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Pressing   /prˈɛsɪŋ/   Listen
Pressing

noun
1.
The act of pressing; the exertion of pressure.  Synonyms: press, pressure.  "He used pressure to stop the bleeding" , "At the pressing of a button"
2.
A metal or plastic part that is made by a mechanical press.



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"Pressing" Quotes from Famous Books



... Lieut.-Colonel H. B. Jeffreys, had rapidly moved off to the left by sub-divisions for about 1,000 yards, and then onward up the valley. There was no good position for the British guns, except the ridge 2,000 yards to the west of the Kissieberg. But the infantry's need of immediate support was too pressing to allow time for that ridge's occupation. Lieut.-Colonel Jeffreys therefore, by the direction of General Gatacre, caused the 77th battery to come into action near kopje a, the 74th unlimbering on the open veld to ...
— History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) - Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government • Frederick Maurice

... Sally did not see the young man, and so she half forgot him, lost him in the mixture of her more pressing preoccupations. Every morning she rose at eight o'clock, after her mother had left the house for her first situation, and then, breakfasting slowly, she had just time to reach Miss Jubb's by nine. She did not like Miss Jubb, who was a thin-faced ...
— Coquette • Frank Swinnerton

... a gallop! The heavy wild beast was constrained to run a race with the swiftest of steeds. The cord was pressing tightly round its neck, and blindly, helter-skelter, it had to go in a perfectly straight direction till ...
— A Hungarian Nabob • Maurus Jokai

... had replied by pressing Minha's hand. He also had a great wish for his mother to be present at his marriage. Benito had approved the scheme without hesitation, and it was only necessary to persuade Joam Garral. And hence on this day the young men had gone out hunting in the woods, so as to leave ...
— Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon • Jules Verne

... imagined to be our motive in wishing them to visit the ship, I little thought that my pressing them would have so nearly led to fatal results. I shall proceed to explain this remark by relating the startling circumstances from which Escape Cliffs received ...
— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. • J Lort Stokes

... the importance shown of using wisdom in not pressing the difficulties of scripture on an inquirer, so as to quench incipient ...
— History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion • Adam Storey Farrar

... agricultural growth and development of its interior. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labor pool, it is today South America's leading economic power and a regional leader. Highly unequal income distribution and crime remain pressing problems. ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... pressing letters from Pompey, to Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria, and offered him the large bribe of ten thousand talents, or seven and a half million dollars, if he would lead the Roman army into Egypt, and replace him on the throne. Most of the officers were against this ...
— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 10 (of 12) • S. Rappoport

... islands. Fire is produced by them with great facility, and they spread it in a surprising manner. For producing it, they take two pieces of soft wood, one of which is a stick about eight or nine inches long, while the other piece is flat. The stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, and pressing it upon the flat wood, turn it nimbly by holding it between both their hands. In doing this, they often shift their hands up, and then move them down, with a view of increasing the pressure as much as possible. By this process they obtain fire in less than ...
— Narrative of the Voyages Round The World, • A. Kippis

... and out among the thickly-growing trees, and to be careful to keep in line as nearly as was possible. Every man was eager and excited, and from time to time, as I looked to right and left, I kept catching sight of one of our party pressing forward with rifle ready, and waiting to fire at the first sight of the enemy, this shot being the appointed signal for all to halt and stand fast, ...
— To The West • George Manville Fenn

... if one be a girl and very pretty and made much of by adoring parents and a host of boys and men, the world is an extremely nice place inhabited exclusively by individuals pressing forward to do her reverence. She is beautiful, she is vivacious, filled with delight; she is a sparkling fountainhead of joy. She is so superabundantly supplied with eager happiness that she radiates happiness. If she thinks a very great deal of herself, so for that matter does every other individual ...
— The Everlasting Whisper • Jackson Gregory

... duty that lies nearest you," replied Nyoda, pressing her shoulder with a gentle hand. "You can be just as much of a Torch Bearer at home as anywhere. I know the prospect seems empty, even with the knowledge that you are doing your duty. By all the tokens, your place in life seems to be out in the busy world, rubbing elbows with people on ...
— The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle - The Trail of the Seven Cedars • Hildegard G. Frey

... think about it: and then she received various pressing invitations to go and see lop-eared rabbits, guinea-pigs, a tame water-rat in the rushes of the duck-pond, a collection of eggs in the schoolroom, and the new lawn-tennis ground which father had ...
— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon

... printed form and a few long words to do the same thing without having his head broken. The occasion of the protest, and the form which the feudal reaction had first taken, was a Poll Tax; but this was but a part of a general process of pressing the population to servile labour, which fully explains the ferocious language held by the government after the rising had failed; the language in which it threatened to make the state of the serf more servile than before. The facts attending the failure in question are less ...
— A Short History of England • G. K. Chesterton

