"Swab" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... a merry-looking fellow, with a brush and a pail of paste and a roll of papers over his arm, would swab up a casualty list of two or three thousand names, amid roars of ...
— Further Foolishness • Stephen Leacock
... thankful when I had a chance to wring the long knife out of the murderous stranger's hand, and I spoke out to the smooth-faced fellow. "You'll do, my boy, even if you don't know a yard from a main-brace bumpkin. Pass a line around his legs and stuff a swab into his mouth if ...
— Mr. Trunnell • T. Jenkins Hains
... finished eating. Do not commit the fallacy of sitting down for a little rest. Better finish the job completely while you are about it. You will appreciate leisure so much more later. In lack of a wash-rag you will find that a bunch of tall grass bent double makes an ideal swab. ...
— The Forest • Stewart Edward White
... laid out in gardens beds there was a range of low two story buildings. Some bleached sailors, in duck trowsers and blue jackets, were about; one was reading a song-book, another his Bible, and a third was busily making a marine swab out of ropes' ends. Among the convalescents, out on the balconies to catch a breath of the pure air, was a naval officer in a gilt cap, reading a novel; and all looked snug and encouraging. On entering, I asked ...
— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various
... use of the antitoxin at the proper stage of the disease, early recognition is important, and fortunately science here can be of great service. By wiping out the throat with a sterilized swab of cotton, the bacteria present in the throat, if any, will adhere and may be wiped off onto a gelatine substance in which the germs can grow. In twelve hours, they will have developed, if present, so that with a microscope they can be positively recognized. In Massachusetts, and particularly ...
— Rural Hygiene • Henry N. Ogden
... them on because we did not want to be impressed by the first ship that came in, but preferred to wait a bit till we saw one to suit us. I see, sir, that you have shipped a swab. That means, of course, that you have got a lieutenancy. I congratulate you indeed, sir, on ...
— By Conduct and Courage • G. A. Henty
... of domestic labor is so frequently done in a negligent manner, by domestics, as this. A full supply of conveniences will do much toward the remedy of this evil. A swab, made of strips of linen tied to a stick, is useful to wash nice dishes, especially small, deep articles. Two or three towels, and three dish-cloths should be used. Two large tin tubs, painted on the outside, should be provided; one for washing, and one for rinsing; ...
— The American Woman's Home • Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe
... restraint. "You found it. And yo're going back after more?" His forehead was still creased with puzzlement. "Wal, I'm going with ye, eyes or no eyes, an' I'll keep tabs on ye, Bill Simms, by day and night. You can lay to that, you slimy-hearted swab!" ...
— A Man to His Mate • J. Allan Dunn
... following injury or digestive troubles. Symptoms: Cheesy growths in mouth and throat. Treatment: Scrape off canker and swab with full strength Pratts Poultry Disinfectant. Improve general condition ...
— Pratt's Practical Pointers on the Care of Livestock and Poultry • Pratt Food Co.
... carrying a pail, and apparently varnishing the chairs with a little swab as he moved swiftly about the room; and, as he came nearer, Davy determined to ...
— Davy and The Goblin - What Followed Reading 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' • Charles E. Carryl
... made up his mind to attack again, instead of charging madly to swab his foe off the earth, he moved forward at a brisk stride, ready to check himself on the instant and block the enemy's side stroke. Within a couple of yards of his opponent he stopped short. The latter stood motionless, antlers ...
— The House in the Water - A Book of Animal Stories • Charles G. D. Roberts
... decked out with the remains of former spoil, exhibited "the forty thieves," or a comedy of judges, officers, and felons: mock charges were enforced by barristers, arrayed in blankets; the bench was filled with an actor decorated with a quilt, while a swab covered his head, and descended to his shoulders. In the female prison ships, dancing and concerts, at which the cabin passengers were spectators, whiled away the voyage. The gross immoralities of a former period had subsided when he wrote: he mentioned the ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West
... and the target shot straight up for fifty feet; the shell must have exploded directly under it. There was a sound of cheering from the intercom. Tom asked if I wanted to fire another clip. I told him I thought I had the hang of it now, and screwed a swab onto the ramrod and opened the breech ...
— Four-Day Planet • Henry Beam Piper
... as I beheld the scene, but I said nothing. I considered myself too fortunate to escape with life. When it was all over, the boatswain roared out, "That job's done! Now, Mr Barber, swab up all this here blood, and be d——d to you! and recollect that you are one of us." I obeyed in fear and silence, and then returned to my former station near ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat
... you won't call up any of the crew. You'll get a swab and do it yourself. You'll get a hand swab and get down on your knees, damn you! I'll teach you to ...
— The Mystery • Stewart Edward White and Samuel Hopkins Adams
... damage, but his indifference about ther injury he done ter us riled us all up. Seein' as he didn't care a blame, our skipper sent ther friggte aflyin' arter him. Waal, sir, ther cuss cracked on sail an' fled. Arter him we tacked, detarmined ter punish ther swab fer his imperdence. It wuz a long stern chase wot lasted ten hours. ...
— Jack Wright and His Electric Stage; - or, Leagued Against the James Boys • "Noname"
... nearer 'ome with me. I've often thought I'd like a talk with you, sir. But I'm keepin' you. [He prepares to swab the pane.] ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... stay. He said he was. Your pa got sore, and started real dignified to go home. The candle that Mr. McGowan had been using was on the floor, and your pa's heel hit it. His cane went up and he went down. His high hat took a swim in a bucket of soapy water that the parson had been using to swab decks with." ...
— Captain Pott's Minister • Francis L. Cooper
... lungs out of us! When we got aboard, their hold was full of dead men an' their scuppers washin' red. They asked no quarter an' on we went, up an' down decks, give an' take. At the last, six men o' them surrendered. The rest—eighty from the one ship—we fed to the sharks before we could swab decks next day. Eh, but that was a v'yage, an' it cost the seas more good buccaneers than ever was hanged. Harris an' Sawkins an' half o' their best men we left on the Isthmus. But out of one galleon we took fifty thousand pieces-of-eight, besides ...
— The Black Buccaneer • Stephen W. Meader
... continuously well up from smaller bronchi during cough. The aspirating bronchoscopes should be used whenever their very slight additional area of cross-section is unobjectionable. In most cases, however, the most advantageous way to remove bronchial secretion has been found to be by introducing a gauze swab on a long sponge carrier (Fig. 14), so that the sponge extends beyond the distal end of the bronchoscope, causing cough. Then withdrawal of the sponge carrier will remove all of the secretion in the tube just as the plunger in a pump will lift all of the water above it. By this maneuver ...
— Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy - A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery • Chevalier Jackson
... notice of the sale of "teeth brushes" till nearly Revolutionary times. Perhaps the colonists used, as in old England, little brushes made of "dentissick root" or mallow, chewed into a fibrous swab. ...
— Customs and Fashions in Old New England • Alice Morse Earle
... the other, scrawling his name on the note; "but if this swab ain't up to sample, he'll come back by freight, an' I'll drop in on mee dear friend Jim when we come back and give him a reel nice time, an' you can lay to that, Billy Trim." The brown sweater pocketed the note, went over the ...
— Moran of the Lady Letty • Frank Norris
... an interesting instance of foreign body in a man between forty-five and fifty. This man was afflicted with a syphilitic affection of the mouth, and he constructed a swab ten inches long with which to cleanse his fauces. While making the application alone one day, a spasmodic movement caused him to relinquish his grasp on the handle, and the swab disappeared. He was almost ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... distant seas— And humbly then I bowed my neck And sank forlornly to my knees To swab the blooming deck; A wealth of flaming pageantries, When, in a dusty Indian fort, I went to early morning jerks,[A] Cursing the sun and all his works And dripping perspiration ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, March 19, 1919 • Various
... man doing more than let the breath go in and out of his body, and so each one of us knew that something moved without, in the big cabin. In a little, something touched upon our door, and it was, as I have mentioned earlier, as though a great swab rubbed and scrubbed at the woodwork. At this, the men nearest unto the door came backwards in a surge, being put in sudden fear by reason of the Thing being so near; but the bo'sun held up a hand, bidding them, in a low voice, to make no unneedful noise. Yet, as though ...
— The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" • William Hope Hodgson
... due course was landed at Rosario with but small loss, the crew, except in one case, remaining sober enough to help navigate even the difficult Parana. But one old sinner, the case I speak of, an old Labrador fisherman, became a useless, drunken swab, in spite of all we could do. I say "we" for most of the crew were on my side, in favour of a fair deal and ...
— Voyage of the Liberdade • Captain Joshua Slocum
... A.M. his shells were gas which glazed the feed lamps and the sight of the lenses, as well as accumulating in the inside of the gun muzzle, making it necessary to swab out the muzzle of the gun before using, as otherwise it would rust badly, which would result in putting the gun out of commission in short order. The fire developed into a first-class artillery duel, ...
— S.O.S. Stand to! • Reginald Grant
... tipped up his kettle, and turned out some of the water; and the man, who had been watching his every movement, sprang toward him and threw down the swab, exclaiming, "I've caught you, my hearty; now you may log this bit of ...
— Frank on a Gun-Boat • Harry Castlemon
... clenched teeth. " Do you think I want to listen to your everlasting twaddle about her? Why, she's-she's no better than other people, you ignorant little mamma's boy. She's no better than other people, you swab! " ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane
... its full height. My windows were so hot that I could not bear my hand on them. I opened one and felt the woodwork, which was equally hot. I had buckets of water in the front and rear rooms, with an improvised swab, made by tying up a feather duster, ready to put out any small fire which would be within my reach. I watched the situation for an hour, and as the flames died down a little I had hope, and at 10 P. M. I felt satisfied ...
