94 words to know before reading Walden

1. Directed toward the outside or exterior.
2. Relating to external appearance or behavior.

Chinese, Hindu, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich in inward. We know not much about them. It is remarkable that we know so

1. A place where someone lives; a residence or home.
2. The act of living or staying in a particular place.

trod in a trap set for woodchucks, and so became a dead cat at last. I took down this dwelling the same morning, drawing the nails, and removed it to the pond-side by small cartloads,

1. A unit of land area equal to 4,840 square yards or 0.4047 hectares.
2. (plural) Large quantities or expanses of land.

it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such

1. Free time when one is not working or occupied.
2. Activities done for enjoyment during free time.

toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his

1. The reflexive form of "we," referring to the speaker and others.
2. Used for emphasis to indicate "we" and no one else.

horses to hang the clean clothes on. Every day our garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the wearer’s character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without

1. The reflexive form of "you," referring to the person being addressed.
2. Used to emphasize the subject "you."

it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or

1. A legal document that proves ownership of property.
2. An action or accomplishment, often notable or heroic.

with which to make a wheelbarrow to carry it on or off with; but before the owner gave me a deed of it, his wife—every man has such a wife—changed her mind and wished to keep it, and he

1. Land covered with grass for grazing livestock.
2. Grass or plants grown for feeding animals.

down the hollow apple trees, and grubbing up some young birches which had sprung up in the pasture, or, in short, had made any more of his improvements. To enjoy these advantages I was ready to

1. A small cart with one wheel and handles, used for carrying loads in gardening or construction.
2. To transport something using a wheelbarrow.

country, as I find by my own experience, a few implements, a knife, an axe, a spade, a wheelbarrow, etc., and for the studious, lamplight, stationery, and access to a few books, rank next to

1. A person who writes poetry.
2. Someone skilled in the art of verse.

“I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute.” I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that

1. A place where someone lives; a home or residence.
2. (Archaic) A stay or continuance in a place.

doors as behind a door where I sat, even in the rainiest weather. The Harivansa says, “An abode without birds is like a meat without seasoning.” Such was not my abode, for I found myself

1. Of such excellence or beauty as to inspire admiration or awe.
2. To elevate or refine to a high degree of moral or intellectual purity.

star, before Adam and after the last man. In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the

1. A long, loose outer garment, often worn for warmth or ceremony.
2. A bathrobe, a loose garment worn after bathing or for lounging.

raised a corner of the veil from the statue of the divinity; and still the trembling robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did, since it was I in him that was then

1. Moving continuously through a closed system or area.
2. Being passed from person to person, like news or money.

faculties in what is called easy reading. There is a work in several volumes in our Circulating Library entitled Little Reading, which I thought referred to a town of that name which I had not

1. The ancient past, especially before the Middle Ages.
2. An object or artifact from ancient times.

revived, and scholars were enabled to discern from that remoteness the treasures of antiquity. What the Roman and Grecian multitude could not hear, after the lapse of ages a few scholars

1. A skilled public speaker.
2. Someone who delivers speeches with eloquence.

is his occasion, and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and health of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him. No

1. Used to emphasize a statement or response.
2. Truly or certainly (often expressing agreement).

than the richest, without ever impoverishing themselves, not knowing how they live—if, indeed, there are any such, as has been dreamed; nor to those who find their encouragement and

1. Sharp intelligence or cleverness.
2. The ability to express humor or quick, amusing remarks.

on a townhouse, thank fortune or politics, but probably it will not spend so much on living wit, the true meat to put into that shell, in a hundred years. The one hundred and twenty-five

1. Used as a reflexive pronoun to refer to a group previously mentioned.
2. Used for emphasis to refer to a group previously mentioned.

wise, go to the other side of the globe, to barbarous and unhealthy regions, and devote themselves to trade for ten or twenty years, in order that they may live—that is, keep comfortably

1. Evergreen trees with needle-like leaves and woody cones.
2. Longs or yearns deeply for something or someone.

pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up. The ice in the pond was not yet dissolved, though there were

1. Trees of the genus Carya, known for their hard wood and edible nuts.
2. The wood from these trees, often used in furniture or tool handles.

on the edge of the larger wood, in the midst of a young forest of pitch pines and hickories, and half a dozen rods from the pond, to which a narrow footpath led down the hill. In my front

