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Assume   Listen
verb
Assume  v. i.  
1.
To be arrogant or pretentious; to claim more than is due.
2.
(Law) To undertake, as by a promise.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Assume" Quotes from Famous Books



... strongly inclined to blow you up for the last part of your letter. You assume, I think quite gratuitously, that God condemns the major part of his children to objectless future suffering. You say that if he does not, he places a book in their hands which threatens what he does not mean to inflict. But how utterly ...
— Autobiographical Sketches • Annie Besant

... pathos, the dignity, the comedy of human life, so long shall we continue to rank above the philosopher, higher than the politician, the great artist, be he called dramatist or historian, who makes us conscious of the divine movement of events, and of our fathers who were before us. Of course we assume accuracy and labor in our animated historian; though, for that matter, other things being equal, I prefer a lively liar to a ...
— Obiter Dicta • Augustine Birrell

... English consul; and how (in an interview with Mataafa chiefs at the plantation house of Motuotua, of which I cannot find the date) he had demanded the cession of arms and of ringleaders for punishment, and proposed to assume the government of the islands. On February 12th he received Bismarck's answer: "You had no right to take foreigners from the jurisdiction of their consuls. The protest of your English colleague is grounded. In disputes which may arise from this cause you will find yourself in the wrong. The demand ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 17 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... and the result of hesitation was that the insidious missile curled in somehow over his bat and toppled his bails off. Saurin was so much mortified as he walked back to the tent that he could not even pretend to assume a jaunty careless air, but scowled and carried his bat as if he would like to hit someone over the head with it. Which, indeed, ...
— Dr. Jolliffe's Boys • Lewis Hough

... at him for a moment, with a slight curling of the lip; witnessed his recovery from the fear that she might throw herself upon his care; saw his comfort at being relieved of a possible burden he was not prepared to assume; and ...
— Philip Winwood • Robert Neilson Stephens

... or equals; it ought to characterize their behaviour to their dependents and inferiors. If young people display affability only when in company with others, who move in the same, or in a more elevated sphere of life than themselves, but assume consequence, and betray an arrogant spirit amongst their servants; we cannot but suspect that their good qualities are only apparent, and their motives selfish. The true character of every person is to be learned at home, and at times when no exterior influences operate to make persons ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I • Francis Augustus Cox

... Twickenham: his lies affect me now no more; they will be all as much despised as the story of the seraglio and the handkerchief, of which I am persuaded he was the only inventor. That man has a malignant and ungenerous heart; and he is base enough to assume the mask of a moralist, in order to decry human nature, and to give a decent vent to his hatred of man and woman kind.—But I must quit this contemptible subject, on which a just indignation would render my pen so fertile, that after having fatigued you with a long letter, I would ...
— Lady Mary Wortley Montague - Her Life and Letters (1689-1762) • Lewis Melville

... Dashall proceeded to observe, that the Palace was venerable from age, and in its interior decoration that it fully corresponded in splendor with the regal purposes to which it had been so long applied; "It is now, however," he added, "about to assume a still more imposing aspect, being under alterations and adornments, for the reception of the Court of his present Majesty, which, when completed, will render it worthy the presence of the Sovereign of ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... we sure that there are any objects so small or vulgar but what genius could extract poetry from them. In Pope's hands, indeed, the "clouded cane" and the "amber snuff-box" of Sir Plume assume no ideal aspect; but in Shakspeare's it might have been different; and the highest order of genius, like true catholicity of faith, counts "nothing common or unclean." What poetry Burns has gathered up even in "Poosie Nancy's," which had been lying unsuspected at the feet of beggars, prostitutes, ...
— Poetical Works of Pope, Vol. II • Alexander Pope

... aggregation and elasticity. The depths of ocean and of air are alike unknown to us. At some few places under the tropics no bottom has been found with soundings of 276,000 (or more than four miles), while in the air, if, according to Wollaston, we may assume that it has a limit from which waves of sound may be reverberated, the phenomenon of twilight would incline us to assume a height at ...
— COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 • Alexander von Humboldt

... humiliated, abused, and tormented, even to the verge of death. This motive is treated in all its innumerable variations. As a creative artist Sacher-Masoch was, of course, on the quest for the absolute, and sometimes, when impulses in the human being assume an abnormal or exaggerated form, there is just for a moment a flash that gives a glimpse of the thing ...
— Venus in Furs • Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

... of action. It is no otherwise with a people in their political capacity; you shall never find that they have assumed debate for itself, but for something else. Wherefore in Lacedaemon where there was, and in Venice where there is, nothing else for which they should assume it, they have never shown so much as ...
— The Commonwealth of Oceana • James Harrington

... at Clyde; that period which every reflecting mind enjoys as a season of contemplation; that period when our New England woods assume every variety of color, and shine forth with a splendor that indicates decay. Still the two families had much enjoyment together; the health of Frances and little Charlotte had decidedly improved; but when the leaves began ...
— Rich Enough - a tale of the times • Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee

... leader assume command so auspiciously. The resources of a mighty nation were lavishly contributed to the materiel of his army. Its best blood stood in his ranks. Indulged to an almost criminal extent by an Administration that in accordance with the wishes of the masses ...
— Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole Generals - As Seen From the Ranks During a Campaign in the Army of the Potomac • William H. Armstrong

... that of man." In reading such expressions we are strongly reminded of the poem on the "rationalistic chicken," which would not admit that it ever came out of an egg. When the wisdom shown in the universe is so immensely beyond the comprehension of man, how can he assume his own to ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, July 1887 - Volume 1, Number 6 • Various

... Winterblossom approached, and in the name of the goddess, Lady Penelope Penfeather, commanded the presence of the angered Rashleigh at the shrine of her beauty. This changed the current of his thoughts, and with all that grace of manner and eloquence of lip and eye, which no one knew better how to assume, he followed to the little group of which the Lady Penelope and her rival, Lady Binks, formed the attraction. But whatever may have been the gallant things he was saying, they were soon ended in the bustle consequent upon the sudden rushing ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 6 June 1848 • Various

... pure, instinctive force of genius. With him, as with the Greeks, art arose spontaneously; he felt the form of Greek art by inspiration. He believed from the very first that the dramatic poet should assume to render the spectators unconscious of theatrical artifice, and make them take part with the actors; and he banished from the scene everything that could diminish their illusion; he would not mar the intensity ...
— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells

... little piece of it. It was just what I needed, in order to carry out my project of escape. My idea was to get loose some night, along with the king, then gag and bind our master, change clothes with him, batter him into the aspect of a stranger, hitch him to the slave-chain, assume possession of the property, march ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... have already referred. When the Turks triumphed in 1840, the Emir Bescheer was deposed, and with his sons sent prisoner to Constantinople. The Porte, warned at that time by the too easy invasion of Syria and the imminent peril which it had escaped, wished itself to assume the government of Lebanon, and to garrison the passes with its troops; but the Christian Powers would not consent to this proposition, and therefore Kassim Shehaab was called to the Chief Emirate. Acted ...
— Tancred - Or, The New Crusade • Benjamin Disraeli

