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A   Listen
preposition
A  prep.  
1.
In; on; at; by. (Obs.) "A God's name." "Torn a pieces." "Stand a tiptoe." "A Sundays" "Wit that men have now a days." "Set them a work."
2.
In process of; in the act of; into; to; used with verbal substantives in -ing which begin with a consonant. This is a shortened form of the preposition an (which was used before the vowel sound); as in a hunting, a building, a begging. "Jacob, when he was a dying" "We'll a birding together." " It was a doing." "He burst out a laughing." Note: The hyphen may be used to connect a with the verbal substantive (as, a-hunting, a-building) or the words may be written separately. This form of expression is now for the most part obsolete, the a being omitted and the verbal substantive treated as a participle.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"A" Quotes from Famous Books



... frightful daggers that had pricked at the soul of her mother until they had murdered her. And the chief of them all was this: that to Arbor Croche the words of Strang were the words of God and that if the prophet said kill, he would kill. For a full minute she crouched in her concealment, stunned by the horror that had so quickly taken the place of the joy with which she had witnessed the escape. She heard Strang leave the window, heard his heavy steps in the outer room, heard the door close, and knew that he, too, was gone. She ...
— The Courage of Captain Plum • James Oliver Curwood

... bass of loyal harmony, And how we each and all of us abhor The venomous, bestial, devilish revolt Of Thomas Wyatt. Hear us now make oath To raise your Highness thirty thousand men, And arm and strike as with one hand, and brush This Wyatt from our shoulders, like a flea That might have leapt upon us unawares. Swear with me, noble fellow-citizens, all, With all your ...
— Queen Mary and Harold • Alfred Lord Tennyson

... old person of Basing Whose presence of mind was amazing; He purchased a steed Which he rode at full speed, And escaped from the ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell

... a butterfly kiss across her left eyebrow, and together they strolled back into the house, and as he went up to bed, Warble went down to the pantry to see ...
— Ptomaine Street • Carolyn Wells

... divine, and metl, the maguey. Of the twenty-nine varieties of the maguey, now described in Mexico, none bears this name; but Hernandez speaks of it, and says it was so called because there was a superstition that a person soon to die could not hold a branch of it; but if he was to recover, or escape an impending danger, he could hold it with ease and feel the better for it. See Nieremberg, Historia Naturae, Lib. xiv, cap. xxxii. ...
— American Hero-Myths - A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent • Daniel G. Brinton

... point insisted upon by the friar, Restore liberty to Florence, not only broke the peace of the dying prince, but it also afterwards for ever ruled the conduct of Savonarola. From this time his life is that of a statesman no less than of a preacher. What Lorenzo refused, or was indeed upon his deathbed quite unable to perform, the monk determined to achieve. Henceforth he became the champion of popular liberty in the pulpit. Feeling that in the people alone lay any hope ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) • John Addington Symonds

... it was me," answered Hetty, who was engaged in stirring something in a small saucepan, the loose handle of which was attached to its battered body by only one rivet; the other rivet had given way on an occasion when Ned Frog sent it flying through the doorway after his retreating wife. ...
— Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished - A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure • R.M. Ballantyne

... as Richelieu did to a brother author, "Je ne vois pas la necessite;" but this I do say, that if you are in future to live by supplying the public with such nonsense, the shorter your existence ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... so as to give you an idea of the undesirable results likely to follow. I flatter myself that you will accept this request of his, together with the motives leading me to acquiesce, as an excuse for the liberty taken by a total stranger. In acting thus, the sole object I have in view is my friend's peace of mind, and that of those in whom he is so deeply interested. I have no other motive, nor can entertain any other; and let it suffice, in ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... very tired with rapid travel, and about the middle of the afternoon the young man unsaddled and picketed the animal near a water-hole. He lay down in the shadow of a cottonwood, flat on his back, face upturned to the deep cobalt sky. Presently the drowse of the afternoon crept over him. The slumberous valley grew hazy to his nodding eyes. ...
— A Texas Ranger • William MacLeod Raine

... recital in silent wonder. It had a painfully plausible sound, and was not inconsistent with certain shy suspicions of my own. My hostess was not only a clever woman, but presumably a generous one. I determined to let my judgment wait upon events. Possibly ...
— The Madonna of the Future • Henry James

... pointed out this fact, and charged him with the deception. To my surprise, he took it quietly, and even a little complacently. ...
— Drift from Two Shores • Bret Harte

... a mat-covered lean-to built against the mud-wall. There was no other protection for the prisoners from sunshine or rain than coarse worn matting spread upon sticks and laid against the walls. The enclosure was without any sanitary arrangements whatever. ...
— Khartoum Campaign, 1898 - or the Re-Conquest of the Soudan • Bennet Burleigh

... Catch and how to Prepare them for the Cabinet. A Manual of Instruction for the Field-Naturalist. By ...
— Bridge Disasters in America - The Cause and the Remedy • George L. Vose

... spring a young man's fancies lightly turn to thoughts of love, so at the beginning of each new year in tropical Queensland the minds of the weather sages become sensitive and impressionable. All the tarnish is rubbed off the recollection of former ill manners on the part of ...
— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield

... Usury, I thank ye that ye offer me your service; it seems to me to be for your old mistress' sake, Lady Lucre. Stay but a while; I will answer ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley

... his horse into motion, and beginning to explain all over again, "you understand that it had not been for that foul hound yelping, I should have had him here. I never miss such a shot; and then when we went ...
— The King's Achievement • Robert Hugh Benson

... of this was somewhat curious. Our first secretary of legation and I, having gone on Easter eve to the midnight mass at the Kazan cathedral, we were shown at once into a place of honor in front of the great silver iconostase and stationed immediately before one of the doors opening through it into the inner sanctuary. At first the service went on in darkness, only mitigated by a few tapers at the high altar; but as the clock struck the hour of ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... was a little picture of kittens, in and out of a basket. Mr. Dillwyn didn't care about it; but I thought it was the prettiest thing ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner

... exception—what then? An idea which had sprung up in Father Esteban's fancy that morning now took possession of it with the tenacity of a growth on fertile virgin soil. The good Father had been devoted to the conversion of the heathen with the fervor of a one-ideaed man. But his successes had been among the Indians—a guileless, harmless race, who too often confounded the practical ...
— The Crusade of the Excelsior • Bret Harte

... intensely cold, but the sun shone brilliantly, and there was not a breath of air; so that the great lowering of the temperature was not unpleasant, especially as the exertion had sent the blood racing through their veins, while the novel aspect of the scene was full of interest ...
— Steve Young • George Manville Fenn

... knowledge for the benefit of their own times and particularly of theology, belongs undoubtedly to Erasmus, from his comprehensive learning, his refinement of mind, and his indefatigable industry. Just when, in 1516, he brought out a remarkable edition of the New Testament, with a translation and explanatory comments, which forms in fact an epoch in its history. Luther recognised his high talents and services, and was anxious to see him exercise the ...
— Life of Luther • Julius Koestlin

... did a queer thing. He first glanced at the door, and then went to it quickly and threw it open. The little lobby was empty. He went out, leaned over the stair and called ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson

... attended my case for the first six weeks of my experiment were these: enormous irritability and excitement of the whole system; the stomach in particular restored to a full feeling of vitality and sensibility, but often in great pain; unceasing restlessness night and day; sleep—I scarcely knew what it was; three hours out of the twenty-four was the utmost I had, and that so agitated and ...
— Confessions of an English Opium-Eater • Thomas De Quincey

... any rebellion against the Government of the United States. Men who could do this were exceedingly difficult to find in some sections. Of course there were abundance of colored men who could take this oath, but not one in a thousand of them could read or write. The military commander determined, however, to select in every registration district one of the most intelligent of this class, in order that he might look after the interests ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... must be there!" said Babette; she felt again the greatest desire to visit it, and this wish could be immediately fulfilled; for a boat lay on the shore and the rope which fastened it, was easy to untie. As no one was visible, from whom they could ask permission, they took the boat without hesitation, for Rudy could row well. The oars skimmed like the fins of a fish, over the pliant water, which is so yielding and still so ...
— The Ice-Maiden: and Other Tales. • Hans Christian Andersen

... he came out into his own clearing, he saw a light in his cabin, where he had left no light. When he came to the door another toboggan lay beside his own. Strange dogs shifted furtively about at his approach. Warned by these signs he opened the door full of a curiosity as to who, in ...
— Burned Bridges • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... applied to the preparation of ships and munitions has no application to a tariff on those articles which have no bearing upon military power. But the most recent application of science and the mechanical arts to the uses of war has given new significance to a larger policy of industrial preparedness for military purposes. ...
— Modern Economic Problems - Economics Vol. II • Frank Albert Fetter

... is a rhyme Of ancient time Of a certain old woman who lived in a shoe, And had so many children she didn't know what to do: Fairy knows her, ...
— Fairy's Album - With Rhymes of Fairyland • Anonymous

... it ought to be possible to tell from the first rough sketch of a work whether the author conceived the thing as a whole, and whether, in view of this original conception, he has discovered the correct way of proceeding with his task and of fixing its proportions. Should this most ...
— Thoughts out of Season (Part One) • Friedrich Nietzsche

... higher-grade morons is difficult to secure unless some form of official control is initiated. That official control is often only available for those who have already suffered some serious consequence of their abnormal condition. What we need to work out is a better and more effective means for helping the family to do what is needed ...
— The Family and it's Members • Anna Garlin Spencer

... Latin in the early years of the 13th Century A.D. by the Danish historian Saxo, of whom little is known except ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... observation with a design of applying it to Great Britain. Her ideas of national honor seem devoid of that benevolence of heart, that universal expansion of philanthropy, and that triumph over the rage of vulgar prejudice, without which man is inferior to himself, and a ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... Charles ascended the throne under disadvantageous circumstances. His father had left him a heavy debt; the Duke of Buckingham, his chief minister, was universally hated, and England had greatly sunk in the estimation of foreign nations. James had agreed to furnish the King of France with some ships of war to assist him against the King ...
— How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves - Updated to 1900 • W.H.G. Kingston

... I don't look at him from any standpoint. That's what I complain of. He's encircled with a prickly hedge of clerks. 'You will hear from us.' 'It shall have our best consideration.' 'We have no knowledge of the MS. in question.' Yes, Peter, two valuable quartets have I lost, messing about with ...
— Merely Mary Ann • Israel Zangwill

... already had several skirmishes, and many have been slain on both sides. The entire city of Osaka has been burned to the ground, excepting only the castle, so that Mr Eaton had to retire with his goods to Sakey,[55] yet not without danger, as a part of that town has likewise been burnt. So great a tempest or tuffoon has lately occurred at Edoo [Jedo,] as had never been before experienced at that place. The sea overflowed the whole city, obliging the people to take refuge on the hills: and the prodigious ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... required to be shown, as in instances where some animal may be represented tearing its prey. Usually this is done by thickly painting on vermilion and red lead mixed with varnish, or brushing on red lead mixed with thick glue, as a base on which to subsequently lay the vermilion. I may point out, however, that blood differs in tint, and that the appearance of torn flesh, fresh blood, and coagulated blood is best got by painting the parts with ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne

... midsummer glories of the Valley are past their prime. The young birds are then out of their nests. Most of the plants have gone to seed; berries are ripe; autumn tints begin to kindle and burn over meadow and grove, and a soft mellow haze in the morning sunbeams heralds the approach of Indian summer. The shallow river is now at rest, its flood-work done. It is now but little more than a series of pools united by trickling, whispering currents that steal softly over brown ...
— The Yosemite • John Muir

... {66a} were to descend upon them, as he once did, with the offer to fight the best of them for nothing, and Tawno Chikno were absent, who was to fight him? Mr Petulengro could not do so for less than five pounds; but with Bess as a second wife the problem would be solved. She would fight "the ...
— The Life of George Borrow • Herbert Jenkins

... rash as to speak to me of anything you may see. Take care never to speak to me, unless I address you first. Ride on now fast and with confidence." "Sire," says she, "it shall be done." She rode ahead and held her peace. Neither one nor the other spoke a word. But Enide's heart is very sad, and within herself she thus laments, soft and low that he may not hear: "Alas," she says, "God had raised and exalted me to such great joy; but now He has suddenly cast me down. ...
— Four Arthurian Romances - "Erec et Enide", "Cliges", "Yvain", and "Lancelot" • Chretien de Troyes

... taken this plant and shown you that this is the result of the ratio of the increase, the necessary result of the arrival of a time coming for every species when exactly as many members must be destroyed as are born; that is the inevitable ultimate result of the rate of production. Now, what is the result of all this? I have said that there are forty-nine struggling against every ...
— The Conditions Of Existence As Affecting The Perpetuation Of Living Beings • Thomas H. Huxley

... his second durbar at Cawnpore on the 3rd November, when he received the principal Chiefs of Bundelkand, the Maharaja of Rewa, the Maharaja of Benares, and a host of lesser dignitaries. ...
— Forty-one years in India - From Subaltern To Commander-In-Chief • Frederick Sleigh Roberts

... of each State was completed, the Military Government that was instituted in 1867 was withdrawn. The Southern people—at first proclaiming a sense of outrage at the presence of soldiers in time of peace—soon became content with the orderly, just, and fair administration which the commanding generals enforced. Many of the wisest men of the South would have been glad to continue the same form of ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... those of the man with the Assyrian beard. How can I explain to you what happened then, seeing that I cannot explain it to myself? All I can say is that the glance of this personage put me at once into a state of indescribable agitation. The eye-balls fixed on me were of a greenish colour. I could not turn my own away. I stood there dumb and open-mouthed. As I had stopped speaking the audience began to ...
— Balthasar - And Other Works - 1909 • Anatole France

... what ought a man who believes sincerely in the principle of equality to do in the matter, if he is situated as I am situated? What I admire and desire in life is friendly contact with my fellows, interesting work, leisure for following the ...
— At Large • Arthur Christopher Benson

... not surprising. My father's ships were often fired on at sea. Nor was it strange that Brutus had a half-healed scar on his cheek. But why had my father gone armed to his own wharf? Perhaps I might have forgotten if I had ...
— The Unspeakable Gentleman • John P. Marquand

... read," she admitted; "I ain't ever read a book in my life but "Pilgrim's Progress" and the first four chapters of "Ben Hur." What's the use of pretending, when books is such a nuisance to dust? Grandfather's books in the parlour—oh, they ...
— Christmas - A Story • Zona Gale

... the gulf, they were captured by a fleet of Joassamee boats, after some resistance, in which several were wounded and taken into their chief port at Ras-el-Khyma. Here they were detained in hope of ransome, and during their stay were shown to the people of ...
— The Pirates Own Book • Charles Ellms

... we have the wind of the enemy, and that the enemy stands towards us and we towards them, then the van of our fleet shall keep the wind, and when the rear comes[1] to a convenient distance of the enemy's rear shall stay until our whole line is come up within the same distance of the enemy's van, and then our whole line is to stand along with them the same tacks on board, still keeping the enemy to leeward, and not suffering them to tack in the ...
— Fighting Instructions, 1530-1816 - Publications Of The Navy Records Society Vol. XXIX. • Julian S. Corbett

... works helped largely in destroying this youthful confidence, and a letter written by Lyell and quoted by Huxley in the chapter he communicated to Darwin's Life and Letters, states that in April, 1856, "when Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston were at Darwin's last week they (all four of them) ran a tilt against species; further I believe, than they ...
— Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work • P. Chalmers Mitchell

... millions, of millions, of millions, of millions, of millions, of millions, of millions, of millions, (which is the denomination of the second six figures). In which way, it will be very hard to have any distinguishing notions of this number. But whether, by giving every six figures a new and orderly denomination, these, and perhaps a great many more figures in progression, might not easily be counted distinctly, and ideas of them both got more easily to ourselves, and more plainly ...
— An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I. - MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books I. and II. (of 4) • John Locke

... imagine that Mother Goose is a myth,—that no such person ever existed. This is a mistake. MOTHER GOOSE was not only a veritable personage, but was born and resided many years in Boston, where many of her descendants may now be found. The last that bore this ancient paternal cognomen died about ...
— The Only True Mother Goose Melodies • Anonymous

... whether or not the aborigines of Mexico had any positive information to impart about countries lying north of the present State of Queretaro. The tribes to the north were, in the language of the valley-confederates, "Chichimecas,"—a word yet undefined, but apparently synonymous, in the conceptions of the "Nahuatl"-speaking natives, with fierce savagery, and ultimately adopted by them as ...
— Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico; Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos • Adolphus Bandelier

... until we go together,—no, by the beard of the prophet! I’ve a fight on here and I’m going to win if I die in the struggle, and you’ve got to stay with me ...
— The House of a Thousand Candles • Meredith Nicholson

... praise bestowed on King Bumble for this meritorious deed, and loud were the praises bestowed on the bird itself, which was carefully divided into equal portions (and a small portion for Jacko), and eaten raw. Not a morsel of it was lost—claws, beak, blood, bones, and feathers—all were eaten up. In order to prevent dispute or jealousy, the captain made Ailie turn her back on the bird when thus divided, and ...
— The Red Eric • R.M. Ballantyne

... yestreen I saw the new Moon, With the old Moon in her arms; And I fear, I fear, my Master dear! We shall have a deadly storm. ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... own myself. Don't have no oberseer to crack his whip at me now. I'se a free woman now, and ...
— Frank's Campaign - or the Farm and the Camp • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... dying child in her arms. The poor little girl was in extreme anguish, and often cried out with pain. At length the mother became so exhausted that she fell fainting to the ground. The Indians then placed her upon a horse, and again gave her her child to carry. But the horse was furnished with neither saddle nor bridle, and, in going down a steep hill, stumbled, and they both were thrown over his neck. This incident was greeted by the savages ...
— King Philip - Makers of History • John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

... that man?" he asked. "I will try to be, Jacqueline. Leveller, demagogue, and Jacobin I am not; but for the rest, who knows—who knows? Men are cloudy worlds—and I dream sometimes of a Pursuer." ...
— Lewis Rand • Mary Johnston

... a rood of it; sold every square yard of it to throw the money into the Fenian treasury. Rifled artillery, Colt's revolvers, Remington's, and Parrot guns have walked off with ...
— Lord Kilgobbin • Charles Lever

... our hopes were to prove vain. Once more we approached the shore with redoubled speed; the frowning rocks threatened our instant destruction; we could do nothing for our preservation. To anchor was utterly useless. We shook hands all round; on, on we drove. A yellow sandy bay appeared between two dark rocks; a huge sea carried us on; safely between the two rocks it bore us; up the beach it rolled. The schooner drew but little water. High up the sea carried us stem on. We rushed forward, and springing along the bowsprit, leaped on ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston

... dwell upon the subject of The Sale of St. Thomas. The dialogue between Thomas and the captain gives opportunity for description and metaphor almost Elizabethan in their ferocity, though the reflections of Thomas have a spiritual quality which is entirely ...
— Personality in Literature • Rolfe Arnold Scott-James

... a favourable distance from the fort, where Cook himself proposed to await the transit of the planet. Hence the point of observation was called ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part 2. The Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century • Jules Verne

... European forest, with its long glades and green sunny dells, naturally suggested the figures of armed knight on his proud steed, or maiden, decked in gold and pearl, pricking along them on a snow white palfrey. The green dells, of weary Palmer sleeping there beside the spring with his head upon his wallet. Our minds, familiar with such figures, people with them the New England woods, wherever the sunlight falls down a longer than usual cart-track, wherever a cleared ...
— Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 • S.M. Fuller

... cellar she knew the dimensions of every cupboard—the capacity of each nook—the measure of the very walls. Woe to the unlucky sleeper! his slumbers from that hour were numbered; she watched him as if he had committed a crime. ...
— The Italians • Frances Elliot

... to Pyong-yang on the Tadong is 130 miles, and it was traversed by the Japanese in eighteen days, ten of which had been occupied in forcing the passage of the Imjin. On the southern bank of the Tadong, the invaders found themselves in a position even more difficult than that which had confronted them at the Imjin. They had to pass a wide rapid river with a walled city of great strength on its northern bank and with all the boats in the possession of the Korean garrison, which was believed to be ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... grand-children, parents, brothers, and kindred, is to be pitied. Difficult is the task that hath been performed by the Pandavas: by them hath a kingdom been recovered without ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa - Translated into English Prose - Adi Parva (First Parva, or First Book) • Kisari Mohan Ganguli (Translator)

... that 'the engines having broken down, an officer extemporised a mournful and useless parody of sails.' Oh, yes! he says that some of them looked like 'bonnets in a needlecase,' ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling

... that every one in the Dering household had become used to, likewise, to the speaker, a mite of humanity, with wicked big blue eyes, a pug nose, and a frowzled head of ...
— Six Girls - A Home Story • Fannie Belle Irving

... would have set at liberty both husband and wife, let them be happy, and love one another. A base man would have hung the husband and kept the wife. Pugasceff killed them both! He knew very well that there were still many living who remembered that Czar Peter III. was not a man who found pleasure in women's love, ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish • Various

... constitutes the answer. But before we proceed to examine its contents, it is of great importance to observe that it is not a direct answer to the scribe's question. It is the answer which the Lord saw meet to give, but it is not a decision on the case which had been submitted for adjudication. In his question the scribe contemplated other people, and speculated upon who ...
— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot

... was a noise at the end of the shed where the door to the offices lay. Two figures burst through from the glass doors and charged down the lanes between the lathes and cranes. Ned Newton led, Rad Sampson, his face ...
— Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive - or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails • Victor Appleton

... always to overcome their evil will. He does so sometimes nevertheless, when superior reasons allow of it, and when his consequent and decretory will, which results from all his reasons, makes him resolve upon the election of a certain number of men. He gives aids to all for their conversion and for perseverance, and these aids suffice in those who have good will, but they do not always suffice to give good will. Men obtain this good will either through particular aids ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... New York, a correspondent who already on sundry occasions has rendered me able aid and advice, was kind enough to send me his copy of the Tale of Attaf (the "C. MS." of the foregoing pages). It is a small 4to of pp. 334, size 5 3/4 by 8 inches, with many of the leaves injured and repaired; and written ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... the shops retains much of its old character, and the windows with their wooden frames and mullions are worth notice. The house on the left next to the Bank with its prominent bay windows was at one time the town house of a family named Langstone, and it was here that King Charles the First stayed and held his "Court" in 1644. Almost opposite is a stately front of brick dating from the next century, of elegant proportions and with well-designed spouts. ...
— Evesham • Edmund H. New

... morning they sailed, stood away like sea-birds each on its own course. The wind for a few days was moderate, and, with unusual luck of fine weather, the Spray made Melbourne Heads on the 22d of December, and, taken in tow by the steam-tug ...
— Sailing Alone Around The World • Joshua Slocum

... him go," said Nora, who had accompanied them down the walk. "I'll have a private interview with him to-morrow and that will ...
— Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School - Or, Fast Friends in the Sororities • Jessie Graham Flower

... you mean? Is the duchess ill? I got a letter from her yesterday, in which she said she was quite well. It met me at Marseilles. She continues well. I hope? Why don't you ...
— The Lost Lady of Lone • E.D.E.N. Southworth

... cried, throwing up his hands. 'The best of fathers! The kindest of kings! See that my words are placed upon the record, clerk! The most indulgent of parents! But wayward children must, with all kindness, be flogged into obedience. Here he broke into a savage grin. 'The King will save your own natural parents all further care on your account. If they had wished to keep ye, they should have brought ye up in better principles. Rogues, we shall be merciful to ye—oh, merciful, merciful! ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle

... child's babble indeed under the smile of Night. And the face of the woman, left alone at her window, was a little like the face of this warm, sweet night. It was sensitive, harmonious; and its harmony was not, as in some faces, cold—but seemed to tremble and glow and flutter, as though it were a spirit which had ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... the day were Stockton and Stokes; and on that occasion a gallant grey, of great beauty and power, was driven by them from town, attached to another car on the second track—for the company had begun by making two tracks to the Mills—and met the engine at the Relay House on its way ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various

... predecessors, arises from a course of lectures delivered at a Summer School at Woodbrooke, near Birmingham, in August, 1919. The first, in 1915, dealt with 'The Unity of Western Civilization' generally, the second, in 1916, with 'Progress'. In this book an attempt has been made to trace the same ideas in the last ...
— Recent Developments in European Thought • Various

... use for the game when it was stolen, Marriner would have it and sell it, but the question of Saurin's sharing in the profits had not even been mooted. To do him justice he had not thought of such a thing, the sport was all that tempted him. The field of their operations was not to be near Marriner's house, but in a part of the estates a good bit nearer Weston, and on the other side of it. Marriner had learned that there was to be a poaching expedition on a large scale that night at the other ...
— Dr. Jolliffe's Boys • Lewis Hough

... to be," said she (as if poking her was fate). "Quite true dear, but let's go to the bed, the sin is no greater if we do it ever so many times." Into bed we got, and there I think we laid for sixteen hours. Laura was a lovely bed-fellow. I had a good look at the hair on her cunt, it was very long, curled round, and completely hid her cunt, even when standing with her legs slightly open; and when she pissed, she left drops of piddle on the hair. On her that bush was handsome, but very long hair is not generally ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous

... a few years after her John's recognition, she spent with self-sacrificing devotion beside her husband's couch of pain, which was to become his deathbed, passed amid anxiety and grief, and when her affectionate, careful nursing proved vain, and Pyramus died, deep and sincere sorrow overpowered ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... have since adopted his statement. Tudor, in his "Life of Otis," says seventy or eighty. Colonel Ebenezer Stevens agrees with him. "None put the number lower than sixty, nor higher than eighty," is the recollection of "a Bostonian," fifty years after the event. John Andrews was told that they mustered on Fort Hill to the number of about two hundred. "From one hundred to one hundred and fifty being more or less actively engaged" thought Hewes, one of the actors. "Two or three hundred dressed like Indians," ...
— Tea Leaves • Various

... he had spent great part of his life in courting women, was a bachelor. He had been engaged once in New Mexico and two or three times in New York, but had always, as he could tell you with a smile, been disappointed. He now lived with his uncle, that Senor Manuel Garcia whom Clara has mentioned, a trader with California, ...
— Overland • John William De Forest

... You know ME. I've been your bo's'n an' yer father's an' yer grand-father's afore HIM, ever since the 'Angel' was built, an' afore that, too. Why, some on us can remember way back to the days of the 'Panther,' when you wa'n't knee-high to a cutlash. Me, an' Mike the Shark, here, an' Sandy Buggins, an' Roarin' Pete, an' some on us has stuck to the 'Angel' since the day she was built. There aint any on us but has seen more'n twenty years sarvice with you or yer father. Now some ...
— The Voyage of the Hoppergrass • Edmund Lester Pearson

... Southwest Asian heroin and, to a lesser degree, South American cocaine for the European market; limited producer of precursor chemicals; some money laundering of drug-related proceeds ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... presented to our view, seems scarcely to need a comment; but such sad work hath been made of this text, and such strange conclusions been drawn from it that it may be proper to subjoin a ...
— Sermons on Various Important Subjects • Andrew Lee

... visits at the chateau, though we were so near Paris (only about an hour and a half by the express), but the old people had got accustomed to their quiet life, and visitors would have worried them. Sometimes a Protestant pasteur would come down for two days. We had a nice visit once from M. de Pressense, ...
— Chateau and Country Life in France • Mary King Waddington

... they scold her, then, my pretty one? And did she want to be as wise as they, To bear a bucklered heart and priggish mind? Ay, you may crow; she did! but no, no, no, The night-time will not let her, all the stars Say nay to that,—the old sea laughs at her. Why, Gladys is a child; she has not skill To shut herself ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Jean Ingelow

... Rand resigned from the Kenesaw Bank and went West, where he is now leading the simple life on a sheep-ranch. His resignation was accepted with regret, and the board of directors, as a special mark of their liking, voted him a gift of ...
— R. Holmes & Co. • John Kendrick Bangs

... you are to learn what a "Master" is. Here was one man at least, who knew his business, once upon a time! Unaccusably;—none of your fool's heads or clown's hearts can find a fault here! "Dog-fancier,[49] cobbler, tailor, or churl, look here"—says Master ...
— On the Old Road Vol. 1 (of 2) - A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature • John Ruskin

... how tranquil and saintly you are with your leg in a trough! It is deuced awkward, to be sure, just as we had promised ourselves a glorious month together at the sea-side; but we must make the best of it. It is unfortunate, too, that my father's health renders it impossible for me to leave him. I think he has much improved; ...
— Marjorie Daw • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... It concerns you and me and that old fool. You never told me he had a family! Well, his family are coming,—coming here,—no doubt to turn ...
— The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... believed that the success of the "yellow journals" with the most intelligent, alert and progressive public in the world must be based upon solid reasons of desert, must be in spite of, not because of, their follies and exhibitions of bad taste. He resolved upon a radical departure, a revolution from the policy of satisfying petty vanity and tradition within the office to a policy of satisfying the demands ...
— The Great God Success • John Graham (David Graham Phillips)

... roof the stories and conversations arise is a gentleman's house, apparently in the eastern counties, inhabited by the elder of two brothers, George and Richard. George, an elderly bachelor, who had made a sufficient fortune in business, has retired ...
— Crabbe, (George) - English Men of Letters Series • Alfred Ainger

... Krause, the First Public Prosecutor, who was responsible for determining the charge against policeman Jones and fixing his bail in the first instance. The steps now taken by Dr. Krause no doubt were within his legal rights, but they do not appear to a layman calculated to ensure justice being done. Before proceeding with the murder trial Dr. Krause took criminal action against Mr. Dunn for libel, and in order to prove the libel he, whose duty it was to prosecute Jones for murder, entered the ...
— The Transvaal from Within - A Private Record of Public Affairs • J. P. Fitzpatrick

... progress of the dialogue, I had my eye fixed on the young hunter. I could perceive that the announcement of the marriage was quite new to him; and its effect was as that of a sudden blow. Of course, equally unknown to him had been the name of the husband; though from the exclamatory phrase that followed, he had ...
— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... months he was that square and compact, that chunky and yet that tender, that no right-minded person could desire him to be changed to an impudent young scaramouch like young Michael Ragstroar four doors higher up, who was eleven and a ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan

... Courtier, is it? I know your book, and I don't approve of you; you're a dangerous man—How do you do? I must have those two bags. The cart can bring the rest.... Randle, get up in front, and don't get dusty. Ann!" But Ann was already beside the chauffeur, having long planned this improvement. "H'm! ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... as the people were coming home from the Fair that third night. There was a great deal to be drawn home; and consequently a very long procession of carts and wagons was tailing along the road, toward nightfall; also the cows and other cattle which had been on exhibition. The Edwards family, the Wilburs, as also the Sylvesters and the Batchelders, were well represented; ...
— When Life Was Young - At the Old Farm in Maine • C. A. Stephens

... soon said he would see it through—blind at forty. You have had your trials, you have them still; but every gift of man is yours, and every opportunity. Will you not live it all out to the end? Allah knows the exit He wants for us, and He must resent our breaking a way out of the prison of ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... toward her from over the table, and spoke in a low level tone: "I am going to appeal to your better nature. Think of the girls of the street who need rescue, and the women of the cities who are dying from neglect and vice. If you hinder my work, let the souls of these outcasts be upon your soul! You can ...
— Fran • John Breckenridge Ellis

... fightin' gunsmith was in a peaceful sleep, Joe Murphy lay across him, all tied up in ...
— Songs Of The Road • Arthur Conan Doyle

... cruell and inconstant in all his dooings, so that he became an heauie burthen vnto his people. For he was so much addicted to gather goods, that he considered not what perteined to the maiestie of a king, insomuch that nothing tending to his gaine, and the satisfieng of his appetite, was esteemed of him vnlawfull, sith he measured all things by the vncontrolled rule of his roialtie, and considered nothing what so high an office required. He kept the ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (2 of 12) - William Rufus • Raphael Holinshed

... that this added another to the many doubts I had to endure; and as I thought upon such a mischance occurring, I again looked eagerly outward, and ran my eyes in every direction over the surface of the bay, only, as on every other occasion, ...
— The Boy Tar • Mayne Reid

... he can't," snarled Roger, "he's sure to get that medal anyway!" He inched up a little. "Move over, Corbett, I'm skinnier than you are, and I can reach that cleat easier than ...
— Stand by for Mars! • Carey Rockwell

... When a poor fellow is going down hill, it is but too common, they say, for every body to give him ...
— The Life of General Francis Marion • Mason Locke Weems

... (December 21, 1850), 'came Miss Martineau and Miss Bronte (Jane Eyre); talked to Miss Martineau (who blasphemes frightfully) about the prospects of the Church of England, and, wretched man that I am, promised to go and see her cow-keeping miracles {457a} to-morrow—I, who hardly know a cow from a sheep. I talked to Miss Bronte (past thirty and plain, with expressive grey eyes, though) of her curates, of French novels, and her education in a school at Brussels, and sent the lions roaring ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter

... thus completed according to the intention of the industrious worker, a period of silence intervened, as if she had been taking a rest in the chair which stood by the fire. A most ominous interlude, for every moment the couple in bed expected that she would enter the bedroom, were ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII. • Various

... to faint as I led her to a chair where she sank down and her head fell on my shoulder. The terrible effort she had made in speaking to me so bitterly had broken her down. Instead of an outraged woman, I found now only a suffering child. Her eyes closed and ...
— The Confession of a Child of The Century • Alfred de Musset

... Ogilvie had enclosed. The paragraph of gossip announced that the Piccadilly Theatre would shortly be closed for repairs; but that the projected provincial tour of the company had been abandoned. On the re-opening of the theatre, a play, which was now in preparation, written by Mr. Gregory Lemuel, would be produced. "It is understood," continued the newsman, "that Miss Gertrude White, the young and gifted actress who has been the chief attraction at the Piccadilly ...
— Macleod of Dare • William Black

... Island south-south-east we found a strong current against us, which set only in some places in streams; and in them we saw many trees and logs of wood which drove by us. We had but little wood aboard; wherefore I hoisted out the pinnace and sent her to take up some of this driftwood. ...
— A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland • William Dampier

... the deadly fire off their fallen companions. They saw the half-open door of the cabin swing now slowly shut and they riddled it with bullets. They splintered the logs about it and, scattering in as wide an arc as they dare, continued to pour a fire into the silent cabin. At intervals they paused to wait for a return. There was no return. All ruses they had ever heard of they tried over again to draw a fire and exhaust the besieged man's ammunition. ...
— Laramie Holds the Range • Frank H. Spearman

... known fact that the archdeacon's solicitude about the Plumstead covers was wholly on behalf of his son the major. The major himself knew this thoroughly, and felt that his father's present special anxiety was intended as a corroboration of the tidings conveyed in his mother's letter. Every word so uttered was meant to have reference to his son's future residence in the country. "Father," he said, turning round shortly, and standing before the archdeacon in the pathway, ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope

... from the chancellor did not absolutely surprise me, because I agreed with him in opinion, and with many others, that the declining constitution of France threatened an approaching destruction. The disasters of an unsuccessful war, all of which proceeded from a fault in the government; the incredible confusion in the finances; the perpetual drawings upon the treasury by the administration, which was then divided between two or three ministers, amongst whom reigned nothing but discord, ...
— The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete • Jean Jacques Rousseau

... selfish men; and Penn was not satisfied with the conduct either of the representative Assembly, or of those to whom he had delegated his own powers. He changed the latter two or three times, without effecting the restoration of harmony; and these troubles gave a pretext for depriving him of his powers as governor, in 1693. The real cause was probably the suspicion entertained of his treasonable correspondence with James II. But he was reinstated in August, 1694, by a royal order, in which it was complimentarily expressed ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3 of 8 • Various

... and changes were due to the influence of one man was undoubtedly true, but that he was necessarily a superior man did not follow. Elijah's success was due partly to the fact that he had been enabled to impress certain negative virtues, which were part of his own nature, upon a community equally constituted to receive them. Each was strengthened ...
— A Drift from Redwood Camp • Bret Harte

... have kept to her own side of the bridge, to have ridden on the high Downs inviting to a rider, but she loved the farther country where the air was blue and soft, where little orchards broke oddly into great fields, where brooks ran across the lanes and pink-washed cottages were fronted by little gardens ...
— THE MISSES MALLETT • E. H. YOUNG

... said he. "A bull is not nearly as dangerous as he looks, even when he's angry, if you are only quick on your feet and don't lose your head. These bullfighters are very clever and nimble. And the people, especially the Spanish ladies, think no end of them. A famous bullfighter (or matador, as they call them) ...
— The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle • Hugh Lofting

... dread into the Moorish foe, Mount Alban's champion, leading the assault, Bade beat his drums and bade his bugles blow, And with loud echoing cries his name exalt. He spurs Baiardo, that is nothing slow; He clears the lofty barriers at a vault, Trampling down foot, o'erturning cavalier, And scatters booth and tent in ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... when Thorpe procured the issue of a second edition of another of Healey's translations, 'Epictetus Manuall. Cebes Table. Theoprastus Characters,' he supplied more conspicuous evidence of the servility with which he deemed it incumbent on him ...
— A Life of William Shakespeare - with portraits and facsimiles • Sidney Lee

... had never been more alert. He noticed that Buck had on a red necktie that had got loose from his shirt and climbed up his neck. It had black polka dots and was badly frayed. Sweeney was chewing tobacco. He would have that chew in his mouth after they had finished what they were ...
— Crooked Trails and Straight • William MacLeod Raine

... loses his time: in idleness; or in works that no good comes of; or in good works, but not ordained as they should be. Against idleness, Solomon says—"Idleness teaches much evil"; and Holy Writ says "Whoso followeth idleness, is most foolish." A great fool he is who forbears not from the thing that harms him. More fool he is, because he wins himself no reward: most fool he is, because he wins himself pain. Therefore GOD blames the idle: and says "Why standest thou all the day idle?" ...
— The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises • Richard Rolle of Hampole

... outskirts of the clearing? Are they ghosts? Ghosts of those thus barbarously slain and of many others before them? The moonlit sward is alive with flitting shapes, gliding towards the stockade, surrounding it on all sides with a celerity and fixity of purpose which can have but one meaning. And among them is the glint of metal, the shining of rifle ...
— The Sign of the Spider • Bertram Mitford



Words linked to "A" :   throw a fit, current unit, object of a preposition, in a low voice, on a lower floor, degree of a polynomial, to a man, without a stitch, a little, element of a cylinder, have a fit, Linear A, give a hang, hang by a thread, draw a blank, pied-a-terre, a posteriori, A-one, take a firm stand, take a look, ring-a-rosy, a cappella, grind to a halt, in a heartfelt way, lobster a la Newburg, a couple of, have a look, not by a blame sight, pull a face, shoot a line, in a pig's eye, have a go at it, turn a nice dollar, take a breath, provitamin A, make a point, to a lower place, for a bargain price, cock-a-leekie, care a hang, angstrom unit, take a breather, give it a try, antiophthalmic factor, feel like a million, in a way, degree of a term, to a T, to a greater extent, moment of a magnet, vitamin A, in a bad way, letter, a Kempis, as a formality, A'man, turn a blind eye, son of a bitch, axerophthol, rub-a-dub, have a good time, at a loss, a-ok, picometre, micromillimeter, cock-a-hoop, immunoglobulin A, in a higher place, jack-a-lantern, man-on-a-horse, retinol, characteristic root of a square matrix, a cappella singing, botulinum toxin A, beyond a doubt, turn a nice penny, bric-a-brac, like a shot, feel like a million dollars, naked as a jaybird, take a dare, get a line, get a load, 5-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, raise a stink, one at a time, since a long time ago, tete-a-tete, paint a picture, dehydroretinol, page-at-a-time printer, adenine, catch a glimpse, for a song, turn a nice dime, moment of a couple, A-team, get a whiff, a lot, A-horizon, even a little, make a face, a few, hepatitis A virus, pate a choux, to a fault, turn a profit, menage a trois, take a dive, give a damn, do a job on, domain of a function, deaf as a post, Thomas a Kempis, turn a loss, take a chance, drop a line, term of a contract, touch a chord, a trifle, micromillimetre, to a higher place, biochemistry, a great deal, A level, quite a, Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya, St. Thomas a Becket, on a regular basis, A battery, strike a blow, take a bow, chlorophyll a, cock-a-doodle-doo, love-in-a-mist, Saint Thomas a Becket, blow a fuse, ampere, A horizon, pit-a-pat, roman a clef, A-line, blood type



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