Emily Dickinson Lexicon

staple (-d), v. [see staple, n.]

Set, fixed.

star (-'s, -s), n. [OE steorre.] (Bethlehem, star).

1. Heavenly body; shining points of light in the night sky; [plural] Milky Way; stellar display.
2. Celebrity; genius; great one; special person; selected indivual.
3. A general term for a point of light in a constellation.
4. Wish; miracle; special phenomenon; beautiful thing; signal of hope; dream to come true.
5. Small meteorite; shooting star.
6. Lesser light; smaller celestial being; less prominent but nevertheless worthy of heaven.
7. Sparkling entity; glittering orb.
8. Reflection; glimmer.
9. Lofty goal; unreachable object.
10. Director; guide; heavenly map; divine guidance.
11. Polar center; central point in the heavens around which other heavenly bodies move.
12. The United States flag; the red, white, and blue emblem of the independent government in North America.
13. Six-pointed symbol [*]; pointed punctuation mark in a text; [fig.] heavenly being; splendid multi-faceted person who has left mortality but leaves a hint of eternal life.
14. Saint; righteous person; being of great renown.
15. Bright orb; glowing point of light; distant object in the night sky.
16. Phrase. “border star”: evening planet on faintly visible on the horizon at sunset; [metaphor] frontier newspaper in Missouri in the mid-1800's.
17. Phrase. “Morning Stars”: pre-mortal choir; female singers who rejoiced when the Lord laid the earth's foundations; daughters of God who sang for joy when the world was created (see Job 38:4-7).
18. Phrase. “the Morning Star”: Venus; the second planet from the sun in Earth's solar system; the star-like planet that appears in the east just before dawn; [fig.] the Lord; the resurrection of the dead (see Revelation 2:28, 22:16).
19. Phrase. “Star of Bethleem/Bethlehem”: astrological phenomenon; extremely bright body of light that appeared in the sky at the birth of Jesus (see Matthew 2:1-10).
20. Phrase. “the northern star”: polar center; Arctic view of the sky; compass point in the heavens around which other heavenly bodies move.

stare, n. [see stare, v.]

Open-eyed gaze.

stare (-d, -s, staring), v. [OE starian, to be rigid, to look fixedly.]

1. Gaze; look with wonder; peer at with surprise.
2. Stand out; be prominent.
3. Nod; point.
4. Roam; plod; pushing.

stark (-est), adj. [OE 'to grow rigid, strength, strong, become frozen'.]

1. Bleak; desolate.
2. Gross; mere; absolute.

starless, adj. [see star, n.]

Without stars; without light.

start, n. [OE steort.]

1. An impulsive movement of the body; a sudden jilt of the body.
2. Energy; excitement.
3. Act of beginning a trip or journey to a certain destination.

start (-ed), v. [OE 'to overthrow, overturn, empty, to pour out, to rush, to gush out'.] (webplay: quick, quickened).

1. Spring to attention.
2. Become active; to come into motion.
3. Begin; to come into being.
4. Incite; startle; suddenly bother; abruptly rouse with alarm; movement of body involuntarily due to surprise, fright, etc.
5. Begin a trip or journey to a certain destination.

startle (-d), v. [see start, v.]

1. Shake or twitch due to terror or unexpected surprise.
2. Be filled with fright; become shocked.

starve (-d), v. [OE 'to be rigid, to die'.] (webplay: famine).

1. Lack food; suffer with extreme hunger.
2. Die because of severe hunger.