Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Win   Listen
verb
Win  v. t.  (past & past part. won, obs. wan; pres. part. winning)  
1.
To gain by superiority in competition or contest; to obtain by victory over competitors or rivals; as, to win the prize in a gate; to win money; to win a battle, or to win a country. "This city for to win." "Who thus shall Canaan win." "Thy well-breathed horse Impels the flying car, and wins the course."
2.
To allure to kindness; to bring to compliance; to gain or obtain, as by solicitation or courtship. "Thy virtue wan me; with virtue preserve me." "She is a woman; therefore to be won."
3.
To gain over to one's side or party; to obtain the favor, friendship, or support of; to render friendly or approving; as, to win an enemy; to win a jury.
4.
To come to by toil or effort; to reach; to overtake. (Archaic) "Even in the porch he him did win." "And when the stony path began, By which the naked peak they wan, Up flew the snowy ptarmigan."
5.
(Mining) To extract, as ore or coal.
Synonyms: To gain; get; procure; earn. See Gain.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Win" Quotes from Famous Books



... it have been for both of them had he done so. But on reconsidering the matter, he arrived at the conclusion that no good could possibly come of any such proceeding, whilst the sight of Lucy would only too certainly increase the pangs of regret he already so keenly felt at his failure to win her; so he eventually decided to remain where he was, and occupy himself in watching ...
— The Voyage of the Aurora • Harry Collingwood

... I say it for her sake as well as your own. First, you must be aware, that, unless you have serious thoughts of marriage, your attentions can but add to the very rumours that, equally groundless, you so feelingly resent; and, secondly, because I don't think any man has a right to win the affections of a woman—especially a woman who seems to me likely to love with her whole heart and soul—merely to ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... West, as he rescued the catsup. "I believe every fellow feels that we ought to show our appreciation of his work by turning out in force. It's the least we can do, I think. Mind you, I don't fancy football a little bit, but Remsen taught us to win from St. Eustace last year, and any one that helps down Eustace is all right and deserves the gratitude of the ...
— The Half-Back • Ralph Henry Barbour

... dread This one poor lonely man—beneath Heaven spread In purest light above us all, through earth— Maternal earth, who doth her sweet smiles shed For all, let him go free; until the worth 2015 Of human nature win ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... to say on temperance? In passing through Catholic Lower Canada he saw a column erected to the Virgin Mary, in gratitude for her promotion of the temperance cause. If indeed the blessed Virgin did lend her aid to that great work, it would almost win him to worship at her shrine, although he belonged to that class of people who rejected ...
— Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams - Sixth President of the Unied States • William H. Seward

... importance to our moral and material well-being unite us and offer ample employment of our best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues, move forward and in their strength of liberty and the restored Union win the grander victories ...
— U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses • Various

... proclivity to give an amusing turn to statements of both counsel and witnesses. At one point he intervened by remarking that other witnesses than the one under examination had said that a horse is made fit by running on the course before he is expected to win a position, and added, "That is so, not only on the race-course. You can never make a good lawyer by putting him to read in the library." To which the defendant, who conducted his own case, replied, ...
— Law and Laughter • George Alexander Morton

... to take up arms against the countrymen of his mother, the Countess of Castlewood. "It is the doing of the old fox, Van den Bosch," Madam Esmond said; "he wishes to keep his Virginian property safe, whatever side should win!" I may mention, with respect to this old worthy, that he continued to reside in England for a while after the Declaration of Independence, not at all denying his sympathy with the American cause, but keeping a pretty quiet tongue, and alleging that such a very ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... are few, indeed!" "Give me but sixteen merchantmen," he said, "And but four battleships, by the mercy of God, I'll answer for the Armada!" Out to sea They swept, in the teeth of a gale; but vainly Drake Strove to impart the thought wherewith his mind Travailed—to win command of the ocean-sea By bursting on the fleets of Spain at once Even as they left their ports, not as of old To hover in a vain dream of defence Round fifty threatened points of British coast, But Howard, clinging ...
— Collected Poems - Volume One (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... suggestion be harmless. I anticipate no serious obstruction in the path to Peters' confidence. Patience, care, deliberate action—the fact ever in mind that 'The more haste the less speed,' and we shall win the prize for which ...
— A Strange Discovery • Charles Romyn Dake

... morning. Yesterday and the day before I drafted eleven and revised nine pages of Chapter V., and the truth is, I was extinct by lunch-time, and played patience sourly the rest of the day. To-morrow or next day I hope to go in again and win. Lunch 2nd Bell. ...
— Vailima Letters • Robert Louis Stevenson

... vivid that it led to the thought that, like the first man, I had seen in the garden the one woman of the world, the mistress of my fate. A second later I was conscious of a sickening fear. To love such a woman, and yet not be able to win her— how could one thereafter go on with life! Beware, Richard Morton! On this quiet June evening, in this home of peace and the peaceful, and with hymns of love and faith breathed sweetly into your ears, you may be in the direst ...
— A Day Of Fate • E. P. Roe

... to me: "My young friend, I thank you for that sermon last Sunday; it had the two best qualities of preaching—simplicity and down-right earnestness. If I had a student in my law-office who was not more in earnest to win his first ten dollar suit before a Justice of the Peace than some men seem to be in trying to save souls I would kick such a student out of my office." That eminent lawyer's remark did me more service than any month's study in the Seminary. It taught ...
— Recollections of a Long Life - An Autobiography • Theodore Ledyard Cuyler

... spoke a word that made happier the future of ten million peons in Mexico; but that act looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which the boy in Georgia is making to win the ...
— The Little Book of the Flag • Eva March Tappan

... advocate,—certainly beneath any forensic advocate employed otherwise than in addressing a jury. He, Judge Bramber, had never himself talked of 'demanding' a verdict even from a jury. He had only endeavoured to win it. But that a man who had been Attorney-General,—who had been the head of the bar,—should thus write to a Secretary of State, was to him disgusting. To his thinking, a great lawyer, even a good lawyer, would be incapable of enthusiasm as to any case in which ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope

... looking earnestly at the Scots, "they kneel and ask for mercy, but not of you; it is for their sins they ask mercy of God. I know these men, and have met and fought them, and I tell you that assuredly they will win or die, and not even when death looks them in the face will ...
— In Freedom's Cause • G. A. Henty

... produced a laugh among the seamen within hearing,—indeed they evidently thought that whatever Larry said ought to be considered as a good joke. Larry seemed to have a notion that his especial gun was to win the battle. As a similar feeling seemed to animate the rest of the crew, it was likely ...
— Paddy Finn • W. H. G. Kingston

... the melody which once had summoned Suskind from her low red-pillared palace in the doubtful twilight, now summoned Niafer resistlessly from paradise, as Manuel thriftily made use of the odds and ends which he had learned from three women to win him ...
— Figures of Earth • James Branch Cabell

... foolish and guilty. She would probably get roundly scolded if the grave Sisters learned of her talks with me, and very likely I should win their hearty contempt. But I ...
— The House of a Thousand Candles • Meredith Nicholson

... of her magnanimity that she loved a soldier, and had a propensity in her nature to regard and always to grace them, which the Court, taking it into their consideration, took it as an inviting to win honour, together with Her Majesty's favour, by exposing themselves to the wars, especially when the Queen and the affairs of the kingdom stood in some necessity of the soldiers, for we have many instances of the sallies of the nobility ...
— Travels in England and Fragmenta Regalia • Paul Hentzner and Sir Robert Naunton

... can be no other than Russia who assists him in these difficulties!" exclaimed Count Manteuffel, in despair. "We must leave nothing undone to lessen the influence of this dangerous enemy, and to win Prussia to Austrian interests. Germany wishes for peace, and Prussia and Austria must be on good terms. If Prussia and Austria were to take up arms against each other, the balance of power in Europe would be destroyed, and a war would be inaugurated ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... yes—but the American"—she laughed delightedly and stretched her arms wide—"he make' it all a joke! He is beeg like his beeg country. If he win or lose, he don' care! Ah, I mus' tell you of my great American frien', that Honor-able Chanlair Pedlow, who is comin' to Rome. You have heard of ...
— His Own People • Booth Tarkington

... immensely important, to-day, when the war is won, and in all days and all walks of life, that there be those who can kindle and keep alight the enthusiasm of their fellows; who can overlook the failure of their own ardor and faithfulness to win its fair reward, and convey to others only the alluring ...
— Foch the Man - A Life of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies • Clara E. Laughlin

... his human servants, his church on earth, so also the Devil has his—men and women sworn to his service and true to his bidding. To win such followers he can appear to men in any form he pleases, can deceive them, enter into compact with them, initiate them into his worship, make them his allies for the ruin of their fellows. Now it is these human allies and servants of Satan, thus postulated ...
— The Witchcraft Delusion In Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697) • John M. Taylor

... in words Full of anger and ire, and answer he gave: 45 "Dost thou hear, oh seamen, what our heroes say? Spears they will send to the sailors as tribute, Poisoned points and powerful swords, And such weapons of war as shall win you no battles. Envoy of Vikings, your vauntings return, 50 Fare to thy folk with a far sterner message, That here staunchly stands with his steadfast troops, The lord that will fight for the land of his fathers, For the realm of Aethelred, ...
— Old English Poems - Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose • Various

... gone through the night with never a thought of fame, Gone to the field of a fight that shall win them deathless name; Some shall never again behold the set of the sun, But lie like the Concord slain, and the slain of Lexington, Martyrs to Freedom's cause. Ah, how at their deeds we thrill, The men whose might made strong the height on the ...
— How the Flag Became Old Glory • Emma Look Scott

... that she herself will be the prize of the victor, but only on condition that immediate death shall be the fate of those who are vanquished by her. As she excels in running, her design succeeds, and several suitors die in the attempt to win her. Hippomenes, smitten with her charms, is not daunted at their ill success; but boldly enters the lists, after imploring the aid of Venus. Atalanta is struck with his beauty, and is much embarrassed, whether she shall ...
— The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes - and Explanations • Publius Ovidius Naso

... with you once upon the difficulties young women encountered who attempted to win honours in a dramatic career. You felt that the necessity to cater to the ideas and wishes of inferior minds, in representing a character on the stage, would be one of the hardest phases of stage ...
— A Woman of the World - Her Counsel to Other People's Sons and Daughters • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... approaches; his vessels cover our lakes; our brave citizens are united, and all contention has ceased among them. Their only dispute is, who shall win the prize of valor, or who the most ...
— Thoughts on African Colonization • William Lloyd Garrison

... mess rose joyously as he thrust forward the hilt of his sabre in token of fealty for the Colonel of the White Hussars to touch, and dropped in a vacant chair amid shouts of: 'Rung ho, Hira Singh' (which being translated means 'Go in and win'). 'Did I whack you over the knee, old man?' 'Ressaidar Sahib, what the devil made you play that kicking pig of a pony in the last ten minutes?' 'Shabash, Ressaidar Sahib!' Then the voice of the Colonel, 'The ...
— Soldier Stories • Rudyard Kipling

... used as a pseudo-auxiliary; see l. 155, N,—L'emporter, idiomatic for "to win the day." The substantive, for which the fossilized pronoun le stands, is uncertain. Cf. l'chapper belle, idiomatic for "to ...
— Esther • Jean Racine