... blackness of this man's heart revolted me). "There is no seductive shape that the tempter does not assume, my child. Wit in itself is not to be condemned, although the Church shuns it as far as she is concerned, looking upon it as a worldly ornament; but it may become dangerous, it may be reckoned a veritable pest when it tends to weaken ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... the noble man, the man of prophecy, after so many ages of delay, was at length to be made manifest to his native valley. He knew, boy as he was, that there were a thousand ways in which Mr. Gathergold, with his vast wealth, might transform himself into an angel of beneficence, and assume a control over human affairs as wide and benignant as the smile of the Great Stone Face. Full of faith and hope, Ernest doubted not that what the people said was true, and that now he was to behold the living likeness of those wondrous features on the mountain side. While ...
— Bible Stories and Religious Classics • Philip P. Wells

... your own way. We will assume for the sake of security that Maynard is a spy, that he has no dead mother whom he wants leave to bury, and that he has sold his country for the sake of some bit of fluff in Plymouth. The point is: what am I to ...
— The Lost Naval Papers • Bennet Copplestone

... inspect it, and rendered myself hateful to the head of the douane by asking various foolish and inept questions, on which Lady Georgina insisted. When I had finished this silly and uncongenial task—for I am not by nature fussy, and it is hard to assume fussiness as another person's proxy—I returned to our coupe which I had arranged for in London. To my great amazement, I found the Cantankerous Old Lady and the egregious Count comfortably seated there. 'Monsieur has been good enough ...
— Miss Cayley's Adventures • Grant Allen

... not. Everyone has been haunted with images or ideas even unto being tormented by them; there are many instances in which the Imagination has given them objective form, and they have appeared visibly to the patient. These haunting ideas, disagreeable repetitions or obstinate continuances, assume an incredible variety of forms, and enter in many strange ways into life. Monomania or the being possessed with one idea to the exclusion of others, is a form of overstrained attention, sustained by memory. It ...
— The Mystic Will • Charles Godfrey Leland

... be said that Preger is too ready to assume that the logical development of Eckhart's system away from Thomist scholasticism can be traced as a gradual process in his writings, the order of which is very uncertain. We are not justified in saying in a positive manner that Eckhart's philosophy passed through three phases, in the first ...
— Light, Life, and Love • W. R. Inge

... retreating from the flower, and, continuing their flower visits, effect a union between two flowers, generally on distinct plants. In many cases the pollen masses slowly change their position while adhering to the insects, and so assume a proper direction for striking the stigma of another flower, and the insects during this interval will almost certainly have flown from one ...
— Life of Charles Darwin • G. T. (George Thomas) Bettany

... Manchester laboratory, another Englishman held the attention of the chemical world with a series of the most brilliant and widely heralded researches. This was Humphry Davy, a young man who had conic to London in 1801, at the instance of Count Rumford, to assume the chair of chemical philosophy in the Royal Institution, which the famous ...
— A History of Science, Volume 4(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams

... must assume about him what is most pleasing to you, my curious little comrade!" he said. "I feel that, anyhow, I don't like to leave the unfortunate little fellow to neglect. Just think of his life in a Lambeth pothouse, and all its evil influences, with a parent who doesn't want him, and has, ...
— Jude the Obscure • Thomas Hardy

... less specialised in structure than those now existing, and hence if we meet with malformations of a simple kind, we may consider them as possible reversions; while, if they present features of increased complexity, and more sharply defined differentiation, we may assume them to be evidences of a progressive rather ...
— Vegetable Teratology - An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants • Maxwell T. Masters

... to enter on a new course, and assume a new aspect, it will be more pleasant to me hereafter to think, that I did not suffer so grievous an event to happen, without ...
— Apologia Pro Vita Sua • John Henry Cardinal Newman

... canker at the life of the State. He was a plain man, not in the least eloquent, and he told his story without any sense that he had played any unusual part. In fact, he was ashamed that he had been forced to assume a role which necessitated a kind of treachery to those who ...
— Ridgway of Montana - (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) • William MacLeod Raine

... Courthouse, with its advanced posts at Upton's, Munson's and Mason's Hills. After a conference at Fairfax Courthouse with the three senior General officers, you announced it to be impracticable to give this army the strength which those officers considered necessary to enable it to assume the offensive. Upon which, I drew it back to ...
— Four Years in Rebel Capitals - An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death • T. C. DeLeon

... chosen for life; he possessed regal power, and is frequently called a king by the Roman historians. In enterprises undertaken by the whole body, the supreme command was committed to one of the twelve lucumones, and he received a lictor from each city. But from the time that Roman history begins to assume a regular form, the Tuscan cities stand isolated, uniting only transiently and casually; we do not, however, find any traces of intestine wars between the ...
— Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome • Oliver Goldsmith

... obliged to make their court to the great men themselves; by which means, I believe, principally, persons of real merit have often been deterred from the attempt; for these subaltern coxcombs ever assume an equal state with their masters, and look for an equal degree of respect to be paid to them; to which men of spirit, who are in every light their betters, are not easily brought to submit. These fellows, indeed, themselves have a jealous eye towards all great abilities, ...
— Amelia (Complete) • Henry Fielding

... muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention,[1] A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars;[2] and, at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, Crouch for employment.(A) But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraised spirit that hath dar'd On this unworthy ...
— King Henry the Fifth - Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre • William Shakespeare

... the sun" (continued he, calling me by my name) "be sure to set a mark upon confidants: they are of all people the most impertinent. What is most pleasant[124] to observe in them, is, that they assume to themselves the merit of the persons whom they have in their custody. Orestilla is a great fortune, and in wonderful danger of surprises, therefore full of suspicions of the least indifferent thing, particularly careful of new acquaintance, and of growing too familiar ...
— The De Coverley Papers - From 'The Spectator' • Joseph Addison and Others

... to see where the goat's kept," the reporter answered, trying to assume a properly metropolitan expression. "Suppose I'll have to take the third degree before I can get out ...
— The False Gods • George Horace Lorimer

... of Lossie, my lord," answered Mr Morrison; "and from my heart I congratulate your people that at length you assume the rights and ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald

... attending advanced years in their race.... How gaily are the young ladies of this race attired, as they trip up and down the sidewalks, and in and out through the pendant garments at the shop doors! They are the black pansies and marigolds, and dark- blooded dahlias among womankind. They try to assume something of our colder race's demeanor, but even the passer on the horse-car can see that it is not native with them, and is better pleased when they forget us, and ungenteely laugh in encountering friends, letting their white teeth ...
— Masterpieces Of American Wit And Humor • Thomas L. Masson (Editor)

... themselves. Observe well now my process of reasoning. Remark attentively whether I oppose theories to facts, whether I substitute oratorical declamations for arguments. I grant the hypotheses best calculated, as commonly thought, to contradict my theses. I assume that natural history demonstrates by solid proofs that the first man was carried in the bosom of a monkey; and I ask: What is the circumstance which set apart in the animal species a branch which presented new phenomena? What is the cause? That monkey-author of our race which one ...
— The Heavenly Father - Lectures on Modern Atheism • Ernest Naville

... day's feast many presents are given away by the n['ae]skut, the husbands of the female feast givers distributing them for the ladies, who assume a bashful air. During the distribution the n['ae]skut maintain their deprecatory attitude and pass disparaging remarks on their gifts. Sometimes the presents are attached to a long line of oklinok ...
— The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo • Ernest William Hawkes

... if it becomes plain that no charges have been preferred, then plainly there can be nothing to retract, and no one could rightly urge you to demand a retraction. You should beware of making so serious a mistake, for however honest a man may be, every one is liable to misapprehend. Besides you assume that I am the author of some certain article which you have not pointed out. It ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... trail, Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick could not but wonder why they had wished to take him alive. He knew that he was too far inland for his uniform to have any significance to this native tribe to whom no inkling of the World War probably ever had come, and he could only assume that he had fallen into the hands of the warriors of some savage potentate upon whose royal ...
— Tarzan the Untamed • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... no male offspring of their own, and it could be exercised either during lifetime or by testament. The person adopted, who required to be himself a citizen, was enrolled in the family and demus of the adoptive father, whose name, however, he did not necessarily assume. In the interest of the next of kin, whose rights were affected by a case of adoption, it was provided that the registration should be attended with certain formalities, and that it should take place at a fixed time—the festival of the Thargelia. The rights and duties of adopted children were almost ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... great ships of boundlesse might, Haue had or meanes or prowesse to contriue The fall of one, which mayden vertue dight, Kept in despight of Spanish force aliue. Then list to mee you imps of memorie, Borne to assume to immortalitie. ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, v. 7 - England's Naval Exploits Against Spain • Richard Hakluyt

... leading spirit, as well as one of the principal artistes, anon appearing in an impromptu sketch as "Signor Paderewski," or, again, as a coster, and holding the hall entranced or convulsed with laughter. He was able to assume very various roles with "Fregoli-like" rapidity; for one evening, soon after the audience had dispersed, suddenly there was an alarm of a night attack. Firing commenced all round the town, which was a most unusual occurrence for a Sunday night. In an instant the man who had been masquerading ...
— South African Memories - Social, Warlike & Sporting From Diaries Written At The Time • Lady Sarah Wilson

... first be tempted to believe that the present form of the instrument has been arrived at by long-continued improvement in the hands of an almost infinite succession of thieves; but may not this inference be somewhat too hastily drawn? Have we any right to assume that burglars work by means analogous to those employed by other people? If any thief happened to pick up any crowbar which happened to be ever such a little better suited to his purpose than the one he had been in the habit of using hitherto, he would at once ...
— Luck or Cunning? • Samuel Butler

... are quite unacquainted with Dr. Macleod's antecedents, will have heard of him as the editor of Good Words. It is not too much to assume that even the contributor to a New York journal, who lately described him as "Dr. Macleod, one of the Court physicians," will know him in this capacity. Commencing his editorial career on the Edinburgh Christian Magazine, which he conducted from April, ...
— Western Worthies - A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West - of Scotland Celebrities • J. Stephen Jeans

... fragrant). After the same manner, one cannot, by cleansing one's heart only a little, succeed in beholding the Soul. When, however, those grains are perfumed repeatedly with the aid of a large quantity of flowers, it is then that they cast off their own odour and assume that of the flowers with which they are mixed. After this manner, faults, in the form of attachments to all our environments, are dispelled by the understanding in course of many lives, with the aid of a large dose of the attribute of the Sattwa, and by means of efforts born of practice.[1355] ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... "But to deliberately assume these tasks—simple because they clear my life and keep me balanced—when I have no need to do them, seems to me an ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon

... embraced they went into the same carriage; and, in order that they might be upon a footing of equality, they were to enter at the same time by opposite doors. All that was settled; but at breakfast the Emperor had calculated how he should manage, without appearing to assume anything, to get on the righthand side of the Pope, and everything turned out as he wished. "As to the Pope," said Rapp, "I must own that I never saw a man with a finer countenance or more ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... school. A course similar in nature should be provided for the girls and a woman teacher selected to advise them when they leave school. Considerable difficulty probably will be experienced in securing women teachers competent to assume this task, but any wide-awake teacher who will devote some attention to published studies of industrial conditions and get in touch with the local organizations engaged in the investigation of wage earning employments, such as the Consumers' ...
— Wage Earning and Education • R. R. Lutz

... compared with the preceding verse, according to which Canaan is, in the first place, to be Shem's servant only, supposes that Japheth will step beyond his borders, and will invade the territory naturally belonging to Shem. If Japheth assume the dominion of Shem over Canaan, he must then dwell in the tents of Shem in a sense different from the merely spiritual one. Finally—Even in other passages of the Pentateuch, an invasion of Shem's territory by Japheth is foretold. In Num. xxiv. 24, ...
— Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, v. 1 • Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

... part and parcel of the spy system; that he regretted it, and, not being able to extricate himself, he was going to commit suicide.... Desiring to give this unfortunate a chance of rehabilitating himself, desiring also to come to close quarters with this gang of spies, I decided to assume his personality, and take advantage of his entrance into a regiment where he was not known, and to go there in his place. It was in these conditions that I left eight days after, on Sunday, ...
— A Nest of Spies • Pierre Souvestre

... data, and which he finally changed to 1/4. I am inclined to think that his first ratio was nearer the truth, for since we have found that the coefficient of attraction between cousins would be so much greater than between non-relatives, why should we not assume that the attraction between cousins of the same surname should exceed that between cousins of different surnames? For among a large number of cousins a person is likely to be thrown into closer contact, and to feel better acquainted with those who bear the same ...
— Consanguineous Marriages in the American Population • George B. Louis Arner

... passing to and fro through their territory, between Barbary and Soudan: the predominant feature of their character is, however, self interest, and although in their dealings amongst strangers, or in the towns, they assume a great appearance of fairness or sincerity, yet they are not scrupulous when they have the power in their own hands, and like the other Berrebbers, they are occasionally guilty of the most atrocious acts of treachery and murder, not merely against Christians, for that is almost a matter ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish

... were the exact images that passed through his mind during those minutes of gazing upon Lucy Savile's house, the sparrow, the man and the dog, and Lucy Savile's house again. There are honest men who will not admit to their thoughts, even as idle hypotheses, views of the future that assume as done a deed which they would recoil from doing; and there are other honest men for whom morality ends at the surface of their own heads, who will deliberate what the first will not so much as suppose. Barnet had a wife whose pretence distracted his home; ...
— Wessex Tales • Thomas Hardy

... moment the click of the balls on the other tallies was the only sound. Craig broke the tableau by reaching for his glass of whisky, which he emptied. He tried to assume a nonchalant air, but his hand shook as he replaced the glass on the tabouret. It rolled off to the floor and ...
— Parrot & Co. • Harold MacGrath

... he—I mean, how was he?" Polly had by nature that healthy capacity for asking questions, which is one of the most flattering characteristics that a woman can have or assume. ...
— Across the Mesa • Jarvis Hall

... with his wife's little patrimony. It would have been a serviceable nest-egg for the children, and a help to Jim in his long struggle. All of her life, she had been accustomed to seeing husbands assume full control of their wives' property, using it as their own, and she had taken little thought of the equities of the matter. To her it appeared natural that a wife's surrender to her husband should embrace things financial as well as things less material, but in ...
— Princess • Mary Greenway McClelland

... the weather, the time of the day, the mean salaries they get, the stray sheep they have been seeking; they eat their meals under the hedge, sing merry songs, exchange a few blows, in fact behave as true shepherds of real life. Quite at the end only, when the "Gloria" is heard, they will assume the sober attitude ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand

... advise you," she said; "only if she has taken so much pains to remain unknown, I am not sure—I think that if I were you I would assume that she has good ...
— A Millionaire of Yesterday • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... assume that they're coming here!" said the Texan, coolly. "They may have flanked off to look for some fresh meat. Yes, that is it," he added. "They bear up to the north now; they want to go ahead of the party so as ...
— Wild Bill's Last Trail • Ned Buntline

... penitentiary. I have seen him twice, and I took him to be a traveling salesman—as he doubtless intended I should. You can see how it was designed to work out. With a sufficient amount of discouragement it was reasonable to assume that the prison bird would finally yield to the inevitable; become a criminal in fact and get himself locked up again out ...
— Branded • Francis Lynde

... me sick," continued Ellis, disregarding this hint, "is to have people assume that newspaper men are a lot of semi-crooks and shysters. What does the petty grafting that a few reporters do—and, mind you, there's mighty little of it done—amount to, compared with the rottenness of a paper run by my church-going reformer ...
— The Clarion • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... mind the fifth floor would be reached. The boy followed, climbing and ever climbing, until the meagre hand-rail appeared to lengthen into dream-like coils, and the threadbare, drab-hued carpet, with its vivid red border, to assume the ...
— Max • Katherine Cecil Thurston

... differently on the sapid bodies presented to them. Those subject to water soften, dissolve, and reduce themselves to boilli. The result is bouillon and its extracts. Those on the contrary treated with oil harden, assume a color more or less deep, and finally ...
— The Physiology of Taste • Brillat Savarin

... evening at Sixty-ninth Street. The Carlings went away some ten days later, and she did, in fact, send another note to his house address, asking him to see them before their departure; but John had considered himself fortunate in getting the house off his hands to a tenant who would assume the lease if given possession at once, and had gone into the modest apartment which he occupied during the rest of his life in the city, and so the second communication failed to reach him. Perhaps it was as well. Some weeks later he walked up to the Carlings' house one Sunday afternoon, and ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott

... best historians. His romantic disposition, which led him highly to relish gaiety, approaching to license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion. These propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont, during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and conform to the rules, of the order of Franciscans; and when he had thus done penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of pleasure. Probably, too, with no unusual inconsistency, he sometimes laughed at the superstitions ...
— Marmion • Sir Walter Scott

... intended to be solved by some trick of this kind; and if there happens to be no solution without the trick it is perfectly legitimate. We have to use our best judgment as to whether a puzzle contains a catch or not; but we should never hastily assume it. To quibble over the conditions is the last resort ...
— The Canterbury Puzzles - And Other Curious Problems • Henry Ernest Dudeney

... over the Directors. Thenceforth they began to connive at his diplomatic irregularities, and even to urge on his expeditions into wealthy districts, provided that the spoils went to Paris; while the conqueror, on his part, was able tacitly to assume that tone of authority with which the briber ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose

... including the whole English Channel," within which enemy merchant vessels would be sunk without assurance of safety to passengers or crew. Furthermore, as a means of keeping neutrals out of British waters, Germany declared she would assume no responsibility for destruction of neutral ships within this zone. What this meant was to all intents and purposes a "paper" submarine blockade of the British Isles. Its illegitimacy arose from the fact that it was conducted surreptitiously over a vast area, and was only in the slightest ...
— A History of Sea Power • William Oliver Stevens and Allan Westcott

... antagonistic—it becomes part of our inquiry at this point to examine. We have this to ask, even granting that our "burlesque picture" is a natural, almost a necessary, accompaniment of human life,—was found, we may quite safely assume, in the cave-dwelling of primitive man, who probably satirised with a flint upon its walls those troublesome neighbours of his, the mammoth and the megatherium,—peers out upon us from the complex culture ...
— The Eighteenth Century in English Caricature • Selwyn Brinton

... certainly discovered another person in my picture. The other outside is a cardinal, called by Mr. Ives, Babington; but I believe Cardinal Beaufort, for the lion of England stands by him, which a bastardly prince of the blood was more likely to assume than a true one. His face is not very like, nor very unlike, the face in my picture; but this is -shaven.-But now comes the great point. On the inside is Humphrey Duke of Gloucester kneeling—not only exactly resembling ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole

... is the earliest upon which our historians dilate. It took place September 3, 1189, at Westminster; differing in no material point from the modern ceremony. The archbishop is said to have solemnly adjured the king at the altar, "not to assume the royal dignity unless he were resolved to keep the regal oath." An infamous outrage on the unoffending and oppressed race of the Jews closed the coronation day in London, and was followed by equally cruel ...
— Coronation Anecdotes • Giles Gossip

... experience in the Socialist movement has furnished me with too much understanding of the manner and extent to which working-class movements are abused and slandered to permit me to accept these stories as gospel truth. That experience has forced me to assume that most of the terrible stories told about the Bolsheviki are either untrue and without any foundation in fact or greatly exaggerated. The "rumor factories" in Geneva, Stockholm, Copenhagen, The Hague, and other European capitals, which were ...
— Bolshevism - The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy • John Spargo

... Soapy's design to assume the role of the despicable and execrated "masher." The refined and elegant appearance of his victim and the contiguity of the conscientious cop encouraged him to believe that he would soon feel the pleasant official clutch upon his arm that would insure his winter ...
— The Four Million • O. Henry

