The Picture of Dorian Gray

1. tremulous (adjective):

shaking slightly; nervously timid

“From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flamelike as theirs.” (Chapter 1, Page 5)

2. disquiet (noun):

a feeling of worry or anxiety

“They live as we all should live—undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet.” (Chapter 1, Page 6)

3. languid (adjective):

slow and lazy; relaxed

“The wind shook some blossoms from the trees, and the heavy lilac-blooms, with their clustering stars, moved to and fro in the languid air.” (Chapter 1, Page 8)

4. truculent (adjective):

quick to argue or fight

“I remember her bringing me up to a truculent and red-faced old gentleman covered all over with orders and ribbons, and hissing into my ear, in a tragic whisper which must have been perfectly audible to everybody in the room, the most astounding details.” (Chapter 1, Page 9)

5. maladies (plural noun):

diseases or ailments

“I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream—I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of mediævalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal—to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself.” (Chapter 2, Page 16)

6. gilded (adjective):

tinged with gold or a golden color

“He was bareheaded, and the leaves had tossed his rebellious curls and tangled all their gilded threads.” (Chapter 2, Page 17)

7. superficial (adjective):

existing only on the surface; appearing to be real or worthwhile only until it is examined more closely

“People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial.” (Chapter 2, Page 18)

8. lithe (adjective):

thin; graceful and flexible

“Yes, it was for the long palette-knife, with its thin blade of lithe steel.” (Chapter 2, Page 22)

9. protégé (noun):

a person who is guided by an older or more experienced person

“I have asked myself and Mr. Gray. He is her latest protégé.” (Chapter 3, Page 27)

10. facile (adjective):

appearing convincing but only on the surface; lacking in effort

“He invented a facile excuse, and having taken the vacant seat next to her, looked round to see who was there.” (Chapter 3, Page 29)

11. verities (plural noun):

fundamental truths

“To test reality we must see it on the tight rope. When the verities become acrobats, we can judge them.” (Chapter 3, Page 30)

12. iridescent (adjective):

showing colors that seem to change when seen from different angles

“He played with the idea and grew wilful; tossed it into the air and transformed it; let it escape and recaptured it; made it iridescent with fancy and winged it with paradox.” (Chapter 3, Page 31)

13. aphorisms (plural noun):

short observations containing general truths

“I don’t think I am likely to marry, Harry. I am too much in love. That is one of your aphorisms.” (Chapter 4, Page 35)

14. abstruse (adjective):

difficult to understand; obscure

“I am analysing women at present, so I ought to know. The subject is not so abstruse as I thought it was.” (Chapter 4, Page 36)

15. prattled (past tense verb):

talked at length about foolish or inconsequential things

“She was thinking of Prince Charming, and, that she might think of him all the more, she did not talk of him, but prattled on about the ship in which Jim was going to sail, about the gold he was certain to find, about the wonderful heiress whose life he was to save from the wicked, red-shirted bushranger.” (Chapter 5, Page 48)

16. irrevocable (adjective):

unable to be reversed or changed

“What is marriage? An irrevocable vow.” (Chapter 6, Page 56)

17. invariably (adverb):

always; on every occasion

“‘Possibly,’ he sighed, ‘but they invariably want it back in such very small change.’”  (Chapter 6, Page 57)

18. pompous (adjective):

irritatingly grand or self-important

“He escorted them to their box with a sort of pompous humility, waving his fat jewelled hands and talking at the top of his voice.” (Chapter 7, Page 59)

19. callousness (noun):

insensitive, unfeeling disregard for others

“He remembered with what callousness he had watched her.” (Chapter 7, Page 66)

20. sanguine (adjective):

blood-red; optimistic toward a bad situation

“He was trying to gather up the scarlet threads of life and to weave them into a pattern; to find his way through the sanguine labyrinth of passion through which he was wandering.’” (Chapter 8, Page 69)

21. ennui (noun):

feeling of dissatisfaction stemming from lack of excitement

“He had absolutely nothing to do, almost died of ennui.” (Chapter 9, Page 78)

22. pallid (adjective):

pale, often due to ill health

“The lad was actually pallid with rage.” (Chapter 9, Page 80)

23. incarnation (noun):

a person who embodies an abstract quality or spirit

“You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream.” (Chapter 9, Page 81)

24. bestial (adjective):

savagely cruel; like an animal

“Beneath its purple pall, the face painted on the canvas could grow bestial, sodden, and unclean.” (Chapter 10, Page 86)

25. morbid (adjective):

expressing or appealing to an unhealthy interest in unpleasant topics, particularly death and disease

“One hardly knew at times whether one was reading the spiritual ecstasies of some mediæval saint or the morbid confessions of a modern sinner.” (Chapter 10, Page 89)

26. ravenous (adjective):

extremely hungry

“He had mad hungers that grew more ravenous as he fed them.” (Chapter 11, Page 91)

27. insolent (adjective):

showing a lack of respect in a rude or arrogant manner

“How proud and handsome he was, with his chestnut curls and insolent pose!” (Chapter 11, Page 100)

28. debauchery (noun):

extreme indulgence in bodily pleasures, often of a sexual nature

“Did I teach the one his vices, and the other his debauchery?” (Chapter 12, Page 105)

29. indifferent (adjective):

having no interest or sympathy concerning a matter, person, or object

“Don’t shrug your shoulders like that. Don’t be so indifferent.” (Chapter 12, Page 107)

30. satyr (noun):

lustful and drunken woodland god

“You were to me such an ideal as I shall never meet again. This is the face of a satyr.” (Chapter 13, Page 109)

31. threadbare (adjective):

thin and tattered with age

“He could hear nothing, but the drip, drip on the threadbare carpet.” (Chapter 13, Page 110)

32. precipice (noun):

a very tall, steep cliff

“Time seemed to him to be crawling with feet of lead, while he by monstrous winds was being swept towards the jagged edge of some black cleft of precipice.” (Chapter 14, Page 114)

33. vestige (noun):

a trace of something that is gone or disappearing

“What you have got to do is to destroy the thing that is upstairs—to destroy it so that not a vestige of it will be left.” (Chapter 14, Page 117)

34. tedious (adjective):

overly long, slow, or dull

“Her guests this evening were rather tedious.” (Chapter 15, Page 122)

35. incorrigible (adjective):

unable to be improved or reformed

“‘Isn’t he incorrigible?’ cried Dorian, leaning forward in his chair.” (Chapter 15, Page 125)

36. listless (adjective):

lacking energy or enthusiasm

“Lying back in the hansom, with his hat pulled over his forehead, Dorian Gray watched with listless eyes the sordid shame of the great city, and now and then he repeated to himself the words that Lord Henry had said to him on the first day they had met.” (Chapter 16, Page 129)