— San Francisco During the Eventful Days of April, 1906 • James B. Stetson
... by the use of a swab made by twisting a bit of absorbent cotton upon a wooden toothpick. With this the folds between the gums and lips and cheeks may be gently and carefully cleansed twice a day unless the mouth is sore. It is not necessary after every feeding. The finger of the nurse, often employed, ...
— The Care and Feeding of Children - A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses • L. Emmett Holt
... had joined the Triton, and as the captain knows and esteems you, he is sure to give you a lift whenever he can. We shall see some more service together, and I hope that you, at all events, will mount a swab on your shoulder before the ...
— Won from the Waves • W.H.G. Kingston
... married a young person in bed-furniture, with great rejoicings; the whole population of Portsmouth (nine in number at the last census) turning out on the beach to rub their own hands and shake everybody else's, and sing "Fill, fill!" A certain dark-complexioned Swab, however, who wouldn't fill, or do anything else that was proposed to him, and whose heart was openly stated (by the boatswain) to be as black as his figure-head, proposed to two other Swabs to get all mankind into difficulties; ...
— Great Expectations • Charles Dickens
... for running mines or herding cattle, Dan. And I'm leaving all the boys who know me for those who don't—and I don't git on with folks who don't know me. God knows what persuaded me to sell to that macaroni-eating swab. But it's done, and there ain't no manner ...
— Colorado Jim • George Goodchild
... if I had my scissors here till I'd clip your ears off—wouldn't I be the happy man, any how, you swab, ...
— The Ned M'Keown Stories - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton
... hydrochloric acid, 5 parts alcohol, and 50 parts lamp-black, these being all well mixed. To use this preparation successfully—the article to be blacked or bronzed being first made clean and free from grease—it is applied with a swab or brush, or, better still, the object may be dipped into it; the liquid is allowed to dry on the metal, and the latter is then placed in boiling water, the temperature being maintained for half an hour. If, after this, the colour is not so dark as is desired, ...
— Handbook on Japanning: 2nd Edition - For Ironware, Tinware, Wood, Etc. With Sections on Tinplating and - Galvanizing • William N. Brown
... blind. Cute old codger. No use canvassing him for an ad. Still he knows his own business best. There he is, sure enough, my bold Larry, leaning against the sugarbin in his shirtsleeves watching the aproned curate swab up with mop and bucket. Simon Dedalus takes him off to a tee with his eyes screwed up. Do you know what I'm going to tell you? What's that, Mr O'Rourke? Do you know what? The Russians, they'd only be an eight o'clock breakfast for ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... don't need to mind that. I have n't got anything you are used to. I just take them down to the stream and swab them off with a bunch of ...
— The Wrong Woman • Charles D. Stewart
... was. It was administered at midnight, and the weather was very frosty. My breast and back were bared, and a sheet (there appeared to be a thousand yards of it) soaked in ice-water, was wound around me until I resembled a swab for a Columbiad. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... is standing by grinning, with a bucket of water and a deck-swab; they want to begin holystoning down the decks. How sleepy I am! And as for you, the night steward, who is still on duty, lifts you in his arms and carries you into your bunk, where you'll find yourself when you ...
— Round the Wonderful World • G. E. Mitton
... answered Burke. "Some of these days I will drive up and look in on them. I expect they have got a fancy parlor, and I would like to sit in it a while and think of the days when I used to swab the deck. There's nothin' more elevatin', to my mind, than just that sort of thing. I do it sometime when I am eatin' my meals at the hotel, and the better I can bring to mind the bad coffee and hard tack, the better I like what's ...
— Mrs. Cliff's Yacht • Frank R. Stockton
... Master Blob!" muttered the Parson between clenched teeth. "I'll swab that boy's soul clean if I have to do it with a scrubbing-brush.... Now, Knapp, ready yourself, while I write ...
— The Gentleman - A Romance of the Sea • Alfred Ollivant
... jumping the gate as I went through it, "get busy with this situation. We've got almost a half-hour, so be doing something, everybody. Belle, you help Roxy skin that kid and get him into clean clothes while I swab up and light old Pomp's jimson-weed pipe for him?" And as Tony spoke he started to the ...