... several times she had actually been in the same drawing-room with him. But it was in a crowded company, and he either did not see her, or had the good taste to assume that he had not done so. And Miss Gascoigne, whose eye he caught, had only given him ...
— Christian's Mistake • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

... net of fate, that the unevadable and demonic power of evil-brooding destiny manifests itself most clearly and sends a gruesome shudder of awe through every spectator.' This is certainly a good defense if we assume that the great object of dramatic poetry is to exhibit the working-out of some abstract scheme of mysterious fate. Under that hypothesis one has no right to complain if the characters are treated like puppets,—pulled hither and thither in unnatural ...
— The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller • Calvin Thomas

... friendly, unrestrained, and kind Assume no airs of pride or arrogance; But in her voice, her manner, and her glance, Convey that mystic something, undefined, Which men fail not to understand and read, And, when not blind with egoism, heed. My task was harder—'twas the slow undoing Of long sweet months of unimpeded ...
— Maurine and Other Poems • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... far as they were concerned, years of perfect tranquillity, or of undisputed authority. In inscribing their sole names on the lists, the compilers denoted merely the shorter or longer period during which their Theban vassals failed in their rebellious efforts, and did not dare to assume openly the title or ensigns of royalty. A certain Apophis, probably the same who took the prsenomen of Aqnunri, was reigning at Tanis when the decisive revolt broke out, and Saqnunri Tiuaa I., who was the leader on the occasion, had no other title of authority ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... Assume that this full supply of money at a given moment is 100,000 pieces or dollars; then consider the effect of imposing a seigniorage charge of ten per cent on further coinage. The government alone having the right of coinage, the need of money would give the ...
— Modern Economic Problems - Economics Vol. II • Frank Albert Fetter

... examining of men's gifts for the ministry. The community are nowhere commanded or allowed so to do in the whole New Testament, but other persons distinct from them, 1 Tim. v. 22; 2 Tim. ii. 2; Tit. i. 5, &c. Nor did the community ever exercise or assume to themselves any such power of ordination or mission, but only officers both in the first sending of men to preach, as 1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6: and to be deacons, Acts vi. 6, and also in after missions, ...
— The Divine Right of Church Government • Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London

... novel and important truths. Facts of themselves are barren; it is when these facts pass through reflections, and become interwoven with our feelings, or our reasonings, that they are the finest illustrations; that they assume the dignity of "philosophy teaching by example;" that, in the moral world, they are what the wise system of Bacon inculcated in the natural knowledge deduced from experiments; the study of nature in her operations. "When examples are pointed out to us," says ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. II (of 3) - Edited, With Memoir And Notes, By His Son, The Earl Of Beaconsfield • Isaac D'Israeli

... is there, Mr. Bellward, sir!" he said, helping Desmond to alight. Desmond, preparing to assume his new role, was about to leave the carriage when a sudden thought struck him. What about his uniform strewn about the compartment where he had changed? He ran back. The compartment was empty. Not a trace remained of the remarkable scenes of ...
— Okewood of the Secret Service • Valentine Williams

... in the centre, pools, canals and gardens, and in the maze of streets, squares and lanes moves a stream of people of Turkish and Persian race. The dark-blue cupolas stand out against the light-blue sky, and are surrounded by luxuriant dark-green vegetation. In autumn the gardens assume a bright yellow tint. In winter the whole country is often buried in snow, and only the bright blue cupolas rise above the whiteness. Samarcand is the "blue" town, just as Jaipur in ...
— From Pole to Pole - A Book for Young People • Sven Anders Hedin

... advice to you in that case is, make love to some young lady, directly you reach England; and marry her in a month, before you have begun to assume elephantine proportions. Once hooked, you know, she cannot sue for divorce, on the ground that you have taken her in; and she will have to put up with you, whatever ...
— Through Three Campaigns - A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti • G. A. Henty

... Brown vs. Maryland a ground of decision. It is a principle which has proved of the utmost importance in keeping the field of national power clear of encumbering state legislation against the day when Congress should elect to step in and assume effective control. Nor can there be much doubt that the result was intended by the framers of ...
— John Marshall and the Constitution - A Chronicle of the Supreme Court, Volume 16 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Edward S. Corwin

... one day as suddenly and unaccountably as he had come amongst them. He did not, however, take himself afar, but donning a new disguise, retreated to a more distant part of the city: for an idea had occurred to him which he determined speedily to put in practice. This was to assume the character and bearing of a sage astrologer and learned physician, at once capable of reading the past, and laying bare the future of all who consulted him; also of healing diseases of and preventing mishaps to such as visited him. Accordingly, having ...
— Royalty Restored - or, London under Charles II. • J. Fitzgerald Molloy

... that we should surrender to the Mars Convicts. In fact, for all their cleverness, they appear to be acting out of something very close to desperation. They have gained no essential advantage through their trick, and we must assume they made the mistake of underestimating us. This gentleman they sent to Earth has been given thorough physical examinations. They show him to be in excellent health. He is also younger by many years ...
— Oneness • James H. Schmitz

... both flanks were guarded. In this way the buffaloes might have held their ground, but the silly calf when closely menaced by the wolves foolishly started out, rendering it necessary for its protectors to assume a new attitude ...
— The Hunters' Feast - Conversations Around the Camp Fire • Mayne Reid

... continued his sad thoughts, staring all the while at the red embers of the expiring fire; but soon his eyes began to blink, and the stumps of trees began to assume the form of voyageurs, and voyageurs to look like stumps of trees. Then a moonbeam darted in, and Mr. Addison stood on the other side of the fire. At this sight Charley started, and Mr. Addison disappeared, while the boy smiled to ...
— The Young Fur Traders • R.M. Ballantyne

... it all your own way, Jucundus," answered his nephew, "and so you must move in your own circle, round and round. There is no touching you, if you first assume your premisses, and then prove them by means of ...
— Callista • John Henry Cardinal Newman

... the call of "Canot a lege," (light canoe). Our beds were tied up, tents packed, canoes launched and loaded in an instant; and we set off in pursuit of the mail, which we overtook at breakfast time, and found Mr. G. K——th in charge, who had just returned from England, and was now proceeding to assume the charge of Lake Superior district. Mr. K——th exchanged some of his men, who were found incapable of performing light canoe duty, for some of our best; an arrangement that did not appear to ...
— Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory • John M'lean

... these icebergs assume all sorts of shapes, and it was very natural, since we were always on the lookout for ships, that our imaginations should be excited and disturbed, and ready to see at any time what we most wanted to see; nor were we at all ...
— Cast Away in the Cold - An Old Man's Story of a Young Man's Adventures, as Related by Captain John Hardy, Mariner • Isaac I. Hayes

