VOCABULARY – Macbeth       Act I

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues

Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.

Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and

write what you think the underlined words mean in the space provided.

1. Like valor's minion carved out his passage

2. Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted

3. Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold

4. I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful the hearing of my wife with your approach

5. And chastise with the valor of my tongue

6. To beguile the time, look like the time, bear welcome in your eye

7. Upon the sightless couriers of the air

Part II: Determining the Meaning

You have tried to figure out the meanings of the vocabulary words for Act I.

Now match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

If there are words for which you cannot figure out the definition by contextual clues and

by process of elimination, look them up in a dictionary.

            minion             corporal           cleave              harbinger

chastise            beguile             couriers

1.         of or relating to the body

2.         one that indicates or foreshadows what is to come

3.         to punish

4.         to pass time pleasantly

5.         messengers

6.         to adhere, cling, or stick fast

7.         an obsequious follower or dependent