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Peal   Listen
noun
Peal  n.  
1.
A loud sound, or a succession of loud sounds, as of bells, thunder, cannon, shouts, of a multitude, etc. "A fair peal of artillery." "Whether those peals of praise be his or no." "And a deep thunder, peal on peal, afar."
2.
A set of bells tuned to each other according to the diatonic scale; also, the changes rung on a set of bells.
To ring a peal. See under Ring.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Peal" Quotes from Famous Books



... one, and close at hand? And is there no alternative between a frivolous and outside distinction, and some great theatre of action large enough to fill and dazzle the world's eye? Daily, right around us, there are occasions that summon up all the energies of manhood as with a trumpet-peal. See yonder! where the conflagration, bursting through marble walls, casts a terrible splendor down the street and reddens the midnight sky. What an enemy has broken loose among us, devouring the achievements of human skill and the hopes of enterprise! What shall stay it? With ...
— Humanity in the City • E. H. Chapin

... 1762:—'Upon a stranger's arrival at Bath he is welcomed by a peal of the Abbey bells, and in the next place by the voice and music of the city waits.' Cunningham's Goldsmith's Works, iv. 57. In Humphry Clinker (published in 1771), in the Letter of April 24, we read that there was 'a peal of the Abbey ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... ten pages of those rumbling, great, long, summer thunderpeals, and you expect to get them at seven cents a peal?" ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... roll of thunder, which terminated in a crashing peal, was the only answer he received, and while the noise was at its loudest, Mary Durden started to her feet and dashed forward ...
— Heiress of Haddon • William E. Doubleday

... hark! through the green wood what sounded afar, 'T was the trumpet's loud peal—the alarum of war! Again on his charger, through forest, o'er plain, The soldier rode swift to his ranks 'mid the slain: They faltered, they wavered, half turning to fly As their leader dashed frantic and fearlessly by, The damp turf grew crimson wherever he trod, Where his sword was ...
— Indian Legends and Other Poems • Mary Gardiner Horsford

... a good receptacle for small valuables. Unscrew the heel-plate and bore recesses; insert what you desire, after wrapping it tightly in cloth and plugging it in; then replace the heel-plate. (Peal.) ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton

... some wood bird, Wild and sudden and sweet, Scared from its perch by the rush and trample of feet, And the red glare of the torches in the night. And now the long facade gay with many a twinkling light Reaches hands of welcome, and the bells peal, and the guns, And the hoarse blare of the trumpets, and the throbbing of the drums Fill the air like shaken music, and the very waves rejoice In the gladness, and the greeting, and ...
— The Coming of the Princess and Other Poems • Kate Seymour Maclean

... the shouts of surprise, arose a simultaneous peal of laughter from men, women, and children; in which even the animals seemed to join—more especially the maherry, who stood with its uncouth head craned over its dismounted ...
— The Boy Slaves • Mayne Reid

... slain. It is small comfort that the wicked priest who egged the King on to the dreadful deed was himself burned at the stake by the master he had betrayed. The Stockholm Massacre drowned the Kalmar Union in its torrents of blood. Retribution came swiftly. Above the peal of the Christmas bells rose the clash and clangor of armed hosts pouring forth from the mountain fastnesses to avenge the foul treachery. They were led by Gustav[1] Eriksson Vasa, a young noble upon whose head Christian had set ...
— Hero Tales of the Far North • Jacob A. Riis

... the Palace-walk Of Orleans eagerly I turned; as yet 95 The streets were still; not so those long Arcades; There, 'mid a peal of ill-matched sounds and cries, That greeted me on entering, I could hear Shrill voices from the hawkers in the throng, Bawling, "Denunciation of the Crimes 100 Of Maximilian Robespierre;" the hand, Prompt as the voice, ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III • William Wordsworth

... drew forth a peal of laughter from the girls, Eleanor included. But Polly failed to join in the laugh. She cast a withering glance at Eleanor, and walked aside to open the envelope. The four interested girls watched her eagerly as she read the ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... heart into momentary forgetfulness of the interval of a hundred miles that lies between us, more than once I cast a glance behind me, and started, as if the hoped-for peal ...
— Jane Talbot • Charles Brockden Brown

... in placing cask on RIP'S shoulder. A loud laugh is heard; RIP is alarmed, but [DWARF] signs him to proceed and be of good courage—leads way up rocks. Another peal of laughter, and ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van - Winkle • Charles Burke

... burst into a ringing peal of laughter. "Fancy, Miss Starbrow!" she exclaimed. "Where do you come from?" she continued, addressing Fan. ...
— Fan • Henry Harford

... and her face flamed. Her word came very softly spoken, but it rang a peal of happiness in the heart ...
— Making People Happy • Thompson Buchanan

... up, the morn is bright and gay, The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green. Uncouple here, and let us make a bay, And wake the emperor and his lovely bride, And rouse the prince, and ring a hunter's peal, That all the court may echo with the noise. Sons, let it be your charge, as it is ours, To attend the emperor's person carefully: I have been troubled in my sleep this night, But dawning day new comfort ...
— The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... great drums echoing through a brazen vault. The roof of the loft in which he lay had no ceiling; only the tiles were between him and the sky. For a while he could not come quite awake, for the noise kept beating him down, so that his heart was troubled and fluttered painfully. A second peal of thunder burst over his head, and almost choked him with fear. Nor did he recover until the great blast that followed, having torn some tiles off the roof, sent a spout of wind down into his bed and over his face, which brought him wide awake, ...
— At the Back of the North Wind • George MacDonald

