Huckleberry Finn Glossary

Chapters 1-4
sugar-hogshead: a large, watertight barrel that can hold 63 gallons. Huck sleeps in an empty one.
bulrushers: Huck's mispronunciation of "bulrushes," tall, tufted plants growing on the riverbank in the
bible (Exodus 2:3), Pharaoh's daughter finds the infant Moses in a little basket of woven
bulrushes.
snuff: powdered tobacco that is sniffed into the nostrils or taken into the mouth
gap: to gape or yawn
tanyard: part of a tannery containing the vats in which animal skins are treated with tannic acid to
turn them into leather.
skiff: a small riverboat.
Providence: God as a supreme power guiding human beings and "providing" for their needs.
hived: robbed.
powwow: a noisy meeting or discussion.
Don Quixote: a famous novel by the Spanish author Cervantes (1547-1616) in which knighthood and
human folly are richly satirized.
shot-tower: a tall tower in which hot, molten lead was drooped through a sleeve into cold water to form
the small round pellets used as buckshot in a shotgun.

Chapters 5-7
hifalut'n vain, fancy, and high-flown
(highfalutin):
cowhide: a beating with a leather belt or strap
pungle: to pay up, to contribute.
bullyragged: threatened or bothered.
druther: rather
temperance: avoidance of alcoholic drinks
forty-rod: whiskey so powerful that it can throw anyone who drinks it forty rods.
soundings: measurements of the depth of water, usually made with a rope having a lead weight at one
end. When a Mississippi River steamboat passed through dangerously shallow waters, the
leadsman would call out foot soundings until he reached the two-fathom (twelve-foot)
mark: "Mark Twain—safe water!"
raised Cain: to cause trouble. in the Bible (Genesis 4:8). Cain killed his brother Abel.
using: staying, hanging around.
chimbly: chimney
wadding: stuffing that held gun powder and shot in place in a muzzle-loading gun.
tow: ropelike fibers
toted: carried
delirium tremens: a state of mental confusion and physical trembling caused by excessive drinking
 palavering: talking
"trot" line: a short fish line with hooks attached to it at intervals
bar: a sandbar; a ridge of sand built up by the current of a river

Chapters: 8-11
corn-pone: a plain corn bread common in the south
traps: personal belongings or baggage
haggled: hacked or cut rudely
fantods: shakes or nervous fidgets
rubbage: rubbish
Honest Injun: "Honest Indian!"; an assertion that one is telling the truth.
Abolitionist: one who advocated the abolition of slavery and, sometimes, helped to free slaves
keeping mum: keeping still; not telling
cooper shop: a place where wooden barrels were made
camp-meet'n: an outdoor religious gathering, often held in a tent and led by an itinerant pastor
dog-leg: a crude, cheap tobacco
mud-turkles: mud turtles
taller: tallow; animal fat used to make candles and soap.
wood-flat: a flat-bottomed boat used to carry wood.
chuckleheads: blockheads; foolish, stupid persons.
gashly: ghastly.
calico: a printed cotton cloth.
hair trunk: a trunk covered with animal hide with the hair still on it.
barlow knife: a large pocket knife with a single blade.
reticule: a small purse or handbag used by women to carry needlework or other small articles.
currycomb: a large comb with metal teeth for cleaning a horse or other domestic animal.
peart: pert; impudently clever
varmint: vermin; pest.
britches-pocket: breeches pocket; pants pocket
nigh: near
lynched: hanged by a mob
power: great deal; large amount.
hank: a skein or coil of yarn or thread.
'prentice: apprentice; one who is contracted to work for another in order to learn a trade.
 hocus: to fool or decieve (from hocus-pocus)
blinders: leather flaps fastened alongside a horses eyes so that the horse can only see straight ahead.

