The Thirty-Nine Steps (57 page)

undistinguished
ADJ
undiscriminating or incapable of making a distinction between good and bad things
their undistinguished appetite to devour everything
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

use
NOUN
habit
Though use make you apt to kill me
(
The Flea
by John Donne)

vacant
ADJ
vacant usually means empty, but here Wordsworth uses it to mean carefree
To vacant musing, unreproved neglect
(
The Prelude
by William Wordsworth)

valetudinarian
NOUN
one too concerned with his or her own health.
for having been a valetudinarian all his life
(
Emma
by Jane Austen)

vamp
VERB
vamp means to walk or tramp to somewhere
Well, vamp on to Marlott, will ’ee
(
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy)

vapours
NOUN
the vapours is an old term which means unpleasant and strange thoughts, which make
the person feel nervous and unhappy
and my head was full of vapours
(
Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe)

vegetables
NOUN
here vegetables means plants
the other vegetables are in the same proportion
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

venturesome
ADJ
if you are venturesome you are willing to take risks
he must be either hopelessly stupid or a venturesome fool
(
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë)

verily
ADJ
verily means really or truly
though I believe verily
(
Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe)

vicinage
NOUN
vicinage is an area or the residents of an area
and to his thought the whole vicinage was haunted by her
. (
Silas Marner
by George Eliot)

victuals
NOUN
victuals means food
grumble a little over the victuals
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

vintage
NOUN
vintage in this context means wine
Oh, for a draught of vintage!
(
Ode on a Nightingale
by John Keats)