... to clean off your desk if you have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort through it. 2. Of extremely small merit. "This proposed new feature seems rather marginal to me." 3. Of extremely small probability of {win}ning. "The power supply was rather marginal anyway; ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... subjects also connected with the infernal regions. Over it, AEneas stands before the Cumoean Sybil, a very injured painting. Below, Orpheus in Hades plays before Pluto and Persephone to win back Eurydice, who lies bound before them. On the right Hercules rescues Theseus from Hades, and slays Cerberus, and on the left, Eurydice, following Orpheus, looks back, and is re-seized by the demons. These ...
— Luca Signorelli • Maud Cruttwell

... the ground. Quick as a wink Fluff was on one side of it and Muff was on the other. Then they began to paw and pull. Fluff pulled one way. Muff pulled the other. It was a real pulling match. Some of the children cried, "I think that Fluff will win." Others ...
— Five Little Friends • Sherred Willcox Adams

... never been loved as I would have desired to be loved,—am I now instructed how,—leaving myself altogether out of the question,—I may prosper the love of others and make two noble lives happy? It may be so,—and that in the foundation of their joy, I shall win my own soul's peace! So—leaving my treasures on earth,—I shall find my treasure in heaven, 'where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through ...
— The Treasure of Heaven - A Romance of Riches • Marie Corelli

... superior in numbers and hoped to weaken that of his opponent by bribes. He sent gold in every direction, most of all into Italy, and especially to Rome; and he tempted his opponents individually, trying to win followers. As a result Caesar kept the more vigilant watch and ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. III • Cassius Dio

... German like Maximilian Harden is brave enough to blurt it out: "Of what use are weak excuses? We willed this war, ... willed it because we were sure we could win it." (Zukunft, August, 1914.) But in general the official spokesmen of Germany keep up the claim that their country was attacked and forced to fly to arms to ...
— Fighting For Peace • Henry Van Dyke

... property of mankind alone. Countless obstacles are in the way. Much mental inertia must be overcome, for it is far easier to accept the average and traditional judgments of other men—to let well enough alone—than it is to win our own way to the heights from which we may survey knowledge more fully. Human prejudices confront us as a veritable jungle, hemming us in and obstructing our vision on all sides; and perhaps much underbrush ...
— The Doctrine of Evolution - Its Basis and Its Scope • Henry Edward Crampton

... scattered half-written pages:—"Only that!" she would say, counting the hours lost upon the insignificant little lines. Ah I if I had listened to her, my glorious title of poet, which it has taken me so many years to win, would be now dragged through the black mire of sensational literature. And when I think that to this selfsame woman I had at first opened my heart, confided all my dreams; and when I think that the contempt she now shows me because I do not ...
— Artists' Wives • Alphonse Daudet

... wall so impregnable or so vulgar, but a summer's grass will attempt it. It will try to persuade the yellow brick, to win the purple slate, to reconcile stucco. Outside the authority of the suburbs it has put a luminous touch everywhere. The thatch of cottages has given it an opportunity. It has perched and alighted in showers and flocks. It has crept and crawled, and stolen its hour. It ...
— The Colour of Life • Alice Meynell

... submarine warfare, which was relied upon by Germany to win the war by the extinction of the British mercantile marine and the stoppage of transatlantic supplies, had proved a failure by August, 1917, after six months' duration. While the tonnage destroyed by the undersea instruments of frightfulness was sufficiently serious ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... day may be hastened when religious dissensions will cease; when all Christians will advance with united front, under one common leader, to plant the cross in every region and win ...
— The Faith of Our Fathers • James Cardinal Gibbons

... how it was to end, was it? That was the card which Fate had all along kept up her sleeve while she stood off laughing at his endeavours, his hopes, his struggles against the inevitable? In the end, another man was to appear, another man was to win her, and the dream was to turn out nothing more ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... weather is grievous to you: The sea-scud is flying. My little i-ao, O fly 15 With the breeze Koolau! Fly with the Moa'e-ku! Look at the rain-mist fly! Leap with the cataract, leap! Plunge, now here, now there! 20 Feet foremost, head foremost; Leap with a glance and a glide! Kauna, opens the dance; you win. Rise, Hiiaka, arise! ...
— Unwritten Literature of Hawaii - The Sacred Songs of the Hula • Nathaniel Bright Emerson

... the aged man, moving his flat, carpet-slippered feet a laborious inch; "alligator. Alligator not goin' take you 'cross lake. No use lookin'. 'Ow Peter goin' come when win' dead ahead? Can't ...
— Dr. Sevier • George W. Cable

... maddened you, as to demand the disposal of your trinkets. If there be the least excuse, the smallest possibility of your obtaining in time forgiveness, I will grant it. I will not believe you so utterly fallen. I will do all I can to remove error, and yet to prevent suffering; but to win this, I must have a full confession—every question that I put to you must be clearly and satisfactorily answered, and so bring back the only comfort to yourself, and hope to me. ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... continue to smile—that's what tests courage. Our chaps are splendid. They're not the hair-brained idiots that some war-correspondents depict from day to day. They're perfectly sane people who know to a fraction what they're up against, but who carry on with a grim good-nature and a determination to win with a smile. I never before appreciated as I do to-day the latent capacity for big-hearted endurance that is in the heart of every man. Here are apparently quite ordinary chaps—chaps who washed, liked theatres, loved kiddies and sweethearts, ...
— Carry On • Coningsby Dawson