... both. Where is that tamned kellner? Why does he not answer the pell? This is an abscheuliches hotel, and every one connected with it is an Esel. What he wants is some cognac and a doctor forthwith. His friend has fainted, and he has been pressing the tamned puddon, ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... systems of treatment, demonstrations of sheep-dipping, calf-rearing on different foods, illustrations of the different breeds of fowl and systems of poultry management, model buildings and gardens for farmer and labourer; while in separate buildings the drying and pressing of fruit and vegetables, the manufacture of butter and cheese, and a very comprehensive forestry exhibit enabled our visitors to combine profitable suggestion with, if I may judge from my frequent opportunities ...
— Ireland In The New Century • Horace Plunkett

... posture, even the manner in which he used his pen as he traced line after line in the book, made an abominable impression upon the man staring in at the window. But the face—the face! He must see that! And he leaned forward, trembling, but fiercely, and, pressing his own face against the pane, he looked at the occupant of his room as men look sometimes ...
— The Dweller on the Threshold • Robert Smythe Hichens

... is that, for instance, of digging, he takes it at the beginning and at the end, as in "The Spaders" (Pl. 4), and makes you understand everything between. One man is doubled over his spade, his whole weight brought to bear on the pressing foot which drives the blade into the ground. The other, with arms outstretched, gives the twisting motion which lets the loosened earth fall where it is to lie. Each of these positions is so thoroughly understood and so definitely expressed that all the other ...
— Artist and Public - And Other Essays On Art Subjects • Kenyon Cox

... visits to exalted latitudes as uncomfortable as possible. Mr Rimbolt, good easy-going gentleman, shrugged his shoulders and felt powerless to interfere, and when, after a week or two, his librarian generally pleaded some pressing work as an excuse for not going in to coffee, he understood it quite well and ...
— A Dog with a Bad Name • Talbot Baines Reed

... boasted he, and leave to go desired, And forward went with joyful cheer and will, He viewed the wood and those thick shades admired, He heard the wondrous noise and rumbling shrill; Yet not one foot the audacious man retired, He scorned the peril, pressing forward still, Till on the forest's outmost marge he stepped, A flaming fire from ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... not know what date to put to these lines. I wrote the first page on the receipt of your bewitching letter. I meant to reply to it in full, but all sorts of pressing obligations and botherations intervened...I have also been to the inauguration of the statue of Bach at Eisenach, illustrated by three concerts, composed exclusively of numerous works of Bach's (the Mass in B minor first and foremost); then I was present at a more curious concert at ...
— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: "From Rome to the End" • Franz Liszt; letters collected by La Mara and translated

... circle. Breed's cry to rally a pack was never raised, for his own domestic duties were many; and if he had sent forth the summons none would have answered it. He sometimes met Peg and ran with him for a while, but these visits were infrequent and brief, each having pressing ...
— The Yellow Horde • Hal G. Evarts

... his annoyance; and hastily pressing his daughter closer to him, he was intent upon going in, when the bonze pointed his hand at him, and burst out in a ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... turn against Henry, who was pressing Paris hard, Breda was captured (March 1590) by a very daring stratagem carried out with extraordinary resolution—an event of slight intrinsic importance, but exceedingly characteristic. During the summer several other places were reduced, but Maurice ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XII. - Modern History • Arthur Mee

... Duncan's face as he encountered the blank blue stare of a young man whose very smooth and very bright red face was admirably set off by semi-evening dress. "Great Scott!" he cried, warmly pressing the lackadaisical hand that drifted into his. "Willy Bartlett—after ...
— The Fortune Hunter • Louis Joseph Vance

... Aureataland Army have the honor to remind Mr. John Martin that they hope to have the pleasure of his company at supper this evening at ten o'clock precisely. In the unavoidable absence of his Excellency, the President, owing to the pressing cares of state, and of the Hon. Colonel McGregor from indisposition, the toast of the Army of Aureataland will be ...
— A Man of Mark • Anthony Hope

... enthusiasm which constituted the greatness of its history. With the increase of wealth they live for the moment, they are incapable of sacrificing the enjoyment of the hour to the service of great conceptions, and close their eyes complacently to the duties of our future and to the pressing problems of international life which await a solution at the present time."—GENERAL VON BERNHARDI in "Germany and the ...
— Peace Theories and the Balkan War • Norman Angell

... Sister Cynthy Ann," he said, fighting shy of Jonas for the present, "I trust you are trying to let your light shine. Do you feel that you are pressing on?" ...
— The End Of The World - A Love Story • Edward Eggleston

... did not proceed to the finish. The priest swooped down and caught the three necks between his hands, easily spanning them, pressing the heads hard together. Then he lifted the boys high in the air and held them there, a kicking, humiliated trio. The blanched olive of his face was reflected in the pallid brows at the extremity of his rigid arms. His voice, which had been lost in passion, ...
— The Valiant Runaways • Gertrude Atherton

... the rising generation, as well as to establish a harbour of refuge for the generation going out, or at least having their faces turned towards the setting sun. The leading members of the dramatic art, applying themselves first to the more pressing necessity of the two, set themselves to work on the construction of their harbour of refuge, and this they did with the zeal, energy, good-will, and good faith that always honourably distinguish them in their efforts to help one another. Those efforts were very powerfully ...
— Speeches: Literary and Social • Charles Dickens

... the atmosphere, without any local pressures or means for unnatural warmth. Only think of wearing a thick, heavy girdle of many pounds' weight around the whole zone of the abdominal region—a sort of engirdling poultice, heating and pressing like a girdle of hot lava, day after day and year after year! Is it a wonder that you have so many weaknesses and pains and saddening afflictions upon you? And then your feet treading these cold pavements, this damp earth, these frozen or wet walks, ...
— Aims and Aids for Girls and Young Women • George Sumner Weaver

... of you to ask," said she, pressing one of his hands in both her own. "How cool and collected you look when everybody else is frightened! How is our dear little Emmy? It must have been an awful, ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray

... her cold nose into his hand. Trudchen just now was feeling clever and important. Was she not the mother of the five most wonderful puppies in all Saxony? They swarmed about his legs, pressing him with their little foolish heads. Ulrich stooped and picked up one in each big hand. But this causing jealousy and heartburning, laughing, he lay down upon a log. Then the whole five stormed over him, biting his ...
— The Love of Ulrich Nebendahl • Jerome K. Jerome

... Horace would tell you from behind, without pressing forward), and more smoke than fire. Pulci, Boiardo, and Ariosto would cry out, "Make room for the Italian poets, the descendants of Virgil in a right line." Father Le Moine with his "Saint Louis," and Scudery with his "Alaric" (for a ...
— Discourses on Satire and Epic Poetry • John Dryden

... undo, that no man can afford to waste his time on an infinite future of time, space, and leisure. Men cannot afford to lose your best energies. "God" can get on very well without them. Time is short, and needs are pressing; and this thing you know—you can keep busy doing good right here. If there is a hereafter, could there be a better preparation for ...
— Men, Women, and Gods - And Other Lectures • Helen H. Gardener

... stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago,—are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? Casting aside all thought of justice and magnanimity, is it wise to impose upon the negro all the burdens involved in sustaining government against foes within and foes without, to ...
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue • Various

... most active, stations had been watched, inquiries had been made in every direction, but all to no result. The Thugs had vanished and left no trace behind. But the thought of his encounter on the heath soon faded from Jack's mind. It was crushed out by the pressing question of the moment. What was the matter at Brindisi? Why had Risley cabled and not his father? Had something happened to his father? Jack felt wretchedly uneasy, for he and his father were bound together by no ordinary ...
— Jack Haydon's Quest • John Finnemore

... me—" he said pressing his lips first on Eleanor's cheek and then on her mouth. She answered in the same tone as before, drooping in his ...
— The Old Helmet, Volume I • Susan Warner

... was alone, the woman began to work. She uncovered the meal-bin and made the dough for the dumplings. She kneaded it a long time, turning it over and over again, punching, pressing, crushing it. Finally she made a big, round, yellow-white ball, which she placed on ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

... be a flogging matter for me. There will go some shrewd knocks to the settlement of this reckoning. However, I must give you a helping hand. What is one to do, when a friend is so pressing? Now, as to going over everything thoroughly, it is out of the question; it would take us years. Meanwhile, I should have the hue-and-cry out after me, you would be neglecting your ghostly work, Pluto would lose the shades that you ought to be shipping over ...
— Works, V1 • Lucian of Samosata

... story: we do not believe it. It is too good to be true, so we put it away from us. In a world where the material is so pressing we use only material measures, and bow only ...
— The Conquest of Fear • Basil King

... other in the form of a small mat between sheets of blotting paper. This was next squeezed through a wringing-machine to rid it of superfluous moisture, then placed under a heavy weight, in the manner of pressing flowers. When at last it was dry, the alternate layers of the papyrus had adhered together and amalgamated into a substance identical with the old Egyptian parchment, though much coarser and rougher in quality. The girls were delighted ...
— The Princess of the School • Angela Brazil

... movements to and fro across the field. Our side was pressing hard. There was a violent convergence of miscellaneous backs and suchlike irregulars upon the threatened goal. Mr. Britling's dozen was rapidly losing its disciplined order. One of the sidecar ladies and the gallant Indian had shifted their activities to the ...
— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells

... now avers that he 'threw' the dagger out of the Master's hand. He declares that the Master said that he wanted 'a promise from the King,' on what point Gowrie would explain. The rest is much as in the King's account, but Henderson was 'pressing to have opened the window,' he says, when the Master entered for the second time, with the garter to bind the King's hands. During the struggle Henderson removed the Master's hand from the King's mouth, and opened the window. The Master said to him, 'Wilt thou not help? Woe betide thee, thou ...
— James VI and the Gowrie Mystery • Andrew Lang

... have the consolation of leaving to my people a virtuous king, capable of commanding them, and one who, on succeeding me, would unite to the crown states so considerable as Naples, Savoy, Piedmont, and Montferrat. If gratitude and affection towards your subjects are to you pressing reasons for remaining with them, I may say that you owe me the same sentiments; you owe them to your own house, to your own country, before Spain. All that I can do for you is to leave you once more the choice, the necessity for concluding peace becoming ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... enthusiasm born of the love of investigation and the delight in benefiting our fellow men, it is inspiring, and there are few pursuits more deservedly so, considering the vast losses to our farmers from insect injury and the pressing need that the distressed husbandman has for every aid that can be given him. Our work is elevating in its sympathies for the struggles and suffering of others. Our standard should be high—the pursuit of knowledge for the advancement ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 787, January 31, 1891 • Various

... clearly set forth by Mrs. Whitehouse, but in my judgment those difficulties cannot be used as an excuse by the leaders of any party or by the voters of any party for neglecting the question which you are pressing upon them. Because, after all, the whole world now is witnessing a struggle between two ideals of government. It is a struggle which goes deeper and touches more of the foundations of the organized life of men than any struggle ...
— In Our First Year of the War - Messages and Addresses to the Congress and the People, - March 5, 1917 to January 6, 1918 • Woodrow Wilson

... and our one missionary jurisdiction. Bishop Atkinson—our great Church Father during and after the Civil War—felt his responsibility for the souls of the black folk; and he and his successors have been in more or less degree pressing the work of the Church among the negroes. We have now in the State two arch-deacons, thirteen clergymen, 1,400 communicants and 35 parishes and missions. Each arch-deacon goes all about his own diocese, visiting the colored ...
— Church work among the Negroes in the South - The Hale Memorial Sermon No. 2 • Robert Strange

... arch-enemy, after a lapse of eighteen years, created consternation. Senseless quarantines prevailed on all sides; business was paralyzed; property values had fallen; commercial rivals to the right and left were pressing. A crisis was at hand, and all depended on the ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various

... to let him get away. If she could help it, Katie was not going to let any one get away who she thought could tell her anything about the things which were perplexing her—all those things pressing closer and closer ...
— The Visioning • Susan Glaspell

... love. We see, again, the Wallace and the Bruce inciting valorous men to deeds of heroism and hear the hills reechoing with the shock of steel upon steel. From hill to hill the pibroch leaps, and hearts and feet quicken at its sound. And mothers are pressing their bairns to their bosoms as they cheer their loved ones away to the strife. And while their eyes are ...
— The Vitalized School • Francis B. Pearson

... home—not even a sharp attack of rheumatism, from which he had been suffering more or less all the spring. Mr Underhill of course would be there, in his place as Gentleman Pensioner; and after a good deal of pressing from more than one of his friends, a dubious consent to go, if he could find time, had been wrung from ...
— Robin Tremain - A Story of the Marian Persecution • Emily Sarah Holt

... nature had given him, and which the uncommon variety of his life had contributed to increase, and that inquisitiveness which must always be produced in a vigorous mind by an absolute freedom from all pressing or domestic engagements.' Johnson's Works, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... the love of that knowledge which opens our eyes to a few of the mysteries that lie thickly on our path, in the formation of the gravel upon which we tread, the clouds that grandly glide above us, and the leaves that gather upon the trees. After all the labours of our learned men, we are only now pressing, with trembling footsteps, the avenue to the endless schemes, and systems, and wonders, that lie buried in and about our world. Still let all who enter our museum, go there with the resolve to accomplish something by their visit. Even in the common concerns of life; in the petty matters ...
— How to See the British Museum in Four Visits • W. Blanchard Jerrold

... from the War Office on the Hospital ships and medical personnel and material wrangle which is still going on. I, personally, have checked every item of my estimate with closest personal attention, although it took me hours in the midst of other very pressing duties. This is not Braithwaite's pidgin but Woodward's and there was no help for it. Our first landing found out a number of chinks in our arrangements, and now, my Director of Medical Services is (quite naturally) inclined to open his mouth as wide as if ships ...
— Gallipoli Diary, Volume 2 • Ian Hamilton

... new landowner of Kherson; the second to the prosperity of his peasants and their safe transferment; and the third to the beauty of his future wife—a compliment which brought to our hero's lips a flickering smile. Lastly, he received from the company a pressing, as well as an unanimous, invitation to extend his stay in town for at least another fortnight, and, in the meanwhile, to allow a wife ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... from the place; but they brought up large reinforcements, and, pouring in a heavy fire, attacked the town on both sides, and the Confederates had to fall back. But they made another stand a little way out of the town, and drove back the Federal cavalry who were pressing them. ...
— With Lee in Virginia - A Story of the American Civil War • G. A. Henty

... him at least off the right one—she must have had something more dreadful than usual in her head. This was why the girl had been so nervous and why the sense of an impending catastrophe, which had lately gathered strength in her mind, was at present almost intolerably pressing: she knew how little Selina could afford to ...
— A London Life; The Patagonia; The Liar; Mrs. Temperly • Henry James

... no time, after the appearance of the French army in Italy, in pressing the Spanish court to fulfil its engagements. He endeavored to propitiate the good-will of the sovereigns by several important concessions. He granted to them and their successors the tercias, or two-ninths of the tithes, throughout the ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V2 • William H. Prescott

... tinkling bell should summon the fair mermaids. Beplaided and betrowsered, with their little gypsy hats, would they float out beyond the breakers, waving aside with farewell, airy kisses, the patent life boats and the magical preservers, and pressing on, like Gebers, with their rosy faces and great, hopeful eyes ever laughingly, merrily turned to the golden east—their ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No IV, April 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... Combles, then well fortified and strongly held, though dominated by my right at Leuze Wood and by the French left on the opposite heights. It had been agreed between the French and myself that an assault on Combles would not be necessary, as the place could be rendered untenable by pressing forward along the ridges ...
— World's War Events, Vol. II • Various

... knowing that his bread depends on his popularity, seasons his doctrine high, and practises every art for the purpose of obtaining an ascendency over his hearers. But when the Government pays the minister of religion, he has no pressing motive to inflame the zeal of his congregation. He will probably go through his duties in a somewhat perfunctory manner. His power will not be very formidable; and, such as it is, it will be employed in support of that ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 4 (of 4) - Lord Macaulay's Speeches • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... possession of the railway and telegraph lines to those points. Bolderoff and the Directorate boggled at this for a time, but as the Bolsheviks began to get close to Ufa, and also concentrated an army of about one hundred thousand men for an offensive towards Ekaterinburg, the situation became so pressing that the Directorate gave way, and a few days before the coup d'etat Bolderoff had sent word to the Japanese that ...
— With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia • John Ward

... adjoining States. Many thousands are drowned on the edges of the ponds to which they descend to drink while on their aerial passage; those in the rear alighting on the backs of those who touched the ground first, in the same manner as the domestic pigeon, and pressing them beneath the surface of the water. Nuttall estimates the rapidity of their flight at about a mile a minute, and states among other data for this result, that there have been wild pigeons shot near New York, whose crops were filled with rice that must have been collected in the plantations ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... the others are dull. He is apart from the conventional and hackneyed type. He stands upright, savage but mild, with his beard in curling prongs, his lean frame, his raiment of camel-skin; we can hear him speaking as he points to the Lamb carrying the hastate cross surrounded by a nimbus, pressing it to his bosom with both hands. That statue is sublime, and it is most certainly not by the same hand that carved the Abraham, nor even his immediate neighbour, Samuel. This prophet appears to be ...
— The Cathedral • Joris-Karl Huysmans

... killed, I'm killed!" cried Little, rising with much real or apparent difficulty, and pressing one ...
— Dikes and Ditches - Young America in Holland and Belguim • Oliver Optic

... He threw himself upon his knees and received the blessing which He demanded. Then pressing the Abbot's hand to his lips, He started from the ground and hastily quitted the apartment. Soon after Ambrosio descended to Vespers (which were celebrated in a small chapel belonging to the Abbey), filled with surprise at the singularity of ...
— The Monk; a romance • M. G. Lewis

... not notice the family, but they very quickly recognized me as a stranger. They stood and glared at me in the cardinal way, and uttered some sharp remonstrance; but business was pressing, and I was unobtrusive, so they concluded ...
— A Bird-Lover in the West • Olive Thorne Miller

... thorn, pressing persistently—I could not get used to that. In the midst of the adulation, of the blares upon the trumpets of fame that saluted my waking and were wafted to me as I fell asleep at night—in the midst of all the turmoil, I was often in a great and brooding silence, ...
— The Deluge • David Graham Phillips

... "Tom Ponce" appeared everywhere; a cafe on one of the boulevards took the name of "Tom Ponce," with a life-size statue of the General for a sign. Eminent painters here, as in London, asked to paint his portrait, but the General's engagements were so pressing that he had little time to sit to artists. All the leading actors and actresses came to see him, and he received many fine presents from them. The daily receipts continued to increase, and the manager had to take a cab to carry home the silver ...
— A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career. Life of Hon. Phineas T. • Joel Benton

... the earthly paradise that Wilde had taught all hands to expect, and with less than which none of them would be satisfied. For such islands as seemed to approach Wilde's standard in the matter of size and fertility were already inhabited, and that, too, for the most part, by natives whose pressing invitations to land, and lavishly proffered hospitality, we had learned to regard with something more than suspicion; while the uninhabited islands were invariably found to be wholly lacking ...
— Overdue - The Story of a Missing Ship • Harry Collingwood

... Mrs. Hare to her son, almost in an apprehensive tone, her hand pressing his nervously, "was not that Afy Hallijohn I saw you speaking with ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood

... that Grizel was pressing Tommy too hard, and though he did not like the man, he was surprised—he had always thought her ...
— Tommy and Grizel • J.M. Barrie

