
people of their island had their ears adapted to hear “the music of the spheres,
which always played at certain periods, and the court was now prepared to bear
their part, in whatever instrument they most excelled.”
In our journey towards Lagado, the capital city, his majesty ordered that the
island should stop over certain towns and villages, from whence he might
receive the petitions of his subjects. And to this purpose, several packthreads
were let down, with small weights at the bottom. On these packthreads the
people strung their petitions, which mounted up directly, like the scraps of paper
fastened by school boys at the end of the string that holds their kite. Sometimes
we received wine and victuals from below, which were drawn up by pulleys.%
The knowledge I had in mathematics, gave me great assistance in acquiring
their phraseology, which depended much upon that science, and music; and in
the latter I was not unskilled. Their ideas are perpetually conversant in lines and
figures. If they would, for example, praise the beauty of a woman, or any other
animal, they describe it by rhombs, circles, parallelograms, ellipses, and other
geometrical terms, or by words of art drawn from music, needless here to repeat.
I observed in the king’s kitchen all sorts of mathematical and musical
instruments, after the figures of which they cut up the joints that were served to
his majesty’s table.
Their houses are very ill built, the walls bevil, without one right angle in any
apartment; and this defect arises from the contempt they bear to practical
geometry, which they despise as vulgar and mechanic; those instructions they
give being too refined for the intellects of their workmen, which occasions
perpetual mistakes. And although they are dexterous enough upon a piece of
paper, in the management of the rule, the pencil, and the divider, yet in the
common actions and behaviour of life, I have not seen a more clumsy, awkward,
and unhandy people, nor so slow and perplexed in their conceptions upon all
other subjects, except those of mathematics and music. They are very bad
Thesaurus
conversant: (adj) proficient, knowing, mathematical. assured, clear, knowing.
informed, familiar, versed, learned, intermission: (n) rest, pause, lull, phraseology: (n) language, expression,
cognizant, conscious, erudite, cessation, suspension, interruption, phrasing, wording, idiom,
experienced, skilled. ANTONYMS: abeyance, disruption, gap, vernacular, dialect, choice of words,
(adj) unfamiliar, oblivious, discontinuance, respite. ANTONYM: terminology, locution; (n, v) style.
inexperienced. (n) continuation. scraps: (n) garbage, odds and ends,
divider: (n) partition, screen, periods: (n) period. scrap, bits, food waste, leftover, trash,
bulkhead, wall, bunton, divisor, perplexed: (adj) confused, puzzled, waste, oddments, leftovers, residue.
structure, dividing knife, dividers, baffled, confounded, doubtful, unhandy: (adj, v) awkward; (adj)
partitioning, indexing attachment. distracted, disconcerted; (adj, v) maladroit, lubberly, inconvenient,
ANTONYM: (n) lumper. intricate, complicated, lost, involved. inept, gauche, unwieldy, gawky,
geometrical: (adj) nonrepresentational, ANTONYMS: (adj) unperplexed, ungainly, cumbersome, bulky.
reasoners, and vehemently given to opposition, unless when they happen to be

of the right opinion, which is seldom their case. Imagination, fancy, and
invention, they are wholly strangers to, nor have any words in their language, by
which those ideas can be expressed; the whole compass of their thoughts and
mind being shut up within the two forementioned sciences.%
Most of them, and especially those who deal in the astronomical part, have
great faith in judicial astrology, although they are ashamed to own it publicly.
But what I chiefly admired, and thought altogether unaccountable, was the
strong disposition I observed in them towards news and politics, perpetually
inquiring into public affairs, giving their judgments in matters of state, and
passionately disputing every inch of a party opinion. I have indeed observed the
same disposition among most of the mathematicians I have known in Europe,
although I could never discover the least analogy between the two sciences;
unless those people suppose, that because the smallest circle has as many
degrees as the largest, therefore the regulation and management of the world
require no more abilities than the handling and turning of a globe; but I rather
take this quality to spring from a very common infirmity of human nature,
inclining us to be most curious and conceited in matters where we have least
concern, and for which we are least adapted by study or nature.
These people are under continual disquietudes, never enjoying a minutes
peace of mind; and their disturbances proceed from causes which very little
affect the rest of mortals. Their apprehensions arise from several changes they
dread in the celestial bodies: for instance, that the earth, by the continual
approaches of the sun towards it, must, in course of time, be absorbed, or
swallowed up; that the face of the sun, will, by degrees, be encrusted with its
own effluvia, and give no more light to the world; that the earth very narrowly
escaped a brush from the tail of the last comet, which would have infallibly
reduced it to ashes; and that the next, which they have calculated for one-and-
thirty years hence, will probably destroy us. For if, in its perihelion, it should
approach within a certain degree of the sun (as by their calculations they have
reason to dread) it will receive a degree of heat ten thousand times more intense
Thesaurus
astrology: (n) horoscope, astronomy, encrusted: (adj) crusted, crustlike, sickness, disease, weakness.
judicial astrology, pseudoscience, covered, smudged, dirty, filthy, ANTONYMS: (n) health, wellness,
astrologies, starcraft, star divination, peeling, grubby, soiled, flaking, strength.
magic, genethlialogy. curmudgeonly. ANTONYM: (adj) strangers: (n) stranger.
conceited: (adj) arrogant, cocky, vain, smooth. unaccountable: (adj)
boastful, proud, smug, affected, inclining: (adj) oblique, shelving; (n) incomprehensible, inexplicable,
assuming, egotistical, haughty, leaning, tendency, disposition, strange, unintelligible, unexplainable,
pompous. ANTONYMS: (adj) movement, proclivity, sentiment, mysterious, impenetrable,
modest, insecure, meek, selfless, propensity, predilection, partiality. undiscoverable, undecipherable,
unassuming. infirmity: (adj, n) frailty, foible, unknowable, unnatural.
disputing: (adj) opposed; (v) imbecility; (n) feebleness, impotence, ANTONYMS: (adj) accountable,
disputant. disability, decrepitude, illness, explainable, responsible, explicable.
Jonathan Swift 169
than that of red hot glowing iron, and in its absence from the sun, carry a blazing
tail ten hundred thousand and fourteen miles long, through which, if the earth
should pass at the distance of one hundred thousand miles from the nucleus, or
main body of the comet, it must in its passage be set on fire, and reduced to
ashes: that the sun, daily spending its rays without any nutriment to supply
them, will at last be wholly consumed and annihilated; which must be attended
with the destruction of this earth, and of all the planets that receive their light
from it.%
They are so perpetually alarmed with the apprehensions of these, and the like
impending dangers, that they can neither sleep quietly in their beds, nor have
any relish for the common pleasures and amusements of life. When they meet an
acquaintance in the morning, the first question is about the sun’s health, how he
looked at his setting and rising, and what hopes they have to avoid the stroke of
the approaching comet. This conversation they are apt to run into with the same
temper that boys discover in delighting to hear terrible stories of spirits and
hobgoblins, which they greedily listen to, and dare not go to bed for fear.
The women of the island have abundance of vivacity: they, contemn their
husbands, and are exceedingly fond of strangers, whereof there is always a
considerable number from the continent below, attending at court, either upon
affairs of the several towns and corporations, or their own particular occasions,
but are much despised, because they want the same endowments. Among these
the ladies choose their gallants: but the vexation is, that they act with too much
ease and security; for the husband is always so rapt in speculation, that the
mistress and lover may proceed to the greatest familiarities before his face, if he
be but provided with paper and implements, and without his flapper at his side.
The wives and daughters lament their confinement to the island, although I
think it the most delicious spot of ground in the world; and although they live
here in the greatest plenty and magnificence, and are allowed to do whatever
they please, they long to see the world, and take the diversions of the metropolis,
which they are not allowed to do without a particular license from the king; and
this is not easy to be obtained, because the people of quality have found, by
Thesaurus
annihilated: (adj) exterminated, lost, graspingly, eagerly, enviously. pleasures: (n) pleasure.
uncreated, wiped out, annihilate; (v) ANTONYM: (adv) sparingly. rapt: (adj) engrossed, intent, ecstatic,
perished. lament: (v) bemoan, complain, preoccupied, spellbound, captive,
contemn: (v) despise, disdain, neglect, deplore, grieve, keen, bewail, mourn; enthralled, attentive, fixed,
deride, disregard, slight, feel (n) dirge, complaint; (n, v) wail, enwrapped; (v) engrossed in.
contempt for, detest, demean, moan. ANTONYMS: (n) celebration, ANTONYMS: (adj) detached,
depreciate; (n, v) scorn. joy; (v) revel, rejoice, celebrate, inattentive, uninterested, bored.
delighting: (adj) satisfactory, applaud, praise, compliment. vivacity: (adj, n) life, liveliness; (n)
attractive. nutriment: (n, v) nourishment; (n) energy, vitality, enthusiasm, dash,
greedily: (adv) covetously, avidly, food, fare, diet, nutrient, nutrition, spirit, vigor, happiness, sparkle,
voraciously, ravenously, rapaciously, alimentation, feed, nurture, meat, effervescence. ANTONYMS: (n)
acquisitively, gluttonously, hungrily, meal. apathy, dullness, sluggishness.
frequent experience, how hard it is to persuade their women to return from

below. I was told that a great court lady, who had several children,—is married
to the prime minister, the richest subject in the kingdom, a very graceful person,
extremely fond of her, and lives in the finest palace of the island,—went down to
Lagado on the pretence of health, there hid herself for several months, till the
king sent a warrant to search for her; and she was found in an obscure eating-
house all in rags, having pawned her clothes to maintain an old deformed
footman, who beat her every day, and in whose company she was taken, much
against her will. And although her husband received her with all possible
kindness, and without the least reproach, she soon after contrived to steal down
again, with all her jewels, to the same gallant, and has not been heard of since.%
This may perhaps pass with the reader rather for an European or English
story, than for one of a country so remote. But he may please to consider, that the
caprices of womankind are not limited by any climate or nation, and that they
are much more uniform, than can be easily imagined.
In about a month’s time, I had made a tolerable proficiency in their language,
and was able to answer most of the king’s questions, when I had the honour to
attend him. His majesty discovered not the least curiosity to inquire into the laws,
government, history, religion, or manners of the countries where I had been; but
confined his questions to the state of mathematics, and received the account I
gave him with great contempt and indifference, though often roused by his
flapper on each side.
Thesaurus
countries: (n) country. airy, becoming, lovely, lithe. capability, dexterity, competence,
footman: (n) attendant, butler, ANTONYMS: (adj) inelegant, stocky, efficiency, knowledge, expertness,
follower, flunkey, flunky, varlet, awkward, vigorous, jerky, ugly, skill, facility, craft. ANTONYMS: (n)
servitor, valet de chambre, boy, stilted, heavy, coarse, strenuous. inability, inexperience.
knave; (n, v) lackey. jewels: (n) jewelry, gems, wealth, rags: (adj) refuse, rubble, scourings,
gallant: (adj) fearless, brave, daring, hoops, Perrie, riches, studs, fortune, sweepings, trash, waste; (n) clothing,
courageous, chivalrous, bold, manly, fineness, earrings, decoration. tatter, orts, odds and ends, dress.
heroic, dashing, courteous, fine. pretence: (n) deceit, pretext, steal: (v) purloin, abstract, sneak, filch,
ANTONYMS: (adj) boorish, rude, dissimulation, pretense, affectation, pinch, creep, misappropriate, rob,
selfish. falsehood, deception, hypocrisy, pilfer; (n) bargain; (n, v) snatch.
graceful: (adj) beautiful, delicate, bluff, appearance, pretension. womankind: (n) womanhood, gentle
amiable, easy, fine, charming, fair, proficiency: (n) ability, expertise, sex, people.
Jonathan Swift 171
CHAPTER III
[A phenomenon solved by modern philosophy and astronomy. The

Laputians’ great improvements in the latter. The king’s method of suppressing
insurrections.]
I desired leave of this prince to see the curiosities of the island, which he was
graciously pleased to grant, and ordered my tutor to attend me. I chiefly wanted
to know, to what cause, in art or in nature, it owed its several motions, whereof I
will now give a philosophical account to the reader.%
The flying or floating island is exactly circular, its diameter 7837 yards, or
about four miles and a half, and consequently contains ten thousand acres. It is
three hundred yards thick. The bottom, or under surface, which appears to those
who view it below, is one even regular plate of adamant, shooting up to the
height of about two hundred yards. Above it lie the several minerals in their
usual order, and over all is a coat of rich mould, ten or twelve feet deep. The
declivity of the upper surface, from the circumference to the centre, is the natural
cause why all the dews and rains, which fall upon the island, are conveyed in
small rivulets toward the middle, where they are emptied into four large basins,
each of about half a mile in circuit, and two hundred yards distant from the
centre. From these basins the water is continually exhaled by the sun in the
daytime, which effectually prevents their overflowing. Besides, as it is in the
Thesaurus
adamant: (adj) rigid, obdurate, above all, especially, headly, mostly, decisively; (adj) nicely, fully, head
stubborn, immovable, firm, largely, primely, predominantly; (adj, and shoulders. ANTONYM: (adv)
inflexible, unyielding, steadfast, adv) mainly, particularly. ineffectually.
inexorable, tough, obstinate. ANTONYM: (adv) partially. overflowing: (adj) full, copious,
ANTONYMS: (adj) compliant, daytime: (n) day, afternoon, period, exuberant, flooding, bountiful,
flexible, pliant, supple, soft, eve, daylight hours, Clarence generous, brimming, profuse; (n, v)
swayable, yielding, acquiescing, Shepard day Jr, Clarence day, light, flood, inundation, deluge.
receptive, acquiescent, irresolute. eventide, evening. ANTONYM: (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) sparse, scarce.
astronomy: (n) astrology, astrometry, night. rains: (n) wet.
physics, astrodynamics, effectually: (adv) efficaciously, suppressing: (n) reticence.
astrophysical, astrophysics. effectively, validly, adequately, twelve: (adj, n) dozen, XII; (n) boxcars,
chiefly: (adv) principally, primarily, potently, tellingly, strongly, large integer.
power of the monarch to raise the island above the region of clouds and vapours,
he can prevent the falling of dews and rain whenever he pleases. For the highest
clouds cannot rise above two miles, as naturalists agree, at least they were never
known to do so in that country.%
At the centre of the island there is a chasm about fifty yards in diameter,
whence the astronomers descend into a large dome, which is therefore called
flandona gagnole, or the astronomer’s cave, situated at the depth of a hundred
yards beneath the upper surface of the adamant. In this cave are twenty lamps
continually burning, which, from the reflection of the adamant, cast a strong
light into every part. The place is stored with great variety of sextants, quadrants,
telescopes, astrolabes, and other astronomical instruments. But the greatest
curiosity, upon which the fate of the island depends, is a loadstone of a
prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver’s shuttle. It is in length six yards,
and in the thickest part at least three yards over. This magnet is sustained by a
very strong axle of adamant passing through its middle, upon which it plays,
and is poised so exactly that the weakest hand can turn it. It is hooped round
with a hollow cylinder of adamant, four feet yards in diameter, placed
horizontally, and supported by eight adamantine feet, each six yards high. In the
middle of the concave side, there is a groove twelve inches deep, in which the
extremities of the axle are lodged, and turned round as there is occasion.
The stone cannot be removed from its place by any force, because the hoop
and its feet are one continued piece with that body of adamant which constitutes
the bottom of the island.
By means of this loadstone, the island is made to rise and fall, and move from
one place to another. For, with respect to that part of the earth over which the
monarch presides, the stone is endued at one of its sides with an attractive power,
and at the other with a repulsive. Upon placing the magnet erect, with its
attracting end towards the earth, the island descends; but when the repelling
extremity points downwards, the island mounts directly upwards. When the
position of the stone is oblique, the motion of the island is so too: for in this
magnet, the forces always act in lines parallel to its direction.
Thesaurus
adamantine: (adj) hard, inexorable, conclusion. ANTONYMS: (n) trunk, repel, severe, repulsion, powerful,
intransigent, strong, robust, puissant, average, minimum, head, leniency. wicked, yucky.
valid, powerful, potent, rigid, hoop: (n) circle, band, ring, loop, repulsive: (adj) offensive, detestable,
inflexible. annulus, round, sphere, wheel, ugly, disagreeable, nauseous,
concave: (n) indentation, depression, circlet, halo; (v) encircle. hideous, loathsome, abhorrent; (adj,
concavity; (adj) cavernous, biconcave, hooped: (adj) with stripes, stripy, v) abominable, hateful, obnoxious.
cupped, dipped, arched, indented; striped, girded. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant,
(adj, n) crescent; (v) stove in. loadstone: (n) magnet, magnetite, delightful, desirable, reputable,
ANTONYM: (adj) curved. loadstar. lovely, lovable, humane, appealing,
extremity: (n) end, member, mounts: (adj) mounted. laudable.
boundary, bound, close, appendage, repelling: (adj) offensive, repellant, vapours: (n) vapors, megrims, blue
limit, limb, ending, fringe, repellent, loathsome, disgusting, devils, blues.
Jonathan Swift 173
By this oblique motion, the island is conveyed to different parts of the

monarch’s dominions. To explain the manner of its progress, let A B represent a
line drawn across the dominions of Balnibarbi, let the line c d represent the
loadstone, of which let d be the repelling end, and c the attracting end, the island
being over C: let the stone be placed in position c d, with its repelling end
downwards; then the island will be driven upwards obliquely towards D. When
it is arrived at D, let the stone be turned upon its axle, till its attracting end points
towards E, and then the island will be carried obliquely towards E; where, if the
stone be again turned upon its axle till it stands in the position E F, with its
repelling point downwards, the island will rise obliquely towards F, where, by
directing the attracting end towards G, the island may be carried to G, and from
G to H, by turning the stone, so as to make its repelling extremity to point
directly downward. And thus, by changing the situation of the stone, as often as
there is occasion, the island is made to rise and fall by turns in an oblique
direction, and by those alternate risings and fallings (the obliquity being not
considerable) is conveyed from one part of the dominions to the other.%
But it must be observed, that this island cannot move beyond the extent of
the dominions below, nor can it rise above the height of four miles. For which the
astronomers (who have written large systems concerning the stone) assign the
following reason: that the magnetic virtue does not extend beyond the distance
of four miles, and that the mineral, which acts upon the stone in the bowels of
the earth, and in the sea about six leagues distant from the shore, is not diffused
through the whole globe, but terminated with the limits of the king’s dominions;
and it was easy, from the great advantage of such a superior situation, for a
prince to bring under his obedience whatever country lay within the attraction of
that magnet.
When the stone is put parallel to the plane of the horizon, the island stands
still; for in that case the extremities of it, being at equal distance from the earth,
act with equal force, the one in drawing downwards, the other in pushing
upwards, and consequently no motion can ensue.
This loadstone is under the care of certain astronomers, who, from time to
Thesaurus
axle: (n) pole, arbor, hinge, shaft, antecede, dwindle, recede. nominative.
pivot, bobbin, mandrel, swivel, magnet: (n) lodestone, magnetic, obliquely: (adj, adv) athwart,
axletree, spindle, journal. seduction, siderite, prestige, transversely, askew; (adv) aslant,
bowels: (n) gut, compassion, pity, permanent magnet, magnetic force, indirectly, slopingly, slantingly,
inside, bowel, viscera, innards, belly, temptation, magnets, loadstone, sideways, sidelong, skewly, askance.
guts, insides, intestines. magnetism. ANTONYM: (adv) straight.
diffused: (adj) spread, dispersed, dim, oblique: (adj) circuitous, devious, obliquity: (n) inclination, crookedness,
distributed, softened. lateral, side, roundabout, slanting, slope, depravity, asynclitism,
ensue: (v) come, arise, happen, result, evasive, collateral, sloping, inclined, meretriciousness, deceptiveness,
succeed, occur, transpire, turn out, tortuous. ANTONYMS: (adj) direct, grade, deviousness; (adj) pollution,
befall, come after, stem. level, perpendicular, parallel, overt, pravity.
ANTONYMS: (v) forerun, preface, explicit, straight, clear, upright; (n)
time, give it such positions as the monarch directs. They spend the greatest part
of their lives in observing the celestial bodies, which they do by the assistance of
glasses, far excelling ours in goodness. For, although their largest telescopes do
not exceed three feet, they magnify much more than those of a hundred with us,
and show the stars with greater clearness. This advantage has enabled them to
extend their discoveries much further than our astronomers in Europe; for they
have made a catalogue of ten thousand fixed stars, whereas the largest of ours do
not contain above one third part of that number. They have likewise discovered
two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars; whereof the innermost is
distant from the centre of the primary planet exactly three of his diameters, and
the outermost, five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter
in twenty-one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very
near in the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from the centre of
Mars; which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of
gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies.%
They have observed ninety-three different comets, and settled their periods
with great exactness. If this be true (and they affirm it with great confidence) it is
much to be wished, that their observations were made public, whereby the
theory of comets, which at present is very lame and defective, might be brought
to the same perfection with other arts of astronomy.
The king would be the most absolute prince in the universe, if he could but
prevail on a ministry to join with him; but these having their estates below on the
continent, and considering that the office of a favourite has a very uncertain
tenure, would never consent to the enslaving of their country.
If any town should engage in rebellion or mutiny, fall into violent factions, or
refuse to pay the usual tribute, the king has two methods of reducing them to
obedience. The first and the mildest course is, by keeping the island hovering
over such a town, and the lands about it, whereby he can deprive them of the
benefit of the sun and the rain, and consequently afflict the inhabitants with
dearth and diseases: and if the crime deserve it, they are at the same time pelted
from above with great stones, against which they have no defence but by
Thesaurus
afflict: (n, v) pain, distress; (v) trouble, haziness, mustiness. aggravate. ANTONYMS: (v) reduce,
grieve, torment, hurt, strike, excelling: (v) careless, passant, understate, minimize, shrink,
aggrieve, smite, bother, disturb. current; (adj) perfect, excellent. decrease, alleviate.
ANTONYMS: (v) aid, comfort, gravitation: (n) gravity, attraction, outermost: (adj, adv) farthest; (adj)
encourage, help, soothe. pull, graveness, habit, gravitational outmost, extreme, utmost, uttermost,
clearness: (n) clarity, brightness, attraction, gravitational force, last, outer, outside, external, exterior,
distinctness, perspicuity, lucidity, attractive force. furthermost.
explicitness, sharpness, simplicity, hovering: (adj) suspended, poised, revolve: (v) consider, meditate,
purity, limpidity, intelligibility. impending, flying, high. deliberate, ponder, circle,
ANTONYMS: (n) ambiguity, opacity, magnify: (v) exaggerate, enhance, contemplate, return, circulate, orbit,
dirtiness, vagueness, unclearness, aggrandize, enlarge, intensify, laud, rotate; (n, v) gyrate.
obscureness, indistinctness, clutter, glorify, expand, increase, extend, squares: (n) square.
Jonathan Swift 175
creeping into cellars or caves, while the roofs of their houses are beaten to pieces.
But if they still continue obstinate, or offer to raise insurrections, he proceeds to
the last remedy, by letting the island drop directly upon their heads, which
makes a universal destruction both of houses and men. However, this is an
extremity to which the prince is seldom driven, neither indeed is he willing to
put it in execution; nor dare his ministers advise him to an action, which, as it
would render them odious to the people, so it would be a great damage to their
own estates, which all lie below; for the island is the king’s demesne.%
But there is still indeed a more weighty reason, why the kings of this country
have been always averse from executing so terrible an action, unless upon the
utmost necessity. For, if the town intended to be destroyed should have in it any
tall rocks, as it generally falls out in the larger cities, a situation probably chosen
at first with a view to prevent such a catastrophe; or if it abound in high spires,
or pillars of stone, a sudden fall might endanger the bottom or under surface of
the island, which, although it consist, as I have said, of one entire adamant, two
hundred yards thick, might happen to crack by too great a shock, or burst by
approaching too near the fires from the houses below, as the backs, both of iron
and stone, will often do in our chimneys. Of all this the people are well apprised,
and understand how far to carry their obstinacy, where their liberty or property
is concerned. And the king, when he is highest provoked, and most determined
to press a city to rubbish, orders the island to descend with great gentleness, out
of a pretence of tenderness to his people, but, indeed, for fear of breaking the
adamantine bottom; in which case, it is the opinion of all their philosophers, that
the loadstone could no longer hold it up, and the whole mass would fall to the
ground.
By a fundamental law of this realm, neither the king, nor either of his two
eldest sons, are permitted to leave the island; nor the queen, till she is past child-
bearing.
Thesaurus
apprised: (adj) conscious, informed, menace, scupper, queer, peril, contumacy, mulishness, impenitence,
familiar, knowledgeable. jeopardise; (n, v) risk, danger, expose resolve, resoluteness, impenitency,
averse: (adj) reluctant, indisposed, to danger. ANTONYMS: (v) protect, pertinacity. ANTONYMS: (n)
backward, opposed, unwilling, shelter, aid, assist, guard, preserve, cooperation, compliance.
disinclined, loth, antagonistic, help, save, safeguard. weighty: (adj) heavy, ponderous,
antipathetical, repugnant, executing: (n) performing, execution, grievous, powerful, profound; (adj, v)
antipathetic. ANTONYMS: (adj) decapitation, capital punishment, grave, serious, momentous,
inclined, sympathetic, caring, eager, electrocution, death penalty, significant, solemn, influential.
willing, keen. crucifixion, implementation, corporal ANTONYMS: (adj) superficial, light,
cellars: (n) cellar. punishment; (v) perform, execute. unimportant, trivial, weightless,
chimneys: (n) chimney. obstinacy: (n) stubbornness, firmness, unsubstantial, thin, solvable, small,
endanger: (v) imperil, hazard, venture, bullheadedness, determination, facile, easy.
Jonathan Swift 177
CHAPTER IV
[The author leaves Laputa; is conveyed to Balnibarbi; arrives at the

metropolis. A description of the metropolis, and the country adjoining. The
author hospitably received by a great lord. His conversation with that lord.]
Although I cannot say that I was ill treated in this island, yet I must confess I
thought myself too much neglected, not without some degree of contempt; for
neither prince nor people appeared to be curious in any part of knowledge,
except mathematics and music, wherein I was far their inferior, and upon that
account very little regarded.%
On the other side, after having seen all the curiosities of the island, I was very
desirous to leave it, being heartily weary of those people. They were indeed
excellent in two sciences for which I have great esteem, and wherein I am not
unversed; but, at the same time, so abstracted and involved in speculation, that I
never met with such disagreeable companions. I conversed only with women,
tradesmen, flappers, and court-pages, during two months of my abode there; by
which, at last, I rendered myself extremely contemptible; yet these were the only
people from whom I could ever receive a reasonable answer.
I had obtained, by hard study, a good degree of knowledge in their language:
I was weary of being confined to an island where I received so little countenance,
Thesaurus
abode: (n) dwelling, house, residence, ANTONYMS: (adj) separate, divided, tradesmen: (n) fellow tradesmen.
place, domicile, lodge, abidance, detached, apart, far. unversed: (adj) unfamiliar, green,
mansion, lodging, address, seat. confess: (adj, v) own, allow, admit, ignorant, uninformed, uncultivated,
abstracted: (adj) absentminded, avow; (v) concede, profess, recognize, raw, young, fresh, inexpert,
separate, absent-minded, abstract, divulge, disclose, reveal, receive. unskilled, unenlightened.
distrait, inattentive, pensive, ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, hide, weary: (adj, n, v) fatigue; (v) exhaust,
preoccupied, remote, lost, vacant. dispute, conceal, repress, harbor. tire out; (adj) tired, exhausted,
ANTONYM: (adj) alert. speculation: (n) guess, venture, fatigued, aweary, beat, languid; (n, v)
adjoining: (adj) contiguous, neighbor, reflection, meditation, guesswork, jade, bore. ANTONYMS: (adj)
near, abutting, touching, gamble, supposition, theory, surmise, energetic, fresh, lively, untiring,
conterminous, neighboring, adventure, conjecture. ANTONYM: hopeful, refreshed; (v) refresh,
immediate, next, vicinal; (adj, v) close. (n) fact. enliven, energize, activate, rally.
and resolved to leave it with the first opportunity.

There was a great lord at court, nearly related to the king, and for that reason
alone used with respect. He was universally reckoned the most ignorant and
stupid person among them. He had performed many eminent services for the
crown, had great natural and acquired parts, adorned with integrity and honour;
but so ill an ear for music, that his detractors reported, “he had been often known
to beat time in the wrong place;” neither could his tutors, without extreme
difficulty, teach him to demonstrate the most easy proposition in the
mathematics. He was pleased to show me many marks of favour, often did me
the honour of a visit, desired to be informed in the affairs of Europe, the laws
and customs, the manners and learning of the several countries where I had
travelled. He listened to me with great attention, and made very wise
observations on all I spoke. He had two flappers attending him for state, but
never made use of them, except at court and in visits of ceremony, and would
always command them to withdraw, when we were alone together.%
I entreated this illustrious person, to intercede in my behalf with his majesty,
for leave to depart; which he accordingly did, as he was pleased to tell me, with
regret: for indeed he had made me several offers very advantageous, which,
however, I refused, with expressions of the highest acknowledgment.
On the 16th of February I took leave of his majesty and the court. The king
made me a present to the value of about two hundred pounds English, and my
protector, his kinsman, as much more, together with a letter of recommendation
to a friend of his in Lagado, the metropolis. The island being then hovering over
a mountain about two miles from it, I was let down from the lowest gallery, in
the same manner as I had been taken up.
The continent, as far as it is subject to the monarch of the flying island, passes
under the general name of Balnibarbi; and the metropolis, as I said before, is
called Lagado. I felt some little satisfaction in finding myself on firm ground. I
walked to the city without any concern, being clad like one of the natives, and
sufficiently instructed to converse with them. I soon found out the person’s
house to whom I was recommended, presented my letter from his friend the
Thesaurus
depart: (v) go, deviate, decease, aware, polite. good manners, usage. ANTONYM:
diverge, start, stray, wander, leave, instructed: (adj) taught, tutored, (n) vulgarity.
die, vary, part. ANTONYMS: (v) stay, enlightened, intelligent, arranged, protector: (n) guard, guardian, patron,
arrive, enter, come, abide, conform, instruct, experienced, qualified; (v) champion, custodian, conservator,
continue, remain, appear, converge, erudite, lettered, leaned. escort, hero, paladin, supporter,
return. kinsman: (n) relation, relative, kin, benefactor.
ignorant: (adj) unconscious, unwitting, kindred, kinswoman, description, travelled: (adj) cosmopolitan.
rude, illiterate, uneducated, blind, forefather, countryman, detail, universally: (adv) commonly, globally,
dull, unaware, uninformed, consanguinity; (v) confederate. ally, everywhere, totally, Catholicly,
unlearned, innocent. ANTONYMS: manners: (n) conduct, etiquette, cosmically, ubiquitously, prevalently,
(adj) conscious, versed, cultured, propriety, behavior, deportment, regularly, usually. ANTONYMS:
educated, informed, wary, literate, manner, courtesy, custom, decorum, (adv) narrowly, locally.
Jonathan Swift 179
grandee in the island, and was received with much kindness. This great lord,
whose name was Munodi, ordered me an apartment in his own house, where I
continued during my stay, and was entertained in a most hospitable manner.%
The next morning after my arrival, he took me in his chariot to see the town,
which is about half the bigness of London; but the houses very strangely built,
and most of them out of repair. The people in the streets walked fast, looked
wild, their eyes fixed, and were generally in rags. We passed through one of the
town gates, and went about three miles into the country, where I saw many
labourers working with several sorts of tools in the ground, but was not able to
conjecture what they were about: neither did observe any expectation either of
corn or grass, although the soil appeared to be excellent. I could not forbear
admiring at these odd appearances, both in town and country; and I made bold
to desire my conductor, that he would be pleased to explain to me, what could be
meant by so many busy heads, hands, and faces, both in the streets and the fields,
because I did not discover any good effects they produced; but, on the contrary, I
never knew a soil so unhappily cultivated, houses so ill contrived and so
ruinous, or a people whose countenances and habit expressed so much misery
and want.
This lord Munodi was a person of the first rank, and had been some years
governor of Lagado; but, by a cabal of ministers, was discharged for
insufficiency. However, the king treated him with tenderness, as a well-meaning
man, but of a low contemptible understanding.
When I gave that free censure of the country and its inhabitants, he made no
further answer than by telling me, “that I had not been long enough among them
to form a judgment; and that the different nations of the world had different
customs;” with other common topics to the same purpose. But, when we
returned to his palace, he asked me “how I liked the building, what absurdities I
observed, and what quarrel I had with the dress or looks of his domestics?” This
he might safely do; because every thing about him was magnificent, regular, and
polite. I answered, “that his excellency’s prudence, quality, and fortune, had
exempted him from those defects, which folly and beggary had produced in
Thesaurus
beggary: (n) poverty, want, begging, enjoy having guests. ANTONYMS: baneful, pernicious; (adj, n)
penury, pauperism, need, indigence, (adj) unwelcoming, inhospitable, subversive. ANTONYMS: (adj)
solicitation, misery, squalor, sinister, hostile. beneficial, fortunate, harmless.
destitution. insufficiency: (n) imperfection, deficit, unhappily: (adv) wretchedly,
chariot: (n) car, wagon, carriage, deficiency, shortage, absence, failure, unluckily, disconsolately, badly,
waggon, vehicle, wain, equipage, lack, inadequateness, inability, woefully, forlornly, sorrowfully,
char. scarcity, dearth. ANTONYMS: (n) unfortunately, dismally, dejectedly,
grandee: (n) Hidalgo, nobleman, adequacy, abundance, sufficiency, despondently. ANTONYMS: (adv)
dignitary, magnifico, noble, VIP. surplus, excess. cheerfully, contentedly, luckily,
hospitable: (adj) affable, receptive, ruinous: (adj) harmful, baleful, willingly, enthusiastically,
gracious, cordial, generous, amiable, disastrous, calamitous, injurious, fortunately.
convivial, genial, pleasant, warm, to deleterious, dilapidated, blasting, walked: (adj) exempt; (v) yode.
others.” He said, “if I would go with him to his country-house, about twenty
miles distant, where his estate lay, there would be more leisure for this kind of
conversation.” I told his excellency “that I was entirely at his disposal;” and
accordingly we set out next morning.%
During our journey he made me observe the several methods used by
farmers in managing their lands, which to me were wholly unaccountable; for,
except in some very few places, I could not discover one ear of corn or blade of
grass. But, in three hours travelling, the scene was wholly altered; we came into a
most beautiful country; farmers’ houses, at small distances, neatly built; the
fields enclosed, containing vineyards, corn-grounds, and meadows. Neither do I
remember to have seen a more delightful prospect. His excellency observed my
countenance to clear up; he told me, with a sigh, “that there his estate began, and
would continue the same, till we should come to his house: that his countrymen
ridiculed and despised him, for managing his affairs no better, and for setting so
ill an example to the kingdom; which, however, was followed by very few, such
as were old, and wilful, and weak like himself.”
We came at length to the house, which was indeed a noble structure, built
according to the best rules of ancient architecture. The fountains, gardens, walks,
avenues, and groves, were all disposed with exact judgment and taste. I gave
due praises to every thing I saw, whereof his excellency took not the least notice
till after supper; when, there being no third companion, he told me with a very
melancholy air “that he doubted he must throw down his houses in town and
country, to rebuild them after the present mode; destroy all his plantations, and
cast others into such a form as modern usage required, and give the same
directions to all his tenants, unless he would submit to incur the censure of pride,
singularity, affectation, ignorance, caprice, and perhaps increase his majesty’s
displeasure; that the admiration I appeared to be under would cease or diminish,
when he had informed me of some particulars which, probably, I never heard of
at court, the people there being too much taken up in their own speculations, to
have regard to what passed here below.”
The sum of his discourse was to this effect: “That about forty years ago,
Thesaurus
affectation: (n) pretension, feint, pose, unloved, reviled, opprobrious. rebuild: (v) restore, repair, mend,
display, airs, affectedness, disposed: (adj) prone, apt, ready, rehabilitate, rebuilding, renew,
ostentation, show, pretense, subject, prepared, liable, game, renovate, reform, fix, do up, heal.
mannerism, sham. ANTONYMS: (n) inclined, fain, likely, minded. singularity: (n) oddity, peculiarity,
artlessness, honesty, modesty. ANTONYMS: (adj) ailing, individuality, eccentricity,
caprice: (n) fancy, fantasy, humor, indisposed, unlikely, disinclined, idiosyncrasy, oddness, abnormality,
quirk, freak, notion, impulse, fit, reluctant, impervious. uniqueness, irregularity, identity,
capriccio, fad, vagary. ANTONYMS: incur: (n, v) contract; (v) catch, get, particularity.
(n) plan, strategy, blueprint, reality. incite, begin, cause, encounter, wilful: (adj) headstrong, deliberate,
despised: (adj) scorned, despicable, experience, obtain, suffer, receive. intentional, knowing, designed,
hated, abject, disparaged, mean, lands: (n) park, estate, kingdom. wayward, obstinate, willful,
attaching disgrace, unpopular, places: (n) chairs, seating, spaces. stubborn, studied, persistent.
Jonathan Swift 181
certain persons went up to Laputa, either upon business or diversion, and, after
five months continuance, came back with a very little smattering in mathematics,
but full of volatile spirits acquired in that airy region: that these persons, upon
their return, began to dislike the management of every thing below, and fell into
schemes of putting all arts, sciences, languages, and mechanics, upon a new foot.
To this end, they procured a royal patent for erecting an academy of projectors in
Lagado; and the humour prevailed so strongly among the people, that there is
not a town of any consequence in the kingdom without such an academy. In
these colleges the professors contrive new rules and methods of agriculture and
building, and new instruments, and tools for all trades and manufactures;
whereby, as they undertake, one man shall do the work of ten; a palace may be
built in a week, of materials so durable as to last for ever without repairing. All
the fruits of the earth shall come to maturity at whatever season we think fit to
choose, and increase a hundred fold more than they do at present; with
innumerable other happy proposals. The only inconvenience is, that none of
these projects are yet brought to perfection; and in the mean time, the whole
country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins, and the people without food or
clothes. By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more
violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and
despair: that as for himself, being not of an enterprising spirit, he was content to
go on in the old forms, to live in the houses his ancestors had built, and act as
they did, in every part of life, without innovation: that some few other persons of
quality and gentry had done the same, but were looked on with an eye of
contempt and ill-will, as enemies to art, ignorant, and ill common-wealth’s men,
preferring their own ease and sloth before the general improvement of their
country.”%
His lordship added, “That he would not, by any further particulars, prevent
the pleasure I should certainly take in viewing the grand academy, whither he
was resolved I should go.” He only desired me to observe a ruined building,
upon the side of a mountain about three miles distant, of which he gave me this
account: “That he had a very convenient mill within half a mile of his house,
turned by a current from a large river, and sufficient for his own family, as well
Thesaurus
airy: (adj) light, windy, aery, aerial, discontinuation, destruction. ANTONYMS: (adj) lethargic,
ethereal, insubstantial, sprightly, durable: (adj, v) stable, fast; (adj) unenterprising, passive, inactive,
perky, volatile, aeriform, aired. lasting, permanent, sturdy, strong, indolent, lazy, cautious, cowardly.
ANTONYMS: (adj) airless, hot, serviceable, enduring, firm, tough, ill-will: (n) enmity.
massive, wooden, weighty, abiding. ANTONYMS: (adj) weak, proposals: (n) suggestion.
substantial, stifling, sluggish, flimsy, lightweight, undependable, repairing: (n) repair, adjustment; (adj)
ponderous, musty, lumbering. temporary, shoddy, cheap, unstable, remedial.
continuance: (n) duration, abidance, soft, insubstantial, fickle. sloth: (n) laziness, idleness, indolence,
existence, endurance, protraction, enterprising: (adj) bold, energetic, lethargy, lazy, acedia, inactivity,
adjournment, resumption, active, aggressive, courageous, inaction, inertia, listlessness,
prolongation, time, standing, vigorous, ambitious, go-ahead, brave, slothfulness. ANTONYMS: (n)
perseverance. ANTONYMS: (n) pushing; (adj, n) daring. energy, liveliness.
as a great number of his tenants; that about seven years ago, a club of those
projectors came to him with proposals to destroy this mill, and build another on
the side of that mountain, on the long ridge whereof a long canal must be cut, for
a repository of water, to be conveyed up by pipes and engines to supply the mill,
because the wind and air upon a height agitated the water, and thereby made it
fitter for motion, and because the water, descending down a declivity, would
turn the mill with half the current of a river whose course is more upon a level.”
He said, “that being then not very well with the court, and pressed by many of
his friends, he complied with the proposal; and after employing a hundred men
for two years, the work miscarried, the projectors went off, laying the blame
entirely upon him, railing at him ever since, and putting others upon the same
experiment, with equal assurance of success, as well as equal disappointment.”
In a few days we came back to town; and his excellency, considering the bad
character he had in the academy, would not go with me himself, but
recommended me to a friend of his, to bear me company thither. My lord was
pleased to represent me as a great admirer of projects, and a person of much
curiosity and easy belief; which, indeed, was not without truth; for I had myself
been a sort of projector in my younger days.%
Thesaurus
admirer: (n) enthusiast, fan, devotee, decreasing, dropping, falling, magic lantern, movie projector,
supporter, votary, worshiper, wooer, sloping, degressive, occasive; (adv) optical device; (v) promoter.
beau, fancier; (adj) suitor; (adj, n) downward. ANTONYM: (adj) railing: (n) balustrade, rail, barrier,
lover. upward. guardrail, banister, fence, pale,
agitated: (adj) upset, excited, nervous, fitter: (n) adjuster, machinist, sartor, paling, breastwork, handrail; (adj, n)
restive, tumultuous, distressed, tense, cutter, mounter, erector; (adj) invective.
jumpy, overwrought, anxious, suitable, healthier. repository: (n) depository, receptacle,
alarmed. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, pipes: (n) musette, tubing, tubes, pipe, storehouse, storage, cache, repertory,
lethargic, tranquil, relaxed, assured, tube. deposit, treasury, store, arsenal; (adj,
cool, still. projector: (n) designer, searchlight, n) magazine.
descending: (v) descend; (adj) schemer, film projector, overhead thereby: (adv) whereby, hereby.
downhill, down, descendent, projector, planner, slide projector,
Jonathan Swift 183
CHAPTER V
[The author permitted to see the grand academy of Lagado. The academy
largely described. The arts wherein the professors employ themselves.]
This academy is not an entire single building, but a continuation of several

houses on both sides of a street, which growing waste, was purchased and
applied to that use.%
I was received very kindly by the warden, and went for many days to the
academy. Every room has in it one or more projectors; and I believe I could not
be in fewer than five hundred rooms.
The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his
hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and
skin, were all of the same colour. He has been eight years upon a project for
extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials
hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He
told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply
the governor’s gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate: but he complained
that his stock was low, and entreated me “to give him something as an
encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for
cucumbers.” I made him a small present, for my lord had furnished me with
Thesaurus
continuation: (n) continuance, sequel, inclement: (adj, n) harsh, rugged, untidy, unkempt; (adj, v) threadbare;
resumption, maintenance, elongation, boisterous; (n) austere; (adj) (n) harsh. ANTONYMS: (adj) smart,
continuing, sequence, postscript, turbulent, grim, bleak, rigorous, elegant, smooth, new, even.
abidance, duration, prolongation. bitter, rough, rigid. ANTONYMS: sooty: (adj) black, dark, dusky, smoky,
ANTONYMS: (n) end, extinction, (adj) mild, fine, nice, calm, pleasant. pitchy, fuliginous, grimy, dingy,
termination, break, discontinuation, meagre: (adj) exiguous, paltry, murky; (v) smutty; (adj, v) dusty.
prelude, destruction. necessitous, miserable, marginal, warden: (n) custodian, keeper,
cucumbers: (n) melon vine, melon, meagerly, gaunt, emaciated, caretaker, guard, chancellor, provost,
Cucumis, cantaloupes. inadequate, deficient, beggarly. prefect, warder, watchman, ranger,
hermetically: (adv) chemically, tightly, ANTONYM: (adj) ample. burgomaster. ANTONYM: (n)
impenetrably, sealedly, ragged: (adj, n) shabby; (adj) seedy, attacker.
imperviously. worn, hoarse, jagged, scruffy, torn,
money on purpose, because he knew their practice of begging from all who go to
see them.%
I went into another chamber, but was ready to hasten back, being almost
overcome with a horrible stink. My conductor pressed me forward, conjuring
me in a whisper “to give no offence, which would be highly resented;” and
therefore I durst not so much as stop my nose. The projector of this cell was the
most ancient student of the academy; his face and beard were of a pale yellow;
his hands and clothes daubed over with filth. When I was presented to him, he
gave me a close embrace, a compliment I could well have excused. His
employment, from his first coming into the academy, was an operation to reduce
human excrement to its original food, by separating the several parts, removing
the tincture which it receives from the gall, making the odour exhale, and
scumming off the saliva. He had a weekly allowance, from the society, of a
vessel filled with human ordure, about the bigness of a Bristol barrel.
I saw another at work to calcine ice into gunpowder; who likewise showed
me a treatise he had written concerning the malleability of fire, which he
intended to publish.
There was a most ingenious architect, who had contrived a new method for
building houses, by beginning at the roof, and working downward to the
foundation; which he justified to me, by the like practice of those two prudent
insects, the bee and the spider.
There was a man born blind, who had several apprentices in his own
condition: their employment was to mix colours for painters, which their master
taught them to distinguish by feeling and smelling. It was indeed my misfortune
to find them at that time not very perfect in their lessons, and the professor
himself happened to be generally mistaken. This artist is much encouraged and
esteemed by the whole fraternity.
In another apartment I was highly pleased with a projector who had found a
device of ploughing the ground with hogs, to save the charges of ploughs, cattle,
and labour. The method is this: in an acre of ground you bury, at six inches
distance and eight deep, a quantity of acorns, dates, chestnuts, and other mast or
Thesaurus
calcine: (v) calcinate, heat, incinerate, droppings; (adj) feces. compliance, flexibleness, suppleness,
burn, roast, char, corrode. exhale: (v) breathe, blow, emit, expire, elasticity, adaptableness; (adj)
chestnuts: (n) Castanopsis, Fagaceae, evaporate, breathe out, respire, sequacity. ANTONYMS: (n)
Castanea, genus Castanea, beech smoke, steam, transpire, give off. inflexibility, unmalleability.
family. gunpowder: (n) powder, guncotton, ordure: (n) dung, filth, droppings,
conjuring: (n) magic, hocus-pocus, fine particles, face powder, dust, stool, fecal matter, faecal matter, BM,
incantation, sorcery, witchcraft, concentrate, ammunition, residue; (v) dejection, rejection; (adj, n)
sleight of hand, adjuration, figgum, shot. excrement, feces.
conjury, evocation; (adj) magical. hogs: (n) Suidae, boars, family Suidae, ploughing: (n) plowing, tilling, tillage,
excrement: (adj, n) faeces; (n) dirt, stock. trenching.
evacuation, excretion, dung, ordure, malleability: (n) flexibility, ductility, scumming: (n) despumation,
excreta, urine, body waste, plasticity, pliability, submission, clarification.
Jonathan Swift 185
vegetables, whereof these animals are fondest; then you drive six hundred or
more of them into the field, where, in a few days, they will root up the whole
ground in search of their food, and make it fit for sowing, at the same time
manuring it with their dung: it is true, upon experiment, they found the charge
and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop. However it is not doubted,
that this invention may be capable of great improvement.%
I went into another room, where the walls and ceiling were all hung round
with cobwebs, except a narrow passage for the artist to go in and out. At my
entrance, he called aloud to me, “not to disturb his webs.” He lamented “the
fatal mistake the world had been so long in, of using silkworms, while we had
such plenty of domestic insects who infinitely excelled the former, because they
understood how to weave, as well as spin.” And he proposed further, “that by
employing spiders, the charge of dyeing silks should be wholly saved;” whereof
I was fully convinced, when he showed me a vast number of flies most
beautifully coloured, wherewith he fed his spiders, assuring us “that the webs
would take a tincture from them; and as he had them of all hues, he hoped to fit
everybody’s fancy, as soon as he could find proper food for the flies, of certain
gums, oils, and other glutinous matter, to give a strength and consistence to the
threads.”
There was an astronomer, who had undertaken to place a sun-dial upon the
great weathercock on the town-house, by adjusting the annual and diurnal
motions of the earth and sun, so as to answer and coincide with all accidental
turnings of the wind.
I was complaining of a small fit of the colic, upon which my conductor led me
into a room where a great physician resided, who was famous for curing that
disease, by contrary operations from the same instrument. He had a large pair of
bellows, with a long slender muzzle of ivory: this he conveyed eight inches up
the anus, and drawing in the wind, he affirmed he could make the guts as lank
as a dried bladder. But when the disease was more stubborn and violent, he let in
the muzzle while the bellows were full of wind, which he discharged into the
body of the patient; then withdrew the instrument to replenish it, clapping his
Thesaurus
assuring: (adj) ensuring, insure, curing: (n) hardening, ageing, drying, meager, thin, skinny, spindly, spare,
insuring, assure, ensure, giving rectification, vulcanization, scrawny; (adj, v) lean, barren.
confidence, securing, likely, preservation; (adj) curative, remedial, manuring: (n) fertilizing, fertilisation.
promising. corrective, comforting, medicinal. replenish: (adj, v) fill; (v) refill, recruit,
bellows: (n) blower, lung, bellowing, dyeing: (n, v) pigmenting; (n) staining, fill up, make good, refresh, furnish,
blowpipe, organ; (v) air blower, air blacking. supply, fill again; (adj) load, charge.
pump, fan, punkah, ventilator. glutinous: (adj) sticky, viscous, gluey, ANTONYM: (v) deplete.
consistence: (n) thickness, body, clammy, tenacious, pasty, gummy, sowing: (v) plowing, tilling; (n)
coherence, consistency, viscosity, viscid, gooey; (adj, n) gelatinous, insemination, semination.
hardness, uniformness, property, mucilaginous. weathercock: (n) vane, weather vane,
density, solidity; (adj) spissitude. lamented: (adj) mourned, bewailed. hand, flagstaff, cairn, pointer, post,
ANTONYM: (n) inconsistency. lank: (adj) gaunt, angular, emaciated, staff; (adj) chameleon, moon, Proteus.
thumb strongly against the orifice of then fundament; and this being repeated
three or four times, the adventitious wind would rush out, bringing the noxious
along with it, (like water put into a pump), and the patient recovered. I saw him
try both experiments upon a dog, but could not discern any effect from the
former. After the latter the animal was ready to burst, and made so violent a
discharge as was very offensive to me and my companion. The dog died on the
spot, and we left the doctor endeavouring to recover him, by the same
operation.%
I visited many other apartments, but shall not trouble my reader with all the
curiosities I observed, being studious of brevity.
I had hitherto seen only one side of the academy, the other being
appropriated to the advancers of speculative learning, of whom I shall say
something, when I have mentioned one illustrious person more, who is called
among them “the universal artist.” He told us “he had been thirty years
employing his thoughts for the improvement of human life.” He had two large
rooms full of wonderful curiosities, and fifty men at work. Some were
condensing air into a dry tangible substance, by extracting the nitre, and letting
the aqueous or fluid particles percolate; others softening marble, for pillows and
pin-cushions; others petrifying the hoofs of a living horse, to preserve them from
foundering. The artist himself was at that time busy upon two great designs; the
first, to sow land with chaff, wherein he affirmed the true seminal virtue to be
contained, as he demonstrated by several experiments, which I was not skilful
enough to comprehend. The other was, by a certain composition of gums,
minerals, and vegetables, outwardly applied, to prevent the growth of wool
upon two young lambs; and he hoped, in a reasonable time to propagate the
breed of naked sheep, all over the kingdom.
We crossed a walk to the other part of the academy, where, as I have already
said, the projectors in speculative learning resided.
The first professor I saw, was in a very large room, with forty pupils about
him. After salutation, observing me to look earnestly upon a frame, which took
up the greatest part of both the length and breadth of the room, he said, “Perhaps
Thesaurus
adventitious: (adj) accidental, compression, abridgement, particles: (n) odds and ends.
secondary, random, haphazard, abridgment, capsule, compressing, percolate: (v) ooze, infiltrate, dribble,
casual, aleatory, incident, condensate, thickening, contraction. trickle, leach, penetrate, leak, filtrate,
promiscuous, incidental, fortuitous, foundering: (n) going under. strain, soak, permeate.
foreign. fundament: (n) bottom, foundation, petrifying: (adj) frightening, hard,
aqueous: (adj) liquid, water, bed, base, butt, can, behind, basis, scary, stony, horrifying, terrible,
lymphatic, aquose, hydrous, aquatic, cornerstone, fanny, anus. terrifying, petrifactive, frightful,
wet, fluid, hydatoid. nitre: (n) niter, potassium nitrate, appalling, morally hard.
chaff: (v) tease, jest, rally, mock, kid, saltpetre, saltpeter, nitrate. salutation: (n, v) salute; (n) reception,
jolly, joke; (n) bran, raillery, husk; (n, orifice: (n) mouth, gap, hole, aperture, hail, hello, welcome, address,
v) ridicule. vent, port, puncture, inlet, muzzle, compliment, hullo, recognition,
condensing: (n) inspissation, chops, nozzle. interpellation, pax.
Jonathan Swift 187
I might wonder to see him employed in a project for improving speculative

knowledge, by practical and mechanical operations. But the world would soon
be sensible of its usefulness; and he flattered himself, that a more noble, exalted
thought never sprang in any other man’s head. Every one knew how laborious
the usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences; whereas, by his contrivance,
the most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour,
might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and
theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.” He then led me to
the frame, about the sides, whereof all his pupils stood in ranks. It was twenty
feet square, placed in the middle of the room. The superfices was composed of
several bits of wood, about the bigness of a die, but some larger than others.
They were all linked together by slender wires. These bits of wood were covered,
on every square, with paper pasted on them; and on these papers were written
all the words of their language, in their several moods, tenses, and declensions;
but without any order. The professor then desired me “to observe; for he was
going to set his engine at work.” The pupils, at his command, took each of them
hold of an iron handle, whereof there were forty fixed round the edges of the
frame; and giving them a sudden turn, the whole disposition of the words was
entirely changed. He then commanded six-and-thirty of the lads, to read the
several lines softly, as they appeared upon the frame; and where they found
three or four words together that might make part of a sentence, they dictated to
the four remaining boys, who were scribes. This work was repeated three or four
times, and at every turn, the engine was so contrived, that the words shifted into
new places, as the square bits of wood moved upside down.%
Six hours a day the young students were employed in this labour; and the
professor showed me several volumes in large folio, already collected, of broken
sentences, which he intended to piece together, and out of those rich materials, to
give the world a complete body of all arts and sciences; which, however, might
be still improved, and much expedited, if the public would raise a fund for
making and employing five hundred such frames in Lagado, and oblige the
managers to contribute in common their several collections.
Thesaurus
attaining: (v) attain, achieve; (n) book. hypothetical, chancy, conjectural;
attainment. pasted: (adj) affixed. (adj, v) contemplative, reflective; (v)
collections: (n) collection. ranks: (n) rank and file. meditative. ANTONYMS: (adj)
declensions: (adj) moods. shifted: (adj) disordered, gone. definite, moderate, practical, proven.
dictated: (adj) set, hard-and-fast, slender: (adj, v) lean, meager; (adj) usefulness: (n) utility, service, benefit,
compulsive; (n) contumely, little, thin, fine, lithe, slight, delicate, convenience, practicality, avail,
blameworthy, abuse. lissom, flimsy, faint. ANTONYMS: helpfulness, effectiveness, efficacy,
edges: (n) boundaries. (adj) stocky, fat, wide, considerable, value; (adj, n) worth. ANTONYMS:
flattered: (adj) pleased. short, substantial, good, adequate, (n) inefficiency, inutility, clumsiness,
folio: (n) leaf, sheet, number, page stout, thick. insignificance.
number, flyleaf, quarto, octavo, speculative: (adj) risky, theoretical, wires: (n) chains, rigging, ropes,
blade, foliage, number the folios, academic, inquisitive, notional, dealings.
He assured me “that this invention had employed all his thoughts from his
youth; that he had emptied the whole vocabulary into his frame, and made the
strictest computation of the general proportion there is in books between the
numbers of particles, nouns, and verbs, and other parts of speech.”
I made my humblest acknowledgment to this illustrious person, for his great
communicativeness; and promised, “if ever I had the good fortune to return to
my native country, that I would do him justice, as the sole inventor of this
wonderful machine;” the form and contrivance of which I desired leave to
delineate on paper, as in the figure here annexed. I told him, “although it were
the custom of our learned in Europe to steal inventions from each other, who had
thereby at least this advantage, that it became a controversy which was the right
owner; yet I would take such caution, that he should have the honour entire,
without a rival.”
We next went to the school of languages, where three professors sat in
consultation upon improving that of their own country.%
The first project was, to shorten discourse, by cutting polysyllables into one,
and leaving out verbs and participles, because, in reality, all things imaginable
are but norms.
The other project was, a scheme for entirely abolishing all words whatsoever;
and this was urged as a great advantage in point of health, as well as brevity. For
it is plain, that every word we speak is, in some degree, a diminution of our
lunge by corrosion, and, consequently, contributes to the shortening of our lives.
An expedient was therefore offered, “that since words are only names for things,
it would be more convenient for all men to carry about them such things as were
necessary to express a particular business they are to discourse on.” And this
invention would certainly have taken place, to the great ease as well as health of
the subject, if the women, in conjunction with the vulgar and illiterate, had not
threatened to raise a rebellion unless they might be allowed the liberty to speak
with their tongues, after the manner of their forefathers; such constant
irreconcilable enemies to science are the common people. However, many of the
most learned and wise adhere to the new scheme of expressing themselves by
Thesaurus
annexed: (adj) affiliated, enclosed; (v) delineate: (v) draw, line, describe, recoverable, compatible.
adjunct, appendant. sketch, represent, characterize, draft, lunge: (n, v) thrust, foin; (v) jump,
brevity: (n) briefness, shortness, paint, delimit, outline; (n, v) design. leap, hurtle, jab, charge, dash,
succinctness, transience, terseness, ANTONYM: (v) expand. plunge; (n) pink, shove.
abruptness, crispness, duration, forefathers: (n) patriarchs, forefather, norms: (n) norm, criterion.
economy, length, brevities. ancestor, colony, lineage, family. shortening: (n) contraction,
ANTONYMS: (n) lengthiness, length. irreconcilable: (adj, n) inconsistent, abridgement, reduction, shrinkage,
communicativeness: (v) garrulity, incongruous, discordant, contrary, curtailment, abridgment, limitation,
articulateness, trait, volubility, dissonant; (adj, v) incompatible, edible fat, diminution; (adj)
loquaciousness, intercommunication, hostile, repugnant; (adj) implacable, abridging; (v) shorten. ANTONYMS:
effusiveness, fluency, expansiveness, unreconcilable; (v) antagonistic. (n) extension, expansion.
frankness. ANTONYMS: (adj) reconcilable,
Jonathan Swift 189
things; which has only this inconvenience attending it, that if a man’s business be
very great, and of various kinds, he must be obliged, in proportion, to carry a
greater bundle of things upon his back, unless he can afford one or two strong
servants to attend him. I have often beheld two of those sages almost sinking
under the weight of their packs, like pedlars among us, who, when they met in
the street, would lay down their loads, open their sacks, and hold conversation
for an hour together; then put up their implements, help each other to resume
their burdens, and take their leave.%
But for short conversations, a man may carry implements in his pockets, and
under his arms, enough to supply him; and in his house, he cannot be at a loss.
Therefore the room where company meet who practise this art, is full of all
things, ready at hand, requisite to furnish matter for this kind of artificial
converse.
Another great advantage proposed by this invention was, that it would serve
as a universal language, to be understood in all civilised nations, whose goods
and utensils are generally of the same kind, or nearly resembling, so that their
uses might easily be comprehended. And thus ambassadors would be qualified
to treat with foreign princes, or ministers of state, to whose tongues they were
utter strangers.
I was at the mathematical school, where the master taught his pupils after a
method scarce imaginable to us in Europe. The proposition, and demonstration,
were fairly written on a thin wafer, with ink composed of a cephalic tincture.
This, the student was to swallow upon a fasting stomach, and for three days
following, eat nothing but bread and water. As the wafer digested, the tincture
mounted to his brain, bearing the proposition along with it. But the success has
not hitherto been answerable, partly by some error in the quantum or
composition, and partly by the perverseness of lads, to whom this bolus is so
nauseous, that they generally steal aside, and discharge it upwards, before it can
operate; neither have they been yet persuaded to use so long an abstinence, as
the prescription requires.
Thesaurus
abstinence: (n) temperance, atlantal, anterior. ANTONYM: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) unimaginable,
abstention, forbearance, sobriety, caudal. implausible.
chastity, soberness, celibacy, digested: (adj) mature, digestible. perverseness: (n) perversity,
teetotalism, fast, abstinency, restraint. fasting: (n) abstinence, white sheet, cussedness, unruliness, wilfulness,
ANTONYMS: (n) excess, intoxication, shrift, sackcloth and ashes, willfulness, contumacy, obliquity,
revelry, intemperance, drunkenness, maceration, lustration, flagellation, degeneracy, depravity, deliberate
dissipation, extravagance, watching one's weight, hunger strike, unruliness, crotchetiness.
wantonness. penance; (v) calorie counting. utensils: (n) gear, equipment, tackle,
bolus: (n) bole, tablet, orb, globe, imaginable: (adj) conceivable, apparatus, hardware.
lozenge, gobbet, medicine, drug; (v) possible, thinkable, plausible, earthly, wafer: (n) cookie, waffle, paste,
morsel, sop, sippet. believable, credible, feasible, cement, glue, size, gum, coke, stucco,
cephalic: (adj) cephalistic, preaxial, immediate, likely, near. staff of life, solder.
Jonathan Swift 191
CHAPTER %VI
[A further account of the academy. The author proposes some improvements,

which are honourably received.]
In the school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained; the professors
appearing, in my judgment, wholly out of their senses, which is a scene that
never fails to make me melancholy. These unhappy people were proposing
schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites upon the score of their
wisdom, capacity, and virtue; of teaching ministers to consult the public good; of
rewarding merit, great abilities, eminent services; of instructing princes to know
their true interest, by placing it on the same foundation with that of their people;
of choosing for employments persons qualified to exercise them, with many
other wild, impossible chimeras, that never entered before into the heart of man
to conceive; and confirmed in me the old observation, “that there is nothing so
extravagant and irrational, which some philosophers have not maintained for
truth.”
But, however, I shall so far do justice to this part of the Academy, as to
acknowledge that all of them were not so visionary. There was a most ingenious
doctor, who seemed to be perfectly versed in the whole nature and system of
government. This illustrious person had very usefully employed his studies, in
finding out effectual remedies for all diseases and corruptions to which the
Thesaurus
effectual: (adj, n) efficient, efficacious, ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained, frugal, remunerative, gainful, advantageous,
able; (adj) forceful, telling, parsimonious, plain, stingy, fruitful. ANTONYMS: (adj)
authoritative, operative, potent, understated, thrifty, reasonable, unrewarding, unprofitable,
adequate, impressive, powerful. moderate, cautious, tasteful. disappointing, fruitless, frustrating,
ANTONYMS: (adj) ineffectual, honourably: (adv) uprightly, worthily, unhelpful.
incapable, weak, impotent, honestly, creditably, commendably. usefully: (adv) practically,
ineffective, unproductive, instructing: (adj) directory, directorial, conveniently, handily, beneficially,
unsuccessful, useless. enjoining, containing directions, advantageously, effectively,
extravagant: (adj) wasteful, luxurious, improving. fruitfully, utilitarianly, gainfully,
prodigal, exaggerated, profligate, rewarding: (adj) worthwhile, cleverly, favorably. ANTONYMS:
costly, expensive, lavish, gratifying, pleasing, beneficial, (adv) awkwardly, unhelpfully,
immoderate, profuse, undue. fulfilling, successful, productive, inconveniently, clumsily.
several kinds of public administration are subject, by the vices or infirmities of

those who govern, as well as by the licentiousness of those who are to obey. For
instance: whereas all writers and reasoners have agreed, that there is a strict
universal resemblance between the natural and the political body; can there be
any thing more evident, than that the health of both must be preserved, and the
diseases cured, by the same prescriptions? It is allowed, that senates and great
councils are often troubled with redundant, ebullient, and other peccant
humours; with many diseases of the head, and more of the heart; with strong
convulsions, with grievous contractions of the nerves and sinews in both hands,
but especially the right; with spleen, flatus, vertigos, and deliriums; with
scrofulous tumours, full of fetid purulent matter; with sour frothy ructations:
with canine appetites, and crudeness of digestion, besides many others, needless
to mention. This doctor therefore proposed, “that upon the meeting of the senate,
certain physicians should attend it the three first days of their sitting, and at the
close of each day’s debate feel the pulses of every senator; after which, having
maturely considered and consulted upon the nature of the several maladies, and
the methods of cure, they should on the fourth day return to the senate house,
attended by their apothecaries stored with proper medicines; and before the
members sat, administer to each of them lenitives, aperitives, abstersives,
corrosives, restringents, palliatives, laxatives, cephalalgics, icterics,
apophlegmatics, acoustics, as their several cases required; and, according as
these medicines should operate, repeat, alter, or omit them, at the next
meeting.”%
This project could not be of any great expense to the public; and might in my
poor opinion, be of much use for the despatch of business, in those countries
where senates have any share in the legislative power; beget unanimity, shorten
debates, open a few mouths which are now closed, and close many more which
are now open; curb the petulancy of the young, and correct the positiveness of
the old; rouse the stupid, and damp the pert.
Again: because it is a general complaint, that the favourites of princes are
troubled with short and weak memories; the same doctor proposed, “that
Thesaurus
convulsions: (n) convulsion, spasm, effluvium, air. positiveness: (n) assertiveness,
epilepsy, eclampsia, mirth. licentiousness: (n) dissolution, assurance, security, confidence,
crudeness: (n) roughness, crudity, dissipation, lewdness, immorality, positivism, absolute power,
coarseness, vulgarity, impoliteness, profligacy, dissoluteness, absoluteness, roundness,
inelegance, wild, barbarity, rawness, extravagance, evil, indecency, definiteness, trust, boldness.
harshness, unripeness. ANTONYMS: freedom; (v) license. ANTONYMS: purulent: (adj) pussy, infected,
(n) decency, refinement, complexity, (n) decency, restraint. pyogenic, mattery, septic,
sophistication, classiness, members: (n) convention, personnel. suppurative, peccant, foul, rotten,
smoothness. peccant: (v) morbid, carious, tabid, fetid, dirty.
flatus: (n) fart, breath, draught, poisoned; (adj) criminal, sinful, scrofulous: (adj) strumous, immoral,
farting, breaking wind; (adj) gas, guilty, wicked, unrighteous, fulsome, ill, ugly, having struma, strumatic,
essence, ether, elastic fluid, leprous. sicker, sick.
Jonathan Swift 193
whoever attended a first minister, after having told his business, with the utmost
brevity and in the plainest words, should, at his departure, give the said minister
a tweak by the nose, or a kick in the belly, or tread on his corns, or lug him thrice
by both ears, or run a pin into his breech; or pinch his arm black and blue, to
prevent forgetfulness; and at every levee day, repeat the same operation, till the
business were done, or absolutely refused.”%
He likewise directed, “that every senator in the great council of a nation, after
he had delivered his opinion, and argued in the defence of it, should be obliged
to give his vote directly contrary; because if that were done, the result would
infallibly terminate in the good of the public.”
When parties in a state are violent, he offered a wonderful contrivance to
reconcile them. The method is this: You take a hundred leaders of each party;
you dispose them into couples of such whose heads are nearest of a size; then let
two nice operators saw off the occiput of each couple at the same time, in such a
manner that the brain may be equally divided. Let the occiputs, thus cut off, be
interchanged, applying each to the head of his opposite party-man. It seems
indeed to be a work that requires some exactness, but the professor assured us,
“that if it were dexterously performed, the cure would be infallible.” For he
argued thus: “that the two half brains being left to debate the matter between
themselves within the space of one skull, would soon come to a good
understanding, and produce that moderation, as well as regularity of thinking,
so much to be wished for in the heads of those, who imagine they come into the
world only to watch and govern its motion: and as to the difference of brains, in
quantity or quality, among those who are directors in faction, the doctor assured
us, from his own knowledge, that “it was a perfect trifle.”
I heard a very warm debate between two professors, about the most
commodious and effectual ways and means of raising money, without grieving
the subject. The first affirmed, “the justest method would be, to lay a certain tax
upon vices and folly; and the sum fixed upon every man to be rated, after the
fairest manner, by a jury of his neighbours.” The second was of an opinion
directly contrary; “to tax those qualities of body and mind, for which men chiefly
Thesaurus
breech: (n) behind, bottom, croup, tail, dextrously, handily, cleverly, bereaved, mournful, aggrieved, sad,
buttock, backside scut, backside, loin, proficiently, aptly; (adj, adv) readily. teenful, despondent; (v) grief,
dorsum, buttocks, breeches. ANTONYMS: (adv) ineptly, affliction; (n) sorrow.
commodious: (adj) capacious, wide, incompetently, awkwardly. interchanged: (adj) mutual,
roomy, spacious, comfortable, forgetfulness: (n) neglect, amnesia, exchanged, common, cross, contrary,
voluminous, extensive, useful, large; obliviousness, inattention, memory adverse.
(adj, v) convenient, easy. loss, omission, unknowingness, occiput: (n) os.
ANTONYMS: (adj) small, unawareness, Lethe, carelessness, rated: (adj) specified.
uncomfortable, tight, incommodious, loss of memory. ANTONYMS: (n) tweak: (n, v) pull, nip, twinge, wrench,
confined, squeezed. awareness, concentration, jerk, tug, yank; (v) pluck, squeeze,
dexterously: (adv) adroitly, skillfully, remembering, attention. modify; (n) twitch.
expertly, craftily, skilfully, grieving: (adj) sorrowful, bereft,
value themselves; the rate to be more or less, according to the degrees of

excelling; the decision whereof should be left entirely to their own breast.” The
highest tax was upon men who are the greatest favourites of the other sex, and
the assessments, according to the number and nature of the favours they have
received; for which, they are allowed to be their own vouchers. Wit, valour, and
politeness, were likewise proposed to be largely taxed, and collected in the same
manner, by every person’s giving his own word for the quantum of what he
possessed. But as to honour, justice, wisdom, and learning, they should not be
taxed at all; because they are qualifications of so singular a kind, that no man will
either allow them in his neighbour or value them in himself.%
The women were proposed to be taxed according to their beauty and skill in
dressing, wherein they had the same privilege with the men, to be determined by
their own judgment. But constancy, chastity, good sense, and good nature, were
not rated, because they would not bear the charge of collecting.
To keep senators in the interest of the crown, it was proposed that the
members should raffle for employment; every man first taking an oath, and
giving security, that he would vote for the court, whether he won or not; after
which, the losers had, in their turn, the liberty of raffling upon the next vacancy.
Thus, hope and expectation would be kept alive; none would complain of broken
promises, but impute their disappointments wholly to fortune, whose shoulders
are broader and stronger than those of a ministry.
Another professor showed me a large paper of instructions for discovering
plots and conspiracies against the government. He advised great statesmen to
examine into the diet of all suspected persons; their times of eating; upon which
side they lay in bed; with which hand they wipe their posteriors; take a strict
view of their excrements, and, from the colour, the odour, the taste, the
consistence, the crudeness or maturity of digestion, form a judgment of their
thoughts and designs; because men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent,
as when they are at stool, which he found by frequent experiment; for, in such
conjunctures, when he used, merely as a trial, to consider which was the best
way of murdering the king, his ordure would have a tincture of green; but quite
Thesaurus
chastity: (n) honor, purity, abstinence, changefulness, instability, disloyalty, refinement, gallantry, decency.
virtue, innocence, chasteness, unfaithfulness, unreliability, ANTONYMS: (n) vulgarity,
continence, modesty, cleanliness, dishonesty. rudeness, incivility, neglect.
austerity; (adj) honesty. excrements: (n) dejecture, egesta, posteriors: (n) buttock, croup, rump,
ANTONYMS: (n) nymphomania, excreta. tail, loin, dorsum, breech, backside
lewdness, adultery. impute: (v) charge, attribute, ascribe, scut.
constancy: (n) allegiance, devotion, assign, accuse, blame, attach, credit, raffle: (v) raffle off, shuffle the cards,
resolution, fidelity, loyalty, lay, accredit, impeach. pillage, set on a cast, grove, channel;
steadfastness, faithfulness, losers: (n) scum. (n) lottery, draw, sweepstake, game
steadiness, firmness, perseverance, politeness: (n) civility, courteousness, of chance, gamble.
unchangeableness. ANTONYMS: (n) courtliness, manners, decorum, taxed: (adj) laden.
inconstancy, inconsistency, gentility, good manners, niceness,
Jonathan Swift 195
different, when he thought only of raising an insurrection, or burning the

metropolis.%
The whole discourse was written with great acuteness, containing many
observations, both curious and useful for politicians; but, as I conceived, not
altogether complete. This I ventured to tell the author, and offered, if he pleased,
to supply him with some additions. He received my proposition with more
compliance than is usual among writers, especially those of the projecting species,
professing “he would be glad to receive further information.”
I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon,
where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in
a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors,
evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern
instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state,
and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of
those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to
restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general
discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of
public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed
and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then,
effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in
chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding
out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they
can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a
lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister;
the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee
of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an
employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a
favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running
sore, the administration.
“When this method fails, they have two others more effectual, which the
learned among them call acrostics and anagrams. First, they can decipher all
Thesaurus
acuteness: (n) acuity, sharpness, gallous, scaffold; (v) hang, expose, community.
acumen, discrimination, gravity, pillory, brand, stigmatize, disgrace, subaltern: (adj, n) subordinate, sub;
insight, sensitivity, perspicacity, string up. (adj) secondary, lower, menial,
penetration, keenness, intensity. gout: (n) taste, relish, arthritis, go-out; dependent, petty, underling, lowly,
ANTONYMS: (n) faintness, (v) cephalalgia, earache, otalgia, subject; (n) ensign.
insignificance, dullness. odontalgia, neuralgia, lumbago, subservient: (adj) submissive,
decipher: (v) interpret, explain, solve, sciatica. subordinate, obsequious, accessory,
decode, translate, disentangle, invader: (n) assailant, intruder, obedient, servile, slavish, ancillary,
resolve, construe, read, decrypt, encroacher, attacker, raider, menial, compliant, humble.
discover. ANTONYMS: (v) encode, interloper, conqueror, trespasser, ANTONYMS: (adj) disobedient,
code, encipher, scramble, confuse. thief, robber, immigrant. independent, superior, assertive.
gibbet: (n) gallows, gallowstree, professing: (n) avowal, profession, witnesses: (n) audience.
initial letters into political meanings. Thus N, shall signify a plot; B, a regiment
of horse; L, a fleet at sea; or, secondly, by transposing the letters of the alphabet
in any suspected paper, they can lay open the deepest designs of a discontented
party. So, for example, if I should say, in a letter to a friend, ‘Our brother Tom
has just got the piles,’ a skilful decipherer would discover, that the same letters
which compose that sentence, may be analysed into the following words, ‘Resist
-, a plot is brought home—The tour.’ And this is the anagrammatic method.”
The professor made me great acknowledgments for communicating these
observations, and promised to make honourable mention of me in his treatise.%
I saw nothing in this country that could invite me to a longer continuance,
and began to think of returning home to England.
Thesaurus
communicating: (n) communication, decipherer: (n) cryptographer. honourable: (adj) estimable, reverend,
intercommunication, suasion, deepest: (adj) inmost, center, cordial, venerable, glorious, honorable,
expression, transmission, earnest, genuine, hearty, warm, distinguished, above-board, good,
examination, intercourse, sincere, innermost. ANTONYM: (adj) worthy, right, noble.
dramaturgy; (v) communicate; (adj) outermost. regiment: (n) corps, battalion, legion,
communicant, dramaturgic. discontented: (adj, v) querulous, host, brigade, division, multitude,
compose: (v) build, compile, write, complaining; (adj) disaffected, cohort; (v) control, organize, regulate.
weave; (adj, v) appease, tranquilize, disgruntled, malcontent, unsatisfied, signify: (n, v) intend, mark; (adj, n, v)
allay, lull; (n, v) calm, constitute, dissatisfied, displeased, miserable, import; (v) imply, indicate, denote,
settle. ANTONYMS: (v) destroy, ruin, put out, ungratified. ANTONYMS: point, stand for, express, intimate,
unsettle, annihilate, discompose, (adj) pleased, satisfied, happy, matter.
demolish, disturb, fluster. content.
Jonathan Swift 197
CHAPTER %VII
[The author leaves Lagado: arrives at Maldonada. No ship ready. He takes a

short voyage to Glubbdubdrib. His reception by the governor.]
The continent, of which this kingdom is apart, extends itself, as I have reason
to believe, eastward, to that unknown tract of America westward of California;
and north, to the Pacific Ocean, which is not above a hundred and fifty miles
from Lagado; where there is a good port, and much commerce with the great
island of Luggnagg, situated to the north-west about 29 degrees north latitude,
and 140 longitude. This island of Luggnagg stands south-eastward of Japan,
about a hundred leagues distant. There is a strict alliance between the Japanese
emperor and the king of Luggnagg; which affords frequent opportunities of
sailing from one island to the other. I determined therefore to direct my course
this way, in order to my return to Europe. I hired two mules, with a guide, to
show me the way, and carry my small baggage. I took leave of my noble
protector, who had shown me so much favour, and made me a generous present
at my departure.
My journey was without any accident or adventure worth relating. When I
arrived at the port of Maldonada (for so it is called) there was no ship in the
harbour bound for Luggnagg, nor likely to be in some time. The town is about as
large as Portsmouth. I soon fell into some acquaintance, and was very hospitably
Thesaurus
acquaintance: (n) connection, friend, inaction, avoidance, inertia, bore. gliding, boating, cruise, soaring,
acquaintanceship, mate, awareness, baggage: (n) bag, bags, trunk, pack, going, leaving.
associate, buddy, friendship, gear, equipment, stuff, effects, situated: (adj) set, situate, placed,
intercourse, companion; (n, v) suitcases, woman, thing. sited, fixed, laid, contextualized,
knowledge. ANTONYMS: (n) degrees: (n) degree, temperature, hardened, dictated; (v) locate; (prep)
ignorance, inexperience, compass rose, cardinal points. circumstanced.
unfamiliarity, animosity, enemy. eastward: (adj) eastbound, eastern; tract: (n) region, area, expanse, essay,
adventure: (n, v) venture, chance; (n) (adv) eastwards. pamphlet, section, extent, district,
accident, escapade, incident, event, mules: (n) mule, scuffs, carpet slipper, dissertation, plot, lot.
undertaking, consequence, essay; (v) scuff. westward: (adv) west, westwards; (adj,
risk, jeopardize. ANTONYMS: (n) sailing: (adj) nautical, at sea; (adj, n) adv) westerly; (adj) westbound,
stillness, passiveness, inactivity, seafaring; (n) departure, glide, western; (v) to the west.
received. A gentleman of distinction said to me, “that since the ships bound for
Luggnagg could not be ready in less than a month, it might be no disagreeable
amusement for me to take a trip to the little island of Glubbdubdrib, about five
leagues off to the south-west.” He offered himself and a friend to accompany me,
and that I should be provided with a small convenient bark for the voyage.%
Glubbdubdrib, as nearly as I can interpret the word, signifies the island of
sorcerers or magicians. It is about one third as large as the Isle of Wight, and
extremely fruitful: it is governed by the head of a certain tribe, who are all
magicians. This tribe marries only among each other, and the eldest in succession
is prince or governor. He has a noble palace, and a park of about three thousand
acres, surrounded by a wall of hewn stone twenty feet high. In this park are
several small enclosures for cattle, corn, and gardening.
The governor and his family are served and attended by domestics of a kind
somewhat unusual. By his skill in necromancy he has a power of calling whom
he pleases from the dead, and commanding their service for twenty-four hours,
but no longer; nor can he call the same persons up again in less than three
months, except upon very extraordinary occasions.
When we arrived at the island, which was about eleven in the morning, one
of the gentlemen who accompanied me went to the governor, and desired
admittance for a stranger, who came on purpose to have the honour of attending
on his highness. This was immediately granted, and we all three entered the gate
of the palace between two rows of guards, armed and dressed after a very antic
manner, and with something in their countenances that made my flesh creep
with a horror I cannot express. We passed through several apartments, between
servants of the same sort, ranked on each side as before, till we came to the
chamber of presence; where, after three profound obeisances, and a few general
questions, we were permitted to sit on three stools, near the lowest step of his
highness’s throne. He understood the language of Balnibarbi, although it was
different from that of this island. He desired me to give him some account of my
travels; and, to let me see that I should be treated without ceremony, he
dismissed all his attendants with a turn of his finger; at which, to my great
Thesaurus
antic: (n, v) clown; (n) prank, jest, lark, unproductive, barren, infertile, high, grandeur.
romp, joke, trick, jester; (adj) unfruitful, unprofitable, sterile, necromancy: (n) sorcery, conjuration,
ludicrous, fantastical, fantastic. fruitless, destructive. black magic, incantation,
bark: (n, v) skin, yelp, snarl, cry, rind, gardening: (n) cultivation, enchantment, black art, divination,
shout; (v) growl, roar; (n) bay, peel, horticulture, agronomy, floriculture, witchcraft, charm, soothsaying,
crust. ANTONYMS: (n, v) whisper. agriculture, husbandry, spade thaumaturgy.
dismissed: (adj) discharged, husbandry, vintage, landscape ranked: (adj) stratified, hierarchal,
unemployed, clear, convalescent. gardening, flower gardening, graveled, hierarchical, bedded,
fruitful: (adj) fertile, copious, landscaping. hierarchic.
profitable, abundant, plentiful, rich, highness: (n) excellency, altitude, tribe: (n) clan, house, race, kin, nation,
fecund, good, fat, productive, loftiness, nobility, greatness, people, kindred, folk, stock, lineage,
lucrative. ANTONYMS: (adj) eminence, size, stateliness, majesty, breed.
Jonathan Swift 199
astonishment, they vanished in an instant, like visions in a dream when we

awake on a sudden. I could not recover myself in some time, till the governor
assured me, “that I should receive no hurt:” and observing my two companions
to be under no concern, who had been often entertained in the same manner, I
began to take courage, and related to his highness a short history of my several
adventures; yet not without some hesitation, and frequently looking behind me
to the place where I had seen those domestic spectres. I had the honour to dine
with the governor, where a new set of ghosts served up the meat, and waited at
table. I now observed myself to be less terrified than I had been in the morning. I
stayed till sunset, but humbly desired his highness to excuse me for not
accepting his invitation of lodging in the palace. My two friends and I lay at a
private house in the town adjoining, which is the capital of this little island; and
the next morning we returned to pay our duty to the governor, as he was pleased
to command us.%
After this manner we continued in the island for ten days, most part of every
day with the governor, and at night in our lodging. I soon grew so familiarized
to the sight of spirits, that after the third or fourth time they gave me no emotion
at all: or, if I had any apprehensions left, my curiosity prevailed over them. For
his highness the governor ordered me “to call up whatever persons I would
choose to name, and in whatever numbers, among all the dead from the
beginning of the world to the present time, and command them to answer any
questions I should think fit to ask; with this condition, that my questions must be
confined within the compass of the times they lived in. And one thing I might
depend upon, that they would certainly tell me the truth, for lying was a talent of
no use in the lower world.”
I made my humble acknowledgments to his highness for so great a favour.
We were in a chamber, from whence there was a fair prospect into the park. And
because my first inclination was to be entertained with scenes of pomp and
magnificence, I desired to see Alexander the Great at the head of his army, just
after the battle of Arbela: which, upon a motion of the governor’s finger,
immediately appeared in a large field, under the window where we stood.
Thesaurus
adventures: (n) experiences, fortunes, enthusiasm, inclination, willingness. understatement, modesty.
confessions, journal, life, biography, inclination: (n, v) desire, bent; (n) sunset: (n) dusk, sundown, nightfall,
autobiography, personal narrative. fancy, affection, tendency, leaning, twilight, night, sunsetting, periodic
familiarized: (adj) adjusted, familiar, drift, appetite, dip, proclivity, bias. event, crepuscule, atmospheric
used to, oriented, orientated, ANTONYMS: (n) disinclination, phenomenon, hour, recurrent event.
accustomed. reluctance, aversion, indifference, ANTONYMS: (n) sunrise, daybreak.
hesitation: (n, v) falter, fear; (n) unwillingness, antipathy, dislike, terrified: (adj) afraid, frightened,
hesitance, faltering, delay, hesitate, horror. fearful, panicky, panicked, aghast,
diffidence, hesitancy, qualm, pomp: (n) grandeur, parade, timid, timorous, apprehensive,
reluctance; (v) hesitating. ostentation, show, ceremony, glory, startled, alarmed. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) certainty, luxury, pageantry, magnificence, fearless, brave.
resolution, confidence, decisiveness, state, splendor. ANTONYMS: (n)
Alexander was called up into the room: it was with great difficulty that I
understood his Greek, and had but little of my own. He assured me upon his
honour “that he was not poisoned, but died of a bad fever by excessive
drinking.”
Next, I saw Hannibal passing the Alps, who told me “he had not a drop of
vinegar in his camp.”
I saw Caesar and Pompey at the head of their troops, just ready to engage. I
saw the former, in his last great triumph. I desired that the senate of Rome might
appear before me, in one large chamber, and an assembly of somewhat a later
age in counterview, in another. The first seemed to be an assembly of heroes and
demigods; the other, a knot of pedlars, pick-pockets, highwayman, and bullies.%
The governor, at my request, gave the sign for Caesar and Brutus to advance
towards us. I was struck with a profound veneration at the sight of Brutus, and
could easily discover the most consummate virtue, the greatest intrepidity and
firmness of mind, the truest love of his country, and general benevolence for
mankind, in every lineament of his countenance. I observed, with much pleasure,
that these two persons were in good intelligence with each other; and Caesar
freely confessed to me, “that the greatest actions of his own life were not equal,
by many degrees, to the glory of taking it away.” I had the honour to have much
conversation with Brutus; and was told, “that his ancestor Junius, Socrates,
Epaminondas, Cato the younger, Sir Thomas More, and himself were perpetually
together:” a sextumvirate, to which all the ages of the world cannot add a
seventh.
It would be tedious to trouble the reader with relating what vast numbers of
illustrious persons were called up to gratify that insatiable desire I had to see the
world in every period of antiquity placed before me. I chiefly fed mine eyes with
beholding the destroyers of tyrants and usurpers, and the restorers of liberty to
oppressed and injured nations. But it is impossible to express the satisfaction I
received in my own mind, after such a manner as to make it a suitable
entertainment to the reader.
Thesaurus
benevolence: (n) beneficence, inadequate, mediocre, incomplete, indecision, leniency.
affection, favor, mercy, compassion, deficient, amateurish, untrained, highwayman: (n) footpad, brigand,
favour, kindness, benefaction, pity, abysmal, inept; (v) start, initiate, bandit, robber, outlaw, hijacker, road
kindliness, generosity. ANTONYMS: begin. agent, highjacker, padder, freebooter,
(n) malevolence, meanness, cruelty, firmness: (adj, n) constancy; (n) sturdy beggar.
misanthropy, wickedness, nastiness, determination, resolution, assurance, lineament: (n) line, character,
malice. consistency, obstinacy, steadfastness, characteristic, contour, quality,
consummate: (adj, v) perfect; (n, v) resolve, confidence, courage, forehead, brow, turn, profile,
conclude, crown; (v) accomplish, backbone. ANTONYMS: (n) softness, silhouette; (adj) diagnostic.
achieve, execute; (adj) accomplished, instability, vacillation, unsteadiness, vinegar: (n) verjuice, eisel, crab,
absolute, profound, matchless, yielding, irresoluteness, droopiness, condiment, chili vinegar, brine, cider
masterful. ANTONYMS: (adj) indefiniteness, indecisiveness, vinegar, acetum, acetic acid, alum.
Jonathan Swift 201
CHAPTER %VIII
[A further account of Glubbdubdrib. Ancient and modern history corrected.]
Having a desire to see those ancients who were most renowned for wit and
learning, I set apart one day on purpose. I proposed that Homer and Aristotle
might appear at the head of all their commentators; but these were so numerous,
that some hundreds were forced to attend in the court, and outward rooms of the
palace. I knew, and could distinguish those two heroes, at first sight, not only
from the crowd, but from each other. Homer was the taller and comelier person
of the two, walked very erect for one of his age, and his eyes were the most quick
and piercing I ever beheld. Aristotle stooped much, and made use of a staff. His
visage was meagre, his hair lank and thin, and his voice hollow. I soon
discovered that both of them were perfect strangers to the rest of the company,
and had never seen or heard of them before; and I had a whisper from a ghost
who shall be nameless, “that these commentators always kept in the most distant
quarters from their principals, in the lower world, through a consciousness of
shame and guilt, because they had so horribly misrepresented the meaning of
those authors to posterity.” I introduced Didymus and Eustathius to Homer, and
prevailed on him to treat them better than perhaps they deserved, for he soon
found they wanted a genius to enter into the spirit of a poet. But Aristotle was
out of all patience with the account I gave him of Scotus and Ramus, as I
Thesaurus
erect: (adj) upright, vertical, appallingly; (adj, adv) frightfully, inexpressible, strange, indescribable,
straightforward; (v) build, raise, rear, terribly, fearfully, shockingly; (adj) obscure, unspeakable. ANTONYM:
construct, assemble, lift, put up, put ghastly. ANTONYMS: (adv) (adj) famous.
together. ANTONYMS: (v) dismantle, pleasantly, wonderfully, kindly, piercing: (adj, n) sharp, cutting; (adj, v)
wreck, topple, level, demolish, sweetly. keen, penetrating, biting, bitter,
destroy; (adj) prostrate, drooping, misrepresented: (adj) distorted, harsh, shrill; (adj) high, raw, loud.
prone, flaccid, flat. twisted, malformed, perverted, ANTONYMS: (adj) quiet, dull, soft,
homer: (n) homing pigeon, poet, tainted, artful, kinky, immoral, hot.
Winslow homer, bingle, referee, cor, disingenuous, depraved, deformed. visage: (n) face, look, mug,
kor, basking shark, base hit, triumph. nameless: (adj) unknown, unnamed, physiognomy, expression, kisser,
horribly: (adv) horrifically, awfully, unidentified, unsung, appearance, aspect, brow, smiler,
terrifically, hideously, atrociously, undistinguished, unspecified, forehead.
presented them to him; and he asked them, “whether the rest of the tribe were as
great dunces as themselves?”
I then desired the governor to call up Descartes and Gassendi, with whom I
prevailed to explain their systems to Aristotle. This great philosopher freely
acknowledged his own mistakes in natural philosophy, because he proceeded in
many things upon conjecture, as all men must do; and he found that Gassendi,
who had made the doctrine of Epicurus as palatable as he could, and the vortices
of Descartes, were equally to be exploded. He predicted the same fate to
attraction, whereof the present learned are such zealous asserters. He said, “that
new systems of nature were but new fashions, which would vary in every age;
and even those, who pretend to demonstrate them from mathematical principles,
would flourish but a short period of time, and be out of vogue when that was
determined.”
I spent five days in conversing with many others of the ancient learned. I saw
most of the first Roman emperors. I prevailed on the governor to call up
Heliogabalus’s cooks to dress us a dinner, but they could not show us much of
their skill, for want of materials. A helot of Agesilaus made us a dish of Spartan
broth, but I was not able to get down a second spoonful.%
The two gentlemen, who conducted me to the island, were pressed by their
private affairs to return in three days, which I employed in seeing some of the
modern dead, who had made the greatest figure, for two or three hundred years
past, in our own and other countries of Europe; and having been always a great
admirer of old illustrious families, I desired the governor would call up a dozen
or two of kings, with their ancestors in order for eight or nine generations. But
my disappointment was grievous and unexpected. For, instead of a long train
with royal diadems, I saw in one family two fiddlers, three spruce courtiers, and
an Italian prelate. In another, a barber, an abbot, and two cardinals. I have too
great a veneration for crowned heads, to dwell any longer on so nice a subject.
But as to counts, marquises, dukes, earls, and the like, I was not so scrupulous.
And I confess, it was not without some pleasure, that I found myself able to trace
the particular features, by which certain families are distinguished, up to their
Thesaurus
broth: (n) bouillon, gravy, consomm, sweet, savory. ANTONYMS: (adj) unscrupulous, slapdash, relaxed,
beef tea, stock, brew; (n, v) liquor, disagreeable, indigestible, inedible, guilty, deceitful.
puree; (v) pottage, potage, beverage. tasteless. spruce: (adj) dapper, neat, natty,
cardinals: (n) buntings, canaries, prelate: (n) primate, clergyman, high jaunty, trim, rakish, stylish, dashing,
family Fringillidae, Fringillidae, priest, archpriest, hierarch, reverend, snappy; (adj, v) tidy; (adj, n) bright.
genus Richmondena, Richmondena. archbishop, minister, diocesan, usher, ANTONYMS: (adj) untidy, messy,
counts: (adj) details, particulars, items. reverence. unkempt.
helot: (n) serf, villein, vassal, slave, scrupulous: (adj) careful, punctilious, vogue: (n) fashion, style, mode, rage,
cotter, cottier, thrall, Negro. exact, conscientious, particular, trend, popularity, currency, fad,
palatable: (adj) luscious, tasty, painstaking, accurate, prudent, craze, custom, bandwagon.
agreeable, toothsome, appetizing, meticulous, rigorous, cautious. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfashionable,
eatable, delectable, delicate, tasteful, ANTONYMS: (adj) sloppy, unpopular, unstylish.
Jonathan Swift 203
originals. I could plainly discover whence one family derives a long chin; why a
second has abounded with knaves for two generations, and fools for two more;
why a third happened to be crack-brained, and a fourth to be sharpers; whence it
came, what Polydore Virgil says of a certain great house, Nec vir fortis, nec
foemina casta; how cruelty, falsehood, and cowardice, grew to be characteristics
by which certain families are distinguished as much as by their coats of arms;
who first brought the pox into a noble house, which has lineally descended
scrofulous tumours to their posterity. Neither could I wonder at all this, when I
saw such an interruption of lineages, by pages, lackeys, valets, coachmen,
gamesters, fiddlers, players, captains, and pickpockets.%
I was chiefly disgusted with modern history. For having strictly examined all
the persons of greatest name in the courts of princes, for a hundred years past, I
found how the world had been misled by prostitute writers, to ascribe the
greatest exploits in war, to cowards; the wisest counsel, to fools; sincerity, to
flatterers; Roman virtue, to betrayers of their country; piety, to atheists; chastity,
to sodomites; truth, to informers: how many innocent and excellent persons had
been condemned to death or banishment by the practising of great ministers
upon the corruption of judges, and the malice of factions: how many villains had
been exalted to the highest places of trust, power, dignity, and profit: how great a
share in the motions and events of courts, councils, and senates might be
challenged by bawds, whores, pimps, parasites, and buffoons. How low an
opinion I had of human wisdom and integrity, when I was truly informed of the
springs and motives of great enterprises and revolutions in the world, and of the
contemptible accidents to which they owed their success.
Here I discovered the roguery and ignorance of those who pretend to write
anecdotes, or secret history; who send so many kings to their graves with a cup
of poison; will repeat the discourse between a prince and chief minister, where
no witness was by; unlock the thoughts and cabinets of ambassadors and
secretaries of state; and have the perpetual misfortune to be mistaken. Here I
discovered the true causes of many great events that have surprised the world;
how a whore can govern the back-stairs, the back-stairs a council, and the council
Thesaurus
ascribe: (v) assign, impute, accredit, fearfulness, base fear, cowardship. mischievousness, devilment, devilry,
arrogate, attach, lay, refer, ANTONYMS: (n) nerve, bravery, shenanigan, roguishness, deviltry,
anthropomorphize, blame, lay claim, daring, determination. maleficence, swindle, impishness;
claim. lineally: (adv) ancestrally, directly, (adj) knavery.
banishment: (n) expulsion, ostracism, straightly, straight. unlock: (v) open, unfasten, disclose,
ouster, proscription, relegation, originals: (n) dead copy. unbar, reveal, free, release,
ejection, deportation, dismissal, piety: (n) godliness, devoutness, faith, disengage, unbolt, unclose,
expatriation; (adj, n) exclusion; (adj) righteousness, holiness, reverence, withdraw. ANTONYMS: (v) fasten,
excommunication. religion, religiousness, piousness, lock, close.
cowardice: (n) dastardliness, sanctity, goodness. ANTONYMS: (n) whore: (n) harlot, trollop, courtesan,
poltroonery, pusillanimity, fear, sin, profanity, wickedness. tart, strumpet, hooker, streetwalker,
spirit, cravenness, timidity, roguery: (n) rascality, cocotte, bawd, slattern, verticil.
a senate. A general confessed, in my presence, “that he got a victory purely by

the force of cowardice and ill conduct;” and an admiral, “that, for want of proper
intelligence, he beat the enemy, to whom he intended to betray the fleet.” Three
kings protested to me, “that in their whole reigns they never did once prefer any
person of merit, unless by mistake, or treachery of some minister in whom they
confided; neither would they do it if they were to live again:” and they showed,
with great strength of reason, “that the royal throne could not be supported
without corruption, because that positive, confident, restiff temper, which virtue
infused into a man, was a perpetual clog to public business.”%
I had the curiosity to inquire in a particular manner, by what methods great
numbers had procured to themselves high titles of honour, and prodigious
estates; and I confined my inquiry to a very modern period: however, without
grating upon present times, because I would be sure to give no offence even to
foreigners (for I hope the reader need not be told, that I do not in the least intend
my own country, in what I say upon this occasion,) a great number of persons
concerned were called up; and, upon a very slight examination, discovered such
a scene of infamy, that I cannot reflect upon it without some seriousness. Perjury,
oppression, subornation, fraud, pandarism, and the like infirmities, were among
the most excusable arts they had to mention; and for these I gave, as it was
reasonable, great allowance. But when some confessed they owed their greatness
and wealth to sodomy, or incest; others, to the prostituting of their own wives
and daughters; others, to the betraying of their country or their prince; some, to
poisoning; more to the perverting of justice, in order to destroy the innocent, I
hope I may be pardoned, if these discoveries inclined me a little to abate of that
profound veneration, which I am naturally apt to pay to persons of high rank,
who ought to be treated with the utmost respect due to their sublime dignity, by
us their inferiors.
I had often read of some great services done to princes and states, and
desired to see the persons by whom those services were performed. Upon
inquiry I was told, “that their names were to be found on no record, except a few
of them, whom history has represented as the vilest of rogues and traitors.” As to
Thesaurus
abate: (v) bate, weaken, decline, remit, unblock. discredit, baseness; (adj, n) pollution.
slack, slake, wane, relax, lessen, excusable: (adj) pardonable, justifiable, ANTONYMS: (n) fame, virtue, honor,
diminish, allay. ANTONYMS: (v) defensible, forgivable, warrantable, obscurity, pride.
rise, grow, magnify, surge, intensify, permissible, slight, understandable, perjury: (v) mendacity; (n) bearing
expand, enlarge, enhance, amplify, minor, vindicable, tenable. false witness, lying under oath, false
prolong, extend. ANTONYMS: (adj) unforgivable, evidence, violation, lie, infringement,
betraying: (adj) treacherous, revealing, unallowable, indefensible, blameable. infraction, falsehood, offense, offence.
Judas. incest: (n) criminal congress, idolatry, restiff: (adj) resty.
clog: (n, v) block, bar, glut; (v) choke, adultery. sodomy: (n) pederasty, anal
obstruct, foul, hinder, encumber, infamy: (n) dishonor, disrepute, intercourse, anal sex, perversion.
back up; (n) obstruction, patten. ignominy, notoriety, shame, subornation: (n) provocation.
ANTONYMS: (v) free, clear, open, opprobrium, reproach, stain, wives: (n) woman.
Jonathan Swift 205
the rest, I had never once heard of them. They all appeared with dejected looks,
and in the meanest habit; most of them telling me, “they died in poverty and
disgrace, and the rest on a scaffold or a gibbet.”
Among others, there was one person, whose case appeared a little singular.
He had a youth about eighteen years old standing by his side. He told me, “he
had for many years been commander of a ship; and in the sea fight at Actium
had the good fortune to break through the enemy’s great line of battle, sink three
of their capital ships, and take a fourth, which was the sole cause of Antony’s
flight, and of the victory that ensued; that the youth standing by him, his only
son, was killed in the action.” He added, “that upon the confidence of some merit,
the war being at an end, he went to Rome, and solicited at the court of Augustus
to be preferred to a greater ship, whose commander had been killed; but, without
any regard to his pretensions, it was given to a boy who had never seen the sea,
the son of Libertina, who waited on one of the emperor’s mistresses. Returning
back to his own vessel, he was charged with neglect of duty, and the ship given
to a favourite page of Publicola, the vice-admiral; whereupon he retired to a poor
farm at a great distance from Rome, and there ended his life.” I was so curious to
know the truth of this story, that I desired Agrippa might be called, who was
admiral in that fight. He appeared, and confirmed the whole account: but with
much more advantage to the captain, whose modesty had extenuated or
concealed a great part of his merit.%
I was surprised to find corruption grown so high and so quick in that empire,
by the force of luxury so lately introduced; which made me less wonder at many
parallel cases in other countries, where vices of all kinds have reigned so much
longer, and where the whole praise, as well as pillage, has been engrossed by the
chief commander, who perhaps had the least title to either.
As every person called up made exactly the same appearance he had done in
the world, it gave me melancholy reflections to observe how much the race of
human kind was degenerated among us within these hundred years past; how
the pox, under all its consequences and denominations had altered every
lineament of an English countenance; shortened the size of bodies, unbraced the
Thesaurus
dejected: (adj) sad, depressed, low, bored, distracted, indifferent, depredation, despoliation,
downhearted, gloomy, down, unconcerned, uninterested, devastation.
unhappy, spiritless, sorrowful, inattentive, carefree. pretensions: (n) airs, affected manner,
miserable, melancholy. ANTONYMS: extenuated: (adj) marcid, tabid, mannerism.
(adj) elated, happy, euphoric, joyous, rawboned, shriveled, lanky; (n) shortened: (adj) abridged, cut, short,
encouraged, positive, enthusiastic, barebone. condensed, curtailed, reduced, cut
hopeful. lately: (adv) tardily, newly, freshly, short, scarce, unfinished, truncated,
engrossed: (adj) rapt, engaged, intent, belatedly, slowly, latterly, deadly; telescoped.
occupied, preoccupied, busy, (adj, adv) anew, late, afresh; (adj) solicited: (adj) requested.
fascinated, obsessed, thoughtful, recent. unbraced: (v) sickly, morbose,
hooked; (adj, v) immersed. pillage: (n, v) loot, ransack, spoil, rape; healthless, infirm, morbid,
ANTONYMS: (adj) disinterested, (v) despoil, harry, rob, rifle; (n) unsupported.
nerves, relaxed the sinews and muscles, introduced a sallow complexion, and
rendered the flesh loose and rancid.%
I descended so low, as to desire some English yeoman of the old stamp might
be summoned to appear; once so famous for the simplicity of their manners, diet,
and dress; for justice in their dealings; for their true spirit of liberty; for their
valour, and love of their country. Neither could I be wholly unmoved, after
comparing the living with the dead, when I considered how all these pure native
virtues were prostituted for a piece of money by their grand-children; who, in
selling their votes and managing at elections, have acquired every vice and
corruption that can possibly be learned in a court.
Thesaurus
comparing: (n) collation, contrast, apprehension, edginess, extreme sophistication, dishonesty, clutter,
comparison, analogy, collating, nervousness. ANTONYM: (n) calm. warmth.
comparability. sallow: (adj) pasty, pallid, bloodless, vice: (adj, n) imperfection, defect,
dealings: (n) business, dealing, sickly, wan, ashen, fair, white, tawny, blemish, failing, frailty; (n)
relations, traffic, proceedings, sandy; (n) osier. ANTONYMS: (adj) corruption, sin, evil, immorality,
transaction, affairs, contact, dark, glowing. iniquity, depravity. ANTONYMS: (n)
intercourse, trade, communication. simplicity: (n) plainness, simpleness, asset, strength, propriety, virtue,
descended: (v) extraught. easiness, ease, clarity, austerity, righteousness, goodness, good,
muscles: (n) sinew, strength. gullibility, severity, artlessness, honesty; (adj) chief.
nerves: (n) nervousness, jitters, ignorance; (adj, n) inexperience. yeoman: (n) beefeater, gaffer, chap,
jumpiness, jitteriness, restlessness, ANTONYMS: (n) difficulty, cultivator, fellow, freeholder, blade,
tension, strain, screaming meemies, complexity, ambiguity, magnificence, good man, swain, wight, woodcutter.
Jonathan Swift 207
CHAPTER %IX
[The author returns to Maldonada. Sails to the kingdom of Luggnagg. The

author confined. He is sent for to court. The manner of his admittance. The king’s
great lenity to his subjects.]
The day of our departure being come, I took leave of his highness, the
Governor of Glubbdubdrib, and returned with my two companions to
Maldonada, where, after a fortnight’s waiting, a ship was ready to sail for
Luggnagg. The two gentlemen, and some others, were so generous and kind as
to furnish me with provisions, and see me on board. I was a month in this
voyage. We had one violent storm, and were under a necessity of steering
westward to get into the trade wind, which holds for above sixty leagues. On the
21st of April, 1708, we sailed into the river of Clumegnig, which is a seaport town,
at the south-east point of Luggnagg. We cast anchor within a league of the town,
and made a signal for a pilot. Two of them came on board in less than half an
hour, by whom we were guided between certain shoals and rocks, which are
very dangerous in the passage, to a large basin, where a fleet may ride in safety
within a cable’s length of the town-wall.
Some of our sailors, whether out of treachery or inadvertence, had informed
the pilots “that I was a stranger, and great traveller;” whereof these gave notice
to a custom-house officer, by whom I was examined very strictly upon my
Thesaurus
basin: (n) bowl, pot, hollow, omission, neglect, mistake, newcomer, outlander, immigrant,
washbowl, washbasin, depression, superintendence, supervision, error; intruder, unknown, tramontane,
dock, tank, washstand, sink, basinful. (adj) nonobservance. ANTONYM: (n) trespasser; (adj) foreign, strange.
ANTONYMS: (n) hill, hump. mindfulness. ANTONYMS: (n) pal, native,
furnish: (v) afford, provide, rocks: (n) sunken rocks, family jewels, associate, resident, familiar.
contribute, render, offer, coral reef. treachery: (n) betrayal, disloyalty,
accommodate, supply, outfit, yield, sail: (n, v) cruise, float, voyage, sheet; infidelity, duplicity, treason, perfidy,
decorate; (n, v) give. ANTONYM: (v) (v) navigate, run, glide, drift, cross, falseness, faithlessness,
divest. sweep, travel. ANTONYM: (v) perfidiousness, guile, dishonesty.
guided: (adj) conducted, directed, led. struggle. ANTONYMS: (n) loyalty,
inadvertence: (n) disregard, shoals: (n) shelf. faithfulness, fidelity, reliability,
inadvertency, oversight, inattention, stranger: (n) foreigner, outsider, allegiance, goodness.
landing. This officer spoke to me in the language of Balnibarbi, which, by the

force of much commerce, is generally understood in that town, especially by
seamen and those employed in the customs. I gave him a short account of some
particulars, and made my story as plausible and consistent as I could; but I
thought it necessary to disguise my country, and call myself a Hollander;
because my intentions were for Japan, and I knew the Dutch were the only
Europeans permitted to enter into that kingdom. I therefore told the officer, “that
having been shipwrecked on the coast of Balnibarbi, and cast on a rock, I was
received up into Laputa, or the flying island (of which he had often heard), and
was now endeavouring to get to Japan, whence I might find a convenience of
returning to my own country.” The officer said, “I must be confined till he could
receive orders from court, for which he would write immediately, and hoped to
receive an answer in a fortnight.” I was carried to a convenient lodging with a
sentry placed at the door; however, I had the liberty of a large garden, and was
treated with humanity enough, being maintained all the time at the king’s charge.
I was invited by several persons, chiefly out of curiosity, because it was reported
that I came from countries very remote, of which they had never heard.%
I hired a young man, who came in the same ship, to be an interpreter; he was
a native of Luggnagg, but had lived some years at Maldonada, and was a perfect
master of both languages. By his assistance, I was able to hold a conversation
with those who came to visit me; but this consisted only of their questions, and
my answers.
The despatch came from court about the time we expected. It contained a
warrant for conducting me and my retinue to Traldragdubh, or Trildrogdrib (for
it is pronounced both ways as near as I can remember), by a party of ten horse.
All my retinue was that poor lad for an interpreter, whom I persuaded into my
service, and, at my humble request, we had each of us a mule to ride on. A
messenger was despatched half a day’s journey before us, to give the king notice
of my approach, and to desire, “that his majesty would please to appoint a day
and hour, when it would by his gracious pleasure that I might have the honour
to lick the dust before his footstool.” This is the court style, and I found it to be
Thesaurus
conducting: (n) administration, explainer, translator, mouthpiece, hybrid, crossbreed, Metis.
conduct, directing, managing, ambassador, prophet, bagman, retinue: (n) court, entourage,
direction, management. expounder, program. following, suite, cortege, escort,
disguise: (n, v) cloak, mask, conceal, lick: (n, v) lap; (v) clobber, thrash, company, equipage; (n, v) train,
masquerade, veil, camouflage, color; drub, beat, bat, defeat; (n) biff, jab, attendance; (v) attendants.
(n) guise, concealment; (v) hide, speed, dash. ride: (n, v) outing; (adj, v) bestride; (n)
dissemble. ANTONYMS: (n) messenger: (n, v) herald; (n) harbinger, run, lift, jaunt; (v) mount, bait, float,
revelation; (v) unmask, uncover, runner, emissary, bearer, rag, tease, harass.
show, expose, display, disclose, ambassador, precursor, courier, sentry: (n, v) guard, watch; (n)
clarify, reveal. carrier, apostle, errand. lookout, guardsman, picket, keeper,
interpreter: (n) commentator, mule: (n) ass, donkey, jackass, hinny, warden, watchman, warder, lookout
interpretive program, exponent, mules, scuff, bullhead, slipper; (adj) man, scout.
Jonathan Swift 209
more %than matter of form: for, upon my admittance two days after my arrival, I
was commanded to crawl upon my belly, and lick the floor as I advanced; but,
on account of my being a stranger, care was taken to have it made so clean, that
the dust was not offensive. However, this was a peculiar grace, not allowed to
any but persons of the highest rank, when they desire an admittance. Nay,
sometimes the floor is strewed with dust on purpose, when the person to be
admitted happens to have powerful enemies at court; and I have seen a great
lord with his mouth so crammed, that when he had crept to the proper distance
from the throne; he was not able to speak a word. Neither is there any remedy;
because it is capital for those, who receive an audience to spit or wipe their
mouths in his majesty’s presence. There is indeed another custom, which I
cannot altogether approve of: when the king has a mind to put any of his nobles
to death in a gentle indulgent manner, he commands the floor to be strewed with
a certain brown powder of a deadly composition, which being licked up,
infallibly kills him in twenty-four hours. But in justice to this prince’s great
clemency, and the care he has of his subjects’ lives (wherein it were much to be
wished that the Monarchs of Europe would imitate him), it must be mentioned
for his honour, that strict orders are given to have the infected parts of the floor
well washed after every such execution, which, if his domestics neglect, they are
in danger of incurring his royal displeasure. I myself heard him give directions,
that one of his pages should be whipped, whose turn it was to give notice about
washing the floor after an execution, but maliciously had omitted it; by which
neglect a young lord of great hopes, coming to an audience, was unfortunately
poisoned, although the king at that time had no design against his life. But this
good prince was so gracious as to forgive the poor page his whipping, upon
promise that he would do so no more, without special orders.
To return from this digression. When I had crept within four yards of the
throne, I raised myself gently upon my knees, and then striking my forehead
seven times against the ground, I pronounced the following words, as they had
been taught me the night before, Inckpling gloffthrobb squut serummblhiop
mlashnalt zwin tnodbalkuffh slhiophad gurdlubh asht. This is the compliment,
established by the laws of the land, for all persons admitted to the king’s
Thesaurus
belly: (n) stomach, inside, pregnancy, complain, belittle. spit: (v) drizzle, expectorate, sprinkle,
maw, bowels, intestines, waist, digression: (n, v) deviation, diversion; spew, drool, spike, spatter; (n)
corporation; (v) balloon, swell, bloat. (n) departure, aside, excursion, broach, saliva, cape; (n, v) skewer.
commands: (n) orders, instructions, divagation, aberrance, deflection, strewed: (v) besprent, sprinkled over.
information, guidelines. deflexion, divergence, difference. whipped: (v) whipt.
compliment: (n, v) praise, honor; (v) ANTONYMS: (n) consistency, whipping: (n) flagellation, beating,
laud, flattery, applaud, greet, uniformity, regularity. thrashing, licking, lashing, flogging,
adulation, congratulate, belaud; (n) licked: (adj) dumbfounded. overcasting, debacle, slaughter,
eulogy, tribute. ANTONYMS: (n) poisoned: (adj, v) tainted; (v) peccant, overlocking; (adj) snappy.
criticism, reproach, disparagement; morbid, tabid; (adj) venenate, made wipe: (n, v) rub; (v) mop, clean, towel,
(n, v) slander, libel; (v) criticize, virulent, rabid, resentful, sour, brush, scour, scrub, clear, dry, wash;
denounce, disparage, denigrate, mangy, leprous. (adj) sponge. ANTONYM: (v) dirty.
presence. It may be rendered into English thus: “May your celestial majesty
outlive the sun, eleven moons and a half!” To this the king returned some
answer, which, although I could not understand, yet I replied as I had been
directed: Fluft drin yalerick dwuldom prastrad mirpush, which properly
signifies, “My tongue is in the mouth of my friend;” and by this expression was
meant, that I desired leave to bring my interpreter; whereupon the young man
already mentioned was accordingly introduced, by whose intervention I
answered as many questions as his majesty could put in above an hour. I spoke
in the Balnibarbian tongue, and my interpreter delivered my meaning in that of
Luggnagg.%
The king was much delighted with my company, and ordered his
bliffmarklub, or high-chamberlain, to appoint a lodging in the court for me and
my interpreter; with a daily allowance for my table, and a large purse of gold for
my common expenses.
I staid three months in this country, out of perfect obedience to his majesty;
who was pleased highly to favour me, and made me very honourable offers. But
I thought it more consistent with prudence and justice to pass the remainder of
my days with my wife and family.
Thesaurus
appoint: (v) assign, accredit, designate, sorry, sad, down. docility, loyalty, allegiance.
set, prescribe, delegate, create, make, desired: (adj) coveted, desirable, ANTONYMS: (n) disobedience,
commission, fix; (n, v) name. favorite, wanted, welcome, needed, defiance, naughtiness, resistance,
ANTONYMS: (v) dismiss, fire, beloved, required, most wanted; (adj, divergence, chaos, wildness.
unfurnish, expel, dismantle, v) chosen; (v) consenting. outlive: (v) survive, live, endure,
discharge, strip, elect, change. expenses: (n) expenditure, expense, overlive, live through, make it,
delighted: (adj) glad, cheerful, blissful, charge, costs, fee, spending, overbide, overcome, remain,
jubilant, happy, overjoyed, joyful, disbursement, overheads, payment, supervive, subsist.
captivated, pleasant; (adj, v) pleased, outlay, upkeep. remainder: (n) excess, leftover,
elated. ANTONYMS: (adj) shocked, obedience: (n) meekness, submission, overplus, end, residue, oddment,
unhappy, sorrowful, depressed, deference, obeisance, acquiescence, balance, rest, surplus; (adj, n)
melancholy, miserable, desolate, subordination, bow, observance, remnant; (adv) after.
Jonathan Swift 211
CHAPTER X
[The Luggnaggians commended. A particular description of the Struldbrugs,