... account of his Italian origin, or to recognize that he was only half French, and that this half was his superficial half. At the bottom of his soul, though not perhaps at the bottom of his heart, he was Italian, and of the great race which in every science and every art seems to win the primacy when it will. The French, through the rhetoric of Napoleon III., imposed themselves on the imagination of the world as the representatives of the Latin race, but they are the least and ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... you will win, Herr Hardy," said Axel, who was always a quiet lad in manner, and had become more so since his ...
— A Danish Parsonage • John Fulford Vicary

... of the Americans, for it clearly indicated that under proper circumstances they might exhibit a power of resistance which the British would find it impossible to overcome. It was with George III. as with Pyrrhus: he could not afford to win many victories at such cost, for his supply of soldiers for America was limited, and his only hope of success lay in inflicting heavy blows. In winning Bunker Hill his troops were only holding their own; the siege of Boston was not ...
— The War of Independence • John Fiske

... considered of a superior order; and it may be interesting to some of the younger members of the Society to know that, in 1833, the Standing Committee approved of the selection, by the choir, of Miss Charlotte Cushman, as the leading female singer. Mr. Win. Barry, one of the original proprietors, and at present one of the oldest men of the congregation, conducted this part of ...
— Our Gift • Teachers of the School Street Universalist Sunday School, Boston

... valedictory that you are to win for Jack's sake," said Betty, coming out of the revery into which she had fallen for ...
— The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware • Annie Fellows Johnston

... the loyal is: "Be 'one undivided soul of many a soul'". It recognizes that, when apart, individuals fail; but that when they try to unite their lives into one common higher selfhood, to live as if they were the expressions, the instruments, the organs of one ideally beautiful social group, they win the only possible fulfillment of the meaning of human existence. Through loyalty to such a cause, through devotion to an ideally united social group, and only through such loyalty, can the problems of human personality be solved. By nature, and apart from some cause to which we are loyal, ...
— English Prose - A Series of Related Essays for the Discussion and Practice • Frederick William Roe (edit. and select.)

... feelings was about the War, I have never been able to figure out myself. I knew the Yanks were going to win, from the beginning. I wanted them to win and lick us Southerners, but I hoped they was going to do it without wiping out our company. I'll come back to that in a minute. As I said, our company was the First Texas Cavalry. Col. Buchell ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves. - Texas Narratives, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration

... competent to construct it, he was not qualified to manage it. In a crisis, he may give a helping hand, win the support of an assembly or a mob, direct, high-handedly and for a few weeks, an executive committee. But regular, persistent labor is repugnant to him; he is not made for bookkeeping,[3174] for paper and administrative work. Never, like Robespierre and Billaud can he attend to both official ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... by the time you appeared in it, the game of heads I win and tails you lose had died out of the world," I replied with an indignant snort. "I think the best thing I can do will be to take the horse and look for those oxen. Meanwhile you can settle your business by the light of your native genius, and I only hope you'll finish it without murder ...
— Finished • H. Rider Haggard

... him, but because she was genuinely anxious to win Lady Gertrude's liking, Nan yielded. Perhaps if she conceded this particular point it would pave the way towards a ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler

... communion her flaxen curls were covered with a cap of richest Mechlin lace, which had been her mother's and her grandmother's before it came to her. Men spoke already, though she had but twelve years, of the good wife she would be for their sons to woo and win; but she herself was a little gay, simple child, in no wise conscious of her heritage, and she loved no playfellows so well as Jehan Daas's grandson ...
— Stories By English Authors: Germany • Various

... himself that he could win for England that sovereignty of the Netherlands which England as well as France had so decidedly refused. The marriage of Prince Henry with the Spanish Infanta was the bait, steadily dangled before him by the politicians of the ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... Except on the all too rare occasions when I win a bit. (Laughing.) If it were not for the darling little horses, I shouldn't be able to get across to England ...
— I'll Leave It To You - A Light Comedy In Three Acts • Noel Coward

... into his breeches pockets. "The fact is, Jack, I don't believe that Tararo will be so ungrateful as to eat us; and I'm quite sure that he'll be too happy to grant us whatever we ask, so the sooner we go in and win ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne

... madam, but she's wise not to take a spendthrift—or one of the Friends, who would be obstinate and set in his ways. She's good enough at bargaining, and she has a great tobacco plantation at Annapolis, and is as smart as any man. And she can beat half of them at piquet and ombre and win ...
— A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... New Hampshire. He was the author of the interesting book Wild Bird Guests, and of "Our Animal Allies" (in Harper's Magazine, January, 1921). During the World War I Mr. Baynes was in France, studying the part that birds and animals played in helping to win the war. Wherever he went he organized bird clubs, in order ...
— The Elson Readers, Book 5 • William H. Elson and Christine M. Keck

... that we can appreciate their greatness. No less noble are others somewhat less widely known: on the monument erected by the city of Corinth to the men who, when all Greece stood as near destruction as a knife's edge, helped to win her freedom at Salamis; on the Athenians, slain under the skirts of the Euboean hills, who lavished their young and beautiful lives for Athens; on the soldiers who fell, in the full tide of the Greek glory, at the great victory of the Eurymedon.[3] In all the epitaphs of this ...
— Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology • J. W. Mackail

... servant run for me." The King replied, "Then his life also must be staked, so that his head and thine are both set on the victory." When that was settled and made secure, the man buckled the other leg on the runner, and said to him, "Now be nimble, and help us to win." It was fixed that the one who was first to bring some water from a far distant well was to be the victor. The runner received a pitcher, and the King's daughter one too, and they began to run at the same time, but in an instant, when the King's ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... below him in condition. The temperaments to be brought into subjection were not as rude and intractable as those of the Anglo-Saxon, and the off-hand, dashing character of Raoul was admirably adapted to win both the admiration and the affections of his people. They now thronged about him without hesitation or reserve, each man anxious to make his good wishes known, ...
— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper

... old friends, to interest him. Upon the whole, we may place Carlyle and FitzGerald, each in his very different manner, at the head of all the letter-writers of the generation to which they belong, which is not precisely our own. It is to be recollected that a man must be dead before he can win reputation in this particular branch of literature, and that he cannot be fairly judged until time has removed many obstacles to unreserved publication. But both Carlyle and FitzGerald ...
— Studies in Literature and History • Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall

... like a thing in a case. In the calm, static reason of his soul, he recognised this, and admitted it was her right, to be closed round upon herself, self-complete, without desire. He realised it, he admitted it, it only needed one last effort on his own part, to win for himself the same completeness. He knew that it only needed one convulsion of his will for him to be able to turn upon himself also, to close upon himself as a stone fixes upon itself, and is impervious, ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence

... and spent much time. I was surprised to see the Kohen Gadol devoting himself in an absurd fashion to Almah. It at once occurred to me that Layelah had obtained her father's co-operation in her scheme, and that the old villain actually imagined that he could win the hand of Almah. To Almah herself I had said nothing whatever about the proposal of Layelah, so that she was quite ignorant of the intentions of her companion; but it was excessively annoying to me to see such proceedings going on ...
— A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder • James De Mille

... too, that the locality was not one which excites curiosity by its strongly marked features or abnormal types. Travelers often seem to imagine that they have only to tell us about Brittany or Gascony to win our interest, whereas it is precisely such regions that have the least novelty for us, just as the scenery of the Scottish Highlands has been made more familiar to Americans than that of almost any other part of Britain. Mr. Hamerton's house, as he gives us ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various

... arranged in his lifetime that Edward VI should marry Mary, the young Queen of Scotland, and Somerset raised an army and went to Scotland to secure her person: but after fighting a battle he only just managed to win, he found that the proposed union was not looked upon favourably in Scotland, and that the young Queen had been sent away to France ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor

... to choose from. Several are persistent. Mounted on the back of the patient female, who lowers her head and seems untouched by the passionate storm, they shake her violently. Thus do the amorous insects declare their flame and win the consent of the ...
— The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles • Jean Henri Fabre

... the same effect. The negro had, however, a last card to play, which he fancied would win the game. ...
— The Three Midshipmen • W.H.G. Kingston

... have enough of organizing purpose in them to make their facts illustrative, and to leave a distinct result in the mind even when most of the facts are forgotten; and they have enough of vagueness and vacillation in their theory to win them ready acceptance from a mixed audience. The vagueness and vacillation are not devices of timidity; they are the honest result of the writer's own mental character, which adapts him to be the instructor ...
— The Essays of "George Eliot" - Complete • George Eliot

... the reader suppose that I had done to win all these signs of gratitude? I had simply alluded—briefly alluded—in the London "Athenaeum" some years before, to her genius and her work. Never surely was a reviewer so royally overpaid. Her allusion was to a certain article of mine on Canadian ...
— Flint and Feather • E. Pauline Johnson

... the Jury: The plaintiff hopes to win this case not on the law, nor on his evidence, nor on any consideration of justice. He hopes to succeed because of the simple fact that he is a Jew, his lawyer is a Jew, and every one of you men are Jews." With an expression of faith in the sense of justice inherent ...
— The Man in Court • Frederic DeWitt Wells

... not perhaps a palace, but it was a very great deal more imposing than anything they had dreamt of in the early days of their married life, and yet John Chetwynd told himself with a sigh that he would gladly give up fame and prosperity to win back the old love-light ...
— If Only etc. • Francis Clement Philips and Augustus Harris

... more I wanted you. Then this man, King, came. You were friendly enough, with him. It made me wild. From that day when I met you in the mountains above Lone Cabin, I have been ready for anything. I determined if I could not win you by fair means, I would take you in any way I could. When my opportunity came, I took advantage of it. I've got you. The story is already started that you were the painter's mistress, and that you have committed suicide. You shall stay ...
— The Eyes of the World • Harold Bell Wright

... the cog, I was obliged to fly to this pigeon house, in order to avoid being cut up by my creditors; and, up to a little of the Newmarket logic, I am now crossing and justling though it is doubtful at present who will win the race." ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... be naive, Lieutenant. Whoever does it, is going to need little integrity. You don't win in a sharper's card game by playing your cards honestly. The biggest sharper wins. We've just found a joker somebody dropped on the floor; if we ...
— Medal of Honor • Dallas McCord Reynolds

... require to fence the round of Milan city, my dear count, to win a claim to Captain Weisspriess. In the first place, I yield him to no man who does not show himself a better man than I. It's the point upon which I don't ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... for a man to show a little genuine feeling, I'm guilty. But I was never more in earnest in my life. I want a chance to win you. I value you above any woman I have ever met. Most ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... first contests in Albany had so roused his blood that he longed to fight those battles to a finish, that is, to victory. We must make a distinction also in his motives. He did not strain every nerve to win a cause because it was his cause; but having adopted a cause which his heart and mind told him was good, he strove to make that cause triumph because he ...
— Theodore Roosevelt; An Intimate Biography, • William Roscoe Thayer

... This excess of bilious humor could not be attributed to play; for unlike Porthos, who accompanied the variations of chance with songs or oaths, Athos when he won remained as unmoved as when he lost. He had been known, in the circle of the Musketeers, to win in one night three thousand pistoles; to lose them even to the gold-embroidered belt for gala days, win all this again with the addition of a hundred louis, without his beautiful eyebrow being heightened or lowered half a line, without his ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... am sure that if I could play auction bridge loud enough to win four dollars every once in a while I could spend a large bunch of ...
— You Should Worry Says John Henry • George V. Hobart

