The Thirty-Nine Steps (37 page)

indocible
ADJ
unteachable
so they were the most restive and indocible
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

ingenuity
NOUN
inventiveness
entreated me to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

ingots
NOUN
an ingot is a lump of a valuable metal like gold, usually shaped like a brick
Tom called the hogs ‘ingots’
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

inkstand
NOUN
an inkstand is a pot which was put on a desk to contain either ink or pencils and
pens
throwing an inkstand at the Lizard as she spoke
(
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll)

inordinate
ADJ
without order. To-day inordinate means ‘excessive’.
Though yet untutored and inordinate
(
The Prelude
by William Wordsworth)

intellectuals
NOUN
here intellectuals means the minds (of the workmen)
those instructions they give being too refined for the intellectuals of their workmen
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

interview
NOUN
meeting
By our first strange and fatal interview
(
On His Mistress
by John Donne)

jacks
NOUN
jacks are rods for turning a spit over a fire
It was a small bit of pork suspended from the kettle hanger by a string passed through
a large door key, in a
way known to primitive housekeepers unpossessed of jacks
(
Silas Marner
by George Eliot)

jews-harp
NOUN
a jews-harp is a small, metal, musical instrument that is played by the mouth
A jews-harp’s plenty good enough for a rat
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

jorum
NOUN
a large bowl
while Miss Skiffins brewed such a jorum of tea, that the pig in the back premises
became strongly excited
(
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens)

jostled
VERB
jostled means bumped or pushed by someone or some people
being jostled himself into the kennel
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

keepsake
NOUN
a keepsake is a gift which reminds someone of an event or of the person who gave
it to them.
books and ornaments they had in their boudoirs at home: keepsakes that different relations
had presented to them
(
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë)