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Disarm   /dɪsˈɑrm/   Listen
Disarm

verb
(past & past part. disarming; pres. part. disarming)
1.
Remove offensive capability from.  Synonyms: demilitarise, demilitarize.
2.
Make less hostile; win over.
3.
Take away the weapons from; render harmless.  Synonym: unarm.



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"Disarm" Quotes from Famous Books



... The Greeks outside continue their lament, while those inside strive to let them know the news which will cause them to rejoice. They disarm and bind their prisoners, who pray and beg of them to strike off their heads straightway. But the Greeks are unwilling, and disdain their entreaties, saying that them will keep then under guard and hand them over to the King, who will grant them such recompense as shall require their ...
— Four Arthurian Romances - "Erec et Enide", "Cliges", "Yvain", and "Lancelot" • Chretien de Troyes

... his master. "There is no use in shedding unnecessary blood; but, in any event, let us not permit them to disarm us, should they insist on doing so. They know I never go three yards from my hall-door without arms, and it is not improbable they may make a point of taking them from us. I, however, for one, will not trust to their promises, for ...
— Willy Reilly - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... dream of a sixty-days' riot, the North woke with a gasp. A week or two later, Camp Dick Robinson squatted down on the edge of the Bluegrass, the first violation of the State's neutrality, and beckoned with both hands for Yankee recruits. Soon an order went round to disarm the State Guards, and on that very day the State Guards made ready for Dixie. On that day the crisis came at the Deans', and on that day Chad Buford made up his mind. When the Major and Miss Lucy went to bed that night, he slipped out of the house and walked through the yard ...
— The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come • John Fox

... mamma, for reminding me of the fact," she said, bitterly. "It is true that through her all my fondest hopes have been blighted, and I suppose I ought to bitterly hate her for it; but truly her exceeding beauty and sweetness half disarm me." ...
— Virgie's Inheritance • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... reason as this, that we who profess to live in unison and friendship, not only among ourselves, but with all the world that we should object to the cultivation of the fine arts, of those arts which disarm the natural ferocity of man? We may as well be told that the doctrine of peace and life ought to be proscribed in the world because it is pernicious to the practice of war and slaughter, as that the arts which call on man to exercise ...
— The Life, Studies, And Works Of Benjamin West, Esq. • John Galt

... d'Albufex. At nine o'clock, the Growler, the Masher and I climb the ramparts, burst into the fortress, attack the keep, disarm the garrison... and the thing's done: Daubrecq ...
— The Crystal Stopper • Maurice LeBlanc

... only remove the dagger from his mouth! Surely one so kind and gentle as she would let him go in peace if he could only plead with her! But to let the dagger fall from his teeth would be to disarm himself, and he was hardly ready for that; and there was much thinking and planning to be done within a very ...
— The Ape, the Idiot & Other People • W. C. Morrow

... similar to Emperor William's, which I related at our last meeting. The Emperor and his Chancellor, in matters of state, have been as one man. Each has aimed to secure the unity of the German empire. Each has sought to disarm, on the one hand, that branch of the Catholic party who give their allegiance to Rome rather than the government, the so-called Ultramontanes; and the Socialists, on the other hand, who would overthrow the monarchy. The ...
— ZigZag Journeys in Northern Lands; - The Rhine to the Arctic • Hezekiah Butterworth

... attacking. He could not have had much difficulty in defending himself from the charge, about which he remarks he had been 'of late very pestilent reported.' It was not so clear that he recognized the Earl's paramount title as Queen's favourite. To disarm suspicion on that score he adds a postscript: 'The Queen is in very good terms with you, and, thank be to God, well pacified; and you are again her Sweet Robyn.' He cannot have esteemed Leicester. A stinging epitaph, attributed to ...
— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing

... Amiens are not yet entirely subdued to the times, and Chabot gave some hints of a project to disarm them, and actually attempted to arrest some of their officers; but, apprized of his design, they remained two nights under arms, and the Capuchin, who is not martially inclined, was so alarmed at this indication of resistance, that he has left the town with more haste than ceremony.—He ...
— A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, • An English Lady

... varlet!" I heard a stern voice hiss at my ear. "Beshrew me, but it shall go hard with him! I'm loading her up with marbles now!" But I had no more than time to persuade my two lieutenants to modify this purpose, and partially to disarm themselves, before the two groups were mingling, with much chattering and ...
— The Lady and the Pirate - Being the Plain Tale of a Diligent Pirate and a Fair Captive • Emerson Hough

... You cannot disarm a poisonous snake without killing it. If the fangs are removed others come quickly to take their place. In fact, a number of small, half-grown fangs are always waiting ready ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts

... his rifle and ordered him to surrender. Surprised, taken entirely unawares, Kit started to jump for cover, when Racketty fired, shattered his right leg and brought him to earth. To spring upon and disarm Kit was the work of ...
— The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier • Edgar Beecher Bronson

... be an unwarranted presumption. I know she has the name of being affable to her dependents, capable of a fitful generosity, and easily moved by distress; and it is certain that her domestic situation has been one to excite pity and disarm criticism. ...
— The Valley of Decision • Edith Wharton

... thou more attend? Ah Antonie! why dost thou death deferre? Since Fortune thy professed enimie, Hath made to die, who only made thee liue? Sone as with sighes he had these words vp clos'd, His armor he vnlaste, and cast it of, Then all disarm'd he thus againe did say: My Queene, my heart, the grief that now I feele, Is not that I your eies, my Sunne, do loose, For soone againe one Tombe shal vs conioyne: I grieue, whom men so valorouse did deeme, Should now, then you, of lesser valor ...
— A Discourse of Life and Death, by Mornay; and Antonius by Garnier • Philippe de Mornay

... Music! if thou hast a charm That may the sense of pain disarm, Be all thy tender tones addressed To soothe to peace my Harriet's breast; And bid the magic of thy strain So still the wakeful throb of pain, That, rapt in the delightful measure, Sweet Hope again may whisper pleasure, And seem the notes of Spring ...
— The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 • William Lisle Bowles

... their own actual work, which is sometimes not wholly contemptible. He concerns us here only as the author of a philosophical-heroic romance, rather agreeably entitled Macarise ou La Reine des Iles Fortunees, where the bland naivete of the pedantry would almost disarm the present members of that Critical Regiment, of which the Abbe, in his turn, was not so much a chaplain as a most combatant officer. The very title goes on to neutralise its attractiveness by explaining—with that benignant condescension which is natural to at least some of its author's class—that ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury

... Which loves not to behold a lifeless thing, Transfuses into all things its own Will, And its own pleasures; sometimes with deep faith, And sometimes with a wilful playfulness That stealing pardon from our common sense Smiles, as self-scornful, to disarm the scorn For these wild reliques of our childish Thought, That flit about, oft go, and oft return Not uninvited. Ah there was a time, When oft amused by no such subtle toys Of the self-watching mind, a child at school, With ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... too; That's a suspicious word. It had been proper, Before thy foot had spurned me; now 'tis base: Yet, to disarm thee of thy last defence, I have thy oath for my security. The only boon I begged was this fair combat: Fight, or be perjured now; that's ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden

... were on their way; One fearful; one without dismay, An able fencer. As they went, A robber came with black intent; Demanding, upon pain of death, Their gold and silver in a breath. At which the man of spirit drew, And instantly disarm'd and slew The Thief, his honor to maintain. Soon as the rogue was fairly slain, The tim'rous chap began to puff, And drew his sword, and stripp'd in buff— "Leave me alone with him! stand back! I'll teach him ...
— The Fables of Phdrus - Literally translated into English prose with notes • Phaedrus

... supposed that system to be, they were not inclined to depend on its efficacy, such as they had tried it. They therefore now resorted to a measure which has hitherto been used only by irritated victors over perfidious and vanquish'd enemies—they sent them troops, not to disarm the inhabitants of a district, or to act with discretionary powers for, what was now a general pretext for violence of every species, the preservation of the public peace; but permanently to live at free quarters on all the inhabitants of those counties which were in what ...
— The Causes of the Rebellion in Ireland Disclosed • Anonymous

... passion; but how could he have roused it? There was nothing in him to account for it. And she did not know him—knew nothing about his life or his character. She was beautiful certainly—beautiful and alluring, and clever and original—a most exceptional woman. She might well be able to disarm a man of his self-control, and paralyze his will. But after that—what then? How would it end? Better not begin—not begin. That would ...
— The Malady of the Century • Max Nordau

... and forced, in spite of his vehement reluctance, to quit the comforts of a palace, which he was never to revisit, for the hardships of a distant camp. His first act was strikingly illustrative of the Roman condition, as we have just described it. Aurelian had attempted to disarm one set of enemies by turning the current of their fury upon another. The Alani were in search of plunder, and strongly disposed to obtain it from Roman provinces. "But no," said Aurelian; "if you do that, I shall ...
— The Caesars • Thomas de Quincey

... had been all our intercourse, had confessed a weakness equal to my own; but in my heart I knew her for the student of the cold northern chamber, and the writer of the sorrowful lines; and this was a knowledge to disarm a brute. To flee was more than I could find courage for; but I registered a vow ...
— The Merry Men - and Other Tales and Fables • Robert Louis Stevenson

... were about to speak, yet said nothing. He unfastened the paper from the pillar, read it through once again, and cried, "Waldmann! have my horse saddled!"—then, "Sternbald, follow me into the castle!" and with that he disappeared. It had needed but these few words of that godly man to disarm him suddenly in the midst of all the dire destruction that he ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... had been basely attempted to be assassinated by bravoes, hired by a man of title in Italy, who, like many other persons of title, had no honour; and, at Padua, I had the fortune to disarm one of these bravoes in my friend's defence, and made him confess his employer; and him, I own, I challenged. At Sienna we met, and he died in a month after, of a fever; but, I hope, not occasioned by the slight wounds he had received from me; though I was obliged to leave ...
— Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded • Samuel Richardson

... of incense and mockery, an odour of consecrated wine and a savour of heathen wit, rise up together from every sentence and disarm us with the insidiousness of their pleasant contrast. His style is so beautiful and characteristic that one cannot read the simplest passage of easy narration from his pen without becoming penetrated with his spirit, without ...
— Suspended Judgments - Essays on Books and Sensations • John Cowper Powys

... clouds of alkali dust, but, all the same, when the two black troops were more than a quarter of a mile away the Indians broke and ran as if the old boy himself were after them, and it was then an easy matter to round them up and disarm them. The chiefs afterward confessed that they were scared out by the awful howling of ...
— History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest • Edward A. Johnson

... is a call put forth in innumerable different tongues around the world, and it sounds somewhere every second of the day and darkness—through jungles, across swamps, down mountains, over plains, out of valleys. It is a cry of warning, a cry to disarm foes. It is an outcry of good as against evil—the squawk of a hen to her chicks, the bleat of a sheep to her lambs, the grunt of a sow to her sucklings, the bellow of a cow to her calf, the purr of a cat to her kittens, the whine of a dog to her puppies, ...
— Bred of the Desert - A Horse and a Romance • Marcus Horton