— Phyllis • Maria Thompson Daviess
... minutes, then pour out the solution, remove the hose and breech plug, and swab out thoroughly with soda solution to neutralize and remove all trace of ammonia and ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss
... Laura," he muttered at the end of a long hour of human passion and its repression. "If he's to go scot-free, then he's got to go; but the boys yonder'll drop on me, if he gets away. Can't you see what a swab ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... of its covering of clay. The awkward-looking hostler comes around several times and eyes the proceedings with glances of genuine disapproval, doubtless thinking I am cleaning it myself instead of letting him swab it with a besom with the single purpose in view of dodging the inevitable tip. The proprietor can speak a few words of English. He puts his bald head out of the window above, and asks: "Pe you Herr Shtevens ?" ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens
... get ropes, and tie 'em tight round their necks, and half hang 'em to make 'em float, and then haul 'em out. Awful lookin' critters they be, you may depend, when they do come out; for all the world like half-drowned kittens—all slinkey slimey, with their great long tails glued up like a swab of oakum dipped in tar. If they don't look foolish it's a pity! Well, they have to nurse these critters all winter, with hot mashes, warm covering, and what not, and when spring comes, they mostly die, and if they don't they are never no good arter. I wish with all my heart half the horses in the ...
— The Clockmaker • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... in operation a few days, a green coating will begin to form on the glass. This is a minute plant that is developed by the action of light. It can be removed by means of a swab. In all other parts of your aquarium allow it to grow, as it is the favorite food ...
— Harper's Young People, August 24, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... forth on the enterprise, cased in tight blue pantaloons that fitted him like his skin, over which were drawn long well-polished Hessian boots, each with a formidable tassel at top, and his coat was buttoned close up to the chin, with a blaz-, ing swab on the right shoulder, while a laced cocked hat and dress sword completed his equipment. But, alas! when we were accounted for on board of the old Torch, there was a fearful dilapidation of his external man. First of all, his inexpressibles were absolutely tom into shreds by the briers and prickly ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott
... who you mean. It was him—I am sure—and as sure as I sit here I'll be revenged. Bring a swab, corporal, and wipe up all this blood. Do you think the ...
— Snarleyyow • Captain Frederick Marryat
... going to break your heart for a dirty swab like that," he said, with more of insistence than interrogation in his voice. "Look you here, Columbine! You're too honest to care for a beast like that. Why—though I pulled him out of the quicksand and saved him from the sea—I'd have wrung his neck if he'd stayed another ...
— The Tidal Wave and Other Stories • Ethel May Dell
... swab up that part of the carpet when you came in," said Zack, apologetically, as he led Mr. Blyth ...
— Hide and Seek • Wilkie Collins
... poor old pet did it deliberately when stooping to pick up something else; and all to get it stolen and delay their trip to Carlsbad, where her swab of a husband makes her do the ...
— Mr. Justice Raffles • E. W. Hornung
... serve him out for that, the swab; he does not play any of those tricks when we are alone. I must admit, however, that I am generally in the habit of ...
— Willis the Pilot • Paul Adrien
... shall see if there is any truth in what that swab of a doctor said. Come, my boy, and clap on all sail, and see ...
— Beyond the City • Arthur Conan Doyle
... neither shirt nor underclothing. When the 'longshoremen called for drink he laughed with a kind of happy shiver, as though rubbing his body round the inside of his clothes, cast a quick glance at us in our dim corner, and declared for rum, adding that the Mayor of Falmouth was a well-meaning old swab, but his liquor wouldn't warm the vitals ...
— Poison Island • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)
... sufficiently exciting. They seized on me again, and led me to the tanks, where they almost flayed me with horse-hair gloves, and drowned me with bowls of warm water, poured continuously on my head. I could not see, and if I again tried to cry out, they thrust a large soapy swab, made of the fibres that grow at the foot of the date palm, into my mouth, accompanying each renewed act of cruelty with a demand for baksheesh. At last, being fairly exhausted, themselves, they swathed me in a great many towels; and I was then half carried, half pushed, ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850. • Various
... mentioned it to Dr. Foltz, the surgeon who attended the house. The doctor took a look at my arm, and recommended an operation, as the lump would continue to increase, and was already so large as to be inconvenient. I cannot say that it hurt me any, though it was an awkward sort of swab to be carrying on a fellow's shoulder. I had no great relish for being carved, and think I should have refused to submit to the operation, were it not for James, who told me he would not be carrying ...
— Ned Myers • James Fenimore Cooper
... champagne, shut the door and struck a light. Then he opened the bottle of fizz and poured it out into a deep, enamelled starching-dish, and Billy MacLaggan drank thereof, and then raised his head, with his immoral-looking beard hanging in a sodden point like a wet deck-swab, and asked for more. That is, he asked as well as any Christian and civilised goat could ask, by standing up on his hind legs like a circus-horse and making strange, unearthly noises. Then he rammed his wicked old nose into the dish again, and pushed it all round the room, trying ...
— By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories • Louis Becke
... Jim came into the men's camp bearing a huge chunk of tallow. This he held against the hot stove until its surface had softened, when he began to swab liberal quantities of grease on his spiked river shoes, which he fished out from ...
