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Couple   Listen
noun
Couple  n.  
1.
That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler. (Obs.) "It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples; they should be of the same size and humor." "I'll go in couples with her."
2.
Two of the same kind connected or considered together; a pair; a brace. "A couple of shepherds." "A couple of drops" "A couple of miles." "A couple of weeks." "Adding one to one we have the complex idea of a couple." "(Ziba) met him with a couple of asses saddled."
3.
A male and female associated together; esp., a man and woman who are married or betrothed. "Such were our couple, man and wife." "Fair couple linked in happy, nuptial league."
4.
(Arch.) See Couple-close.
5.
(Elec.) One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery; called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
6.
(Mech.) Two rotations, movements, etc., which are equal in amount but opposite in direction, and acting along parallel lines or around parallel axes. Note: The effect of a couple of forces is to produce a rotation. A couple of rotations is equivalent to a motion of translation.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Couple" Quotes from Famous Books



... whenever I set eyes on one of 'em, Ah! your humble servant, Mr. son of a b—, I am upon my guard in an instant. The doctor can testify that their very horses, or more properly their live carrion, that drew our chaise, used to reach back their long necks and smell at us, as a couple of delicious morsels." ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... warn't you I saw pitchin' in the channel fur a couple of hours yesterday afternoon," commented ...
— Flood Tide • Sara Ware Bassett

... anyone knows what you mean. Englishmen do not even know that Professor Hughes has invented a special form of electromagnet. Hughes' special form is this: A permanent steel magnet, generally a compound one, having soft iron pole pieces, and a couple of coils on the pole pieces only. As I have to speak of Hughes' special contrivance among the mechanisms that will occupy our attention later on, I only now refer to this magnet in one particular. If ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 787, January 31, 1891 • Various

... indicates there is a large family, and that they propose to occupy the same spot for some time. In fact, it was half wigwam, half summer-house, resembling the former in appearance, construction, and material; but was floored on account of the damp ground, and contained a small table, two chairs, and a couple of rustic seats large enough to sleep upon, which, on the present occasion, had hunters' beds on them. The tent, or more properly camp, as it is generally called here, was so contrived as to admit of the door being shifted according to the wind. On the present occasion, ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... wolves seem able to exercise a genuine feint. Sometimes it is a couple who hunt in concert. If they meet a flock, as they are well aware that the dog will bravely defend the animals entrusted to him, that he is vigilant, and that his keen scent will bring him on them much sooner than the shepherd, it is with him that they first occupy themselves. ...
— The Industries of Animals • Frederic Houssay

... uncle, which had just sufficed at the time to make so very judicious a marriage doubly pleasant to that noble duke, So that all things and all people had conspired to shower substantial comforts on the heads of this couple, when they were joined together, and men and women had not yet ceased to declare how happy were both in the ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... calls her, and evidently in reply to applications of her own, which have gone the way of all waste paper, and lighted Dick's pipes, which were smoked a hundred and forty years ago—he sends his wife now a guinea, then a half-guinea, then a couple of guineas, then half a pound of tea; and again no money and no tea at all, but a promise that his darling Prue shall have some in a day or two: or a request, perhaps, that she will send over his night-gown and shaving-plate to the temporary lodging where the nomadic captain is lying, hidden from ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... threw a couple of logs on the fire and was just going to get her some brandy against the cold when there came an awful racket overhead, it shook the whole place and Penelope was so startled that—just instinctively I put my arm around her. She clung to me and—I tried ...
— Possessed • Cleveland Moffett

... back till he had finished it. Food was very scarce for a couple of months, and after the Elk was eaten, Wahb lost all the fat he had when he awoke. One day he climbed over the Divide into the Warhouse Valley. It was warm and sunny there, vegetation was well advanced, and ...
— The Biography of a Grizzly • Ernest Thompson Seton

... have selected a more suitable night for our escape. It was so dark that we could not see more than a few inches in front of us. The doctor, in sad silence, accompanied me for a couple of hundred yards. I urged him to return to the tent. He stopped to grasp my hand. In a broken voice the good man gave me his blessing, and bade ...
— An Explorer's Adventures in Tibet • A. Henry Savage Landor

... into the presence of his future wife. They found favor in each other's eyes, and an ardent attachment sprang up on the instant. Matters sped apace. A separate house was assigned as the residence of the young couple, and their ...
— Hawaiian Folk Tales - A Collection of Native Legends • Various

... oiler. Not that I'm carin' for the money end of it; Duncan findin' them calves with my stock has damaged my reputation.' Then he laffed—one of them little short laffs which he gets off sometimes when things don't just suit him—the way he's laffed a couple of times when someone's tried to run a cold lead proposition in on him. He fair freezes my blood when he ...
— The Trail to Yesterday • Charles Alden Seltzer

... rather from another cove which runs in from the sea about one mile, and lies open to the north winds. It, however, had all the appearance of a good harbour and safe anchorage. At the head is a fine sandy beach, where I found an immense number of wood hens, and brought away ten couple of them, which recompensed me for the trouble of crossing the isthmus, through the wet woods, up to the middle in water. About nine o'clock we all got collected together, when the success of everyone was known, which was by no means answerable to our expectations. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr

... given to this town, is from the last chief of the Utes, who, with his tribe, lived to within a couple of years on a reserve down in the Park. The first stake is said to have been struck by white men in 1865, but no cabin was built until 1874, and from that time the town has been growing rapidly, ...
— A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba • Mrs. Cecil Hall

... first couple, and luckily for her she had not to talk, because Korsunsky was all the time running about directing the figure. Vronsky and Anna sat almost opposite her. She saw them with her long-sighted eyes, and saw them, too, close by, when they met ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... understood to be "keeping company." But they were a grave couple. If an eavesdropper had ventured to listen, sober talk alone would have repaid the sneaking act, and, not unfrequently, reference would have been heard in tones of deepest pathos to dreadful scenes that had occurred ...
— Hunted and Harried • R.M. Ballantyne

... expressions of choler and comminations which burst forth from his fulminating tusks. Erimanthus would have hidden his puny offspring before them; and Hercules would have paused at the encounter. Thrice he called aloud to the high priests: thrice he swore in their own sacred language that they were a couple of thieves and impostors: thrice he imprecated the worst maledictions on his own head if they had not violated the holiest of their vows, and were not ready even to sell their gods. A tremor ran throughout ...
— Imaginary Conversations and Poems - A Selection • Walter Savage Landor

... both your heads for you. Hullo, Harry! Come along! Reggie wants to fight you. Now, go it, you two, and I'll be umpire;' and before the younger boys knew what they were about they were sparring at each other like a couple of angry cocks. ...
— The Adventure League • Hilda T. Skae

... follerin' a man if they set their heads to it. Well, it's all off with the widow-lady at Four Corners now—Rabbit's got me nailed. You see them sheep-dogs? Them dogs they'd jump me the minute Rabbit winked at 'em—they'd chaw me up like a couple of lions. She's raised 'em up to do it, dad-burn her! Had my old vest ...
— The Flockmaster of Poison Creek • George W. Ogden

... a couple of hours in a drizzling rain, and, while waiting for our wagons to come up, I staid with General Blair in a large house, the property of a blockade-runner, whose family remained. General Howard occupied another house farther down-town. He had already ordered his pontoon-bridge ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan

... she possessed. Touched by this present, but not making use of this antiscorbutic, Mr. Correard, in turn, made a present of it to a poor sailor, who used it three or four days. But a more affecting scene, which it is impossible for us to describe, is the joy which this unfortunate couple displayed when they had sufficiently recovered their senses to see ...
— Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816 • J. B. Henry Savigny and Alexander Correard

... of Representatives; but there was one vote from Maine, ay, and there was one vote for it from Massachusetts, given by a gentleman then representing, and now living in, the district in which the prevalence of Free Soil sentiment for a couple of years or so has defeated the choice of any member to represent it in Congress. Sir, that body of Northern and Eastern men who gave those votes at that time are now seen taking upon themselves, in the nomenclature of politics, the appellation ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... professional man, doctor or estate-agent, waiting for the next client. And like the young professional man at a loose end, I made a pretence of looking through papers. Presently I became aware that I only had to open a window in order to summon a couple of clients at once. For there in the gathering November dusk and in the rain—it had ceased pouring, but it was drizzling, and therefore it was rain—I saw our pair of delectable savages strolling across the wet, sodden lawn, in loverlike proximity, for all the world as though it were a flowery mead ...
— Jaffery • William J. Locke

... "if that dispatch was a fake, if we've been brought here on a fool's errand, they haven't done it for nothing. If they've brought it off against us, you mark my words, we're left—we're bamboozled—we're a couple of lost loons! There's nothing left for us but to sell candy to small boys or find a job on ...
— The Box with Broken Seals • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... A couple of aged mastiff bitches—mothers in their time, and now great-grandmothers, of a noble race—lay sunning themselves before the house-porch. They recognised the parson's dog-cart and heaved themselves up, wagging their tails to welcome a respected, if rare, visitor; ...
— True Tilda • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... to couple on de right, Swing Mr. Adam and swing Miss Eve, Swing Old Adam befo' you leave, Don't forgit ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Texas Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration

... bed at nine; do you likewise, and sleep by the book, so that we may present to each other to-morrow morning a couple of fresh faces, ready to face ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2 • Francis Hueffer (translator)

... departed, stood the eccentric land-steward at the outer gate. On a sudden the sound of footsteps approaching from the house seemed to arouse him. Once more he looked out into the road, as if he expected still to see the carriage of the newly-married couple. "Poor girl! ah, poor girl!" said Monsieur Lomaque softly to himself, turning round to ascertain who was coming ...
— After Dark • Wilkie Collins

... understand, is in a very portable form, notes and bankers' drafts, which can be stowed away quite easily. Why shouldn't I be journeying back to Paris after Crystal's wedding? Who would suspect me, I should like to know, of carrying twenty-five millions under my petticoats? All I should want would be a couple of sturdy fellows on the box to protect me against footpads. Impossible?" she continued tartly. "Men are always so ready with that word. Get a sensible woman, I say, and she will solve your difficulties before ...
— The Bronze Eagle - A Story of the Hundred Days • Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy

... performed the necessary rites of hospitality, and then went to bed, without having made one solemn speech to his son. So far, Lord Kilcullen had been successful in his manoeuvre; and he trusted that by making judicious use of Mat Tierney, he might be able to stave off the evil hour for at any rate a couple of days. ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope

... to ascertain by careful looking how the planks had come to give way under the hoofs of his steed. But there was no clew that he could discover. The bridge was not a carefully made one, and it would have been an easy matter for any one to so loosen a couple of the planks that the least motion would send them into the ...
— Jack of the Pony Express • Frank V. Webster

... butcher-knives and a big poker, pins his cook's faith on hot water and sees to it that two kettles are always piping on top the cabin stove. Buckwheat, who on account of his wound is getting all night in for a couple of ...
— The Mutiny of the Elsinore • Jack London

... which for the most part people were occupied only with chatter, but the disunited couple had at last grounds for expecting a time of high activity. They girded their loins, they felt as if the quarrel had only begun. They felt indeed more married than ever, inasmuch as what marriage had mainly suggested to ...
— What Maisie Knew • Henry James

... Senator of the United States, and his wife. Each had children by a former marriage, who had arrived at or near manhood or womanhood, and all were pleasant traveling companions. Mr. Platt and his wife, of New York, a young married couple, were of the party. We were fortunate in the weather and the sea. I had often encountered the waves of Lake Erie, but the ocean was to me the great unknown, and I imagined that from its magnitude, its waves would be in proportion to its size, but, instead, the ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman

... wrestling couple swayed back and forth, and men changed places here and there. Bill strode across the space, guns leveled. Evidently this action was due to the threatening movements of several workmen who crouched as if to leap on Dorn as he whirled in his fight ...
— The Desert of Wheat • Zane Grey

... there; and was pleased to say, we should make the finest couple in England—if my sister had no objection.—No, indeed! with a haughty toss, was my sister's reply—it would be strange if she had, after the denial she had given him upon ...
— Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson

... pots he had, on a shelf; and I divined (God knows how) that though the two girls with the shock heads of hair were Captain Hopkins's children, the dirty lady was not married to Captain Hopkins. My timid station on his threshold was not occupied more than a couple of minutes at most; but I came down again with all this in my knowledge, as surely as the knife and ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... fact that to ride after hounds on a wild chase is a dangerous and wonderfully exhilarating experience, I will relate a couple of instances, and I will leave it to my readers to judge whether or not ...
— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey

... and still do call him fool, is certain; but that is no reason why he should not have been an artist, and none why he should be credited with the fame of having devoted the best part of his life to the production of a couple of masterpieces—as M. Jourdain talked prose—without knowing what he was doing. Turner chose to go a-masquerading as 'Puggy Booth'; but as yet nobody has put forward the assertion that Turner was unconscious of the romance and splendour of his Ulysses and Polyphemus, or that he painted his Rain, ...
— Views and Reviews - Essays in appreciation • William Ernest Henley

... couple of brisk steps backward to the triptych. Holding Beautrelet with one hand flat against his chest, with the other he cleared the passage and closed the little door ...
— The Hollow Needle • Maurice Leblanc

... to steal, Welcome the early hunter's meal; For time and tide, stern couple, ran Their endless race, and laugh'd at man; Deaf, had we shouted, "turn about?" Or, "wait a while, till we come out;" To humour them we check'd our pride, And ten cheer'd hearts stow'd side by side; Push'd from the shore with current ...
— The Banks of Wye • Robert Bloomfield

... a couple of roundelays, composed by a later poet, (after the excellent rhythm of the) Hsi Chiang Yueh, which depict Pao-yue in a ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... great caution, offered Fielding 200l. for the MS. The novelist was amazed at the largeness of the offer. "Then, my good sir," said Fielding, recovering himself from his unexpected stroke of good fortune, "give me your hand—the book is yours. And, waiter," continued he, "bring a couple of ...
— Books and Authors - Curious Facts and Characteristic Sketches • Anonymous

... the casement, all but a chink just wide enough to furnish an outlet to lovers' whispered vows: then I stole back to my chair; and as I resumed it the pair came in. My eye was quickly at the aperture. Celine's chamber-maid entered, lit a lamp, left it on the table, and withdrew. The couple were thus revealed to me clearly: both removed their cloaks, and there was 'the Varens,' shining in satin and jewels,—my gifts of course,—and there was her companion in an officer's uniform; and I knew him for a young roue of a vicomte—a brainless ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

... hurriedly looked over them to see if Powder Face was there, but he was not. Starting in pursuit of the fugitives I finally espied an Indian mounted on my favourite, dashing away and leading all the others. We continued the chase for two or three miles, overtaking a couple of Indians who were mounted on one horse. Coming up behind them I fired my rifle, when they were about thirty feet away; the ball passed through the backs of both, and they fell head-long to the ground; but I made no stop, ...
— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

... lifting, my man, and sing out when you do. Mr. Simpson," he said, turning to the officer of the deck, "let her go off a couple of points." ...
— For Love of Country - A Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the Revolution • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... drew up the car, took out Tom, secured him to the wheel, and left him at last with his nose-bag on, under the shadow of the rocks, nibbling his corn, and whisking the flies away with his long tail. His master then took a bottle or two, and a couple of hand-nets and a hammer, and walked down towards the water's edge. Soon the boys joined him, loaded already; for there were such heaps of treasures—long razor shells, whelk and cockle shells, limpets, mussels, ...
— Hollowdell Grange - Holiday Hours in a Country Home • George Manville Fenn

... some roast parrot," observed Doyle, who had just before placed several birds on spits before the fire to cook for breakfast. As we had many more than we absolutely required, we could easily spare them. Doyle and I therefore got each a couple, and carried them on the spits to the savage, whose eyes brightened when he saw them; and he and his son almost snatched them from our hands when we offered them, and, without any gesture of thankfulness, hurried off to where the woman ...
— Twice Lost • W.H.G. Kingston

... Sarah in another. Then I'd shut the lid down and fasten it, and wouldn't I have a good time! When dinner was ready I'd fetch a plate and spoon, feed 'em all round, and shut 'em up again. It would be just the same when I washed their faces; I'd just take a wet cloth and do 'em all with a couple of scrubs. They couldn't get into mischief I suppose in there. Yet I don't know. Tommy is so bad that he would if he could. Let me see,—what could he do? If he had a gimlet he'd bore holes in the boards, and ...
— Nine Little Goslings • Susan Coolidge

... damp and cold, and it had the chilly feeling which only comes from a long period of emptiness, and strikes to the marrow. But our men turned to with a will, cleaning out the hut, strewing it with very wet rushes, and piling up a big log-fire in the middle. We were pretty hungry, too, a couple of eggs at six a.m. and a few strawberries at midday are not much to go on, and we had been in the saddle for over ten hours. Stephan had brought amongst other things some raw bacon, which he gave me, but, hungry as I was, I could not face that. Later on, a ...
— The Land of the Black Mountain - The Adventures of Two Englishmen in Montenegro • Reginald Wyon

... the court fetes and followed the hounds on the chase as if the world had no other cares, became the very incarnation of the spirit of the bitter and bloody struggle. All through that winter the royal couple lived in a tent among their men, and when the alarm was sounded they were first on foot to lead them. Now that the hour had come, they were in the ...
— Hero Tales of the Far North • Jacob A. Riis

... to England Park married the daughter of Mr Anderson, with whom he had served his apprenticeship, and resided a couple of years with his mother and one of his brothers on the farm that his father had occupied at Fowlshiels, in Scotland. After this he practised his profession for some time at Peebles. But this sort of life not satisfying ...
— Great African Travellers - From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley • W.H.G. Kingston

... one evening, when he met Jerry's father down in the town, "I would like to hire Jerry to work for me every afternoon for a couple of weeks." ...
— The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview • Ralph Bonehill

... I received your letter of 13th June, when working like a slave with Mr. Sowerby at drawing for my second volume, and so put off answering it till when I knew I should be at leisure. I was extremely glad to get your letter. I had intended a couple of months ago sending you a savage or supplicating jobation to know how you were, when I met Sir P. Egerton, who told me you were well, and, as usual, expressed his admiration of your doings, especially your farming, and ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin

... and granddaughter were needed for this aged couple. Edith would make a lovely granddaughter and pretend to spin flax. Who would play the grandson and shell the corn? Jimmy thought Nate Pollard was just the one, he was "so good at speaking pieces." They decided to ask Nate at once, and ...
— Jimmy, Lucy, and All • Sophie May

... through the influence of Eugene Rougon. His very existence depended on the favour of the Minister of State, towards whom he conducted himself as a sort of general servant. "By following this calling for a couple of years he had, thanks to bribes and pickings, prudently realized, been able to increase his estates." Having ascertained that Rougon would not oppose the foundation of the Universal Bank, Huret became a director; later ...
— A Zola Dictionary • J. G. Patterson

... rejoicing that Lord St. Leger and Lady Amelia were present, so that no one had any reason to say that they disapproved. Moreover, lest you should learn imprudence from my story, I would also suggest that if your uncle and aunt had not been a couple comme il-y-en a peu, it would neither have been excellent ...
— Henrietta's Wish • Charlotte M. Yonge

... contrived to die close to the foot-lights and in front of the curtain; Sontag of necessity followed, and fell beside her there; the drop came down, and there lay the two fair corpses in full view of the audience, of course unable to rise or move, till a couple of stage footmen, in red plush breeches, ran in to the rescue, took the dead Capulet and Montague each by the shoulders, and dragged them off at the side scenes; the Spanish woman in the heroism of her maliciousness submitting to this ignominy for the pleasure of subjecting her ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble

... not jest. I cannot couple with his noble name A trivial word! Look, how the setting sun Lights up Castel-a-mare and Sorrento, And changes Capri to a purple cloud! And there Vesuvius with its plume of smoke, And the great city stretched upon the shore ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... beginning of my holidays by patronising The Melodities on the beach. The Melodities are a band of entertainers who draw enormous salaries for giving a couple of performances daily in a kind of ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 8, 1914 • Various

... the boat did not move at all, although the fishes pulled with all their strength. But presently the strain began to tell. Very slowly the boat crept toward the shore, gaining more speed at every moment. A couple of yards away from the sandy beach the fishes dropped the cord from their mouths and swam to one side, while the iron boat, being now under way, continued to move until its prow ...
— Glinda of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... repeated aloud; it sounded strangely upon her ear; and indeed, we cannot couple the thought with such as she! Can such fair ones of earth, meet with the chilling breath of adversity? Yes, we may meet with them in our wanderings! Let us deal with them tenderly; for it may be one of heaven's ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale

... the voice of Harry, and then the persons of himself and his companion, surprise, rather than alarm, became the emotion that was uppermost. Notwithstanding the strength of the first of these feelings, he instantly saluted the young couple with the polished ease that marked his manner, which had much of the courtesy of a Castilian in it, tempered a little, perhaps, by the greater flexibility ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper

... neighbors, the Misses Williams. Perhaps they will have some stout. You might bring in a couple of bottles, Charles." ...
— Beyond the City • Arthur Conan Doyle

... get busy. You take the team and drive in today and get the stuff headed out here pronto. The nesters are shipping in more stock—I heard in town that they're bringing in all they can rustle, thinkin' the stock will pay big money while the claims are getting ready to produce. I heard a couple of marks telling each other just how it was going to work out so as to put 'em all on Easy Street—the darned chumps! Free grass—that's what they harped on; feed don't cost anything. All yuh do is turn 'em loose and wait till shippin' season, and then collect. ...
— The Flying U's Last Stand • B. M. Bower

... the evidence against me, and drew from his pocket the threatening letter I had last written to Tyrrell. You remember that therein I said my vengeance was sworn against him, and that, sooner or later, it should overtake him. 'Couple,' said Thornton, coldly, as he replaced the letter in his pocket,—'couple these words with the evidence already against you, and I would not buy your life ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... already reported that all communication was broken between the Hanois and the shore, but that the tower appeared to be intact. On an April morning Haco and the young couple sailed across Rocquaine Bay, and landed close to the tower, which now stood on a rugged and inhospitable island. The door was opened by Tita, who smiled, and prattled, and caressed her young mistress like a lap-dog. She recognised Jean with indifference, but a start, followed by a shudder, seized ...
— The Forest of Vazon - A Guernsey Legend Of The Eighth Century • Anonymous

... had foolishly made a point of exhibiting her power over her husband, while both of them seemed possessed by that egotistical spirit which insists on their whole world seeing how vastly superior their love is to any other love that ever had been. Undoubtedly the young couple were offensive to everyone, and Mrs. Hatton said they had proved to her perfect satisfaction the propriety and even the necessity for the retirement of newly married people to some secluded spot for ...
— The Measure of a Man • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... or to say something. If the man was sent to Limasol, thirty-five miles distant, the monks would have the trouble and expense of appearing as prosecutors; the robber would be imprisoned for perhaps a couple of years, during which his family would starve. I could offer no advice. I simply told them that if any robber should attempt to enter my tent I should not send him to Limasol, but I should endeavour to make the tent so disagreeable to him that he would never be tempted to revisit the premises ...
— Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879 • Sir Samuel W. Baker

... He took a couple of steps across the room, and then stopped short. The fear was upon him again. He felt his heart almost stop beating, a cold shiver shook his whole frame. He was standing facing his half-open door, and outside on the stone steps he heard ...
— The Avenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... behind us, throwing a long track like a trail of blood upon the water, and it is still visible as I write, though reduced to a mere speck. The Captain is in a bad humour, for two of his hands disappointed him at the last moment, and he was compelled to ship a couple of negroes who happened to be on the quay. The missing men were steady, reliable fellows, who had been with him several voyages, and their non-appearance puzzled as well as irritated him. Where a crew of seven men have to work a fair-sized ship the loss ...
— The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle

... of him in a month, and sell him to some of the grandees!" Joe said, but his system failed or the material was poor,—old Jack slouched along as if each step was likely to be his last. But despite this, Jack had become very dear to the childless couple, and they were as blind as doating parents ...
— St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878 • Various

... necessary to obtain a quick action it can be given hypodermically in the form of morphine. Otherwise, laudanum may be given by the mouth, twenty drops, repeated cautiously, every three or four hours as required, or it can be given in thirty-drop doses combined with a couple of ounces of starch water by the rectum. Extract of opium in pill form, one grain three times a day by the month; or a suppository of opium, one grain, may be inserted into the rectum every four to six hours. After the bleeding and ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... hurried through noon chores to meet outside, and some in their eagerness forgot to roll down their sleeves before they began to talk. One triumphantly repeated to each newcomer the motherly advice which she gave the young couple when she "first noticed his affection for that sorrowing girl, who is too pretty to be in this new country without a protector." They also recalled how Perry McCoon's launch had brought supplies up the river for the Second Relief to take over ...
— The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate • Eliza Poor Donner Houghton

... Saturn, for the same reason that, when we wheel a ball round by a string and make the string wind up round our fingers, the ball always flies quicker and quicker as the string is shortened. Two eddies in a stream, as has been stated, fall into a mutual revolution at the distance of a couple of inches, through the same cause which makes a pair of suns link in mutual revolution at the distance of millions of miles. There is, we might say, a sublime simplicity in this indifference of the grand regulations to the vastness or minuteness of the ...
— Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation • Robert Chambers

... score league Welsh had he ridden sithence that he parted from the squire, and sore he misdoubted him that he should find no hold. He found the fairest meadow-land in the world, and looked before him when he had ridden a couple of bow-shot lengths and saw a castle appear nigh the forest on a mountain. And it was enclosed of high walls with battlements, and within were fair halls whereof the windows showed in the outer walls, and in the midst was an ancient tower that was compassed round of great waters and ...
— High History of the Holy Graal • Unknown

... canoe, ragged almost to nakedness, bare of feet, gray-headed, nearly toothless but happier than an emperor—the first living being we had seen for a week in the muskegs. We camped together that night on the sandbars—trading Sam Ba'tiste flour and matches for a couple of ducks. He had been storm-stead camping in the goose grass for three days. Do you think he was to be pitied? Don't! Three days' hunting will lay up enough meat for Sam for the winter. In the winter he will snare some small game, while mink and otter and muskrat ...
— The Canadian Commonwealth • Agnes C. Laut

... to takin' a house; for a gentleman and his wife could board a great deal cheaper than they could keep house;—but then that girl was nothin' but a child, and wouldn't think of bein' married this five year. They was good boarders, both of 'em, paid regular, and was as pooty a couple as she ever laid ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 26, December, 1859 • Various

... explained, and before they went to bed that night every one understood it all. It was simply this—Claudius had come by another steamer, one of the German line, and had chanced to arrive a couple of hours before the Cunarder. Margaret had received the Duke's message, as Lady Victoria had said, and, as Claudius appeared soon afterwards, she ...
— Doctor Claudius, A True Story • F. Marion Crawford

... Helen could scarcely believe, when she tried afterwards to recollect, that she had literally this day, during the whole of the first course, heard only the following sentences, which came out at long intervals between each couple of questions and answers—or observations and acquiescences:—"We had a shower."—"Yes, I think so." "But very fine weather we have had."—"Only too hot."—"Quite." "The new buildings at Marblemore—are ...
— Helen • Maria Edgeworth

... ended well after all; and the fairy Tulip, who turned out to be the old woman of the hut, made the young couple such a wedding feast as had never been seen since the world began. And everybody was delighted, except Cerisette and her mother, who were put in a boat and carried to a small island, where they had to work ...
— The Orange Fairy Book • Andrew Lang

... a friend of Hugh's, who was organist of one of the important college chapels, took him and a couple of friends into the building. It had been a breathlessly hot summer day, but the air inside had a coolness and a peace which revived the languid frame. It was nearly dark, but the great windows smouldered ...
— Beside Still Waters • Arthur Christopher Benson

... Philosophy. As for M. Bergson, I yield to no one in admiration for his brilliancy as a stylist and the happiness of many of his illustrations. But I have always found it difficult to grasp his central idea—if he really has one—because his whole doctrine has always seemed to me to be based upon a couple of elementary blunders which will be found in the opening chapter of his Donnees Immediates de la Conscience. We are there called on to reject the intellect in Philosophy on the grounds (1) that, ...
— Recent Developments in European Thought • Various

... having in his service a couple of shopmen, who in point of intellect, were the very reverse of their master, a wag who frequented the shop, for some time puzzled the neighbourhood by designating it a "music-shop," although the proprietor ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume XII, No. 347, Saturday, December 20, 1828. • Various

... such things as they wished to have at hand, by which means they often came to be incredibly crammed; and I remember there was a story current, when I was a boy, that the lady of Wouter Van Twiller once had occasion to empty her right pocket in search of a wooden ladle, when the contents filled a couple of corn baskets, and the utensil was discovered lying among some rubbish in one corner; but we must not give too much faith to all these stories, the anecdotes of those remote periods being very ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving

... southerly gale, south-east at first; and then the barometer began to fall while you could watch it, and a long swell began to come up from the south'ard. A couple of months earlier we might have been in for a cyclone, but it's "October all over" in those waters, as you know better than I. It was just going to blow, and then it was going to rain, that was all; and we had plenty of time to make everything snug before it breezed up much. It blew harder after ...
— Man Overboard! • F(rancis) Marion Crawford

... to-night for a couple of days, but I would rather you wouldn't mention it to the others. You may have the use of the dining room and ...
— David Dunne - A Romance of the Middle West • Belle Kanaris Maniates

... monk, to whom my attention was directed by the person who sat next to me at table. He was standing motionless like a marble pillar. His shape was tall and thin; his face pale and ghastly; his eyes were fixed with a grave and mournful expression on the new-married couple. The joy which beamed on the face of every one present appeared not on his. His countenance never once varied. He seemed like a statue among the living. Such an object, appearing amidst the general joy, struck me more forcibly from its ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... I hope that it will be ended in a couple of months. If it should last—which God forbid!—you shall have your chance, never fear. Or, Harry, should you hear that aught has happened to me, mount your horse at once, my boy; ride to the army, and take your ...
— Friends, though divided - A Tale of the Civil War • G. A. Henty

... and female are greatly attached they do not go afield to hunt in company, but separate to meet at intervals during the day. One of the couple (say the female) returns to the trees where they are accustomed to meet, and after a time becoming impatient or anxious at the delay of her consort, utters a very long, clear call-note. He is perhaps ...
— The Truth About Woman • C. Gasquoine Hartley

... hall was filled, and the impression caused by the sermon was profound; but the number of hearers had been imprudently large. Though no arrests followed, the persecutors took the alarm, and increased their activity to such an extent that large gatherings had for ever to be abandoned; and after a couple of weeks both Campion and Persons left London to escape the notice of the pursuivants, whose raids and inquisitorial searches were making the lot of Catholics in town unbearable, whereas in the country the pursuit was far less active, and could be much more easily avoided. ...
— Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the Name • Edmund Campion

... began (1685) with everything in his favour: a Tory parliament, a discredited opposition, which further weakened its case by Argyll's and Monmouth's rebellions, and a great reputation for honesty. Within a couple of years he had thrown away all these advantages by his revival of Charles II's abandoned Roman Catholic policy, and had alienated the Anglican church, by whose support alone he could hope to rule as an English despot. He suspended and dispensed with laws, ...
— The History of England - A Study in Political Evolution • A. F. Pollard

... ground, drew off a deer-skin boot, and, with his good-looking, fair boyish face all in wrinkles, proceeded to examine the toe, removing therefrom a couple of tiny ...
— Crown and Sceptre - A West Country Story • George Manville Fenn

... daughter of M. Marion, the Avocat-général, who became a mother while still only a girl of fifteen, but who grew into a noble and large-hearted woman, full of deeds of piety and charity. In all, the couple had twenty children, and felt, as may be imagined, the pressure of providing for so many. Out of this pressure came the remarkable lot of two of the daughters. The benefices of the Church were a fruitful field ...
— Pascal • John Tulloch

... Tahiti,[999] and consigns one woman to four or five men. In old Hawaii, where there were four or five men to one woman a kind of incipient polyandry arose by the addition of a countenanced paramour to the married couple's establishment.[1000] Robert Louis Stevenson found the same complaisant arrangement a common one in the Marquesas, where the husband's deputy was designated by the term of pikio in the native ...
— Influences of Geographic Environment - On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography • Ellen Churchill Semple

... him among the seven whose names appeared honourably in the newspaper. It was a failure; but Mr. Cheviot had become much interested in the boy for his own sake, as well as from what he heard from the Mays, and he strongly advised that Leonard should at Easter obtain employment for a couple of years at the school in which he himself was concerned. He would thus be maintaining himself, and pursuing his own studies under good direction, so as to have every probability of success in getting an open scholarship at ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge

... you can get so many as three toadstools and a couple of sassafras stalks to listen to you, when the ardent oriole flings across the ...
— Chantecler - Play in Four Acts • Edmond Rostand

... was bright with burning blushes; Aniela instead looked fagged, though she evidently tried to keep up with the Sniatynskis, who were as lively as a couple of school-children on their holiday. They began finally to race with each other, and Clara joined in the sport, which she ought not to have done, considering her size, as the quick motion was anything but graceful,—nay, ...
— Without Dogma • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... more time for this part of the work, as the glucose does not cream rapidly. Just before it hardens, pour it into a crock or a bowl, place a damp cloth over the top of the bowl, and put away for a couple ...
— Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5 • Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

... patient. Perhaps the stranger felt as much doubt of my sanity as I did of his, though certainly with less justice, since I was fully aware of my own extravagances, while he acted as wildly, and deemed it heavenly wisdom. We were a singular couple, strikingly contrasted, yet curiously assimilated, each of us remarkable enough by himself, and doubly so in the other's company. Without any formal compact, we kept together day after day till our union appeared permanent. Even had I seen ...
— Passages From a Relinquised Work (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... couple of levers as he spoke and gave a quarter turn to the wheel. The great airship took a downward slide, swung round to the right, and in a few moments she had dropped quietly to the turf of ...
— The World Peril of 1910 • George Griffith

... replied his uncle. "I'll help you, Bob. We'll bring down a barrel or two and a couple of rakes and have a regular turtle hunt," he laughed. "They can't get out of the sluiceway gate, there's ...
— Hidden Treasure • John Thomas Simpson

... the four other tribal villages, (which you have not yet seen), and came to rule the land. And they naturally grew to think a good deal of me, so much so that when I was ready to go they wouldn't hear of it. Were most hospitable, in fact. Put a couple of guards over me and watched me day and night. And then Tantlatch offered me inducements,—in a sense, inducements,—so to say, and as it didn't matter much one way or the other, I reconciled myself ...
— Children of the Frost • Jack London

... at the scene across the Nile where a great concrete tower rose into the sky. "It's this land. Look at it. There's a tower for television. A couple of miles away are the pyramids. Down the street is a new office building with aluminum walls, and it's right next to a stone mosque that's nearly as old as the city. If you ask me, Horus or Thoth or one of the old Egyptian gods is getting fed up ...
— The Egyptian Cat Mystery • Harold Leland Goodwin

... I thought you'd take it that way!" Crump remarked, not without gratification. "But it ain't so bad as that, Mr. Nicol." And he went on to explain, with a variety of nautical metaphors, that the couple, an elderly man and a young girl supposedly his grandchild, had appeared in Chepstow some weeks ago during fair-time; that the young woman "took observations," which I translated to mean that she told fortunes, ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol 31, No 2, June 1908 • Various

... P'ing Erh, Feng Erh and Hsiao Hung, as well as Madame Wang's two waiting-maids Chin Ch'uan and Ts'ai Yuen. Along with lady Feng, came a nurse carrying Ta Chieh Erh. She drove in a separate carriage, together with a couple of servant-girls. Added also to the number of the suite were matrons and nurses, attached to the various establishments, and the wives of the servants of the household, who were in attendance out of doors. Their carriages, forming one black solid mass, therefore, ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin

... visitors when Aratov and Kupfer arrived. Dramatic performances had sometimes been given in this drawing-room, but on this occasion there was no scenery nor curtain visible. The organisers of the matinee had confined themselves to fixing up a platform at one end, putting upon it a piano, a couple of reading-desks, a few chairs, a table with a bottle of water and a glass on it, and hanging red cloth over the door that led to the room allotted to the performers. In the first row was already sitting the princess in a bright green dress. Aratov placed himself at some distance from her, ...
— Dream Tales and Prose Poems • Ivan Turgenev

... during the last months of their residence, and though they were men quite unlike each other in their pursuits, circumstances had made them intimate. It was well that Gordon should take a stroll for a couple of hours before dinner, and therefore he started off for Little Alresford. Going into the parsonage gate he was overtaken by Blake, and of course introduced himself. "Don't ...
— An Old Man's Love • Anthony Trollope

... Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1360. Herodian, l. v. p. 193. The subjects of the empire were obliged to make liberal presents to the new married couple; and whatever they had promised during the life of Elagabalus was carefully exacted under the administration ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon

... slimness was the admiration of every greengrocer's assistant in Oxford—and even in later days when she and Dr. Warren always opened the Magdalen servants' ball together. She and the courtly President were always the star couple. I can see her doing the Sir Roger de Coverley. But the virgin zone was loosed long ago, and she has expanded with the British Empire. Not rotund, but rather imposingly cubic. Our hallway is a very narrow one, and when you come to visit us of an evening, ...
— Shandygaff • Christopher Morley



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