... of the most pressing of these in hand, Rollo and Hazel went to the packing room; and taking one for their guide in each instance, threw into the box one after another the articles that seemed specially called for. Ah, how pleasant it was! It was like ...
— The Gold of Chickaree • Susan Warner

... upon the decisive strategic point. The Austrian was then the principal army of the Coalition, and its line of retreat was upon Cologne: hence it was upon the Meuse that a general effort of the French would have inflicted the most severe blow. The Committee of Public Safety provided for the most pressing danger, and the maneuver contains half of the strategic principle; the other half consists in giving to such efforts the most decisive direction, as Napoleon did at Ulm, at Jena, and at Ratisbon. The whole of strategy is contained in these ...
— The Art of War • Baron Henri de Jomini

... her employer was not slow to recognize her abilities and increase her wages in proportion. She often indulged in dreams of what she would do for her parents, as soon as she was able, but as yet her own wants were so very pressing, that it took all her money to satisfy them. She saw and admired her fellow-workers, as they entered or left the place of business, dressed in such clothes as she had never had, and such as it must ...
— Yorksher Puddin' - A Collection of the Most Popular Dialect Stories from the - Pen of John Hartley • John Hartley

... fortune," said Victorin, pressing the old maid's hand. "I shall see to-morrow what this man would be up to. With my wife's consent, I can at least hinder or postpone the prosecution—for it would really be frightful to see my father's honor impugned. What would the War Minister say? My father's ...
— Cousin Betty • Honore de Balzac

... was already married spared me further importunity. I was anxious to relieve my uncle's necessities, which, I knew were pressing; and the attorney from Feltram was up with him all night, trying in vain to devise some means by which I might do so. The morning after, I was told I must write to Lady Knollys to ask if I might go to her, as there was shortly to be an ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various

... de Ville had for its object to procure arms. The committee of the sections had voted a civic guard, but a civic guard to act required muskets. The troops of Besenval were now pressing in on the city, and had nearly encircled it. In a few hours Paris, always hungry, might be reduced to famine, and the troops might be pouring volleys down the streets. The soldiers of the French guards, siding with the people, were already skirmishing with the ...
— The French Revolution - A Short History • R. M. Johnston

... ones between Russia and England, and such as are barely short of hostility between England and France. But into real hostilities, this country would with difficulty be drawn. Her finances are too deranged, her internal union too much dissolved, to hazard a war. The nation is pressing on fast, to a fixed constitution. Such a revolution in the public opinion has taken place, that the crown already feels its powers bounded, and is obliged, by its ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... turbulent stream of change, The pressing wants of flesh and sense Conceal my inward opulence, And clog the ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... on earth should she speak to me about Miss Warrington, Henry's sister? I have not noticed her closely, but she is a quiet enough female, I believe, though possessed of an irritating habit of constantly pressing quite ...
— Our Elizabeth - A Humour Novel • Florence A. Kilpatrick

... garden, his employer's daughter, a young lady of seventeen, came out and spoke to him. His culture and refinement of manner struck her with wonder, and she asked him to tell her his history; but then he suddenly grew very grave, and she forbore pressing him. From that time she attached a kind of romantic interest to him, and finally induced her father to obtain him a situation that would be more to his taste. And, before winter came, Ralph saw the dawn of a new future glimmering before him. He had wrestled bravely with ...
— A Good-For-Nothing - 1876 • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

... inexperienced physicians. Hypertrophy, or enlargement of the prostate gland, is not an unfrequent disease in the adult or middle-aged man. Being in close contact with the bladder, when it enlarges it encroaches on the bladder, pressing on it, and it has the effect of interfering with the function of urination. As before indicated, enlargement or hypertrophy of the prostate gland, is often confounded with stricture, gravel, and stone in the bladder, by inexperienced ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

... latter returned by remarking that it was unfortunate that his immediate departure would preclude the possibility of his returning his visit, which he the more regretted, as he was at present most particularly engaged in matters of a pressing nature with the English gentlemen, and he therefore hoped he would be excused thus abruptly, but unavoidably, terminating an interview which it would otherwise have given him the greatest pleasure to have prolonged. Thus saying, he politely rose and led the ...
— A Journey to Katmandu • Laurence Oliphant

... his name and which is still extant. It is regarded by many scholars as genuine, but by many others its authenticity is regarded as very doubtful. In ecclesiastical art St. Barnabas is represented as holding St. Matthew's Gospel; as being stoned; as pressing a stone to his breast; as being burned to death; with an open book and staff; with three stones; with a fire ...
— The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia • William James Miller

... the great press of room last week we were obliged to omit everything that did not appear of very pressing haste. In the Preliminary Number we have used no statistics but such as we have derived from official sources, and we shall always be glad to give the authority on which any statistical statement is made. The statement of ...
— The Economist - Volume 1, No. 3 • Various