... not a proper occasion for saying anything about the adequateness of the catholic, or any other special manner of fostering and solacing the religious impulses of men. We have to assume that the instructed class believe the catholic dogmas to be untrue, and yet wishes the uninstructed to be handed over to a system that reposes on the theory that these dogmas are superlatively true. What then is to be said of the tenableness of such a position? To the plain man it looks ...
— On Compromise • John Morley

... assume that our miners have found their lode payable, and have some hundreds of tons of good gold-bearing stone in sight or at the surface. They must next provide a reducing plant. Of means for crushing or triturating quartz there is no lack, and every year gives us fresh inventions for the ...
— Getting Gold • J. C. F. Johnson

... from these considerations, she fancied she observed an air of authority towards his guests, such as she had never before seen him assume, though he had always been distinguished by an haughty carriage; there was something also in the manners of the strangers, that seemed perfectly, though not ...
— The Mysteries of Udolpho • Ann Radcliffe

... pubescence, majority; adultism; adultness &c. adj.; manhood, virility, maturity full age, ripe age; flower of age; prime of life, meridian of life, spring of life. man &c. 373; woman &c. 374; adult, no chicken. V. come of age, come to man's estate, come to years of discretion; attain majority, assume the toga virilis[Lat]; have cut one's eyeteeth, have sown one's mild oats. Adj. adolescent, pubescent, of age; of full age, of ripe age; out of one's teens, grown up, mature, full grown, in one's prime, middle-aged, manly, virile, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... is suspended as in Figure 223, and is allowed to swing freely, it will always assume a definite north and south position. The pole which points north when the needle is suspended is called the north pole and is marked N, while the pole which points south when the needle is suspended is called the south pole ...
— General Science • Bertha M. Clark

... hesitation in accepting this opinion, if one could only demonstrate clearly by experiments that a given quantity of air is capable of being completely converted into fixed or other kind of air by the admixture of foreign materials; but since this has not been done, I hope I do not err if I assume as many kinds of air as experiment reveals to me. For when I have collected an elastic fluid, and observe concerning it that its expansive power is increased by heat and diminished by cold, while it still uniformly retains its elastic ...
— Discovery of Oxygen, Part 2 • Carl Wilhelm Scheele

... replied in as bright a tone as she could assume. "There's Mr. Strange, whom you met ...
— The Wild Olive • Basil King

... And in this same last or shoe, that old woman of the nursery tale, with the swarming brood, might very comfortably be lodged, she and all her progeny. But as you come nearer to this great head it begins to assume different aspects, according to your point of view. If you stand on its summit and look at these two f-shaped spout-holes, you would take the whole head for an enormous bass-viol, and these .. spiracles, the apertures in its sounding-board. Then, again, if you fix ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville

... time when I noticed a lady sauntering along the corridor vainly searching for a seat. I was comfortable, but I instantly surrendered my place to assume a standing position in the corridor where I chatted with several fellow-travellers. I may say that slung over my shoulder was a black leather strap carrying a small camera case in the manner frequently ...
— Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons - Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben • Henry Charles Mahoney

... Into thy native skies, Assume thy right; And where, in many a fold, The clouds are backward rolled; Pass thro' these gates of gold, ...
— The Otterbein Hymnal - For Use in Public and Social Worship • Edmund S. Lorenz

... the wholesome moral exercise of pausing a moment in our rapid career to revert to first principles, moral, social and political, and to explore the germs of our marvelous material progress. Nor could we assume this office as exclusively for our own benefit. The rest of Christendom silently assigned it to the youngest born for the common good. Circumstances had placed in our hands the measuring-rod of Humanity's growth, and all stood willing to gather upon our soil for its application, so ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various

... make him almost beside himself. And her coquetry as soon as anybody—no matter who—appeared on the road!... Then she would talk excitedly, laugh noisily, make faces, draw attention to herself: she would assume an affected mincing gait. Christophe would have a horrible presentiment that she was going to plunge into serious discussion.—And, indeed, she would do so. She would become sentimental, uncontrolledly, just as she did everything: she would unbosom herself in a loud voice. Christophe ...
— Jean-Christophe, Vol. I • Romain Rolland

... nurse, who, under pretence of tenderness, stifles us with our clothes, and plucks the pillow from our heads. Injectu multae vestis opprimi senem jubet. Under this influence we have so little will of our own, that, even in any apparent activity we may be got to assume, I may say, without any violence to sense, and with very little to language, we are merely passive. We have yielded to your demands this session. In the last session we refused to prevent them. In both cases, the passive and the active, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... of any noted writer, and thus end the fruitless search for memorizing what is not at all memorable. What may strike uncultivated readers as beautiful, may be set down as trash, by a mind that has been fed upon the masterpieces of poetry. Not that the librarian is to assume the air of an oracle or a censor, (something to be in all circumstances avoided) or to pronounce positive judgment upon what is submitted: he should inform any admiring reader of a passage not ...
— A Book for All Readers • Ainsworth Rand Spofford

... market, and the very great man who buys the borough in that market, they two do the whole business; and you well know they, likewise, have their price. With that sullen disdain which you can so well assume, rise, illustrious Sir, and spurn these hireling efforts of venal stupidity. At best they are the compliments of a man's friends on the morning of his execution: they take a decent farewell, resign you to your fate, and hurry away from ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... identity, I proceeded on my way. I had not gone more than a mile when the traffic on the road began to assume a most anxious and threatening appearance. It looked as if the whole of the 1st Corps was about to fall back in confusion on Ypres. Heavy howitzers were moving west at a trot—always a most significant feature of a retreat—and ammunition and other wagons blocked ...
— 1914 • John French, Viscount of Ypres

... deprecated the entertainment altogether. He had said, "We know nobody," with a despairing impertinence which called forth one of his father's roars of laughter. And though Mr. Copperhead had done all he could to assume the position of that typical Paterfamilias who is condemned to pay for those pleasures of his family which are no pleasure to him, yet common-sense was too much for him, and everybody felt that he was in reality the giver and enjoyer of the entertainment. ...
— Phoebe, Junior • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

... a mule about trifles which did not in the least concern him, but as regarded the affairs of every-day life he was on the whole pleasant and easy-going, more especially when nothing occurred to put him out. When anything of the kind did occur, he could certainly assume the attitude of an ugly customer, and on such occasions the wound on his cheek put on a lurid hue which was not pleasant to contemplate. His ordinary discourse mainly dealt with the events of his ...
— The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales • John Charles Dent

... the copper country, that's a fact," said Tom Trefethen, with the slight air of superiority that residents of a place are so apt to assume towards strangers. "Why, a single company here employs as many as ...
— The Copper Princess - A Story of Lake Superior Mines • Kirk Munroe

... inevitably taint the institutions of religion, and degrade the standard of piety. Accordingly the ministers of every denomination in Antigua, feel that in the abolition of slavery their greatest enemy has been vanquished, and they now evince a determination to assume higher ground than they ever aspired to during the reign of slavery. The motto of all creeds is, "We expect great things of freemen." A report which we obtained from the Wesleyan brethren, states, "Our own brethren preach almost daily." "We think the negroes are uncommonly ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... Oswald. "Let your sisters be at the wash-tub, and you and your brother carting manure; he will then be more likely to have no suspicion of your being otherwise than what you assume ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat

... that we could not all do it, but it would be better to choose only four; a larger number would excite more observation. Those who go will of course take dynamite with them. We can buy that at Durban. At Lorenzo Marques we should assume the character of four young Irish fellows. We know there are lots of them already up there, and Germans too, fighting in the Boer ranks and I am glad to know that they got peppered at Elandslaagte, although that is not to the point. We should go as four Irish lads who have come across from ...
— With Buller in Natal - A Born Leader • G. A. Henty

... complete as it was pathetic. He disappeared from fashionable life to undergo a dreary imprisonment, and when he at last issued thence, the world which had showered blandishments upon him in his prosperity, would have no more of him. In vain did he dress exquisitely, enunciate witticisms and assume a gaiety of manner which he was far from feeling. The friends who had courted his society before his downfall now shunned his acquaintance, and a bon-mot uttered at his expense elicited the applause which his most happily-conceived jests failed to evoke. On some stranger pointing out Skeffington ...
— The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope v. I. • A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)

... Germanic confederation, in concert with the vicar, agree on a provisional form or interim, during which time Austria and Prussia assume the administration of the central power for the German confederation, in the name of all the governments of the confederation, until the 1st of May, 1850, unless this power cannot be transferred to a definite power ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... campaign, Tipu was killed while fighting bravely in defence of his capital, it was declared that an examination of Tipu's correspondence showed that the Nawab of Arcot had been guilty of treasonable communications with Mysore. It was accordingly resolved that the Company should assume control of the Carnatic; but, as the Nawab was seriously ill, nothing was done until his death, when British troops were ...
— The Story of Madras • Glyn Barlow

... a fancy costume, one must be careful to choose only what is /individually/ becoming. It must be in perfect harmony with one's personality. To assume a character that is in every way opposed to one's own character is unwise and ungratifying. A sedate, quiet young miss should not choose a Folly Costume. Nor should a jolly, vivacious young lady elect to emulate Martha Washington, ...
— Book of Etiquette • Lillian Eichler

... remained perfectly motionless as the professor advanced toward the house. Had he shown any disposition to head toward that particular corner Frank was ready to assume an attitude of indifference and appear to be engaged in some boyish game with his jack knife, tossing it up in the air, and causing the point of the long blade to ...
— The Aeroplane Boys Flight - A Hydroplane Roundup • John Luther Langworthy

... alone, he has 40,000 to 45,000 acres. It is the almost universal testimony that Scully's rule in that county has reduced 250 tenants and their families to a condition approaching serfdom. Furthermore, Scully pays no taxes, the tenants signing ironclad agreements to assume the same, but they are required to pay to Scully's agents the tax money at the same time as the rentals—the 1st of January of each year; whereas, the agent need not turn over the taxes to the county treasurer until about June 10 following. It is suggested ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, February 1887 - Volume 1, Number 1 • Various

... at work, three main factors; Spirit,[54] awakening within itself vibrations,[55] which assume divers appearances.[56] These three factors are one; force-matter and form cannot exist without the all-powerful, divine Will (Spirit), for this is the supreme Being, who, by his Will, creates force matter, by his Intelligence gives it a form, and ...
— Reincarnation - A Study in Human Evolution • Th. Pascal

... is off the ground the plants respond quickly, and it is safe to assume that all the earliest flowers come up from big, ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts

... some time in suspense in this way, glaring round the room with an expression of diabolical amusement, such as a cat may sometimes assume when playing with a mouse before finally putting it out of its misery, Dr Hellyer spoke again. ...
— On Board the Esmeralda - Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story • John Conroy Hutcheson

... moment, as I said just now, your process of ballotting, with eyes bandaged, gag in mouth, cannon in the streets and squares, sabres drawn, spies swarming, silence and terror leading the voter to the ballot-box as a malefactor to the prison; I put these aside; I assume (I repeat) genuine universal suffrage, free, pure, real; universal suffrage controlling itself, as it ought to do; newspapers in everybody's hands, men and facts questioned and sifted, placards covering the walls, speech everywhere, enlightenment everywhere! Very ...
— Napoleon the Little • Victor Hugo

... animal gods always precede anthropomorphic gods in evolution, we reply that, in the most archaic of known races, the deities are represented in human guise at the Mysteries, though there are animal Totems, and though, in myth, the deity may, and often does, assume shapes of bird or ...
— The Homeric Hymns - A New Prose Translation; and Essays, Literary and Mythological • Andrew Lang

... Paris in 1820, by M. de Roquefort, who speaks of her in the following terms: "She possessed that penetration which distinguishes at first sight the different passions of mankind, which seizes upon the different forms they assume, and, remarking the objects of their notice, discovers at the same time the means by which they are attained." If this be a true statement, the acuteness of feminine observation has gained but little in the progress of the centuries, and her literary sisters of the present ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 107, September, 1866 • Various

... of those who have embraced the teaching, not only rich men, but also some persons of rank and delicate and high-born ladies, receive the teachers of the Word, there will be some who dare to say that it is for the sake of a little glory that certain assume the office of Christian teachers. In the beginning, when there was much danger, especially to its teachers, this suspicion could ...
— A Source Book for Ancient Church History • Joseph Cullen Ayer, Jr., Ph.D.

... Canterbury Cathedral; and encircled with a spiral band, as one appears in the ruined chapel at Orford, in Suffolk; sometimes, also, they appear covered with ornamental mouldings. Late in the style the piers assume a greater lightness in appearance, and are sometimes clustered and banded round with mouldings, and approximate in design ...
— The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed. • Matthew Holbeche Bloxam

... authority, and bade them begone. The ill-omened fowls hopped off; relations began to collect; there was an atmosphere of suppressed electricity about the place, and certain women openly criticised the prominent attitude Hicks saw fit to assume. This, however, did not trouble him. He wrote to the lawyer at Newton, fixed a day for the funeral, and then turned his attention to Mr. Lezzard. The ancient resented Clement's interference not a little, but Hicks speedily convinced him that his ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts

... you think it possible to reform all, or a large proportion of prisoners?" We can assume it of those here as of the world in general. Whether out of or in prison, we are to sow the seed, and some will germinate. We must work, use all right appliances, and leave the event with God, not knowing "which shall prosper, ...
— The Prison Chaplaincy, And Its Experiences • Hosea Quinby

... enthusiastic, tender, and what may be called exquisitely feminine woman the quality of clear and guiding discrimination between the policy of the leader and the principles of the cause which he undertakes to lead. We are inclined to assume that the woman in such a case, if she has already made a hero of the man, will be apt to think that everything he proposes to do must be the right thing to do, and that any question raised as to the wisdom and justice of any course adopted by him is a treason ...
— Lady John Russell • Desmond MacCarthy and Agatha Russell

... altogether by rules of construction. It always has some relation to the author's peculiar manner of thinking; involves, to some extent, and shows his literary, if not his moral, character; is, in general, that sort of expression which his thoughts most readily assume; and, sometimes, partakes not only of what is characteristic of the man, of his profession, sect, clan, or province, but even of national peculiarity, or some marked feature of the age. The words which an author employs, may be proper in themselves, ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... subject of congratulation to Phoebe that one of Mrs Latrobe's peculiarities was to ask questions, and assume, without waiting for it, that the answer was according to her wishes. So ...
— The Maidens' Lodge - None of Self and All of Thee, (In the Reign of Queen Anne) • Emily Sarah Holt

... this fragrant incense means? Oh, tush! 'tis but an idle, wildering dream, But how delightful, joyous it did seem! Her beauteous form it had, its breath perfume; Do spirit forms such loveliness assume?" ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Literature • Anonymous

... as a rule, Max could suddenly assume an air of hauteur and overbearing which was really very annoying. Geoffrey always fumed under it. But Ciccio it put into unholy, ungovernable tempers. For Max, suddenly, would reveal his contempt of the Eyetalian, as he called Ciccio, using ...
— The Lost Girl • D. H. Lawrence

... remarkable form we are presented with perhaps the most highly carnivorous type of all known beasts of prey. Not only are the jaws shorter in proportion even than those of the great Cats of the present day, but the canine teeth (fig. 253) are of enormous size, greatly flattened so as to assume the form of a poignard, and having their margins finely serrated. A part from the characters of the skull, the remainder of the skeleton, so far as known, exhibits proofs that the Sabre-toothed Tiger was extraordinarily muscular and powerful, and in the highest degree adapted for a life of rapine. ...
— The Ancient Life History of the Earth • Henry Alleyne Nicholson

... together from a cruise, there was no use saying which had actually done the brilliant deeds the evidence of which was carried ashore. But Lavender, oddly enough, knew little about sailing, and Johnny was pleased to assume the airs of an instructor on this point; his only difficulty being that his pupil had more than the ordinary hardihood of an ignoramus, and was rather inclined to do reckless things even after he had sufficient skill to ...
— Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. 33. December, 1873. • Various

... earth.[61] The angels that are fashioned from fire have forms of fire,[62] but only so long as they remain in heaven. When they descend to earth, to do the bidding of God here below, either they are changed into wind, or they assume the guise of men.[63] There are ten ranks or ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... establish himself as the leader of the Church. Many years, however, passed away before he dared assume or claim to be the rightful successor of Joseph, the Seer, Prophet, and Revelator to the Church. When the time arrived, according to Brigham's own words, for Joseph to receive his own, Joseph came, ...
— The Mormon Menace - The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite • John Doyle Lee

... all pass'd in jeopardy and jest; Poor without prudence, with afflictions vain, Not warn'd by misery, not enrich'd by gain; Whom Justice, pitying, chides from place to place, A wandering, careless, wretched, merry race, Whose cheerful looks assume, and play the parts Of happy rovers with repining hearts; Then cast off care, and in the mimic pain Of tragic woe feel spirits light and vain, Distress and hope—the mind's the body's wear, The man's affliction, and the actor's tear: Alternate times of fasting ...
— The Borough • George Crabbe

... you said: 'Will you?' Now it is: 'You must!'" she said, with a fine little smile. "How quick you are to assume ...
— The Bondwoman • Marah Ellis Ryan

... sort echoed along through the mediaeval Church until a year after the discovery of America, when the Nuremberg Chronicle re-echoed it as follows: "The creation of things is explained by the number six, the parts of which, one, two, and three, assume ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... assume the responsibility of letting you geese remain, without telling you that it is unsafe here," said he. "We cannot receive night guests just now." At last Akka began to comprehend that this was serious. "We shall go away, since you really wish it," said she. "But won't you tell us first, ...
— The Wonderful Adventures of Nils • Selma Lagerlof

... ride with my cousins," said Charles, with as much nonchalance as he could assume—and he did so; Mr. Ingoldsby, Mrs. Peters, Mr. Simpkinson from Bath, and his eldest daughter with her album, following in the family coach. The gentleman-commoner "voted the affair d——d slow," and declined the party altogether in favor of the gamekeeper and a cigar. "There was 'no fun' ...
— Humorous Ghost Stories • Dorothy Scarborough

... near Ram's Head, one of the worst reefs on the coast of Maine; and we're heading now for Charlesport; that's over yonder, beyond that next point," Doctor Thayer answered. After a moment he added: "I know nothing about your misfortunes, but I assume that you capsized in some pesky boat or other. When you get good and ready, you can tell me all about it. In the meantime, what ...
— The Stolen Singer • Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger

... INTEREST.—Besides land, the entrepreneur needs machinery, office equipment, raw materials, the services of laborers, and numerous other aids in production. Let us assume that the entrepreneur borrows of a capitalist the money required to procure these necessities. The entrepreneur can afford to pay interest for the use of this money, since with the aid of the goods ...
— Problems in American Democracy • Thames Ross Williamson

... voluntary exile. But it appears that Cante de' Gabrielli went out of office in June, 1302. So, unless we can suppose this last date to be wrong—and there is some little ground for suspecting it—we must assume that, though a Florentine official, he did not use Florentine style, and that Dante, with some few others of the leading White Guelfs, was compelled to fly sooner than the bulk of his party. He may very well have been regarded ...
— Dante: His Times and His Work • Arthur John Butler

... required. The air of disdain and defiance she had first shown soon passed away, and she entered with zest and eagerness upon her work. She delighted in being prettily and becomingly dressed. She listened intelligently to the master's descriptions of the characters that she was to assume, and delighted him with the readiness with which she assumed suitable poses, and the steadiness with which she ...
— A Girl of the Commune • George Alfred Henty



Words linked to "Assume" :   Christian religion, adopt, put on, take office, simulate, anticipate, face the music, arrogate, raid, take, try on, take on, slip on, hat, suppose, don, presuppose, hijack, pretend, Christianity, carry-the can, seize, resume, strike, bear, assumptive, annex, conquer, scarf, wear, get dressed, take over, expect, fill, sham, assumption, occupy, change, accept, dissemble, play, invite, move, try, take in, re-assume, appropriate, receive, dress, capture, acquire, usurp, feint, take up, act, take for granted, preoccupy, presume, get into, feign



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