Chapter 9 of The Destroyer is here in full — 189 sentences across 38 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IX
Chapter 9 of The Destroyer is here in full — 189 sentences across 38 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair. Lepine nodded gloomily. "You may well say so!" he agreed. The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report. Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
Chapter 9 of The Destroyer is here in full — 189 sentences across 38 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/37 · 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.
disposed or placed in a particular kind of order
From this reading “CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.”
complete victory
From this reading “CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.”
wanted intensely
From this reading “Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.”
clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
From this reading “CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.”
with gloom
From this reading “Lepine nodded gloomily.”
without good reason
From this reading “CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.”
in an anxiously nervous manner
From this reading “CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.”
to give an account or representation of in words
From this reading “The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.”
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.
In this reading “Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.”
In this reading “The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.”
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.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
a vaguely specified concern
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
united by being of the same opinion
From this reading "You may well say so!" he agreed.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
disposed or placed in a particular kind of order
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
complete victory
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
absence of light or illumination
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
wanted intensely
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
the latter part of the day (the period of decreasing daylight from late afternoon until nightfall)
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
decreasing in amount or degree
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
plural of “finger” — any of the terminal members of the hand (sometimes excepting the thumb)
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
(of materials or goods) brought to the desired final state
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
with gloom
From this reading Lepine nodded gloomily.
(biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading "You may well say so!" he agreed.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
and nothing more
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Lepine nodded gloomily.
of comparatively little physical weight or density
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
without good reason
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
the basic unit of length adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites (approximately 1.094 yards)
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
used to say something is possible, or to give permission
From this reading "You may well say so!" he agreed.
not one and not the other of two
From this reading Evening was falling, and the room was growing dark, but neither desired a light.
in an anxiously nervous manner
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
inflected form of “nod” — express or signify by nodding
From this reading Lepine nodded gloomily.
used to make a word, phrase, or sentence negative
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
inflected form of “run” — move fast by using one's feet, with one foot off the ground at any given time
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
to give an account or representation of in words
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
an area within a building enclosed by walls and floor and ceiling
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
being the one previously mentioned or spoken of
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
the seventh and last day of the week; observed as the Sabbath by Jews and some Christians
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
express in words
From this reading "You may well say so!" he agreed.
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading "You may well say so!" he agreed.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
used for a person or thing that is near, or that has just been mentioned
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
from one end or side of something to the other
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
in contact with each other or in proximity
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number
From this reading The two sat together in Delcasse's room, and Lepine had just finished his report.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading CHECKMATE "It is evident that this affair was not lightly arranged," said M. Delcasse, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
(often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard (“good” is a nonstandard dialectal variant for “well”)
From this reading "You may well say so!" he agreed.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading "You may well say so!" he agreed.
Chapter 9 of The Destroyer by Burton Egbert Stevenson holds 189 sentences, grouped into 38 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 9 holds 189 sentences of The Destroyer, unabridged, divided into 38 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 9 of The Destroyer by Burton Egbert Stevenson exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 189 sentences, grouped into 38 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 38 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 38 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 9 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 The Destroyer by Burton Egbert Stevenson on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 6504 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #29629 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #29629, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 542 minutes of reading across 1301 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Destroyer section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 32 chapters of The Destroyer 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 The Destroyer, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