with many conversations between the author and some eminent persons upon
that subject.]
The Luggnaggians are a polite and generous people; and although they are
not without some share of that pride which is peculiar to all Eastern countries,
yet they show themselves courteous to strangers, especially such who are
countenanced by the court. I had many acquaintance, and among persons of the
best fashion; and being always attended by my interpreter, the conversation we
had was not disagreeable.%
One day, in much good company, I was asked by a person of quality,
“whether I had seen any of their struldbrugs, or immortals?” I said, “I had not;”
and desired he would explain to me “what he meant by such an appellation,
applied to a mortal creature.” He told me “that sometimes, though very rarely, a
child happened to be born in a family, with a red circular spot in the forehead,
directly over the left eyebrow, which was an infallible mark that it should never
die.” The spot, as he described it, “was about the compass of a silver threepence,
but in the course of time grew larger, and changed its colour; for at twelve years
old it became green, so continued till five and twenty, then turned to a deep blue:
at five and forty it grew coal black, and as large as an English shilling; but never
Thesaurus
appellation: (n) designation, attentive, gracious, decorous, foremost.
denomination, title, name, nickname, chivalrous, bland, thoughtful, infallible: (adj) sure, inevitable,
epithet, moniker, term, appellative, urbane, mannerly, gentlemanly. positive, inerrable, unfailing,
cognomen, degree. ANTONYMS: (adj) rude, impolite, absolute, confident, definite,
circular: (adj) round, rounded, rotund, boorish, insulting, unmannerly, gruff, dependable; (adj, v) unerring; (n)
orbicular, circinate, globular, annular, improper, vulgar, unhelpful, sterling. ANTONYMS: (adj) fallible,
spherical; (n) handbill, neglectful, graceless. faulty.
advertisement, bill. ANTONYMS: eyebrow: (n) supercilium, eyebrows, shilling: (n) York shilling, Tanzanian
(adj) linear, rectangular, straight. forehead, strap line, hair. shilling, British shilling, Kenyan
commended: (adj) highly praised. forehead: (n) brow, front, foreland, shilling, Ugandan shilling, Somalian
countenanced: (adj) aided. lineament, mut, phiz, physiognomy, shilling, dock, cork, farthing, coin,
courteous: (adj, v) civil; (adj) affable, visage, eyebrow, skull; (adv) cheat.
admitted any further alteration.” He said, “these births were so rare, that he did
not believe there could be above eleven hundred struldbrugs, of both sexes, in
the whole kingdom; of which he computed about fifty in the metropolis, and,
among the rest, a young girl born; about three years ago: that these productions
were not peculiar to any family, but a mere effect of chance; and the children of
the struldbrugs themselves were equally mortal with the rest of the people.”%
I freely own myself to have been struck with inexpressible delight, upon
hearing this account: and the person who gave it me happening to understand
the Balnibarbian language, which I spoke very well, I could not forbear breaking
out into expressions, perhaps a little too extravagant. I cried out, as in a rapture,
“Happy nation, where every child hath at least a chance for being immortal!
Happy people, who enjoy so many living examples of ancient virtue, and have
masters ready to instruct them in the wisdom of all former ages! but happiest,
beyond all comparison, are those excellent struldbrugs, who, being born exempt
from that universal calamity of human nature, have their minds free and
disengaged, without the weight and depression of spirits caused by the continual
apprehensions of death!” I discovered my admiration that I had not observed
any of these illustrious persons at court; the black spot on the forehead being so
remarkable a distinction, that I could not have easily overlooked it: and it was
impossible that his majesty, a most judicious prince, should not provide himself
with a good number of such wise and able counsellors. Yet perhaps the virtue of
those reverend sages was too strict for the corrupt and libertine manners of a
court: and we often find by experience, that young men are too opinionated and
volatile to be guided by the sober dictates of their seniors. However, since the
king was pleased to allow me access to his royal person, I was resolved, upon the
very first occasion, to deliver my opinion to him on this matter freely and at large,
by the help of my interpreter; and whether he would please to take my advice or
not, yet in one thing I was determined, that his majesty having frequently offered
me an establishment in this country, I would, with great thankfulness, accept the
favour, and pass my life here in the conversation of those superior beings the
struldbrugs, if they would please to admit me.”
Thesaurus
immortal: (adj) eternal, enduring, definite. overlooked: (adj) ignored, neglected,
undying, endless, monumental; (adj, libertine: (adj) dissolute, dissipated, unobserved, unnoted, unmarked.
v) deathless, imperishable, debauched, fast, lewd, lascivious, rapture: (n) joy, bliss, delight,
celebrated; (n) deity, God, divinity. loose, licentious; (n, v) debauchee; (n) happiness, exaltation, elation,
ANTONYMS: (adj) obscure, earthly, rake; (adj, n) wanton. exultation, enchantment; (adj, n)
forgettable, perishable, temporary. masters: (n) Edgar lee Masters. enthusiasm; (n, v) transport; (adj, n, v)
inexpressible: (adj, v) indescribable; opinionated: (adj, v) opinionative, passion. ANTONYMS: (n)
(adj) ineffable, unspeakable, opinionate, opinioned; (adj) obstinate, indifference, boredom, misery,
unutterable, indefinable, dogmatic, wilful, dogged, stubborn, gloom, agony, hell, despair.
incommunicable, nameless, untold, egotistic, intolerant, biased. thankfulness: (n) appreciation,
beyond description, unexpressible, ANTONYMS: (adj) broadminded, gratefulness, appreciativeness,
undefinable. ANTONYM: (adj) fair. thanks, credit, merit, recognition.
Jonathan Swift 213
The gentleman to whom I addressed my discourse, because (as I have already

observed) he spoke the language of Balnibarbi, said to me, with a sort of a smile
which usually arises from pity to the ignorant, “that he was glad of any occasion
to keep me among them, and desired my permission to explain to the company
what I had spoke.” He did so, and they talked together for some time in their
own language, whereof I understood not a syllable, neither could I observe by
their countenances, what impression my discourse had made on them. After a
short silence, the same person told me, “that his friends and mine (so he thought
fit to express himself) were very much pleased with the judicious remarks I had
made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal life, and they were
desirous to know, in a particular manner, what scheme of living I should have
formed to myself, if it had fallen to my lot to have been born a struldbrug.”
I answered, “it was easy to be eloquent on so copious and delightful a subject,
especially to me, who had been often apt to amuse myself with visions of what I
should do, if I were a king, a general, or a great lord: and upon this very case, I
had frequently run over the whole system how I should employ myself, and pass
the time, if I were sure to live for ever.%
“That, if it had been my good fortune to come into the world a struldbrug, as
soon as I could discover my own happiness, by understanding the difference
between life and death, I would first resolve, by all arts and methods, whatsoever,
to procure myself riches. In the pursuit of which, by thrift and management, I
might reasonably expect, in about two hundred years, to be the wealthiest man
in the kingdom. In the second place, I would, from my earliest youth, apply
myself to the study of arts and sciences, by which I should arrive in time to excel
all others in learning. Lastly, I would carefully record every action and event of
consequence, that happened in the public, impartially draw the characters of the
several successions of princes and great ministers of state, with my own
observations on every point. I would exactly set down the several changes in
customs, language, fashions of dress, diet, and diversions. By all which
acquirements, I should be a living treasure of knowledge and wisdom, and
certainly become the oracle of the nation.
Thesaurus
amuse: (v) please, beguile, absorb, impartially: (adv) justly, find. ANTONYM: (v) give.
entertain, enjoy, disport, distract, dispassionately, neutrally, evenly, riches: (n, v) money; (n) affluence,
delight, occupy, recreate, rejoice. disinterestedly, objectively, abundance, fortune, opulence, plenty,
ANTONYMS: (v) bore, dull, tire, unbiasedly, unprejudicedly, prosperity, exuberance, treasure,
annoy, anger, cloy, depress, weary, indifferently, evenhandedly, rightly. resources; (v) gold.
disappoint. ANTONYM: (adv) unfairly. thrift: (n) economy, parsimony,
copious: (adj) bountiful, ample, oracle: (n) prophet, divination, husbandry, frugalness, prosperity,
affluent, plentiful, rich, plenteous, vaticinator, diviner, revelation, seer, prudence, thriftiness,
much, many, generous, large; (adj, n) sibyl, Solomon, soothsayer, vision, parsimoniousness, sea pink, welfare;
luxuriant. ANTONYMS: (adj) small, authority. (v) gain. ANTONYMS: (n) generosity,
meager, sparse, lacking, rare, scant, procure: (v) get, obtain, buy, earn, win, spending, waste.
scanty, thin, few; (adv) partially. gain, have, purchase, induce, derive,
“I would never marry after threescore, but live in a hospitable manner, yet
still on the saving side. I would entertain myself in forming and directing the
minds of hopeful young men, by convincing them, from my own remembrance,
experience, and observation, fortified by numerous examples, of the usefulness
of virtue in public and private life. But my choice and constant companions
should be a set of my own immortal brotherhood; among whom, I would elect a
dozen from the most ancient, down to my own contemporaries. Where any of
these wanted fortunes, I would provide them with convenient lodges round my
own estate, and have some of them always at my table; only mingling a few of
the most valuable among you mortals, whom length of time would harden me to
lose with little or no reluctance, and treat your posterity after the same manner;
just as a man diverts himself with the annual succession of pinks and tulips in his
garden, without regretting the loss of those which withered the preceding year.%
“These struldbrugs and I would mutually communicate our observations and
memorials, through the course of time; remark the several gradations by which
corruption steals into the world, and oppose it in every step, by giving perpetual
warning and instruction to mankind; which, added to the strong influence of our
own example, would probably prevent that continual degeneracy of human
nature so justly complained of in all ages.
“Add to this, the pleasure of seeing the various revolutions of states and
empires; the changes in the lower and upper world; ancient cities in ruins, and
obscure villages become the seats of kings; famous rivers lessening into shallow
brooks; the ocean leaving one coast dry, and overwhelming another; the
discovery of many countries yet unknown; barbarity overrunning the politest
nations, and the most barbarous become civilized. I should then see the
discovery of the longitude, the perpetual motion, the universal medicine, and
many other great inventions, brought to the utmost perfection.
“What wonderful discoveries should we make in astronomy, by outliving
and confirming our own predictions; by observing the progress and return of
comets, with the changes of motion in the sun, moon, and stars!”
I enlarged upon many other topics, which the natural desire of endless life,
Thesaurus
barbarity: (n) atrocity, barbarousness, decadence, degeneration, decline, leak.
brutality, cruelty, savagery, debasement, decay, degenerateness, remembrance: (n, v) recollection,
viciousness, inhumanity, depravation, immorality; (adj, n) mind; (n) commemoration, memorial,
atrociousness, inhumaneness, meanness. ANTONYMS: (n) recall, relic, monument, keepsake,
boorishness, ruffianism. morality, purity, righteousness. reminiscence, recognition; (adj, n)
ANTONYMS: (n) refinement, nicety. mingling: (adj) blending, merging, memento.
brotherhood: (n) fraternity, sodality, confluent, blended; (n) mixture, steals: (adj) stolen; (n) stealing.
association, kinship, relationship, mixing, commixtion, interchange, threescore: (adj) lx.
friendliness, confraternity, exchange, commixture; (adv) withered: (adj) wizened, sear,
fellowship, organization, partnership, minglingly. shriveled, thin, shrunken, dry, dried
society. overrunning: (n) escape, discharge, up, wilted, faded, wizen; (v) lame.
degeneracy: (n) corruption, depravity, deluge, overflow, reimposition, slick, ANTONYM: (adj) plump.
Jonathan Swift 215
and sublunary happiness, could easily furnish me with. When I had ended, and
the sum of my discourse had been interpreted, as before, to the rest of the
company, there was a good deal of talk among them in the language of the
country, not without some laughter at my expense. At last, the same gentleman
who had been my interpreter, said, “he was desired by the rest to set me right in
a few mistakes, which I had fallen into through the common imbecility of
human nature, and upon that allowance was less answerable for them. That this
breed of struldbrugs was peculiar to their country, for there were no such people
either in Balnibarbi or Japan, where he had the honour to be ambassador from
his majesty, and found the natives in both those kingdoms very hard to believe
that the fact was possible: and it appeared from my astonishment when he first
mentioned the matter to me, that I received it as a thing wholly new, and scarcely
to be credited. That in the two kingdoms above mentioned, where, during his
residence, he had conversed very much, he observed long life to be the universal
desire and wish of mankind. That whoever had one foot in the grave was sure to
hold back the other as strongly as he could. That the oldest had still hopes of
living one day longer, and looked on death as the greatest evil, from which
nature always prompted him to retreat. Only in this island of Luggnagg the
appetite for living was not so eager, from the continual example of the
struldbrugs before their eyes.%
“That the system of living contrived by me, was unreasonable and unjust;
because it supposed a perpetuity of youth, health, and vigour, which no man
could be so foolish to hope, however extravagant he may be in his wishes. That
the question therefore was not, whether a man would choose to be always in the
prime of youth, attended with prosperity and health; but how he would pass a
perpetual life under all the usual disadvantages which old age brings along with
it. For although few men will avow their desires of being immortal, upon such
hard conditions, yet in the two kingdoms before mentioned, of Balnibarbi and
Japan, he observed that every man desired to put off death some time longer, let
it approach ever so late: and he rarely heard of any man who died willingly,
except he were incited by the extremity of grief or torture. And he appealed to
me, whether in those countries I had travelled, as well as my own, I had not
Thesaurus
credited: (adj) accredited, accepted. time without end, everness, energy, power, potency, vim, vitality,
ANTONYM: (adj) unofficial. sequence, aye. athleticism, verve, intensity.
desires: (n) requirements, needs. sublunary: (adj) earthly, terrestrial, whoever: (n) anyone, somebody;
imbecility: (n) folly, foolishness, mundane, subastral, cislunar, (pron) whosoever, whatsoever
idiocy, fatuity, weakness, stupidity, temporal, worldly, planetary, terrene, person.
feeblemindedness, lunacy; (adj, n) telluric, tellurian. willingly: (adv) readily, voluntarily,
debility, feebleness; (adj) infirmity. unjust: (adj) partial, injurious, wrong, cheerfully, spontaneously, helpfully,
incited: (adj) encouraged, impelled, inequitable, unrighteous, wicked, disposedly, actively, openly,
driven. foul, wrongful, improper, unmerited, obligingly, eagerly; (adj, adv) freely.
perpetuity: (n) immortality, unjustified. ANTONYMS: (adj) just, ANTONYMS: (adv) grudgingly,
sempiternity, permanency, infinity, equitable, rightful, reasonable, good. reluctantly, uncooperatively,
permanence, endlessness, continuity, vigour: (n) force, strength, vigor, unenthusiastically.
observed the same general disposition.”%

After this preface, he gave me a particular account of the struldbrugs among
them. He said, “they commonly acted like mortals till about thirty years old; after
which, by degrees, they grew melancholy and dejected, increasing in both till
they came to fourscore. This he learned from their own confession: for otherwise,
there not being above two or three of that species born in an age, they were too
few to form a general observation by. When they came to fourscore years, which
is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the
follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more which arose from the
dreadful prospect of never dying. They were not only opinionative, peevish,
covetous, morose, vain, talkative, but incapable of friendship, and dead to all
natural affection, which never descended below their grandchildren. Envy and
impotent desires are their prevailing passions. But those objects against which
their envy seems principally directed, are the vices of the younger sort and the
deaths of the old. By reflecting on the former, they find themselves cut off from
all possibility of pleasure; and whenever they see a funeral, they lament and
repine that others have gone to a harbour of rest to which they themselves never
can hope to arrive. They have no remembrance of anything but what they
learned and observed in their youth and middle-age, and even that is very
imperfect; and for the truth or particulars of any fact, it is safer to depend on
common tradition, than upon their best recollections. The least miserable among
them appear to be those who turn to dotage, and entirely lose their memories;
these meet with more pity and assistance, because they want many bad qualities
which abound in others.
“If a struldbrug happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is
dissolved of course, by the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as the younger of
the two comes to be fourscore; for the law thinks it a reasonable indulgence, that
those who are condemned, without any fault of their own, to a perpetual
continuance in the world, should not have their misery doubled by the load of a
wife.
“As soon as they have completed the term of eighty years, they are looked on
Thesaurus
covetous: (adj) avid, envious, greedy, delight; (n) allowance, extravagance, captious, petulant, cross,
grasping, acquisitive, miserly, debauchery, hobby, tolerance, cantankerous, touchy.
hungry, jealous; (adj, n) desirous; (adj, luxury, enjoyment, leniency, pardon. repine: (v) kick, grumble, regret,
v) sordid, mercenary. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (n) denial, virtue, quetch, murmur, brood, mourn,
(adj) giving, benevolent, sharing. intolerance, uprightness, necessity, languish, whine, lament; (n) sink.
dotage: (adj, n) fatuity; (n) senility, indifference, dismay, severity. talkative: (adj, v) loquacious; (adj)
second childhood, old age, age, opinionative: (adj) opinionated, garrulous, chatty, gabby, verbose,
decrepitude, imbecility, feebleness, obstinate, stubborn, dogged, gossipy, glib, communicative,
insanity, years; (adj) second opiniative; (v) opinionate, opinioned; voluble, talky, wordy. ANTONYMS:
childishness. ANTONYM: (n) (n) narrower. (adj) reserved, mute, silent, shy, quiet,
adolescence. peevish: (adj) fretful, fractious, uncommunicative, restrained,
indulgence: (adj, n) gratification, morose, testy, irascible, moody, reticent.
Jonathan Swift 217
as dead in law; their heirs immediately succeed to their estates; only a small
pittance is reserved for their support; and the poor ones are maintained at the
public charge. After that period, they are held incapable of any employment of
trust or profit; they cannot purchase lands, or take leases; neither are they
allowed to be witnesses in any cause, either civil or criminal, not even for the
decision of meers and bounds.%
“At ninety, they lose their teeth and hair; they have at that age no distinction
of taste, but eat and drink whatever they can get, without relish or appetite. The
diseases they were subject to still continue, without increasing or diminishing. In
talking, they forget the common appellation of things, and the names of persons,
even of those who are their nearest friends and relations. For the same reason,
they never can amuse themselves with reading, because their memory will not
serve to carry them from the beginning of a sentence to the end; and by this
defect, they are deprived of the only entertainment whereof they might
otherwise be capable.
The language of this country being always upon the flux, the struldbrugs of
one age do not understand those of another; neither are they able, after two
hundred years, to hold any conversation (farther than by a few general words)
with their neighbours the mortals; and thus they lie under the disadvantage of
living like foreigners in their own country.”
This was the account given me of the struldbrugs, as near as I can remember.
I afterwards saw five or six of different ages, the youngest not above two
hundred years old, who were brought to me at several times by some of my
friends; but although they were told, “that I was a great traveller, and had seen
all the world,” they had not the least curiosity to ask me a question; only desired
“I would give them slumskudask,” or a token of remembrance; which is a
modest way of begging, to avoid the law, that strictly forbids it, because they are
provided for by the public, although indeed with a very scanty allowance.
They are despised and hated by all sorts of people. When one of them is born,
it is reckoned ominous, and their birth is recorded very particularly so that you
may know their age by consulting the register, which, however, has not been
Thesaurus
defect: (adj, n) blemish, imperfection, increasing, growing, burgeoning. pittance: (n) mite, meed, alimony,
infirmity; (n) flaw, blot, shortcoming, flux: (v) dissolve, thaw, course, fuse, chicken feed, a few, donation, a
weakness, deficiency, scar, failing, melt; (n) tide, current, flood, torrent, smidgen, a little bit, driblet, trifle,
dearth. ANTONYMS: (n) strength, afflux, lapse. ANTONYM: (n) payment.
merit, faultlessness, excellence, stability. relish: (n, v) enjoy, fancy, love; (n)
capability, enhancement, perfection; heirs: (n) family, posterity, issue. gusto, liking, palate, enthusiasm,
(v) uphold, remain, join, embrace. ominous: (adj) baleful, inauspicious, enjoyment; (adj, n) flavor; (v) bask,
diminishing: (adj) abating, declining, ill, menacing, threatening, black, like. ANTONYM: (n) apathy.
dwindling, lessening, waning; (n) sinister, minatory, unlucky, token: (n) memento, souvenir, note,
decrease, shrinking, reducing, forbidding, minacious. ANTONYMS: keepsake, sign, relic, stamp, signal,
reduction; (adv) diminishingly; (v) (adj) promising, auspicious, indication; (adj) nominal; (n, v) trace.
diminish. ANTONYMS: (adj) reassuring, bright, lucky, wonderful. ANTONYM: (adj) great.
kept above a thousand years past, or at least has been destroyed by time or
public disturbances. But the usual way of computing how old they are, is by
asking them what kings or great persons they can remember, and then
consulting history; for infallibly the last prince in their mind did not begin his
reign after they were fourscore years old.%
They were the most mortifying sight I ever beheld; and the women more
horrible than the men. Besides the usual deformities in extreme old age, they
acquired an additional ghastliness, in proportion to their number of years, which
is not to be described; and among half a dozen, I soon distinguished which was
the eldest, although there was not above a century or two between them.
The reader will easily believe, that from what I had hear and seen, my keen
appetite for perpetuity of life was much abated. I grew heartily ashamed of the
pleasing visions I had formed; and thought no tyrant could invent a death into
which I would not run with pleasure, from such a life. The king heard of all that
had passed between me and my friends upon this occasion, and rallied me very
pleasantly; wishing I could send a couple of struldbrugs to my own country, to
arm our people against the fear of death; but this, it seems, is forbidden by the
fundamental laws of the kingdom, or else I should have been well content with
the trouble and expense of transporting them.
I could not but agree, that the laws of this kingdom relative to the struldbrugs
were founded upon the strongest reasons, and such as any other country would
be under the necessity of enacting, in the like circumstances. Otherwise, as
avarice is the necessary consequence of old age, those immortals would in time
become proprietors of the whole nation, and engross the civil power, which, for
want of abilities to manage, must end in the ruin of the public.
Thesaurus
enacting: (adj) legislative; (n) acting. invent: (v) devise, form, create, gratifyingly, kindly; (adv, v) happily.
engross: (v) absorb, engage, consume, excogitate, concoct, imagine, ANTONYMS: (adv) disagreeably,
occupy, copy, captivate, fascinate, contrive; (n, v) forge, fabricate, offensively, awfully, discordantly,
involve, swallow, engulf; (adj, v) design, coin. dreadfully, shockingly, unkindly,
immerse. ANTONYMS: (v) reject, mortifying: (adj) embarrassing, irritably, harshly, curtly, nastily.
ignore, distract, bore. demeaning, humbling, undignified, transporting: (adj) ecstatic, rapturous,
ghastliness: (n) gruesomeness, off, awkward, unpleasant; (v) rapturous applause, ravishing,
luridness, horror, dreadfulness, annoying, aggravating, irritating, transportant.
terribleness, horribleness, stinging. ANTONYM: (adj) dignified. tyrant: (n) dictator, oppressor,
repulsiveness, misery, grimness, pleasantly: (adv) pleasingly, nicely, autocrat, disciplinarian, bully,
ghastness, frightfulness. ANTONYM: cheerily, enjoyably, agreeably, authoritarian, sovereign, czar,
(n) pleasantness. delightfully, sunnily, genially, monarch, suzerain, stickler.
Jonathan Swift 219
CHAPTER XI
[The author leaves Luggnagg, and sails to Japan. From thence he returns in a
Dutch ship to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to England.]
I thought this account of the struldbrugs might be some entertainment to the

reader, because it seems to be a little out of the common way; at least I do not
remember to have met the like in any book of travels that has come to my hands:
and if I am deceived, my excuse must be, that it is necessary for travellers who
describe the same country, very often to agree in dwelling on the same
particulars, without deserving the censure of having borrowed or transcribed
from those who wrote before them.%
There is indeed a perpetual commerce between this kingdom and the great
empire of Japan; and it is very probable, that the Japanese authors may have
given some account of the struldbrugs; but my stay in Japan was so short, and I
was so entirely a stranger to the language, that I was not qualified to make any
inquiries. But I hope the Dutch, upon this notice, will be curious and able
enough to supply my defects.
His majesty having often pressed me to accept some employment in his court,
and finding me absolutely determined to return to my native country, was
pleased to give me his license to depart; and honoured me with a letter of
Thesaurus
commerce: (n, v) trade, barter; (n) residence, house, place, lasting, ceaseless, immortal,
business, exchange, connection, accommodation, address, building, continuous, perennial. ANTONYMS:
dealings, intercourse, association, lodge, habitation; (adj, n) dwell. (adj) temporary, intermittent,
conversation, communication; (v) honoured: (adj) esteemed, respected, transitory, mortal, unstable, finite,
affair. worthy. inconstant, occasional, sporadic.
deserving: (adj) meritorious, inquiries: (n) investigation, probable: (adj) likely, plausible,
admirable, creditable, commendable, examination, study, enquiries, possible, potential, presumable,
laudable, fit, good, deserved, enquiry, inquiry, exploration. feasible, hopeful, convincing,
condign; (v) deserve, worthy of. leaves: (n) departure, leaving, plants, believable, to be expected, specious.
ANTONYMS: (adj) unworthy, trees, vegetation. ANTONYMS: (adj) improbable,
undeserving, unimpressive. perpetual: (adj) incessant, continual, implausible, unbelievable.
dwelling: (n) domicile, home, constant, endless, eternal, everlasting, transcribed: (adj) written, tinned.
recommendation, under his own hand, to the Emperor of Japan. He likewise

presented me with four hundred and forty-four large pieces of gold (this nation
delighting in even numbers), and a red diamond, which I sold in England for
eleven hundred pounds.%
On the 6th of May, 1709, I took a solemn leave of his majesty, and all my
friends. This prince was so gracious as to order a guard to conduct me to
Glanguenstald, which is a royal port to the south-west part of the island. In six
days I found a vessel ready to carry me to Japan, and spent fifteen days in the
voyage. We landed at a small port-town called Xamoschi, situated on the south-
east part of Japan; the town lies on the western point, where there is a narrow
strait leading northward into along arm of the sea, upon the north-west part of
which, Yedo, the metropolis, stands. At landing, I showed the custom-house
officers my letter from the king of Luggnagg to his imperial majesty. They knew
the seal perfectly well; it was as broad as the palm of my hand. The impression
was, a king lifting up a lame beggar from the earth. The magistrates of the town,
hearing of my letter, received me as a public minister. They provided me with
carriages and servants, and bore my charges to Yedo; where I was admitted to an
audience, and delivered my letter, which was opened with great ceremony, and
explained to the Emperor by an interpreter, who then gave me notice, by his
majesty’s order, “that I should signify my request, and, whatever it were, it
should be granted, for the sake of his royal brother of Luggnagg.” This
interpreter was a person employed to transact affairs with the Hollanders. He
soon conjectured, by my countenance, that I was a European, and therefore
repeated his majesty’s commands in Low Dutch, which he spoke perfectly well. I
answered, as I had before determined, “that I was a Dutch merchant,
shipwrecked in a very remote country, whence I had travelled by sea and land to
Luggnagg, and then took shipping for Japan; where I knew my countrymen
often traded, and with some of these I hoped to get an opportunity of returning
into Europe: I therefore most humbly entreated his royal favour, to give order
that I should be conducted in safety to Nangasac.” To this I added another
petition, “that for the sake of my patron the king of Luggnagg, his majesty would
condescend to excuse my performing the ceremony imposed on my countrymen,
Thesaurus
beggar: (n) mendicant, mumper, landed: (adj) land, territorial, allodial, sending, transportation, shipment,
pauper, tramp, sponger, joker, poor predial. navigation, carriage, conveyance,
man, cadger, bloke; (v) beg, patron: (n) backer, advocate, friend, dispatch, freightage, ferry.
pauperize. ANTONYM: (n) giver. defender, customer, client, helper, strait: (adj) narrow; (n) pinch, pass,
condescend: (adj, v) deign, vouchsafe; sponsor, benefactor, frequenter, inlet, need, channel, crisis, poverty,
(v) stoop, patronize, patronise, supporter. ANTONYM: (n) detractor. difficulty; (adj, n) quandary; (n, v)
descend, lower, interact, decline, performing: (n) impersonation, dilemma.
bow, agree. byplay, enactment, hamming, traded: (adj) listed.
lame: (adj) crippled, disabled, halting, business, implementation, executing, transact: (v) perform, execute, do,
feeble, halt, weak, paralytic; (adj, n) performance, activity; (v) perform, manage, conduct, deal, bargain,
game; (adj, v) paralyze, maim, execute. negotiate, enact, sell, bank.
becripple. shipping: (n) transport, forwarding, ANTONYM: (v) deny.
Jonathan Swift 221
of trampling upon the crucifix: because I had been thrown into his kingdom by
my misfortunes, without any intention of trading.” When this latter petition was
interpreted to the Emperor, he seemed a little surprised; and said, “he believed I
was the first of my countrymen who ever made any scruple in this point; and
that he began to doubt, whether I was a real Hollander, or not; but rather
suspected I must be a Christian. However, for the reasons I had offered, but
chiefly to gratify the king of Luggnagg by an uncommon mark of his favour, he
would comply with the singularity of my humour; but the affair must be
managed with dexterity, and his officers should be commanded to let me pass, as
it were by forgetfulness. For he assured me, that if the secret should be
discovered by my countrymen the Dutch, they would cut my throat in the
voyage.” I returned my thanks, by the interpreter, for so unusual a favour; and
some troops being at that time on their march to Nangasac, the commanding
officer had orders to convey me safe thither, with particular instructions about
the business of the crucifix.%
On the 9th day of June, 1709, I arrived at Nangasac, after a very long and
troublesome journey. I soon fell into the company of some Dutch sailors
belonging to the Amboyna, of Amsterdam, a stout ship of 450 tons. I had lived
long in Holland, pursuing my studies at Leyden, and I spoke Dutch well. The
seamen soon knew whence I came last: they were curious to inquire into my
voyages and course of life. I made up a story as short and probable as I could,
but concealed the greatest part. I knew many persons in Holland. I was able to
invent names for my parents, whom I pretended to be obscure people in the
province of Gelderland. I would have given the captain (one Theodorus
Vangrult) what he pleased to ask for my voyage to Holland; but understanding I
was a surgeon, he was contented to take half the usual rate, on condition that I
would serve him in the way of my calling. Before we took shipping, I was often
asked by some of the crew, whether I had performed the ceremony above
mentioned? I evaded the question by general answers; “that I had satisfied the
Emperor and court in all particulars.” However, a malicious rogue of a skipper
went to an officer, and pointing to me, told him, “I had not yet trampled on the
crucifix;” but the other, who had received instructions to let me pass, gave the
Thesaurus
contented: (adj) content, happy, bogus, affected. laborious, tough, heavy.
comfortable, quiet, cheerful, smug, pursuing: (n) pursuit, search, hunt; ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, helpful,
complacent, satisfied, easy, proud, (adj) coming, engaged. useful, advantageous, convenient,
delighted. ANTONYMS: (adj) skipper: (n) commander, master, uncomplicated, delightful.
discontented, unhappy, depressed, shipmaster, head, leader, lieutenant, uncommon: (adj) extraordinary,
unsatisfied, sad, anxious. sea captain, commodore, executive, peculiar, scarce, singular, strange,
crucifix: (n) cross, beads, pyx, pax, director; (v) navigate. special, exceptional, infrequent, odd,
thurible, patera, relics, censer, Agnus trampled: (adj) crushed, damaged, unusual, unaccustomed.
Dei, front vertical lever, host. flattened, compressed, packed down. ANTONYMS: (adj) typical, usual,
pretended: (adj, v) sham, mock, troublesome: (adj) difficult, hard, normal, familiar, poor, ordinary, bad,
counterfeit, pseudo, spurious; (adj) arduous, bothersome, inconvenient, imperfect, customary, accustomed,
assumed, fake, feigned, fictitious, onerous, awkward, annoying, frequent.
rascal twenty strokes on the shoulders with a bamboo; after which I was no
more troubled with such questions.%
Nothing happened worth mentioning in this voyage. We sailed with a fair
wind to the Cape of Good Hope, where we staid only to take in fresh water. On
the 10th of April, 1710, we arrived safe at Amsterdam, having lost only three
men by sickness in the voyage, and a fourth, who fell from the foremast into the
sea, not far from the coast of Guinea. From Amsterdam I soon after set sail for
England, in a small vessel belonging to that city.
On the 16th of April we put in at the Downs. I landed next morning, and saw
once more my native country, after an absence of five years and six months
complete. I went straight to Redriff, where I arrived the same day at two in the
afternoon, and found my wife and family in good health.
Thesaurus
bamboo: (adj) wicker, basket weave, slide, glide; (adj) coastal; (v) drift. brownie points.
natural fiber, rush; (n) rattan, ANTONYMS: (v) bump, lurch, troubled: (adj, v) concerned, solicitous;
Poaceae, family Graminaceae, family struggle; (n) inland, Midlands. (adj) distressed, anxious, worried,
Poaceae, Gramineae, grass family, rascal: (n) villain, rapscallion, monkey, uneasy, uncomfortable, disconcerted,
family Gramineae. miscreant, knave, scoundrel, scamp, upset, apprehensive, restless.
belonging: (adj) appertaining, rogue, varlet, vagabond, brat. ANTONYMS: (adj) unconcerned,
appertinent, apropos, apposite; (n) sickness: (n, v) disease, indisposition, composed, calm, easy, relaxed,
household, family, appendage, malady, disorder, distemper, ailment; tranquil, assured, carefree, brave,
appurtenance, intimacy, commodity, (n) complaint, qualm, nausea, stable, unaffected.
closeness. ANTONYM: (n) antipathy. disgust, queasiness. vessel: (n) ship, pot, jar, duct, vas,
coast: (n) shore, bank, seaside, beach, strokes: (n) approval, reward, boat, craft, container, bowl, barrel,
seashore, waterside, brink; (n, v) recognition, prize, acclaim, credit, canal.
Jonathan Swift 223
PART IV—
A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY

OF THE HOUYHNHNMS
Jonathan Swift 225
CHAPTER %I
[The author sets out as captain of a ship. His men conspire against him,
confine him a long time to his cabin, and set him on shore in an unknown land.
He travels up into the country. The Yahoos, a strange sort of animal, described.
The author meets two Houyhnhnms.]
I continued at home with my wife and children about five months, in a very
happy condition, if I could have learned the lesson of knowing when I was well.
I left my poor wife big with child, and accepted an advantageous offer made me
to be captain of the Adventurer, a stout merchantman of 350 tons: for I
understood navigation well, and being grown weary of a surgeon’s employment
at sea, which, however, I could exercise upon occasion, I took a skilful young
man of that calling, one Robert Purefoy, into my ship. We set sail from
Portsmouth upon the 7th day of September, 1710; on the 14th we met with
Captain Pocock, of Bristol, at Teneriffe, who was going to the bay of Campechy
to cut logwood. On the 16th, he was parted from us by a storm; I heard since my
return, that his ship foundered, and none escaped but one cabin boy. He was an
honest man, and a good sailor, but a little too positive in his own opinions,
which was the cause of his destruction, as it has been with several others; for if
he had followed my advice, he might have been safe at home with his family at
this time, as well as myself.
Thesaurus
cabin: (n) booth, cabana, cot, lodge, confederate. rebuke.
stall, shed, chamber, bothy, room, described: (adj) delineate, detailed, logwood: (n) campeachy wood,
apartment, cell. ANTONYMS: (n) delineated, alleged. campeachy, blockwood, wood, kiaat,
chateau, mansion, palace. escaped: (adj) at large, at liberty, loose, logwood tree, blackwood, blackwood
calling: (n) business, occupation, call, on the loose, runaway, easy, wild; (n) tree.
avocation, job, trade, career, freer; (v) escaping. sailor: (n) seaman, seafarer, tar,
employment, walk, pursuit; (n, v) foundered: (v) swamped, cast away, bluejacket, gob, boatman, navigator,
profession. ANTONYMS: (n) shipwrecked, nonsuited, grounded, navy man, lascar, Panama, leghorn.
entertainment, hobby. wrecked, stranded. storm: (n, v) rush, tempest, hail, attack,
conspire: (v) concur, complot, connive, lesson: (n) example, education, assault, charge; (v) fume; (n) shower,
plot, plan, cabal, contribute, instruction, class, learning, sermon, blizzard, hurricane, gust.
collaborate, conspiring, intrigue, recitation, task, study, message; (n, v) ANTONYM: (n) trickle.
I had several men who died in my ship of calentures, so that I was forced to
get recruits out of Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, where I touched, by the
direction of the merchants who employed me; which I had soon too much cause
to repent: for I found afterwards, that most of them had been buccaneers. I had
fifty hands onboard; and my orders were, that I should trade with the Indians in
the South-Sea, and make what discoveries I could. These rogues, whom I had
picked up, debauched my other men, and they all formed a conspiracy to seize
the ship, and secure me; which they did one morning, rushing into my cabin, and
binding me hand and foot, threatening to throw me overboard, if I offered to stir.
I told them, “I was their prisoner, and would submit.” This they made me swear
to do, and then they unbound me, only fastening one of my legs with a chain,
near my bed, and placed a sentry at my door with his piece charged, who was
commanded to shoot me dead if I attempted my liberty. They sent me own
victuals and drink, and took the government of the ship to themselves. Their
design was to turn pirates and, plunder the Spaniards, which they could not do
till they got more men. But first they resolved to sell the goods the ship, and then
go to Madagascar for recruits, several among them having died since my
confinement. They sailed many weeks, and traded with the Indians; but I knew
not what course they took, being kept a close prisoner in my cabin, and expecting
nothing less than to be murdered, as they often threatened me.%
Upon the 9th day of May, 1711, one James Welch came down to my cabin,
and said, “he had orders from the captain to set me ashore.” I expostulated with
him, but in vain; neither would he so much as tell me who their new captain was.
They forced me into the long-boat, letting me put on my best suit of clothes,
which were as good as new, and take a small bundle of linen, but no arms,
except my hanger; and they were so civil as not to search my pockets, into which
I conveyed what money I had, with some other little necessaries. They rowed
about a league, and then set me down on a strand. I desired them to tell me what
country it was. They all swore, “they knew no more than myself;” but said, “that
the captain” (as they called him) “was resolved, after they had sold the lading, to
get rid of me in the first place where they could discover land.” They pushed off
immediately, advising me to make haste for fear of being overtaken by the tide,
Thesaurus
bundle: (n, v) pack, cluster, clump, profligate, immoral, degenerate, despoil, harry, devastate, maraud,
wad; (n) sheaf, pile, batch, stack, libertine, lewd. ANTONYMS: (adj) destroy, strip, ransack; (n) booty,
package, group, heap. ANTONYMS: upright, redeemed, purified, pure, depredation.
(v) scatter, separate, disperse, divide. cleansed, chaste, clean, innocent. recruits: (n) human resources,
confinement: (n, v) childbirth, lading: (n, v) load, burden, weight; (n) employees, people, reinforcements,
delivery; (n) detention, custody, freight, consignment, shipment, staff, workers, personnel, supplies,
restraint, internment, prison, labor, loading, shipping, freightage, succors, reenforcements.
containment, incarceration, arrest. product, wares. seize: (v) catch, capture, grab, arrest,
ANTONYMS: (n) release, death, onboard: (adv) aboard, alongside, on clutch, get, apprehend, receive,
liberation. base. annex, clasp; (n, v) grapple.
debauched: (adj) corrupt, fast, rakish, overboard: (adj) exorbitant, rabid. ANTONYMS: (v) baulk, relinquish,
dissipated, depraved, licentious, plunder: (n, v) pillage, spoil; (v) restore, surrender, give, remove.
Jonathan Swift 227
and so bade me farewell.%

In this desolate condition I advanced forward, and soon got upon firm
ground, where I sat down on a bank to rest myself, and consider what I had best
do. When I was a little refreshed, I went up into the country, resolving to deliver
myself to the first savages I should meet, and purchase my life from them by
some bracelets, glass rings, and other toys, which sailors usually provide
themselves with in those voyages, and whereof I had some about me. The land
was divided by long rows of trees, not regularly planted, but naturally growing;
there was great plenty of grass, and several fields of oats. I walked very
circumspectly, for fear of being surprised, or suddenly shot with an arrow from
behind, or on either side. I fell into a beaten road, where I saw many tracts of
human feet, and some of cows, but most of horses. At last I beheld several
animals in a field, and one or two of the same kind sitting in trees. Their shape
was very singular and deformed, which a little discomposed me, so that I lay
down behind a thicket to observe them better. Some of them coming forward
near the place where I lay, gave me an opportunity of distinctly marking their
form. Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair, some frizzled, and
others lank; they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs,
and the fore parts of their legs and feet; but the rest of their bodies was bare, so
that I might see their skins, which were of a brown buff colour. They had no tails,
nor any hair at all on their buttocks, except about the anus, which, I presume,
nature had placed there to defend them as they sat on the ground, for this
posture they used, as well as lying down, and often stood on their hind feet.
They climbed high trees as nimbly as a squirrel, for they had strong extended
claws before and behind, terminating in sharp points, and hooked. They would
often spring, and bound, and leap, with prodigious agility. The females were not
so large as the males; they had long lank hair on their heads, but none on their
faces, nor any thing more than a sort of down on the rest of their bodies, except
about the anus and pudenda. The dugs hung between their fore feet, and often
reached almost to the ground as they walked. The hair of both sexes was of
several colours, brown, red, black, and yellow. Upon the whole, I never beheld,
in all my travels, so disagreeable an animal, or one against which I naturally
Thesaurus
anus: (n) arse, arsehole, opening, stem; (adj, n) front; (adj) anterior, squirrel: (n) hackee, spermophile,
orifice, rump, backside, bottom, butt, foremost, frontal. ANTONYMS: (adv) baranduki, burunduki, gopher,
buttocks, fundament, rear. aft, behind, rear; (adj) back. baronduki, barunduki, collector; (v)
bade: (v) bid, command, bad. frizzled: (adj) kinky. bank, conserve; (adj) courser.
bracelets: (n) trinkets, jewels, hind: (adj, n) rear; (adj) after, posterior, terminating: (adj) final, ending,
necklaces, charms, costume jewelry, hindermost; (n) doe, clown, peasant, conclusive, dying, determining,
ornaments. roe, countryman, servant; (v) hinder. terminative, last, expiring, decisive,
buttocks: (n) bottom, ass, arse, bum, nimbly: (adv) adroitly, alertly, lightly, expiring groans; (n) termination.
rump, butt, tail, hip, behind, nates, energetically, cleverly, hastily, deftly, thicket: (n) brake, coppice, brush,
posterior. rapidly, readily; (adj) dexterously; grove, spinney, bush, brushwood,
fore: (adv) ahead, before; (adj, adv) (adj, adv) neatly. ANTONYMS: (adv) cluster, underbrush, undergrowth,
forward; (n) bow, head, forefront, lethargically, heavily, awkwardly. underwood.
conceived so strong an antipathy. So that, thinking I had seen enough, full of

contempt and aversion, I got up, and pursued the beaten road, hoping it might
direct me to the cabin of some Indian. I had not got far, when I met one of these
creatures full in my way, and coming up directly to me. The ugly monster, when
he saw me, distorted several ways, every feature of his visage, and stared, as at
an object he had never seen before; then approaching nearer, lifted up his fore-
paw, whether out of curiosity or mischief I could not tell; but I drew my hanger,
and gave him a good blow with the flat side of it, for I durst not strike with the
edge, fearing the inhabitants might be provoked against me, if they should come
to know that I had killed or maimed any of their cattle. When the beast felt the
smart, he drew back, and roared so loud, that a herd of at least forty came
flocking about me from the next field, howling and making odious faces; but I
ran to the body of a tree, and leaning my back against it, kept them off by waving
my hanger. Several of this cursed brood, getting hold of the branches behind,
leaped up into the tree, whence they began to discharge their excrements on my
head; however, I escaped pretty well by sticking close to the stem of the tree, but
was almost stifled with the filth, which fell about me on every side.%
In the midst of this distress, I observed them all to run away on a sudden as
fast as they could; at which I ventured to leave the tree and pursue the road,
wondering what it was that could put them into this fright. But looking on my
left hand, I saw a horse walking softly in the field; which my persecutors having
sooner discovered, was the cause of their flight. The horse started a little, when
he came near me, but soon recovering himself, looked full in my face with
manifest tokens of wonder; he viewed my hands and feet, walking round me
several times. I would have pursued my journey, but he placed himself directly
in the way, yet looking with a very mild aspect, never offering the least violence.
We stood gazing at each other for some time; at last I took the boldness to reach
my hand towards his neck with a design to stroke it, using the common style and
whistle of jockeys, when they are going to handle a strange horse. But this animal
seemed to receive my civilities with disdain, shook his head, and bent his brows,
softly raising up his right fore-foot to remove my hand. Then he neighed three or
four times, but in so different a cadence, that I almost began to think he was
Thesaurus
antipathy: (n) animosity, aversion, inclination, predilection, desire, with fibers, flock finishing.
abomination, abhorrence, dislike, fondness, goodwill. howling: (n) howl, cry; (adj) fierce,
hatred, distaste, enmity, odium, brows: (n) brow. fantastic, gross, glaring, marvelous,
repugnance, repulsion. ANTONYMS: disdain: (n, v) despise, contemn, wonderful, wondrous; (adj, n)
(n) love, attraction, liking, like, slight, ridicule; (n) contempt, weeping, sniveling.
leaning, regard, appeal, appreciation, derision, arrogance, haughtiness, maimed: (adj) disabled, mutilated,
admiration, affection, friendliness. pride; (v) scoff, disparage. deformed, truncated, faulty, cut
aversion: (n) antipathy, distaste, ANTONYMS: (n) humility, short, game, cut off; (n) wounded.
abhorrence, disinclination, dislike, admiration, reverence, worship, stifled: (adj) strangled, suppressed,
grudge, aversation, nausea, enmity, approval, regard; (v) approve, muffled, deafened, completely
revulsion; (n, v) disgust. admire, praise, accept, participate. covered, dead, deadened, weak, deaf
ANTONYMS: (n) attraction, love, flocking: (n) electrostatic covering corn, regardless, decayed.
Jonathan Swift 229
speaking to himself, in some language of his own.%

While he and I were thus employed, another horse came up; who applying
himself to the first in a very formal manner, they gently struck each other’s right
hoof before, neighing several times by turns, and varying the sound, which
seemed to be almost articulate. They went some paces off, as if it were to confer
together, walking side by side, backward and forward, like persons deliberating
upon some affair of weight, but often turning their eyes towards me, as it were to
watch that I might not escape. I was amazed to see such actions and behaviour in
brute beasts; and concluded with myself, that if the inhabitants of this country
were endued with a proportionable degree of reason, they must needs be the
wisest people upon earth. This thought gave me so much comfort, that I resolved
to go forward, until I could discover some house or village, or meet with any of
the natives, leaving the two horses to discourse together as they pleased. But the
first, who was a dapple gray, observing me to steal off, neighed after me in so
expressive a tone, that I fancied myself to understand what he meant;
whereupon I turned back, and came near to him to expect his farther commands:
but concealing my fear as much as I could, for I began to be in some pain how
this adventure might terminate; and the reader will easily believe I did not much
like my present situation.
The two horses came up close to me, looking with great earnestness upon my
face and hands. The gray steed rubbed my hat all round with his right fore-hoof,
and discomposed it so much that I was forced to adjust it better by taking it off
and settling it again; whereat, both he and his companion (who was a brown
bay) appeared to be much surprised: the latter felt the lappet of my coat, and
finding it to hang loose about me, they both looked with new signs of wonder.
He stroked my right hand, seeming to admire the softness and colour; but he
squeezed it so hard between his hoof and his pastern, that I was forced to roar;
after which they both touched me with all possible tenderness. They were under
great perplexity about my shoes and stockings, which they felt very often,
neighing to each other, and using various gestures, not unlike those of a
philosopher, when he would attempt to solve some new and difficult
Thesaurus
brute: (adj) brutal, harsh, gruff, show; (n, v) talk; (adj, v) present. intentness. ANTONYMS: (n)
brutish; (adj, n) animal, savage; (n) ANTONYMS: (v) withdraw, deny, slackness, lightness, carelessness,
barbarian, fiend, creature, monster; dishonor, retrieve, take. frivolousness, cheerfulness,
(adv) beastly. ANTONYMS: (adj) dapple: (n, v) spot; (n) speckle, patch, insincerity, flippancy.
weak, refined, mild, gentle; (n) maculation, flake; (v) variegate, pastern: (n) os, bone.
gentleman. mottle, cloud, blotch; (adj) speckled, perplexity: (n) confusion, dilemma,
concealing: (n) covering, concealment, brindled. bewilderment, maze, labyrinth,
burial, stealing, stealth, screening, deliberating: (adj) deliberative, embarrassment, quandary,
burying, screenings, activity; (adj) pondering. complication, enigma; (adj, n)
suppressive. earnestness: (n) seriousness, sincerity, difficulty, distress. ANTONYM: (n)
confer: (v) give, accord, award, afford, gravity, fervor, devotion, graveness, understanding.
grant, discuss, converse, consult, staidness, honesty; (adj, n) ardor, zeal, squeezed: (adj) cramped.
phenomenon.%
Upon the whole, the behaviour of these animals was so orderly and rational,
so acute and judicious, that I at last concluded they must needs be magicians,
who had thus metamorphosed themselves upon some design, and seeing a
stranger in the way, resolved to divert themselves with him; or, perhaps, were
really amazed at the sight of a man so very different in habit, feature, and
complexion, from those who might probably live in so remote a climate. Upon
the strength of this reasoning, I ventured to address them in the following
manner: “Gentlemen, if you be conjurers, as I have good cause to believe, you
can understand my language; therefore I make bold to let your worships know
that I am a poor distressed Englishman, driven by his misfortunes upon your
coast; and I entreat one of you to let me ride upon his back, as if he were a real
horse, to some house or village where I can be relieved. In return of which favour,
I will make you a present of this knife and bracelet,” taking them out of my
pocket. The two creatures stood silent while I spoke, seeming to listen with great
attention, and when I had ended, they neighed frequently towards each other, as
if they were engaged in serious conversation. I plainly observed that their
language expressed the passions very well, and the words might, with little
pains, be resolved into an alphabet more easily than the Chinese.
I could frequently distinguish the word Yahoo, which was repeated by each
of them several times: and although it was impossible for me to conjecture what
it meant, yet while the two horses were busy in conversation, I endeavoured to
practise this word upon my tongue; and as soon as they were silent, I boldly
pronounced Yahoo in a loud voice, imitating at the same time, as near as I could,
the neighing of a horse; at which they were both visibly surprised; and the gray
repeated the same word twice, as if he meant to teach me the right accent;
wherein I spoke after him as well as I could, and found myself perceivably to
improve every time, though very far from any degree of perfection. Then the bay
tried me with a second word, much harder to be pronounced; but reducing it to
the English orthography, may be spelt thus, Houyhnhnm. I did not succeed in
this so well as in the former; but after two or three farther trials, I had better
Thesaurus
boldly: (adj, adv) courageously, troubled. ANTONYMS: (adj) hieroglyph, hieroglyphic, writing,
valiantly, heroically; (adv) fearlessly, composed, content, euphoric, happy, writing system, syllabic, syllabary,
daringly, bravely, intrepidly, comforted, glad, joyful, collected, scriptural.
impudently, audaciously, unconcerned, unaffected. pains: (n) nisus, labor, trouble, effort,
shamelessly, brashly. ANTONYMS: entreat: (v) beg, beseech, ask, implore, exertion, labour, pain, care, struggle,
(adv) discreetly, modestly, nervously, pray, adjure, appeal, request, conjure, attempt, strain.
hesitantly, shyly, fearfully, meekly, crave, bid. ANTONYMS: (v) demand, visibly: (adv) apparently, noticeably,
submissively, secretly, respectfully, reject. manifestly, obviously, plainly,
diffidently. imitating: (adj) imitative; (n) perceptibly, appreciably, clearly,
distressed: (adj) worried, distraught, emulation, mimicry, forgery, acting. discernibly, overtly, conspicuously.
anxious, sad, disturbed, downcast, orthography: (n) spelling, ideography, ANTONYMS: (adv) imperceptibly,
hurt, distracted, wretched, shocked, boustrophedon, cuneiform, invisibly, secretly, ambiguously.
Jonathan Swift 231
fortune; and they both appeared amazed at my capacity.%

After some further discourse, which I then conjectured might relate to me,
the two friends took their leaves, with the same compliment of striking each
other’s hoof; and the gray made me signs that I should walk before him; wherein
I thought it prudent to comply, till I could find a better director. When I offered
to slacken my pace, he would cry hhuun hhuun: I guessed his meaning, and
gave him to understand, as well as I could, “that I was weary, and not able to
walk faster;” upon which he would stand awhile to let me rest.
Thesaurus
amazed: (adj) astounded, astonished, talk, colloquy, conversation, slow, slack up; (adj, v) slack; (n, v)
stunned, dumbfounded, discussion, homily. ease. ANTONYMS: (v) tense,
flabbergasted, shocked, staggered, fortune: (n) estate, fate, fluke, destiny, increase.
bewildered, surprised, luck, accident, means, assets, riches, striking: (adj) outstanding, dramatic,
thunderstruck, aghast. abundance, doom. ANTONYM: (n) spectacular, salient, imposing,
comply: (v) accede, assent, consent, design. conspicuous, vivid, remarkable,
acquiesce, accommodate, follow, gray: (adj) dull, dim, bleak, gloomy, notable, astonishing; (n) strike.
fulfil, conform, abide, abide by, pale, grizzled, hoary, leaden, old, ANTONYMS: (adj) ugly, ordinary,
satisfy. ANTONYMS: (v) disobey, overcast; (n) grizzle. ANTONYMS: unimpressive, unremarkable,
resist, rebuff, disregard, refuse, reject. (adj) sunny, cheerful, clear, youthful. inconspicuous, unattractive,
discourse: (n, v) address, lecture, slacken: (adj, n, v) loosen; (v) abate, uninteresting, plain, insignificant,
sermon, converse, harangue, chat; (n) remit, retard, loose, douse, lessen, humble, obscure.
Jonathan Swift 233
CHAPTER %II
[The author conducted by a Houyhnhnm to his house. The house described.

The author’s reception. The food of the Houyhnhnms. The author in distress for
want of meat. Is at last relieved. His manner of feeding in this country.]
Having travelled about three miles, we came to a long kind of building, made
of timber stuck in the ground, and wattled across; the roof was low and covered
with straw. I now began to be a little comforted; and took out some toys, which
travellers usually carry for presents to the savage Indians of America, and other
parts, in hopes the people of the house would be thereby encouraged to receive
me kindly. The horse made me a sign to go in first; it was a large room with a
smooth clay floor, and a rack and manger, extending the whole length on one
side. There were three nags and two mares, not eating, but some of them sitting
down upon their hams, which I very much wondered at; but wondered more to
see the rest employed in domestic business; these seemed but ordinary cattle.
However, this confirmed my first opinion, that a people who could so far civilise
brute animals, must needs excel in wisdom all the nations of the world. The gray
came in just after, and thereby prevented any ill treatment which the others
might have given me. He neighed to them several times in a style of authority,
and received answers.
Beyond this room there were three others, reaching the length of the house, to
Thesaurus
civilise: (v) school, domesticate, refine, sharply, disagreeably, grumpily, mitigated, prominent, pleased, joyful,
acquire, break, aim, check, arise, malevolently; (adj) upsetting, fresh, delighted, comfortable,
modernize, develop, educate. unfeeling, sour. cheerful, happy. ANTONYM: (adj)
comforted: (adj) thankful, pleased, manger: (n) crib, cage, bunk, gutter, worried.
comfortable, calmed. rack, flume, feed bunk, bowl, savage: (adj, v) fierce, wild, furious;
extending: (adj) expanding. container. (adj) ferocious, brutal, cruel,
kindly: (adj) kind, amiable, genial, prevented: (adj) disallowed, barred, bloodthirsty, rough, pitiless; (adj, n)
charitable; (adv) sympathetically, banned. ANTONYM: (adj) legitimate. brute; (n) vandal. ANTONYMS: (adj)
benevolently, tenderly; (adj, n) rack: (n, v) torment, wrack, Scud; (n) civilized, gentle, nice.
benign, gentle, sympathetic, manger, grid, cage, bracket, stand; (v) straw: (n) rush, stalk, drinking straw,
benevolent. ANTONYMS: (adv) excruciate, afflict, agonize. chaff, fig, bran; (adj) feather, cobweb,
harshly, nastily, callously, cruelly, relieved: (adj) alleviated, thankful, mote, gossamer; (v) strew.
which you passed through three doors, opposite to each other, in the manner of a
vista. We went through the second room towards the third. Here the gray
walked in first, beckoning me to attend: I waited in the second room, and got
ready my presents for the master and mistress of the house; they were two
knives, three bracelets of false pearls, a small looking-glass, and a bead necklace.
The horse neighed three or four times, and I waited to hear some answers in a
human voice, but I heard no other returns than in the same dialect, only one or
two a little shriller than his. I began to think that this house must belong to some
person of great note among them, because there appeared so much ceremony
before I could gain admittance. But, that a man of quality should be served all by
horses, was beyond my comprehension. I feared my brain was disturbed by my
sufferings and misfortunes. I roused myself, and looked about me in the room
where I was left alone: this was furnished like the first, only after a more elegant
manner. I rubbed my eyes often, but the same objects still occurred. I pinched my
arms and sides to awake myself, hoping I might be in a dream. I then absolutely
concluded, that all these appearances could be nothing else but necromancy and
magic. But I had no time to pursue these reflections; for the gray horse came to
the door, and made me a sign to follow him into the third room where I saw a
very comely mare, together with a colt and foal, sitting on their haunches upon
mats of straw, not unartfully made, and perfectly neat and clean.%
The mare soon after my entrance rose from her mat, and coming up close,
after having nicely observed my hands and face, gave me a most contemptuous
look; and turning to the horse, I heard the word Yahoo often repeated betwixt
them; the meaning of which word I could not then comprehend, although it was
the first I had learned to pronounce. But I was soon better informed, to my
everlasting mortification; for the horse, beckoning to me with his head, and
repeating the hhuun, hhuun, as he did upon the road, which I understood was to
attend him, led me out into a kind of court, where was another building, at some
distance from the house. Here we entered, and I saw three of those detestable
creatures, which I first met after my landing, feeding upon roots, and the flesh of
some animals, which I afterwards found to be that of asses and dogs, and now
and then a cow, dead by accident or disease. They were all tied by the neck with
Thesaurus
appearances: (n) show, semblance, sarcastic, disrespectful; (adj, v) foal: (n) filly, pony, calf, horse, Arab,
outlook, indicia. supercilious. ANTONYMS: (adj) charger, thoroughbred, racer, palfrey,
asses: (n) equidae. approving, complimentary, nag, jument.
bead: (n, v) drop; (n) astragal, beading, deferential, humble, polite, respected, haunches: (n) buttocks.
pearl, dot, necklace, pellet, droplet, admiring. necklace: (n) collar, chain, chaplet,
beadwork, bubble; (v) beautify. everlasting: (adj) eternal, ceaseless, bracelet, necklet, string, corona,
colt: (n) novice, filly, foal, calf, horse, endless, constant, continual, neckband, jewelry, coronet, crown.
beginner, kitten, pup, fledgling, perpetual, immortal, deathless, pearls: (n) beads, jewelry, jewellery.
freshman, greenhorn. ageless, aeonian; (adj, n) lasting. vista: (n) outlook, panorama, horizon,
contemptuous: (adj) scornful, ANTONYMS: (adj) finite, ephemeral, aspect, scene, landscape, scenery,
disdainful, insulting, arrogant, fleeting, mortal, ending, terminating, picture, alley; (adj, n) view,
proud, haughty, derisive, cynical, inconstant, fragile, perishable. perspective.
Jonathan Swift 235
strong withes fastened to a beam; they held their food between the claws of their
fore feet, and tore it with their teeth.%
The master horse ordered a sorrel nag, one of his servants, to untie the largest
of these animals, and take him into the yard. The beast and I were brought close
together, and by our countenances diligently compared both by master and
servant, who thereupon repeated several times the word Yahoo. My horror and
astonishment are not to be described, when I observed in this abominable animal,
a perfect human figure: the face of it indeed was flat and broad, the nose
depressed, the lips large, and the mouth wide; but these differences are common
to all savage nations, where the lineaments of the countenance are distorted, by
the natives suffering their infants to lie grovelling on the earth, or by carrying
them on their backs, nuzzling with their face against the mothers’ shoulders. The
fore-feet of the Yahoo differed from my hands in nothing else but the length of
the nails, the coarseness and brownness of the palms, and the hairiness on the
backs. There was the same resemblance between our feet, with the same
differences; which I knew very well, though the horses did not, because of my
shoes and stockings; the same in every part of our bodies except as to hairiness
and colour, which I have already described.
The great difficulty that seemed to stick with the two horses, was to see the
rest of my body so very different from that of a Yahoo, for which I was obliged to
my clothes, whereof they had no conception. The sorrel nag offered me a root,
which he held (after their manner, as we shall describe in its proper place)
between his hoof and pastern; I took it in my hand, and, having smelt it, returned
it to him again as civilly as I could. He brought out of the Yahoos’ kennel a piece
of ass’s flesh; but it smelt so offensively that I turned from it with loathing: he
then threw it to the Yahoo, by whom it was greedily devoured. He afterwards
showed me a wisp of hay, and a fetlock full of oats; but I shook my head, to
signify that neither of these were food for me. And indeed I now apprehended
that I must absolutely starve, if I did not get to some of my own species; for as to
those filthy Yahoos, although there were few greater lovers of mankind at that
time than myself, yet I confess I never saw any sensitive being so detestable on
Thesaurus
brownness: (n) buff, caramel, umber, commonness, rudeness, inferiority, hairlessness.
chocolate, coffee, puce, sepia. crudeness, crudity, awkwardness. lineaments: (v) exposition, tract,
civilly: (adv) politely, respectfully, ANTONYMS: (n) delicacy, purity, length, expanse, area, extent; (n) face.
graciously, complaisantly, urbanely, refinement, smoothness, untie: (v) disentangle, unfasten, free,
polishedly, considerately, sophistication, tastefulness, civility, loosen, release, loose, disengage,
domestically, genteelly, obligingly, grace, propriety, decency. untangle, open, unlace, unbind.
refinedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) fetlock: (n) fetlock-joint, fetlock joint, ANTONYMS: (v) fasten, bind,
abruptly, uncivilly. joint, outgrowth, process, fetterlock, tighten, tie, entangle, enslave, close,
claws: (v) tentacle, tenaculum, unguis, articulatio, appendage, articulation. fetter.
hook, fangs, teeth; (n) clutches, jaws. hairiness: (n) pilosity, fluffiness, wisp: (n) lock, fagot, strand, curl, tress,
coarseness: (n) grossness, indelicacy, appearance, furriness, fuzziness, piece, whisp, piece of hair, puff, slip,
inelegance, indecency, vulgarism, crinosity. ANTONYM: (n) small person.
all accounts; and the more I came near them the more hateful they grew, while I
stayed in that country. This the master horse observed by my behaviour, and
therefore sent the Yahoo back to his kennel. He then put his fore-hoof to his
mouth, at which I was much surprised, although he did it with ease, and with a
motion that appeared perfectly natural, and made other signs, to know what I
would eat; but I could not return him such an answer as he was able to
apprehend; and if he had understood me, I did not see how it was possible to
contrive any way for finding myself nourishment. While we were thus engaged,
I observed a cow passing by, whereupon I pointed to her, and expressed a desire
to go and milk her. This had its effect; for he led me back into the house, and
ordered a mare-servant to open a room, where a good store of milk lay in earthen
and wooden vessels, after a very orderly and cleanly manner. She gave me a
large bowlful, of which I drank very heartily, and found myself well refreshed.%
About noon, I saw coming towards the house a kind of vehicle drawn like a
sledge by four Yahoos. There was in it an old steed, who seemed to be of quality;
he alighted with his hind-feet forward, having by accident got a hurt in his left
fore-foot. He came to dine with our horse, who received him with great civility.
They dined in the best room, and had oats boiled in milk for the second course,
which the old horse ate warm, but the rest cold. Their mangers were placed
circular in the middle of the room, and divided into several partitions, round
which they sat on their haunches, upon bosses of straw. In the middle was a
large rack, with angles answering to every partition of the manger; so that each
horse and mare ate their own hay, and their own mash of oats and milk, with
much decency and regularity. The behaviour of the young colt and foal appeared
very modest, and that of the master and mistress extremely cheerful and
complaisant to their guest. The gray ordered me to stand by him; and much
discourse passed between him and his friend concerning me, as I found by the
stranger’s often looking on me, and the frequent repetition of the word Yahoo.
I happened to wear my gloves, which the master gray observing, seemed
perplexed, discovering signs of wonder what I had done to my fore-feet. He put
his hoof three or four times to them, as if he would signify, that I should reduce
Thesaurus
bowlful: (n) bowl, containerful, arena. unsuitability, unkindness, rudeness, cereal grass, common oats, genus
cleanly: (adj) clean; (adv) clearly, tidily, impropriety, badness, nastiness. Avena, Haver, holder, maize,
purely, neatly, freshly, immaculately, kennel: (n) doghouse, ditch, gully, buckwheat.
spotlessly, unsulliedly, fairly, fosse, dike, drain, culvert, sewer, partition: (n) wall, bulkhead, divider,
unadulteratedly. gutter, hutch, trough. distribution, separation, screen; (n, v)
decency: (n) dignity, modesty, mash: (v) crush, squash, grind, beat, part, split; (v) divide, apportion, deal.
decorum, kindness, morality, comminute, squeeze, crunch, bray, ANTONYMS: (v) join, reveal; (n)
courtesy, correctness, goodness, flirt, press, pulp. union.
virtue, respectability, propriety. nourishment: (n) food, alimentation, sledge: (n) toboggan, sleigh, maul,
ANTONYMS: (n) indecency, meal, meat, diet, feeding, nutrition, bobsleigh, sledge hammer, pung, dog
offensiveness, corruption, repast, sustenance, edible, fuel. sleigh, dogsled, bottom, jumper; (n,
immorality, wickedness, oats: (n) Avena, grain, millet, cereal, v) sledgehammer.
Jonathan Swift 237
them to their former shape, which I presently did, pulling off both my gloves,
and putting them into my pocket. This occasioned farther talk; and I saw the
company was pleased with my behaviour, whereof I soon found the good effects.
I was ordered to speak the few words I understood; and while they were at
dinner, the master taught me the names for oats, milk, fire, water, and some
others, which I could readily pronounce after him, having from my youth a great
facility in learning languages.%
When dinner was done, the master horse took me aside, and by signs and
words made me understand the concern he was in that I had nothing to eat. Oats
in their tongue are called hlunnh. This word I pronounced two or three times; for
although I had refused them at first, yet, upon second thoughts, I considered that
I could contrive to make of them a kind of bread, which might be sufficient, with
milk, to keep me alive, till I could make my escape to some other country, and to
creatures of my own species. The horse immediately ordered a white mare
servant of his family to bring me a good quantity of oats in a sort of wooden tray.
These I heated before the fire, as well as I could, and rubbed them till the husks
came off, which I made a shift to winnow from the grain. I ground and beat them
between two stones; then took water, and made them into a paste or cake, which
I toasted at the fire and eat warm with milk. It was at first a very insipid diet,
though common enough in many parts of Europe, but grew tolerable by time;
and having been often reduced to hard fare in my life, this was not the first
experiment I had made how easily nature is satisfied. And I cannot but observe,
that I never had one hours sickness while I stayed in this island. It is true, I
sometimes made a shift to catch a rabbit, or bird, by springs made of Yahoo’s
hairs; and I often gathered wholesome herbs, which I boiled, and ate as salads
with my bread; and now and then, for a rarity, I made a little butter, and drank
the whey. I was at first at a great loss for salt, but custom soon reconciled me to
the want of it; and I am confident that the frequent use of salt among us is an
effect of luxury, and was first introduced only as a provocative to drink, except
where it is necessary for preserving flesh in long voyages, or in places remote
from great markets; for we observe no animal to be fond of it but man, and as to
myself, when I left this country, it was a great while before I could endure the
Thesaurus
boiled: (adj) intoxicated, poached, paste: (n, v) glue, gum, plaster; (n) plasm, dairy product.
stewed; (v) sodden. dough, adhesive, cream, batter; (v) wholesome: (adj) healthy, beneficial,
insipid: (adj) tasteless, bland, dull, bond, affix, to stick, attach. salubrious, healthful, salutary, sound,
watery, flavorless, uninteresting, provocative: (n) incentive, stimulus, good, nutritious, nourishing, pure,
vapid, savorless, boring, tame, goad, fillip, irritant; (adj) exciting, hale. ANTONYMS: (adj)
humdrum. ANTONYMS: (adj) irritating, stimulating, defiant, unwholesome, unhealthy, impure,
exciting, tasty, interesting, flavorful, incendiary, provoking. ANTONYMS: indecent, sordid, warped, tainted,
spicy, lively, colorful, dark, bright, (adj) conciliatory, modest, calming, decadent, deadly, unsavory.
inspired, imaginative. unprovocative, soothing, dull, winnow: (adj, n, v) sift; (v) cull,
mare: (n) Maria, Money makes the courteous. eliminate, separate, pick, glean,
mare go, broodmare, doe, hen, bitch, toasted: (adj) heated. strain; (n, v) ventilate; (n) separation,
horse, region, part, jennet, roe. whey: (n) serum, milk whey, plasma, winnowing, sifting.
taste of it in anything that I ate.%

This is enough to say upon the subject of my diet, wherewith other travellers
fill their books, as if the readers were personally concerned whether we fare well
or ill. However, it was necessary to mention this matter, lest the world should
think it impossible that I could find sustenance for three years in such a country,
and among such inhabitants.
When it grew towards evening, the master horse ordered a place for me to
lodge in; it was but six yards from the house and separated from the stable of
the Yahoos. Here I got some straw, and covering myself with my own clothes,
slept very sound. But I was in a short time better accommodated, as the reader
shall know hereafter, when I come to treat more particularly about my way of
living.
Thesaurus
accommodated: (adj) meet. personally: (adv) privately, in person, disjoined, distinct; (adj, adv) apart;
fare: (n, v) do; (n) food, aliment, board, intimately, directly, specially, (adj) detached, divided, disjointed,
table, charge, chow, menu, traveller; confidentially, secretly, self, oneself, free, disjunct, discrete. ANTONYMS:
(v) come, eat. ANTONYM: (v) stop. subjectively, particularly. (adj) attached, connected.
inhabitants: (n) population, citizens, ANTONYMS: (adv) impersonally, stable: (adj, adv) firm; (adj) reliable,
populace, folk, country, community, indirectly, objectively, collectively, stationary, fixed, fast, lasting,
abode, group, inhabitation, nation, distantly, generally, universally. constant, durable, secure, solid,
natives. reader: (n) professor, lector, sound. ANTONYMS: (adj) shaky,
lodge: (n, v) cabin, place, house; (adj, v) proofreader, subscriber, reviewer, wobbly, dangerous, volatile,
live, dwell, reside, inhabit; (n) bookworm, printer, preacher, precarious, rickety, tenuous,
cottage; (v) quarter, accommodate, compositor, schoolbook, scholar. temperamental, fickle, temporary;
fix. ANTONYMS: (v) dislodge, evict. separated: (adj, prep) separate, isolated, (adv) loosely.
Jonathan Swift 239
CHAPTER %III
[The author studies to learn the language. The Houyhnhnm, his master,
assists in teaching him. The language described. Several Houyhnhnms of quality
come out of curiosity to see the author. He gives his master a short account of his
voyage.]
My principal endeavour was to learn the language, which my master (for so I

shall henceforth call him), and his children, and every servant of his house, were
desirous to teach me; for they looked upon it as a prodigy, that a brute animal
should discover such marks of a rational creature. I pointed to every thing, and
inquired the name of it, which I wrote down in my journal-book when I was
alone, and corrected my bad accent by desiring those of the family to pronounce
it often. In this employment, a sorrel nag, one of the under-servants, was very
ready to assist me.
In speaking, they pronounced through the nose and throat, and their
language approaches nearest to the High-Dutch, or German, of any I know in
Europe; but is much more graceful and significant. The emperor Charles V. made
almost the same observation, when he said “that if he were to speak to his horse,
it should be in High-Dutch.”
The curiosity and impatience of my master were so great, that he spent many
Thesaurus
accent: (v) emphasize, emphasise, nosiness, peculiarity, novelty, nonendurance. ANTONYMS: (n)
punctuate, accentuate; (n) dialect, marvel; (adj, n) prodigy. calmness, endurance, apathy.
emphasis, idiom, importance, speech, ANTONYMS: (n) emotionlessness, prodigy: (n) marvel, miracle, wonder,
articulation, pronunciation. indifference, disinterest. genius, portent, phenomenon,
ANTONYMS: (v) attenuate, endeavour: (n) attempt, effort, pains, wonder child, astonishment, wizard,
downplay, hide, ignore, lessen, trial, try, enterprise, striving, surprise; (adj, n) monster.
minimize, slight. contribution, braving; (v) exert, pronounced: (adj) clear, emphatic,
corrected: (adj) amended, reformed, strive. distinct, prominent, notable, obvious,
purified, educated, altered, impatience: (n) annoyance, eagerness, salient, evident, definite, bold,
chastened, disciplined. anger, intolerance, restlessness, palpable. ANTONYMS: (adj) faint,
curiosity: (n) curiousness, rarity, fidget, nervousness, fidgetiness, inconspicuous, indefinite, loose,
interest, curio, oddity, prying, enthusiasm, edginess; (adj) slight, small.
hours of his leisure to instruct me. He was convinced (as he afterwards told me)
that I must be a Yahoo; but my teachableness, civility, and cleanliness,
astonished him; which were qualities altogether opposite to those animals. He
was most perplexed about my clothes, reasoning sometimes with himself,
whether they were a part of my body: for I never pulled them off till the family
were asleep, and got them on before they waked in the morning. My master was
eager to learn “whence I came; how I acquired those appearances of reason,
which I discovered in all my actions; and to know my story from my own mouth,
which he hoped he should soon do by the great proficiency I made in learning
and pronouncing their words and sentences.” To help my memory, I formed all I
learned into the English alphabet, and writ the words down, with the
translations. This last, after some time, I ventured to do in my master’s presence.
It cost me much trouble to explain to him what I was doing; for the inhabitants
have not the least idea of books or literature.%
In about ten weeks time, I was able to understand most of his questions; and
in three months, could give him some tolerable answers. He was extremely
curious to know “from what part of the country I came, and how I was taught to
imitate a rational creature; because the Yahoos (whom he saw I exactly
resembled in my head, hands, and face, that were only visible), with some
appearance of cunning, and the strongest disposition to mischief, were observed
to be the most unteachable of all brutes.” I answered, “that I came over the sea,
from a far place, with many others of my own kind, in a great hollow vessel
made of the bodies of trees: that my companions forced me to land on this coast,
and then left me to shift for myself.” It was with some difficulty, and by the help
of many signs, that I brought him to understand me. He replied, “that I must
needs be mistaken, or that I said the thing which was not;” for they have no
word in their language to express lying or falsehood. “He knew it was
impossible that there could be a country beyond the sea, or that a parcel of brutes
could move a wooden vessel whither they pleased upon water. He was sure no
Houyhnhnm alive could make such a vessel, nor would trust Yahoos to manage
it.”
Thesaurus
astonished: (adj) astonish, craftiness, craft, cleverness. hump, bump, hill, lump.
dumbfounded, flabbergasted, ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, honest, pronouncing: (v) pronounce; (n)
stunned, aghast, bewildered, stupid, unimaginative, gullible, pronunciation, utterance.
astounded, taken aback, ingenuous, straightforward, candid, teachableness: (n) docity, docibleness.
thunderstruck, astonied; (v) amaze. sincere; (n) frankness, unteachable: (adj) cross, headstrong,
cleanliness: (n) tidiness, neatness, straightforwardness. indocible, indocile, intractable,
chastity, wont, trait, hygiene, hollow: (adj, n) blank; (n) cavity, obstinate, perverse, refractory,
sanitation, purity, clarity. depression, cave, dell; (adj) empty, stubborn, unruly; (v) untractable.
ANTONYMS: (n) dirtiness, impurity, false; (adj, n, v) concave; (n, v) writ: (n) edict, assize, certiorari,
squalor, uncleanliness, grime. excavate, dent, scoop. ANTONYMS: judicial writ, injunction, order, act,
cunning: (adj) crafty, canny, adroit, (adj) convex, sincere, true, full, prescription, scripture, writing,
wily, sly, shrewd, tricky, artful; (n) meaningful, cramped, valid; (n) ukase.
Jonathan Swift 241
The word Houyhnhnm, in their tongue, signifies a horse, and, in its

etymology, the perfection of nature. I told my master, “that I was at a loss for
expression, but would improve as fast as I could; and hoped, in a short time, I
should be able to tell him wonders.” He was pleased to direct his own mare, his
colt, and foal, and the servants of the family, to take all opportunities of
instructing me; and every day, for two or three hours, he was at the same pains
himself. Several horses and mares of quality in the neighbourhood came often to
our house, upon the report spread of “a wonderful Yahoo, that could speak like a
Houyhnhnm, and seemed, in his words and actions, to discover some
glimmerings of reason.” These delighted to converse with me: they put many
questions, and received such answers as I was able to return. By all these
advantages I made so great a progress, that, in five months from my arrival I
understood whatever was spoken, and could express myself tolerably well.%
The Houyhnhnms, who came to visit my master out of a design of seeing and
talking with me, could hardly believe me to be a right Yahoo, because my body
had a different covering from others of my kind. They were astonished to
observe me without the usual hair or skin, except on my head, face, and hands;
but I discovered that secret to my master upon an accident which happened
about a fortnight before.
I have already told the reader, that every night, when the family were gone to
bed, it was my custom to strip, and cover myself with my clothes. It happened,
one morning early, that my master sent for me by the sorrel nag, who was his
valet. When he came I was fast asleep, my clothes fallen off on one side, and my
shirt above my waist. I awaked at the noise he made, and observed him to
deliver his message in some disorder; after which he went to my master, and in a
great fright gave him a very confused account of what he had seen. This I
presently discovered, for, going as soon as I was dressed to pay my attendance
upon his honour, he asked me “the meaning of what his servant had reported,
that I was not the same thing when I slept, as I appeared to be at other times; that
his vale assured him, some part of me was white, some yellow, at least not so
white, and some brown.”
Thesaurus
answers: (n) replies; (adj) answering. vicinity, nearby. (v) decorate, cover, add.
disorder: (n, v) ailment, disarray, perfection: (n) maturity, ideal, vale: (n) dale, glen, hollow, ravine,
disease, jumble, muddle; (n) clutter, consummation, paragon, dingle, vail, valediction, earth, holler,
disturbance, disarrangement; (v) completeness, finish, completion, dell, gully. ANTONYM: (n) hill.
derange, confuse, perturb. crown, flawlessness, development, ne valet: (n) man, attendant, lackey,
ANTONYMS: (n, v) order; (n) plus ultra. ANTONYMS: (n) butler, flunkey, manservant, waiter,
orderliness, calm, peace, tranquility, imperfection, fault, abandonment, gentleman, livery servant, servant,
health; (v) organize, align, arrange, ugliness, deterioration. retainer.
systematize, neaten. reported: (adj) narrative, reputed. waist: (n) waistline, shank, middle,
neighbourhood: (n) neighborhood, strip: (v) deprive, despoil, peel, rifle, belly, isthmus, hourglass,
adjacency, locality, near, nearness, plunder, divest, denude, ransack, undersurface; (adj) stricture, middle
proximity, place, community, street, pillage; (n) band, slip. ANTONYMS: constriction, neck, wasp.
I had hitherto concealed the secret of my dress, in order to distinguish myself,

as much as possible, from that cursed race of Yahoos; but now I found it in vain
to do so any longer. Besides, I considered that my clothes and shoes would soon
wear out, which already were in a declining condition, and must be supplied by
some contrivance from the hides of Yahoos, or other brutes; whereby the whole
secret would be known. I therefore told my master, “that in the country whence I
came, those of my kind always covered their bodies with the hairs of certain
animals prepared by art, as well for decency as to avoid the inclemencies of air,
both hot and cold; of which, as to my own person, I would give him immediate
conviction, if he pleased to command me: only desiring his excuse, if I did not
expose those parts that nature taught us to conceal.” He said, “my discourse was
all very strange, but especially the last part; for he could not understand, why
nature should teach us to conceal what nature had given; that neither himself nor
family were ashamed of any parts of their bodies; but, however, I might do as I
pleased.” Whereupon I first unbuttoned my coat, and pulled it off. I did the
same with my waistcoat. I drew off my shoes, stockings, and breeches. I let my
shirt down to my waist, and drew up the bottom; fastening it like a girdle about
my middle, to hide my nakedness.%
My master observed the whole performance with great signs of curiosity and
admiration. He took up all my clothes in his pastern, one piece after another, and
examined them diligently; he then stroked my body very gently, and looked
round me several times; after which, he said, it was plain I must be a perfect
Yahoo; but that I differed very much from the rest of my species in the softness,
whiteness, and smoothness of my skin; my want of hair in several parts of my
body; the shape and shortness of my claws behind and before; and my
affectation of walking continually on my two hinder feet. He desired to see no
more; and gave me leave to put on my clothes again, for I was shuddering with
cold.
I expressed my uneasiness at his giving me so often the appellation of Yahoo,
an odious animal, for which I had so utter a hatred and contempt: I begged he
would forbear applying that word to me, and make the same order in his family
Thesaurus
shortness: (n) lack, abruptness, slickness, sleekness, evenness, polish, hardness, volume, harshness, tone,
brusqueness, curtness, briefness, glossiness, softness, silkiness, grace; noise, heaviness, firmness, loudness.
shortage, conciseness, gruffness, (adj, n) elegance, delicacy. unbuttoned: (adj) unobstructed,
curtailment, short, shortcoming. ANTONYMS: (n) resistance, untrammeled, unchecked,
ANTONYMS: (n) tallness, height, unevenness, hesitation, dampness, unconfined, unprevented,
longness, wordiness, courtesy. awkwardness, harshness, hesitancy. unhindered, uncaught, unrestrained,
shuddering: (adj, n) quivering, softness: (n) mildness, kindness, unlaced, unfastened, unconstrained.
shaking; (adv) shudderingly; (n) cold flabbiness, flaccidity, suavity, whiteness: (n) paleness, ivory, chalk,
sweat, tremor; (adj) rough, shaky, downiness, gentleness, tenderness, pearl, bone, bleach, alabaster,
jumpy, quaking, shivery, bumpy. faintness; (adj, n) delicacy; (adj) frostiness, hoariness, pallor,
ANTONYM: (adj) smooth. smoothness. ANTONYMS: (n) innocence. ANTONYM: (n) black.
smoothness: (n) slipperiness, rigidity, hoarseness, brightness,
Jonathan Swift 243
and among his friends whom he suffered to see me. I requested likewise, “that
the secret of my having a false covering to my body, might be known to none but
himself, at least as long as my present clothing should last; for as to what the
sorrel nag, his valet, had observed, his honour might command him to conceal
it.”%
All this my master very graciously consented to; and thus the secret was kept
till my clothes began to wear out, which I was forced to supply by several
contrivances that shall hereafter be mentioned. In the meantime, he desired “I
would go on with my utmost diligence to learn their language, because he was
more astonished at my capacity for speech and reason, than at the figure of my
body, whether it were covered or not;” adding, “that he waited with some
impatience to hear the wonders which I promised to tell him.”
Thenceforward he doubled the pains he had been at to instruct me: he
brought me into all company, and made them treat me with civility; “because,”
as he told them, privately, “this would put me into good humour, and make me
more diverting.”
Every day, when I waited on him, beside the trouble he was at in teaching, he
would ask me several questions concerning myself, which I answered as well as I
could, and by these means he had already received some general ideas, though
very imperfect. It would be tedious to relate the several steps by which I
advanced to a more regular conversation; but the first account I gave of myself in
any order and length was to this purpose:
“That I came from a very far country, as I already had attempted to tell him,
with about fifty more of my own species; that we travelled upon the seas in a
great hollow vessel made of wood, and larger than his honour’s house. I
described the ship to him in the best terms I could, and explained, by the help of
my handkerchief displayed, how it was driven forward by the wind. That upon a
quarrel among us, I was set on shore on this coast, where I walked forward,
without knowing whither, till he delivered me from the persecution of those
execrable Yahoos.” He asked me, “who made the ship, and how it was possible
that the Houyhnhnms of my country would leave it to the management of
Thesaurus
conceal: (v) hide, disguise, bury, slackness, negligence, sloth. persecution: (adj, n) annoyance; (n)
screen, cloak, smother, shield, doubled: (adj) twofold, multiple, harassment, torture, maltreatment,
suppress, mask, obscure; (n, v) veil. doubles, folded, repeated, dual, subjugation, hurt, nuisance, cruelty;
ANTONYMS: (v) reveal, show, bivalent, reduplicate. (adj) molestation, intolerance, abuse.
expose, divulge, clarify, uncover, execrable: (adj, adv) abominable, quarrel: (adj, n, v) dispute; (n, v) fight,
disclose, tell, admit, spotlight, flaunt. nefarious; (adj, v) cursed, hateful, feud, brawl, row, altercation, argue,
diligence: (n) assiduity, industry, odious; (adj) deplorable, damnable, conflict, squabble; (n) dissension,
attention, application, assiduousness, abhorrent, atrocious, accursed, difference. ANTONYMS: (n)
concentration, activity, perseverance, dreadful. ANTONYMS: (adj) savory, agreement, reconciliation,
carefulness, sedulity, laudable, outstanding, dandy, swell, acceptance, concord, consensus; (v)
industriousness. ANTONYMS: (n) great, fabulous, superb, agree.
carelessness, indolence, feebleness, praiseworthy. requested: (adj) demanded.
brutes?” My answer was, “that I durst proceed no further in my relation, unless

he would give me his word and honour that he would not be offended, and then
I would tell him the wonders I had so often promised.” He agreed; and I went on
by assuring him, that the ship was made by creatures like myself; who, in all the
countries I had travelled, as well as in my own, were the only governing rational
animals; and that upon my arrival hither, I was as much astonished to see the
Houyhnhnms act like rational beings, as he, or his friends, could be, in finding
some marks of reason in a creature he was pleased to call a Yahoo; to which I
owned my resemblance in every part, but could not account for their degenerate
and brutal nature. I said farther, “that if good fortune ever restored me to my
native country, to relate my travels hither, as I resolved to do, everybody would
believe, that I said the thing that was not, that I invented the story out of my own
head; and (with all possible respect to himself, his family, and friends, and under
his promise of not being offended) our countrymen would hardly think it
probable that a Houyhnhnm should be the presiding creature of a nation, and a
Yahoo the brute.”%
Thesaurus
brutal: (adj) barbaric, barbarous, imaginary, unreal, fake, mythical, owned: (v) owed, ought; (adj) own,
bestial, hard, cruel, unkind, vicious, legendary, fictive, fancied, fabulous, proprietary; (n) aught.
savage, harsh, truculent, barbarian. ben trovato. ANTONYMS: (adj) presiding: (adj) president, dominant,
ANTONYMS: (adj) merciful, kind, genuine, factual, true, actual. administrative.
liberal, humane, generous, caring, native: (adj, n) aboriginal, natural; (adj) resemblance: (n) affinity, parallel,
friendly, nice, pleasant. inherent, inborn, innate, congenital, similarity, comparison,
governing: (adj) ruling, leading, chief, inbred, indigenous, domestic; (n) correspondence, likeness, conformity,
ascendant, predominant, prevailing, autochthon, aborigine. ANTONYMS: appearance, analogy, semblance,
executive; (v) govern; (n) governance, (n) stranger, migrant, foreigner; (adj) resemble. ANTONYMS: (n)
administration, government. foreign, learned, acquired, nonnative, dissimilarity, contrast.
ANTONYM: (adj) minor. overseas, adopted; (adj, n) immigrant, restored: (adj) new, healthy,
invented: (adj) fictional, fabricated, imported. comfortable, convalescent.
Jonathan Swift 245
CHAPTER %IV
[The Houyhnhnm’s notion of truth and falsehood. The author’s discourse

disapproved by his master. The author gives a more particular account of
himself, and the accidents of his voyage.]
My master heard me with great appearances of uneasiness in his

countenance; because doubting, or not believing, are so little known in this
country, that the inhabitants cannot tell how to behave themselves under such
circumstances. And I remember, in frequent discourses with my master
concerning the nature of manhood in other parts of the world, having occasion
to talk of lying and false representation, it was with much difficulty that he
comprehended what I meant, although he had otherwise a most acute judgment.
For he argued thus: “that the use of speech was to make us understand one
another, and to receive information of facts; now, if any one said the thing which
was not, these ends were defeated, because I cannot properly be said to
understand him; and I am so far from receiving information, that he leaves me
worse than in ignorance; for I am led to believe a thing black, when it is white,
and short, when it is long.” And these were all the notions he had concerning
that faculty of lying, so perfectly well understood, and so universally practised,
among human creatures.
To return from this digression. When I asserted that the Yahoos were the only
Thesaurus
believing: (adj) faith, believe, faithful, (n) aptitude, capability, bent, power, valor, resolution, personality,
basic cognitive process, gullible, staff, facility; (adj, n, v) talent; (n, v) humanity, integrity, bravery; (adj)
Catholic, religious, loyal, certain, endowment, gift. ANTONYMS: (n) manliness, ripe age, maturity full age.
Christian, credent. students, pupils, ineptness, notions: (n) belief, thinking, thought,
disapproved: (adj) old-fashioned, incompetence, incapacity. sundries, opinion, concept, ideas,
contraband, chid. ignorance: (n) illiteracy, nescience, ribbon, philosophy, odds and ends;
doubting: (adj) doubtful, distrustful, folly, unwisdom, innocence, (adj) irrational.
disbelieving, incredulous, doubt, denseness, ignorancy, stupidity, practised: (adj) practiced, expert,
skeptical, suspicious, sceptical, wary, obtuseness, tabula rasa, adept, good, trained, proficient,
doubts, distrusting. ANTONYM: unawareness. ANTONYMS: (n) seasoned, skilful, skilled, skillful,
(adj) credulous. intelligence, acquaintance, education. versed.
faculty: (adj, n) capacity, cleverness; manhood: (n) majority, maturity,
governing%animals in my country, which my master said was altogether past his

conception, he desired to know, “whether we had Houyhnhnms among us, and
what was their employment?” I told him, “we had great numbers; that in
summer they grazed in the fields, and in winter were kept in houses with hay
and oats, where Yahoo servants were employed to rub their skins smooth, comb
their manes, pick their feet, serve them with food, and make their beds.” “I
understand you well,” said my master: “it is now very plain, from all you have
spoken, that whatever share of reason the Yahoos pretend to, the Houyhnhnms
are your masters; I heartily wish our Yahoos would be so tractable.” I begged
“his honour would please to excuse me from proceeding any further, because I
was very certain that the account he expected from me would be highly
displeasing.” But he insisted in commanding me to let him know the best and the
worst. I told him “he should be obeyed.” I owned “that the Houyhnhnms among
us, whom we called horses, were the most generous and comely animals we had;
that they excelled in strength and swiftness; and when they belonged to persons
of quality, were employed in travelling, racing, or drawing chariots; they were
treated with much kindness and care, till they fell into diseases, or became
foundered in the feet; but then they were sold, and used to all kind of drudgery
till they died; after which their skins were stripped, and sold for what they were
worth, and their bodies left to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey. But the
common race of horses had not so good fortune, being kept by farmers and
carriers, and other mean people, who put them to greater labour, and fed them
worse.” I described, as well as I could, our way of riding; the shape and use of a
bridle, a saddle, a spur, and a whip; of harness and wheels. I added, “that we
fastened plates of a certain hard substance, called iron, at the bottom of their feet,
to preserve their hoofs from being broken by the stony ways, on which we often
travelled.”
My master, after some expressions of great indignation, wondered “how we
dared to venture upon a Houyhnhnm’s back; for he was sure, that the weakest
servant in his house would be able to shake off the strongest Yahoo; or by lying
down and rolling on his back, squeeze the brute to death.” I answered “that our
horses were trained up, from three or four years old, to the several uses we
Thesaurus
grazed: (adj) hurt. proceeding: (n) matter, transaction, animate. ANTONYMS: (n)
harness: (adj, n) strap, tether; (n, v) affair, procedure, lawsuit, discouragement, disincentive,
yoke, rein, couple, check; (adj, v) proceedings; (v) deed, act; (n, v) deterrent; (v) calm, delay, inhibit.
hitch; (v) wear, equip, limit, use. measure; (adv, n) happening; (adj, adv, stony: (adj) rocky, hard, rough,
ANTONYM: (v) undo. v) going on. callous, cold, pitiless, flinty,
indignation: (n) anger, resentment, saddle: (v) charge, load, burden, unfeeling, obdurate, bleak, icy.
displeasure, grudge, umbrage, rage, encumber, adjure, bear down, blame; ANTONYMS: (adj) smooth, kind.
outrage, exasperation, choler, (n) pillion, seat, saddleback, bicycle weakest: (adj) ridiculous, suggestion,
dudgeon; (adj, n) wrath. seat. ANTONYM: (v) relieve. supposes, notions, plainly, irrational,
ANTONYMS: (n) contentment, spur: (n) inducement, incentive, incongruous, project, foolish, fatuity,
pleasure. impulse, stimulus; (n, v) prod, prick, inconsistent.
manes: (n) shade. incite, prompt; (v) provoke, impel,
Jonathan Swift 247
intended them for; that if any of them proved intolerably vicious, they were
employed for carriages; that they were severely beaten, while they were young,
for any mischievous tricks; that the males, designed for the common use of
riding or draught, were generally castrated about two years after their birth, to
take down their spirits, and make them more tame and gentle; that they were
indeed sensible of rewards and punishments; but his honour would please to
consider, that they had not the least tincture of reason, any more than the Yahoos
%
in this country.”
It put me to the pains of many circumlocutions, to give my master a right
idea of what I spoke; for their language does not abound in variety of words,
because their wants and passions are fewer than among us. But it is impossible to
express his noble resentment at our savage treatment of the Houyhnhnm race;
particularly after I had explained the manner and use of castrating horses among
us, to hinder them from propagating their kind, and to render them more servile.
He said, “if it were possible there could be any country where Yahoos alone were
endued with reason, they certainly must be the governing animal; because
reason in time will always prevail against brutal strength. But, considering the
frame of our bodies, and especially of mine, he thought no creature of equal bulk
was so ill-contrived for employing that reason in the common offices of life;”
whereupon he desired to know whether those among whom I lived resembled
me, or the Yahoos of his country?” I assured him, “that I was as well shaped as
most of my age; but the younger, and the females, were much more soft and
tender, and the skins of the latter generally as white as milk.” He said, “I differed
indeed from other Yahoos, being much more cleanly, and not altogether so
deformed; but, in point of real advantage, he thought I differed for the worse:
that my nails were of no use either to my fore or hinder feet; as to my fore feet, he
could not properly call them by that name, for he never observed me to walk
upon them; that they were too soft to bear the ground; that I generally went with
them uncovered; neither was the covering I sometimes wore on them of the same
shape, or so strong as that on my feet behind: that I could not walk with any
security, for if either of my hinder feet slipped, I must inevitably fail.” He then
began to find fault with other parts of my body: “the flatness of my face, the
Thesaurus
castrated: (adj) gelded, neutered, unpardonably, inexcusably, render: (v) interpret, explain, give,
unpaved, unsexed, disabled. unforgivably. ANTONYMS: (adv) offer, furnish, pay, construe, return,
flatness: (n) dullness, monotony, tolerably, excusably, bearably, provide, impart, translate.
plain, flat, tedium, sameness, acceptably, pleasantly, rewards: (n) booty, loot.
insipidness, tediousness, platitude, understandably. tricks: (n) actions, behavior, thing,
smoothing, smooth. ANTONYM: (n) prevail: (n, v) triumph, control, clowning around, fooling, magic,
unevenness. govern; (v) dominate, overcome, plunder, possession, activities.
intolerably: (adv) excruciatingly, outweigh, obtain, persist, carry, uncovered: (adj) naked, open, bare,
unbearably, insufferably, vanquish; (adj) preponderate. nude, unclothed, bald, unreserved,
unendurably, insupportably, ANTONYM: (v) lose. unprotected, evident, frank, manifest.
unfeasibly, impossibly, horribly, propagating: (adj) fecund, fruitful. ANTONYMS: (adj) indoor, concealed.
prominence of my nose, mine eyes placed directly in front, so that I could not
look on either side without turning my head: that I was not able to feed myself,
without lifting one of my fore-feet to my mouth: and therefore nature had placed
those joints to answer that necessity. He knew not what could be the use of those
several clefts and divisions in my feet behind; that these were too soft to bear the
hardness and sharpness of stones, without a covering made from the skin of
some other brute; that my whole body wanted a fence against heat and cold,
which I was forced to put on and off every day, with tediousness and trouble:
and lastly, that he observed every animal in this country naturally to abhor the
Yahoos, whom the weaker avoided, and the stronger drove from them. So that,
supposing us to have the gift of reason, he could not see how it were possible to
cure that natural antipathy, which every creature discovered against us; nor
consequently how we could tame and render them serviceable. However, he
would,” as he said, “debate the matter no farther, because he was more desirous
to know my own story, the country where I was born, and the several actions
and events of my life, before I came hither.”
I assured him, “how extremely desirous I was that he should be satisfied on
every point; but I doubted much, whether it would be possible for me to explain
myself on several subjects, whereof his honour could have no conception;
because I saw nothing in his country to which I could resemble them; that,
however, I would do my best, and strive to express myself by similitudes,
humbly desiring his assistance when I wanted proper words;” which he was
pleased to promise me.%
I said, “my birth was of honest parents, in an island called England; which
was remote from his country, as many days’ journey as the strongest of his
honour’s servants could travel in the annual course of the sun; that I was bred a
surgeon, whose trade it is to cure wounds and hurts in the body, gotten by
accident or violence; that my country was governed by a female man, whom we
called queen; that I left it to get riches, whereby I might maintain myself and
family, when I should return; that, in my last voyage, I was commander of the
ship, and had about fifty Yahoos under me, many of which died at sea, and I was
Thesaurus
abhor: (v) hate, detest, abominate, arduousness, tightness, insensibility. commonness, insignificance.
execrate, despise, dislike, nauseate, ANTONYMS: (n) ease, limpness, resemble: (v) seem, imitate, compare,
disdain, scorn, resent, dread. malleability. correspond, to resemble, agree, look,
ANTONYMS: (v) adore, approve, lifting: (n) rising, hoisting, plagiarism, simulate; (adj) look like; (n)
like, cherish, embrace, relish, restyling, copying, jacking; (adj) resemblance; (adv) alike.
treasure, admire. elating, enlivening, exciting, strive: (v) endeavor, contend, contest,
creature: (n) being, brute, animal, tool, invigorating, thrilling. struggle, fight, attempt, combat,
individual, person, body, entity, prominence: (n) eminence, hump, strain, work, aspire, aim.
human, puppet, somebody. importance, height, consequence, tediousness: (n) boredom, dullness,
hardness: (n) austerity, asperity, projection, distinction, bulge, monotony, flatness, ennui, dulness,
callousness, difficulty, rigor, celebrity, fame, moment. prosiness, tediosity, tiresomeness,
consistency, stiffness, cruelty, ANTONYMS: (n) valley, irksomeness; (adj) wearisomeness.
Jonathan Swift 249
forced to supply them by others picked out from several nations; that our ship
was twice in danger of being sunk, the first time by a great storm, and the second
by striking against a rock.” Here my master interposed, by asking me, “how I
could persuade strangers, out of different countries, to venture with me, after the
losses I had sustained, and the hazards I had run?” I said, “they were fellows of
desperate fortunes, forced to fly from the places of their birth on account of their
poverty or their crimes. Some were undone by lawsuits; others spent all they had
in drinking, whoring, and gaming; others fled for treason; many for murder,
theft, poisoning, robbery, perjury, forgery, coining false money, for committing
rapes, or sodomy; for flying from their colours, or deserting to the enemy; and
most of them had broken prison; none of these durst return to their native
countries, for fear of being hanged, or of starving in a jail; and therefore they
were under the necessity of seeking a livelihood in other places.”%
During this discourse, my master was pleased to interrupt me several times. I
had made use of many circumlocutions in describing to him the nature of the
several crimes for which most of our crew had been forced to fly their country.
This labour took up several days’ conversation, before he was able to
comprehend me. He was wholly at a loss to know what could be the use or
necessity of practising those vices. To clear up which, I endeavoured to give
some ideas of the desire of power and riches; of the terrible effects of lust,
intemperance, malice, and envy. All this I was forced to define and describe by
putting cases and making suppositions. After which, like one whose imagination
was struck with something never seen or heard of before, he would lift up his
eyes with amazement and indignation. Power, government, war, law,
punishment, and a thousand other things, had no terms wherein that language
could express them, which made the difficulty almost insuperable, to give my
master any conception of what I meant. But being of an excellent understanding,
much improved by contemplation and converse, he at last arrived at a competent
knowledge of what human nature, in our parts of the world, is capable to
perform, and desired I would give him some particular account of that land
which we call Europe, but especially of my own country.
Thesaurus
coining: (n) sizing, stamping, forgery. formidable, inexsuperable, parenthetical, intermediate colors,
fellows: (n) fellow, membership, unassailable. ANTONYM: (adj) mediate.
faculty. vulnerable. poisoning: (n) intoxication, gassing,
forgery: (n) counterfeiting, fake, sham, intemperance: (n) dissipation, corruption, carbon monoxide
invention, fabrication, falsehood, drunkenness, indulgence, poisoning, defoedation,
copy, phony, imitation, debauchery, crapulence, drinking, discoloration, ergotism, caffeinism,
misrepresentation, fiction. drink, immoderateness, alkali poisoning, Malathion
ANTONYMS: (n) correction, truth. overindulgence, intemperateness, poisoning, cyanide poisoning.
insuperable: (adj) unconquerable, insobriety. ANTONYM: (n) undone: (adj) ruined, unfinished,
indomitable, impassable, invincible, temperance. sunk, done for, finished, behindhand,
unsurmountable, unbeatable, interposed: (adj) interjacent, decayed; (adj, v) doomed; (v)
impregnable, overwhelming, intercedent, intervenient, accursed, to be pitied, devoted.
Jonathan Swift 251
CHAPTER %V
[The author at his master’s command, informs him of the state of England.
The causes of war among the princes of Europe. The author begins to explain the
English constitution.]
The reader may please to observe, that the following extract of many
conversations I had with my master, contains a summary of the most material
points which were discoursed at several times for above two years; his honour
often desiring fuller satisfaction, as I farther improved in the Houyhnhnm
tongue. I laid before him, as well as I could, the whole state of Europe; I
discoursed of trade and manufactures, of arts and sciences; and the answers I
gave to all the questions he made, as they arose upon several subjects, were a
fund of conversation not to be exhausted. But I shall here only set down the
substance of what passed between us concerning my own country, reducing it in
order as well as I can, without any regard to time or other circumstances, while I
strictly adhere to truth. My only concern is, that I shall hardly be able to do
justice to my master’s arguments and expressions, which must needs suffer by
my want of capacity, as well as by a translation into our barbarous English.
In obedience, therefore, to his honour’s commands, I related to him the
Revolution under the Prince of Orange; the long war with France, entered into by
the said prince, and renewed by his successor, the present queen, wherein the
Thesaurus
adhere: (v) abide, cleave, accede, bond, expressions: (n) vocabulary, terms, rehabilitated, transformed,
cling, attach, stick, bind, persist, language. regenerate, reformed, Renate.
sustain; (adj, v) agree. ANTONYMS: extract: (v) draw, derive, elicit, educe, successor: (n) heir, inheritor,
(v) separate, repel, unfasten, loose, abstract, distill, draw out; (n) essence, beneficiary, offspring, replacement,
loosen. juice, quotation; (n, v) quote. progeny, sequel, scion, alternate,
exhausted: (adj) fatigued, tired, spent, ANTONYMS: (v) insert, add; (n) heritor, succeeder. ANTONYMS: (n)
dry, empty, depleted, jaded, whole. forerunner, precursor, predecessor,
enervated, faint; (adj, v) gone, weak. fuller: (adj) rotund; (n) roller; (v) ancestor.
ANTONYMS: (adj) fresh, refreshed, tucker. tongue: (n) lingua, speech, idiom,
strong, restored, vigorous, informs: (v) inform; (n) informing. dialect, clapper, glossa, natural
unexhausted, replenished, remaining, renewed: (adj) changed, born again, language, striker, talk; (v) lick; (adj)
energized, invigorated, restocked. new, fresh, redintegrate, flowing.
greatest powers of Christendom were engaged, and which still continued: I