Chapters 12-16
towhead: a low, tree-covered sandbar or island in a river.
harrow-teeth: the metal spikes or teeth on a large farm implement used to break up and smooth the soil.
crabapples: small very sour apples.
p'simmons: persimmons; orange, plum like berries of the persimmon tree, edible only when very ripe
yonder: over there
chimbly-guy: one of the cables fastening a tall chimney or smokestack to the roof
good book: the Bible.
texas: the cabin for steamboat officers, usually beneath or just behind the pilothouse.
stabboard derrick: a hoisting apparatus on the right- hand (starboard) side of a ship, looking forward.
labboard: larboard; the left-hand (also called port) side of a ship, looking forward.
truck : assorted goods or merchandise.
a-billing: boiling.
aft: toward he rear of the ship.
crawfished: retreated by scuttling backward like a crayfish, a small freshwater animal resembling a
lobster.
treed: trapped or cornered up a tree.
halter: hangman's noose.
rustle: to move around vigorously; to steal, especially cattle.
sentimentering: sentimentalizing; indulging in one's emotions.
stern: the rear of a ship.
careened: leaned or tilted to one's side.
jackstaff: a flagstaff on the front end of a ship.
bitts: wood or metal posts, fastened to a ship's deck, to which mooring lines are secured.
spondulicks: money.
saddle-baggsed: caught or snagged so as to hang draped on either side like a pair of saddlebags.
cretur: creature.
beatenest: most astonishing or amazing.
dingnation: a delicate form of "damnation"; a minced oath.
raspcallions: lawbreakers or social outcasts.
dolphin: Huck's confusion of "dauphin," the eldest son of a French king, with "dolphin," a small,
long-snouted whale.
Jack-O'-lantern: a faint, deceptive light hovering over marshes or swamps; also called will-o'-the-wisp or
ignis fatuus (fool's fire).
 staving: very great or remarkable.
sweeps: long, heavy oars.
ell: an old English measure equal to 45 inches.
tuck: energy or spirit.
spunk: courage.
headline: a long rope fastened to a raft for pulling or towing it.
looard: leeward; downwind, or in the direction toward which the wind is blowing.
wood-yard: a place where wood for sale is stored; on a riverbank, a storage area for the wood used as
fuel in steamboats.
powwow: a noisy disturbance; a commotion.

Chapters 32-34
Navarre: once a kingdom in southwestern France.
state prisoner: a prominent person imprisoned for political reasons.
donjon-keep: a dungeon, a dark, underground, maximum-security cell.
Iron mask: the "Man in the Iron Mask," an unidentified state prisoner whose head was locked into an
iron helmet; he was kept prisoner for over forty years by King Louis XIV. Alexander
Dumas wrote The Iron Mask, a novel by Alexander Dumas.
Castle Deef: Château d'If ; an island prison fortress from which Edmund Dantes escapes in The Count of
Monte Cristo, a romantic novel by Alexander Dumas.
Mosey: Move along.

Counterpin: Counterpane; a bedspread.

Dog-Fennel: A roadside weed, also called MAYWEED, with rank-smelling stalks and leaves and
bunches of small, daisy like flowers.
Scrabble: Scribble.

Wool-gathering: woolgathering; inattentive or given to fits of abstraction.

Yaller Wench: A female slave with a "yellow," or light, complexion; such slaves, the offspring of white
masters and black female slaves, were favored as house servants because their skin
coloring was more like that of white masters and mistresses.
Acts Seventeen: The 17th chapter of the book of Acts in the New Testament.

Addled`: Confused; Mixed up.

Knocked galley- Knocked out completely.

west:
William the Norman duke who invaded England in 1066 and became its king.
Conqueror:
Mayflower: The ship that carried the pilgrims from England to Massachusetts 1620.

Relicts: Relics; Souvenirs. Actually, relicts, means widows.

Coat of Arms: A formal display of heraldic devices, that is, symbols such as lines, colors, pictures, and
words representing the history and honors of a noble person or family.
Lady Jane Grey: Queen of England for only nine days in 1553, this great-granddaughter of Henry VII fell
victim to political intrigue; She was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later
beheaded.
Gildford Dudley: Husband of Lady Jane Grey, beheaded with his wife.

Northumberland: Although there were several Dukes and Earls of Northumberland, Tom Sawyer probably
means Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland (1563-1632), held a prisoner in the Tower of
London.
Scutcheon: A shield on which heraldic devices are displayed. The rest of the paragraph is a comic
hodgepodge of technical terms denoting various heraldic devices, positions, and colors on
a scutcheon.
Natural Son: A son born out of wedlock.
Juice-Harp: Jew's harp; a small metal musical instrument held between the teeth and plucked with a
finger to produce tones.
Mullen-Stalks: Stout weeds with wooly leaves and thick spikes of yellow flowers.
Pitchiola: From the story Picciola by Xavier Saintine (pen name of the French author J. X. Boniface.)
in which a state prisoner is comforted by his love for a flower.
Sorted: Assorted; Various.
Allycumpain: Elecampane, or horseheal; A plant whose carrotlike roots are used to make medicine.
Jericho: City of ancient Palestine; Any faraway place.
Blithesome: Merry, Carefree.
Nonnamous: Anonymous; of unknown name or origin.
Tooleries: Tuileries; the king's palace in Paris.
mullet-headed: having no more brains than a mullet, a common food fish
Indian Territory: an area, once reserved by treaty for Indians, just west of Arkansas in what is now
Oklahoma

Chapter 35 to Chapter the Last

rips: low, worthless persons
gunnel: gunwale; the upper rim or edge of a boats side
Nebokoodneezer: Nebuchadnezzar; a king of Babylonia, whom God made mad, according to the Bible
(Daniel 4, 28-37)
Harum-scarum: wild or reckless
Old Harry: the devil
Trapse: traipse; to tramp or wander about