... aprick at heel; Nid-nod the authentic stump Of the once ensanguined comb vermeil as wine; With conspuent doodle-doo Hails breach o' the hectic dawn of yon New Year, Last issue up to date Of quiverful Fate Evolved spontaneous; hails with tenant trump The spiriting prime o' the clashed carillon-peal; Ruffling her caudal plumes derisive of scuts; Inconscient how she stalks an ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... the Perishing'!" he cried, and repeating the words again, gave forth a peal of laughter so hearty that it brought tears to his ...
— The Conquest of Canaan • Booth Tarkington

... embarked as many as fifty thousand men in the port of Orwell, with their horses and their baggage, all in the space of four-and-twenty hours. So urgent was Sir Nigel on the shore, and so prompt was Goodwin Hawtayne on the cog, that Sir Oliver Buttesthorn had scarce swallowed his last scallop ere the peal of the trumpet and clang of nakir announced that all was ready and the anchor drawn. In the last boat which left the shore the two commanders sat together in the sheets, a strange contrast to one another, while under the feet of the rowers was a litter of huge stones which Sir ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle

... o'clock in the afternoon there was a loud peal at the bell, an authoritative voice in the hall, and, to my surprise, no less a person than Mr. Athelney Jones was shown up to me. Very different was he, however, from the brusque and masterful professor ...
— The Sign of the Four • Arthur Conan Doyle

... the children watched. But there was something so utterly ridiculous about the sight that Queen May and her followers, after various vain efforts to suppress their mirth, burst into one peal of laughter, which rang merrily through the old fort, and ...
— Junior Classics, V6 • Various

... peasant tumbled prostrate, while the horse I rode reared himself perpendicularly, and turning round, dashed down the hill at headlong speed, which for some time it was impossible to cheek. The lightning was followed by a peal almost as terrible, but distant, for it sounded hollow and deep; the hills, however, caught up its voice, seemingly repeating it from summit to summit, till it was lost in interminable space. Other flashes and ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow

... peal of boisterous laughter. "Yes, and tell us why, chaste Joseph, tell us why," he cried, throwing a brush at his friend. "Or go to the ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson

... church bell will peal with joy, Hurrah, hurrah! To welcome our darling boy, Hurrah, hurrah! The village lads and lassies say With roses they will strew the way, And we'll all feel gay When ...
— The Good Old Songs We Used to Sing, '61 to '65 • Osbourne H. Oldroyd

... "But she's not a lady—in your silly old sailor sense of the term. She's a hefty savage like me. When you had me aboard, did you think of having accommodation for a gentleman? Ho! ho! ho! At any rate," said he, at the end of the peal, "you've a sort of spare cabin? ...
— Jaffery • William J. Locke

... the jocund bowl we pass, And joke and wit and whim abound, When song and catch and friend and lass In sparkling wine we toast around, When Bull and Pun Rude riot run, And finding still the mirth increasing, Pealing laughter roars sans ceasing, I peal and roar and pant and say, Thus let me ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft

... magnificent, but on our way back we heard a peal of thunder, and saw an angry black storm-cloud which was coming straight towards us. The storm-cloud was approaching us ...
— The Schoolmistress and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... Lewis, on the right, kept some little distance inland. They went about half a mile.[28] Then, just before sunrise, while it was still dusk, the men in camp, eagerly listening, heard the reports of three guns, immediately succeeded by a clash like a peal of thin thunder, as hundreds of rifles rang out together. It was evident that the attack was serious and Col. Field was at once despatched to the ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume One - From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1769-1776 • Theodore Roosevelt

... in utter bewilderment; but the next minute Amos was at his side, and said, in a hoarse, troubled voice, "Not a word of this, Walter, not a word of this to any one at home." Walter's only reply to this at first was a hearty peal of laughter; then he cried out, "All right, Amos;" and, taking off his hat with affected ceremony, he added, "My best respects to Mrs Amos, and love to the dear children. Good- bye." Saying which, ...
— Amos Huntingdon • T.P. Wilson

... yon black and funeral yew, That bathes the charnal-house with dew, Methinks I hear a voice begin; (Ye ravens, cease your croaking din, Ye tolling clocks, no time resound O'er the long lake and midnight ground!) It sends a peal of hollow groans, Thus speaking from ...
— Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett - With Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, and Tobias Smollett

... the humble cottages and cabins where Scranton's colored population lived. Children were running about the streets shouting in play, even as the first peal of the cracked bell in the little church near ...
— The Chums of Scranton High - Hugh Morgan's Uphill Fight • Donald Ferguson

... which four bells out of five have been sold by the parish to defray churchwardens' accounts.'[956] On the other hand, a great number of new bells were cast during the period, among which may be mentioned the great bell of St. Paul's, 1716, and those of the University Church, Cambridge, a peal particularly admired by Handel. The single family of Rudall of Gloucester, cast during the ninety years ending with 1774 no less than 3,594 church bells. Bell-ringing is often spoken of as an exercise and recreation of educated men. Hearne, the famous Oxford antiquary, was passionately ...
— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton

... yet prolonged. I wake to hear The distant fog-horn peal: before mine eyes Stands the white wall of mist, Blending ...
— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. I (of II.), Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic • Emma Lazarus

... species, and we angled as often as not in one another's baskets. Once, in the midst of a serious talk, each found there was a scrutinising eye upon himself; I own I paused in embarrassment at this double detection; but Jones, with a better civility, broke into a peal of unaffected laughter, and declared, what was the truth, that there was a pair ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 2 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... a tremendous peal of thunder struck upon my slumbering ear; I started up staggering and trembling; and lo, it seemed as if the whole hemisphere had burst forth in one flaming sheet of fire, and mountains, and cities, and forests melted away like wax in ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... his forehead with the towel. The young lady burst into a peal of laughter, in which the stout woman joined. The laugh was so infectious that even Brown was ...
— The Woman-Haters • Joseph C. Lincoln

... Huttenbrenner had been sitting on the side of the bed sustaining Beethoven's head—holding it up with his right arm His breathing was already very much impeded, and he had been for hours dying. At this startling, awful peal of thunder, the dying man suddenly raised his head from Huttenbrenner's arm, stretched out his own right arm majestically—like a general giving orders to an army. This was but for an instant; the arm sunk back; he fell back. Beethoven ...
— Beethoven: the Man and the Artist - As Revealed in his own Words • Ludwig van Beethoven

... stridulation of a grasshopper, to the resounding, laughter-like, screaming concerts of Homorus, which may be heard distinctly two miles away. As a rule, the notes are loud ringing calls; and in many species the cry, rapidly reiterated, resembles a peal of laughter. With scarcely an exception, they possess no set song; but in most species that live always in pairs there are loud, vehement, gratulatory notes uttered by the two birds in concert when they meet after a brief separation. This habit they possess ...
— The Naturalist in La Plata • W. H. Hudson

... A peal of laughter broke from Jeannette as he spoke and then she began to dance on her point of rock, swinging herself from side to side, marking the time with a song. I held my breath; her dance seemed unearthly; it was as though she belonged to the Prince ...
— Castle Nowhere • Constance Fenimore Woolson

... on the old gentleman's knee, and they were having the most sociable time possible. And before long Joel forgot he hadn't laughed for oh, such a long while, and lo and behold! Grandpapa said something so very funny that they both burst out into a merry peal, that rang out into ...
— Five Little Peppers and their Friends • Margaret Sidney

... thunderstorm. For a time every object roundabout would be blotted out by inky blackness, and for the next two or three minutes the lowering angry clouds would pulsate with dazzling light that leaped upward like life-blood from the throbbing heart of the storm. Each thundering peal was followed by a momentary lull, and then spasmodic gusts shook the air, as if Nature were drawing a deep breath for another effort. Before daybreak yesterday the storm had cleared, leaving a clouded sky, but no ...
— Four Months Besieged - The Story of Ladysmith • H. H. S. Pearse

... from the doctor a peal of laughter—so loud, so long, so savage, and so brutal, that I forgot in a moment all that he had been doing for my sake, and felt an almost irresistible inclination to punch his head. Only I didn't; and, perhaps, it was just as well. The sudden inclination passed, ...
— The Lady of the Ice - A Novel • James De Mille

... hair—But all these miserable things who could prophesy, at the hour when we and the weeping villagers laid thee, apart from the palace and the burial-vault of thy high-born ancestors, without anthem or organ-peal, among the humble dead? Needless and foolish were all those floods of tears. In thy brief and beautiful course, nothing have we who loved thee to lament or condemn. In few memories, indeed, doth thy ...
— Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 • John Wilson

... destroyed; and we wiseacres who flourished in the old 'flush times' yet survive in tradition, patterns for our children, very Turveydrops of collegiate deportment. The belfry clangs with a louder peal; even Clarian's Picture, though it hath utterly perished to the eye of sense, lives vivid in a thousand memories, and, having found in the tenderness of tradition and legend an engraver whose burin is as faithful as Raphael Morghen's, has left the damp dark wall, like Leonardo's Cenacolo, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 32, June, 1860 • Various

... the syndic; but here the bell for dinner rang a loud peal. "Dinner is on the table, mynheer," continued the syndic, "allow me to show you the way. We will talk this over to-night. Gott ...
— Snarleyyow • Captain Frederick Marryat

... prancing Galloway barb, breaking away from all restrictions, charged between Ebie's legs, and overset him into his own horse-trough. The yellow soap was in Ebie's eyes, and before he got it out the small boy was far enough away. The most irritating thing was that from the back kitchen came peal on ...
— The Lilac Sunbonnet • S.R. Crockett

... often before, yet they too looked at the dazzling girl in white as if they expected an entirely different person. The murmur of pleasure, the indefinable stir of human emotion, the solemn mystical words at the altar that were making two one, the triumphant peal of music when they ceased, and the quick crescendo of rising congratulation—all these things were present then, as now. And then, as now, all these things failed to conceal from sensitive minds that odour of human sacrifice, not to be disguised with the scent ...
— The Maid of Maiden Lane • Amelia E. Barr

... unexpected from a lady of her refined and delicate ideas. She caught my father and mother in the very act; and (as my father expressed it) with an exclamation of horror, "She 'bout ship, and sculled upstairs like winkin'." A loud peal of the bell summoned up my mother, leaving my father in a state of no pleasant suspense, for he was calculating how far Sir Hercules could bring in "kissing a lady's ladies' maid" under the article of war as "contempt of superiors," and, if so, how many dozen kisses his back might ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat

... still have been droning monotonously down the ages, wherever men were assembled to dwell together. Doubtless the concord he conceived was beautiful. But the dissonances he would have silenced, but which, with ever-augmenting force, peal and crash, from his day to ours, through the echoing vault of time, embody, as I am apt to think, a harmony more august than any which even he was able to imagine, and in their intricate succession weave the plan of a world-symphony too high to be apprehended save in part by our grosser sense, ...
— A Modern Symposium • G. Lowes Dickinson

... came the hideous clanking of iron chains. Connie had read ghost stories, and she knew the significance of clanking chains, but she stood her ground in spite of the almost irresistible impulse to fly. After the clanking, the loud and clamorous peal ...
— Prudence of the Parsonage • Ethel Hueston

... was a bustle heard downstairs, a peal of laughter and a perfect flood of chatter in a high, shrill voice, and with a bounding run up the staircase, Alicia burst into the room where ...
— Two Little Women on a Holiday • Carolyn Wells

