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Beat   Listen
verb
Beat  v. i.  (past beat; past part. beaten; pres. part. beating)  
1.
To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly. "The men of the city... beat at the door."
2.
To move with pulsation or throbbing. "A thousand hearts beat happily."
3.
To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force; to strike anything, as rain, wind, and waves do. "Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below." "They (winds) beat at the crazy casement." "The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die." "Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers."
4.
To be in agitation or doubt. (Poetic) "To still my beating mind."
5.
(Naut.) To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.
6.
To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
7.
(Mil.) To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
8.
(Acoustics & Mus.) To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.
A beating wind (Naut.), a wind which necessitates tacking in order to make progress.
To beat about, to try to find; to search by various means or ways.
To beat about the bush, to approach a subject circuitously.
To beat up and down (Hunting), to run first one way and then another; said of a stag.
To beat up for recruits, to go diligently about in order to get helpers or participators in an enterprise.
To beat the rap, to be acquitted of an accusation; especially, by some sly or deceptive means, rather than to be proven innocent.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Beat" Quotes from Famous Books



... Chester turned his eyes toward the river bank, which now was lined with British troops, who were firing steadily at forms disappearing on the opposite side of the stream. The approach of the English in force had caused the Germans to beat a rapid retreat. From the opposite shore, however, still came puffs of smoke, and bullets continued to fall among the English troops, and here and there men fell ...
— The Boy Allies On the Firing Line - Or, Twelve Days Battle Along the Marne • Clair W. Hayes

... rehearsed twice a year in all the cathedrals, with a sentence of excommunication on all who should infringe it. The Archbishop enforced this order strictly, adding another sentence of excommunication to be rehearsed in each church on every Sunday against any who should beat or imprison clergymen, desiring it to be done with tolling of bell and putting out of candle, because these solemnities had the greater effect on the laity. This statute is a sad proof how much ...
— Cameos from English History, from Rollo to Edward II • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... he was equally good. "I remember once we had a stiff run out into the country," said a fellow-student. "Roosevelt was behind at the start, but when all of the others got played out he forged ahead, and in the end he beat us by several minutes. But he never bragged about it. You ...
— American Boy's Life of Theodore Roosevelt • Edward Stratemeyer

... hemorrhage is from an artery the blood is bright red. It spurts out forcibly, is difficult to control and demands immediate attention. Arteries carry the blood from the heart to the extremities. They beat with every pulsation of the heart so that blood coming from an artery spurts with every pulse beat. Even a small artery may be responsible for a very considerable hemorrhage in a very short time. Whatever is done must be done quickly. The parts should be freed from ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • Grant Hague

... of the women lie at the very heart of the war and I know how much stronger that heart will beat if you do this just thing and show our women that you trust them as much as you in fact and of necessity ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper

... encompassing it in its loathsome embrace. Upon perceiving the first evidences of darkness upon the face of the moon, the men rush out from the houses, shout, shoot arrows toward the moon, slash at trees with their bolos, play the drum and gong, beat tin cans and the buttresses of trees, blow bamboo resounders and dance around wildly, at the same time giving forth yells of defiance at the monster saying, "Let loose our moon," "You will be hit by an arrow." ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan

... psychology studies are conscious performances, while many of those falling to physiology are unconscious. Thus digestion is mostly unconscious, the heart beat is unconscious except when disturbed, the action of the liver is entirely unconscious. Why not say, then, that psychology is the ...
— Psychology - A Study Of Mental Life • Robert S. Woodworth

... Catholic institutions. "What appalling spectacles," exclaims a Christian writer, "must we witness in the capital [Warsaw] on solemn holidays. Students and even adults in noisy mobs assault the Jews, and sometimes beat them with sticks. We have seen a gang waylay a Jew, stop his horses, and strike him till he fell from the wagon. How can we look with indifference on such a survival of barbarism?" The commonest manifestations of hatred and superstition, however, were, as in other ...
— The Haskalah Movement in Russia • Jacob S. Raisin

... scholars" in the classes of our great universities and colleges are, to be sure! They are not, as a rule, the most distinguished of their class in the long struggle of life. The chances are that "the field" will beat "the favorite" over the long race-course. Others will develop a longer stride and more staying power. But what fine gifts those "first scholars" have received from nature! How dull we writers, famous or obscure, ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... and incalculable, to pay, and I glance at the possibility only to avoid all thought of the lesson of the long run, and to insist that I utter this dithyramb but in the immediate flush and fever of the short. For such a beat of time as our fine courteous and contemplative advance upon Naples, and for such another as our retreat northward under the same fine law of observation and homage, the bribed consciousness could only decline ...
— Italian Hours • Henry James

... gas, he inspected its contents. Suddenly he gave a cry of alarm, and the case fell to the floor. "The Opal Serpent!—The Opal Serpent!" he cried, growing purple in the face, "keep off!—keep off!" He beat the air with his lean hands. "Oh—the Opal!" and he fell face downward on the slimy floor in a fit or a faint, ...
— The Opal Serpent • Fergus Hume

... with his hands and feet, flops his arms and crows like a rooster, and says, "Bully for Bragg; he's hell on a retreat," and announces his readiness. The drum is tapped, and off they start. Well, Billy Webster beat him one hundred yards in the two hundred, and Tennessee came back and said, "Well, boys, I'm beat; Billy Martin, hand over the stakes to Billy Webster. I'm beat, but hang me if I didn't outrun the whole Yankee army coming out of Kentucky; got away from Lieutenant Lansdown and the whole detail ...
— "Co. Aytch" - Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment - or, A Side Show of the Big Show • Sam R. Watkins

... Mons de la Sale at the point of death with Juan Lopez de Cumaya, a Vizcaino, who go by another road, I send the High Sheriff for him while I return to Cadiz to make provision for things not done in a manner beat ...
— The Voyage of Verrazzano • Henry C. Murphy

... deluded. Some men who have been led into wrong practices, who have been led into the practices of monopoly, because that seemed to be the drift and inevitable method of supremacy, are just as ready as we are to turn about and adopt the process of freedom. For American hearts beat in a lot of these men, just as they beat under our jackets. They will be as glad to be free as we shall be to set them free. And then the splendid force which has lent itself to things that hurt us will lend itself to things ...
— The New Freedom - A Call For the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People • Woodrow Wilson

... passing more frequently. The clank of metal chains, the beat of hoofs upon the good road-bed, sounded smartly on the ear. The houses became larger, newer, more flamboyant; richly dressed, handsome women were coming and going between them and their broughams. When Sommers ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... Ouchterlony. William Yule, together with his younger brother Udny,[5] returned home in 1806. "A recollection of their voyage was that they hailed an outward bound ship, somewhere off the Cape, through the trumpet: 'What news?' Answer: 'The King's mad, and Humfrey's beat Mendoza' (two celebrated prize-fighters and often matched). 'Nothing more?' 'Yes, Bonaparty's made ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... this did not startle Elinor, did not make her heart beat, did not open new complications and vistas in life, would be a thing impossible. Pippo Lord Lomond! Pippo, whom she had feared to expose to his father's influence, whom she had kept apart, who did not know anything about himself except that he was her son—had she kept and guarded the ...
— The Marriage of Elinor • Margaret Oliphant

... him out of doors. Then he fell into a rage, and tapped his knapsack until a hundred and fifty men stood before him armed from head to foot. He commanded them to surround his brothers' house, and two of them were to take hazel-sticks with them, and beat the two insolent men until they knew who he was. A violent disturbance arose, people ran together, and wanted to lend the two some help in their need, but against the soldiers they could do nothing. News of this at length came to the King, who was very angry, and ordered a captain to march ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... threw his head back a little and drew deep breaths of the cool, crisp air. The light wind had the touch of life in it. As the cool puffs blew upon him and filled his lungs his chest expanded and his strong pulses beat more strongly. But a boy in years, he had already done a man's work, and he had been through those deeps of passion and despair which ...
— The Scouts of Stonewall • Joseph A. Altsheler

... this regulation? Was it to grant masters an indulgence to beat servants with impunity? and an assurance, that if they beat them to death, the offence would not be capital? This is substantially what some modern Doctors tell us. What Deity do such men worship? Some blood-gorged Moloch, enthroned on human hecatombs, and snuffing carnage ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... the Calc. Edit. by misprint "Maktab." Jabal Mukattam is the old sea-cliff where the Mediterranean once beat and upon whose North-Western slopes Cairo ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... standing corn. He asked his neighbours' assistance, and they secured it. It had five calves whilst in the man's possession, and each of them cow calves; but they gave him so much trouble from their unruly nature that he beat them frequently. One day he did so by the seaside, when a voice from the sea called the cattle, who all rushed ...
— A Danish Parsonage • John Fulford Vicary

... was darkened by a cloud of arrows. The cannon from the walls belched forth smoke and flame, and great stone and iron balls came hurtling down into our midst, dealing death and destruction. The English soldiers with their characteristic daring sallied forth sword in hand to beat us back and yet we pressed on and ever on; driven backwards here and there by stress of fighting; but never giving great way, and always rallied by the sight of that gleaming white armour, and by the clear, sweet voice ringing out through ...
— A Heroine of France • Evelyn Everett-Green

... Tim's heart beat high with hope when he found himself close by the stream and saw nothing of his pursuers. The hasty signal given by Elwood Brandon, as we have shown, caused him some uneasiness, but not being repeated, and being very anxious to get back ...
— Adrift in the Wilds - or, The Adventures of Two Shipwrecked Boys • Edward S. Ellis

... the Prince!" she cried, her breath coming thick and fast, whilst her heart beat almost to suffocation. "O Nat, good Nat! what can it mean? The Prince! what ...
— In the Days of Chivalry • Evelyn Everett-Green

... were certainly poor musicians as a rule, but that, on the other hand, fine musicians were not usually good people—that goodness was the important thing in this world and not music. Empty-Head now beat resolutely upon his full Heart, and Sentiment was trumps. I recall an author of that day who accounted his inability to write as a peculiar merit in himself, and who, because of his wooden style, was given a silver ...
— Atta Troll • Heinrich Heine

... libertarians grant causality as appertaining to the will, however much they may beat about the bush, they are surrendering their position all along the line, unless they fall back upon the more ultimate question as to the nature of natural causation. Now it can be proved that this more ultimate question is [scientifically] unanswerable. ...
— Thoughts on Religion • George John Romanes

... he threw up his guard, "there, is still time for you to beat it out of here if you don't want to take the ...
— The High School Boys' Fishing Trip • H. Irving Hancock

... far too practical to be influenced by that malign Spirit of the Nation who had so persistently endeavoured to establish herself as one of the family at Mount Music. "All I'm afraid of is that Papa may begin to beat the Protestant drum and wave the Union Jack! Such nonsense! The main thing is that Larry ...
— Mount Music • E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross

... visible figures, six, eight, ten steps. With a shriek the wind tore at them, beat the breath from their bodies, cut them with stinging needle-points and threw them aside. Dan reached back to make sure of Hillas who fumbled through ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... and thinking that he found riding uncomfortable, he lifted him from the back of the camel, and permitted him to walk on foot. But Joseph continued to weep and sob, crying incessantly, "O father, father!" Another one of the caravan, tired of his lamentations, beat him, causing only the more tears and wails, until the youth, exhausted by his grief, was unable to move on. Now all the Ishmaelites in the company dealt out blows to him. They treated him with relentless cruelty, and tried to silence him by threats. God ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... one thing, you will get a scoop, a beat,—whatever you call it in that newspaper ...
— The Silent Bullet • Arthur B. Reeve

... as by a miracle, we were swept down the remainder of the tumbling rapids. At the bottom I found a footing, and with my burden I struggled on, now slipping and floundering, now breasting the furious current, half-blinded at every stride by the dashing spray that beat in my face. But I was alive to the danger that awaited below, and I felt that there was no hope for either ...
— The Cryptogram - A Story of Northwest Canada • William Murray Graydon

... thought I'd have to fight,— And though I was the smallest Of all the party, I's so mad I'd easy beat the tallest. ...
— Mother Truth's Melodies - Common Sense For Children • Mrs. E. P. Miller

... vessels, but found no one in these who had been on the coast of Africa in the slave-trade. One or two had been there in king's ships; but they never had been on shore. Things were now drawing near to a close; and notwithstanding my success, as to general evidence, in this journey, my heart began to beat. I was restless and uneasy during the night. The next morning I felt agitated again between the alternate pressure of hope and fear; and in this state I entered my boat. The fifty-seventh vessel I boarded was the Melampus ...
— An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism - With reference to the duty of American females • Catharine E. Beecher

... gun, and followed from afar by the pallid damsels, he beat the wood. The only thing forthcoming was a German pig, one of a pair that the count had to improve the breed. The female had died, and the male wandered about sad and alone in the depths of the wood whilst his companion was metamorphosed into black puddings and chops. ...
— The Grandee • Armando Palacio Valds

... moving. But the moment he arranges his words so as to convey in a telling manner not only the plain facts, but the horrible feelings he experienced at the sight, he has become an artist. And if he further orders his words to a rhythmic beat, a beat in sympathy with his subject, he has become still more artistic, and a primitive form ...
— The Practice and Science Of Drawing • Harold Speed

... mania for wickedness—evil from head to foot, thoroughly. She wouldn't stick at murder—if she thought it safe. She'd do anything, say anything. Every word she uttered this morning had been rehearsed in her mind—with gestures, even. When I beat her, I ...
— No Clue - A Mystery Story • James Hay

... terrible will and calm determination staggered Sir George, and by its force beat down even his strong will. The infuriated old man wavered a moment ...
— Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall • Charles Major

... McGawley went out on purpose to let the gentleman get out his money. The New Yorker asked me how much I would require. I said, "It is going to be an unlimited game, and you had better give me what money you can spare, for if I beat one good hand for him I will break him." He handed me six one thousand-dollar notes. Well, we went to work; and you bet it was lively. I started in $2,000 winner, and you ought to have seen my partner's eyes snap. I don't mean McGawley, of course, for he was a quiet ...
— Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi • George H. Devol

... gallant gentleman of the most chivalrous Court in the world to beat a retreat when his mistress was in danger of an unpleasant ...
— The Nest of the Sparrowhawk • Baroness Orczy

... slewed around nervously, and I felt the ground tremble under me as his mighty coils lashed the ground in anger. Scrambling to my feet, I seized the projector tube of the disintegrator ray and swept the beam upward until it beat upon that ...
— The Terror from the Depths • Sewell Peaslee Wright

... can pass many an hour, which otherwise he would have given, not to work, but to extravagant follies. With it, he is no longer restless, and impatient for excitement of any kind. We never hear now of young blades issuing in bands from their wine to beat the watch or disturb the slumbering citizens, as we did thirty or forty years ago, when smoking was still a rarity; they are all puffing harmlessly in their chambers now. But, on the other hand, I foresee with dread a too tender ...
— Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society • Sarah Annie Frost

... upward; two, as you straighten yourself wit the hands down, and three, as you repeat the first movement; and, except in making a water jump, or some other very long leap, the 'two' will be the shortest beat, as it is in the waltz. And, although you must use some strength in raising your hands, you must not raise them too high, and you must not lean your head forward or draw your elbows back. A jockey may, when riding in a steeplechase for money, but he will be angry with himself for having ...
— In the Riding-School; Chats With Esmeralda • Theo. Stephenson Browne

... beat to suffocation, the while she answered in commonplace phrase, "I shorely do. My name is Judith Barrier; I live with Uncle Jephthah Turrentine, on my farm. Hit's right next to the old Bonbright place. We've been livin' thar more'n four years. I hate to go back ...
— Judith of the Cumberlands • Alice MacGowan

... broke him on her wheel it was at that moment. His destiny was still in his own hands, and so was the letter. Unaddressed, it was his personal property. He could retain it if he chose, and the family mystery would darken into deeper gloom than ever. I felt my comfortable, commonplace heart beat rapidly. ...
— The Whole Family - A Novel by Twelve Authors • William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mary Stewart Cutting, Elizabeth Jo

... did Cecil get on her narrow perch that night, for her sisters, in their dreams, were ever in a sinking ship, or struggling in the foam-driven rapids. Even her heart beat quicker when the paddle-wheels suddenly ceased, and ominous voices, indistinctly heard, appeared in agonized consultation. A familiar sound of knocking and hammering, however, suggested that they must have put into port ...
— Bluebell - A Novel • Mrs. George Croft Huddleston

... still, was followed by that famous winter of 1789—that winter of merciless, of unexampled, cold for France. And in the heat of that long summer and in the cold of that still longer winter, the storm gathered fast which was to rise higher and higher until it should beat upon the very throne itself, and all that was left of honor and justice ...
— Calvert of Strathore • Carter Goodloe

... into the abyss; then his spread wings caught the air and held his fall. He gave one soft flap, and then another, and rose. He floated upward; he was even with the top of the pinnacle, passed it slowly, saw it beneath his feet, and still, with slow, strong beat of wing, continued ascending. It was joyous work; he rose on powerful pinion; it was as if his head and shoulders continuously were emerging from one layer of the atmosphere into another more fresh and clear and more beautiful; the air streamed along his skin ...
— The Trimming of Goosie • James Hopper

... maybe I had my fingers crossed when I promised to have and hold you?" she asked. "You're my man, Wes. If you get beat up, I want my eyes blackened to ...
— The Great Potlatch Riots • Allen Kim Lang

... warm sun beat Upon the sweet boy's forehead fair, Tired and thirsty from the heat, He asked ...
— Cousin Hatty's Hymns and Twilight Stories • Wm. Crosby And H.P. Nichols

... the bridge was wrecked pretty badly, the greatest damage was to the span, and not so much to the anchorages or piers. In time another arch could be built—should peace ever come to this distracted land—when men would be able to once more "beat their swords into ploughshares," and start to rebuilding what ...
— The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields • Lieut. Howard Payson

... daughter, OEneus, is the fruit, Beguiling me with her envenom'd suit, Whose close embrace doth on my entrails prey, Consuming life; my lungs forbid to play; The blood forsakes my veins, my manly heart Forgets to beat; enervated, each part Neglects its office, whilst my fatal doom Proceeds ignobly from the weaver's loom. The hand of foe ne'er hurt me, nor the fierce Giant issuing from his parent earth. Ne'er could the Centaur such a blow enforce, No ...
— The Academic Questions • M. T. Cicero

... following an opposite direction, was about to round the Island of Corsica. This sight reassured him. He then looked at the objects near him. He saw that he was on the highest point of the island,—a statue on this vast pedestal of granite, nothing human appearing in sight, while the blue ocean beat against the base of the island, and covered it with a fringe of foam. Then he descended with cautious and slow step, for he dreaded lest an accident similar to that he had so adroitly ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... opportunity, and it came at last on the first day when she was allowed to sit up, and Miss Bruce came in to pay her usual visit. No one else was in the room, and Rhoda looked up into the strong, grave face, and felt her heart beat rapidly. Now was her opportunity! Miss Bruce could be trusted to answer truthfully, however painful might be the news which she had to unfold; she was neither hard nor unsympathetic, but she had the courage of her convictions, and had faced ...
— Tom and Some Other Girls - A Public School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... was in a state of the most wretched slavery; every child in the village might command her and beat her unmercifully if they chose, no one interfered. After the feast, however, she regained her freedom, and along with that the privilege of incurring the risk of another scorching. Our interference relieved them from the most cruel part of the ceremony; the temporary ...
— Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory • John M'lean

... dear!' said Mr Boffin. 'No! Luckily he had to deal with you, and with me, and with Daniel and Miss Dancer, and with Elwes, and with Vulture Hopkins, and with Blewbury Jones and all the rest of us, one down t'other come on. And he's beat; that's what he is; regularly beat. He thought to squeeze money out of us, and he has done for ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens

... for his own. "The guests of Hercules, going to pay him a visit," she said to herself now, as passengers began to push their way along the corridor, in order to be the first ones down. The girl's heart began suddenly to beat very fast, ...
— The Guests Of Hercules • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... centuries to come, some of it across the seas, within easy reach of our steamers, but a great deal of it quite close at hand. Nor will it be necessary to dispossess others to occupy it. The only enemies that will have to be faced are the wild beasts, always ready to beat a retreat when man appears. It does not even belong to some different nationality or Government, jealous of our encroachments, but is the property of the same Power to whom these destitute multitudes are looking for their ...
— Darkest India - A Supplement to General Booth's "In Darkest England, and the Way Out" • Commissioner Booth-Tucker

... any foreigners the average British roustabout hates it is French gendarmes, and the ruffians were of a mind to "beat them up." They raised their fists in attitudes of combat, and suddenly what had been a joyous ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien

... to drive her away: she persisted in following Tevula all the way back to his kraal, right up to the entrance of his hut. "I was her master, and the inkomokazi knew it," cried Tevula triumphantly, looking round at the defendant with a knowing nod, as much as to say, "Beat that, if you can!" Not knowing what answer to make, the defendant took his snuff-box out of his left ear and solaced himself with three or four huge pinches. I started the hypothesis that Mamusa might once have had a tendresse for the old gentleman, and might have bestowed ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVII. No. 101. May, 1876. • Various

... The rain beat down upon the girl steadily, and Nan found it shivery out here in the dark and storm. However, her reason for coming, Nan conceived, was a very serious one. ...
— Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp - or, The Old Lumberman's Secret • Annie Roe Carr

... story had left a most unpleasant impression on me. I had little doubt that the whole thing was some strange subjective hallucination, but for a weird and ghostly experience it certainly beat most of the tales I had ever heard. I thought for a moment—it was now quite dark, and I felt little inclined to go on to Wotton. ...
— A Master of Mysteries • L. T. Meade

... games, and Kelly told me this winter that they knew every ball I intended to pitch, and he even still remembered the sign and told me what it was. Chicago finished first that year and we were a close second. That point which they gained upon me may have cost Providence the championship, for they beat us badly in the individual series. When I suspected a club of knowing my sign I used a "combination," that is, I gave two signs; either one of them given separately was not to be understood as a signal at all, but both had to be given together. I found this to work admirably, and it was never ...
— Base-Ball - How to Become a Player • John M. Ward

... Bacon, Selden, Talleyrand, and, in our own country, Aaron Burr, Jefferson, Webster, and Choate, were all, more or less, men of action. Sir Walter Scott tells us that, at a great dinner party, he thought the lawyers beat the Bishops as talkers, and the Bishops the wits. Nearly all great orators have been fine talkers. Lord Chatham, who could electrify the House of Lords by pronouncing the word "Sugar," but who in private was but commonplace, was an exception; but the conversation ...
— Talks on Talking • Grenville Kleiser

... Denmark, summoning their robber chieftains from their fir-woods, fiords, and mountains, sailed up the Thames in ninety-four war vessels, eager to plunder the wealthy London of the Saxons. The brave burghers, trained to handle spear and sword, beat back, however, the hungry foemen from their walls—the rampart that tough Roman hands had reared, and the strong tower which Alfred had seen arise on the ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury

... many officers under him. Some of these were the chiefs of different parts of the kingdom. Others had special work to do—one to hear all the lawsuits and to settle disputes, another to command the army. Others had to work in the king's household, to wait on his wives and children, or to beat the big drum to call the people when the king wanted them, or to take care that no one entered the palace unless the king wished them to do so. But whatever their work was, all the chiefs and officers and people honoured and obeyed the king, and, because in this way everyone ...
— People of Africa • Edith A. How

... want to pick a quarrel with your superiors—an old habit of yours. You cannot put up with any authority over you. You look askance at anyone who occupies a superior official position; you regard him as a personal enemy, and then any stick is good enough to beat him with. But now I have called your attention to the fact that the town's interests are at stake—and, incidentally, my own too. And therefore, I must tell you, Thomas, that you will find me inexorable with regard to what I am about ...
— An Enemy of the People • Henrik Ibsen

... to him day by day, but where was the maternal heart of love which should have beat within that bosom? 'Can a mother forget her children?' There is a fell and terrible destroyer, which murders peace in hearts and homes, whose very breath is a mildew and a blight, in whose desolating ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... provisions into the wallet again, Ibrahim. We will see if we can get her up without waking her. She is so dead beat that, perhaps, we may do so. I don't suppose she would be able to eat anything, if we ...
— The Tiger of Mysore - A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib • G. A. Henty

... voices beat against the tall buildings, rising and falling in frightful diapason, as if it were the echo from a thousand savage creatures of the jungle clashing their ...
— Mlle. Fouchette - A Novel of French Life • Charles Theodore Murray

... pints of skim milk, one ounce of butter, four ounces of sugar, a pinch of allspice or bit of lemon-peel, a pinch of salt, and two or three eggs; mix all the above ingredients (except the eggs) in a saucepan, and stir them on the fire till the batter boils; then beat up the eggs with a fork in a basin, and mix them well into the rice batter, and pour the whole into a well-greased pie-dish, and bake the ...
— A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes • Charles Elme Francatelli

... and brave hearts of free men beat in your breast. None will look behind, none will give way. Every man will have but one thought—'Kill them, kill them in abundance, until they have had enough.' And therefore your General tells you it will be ...
— "And they thought we wouldn't fight" • Floyd Gibbons

... perch to sleep. The next day the same thing happened, but on the third morning one bird said to the other, 'To-day we must go to the spring to see the Witch-maiden wash her face.' They remained on the tree till noon; then they flew away and went towards the south. The young man's heart beat with anxiety lest he should lose sight of his guides, but he managed to keep the birds in view until they again perched upon a tree. The young man ran after them until he was quite exhausted and out of ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Various

... so near him,—her voice so close to his ear,—how could he answer her? His heart awoke, and beat and drove the tingling blood tumultuously forth to the remotest veins. She saw the flush, and caught the passionate brilliancy of his eyes. Happy and afraid, she drew ...
— Idolatry - A Romance • Julian Hawthorne

... game of cards called "Bank," the chief merit of which is its simplicity. The dealer puts some money into the pool and deals three cards to each player, who can bet up to the amount in the pool that one of his cards will beat the card which the dealer turns up against him. All that seemed to happen was that Bunny Langham kept on saying, "I'll go the whole shoot," and then complained violently of his luck. It was no game ...
— Godfrey Marten, Undergraduate • Charles Turley

... the vessels—consisting of young and courage-tried men—burned with ardor and their hearts beat at the glorious spectacle, need not be detailed to those who carry a brave heart within their own bosoms, and to all others any description would be lost. Heimbert and Fadrique stood close to each other. "I do not know," said the latter, speaking to himself, "but I feel as if to-morrow I must plant ...
— The Two Captains • Friedrich de La Motte-Fouque

... beat of mine is northeast of the city. Looking from the Capitol in this direction, scarcely more than a mile distant, you see a broad green hill-slope, falling very gently, and spreading into a large expanse of meadow-land. The summit, if so gentle a swell of greensward may be said to have ...
— Wake-Robin • John Burroughs

... than any man alive." They did not want, they said, to pull down the Protectorate; they only objected to Thurloe's high-handed method for committing the House to a foregone conclusion. But Thurloe beat. On Monday the 14th, the question having been finally put "that it be part of this Bill to recognise and declare his Highness Richard, Lord Protector, to be the undoubted Lord Protector and Chief Magistrate," it was carried by ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... up the drive now? Sure it is! By gracious, did you ever see anything to beat her? She's got 'em all beat a mile when it comes to looks and style and—Oh, by the way," lowering his voice to a hoarse, confidential whisper, "—I wouldn't say anything to her about the marriage just yet if I were you. I want ...
— The Prince of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... Paris was the abode of the Parisian almost in the same narrow sense that the province was the abode of the provincial. But now all this was rapidly changing. The arrival of the Court and of the National Assembly suddenly made of Paris the heart of France. The fever of revolution made that heart beat faster, and a rapid {93} current of the best life blood of the nation began circulating from the provinces to Paris and from Paris back again to the provinces, bringing energy and a broadening of sympathy with it. And if a glance is taken at Europe during the same period, during the ...
— The French Revolution - A Short History • R. M. Johnston

... made straight for West Hampstead. As he approached Mrs. Woolstan's house, his heart beat violently. Without even a glance at the windows, he rang the visitor's bell. It sounded distinctly, but there came no response. He rang again, and again listened to the far-off tinkling. Only then did he perceive that ...
— Our Friend the Charlatan • George Gissing

... was she in her task, that the lengthening of the shadows and the dipping of the sun behind the walls did not attract her attention. It was only when she suddenly found herself enveloped in the quick-coming, semi-tropical shades of darkness that she realised the necessity to beat a retreat. ...
— Fifty-Two Stories For Girls • Various

... new gloss. The bud bad grown into a flower, redeeming the promises of the bud. If her heart beat less wildly, it throbbed more strongly. If she had given Hamlet of her superabundance of spirits, he had given her of his wisdom and discretion. She had always been a great favorite in society; but Verona thought her ravishing now. The mantua-makers cut their ...
— A Midnight Fantasy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... now," said the Tennessee Shad, "you can beat him down. Doc wants to make his commish. I tell you what I'd do if I ...
— The Varmint • Owen Johnson

... The rain beat furiously. The minister rose and put another stick on the fire. He did not return to his seat but stood with his elbow on the mantel gazing at his wife. Though thin, John Middleton looked strong and well, in part, perhaps, because of his florid ...
— Elsie Marley, Honey • Joslyn Gray

... teacher is young and handsome enough to make your heart beat," said her old companion. And then Millicent and the Prince ...
— His Hour • Elinor Glyn

... anvil of my brain And beat a metal out of pageantry. Figure and form I carry in my train To load the scaffolds of Eternity. Where the masters are Building star on star; Where, in solemn ritual, The great Dead Mathematical Wait and wait and wait ...
— Miscellany of Poetry - 1919 • Various

... remembering that Issachar had foretold also that for Elissa and for him there was hope beyond the grave. As he thought it, a wind beat upon his brow and through it a soft voice seemed to ...
— Elissa • H. Rider Haggard

... locality, and had the Turks shot well we should have made a tolerable bag; but they did not keep a good line, and many birds went back without being shot at, while others were missed, and altogether the shooting was extremely wild. The sun was hot by the time we had concluded our beat; I had shot five brace and one hare, including some francolins; and the rest of the party had collectively bagged three brace. It was late in the season for shooting, but the birds were not all paired, ...
— Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879 • Sir Samuel W. Baker

... nuts on the spoutin'; I don't mind a man as can 'oller a bit; And if shillings are goin', I'd back you for shoutin', Though your game's an Aunt Sally, all miss and no 'it. But the blusterin' chap as keeps naggin' the boys on To fight and get beat all for nothing's an ass. And I'm certain o' this, that the wust kind o' poison Is the stuff as you fellers 'ave lots ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, May 14, 1892 • Various

... classic figures, but this time with less of the idyllic feeling. On one side are hurrying Apollo and Daphne(?), on the other, one athlete has overthrown another, and stands menacingly over his prey, who tries with ineffectual gestures to beat him off—a very Pollaiuolesque scene of violence. The colouring, with its clear reds of the biretta and the robe, is very successful. With this powerful portrait closes this beautiful and interesting group of paintings, the provenance of all four of ...
— Luca Signorelli • Maud Cruttwell

... that, they receive your resolutions and your Bill, and then pledge themselves, and suffer me to pledge both them and you to a Bill; after which, they first say that they will allow of nothing which admits the original right, and when beat from that ground, that they will not have anything asserting the present right. It then only remained, as we were pledged to a Bill, to consider whether this was not the best form of a Bill to be drawn ...
— Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third - From the Original Family Documents, Volume 1 (of 2) • The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

... mine, I am filled full of tears: My heart filled with the beat Of tears, as of dancing feet, A lyreless joyless line, And music meet ...
— The Iphigenia in Tauris • Euripides

... spirit is first cousin to the spirit of gambling. The only difference is, one is called wrong and is wrong; the other is wrong and is called right. Tell the gambler he is a thief; he will acknowledge it, and will beat you, if he can, while he is talking to you. Tell the other man he is a thief, and he will sue you at court and win his case, although it is just as wrong to steal $100 from an unbalanced mind, as it is to steal $100 from an unlocked safe or off of an untrained football team. ...
— Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes • J. M. Judy

... the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream of fright, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some leaves that had fluttered down from the trees on to ...
— Alice's Adventures Under Ground • Lewis Carroll

... lickety-split, to beat the band, too. Oh! I hope it isn't a messenger from Stanhope to bring us any bad news!" cried Tom Betts; who had left a sick mother when he came on the trip, and whose conscience, perhaps, caused him to have ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour - The Mystery of Rattlesnake Mountain • George A. Warren

... she bought her provisions; she complained that they gave themselves capable airs, merely because they are not so coarse-tongued as those of the Halle, and only laughed at her when she tried to beat them down. She has leased the whole house to a certain Monsieur Cerizet (a very ugly man, with a nose all eaten away) for an annual rent of fifty-five thousand francs. This tenant seems to know what he is about. He has lately married an actress at one of the minor theatres, Mademoiselle ...
— The Lesser Bourgeoisie • Honore de Balzac

... cat, the mice beat him until he became unconscious. Then the plain echoed with the beating of tom-toms and shouts of joy. Then the King of the Mice seated himself on his throne and ordered the cat to ...
— The Cat and the Mouse - A Book of Persian Fairy Tales • Hartwell James

... of deviling, guying, and fighting, both real and mimic." The colonel found great difficulty in getting men to work alone. Two would volunteer for any service. "Colonel," said a visitor to the camp, "your sentinels are sociable fellows. I saw No. 5 over at the end of his beat entertaining No. 6 with some fancy manual of arms. Afterwards, with equal amiability, No. 6 executed a most artistic cake-walk for his friend." It must be remembered here that this colonel's men were typical ...
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue • Various

... Mohurrum drums beat in the City, and all day deputations of tearful Hindu gentlemen besieged the Deputy Commissioner with assurances that they would be murdered ere next dawning by the Muhammadans. "Which," said the Deputy Commissioner, in confidence to the Head of Police, "is a pretty ...
— Indian Tales • Rudyard Kipling

... was strong enough to admit ignorance. He stood leaning against the door of the kennels, arms folded, eyes half-closed, with the sense of a painter, before the turning bunch of brown and white, getting the charm of distance and soft tones. His blood beat hard, for suddenly he felt as if he had been behind just such a pack one day, one clear desirable day of spring. He saw people gathering at the kennels; saw men drink beer and eat sandwiches at the door of the huntsman's house,—a long, low dwelling, with crumbling ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... would just about beat me to death for runnin' away. Why not let me stay here? I'll never hurt ...
— Down the Slope • James Otis

... who had been watching attentively from a distance the different phases of the interview, considered it prudent to beat a hasty retreat, and, mounting their steeds with unmistakable dispatch, galloped pell-mell down the hill, and then along the valley of the river, until they were lost to sight in the mist, while the poor ambassadors, who had been unable to ...
— In the Forbidden Land • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... to where a little white bridge spanned a small brook. And then, as Freddie looked, he saw something which made his heart beat very fast indeed. For, coming right toward him, was a team of horses, hitched to a big lumber wagon—it was one of Freddie's papa's own lumber teams, as the little boy ...
— The Bobbsey Twins on a Houseboat • Laura Lee Hope

... of leaves on their arms and carved pigs' tusks hanging from their necks. They went through some splendid dancing, falling down on the ground and bouncing up again like india-rubber balls. They sang, or rather chanted, all the time, and so did a kind of chorus of men who beat on wood and bamboo, while the dancers danced round them in circles, and squares, and then bent backward, nearly touching the ground with their heads. As they danced they kept splendid time, with their arms, ...
— Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines • H. Wilfrid Walker

... goods, accompanied by an honest nayre, to remain with Diaz at the factory to defend him against the Moors. Yet all this was only done colourably, that the Moors might not appear to suborn the merchants; for these men bought nothing, and even beat down the price of the commodities, to the great satisfaction of the Moors; who now boasted that no person would buy our goods any more than they. Yet none of the Moors durst venture to our factory, after they heard a nayre was stationed ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr

... cautiously until they had gone almost half a mile inland. When next he saw them clearly it was from a little sandy rise which looked down like the crest of a bowl upon the floor of sand below. Upon this smooth, white floor the moon beat with almost dazzling brightness. ...
— Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates • Howard Pyle

... Selecting a piece of iron which I thought would serve my purpose, I placed it in the fire, and plying the bellows in a furious manner, soon made it hot; then seizing it with the tongs, I laid it on my anvil, and began to beat it with my hammer, according to the rules of my art. The dingle resounded with my strokes. Belle sat still, and occasionally smiled, but suddenly started up and retreated towards her encampment, on a spark which I purposely sent in her direction alighting on her knee. I found the making of a ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... days, on one trip; and we have never taken longer than seventy days to do it. And a prettier sea-boat you never set eyes on. And weatherly—why, she'll weather on craft twice her size. As to speed, I have never yet seen anything beat her. The fact is, sir, she is much too good to be a cargo-carrier; she is good enough in every way to be used as a yacht; and a fine, wholesome, comfortable yacht ...
— The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" • Harry Collingwood

... Flanders beat our old revolutionary four-mothers in thinkin' out new laws, when she lay round under stairs and behind barrels in her night-gown. When a man hides his wife's stockin's and petticoats it is governin' without the consent of the governed. ...
— Samantha on the Woman Question • Marietta Holley

... of good faith; but the rest of your thoughts and your actions are not equally innocent." Then the old man, who held him by the ear, recalled to him all the errors of his life; and as each was mentioned, the young Mexican bowed himself upon the ground, beat ...
— Diderot and the Encyclopaedists - Volume II. • John Morley

... cold. Men say that a storm is blowing, and you see them shelter themselves against the storm that blows. How will you make that storm a true thing for yourself? Go out into it. Let the frost smite your cheek, let the rain beat into your face, let the wind blow upon your back, and then you know by personal experience what you had known by your observation before. And so I say that only when a man puts himself where he can feel the power of the Christ, where it is possible for ...
— Addresses • Phillips Brooks

... other pictures and photographs about—men in uniform, women of many ages, horses and dogs: one of Anthony Cardew himself, which made my heart beat to look at it. I wished I might have taken it also, and had the will to do it but I dared not. Besides, what right had I to such things? Already I was trying to steel myself to destroy the one letter he had written me. I should have no right to it ...
— The Story of Bawn • Katharine Tynan

... excess of pain. The beautiful face was pale and lustrous, the eyes bright and glittering, surrounded by broad, dark blue circles; the lips were parted, and the breath came short. Her hands were hot and dry, and the pulse beat intermittently. When I laid my hand on her head and my thumb pressed against the crown, she groaned—"Yes, there it is. Hell ...
— Dr. Dumany's Wife • Mr Jkai

... Wilson and communicated the order to them, saying at the same time, "We are going out to fight Stuart's cavalry in consequence of a suggestion from me; we will give him a fair, square fight; we are strong, and I know we can beat him, and in view of my recent representations to General Meade I shall expect nothing but success." I also indicated to my division commanders the line of march I should take—moving in one column around the right flank ...
— The Memoirs of General Philip H. Sheridan, Vol. I., Part 3 • P. H. Sheridan

... think there's a girl in Tavistock Square that can beat Polly,—she's the eldest, called after her mother, you know,—that can beat her at the piano. And Lucy has read Lord Byron and Tom Moore all through, every word of 'em. By Jove, I believe she knows most of Tom Moore by heart. And the young uns are ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope

... acted on the lungs, that at last a genuine sigh issued from the patient's breast. Then they put him in a warm bed, and applied stimulants; and by slow degrees the eyelids began to wink, the eyes to look more mellow, the respiration to strengthen, the heart to beat: "Patience, now," said the surgeon, "patience, and lots ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... an' Gus, de dam's done busted a'ready an' de water's jes' a-pourin' through t' beat ol' Noah's flood! Whut you 'low was de because o' dis ...
— Radio Boys Cronies • Wayne Whipple and S. F. Aaron

... point in the river, there was assigned to the father the duty of conveying in his small canoe, a shrivelled Indian woman, eighty years of age, and three little children. These long years had not sweetened the woman's disposition. She was a terrible scold, and often threatened to beat the children ...
— The Adventures of the Chevalier De La Salle and His Companions, in Their Explorations of the Prairies, Forests, Lakes, and Rivers, of the New World, and Their Interviews with the Savage Tribes, Two Hu • John S. C. Abbott

... summers woo the world, He twice as many winters take 't by storm. And in those half-an-hundred winters,—ay, And in the summer's blaze, and blush of spring, And pomp of grave and grandiose autumntides,— Full many a wind had beat upon his heart, Of grief and frustrate hope full many a wind, And rains full many, but no rains could damp The fuel that was stored within; which lay Unlighted, waiting for the tinder-touch, Until ...
— The Poems of William Watson • William Watson

... It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel was playing chess with the expert in presence of the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, whatever move he made was speedily countered by her, till she beat him and he found himself checkmated. Quoth he, "I did but lead thee on, that thou mightest think thyself skilful: but set up again, and thou shalt see." So they placed the pieces a second time, when he said in ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... sort of ambush here, Parson Amen," cried the corporal, rattling his arms as he looked to their condition, "and it's high time we beat the general. If there were four on us we might form a square; but being only two, the best thing we can do will be to stand back to back, and for one to keep an eye on the right flank, while he nat'rally watches all in front; and for the other to keep an eye on the left flank, while he ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper



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