computed, at his request, “that about a million of Yahoos might have been killed
in the whole progress of it; and perhaps a hundred or more cities taken, and five
times as many ships burnt or sunk.”
He asked me, “what were the usual causes or motives that made one country
go to war with another?” I answered “they were innumerable; but I should only
mention a few of the chief. Sometimes the ambition of princes, who never think
they have land or people enough to govern; sometimes the corruption of
ministers, who engage their master in a war, in order to stifle or divert the
clamour of the subjects against their evil administration. Difference in opinions
has cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be
flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or wine; whether whistling be
a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire; what
is the best colour for a coat, whether black, white, red, or gray; and whether it
should be long or short, narrow or wide, dirty or clean; with many more. Neither
are any wars so furious and bloody, or of so long a continuance, as those
occasioned by difference in opinion, especially if it be in things indifferent.%
“Sometimes the quarrel between two princes is to decide which of them shall
dispossess a third of his dominions, where neither of them pretend to any right.
Sometimes one prince quarrels with another for fear the other should quarrel
with him. Sometimes a war is entered upon, because the enemy is too strong;
and sometimes, because he is too weak. Sometimes our neighbours want the
things which we have, or have the things which we want, and we both fight, till
they take ours, or give us theirs. It is a very justifiable cause of a war, to invade a
country after the people have been wasted by famine, destroyed by pestilence,
or embroiled by factions among themselves. It is justifiable to enter into war
against our nearest ally, when one of his towns lies convenient for us, or a
territory of land, that would render our dominions round and complete. If a
prince sends forces into a nation, where the people are poor and ignorant, he
may lawfully put half of them to death, and make slaves of the rest, in order to
civilize and reduce them from their barbarous way of living. It is a very kingly,
Thesaurus
civilize: (v) civilise, educate, improve, embroiled: (adj) entangled; (v) up in pestilence: (n) pest, epidemic, blight,
train, refine, foster, tame, enlighten, arms, together by the ears, in hot disease, curse, infectious disease,
domesticate, humanize; (adj) polish. water. contagion, infection, virus; (adj)
clamour: (n) clamoring, hue and cry, kingly: (adj, adv) stately; (adj) August, murrain, pox.
clamouring, blare, bedlam, uproar, noble, regal, imperial, sovereign, stifle: (v) smother, suffocate, repress,
vociferation, tumult, hubbub, majestic, royal; (adv) royally, dampen, muffle, extinguish, strangle,
exclamation; (v) utter. majestically, regally. quell, hush up, asphyxiate, check.
dispossess: (v) bereave, divest, lawfully: (adv) justly, legally, ANTONYMS: (v) express, arouse,
deprive, eject, rob, disinherit, rightfully, licitly, statutorily, fairly, stimulate, light, exacerbate, show.
remove, expel, evict, expropriate, validly, de jure, officially, rightly, whistling: (n) whistle, sound, tin
oust. ANTONYMS: (v) provide, truely. ANTONYMS: (adv) whistle, music, pennywhistle, sign,
bequeath. unlawfully, illegitimately. signal, signaling.
Jonathan Swift 253
honourable, and frequent practice, when one prince desires the assistance of
another, to secure him against an invasion, that the assistant, when he has driven
out the invader, should seize on the dominions himself, and kill, imprison, or
banish, the prince he came to relieve. Alliance by blood, or marriage, is a
frequent cause of war between princes; and the nearer the kindred is, the greater
their disposition to quarrel; poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud;
and pride and hunger will ever be at variance. For these reasons, the trade of a
soldier is held the most honourable of all others; because a soldier is a Yahoo
hired to kill, in cold blood, as many of his own species, who have never offended
him, as possibly he can.%
“There is likewise a kind of beggarly princes in Europe, not able to make war
by themselves, who hire out their troops to richer nations, for so much a day to
each man; of which they keep three-fourths to themselves, and it is the best part
of their maintenance: such are those in many northern parts of Europe.”
“What you have told me,” said my master, “upon the subject of war, does
indeed discover most admirably the effects of that reason you pretend to:
however, it is happy that the shame is greater than the danger; and that nature
has left you utterly incapable of doing much mischief. For, your mouths lying flat
with your faces, you can hardly bite each other to any purpose, unless by consent.
Then as to the claws upon your feet before and behind, they are so short and
tender, that one of our Yahoos would drive a dozen of yours before him. And
therefore, in recounting the numbers of those who have been killed in battle, I
cannot but think you have said the thing which is not.”
I could not forbear shaking my head, and smiling a little at his ignorance.
And being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of cannons,
culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles,
sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea fights,
ships sunk with a thousand men, twenty thousand killed on each side, dying
groans, limbs flying in the air, smoke, noise, confusion, trampling to death under
horses’ feet, flight, pursuit, victory; fields strewed with carcases, left for food to
dogs and wolves and birds of prey; plundering, stripping, ravishing, burning,
Thesaurus
banish: (v) dispel, expel, displace, ANTONYMS: (v) release, free, stunning, irresistible, heavenly.
relegate, oust, expatriate, eject, liberate. recounting: (n) narration, relation,
dismiss, transport, cast out; (adj, v) kindred: (adj) cognate, akin, similar, recital, narrative, tale, story,
exile. ANTONYMS: (v) keep, allied, related; (n) kin, consanguinity, notification, practice, recitation,
embrace, adopt, invite, include. relation, folk, folks, kin group. relating, unfolding.
beggarly: (adj) base, mean, shabby, plundering: (n) rape, pillage, stripping: (n) baring, denudation,
sorry, miserable, poor, humble, depredation, despoliation, rapine, striping, removal, disforestation,
pitiable, ignoble; (adj, n) scrubby, spoliation, despoilment, plunder, scrubbing, strippingly, uncovering,
vile. looting; (adj) predatory, marauding. find, back washing, cornhusking.
imprison: (v) cage, incarcerate, jail, ravishing: (adj, n) rapturous, ecstatic; wolves: (n) jackals, skunks, raccoons,
immure, commit, prison, restrain, (adj) beautiful, gorgeous, charming, panthers, order Carnivora, lions,
gaol, detain, lock up, shut. fascinating, enchanting, delightful, tigers, foxes, cats, Carnivora, Canis.
and destroying. And to set forth the valour of my own dear countrymen, I
assured him, “that I had seen them blow up a hundred enemies at once in a siege,
and as many in a ship, and beheld the dead bodies drop down in pieces from the
clouds, to the great diversion of the spectators.”%
I was going on to more particulars, when my master commanded me silence.
He said, “whoever understood the nature of Yahoos, might easily believe it
possible for so vile an animal to be capable of every action I had named, if their
strength and cunning equalled their malice. But as my discourse had increased
his abhorrence of the whole species, so he found it gave him a disturbance in his
mind to which he was wholly a stranger before. He thought his ears, being used
to such abominable words, might, by degrees, admit them with less detestation:
that although he hated the Yahoos of this country, yet he no more blamed them
for their odious qualities, than he did a gnnayh (a bird of prey) for its cruelty, or
a sharp stone for cutting his hoof. But when a creature pretending to reason
could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that
faculty might be worse than brutality itself. He seemed therefore confident, that,
instead of reason we were only possessed of some quality fitted to increase our
natural vices; as the reflection from a troubled stream returns the image of an ill
shapen body, not only larger but more distorted.”
He added, “that he had heard too much upon the subject of war, both in this
and some former discourses. There was another point, which a little perplexed
him at present. I had informed him, that some of our crew left their country on
account of being ruined by law; that I had already explained the meaning of the
word; but he was at a loss how it should come to pass, that the law, which was
intended for every man’s preservation, should be any man’s ruin. Therefore he
desired to be further satisfied what I meant by law, and the dispensers thereof,
according to the present practice in my own country; because he thought nature
and reason were sufficient guides for a reasonable animal, as we pretended to be,
in showing us what he ought to do, and what to avoid.”
I assured his honour, “that the law was a science in which I had not much
conversed, further than by employing advocates, in vain, upon some injustices
Thesaurus
abominable: (adj, v) odious, foul; (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) friendliness, thereof: (adv) thence, therefrom,
abhorrent, detestable, dreadful, kindness, caring, gentility, therefore, hence; (adj) casual,
awful, execrable, terrible, loathsome, humaneness, humanity. intelligence, observer, occasional,
cursed, wicked. ANTONYMS: (adj) detestation: (n) abomination, hatred, prearranged, premeditated,
nice, lovable, admirable, alluring, odium, antipathy, aversion, fortuitous.
appealing, commendable, laudable, repulsion, dislike, execration, vile: (adj, n) contemptible, dirty, low;
delightful, desirable, enjoyable, loathing, revulsion; (n, v) hate. (adj, v) base; (adj) despicable, ignoble,
likable. ANTONYM: (n) adoration. evil, sorry, revolting, offensive, nasty.
brutality: (n) atrocity, barbarity, dreaded: (adj) awful, terrible, ANTONYMS: (adj) attractive, kind,
violence, cruelty, ferocity, cowardly, causing horror, dire, nice, lovely, lovable, gentle,
savageness, harshness, callousness, direful, desperate, dreadful, fearful, honorable, good, delightful,
viciousness, ferociousness, savagery. fearsome; (v) drad. admirable, noble.
Jonathan Swift 255
that had been done me: however, I would give him all the satisfaction I was
able.”%
I said, “there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the
art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and
black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people
are slaves. For example, if my neighbour has a mind to my cow, he has a lawyer
to prove that he ought to have my cow from me. I must then hire another to
defend my right, it being against all rules of law that any man should be allowed
to speak for himself. Now, in this case, I, who am the right owner, lie under two
great disadvantages: first, my lawyer, being practised almost from his cradle in
defending falsehood, is quite out of his element when he would be an advocate
for justice, which is an unnatural office he always attempts with great
awkwardness, if not with ill-will. The second disadvantage is, that my lawyer
must proceed with great caution, or else he will be reprimanded by the judges,
and abhorred by his brethren, as one that would lessen the practice of the law.
And therefore I have but two methods to preserve my cow. The first is, to gain
over my adversary’s lawyer with a double fee, who will then betray his client by
insinuating that he hath justice on his side. The second way is for my lawyer to
make my cause appear as unjust as he can, by allowing the cow to belong to my
adversary: and this, if it be skilfully done, will certainly bespeak the favour of
the bench. Now your honour is to know, that these judges are persons appointed
to decide all controversies of property, as well as for the trial of criminals, and
picked out from the most dexterous lawyers, who are grown old or lazy; and
having been biassed all their lives against truth and equity, lie under such a fatal
necessity of favouring fraud, perjury, and oppression, that I have known some of
them refuse a large bribe from the side where justice lay, rather than injure the
faculty, by doing any thing unbecoming their nature or their office.
“It is a maxim among these lawyers that whatever has been done before, may
legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the
decisions formerly made against common justice, and the general reason of
mankind. These, under the name of precedents, they produce as authorities to
Thesaurus
attempts: (adj) trying. engage, betoken, auspicate, mark, insinuating: (adj) crafty, insinuative,
awkwardness: (n) embarrassment, prefigure, foreshadow; (n, v) argue, oily, ingratiating, having serpents,
stiffness, unwieldiness, imply. insinuant, sly, snaky, giving hints,
inconvenience, gawkiness, biassed: (adj) prejudiced. snide, subtle.
inelegance, troublesomeness, bribe: (n) bribery, boodle, lure, slaves: (n) helotry, bondsmen.
ineptitude, ineptness, gaucherie; (adj, payment, payoff; (v) corrupt, fix, pay unbecoming: (adj) indecorous,
n) delicacy. ANTONYMS: (n) off, pervert, blackmail; (n, v) reward. unseemly, inappropriate, indecent,
gracefulness, grace, comfort, injure: (n, v) damage, harm, impair; indelicate, untoward, unworthy,
coordination, pride, urbanity, ease, (v) contuse, disfigure, maim, bruise, unsuitable, shameful, unbefitting,
assurance, liveliness, confidence, blemish, wound, insult; (adj, v) abuse. incongruous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
cooperation. ANTONYMS: (v) heal, enable, repair, dignified, becoming, fitting, proper,
bespeak: (v) augur, reserve, point, protect, help. seemly, correct, decent, suitable.
justify the most iniquitous opinions; and the judges never fail of directing
accordingly.%
“In pleading, they studiously avoid entering into the merits of the cause; but
are loud, violent, and tedious, in dwelling upon all circumstances which are not
to the purpose. For instance, in the case already mentioned; they never desire to
know what claim or title my adversary has to my cow; but whether the said cow
were red or black; her horns long or short; whether the field I graze her in be
round or square; whether she was milked at home or abroad; what diseases she
is subject to, and the like; after which they consult precedents, adjourn the cause
from time to time, and in ten, twenty, or thirty years, come to an issue.
“It is likewise to be observed, that this society has a peculiar cant and jargon
of their own, that no other mortal can understand, and wherein all their laws are
written, which they take special care to multiply; whereby they have wholly
confounded the very essence of truth and falsehood, of right and wrong; so that
it will take thirty years to decide, whether the field left me by my ancestors for
six generations belongs to me, or to a stranger three hundred miles off.
“In the trial of persons accused for crimes against the state, the method is
much more short and commendable: the judge first sends to sound the
disposition of those in power, after which he can easily hang or save a criminal,
strictly preserving all due forms of law.”
Here my master interposing, said, “it was a pity, that creatures endowed
with such prodigious abilities of mind, as these lawyers, by the description I
gave of them, must certainly be, were not rather encouraged to be instructors of
others in wisdom and knowledge.” In answer to which I assured his honour,
“that in all points out of their own trade, they were usually the most ignorant
and stupid generation among us, the most despicable in common conversation,
avowed enemies to all knowledge and learning, and equally disposed to pervert
the general reason of mankind in every other subject of discourse as in that of
their own profession.”
Thesaurus
adjourn: (adj, v) postpone; (v) break qualitied. dialect, vernacular, slang, lingo,
up, dissolve, put off, procrastinate, graze: (n, v) browse, scrape, touch; (v) language, argot, cant, gobbledygook;
recess, suspend, prorogue, delay, rub, chafe, eat, shave, brush, crop, (adj, n) palaver.
defer, halt. ANTONYMS: (v) crease; (n) cut. ANTONYM: (v) pervert: (v) debase, deprave, misuse,
encourage, convoke, convene, begin, smooth. twist, abuse, corrupt, debauch,
further, continue, inaugurate. iniquitous: (adj) sinful, immoral, evil, misrepresent, bastardize; (n, v) bend;
cant: (n) jargon, lingo, slang, wrong, injurious, heinous, bad, (adv, v) falsify.
vernacular, argot; (n, v) bank, tilt, criminal; (adj, adv) impious, studiously: (adv) industriously,
bias, incline; (adj, n) bevel; (v) list. infamous, nefarious. ANTONYMS: assiduously, busily, earnestly,
endowed: (adj) gifted, clever, cute, (adj) right, fair. carefully, eagerly, bookishly; (adj,
felicitous, competent, blessed, artistic, interposing: (adj) meddlesome. adv) designedly; (adj) knowingly,
brilliant, ingenious, talented, jargon: (n, v) gibberish; (n) idiom, purposely, wittingly.
Jonathan Swift 257
CHAPTER %VI
[A continuation of the state of England under Queen Anne. The character of a

first minister of state in European courts.]
My master was yet wholly at a loss to understand what motives could incite
this race of lawyers to perplex, disquiet, and weary themselves, and engage in a
confederacy of injustice, merely for the sake of injuring their fellow-animals;
neither could he comprehend what I meant in saying, they did it for hire.
Whereupon I was at much pains to describe to him the use of money, the
materials it was made of, and the value of the metals; “that when a Yahoo had
got a great store of this precious substance, he was able to purchase whatever he
had a mind to; the finest clothing, the noblest houses, great tracts of land, the
most costly meats and drinks, and have his choice of the most beautiful females.
Therefore since money alone was able to perform all these feats, our Yahoos
thought they could never have enough of it to spend, or to save, as they found
themselves inclined, from their natural bent either to profusion or avarice; that
the rich man enjoyed the fruit of the poor man’s labour, and the latter were a
thousand to one in proportion to the former; that the bulk of our people were
forced to live miserably, by labouring every day for small wages, to make a few
live plentifully.”
I enlarged myself much on these, and many other particulars to the same
Thesaurus
confederacy: (n) coalition, tranquilize. perplex: (adj, v) confuse, puzzle; (v)
confederation, federation, hire: (v) employ, charter, enlist, take, amaze, mystify, astonish, nonplus,
association, union, conspiracy, cabal, rent, take on, retain; (n, v) wage; (n) complicate, confound, disconcert,
combination, league, merger, faction. employment, salary, engagement. bother, get. ANTONYMS: (v)
ANTONYM: (n) divergence. ANTONYM: (v) fire. simplify, clarify, enlighten, placate,
disquiet: (v) discompose, perturb; (n, incite: (n, v) animate, goad; (adj, v) explain.
v) worry, alarm, trouble, disorder, excite, quicken; (v) encourage, profusion: (n) opulence, abundance,
dismay, discomfort, concern; (n) actuate, arouse, abet, foment, egg on, prodigality, plenty, excess,
anxiety, apprehension. ANTONYMS: agitate. ANTONYMS: (v) deter, calm, cornucopia, plenitude, profuseness,
(n) reassurance, quiet, tranquility, dampen, defuse, soothe, douse, copiousness, exuberance; (adj)
serenity, calmness, optimism; (v) inhibit, prevent, quell, shun, amplitude. ANTONYMS: (n)
soothe, settle, relax, compose, discourage. insufficiency, scarcity.
purpose; %but his honour was still to seek; for he went upon a supposition, that
all animals had a title to their share in the productions of the earth, and
especially those who presided over the rest. Therefore he desired I would let him
know, “what these costly meats were, and how any of us happened to want
them?” Whereupon I enumerated as many sorts as came into my head, with the
various methods of dressing them, which could not be done without sending
vessels by sea to every part of the world, as well for liquors to drink as for sauces
and innumerable other conveniences. I assured him “that this whole globe of
earth must be at least three times gone round before one of our better female
Yahoos could get her breakfast, or a cup to put it in.” He said “that must needs
be a miserable country which cannot furnish food for its own inhabitants. But
what he chiefly wondered at was, how such vast tracts of ground as I described
should be wholly without fresh water, and the people put to the necessity of
sending over the sea for drink.” I replied “that England (the dear place of my
nativity) was computed to produce three times the quantity of food more than its
inhabitants are able to consume, as well as liquors extracted from grain, or
pressed out of the fruit of certain trees, which made excellent drink, and the same
proportion in every other convenience of life. But, in order to feed the luxury and
intemperance of the males, and the vanity of the females, we sent away the
greatest part of our necessary things to other countries, whence, in return, we
brought the materials of diseases, folly, and vice, to spend among ourselves.
Hence it follows of necessity, that vast numbers of our people are compelled to
seek their livelihood by begging, robbing, stealing, cheating, pimping, flattering,
suborning, forswearing, forging, gaming, lying, fawning, hectoring, voting,
scribbling, star-gazing, poisoning, whoring, canting, libelling, freethinking, and
the like occupations:” every one of which terms I was at much pains to make him
understand.
“That wine was not imported among us from foreign countries to supply the
want of water or other drinks, but because it was a sort of liquid which made us
merry by putting us out of our senses, diverted all melancholy thoughts, begat
wild extravagant imaginations in the brain, raised our hopes and banished our
fears, suspended every office of reason for a time, and deprived us of the use of
Thesaurus
canting: (v) righteous over much, (adj) authoritative, assertive, roistering, crushing, swashing.
pietistical, pharisaical, overrighteous; domineering, forthright. nativity: (n) birth, horoscope,
(adj) hypocritical, false, unctuous, forswearing: (n) renunciation, nascency, delivery, genesis, cradle,
insincere, fulsome, self-righteous, abnegation, forgoing, forsaking, nascence, birthing, origin, childbirth,
impious. disowning, apostasy, abjuration, births. ANTONYM: (n) death.
enumerated: (adj) detailed. disavowal, rejection, defection. pimping: (adj) sickly.
extracted: (v) descended, extraught. freethinking: (adj) skeptical, infidelity, supposition: (n, v) conjecture; (n)
fawning: (adj) obsequious, noninterventionist, radical, heretical; assumption, hypothesis,
sycophantic, servile, sniveling, (n) ism, philosophy, moderation, presumption, premise, speculation,
subservient, flattering, ingratiating, doctrine, broadmindedness, surmise, guess, supposal, thought,
soapy; (adj, n) toadying; (n) rationalism. imagination. ANTONYMS: (n) fact,
adulation, sycophancy. ANTONYMS: hectoring: (adj) blustering, vaporing, knowledge, proof, reality, practice.
Jonathan Swift 259
our%limbs, till we fell into a profound sleep; although it must be confessed, that
we always awaked sick and dispirited; and that the use of this liquor filled us
with diseases which made our lives uncomfortable and short.
“But beside all this, the bulk of our people supported themselves by
furnishing the necessities or conveniences of life to the rich and to each other. For
instance, when I am at home, and dressed as I ought to be, I carry on my body
the workmanship of a hundred tradesmen; the building and furniture of my
house employ as many more, and five times the number to adorn my wife.”
I was going on to tell him of another sort of people, who get their livelihood
by attending the sick, having, upon some occasions, informed his honour that
many of my crew had died of diseases. But here it was with the utmost difficulty
that I brought him to apprehend what I meant. “He could easily conceive, that a
Houyhnhnm, grew weak and heavy a few days before his death, or by some
accident might hurt a limb; but that nature, who works all things to perfection,
should suffer any pains to breed in our bodies, he thought impossible, and
desired to know the reason of so unaccountable an evil.”
I told him “we fed on a thousand things which operated contrary to each
other; that we ate when we were not hungry, and drank without the provocation
of thirst; that we sat whole nights drinking strong liquors, without eating a bit,
which disposed us to sloth, inflamed our bodies, and precipitated or prevented
digestion; that prostitute female Yahoos acquired a certain malady, which bred
rottenness in the bones of those who fell into their embraces; that this, and many
other diseases, were propagated from father to son; so that great numbers came
into the world with complicated maladies upon them; that it would be endless to
give him a catalogue of all diseases incident to human bodies, for they would not
be fewer than five or six hundred, spread over every limb and joint—in short,
every part, external and intestine, having diseases appropriated to itself. To
remedy which, there was a sort of people bred up among us in the profession, or
pretence, of curing the sick. And because I had some skill in the faculty, I would,
in gratitude to his honour, let him know the whole mystery and method by
which they proceed.
Thesaurus
adorn: (v) deck, dress, embellish, (adj) domestic, internal, intestinal, hooker, fancy woman, cocotte,
ornament, beautify, enrich, grace, inner. whore, tart; (adj, v) pervert; (v)
trim, garnish, gild, blazon. livelihood: (n) subsistence, existence, profane, abuse.
ANTONYMS: (v) mar, disfigure, job, maintenance, support, living, rottenness: (n) decay, putrescence,
deform, deface, damage, hurt. sustenance, bread, keep, bread and putridness, corruptness, putrefaction,
digestion: (n, v) concoction; (n) butter, career. putridity, depravity, degeneracy,
assimilation, chemical change, malady: (n, v) illness, ailment, filth, deterioration; (v) moldiness.
coction, biological process, chemical indisposition, distemper; (adj, n, v) workmanship: (n) craft, handicraft,
process, disgestion; (v) classification, disorder; (adj, n) complaint, infirmity; craftsmanship, skill, accomplishment,
analysis, clustering; (adj) digestive. (n) sickness, condition, trouble, ill. performance, acquirement,
intestine: (n) bowel, gut, intestines, operated: (adj) driven. priestcraft, trade, artistry; (v)
guts, bowels, small intestine, viscera; prostitute: (n) courtesan, harlot, bawd, handiwork.
“Their fundamental is, that all diseases arise from repletion; whence they
conclude, that a great evacuation of the body is necessary, either through the
natural passage or upwards at the mouth. Their next business is from herbs,
minerals, gums, oils, shells, salts, juices, sea-weed, excrements, barks of trees,
serpents, toads, frogs, spiders, dead men’s flesh and bones, birds, beasts, and
fishes, to form a composition, for smell and taste, the most abominable, nauseous,
and detestable, they can possibly contrive, which the stomach immediately
rejects with loathing, and this they call a vomit; or else, from the same store-
house, with some other poisonous additions, they command us to take in at the
orifice above or below (just as the physician then happens to be disposed) a
medicine equally annoying and disgustful to the bowels; which, relaxing the
belly, drives down all before it; and this they call a purge, or a clyster. For nature
(as the physicians allege) having intended the superior anterior orifice only for
the intromission of solids and liquids, and the inferior posterior for ejection,
these artists ingeniously considering that in all diseases nature is forced out of
her seat, therefore, to replace her in it, the body must be treated in a manner
directly contrary, by interchanging the use of each orifice; forcing solids and
%
liquids in at the anus, and making evacuations at the mouth.
“But, besides real diseases, we are subject to many that are only imaginary,
for which the physicians have invented imaginary cures; these have their several
names, and so have the drugs that are proper for them; and with these our
female Yahoos are always infested.
“One great excellency in this tribe, is their skill at prognostics, wherein they
seldom fail; their predictions in real diseases, when they rise to any degree of
malignity, generally portending death, which is always in their power, when
recovery is not: and therefore, upon any unexpected signs of amendment, after
they have pronounced their sentence, rather than be accused as false prophets,
they know how to approve their sagacity to the world, by a seasonable dose.
“They are likewise of special use to husbands and wives who are grown
weary of their mates; to eldest sons, to great ministers of state, and often to
princes.”
Thesaurus
clyster: (n) injection, glister, irrigation, adroitly, skillfully, inventively, enmity, hatred, evil, rancor, spite,
lavement; (v) lavage, glyster. resourcefully, shrewdly, malignancy, hate. ANTONYM: (n)
disgustful: (adj) revolting, loathsome, imaginatively, cunningly, craftily, benignity.
foul, disgusting, distasteful, nasty, artistically. ANTONYM: (adv) portending: (n) omen; (adj) oracular,
nauseous, vile, stinking, sickening, ineptly. threatening.
filthy. intromission: (n) insertion, enclosing, repletion: (n) satiety, surfeit, glut,
ejection: (n) exclusion, ejectment, enclosure, instillment, instillation, satisfaction, excess, plethora,
eviction, discharge, ouster, belch, inclosure, envelopment, movement, satiation, saturation, plenitude,
ejaculation, elimination, removal, entry, admission, insert. suffusion, impletion.
projection, ostracism. malignity: (n) malevolence, toads: (n) caecilians, class Amphibia,
ingeniously: (adv) artfully, cleverly, malignance, venom, animosity, frogs, newts, salamanders.
Jonathan Swift 261
I had formerly, upon occasion, discoursed with my master upon the nature of
government in general, and particularly of our own excellent constitution,
deservedly the wonder and envy of the whole world. But having here
accidentally mentioned a minister of state, he commanded me, some time after,
to inform him, “what species of Yahoo I particularly meant by that appellation.”
I told him, “that a first or chief minister of state, who was the person I
intended to describe, was the creature wholly exempt from joy and grief, love
and hatred, pity and anger; at least, makes use of no other passions, but a violent
desire of wealth, power, and titles; that he applies his words to all uses, except to
the indication of his mind; that he never tells a truth but with an intent that you
should take it for a lie; nor a lie, but with a design that you should take it for a
truth; that those he speaks worst of behind their backs are in the surest way of
preferment; and whenever he begins to praise you to others, or to yourself, you
are from that day forlorn. The worst mark you can receive is a promise,
especially when it is confirmed with an oath; after which, every wise man retires,
and gives over all hopes.%
“There are three methods, by which a man may rise to be chief minister. The
first is, by knowing how, with prudence, to dispose of a wife, a daughter, or a
sister; the second, by betraying or undermining his predecessor; and the third is,
by a furious zeal, in public assemblies, against the corruption’s of the court. But a
wise prince would rather choose to employ those who practise the last of these
methods; because such zealots prove always the most obsequious and
subservient to the will and passions of their master. That these ministers, having
all employments at their disposal, preserve themselves in power, by bribing the
majority of a senate or great council; and at last, by an expedient, called an act of
indemnity” (whereof I described the nature to him), “they secure themselves
from after-reckonings, and retire from the public laden with the spoils of the
nation.
“The palace of a chief minister is a seminary to breed up others in his own
trade: the pages, lackeys, and porters, by imitating their master, become
ministers of state in their several districts, and learn to excel in the three principal
Thesaurus
forlorn: (adj) hopeless, desolate, preferment: (n) advancement, trophy, boodle, prize money,
despairing, unhappy, miserable, elevation, priority, preference, treasure.
deserted, disconsolate, downcast, consecration, induction, institution, undermining: (adj) destructive,
cheerless, wretched, abject. ordination, holy orders, translation; harmful, prejudicial, subversive; (n)
ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, hopeful, (n, v) promotion. ANTONYM: (n) damage, decline, destabilization,
fine. demotion. deterioration, discouragement,
obsequious: (adj) servile, flattering, seminary: (n) school, college, Alma disruption, subversion.
submissive, cringing, sycophantic, mater, university, seminar, hotbed, zeal: (adj, n) eagerness; (n) fervor,
ingratiating, humble, toadying, nursery, abbey, institution, lyceum, enthusiasm, devotion, passion,
supple, subservient; (adj, v) private school. vehemence, fire, fervency, heat,
deferential. ANTONYMS: (adj) spoils: (n) prize, stolen goods, booty, fervour, ardour. ANTONYMS: (n)
domineering, assertive, disrespectful. plunder, haul, swag, pickings, apathy, lethargy, patience.
ingredients, of insolence, lying, and bribery. Accordingly, they have a subaltern

court paid to them by persons of the best rank; and sometimes by the force of
dexterity and impudence, arrive, through several gradations, to be successors to
their lord.%
“He is usually governed by a decayed wench, or favourite footman, who are
the tunnels through which all graces are conveyed, and may properly be called,
in the last resort, the governors of the kingdom.”
One day, in discourse, my master, having heard me mention the nobility of
my country, was pleased to make me a compliment which I could not pretend to
deserve: “that he was sure I must have been born of some noble family, because I
far exceeded in shape, colour, and cleanliness, all the Yahoos of his nation,
although I seemed to fail in strength and agility, which must be imputed to my
different way of living from those other brutes; and besides I was not only
endowed with the faculty of speech, but likewise with some rudiments of reason,
to a degree that, with all his acquaintance, I passed for a prodigy.”
He made me observe, “that among the Houyhnhnms, the white, the sorrel,
and the iron-gray, were not so exactly shaped as the bay, the dapple-gray, and
the black; nor born with equal talents of mind, or a capacity to improve them;
and therefore continued always in the condition of servants, without ever
aspiring to match out of their own race, which in that country would be
reckoned monstrous and unnatural.”
I made his honour my most humble acknowledgments for the good opinion
he was pleased to conceive of me, but assured him at the same time, “that my
birth was of the lower sort, having been born of plain honest parents, who were
just able to give me a tolerable education; that nobility, among us, was altogether
a different thing from the idea he had of it; that our young noblemen are bred
from their childhood in idleness and luxury; that, as soon as years will permit,
they consume their vigour, and contract odious diseases among lewd females;
and when their fortunes are almost ruined, they marry some woman of mean
birth, disagreeable person, and unsound constitution (merely for the sake of
money), whom they hate and despise. That the productions of such marriages
Thesaurus
aspiring: (adj) aspirant, wishful, contempt, deride. ANTONYMS: (v) lecherous, dissolute. ANTONYMS:
enterprising, envious, desirous, respect, love, adore, appreciate, (adj) decent, refined, chaste, clean.
coming; (v) aspire, vaulting. cherish, like, praise, accept. unsound: (adj) false, shaky, fallacious,
ANTONYM: (adj) desperate. insolence: (n) impertinence, faulty, rotten, unreliable, invalid,
decayed: (adj) spoiled, corrupt, arrogance, audacity, impudence, unsafe, imperfect, unreasonable,
dilapidated, rank, rusty, rotting, effrontery, cheek, assumption, gall, weak. ANTONYMS: (adj) valid,
decaying, rotted, putrid; (adj, v) disrespect, haughtiness, crust. sound, well, safe, steady, strong,
wasted; (v) stale. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) respect, politeness, logical, watertight, stable, good,
matured, restored, strengthened. meekness, shyness. perfect.
despise: (v) disdain, loathe, lewd: (adj) indecent, dirty, bawdy, wench: (n) miss, damsel, strumpet,
depreciate, abhor, dislike, detest, filthy, abandoned, carnal, lustful, trollop, Trull, missy, quean, slut,
slight, hate; (n, v) contemn; (n) impure, debauched; (adj, v) nymph, dame; (n, v) drab.
Jonathan Swift 263
are generally scrofulous, rickety, or deformed children; by which means the

family seldom continues above three generations, unless the wife takes care to
provide a healthy father, among her neighbours or domestics, in order to
improve and continue the breed. That a weak diseased body, a meagre
countenance, and sallow complexion, are the true marks of noble blood; and a
healthy robust appearance is so disgraceful in a man of quality, that the world
concludes his real father to have been a groom or a coachman. The imperfections
of his mind run parallel with those of his body, being a composition of spleen,
dullness, ignorance, caprice, sensuality, and pride.%
“Without the consent of this illustrious body, no law can be enacted, repealed,
or altered: and these nobles have likewise the decision of all our possessions,
without appeal.”
Thesaurus
concludes: (adj) ended, concluded. monotony, lethargy; (adj, n) phlegm. precarious, cranky, wonky.
disgraceful: (adj) dishonorable, ANTONYMS: (n) brightness, ANTONYMS: (adj) stable, sturdy,
scandalous, shocking, degrading, intensity, brilliance, excitement, firm, secure.
disreputable, infamous, base, intelligence, shine, asperity, sensuality: (n) sensualism, animalism,
ignominious, outrageous, black, animation, gloss, clarity, variation. sensualness, lust, carnality,
ignoble. ANTONYMS: (adj) generations: (n) generation, family. concupiscence, animal gratification,
admirable, honorable, reputable, groom: (n) equerry, bridegroom, bodily enjoyment, hedonism,
exalted, commendable, respectable, stableman, hostler; (v) prepare, dress, sensationalism, debauchery.
noble, glorious. arrange, train, coach, tidy, curry. spleen: (n) spite, anger, resentment,
dullness: (n) apathy, bluntness, rickety: (adj) unstable, wobbly, rage, lien, malice, bitterness, rancour,
boredom, dreariness, flatness, decrepit, dilapidated, insecure, huff, grudge, rancor. ANTONYM: (n)
tedium, obtuseness, torpor, ramshackle, rachitic, flimsy, affection.
Jonathan Swift 265
CHAPTER %VII
[The author’s great love of his native country. His master’s observations
upon the constitution and administration of England, as described by the author,
with parallel cases and comparisons. His master’s observations upon human
nature.]
The reader may be disposed to wonder how I could prevail on myself to give
so free a representation of my own species, among a race of mortals who are
already too apt to conceive the vilest opinion of humankind, from that entire
congruity between me and their Yahoos. But I must freely confess, that the many
virtues of those excellent quadrupeds, placed in opposite view to human
corruptions, had so far opened my eyes and enlarged my understanding, that I
began to view the actions and passions of man in a very different light, and to
think the honour of my own kind not worth managing; which, besides, it was
impossible for me to do, before a person of so acute a judgment as my master,
who daily convinced me of a thousand faults in myself, whereof I had not the
least perception before, and which, with us, would never be numbered even
among human infirmities. I had likewise learned, from his example, an utter
detestation of all falsehood or disguise; and truth appeared so amiable to me,
that I determined upon sacrificing every thing to it.
Let me deal so candidly with the reader as to confess that there was yet a
Thesaurus
amiable: (adj) friendly, genial, freely. ANTONYMS: (adv) remarks, explanation, comments.
agreeable, benign, complaisant, deceitfully, hesitantly, dishonestly, utter: (v) say, state, speak, breathe,
sweet, cordial, pleasant, likable, nice, untruthfully, guardedly, articulate, deliver, voice, pronounce;
lovely. ANTONYMS: (adj) ambiguously, shyly. (adj, n, v) express, declare; (adj, v) tell.
disagreeable, argumentative, cases: (n) brass tacks, baggage, ANTONYMS: (adj) qualified,
aggressive, antisocial, unkind, luggage, caseload, suitcases. incomplete, uncertain, rather, slight;
hateful, mean, quarrelsome, rude, congruity: (n) accord, conformity, (v) conceal, hide, block.
surly, cold. consonance, coherence, view: (n, v) sight, scene, regard,
candidly: (adv) openly, ingenuously, correspondence, consistency, opinion, judgment, prospect, outlook,
sincerely, outspokenly, honestly, congruence, compatibility, thought; (adj, v) observe, see; (n) idea.
forthrightly, straightforwardly, coincidence, harmony, identity. ANTONYMS: (v) disbelieve,
plainly, bluntly, directly; (adj, adv) observations: (n) commentary, mistrust.
much stronger motive for the freedom I took in my representation of things. I

had not yet been a year in this country before I contracted such a love and
veneration for the inhabitants, that I entered on a firm resolution never to return
to humankind, but to pass the rest of my life among these admirable
Houyhnhnms, in the contemplation and practice of every virtue, where I could
have no example or incitement to vice. But it was decreed by fortune, my
perpetual enemy, that so great a felicity should not fall to my share. However, it
is now some comfort to reflect, that in what I said of my countrymen, I
extenuated their faults as much as I durst before so strict an examiner; and upon
every article gave as favourable a turn as the matter would bear. For, indeed,
who is there alive that will not be swayed by his bias and partiality to the place
of his birth?
I have related the substance of several conversations I had with my master
during the greatest part of the time I had the honour to be in his service; but have,
indeed, for brevity sake, omitted much more than is here set down.%
When I had answered all his questions, and his curiosity seemed to be fully
satisfied, he sent for me one morning early, and commanded me to sit down at
some distance (an honour which he had never before conferred upon me). He
said, “he had been very seriously considering my whole story, as far as it related
both to myself and my country; that he looked upon us as a sort of animals, to
whose share, by what accident he could not conjecture, some small pittance of
reason had fallen, whereof we made no other use, than by its assistance, to
aggravate our natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones, which nature had
not given us; that we disarmed ourselves of the few abilities she had bestowed;
had been very successful in multiplying our original wants, and seemed to spend
our whole lives in vain endeavours to supply them by our own inventions; that,
as to myself, it was manifest I had neither the strength nor agility of a common
Yahoo; that I walked infirmly on my hinder feet; had found out a contrivance to
make my claws of no use or defence, and to remove the hair from my chin,
which was intended as a shelter from the sun and the weather: lastly, that I could
neither run with speed, nor climb trees like my brethren,” as he called them, “the
Thesaurus
aggravate: (v) exasperate, provoke, controller, questioner, searcher; (v) deterrent, disincentive.
irritate, enrage, worsen, increase, inquisitor, inquirer. infirmly: (adv) impotently, sickly,
magnify, inflame, make worse, felicity: (n) happiness, bliss, irresolutely, frailly, decrepitly,
peeve; (adj, v) embitter. ANTONYMS: blessedness, beatitude, luck, delicately, vacillatingly, invalidly,
(v) pacify, ease, improve, please, felicitousness, joy, fortune, ecstasy, seedily, poorly, languidly.
soothe, alleviate, mitigate, better, enjoyment, appropriateness. omitted: (adj) absent, forgotten,
calm, defuse, encourage. ANTONYM: (n) infelicity. misplaced, wanting, not there, away,
bestowed: (adj) presented, conferred, incitement: (n) impetus, incentive, gone astray, lost, mislaid, gone.
awarded, accurate. incitation, encouragement, swayed: (adj) persuaded, susceptible,
disarmed: (adj) harmless, prostrate. fomentation, stimulus, stimulation, touched, convinced. ANTONYM:
examiner: (n, v) inspector; (n) assessor, provocation, motive, impulse; (n, v) (adj) doubtful.
tester, supervisor, overseer, analyst, goad. ANTONYMS: (n) prevention, trees: (n) foliage.
Jonathan Swift 267
Yahoos in his country.

“That our institutions of government and law were plainly owing to our
gross defects in reason, and by consequence in virtue; because reason alone is
sufficient to govern a rational creature; which was, therefore, a character we had
no pretence to challenge, even from the account I had given of my own people;
although he manifestly perceived, that, in order to favour them, I had concealed
many particulars, and often said the thing which was not.%
“He was the more confirmed in this opinion, because, he observed, that as I
agreed in every feature of my body with other Yahoos, except where it was to my
real disadvantage in point of strength, speed, and activity, the shortness of my
claws, and some other particulars where nature had no part; so from the
representation I had given him of our lives, our manners, and our actions, he
found as near a resemblance in the disposition of our minds.” He said, “the
Yahoos were known to hate one another, more than they did any different
species of animals; and the reason usually assigned was, the odiousness of their
own shapes, which all could see in the rest, but not in themselves. He had
therefore begun to think it not unwise in us to cover our bodies, and by that
invention conceal many of our deformities from each other, which would else be
hardly supportable. But he now found he had been mistaken, and that the
dissensions of those brutes in his country were owing to the same cause with
ours, as I had described them. For if,” said he, “you throw among five Yahoos as
much food as would be sufficient for fifty, they will, instead of eating peaceably,
fall together by the ears, each single one impatient to have all to itself; and
therefore a servant was usually employed to stand by while they were feeding
abroad, and those kept at home were tied at a distance from each other: that if a
cow died of age or accident, before a Houyhnhnm could secure it for his own
Yahoos, those in the neighbourhood would come in herds to seize it, and then
would ensue such a battle as I had described, with terrible wounds made by their
claws on both sides, although they seldom were able to kill one another, for want
of such convenient instruments of death as we had invented. At other times, the
like battles have been fought between the Yahoos of several neighbourhoods,
Thesaurus
govern: (n, v) direct, control, reign, overtly, markedly, conspicuously, undischarged, indebted, fulfilling
rule; (v) administer, dictate, distinctly, transparently. obligation, lawful. ANTONYM: (adj)
dominate, manage, check, bridle, ANTONYMS: (adv) furtively, settled.
regulate. ANTONYM: (v) deregulate. unnecessarily, vaguely, covertly. peaceably: (adv) quietly, peacefully,
impatient: (adj) eager, anxious, neighbourhoods: (n) neighbourhood. patiently, noiselessly.
petulant, fidgety, vexed, keen, edgy, odiousness: (n) distastefulness, unwise: (adj, n) silly, stupid, absurd,
quick, avid, irritable, fretful. blatancy, hatefulness, indiscreet; (adj) imprudent,
ANTONYMS: (adj) patient, enduring, abominableness, obnoxiousness, injudicious, ridiculous, senseless,
unenthusiastic, calm, happy, relaxed, abhorrence, abomination, aversion, inadvisable, impolitic, unreasonable.
slow. unpleasantness, detestation, loathing. ANTONYMS: (adj) sensible, prudent,
manifestly: (adv) evidently, plainly, owing: (adj) due, unpaid, unsettled, thoughtful, sagacious, judicious,
clearly, patently, obviously, openly, outstanding, overdue, owed, payable, advisable.
without any visible cause; those of one district watching all opportunities to
surprise the next, before they are prepared. But if they find their project has
miscarried, they return home, and, for want of enemies, engage in what I call a
civil war among themselves.%
“That in some fields of his country there are certain shining stones of several
colours, whereof the Yahoos are violently fond: and when part of these stones is
fixed in the earth, as it sometimes happens, they will dig with their claws for
whole days to get them out; then carry them away, and hide them by heaps in
their kennels; but still looking round with great caution, for fear their comrades
should find out their treasure.” My master said, “he could never discover the
reason of this unnatural appetite, or how these stones could be of any use to a
Yahoo; but now he believed it might proceed from the same principle of avarice
which I had ascribed to mankind. That he had once, by way of experiment,
privately removed a heap of these stones from the place where one of his Yahoos
had buried it; whereupon the sordid animal, missing his treasure, by his loud
lamenting brought the whole herd to the place, there miserably howled, then fell
to biting and tearing the rest, began to pine away, would neither eat, nor sleep,
nor work, till he ordered a servant privately to convey the stones into the same
hole, and hide them as before; which, when his Yahoo had found, he presently
recovered his spirits and good humour, but took good care to remove them to a
better hiding place, and has ever since been a very serviceable brute.”
My master further assured me, which I also observed myself, “that in the
fields where the shining stones abound, the fiercest and most frequent battles are
fought, occasioned by perpetual inroads of the neighbouring Yahoos.”
He said, “it was common, when two Yahoos discovered such a stone in a
field, and were contending which of them should be the proprietor, a third
would take the advantage, and carry it away from them both;” which my master
would needs contend to have some kind of resemblance with our suits at law;
wherein I thought it for our credit not to undeceive him; since the decision he
mentioned was much more equitable than many decrees among us; because the
plaintiff and defendant there lost nothing beside the stone they contended for:
Thesaurus
ascribed: (adj) accredited, qualified, tragically; (adj, adv) piteously, dishonorable, mucky, low.
credited, ascriptitious, additional, grievously, woefully; (adj) miserable. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectable,
added. ANTONYM: (adj) unofficial. ANTONYMS: (adv) happily, pleasant, wholesome, reputable,
contended: (adj) controversial. hopefully, brightly, affluently, honorable, clean, attractive, humane.
heaps: (adj, n) lots, much; (n) masses, enthusiastically, fortunately, undeceive: (v) unbeguile, unbefool,
oodles, piles, stacks, many, tons, profusely, contentedly. disabuse, inform.
plenty, lot, accumulation. proprietor: (n) possessor, manager, unnatural: (adj) affected, artificial,
ANTONYM: (adj) inadequate. landlord, holder, host, keeper, grotesque, supernatural, forced,
inroads: (n) wear. master, employer, patron, abnormal, eccentric, uncanny, stilted,
miserably: (adv) pathetically, proprietress, proprietary. mannered, anomalous. ANTONYMS:
patheticly, pitiably, unhappily, sordid: (adj) ignoble, nasty, foul, filthy, (adj) natural, normal, real, unaffected,
sorrowfully, pessimistically, grimy, base, cheap, despicable, commonplace, genuine, sincere.
Jonathan Swift 269
whereas our courts of equity would never have dismissed the cause, while either
of them had any thing left.
My master, continuing his discourse, said, “there was nothing that rendered
the Yahoos more odious, than their undistinguishing appetite to devour every
thing that came in their way, whether herbs, roots, berries, the corrupted flesh of
animals, or all mingled together: and it was peculiar in their temper, that they
were fonder of what they could get by rapine or stealth, at a greater distance,
than much better food provided for them at home. If their prey held out, they
would eat till they were ready to burst; after which, nature had pointed out to
them a certain root that gave them a general evacuation.%
“There was also another kind of root, very juicy, but somewhat rare and
difficult to be found, which the Yahoos sought for with much eagerness, and
would suck it with great delight; it produced in them the same effects that wine
has upon us. It would make them sometimes hug, and sometimes tear one
another; they would howl, and grin, and chatter, and reel, and tumble, and then
fall asleep in the mud.”
I did indeed observe that the Yahoos were the only animals in this country
subject to any diseases; which, however, were much fewer than horses have
among us, and contracted, not by any ill-treatment they meet with, but by the
nastiness and greediness of that sordid brute. Neither has their language any
more than a general appellation for those maladies, which is borrowed from the
name of the beast, and called hnea-yahoo, or Yahoo’s evil; and the cure
prescribed is a mixture of their own dung and urine, forcibly put down the
Yahoo’s throat. This I have since often known to have been taken with success,
and do here freely recommend it to my countrymen for the public good, as an
admirable specific against all diseases produced by repletion.
“As to learning, government, arts, manufactures, and the like,” my master
confessed, “he could find little or no resemblance between the Yahoos of that
country and those in ours; for he only meant to observe what parity there was in
our natures. He had heard, indeed, some curious Houyhnhnms observe, that in
most herds there was a sort of ruling Yahoo (as among us there is generally some
Thesaurus
greediness: (n) avarice, cupidity, bland, dull, juiceless, tasteless, despoilment; (v) razzia.
covetousness, eagerness, gluttony, uninteresting, limp. reel: (n, v) coil, roll; (v) waver, rock,
selfishness, avidity, miserliness, nastiness: (n) filthiness, foulness, stagger, totter, spin, teeter, falter; (n)
hunger, stinginess, voracity. meanness, spite, malice, beastliness, bobbin, spool.
ANTONYM: (n) moderation. dirt, dirtiness, indecency, bitchiness; stealth: (n) stealing, furtiveness,
howl: (n, v) cry, roar, scream, bark, (adj, n) unpleasantness. ANTONYMS: stealthiness, slyness, larceny,
shout, yell, bay, yelp; (v) bawl, growl, (n) amiability, niceness, goodwill, thievery, theft, sneakiness,
yawl. ANTONYM: (v) laugh. generosity, decency, charity, secretiveness, hiding; (adj)
ill-treatment: (n) hurt. pleasantness, politeness, friendliness. undercover. ANTONYM: (n)
juicy: (adj) fat, succulent, gamy, liquid, rapine: (n) rape, plunder, pillage, openness.
luscious, fluid, rich, spicy, sappy, brigandage, robbery, pillaging, undistinguishing: (adj) indiscriminate,
moist, racy. ANTONYMS: (adj) despoliation, rapacity, raven, promiscuous, confused.
leading or principal stag in a park), who was always more deformed in body,
and mischievous in disposition, than any of the rest; that this leader had usually
a favourite as like himself as he could get, whose employment was to lick his
master’s feet and posteriors, and drive the female Yahoos to his kennel; for which
he was now and then rewarded with a piece of ass’s flesh. This favourite is hated
by the whole herd, and therefore, to protect himself, keeps always near the
person of his leader. He usually continues in office till a worse can be found; but
the very moment he is discarded, his successor, at the head of all the Yahoos in
that district, young and old, male and female, come in a body, and discharge
their excrements upon him from head to foot. But how far this might be
applicable to our courts, and favourites, and ministers of state, my master said I
could best determine.”
I durst make no return to this malicious insinuation, which debased human
understanding below the sagacity of a common hound, who has judgment
enough to distinguish and follow the cry of the ablest dog in the pack, without
being ever mistaken.%
My master told me, “there were some qualities remarkable in the Yahoos,
which he had not observed me to mention, or at least very slightly, in the
accounts I had given of humankind.” He said, “those animals, like other brutes,
had their females in common; but in this they differed, that the she Yahoo would
admit the males while she was pregnant; and that the hes would quarrel and
fight with the females, as fiercely as with each other; both which practices were
such degrees of infamous brutality, as no other sensitive creature ever arrived at.
“Another thing he wondered at in the Yahoos, was their strange disposition
to nastiness and dirt; whereas there appears to be a natural love of cleanliness in
all other animals.” As to the two former accusations, I was glad to let them pass
without any reply, because I had not a word to offer upon them in defence of my
species, which otherwise I certainly had done from my own inclinations. But I
could have easily vindicated humankind from the imputation of singularity
upon the last article, if there had been any swine in that country (as unluckily for
me there were not), which, although it may be a sweeter quadruped than a
Thesaurus
debased: (adj) degraded, low, ANTONYM: (v) soothe. ANTONYM: (adj) bipedal.
adulterated, base, degenerate, imputation: (n) blame, charge, stag: (v) spy, peach, denounce; (n)
depraved, debauched, decadent, accusation, impeachment, attribution, buck, dog, boar, cock, deer, roe, doe,
perverted, corrupted, impure. ascription; (adj, n) slur; (adj) blot, reynard.
ANTONYM: (adj) moral. reproach, stain, spot. swine: (n) hog, boar, beast, sow,
discarded: (adj) waste, junked, scrap, insinuation: (n) hint, innuendo, Eohyus, babiroussa, babirussa,
unwanted, unnecessary, useless, suggestion, implication, reference, barrow, brute, razorback, grunter.
throwaway, surplus, superfluous, intimation, accusation, indication, vindicated: (adj) exculpated,
unused, obsolete. sarcasm, attribution, imputation. exonerated, cleared, absolved,
hound: (v) bloodhound, chase, hunt, quadruped: (n) beast, tetrapod, unmortgaged, unclouded, safe, easily
follow, badger, course, bait, pursue; mollusk, insect, mammal, creature, deciphered, easily perceptible, clean,
(n) greyhound, blackguard, cad. biped; (adj) quadrupedal. guiltless. ANTONYM: (adj) wrong.
Jonathan Swift 271
Yahoo, cannot, I humbly conceive, in justice, pretend to more cleanliness; and so

his honour himself must have owned, if he had seen their filthy way of feeding,
and their custom of wallowing and sleeping in the mud.%
My master likewise mentioned another quality which his servants had
discovered in several Yahoos, and to him was wholly unaccountable. He said, “a
fancy would sometimes take a Yahoo to retire into a corner, to lie down, and
howl, and groan, and spurn away all that came near him, although he were
young and fat, wanted neither food nor water, nor did the servant imagine what
could possibly ail him. And the only remedy they found was, to set him to hard
work, after which he would infallibly come to himself.” To this I was silent out of
partiality to my own kind; yet here I could plainly discover the true seeds of
spleen, which only seizes on the lazy, the luxurious, and the rich; who, if they
were forced to undergo the same regimen, I would undertake for the cure.
His honour had further observed, “that a female Yahoo would often stand
behind a bank or a bush, to gaze on the young males passing by, and then
appear, and hide, using many antic gestures and grimaces, at which time it was
observed that she had a most offensive smell; and when any of the males
advanced, would slowly retire, looking often back, and with a counterfeit show
of fear, run off into some convenient place, where she knew the male would
follow her.
“At other times, if a female stranger came among them, three or four of her
own sex would get about her, and stare, and chatter, and grin, and smell her all
over; and then turn off with gestures, that seemed to express contempt and
disdain.”
Perhaps my master might refine a little in these speculations, which he had
drawn from what he observed himself, or had been told him by others; however,
I could not reflect without some amazement, and much sorrow, that the
rudiments of lewdness, coquetry, censure, and scandal, should have place by
instinct in womankind.
I expected every moment that my master would accuse the Yahoos of those
unnatural appetites in both sexes, so common among us. But nature, it seems,
Thesaurus
bush: (n) shrub, wild, jungle, hedge, ANTONYMS: (adj) genuine, real, smelt, chasten; (adj, v) clarify; (adj)
outback, scrub, heath, plant, thicket, authentic, true, actual; (n) original. purge. ANTONYMS: (v) spoil, cloud,
wilderness, chaparral. groan: (n, v) grumble, murmur, cry, dilute, contaminate, brutalize.
coquetry: (v) captation, sigh, mutter, squeak, rumble, scrape; regimen: (n) government, diet,
obsequiousness, sentimentalism, (v) howl, complain; (n) complaint. treatment, cure, rule, medical
sycophancy, mock modesty, lewdness: (n) bawdiness, indecency, treatment, plan, regiment, system,
minauderie, toadeating, flunkeyism, debauchery, sensuality, conduct, watching one's weight.
prudery; (n) dalliance, invitation. lasciviousness, lechery, dirtiness, spurn: (v) scorn, rebuff, repulse,
counterfeit: (adj, n, v) sham; (n, v) lubricity, salacity, lust, salaciousness. disdain, reject, refuse, snub, kick,
copy, duplicate; (adj, v) mock, falsify; ANTONYM: (n) decency. decline, deny; (n, v) slight.
(adj) false, artificial, assumed; (adj, n) refine: (v) cultivate, clear, polish, ANTONYMS: (v) admire, court,
imitation; (v) forge, ape. purify, civilize, elaborate, improve, respect.
has not been so expert a school-mistress; and these politer pleasures are entirely
the productions of art and reason on our side of the globe. %
Thesaurus
entirely: (adv) fully, absolutely, unskilled, inept, untrained, inferior, debate; (adj, n) rationality.
utterly, wholly, altogether, all, inexperienced, immature, ANTONYMS: (n) inconsistency,
thoroughly, perfectly, clean, solely; unschooled; (n) beginner, novice, disincentive.
(adj, adv) completely. ANTONYMS: tyro, apprentice. side: (n) rim, faction, brink, direction,
(adv) partially, incompletely, globe: (n) earth, world, orb, circle, hand, aspect, margin; (adj, n) part; (n,
unenthusiastically, hardly, slightly, eyeball, round, planet, bolus, fireball, v) party, border, face. ANTONYMS:
somewhat. bulb; (adj, n) sphere. (adj) distant, central, major, primary;
expert: (adj, n) adept, proficient, pleasures: (n) pleasure. (n) back, front, center, middle; (v)
professional; (adj) skillful, adroit, reason: (n) account, intellect, occasion, straddle.
dexterous, able, experienced, clever, object, understanding, argument,
deft; (n, v) critic. ANTONYMS: (adj) purpose; (n, v) cause; (v) argue,
Jonathan Swift 273
CHAPTER %VIII
[The author relates several particulars of the Yahoos. The great virtues of the
Houyhnhnms. The education and exercise of their youth. Their general
assembly.]
As I ought to have understood human nature much better than I supposed it

possible for my master to do, so it was easy to apply the character he gave of the
Yahoos to myself and my countrymen; and I believed I could yet make further
discoveries, from my own observation. I therefore often begged his honour to let
me go among the herds of Yahoos in the neighbourhood; to which he always
very graciously consented, being perfectly convinced that the hatred I bore these
brutes would never suffer me to be corrupted by them; and his honour ordered
one of his servants, a strong sorrel nag, very honest and good-natured, to be my
guard; without whose protection I durst not undertake such adventures. For I
have already told the reader how much I was pestered by these odious animals,
upon my first arrival; and I afterwards failed very narrowly, three or four times,
of falling into their clutches, when I happened to stray at any distance without
my hanger. And I have reason to believe they had some imagination that I was of
their own species, which I often assisted myself by stripping up my sleeves, and
showing my naked arms and breasts in their sight, when my protector was with
me. At which times they would approach as near as they durst, and imitate my
Thesaurus
bore: (v) dig, tire, pierce, tap, annoy, disgust, abhorrence, grudge, anger, contractly, slimly, precisely, nearly.
perforate; (n, v) bother, plague; (n) abomination, hostility. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adv) broadly,
auger, well, gimlet. ANTONYMS: (v) (n) liking, adoration, affection, inaccurately.
fascinate, excite, hypnotize, engage, attraction, goodwill, kindness, stray: (v) wander, ramble, range,
entertain, stimulate; (n) charmer, delight, friendliness, admiration. digress, straggle, meander, depart,
exciter, excitement, pleasure. naked: (adj, v) bare; (adj) nude, deviate, rove, drift, err. ANTONYM:
breasts: (n) chest, booby. exposed, open, barren, raw, bleak, (v) settle.
clutches: (n) clasp, grip, grasp, hold, unclothed, defenseless, au naturel, undertake: (v) attempt, take on, try,
clench, seizing, custody, talons; (v) defenceless. ANTONYMS: (adj) covenant, guarantee, accept, tackle,
vice, tongs, pliers. covered, concealed, hidden, dressed. contract, take, begin, engage.
hatred: (n, v) detestation, enmity, narrowly: (adv) closely, barely, hardly, ANTONYMS: (v) forego, abstain,
animosity; (n) aversion, antipathy, strictly, slenderly, tightly, smally, forget, relinquish.
actions after the manner of monkeys, but ever with great signs of hatred; as a
tame jackdaw with cap and stockings is always persecuted by the wild ones,
when he happens to be got among them.%
They are prodigiously nimble from their infancy. However, I once caught a
young male of three years old, and endeavoured, by all marks of tenderness, to
make it quiet; but the little imp fell a squalling, and scratching, and biting with
such violence, that I was forced to let it go; and it was high time, for a whole
troop of old ones came about us at the noise, but finding the cub was safe (for
away it ran), and my sorrel nag being by, they durst not venture near us. I
observed the young animal’s flesh to smell very rank, and the stink was
somewhat between a weasel and a fox, but much more disagreeable. I forgot
another circumstance (and perhaps I might have the reader’s pardon if it were
wholly omitted), that while I held the odious vermin in my hands, it voided its
filthy excrements of a yellow liquid substance all over my clothes; but by good
fortune there was a small brook hard by, where I washed myself as clean as I
could; although I durst not come into my master’s presence until I were
sufficiently aired.
By what I could discover, the Yahoos appear to be the most unteachable of all
animals: their capacity never reaching higher than to draw or carry burdens. Yet
I am of opinion, this defect arises chiefly from a perverse, restive disposition; for
they are cunning, malicious, treacherous, and revengeful. They are strong and
hardy, but of a cowardly spirit, and, by consequence, insolent, abject, and cruel.
It is observed, that the red haired of both sexes are more libidinous and
mischievous than the rest, whom yet they much exceed in strength and activity.
The Houyhnhnms keep the Yahoos for present use in huts not far from the
house; but the rest are sent abroad to certain fields, where they dig up roots, eat
several kinds of herbs, and search about for carrion, or sometimes catch weasels
and luhimuhs (a sort of wild rat), which they greedily devour. Nature has taught
them to dig deep holes with their nails on the side of a rising ground, wherein
they lie by themselves; only the kennels of the females are larger, sufficient to
hold two or three cubs.
Thesaurus
carrion: (n) carcass, offal, dead body, Corvidae, corvine bird. restless, uptight, perverse; (adj, v)
corpse, filth, ket, any filth, caroigne; libidinous: (adj, v) lascivious, lewd, skittish. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm,
(adj) garbage. lecherous, wanton, dissolute; (adj) patient.
haired: (adj) hirsute, herd. carnal, lustful, sensual, passionate, revengeful: (adj) vengeful, vindictive,
insolent: (adj) impertinent, abusive, licentious, impure. punitive, unforgiving, vindicative,
disrespectful, impudent, fresh, prodigiously: (adv) astonishingly, resentful, despiteful, spiteful,
arrogant, brazen, defiant, offensive, enormously, immensely, vastly, implacable, rancorous, vengeable.
brassy, bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) marvelously, exceptionally, ANTONYM: (adj) charitable.
respectful, modest, gracious, meek, colossally, largely, wonderfully, squalling: (adj) unquiet.
submissive. hugely, tremendously. weasels: (n) badgers, family
jackdaw: (n) Corvus monedula, crow, restive: (adj) obstinate, edgy, fidgety, Mustelidae, ferrets, fishers, martens,
family Corvidae, caddow, chough, jittery, impatient, jumpy, intractable, Mustelidae, minks, polecats, otters.
Jonathan Swift 275
They swim from their infancy like frogs, and are able to continue long under
water, where they often take fish, which the females carry home to their young.
And, upon this occasion, I hope the reader will pardon my relating an odd
adventure.%
Being one day abroad with my protector the sorrel nag, and the weather
exceeding hot, I entreated him to let me bathe in a river that was near. He
consented, and I immediately stripped myself stark naked, and went down softly
into the stream. It happened that a young female Yahoo, standing behind a bank,
saw the whole proceeding, and inflamed by desire, as the nag and I conjectured,
came running with all speed, and leaped into the water, within five yards of the
place where I bathed. I was never in my life so terribly frightened. The nag was
grazing at some distance, not suspecting any harm. She embraced me after a
most fulsome manner. I roared as loud as I could, and the nag came galloping
towards me, whereupon she quitted her grasp, with the utmost reluctancy, and
leaped upon the opposite bank, where she stood gazing and howling all the time
I was putting on my clothes.
This was a matter of diversion to my master and his family, as well as of
mortification to myself. For now I could no longer deny that I was a real Yahoo
in every limb and feature, since the females had a natural propensity to me, as
one of their own species. Neither was the hair of this brute of a red colour (which
might have been some excuse for an appetite a little irregular), but black as a sloe,
and her countenance did not make an appearance altogether so hideous as the
rest of her kind; for I think she could not be above eleven years old.
Having lived three years in this country, the reader, I suppose, will expect
that I should, like other travellers, give him some account of the manners and
customs of its inhabitants, which it was indeed my principal study to learn.
As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by nature with a general
disposition to all virtues, and have no conceptions or ideas of what is evil in a
rational creature, so their grand maxim is, to cultivate reason, and to be wholly
governed by it. Neither is reason among them a point problematical, as with us,
where men can argue with plausibility on both sides of the question, but strikes
Thesaurus
bathe: (adj, v) steep, lave, immerse, gazing: (adj) fixed. difficult, disputable, uncertain,
soak; (v) take a bath, tub, clean, rinse, grazing: (n) pasturage, feeding, convoluted, baffling; (v) enigmatic,
bath; (n, v) swim; (n) bathing. shaving, farming, Estancia, eating, apocryphal. ANTONYMS: (adj) easy,
ANTONYMS: (v) smudge, stain, soil, skimming. uncomplicated.
dip. plausibility: (n) credibility, possibility, reluctancy: (n) distaste, loathing,
bathed: (adj) sweaty. probability, admissibility, aversion, disgust, dislike,
fulsome: (adj) excessive, foul, believability, credibleness, fair abomination, revulsion, repugnance,
immoderate, bad, plentiful, undue, appearance, plausibleness, unwillingness, scruple, dread.
smarmy, repugnant, rank, high; (v) presumption, reasonableness; (adj, n) sloe: (n) blackthorn, Prunus Spinosa,
loathsome. ANTONYMS: (adj) shy, verisimilitude. Allegheny plum, Alleghany plum;
scanty. problematical: (adj) knotty, (adj) jet, coal pitch, ebony, ink,
galloping: (v) flying. questionable, debatable, doubtful, charcoal, smut, soot.
you with immediate conviction; as it must needs do, where it is not mingled,
obscured, or discoloured, by passion and interest. I remember it was with
extreme difficulty that I could bring my master to understand the meaning of the
word opinion, or how a point could be disputable; because reason taught us to
affirm or deny only where we are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot
do either. So that controversies, wranglings, disputes, and positiveness, in false
or dubious propositions, are evils unknown among the Houyhnhnms. In the like
manner, when I used to explain to him our several systems of natural philosophy,
he would laugh, “that a creature pretending to reason, should value itself upon
the knowledge of other people’s conjectures, and in things where that knowledge,
if it were certain, could be of no use.” Wherein he agreed entirely with the
sentiments of Socrates, as Plato delivers them; which I mention as the highest
honour I can do that prince of philosophers. I have often since reflected, what
destruction such doctrine would make in the libraries of Europe; and how many
paths of fame would be then shut up in the learned world.%
Friendship and benevolence are the two principal virtues among the
Houyhnhnms; and these not confined to particular objects, but universal to the
whole race; for a stranger from the remotest part is equally treated with the
nearest neighbour, and wherever he goes, looks upon himself as at home. They
preserve decency and civility in the highest degrees, but are altogether ignorant
of ceremony. They have no fondness for their colts or foals, but the care they
take in educating them proceeds entirely from the dictates of reason. And I
observed my master to show the same affection to his neighbour’s issue, that he
had for his own. They will have it that nature teaches them to love the whole
species, and it is reason only that makes a distinction of persons, where there is a
superior degree of virtue.
When the matron Houyhnhnms have produced one of each sex, they no
longer accompany with their consorts, except they lose one of their issue by some
casualty, which very seldom happens; but in such a case they meet again; or
when the like accident befalls a person whose wife is past bearing, some other
couple bestow on him one of their own colts, and then go together again until
Thesaurus
bestow: (v) give, confer, grant, impart, arguable, dubious, moot, contentious, matron: (n) lady, head nurse, dame,
contribute, donate, apply, award; contestable, suspicious; (v) slippery, housewife, dowager, woman, wife,
(adj, v) accord, allow, present. precarious. ANTONYMS: (adj) Donna Belle, matriarch, married
ANTONYMS: (v) deprive, refuse, unquestionable, settled, certain, woman; (v) matronhood.
withhold, retrieve, withdraw. inarguable, established, ANTONYM: (n) patron.
casualty: (n) prey, loss, damage, incontrovertible. proceeds: (n) return, take, earnings,
disaster, fatality, chance, death, fondness: (n) affection, attachment, gain, issue, revenue, emolument,
contingency, circumstance, love, taste, regard, appetite, receipts, profit, yield, takings.
misfortune, victim. tenderness, partiality, endearment, ANTONYMS: (n) loss, expenditure.
discoloured: (adj) faded. liking, relish. ANTONYMS: (n) remotest: (adj) furthest, uttermost,
disputable: (adj, v) debatable, aversion, indifference, neglect, endmost, extreme, last, utmost.
questionable; (adj) controversial, antipathy, detachment, hatred. sentiments: (n) breast.
Jonathan Swift 277
the mother is pregnant. This caution is necessary, to prevent the country from
being overburdened with numbers. But the race of inferior Houyhnhnms, bred
up to be servants, is not so strictly limited upon this article: these are allowed to
produce three of each sex, to be domestics in the noble families.%
In their marriages, they are exactly careful to choose such colours as will not
make any disagreeable mixture in the breed. Strength is chiefly valued in the
male, and comeliness in the female; not upon the account of love, but to preserve
the race from degenerating; for where a female happens to excel in strength, a
consort is chosen, with regard to comeliness.
Courtship, love, presents, jointures, settlements have no place in their
thoughts, or terms whereby to express them in their language. The young couple
meet, and are joined, merely because it is the determination of their parents and
friends; it is what they see done every day, and they look upon it as one of the
necessary actions of a reasonable being. But the violation of marriage, or any
other unchastity, was never heard of; and the married pair pass their lives with
the same friendship and mutual benevolence, that they bear to all others of the
same species who come in their way, without jealousy, fondness, quarrelling, or
discontent.
In educating the youth of both sexes, their method is admirable, and highly
deserves our imitation. These are not suffered to taste a grain of oats, except
upon certain days, till eighteen years old; nor milk, but very rarely; and in
summer they graze two hours in the morning, and as many in the evening,
which their parents likewise observe; but the servants are not allowed above half
that time, and a great part of their grass is brought home, which they eat at the
most convenient hours, when they can be best spared from work.
Temperance, industry, exercise, and cleanliness, are the lessons equally
enjoined to the young ones of both sexes: and my master thought it monstrous in
us, to give the females a different kind of education from the males, except in
some articles of domestic management; whereby, as he truly observed, one half
of our natives were good for nothing but bringing children into the world; and
to trust the care of our children to such useless animals, he said, was yet a greater
Thesaurus
admirable: (adj) fine, outstanding, attractiveness, pulchritude, contentment, pleasure, accord,
beautiful, great, commendable, goodliness, blondness, mense, form. happiness; (v) content; (adj, n) happy;
lovely, good, creditable, courtship: (n) courting, wooing, love, (adj) contented.
praiseworthy, worthy, grand. bundling, the soft impeachment, marriages: (n) marriage, matrimony.
ANTONYMS: (adj) appalling, poor, prayer, entreaty, gallantry, addresses, overburdened: (adj) burdened, loaded
unworthy, despicable, contemptible, cause, affection. down, full of, heavy, weighed down.
detestable, dishonorable, rotten, discontent: (n) disapproval, quarrelling: (adj) at variance, in
unimpressive, loathsome, low. discontentment, disaffection, dispute, in disagreement, in conflict;
bringing: (n) delivery, consignment, displeasure, disappointment, (n) dissension.
serving, service, passage, post. discontentedness, unrest; (adj) unchastity: (n) dishonor,
comeliness: (n) charm, grace, melancholy, dissatisfied, disgruntled, dishonorableness, fraud, inchastity,
loveliness, fairness, beauteousness, discontented. ANTONYMS: (n) lewdness, shame, dishonesty.
instance of brutality.%
But the Houyhnhnms train up their youth to strength, speed, and hardiness,
by exercising them in running races up and down steep hills, and over hard
stony grounds; and when they are all in a sweat, they are ordered to leap over
head and ears into a pond or river. Four times a year the youth of a certain
district meet to show their proficiency in running and leaping, and other feats of
strength and agility; where the victor is rewarded with a song in his or her praise.
On this festival, the servants drive a herd of Yahoos into the field, laden with hay,
and oats, and milk, for a repast to the Houyhnhnms; after which, these brutes are
immediately driven back again, for fear of being noisome to the assembly.
Every fourth year, at the vernal equinox, there is a representative council of
the whole nation, which meets in a plain about twenty miles from our house, and
continues about five or six days. Here they inquire into the state and condition of
the several districts; whether they abound or be deficient in hay or oats, or cows,
or Yahoos; and wherever there is any want (which is but seldom) it is
immediately supplied by unanimous consent and contribution. Here likewise
the regulation of children is settled: as for instance, if a Houyhnhnm has two
males, he changes one of them with another that has two females; and when a
child has been lost by any casualty, where the mother is past breeding, it is
determined what family in the district shall breed another to supply the loss.
Thesaurus
cows: (n) cattle, cow, bull, ox, oxen, hardiness: (n) strength, tolerance, spread, potluck, eating.
Bos Taurus, bullock, beef, Cowes, sturdiness, vigor, toughness, unanimous: (adj) consentaneous,
steer, milker. durability, bravery, mettle, audacity, harmonious, consentient, strong,
deficient: (adj) wanting, inadequate, nerve, spirit. ANTONYMS: (n) firm, of one mind, concordant,
scanty, imperfect, short, scarce, less, defeatism, flimsiness. accordant, compact, collective, cubic.
lacking, low, meager, insufficient. noisome: (adj) injurious, bad, fetid, ANTONYMS: (adj) narrow,
ANTONYMS: (adj) sufficient, perfect, mischievous, repugnant, foul, individual.
ample, flawless, enough, excessive, noxious, repulsive, detrimental, vernal: (adj) young, hornotine,
complete, present, sound, strong, poisonous, deleterious. ANTONYM: springlike, vernant, renovated,
confident. (adj) moral. tender, juvenile, sempervirid,
equinox: (n) cosmic time, celestial repast: (n) feast, food, banquet, dinner, sempervirent, immature.
point, autumnal equinox. lunch, refection, collation, luncheon, ANTONYMS: (adj) wintry, summery.
Jonathan Swift 279
CHAPTER IX
[A grand debate at the general assembly of the Houyhnhnms, and how it was
determined. The learning of the Houyhnhnms. Their buildings. Their manner of
burials. The defectiveness of their language.]
One of these grand assemblies was held in my time, about three months
before my departure, whither my master went as the representative of our
district. In this council was resumed their old debate, and indeed the only debate
that ever happened in their country; whereof my master, after his return, give me
a very particular account.%
The question to be debated was, “whether the Yahoos should be
exterminated from the face of the earth?” One of the members for the
affirmative offered several arguments of great strength and weight, alleging,
“that as the Yahoos were the most filthy, noisome, and deformed animals which
nature ever produced, so they were the most restive and indocible, mischievous
and malicious; they would privately suck the teats of the Houyhnhnms’ cows,
kill and devour their cats, trample down their oats and grass, if they were not
continually watched, and commit a thousand other extravagancies.” He took
notice of a general tradition, “that Yahoos had not been always in their country;
but that many ages ago, two of these brutes appeared together upon a mountain;
whether produced by the heat of the sun upon corrupted mud and slime, or from
Thesaurus
affirmative: (adj) positive, affirmatory, continually: (adv) perpetually, disgusting, squalid, bawdy, muddy,
assertive, ratifying, concurring; (adv) ceaselessly, incessantly, endlessly, grimy, grubby, vile. ANTONYMS:
yes; (n) affirmation, avowal, unceasingly, continuously, (adj) decent, pleasant, attractive.
assenting; (adj, v) predicatory, persistently, eternally, steadily, privately: (adv) covertly, privily,
declaratory. ANTONYMS: (adj) frequently; (adj, adv) always. confidentially, personally, closely,
dissenting; (n) no. ANTONYMS: (adv) acutely, stealthily, secludedly, domestically,
commit: (v) consign, assign, charge, infrequently, spasmodically, informally, retiredly; (adj, adv)
confide, dedicate, apply, entrust, sporadically. quietly. ANTONYMS: (adv) publicly,
submit, intrust, leave, give. exterminated: (adj) broken, extinct, officially.
ANTONYMS: (v) stop, desist, divest, destroyed completely, lost, wiped suck: (v) nurse, drink, imbibe, suckle,
end, idle, withhold, wait, cease, keep, out, annihilated. absorb, lactate, puff, drain, pull, suck
refuse. filthy: (adj) unclean, dingy, nasty, foul, up; (n) sucking. ANTONYM: (v) rock.
the ooze and froth of the sea, was never known; that these Yahoos engendered,
and their brood, in a short time, grew so numerous as to overrun and infest the
whole nation; that the Houyhnhnms, to get rid of this evil, made a general
hunting, and at last enclosed the whole herd; and destroying the elder, every
Houyhnhnm kept two young ones in a kennel, and brought them to such a
degree of tameness, as an animal, so savage by nature, can be capable of
acquiring, using them for draught and carriage; that there seemed to be much
truth in this tradition, and that those creatures could not be yinhniamshy (or
aborigines of the land), because of the violent hatred the Houyhnhnms, as well
as all other animals, bore them, which, although their evil disposition sufficiently
deserved, could never have arrived at so high a degree if they had been
aborigines, or else they would have long since been rooted out; that the
inhabitants, taking a fancy to use the service of the Yahoos, had, very
imprudently, neglected to cultivate the breed of asses, which are a comely
animal, easily kept, more tame and orderly, without any offensive smell, strong
enough for labour, although they yield to the other in agility of body, and if their
braying be no agreeable sound, it is far preferable to the horrible howlings of the
Yahoos.”%
Several others declared their sentiments to the same purpose, when my
master proposed an expedient to the assembly, whereof he had indeed borrowed
the hint from me. “He approved of the tradition mentioned by the honourable
member who spoke before, and affirmed, that the two Yahoos said to be seen
first among them, had been driven thither over the sea; that coming to land, and
being forsaken by their companions, they retired to the mountains, and
degenerating by degrees, became in process of time much more savage than
those of their own species in the country whence these two originals came. The
reason of this assertion was, that he had now in his possession a certain
wonderful Yahoo (meaning myself) which most of them had heard of, and many
of them had seen. He then related to them how he first found me; that my body
was all covered with an artificial composure of the skins and hairs of other
animals; that I spoke in a language of my own, and had thoroughly learned
theirs; that I had related to him the accidents which brought me thither; that
Thesaurus
aborigines: (n) indigene, (n) effervescence, bubbles, spindrift. mountains: (n) plenty, mountain
autochthones. imprudently: (adv) injudiciously, range, mountain chain.
braying: (adj) raucous, loud, harsh, unwisely, indiscreetly, carelessly, overrun: (n, v) overflow; (v) invade,
shrill, discordant, clamorous, recklessly, incautiously, flood, occupy, infest, deluge,
vociferous. thoughtlessly, foolishly, hastily, inundate, overwhelm, devastate,
forsaken: (adj) deserted, abandoned, unthinkingly, inconsiderately. brim over; (n) excess. ANTONYMS:
lonely, forlorn, derelict, desert, ANTONYMS: (adv) cautiously, (adj) clear, tidy; (v) make.
empty, solitary, friendless; (adj, v) carefully, discreetly, judiciously, tameness: (n) jejuneness,
jilted; (v) crossed in love. sensibly, wisely. domestication, dullness, obedience,
ANTONYM: (adj) unforsaken. infest: (v) overrun, disturb, pester, jejunity, tractableness, mansuetude,
froth: (n, v) bubble, spume, fizz, suds, beset, annoy, invade, harry, tractability, vapidity, mildness,
sparkle; (v) boil, effervesce, ferment; overwhelm, occupy, molest, harass. vapidness.
Jonathan Swift 281
when he saw me without my covering, I was an exact Yahoo in every part, only
of a whiter colour, less hairy, and with shorter claws. He added, how I had
endeavoured to persuade him, that in my own and other countries, the Yahoos
acted as the governing, rational animal, and held the Houyhnhnms in servitude;
that he observed in me all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little more civilized by
some tincture of reason, which, however, was in a degree as far inferior to the
Houyhnhnm race, as the Yahoos of their country were to me; that, among other
things, I mentioned a custom we had of castrating Houyhnhnms when they were
young, in order to render them tame; that the operation was easy and safe; that it
was no shame to learn wisdom from brutes, as industry is taught by the ant, and
building by the swallow (for so I translate the word lyhannh, although it be a
much larger fowl); that this invention might be practised upon the younger
Yahoos here, which besides rendering them tractable and fitter for use, would in
an age put an end to the whole species, without destroying life; that in the mean
time the Houyhnhnms should be exhorted to cultivate the breed of asses, which,
as they are in all respects more valuable brutes, so they have this advantage, to
be fit for service at five years old, which the others are not till twelve.”
This was all my master thought fit to tell me, at that time, of what passed in
the grand council. But he was pleased to conceal one particular, which related
personally to myself, whereof I soon felt the unhappy effect, as the reader will
know in its proper place, and whence I date all the succeeding misfortunes of my
life.%
The Houyhnhnms have no letters, and consequently their knowledge is all
traditional. But there happening few events of any moment among a people so
well united, naturally disposed to every virtue, wholly governed by reason, and
cut off from all commerce with other nations, the historical part is easily
preserved without burdening their memories. I have already observed that they
are subject to no diseases, and therefore can have no need of physicians.
However, they have excellent medicines, composed of herbs, to cure accidental
bruises and cuts in the pastern or frog of the foot, by sharp stones, as well as
other maims and hurts in the several parts of the body.
Thesaurus
civilized: (adj) civil, refined, polite, representation, version, interpreting, ANTONYMS: (n, v) sip; (v) doubt,
civilised, cultivated, educated, depiction, execution, construction, expel, disbelieve, reject, express.
courteous, urbane, kind, gentle, explanation. tractable: (adj, prep) docile; (adj)
genteel. ANTONYMS: (adj) uncouth, servitude: (n) bondage, serfdom, obedient, ductile, tame, gentle,
noncivilized, discourteous, loutish, enslavement, captivity, slavery, yoke, yielding, manageable; (adj, v) pliable,
rude, inhumane, wild. vassalage, thrall, easement, serfhood, flexible, pliant, plastic. ANTONYMS:
hairy: (adj) hirsute, bushy, dangerous, dependency. ANTONYM: (n) (adj) intractable, unmanageable,
downy, woolly, bristly, fleecy, rough, freedom. unruly, rebellious.
fuzzy, shaggy, fluffy. ANTONYMS: shorter: (adj) smaller, inferior. translate: (v) construe, transform,
(adj) hairless, safe, tidy, sleek. swallow: (n, v) drink, gulp, taste, sip, decipher, explain, render, read,
rendering: (n) interpretation, swig; (v) bolt, consume, devour, convert, define, turn, understand,
translation, rendition, reading, accept, stomach, endure. alter. ANTONYM: (v) stagnate.
They calculate the year by the revolution of the sun and moon, but use no
subdivisions into weeks. They are well enough acquainted with the motions of
those two luminaries, and understand the nature of eclipses; and this is the
utmost progress of their astronomy.%
In poetry, they must be allowed to excel all other mortals; wherein the
justness of their similes, and the minuteness as well as exactness of their
descriptions, are indeed inimitable. Their verses abound very much in both of
these, and usually contain either some exalted notions of friendship and
benevolence or the praises of those who were victors in races and other bodily
exercises. Their buildings, although very rude and simple, are not inconvenient,
but well contrived to defend them from all injuries of and heat. They have a kind
of tree, which at forty years old loosens in the root, and falls with the first storm:
it grows very straight, and being pointed like stakes with a sharp stone (for the
Houyhnhnms know not the use of iron), they stick them erect in the ground,
about ten inches asunder, and then weave in oat straw, or sometimes wattles,
between them. The roof is made after the same manner, and so are the doors.
The Houyhnhnms use the hollow part, between the pastern and the hoof of
their fore-foot, as we do our hands, and this with greater dexterity than I could at
first imagine. I have seen a white mare of our family thread a needle (which I
lent her on purpose) with that joint. They milk their cows, reap their oats, and do
all the work which requires hands, in the same manner. They have a kind of hard
flints, which, by grinding against other stones, they form into instruments, that
serve instead of wedges, axes, and hammers. With tools made of these flints, they
likewise cut their hay, and reap their oats, which there grow naturally in several
fields; the Yahoos draw home the sheaves in carriages, and the servants tread
them in certain covered huts to get out the grain, which is kept in stores. They
make a rude kind of earthen and wooden vessels, and bake the former in the sun.
If they can avoid casualties, they die only of old age, and are buried in the
obscurest places that can be found, their friends and relations expressing neither
joy nor grief at their departure; nor does the dying person discover the least
regret that he is leaving the world, any more than if he were upon returning
Thesaurus
acquainted: (adj) knowledgeable, particular, unrivaled, unparalleled, petiteness, tininess, weeness.
informed, aware, cognizant, special, unmatched, supreme, reap: (v) harvest, gain, glean, gather,
conversant, hand and glove, intimate, unparagoned, exclusive, single. obtain, cut, receive, earn, acquire;
thick; (adv) abreast; (v) inform, ANTONYMS: (adj) universal, (adj, v) mow; (adj) clip. ANTONYMS:
acquaint. ordinary. (v) lose, scatter.
bake: (v) roast, broil, fire, fry, cook, justness: (adj, n) equity, impartiality, similes: (n) imagery, images,
stew, to bake, grill, scorch, toast, heat. honesty, uprightness; (n) fairness, metaphors.
grinding: (v) cutting, excruciating, nicety, rightness, rightfulness, weave: (v) twine, braid, knit, entwine,
consuming, corroding; (n) abrasion, correctness, validity, rectitude. interweave, wind, waver, plait,
friction, sharpening, detrition; (adj) lent: (n) Quadragesima, Lententide. fabricate, inweave; (n) texture.
grating, extortionate, hard. minuteness: (n) diminutiveness, ANTONYMS: (v) separate, unweave,
inimitable: (adj) unique, matchless, smallness, attention to detail, unpick.
Jonathan Swift 283
home from a visit to one of his neighbours. I remember my master having once
made an appointment with a friend and his family to come to his house, upon
some affair of importance: on the day fixed, the mistress and her two children
came very late; she made two excuses, first for her husband, who, as she said,
happened that very morning to shnuwnh. The word is strongly expressive in
their language, but not easily rendered into English; it signifies, “to retire to his
first mother.” Her excuse for not coming sooner, was, that her husband dying
late in the morning, she was a good while consulting her servants about a
convenient place where his body should be laid; and I observed, she behaved
herself at our house as cheerfully as the rest. She died about three months after.%
They live generally to seventy, or seventy-five years, very seldom to
fourscore. Some weeks before their death, they feel a gradual decay; but without
pain. During this time they are much visited by their friends, because they
cannot go abroad with their usual ease and satisfaction. However, about ten days
before their death, which they seldom fail in computing, they return the visits
that have been made them by those who are nearest in the neighbourhood, being
carried in a convenient sledge drawn by Yahoos; which vehicle they use, not only
upon this occasion, but when they grow old, upon long journeys, or when they
are lamed by any accident: and therefore when the dying Houyhnhnms return
those visits, they take a solemn leave of their friends, as if they were going to
some remote part of the country, where they designed to pass the rest of their
lives.
I know not whether it may be worth observing, that the Houyhnhnms have
no word in their language to express any thing that is evil, except what they
borrow from the deformities or ill qualities of the Yahoos. Thus they denote the
folly of a servant, an omission of a child, a stone that cuts their feet, a
continuance of foul or unseasonable weather, and the like, by adding to each the
epithet of Yahoo. For instance, hhnm Yahoo; whnaholm Yahoo, ynlhmndwihlma
Yahoo, and an ill-contrived house ynholmhnmrohlnw Yahoo.
I could, with great pleasure, enlarge further upon the manners and virtues of
this excellent people; but intending in a short time to publish a volume by itself,
Thesaurus
cheerfully: (adj, adv) gladly; (adv, v) (v) connote. inarticulate, innocent, impassive,
happily; (adv) merrily, readily, epithet: (n) name, cognomen, reserved.
brightly, jovially, cheerily, genially, appellation, denomination, lamed: (adj) lame, impeded, injured,
chirpily, lively, blithely. nickname, moniker, sobriquet, title, disabled.
ANTONYMS: (adv) bleakly, dismally, picture, byname, byword. qualities: (n) character, disposition,
grimly, sullenly, unhappily, expressive: (adj) significant, nature, spirit, tone, quality, role, self,
somberly, sadly, grudgingly, meaningful, descriptive, mobile, part, traits, individuality.
gloomily, dourly, forlornly. revelatory, indicative, articulate, unseasonable: (adj) inopportune,
denote: (adj, n, v) declare; (adj, v) graphic, emphatic, suggestive, vivid. inappropriate, premature, ill timed,
express; (v) indicate, imply, mean, ANTONYMS: (adj) unemotional, improper, immature, inconvenient,
point, demonstrate, stand for, spell; undemonstrative, nondescript, cold, ill-timed, inept, unchancy; (v)
(n, v) betoken, signify. ANTONYM: expressionless, empty, emotionless, illtimed.
expressly upon that subject, I refer the reader thither; and, in the mean time,
proceed to relate my own sad catastrophe.%
Thesaurus
expressly: (adv) specially, particularly, deliver, commend, impute, name, resolution; (adj) impervious.
distinctly, specifically, explicitly, advert, relate, invoke, attribute. thither: (adv) hither, whither, on that
especially, utterly, clearly, precisely, relate: (v) recount, narrate, link, point, in that respect, at that place, in
telly, exactly. ANTONYMS: (adv) associate, tell, appertain, apply, that location; (adj) further, ulterior,
ambiguously, conditionally, detail, describe, recite, refer. remoter, succeeding, more distant.
implicitly, indirectly, vaguely. ANTONYMS: (v) dissociate, conceal,
proceed: (v) move, advance, originate, conflict, contrast, disconnect,
ensue, flow, issue, arise, emanate; separate.
(adj, v) pass, run, extend. subject: (n) matter, citizen, motif,
ANTONYMS: (v) discontinue, recede, question, issue, affair, point, national;
regress, return, retreat. (adj, v) exposed; (adj, n) dependent,
refer: (v) pertain, allude, apply, inferior. ANTONYMS: (n) foreigner,
Jonathan Swift 285
CHAPTER %X
[The author’s economy, and happy life, among the Houyhnhnms. His great
improvement in virtue by conversing with them. Their conversations. The author
has notice given him by his master, that he must depart from the country. He
falls into a swoon for grief; but submits. He contrives and finishes a canoe by the
help of a fellow-servant, and puts to sea at a venture.]
I had settled my little economy to my own heart’s content. My master had

ordered a room to be made for me, after their manner, about six yards from the
house: the sides and floors of which I plastered with clay, and covered with
rush-mats of my own contriving. I had beaten hemp, which there grows wild,
and made of it a sort of ticking; this I filled with the feathers of several birds I
had taken with springes made of Yahoos’ hairs, and were excellent food. I had
worked two chairs with my knife, the sorrel nag helping me in the grosser and
more laborious part. When my clothes were worn to rags, I made myself others
with the skins of rabbits, and of a certain beautiful animal, about the same size,
called nnuhnoh, the skin of which is covered with a fine down. Of these I also
made very tolerable stockings. I soled my shoes with wood, which I cut from a
tree, and fitted to the upper-leather; and when this was worn out, I supplied it
with the skins of Yahoos dried in the sun. I often got honey out of hollow trees,
which I mingled with water, or ate with my bread. No man could more verify the
Thesaurus
contriving: (adj) designing, deep, wound, chagrin, concern; (n, v) sloshed, smashed, wet, inebriated,
calculating, shifty. regret; (adj) sore. ANTONYMS: (n) pissed.
dried: (adj) arid, desiccated, joy, happiness, comfort, content, puts: (n) stocks, securities, preferred
dehydrated, shriveled, shrunken, peace. stock, common stock, bonds.
drained, torrid, parched, withered; hemp: (n) cannabis, dope, ganja, grass, rabbits: (n) order Lagomorpha, pikas,
(n) drier, dryer. flax, halter, rope, abaca, gage; (adj) Lagomorpha.
feathers: (n) plumage, fur, indument, marijuana, pot. swoon: (adj, n, v) faint; (adj, n)
garment, garb, fine hair, clothing, honey: (n) dear, love, beloved, nectar, collapse; (n) fainting, syncope,
dress, apparel, attire, array. sweetheart, dearest, duck, molasses, prostration, deliquium; (v) conk,
floors: (adj) floored. sugar, baby; (v) sweeten. black out, pass out, die; (adj) puff.
grief: (adj, n, v) affliction; (n) dolor, plastered: (adj) drunk, tight, ticking: (n) tick, cloth, fabric, ticken;
anguish, distress, agony, pain, intoxicated, pixilated, loaded, soaked, (adj) living.
truth of these two maxims, “That nature is very easily satisfied;” and, “That
necessity is the mother of invention.” I enjoyed perfect health of body, and
tranquillity of mind; I did not feel the treachery or inconstancy of a friend, nor
the injuries of a secret or open enemy. I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or
pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no
fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my
body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and
actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers,
backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds,
buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists,
ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and
faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes,
gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no
pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or
poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no
importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited,
swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their
vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers,
judges, or dancing-masters.%
I had the favour of being admitted to several Houyhnhnms, who came to
visit or dine with my master; where his honour graciously suffered me to wait in
the room, and listen to their discourse. Both he and his company would often
descend to ask me questions, and receive my answers. I had also sometimes the
honour of attending my master in his visits to others. I never presumed to speak,
except in answer to a question; and then I did it with inward regret, because it
was a loss of so much time for improving myself; but I was infinitely delighted
with the station of an humble auditor in such conversations, where nothing
passed but what was useful, expressed in the fewest and most significant words;
where, as I have already said, the greatest decency was observed, without the
least degree of ceremony; where no person spoke without being pleased himself,
and pleasing his companions; where there was no interruption, tediousness, heat,
or difference of sentiments. They have a notion, that when people are met
Thesaurus
attorneys: (n) lawyers, bar. variability, disloyalty, caprice; (adj, n) oppressive, despotic, authoritarian,
forge: (adj, v) falsify; (v) fake, devise, mutability. ANTONYMS: (n) supercilious, dogmatic, disdainful,
fabricate, fashion, contrive, coin, constancy, fidelity. lordly. ANTONYMS: (adj) meek,
invent, construct, mould; (n, v) mint. informer: (n) detective, betrayer, straightforward, modest, reasonable,
importunate: (adj) annoying, exigent, delator, sneak, tattletale, informant, subservient, weak.
pressing, insistent, bothersome, canary, rat, grass, nark, snitch. ranting: (n) rant, harangue,
pestiferous, pestilent, instant, minion: (n) cosset, follower, servant, declamation, tirade, nonsense,
obdurate, demanding, pleading. pet, underling, hanger-on, spoiled screed, claptrap, bombast; (adj)
ANTONYM: (adj) feeble. child, sycophant, tool, henchman, inflated, vociferous, bombastic.
inconstancy: (n) fickleness, flightiness, lackey. ANTONYM: (n) superior. ANTONYM: (adj) calm.
uncertainty, falseness, infidelity, overbearing: (adj) dictatorial, seducement: (n) temptation, lure, bait,
changeableness, changefulness, domineering, arrogant, imperious, decoy, trap.
Jonathan Swift 287
together, a short silence does much improve conversation: this I found to be true;
for during those little intermissions of talk, new ideas would arise in their minds,
which very much enlivened the discourse. Their subjects are, generally on
friendship and benevolence, on order and economy; sometimes upon the visible
operations of nature, or ancient traditions; upon the bounds and limits of virtue;
upon the unerring rules of reason, or upon some determinations to be taken at
the next great assembly: and often upon the various excellences of poetry. I may
add, without vanity, that my presence often gave them sufficient matter for
discourse, because it afforded my master an occasion of letting his friends into
the history of me and my country, upon which they were all pleased to descant,
in a manner not very advantageous to humankind: and for that reason I shall not
repeat what they said; only I may be allowed to observe, that his honour, to my
great admiration, appeared to understand the nature of Yahoos much better than
myself. He went through all our vices and follies, and discovered many, which I
had never mentioned to him, by only supposing what qualities a Yahoo of their
country, with a small proportion of reason, might be capable of exerting; and
concluded, with too much probability, “how vile, as well as miserable, such a
creature must be.”%
I freely confess, that all the little knowledge I have of any value, was acquired
by the lectures I received from my master, and from hearing the discourses of
him and his friends; to which I should be prouder to listen, than to dictate to the
greatest and wisest assembly in Europe. I admired the strength, comeliness, and
speed of the inhabitants; and such a constellation of virtues, in such amiable
persons, produced in me the highest veneration. At first, indeed, I did not feel
that natural awe, which the Yahoos and all other animals bear toward them; but
it grew upon me by decrees, much sooner than I imagined, and was mingled
with a respectful love and gratitude, that they would condescend to distinguish
me from the rest of my species.
When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or the human race
in general, I considered them, as they really were, Yahoos in shape and
disposition, perhaps a little more civilized, and qualified with the gift of speech;
Thesaurus
admired: (adj) respected, admirable, dictate: (n, v) command, charge, order, thanksgiving, kindness.
estimable, favorite, pet, beloved, decree; (n) bidding, behest, edict; (v) ANTONYMS: (n) ingratitude,
honored, August, loved, accepted, bid, prescribe, rule, ordain. ungratefulness.
popular. ANTONYM: (adj) ANTONYMS: (v) request, ask, mentioned: (adj) spoken.
disreputable. record; (n, v) obey. traditions: (n) background, society,
constellation: (adj, n) galaxy; (n) enlivened: (adj) bouncy, active, mores, conduct, behavior,
cancer, centaur, Andromeda, spirited, alive, bouncing. civilization, customs.
asterism, group, zodiac, Capricorn, exerting: (n) push. unerring: (adj) sure, certain, inerrant,
carina, Cassiopeia; (adj) star. gratitude: (n) appreciation, thanks, inerrable, accurate, exact, faithful,
descant: (n) song, melody, hymn, thank, acknowledgement, perfect, unblemished, constant, right.
strain, tune; (v) sing, warble, amplify; acknowledgment, appreciativeness, ANTONYMS: (adj) erring, imperfect,
(n, v) discourse; (adj) enlarge, dilate. feeling, appreciate, grateful, mistaken, inaccurate, faulty.
but making no other use of reason, than to improve and multiply those vices
whereof their brethren in this country had only the share that nature allotted
them. When I happened to behold the reflection of my own form in a lake or
fountain, I turned away my face in horror and detestation of myself, and could
better endure the sight of a common Yahoo than of my own person. By
conversing with the Houyhnhnms, and looking upon them with delight, I fell to
imitate their gait and gesture, which is now grown into a habit; and my friends
often tell me, in a blunt way, “that I trot like a horse;” which, however, I take for
a great compliment. Neither shall I disown, that in speaking I am apt to fall into
the voice and manner of the Houyhnhnms, and hear myself ridiculed on that
account, without the least mortification.%
In the midst of all this happiness, and when I looked upon myself to be fully
settled for life, my master sent for me one morning a little earlier than his usual
hour. I observed by his countenance that he was in some perplexity, and at a loss
how to begin what he had to speak. After a short silence, he told me, “he did not
know how I would take what he was going to say: that in the last general
assembly, when the affair of the Yahoos was entered upon, the representatives
had taken offence at his keeping a Yahoo (meaning myself) in his family, more
like a Houyhnhnm than a brute animal; that he was known frequently to
converse with me, as if he could receive some advantage or pleasure in my
company; that such a practice was not agreeable to reason or nature, or a thing
ever heard of before among them; the assembly did therefore exhort him either
to employ me like the rest of my species, or command me to swim back to the
place whence I came: that the first of these expedients was utterly rejected by all
the Houyhnhnms who had ever seen me at his house or their own; for they
alleged, that because I had some rudiments of reason, added to the natural
pravity of those animals, it was to be feared I might be able to seduce them into
the woody and mountainous parts of the country, and bring them in troops by
night to destroy the Houyhnhnms’ cattle, as being naturally of the ravenous kind,
and averse from labour.”
My master added, “that he was daily pressed by the Houyhnhnms of the
Thesaurus
allotted: (adj) agreed, chosen, fixed, derivation, repository, root, squirt. (adj) moderate.
selected. mountainous: (adj) colossal, seduce: (v) lure, decoy, entice, allure,
cattle: (n) stock, cows, neat, bull, beef, gargantuan, huge, hilly, giant, alpine, inveigle, persuade; (adj, n, v)
bovine, livestock, ox, kine, cow, oxen. enormous, large, rugged, gigantic, debauch; (adj, v) fascinate, captivate;
exhort: (v) admonish, urge, advise, cragged. ANTONYMS: (adj) flat, tiny. (n, v) tempt; (adj) bewitch.
advocate, caution, expostulate, press, pravity: (adj) obliquity, infamy, trot: (n, v) run; (n) crib, canter, pony,
counsel, entreat, bid, goad. backsliding, demoralization; (n) gait, ride, lope; (v) gallop, general,
ANTONYMS: (v) prohibit, block, depravity, pollution. frequent, household.
discourage, dissuade, restrain, ravenous: (adj) hungry, greedy, avid, woody: (adj) arboreous, ligneous,
demand. famished, gluttonous, voracious, wooden, forested, woodsy,
fountain: (n, v) fount, well; (n) jet, rapacious, insatiable, edacious, arboraceous, arboreal, harder, hard,
font, source, reservoir, origin, covetous, predatory. ANTONYM: lignified, nemorous.
Jonathan Swift 289
neighbourhood to have the assembly’s exhortation executed, which he could not

put off much longer. He doubted it would be impossible for me to swim to
another country; and therefore wished I would contrive some sort of vehicle,
resembling those I had described to him, that might carry me on the sea; in
which work I should have the assistance of his own servants, as well as those of
his neighbours.” He concluded, “that for his own part, he could have been
content to keep me in his service as long as I lived; because he found I had cured
myself of some bad habits and dispositions, by endeavouring, as far as my
inferior nature was capable, to imitate the Houyhnhnms.”
I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the general assembly in
this country is expressed by the word hnhloayn, which signifies an exhortation,
as near as I can render it; for they have no conception how a rational creature can
be compelled, but only advised, or exhorted; because no person can disobey
reason, without giving up his claim to be a rational creature.%
I was struck with the utmost grief and despair at my master’s discourse; and
being unable to support the agonies I was under, I fell into a swoon at his feet.
When I came to myself, he told me “that he concluded I had been dead;” for
these people are subject to no such imbecilities of nature. I answered in a faint
voice, “that death would have been too great a happiness; that although I could
not blame the assembly’s exhortation, or the urgency of his friends; yet, in my
weak and corrupt judgment, I thought it might consist with reason to have been
less rigorous; that I could not swim a league, and probably the nearest land to
theirs might be distant above a hundred: that many materials, necessary for
making a small vessel to carry me off, were wholly wanting in this country;
which, however, I would attempt, in obedience and gratitude to his honour,
although I concluded the thing to be impossible, and therefore looked on myself
as already devoted to destruction; that the certain prospect of an unnatural death
was the least of my evils; for, supposing I should escape with life by some
strange adventure, how could I think with temper of passing my days among
Yahoos, and relapsing into my old corruptions, for want of examples to lead and
keep me within the paths of virtue? that I knew too well upon what solid reasons
Thesaurus
compelled: (adj) forced, obligate, salted, vulcanised, well, vulcanized. incitement, sermon, admonition,
enforced, constrained, responsible, decree: (n, v) command, award, rule, exhort, hortation, admonishment.
answerable, unwilling, destined. act, will, dictate; (v) decide, enact, relapsing: (n) backsliding, lapse,
corrupt: (adj, v) adulterate, taint, infect, ordain; (n) edict, decision. lapsing, recidivism, regress, atavism,
rotten, canker; (adj, n, v) contaminate, disobey: (v) violate, defy, infringe, failure, oversight, reversion,
poison; (v) bribe, debase, defile; (adj) disregard, contravene, ignore, resist, regression, reverting.
impure. ANTONYMS: (adj) moral, rebel, breach, transgress, counteract. rigorous: (adj) rigid, precise, hard,
pure, principled, ethical, honorable, ANTONYMS: (v) conform, regard, strict, austere, accurate, exacting,
wholesome, virtuous, uncorrupt, comply, mind, observe, behave, exact, cruel, stern, inflexible.
truthful; (v) purify; (adj, v) clean. uphold. ANTONYMS: (adj) lax, weak,
cured: (adj) recovered, corned, aged, exhortation: (n) warning, monition, slapdash, sloppy, sketchy, lenient,
mellow, whole, better, pickle cured, persuasion, suggestion, counsel, gentle, flexible, careless, halfhearted.
all the determinations of the wise Houyhnhnms were founded, not to be shaken
by arguments of mine, a miserable Yahoo; and therefore, after presenting him
with my humble thanks for the offer of his servants’ assistance in making a
vessel, and desiring a reasonable time for so difficult a work, I told him I would
endeavour to preserve a wretched being; and if ever I returned to England, was
not without hopes of being useful to my own species, by celebrating the praises
of the renowned Houyhnhnms, and proposing their virtues to the imitation of
mankind.”
My master, in a few words, made me a very gracious reply; allowed me the
space of two months to finish my boat; and ordered the sorrel nag, my fellow-
servant (for so, at this distance, I may presume to call him), to follow my
instruction; because I told my master, “that his help would be sufficient, and I
knew he had a tenderness for me.”
In his company, my first business was to go to that part of the coast where
my rebellious crew had ordered me to be set on shore. I got upon a height, and
looking on every side into the sea; fancied I saw a small island toward the north-
east. I took out my pocket glass, and could then clearly distinguish it above five
leagues off, as I computed; but it appeared to the sorrel nag to be only a blue
cloud: for as he had no conception of any country beside his own, so he could not
be as expert in distinguishing remote objects at sea, as we who so much
converse in that element.%
After I had discovered this island, I considered no further; but resolved it
should if possible, be the first place of my banishment, leaving the consequence
to fortune.
I returned home, and consulting with the sorrel nag, we went into a copse at
some distance, where I with my knife, and he with a sharp flint, fastened very
artificially after their manner, to a wooden handle, cut down several oak wattles,
about the thickness of a walking-staff, and some larger pieces. But I shall not
trouble the reader with a particular description of my own mechanics; let it
suffice to say, that in six weeks time with the help of the sorrel nag, who
performed the parts that required most labour, I finished a sort of Indian canoe,
Thesaurus
artificially: (adv) synthetically, specific, distinct, peculiar; (adv) insurgent, stubborn, unruly,
factitiously, affectedly, contrivedly, distinguishingly; (adj, v) malcontent. ANTONYMS: (adj)
insincerely, unreally, feignedly, discriminative; (v) distinguish; (n) docile, conventional, obedient,
falsely, fictitiously, artfully, hearing. ANTONYMS: (adj) common, conformist, content, conforming,
counterfeitly. ANTONYM: (adv) typical. cooperative, loyal, meek, submissive,
naturally. fancied: (adj) unreal, chimerical, obliging.
copse: (n) brush, coppice, brake, fictional, fanciful, fictitious, tenderness: (n) fondness, soreness,
brushwood, forest, underwood, fabricated, preferred, assumed, love, affection, sympathy; (adj, n)
grove, spinney, thicket, undergrowth, illusory, imagined, ideal. clemency, mildness, compassion,
canebrake. rebellious: (adj) insubordinate, gentleness, softness, delicacy.
distinguishing: (adj) distinctive, mutinous, disaffected, defiant, ANTONYMS: (n) pleasure, dryness,
identifying, typical, discriminating, disobedient, contrary, contumacious, hatred, strength, detachment.
Jonathan Swift 291
but much larger, covering it with the skins of Yahoos, well stitched together with
hempen threads of my own making. My sail was likewise composed of the skins
of the same animal; but I made use of the youngest I could get, the older being
too tough and thick; and I likewise provided myself with four paddles. I laid in a
stock of boiled flesh, of rabbits and fowls, and took with me two vessels, one
filled with milk and the other with water.%
I tried my canoe in a large pond, near my master’s house, and then corrected
in it what was amiss; stopping all the chinks with Yahoos’ tallow, till I found it
staunch, and able to bear me and my freight; and, when it was as complete as I
could possibly make it, I had it drawn on a carriage very gently by Yahoos to the
sea-side, under the conduct of the sorrel nag and another servant.
When all was ready, and the day came for my departure, I took leave of my
master and lady and the whole family, my eyes flowing with tears, and my heart
quite sunk with grief. But his honour, out of curiosity, and, perhaps, (if I may
speak without vanity,) partly out of kindness, was determined to see me in my
canoe, and got several of his neighbouring friends to accompany him. I was
forced to wait above an hour for the tide; and then observing the wind very
fortunately bearing toward the island to which I intended to steer my course, I
took a second leave of my master: but as I was going to prostrate myself to kiss
his hoof, he did me the honour to raise it gently to my mouth. I am not ignorant
how much I have been censured for mentioning this last particular. Detractors
are pleased to think it improbable, that so illustrious a person should descend to
give so great a mark of distinction to a creature so inferior as I. Neither have I
forgotten how apt some travellers are to boast of extraordinary favours they have
received. But, if these censurers were better acquainted with the noble and
courteous disposition of the Houyhnhnms, they would soon change their
opinion.
I paid my respects to the rest of the Houyhnhnms in his honour’s company;
then getting into my canoe, I pushed off from shore.
Thesaurus
amiss: (adj, adv) wrong; (adj) bad, freight: (n) cargo, lading, burden, ordinary, on, practical.
haywire, faulty, astray, guilty; (adv) portage, consignment, freightage, neither: (conj) either, no-one, not
badly, poorly, awry, wrongly, adrift. carriage; (n, v) load, shipment; (v) either, nor, nother.
ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) right; (adv) carry, convey. steer: (v) navigate, guide, direct, drive,
perfectly, properly, suitably, hempen: (adj) Hempen collar, tough, aim, conduct, maneuver, run,
appropriately, correctly, well; (adj) cannabine. manage; (n, v) lead, point.
okay, correct, good. improbable: (adj) implausible, stitched: (adj) sewed, bound in paper
flowing: (adj) fluent, running, impossible, incredible, unbelievable, covers, seamed.
graceful, smooth, fluid, soft, liquid; fishy, questionable, inconceivable, sunk: (adj) sunken, undone, finished,
(n) current, flux, flow; (adj, v) loose. impractical, unthinkable, absurd; (adj, ruined, profound, immersed,
ANTONYMS: (adj) secure, ugly, still, n) marvelous. ANTONYMS: (adj) damaged, lowed, lying flat; (v) cut
stilted, jerky, harsh, halting. probable, certain, plausible, truthful, up, dashed.
Jonathan Swift 293
CHAPTER %XI
[The author’s dangerous voyage. He arrives at New Holland, hoping to settle

there. Is wounded with an arrow by one of the natives. Is seized and carried by
force into a Portuguese ship. The great civilities of the captain. The author arrives
at England.]
I began this desperate voyage on February 15, 1714-15, at nine o’clock in the
morning. The wind was very favourable; however, I made use at first only of my
paddles; but considering I should soon be weary, and that the wind might chop
about, I ventured to set up my little sail; and thus, with the help of the tide, I
went at the rate of a league and a half an hour, as near as I could guess. My
master and his friends continued on the shore till I was almost out of sight; and I
often heard the sorrel nag (who always loved me) crying out, “Hnuy illa nyha,
majah Yahoo;” “Take care of thyself, gentle Yahoo.”
My design was, if possible, to discover some small island uninhabited, yet
sufficient, by my labour, to furnish me with the necessaries of life, which I would
have thought a greater happiness, than to be first minister in the politest court of
Europe; so horrible was the idea I conceived of returning to live in the society,
and under the government of Yahoos. For in such a solitude as I desired, I could
at least enjoy my own thoughts, and reflect with delight on the virtues of those
inimitable Houyhnhnms, without an opportunity of degenerating into the vices
Thesaurus
arrow: (n) missile, bolt, dart, barb, encouraging, good, auspicious, ANTONYMS: (n) companionship,
gun, spear, bullet, cursor; (adj, n) useful, benevolent, favorable, closeness.
rocket; (adj) hydrargyrum, profitable, conducive, opportune, tide: (n, v) wave, flood, surge; (n)
quicksilver. prosperous. stream, flow, course, drift, time, high
chop: (n, v) chip, slice, cut; (v) mince, seized: (adj) confiscate, appropriated, tide, run, piping times. ANTONYM:
slash, whittle, hash, hack, cleave, condemned, apprehended, grasped, (v) ebb.
hew, chop up. taken, held, seised, detained, wounded: (adj, v) hurt; (n) casualty,
crying: (adj, v) exigent, instant, obtained, arraught. maimed; (adj) bruised, injured,
pressing, urgent; (adj) insistent, solitude: (n) desolation, loneliness, bloody, aggrieved, saddened; (v)
clamant, imperative, blatant; (n) seclusion, privacy, aloneness, stricken, wound, struck. ANTONYM:
weeping; (v) weep; (adj, n) sniveling. isolation, retirement, lonesomeness, (adj) unaffected.
favourable: (adj) convenient, retreat, desert, solitariness.
and corruptions of my own species.%

