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Permissible   Listen
adjective
Permissible  adj.  That may be permitted; allowable; admissible.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Permissible" Quotes from Famous Books



... told me, had been made during Mabel's year of widowhood abroad—an organ put into the big hall, the library made livable and re-catalogued—when it was permissible to suppose she had found her soul again and returned to her normal, healthy views of life, which included enjoyment and play, literature, music and the arts, without, however, a touch of that trivial thoughtlessness usually termed worldliness. Mrs. Franklyn, ...
— The Damned • Algernon Blackwood

... not afraid of British jail! It will not be for long! The English do not punish as the Germans do! You dare not assault me! You dare not torture me! You must hand me over to the bwana collector to be tried in court of law. Nothing else is permissible! I shall receive short sentence, that is all, with reprieve after two-thirds time on account of ...
— The Ivory Trail • Talbot Mundy

... sanctions with comparable effect. 19.2. For the application of this Article, the Council shall, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 42, define the basis for minimum reserves and the maximum reserves and the maximum permissible ratios between those reserves and their basis, as well as the appropriate sanctions in cases of non-compliance. ARTICLE 20 Other instruments of monetary control The Governing Council may, by a majority of two thirds ...
— The Treaty of the European Union, Maastricht Treaty, 7th February, 1992 • European Union

... his prototype, the Captain advanced in a jaunty military step, with a kind of leer on his face that seemed to quiz the whole matter." That the sketch was a portrait, though doubtless disguised to such an extent as rendered its introduction permissible, is very probable; and as it is beyond question one of the masterpieces of English fiction, a few lines may well be given to the point. With great justice the Quarterly Reviewer pronounces the character of ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various

... applying the policy which we outlined in our first address, namely, to be unwilling to be deceived in regard to our own interest, and to have the courage willingly to see the truth and acknowledge it. Moreover, it is still permissible, so far as I know, to talk with one another in German about our fatherland, or at least to sigh in German, and, I believe, we should not do well if we ourselves precipitated such an interdiction and wished to lay the fetters of individual timidity ...
— The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: - Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English, Volume 5. • Various

... quality of which the citizens of Rouen could no longer be accused as in the days of those heroic defenses by which the city had made itself famous. Above all, they said, with the unassailable urbanity of the Frenchman, it was surely permissible to be on politely familiar terms in private, provided one held aloof from the foreign soldier in public. In the street, therefore, they ignored one another's existence, but once indoors they were perfectly ready to be friendly, and each evening found the German staying ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant

... that it is not only permissible, but wise and commendable, to pass by all confusing cases; without being careless or downright superficial, to observe a certain degree of prudent indifference at confusing points, trusting to that superior intelligence which he shall surely gain through ...
— Lessons in Music Form - A Manual of Analysis of All the Structural Factors and - Designs Employed in Musical Composition • Percy Goetschius

... are those that are weakened by them? What are the faults that come repeatedly (and are, therefore, incapable of being got rid of)? What, again, are regarded as weak, through stupefaction (and, therefore, as permissible)? What, indeed, are those faults upon whose strength and weakness a wise man should reflect with the aid of intelligence and of reasons? I have doubts upon these subjects. Discourse to me on ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... flee to grasp the horns of the altar, or to sit, veiled and suppliant, before the image of the god, was secure from his foes, who could not pass within the limits of the Temple grounds, in which strife and murder were not permissible. We too often flee to other gods and other temples for our refuges. Ay! and when we get there we find that the deity whom we have invoked is only a marble image that sits deaf, dumb, motionless, whilst we cling to its unconscious skirts. ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... should at least be hidden from her eyes. To speak plainly, it was growing a serious question whether, if he were not hidden from her eyes, she would not soon be plunging across the ragged boundary which divides the permissible ...
— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy

... really great actor. There is an obscure law in this matter which it would be interesting to trace, but for the present I must leave the inquiry with the reader. I can note merely that it seems somehow more permissible for women in imaginary actions to figure as men than for men to figure as women. In the theatre we have conjectured how and why this may be, but the privilege, for less obvious reasons, seems yet more liberally granted in fiction. A woman ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... exactness each and every ecclesiastical division, but, since the Royal Domain and the immediately adjacent territory includes the major portion of what are commonly accepted as the Grand Cathedrals, it has been thought permissible, in the present case, to make a further subdivision which shall include Boulogne and St. Omer, north of Paris; eastward to the Rhine and southward to include Dijon and Besancon. A topographer might not make such a division or arrangement of territory; ...
— The Cathedrals of Northern France • Francis Miltoun

... Mr. Gallilee proceeded, speaking in the oddest self-contradictory voice, if such a description is permissible—a voice at once high in pitch and mild in tone: in short, as Mr. Le Frank once professionally remarked, a soft falsetto. When the good gentleman paused to make his little effort of memory, his eldest daughter—aged twelve, ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins

... of those illiterate institutions called theatres it is not permissible for several characters to narrate events in which there is a sequel, by means of dialogue, in a music-hall. If this vexatious restriction were removed it is possible, if it is not certain, that while some halls remained faithful to comic songs and jugglers others would gradually ...
— Confessions of a Young Man • George Moore

... interpreter, to see that their salaries be paid, and that they be trustworthy men and competent to fill those offices. You will always take special care to see that the Indians be relieved from burdens, and protected and favored in all permissible ways, and that their affairs be promptly settled, endeavoring to avoid lawsuits whenever possible. At Zamora, on the sixteenth day of February in the year one thousand six hundred ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume XI, 1599-1602 • Various