... another instance illustrating the gratitude of a republic to a successful soldier. But for the great civil war no one supposes he would ever have been elevated to this exalted post. His services in that heroic struggle were such as to win the highest encomiums from his countrymen, and naturally at the first opportunity after the closing of the war when a Chief Executive was to be chosen they turned their eyes to the most conspicuous figure in that war and made ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant • James D. Richardson

... the robbers see they couldn't win, so their chief sounded a signal, and all that was left of them broke away and went scampering across the plain. The last man to go snatched up a child and carried it off in front of him on his horse, and a woman run screaming ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... timid and afraid as though he had been opposed by a stranger. He had always known that Martin would return. It had been his one worldly ambition and prayer to have him at his side again. When he had thought and dreamt of the time that was coming, he had thought that it would be simple enough to win the boy back to the old allegiance and faith to which he had once been bound. Meanwhile the boy had grown into a man; here was a new Martin deep in experiences, desires, ambitions of which his father could have no perception. Even in ...
— The Captives • Hugh Walpole

... teaching of the Church and the authority of the Pope; others of them were open to an orthodox as well as to an unorthodox interpretation; others, still, were opposed clearly and definitely to Catholic doctrine, and all of them were put forward in a way that was likely to arrest public attention and to win the support of the masses.[11] They were affixed to the doors of the university church in Wittenberg, and copies of them were spread broadcast through Germany. Before a week had elapsed they were discussed with eagerness in all parts of the country, and the state of feeling became so intense ...
— History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French • Rev. James MacCaffrey

... so, Andy," returned his cousin; "but if you think that another win on our part is going to close Percy up like a clam you're away off. He makes me think of a medicine ball—every time you hit it and send it flying, it comes back again as chipper as ever. He just won't stay down, ...
— The Airplane Boys among the Clouds - or, Young Aviators in a Wreck • John Luther Langworthy

... an' butter. I'll just bet five hundred dollars to a cent, and give back the cent if I win, that we have the best butter at our house that there is in Central Illinoy. You can't never hev good butter onless you have a spring house; there's no use of talkin'—all the patent churns that lazy men ever invented—all the fancy milk pans an' coolers, can't make up for a spring house. Locations ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy

... and protected from the assaults of the enemy; for Tommy is the man, say what you will, without him everything else goes smash; it is the human being who still counts in war; it is the man power which will win. ...
— On the Fringe of the Great Fight • George G. Nasmith

... were amateurs in the arts of modern warfare as so many of our own proved to be, they confidently reckoned that, if they could strike a staggering blow whilst we were as yet unready, they would inevitably win a second Amajuba. Magnanimity would again leave them masters of the situation, and if not, European intervention would presently compel us to arbitrate away our claims. But Joubert's softness, Schoeman's incompetency and Cronje's surrender spoiled the project ...
— With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back • Edward P. Lowry

... but in his happier hour Of social pleasure, ill exchanged for power; Seen him uncumbered with the venal tribe, Smile without art and win without ...
— The Age of Pope - (1700-1744) • John Dennis

... had said recently that no man was quick enough to get an even break with the gunman, which tentatively placed him as a "killer," whereas he had never given a thought to the hazard when going into a fight. He had always played the game to win, odds either way. The men he sought would be mounted. He would be on foot. This time the fugitives would have more than a fair chance. They would blunder down the pitch into the arroyo, perhaps glancing back, fearful of pursuit, ...
— Jim Waring of Sonora-Town - Tang of Life • Knibbs, Henry Herbert

... as soon as you get this letter; and I will go there by land with my family. For reasons I will explain to you some other time, I want you to keep out of the way of the Sylvania. I have made a bet that the Islander will get to New Orleans first; and I expect, from what you said, you will win the bet for me. This letter will be delivered to you by my friend, Mr. Boomsby, who will take passage with you; and you will treat him as well as you ...
— Up the River - or, Yachting on the Mississippi • Oliver Optic

... with her companions, maidens that dwelt in the city of Trachis, and told them how she had a charm with her, the blood of Nessus the Centaur; and that Nessus had given it to her in old time because she was the last whom he carried over the river Evenus; and that it would win back for her the love of her husband. So she called Lichas, the herald, and said to him that he must do a certain thing for her. And he answered, "What is it, lady? Already I have lingered ...
— Stories from the Greek Tragedians • Alfred Church

... buttoning his pants over the shirt. "I'm out of bounds, captain," he said more quietly. "I hope you don't know the prejudices behind that crack. But you win. If you ever want the rest of the ...
— Victory • Lester del Rey

... which a man of your blood, your youth, your ardor must be subject. To-day mild and tender, to-morrow fierce and suspicious, another time ardent and passionate, such you will be—and such you ought to be, if you wish to win them. Yes; let a kiss of rage be heard between two kisses: let a dagger glitter in the midst of caresses, and they will fall before you, palpitating with pleasure, love, and fear—and you will be to them, not a ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... the water, lying on the lower deck and the Captain and Engineer slitting down the skin intent on gralloching operations. Providentially, my prophetic soul induces me to leave the top of the ladder and go forward—"run to win'ard," as Captain Murray would say—for within two minutes the Captain and Engineer are up the ladder as if they had been blown up by the boilers bursting, and go as one man for the brandy bottle; and they wanted it if ever man did; for ...
— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley

... world, that I thus disdain Its moil and toil in the prime of life, When perhaps a score of years remain To win more gold in its selfish strife? Am I foolish to choose the purer air Of my glorious ...
— Poems • John L. Stoddard

... that the strong face, brown as Wyoming, expressed a pungent personality back of which was dynamic force. What did Lane want with his uncle? They had quarreled. His cousin knew that. Did young Lane expect him to back his side of the quarrel? Or did he want to win back favor ...
— Tangled Trails - A Western Detective Story • William MacLeod Raine