The reader may remember what I related, when my crew conspired against
me, and confined me to my cabin; how I continued there several weeks without
knowing what course we took; and when I was put ashore in the long-boat, how
the sailors told me, with oaths, whether true or false, “that they knew not in what
part of the world we were.” However, I did then believe us to be about 10
degrees southward of the Cape of Good Hope, or about 45 degrees southern
latitude, as I gathered from some general words I overheard among them, being I
supposed to the south-east in their intended voyage to Madagascar. And
although this were little better than conjecture, yet I resolved to steer my course
eastward, hoping to reach the south-west coast of New Holland, and perhaps
some such island as I desired lying westward of it. The wind was full west, and
by six in the evening I computed I had gone eastward at least eighteen leagues;
when I spied a very small island about half a league off, which I soon reached. It
was nothing but a rock, with one creek naturally arched by the force of tempests.
Here I put in my canoe, and climbing a part of the rock, I could plainly discover
land to the east, extending from south to north. I lay all night in my canoe; and
repeating my voyage early in the morning, I arrived in seven hours to the south-
east point of New Holland. This confirmed me in the opinion I have long
entertained, that the maps and charts place this country at least three degrees
more to the east than it really is; which thought I communicated many years ago
to my worthy friend, Mr. Herman Moll, and gave him my reasons for it,
although he has rather chosen to follow other authors.
I saw no inhabitants in the place where I landed, and being unarmed, I was
afraid of venturing far into the country. I found some shellfish on the shore, and
ate them raw, not daring to kindle a fire, for fear of being discovered by the
natives. I continued three days feeding on oysters and limpets, to save my own
provisions; and I fortunately found a brook of excellent water, which gave me
great relief.
On the fourth day, venturing out early a little too far, I saw twenty or thirty
natives upon a height not above five hundred yards from me. They were stark
Thesaurus
arched: (adj, v) bowed, arcuate; (adj) acclivity; (v) ascending, uprise, arise; oysters: (n) class Pelecypoda, family
bent, vaulted, convex, arciform, (adj) scandent. Ostreidae, Lamellibranchia,
arced, domed, hooked, hunched, daring: (adj, n) bold, courageous, Ostreidae, class Lamellibranchia,
crooked. adventurous; (adj) audacious, Bivalvia, clams, class Bivalvia.
brook: (v) endure, abide, stomach, venturesome, intrepid; (n) bravery, shellfish: (n) mollusc, shell,
stand, tolerate, digest, suffer, audacity, boldness, courage, cephalopod, crayfish, reptile, bird,
support, undergo; (n, v) creek; (n) adventurousness. ANTONYMS: (n) scollop, bivalve, chiton, cockle,
stream. ANTONYMS: (v) spurn, cowardice, timidity; (adj) timid, crawdad.
resist, reject, prohibit. cautious, dull, afraid, chicken, fearful, unarmed: (adj) naked, unprotected,
climbing: (n) climb, ascension, unadventurous, wimpy. open, simple, destitute, bare; (v)
mounting, mountain climbing, herman: (n) Woodrow Charles weaponless, harmless, unfortified,
mountaineering, rock climbing, Herman. vincible, untenable.
Jonathan Swift 295
naked, men, women, and children, round a fire, as I could discover by the smoke.
One of them spied me, and gave notice to the rest; five of them advanced toward
me, leaving the women and children at the fire. I made what haste I could to the
shore, and, getting into my canoe, shoved off: the savages, observing me retreat,
ran after me: and before I could get far enough into the sea, discharged an arrow
which wounded me deeply on the inside of my left knee: I shall carry the mark to
my grave. I apprehended the arrow might be poisoned, and paddling out of the
reach of their darts (being a calm day), I made a shift to suck the wound, and
dress it as well as I could.%
I was at a loss what to do, for I durst not return to the same landing-place,
but stood to the north, and was forced to paddle, for the wind, though very
gentle, was against me, blowing north-west. As I was looking about for a secure
landing-place, I saw a sail to the north-north-east, which appearing every minute
more visible, I was in some doubt whether I should wait for them or not; but at
last my detestation of the Yahoo race prevailed: and turning my canoe, I sailed
and paddled together to the south, and got into the same creek whence I set out
in the morning, choosing rather to trust myself among these barbarians, than live
with European Yahoos. I drew up my canoe as close as I could to the shore, and
hid myself behind a stone by the little brook, which, as I have already said, was
excellent water.
The ship came within half a league of this creek, and sent her long boat with
vessels to take in fresh water (for the place, it seems, was very well known); but I
did not observe it, till the boat was almost on shore; and it was too late to seek
another hiding-place. The seamen at their landing observed my canoe, and
rummaging it all over, easily conjectured that the owner could not be far off.
Four of them, well armed, searched every cranny and lurking-hole, till at last
they found me flat on my face behind the stone. They gazed awhile in
admiration at my strange uncouth dress; my coat made of skins, my wooden-
soled shoes, and my furred stockings; whence, however, they concluded, I was
not a native of the place, who all go naked. One of the seamen, in Portuguese, bid
me rise, and asked who I was. I understood that language very well, and getting
Thesaurus
admiration: (n) esteem, adoration, prima facie. furred: (adj) hairy, hirsute, fur lined,
appreciation, reverence, estimation, blowing: (n) processing, insufflation, wooly, fuzzy.
amazement, liking, awe, compliment; bravado; (v) fanning, blow out; (adj) paddle: (n) blade, vane, oar, rowing;
(adj, n) regard; (v) laud. windy, breezy. (v) dabble, dodder, row, pull, spank,
ANTONYMS: (n) disdain, criticism, cranny: (n) crack, chink, crevice, toddle, totter.
disapproval, contempt, abhorrence, fissure, gap, chap, opening, hole, paddling: (n) defeat, boating.
loathing, disgust, despising, recess, fracture, interstice. uncouth: (adj) rough, rude, barbarous,
dishonor, disparagement, darts: (n) board game, game of dart. vulgar, crude, awkward, clumsy,
detestation. discharged: (adj) released, exempt, gross, unrefined, ungainly, common.
appearing: (adj) seeming, beseen, clear, freer, free, fired, finished, ANTONYMS: (adj) refined, couth,
emergent, accomplished; (n) coming drained, dismissed, defunct, polite, sophisticated, pleasant,
into court; (prep) liking; (adj, adv) deadened. proper, genteel.
upon my feet, said, “I was a poor Yahoo banished from the Houyhnhnms, and
desired they would please to let me depart.” They admired to hear me answer
them in their own tongue, and saw by my complexion I must be a European; but
were at a loss to know what I meant by Yahoos and Houyhnhnms; and at the
same time fell a-laughing at my strange tone in speaking, which resembled the
neighing of a horse. I trembled all the while betwixt fear and hatred. I again
desired leave to depart, and was gently moving to my canoe; but they laid hold
of me, desiring to know, “what country I was of? whence I came?” with many
other questions. I told them “I was born in England, whence I came about five
years ago, and then their country and ours were at peace. I therefore hoped they
would not treat me as an enemy, since I meant them no harm, but was a poor
Yahoo seeking some desolate place where to pass the remainder of his
unfortunate life.”%
When they began to talk, I thought I never heard or saw any thing more
unnatural; for it appeared to me as monstrous as if a dog or a cow should speak
in England, or a Yahoo in Houyhnhnmland. The honest Portuguese were equally
amazed at my strange dress, and the odd manner of delivering my words, which,
however, they understood very well. They spoke to me with great humanity,
and said, “they were sure the captain would carry me gratis to Lisbon, whence I
might return to my own country; that two of the seamen would go back to the
ship, inform the captain of what they had seen, and receive his orders; in the
mean time, unless I would give my solemn oath not to fly, they would secure me
by force. I thought it best to comply with their proposal. They were very curious
to know my story, but I gave them very little satisfaction, and they all
conjectured that my misfortunes had impaired my reason. In two hours the boat,
which went laden with vessels of water, returned, with the captain’s command
to fetch me on board. I fell on my knees to preserve my liberty; but all was in
vain; and the men, having tied me with cords, heaved me into the boat, whence I
was taken into the ship, and thence into the captain’s cabin.
His name was Pedro de Mendez; he was a very courteous and generous
person. He entreated me to give some account of myself, and desired to know
Thesaurus
delivering: (adv) deliverly; (n) gentleness. ANTONYMS: (n) oath: (n) expletive, malediction,
childbirth, presentation; (adj) severity, inhumanity, nastiness, imprecation, promise, affidavit, cuss,
unfailing. selfishness. swearing, pledge, assurance,
gratis: (adv) for free, free of charge, impaired: (adj) sick, damaged, asseveration; (v) swear.
gratuitously; (adj) gratuitous, crippled, defective, faulty, corrupted, unfortunate: (adj) inauspicious, sad,
complimentary, costless, buckshee, poor, unfit, hurt, deficient, depressed. hapless, bad, inopportune,
unsolicited; (adj, adv) without charge, inform: (v) acquaint, impart, advise, disastrous, adverse, deplorable,
freely, at no cost. enlighten, announce, tell, familiarize, infelicitous, untoward, lamentable.
humanity: (n) benevolence, mankind, explain, advertise, apprise, warn. ANTONYMS: (adj) lucky, auspicious,
flesh, human race, human, laid: (adj) layed, lay, place, placed, put, good, opportune, joyous, timely,
humankind; (adj, n) compassion, situated, arranged, determined, appropriate, successful, easy,
charity, kindness, benignity, dictated, hardened, ordered. privileged.
Jonathan Swift 297
what I would eat or drink; said, “I should be used as well as himself;” and spoke
so many obliging things, that I wondered to find such civilities from a Yahoo.
However, I remained silent and sullen; I was ready to faint at the very smell of
him and his men. At last I desired something to eat out of my own canoe; but he
ordered me a chicken, and some excellent wine, and then directed that I should
be put to bed in a very clean cabin. I would not undress myself, but lay on the
bed-clothes, and in half an hour stole out, when I thought the crew was at dinner,
and getting to the side of the ship, was going to leap into the sea, and swim for
my life, rather than continue among Yahoos. But one of the seamen prevented
me, and having informed the captain, I was chained to my cabin.%
After dinner, Don Pedro came to me, and desired to know my reason for so
desperate an attempt; assured me, “he only meant to do me all the service he was
able;” and spoke so very movingly, that at last I descended to treat him like an
animal which had some little portion of reason. I gave him a very short relation
of my voyage; of the conspiracy against me by my own men; of the country
where they set me on shore, and of my five years residence there. All which he
looked upon as if it were a dream or a vision; whereat I took great offence; for I
had quite forgot the faculty of lying, so peculiar to Yahoos, in all countries where
they preside, and, consequently, their disposition of suspecting truth in others of
their own species. I asked him, “whether it were the custom in his country to say
the thing which was not?” I assured him, “I had almost forgot what he meant by
falsehood, and if I had lived a thousand years in Houyhnhnmland, I should
never have heard a lie from the meanest servant; that I was altogether
indifferent whether he believed me or not; but, however, in return for his
favours, I would give so much allowance to the corruption of his nature, as to
answer any objection he would please to make, and then he might easily
discover the truth.”
The captain, a wise man, after many endeavours to catch me tripping in some
part of my story, at last began to have a better opinion of my veracity. But he
added, “that since I professed so inviolable an attachment to truth, I must give
him my word and honour to bear him company in this voyage, without
Thesaurus
chained: (adj) in chains, enchained, absolute, impregnable; (v) stealing, robe, alb, tunicle, surplice,
bound. imprescriptible, unimpeachable. alba, cassock.
indifferent: (adj) apathetic, impassive, ANTONYMS: (adj) acceptable, sullen: (adj, n) morose, sulky, sour;
cold, cool, callous, fair, insensible, breakable. (adj) gloomy, gruff, glum, moody,
unconcerned, careless, dull, average. movingly: (adv) touchingly, stirringly, dark, cross, surly; (adj, v) grim.
ANTONYMS: (adj) enthusiastic, shiftingly, pathetically, actively, ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, cheery; (n)
fervent, keen, obsessive, energetic, persuasively, sadly, emotively, cheeriness.
eager, involved, surprised, pitifully, impressively, hauntingly. tripping: (adj) easy, flowing,
exceptional, concerned, shocked. preside: (v) manage, lead, conduct, lightsome, readable, swinging,
inviolable: (adj) sacrosanct, command, control, direct, rule, swingy, nimble, lilting, light, fluent;
infrangible, hallowed, invulnerable, moderate, guide, chair, preside over. (v) failing.
inviolate, inalienable, impenetrable, stole: (n) wrap, stolen, scarf, stolon,
attempting any thing against my life; or else he would continue me a prisoner till
we arrived at Lisbon.” I gave him the promise he required; but at the same time
protested, “that I would suffer the greatest hardships, rather than return to live
among Yahoos.”
Our voyage passed without any considerable accident. In gratitude to the
captain, I sometimes sat with him, at his earnest request, and strove to conceal
my antipathy against human kind, although it often broke out; which he suffered
to pass without observation. But the greatest part of the day I confined myself to
my cabin, to avoid seeing any of the crew. The captain had often entreated me to
strip myself of my savage dress, and offered to lend me the best suit of clothes he
had. This I would not be prevailed on to accept, abhorring to cover myself with
any thing that had been on the back of a Yahoo. I only desired he would lend me
two clean shirts, which, having been washed since he wore them, I believed
would not so much defile me. These I changed every second day, and washed
them myself.%
We arrived at Lisbon, Nov. 5, 1715. At our landing, the captain forced me to
cover myself with his cloak, to prevent the rabble from crowding about me. I was
conveyed to his own house; and at my earnest request he led me up to the
highest room backwards. I conjured him “to conceal from all persons what I had
told him of the Houyhnhnms; because the least hint of such a story would not
only draw numbers of people to see me, but probably put me in danger of being
imprisoned, or burnt by the Inquisition.” The captain persuaded me to accept a
suit of clothes newly made; but I would not suffer the tailor to take my measure;
however, Don Pedro being almost of my size, they fitted me well enough. He
accoutred me with other necessaries, all new, which I aired for twenty-four
hours before I would use them.
The captain had no wife, nor above three servants, none of which were
suffered to attend at meals; and his whole deportment was so obliging, added to
very good human understanding, that I really began to tolerate his company. He
gained so far upon me, that I ventured to look out of the back window. By
degrees I was brought into another room, whence I peeped into the street, but
Thesaurus
abhorring: (n) loathing; (adj) ANTONYMS: (v) purify, consecrate, imprisoned: (adj) confined, jailed,
abhorrent, loathful. conserve, honor, respect, sanctify, fenced in, unfree, locked up,
aired: (adj) airy, broadcast, aery, cleanse, praise. incarcerate, deeply moved,
aeriform, aerial. earnest: (adj, v) devout; (adj) eager, enraptured; (v) behind bars.
conjured: (adj) invented, made up, solemn, heartfelt, diligent, studious, strove: (v) strive.
pretended, untrue. ANTONYM: (adj) sincere, intense, ardent, staid; (n) tailor: (v) sew, fashion, shape,
factual. guarantee. ANTONYMS: (adj) accommodate, design, cut, adjust, fit;
crowding: (n) plough crowding, flippant, halfhearted, uncertain, (n) snip, dressmaker, sartor.
bunch, jostlement, overcrowding. insincere, unimportant, nonchalant, tolerate: (adj, v) accept; (v) let, bear,
defile: (adj, v) debauch, pollute, stain, lethargic, apathetic, unenthusiastic, take, permit, endure, support, brook,
sully; (v) corrupt, contaminate, foul, indifferent, frivolous. stand, abide, allow. ANTONYMS: (v)
taint, tarnish, infect; (n, v) soil. gained: (adj) extrinsic. veto, disapprove, disallow.
Jonathan Swift 299
drew my head back in a fright. In a week’s time he seduced me down to the door.
I found my terror gradually lessened, but my hatred and contempt seemed to
increase. I was at last bold enough to walk the street in his company, but kept my
nose well stopped with rue, or sometimes with tobacco.%
In ten days, Don Pedro, to whom I had given some account of my domestic
affairs, put it upon me, as a matter of honour and conscience, “that I ought to
return to my native country, and live at home with my wife and children.” He
told me, “there was an English ship in the port just ready to sail, and he would
furnish me with all things necessary.” It would be tedious to repeat his
arguments, and my contradictions. He said, “it was altogether impossible to find
such a solitary island as I desired to live in; but I might command in my own
house, and pass my time in a manner as recluse as I pleased.”
I complied at last, finding I could not do better. I left Lisbon the 24th day of
November, in an English merchantman, but who was the master I never inquired.
Don Pedro accompanied me to the ship, and lent me twenty pounds. He took
kind leave of me, and embraced me at parting, which I bore as well as I could.
During this last voyage I had no commerce with the master or any of his men;
but, pretending I was sick, kept close in my cabin. On the fifth of December, 1715,
we cast anchor in the Downs, about nine in the morning, and at three in the
afternoon I got safe to my house at Rotherhith.
My wife and family received me with great surprise and joy, because they
concluded me certainly dead; but I must freely confess the sight of them filled me
only with hatred, disgust, and contempt; and the more, by reflecting on the near
alliance I had to them. For although, since my unfortunate exile from the
Houyhnhnm country, I had compelled myself to tolerate the sight of Yahoos, and
to converse with Don Pedro de Mendez, yet my memory and imagination were
perpetually filled with the virtues and ideas of those exalted Houyhnhnms. And
when I began to consider that, by copulating with one of the Yahoo species I had
become a parent of more, it struck me with the utmost shame, confusion, and
horror.
As soon as I entered the house, my wife took me in her arms, and kissed me;
Thesaurus
contempt: (n, v) scorn; (v) despise; (n) attract, allure, charm, entice, please. ascetic, eremite, loner, troglodyte;
disrespect, derision, mockery, exile: (n, v) expatriate; (v) banish, (adj) reclusive, secluded, cloistered,
disregard, ridicule, shame, slight, deport, drive out, expel, proscribe; withdrawn. ANTONYM: (n) native.
reproach, discourtesy. ANTONYMS: (n) expulsion, deportation, refugee, seduced: (adj) profaned, infatuated,
(n) approval, admiration, regard, deportee, outcast. ANTONYMS: (v) fascinated.
honor, esteem. restore, welcome, appoint. solitary: (adj) forlorn, only, alone,
disgust: (n) antipathy, aversion, pretending: (n, v) pretense; (n) single, lonely, lone, sole,
abhorrence, abomination, detestation, affectation, appearance, acting, unaccompanied, isolated; (adj, n)
dislike, repugnance; (n, v) shock, pretence, mannerism, dissembling, recluse; (n) hermit. ANTONYMS:
distaste; (v) nauseate, displease. pretension, deception, deceit; (adv) (adj) sociable, combined, common,
ANTONYMS: (n, v) delight; (n) love, pretendingly. outgoing.
attraction, liking, adoration; (v) recluse: (n) hermit, anchoret, solitary,
at which, having not been used to the touch of that odious animal for so many
years, I fell into a swoon for almost an hour. At the time I am writing, it is five
years since my last return to England. During the first year, I could not endure
my wife or children in my presence; the very smell of them was intolerable;
much less could I suffer them to eat in the same room. To this hour they dare not
presume to touch my bread, or drink out of the same cup, neither was I ever able
to let one of them take me by the hand. The first money I laid out was to buy two
young stone-horses, which I keep in a good stable; and next to them, the groom
is my greatest favourite, for I feel my spirits revived by the smell he contracts in
the stable. My horses understand me tolerably well; I converse with them at least
four hours every day. They are strangers to bridle or saddle; they live in great
amity with me and friendship to each other.%
Thesaurus
contracts: (n) business. friendship: (n) association, familiarity, difficult. ANTONYMS: (adj) bearable,
dare: (n, v) venture; (v) defy, brave, affection, companionship, tolerable, acceptable, reasonable,
hazard, confront, risk, resist, make friendliness, intimacy, company, nice, understandable, lovable,
bold; (n) adventure, daring, defiance. attachment, relationship; (n, v) amity, excusable, inoffensive, manageable.
ANTONYMS: (v) avoid, flee, pass, concord. ANTONYMS: (n) hostility, revived: (adj) fresh, refreshed,
refrain, retreat, obey. animosity, antagonism, conflict, animated, revitalized, alive,
endure: (adj, n, v) continue, support; formality, rivalry, hatred, invigorated, new.
(n, v) bear, suffer, stand, be; (v) detachment, distance, isolation. spirits: (n) alcohol, booze, humor,
accept, undergo, allow, stay, tolerate. intolerable: (adj) unbearable, frame of mind, liqueur, strong drink,
ANTONYMS: (v) perish, die, break, insupportable, painful, obnoxious, hard drink; (adj) cheer, geniality,
fall, discontinue, crumble, end, enjoy, detestable, inexcusable, deplorable, good humor; (v) wine.
resign, quit, collapse. undesirable, hard, excruciating,
Jonathan Swift 301
CHAPTER %XII
[The author’s veracity. His design in publishing this work. His censure of
those travellers who swerve from the truth. The author clears himself from any
sinister ends in writing. An objection answered. The method of planting
colonies. His native country commended. The right of the crown to those
countries described by the author is justified. The difficulty of conquering them.
The author takes his last leave of the reader; proposes his manner of living for
the future; gives good advice, and concludes.]
Thus, gentle reader, I have given thee a faithful history of my travels for
sixteen years and above seven months: wherein I have not been so studious of
ornament as of truth. I could, perhaps, like others, have astonished thee with
strange improbable tales; but I rather chose to relate plain matter of fact, in the
simplest manner and style; because my principal design was to inform, and not
to amuse thee.
It is easy for us who travel into remote countries, which are seldom visited by
Englishmen or other Europeans, to form descriptions of wonderful animals both
at sea and land. Whereas a traveller’s chief aim should be to make men wiser and
better, and to improve their minds by the bad, as well as good, example of what
they deliver concerning foreign places.
Thesaurus
conquering: (adj) triumphant, perfidious, backstabbing, cheating, simplest: (adj) rudimentary.
winning, overcoming, glorious, inexact, loose. sinister: (adj) dark, forbidding, black,
proud, successful; (n) conquest, justified: (adj) correct, right, proper, menacing, wicked, baleful,
seizure, reverse, subjection, elected, adopted, due, righteous, threatening, malevolent, malign,
subjugation. sanctified, unearthly, regenerated, inauspicious, vicious. ANTONYMS:
descriptions: (n) images. even. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfounded, (adj) innocent, hospitable, good,
faithful: (adj, n) accurate, correct, unjustified, unreasonable, wrong, normal, favorable.
exact, true; (adj) close, unfailing, unworthy. swerve: (n, v) curve; (v) depart, stray,
dependable, devoted, sound, devout; planting: (n) plantation, positioning, turn, wander, deflect, sheer, veer,
(adj, v) constant. ANTONYMS: (adj) position, cultivation, transplanting, diverge, shift, slew. ANTONYMS: (v)
unreliable, false, inaccurate, set, planting system, husbandry, straighten, converge.
unfaithful, unrealistic, faithless, placement, locating, farming.
I could heartily wish a law was enacted, that every traveller, before he were
permitted to publish his voyages, should be obliged to make oath before the
Lord High Chancellor, that all he intended to print was absolutely true to the
best of his knowledge; for then the world would no longer be deceived, as it
usually is, while some writers, to make their works pass the better upon the
public, impose the grossest falsities on the unwary reader. I have perused several
books of travels with great delight in my younger days; but having since gone
over most parts of the globe, and been able to contradict many fabulous accounts
from my own observation, it has given me a great disgust against this part of
reading, and some indignation to see the credulity of mankind so impudently
abused. Therefore, since my acquaintance were pleased to think my poor
endeavours might not be unacceptable to my country, I imposed on myself, as a
maxim never to be swerved from, that I would strictly adhere to truth; neither
indeed can I be ever under the least temptation to vary from it, while I retain in
my mind the lectures and example of my noble master and the other illustrious
Houyhnhnms of whom I had so long the honour to be an humble hearer.%
—Nec si miserum Fortuna Sinonem Finxit, vanum etiam, mendacemque

improba finget.
I know very well, how little reputation is to be got by writings which require
neither genius nor learning, nor indeed any other talent, except a good memory,
or an exact journal. I know likewise, that writers of travels, like dictionary-
makers, are sunk into oblivion by the weight and bulk of those who come last,
and therefore lie uppermost. And it is highly probable, that such travellers, who
shall hereafter visit the countries described in this work of mine, may, by
detecting my errors (if there be any), and adding many new discoveries of their
own, justle me out of vogue, and stand in my place, making the world forget
that ever I was an author. This indeed would be too great a mortification, if I
wrote for fame: but as my sole intention was the public good, I cannot be
altogether disappointed. For who can read of the virtues I have mentioned in the
glorious Houyhnhnms, without being ashamed of his own vices, when he
Thesaurus
contradict: (v) deny, oppose, belie, detecting: (n) spotting, investigation, absolution, forgiveness,
conflict, confute, controvert, catching, detective work, sleuthing, obliviousness, silence, remission,
contravene, disprove, refute, police investigation, hearing; (adj) pardon; (n, v) amnesty; (adj)
invalidate, impugn. ANTONYMS: (v) observant. nonbeing. ANTONYMS: (n)
agree, match, correspond, approve, impudently: (adv) saucily, rudely, consciousness, fame.
corroborate, prove, support, pertly, audaciously, boldly, unwary: (adj, n) careless, incautious;
reinforce. insolently, brazenly, (adj) heedless, thoughtless,
credulity: (n) credulousness, presumptuously, daringly, cheekily, unguarded, indiscreet, hasty,
trustingness, trust, innocence, freshly. precipitate, imprudent, unsuspecting;
trustfulness, faith, lack of caution, justle: (v) fib, stave, tilt, tussle, hurtle, (adj, v) unwatchful. ANTONYMS:
navet, unwariness, acceptance. crowd; (n) elbow, shove, shoulder. (adj) cautious, mindful, heeding,
ANTONYM: (n) wariness. oblivion: (n) limbo, Lethe, void, prepared, suspicious, guarded.
Jonathan Swift 303
considers himself as the reasoning, governing animal of his country? I shall say
nothing of those remote nations where Yahoos preside; among which the least
corrupted are the Brobdingnagians; whose wise maxims in morality and
government it would be our happiness to observe. But I forbear descanting
further, and rather leave the judicious reader to his own remarks and
application.%
I am not a little pleased that this work of mine can possibly meet with no
censurers: for what objections can be made against a writer, who relates only
plain facts, that happened in such distant countries, where we have not the least
interest, with respect either to trade or negotiations? I have carefully avoided
every fault with which common writers of travels are often too justly charged.
Besides, I meddle not the least with any party, but write without passion,
prejudice, or ill-will against any man, or number of men, whatsoever. I write for
the noblest end, to inform and instruct mankind; over whom I may, without
breach of modesty, pretend to some superiority, from the advantages I received
by conversing so long among the most accomplished Houyhnhnms. I write
without any view to profit or praise. I never suffer a word to pass that may look
like reflection, or possibly give the least offence, even to those who are most
ready to take it. So that I hope I may with justice pronounce myself an author
perfectly blameless; against whom the tribes of Answerers, Considerers,
Observers, Reflectors, Detectors, Remarkers, will never be able to find matter for
exercising their talents.
I confess, it was whispered to me, “that I was bound in duty, as a subject of
England, to have given in a memorial to a secretary of state at my first coming
over; because, whatever lands are discovered by a subject belong to the crown.”
But I doubt whether our conquests in the countries I treat of would be as easy as
those of Ferdinando Cortez over the naked Americans. The Lilliputians, I think,
are hardly worth the charge of a fleet and army to reduce them; and I question
whether it might be prudent or safe to attempt the Brobdingnagians; or whether
an English army would be much at their ease with the Flying Island over their
heads. The Houyhnhnms indeed appear not to be so well prepared for war, a
Thesaurus
accomplished: (adj) proficient, able, ANTONYMS: (adj) culpable, (v) disregard.
skillful, gifted, finished, experienced, blameworthy, responsible, wrong, superiority: (n) predominance,
completed, adept, fine, versed, bad, sinful, shameful, flawed. priority, excellence, mastery,
competent. ANTONYMS: (adj) exercising: (n) calisthenics, aerobics, precedence, preference, distinction,
unfinished, amateur, untrained, bodybuilding, conditioner, supremacy, domination, eminence;
unskilled, unseasoned, unable, callisthenics, employment, drill, (adj, n) odds. ANTONYMS: (n)
inexpert, green, clumsy, bad, practice, anaerobic exercise, example, humility, weakness, friendliness,
mediocre. delay. mediocrity, simplicity.
blameless: (adj) irreproachable, meddle: (v) intervene, interfere, talents: (adj) talent, ability, capacity,
perfect, faultless, unimpeachable, intrude, monkey, interpose, fiddle, parts, ingenuity, cleverness, turn; (n)
pure, spotless, innocent, guiltless, pry, dabble, interlope; (n) faculty, endowment, genius,
inculpable, not guilty, clean. interference; (adj) moil. ANTONYM: accomplishment.
science to which they are perfect strangers, and especially against missive
weapons. However, supposing myself to be a minister of state, I could never give
my advice for invading them. Their prudence, unanimity, unacquaintedness
with fear, and their love of their country, would amply supply all defects in the
military art. Imagine twenty thousand of them breaking into the midst of an
European army, confounding the ranks, overturning the carriages, battering the
warriors’ faces into mummy by terrible yerks from their hinder hoofs; for they
would well deserve the character given to Augustus, Recalcitrat undique tutus.
But, instead of proposals for conquering that magnanimous nation, I rather wish
they were in a capacity, or disposition, to send a sufficient number of their
inhabitants for civilizing Europe, by teaching us the first principles of honour,
justice, truth, temperance, public spirit, fortitude, chastity, friendship,
benevolence, and fidelity. The names of all which virtues are still retained among
us in most languages, and are to be met with in modern, as well as ancient
authors; which I am able to assert from my own small reading.%
But I had another reason, which made me less forward to enlarge his
majesty’s dominions by my discoveries. To say the truth, I had conceived a few
scruples with relation to the distributive justice of princes upon those occasions.
For instance, a crew of pirates are driven by a storm they know not whither; at
length a boy discovers land from the topmast; they go on shore to rob and
plunder, they see a harmless people, are entertained with kindness; they give the
country a new name; they take formal possession of it for their king; they set up a
rotten plank, or a stone, for a memorial; they murder two or three dozen of the
natives, bring away a couple more, by force, for a sample; return home, and get
their pardon. Here commences a new dominion acquired with a title by divine
right. Ships are sent with the first opportunity; the natives driven out or
destroyed; their princes tortured to discover their gold; a free license given to all
acts of inhumanity and lust, the earth reeking with the blood of its inhabitants:
and this execrable crew of butchers, employed in so pious an expedition, is a
modern colony, sent to convert and civilize an idolatrous and barbarous people!
But this description, I confess, does by no means affect the British nation, who
Thesaurus
battering: (n) batter, beating, combat, tenacity, firmness, strength; (adj, n) missive: (n) epistle, note, message,
fighting, fight, whipping, attack, guts, spunk. ANTONYMS: (n) communication, billet,
mugging, physical attack, spanking, cowardice, frailty, impatience. memorandum, encyclical,
rough treatment. idolatrous: (adj) loving, profane, correspondence, alphabetic character,
civilizing: (adj) enlightening, cultural, heathen, heretical, idolatrical, idolish, correpondence, circular.
artistic, enriching, educational. idolous, pagan. reeking: (adj) dripping, overly diluted,
distributive: (adj) scattering, inhumanity: (n) brutality, atrocity, odorous, noisome, high, fetid, stale;
spreading, distributary, barbarism, cruelty, barbarousness, (v) sloppy, soft, soaking, sodden.
decentralizing, diffusive, heinousness, atrociousness, savagery, scruples: (n) conscience, moral sense,
disseminating, disseminative. inhuman treatment, inhumaneness, sense of right and wrong, morality,
fortitude: (n) bravery, endurance, grit, outrage. ANTONYMS: (n) kindness, ethical motive, principle, ethics,
pluck, backbone, determination, humaneness, humanity. moral fiber, morals.
Jonathan Swift 305
may be an example to the whole world for their wisdom, care, and justice in
planting colonies; their liberal endowments for the advancement of religion and
learning; their choice of devout and able pastors to propagate Christianity; their
caution in stocking their provinces with people of sober lives and conversations
from this the mother kingdom; their strict regard to the distribution of justice, in
supplying the civil administration through all their colonies with officers of the
greatest abilities, utter strangers to corruption; and, to crown all, by sending the
most vigilant and virtuous governors, who have no other views than the
happiness of the people over whom they preside, and the honour of the king
their master.%
But as those countries which I have described do not appear to have any
desire of being conquered and enslaved, murdered or driven out by colonies,
nor abound either in gold, silver, sugar, or tobacco, I did humbly conceive, they
were by no means proper objects of our zeal, our valour, or our interest.
However, if those whom it more concerns think fit to be of another opinion, I am
ready to depose, when I shall be lawfully called, that no European did ever visit
those countries before me. I mean, if the inhabitants ought to be believed, unless
a dispute may arise concerning the two Yahoos, said to have been seen many
years ago upon a mountain in Houyhnhnmland.
But, as to the formality of taking possession in my sovereign’s name, it never
came once into my thoughts; and if it had, yet, as my affairs then stood, I should
perhaps, in point of prudence and self-preservation, have put it off to a better
opportunity.
Having thus answered the only objection that can ever be raised against me
as a traveller, I here take a final leave of all my courteous readers, and return to
enjoy my own speculations in my little garden at Redriff; to apply those excellent
lessons of virtue which I learned among the Houyhnhnms; to instruct the Yahoos
of my own family, is far as I shall find them docible animals; to behold my figure
often in a glass, and thus, if possible, habituate myself by time to tolerate the
sight of a human creature; to lament the brutality to Houyhnhnms in my own
country, but always treat their persons with respect, for the sake of my noble
Thesaurus
conquered: (adj) overcome, heartfelt, holy, dear, devotional, observant, cautious, guarded,
vanquished, overwhelmed, crushed, hearty, earnest; (adj, v) pure; (adj, n) circumspect, wakeful, careful,
subdued, profligate, routed, godly. ANTONYMS: (adj) irreligious, jealous; (adj, v) awake. ANTONYMS:
overthrown, done for, under enemy agnostic, impious, irreverent, (adj) careless, negligent, reckless,
control, baffled. ANTONYMS: (adj) unbelieving, undevout, unholy, oblivious, unprepared, asleep.
victorious, liberated. atheistic, secular, uncommitted. virtuous: (adj) upright, pure,
depose: (v) overthrow, depone, aver, docible: (adj) docile. righteous, good, moral, just,
swear, oust, displace, asseverate, enslaved: (adj) captive, locked up, honorable, honest, respectable,
witness, dismiss, remove; (n) testify. charmed, incarcerated, in bondage, in decent, pious. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (v) install, crown, prison, bound, subject, beguiled, bad, sinful, corrupt, impure,
inaugurate, seat, empower, restore. cringing; (v) subjected. unethical, decadent, degenerate,
devout: (adj) pious, devoted, saintly, vigilant: (adj) alert, watchful, attentive, irreverent.
master, his family, his friends, and the whole Houyhnhnm race, whom these of
ours have the honour to resemble in all their lineaments, however their
intellectuals came to degenerate.%
I began last week to permit my wife to sit at dinner with me, at the farthest
end of a long table; and to answer (but with the utmost brevity) the few
questions I asked her. Yet, the smell of a Yahoo continuing very offensive, I
always keep my nose well stopped with rue, lavender, or tobacco leaves. And,
although it be hard for a man late in life to remove old habits, I am not altogether
out of hopes, in some time, to suffer a neighbour Yahoo in my company, without
the apprehensions I am yet under of his teeth or his claws.
My reconcilement to the Yahoo kind in general might not be so difficult, if
they would be content with those vices and follies only which nature has entitled
them to. I am not in the least provoked at the sight of a lawyer, a pickpocket, a
colonel, a fool, a lord, a gamester, a politician, a whoremonger, a physician, an
evidence, a suborner, an attorney, a traitor, or the like; this is all according to the
due course of things: but when I behold a lump of deformity and diseases, both
in body and mind, smitten with pride, it immediately breaks all the measures of
my patience; neither shall I be ever able to comprehend how such an animal, and
such a vice, could tally together. The wise and virtuous Houyhnhnms, who
abound in all excellences that can adorn a rational creature, have no name for
this vice in their language, which has no terms to express any thing that is evil,
except those whereby they describe the detestable qualities of their Yahoos,
among which they were not able to distinguish this of pride, for want of
thoroughly understanding human nature, as it shows itself in other countries
where that animal presides. But I, who had more experience, could plainly
observe some rudiments of it among the wild Yahoos.
But the Houyhnhnms, who live under the government of reason, are no more
proud of the good qualities they possess, than I should be for not wanting a leg
or an arm; which no man in his wits would boast of, although he must be
miserable without them. I dwell the longer upon this subject from the desire I
have to make the society of an English Yahoo by any means not insupportable;
Thesaurus
deformity: (n) malformation, pickpocket: (n) cutpurse, thief, dip, besotted, gaga, taken with, affected.
disfigurement, defect, blemish, robber, burglar, shoplifter, suborner: (n) briber, felon, crook,
disfiguration, defacement, disability, inclination, magnetic dip, magnetic malefactor, outlaw, criminal.
abnormality, distortion, clubfoot; (adj, inclination, miscreant, nipper. traitor: (n) betrayer, conspirator,
n) irregularity. reconcilement: (v) agreement, Judas, renegade, rat, quisling,
farthest: (adj) ultimate, extreme, accordment; (n) rapprochement, deserter, cheat, collaborationist; (adj)
farthermost, utmost, uttermost, last, accommodation, propitiation, insurgent, mutineer. ANTONYMS:
furthermost, endmost, greatest, most mediation, atonement, appeasement, (n) loyalist, patriot.
distant; (adj, adv) remotest. pacification, reconciliation statement, whoremonger: (n) whoremaster, goat,
ANTONYMS: (adv) closest, nearest. expiation. John, intrigant, procurer, satyr,
gamester: (n) sportsman, player, smitten: (adj, v) stricken; (adj) in love, fornicator, pimp, seducer, gallant,
reveler, dicer, hazarder. crazy, enamored, struck, nuts, dotty, pander.
Jonathan Swift 307
and therefore I here entreat those who have any tincture of this absurd vice, that
they will not presume to come in my sight.%
Thesaurus
absurd: (adj) ridiculous, foolish, presume: (v) dare, consider, believe, impregnate.
unreasonable, irrational, think, infer, guess, expect, esteem, vice: (adj, n) imperfection, defect,
meaningless, inept, senseless, conclude, suppose, conjecture. blemish, failing, frailty; (n)
nonsensical, illogical, ludicrous; (adj, ANTONYMS: (v) appreciate, despair, corruption, sin, evil, immorality,
n) silly. ANTONYMS: (adj) rational, speculate. iniquity, depravity. ANTONYMS: (n)
reasonable, logical, wise, weighty, therefore: (adv) thence, so, hence, asset, strength, propriety, virtue,
sound, consistent, serious, plausible, accordingly, as a result, thus, for that righteousness, goodness, good,
credible, acceptable. reason; (conj) since, because, then, honesty; (adj) chief.
entreat: (v) beg, beseech, ask, implore, ergo.
pray, adjure, appeal, request, conjure, tincture: (n, v) dye, tint, taste; (n)
crave, bid. ANTONYMS: (v) demand, shade, color, hue, tinct; (adj, n, v)
reject. smack, dash; (adj) spice; (v)
Jonathan Swift 309
GLOSSARY
abate: (v) bate, weaken, decline, remit, (adj) abhorrent, detestable, dreadful, abstention, forbearance, sobriety,
slack, slake, wane, relax, lessen, awful, execrable, terrible, loathsome, chastity, soberness, celibacy,
diminish, allay. ANTONYMS: (v) cursed, wicked. ANTONYMS: (adj) teetotalism, fast, abstinency,
rise, grow, magnify, surge, intensify, nice, lovable, admirable, alluring, restraint. ANTONYMS: (n) excess,
expand, enlarge, enhance, amplify, appealing, commendable, laudable, intoxication, revelry, intemperance,
prolong, extend delightful, desirable, enjoyable, drunkenness, dissipation,
abated: (adj) slack likable extravagance, wantonness
abbot: (n) abbatica, pilgrim, palmer, abominate: (v) loathe, detest, hate, abstracted: (adj) absentminded,
mendicant, lay brother, beadsman, execrate, despise, dislike, nauseate, separate, absent-minded, abstract,
friar, abbe, superior, prior, angel disgust, condemn, resent, can't bear. distrait, inattentive, pensive,
shark ANTONYMS: (v) love, adore preoccupied, remote, lost, vacant.
abet: (v) assist, countenance, support, aborigines: (n) indigene, ANTONYM: (adj) alert
help, incite, favor, aid, back, autochthones absurd: (adj) ridiculous, foolish,
instigate, encourage, provoke. abortive: (adj) fruitless, useless, futile, unreasonable, irrational,
ANTONYMS: (v) hinder, impede, unsuccessful, vain, ineffective, meaningless, inept, senseless,
undermine, thwart, prohibit, disastrous, idle, rudimental, nonsensical, illogical, ludicrous; (adj,
obstruct, frustrate, dissuade, embryonic, premature. n) silly. ANTONYMS: (adj) rational,
discourage, denounce, counter ANTONYMS: (adj) successful, reasonable, logical, wise, weighty,
abhor: (v) hate, detest, abominate, complete, productive, fruitful, sound, consistent, serious, plausible,
execrate, despise, dislike, nauseate, efficient, effectual, consummated, credible, acceptable
disdain, scorn, resent, dread. effective absurdity: (n) absurdness, nonsense,
ANTONYMS: (v) adore, approve, abound: (v) swarm, teem, flow, silliness, nonsensicality,
like, cherish, embrace, relish, overflow, burst; (n) exuberate, meaninglessness, illogicality,
treasure, admire shower down, stream, rain, stupidity, folly, fatuity, idiocy,
abhorred: (adj) disgusted, unpopular abundance; (adj) abundant. preposterousness. ANTONYMS: (n)
abhorrence: (n) odium, antipathy, ANTONYM: (v) disperse logic, reasonableness, worthiness,
detestation, hatred, aversion, abounding: (adj) rich, abundant, full, solemnity, sensibleness
disgust, execration, hate, loathing, rife, replete, affluent, wealthy, abundance: (adj) plenty; (n)
revulsion, horror. ANTONYMS: (n) plentiful, ample, fraught, prolific. plenitude, store, richness, profusion,
attraction, adoration, delight, liking, ANTONYM: (adj) poor amplitude, exuberance, affluence,
attractiveness above-mentioned: (adj) prior, treasure, enough; (adj, n) riches.
abhorring: (n) loathing; (adj) preceding ANTONYMS: (n) scarcity, shortage,
abhorrent, loathful abreast: (adv) opposite, acquainted, insufficiency, lack, aridity,
abject: (adj) contemptible, pitiful, low, off, au fait, alongside, on one side, scarceness, paucity, emptiness,
wretched, despicable, sordid, base, abeam; (adj) near, aligned, fruitlessness, bareness
mean, vile; (n) ignominious, dirty. knowledgeable; (prep) against. abused: (adj) maltreated, physically
ANTONYMS: (adj) honorable, ANTONYMS: (adv) uninformed, abused, downtrodden, perverted,
hopeful, magnificent, esteemed, lost, unaware dull
proud, dignified, commendable, absorbed: (adj) rapt, intent, academy: (n) school, academe,
noble, exalted, worthy, happy immersed, fixed, deep, engaged, college, university, institution,
aboard: (adv) afloat, afield, at home, preoccupied, pensive, fascinated, Acadmie des Beaux Arts, academia,
there, everywhere, here, on base, enthralled, held. ANTONYMS: (adj) lycee, secondary school,
onboard, where bored, disinterested, distracted, establishment, campus
abode: (n) dwelling, house, residence, restless, unfocused, uninterested, accent: (v) emphasize, emphasise,
place, domicile, lodge, abidance, indifferent, shallow, superficial, punctuate, accentuate; (n) dialect,
mansion, lodging, address, seat detached emphasis, idiom, importance,
abominable: (adj, v) odious, foul; abstinence: (n) temperance, speech, articulation, pronunciation.
ANTONYMS: (v) attenuate, accustomed: (adj, n) habitual; (adj) inflexible
downplay, hide, ignore, lessen, familiar, normal, wonted, usual, adapted: (adj) altered, fit, agreeable,
minimize, slight natural, everyday, ordinary, conformable, fitted, appropriate,
accepting: (adj) tolerant, sympathetic, habituated, common, traditional. prepared, tailored, modified; (adj, v)
thoughtful, understanding, willing ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual, green, convenient, proper. ANTONYM:
to help, yielding, lenient, acceptant, unseasoned, unconventional, (adj) unaccustomed
obliging, soft, permissive. untrained, abnormal, a-day: (n) target date
ANTONYMS: (adj) resistant, uncharacteristic, exceptional additions: (n) accompaniments,
uncooperative, unforgiving, severe, acknowledge: (v) recognize, confess, accessions, embellishments,
unsympathetic accept, profess, own, admit, concede, trappings
accidental: (adj) casual, unintentional, appreciate, notice, declare, approve. addresses: (n) wooing, suit, courtship
adventitious, unintended, incidental, ANTONYMS: (v) ignore, overlook, adhere: (v) abide, cleave, accede,
chance, random, unforeseen, reject, repudiate, snub, refuse, bond, cling, attach, stick, bind,
unexpected, contingent, haphazard. renounce, abjure, disavow, persist, sustain; (adj, v) agree.
ANTONYMS: (adj) deliberate, disregard, refute ANTONYMS: (v) separate, repel,
designed, intended, planned, acknowledgment: (n) admission, unfasten, loose, loosen
premeditated acknowledgement, acceptance, adjoining: (adj) contiguous, neighbor,
accidentally: (adv) incidentally, confession, greeting, credit, near, abutting, touching,
casually, fortuitously, by chance, allowance, declaration, agreement, conterminous, neighboring,
coincidentally, adventitiously, thanks, gratitude. ANTONYMS: (n) immediate, next, vicinal; (adj, v)
unintentionally, contingently, rejection, ungratefulness, oversight, close. ANTONYMS: (adj) separate,
haphazardly, occasionally, snub, ignoring, invoice, blame, divided, detached, apart, far
inadvertently. ANTONYMS: (adv) defiance adjourn: (adj, v) postpone; (v) break
deliberately, knowingly, purposely, acoustics: (n) phonetics, physics, up, dissolve, put off, procrastinate,
unfortunately, correctly harmonics; (adj) phonetic recess, suspend, prorogue, delay,
accommodated: (adj) meet acquaintance: (n) connection, friend, defer, halt. ANTONYMS: (v)
accompany: (v) attend, follow, acquaintanceship, mate, awareness, encourage, convoke, convene, begin,
companion, guide, company, lead, associate, buddy, friendship, further, continue, inaugurate
walk, associate, consort, conduct, intercourse, companion; (n, v) adjust: (v) temper, accommodate,
concur. ANTONYMS: (v) desert, knowledge. ANTONYMS: (n) adapt, align, fix, set, fit, regulate;
abandon, leave ignorance, inexperience, (adj, v) balance, dress; (n, v) square.
accomplished: (adj) proficient, able, unfamiliarity, animosity, enemy ANTONYMS: (v) derange, upset,
skillful, gifted, finished, experienced, acquainted: (adj) knowledgeable, unsuit, unfit, confuse, disorganize,
completed, adept, fine, versed, informed, aware, cognizant, disorder, disarrange, maintain, leave,
competent. ANTONYMS: (adj) conversant, hand and glove, worsen
unfinished, amateur, untrained, intimate, thick; (adv) abreast; (v) adjusting: (v) adjust; (n) adjusting
unskilled, unseasoned, unable, inform, acquaint operation
inexpert, green, clumsy, bad, acquiring: (n) acquisition, getting, administer: (n, v) manage, rule,
mediocre receipt, contracting, acceptance, minister, command; (v) dispense,
according: (adj) pursuant, consonant, appropriation, obtainment, distribute, give, operate, deal,
equal, agreeable, harmonious, occupancy, occupation; (adj) supply, handle. ANTONYMS: (v)
conformable, consistent, acquisitive, appropriative withhold, neglect, frustrate, refuse,
corresponding, respondent; (adv) acquitted: (adj) not guilty, guiltless; deny, mismanage, take
correspondingly, accordingly (v) acquit, absolved admirable: (adj) fine, outstanding,
accuse: (v) charge, incriminate, acre: (n) agrimensor, Akka beautiful, great, commendable,
arraign, denounce, defame, acuteness: (n) acuity, sharpness, lovely, good, creditable,
criminate, indict, fault, betray, acumen, discrimination, gravity, praiseworthy, worthy, grand.
condemn, inculpate. ANTONYMS: insight, sensitivity, perspicacity, ANTONYMS: (adj) appalling, poor,
(v) absolve, exculpate, exonerate, penetration, keenness, intensity. unworthy, despicable, contemptible,
praise, support, clear ANTONYMS: (n) faintness, detestable, dishonorable, rotten,
accuser: (n) complainant, informer, insignificance, dullness unimpressive, loathsome, low
disputant, controversialist, accusant, adamant: (adj) rigid, obdurate, admirably: (adv) superbly, perfectly,
pursuer, delator, petitioner, stubborn, immovable, firm, excellently, admirable, marvellously,
prosecutor, claimant, appeacher inflexible, unyielding, steadfast, heroically, bravely, brilliantly, nicely,
accusing: (adj) accusative, accusive, inexorable, tough, obstinate. creditably, ably. ANTONYMS: (adv)
inculpatory, inculpative, criminative, ANTONYMS: (adj) compliant, badly, inadequately, dishonorably,
criminatory, critical, denunciatory; flexible, pliant, supple, soft, execrably, incompetently, poorly
(adj, n) reproving; (n) reproachful; swayable, yielding, acquiescing, admiral: (n) admiralty, nymphalid,
(v) accuse receptive, acquiescent, irresolute flagship, administration, perry, full
accustom: (v) acquaint, habituate, adamantine: (adj) hard, inexorable, admiral, drake
season, adjust, teach, acclimate, intransigent, strong, robust, puissant, admiration: (n) esteem, adoration,
harden, adapt, inure, train, custom valid, powerful, potent, rigid, appreciation, reverence, estimation,
Jonathan Swift 311
amazement, liking, awe, processive, thriving, ongoing, unemotional
compliment; (adj, n) regard; (v) laud. aggressive; (n) advancement, affection: (n) charity, attachment,
ANTONYMS: (n) disdain, criticism, progression, proceeding fondness, heart, love, disease, nature,
disapproval, contempt, abhorrence, advantageous: (adj) expedient, useful, feeling, affectionateness, tenderness,
loathing, disgust, despising, auspicious, helpful, gainful, kindness. ANTONYMS: (n) disgust,
dishonor, disparagement, serviceable, convenient, lucky, neglect, malice, loathing, dislike,
detestation worthwhile, beneficial; (adj, v) detachment, coldness, roughness
admire: (v) revere, look up to, idolize, profitable. ANTONYMS: (adj) affirm: (v) prove, assert, declare,
appreciate, adore, wonder, praise, useless, disadvantageous, protest, avow, maintain, approve,
worship, admiring, esteem, honor. detrimental, unhelpful, unfortunate, accept, assure, profess, promise.
ANTONYMS: (v) despise, loathe, inauspicious, worthless, unpleasant ANTONYMS: (v) negate, veto,
scorn, hate, condemn, abhor, adventitious: (adj) accidental, nullify, refute, repress
disrespect, detest, disregard, secondary, random, haphazard, affirmative: (adj) positive,
disapprove, deprecate casual, aleatory, incident, affirmatory, assertive, ratifying,
admired: (adj) respected, admirable, promiscuous, incidental, fortuitous, concurring; (adv) yes; (n)
estimable, favorite, pet, beloved, foreign affirmation, avowal, assenting; (adj,
honored, August, loved, accepted, adventure: (n, v) venture, chance; (n) v) predicatory, declaratory.
popular. ANTONYM: (adj) accident, escapade, incident, event, ANTONYMS: (adj) dissenting; (n)
disreputable undertaking, consequence, essay; (v) no
admirer: (n) enthusiast, fan, devotee, risk, jeopardize. ANTONYMS: (n) affirmed: (adj) acknowledged,
supporter, votary, worshiper, wooer, stillness, passiveness, inactivity, avowed, guaranteed
beau, fancier; (adj) suitor; (adj, n) inaction, avoidance, inertia, bore afflict: (n, v) pain, distress; (v)
lover adventurer: (n) venturer, speculator, trouble, grieve, torment, hurt, strike,
admiring: (adj) admire, admiringly, plunger, argonaut, traveler, aggrieve, smite, bother, disturb.
loving, respectful, glowing, daredevil, gambler, adventurers, ANTONYMS: (v) aid, comfort,
affectionate, amatory, appreciative, carpetbagger, divers, mercenary. encourage, help, soothe
enthusiastic, flattering, approving. ANTONYMS: (n) killjoy, afflicted: (adj) miserable, distressed,
ANTONYMS: (adj) defamatory, milquetoast stricken, pitiful, sorrowful, ill,
critical, disdainful, disapproving, adventures: (n) experiences, fortunes, woeful, dejected, sorry; (v) afflict,
disrespectful, uncomplimentary confessions, journal, life, biography, displeased
admittance: (n) access, accession, autobiography, personal narrative aforesaid: (adj) aforenamed, said,
introduction, door, matriculation, adversary: (n) antagonist, foe, enemy, foregoing, above-mentioned, same,
inlet, permit, entrance, entree, entry, competitor, rival, opposition, preceding, former, foresaid
input opposer, contestant, match, afterward: (adv, conj) then, after that;
adored: (adj) loved, respected, somebody; (adj) hostile. (adv) thereafter, afterwards, later,
precious, idolized, idolised, ANTONYMS: (n) ally, supporter, subsequently, later on, next, soon;
acclaimed, blessed, favorite, dearly friend, partner, helper, assistant (adj) following; (n) future.
loved, beloved, venerated advisable: (adj) eligible, desirable, ANTONYMS: (adv) now, previously,
adorn: (v) deck, dress, embellish, advantageous, suitable, sound, before
ornament, beautify, enrich, grace, prudent, acceptable, sensible, fitting, aggravate: (v) exasperate, provoke,
trim, garnish, gild, blazon. convenient, appropriate. irritate, enrage, worsen, increase,
ANTONYMS: (v) mar, disfigure, ANTONYMS: (adj) inappropriate, magnify, inflame, make worse,
deform, deface, damage, hurt unwise, imprudent, improper, peeve; (adj, v) embitter.
adorned: (adj) decorated, ornate, worthless ANTONYMS: (v) pacify, ease,
bedecked, decked out, fancy, advocate: (n, v) counsel, support; (n) improve, please, soothe, alleviate,
garnished, ornamented, decked, backer, champion, sponsor, mitigate, better, calm, defuse,
beautiful, inscribed, festooned counselor, defender, attorney; (v) encourage
adrift: (adj, adv) directionless; (adv) vindicate, urge, defend. aggravated: (adj) angry, infuriated,
afloat, wrong; (adj, v) astray; (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) detractor, skeptic, incensed, annoyed, vexed, intense,
disoriented, isolated, undirected, opponent, critic, attacker; (v) assail, grievous, provoked, exasperated,
rudderless, planless, insular, in attack, criticize, impugn, protest, afflictive. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm,
Twain. ANTONYMS: (adv) discourage pleased
anchored, determined, purposeful, affectation: (n) pretension, feint, pose, aggravation: (n) deterioration,
stable, moored display, airs, affectedness, irritation, bother, heightening,
advancement: (n, v) advance; (n) ostentation, show, pretense, exacerbation, annoyance,
promotion, furtherance, upgrade, mannerism, sham. ANTONYMS: (n) harassment, aggrandizement,
growth, development, cultivation, artlessness, honesty, modesty aggression, botheration,
progression, improvement, progress, affecting: (adj) poignant, emotional, complication. ANTONYMS: (n)
elevation. ANTONYMS: (n) reverse, moving, stirring, pathetic, emotive, satisfaction, improvement, pleasure,
downgrade, retreat, demotion piteous, pitiful, heartbreaking, comfort, delight, relieving, lessening,
advancing: (adj) progressive, moving mournful; (adj, v) sad. balm, support
forward, increasing, moving, ANTONYMS: (adj) emotionless, agility: (n) quickness, lightness,
alacrity, adroitness, promptitude, anxious, uneasy, agitated, shocked, stunned, dumbfounded,
mobility, legerdemain, liveliness, terrified, concerned. ANTONYM: flabbergasted, shocked, staggered,
rapidity, speed, activity. (adj) carefree bewildered, surprised,
ANTONYMS: (n) slowness, alight: (v) light, land, perch, thunderstruck, aghast
oafishness, inflexibility, heaviness, dismount, get down, settle, get off, amazement: (n) admiration, wonder,
awkwardness descend; (adj) ablaze, burning, surprise, consternation, stupefaction,
agitated: (adj) upset, excited, nervous, blazing. ANTONYM: (v) mount stupor, wonderment, feeling, alarm,
restive, tumultuous, distressed, allege: (v) maintain, plead, say, jolt; (v) amaze. ANTONYMS: (n)
tense, jumpy, overwrought, anxious, affirm, argue, confirm, assert, aver, preparation, indifference,
alarmed. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, claim, certify, declare. ANTONYMS: expectation, coolness, cool,
lethargic, tranquil, relaxed, assured, (v) deny, contradict, disagree, composure, calmness, contempt,
cool, still dissent, object, protest, repudiate, belief
agitation: (n) disturbance, excitement, contravene ambassador: (n) emissary, minister,
tumult, stirring, convulsion, stir, allotted: (adj) agreed, chosen, fixed, messenger, envoy, agent, delegate,
commotion, emotion, unrest, shake, selected representative, embassador, herald,
turmoil. ANTONYMS: (n) serenity, allusion: (n) innuendo, reference, cue, ambassadress, deputy
calm, equanimity, rest, peace, suggestion, mention, intimation, ambassadors: (n) ambassador
deterrent pointer, insinuation, implication, ambition: (n) aim, hope, goal, drive,
agreeable: (adj) accordant, nice, indication, clue ambitiousness, wish, dream,
sweet, consistent, suitable, amusing, ally: (adj, n) accomplice, associate; (n) purpose, target, objective, intention.
enjoyable, affable; (adj, v) pleasant, friend, companion, colleague, ANTONYMS: (n) satisfaction,
desirable; (adj, n) acceptable. partner, accessory; (v) affiliate; (adv) contentment, sloth, laziness,
ANTONYMS: (adj) disagreeable, totally, entirely, wholely. lethargy
discordant, unpleasant, nasty, ANTONYMS: (n) adversary, amboyna: (n) Pterocarpus indicus,
unwilling, resistant, aggressive, opponent, foe, enemy, antagonist, Andaman redwood, padauk,
repugnant, averse, stubborn, detractor, rival padouk
unacceptable aloft: (adj, adv) overhead; (adv) up, amiable: (adj) friendly, genial,
agreeably: (adv) enjoyably, on high, over, aloof, upwards, uphill, agreeable, benign, complaisant,
pleasantly, sympathetically, above ground; (prep) upon; (adj) sweet, cordial, pleasant, likable, nice,
pleasingly, suitably, well, eminent, lofty lovely. ANTONYMS: (adj)
melodically, accordingly, affably, aloud: (adv) loud, out loud, strong, disagreeable, argumentative,
genially; (adv, v) happily. out, audibly, hard, forte. aggressive, antisocial, unkind,
ANTONYMS: (adv) disagreeably, ANTONYMS: (adv) softly, hateful, mean, quarrelsome, rude,
incongruously, uncooperatively, inaudibly, quietly surly, cold
unhelpfully, badly, stubbornly, alphabet: (n) rudiments, rudiment, amiss: (adj, adv) wrong; (adj) bad,
harshly elements, grammar, ABC, haywire, faulty, astray, guilty; (adv)
ague: (n) acute, symptom, sickness, fundamentals, basics, first rudiment, badly, poorly, awry, wrongly, adrift.
malady, illness, malaria, paludism, first principle, outlines, abecedary ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) right; (adv)
swamp fever, chills and fever; (adj) alphabetical: (adj) abecedarian. perfectly, properly, suitably,
appendicitis, angina pectoris ANTONYMS: (adj) analphabetic, appropriately, correctly, well; (adj)
aiding: (adj) healthy, subventitious, disordered, intermittent, interrupted okay, correct, good
subsidiary, serviceable, auxiliary, alps: (n) mountain range amity: (n) friendship, concord,
convenient alteration: (n) adjustment, change, companionship, benevolence, peace,
aired: (adj) airy, broadcast, aery, revision, shift, changeover, harmony, friendliness, brotherhood,
aeriform, aerial conversion, modification, variation, fellowship, sympathy, camaraderie.
airy: (adj) light, windy, aery, aerial, reversal, metamorphosis, ANTONYMS: (n) hostility, discord,
ethereal, insubstantial, sprightly, amendment. ANTONYMS: (n) fixity, antagonism, war, animosity
perky, volatile, aeriform, aired. preservation ample: (adj) abundant, big, broad,
ANTONYMS: (adj) airless, hot, alternate: (adj, n, v) substitute; (n) copious, large, plentiful, heavy,
massive, wooden, weighty, surrogate, standby, vice; (v) liberal, roomy, affluent, considerable.
substantial, stifling, sluggish, reciprocate, vary, take turns, ANTONYMS: (adj) small, meager,
ponderous, musty, lumbering fluctuate, change; (adj, n) insufficient, scarce, sparse, scant,
alacrity: (n) rapidity, speed, alternative; (adj) secondary. cramped, narrow, partial, sketchy,
promptness, activity, preparedness, ANTONYMS: (adj) consecutive, slender
velocity, haste, swiftness, quickness, successive, required, opposite, amply: (adj, adv) abundantly,
expedition; (adj) life. ANTONYMS: necessary, essential; (v) remain, sufficiently; (adv) fully, well,
(n) aversion, reservation, reluctance, continue lavishly, plentifully, richly,
indifference, hesitance, dullness, altitude: (n) height, Alt, high, level, generously, enough, adequately,
disinclination, apathy, tardiness, distance, pitch, tallness, stature, capaciously. ANTONYMS: (adv)
delay eminence, El, length. ANTONYMS: meagerly, inadequately, illiberally,
alarmed: (adj) afraid, scared, (n) depth, abyss, pit sparingly, poorly
frightened, apprehensive, horrified, amazed: (adj) astounded, astonished, amsterdam: (n) Dutch capital
Jonathan Swift 313
amuse: (v) please, beguile, absorb, antechamber: (n) lobby, anteroom, extol, hail, admire, clap, commend,
entertain, enjoy, disport, distract, hall, foyer, hallway, waiting room, approve, compliment, exalt.
delight, occupy, recreate, rejoice. room, corridor, antichamber, cell, ANTONYMS: (v) criticize, disparage,
ANTONYMS: (v) bore, dull, tire, entry lament, hiss, censure, commiserate,
annoy, anger, cloy, depress, weary, antelope: (n) eland, gazelle, koodoo, condemn
disappoint oryx, sassaby, topi, wildebeest, applicable: (adj, n) germane,
amusement: (n) pleasure, recreation, nylghai, nylghau, impala, hartebeest felicitous; (adj) pertinent, proper,
entertainment, distraction, diversion, anterior: (adj, adv) antecedent, fore; suitable, applicative, available,
sport, pastime, laughter, enjoyment, (adj) prior, previous, preceding, fitting, apropos, relative, applicatory.
joy, hobby. ANTONYMS: (n) forward, former, precedent, ANTONYMS: (adj) unsuitable,
sadness, boredom, work, tedium, foregoing, ventral; (adj, n) front. irrelevant, inapplicable, impertinent,
business, despondency, discomfort, ANTONYMS: (adj) posterior, after, unrelated
displeasure ending, following appoint: (v) assign, accredit,
analogy: (n) agreement, analog, antic: (n, v) clown; (n) prank, jest, designate, set, prescribe, delegate,
parity, similarity, correspondence, lark, romp, joke, trick, jester; (adj) create, make, commission, fix; (n, v)
resemblance, analogue, affinity, ludicrous, fantastical, fantastic name. ANTONYMS: (v) dismiss, fire,
likeness, parallel, comparison. anticipate: (v) expect, foretell, think, unfurnish, expel, dismantle,
ANTONYMS: (n) dissimilarity, forecast, forestall, calculate, estimate, discharge, strip, elect, change
difference, contrast predict, prevent, presume, guess. apprehend: (v) arrest, comprehend,
ancestor: (n) forerunner, forefather, ANTONYM: (v) doubt grasp, catch, understand, fathom,
parent, father, precursor, antecedent, antipathy: (n) animosity, aversion, realize, sense, follow, nail; (adj, v)
forebear, forbear, prototype, abomination, abhorrence, dislike, conceive. ANTONYMS: (v)
ancestry, ascendant. ANTONYMS: hatred, distaste, enmity, odium, misunderstand, discharge, free,
(n) descendant, successor, offspring, repugnance, repulsion. liberate
progeny ANTONYMS: (n) love, attraction, apprehended: (adj) arrested, seized,
ancestors: (n) family, ancestor, liking, like, leaning, regard, appeal, understood, under arrest, in custody,
lineage, pedigree, parents, majority, appreciation, admiration, affection, detained, appreciated,
intimates, genealogy, family tree, friendliness comprehended
associates, relatives antiquity: (n) ancientness, ancientry, apprehension: (n) alarm,
anchor: (n) mainstay, armature, past, relic, status quo, artefact, comprehension, dread, misgiving,
grappling iron, grapnel, chapelet; (v) artifact, oldness, old age, hoariness; understanding, capture, foreboding,
fasten, secure, cast anchor, fix; (adj) (adj, n) age. ANTONYMS: (n) today, arrest, trepidation; (n, v) doubt,
refuge, rest. ANTONYMS: (v) newness, modernity appreciation. ANTONYMS: (n)
release, detach ants: (n) family Formicidae, release, confidence, calmness,
angered: (adj) enraged, annoyed, Formicidae, hymenoptera, tranquility, freeing,
angry, furious, incensed, anger, impatience, order hymenoptera, misunderstanding, peace, relief,
vexed, irritated, raging, exasperated, restlessness, tension bravery, calm, equanimity
huffy anus: (n) arse, arsehole, opening, apprehensive: (adj) anxious, fearful,
angling: (v) angle, hawking, fishing, orifice, rump, backside, bottom, butt, uneasy, alarmed, worried, timid,
fleet angle, shooting buttocks, fundament, rear doubtful, shy, insecure, jealous; (adj,
annexed: (adj) affiliated, enclosed; (v) apartment: (n) residence, lodging, n) nervous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
adjunct, appendant suite, place, dwelling, chamber, assured, unworried, calm, unafraid,
annihilated: (adj) exterminated, lost, room, abode, house, home, cocksure, trusting, serene,
uncreated, wiped out, annihilate; (v) accommodation unconcerned, fearless, carefree,
perished apologies: (n) regret brave
annoying: (adj) galling, vexatious, appearances: (n) show, semblance, apprentice: (n) trainee, disciple,
aggravating, vexing, worrying, outlook, indicia beginner, prentice, novice, student,
awkward, trying, bothersome, appearing: (adj) seeming, beseen, greenhorn, follower, recruit,
disagreeable; (adj, v) irritating; (n) emergent, accomplished; (n) coming amateur, neophyte. ANTONYMS:
annoyance. ANTONYMS: (adj) into court; (prep) liking; (adj, adv) (n) expert, master, mentor, trainer,
pleasing, delightful, pleasant, prima facie guru
charming, satisfying, welcome, appellation: (n) designation, apprised: (adj) conscious, informed,
convenient denomination, title, name, nickname, familiar, knowledgeable
answerable: (adj, v) amenable, liable, epithet, moniker, term, appellative, approaching: (adj) future,
responsible, subject, exposed, cognomen, degree forthcoming, impending, imminent,
bound; (v) uncommendable, appetite: (n, v) desire; (n) appetence, oncoming, near; (adj, n) coming; (n,
exceptionable; (adj) conformable, appetency, relish, inclination, v) approach; (adv) nearly, almost;
adequate, responsal. ANTONYMS: stomach, taste, thirst, passion, liking, (prep) toward
(adj) irrefutable, unaccountable gusto. ANTONYMS: (n) dislike, approbation: (n, v) praise; (n)
answering: (adj) respondent, repulsion, revulsion, apathy, applause, agreement, approval,
responsive, according, agreeing, distaste acclaim, sanction, commendation,
responsory; (n) respondency applaud: (v) praise, eulogize, cheer, admiration, permission,
appreciation, favor. ANTONYMS: factitiously, affectedly, contrivedly, allocating, assign, allotting,
(n) condemnation, disapproval, insincerely, unreally, feignedly, appointment, attribution,
criticism falsely, fictitiously, artfully, transmission
appropriated: (adj) taken, destined, counterfeitly. ANTONYM: (adv) assisted: (adj) aided
taken over, confiscate, confiscated, naturally assisting: (adj) aiding, auxiliary,
condemned, seized, reserved ascending: (adj) uphill, rising, subsidiary, suffragan, adjuvant,
approve: (v) adopt, allow, accept, assurgent, climbing, ascendent; (n) supporting, support, secondary,
acknowledge, ratify, let, agree, ascension, ascent, rise, advance, supplementary, assistant; (n)
endorse, admit, support, applaud. movement; (v) go up helping. ANTONYM: (adj) main
ANTONYMS: (v) condemn, censure, ascribe: (v) assign, impute, accredit, assuring: (adj) ensuring, insure,
disapprove, veto, forbid, invalidate, arrogate, attach, lay, refer, insuring, assure, ensure, giving
disallow, disrespect, deny, desecrate, anthropomorphize, blame, lay claim, confidence, securing, likely,
oppose claim promising
apron: (n) skirt, proscenium, pall, ascribed: (adj) accredited, qualified, astonished: (adj) astonish,
pontificals, lawn sleeves, pinafore, credited, ascriptitious, additional, dumbfounded, flabbergasted,
petticoat, gathering head, wife, jupe, added. ANTONYM: (adj) unofficial stunned, aghast, bewildered,
farthingale ashamed: (adj) hangdog, guilty, astounded, taken aback,
aqueous: (adj) liquid, water, embarrassed, sheepish, remorseful, thunderstruck, astonied; (v) amaze
lymphatic, aquose, hydrous, aquatic, regretful, bashful, disconcerted, astonishing: (adj) amazing,
wet, fluid, hydatoid contrite, chagrined; (v) dashed. wonderful, stupendous, prodigious,
arch: (n, v) curve, bow, bend; (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) proud, arrogant, strange, surprising, astounding,
dome, curvature, acute; (adj) wily, unremorseful, unashamed, pleased, incredible, breathtaking; (v)
shrewd, sly; (v) vault; (adj, n, v) blatant, bold, happy, unabashed, astonish; (adj, n) marvelous.
round. ANTONYMS: (adj) smallest, unrepentant ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary,
petty, modest, minor, frank, least, ashes: (n) dust, cinders, remains, humdrum, boring, mundane, dull,
lesser, inferior, forthright, guileless, cinder, clay, earth, embers, clinker; expected, predictable, usual,
humble (adj) scoriae, mother, precipitate comforting
arched: (adj, v) bowed, arcuate; (adj) ashore: (adv, pron) aground; (adj) astonishment: (n) admiration,
bent, vaulted, convex, arciform, beached, stranded; (adv) aland, on wonder, wonderment, surprise,
arced, domed, hooked, hunched, land, onto land, toward land marvel, stupefaction, confusion,
crooked asiatic: (n) oriental, Irani, Bhutani, consternation, awe, alarm, startle.
architect: (n) producer, maker, coolie, Dardanian, Israelite, Laos, ANTONYMS: (n) calmness, belief,
founder, inventor, creator, designer, Maldivian, turkis, cooly contempt
prime mover, generator, builder, aslant: (adj) oblique, inclined, astrology: (n) horoscope, astronomy,
author, artificer. ANTONYM: (n) slanting, diagonal, sloping, wry, judicial astrology, pseudoscience,
destroyer awry; (adj, adv) aslope; (adv) astrologies, starcraft, star divination,
arrow: (n) missile, bolt, dart, barb, slantingly, obliquely, athwart. magic, genethlialogy
gun, spear, bullet, cursor; (adj, n) ANTONYMS: (adj) level; (adv) astronomer: (n) stargazer, physicist,
rocket; (adj) hydrargyrum, straight Galilean, Ptolemaic, Celsius,
quicksilver aspiring: (adj) aspirant, wishful, cosmologist, uranologist, muller,
arteries: (adj) arterial enterprising, envious, desirous, hall, Herschel, astrophysicist
artful: (adj) crafty, cunning, scheming, coming; (v) aspire, vaulting. astronomical: (adj) vast, celestial,
wily, shrewd, insidious, designing, ANTONYM: (adj) desperate astrophysical, great, uranic,
sly, adroit, subtle, disingenuous. assert: (v) allege, affirm, say, claim, enormous, large, galactic, universal,
ANTONYMS: (adj) artless, declare, swear, show, avow, aver, elevated, excessive
unskillful, inept, ingenuous, maintain, argue. ANTONYMS: (v) astronomy: (n) astrology, astrometry,
unskilled, open, straight reject, controvert, repress, refute physics, astrodynamics,
artfully: (adv) cunningly, foxily, assertion: (n) statement, argument, astrophysical, astrophysics
ingeniously, trickily, shrewdly, claim, avowal, contention, charge, asunder: (adj, v) separate; (adv) aside,
skillfully, cleverly, disingenuously, testimony, profession, allegation, in two; (adj, adv) in Twain; (adj)
deceitfully, sly, schemingly. accusation, position. ANTONYMS: loose, distant, adrift, aloof; (v)
ANTONYMS: (adv) innocently, (n) denial, disavowal, uncertainty discrete, far between, free.
openly asses: (n) equidae ANTONYM: (adv) together
articulate: (v) speak, pronounce, utter, assign: (v) allot, delegate, consign, atlas: (n) telamon, Caryatides,
vocalize, voice, state, say, joint, ascribe, appoint, place, allocate, Persides, chart, atlantes, map
enunciate, express; (adj) eloquent. appropriate; (n, v) allow, apply, give. collection, book of maps; (adj)
ANTONYMS: (adj) incoherent, ANTONYMS: (v) relieve, discharge, Cyclops, Goliath, Samson,
unintelligible, illogical, discredit, divest, refuse, take superman
misrepresented, mumbled, unclear, assigned: (adj) designated, allotted, attachment: (n) appendix, addition,
unarticulated; (v) mumble, specified, destined, designate, accessory, adherence, regard, link,
disconnect, misrepresent, misspeak allocated, definite bond, fitting, devotion, liking,
artificially: (adv) synthetically, assigning: (n) allocation, distribution, connection. ANTONYMS: (n)
Jonathan Swift 315
aversion, estrangement, repulsion, rapacity, avariciousness, avidity, grownup, adult, adolescent
separation, dislike eagerness, voracity, voraciousness, backward: (adj, adv) late,
attaining: (v) attain, achieve; (n) stinginess; (adj, n) greediness; (adj) behindhand; (adj) tardy, retarded,
attainment extortion. ANTONYMS: (n) reluctant, coy, slow, laggard,
attendant: (n) companion, follower, philanthropy, benevolence, charity dilatory; (adv) behind, backwardly.
assistant, escort, subordinate, averse: (adj) reluctant, indisposed, ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) ahead;
employee, guide, varlet; (adj) backward, opposed, unwilling, (adv) onward; (adj) quick,
accompanying, concomitant, disinclined, loth, antagonistic, developing, advanced, confident,
incidental. ANTONYMS: (n) antipathetical, repugnant, brilliant, bold
superior, boss; (adj) absent, antipathetic. ANTONYMS: (adj) bade: (v) bid, command, bad
unrelated, significant inclined, sympathetic, caring, eager, baggage: (n) bag, bags, trunk, pack,
attendants: (n) entourage, followers, willing, keen gear, equipment, stuff, effects,
retinue, tendance, persons present, aversion: (n) antipathy, distaste, suitcases, woman, thing
suite abhorrence, disinclination, dislike, bagpipes: (n) union pipes
attending: (v) attend; (n) presence, grudge, aversation, nausea, enmity, bake: (v) roast, broil, fire, fry, cook,
nursing, care, appearing, revulsion; (n, v) disgust. stew, to bake, grill, scorch, toast,
observation; (adj) concomitant, ANTONYMS: (n) attraction, love, heat
attendant, ministrant, in attendance, inclination, predilection, desire, ballot: (n, v) vote, survey; (n) election,
ancillary. ANTONYMS: (n) fondness, goodwill voice, plebiscite, choice, a vote,
nonattendance, inattention avow: (v) affirm, assert, declare, balloting, voting; (v) ticket, elect
attested: (adj) authenticated, protest, confess, attest, asseverate; bamboo: (adj) wicker, basket weave,
documented, sworn, authoritative, (adj, v) admit, acknowledge, own; (n, natural fiber, rush; (n) rattan,
avowed, genuine, historical, valid, v) aver. ANTONYMS: (v) disavow, Poaceae, family Graminaceae,
attested to, guaranteed renounce, refute, disclaim, condemn, family Poaceae, Gramineae, grass
attorney: (n) advocate, counsel, censure family, family Gramineae
counselor, agent, legal avowed: (adj) acknowledged, attested, banging: (n) battering, flap; (adj)
representative, barrister, counsellor, ostensible, sworn, stated, confirmed, humongous, noisy
solicitor, factor, prosecutor, declared, pretended, known, banish: (v) dispel, expel, displace,
ambulance chaser authenticated, apparent relegate, oust, expatriate, eject,
attorneys: (n) lawyers, bar awake: (v) wake, awaken, realize, dismiss, transport, cast out; (adj, v)
attracting: (adj) alluring, tempting, waken; (adj) alive, alert, attentive, exile. ANTONYMS: (v) keep,
attractive, tractive, winning, taking, conscious, keen, intelligent; (adj, v) embrace, adopt, invite, include
prepossessing, allicient, seductive; broad awake. ANTONYMS: (adj) banishment: (n) expulsion, ostracism,
(n) drawing; (v) attrahent unconscious, sleeping, comatose, ouster, proscription, relegation,
attraction: (n) allure, invitation, sleepy, relaxed; (v) deaden, lull, ejection, deportation, dismissal,
affinity, appeal, charm, allurement, sleep expatriation; (adj, n) exclusion; (adj)
lure, fascination, bait, draw, awhile: (adj) in transitu, en passant; excommunication
attractiveness. ANTONYMS: (n) (adv) briefly barbarity: (n) atrocity, barbarousness,
repulsion, revulsion, disgust, awkward: (adj) inconvenient, clumsy, brutality, cruelty, savagery,
aversion, repellant, drawback embarrassing, uncomfortable, viciousness, inhumanity,
auditor: (n, v) accountant, hearer; (n) ungainly, untoward, crude, inept, atrociousness, inhumaneness,
listener, observer, student, perceiver, sticky, left-handed, heavy. boorishness, ruffianism.
educatee, bookkeeper, beholder, ANTONYMS: (adj) graceful, easy, ANTONYMS: (n) refinement, nicety
pupil, comptroller adroit, manageable, straightforward, barbarous: (adj) barbaric, savage,
augustus: (n) Octavian simple, dexterous, rotund, gothic, brutal, heathen, truculent,
auspicious: (adj) lucky, favorable, convenient, helpful, skillful rude, fell, ferocious, fierce,
propitious, happy, prosperous, awkwardness: (n) embarrassment, uncivilized. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice,
providential, successful, opportune; stiffness, unwieldiness, cultured, civilized, sophisticated,
(adj, n) fortunate, helpful; (adj, v) inconvenience, gawkiness, refined, humane
auspicial. ANTONYMS: (adj) inelegance, troublesomeness, barber: (v) shave, neaten; (n) shaver,
unfortunate, inopportune, ineptitude, ineptness, gaucherie; (adj, hairdresser, Chinook, foehn,
unfavorable, untimely, ominous, n) delicacy. ANTONYMS: (n) khamsin, norther, vendaval, wuther,
unlucky, insignificant gracefulness, grace, comfort, hairstylist
austere: (adj) ascetic, stern, severe, coordination, pride, urbanity, ease, barefoot: (adj) shoeless, unshod, bare
harsh, plain, rigorous, rigid, assurance, liveliness, confidence, footed. ANTONYM: (adj) shoed
abstemious, stark, astringent, stiff. cooperation bargain: (adj, n, v) cheap; (n, v)
ANTONYMS: (adj) ornate, axle: (n) pole, arbor, hinge, shaft, covenant, deal; (n) agreement, treaty,
luxurious, frivolous, hedonistic, pivot, bobbin, mandrel, swivel, arrangement, buy, chaffer; (v)
extravagant, lush, elaborate, axletree, spindle, journal exchange, stipulate, agree.
spending, sunny, warm, indulgent babe: (n) infant, baby, chick, sweetie, ANTONYM: (adj) inflated
austrian: (adj) cisleithan suckling, nursling, child, newborn, bark: (n, v) skin, yelp, snarl, cry, rind,
avarice: (n) cupidity, covetousness, chit, girl, darling. ANTONYMS: (n) shout; (v) growl, roar; (n) bay, peel,
crust. ANTONYMS: (n, v) whisper position behave: (n, v) conduct, exercise; (v)
barley: (n) barleycorn, bear, bere, oats, beast: (n) animal, monster, swine, bear, deal, deport, operate, perform,
cereal, grain, barley fodder fiend, creature, scavenger, savage, acquit, walk, react, go.
barrel: (n) vessel, keg, roll, barrels, critter, animate being, barbarian; ANTONYMS: (v) misdemean,
barrelful, tun, vase, cask, vat, (adj) bear. ANTONYM: (n) man malfunction
container, hogshead beasts: (n) stock beheld: (adj) visual
barren: (adj, n) sterile; (adj) infertile, beating: (n) reverse, defeat, whipping, behold: (v) see, view, contemplate,
deserted, arid, void, dry, stark, thrashing, battery, flogging, regard, perceive, observe, look,
meagre, fruitless, abortive; (n) waste. pounding, pulsation, pulse, rout; consider, discern, descry, watch.
ANTONYMS: (adj) productive, lush, (adj) pulsing. ANTONYMS: (n) ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, disregard,
fruitful, developing, growing, victory, win ignore, overlook
profitable, rewarding, rich, sheltered, beautifully: (adv) exquisitely, nicely, beholding: (n) fusion, seeing, visual
humid, populous gorgeously, splendidly, handsomely, perception, look
bashfulness: (n) diffidence, shyness, attractively, superbly, charmingly, believing: (adj) faith, believe, faithful,
coyness, humility, abashment, divinely, grandly, elegantly. basic cognitive process, gullible,
backwardness, reserve, timidity, ANTONYMS: (adv) unappealingly, Catholic, religious, loyal, certain,
constraint, embarrassment, stage tastelessly, abysmally, harshly, Christian, credent
fright horribly, badly bellows: (n) blower, lung, bellowing,
basin: (n) bowl, pot, hollow, beckoning: (adj) irresistible blowpipe, organ; (v) air blower, air
washbowl, washbasin, depression, bedchamber: (n) bedroom, dormitory, pump, fan, punkah, ventilator
dock, tank, washstand, sink, room, sleeping room, master bells: (n) addition, approval,
basinful. ANTONYMS: (n) hill, bedroom, boudoir matrimony, marriage, approbation,
hump bedstead: (n) bed, berth, cot, wedding
bass: (adj) deep, resonant, rich, bedframe, furniture, shakedown, belly: (n) stomach, inside, pregnancy,
sonorous, abstruse; (n) bass voice, pallet, stretcher, tester, stead, hatch maw, bowels, intestines, waist,
basso, sea bass, bass clef, bast; (adv) beef: (n, v) grumble, moan, grouse, corporation; (v) balloon, swell, bloat
accompaniment. ANTONYM: (adj) squawk, groan; (n) complaint, ox, belonging: (adj) appertaining,
shrill fuss, beeves; (v) grouch, complain. appertinent, apropos, apposite; (n)
bathe: (adj, v) steep, lave, immerse, ANTONYMS: (n) impotence, praise; household, family, appendage,
soak; (v) take a bath, tub, clean, rinse, (v) rejoice appurtenance, intimacy, commodity,
bath; (n, v) swim; (n) bathing. bees: (n) Apoidea, superfamily closeness. ANTONYM: (n)
ANTONYMS: (v) smudge, stain, soil, Apoidea antipathy
dip beforehand: (adv) previously, ahead, beloved: (adj, n) dear, darling,
bathed: (adj) sweaty in advance, in anticipation, first; (adj, favorite, pet; (adj) precious, loved,
battalia: (n, v) battalion; (v) battle; (n) adv) early, aforehand; (adj) advance, cherished; (n) love, dearest, honey,
corps d'armee, division, host, army already, afore; (n) prior. sweetheart. ANTONYMS: (adj)
batter: (v) hammer, baste, break, club, ANTONYMS: (adv) afterwards, detested, despised, disliked
slam, beat, mangle, buffet, smite, afterward, later, late, subsequently benches: (n) bleachers
pound; (n) batsman beget: (v) father, engender, generate, bending: (n) bow, bend, deflection,
battering: (n) batter, beating, combat, get, produce, procreate, create, sire, deflexion, refraction, flexure, crook;
fighting, fight, whipping, attack, cause, breed, bring about. (adj) flexible, supple, winding,
mugging, physical attack, spanking, ANTONYMS: (v) extinguish, pliant. ANTONYM: (adj) stiff
rough treatment destroy benefactor: (n) sponsor, patron,
bead: (n, v) drop; (n) astragal, beggar: (n) mendicant, mumper, backer, supporter, giver, Good
beading, pearl, dot, necklace, pellet, pauper, tramp, sponger, joker, poor Samaritan, contributor, benefactress,
droplet, beadwork, bubble; (v) man, cadger, bloke; (v) beg, philanthropist, helper, humanitarian.
beautify pauperize. ANTONYM: (n) giver ANTONYMS: (n) antagonist,
beak: (n) neb, snout, bill, nose, prow, beggarly: (adj) base, mean, shabby, opposer, detractor
snoot, rostrum, proboscis, nib, sorry, miserable, poor, humble, benevolence: (n) beneficence,
pecker; (v) peck pitiable, ignoble; (adj, n) scrubby, affection, favor, mercy, compassion,
beam: (n) ray, timber, balance beam; vile favour, kindness, benefaction, pity,
(n, v) blaze, glow, flash, smile; (adj, beggary: (n) poverty, want, begging, kindliness, generosity.
v) shine; (v) grin, air, radiate. penury, pauperism, need, indigence, ANTONYMS: (n) malevolence,
ANTONYMS: (n, v) scowl; (v) solicitation, misery, squalor, meanness, cruelty, misanthropy,
darken, dim, dull, frown; (n) destitution wickedness, nastiness, malice
darkness begging: (n) mendicancy, request, bent: (adj) curved, arched, deformed,
beard: (v) defy, dare; (adj, v) brave; plea; (v) asking, beg; (adj) crooked; (n) propensity, inclination,
(adj, n) hair; (n) whiskers, beseeching, entreating, mendicant, fancy, leaning, flair, gift, curvature.
moustache, sloven, facial hair; (n, v) imploring, suppliant, vagabond ANTONYMS: (n) weakness,
camouflage, disguise, mask. behalf: (n) sake, part, interest, behoof, inability, aversion; (adj)
ANTONYM: (n) shaven defense, lieu, good, stead, score, undetermined, undecided,
bearings: (n) bearing, direction, crest, service, side uncurved, uncaring, rigid, unbent
Jonathan Swift 317
berry: (n) fruit, kernel, berries, bite: (n, v) nip, cut, taste, hurt, pain; bravado; (v) fanning, blow out; (adj)
cranberry, currant, dewberry, (v) pinch, chew, erode, gnaw, eat; windy, breezy
hackberry, wintergreen, (n) morsel. ANTONYMS: (n) lot, blown: (adj) puffy, panting, swollen,
whortleberry, teaberry, mulberry whole, mildness winded, inflated, moving, high,
besieging: (n) encirclement, Syracuse, biting: (adj, v) acute, acrid, sarcastic, haughty lofty, late; (v) puffing and
Orleans, Atlanta, beleaguering, sharp, acrimonious, pungent, severe, blowing; (n) blowen
Corregidor, Lucknow, military cutting; (adj) acid, bitter, barbed. blunt: (adj, v) dull, deaden; (adj) bluff,
blockade ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, blunt, kind, plain, direct, forthright, frank,
bespeak: (v) augur, reserve, point, bland, nice, soothing, sweet, hot, candid, outspoken, round, abrupt.
engage, betoken, auspicate, mark, complimentary, faint, sympathetic ANTONYMS: (v) hone, sharpen,
prefigure, foreshadow; (n, v) argue, bladder: (n) vesica, balloon, utricle, point, accentuate, needle; (adj)
imply vesicle, capsule, urinary bladder, sac, devious, pointed, thoughtful, polite,
bestow: (v) give, confer, grant, impart, newspaper, bellows, pod, cancelli guarded, gentle
contribute, donate, apply, award; blade: (n) knife, beau, foil, falchion, blurred: (adj) fuzzy, indistinct, foggy,
(adj, v) accord, allow, present. cutlass, sword, leaf, shaft, razor, blurry, bleary, vague, out of focus,
ANTONYMS: (v) deprive, refuse, brand, steel blear, cloudy, clouded, dim.
withhold, retrieve, withdraw blamed: (adj) goddamned, goddamn, ANTONYMS: (adj) sharp, definite,
bestowed: (adj) presented, conferred, damned, goddam, infernal, distinct, precise, certain
awarded, accurate damnable, ageless, answerable, boar: (n) pig, swine, dog, wild boar,
betray: (v) deceive, bewray, sell, beatified, blessed, aeonian hog, Sus scrofa, entire horse, stallion,
grass, dupe, reveal, mislead, blameless: (adj) irreproachable, sow, horse, hart
disclose, accuse, befool, bamboozle. perfect, faultless, unimpeachable, boast: (v) bluster, brag, blow, crow,
ANTONYMS: (v) protect, undeceive, pure, spotless, innocent, guiltless, gasconade, show off, rodomontade,
hide, defend, withhold inculpable, not guilty, clean. exult; (n, v) vaunt, pride; (n)
betraying: (adj) treacherous, ANTONYMS: (adj) culpable, arrogance. ANTONYMS: (n)
revealing, Judas blameworthy, responsible, wrong, deprecation; (v) downplay, lack
betty: (n) henhussy, cot Betty, old bad, sinful, shameful, flawed bodily: (adj) material, corporeal,
woman, cotquean, sissy blanket: (adj) sweeping, overall, corporal, animal, carnal, somatic,
betwixt: (n) midst; (prep) among, comprehensive, global, wholesale, real, personal, sensual; (adv)
amid; (adv) atwixt generic; (n, v) cloak; (n) sheath, altogether, fleshly. ANTONYMS:
bias: (n, v) prejudice, bent, slant, sheet, bedding; (v) clothe. (adj) mental, spiritual, soulful,
influence, twist; (adj, n) partiality; ANTONYMS: (adj) intellectual; (adv) mentally
(n) penchant, drift, turn, favor, slope. uncomprehensive, discerning, boiled: (adj) intoxicated, poached,
ANTONYMS: (n) neutrality, fairness, incomplete, partial, specific stewed; (v) sodden
tolerance, justice, justness, blast: (adj, n, v) discharge, explosion, bold: (adj) adventurous, audacious,
broadmindedness burst; (n, v) attack, slam, smash, manly, arrogant, intrepid, fearless,
biassed: (adj) prejudiced boom, blight, roar; (adj, v) blow up; spirited, heroic, daring, courageous,
bidding: (n) behest, order, dictate, (v) detonate stalwart. ANTONYMS: (adj) timid,
charge, bid, request, call, dictation, blazing: (adj) flaming, afire, burning, modest, afraid, meek, shy, light,
direction, fiat; (adj) imperative ardent, aflame, glaring, bright, courteous, discreet, faint, fearful,
bigness: (n) bulk, size, largeness, blatant, alight, passionate; (n) blaze. abashed
vastness, roominess, magnitude, ANTONYMS: (adj) freezing, quiet boldly: (adj, adv) courageously,
grandness, bulkiness, ampleness, bleeding: (adj) bloody, gory, blasted; valiantly, heroically; (adv) fearlessly,
dimensions, volume (n) haemorrhage, bloodletting, daringly, bravely, intrepidly,
bind: (adj, v) attach, fix, fasten, affix; runout, cupping, leeches, impudently, audaciously,
(n) band; (v) bandage, lace, fetter, venesection, phlebotomy; (v) bleed shamelessly, brashly. ANTONYMS:
bundle, truss, combine. blessing: (n) benediction, approval, (adv) discreetly, modestly,
ANTONYMS: (v) untie, unbind, free, mercy, felicity, benison, benefit, luck, nervously, hesitantly, shyly,
unfasten, unravel, permit, loosen, advantage, boon, bless, godsend. fearfully, meekly, submissively,
loose, let; (n, v) release; (n) pleasure ANTONYMS: (n) curse, misfortune, secretly, respectfully, diffidently
binding: (n) band, dressing, tying, disaster, condemnation, adversity, boldness: (n) prowess, face, daring,
linkage, binder, wrapping, bond; desecration, refusal, veto, valor, nerve, assurance, heroism,
(adj) obligatory, necessary, valid, disadvantage audaciousness, spirit, cheek, valour.
mandatory. ANTONYMS: (adj) blinding: (adj) dazzling, blazing, ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice,
voluntary, alterable, flexible, amazingly impressive, bisson, shyness, timidity, meekness,
revocable, unbinding, unconfining, blatant, fulgent, glary; (n) clogging, reticence
unnecessary, unfastened, temporary blind blocking, blindage bolus: (n) bole, tablet, orb, globe,
births: (n) birthing, birth rate, blindness: (n) cecity, sightlessness, lozenge, gobbet, medicine, drug; (v)
birthrate ablepsy, ignorance, prestriction, morsel, sop, sippet
biscuit: (n) rusk, hardtack, cooky, excecation, cataract, fog, anopia; (adj, bombs: (n) ammunition, bullets,
cookie, bisque, tea biscuit, almond n) darkness; (adj) anopsy missiles
cookie, wafer, tan, sea bread, oreo blowing: (n) processing, insufflation, bore: (v) dig, tire, pierce, tap, annoy,
perforate; (n, v) bother, plague; (n) (adj) bowed, bent, fawning, abruptness, crispness, duration,
auger, well, gimlet. ANTONYMS: submissive economy, length, brevities.
(v) fascinate, excite, hypnotize, bowlful: (n) bowl, containerful, arena ANTONYMS: (n) lengthiness,
engage, entertain, stimulate; (n) bracelets: (n) trinkets, jewels, length
charmer, exciter, excitement, necklaces, charms, costume jewelry, bribe: (n) bribery, boodle, lure,
pleasure ornaments payment, payoff; (v) corrupt, fix,
bored: (adj) weary, boring, blase, brains: (n) cleverness, intellect, pay off, pervert, blackmail; (n, v)
uninterested, bore, listless, jaded, intelligence, sense, mind, wisdom, reward
sick, fed up, annoyed, indifferent. pate, wit, wits, reason; (adj, n) head. bribery: (n) corruption, felony,
ANTONYMS: (adj) energetic, fresh ANTONYM: (n) stupidity blackmail, bait, lure, invitation,
borne: (adj) weak, wanting, spoony, brandish: (n, v) flourish; (v) display, incentive, temptation, coemption,
soft, sappy, shallow, little, limited wield, flaunt, shake, agitate, swing, dishonesty. ANTONYM: (n) honesty
borrow: (v) adopt, lend, appropriate, bandy, beckon, raise, jerk. bridle: (n, v) curb, check, control,
to borrow, assume, take, accept, ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, lower, snaffle, rein, leash; (n) arrest, reins,
acquire, plagiarize, cadge, get. sheathe brake; (v) inhibit, contain.
ANTONYMS: (v) give, invent, loan, brandy: (n) applejack, spirits, ANTONYMS: (v) unbridle,
originate, return brandies, liquor, Brandywine, Marc, unharness, release
borrowed: (adj) foreign, rubato, fruit brandy; (v) brandy smash brim: (n) rim, periphery, verge, edge,
secondary brass: (n, v) face; (adj, n) boldness; (n) lip, hem, rand, margin, perimeter,
bosom: (n) heart, interior, boob, nerve, cheek, administration, brink, limit
thorax, chest, bust, tit; (n, v) audaciousness, insolence, arrogance; bristles: (n) beard, five o'clock
embrace; (v) cherish, hug; (adj) (adj) bronze; (v) assurance, shadow
intimate. ANTONYMS: (n) outside, impudence brood: (n, v) breed; (v) sulk, think,
exteriority bravely: (adv) courageously, incubate; (n) offspring, issue,
bosses: (n) management fearlessly, valiantly, boldly, progeny, young, posterity, family;
bottomless: (adj) limitless, infinite, intrepidly, dauntlessly, gallantly, (adj, n) herd. ANTONYMS: (v)
deep, unlimited, profound, audaciously, undauntedly, reassure, delight, console
immeasurable, fathomless, heroically, doughtily. ANTONYMS: brook: (v) endure, abide, stomach,
boundless, unfounded, groundless, (adv) timidly, fearfully, execrably, stand, tolerate, digest, suffer,
unplumbed. ANTONYMS: (adj) nervously support, undergo; (n, v) creek; (n)
shallow, bottomed, limited, braying: (adj) raucous, loud, harsh, stream. ANTONYMS: (v) spurn,
restricted shrill, discordant, clamorous, resist, reject, prohibit
bounce: (n, v) jump, spring, leap, vociferous brooks: (n) streams, Brookes, van
bound, jolt, discharge; (n) impact; breadth: (n) width, spread, amplitude, Wyck Brooks
(v) recoil, glance, sack, beat. wideness, size, length, latitude, broom: (v) sweep, to sweep, bream,
ANTONYMS: (n) tranquility, extent, area, broadness, stretch. shovel, rake, screen, sieve; (n) brush,
calmness; (v) stay, clear ANTONYMS: (n) length, longitude, Scots heather, Calluna vulgaris,
bouncing: (n) bounce; (adj) bouncy, emptiness, thinness heath
lively, strong, sturdy, full, healthy, breaks: (n) lot, destiny, opportunity, broth: (n) bouillon, gravy, consomm,
lusty, peppy, spirited; (adv) chance beef tea, stock, brew; (n, v) liquor,
bouncingly breast: (n) boob, udder, tit, titty, chest, puree; (v) pottage, potage, beverage
bounded: (adj) restricted, limited, knocker, mammilla, bust, pap, heart; brotherhood: (n) fraternity, sodality,
delimited, encircled, enclosed, (n, v) front association, kinship, relationship,
confined, leap, spring, bordered, breasts: (n) chest, booby friendliness, confraternity,
circumscribed, constrained. breech: (n) behind, bottom, croup, fellowship, organization,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unbounded, tail, buttock, backside scut, backside, partnership, society
unconfined, unlimited, free loin, dorsum, buttocks, breeches brownness: (n) buff, caramel, umber,
bounds: (n) boundary, border, limit, breeches: (n) knickers, inexpressibles, chocolate, coffee, puce, sepia
bound, margin, borderline, end, knickerbockers, brogues, short, brows: (n) brow
bourn, Bourne, brink, edge. smalls, overalls, small clothes, pants, bruised: (adj) wounded, hurt, raw,
ANTONYMS: (n) center, middle trousers, pantaloons sore, livid, tender, sensitive, rotten,
bowed: (adj) arched, curved, inclined, breeding: (n) education, upbringing, surbet, sore to the touch, painful
crooked, arciform, arching, arced, nurture, manners, reproduction, brutal: (adj) barbaric, barbarous,
bandy, arcuate, twisted, bended. generation, propagation, culture, bestial, hard, cruel, unkind, vicious,
ANTONYMS: (adj) straight, concave, fostering, cultivation, multiplication. savage, harsh, truculent, barbarian.
plucked ANTONYMS: (n) unsophistication, ANTONYMS: (adj) merciful, kind,
bowels: (n) gut, compassion, pity, vulgarity liberal, humane, generous, caring,
inside, bowel, viscera, innards, belly, brethren: (n) congregation, assembly, friendly, nice, pleasant
guts, insides, intestines brother, people, laity, family, flock, brutality: (n) atrocity, barbarity,
bowing: (n) obeisance, playing, fold violence, cruelty, ferocity,
gesticulation, capitulation, brevity: (n) briefness, shortness, savageness, harshness, callousness,
genuflection, scraping, submission; succinctness, transience, terseness, viciousness, ferociousness, savagery.
Jonathan Swift 319
ANTONYMS: (n) friendliness, butcher: (v) slaughter, kill, murder, forthrightly, straightforwardly,
kindness, caring, gentility, slay; (n, v) massacre, botch; (n) plainly, bluntly, directly; (adj, adv)
humaneness, humanity assassin, bungler, slaughterer, freely. ANTONYMS: (adv)
brute: (adj) brutal, harsh, gruff, meatman, murderer. ANTONYMS: deceitfully, hesitantly, dishonestly,
brutish; (adj, n) animal, savage; (n) (v) develop, create, grow, build untruthfully, guardedly,
barbarian, fiend, creature, monster; buttocks: (n) bottom, ass, arse, bum, ambiguously, shyly
(adv) beastly. ANTONYMS: (adj) rump, butt, tail, hip, behind, nates, candour: (n) candidness, frankness,
weak, refined, mild, gentle; (n) posterior forthrightness, fairness, rectitude,
gentleman buzzard: (n) Cathartes aura, Buteo purity, straightforwardness, equity,
brutus: (n) Marcus Junius Brutus Buteo, cathartid, Turkey buzzard, truth, sincerity, simplicity
bucket: (n) pail, container, bucketful, calf, chicken, doodle, loon, lout, oaf, cane: (n, v) scourge, whip; (v) flog,
scoop, tankard, pipkin, skeel, mug, Turkey vulture beat, birch, thrash, lash; (n) stick, bat,
pan, can; (v) rain cats and dogs buzzing: (n) noise, murmur; (adj) rattan, twig
buckle: (n, v) clasp, warp; (v) curve, humming, abuzz, bustling, lively, canine: (n) canine tooth, canid,
crumple, distort, fasten; (adj, n) droning, purring, vibrant, vivacious, dogtooth, eyetooth, cuspid, fang;
button; (n) screw, hook, fastener; full of beans (adj) laniary, bovine, animal, feline,
(adj) strap. ANTONYMS: (v) cabal: (n) scheme, junto, faction, fishy
unbuckle, flatten, smooth, straighten conspiracy, plot, intrigue, ring, canoe: (n) dugout, pirogue, canoes,
buckled: (v) wreathy, frizzly, crepe; camarilla; (v) conspire, machinate, caique, birchbark, dugout canoe,
(adj) warped, misshapen, complot birchbark canoe, felucca; (adj) self-
malformed, distorted, askew, cabin: (n) booth, cabana, cot, lodge, sufficient
deformed stall, shed, chamber, bothy, room, cant: (n) jargon, lingo, slang,
buff: (n) devotee, fan, addict, apartment, cell. ANTONYMS: (n) vernacular, argot; (n, v) bank, tilt,
enthusiast, afficionado, admirer; (adj, chateau, mansion, palace bias, incline; (adj, n) bevel; (v) list
n) tan, beige; (v) shine, furbish, cable: (n) line, telegram, cablegram, canting: (v) righteous over much,
polish. ANTONYMS: (v) corrode, ribbon, twine, cord, guy, cable pietistical, pharisaical,
dull, erode; (n) detractor television; (n, v) wire, report; (v) overrighteous; (adj) hypocritical,
bulwark: (n, v) shield, safeguard, telegraph false, unctuous, insincere, fulsome,
guard; (n) rampart, wall, barrier, cadence: (n) beat, tempo, measure, self-righteous, impious
breakwater, bastion, defense, rhythm, cadency, descent, time; (n, cape: (n) headland, ness, shawl,
battlement, buffer. ANTONYM: (n) v) pace; (v) gait, step, rate tippet, coat, point, mantelet,
weakness caesar: (n) dictator, Gaius Julius promontory, mantle, capellet,
bundle: (n, v) pack, cluster, clump, Caesar, Julius Caesar, king capeskin
wad; (n) sheaf, pile, batch, stack, calamity: (n) disaster, adversity, caper: (n, v) skip, bound, frolic, hop,
package, group, heap. ANTONYMS: affliction, misfortune, plague, romp, leap, play, gambol; (n) prank,
(v) scatter, separate, disperse, divide catastrophe, tragedy, blow, bale, joke, antic. ANTONYM: (v) restrain
burgundy: (adj, n) red; (n) Chablis, distress; (n, v) trouble. caprice: (n) fancy, fantasy, humor,
burgundy wine, Bourgogne; (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) blessing, boon, quirk, freak, notion, impulse, fit,
crimson, dark red, maroon, reddish luck, joy, opportunity capriccio, fad, vagary. ANTONYMS:
purple, ruby, scarlet calcine: (v) calcinate, heat, incinerate, (n) plan, strategy, blueprint, reality
burnt: (adj) adust, heated, baked, burn, roast, char, corrode carcass: (n) body, frame, corpse,
torrid, sunburnt, seared, scorched, calculate: (v) estimate, compute, add, cadaver, framework, shell, carrion,
well done, tempered, overdone, account, appraise, gauge, cipher, remains, dead body, skeleton, bomb
combust. ANTONYMS: (adj) reckon, enumerate, forecast, guess. cardinals: (n) buntings, canaries,
underdone, unburned, wet ANTONYMS: (v) suppose, doubt, family Fringillidae, Fringillidae,
bursting: (adj) explosive, teeming, estimate genus Richmondena, Richmondena
chock-full, full, complete, calculation: (n) account, analysis, careless: (adj) forgetful, inattentive,
paroxysmal, exploding, disruptive, estimate, forecast, computation, insouciant, haphazard, cursory,
detonating, crowded; (n) outbreak. deliberation, arithmetic, assessment, reckless, lax, unwary, sloppy; (adj,
ANTONYM: (adj) hungry projection; (adj, n) discretion; (v) adv) thoughtless; (adj, v) heedless.
burthen: (v) weight, angle, weight estimation. ANTONYM: (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) cautious,
down; (n) loading, plumbing, white ingenuousness prudent, meticulous, thoughtful,
elephant candid: (adj) blunt, outspoken, diligent, attentive, thorough, wary,
burton: (n) Richard Burton, sir ingenuous, direct, sincere, open, guarded, methodical, strict
Richard Francis Burton forthright, artless, equitable, honest, carelessness: (n) negligence,
bury: (v) inter, overwhelm, lay to rest, guileless. ANTONYMS: (adj) inattention, indifference,
hide, mask, secrete, conceal, cloak, scheming, tricky, artful, deceitful, nonchalance, thoughtlessness,
entomb, suppress; (n) burial. dishonest, guarded, indirect, abandon, incaution, disregard,
ANTONYMS: (v) exhume, unearth, insincere, inhibited, disingenuous, omission, forgetfulness, dereliction.
uncover, dig, disclose, distract, evasive ANTONYMS: (n) attention, caution,
expose, ignore, reveal, air, candidly: (adv) openly, ingenuously, alertness, vigilance, carefulness,
remember sincerely, outspokenly, honestly, thoughtfulness, assiduousness,
economy, regard, prudence, commandment; (v) warn, advise. atlantal, anterior. ANTONYM: (adj)
forethought ANTONYMS: (n) carelessness, caudal
cargo: (n) burden, freight, wares, rashness, incaution, honesty, chaff: (v) tease, jest, rally, mock, kid,
goods, merchandise, payload, foolishness, encouragement, jolly, joke; (n) bran, raillery, husk; (n,
shipment, weight, lading, haul; (adj, irresponsibility, openness, approval; v) ridicule
n) load (v) dare, approve chained: (adj) in chains, enchained,
carnivorous: (adj) phytivorous, cavalier: (adj) overbearing, arrogant, bound
graminivorous, granivorous, haughty, offhand, supercilious, chains: (n) fetters, bond, chain, bonds,
herbivorous, insectivorous, domineering, bumptious, handcuffs, irons, manacles, shackles,
predaceous, predacious, adventurous, flippant; (n) escort, iron, confine, trammel
zoophagous, hungry, omnivorous, equestrian. ANTONYMS: (adj) challenging: (adj) defiant, difficult,
sarcophagous. ANTONYMS: (adj) humble, conscientious, obliging, provocative, challenge, stimulating,
vegetarian, omnivorous, careful, polite, considerate demanding, arduous, hard, exacting,
insectivorous cave: (n) lair, hole, grotto, hollow, provoking, interesting.
carpenter: (n) woodman, woodsman, cove, den, cell, grot, nest; (v) ANTONYMS: (adj) conciliatory,
woodworker, Joseph; (v) build undermine, calve. ANTONYMS: (n) undemanding, allied, accepting,
carriages: (n) carriage hump; (v) withstand accessible, simple, dull, peaceable,
carrier: (n) carrier wave, bearer, cavity: (n) antrum, cave, hole, pocket, submissive
messenger, carter, postman, hollow, void, pit, chamber, caries, chamberlain: (n) bailiff, seneschal,
common carrier, vehicle, courier, depression, hollowness. castellan, treasurer, steward, Neville
mailman, porter, charged particle ANTONYMS: (n) hump, lump chamberlain, Arthur Neville
carrion: (n) carcass, offal, dead body, cease: (n, v) end, finish, stop; (v) quit, chamberlain
corpse, filth, ket, any filth, caroigne; terminate, break, break off, close, chancery: (n) chancellery, archive,
(adj) garbage conclude, discontinue, abstain. archives, judicature, court, tribunal,
carved: (adj) cut, incised, sculptured; ANTONYMS: (v) begin, start, court of chancery
(v) graven, engraved, stamped, fixed, commence, persist, stay chaps: (n) chops, fauces, crack
imprinted. ANTONYM: (adj) ceased: (adj) finished chargeable: (adj) guilty, amenable,
uncarved celebrate: (v) extol, keep, praise, indictable, responsible, due,
castrated: (adj) gelded, neutered, acclaim, laud, honor, fete, solemnize, assessable, payable, rateable,
unpaved, unsexed, disabled applaud, honour, triumph. attributable, accusable, answerable.
casually: (adv) incidentally, ANTONYMS: (v) overlook, mourn, ANTONYM: (adj) innocent
haphazardly, fortuitously, carelessly, forget, disregard, condemn charging: (n) filling, feeding, power
occasionally, by chance, cursorily, celebrated: (adj) renowned, famous, drive, decree
nonchalantly, adventitiously, distinguished, notable, noted, chariot: (n) car, wagon, carriage,
contingently, indifferently. splendid, well-known, known, waggon, vehicle, wain, equipage,
ANTONYMS: (adv) anxiously, famed, eminent; (adj, n) glorious. char
formally, politely, seriously, ANTONYMS: (adj) minor, charts: (n) catalogue
distantly, considerately, attentively unexalted, ordinary, obscure, chasm: (n) breach, gap, hiatus, gulf,
casualties: (n) victims, injuries and undistinguished, inglorious, ravine, hole, abysm, vacancy,
deaths, sufferer, toll, victim insignificant canyon, aperture, emptiness.
casualty: (n) prey, loss, damage, celebrating: (adj) jubilant, ANTONYMS: (n) junction, closure
disaster, fatality, chance, death, complimentary chastity: (n) honor, purity, abstinence,
contingency, circumstance, celestial: (adj) ethereal, divine, virtue, innocence, chasteness,
misfortune, victim supernal, angelic, holy, sacred, continence, modesty, cleanliness,
cataract: (n) waterfall, torrent, falls, astronomical, unworldly, austerity; (adj) honesty.
deluge, cataclysm, amaurosis, superlunary, from on high; (n) ANTONYMS: (n) nymphomania,
blindness, angel, flood, prestriction; heaven. ANTONYMS: (adj) lewdness, adultery
(v) pour mundane, secular, terrestrial, mortal chatter: (n, v) babble, gossip, prattle,
catastrophe: (n) disaster, adversity, cellars: (n) cellar gab, cackle, natter; (adj, n, v) jabber;
tragedy, cataclysm, misfortune, bale, censure: (n, v) accuse, reprimand, (adj, v) prate, palaver; (v) blabber,
denouement, misery, misadventure, reproach, attack, animadversion, patter. ANTONYM: (v) drawl
woe, finale. ANTONYMS: (n) joy, abuse; (n) accusation, chattering: (n) chatter, cackle, yak,
miracle, wonder, success condemnation; (v) carp, condemn, grabbing, claver; (adj) talkative,
catching: (adj) communicable, berate. ANTONYMS: (v) approve, loquacious, noisy, gabby, garrulous;
infectious, epidemic, gripping, commend, allow, endorse, laud, (v) natter
transferable, zymotic; (n) discovery, permit, sanction; (n) approval, cheat: (n, v) trick, con, fake, sham; (n)
take, playing, uncovering, getting. blessing, commendation; (n, v) fraud, bilk, impostor; (v) defraud,
ANTONYM: (adj) compliment beguile, betray, fleece.
noncommunicable censured: (adj) guilty, appropriated ANTONYMS: (v) support, repay,
caution: (n) advice, carefulness, cent: (adj) picayune, mill, pistareen; help, contribute, aid
warning, wariness, precaution, (n) subunit, rupee, red cent, centime cheating: (n) cheat, dishonesty,
vigilance, prudence, admonition, cephalic: (adj) cephalistic, preaxial, imposition, imposture, fraud,
Jonathan Swift 321
duplicity, deception, chicanery; (adj) circular: (adj) round, rounded, rudeness, incivility, coarseness
dirty, cunning, deceiving. rotund, orbicular, circinate, globular, civilize: (v) civilise, educate, improve,
ANTONYMS: (adj) honest, faithful; annular, spherical; (n) handbill, train, refine, foster, tame, enlighten,
(n) honesty, truthfulness advertisement, bill. ANTONYMS: domesticate, humanize; (adj) polish
cheerful: (adj, v) buoyant; (adj) (adj) linear, rectangular, straight civilized: (adj) civil, refined, polite,
breezy, merry, optimistic, pleasant, circularly: (adv) spherically, civilised, cultivated, educated,
glad, blithe, carefree, bright, lively, orbicularly, rotundly, globularly, courteous, urbane, kind, gentle,
happy. ANTONYMS: (adj) annularly, orbiculately, roundedly, genteel. ANTONYMS: (adj) uncouth,
depressed, gloomy, sad, depressing, fully, cyclically, circinately, cyclicly noncivilized, discourteous, loutish,
grim, hopeless, miserable, morose, circulate: (v) broadcast, circle, rude, inhumane, wild
somber, dejected, unwelcoming disseminate, disperse, distribute, civilizing: (adj) enlightening, cultural,
cheerfully: (adj, adv) gladly; (adv, v) propagate, circularize, mobilize, artistic, enriching, educational
happily; (adv) merrily, readily, diffuse, proclaim, issue. civilly: (adv) politely, respectfully,
brightly, jovially, cheerily, genially, ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, hide, graciously, complaisantly, urbanely,
chirpily, lively, blithely. block, withhold, concentrate polishedly, considerately,
ANTONYMS: (adv) bleakly, circumference: (n) circuit, border, domestically, genteelly, obligingly,
dismally, grimly, sullenly, perimeter, boundary, periphery, refinedly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
unhappily, somberly, sadly, outline, brim, compass, circle, edge, abruptly, uncivilly
grudgingly, gloomily, dourly, rim. ANTONYMS: (n) middle, clad: (adj) dressed, attired, clothed,
forlornly inside, interior, center coated, garbed; (n) cladding; (prep)
cheerfulness: (n) glee, happiness, circumspection: (n) care, wariness, gowned; (v) costume, shod, dress,
exhilaration, hilarity, mirth, chariness, cautiousness, calculation, attire. ANTONYMS: (adj) undressed,
merriment, gladness, cheer, good precaution, vigilance, discernment, unclothed
spirits, pleasure, joviality. judgment; (adj, n) discretion, clamour: (n) clamoring, hue and cry,
ANTONYMS: (n) sadness, grimness, prudence. ANTONYM: (n) clamouring, blare, bedlam, uproar,
seriousness, misery, resentment, recklessness vociferation, tumult, hubbub,
uncheerfulness, solemnity, lethargy, circumspectly: (adv) carefully, exclamation; (v) utter
bleakness, gravity, gloominess cautiously, warily, deliberately, clapping: (n) clap, acclaim, hand,
chestnuts: (n) Castanopsis, Fagaceae, discreetly, guardedly, charily, clapping of hands, cheering,
Castanea, genus Castanea, beech watchfully, vigilantly, thoughtfully, handclap, ovation, slapping, plaudit,
family considerately. ANTONYMS: (adv) round, approval
chiefly: (adv) principally, primarily, thoughtlessly, indiscreetly claws: (v) tentacle, tenaculum, unguis,
above all, especially, headly, mostly, circumstance: (n) affair, incident, hook, fangs, teeth; (n) clutches, jaws
largely, primely, predominantly; matter, event, occasion, chance, cleaned: (adj) purified, spick-and-
(adj, adv) mainly, particularly. accident, opportunity, adventure, span; (n) cleaner, curried
ANTONYM: (adv) partially casualty, fact cleaning: (n) purge, purification,
chimneys: (n) chimney circumstantial: (adj) particular, clearing, purging, scrub, cleanup,
choicest: (adj) optimum, best detailed, incidental, thorough, purgation, sweeping, ablution, thin,
choked: (adj) clogged, smothered, presumptive, precise, coincidental, separation
congested, annoyed, high-strung, elaborate, exact, special, specific. cleanliness: (n) tidiness, neatness,
strained, neurotic, tense, angry, ANTONYM: (adj) concrete chastity, wont, trait, hygiene,
anxious, insecure cistern: (n) water tank, sump, storage sanitation, purity, clarity.
chop: (n, v) chip, slice, cut; (v) mince, tank, reservoir, container, cesspool, ANTONYMS: (n) dirtiness, impurity,
slash, whittle, hash, hack, cleave, sac, pond, pool, sink, cesspit squalor, uncleanliness, grime
hew, chop up citizen: (n) national, inhabitant, cleanly: (adj) clean; (adv) clearly,
christendom: (n) apostleship, church, denizen, resident, burgher, the tidily, purely, neatly, freshly,
hierarch, priesthood, Christianism, people, subject, freeman, native, immaculately, spotlessly,
church government, ministry, nationality, voter. ANTONYMS: (n) unsulliedly, fairly, unadulteratedly
prelacy foreigner, immigrant, tourist, alien, clearness: (n) clarity, brightness,
chronicles: (n) archives, history, stranger distinctness, perspicuity, lucidity,
archive, records civilise: (v) school, domesticate, explicitness, sharpness, simplicity,
churchyard: (n) graveyard, burial refine, acquire, break, aim, check, purity, limpidity, intelligibility.
ground, yard, necropolis, cloisters, arise, modernize, develop, educate ANTONYMS: (n) ambiguity,
kirkyard civilised: (adj) civilized, humane, opacity, dirtiness, vagueness,
cicero: (n) orator, rhetorician, solon, genteel, cultured, cultivated, unclearness, obscureness,
speechmaker, statesman, pica, advanced, refined, polite indistinctness, clutter, haziness,
Marcus Tullius Cicero; (v) civilities: (n) propriety mustiness
Demosthenes civility: (n) politeness, courtesy, clemency: (n) charity, tenderness,
cider: (v) Brazil tea, ice water, claret; comity, attention, propriety, leniency, compassion, pardon, pity,
(n) inebriant, alcoholic beverage, affability, amenity, cultivation, benevolence, quarter, grace; (adj, n)
hard cider, pomade, sicer, sider, complaisance, courteousness, kindness, benignity. ANTONYMS:
alcohol, beverage civilization. ANTONYMS: (n) (n) blame, cruelty, harshness,
strictness, unkindness, commonness, rudeness, inferiority, freshman, greenhorn
vindictiveness, mercilessness crudeness, crudity, awkwardness. comb: (v) brush, ransack, search,
clenched: (adj) tight, clinched ANTONYMS: (n) delicacy, purity, dress, eliminate, groom; (adj) weed;
clergy: (n) the cloth, pastorate, refinement, smoothness, (n) crest, combing, caruncle,
cardinalate, churchman, priest, sophistication, tastefulness, civility, currycomb
parson, clergyman, chaplain, pastor, grace, propriety, decency comeliness: (n) charm, grace,
presbytery, clericals coasting: (adj) drugged; (v) to slide loveliness, fairness, beauteousness,
climbing: (n) climb, ascension, cock: (n) rooster, chicken, spigot, attractiveness, pulchritude,
mounting, mountain climbing, Peter, prick, cockerel, tool, stopcock, goodliness, blondness, mense, form
mountaineering, rock climbing, shaft; (n, v) stack; (v) ruffle. comely: (adj) beautiful, good-looking,
acclivity; (v) ascending, uprise, ANTONYM: (v) uncock decent, fair, attractive, decorous,
arise; (adj) scandent coffers: (n) treasury, purse, shapely, proper; (adj, adv, v)
cloak: (n, v) veil, mask, camouflage, exchequer, coffer, funds, assets seemly; (adj, adv) sightly, lovely.
wrap, masquerade, screen, pall; (n) cogitation: (n) thought, cerebration, ANTONYMS: (adj) repulsive,
cape; (v) conceal, dissemble, hide. consideration, thinking, homely, plain, revolting,
ANTONYMS: (v) reveal, uncloak, contemplation, deliberation, unattractive, ugly
unmask; (n, v) uncover speculation, study, mentation, comet: (n) Ariel, iris, Dendrocometes,
clog: (n, v) block, bar, glut; (v) choke, cogitations, reasoning celestial body
obstruct, foul, hinder, encumber, coin: (v) invent, mint, originate, comforted: (adj) thankful, pleased,
back up; (n) obstruction, patten. create, strike, cast; (n, v) forge; (n) comfortable, calmed
ANTONYMS: (v) free, clear, open, specie, money, penny, piece commanded: (adj) lawful
unblock coincide: (v) agree, concur, accede, commanding: (adj) imperative,
closeness: (n) tightness, proximity, correspond, conform, consort, imperious, peremptory, bossy,
familiarity, parsimony, nearness, accept, square, consent; (adj, v) imposing, ascendant, compelling,
adjacency, affinity, propinquity, meet; (n) coincidence. ANTONYMS: magnificent; (adj, n) grand,
fidelity, compactness, meanness. (v) diverge, disagree, contradict, impressive; (adv) commandingly.
ANTONYMS: (n) isolation, distance, clash, deviate, conflict ANTONYMS: (adj) inferior,
farness, dryness, openness, space, coining: (n) sizing, stamping, forgery unassertive, indecisive,
animosity, inaccuracy, freshness, coins: (v) coinage; (n) hard cash, unimpressive, insignificant,
remoteness money, loose change, small change, subservient
closet: (n) cupboard, cubicle, cell, legal tender, ready money commands: (n) orders, instructions,
latrine, bathroom, wardrobe, water coldness: (n) chilliness, coolness, information, guidelines
closet; (adj) clandestine, confidential, indifference, distance, apathy, commendable: (adj, n) praiseworthy;
secret, private. ANTONYM: (adj) iciness, reserve, frost, frigidity, (adj) admirable, creditable, good,
open unconcern; (adj, n) cold. worthy, deserving, meritorious,
clouds: (n) exhaust, fumes, gas, ANTONYMS: (n) friendliness, applaudable; (adv) praiseworthily,
smoke, vapors sympathy, sensitivity, hotness, heat, laudably, admirably. ANTONYMS:
clumsy: (adj) bumbling, bungling, responsiveness, concern, brightness, (adj) unworthy, despicable,
cumbersome, unwieldy, rude, inept, kindness contemptible, disgraceful, rotten,
inapt, maladroit, gawky, unskilled, colic: (n) Uterine colic , gripe, hurting, lamentable, poor
wooden. ANTONYMS: (adj) mulligrubs, pain, stomach pain, commended: (adj) highly praised
graceful, dexterous, clever, skillful, tummy ache, newborn colic, commit: (v) consign, assign, charge,
deft, adroit, elegant, coordinated, enteralgia, intestinal colic, tummy confide, dedicate, apply, entrust,
expert, athletic, agile pain submit, intrust, leave, give.
clutches: (n) clasp, grip, grasp, hold, collar: (n, v) arrest, catch, capture, ANTONYMS: (v) stop, desist, divest,
clench, seizing, custody, talons; (v) pinch; (n) choker, ruff, lapel; (v) end, idle, withhold, wait, cease,
vice, tongs, pliers apprehend, nail, grab, clutch. keep, refuse
clyster: (n) injection, glister, irrigation, ANTONYMS: (v) free, release commodious: (adj) capacious, wide,
lavement; (v) lavage, glyster collecting: (n) compilation, roomy, spacious, comfortable,
coachman: (n) teamster, cabman, accumulation, collection, collation, voluminous, extensive, useful, large;
charioteer, carter, carman, Jehu, assemblage, aggregation, pickup, (adj, v) convenient, easy.
postboy, drayman, wagoner, philately, numismatics; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) small,
postilion; (v) whip gathering, philatelic uncomfortable, tight, incommodious,
coarse: (adj) vulgar, boorish, rough, colony: (n) settlement, plantation, confined, squeezed
brutal, crude, gross, common, earthy, community, village, dependency, commoners: (n) masses, common
blunt, bawdy; (adj, v) harsh. colonies, possession, mandate, herd, rabble
ANTONYMS: (adj) sophisticated, protectorate, cluster, group communicating: (n) communication,
refined, smooth, polite, soft, civil, colossus: (n) behemoth, monster, intercommunication, suasion,
cultured, delicate, fine, genteel, Goliath, titan, personage, hulk, ogre, expression, transmission,
gentlemanly anomaly, heavyweight examination, intercourse,
coarseness: (n) grossness, indelicacy, colt: (n) novice, filly, foal, calf, horse, dramaturgy; (v) communicate; (adj)
inelegance, indecency, vulgarism, beginner, kitten, pup, fledgling, communicant, dramaturgic
Jonathan Swift 323
communicativeness: (v) garrulity, resistance, refusal, dissent, discernment, uptake. ANTONYMS:
articulateness, trait, volubility, disagreement, noncompliance, (n) incomprehension, ignorance
loquaciousness, intercommunication, defiance, reluctance, rigidity computation: (n, v) calculation,
effusiveness, fluency, expansiveness, compliment: (n, v) praise, honor; (v) estimation, reckoning; (n) compute,
frankness laud, flattery, applaud, greet, estimate, account, arithmetic,
companions: (n) circle, entourage, adulation, congratulate, belaud; (n) figuring, count, computing; (v)
people eulogy, tribute. ANTONYMS: (n) enumeration. ANTONYMS: (n)
comparing: (n) collation, contrast, criticism, reproach, disparagement; guesswork, guessing, conjecture,
comparison, analogy, collating, (n, v) slander, libel; (v) criticize, estimation
comparability denounce, disparage, denigrate, compute: (v) cipher, count, measure,
compass: (n) scope, range, room, complain, belittle account, cast, enumerate, gauge, add,
extent, area, circumference, reach; (n, compliments: (n) respects, reckon, assess, tally. ANTONYMS:
v) round, grasp, circle; (v) get. commendation, wish, greetings, (v) guess, suppose, surmise,
ANTONYM: (v) lose salutation, respect, applause, flattery, estimate
compasses: (n) aesthesiometer acclamation, regards, approbation computing: (n) computation,
compelled: (adj) forced, obligate, comply: (v) accede, assent, consent, computer science, figuring,
enforced, constrained, responsible, acquiesce, accommodate, follow, reckoning, addition; (adj)
answerable, unwilling, destined fulfil, conform, abide, abide by, calculating; (v) calculate
compelling: (adj) forcible, effective, satisfy. ANTONYMS: (v) disobey, comrade: (n) colleague, chum, buddy,
forceful, captivating, commanding, resist, rebuff, disregard, refuse, fellow, compeer, partner, brother,
powerful, stringent, convincing, reject mate, familiar; (adj, n) associate, ally.
fascinating, compulsive, cogent. compose: (v) build, compile, write, ANTONYMS: (n) stranger, enemy,
ANTONYMS: (adj) weak, boring, weave; (adj, v) appease, tranquilize, foe, opponent
unconvincing, dull, repellent allay, lull; (n, v) calm, constitute, concave: (n) indentation, depression,
competent: (adj, n) able, efficient; settle. ANTONYMS: (v) destroy, concavity; (adj) cavernous,
(adj) adequate, fit, sufficient, ruin, unsettle, annihilate, biconcave, cupped, dipped, arched,
effective, clever, commensurate, discompose, demolish, disturb, indented; (adj, n) crescent; (v) stove
qualified, skillful, proficient. fluster in. ANTONYM: (adj) curved
ANTONYMS: (adj) useless, inept, composed: (adj) calm, dispassionate, conceal: (v) hide, disguise, bury,
incapable, unable, lacking, cool, peaceable, pacific, staid, screen, cloak, smother, shield,
inadequate, unqualified, imperturbable, temperate, level, suppress, mask, obscure; (n, v) veil.
unprofessional, untrained, bad, impassive, unflappable. ANTONYMS: (v) reveal, show,
clumsy ANTONYMS: (adj) distressed, expose, divulge, clarify, uncover,
complain: (v) bemoan, protest, whine, trembling, nervous, excited, tense, disclose, tell, admit, spotlight, flaunt
squawk, bewail, beef, grudge, ruffled, jumpy, intemperate, concealed: (adj) covert, clandestine,
accuse, carp, plain, complaint. discomposed, upset, worried blind, occult, secret, mysterious,
ANTONYMS: (v) praise, applaud, composure: (n) calmness, serenity, obscure, buried, invisible, secreted,
cheer, recommend, rejoice, laud, poise, calm, equanimity, temper, surreptitious. ANTONYMS: (adj)
approve, agree, accept aplomb, tranquillity, peace, unconcealed, available, overt, open,
complaining: (adj) irritable, peevish, temperament, disposition. divulged, Shown, revealed,
petulant, whining, moaning, ANTONYMS: (n) panic, disclosed, uncovered, noticeable,
complaintive, repining; (adj, v) discomposure, anger, nervousness, mainstream
querulous; (n, v) lamenting; (adv) perturbation, anxiety, agitation, concealing: (n) covering, concealment,
complainingly; (n) plaintive. turbulence, awkwardness burial, stealing, stealth, screening,
ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, compounding: (n) combination, burying, screenings, activity; (adj)
uncomplaining, cheerful, willing combining, blend, admixture, suppressive
complaisant: (adj, v) civil, polite; composition, mix, mixture, conceit: (n) pretension, vanity, self-
(adj) benign, accommodating, commixture, attachment, blending, esteem, pride, assumption, egotism,
amiable, debonair, friendly, combine fancy, haughtiness, conception,
courteous, tractable, attentive, comprehend: (v) grasp, catch, see, caprice, quip. ANTONYMS: (n)
affable. ANTONYMS: (adj) comprise, appreciate, feel, sense, humility, timidity, selflessness,
antagonistic, contrary, difficult, apperceive, read; (adj, v) humbleness, reserve
disagreeable, discontented understand; (n, v) embrace. conceited: (adj) arrogant, cocky, vain,
complexion: (n, v) tint; (n) cast, ANTONYMS: (v) mistake, boastful, proud, smug, affected,
character, appearance, look, hue, misapprehend, exclude, assuming, egotistical, haughty,
aspect, flush, glow, dye, fashion misunderstand, misconceive pompous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
compliance: (n) observance, approval, comprehended: (adj) understood, modest, insecure, meek, selfless,
consent, acquiescence, obedience, apprehended unassuming
complaisance, accordance, deference, comprehension: (n) knowledge, conceive: (v) think, imagine,
assent, submission, compliancy. inclusion, conception, comprehend, design, apprehend,
ANTONYMS: (n) disobedience, understanding, intelligence, grasp, realize, discover, cogitate, appreciate,
stubbornness, nonconformity, wit, capacity, familiarity, invent, catch. ANTONYMS: (v)
destroy, doubt, misunderstand, confederacy: (n) coalition, congratulate: (v) compliment,
question, ruin confederation, federation, felicitate, preen, pride, celebrate,
conceived: (adj) formed association, union, conspiracy, cabal, applaud, joy, salute, commemorate,
conceiving: (n) fantasy, daydream; combination, league, merger, faction. approve; (n) congratulation.
(adj) imaginant, original ANTONYM: (n) divergence ANTONYMS: (v) commiserate, slur,
concerted: (adj) joint, united, confer: (v) give, accord, award, afford, disparage, belittle, condemn, boo
cooperative, unanimous, concurrent, grant, discuss, converse, consult, congruity: (n) accord, conformity,
accordant, joined, collective, show; (n, v) talk; (adj, v) present. consonance, coherence,
undivided, accommodative, acting ANTONYMS: (v) withdraw, deny, correspondence, consistency,
together. ANTONYMS: (adj) dishonor, retrieve, take congruence, compatibility,
individual, uncoordinated, weak, conferred: (adj) given, presented coincidence, harmony, identity
disorganized, disordered, solitary confess: (adj, v) own, allow, admit, conjecture: (n) supposition,
conclude: (n, v) complete; (v) finish, avow; (v) concede, profess, speculation, assumption, surmise,
gather, end, settle, resolve, terminate, recognize, divulge, disclose, reveal, hypothesis; (v) suppose, believe,
determine, accomplish, cease, receive. ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, anticipate, assume, speculate; (n, v)
assume. ANTONYMS: (v) start, hide, dispute, conceal, repress, estimate. ANTONYMS: (n)
begin, commence, open, unsettle, harbor certainty; (v) demonstrate, know,
prolong, wait, hesitate, introduce, confessed: (adj) known learn, prove
delay, postpone confession: (n) admission, conjectured: (adj) supposed,
concludes: (adj) ended, concluded acknowledgment, recognition, opinionative
concluding: (adj) last, terminal, acknowledgement, concession, conjunction: (n) coincidence,
ultimate, closing, definitive, divulgence, disclosure, shrift, concurrence, association, coalition,
conclusive, latest; (n) ending, dying, penance, profession, admission of alliance, cohesion, anastomosis,
finishing, reasoning. ANTONYMS: guilt. ANTONYMS: (n) disavowal, concomitance, confluence,
(adj) opening, former, first refutation amalgamation; (v) joinder.
concourse: (n) assemblage, swarm, confide: (v) commit, trust, entrust, ANTONYMS: (n) detachment,
multitude, throng, company, intrust, consign, rely, charge, disconnection, division, separation
merging, crowd, aggregation, unbosom, whisper, lean, hope. conjured: (adj) invented, made up,
meeting, gathering, legion ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, keep, pretended, untrue. ANTONYM:
concupiscence: (n) libido, passion, conceal, retain (adj) factual
carnality, desire, prurience, confine: (n, v) bound, border, limit; conjuring: (n) magic, hocus-pocus,
sensualism, sensuality, sexual desire, (v) bind, restrain, circumscribe, tie, incantation, sorcery, witchcraft,
cacoethes, anaphrodisia, incarcerate, hold; (n) boundary, sleight of hand, adjuration, figgum,
amorousness bounds. ANTONYMS: (v) release, conjury, evocation; (adj) magical
condemn: (v) censure, reproach, free, liberate, broaden conquered: (adj) overcome,
castigate, attaint, deplore, sentence, confinement: (n, v) childbirth, vanquished, overwhelmed, crushed,
excoriate, upbraid, knock, doom, delivery; (n) detention, custody, subdued, profligate, routed,
criticize. ANTONYMS: (v) praise, restraint, internment, prison, labor, overthrown, done for, under enemy
approve, commend, free, pardon, containment, incarceration, arrest. control, baffled. ANTONYMS: (adj)
absolve, acquit, clear, exonerate, ANTONYMS: (n) release, death, victorious, liberated
release, support liberation conquering: (adj) triumphant,
condemned: (adj) censured, confirming: (adj) affirmative, winning, overcoming, glorious,
convicted, doomed, destined, confirmatory, corroborative, proud, successful; (n) conquest,
appropriated, taken, taken over, collateral, verifying, confirmative, seizure, reverse, subjection,
fated, seized, predestined; (adj, v) corroboratory, positive, subjugation
guilty substantiating, substantiative, conscience: (n) moral sense,
condensing: (n) inspissation, validating Conscience money, sense of right
compression, abridgement, confound: (v) bewilder, baffle, and wrong, scruple, intention,
abridgment, capsule, compressing, nonplus, perplex, astonish, puzzle, tender conscience, small voice,
condensate, thickening, contraction amaze, astound, mistake; (adj, v) principles, morals, morality, inward
condescend: (adj, v) deign, confuse, stupefy. ANTONYMS: (v) monitor. ANTONYM: (n)
vouchsafe; (v) stoop, patronize, explain, clarify, comfort, lose, indifference
patronise, descend, lower, interact, distinguish; (n) understanding consist: (n, v) be; (adj, v) lie; (v)
decline, bow, agree confounded: (adj) bemused, accursed, belong, fit, comprise, lie in, reside,
conducting: (n) administration, execrable, baffled, cursed, befuddled, exist, make up; (adj, n) abide; (n)
conduct, directing, managing, confused, puzzled, aghast, agree
direction, management perplexed; (adj, v) abashed consistence: (n) thickness, body,
conductor: (n, v) guide, guard; (n) confounding: (adj) baffling, puzzling, coherence, consistency, viscosity,
chief, director, driver, chauffeur, contradictory, devious, difficult, hardness, uniformness, property,
bandmaster, collector, commander, marvelous, misleading, astounding; density, solidity; (adj) spissitude.
pilot, ringleader. ANTONYMS: (n) (v) confound; (n) misunderstanding, ANTONYM: (n) inconsistency
insulator, nonconductor confusion consort: (n, v) associate, husband; (n)
Jonathan Swift 325
companion; (v) agree, affiliate, v) study persistently, eternally, steadily,
assort, accord, mix, keep company, contemporaries: (n) coevals, people, frequently; (adj, adv) always.
socialize, group. ANTONYMS: (v) contemporary, classmates, ANTONYMS: (adv) acutely,
disagree, estrange, differ, dissociate, colleagues, age group, peer group infrequently, spasmodically,
avoid; (n) foe, rival, antagonist, contempt: (n, v) scorn; (v) despise; (n) sporadically
enemy disrespect, derision, mockery, continuance: (n) duration, abidance,
conspiracy: (n) cabal, plot, complot, disregard, ridicule, shame, slight, existence, endurance, protraction,
combination, collusion, coalition, reproach, discourtesy. ANTONYMS: adjournment, resumption,
design, scheme, plan; (n, v) intrigue; (n) approval, admiration, regard, prolongation, time, standing,
(v) conspire. ANTONYMS: (n) honor, esteem perseverance. ANTONYMS: (n)
faithfulness, loyalty, openness contemptible: (adj) abject, mean, base, discontinuation, destruction
conspire: (v) concur, complot, pitiful, little, worthless, unworthy, continuation: (n) continuance, sequel,
connive, plot, plan, cabal, contribute, miserable, ignoble, abominable, resumption, maintenance,
collaborate, conspiring, intrigue, shameful. ANTONYMS: (adj) elongation, continuing, sequence,
confederate estimable, admired, deserving, postscript, abidance, duration,
constancy: (n) allegiance, devotion, worthy, honorable, respectable, prolongation. ANTONYMS: (n) end,
resolution, fidelity, loyalty, respectful, noble, generous, extinction, termination, break,
steadfastness, faithfulness, commendable, good discontinuation, prelude,
steadiness, firmness, perseverance, contemptuous: (adj) scornful, destruction
unchangeableness. ANTONYMS: (n) disdainful, insulting, arrogant, contracted: (adj) insular, contract,
inconstancy, inconsistency, proud, haughty, derisive, cynical, constricted, tight, bound, close,
changefulness, instability, disloyalty, sarcastic, disrespectful; (adj, v) narrow-minded, confined, brief; (v)
unfaithfulness, unreliability, supercilious. ANTONYMS: (adj) shrunk; (adj, v) selfish. ANTONYM:
dishonesty approving, complimentary, (adj) expanded
constellation: (adj, n) galaxy; (n) deferential, humble, polite, contradict: (v) deny, oppose, belie,
cancer, centaur, Andromeda, respected, admiring conflict, confute, controvert,
asterism, group, zodiac, Capricorn, contemptuously: (adv) scornfully, contravene, disprove, refute,
carina, Cassiopeia; (adj) star sneeringly, insultingly, invalidate, impugn. ANTONYMS:
consult: (v) consider, negotiate, disparagingly, superciliously, (v) agree, match, correspond,
deliberate, advise, refer, discuss, ask, derisively, condescendingly, approve, corroborate, prove,
reason, look up, canvass; (n, v) talk. disrespectfully, haughtily, support, reinforce
ANTONYMS: (v) ignore, bypass contumeliously, sardonically. contrary: (adj, n) contradictory,
consulting: (adj) consultative; (n) ANTONYM: (adv) approvingly reverse; (adj) adverse, conflicting,
consultation; (v) consult contend: (v) wrestle, compete, unfavorable, perverse, cross,
consume: (v) exhaust, absorb, conflict, combat, argue, war, clash, disobedient, alien, different,
dissipate, use, squander, fritter, altercate, struggle, contest; (n, v) obstinate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
expend, eat, swallow, burn; (adj, v) allege. ANTONYMS: (v) retreat, similar, harmonious, helpful,
waste. ANTONYMS: (v) save, harmonize, abandon, deny, cede, obliging, compatible, complaisant,
abstain, conserve, make, store, agree, surrender, desert concordant, parallel, agreeable,
accumulate, produce, manufacture, contended: (adj) controversial cooperative, favorable
hoard, gather, fast contending: (adj) contentious, contrivance: (n) device, appliance,
consumed: (adj) exhausted, finished, conflicting, competitive, competing, gadget, artifice, plot, dodge,
used up, worn, depleted, obsessed, competitory, combatant, challenging, resource, plan, contraption, machine,
possessed, lost, tired, immersed, factious, militant, warlike, fighting apparatus
gone contented: (adj) content, happy, contrive: (v) plan, invent, design,
consummate: (adj, v) perfect; (n, v) comfortable, quiet, cheerful, smug, concoct, devise, cast, concert,
conclude, crown; (v) accomplish, complacent, satisfied, easy, proud, excogitate, frame, formulate; (n, v)
achieve, execute; (adj) accomplished, delighted. ANTONYMS: (adj) manage. ANTONYMS: (v) demolish,
absolute, profound, matchless, discontented, unhappy, depressed, destroy, ruin, waste, wreck, fail
masterful. ANTONYMS: (adj) unsatisfied, sad, anxious contrived: (adj) affected, unnatural,
inadequate, mediocre, incomplete, continual: (adj, adv) constant; (adj) false, forced, labored, spurious,
deficient, amateurish, untrained, ceaseless, incessant, endless, feigned, unreal, strained, built,
abysmal, inept; (v) start, initiate, continuous, frequent, everlasting, artificially formal. ANTONYM: (adj)
begin uninterrupted, perpetual, sincere
contemn: (v) despise, disdain, neglect, unrelenting, perennial. contriver: (n) inventor, schemer,
deride, disregard, slight, feel ANTONYMS: (adj) sporadic, deviser, plotter, human, soul,
contempt for, detest, demean, temporary, occasional, finite, someone, somebody, person,
depreciate; (n, v) scorn inconstant, infrequent, ending, individual, mortal
contemplation: (n) consideration, ceasing, halting, rare, acute contriving: (adj) designing, deep,
reflection, thought, attention, continually: (adv) perpetually, calculating, shifty
cogitation, musing, introspection, ceaselessly, incessantly, endlessly, convenience: (n) contrivance,
speculation, animus, deliberation; (n, unceasingly, continuously, accommodation, opportunity, utility,
occasion, fitness, comfort, leisure, partially scruples, virtue
appliance, availability; (adj) copper: (n) brass, bull, cop, Cu, cortez: (n) Hernando Cortez, Hernan
convenient. ANTONYMS: (n) constable, gold, fuzz, pig, cent, Cortez, Hernan Cortes, Cortes
uselessness, distance, hardship, bobby, coin costly: (adj) dear, precious, valuable,
unsuitability, clumsiness, copse: (n) brush, coppice, brake, pricey, high, luxurious, sumptuous,
remoteness brushwood, forest, underwood, extravagant, rich, invaluable,
conveniences: (n) creature comforts, grove, spinney, thicket, beloved. ANTONYMS: (adj)
comforts, convenience, living, undergrowth, canebrake worthless, inexpensive, painless,
support, livelihood, keep, coquetry: (v) captation, economical, harmless, helpful,
sustenance, facility, facilities, device obsequiousness, sentimentalism, reasonable, aiding, meager
conveniently: (adv) easily, sycophancy, mock modesty, counsel: (v) advise, consult,
opportunely, expediently, usefully, minauderie, toadeating, flunkeyism, admonish, confer, warn; (n, v)
fitly, properly, practically, timely, prudery; (n) dalliance, invitation caution, advocate; (n) barrister,
helpfully, commodiously; (adv, v) cord: (n) band, bond, tie, twine, tape, advisement, consultation,
advantageously. ANTONYMS: whipcord, thread, yarn, lace, rope, admonition. ANTONYMS: (v)
(adv) awkwardly, clumsily leash betray, trick, deceive, conceal,
conversant: (adj) proficient, knowing, cordage: (n) rope, quantity, measure, oppose; (n) warning
informed, familiar, versed, learned, quantum, ropes, cord fabric, amount, countenance: (n) aspect, expression,
cognizant, conscious, erudite, twine brow, complexion; (n, v) face,
experienced, skilled. ANTONYMS: cordial: (adj) genial, warm, affable, sanction, support, favor; (v) allow,
(adj) unfamiliar, oblivious, amiable, friendly, genuine, ardent, tolerate, uphold. ANTONYMS: (v)
inexperienced unaffected, gracious, honest; (n) reject, oppose, discourage,
converse: (n, v) chat, discourse, liqueur. ANTONYMS: (adj) disapprove, prohibit
argue; (v) confer, confabulate, speak; unfriendly, stern, cold, cool, countenanced: (adj) aided
(n) conversation, colloquy, contrast; disagreeable, aloof, reserved, distant, counterfeit: (adj, n, v) sham; (n, v)
(adj, n) opposite; (adj) counter. rude, uncordial, unpleasant copy, duplicate; (adj, v) mock,
ANTONYMS: (adj, n) equal; (adj) cords: (n) trousers, bands, line, falsify; (adj) false, artificial,
similar, complementary; (n) strings, corduroys, raised bands assumed; (adj, n) imitation; (v) forge,
similarity corn: (n) clavus, cereals, Zea Mays, ape. ANTONYMS: (adj) genuine,
convert: (v) alter, change, adapt, callus, wheat, Indian corn, callosity, real, authentic, true, actual; (n)
reform, commute, invert, transform, grain; (v) feed, keep; (adj, n) original
switch, exchange, turn; (n) proselyte. commonplace counterpoise: (n) balance,
ANTONYMS: (v) remain, persist, corrected: (adj) amended, reformed, equilibration, poise, equilibrium,
keep, hold, stay purified, educated, altered, equipoise; (n, v) counterweight; (v)
convey: (v) communicate, channel, chastened, disciplined offset, counteract, compensate,
bring, conduct, transfer, fetch, correcting: (n) amendment, countervail; (adj) ballast
express, transmit, bear, transport, correction, rectification, adjustment, counts: (adj) details, particulars,
take. ANTONYMS: (v) keep, compensation, reading items
maintain, withhold, retain, refrain, corrosion: (n) erosion, corroding, courser: (n) shorebird, steed, hunter,
hold, absorb, receive decay, deterioration, canker, rot, thoroughbred, palfrey, nag,
conveyed: (v) borne, sent rust, attrition, wear, putrefaction, Galloway, blood horse, beast of
convince: (v) persuade, convert, sway, impairment burden, beast; (adj) eagle
reassure, prevail on, induce, entice, corrupt: (adj, v) adulterate, taint, courteous: (adj, v) civil; (adj) affable,
argue, convict, win over; (adj, v) infect, rotten, canker; (adj, n, v) attentive, gracious, decorous,
satisfy. ANTONYMS: (v) discourage, contaminate, poison; (v) bribe, chivalrous, bland, thoughtful,
repel debase, defile; (adj) impure. urbane, mannerly, gentlemanly.
convincing: (adj) cogent, forceful, ANTONYMS: (adj) moral, pure, ANTONYMS: (adj) rude, impolite,
persuasive, compelling, believable, principled, ethical, honorable, boorish, insulting, unmannerly,
probable, impressive, likely, credible, wholesome, virtuous, uncorrupt, gruff, improper, vulgar, unhelpful,
valid, plausible. ANTONYMS: (adj) truthful; (v) purify; (adj, v) clean neglectful, graceless
weak, unrealistic, unpersuasive, corrupted: (adj) tainted, rotten, courtesy: (adj, n) civility,
questionable, dubious, doubtful, spoiled, degraded, adulterated, complaisance; (n) propriety,
unbelievable, disputable, inaccurate, depraved, distorted, decayed, chivalry, comity, politeness,
hesitant, unreliable impaired, debased; (n) corrupter. gallantry, decency, attention,
convulsions: (n) convulsion, spasm, ANTONYM: (adj) pure breeding, etiquette. ANTONYMS:
epilepsy, eclampsia, mirth corruption: (n) depravity, pollution, (n) rudeness, discourtesy,
copious: (adj) bountiful, ample, adulteration, filth, infection, unkindness, informality,
affluent, plentiful, rich, plenteous, vitiation, taint, bribery, canker, impoliteness, disservice,
much, many, generous, large; (adj, blight, foulness. ANTONYMS: (n) brusqueness, incivility, vulgarity,
n) luxuriant. ANTONYMS: (adj) purification, incorruptness, decency, crudeness, neglect
small, meager, sparse, lacking, rare, honesty, morality, pureness, courtier: (n) aristocrat, official,
scant, scanty, thin, few; (adv) incorruption, purity, righteousness, attendant, suckling
Jonathan Swift 327
courtly: (adj) civil, stately, polite, diploma, background, identification, merciful, gentle, sympathetic,
elegant, gallant, dignified, respectful, card, warrant, voucher humane, liberal, compassionate,
noble, formal; (adj, n) refined; (adv) credited: (adj) accredited, accepted. charitable, friendly, caring,
wooly. ANTONYMS: (adj) boorish, ANTONYM: (adj) unofficial considerate, libertarian
rude, unrefined, unpolished, uncivil, credulity: (n) credulousness, cruelly: (adv) harshly, ferociously,
churlish, impolite, rough trustingness, trust, innocence, fiercely, viciously, inhumanly,
courtship: (n) courting, wooing, love, trustfulness, faith, lack of caution, mercilessly, pitilessly, heartlessly,
bundling, the soft impeachment, navet, unwariness, acceptance. roughly, unkindly; (adj, adv) bitterly.
prayer, entreaty, gallantry, ANTONYM: (n) wariness ANTONYMS: (adv) kindly,
addresses, cause, affection creek: (n) brook, cove, bay, stream, mercifully, sympathetically, tamely,
coverlet: (n) blanket, bedspread, inlet, river, bayou, rivulet; (v) burn, peacefully, humanely,
cover, bedcover, bed cover, runnel, beck compassionately, sensitively,
tarpaulin, drugget, coverlid, spread, creep: (v) grovel, sneak, steal, fawn, respectfully, innocently, genially
mantle, quilt lurk, truckle, cringe; (n) creeping, cruelty: (n) brutality, cruelness,
covetous: (adj) avid, envious, greedy, crawling, toady, sycophant. oppression, barbarity, ferociousness,
grasping, acquisitive, miserly, ANTONYMS: (v) race, dash, hasten, tyranny, violence, atrocity, ferocity,
hungry, jealous; (adj, n) desirous; hurry, speed, fly mercilessness, harshness.
(adj, v) sordid, mercenary. creeping: (n) creep, crawl, ANTONYMS: (n) compassion,
ANTONYMS: (adj) giving, locomotion, spreading; (v) lentor; gentleness, friendliness, humanity,
benevolent, sharing (adj) reptile, slow, reptant, reptatory, benevolence, sensitivity, liberty,
cowardice: (n) dastardliness, serpiginous, moving decency
poltroonery, pusillanimity, fear, crest: (n, v) crown, top, peak, climax; crumbled: (adj) rotten, fragmented
spirit, cravenness, timidity, (n) summit, brow, cockscomb, acme, crust: (n) skin, peel, bark, cheekiness,
fearfulness, base fear, cowardship. pinnacle, zenith; (v) cap. gall, impertinence, covering, shell,
ANTONYMS: (n) nerve, bravery, ANTONYMS: (n) base, bottom, cortex, coating, encrustation
daring, determination nadir, trough crying: (adj, v) exigent, instant,
cowardly: (adj, adv) dastardly, scared, crier: (n) herald, town crier, bellman, pressing, urgent; (adj) insistent,
shrinking; (adj) timid, afraid, craven, announcer, weeper, trumpeter, clamant, imperative, blatant; (n)
gutless, sneaky, fainthearted, faint; roarer, pursuivant, unfortunate, weeping; (v) weep; (adj, n) sniveling
(adv) recreantly. ANTONYMS: (adj, messenger, yeller cucumbers: (n) melon vine, melon,
adv) brave, daring, bold, critic: (n, v) judge; (n) commentator, Cucumis, cantaloupes
courageous; (adj) intrepid, fearless, censor, reviewer, evaluator, pundit, cudgel: (n) bludgeon, truncheon,
strong, determined; (adv) dauntless, appraiser, critique, criticiser, stick, staff, switch, mace, baton; (v)
gutsy, unafraid censurer; (adj) critical. ANTONYMS: beat, bat, hit, drub
cows: (n) cattle, cow, bull, ox, oxen, (n) advocate, backer, champion, fan culled: (adj) preferred, assorted
Bos Taurus, bullock, beef, Cowes, crop: (adj, v) clip, reap, shave; (v) cultivate: (v) civilize, educate, train,
steer, milker browse, top, graze, cultivate, cut; (n, produce, polish, farm, crop, develop,
cradle: (n) cot, birthplace, nursery, v) fruit, harvest; (n) craw domesticate, raise; (adj, v) promote.
berth, crib, nest, hammock, bassinet, crowded: (adj) compact, congested, ANTONYMS: (v) neglect, sterilize,
origin; (v) hold, groundwork full, packed, busy, dense, populous, brutalize, stunt, retard, pollute,
crammed: (adj) packed, full, jammed, cramped, tight; (adj, n) ignore, harm, discourage
overcrowded, chock-full, stuffed, thronged. ANTONYMS: (adj) sparse, cultivated: (adj) cultured, refined,
jammed, brimming, congested, deserted, uncrowded, loose tame, educated, sophisticated,
overflowing, saturated, teeming crowding: (n) plough crowding, elegant, urbane, polished,
cranny: (n) crack, chink, crevice, bunch, jostlement, overcrowding accomplished, civil, polite.
fissure, gap, chap, opening, hole, crowned: (adj) laureled, fulfilled, ANTONYMS: (adj) wild, untamed,
recess, fracture, interstice browbound, incoronate, successful uncouth, coarse, graceless
craunch: (v) crunch, bite, beat, champ, crucifix: (n) cross, beads, pyx, pax, cumbersome: (adj) bulky, unwieldy,
press, nibble, mumble, crumble, thurible, patera, relics, censer, heavy, hefty, weighty, clumsy,
disintegrate, gnaw, masticate Agnus Dei, front vertical lever, host burdensome, inconvenient, inept,
crawl: (adv, v) grovel, lag; (n, v) crudeness: (n) roughness, crudity, onerous; (adj, v) cumbrous.
clamber, climb; (v) sneak, fawn, coarseness, vulgarity, impoliteness, ANTONYMS: (adj) manageable,
cringe, teem, swarm, scramble, inch. inelegance, wild, barbarity, rawness, light, graceful, insubstantial, small
ANTONYMS: (v) fly, rush, hurry, harshness, unripeness. cunning: (adj) crafty, canny, adroit,
hasten, dart, dash, lead, soothe, ANTONYMS: (n) decency, wily, sly, shrewd, tricky, artful; (n)
speed refinement, complexity, craftiness, craft, cleverness.
crawling: (adj, n) creeping; (n) creep, sophistication, classiness, ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, honest,
itch; (adj) slow, teeming, thick, smoothness stupid, unimaginative, gullible,
swarming, reptant, populous, cruel: (adj, v) hard, harsh, sharp, ingenuous, straightforward, candid,
packed, moving severe; (adj) barbarous, unkind, sincere; (n) frankness,
credentials: (n) certificate, papers, brutal, bloody, bitter, savage, straightforwardness
credential, commission, document, atrocious. ANTONYMS: (adj) cunningly: (adv) craftily, artfully,
cleverly, ingeniously, trickily, roller, column, spool, container, daytime: (n) day, afternoon, period,
shrewdly, astutely, insidiously, bottle, cask; (adj) cylindroid eve, daylight hours, Clarence
smartly, foxily, slipperily. damaging: (adj) destructive, Shepard day Jr, Clarence day, light,
ANTONYMS: (adv) ineptly, openly mischievous, detrimental, hurtful, eventide, evening. ANTONYM: (n)
cupola: (adj, n) dome; (adj) turret, injurious, prejudicial, bad, night
column, campanile, tower, minaret; unhealthy, disadvantageous, dazzled: (adj) confused, dazzle,
(n) furnace, eaves, balcony, cupola deleterious, pernicious. bewildered, blind, blinder,
furnace, lookout ANTONYMS: (adj) helpful, fascinated, unsighted
curb: (n, v) control, limit, bridle; (v) beneficial, favorable, healthy, benign, deadly: (adj, adv) deathly; (adj)
restrict, suppress, contain, conquer, advantageous baneful, lethal, fatal, destructive,
restrain, confine; (adv, v) moderate; dancing: (n) choreography, mortal, pernicious, virulent, toxic;
(n) kerb. ANTONYMS: (v) Terpsichore, saltation, break (adv) lifelessly, lethally.
encourage, push, help, foster, spur, dancing, ceremonial dance, ANTONYMS: (adj) interesting,
assist, aid, unbridle, facilitate; (n) galloping, hoofing, Pavan; (adj) uplifting, readable, mild, healthy,
incentive, encouragement morrice; (adv) adance; (v) saltant healthful, benign, innocuous,
cure: (n, v) correct, medicine, help; (n) dapple: (n, v) spot; (n) speckle, patch, exciting
antidote, salve, therapy, treatment; maculation, flake; (v) variegate, deafened: (adj) dead, deaf corn,
(v) treat, pickle, preserve, restore. mottle, cloud, blotch; (adj) speckled, stunned, deadened
ANTONYMS: (n) poison; (v) injure, brindled dealings: (n) business, dealing,
hurt, harm, wound, damage, daring: (adj, n) bold, courageous, relations, traffic, proceedings,
exacerbate adventurous; (adj) audacious, transaction, affairs, contact,
cured: (adj) recovered, corned, aged, venturesome, intrepid; (n) bravery, intercourse, trade, communication
mellow, whole, better, pickle cured, audacity, boldness, courage, dearth: (n) shortage, famine, want,
salted, vulcanised, well, vulcanized adventurousness. ANTONYMS: (n) deficiency, lack, scarcity, paucity,
curing: (n) hardening, ageing, drying, cowardice, timidity; (adj) timid, scarceness, scantiness, rarity,
rectification, vulcanization, cautious, dull, afraid, chicken, shortfall. ANTONYMS: (n)
preservation; (adj) curative, fearful, unadventurous, wimpy abundance, excess, glut, plenty,
remedial, corrective, comforting, darkened: (adj) darkens, obscured, plethora, sufficiency, surplus,
medicinal old, obfuscate, murky, cloudy, supply
curiosity: (n) curiousness, rarity, opaque, overcast debased: (adj) degraded, low,
interest, curio, oddity, prying, darling: (adj, n) beloved, pet, favorite, adulterated, base, degenerate,
nosiness, peculiarity, novelty, sweet; (adj) costly, cute, pretty; (adj, depraved, debauched, decadent,
marvel; (adj, n) prodigy. v) precious; (n) love, deary, angel. perverted, corrupted, impure.
ANTONYMS: (n) emotionlessness, ANTONYMS: (n) foe, rival ANTONYM: (adj) moral
indifference, disinterest darting: (adj) arrowy, moving; (v) debauched: (adj) corrupt, fast, rakish,
cursed: (adj) damned, doomed, Sally dissipated, depraved, licentious,
execrable, cussed, wretched, darts: (n) board game, game of dart profligate, immoral, degenerate,
unlucky, accursed, blamed, blasted, dash: (adj, n, v) rush; (n, v) touch, libertine, lewd. ANTONYMS: (adj)
confounded; (v) accurst. sprint, strike, splash, jog; (v) dart, upright, redeemed, purified, pure,
ANTONYMS: (adj) commendable, break; (n) tinge, beat; (adj, n) cleansed, chaste, clean, innocent
honorable, nice, sweet, kine animation. ANTONYMS: (v) dawdle, decay: (adj, n, v) decline; (v)
curses: (n) abuse inspirit, languish, saunter, decompose, crumble, corrupt; (n, v)
cushion: (n, v) pad, buffer; (v) encourage, linger; (n) stagnation, blight, ebb, rust, collapse; (n)
insulate, soften, protect, bolster, languor, listlessness, mass, dullness decomposition, corruption,
mollify; (n) shock absorber, mat, dashed: (v) ashamed, cut up, sunk; disintegration. ANTONYMS: (v)
pincushion; (adj, n) wadding. (adj) broken, done for, dejected, flourish, grow, thrive, strengthen,
ANTONYMS: (v) harm, hurt, injure, discouraged, dotted ripen, develop; (n) vigor,
exacerbate, expose dashing: (adj) stylish, dapper, gallant, development
custody: (n, v) detention, keep; (n) showy, smart, snappy, impetuous, decayed: (adj) spoiled, corrupt,
confinement, charge, captivity, care, rakish, raffish, brave; (adj, n) spruce. dilapidated, rank, rusty, rotting,
security, protection, hold, storage, ANTONYMS: (adj) boring, unstylish, decaying, rotted, putrid; (adj, v)
retention. ANTONYMS: (n) freedom, dull, bumbling, bland, awkward, wasted; (v) stale. ANTONYMS: (adj)
liberation, liberty drab, graceless matured, restored, strengthened
custom: (n) habit, convention, usage, daubed: (adj) beplastered, covered, deceived: (adj) mistaken, misguided
practice, consuetude, fashion, greasy deceiving: (adj) deceptive, deceitful,
method, mores; (n, v) use, accustom; daubing: (n) coating, application, cheating, fallacious, dishonest, lying,
(adj) bespoke. ANTONYMS: (n) fad, daubry, dubbing, pargeting, treacherous, imposing, delusive,
innovation, phenomenon, rage, covering sanctimonious, mistaken.
rarity daunted: (adj) downcast, dispirited, ANTONYM: (adj) correct
cycloid: (adj) cycloidal, rounded; (n) discouraged, frightened, intimidated, decency: (n) dignity, modesty,
ellipsoid, trochoid, curate cycloid disheartened, dismayed, afraid, decorum, kindness, morality,
cylinder: (n) barrel, roll, pipe, tube, abashed, bashful, discomposed courtesy, correctness, goodness,
Jonathan Swift 329
virtue, respectability, propriety. (v) uphold, remain, join, embrace develop, flourish, recuperate, uplift,
ANTONYMS: (n) indecency, defective: (adj) bad, faulty, imperfect, upgrade
offensiveness, corruption, broken, lacking, incomplete, degenerated: (adj) kinky, shabby,
immorality, wickedness, unsound, vicious, inaccurate, rotten, crumbly
unsuitability, unkindness, rudeness, wanting. ANTONYMS: (adj) sound, degrading: (adj) shameful, debasing,
impropriety, badness, nastiness flawless, unbroken, adequate, intact, derogatory, humiliating,
decipher: (v) interpret, explain, solve, capable, dependable, fine dishonorable, ignominious,
decode, translate, disentangle, defectiveness: (n) inadequacy, disgraceful, corrupting, vile,
resolve, construe, read, decrypt, bugginess, imperfectness, fault, scandalous; (n) infra dignitatem.
discover. ANTONYMS: (v) encode, imperfection, defect, incompleteness, ANTONYMS: (adj) humane,
code, encipher, scramble, confuse failing, failure, incompetence reputable
decipherer: (n) cryptographer defended: (adj) shielded, secured, dejected: (adj) sad, depressed, low,
decisive: (adj) conclusive, crucial, watched over, secure, sacred downhearted, gloomy, down,
critical, decided, important, final, defending: (v) defend; (adj) caring, unhappy, spiritless, sorrowful,
authoritative; (adj, v) positive, shielding, protective, opposed, miserable, melancholy.
definite, categorical, unqualified. protecting; (n) patrol ANTONYMS: (adj) elated, happy,
ANTONYMS: (adj) uncertain, weak, deficient: (adj) wanting, inadequate, euphoric, joyous, encouraged,
unsure, roundabout, questionable, scanty, imperfect, short, scarce, less, positive, enthusiastic, hopeful
indefinite, unconvincing, lacking, low, meager, insufficient. deliberating: (adj) deliberative,
inconsequential, inconclusive, ANTONYMS: (adj) sufficient, pondering
hesitant, insignificant perfect, ample, flawless, enough, delicious: (adj, v) delicate; (adj)
deck: (v) clothe, embellish, beautify, excessive, complete, present, sound, tasteful, pleasing, delightful,
bedeck, ornament, array, attire, strong, confident appetizing, agreeable, sweet,
dress, decorate, grace; (n, v) floor. defile: (adj, v) debauch, pollute, stain, toothsome, savory, enjoyable, dainty.
ANTONYMS: (v) strip, unclothe sully; (v) corrupt, contaminate, foul, ANTONYMS: (adj) tasteless,
declare: (v) advertise, assert, allege, taint, tarnish, infect; (n, v) soil. distasteful, yucky, unsavory,
attest, aver, admit, acknowledge, ANTONYMS: (v) purify, consecrate, unpleasant, unappetizing, revolting,
proclaim, avow; (n, v) affirm, say. conserve, honor, respect, sanctify, nauseating, inedible, gross, dry
ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, revoke, cleanse, praise delightful: (adj) delicious, delectable,
suppress, retract, repress, disclaim, deformed: (adj) distorted, misshapen, charming, pleasing, grateful, blissful,
withhold, request, refute, block bent, malformed, ugly, crippled, amiable, adorable, lovely, nice,
declensions: (adj) moods contorted, warped, shapeless, gorgeous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
declining: (adj) deteriorating, twisted, deform. ANTONYMS: (adj) unpleasant, unwelcome, hateful,
decreasing, waning, falling, down, beautiful, flawless, unflawed, miserable, unhappy, unappealing,
decadent, fading, lessening, perfect, straight horrific, horrible, disagreeable,
diminishing, sloping; (n) decrease. deformity: (n) malformation, depressing, annoying
ANTONYMS: (adj) thriving, disfigurement, defect, blemish, delighting: (adj) satisfactory,
burgeoning, growing disfiguration, defacement, disability, attractive
declivity: (n) decline, fall, downhill, abnormality, distortion, clubfoot; delineate: (v) draw, line, describe,
downgrade, incline, dip, slope; (n, v) (adj, n) irregularity sketch, represent, characterize, draft,
gradient; (v) acclivity, ascent, bank defray: (v) disburse, reimburse, clear, paint, delimit, outline; (n, v) design.
decree: (n, v) command, award, rule, remunerate, make payment, cover, ANTONYM: (v) expand
act, will, dictate; (v) decide, enact, redeem, meet, spend, liquidate, deliverance: (n) salvation, rescue,
ordain; (n) edict, decision satisfy release, freedom, escape,
decreed: (adj) appointed, lawful, defy: (n, v) dare; (v) brave, resist, emancipation, delivery, relief,
prescribed, legal, inevitable, ignore, confront, revolt, oppose, liberation, liberty, salvage.
appointive withstand, disobey, contradict; (n) ANTONYMS: (n) downfall,
deducible: (adj, v) inferential, defiance. ANTONYMS: (v) obey, suppression
following; (adj) deductive, acquiesce, surrender, yield, comply, delivering: (adv) deliverly; (n)
consequential, consectary, logical, accept childbirth, presentation; (adj)
deductible, dogmatic, demonstrable, degeneracy: (n) corruption, depravity, unfailing
consequent decadence, degeneration, decline, demeanour: (n) behavior, behaviour,
deepest: (adj) inmost, center, cordial, debasement, decay, degenerateness, conduct, demeanor, comportment,
earnest, genuine, hearty, warm, depravation, immorality; (adj, n) deportment, manner, citizenship,
sincere, innermost. ANTONYM: meanness. ANTONYMS: (n) correctitude, carriage, attitude
(adj) outermost morality, purity, righteousness demesne: (n) estate, manor, fief, feoff,
defect: (adj, n) blemish, imperfection, degenerate: (adj) corrupt, debauched, field, realm, homestead, dominion,
infirmity; (n) flaw, blot, shortcoming, depraved, dissolute; (v) decay, region, land, archduchy
weakness, deficiency, scar, failing, degrade, relapse, decline, drop, rot; denote: (adj, n, v) declare; (adj, v)
dearth. ANTONYMS: (n) strength, (adj, n) profligate. ANTONYMS: express; (v) indicate, imply, mean,
merit, faultlessness, excellence, (adj) upright, honorable, moral, point, demonstrate, stand for, spell;
capability, enhancement, perfection; healthy, virtuous, regenerate; (v) (n, v) betoken, signify. ANTONYM:
(v) connote come down. ANTONYMS: (v) cheerfulness
depart: (v) go, deviate, decease, ascend, climb, float, scale, increase, despair: (n) disappointment,
diverge, start, stray, wander, leave, level, mount desolation, dejection, melancholy,
die, vary, part. ANTONYMS: (v) descended: (v) extraught gloom, desperation, depression,
stay, arrive, enter, come, abide, descending: (v) descend; (adj) dismay, discouragement, pessimism,
conform, continue, remain, appear, downhill, down, descendent, sorrow. ANTONYMS: (n) happiness,
converge, return decreasing, dropping, falling, hopefulness, expectation, joy, cheer,
dependence: (n) belief, confidence, sloping, degressive, occasive; (adv) cheerfulness, resilience, elation,
addiction, dependance, faith, downward. ANTONYM: (adj) joyfulness
dependency, credence, hope, upward despatch: (n) shipment, expedition,
subordination, trust; (adj) descent: (adj, n) ancestry; (n) decline, communique, mission, consignment,
contingency. ANTONYMS: (n) birth, fall, declivity, declination, sending, forwarding; (v) transmit,
abstinence, distrust declension, drop, pedigree, blood, expedite, quicken, send
deplorable: (adj) sad, wretched, derivation. ANTONYMS: (n) despicable: (adj) vile, base,
criminal, calamitous, abominable, improvement, rise, hike, upgrade, abominable, mean, abject, miserable,
pitiful, lamentable, miserable, elevation, boost, ascension, gradient dishonorable, filthy, dirty, hateful,
regrettable, sorry; (adj, v) woeful. descriptions: (n) images ignoble. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (adj) acceptable, deserve: (v) rate, warrant, gain, earn, honorable, creditable, praiseworthy,
pleasing, laudable, happy, cheerful, to deserve, demand, justify, bear; (n, worthy, noble, loveable, likable,
admirable, agreeable, excellent, v) reward; (n) richly deserve, worth laudable, endearing, commendable,
fortunate, praiseworthy deserved: (v) merited, richly lovable
deportment: (n, v) bearing, demeanor, deserved; (adj) appropriate, due, despise: (v) disdain, loathe,
conduct, carriage; (n) manner, fitting, just, earned, suitable, rightful, depreciate, abhor, dislike, detest,
attitude, demeanour, behaviour, adequate, required slight, hate; (n, v) contemn; (n)
comportment, dealing, air deservedly: (adv) justly, condignly, contempt, deride. ANTONYMS: (v)
depose: (v) overthrow, depone, aver, worthily, rightfully, rightly, right, respect, love, adore, appreciate,
swear, oust, displace, asseverate, justifiably, by merit, correctly, fairly, cherish, like, praise, accept
witness, dismiss, remove; (n) testify. becomingly despised: (adj) scorned, despicable,
ANTONYMS: (v) install, crown, deserving: (adj) meritorious, hated, abject, disparaged, mean,
inaugurate, seat, empower, restore admirable, creditable, commendable, attaching disgrace, unpopular,
depressed: (adj) low, blue, dejected, laudable, fit, good, deserved, unloved, reviled, opprobrious
sad, dispirited, downhearted, condign; (v) deserve, worthy of. desponding: (adj) despairing,
downcast, down, gloomy, hollow, ANTONYMS: (adj) unworthy, despondent
disappointed. ANTONYMS: (adj) undeserving, unimpressive destiny: (n) fate, chance, fortune,
cheerful, happy, convex, booming, desired: (adj) coveted, desirable, kismet, luck, lot, destination, portion,
elated, encouraged, euphoric, favorite, wanted, welcome, needed, weird, life; (n, v) doom.
exhilarated, flourishing, optimistic, beloved, required, most wanted; (adj, ANTONYMS: (n) chance, design
prospering v) chosen; (v) consenting destroying: (v) destroy; (adj) deadly,
deprive: (v) divest, bereave, despoil, desires: (n) requirements, needs deleterious, murderous; (n) disposal
denude, deny, rob, dispossess, desiring: (adj) envious, insatiable, destructive: (adj) deadly, hurtful,
dismantle, starve; (adj, v) abridge, desirous, eager; (adv) fleshly malign, injurious, fatal, mischievous,
curtail. ANTONYMS: (v) provide, desirous: (adj) wistful, avid, noxious, pernicious, harmful, evil,
present, offer, indulge, give, endow, ambitious, greedy, longing, eager, baleful. ANTONYMS: (adj)
appropriate, supply, add hungry, covetous, envious, agog; constructive, creative, productive,
deprived: (adj) bereft, poor, destitute, (adj, v) willing. ANTONYMS: (adj) building, aiding, assisting, helpful,
depressed, needy, broke, bankrupt, undesirous, reluctant, undesiring, positive, preserving, benign
denuded, humble, indigent, unconcerned detecting: (n) spotting, investigation,
insolvent. ANTONYMS: (adj) rich, desolate: (adj, v) desert, forlorn; (adj) catching, detective work, sleuthing,
exalted, salubrious bare, barren, alone, bleak, deserted, police investigation, hearing; (adj)
derivation: (n) ancestry, origin, birth, cheerless, disconsolate; (v) devastate, observant
extraction, source, cause, lineage, destroy. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, determinate: (adj) definitive,
derivative, foundation, descent, inhabited, happy, sheltered, mobbed, conclusive, certain, clear, special,
etymology. ANTONYMS: (n) result, overcrowded, ecstatic, hopeful; (v) decided, final, fixed; (v) absolute,
outgrowth create, construct, build unqualified, express. ANTONYM:
descant: (n) song, melody, hymn, desolation: (n) devastation, misery, (adj) indeterminate
strain, tune; (v) sing, warble, destruction, depression, grief, determining: (adj) crucial, deciding,
amplify; (n, v) discourse; (adj) wretchedness, bleakness, loneliness, conclusive, determinate, certain,
enlarge, dilate waste, ruin; (adj, n) desertion. definite, decisive, fixed, terminative;
descartes: (n) Rene Descartes ANTONYMS: (n) ecstasy, joy, (v) determine; (n) terminer
descend: (v) settle, condescend, productiveness, fertileness, detestable: (adj) hateful, abhorrent,
down, drop, deign, subside, go fecundity, cheer, fruitfulness, damnable, odious, offensive,
down, dismount, derive, get off, preservation, hopefulness, despicable, execrable, horrible,
Jonathan Swift 331
infamous; (adj, v) cursed; (adj, adv) inexperience, ineptness, inaccuracy n) decency. ANTONYMS: (n)
atrocious. ANTONYMS: (adj) dexterous: (adj) adept, deft, skillful, lowliness, indecency, impropriety,
admirable, adorable, sweet, loveable, expert, clever, able, agile, cunning, simplicity, cheerfulness, austerity
lovable, likable, delightful, handy, neat; (adj, v) crafty. digression: (n, v) deviation,
cherished, honorable, desirable, nice ANTONYMS: (adj) inept, awkward, diversion; (n) departure, aside,
detestation: (n) abomination, hatred, uncoordinated, incompetent, useless excursion, divagation, aberrance,
odium, antipathy, aversion, dexterously: (adv) adroitly, skillfully, deflection, deflexion, divergence,
repulsion, dislike, execration, expertly, craftily, skilfully, difference. ANTONYMS: (n)
loathing, revulsion; (n, v) hate. dextrously, handily, cleverly, consistency, uniformity, regularity
ANTONYM: (n) adoration proficiently, aptly; (adj, adv) readily. diligence: (n) assiduity, industry,
detract: (v) depreciate, defame, ANTONYMS: (adv) ineptly, attention, application, assiduousness,
derogate, deprecate, traduce, incompetently, awkwardly concentration, activity, perseverance,
disparage, lose, cut, slander, dialect: (n) language, speech, carefulness, sedulity,
subtract, damage. ANTONYMS: (v) vernacular, tongue, accent, lingo, industriousness. ANTONYMS: (n)
increase, heighten, enhance conversation, say, talk, patois, carelessness, indolence, feebleness,
devilishly: (adv) diabolically, phraseology slackness, negligence, sloth
satanically, infernally, devilish, diameter: (n) calibre, bore, width, diligent: (adj) busy, active, assiduous,
hellishly, demoniacally, madly, diam, radius, breadth, diameters, painstaking, careful, earnest,
wickedly; (adj, adv) deucedly; (adj) thickness, windage, diametral, studious, attentive, laborious,
desperately, confoundedly length industrious, zealous. ANTONYMS:
devote: (n, v) apply, destine, give, diamond: (n) lozenge, infield, square, (adj) careless, negligent, dilatory,
assign, vow; (v) consecrate, dedicate, rhombus, rectangle, ball field, idle, inactive, languid, slack,
commit, appropriate, allot; (n) carbonado, baseball diamond; (adj) sluggish, lethargic, weary, indolent
devotion. ANTONYMS: (v) brilliant, jewel, bijou diligently: (adv) busily, assiduously,
withhold, refuse diamonds: (n) hearts, ice, spades, sedulously, attentively,
devoted: (adj, v) addicted, ardent, sparkler, clubs industriously, earnestly, actively,
fond; (adj) affectionate, constant, dictate: (n, v) command, charge, laboriously, tirelessly, carefully,
loyal, pious, faithful, reliable, order, decree; (n) bidding, behest, studiously. ANTONYMS: (adv)
zealous; (adj, prep) consecrated. edict; (v) bid, prescribe, rule, ordain. wearily, hastily
ANTONYMS: (adj) disloyal, ANTONYMS: (v) request, ask, dimensions: (n) size, capacity,
indifferent, unfaithful, neglectful, record; (n, v) obey volume, magnitude, extent,
uncaring, unenthusiastic, dictated: (adj) set, hard-and-fast, measurement, shape, range,
unattached, lukewarm, inconstant, compulsive; (n) contumely, physique, gauge, figure
halfhearted, disobedient blameworthy, abuse diminish: (v) decline, abate, abridge,
devotion: (n) allegiance, attachment, differ: (v) disagree, contradict, clash, deduct, dwindle, detract, fall,
dedication, loyalty, worship, diverge, deviate, depart, difference, depreciate; (adj, v) lessen; (adj, n, v)
affection, enthusiasm, fondness, discrepancy, conflict, vary, contrast. degrade; (n, v) reduce.
devotedness; (adj, n) veneration, ANTONYMS: (v) correspond, ANTONYMS: (v) grow, compliment,
passion. ANTONYMS: (n) disloyalty, concur, conform, match, resemble, supplement, rise, recognize, prolong,
negligence, apathy, disobedience, harmonize, equal, consent, accord, praise, flatter, expand, enlarge,
neglect, hatred, separation, accede, support congratulate
dishonesty, infidelity differing: (adj) divergent, opposite, diminished: (adj) abated, weakened,
devour: (v) eat, bolt, gulp, demolish, disagreeing, different, diverse, lessened, atrophied, belittled,
guzzle, swallow, gorge, ingurgitate, heretical, dissonant, dissentaneous, attenuate, reduced, lower,
gobble, use up, absorb. discrepant; (adv) differingly; (n) attenuated, cut, short
ANTONYMS: (v) avoid, abstain, divergence. ANTONYMS: (adj) diminishing: (adj) abating, declining,
regurgitate, nibble, fast, sip similar, parallel dwindling, lessening, waning; (n)
devoured: (adj) eaten up diffused: (adj) spread, dispersed, dim, decrease, shrinking, reducing,
devout: (adj) pious, devoted, saintly, distributed, softened reduction; (adv) diminishingly; (v)
heartfelt, holy, dear, devotional, digested: (adj) mature, digestible diminish. ANTONYMS: (adj)
hearty, earnest; (adj, v) pure; (adj, n) digestion: (n, v) concoction; (n) increasing, growing, burgeoning
godly. ANTONYMS: (adj) assimilation, chemical change, diminution: (n, v) decrease, decline;
irreligious, agnostic, impious, coction, biological process, chemical (n) deduction, reduction, abatement,
irreverent, unbelieving, undevout, process, disgestion; (v) classification, cut, contraction, rebate, decrement,
unholy, atheistic, secular, analysis, clustering; (adj) digestive curtailment, declension.
uncommitted digging: (n) excavation, excavating, ANTONYMS: (n) growth, expansion,
dexterity: (n) agility, cleverness, digs, dug, excavate, take, locality, restoration, enlargement
ability, aptitude, skill, deftness, mining, barb, creating by removal, diminutive: (adj) minute, Lilliputian,
expertise; (adj, n) art, cunning; (n, v) attack reception small, petite, tiny, bantam, baby,
adroitness, address. ANTONYMS: dignity: (n) degree, prestige, glory, exiguous, short, miniature, midget.
(n) clumsiness, awkwardness, decorum, face, distinction, honor, ANTONYMS: (adj) big, huge,
ineptitude, inability, uselessness, majesty, eminence, solemnity; (adj, gigantic, large, giant, tall
dine: (v) feed, lunch, breakfast, comprehend, detect, distinguish, discovering: (adj) observant, oracular
dining, meal, give, have supper, make out, perceive, find, note; (n, v) discreet: (adj) circumspect, prudent,
take tea, grub, consume, entertain. descry; (adj, v) recognize. careful, cautious, chary, discerning,
ANTONYM: (v) abstain ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, neglect, tactful, diplomatic, sensible, politic;
dining: (n) feeding, eating; (v) eat disregard, observe, overlook (adj, v) wise. ANTONYMS: (adj)
dionysius: (n) Dionysius the elder discharge: (n) dismissal; (adj, v) elaborate, tactless, careless,
directing: (adj) guiding, directive, acquit, deliver, bounce; (v) clear, indiscreet, reckless, bold, incautious,
administrative, determinative, complete, eject, absolve, cashier; (n, thoughtless, insensitive, loud,
directional, sovereign, commanding, v) drain; (adj, n, v) burst. obvious
controlling; (n) administration, ANTONYMS: (v) hire, load, hold, disdain: (n, v) despise, contemn,
conducting, conservation detain, convict, delegate, charge, slight, ridicule; (n) contempt,
dirt: (n, v) soil, grime; (n) filth, dust, assign, enlist, incarcerate; (n) derision, arrogance, haughtiness,
scandal, garbage, ground, earth, burdening pride; (v) scoff, disparage.
crap, mire, contamination. discharged: (adj) released, exempt, ANTONYMS: (n) humility,
ANTONYMS: (n) cleanness, purity, clear, freer, free, fired, finished, admiration, reverence, worship,
luxury, cleanliness, newness drained, dismissed, defunct, approval, regard; (v) approve,
disadvantage: (n) deprivation, deadened admire, praise, accept, participate
limitation, loss, inconvenience, discharging: (n) unloading, discharge, diseased: (adj) bad, ailing, sickly,
damage, imperfection, detriment, fulfillment, acquittal; (v) unload unsound, sick, ill, unhealthy,
failing, fault, demerit, losses. discoloured: (adj) faded pathological, infected, unwholesome,
ANTONYMS: (n) benefit, bonus, discompose: (v) confuse, discomfit, infirm. ANTONYMS: (adj) well, fit
value, plus, assistance, gain, help, ruffle, agitate, abash, derange, disengaged: (adj) vacant,
aid, strength disturb, disorder, unsettle, upset, unemployed, disentangled, free,
disagreeable: (adj) nasty, offensive, embarrass. ANTONYMS: (v) freed, untrammelled, devoid,
uncomfortable, distasteful, compose, soothe, alleviate, calm, unreserved, detached, liberated,
cantankerous, cross, ungrateful, quiet, settle loosened
abhorrent, horrible, bad, painful. discomposed: (adj) disturbed, disgrace: (adj, n, v) dishonor; (n, v)
ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, perturbed, doubtful, excited, discredit, shame, stain, blemish, blot,
friendly, amiable, inoffensive, distraught, uncomfortable, fearful slur, reproach; (v) degrade, debase;
acceptable, desirable, easygoing, disconsolate: (adj) inconsolable, blue, (n) degradation. ANTONYMS: (n, v)
happy, pleasing, sweet, nice cheerless, melancholy, dejected, respect, esteem, credit; (v) glorify,
disappointment: (n) anticlimax, depressed, sad, miserable, dark, dignify, praise; (n) merit, grace,
failure, letdown, comedown, crestfallen, gloomy. ANTONYMS: pride, rise, worthiness
frustration, shame, disillusionment, (adj) happy, joyous, euphoric, disgraceful: (adj) dishonorable,
annoyance, dismay, setback, consolable, enthusiastic scandalous, shocking, degrading,
misfortune. ANTONYMS: (n) discontent: (n) disapproval, disreputable, infamous, base,
satisfaction, boost, happiness, discontentment, disaffection, ignominious, outrageous, black,
pleasure, hopefulness, fulfillment, displeasure, disappointment, ignoble. ANTONYMS: (adj)
comfort, idealism, climax, bonus, discontentedness, unrest; (adj) admirable, honorable, reputable,
gratification melancholy, dissatisfied, exalted, commendable, respectable,
disapprobation: (n) condemnation, disgruntled, discontented. noble, glorious
animadversion, displeasure, ANTONYMS: (n) contentment, disguise: (n, v) cloak, mask, conceal,
discountenance, disapproval, blame, pleasure, accord, happiness; (v) masquerade, veil, camouflage, color;
objection, dissatisfaction, disfavor, content; (adj, n) happy; (adj) (n) guise, concealment; (v) hide,
anger, dislike contented dissemble. ANTONYMS: (n)
disapproved: (adj) old-fashioned, discontented: (adj, v) querulous, revelation; (v) unmask, uncover,
contraband, chid complaining; (adj) disaffected, show, expose, display, disclose,
disarmed: (adj) harmless, prostrate disgruntled, malcontent, unsatisfied, clarify, reveal
disbelief: (n) discredit, incredulity, dissatisfied, displeased, miserable, disgust: (n) antipathy, aversion,
doubt, distrust, agnosticism, put out, ungratified. ANTONYMS: abhorrence, abomination,
atheism, misgiving, mistrust, (adj) pleased, satisfied, happy, detestation, dislike, repugnance; (n,
uncertainty, suspicion, wonder. content v) shock, distaste; (v) nauseate,
ANTONYMS: (n) trust, credulity, discouraged: (adj) despondent, displease. ANTONYMS: (n, v)
faith, understanding, certainty downhearted, downcast, delight; (n) love, attraction, liking,
disburdened: (adj) disembarrassed, demoralized, dejected, dispirited, adoration; (v) attract, allure, charm,
disencumbered, unburdened, disheartened, frustrated, crestfallen, entice, please
unembarrassed pessimistic, depressed. disgusted: (adj) fed up, ill, weary,
discarded: (adj) waste, junked, scrap, ANTONYMS: (adj) uplifted, sickened, nauseated, queasy,
unwanted, unnecessary, useless, heartened, cheered, inspired, indisposed, demented, shocked,
throwaway, surplus, superfluous, cheerful, encouraged, hopeful, crazy, horrified. ANTONYMS: (adj)
unused, obsolete happy, calm, positive, enthusiastic attracted, happy, pleased
discern: (v) differentiate, see, discourses: (n) talks disgustful: (adj) revolting, loathsome,
Jonathan Swift 333
foul, disgusting, distasteful, nasty, dissatisfied, angry, annoyed, compose, tranquilize
nauseous, vile, stinking, sickening, unhappy, peeved, irritated, dissatisfied: (adj) discontent,
filthy disgusted, indignant; (v) pained, disgruntled, disappointed, put out,
dishes: (n) food, meal, crockery, afflicted. ANTONYMS: (adj) displeased, malcontent, grumpy,
dinner service, dishware, menu, contented, satisfied, calm annoyed, disaffected; (adj, v)
plates displeasing: (adj) distasteful, querulous, complaining.
dishonourable: (adj) base, offensive, disagreeable, obnoxious, ANTONYMS: (adj) content,
disgraceful, shabby, dishonest, objectionable, unacceptable, contented, happy, fulfilled, gratified,
sordid, discreditable, ignoble, annoying, unwelcome, contrary; pleased, idealistic
shameful, crooked, opprobrious, (adv) displeasingly; (v) unpleasing. dissect: (n, v) anatomize, scrutinize;
black ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, (v) carve, dismember, cut,
dislike: (n) disapproval, disaffection, agreeable decompose, analyse, cut up,
antipathy, disdain, disfavor, displeasure: (n) resentment, separate, parse, resolve.
revulsion; (n, v) hate, disinclination, discomfort, dissatisfaction, dislike, ANTONYMS: (v) mend, synthesize,
aversion, distaste; (v) detest. discontent, exasperation, disfavor, join
ANTONYMS: (n) liking, fondness, annoyance, offense, pique, dissenting: (adj) dissident, heretical,
taste, attraction, enjoyment, disapproval. ANTONYMS: (n) discordant, profane, unorthodox,
preference, longing; (v) like, enjoy, satisfaction, pleasure, enjoyment, uncooperative, skeptical,
approve, adore happiness, delight, contentment, sacrilegious, recalcitrant; (v)
disliked: (adj) hated, detested, averse, equanimity, approval disagreeing, disagree. ANTONYMS:
lousy, loath, undesirable, dispose: (n, v) incline, order, (adj) conformist, cooperative
companionless. ANTONYMS: (adj) influence; (v) adjust, predispose, dissolved: (adj) adulterate, gone,
popular, liked position, place, lead, tend; (n) bias, liquified, broken
dismissing: (v) dismiss; (n) acquittal, array. ANTONYMS: (v) disturb, distinctly: (adv) clearly, particularly,
denial, dimission disqualify, displace, disorder, evidently, expressly, obviously,
dismount: (v) alight, light, get off, disincline, disarrange markedly, definitely, precisely,
disembark, get down, fall, come disposed: (adj) prone, apt, ready, manifestly, separately, decidedly.
down, unhorse, go down; (adj, v) subject, prepared, liable, game, ANTONYMS: (adv) inaudibly,
dismantle; (adj) dismast. inclined, fain, likely, minded. faintly, vaguely, silently,
ANTONYMS: (v) mount, ascend ANTONYMS: (adj) ailing, imperceptibly, poorly
disobey: (v) violate, defy, infringe, indisposed, unlikely, disinclined, distinguishing: (adj) distinctive,
disregard, contravene, ignore, resist, reluctant, impervious identifying, typical, discriminating,
rebel, breach, transgress, counteract. disposition: (n) attitude, character, specific, distinct, peculiar; (adv)
ANTONYMS: (v) conform, regard, disposal, tendency, predisposition, distinguishingly; (adj, v)
comply, mind, observe, behave, inclination, propensity, bias, discriminative; (v) distinguish; (n)
uphold arrangement, direction, aptitude hearing. ANTONYMS: (adj)
disorder: (n, v) ailment, disarray, dispossess: (v) bereave, divest, common, typical
disease, jumble, muddle; (n) clutter, deprive, eject, rob, disinherit, distorted: (adj) deformed, contorted,
disturbance, disarrangement; (v) remove, expel, evict, expropriate, twisted, misshapen, perverted, wry,
derange, confuse, perturb. oust. ANTONYMS: (v) provide, bent, misrepresented, malformed,
ANTONYMS: (n, v) order; (n) bequeath distort; (adj, adv) awry.
orderliness, calm, peace, tranquility, disputable: (adj, v) debatable, ANTONYMS: (adj) unchanged,
health; (v) organize, align, arrange, questionable; (adj) controversial, distinct, balanced, perfect
systematize, neaten arguable, dubious, moot, distracted: (adj) demented,
disown: (v) disavow, disinherit, contentious, contestable, suspicious; inattentive, abstracted, crazy,
abandon, renounce, disclaim, (v) slippery, precarious. frenzied, distraught, preoccupied,
forsake, refuse, recant, repudiate, ANTONYMS: (adj) unquestionable, distressed, confused; (adj, v) mad,
retract, disallow. ANTONYMS: (v) settled, certain, inarguable, disconcerted. ANTONYMS: (adj)
bequeath, accept, avow, adopt, established, incontrovertible attentive, alert, assured, calm,
admit, claim disputed: (adj) moot, disputable, mellow
dispair: (v) disconnect, disengage, opposed, open to discussion, distress: (n, v) pain, torment, trouble,
despond, disunite, dissociate uncertain, dubious, doubtful, concern, torture, upset, worry; (n)
dispatched: (adj) fulfilled, finished debatable anguish, agony; (adj, n) difficulty,
dispirited: (adj) depressed, disputing: (adj) opposed; (v) grief. ANTONYMS: (n, v) comfort;
disconsolate, downcast, discouraged, disputant (v) please, soothe, relieve; (n) peace,
blue, crestfallen, dismal, down, disquiet: (v) discompose, perturb; (n, encouragement, straightforwardness,
downhearted, disheartened, v) worry, alarm, trouble, disorder, solace, relieving, relief, prosperity
melancholy. ANTONYMS: (adj) dismay, discomfort, concern; (n) distressed: (adj) worried, distraught,
cheerful, optimistic, euphoric, anxiety, apprehension. anxious, sad, disturbed, downcast,
enthused, heartened, happy, ANTONYMS: (n) reassurance, quiet, hurt, distracted, wretched, shocked,
enthusiastic, positive tranquility, serenity, calmness, troubled. ANTONYMS: (adj)
displeased: (adj) disgruntled, optimism; (v) soothe, settle, relax, composed, content, euphoric, happy,
comforted, glad, joyful, collected, ANTONYMS: (adj) imperfect, potation, plan; (n) dose, air current,
unconcerned, unaffected profane, earthly, dreadful, physical, wind, gulp, outline; (v) blueprint
distributive: (adj) scattering, ugly, secular drawer: (n) draftsman, drawers, till,
spreading, distributary, docible: (adj) docile designer, box car, cartoonist,
decentralizing, diffusive, docility: (n) obedience, tractability, commode, engraver, chest, case,
disseminating, disseminative meekness, flexibility, docibleness, locker
disturb: (v) trouble, disorder, submission, deference, humility, dread: (n, v) apprehension, fear,
disconcert, distress, perturb, gentleness, willingness, panic; (n) anxiety, awe,
disquiet, distract, discompose, tractableness consternation, alarm, trepidation,
disrupt, upset, concern. dome: (n) arch, roof, cover, noggin, dismay, foreboding, terror.
ANTONYMS: (v) calm, please, bean, covered stadium, arena, hood, ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing,
soothe, smooth, order, reassure, sort, eaves; (adj) column, campanile welcomed, pleasant; (v) welcome,
settle, respect, quiet, organize dominion: (n) authority, control, want; (n) reassurance, fearlessness,
disturbance: (n, v) commotion, domain, command, reign, rule, sway, confidence, security, ease, calm
brawl; (n) disorder, turmoil, upset, power, kingdom, mastery, dreaded: (adj) awful, terrible,
derangement, dislocation, supremacy. ANTONYM: (n) cowardly, causing horror, dire,
disruption, tumult, din; (adj, n, v) subjugation direful, desperate, dreadful, fearful,
trouble. ANTONYMS: (n) stillness, dose: (n) potion, share, draught, fearsome; (v) drad
peace, satisfaction, serenity, respect, dosage, medicine, batch, doctor, dreadful: (adj) bad, awful, alarming,
accord allotment, measure, shot, portion atrocious, fearful, terrible,
disturbances: (n) turbulence, strife, dotage: (adj, n) fatuity; (n) senility, abominable, appalling, direful,
conflict second childhood, old age, age, grisly; (adj, v) dread. ANTONYMS:
disturbed: (adj, v) concerned; (adj) decrepitude, imbecility, feebleness, (adj) wonderful, great, lovely,
anxious, disquieted, upset, confused, insanity, years; (adj) second fantastic, marvelous, admirable,
worried, restless, disordered, childishness. ANTONYM: (n) successful, nice, joyous, honorable,
unsettled, distressed, turbulent. adolescence fair
ANTONYMS: (adj) rational, relaxed, doubled: (adj) twofold, multiple, dressing: (n) bandage, stuffing,
calm, sane, unaffected, unbroken, doubles, folded, repeated, dual, fertilization, binding, bandaging,
peaceful, stable, carefree, bivalent, reduplicate scolding, fertilizer, manure,
unconcerned, untroubled doubted: (adj) distrusted, suspected compress, preparation, farce
diuretic: (adj) uretic, diuretical, doubting: (adj) doubtful, distrustful, dried: (adj) arid, desiccated,
emictory, urinative; (n) diuretic disbelieving, incredulous, doubt, dehydrated, shriveled, shrunken,
drug, mannitol, chlorothiazide skeptical, suspicious, sceptical, wary, drained, torrid, parched, withered;
diurnal: (adj) journal, quotidian, doubts, distrusting. ANTONYM: (n) drier, dryer
diary, everyday, cyclical, cyclic, (adj) credulous drown: (v) drench, submerge,
ephemeral downs: (n) weary waste, heath, overwhelm, choke, engulf, flood,
diversion: (n) amusement, pampas, wold, wild, waste, veldt, swamp, inundate, suffocate,
entertainment, pastime, deviation, steppe, savanna, prairie asphyxiate; (adj, n, v) sink.
distraction, detour, fun, sport, downward: (adv) underneath, under, ANTONYMS: (v) float, swim,
recreation, digression, deflexion below, downwards, downwardly, amplify, dry
divert: (adj, v) distract; (v) entertain, beneath, down below; (adj) drowned: (adj) prostrate, sunken; (v)
avert, delight, deflect, deviate, downcast, sloping, depressed, drenched, drent
beguile, depart, disport, digress, downright. ANTONYMS: (adv) up; drudgery: (n) toil, work, grind, swink,
sidetrack. ANTONYMS: (v) bore, (adj) rising slavery, travail, donkeywork,
irritate, maintain, set, upset, stay, downwards: (adv) down, downhill, fagging, hammering; (adj, n) hard
displease, sadden downwardly. ANTONYM: (adv) up work; (n, v) sweat. ANTONYM:
diverted: (adj) abstracted, entertained, drag: (v) attract, draw, lug, cart, (adj) cramped
pleased, inattentive, sidetracked, heave, tow; (n, v) pull, puff; (adv, v) drum: (adj, n) barrel; (n) cask,
unfocused, preoccupied trail; (n) bother; (adj) dragging. tympan, cylinder, timbrel, tambour,
diverting: (adj, v) entertaining; (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) pleasure; (v) tambourine; (v) beat, roll, bone up,
comical, fun, amusive, droll, comic, hasten, hurry, shove, speed, rush, ram
laughable, funny, humorous, propel, fly drums: (n) drumming
recreative, intriguing dragged: (adj) depressed, dejected, drunk: (adj) tipsy, wet, tight, blotto,
divider: (n) partition, screen, upset, unhappy, spent, dispirited, drunken, inebriated; (adj, n)
bulkhead, wall, bunton, divisor, somber, melancholy, gloomy, joyless, inebriate; (n) boozer, dipsomaniac,
structure, dividing knife, dividers, low drunkard, drinker. ANTONYMS:
partitioning, indexing attachment. dram: (n) drachma, nip, ankus, spot, (adj) straight, clearheaded; (n)
ANTONYM: (n) lumper dynamic random access memory, teetotaler
divine: (adj) sacred, wonderful, snifter, blast, apothecaries' weight; dubious: (adj) uncertain,
blessed, holy, exquisite; (n) (n, v) potion; (v) drench, swill questionable, debatable, ambiguous,
clergyman; (v) guess, conjecture, drank: (v) absorb vague, unlikely, unsure, unreliable,
augur, anticipate; (adj, n) almighty. draught: (n, v) draft, sketch, design, incredulous, skeptical, undecided.
Jonathan Swift 335
ANTONYMS: (adj) trustworthy, unenthusiastic, lukewarm, patient, effectual: (adj, n) efficient, efficacious,
certain, definite, unambiguous, sure, reluctant, listless, bored able; (adj) forceful, telling,
clear, positive, settled, unequivocal, eagerness: (n, v) desire, aspiration; authoritative, operative, potent,
significant, decided (n) enthusiasm, avidity, cupidity, adequate, impressive, powerful.
ducks: (n) geese, family Anatidae, readiness, passion, keenness, ANTONYMS: (adj) ineffectual,
birds, Anseriformes, Anatidae, game ambition, fervor, avidness. incapable, weak, impotent,
birds, order Anseriformes, wildfowl ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, ineffective, unproductive,
dullness: (n) apathy, bluntness, unwillingness, aloofness, disinterest, unsuccessful, useless
boredom, dreariness, flatness, lethargy, listlessness, patience, effectually: (adv) efficaciously,
tedium, obtuseness, torpor, gloom, reluctance effectively, validly, adequately,
monotony, lethargy; (adj, n) phlegm. eagle: (n) bird of Jove, colors, double potently, tellingly, strongly,
ANTONYMS: (n) brightness, eagle, oriflamme, oriflamb, raptor, decisively; (adj) nicely, fully, head
intensity, brilliance, excitement, labarum, emblem, flag, dibs, and shoulders. ANTONYM: (adv)
intelligence, shine, asperity, streamer ineffectually
animation, gloss, clarity, variation eagles: (n) order Falconiformes, ejection: (n) exclusion, ejectment,
duly: (adv) rightfully, correctly, caracaras, Falconiformes eviction, discharge, ouster, belch,
punctually, proper, precisely, well, earnest: (adj, v) devout; (adj) eager, ejaculation, elimination, removal,
ex officio, accordingly, fairly, solemn, heartfelt, diligent, studious, projection, ostracism
appropriately, properly. sincere, intense, ardent, staid; (n) elapsed: (adj) gone, forgotten, lapsed,
ANTONYMS: (adv) improperly, guarantee. ANTONYMS: (adj) back, beyond, onwards, over and
unsuitable, unlawfully flippant, halfhearted, uncertain, done
dung: (adj, n) ordure, excrement; (n) insincere, unimportant, nonchalant, elbow: (n, v) poke, nudge, jolt; (n)
