Sentence:  It dawns on you that instead of a lump to fill the seat across the bridge table from you , he <WSD>was</WSD> a man , and that because Gratt Shafer was making you miserable , you were passing it down to him , to Gratt Shafer 's substitute , that other guy . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)