... tank valves, as well as all other parts with which the oxygen comes in contact, it is not permissible to use any form of oil or grease because of danger of ignition and explosion. The mechanism of a regulator is too delicate to be handled in the ordinary shop and should any trouble or leakage develop in this ...
— Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting • Harold P. Manly

... destroyed. He had come to a decision at last. It was an imperative necessity. His hesitancy had been only the foolish scruples of an over sensitive conscience. The tremendous pressure of the age made things permissible. He was "torn by the tooth of circumstance" and "necessity knows no law." So he entrenched himself behind a breastwork of sophisms. Long familiarity with the suggestions of evil had bred ...
— A Beautiful Possibility • Edith Ferguson Black

... physical fear becomes tragic, and cowardice itself no ludicrous infirmity but rather a terrible passion; I cannot but finally take heart to say, even in the absence of all external or traditional testimony, that it seems to me not pardonable merely nor permissible, but simply logical and reasonable, to set down this poem, a young man's work on the face of it, as the possible work of no man's youthful hand ...
— A Study of Shakespeare • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... with motor power, and the poor sewing girls had to drive the wheels by foot, from early morning till late at night. A terribly exhausting toil it was, without a ray of light, the drudgery of the long day passed in complete silence—the Russian custom of friendly conversation at work was not permissible in the free country. But the exploitation of the girls was not only economic; the poor wage workers were looked upon by their foremen and bosses as sexual commodities. If a girl resented the advances of her "superiors", she would speedily find herself ...
— Anarchism and Other Essays • Emma Goldman

... no mean undertaking to make fundamental alterations in a great artery like the Suez Canal. No diminution in the traffic was permissible, since not only ourselves but the larger needs of the troops in France had to be considered. Supplies were being brought from Australia and India in large quantities, and most of the vessels had to pass through the Canal. Thus the alterations had to be carried out while, as it were, the day's ...
— With Our Army in Palestine • Antony Bluett

... luxury of a lover. The second son Daniel joined the party with his wife, but he had married too late to have grown-up children. His wife was strict too,—but of a medium strictness. Teas, concerts, and occasional dinner parties were with her permissible;—as were also ribbons and a certain amount of costly array. Mrs. Nicholas was in the habit of telling Mrs. Daniel that you cannot touch pitch and not be defiled,—generally intending to imply that Mrs. Robert was the pitch; and would harp on the impossibility ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope

... already drawing a salary of two hundred and fifty pounds a year when he was twenty-one. Many young men would have rested satisfied with so rapid an advancement, and would have devoted themselves to the amusements that are now considered so permissible to youth, but young Harman was made of sterner stuff, and it only spurred him to further efforts. He contrived to save a considerable proportion of his salary for some years, and at the age of twenty-seven he started, in association with a firm of flour millers, the International ...
— The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

... theirs. It was not the seat of a man accustomed to "go across the country" and ride to hounds; and still less was it the seat of a cavalry-man, the result of teaching in a military riding-school. It was more like the seat (if the expression be permissible) of a centaur. The rider and his steed seemed to be one organization and governed by one and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 90, June, 1875 • Various

... of the Latin "videre licet" meaning "it is permissible to see," The -z- is not a letter, but originally a twirl, representing the symbol for the ending -et. ...
— Surgical Anatomy • Joseph Maclise

... ventured upon, it was that their elbows were slightly drawn inwards and before them, leaving their hands gracefully advanced in the line of their figures, an attitude accepted throughout the civilized world of deportment as indicating fastidious refinement not unmingled with permissible hauteur. ...
— A Ward of the Golden Gate • Bret Harte

... pain, that we must not do anything timidly, or dastardly, or basely, or slavishly, or effeminately, and above all things we must dismiss and avoid that Philoctetean sort of outcry. A man is allowed sometimes to groan, but yet seldom; but it is not permissible even in a woman to howl; for such a noise as this is forbidden, by the twelve tables, to be used even at funerals. Nor does a wise or brave man ever groan, unless when he exerts himself to give his resolution greater force, as they who run ...
— The Academic Questions • M. T. Cicero

... compressing the cerebral ganglia, by munching the neck. The inertia is temporary; it wears off sooner or later; but by this time the carcase is in the cell and the egg, prudently laid at a distance on the ventral surface of the worm, has nothing to fear from the caterpillar's grapnels. No comparison is permissible between the methodical squeezes of the Ammophila benumbing the cephalic nerve-centres and the brutal manipulations of the Philanthus emptying the crop of her Bee. The huntress of Grey Worms induces a temporary torpor of the mandibles; the ravisher of ...
— More Hunting Wasps • J. Henri Fabre

... my union with her were permissible! and yet I hardly dare hope that the maiden is sprung from a caste different from that of the Head of the hermitage. But away with doubt:— That she is free to wed a warrior-king My heart attests. For, in conflicting doubts, The secret promptings of the good man's soul Are an ...
— Hindu Literature • Epiphanius Wilson

... be specially included. Lord Westport, young as he was, had become tolerably indifferent about such things; but to me such a scene was a novelty; and, on that account, it was settled we should go as early as was permissible. We did go; and I was not sorry to have had the gratification of witnessing (if it were but for once or twice) the splendors of a royal party. But, after the first edge of expectation was taken off,—after the vague uncertainties of rustic ignorance had given place to ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey

... their Courses in Mr. FISHER UNWIN'S "First Novel Library." A Pawn in Pawn comes very properly from the same publisher. It has one of those plots which it is most particularly a reviewer's business, in the reader's own interest, not to reveal, but it is permissible to explain that the "pawn" of the title is a little girl adopted from an orphanage, where, as someone says, "the orphans aren't really orphans," by Julian Tarrant, whom a select circle acknowledged as the greatest poet that the last years of the nineteenth ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, April 28, 1920 • Various

... tea—very weak—but there should be no sugar in the tea, nor should there be any cream in it. You may have a slice of lemon in your tea. Lemon juice can be squeezed on the lettuce instead of using sugar or rich dressing. Vinegar on the lettuce or spinach, and plenty of it, is permissible. ...
— The Art of Stage Dancing - The Story of a Beautiful and Profitable Profession • Ned Wayburn

... Torello, and if the Christian kings are as kingly as he is knightly, there is none of them whose onset the Soldan of Babylon might well abide, to say nought of so many as we see making ready to fall upon him." However, knowing that 'twas not permissible to refuse, he very courteously thanked Messer Torello: and so they got them to horse. Messer Torello with a numerous company escorted them far beyond the gate of the city, until, loath though Saladin was to part from him, so greatly did he now affect him, yet as ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio

... if there were room for the notion that comets and their tails, which have to be brandished in such a stupendous fashion, were sky-spectres, immaterial phantoms, unreal visions of that negative shadow-kind which has been alluded to. This, however, unfortunately, is not a permissible alternative in the circumstances of the case. The great underlying and indispensable fact that the comet comes rushing up toward the sun out of space, and then shoots round that great center of attraction by the force of its own acquired and ever-increasing impetuosity; the fact ...
— Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel • Ignatius Donnelly

... in which meetings are conducted in Japan it was permissible for us to leave after another speech had been made. The proceedings were interrupted while the promoters of the gathering showed us a collection of books and memorials of Hearn, arranged under a large portrait, and accompanied us to the ...
— The Foundations of Japan • J.W. Robertson Scott

... to revive Greek architecture, nor should we attempt to do so. There was once a well-known Scotch architect who held that the column and the lintel was the only permissible form of construction, and with this limitation and ill-selected Greek details he produced some fantastically ugly buildings. Following a similar line of thought a famous critic of the last century condemned methods of construction not sanctioned by the Old Testament. ...
— The Legacy of Greece • Various

... the market-place of every town and village of the Netherlands, the inquisition was again formally proclaimed. Every doubt which had hitherto existed as to the intention of the government was swept away. No argument was thenceforward to be permissible as to the constitutionality of the edicts as to the compatibility of their provisions with the privileges of the land. The cry of a people in its agony ascended to Heaven. The decree was answered with a howl of execration. The flames of popular frenzy arose lurid and threatening above the house-tops ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... sport. On his last recorded visit to Wales, a broken man, hunted like a criminal by the king, and deserted by the ingrate canons of St. David's, he retired for a brief respite from strife to the sweet peace of Manorbier. It is not known where he died, but it is permissible to hope that he breathed his last in the old home which he never forgot or ceased ...
— The Itinerary of Archibishop Baldwin through Wales • Giraldus Cambrensis

... when you instituted that movement, for I was tired of the fact and worry of debt, but I recognized that it is not permissible for a man whose case is not hopeless to shift his burden to other ...
— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb

... a bright side to it this time. It would be kind of Cynthia to sit up for Mary, and minister to her a cup of tea which Jeanne should prepare; and it would be pleasant—and quite permissible—for Captain Alec to bear her company. Mary could not be long, surely; it ...
— The Secret of the Tower • Hope, Anthony

... was not the slightest trace of anything resembling resentment in the daughter's heart that a strange woman had taken the first place with her father; she would not have understood if anyone had suggested to her that it might be permissible under the circumstances. There was only a very deep gratitude that flooded her whole being. She realised quite plainly from the Letter that it was owing a great deal to the "New Wife" that her dream ...
— The Heart of Arethusa • Francis Barton Fox

... include transportation costs on either side. If transportation costs be not included in the foreign costs of production shown by this investigation, the rate indicated by the cost data would be 105 per cent on foreign valuation. This rate being in excess of the maximum permissible under subdivision (a) of section 315, resort must be had under subdivision (b) of section 315 to the American selling price basis of valuation in order to equalize the differences in production costs. For hats whose foreign valuation ...
— Men's Sewed Straw Hats - Report of the United Stated Tariff Commission to the - President of the United States (1926) • United States Tariff Commission

... It is perhaps permissible to weary a little of his i's and o's, but we believe we cannot be corrected when we say that Browning is a poet whose grammar will bear scholastic investigation better than that of ...
— Obiter Dicta • Augustine Birrell

... feel almost inclined to offer you the proverbial penny," said Miss Kitwater's voice behind me, at the drawing-room door. "Is it permissible to ask what you ...
— My Strangest Case • Guy Boothby

... unprecedented thing. Never before, outside the valleys of the three great Chinese rivers, has any city—with the exception of Rome and perhaps (but very doubtfully) of Babylon—certainly had more than a million inhabitants, and it is at least permissible to doubt whether the population of Rome, in spite of its exacting a tribute of sea-borne food from the whole of the Mediterranean basin, exceeded a million for any great length of time.[13] But there are now ten town aggregates having a population of over a million, nearly twenty that bid fair ...
— Anticipations - Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon - Human life and Thought • Herbert George Wells