compost, filth, muck, soil, dejection; lethargic, apathetic, unenthusiastic, cubitus, elbow joint, angle,
(v) defecate, fertilise; (adj) feces, indifferent, frivolous articulation; (v) jostle, push, shove,
faeces earnestly: (adj, adv) seriously; (adv) crowd
dungeon: (n, v) keep; (n) prison, cell, eagerly, intently, zealously, elder: (adj) older, big, adult; (n) dean,
jail, penitentiary, fastness, oubliette, solemnly, ardently, fervently, doyen, patriarch, ancient, boss,
Bastille, bridewell, detention, house heartily, gravely, warmly, elderberry, superior, presbyter.
of correction passionately. ANTONYMS: (adv) ANTONYMS: (n) youngster, minor,
durable: (adj, v) stable, fast; (adj) indifferently, insincerely, child, inferior; (adj) youngest,
lasting, permanent, sturdy, strong, unconcernedly, jokingly younger, little
serviceable, enduring, firm, tough, earnestness: (n) seriousness, sincerity, eldest: (adj) elder, older, oldest,
abiding. ANTONYMS: (adj) weak, gravity, fervor, devotion, graveness, eigne; (n) offspring, progeny, doyen
flimsy, lightweight, undependable, staidness, honesty; (adj, n) ardor, elect: (n, v) pick; (adj, v) select,
temporary, shoddy, cheap, unstable, zeal, intentness. ANTONYMS: (n) designate; (v) appoint, resolve,
soft, insubstantial, fickle slackness, lightness, carelessness, determine, take, prefer, nominate;
dutchman: (n) Netherlander, frivolousness, cheerfulness, (adj, n) chosen; (adj) choice.
mynheer, make up piece; (adj) dago, insincerity, flippancy ANTONYMS: (v) abjure, appoint,
tenderfoot, slant, wop, greaser, earthen: (adj) clay, ceramic, oust, waver
Polak, mick, easterner earthenware elephants: (n) Elephantidae
dwarf: (adj, n) midget, miniature; (n) eased: (adj) relieved, mitigated, eloquent: (adj) glib, fluent,
gnome, fairy, brownie, manikin, cloaked, palliate, disguised persuasive, expressive, meaningful,
pygmy; (v) overshadow; (adj) little, eastward: (adj) eastbound, eastern; significant, graphic, vivid, speaking,
runt, baby. ANTONYMS: (adj) large, (adv) eastwards forcible, moving. ANTONYMS: (adj)
big, huge; (v) maximize eaves: (n) arch, balcony, cupola, incoherent, innocent,
dwell: (adj, v) inhabit; (v) reside, bide, dome, penthouse, eave, overhang, straightforward, weak
live, stay, lodge, delay, occupy, attic, loft, projection, roof space eluding: (n) chemise, case, cutting,
continue, be, settle. ANTONYM: (v) ebullient: (adj) effervescent, fervent, slip, berth; (adj) intangible
wander effusive, enthusiastic, vivacious, embargo: (n) veto, sanction,
dwelling: (n) domicile, home, excited, animated; (v) fiery, hot, prohibition, inhibition, injunction,
residence, house, place, candent, smoking. ANTONYMS: prohibit, proscription, restraint, bar,
accommodation, address, building, (adj) apathetic, disinterested, sad, exclusion; (v) proscribe.
lodge, habitation; (adj, n) dwell somber, unenthusiastic, sedate ANTONYMS: (n) allowance,
dwelt: (v) dwell, inhabit edict: (n) act, command, writ, permission
dyeing: (n, v) pigmenting; (n) declaration, ruling, rule, regulation, embassy: (n) legation, delegation,
staining, blacking directive, order, dictate, law mission, commission, errand,
eager: (adj) avid, ardent, agog, acute, edifice: (n) building, structure, house, ambassage, corps diplomatique,
zealous, enthusiastic, keen, hall, fabric, aviary, bagnio, communication, cable, diplomat,
ambitious, industrious, studious; bathhouse, abattoir, bawdyhouse, diplomatist
(adj, n) earnest. ANTONYMS: (adj) clubhouse embrace: (v) comprise, adopt,
indifferent, unconcerned, apathetic, educating: (adj) taming, humanizing, comprehend, contain, admit,
disinterested, unwilling, calming espouse, include; (n, v) clasp, hug,
grip, bosom. ANTONYMS: (v) reject, endeavour: (n) attempt, effort, pains, shrink, contract, decrease, compress,
exclude, spurn, shun, renounce, trial, try, enterprise, striving, condense, diminish, lessen,
release, loose, disbelieve contribution, braving; (v) exert, minimize, narrow, abridge
embraced: (adj) popular strive enlarged: (adj) inflated, magnified,
embroidered: (adj) ornate, inflated, endowed: (adj) gifted, clever, cute, extended, expanded, puffy,
exaggerated, bewrought, decorated felicitous, competent, blessed, increased, augmented, amplified,
embroiled: (adj) entangled; (v) up in artistic, brilliant, ingenious, talented, distended, wide, swollen.
arms, together by the ears, in hot qualitied ANTONYM: (adj) atrophied
water endowments: (n) beneficence, enlivened: (adj) bouncy, active,
embryo: (n) foetus, fetus, bud, origin, accomplishments, advantage spirited, alive, bouncing
nucleus, seed, conceptus, blastula, endure: (adj, n, v) continue, support; enmity: (n, v) animosity; (n)
egg, beginning; (adj) embryotic (n, v) bear, suffer, stand, be; (v) antagonism, animus, hostility,
eminent: (adj) high, celebrated, accept, undergo, allow, stay, tolerate. aggression, rancor, ill will, antipathy,
elevated, brilliant, illustrious, noble, ANTONYMS: (v) perish, die, break, hatred, war, dislike. ANTONYMS:
big, famous, renowned, conspicuous, fall, discontinue, crumble, end, (n) friendship, friendliness, affinity,
dignified. ANTONYMS: (adj) enjoy, resign, quit, collapse love, kindness, affection, adoration,
undistinguished, obscure, low, enforce: (v) compel, constrain, carry amity, cooperation, goodwill
unremarkable, common, out, implement, impose, execute, enriched: (adj) educated
uncelebrated, unimportant, apply, drive, dispense, effect; (n, v) enslaved: (adj) captive, locked up,
insignificant, humble, ordinary force. ANTONYMS: (v) surrender, charmed, incarcerated, in bondage,
emotion: (n) love, feeling, passion, relax, neglect, forget, exempt, in prison, bound, subject, beguiled,
heart, commotion, mood, pathos, disregard, abandon cringing; (v) subjected
excitement, sensibility; (n, v) enforced: (adj) required, obligatory, ensue: (v) come, arise, happen, result,
sensation; (v) impression. compulsory, applied, compelled, succeed, occur, transpire, turn out,
ANTONYMS: (n) detachment, binding, essential, requisite, befall, come after, stem.
coldness, unfeelingness, calmness necessary, mandatory, legal. ANTONYMS: (v) forerun, preface,
empress: (n) emperor, margravine, ANTONYMS: (adj) optional, antecede, dwindle, recede
sultana, infanta, queen, princess, unenforced, voluntary enterprising: (adj) bold, energetic,
noble, monarch, lady, ruler, engage: (v) contract, book, employ, active, aggressive, courageous,
emperess retain, absorb, charter, draw, rent; (n, vigorous, ambitious, go-ahead,
emptied: (adj) empty, void, depleted, v) attract, enlist, betroth. brave, pushing; (adj, n) daring.
emptier, annulled, open, vacuous ANTONYMS: (v) disengage, release, ANTONYMS: (adj) lethargic,
enacting: (adj) legislative; (n) acting evade, bore, can, discharge, unenterprising, passive, inactive,
enclosed: (adj) surrounded, bounded, disconnect, dismiss, eject, terminate, indolent, lazy, cautious, cowardly
covered, limited, encircled, escape entertain: (v) amuse, delight, bear,
enveloped, besieged, closed, engagement: (n, v) combat, battle, cherish, beguile, admit,
controlled; (v) contain; (adv) action, fight, contest; (n) conflict, accommodate, harbor, hold, distract;
herewith. ANTONYMS: (adj) commitment, appointment, contract, (n, v) interest. ANTONYMS: (v)
exposed, open, pervasive, outdoor duty, date. ANTONYM: (n) disregard, ignore, banish, forget, tire,
encompassed: (adj) bounded disengagement displease
encouragement: (n) aid, support, englishman: (n) Sassenach, British, entertained: (adj) diverted, pleased
promotion, backing, incentive, cheer, Briton, Britisher, Englander, English, entertaining: (adj) enjoyable, fun,
consolation, boost, advocacy, Saxon, limey, burgher, Jacobean, funny, diverting, witty, merry,
fosterage, assistance. ANTONYMS: burgess comical, laughable, convivial,
(n) neglect, deflation, disheartening, engross: (v) absorb, engage, consume, humorous, droll. ANTONYMS: (adj)
disincentive, dissuasion, opposition, occupy, copy, captivate, fascinate, dull, boring, heavy, slow, tiresome,
deterrent involve, swallow, engulf; (adj, v) tiring, unentertaining
encrusted: (adj) crusted, crustlike, immerse. ANTONYMS: (v) reject, entreat: (v) beg, beseech, ask, implore,
covered, smudged, dirty, filthy, ignore, distract, bore pray, adjure, appeal, request,
peeling, grubby, soiled, flaking, engrossed: (adj) rapt, engaged, intent, conjure, crave, bid. ANTONYMS:
curmudgeonly. ANTONYM: (adj) occupied, preoccupied, busy, (v) demand, reject
smooth fascinated, obsessed, thoughtful, entreaty: (n) plea, prayer, request,
encumbrance: (n) check, hindrance, hooked; (adj, v) immersed. petition, adjuration, supplication,
load, burden, barrier, impediment, ANTONYMS: (adj) disinterested, suit, demand, desire, invocation; (v)
tie, obstacle, imposition, charge, bored, distracted, indifferent, solicitation
onus unconcerned, uninterested, enumerated: (adj) detailed
endanger: (v) imperil, hazard, inattentive, carefree envoy: (n) diplomat, minister,
venture, menace, scupper, queer, enjoined: (adj) lawful delegate, ambassador, agent, courier,
peril, jeopardise; (n, v) risk, danger, enlarge: (v) expand, aggrandize, messenger, representative, legate,
expose to danger. ANTONYMS: (v) augment, dilate, distend, widen, deputy, runner
protect, shelter, aid, assist, guard, increase, elaborate, extend, blow up, envy: (v) begrudge, want; (n)
preserve, help, save, safeguard grow. ANTONYMS: (v) reduce, enviousness, desire, heartburning,
Jonathan Swift 337
resentment, envies, heartburn, letters, edification, reading, dignified, great, sublime, grand, big.
jealousy, hatred; (adj) jealous. learnedness, culture, lore, ANTONYMS: (adj) belittled,
ANTONYM: (n) generosity eruditeness; (n, v) knowledge; (adj, condemned, criticized, debased,
epithet: (n) name, cognomen, n) wisdom. ANTONYM: (n) humble, humiliated, low, lowly,
appellation, denomination, simplicity minor, ridiculed, base
nickname, moniker, sobriquet, title, espalier: (n) trellis tree, trellis, examiner: (n, v) inspector; (n)
picture, byname, byword treillage assessor, tester, supervisor, overseer,
equality: (n) balance, parity, identity, esteem: (n) deference, admiration; (n, analyst, controller, questioner,
tie, likeness, sameness, par, v) respect, value, consideration, searcher; (v) inquisitor, inquirer
evenness, equal, analogy, account; (v) appreciate, deem, adore, exceed: (v) beat, pass, surpass,
correspondence. ANTONYMS: (n) admire, count. ANTONYMS: (v) transcend, outdo, surmount, cap,
inequality, disparity, difference, scorn, hate, disdain, insult, despise, outshine, overrun, top, outweigh.
unfairness, imbalance, inconsistency, abominate, abhor, dislike, reject; (n) ANTONYMS: (v) follow, fail, trail,
injustice, dissimilarity disesteem, disapproval make
equilateral: (adj) square; (n) rhombus, esteemed: (adj) dear, reputable, exceeding: (prep) beyond, more than,
lozenge respected, honorable, noble, greater than; (adj) excessive,
equinox: (n) cosmic time, celestial honored, prestigious, important, transcendent, extraordinary,
point, autumnal equinox distinguished, August, respect. exceptional, prodigious, surpassing,
equipage: (n) carriage, chariot, ANTONYM: (adj) disreputable Olympian; (v) exceed
brougham, coach, barouche, rig, etymology: (n) pedigree, history, exceedingly: (adj, adv) very, highly;
field-equipage, buggy, cab, cabriolet, linguistics, story; (v) engulf, engross, (adv) too, exceptionally, overly,
chaise attainment, Addison, acquisition, surpassingly, extraordinarily,
equipped: (adj) equiped, armed, absorb greatly, awfully, terrifically,
equipt, furnished, fitted, carrying evacuation: (n) defecation, emptying, eminently. ANTONYMS: (adv)
weapons, ready, weaponed, elimination, depletion, drainage, slightly, hardly, insufficiently,
complete, set, standing by. departure, voidance, dejection, somewhat
ANTONYMS: (adj) unequipped, excretion, retreat; (v) emission excel: (v) top, surpass, cap, outdo,
unfurnished, unprepared evasion: (n, v) equivocation, pass, eclipse, beat, transcend, lead,
equitable: (adj) fair, impartial, just, avoidance, subterfuge, outshine; (adj, v) better.
even-handed, right, correct, prevarication; (n) escape, quibble, ANTONYMS: (v) flunk, trail
objective, balanced, unprejudiced, dodge, excuse, elusion, casuistry, excellency: (n) highness, merit,
unbiassed, unbiased. ANTONYMS: circumvention. ANTONYMS: (n) majesty, mightiness, virtue,
(adj) inequitable, unfair, biased, facing, confrontation, confronting, splendor, superiority, worship,
partial, unequitable, prejudiced, meeting grace, chastity, glory
unjust, unreasonable everlasting: (adj) eternal, ceaseless, excelling: (v) careless, passant,
equivocating: (adj) mendacious, endless, constant, continual, current; (adj) perfect, excellent
lying, evasive; (n) evasion perpetual, immortal, deathless, excess: (n) extravagance, dissipation,
erased: (adj) dead, forgotten ageless, aeonian; (adj, n) lasting. plethora, abundance, exaggeration,
erect: (adj) upright, vertical, ANTONYMS: (adj) finite, ephemeral, overindulgence, surfeit,
straightforward; (v) build, raise, rear, fleeting, mortal, ending, terminating, overabundance, overplus; (adj) extra,
construct, assemble, lift, put up, put inconstant, fragile, perishable unnecessary. ANTONYMS: (n) lack,
together. ANTONYMS: (v) evidently: (adv) clearly, patently, restraint, moderation, shortfall,
dismantle, wreck, topple, level, plainly, obviously, manifestly, dearth, temperance, deficit,
demolish, destroy; (adj) prostrate, openly, certainly, overtly, markedly, insufficiency, justice, scarcity,
drooping, prone, flaccid, flat conspicuously, palpably. abstinence
erecting: (n) construction, building, ANTONYMS: (adv) doubtfully, exchequer: (n) bank, purse, fisc, till,
erection imperceptibly, obscurely, bursary, Exchequer of the Jews,
erection: (n, v) building, structure; (n) questionably, actually, ambiguously, coffer, hanaper, finance, funds,
assembly, construction, erecting, inconspicuously finances
architecture, installation, creation, evils: (n) mala excrement: (adj, n) faeces; (n) dirt,
foundation, framework; (adj) evince: (v) show, display, evidence, evacuation, excretion, dung, ordure,
elevation argue, indicate, manifest, mark, excreta, urine, body waste,
errand: (n) chore, mission, job, task, express, prove, establish, exhibit droppings; (adj) feces
assignment, embassy, duty, charge, exactness: (n) correctness, accuracy, excrements: (n) dejecture, egesta,
messenger, communication, work exactitude, truth, rigor, trueness, excreta
erroneously: (adv) mistakenly, falsely, accurateness, fidelity, punctuality, excusable: (adj) pardonable,
incorrectly, faultily, inaccurately, veracity, strictness. ANTONYMS: justifiable, defensible, forgivable,
fallaciously, wrong, inexactly, (n) inexactness, fuzziness, warrantable, permissible, slight,
untruely, misguidedly, amiss. inaccuracy, negligence, inexactitude, understandable, minor, vindicable,
ANTONYMS: (adv) accurately, incorrectness tenable. ANTONYMS: (adj)
rightly exalted: (adj) elevated, eminent, unforgivable, unallowable,
erudition: (n) education, scholarship, noble, high, August, elated, indefensible, blameable
excused: (adj) privileged, immune (n) expulsion, deportation, refugee, conditionally, implicitly, indirectly,
execrable: (adj, adv) abominable, deportee, outcast. ANTONYMS: (v) vaguely
nefarious; (adj, v) cursed, hateful, restore, welcome, appoint extending: (adj) expanding
odious; (adj) deplorable, damnable, expectation: (n) expectancy, belief, extenuate: (v) alleviate, palliate,
abhorrent, atrocious, accursed, hope, possibility, outlook, trust, diminish, reduce, mitigate, excuse,
dreadful. ANTONYMS: (adj) savory, confidence, arithmetic mean, attenuate, allay, detract, mollify,
laudable, outstanding, dandy, swell, thought, suspense; (n, v) prospect. abate
great, fabulous, superb, ANTONYMS: (n) despair, extenuated: (adj) marcid, tabid,
praiseworthy hopelessness, discouragement, rawboned, shriveled, lanky; (n)
executed: (adj) finished, fulfilled, distrust barebone
complete expedient: (adj) fit, advisable, extenuation: (n, v) excuse, apology;
executing: (n) performing, execution, becoming, desirable, adequate, apt, (n) palliation, mitigation,
decapitation, capital punishment, convenient, suitable; (n) contrivance, diminution, justification,
electrocution, death penalty, resource, artifice. ANTONYMS: extenuating circumstances,
crucifixion, implementation, (adj) inappropriate, inexpedient, extenuating excuse, easement,
corporal punishment; (v) perform, impractical, futile, detrimental, abatement, alleviation
execute inconvenient, foolish exterminated: (adj) broken, extinct,
execution: (n) accomplishment, expedition: (n) dispatch, travel, destroyed completely, lost, wiped
achievement, enforcement, celerity, speed, haste, readiness, out, annihilated
implementation, effect, action, quest, tour; (n, v) campaign, journey, extinct: (adj) dead, deceased, defunct,
carrying out, executing, discharge, crusade. ANTONYMS: (n) delay, departed, obsolete, extinguished,
death penalty, capital punishment. procrastination, slowing exhausted, inanimate, out, quenched,
ANTONYM: (n) omission exploded: (adj) antebellum, gone. ANTONYMS: (adj) alive,
exempt: (v) absolve, discharge, antediluvian, blown over, expired, living, extant, active, dormant,
dispense, forgive, relieve, justify, unconnected, elapsed, that has been, thriving, existing, live
except; (adj, v) free; (adj) immune, at run out, no more, never to return; extinguish: (v) destroy, exterminate,
liberty, released. ANTONYMS: (adj, (v) at a discount eradicate, douse, annihilate,
v) nonexempt; (adj) liable, taxable, exploit: (n, v) act, achievement, feat, consume, wipe out, end, suppress,
bound; (v) enforce, blame, include action; (n) accomplishment, quash; (adj, v) allay. ANTONYMS:
exercised: (adj) applied, distressed, adventure, effort; (v) exercise, apply, (v) ignite, build, create, encourage,
proficient, veteran use, employ. ANTONYM: (v) waste inflame, sustain, protect
exercises: (n) military exercises, expose: (v) endanger, exhibit, betray, extinguished: (adj) extinct, out, dead,
athletics detect, display, air, uncover, debunk, quenched, allayed, destroyed; (n)
exercising: (n) calisthenics, aerobics, denude, unfold, divulge. defunctness, complete annihilation,
bodybuilding, conditioner, ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, cover, experimental extinction,
callisthenics, employment, drill, enclose, suppress, shield, shelter, extermination, extinction
practice, anaerobic exercise, example, insulate, hide, guard, drape extinguishing: (n) quenching,
delay exposing: (n) exposure, dampen out, extermination, stamp
exerting: (n) push announcement; (adj) revealing, out, conclusion, extinguished,
exhale: (v) breathe, blow, emit, expire, opposed experimental extinction, ending,
evaporate, breathe out, respire, expostulate: (v) argue, dissuade, destruction, defunctness, complete
smoke, steam, transpire, give off admonish, exhort, protest, deprecate, annihilation
exhausted: (adj) fatigued, tired, spent, reason, cry out against, dehort, extract: (v) draw, derive, elicit, educe,
dry, empty, depleted, jaded, intercede for, warn abstract, distill, draw out; (n)
enervated, faint; (adj, v) gone, weak. expressing: (adj) significant; (n) essence, juice, quotation; (n, v) quote.
ANTONYMS: (adj) fresh, refreshed, speech ANTONYMS: (v) insert, add; (n)
strong, restored, vigorous, expressions: (n) vocabulary, terms, whole
unexhausted, replenished, language extracted: (v) descended, extraught
remaining, energized, invigorated, expressive: (adj) significant, extravagant: (adj) wasteful, luxurious,
restocked meaningful, descriptive, mobile, prodigal, exaggerated, profligate,
exhort: (v) admonish, urge, advise, revelatory, indicative, articulate, costly, expensive, lavish,
advocate, caution, expostulate, press, graphic, emphatic, suggestive, vivid. immoderate, profuse, undue.
counsel, entreat, bid, goad. ANTONYMS: (adj) unemotional, ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained,
ANTONYMS: (v) prohibit, block, undemonstrative, nondescript, cold, frugal, parsimonious, plain, stingy,
discourage, dissuade, restrain, expressionless, empty, emotionless, understated, thrifty, reasonable,
demand inarticulate, innocent, impassive, moderate, cautious, tasteful
exhortation: (n) warning, monition, reserved extremity: (n) end, member,
persuasion, suggestion, counsel, expressly: (adv) specially, boundary, bound, close, appendage,
incitement, sermon, admonition, particularly, distinctly, specifically, limit, limb, ending, fringe,
exhort, hortation, admonishment explicitly, especially, utterly, clearly, conclusion. ANTONYMS: (n) trunk,
exile: (n, v) expatriate; (v) banish, precisely, telly, exactly. average, minimum, head, leniency
deport, drive out, expel, proscribe; ANTONYMS: (adv) ambiguously, eyebrow: (n) supercilium, eyebrows,
Jonathan Swift 339
forehead, strap line, hair abundance, plenty, glut, feast, misbegotten, bereaved, childless,
fabulous: (adj) mythical, legendary, bounty, excess parentless, orbate, unparented; (v)
fabled, mythological, wonderful, famished: (adj) ravenous, starving, helpless, unfriended
marvelous, spectacular, fab, terrific, starved, empty, voracious, greedy, fatigued: (adj) tired, weary, beat,
amazing, imaginary. ANTONYMS: malnourished, thin; (adj, v) esurient; worn, tired out, jaded, spent, worn
(adj) normal, prosaic, routine, (v) peckish, lickerish. ANTONYMS: out, done in, fagged, run-down.
ordinary, factual, common, (adj) full, satisfied, satiated, gorged, ANTONYMS: (adj) refreshed, alert,
humdrum, dire, unimpressive, healthy lively, energized, energetic
abysmal fancied: (adj) unreal, chimerical, faulty: (adj) erroneous, deficient,
faction: (n) crew, cabal, group, band, fictional, fanciful, fictitious, defective, false, vicious, bad, broken,
set, party, division, junto, dissension, fabricated, preferred, assumed, wrong, incorrect, inaccurate,
clan; (n, v) feud. ANTONYMS: (n) illusory, imagined, ideal damaged. ANTONYMS: (adj)
whole, agreement, entirety, peace, fare: (n, v) do; (n) food, aliment, perfect, flawless, sound, adequate,
unity board, table, charge, chow, menu, working, certain, logical, fine
faculty: (adj, n) capacity, cleverness; traveller; (v) come, eat. ANTONYM: favourable: (adj) convenient,
(n) aptitude, capability, bent, power, (v) stop encouraging, good, auspicious,
staff, facility; (adj, n, v) talent; (n, v) farewell: (int, n) adieu; (n) bye, leave, useful, benevolent, favorable,
endowment, gift. ANTONYMS: (n) valediction, adios, parting, goodbye, profitable, conducive, opportune,
students, pupils, ineptness, separation, departure, aloha; (int) prosperous
incompetence, incapacity bon voyage. ANTONYMS: (n) hello, fawning: (adj) obsequious,
faithful: (adj, n) accurate, correct, salutation, welcome sycophantic, servile, sniveling,
exact, true; (adj) close, unfailing, farther: (adj, adv, prep) beyond; (adj) subservient, flattering, ingratiating,
dependable, devoted, sound, additional, more, distant; (adv) soapy; (adj, n) toadying; (n)
devout; (adj, v) constant. furthermore, besides, abroad, in adulation, sycophancy.
ANTONYMS: (adj) unreliable, false, addition, too; (adj, prep) outside; ANTONYMS: (adj) authoritative,
inaccurate, unfaithful, unrealistic, (pron) another. ANTONYMS: (prep) assertive, domineering, forthright
faithless, perfidious, backstabbing, within; (adv) nearer, closer fearfulness: (n) fear, awe, dread,
cheating, inexact, loose farthest: (adj) ultimate, extreme, fright, horror, nervousness,
faithfully: (adv) exactly, accurately, farthermost, utmost, uttermost, last, pusillanimity, timidity,
sincerely, staunchly, precisely, truly, furthermost, endmost, greatest, consternation, timidness; (adj)
authentically, dutifully, literally, most distant; (adj, adv) remotest. apprehensiveness. ANTONYMS: (n)
steadfastly, truely. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adv) closest, nearest pleasantness, courage, bravery,
(adv) unfaithfully, approximately, farthing: (n) craps, faro, ante, chuck, confidence
falsely, insincerely, carelessly, doit, small change; (adj) bulrush, feat: (n) deed, accomplishment,
inaccurately pinch of snuff, peppercorn, old son, achievement, act, effort,
falsehood: (n) fable, fabrication, jot performance, action, triumph,
deception, untruth, lie, fib, fiction, fasten: (adj, v) attach, fix, affix; (v) attainment, trick; (adj) fetis .
invention, dishonesty; (adj, n) deceit, connect, bind, tie, tack, pin, stick, ANTONYM: (n) inaction
falsity. ANTONYMS: (n) fact, clasp, anchor. ANTONYMS: (v) feathers: (n) plumage, fur, indument,
honesty, reality detach, undo, unlock, loosen, release, garment, garb, fine hair, clothing,
falsely: (adv) incorrectly, open, disconnect, untie, separate, dress, apparel, attire, array
fraudulently, deceptively, unscrew feeding: (n) alimentation, eating,
dishonestly, wrongly, erroneously, fastened: (adj) tied, fast, buttoned, nourishment, grazing, dining,
misleadingly, deceitfully, closed, tight, secure, pinned, browsing, feed supply, banqueting,
unfaithfully, spuriously, fictitiously. binding, empight, steady, firm. supplying, ingestion, intake
ANTONYMS: (adv) honestly, ANTONYMS: (adj) unfastened, felicity: (n) happiness, bliss,
truthfully, faithfully, authentically, unbuttoned blessedness, beatitude, luck,
correctly, naturally, rightly fastening: (n) clasp, clip, buckle, felicitousness, joy, fortune, ecstasy,
fame: (n, v) credit, celebrity, report, attachment, lock, catch, link, enjoyment, appropriateness.
reputation, renown, cry; (n) bonding; (n, v) bond; (v) tie, bind ANTONYM: (n) infelicity
distinction, bruit, honor, prestige, fasting: (n) abstinence, white sheet, fellows: (n) fellow, membership,
buzz. ANTONYMS: (n) infamy, shrift, sackcloth and ashes, faculty
obscurity, anonymity, ignominy, maceration, lustration, flagellation, fenced: (adj) hedged in, provisional,
dishonor, commonness, oblivion, watching one's weight, hunger guarded, bounded
criticism strike, penance; (v) calorie counting fertility: (n) productivity, birthrate,
familiarized: (adj) adjusted, familiar, fatal: (adj) deadly, pestilent, lethal, affluence, fertileness, abundance,
used to, oriented, orientated, disastrous, destructive, dangerous, plenty, prolificacy, richness, natality,
accustomed deathly, fateful, murderous, critical; birth rate; (adj, n) uberty.
famine: (n) scarcity, shortage, (adj, v) mortal. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) infertility,
privation, deficiency, deficit, harmless, nourishing, healthful, fruitlessness, impotence, barrenness
starvation, drought, hunger, poverty, benign, uncritical, mild fetch: (v) carry, bring, bring in,
penury, failure. ANTONYMS: (n) fatherless: (adj) bastard, unfathered, convey, draw, elicit, deliver, catch,
get, attract; (adj, n) feint lovely, slightly, nicely, bravely. plain, flat, tedium, sameness,
fetid: (adj) foul, putrid, malodorous, ANTONYMS: (adv) roughly, insipidness, tediousness, platitude,
noisome, stinking, rank, mephitic, coarsely, intensely, poorly smoothing, smooth. ANTONYM: (n)
rotten, disgusting, rancid, foetid. fineness: (n) refinement, elegance, unevenness
ANTONYMS: (adj) fragrant, fresh, daintiness, thinness, choiceness, flattered: (adj) pleased
clean, sweet, aromatic beauty, superiority, subtlety, flattering: (adj) ingratiating,
fetlock: (n) fetlock-joint, fetlock joint, slimness, slenderness, narrowness. complimentary, courtly, obsequious,
joint, outgrowth, process, fetterlock, ANTONYMS: (n) stoutness, adulatory, fulsome, bland, candied,
articulatio, appendage, articulation thickness, vulgarity, inaccuracy, smooth, encouraging; (n) flattery.
fetter: (n, v) shackle, bond, gyve, coarseness, width ANTONYMS: (adj) assertive, critical,
hamper, hobble, tether; (v) bind, finer: (adj) superior, advanced, unflattering, unattractive, wounding,
chain, confine, handcuff, band. bigger, higher, more, greater uncomplimentary, negative; (adv)
ANTONYMS: (v) free, facilitate finery: (n) regalia, clothing, attire, partially
fever: (n) malaria, delirium, pyrexia, decoration, dress, pinchbeck, flatus: (n) fart, breath, draught,
heat, frenzy, feverishness, febricity, spangle, trimmings, gimcrack; (adj, farting, breaking wind; (adj) gas,
Bilious typhoid fever, Levant fever, n) tinsel, gewgaw. ANTONYM: (n) essence, ether, elastic fluid,
Hectic infantile fever, Typhoid fever rags effluvium, air
fidelity: (n) constancy, devotion, firmness: (adj, n) constancy; (n) flint: (adj) stone, pebble, fossil,
faithfulness, adherence, allegiance, determination, resolution, assurance, granite, marble; (n) quartz, silica,
loyalty, faith, dedication, exactness; consistency, obstinacy, steadfastness, flint river, gunflint, crystal, crag
(adj, n) honesty, truth. resolve, confidence, courage, floating: (adv) afloat; (adj, v)
ANTONYMS: (n) infidelity, backbone. ANTONYMS: (n) softness, buoyant; (adj, adv) aimless; (adj)
unfaithfulness, disloyalty, instability, vacillation, unsteadiness, current, loose, moving, fluid, in
inaccuracy, faithlessness, dishonesty, yielding, irresoluteness, droopiness, circulation, going about, flying, light
unreliability indefiniteness, indecisiveness, flock: (n, v) crowd, cluster, pack,
fiercely: (adv) violently, bitterly, indecision, leniency mass; (adj, n) bevy; (adj, n, v)
strongly, savagely, brutally, first-rate: (adj) excellent, stunning, swarm; (n) band, horde,
intensely, wildly, cruelly, capital, posh, tiptop, dandy, ace, congregation, herd; (v) assemble.
vehemently, grimly, furiously. superior, classic, fine, clinking ANTONYM: (v) disperse
ANTONYMS: (adv) mildly, dully, fisherman: (n) fisher, trawler, black flocking: (n) electrostatic covering
tame, docilely, tamely, calmly, cat, fisher cat, piscator, troller, with fibers, flock finishing
feebly Peterman; (v) sportsman, huntsman flood: (n, v) flow, torrent, pour,
fierceness: (n) ferocity, violence, fishes: (n) amphibians, Craniata, stream, glut, rush, gush; (v) drench,
cruelty, force, brutality, rage, Subphylum Vertebrata, Vertebrata, inundate, drown; (n, prep) tide.
intensity, strength, vehemence, birds ANTONYMS: (n) drought, shortage,
wildness, ferociousness. fist: (n, v) hand; (n) duke, clenched slump, deficit; (v) disperse, dry
ANTONYMS: (n) friendliness, fist, feist, manus, grip, index; (v) floors: (adj) floored
calmness, meekness finger, paw, neif, neaf florid: (adj) flamboyant, fancy,
fiery: (adj, n) burning, passionate, fitter: (n) adjuster, machinist, sartor, flowery, aureate, flashy, fresh,
glowing; (adj) fervent, ablaze, hot, cutter, mounter, erector; (adj) figurative, gorgeous; (adj, v) ornate,
fervid, impassioned, peppery; (adj, suitable, healthier gaudy; (adj, n) ruddy. ANTONYMS:
v) fierce, violent. ANTONYMS: (adj) fixing: (n) fixation, fix, adjustment, (adj) pale, plain
calm, passionless, dispassionate, repair, mending, altering, flourish: (n, v) display; (v) thrive,
indifferent, placid, gentle, cool; emasculation, castration, furniture, prosper, boast, wave, brag, wield,
(adv) easygoing fastener, fitting boom, grow; (adj, v) bloom; (adv, v)
filth: (n) grime, garbage, foulness, flail: (n, v) maul, flutter, wave; (v) shake. ANTONYMS: (v) decline,
impurity, soil, blot, stain, nastiness, thrash, flap, thresh, buffet, hit, beat struggle, deteriorate, wilt, pine, fade,
squalor, uncleanliness; (adj) impure. up, hurt; (n) hammer flounder, decrease, dwindle
ANTONYMS: (n) cleanliness, luxury, flame: (adj, n) fire, sweetheart; (adj, flourishing: (adj) thriving, palmy,
loveliness v) burn, glow; (n, v) flash; (n) ardour, healthy, successful, luxuriant,
filthily: (adv) dirtily, uncleanly, burning, fervor, enthusiasm, booming, verdant, lush, auspicious,
nastily, sordidly, dingily, impurely, combustion, sheen favorable, rich. ANTONYMS: (adj)
obscenely, grubbily, squalidly, flames: (n) fire, blaze, firestorm, arid, declining, fading, poor,
smuttily; (adv, v) foully hellhole unhealthy
filthy: (adj) unclean, dingy, nasty, flap: (v) flop, wave, beat, brandish, flowing: (adj) fluent, running,
foul, disgusting, squalid, bawdy, shake; (n, v) fuss, flutter, pother; (n) graceful, smooth, fluid, soft, liquid;
muddy, grimy, grubby, vile. slap, disturbance, valve (n) current, flux, flow; (adj, v) loose.
ANTONYMS: (adj) decent, pleasant, flapper: (n) missy, girl, flipper, fille; ANTONYMS: (adj) secure, ugly, still,
attractive (v) remembrancer stilted, jerky, harsh, halting
finely: (adv) delicately, beautifully, flaps: (n) flapping, aerofoil, airfoil, fluid: (adj) flowing, unsettled,
magnificently, splendidly, dither, control surface changeable, smooth, fluent, mobile,
exquisitely, rarely, excellently, flatness: (n) dullness, monotony, runny, versatile, juicy, uncertain,
Jonathan Swift 341
unstable. ANTONYMS: (adj) shrewd, prudent, visionary, ANTONYMS: (n) correction, truth
unchangeable, ugly, fixed, defined, diplomatic, levelheaded, sane, forgetfulness: (n) neglect, amnesia,
set, constant, stilted, jerky rational, mature, judicious obliviousness, inattention, memory
flurry: (n) commotion, stir, bother, footman: (n) attendant, butler, loss, omission, unknowingness,
squall, breeze, ado; (adj, n) bustle, follower, flunkey, flunky, varlet, unawareness, Lethe, carelessness,
fuss, hurry; (n, v) fluster; (v) servitor, valet de chambre, boy, loss of memory. ANTONYMS: (n)
disconcert. ANTONYM: (n) quiet knave; (n, v) lackey awareness, concentration,
flutter: (adj, n, v) bustle, flurry; (n, v) footstool: (n) footrest, hassock, remembering, attention
beat, palpitate, flap, wave, waver, footboard, Ottoman forging: (n) shaping, origin,
quiver; (v) flit, flitter; (n) excitement forbear: (v) refrain, desist, help, manufacturing
flux: (v) dissolve, thaw, course, fuse, tolerate, abide, eschew, endure, forgive: (v) absolve, excuse, acquit,
melt; (n) tide, current, flood, torrent, relinquish; (n) predecessor, remit, pardon, justify, to forgive,
afflux, lapse. ANTONYM: (n) progenitor, forebear exonerate, overlook, clear, to excuse.
stability forbid: (v) prohibit, ban, disallow, ANTONYMS: (v) condemn, punish,
foal: (n) filly, pony, calf, horse, Arab, bar, obstruct, exclude, deny, avert, castigate
charger, thoroughbred, racer, frustrate, to prohibit, enjoin. fork: (n) crotch, bifurcation, turn,
palfrey, nag, jument ANTONYMS: (v) allow, let, approve, branching; (n, v) branch, bend; (v)
fold: (n, v) crease, pucker, wrinkle, authorize, stand diverge, split, branch off, separate,
lap, double, roll, bend; (v) crumple, forbidden: (adj) banned, taboo, divide. ANTONYM: (v) converge
collapse, wrap; (n) flock. illegal, prohibited, contraband, illicit, forlorn: (adj) hopeless, desolate,
ANTONYMS: (v) flatness, expose, verboten, proscribed, outlawed, despairing, unhappy, miserable,
open, create, thrive, smooth; (n) illegitimate; (adj, adv) off-limits. deserted, disconsolate, downcast,
unfolding ANTONYMS: (adj) allowed, cheerless, wretched, abject.
folded: (adj) plaited, pleated, permitted, permissible, legal, open ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, hopeful,
doubled, artful, braided, corrugated, forcibly: (adv) forcefully, fine
doubled over, fluted emphatically, powerfully, by force, formality: (n) ceremony, formalities,
folds: (n) laps mightily, under protest, cogently, decorum, etiquette, custom,
folio: (n) leaf, sheet, number, page hard, strongly, convincingly, clearly. ceremoniousness, starch, ritual, rite,
number, flyleaf, quarto, octavo, ANTONYMS: (adv) voluntarily, observance; (n, v) stiffness.
blade, foliage, number the folios, weakly, gently ANTONYMS: (n) casualness,
book forcing: (adj) pressing, constraining, possibility, warmth, friendliness
folks: (n) people, folk, tribe, relations, penetrating, compulsatory; (n) push forming: (n) shaping, form, form
household, house, relatives, relative, fore: (adv) ahead, before; (adj, adv) turning, organization, construction,
kindred, lineage, kin forward; (n) bow, head, forefront, molding, conformation, synthesis;
followers: (n) adherents, people, stem; (adj, n) front; (adj) anterior, (v) create, constitute; (adj)
entourage, claque, faithful, disciples, foremost, frontal. ANTONYMS: constituent
supporters, multitude, attendants, (adv) aft, behind, rear; (adj) back forsake: (v) abandon, ditch,
support, suite forefathers: (n) patriarchs, forefather, relinquish, abdicate, fail, leave,
folly: (n) fatuity, foolishness, silliness, ancestor, colony, lineage, family forgo, chuck, disclaim; (n, v) drop;
tomfoolery, nonsense, stupidity, forehead: (n) brow, front, foreland, (adj, v) quit. ANTONYM: (v)
craziness, density, freak; (adj, n) lineament, mut, phiz, physiognomy, support
irrationality, trifling. ANTONYM: visage, eyebrow, skull; (adv) forsaken: (adj) deserted, abandoned,
(n) sense foremost lonely, forlorn, derelict, desert,
fond: (adj) affectionate, caring, foreigner: (adj, n) stranger; (n) empty, solitary, friendless; (adj, v)
devoted, tender, loving, amorous, outlander, outsider, unknown, jilted; (v) crossed in love.
delicate, adoring, doting, ardent, barbarian, gringo, newcomer, ANTONYM: (adj) unforsaken
attached. ANTONYMS: (adj) immigrant, deportee, traveler; (adj) forswearing: (n) renunciation,
aversion, cold, rough foreign. ANTONYMS: (n) inhabitant, abnegation, forgoing, forsaking,
fondling: (n) caressing, pet, caress, domestic, citizen disowning, apostasy, abjuration,
cuddling, dalliance, foreplay, foresight: (n) prevision, forecast, disavowal, rejection, defection
stimulation, indulgence, darling, caution, prospicience, calculation, fort: (n) fortress, citadel, fortification,
kissing, necking prescience, prediction, precaution, stronghold, bastion, defense,
fondness: (n) affection, attachment, vision, foresightedness; (n, v) bulwark, refuge, defence, garrison;
love, taste, regard, appetite, expectation. ANTONYM: (n) (v) fortify
tenderness, partiality, endearment, hindsight fortified: (adj) secure, watched over,
liking, relish. ANTONYMS: (n) forge: (adj, v) falsify; (v) fake, devise, shielded, securer, secured, carrying
aversion, indifference, neglect, fabricate, fashion, contrive, coin, weapons, safeguarded, protected,
antipathy, detachment, hatred invent, construct, mould; (n, v) mint fast, equipped, defended.
foolish: (adj) childish, fool, crazy, forgery: (n) counterfeiting, fake, ANTONYM: (adj) unarmed
dumb, daft, fatuous, stupid, unwise, sham, invention, fabrication, fortitude: (n) bravery, endurance, grit,
preposterous, dopey; (adj, n) silly. falsehood, copy, phony, imitation, pluck, backbone, determination,
ANTONYMS: (adj) wise, sensible, misrepresentation, fiction. tenacity, firmness, strength; (adj, n)
guts, spunk. ANTONYMS: (n) freight: (n) cargo, lading, burden, loathsome. ANTONYMS: (adj) shy,
cowardice, frailty, impatience portage, consignment, freightage, scanty
fortnight: (n) two weeks, period, carriage; (n, v) load, shipment; (v) fundament: (n) bottom, foundation,
amount of time carry, convey bed, base, butt, can, behind, basis,
fortunate: (adj) favorable, lucky, fright: (n, v) dismay, alarm, scare, cornerstone, fanny, anus
auspicious, advantageous, favored, affright; (n) awe, fear, dread, terror, furious: (adj, v) fierce, violent,
happy, prosperous, fortuitous, well, horror, consternation, apprehension. vehement, wild, rampant; (adj)
successful; (adj, n) blessed. ANTONYMS: (n) calm, fearlessness, frantic, enraged, ferocious,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unlucky, courage, confidence, security boisterous, raging, frenzied.
disadvantaged, disastrous, frighten: (v) cow, alarm, daunt, ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, mild,
unfavorable, underprivileged, terrify, appall, scare, affright, gentle, pleased, mellow, quiet, slow
inauspicious, unenviable, intimidate, terrorize, appal; (n, v) furiously: (adv) irately, angrily,
unsatisfactory fright. ANTONYMS: (v) comfort, fiercely, wildly, violently, ragingly,
fortunes: (n) adventures, fortune, reassure, soothe, calm wrathfully, infuriatedly, rabidly,
personal narrative, life, journal frightful: (adj, v) fearful; (adj) impetuously, frantically.
forwards: (adv) ahead, forth, formidable, awful, fearsome, ANTONYM: (adv) sluggishly
onwards, onward, before, fore, appalling, gruesome, horrible, furnish: (v) afford, provide,
forrader, forrad, forrard, on, in terrible, dread, frightening, grim. contribute, render, offer,
advance. ANTONYMS: (adv) back, ANTONYMS: (adj) wonderful, accommodate, supply, outfit, yield,
behind calming, soothing, pleasant, lovely, decorate; (n, v) give. ANTONYM:
foul: (adj, v) nasty, base, corrupt, fair (v) divest
coarse; (adj) filthy, disgusting, evil, frisking: (n) search, hunt, hunting, furnished: (adj) fitted, arranged,
unclean, putrid; (n, v) defile, soil. searching privileged, instruct, carrying
ANTONYMS: (adj, v) clean, pure; frizzled: (adj) kinky weapons, equipt, enlightened; (v)
(adj) pleasant, fair, inoffensive, frog: (n) frogs, toad, chamois, epaulet, provide, furnish, begone, beset
humane, attractive, honest, pleasing, crapaud, batrachian, anuran, aigulet, furnishing: (n) provision, fixture,
fragrant; (v) unclog grasshopper, Frenchman, shoulder fitting, installation, equipment,
foundered: (v) swamped, cast away, knot trimming, device, interior
shipwrecked, nonsuited, grounded, frogs: (n) adornment, point frogs, decoration, contents; (v) provide,
wrecked, stranded class Amphibia, caecilians, furnish
foundering: (n) going under batrachian, amphibia, anuran furred: (adj) hairy, hirsute, fur lined,
fountain: (n, v) fount, well; (n) jet, frolicsome: (adj) frisky, frolic, wooly, fuzzy
font, source, reservoir, origin, waggish, coltish, gay, rollicking, fury: (n) anger, exasperation, force,
derivation, repository, root, squirt frolicky, jocose, airy, lively, jocular. resentment, delirium, furor, frenzy,
fowl: (n) poultry, bird, domestic fowl, ANTONYMS: (adj) serious, lethargic indignation, craze; (adj, n) wrath,
chick, cochin, birds, partlet, poult, frontiers: (n) boundary ferocity. ANTONYMS: (n)
hen, fowls, rooster fronting: (n) facing; (adj) apparent, composure, calmness, mildness,
fowls: (n) poultry evident, exposed, obvious; (prep) calm, pleasure, serenity
framed: (adj) counterfeit, prepared, against, toward gains: (n) income, proceeds, profits,
orderly, methodical, spurious. froth: (n, v) bubble, spume, fizz, suds, winnings, receipts, revenue
ANTONYM: (adj) unframed sparkle; (v) boil, effervesce, ferment; gait: (n, v) pace, step, tread, footstep,
frames: (n) framework, ribs (n) effervescence, bubbles, spindrift rate, stride, action; (n) walk, carriage,
fraternity: (adj, n) brotherhood; (n) frothy: (adj, v) effervescent; (adj) light, movement, velocity
association, company, club, flimsy, foaming, frivolous, flatulent, gale: (n) blast, blow, tempest, storm,
fellowship, society, companionship, spumy, bubbly, effervescing, beaten; squall, hurricane, gust, wind,
clan, circle, community, (v) nappy. ANTONYMS: (adj) flat, thunderstorm, blizzard, fresh gale.
organization weighty ANTONYM: (n) breeze
fraud: (n, v) deceit; (n) duplicity, fruitful: (adj) fertile, copious, gall: (v) fret, chafe, irritate, irk,
counterfeit, fake, dishonesty, profitable, abundant, plentiful, rich, provoke; (adj, n, v) anger; (n)
deception, sham, falsehood, swindle, fecund, good, fat, productive, bitterness, cheek, audacity, acerbity,
trickery, trick. ANTONYMS: (n) lucrative. ANTONYMS: (adj) acrimony. ANTONYM: (v) please
fairness, integrity, original, genuine, unproductive, barren, infertile, gallant: (adj) fearless, brave, daring,
truthfulness unfruitful, unprofitable, sterile, courageous, chivalrous, bold, manly,
freed: (adj) disentangled, fruitless, destructive heroic, dashing, courteous, fine.
emancipated, disengaged, liberated, fruits: (n) revenue ANTONYMS: (adj) boorish, rude,
extricated, freer, unchained, untied, fuller: (adj) rotund; (n) roller; (v) selfish
loosened, disillusioned, not tied up tucker galloping: (v) flying
freethinking: (adj) skeptical, full-grown: (adj) mature, grown-up, gamester: (n) sportsman, player,
infidelity, noninterventionist, radical, full-fledged reveler, dicer, hazarder
heretical; (n) ism, philosophy, fulsome: (adj) excessive, foul, gaming: (n) play, game, diversion,
moderation, doctrine, immoderate, bad, plentiful, undue, speculation, wager, frolic, bet,
broadmindedness, rationalism smarmy, repugnant, rank, high; (v) gamble, recreation, vice, betting
Jonathan Swift 343
ganges: (n) Ganges river algebra, stereometry, hypsometry, derogatory, dispassionate, unwell
gardener: (n) horticulturist, farmer, configuration, analytic geometry, glutinous: (adj) sticky, viscous, gluey,
florist, employee, hedger, analytical geometry, coordinate clammy, tenacious, pasty, gummy,
husbandman, transplanter geometry, descriptive geometry, viscid, gooey; (adj, n) gelatinous,
gardening: (n) cultivation, elementary geometry mucilaginous
horticulture, agronomy, floriculture, ghastliness: (n) gruesomeness, goats: (n) suborder Ruminantia,
agriculture, husbandry, spade luridness, horror, dreadfulness, Ruminantia, giraffes, deer, frank
husbandry, vintage, landscape terribleness, horribleness, Capra, genus Capra, bison,
gardening, flower gardening, repulsiveness, misery, grimness, antelopes, family Bovidae, camels,
landscaping ghastness, frightfulness. Capra
garments: (n) attire, clothing, dress, ANTONYM: (n) pleasantness gods: (n) gallery
apparel, raiment, outfit, costume, ghost: (n, v) apparition, specter; (n) good-natured: (adj) kindly, friendly,
garb, array, gear, anything shade, spirit, demon, soul, spook, kind, obliging, gracious, kind-
worthless spectre, goblin, appearance, monster hearted, genial, good, bland, sweet,
garret: (n) cockloft, loft, attic, house gibbet: (n) gallows, gallowstree, good-tempered
top, storey, level, upper story, story, gallous, scaffold; (v) hang, expose, goodness: (adj, n) generosity,
dome, noggin, classical Greek pillory, brand, stigmatize, disgrace, kindness, gentleness; (n) good,
gather: (n, v) fold, tuck; (v) convene, string up excellence, benefit, virtue, worth,
garner, congregate, compile, giddiness: (n) flightiness, frivolity, morality; (adj) favor, beneficence.
assemble, accumulate, collect, meet, vertigo, silliness, frivolousness, ANTONYMS: (n) evil, wickedness,
flock. ANTONYMS: (v) disperse, levity, lightness, capriciousness, badness, corruptness, bad,
scatter, spread, distribute, disband, rashness, symptom, swimming. immorality, corruption
decrease, part, smooth ANTONYMS: (n) seriousness, goose: (n) goof, fathead, cuckoo,
gazing: (adj) fixed reliability barnacle, fool, jackass, brent, brant,
geese: (n) ducks, goose, game birds, gimlet: (n) auger, borer, wimble, drill, goosecap; (n, v) spur; (v) serpent
order Anseriformes, wildfowl, birds, bore, probe, trepan, awl, corkscrew, gotten: (v) receive, seize, get, acquire
Anatidae, Anseriformes, family cocktail, gimblet gout: (n) taste, relish, arthritis, go-out;
Anatidae girdle: (v) encircle, circle, compass, (v) cephalalgia, earache, otalgia,
generosity: (n, v) charity, liberality; gird, enclose, encompass; (n, v) zone, odontalgia, neuralgia, lumbago,
(adj, n) bounty, kindness, ring; (n) cincture, cummerbund, sciatica
beneficence, favor; (n) benevolence, sash govern: (n, v) direct, control, reign,
bounteousness, chivalry, nobility, girt: (n, v) girth, girdle; (v) gird, rule; (v) administer, dictate,
munificence. ANTONYMS: (n) begird, encircle, environ; (n) band, dominate, manage, check, bridle,
stinginess, greed, meanness, thrift, belt, zone, cingle; (adj) braced regulate. ANTONYM: (v) deregulate
thriftiness, avarice, unfriendliness, gladly: (adv, v) happily; (adv) governed: (adj) subject; (n) citizenry;
bareness, malevolence, miserliness, gleefully, contentedly, cheerfully, (adv) under
nastiness fain, joyfully, jovially, cheerily, governess: (n) chaperon, preceptress,
genius: (adj, n) capacity, ability, delightedly, gladsomely, readily. nanny, trainer, tutor, professor,
endowment, faculty, gift, cleverness; ANTONYMS: (adv) reluctantly, lecturer, rectoress, educator, rectrix,
(n) flair, brain, prodigy, bent, unwillingly, sadly, resentfully, instructress
aptitude. ANTONYM: (n) amateur miserably governing: (adj) ruling, leading, chief,
gentlemen: (n) sirs, messieurs globe: (n) earth, world, orb, circle, ascendant, predominant, prevailing,
gentleness: (adj, n) kindness, eyeball, round, planet, bolus, fireball, executive; (v) govern; (n)
courtesy, benignity, compassion; (n) bulb; (adj, n) sphere governance, administration,
kindliness, lenity, mildness, glorious: (adj) distinguished, government. ANTONYM: (adj)
sweetness, softness, benevolence, beautiful, bright, celebrated, brilliant, minor
mercy. ANTONYMS: (n) severity, eminent, magnificent, super, great, graceful: (adj) beautiful, delicate,
harshness, fierceness, cruelty, splendid; (adj, v) illustrious. amiable, easy, fine, charming, fair,
ferocity, brusqueness, abruptness, ANTONYMS: (adj) sorrowful, airy, becoming, lovely, lithe.
rage, callousness, sharpness, despicable, horrible, shameful, ANTONYMS: (adj) inelegant, stocky,
roughness lowly awkward, vigorous, jerky, ugly,
gentlewoman: (n) lady, madam, glossing: (n) mechanical colouring stilted, heavy, coarse, strenuous
dame, woman, noblewoman, doll, gloves: (n) gauntlet, mitten, mittens, gracious: (adj) genial, benign, good,
bird, adult female, noble, chick, gauntlets, scarf, ornament, handbag, courteous, compassionate, kind,
ma'am belt, batting glove, boxing glove, accommodating, civil; (adj, n)
gentry: (n) aristocracy, gentility, baseball mitt benevolent, congenial, gentle.
gentlefolk, nobility, elite, peerage, glowing: (adj, n) enthusiastic, cordial, ANTONYMS: (adj) ungracious,
squirearchy, second estate, society, passionate; (adj) burning, fervent, boorish, discourteous, reserved,
upper class blazing, flaming, fiery, dazzling; (adj, rude, abrupt, critical, unkind,
geometrical: (adj) v) warm; (adj, adv) aglow. hardhearted, harsh, poor
nonrepresentational, mathematical ANTONYMS: (adj) pale, wan, graciously: (adv) gracefully, mildly,
geometry: (v) arithmetic, analysis, unhappy, unenthusiastic, politely, courteously, benevolently,
benignantly, civilly, sympathetically, feeling, appreciate, grateful, joy, happiness, comfort, content,
mercifully, leniently, suavely. thanksgiving, kindness. peace
ANTONYMS: (adv) bitterly, ANTONYMS: (n) ingratitude, grieving: (adj) sorrowful, bereft,
coarsely, poorly, ungraciously, ungratefulness bereaved, mournful, aggrieved, sad,
harshly grave: (adj) solemn, serious, critical, teenful, despondent; (v) grief,
gradual: (adj) progressive, gentle, earnest, dangerous, sedate, sad, affliction; (n) sorrow
slow, deliberate, moderate, shading grand; (adj, v) severe, acute; (v) grievous: (adj) bitter, dolorous,
off, sequential, imperceptible; (adj, engrave. ANTONYMS: (adj) dreadful, deplorable, sad, tough,
adv) piecemeal; (n) grail; (adv) frivolous, funny, cheerful, carefree, pitiful, atrocious, regrettable,
gradually. ANTONYMS: (adj) slight, nonchalant, trivial, stable, sorrowful, sorry. ANTONYM: (adj)
dramatic, instant, unexpected, steep, minor, insignificant, favorable successful
abrupt, quick, rapid graves: (n) Robert Graves, Robert grievously: (adv) seriously, heavily,
grandchildren: (n) grandson, heirs Ranke Graves sorrowfully, gravely, severely,
grandee: (n) Hidalgo, nobleman, gravitation: (n) gravity, attraction, mortally, mournfully, heinously,
dignitary, magnifico, noble, VIP pull, graveness, habit, gravitational weightily; (adj, adv) painfully,
grandeur: (n) dignity, splendor, attraction, gravitational force, bitterly
magnitude, brilliance, glory, pomp, attractive force grin: (n, v) beam; (v) laugh, sneer,
elegance, majesty, magnificence, gravity: (n) solemnity, earnestness, leer, quib, quip, satire, skit; (n) smirk,
grandness; (adj, n) solemnity. gravitation, graveness, gravitational grinning, simper. ANTONYM: (v)
ANTONYMS: (n) modesty, attraction, weight, seriousness, frown
simplicity significance, severity, sedateness; (n, grinding: (v) cutting, excruciating,
grandfather: (n) gramps, grandad, v) poise. ANTONYMS: (n) consuming, corroding; (n) abrasion,
grandpapa, grandpa, grandsire, insignificance, lightheartedness, friction, sharpening, detrition; (adj)
granddaddy, ancestor, father's triviality, cheerfulness, levity grating, extortionate, hard
father, paternal grandfather, father, gray: (adj) dull, dim, bleak, gloomy, grinning: (n) grin, smile, facial
forefather pale, grizzled, hoary, leaden, old, expression, facial gesture, smiling;
grandmother: (n) grandma, granny, overcast; (n) grizzle. ANTONYMS: (adj) beaming
crone, grannie, grandam, mother, (adj) sunny, cheerful, clear, youthful groan: (n, v) grumble, murmur, cry,
dam, grandmamma, father's mother, graze: (n, v) browse, scrape, touch; sigh, mutter, squeak, rumble, scrape;
paternal grandmother, hag (v) rub, chafe, eat, shave, brush, crop, (v) howl, complain; (n) complaint
grasp: (adj, n, v) catch; (n, v) clutch, crease; (n) cut. ANTONYM: (v) groaning: (adj) moaning, groaningly,
clasp, hold, clinch; (v) comprehend, smooth inarticulate
embrace, grapple, apprehend, grazed: (adj) hurt groom: (n) equerry, bridegroom,
conceive, cling. ANTONYMS: (n, v) grazing: (n) pasturage, feeding, stableman, hostler; (v) prepare,
Miss; (v) overlook, lose, give; (n) shaving, farming, Estancia, eating, dress, arrange, train, coach, tidy,
ignorance skimming curry
grate: (v) grind, creak, scrape, abrade, greasing: (n) scumming groove: (n, v) channel, rut, chamfer,
gall, gnash, fret, rub, aggravate, greatness: (n) excellence, dimension, score, crease; (v) flute; (n) ditch, cut,
provoke; (n) lattice dignity, bulk, size, enormousness, track, custom, notch. ANTONYMS:
gratefully: (adv) appreciatively, bigness, enormity, grandness, (n) bump, ridge
indebtedly, obligedly, gratifyingly, magnitude, fame. ANTONYMS: (n) grooved: (adj) fluted, ribbed,
delightfully, beholdenly, pleasingly, obscurity, austerity, commonness, channeled, established, flutelike,
pleasantly, welcomely, goodly, mildness, moderation, simplicity accustomed, methodical, ridged,
deliciously greedily: (adv) covetously, avidly, fine
gratify: (v) delight, please, appease, voraciously, ravenously, rapaciously, groundless: (adj) unfounded,
accommodate, satisfy, amuse, suit, acquisitively, gluttonously, hungrily, gratuitous, unwarranted, false,
indulge, cater; (n, v) humor; (adj) graspingly, eagerly, enviously. wanton, idle, vain, ungrounded,
contented. ANTONYMS: (v) ANTONYM: (adv) sparingly unjustifiable, unjustified, unreal.
dissatisfy, displease, disappoint greediness: (n) avarice, cupidity, ANTONYMS: (adj) proven, true,
grating: (adj) hoarse, strident, harsh, covetousness, eagerness, gluttony, justified, rational, sound
discordant, gravelly, raspy, gruff, selfishness, avidity, miserliness, groveling: (adj) abject, dirty,
raucous; (n, v) lattice; (n) grate, grid. hunger, stinginess, voracity. contemptible, grovelling, abased,
ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, ANTONYM: (n) moderation wormy, fawning, mean, oily,
soothing, smooth, harmonious greenland: (n) Equisetum variegatum, rascally, scrubby
gratis: (adv) for free, free of charge, variegated horsetail, variegated grovelling: (adj) groveling, base,
gratuitously; (adj) gratuitous, scouring rush abject, menial, vulgar, slavish,
complimentary, costless, buckshee, greyhound: (adj) race horse, gazelle, servile, obsequious, low, wormlike,
unsolicited; (adj, adv) without courser, eagle; (n) grayhound earthbred
charge, freely, at no cost grief: (adj, n, v) affliction; (n) dolor, guessed: (adj) rude, inscrutable
gratitude: (n) appreciation, thanks, anguish, distress, agony, pain, guided: (adj) conducted, directed, led
thank, acknowledgement, wound, chagrin, concern; (n, v) guinea: (n) greaseball, Republic of
acknowledgment, appreciativeness, regret; (adj) sore. ANTONYMS: (n) Guinea, poultry, change, shilling,
Jonathan Swift 345
penny, doit, domestic fowl, farthing, nerve, spirit. ANTONYMS: (n) admiration
fowl, French Guinea defeatism, flimsiness haunches: (n) buttocks
gunpowder: (n) powder, guncotton, hardness: (n) austerity, asperity, havoc: (n) devastation, mayhem,
fine particles, face powder, dust, callousness, difficulty, rigor, destruction, damage, demolition,
concentrate, ammunition, residue; consistency, stiffness, cruelty, debacle, wreckage, waste, chaos,
(v) shot arduousness, tightness, insensibility. downfall; (n, v) carnage.
guts: (n) bravery, grit, entrails, ANTONYMS: (n) ease, limpness, ANTONYMS: (n) peace, calm
courage, gall, boldness, backbone, malleability hazard: (n, v) chance, venture,
fortitude, nerve, intestines, hardship: (n) adversity, calamity, endanger, peril, adventure, bet,
gumption. ANTONYM: (n) affliction, trouble, difficulty, disaster, wager; (n) danger, fortune, jeopardy,
cowardice deprivation, asperity, destitution; (n, accident. ANTONYMS: (n) safety,
habits: (n) behavior, decorum, v) grievance, burden. ANTONYMS: security; (v) protect
pratique (n) privilege, ease, prosperity, hazel: (n) cobnut, hazelnut, hazel tree,
habituate: (v) accustom, inure, wealth, luxury, advantage, wood, brown, hazelnut tree, filbert
exercise, season, familiarize, addict, opportunity bush, cob, beaked hazelnut, auburn;
drill, acclimate, train, employ, adapt hardships: (n) difficulty (adj) chromatic
hail: (v) address, cry, acclaim, hardy: (adj, n) hard, fearless, rugged, hazy: (adj) fuzzy, cloudy, vague,
applaud, summon, accost, fall, cheer, daring; (adj) sturdy, manly, blurred, foggy, nebulous, misty,
salute; (n, v) call; (n) greeting. audacious, brave, strong, robust, indistinct, blurry, faint, dull.
ANTONYMS: (v) ignore, criticize gallant. ANTONYMS: (adj) weak, ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, distinct,
hailstone: (adj) hail, ice, stone delicate, tender, feeble precise, sunny, thick, detailed,
hailstones: (n) sleet, frozen rain harmless: (adj) safe, benign, definite, strong
haired: (adj) hirsute, herd inoffensive, hurtless, innocent, heap: (n, v) pile, aggregate, amass; (n)
hairiness: (n) pilosity, fluffiness, innoxious, intact, simple; (n) silly; collection, accumulation, mound,
appearance, furriness, fuzziness, (adj, n) foolish; (v) weaponless. mass, group, lot; (v) bank, collect.
crinosity. ANTONYM: (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) lethal, damaging, ANTONYM: (v) tidy
hairlessness destructive, poisonous, toxic, heaps: (adj, n) lots, much; (n) masses,
hairs: (n) hair serious, offensive, malicious, hurtful, oodles, piles, stacks, many, tons,
hairy: (adj) hirsute, bushy, dangerous, noxious, unpleasant plenty, lot, accumulation.
downy, woolly, bristly, fleecy, harness: (adj, n) strap, tether; (n, v) ANTONYM: (adj) inadequate
rough, fuzzy, shaggy, fluffy. yoke, rein, couple, check; (adj, v) hearer: (n) audience, listener,
ANTONYMS: (adj) hairless, safe, hitch; (v) wear, equip, limit, use. eavesdropper, observer, perceiver,
tidy, sleek ANTONYM: (v) undo earwitness, attendant, attendee,
half-moon: (n) curve, arc harp: (n) lyre, harmonica, harper, lute, attender, audient, beholder
hammock: (n) berth, hill, cot, cradle, mouth harp; (v) dwell, ingeminate, heartily: (adv) cordially, sincerely,
bed, crib, to lash a hammock, iterate, restate, reiterate, retell enthusiastically, warmly, strongly,
stretcher, shakedown, litter, harvest: (n, v) fruit; (v) gain, glean, earnestly, vigorously, ardently,
bedstead gather, amass, get, reap, pick; (n) soundly, devoutly, eagerly.
handkerchief: (n) hankie, kerchief, ingathering, profit, produce ANTONYMS: (adv) feebly,
bandanna, cravat, hanky, wipe, haste: (n, v) hurry, dash, dispatch, languorously
bandana, collar, shawl; (n, v) rush; (n) celerity, expedition, hearty: (adj) heartfelt, healthy, genial,
napkin; (v) sudary rapidity, speed, bustle, hastiness, sturdy, cheering, fervent,
handy: (adj) convenient, adroit, apt, quickness. ANTONYMS: (n) delay, wholehearted, lusty, enthusiastic,
expert, clever, deft, dexterous, good, patience, forethought, caution convivial; (adj, n) well.
accessible; (adj, n) available; (adj, n, hasten: (adj, n, v) speed, quicken; (v) ANTONYMS: (adj) unhealthy, frail,
v) ready. ANTONYMS: (adj) clumsy, expedite, advance, hurry, hie, dash, old, weak, sluggish, unwholesome,
fixed, inept, unwieldy, inconvenient, rush; (n, v) further, forward, meager
faraway, far, difficult, distant, dispatch. ANTONYMS: (v) linger, heated: (adj) fierce, burning, excited,
cumbersome, worthless retard, amble ardent, fevered, passionate, hot,
hanger: (n) strap, hook, dropper, hateful: (adj) disgusting, execrable, furious, fiery, fervent; (v) heat.
suspension, support, coat hanger, nasty, abominable, hideous, ANTONYMS: (adj) friendly, cooled,
rack, hangman, suspender, peg, despicable, repulsive, distasteful, mild, apathetic, quiet, impassive
dowel foul; (adj, v) odious, obnoxious. heath: (n) heathland, ling, moor,
harden: (adj, v) habituate, inure; (n, ANTONYMS: (adj) delightful, kind, steppe, barren, wild, bush, prairie,
v) strengthen; (v) season, nice, benign, desirable waste, downs, desert
consolidate, freeze, congeal, hatred: (n, v) detestation, enmity, heathen: (adj, n) gentile, ethnic; (n)
coagulate, calcify, petrify; (n) brace. animosity; (n) aversion, antipathy, infidel, idolater, paynim, heretic;
ANTONYMS: (v) soften, liquefy, disgust, abhorrence, grudge, anger, (adj) heathenish, irreligious, giaour,
dissolve, weaken, melt abomination, hostility. godless, barbaric
hardiness: (n) strength, tolerance, ANTONYMS: (n) liking, adoration, heavenly: (adj) celestial, blissful,
sturdiness, vigor, toughness, affection, attraction, goodwill, ethereal, delightful, angelic, blessed,
durability, bravery, mettle, audacity, kindness, delight, friendliness, elysian, holy, unearthly, godlike,
sacred. ANTONYMS: (adj) worldly, hesitance, faltering, delay, hesitate, contented, compensated, paid
miserable, infernal, hellish, diffidence, hesitancy, qualm, historian: (n) annalist,
unappealing, dreadful, turbulent reluctance; (v) hesitating. historiographer, student, scholar,
heaving: (v) tremor, twitter; (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) certainty, storier, Woodward, gibbon, art
swelling, full, full up, jammed; (n) resolution, confidence, decisiveness, historian, Bede, durant, Franklin
murmur, forcing out, groan, enthusiasm, inclination, willingness hither: (adv) here, whither,
grumble, mutter. ANTONYM: (adj) hewn: (adj) downed hitherward, thither
deserted hideous: (adj) dreadful, frightful, hoarse: (adj) gruff, husky, raucous,
hectoring: (adj) blustering, vaporing, fearful, ghastly, horrid, ugly, grating, strident, guttural, rough,
roistering, crushing, swashing repulsive, lurid, horrible, grisly, throaty; (v) coarse; (adj, v) hollow,
hedge: (v) fudge, dodge, elude, evade, grim. ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, sepulchral. ANTONYMS: (adj)
skirt, duck, avoid, circumvent, pleasant, beautiful, wonderful smooth, mellow, velvety, high
equivocate; (n) barrier, hedging. hiding: (n) covering, concealment, hobble: (n, v) limp, hitch, fetter; (v)
ANTONYM: (v) confront concealing, beating, screening, hamper, hopple, handcuff, bridle,
heir: (n) beneficiary, successor, thrashing, flogging, rout, burial, manacle, hinder; (adv) toddle; (adj)
offspring, inheritor, heiress, receiver, drubbing, ambush scrape
progeny, heritor, descendant, scion, highness: (n) excellency, altitude, hogs: (n) Suidae, boars, family Suidae,
issue. ANTONYMS: (n) ancestor, loftiness, nobility, greatness, stock
donor eminence, size, stateliness, majesty, hogshead: (n) cask, barrel, vat
heirs: (n) family, posterity, issue high, grandeur holla: (n) bellowing, bellow,
helm: (n) wheel, haft, handle, tiller, highway: (n) highroad, way, path, vociferation, outcry, yell, shout,
shank, rudder, steering wheel, shaft, route, street, thoroughfare, course, yowl, boom, holler, roaring, roar
hilt, halm; (v) helmet main road, expressway, bus, holland: (n) Netherlands, Dutch,
helmet: (n, v) headpiece; (n) casque, freeway hollands, Kingdom of the
helm, hood, armet, basinet, heaume, highwayman: (n) footpad, brigand, Netherlands
hard hat, Galea, cowl; (v) bandit, robber, outlaw, hijacker, hollander: (n) Netherlander, grinding
pickelhaube road agent, highjacker, padder, machine
helot: (n) serf, villein, vassal, slave, freebooter, sturdy beggar hollow: (adj, n) blank; (n) cavity,
cotter, cottier, thrall, Negro hillock: (n) hill, mound, rise, barrow, depression, cave, dell; (adj) empty,
helpless: (adj, v) forlorn, destitute, kopje, hammock, elevation, heap; false; (adj, n, v) concave; (n, v)
abandoned; (adj) powerless, weak, (adj, n) knoll, hummock; (adj) mole excavate, dent, scoop. ANTONYMS:
defenseless, disabled, impotent, hilt: (n) knob, grip, handgrip, haft, (adj) convex, sincere, true, full,
feeble, hopeless, unable. helm, gripe, tiller, treadle, key, meaningful, cramped, valid; (n)
ANTONYMS: (adj) strong, trigger, butt hump, bump, hill, lump
independent, capable, invulnerable, hind: (adj, n) rear; (adj) after, hollowed: (adj) concave
armed, powerful, impervious posterior, hindermost; (n) doe, homer: (n) homing pigeon, poet,
hemp: (n) cannabis, dope, ganja, clown, peasant, roe, countryman, Winslow homer, bingle, referee, cor,
grass, flax, halter, rope, abaca, gage; servant; (v) hinder kor, basking shark, base hit, triumph
(adj) marijuana, pot hinder: (v) impede, resist, check, honesty: (adj, n) candor, justice,
hempen: (adj) Hempen collar, tough, hamper, obstruct, curb, handicap, fidelity, equity; (n) integrity, fairness,
cannabine delay; (n, v) bar; (adj) posterior, hind. candidness, probity, frankness,
henceforth: (adv) hence, in future, ANTONYMS: (v) help, facilitate, rectitude, faith. ANTONYMS: (n)
after this; (adj) following assist, prompt, encourage, promote, dishonesty, wickedness, treachery,
herd: (n, v) crowd; (adj) bevy, many; allow, support, accelerate deceit, deception, deviousness,
(adj, n, v) swarm; (n) drove, gang, hindered: (adj) obstructed, blocked, decadence, affectation, caution,
crew, collection, covey, multitude, delayed, stalled, slowed down, slow, evasiveness, injustice
mob in an inferior position, in a weak honey: (n) dear, love, beloved, nectar,
hereafter: (adv) thereafter, from now position, impedite, thwarted, sweetheart, dearest, duck, molasses,
on, hence, henceforth, hereinafter, frustrated sugar, baby; (v) sweeten
afterwards; (n) afterlife, futurity, hint: (v) suggest; (adj, n) trace; (n) honourable: (adj) estimable, reverend,
time to come, great beyond, future suggestion, intimation, inkling, cue, venerable, glorious, honorable,
life allusion; (n, v) tip, touch, dash; (adj, distinguished, above-board, good,
heresy: (n) paganism, heathenism, v) intimate. ANTONYM: (n) worthy, right, noble
false doctrine, nonconformity, overtone honourably: (adv) uprightly,
revisionism, unbelief, orientation, hinted: (adj) veiled, roundabout, not worthily, honestly, creditably,
apostasy, fallacy, schism, dissent explicit, implicit, coded, oblique commendably
herman: (n) Woodrow Charles hire: (v) employ, charter, enlist, take, honoured: (adj) esteemed, respected,
Herman rent, take on, retain; (n, v) wage; (n) worthy
hermetically: (adv) chemically, employment, salary, engagement. hoof: (n) toe, sole, hooves, bottom,
tightly, impenetrably, sealedly, ANTONYM: (v) fire keel, root, leg, ungula, unguis,
imperviously hired: (adj) leased, chartered, animal foot; (v) step
hesitation: (n, v) falter, fear; (n) mercenary, hackneyed, hack; (v) hook: (n, v) crook, catch, draw, bend,
Jonathan Swift 347
trap, lure; (n) fishhook, claw, howl: (n, v) cry, roar, scream, bark, leisurely, considered, patient,
crotchet; (v) fasten, hitch. shout, yell, bay, yelp; (v) bawl, meticulous, thorough
ANTONYMS: (v) undercharge, growl, yawl. ANTONYM: (v) laugh hurting: (adj) aching, painful, tender;
detach, undo howling: (n) howl, cry; (adj) fierce, (n) hurt, ache, sting, pain, colic,
hooked: (adj) bent, curved, aquiline, fantastic, gross, glaring, marvelous, dysmenorrhea, agony; (v) causing
addicted, infatuated, obsessed, wonderful, wondrous; (adj, n) pain. ANTONYM: (adj) painless
enamored, dependent, dependant, weeping, sniveling husbandry: (n) cultivation, farming,
engrossed, uncinate. ANTONYM: hull: (n) crust, casing, hulk, husk, economy, frugality, culture,
(adj) unenthusiastic structure, body, dried parchment; (n, conservation, thrift, tillage, dairying,
hooks: (n) maulers, meat hooks v) skin; (adj) torso, trunk, bole horticulture, gardening
hoop: (n) circle, band, ring, loop, hulling: (n) husking hushed: (adj) calm, silent, still,
annulus, round, sphere, wheel, humanity: (n) benevolence, mankind, subdued, placid, muffled, noiseless,
circlet, halo; (v) encircle flesh, human race, human, soft, soundless, tranquil, gentle.
hooped: (adj) with stripes, stripy, humankind; (adj, n) compassion, ANTONYM: (adj) noisy
striped, girded charity, kindness, benignity, hypocrisy: (n, v) insincerity; (n) cant,
hopeful: (adj) confident, auspicious, gentleness. ANTONYMS: (n) dissimulation, falsity, deception,
bright, optimistic, sanguine, rosy, severity, inhumanity, nastiness, falseness, sanctimony, deceit, lip
probable, likely, expectant, upbeat; selfishness service; (v) double dealing; (adj)
(n, v) candidate. ANTONYMS: (adj) humankind: (n) man, world, human hypocritical. ANTONYMS: (n)
desperate, pessimistic, gloomy, race, mankind, humanity, humans, sincerity, honesty
pained, doubtful, bad, unhopeful, human beings, mortality, human idle: (adj) lazy, indolent, inactive, free,
unlikely, unpromising, down being, universe, humanness unfounded, fruitless, baseless,
horizon: (n) ambit, reach, purview, humble: (v) demean, humiliate, groundless, frivolous, empty,
vista, view, perspective, prospect, mortify; (n, v) disgrace, debase; (adj, disengaged. ANTONYMS: (adj)
skyline, arena, celestial horizon, n, v) abase; (adj) base, lowly, active, employed, industrious,
amphitheater unassuming, docile, low. energetic, meaningful, productive,
horizontally: (adv) evenly, flatly, ANTONYMS: (adj) impressive, worthwhile, diligent; (v) change,
planely, straightly, frigidly, dully, arrogant, haughty, imposing, run, work
barwise, smoothly, recumbently, conceited, pompous, snooty, idleness: (n) lethargy, laziness, torpor,
prostrately; (adj) crosswise overbearing, presumptuous, proud, inactivity, idling, unemployment,
horribly: (adv) horrifically, awfully, exalted sloth, inaction, inertia, faineance,
terrifically, hideously, atrociously, humbly: (adv) lowly, meanly, idlesse. ANTONYMS: (n) energy,
appallingly; (adj, adv) frightfully, modestly, submissively, low, shyly, activity, bustle, liveliness,
terribly, fearfully, shockingly; (adj) lowlily, naturally, regretfully, responsibility
ghastly. ANTONYMS: (adv) remorsefully, repentantly. idolatrous: (adj) loving, profane,
pleasantly, wonderfully, kindly, ANTONYMS: (adv) conceitedly, heathen, heretical, idolatrical,
sweetly haughtily, pompously, idolish, idolous, pagan
horseback: (n) hogback, body part ostentatiously, unrepentantly, idolatry: (adj, n) devotion; (n)
horseman: (n) cavalier, rider, jockey, affluently, brashly, pretentiously worship, veneration, idol worship,
horse fancier, horseback rider, humility: (n) diffidence, modesty, iconolatry, bibliolatry; (adj)
trooper, trainer, knight, cavalryman, submission, shyness, meekness, infatuation, fervor, flame,
animal fancier, postilion lowliness, timidity, trait, humiliation, enthusiasm, enchantment
hosier: (n) cordwainer, storekeeper, resignation; (adj) veneration. ignominious: (adj) dishonorable,
tradesman, shopkeeper, hatter ANTONYMS: (n) haughtiness, shameful, disreputable, infamous,
hospitable: (adj) affable, receptive, affectation, conceit, arrogance base, discreditable, dishonourable,
gracious, cordial, generous, amiable, humming: (adj) droning, zippy, inglorious, black, despicable,
convivial, genial, pleasant, warm, to reeking, bustling, grunting, stinking; degrading. ANTONYMS: (adj)
enjoy having guests. ANTONYMS: (n) buzzing, vocalizing, sound, honorable, glorious
(adj) unwelcoming, inhospitable, murmur, growling ignominy: (n) disgrace, dishonor,
sinister, hostile hunger: (n, v) thirst, want, wish, itch; shame, reproach, contempt,
hospitality: (n) entertainment, (n) craving, appetite, eagerness, disrepute, degradation, discredit,
generosity, friendliness, cordiality, famine; (v) crave, ache; (adj) hungry. scandal; (adj, n) odium; (adj)
welcome, cordial reception, ANTONYMS: (n) moderation, opprobrium. ANTONYMS: (n)
kindness, amiability, warmth, aversion, dislike, apathy success, glorification, pride
solicitously, politely. ANTONYMS: hunting: (n, v) chase; (v) battue; (n) ignorance: (n) illiteracy, nescience,
(n) frostiness, inhospitality exploration, pursuit, search, ducking, folly, unwisdom, innocence,
hound: (v) bloodhound, chase, hunt, beagling, coursing, frisking, venery, denseness, ignorancy, stupidity,
follow, badger, course, bait, pursue; shooting obtuseness, tabula rasa,
(n) greyhound, blackguard, cad. hurried: (adj) fast, sudden, speedy, unawareness. ANTONYMS: (n)
ANTONYM: (v) soothe rapid, quick, swift, headlong, abrupt, intelligence, acquaintance, education
hovering: (adj) suspended, poised, cursory, precipitate, prompt. ignorant: (adj) unconscious,
impending, flying, high ANTONYMS: (adj) unhurried, unwitting, rude, illiterate,
uneducated, blind, dull, unaware, extreme, unreasonable, inordinate, incompletely, partially, poorly,
uninformed, unlearned, innocent. intemperate, unrestrained, fanatical, inadequately, sketchily, incorrectly,
ANTONYMS: (adj) conscious, fulsome. ANTONYMS: (adj) halfway. ANTONYMS: (adv)
versed, cultured, educated, moderate, frugal perfectly, flawlessly, correctly, well
informed, wary, literate, aware, immortal: (adj) eternal, enduring, impertinence: (n) audacity, gall,
polite undying, endless, monumental; (adj, impudence, insolence, disrespect,
illiterate: (adj) uneducated, rude, v) deathless, imperishable, effrontery, brass, boldness,
unschooled, unlearned, untaught, celebrated; (n) deity, God, divinity. impertinency, sauciness, freshness.
empty, green, letterless, ANTONYMS: (adj) obscure, earthly, ANTONYMS: (n) politeness,
uninstructed, unread; (n) forgettable, perishable, temporary seriousness, reticence
analphabetic. ANTONYMS: (adj) impaired: (adj) sick, damaged, implements: (n) equipment,
educated, economical crippled, defective, faulty, corrupted, apparatus, gear, tackle, rigging,
ill-treatment: (n) hurt poor, unfit, hurt, deficient, outfit, hardware, trappings
illustrious: (adj, n) glorious, depressed imported: (adj) exotic, unaccustomed,
celebrated, excellent, grand; (adj) impartially: (adv) justly, extrinsic. ANTONYM: (adj)
famous, bright, eminent, famed, dispassionately, neutrally, evenly, domestic
distinguished, brilliant, well-known. disinterestedly, objectively, importunate: (adj) annoying, exigent,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unknown, unbiasedly, unprejudicedly, pressing, insistent, bothersome,
obscure, ordinary, undistinguished, indifferently, evenhandedly, rightly. pestiferous, pestilent, instant,
lowly ANTONYM: (adv) unfairly obdurate, demanding, pleading.
ill-will: (n) enmity impassable: (adj) impervious, ANTONYM: (adj) feeble
imaginable: (adj) conceivable, impenetrable, impracticable, impotent: (adj) helpless, feeble, frail,
possible, thinkable, plausible, invincible, insuperable, inaccessible, fragile, inadequate, weak, barren,
earthly, believable, credible, feasible, unpassable, innavigable, slack, ineffective, incapable, unable.
immediate, likely, near. inextricable, closed, impossible. ANTONYMS: (adj) able, powerful
ANTONYMS: (adj) unimaginable, ANTONYMS: (adj) passable, open impressions: (n) impersonation,
implausible impatience: (n) annoyance, eagerness, imitation
imaginary: (adj) fictitious, unreal, anger, intolerance, restlessness, imprimis: (n) first and foremost, in
false, mythical, illusory, ideal, fidget, nervousness, fidgetiness, the first place
hypothetical, visionary, fictional, enthusiasm, edginess; (adj) imprison: (v) cage, incarcerate, jail,
notional, chimerical. ANTONYMS: nonendurance. ANTONYMS: (n) immure, commit, prison, restrain,
(adj) real, palpable, actual, concrete, calmness, endurance, apathy gaol, detain, lock up, shut.
prosaic, normal, true impatient: (adj) eager, anxious, ANTONYMS: (v) release, free,
imagining: (n) conception, daydream, petulant, fidgety, vexed, keen, edgy, liberate
fantasy, opinion; (v) imagine; (adj) quick, avid, irritable, fretful. imprisoned: (adj) confined, jailed,
imaginant ANTONYMS: (adj) patient, fenced in, unfree, locked up,
imbecility: (n) folly, foolishness, enduring, unenthusiastic, calm, incarcerate, deeply moved,
idiocy, fatuity, weakness, stupidity, happy, relaxed, slow enraptured; (v) behind bars
feeblemindedness, lunacy; (adj, n) impeachment: (n) charge, accusation, imprisonment: (n) captivity,
debility, feebleness; (adj) infirmity arraignment, censure, impeach, confinement, incarceration, durance,
imitate: (n, v) duplicate; (v) forge, indictment, prosecution, citation, detention, arrest, immurement,
ape, emulate, follow, feign, instrument, blame, complaint internment, duress; (adj, n) bondage;
counterfeit, mimic, mock, assume, impediment: (n, v) hindrance, check, (v) imprison. ANTONYMS: (n)
act difficulty, delay; (n) bar, hitch, release, freedom
imitated: (adj) mimical barrier, obstruction, drawback, improbable: (adj) implausible,
imitating: (adj) imitative; (n) encumbrance, block. ANTONYMS: impossible, incredible, unbelievable,
emulation, mimicry, forgery, acting (n) benefit, boost, incentive, strength fishy, questionable, inconceivable,
imitation: (adj, n) fake, sham, impending: (adj) forthcoming, close, impractical, unthinkable, absurd;
reproduction; (n) dummy, forgery, future, coming, approaching, near, (adj, n) marvelous. ANTONYMS:
mockery, copy, emulation; (n, v) prospective, pending, at hand, (adj) probable, certain, plausible,
parody; (adj) false, bogus. upcoming, threatening. truthful, ordinary, on, practical
ANTONYMS: (adj) genuine, real, ANTONYMS: (adj) distant, unlikely, imprudently: (adv) injudiciously,
natural; (n) original, formalism past unwisely, indiscreetly, carelessly,
immense: (adj) vast, enormous, great, imperfect: (adj) faulty, deficient, recklessly, incautiously,
gigantic, immeasurable, colossal, defective, unfinished, incomplete, thoughtlessly, foolishly, hastily,
boundless, big, large, giant, infinite. poor, flawed, partial, inadequate, unthinkingly, inconsiderately.
ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny, small, broken, fallible. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adv) cautiously,
insignificant, miniature, slight, perfect, whole, unblemished, carefully, discreetly, judiciously,
negligible, compact, narrow, short, adequate, complete, sound, sensibly, wisely
minor boundless, capable, flawless impudence: (adj, n) boldness, brass;
immoderate: (adj) excessive, imperfectly: (adv) faultily, (n) cheek, gall, audacity,
extravagant, undue, exorbitant, defectively, badly, deficiently, impertinence, insolence, face,
Jonathan Swift 349
cheekiness, effrontery, assurance. inclement: (adj, n) harsh, rugged, (adj) fabulous, extraordinary,
ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, boisterous; (n) austere; (adj) unbelievable, implausible, fantastic,
reticence turbulent, grim, bleak, rigorous, unlikely, preposterous, wonderful.
impudently: (adv) saucily, rudely, bitter, rough, rigid. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adj) credible,
pertly, audaciously, boldly, (adj) mild, fine, nice, calm, pleasant believable, conceivable,
insolently, brazenly, inclination: (n, v) desire, bent; (n) unspectacular, likely, mundane,
presumptuously, daringly, cheekily, fancy, affection, tendency, leaning, unremarkable, plausible, awful,
freshly drift, appetite, dip, proclivity, bias. sensible, real
impulse: (n) pulse, urge, impulsion, ANTONYMS: (n) disinclination, incur: (n, v) contract; (v) catch, get,
force, motive, whim, drive, goad, reluctance, aversion, indifference, incite, begin, cause, encounter,
motivation, momentum, incentive. unwillingness, antipathy, dislike, experience, obtain, suffer, receive
ANTONYMS: (n) aversion, horror indemnity: (n) atonement, damages,
disincentive, disinclination inclined: (adj, v) given; (adj) prone, compensation, pay, restitution,
imputation: (n) blame, charge, willing, oblique, apt, predisposed, reparation, redress, indemnification,
accusation, impeachment, ready, minded, likely, liable, bowed. solatium, exoneration, excuse
attribution, ascription; (adj, n) slur; ANTONYMS: (adj) reluctant, indifference: (adj, n) coldness,
(adj) blot, reproach, stain, spot unwilling, disinclined, horizontal, phlegm; (n) detachment,
impute: (v) charge, attribute, ascribe, unbiased, vertical, impervious impassiveness, disregard, aloofness,
assign, accuse, blame, attach, credit, inclining: (adj) oblique, shelving; (n) nonchalance, neglect, unconcern,
lay, accredit, impeach leaning, tendency, disposition, impassivity, disinterest.
inadvertence: (n) disregard, movement, proclivity, sentiment, ANTONYMS: (n) fervor, interest,
inadvertency, oversight, inattention, propensity, predilection, partiality eagerness, dedication, sympathy,
omission, neglect, mistake, incognito: (adv) incog; (adj) covert, favorite, compassion, anxiety,
superintendence, supervision, error; secret, nameless, disguised, responsiveness, forcefulness, care
(adj) nonobservance. ANTONYM: undercover, concealed; (n) indifferent: (adj) apathetic, impassive,
(n) mindfulness pseudonym cold, cool, callous, fair, insensible,
incapable: (adj) impotent, inadequate, inconsiderable: (adj) inconsequential, unconcerned, careless, dull, average.
unable, helpless, powerless, immaterial, small, petty, slight, ANTONYMS: (adj) enthusiastic,
unqualified, inept, insufficient, inapt, negligible, trivial, fractional, minute, fervent, keen, obsessive, energetic,
ineffectual, unfit. ANTONYMS: (adj) imperceptible, slender. ANTONYM: eager, involved, surprised,
able, competent, strong, powerful, (adj) major exceptional, concerned, shocked
effective inconsistently: (adv) illogically, indifferently: (adv) carelessly, coldly,
incessant: (adj) endless, continual, irrationally, contradictorily, nonchalantly, listlessly,
everlasting, eternal, constant, incongruously, irregularly, unconcernedly, uninterestedly,
continuous, perpetual, unremitting, conflictingly, discrepantly, neutrally, middlingly, casually,
interminable, persistent; (adj, v) inconstantly, incompatibly, unbiasedly, disinterestedly.
frequent. ANTONYMS: (adj) unevenly, preposterously. ANTONYMS: (adv) passionately,
intermittent, occasional, sporadic, ANTONYMS: (adv) constantly, obsessively, carefully, eagerly,
broken, finite logically, systematically, reliably, energetically, warmly, anxiously,
incessantly: (adv) constantly, steadily enthusiastically, sympathetically
endlessly, continually, perpetually, inconstancy: (n) fickleness, indignation: (n) anger, resentment,
continuously, unceasingly, eternally, flightiness, uncertainty, falseness, displeasure, grudge, umbrage, rage,
persistently, unremittingly, infidelity, changeableness, outrage, exasperation, choler,
unendingly, steadily. ANTONYMS: changefulness, variability, disloyalty, dudgeon; (adj, n) wrath.
(adv) sporadically, briefly caprice; (adj, n) mutability. ANTONYMS: (n) contentment,
incest: (n) criminal congress, idolatry, ANTONYMS: (n) constancy, fidelity pleasure
adultery inconvenience: (n, v) trouble, indignity: (n) dishonor, contumely,
incite: (n, v) animate, goad; (adj, v) incommode; (v) discommode, humiliation, contempt, outrage,
excite, quicken; (v) encourage, disoblige, annoy, disturb, disquiet; disdain, offence, disgrace,
actuate, arouse, abet, foment, egg on, (n) disadvantage, difficulty, degradation; (n, v) insult, abuse.
agitate. ANTONYMS: (v) deter, nuisance, unsuitableness. ANTONYMS: (n) honor, glory,
calm, dampen, defuse, soothe, douse, ANTONYMS: (n) expediency, pride
inhibit, prevent, quell, shun, advantage; (v) help, please indisposed: (adj) ill, ailing, loath, sick,
discourage inconvenient: (adj) inopportune, averse, poorly, sickly, reluctant,
incited: (adj) encouraged, impelled, awkward, disadvantageous, unwilling, unwell, diseased.
driven bothersome, improper, unfavorable, ANTONYMS: (adj) inclined, willing,
incitement: (n) impetus, incentive, troublesome, hard, inapt, untoward, keen, disposed
incitation, encouragement, unfortunate. ANTONYMS: (adj) indisposition: (adj, n, v) ailment; (n)
fomentation, stimulus, stimulation, convenient, suitable, opportune, disinclination, dislike, distaste,
provocation, motive, impulse; (n, v) timely, advantageous aversion, reluctance, hesitation; (n,
goad. ANTONYMS: (n) prevention, incredible: (adj, n) astonishing, v) illness, disorder, disease; (adj, n)
deterrent, disincentive marvelous; (adj, v) inconceivable; infirmity. ANTONYM: (n)
inclination infernal: (adj) devilish, fiendish, adroitness, ingeniousness, cunning,
indulgence: (adj, n) gratification, diabolical, demonic, damned, cursed, imagination, acumen, resource,
delight; (n) allowance, extravagance, blasted, unholy, wicked; (adj, v) originality, skill, wit, inventiveness.
debauchery, hobby, tolerance, diabolic, satanic ANTONYM: (n) ineptness
luxury, enjoyment, leniency, pardon. infest: (v) overrun, disturb, pester, ingratiate: (v) fawn, hint, cozy up,
ANTONYMS: (n) denial, virtue, beset, annoy, invade, harry, cotton up, control
intolerance, uprightness, necessity, overwhelm, occupy, molest, harass ingratitude: (n) oblivion of benefits,
indifference, dismay, severity infested: (adj) crawling, swarming, thanklessness, ungratefulness,
indulgent: (adj) forgiving, gentle, polluted, overrun, malodorous, feeling. ANTONYM: (n) gratitude
clement, lenient, soft, kind, gracious, beset, diseased, contaminated, ingredients: (n) contents, element
tolerant, merciful, compassionate; infected inhabit: (v) reside, abide, occupy,
(adj, v) permissive. ANTONYMS: infinite: (adj) absolute, eternal, lodge, settle, people, live, indwell,
(adj) intolerant, unsympathetic, endless, countless, immense, be, exist; (n) habit. ANTONYMS: (v)
severe, restrained, harsh, incalculable, boundless, desert, vacate
hardhearted, abstemious, innumerable, immeasurable, inhabited: (v) populous, full of
disapproving everlasting, spaceless. ANTONYMS: people, arrayed, clothed, dressed,
inexpressible: (adj, v) indescribable; (adj) finite, limited, restricted, small, accustomed, habited; (adj, v)
(adj) ineffable, unspeakable, tiny, slight peopled; (adj) occupied, settled,
unutterable, indefinable, infinitely: (adv) greatly, vastly, housing. ANTONYMS: (adj)
incommunicable, nameless, untold, immensely, immeasurably, unoccupied, uninhabited, business
beyond description, unexpressible, boundlessly, enormously, inhuman: (adj) heartless, cruel,
undefinable. ANTONYM: (adj) unboundedly, hugely, ceaselessly, atrocious, brutal, cold, harsh,
definite unendingly; (adj, adv) incalculably. ferocious, remorseless, barbarous,
infallible: (adj) sure, inevitable, ANTONYM: (adv) finitely relentless, barbaric. ANTONYMS:
positive, inerrable, unfailing, infirmity: (adj, n) frailty, foible, (adj) sympathetic, kind, humane
absolute, confident, definite, imbecility; (n) feebleness, impotence, inhumanity: (n) brutality, atrocity,
dependable; (adj, v) unerring; (n) disability, decrepitude, illness, barbarism, cruelty, barbarousness,
sterling. ANTONYMS: (adj) fallible, sickness, disease, weakness. heinousness, atrociousness,
faulty ANTONYMS: (n) health, wellness, savagery, inhuman treatment,
infallibly: (adv) unerringly, strength inhumaneness, outrage.
unfailingly, inerrably, assuredly, infirmly: (adv) impotently, sickly, ANTONYMS: (n) kindness,
certainly, firmly irresolutely, frailly, decrepitly, humaneness, humanity
infamous: (adj) disreputable, flagrant, delicately, vacillatingly, invalidly, inimitable: (adj) unique, matchless,
notorious, disgraceful, seedily, poorly, languidly particular, unrivaled, unparalleled,
dishonourable, contemptible; (adj, v) inflamed: (adj) impassioned, excited, special, unmatched, supreme,
foul, shameful, base; (adj, n, v) angry, hot, flaming, ablaze, irritated, unparagoned, exclusive, single.
scandalous; (adj, adv, v) nefarious. passionate, painful, burning; (n) red ANTONYMS: (adj) universal,
ANTONYMS: (adj) reputable, inform: (v) acquaint, impart, advise, ordinary
famous enlighten, announce, tell, familiarize, iniquitous: (adj) sinful, immoral, evil,
infamy: (n) dishonor, disrepute, explain, advertise, apprise, warn wrong, injurious, heinous, bad,
ignominy, notoriety, shame, informer: (n) detective, betrayer, criminal; (adj, adv) impious,
opprobrium, reproach, stain, delator, sneak, tattletale, informant, infamous, nefarious. ANTONYMS:
discredit, baseness; (adj, n) pollution. canary, rat, grass, nark, snitch (adj) right, fair
ANTONYMS: (n) fame, virtue, informing: (n) briefing, disclosure, injure: (n, v) damage, harm, impair;
honor, obscurity, pride apprisal, warning, revelation, ratting, (v) contuse, disfigure, maim, bruise,
infancy: (n) babyhood, cradle, presentation, introduction; (v) blemish, wound, insult; (adj, v)
beginning, birth, genesis, minority, inform; (adj) intelligencing, giving abuse. ANTONYMS: (v) heal, enable,
early childhood, youth, nonage, information repair, protect, help
adolescence, early days. informs: (v) inform; (n) informing injurious: (adj) evil, harmful, hurtful,
ANTONYM: (n) maturity infused: (adj) mixed destructive, bad, disadvantageous,
infants: (n) brood ingenious: (adj) adroit, artful, clever, detrimental, adverse, deleterious,
infected: (adj) diseased, dirty, impure, cunning, deft, expert, creative, inimical, damaging. ANTONYMS:
tainted, festering, corrupt, unclean, imaginative, cute, acute, able. (adj) healing, favorable, healthy,
morbid, stained, spoiled, soiled. ANTONYMS: (adj) impulsive, naive, helpful, advantageous, beneficial
ANTONYM: (adj) healthy unoriginal, inept injuriously: (adv) detrimentally,
inferior: (adj) secondary, bad, ingeniously: (adv) artfully, cleverly, noxiously, mischievously,
humble, poor, junior, petty, lesser, adroitly, skillfully, inventively, perniciously, deleteriously, badly,
cheap, base, feeble, vulgar. resourcefully, shrewdly, hurtfully, wrongfully, prejudicially,
ANTONYMS: (adj) better, choice, imaginatively, cunningly, craftily, damagingly, insultingly
excellent, premium, adscript, perfect, artistically. ANTONYM: (adv) injustice: (n) iniquity, wrong,
higher, quality, senior; (adj, n) ineptly unfairness, bigotry, wickedness,
superscript; (n) boss ingenuity: (adj, n) ability; (n) prejudice, crime; (adj, n) injury, evil,
Jonathan Swift 351
harm, damage. ANTONYMS: (n) homopteran, hemipteran, gallfly, aptitude, knack, inspiration, talent,
fairness, evenhandedness, fish, biting louse genius
reasonableness, goodness, tolerance insects: (n) Arthropoda, phylum instruct: (v) charge, educate, teach,
inmost: (adj) innermost, inward, Arthropoda, Insecta, Hexapoda, advise, enlighten, direct, drill,
deep, intimate, private, inner, crustaceans, class Insecta, class inform, command, indoctrinate,
interior, internal, personal, secret, Hexapoda, centipedes tutor
intrinsic. ANTONYM: (adj) insert: (v) enter, put, introduce, instructed: (adj) taught, tutored,
outermost enclose, interject, inject, implant, enlightened, intelligent, arranged,
innermost: (adj) inward, intimate, graft, plant, inclose, put in. instruct, experienced, qualified; (v)
inner, interior, close, internal, ANTONYMS: (v) erase, eject, delete erudite, lettered, leaned
middle, center, hint, hearty; (adj, n) inserted: (prep) between; (adj) instructing: (adj) directory,
inside. ANTONYMS: (adj) external, parenthetical directorial, enjoining, containing
outermost, outer insight: (n) vision, acumen, directions, improving
innocence: (n) blamelessness, chastity, understanding, perception, instructor: (n) trainer, coach,
ignorance, ingenuousness, purity, penetration, brainwave, preceptor, don, educator, tutor,
gullibility, artlessness, innocent, apprehension, acquaintance, demonstrator, lecturer, master,
simplicity, harmlessness, knowledge, idea, foresight. mentor, guru. ANTONYMS: (n)
guiltlessness. ANTONYMS: (n) ANTONYMS: (n) hindsight, student, pupil
sophistication, experience, fault, foolishness, ignorance, clumsiness instrumental: (adj) conducive,
dirtiness, wariness, dishonesty insignificant: (adj) inconsequential, implemental, useful, contributory,
innuendo: (n, v) hint, suggestion; (n) inconsiderable, humble, poor, vocal, operatic, lyric, subservient,
allusion, implication, inkling, cue, immaterial, trivial, unimportant, profitable, influential, serviceable.
insinuation, reference, intimation, light, infinitesimal, indifferent, small. ANTONYM: (adj) uninvolved
slur, sarcasm ANTONYMS: (adj) significant, insufficiency: (n) imperfection,
innumerable: (adj) countless, enormous, major, important, huge, deficit, deficiency, shortage, absence,
numberless, incalculable, substantial, considerable, great, failure, lack, inadequateness,
multitudinous, infinite, innumerous, colossal, valuable, influential inability, scarcity, dearth.
unnumbered, uncounted, myriad, insinuating: (adj) crafty, insinuative, ANTONYMS: (n) adequacy,
immeasurable, untold. ANTONYM: oily, ingratiating, having serpents, abundance, sufficiency, surplus,
(adj) finite insinuant, sly, snaky, giving hints, excess
inquire: (v) demand, ask, explore, snide, subtle insuperable: (adj) unconquerable,
enquire, inspect, research, consult, insinuation: (n) hint, innuendo, indomitable, impassable, invincible,
pry, request, wonder; (n, v) question. suggestion, implication, reference, unsurmountable, unbeatable,
ANTONYM: (v) answer intimation, accusation, indication, impregnable, overwhelming,
inquiries: (n) investigation, sarcasm, attribution, imputation formidable, inexsuperable,
examination, study, enquiries, insipid: (adj) tasteless, bland, dull, unassailable. ANTONYM: (adj)
enquiry, inquiry, exploration watery, flavorless, uninteresting, vulnerable
inquiring: (adj) inquisitive, quizzical, vapid, savorless, boring, tame, insupportable: (adj, v) insufferable,
interested, analytical, probing, humdrum. ANTONYMS: (adj) intolerable; (adj) indefensible,
intrusive; (adj, n) questioning; (v) exciting, tasty, interesting, flavorful, unbearable, excruciating,
inquire; (n) enquiry, question, spicy, lively, colorful, dark, bright, unjustifiable, unendurable,
examination. ANTONYM: (adj) inspired, imaginative impossible, unsupportable, heavy,
uninquiring insolence: (n) impertinence, obnoxious. ANTONYM: (adj)
inquisition: (n) examination, inquest, arrogance, audacity, impudence, bearable
inquiry, exploration, quest, probe, effrontery, cheek, assumption, gall, insurrection: (n) mutiny, uprising,
investigation, research, inspection, disrespect, haughtiness, crust. revolt, outbreak, rising, disturbance,
disquisition; (adj) Reign of Terror ANTONYMS: (n) respect, politeness, sedition, commotion, revolution,
inquisitive: (adj) inquiring, meekness, shyness riot; (n, v) rebellion
speculative, nosy, prying, insolent: (adj) impertinent, abusive, integrity: (adj, n) honesty, fairness,
questioning, nosey, meddling, disrespectful, impudent, fresh, candor, honor; (n) probity,
investigative, meddlesome, arrogant, brazen, defiant, offensive, completeness, righteousness, justice,
quizzical, overcurious. brassy, bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) unity, entireness, fidelity.
ANTONYMS: (adj) apathetic, respectful, modest, gracious, meek, ANTONYMS: (n) dishonesty,
uninterested submissive wickedness, injustice, division,
inroads: (n) wear instant: (adj, n) present; (adj) decadence, badness, immorality,
insatiable: (adj) ravenous, voracious, immediate, prompt; (n) flash, corruption
insatiate, gluttonous, avaricious, minute, jiffy, point, second; (adj, v) intelligible: (adj) clear,
quenchless, avid, unquenchable, exigent; (adj, n, v) pressing, urgent. understandable, articulate,
unsatiable, grasping, sateless. ANTONYMS: (n) age, eternity; (adj) luminous, apprehensible, graspable,
ANTONYM: (adj) moderate considered, delayed, slow simple, lucid, definite, distinct,
insect: (n) worm, flea, hymenopteran, instinct: (n) impulse, urge, aptitude, perspicuous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
hymenopteron, earwig, dirt ball, gift, feeling, sixth sense, inherent difficult, illegible
intemperance: (n) dissipation, interrupt: (v) disturb, break, hinder, inundation: (n, v) deluge, freshet; (n)
drunkenness, indulgence, intermit, stop, cut, break in, arrest, flooding, overflow, debacle, torrent,
debauchery, crapulence, drinking, check; (n, v) suspend; (adj, v) pause. alluvion, downpour, cloudburst,
drink, immoderateness, ANTONYMS: (v) cheer, respect, alluvium, flowage. ANTONYM: (n)
overindulgence, intemperateness, restore trickle
insobriety. ANTONYM: (n) interrupted: (adj) discontinuous, inured: (adj) accustomed, callous,
temperance fitful, intermittent, discontinued, enured, habituated, casehardened,
intent: (n) idea, intention, design, disconnected, unsuccessive, confirmed, emotionally hardened,
spirit, meaning, import, goal, intervallic, episodic, gaping, broken in, given, tough, trained
purpose; (adj, n) attentive; (adj) periodic; (prep) interrupt invade: (v) infringe, intrude, occupy,
absorbed, engrossed interruption: (n) disruption, overrun, impinge, encroach upon,
intercede: (v) arbitrate, interfere, intermission, halt, pause, suspension, raid, infest; (n, v) assail, attack,
negotiate, referee, reconcile, discontinuance, hiatus; (n, v) break, assault. ANTONYMS: (v) withdraw,
intermediate, intervene, interpose, hindrance, impediment; (v) surrender
intrude, negociate, bring together to interrupt. ANTONYMS: (n) invader: (n) assailant, intruder,
an agreement. ANTONYM: (v) permanence, help, respect encroacher, attacker, raider,
provoke interwoven: (adj) interlinking, interloper, conqueror, trespasser,
interceding: (adj) intercessory interlacing, interlocking, complex, thief, robber, immigrant
interchanged: (adj) mutual, interwove, twine, contextural, invading: (adj) invade, incursive,
exchanged, common, cross, contrary, entangled, inseparable, knotted, attacking, impertinent, abhorrent,
adverse related abusive, aggressive, assailant,
intercourse: (n) contact, coition, intestine: (n) bowel, gut, intestines, disgusting, disagreeable, distasteful
conversation, communication, coitus, guts, bowels, small intestine, invent: (v) devise, form, create,
dealings, converse, commerce, viscera; (adj) domestic, internal, excogitate, concoct, imagine,
liaison, congress; (adj, n) intestinal, inner contrive; (n, v) forge, fabricate,
acquaintance intimate: (adj, adv, v) close; (n, v) design, coin
interfere: (n, v) interpose; (v) express, imply; (v) hint, indicate, invented: (adj) fictional, fabricated,
intercede, obstruct, disturb, conflict, allude, suggest; (adj) informal, inner, imaginary, unreal, fake, mythical,
impede, hinder, meddle, intervene; internal; (adj, v) confidential. legendary, fictive, fancied, fabulous,
(n) interference; (adj, v) intermeddle ANTONYMS: (adj) formal, cold, ben trovato. ANTONYMS: (adj)
intermingled: (adj) amalgamated, unfriendly, external, outermost, genuine, factual, true, actual
integrated, coalesced, blended, public, superficial invention: (n) fabrication, conception,
incorporated, assorted, consolidated, intolerable: (adj) unbearable, fiction, imagination, creation,
incorporate, amalgamate, fused insupportable, painful, obnoxious, discovery, device, innovation,
intermission: (n) rest, pause, lull, detestable, inexcusable, deplorable, excogitation, artifice; (n, v) forgery.
cessation, suspension, interruption, undesirable, hard, excruciating, ANTONYM: (n) truth
abeyance, disruption, gap, difficult. ANTONYMS: (adj) inventor: (n) architect, artificer,
discontinuance, respite. bearable, tolerable, acceptable, discoverer, founder, originator,
ANTONYM: (n) continuation reasonable, nice, understandable, deviser, prime mover, author,
interposed: (adj) interjacent, lovable, excusable, inoffensive, builder, contriver, designer
intercedent, intervenient, manageable inventory: (n) catalogue, index, stock,
parenthetical, intermediate colors, intolerably: (adv) excruciatingly, catalog, account, enumeration, roll,
mediate unbearably, insufferably, schedule, bill, table, inventorying
interposing: (adj) meddlesome unendurably, insupportably, inviolable: (adj) sacrosanct,
interposition: (adj, n) mediation; unfeasibly, impossibly, horribly, infrangible, hallowed, invulnerable,
(adj) intercession; (n) intervention, unpardonably, inexcusably, inviolate, inalienable, impenetrable,
interpolation, insertion, interruption, unforgivably. ANTONYMS: (adv) absolute, impregnable; (v)
intermediation, interjection, location, tolerably, excusably, bearably, imprescriptible, unimpeachable.
locating, placement acceptably, pleasantly, ANTONYMS: (adj) acceptable,
interpret: (v) clarify, understand, understandably breakable
elucidate, illustrate, read, construe, intrepidity: (n) bravery, invisible: (adj) obscure, hidden,
comment, gloss, render, explain, dauntlessness, courage, audacity, inconspicuous, intangible, sightless,
explicate valor, heroism, pluck, nerve; (adj, n) concealed, impalpable, occult,
interpreter: (n) commentator, daring, prowess; (adj) fearlessness indiscernible, inappreciable, unseen.
interpretive program, exponent, intrigue: (n, v) cabal, contrivance, ANTONYMS: (adj) obvious,
explainer, translator, mouthpiece, scheme; (v) fascinate, connive, conspicuous, noticeable, palpable
ambassador, prophet, bagman, captivate, attract, charm; (n) invite: (v) tempt, allure, bid, call,
expounder, program conspiracy, trick, plot entice, ask, summon, attract, receive,
interpreting: (n) rendering, interpret, intromission: (n) insertion, enclosing, solicit; (n) invitation. ANTONYMS:
explanation, translation, broad enclosure, instillment, instillation, (v) elect, repel
interpretation, interlingual rendition, inclosure, envelopment, movement, inward: (adj) inner, intrinsic, internal,
rendition entry, admission, insert interior, intestine, inherent,
Jonathan Swift 353
domestic; (adv) inwardly, inwards, jerkin: (n) jacket, doublet, barbe, correctly, honestly, lawfully,
in; (n) innards. ANTONYMS: (adj, CHUDDER, waistcoat, jubbah, properly, exactly, uprightly,
adv) outward; (adj) outgoing, talma jacket, pilot jacket, pajamas, legitimately, impartially, purely.
external oilskins, gabardine ANTONYMS: (adv) wrongly,
irrational: (adj) absurd, inconsistent, jewels: (n) jewelry, gems, wealth, unfairly, unjustifiably, unjustly,
silly, unreasonable, blind, illogical, hoops, Perrie, riches, studs, fortune, unlawfully, sinfully, falsely,
senseless, preposterous, imprudent, fineness, earrings, decoration immorally
unsound, thoughtless. jewry: (n) Judaism justness: (adj, n) equity, impartiality,
ANTONYMS: (adj) logical, lucid, joiner: (n) cabinetmaker, honesty, uprightness; (n) fairness,
wise, sensible, worthwhile, woodworker, member, associate, nicety, rightness, rightfulness,
systematic cabinet maker, convoy joiner correctness, validity, rectitude
irreconcilable: (adj, n) inconsistent, jolt: (n, v) jerk, shake, jog, jar, bump, jutting: (adj) prominent, protruding,
incongruous, discordant, contrary, push, knock, thrust, shock; (n) protrusive, salient, protuberant,
dissonant; (adj, v) incompatible, hustle; (v) agitate hence; (n) protrusion, protuberance,
hostile, repugnant; (adj) implacable, judicature: (n) judgeship, court, extrusion, hump, gibbosity
unreconcilable; (v) antagonistic. jurisdiction, judiciary, tribunal, kennel: (n) doghouse, ditch, gully,
ANTONYMS: (adj) reconcilable, chancery, judgship, judicatory, fosse, dike, drain, culvert, sewer,
recoverable, compatible consistory, soc, bench gutter, hutch, trough
irregularly: (adv) erratically, judicious: (adj, v) discreet; (adj) kindle: (adj, v) inflame; (v) fire, excite,
occasionally, abnormally, careful, discerning, sensible, arouse, burn, flame, awaken, incite,
sporadically, crookedly, unequally, prudent, rational, sagacious, sound, enkindle, stir; (n, v) light.
randomly, atypically, roughly, cautious, reasonable, advisable. ANTONYMS: (v) enkindle, dampen,
eccentrically, fitfully. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adj) stupid, tactless, calm, extinguish, quench, stifle
(adv) evenly, systematically, indiscriminate, reckless, illogical, kindled: (adj) enkindled, lighted, lit,
constantly, frequently, honestly, extreme, untimely burning
peacefully, recurrently juice: (n) extract, succus, blood, gravy, kindly: (adj) kind, amiable, genial,
isle: (n) islet, ait, reef, eyot, wight, liquid, fluid, liquor, gasoline, fuel; charitable; (adv) sympathetically,
aisle, ile, coral reef, coral Island, (adj) humor; (adj, n) serum benevolently, tenderly; (adj, n)
breaker, atoll juicy: (adj) fat, succulent, gamy, benign, gentle, sympathetic,
ivory: (n) tusk, dentin, whiteness, liquid, luscious, fluid, rich, spicy, benevolent. ANTONYMS: (adv)
elephant, teeth, yellow, dentine; sappy, moist, racy. ANTONYMS: harshly, nastily, callously, cruelly,
(adj) chalk, lily, milk, paper (adj) bland, dull, juiceless, tasteless, sharply, disagreeably, grumpily,
jabber: (n, v) babble, gabble; (adj, n, uninteresting, limp malevolently; (adj) upsetting,
v) chatter, prattle; (n) drivel, jumps: (n) fit, nervousness, tension, unfeeling, sour
gibberish; (v) rave, tattle, utter; (adj) anxiety, jitters kindness: (n) generosity, clemency,
clack, palaver. ANTONYM: (n) juncture: (n, v) joint; (adj, n) crisis; (n) compassion, grace, good will,
sense articulation, event, junction, graciousness, humanity, goodness,
jabbering: (adj) babbling, blithering, connection, affair, point, time, affection; (adj, n) courtesy,
blathering, loquacious, voluble, conjuncture; (v) joining gentleness. ANTONYMS: (n)
gabby; (n) jabber, gabble, babble, junto: (n) faction, junta, clique, miserliness, spite, nastiness,
gibberish conspiracy, coterie, camarilla, pack, callousness, cruelty, unfriendliness,
jackdaw: (n) Corvus monedula, crow, ring, Camorra, combination, maliciousness, thoughtlessness,
family Corvidae, caddow, chough, ingroup sourness, severity, disservice
Corvidae, corvine bird justiciary: (n) justiciar, judge, kindred: (adj) cognate, akin, similar,
jail: (v) imprison, incarcerate, confine, jurisdiction, jurist, magistrate allied, related; (n) kin, consanguinity,
detain, immure; (n) prison, cell, justifiable: (adj) legitimate, relation, folk, folks, kin group
clink, hoosegow; (n, v) cage, jug. defensible, excusable, lawful, logical, kingly: (adj, adv) stately; (adj)
ANTONYMS: (v) acquit, free, legal, reasonable, admissible, August, noble, regal, imperial,
liberate; (n) freedom rightful, warrantable, sound. sovereign, majestic, royal; (adv)
jargon: (n, v) gibberish; (n) idiom, ANTONYMS: (adj) inexcusable, royally, majestically, regally
dialect, vernacular, slang, lingo, unreasonable, invalid, gratuitous, kinsman: (n) relation, relative, kin,
language, argot, cant, unjustifiable, illogical, unlawful, kindred, kinswoman, description,
gobbledygook; (adj, n) palaver unworthy, untenable forefather, countryman, detail,
jealous: (adj) distrustful, envious, justified: (adj) correct, right, proper, consanguinity; (v) confederate
covetous, suspicious, jealousy, elected, adopted, due, righteous, kissing: (n) hugging, cuddling,
resentful, invidious, green, grudging, sanctified, unearthly, regenerated, fondling, arousal, foreplay, necking;
jaundiced, attentive. ANTONYM: even. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adj) embracing, adhering closely,
(adj) trusting unfounded, unjustified, billing, clinging, interosculant
jealousy: (n) suspicion, jealous, unreasonable, wrong, unworthy kite: (n) flash note, base coin,
jealousness, envy, envious, alertness, justle: (v) fib, stave, tilt, tussle, hurtle, plaything, parachute, airplane, bird
distrust, contention, competition, crowd; (n) elbow, shove, shoulder of prey, letter, former, slip,
scruple, qualm justly: (adv) accurately, fairly, accommodation bill; (v) scram
kitten: (n) cat, foal, kitty, colt, foetus; lappet: (n) wattle, lap, overlap, parturition, place, repose, setting,
(v) teem, flower, fructify, bear fruit, trappings, lasiocampid, lobe, skirt, put, position, lay, oyster park,
farrow, EAN embroidery, caruncle, cortege, oviposition
kittens: (n) dust, fuzz lappet moth lazy: (adj) indolent, inert, idle,
knave: (n) cheat, jack, blackguard, larboard: (adj) left; (n) sinister, inactive, shiftless, slothful, faineant,
crook, rascal, villain, cad, scalawag, embrasure, interface, nearside slow, sluggish; (adj, n) drowsy, dull.
scallywag, scoundrel, varlet largeness: (n) size, bigness, vastness, ANTONYMS: (adj) diligent, active,
knocking: (n) sound, bang, beating, fullness, ampleness, bulkiness, prompt, vigorous, industrious, keen,
hit, rap, strike, belt, criticism, bash immensity, grandness, extent, productive
knot: (n) bow, cluster, lump, gang, magnitude, volume. ANTONYMS: leaf: (n) page, folio, foliage, petal,
joint; (v) entangle, knit, bind; (n, v) (n) compactness, shortness frond, leafage, slip, verdure, leaflet;
tie, loop, tangle. ANTONYMS: (v) lark: (n) joke, fun, trick, prank, antic, (n, v) sheet; (v) leave
unravel, undo, unknot, disentangle caper, game; (n, v) romp, frolic, leak: (n) crevice, disclosure, breach,
knotted: (adj) knotty, gnarled, gnarly, gambol; (v) rollick hole, chink; (v) leak out, dribble,
involved, entangled, complicated, lastly: (adv) eventually, ultimately, reveal, disclose, trickle; (n, v) release.
tangled, matted, knobbed, fastened; latterly, in conclusion, last, at last, ANTONYM: (v) flood
(adj, v) kinky. ANTONYMS: (adj) terminally, latestly, utmostly, leaking: (n) leak, leakage; (adj)
straight, tidy, relaxed definitively, concludingly. unseaworthy, blabbermouthed
laborious: (adj) hard, arduous, ANTONYM: (adv) initially leaky: (adj) leak, cracked, permeable,
backbreaking, heavy, industrious, lately: (adv) tardily, newly, freshly, porous, holey, blabbermouthed,
diligent, grueling, assiduous, belatedly, slowly, latterly, deadly; unseaworthy, tattling, talebearing,
exhausting, formidable, tough. (adj, adv) anew, late, afresh; (adj) incontinent, faulty. ANTONYMS:
ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, effortless, recent (adj) tight, watertight
undemanding, light, brisk lather: (n, v) froth, bubble; (v) lash, lean: (adj, v) gaunt; (adj) emaciated,
labouring: (adj) drudging, work, flog, trounce, whip, soap, welt; (n) thin, bony, lank; (n, v) bend, tilt,
working, busy, toiling head, flap, spume slant, list, careen; (n) inclination.
ladder: (n, v) run; (n) stair, stepladder, latitude: (n) freedom, scope, breadth, ANTONYMS: (adj) plump, rich,
steps, stairs, degree, washboard, room, expanse, range, compass, chubby, greasy, stout; (v) straighten,
flight of stairs, stile, stairway, climate, clime, space, reach. repel
staircase ANTONYM: (n) constraint leaning: (adj, n) bent, disposition,
ladders: (n) washboard lattice: (n) grill, grille, grid, net, partiality; (n) propensity, bias,
laden: (adj) burdened, full, loaded, fretwork, network, gridiron, wicket, tendency, incline, lean; (adj) tilted,
ladened, filled, hampered, heavy, web, netting; (v) trellis canted, inclined. ANTONYMS: (n)
charged, encumbered; (v) lade, load. latticed: (adj) interlaced, fretted, antipathy, dislike; (adj) upright
ANTONYMS: (adj) empty, lacking lattice, reticulate, reticulated, leap: (n, v) bound, spring, bounce,
lading: (n, v) load, burden, weight; latticelike, tabernacular, having frets, caper, dive, vault, lunge; (v) dance,
(n) freight, consignment, shipment, common, reticular hop, start; (n) curvet. ANTONYMS:
loading, shipping, freightage, laud: (v) extol, glorify, eulogize, (n, v) plummet; (v) surface, drop,
product, wares acclaim, praise, bless, celebrate, hesitate; (n) slump
lame: (adj) crippled, disabled, halting, eulogy, applaud, exalt; (n, v) leaping: (n) jump, bounce, bound,
feeble, halt, weak, paralytic; (adj, n) compliment. ANTONYMS: (v) leap, spring, saltation, bouncing; (v)
game; (adj, v) paralyze, maim, condemn, denigrate, disparage jumping; (adj, v) bounding; (adj)
becripple laudable: (adj) commendable, springing; (adv) leapingly
lamed: (adj) lame, impeded, injured, creditable, admirable, praiseworthy, leeward: (n) lee side, direction, Bruce
disabled worthy, deserving, good, honorable, Lee, Henry Lee, Gypsy Rose Lee,
lament: (v) bemoan, complain, meritorious, applaudable, estimable. Lee Yuen Kam; (adv) upwind,
deplore, grieve, keen, bewail, ANTONYMS: (adj) shameful, against the wind, into the wind
mourn; (n) dirge, complaint; (n, v) regrettable, unimpressive, legally: (adv) lawfully, legitimately,
wail, moan. ANTONYMS: (n) lamentable, poor, despicable justly, statutorily, licitly, validly,
celebration, joy; (v) revel, rejoice, lavender: (adj) lilac, purple, puce, constitutionally, rightfully, judicially,
celebrate, applaud, praise, light purple, pale purple, indigo, juridically, correctly. ANTONYMS:
compliment chromatic; (adj, n) violet, amethyst; (adv) unlawfully, illegally
lamented: (adj) mourned, bewailed (n) shrub, genus Lavandula legislator: (n) lawgiver,
lamenting: (adj) weeping, wailing, lawfully: (adv) justly, legally, representative, congressman,
sad, whining; (adj, n) plaintive; (adj, rightfully, licitly, statutorily, fairly, deputy, filibuster, frontbencher,
v) bewailing, querulous; (n, v) validly, de jure, officially, rightly, backbencher, crossbencher, statist,
complaining; (n) grief, sorrow; (v) truely. ANTONYMS: (adv) statemonger, parliamentarian
dissatisfied unlawfully, illegitimately legislature: (n) assembly, diet,
laniard: (n) line, roband, cord lawn: (n) grassplot, field, green, park, parliament, council, legislative body,
lank: (adj) gaunt, angular, emaciated, meadow, grassplat, plot, lea, turfs, house, legislative, senate, legislative
meager, thin, skinny, spindly, spare, turves, turf assembly, general assembly,
scrawny; (adj, v) lean, barren laying: (n) egg laying, placing, convention
Jonathan Swift 355
lend: (v) grant, give, advance, impart, (n) allowance, freedom, permission, ANTONYMS: (adj) lively, animated,
bestow, contribute, borrow, bring, liberty, authority, authorization, energetic, strong, spirited
add, confer; (n) lending certificate; (v) certify. ANTONYMS: littleness: (n) minuteness, smallness,
lenity: (n) clemency, lenience, grace, (v) decertify; (n) restriction pettiness, puniness, delicacy, size, a
indulgence, compassion, licentiousness: (n) dissolution, few, a little bit, a smidgen,
forbearance, gentleness, mildness, dissipation, lewdness, immorality, insignificance, slightness
tolerance, mercy, moderation profligacy, dissoluteness, livelihood: (n) subsistence, existence,
lent: (n) Quadragesima, Lententide extravagance, evil, indecency, job, maintenance, support, living,
lessen: (v) decrease, abate, fall, freedom; (v) license. ANTONYMS: sustenance, bread, keep, bread and
decline, dwindle, assuage, allay, (n) decency, restraint butter, career
alleviate; (adj, v) abridge, curtail, lick: (n, v) lap; (v) clobber, thrash, livery: (adj) liverish, bilious; (n)
contract. ANTONYMS: (v) increase, drub, beat, bat, defeat; (n) biff, jab, clothing, accouterment, uniform,
exacerbate, intensify, raise, grow, speed, dash complexion, legal transfer, color,
aggravate, accelerate, bolster, licked: (adj) dumbfounded hue, dye, bailment
worsen, strengthen, rise lifting: (n) rising, hoisting, plagiarism, loaded: (adj) full, flush, moneyed,
lessened: (adj) diminished, hurt, restyling, copying, jacking; (adj) wealthy, affluent, rich, tipsy, tight,
lower, mitigated, pointed, tapering, elating, enlivening, exciting, intoxicated, charged; (adj, prep)
vitiated, atrophied, short, attenuate, invigorating, thrilling burdened. ANTONYMS: (adj)
attenuated lightning: (n) levin, electricity, empty, lacking, unloaded, innocent,
lessening: (n) diminution, cutback, thunderbolt, Leven, ignis fatuus, impoverished
alleviation, contraction, abatement, heat lightning, forked lightning, loading: (n) cargo, load, burden,
mitigation, shrinking, reduction, cut; fetter, dart, chain lightning; (adj) consignment, lading, charging, filler,
(adj) decreasing, diminishing. wind freightage, encumbrance, shipment,
ANTONYMS: (n) growth, likewise: (adv) besides, in addition, burthen
restoration; (adj) increasing furthermore, alike, moreover, loads: (adj, n) lots, a lot, myriad,
levant: (v) decamp, abscond, to run a further, too, similarly; (adj, adv) as much; (n) plenty, heaps, oodles,
levant, skedaddle, take French leave, well, equally; (adj) even masses, lashings, tons, lot.
flit, give leg bail, give one the go by; lilliputian: (adj) little, midget, tiny, ANTONYMS: (n) few, scarcity; (adj)
(n) east, levation , levator petite, piddling, fiddling, footling, inadequate
levee: (n) dike, dam, dyke, bantam, littler; (adj, n) dwarf; (n) loadstone: (n) magnet, magnetite,
embankment, weir, dock, reunion, pygmy loadstar
jetty, wall; (adj, n) reception; (adj) limb: (n) arm, branch, member, loathing: (n, v) abomination, aversion,
entertainment bough, extremity, offshoot, part, leg, dislike, distaste; (n) hate, hatred,
lewd: (adj) indecent, dirty, bawdy, wing, appendage, edge abhorrence, detestation, nausea,
filthy, abandoned, carnal, lustful, lineally: (adv) ancestrally, directly, antipathy, execration. ANTONYMS:
impure, debauched; (adj, v) straightly, straight (n) love, adoration, liking, delight,
lecherous, dissolute. ANTONYMS: lineament: (n) line, character, goodwill
(adj) decent, refined, chaste, clean characteristic, contour, quality, loathsome: (adj) foul, hideous,
lewdness: (n) bawdiness, indecency, forehead, brow, turn, profile, distasteful, disgusting, hateful,
debauchery, sensuality, silhouette; (adj) diagnostic abominable, revolting, execrable,
lasciviousness, lechery, dirtiness, lineaments: (v) exposition, tract, loathly, nauseous, horrible.
lubricity, salacity, lust, salaciousness. length, expanse, area, extent; (n) face ANTONYMS: (adj) delightful, nice,
ANTONYM: (n) decency lined: (adj) wrinkled, creased, noble, inoffensive, pleasant,
liberties: (n) freedoms, familiarity, wrinkly, striped, streaked, ruled, admirable, good, attractive
intimacy banded, paved, worn, with stripes, lodge: (n, v) cabin, place, house; (adj,
libertine: (adj) dissolute, dissipated, windswept. ANTONYMS: (adj) v) live, dwell, reside, inhabit; (n)
debauched, fast, lewd, lascivious, smooth, plain, unlined, straight cottage; (v) quarter, accommodate,
loose, licentious; (n, v) debauchee; linen: (n) fabric, flax, lingerie, doily, fix. ANTONYMS: (v) dislodge, evict
(n) rake; (adj, n) wanton doyley, doyly, cambric, underwear, lodged: (adj) wedged, stuck fast,
liberty: (adj, n) freedom, franchise; underclothes, hemp; (v) muslin stuck, jammed
(n) license, leave, independence, lingua: (n) clapper, glossa, taste bud, lodging: (n) abode, apartment,
autonomy, emancipation, latitude, natural language, applauder, knife accommodation, housing, hostel,
permission, scope, release. linnet: (n) Carduelis cannabina, residence, quarter, home, lodgement,
ANTONYMS: (n) slavery, house finch, lintwhite, finch address, hospice
domination, constraint, suppression, liquor: (n) fluid, broth, alcohol, booze, lodgings: (n) digs, accommodation,
dependence brew, brandy, arrack, spirits, domiciliation, lodging, billet,
libidinous: (adj, v) lascivious, lewd, schnapps; (n, v) drink; (adj, n) liquid housing, quarters, residence, pad,
lecherous, wanton, dissolute; (adj) lisbon: (n) capital of Portugal living quarters, launchpad
carnal, lustful, sensual, passionate, listless: (adj) indifferent, dull, lofty: (adj, v) high, elevated; (adj)
licentious, impure indolent, careless, languid, inert, exalted, eminent, arrogant, grand,
lice: (n) fleas, parasites, vermin inattentive, dispirited, slow, tall, haughty, great, distinguished,
license: (n, v) permit, allow, licence; uninterested, spiritless. majestic. ANTONYMS: (adj) short,
lowly, base, modest, deferential, magnificent; (adj, n) lush. mass, proportion, amount,
humble ANTONYMS: (adj) meager, frugal, dimension, size, weight, greatness,
logwood: (n) campeachy wood, poor, Spartan, austere, humble, amplitude, largeness. ANTONYMS:
campeachy, blockwood, wood, kiaat, unpleasant, ascetic, impoverished (n) smallness, insignificance,
logwood tree, blackwood, luxury: (n) comfort, luxuriousness, meaninglessness
blackwood tree extravagance, opulence, wealth; (adj, maid: (n) damsel, chambermaid, lass,
loins: (n) waist, body part, haunch, n) delicacy, gratification, elegance; lassie, girl, domestic, amah, virgin,
lends, pubic region, area, pubes (adj) luxurious, deluxe, indulgence. maiden, housemaid, handmaid
longest: (adj) best, lengest, fastest, top, ANTONYMS: (n) paucity, necessity, maimed: (adj) disabled, mutilated,
record, best ever, greatest poverty, filth, discomfort, bareness, deformed, truncated, faulty, cut
longitude: (n) line of longitude, shabbiness; (adj) basic, inferior, short, game, cut off; (n) wounded
meridian, span, great circle, date cheap, Spartan mainsail: (n) main course
line, dateline, place madagascar: (n) Republic of majestic: (adj) grand, awesome,
loosened: (adj) disentangled, loose, Madagascar stately, imperial, royal, exalted,
freed, disengaged, extricated, madness: (n) frenzy, insanity, lunacy, glorious, kingly, August; (adj, v)
unsnarled idiocy, folly, delirium, insaneness; imposing; (adj, adv) regal.
lordship: (n) ownership, supremacy, (adj, n) furor, rage, desperation, ANTONYMS: (adj) pathetic, pitiful,
domain, dominance, manor, furore. ANTONYMS: (n) sense, modest, lowly, undignified
worship, authority, power, dynasty, calmness, order majesty: (adj, n) grandeur, splendor,
grandeeship, headship magistrate: (n) judge, jurist, justiciary, nobility; (n) dignity, loftiness,
losers: (n) scum adjudicator, beak, official, provost, magnificence, stateliness, greatness,
louse: (adj) vermin; (n) flea, worm, recorder, archon, doge, chancellor king, royalty, highness.
insect, bird louse, biting louse, dirt magnanimous: (adj) generous, great, ANTONYMS: (n) austerity,
ball, cad, nit, parasite, sucking louse noble, bountiful, exalted, big, simplicity
loving: (adj) fond, devoted, amorous, handsome, lofty, large, charitable, malady: (n, v) illness, ailment,
kind, friendly, ardent, attached, considerate. ANTONYMS: (adj) indisposition, distemper; (adj, n, v)
admiring, gentle, fatherly; (adj, v) miserly, unforgiving, petty disorder; (adj, n) complaint,
tender. ANTONYMS: (adj) cold, magnet: (n) lodestone, magnetic, infirmity; (n) sickness, condition,
uncaring, malicious, cruel, unloving, seduction, siderite, prestige, trouble, ill
rough, paternal, indifferent, distant, permanent magnet, magnetic force, malefactor: (adj, n) felon, culprit,
disapproving, callous temptation, magnets, loadstone, convict; (n) crook, delinquent,
lucid: (adj) clear, transparent, limpid, magnetism outlaw, hood, hoodlum, evildoer,
coherent, distinct, evident, explicit, magnetic: (adj) fascinating, magnetics, lawbreaker, miscreant
crystalline, light, diaphanous, bright. charismatic, inviting, magnetized, malice: (n) spite, animosity, enmity,
ANTONYMS: (adj) opaque, magnetism, alluring, tempting, venom, ill will, hatred, malevolence,
unintelligible, muddled, unclear, Magnetic needle, enchanting, cruelty, envy, hate, spleen.
irrational, confusing, illogical, captivating. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) goodwill,
ambiguous, confused, vague, nonmagnetic, geographic, benevolence, affection, goodness
incoherent antimagnetic, repellent malicious: (adj) evil, vicious,
luckily: (adv) happily, prosperously, magnificence: (adj, n) splendor, venomous, spiteful, unkind, cruel,
auspiciously, fortuitously, brilliancy, gorgeousness; (n) glory, poisonous, mean, mischievous,
successfully, providentially, pomp, brilliance, grandness, pernicious, nasty. ANTONYMS:
propitiously, opportunely, greatness, dignity, majesty, loftiness. (adj) kind, harmless, kindhearted,
advantageously, felicitously, as luck ANTONYMS: (n) paucity, modesty, loving, unmalicious, compassionate,
would have it. ANTONYMS: (adv) shabbiness, poverty, austerity, good, merciful, pleasant, provoked
unluckily, inauspiciously unattractiveness maliciously: (adv) malevolently,
luggage: (n) baggage, bag, gear, grip, magnificently: (adv) beautifully, malignly, viciously, nastily,
thing, goods, stuff, things, trunk, grandly, superbly, gloriously, malignantly, rancorously,
suitcase, pack majestically, gorgeously, venomously, vindictively, bitterly,
lump: (n, v) heap, knot, chunk, block; sumptuously, marvelously, meanly, virulently. ANTONYMS:
(n) gob, tumor, hunk, bit, bulge; (adj, wonderfully, fantastically, showily. (adv) kindly, harmlessly,
n) clod; (adj, n, v) mass. ANTONYMS: (adv) poorly, benevolently, friendly, genially,
ANTONYM: (v) divide modestly, badly, abysmally, simply, mercifully
lunge: (n, v) thrust, foin; (v) jump, meagerly, incompetently malignity: (n) malevolence,
leap, hurtle, jab, charge, dash, magnify: (v) exaggerate, enhance, malignance, venom, animosity,
plunge; (n) pink, shove aggrandize, enlarge, intensify, laud, enmity, hatred, evil, rancor, spite,
lust: (n, v) desire, hunger, itch; (n) glorify, expand, increase, extend, malignancy, hate. ANTONYM: (n)
craving, greed, libido, lecherousness, aggravate. ANTONYMS: (v) reduce, benignity
cupidity, lewdness; (v) covet, crave understate, minimize, shrink, malleability: (n) flexibility, ductility,
luxurious: (adj) voluptuous, costly, decrease, alleviate plasticity, pliability, submission,
deluxe, lavish, sumptuous, magnifying: (adj) cumulative compliance, flexibleness, suppleness,
epicurean, grand, luscious, opulent, magnitude: (n) consequence, bulk, elasticity, adaptableness; (adj)
Jonathan Swift 357
sequacity. ANTONYMS: (n) brand, marker, maculation, grading, meadow: (n) hayfield, lea, mead,
inflexibility, unmalleability stamping, authentication, lineation, grassland, plain, lawn, sward,
mamma: (n) breast, mother, ma, cairn, cross grazing land, greensward, pasturage,
knocker, boob, mum, mammy, mom, marquis: (n) lord, marquisate, noble, paddock
momma, mommy, mummy margrave, nobleman, Donald Robert meagre: (adj) exiguous, paltry,
manes: (n) shade perry marquis, don marquis, Markis necessitous, miserable, marginal,
manger: (n) crib, cage, bunk, gutter, marriageable: (adj) nubile, mature, meagerly, gaunt, emaciated,
rack, flume, feed bunk, bowl, viripotent, eligible, marriable, inadequate, deficient, beggarly.
container maturer, full-grown ANTONYM: (adj) ample
manhood: (n) majority, maturity, marriages: (n) marriage, matrimony meanest: (adj) last, least
valor, resolution, personality, marrow: (adj, n) gist, pith, meanness: (n) parsimony, closeness,
humanity, integrity, bravery; (adj) quintessence; (n) substance, heart, pettiness, avarice, selfishness,
manliness, ripe age, maturity full kernel, core, content, center, baseness, stinginess, niggardliness,
age backbone; (adj) quiddity miserliness, nastiness; (adj, n)
manifest: (adj) evident, distinct, mars: (v) grim visaged war; (n) solar degeneracy. ANTONYMS: (n)
conspicuous, clear, patent, plain; (v) system, terrestrial planet, Red Planet, generosity, extravagance, decency
display, demonstrate, exhibit, Bellona meantime: (adv) meanwhile, in the
evidence; (n, v) declare. masculine: (adj, v) male, not female; meantime, simultaneously; (n)
ANTONYMS: (v) hide; (adj) hidden, (adj) manly, manlike, virile, interval, interlude, while, at times,
obscure, secret, inconspicuous, mannish, mankind, bold, manful; whiles, mean, instrument
veiled, furtive, avoidable, (n) gender, he. ANTONYMS: (adj) mechanic: (n) craftsman, mechanical,
ambiguous; (adv) absent female, neuter machinist, artisan, artificer,
manifestly: (adv) evidently, plainly, mash: (v) crush, squash, grind, beat, journeyman, grease monkey,
clearly, patently, obviously, openly, comminute, squeeze, crunch, bray, automobile mechanic, Wright,
overtly, markedly, conspicuously, flirt, press, pulp worker, artist
distinctly, transparently. massy: (adj) bulky, ample, mechanically: (adv) mechanistically,
ANTONYMS: (adv) furtively, voluminous, heavy, considerable, instinctively, routinely,
unnecessarily, vaguely, covertly weighty, ponderous, compacted, in involuntarily, industrially,
mankind: (n) world, humanity, mass, beamy unconsciously, automaticly,
humankind, human race, humans, mast: (n) post, foremast, column, spar, intuitively, impulsively, technically,
person, flesh, mortality, people, spanker-mast, mainmast, jigger, technologically. ANTONYMS: (adv)
human beings, humanness tower, aerial, ship mast, nut manually, consciously
manners: (n) conduct, etiquette, mates: (n) match, couple, mate, pair, mechanics: (n) mechanism,
propriety, behavior, deportment, Lucifer, friction match, family unit, aerodynamics, kinematics,
manner, courtesy, custom, decorum, family, equal, dyad, duo hydraulics, kinetics, kinetic, statics,
good manners, usage. ANTONYM: mathematical: (adj) mathematic, classical mechanics, theory of
(n) vulgarity punctual, algebraic, arithmetical, motion, pneumatics, hydraulic
mannikin: (n) mannequin, exact, accurate, possible, meddle: (v) intervene, interfere,
homunculus, manakin, form, unquestionable, scientific, intrude, monkey, interpose, fiddle,
fashion model, framework, flesh, religiously exact, numerical. pry, dabble, interlope; (n)
model, exemplar, example, frame ANTONYMS: (adj) verbal, random interference; (adj) moil. ANTONYM:
man-of-war: (n) warship matron: (n) lady, head nurse, dame, (v) disregard
manuring: (n) fertilizing, fertilisation housewife, dowager, woman, wife, meditating: (n) conception
manuscript: (n, v) writing; (n) book, Donna Belle, matriarch, married melancholy: (adj, v) dreary; (adj, n)
handwriting, record, copy, text, woman; (v) matronhood. gloom, melancholic; (adj) depressed,
document, Ms, holograph, transcript, ANTONYM: (n) patron dejected, dismal, gloomy, doleful; (n,
palimpsest maturely: (adv) mellowly, adultly, v) low spirits; (n) gloominess,
marble: (n) taw, marver, leopard, perfectly, completely, fully, readily, depression. ANTONYMS: (n)
heart of stone, granite, cheetah, agedly, oldly, primely, correctly, happiness, cheerfulness,
marbling; (adj, n) stone; (v) foolscap; conscientiously. ANTONYMS: (adv) hopefulness, optimism; (adj) happy,
(adj) flint, quartz childishly, irresponsibly bright, cheery, satisfied
mare: (n) Maria, Money makes the maturity: (n) matureness, adulthood, memoirs: (n) reminiscences, memoir,
mare go, broodmare, doe, hen, bitch, perfection, due date, majority, autobiography, essay, biography,
horse, region, part, jennet, roe development, age, readiness, prime, annals, chronicle, account, diary, life
mariner: (n) sailor, gob, seafarer, tar, state, culture. ANTONYMS: (n) story, memento Mori
warrener, bosun, bargee, bargeman, childhood, youth, immaturity, memorial: (n) commemoration,
boatswain, lighterman, sea dog childishness, infancy, coarseness, remembrance, memento, cenotaph,
maritime: (adj, v) nautical; (adj) sea, decrease, inexperience headstone, monument, epitaph,
coastal, seagoing, naval, oceangoing, maxim: (adj, n) aphorism, adage; (n) memo, memory; (adj)
aquatic; (v) seafaring; (n) ocean, byword, apothegm, rule, saying, commemorative; (n, v) record
saltwater, seaside principle, proverb, motto, gnome; (n, memorials: (n) memoir
marking: (n) earmark, crisscross, v) saw mend: (adj, v) improve; (v) correct,
cure, heal, doctor, better, amend, metropolis: (n) city, capital, town, child, sycophant, tool, henchman,
restore, convalesce; (n, v) fix, patch. municipality, buffalo, meshed, lackey. ANTONYM: (n) superior
ANTONYMS: (v) worsen, tear, borough, burgh, independence, hull, minuteness: (n) diminutiveness,
smash, decline, deteriorate; (n) bale smallness, attention to detail,
fracture mice: (n) rats, agoutis, guinea pigs, petiteness, tininess, weeness
menial: (adj, n) inferior; (adj) lowly, beavers, gophers, order Rodentia, mirth: (adj, n) merriment, jollity; (n)
abject, ignoble, humble, low, mean; marmots, hamsters, pests, Rodentia, amusement, happiness, delight, joy,
(n) henchman, domestic, lackey, vermin hilarity, cheerfulness, festivity,
servant. ANTONYMS: (adj) elevated, microscope: (n) micrometer, gladness, exhilaration.
noble megascope, light microscope, ANTONYMS: (n) gloom, sadness,
mercenary: (adj, n) hireling; (adj, v) electron microscope, magnifier misery
sordid; (adj) mercantile, materialistic, midst: (adj, n) middle; (adv) mid, mischief: (adj, n) evil, hurt, harm; (n)
covetous, commercial, greedy, venal, between; (prep) among, amid; (n) damage, ill, detriment, disadvantage,
avaricious, selfish; (v) illiberal. core, center, thick, interior, heart, devilry, caper, devilment,
ANTONYMS: (adj) altruistic, waist maleficence. ANTONYMS: (n)
philanthropic mighty: (adj) immense, huge, grand, obedience, beneficence, help
merchantman: (n) freighter, bottom, intense, high, big, forcible, strong, mischievous: (adj) bad, injurious,
merchant vessel, trader, keister, large, great; (adj, adv) powerful. detrimental, naughty, deleterious,
hindquarters, buns, butt, bed, ANTONYMS: (adj) puny, tiny, weak, impish, harmful, playful, maleficent,
behind, merchant insignificant arch; (adj, v) hurtful. ANTONYMS:
merciful: (adj) humane, gracious, mild: (adj, n) kindly, gracious; (adj) (adj) harmless, serious
lenient, compassionate, kind, easy, lenient, benign, docile, humble, miser: (n) stinginess, curmudgeon,
clement, benign, kindly, gentle, clement, sweet, balmy, delicate. hunks, muckworm, niggard,
beneficent, forgiving. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adj) extreme, skinflint, cheapskate, parsimony,
(adj) pitiless, merciless, unforgiving, pungent, spicy, sharp, severe, moneygrubber, Jew, miserliness
spiteful, harsh, impatient, severe, scathing, incisive, hot, powerful, miserable: (adj, v) forlorn, wretched,
hardhearted great, passionate unhappy; (adj) mean, low, abject,
mercurial: (adj) changeable, erratic, mildly: (adv) moderately, placidly, deplorable, downcast, bad, desolate;
fickle, quick, flighty, agile, gently, tenderly, graciously, softly, (adj, adv) meager. ANTONYMS:
inconstant, changeful, quicksilver, lightly, kindly, calmly, sweetly, (adj) happy, generous, cheerful,
fidgety; (v) mobile. ANTONYM: suavely. ANTONYMS: (adv) cheery, bright, fortunate, hopeful,
(adj) steady passionately, intensely, extremely, jubilant, luxurious, overjoyed,
mercy: (n) kindness, compassion, pity, enormously, pithily, powerfully, heavenly
favor, leniency, pardon, forgiveness, harshly, severely, considerably miserably: (adv) pathetically,
grace, charity, humanity; (n, v) militia: (n) trainband, Sabaoth, patheticly, pitiably, unhappily,
quarter. ANTONYMS: (n) cruelty, soldiery, standing army, territorial, sorrowfully, pessimistically,
harshness, unkindness, severity, the army, troops, troops of the line, tragically; (adj, adv) piteously,
mercilessness, ruthlessness, reserves, regulars, military unit grievously, woefully; (adj) miserable.
impatience, inhumanity minced: (adj) ground, crushed, ANTONYMS: (adv) happily,
merit: (n, v) deserve; (adj, n) broken up hopefully, brightly, affluently,
excellence, worth, desert; (n) virtue, mineral: (n) ore, apatite, arsenopyrite, enthusiastically, fortunately,
credit, significance, value, goodness, augite, argentite, amphibole, profusely, contentedly
quality; (v) rate. ANTONYMS: (n) millerite, mica, manganite, cobaltite, misery: (adj, n) grief; (n, v) distress;
demerit, disgrace, fault, malachite. ANTONYM: (adj) (n) affliction, agony, anguish, woe,
insignificance, mediocrity, vegetable hardship, evil, ill, infelicity,
commonness mingled: (adj) miscellaneous, suffering. ANTONYMS: (n) joy,
merits: (n) qualities complex, indiscriminate, ecstasy, cheerfulness, fun,
merrily: (adv) gaily, cheerfully, heterogeneous, medley, confused, hopefulness, peace, contentment,
blithely, cheerily, gladly, gleefully, eclectic, motley, different; (v) pleasure, wealth, sport, cheer
mirthfully, brightly, jovially, blended, blent misfortune: (n) accident, hardship,
joyfully, gayly. ANTONYMS: (adv) mingling: (adj) blending, merging, misadventure, disaster, calamity,
sadly, anxiously, miserably, confluent, blended; (n) mixture, mischance, catastrophe, mishap, bad
unhappily, carefully, despondently mixing, commixtion, interchange, luck, misery, affliction.
merry: (adj) joyful, lively, cheerful, exchange, commixture; (adv) ANTONYMS: (n) joy, bonus,
glad, jolly, facetious, frolicsome, minglingly opportunity, privilege, success,
lighthearted, festive; (adj, n) miniature: (adj) tiny, diminutive, happiness
convivial, jovial. ANTONYMS: (adj) slight, wee, small, minute, midget, misfortunes: (n) misfortune
gloomy, miserable, serious, uptight dwarf, teeny; (adj, n) model; (n) toy. misled: (adj) fooled, undirected, false,
messenger: (n, v) herald; (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) large, enormous, bewildered, confused, erroneous,
harbinger, runner, emissary, bearer, giant, gigantic, big mistaken, misleading, misdirected,
ambassador, precursor, courier, minion: (n) cosset, follower, servant, led astray, incorrect
carrier, apostle, errand pet, underling, hanger-on, spoiled misrepresented: (adj) distorted,
Jonathan Swift 359
twisted, malformed, perverted, monkey: (n) imp, primate, scamp, mortified: (adj) humiliated,
tainted, artful, kinky, immoral, rascal, battering ram; (v) tinker, embarrassed, abashed, gangrenous,
disingenuous, depraved, deformed meddle, tamper, trifle, cuckoo, echo sheepish, chagrined, feeling shame,
missive: (n) epistle, note, message, monkeys: (n) Anthropoidea, feeling guilty, guilty, hangdog,
communication, billet, hominids, suborder Anthropoidea humbled. ANTONYM: (adj)
memorandum, encyclical, monsoon: (n) hurricane, cyclone, unabashed
correspondence, alphabetic harmattan, downpour, sirocco, wind, mortifying: (adj) embarrassing,
character, correpondence, circular rainfall, trade wind, tramontane, demeaning, humbling, undignified,
mistaken: (adj) wrong, erroneous, rainy season, tropical storm off, awkward, unpleasant; (v)
false, misguided, inaccurate, monster: (n) beast, fiend, devil, freak, annoying, aggravating, irritating,
fallacious, untrue, misleading, brute, demon, ogre, leviathan, stinging. ANTONYM: (adj)
confused, improper, error. behemoth, monstrosity; (adj) huge dignified
ANTONYMS: (adj) accurate, wise, monstrous: (adj) huge, atrocious, motive: (n, v) cause; (n) account,
right heinous, monster, immense, gigantic, incentive, impulse, inducement,
mistress: (n) dame, concubine, grievous, ugly, flagitious, dreadful; motif, motivation, incitement,
madame, inamorata, lady, lover, (adj, v) grotesque. ANTONYMS: reason, subject; (v) aim.
fancy woman, doxy, girl, kept (adj) tiny, minute, beautiful, good, ANTONYM: (n) disincentive
woman, missis small, lovely, attractive mould: (n, v) mildew, cast, form,
mizen: (n) mast, mizenmast, mizzen monument: (n) headstone, cenotaph, model; (v) make, frame, knead,
mock: (adj, v) counterfeit; (n, v) tombstone, tablet, shrine, slab, fashion, forge; (n) molding, matrix
ridicule, jeer, gibe, laugh at, flout; gravestone, landmark, statue; (adj, mountainous: (adj) colossal,
(adj, n, v) burlesque, sham; (v) n) column; (n, v) record gargantuan, huge, hilly, giant,
mimic, ape, taunt. ANTONYMS: moonshine: (adj, n) moonlight, alpine, enormous, large, rugged,
(adj) real, natural; (v) praise, rubbish; (adj) moonbeam, bosh, gigantic, cragged. ANTONYMS:
applaud, respect, approve moonglade; (n) bootleg, moon, rot, (adj) flat, tiny
moderation: (n) abstinence, all talk, corn liquor, nonsense mounted: (adj) equestrian, mounting,
abstemiousness, moderateness, morality: (n) ethics, goodness, virtue, mounts, set, firm, affixed, decorated.
abatement, measure, alleviation, honesty, decency, integrity, ANTONYM: (adj) unmounted
sobriety, patience, restraint, righteousness, chastity, behavior, mounting: (n, v) mount; (adj, n)
soberness, easing. ANTONYMS: (n) moral philosophy, rectitude. climbing; (n) ascent, setting, climb,
intemperance, overindulgence, ANTONYMS: (n) immorality, frame, assembly, chassis, framework,
excess, increase, immoderation, decadence, wickedness, indecency ascension; (adj, adv) rising
strength, extremism, indulgence, morals: (n) ethics, moral, light, mounts: (adj) mounted
impatience, harshness, abandon hedonism, ethical motive, mouthful: (n) gulp, morsel, swallow,
modesty: (n) reserve, bashfulness, conscience, motivation, motive, gobbet, nip, bit, sip, piece, drink;
humility, diffidence, humbleness, need, behavior, moral philosophy (adj, n) handful; (adj) thimbleful
demureness, coyness, gentleness, morose: (adj) grim, dismal, glum, movable: (adj) portable, transferable,
continence; (adj, n) decency, honesty. dark, moody, grumpy, dour, mercurial, adjustable, ambulatory,
ANTONYMS: (n) arrogance, depressed, sullen, blue, dejected. changeable, transportable, moveable,
immodesty, spectacle, flamboyance, ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, cheery, flexible, active; (v) shifting.
abandon, bigheadedness, pretension, stable ANTONYMS: (adj) immovable,
decadence, boldness moroseness: (n) glumness, sullenness, unchangeable
mole: (n) jetty, freckle, spy, bulwark, grumpiness, sullen, asperity, moveable: (adj) movable,
nevus, mol, groyne, blemish, moodiness, tartness, gloom, transportable, moving, transferable,
birthmark; (adj, v) mound; (v) petulance, surliness, sulk. transferrable, assignable, conveyable
embankment ANTONYM: (n) cheeriness movingly: (adv) touchingly,
moll: (n) gun moll, criminal, morsel: (n, v) bite, mouthful; (n) stirringly, shiftingly, pathetically,
strumpet, mistress, harlot, crumb, chew, particle, fragment, actively, persuasively, sadly,
streetwalker, hooker, felon, woman, taste, piece, nibble; (adj, v) gobbet, emotively, pitifully, impressively,
malefactor mite hauntingly
momentous: (adj, v) grave, mortal: (adj) deadly, fatal, lethal, mule: (n) ass, donkey, jackass, hinny,
memorable; (adj) significant, deathly, earthly; (n) man, individual, mules, scuff, bullhead, slipper; (adj)
weighty, material, big, creature, person, human being, body. hybrid, crossbreed, Metis
consequential, serious, critical, ANTONYMS: (adj, n) immortal; mules: (n) mule, scuffs, carpet slipper,
crucial, great. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adj) eternal, heavenly, mild, perfect, scuff
trivial, unimportant, inconsequential, spiritual multiplied: (adj) many,
frivolous, minor mortals: (n) people multitudinous, teeming, peopled,
monarch: (n) sovereign, lord, mortification: (n) chagrin, populous, studded, thick, increased,
emperor, ruler, czar, despot, embarrassment, shame, gangrene, frequent; (v) absorb, acquisition
autocrat, tsar, tzar, Danaus disappointment, disgrace, multiply: (v) expand, increase,
Plexippus; (adj) prince corruption, necrosis, degradation; propagate, breed, augment,
monarchs: (n) royals, royalty (adj, n) vexation; (adj) grievance duplicate, proliferate, procreate,
reproduce, calculate, extend. ANTONYMS: (n) amiability, development, surveillance, caution,
ANTONYMS: (adv) singly; (v) niceness, goodwill, generosity, affection, cherish; (v) do, protect,
divide, diminish, reduce, estimate, decency, charity, pleasantness, complete, remember, heed; (n, v)
dwindle politeness, friendliness care
multiplying: (adj) cumulative; (n) natives: (n) nation, populace, neglected: (adj) dilapidated,
generation, calculation community, citizens, public disregarded, ignored, deserted,
musket: (n) fusil, blunderbuss, gun, nativity: (n) birth, horoscope, derelict, forsaken, obsolete,
rifle nascency, delivery, genesis, cradle, antiquated, antique, shabby,
mutiny: (n, v) insurrection, rebellion; nascence, birthing, origin, childbirth, unnoticed. ANTONYM: (adj)
(n) disobedience, uprising, births. ANTONYM: (n) death salubrious
revolution, outbreak, nauseous: (adj, v) fulsome; (v) neighbourhood: (n) neighborhood,
insubordination, defiance, rising; (v) abhorrent; (adj) distasteful, adjacency, locality, near, nearness,
rebel, rise. ANTONYMS: (n) loyalty, loathsome, disgusting, nasty, proximity, place, community, street,
obedience sickening, nauseating, obnoxious, vicinity, nearby
mutton: (n) lamb, em, mouton, mut, repugnant, abominable. neighbourhoods: (n) neighbourhood
sheep, pork, red meat, white meat, ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, neighbouring: (adj) adjoining,
beef, area unit; (v) pilot bread charming, pleasant contiguous, vicinal, abutting; (v)
mutually: (adv) jointly, commonly, navigation: (n) sailing, steering, adjoin
together, mutual, collectively, shipping, seafaring, cabotage, nephew: (n) aunt, grandnephew,
publically, unitedly, publicly, astronavigation, work, brother's son, niece, cousin, uncle,
bilaterally, communally, sharedly. transportation, transport, travel, kinsman
ANTONYM: (adv) alone flight nerves: (n) nervousness, jitters,
muzzle: (n) mouth, gunpoint, nose, nearer: (adj) adjacent, narre, hither; jumpiness, jitteriness, restlessness,
lip, gullet, nozzle, bit; (v) muffle, (adv) more rapidly, sooner, quicker, tension, strain, screaming meemies,
silence, hush, curb nigher, NER, faster, earlier, Neer apprehension, edginess, extreme
mysterious: (adj) inscrutable, neatly: (adv) sprucely, tidily, cleanly, nervousness. ANTONYM: (n) calm
incomprehensible, deep, eerie, adroitly, precisely, smartly, nettled: (adj) annoyed, harried, stung,
inexplicable, obscure, abstruse, dark, tastefully, gracefully, properly, steamed, roiled, riled, pissed,
cryptic, secret, arcane. ANTONYMS: nattily; (adj, adv) dexterously. peeved, miffed, loaded, huffy.
(adj) known, apparent, normal, open, ANTONYMS: (adv) messily, ANTONYM: (adj) unconcerned
explicable, facile, obvious, simple, shabbily, untidily, clumsily, loosely, niagara: (n) flood, waterfall, cataract,
legible, familiar, transparent inelegantly, awkwardly ghyll, torrent, overflow, Niagara
nail: (n, v) arrest, capture; (v) catch, necessaries: (n) necessary, Falls, Niagara river
collar, apprehend, hook, strike, hit, necessaries of life, necessity, must nicely: (adv) daintily, pleasantly,
fasten, nab; (adj, n) pin. necessities: (n) supplies, necessity, finely, deliciously, kindly, delicately,
ANTONYMS: (v) unfasten, detach essential, wants, support, correctly, exactly, pleasingly,
nakedness: (n) nudity, altogether, subsistence, requirement, bread elegantly, skillfully. ANTONYMS:
baldness, nude, nudeness, undress, necklace: (n) collar, chain, chaplet, (adv) badly, unattractively,
birthday suit, openness, status, bracelet, necklet, string, corona, inelegantly, cruelly
emptiness, frankness neckband, jewelry, coronet, crown nicety: (n) detail, exactness,
nameless: (adj) unknown, unnamed, necromancy: (n) sorcery, conjuration, fastidiousness, nuance, refinement,
unidentified, unsung, black magic, incantation, exactitude, justness, precision,
undistinguished, unspecified, enchantment, black art, divination, correctness, daintiness, elegance
inexpressible, strange, indescribable, witchcraft, charm, soothsaying, nimble: (adj) lively, adroit, agile,
obscure, unspeakable. ANTONYM: thaumaturgy brisk, spry, alert, expeditious,
(adj) famous needle: (v) irritate, goad, sting, rile, energetic, clever, lithe; (adj, v) light.
narrowly: (adv) closely, barely, gall, aggravate, nag; (n) injection, ANTONYMS: (adj) clumsy, heavy,
hardly, strictly, slenderly, tightly, pointer, awl, plunger stiff, slow, awkward, sluggish, unfit
smally, contractly, slimly, precisely, needles: (adj) gratuitous, wanton, nimbly: (adv) adroitly, alertly, lightly,
nearly. ANTONYMS: (adv) broadly, unwarranted, unprovoked, energetically, cleverly, hastily, deftly,
inaccurately senseless; (n) nervousness, anxiety rapidly, readily; (adj) dexterously;
narrowness: (n) thinness, width, needless: (adj, v) unnecessary, (adj, adv) neatly. ANTONYMS:
intolerance, illiberality, tightness, superfluous; (adj) futile, dispensable, (adv) lethargically, heavily,
smallness, pettiness, sheerness, bootless, excessive, preventable, awkwardly
slimness, meanness, skinniness. meaningless, pointless, wanton, nipple: (n) teat, dug, mamilla, breast,
ANTONYMS: (n) wideness, unavailing. ANTONYMS: (adj) pap, boob, papilla, titty, tit, knocker,
stoutness, thickness, width, essential, worthwhile, inevitable, Soldering nipple
coarseness, inaccuracy justifiable nitre: (n) niter, potassium nitrate,
nastiness: (n) filthiness, foulness, neglect: (n, v) disregard, slight, saltpetre, saltpeter, nitrate
meanness, spite, malice, beastliness, default; (v) ignore, fail, overlook, nobility: (n) aristocracy, greatness,
dirt, dirtiness, indecency, bitchiness; miss, forget, drop; (n) carelessness, dignity, lord, noblesse,
(adj, n) unpleasantness. omission. ANTONYMS: (n) magnanimousness, baronage, gentry,
Jonathan Swift 361
nobleman; (adj) generosity; (adj, n) noxious: (adj) injurious, deleterious, oblique: (adj) circuitous, devious,
magnanimity. ANTONYM: (n) harmful, deadly, evil, inimical, lateral, side, roundabout, slanting,
baseness noisome, destructive, poisonous, evasive, collateral, sloping, inclined,
nobleman: (n) patrician, aristocrat, venomous, lethal. ANTONYMS: tortuous. ANTONYMS: (adj) direct,
lord, peer, marquis, nobility, (adj) innocuous, pleasant, healthy level, perpendicular, parallel, overt,
grandee, baron, duke, armiger, nucleus: (n) core, kernel, center, explicit, straight, clear, upright; (n)
burgrave essence, nub, root, basis, focus, stone, nominative
nobles: (n) landed gentry, upper class embryo, germ. ANTONYM: (n) obliquely: (adj, adv) athwart,
noisome: (adj) injurious, bad, fetid, periphery transversely, askew; (adv) aslant,
mischievous, repugnant, foul, numberless: (adj) countless, indirectly, slopingly, slantingly,
noxious, repulsive, detrimental, innumerable, multitudinous, infinite, sideways, sidelong, skewly, askance.
poisonous, deleterious. ANTONYM: incalculable, endless, uncounted, ANTONYM: (adv) straight
(adj) moral unnumbered, innumerous, legion, obliquity: (n) inclination,
noisy: (adj) boisterous, loud, untold. ANTONYM: (adj) few crookedness, slope, depravity,
vociferous, clamorous, turbulent, nutriment: (n, v) nourishment; (n) asynclitism, meretriciousness,
tumultuous, strident, blatant, shrill, food, fare, diet, nutrient, nutrition, deceptiveness, grade, deviousness;
rowdy, vocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) alimentation, feed, nurture, meat, (adj) pollution, pravity
silent, peaceful, tranquil, calm, meal oblivion: (n) limbo, Lethe, void,
noiseless, soft, restrained, placid, oath: (n) expletive, malediction, absolution, forgiveness,
orderly, gentle imprecation, promise, affidavit, cuss, obliviousness, silence, remission,
noon: (n) high noon, noonday, swearing, pledge, assurance, pardon; (n, v) amnesty; (adj)
noontide, afternoon, hour, asseveration; (v) swear nonbeing. ANTONYMS: (n)
dinnertime, crest, twelve noon; (adj) oats: (n) Avena, grain, millet, cereal, consciousness, fame
meridian, meridional; (adj, n) cereal grass, common oats, genus obnoxious: (adj) disagreeable,
culmination Avena, Haver, holder, maize, offensive, detestable, distasteful,
norms: (n) norm, criterion buckwheat hateful, horrid, repellent, disgusting,
northerly: (adj, adv, n) north; (adj, n) obedience: (n) meekness, submission, invidious; (adj, n) unpleasant; (adj,
northern; (adv) northwards, deference, obeisance, acquiescence, v) liable. ANTONYMS: (adj)
northward, in the north, subordination, bow, observance, charming, nice, pleasing, delightful,
septentrionally, to the north, docility, loyalty, allegiance. inoffensive, cordial
northernly; (adj) boreal ANTONYMS: (n) disobedience, obscure: (adj, n) cloudy, dark; (adj)
northward: (adj, adv) north; (adj) defiance, naughtiness, resistance, gloomy, mysterious,
northbound; (adv) northerly, divergence, chaos, wildness incomprehensible, hidden,
northwards, in the north, to the obey: (v) comply, listen, keep, fulfill, ambiguous, concealed; (adj, v)
north hear, conform, abide by, serve, darken, muddy; (v) hide.
nostril: (n) flue, chimney, funnel, comply with; (n, v) mind, heed. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, noticeable,
weasand, nozzle, port, throat, ANTONYMS: (v) disobey, defy, simple, obvious, distinct,
trachea, naris, anterior naris, nare break, transgress, infringe, challenge, mainstream, famous, definite, overt,
notions: (n) belief, thinking, thought, deny plain; (v) reveal
sundries, opinion, concept, ideas, objection: (n) dissent, complaint, obscured: (adj) hidden, blind,
ribbon, philosophy, odds and ends; grievance, exception, gripe, covered, clouded, darkened, covert,
(adj) irrational disagreement, outcry, difficulty, dim, intangible, unnoticed, ulterior,
notorious: (adj, v) notable; (adj) expostulation, disapproval, criticism. privy
known, infamous, illustrious, ANTONYMS: (n) approval, obsequious: (adj) servile, flattering,
disreputable, flagrant, egregious, agreement, praise, acceptance submissive, cringing, sycophantic,
prominent, celebrated, noted; (adj, oblige: (v) coerce, force, drive, ingratiating, humble, toadying,
n) errant. ANTONYMS: (adj) constrain, make, bind, accommodate, supple, subservient; (adj, v)
anonymous, reputable, famous obligate, necessitate, enforce, impel. deferential. ANTONYMS: (adj)
notwithstanding: (adv, conj) ANTONYMS: (v) displease, request, domineering, assertive, disrespectful
nevertheless, although, even though, hinder observing: (adj) observant, mindful,
yet, but; (conj) albeit; (adv) obliged: (adj) grateful, thankful, watchful, commemorative,
nonetheless, though, still, all the appreciative, forced, accountable, conscious, observative, perceptive,
same; (prep) despite compelled; (adj, v) bound, under thoughtful; (n) investigation
nourishing: (adj) alimentary, healthy, obligation; (adj, prep) indebted; (v) obsolete: (adj) dead, archaic, ancient,
nutrient, healthful, wholesome, rich, oblige, binding. ANTONYM: (adj) antique, outdated, extinct, old-
nutritive, hearty, alimental, good, ungrateful fashioned, disused, outmoded,
beneficial. ANTONYMS: (adj) obliging: (adj, v) complaisant, dated, old. ANTONYMS: (adj)
unhealthy, unwholesome, meager, courteous; (adj) amiable, affable, current, contemporary, modern,
insufficient gentle, kind, good, benign, pleasant, trendy, new
nourishment: (n) food, alimentation, gracious, compliant. ANTONYMS: obstinacy: (n) stubbornness, firmness,
meal, meat, diet, feeding, nutrition, (adj) uncooperative, unkind, bullheadedness, determination,
repast, sustenance, edible, fuel contrary, reticent contumacy, mulishness,
impenitence, resolve, resoluteness, nastily, revoltingly, distastefully, oppose: (v) contest, contend, resist,
impenitency, pertinacity. unpleasantly, shockingly, abusively, contradict, controvert, contravene,
ANTONYMS: (n) cooperation, insultingly, repellently, insolently. counteract, fight, counter, disagree,
compliance ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly, dissent. ANTONYMS: (v) advocate,
obstinate: (adj) obdurate, inflexible, politely, defensively, kindly, agree, back, advise, promote, accept,
intractable, determined, inveterate, acceptably, commendably, decently, submit, encourage, correspond,
disobedient, willful, stubborn, properly approve, favor
contrary, wayward, dogged. officiously: (adv) meddlesomely, oppressed: (adj) laden, persecuted,
ANTONYMS: (adj) flexible, overbearingly, busily, impertinently, broken, burdened, drawn, gloomy,
amenable, irresolute, cooperative, meddlingly, bossily, intrusively, aggrieved, downcast, heavy,
easygoing, docile, biddable, obtrusively, imperiously, rudely, ladened, loaded
agreeable, accommodating, dictatorially oppression: (n, v) hardship,
malleable, gentle oils: (n) oil paint grievance; (n) injustice, despotism,
obtrude: (v) impose, force, encroach, ointment: (n) cream, salve, balm, weight, stress, doldrums; (adj, n)
inflict, protrude, stick out, infringe, unguent, unction, oil, lotion, grease, abuse, tyranny, dictatorship,
meddle, visit, barge, push plaster, embrocation, liniment autocracy. ANTONYMS: (n)
occiput: (n) os oldest: (n) elder, doyen; (adj) older democracy, ease, freedom, liberty
occult: (adj) hidden, obscure, olive: (n) Olea europaea, European oppressive: (adj, v) onerous, close,
mysterious, cryptic, cryptical, dark, olive tree, wood, olive tree, olive burdensome; (adj) sultry, stuffy,
esoteric, magical, unseen, green, chromatic color, chromatic tyrannical, muggy, despotic,
confidential; (adj, n, v) secret colour, drupe; (adj) green, glaucous, dictatorial, gloomy, domineering.
oddly: (adv) curiously, peculiarly, chromatic ANTONYMS: (adj) liberal,
strangely, funnily, queerly, ominous: (adj) baleful, inauspicious, democratic, humane, free, tolerant,
unusually, grotesquely, ill, menacing, threatening, black, airy, freezing, libertarian
extraordinarily, uncommonly, sinister, minatory, unlucky, optics: (n) catoptrics, holography,
singularly, weirdly. ANTONYMS: forbidding, minacious. vision, photology, orbs, physics,
(adv) ordinarily, typically, sensibly, ANTONYMS: (adj) promising, optic, catoptric, catoptrical, eyesight,
harmoniously auspicious, reassuring, bright, lucky, natural philosophy
odious: (adj, v) hateful, obnoxious; wonderful oracle: (n) prophet, divination,
(adj) detestable, hideous, nasty, omission: (n) exclusion, error, ellipsis, vaticinator, diviner, revelation, seer,
execrable, disgusting, abhorrent, inadvertence, negligence, mistake, sibyl, Solomon, soothsayer, vision,
abominable, heinous, forbidding. neglect, oversight, flaw; (adj, n) fault, authority
ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, defect. ANTONYMS: (n) adherence, orange: (n) orangeness, orange tree,
delightful, agreeable, lovable, nice performance, addition Methyl orange, bergamot, red and
odiousness: (n) distastefulness, omit: (adv, v) neglect, disregard; (adj, yellow, lemon, marmalade orange,
blatancy, hatefulness, v) miss, skip, jump, pretermit; (v) orange river; (adj, n) reddish yellow;
abominableness, obnoxiousness, delete, forget, exclude, except, leave. (adj) amber, ocher
abhorrence, abomination, aversion, ANTONYMS: (v) add, remember oration: (n) discourse, harangue,
unpleasantness, detestation, omitted: (adj) absent, forgotten, lecture, speech, declamation, homily,
loathing misplaced, wanting, not there, away, tirade, say, recitation, oratory,
odour: (n) flavour, smell, odor, aroma, gone astray, lost, mislaid, gone language
scent, bouquet, savour, nose, flavor, onboard: (adv) aboard, alongside, on orator: (n) elocutionist, speechmaker,
smack, redolence base speaker, lecturer, Cicero, speechifier,
offended: (adj) angry, affronted, ooze: (v) exude, seep, dribble, drain, demagog, demagogue, eulogist; (v)
aggrieved, pained, wronged, drop, trickle; (n) mire, muck; (n, v) oratrix, oratress
annoyed, insulted, shocked, vexed, leak; (adj) mud; (adj, n) slime. oratory: (n) elocution, rhetoric,
resentful, injured. ANTONYMS: ANTONYM: (v) flood declamation, speech, oration, church,
(adj) indifferent, proud, opaque: (adj) dense, muddy, obscure, chapel, tabernacle, valediction,
unconcerned cloudy, hazy, murky, thick, cathedral, public speaking
offending: (adj) opprobrious, unintelligible, milky, misty, vague. ordering: (n) disposition, sequence,
criminal, aberrant, guilty, ANTONYM: (adj) transparent order, disposal, grading, adjustment,
delinquent, antisocial, scurrilous, operated: (adj) driven management, decree, configuration,
errant opinionated: (adj, v) opinionative, classification; (adj) imperative
offensive: (adj, v) foul, odious, nasty, opinionate, opinioned; (adj) orderly: (adj) neat, tidy, exact, regular,
aggressive, coarse, hateful; (adj) obstinate, dogmatic, wilful, dogged, ordered, systematic, logical,
distasteful, disgusting, loathsome, stubborn, egotistic, intolerant, coherent, businesslike; (adv)
abusive, nauseous. ANTONYMS: biased. ANTONYMS: (adj) systematically; (n) attendant.
(adj) complimentary, pleasant, polite, broadminded, fair ANTONYMS: (adj) unmanageable,
defensive, tasteful, peaceful, opinionative: (adj) opinionated, rowdy, wild, disorganized, untidy,
pleasing, savory, euphemistic, obstinate, stubborn, dogged, disorderly, confused, lawless, messy,
decent; (n) defense opiniative; (v) opinionate, defiant, haphazard
offensively: (adv) repulsively, rudely, opinioned; (n) narrower ordure: (n) dung, filth, droppings,
Jonathan Swift 363
stool, fecal matter, faecal matter, BM, lordly. ANTONYMS: (adj) meek, oysters: (n) class Pelecypoda, family
dejection, rejection; (adj, n) straightforward, modest, reasonable, Ostreidae, Lamellibranchia,
excrement, feces subservient, weak Ostreidae, class Lamellibranchia,
organs: (n) offal, haslet, giblet, overboard: (adj) exorbitant, rabid Bivalvia, clams, class Bivalvia
chitlins, chitlings, chitterlings, overburdened: (adj) burdened, pacify: (adj, n, v) calm, allay,
insides, tongue, variety meat, loaded down, full of, heavy, compose, appease; (adj, v) mollify,
sweetbread, tripe weighed down lull, soothe; (n, v) ease; (v) conciliate,
orifice: (n) mouth, gap, hole, aperture, overflowing: (adj) full, copious, placate, moderate. ANTONYMS: (v)
vent, port, puncture, inlet, muzzle, exuberant, flooding, bountiful, annoy, enrage, excite, infuriate,
chops, nozzle generous, brimming, profuse; (n, v) aggravate, displease, inflame,
originals: (n) dead copy flood, inundation, deluge. provoke
ornament: (n) decoration, adornment, ANTONYMS: (adj) sparse, scarce packthread: (n) cord, twine, twist,
embellishment, decor; (v) beautify, overlooked: (adj) ignored, neglected, thread, wire
decorate, deck, embellish, adorn; (n, unobserved, unnoted, unmarked paddle: (n) blade, vane, oar, rowing;
v) garnish, dress. ANTONYM: (v) overmatch: (adj) overcome, (v) dabble, dodder, row, pull, spank,
strip overpower, overthrow, overbalance, toddle, totter
ornamental: (adj) fancy, florid, overset, overreach, overpass, paddling: (n) defeat, boating
cosmetic, extravagant, elaborate, override; (v) surcharge, overburden, pail: (n) bucketful, jug, tub, pailful,
showy, enhancing, delicate, overcharge cannikin, pails, skeel, tankard, pot,
beautifying; (n) decoration, overrun: (n, v) overflow; (v) invade, pipkin, vessel
adornment. ANTONYMS: (adj) flood, occupy, infest, deluge, pains: (n) nisus, labor, trouble, effort,
plain, unadorned inundate, overwhelm, devastate, exertion, labour, pain, care, struggle,
ornaments: (n) stuff, trim, brim over; (n) excess. ANTONYMS: attempt, strain
ornamentation, equipments, dress, (adj) clear, tidy; (v) make painters: (n) painter
disposition, custom, curios, overrunning: (n) escape, discharge, palatable: (adj) luscious, tasty,
condition, clothing, gaudery deluge, overflow, reimposition, slick, agreeable, toothsome, appetizing,
orthography: (n) spelling, ideography, leak eatable, delectable, delicate, tasteful,
boustrophedon, cuneiform, overset: (v) overturn, reverse, upset, sweet, savory. ANTONYMS: (adj)
hieroglyph, hieroglyphic, writing, invert, destroy, tip; (adj, v) disagreeable, indigestible, inedible,
writing system, syllabic, syllabary, overthrow, overpower; (adj) tasteless
scriptural overmaster, overcome, overmatch palm: (n) medal, decoration, prize,
outermost: (adj, adv) farthest; (adj) overtake: (v) catch, attain, catch up palm tree, victory, thenar, laurel
outmost, extreme, utmost, uttermost, with, exceed, overpower, overcome, wreath; (v) filch, cabbage, rob; (adj)
last, outer, outside, external, exterior, go by, gain, devastate, outstrip, beat totipalmate
furthermost overtook: (v) overtake pane: (n) window pane, paneling,
outlines: (n) elements, conspectus, overturned: (adj) upturned, upside pane of glass, panelling,
prospectus, syllabus, alphabet, down, inverted, reversed, wrong windowpane, window-pane, board,
grammar, contents, rudiments, way up, confused, broken, wrong square, sheet of glass, leaf, box
synopsis, textbook, ABC side up, topsy-turvy, disturbed, panegyric: (n, v) encomium, praise,
outlive: (v) survive, live, endure, disquieted commendation, applause; (adj, n)
overlive, live through, make it, overturning: (n) reverse, about-face, encomiastic; (v) laud, laudation;
overbide, overcome, remain, abolition (adj) panegyrical; (n) kudos, paean,
supervive, subsist overwhelming: (adj) devastating, eloge
outward: (adj) external, apparent, irresistible, insurmountable, pannel: (n) pillion, saddle
extrinsic, outer, superficial, surface, crushing, monumental, astounding, papa: (n) father, pa, daddy, Dada, sire,
outside, ostensible, foreign, outdoor; amazing, tremendous, resistless, pappa, pop, old man, paterfamilias,
(adv) out. ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) formidable; (v) overwhelm. cardinal, high priest
inward; (adj) inner, internal, deep ANTONYMS: (adj) comfortable, parcel: (n) bale, pack, bundle,
outwardly: (adv) exteriorly, comforting, weak, mild, shallow, package, packet, section, division,
superficially, apparently, outside, insignificant, faint, disputable, easy batch; (n, v) portion; (v) distribute,
seemingly, without, ostensibly, owed: (adj) due, outstanding, unpaid, apportion
evidently, extrinsically, outerly, payable, deserved, fitting; (v) ought, parched: (adj, n) thirsty; (adj) arid,
outsidely. ANTONYMS: (adv) behoove, owned, possessed; (n) adust, torrid, barren, desiccated,
internally, underneath aught. ANTONYM: (adj) paid dehydrated, scorched, baked,
oven: (n) furnace, stove, fireplace, owing: (adj) due, unpaid, unsettled, withered, shriveled. ANTONYMS:
hearth, broiler, heater, bakery, range, outstanding, overdue, owed, (adj) quenched, humid
kitchen appliance, boiler, coke oven payable, undischarged, indebted, paring: (adj) clipping, driblet, shiver;
chamber fulfilling obligation, lawful. (n) shaving, splinter, chip, rind,
overbearing: (adj) dictatorial, ANTONYM: (adj) settled flinders, grazing; (adj, n) sliver; (v)
domineering, arrogant, imperious, oxen: (n) bull, ox, cows, cow, cattle, pare
oppressive, despotic, authoritarian, Bos Taurus, bullock, kine, milker, parity: (n) equality, likeness,
supercilious, dogmatic, disdainful, beef, dairy cow resemblance, balance, equivalence,
correspondence, parallel, calmness. ANTONYMS: (n) discover, see, grasp, find, know,
parallelism, sameness, similarity, impatience, eagerness, intolerance, observe, sense, appreciate; (adj, v)
equilibrium. ANTONYMS: (n) annoyance discern. ANTONYMS: (v) Miss,
inequality, difference, disparity, patron: (n) backer, advocate, friend, observe, ignore
dissimilarity defender, customer, client, helper, perceiving: (n) feeling, sensing,
parted: (adj) divided, separate, sponsor, benefactor, frequenter, hearing, looking at, recognition,
distributed, separated, divisible, supporter. ANTONYM: (n) thought, vision, lipreading; (adj)
disunited, compounder, compound, detractor conscious, percipient, reasonable
dividable pawing: (n) intimacy percolate: (v) ooze, infiltrate, dribble,
partiality: (n) favor, fondness, peaceably: (adv) quietly, peacefully, trickle, leach, penetrate, leak, filtrate,
leaning, fancy, favour, predilection, patiently, noiselessly strain, soak, permeate
liking, prejudice, favoritism, bias, pearls: (n) beads, jewelry, jewellery perfection: (n) maturity, ideal,
affection. ANTONYMS: (n) peas: (n) beans, bean, bills consummation, paragon,
impartiality, fairness, indifference, pebbles: (n) shingle, grit, gravel, completeness, finish, completion,
horror, antipathy stones crown, flawlessness, development,
particulars: (n) specification, data, peccant: (v) morbid, carious, tabid, ne plus ultra. ANTONYMS: (n)
nicety, minutiae, terms, poisoned; (adj) criminal, sinful, imperfection, fault, abandonment,
consideration, workings, fine points, guilty, wicked, unrighteous, fulsome, ugliness, deterioration
ins and outs leprous perfidiousness: (n) perfidy,
parting: (n) adieu, division, leave, peck: (n, v) nibble; (v) beak, pick, kiss, disloyalty, faithlessness, infidelity,
departure, disunion, goodbye, pick up; (n) pile, plenty, mass, slew, betrayal, treason, falsity, dishonesty,
leaving, segregation, dying, rupture; lot, mint insidiousness, duplicity
(adj) valedictory. ANTONYMS: (n) peculiar: (adj) particular, odd, performing: (n) impersonation,
joining, meeting, connection, exceptional, different, extraordinary, byplay, enactment, hamming,
Reunion curious, eccentric, characteristic, business, implementation, executing,
partition: (n) wall, bulkhead, divider, anomalous, abnormal, distinctive. performance, activity; (v) perform,
distribution, separation, screen; (n, ANTONYMS: (adj) normal, typical, execute
v) part, split; (v) divide, apportion, common, universal, explicable, peril: (n, v) hazard, risk, endanger,
deal. ANTONYMS: (v) join, reveal; conventional menace, adventure; (n) danger,
(n) union pecuniary: (adj) financial, fiscal, jeopardy, chance; (v) imperil, expose,
partridges: (n) family Phasianidae, commercial, economic, nummulary, compromise. ANTONYM: (n)
order Galliformes, curassows, sumptuary, numismatical, pecunial, security
Phasianidae, chickens, Galliformes, crumenal periodical: (n) journal, magazine,
hoatzins, grouse peeping: (n) cheeping, tweeting, newspaper, review, organ,
passionately: (adv) fervently, chirping; (adj) inquisitive publication, book; (adj) intermittent,
vehemently, violently, fiercely, peevish: (adj) fretful, fractious, cyclic, recurrent, annual
eagerly, zealously, fervidly, fierily, morose, testy, irascible, moody, perjury: (v) mendacity; (n) bearing
enthusiastically, heatedly, stormily. captious, petulant, cross, false witness, lying under oath, false
ANTONYMS: (adv) mildly, cantankerous, touchy evidence, violation, lie, infringement,
apathetically, calmly, halfheartedly, pegs: (v) legs, feet, trotters, pins infraction, falsehood, offense,
impassively, jokingly, gently pelt: (n) hide, skin, fell, coat; (v) offence
paste: (n, v) glue, gum, plaster; (n) pepper, bombard, hurry, beat, hit, permit: (adj, n, v) give, allow,
dough, adhesive, cream, batter; (v) batter, pour consent; (adj, v) grant; (n, v) license,
bond, affix, to stick, attach penalties: (n) penalty leave; (v) admit, let, bear; (n) licence,
pasteboard: (n) card, cardboard, pencil: (n) beam, Pleiades, gleam, permission. ANTONYMS: (n, v)
paperboard, board, composition light, group, cluster; (v) brush, draw, ban; (v) prevent, prohibit, stop,
board, entertainment, thin design, paint, limn draw refuse, veto, outlaw, disagree, debar,
cardboard peninsula: (n) chersonese, cape, bar; (n) prohibition
pasted: (adj) affixed promontory, continent, mainland, pernicious: (adj) detrimental, evil,
pastern: (n) os, bone point, peninsulas, headland, bad, injurious, fatal, noxious, deadly,
patent: (adj) overt, evident, apparent, Arabian, Balkans, Byland baneful, mischievous, mortal,
manifest, plain, clear, conspicuous, penknife: (adj, n) blade; (n) malign. ANTONYMS: (adj)
open, palpable, explicit; (n) letters switchblade, pocketknife, clasp knife, favorable, pleasant, harmless
patent. ANTONYMS: (adj) pocket knife, carving knife, stiletto; perpendicularly: (adv) uprightly,
inconspicuous, obscure, subtle, (adj) cutlery, edge tool, whittle, erectly, straightly, upright,
unobtrusive, veiled, ambiguous, razor orthogonally, sheerly, precipitously,
furtive, questionable penning: (n) writing, composition, normally, plumb; (adv, v) sheer; (adj,
paths: (n) path authorship, fabrication, drafting, adv) directly
patience: (n) endurance, fortitude, lexicography, committal to writing, perpetual: (adj) incessant, continual,
longanimity, equanimity, tolerance, composing, musical composition, constant, endless, eternal,
resignation, restraint, composure, redaction, versification everlasting, lasting, ceaseless,
sufferance; (n, v) moderation, perceive: (v) comprehend, apprehend, immortal, continuous, perennial.
Jonathan Swift 365
ANTONYMS: (adj) temporary, vexed, peeved, nettled, irritated, wound. ANTONYM: (v) seal
intermittent, transitory, mortal, much disputed, miffed pierced: (adj) punctured, perforate,
unstable, finite, inconstant, pestilence: (n) pest, epidemic, blight, penetrated, cut, cleft
occasional, sporadic disease, curse, infectious disease, piercing: (adj, n) sharp, cutting; (adj,
perpetually: (adv) eternally, contagion, infection, virus; (adj) v) keen, penetrating, biting, bitter,
everlastingly, always, incessantly, murrain, pox harsh, shrill; (adj) high, raw, loud.
continually, endlessly, permanently, petition: (n, v) appeal, request, desire, ANTONYMS: (adj) quiet, dull, soft,
unceasingly, ceaselessly, ever; (adj, claim; (v) ask, beg, crave, apply; (n) hot
adv) forever. ANTONYMS: (adv) application, entreaty, invocation piety: (n) godliness, devoutness, faith,
erratically, sporadically petrifying: (adj) frightening, hard, righteousness, holiness, reverence,
perpetuity: (n) immortality, scary, stony, horrifying, terrible, religion, religiousness, piousness,
sempiternity, permanency, infinity, terrifying, petrifactive, frightful, sanctity, goodness. ANTONYMS:
permanence, endlessness, continuity, appalling, morally hard (n) sin, profanity, wickedness
time without end, everness, petticoat: (adj, n) female; (n) pike: (adj, n) crest; (n) halberd, point,
sequence, aye underskirt, skirt, she, woman, her, turnpike, autobahn, motorway,
perplex: (adj, v) confuse, puzzle; (v) crinoline, wife, undergarment, mountain, muskellunge; (adj) bluff,
amaze, mystify, astonish, nonplus, apron; (adj) petty cliff, cone peak
complicate, confound, disconcert, phaeton: (n) coach, tourer, pikes: (n) muskellunges, pickerels,
bother, get. ANTONYMS: (v) automobile, chariot, holidaymaker, family Esocidae
simplify, clarify, enlighten, placate, car, machine, auto, touring car, pillage: (n, v) loot, ransack, spoil,
explain motorcar rape; (v) despoil, harry, rob, rifle; (n)
perplexed: (adj) confused, puzzled, philosopher: (n) thinker, bacon, depredation, despoliation,
baffled, confounded, doubtful, libertarian, gymnosophist, devastation
distracted, disconcerted; (adj, v) empiricist, necessitarian, moralist, pillar: (n) brace, mainstay, post,
intricate, complicated, lost, involved. theorist, wisdom, pundit, mechanist obelisk, foundation, pier, monument,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unperplexed, philosophical: (v) sedate, meditative, stanchion, backbone, buttress; (adj,
assured, clear, knowing deliberative, platonic, museful, n) tower
perplexity: (n) confusion, dilemma, introspective, contemplative, pillion: (n) saddle, pannel, seat
bewilderment, maze, labyrinth, pensive; (adj) cool; (adj, v) reflective, pimping: (adj) sickly
embarrassment, quandary, thoughtful. ANTONYMS: (adj) pimples: (n) acne vulgaris, hives,
complication, enigma; (adj, n) practical, nonphilosophical, rash, skin complaint
difficulty, distress. ANTONYM: (n) emotional, realistic pinch: (n, v) nip, arrest, twinge,
understanding philosophise: (v) philosophize, squeeze; (n) emergency, crisis,
persecuted: (adj) downtrodden, cogitate, cerebrate exigency; (v) compress, lift, wring,
aggrieved, laden, mistreated, phoenix: (n) perfection, capital of constrict
wronged Arizona, chimera, genus phoenix, pinched: (adj) haggard, drawn,
persecution: (adj, n) annoyance; (n) hydra, ideal, jewel, Minotaur, emaciated, cadaverous, narrow,
harassment, torture, maltreatment, monster penurious, thin, penniless,
subjugation, hurt, nuisance, cruelty; phraseology: (n) language, adenoidal; (adj, n) necessitous; (n)
(adj) molestation, intolerance, abuse expression, phrasing, wording, distressed. ANTONYM: (adj)
persian: (n) Farsi, Irani, Iranian idiom, vernacular, dialect, choice of relaxed
language words, terminology, locution; (n, v) pine: (v) languish, long, ache, droop,
pert: (adj) impertinent, bold, style flag, crave, fade; (n) fir; (n, v) yearn,
impudent, insolent, forward, fresh, physic: (n) medicine, aperient, sink; (adj) peak
brazen, saucy, malapert, irreverent, cathartic, medication, healing, pinnacle: (n) apex, top, height, crest,
cheeky. ANTONYM: (adj) listless medicament, drug; (n, v) cure, zenith, crown, summit, acme,
perverse: (adj) fractious, obstinate, doctor, remedy; (v) heal heyday, climax, culmination.
obdurate, bad, corrupt, headstrong, physician: (n) doctor, medico, doc, ANTONYMS: (n) nadir, base,
disobedient, intractable, willful, medic, quack, surgeon, leech, bottom, trough
sinister, wayward. ANTONYMS: houseman, MD, allergist, intern pins: (v) feet, legs, pegs, trotters
(adj) wholesome, obliging, agreeable, pickpocket: (n) cutpurse, thief, dip, pint: (n) dry pint
accommodating, malleable, good robber, burglar, shoplifter, pious: (adj, n, v) devout; (adj, n)
perverseness: (n) perversity, inclination, magnetic dip, magnetic godly; (adj) religious, holy, saintly,
cussedness, unruliness, wilfulness, inclination, miscreant, nipper devotional, pure, hypocritical,
willfulness, contumacy, obliquity, piecemeal: (adv) bit by bit, gradually, devoted, sanctimonious; (adj, v)
degeneracy, depravity, deliberate little by little, in stages, partially, earnest. ANTONYMS: (adj) impious,
unruliness, crotchetiness step by step, slowly; (adj) gradual, sinful, profane, blasphemous,
pervert: (v) debase, deprave, misuse, fragmentary, stepwise, in small irreligious, uncommitted, secular,
twist, abuse, corrupt, debauch, stages irreverent
misrepresent, bastardize; (n, v) pierce: (n, v) cut, prick, stick; (v) pipes: (n) musette, tubing, tubes, pipe,
bend; (adv, v) falsify perforate, bore, enter, thrust, tube
pestered: (adj) harassed, harried, puncture, penetrate; (adj, v) stab, pippin: (n) pip
pirate: (n) buccaneer, corsair, bandit, adjure, petition, ask, appeal, defend, poisoning, defoedation,
pillager, freebooter, sea robber, invoke, sue; (n, v) allege. discoloration, ergotism, caffeinism,
robber, sea rover; (n, v) plagiarist; ANTONYMS: (v) answer, demand alkali poisoning, Malathion
(v) hijack, infringe pleading: (adj) importunate, poisoning, cyanide poisoning
pitched: (adj) oblique, thrown, imploring, beseeching, appealing, poisonous: (adj) toxic, mortal,
slanting, at an angle, leaning; (v) suppliant; (n) defense, replication, venomous, noxious, malicious, fatal,
fixed, pight, determined. demurrer, defence, advocacy, baneful, poison, lethal, viperous,
ANTONYM: (adj) level argument mephitic. ANTONYMS: (adj)
pittance: (n) mite, meed, alimony, pleasantly: (adv) pleasingly, nicely, harmless, benevolent, edible,
chicken feed, a few, donation, a cheerily, enjoyably, agreeably, kindhearted
smidgen, a little bit, driblet, trifle, delightfully, sunnily, genially, polar: (adj) diametric, opposite,
payment gratifyingly, kindly; (adv, v) happily. glacial, freezing, cold, icy, pivotal,
placing: (n) placement, arrangement, ANTONYMS: (adv) disagreeably, frigid, diametrical, gelid; (v) head.
disposition, installation, allocation, offensively, awfully, discordantly, ANTONYMS: (adj) tropical,
ordering, disposal, borrowing, dreadfully, shockingly, unkindly, equatorial, hot
composition irritably, harshly, curtly, nastily pole: (n) picket, bar, magnetic pole,
plague: (v) molest, harass, afflict, pleasing: (adj, n) acceptable; (adj) mast, rod, terminal, post, support,
hassle, annoy, badger, pester, amiable, lovable, amusing, attractive, axle, beam, axis
disturb, beleaguer; (n, v) worry; (adj, gratifying, lovely, pleasant, polite: (adj) cultured, gentle, courtly,
n, v) bother. ANTONYM: (v) charming, delightful, inviting. civil, refined, proper, genteel, kind,
comfort ANTONYMS: (adj) unpleasant, attentive, friendly, complaisant.
plainly: (adv) evidently, manifestly, unwelcome, infuriating, ANTONYMS: (adj) rude,
clearly, distinctly, openly, obviously, disappointing, straight, hurtful, discourteous, boorish, improper,
patently, overtly, definitely; (adj, maddening, displeasing, discordant, abusive, common, authoritative,
adv) frankly, honestly. harsh, frustrating disobedient, uncivilized, uncivil,
ANTONYMS: (adv) imperceptibly, pleasures: (n) pleasure curt
vaguely, obscurely, figuratively, plentifully: (adv) plenteously, politeness: (n) civility, courteousness,
unclearly, politely, incoherently, bountifully, bounteously, courtliness, manners, decorum,
implicitly, finely, ambiguously, abundantly, profusely, richly, fully, gentility, good manners, niceness,
covertly liberally, opulently, amply, refinement, gallantry, decency.
plank: (n) timber, beam, slat, girder, prolifically. ANTONYM: (adv) ANTONYMS: (n) vulgarity,
panel, parachute, matchboard, meagerly rudeness, incivility, neglect
footbridge, hardboard; (v) flump; (n, ploughing: (n) plowing, tilling, politician: (n) legislator, politico,
v) planch tillage, trenching lawgiver, political leader, mayor,
planted: (adj) ingrained, established, plumbed: (adj) sounded pol, nominee, campaigner, governor,
set, concealed plume: (n) feather, plumage, quill, statemonger, tactician
planting: (n) plantation, positioning, panache, aigrette, crest, feathering; polluted: (adj) dirty, contaminated,
position, cultivation, transplanting, (v) pride, pluck, dress, preen foul, defiled, filthy, unclean, profane,
set, planting system, husbandry, plunder: (n, v) pillage, spoil; (v) stained, soiled, tainted, nasty.
placement, locating, farming despoil, harry, devastate, maraud, ANTONYMS: (adj) clean, hygienic
plastered: (adj) drunk, tight, destroy, strip, ransack; (n) booty, pomp: (n) grandeur, parade,
intoxicated, pixilated, loaded, depredation ostentation, show, ceremony, glory,
soaked, sloshed, smashed, wet, plundering: (n) rape, pillage, luxury, pageantry, magnificence,
inebriated, pissed depredation, despoliation, rapine, state, splendor. ANTONYMS: (n)
plausibility: (n) credibility, spoliation, despoilment, plunder, understatement, modesty
possibility, probability, admissibility, looting; (adj) predatory, marauding pompey: (n) Portsmouth, naval base,
believability, credibleness, fair poised: (adj) balanced, calm, Pompey the great
appearance, plausibleness, composed, steady, equanimous, ponderous: (adj) heavy, grave,
presumption, reasonableness; (adj, assured, urbane, serene, stable, onerous, burdensome, massive,
n) verisimilitude massed, gathered. ANTONYMS: unwieldy, bulky, stodgy, hard,
plausible: (adj) credible, likely, (adj) awkward, unprepared, coarse tedious, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj)
convincing, acceptable, feasible, poison: (adj, v) contaminate, taint; (n, elegant, graceful, lively, brisk,
probable, reasonable, ostensible, v) envenom, drug, empoison; (adj) manageable
imaginable, oily; (adj, v) specious. toxic, poisonous; (v) defile, populous: (adj) multitudinous,
ANTONYMS: (adj) implausible, intoxicate; (n) bane, venom. crowded, densely populated,
unlikely, unbelievable, improbable, ANTONYMS: (n) cure; (v) clean multiple, thick, inhabited, numerous,
improbably, untenable poisoned: (adj, v) tainted; (v) peccant, manifold, multiplied; (adj, v)
plaything: (n) bauble, trifle, gewgaw, morbid, tabid; (adj) venenate, made teeming; (v) closely packed.
cockhorse, doll, dollhouse, dolly, virulent, rabid, resentful, sour, ANTONYM: (adj) uninhabited
playhouse, hobby, hobbyhorse, mangy, leprous pork: (n) pig, hog, swine, pork barrel,
kaleidoscope poisoning: (n) intoxication, gassing, porc, red meat, white meat, animal
plead: (v) entreat, implore, beg, corruption, carbon monoxide protein, appropriation, beef, cochon
Jonathan Swift 367
de lait perform, exercise, drill, do, rehearse, preferable: (adj) better, superior,
portending: (n) omen; (adj) oracular, learn, take, work out, read favored, likable, eligible, enjoyable,
threatening practised: (adj) practiced, expert, fit; (n) pleasing, agreeable, beloved,
portion: (n, v) division, lot, allot, adept, good, trained, proficient, dear
dividend, divide; (n) piece, parcel, seasoned, skilful, skilled, skillful, preferment: (n) advancement,
fragment, component, section; (adj, versed elevation, priority, preference,
n) constituent. ANTONYM: (n) practising: (adj) practicing, consecration, induction, institution,
whole churchgoing ordination, holy orders, translation;
portsmouth: (n) Pompey the great praise: (v) approve, extol, flatter, (n, v) promotion. ANTONYM: (n)
portuguese: (n) Galician, romance celebrate, glorify; (n, v) commend, demotion
language; (adj) Lusitanian compliment, honor, glory, acclaim; prejudice: (n, v) harm, hurt, damage;
positiveness: (n) assertiveness, (n) applause. ANTONYMS: (n) (v) influence, predispose, injure; (n)
assurance, security, confidence, criticism, disparagement; (v) disadvantage, partiality,
positivism, absolute power, reprimand, disparage, reproach, preconceived notion, discrimination,
absoluteness, roundness, scold, belittle, rebuke, chastise, preconception. ANTONYMS: (n)
definiteness, trust, boldness denigrate, sully tolerance, fairness, impartiality,
possessed: (adj) mad, obsessed, prating: (n) trash, drivel, report; (v) justice, broadmindedness; (v)
frantic, hysterical, furious, fanatical, click, clack enhance
infatuated, insane; (v) ought, owed, pravity: (adj) obliquity, infamy, prejudicial: (adj) pernicious, hurtful,
behoove. ANTONYM: (adj) backsliding, demoralization; (n) damaging, injurious, harmful,
uninterested depravity, pollution noxious, disadvantageous, adverse,
possessions: (n) means, belongings, pray: (v) beg, implore, entreat, crave, mischievous, prejudicious, noisome.
assets, goods, property, effects, invite, plead, beseech, appeal, ANTONYMS: (adj) beneficial,
wealth, gear, things, possession, importune, adjure, invoke. helpful
riches ANTONYM: (v) reject prelate: (n) primate, clergyman, high
posterior: (adj, n) rear; (n) backside, preceding: (adj, adv) anterior, earlier; priest, archpriest, hierarch, reverend,
buttocks, bottom, behind, latter, (adj) foregoing, former, previous, archbishop, minister, diocesan,
rump, can; (adj) later, following, prior, past, precedent, prevenient; usher, reverence
subsequent. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adv) forward; (prep) before. prescribed: (adj) set, appointed,
anterior, forward, front, previous, ANTONYMS: (adj) following, formal, official, positive, decreed,
earlier succeeding, next, present rigid, definite, fixed, obstinate, legal.
posteriors: (n) buttock, croup, rump, precept: (n) canon, decree, command, ANTONYM: (adj) informal
tail, loin, dorsum, breech, backside mandate, charge, lesson, injunction, prescription: (n) medicine, drug,
scut law, commandment, principle; (adj, formula, direction, medication,
posterity: (n) race, descendants, issue, n) rule appointment, recipe; (n, v) order,
offspring, descendant, future, precincts: (n) entourage, arena, command; (adj, n) rule, precept
generation, progeny, breed, outskirts, neighbourhood, walk, presenting: (adj) featuring
descendent, spat neighborhood, proximity, presently: (adv) instantly, directly,
postillion: (n) equestrian, horseback surroundings, vicinity, limitations, currently, before long, shortly, soon,
rider, horseman suburbs now, at present, readily, just,
posture: (n) attitude, condition, precipice: (n) abyss, chasm, actually. ANTONYMS: (adv) later,
stance, deportment, aspect, escarpment, gulf, steep, crag, verge, now, formerly
circumstance, manner, figure, mien; brink, abysm, ravine, drop preservation: (n) maintenance,
(n, v) pose, place precipitancy: (n) haste, temerity, keeping, protection, retention,
potent: (adj) forcible, influential, hastiness, rashness, hurriedness, custody, storage, upkeep, care,
forceful, cogent, hard, mighty, abruptness, indiscretion, embalmment, saving, conservancy.
persuasive, strong, efficacious; (adj, inconsideration, precipitation, ANTONYMS: (n) release, extinction,
n) effective, effectual. ANTONYMS: brusqueness; (adj, n) precipitousness abandonment, change, end, neglect
(adj) impotent, ineffective, predecessor: (n) forefather, preserved: (adj) kept, conserved,
insignificant forerunner, ancestor, antecedent, whole, pickled, condite, safe.
potion: (n) drink, beverage, medicine, father, antecessor, precedent, ANTONYM: (adj) fresh
draft, elixir, dose, dram, philter; (n, forebear, former, primogenitor; (adj, preserving: (n) conservation,
v) swill, essence; (v) drench n) elder. ANTONYMS: (n) successor, preservation, protection,
pouch: (n, v) bag; (n) pocket, poke, descendant conservancy, embalmment, fixation;
mailbag, sac, pod, purse, sack, predicted: (adj) foreseen, expected, (adj) saving, frugal, economical,
bladder; (v) bulk, bulge known beforehand protective, thrifty
poured: (adj) concrete preface: (n, v) prelude, preamble, preside: (v) manage, lead, conduct,
powder: (n, v) dust; (v) grind, crush, proem; (n) beginning, introduction, command, control, direct, rule,
pound, comminute, pulverize, preliminary, exordium, overture; (v) moderate, guide, chair, preside over
sprinkle, pulverise; (n) gunpowder, introduce, precede, premise. presiding: (adj) president, dominant,
pollen, explosive ANTONYMS: (n) addendum, administrative
practise: (v) execute, practice, conclusion, postscript presume: (v) dare, consider, believe,
think, infer, guess, expect, esteem, imprint, typography, publication, prodigy: (n) marvel, miracle, wonder,
conclude, suppose, conjecture. mackle genius, portent, phenomenon,
ANTONYMS: (v) appreciate, privately: (adv) covertly, privily, wonder child, astonishment, wizard,
despair, speculate confidentially, personally, closely, surprise; (adj, n) monster
presumed: (adj) supposed, reputed, stealthily, secludedly, domestically, profane: (v) desecrate, abuse, violate,
putative, understood, alleged, informally, retiredly; (adj, adv) defile, outrage, debauch; (adj)
probable, theoretical quietly. ANTONYMS: (adv) irreverent, impious, sacrilegious,
presumptuous: (adj) arrogant, publicly, officially unholy; (adj, v) foul. ANTONYMS:
audacious, forward, assuming, privileges: (n) human rights, rights, (adj) devout, sacred, moral, religious,
insolent, impertinent, assumptive, openness, license, liberty, liberality, reverent
familiar, haughty, proud; (adj, n) independence, civil liberties, professed: (adj) alleged, declared,
bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectful, immunities, constitutional rights, apparent, avowed, pretended,
shy, timid, humble, modest generosity seeming, supposed, affected,
pretence: (n) deceit, pretext, privy: (adj) confidential, covert, feigned, so-called, purported
dissimulation, pretense, affectation, personal, clandestine, ulterior, professing: (n) avowal, profession,
falsehood, deception, hypocrisy, occult, latent, secret; (n) outhouse, community
bluff, appearance, pretension lavatory, loo professors: (n) faculty
pretend: (adv, v) assume; (adj, v) probable: (adj) likely, plausible, proficiency: (n) ability, expertise,
sham, counterfeit, fake, play; (v) possible, potential, presumable, capability, dexterity, competence,
dissimulate, dissemble, make feasible, hopeful, convincing, efficiency, knowledge, expertness,
believe, imagine, affect, act. believable, to be expected, specious. skill, facility, craft. ANTONYMS: (n)
ANTONYMS: (adj, v) real; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) improbable, inability, inexperience
genuine, natural, sincere implausible, unbelievable profitable: (adj) helpful, beneficial,
pretended: (adj, v) sham, mock, problematical: (adj) knotty, fruitful, advantageous, good,
counterfeit, pseudo, spurious; (adj) questionable, debatable, doubtful, lucrative, useful, gainful, desirable,
assumed, fake, feigned, fictitious, difficult, disputable, uncertain, fat, valuable. ANTONYMS: (adj)
bogus, affected convoluted, baffling; (v) enigmatic, dependent, disadvantageous,
pretending: (n, v) pretense; (n) apocryphal. ANTONYMS: (adj) easy, unhelpful, fruitless
affectation, appearance, acting, uncomplicated profound: (adj) abstruse, intense,
pretence, mannerism, dissembling, proceeded: (v) proceed, yode heavy, important, sound, bottomless,
pretension, deception, deceit; (adv) proceeding: (n) matter, transaction, grave, obscure, utter, abysmal; (adj,
pretendingly affair, procedure, lawsuit, v) solid. ANTONYMS: (adj) shallow,
pretensions: (n) airs, affected manner, proceedings; (v) deed, act; (n, v) trivial, lightweight, stupid, simple,
mannerism measure; (adv, n) happening; (adj, mild, facile, slight, insignificant,
prevail: (n, v) triumph, control, adv, v) going on prosaic
govern; (v) dominate, overcome, proceeds: (n) return, take, earnings, profusion: (n) opulence, abundance,
outweigh, obtain, persist, carry, gain, issue, revenue, emolument, prodigality, plenty, excess,
vanquish; (adj) preponderate. receipts, profit, yield, takings. cornucopia, plenitude, profuseness,
ANTONYM: (v) lose ANTONYMS: (n) loss, expenditure copiousness, exuberance; (adj)
prevailing: (adj) prevalent, rife, proclamation: (n) announcement, amplitude. ANTONYMS: (n)
dominant, common, current, decree, edict, annunciation, notice, insufficiency, scarcity
overriding, popular, general, statement, promulgation, report, projecting: (adj) projected,
influential, epidemic, powerful. publication, manifesto, propagation protruding, jutting, protrusive,
ANTONYMS: (adj) insignificant, procure: (v) get, obtain, buy, earn, pendent; (adj, v) overhanging,
rare, unusual win, gain, have, purchase, induce, jutting over, salient; (v) beetling,
priesthood: (n) ministry, apostleship, derive, find. ANTONYM: (v) give protuberant, convex
clericals, profession, the desk, the procurement: (n, v) procuration; (n) projector: (n) designer, searchlight,
cloth, church government, clerical, acquisition, procurance, procural, schemer, film projector, overhead
community, hierarch, presbytery acquirement, provision, obtainment, projector, planner, slide projector,
primitive: (adj, v) primeval, primary; attainment, agency, inducement magic lantern, movie projector,
(adj) original, archaic, crude, first, prodigious: (adj) gigantic, enormous, optical device; (v) promoter
early, antediluvian, aboriginal, huge, phenomenal, portentous, prominence: (n) eminence, hump,
primordial, primal. ANTONYMS: stupendous, exceptional, colossal, importance, height, consequence,
(adj) civilized, recent, complicated, immense, gargantuan; (adj, v) projection, distinction, bulge,
factual, advanced monstrous. ANTONYMS: (adj) celebrity, fame, moment.
principally: (adv) mainly, primarily, unexceptional, normal, average, tiny, ANTONYMS: (n) valley,
especially, predominantly, weak commonness, insignificance
particularly, above all, mostly, prodigiously: (adv) astonishingly, prompted: (adj) impelled, driven,
largely, in the main, masterly, enormously, immensely, vastly, encouraged, provoked, pressed; (n)
essentially marvelously, exceptionally, contumely, abuse, discussions,
printing: (n) print, impression, issue, colossally, largely, wonderfully, dictated, insult, invective
edition, press, letterpress, type, hugely, tremendously pronounce: (v) articulate, declare,
Jonathan Swift 369
affirm, say, assert, express, vocalize, whore, tart; (adj, v) pervert; (v) deliberate, advisable, canny.
proclaim; (n, v) allege; (adj, v) profane, abuse ANTONYMS: (adj) imprudent,
deliver, utter. ANTONYM: (v) prostrate: (adj, v) prone, exhaust, reckless, spendthrift, stupid, careless,
mumble level, fatigue; (v) fell, overwhelm, unwise, unsafe, tactless
pronounced: (adj) clear, emphatic, overcome, floor, overthrow; (adj) publish: (adj, v) disclose, announce,
distinct, prominent, notable, obvious, deject, knock down. ANTONYM: communicate; (v) proclaim, divulge,
salient, evident, definite, bold, (adj) upright issue, circulate, notify, broadcast,
palpable. ANTONYMS: (adj) faint, protector: (n) guard, guardian, patron, print, advertise
inconspicuous, indefinite, loose, champion, custodian, conservator, publisher: (n) newspaper, paper,
slight, small escort, hero, paladin, supporter, bookseller, newspaper publisher,
pronouncing: (v) pronounce; (n) benefactor magazine, press, editor, papers,
pronunciation, utterance protesting: (adj) disinclined, press Lord, professional, firm
propagate: (v) disseminate, spread, opposed; (n) clamor pudding: (n) dessert, sweet, duff,
disperse, procreate, distribute, breed, proverb: (n) adage, byword, flummery, custard; (adj) pap, jam,
broadcast, diffuse, beget, produce, aphorism, dictum, saying, axiom, curd, clay, butter, dough
sow parable, motto, expression; (n, v) puissant: (adj) powerful, mighty,
propagating: (adj) fecund, fruitful maxim, saw forcible, hard, robust, vigorous,
propensity: (n) proclivity, leaning, providence: (n) forethought, fortune, strong, stout, efficacious,
disposition, bias, bent, aptitude, fate, discretion, God, destiny, care, adamantine, cogent
aptness, proneness, predisposition, economy, caution, precaution, pumpkin: (n) Autumn pumpkin,
predilection, penchant. ANTONYM: chance. ANTONYM: (n) vegetable, veggie, squash, gourd,
(n) inability improvidence head, punkin, pumpion, pumpkin
prophet: (n) augur, oracle, vaticinator, provinces: (n) distance vine
seer, predictor, diviner, forecaster, proving: (adj) furnishing evidence, punish: (v) amerce, discipline,
visionary, foreteller, priest, asserting, evidential, evidentiary; (n) castigate, chasten, chastise, penalize,
clairvoyant authentication, confirmation, contest, strike, avenge, pay, beat, execute.
proportionable: (v) proportional; determination, documentation, ANTONYMS: (v) excuse, exonerate,
(adj) metely finding, monetisation pardon, reward, commend
proportioned: (adj) attemperate, provocation: (n) challenge, puppy: (n) pup, cub, youth, doggy,
shapely, regular, properly adapted, aggravation, exasperation, whelp, younker, dog, brat, child,
even, balanced. ANTONYM: (adj) incitement, instigation, annoyance, youngster, frankfurter
asymmetrical excitement, stimulation, affront, purchased: (adj) boughten, not
proposing: (adj) prosy, proponent, incentive, defiance. ANTONYMS: homemade; (prep) bribed
making proposals (n) conciliation, arbitration, purge: (v) clean, expurgate, eradicate,
proposition: (n, v) offer, bid, proffer; deterrent, disincentive, pleasure clear, scour, remove, purify, make
(n) proposal, motion, design, provocative: (n) incentive, stimulus, clean, liquidate; (n) catharsis,
approach, assertion, suggestion, goad, fillip, irritant; (adj) exciting, purification. ANTONYMS: (n, v)
plan, premise irritating, stimulating, defiant, binge; (v) rehabilitate, castigate
proprietor: (n) possessor, manager, incendiary, provoking. purring: (adj) whining, humming; (n)
landlord, holder, host, keeper, ANTONYMS: (adj) conciliatory, drone
master, employer, patron, modest, calming, unprovocative, purse: (n) bag, pouch, money,
proprietress, proprietary soothing, dull, courteous handbag, sac, currency, pocketbook,
prose: (n) style, writing, euphuism, provoked: (adj, prep) exasperated, pelf; (v) wrinkle, pucker, crease
commonplace, prose writer, rap; inflamed; (adj) irritated, aggravated, pursuant: (adj) agreeable
(adj) prosaic, maunder, palaver, infuriated, indignant, irate, huffy, pursued: (n) hunted person
prate, prosy. ANTONYMS: (n) hot, excited; (adv) up in arms. pursuing: (n) pursuit, search, hunt;
poetry, verse ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, gratuitous, (adj) coming, engaged
prosperity: (n) affluence, wealth, pleased pursuit: (n) quest, hunt, search,
success, flourish, good fortune, prow: (n) bow, stem, fore, beak, nose, persecution, chase, career, interest,
fortune, welfare, opulence, obeisance, forepart, curtain call, job, business, performance,
abundance, good, prosperousness. bowknot, bowing, arc employment
ANTONYMS: (n) failure, prudence: (n) foresight, economy, purulent: (adj) pussy, infected,
fruitlessness, hardship, insufficiency frugality, caution, care, forethought, pyogenic, mattery, septic,
prosperous: (adj, n) lucky, auspicious, providence, circumspection, suppurative, peccant, foul, rotten,
fortunate; (adj) flourishing, judgment, deliberation; (adj, n) fetid, dirty
favorable, opulent, easy, wisdom. ANTONYMS: (n) pyramids: (n) billiards, pingpong,
comfortable, affluent, advantageous, imprudence, profligacy, generosity, pool, bagatelle, jackstones, pushball,
successful. ANTONYMS: (adj) hindsight, recklessness, hopscotch
depressed, unsuccessful, failing, extravagance quadrangular: (adj) square,
underprivileged, impoverished prudent: (adj, v) discreet; (adj) tetragonal
prostitute: (n) courtesan, harlot, cautious, circumspect, reasonable, quadrant: (n) quarter, sector, sextant,
bawd, hooker, fancy woman, cocotte, chary, economical, careful, frugal, right angle, measuring instrument,
line, intermediate gear bracket, quiver: (adj, n, v) shudder, shiver, rapine: (n) rape, plunder, pillage,
measuring system, a quarter of a tremble, shake; (v) flicker, flutter, brigandage, robbery, pillaging,
period, angular unit, area vibrate; (n, v) palpitate, quaver; (n) despoliation, rapacity, raven,
quadruped: (n) beast, tetrapod, vibration, tremor despoilment; (v) razzia
mollusk, insect, mammal, creature, rabbit: (n) cony, hare, lapin, bunny, rapt: (adj) engrossed, intent, ecstatic,
biped; (adj) quadrupedal. cottontail, leporide, shuttle, coward; preoccupied, spellbound, captive,
ANTONYM: (adj) bipedal (adj) milch cow, seed plot, warren enthralled, attentive, fixed,
qualify: (v) prepare, moderate, rabbits: (n) order Lagomorpha, pikas, enwrapped; (v) engrossed in.
designate, characterize, capacitate, Lagomorpha ANTONYMS: (adj) detached,
confine, define, determine, limit, rabble: (n) crowd, masses, trash, herd, inattentive, uninterested, bored
condition, narrow. ANTONYM: (v) canaille, people, rout, ragtag, horde, rapture: (n) joy, bliss, delight,
fail gang, riffraff happiness, exaltation, elation,
qualifying: (n) modification, passing, races: (n) racing, athletics exultation, enchantment; (adj, n)
apposition, alteration, base on balls, rack: (n, v) torment, wrack, Scud; (n) enthusiasm; (n, v) transport; (adj, n,
adjustment, mountain pass; (adj, n) manger, grid, cage, bracket, stand; v) passion. ANTONYMS: (n)
limiting; (adj) corrective, (v) excruciate, afflict, agonize indifference, boredom, misery,
appositional, appositive raffle: (v) raffle off, shuffle the cards, gloom, agony, hell, despair
quantum: (n) measure, magnitude, pillage, set on a cast, grove, channel; rarity: (n) rareness, curiosity,
quantity, volume, number, mass, (n) lottery, draw, sweepstake, game infrequency, curio, peculiarity,
measurement, sum, total, size, of chance, gamble dearth, scarcity, tenuity, paucity,
amplitude rage: (adj, n, v) fume, bluster; (adj, n) scarceness, antique. ANTONYM: (n)
quarrel: (adj, n, v) dispute; (n, v) fight, wrath, indignation, frenzy, mania; frequency
feud, brawl, row, altercation, argue, (n) passion, anger, craze, rascal: (n) villain, rapscallion,
conflict, squabble; (n) dissension, exasperation; (n, v) storm. monkey, miscreant, knave,
difference. ANTONYMS: (n) ANTONYMS: (n) gentleness, scoundrel, scamp, rogue, varlet,
agreement, reconciliation, composure, calm, equanimity, vagabond, brat
acceptance, concord, consensus; (v) pleasure, serenity rashness: (n) temerity, precipitation,
agree ragged: (adj, n) shabby; (adj) seedy, recklessness, hastiness, imprudence,
quarrelling: (adj) at variance, in worn, hoarse, jagged, scruffy, torn, heedlessness, folly, precipitancy,
dispute, in disagreement, in conflict; untidy, unkempt; (adj, v) indiscretion, carelessness,
(n) dissension threadbare; (n) harsh. ANTONYMS: adventurism. ANTONYMS: (n)
quarrelsome: (adj) argumentative, (adj) smart, elegant, smooth, new, caution, consideration, deliberation,
belligerent, combative, cantankerous, even patience, discretion, carefulness,
aggressive, disputatious, ugly, rags: (adj) refuse, rubble, scourings, forethought
currish, termagant; (adj, n) sweepings, trash, waste; (n) clothing, rated: (adj) specified
contentious; (adj, v) fretful. tatter, orts, odds and ends, dress rats: (n) mice, vermin, Rodentia,
ANTONYMS: (adj) agreeable, railing: (n) balustrade, rail, barrier, guinea pigs, agoutis, beavers, pests,
peaceful, amiable guardrail, banister, fence, pale, gophers, order Rodentia, hamsters,
quarry: (n) prey, game, pit, target, paling, breastwork, handrail; (adj, n) marmots
stone pit, victim, fair game, lode, invective rattle: (n, v) jingle, jangle, clatter; (n)
butt; (n, v) dig; (v) excavate raillery: (n) mockery, joke, irony, click, clang, clack; (v) bang, confuse,
quart: (n) quartile, quartic, quiz, persiflage, derision, ridicule, shake, patter, disconcert
quartilunar, quartole, quartlet, pleasantry, tease, jest, badinage ravenous: (adj) hungry, greedy, avid,
quarts, quarto, quarter rains: (n) wet famished, gluttonous, voracious,
quasi: (adv) nearly, almost, partly, rally: (n) assembly, convention; (n, v) rapacious, insatiable, edacious,
practically, just as; (adj) mock, muster; (v) pick up, gather, banter, covetous, predatory. ANTONYM:
ostensible, similar, pseudo; (n) semi convene, congregate, assemble, meet, (adj) moderate
quelled: (adj) quenched, allayed, tease. ANTONYMS: (v) demobilize, raving: (adj, v) wild; (adj) frantic,
extinguished, extinct disband, wilt, part, disperse, decline; delirious, furious, mad, insane; (adj,
quench: (adj, v) extinguish, allay, (n) slump n) madness, distraction, rage; (n)
slake; (v) appease, quash, put out, ramus: (n) branch rabid, delirium
destroy, assuage, annihilate, calm, rancid: (adj) putrid, sour, high, rank, ravishing: (adj, n) rapturous, ecstatic;
chill. ANTONYMS: (v) stimulate, fetid, stale, rotten; (adj, v) musty, (adj) beautiful, gorgeous, charming,
light decayed, moldy, tainted fascinating, enchanting, delightful,
quilt: (n) blanket, comforter, duvet, ranked: (adj) stratified, hierarchal, stunning, irresistible, heavenly
bedding, cover, bedspread, graveled, hierarchical, bedded, rays: (n) light, sunlight, Selachii,
counterpane, quilting, eiderdown, hierarchic dogfishes, elasmobranch,
sheet; (adj, v) embroider ranting: (n) rant, harangue, Elasmobranchii, emission, daylight,
quilted: (adj) thick declamation, tirade, nonsense, sunshine, selachian, subclass
quilting: (n) stitch, textile, padding, screed, claptrap, bombast; (adj) Elasmobranchii
filler, batt, batting, cloth, fabric, inflated, vociferous, bombastic. razor: (adj, n) straight razor; (adj)
filling, material, embroidery ANTONYM: (adj) calm knife, cutlery, edge tool, penknife;
Jonathan Swift 371
(n) electric razor, shaver, safety make up, propitiate. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) elegance. ANTONYMS: (n)
razor, electric shaver, rasour; (v) (v) alienate, estrange, provoke, vulgarity, adulteration, tackiness,
epilate quarrel, segregate, worsen uncouthness, tastelessness,
reaches: (n) recess reconciled: (adj) consistent, resigned, inelegance, coarseness, clumsiness,
readiness: (n) facility, ease, serene, meet; (v) made friends, awkwardness, crudeness
expedition, preparation, promptness, affriended. ANTONYM: (adj) reflecting: (adv) reflectingly; (adj)
knack, dexterity, eagerness, unreconciled reflective, thoughtful, calculating,
quickness, fitness; (adj, n) alacrity. reconcilement: (v) agreement, reflected, shiny, shimmering,
ANTONYMS: (n) reluctance, delay accordment; (n) rapprochement, reflectent; (n) mirroring, reflection,
realm: (n) area, domain, field, accommodation, propitiation, reflexion
country, region, nation, department, mediation, atonement, appeasement, refresh: (v) air, enliven, invigorate,
arena, land, empire, ground pacification, reconciliation statement, update, comfort, regenerate,
reap: (v) harvest, gain, glean, gather, expiation rejuvenate, cool, renew, restore;
obtain, cut, receive, earn, acquire; recounting: (n) narration, relation, (adj) refreshing. ANTONYMS: (v)
(adj, v) mow; (adj) clip. recital, narrative, tale, story, exhaust, tire, weary, stagnate, drain,
ANTONYMS: (v) lose, scatter notification, practice, recitation, kill
reasoning: (n) argumentation, relating, unfolding refreshed: (adj) invigorated,
deduction, ratiocination, illation, recovering: (v) recover, regain, rejuvenated, reinvigorated, new,
logic, argument, abstract thought, restore; (adj) better; (n) novel, revived, impudent,
sense, judgment, thought; (adj) rehabilitation, recovery, rescue, energizing, overbold, energising,
rational relaxation; (adv) getting better, on clean. ANTONYM: (adj) tired
rebellion: (n) revolt, insurrection, the road to recovery, improving refreshment: (n) bite, drink,
mutiny, disobedience, uprising, recruits: (n) human resources, recreation, collation, repose, relief,
unrest, revolution, outbreak, employees, people, reinforcements, rest, entertainment, treat; (v)
defiance, insurgency, commotion. staff, workers, personnel, supplies, invigoration; (n, v) regalement
ANTONYMS: (n) consent, succors, reenforcements refuge: (n) sanctuary, asylum, safety,
compliance redound: (v) tend, conduce, reflect, retreat, cover, harborage, haven,
rebellious: (adj) insubordinate, dominate, accrue, bear on, prevail, shelter, harbor; (n, v) recourse,
mutinous, disaffected, defiant, bear upon; (adj) conducive; (n, v) resort
disobedient, contrary, contumacious, result regimen: (n) government, diet,
insurgent, stubborn, unruly, redundant: (adj) superfluous, treatment, cure, rule, medical
malcontent. ANTONYMS: (adj) excessive, extra, prolix, unnecessary, treatment, plan, regiment, system,
docile, conventional, obedient, excess, pleonastic, surplus, spare, conduct, watching one's weight
conformist, content, conforming, wordy, additional. ANTONYMS: regiment: (n) corps, battalion, legion,
cooperative, loyal, meek, submissive, (adj) necessary, essential, current, host, brigade, division, multitude,
obliging basic, working cohort; (v) control, organize,
rebuild: (v) restore, repair, mend, reed: (adj) thread, rope of sand; (n) regulate
rehabilitate, rebuilding, renew, triangle, surgeon, xylophone, regret: (n, v) grieve, sorrow; (v)
renovate, reform, fix, do up, heal woodwind, tuning fork, sawbones, bewail, lament, mourn, bemoan,
recapitulate: (v) repeat, sum up, arrow, pipe, dart deplore; (n) remorse, penitence,
enumerate, reiterate, resume, reeking: (adj) dripping, overly compunction, contrition.
summarize, narrate, recite, brief, diluted, odorous, noisome, high, ANTONYMS: (v) welcome, praise;
restate, reword fetid, stale; (v) sloppy, soft, soaking, (n) idealism, shamelessness, joy,
reckoning: (n) calculation, sodden satisfaction
computation, bill, score, computing, reel: (n, v) coil, roll; (v) waver, rock, regularity: (n) constancy, evenness,
liquidation, clearance; (n, v) count, stagger, totter, spin, teeter, falter; (n) punctuality, orderliness, uniformity,
enumeration, account, estimation bobbin, spool steadiness, method, accuracy,
recluse: (n) hermit, anchoret, solitary, refine: (v) cultivate, clear, polish, discipline, system, exactness.
ascetic, eremite, loner, troglodyte; purify, civilize, elaborate, improve, ANTONYMS: (n) lateness,
(adj) reclusive, secluded, cloistered, smelt, chasten; (adj, v) clarify; (adj) asymmetry, irregularity, disorder,
withdrawn. ANTONYM: (n) native purge. ANTONYMS: (v) spoil, cloud, variability, variety, abnormality
recollections: (n) memories, dilute, contaminate, brutalize reigning: (adj) regnant, predominant,
reminiscences, recollection, refined: (adj) delicate, cultured, overruling, reign, sovereign,
biography graceful, polite, gentle, urbane, controlling, royal, dominant,
recommendation: (n) commendation, courteous, courtly, cultivated; (adj, ascendant, prevalent, chief
suggestion, advice, counsel, n) polished, pure. ANTONYMS: reject: (v) deny, decline, disapprove,
advocacy, reference, approval, (adj) unrefined, raw, uncouth, rough, eliminate, dismiss, exclude, rebuff,
proposal, admonition, endorsement, careless, crude, brute, boorish, plain, discard, repel, ignore; (n) cull.
character lowly, inelegant ANTONYMS: (v) approve, choose,
reconcile: (adj, v) conciliate, accord, refinement: (n) culture, cultivation, select, grant, acknowledge, agree,
harmonize; (v) accommodate, pacify, purification, gentility, polish, finish, pass, welcome, propose, prefer,
placate, mediate, adjust, harmonise, civilization, nicety, courtesy, grace; keep
rejects: (adj) culls; (n) castoffs depiction, execution, construction, recruit, fill up, make good, refresh,
relapsing: (n) backsliding, lapse, explanation furnish, supply, fill again; (adj) load,
lapsing, recidivism, regress, atavism, renewed: (adj) changed, born again, charge. ANTONYM: (v) deplete
failure, oversight, reversion, new, fresh, redintegrate, repletion: (n) satiety, surfeit, glut,
regression, reverting rehabilitated, transformed, satisfaction, excess, plethora,
relaxing: (v) relax; (adj) soothing, regenerate, reformed, Renate satiation, saturation, plenitude,
restful, comfortable, gentle, renounce: (v) abandon, abdicate, suffusion, impletion
assuasive, clement, comforting; (n) abjure, relinquish, desert, reject, give repository: (n) depository, receptacle,
repose, detent, quieter. up, disown, deny, quit, forgo. storehouse, storage, cache, repertory,
ANTONYMS: (adj) stressful, trying, ANTONYMS: (v) acknowledge, deposit, treasury, store, arsenal; (adj,
uncomfortable, invigorating, reassert, assert, continue, retain, n) magazine
irritating, rushed, troubled, tense, persist reprimanded: (adj) reproved,
stimulating, noisy renown: (n, v) fame; (n) glory, admonished, chastened
relieve: (n, v) ease, assuage, mitigate, distinction, eminence, notoriety, reproach: (n, v) blame, rebuke, charge,
alleviate, allay, calm, redress; (v) kudos, name, popularity, prestige, abuse, disgrace, reprimand,
free, help, console, excuse. prominence, honor. ANTONYMS: invective; (v) accuse, chide,
ANTONYMS: (v) burden, aggravate, (n) infamy, commonness; (adj) condemn; (n) condemnation.
exacerbate, harbor, enforce, include, anonymity ANTONYMS: (n, v) praise; (v)
upset, depress renowned: (adj, n) illustrious, commend, approve; (n) compliment,
relieved: (adj) alleviated, thankful, glorious; (adj) famous, famed, commendation, approval
mitigated, prominent, pleased, notable, noted, eminent, reprobate: (adj, n) profligate,
joyful, fresh, delighted, comfortable, distinguished, great, notorious, miscreant; (adj) depraved, immoral,
cheerful, happy. ANTONYM: (adj) well-known. ANTONYMS: (adj) corrupt, dissolute; (v) censure,
worried obscure, anonymous, condemn, reproach; (adj, v)
relish: (n, v) enjoy, fancy, love; (n) undistinguished perverted; (n) scoundrel
gusto, liking, palate, enthusiasm, repaired: (adj) reconditioned, repulsive: (adj) offensive, detestable,
enjoyment; (adj, n) flavor; (v) bask, maintained, mended, fastened, ugly, disagreeable, nauseous,
like. ANTONYM: (n) apathy serviced, intent, frozen, flat, hideous, loathsome, abhorrent; (adj,
reluctance: (n) aversion, hesitation, serviceable v) abominable, hateful, obnoxious.
indisposition, distaste, disgust, repairing: (n) repair, adjustment; ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant,
dislike, opposition, unwillingness, (adj) remedial delightful, desirable, reputable,
repugnance, diffidence, scruple. repast: (n) feast, food, banquet, lovely, lovable, humane, appealing,
ANTONYMS: (n) readiness, dinner, lunch, refection, collation, laudable
disposition, keenness, willingness, luncheon, spread, potluck, eating requested: (adj) demanded
enthusiasm repeating: (n) repeat, iteration, requiring: (v) require; (adv)
reluctancy: (n) distaste, loathing, renewal, repetition, redundancy, demandingly; (adj) demanding,
aversion, disgust, dislike, copying, reduplication; (adj) pressing
abomination, revulsion, repugnance, repetitious, iterating, iterative, requisite: (n) need, necessity,
unwillingness, scruple, dread repetitive requirement, must; (adj, n)
remark: (n, v) comment, notice, note, repelling: (adj) offensive, repellant, necessary, prerequisite; (adj)
mention, regard, mind; (adj, n, v) repellent, loathsome, disgusting, required, mandatory, needful,
observe; (v) perceive, mark, discern; repel, severe, repulsion, powerful, compulsory, obligatory.
(n) observation wicked, yucky ANTONYMS: (adj) voluntary,
remembering: (n) recollection, recall, repent: (v) deplore, bewail, rue, optional, dispensable; (n) inessential,
memory, identification, recognition, mourn, lament, atone, sorry, luxury
remember, association, connection, bemoan, feel remorse, grieve, be requite: (adj, v) pay, gratify, satisfy;
connexion, reminiscence, sorry (v) recompense, reciprocate,
remembrance repetition: (n) gemination, reiteration, compensate, reward, remunerate,
remembrance: (n, v) recollection, recurrence, replication, iteration, reimburse, return, refund
mind; (n) commemoration, return, repeating, renewal, resemblance: (n) affinity, parallel,
memorial, recall, relic, monument, duplication, rehearsal, reduplication. similarity, comparison,
keepsake, reminiscence, recognition; ANTONYM: (n) disappearance correspondence, likeness,
(adj, n) memento repetitions: (n) iteration, reiteration, conformity, appearance, analogy,
remotest: (adj) furthest, uttermost, iterance semblance, resemble. ANTONYMS:
endmost, extreme, last, utmost repine: (v) kick, grumble, regret, (n) dissimilarity, contrast
removing: (adj) departing quetch, murmur, brood, mourn, resemble: (v) seem, imitate, compare,
render: (v) interpret, explain, give, languish, whine, lament; (n) sink correspond, to resemble, agree, look,
offer, furnish, pay, construe, return, repining: (n) regret, plaintive, simulate; (adj) look like; (n)
provide, impart, translate lamenting, mourning, grief, resemblance; (adv) alike
rendering: (n) interpretation, mournful; (v) taking on; (adj) resembling: (adj, prep) like; (adj)
translation, rendition, reading, regretful analogous, parallel, similar,
representation, version, interpreting, replenish: (adj, v) fill; (v) refill, conformable, approximate,
Jonathan Swift 373
semblative, other, probable; (prep) (v) abandon, suspend, die, gratifying, pleasing, beneficial,
similar to, reminiscent of. discontinue, expand fulfilling, successful, productive,
ANTONYM: (prep) unlike resurrection: (n) renewal, rebirth, remunerative, gainful,
resent: (v) resentful, envy, grudge, revival, regeneration, restoration, advantageous, fruitful.
begrudge, embittered, angry, abhor, resurgence, reanimation, restitution, ANTONYMS: (adj) unrewarding,
take offense, take umbrage, take renaissance, resumption, unprofitable, disappointing, fruitless,
exception, loathe. ANTONYMS: (v) resuscitation. ANTONYM: (n) frustrating, unhelpful
welcome, wish, accept disappearance rewards: (n) booty, loot
resentment: (n) grudge, displeasure, retinue: (n) court, entourage, riches: (n, v) money; (n) affluence,
indignation, anger, ill will, rancor, following, suite, cortege, escort, abundance, fortune, opulence,
umbrage, rage, envy, grievance, company, equipage; (n, v) train, plenty, prosperity, exuberance,
passion. ANTONYMS: (n) attendance; (v) attendants treasure, resources; (v) gold
friendliness, happiness, contentment, retire: (v) resign, retreat, withdraw, rickety: (adj) unstable, wobbly,
calm leave, abdicate, ebb, depart, turn in, decrepit, dilapidated, insecure,
reserved: (adj, n) cold, distant, frigid; fall back, hit the hay, go to bed. ramshackle, rachitic, flimsy,
(adj) coy, reticent, diffident, bashful, ANTONYMS: (v) remain, enter precarious, cranky, wonky.
aloof, retiring, quiet, shy. retreat: (v) retire, withdraw, depart; ANTONYMS: (adj) stable, sturdy,
ANTONYMS: (adj) open, (n) refuge, departure, asylum, den, firm, secure
forthcoming, uninhibited, relaxed, lair, retirement; (n, v) resort, return. rider: (n) horseman, appendix,
warm, communicative, talkative, ANTONYMS: (n) raid, development, passenger, equestrian, supplement,
free, definite, cordial, forward extension, arrival, company; (v) codicil, provision, clause, addition,
resolutely: (adv) determinedly, progress, remain condition, corollary
decidedly, steadfastly, decisively, retreated: (adj) withdrawn, people ridge: (n) ledge, bank, hill, shelf,
unfalteringly, boldly, steadily, revenge: (n) retribution, vengeance, dune, swelling, projection, ridgepole,
stubbornly, definitely, resolvedly, reprisal, retaliation, repayment, peak, ghat; (n, v) crease.
unwaveringly. ANTONYMS: (adv) grudge, punishment; (v) retaliate, ANTONYMS: (n) channel,
irresolutely, indecisively, repay, requite, vindicate depression, base
uncertainly, feebly, hesitantly, revengeful: (adj) vengeful, vindictive, ridicule: (n, v) laugh at, deride,
aimlessly punitive, unforgiving, vindicative, banter, insult, taunt, scorn, scoff; (n)
resolving: (n) factoring, resolve, resentful, despiteful, spiteful, derision, mockery; (adj, n) irony; (v)
settlement, solving, solution, implacable, rancorous, vengeable. jeer. ANTONYMS: (n, v) praise,
factorization, diagonalization, ANTONYM: (adj) charitable respect; (v) approve; (n) approval,
declaration, firmness, resoluteness; reverence: (n, v) respect, regard, fear, admiration
(v) solve worship, honor, esteem, adore; (n) rigging: (n) rig, tackle, apparatus,
respectful: (adj) deferential, deference, adoration, admiration, outfit, accouterment, trappings,
mannerly, dutiful, courteous, awe. ANTONYMS: (n) despise, harness, tackling, suit,
attentive, obedient, reverential, disrespect, irreverence, disdain, paraphernalia, caparison
regardful, reverent, polite, humble. disparagement, contempt; (v) rightly: (adv) correctly, rightfully,
ANTONYMS: (adj) cheeky, dishonor properly, accurately, appropriately,
impudent, insolent, rude, reverend: (n) preacher, clergyman, exactly, fitly, straightly, fairly, really;
contemptuous, disobedient, scornful, parson, rector, vicar, pastor, priest, (adv, v) adequately. ANTONYMS:
nasty, sneering, irreverent, impolite minister, churchman; (adj) (adv) wrongly, inappropriately,
respects: (adj) abord, welcome; (n) respectable, honourable incorrectly, immorally, unjustly,
compliments, greeting, compliment, revive: (v) refresh, invigorate, partially, sinfully, unfairly, falsely
baisemains, devoir, duty quicken, renew, renovate, restore, rigorous: (adj) rigid, precise, hard,
rested: (adj) comfortable resuscitate, animate, awake, repair, strict, austere, accurate, exacting,
restiff: (adj) resty recreate. ANTONYMS: (v) exact, cruel, stern, inflexible.
restive: (adj) obstinate, edgy, fidgety, demoralize, kill, slay, stagnate, ANTONYMS: (adj) lax, weak,
jittery, impatient, jumpy, intractable, abandon, die, drain slapdash, sloppy, sketchy, lenient,
restless, uptight, perverse; (adj, v) revived: (adj) fresh, refreshed, gentle, flexible, careless, halfhearted
skittish. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, animated, revitalized, alive, rings: (n) ornaments, necklaces,
patient invigorated, new jewels, costume jewelry, charms,
restless: (adj) fidgety, uneasy, revolve: (v) consider, meditate, bracelets
impatient, restive, agitated, fretful, deliberate, ponder, circle, rivulet: (n) stream, creek, streamlet,
turbulent, feverish; (adj, n) nervous, contemplate, return, circulate, orbit, brook, arroyo, brooklet, rillet, runnel,
apprehensive; (adj, v) unquiet. rotate; (n, v) gyrate watercourse, gill, river
ANTONYMS: (adj) relaxed, peaceful, rewarded: (v) crowned, honored, roar: (n, v) bellow, cry, shout, howl,
lethargic, unbroken, still, contented excessive, consummated; (adj) bark, clatter, holler; (adj, n, v)
resume: (v) restart, regain, salaried, pleased, paid, happy, thunder; (v) bawl; (adj, v) bluster;
summarize, continue, revert, adopt, satisfied, remunerated, content. (adj, n) peal. ANTONYMS: (v) cry,
recapitulate; (n, v) outline; (n) digest, ANTONYM: (adj) frustrated week
synopsis, summary. ANTONYMS: rewarding: (adj) worthwhile, roaring: (n) bellowing, roar, bellow,
thunder; (adj) booming, prosperous, putridness, corruptness, countrified. ANTONYMS: (adj)
thriving, flourishing, deafening, putrefaction, putridity, depravity, town, urbane, cultured, city,
noisy, boisterous degeneracy, filth, deterioration; (v) sophisticated
roast: (v) burn, grill, bake, joke, heat, moldiness sabbath: (n) day of rest, Saturday,
quiz, fry, cook, scorch; (n, v) rouse: (v) provoke, excite, arouse, vacation, recess, holiday, dies non,
ridicule; (n) joint. ANTONYMS: (v) kindle, awaken, instigate, actuate, Pentecost, sabbat
cool, praise disturb, move, agitate, incite. sackcloth: (n) bagging, bag cloth,
roasted: (adj) fried, baked ANTONYMS: (v) dampen, sacking, cloth, garment
robbery: (n) depredation, pillage, dishearten, suppress, douse, inhibit, sacred: (adj) holy, hallowed,
piracy, plunder, looting, burglary, stifle, quench dedicated, consecrated, divine,
theft, holdup, thieving, freebooting; roused: (adj) excited, awake, religious, pious, spiritual, inviolable,
(v) rob susceptible, emotional, elated, blessed; (adj, v) solemn.
robbing: (adj) freebooting, practicing interested ANTONYMS: (adj) profane,
freebootery; (n) theft rowing: (n) boating, athletics, dustup, unconsecrated, cursed, breakable
robinson: (n) jack Roosevelt quarrel, course; (adj) nautical saddle: (v) charge, load, burden,
Robinson, James Harvey Robinson, rubbed: (adj) polished, refined, terse, encumber, adjure, bear down,
Lennox Robinson, Ray Robinson, sir attrite, marked, accomplished, blame; (n) pillion, seat, saddleback,
Robert Robinson, walker smith, fretten bicycle seat. ANTONYM: (v) relieve
Esme Stuart Lennox Robinson, rude: (adj, n) rough, impudent, coarse, sagacity: (n, v) discernment,
Robert Robinson, Edwin Arlington abrupt, bold; (adj) blunt, judgment, penetration; (n)
Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Edward discourteous, impolite, brutal, crude, judiciousness, sense, prudence,
Goldenberg Robinson mean. ANTONYMS: (adj) polite, gumption, acumen, perspicacity;
robust: (adj, n) hardy, firm, hard; refined, courteous, chivalrous, civil, (adj, n) discretion, wisdom.
(adj) strong, athletic, vigorous, proper, decent, exact, clean, gentle, ANTONYM: (n) foolishness
powerful, muscular, brawny, lusty, inoffensive sail: (n, v) cruise, float, voyage, sheet;
mighty. ANTONYMS: (adj) slight, rudiments: (n) grammar, (v) navigate, run, glide, drift, cross,
fragile, frail, delicate, flimsy, feeble, fundamentals, elements, alphabet, sweep, travel. ANTONYM: (v)
fickle abecedary, primer, vade mecum, struggle
rocky: (adj) unstable, rough, shaky, bedrock, element, fundamental sailing: (adj) nautical, at sea; (adj, n)
craggy, stony, flinty, wobbly, principle, rudiment seafaring; (n) departure, glide,
difficult, unsteady, rugged, ruin: (n) devastation, desolation; (adj, gliding, boating, cruise, soaring,
obdurate. ANTONYMS: (adj) flat, n) downfall; (v) break, consume, going, leaving
flexible, solid, stable, easy, firm demolish, destroy; (n, v) doom, sailor: (n) seaman, seafarer, tar,
rogue: (n, v) rascal; (n) knave, imp, ravage, destruction, damage. bluejacket, gob, boatman, navigator,
miscreant, crook, cheat, impostor, ANTONYMS: (v) conserve, enhance, navy man, lascar, Panama, leghorn
swindler, cad, villain, scoundrel save, restore, improve; (n, v) respect; salisbury: (n) Fort Salisbury , capital
roguery: (n) rascality, (n) making, success, triumph, rise, of Zimbabwe, Harare
mischievousness, devilment, devilry, preservation saliva: (n) drivel, spittle, spit, dribble,
shenanigan, roguishness, deviltry, ruined: (adj, v) lost; (adj) dilapidated, drool, sputum, secretion, slabber,
maleficence, swindle, impishness; desolate, broke, broken, bankrupt, mucus, slaver, slobber
(adj) knavery finished, devastated, desolated, sallow: (adj) pasty, pallid, bloodless,
rolling: (n) peal, curling, wheeling, insolvent, spoiled. ANTONYMS: sickly, wan, ashen, fair, white,
rolling movement, finish rolling, (adj) solvent, pure, rich, whole tawny, sandy; (n) osier.
pealing, crimping; (adj) resounding, ruinous: (adj) harmful, baleful, ANTONYMS: (adj) dark, glowing
rolled, tumbling, resonating disastrous, calamitous, injurious, salutation: (n, v) salute; (n) reception,
romance: (n) love affair, fiction, story, deleterious, dilapidated, blasting, hail, hello, welcome, address,
figment, intrigue, affair, tale, vagary; baneful, pernicious; (adj, n) compliment, hullo, recognition,
(v) flirt, court, exaggerate subversive. ANTONYMS: (adj) interpellation, pax
rooted: (adj, v) fixed; (adj) ingrained, beneficial, fortunate, harmless salutations: (n) respects
immovable, inveterate, firm, set, ruins: (n) debris, wreck, remains, sanctity: (n) sanctitude, godliness,
frozen, riveted, irremovable; (v) remainder, carcass, wreckage, relics, sacredness, devotion, piety,
imbedded, posited rubbish, shell, remnants, hulk saintliness, purity, halidom,
ropes: (n) weight, pressure, leverage, rushing: (adv) rushingly; (n) haste, sanctimony, religion, innocence.
form, authority, dealings, control, hurry, hurrying, running, hastening, ANTONYM: (n) unholiness
influence flush, movement; (adj) flowing, sash: (n) girdle, cincture, band,
rotten: (adj, v) decayed, musty; (adj) headlong, moving cummerbund, baldric, framing,
foul, poor, fetid, lousy, putrid, off, ill, rust: (v) corrode, eat, oxidise, tarnish, waistband, framework, frame, fillet,
shabby, wretched. ANTONYMS: oxidize, gnaw; (n) decay, corrosion, fascia
(adj) fresh, superior, unrotten, good, fungus, oxidation; (adj) rusty sausages: (n) bond
incorruptible, honest, lovely, fair, rustic: (n) countryman, peasant; (adj) savage: (adj, v) fierce, wild, furious;
great, respectful rural, pastoral, boorish, country, (adj) ferocious, brutal, cruel,
rottenness: (n) decay, putrescence, bucolic, provincial, hick, agrestic, bloodthirsty, rough, pitiless; (adj, n)
Jonathan Swift 375
brute; (n) vandal. ANTONYMS: flagellate, castigate, punish; (n, v) ANTONYMS: (n, v) open; (v) unseal
(adj) civilized, gentle, nice whip sealed: (adj) hermetic, tight, certain,
saving: (adj, n) frugal, economical; scraping: (n) scrape, scratching, plastered, Solen, shut, impervious,
(adj) thrifty, save; (n) economy, scratch, rub, sizing, rament, incision, irrevocable, tighter, still, preserved
conservation, salvation, rescue, mark, prick; (v) rubbing; (adj) seaport: (n) harbor, harbour, port,
preservation, cut, retrenchment. grating port of call, docks, oasis, coaling
ANTONYMS: (n) extravagance, scraps: (n) garbage, odds and ends, station
expenditure; (adj) spendthrift scrap, bits, food waste, leftover, seaside: (adj, n) seaboard; (n) beach,
scabbard: (n) case, vagina, casing, trash, waste, oddments, leftovers, seashore, shore, coastline, sand, sea,
pod, covering, cover, pouch, pocket, residue seabeach; (adj) seacoast, coastal,
fob scratch: (n, v) mark, graze, notch, maritime
scaffold: (n) frame, scaffolding, scrape, nick, scrabble, dent, scar; (v) seasonable: (adj) timely, fit, well
framework, foundation, gallows, rub, chafe, rake. ANTONYM: (v) timed, favorable, timeful; (adj, n, v)
stand, transom, summer, trave, soothe appropriate; (adj, v) convenient; (adj,
Travis, stage scratching: (n) scrape, scraping, adv) early; (n) fit adapted, in loco, a
scalded: (adj) scorched, overcooked, abrasion, mark, scar, poor propos. ANTONYMS: (adj)
burnt. ANTONYM: (adj) underdone handwriting, incision, excoriation, untimely, unseasonable
scandal: (n) disgrace, dishonor, chicken feed; (adj) hoarse, abrasive seated: (adj) sat, sedentary
gossip, outrage, discredit, rumor, scream: (n, v) shout, call, howl, yell, secluded: (adj) remote, secret,
infamy, disrepute, ignominy, screech, shriek, wail; (v) cry out, reclusive, privy, cloistered, isolated,
detraction, shame roar, bellow, hollo. ANTONYM: (n) lonely, retired, sequestered, solitary;
scandalous: (adj) infamous, bore (adj, v) hidden. ANTONYMS: (adj)
disgraceful, ignominious, screw: (adj, n) bolt; (adj, v) nail, pin; nearby, near, exposed, busy,
outrageous, opprobrious, shocking, (v) cheat, fasten, wind; (n) propeller, accessible
disreputable, disgusting, jailer, gaoler; (n, v) turn, bonk. secrets: (n) secrecy
dishonorable; (adj, v) base, foul. ANTONYM: (v) detach sect: (n) denomination, clan, religion,
ANTONYMS: (adj) proper, seemly, screwed: (adj) threaded, firm, party, order, cult, category, clique,
honorable, appealing, maudlin, muddled, muzzy, raddled, class, group, Unit sect
complimentary, reputable, corned; (n) whittled sedan: (n) saloon, car, automobile,
admirable scrofulous: (adj) strumous, immoral, auto, sedan chair, litter, brougham,
scanty: (adj) insufficient, few, ill, ugly, having struma, strumatic, jampan, limousine, saloon car,
inadequate, bare, deficient, poor, sicker, sick vehicle
narrow, scant, light; (adj, v) spare, scruple: (adj, v) hesitate, demur, seduce: (v) lure, decoy, entice, allure,
lean. ANTONYMS: (adj) generous, pause; (n) hesitation, qualm, inveigle, persuade; (adj, n, v)
abundant, ample, strong misgiving, distrust, objection; (n, v) debauch; (adj, v) fascinate, captivate;
scarce: (adj) rare, insufficient, mistrust; (v) falter, question (n, v) tempt; (adj) bewitch
deficient, infrequent, uncommon, scruples: (n) conscience, moral sense, seduced: (adj) profaned, infatuated,
scant, scanty, few, sparse; (adv) just, sense of right and wrong, morality, fascinated
barely. ANTONYMS: (adj) plentiful, ethical motive, principle, ethics, seducement: (n) temptation, lure, bait,
common, adequate, strong, usual, moral fiber, morals decoy, trap
extensive scrupulous: (adj) careful, punctilious, seeming: (adj) ostensible, superficial,
scared: (adj) afraid, frightened, exact, conscientious, particular, illusory, outward, probable,
fearful, anxious, nervous, timid, painstaking, accurate, prudent, deceptive, specious; (adj, n)
intimidated, terrified, horrified, meticulous, rigorous, cautious. appearance, semblance; (n) aspect,
panicky; (adj, adv) cowardly. ANTONYMS: (adj) sloppy, show. ANTONYMS: (adj) actual,
ANTONYMS: (adj) confident, unscrupulous, slapdash, relaxed, deep, inner
fearless, brave guilty, deceitful seize: (v) catch, capture, grab, arrest,
scent: (n, v) fragrance, smell, odor, scrutoire: (n) clothespress, chest on clutch, get, apprehend, receive,
essence, nose; (n) aroma, bouquet, chest, cellaret, bunker, buffet, till, annex, clasp; (n, v) grapple.
redolence, odour; (adj, n) savor, sideboard, bin, safe, press, lowboy ANTONYMS: (v) baulk, relinquish,
flavor. ANTONYMS: (n) stench, scumming: (n) despumation, restore, surrender, give, remove
stink clarification seized: (adj) confiscate, appropriated,
schism: (n) division, split, rift, scurvy: (adj) contemptible, paltry, condemned, apprehended, grasped,
cleavage, heresy, faction, discord, miserable, sordid, low, abject, taken, held, seised, detained,
rupture, estrangement, ignoble, dirty, scabby; (v) base, obtained, arraught
Protestantism, breach. ANTONYMS: scurfy seizing: (v) seize; (n) seizure, clutches,
(n) convergence, heresy scythe: (n) crotch, crutch, crane, prehension, taking, apprehension,
scimitar: (n) sabre, cutlass, falchion, elbow, ankle, fluke, groin, knee, capture, infection; (adj) catching,
sword, broadsword, cavalry sword, zigzag; (n, v) sithe; (v) reap galling, controlling
knife, scimiter seal: (n, v) stamp; (v) plug, bar, caulk, seizure: (n) arrest, confiscation,
scourge: (n) curse, blight, affliction, stop, shut; (n) cachet, hallmark, capture, seizing, apprehension,
plague, bane, calamity; (v) lash, imprint, signet; (adj) conclude. appropriation, attachment,
convulsion, detention; (adj, n) attack, sobriety, austerity, soberness. pensive, serious, inner, weighty
assumption. ANTONYMS: (n) ANTONYMS: (n) flippancy, shaped: (adj) formed, fashioned,
release, restoration, surrender insignificance, frivolity, giddiness, shapen, made, created, beaten,
seldom: (adj) scarce, rare, few, jollity, triviality, cheerfulness, joking, educated, featured, having features,
infrequent; (adv) occasionally, joviality, unimportance, playfulness built, constructed
infrequently, uncommonly, hardly, serviceable: (adj) practical, helpful, sharpened: (adj) acute, pointed,
scarcely, not often, once in a blue handy, profitable, beneficial, acuate, sharper, better, sensual
moon. ANTONYMS: (adv) often, effective, useful, convenient, sharpness: (n, v) keenness, edge; (n)
seldom efficient, operative, practicable. severity, bitterness, asperity,
semicircle: (n) arch, semi-circles, half ANTONYMS: (adj) impractical, acumen, poignancy, pungency,
circle, half-circle, plane figure, arc, unusable, unserviceable, useless, quickness, perspicacity; (adj, n)
curve flimsy, worthless roughness. ANTONYMS: (n)
seminal: (adj) original, originative, servile: (adj) abject, obsequious, base, dullness, haziness, softness,
pregnant, reproductive, influential, fawning, ignoble, sordid, slowness, indistinctness, gentleness,
important, generative, creative, subservient, cringing, slavish; (adj, evenness, courtesy, blandness,
primary, radical, seed n) mean, low. ANTONYMS: (adj) stupidity, kindness
seminary: (n) school, college, Alma bossy, assertive shave: (v) scrape, reduce, pare, cut,
mater, university, seminar, hotbed, servilely: (adv) slavishly, menially, brush, chip, whittle, crop; (adj, v)
nursery, abbey, institution, lyceum, subserviently, submissively, meanly, clip, shear, lop. ANTONYMS: (v)
private school abjectly, cringingly, fawningly, augment, expand, lengthen
senate: (n) council, legislature, sycophantically, obediently, lowly shaved: (adj) shave, lacking hair,
parliament, congress, Cortes, upper servitude: (n) bondage, serfdom, hairless, beardless, shiny on top,
house, junta, assembly, House of enslavement, captivity, slavery, bald, smooth on top, whiskerless.
Representatives, storthing, yoke, vassalage, thrall, easement, ANTONYM: (adj) unshaven
witenagemote serfhood, dependency. ANTONYM: sheathed: (adj) invaginated, enclosed.
senator: (n) Magnus Apollo, monitor, (n) freedom ANTONYM: (adj) unsheathed
mentor, consul, counselor, settling: (n) settlement, subsidence, shedding: (n) molting, abscission,
representative, delegate, legislator defecation, dregs, clearing, sinking, fluffing, effusion, moulting,
sensibly: (adv) sanely, intelligently, dreg, remission, cave in; (adj) biological process, desquamation,
rationally, pragmatically, determining, definitive sloughing, emission; (adj, n) peeling;
realistically, cleverly, politically, seventh: (n) common fraction, (adj) flaking
perceptibly, soundly, noticeably, interval shelf: (n) ledge, rack, bank, flat,
wisely. ANTONYMS: (adv) seventies: (n) decade, decennium projection, bookshelf, shelves, board,
foolishly, ludicrously, ridiculously, severity: (n) rigor, austerity, frame, shallows; (adj, n) shallow
unreasonably, illogically, madly, harshness, roughness, intensity, shellfish: (n) mollusc, shell,
irrationally, hastily, stupidly, inclemency, asperity, gravity, cephalopod, crayfish, reptile, bird,
irresponsibly, immaturely hardness, tyranny, violence. scollop, bivalve, chiton, cockle,
sensuality: (n) sensualism, animalism, ANTONYMS: (n) leniency, crawdad
sensualness, lust, carnality, pleasantness, flexibility, clemency, shelter: (n, v) guard, refuge, harbor,
concupiscence, animal gratification, softness, insignificance, warmth, protect, shield; (adj, n, v) screen; (n)
bodily enjoyment, hedonism, lenience, brightness protection, asylum, sanctuary,
sensationalism, debauchery sewn: (adj) stitched, sew, sewen, security, hut. ANTONYMS: (n)
sentiments: (n) breast seamed danger, exposure; (v) endanger
sentry: (n, v) guard, watch; (n) shade: (n, v) screen, tinge, shadow, shifted: (adj) disordered, gone
lookout, guardsman, picket, keeper, tint, color, cloud; (n) ghost, hue, shilling: (n) York shilling, Tanzanian
warden, watchman, warder, lookout blind, conceal, tone. ANTONYMS: shilling, British shilling, Kenyan
man, scout (n) brightness, glare; (v) brighten, shilling, Ugandan shilling, Somalian
separating: (v) parting, partible; (n) clarify, expose shilling, dock, cork, farthing, coin,
division, separation, severance, shake: (n, v) jolt, beat, jar, quiver, cheat
unscrambling, unraveling, removal; wave; (v) agitate, excite, disturb; shin: (v) clamber, shinny, make
(adj) separated, disjoining, (adv, v) brandish; (adj, v) quake, unintelligible, abrade, bark, beat; (n)
graduating totter. ANTONYMS: (v) soothe, tibia, shinbone, leg, alphabetic
serene: (adj) peaceful, calm, quiet, steady character, body part
placid, composed, impassive, clear, shaken: (adj) jolted, agitated, shining: (adj, v) brilliant; (adj)
pacific, gentle, cool; (adj, v) tranquil. dilapidated, frayed; (v) passe, lame, lustrous, radiant, glossy, luminous,
ANTONYMS: (adj) agitated, broken, threadbare, wilted, shaky, glorious, glowing; (adj, n) lucid,
anxious, noisy, nervous, impatient, vibrate resplendent, clear; (v) shine.
excitable, scatterbrained, harsh, shallow: (adj) superficial, low, ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, pale,
boisterous, excited, disturbed cursory, petty, little, sketchy, flimsy, blemished
seriousness: (n) earnest, earnestness, frivolous, simple, surface, shipping: (n) transport, forwarding,
graveness, importance, staidness, perfunctory. ANTONYMS: (adj) sending, transportation, shipment,
solemnity, sincerity, consequence, bottomless, profound, intense, navigation, carriage, conveyance,
Jonathan Swift 377
dispatch, freightage, ferry impel, shift, stuff. ANTONYMS: (v) similarity: (n) parallelism, likeness,
shipwreck: (n, v) ruin; (adj, v) sink; pull, leave kinship, parallel, identity,
(v) defeat, scuttle, destroy, fail; (n) shriek: (n, v) screech, cry, shout, call, conformity, parity, semblance,
hulk, accident, wreckage, wrack, howl, yell, yowl, screak; (v) bellow, sameness, affinity, comparison.
ruination caterwaul, shrill. ANTONYM: (v) ANTONYMS: (n) difference,
shipwrecked: (adj, v) stranded; (adj) sigh contrast, disparity, isolation
castaway, stuck, rejected, high and shrill: (adj) piercing, penetrating, similes: (n) imagery, images,
dry; (v) wrecked, cast away, strident, keen, shrewd; (v) shriek, metaphors
capsized, grounded, foundered, screech, scream, yell; (adj, v) high, simplest: (adj) rudimentary
swamped sharp. ANTONYMS: (adj) low, quiet, simplicity: (n) plainness, simpleness,
shoals: (n) shelf resonant easiness, ease, clarity, austerity,
shocking: (adj) frightful, shameful, shuddering: (adj, n) quivering, gullibility, severity, artlessness,
formidable, ghastly, horrible, shaking; (adv) shudderingly; (n) ignorance; (adj, n) inexperience.
hideous, disgraceful, disgusting, cold sweat, tremor; (adj) rough, ANTONYMS: (n) difficulty,
scandalous; (adj, v) offensive, shaky, jumpy, quaking, shivery, complexity, ambiguity,
abominable. ANTONYMS: (adj) bumpy. ANTONYM: (adj) smooth magnificence, sophistication,
admirable, delightful, pleasing, shuffling: (n) shuffle, evasion, dishonesty, clutter, warmth
lovely, comforting, honorable, shambling, make, shamble; (adj) sincere: (adj, v) earnest, devout; (adj)
wonderful, bland, inoffensive, evasive, moral turpitude, milling, genuine, faithful, heartfelt, honest,
decent, excellent laxity, abjection; (n, v) prevarication serious, open, artless, candid; (adj,
shoe: (n) horseshoe, sandal, shoes, shutting: (n) closing, conclusion, end, n) cordial. ANTONYMS: (adj)
moccasin, footgear, footwear, skid, closure, ending, finish, mop up, insincere, dishonest, guarded,
flippers, anklet, flipper, track shoe culmination, closedown; (adj) flippant, affected, disingenuous,
shooting: (v) shoot, hunting, confining, claudent. ANTONYM: (n) hypocritical, cunning, unfaithful,
coursing; (n) gunfire, killing, opening unenthusiastic, unbelievable
gunshot, shot, murder; (adj) sharp, shuttle: (n) birdie, rabbit, bird, space sincerity: (adj, n) candor, honesty,
acute, piercing shuttle, badminton equipment, integrity, probity, faithfulness; (n)
shorten: (v) condense, reduce, razzing, raspberry, public transport; earnestness, heartiness, genuineness,
abbreviate, clip, abridge, cut, curtail, (v) ferry, commute, exchange candour, frankness, cordiality.
cut back, contract, compress, dock. sickness: (n, v) disease, indisposition, ANTONYMS: (n) dishonesty,
ANTONYMS: (v) expand, prolong, malady, disorder, distemper, hypocrisy, flippancy, frivolity,
extend, complicate ailment; (n) complaint, qualm, affectedness, caution, reticence,
shortened: (adj) abridged, cut, short, nausea, disgust, queasiness deceit, doubt
condensed, curtailed, reduced, cut sideling: (adj) steep; (adv) obliquely singular: (adj, n) extraordinary; (adj)
short, scarce, unfinished, truncated, siege: (n) blockade, envelopment, odd, individual, particular, peculiar,
telescoped encirclement, investment, besieging; phenomenal, rare, queer, single,
shortening: (n) contraction, (v) beleaguer, encompass, environ, quaint, exceptional. ANTONYMS:
abridgement, reduction, shrinkage, envelop, encircle, beset (adj) ordinary, normal, together,
curtailment, abridgment, limitation, sieve: (v) filter, riddle, strain, shovel, usual, customary
edible fat, diminution; (adj) mop, separate, broom; (n, v) sift; (n) singularity: (n) oddity, peculiarity,
abridging; (v) shorten. strainer, sifter, colander individuality, eccentricity,
ANTONYMS: (n) extension, sigh: (n, v) groan, suspire, murmur; idiosyncrasy, oddness, abnormality,
expansion (v) breathe, languish, pine; (n) uniqueness, irregularity, identity,
shortest: (adj) direct, brusk, brusque, breath, wail, whimper, whine, particularity
choleric, curt, directer, hotheaded, suspiration sinister: (adj) dark, forbidding, black,
least, irascible, lowest, most direct signet: (n) sigil, completion, key, menacing, wicked, baleful,
shortness: (n) lack, abruptness, ratification, signature, imprint, threatening, malevolent, malign,
brusqueness, curtness, briefness, talisman, mark, cachet, stamp, arms inauspicious, vicious. ANTONYMS:
shortage, conciseness, gruffness, signify: (n, v) intend, mark; (adj, n, v) (adj) innocent, hospitable, good,
curtailment, short, shortcoming. import; (v) imply, indicate, denote, normal, favorable
ANTONYMS: (n) tallness, height, point, stand for, express, intimate, sinking: (n) sinkage, settling, fall,
longness, wordiness, courtesy matter descent, foundering, depression,
shout: (n, v) cry, clamor, scream, yell, signifying: (adj) indicative, implying, immersion, submersion,
roar, call, bellow, screech; (v) bawl, representative, suggestive of, submergence; (v) decrease, decline.
hollo; (n) cheer demonstrating, symptomatic of, ANTONYM: (adj) rising
shouting: (adj, n) yelling; (adj) crying, showing, indicatory, representing; sirloin: (n) cut of meat
howling, vociferous; (n) clamor, (n) abuse situate: (v) place, locate, put, lay,
calling, noise, cheering, vociferation, silken: (adj) glossy, silk, sleek, soft, position, posit, deposit, lodge,
tumult; (v) bawl satiny, satin, shiny, smooth, slick, localize, post; (adj, v) set
shouts: (n) cries downy, mild. ANTONYMS: (adj) situated: (adj) set, situate, placed,
shove: (n, v) thrust, jostle, poke, coarse, dull, rough sited, fixed, laid, contextualized,
elbow, prod, boost, hustle; (v) press, silks: (n) garment hardened, dictated; (v) locate; (prep)
circumstanced dog sleigh, dogsled, bottom, jumper; smoothness, sleeking; (adj) sleek,
skeleton: (n) carcass, frame, (n, v) sledgehammer even, not harsh, smooth porcelain,
framework, bones, anatomy, sleeping: (adj) asleep, inactive, latent, bland, not rough, moving equably,
scaffold, body, cadaver, chassis, sleepy, vegetive, vegetative; (n) mild
corpse; (n, v) outline dormancy, noctambulism, smoothness: (n) slipperiness,
skilful: (adj) adroit, practised, quiescence, quiescency, short sleep. slickness, sleekness, evenness,
experienced, cunning, expert, ANTONYMS: (adj) active; (n) polish, glossiness, softness, silkiness,
dextrous, clever, adept, proficient, waking grace; (adj, n) elegance, delicacy.
practiced, good sleepy: (adj) drowsy, dozy, slow, lazy, ANTONYMS: (n) resistance,
skilfully: (adv) skillfully, adroitly, hypnotic, inactive, comatose, dull, unevenness, hesitation, dampness,
cunningly, proficiently, deftly, heavy, dreamy; (adv) asleep. awkwardness, harshness, hesitancy
adeptly, expertly, handily, artfully, ANTONYMS: (adj) awake, energetic, snail: (v) sluggard, loiterer, lingerer,
goodly, ably vigorous, clear, lively, refreshed pull together; (n) conch,
skilled: (adj) expert, practiced, slender: (adj, v) lean, meager; (adj) hodmandod, gastropod, garden
experienced, skillful, clever, little, thin, fine, lithe, slight, delicate, snail, edible snail, dodman; (adj)
accomplished, able, dexterous, lissom, flimsy, faint. ANTONYMS: whelked
competent, proficient, old. (adj) stocky, fat, wide, considerable, snatch: (n, v) pinch, snap, catch, grip;
ANTONYMS: (adj) incompetent, short, substantial, good, adequate, (v) abduct, clutch, kidnap, seize, jerk,
inexperienced, unskilled, amateur, stout, thick capture, pluck. ANTONYM: (v)
inaccurate, clumsy, bad, untrained, slime: (adj) mud, silt; (n) mucus, ooze, release
unqualified, unlearned phlegm, gook, muck, gunk, goo, snatched: (adj) hasty, speedy, brief,
skins: (n) cash, folding money filth; (adj, n) sludge hurried, quick, rapid, short, sudden,
skip: (n, v) bound, leap, hop, caper, slipping: (n) skidding, slippage; (adj) swift. ANTONYM: (adj) slow
trip; (v) dance, bounce, prance, slithering, gliding, down, labent sneeze: (n) sneezing, physiological
skim; (adj, v) miss; (n) omission. sloe: (n) blackthorn, Prunus Spinosa, reaction, reflex; (v) arrest, despise,
ANTONYMS: (v) attend, trudge, Allegheny plum, Alleghany plum; loathe, act involuntarily, Neese, act
include (adj) jet, coal pitch, ebony, ink, reflexively
skipper: (n) commander, master, charcoal, smut, soot sneezing: (n) sternutation, reflex,
shipmaster, head, leader, lieutenant, sloop: (n) raceabout, knockabout, physiological reaction, neesing
sea captain, commodore, executive, smack, boat, yawl, hoy, buss, cat, sober: (adj, v) grave, sedate; (adj)
director; (v) navigate clipper, corvette, cutter sane, earnest, quiet, solemn,
skull: (n) noddle, sconce, sloping: (adj, v) oblique, slope; (adj) moderate, modest, serene, dull,
pericranium, brainpan, cranium, slanting, inclined, slanted, diagonal, somber. ANTONYMS: (adj)
head, upper story, shell, noggin, leaning, sloped; (adj, adv) aslope, intoxicated, unrestrained, drunk,
skeleton, skullcap aslant; (v) slant. ANTONYMS: (adj) playful, sensational, emotional,
slacken: (adj, n, v) loosen; (v) abate, horizontal, upright cheerful, frivolous, funny, muddled,
remit, retard, loose, douse, lessen, sloth: (n) laziness, idleness, indolence, delirious
slow, slack up; (adj, v) slack; (n, v) lethargy, lazy, acedia, inactivity, sodomy: (n) pederasty, anal
ease. ANTONYMS: (v) tense, inaction, inertia, listlessness, intercourse, anal sex, perversion
increase slothfulness. ANTONYMS: (n) softening: (adj) emollient, salving,
slackened: (adj) leisurely energy, liveliness relaxing; (v) soften; (adj, n) soothing;
slash: (n, v) gash, rip, slice, tear, split, smallest: (adj) least, minimal, littlest, (n) maceration, mitigation, easement,
wound; (v) reduce, hack, clip, hew, lowest, last, first, negligible, smallest mollification, inteneration,
cut down. ANTONYMS: (v) raise, number of, bottom, littler. encouragement
upgrade ANTONYM: (adj) maximum softness: (n) mildness, kindness,
slave: (n) servant, bondman, thrall, smattering: (n) touch, sciolism, hint, flabbiness, flaccidity, suavity,
bondsman, bondwoman, captive, tinge, smatter, bit, dash, downiness, gentleness, tenderness,
vassal; (n, v) labor; (v) drudge, discernment, suggestion, small faintness; (adj, n) delicacy; (adj)
work; (adj, n) inferior. ANTONYMS: indefinite quantity, sprinkle smoothness. ANTONYMS: (n)
(adj) free; (v) slack smelling: (n) smell, flavor, scent, rigidity, hoarseness, brightness,
slavery: (adj, n) bondage, involuntary olfactory modality, sensing, sense of hardness, volume, harshness, tone,
servitude; (n) servitude, drudgery, smell; (adj) redolent, scented, noise, heaviness, firmness, loudness
thraldom, thrall, yoke, travail, odorous, stinking, rotten solemn: (adj, n, v) serious; (adj, v)
vassalage, thralldom, toil. smelt: (v) fuse, temper, anneal, to sober, important, sedate, devout,
ANTONYMS: (n) liberty, freedom smelt, distill, refine, heat; (n) formal, demure; (adj) heavy,
slaves: (n) helotry, bondsmen sparling, capelan, caplin, capelin dignified, sacred; (adj, n) earnest.
slavish: (adj) servile, menial, fawning, smitten: (adj, v) stricken; (adj) in love, ANTONYMS: (adj) frivolous,
cringing, abject, obsequious, crazy, enamored, struck, nuts, dotty, cheerful, unceremonious, funny,
subservient, submissive, ignoble, besotted, gaga, taken with, affected playful, flippant, relaxed
contemptible, pliant smoother: (n) drum sander, electric solemnly: (adv) earnestly, gravely,
sledge: (n) toboggan, sleigh, maul, sander, sander, power tool majestically, stately, sternly, staidly,
bobsleigh, sledge hammer, pung, smoothing: (n) fine cutting, thoughtfully, soberly, formally,
Jonathan Swift 379
ceremoniously, importantly. acid; (adj) bitter, rancid, gruff, grim, (adj, v) contemplative, reflective; (v)
ANTONYMS: (adv) cheerfully, glum, dour; (adj, n, v) severe; (v) meditative. ANTONYMS: (adj)
flippantly ferment. ANTONYMS: (adj) kindly, definite, moderate, practical, proven
solicited: (adj) requested pleasant, bland, amiable, fresh, speedy: (adj, v) rapid, prompt, fleet,
solitary: (adj) forlorn, only, alone, mature, mild, kind; (v) sweeten, swift; (adj) fast, agile, ready,
single, lonely, lone, sole, enhance immediate, cursory, hurried, brisk.
unaccompanied, isolated; (adj, n) southward: (adv) southwards, ANTONYMS: (adj) leisurely,
recluse; (n) hermit. ANTONYMS: southernly; (adj) southbound, plodding
(adj) sociable, combined, common, southern spider: (n) spiders, tarantula,
outgoing sovereign: (n) ruler, king, lord, arachnid, mussuk, chatti, lota,
solitude: (n) desolation, loneliness, emperor; (adj) independent, schooner, wedge ring, spinner, star
seclusion, privacy, aloneness, autonomous, imperial, royal, free, handle, terrine
isolation, retirement, lonesomeness, regal; (adj, n) prince. ANTONYMS: spiders: (n) horseshoe crabs,
retreat, desert, solitariness. (adj) dependent, ineffective, useless Araneida, order Araneae, order
ANTONYMS: (n) companionship, sowing: (v) plowing, tilling; (n) Araneida, scorpions, Araneae
closeness insemination, semination spin: (n, v) whirl, twist, twirl, run,
solved: (v) untraced, undiscovered, spangle: (n, v) tinsel; (v) sparkle, drive, roll; (v) revolve, reel; (n)
unexplained, undeveloped; (adj) shine, gloss, flash, bespangle; (n) revolution, ride, turning
exposed, determined gewgaw, decoration, finery, frippery, spinet: (n) clavier, upright, vielle,
sooty: (adj) black, dark, dusky, gimcrack virginals, Holt, Hurst, park, pianino,
smoky, pitchy, fuliginous, grimy, spaniel: (n) sycophant, beagle, harrier, thicket, weald, tope
dingy, murky; (v) smutty; (adj, v) clumber, bootlicker, springer, spire: (n) pinnacle, minaret, top; (adj,
dusty groveller, gun dog, groveler; (v) n) steeple; (v) coil, hover; (adj) tower,
soporiferous: (adj, v) soporific; (adj, snob, lapdog column, obelisk, pillar, monument
n) somniferous, drowsy, sleepy; spark: (n, v) flicker, flash, gleam, glint, spit: (v) drizzle, expectorate, sprinkle,
(adj) narcotic, somnific, slumberous, glitter; (n) light, glimmer, arc, flame, spew, drool, spike, spatter; (n)
sleep inducing, narcotizing, fire; (v) activate broach, saliva, cape; (n, v) skewer
narcotising; (n) heavy sparrow: (n) hedge sparrow, spite: (n) malice, grudge, hatred,
sordid: (adj) ignoble, nasty, foul, sparrows, passerine, house sparrow, malevolence, rancour, venom,
filthy, grimy, base, cheap, accentor, true sparrow, spur, snag, rancor, maliciousness, ill will,
despicable, dishonorable, mucky, passeriform bird, incitement animosity; (n, v) pique.
low. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectable, sparrows: (n) sparrow, finches, order ANTONYMS: (v) please; (n)
pleasant, wholesome, reputable, Passeriformes, Passeriformes, robins, benevolence, goodwill, love,
honorable, clean, attractive, humane rooks, etc affection, harmony
sore: (adj, n, v) hurt; (adj) sensitive, spartan: (adj) severe, frugal, plain, spleen: (n) spite, anger, resentment,
angry, grievous, raw; (n) injury, strict, ascetic, rigorous, rigid, rage, lien, malice, bitterness, rancour,
lesion, cut, boil; (v) acute; (adj, v) ascetical, nonindulgent, abstemious, huff, grudge, rancor. ANTONYM:
sharp. ANTONYMS: (adj) happy, harsh. ANTONYMS: (adj) luxurious, (n) affection
healthy, pleased, comfortable abundant, hedonistic, lavish, fussy spoiled: (adj) bad, rotten, stale, spoil,
sorrel: (n) russet buff, shamrock, spawn: (v) engender, generate, cause, coddled, pampered, corrupt,
carroty, goatsfoot, oxalis, murrey, make, spat, father; (n) roe, offspring, damaged, spoilt, putrid, rancid.
common sorrel, brown, pier, red seed, progeny; (n, v) breed ANTONYM: (adj) unspoiled
sorrel, reddish brown speaks: (n) talks spoiling: (n) spoilage, spoilation,
sorrow: (n, v) regret, lament, grieve; spectacle: (n) scene, pageant, display, despoliation, deterioration,
(v) mourn; (n) mourning, heartache, exhibition, phenomenon, detriment, erosion, indulgence,
repentance, remorse; (adj, n) sadness, appearance, spectacles, view, injury; (v) withering; (adj) easy,
misery; (adj, n, v) distress. wonder; (n, v) sight, parade. lenient
ANTONYMS: (n) joy, delight, ANTONYM: (n) understatement spoils: (n) prize, stolen goods, booty,
happiness, peace, hopefulness, spectacles: (n) glasses, specs, plunder, haul, swag, pickings,
cheerfulness, shamelessness, calm, spectacle, eyeglass, goggles, trophy, boodle, prize money,
content; (v) rejoice lorgnette, monocle, bifocals, dark treasure
sounding: (n) investigation, depth, glasses, optical instrument, shades spoonful: (n) mouthful, handful,
exploration, test; (adj) resounding, spectator: (n) eyewitness, observer, armful, cochleare, tablespoonful,
resonant, looking, audible, sonant, onlooker, witness, audience, dose, containerful, blob, capful,
voiceful, hollow beholder, viewer, watcher, taste; (adj) thimbleful
soundly: (adv) sound, fully, solidly, spectators, looker, ogler. spooning: (n) dalliance
thoroughly, deeply, substantially, ANTONYM: (n) player spots: (n) damp, drifter, floater,
validly, strongly, stably, fastly, spectators: (n) spectator, gallery, floating policy, muscae volitantes,
safely. ANTONYMS: (adv) viewer, viewers, attendance Musca volitans
harmfully, halfheartedly, fitfully, speculative: (adj) risky, theoretical, spruce: (adj) dapper, neat, natty,
unconvincingly academic, inquisitive, notional, jaunty, trim, rakish, stylish, dashing,
sour: (adj, n) morose, harsh; (adj, v) hypothetical, chancy, conjectural; snappy; (adj, v) tidy; (adj, n) bright.
ANTONYMS: (adj) untidy, messy, coin, postage, stamping of rail douse, dip, imbue, saturate; (adj,
unkempt starboard: (n) dexter, offside; (adj) adv) excessive; (adj, n) abrupt; (adj)
spur: (n) inducement, incentive, proper, good, ripe, correct. sheer, outrageous, exorbitant.
impulse, stimulus; (n, v) prod, prick, ANTONYM: (adj) port ANTONYMS: (adj) gradual,
incite, prompt; (v) provoke, impel, stare: (n, v) gaze, look; (v) gape, glare, undulating, inexpensive, flat, lenient,
animate. ANTONYMS: (n) peer, squint, goggle, see, outface; (n) reasonable, cheap; (v) dip
discouragement, disincentive, regard, contemplation. ANTONYM: steeple: (adj, n) spire, tower; (n)
deterrent; (v) calm, delay, inhibit (v) glance campanile, minaret, turret, dome;
spurn: (v) scorn, rebuff, repulse, stark: (adj) severe, plain, bare, bleak, (adj) pyramid, column, obelisk,
disdain, reject, refuse, snub, kick, desolate, mere, simple, bald, monument, pillar
decline, deny; (n, v) slight. positive, pure, barren. ANTONYMS: steer: (v) navigate, guide, direct,
ANTONYMS: (v) admire, court, (adj) disguised, ornate, fuzzy, drive, aim, conduct, maneuver, run,
respect indistinct, soft, romantic, fussy, manage; (n, v) lead, point
squall: (n, v) cry; (v) shriek, howl, hidden, dim, abundant, mild steered: (adj) directed
scream, screech, shrill, bawl, holler; startled: (adj) dumbfounded, steering: (n) management, steerage,
(n) gust, blast, gale dismayed, distressed, aghast, direction, navigation, driving,
squalling: (adj) unquiet frightened, astonished, amazed, pilotage, control, aim, attitude
squares: (n) square terrified, afraid, shocked, astounded control, piloting, managing
squash: (n, v) crush, press, squeeze; starve: (v) fast, crave, lust, hunger, stem: (n) root, bow, branch, stalk,
(adj, v) mash; (v) quell, smash, thirst, perish, be hungry, deprive, bole, stick, shank, handle; (v)
compress, quash, flatten, oppress; benumb; (adj, v) pinch; (adj) gripe. originate, block, arrest.
(n) pumpkin. ANTONYMS: (v) pull, ANTONYMS: (v) feed, eat ANTONYMS: (v) encourage,
boost, expand, loosen starved: (adj) famished, starving, accelerate
squashed: (adj) packed together, ravenous, meager, emaciated, stench: (n, v) reek, smell; (n) niff,
compacted, condensed, dense, malnourished, thin, esurient, fetor, odor, malodour, malodor,
compressed, packed in hungerly, lean, starveling. mephitis, odour, foetor, fetidness
squeeze: (n, v) hug, pinch, embrace, ANTONYM: (adj) healthy stepping: (n) steps
nip; (adj, v) compress, force; (adj, n, starving: (adj) famished, hungry, steward: (n) flight attendant, waiter,
v) press; (v) extort, cram, crush, jam. malnourished, voracious, skinny, keeper, warden, attendant, curator,
ANTONYMS: (v) expand, extend undernourished, thin, empty, caretaker, administrator, janitor,
squeezed: (adj) cramped peckish; (adj, v) starved; (n) chamberlain, stewardess
squeezing: (n) constriction, starvation. ANTONYMS: (adj) sticking: (n) soldering, adhesion;
compression, pressure, squeeze, satiated, healthy (adj) adhering, clinging, glutinous,
crushing, compressing, expulsion, stature: (n) height, altitude, standing, viscous, stuck, projected, tenacious,
extrusion, distress, power play; (v) tallness, prestige, figure, growth, closefisted, cohesive
expression status, quality, rank, greatness sticks: (n) backwoods, firewood,
squirrel: (n) hackee, spermophile, statute: (n) law, rule, ordinance, frontier, outskirts, suburb, town,
baranduki, burunduki, gopher, decree, constitution, charter, wilderness, brushwood, high sticks;
baronduki, barunduki, collector; (v) regulation, edict, act, enactment, (adj) distant
bank, conserve; (adj) courser canon stiff: (adj) hard, formal, inflexible,
stag: (v) spy, peach, denounce; (n) staunch: (adj) faithful, loyal, constant, difficult, rigorous, numb, firm,
buck, dog, boar, cock, deer, roe, doe, solid, resolute, devoted, stalwart, sturdy; (adj, n) stark, severe; (n)
reynard secure, sturdy; (n, v) stanch; (adj, n) corpse. ANTONYMS: (adj) soft,
staid: (adj, v) serious, sedate, grave, hardy. ANTONYM: (adj) disloyal supple, flexible, floppy, pliable, free,
solemn, sober, demure; (adj) calm, steal: (v) purloin, abstract, sneak, easy, loose, informal, mild, pliant
quiet, composed, somber, decorous. filch, pinch, creep, misappropriate, stifle: (v) smother, suffocate, repress,
ANTONYMS: (adj) frivolous, rob, pilfer; (n) bargain; (n, v) snatch dampen, muffle, extinguish, strangle,
exciting, funny, daring, playful, stealing: (n) pilferage, larceny, theft, quell, hush up, asphyxiate, check.
bright, relaxed steal, burglary, misappropriation, ANTONYMS: (v) express, arouse,
stakes: (n) stake, ante, wager, kitty, embezzlement, stolen, thievery, stimulate, light, exacerbate, show
jackpot, pool, pot, gamble, prize, pilfering, thieving stifled: (adj) strangled, suppressed,
interest, fence steals: (adj) stolen; (n) stealing muffled, deafened, completely
stale: (adj, n) musty, moldy; (adj) old, stealth: (n) stealing, furtiveness, covered, dead, deadened, weak,
commonplace, hackneyed, insipid, stealthiness, slyness, larceny, deaf corn, regardless, decayed
trite, corny, flat, stagnant; (adj, v) thievery, theft, sneakiness, stile: (n) bar, flight of stairs, upright,
dry. ANTONYMS: (adj) fresh, secretiveness, hiding; (adj) vertical, step, barrier, montant
original, innovative, airy, new, undercover. ANTONYM: (n) stings: (adj) stung
exceptional, imaginative openness stink: (adj, n, v) stench; (n, v) smell,
stamp: (n, v) print, imprint, mark, steed: (n) horse, mount, charger, odor; (n) malodour, fetor, malodor,
seal, brand, impress, cast, punch, knight, courser, warhorse, pony, niff, odour, foetor; (v) fume, Pong
shape; (v) trample; (n) impression stallion, mare stir: (adj, n, v) move, bustle; (v) rouse,
stamping: (n) impression, blocking, steep: (adj, v) immerse, soak; (v) arouse, affect, agitate, inspire; (adj,
Jonathan Swift 381
n) movement; (n) commotion, dilemma struggle, fight, attempt, combat,
excitement, disturbance. straits: (n) pass, head, distress, sound, strain, work, aspire, aim
ANTONYMS: (v) dampen, retire, isthmus, dire straits, destitution, striving: (n) nisus, pains, endeavor,
stultify, bore, steady, stifle, point, crack, chief, caput strife, try, strain, attempt, strive,
suppress; (n) quiet, peace; (n, v) strand: (n, v) beach; (n) shore, rope, ambition, struggle, exertion.
calm line, filament, string, waterside, ANTONYM: (adj) unmotivated
stirring: (adj) lively, exciting, alive, chain, bank; (v) maroon, desert stroke: (adj, n) blow; (n, v) touch,
rousing, spirited, touching, thrilling, strangely: (adv) curiously, queerly, caress, mark, buffet, lick, pat; (n)
active; (n) agitation; (v) eventful, unusually, funnily, peculiarly, beat, hit, knock, bang
brisk. ANTONYMS: (adj) weirdly, marvelously, uncommonly, strokes: (n) approval, reward,
depressing, boring, inactive, dull, extraordinarily, singularly, bizarrely. recognition, prize, acclaim, credit,
conciliatory, asleep, uninspiring, ANTONYMS: (adv) typically, brownie points
unimpressive; (n) suppression ordinarily, harmoniously stroking: (v) caress, strike, blow; (n)
stitched: (adj) sewed, bound in paper strangers: (n) stranger cam stroke, feeling, effleurage,
covers, seamed stratagem: (n) scheme, ruse, plan, diagonal, CVA, commendation,
stocking: (n) hosiery, boothose, trunk trick, dodge, ploy; (n, v) contrivance, glide, slash
hose, supplying, stocking level, maneuver, deceit, intrigue; (adj, n) strove: (v) strive
tights, silk stocking, nylons, nylon artifice strutting: (n) boasting, stiffening,
stocking, rayon stocking; (adj) straw: (n) rush, stalk, drinking straw, bracing; (adj) boastful
stockinged chaff, fig, bran; (adj) feather, cobweb, stubborn: (adj) contrary, hard,
stole: (n) wrap, stolen, scarf, stolon, mote, gossamer; (v) strew intractable, perverse, rigid,
stealing, robe, alb, tunicle, surplice, stray: (v) wander, ramble, range, determined, persistent, refractory,
alba, cassock digress, straggle, meander, depart, tenacious, obdurate, inveterate.
stomacher: (n) garment, package, deviate, rove, drift, err. ANTONYM: ANTONYMS: (adj) compliant,
hang, truss, bundle (v) settle irresolute, flexible, amenable, docile,
stony: (adj) rocky, hard, rough, strengthening: (n) fortification, easygoing, malleable, agreeable,
callous, cold, pitiless, flinty, concentration, reinforcement, accommodating, cooperative, feeble
unfeeling, obdurate, bleak, icy. consolidation, transformation, studious: (adj) scholarly, bookish,
ANTONYMS: (adj) smooth, kind transmutation, reenforcement, academic, assiduous, erudite,
stool: (n) seat, bench, footstool, feces, reinforcing, intensification; (v) diligent, learned, careful, deliberate;
dejection, faeces, ordure, fecal strengthen; (adj) bracing. (adj, v) thoughtful, reflective.
matter, droppings, bowel movement, ANTONYM: (n) weakening ANTONYM: (adj) negligent
form strew: (v) scatter, spread, disperse, studiously: (adv) industriously,
stools: (n) shit, excrement, evacuation, disseminate, distribute, diffuse, sow, assiduously, busily, earnestly,
dejection sprinkle, bestrew, circulate, carefully, eagerly, bookishly; (adj,
stoop: (v) crouch, bend, deign, propagate. ANTONYM: (v) adv) designedly; (adj) knowingly,
condescend, descend, squat, couch, concentrate purposely, wittingly
cringe, lean, lower oneself; (n) porch. strewed: (v) besprent, sprinkled over stumble: (adj, n, v) slip; (n, v) lurch,
ANTONYM: (v) straighten strewing: (n) scatter, spreading, fall, err, stagger; (adj, v) blunder,
stooped: (adj) hunched, stoop, spread, sprinkling, sprinkle, flounder, fumble; (n) misstep; (v) hit,
stooping, crooked, bended, not dispersion falter
straight, inclined, not erect, arched, strictness: (n) harshness, severity, stung: (adj) sting, bit, annoyed, roiled,
asymmetrical, droopy rigor, hardness, austerity, exactness, irritated, nettled, peeved, pissed,
stopping: (n) stoppage, cessation, firmness, inclemency, stiffness, riled, stings, thrust
shutdown, padding, fillet, accuracy, precision. ANTONYMS: stunned: (adj) dumbfounded,
suspension, stay, discontinuance, (n) leniency, lenience, laxity, astonished, astounded, amazed,
abeyance, interruption; (adv) flexibility, vagueness, inaccuracy flabbergasted, dazed, stupefied,
haltingly stride: (n, v) pace, tread, walk, stalk, staggered, bewildered, confused;
stout: (adj, n) sturdy, stocky, hearty; rate, toddle, stump; (n) footstep, gait, (adj, v) astonied. ANTONYMS: (adj)
(adj) hardy, strong, robust, obese, progress; (v) march indifferent, unimpressed
husky, bold, corpulent, fleshy. strings: (n) string, string section, subaltern: (adj, n) subordinate, sub;
ANTONYMS: (adj) thin, slim, flimsy, sway, control, dealings, domination, (adj) secondary, lower, menial,
cowardly, slight, skinny, fragile, jurisdiction, terms, condition, dependent, petty, underling, lowly,
weak command, provision subject; (n) ensign
strained: (adj) tense, labored, intense, stripped: (adj) naked, nude, exposed, subdue: (adj, n, v) conquer; (v)
constrained, laboured, unnatural, fleeced, undressed, unclothed, stark, overpower, crush, defeat, quell,
nervous, affected, taut, artificial, desolate, denuded, bald, stript quash, suppress, restrain; (n, v)
tight. ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, stripping: (n) baring, denudation, reduce; (adj, v) repress; (adv, v)
calm striping, removal, disforestation, control. ANTONYMS: (v) incite,
strait: (adj) narrow; (n) pinch, pass, scrubbing, strippingly, uncovering, enliven, resist, submit
inlet, need, channel, crisis, poverty, find, back washing, cornhusking sublime: (adj, v) majestic; (adj)
difficulty; (adj, n) quandary; (n, v) strive: (v) endeavor, contend, contest, dignified, grand, lofty, magnificent,
elevated, noble, exalted, glorious; (v) bubble, lager, surf supposition, conjecture, thought,
sacred, sublimate. ANTONYMS: sufferer: (n) victim, martyr, prey, theory, assumption; (conj) although,
(adj) poor, ridiculous casualty, invalid, depressive, what if; (v) suppose
sublunary: (adj) earthly, terrestrial, diseased person, sick person, supposition: (n, v) conjecture; (n)
mundane, subastral, cislunar, rheumatic, diabetic, neurotic assumption, hypothesis,
temporal, worldly, planetary, suffice: (v) satisfy, do, answer, presumption, premise, speculation,
terrene, telluric, tellurian content, fulfill, be sufficient, qualify, surmise, guess, supposal, thought,
submissive: (adj) obedient, passive, function, be enough, suit, fulfil imagination. ANTONYMS: (n) fact,
meek, dutiful, obsequious, docile, suited: (adj, v) proper, fit, fitted, knowledge, proof, reality, practice
compliant, resigned, subject, lowly, adapted, convenient; (adj) suppressing: (n) reticence
servile. ANTONYMS: (adj) assertive, appropriate, good, apt, eligible, surgeon: (n) doctor, sawbones, doc,
resistant, disobedient, defiant, capable, useful. ANTONYMS: (adj) reed, operating surgeon, medicine,
obstinate, rebellious, wild, incompatible, wrong, inappropriate neurosurgeon, plastic surgeon,
intractable, proactive; (adv) bossily sullen: (adj, n) morose, sulky, sour; medico, lister, general practitioner
submit: (v) comply, obey, acquiesce, (adj) gloomy, gruff, glum, moody, surround: (v) gird, round, skirt,
give in, present, hand in, put dark, cross, surly; (adj, v) grim. border, besiege, beset, envelop; (n,
forward, hand over, propose, give; ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, cheery; v) circle, inclose, ring, compass.
(n, v) resign. ANTONYMS: (v) resist, (n) cheeriness ANTONYMS: (v) release, free
persevere, defy, overpower, face, summerset: (n) somersault suspicions: (adj) entertain doubts,
disobey, conquer sunbeams: (n) sunshine, light, have doubts; (n) doubts, misgivings,
subornation: (n) provocation daylight, rays reservations, qualms, worries, fears,
suborner: (n) briber, felon, crook, sunburnt: (adj) brown, burnt, gloomy, uncertainties
malefactor, outlaw, criminal fiery, sallow, adust sustain: (adj, n, v) support; (v) keep,
subservience: (n) obsequiousness, sunk: (adj) sunken, undone, finished, carry, maintain, preserve, hold,
dependence, submissiveness, ruined, profound, immersed, continue, endure, have; (n, v) bear,
sycophancy, subsidiarity, damaged, lowed, lying flat; (v) cut suffer. ANTONYMS: (v) stop,
submission, subordination, up, dashed abstain, discontinue, halt, negate,
obedience, subserviency, humility, sunset: (n) dusk, sundown, nightfall, undermine, quit, end, destroy,
application twilight, night, sunsetting, periodic neglect, sap
subservient: (adj) submissive, event, crepuscule, atmospheric sustenance: (n) living, food,
subordinate, obsequious, accessory, phenomenon, hour, recurrent event. maintenance, subsistence, fare,
obedient, servile, slavish, ancillary, ANTONYMS: (n) sunrise, daybreak sustentation, provisions,
menial, compliant, humble. sunshine: (n) sunlight, sun, day, light, nourishment, nutriment, aliment,
ANTONYMS: (adj) disobedient, fair weather, gladness, shine, glee, livelihood. ANTONYM: (n) extras
independent, superior, assertive sunbeam, delight, brightness swagger: (n, v) strut, prance; (adj, n,
succeeding: (adj) following, superiority: (n) predominance, v) bluster; (v) boast, show off,
subsequent, after, consecutive, priority, excellence, mastery, parade, ruffle, flourish; (adj, v)
posterior, ensuing, consequent, precedence, preference, distinction, bully; (adj) groovy; (n) bragging
successive, consequential; (adj, adv) supremacy, domination, eminence; swallow: (n, v) drink, gulp, taste, sip,
later; (v) succeed. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) odds. ANTONYMS: (n) swig; (v) bolt, consume, devour,
(adj) outgoing, preceding humility, weakness, friendliness, accept, stomach, endure.
successively: (adv) in turn, one after mediocrity, simplicity ANTONYMS: (n, v) sip; (v) doubt,
the other, in succession, sequentially, supper: (n) meal, tea, lunch, repast, expel, disbelieve, reject, express
serially, running, in order, gradually, reception, mealtime, siesta, social swallowed: (adj) engulfed, gulped,
subsequently, repeatedly, one after affair; (v) dejeuner, bever, whet inundated, overcome, overwhelmed,
another supplicating: (adj) imploring, flooded, overpowered, enclosed
successor: (n) heir, inheritor, soliciting, beseeching, entreating, swan: (v) rove, roam, wander, stray,
beneficiary, offspring, replacement, petitioning, apologetic, begging, aver, drift, avow, assert; (n) cygnet,
progeny, sequel, scion, alternate, manifesting entreaty, petitory, whooper, cushat
heritor, succeeder. ANTONYMS: (n) piteous; (v) supplicate swayed: (adj) persuaded, susceptible,
forerunner, precursor, predecessor, supplying: (n) supply, issue, feeding, touched, convinced. ANTONYM:
ancestor logistics, issuing, issuance, irrigation, (adj) doubtful
suck: (v) nurse, drink, imbibe, suckle, alimentation, purveyance; (v) swear: (v) declare, assure, assert,
absorb, lactate, puff, drain, pull, furnish, provide affirm, curse, pledge; (n, v) promise,
suck up; (n) sucking. ANTONYM: supportable: (adj) bearable, tolerable, avow, depone, depose, aver.
(v) rock sufferable, livable, acceptable, ANTONYMS: (v) distrust, refute,
suckle: (v) lactate, suck, breastfeed, confirmable, manageable, deny, compliment
foster, give suck, raise, nourish, demonstrable, provable, portable, swearing: (n) curse, expletive,
draw, harbour; (n) nurture, dry easily transported. ANTONYMS: profanity, oath, abuse, blasphemy,
nurse (adj) moot, intolerable swearword, execration, adjuration,
suds: (n, v) foam, froth, spume; (n) supposing: (adv) admitting, asseveration; (v) swear
lather, soapsuds, bubbles, head, beer, conditionally, in case; (n) sweat: (n, v) work, toil, struggle; (v)
Jonathan Swift 383
perspire, drudge, exude; (n) coat, morning coat, cutaway, easy, readable, lively, entertaining,
perspiration, lather, sudor, effort; formalwear enthralling, brisk, concise, exotic,
(adj) perspiring. ANTONYMS: (v) talents: (adj) talent, ability, capacity, pleasant
ignore; (n) entertainment, ease, parts, ingenuity, cleverness, turn; (n) tediousness: (n) boredom, dullness,
relaxation faculty, endowment, genius, monotony, flatness, ennui, dulness,
sweetmeats: (n) rapier, plait, pastry, accomplishment prosiness, tediosity, tiresomeness,
lugging, food, tuck talkative: (adj, v) loquacious; (adj) irksomeness; (adj) wearisomeness
sweet-smelling: (adj) aromatic, garrulous, chatty, gabby, verbose, temper: (adj, v) moderate, soften,
fragrant, sweet, odorous gossipy, glib, communicative, mitigate, harden; (n) character,
swelled: (adj) big, inflated, bloated, voluble, talky, wordy. ANTONYMS: disposition, humor, nature; (v)
swollen, adult, boastful, bighearted, (adj) reserved, mute, silent, shy, modify, season, qualify.
bad, fully grown, crowing, elder quiet, uncommunicative, restrained, ANTONYMS: (n, v) upset; (v) soften,
swept: (adj) clean reticent agitate, excite, flex, bend, increase;
swerve: (n, v) curve; (v) depart, stray, tallow: (n) grease, lard, oil, suet, (n) composure, happiness, wrath,
turn, wander, deflect, sheer, veer, cream, butter, cicatrix, beef tallow, equanimity
diverge, shift, slew. ANTONYMS: dubbin, animal oil, scar temperance: (n) moderation,
(v) straighten, converge tally: (n, v) count, check, score, sum; abstinence, abstemiousness, control,
swiftness: (n) speed, haste, rapidity, (v) agree, number, suit, fit, match, restraint, moderateness, soberness,
celerity, acceleration, quickness, accord, jibe. ANTONYMS: (v) forbearance, measure, gravity,
promptness, pace, velocity, agility, disagree, conflict, differ asceticism. ANTONYMS: (n)
dispatch. ANTONYM: (n) talons: (v) claws, tenaculum, unguis, intemperance, wildness
clumsiness tentacle, teeth; (n) clutches tempered: (adj) attempered,
swim: (n) dip, swimming, bathing, tame: (v) break, subdue, soften, temperate, moderated, toughened,
diving; (adj) rise; (v) hover, spin, domesticate; (adj) meek, docile, subdued, set, enured, proportioned,
drift, spire, plane, reel bland, domestic, gentle, slow; (adj, properly adapted, emotionally
swimmer: (n) bather, natator, surfer, v) moderate. ANTONYMS: (adj) hardened, treated. ANTONYM:
diver, traveller, traveler, aquanaut, exciting, bright, unmanageable, (adj) untempered
athlete, surfboarder, divers, plunger interesting, untamed, inspiring, tempest: (adj, n) storm, gust; (n) gale,
swimming: (n) swim, natation, brilliant, colorful, rebellious, lively hurricane, squall, disturbance,
diving, bathing, skin diving; (adj) tameness: (n) jejuneness, cyclone, typhoon, agitation, tornado,
vertigo, naiant, liquid, natatorial, domestication, dullness, obedience, blizzard. ANTONYM: (n) serenity
oily, overly diluted jejunity, tractableness, mansuetude, temptation: (n, v) lure, enticement,
swine: (n) hog, boar, beast, sow, tractability, vapidity, mildness, bait; (n) attraction, allurement,
Eohyus, babiroussa, babirussa, vapidness invitation, seduction, inducement,
barrow, brute, razorback, grunter tangible: (adj) substantial, concrete, allure, appeal, pull. ANTONYMS:
swoon: (adj, n, v) faint; (adj, n) actual, real, perceptible, physical, (n) dislike, discouragement
collapse; (n) fainting, syncope, palpable, evident, corporeal, definite, tempting: (adj) seductive, alluring,
prostration, deliquium; (v) conk, sensible. ANTONYMS: (adj) attractive, enticing, tantalizing,
black out, pass out, die; (adj) puff intangible, impalpable, incorporeal, charming, appealing, captivating,
sword: (n) blade, sabre, brand, disembodied, conceptual, abstract, beguiling, delicious, irresistible.
broadsword, falchion, cutlass, saber, ethereal, insubstantial ANTONYMS: (adj) repulsive,
steel, glaive, backsword, cutlas taxed: (adj) laden revolting, unattractive, repellent
syllable: (n) antepenultimate, teachable: (adj) tractable, dedicated, tender: (n, v) offer, proffer, bid; (adj,
antepenult, penultima, penultimate, docible, eager to learn, gentle, v) affectionate; (adj) painful,
articulate, utter, linguistic unit, solfa instructible, apt, easily managed, sensitive, soft, loving, sore; (v)
syllable, speech sound, syllabe, studious propose, present. ANTONYMS:
language unit teachableness: (n) docity, docibleness (adj) hardhearted, rubbery, hard,
tack: (v) affix, attach, fasten, veer; (n, tear: (n, v) rip, break, split, rupture, rough, uncaring, healthy, mature,
v) baste, shift, turn; (n) pin, tache, crack, run, slit; (v) pull, rend, unfeeling, cold, experienced; (v)
brad; (adj, v) sew. ANTONYMS: (v) lacerate; (adj, v) rush. ANTONYMS: withdraw
separate, detach (v) wait, mend, idle, fix, amble, tender-hearted: (adj) kind, merciful,
tackling: (n) rigging, face, dawdle benevolent, kind-hearted, soft,
confronting, grappling, facing, tearing: (adj) fierce, violent, tender
coping with, braving, try, gear, vehement, furious, ripping, tenderness: (n) fondness, soreness,
rassling, rig ferocious; (n) lachrymation, love, affection, sympathy; (adj, n)
taction: (n) contact, feel, tactility, lacrimation, riving ahead, tear, clemency, mildness, compassion,
touch lancination gentleness, softness, delicacy.
tailor: (v) sew, fashion, shape, tedious: (adj) tiresome, boring, ANTONYMS: (n) pleasure, dryness,
accommodate, design, cut, adjust, dreary, slow, heavy, humdrum, hatred, strength, detachment
fit; (n) snip, dressmaker, sartor irksome, lifeless; (adj, v) tending: (n) care, hairdressing, aid,
tails: (n) dress suit, tail coat, full dress, monotonous, arid, dry. treatment, attention, babysitting,
tail, waste, evening dress, dress coat, ANTONYMS: (adj) exciting, varied, incubation; (adj) apt, conducive,
prone, disposed since, on account of file; (n, v) string together; (adj, v)
tenth: (adj, n) tithe; (adj) denary, thenceforward: (adv) thereafter range; (v) penetrate
decimal, decuple, tenfold; (n) ten theology: (adj, n) divinity, God, deity; threads: (n) duds, clothing, apparel,
percent, tenth part, simple fraction, (n) apologetics, homiletics, clothes, wear, vesture, coat, cords,
common fraction, disme hermeneutics, religion, theological dress, garb, garment
tents: (n) encampment system, eschatology, field of study, threatening: (adj) ominous,
tenure: (n) tenancy, occupancy, subject field forbidding, sinister, minatory, black,
occupation, term of office, thereabouts: (adj, adv) about; (adv) imminent, perilous, impending,
incumbency, administration, nearly, generally, around, dangerous, grave, sullen.
copyhold, ownership, presidency, approximately, in the region of, ANTONYMS: (adj) reassuring, nice,
freehold, land tenure. ANTONYMS: more or less, something like, almost, approachable, pleasant, promising,
(n) vacancy, title so; (adv, n) hereabouts favorable, friendly, harmless,
terminate: (v) close, end, complete, therein: (adv) in this, in there hospitable, soothing
stop, cease, conclude, drop, dismiss, thereof: (adv) thence, therefrom, threescore: (adj) lx
discontinue, dissolve, halt. therefore, hence; (adj) casual, thrice: (adv) three times, thirdly
ANTONYMS: (v) start, establish, intelligence, observer, occasional, thrift: (n) economy, parsimony,
open, continue, create, hire, initiate, prearranged, premeditated, husbandry, frugalness, prosperity,
commence, prolong, sustain, rise fortuitous prudence, thriftiness,
terminated: (adj) complete, all over, thereon: (adv) on that, thereupon, parsimoniousness, sea pink, welfare;
over, extinct, accomplished, closed, afterward, at once, early, (v) gain. ANTONYMS: (n)
highly skilled; (adj, adv) ended, immediately, therefore generosity, spending, waste
finished, done; (adv) completed thereupon: (adv) hereupon, next, thrifty: (adj) careful, economical,
terminating: (adj) final, ending, then, immediately, therefore, provident, sparing, prudent, stingy,
conclusive, dying, determining, therewith, in the sequel, close upon, saving, spare, parsimonious, chary,
terminative, last, expiring, decisive, upon which, whereupon, scotch. ANTONYMS: (adj) wasteful,
expiring groans; (n) termination accordingly spendthrift, profligate, extravagant,
terribly: (adv) horribly, awfully, therewith: (adv) herewith, moreover, generous
terrifically, very, badly, awful, therewithal, forthwith, with that, throne: (v) enthrone; (n) can, stool,
appallingly, atrociously, terrificly; besides, wherewith place, fecal matter, potty, chair,
(adj, adv) frightfully, shockingly. thicket: (n) brake, coppice, brush, cathedra, lavatory, crapper, pot
ANTONYMS: (adv) wonderfully, grove, spinney, bush, brushwood, thrush: (n) mavis, ouzel, White-
slightly, superbly, fortunately, cluster, underbrush, undergrowth, rumped thrush, candidiasis,
happily, laudably, little, underwood blackbird, bluethroat, fieldfare, merl,
marvelously, pleasantly, hardly, thickness: (n) density, width, moniliasis, ousel, philomel
honorably consistency, layer, consistence, thrusting: (n) thrust, push, jab, poke,
terrified: (adj) afraid, frightened, heaviness, concentration, bulk, jabbing, stab, driving force, scoke,
fearful, panicky, panicked, aghast, breadth, compactness, substance. sack, punch, Phytolacca Americana
timid, timorous, apprehensive, ANTONYMS: (n) slenderness, thumb: (v) feel, flip, handle, leaf,
startled, alarmed. ANTONYMS: smoothness, length, clearness touch, flick, hitch, riff; (n) pollex,
(adj) fearless, brave thimble: (n) tablespoon, spoon, bull nose, forefinger
terrify: (n, v) frighten, alarm, fright, spatula, shovel, ladle, dipper, stirrer, thunder: (adj, n, v) boom; (n, v) roar,
affright; (v) panic, dismay, startle, cinder pot, containerful; (v) gauntlet, bang, roll, bellow; (adj, n) peal; (adj,
horrify, intimidate, terrorize, daunt. bulletproof vest v) explode, detonate; (v) howl,
ANTONYMS: (v) please, delight, thirst: (n, v) hunger, lust, wish; (n) rumble, fulminate
calm, soothe, comfort longing, yen, craving, hankering, ticking: (n) tick, cloth, fabric, ticken;
terror: (n, v) alarm, scare; (adj, n) dryness, appetite; (v) starve, crave. (adj) living
dread, awe; (n) fear, dismay, ANTONYM: (n) dislike tickled: (adj) tickled pink, overjoyed,
consternation, horror, panic, thither: (adv) hither, whither, on that delighted, detective novel, ecstatic,
apprehension, scourge. point, in that respect, at that place, elated, jubilant, happy, glad, excited.
ANTONYMS: (n) peace, security, in that location; (adj) further, ANTONYM: (adj) disappointed
delight, calm, confidence ulterior, remoter, succeeding, more tile: (n) roof, thatch, bonnet, pantile,
thankfulness: (n) appreciation, distant castor, ceiling, roofing tile, wimple,
gratefulness, appreciativeness, thoughtful: (adj, v) serious, solemn, tiling, paving stone; (v) cover
thanks, credit, merit, recognition grave; (adj) kind, careful, pensive, tillage: (n) agriculture, farming,
theft: (n) stealing, larceny, thievery, heedful, attentive, discreet, sensible, cultivated land, tilth, husbandry,
burglary, embezzlement, thieving, courteous. ANTONYMS: (adj) culture, land, fallow, vintage,
peculation, defalcation, depredation, thoughtless, careless, heedless, farmland, plowland
latrociny, misappropriation. uncaring, unkind, tactless, tincture: (n, v) dye, tint, taste; (n)
ANTONYM: (n) return superficial, stupid, negligent, idiotic, shade, color, hue, tinct; (adj, n, v)
thence: (adv) therefore, thus, unthinking smack, dash; (adj) spice; (v)
therefrom, thereof, consequently, thread: (n) screw thread, yarn, rope, impregnate
then, so, thereafter, thenceforth, wire, twine, ligature; (adj, n, v) line, toad: (n) batrachian, anuran,
Jonathan Swift 385
salientian, crapaud, sneak, sheep torn: (adj, prep) lacerated, rent, trample: (v) oppress, stamp, squash,
frog, robber frog, spadefoot, mangled; (adj) ripped, tattered, crush, tread, flatten, defeat, suppress,
spadefoot toad; (v) toady; (adj) satyr blasted, lacerate, shabby, step, frustrate; (n) trampling
toads: (n) caecilians, class Amphibia, goddamned, infernal, made trampled: (adj) crushed, damaged,
frogs, newts, salamanders uninhabitable. ANTONYMS: (adj) flattened, compressed, packed down
toasted: (adj) heated pristine, sure, resolute, healed, trampling: (n) trample; (adj) moving
tobacco: (adj) nicotine; (n) filler, decided, mended tranquillity: (adj, n, v) quiet; (n)
nicotian, plant product, mustard torrent: (n) flood, cloudburst, serenity, quietness, relaxation,
tree, herb, herbaceous plant, overflow, stream, downpour, rain, quietude, peacefulness, calmness; (n,
common tobacco, drug of abuse, shower, soaker, inundation; (adj, n) v) repose, rest; (adj, n) stillness, calm.
street drug, smoking mixture volley, eruption. ANTONYMS: (n) ANTONYMS: (n) noise, agitation,
toil: (n, v) labor, work, drudge, sweat, drought, trickle, shower movement, panic, turbulence,
drudgery, grind, labour, travail; (v) tortoise: (v) sluggard, loiterer, turmoil
plod; (n) effort, exertion. lingerer; (n) gopher, desert tortoise, transact: (v) perform, execute, do,
ANTONYMS: (n) pastime, gopher tortoise, giant tortoise, manage, conduct, deal, bargain,
entertainment, fun, relaxation; (v) gopher turtle, testudo negotiate, enact, sell, bank.
laze, neglect torture: (n, v) pain, distress, agonize, ANTONYM: (v) deny
token: (n) memento, souvenir, note, afflict; (n) agony, anguish, suffering, transcribed: (adj) written, tinned
keepsake, sign, relic, stamp, signal, excruciation, grief; (v) rack, translate: (v) construe, transform,
indication; (adj) nominal; (n, v) trace. excruciate. ANTONYMS: (n) relief, decipher, explain, render, read,
ANTONYM: (adj) great alleviation, content, ecstasy, joy, convert, define, turn, understand,
tokens: (n) decorations, pleasure; (v) relieve, alleviate alter. ANTONYM: (v) stagnate
discriminating marks, indications, tortured: (adj) anguished, suffering, translation: (n) displacement,
indicia, insignia, signs, appearances, agonized, excruciate, excruciated, transformation, version,
badges gnarled, hagridden, miserable, interpretation, rendition, paraphrase,
tolerable: (adj) passable, mediocre, woeful, hurt metamorphosis, conversion, shift,
bearable, fair, middling, reasonable, touching: (adj, v) affecting; (adj) mistranslation; (v) transmission
adequate, respectable, endurable, poignant, pitiful, pathetic, adjacent, transmitted: (adj) transmissible,
sufferable; (adj, v) satisfactory. adjoining, emotional; (n) touch, genetic, familial, inherited,
ANTONYMS: (adj) intolerable, contact; (prep) concerning, about. patrimonial, ancestral, catching,
exceptional, unbearable, ANTONYMS: (adj) unaffecting, communicable, contractable,
unsatisfactory, bad, inadequate, everyday, heartwarming, unmoving, transmittable, figurative
appalling, inadmissible heartbreaking, emotionless, transparent: (adj) diaphanous,
tolerably: (adv) well enough, unemotional, impassive obvious, plain, limpid, sheer, filmy,
passably, acceptably, reasonably, toward: (prep) to, towards, gauzy, pellucid; (adj, n) lucid,
enough, moderately, to a tolerable approaching, headed for, just before, luminous, bright. ANTONYMS:
degree, pretty, to an adequate of, in the direction of; (adv, prep) on; (adj) solid, unclear, cloudy, thick,
degree; (adj, adv) somewhat; (adj) (adv) about, around, by. vague, subtle, questionable, hidden,
pretty well. ANTONYMS: (adv) ANTONYMS: (prep) from, away robust, heavy, furtive
unbearably, intolerably, towardly: (adj) timely, seasonable transporting: (adj) ecstatic, rapturous,
unacceptably, unreasonably, towers: (n) edifice rapturous applause, ravishing,
insufficiently, inadequately tract: (n) region, area, expanse, essay, transportant
tolerate: (adj, v) accept; (v) let, bear, pamphlet, section, extent, district, traveller: (n) passenger, tourist,
take, permit, endure, support, brook, dissertation, plot, lot wanderer, voyager, wayfarer, mover,
stand, abide, allow. ANTONYMS: tractable: (adj, prep) docile; (adj) itinerant, courier, entrant, swimmer,
(v) veto, disapprove, disallow obedient, ductile, tame, gentle, outlander
tongs: (n) forceps, pincers, pliers, yielding, manageable; (adj, v) travels: (n) actions, expedition
nippers, poker, lifter, pair of tongs, pliable, flexible, pliant, plastic. tray: (n) plate, salver, dish,
trivet, vice, ice tongs; (v) clutches ANTONYMS: (adj) intractable, cheeseboard, tray bar, server, waiter,
tons: (n) loads, heaps, lots, scads, unmanageable, unruly, rebellious Cran, inkstand, icetray, jardiniere
scores, stacks, slews, dozens, many, traded: (adj) listed treacherous: (adj) unfaithful,
gobs, lashings tradesmen: (n) fellow tradesmen deceitful, false, perfidious,
tooth: (n) palate, denticle, trident, traitor: (n) betrayer, conspirator, dangerous, disloyal, unreliable,
sprocket, saw, premolar, nap, incisor, Judas, renegade, rat, quisling, unsafe, Punic, fraudulent, faithless.
grain, eyetooth; (adj) nib deserter, cheat, collaborationist; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) faithful, loyal,
topmast: (n) topgallant, mast, royal insurgent, mutineer. ANTONYMS: honest, safe, true, genuine,
mast, topgallant mast (n) loyalist, patriot forthright, stable, harmless,
tops: (n) apex, pinnacle, pick; (adj) traitorously: (adv) disloyally, falsely, dependable, open
champion, elite, fabulous, leading, treacherously, false, treasonously, treachery: (n) betrayal, disloyalty,
outstanding, uppermost, superb, unfaithfully, perfidiously, untruely, infidelity, duplicity, treason, perfidy,
superlative treasonably. ANTONYM: (adv) falseness, faithlessness,
tore: (v) tare; (n) moulding, molding faithfully perfidiousness, guile, dishonesty.
ANTONYMS: (n) loyalty, nothing, triviality, detail; (adj, n) sure. ANTONYMS: (adj)
faithfulness, fidelity, reliability, bagatelle untrustworthy, inconstant, corrupt,
allegiance, goodness trifling: (adj) paltry, slight, petty, disloyal
tread: (n, v) pace, walk, rate, march, negligible, immaterial, worthless, tumble: (n, v) drop, jumble, stumble,
tramp; (n) gait, stride, footstep, trivial, minor, small; (adj, v) plunge, slip, spill, downfall; (v)
footfall, track; (v) trample inconsequential; (adj, n) frivolity. crumble, collapse, topple, confuse
treason: (n) treachery, perfidy, high ANTONYMS: (adj) significant, tumbling: (adj) falling, billowing,
treason, sabotage, lese majesty, worthwhile, major, considerable, dropping, rolled; (adj, adv)
traitorousness, subversiveness, crucial, enormous, great, mature, plunging; (n) gymnastics, acrobatics,
duplicity; (adj, n) disloyalty, profound, substantial; (n) stunting, stunt flying, rumbling;
sedition, prodition. ANTONYMS: importance (adv) headfirst
(n) loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity trinkets: (n) finery, jewels tumbril: (n) tipping tumbril,
treasure: (n) gem, fortune, riches, tripping: (adj) easy, flowing, dumpcart
funds; (n, v) hoard, prize, store; (v) lightsome, readable, swinging, tune: (n) song, strain, air, harmony,
cherish, appreciate; (adj, n) jewel, swingy, nimble, lilting, light, fluent; note, concord; (v) adjust, regulate,
precious stone. ANTONYMS: (v) (v) failing string, tune up; (n, v) chant.
dislike, disparage, scorn, neglect; (n) troop: (n) group, corps, gang, crowd, ANTONYMS: (n) silence; (v) untune
dud, poverty band, brigade, crew, herd, swarm, turkeys: (n) order Galliformes,
treasurer: (n) bursar, chamberlain, horde; (n, v) flock partridges, brush turkeys, chickens,
financial officer, purser, official, tropics: (n) climatic zone, Torrid curassows, Galliformes, hoatzins,
tutor, state treasurer, procurator Zone pheasants, grouse, quails
fiscal, money dealer, keeper, trot: (n, v) run; (n) crib, canter, pony, turret: (adj) steeple, spire, campanile,
guardian gait, ride, lope; (v) gallop, general, obelisk, pillar, monument, minaret,
treating: (adj) remedial frequent, household column; (n) gun turret, gun
treatise: (n) tract, thesis, essay, troubled: (adj, v) concerned, enclosure, garret
discourse, paper, article, monograph, solicitous; (adj) distressed, anxious, tutor: (n) teacher, instructor, mentor,
piece, pamphlet, review, book worried, uneasy, uncomfortable, trainer, master, guardian; (v)
treble: (adj) threefold, ternary, triplex, disconcerted, upset, apprehensive, instruct, school, educate, train, teach
thribble, double, dual, high, voce di restless. ANTONYMS: (adj) tweak: (n, v) pull, nip, twinge,
testa, shrill; (adj, v) triple; (v) sing unconcerned, composed, calm, easy, wrench, jerk, tug, yank; (v) pluck,
trembling: (adj, n) shaking; (adj, n, v) relaxed, tranquil, assured, carefree, squeeze, modify; (n) twitch
tremor; (adj) shaky, quaking, brave, stable, unaffected twelfth: (adj) dozenth
shivering, flutter; (n) palpitation, troubles: (n) dilemma, evils, harms, twisted: (adj) perverted, deformed,
quiver, vibration, shiver, quake. ills bent, distorted, misshapen, coiled,
ANTONYMS: (adj) stable, steady troublesome: (adj) difficult, hard, twined, curved, wry, contorted; (adj,
trencher: (n) dish, platter, chopping arduous, bothersome, inconvenient, v) winding. ANTONYMS: (adj) tidy,
board, porringer, potager, ditch onerous, awkward, annoying, normal, perfect, wholesome
digger, saucer, calabash, crucible laborious, tough, heavy. twisting: (adj) tortuous, winding,
triangle: (n) trigon, trilateral, set ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, helpful, sinuous, crooked, zigzag,
square, reed, submaxillary triangle , useful, advantageous, convenient, meandering; (n) distortion, turn,
xylophone, triennium, trident, uncomplicated, delightful spin, torsion, overrefinement
wooden horse, wheel, trisula troubling: (adj) worrying, disquieting, tyranny: (adj, n) dictatorship,
tribe: (n) clan, house, race, kin, nation, distressing, distressful, autocracy; (n) absolutism, despotism,
people, kindred, folk, stock, lineage, disconcerting, alarming, perturbing, oppression, cruelty, monocracy,
breed bad, annoying, sad, worrisome. totalitarianism, authoritarianism,
tribute: (n) commendation, tax, honor, ANTONYM: (adj) reassuring autarchy, Caesarism. ANTONYMS:
testimonial, duty, homage, respect, trough: (n) chute, channel, manger, (n) democracy, liberty
eulogy, compliment; (n, v) depression, gutter, conduit, ditch, tyrant: (n) dictator, oppressor,
contribution, subsidy. ANTONYMS: canal, crib, valley, bowl. autocrat, disciplinarian, bully,
(n) blame, accusation, dishonor ANTONYM: (n) ridge authoritarian, sovereign, czar,
trick: (n, v) deceive, cheat, fraud, trumpets: (n) Sarracenia flava, yellow monarch, suzerain, stickler
deceit, joke, sham, con; (n) prank, pitcher plant, pitcher plant, yellow ugly: (adj, adv) surly; (adj) nasty,
deception, device; (v) mislead. trumpet repulsive, frightful, forbidding,
ANTONYMS: (n) frankness, honesty, trussed: (adj) bound, fastened, laced, disagreeable, hideous, gruesome,
misunderstanding, seriousness, even evil, offensive, shocking.
truthfulness; (adj) real, genuine, trusted: (adj) intimate, confidential, ANTONYMS: (adj) attractive,
innocent sure, bosom, beloved, cherished, flowing, ornamental, nice, lovely,
tricks: (n) actions, behavior, thing, familiar, trustworthy, indisputable, pleasant, safe, kind, gentle,
clowning around, fooling, magic, trusty, reliable appealing, agreeable
plunder, possession, activities trusty: (adj) trustworthy, honest, unacceptable: (adj) impossible,
trifle: (n, v) play; (adj, n, v) trinket; faithful, dependable, responsible, objectionable, unsatisfactory,
(v) dally, fiddle, flirt, fool, frivol; (n) constant, loyal, true, authentic, solid, inadmissible, unbearable, offensive,
Jonathan Swift 387
intolerable, unsuitable, disagreeable, (v) unencumbered. ANTONYMS: harmful, prejudicial, subversive; (n)
thankless, ineligible. ANTONYMS: (adj) bound, restricted damage, decline, destabilization,
(adj) acceptable, satisfactory, unbraced: (v) sickly, morbose, deterioration, discouragement,
allowable, permissible, valid, healthless, infirm, morbid, disruption, subversion
admissible, suitable, proper, fitting, unsupported underwent: (v) endure, tolerate
on, bearable unbuttoned: (adj) unobstructed, undistinguishing: (adj)
unaccountable: (adj) untrammeled, unchecked, indiscriminate, promiscuous,
incomprehensible, inexplicable, unconfined, unprevented, confused
strange, unintelligible, unhindered, uncaught, unrestrained, undone: (adj) ruined, unfinished,
unexplainable, mysterious, unlaced, unfastened, unconstrained sunk, done for, finished,
impenetrable, undiscoverable, unchastity: (n) dishonor, behindhand, decayed; (adj, v)
undecipherable, unknowable, dishonorableness, fraud, inchastity, doomed; (v) accursed, to be pitied,
unnatural. ANTONYMS: (adj) lewdness, shame, dishonesty devoted
accountable, explainable, uncleanly: (adv) foully, impurely, undress: (v) strip, unclothe, divest,
responsible, explicable grubbily, dirtily, dingily, squalidly, discase, doff, unrobe, strip down,
unaccountably: (adv) mysteriously, muddily, grimily, messily; (adj) uncase; (n) dishabille, disarray,
especially, curiously, bizarrely impure; (v) slovenly morning dress. ANTONYMS: (v)
unacquainted: (adj) unaware, uncomfortable: (adj) ill at ease, dress, clothe
unaccustomed, strange, oblivious, embarrassing, troubled, uneasiness: (n) disquiet, discomfort,
ignorant, unapprized, unapprised, disagreeable, inconvenient, difficult, inquietude, anxiety, unease, malaise,
unweeting, inexperienced, innocent, discomfited, anxious, uneasy, disquietude, apprehension, unrest,
not learned. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerless; (v) untoward. impatience; (n, v) agitation.
accustomed, knowledgeable, ANTONYMS: (adj) relaxed, comfy, ANTONYMS: (n) peace, calm,
conscious, informed happy, untroubled, painless, content, confidence
unanimity: (n) accord, concord, easy, straightforward uneasy: (adj) anxious, fidgety,
harmony, agreement, unity, uncommon: (adj) extraordinary, restless, concerned, nervous,
consensus, union, unison, vox peculiar, scarce, singular, strange, apprehensive, ill at ease, unquiet,
populi, concert, acclamation. special, exceptional, infrequent, odd, awkward, fretful, restive.
ANTONYM: (n) disarray unusual, unaccustomed. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm,
unanimous: (adj) consentaneous, ANTONYMS: (adj) typical, usual, untroubled, composed, relaxed, easy,
harmonious, consentient, strong, normal, familiar, poor, ordinary, unconcerned, still, comfortable,
firm, of one mind, concordant, bad, imperfect, customary, carefree, confident, serene
accordant, compact, collective, cubic. accustomed, frequent unerring: (adj) sure, certain, inerrant,
ANTONYMS: (adj) narrow, unconcerned: (adj) apathetic, inerrable, accurate, exact, faithful,
individual detached, insouciant, casual, perfect, unblemished, constant, right.
unanimously: (adv) harmoniously, in careless, nonchalant, thoughtless, ANTONYMS: (adj) erring, imperfect,
chorus, consentiently, collectively, easygoing, listless, carefree; (adj, n) mistaken, inaccurate, faulty
nemine contradicente, nem con, cold. ANTONYMS: (adj) caring, uneven: (adj) unequal, irregular,
solidly, commonly, generally, eager, troubled, sensitive, uptight, patchy, spotty, erratic,
completely, accordantly craving, involved, energetic, disproportionate; (adj, n) jagged,
unarmed: (adj) naked, unprotected, interested, annoyed, strict rugged, harsh, ragged; (adj, v)
open, simple, destitute, bare; (v) uncouth: (adj) rough, rude, barbarous, broken. ANTONYMS: (adj) smooth,
weaponless, harmless, unfortified, vulgar, crude, awkward, clumsy, straight, equal, symmetrical,
vincible, untenable gross, unrefined, ungainly, common. corresponding, balanced, constant,
unavoidable: (adj) necessary, ANTONYMS: (adj) refined, couth, stable, consistent, level, steady
inescapable, ineluctable, irresistible, polite, sophisticated, pleasant, unfortunate: (adj) inauspicious, sad,
obligatory, certain, indispensable, proper, genteel hapless, bad, inopportune,
essential, sure, required, avoidless. uncovered: (adj) naked, open, bare, disastrous, adverse, deplorable,
ANTONYMS: (adj) escapable, nude, unclothed, bald, unreserved, infelicitous, untoward, lamentable.
unpredictable, optional, unlikely, unprotected, evident, frank, ANTONYMS: (adj) lucky,
uncertain manifest. ANTONYMS: (adj) indoor, auspicious, good, opportune, joyous,
unbecoming: (adj) indecorous, concealed timely, appropriate, successful, easy,
unseemly, inappropriate, indecent, undeceive: (v) unbeguile, unbefool, privileged
indelicate, untoward, unworthy, disabuse, inform unhandy: (adj, v) awkward; (adj)
unsuitable, shameful, unbefitting, undeceived: (adj) disillusioned, maladroit, lubberly, inconvenient,
incongruous. ANTONYMS: (adj) disenchanted inept, gauche, unwieldy, gawky,
dignified, becoming, fitting, proper, undergo: (v) experience, encounter, ungainly, cumbersome, bulky
seemly, correct, decent, suitable sustain, have, endure, bear, tolerate, unhappily: (adv) wretchedly,
unbound: (adj) uncontrolled, go through, take, feel, know. unluckily, disconsolately, badly,
unconstrained, open, untied, ANTONYMS: (v) commit, do, woefully, forlornly, sorrowfully,
untrammeled, exempt, unchained, execute unfortunately, dismally, dejectedly,
released, unfettered, unobstructed; undermining: (adj) destructive, despondently. ANTONYMS: (adv)
cheerfully, contentedly, luckily, successful unsound: (adj) false, shaky, fallacious,
willingly, enthusiastically, unmoved: (adj) apathetic, unaffected, faulty, rotten, unreliable, invalid,
fortunately indifferent, unconcerned, unsafe, imperfect, unreasonable,
unhappiness: (n) sadness, misery, unimpressed, uninspired, weak. ANTONYMS: (adj) valid,
melancholy, distress, grief, regret, dispassionate, imperturbable, calm, sound, well, safe, steady, strong,
infelicity, woe, sorrowfulness, undisturbed, fixed. ANTONYMS: logical, watertight, stable, good,
depression, displeasure. (adj) affected, compliant, uptight, perfect
ANTONYMS: (n) cheerfulness, concerned, enthusiastic, tolerant, unspeakable: (adj) ineffable, dreadful,
pleasure, joy, elation, contentment, sensitive awful, terrible, inexpressible, nasty,
satisfaction, cheer unnatural: (adj) affected, artificial, horrible, atrocious, indefinable,
uninhabited: (adj) empty, desert, grotesque, supernatural, forced, shocking; (adj, v) unutterable.
desolate, vacant, unoccupied, abnormal, eccentric, uncanny, stilted, ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, wonderful,
unpopulated, uninhabitable, lonely, mannered, anomalous. pleasant, good, lovely, bearable
untenanted, unsettled, waste. ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, normal, unteachable: (adj) cross, headstrong,
ANTONYMS: (adj) inhabited, real, unaffected, commonplace, indocible, indocile, intractable,
overcrowded, populous genuine, sincere obstinate, perverse, refractory,
unintelligible: (adj) opaque, unperceived: (v) unheeded, stubborn, unruly; (v) untractable
inarticulate, unfathomable, unthought of, unregarded; (adj) untie: (v) disentangle, unfasten, free,
impenetrable, unaccountable, unremarked, unnoted, unobserved, loosen, release, loose, disengage,
ambiguous, not clear, obscure, unmarked, unknown, stealthy, sly, untangle, open, unlace, unbind.
indistinct, inconceivable, secret. secret ANTONYMS: (v) fasten, bind,
ANTONYMS: (adj) understandable, unpleasant: (adj, n) harsh; (adj) tighten, tie, entangle, enslave, close,
clear, comprehensible, intelligible, disagreeable, obnoxious, ugly, nasty, fetter
obvious sour, awkward, repulsive, unused: (adj, v) unaccustomed; (adj)
universally: (adv) commonly, forbidding, bad, hard. ANTONYMS: idle, fresh, extra, uncommon,
globally, ally, everywhere, totally, (adj) delightful, agreeable, unfamiliar, not used, surplus,
Catholicly, cosmically, ubiquitously, wonderful, nice, enjoyable, leftover, clean, inactive.
prevalently, regularly, usually. attractive, comfortable, charming, ANTONYMS: (adj) used,
ANTONYMS: (adv) narrowly, inoffensive, amicable, cordial knowledgeable, accustomed, busy,
locally unqualified: (adj) incompetent, sheer, active, working, main
unjust: (adj) partial, injurious, wrong, total, unconditional, absolute, unversed: (adj) unfamiliar, green,
inequitable, unrighteous, wicked, incapable, complete, utter, ignorant, uninformed, uncultivated,
foul, wrongful, improper, unmerited, unmitigated, unfit, perfect. raw, young, fresh, inexpert,
unjustified. ANTONYMS: (adj) just, ANTONYMS: (adj) qualified, unskilled, unenlightened
equitable, rightful, reasonable, good trained, prepared, competent, fit, unwary: (adj, n) careless, incautious;
unjustly: (adv) wrongly, wrongfully, conditional, indefinite, tentative, (adj) heedless, thoughtless,
wickedly, iniquitously, inequitably, capable, incomplete, partial unguarded, indiscreet, hasty,
undeservedly, illegally, foully, unreasonable: (adj) immoderate, precipitate, imprudent,
injuriously, unrighteously, undue, absurd, extravagant, unsuspecting; (adj, v) unwatchful.
unjustifiedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) excessive, preposterous, exorbitant, ANTONYMS: (adj) cautious,
rightly, reasonably illogical, inordinate, irrational, mindful, heeding, prepared,
unlock: (v) open, unfasten, disclose, ridiculous. ANTONYMS: (adj) suspicious, guarded
unbar, reveal, free, release, logical, practical, sensible, affordable, unwillingness: (n) disinclination,
disengage, unbolt, unclose, economical, justified, realistic, fair, indisposition, aversion, hesitation,
withdraw. ANTONYMS: (v) fasten, obliging, just, rational hesitancy, resistance, antipathy,
lock, close unscrew: (n, v) open; (n) break open, reluctancy, dislike, distaste,
unlocked: (adj) unbarred, unlatched, uncap, unstop; (v) rotate, screw, irreconcilableness. ANTONYMS: (n)
unbolted, not closed, loose, turn, unfasten, unlock. enthusiasm, disposition, keenness,
unsecured, ajar, wide open, ANTONYMS: (v) attach, screw; (n) inclination
unguaranteed seal unwise: (adj, n) silly, stupid, absurd,
unluckily: (adv) unfortunately, unseasonable: (adj) inopportune, indiscreet; (adj) imprudent,
inauspiciously, lucklessly, inappropriate, premature, ill timed, injudicious, ridiculous, senseless,
unhappily, untowardly, improper, immature, inconvenient, inadvisable, impolitic, unreasonable.
unsuccessfully, alas, regrettably, ill- ill-timed, inept, unchancy; (v) ANTONYMS: (adj) sensible,
fatedly, tragically, haplessly. illtimed prudent, thoughtful, sagacious,
ANTONYM: (adv) luckily unskilled: (adj) incompetent, judicious, advisable
unlucky: (adj) luckless, hapless, inexperienced, inexpert, raw, upholsterer: (n) supporter,
unhappy, sinister, inauspicious, unprofessional, unqualified, journeyman, defender, sustainer,
unsuccessful, ominous, adverse, amateurish, awkward, green, craftsman, broker, tapiser, upholder,
disastrous, unfavorable; (adj, v) untrained, bungling. ANTONYMS: artisan, artificer, tradesman
untoward. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adj) skilled, competent, trained, uppermost: (adj) top, upmost, upper,
fortunate, happy, auspicious, dexterous, skillful highest, chief, maximum, supreme,
Jonathan Swift 389
greatest, major, outermost; (n) main. ANTONYMS: (adj) helpful, effective, valued: (adj) precious, appreciated,
ANTONYMS: (adj) bottom, lowest, competent, convenient, valuable, respected, dear, prized, priced,
trivial, lower necessary, brilliant, great, treasured, value, esteemed, loved,
upright: (adj) perpendicular, erect, meaningful, usable, worthwhile beloved
fair, good, righteous, just, virtuous, utensils: (n) gear, equipment, tackle, vanished: (adj, v) extinct, lost; (adj)
true, honorable, plumb; (adj, n) apparatus, hardware disappeared, departed, missing,
vertical. ANTONYMS: (adj) prone, utmost: (adj, n) maximum, extreme, died out, absent, dead, wiped out,
disreputable, degenerate, hanging, uttermost, furthermost, best, bygone; (v) exhausted.
unwholesome, dishonest, highest; (adj, adv) farthest; (adj, v) ANTONYMS: (adj) found, living
dishonorable, lying, horizontal, supreme; (adj) last, furthest; (adj, n, vanity: (n) egotism, pride, emptiness,
falling; (adv) horizontally v) greatest. ANTONYMS: (adj) arrogance, futility, inanity,
uproar: (adj, n, v) hubbub, moderate, worst vainglory, conceitedness, pretension,
disturbance, tumult; (n) din, noise, utopia: (n) fantasy, paradise, pomposity; (adj, n) amour propre.
turmoil, commotion, disorder, Utopistic, Happy Valley, ANTONYMS: (n) selflessness,
confusion; (adj, n) row; (n, v) brawl. millennium, fool's paradise, humility, importance, value,
ANTONYMS: (n) calm, peace, chateaux en Espagne, dreamboat, effectiveness
serenity, order Israel, castles in the air, Erewhon. vapours: (n) vapors, megrims, blue
upside: (n) crest, crown, poll, top side, ANTONYM: (n) hell devils, blues
upper side, pate, round top, acme, utter: (v) say, state, speak, breathe, variance: (n) disagreement, difference,
summit, superlative, teetotum articulate, deliver, voice, pronounce; dissension, division, divergence,
upward: (adv) upwards, upwardly, (adj, n, v) express, declare; (adj, v) deviation, misunderstanding,
aloft; (adj) overhead, rising, upper, tell. ANTONYMS: (adj) qualified, discord, diversity, dissimilarity,
increasing, open, vertical, mounting, incomplete, uncertain, rather, slight; dissonance. ANTONYMS: (n)
upright. ANTONYMS: (adj) (v) conceal, hide, block invariability, consistency,
descending, downward; (adv) down utterly: (adv) completely, absolutely, concurrence, concord
urchin: (n) brat, imp, elf, ragamuffin, totally, entirely, extremely, variously: (adv) differently,
pixy, rogue, bairn, scamp, fairy; (adj, altogether, expressly, purely, dead, multifariously, sundrily, variedly,
n) chit, dwarf fully, wholly. ANTONYMS: (adv) severally, assortedly, dissimilarly,
urgency: (n) pressure, haste, necessity, partly, uncertain, slightly, numerously, versatilely, diversly,
hurry, press, stress, insistence, incompletely, hardly, somewhat variegatedly
exigency, instancy, importance, vacancy: (n) emptiness, blank, varlet: (n) rascal, knave, page,
speed. ANTONYMS: (n) opening, void, incogitancy, post, attendant, scoundrel, mean wretch,
unimportance, tardiness blankness, inanity, absence; (adj, n) cullion, scalawag, scallywag,
urging: (n) spur, encouragement, vacuity; (adj) depletion. rapscallion, scamp
prod, prodding, goad, advocacy, ANTONYMS: (n) fill, tenancy, varying: (adj) shifting, patchy,
spurring, goading, influence, overflow changeable, unequal, changing,
exhortation; (adj) driving vacant: (adj) blank, hollow, unfilled, varied, variant, fickle, unreliable,
urine: (n) piss, pee, water, piddle, void, free, unoccupied, bare, idle, untrustworthy, altering
weewee, pissing, lanterloo, excreta, expressionless, open; (adj, v) devoid. vassal: (n) feudatory, liegeman, liege,
excretion; (v) urinate, Sig ANTONYMS: (adj) full, cognizant, serf, helot, dependent, subject, liege
usage: (n, v) practice, use, overflowing, inhabited, aware, subject, follower, bondman,
employment, convention, usance; comprehending, animated, solid, homager
(adj, n, v) habit; (n) method, expressive, knowing vaulted: (adj) domed, hollow, hooked,
consuetude, wont, exercise; (v) vain: (adj) proud, arrogant, conceited, testudinated, rounded, arcuated, in
application fruitless, idle, empty, abortive, the form of an arch, curved, concave,
usefully: (adv) practically, ineffectual, unproductive, roofed
conveniently, handily, beneficially, narcissistic; (adj, v) useless. veal: (n) calf, venison, veau, animal
advantageously, effectively, ANTONYMS: (adj) shy, successful, protein, beef, calves' feet, chicken,
fruitfully, utilitarianly, gainfully, possible, persuasive, selfless, fruitful, ham, lamb, meat, mutton
cleverly, favorably. ANTONYMS: humble, useful, responsible, vehemence: (n) force, violence, fury,
(adv) awkwardly, unhelpfully, worthwhile, effective passion, eagerness, strength,
inconveniently, clumsily vale: (n) dale, glen, hollow, ravine, impetuosity, enthusiasm, fierceness,
usefulness: (n) utility, service, benefit, dingle, vail, valediction, earth, holler, heat, fervor. ANTONYMS: (n)
convenience, practicality, avail, dell, gully. ANTONYM: (n) hill indifference, meekness, serenity
helpfulness, effectiveness, efficacy, valet: (n) man, attendant, lackey, vehemently: (adj, adv) ardently;
value; (adj, n) worth. ANTONYMS: butler, flunkey, manservant, waiter, (adv) violently, zealously, strongly,
(n) inefficiency, inutility, clumsiness, gentleman, livery servant, servant, fervently, passionately, ferociously,
insignificance retainer fervidly, keenly, intensely, furiously.
useless: (adj) pointless, unnecessary, valour: (n) valor, valiancy, valiance, ANTONYMS: (adv) feebly, gently,
needless, worthless, fruitless, heroism, courage, bravery, impassively
hopeless, abortive, idle, barren, valorousness, prowess, daring, vend: (v) peddle, trade, monger,
superfluous, unavailing. pluck, spirit huckster, hawk, market, dispose of,
pitch, higgle, toss; (n) sale. vexation: (adj, n) annoyance, ANTONYMS: (adj) careless,
ANTONYMS: (v) buy, wholesale nuisance; (n) irritation, worry, negligent, reckless, oblivious,
venerable: (adj) ancient, reverend, aggravation, displeasure, chagrin, unprepared, asleep
estimable, August, respectable, aged, chafe, anger, frustration, botheration vigour: (n) force, strength, vigor,
distinguished, sacred, worthy, of vexatious: (adj) annoying, pesky, energy, power, potency, vim,
long standing, revered. troublesome, tiresome, galling, vitality, athleticism, verve, intensity
ANTONYMS: (adj) unworthy, irritating, untoward, thorny, viii: (n) eighter from Decatur, octad,
unimpressive, undignified, burdensome, pestiferous, vexing. ogdoad, octonary, eighter, octet,
disreputable ANTONYMS: (adj) aiding, assisting, octette, eightsome, digit
veneration: (n) respect, awe, honor, helpful, soothing vile: (adj, n) contemptible, dirty, low;
devotion, esteem, adoration, vexed: (adj) troubled, irritated, angry, (adj, v) base; (adj) despicable,
deference, estimation, worship, pestered, peeved, harassed, sore, ignoble, evil, sorry, revolting,
admiration, thaumatolatry. harried, uneasy, cross, offended. offensive, nasty. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) contempt, ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, attractive, kind, nice, lovely, lovable,
disapproval uncomplicated gentle, honorable, good, delightful,
venice: (n) Venezia vice: (adj, n) imperfection, defect, admirable, noble
veracity: (n) truth, accuracy, blemish, failing, frailty; (n) vindicate: (adj, v) absolve, clear,
exactness, truthfulness, fact, reality, corruption, sin, evil, immorality, exonerate, exculpate; (v) excuse,
precision; (adj) probity; (adj, n) iniquity, depravity. ANTONYMS: acquit, defend, maintain, uphold,
faithfulness, sincerity, candor. (n) asset, strength, propriety, virtue, assert, rationalize. ANTONYMS: (v)
ANTONYMS: (n) mendacity, righteousness, goodness, good, punish, blame, accuse, condemn
falsehood, falsity, dishonesty honesty; (adj) chief vindicated: (adj) exculpated,
verbal: (adj) oral, literal, unwritten, viceroy: (n) vicereine, satrap, exarch, exonerated, cleared, absolved,
vocal, wordy, talkative, lexical, nymphalid, nymphalid butterfly, unmortgaged, unclouded, safe,
nominal, oral law, oral testimony, regent, delegate easily deciphered, easily perceptible,
prolix. ANTONYMS: (adj) vicious: (adj) malicious, bad, clean, guiltless. ANTONYM: (adj)
numerical, silent depraved, wicked, brutal, wrong
verge: (n, v) edge, skirt; (n) boundary, malevolent, cruel, venomous, vindication: (n) defense, apology,
brink, margin, limit, rim, bound, immoral, nasty, corrupt. excuse, defence, plea, alibi, acquittal,
brim, side; (v) bend. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adj) kind, gentle, assertion, reason, exoneration,
(n) end, middle; (v) retreat friendly, good, right, pleasant, protection. ANTONYM: (n)
verify: (v) corroborate, ascertain, kindhearted, nice, cordial, accusation
confirm, check, prove, support, constructive vinegar: (n) verjuice, eisel, crab,
certify, validate, sustain; (n, v) victor: (n) winner, champion, condiment, chili vinegar, brine, cider
establish, authenticate. vanquisher, master, champ, vinegar, acetum, acetic acid, alum
ANTONYMS: (v) invalidate, medalist, superior, title holder, hero, violated: (adj) profaned, seduced,
discredit, refute, undermine victorious, skipper dishonored; (v) strained, disunited,
verily: (adj, adv) really; (adv) indeed, victorious: (adj) triumphant, ruined financially, subjugated,
in reality, genuinely, quitely, successful, winning, jubilant, victor, rough, not continuous, humbled,
actually, selfly, truely, identically, fortunate, lifted up; (adj, v) fractured
exactly; (adv, int) in truth triumphal, exultant, triumphing, on violation: (n) infraction, breach,
vermin: (n) bug, varmint, louse, trash, top. ANTONYMS: (adj) beaten, infringement, trespass, assault,
pest, brute, varment, scum, riffraff, unsuccessful, failing, losing, outrage, invasion; (adj, n, v) abuse;
ragtag and bobtail, rabble sorrowful (n, v) crime, offense; (adj, n)
vernal: (adj) young, hornotine, victuals: (n) food, fare, viands, victual, defilement. ANTONYMS: (n)
springlike, vernant, renovated, edible, provender, grub, sustenance, obedience, observance, consecration,
tender, juvenile, sempervirid, support, diet, nutriment respect
sempervirent, immature. viewing: (n) showing, contemplation, violently: (adj, adv) vehemently,
ANTONYMS: (adj) wintry, preview, exhibit, display, view, hotly, madly, ardently; (adv) wildly,
summery sight, look, show, performance, passionately, strongly, hard,
verse: (n) rhyme, poem, stanza, poesy, covering furiously, turbulently; (adv, n)
strain, measure, song, paragraph, vigilance: (n) caution, alertness, vigorously. ANTONYMS: (adv)
clause, couplet, vertex prudence, attention, watchfulness, gently, nonviolently, feebly,
versed: (adj) skillful, skilled, surveillance, jealousy, vigil, watch, impassively, peacefully, tamely
knowledgeable, proficient, expert, circumspection; (adj) vigilant. virtues: (n) brawn, sinew, qualities,
adept, conversant, old, learned, ANTONYMS: (n) carelessness, nerve, manner, habit, disposition,
adroit, practised. ANTONYMS: (adj) indiscretion, negligence, custom
green, immature, inexperienced, inattentiveness, recklessness virtuous: (adj) upright, pure,
unversed vigilant: (adj) alert, watchful, righteous, good, moral, just,
vessel: (n) ship, pot, jar, duct, vas, attentive, observant, cautious, honorable, honest, respectable,
boat, craft, container, bowl, barrel, guarded, circumspect, wakeful, decent, pious. ANTONYMS: (adj)
canal careful, jealous; (adj, v) awake. bad, sinful, corrupt, impure,
Jonathan Swift 391
unethical, decadent, degenerate, crossing, quest; (v) sail, navigate waving: (adj) flying, aflare, fluttering,
irreverent vulgar: (adj) rude, coarse, plebeian, flaring, flared, curly, burning,
visage: (n) face, look, mug, nasty, common, foul, indecent, gross, blazing, billowy, palpitating; (n)
physiognomy, expression, kisser, unrefined; (adj, n) low, vile. wafture
appearance, aspect, brow, smiler, ANTONYMS: (adj) refined, weakened: (adj) lessened, faded, hurt,
forehead sophisticated, tasteful, polite, vitiated, damaged, cut, diluted,
viscous: (adj) thick, gluey, gummy, aesthetic, muted, fashionable, decent, thinned, attenuated, attenuate,
glutinous, adhesive, pasty, gooey, artistic, pleasant, clean disabled
mucilaginous, syrupy; (adj, n) wafer: (n) cookie, waffle, paste, weakest: (adj) ridiculous, suggestion,
viscid; (adj, v) tenacious. cement, glue, size, gum, coke, stucco, supposes, notions, plainly, irrational,
ANTONYM: (adj) watery staff of life, solder incongruous, project, foolish, fatuity,
visibly: (adv) apparently, noticeably, wailing: (n, v) lamentation, lament, inconsistent
manifestly, obviously, plainly, moaning; (adj) lamenting, weeping, weal: (n) wale, wheal, welt,
perceptibly, appreciably, clearly, crying, wailful, howling, sobbing; prosperity, happiness, good, wealth,
discernibly, overtly, conspicuously. (adj, n) bawling; (n) cry riches, welfare, injury, trauma
ANTONYMS: (adv) imperceptibly, waist: (n) waistline, shank, middle, weariness: (n) exhaustion, tiredness,
invisibly, secretly, ambiguously belly, isthmus, hourglass, lassitude, languor, asthenopia,
visionary: (adj, n) utopian; (adj, v) undersurface; (adj) stricture, middle defatigation, grogginess, listlessness,
imaginary; (adj) airy, fanciful, unreal, constriction, neck, wasp boredom, ennui, prostration
dreamy, ideal, romantic; (n) seer, waistband: (n) belt, cummerbund, weary: (adj, n, v) fatigue; (v) exhaust,
dreamer, prophet. ANTONYMS: band, cincture, sash, waistcloth, tire out; (adj) tired, exhausted,
(adj) foolish, unromantic, practical, stays, panty girdle, corset fatigued, aweary, beat, languid; (n,
real, realistic, unimaginative waistcoat: (n) CHUDDER, barbe, v) jade, bore. ANTONYMS: (adj)
vista: (n) outlook, panorama, horizon, garment, jerkin, jubbah, oilskins, energetic, fresh, lively, untiring,
aspect, scene, landscape, scenery, pilot jacket, pajamas, cardigan, hopeful, refreshed; (v) refresh,
picture, alley; (adj, n) view, singlet, talma jacket enliven, energize, activate, rally
perspective waking: (adj) wakeful; (n) awakening, weasel: (n) muishond, informer,
vivacity: (adj, n) life, liveliness; (n) wakefulness, consciousness whittret, vare, troublemaker,
energy, vitality, enthusiasm, dash, warden: (n) custodian, keeper, shorttail weasel; (v) equivocate,
spirit, vigor, happiness, sparkle, caretaker, guard, chancellor, provost, evade, hedge, pussyfoot, dodge
effervescence. ANTONYMS: (n) prefect, warder, watchman, ranger, weasels: (n) badgers, family
apathy, dullness, sluggishness burgomaster. ANTONYM: (n) Mustelidae, ferrets, fishers, martens,
vocabulary: (n) lexicon, glossary, attacker Mustelidae, minks, polecats, otters
wordbook, terminology, words, warrant: (n, v) permit, vouch, license, weathercock: (n) vane, weather vane,
mental lexicon, language, word list, assure, sanction, empower; (n) hand, flagstaff, cairn, pointer, post,
diction, lexis, text authority, authorization, security; staff; (adj) chameleon, moon,
vogue: (n) fashion, style, mode, rage, (v) justify, ensure. ANTONYMS: (n) Proteus
trend, popularity, currency, fad, break; (v) debar weave: (v) twine, braid, knit, entwine,
craze, custom, bandwagon. wasp: (adj) stricture, neck, middle interweave, wind, waver, plait,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unfashionable, constriction, isthmus; (n) gallfly, fabricate, inweave; (n) texture.
unpopular, unstylish hornet, vespid, vespid wasp, ANTONYMS: (v) separate, unweave,
voided: (adj) cancelled, emptied cynipid gall wasp, cynipid wasp; (v) unpick
volatile: (adj) erratic, unstable, bee wedged: (adj) impacted, cuneiform,
mercurial, capricious, variable, wasps: (n) hymenoptera, gall wasps, jammed, fast, compacter, stuck,
flighty, inconstant, unsteady; (adj, v) sawflies, order hymenoptera, etc, compact. ANTONYM: (adj) free
fickle; (adj, n) frivolous, giddy. ants, ichneumons weeded: (adj) weedless
ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, steadfast, wasted: (adj, v) squandered, rotten, weeping: (adj) tearful, lachrymose,
placid, nonvolatile, unflappable, decayed, effete; (adj) thin, dolourous, dolorous; (n, v) lament,
reliable, serious, predictable cadaverous, emaciated, gaunt, lamentation; (v) wailing; (n) sobbing,
volley: (n, v) hail, firing, blast, devastated, pointless, haggard. tears, cry; (adj, n) howling.
explosion; (adj, n, v) burst, ANTONYMS: (adj) bloated, ANTONYM: (n) celebration
discharge; (n) fusillade, shower, hypertrophied, strong, plump, obese, weigh: (v) press, study, measure,
storm, barrage, fire fruitful, useful matter, consider, count, deliberate,
vomit: (n, v) spew, puke, sick; (v) watchful: (adj) alert, observant, contemplate, assess; (n, v) balance,
heave, throw up, retch, disgorge, careful, cautious, wary, attentive, poise. ANTONYMS: (v) ignore,
cast, gag, eject; (n) vomiting wakeful, mindful, circumspect, neglect
voting: (n) ballot, balloting, poll, sleepless, awake. ANTONYMS: (adj) weighty: (adj) heavy, ponderous,
election, suffrage, voter turnout, inattentive, negligent, oblivious, grievous, powerful, profound; (adj,
right to vote, straight ticket, split forgetful, careless, asleep, trusting, v) grave, serious, momentous,
ticket; (adj) electoral, elective unprepared, reckless significant, solemn, influential.
voyage: (n, v) travel, cruise, tour; (n) waved: (adj) undulating, wavy, curly, ANTONYMS: (adj) superficial, light,
trip, passage, expedition, flight, not dated, undated unimportant, trivial, weightless,
unsubstantial, thin, solvable, small, tweet, cheep, chirp, wheeze; (n, v) tempestuous, flatulent, empty, airy,
facile, easy cry; (n) whistling, tin whistle windy, boisterous
welch: (v) default whistling: (n) whistle, sound, tin windy: (adj) gusty, verbose, blowy,
wench: (n) miss, damsel, strumpet, whistle, music, pennywhistle, sign, flatulent, wordy, breezy,
trollop, Trull, missy, quean, slut, signal, signaling tempestuous, empty, airy, prolix,
nymph, dame; (n, v) drab whiteness: (n) paleness, ivory, chalk, bombastic. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm,
westerly: (adj) western, westbound, pearl, bone, bleach, alabaster, still, straight, uncommunicative,
hillbilly; (n) west wind, prevailing frostiness, hoariness, pallor, unresponsive, airless, pleasant,
westerly, wester; (adv) westwards; innocence. ANTONYM: (n) black direct
(v) to the west. ANTONYM: (adv) whither: (adv) hither, thither, winnow: (adj, n, v) sift; (v) cull,
easterly whereunto, whereto, for eliminate, separate, pick, glean,
westward: (adv) west, westwards; whoever: (n) anyone, somebody; strain; (n, v) ventilate; (n) separation,
(adj, adv) westerly; (adj) westbound, (pron) whosoever, whatsoever winnowing, sifting
western; (v) to the west person wipe: (n, v) rub; (v) mop, clean, towel,
wetting: (n) moistening, damping, wholesome: (adj) healthy, beneficial, brush, scour, scrub, clear, dry, wash;
watering, splash, leak, passing water, salubrious, healthful, salutary, (adj) sponge. ANTONYM: (v) dirty
ducking, making water, immersion, sound, good, nutritious, nourishing, wires: (n) chains, rigging, ropes,
dousing, leakage pure, hale. ANTONYMS: (adj) dealings
whale: (n) monster, leviathan, blower, unwholesome, unhealthy, impure, wisdom: (n) judiciousness,
behemoth, hulk, heavyweight, indecent, sordid, warped, tainted, knowledge, sapience, sagacity, sense,
narwhal, narwal; (v) thrash, beat; decadent, deadly, unsavory prudence, discernment, insight,
(adj) cachalot whore: (n) harlot, trollop, courtesan, learning, depth, reasonableness.
whatsoever: (adj) any, at all, possible; tart, strumpet, hooker, streetwalker, ANTONYMS: (n) stupidity, folly,
(pron) what, anything, no matter cocotte, bawd, slattern, verticil inexperience, ignorance, flippancy,
what, partly, somewhat, anything whoremonger: (n) whoremaster, goat, banality
that, whatso John, intrigant, procurer, satyr, wishing: (n) wish, want, velleity,
whence: (adv) wherefrom, hence, fornicator, pimp, seducer, gallant, option, need, privation, lack,
because, for, why, wherefore, how, pander deprivation, deficiency, choice; (adj)
then, then thence so, how comes it, wideness: (n) width, broadness, desirous
how happens it extent, thickness, beam, heaviness, wisp: (n) lock, fagot, strand, curl,
whereat: (adv) upon which span, scope, largeness, fullness, tress, piece, whisp, piece of hair,
wherein: (adv) in what, in which, diffusiveness. ANTONYM: (n) puff, slip, small person
where length wistful: (adj, v) reflective, meditative,
whereupon: (adv) thereupon, wight: (n) human, soul, person, thoughtful; (adj) contemplative, sad,
hereupon, upon which, at what, at fellow, brute, someone, somebody, melancholy, longing, plaintive,
which puppet, Isle of Wight, gaffer, elf wishful, yearning; (v) anxious.
wherewith: (adv) therewith, herewith wildly: (adj, adv) madly, ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, satisfied,
wherry: (n) gig, shallop, scow, extravagantly; (adv) savagely, shallow
Norfolk wherry, skiff, dingy, fiercely, violently, frantically, withdraw: (v) retire, remove, retract,
cockleshell, rowboat, coble; (v) brutally, furiously, tempestuously, retreat, abandon, pull out, disengage,
ferryboat, ferry viciously, crazily. ANTONYMS: draw, cancel, leave, recede.
whey: (n) serum, milk whey, plasma, (adv) quietly, peacefully, meekly, ANTONYMS: (v) propose, give,
plasm, dairy product cautiously, gently advance, extend, offer, deposit,
whip: (n, v) lash, strap, goad; (v) flog, wilful: (adj) headstrong, deliberate, remain, engage, allow, permit, stay
flagellate, beat, punish, thrash, intentional, knowing, designed, withered: (adj) wizened, sear,
trounce, stir, wallop. ANTONYMS: wayward, obstinate, willful, shriveled, thin, shrunken, dry, dried
(v) lose, return stubborn, studied, persistent up, wilted, faded, wizen; (v) lame.
whipped: (v) whipt wilfulness: (n) fractiousness, ANTONYM: (adj) plump
whipping: (n) flagellation, beating, contrariness, perverseness, witnesses: (n) audience
thrashing, licking, lashing, flogging, perversity, unruliness, wilful, wits: (n) intellect, mind, wit, brains,
overcasting, debacle, slaughter, intractableness, intractability, common sense, presence,
overlocking; (adj) snappy wilfully, spite, malice percipience, observation, mother wit,
whisper: (n, v) murmur, hum, willingly: (adv) readily, voluntarily, right mind, judgment
mumble, suggestion, hint, inkling; cheerfully, spontaneously, helpfully, woful: (adj) sorrowful, lugubrious,
(v) breathe, hiss; (n) rustle, trace, disposedly, actively, openly, woeful, mournful, doleful, pitiable
breath. ANTONYM: (n) information obligingly, eagerly; (adj, adv) freely. wolves: (n) jackals, skunks, raccoons,
whispering: (n) whisper, murmur, ANTONYMS: (adv) grudgingly, panthers, order Carnivora, lions,
susurration, rustle, report, stage reluctantly, uncooperatively, tigers, foxes, cats, Carnivora, Canis
whisper; (adj, n) rustling; (adj) unenthusiastically womankind: (n) womanhood, gentle
susurrant, tranquil, hoarse, windward: (adv) downwind; (n) sex, people
susurrous weatherboard, to windward, woody: (adj) arboreous, ligneous,
whistle: (v) sing, twitter, hiss, warble, weather side, direction; (adj) wooden, forested, woodsy,
Jonathan Swift 393
arboraceous, arboreal, harder, hard, yeoman: (n) beefeater, gaffer, chap,
lignified, nemorous cultivator, fellow, freeholder, blade,
woollen: (n) wool, cloth, fabric, fleece, good man, swain, wight,
tweed; (adj) woolly woodcutter
workman: (n) laborer, working man, yielded: (v) yold, yolden
worker, employee, hand, operative, zeal: (adj, n) eagerness; (n) fervor,
artisan, working person, lather, enthusiasm, devotion, passion,
mechanic, artificer vehemence, fire, fervency, heat,
workmanship: (n) craft, handicraft, fervour, ardour. ANTONYMS: (n)
craftsmanship, skill, apathy, lethargy, patience
accomplishment, performance, zealous: (adj) keen, enthusiastic,
acquirement, priestcraft, trade, fervent, ardent, avid, devoted,
artistry; (v) handiwork strenuous, vehement, glowing, fiery;
worthy: (adj) noble, good, (adj, n) passionate. ANTONYMS:
meritorious, valuable, estimable, (adj) indifferent, apathetic,
respectable, deserving, worthwhile, unenthusiastic, cool, halfhearted,
virtuous, honorable; (adj, n) moderate
celebrity. ANTONYMS: (adj) bad, zenith: (n) apex, peak, top, height,
unrespected, disreputable, mediocre, acme, pinnacle, summit, climax,
petty, poor, unimpressive, vertex, culmination, prime.
insignificant, dishonorable, ANTONYMS: (n) base, bottom,
despicable; (n) nobody trough
wounded: (adj, v) hurt; (n) casualty, zodiac: (n) band, girth, constellation,
maimed; (adj) bruised, injured, baldric, circle, tyre, Pleiades,
bloody, aggrieved, saddened; (v) diagram, girdle, Great Bear, girt
stricken, wound, struck.
ANTONYM: (adj) unaffected
wrapped: (prep) covered; (adj)
clothed, draped, rapt, intent,
absorbed, engrossed, mantled,
packed, immersed; (adj, prep)
cloaked
wrench: (n, v) pull, jerk, strain, turn,
twist, tug, yank; (n) spanner; (v)
distort, contort, force
wrestle: (v) struggle, scuffle, fight,
strive, battle, wrench, tussle, contest,
scramble, clash; (n, v) grapple
wretched: (adj) unfortunate, pitiful,
sad, pitiable, woeful, pathetic,
piteous, lamentable; (adj, v) poor,
unhappy, forlorn. ANTONYMS:
(adj) fine, strong, fortunate,
overjoyed, nice, admirable, good,
cheery, joyous, lucky, comfortable
wrist: (n) wrist joint, radiocarpal joint,
neaf, gliding joint, fist, articulatio
Plana, neif; (v) paw, hand, finger
writ: (n) edict, assize, certiorari,
judicial writ, injunction, order, act,
prescription, scripture, writing,
ukase
writings: (n) papers, Hagiographa,
Ketubim
wronged: (adj) upset, hurt, indignant,
offended
yahoo: (n) barbarian, chawbacon,
hayseed, Goth, bumpkin, hick,
Hottentot, clown, vandal, savage,
rube
yedo: (n) Yeddo, Tokio, Japanese
capital, Edo, capital of Japan
394

