Spectator

Administer

A fountain . . . administers to the pleasure as well as the plenty of the place.

Adulterate

The present war has . . . adulterated our tongue with strange words.

Animosity

Such [writings] as naturally conduce to inflame hatreds and make enmities irreconcilable.

Anticipate

I would not anticipate the relish of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any misery, before it actually arrives.

Atonement

When a man has been guilty of any vice, the best atonement be can make for it is, to warn others.

Aversion

It is not difficult for a man to see that a person has conceived an aversion for him.

Benignity

The benignity or inclemency of the season.

Beset

A robe of azure beset with drops of gold.

Billet-doux

A lover chanting out a billet-doux.

Blemish

The reliefs of an envious man are those little blemishes and imperfections that discover themselves in an illustrious character.

Board

We are several of us, gentlemen and ladies, who board in the same house.

Branch

To branch out into a long disputation.

Breasted

The close minister is buttoned up, and the brave officer open-breasted, on these occasions.

Brood

A hen followed by a brood of ducks.

Buffoonery

Nor that it will ever constitute a wit to conclude a tart piece of buffoonery with a “What makes you blush?”

Castrate

My . . . correspondent . . . has sent me the following letter, which I have castrated in some places.

Confusion

Confusion dwelt in every face And fear in every heart.

Connive

The artist is to teach them how to nod judiciously, and to connive with either eye.

Contempt

Little insults and contempts.

Cullyism

Less frequent instances of eminent cullyism.

Die

Letting the secret die within his own breast.

Blemishes may die away and disappear amidst the brightness.

Disguise

I have just left the right worshipful, and his myrmidons, about a sneaker of five gallons; the whole magistracy was pretty well disguised before I gave them the ship.

Dissociable

They came in two and two, though matched in the most dissociable manner.

dogmatic

Critics write in a positive, dogmatic way.

Drop

Takes care to drop in when he thinks you are just seated.

Elegance

The beautiful wildness of nature, without the nicer elegancies of art.

Equestrian

An equestrian lady appeared upon the plains.

Exorcise

Mr. Spectator . . . do all you can to exorcise crowds who are . . . processed as I am.

Favor

The porter owned that the gentleman favored his master.

Feint

Courtley's letter is but a feint to get off.

For

The writer will do what she please for all me.

Freak

She is restless and peevish, and sometimes in a freak will instantly change her habitation.

Indefinite

Though it is not infinite, it may be indefinite; though it is not boundless in itself, it may be so to human comprehension.

Initiate

He was initiated into half a dozen clubs before he was one and twenty.

Intoxication

That secret intoxication of pleasure.

Loveliness

If there is such a native loveliness in the sex as to make them victorious when in the wrong, how resistless their power when they are on the side of truth!

Luxuriancy

Flowers grow up in the garden in the greatest luxuriancy and profusion.

Luxury

Riches expose a man to pride and luxury.

Matter

Some young female seems to have carried matters so far, that she is ripe for asking advice.

Mock

That superior greatness and mock majesty.

Noise

Socrates lived in Athens during the great plague which has made so much noise in all ages.

Nonplus

He has been nonplused by Mr. Dry's desiring him to tell what it was that he endeavored to prove.

Odd

Locke's Essay would be a very odd book for a man to make himself master of, who would get a reputation by critical writings.

Outside

I threw open the door of my chamber, and found the family standing on the outside.

Patch

Ladies who patched both sides of their faces.

Pin

He . . . did not care a pin for her.

Pretty

The pretty gentleman is the most complaisant in the world.

Productive

This is turning nobility into a principle of virtue, and making it productive of merit.

Push

Ambition pushes the soul to such actions as are apt to procure honor to the actor.

Quite

The same actions may be aimed at different ends, and arise from quite contrary principles.

Raise

Miss Liddy can dance a jig, and raise paste.

Representativeness

Dr. Burnet observes, that every thought is attended with consciousness and representativeness.

Right

The lady has been disappointed on the right side.

Rise

A thought rose in me, which often perplexes men of contemplative natures.

Sedentary

The soul, considered abstractly from its passions, is of a remiss, sedentary nature.

Snatch

We have often little snatches of sunshine.

Sneaker

A sneaker of five gallons.

Soliloquy

Lovers are always allowed the comfort of soliloquy.

Stand

Readers by whose judgment I would stand or fall.

I took my stand upon an eminence . . . to look into their several ladings.

Startle

After having recovered from my first startle, I was very well pleased with the accident.

Sully

A noble and triumphant merit breaks through little spots and sullies in his reputation.

Superior

There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy than a great man superior to his sufferings.

Swing

They get on ropes, as you must have seen the children, and are swung by their men visitants.

Tawdry

He rails from morning to night at essenced fops and tawdry courtiers.

Therefore

He blushes; therefore he is guilty.

Unsight

There was a great confluence of chapmen, that resorted from every part, with a design to purchase, which they were to do “unsight unseen.”

Vociferation

Violent gesture and vociferation naturally shake the hearts of the ignorant.

Voucher

The great writers of that age stand up together as vouchers for one another's reputation.

Weakness

Many take pleasure in spreading abroad the weakness of an exalted character.

Wench

It is not a digression to talk of bawds in a discourse upon wenches.

Whistle

The countryman could not forbear smiling, . . . and by that means lost his whistle.