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Doff   /dɔf/   Listen
Doff

verb
(past & past part. doffed; pres. part. doffing)
1.
Remove.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Doff" Quotes from Famous Books



... to sit with you, you self-dubbed duke," rejoined Mark; "but if you will doff your fine jerkin, and stand up with me on the green, I will give you cause to remember laying hands ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth

... Weyland was of the leal and resolute kind. It did not swerve at a squall. Sharlee had thought the whole thing out, and made up her mind. Gentle raillery, which would do everything necessary in most cases, would be wholly futile here. She must doff all gloves and give the little Doctor the dressing-down of his life. She must explode a mine under that enormously exaggerated self-esteem which swamped the young man's personality like a goitre. Sharlee did not want to do this. She liked Mr. Queed, in a peculiar sort of way, and ...
— Queed • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... I cannot doff all human fear; I know thy greeting is severe To this poor shell of clay: Yet come, O Death! thy freezing kiss Emancipates! thy rest is bliss! ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various

... was the winter wild, While the heaven-born Child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Nature in awe to him, Had doff'd her gaudy trim, With her great Master so to sympathize: It was no season then for her To wanton with the sun, ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow—Book 3 - Christmas Poems from 'round the World • Various

... it, and he was asked to go to France to take charge of organizing a similar corps behind the front. But that would have involved a transfer to a different branch of the army, and detachment from his regiment. And—it would have meant that he must doff his kilt. Since he had the chance to decline—it was an offer, not an order, that had come to him—he did, that he might keep his kilt and stay with ...
— A Minstrel In France • Harry Lauder

... sun it became heavenly. I remember it best on moonless nights. The air was like a bath of milk. Countless shining stars were overhead, the lagoon paved with them. Herds of wives squatted by companies on the gravel, softly chatting. Tembinok' would doff his jacket, and sit bare and silent, perhaps meditating songs; the favourite usually by him, silent also. Meanwhile in the midst of the court, the palace lanterns were being lit and marshalled in rank upon the ground—six or eight square yards of ...
— In the South Seas • Robert Louis Stevenson

... work. He would call, he decided, with polite inquiries; and as he pictured the scene his spirits rose. The thunder- figure that had poked a bow at him from the cab would come dragonish into the drawing-room where he waited. Her he would charm with the suavity of his manners; she would doff the dragon's skin; would say (he had read the scene in novels), "You would like ...
— Once Aboard The Lugger • Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson

... dresses of some sort for every day in the year, or 720. Now to purchase all these, to order them made, and to put them on afterward, consumes a vast amount of time. Indeed, the woman of society does little but don and doff dry-goods. For a few brief hours she flutters the latest tint and mode in the glare of the gas-light, and then repeats the same operation the next night. She must have one or two velvet dresses which cannot cost ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe

... his all-absorbing ambition. At the last, when the revolution has succeeded, he puts on the ducal purple and the people are ready to acquiesce in the new regime. But old Verrina is not so tractable. When he cannot prevail upon Fiesco to doff the hateful insignia, he pushes him into the sea and exclaims in disgust: 'I am ...
— The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller • Calvin Thomas

... art. These be my themes, therefore: so fancy yourself either strolling leisurely with me, arm in arm, in the streets—or sitting at my elbow. First for THE CATHEDRAL:—for what traveller of taste does not doff his bonnet to the Mother Church of the town through which he happens to be travelling—or in which he takes up a temporary abode? The west-front,[36] always the forte of the architect's skill, strikes you as you go down, or come up, the principal ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume One • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... I meant not to vex thee. In truth, I am come to thee on an errand of life and death;" and as he spoke, he did doff his bonnet and toss it upon the table, and the firelight and candlelight did leap upon his fair curls, and as I saw his face it was the face of my lady. The earl did start half-way to his feet, and his face was first like fire and ...
— A Brother To Dragons and Other Old-time Tales • Amelie Rives

... calls blessed, and yet he is one of the wisest of the wise, and, moreover, a master in his art. Wherever he shows himself, delusion follows delusion, and every one redounds to his advantage, for whoever took him for an insignificant man must doff his hat when he utters his name. If a shrewd fellow supposed that this sheep would not know A from B, he'll soon give him nuts to crack which are far too hard for many a learned master of arts. Nobody ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... for a little while," he said, "and thus complete the service you have done me. Presently you may doff it for all time, and resume your true estate. Biancomonte, as I promised you, shall be yours again. The Lord of Pesaro ...
— The Shame of Motley • Raphael Sabatini

... breathing out this smoky stuff, and all the young men do run after him, as if he were the very Pillar of Fire to lead them to Canaan. One day he says there shall be no bishop—and my Lord of Ely rides through Petty Cury with scarce a man found to doff cap and say 'my lord' save foolish 'Papists' like myself! Another day he will have no distinction of apparel; and the young sparks straight dress like ministers, and the ministers like young sparks. ...
— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson

... two parties to make a quarrel, and when Master and servant propose to part, there should be a perfect agreement between them as to the manner of their going asunder. A Hundred times, vexed by the follies and exactions of the little man, I had sworn that I would doff his livery, and have nothing more to do with him; but then came the Reflection of the certain Bite and Sup, and I withheld my abandonment of Service. It may be that the Chaplain, Mr. Hodge, was very much of the same mind as your Humble. He said often, that he had been bearleader ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... lovely a sight that the king himself was not content to see it from his honoured but restricted post, but needs must doff his crown—monarchs wore them in those fairy days—and fling a leg over a gentleman's charger, behind its owner, and thus ride double to see the sights. So great was his eagerness to enjoy all the display that he got a smart reproof from an officer ...
— The Tapestry Book • Helen Churchill Candee

... every case I tell you: no widow shall doff her weeds for me. Did she love the first man? Fickle is the woman who can love twice. Did she not love him? Why did she marry him? Perhaps she sold herself to a rent-roll? Shall she sell herself again to me for a jointure? ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Dow I doff by widter fladdels, Ad I dod by subber close; Thed for weeks ad weeks together Vaidly ...
— Cap and Gown - A Treasury of College Verse • Selected by Frederic Knowles

... comes!" cried he, as I cantered up. "Come, my boy, doff the blue frock as soon as you can, and turn out in your best-fitting black. Everything has been settled for this evening at seven o'clock, and we ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... this is your wedding-day: First were we sad, fearing you would not come; Now sadder, that you come so unprovided. Fie! doff this habit, shame to your estate, An eye-sore to ...
— The Taming of the Shrew • William Shakespeare [Craig, Oxford edition]

... met face to face; but the will of God worketh not according to our will. I can write no more. Luke, Faith, and Davy—dear Davy, the night has come, and all's well. Good morrow, Davy. Can you not hear me call? I have called thee so often of late! Good morrow! Good morrow! . . . I doff my hat, ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... Wazir obeyed his lord's be hest, and the Warlock replied, "To hear is to obey." He then said, "Bring hither to me a chauldron full of water;" and when it was brought he asked the Courtiers, "Which of you would divert himself?" "I," quoth the Wazir; when quoth the Sage, "Do thou rise to thy feet and doff thy robes and gird thee with a zone:" whereto said the other, "Bring me a waistcloth;" and when it was brought he did therewith as he was bidden. Hereat said the Warlock, "Seat thee in the centre of the chauldron;" so he plunged into the water, but when ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... now bid my reader to doff his hat, and obtain one that will sit so lightly on his brow, that he will scarcely be conscious that his head is covered, of which I had experience under circumstances rather ludicrous than otherwise. I entered a glover's shop with my ...
— How to Enjoy Paris in 1842 • F. Herve

... in charges on the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. If ever I should conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade Federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me, as they have ...
— Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 • John G. Nicolay and John Hay

... those great men who made Paris their home and final resting-place. The influence of these men over the minds, manners, and even the morals of the people of Paris, is still very great. Nowhere is genius more praised, or adored with a greater devotion, than in Paris. Rank must there doff its hat to genius, which is the case in no other country but the American republic. It will then not be out of place for me to sketch a very few of the most brilliant men who in the years which have fled away lighted with their smiles the saloons ...
— Paris: With Pen and Pencil - Its People and Literature, Its Life and Business • David W. Bartlett

... tiresome reader, I will conclude, if you please, with a paraphrase of a few words that you will remember were written by him—by him of Gad's Hill, before whom, if you doff not your hat, you shall stand with a covered pumpkin—aye, ...
— The Trimmed Lamp and Others • O Henry

... these scholars of an elder age, little understood by their fellows, who caused them to suffer for the sake of the Truth they loved, we doff our caps, whether they jingle or not, as you please; and if thou thinkest, good reader, that 'twere folly to lose a life for such a cause, the bells will match the rest of thy garb. The learning, too, of the censors and critics was often indeed remarkable. They ...
— Books Fatal to Their Authors • P. H. Ditchfield

... youth, so drivelling in his age, His scenes alone had damned our sinking stage; But Managers for once cried, "Hold, enough!" Nor drugged their audience with the tragic stuff. Yet at their judgment let his Lordship laugh, [lii] And case his volumes in congenial calf; Yes! doff that covering, where Morocco shines, And hang a calf-skin on ...
— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron

... a less kindly voice or omitted that last word in his request, the obstinate and defiant Jud might have flatly declined to oblige him. As it was he looked keenly at Paul, then grinned, and with something of an effort started to doff his coat, Jack assisting him ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren

... met me, gradually expanding into a broad sarcastic grin, as such an unaccountable figure passed him. But these I soon began to suspect were Protestant grins; for none but heretics would presume by any means to give me a sneer. The Catholics taking me for a priest, were sure to doff their hats to me; or if they wore none, as is not unfrequent when at labor, they would catch their forelocks with their finger and thumb, and bob down their heads in the act of veneration. This attention of my brethren more than compensated for the mirth ...
— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton

... however, which is in thy mind, be it good or bad, I will accomplish, O Kaurava, at thy command. It will not be otherwise. Putting forth my prowess in battle and slaying all the Panchalas, I will doff my armour, O king! I swear this to thee truly. Thou thinkest that Arjuna, the son of Kunti, was worn out in battle. O mighty-armed Kaurava! Listen to what I truly say regarding his prowess. If Savyasachin's wrath is ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... a double feed, An put it into th' troff; "Tha greedy lukkin beeast," he sed, "Aw'll awther stawl thee off, Or else aw'll brust thi hide—that is Unless 'at its to toff!" An then he left it wol he went His mucky clooas to doff. ...
— Yorkshire Lyrics • John Hartley

... doff their hats in the down-town elevators which brought her up to the big office where she was employed, a great room near the top of one of the high down-town buildings; the windows looked out on the river, now a white mass of down-flowing ice, through which the ...
— Impressions of a War Correspondent • George Lynch

... 'wicked Child' wrought unconscionable havoc. Again, Celia wishes to have a "Lilliputian to play with," so she is promptly told that her lover would doff five feet of his tall stature, to ...
— Henry Fielding: A Memoir • G. M. Godden

... Without stopping to doff a garment, in they both plunged, boots and all; and, before the Captain knew that they were gone from his side, they had reached poor Rover, now quite exhausted, ...
— Bob Strong's Holidays - Adrift in the Channel • John Conroy Hutcheson

... VI. was compelled to refound it, and therefore in some sort it still remains to us. It is curious to note that, ages before the hospital came to Lambeth, St Thomas was at home there, for he had a statue upon the Lollards' Tower, and it was the custom of the watermen to doff their caps to it ...
— England of My Heart—Spring • Edward Hutton

... Must doff the wind-wreath, find thee lone? Put on meek age's hood? Feel but the frost within the dawn? Wrap courage in a swaddling mood? His bare throat flings All-powered nay; The world, his vast, unfingered lyre, Stirs in her thousand ...
— Path Flower and Other Verses • Olive T. Dargan

... thou seest!" Quoth the Caliph, "Make a cast in my name." At this the fisherman was glad and going to the bank threw his net, then waiting till it had spread out at full stretch and settled down, hauled it up and found in it various kinds of fish. The Caliph was pleased and said, "O Karim, doff thy habit." So he put off a gaberdine of coarse woollen stuff patched in an hundred places whereon the lice were rampant, and a turband which had never been untwisted for three years but to which he had sown every rag he came ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... briskest chap ov all the lot Wer Tom, that danc'd hizzelf so hot, He doff'd his cwoat an' jump'd about, Wi' girt new shirt-sleeves all a-strout, Among the maidens screamen out, A-thinken, wi' his strides an' stamps, He'd squot their veet wi' his girt clamps, While ...
— Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect • William Barnes

... carried a silver oar, the emblem from very early days of a pirate execution. Arrived at the gibbet, the prisoner, who always dressed himself in his, or someone else's, best clothes, would doff his hat and ...
— The Pirates' Who's Who - Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers • Philip Gosse

... buttons! Think of Peter skating; cutting figures of eight, and performing "outer edge backwards!" Think of John in a white cravat; or of Bartholomew putting up seidlitz powders; or of Timothy running with a fire-engine! How would they have looked? Therefore hasten ye trim gentlemen, to doff your guilty blue and brass, and don the toga. Lay aside your skates, boys. Peter would have looked very strangely skating, therefore it is sinful to skate. Tear off your white chokers, ye Reverends, and throw away your pestles ye apothecaries, and be like the apostles. Shall ...
— Amusement: A Force in Christian Training • Rev. Marvin R. Vincent.

... caught up the mountain without leave, eviction; for burning the limestone on your own place instead of buying it at the lord's kiln, eviction; for burning some parings of the peat land, the ashes of which made the potatoes grow bigger and drier, eviction. Not only did the man who did not doff his hat to the landlord stand in danger, but the man who did not uncover to his lowest under- bailiff. One exaction after another, one tyranny after another has dug a gulf between landlord and tenant that will be hard to bridge. ...
— The Letters of "Norah" on her Tour Through Ireland • Margaret Dixon McDougall

... thee doff thy mortal weed, Mary Mother be thy speed, Saints to help thee at thy need. ...
— Guy Mannering, or The Astrologer, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... soldier; and if he meet an opponent, you may see the tug of war. Should he chance to prefer the other's shield to his own, he will seize him in his burly arms, and shake him from under its protection. Yet he is cautious withal; for though obliged to doff his own armor before he can try that of his denuded foe, he retains hold of both until satisfied with the trial. If he like the new mail, he will march off with it; if not, he will array himself in his own again. Meanwhile the vanquished ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February, 1858 • Various

... Vice is punished, it must be from within. The Lilburnes of this hollow world are not to be pelted with the soft roses of poetical justice. They who ask why he is not punished may be the first to doff the hat to the equipage in which my lord lolls through the streets! The only offence he habitually committed of a nature to bring the penalties of detection, he renounced the moment he perceived there was clanger of discovery! ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... cheek; Freeze onto thee, And at thy word throw off congealment And take on a soft caloric mood; And from afar, From Afric's strand, Siroccan greetings come to thee! The monsoon and simoom, In the soft empurpled Orient, At mention of thy name Doff all the hats of Heathendom! And all combined in one vast aggregation, Cry out hail, hail, thrice hail to thee, Who after years, and centuries, and cycles e'en, Hast made the winds incarnate! To thee The visible expression ...
— Cobwebs from a Library Corner • John Kendrick Bangs

... was the Winter wild While the heaven-born Child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies Nature in awe to Him Had doff'd her gaudy trim, With her great Master so to sympathise: It was no season then for her To wanton with the ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various

... in front of him, and all bowed their heads many times, looking so grave that he had to doff his cap and make ...
— The Wonderful Adventures of Nils • Selma Lagerlof

... forced to stop on most important business," answered the knight, still resolved to treat him as the count, until it should please him to doff his incognito, "of which you shall hear anon. Just now, our business ...
— The Midnight Queen • May Agnes Fleming

... means the doing of a right thing at the right time and in the right place. Some young men win first honors in college and fail in the business of life for want of tact. Here is where the Yankee excels. The Southerner is genial, generous and has many traits of character to be admired, but he must doff his hat to Yankee character for the development ...
— Wit, Humor, Reason, Rhetoric, Prose, Poetry and Story Woven into Eight Popular Lectures • George W. Bain

... very loose and baggy in summer. His coats were execrable; his hat not to be handled. But while the hat was a thing of indifference to me, inasmuch as his natural civility and deference, as a dependent Englishman, always led him to doff it the moment he entered the room, yet his coat was another matter. Concerning his coats, I reasoned with him; but with no effect. The truth was, I suppose, that a man of so small an income, could not afford to sport such a lustrous face and a lustrous coat at one and the ...
— Bartleby, The Scrivener - A Story of Wall-Street • Herman Melville

... the grass Had sprung up in the pass, And the meadows with velvet were green, We children would tease, "O, dear mother, please Let us doff shoes and stockings, (Ah! naught gave us shockings), And barefooted run o'er the leas, Aye, barefooted run o'er ...
— Mother Truth's Melodies - Common Sense For Children • Mrs. E. P. Miller

... saw him, she rose to her feet and kissed the ground before him; then, taking him by the hand, made him sit down by her on the couch and lay with him and fell to jesting and toying with him. By and by, he would have her do his desire, but she said, "O my lord, doff thy clothes and turband and assume this yellow cassock and this head-kerchief,[FN212] whilst I bring thee meat and drink; and after thou shalt win thy will." So saying, she took his clothes and turband and clad him in the cassock and the kerchief; ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... her pause, But wake and doff that frown, Nor man's, nor God's great laws, Forbid thee to look down: My lady, lady, wake, ...
— Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems • James Avis Bartley

... altogether; nudation^, denudation; decortication, depilation, excoriation, desquamation; molting; exfoliation; trichosis [Med.]. V. divest; uncover &c (cover) &c 223; denude, bare, strip; disfurnish^; undress, disrobe &c (dress, enrobe) &c 225; uncoif^; dismantle; put off, take off, cast off; doff; peel, pare, decorticate, excoriate, skin, scalp, flay; expose, lay open; exfoliate, molt, mew; cast the skin. Adj. divested &c v.; bare, naked, nude; undressed, undraped; denuded; exposed; in dishabille; bald, threadbare, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... me to doff my cap, so I—doffed my discipline." She was standing on the ground, holding the door open as she talked; again he was aware of the charm ...
— The Tin Soldier • Temple Bailey

... country cart, troops of tawny children from the woods, laden with primroses, and at long intervals—for people in this district live to a ripe age—a black funeral creeping in from some remote hamlet; and to this last the people reverently doff their hats and stand aside. Death does not walk about here often, but when he does, he receives as much respect as the squire himself. Everything round one is unhurried, quiet, moss-grown, and orderly. Season follows in the track of season, and one year can hardly be distinguished from another. ...
— Dreamthorp - A Book of Essays Written in the Country • Alexander Smith

... the poem in extenso, because, frankly, I think it was one of his least happily-inspired works. His was not a Muse that could with a good grace doff the grand manner. Also, his command of the Oxfordshire dialect seems to me based less on study than on conjecture. In fact, I do not place the poem higher than among the curiosities of literature. It has extrinsic ...
— Zuleika Dobson - or, An Oxford Love Story • Max Beerbohm

... thought," answered the husband. "I will act upon it. But, on the whole, I'll doff this disguise, and assume my ordinary garments. This time, my dear, I shall not need ...
— Paul the Peddler - The Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... stylish turnout through the sally-port and his battery chums caught sight of the Allertons. Pierce was just returning from stables, and Ferry was smoking a pipe of perique on the broad gallery, and both hastened to don their best jackets and doff their best caps to these interesting and interested callers. Cram himself had gone off for a ride and a think. He always declared his ideas were clearer after a gallop. The band played charmingly. The ladies came out and made a picturesque ...
— Waring's Peril • Charles King

... pleasant weather, When He, who all commands, Shall give, to call life's crew together, The word to pipe all hands. Thus Death, who kings and tars despatches, In vain Tom's life has doff'd, For, though his body's under hatches, His ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various

... wild words. Rumours had reached me in the winter of last year, when the Earl of Leicester with his large following were at Penshurst, that my husband was alive. Since then I have never felt secure; yet I did not dare to doff my widow's garments, fearing—hoping the report was false. As soon as I heard of this man lurking about the countryside, a horrible dread possessed me. He asked Lucy to bring Ambrose to meet him—this strengthened my fears. From that moment ...
— Penshurst Castle - In the Days of Sir Philip Sidney • Emma Marshall

... wish," said the old woman when he came round; "there are no more blows in store for thee and there remaineth but one little thing to do. It is her wont, when she is in her cups, to let no one have her until she put off her dress and trousers and remain stark naked.[FN647] Then she will bid thee doff thy clothes and run; and she will run before thee as if she were flying from thee; and do thou follow her from place to place till thy prickle stands at fullest point, when she will yield to thee;"[FN648] ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... to be a good woman she had been a very bad woman—so bad that she could trail her wonderful apparel up and down Main Street, from the Elm Tree Bakery to the railroad tracks, without once having a man doff his hat to her or a woman bow. You passed her on the street with a surreptitious glance, though she was well worth looking at—in her furs and laces and plumes. She had the only full-length mink coat in our town, and Ganz's shoe store ...
— One Basket • Edna Ferber

... know his heart Is gold, but this is not an age of gold; And those who have must keep, or lose the power Even to help themselves. No—he must doff His green disguise of Robin Hood for ever, And wear his natural coat ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... with a torch; give me a cloak, too, and another bonnet, and take away this trumpery," throwing down his coronet of feathers. "I would I could throw off all my follies as easily. English Wat, attend me alone, and the rest of you end your revelry, and doff your mumming habits. The holytide is expended, and the fast ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... the trees? That's Folksdale, where the Farragans live. The daughters have been walking over the world like peacocks, but they'll crawl on it like cockroaches . . . Hulloh, here's ould Balgean of Eagle Hill, in his grand carriage with his English coachman. . . . See that, though? See him doff his hat to you, the ould hypocrite? He knows something. He's got an inkling. Things travel. We'll beat 'em, gel, we'll beat 'em! They'll be round us like bees about ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine

... brown, and red, And nuts come pitter, patter down; When days are short and swiftly sped, And Autumn wears her colored gown, I'm up before old Mr. Sun His nightcap has a chance to doff, And have my day's work well begun When ...
— Happy Jack • Thornton Burgess

... blasphemous cry that it's done with an eye to your ultimate personal profit, That your chivalrous task is but worn as a mask till occasion allows you to doff it, Let the caviller say that the victim to-day is preserved from a final disaster, And is saved from the Japs that to-morrow perhaps he may furnish a ...
— Lyra Frivola • A. D. Godley

... system is true or false. They sing their mass in the morning; they pass their forenoons at the cafe, sipping coffee, and taking a hand at cards; a stoup of wine washes down a substantial dinner; and, after a saunter along the Corso, or an airing on the Pincian, they doff their clerical vestments, and go to sup with the nuns, who have the reputation of being ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie

... were broken Laura. and Belle were on their feet, glancing eagerly in the direction of their cadets. Dick and Greg had to go over, doff their campaign hats and shake hands with Mrs. Bentley and ...
— Dick Prescotts's Fourth Year at West Point - Ready to Drop the Gray for Shoulder Straps • H. Irving Hancock

... for storm— The thunder, hail, and drenching wet, And all the fury he could muster; Then, with a very demon's bluster, He whistled, whirled, and splashed, And down the torrents dashed, Full many a roof uptearing He never did before, Full many a vessel bearing To wreck upon the shore— And all to doff a single cloak. But vain the furious stroke; The traveller was stout, And kept the tempest out, Defied the hurricane, Defied the pelting rain; And as the fiercer roared the blast, His cloak the tighter held he fast. The Sun broke out, to win the bet; He caused the ...
— The Talking Beasts • Various

... You infernal old fox-hunter! if you don't doff your knowledge bag and come to the door, we'll mill all your glaze, burst open your gates, and hamstring ...
— The English Spy • Bernard Blackmantle

... horum? No such thing; just so looks a cut-purse. Can't meet a true man's eye. Doff cowl, monk; and behold, a thief; don cowl thief, and lo, a monk. Tell me not they will ever be able to look God Almighty in the face, when they can't even look a true man in the face down here. Ah, here it is, black as ink! into the well we go, comrade. Misericorde, ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

... Vandeloup, gaily, as he assisted Mrs Villiers to doff her muddy garments, 'we have been talking about the crops and ...
— Madame Midas • Fergus Hume

... mad informant said, "Have you no eyes within your head? You sneer when you your hat should doff: Why, we begin where ...
— Fifty Bab Ballads • William S. Gilbert

... crimson chevron which it had bitten into his bald brow. "A charming scene—two charming young ladies! Mrs. Gerald Scales and her sister, I think. Lady Maria's adoption—charming, charming!" A right instinct sent him tiptoe over his lawn, another made him doff his mortarboard. ...
— Rest Harrow - A Comedy of Resolution • Maurice Hewlett

... altogether inappropriate theatrical simile, he would be playing a principal part that day. The cheers and the plaudits which would burst out from the throats of his fellow-students, and, indeed, from the whole audience, when he came on to doff his cap and kneel before the Chancellor to take from his hands the honours he had won, would be given in recognition of the most brilliant ...
— The Missionary • George Griffith

... gaze that was serious, innocent, and unashamed. To Audrey they were only people out of a fairy tale,—all those gay folk, dressed in silks and with curled hair. They lived in "great houses," and men and women were born to till their fields, to row their boats, to doff hats or curtsy as they passed. They were not real; if you pricked them they would not bleed. In the mountains that she remembered as a dream there were pale masses of bloom far up among the cliffs; very beautiful, but no more to be ...
— Audrey • Mary Johnston

... Always a savin and exceptin your ever onnurable onnur, as aforesaid. But when so be as a man has the wherewithalls, why a let him begin to hold up his head, I say. Why not? For why? It is the omnum gathurum that makes the man. And if I do a doff my hat to my betters, there a be and a bin the whats and the whys and the wherefores for it. But I can a doff my hat, or I can a keep it on my head; and mayhap a can begin to look my betters in the face, as well as another. Why not? Always a savin and exceptin your ever exceptionable ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft

... one; resisted indeed by some, but given to each and all. With honest consistency it must be said, the Quakers applied this—and this it was they did apply—to the status of women, to the question of slavery, to the civic relations of men. This it was that made Fox and Penn refuse to doff their hats before judge, or titled lord, or the ...
— Quaker Hill - A Sociological Study • Warren H. Wilson

... had placed three large stones on the first course in position, an hour having been spent in looking for a pick and hammer, and in the incidental "chaffing" with Bridget. At ten o'clock I went to overlook his work; it was a rash action, as it caused him to respectfully doff his hat, discontinue his labors, and lean back against the fence in cheerful and easy conservation. "Are you fond uv blackberries, Captain?" I told him that the children were in the habit of getting them from the meadow beyond, hoping to estop ...
— Drift from Two Shores • Bret Harte

... uttered his call To battle: "The brokers are parasites all!" Carnegie, Carnegie, you'll never prevail; Keep the wind of your slogan to belly your sail, Go back to your isle of perpetual brume, Silence your pibroch, doff tartan and plume: Ben Lomond is calling his son from the fray— Fly, fly from the region of Wall Street away! While still you're possessed of a single baubee (I wish it were pledged to endowment of me) 'Twere wise to retreat from the wars of finance Lest ...
— The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce

... in company of the court, hastily strove to remedy his disorder. His commander, throwing round a scarce visible shrug of apology, made then a confidential and monitory sign to Hereward to mind his conduct. What he meant was, that he should doff his helmet and fall prostrate on the ground. But the Anglo-Saxon, unaccustomed to interpret obscure inferences, naturally thought of his military duties, and advanced in front of the Emperor, as when he rendered his military homage. He made reverence with his knee, half ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott

... are to have "Young Siegfried"! You are truly a most incredible fellow, to whom one must doff hat and bonnet three times. The satisfactory settlement of this matter rejoices me cordially; and, as you may imagine, I have perfect faith in your work. But let us say nothing about it until you send in "Young Siegfried" (July 1st, 1852), so as ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 • Francis Hueffer (translator)

... Greeks and Trojans gladly heard, In hopes of respite from the weary war. They rang'd the cars in ranks; and they themselves Descending doff'd their arms, and laid them down Close each by each, with narrow space between. Two heralds to the city Hector sent To bring the lambs, and aged Priam call; While Agamemnon to the hollow ships, Their lamb to bring, in haste ...
— The Iliad • Homer

... as he assisted me to doff my doublet. "Do I jest? Diable! you Gascons are a slow-witted folk! I have a taste for allegory, my friend, but that never yet was accounted so low ...
— Bardelys the Magnificent • Rafael Sabatini

... are standard, and as it were planted in the British soil, before which the great majority of us bow the knee and doff the cap with a reverence that, in its ignorance, reminds one of fetish worship, and, in its affectation, of the passion for High Art. The works without which, we are told at book auctions, 'no gentleman's library can be considered complete,' are especially the objects ...
— Some Private Views • James Payn

... earth so that there is no hiding for him. But presently Sir Richard spoke again, saying, "One thing thou canst do, Robin, and one only. Go back to London and throw thyself upon the mercy of our good Queen Eleanor. Come with me straightway to my castle. Doff these clothes and put on such as my retainers wear. Then I will hie me to London Town with a troop of men behind me, and thou shalt mingle with them, and thus will I bring thee to where thou mayst see and speak with the ...
— The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood • Howard Pyle

... are a continual farce, gratuitously performed for the diversion of Mardi. My lord, perhaps we had best doff our dignity, and land among them as persons of lowly condition; for then, we shall receive more diversion, ...
— Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II (of 2) • Herman Melville

... promise you a first-class entertainment, M. le Commissaire; but I will take the liberty of advising you to doff your official garb and to appear here in civilian clothes. If people actually saw a Commissaire in uniform here, both the spontaneity of my artists and the mood of my audience would ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various

... cannot find my hero; he is mixed With the heroic crowd that now pursue The fugitives, or battle with the desperate. What have we here? A Cardinal or two That do not seem in love with martyrdom. How the old red-shanks scamper! Could they doff Their hose as they have doffed their hats, 'twould be A blessing, as a mark[244] the less for plunder. But let them fly; the crimson kennels now Will not much stain their stockings, since the mire 10 Is of the self-same ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... the heart for that manoeuvre. When the carriages met again, he stood up in his stanhope; he raised his hand ready to doff his hat; he looked with all his eyes. But this time Miss Crawley's face was not turned away; she and Mrs. Bute looked him full in the face, and cut their nephew pitilessly. He sank back in his seat with an oath, and striking out of the ring, dashed ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray

... it is a sign. I cannot say more. I can but point it out to you, my lord, and leave the deciphering of it to yourself, who are more skilled than most men in such matters. Have I your excellency's leave to go doff ...
— The Strolling Saint • Raphael Sabatini

... Austrian king and has ordered every man to take off his hat as he passes by, to show that he yields to the Austrian rule. Is not this a brave plan? He who obeys the tyrant is a slave. Wouldst thou have thy husband doff his cap ...
— Dramatic Reader for Lower Grades • Florence Holbrook

... front of the Colonel's tent, sat the Colonel, with kind Irish face, Irish eye, and Irish wit of tongue. Near him the old Indian-fighter, Chaffee, with strong brow, deep eyes, long jaw, firm mouth, strong chin—the long, lean face of a thirteenth century monk who was quick to doff cowl for helmet. While they told war-stories, Crittenden sat in silence with the majors three, and Willings, the surgeon (whom he was to know better in Cuba), and listened. Every now and then a horse would loom from the darkness, ...
— Crittenden - A Kentucky Story of Love and War • John Fox, Jr.

... as far from me as though they dashed through some Martian city, and their occupants as removed from my ken as the inhabitants of the farthest planets. Indeed, even in the commoner throng about me I knew no one. It was seldom that I was called on to doff my hat, and then to some of the queer old women who were moulding away in the corners of Miss Minion's boarding-house or to Miss Tucker hurrying to ...
— David Malcolm • Nelson Lloyd

... a certain nameless city's quaint old square. It can rouse the blood to battle with its patriotic tunes, And still render hymns as gentle as a prayer. When it starts "Ave Maria" there is no one in the throng But would doff his cap, his heart to heaven raise; And who would shrink from combat when, with brasses sounding strong, There is flung out on ...
— The Stars & Stripes, Vol 1, No 1, February 8, 1918, - The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 • American Expeditionary Forces

... clasped in hand, in breathless hush around! And saw her shyly doff her soft green hood, And blossom—with a silken ...
— The Vehement Flame • Margaret Wade Campbell Deland

... Mahom's, And his image, Apollin the felon. Ten Canelious canter in the environs, And very loud the cry out this sermon: "Let who would from our gods have garrison, Serve them and pray with great affliction." Pagans awhile their heads and faces on Their breasts abase, their polished helmets doff. And the Franks say: "Now shall you die, gluttons; This day shall bring you vile confusion! Give warranty, our God, unto Carlon! And in his name ...
— The Song of Roland • Anonymous

... "Come, Coley, doff those mourning weeds, Nor thus with jokes be flamm'd; Tho' Goldsmith's present play succeeds, His next may ...
— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving

... from a somewhat timid and embarrassed state, was warmed into heartiness by Larcher's welcome, and easily induced to doff his overcoat and be comfortable before the fire. "I thought, as you'd gev me your address, you wouldn't object—" Mr. Bud began with a beaming countenance; but suddenly stopped short and looked thoughtful. "Say—I met a young man down-stairs, ...
— The Mystery of Murray Davenport - A Story of New York at the Present Day • Robert Neilson Stephens

... like madness freed from every bond, With all the tinsel-state of puppet-play! Lay off the crown, for it befits thee not, Even in jest; the mantle also doff! ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... call with welcome note the budding spring, I straightway set a-running with such haste, Deb'rah that won the smock scarce ran so fast; Till, spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown, Upon a rising bank I sat adown, Then doff'd my shoe, and, by my troth, I swear, Therein I spy'd this yellow frizzled hair, As like to Lubberkin's in curle and hue, As if upon his comely pate it grew. With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn ...
— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant



Words linked to "Doff" :   take off



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