— The Blazed Trail • Stewart Edward White
... tried again, and made us stand all in a row. Some of the crew told their comrades that when the captain sung out "halt," he meant "avast," and that then they should all stop. When we were all in order again, the scarlet-coated young gentleman, with a golden swab on his left shoulder, gave a second time the word of command, "march;" by which word we all understood he meant, "to heave a head," when we got into the like confusion again, when he cried out in a swearing passion, "halt," on which some stopped short, and some walked on, when ...
— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse
... "You lubberly swab!" the one-eyed man said thickly, and with it spat out a vile epithet that instantly raised a flame of ...
— Doubloons—and the Girl • John Maxwell Forbes
... the many household slaves, white-headed and shrunken, and bent with the toil of years, squatted by the fire in the court of the slaves' quarters, cleaning a copper pot with a swab of twigs soaked in oil to pliancy. Within the house a feast was in progress, so that all the slaves were there on service, and Marcus had the fire to himself. He crooned softly as he scrubbed; and the flames struck gleams of light ...
— Nicanor - Teller of Tales - A Story of Roman Britain • C. Bryson Taylor
... industrious youth. The next second he caught sight of Audrey, and transformed himself instantaneously into what she had hitherto imagined a chauffeur always was; but in those few moments she had learnt that the essence of a chauffeur is godlike, and that he toils not, neither does he swab. ...
— The Lion's Share • E. Arnold Bennett
... worry her. Captain Helfrich had hitherto taken no notice whatever of me, and he seemed to me so awful a person, that I never expected to be spoken to by him. Now and then the mates ordered me to do some little job or other, to fetch a swab or a marlinespike, or to hold a paint-pot, but they in no other way ...
— Old Jack • W.H.G. Kingston
... show Doctor Price your arms and legs," I said contemptuously and spitefully; for, to use a common phrase, my monkey was up. "Fight? With fists? Where are your muscles? Why, I could upset you both with a swab." ...
— Blue Jackets - The Log of the Teaser • George Manville Fenn
... you vas, you seven-foot stock-fish,' cried my enemy the cooper, whose aspect was not improved by a great strip of plaster over his eye. 'You might have learned something petter than to pull on a rope, or to swab decks like a ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle
... "Swab," said Raft, two tones deeper. Then he laughed as if to himself. "Well, that's a go," said he. He took a pull at his beard as he contemplated this slayer of men seated on her blankets at his feet. She glanced up and saw that he was laughing ...
— The Beach of Dreams • H. De Vere Stacpoole
... holding the pistol in his hand he gave me several more cuts, and then told me to swab the deck. I did it, pretending all the time I was scarce strong enough to keep my feet. Then I made my way forward and sat down against the bulwark, as if nigh done up, till night came. That night as I lay in my bunk I heard the men talking in whispers ...
— By Sheer Pluck - A Tale of the Ashanti War • G. A. Henty
... In a second Gordon and Lovelace were on him. They did not care in the very least what happened to Davenham. He played no part in their life. But a School House man had been "cheeked" by a filthy little outhouse swab. These aliens had to be ...
— The Loom of Youth • Alec Waugh
... the custody of a little man, with big, staring eyes, and a magnified head of hair that made him look like a gun-swab. This was ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume VIII, No 25: May 21, 1887 • Various
... benefit. Gargling the throat or spraying the nose and throat is cleansing and helpful; but in children it is sometimes hard to do this, for they may struggle and thus injure and weaken themselves more than they can be benefited by the spraying or gargling. Swab the throat if you can with solution of corrosive sublimate, 1 to 1000. Peroxide of hydrogen, one-sixth to one- half to full strength, is good in many cases, used as a gargle and a swab. Wash out the nose with a normal salt solution. One dram to a pint of water. ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter
... Hallett. "You're a slick article, ain't you, Raish? Why, you wooden-headed swab, did you cal'late you was the only one that had heard about the directors' meetin' over to the Denboro Trust Company yesterday? I knew the Trust Company folks had decided not to go ahead with the fish storage business just as well as you did, and I heard it just as soon, ...
— Galusha the Magnificent • Joseph C. Lincoln
... all how my rheumaticks has been talkin' up lately. I don't seem to have no ginger nor spirit left in me. I reckon I got away from the sea jest in time. I wouldn't even dare to order a nigger to swab decks, ...
— The Skipper and the Skipped - Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul • Holman Day
... the normal, well eye has been already described, and while it need not be reiterated, we may say, in passing, that if the eyelid be at all inclined to be sticky or adherent, never use force, but instead, gently swab with boracic acid. As a preventive of this condition, a little vaseline from the tube may be rubbed on the edges of the lids ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler
... HER. But I held her with one hand, she feeling dead and cold, like a wet deck-swab; then the old cook-woman undid my flash man's long hair, and, twining her skinny old claws in it, pulled it taut, while I sawed at the chap's neck with my right hand. The knife was heavy and sharp, and I soon got the job through. Then I gave the ...