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GULLIVER’S TRAVELS

Webster's Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,

Published by ICON Group International, Inc.

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR .......................................................................................... 1

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER ................................................................................... 3

PART I— A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT .................................................................................... 9

PART II— A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG....................................................................... 79

PART III— A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB, AND

PART IV— A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS .............................. 223

GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................... 309

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER

[As given in the original edition.]

A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN GULLIVER

very %much against my own opinion, to suffer my travels to be published. Pray

Houyhnhnmland, that, by the instructions and example of my illustrious master,

bending %my eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human

the %six criminals above-mentioned; which made so favourable an impression in

Imprimis: In the right coat-pocket of the great man-mountain” (for so

[Mildendo, the metropolis of Lilliput, described, together with the emperor’s

making a schism in religion, by offending against a fundamental doctrine of our

[The author, by an extraordinary stratagem, prevents an invasion. A high title

The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the north-east of Lilliput, from

with those ambassadors as a mark of disaffection;” from which I am sure my

Although I intend to leave the description of this empire to a particular

supporting them on the public. As to persons of quality, they give security to

[The author, being informed of a design to accuse him of high-treason, makes

Before I proceed to give an account of my leaving this kingdom, it may be

common salutations were over, observing his lordship’s countenance full of

ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST

“ ‘Whereas, by a statute made in the reign of his imperial majesty Calin

“ ‘That, whereas certain ambassadors arrived from the Court of Blefuscu, to

think him partial; however, in obedience to the command he had received, he

done the day before, wherein I was directed by my pocket compass. My

of my misfortunes; for, as human creatures are observed to be more savage and

[A description of the farmer’s daughter. The author carried to a market-town,

Italians homunceletino, and the English mannikin. To her I chiefly owe my

which I answered as distinctly, and in as few words as I could. She asked,

so I hoped my late master’s apprehensions would appear to be groundless; for I

polite style of a court.%

Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order; for I soon began to be known and

[Several adventurers that happened to the author. The execution of a criminal.

One day, a young gentleman, who was nephew to my nurse’s governess,

[The author’s love of his country. He makes a proposal of much advantage to

Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from

unfortunately failed of success.%

The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions,

A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI,

notwithstanding my past misfortunes, continuing as violent as ever. The only

Japanese language, as I suppose, often using the word Christianos.%

[The humours and dispositions of the Laputians described. An account of

At my alighting, I was surrounded with a crowd of people, but those who

reasoners, and vehemently given to opposition, unless when they happen to be

frequent experience, how hard it is to persuade their women to return from

[A phenomenon solved by modern philosophy and astronomy. The