Sentence:  She paused at the kitchen door , caught her breath , told herself firmly that the opium <WSD>was</WSD> only an attempt to frighten her and went into the kitchen , where Glendora was eyeing the chickens dismally and Maude was cleaning lamp chimneys . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)