— By Reef and Palm • Louis Becke
... Hitches his breeches and shifts his quid "Hey? What is it? Who 's come to grief Louder, young swab, ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... of being chambermaid to a cow, but it's worse being groom to a gun. These rifles have been in use all summer, and they're all et up inside. They're like fat men, they sweat. Then they rust. Put in some dope and swab the barrel, then take twenty-five dinky little squares of cotton flannel and run them through, and the last will be just as dirty as the first. Let it go at that, and put in ...
— At Plattsburg • Allen French
... horse back to the circus," thus causing him, the chaplain, to be scandalized. He said he would have stood that, but the horse carried him to a battery of artillery which was in position, and began to jump over the guns, and that a gunner took a swab with which he had been cleaning a gun, and punched him, the chaplain, in the face, covering his face with burnt ...
— How Private George W. Peck Put Down The Rebellion - or, The Funny Experiences of a Raw Recruit - 1887 • George W. Peck
... which renders dry] desiccative, dessicator. [device to render dry] dessicator; hair drier, clothes drier, gas drier, electric drier; vacuum oven, drying oven, kiln; lyophilizer. clothesline. V. be dry &c. adj.. [transitive] render dry &c. adj.; dry; dry up, soak up; sponge, swab, wipe; drain. desiccate, dehydrate, exsiccate[obs3]; parch. kiln dry; vacuum dry, blow dry, oven dry; hang out to dry. mummify. be fine, hold up. Adj. dry, anhydrous, arid; adust[obs3], arescent|; dried &c. v.; undamped; juiceless[obs3], sapless; sear; husky; rainless, without ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... family, the {PDP-10}, the Motorola microprocessor families, and most of the various RISC designs current in late 1995, are big-endian. Big-endian byte order is also sometimes called 'network order'. See {little-endian}, {middle-endian}, {NUXI problem}, {swab}. 2. An {{Internet address}} the wrong way round. Most of the world follows the Internet standard and writes email addresses starting with the name of the computer and ending up with the name of the country. In ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0
... know of lands like that?—and I lived on rum, I tell you. It's been meat and drink, and man and wife, to me; and if I'm not to have my rum now I'm a poor old hulk on a lee-shore, my blood'll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab;" and he ran on again for a while with curses. "Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges," he continued, in the pleading tone. "I can't keep 'em still, not I. I haven't had a drop this blessed day. That doctor's a fool, I tell you. If I don't ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 6 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... tents are observed in the orchard they should be destroyed, which may be readily and effectually done by climbing the trees, and with the hand protected by a mitten or glove, seize the tent and crush it with its entire contents; also swab them down with strong soapsuds or other substances; or tear them down with ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 803, May 23, 1891 • Various
... on Lead, tin, and brass Tallow Melted Lead and brass Muriatic acid (reduced) With swab Copper, galvanized iron and brass Muriatic acid (raw) ...
— Elements of Plumbing • Samuel Dibble
... swab," cried the commodore, "nearer by twelve fathom: but, howsomever, that's enough to prove the falsehood of Hatchway's jaw—and so, brother, d'ye see," turning to Pickle, "I lay alongside of the Flour de Louse, yard-arm and yard-arm, plying out great guns and small arms, and heaving ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett
... boy for indoor work is the "house-coolie," whose business it is to swab floors, polish grates, light fires, trim lamps, clean knives and boots and make himself generally useful about the house. Oftentimes he is unable to speak any English, wears a short coat in contradistinction to the boy's long one, and while ranking below the boy is considerably above the other coolies ...
— Life and sport in China - Second Edition • Oliver G. Ready
... primed, but | provided for gun-decks only; none |In the fire-buckets. The candle in for spar-decks | supply box. | Battle-axes (as prescribed according | to the number of men at gun).— | See Art. 101 |Inside of the brackets. | One hand-swab |On the breast-piece of the | carriage. | One deck-bucket and large swab |To be kept in the hold until wanted. | Two chocking-quoins for |When not in use, between the truck-carriages | brackets and the bed. | Two lanyards for each half port |In place. | Lanyards, chain pendents, runners ...
— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN
... up, and yet it looked like sheer Waste to lavish so much Collateral on the upkeep of a Physical Swab. ...
— Ade's Fables • George Ade
... know how to handle a weapon," she said oracularly, and, sitting down on the edge of the coal-bin, proceeded to swab out the gun with a wad of cotton on the end ...
— More Tish • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... the ease with which proper drainage may be effected. No special after-care is necessary if drainage is perfect, except that one should avoid injecting the wound cavity with aqueous solutions unless it be absolutely necessary to cleanse such cavity, and then it is best to swab the wound rather ...
— Lameness of the Horse - Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 • John Victor Lacroix
... manner, down the steep declivities of the hills. In the city, burthens are drawn by oxen, on little drags, which glide easily over the smooth, round pavements. The driver carries in his hand a long mop without a handle, or what a sailor would term a "wet swab." If any difficulty occur in drawing the load, this moist mop is thrown before the drag, which readily glides ...
— Journal of an African Cruiser • Horatio Bridge
... Knitting Swede, that prince of crimps, who put most of us into the ship. There was myself, with my childish vanity, and petty ambitions. There was the lady, the beautiful, despairing lady aft, wife of the infamous brute who ruled us. There was Cockney, the gutless swab, whose lying words nearly had Newman's life. And last, and chiefly, there was the man with the scar, he who called himself 'Newman,' man of mystery, who came like the fabled knight, killed the beast who held ...
— The Blood Ship • Norman Springer
... deserved it." "I do not understand what you say," was the reply. "You be d——d," said our man of war, and we turned off on our heel. The same evening a court of inquiry was held by the mids, who were unanimous in declaring that the captain of the line of battle ship ought to be superseded and made swab-wringer, and that their own captain had acted with that spirit which became a British commander of a man-of-war, and that he deserved to have his health drunk in a bumper of grog, which was accordingly done. Here the court broke up, hoping the mate of the hold would bring with him, after ...
— A Sailor of King George • Frederick Hoffman
... Common language may do for keepin' store, but it don't get a vessel nowheres; the salt sort of takes the tang out of it, seems so. I'm through for the present, Zoeth. I'll keep the rest till I meet the swab that loaded up ...
— Mary-'Gusta • Joseph C. Lincoln
... Cap'n Dott. Don't you worry about Zuby and me. We'll boss this end of the craft; you 'tend to the rest of it. Say, that Hungerford swab ain't come ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln
... worried for fear I'd be late, and I jumped oot to see what was wrang. I clean forgot I was in the costume for my first song at the new hall—it had been my last, tae, at the Tiv. I was wearin' kilt, glengarry, and all the costume for the swab germ' corporal o' Hielanders in "She's Ma Daisy." D'ye mind the song? Then ye'll ken hoo I lookit, oot there on the Embankment, wi' the lichts shinin' doon on me and a', and me dancin' aroond in a fever o' impatience ...
— Between You and Me • Sir Harry Lauder
... the merchants weren't exaggerating, if you ask me," he added. He approached Meinora, a small swab in his hand. ...
— Millennium • Everett B. Cole
... swab, and he leaned over the dory, mopping up the slime clumsily, but with great good-will. "Hike out the foot-boards; they slide in them grooves," said Dan. "Swab 'em an' lay 'em down. Never let a foot-board jam. Ye may want her bad some ...
— "Captains Courageous" • Rudyard Kipling
... so sure.) Then a competent gynecologist found that coitus had never taken place. The hymen was intact. This was at the time we studied the case. On the day of the trial, I with two other physicians examined the girl. It was found that a cotton swab about 3/8 of an inch in diameter could with difficulty penetrate the vaginal orifice. There was not the slightest evidence of any rupture of the hymen or of any vaginitis. So far as the "awful disease'' was concerned, ...
— Pathology of Lying, Etc. • William and Mary Healy
... by gas. Of all the unpleasant experiences that I had at war, this throat swabbing was the worst. It seemed to me like the surgeon who performed this act had found in my throat a bottomless pit, and as the swab went up and down my burning esophagus, I suffered great agony. Although I knew this treatment was necessary, if I was to recover speedily from the gas burns, I could scarcely ...
— In the Flash Ranging Service - Observations of an American Soldier During His Service - With the A.E.F. in France • Edward Alva Trueblood
... between Moti Guj's legs till it was time to go to bed. Once a week Deesa led Moti Guj down to the river, and Moti Gui lay on his side luxuriously in the shallows, while Deesa went over him with a coir swab and a brick. Moti Guj never mistook the pounding blow of the latter for the smack of the former that warned him to get up and turn over on the other side. Then Deesa would look at his feet and examine his eyes, and turn up the fringes of his mighty ears in case of sores or budding ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... you onbelievin' swab, as how the Singapore mail steamer was nearly as possible plundered by a whole gang o' them gettin' aboard of her as make-believe passengers and then setting fire to her and plundering the cargo, and that this occurred only ...
— The Penang Pirate - and, The Lost Pinnace • John Conroy Hutcheson
... said the gallant mariner, reaching for his tobacco pouch, "I think it would be as well to swab her down with liniment. There's a bottle of it in my cabin. Better ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 - Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales • Ambrose Bierce
... "Swab the spray from your bowsprit, my good lad, and coil up your spirits. Many a better man has foundered before he has made half my way; though I trust, by the mercy of God, I shall be sure in port in a very few ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VIII • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... down to cases, as the preachers says: Old Andy he don't cantankerate none noticeable. When he feels needful of a jamboree he goes down to the bank an' fills his pockets an' a couple of valises with change, an' gum-shoes down to John D. Swab's, an' they hunt up Charley Carnage an' a couple of senators an' a rack of chips an' they finds 'em a back room, pulls off their collars an' coats an' goes to it. They ain't no kitty only to cover the needful expenses of drinks, eats, an' smokes—an' everything goes, from ...
— The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country • James B. Hendryx
... report on a swab from a prisoner under the death sentence. Military law says that no man can be shot while suffering from any disease in hospital. Consequently when this man was found to have a suspiciously sore throat, it was reported by the Medical Officer and there was great excitement. Telegrams flew back ...
— On the Fringe of the Great Fight • George G. Nasmith
... lead. The atmosphere was still oppressively close, but it was no longer as deadly stagnant as it had been during the earlier hours of the day; for, at intervals, the vane at our main-royal masthead, which hitherto had drooped heavy as a sodden deck swab, save for the swaying motion imparted to it by the lift of the ship to the heave of the scarcely visible swell, lifted and fluttered feebly for a second or two, pointing now this way, and anon in some other direction, showing that, away up aloft ...
— Overdue - The Story of a Missing Ship • Harry Collingwood
... as sorry for the next guy coming in as I felt for myself. His Honor was going to be one tough baby for some days to come. As they escorted me out, a janitor came in and began to swab the floor where I'd been standing. He was using something nicely corrosive that made the icy, judicial eyes water, all of which discomfort was likely to be added to the ...
— Highways in Hiding • George Oliver Smith
... of Captain Swosser's," said Mrs. Badger, "speaking in his figurative naval manner, that when you make pitch hot, you cannot make it too hot; and that if you only have to swab a plank, you should swab it as if Davy Jones were after you. It appears to me that this maxim is applicable to the medical as well as to the ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens
... the mate of a French frigate say if he wanted to say in French, "Avast there, ye lubbering swab" to a ...
— Second Plays • A. A. Milne
... of arrack, and Deesa would take a share and sing songs between Moti Guj's legs till it was time to go to bed. Once a week Deesa led Moti Guj down to the river, and Moti Guj lay on his side luxuriously in the shallows, while Deesa went over him with a coir-swab and a brick. Moti Guj never mistook the pounding blow of the latter for the smack of the former that warned him to get up and turn over on the other side. Then Deesa would look at his feet, and examine ...
— Life's Handicap • Rudyard Kipling
... swab. D—n your eyes, if you come courtin' my nurse, you'll 'ave to do it in my room or not at all. ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy
... had a talk," declared Oliver. "I said I'd take you out with me to the Islands and give you a taste for fresh air and salt water and exercise. I'll teach you how to sail a schooner and how to go about barefoot and swab decks." ...
— The Literary World Seventh Reader • Various
... was calling—the land of miracle—and printer's ink began to pall. Henry George was a sailor; every part of a sailing ship was to him familiar—from bilge- water to pennant, from bowsprit to sternpost. He could swab the mainmast, reef the topsail in a squall, preside in the cook's-galley, or if the mate were drunk and the captain ashore he could take charge of the ship, put for open sea and ride out the storm by scudding ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 9 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers • Elbert Hubbard
... next repetition he broke quite down and began to cry like a calf, which ruined all the effect and started many to the audience to laughing. Then he went on from bad to worse, until I never saw such a spectacle; for he fetched out a towel from under his doublet and began to swab his eyes with it and let go the most infernal bellowings mixed up with sobbings and groanings and retchings and barkings and coughings and snortings and screamings and howlings—and he twisted himself about on his heels and squirmed this way and that, still ...
— Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc - Volume 1 (of 2) • Mark Twain
... plaguy nonsense!" he declared. "I know better. John ain't that kind of feller. You wouldn't help anybody to turn a woman out of her house and home, would you, John? Course you wouldn't. The swab! Just 'cause he's got money he cal'lates he can run everything. ...
— Thankful's Inheritance • Joseph C. Lincoln
... far into the night. Craig carefully swabbed out the bottom and sides of each bottle by inserting a little piece of cotton on the end of a long wire. Then he squeezed the water out of the cotton swab on small glass slides coated with agar-agar, or Japanese seaweed, a medium in which germ-cultures multiply rapidly. He put the slides away in a little oven with an alcohol-lamp which he had brought along, leaving them to ...
— The Silent Bullet • Arthur B. Reeve |
