Chapter 7 of The Nursery Rhymes of England is here in full — 382 sentences across 77 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter VII
Chapter 7 of The Nursery Rhymes of England is here in full — 382 sentences across 77 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
DXXIV. Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare. DXXV. Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay. DXXVI.
Chapter 7 of The Nursery Rhymes of England is here in full — 382 sentences across 77 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/76 · 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.
take upon oneself; act presumptuously, without permission
From this reading “Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.”
an old form of “does”
From this reading “Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.”
oval reproductive body of a fowl (especially a hen) used as food
From this reading “Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.”
inflected form of “fly” — travel through the air; be airborne
From this reading “Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.”
plural of “gentleman” — a man of refinement
From this reading “Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.”
adult female chicken
From this reading “Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.”
plural of “lay” — a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
From this reading “Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.”
domestic swine
From this reading “Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.”
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 “Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.”
In this reading “Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.”
on everybody's mind
In this reading “Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.”
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.
a mixture of gases (especially oxygen) required for breathing; the stuff that the wind consists of
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
inflected form of “bring” — take something or somebody with oneself somewhere
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
an orange of low brightness and saturation
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
take upon oneself; act presumptuously, without permission
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
an old form of “does”
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading DXXIV.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading DXXV.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading DXXVI.
oval reproductive body of a fowl (especially a hen) used as food
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
all the members of a group, with none left out
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
inflected form of “fly” — travel through the air; be airborne
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
plural of “gentleman” — a man of refinement
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
adult female chicken
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
the male already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
put into a certain place or abstract location
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
plural of “lay” — a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
domestic swine
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
perceive by sight or have the power to perceive by sight
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
in the near future
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading Dickery, dickery, dare, The pig flew up in the air; The man in brown soon brought him down, Dickery, dickery, dare.
used to ask for information about something
From this reading Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay.
Chapter 7 of The Nursery Rhymes of England by J. O. (James Orchard) [Compiler] Halliwell-Phillipps holds 382 sentences, grouped into 77 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 7 holds 382 sentences of The Nursery Rhymes of England, unabridged, divided into 77 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 7 of The Nursery Rhymes of England by J. O. (James Orchard) [Compiler] Halliwell-Phillipps exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 382 sentences, grouped into 77 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 77 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 77 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 7 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 Nursery Rhymes of England by J. O. (James Orchard) [Compiler] Halliwell-Phillipps on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 2983 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #32415 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #32415, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 248 minutes of reading across 597 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Nursery Rhymes of England section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 8 chapters of The Nursery Rhymes of England 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 Nursery Rhymes of England, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