... heevens struck the Horror whaur it stood; the auld, deid, desecrated corp o' the witch-wife, sae lang keepit frae the grave and hirselled round by deils, lowed up like a brunstane spunk and fell in ashes to the grund; the thunder followed, peal on dirling peal, the rairing rain upon the back o' that; and Mr. Soulis lowped through the garden hedge, and ran, wi' skelloch upon ...
— Stories by English Authors: Scotland • Various

... Dobson were together in the salon. While honest Risler turned the leaves of an old handbook of mechanics, Sidonie sang to Madame Dobson's accompaniment. Suddenly she stopped in the middle of her aria and burst into a peal of laughter. The ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... a pretty while; after which, herseeming he should not abide longer, she caused him arise and dress himself and said to him, 'Sweetheart, do thou take a stout cudgel and get thee to the garden and there, feigning to have solicited me to try me, rate Egano, as he were I, and ring me a good peal of bells on his back with the cudgel, for that thereof will ensue to us marvellous pleasance and delight.' Anichino accordingly repaired to the garden, with a sallow-stick in his hand, and Egano, seeing him draw near the ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio

... rage indeed. Flash followed flash, peal followed peal in quick succession. Our eyes were blinded, our ears deafened, with the roar and glare. The clouds above, the ocean beneath, seemed verily to have taken fire, and several times I saw forked lightnings dart upward from the crest ...
— The Survivors of the Chancellor • Jules Verne

... had thus prayed, wringing his hands, a terrible peal of laughter shook the walls of the tomb, and the voice which rang in his ears on the top of the column, ...
— Thais • Anatole France

... all about his seasickness and clapping his hands with delight when the idea which had been brought forth was propounded; "he'll do in it first-rate style—ha, ha, ha!" and a merry peal of laughter ran through ...
— The Three Midshipmen • W.H.G. Kingston

... he raised his rifle, and drew trigger, there was a sharp pat from the top of the wall above the heads of the blacks, and the report raised a peal of echoes from the surrounding ruins. So startling were the sounds that the ...
— Dead Man's Land - Being the Voyage to Zimbambangwe of certain and uncertain • George Manville Fenn

... At last! The peal echoed through the old house. Sir James rose, and, instinctively, Diana rose too. Was there a smile—humorous and tender—in the ...
— The Testing of Diana Mallory • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... Dungeon-ghyll so foully rent, With ropes of rock and bells of air Three sinful sextons' ghosts are pent, Who all give back, one after t'other, The death-note to their living brother; And oft too, by the knell offended, Just as their one! two! three! is ended, The devil mocks the doleful tale With a merry peal from Borrowdale. ...
— Poems of Coleridge • Coleridge, ed Arthur Symons

... quitted the box. I had scarcely closed the door when I heard a third peal of laughter. It would not have been well for anybody who had ...
— Camille (La Dame aux Camilias) • Alexandre Dumas, fils

... pulled up with a flourish in front of the ancient gateway of the Leon d'Or, and I was very nearly precipitated on to the top of the broad-backed horse. As I gathered myself together I was conscious of a soft peal of laughter—a woman's laughter, which came from the arched entrance to the inn. I looked up quickly. A too familiar figure was standing there watching me,—Lady Delahaye, trim, elegant, a trifle supercilious. By her side stood ...
— The Master Mummer • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... down in torrents; the forest roared; and against the black sky, in an almost continuous glare of lightning, the big trees tugged and strained in their wild wrestle with the wind; while peal after peal of thunder, rolling, crashing, reverberating through the hills, added ...
— The Shepherd of the Hills • Harold Bell Wright

... did not attempt to stir from his seat. We could see Augustus walk up the path and turn the handle of the front door without ringing. In this impertinence I am glad to say he was checked, as Hephzibah had fortunately let the bolt slip after showing in Lady Tilchester. He rang an angry peal. ...
— The Reflections of Ambrosine - A Novel • Elinor Glyn

... which I placed sometimes at the intersection of College and Church, and sometimes at the intersection of College and Elm streets—a clock-tower looking proudly down the slope, over the traffic of the town, and bearing a deep-toned peal of bells. ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... in and out, fringed with a thick belt of scrub, amongst which rose tall red-gum trees. Flights of cockatoos screamed over their heads, and magpies gurgled in the thick shades by the water. Occasionally came the clear whistle of a lyre bird or the peal of a laughing jackass. Jim knew all the bird-notes, as well as the signs of bush game, and pointed them out as they rode. Once a big wallaby showed for an instant, and there was a general outcry and a plunge in pursuit, but the wallaby was too quick ...
— A Little Bush Maid • Mary Grant Bruce

... organ would strike up a triumphant peal, and, to the accompaniment of its music and the mellow plashing of the water, the sister or brother would be plunged beneath ...
— Young Lives • Richard Le Gallienne

... come. The storm seemed to be passing over. The flashes were just as frequent, but there was a longer interval between each flash and its thunder peal. The rain ...
— The Rise of Roscoe Paine • Joseph C. Lincoln

... do you no harm to kill it outright," said Miss Carr, laughing—such a loud, jovial peal of merriment, which rang so clearly from her healthy lungs, that Flora, in spite of her offended dignity, was forced to ...
— Flora Lyndsay - or, Passages in an Eventful Life • Susan Moodie

... to bed as usual, but at about one o'clock we were awakened by a long rolling peal of thunder. Already big drops of rain were beginning to fall. Ollie and I looked out, and found Jack creeping from under ...
— The Voyage of the Rattletrap • Hayden Carruth

... on her black pony like a brown sprite, the rising wind making free with her hair and hat ribbands, the rose spray made fast for her buttonhole. But as she dashed out of the woods upon a tract of open country, the distance before her was one sheet of grey rain and mist, and a near peal of thunder that almost took Vixen off her feet, showed what it would be to face such a storm, so mounted. And now the raindrops began ...
— Wych Hazel • Susan and Anna Warner

... resembling the loud call of Death himself or the frightful peal of Indra's thunder, of Dhananjaya's bow, while he stretched it, that host of thine, O king, anxious with fear and exceedingly agitated, became like the waters of the sea with fishes and makaras within ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... sons of Troy The one, the other for the brass-clad Greeks; Then held them by the midst; down sank the lot Of Greece, down to the ground, while high aloft Mounted the Trojan scale, and rose to Heav'n. [2] Then loud he bade the volleying thunder peal From Ida's heights; and 'mid the Grecian ranks He hurl'd his flashing lightning; at the sight Amaz'd they stood, and pale ...
— The Iliad • Homer

... Oh, please let me wait on you!" exclaimed Rose, as she sprang up, ran across the room, and rang a peal on ...
— For Woman's Love • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... forgotten all about it, until one day, as I was strolling along towards the bank in Sydney, who should I come upon quite suddenly but Mr. Deane, and walking beside him a slim, elegant, bright-eyed beauty, to whom I raised my hat, not knowing who she was, till a peal of silvery laughter brought back my memory to the days of old, when we used to sit in the garden on a summer evening at Barnes, and slip down the lawn to the boat-house, that we might launch the dear old pater's wherry, and have a moonlight trip, with soft singing of part songs, to which I know ...
— Miss Grantley's Girls - And the Stories She Told Them • Thomas Archer

... the silence that followed there came forth a shout that sounded like a trumpet peal and startled every ...
— The Martyr of the Catacombs - A Tale of Ancient Rome • Anonymous

... Christians! Oh, the music of birds' song, of rippling waters, of gently pulsing zephyrs, the music of old cathedral chimes, of grandest orchestras—nothing of them all could sound so like to the music that the morning stars sang together as this deafening peal of cannon, this rippling ...
— Winning the Wilderness • Margaret Hill McCarter

... taste. It is delivered, like the whole of the speech, with extraordinary nerve, and without any abatement of the fire, the vehemence, the sweeping rapidity of the best days. And it ends in notes, clear, resonant—almost like a peal of joy-bells. ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor

... their spiteful Powr; Emetics ranch, and been Cathartics sour. The deadly Drugs in double Doses fly; And Pestles peal a ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... Mary, instead of evincing a becoming sense of her romantic situation, burst forth into a merry peal of laughter, and, catching him by one shoulder, gave ...
— The Aldine, Vol. 5, No. 1., January, 1872 - A Typographic Art Journal • Various

... not time to finish what he would have said, before a blaze of light, so dazzling that it left them all in utter darkness for some seconds afterwards, burst upon their vision, accompanied with a peal of thunder, at which the whole vessel trembled fore and aft. A crash - a rushing forward - and a shriek were heard, and when they had recovered their eyesight, the foremast had been rent by the lightning as if it had been a lath, and the ship was in flames: ...
— Masterman Ready • Captain Marryat

... head erect and ears pricked, as coldly and defiantly inert as when they had put him into his execution chamber. Strudwarden dropped the kennel with a jerk, and stared for a long moment at the miracle-dog; then he went into a peal of chattering laughter. ...
— The Toys of Peace • Saki

... 'Chapel' did they grow. Then the bell-ringer had his inspiration. Assembling his three assistants, he hurried to the belfry, and in two minutes the little old tower was belching forth the merriest and maddest peal those bells had ever furnished. Out it swung in the still air of the grey winter day, away to the ...
— Tatterdemalion • John Galsworthy

... of the national hymn suddenly burst from the crowd, and they rose en masse singing it with triumphant peal. As its last note died away a woman's voice started "Nearer, My God, to Thee," the people caught it instantly and its mighty chorus rolled heavenward. The singing had in it the spontaneous rhythm of hearts transported by resistless ...
— The One Woman • Thomas Dixon

... was laughing merrily. "How funny that sounds, Harry. So he despises you," and she glanced at her good-looking cousin, and his handsome buggy and well-kept horse, and then burst into another merry peal of laughter. ...
— Beautiful Joe • Marshall Saunders

... to get the good old man-servant we had in our old home to come and defend me; not that he is old, for he was a boy whom Joe trained. Oh Mary, the bewilderment of it!" and she pushed back the little stray curly rings of hair on her forehead, while a peal at the bell was heard and a card was brought in. "Oh! Emma! don't bring me any ...
— Magnum Bonum • Charlotte M. Yonge

... cavalry, drawn up in line of battle, received her with a grand salute as she advanced. Battery after battery pealed forth along the whole extent of the vast ramparts; the bells of every church rang out a festive peal; fountains ran with wine in the Grand Square. She proceeded to the episcopal palace, where the archbishop, the Cardinal de Rohan, with his coadjutor, the Prince Louis de Rohan (a man afterward rendered unhappily notorious by his complicity ...
— The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France • Charles Duke Yonge

... evoking great applause. O'Ryan had never seen this back curtain—they had taken care that he should not—and, standing in the wings awaiting his cue, he was unprepared for the laughter of the audience, first low and uncertain, then growing, then insistent, and now a peal of ungovernable mirth, as one by one they understood the significance of the stars of ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... considerable height, arrived at a small cell contrived within the thickness of the wall, and desired Leonard to search it. The apprentice unsuspectingly obeyed. But he had scarcely set foot inside when the door was locked behind him, and he was made aware of the treachery practised upon him by a peal of ...
— Old Saint Paul's - A Tale of the Plague and the Fire • William Harrison Ainsworth

... clear sky the thunder tolled Sudden, and all the mountains rolled The dreadful summons round, and still Lay all the lands, only the rill Made tinkling music. Once more drave Peal upon peal—and lo! a grave Yawned in the Earth, and gushing smoke Belched out, as driven, and hung, and broke With sullen puff; like tongues the flame Leapt following. Thence Aidoneus came, Swart-bearded king, with iron crown'd, In iron mailed, his chariot bound ...
— Helen Redeemed and Other Poems • Maurice Hewlett

... of sweet almonds, and pour scalding water over them, which will make the skins peal off. As they get cool, pour more boiling water, till the almonds are all blanched. Blanch also the bitter almonds. As you blanch the almonds, throw them into a bowl of cold water. Then take them ...
— Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry Cakes, and Sweetmeats • Miss Leslie

... court of the Temple, careless who may hear. He takes the very name that had been used in scorn, and waves it like a banner of victory. His confidence in his possession of power was not confidence in himself, but in his Lord. When we can peal forth the Name with as much assurance of its miracle-working power as Peter did, we too shall be able to make the lame walk. A faltering voice is unworthy to speak such words, and will speak them ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts • Alexander Maclaren

... a peal of mocking laughter, mingled with a whine of chagrin, "we shall see about that. Perhaps the senorita may not treat my offer quite so slightingly as yourself. Women are not so superbly stupid. They have a keener comprehension of their own interests. Your sister may better ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid

... uttering the while so truly dolorous a moan (32) that everybody fell to soothing him. "They would all laugh again another day," they said, and so implored him to have done and eat his dinner; till Critobulus could not stand his lamentation longer, but broke into a peal of laughter. The welcome sound sufficed. The sufferer unveiled his face, and thus addressed his inner self: (33) "Be of good cheer, my soul, there are many battles (34) yet in store for us," and so he fell to ...
— The Symposium • Xenophon

... picture (Plate XVII), behind the Cathedral, rises the square tower, put up by Mr. Bodley to contain the famous Christ Church peal of bells (now twelve in number), familiar through Dean Aldrich's famous round, "Hark, the bonny Christ Church bells." When the tower was erected, it was the subject of much criticism, especially from the witty pen of C. L. Dodgson, the world-famous creator ...
— The Charm of Oxford • J. Wells

... after breakfast, and instantly stepped into the garden, with his glass at his eye, to see what was the matter. Immediately, on observing a large, fat, overgrown boy, as round as a dumpling, lying on a bed of roses, he gave a cry of delight, followed by a gigantic peal of laughter, which was heard three miles off, and picking up Master No-book between his finger and thumb, with a pinch that very nearly broke his ribs, he carried him rapidly towards his own castle, while the fairy Do-nothing ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... finished, he came to present it to his Majesty, who on that day was dining with me. In one of the compartments the painter had depicted his hero in the guise of Bacchus; the King immediately took up a bottle of clear water and drank a big glass. I gave a great peal of laughter, and said to M. le Brun, "You see, monsieur, his Majesty's decision in that ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... to her tackle fell, And on the Knight let fall a peal Of blows so fierce, and press'd so home, 825 That he retir'd, and follow'd's bum. Stand to't (quoth she) or yield to mercy It is not fighting arsie-versie Shall serve thy turn. — This stirr'd his spleen More than the danger he was in, ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... A peal of laughter, mad, insane, horrible in its perverted mirth, rang through the garret. Danglar's hands were creeping queerly up to his temples. And then, oblivious evidently in his frenzy of the revolver in the Adventurer's hand, and his eye catching the weapons that lay ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard

... Were on its bosom, teeming full of rain. There fell a terrible and wizard chain Of lightning, from its black and heated forge, And the dark waters took it to their gorge, And lifted up their shaggy flanks in wonder With rival chorus to the peal of thunder, That wheel'd in many a squadron terrible The stern black clouds, and as they rose and fell They oozed great showers; and Julio held up His wasted hands, in likeness of a cup, And drank the blessed waters, and they roll'd Upon his cheeks like tears, ...
— The Death-Wake - or Lunacy; a Necromaunt in Three Chimeras • Thomas T Stoddart

... moaned and crossed himself, and as he did so, lightning tore the clouds asunder, and a loud peal of thunder was heard over the mountains. Then the waves whispered gently below, and again from the heights above, sad and dying away, sounded the ...
— Legends of the Rhine • Wilhelm Ruland

... Of any warning that I read! Have I been sure, this Christmas-Eve, God's own hand did the rainbow weave, Whereby the truth from heaven slid Into my soul?—I cannot bid The world admit he stooped to heal My soul, as if in a thunder-peal Where one heard noise, and one saw flame, I only knew he named my name: But what is the world to me, for sorrow Or joy in its censure, when to-morrow It drops the remark, with just-turned head Then, on again, ...
— Christmas Eve • Robert Browning

... A merry peal of laughter rang through the garden—so joyful that several ladies and gentlemen joined the group, to hear what the young man ...
— Daughters of the Revolution and Their Times - 1769 - 1776 A Historical Romance • Charles Carleton Coffin

... the Tuscan army, Right glorious to behold, Came flashing back the noonday light, Rank behind rank, like surges bright Of a broad sea of gold. 285 Four hundred trumpets sounded A peal of warlike glee, As that great host, with measured tread, And spears advanced, and ensigns spread, Rolled slowly towards the bridge's head, 290 Where ...
— Narrative and Lyric Poems (first series) for use in the Lower School • O. J. Stevenson

... with the urn on her head soon rested on Shyuote, and she was the first to break the silence by a hearty peal of laughter. This started her companions again, and the one nearest to ...
— The Delight Makers • Adolf Bandelier

... house. Her heart seemed to spring to her lips, and, feeling that after their last unsatisfactory interview she was in no mood to meet him, she quickly descended the steps, so blinded by haste that she failed to perceive the hand Eugene extended to assist her. The door-bell uttered a sharp peal as they reached the hall, and she had just time to escape into the parlor when the ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans

... Hampton, gravely, his clear voice sounding like the sudden peal of a bell, "I can only thank you for your courtesy in this matter, and bid you all good-night. However, before I go it may be of some interest for me to say that I have ...
— Bob Hampton of Placer • Randall Parrish

... when suddenly was heard from the midst of the Ford of Enticement, a sound like unto a peal of thunder, whereupon a whole crowd of gobblins and sea-urchins laid hands upon ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... the quarter to where they were directed. That evening closed in clouds, and before twelve o'clock at night, they say, there came on such another thunder-storm as never was heard in the neighborhood, before or since. Nothing but thunder, roaring and crashing, peal upon peal, till the old house shook and trembled to its very base; and the blue lightning glared at every window, and split along the pavement in streams of livid fire; and all this time the rain was beating straight down in an incessant ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2, January, 1851 • Various

... would appear in the Cathedral, the great organs of which would peal forth, and would call her to ...
— The Dream • Emile Zola

... lying over on one side in a sleepy stillness begin to stir, then to sway, until with each new impulse of the sea all the boats are dancing, and soon the whole harbour is awake and merry as if every mast were a steeple with a peal of bells. It is not long till the fishermen arrive. One meets them in every cobbled lane. How magnificent the noise made by a man in sea-boots on the stones! Surely, he strikes sparks from the road. He thumps the ground as with a hammer. The earth rings. One has seen those boots in the morning ...
— The Pleasures of Ignorance • Robert Lynd

... a peal of thunder rumbles over the city, and a trail of forked lightning splits the midnight skies. "The very heavens salute Prussia!" cries Bismarck—and the mobs ...
— Blood and Iron - Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its - Founder, Bismarck • John Hubert Greusel

... had ever heard of the famous bridge or not was not manifest, for at that moment in the midst of a deafening peal of thunder the landlady entered the room where ...
— Go Ahead Boys and the Racing Motorboat • Ross Kay

... softly up the length of the chancel to the altar, dropped on their knees, lifted the bottom edge of the tapestry, crawled underneath it, let it fall behind them, and rose to their feet in the enclosed space between wall and tapestry at the precise moment when a great bell began to peal out its alarm note from some distant part of the building. The organist almost immediately ceased playing, and a minute later the soft pad-pad of his own and another's sandalled feet descending a wooden staircase ...
— Two Gallant Sons of Devon - A Tale of the Days of Queen Bess • Harry Collingwood

... given to set the captives at liberty. Mazarin himself went to Havre to communicate the news of their freedom, and was received by them with the contempt that he might have expected. Conde took leave of the Cardinal with a ringing peal of laughter, and with joyous acclamations, and bonfires, and firing of guns, made ...
— Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2) • Sutherland Menzies

... one of the servants into the dining-room, resolved to come to an explanation with the assailant, and either extort money from him by way of satisfaction, or provoke him to a second application before witnesses. With this view, he entered the room in a peal of clamour, to the amazement of all present, and the terror of Mrs. Trunnion, who shrieked at the appearance of such a spectacle; and addressing himself to the commodore, "I'll tell you what, sir," said he; "if there be law in England, I'll make you smart for this here ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... nestling under a rock on one side a hut built party of rough stones, and partly of the planks of some wreck cast on shore. At the same moment a bright flash of lightning darted from the clouds, followed by a crashing peal of thunder, when immediately down came ...
— Won from the Waves • W.H.G. Kingston

... Suddenly Leverage lay back in his swivel chair and gave vent to a peal of raucous laughter. He banged his fist on the arm of the chair: "Oh! Boy! That's the snappiest yet. David Carroll paying a social call on a seventeen-year-old kid! Mama! ...
— Midnight • Octavus Roy Cohen

... kindness no more than if he had been treating of the Cosmos. I cannot tread even a limited space of air. I have a gross satisfaction in the crude fact of being on hard ground again, and I utter a coarse peal of—Laughter. ...
— And Even Now - Essays • Max Beerbohm

... darling, and she sighed as she looked pensively out upon the bright landscape, with another sigh she left the window and went about her various duties, about an hour after this, Natalie was startled by a vivid flash of lightning, and deafening peal of thunder; down came the rain in torrents, oh where is baby? how anxiously she watched, peering down the street from the front door, but no sign of Izzie, and how cold the air has turned. She orders a fire to be made ...
— Isabel Leicester - A Romance • Clotilda Jennings

... strike the golden lyre again: A louder yet, and yet a louder strain! Break his bands of sleep asunder, And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder. Hark, hark! the horrid sound Has raised up his head: As awaked from the dead, And amazed he stares around. Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries, See the Furies arise! See the snakes that they rear How they hiss in their hair, And the sparkles that flash from their eyes! ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various

... as he turned in the direction where Jimpny lay sleeping. The result was that he saw the poor fellow's swarthy panic-stricken countenance, and the dog and the monkey snuggled up together as comfortably as they could make themselves; and they did not even start as a tremendous peal of thunder broke, seeming as if it would shake the rocks ...
— Mother Carey's Chicken - Her Voyage to the Unknown Isle • George Manville Fenn

... fangs, when a tremendous clap of thunder shook the earth and echoed from rock to rock among the high mountains, that rose abruptly on our left within a mile. Again the lightning flashed, and almost simultaneously, a deafening peal roared from the black cloud above us, just as I was kneeling over the archenemy to skin him. He looked so Satanic with his flat head, and minute cold grey eye, and scaly hide, with the lightning flashing and the thunder roaring ...
— The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile • Sir Samuel White Baker

... happy tenantry, its country's pride, will assemble in the baronial hall, where the beards will wag all. The ox shall be slain, and the cup they'll drain; and the bells shall peal quite genteel; and my father-in-law, with the tear of sensibility bedewing his eye, shall bless us at his baronial porch. That shall be the order of proceedings, I think, Mr. Huxter; and I hope we shall see you and your lovely ...
— The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2 - His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy • William Makepeace Thackeray

... they are assailable; Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons, The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done ...
— Macbeth • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... might and main, On the bugle that hung by an iron chain. The sound called up a score of sounds;— The screeching of owls, and the baying of hounds, The hollow toll of the turret bell, The call of the watchful sentinel. And a groan at last, like a peal of thunder, As the huge old portals rolled asunder, And gravely from the castle hall Paced forth the white-robed seneschal. He stayed not to ask of what degree So fair and famished a knight might be; But knowing ...
— International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, - No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 • Various

... naturally unpleasant, but become, when diminished, highly pleasant. The softest and sweetest sounds may be increased to such a degree as to be extremely unpleasant: and when we are in the steeple of a church, the noise of a peal of bells stuns and confounds our senses, while at a distance their effect is very pleasant. The smell of musk likewise at a distance, and in small quantity, is pleasant; but when brought near, or in large quantity, it becomes highly disagreable. ...
— Popular Lectures on Zoonomia - Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease • Thomas Garnett

... emerging on to the deck, all was terribly dark—as black as ink, as Mr McCarthy had said; but, the next instant, the whole awful scene was lit up by the most intense and vivid flash of lightning Mr Meldrum had ever beheld—the electric fluid being quite unaccompanied by any peal of thunder, although that might have been drowned by the continuous roar and shriek of the howling wind which appeared to have gone mad with the ...
— The Wreck of the Nancy Bell - Cast Away on Kerguelen Land • J. C. Hutcheson

... said, caused a muffled peal to be rung from the steeple of St. Patrick's, on the day of the proclamation, and a black flag to be ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... in trying to explain the matter, and never gave a thought to Christ's influence. Meantime she listened to the various plans proposed for the first Monday evening, and was sufficiently interested to gather her pretty face in a frown when the distant peal from the door-bell sounded ...
— Ester Ried Yet Speaking • Isabella Alden

... I know that I dwell in the midst of the roar of the cosmic wheel, In the hot collision of Forces, and clangor of boundless Strife, Mid the sound of the speed of the worlds, the rushing worlds, and the peal Of the ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 3 (of 4) • Various

... delayed; he was still in his camp near Ctesiphon, when a terrible thunderstorm broke over the ground occupied by the Roman army. A weird darkness was spread around, amid which flash followed flash at brief intervals, and peal upon peal terrified the superstitious soldiery. Suddenly, after the most violent clap of all, the cry arose that the Emperor was dead. Some said that his tent had been struck by lightning, and that his death was owing to this cause; others believed that he had simply happened to succumb ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7. (of 7): The Sassanian or New Persian Empire • George Rawlinson

... long face!" exclaimed Dudley, pulling down his own in imitation of Rob's, and thereby causing a fresh peal of laughter from Roy. "Have you been a naughty boy, Rob, and has old Hal been thrashing you? Have you been skylarking on the top of the greenhouse, and ...
— His Big Opportunity • Amy Le Feuvre

... lovely trinity of yourself. I mean to wage unabated war against all these forces that are trying to stifle your laughter into the pious smirk of the pharisee. There's more of what God wants the world to feel in one peal of your laughter than in all the psalms that this whole people ever whined through their noses. You're one of the rare few who can go through life being yourself—not just a copy and reflection of others. A hundred years ago your own people would probably have burned you as a witch for that. ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck

... screening his eyes with his hand, as if some sight too dreadful for mortal eyes had passed before him; but OEdipus is gone, and not with lamentation, but in hope and wonder. Even when Hamlet dies, and the peal of ordnance is shot off, it is to congratulate him upon his escape from unbearable woe; and that is the same in life. If our eye falls on the sad stories of men and women who have died by their own hand, how seldom do they speak in the scrawled ...
— Escape and Other Essays • Arthur Christopher Benson

... soon as her dress was out of danger, was able to see the affair in another light, and as her cousin left the room burst into a peal of silvery laughter. ...
— Three Margarets • Laura E. Richards

... whose suns have set, Reflected radiance lingers yet; There sage and bard have shed a light That never shall go down in night; There time-crowned columns stand on high, To tell of them who cannot die; Even we, who then were nothing, kneel In homage there, and join earth's general peal. But the doomed Indian leaves behind no trace, To save his own, or serve another race; With his frail breath his power has passed away, His deeds, his thoughts are buried with his clay; Nor lofty pile, nor glowing page Shall link him to a future age, Or give him with the past a rank: ...
— An Ode Pronounced Before the Inhabitants of Boston, September the Seventeenth, 1830, • Charles Sprague

... current; it flows past cities and villages scattered thickly along its course, past countless homes whose lights weave a shining net along its banks at night; on still Sabbath mornings the bells answer each other in almost unbroken peal along its course. Emerging from an unknown past in the earliest days of discovery, human interests have steadily multiplied along its shores, and spread over it the countless lines of human activity. To-day the Argo, multiplied a thousand ...
— Under the Trees and Elsewhere • Hamilton Wright Mabie

... heart continued firm, and he grew more composed, when the rustling taps were renewed! Barbarosse desperately invoked the protection of Heaven, cocked one of the pistols, and was about to rush into the portentous apartment, when the noise increased and drew nearer: a loud peal of thunder, that seemed to rend the firmament, shook violently the solid battlements of the watch-tower; the deep-toned bell tolled three, and its hollow sound long vibrated on the ear of Barbarosse with fainter and fainter murmurs; ...
— Apparitions; or, The Mystery of Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Haunted Houses Developed • Joseph Taylor



Words linked to "Peal" :   go, rolling, ding, dingdong, dong, tintinnabulate, sound, ring



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