... making a broad and determined effort to confront these dangers. We have called on the United Nations to fulfill its charter, and stand by its demand that Iraq disarm. We are strongly supporting the International Atomic Energy Agency in its mission to track and control nuclear materials around the world. We are working with other governments to secure nuclear materials in the former ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... disarm them . . . take them prisoners to Luderitzbucht to pay for their knavery," muttered the old man savagely. "Six and with arms, you say! And what care I for six such schwein- hunden? And you, Herr Sydney, I know you ...
— A Rip Van Winkle Of The Kalahari - Seven Tales of South-West Africa • Frederick Cornell

... that certain of his cabinet were in league with the seceding states; and prominent among them was John Floyd, secretary of war. The successful efforts of this officer to disarm the North, while accumulating the munitions of war in the South; to scatter the forces by locating them in widely separated and remote stations; and in other ways to dispose of the regular army in the manner best calculated to favor ...
— The Story of "Mormonism" • James E. Talmage

... the place he was regarded with suspicion. His hunting costume was not unlike that of a bandit. But the fact that he had a young companion tended to disarm suspicion. No one could suspect Ernest of complicity with outlaws, and the Fox brothers had never been known to carry a ...
— A Cousin's Conspiracy - A Boy's Struggle for an Inheritance • Horatio Alger

... once.... She seemed so sympathetic!... 'I commend your bravery,' she said prettily, offering me her hand.... It was small and beautifully moulded, yet firm and steady, and sent an electric thrill through me like a flash.... Her eyes would disarm the most suspicious diplomatic free-lance in the world.... Struck with admiration, hypnotized by her voice, I could only blurt, ...
— Rescuing the Czar - Two authentic Diaries arranged and translated • James P. Smythe

... So, indeed, he had—for the moment. But he had deliberately beguiled her; their situation he knew to be quite unchanged in its inevitable termination, since a food supply would save them from starvation only to deliver them to the snow; and he must disarm her of suspicion in order to find a way to send her back on the trail. For he had reflected on the implication of tragic finality in the speech that had surprised and disturbed him; and he did not doubt that when the time should come, and she should find herself alone, her high ...
— The Heart of Thunder Mountain • Edfrid A. Bingham

... he said, as the officer rode up towards the tower, "do not shed more blood. Thirty at least have fallen in their attack on this turret, besides those who have been killed by your fire. Take the rest, disarm them all, let the men cut some stout switches and give every man twenty blows well laid on the back, and then let them go. Before you do so, send a dozen of them to clear the staircase and to draw some buckets of water from ...
— Won by the Sword - A Story of the Thirty Years' War • G.A. Henty

... a better aspect. A negotiation is going on here for the purpose of inviting France to join the alliance, and take part in the final settlement of the Eastern Question, which she desires no better than to accept, and then to disarm; indeed, she has already begun to do so. The delay is occasioned by some difficulty as to the forms to be adopted. The French want some phrases, which don't seem unreasonable in themselves, but about which the Russian makes a difficulty. There is ...
— The Greville Memoirs (Second Part) - A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 - (Volume 1 of 3) • Charles C. F. Greville

... folly, That spur'd us on; we were indeed hedg'd round in't; And ev'n beyond the hand of succour, beaten, Unhors'd, disarm'd: and what we lookt for then, Sir, Let such poor weary Souls that hear the Bell knoll, And see the Grave a ...
— Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (2 of 10) - The Humourous Lieutenant • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... mind it, for this was not a job where I could do much shooting. But it made me think a good deal about Mr Gresson. He simply could not suspect me; if he had bagged my gun, as I was pretty certain he had, it must be because he wanted it for himself and not that he might disarm me. Every way I argued it I reached the same conclusion. In Gresson's eyes I must seem as harmless as ...
— Mr. Standfast • John Buchan

... knew not that there was anything in my own appearance calculated to disarm ridicule; and indeed, to have looked at all heroic, under the circumstances, would have been rather difficult. Still, I could not but feel exceedingly annoyed at the prospect of being screamed at, in turn, by this mischievous young witch, even though she were ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville

... murderers as fine-art professors to make a new start, to turn the corner, to retreat upon the road they have come, as though it were new to them, and to make diversions that disarm suspicion. This they owe to fortunate obscurity, which attests anew the wonderful compensations of life; for celebrity and power combine to ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... unsheathed his knife and is going to kill the German!" And Desnoyers had hurried from his office, warned by the peon's summons. Madariaga was chasing Karl, knife in hand, stumbling over everything that blocked his way. Only his son-in-law dared to stop him and disarm him. ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... "Seize him; disarm him, and bind him," commanded the King. "There are enough gentlemen in this company to see that the rules of the game ...
— The Strong Arm • Robert Barr

... That he forthwith disarm the Spanish regiments Attached to the Emp'ror, that he seize on Prague, And to the Swedes give up that city, ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. III • Kuno Francke (Editor-in-Chief)

... is slender formed, with bright black eyes That sparkle oft and dance with joy's surprise; Seduction, with her rare voluptuous form, Enchanteth all till wildest passions warm The blood and fire the eye beneath her charm; All hearts in heaven and earth she doth disarm. The Queen with every perfect charm displayed Delights the eye, and fills the heart, dismayed With fear, lest the bright phantom may dissolve To airy nothingness, till fierce resolve Fills each who her beholds, while love doth dart From liquid eyes and captivates ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Literature • Anonymous

... of Europe. Prussian policy, however, was not the only cause of anxiety in France, for at the same period the Republican opposition to the Imperial authority was steadily gaining strength in the great cities, and the political concessions by which Napoleon III sought to disarm it only emboldened it ...
— My Days of Adventure - The Fall of France, 1870-71 • Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

... position, wearing a black frock-coat that had become too wide for him, with his white hair resting on its collar. He was especially urgent that the National Guard in Paris should retain its arms. He consented to the disarmament of the Mobiles and the army, but he said it would be impossible to disarm the National Guard. At length Bismarck yielded this point, but with superior sagacity remarked: "So be it. But believe me you are doing a foolish thing. Sooner or later you will be sorry you did not disarm those unquiet spirits. Their arms ...
— France in the Nineteenth Century • Elizabeth Latimer

... tolerance, as a well-meaning, but hopelessly incompetent, old foozle. That the Jinnee should ever become malevolent towards him had never entered his head till now—and yet he undoubtedly had. How was he to cajole and disarm this formidable being? He must keep cool and act promptly, or he would never see ...
— The Brass Bottle • F. Anstey

... attempted it by meekness and submission, thinking to disarm by that method. It never will do, any more than getting into a passion. When a man gives up his liberty, he does make a great sacrifice—that I'm sure of; and a woman should prevent him feeling that he ...
— The Poacher - Joseph Rushbrook • Frederick Marryat

... lie in finding favour with an individual protector. When, therefore, the new-comer fearlessly laid his hand on an arm which could have killed him at a blow, and rather by gesture than by force released my captives, policy as well as instinct dictated submission. I allowed him to disarm and make me in some sense his prisoner without a show of resistance. He took me by the left hand, first placing my fingers upon his own wrist and then grasping mine, and led me quietly through the crowd, which gave way before him reluctantly and not without angry murmurs, but with ...
— Across the Zodiac • Percy Greg

... surfeit on blind fortune's cup; Give them more place, more dignities, more style, Call them to court, to senate; in the while, Take from their strength some one or twain, or more, Of the main factors, (it will fright the store,) And, by some by-occasion. Thus, with slight You shall disarm them first; and they, in night Of their ambition, not perceive the train, Till in the engine they are ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson

... between the two kings. Neither was unwilling; the Isle of Alney in the Severn was chosen for the lists. Edmund had the advantage by the greatness of his strength, Canute by his address; for when Edmund had so far prevailed as to disarm him, he proposed a parley, in which he persuaded Edmund to a peace, and to a division of the kingdom. Their armies accepted the agreement, and both kings departed in a seeming friendship. But Edmund died soon after, with a probable suspicion of being murdered ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VII. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... responded Conscience with spirit. "You show me half the reason that woman had and I'll start my lawyer filing a petition the same day. I'll go further than that." Her eyes were twinkling since she meant to treat all these allusions so lightly as to disarm his own seriousness. "As a self-inflicted penalty I'll ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck

... change our own; where, from a regard to the welfare of our fellow creatures, we endeavour to pacify their animosities, and unite them by the ties of affection. In the pursuit of this amiable intention, we may hope, in some instances, to disarm the angry passions of jealousy and envy; we may hope to instil into the breasts of private men sentiments of candour towards their fellow creatures, and a disposition to humanity and justice. But it is vain to expect that we can give ...
— An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Eighth Edition • Adam Ferguson, L.L.D.

... he came from hunting, sent for me. I went with great terror: for I expected he would storm, and be in a fine passion with me for my freedom of speech before: so I was resolved to begin first, with submission, to disarm his anger; and I fell upon my knees as soon as I saw him; and said, Good sir, let me beseech you, as you hope to be forgiven yourself, and for the sake of my dear good lady your mother, who recommended me to you with her last words, to forgive me all ...
— Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded • Samuel Richardson

... live, move, and have their being at the arbitrary will of a licentious minister, they basely yield to voluntary slavery, and future generations shall load their memories with incessant execrations. On the other hand, if we arrest the hand which would ransack our pockets, if we disarm the parricide which points the dagger to our bosoms, if we nobly defeat that fatal edict which proclaims a power to frame laws for us in all cases whatsoever, thereby entailing the endless and numberless curses of slavery upon us, our heirs, and their heirs for ever; if we successfully resist ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5) • John Marshall

... The Rat, glowering over his map. "If the Secret Party rises suddenly now, it can take Melzarr almost without a blow. It can sweep through the country and disarm both armies. They're weakened—they're half starved—they're bleeding to death; they WANT to be disarmed. Only the Iarovitch and the Maranovitch keep on with the struggle because each is fighting for the power to tax the people and make ...
— The Lost Prince • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... awful scene of the siege of Magdeburg; a picture for which, says Schiller, "History has no speech, and Poetry no pencil." "Neither childhood, nor age," another author affirms, "nor sex, nor rank, nor beauty were able to disarm the conqueror's wrath. Wives were mishandled in the arms of their husbands, daughters at the feet of their fathers. Women were found beheaded in a church, whilst the troopers amused themselves by throwing infants ...
— History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology • John F. Hurst

... so gently I felt she might disarm and slay me if she would, "Rufus Gillespie"—that was a return of the old spirit, a compromise between her will and mine—"please don't begin saying that sort of thing—there's a whole ...
— Lords of the North • A. C. Laut

... that thus it fares with age, When pleasure, wealth, or power, the bosom warm, This baffled hope might tame thy manhood's rage, And Disappointment of her sting disarm.—— But why should foresight thy fond heart alarm? Perish the lore that deadens young desire! Pursue, poor imp, the imaginary charm, Indulge gay hope, and fancy's pleasing fire: Fancy and Hope too ...
— The Minstrel; or the Progress of Genius - with some other poems • James Beattie

