adoption tried: friendship that has stood the test of time.
aery: nest.
aim: to guess or conjecture.
an’t: if it.
angle: fishing line.
antique Roman: The ancient Roman was ever ready to commit suicide when confronted with calamity.
apoplex’d: paralyzed.
argal: therefore.
arms: a coat of arms, being a group of emblems and figures arranged on and around a shield and serving as the special insignia of a person, family, or institution.
arras: a tapestry wall hanging.
assay of arms: try to raise.
assays of bias: This is a metaphor from the game of lawn bowling; the weight in the ball, which causes it to follow a curved line, is called the bias. Hence the meaning of the phrase is “indirect attempts.”
assigns: appurtenances.
assurance: a pun on conveyance of property by deed and security.
batten: to grow fat; thrive; to be well fed or wealthy at another’s expense.
Be as ourself in Denmark: Claudius is extending to Hamlet all the special privileges and prerogatives belonging to a crowned prince.
be idle: seem crazy.
beetles o’er: overhangs.
bend you: incline yourself.
berattle: abuse.
beteem: permit.
bilboes: long iron bars with sliding shackles, for fettering prisoners' feet.
bisson rheum: blinding tears.
blank: the center spot of a target; bull’s-eye.
blench: to shrink back, as in fear; flinch.
blood and judgment: passion and reason.
bodkin: a dagger or stiletto.
botch: a badly patched place or part
bourn: limit; boundary.
brainish apprehension: mad notion (that he heard a rat).
bray out: celebrate.
breathing time: time of exercise.
broad blown: in full blossom.
brokers: people who act as agents or intermediaries in negotiating contracts, buying and selling, and so forth.
bruit: proclaim.
bugs: terrors, nightmares.
bung-hole: a hole in a barrel or keg through which liquid can be poured in or drawn out.
buttons: buds.
Buz, buz: a slang expression for “tell me something I don’t know.”
buzzers: gossipers.
Cain’s jaw-bone: the jawbone of an ass, with which Cain is supposed to have killed Abel.
candied: sugared with hypocrisy.
carbuncles: precious stones of fiery red color.
carve: choose.
cast beyond ourselves: look beyond what we know or understand.
cataplasm: a poultice, often medicated.
cautel: craft, deceit.
cease of majesty: death of a king.
censure: opinion
cerements: cloths or sheets wrapped around a dead person; shrouds.
chameleon’s dish: The chameleon was supposed to feed on air.
changeling: a child secretly put in the place of another; especially, in folk tales, one exchanged in this way by fairies.
chapfallen: a pun; disheartened, depressed, or humiliated (literally, having one’s lower jaw hanging down).
chapless: jawless.
character: a pun on character in the sense of personal qualities.
chariest: most modest and virtuous.
chaste treasure: precious chastity.
checking at: swerving aside from; a term in hawking.
chopine: a woman’s shoe with a very thick sole, as of cork.
chorus: in ancient Greek drama, a company of performers whose singing, dancing, and narration provide explanation and elaboration of the main action.
chough: a chatterer.
cicatrice: scar or wound.
clepe: to call or address (a person).
clout: a piece of cloth; a rag.
Clowns: rustics. The word indicates that these roles were played by comic actors.
Cock: corruption for God
cockle hat: a hat adorned with cockle shells and worn by pilgrims.
collection: inference.
compass: the tonal range of a musical instrument.
compelled valour: bravery that stems from necessity.
complete steel: full armor.
compounded: restored, mingled.
Confederate season: suitable opportunity.
confine: prison.
congruing: agreeing.
conjunctive: closely united.
contagious blastments: destructive blights.
continent: containing enough ground.
contraction: the marriage contract.
contumely: haughty and contemptuous rudeness; insulting and humiliating treatment or language.
conveyance: the document by which real property is transferred from one person to another; deed.
convocation of politic worms: a political assembly of worms; an allusion to the Diet of Worms (1521), a convocation held by the Catholic Church to allow Martin Luther to explain his reform of doctrine. He had first set his beliefs forth in Wittenberg, where Hamlet and Horatio have studied.
convoy is assistant: a means of conveyance is available.
coronet weeds: garlands of flowers.
corse: corpse, dead body.
coted: overtook.
couch: lie concealed; to hide.
counsel: secrets.
counter: on the false trail (a hunting term); treason.
counterfeit presentment: portrait.
cousin: kinsman. This word was used for any near relation; here it would refer to nephew.
cozen’d: cheated.
cozenage: treachery.
crack the wind of: overwork. The phrase comes from working a horse so hard that it becomes winded.
crants: wreaths.
credent: credulous.
crescent: increasing, growing.
crowner: coroner.
Cyclops: in Greek mythology, any of a race of giants who have only one eye, in the middle of the forehead; they assisted Vulcan, the god of fire.