... man of the world; but it is not for you I write. The fountain which leaps up fresh and living in every new life can never be exhausted till the springs of all life are dry. Tell me, O lover, gazing into those tender eyes uplifted to yours, twining the silken rings around your bronzed finger, pressing reverently the warm lips consecrated to you,—does it abate one jot or tittle of your happiness to know that eyes just as tender, curls just as silken, lips just as red, have stirred the hearts of ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... of long-continued disturbance was found to be the spreading-out of the rings in breadth, the outer rings pressing outward, while the inner ...
— A History of Science, Volume 3(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams

... weighed the captain's remarks. On the whole, he agreed that it did not look as if Montgomery meant to help. The fellow was hospitable, but hospitality that implied his pressing liquor on the captain and making the sailors drunk had drawbacks. Brown had used control, but Lister doubted if his resolution would stand much strain. Then, although Montgomery's story about the need for his being on the spot was plausible, it was, ...
— Lister's Great Adventure • Harold Bindloss

... our staring rounds, Across the pressing dark, The children wise of outer skies Look hitherward and mark A light that shifts, a glare that drifts, Rekindling thus and thus, Not all forlorn, for Thou hast borne Strange ...
— The Seven Seas • Rudyard Kipling

... the next fence, but pressing his horse savagely he crept up a little as they approached the one really difficult jump; and as they sped across the narrow meadow Lisle fancied that the bay was making its last effort. Crestwick was standing near the hurdles, with Nasmyth moving rapidly toward them not far away and Bella running ...
— The Long Portage • Harold Bindloss

... coldness of the Franks was not less unreasonable than their headlong passion. In the eleventh century, a fanatic monk could precipitate Europe on Asia for the recovery of the holy sepulchre; but in the fifteenth, the most pressing motives of religion and policy were insufficient to unite the Latins in the defence of Christendom. Germany was an inexhaustible storehouse of men and arms: [16] but that complex and languid body required the impulse of a vigorous hand; and Frederic the Third was alike impotent in his personal ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 6 • Edward Gibbon

... but a carriage drew up before the house, and his horse carried him briskly past down the avenue. From one boulevard to another he passed, keeping his eyes straight ahead, avoiding the sight of the comfortable, ugly houses, anxious to escape them and their associations, pressing on for a beyond, for something other than this vast, roaring, complacent city. The great park itself was filled with people, carriages, bicycles. A stream of carts and horse-back riders was headed for the ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... commenced a diligent examination of the walls and floor of the room, pressing over each square foot and tapping with his knuckles. About six feet from the floor he discovered a sleeping-perch near one end of the apartment. He asked An-Tak about it, but the Galu said that no Weiroo had occupied ...
— Out of Time's Abyss • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... you did," Jacob said. "But you see you yourself talked of remaining for three days in Edinburgh. Therefore, I knew that there could be no pressing need of my journey north; and hearing some whispers of the intention of the lord president to extract from a certain prisoner the news of a plot with which he was supposed to be connected, I thought it even best to come ...
— Friends, though divided - A Tale of the Civil War • G. A. Henty

... 'Hush!' calculated to appal the intruder who was disturbing the service. Madame Astier half turned round, and felt a shiver at the sight of her son. What was the matter? What had Paul to say to her of such pressing importance as to bring him to that haunt of boredom—Paul, who never let himself be bored without a reason? Money again, no doubt, horrid money! Well, fortunately she would soon have plenty; Sammy's marriage would make them all rich. Much ...
— The Immortal - Or, One Of The "Forty." (L'immortel) - 1877 • Alphonse Daudet

... guardian had gone to Jane's assistance and was pressing a bottle of smelling salts to the nostrils of Janus Grubb. Janus twisted his head uneasily, as though to get away from the pungent odor of ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls in the Hills - The Missing Pilot of the White Mountains • Janet Aldridge

... our hero lay in this state he could not tell, but on recovering his faculties he became conscious of the fact that he was in total darkness, lying on his back, with a tremendous weight pressing on his chest. For a few moments he remained still, quite unable to recollect what had occurred, ...
— The Rover of the Andes - A Tale of Adventure on South America • R.M. Ballantyne

... natives close together, yelling, gesticulating, and cutting all kinds of antics at the foot of the sycamore. Some, climbing into the tree itself, were making their way to the topmost branches. The danger seemed pressing. ...
— Five Weeks in a Balloon • Jules Verne

... countenance, but nothing about him indicative of any extraordinary talent. I seated him on a chair at my right hand and offered two more to the Thakur and his son, of which, however, they did not avail themselves without first placing their hands under the feet of their spiritual guide and then pressing them reverently ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) • R.V. Russell

... thoughts from his mind until the time came, and decided to tackle what was most pressing. The most urgent matter that first claimed his attention was breakfast, and when he reached the bridge he was delighted to see fruits from the island piled in shady corners. These and bread and cheese made up his meal, which he ate while watching the final leaves ...
— Mr. Wicker's Window • Carley Dawson

