| brillig | (from bryl, broil) four o'clock in the afternoon — the time when you begin broiling things for dinner. |
| slithy | lithe (=active) and slimy. |
| toves | they are something like badgers and lizards and corkscrews. They make their nests under sun-dials and live on cheese. |
| to gyre | to go round and round like a gyroscope. |
| to gimble | to make holes like a gimblet. |
| wabe | (from verb to swab or soak) the side of a hill (from its being soaked by the rain. |
| mimsy | flimsy and miserable. |
| borogoves | [the first "o" is pronounced like the "o" in borrow] a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round — something like a live mop. |
| mome | short for "from home", meaning that they had lost their way. |
| rath | a species of land turtle. Head erect; mouth like a shark; forelegs curved out so that the animal walked on its knees; smooth green body: lived on swallows and oysters. |
| outgrabe | outgribing is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle. |
| Jabberwock | Wocer/wocor signifies "offspring" or "fruit". jabber is "an excited and voluble discussion". Together, it means the result of a much excited discussion. |
| frumious | fuming and furious. |
| Bandersnatch | a special kind of monkey |
| vorpal blade | meaning yet unknown to the author |
| manxome | creature of the Isle of Man |
| Tumtum | the sound of a stringed instrument |
| uffish thought | a state of mind when the voice is gruffish, and manner roughish, and the temper huffish |
| whiffling | to move lightly, or to make a light whistling sound |
| turgey wood | meaning yet unknown to the author |
| burbled | to burble is to bleat, murmur and warble |
| snicker-snack | the cut-and-thrust knife |
| galumphing | gallop and triumphing |
| beamish | (1530 English) beaming |
| Callooh | a species of Arctic duck, so named from its call |
| chortled | to chortle is to chuckle and snort |