dance a hornpipe lively dance played on a hornpipe, which is an obsolete wind instrument with a bell and mouthpiece made of horn.
descrying to discern, or think you see, something.
Double Gloucester a thick, creamy cheese that is twice as large and old as regular Gloucester. Herbert’s concern here is that the old man will hurt himself trying to cut through it.
dull blades a blade is an easy-going playboy. Dull would indicate that this student is not very smart.
Dutch clock a cheap wooden clock that was imported from Germany.
Dutch doll a wooden doll with jointed legs, made in Germany.
Dying Gladiator Mr. Pocket, overwhelmed by the chaos in his house, drops down onto the sofa in this pose. It refers to “The Dying Gaul,” a Roman copy of a Greek statue of a dying gladiator lying down propped up on one arm.
equipage a carriage, especially one with horses and liveried servants.
excrescence an ugly, abnormal, or disfiguring addition to something. At his party for his apprenticeship, Pip is miserable while the adults are having a great time. Thus, Pip is an excrescence on their fun.
execrating cursing. When the two convicts are captured, they fight and curse each other.
expectorating coughing up and spitting out.
expostulatory having to do with an earnest objecting.
faces out of the Witches’ caldron a reference to Act IV, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth visits the witches as they stir their caldron, and he demands an explanation of their prophecies about him. They ask if he wants the story from them or from their masters, and he asks to see their masters. The witches promptly work their magic and a number of apparitions arise from the boiling caldron.
Farinaceous containing, consisting of, or made from flour or meal. Because Pumblechook is a corn and seed merchant, his home and place of business no doubt have a fair bit of corn meal or flour dust scattered about.
fashionable crib . . . a shake-down Magwitch wants Pip to find him cheap lodging of the kind thieves are used to, often in disreputable public-houses where the beds are made up of straw on the floor.
fell among those thieves this is a biblical reference, referring to the unfortunate man in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:30-35, who fell among thieves, was beaten by them, and left for dead. Pip feels that numbers and arithmetic are about as vicious to him as the thieves were to the man in the parable.
fenders material, such as timber or old cables, hung over the side of a ship to protect it from banging around while in port.
fête days festival days or days with gala parties held outdoors.
fired a rick set fire to a haystack. Pip’s reference to this crime means people would have viewed him as a major criminal because at that time, children even as young as seven were sometimes hanged for arson.
flowered-flounce a flounce is a wide ornamental ruffle, a cloth with pleats in it; here, the cloth has a flowered design.
fluey dusty.
freemasonry a natural sympathy and understanding among persons with like experiences. Pip and Joe share the freemasonry of abuse as victims of Pip’s sister. The term refers to the Freemasons, a secret fraternal society begun in the early 1700s and having among its principles brotherliness and mutual aid among its members.