... has nothing to win by telling the truth," Clay answered. "He can say he saw a party of foreigners, Americans, driving in the direction of Palacio's coffee plantation. That lets him out, and in the morning he knows he can levy on us for the gate money. ...
— Soldiers of Fortune • Richard Harding Davis

... is by no means always a winner, nor does he always win with the horse that, by all signs, ought to be the victor. He has somehow acquired, whether justly or not, the reputation of being a "knowing hand" upon the turf, and all turfmen will understand what is implied in the term, whether of good ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 • Various

... in a district which is habitually the seat of a war between alien armies, the ordinary virtues of diligence, honesty, and kindliness seem to be of little avail. The only way to escape destruction is to win the favour of the prevailing powers, take the side of the strongest invader, flatter the despot, placate the Fate or Fortune or angry god that is sending the earthquake or the pestilence. The Hellenistic period ...
— Five Stages of Greek Religion • Gilbert Murray

... can find worthily printed on time-proof papers and have them bound in parchment; then let him place them on his shelves to gather gold from the touch of the mellowing years through the centuries to come and win him grateful memory such as we bestow upon the unknown hands that wrought for these volumes the garments of their present ...
— The Booklover and His Books • Harry Lyman Koopman

... said Jeannie, with enthusiastic firmness. "Say what you like o' me, only promise, for I doubt your proud heart, that you winna' harm yourself? I will go to London and beg your pardon from the king and queen. They shall pardon you, and they will win ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VII • Various

... well when I the ocean sought, Sailed in the sea-vessel with my brave warriors, That I alone would win thy folk's deliverance, Or in the fight would fall fast in the demon's grip. Needs must I now perform knightly deeds in this hall, Or here must meet my doom ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt

... that am loath to go. I have been so happy here, that the prospect of spending the coming year with Cousin Eleanor fills my mind with sad forebodings;—and yet my childish remembrances of her have in them nothing unpleasant. I think of her as a grave, quiet woman, who never strove to attract and win the love of a child. How I shall miss the life and gayety, the jests and laughter of Madge and Bertha! Madge the more, because she is so full of whims and oddities. To-night she came into my room, and brought this little book for me to write a journal of all that befell me while I ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 12, October, 1858 • Various

... my eyes upon her exquisite form and lovely countenance. Taking notice of my passionate cogitation, she interjected, "Nature created the male and female, and in order to perpetuate life itself, the union thereof is necessary; therefore, the highest aim of each should be to win and hold the love and companionship of the other. To do this successfully, each must strive to reach the very highest point of physical, as well as mental and moral excellence. Our men adored women as the most sacred ...
— Born Again • Alfred Lawson

... floedd, Eirf Illium a'i rhyfeloedd, Groeg anwar mewn garw gynnen, Bynciau y per Homer hen; Hidled Virgil, wiwged was, Win awen uwch AEneas; Gwnaed eraill ganiad eurwedd Am arfau claer,—am rwyf cledd, Byllt trwy dan gwyllt yn gwau, Mwg a niwl o'r magnelau; Brad rhyw haid, a brwydrau hen, Oes, a phleidiau Maes Flodden; {45a} Gwarchau, a dagrau ...
— Gwaith Alun • Alun

... boy, I see you know how to come round an 236old traveller: set him gossiping about all the fine things he has seen and done in his younger days, and you win his heart at once. Well, fill your glass, sir, and we'll see about it," was ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley

... original companions: indeed, it might have been better for him if he had in 1813, as he half resolved, cast away his dislike to new faces, and fought his last desperate campaigns with younger men who still had fortunes to win, leaving "Berthier to hunt at Grosbois," and the other Marshals to enjoy their well-deserved rest in their splendid hotels ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... hands it would be more effective in arresting the African slave trade than a squadron in our own hands. The possession of the least organized naval force would stimulate a generous ambition in the Republic, and the confidence which we should manifest by furnishing it would win forbearance and favor toward the colony from all ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... is born older than others, and I reckon you've got right much of your pa in you. And that's what I told McDougal I like about you. You knew what you wanted, and when you made up your mind to do a thing, 'twould be death or you would win. And my grandmother always did say, for winning, will was worth more than anything ...
— Miss Gibbie Gault • Kate Langley Bosher

... estimate. Brilliant commonplace is not greatness, but the man who is thoroughly commonplace in his conceptions, who expresses well and forcibly what his hearers think, is the one to win applause and popularity. Had Beecher been a great thinker, a church of moderate size would have held his followers. But he was not and thinkers knew it. The Rev. George L. Perin, of the Shawmut Universalist Church, Boston, said of Beecher, "As we have tried to analyze the influence of his address ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, May 1887 - Volume 1, Number 4 • Various

... of a Bolognese butcher, conceived his plan of replacing it upon a sounder system.[218] Instinct led him to Venice, where painting was still alive. The veteran Tintoretto warned him that he had no vocation. But Lodovico obstinately resolved to win by industry what nature seemed to have denied him. He studied diligently at Florence, Parma, Mantua, and Venice, founding his style upon those of Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Titian, Parmigiano, Giulio Romano, ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds

... dispositions upon both sides with which the two met. But the best resolutions win no battle. They are part, and a very serious part of every undertaking, but they are far from being all. We are so imperfect ourselves, and we have to do with such imperfect beings, that evils and difficulties, unexpected, ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850. • Various

... voluntarily under our authority while the others have done and do all in their power to escape it. For there seems no reason to doubt, that if Florence, instead of exasperating these neighbours of hers, had sought to win them over, either by entering into league with them or by lending them assistance, she would at this hour have been mistress of Tuscany. Not that I would be understood to maintain that recourse is never to be had to force and ...
— Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius • Niccolo Machiavelli

... telling evidence of human failure, because she is the theatre of the greatest human effort, both in the ranks of Satan and of God; and she visibly mourns her sins of mistake at the feet of spiritual victory, Saints Peter and Paul. (As a Catholic, I could hardly win the respect of the gentle reader if I were so un-American as to fear to stand by my belief.) And while the observer in Rome may well feel sad in the midst of reminders of the enormous sins of the past, there is an uplifting, for the ...
— Memories of Hawthorne • Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

... Colonel Henry Esmond, describing that journey of his to Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine, whence he brought back 'Monsieur Baptiste,' all to win fair Beatrix Esmond. We know how 'Monsieur Baptiste' stole his lady-love from the glum Colonel, and ran after the maids, and drank too much wine, and came to the King's Arms at Kensington the day after the fair (he was always 'after the fair'), and found Argyll's regiment in occupation, and heard ...
— Historical Mysteries • Andrew Lang

... at them, "the way to conquer is to act, and he who acts promptly is sure to win. This makes a very good prison, from which I am sure you cannot escape. Please amuse yourselves in any way you like, but I must beg you to excuse me, as I have business in ...
— The Lost Princess of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... point with the callers was to secure the good-will of the savages. It may seem shrewd on their part, but any boy, no matter what his age, knows that the surest way to win the friendship of a household is to magnify the ...
— The Lost Trail - I • Edward S. Ellis

... artist may employ in order to win us is the appeal of sense. However repellent be the objects which he represents, if he can clothe them in a sensuous material which will charm us, he will have exerted a powerful countervailing force. We have ...
— The Principles Of Aesthetics • Dewitt H. Parker

... yours to win," she continued. "Oh! do not look at me like that, as though I have murdered your happiness. What have you done, you poor child, that you should suffer like this for my sake. For the sake of my future peace of mind I entreat you to listen ...
— Wee Wifie • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... for him once more. If they offered violence, there was the state militia, armed and impatient to slay. Also, this was an excellent opportunity to stamp out trade-unionism within the confines of his activities. He would win the plaudits of the whole industrial world by so doing. He therefore immediately got in touch with the Governor, a Tammany puppet, and received that loyal henchman's warm assurances of hearty support for any measures which the great magnate might wish to enforce. He then approached ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... should it even be the case, Gilbert, I should know no friend among my country's enemies. Farewell—you will think better of this subject; and remember, that no one but a Republican will ever win ...
— The Old Bell Of Independence; Or, Philadelphia In 1776 • Henry C. Watson

... Widdrington seemed a little distasted that I was the first Commissioner, named before him, which was done when I was out of England, and, I suppose, because I was then Ambassador Extraordinary in their actual service. We went away together to consult about the business of the Seal, and I sought to win Sir Thomas Widdrington by my civility ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke

... the palace of a daimyo; the blind shampooer might become, in his very next life, an imperial minister. Always the recompense would be proportionate to the sum of merit. In this lower world to practise the highest virtue was difficult; and the great rewards were hard to win. But for all good deeds a recompense was sure; and there was no one who could not acquire merit. [196] Even the Shinto doctrine of conscience—the god-given sense of right and wrong—was not denied by Buddhism. But this conscience was interpreted as the essential ...
— Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation • Lafcadio Hearn

... could 'a' been any better than this here one I'm tellin' about, ef it was ten times ez big. I don't regret the investment and I don't aim to lie about it now. Mister Sublette, I'd do the same thing over ag'in ef the chance should come, lawsuit or no lawsuit. Ef you should win this here case mebbe I wouldn't ...
— From Place to Place • Irvin S. Cobb

... us, as he pointed to the numerous monograms carved on the top of Cheops, that a lover who cuts the initials of his adored there, and calls upon Allah to prosper his suit, is certain to win her. Would you believe it, soon after this I saw ...
— Round the World • Andrew Carnegie

... fervently trust that before long the principles of arbitration may win such confidence as to justify its extension to a wider field of international differences. We have already seen how questions arousing passion and excitement have attained a solution, not necessarily by means ...
— America First - Patriotic Readings • Various

... this Noble passion Childe of integrity, hath from my soule Wip'd the blacke Scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts To thy good Truth, and Honor. Diuellish Macbeth, By many of these traines, hath sought to win me Into his power: and modest Wisedome pluckes me From ouer-credulous hast: but God aboue Deale betweene thee and me; For euen now I put my selfe to thy Direction, and Vnspeake mine owne detraction. Heere abiure The taints, and blames ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... cried to himself. "If I could help to win them back again! That would be fine! How sick that would make those cursed Bodies and their knock-kneed ...
— The Broken Soldier and the Maid of France • Henry Van Dyke

... Let us keep to the main issue. Some three months ago I made the acquaintance of a lady fitted in every respect to fill my ideal. I was on good terms with her father, and by no means distasteful to the lady herself. Given a fair opportunity, I thought I might win her, and I was puzzling my wits to know how best to attain that most desirable end when Fate apparently opened a way. But you have no doubt observed in life that while one can seldom misinterpret Fate's frowns, her smiles can be damnably misleading. ...
— Cynthia's Chauffeur • Louis Tracy



Words linked to "Win" :   no-win, prevail, assay, negociate, romp, lose, manage, score, act, go far, cozen, run, reach, tally, steal, essay, triumph, gain ground, work, win over, luck out, acquire, first-place finish, get in, take, compete, make headway, fall back, bring off, nail, victory, sweep, hit, bring home the bacon, carry, financial gain, nail down, vie, accomplish, gain, make it, rack up



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com