1. A type of evergreen tree with needle-like leaves and cones.
2. To feel a lingering sadness or longing for something.

You will export such articles as the country affords, purely native products, much ice and pine timber and a little granite, always in native bottoms. These will be good ventures. To oversee

1. A nocturnal bird of prey with large eyes and a flat face.
2. A person who is active at night.

a blue jay screaming beneath the window, a hare or woodchuck under the house, a screech owl or a cat owl behind it, a flock of wild geese or a laughing loon on the pond, and a fox to bark

1. An exclamation expressing surprise or joy (e.g., "Hoo, that's amazing!").
2. A variant of "who" in some dialects or informal speech.

howlings. But now one answers from far woods in a strain made really melodious by distance—Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer hoo; and indeed for the most part it suggested only pleasing associations,

1. The state of being alone without companions.
2. A peaceful or isolated place.

they flatter me. I have never felt lonesome, or in the least oppressed by a sense of solitude, but once, and that was a few weeks after I came to the woods, when, for an hour, I doubted if

1. A state of rest or relaxation.
2. The act of lying down or being at rest.

in the wood, the waves still dash, and some creatures lull the rest with their notes. The repose is never complete. The wildest animals do not repose, but seek their prey now; the fox, and

1. A type of tree with slender branches and narrow leaves, often found near water.
2. The wood from this tree, used for making baskets, furniture, or cricket bats.

source of our life, whence in all our experience we have found that to issue, as the willow stands near the water and sends out its roots in that direction. This will vary with different

1. Being alone; without companions.
2. Done or existing alone.

has done little to bring us nearer to the heroic writers of antiquity. They seem as solitary, and the letter in which they are printed as rare and curious, as ever. It is worth the expense

1. A feeling of deep sadness or sorrow, often without a clear cause.
2. A pensive or reflective sadness, sometimes with a poetic quality.

that a few are riding, but the rest are run over—and it will be called, and will be, “A melancholy accident.” No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they

1. Using a hoe to cultivate soil or remove weeds.
2. Engaging in agricultural work involving a hoe.

but good for me too. Though it prevents my hoeing them, it is of far more worth than my hoeing. If it should continue so long as to cause the seeds to rot in the ground and destroy the

1. To or toward that place (archaic or poetic).
2. Used to indicate movement toward a specified point.

for calling, asked for a glass of water. I told them that I drank at the pond, and pointed thither, offering to lend them a dipper. Far off as I lived, I was not exempted from the annual

1. A small house or cabin, often in a rural or natural setting.
2. A local branch of a society or organization.

evidences of unexplored and uncultivated continents on the other side. Who should come to my lodge this morning but a true Homeric or Paphlagonian man—he had so suitable and poetic a name that I

1. A place to stay temporarily, such as a hotel or rented room.
2. The act of providing or occupying temporary accommodation.

and that they might get home while they had strength to travel, they departed. As for lodging, it is true they were but poorly entertained, though what they found an inconvenience was no

1. A tool with a thin flat blade used for gardening or farming.
2. Past tense of 'hoe', meaning to cultivate or weed with a hoe.

see what is before you, and walk on into futurity. I did not read books the first summer; I hoed beans. Nay, I often did better than this. There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice

1. A gardening tool with a flat blade for digging or weeding.
2. (Slang) A promiscuous or sexually provocative person.

and then. Incessant labor with my hands, at first, for I had my house to finish and my beans to hoe at the same time, made more study impossible. Yet I sustained myself by the prospect of such

1. Animal dung used as fertilizer for plants.
2. Any organic matter applied to soil to enhance its fertility.

farmer reins up his grateful dobbin to inquire what you are doing where he sees no manure in the furrow, and recommends a little chip dirt, or any little waste stuff, or it may be ashes

1. Prepared and used for growing crops or plants.
2. Refined or educated in manners, tastes, or intellect.

still to squat, I might purchase one acre at the same price for which the land I cultivated was sold—namely, eight dollars and eight cents. But as it was, I considered that I enhanced the

1. Speed or urgency in movement or action.
2. Excessive quickness that may lead to mistakes.

already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have

1. A unit of dry volume, typically used for grains or produce, equal to 8 gallons or about 35.2 liters.
2. A large quantity or measure of something.

Nine bushels and twelve quarts of beans sold $16.94 Five bushels large potatoes 2.50 Nine bushels small 2.25 Grass 1.00 Stalks 0.75 In all $23.44 Leaving a pecuniary profit, as I have elsewhere

1. The part of the day from morning to noon.
2. The period of time before midday.

The Village After hoeing, or perhaps reading and writing, in the forenoon, I usually bathed again in the pond, swimming across one of its coves for a stint, and washed the

1. Washed or soaked in water or another liquid.
2. Covered or surrounded by something, like light or warmth.

The Village After hoeing, or perhaps reading and writing, in the forenoon, I usually bathed again in the pond, swimming across one of its coves for a stint, and washed the dust of labor

1. Casual or idle talk about others, often involving rumors or personal details.
2. A person who habitually spreads such talk.

should our life be in any respect provincial? If we will read newspapers, why not skip the gossip of Boston and take the best newspaper in the world at once?—not be sucking the pap of “neutral

1. A printed publication containing news, articles, and advertisements, usually issued daily or weekly.
2. The organization responsible for producing and distributing such a publication.

If we will read newspapers, why not skip the gossip of Boston and take the best newspaper in the world at once?—not be sucking the pap of “neutral family” papers, or browsing “Olive

1. A natural desire to satisfy bodily needs, especially for food.
2. A strong wish or urge for something.

I require of a visitor that he be not actually starving, though he may have the very best appetite in the world, however he got it. Objects of charity are not guests. Men who did not know when

1. A protective glove, often part of medieval armor.
2. A form of punishment where people pass between two lines and strike the victim.

most of mankind, in lanes and fronting one another, so that every traveller had to run the gauntlet, and every man, woman, and child might get a lick at him. Of course, those who were stationed

1. A tiller or wheel for steering a ship or boat.
2. A position of leadership or control.

with a merry crew of thoughts, leaving only my outer man at the helm, or even tying up the helm when it was plain sailing. I had many a genial thought by the cabin fire “as I sailed.” I was

1. A device for holding a door or gate closed, typically a bar that fits into a notch.
2. To fasten or secure with a latch.

high. Hair 0.31 More than I needed. Mantle-tree iron 0.15 Nails 3.90 Hinges and screws 0.14 Latch 0.10 Chalk 0.01 Transportation 1.40 I carried a good part on my back. In all $28.12½ These are

1. In a frenzied or uncontrolled state, often violent (e.g., "running amok").
2. A Malay term for a sudden outburst of aggressive behavior.

society. It is true, I might have resisted forcibly with more or less effect, might have run “amok” against society; but I preferred that society should run “amok” against me, it being the

1. A branch or rod where birds rest.
2. A freshwater fish with spiny fins.

and hillside. In warm evenings I frequently sat in the boat playing the flute, and saw the perch, which I seem to have charmed, hovering around me, and the moon travelling over the ribbed

1. The number equivalent to four times ten (40).
2. A term used to describe a quantity or age.

of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborer’s day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is

1. Worthy of attention; striking or unusual.
2. Exceptionally good or impressive.

and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the

1. A small freshwater fish related to pike, often found in North America.
2. A young or small pike (fish).

though not abundant, are its chief boast. I have seen at one time lying on the ice pickerel of at least three different kinds: a long and shallow one, steel-colored, most like those caught

1. A hard, sedimentary form of quartz used to make tools and start fires.
2. A city in Michigan, USA, known for its economic challenges.

1. A wetland area with waterlogged ground, often dominated by trees and shrubs.
2. To overwhelm or flood with excessive amounts of something.

station-house in town or city, where a social crowd is gathered, the next in the Dismal Swamp, scaring the owl and fox. The startings and arrivals of the cars are now the epochs in the

1. Belonging to you (archaic or poetic form of "your").
2. Short for "thyroid" in medical contexts (informal).

being always flourishing; and of this nature are the azads, or religious independents.—Fix not thy heart on that which is transitory; for the Dijlah, or Tigris, will continue to flow through

1. Wet, spongy ground with decaying vegetation (e.g., a marsh or swamp).
2. (Verb) To sink or become stuck in mud or wet ground.

and boggy ways, not to rise in this world, he nor his posterity, till their wading webbed bog-trotting feet get talaria to their heels.

1. The process of becoming stuck or sinking in a bog or swamp.
2. Slowing down or making progress difficult.

the pond some fresh impulse had brought out John Field, with altered mind, letting go “bogging” ere this sunset. But he, poor man, disturbed only a couple of fins while I was catching a fair

1. (archaic) You (singular), used as the object of a verb or preposition.
2. (poetic) A form of 'you' in older or religious texts.

the dawn, and seek adventures. Let the noon find thee by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be

1. To eat hungrily or quickly.
2. To consume or destroy completely.

woodchuck which ravaged my bean-field—effect his transmigration, as a Tartar would say—and devour him, partly for experiment’s sake; but though it afforded me a momentary enjoyment,

1. A person one knows slightly but not as a close friend.
2. Knowledge or experience of something.

and so-called liberally educated men here and elsewhere have really little or no acquaintance with the English classics; and as for the recorded wisdom of mankind, the ancient classics and

1. Hunting or shooting wildfowl (birds like ducks or geese).
2. A game combining elements of football and bowling, played with a football and bowling pins.

more than my feelings. I speak of fishing only now, for I had long felt differently about fowling, and sold my gun before I went to the woods. Not that I am less humane than others, but I did not

1. Small, slender, legless invertebrates that live in soil or water.
2. Parasitic organisms that infect humans or animals.

inches apart, being careful to select fresh round and unmixed seed. First look out for worms, and supply vacancies by planting anew. Then look out for woodchucks, if it is an exposed place,

1. The scientific study of birds.
2. It includes their behavior, physiology, classification, and ecology.

But I confess that I am now inclined to think that there is a finer way of studying ornithology than this. It requires so much closer attention to the habits of the birds, that, if for that

1. A person who tends and guards sheep.
2. To guide or direct someone carefully.

hills, sheepcots, stables, and cow-yards in the air, drovers with their sticks, and shepherd boys in the midst of their flocks, all but the mountain pastures, whirled along like leaves blown

1. A person living in solitude, often for religious reasons.
2. A reclusive or solitary individual.

a bloodsucker for the time to any full-blooded man that comes in my way. I am naturally no hermit, but might possibly sit out the sturdiest frequenter of the barroom, if my business called me

1. A small, agile rodent with a bushy tail, often climbing trees.
2. To hide or store something for future use (verb).

notice of it, and will shear them off with both buds and young pods, sitting erect like a squirrel. But above all harvest as early as possible, if you would escape frosts and have a fair and

1. Small social insects that live in colonies.
2. Hardworking or diligent people (figurative).

One day when I went out to my woodpile, or rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending

1. A large diving bird with a haunting call, found in northern lakes.
2. (Informal) A crazy or silly person.

under the house, a screech owl or a cat owl behind it, a flock of wild geese or a laughing loon on the pond, and a fox to bark in the night. Not even a lark or an oriole, those mild plantation

1. A vertical structure for venting smoke from a fireplace or furnace.
2. A narrow opening or passage, often in rock formations.

When you have got my ornaments ready, I will wear them. Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides of my house, which were already impervious to rain, with imperfect and

1. Sloping beams supporting a roof.
2. People who travel by raft.

I hewed the main timbers six inches square, most of the studs on two sides only, and the rafters and floor timbers on one side, leaving the rest of the bark on, so that they were just as

1. The floor of a fireplace, often extending into a room.
2. Symbolically represents home or family life.

for warmth as well as shelter. I had got a couple of old firedogs to keep the wood from the hearth, and it did me good to see the soot form on the back of the chimney which I had built, and I

1. Applying plaster to walls or ceilings to create a smooth surface.
2. Covering or coating something thickly with a substance.

a sick day, something to be tucked away in an old chest, or in a stocking behind the plastering, or, more safely, in the brick bank; no matter where, no matter how much or how little. I

1. Houses or places where people live.
2. Buildings or shelters used as residences.

only the wise improve their advantages—it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life

1. A term historically used to refer to a person of Black African descent.
2. Considered outdated and offensive in modern usage, replaced by terms like "Black" or "African American."

I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard

1. Hidden or kept out of sight.
2. Not easily noticed or detected.

a great treasure. It is interesting to remember how much of this food for fire is still concealed in the bowels of the earth. In previous years I had often gone prospecting over some bare

1. A shrub or small tree with fragrant purple or white flowers.
2. A pale purple color resembling the flowers of the lilac plant.

for by it hangs the history of a family. Once more, on the left, where are seen the well and lilac bushes by the wall, in the now open field, lived Nutting and Le Grosse. But to return toward

1. A medium-sized game bird with a plump body and short legs, often hunted for sport or food.
2. Any of various birds resembling or related to the true partridge.

and small hawks circulate above, and the chickadee lisps amid the evergreens, and the partridge and rabbit skulk beneath; but now a more dismal and fitting day dawns, and a different race of

1. Small, bushy-tailed rodents known for climbing trees and storing nuts.
2. Agile mammals with sharp claws, often seen in urban and forested areas.

eight cents an acre. One farmer said that it was “good for nothing but to raise cheeping squirrels on.” I put no manure whatever on this land, not being the owner, but merely a squatter, and not

1. Dogs, especially those used for hunting.
2. To pursue relentlessly or harass.

afternoon, as he was resting in the thick woods south of Walden, he heard the voice of the hounds far over toward Fair Haven still pursuing the fox; and on they came, their hounding cry which

1. A breed of dog used for hunting, known for its keen sense of smell or speed.
2. To pursue relentlessly or harass persistently.

their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud, and they seemed as

1. Dried grass used as animal fodder.
2. A small amount, especially of money (informal).

and would fain have exhausted the waters within it; who regretted only that it was not English hay or cranberry meadow—there was nothing to redeem it, forsooth, in his eyes—and would have

1. A piece of grassland, often used for hay or grazing.
2. A low-lying area near a river or stream, typically covered with grass.

fifteen rods from the only shore they knew, which place was long since converted into a meadow. But the pond has risen steadily for two years, and now, in the summer of ’52, is just five feet

1. The distance or measurement from side to side; width.
2. Wide range or extent of something.

for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars—even these forms of conscious

1. A small, common songbird with brown and gray plumage.
2. Any of various small birds resembling the true sparrow.

Instead of singing like the birds, I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune. As the sparrow had its trill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so had I my chuckle or suppressed warble

1. The process of becoming liquid or soft after being frozen.
2. The act of warming something to melt ice or frost.

they are bearing off. Few phenomena gave me more delight than to observe the forms which thawing sand and clay assume in flowing down the sides of a deep cut on the railroad through which I

1. Plants collectively, especially those in a particular area or habitat.
2. The process of growing plants.

dug his burrow, down through sumach and blackberry roots, and the lowest stain of vegetation, six feet square by seven deep, to a fine sand where potatoes would not freeze in any winter. The

1. The leaves of a plant or tree.
2. A cluster of leaves, flowers, or branches.

vegetation, whose forms and color we see imitated in bronze, a sort of architectural foliage more ancient and typical than acanthus, chiccory, ivy, vine, or any vegetable leaves; destined

1. A rounded projection or division of an organ, especially in the brain or lungs.
2. The soft, fleshy lower part of the ear.

externally a dry thin leaf, even as the f and v are a pressed and dried b. The radicals of lobe are lb, the soft mass of the b (single lobed, or B, double lobed), with the liquid l behind it

1. A large waterbird with a long neck, short legs, and webbed feet.
2. The flesh of a goose used as food.

it would soon become the most famous sound in our woods, surpassing the clangor of the goose and the hooting of the owl; and then imagine the cackling of the hens to fill the pauses when

1. Grassland used for grazing livestock.
2. Areas of land covered with grass for animals to feed on.

with their sticks, and shepherd boys in the midst of their flocks, all but the mountain pastures, whirled along like leaves blown from the mountains by the September gales. The air is filled

1. Compliance with commands or requests from authority figures.
2. Submission to rules, laws, or established norms.

pain and care, Approving that our bodies of a stony nature are.” So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where

1. In the middle of or surrounded by.
2. During a particular time or event.

and my three-legged table, from which I did not remove the books and pen and ink, standing amid the pines and hickories. They seemed glad to get out themselves, and as if unwilling to be

1. Efforts or attempts to achieve a goal.
2. Activities or projects undertaken with determination.

esteemed heathenish whose precepts fill the reader with shame, and provoke him to new endeavors, though it be to the performance of rites merely. I hesitate to say these things, but it is not

1. In Hinduism, the supreme cosmic spirit or ultimate reality.
2. A creator god in the Hindu trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva).

expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; in which,