... thinks that it is permissible to employ the white flag to send pernicious and misleading proclamations within our lines, whereas General W. Kitchener warns us not to employ the white flag when we are compelled to complain concerning the British ...
— My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War • Ben Viljoen

... did not remain long enough in the Black Hill country to witness Sally's failure as the wife of a pioneer. The restlessness of the "settler," if the paradox be permissible, was in the marrow of their bones. The makeshifts of the wagon, the adventures of the road, were the only home they craved. The spring after Sally's marriage they set forth for California, the year following for New Mexico, and ...
— Judith Of The Plains • Marie Manning

... necessity to attempt the assuaging of the smart of it called upon her with more urgent voice. Yet she recognised that such attempt taxed all her circumspection, all her imaginative sympathy and tact. Very free criticism of the master of the house, of his sins of omission and commission alike, were permissible in the Chapel-Room and in the presence of her late companions. The subject, unhappily, had called for too frequent mention, by now, for any circumlocution to be incumbent in the discussion of it. But ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet

... as it were, bowing apologetically in the direction of Kantagryuhin's voice, he said respectfully: 'I obey, sir, I obey; I beg your pardon.... It's permissible for him to sleep; he ought to sleep,' he went on again in a whisper: 'he must recruit his energies—well, if only to eat his dinner with the same relish to-morrow. We have no right to disturb him. Besides, I think ...
— A Sportsman's Sketches - Volume II • Ivan Turgenev

... that the scalp-trophy is so highly prized: it is a proof that he who has taken it must have fought to obtain it. When "hair is raised" in a night attack—by the chance of an arrow or a bullet—it is less esteemed. By the laws of Indian warfare the stratagem of assassination is permissible, and practised without stint. But a coup of this kind is far less glorious, than to slay an enemy, in the open field, and under the broad glare of the sunlight. In conflicts by day, strategy is of slight advantage, and ...
— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... Now that he had just been with her in proper person, an instinct of scared modesty fled from the question whether or no he were a man whom a Christian woman might marry. What was it to her? Lois said to herself; what did it concern her, whether such a marriage were permissible or no? Such a question would never come to her for decision. To Madge, perhaps? But now the other question did ask for consideration;—Why she winced at the idea that it might come to Madge? Madge ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner

... practice as to the degree of error permissible, but if there are any appreciable differences the ...
— The Aeroplane Speaks - Fifth Edition • H. Barber

... only, but no longer in fact. On the other hand, according to the American Indian system of consanguinity, a brother and sister can never be the father and mother of the same child—a thing, however, permissible in the Hawaiian family system. Probably the consanguine family was the state that, at the time of Herodotus, existed among the Massagetae, on the subject of which he reports: "Each man received a wife, but all were allowed to use her." And he continues: "At any time a man ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel

... great deal of poisonous matter has unavoidably come to the surface in English fiction. The writers who have prostituted their talents in pandering to the low tastes of their readers, have carefully avoided any such open representation of vice as was permissible in the last century. But they have hidden under an outward respectability of words the most immoral and degrading thoughts. They have recognized the fact that a not inconsiderable number of persons would be be glad to find in a work of fiction the same gross ...
— A History of English Prose Fiction • Bayard Tuckerman

... his own rooted contempt of such ideals. Nothing could have been more inconsistent than the old agitator's behaviour in attempting to discharge this practical duty. That he meant well was all one could say of him; for it was not permissible to suppose Jerome Otway defective in intelligence. Perhaps the outcome of solicitude in the case of his two elder sons had so far discouraged him, that, on the first symptoms of instability, he ceased to regard Piers ...
— The Crown of Life • George Gissing

... an illustrated American ichthyology is admirable. But for that we ought to have with us an artist clever enough to paint fishes rapidly from the life. Work but half done is no longer permissible in our days. . .In this matter I think there is a justice due to Rafinesque. However poor his descriptions, he nevertheless first recognized the necessity of multiplying genera in ichthyology, and that at a time ...
— Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence • Louis Agassiz

... the limb of a young subject, it is justifiable to run risks which would not be permissible in the case of an older person. To save an upper limb, also, risks may be run which would not be justifiable in the case of a lower limb, because, while a serviceable artificial leg can readily be procured, any portion of the natural hand or ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles

... Hotel.—If a man calls on a lady at a hotel he sends up his card and waits in a reception room. It is not permissible to write on his card the name of the member of the family whom he wishes to see. That is to be the subject of ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... Shakspere, who had not been academically schooled; who audaciously overthrew the customs of the antique drama; who made his own rules, or rather, who made himself a rule to others; who created metrics that were peculiarly his; who chose themes hitherto considered non-permissible, and unusual with Greeks and Romans; who flung the 'three unities' to the winds; and who, nevertheless, ...
— Shakspere And Montaigne • Jacob Feis

... reasonable to turn for guidance and help to the East. There was living quite lately a human being of such consummate excellence that many think it is both permissible and inevitable even to identify him mystically with the invisible Godhead. Let us admit, such persons say, that Jesus was the very image of God. But he lived for his own age and his own people; the ...
— The Reconciliation of Races and Religions • Thomas Kelly Cheyne

... husband and wife were nevertheless valid under certain conditions. It was permissible to make a present of clothing and to bestow various tokens of affection, such as ornaments. The husband could present his wife with enough money to rebuild a house of hers which had burned.[75] The Emperor Marcus Aurelius permitted a wife to give her husband the sum necessary ...
— A Short History of Women's Rights • Eugene A. Hecker

... selected. Only the professed of the fourth vow, who add to the three vows a pledge of unconditional obedience to the pope, possess the full rights of membership. This final grade cannot be reached until the age of forty-five, so that if the candidate enters the order at the earliest age permissible, fourteen, he has been on probation thirty-one years when he reaches the ...
— A Short History of Monks and Monasteries • Alfred Wesley Wishart

... himself a prig that he could not sooner get over this habit of embarrassment, and every time Madam Villenauve insisted on calling him into her dressing-room when she was in much more of dishabille than he would have thought permissible in ordinary people, he felt that same painful ...
— The Making of Bobby Burnit - Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man • George Randolph Chester

... currency on the planet, now," he told Count Erskyll, while they were having a pre-dinner drink together that evening. "I hope it doesn't touch off an inflation, if the term is permissible when applied ...
— A Slave is a Slave • Henry Beam Piper

... students are working for one formal debate, and are not preparing for a series of class or local contests that can all be controlled by the same instructor or critic. With beginners in oral argumentation this method will usually make the better showing, and may therefore be considered permissible in the case of those teams which, because of unfamiliarity with their opponents' methods, can take no chances. This plan of preparation is in no way harmful or dishonest, but lacks some of the more permanent advantages ...
— Elements of Debating • Leverett S. Lyon

... repeat, the margin between mental restriction and falsehood is a safe, but narrow one, the least bungling may merge one into the other. It requires tact and judgment to know when it is permissible to have recourse to this artifice and how to practise it safely. It is not a thing to be trifled with. In only rare circumstances can it be employed, and only few persons have the ...
— Explanation of Catholic Morals - A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals • John H. Stapleton

... overshadowed garden the professor descended first, and came jauntily down the path in a lively cracking of small shells. With his closed parasol hooked on his forearm, and a book in his hand, he resembled a banal tourist more than was permissible to a man of his unique distinction. He waved the disengaged arm from a distance, but at close quarters, arrested before Renouard's immobility, he made no offer to shake hands. He seemed to appraise the aspect of the man with a sharp glance, ...
— Within the Tides • Joseph Conrad

... say frankly that the highest good of humanity required the dispossession of savages; and it is permissible to regret that the morals and humanity of the pioneers of civilization have not always been worthy ...
— The Story of Newfoundland • Frederick Edwin Smith, Earl of Birkenhead

... It would scarcely be permissible to express in words the obligation to our American Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, at Constantinople, without whose unremitting care and generous aid our work could not have been accomplished. And, indeed, so many were ...
— A Story of the Red Cross - Glimpses of Field Work • Clara Barton

... possesses one of the "surprise" features which are permissible only when they lose themselves in the greatness of the truth they present. In preparing for the talk, be sure that your guide lines are properly placed. You must be provided with a sharp penknife to use in cutting the "doors" in the picture. The dotted lines ...
— Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear - Or, Ten-Minute Talks with Colored Chalks • B.J. Griswold

... government were noted for their dislike for the service of the state, which led them to shirk it, regardless of the dignity and titles to be thus acquired. They were in the habit of retiring to their beloved country homes when they had attained the lowest permissible rung of that wonderful Jacob's ladder leading to the heaven of officialdom, established by Peter the Great, and dubbed the Table of Ranks. This grade was lieutenant in the army or navy, and the corresponding counselor in the civil ...
— Russian Rambles • Isabel F. Hapgood

... seemed to have adopted the theory of art of the witches in 'Macbeth'—Fair is foul and foul is fair",[9] i.e., they neglected a traditional beauty in favour of the characteristic. "They sought the true, the new, the picturesque perhaps more than the ideal; but this reaction was certainly permissible after so many ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century • Henry A. Beers

... or 30 imitations of Esperanto, namely, Ido, succeeded for a time in creating a diversion in the Esperanto camp. If Volapuek died of its defects, it is permissible to say that Ido never lived on account of its numerous authors' everlasting chase after theoretical perfection, each one having a different opinion—and changing the same with every wind—as to what constitutes perfection in every one of a thousand features of ...
— Esperanto: Hearings before the Committee on Education • Richard Bartholdt and A. Christen

... for me to be more demonstrative than usual toward the new-found Launa. Yet we were still too young and sensitive for indulgence in the physical tokens of affection. We often walked hand in hand, yet under cover of that which was a permissible and usual gallantry among all the children of the school, the secret attachment of any pair was pleasantly and sufficiently hidden even from themselves. Wondrous were the places we visited; places of historic or natural interest; ...
— Confessions of Boyhood • John Albee

... not so difficult as appears at first sight, for most of the words that look strange because of their spelling will reveal their meaning to the ear if spoken aloud. Thus the word "leefful" becomes "leveful" or "leaveful" or "permissible." ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long

... This obviously is not correct, because D being above C should be shaded lighter than C, and again the ports E 1 and K could not show dark through the port D. They might, of course, be shown by dotted outlines, but they would not appear to such advantage, and on this account it is permissible where artistic effect is sought, the object being to subserve the shading to making the mechanism and its ...
— Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught • Joshua Rose

... God were as the great are sometimes here on earth, it would not be fitting to utter all the truths concerning him. But God is not as a man, whose designs and actions often must be concealed; rather it is always permissible and reasonable to publish the counsels and the actions of God, because they are always glorious and worthy of praise. Thus it is always right to utter truths concerning the divinity; one need not anyhow refrain from fear of giving offence. And I have explained, so it seems to me, in a ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... and again clods of new-broken earth caused them to stumble as they hobbled loosely along. If the foot of either struck against the rail, its owner sprang aside, as though in fear, toward the middle of the track. Slowly and unevenly, with all the zigzags permissible within the confining inches of the irons, they came on up toward the squat little station-house. Thence they turned aside into the plantation path and, still stumbling and zigzagging, ambled up toward the house. They did not step ...
— The Law of the Land • Emerson Hough

... blustering into a sixth marriage, and haunted by the ghosts of four dead wives and the wraith of the sole survivor, is not a figure precisely calculated to inspire patriotic fervour. Still, the circumstances of the play are sufficiently national, and it should serve well enough as a permissible distraction for non-combatants. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 16, 1914 • Various

... of this letter "read like the tired moaning of a wounded creature." Guesses at the nature of the wound are permissible; we will hazard one. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... stood, and before the initiation began asked if she might make a request. Nyoda nodded and Gladys asked if it would be possible for her to change her Camp Fire name. "State your reason," said Nyoda. "If it is a plausible one the change is permissible." ...
— The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods - Or, The Winnebagos Go Camping • Hildegard G. Frey

... membranes removed, and the contraction of the womb sought by dashing cold water on the loins, the right flank, or the vulva. If the calf has escaped into the abdomen and can not be brought through the natural channels, it may be permissible to fix the animal and extract it through the side, as in the Caesarian section. If the laceration has happened during eversion of the womb it is usually less redoubtable, because the womb contracts more readily under the stimulus of ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... metres to any woman, is a deadly offence, and such breaches of etiquette are the cause of frequent feuds. Only once I was taken by one of my boys through the lanes of his village, and this was considered very daring, and the limit of permissible investigation. However, with the help of Mr. M., who was practically a "citizen" of one of the villages, I succeeded in taking some photographs of women; but only the oldest dowagers and some sick girls presented themselves, and among them I saw the most repulsive ...
— Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific • Felix Speiser

... prostituted to a low and degrading use; as "His face was like a danger signal in a fog storm." "Her hair was like a furze-bush in bloom." "He was to his lady love as a poodle to its mistress." Such burlesque is never permissible. Mere likeness, it should be remembered, does not constitute a simile. For instance there is no simile when one city is compared to another. In order that there may be a rhetorical simile, the objects compared must be of different classes. ...
— How to Speak and Write Correctly • Joseph Devlin

... now request the reader to take a leap with me—permissible enough to book writers, though scarcely possible to pedestrians. You are now in the straits of Tsugar, and near the scene of our former misadventure. Before you are the ships of the squadron drawn up in line for a ...
— In Eastern Seas - The Commission of H.M.S. 'Iron Duke,' flag-ship in China, 1878-83 • J. J. Smith

... with the crime of murder by the police captain in whose precinct the happening occurred, and, no bail being permissible in murder cases, he must, perforce, remain locked up until his indictment and trial. He was transferred from the witness room of police headquarters, the day of the funeral, to the less pleasant jail, and put in a cell, as were the other ...
— The Diamond Cross Mystery - Being a Somewhat Different Detective Story • Chester K. Steele

... ends. It is not to be supposed that we shall ever get beyond the need of constant and careful experiment. But, in proportion as we can cultivate the right frame of mind, as each member of society requires wider sympathies and a larger horizon, it is permissible to hope that the experiments may become more intelligent; that we shall not, as has so often been done, increase poverty by the very remedies which are intended to remove it, or diverge from the path of steady progressive development, into the chase of some wild ...
— Social Rights and Duties, Volume I (of 2) - Addresses to Ethical Societies • Sir Leslie Stephen

... His Gospel leaving them to themselves. 'Blessings brighten as they take their flight.' Severity sometimes effects what forbearance fails to achieve. If the train is on the point of starting, the hesitating passenger will swiftly make up his mind and rush for a seat. It is permissible to press for immediate decision on the ground that the time is short, and that soon these things 'will be hid ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts • Alexander Maclaren

... averted only by the intelligence and industry of those who cultivated the farm lands, and that they had it in their power to provide a perfectly practicable and adequate remedy. This was to be found—if such a condensation be permissible—in the application of the physical sciences to the practice, and of economic science to ...
— The Rural Life Problem of the United States - Notes of an Irish Observer • Horace Curzon Plunkett

... electro-magnetism. The questions in the examinations were put in Latin, and answered in Italian. Fleeming also attended an Art school in the city, and gained a silver medal for a drawing from one of Raphael's cartoons. His holidays were spent in sketching, and his evenings in learning to play the piano; or, when permissible, at the theatre or opera-house; for ever since hearing Rachel recite the Marseillaise at the Theatre Francaise, he had ...
— Heroes of the Telegraph • J. Munro

... dressing a tracheotomic wound. A broad quadruple, in-folded pad of gauze is cut to its centre so that it can be slipped astride of the tube of the cannula back of the shield. No strings, ravellings or strips of gauze are permissible because of the risk of their getting down ...
— Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy - A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery • Chevalier Jackson

... and all the honors, that same afternoon; and towards sunset, Hamm being the Night-quarter ahead, are crossing VELLINGHAUSEN BATTLE-GROUND,—where doubtless Ferdinand again, like a dutiful apprentice, will explain matters to his old master, so far as needful or permissible. The conversation, I suppose, may have been lively and miscellaneous: Ferdinand mentions a clever business-person of the name of Roden, whom he has known in these parts; "Roden?" the King carefully makes note;—and, ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... appointed Theatre-Poet here. By this means, to use his own words, the way was open to him gradually to pay-off a considerable portion of his debts, and so escape from the drowning whirlpool, and remain an honest man. Now, furthermore, he thought it permissible to show himself to his Family with a certain composure of attitude; and opened straightway a regular correspondence with his Parents again. And Captain Schiller volunteers a stiff-starched but true and earnest Letter ...
— The Life of Friedrich Schiller - Comprehending an Examination of His Works • Thomas Carlyle

... the prime requisite in scientific text-books. A false statement is not less false because it is plausible, nor an inconclusive experiment more satisfactory because it is diverting. In books of entertainment, such things may be permissible; but in a text-book, the first essentials are correctness and accuracy. It is believed that the Introduction will stand the closest expert scrutiny. Especial care has been taken to restrict the use of scientific terms, such as force, energy, ...
— Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany - For High Schools and Elementary College Courses • Douglas Houghton Campbell

... Obadiah's exhortation, "Ye people, rend your hearts," in Elijah, up to the end of the phrase "Return to God," all is purely lyric declamation. But at the words, "For He is slow to anger, and merciful," this should cease, and the succeeding phrases be given with all the graces that are permissible in cantabile singing; not in the hard, dry manner affected by some of the modern tenors ...
— Style in Singing • W. E. Haslam

... of the word, is a serious matter, and needs strong foundations. To say, therefore, in the admitted absence of evidence, that I have any belief as to the mode in which the existing forms of life have originated, would be using words in a wrong sense. But expectation is permissible where belief is not; and if it were given me to look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time to the still more remote period when the earth was passing through physical and chemical conditions, ...
— Discourses - Biological and Geological Essays • Thomas H. Huxley

... by the existence of the Flag, pronounced it heinous to introduce English excerpts into the liturgy; if, however, they were not read from the central platform, they were legitimate; harmoniums were permissible, but only during special services; and an organization of mixed voices was allowable, but not a mixed choir; children might be confirmed, but the word "confirmation" should be avoided. Poor Rabbinate! The politics of the little community were extremely ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... Julian College[10]; yes, and Sextus Clodius had trained him to conduct himself so, upon receipt of two thousand plethra of the land of Leontini[11]. But you were consul, respected sir (for I will address you as though you were present), and it was neither proper nor permissible for you as such to speak in such a way in the Forum, hard by the rostra, with all of us present, and to cause us both to behold your remarkable body, so corpulent and detestable, and to hear your accursed voice, choked with unguent, speaking ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. III • Cassius Dio

... be used. Distilled water is the best, but fresh clean rain water is permissible. Never under any circumstances use hydrant water, as it contains impurities which will injure the battery, probably put it out of commission before ...
— Electricity for the farm - Light, heat and power by inexpensive methods from the water - wheel or farm engine • Frederick Irving Anderson

... assume nothing not told us in Scripture: by the same method the Apostles, from what they saw and heard, and from what was revealed to them, were enabled to form and elicit many conclusions which they would have been able to teach to men had it been permissible. ...
— A Theologico-Political Treatise [Part III] • Benedict de Spinoza

... and again, under her breath. Still, she vaguely envied some of the family parties on the ship, who appeared happy and united. Not that she wanted them to talk to her. Witty, lively people could be very nice when you were in the mood for them, but agonizing when you were not; and since it wasn't permissible to cover human beings up like canaries when you had tired of them, or send them away like children when they had prattled enough, Angela cuddled down among her cushions and rugs, glad to be let alone for the first time in her life. But there was a young mother with a small imp of a curly-haired ...
— The Port of Adventure • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

... It is permissible to say that there is no such thing as punishment; there are only wrong results. It depends upon your way of putting it. The wrong method produces wrong results in proportion as it is wrong. Wrong results mean wrong conditions; and wrong conditions mean suffering. You may call ...
— The Conquest of Fear • Basil King

... information, thought it incumbent upon herself to pronounce the somewhat sweeping judgment that "there is much even on the surface to indicate vices which degrade and enslave the manhood of Japan." Such a statement is, of course, the merest clap-trap, but even were it true, it might be permissible to remark that if vice exists it is surely better for it to be on than beneath the surface. Such vice as does exist in Japan is, in my opinion, distinctly on the surface, and I have no hesitation in describing the morals of the ...
— The Empire of the East • H. B. Montgomery

... just as pale, of course, but they were brighter, and they radiated love for him, an expression in the female eye that he had thus far been singularly unfortunate in securing. She still held her mouth slightly open, but Cephas thought that it might be permissible, perhaps after three months of wedded bliss, to request her to be more careful in closing it. He believed, too, that she would make an effort to do so just to please him; whereas a man's life or property would not be safe ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin

... branch Church? It is a body of Christian Scientists, organized in the one and only permissible way—by a member, in good standing, of the Mother-Church, and who is also a pupil of one of Mrs. Eddy's accredited students. That is to say, one of her properties. No other can do it. There are other indispensable requisites; what ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... was now permissible for him to take his leave. Politeness required him to thank Mrs. Elliot for his tea, and to add, with a wave of his hand, "You must come ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf

... vigour, and such vigour as is not often to be met with. And, then, it is not the only kind to be found in his music. There is also a healthy vigour, which, for instance, in the A major Polonaise assumes a brilliantly-heroic form. Nor are serene and even joyous moods so rare that it would be permissible to ignore them. While thus controverting the so-called vox Dei (are not popular opinions generally popular prejudices?) and the pseudo-critics who create or follow it, I have no intention either to deny or conceal the Polish master's excess of languor and melancholy. I only wish to avoid ...
— Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician - Volume 1-2, Complete • Frederick Niecks

... the eighth. Manu, the son of the self-create, hath spoken of the appropriateness of all these forms according to their order. Know, O faultless one, that the first four of these are fit for Brahmanas, and the first six for Kshatriyas. As regards kings, even the Rakshasa form is permissible. The Asura form is permitted to Vaisyas and Sudras. Of the first five the three are proper, the other two being improper. The Paisacha and the Asura forms should never be practised. These are the institutes of religion, and one should act according to them. The Gandharva ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... is more or less frankly stated as a determination to wipe out as many of the enemy as possible without regard to what is or has been considered as permissible, it is quite within the realm of possibility that they would be prepared to let the Belgian people starve. In any event, you can't gamble with the lives of seven millions of people when all you have to go on ...
— A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium • Hugh Gibson

... me has been the task of going over them, but the surprise has equaled the sadness. I had forgotten what was in them. That they contained, in their first vividness, all the most prominent descriptions of his published book, I knew. But the reproduction of any part of these was not permissible here; and, believing that the substance of them had been thus almost wholly embodied in the American Notes, when they were lent to assist in its composition, I turned to them with very small expectation of finding anything available for ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster

... programme except that my name occurs too often in it. I am afraid of appearing obtrusive if several works of mine are produced at every Tonkunstler-Versammlung. Certainly the repetition of the 13th Psalm might be permissible and even advantageous to myself, as you kindly remark; also I should not care to raise any protest against the chorus "An die Kunstler," and simply because it has hitherto been more screamed at than heard, for it has been accounted one ...
— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: "From Rome to the End" • Franz Liszt; letters collected by La Mara and translated

... dispute. Has that process synthetic which is spoken of elsewhere been carried too far with her? Have doses of childlikeness, beauty, charm, ill-nature, sensual appetite, etc., been taken too "boldly" (in technical doctors' sense) and mixed too crudely to measure? A word or two may be permissible on this. ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... mercers and milliners imported good store of fine broadcloths, especially scarlet, crimson, and sky-blue, silks, satins, lawns, and velvets, gold brocade, and gold and silver lace, and silver tassels, and silver spangles, until Cornhill shone and sparkled with their merchandise. The gaudiest dress permissible by modern taste fades into a Quaker-like sobriety, compared with the deep, rich, glowing splendor of our ancestors. Such figures were almost too fine to go about town on foot; accordingly, carriages were ...
— Old News - (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... is permissible. (a) It has the sanction of the Bible. (1) Genesis ix, 2-6. (b) It has the sanction of history. (1) It has been in vogue since the beginning of the world. (c) It has the sanction of reason. (1) The most fitting punishment is one equal and ...
— Public Speaking • Clarence Stratton

... redoubtable corsair, and feeling perfectly certain that should the occasion arise he would be as good as his word, there was no more disaffection among the inhabitants, who had to put up with their native place being made a cockpit for Doria and Dragut to fight out their quarrel. It is permissible to sympathise very sincerely with these unfortunates, who, having been betrayed in the first instance, were compelled to stand ...
— Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean • E. Hamilton Currey

... immigrants of any people should be admitted as we can Americanize. Let the maximum permissible annual immigration from any people be a definite per cent. (say five) of the sum of the American-born children of that people plus those who have become naturalized of the same people. Let this restriction be imposed only ...
— Applied Eugenics • Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson

... militarism, most of them stupid enough to quote Nietzsche, may be pardoned for emphasising the political influence of Krupp; and since every great Power has a more or less efficiently organised Krupp of its own, it would be permissible to suggest that war would be already obsolete but for the intensive cultivation it receives for the benefit of Krupp, Creusot, Elswick and the rest. But it would be wrong; our syllogism would have a badly undistributed middle. It is true that Krupp in particular, who is the actual owner of ...
— The World in Chains - Some Aspects of War and Trade • John Mavrogordato

... It looks as if man had already acquired enough seamanship to ferry himself across the zoological divide, and to take his faithful dog with him on board his raft or dug-out. Until we have facts whereon to build, however, it would be as unpardonable to lay down the law on these matters as it is permissible to fill up ...
— Anthropology • Robert Marett

... steaming, cold and fresh—all this has been done. And it and its dishes, will go away again, tight-closed, leaving you to brush up the crumbs and fold the tablecloth. If you want your own elaborate sets of china enough to wash dishes, that is quite permissible, a butler's pantry will take care ...
— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

... this story was read and accepted, Del Delano was drawing his three-hundred dollars a week, which, divided by seven (Sunday acts not in costume being permissible), dispels the delusion entertained by most of us that we have seen better days. You can easily imagine the worshipful agitation of Eighth Avenue whenever Del Delano honored it with a visit after his terpsichorean act in a historically great and vilely ventilated Broadway theatre. If the West ...
— Rolling Stones • O. Henry

... pouring volleys into our advancing column. The ranks became confused, for in this wilderness we could not see twenty paces in front. Still we moved forward with such order as was under the conditions permissible. When near the turn-pike road General Kershaw gave the command to "charge." The Fifteenth raised the yell; then the Third dashed forward; the Seventh was somewhat late on account of the almost impassable ...
— History of Kershaw's Brigade • D. Augustus Dickert



Words linked to "Permissible" :   admissible, permit, tolerable



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