"Toothpick" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... to speak when they come East, all by way of proving their sensitive and shrinking nature. I don't agree with the suffragists, not a little bit, but I can fraternize with them; they are sincere, but none of the 'Antis' for me; never saw one yet who wasn't either a snob or so narrow-minded that a toothpick would look like the Brooklyn ...
— An American Suffragette • Isaac N. Stevens
... the doctors ain't got any license to monkey with," began Bill, chewing out blue smoke from his lungs with each word, "and they're both fevers. After they butt into your system they stick crossways, like a swallered toothpick; there ain't any patent medicine that can ...
— Pardners • Rex Beach
... that Captain Trent had alighted (such is, I believe, the classic phrase) at the What Cheer House. To that large and unaristocratic hostelry we drove, and addressed ourselves to a large clerk, who was chewing a toothpick and looking straight ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... desk. Her father realized that his fellow-passenger had been teasing him when he referred to this place as a boarding-house, but he was not at all crushed by the magnificence he was encountering. He felt that he was in for it—so he cocked his toothpick pluckily and wrote on the loose-leaf register the room clerk ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes
... eight o'clock the chandelier is lighted and the evening meal is served. This is a very formal dinner, consisting of innumerable courses of the same thing cooked in different styles. A glass of tinto wine, a glass of water, and a toothpick whittled by the loving hands of the muchacho, finishes the meal. The kitchen is located in the rear, and generally overlooks the court, and near by are the bathroom ...
— The Great White Tribe in Filipinia • Paul T. Gilbert
... the transactions of the 9th thermidor. Madame Tallien was then in prison, and going to be executed in a few days (she was not yet married to Tallien then). She wrote, by stealth of course, a few emphatic words, with a toothpick and soot wetted, to Tallien which nerved him to the conflict, and she was saved. Talleyrand told De Tocqueville she was beyond everything captivating, beautiful, and interesting. She afterwards became the mistress of Barras, and finally ...
— Correspondence & Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to 1859, Vol. 2 • Alexis de Tocqueville
... when Symes dined cheek by jowl with hoi polloi who left their spoons in their cups and departed using a toothpick like a peavy, his thoughts turned to his coming triumph in Crowheart. And although his gorge rose at the sight of a large, buck cockroach which scurried across the table and turned to wave a fraternal leg at him before ...
— The Lady Doc • Caroline Lockhart
... enough, gloves invested the hands, whose horny, reticulated skin reminded me of the black fowl, or the scaly feet of African cranes pacing at ease over the burning sands. Each dandy had his badine upon whose nice conduct he prided himself; the toothpick was as omnipresent as the crutch, nor was the 'quizzing-glass' quite absent. Lower extremities, of the same category as the hands, but slightly superior in point of proportional size, were crammed into patent-leather boots, the latter looking as if ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton
... leather cover with red edges, a lemon dried and shrunken to the dimensions of a hazelnut, the broken arm of a chair, a tumbler containing the dregs of some liquid and three flies (the whole covered over with a sheet of notepaper), a pile of rags, two ink-encrusted pens, and a yellow toothpick with which the master of the house had picked his teeth (apparently) at least before the coming of the French to Moscow. As for the walls, they were hung with a medley of pictures. Among the latter was a long ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... country were not less savage and horrible. The wild rocks raised their lofty summits till they were lost in the clouds, and the valleys lay covered with everlasting snow. Not a tree was to be seen, nor a shrub even big enough to make a toothpick. The only vegetation we met with was a coarse strong-bladed grass growing in tufts, wild burnet, and a plant like moss, which sprung ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18) • Robert Kerr
... innumerable salient contrasts between rustic simplicity and city acumen. A diagnosis of the provincial's ways in Paris, like every form of life there, has been given by a shrewd observer, who mentions among other signs that the novice may be recognized by the fact that he keeps his toothpick after dinner and carries it to ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I. February, 1862, No. II. - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... undoubtedly the Nova Scotian mate of the Thames, the man who had dissuaded me from following Carlos on the day we sailed into Kingston Harbour. He was chewing a toothpick, and at the ruminant motion of his knife-jaws I seemed to see him, sitting naked to the waist in his bunk, instead of upright there in red trousers and a blue shirt—an immense lank-length of each. I pieced his history together ...
— Romance • Joseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer
... on low, marshy soil a white incrustation like dried salt, a very minute portion was removed by needle or toothpick, deposited on a slide, moistened with a drop of water, rubbed up with a needle or toothpick into a uniformly diffused cloud in and through the water. The cover was put on, and the excess of water removed by touching with a handkerchief the edge of the cover. Then the capillary attraction held ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 384, May 12, 1883 • Various
... heavy paper or cardboard that will fold without breaking. Bend all the dotted lines and cut all the heavy lines in the pattern. Push a burnt match, or a wooden toothpick through one hub, then through an empty spool and the second hub. The spool forms the wheels. Screw a small pin cautiously through each of the two projecting ends of the match, piercing the wood and leaving the head and point ...
— Little Folks' Handy Book • Lina Beard
... The best toothpick is a finely-pointed stick of cedar. Toothbrushes should not be too hard, and should be used, not only to the teeth, but to the gums, as friction is highly salutary to them. To polish the front teeth, it is better to use a piece of flannel ...
— The Jewish Manual • Judith Cohen Montefiore
... needle-books, for his sisters; a gilt buckle, for his mamma; a handsome French cashmere shawl and bonnet, for his aunt (the old lady keeps an inn in the Borough, and has plenty of money, and no heirs); and a toothpick case, for his father. Sam is a good fellow to all his relations, and as for his aunt, he adores her. Well, we were to go and make these purchases, and I arrived punctually at my time; but Sam was stretched on a sofa, very pale ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray
... liberty with him as to speak first: then I handed him the paper: then, as he would take no notice of these advances, I used to look him in the face steadily and—and use my fork in the light of a toothpick. After two mornings of this practice, he could bear it no longer, and ...
— The Book of Snobs • William Makepeace Thackeray
... instantly recognized the illustration, and vigorous applause greeted the tableau. Tavia was surely funny—so fat, and so comical, while Roland looked like a human toothpick. The clean platter was cleaner than even Mother Goose could have wished it, and, altogether, the first picture was ...
— Dorothy Dale's Queer Holidays • Margaret Penrose
... for Christmas tree decorations are very easily broken on the line shown in the sketch. These can be easily repaired by inserting in the neck a piece of match, toothpick or splinter of wood and tying the hanging string ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics
... of the bustle, proposed a game at cards. James and Caroline desired to set out, so, while the rest of the company were at cards, they amused themselves by tormenting me. At last tired by constant exercise, and irritated by James, who pricked me with his toothpick whenever I attempted to rest, I waited for a good opportunity, and as he laid his finger close to my cage, (while he was talking to some of the card party) I gave him a bite he has remembered ever since, I dare say. It so exasperated him, that he pricked me now more than ever; and Caroline ...
— The Adventures of a Squirrel, Supposed to be Related by Himself • Anonymous
... and ignited the checks, holding them while they burned until at last he dropped them on the floor, where they blazed, curled up in strips of black ash, and were no more. He glanced about at the others. Winship was picking his teeth with a quill toothpick, with his mind apparently far away on other matters. Morgan stolidly chewed tobacco and kept a wary eye on the bandit, Alvarez. Charlie sat pale, limp, gazing at nothing. The elder Menocal had lifted his eyes to Bryant, at whom he looked ...
— The Iron Furrow • George C. Shedd
... the steps and gave Sperry a wooden toothpick, under the impression that it was a match. That rectified, we bent over the ...
— Sight Unseen • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... soup and going to black coffee with dazzling intelligence. While their waiter was gone with their order, he beckoned with one finger to another, and sent him out for a paper, which he unfolded and spread on the table, taking a toothpick into his mouth, and running the sheet over with his eyes. "I just want to see what's going on to-night," he ...
— A Modern Instance • William Dean Howells
... thought, 'are not the four Cardinal virtues, Temperance, Justice, Prudence and Fortitude?' and then resumed my watch inside. Dr. Mansfield finished writing, and then held up the slip as though for a final revision before handing it to me. A toothpick which he had in his mouth worked energetically from side to side, and he gravely shook his head as in perplexity. 'I don't like this,' he ejaculated at last, 'I don't want to give it to you. There'll be trouble ...
— Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University • The Seybert Commission
... bore, and I was squeamishly out of sorts with him for his volubleness, but I could not help admiring him as I watched him go down. Past seventy years of age, lean as a toothpick, and shrivelled like a mummy, he was doing what few young athletes of my race would do or could do. It was forty feet to bottom. There, partly exposed, but mostly hidden under the bulge of a coral lump, I could discern his objective. His keen eyes had caught ...
— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London
... who chews tobacco, generally puts a piece in his mouth immediately after eating. This is immediately moved from place to place, and not only performs, in some measure, the offices of a brush and toothpick, but produces a sudden flow of saliva; and in consequence of both of these causes combined, the teeth are effectually cleansed; and cleanliness is undoubtedly one of the most effectual preventives of decay in teeth yet known. Yet there are far better ...
— The Young Man's Guide • William A. Alcott
... plains; but it is clumsily done, and never accompanied with the grasping air and insufferable whine of the latter. They are constantly armed with a long, heavy, straight knife,* [It is called "Ban," and serves equally for plough, toothpick, table-knife, hatchet, hammer, and sword.] but never draw it on one another: family and political feuds are ...
— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker
... enough to know that it was Millaird's thick and hairy hands that gathered together all the loose threads of Operation Retrograde and deftly wove them into a workable pattern. Now the director leaned back in a chair which was too small for his bulk, chewing thoughtfully on a toothpick. ...
— The Time Traders • Andre Norton
... the Toothpick and Joint Keeper of the Snuffbox? I mind me! Thou heldest these posts under our royal Sire. They are restored to thee, Lord Spinachi! I make thee knight of the second class of our Order of the Pumpkin (the first ...
— The Christmas Books • William Makepeace Thackeray
... down to write a story about a man who fell off a bridge and landed in a kettle of tar on a canal boat and, before I have completed a full paragraph, I can have stopped to clean the small o, small e, and small a of my typewriter with a toothpick, stopped to think about the pearl buttons on a vest I owned in 1894, the Spanish-American War, what the French word for "illumination" is, and whether I paid my last Liberty Loan installment. Before I have finished that first paragraph I may have stopped ...
— Goat-Feathers • Ellis Parker Butler
... But willow toothpicks are preferable to all others; and they have the advantage of being the most cleanly, for they generally break in the using, and are thrown away. Few sights are more offensive to a person of any refinement than a toothpick that has been much used; it is, moreover, uncleanly, and therefore not healthy for the teeth. Food allowed to remain between the teeth, particularly animal food, is very destructive: it should be carefully removed after every meal, and ...
— The Ladies' Vase - Polite Manual for Young Ladies • An American Lady
... and "crutch and toothpick brigade" of the stage were rather the progenitors than imitators of the type, and the Gibson girls were more numerous after the appearance of Miss Camille Clifford than before she came to London. It might be indiscreet ...
— Our Stage and Its Critics • "E.F.S." of "The Westminster Gazette"
... their own liquor over a quick fire. When plump wrap each oyster in a slice of bacon, and fasten with a small skewer (wooden toothpick). Saute in the blazer, heated very hot. Serve on thin rounds of toast. These cromeskies are most easily cooked in a double broiler, resting on a dripping-pan, in ...
— Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties - With Fifty Illustrations of Original Dishes • Janet McKenzie Hill
... and the meal proceeded in solemn silence to its conclusion. The two ranch hands arose and disappeared through the door, and tilting back in his chair Thompson produced a match from his pocket, and proceeded to whittle it into a toothpick. "I heard in town how you was out in the hills," he began. "They said yer paw went back East—" he paused as if ...
— The Gold Girl • James B. Hendryx
... Baron, putting his fore-finger on his brow in a thoughtful manner. "All, yes; besides the ties you will require a shirt-collar or two, a comb to unravel those hyacinthine locks of yours, a pair of spectacles, and a toothpick. It might be as well also to take an umbrella, in case we should be caught out ...
— Voyages and Travels of Count Funnibos and Baron Stilkin • William H. G. Kingston
... for the toothpick habit! Let no one ever tell me that that atrocity is American! Here it goes with every course, and without the pretended decency of holding one's serviette before one's mouth, which, in my opinion, is a mere affectation, ...
— As Seen By Me • Lilian Bell
... the name Lubliner," Gifkin replied, "which his father was Pincus Lubliner, also a crook, Mr. Polatkin, which he would steal anything from a toothpick to an oitermobile, ...
— Elkan Lubliner, American • Montague Glass
... the hill with blocks, which have served one Dr. Borlase and others as occasions for earning the character of blockheads. One thing is man's doing, without much dispute, and that is, an obelisk in honour of old Lord De Dunstanville, which is a conspicuous toothpick on the hilltop: no doubt, as in this case, nature brought the stones there, and man did his part in arranging them; poor Dr. B. would have you believe that every natural rock had been lifted here bodily for architectural purposes, and as bodily made a most elaborate and labyrinthine ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... leagues of the ships, they found a town built in their absence by the Symerons, at which Drake consented to halt, sending a Symeron to the ship, with his gold toothpick, as a token, which, though the master knew it, was not sufficient to gain the messenger credit, till, upon examination, he found that the captain, having ordered him to regard no messenger without his handwriting, had engraven his name upon it ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson
... laughed the colonel good-humouredly, reaching for a toothpick from the glass stand in the centre of the table. "We think a man deserves something who hasn't missed a ...
— The Voice of the People • Ellen Glasgow
... it is essential to cleanse the interstices between the teeth with a quill toothpick or dental floss, never with a pin, for it is the decomposition of tiny particles that starts decay; a tooth never ...
— Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia • Isaac G. Briggs
... "you take it. Gum, I never thought I was such a mutt! I'm not fit to take charge of a toothpick. Fancy me not being on the watch for something of that sort. I guess I was so tickled with myself at the thought of having got the thing, that it never struck me they might try for it. But I'm through. No more for me. You're ...
— Psmith, Journalist • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... too lazy to put her toothpicks away properly; and every day, after having used a new toothpick, she would stick it down between the mats on the floor, to get rid of it. So the little fairies who take care of the floor-mats became angry with her, ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various
... Majesty's name. It was a dreary region, bordered by perpendicular cliffs of considerable height, from which pieces were continually breaking off. Beyond, the country was equally savage and horrible, not even a shrub being seen large enough to make a toothpick. ...
— Notable Voyagers - From Columbus to Nordenskiold • W.H.G. Kingston and Henry Frith
... fish, but he ain't no ways progressive—he don't go with the march o' the times. They're chock-full o' labour-savin' jigs an' sech all. 'Ever seed the Elector o' Gloucester? She's a daisy, ef she is a toothpick." ...
— "Captains Courageous" • Rudyard Kipling
... the guest, taking a gold toothpick from his pocket with the same sweet smile. 'A very disagreeable circumstance for ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens
... can put your toothpick right through the rotten shingles," cried the doctor. "The only way to save ...
— A String of Amber Beads • Martha Everts Holden
... we will do," spoke the papa giant. "I know, I'll get a spool of thread from the lady giant next door, and that will answer for a table for you, Uncle Wiggily, and you can use another toothpick for a chair." ...
— Uncle Wiggily's Adventures • Howard R. Garis
... is either white or untidy, well-gloved or otherwise, he twirls his moustache, or his whiskers, or picks his teeth with a little tortoise-shell toothpick. ...
— Analytical Studies • Honore de Balzac
... paid, well, he had to get a proper walking-stick, and not the remains of an umbrella. There were other little things as well that were but reasonable—a fur cap for the winter, like all his companions wore, a pair of skates to go on the ice with as others did, a silver toothpick, which was a thing to clean one's teeth, and play with daintily when chatting with friends over a glass of this or that. And as long as he had money, he stood treat as far as he was able; at a festive evening held to celebrate his return to town, he ordered half a dozen bottles of beer, and ...
— Growth of the Soil • Knut Hamsun
... answer. Cranly dislodged a figseed from his teeth on the point of his rude toothpick and gazed ...
— A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man • James Joyce
... a man, removing the toothpick from his mouth and his gaudily socked feet from the railing. "I think she's ...
— Mary Louise and Josie O'Gorman • Emma Speed Sampson
... the use of a swab made by twisting a bit of absorbent cotton upon a wooden toothpick. With this the folds between the gums and lips and cheeks may be gently and carefully cleansed twice a day unless the mouth is sore. It is not necessary after every feeding. The finger of the nurse, often employed, is too large and liable to injure ...
— The Care and Feeding of Children - A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses • L. Emmett Holt
... matches I want!" cried Denver Pete, with a strangely loud-voiced wrath. "I don't want painted wood. How can a gent whittle one of these damned matches down to toothpick size? Gimme plain wood, ...
— Black Jack • Max Brand
... a big, fleshy, red-faced man, with chilly blue eyes and a little straight slit of a mouth in his wide face. He was laughing and chewing a sliver of toothpick. ...
— Birthright - A Novel • T.S. Stribling
... toothpick," cousin Sadako explained. "We call such chop-sticks komochi-hashi, chopstick with baby, because the toothpick inside the chopstick like the baby inside the mother. Very funny, ...
— Kimono • John Paris
... of the Tavern and his Wife, decent bodies both, were wofully frightened at the behaviour of this Desperado; but I was not to be frightened by such Racketing. I bade him put up his Toothpick, giving him at the same time a Back-Hander, which drove him into a Corner, where he crouched, snarling like a Wild-beast, but offering to do me no hurt. Then I asked what the To-do was about, and was told that he stood indebted but for Eight Sols, for Half a Litre of Wine, ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 3 of 3 • George Augustus Sala
... to be considered was the charter. "When I get a charter for a railroad," said Price, "I get one that lets me do anything from building a toothpick factory to running flying-machines. But the fools who drew the charter of the Northern Mississippi got permission to build a railroad from Atkin to Opala. So we have to proceed to get an extension. While you ...
— The Moneychangers • Upton Sinclair
... tarnished, greasy, rascallion-like, the costly bauble! Filled with what motley, unlovable contents: stale pawn-tickets of foreign monts de piete, pledges never henceforth to be redeemed; scrawls by villanous hands in thievish hierolgyphics; ugly implements replacing the malachite penknife, the golden toothpick, the jewelled pencil-case, once so neatly set within their satin lappets. Ugly implements, indeed,—a file, a gimlet, loaded dice. Pell-mell, with such more hideous and recent contents, dishonoured evidences of gaudier summer life,—locks of ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... Anse Dugmore was brought up on a charge of homicide. The trial lasted less than a day. A jury of strangers heard the stories of Anse himself and of the dead Pegleg's white-eyed nephew. In the early afternoon they came back, a wooden toothpick in each mouth, from the new hotel where they had just had a most satisfying fifty-cent dinner at the expense of the commonwealth, and sentenced the defendant, Anderson Dugmore, to state prison at hard labor for the balance ...
— The Escape of Mr. Trimm - His Plight and other Plights • Irvin S. Cobb
... Roll.— Sprinkle grated cheese on thin slices of wheat bread that has been buttered, sprinkle a little paprika over it and toast until cheese is melted, holding cheese side to the flame. Then roll quickly, hold together with a toothpick ...
— Desserts and Salads • Gesine Lemcke
... stone, the two about four feet apart; and lifting into the air a rock weighing a hundred or more pounds, dropped it on the middle of the fragment; and it did not even bend what this man of awful strength had severed with his two hands as one would break a wooden toothpick between the fingers. Then Peters picked up a stove which stood, fireless, in the room; and he cast it through an open window, seven or eight feet away, into the yard beyond, where it fell, breaking into a hundred pieces. I need scarcely say ...
— A Strange Discovery • Charles Romyn Dake
... the setting were in a little basket by themselves. Peggy hung over them breathlessly, and saw in fancy eighteen balls of yellow down, teetering on toothpick legs. Then her imagination leaped ahead, and the cream-colored eggs had become eighteen lusty, pin-feathered fowls, worth forty cents a pound in city markets. Peggy's heart gave a jubilant flutter. Many a fortune had started, she ...
— Peggy Raymond's Vacation - or Friendly Terrace Transplanted • Harriet L. (Harriet Lummis) Smith
... the chap who had answered my first question, and after telling him who I was and what I was there for, he made room for me and I sat down. He was a funny-looking little chap about the build of a wooden toothpick, but he looked as if he was made of steel wire. We soon struck up a conversation, and his "Cockney" sure did sound funny to me; he was one of the sappers, and when he found that I had left the Infantry to join them he was disgusted. "Well," said he, "you are a bloomin' ass. Why, blime ...
— Into the Jaws of Death • Jack O'Brien
... contempt for butter as raw material in sculpture, seized a wooden toothpick, and with it modelled a beautiful head of Minerva out of the pat that stood upon the small plate at his side, and before Burns could interfere had spread the chaste figure as thinly as he could upon a piece of bread, which he tossed to the shade of a hungry dog that stood yelping ...
— A House-Boat on the Styx • John Kendrick Bangs
... when, luncheon over, he asked for a toothpick, which he quickly passed between his teeth. At this, applause broke out on all sides, ...
— Nobody's Boy - Sans Famille • Hector Malot
... His teeth were strong and white and even. He walked toward the door with his light quick step, paused for a toothpick as he paid his check, was out again into the July sunlight. Her face ...
— Gigolo • Edna Ferber
... them well, and season with salt and pepper, and a drop of lemon juice if desired. Cut fat bacon into very thin, even slices, and wrap each oyster in a slice of bacon, fastening securely with a wooden skewer—a toothpick will do. Two cloves can be inserted at one end of the roll to simulate ears. Have the frying pan very hot, and cook the little pigs until the bacon crisps. Serve immediately upon small pieces ...
— Favorite Dishes • Carrie V. Shuman
... Nyoda fervently. "A rhinocerous, a wild rhinocerous, with an ivory toothpick on his nose, would be a simple problem compared to Kaiser Bill. No, my dears, Kaiser Bill is a goat, a William goat, with the disposition of a crab, the soul of a monkey and the constitution of a battle tank. We named him Kaiser ...
— The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit - Or, Over the Top with the Winnebagos • Hildegard G. Frey
... porter had ceased to perform prodigies by shutting between the upper berth and the wall three times as many blankets, mattresses, board partitions, and other paraphernalia as one would have thought the space could possibly contain, and was sitting in the corner section reflectively chewing a toothpick. There appeared to be a distressing lack of interest in the train on the part of all its proximate officials; no one seemed ready ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble
... and he immediately suggested "Smiler" as an appropriate name for the chestnut. The dark grey he called "Toothpick," because of his habit of rubbing his teeth on the sharp points of the fence; while he called the big bony bay the "Nipper," from his being so fond of grazing on, and taking nips from, the manes and tails of his companions, when he could ...
— Off to the Wilds - Being the Adventures of Two Brothers • George Manville Fenn
... with a friend at Simpson's one day, the latter recurred to the changes which had taken place there and expressed regret that the Grand chess Divan had been transformed into a dining room. "Faix," said Mr. C. B. as he took up a toothpick," It's the first time in my life that I ever felt disposed to say grace after mate in ...
— Chess History and Reminiscences • H. E. Bird
... here, the market's overstocked. With what? shouted I. With heads to be sure; ain't there too many heads in the world? I tell you what it is, landlord, said I, quite calmly, you'd better stop spinning that yarn to me —I'm not green. May be not, taking out a stick and whittling a toothpick, but I rayther guess you'll be done brown if that ere harpooneer hears you a slanderin' his head. I'll break it for him, said I, now flying into a passion again at this unaccountable farrago of the landlord's. It's broke a'ready, said he. Broke, said I — broke, do you mean? ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... remarked a third, wiping a toothpick on his thigh and putting it in his vest-pocket, as he stepped to the front, "don't know how to look fur work. There's one way fur a day-laborer to look fur work, and there's another way fur a gentleman to look fur work, and there's another way fur a—a—a ...
— Dr. Sevier • George W. Cable
... by a foreign substance, rub the other eye, in order to make both eyes water. If the speck can be seen, it can generally be taken out by twisting a small piece of gauze or cloth around a toothpick and drawing it over the speck, or by twisting up a piece of paper like a lamp lighter and, after wetting the tip of it, wiping it against the speck. If it is under the upper lid, pull the lid away from the eyeball, and push ...
— Camping For Boys • H.W. Gibson
... blaze of wondrous apparel. It was natural that he should create a sensation with his red face and gaudy-coloured clothes, and huge, dyed whiskers, and the eternal flower in his mouth, which was always on duty save when relieved by a cigar or a toothpick. Pew it could scarcely with propriety be called, inasmuch as it was more like a box at the opera than a seat in a place of worship. We entered by a staircase outside the church, with a private door ...
— Kate Coventry - An Autobiography • G. J. Whyte-Melville
... courteous; the other mouthy and much higher in pitch: this is the last word before actual onslaught. The Terrier's growls were all of the latter kind. I was a dog-man and thought I knew all about Dogs, so, dismissing the porter, I got out my all-round jackknife—toothpick—nailhammer-hatchet-toolbox-fire-shovel, a specialty of our firm, and lifted the netting. Oh, yes, I knew all about Dogs. The little fury had been growling out a whole-souled growl for every tap of the tool, and when I turned the box on its side, he made ...
— Animal Heroes • Ernest Thompson Seton
... head colds and occasional attacks of dyspepsia, due to his inability to abstain from certain foods. He was, therefore, sensitive to draughts and would not eat hot bread. He carried an umbrella absolutely upon all occasions and a celluloid toothpick in his ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst
... hands in his pockets, chewed a branch for a toothpick, and strolled about the clearing, making fun of the other elephants who had just set ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... fitted up—too completely indeed, for he had no use for the razor—soon enabled him to trim and prepare for the dining-room. His five-guinea coat, elegant studs, spotless shirt and wristbands, valuable seal ring on one finger, patent leather boots, keyless watch, eyeglass, gold toothpick in one pocket, were all carefully selected, and in the best possible style. Mr. Phillip—he would have scorned the boyish 'master'—was a gentleman, from the perfumed locks above to the polished ...
— Hodge and His Masters • Richard Jefferies
... feelings! You don't know him. Fat Ed Meyers could be courtmartialed, tried, convicted, and publicly disgraced, with his epaulets torn off, and his sword broken, and likely as not he'd stoop down, pick up a splinter of steel to use as a toothpick, and Castlewalk down the aisle to the tune with which they were drumming him out of the regiment. Stay right here. Meyers's explanation ought to be at least amusing, ...
— Personality Plus - Some Experiences of Emma McChesney and Her Son, Jock • Edna Ferber
... a toothpick, eyeing Andy side-long; dimpled his cheeks disarmingly, and cleared his throat. "Please don't kill me off when you get that pie swallowed," he began pacifically. "Strange as it may seem, I believe you, Andy. What I want to know is this: Who owns ...
— Flying U Ranch • B. M. Bower
... oysters and very thin slices of nice bacon. Season the oysters with a little salt and pepper. Roll each oyster in a slice of bacon; pin together with a toothpick; roast over hot coals, either laid on a broiler, or fasten them on a meat fork and hold over the coals. Cook until the bacon is crisp and brown. Don't remove the ...
— Recipes Tried and True • the Ladies' Aid Society
... if I shouldn't see you any more,' said Maddox, trembling with fear, as he obeyed the awful summons—which was to demand a toothpick. ...
— The Pirate and The Three Cutters • Frederick Marryat
... in the height of fashion; to walk up and down before the most renowned restaurants, with a toothpick in his mouth; to hire a carriage, and drive it himself, having a hired groom in livery by his side,—this was the delight of those days. At night he gambled; and, when he lost, there was the till in his ...
— The Clique of Gold • Emile Gaboriau
... a toothpick, and (saving his regard) was engrossed thereby for some minutes. His eyes meanwhile were at liberty to examine Mr. Marvel's dusty figure, and the books beside him. As he had approached Mr. Marvel he had heard a ...
— The Invisible Man • H. G. Wells
... Today were sent to me a small old gold watch, a half sovereign, a half guinea piece, two twenty-franc pieces, six small Turkish gold coins, a quarter of a franc, a threepenny piece, a silver toothpick, and a brass pencil-case. The produce of these articles likewise ...
— A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself, Fourth Part • George Mueller
... said. And taking a toothpick out of his pocket he stuck it into the stump of the cigarette which had become too short to hold between ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... come in?" she asked, wistfully. "Mother has a headache, father's gone fishing in a boat, and I've a toothpick in my side." ...
— What Two Children Did • Charlotte E. Chittenden
... latest Art-Hobbies are ambling about with their 'eads in the air, And their riders are tilting like true toothpick paladins. SMUDGE over there Makes a bee-line for SCRATCH in this corner, whilst MUCK and the Mawkish at odds, Clash wildly, and Naturalism ...
— Punch Among the Planets • Various
... terror in us youthful spectators, and in which the Prince of Wales (his Royal Highness was a Foxite then) was represented as sitting alone in a magnificent hall after a voluptuous meal, and using a great steel fork in the guise of a toothpick. Fancy the first young gentleman living employing such a weapon in such a way! The most elegant Prince of Europe engaged with a two-pronged iron fork—the heir of Britannia with a BIDENT! The man of genius who drew that picture saw little of the society which he satirized and ...
— John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character • William Makepeace Thackeray
... meant the space-differences of sensations. The touch of the point of a toothpick on the skin has a different space quality from the touch of the flat end of a pencil. Low tones seem to have more volume than high tones. Some pains feel sharp and others dull and diffuse. The warmth felt from ...
— The Mind and Its Education • George Herbert Betts
... fails to blow up some important personage with wet dynamite. In Italy a socialist is an anarchist pure and simple, who wishes to destroy everything existing for the sake of dividing a wealth which does not exist at all. It also means a young man who orders a glass of water and a toothpick at a cafe, and is able to talk politics for a considerable time on this slender nourishment. Signor Succi and Signor Merlatti have discovered nothing new. Their miracles of fasting may be observed by the curious at any time in a ...
— Marzio's Crucifix and Zoroaster • F. Marion Crawford
... so," replied Mrs. Rudolph Meyerburg, herself squirming to rights in an elaborate bodice and wielding an unostentatious toothpick behind the cup of her hand; "like I told Roody just now, if I take on a pound to-day he can ...
— Every Soul Hath Its Song • Fannie Hurst
... owl that my friend once shot at twilight. There was a porcupine quill imbedded for nearly its entire length in his leg. Two more were slowly working their way into his body; and the shaft of another projected from the corner of his mouth like a toothpick. Whether he were a young owl and untaught, or whether, driven by hunger, he had thrown counsel to the winds and swooped at Unk Wunk, will never be known. That he should attack so large an animal as the porcupine would seem to indicate that, like the lynx, hunger had probably ...
— Wood Folk at School • William J. Long
... the gentleman a piece," said one of the volunteers, Jim drew a toothpick a foot long and did me the favor, for which I here ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 42, April, 1861 • Various
... Southun genelmun ain't slow at puttin' down their name, (When they can write,) fer in the eend it comes to jest the same, Because, ye see, 't 's the fashion here to sign an' not to think A critter'd be so sordid ez to ax 'em for the chink: I didn't call but jest on one, an' he drawed toothpick on me, An' reckoned he warn't goin' to stan' no sech dog-gauned econ'my; So nothin' more wuz realized, 'ceptin' the good-will shown, Than ef 't had ben from fust to last a reg'lar Cotton Loan. It's a good way, though, come to think, coz ye enjy the sense O' lendin' lib'rally to the ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 51, January, 1862 • Various
... boots on the fauteuils, did mon ami Thomas; he fell in love with a gay woman of the Boulevards whose skin was all plastered up like an old cathedral; he ate oysters with a hair-pin at dinner; he offered his toothpick to his vis-a-vis, and altogether conducted himself in such a manner that one was forced to say to him (chorus), Ah, my friend Thomas! at Paris that's hardly done. Ah, mon ami Thomas! at Paris that is not done at all. The audience is in ecstasies of delight at this ill-bred conduct on the part ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 90, June, 1875 • Various
... Refrigerator Sweet—A lump of charcoal should be placed in the refrigerator to keep it sweet. When putting your best tea or coffee urn away, drop a small piece of charcoal in it and prop the lid open with a toothpick. ...
— Fowler's Household Helps • A. L. Fowler
... nervous, shifty, and rat-like; and neither his hands nor his eyes were still for an instant. Further to set him apart he wore a hard-boiled hat, a flaming tie, a checked vest, a coat cut too tight for even his emaciated little figure, and long toothpick shoes of patent leather. A fairer mark for cowboy humour would be difficult to find; but I had a personal interest and a determined character so the gang took a look at me ...
— The Killer • Stewart Edward White
... on. This isn't half the list. The man who has a "Toothpick once used by Charles Dickens" will have to have a hearing; and the man who "once rode in an omnibus with Charles Dickens;" and the lady to whom Charles Dickens "granted the hospitalities of his umbrella during a storm;" and the person who "possesses ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... not smoking a cigar, because his stock of cigars was running short, but he was chewing a toothpick, for these, at a pinch, could be improvised. He called to his headman. "Wafa?" ...
— The Keepers of the King's Peace • Edgar Wallace
... cold, was wrapped in fur, and had a quantity of bright shawl twined about her head, though not to the concealment of her large earrings. Her knitting was before her, but she had laid it down to pick her teeth with a toothpick. Thus engaged, with her right elbow supported by her left hand, Madame Defarge said nothing when her lord came in, but coughed just one grain of cough. This, in combination with the lifting of her darkly defined eyebrows over her toothpick by the breadth of a line, suggested to ...
— A Tale of Two Cities - A Story of the French Revolution • Charles Dickens
... seized a toothpick and walked out towards the stable. There was nothing particular to do, as Stiver had given him his breakfast, and I found him eating it; so I looked around. The horse looked around, too, and stared pretty hard at me. There was but little said on either side. I hunted up the location ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume III. (of X.) • Various
... Leezur, who sat on the log fondly applying his deer-bone toothpick, which had been restored to him for a season, "'t ye keep yer mouth shet, and ye ...
— Vesty of the Basins • Sarah P. McLean Greene
... take a lunch along, and when the other passengers are in to supper, we sit on the woodpile at Sparta, eat our lunch and gaze at the fountains, talk with the brakemen, and wonder if the landlord would know us if we should go in and take a toothpick off the counter. Not any more bummer for us, and no man must ever tell us how to save two ...
— Peck's Compendium of Fun • George W. Peck
... fellow at the end of the table, and were too engrossed to eat a mouthful while it lasted. We had the bad manners to pick our teeth thoroughly with the wooden toothpicks, and Frosty showed me how to balance a knife and fork on a toothpick—or, perhaps, it was two—on the edge of his cup. I tried it several times, but couldn't make ...
— The Range Dwellers • B. M. Bower
... body sagged, and his skin felt dangerously dry and tight. Happy was so adipose that his hands engulfed the broom handle like a toothpick; under the transparent skin, his flesh was clear and translucent, and there could be seen the tiny red lines of the branching veins. Happy was like a jellyfish, ...
— Rebels of the Red Planet • Charles Louis Fontenay
... emblem of attenuation occurring in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Alexandria, etc.); also thin as a spindle (Maghzal), as a reed, and dry as a pair of shears. In the Ass. of Barka'id the toothpick is described as a beautiful girl. The use of this cleanly article was enjoined by Mohammed:—"Cleanse your mouths with toothpicks; for your mouths are the abode of the guardian angels; whose pens are the tongues, and whose ink is the spittle of men; ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... half long, containing no other ornament than two French verses which rhymed with the words "to suffer and to die." And yet his great soul went out to his suffering fellow-man as free as the air of heaven; and with a toothpick (for he was deprived of pen and ink) he wrote to a princess, who sympathized with him, on a scrap of paper which came to him almost miraculously, and with soot and water, these noble words: "I know not what disposition has been made of my plantation at Cayenne, ...
— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing
... No; so little moisture was there in my system that I didn't bleed much. And the amazing thing, under the circumstances, was the quickness with which I healed. The second officer sewed me up next day with a needle he'd made out of an ivory toothpick and with twine he twisted out of the threads from a ...
— Michael, Brother of Jerry • Jack London
... tyee!" quoth the Siwash, studying me with dusky eyes, "is a mighty passion. Know you that our first circulating medium was shells, a small perforated shell not unlike a very opaque quill toothpick, tapering from the middle, and cut square at both ends. We string it in many strands and hang it around the neck of one we love—namely, each man his own neck. And with this we buy what our hearts desire. Hiaqua, we call it, and he who has most hiaqua is wisest ...
— Oregon, Washington and Alaska; Sights and Scenes for the Tourist • E. L. Lomax
... was. There'd be a row and a bit o' shooting, I dessay, for it's amazing, that it is, amazing, the way the old vagabone has took to our lad. But I don't like his going off with 'em, and with nothing better than a bit of a toothpick of a knife. Wouldn't be long before he got hold of a club, though, ...
— King o' the Beach - A Tropic Tale • George Manville Fenn
... look at the floor, keeping the eyeball as stationary as possible. Take a clean wooden toothpick or slender pencil, wrapped with cotton, place on the upper lid about one-fourth of an inch from the edge, grasp the eyelashes with the other hand, give a slight push downward toward the cheek with the toothpick, a slight pull upward on the ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts
... after the girls had begun to gather in Number 2 duet, and Belle Tingley, who had drawn the unlucky short toothpick, was banished to the corridor to keep watch—but with a great plateful of goodies and the "golden goblet" used in the hazing exercises, filled to ...
— Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall - or Solving the Campus Mystery • Alice B. Emerson
... up the rope a little until we break This bar away—or some kind friend may see The dangling end below. Now here's a toothpick, Six inches of grey steel, for you to work with, And here's another for me. Pick ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes
... French frog with the sword, or spit you upon the rapier. I will cleave you with the axe, transfix you with the arrow, or blow you to the pit with the devil's sulphur. I will fight any of you or all of you with any weapons from a battering-ram to a toothpick—and God assist the better man. And there you have ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett
... them and, setting Ghanim down at the Spital gate, went away with his beast. The sick man lay there till dawn and, when the folk began to go about the streets, they saw him and stood gazing on him, for he had become as thin as a toothpick, till the Syndic of the bazar came up and drove them away from him, saying, "I will gain Paradise through this poor creature; for if they take him into the Hospital, they will kill him in a single day."[FN131] Then he made his young men carry ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton
... lb. of calf's liver cut in thin slices, parboil for 5 minutes, wipe each piece dry, lay a thin slice of bacon on each slice of liver, season with salt and pepper, roll up and fasten with a wooden toothpick, dredge with flour and fry until done in bacon fat or drippings. When done take out the rolls and thicken the gravy with a little brown flour. If there is not gravy enough add a little boiling water. A teaspoonful of mushroom catsup added to the gravy is an improvement ...
— 365 Luncheon Dishes - A Luncheon Dish for Every Day in the Year • Anonymous
... "Toothpick Kid is here," said he, "and Limber Jim, and the Doughie. You'd think he'd stay away after the trouble he—I expect that pinto is ...
— Lin McLean • Owen Wister
... feel as if a fellow had better hold on to a box of matches like grim death, and that the time wasn't out of sight when you'd have to give fifty-seven dollars and a half for a toothpick," Tembarom afterwards said ...
— T. Tembarom • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... him say so, an' de old guy counted it, an' sealed it up in an envelope, an' gave Curley a receipt, an' tucked de green boys into de safe. Aw, say, dere's nothin' to it, I can open dat old tin box wid a toothpick!" ...
— The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard
... disinfection had been performed, if he wished to eat he had either to get some one to feed him, or else to go down on his knees and pick up the food from the ground with his mouth like a beast. He might not even use a toothpick himself, but might guide the hand of another person holding the toothpick. The Tongans were subject to induration of the liver and certain forms of scrofula, which they often attributed to a failure to perform the requisite expiation after having inadvertently touched a chief or his belongings. Hence ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer
... out of the window, and then, still deep in thought, rattled at the wires of the cage with a quill toothpick and played a moment with the parrot. Then, looking up at the window again, he said: "That is Mr. Lloyd, isn't it, coming ...
— Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison
... discovery that the military and political deity of America had, even in boyhood, written so gravely of the hat-in-hand deference due to lords, and other "Persons of Quality," or had concerned himself with things so trivial as the proper use of the fork, napkin, and toothpick. Something is said too about "inferiours," before whom one must not "Act ag'tt y'e Rules Moral." But in 1888 the Rules were subjected to careful and literal treatment by Dr. J.M. Toner, of Washington City, in the ...
— George Washington's Rules of Civility - Traced to their Sources and Restored by Moncure D. Conway • Moncure D. Conway
... Club. They were rather good-looking young men, very carefully shaven and shorn, gray-eyed, fair-moustached; and, indeed, they were so extremely like each other that it might have been hard to distinguish between them but that one chewed a toothpick and the other a cigarette. Both were in evening dress, and both still wore the overcoat and crush-hat in which they had come into the club. They could talk freely, without risk of being overheard; for the members along there at the supper-table were all listening, with much laughter, to a professional ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black
... "Bless my toothpick!" gasped Mr. Damon. "This is awful!" And the airship rushed on toward the volcano which could be plainly seen now, belching forth fire, smoke ...
— Tom Swift and his Wizard Camera - or, Thrilling Adventures while taking Moving Pictures • Victor Appleton
... bet you a hundred dollars to a toothpick you never knew what it was to resist temptation," shouted Parker. "And I'm going to tell you now and here that I'd no more accept your offer and take a job with you than I'd poison myself with paris green." He flung himself back in his chair and glared at his ...
— The Rainy Day Railroad War • Holman Day
... dangerous than a toothpick," he reported to Frank, with a grin, as he picked up his ...
— Army Boys on German Soil • Homer Randall
... toothache indicates something seriously wrong with the teeth which can only be permanently corrected {276} by a dentist. In toothache if you can find a cavity, clean it out with a small piece of cotton or a toothpick. Then plug it with cotton, on which a drop of oil of cloves has been put if you have it. If no cavity is found, soak a piece of cotton in camphor and apply it to the outside of the gum. Hot cloths ...
— Boy Scouts Handbook - The First Edition, 1911 • Boy Scouts of America
... this was your toothpick, eh? Na! Na! We ken whaur we are, and wha we want, and by Cruachan, I think we've ...
— The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays • Various
... victorian toothpick from the pocket of her mannish jacket and used it energetically. I shuddered. "Unfortunately," she went on, a little indistinctly, "unfortunately, I lack resources for further ...
— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore
... fact that knapsacks do not a hobo make nor dusty coats a tramp. Now in Canada no one is the superior of any one else, but that did not make a bit of difference in the startling change of demeanour which overtook the clerk. He straightened up. He removed his toothpick. He arranged the register in his best manner and chose another nib for his pen. When Callandar had registered, the clerk was very sorry indeed that the hotel arrangements were rather arbitrary in the matter of meal hours. He was ...
— Up the Hill and Over • Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
... box costs a hundred and twenty-five dollars a night," said Mr. Spragg, transferring a toothpick to his waistcoat pocket. ...
— The Custom of the Country • Edith Wharton
... sketches Nos. 79 and 80, you may discern that a thin man may apparently increase his breadth and add a certain manly touch to his figure, by changing the buttons at the waist-line of his coat. The buttons placed so near together, in No. 79, really make his toothpick proportions too obvious. His back is made to look broader by placing the buttons wider apart, as shown in No. 80, and changing the ...
— What Dress Makes of Us • Dorothy Quigley
... get it," jibed Baker. "But I'll bet you a toothpick it isn't a rest. What's exhausted you fellows, anyway? Counting ...
— The Rules of the Game • Stewart Edward White
... comment, however, but celebrated the end of dinner in his usual manner by pushing back his chair a little, crossing his legs comfortably, and beginning a series of excavating operations with a quill toothpick which he drew from his vest pocket. Miss Ocky winced. This was the postprandial habit of his that annoyed ...
— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston
... out his legs beneath the table and sat back, hands deep in pockets, and a toothpick hanging limp from ...
— Gaslight Sonatas • Fannie Hurst
... accordingly gave Pasgrave Mackenzie's note, and thrust the note which he had received from his master into a corner of his trunk, where he usually kept little windfalls, that came to him by the negligence of customers—toothpick-cases, loose silver, odd gloves, &c., all which he knew how to dispose of. But this bank-note was a higher prize than usual, and he was afraid to pass it till all inquiry had blown over. He knew ...
— Tales And Novels, Volume 1 • Maria Edgeworth
... Bowen, slowly drawling out his words; "well, I don't know but you are more than half right. There have been some deaths from yellow fever in Savannah already this season, and who knows but" and turning to the captain, who at this moment came on deck, carelessly handling his toothpick, he exclaimed, "Captain Allen, Mr. Conners has ...
— Jack in the Forecastle • John Sherburne Sleeper
... arms with Great Britain in glory. A new struggle has already commenced with the same nation in the arts as connected with agriculture, commerce, and manufacture." Another contributor urged the necessity of protecting and cherishing the manufacture of everything—from a toothpick to a ship, from a needle to a cannon, a thread of yarn to a bale of cloth—unless we could exchange some commodity for them. "You spread too much canvas," was the reason reported to have been given an American by an Englishman for certain ...
— The United States of America Part I • Ediwn Erle Sparks
... toward his bug. It lacked not only top and side-curtains, but even windshield and running-board. It was a toy—a card-board box on toothpick axles. Strapped to the bulging back was a wicker suitcase partly covered by tarpaulin. From the seat peered a little ...
— Free Air • Sinclair Lewis
... the restaurant diner. We knew the type; in the feminine, it sits at table with its bonnet on, and a sullen gnawing expression of animal hunger; in the masculine, it puts its own knife in the butter, and uses a toothpick. No cook—no lack of cook—should drive ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume I. (of X.) • Various
... polite—so polite, indeed, as to verge on cringing; but then, as Manske would have pointed out, he was a Jew. Now the whole man was changed. The ingratiating smiles, the bows, the rubbed hands, where were they? The lawyer sat at his ease on the one chair, his hands in his pockets, a toothpick in his mouth, and scrutinised Axel while he told him his case, with an insolent look ...
— The Benefactress • Elizabeth Beauchamp
... deep chasm in which his small gray eyes were set. He was armed with a huge bowie-knife, which he carried slung like a sword. It was at least two feet long, heavy as a butcher's cleaver, and was thrust into a sheath of undressed hide. He called this pleasant instrument an Arkansas toothpick. He bestrode, as well as his diminutive legs would let him, an Indian pony as shaggy as himself. This person proved to be a bearer of despatches, and offered to guide us to the main road, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, 1862 • Various
... observation post in a tree you had a good view of Thiepval, already a blackened spot with the ruins of the chateau showing white in its midst and pricked by the toothpick-like trunks of trees denuded of their limbs, which were to become such a familiar sight on the battlefield. It was uphill all the way to Thiepval for the British. A river so-called, really a brook, the Ancre, runs at the ...
— My Second Year of the War • Frederick Palmer
... his toothpick with a snap, spat dexterously at a spittoon which stood in a corner of the room, and ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... stirred. I had one fixed idea—that of self-destruction; and after two unsuccessful attempts, I was so closely bound and watched night and day that any further attempt was impossible. They would not trust me with a toothpick or a button or ...
— Peter Ibbetson • George du Marier et al
... from the breakfast table, shaved a splinter off the edge of the water bench for a toothpick and sharpened it carefully while he looked ...
— Sawtooth Ranch • B. M. Bower
... ain't serious," the Sergeant added. "Couple of old sports got hot, that's all, and this old feller—" and he hunched his shoulder towards the cells—"pasted the other one over the nut with his toothpick. ...
— Colonel Carter's Christmas and The Romance of an Old-Fashioned Gentleman • F. Hopkinson Smith
... leisurely pace * A reverend trusting to Allah's grace, And ascetic signals his gait display'd. He had studied Love both by day and night * And had special knowledge of Wrong and Right; Both for lad and lass had repined his sprite, * And his form like toothpick was lean and slight, And old bones with faded skin were o'erlaid. In such arts our Shaykh was an Ajam[FN382] * With a catamite ever in company; In the love of woman, a Platonist he[FN383] * But in either versed to the full degree, And Zaynab to him ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton
... to get this financial misquotation out of Murkison's head, but we might as well have tried to keep the man who rolls peanuts with a toothpick from betting on Bryan's election. No, sir; he was going to perform a public duty by catching these green goods swindlers at their own game. Maybe it would ...
— The Gentle Grafter • O. Henry
... his elbow; and one hand, beautifully white and small, a mark of his birth and breeding—crede Byron—rested upon the edge of the table, while his thin, delicate digits, palpably demonstrative of his faculty of adaptation—crede James Hardy Vaux—were employed with a silver toothpick. In other respects, he seemed to be lost in reverie, and was, in all probability, ...
— Rookwood • William Harrison Ainsworth
... food which have lodged between adjacent teeth, a quill or wooden toothpick should be used. Even better than these is the use of surgeon's floss, or silk, which when drawn between the teeth, effectually dislodges retained particles. If the teeth are not regularly cleansed ...
— A Practical Physiology • Albert F. Blaisdell
... that blended with the thousand-and-one noises of the great Parisian bee-hive. Then, after breakfast, the actor would sally forth for the day; would go to "do his boulevard," that is to say, to saunter to and fro between the Chateau d'Eau and the Madeline, with a toothpick in the corner of his mouth, his hat a little on one side-always gloved, ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet
... appeared. The waiters never saw the colour of his money, and were warned not to furnish the poor gentleman with any liquor for which some other party was not responsible. He swaggered sadly about the coffee-room there, consumed a toothpick, and looked over the paper, and if any friend asked him to dinner he stayed. Morgan heard at the George of Pen's acquaintance with Mr. Foker, and he went over to Baymouth to enter into relations with that gentleman's ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... the countess had surmised correctly concerning this gentleman. He was a bannerless knight, named Julien de Boys-Bourredon, who not having inherited on his estate enough to make a toothpick, and knowing no other wealth than the rich nature with which his dead mother had opportunely furnished him, conceived the idea of deriving therefrom both rent and profit at court, knowing how fond ladies are of those good revenues, and value them high and dear, when they can stand being looked at ...
— Droll Stories, Volume 1 • Honore de Balzac
... is to insert a toothpick as deep as possible into the center of the loaf. The center, rather than some other part of the loaf, is the place where the testing should be done, because the heat penetrates a mixture from the outside and the center is therefore the last part to bake. If the ...
— Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 1 - Volume 1: Essentials of Cookery; Cereals; Bread; Hot Breads • Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
... and goes out with HAROLD into the billiard-room. SIR WILLIAM enters from the dining-room, applying a gold toothpick to his ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... be killed!" cried Gladys hysterically, as they huddled together at the sound of the falling tree. A wild blast that rang like the scream of an enraged beast came like an answer to her words, and a sapling maple snapped off like a toothpick. Sandhelo snorted with fear and ...
— The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle - The Trail of the Seven Cedars • Hildegard G. Frey
... Lost, which he happened to have in his pocket at the moment of his arrest. He compounded an ink for himself, by scraping the slate at the side of his window, grinding it very fine, and mixing with wine in a broken glass. A toothpick, found by happy accident in the pocket of his waistcoat, served him for pen, and the fly-leaves and margins of the Milton made a repository for his thoughts. With a simple but very characteristic interest in others who might be as unfortunate as himself, he wrote upon the walls of his ...
— Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (Vol 1 of 2) • John Morley
... back to her machine, wondering why she had been requested to do those letters when Nelly Morrison had nothing better to do than sit picking at her type faces with a toothpick. ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... fingers had long been accustomed to fine work, fitted in the little star after the $25, then took it out, moistened the edges ever so lightly with glue on the end of a toothpick, and pasted it back again. A hot iron completed the work of making the edges smooth and unless a rather powerful glass had been used no one could have seen the pasted-in insertion after ...
— Constance Dunlap • Arthur B. Reeve
... Sanctuary of the Abbaside Caliphs, unknowing what had passed during his wayfare. At once entering his house he went in to his mother to salute her, but found her worn of body and wasted of bones, for excess of mourning and watching, weeping and wailing, till she was grown thin as a toothpick and could not answer him a word. So he dismissed the dromedaries then asked her of his wife and children and she wept till she fainted, and he seeing her in this state searched the house for them, but found no trace of them. Then ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 8 • Richard F. Burton
... toothpick at the table or in the presence of others. If it seems absolutely necessary to use one at the table, cover your lips with your napkin; elsewhere, ...
— Manners And Conduct In School And Out • Anonymous
... pin, toothpick, or any other sharp instrument to clean out the ear. There is great danger that the drum-head will be torn, and thus the hearing will be injured. Neither is it ever necessary to use an ear-spoon to remove the wax. Working at the ear ...
— First Book in Physiology and Hygiene • J.H. Kellogg
... interrupted the literary gentleman, leaning back in his chair and exercising his toothpick. 'Human intellect, sir, has progressed since his time, is ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens |
