Chapter 16 of His Royal Nibs is here in full — 154 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XVI
Chapter 16 of His Royal Nibs is here in full — 154 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple. His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer. “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.” “Fired what? Who?
Chapter 16 of His Royal Nibs is here in full — 154 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/30 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
possessive form of “adam” — (Old Testament) in Judeo-Christian mythology; the first man and the husband of Eve and the progenitor of the human race
fruit with red or yellow or green skin and sweet to tart crisp whitish flesh
From this reading “Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.”
a cruel and brutal fellow
From this reading “Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.”
a casual manner
From this reading ““I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.””
marked by complexity and richness of detail
From this reading ““I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.””
a person or firm that employs workers
From this reading “His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.”
having lost your job
From this reading ““I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.””
plural of “nib” — the writing point of a pen
From this reading ““I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.””
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
communicate the intended meaning or impression
In this reading ““I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.””
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
possessive form of “adam” — (Old Testament) in Judeo-Christian mythology; the first man and the husband of Eve and the progenitor of the human race
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
past form of “appear” — give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
fruit with red or yellow or green skin and sweet to tart crisp whitish flesh
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
a statute in draft before it becomes law
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
a cruel and brutal fellow
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
inflected form of “come” — move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
a casual manner
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
the past form of “do”, used in questions and negatives
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
marked by complexity and richness of detail
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
a person or firm that employs workers
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
the organ of sight
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
having lost your job
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
a dwelling that serves as living quarters for one or more families
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
feeling or showing extreme anger
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
come together
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
the part of an organism (human or animal) that connects the head to the rest of the body
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
plural of “nib” — the writing point of a pen
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
used to make a word, phrase, or sentence negative
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
above and across; more than
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
recurring again and again
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
of or relating to or indicative of or issued or performed by a king or queen or other monarch
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
(of muscles) relieved of stiffness by stretching
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
express in words
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading His eye did not meet the ireful one of his employer.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
characterized by or indicative of distress or affliction or danger or need
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
used to ask for information about something
From this reading “Fired what?
which person or people
From this reading Who?
in the company of; together with
From this reading Bully Bill stretched his long neck, and appeared to be troubled with his Adam’s apple.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading “I came over to the house,” he repeated, with elaborate casualness, “to tell you I’ve fired his royal nibs.”
Chapter 16 of His Royal Nibs by Onoto Watanna holds 154 sentences, grouped into 31 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 16 holds 154 sentences of His Royal Nibs, unabridged, divided into 31 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 16 of His Royal Nibs by Onoto Watanna exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 154 sentences, grouped into 31 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 31 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 31 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 16 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading His Royal Nibs by Onoto Watanna on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3159 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #66184 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #66184, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 263 minutes of reading across 632 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through His Royal Nibs section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 27 chapters of His Royal Nibs to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in His Royal Nibs, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