... soul awake to every charm That Nature open'd from thy humble cot: Speaks powers chill Indigence could not disarm; Proof to Humanity's ...
— The Farmer's Boy - A Rural Poem • Robert Bloomfield

... by the very men who accuse him of playing with the conspiracy. It is clear that he sought to prevent a rising, which was expected to coincide with a French invasion. In fact the only prudent course was to repress and disarm at all possible points. ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... Charlie said. "You slip on the handcuffs, and you, Harry, if you can find his throat in the dark, grip it pretty tightly, till Tony can slip the gag into his mouth. Then he can light the candle again, and we can then disarm and search him, fasten his legs, and get him ready to put in ...
— A Jacobite Exile - Being the Adventures of a Young Englishman in the Service of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden • G. A. Henty

... true, and of the flimsiest manufacture, but at a little distance the effect could not have been improved, and when the dance began to the accompaniment of music "on the waters" the effect was charming enough to disarm the most exacting of critics. It was an adaptation of the "scarf dance" practised by the pupils, but the dresses, the circumstances, the surroundings added charm to the accustomed movements, and there were, of course, deviations from the original figures, noticeably at the end, when, ...
— Tom and Some Other Girls - A Public School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... immutable immortal laws Impress'd on Nature by the GREAT FIRST CAUSE, Say, MUSE! how rose from elemental strife Organic forms, and kindled into life; How Love and Sympathy with potent charm Warm the cold heart, the lifted hand disarm; Allure with pleasures, and alarm with pains, And bind Society ...
— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin

... institution of six vestals; [94] but the primitive church was filled with a great number of persons of either sex, who had devoted themselves to the profession of perpetual chastity. [95] A few of these, among whom we may reckon the learned Origen, judged it the most prudent to disarm the tempter. [96] Some were insensible and some were invincible against the assaults of the flesh. Disdaining an ignominious flight, the virgins of the warm climate of Africa encountered the enemy in the closest ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon

... in part," returned the scout, "and yet, at the bottom, 'tis a wicked lie. Such a treaty was made in ages gone by, through the deviltries of the Dutchers, who wished to disarm the natives that had the best right to the country, where they had settled themselves. The Mohicans, though a part of the same nation, having to deal with the English, never entered into the silly bargain, but kept to their ...
— The Last of the Mohicans • James Fenimore Cooper

... them are already mutinous. They have been tampered with by politicians, and made to believe that if they get up a mutiny and demand Fremont's return the government will be forced to restore him to duty here. It is believed that some high officers are in the plot I have already been obliged to disarm several of these organizations, and I am daily expecting more serious outbreaks. Another grave difficulty is the want of proper general officers to command the troops and enforce order and discipline, ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... She saw before her just what she wanted, and it seemed that she had only to grasp her pencil or brush, and place the fleeting expressions where they might always appeal to the sympathy of the beholder. Nearly all her studies now were the human face and form, mainly those of ladies, to disarm suspicion. Of course she took no distinct likeness of Dennis. She sought only to paint what his face expressed. At times she seemed about to succeed, and excitement brought color to her cheek and ...
— Barriers Burned Away • E. P. Roe

... raised afresh his weapon keen; But still the gracious Shade disarm'd his aim, Stepping with brave alacrity between, And made his sore arm powerless and tame. His be perpetual glory, for the shame Of hoary Saturn in that grand defeat!— But I must tell how here Titania, came With all her kneeling ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood

... attack him," said Selma. "After all, he is the enemy. We can't let him disarm us ...
— The Conflict • David Graham Phillips

... it Cleremont's valour that disarm'd us, I had the better of him; for Dinant, If that might make my peace with you, I dare Write him a Coward upon every post, And with the hazard of ...
— The Little French Lawyer - A Comedy • Francis Beaumont

... not see her departure—they were in anxious consultation in one of the small private parlors, and the artist, to disarm suspicion of his design, entered the hotel, and passed out again by a side door, from which he took a short-cut across the field intending to watch Ida, without being ...
— A Face Illumined • E. P. Roe

... lay on deck, fast bound with cords, disarm'd, In utter hopelessness. I did not think Again to see the gladsome light of day, Nor the dear faces of my wife and boys, And eyed disconsolate the ...
— Wilhelm Tell - Title: William Tell • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

... they were young, old, attractive or repulsive, male or female, I never knew any one whose manner was more uniformly winsome or who seemed so easily to disarm or relax an indifferent or irritated mood. He was positive sunshine, the same in quality as that of a bright spring morning. His blue eyes focused mellowly, his lips were tendrilled with smiles. He had a brisk, quick manner, always somehow suggestive of my mother, ...
— Twelve Men • Theodore Dreiser

... importation into several countries of certain of our animals and their products, based upon the suspicion that health is endangered in their use and consumption, suggests the importance of such precautions for the protection of our stock of all kinds against disease as will disarm suspicion of danger and cause the removal of ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... Saxon answered good-humouredly, kicking the sword towards his youthful opponent. 'But, mark you! when you would lunge, direct your point upwards rather than down, for otherwise you must throw your wrist open to your antagonist, who can scarce fail to disarm you. In quarte, tierce, or saccoon the same ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle

... himself had come it's certain he would have recognised me. I gave him a rather nasty jag when he arrested me four years ago, so it isn't very likely he forgets. And now let's part. At all hazards, get away from Dresden. But go back to the hotel first, so as to disarm suspicion. When you are safe, wire to the address in the Tottenham ...
— The Count's Chauffeur • William Le Queux

... services of a strong body of men who might, after all, be faithful at the critical moment. Moreover, it was doubtful whether they would submit to be disarmed, by a force so inferior to their own. Should the attempt to disarm them succeed, they must either be escorted back to Candahar, by a strong detachment of the British; or be permitted to disperse, in which case they would assuredly swell the advancing ...
— For Name and Fame - Or Through Afghan Passes • G. A. Henty

... had any curiosity in the matter, such an independent spirit would entirely disarm one. So we will pass from the point of commercial morality to the ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney

... to survey Where rougher climes a nobler race display; Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansion tread, And force a churlish soil for scanty bread, Yet still, e'en here, Content can spread a charm, Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm. Though poor the peasant's hut his feast though small, He sees his little lot, the lot of all; Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose, Breathes the keen air, and carrols as he goes. At night returning, every labour sped, He sits him down, the monarch of his shed; ...
— Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 1741-1810 • Edward Ziegler Davis

... that all those who have maligned and tortured him could talk with him as I had talked with him. To know his great heart would disarm them of all antagonism. They would feel, as I feel, that his life is so much nobler than theirs, and his burdens so much heavier, that they would go ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... matters assumed a different aspect, with the consequence that the engagements remained unfulfilled. Will it be different in the future? Can the Powers which enter into the League of Nations trust to the security which it promises? Can they be prepared to disarm, although there is no guarantee that, when grave conflicts of vital interests arise, all the members of the League will faithfully stand ...
— The League of Nations and its Problems - Three Lectures • Lassa Oppenheim

... of appointing the hour for the departure of his guests; but declared that he had no apology to offer:—that the time for courteous observance was past, when his guests were discovered to be sent merely to amuse and disarm him for the hour, while blows were struck at a distance against the liberties of his race. In delivering his despatches, he said, he was delivering his farewell. Within an hour, the deputation and himself must ...
— The Hour and the Man - An Historical Romance • Harriet Martineau

... passages that I shall quote bear the same way, but we shall not stay to make any comment on them. I would ask you to think them over seriously; disarm your mind as far as possible from prejudice; let the glorious truth prevail. Ponder such passages ...
— Love's Final Victory • Horatio

... surgeon to perform a responsible office, even though it was for one whom he had taught himself to look upon in the light of an enemy. He was soon by the side of the sufferer. The sight which met his eyes was sufficient to disarm all hostility. The young midshipman, lately so joyous, with the flush of health on his cheeks, lay pale as death, groaning piteously; his side had been torn open, and a splinter had taken part of the scalp from his ...
— Paul Gerrard - The Cabin Boy • W.H.G. Kingston

... not mind his cross words, his petulance, his spasms of anger," constantly repeated the patient wife, but they entered her soul. "I will disarm him with smiles and pleasant words," she every day resolved; yet every day was she pierced anew with his arrowy verbality. "He shall have to remember me only as a good wife and true," she said mentally, even while her heart was ground as with a ...
— Hubert's Wife - A Story for You • Minnie Mary Lee

... palters with the hope of true courage, and binds it at the feet of crafty and cruel skill. It surrounds its victim with the pomp and grace of the procession, but leaves him bleeding on the altar. It substitutes cold and deliberate preparedness for courage and manly impulse, and arms the one to disarm the other. It makes the mere trick of the weapon superior to the noblest cause and the truest courage. Its pretence of equality is a lie; it is equal in all the form, it is unjust in all the substance. The habitude of arms, the early training, the ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... despite the excellent instructive routine of The Citizens, must, from the technical standpoint, be called raw levies. Yet that great citizen army, by reason of its fine patriotism, was able in less than one hundred hours from the time of the declaration, to defeat, disarm, and extinguish as a fighting force some three hundred thousand of the most perfectly trained troops in the world. That was the immediate objective of Britain's war policy; or, to be exact, the accomplishment ...
— The Message • Alec John Dawson

... sometimes much larger; on one occasion as many as three hundred and sixty Thugs accomplished the murder of a party of forty persons in Bilaspur. [682] They pretended to be traders, soldiers or cultivators and usually went without weapons in order to disarm suspicion; and this practice also furnished them with an excuse for seeking for permission to accompany parties travelling with arms. There was nothing to excite alarm or suspicion in the appearance of these murderers; but on the contrary they are described as being mild and benevolent ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV - Kumhar-Yemkala • R.V. Russell

... can charm, And fate's severest rage disarm; Music can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please; Our joys below it can improve, And antedate the bliss above. This the divine Cecilia found, And to her Maker's praise confin'd the sound. When the full organ joins the tuneful ...
— Among the Great Masters of Music - Scenes in the Lives of Famous Musicians • Walter Rowlands

... Mind.... Mr. Holcroft talked a great deal about Peace, of his being against any violent or coercive means, that were usually resorted to against our fellow-creatures, urged the more powerful operation of Philosophy and Reason to convince man of his errors; that he would disarm his greatest enemy by these means and oppose his Fury. He spoke also about Truth being powerful, and gave advice to the above effect to the delegates present who all seemed to agree, as no person opposed ...
— Shelley, Godwin and Their Circle • H. N. Brailsford

... which Alymer seemed to be cogitating how best to disarm his mother's fears; and also to be reminding himself of her natural ignorance on theatrical matters, and his own need to be patient therefore. ...
— Winding Paths • Gertrude Page

... had been planned so carefully had started to take charge too soon. News had arrived of native regiments whose officers had been obliged against their will to disarm and disband them, and the loyalty of other regiments was seriously called ...
— Rung Ho! • Talbot Mundy

... his goblet. "When you wish to disarm a serpent, it is best to provoke him into striking at once, and so draw the poison out ...
— The Thrall of Leif the Lucky • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz

... undone on his own part to atone for the wrong to his brother, and to avert the threatened danger. So should the followers of Christ, as they approach the time of trouble, make every exertion to place themselves in a proper light before the people, to disarm prejudice, and to avert the danger ...
— The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan • Ellen G. White

... presence. He no longer hopes to win her affections, but to gain her pity. Sometimes he loses patience and is almost angry with her. Sophy seems to guess his angry feelings and she looks at him. Her glance is enough to disarm and terrify him; he is more submissive ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau

... say!" repeated Pierre, riding up beside Frank, and seizing his horse by the bridle. "Disarm them, men, and shoot down the first one that resists," he added, as the band closed up ...
— Frank Among The Rancheros • Harry Castlemon

... thousand yield on all sides scour toward covert. The ship is over the bar; free she bounds shoreward—amid shouting and vivats! Citizen Bonaparte is 'named General of the Interior by acclamation;' quelled sections have to disarm in such humor as they may; sacred right of insurrection is gone forever! 'It is false,' says Napoleon, 'that we fired first with blank charge; it had been a waste of life to do that.' Most false; the firing was with sharp and sharpest shot: to all men it ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 - Volume 23, Number 5 • Various

... there and disarm Lee, and I promise you that if a single straw moves, I will blow his head off, for my pistol is not ...
— The Mormon Menace - The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite • John Doyle Lee

... but Diaz resolved not to yield, and for the few minutes during which Pepe was engaged in binding Don Estevan, there was a contest of skill and ability between him and Fabian. Too generous to use his rifle against a man who had but a dagger to defend himself with, Fabian tried only to disarm his adversary; but Diaz, blinded by rage, did not perceive the generous efforts of the young man, who, holding his rifle by the barrel, and using it as a club, tried to strike the arm which menaced him. But Fabian had to deal with an antagonist not less active and vigorous than himself. Bounding ...
— Wood Rangers - The Trappers of Sonora • Mayne Reid

... on his return on Saturday morning he read the description of the poacher's appearance and dress, about which last, however, the only remarkable feature was that it was better than a poacher might be expected to possess, and gave an air of respectability to the wearer that might easily disarm suspicion. ...
— Erewhon Revisited • Samuel Butler

... Bacchus, a bold spirit!" said he, half laughing and half alarmed. "Here, Luigi, Giovanni! disarm and seize her. Harm ...
— Zicci, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... [Sidenote: Slow advance and vicissitudes of the Church.] At first the progress of the Church, both in Denmark and Sweden, was very slow and fluctuating, and the ravages of the northern pirates, or Vikings, caused great loss and suffering; but after some years, Anskar was enabled to disarm the opposition of Eric the heathen King of Denmark, and to make a favourable impression upon the Swedish nobles. After his death in A.D. 865, the Church in Denmark went through many vicissitudes owing to irruptions of the Northmen and other invaders, as ...
— A Key to the Knowledge of Church History (Ancient) • John Henry Blunt

... but not in the commercial or the richer classes! You cannot imagine what those women are. If only they attend Mass on Sunday and perform their Easter duties they think they may do anything and everything; and thenceforth their one idea is not so much to avoid offending the Saviour as to disarm Him by mean subterfuges. They speak ill of their neighbour, injuring him cruelly, refusing him all help and pity, and they make excuses for themselves as though these were mere venial faults; but as to eating meat on a Friday! That is quite another thing; they are persuaded that this is ...
— The Cathedral • Joris-Karl Huysmans

... friends might urge that he might, by becoming First Minister, secure his position and render himself impregnable against attack. He knew better the virulence of his foes, and could only hope to disarm it by conforming to those constitutional principles which his conscience told him were the only hope of an issue from the present entanglements. He soothed, as well as he might, the susceptibilities of ...
— The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2 • Henry Craik

... sitting at the head of my bed, sends you a thousand tender things. She is edified by the discretion with which you have treated us; not to insist when two ladies seem to be so contrary to you, that is the height of gallantry. So much modesty will certainly disarm them, and may some day move them to pity. ...
— Life, Letters, and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de L'Enclos, - the Celebrated Beauty of the Seventeenth Century • Robinson [and] Overton, ed. and translation.

... our opportunity, and try to disarm them," observed John Deane. "Work they must, by some means or other, or else they ...
— John Deane of Nottingham - Historic Adventures by Land and Sea • W.H.G. Kingston

... nor thickness; hard to distinguish head from tail, upside from underside; speed being apparently the least desirable of characteristics. Do they depend for protection and safety on their grotesque appearance? or do their gaudy robes disarm and enchant their ...
— Ranching, Sport and Travel • Thomas Carson

... expression of contempt in her manner. "However," she added, "if you are a coward, you shall have a coward's punishment." She went to a corner where stood a great variety of handsome canes, and laying hold of one, began soundly to thrash Furlong, who feared to make any resistance or attempt to disarm her of the cane, for the pistol was yet in her ...
— Handy Andy, Vol. 2 - A Tale of Irish Life • Samuel Lover

... surprise your aunt and me together. Counterfeit a rage against me, and I'll make my escape through the private passage from her chamber, which I'll take care to leave open. 'Twill be hard if then you can't bring her to any conditions. For this discovery will disarm her of all defence, and leave her entirely at your mercy—nay, she must ever after be in awe ...
— The Comedies of William Congreve - Volume 1 [of 2] • William Congreve

... To excuse his sister's marriage, the King pleaded that it had been concluded for no object but vengeance; and he promised that there would soon be not a heretic in the country.[126] This was corroborated by Salviati. As to the proclaimed toleration, he knew that it was a device to disarm foreign enmity, and prevent a popular commotion. He testified that the Queen spoke truly when she said that she had confided to him, long before, the real purpose of her daughter's engagement.[127] He exposed the hollow ...
— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... villainous captors! The thought stung him, and he turned sharply toward the cringing Curly. The brute was standing there, sullen and defiant. Reynolds knew that he would soon be free, and then he would deal with the cur. He heard Glen speak and saw Sconda dismount and disarm the miners. Last of all he came to Curly, and when the Indian reached for his revolver, the serpent spat at him and cursed wildly. With a marvelous restraint, Sconda merely took the weapon from the enraged man's pocket, and ...
— Glen of the High North • H. A. Cody

... a poniard from his bosom, and Hartley's strength and resolution might not perhaps have saved his life, had not Winter mastered the General's right hand, and contrived to disarm him. ...
— The Surgeon's Daughter • Sir Walter Scott

... thou holy city, heavenly Jerusalem, whose walls are salvation, and thy gates praise, and the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple in the midst of thee! He who sees the world in this light will draw its sting, and disarm it of its power to hurt; he will so use it as not to abuse it, because the fashion of it passes away; he will so enjoy it, as to be always ready to leave it for a better; he will not think of settling at his inn, because it ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 17, No. - 481, March 19, 1831 • Various

... comprehend," he said gloomily. "Slave as you are, young—alas! scarce more than child!—accomplished, beautiful with the most touching beauty, innocent as an angel—all these qualities that should disarm the very wolves and crocodiles, are, in the eyes of those to whom I stand indebted, commodities to buy and sell. You are a chattel; a marketable thing; and worth—heavens, that I should say such words!—worth money. Do you begin to see? If I were to give you freedom, ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... remains nearly as good as when it was put up. The inscription states very clearly why Lord Cobham erected a castle here, viz. for the safety of the country. The French invasion had shewn the need, and the inscription was perhaps intended to disarm the suspicions and hostility of the serfs by reminding them of that need. It runs thus, in four lines, each enamelled ...
— A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land • William R. Hughes

... quench that blood, on fire with youth and hope And love of me—whom you loved too, and yet Suffered to sit here waiting his approach While you were slaying him? Oh, doubtlessly You let him speak his poor confused boy's-speech —Do his poor utmost to disarm your wrath And respite me!—you let him try to give The story of our love and ignorance, And the brief madness and the long despair— You let him plead all this, because your code Of honour bids you hear before you strike: But at the end, as ...
— A Blot In The 'Scutcheon • Robert Browning

... experience, which were reserved for his answer to Lucullus. In his later speech, he expressly tells us that such sceptical paradoxes as were advanced by him in the first day's discourse were really out of place, and were merely introduced in order to disarm Lucullus, who was to speak next[268]. Yet these arguments must have occupied some considerable space in Cicero's speech, although foreign to its main intention[269]. He probably gave a summary classification ...
— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... of French legislation to tax a vice which could not be suppressed by criminal laws. The experience of civilization has, or ought to have taught every people, that the vice of gaming is one which no law can reach so completely as to suppress in toto. Then, if it will exist, disarm it as much as possible of the power to harm—let it be taxed, and give the exclusive privilege to game to those who pay the tax and keep houses for the purpose of gaming. These will effectually suppress it. Everywhere else they are entitled to the game, and ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks

... Splendor is nothing without duration. You are harassed by circumstances, by conspirators, by the ambitious. You are also in another sense harassed by the uneasiness which agitates all Frenchmen. You can conquer the times, master circumstances, put a curb on conspirators, disarm the ambitious, tranquillize all France, by giving it institutions which shall cement your edifice, and prolong for the children what you have done for the fathers. In town and country if you could interrogate all Frenchmen one after another, no one would speak otherwise than we. Great Man, complete ...
— Worlds Best Histories - France Vol 7 • M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt

... smothered, but which smouldered on as volcanic fires lie dormant rumbling from time to time under the mantle of snow on a mountain peak. But he had known how to adjust his life to duty; and without belief in God, with the support of philosophy only, his virtue had been strong enough to disarm his most ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... He was ready to emancipate Catholics as such, for religious bigotry was not the vice of the oligarchy; but he was not ready to emancipate Irishmen as such. He did not really want to enlist Ireland like a recruit, but simply to disarm Ireland like an enemy. Hence his settlement was from the first in a false position for settling anything. The Union may have been a necessity, but the Union was not a Union. It was not intended to be one, and nobody has ever treated it as one. We have not only never succeeded in making Ireland ...
— A Short History of England • G. K. Chesterton

... interfere where they had no business, and the Chief Justice was always too patient or too timid to set them in their place. For the rest of the telegram no qualification is needed. "The Chief Justice was compelled to take steps to disarm the natives." He took no such steps; he never spoke of disarmament except publicly and officially to disown the idea; it was during the days of the Consular triumvirate that the cry began. "The Chief Justice called ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... trusted and been basely used, And that to him revenge were doubly sweet, Dares all the world to combat and to death,— Even he hath dwelling in his inmost heart A chord that quick will vibrate to kind words. Go unto such with kindness, not with wrath; Let your eye look love, and 't will disarm him Of all the evil passions with which he Hath mailed his soul in terrible array. Think not to tame the wild by brutal force. As well attempt to stay devouring flames By heaping fagots on the blazing ...
— Town and Country, or, Life at Home and Abroad • John S. Adams



Words linked to "Disarm" :   convert, divest, win over, convince, arm, deprive, strip



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