... received) to charm her duller moments by tale or legend were, in this instance, fruitless. She shook her head gently, pressed his hand, and said, "No, dear Trevylyan, no; even your art fails to-day, but your kindness never!" and pressing his hand to her lips, she ...
— The Pilgrims Of The Rhine • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... possession the means of inexhaustible wealth. Shortly after this time the emperor Rodolph seized and committed to prison Kelly, the partner of Dee in this inestimable faculty, and, having once enlarged him, placed him in custody a second time. Meanwhile Elizabeth is said to have made him pressing overtures of so flattering a nature that he determined to escape and return to his native country. For this purpose he is said to have torn the sheets of his bed, and twisted them into a rope, that by that means he might descend from ...
— Lives of the Necromancers • William Godwin

... would be quite as inconvenient to explain that the termination goom was a derivation from the Anglo-Saxon guma as that it was a corruption of it; the point to be gained being, after all, that we should be able to find out the meaning of the English word bridegroom, having no pressing need of guma for conversational purposes. We have spoken of this word only because we have heard it brought up against Dr. Webster as often as anything else, and because the disproportionate antipathy produced ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 • Various

... all hostility—a young defiance. She was delighted to confess herself. Her crime, untold, had been pressing upon her conscience, ...
— Helbeck of Bannisdale, Vol. I. • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... right and then dare to do the right; ever pressing forward to higher and nobler things; never lagging, but remember, "That constant effort will remove the mountain, and that continued dripping will ...
— Twentieth Century Negro Literature - Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating - to the American Negro • Various

... if you do not look, we will always have plenty, and will never be without meat." The girl looked at him and said, "I will try hard this time, and even if those animals run right over me, I will not look until you throw the kidney to me." Again she covered her head, pressing her face against the earth and putting her hands against her ears, so that she might not hear. Suddenly, sooner than she thought, she felt the blow from the meat thrown at her, and springing up, she ...
— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

... laughed he of the snub-nose, pressing his pointed chin into his hand. "The Messiah! the fairy-tale of dreaming old men. All weak men dream and believe. Don't you see that when you have to strive and struggle for your little bit of life there isn't time ...
— I.N.R.I. - A prisoner's Story of the Cross • Peter Rosegger

... great hills. Those south and east, their gaunt peaks rising, streaked with white, above the lower and nearer ones, are in Basutoland. They play an important part in our programme, for it is against that huge barrier that we are pressing the Boers. There are some rounded, turf-clad hills, but most are rocky. Sharp points and stony ridges rise up with jagged and clear-cut outlines into the sky, with gorges and valleys retreating in between, full of deep blue shade, and often horizontal bands of strata, showing like regularly ...
— With Rimington • L. March Phillipps

... gently, pressing Doeninger tenderly to his heart; "do not scold, but submit as I do. I die gladly, for it is better that I should sacrifice myself for my native country than that others should die for my sake, or for the fatherland." [Footnote: Hofer's own words—See "Gallery ...
— Andreas Hofer • Lousia Muhlbach

... were the firmest rampart of the city. As he withdrew from his station in quest of a surgeon, his flight was perceived and stopped by the indefatigable emperor. "Your wound," exclaimed Palaeologus, "is slight; the danger is pressing: your presence is necessary; and whither will you retire?"—"I will retire," said the trembling Genoese, "by the same road which God has opened to the Turks;" and at these words he hastily passed through one of the breaches of the inner wall. By this pusillanimous act he stained the honors ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 6 • Edward Gibbon

... and at that distance they exchanged rifle bullets three days. The Spaniards finally surrendered, on condition of safe escort to the coast. For fifty years they had conquered their enemy who were armed only with spear and ax; but the insurrectos were armed with guns. However, the really hard pressing came from the rear — there were still the ax and spear — and few soldiers from cuartel or trench who tried to bring food or water for the fighting men ever reported why ...
— The Bontoc Igorot • Albert Ernest Jenks

... problems not by their intrinsic importance, but by their difficulty, do not supply historians (those whose work it is to combine materials and use them for the main purposes of history) with the materials of which the latter have the most pressing need, but with others which might have waited. If the activity of specialists in external criticism were exclusively directed to questions whose solution is important, and if it were regulated and guided from above, it would be ...
— Introduction to the Study of History • Charles V. Langlois

... Frowin, sent Folk, his chief officer, to take this news to Wermund, who then chanced to be in his house Jellinge. (1) Folk found the king feasting with his friends, and did his errand, admonishing him that here was the long-wished-for chance of war at hand, and pressing itself upon the wishes of Wermund, to whom was give an immediate chance of victory and the free choice of a speedy and honourable triumph. Great and unexpected were the sweets of good fortune, so long ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... same time he started back into the darkest corner of the arch, pulled up the cape of his cassock, and slouched the wide-brimmed hat over his anxious lineaments; then pressing his body flat against the dusky wall, to which the color of his garments was in some sort assimilated, he awaited the arrival of the new-comers, perhaps hoping that if foreign to his purpose they might pass by him in ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) • Henry William Herbert



Words linked to "Pressing" :   impression, pushing, imperative, urgent, part, compression, portion, compressing, push



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