"Thrum" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... wool; and over the hedge he went headlong amongst them, making the poor timid, stupid creatures run as fast as their legs would carry them, with their heavy fleeces touzling and shaking about till each sheep looked like a magnified thrum mop being shaken to get rid of the water. A fine game did Dick have of it, for as soon as ever he stopped and gave a farewell bark—as much as to say, "There, I've done"—and began to retrace his steps, the sheep would come to a stand-still, stare after ...
— Hollowdell Grange - Holiday Hours in a Country Home • George Manville Fenn
... me, not even a scent, or colour, or form, can recall past scenes so vividly as a few notes of an air, the rhythm of some folk-song—a few minor notes, an Alla—Allah, and you breathe the hot air of desert, and feel the monotony of black men, and sand, and sun—Thrum—thrum—thrum, and you are in the soft, busy night, in Spain, and again a few minor notes, strung together, perhaps, by Greig, in the Saeter, and you feel the scent of the pines in the valley rising to the snow—a concertina takes me back to warm golden sunsets in ...
— From Edinburgh to India & Burmah • William G. Burn Murdoch
... is the fruit of "genius" (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all): given a huge stack of tumbled thrums, it is not in your sleep that you will find the vital centre of it, or get the first thrum by the end! And then the execution, the realizing, amid the contradiction, silent or expressed, of men and things? Explosive violence was by no means Friedrich Wilhelm's method; the amount of slow stubborn broad-shouldered strength, in all kinds, ...
— History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Volume IV. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great—Friedrich's Apprenticeship, First Stage—1713-1728 • Thomas Carlyle
... toy-shop and a state; Of wits and fools, of saints and kings, Of garters, stars, and leading strings; 220 Of old lords fumbling for a clap, And young ones full of prayer and pap; Of courts, of morals, and tye-wigs, Of bears and Serjeants dancing jigs; Of grave professors at the bar Learning to thrum on the guitar, Whilst laws are slubber'd o'er in haste, And Judgment sacrificed to Taste; Of whited sepulchres, lawn sleeves, And God's house made a den of thieves: 230 Of funeral pomps,[220] where clamours hung, And fix'd disgrace on every tongue, Whilst Sense and Order blush'd ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill
... stinking breaths, and uncleanly carcases, poisoned our nostrils far worse than a Southwark ditch, a tanner's yard, or a tallow-chandler's melting-room. The ill-looking vermin, with long, rusty beards, swaddled up in rags, and their heads—some covered with thrum-caps, and others thrust into the tops of old stockings. Some quitted their play they were before engaged in, and came hovering round us, like so many cannibals, with such devouring countenances, as if a man had been but a morsel with 'em, all crying ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury
... goes rolling on, From Maine to utmost Oregon; The factory-wheels a rhythmus hum; From brawling parties concords come;— All this I hear, or seem to hear; But when, enchanted, I draw near To fix in notes the various theme, Life seems a whiff of kitchen-steam, History a Swiss street-singer's thrum, And I, that would have fashioned words To mate that music's rich accords, By rash approaches startle thee, Thou mutablest Perversity! The world drones on its old tum-tum, But thou hast slipped from it and me, And all thine ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... dark, or tinged with unclean yellow. Lepers and hideous cripples thrust their sores and stumps in the face of charity. There was no local colouring compared with the carregadores, or coolies, from the northeast, whose thrum-mop heads and single monkey skins for fig-leaves, spoke of the wold and the wild. The body-dress of both sexes is the tanga, pagne, or waist-cloth, unless the men can afford trousers and ragged shirts, and ...
— Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton
... ring-ringing, the thrum of her screw filling the air, the big liner bore down on them, cutting sharp through the dark water so that big white shavings curled to either side. Hammond and the harbour-master kept in front of the rest. Hammond took off his hat; he raked the decks—they were crammed ...
— The Garden Party • Katherine Mansfield
... Mode. Subtly distinctive as a fabric fair; Nor Keats nor Shelley in his loftiest ode Could thrum the line to tell ...
— Something Else Again • Franklin P. Adams
... Plantago), belonging to a different natural order, is common on the margins of our rivers and ditches, getting its name from the Celtic alos, water, and being called also the greater Thrumwort, from thrum, the warp end of a weaver's web. The root and leaves contain an acrid juice, dispersed by heat, which is of service for irritability of the bladder. After [436] the root is boiled so as to dissipate this medicinal juice it ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie
... Versailles, He rives his father's auld entails; Or by Madrid he takes the rout, To thrum guitars an' fecht wi' nowt; Or down ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... the poor mother's grief; and, if we were to judge of his sensibility by this beautiful production, he must have been endowed with a very tender heart. But when a poet gets into the habit of using his heartstrings to make chords for his lyre, he may thrum upon them as much as he will, without any great pain to himself. Accordingly, though Phoebus sang a very sad song, he was as merry all the while as were the ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various
... they approached so near the Thrum Cape shoals, that the master became alarmed and sent for Mr. Galvin, one of the master's mates. The message was scarcely delivered, before the man in the main-chains sung out, 'By the mark five.' In a few minutes after ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly
... high-bred, Oh, women of fashion far above you! And I thrilled at the graceful poise of her head And the radiant smile of my love when she said, "Why James, you know that I love you." Nymph-like her lithe form swayed as in dance, I awkwardly sat at the reel— A moment's surcease of monotonous thrum,— Melodious the lull in the song and the hum Of Ruth and the Old ...
— The Loom of Life • Cotton Noe
... taken on board the Fury, by way of offering some resistance to the ice, which was now more plainly seen, though still about five miles distant, A few hands were also spared, consisting chiefly of two or three convalescents, and some of the officers, to thrum a sail for putting under the Fury’s keel; for we were very anxious to relieve the men at the pumps, which constantly required the labour of eight to twelve hands to keep her free. In the course of the day, several heavy masses of ice came drifting by with a breeze from the N.E., which is here ...
— Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage • William Edward Parry
... grief" department of the mourning store, and the severed cords of her affections have been spliced and made almost as good as new. Not that I would not have it so; not that I believe the grief of woman to be less real and sincere than man's, though it be enjoyed; not that I would have her thrum a long mournful threnody on the harpstrings of her heart, and waste on the dead, who need them not, affections which, Heaven knows, the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, Issue 35, September, 1860 • Various
... Turn your slow crank, inexorable Italian! Thrum your thrums, Miss Laura, for Signor Bernadotti! You are a way off, but your footprints point the right way. With many a yawn and sigh subjective, I greatly fear me, many a malediction objective, you are "learning the language of another world." To us, huddled ...
— Gala-days • Gail Hamilton
... not care to smoke. Outside the city roared to him to come join in its dance of folly and pleasure. The night was his. He might go forth unquestioned and thrum the strings of jollity as free as any gay bachelor there. He might carouse and wander and have his fling until dawn if he liked; and there would be no wrathful Katy waiting for him, bearing the chalice that held the dregs of his joy. He might play pool at McCloskey's with his ...
— The Trimmed Lamp • O. Henry
... way through labyrinths of vine boughs, and clouds of silvery olive leaf: the bright laborious day, with the sun-rays turning the sickle to a semi-circlet of silver, as the mice ran, and the crickets shouted, and the larks soared on high: the merry supper when the day was done, with the thrill and thrum of the mandolini, and the glisten of the unhoused fire-flies, whose sanctuary had been broken when the bearded barley and the amber corn fell prone: all these things rose to his memory: they had made his youth and manhood glad and full of colour; they were here still for his sons ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida
... clumsy shanks, like so many shins of beef, were cased in silk hose and embroidered slippers; their raw red fingers, gross as the pipes of a chamber organ, which had been employed in milking the cows, in twirling the mop or churn-staff, being adorned with diamonds, were taught to thrum the pandola, and even to touch the keys of the harpsichord! Nay, in every village they kept a rout, and set up an assembly; and in one place a hog-butcher was master ...
— The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves • Tobias Smollett
... the ship approached so near the Thrum Cap shoals that the master became alarmed, and sent for Mr. Galvin, master's mate, who was sick below. On his coming upon deck, he heard the man in the chains sing out, "by the mark five!" the black man forward at the same time crying "steady!" Galvin got on one of the ...
— Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy • Anonymous
... collection, and to Dr. Brigham, Mr. Stokes, and other members of the museum staff for their help and suggestions, as well as to those scholars of Hawaiian who have patiently answered my questions or lent me valuable material—to Mr. Henry Parker, Mr. Thomas Thrum, Mr. William Rowell, Miss Laura Green, Mr. Stephen Desha, Judge Hazelden of Waiohinu, Mr. Curtis Iaukea, Mr. Edward Lilikalani, and Mrs. Emma Nawahi. Especially am I indebted to Mr. Joseph Emerson, not only for the generous gift of his time but for free access ...
— The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai • Anonymous
... time was short; and his movements were sluggish, but if she was not walking she must be dancing, and sometimes when there were few people in the street, the little armful of delight that she was jumped up and down like a ball, while Tommy kept the time, singing "Thrummy, Thrummy, Thrum Thrum Thrummy." They must have seemed a quaint pair to the lady as she sat at her window watching them and beckoning to ...
— Sentimental Tommy - The Story of His Boyhood • J. M. Barrie
... purified, to be driven by Bakahenzie and the wizards back to the hill of his father, leaving the assembled lay chiefs squatting humbly and in dread of the spirits abroad in the night. While the procession leaped and twirled, screamed and groaned to the frantic thrum of the drums through the blue darkness, the magicians ran and pranced through and around the village, seeking any blasphemer who dared to look upon sacred things; banging on hut doors and shaking thatches, the more to ...
— Witch-Doctors • Charles Beadle
... state of degradation, mentally and physically, than any of the Australian aboriginal tribes which I have seen. Tall well-made men are occasionally seen; but these almost invariably show decided traces of a Papuan or new Guinea origin, being easly distinguished by the "thrum" like appearance of the hair, which is of a somewhat reddish tinge, occasioned no doubt by constant exposure to the sun and weather. The color of their skin is also much lighter, in some individuals approaching almost ...
— The Overland Expedition of The Messrs. Jardine • Frank Jardine and Alexander Jardine
... begun to thrum the strings of his violin. We turned to look at him. He still sat in his chair, his ear bent to the echoing chamber of the violin. Soon he laid his bow to the strings and a great chord hushed every whisper and died into a sweet, ...
— Eben Holden - A Tale of the North Country • Irving Bacheller
... quite clear, and presently, moving with the silent grace of swans on still water, came four girls closely veiled, carrying quaintly-shaped harps and lutes. A Nubian servant followed them, and spread a gold-embroidered carpet upon the ground, whereon they all sat down and began to thrum the strings of their instruments in a muffled, dreamy manner, playing a music which had nothing of melody in it, and which yet vaguely suggested a passionate tune. This thrumming went on for some time when all at once from a side entrance in the hall a bright, apparently winged ...
— Ziska - The Problem of a Wicked Soul • Marie Corelli
... upon poor Le Fever, wrote out very fairly, as if from a hasty copy.—I take notice of it the more, because it seems to have been his favourite composition—It is upon mortality; and is tied length-ways and cross-ways with a yarn thrum, and then rolled up and twisted round with a half-sheet of dirty blue paper, which seems to have been once the cast cover of a general review, which to this day smells horribly of horse drugs.—Whether these marks of humiliation ...
— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne
... Mortgaging, gambling, masquerading! Or, may be, in a frolic daft, To Hague or Calais takes a waft, To make a tour an' tak a whirl, To learn bon ton, an' see the worl'. Then, at Vienna or Versailles, He rives his father's auld entails; Or by Madrid he takes the rout, To thrum guitars and fecht ...
— Robert Burns • Principal Shairp
... before the Goya copy. Accustomed to her own way in everything. Flower of his life! And now that she couldn't have it! He turned to the window for some air. Daylight was dying, the moon rising, gold behind the poplars! What sound was that? Why! That piano thing! A dark tune, with a thrum and a throb! She had set it going—what comfort could she get from that? His eyes caught movement down there beyond the lawn, under the trellis of rambler roses and young acacia-trees, where the moonlight fell. There she was, ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... with sharp ferocity, and dubbing them beasts and swine, they caught the false ring of his fierceness, which was as unlike the true as the ring of lead is unlike that of silver. They jeered him insults, they mimicked his tenor voice, which excitement had rendered shrill, and they bade him go thrum a lute for his lady's delectation, and leave ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini |
