"Abattis" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the white-flowered "Rijlah," whose nutritive green leaf is eaten, raw or boiled, by the Fellahs of Egypt: the wild growth, however, is mostly bitter. On both sides are little square plots fenced against sheep and goats by a rude abattis of stripped and dead boughs, Jujube and acacia. Young dates have been planted in pits; some are burnt and others are torn; for the Bedawi, mischievous and destructive as the Cynocephalus, will neither work nor allow others to work. The 'Ushash or frond-and-reed huts, much like huge birds'-nests, ...
— The Land of Midian, Vol. 1 • Richard Burton
... dyke; parapet, sunk fence, embankment, mound, mole, bank, sandbag, revetment; earth work, field- work; fence, wall dead wall, contravallation^; paling &c (inclosure) 232; palisade, haha, stockade, stoccado^, laager^, sangar^; barrier, barricade; boom; portcullis, chevaux de frise [Fr.]; abatis, abattis^, abbatis^; vallum^, circumvallation^, battlement, rampart, scarp; escarp^, counter-scarp; glacis, casemate^; vallation^, vanfos^. buttress, abutment; shore &c (support) 215. breastwork, banquette, curtain, mantlet^, bastion, redan^, ravelin^; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... will be a piece of work to scramble through those branches; and then comes the abattis of stakes; and then a wall eight feet high. Montcalm knows his business, Ben. I wish he were on our side. We shall have no easy task. It looks tough to-day, and it will be ...
— Ben Comee - A Tale of Rogers's Rangers, 1758-59 • M. J. (Michael Joseph) Canavan
... From its elevation we could see here and there in the distance the variegated blotches of red and white and black that represented the cattle herds. Innumerable flocks of sheep and goats, under charge of the small boys and youths, fed nearer at hand. The low smooth-plastered huts, with their abattis of thorn bush between, crowned the peak like a chaplet. Outside it sat a number of elders sunning themselves, and several smiling, good-natured young women, probably the spoiled darlings of these plutocrats. One of these damsels spake Swahili, so we managed to ...
— African Camp Fires • Stewart Edward White
... Corps—the right wing of the Army of the Potomac—was next in line, then the Sixth, and then the Second, its left resting on Hatcher's Run. The Fifth was in rear of the Second. The line thus held was nearly forty miles in length, defended on the front and rear by strong earthworks and abatis. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 • Various
... unhappy owners looked on in mute despair, aiding one another to remove their furniture. The object was to leave a broad space to north of the forts, that an attacking force might find no shelter. About an hundred feet from the blockhouses was to be an abatis of sharpened logs, and a mass of brush and trees, through which to ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell
... time exulting, but was always preparing for the next battle. The soldiers, both in his own division and elsewhere, were awakened by turns, and willing thousands strengthened the Southern position. More and deeper trenches were constructed. New abatis were built and the stone wall was strengthened yet further. Formidable as the Southern line had been to-day, Burnside would find it more ...
— The Star of Gettysburg - A Story of Southern High Tide • Joseph A. Altsheler
... where he was killed. The soldiers considered their success on the first day as a foretaste of victory to follow on the morrow; but while Abercrombie delayed his advance for various reasons, Montcalm and his men did herculean work by felling a forest of trees and constructing an impenetrable abatis in front of ...
— "Old Put" The Patriot • Frederick A. Ober
... of roots and earth, that had silently cemented itself for half a century beneath the sward. Up and down, between Grandfather Holabird's home-field and ours, fallen locusts and wild cherry-trees made an abatis. Over and through all swept the smiting, powdery, seething storm of waters; the air was like a sea, tossing and foaming; we could only see through it by snatches, to cry out that this and that had happened. Down below us, the roof was lifted from a barn, and crumpled up in a heap half a furlong ...
— We Girls: A Home Story • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney |
