Emily Dickinson Lexicon

B,

Muster; collect; summon; gather up. 938/868 Fairer through Fading – as the Day … Rallies Her Glow, like a dying Friend ramble, n. [ME romble < rome, roam.] Journey; trek; travel; expedition; [fig.] life; daily routine. 1684/1690 He joins me in my Ramble … No Friend have I that so persists ramble (-d, -s), v. [see ramble, n.] (webplay: carelessly, go, walk).

B, [Fig.]

lie unanchored; be tossed about by chance; have no concern for or control over circumstances that determine one's fate. 1510/1570 How happy is the little stone / That rambles in the Road alone / And does'nt care about careers rampant, adj. [Fr. ramper, creep, crawl, climb; NW says ramper, headlong.] Wild; untamed; irrepressible; uncontrolled; undisciplined; excessively exuberant. 790/741 Nature, the gentlest mother … Restraining rampant squirrel ran, v. [see run, v.] range (-ed, -s), v. [Fr. rang, ranc, rank, supposed to be < OHG hrinc, ring.] (webplay: bounding, content, divisions, place).

B,

Vary; differ. 1612/1646 The prices of Despair / Range from a single human Heart / To Two

B,

Crowd; group; large number. 130/122 Almost thy plausibility / Induces my belief, // Till ranks of seeds their witness bear

B,

Immobilized; incapacitated; numb; deadened; [word play on “wrapped”] bound; covered; encased; caught up in; [fig.] lifeless; frozen. 690/195 Victory comes late … held low to freezing lips – / Too rapt with frost / To take it

B,

High velocity; violent rapidity. 533/571 Two Butterflies … lost themselves … In [Rapids] of the sun / Till rapture missed Peninsula – / And Both were wrecked in Noon

B,

Infrequent; irregular; intermittent; scattered. 941/925 The Lady feeds Her little Bird / At rarer intervals

B,

Instead; alternatively. 544/665 The Martyr Painters – never spoke – / Bequeathing – rather – to their Work … Some seek in Art – the Art of Peace

B,

Classify; establish; certify; authenticate; prove; show to be genuine. 1431/1448 The soul can farther fly / Than any feather [ratified] / [by] – Ornithology

B,

Magnitude; size; amount; importance. 88/78 the dead … Become so wondrous dear … We estimate our prize / Vast, in it's fading ratio rattle (-s), v. [ME ratelen; probably of echoic origin.]

B,

Stir; produce noises characteristic of waking from slumber; [fig.] emerge; awake; arise; come forth. 289/311 Day – rattles – too … The sun has got as far / As the third Sycamore ravage, v. [Fr. ravir, seize, take away < L. rapěre, take by force.] (webplay: heart, love). Crush; devastate; destroy; tear apart; break into pieces; [fig.] hurt; afflict; sting; grieve; distress; cause sorrow for. 1410/1429 The ones I loved … understand / For what I shunned them … Divulging it would rest my Heart / But it would ravage their's rave (-s), v. [OFr rêver, dream, be delirious.] Shout; rage; rant; cry out; utter furious exclamations; vocally express anger. 1243/1196 Safe Despair it is that raves ravel (-led), v. [Du. ravelen, tangle, fray out, unweave.] Unweave itself; disentangle itself; become unknit; [fig.] spill; flow; run; fall; drop; escape. 992/867 Sequence ravelled out of Sound – / Like Balls – opon a Floor ravelling, n. [see ravel, v.] Loose thread; unwoven fiber; unwinding filament; fraying strand; [fig.] refracted ray of light; scattered sunset cloud; diffused hue. 219/318 Come back – and – dust the Pond! // You dropped a Purple Ravelling in ravine, n. [Fr. ravine, violent rush, ravine.] (webplay: mountains). Chasm; crevice; trench; gully; hollow; narrow, steep-sided valley; [fig.] hideout; place of concealment. 1136/1130 The Frost of Death was on the … mountain … We hunted him to his Ravine / We chased Him to his Den ravish (-ed), v. [Fr. ravir, seize, take away < L. rapīre < rapěre.]

B,

Overpower; overtake; immerse; engulf; overwhelm; awe; shock; surprise; startle; take unawares; [fig.] cover with blossoms. 442/520 There rose a Purple Creature – / That ravished all the Hill ravished, verbal adj. [see ravish, v.] (webplay: children, flood, rapture).

B,

Delightful; beautiful; gorgeous; awe-inspiring; dazzling; overwhelming; transporting. 1495/1528 The Thrill came … growing like the Flood … While Rapture … stood arrayed before the change / In ravished Holiness

B,

Bleak; harsh; severe; bitter; chilly; cold; unpleasant. 1376/1401 Dreams … make us rich an Hour – / Then fling us poor … Into the Precinct raw ray (-s), n. [OFr rai < L. radius, staff, stake, measuring-rod, spoke, ray.] (webplay: light). Beam; beacon; radiant shaft; narrow column of light; means of illumination. 1362/1396 Of their peculiar light / I keep one ray / To clarify the Sight reach, n. [see reach, v.] (webplay: desire, finger, touch). Range; limit; capability to obtain; ability to grasp. 90/69 Within my reach! / I could have touched! … Too late for striving fingers reach (-ed, -es, -ing), v. [OE ræcan.] (webplay: alterations, blame, breathe, come, distance, drawing, earth, fact, hand, heaven, human, infinity, labor, line, mind, port, price, river, seaman, take, touch).

B,

Attain; accomplish; achieve; gain; obtain. 146/84 Strange that the feet so precious charged / Should reach so small a goal!

B,

Learn; find out; obtain knowledge about; discover information about by examining texts. 460/695 I know Where Wells grow … I read in an Old fashioned Book / That People “thirst no more” … Those Waters sound so grand … to understand

B,

True; genuine; authentic; unfaked; not counterfeit. 1508/1536 You cannot make Remembrance grow … Real Memory, like Cedar Feet / Is shod with Adamant

B,

Things actually occurring; items proven to exist through physical perception. 1607/1633 Within that little Hive / Such Hints of Honey lay / As made Reality a Dream really, adv. [see real, adj.] (webplay: scholastic, thing). Truly; actually; in fact. 101/148 Will there really be a “morning”? / Is there such a thing as “Day”? … Oh some Scholar! … Please to tell a little Pilgrim realm (-s), n. [OFr < L. rēgālis, regal, royal.] (webplay: dominions, extent, king).

B,

Monarchy; king; ruler; governing body; [fig.] royalty; nobility. 283/254 A Voice that alters – Low … As tone of Realm / On Subjects Diadem

B, [Fig.]

raise from the dead; imbue with life; endow with immortality. 1192/1232 each that dies – // Reared by itself – / No Deputy suffice rearrange, v. [L. re-, again + OFr à, to + rang, rank.] Change; alter; modify; make different. 1737/267 Rearrange a “Wife's” Affection! / When they dislocate my Brain! reason (-s), n. [OFr < L. ratiōn-em, reckoning, account, relation, understanding, motive, cause < rēri, think, reckon.] (webplay: ask, being, charity, God, known, men, mind, sense, soul, speak, talk, thought, world).

B,

Answer; motive; grounds; determining factor; cause of action. 480/459 The Lightning – never asked an Eye / Wherefore it shut … Because He knows … reasons not contained – Of Talk reason (-s), v. [see reason, n.] (webplay: arguments, excellency, found, new, say).

B,

Contend; debate; argue; discuss by presenting logical arguments; attempt to find an answer through rational thinking. 60/150 “Departed both”, they say … Not found! / Argues the Aster still – / Reasons the Daffodil reasonable, adj. [see reason, n.] Moderate; fair; affordable; not excessive; not exorbitant. 1322/1335 Now will you have the Rope or the Floss? / Prices reasonable Rebecca, proper n. [Heb. ribhqāh, clog, fetter, tie up the fetlock.] Rebekah; Old Testament wife of Isaac; mother of Jacob and Esau; Jewish maiden who gave water to a servant who was seeking a bride for Isaac (see Genesis 24-25). 506/349 Rebecca, to Jerusalem, / Would not so ravished turn rebel (-s), n. [Fr. < L. re-, again + bellum, war.] Rascal; rogue; mischief-maker; trickster; upstart; disobedient creature; wild one; one who refuses to conform to strict rules of propriety. 36/45 they danced so / Their slippers leaped the town – / And then I took a pencil / To note the rebels down rebel (-led), v. [see rebel, n.] Revolt; resist; oppose; rise in opposition. 643/712 “Would I be Whole” He sudden broached – / My syllable rebelled rebuild (rebuilt), v. [L. re-, again + ME bulden < *byldan.] (webplay: again). Reconstruct; reassemble; repair; raise again; set up one more time. 1114/974 Fire … Consumes … An Occidental Town – / Rebuilt in time next Morning / To be burned down again. rebuke (-d), v. [ONFr re-, again + bucher, beat, strike.]

B, [Fig.]

reject; condemn; deplore; discountenance; disapprove of; frown upon. 492/276 Civilization – spurns – the Leopard! … Deserts – never rebuked her Satin recall (-s), v. [L. re-, again + ME callen < ON kalla, to call, cry, shout, summon in a loud voice, name, call by name.] (webplay: back, memory).

B,

Phrase. “Recall to”: remind of; not allow to forget. 1682/1693 Peruser of enchanting Book … perceives / A gain upon the backward leaves … Almost to be perennial … Recalls to immortality recallless, adj. [ED neologism < recall + -less; see recall, v.] Permanent; irreversible; irrevocable; which does not allow return. 1633/1654 slipping … To thy reportless Grave … Before thou dost exude away / In the recallless sea? recant, v. [L. recant-āre, recall, revoke < re-, again + cantāre, sing, chant.] Retract; disavow; deny; renounce; withdraw a previous declaration. 474/708 We stood opon our stapled feet – Condemned … Permission to recant … We turned our backs recede (-d, -s), v. [L. re-, back from a starting point + cēdere, go.] (webplay: back, shore, tides). Retreat; withdraw; move back; ebb away; gradually subside; fade into the distance. 160/132 breath blew back – / And on the other side / I heard recede the disappointed tide. receding, verbal adj. [see recede, v.]

B,

Dwindling; subsiding; apparently disappearing; lessening in size or intensity; fading due to increasing distance 1359/1394 The long sigh of the Frog … Enacts intoxication … his receding Swell / Substantiates a Peace