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Blow   Listen
verb
Blow  v. i.  (past blew; past part. blown; pres. part. blowing)  
1.
To produce a current of air; to move, as air, esp. to move rapidly or with power; as, the wind blows. "Hark how it rains and blows!"
2.
To send forth a forcible current of air, as from the mouth or from a pair of bellows.
3.
To breathe hard or quick; to pant; to puff. "Here is Mistress Page at the door, sweating and blowing."
4.
To sound on being blown into, as a trumpet. "There let the pealing organ blow."
5.
To spout water, etc., from the blowholes, as a whale.
6.
To be carried or moved by the wind; as, the dust blows in from the street. "The grass blows from their graves to thy own."
7.
To talk loudly; to boast; to storm. (Colloq.) "You blow behind my back, but dare not say anything to my face."
8.
To stop functioning due to a failure in an electrical circuit, especially on which breaks the circuit; sometimes used with out; used of light bulbs, electronic components, fuses; as, the dome light in the car blew out.
9.
To deflate by sudden loss of air; usually used with out; of inflatable tires.
To blow hot and cold, to favor a thing at one time and treat it coldly at another; or to appear both to favor and to oppose.
To blow off, to let steam escape through a passage provided for the purpose; as, the engine or steamer is blowing off.
To blow out.
(a)
To be driven out by the expansive force of a gas or vapor; as, a steam cock or valve sometimes blows out.
(b)
To talk violently or abusively. (Low)
To blow over, to pass away without effect; to cease, or be dissipated; as, the storm and the clouds have blown over.
To blow up, to be torn to pieces and thrown into the air as by an explosion of powder or gas or the expansive force of steam; to burst; to explode; as, a powder mill or steam boiler blows up. "The enemy's magazines blew up."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Blow" Quotes from Famous Books



... Though France had, by a secret treaty in 1762, made over to Spain the province of Louisiana, she was not unmindful of the Bourbon motto, "He who attacks the Crown of one attacks the other." And she saw her chance to deal a crippling blow ...
— Pioneers of the Old Southwest - A Chronicle of the Dark and Bloody Ground • Constance Lindsay Skinner

... Trebooze consigned the said cottages to a variety of unmentionable places; "cost me more in rates than they bring in in rent, even if I get the rent paid. I should like to get a six-pounder, and blow the whole lot into the sea. Cholera coming, eh? D'ye think it will ...
— Two Years Ago, Volume I • Charles Kingsley

... your pardon, Miss Mae, but of course I'll fight. I only hope the fellow isn't such a craven as to let it blow over. However, I strongly suspect policy and his friends will keep him from it. For my part, I would like to break my lance for the poor woman. Any good blow struck for the fair thing, helps old Mother earth a ...
— Mae Madden • Mary Murdoch Mason

... outside like a Banshee, while the hens roosted sociably in the gallery, the horses seemed to be champing directly under the bed, and the dead Huguenots bumping down upon the roof from the castle-walls. Another curious meal wafted from the bowels of the earth and cooled by all the airs that blow,—then the shawl-straps were girded anew, the carriage (a half-grown omnibus with the jaundice) mounted, the farewell bows and adieux received, and forth rumbled the duchesses ...
— Shawl-Straps - A Second Series of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag • Louisa M. Alcott

... the crew of the Japanese cruiser Asama. Rescue work in the earthquake in Italy. Wireless message frustrates a German plot to blow up a French steamer. Fire in a New York factory—rescue of the inmates. Inhuman treatment of Belgian women and children. British officer praises the enemy. The Austrians are defeated by the Montenegrins. Canadians wounded in France. Importance of discipline and accurate shooting ...
— Ontario Teachers' Manuals: History • Ontario Ministry of Education

... a blow so polysyllabic; and Henry, to finish him, added, "Where there's a multitude, there's a mixture." Now the first sentence he had culled from the Edinburgh Review, and the second he had caught from a fellow-workman's lips in a public-house; and probably ...
— Put Yourself in His Place • Charles Reade

... more distressing, as for a moment he had indulged in sanguine hope. The last blow was now added to all the veteran had suffered since the commencement of this scene, which was a cruel as well as dangerous trial, for a man of his character—upright, but obstinate—faithful, but rough and absolute—a man who, for a long time a soldier, and a victorious one, had acquired ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... safe enough in the calm and the bay," he answered, "but supposing it should come on to blow and supposing you should drift beyond the shelter of Rumball Point there, and get the rollers down on you—why you would be drowned in five minutes. It's wicked, ...
— Beatrice • H. Rider Haggard

... toward the door, as Paul stepped in. Paul struck him with his fist, and like lightning placed both his feet against the rebel's breast, almost knocking the life out of him. Jim Wade, Sam Scarp, and Mark Paul, three Indians, rushed in after Paul, who turned and struck Wade a terrific blow on the neck, knocking him out. The Captain, Charlie, Paul and Margaret went for the other two in lively style and soon laid them low. The remaining rebels and Indians beat a hasty retreat to the woods. The insolent invaders who had got so deservedly well punished ...
— Young Lion of the Woods - A Story of Early Colonial Days • Thomas Barlow Smith

... loftiest deva. "Mamamsaha"My portion," a portion of My Self," says Sri Krishna, are all these Jivatmas, all these living spirits. For them the universe exists; for them the sun shines, and the waves roll, and the winds blow, and the rain falls, that the Self may know Himself as manifested in matter, as embodied in ...
— An Introduction to Yoga • Annie Besant

... of Mexicans once turned to hate Are far too deep for sincere eyes to pierce. But I thank God we knew the danger, sire, And struck the serpent raised even at your life. When you, all gentleness, could not have given The necessary blow. Ay, God be thanked, although You cast me from your heart. 'T will be my comfort To know I served you better than you dreamed. And 'tis the penalty of over-love To suffer by the hand that (kneels and kisses Maximilian's hand) it ...
— Semiramis and Other Plays - Semiramis, Carlotta And The Poet • Olive Tilford Dargan

... [flattered and confident, waving bone.] — He gave a drive with the scythe, and I gave a lep to the east. Then I turned around with my back to the north, and I hit a blow on the ridge of his skull, laid him stretched out, and he split to the knob of his gullet. [He raises the chicken bone to his ...
— The Playboy of the Western World • J. M. Synge

... gloating on another's pain. What private feuds the troubled village stain! Though now one phalanxed host should meet the foe, Enough, alas, in humble homes remain, To meditate 'gainst friends the secret blow, For some slight cause of wrath, whence life's warm stream ...
— Childe Harold's Pilgrimage • Lord Byron

... in wrath, and for a moment rage Rocked the huge hall. But Saxo waved his sword, And, laughing, shouted, 'Odin's sons, be still! Count it no sin to battle with high gods! Great-hearted they! They give the blow and take! To Odin who was ever leal as I?' As sudden as it rose the tumult fell: So ceased the storm without: but with it ceased The rapture and the madness, and the shout: The wine-cup still made circuit; but the song Froze in mid-air. Strange shadow hung o'er all: Neighbour to neighbour ...
— Legends of the Saxon Saints • Aubrey de Vere

... revellers was in agitation. The street fluctuated with torches and lifted hands. It was but for a moment. Caesar watched with a steady eye the descending hand of Clodius, arrested the blow, seized his antagonist by the throat, and flung him against one of the pillars of the portico with such violence, that he rolled, stunned and ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Contibutions to Knight's Quarterly Magazine] • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... I was seeing Lord Redesdale very frequently, and I could not but be struck by the effect of this blow upon his temperament. After the first shock of sorrow, I observed in him the determination not to allow himself to be crushed. His dominant vitality asserted itself almost with violence, and he seemed to clench his tooth in defiance of the assault on ...
— Some Diversions of a Man of Letters • Edmund William Gosse

... mood was changed. Gurd had hit him very hard. Indeed, no such severe blow had been struck as this unconscious thrust of Richard's. For it meant that an incident that Raymond was striving to reconcile with the ways of youth—a sowing of wild oats not destined to damage future crops—had appeared to the easy-going publican as a thing to be stoutly contradicted—an ...
— The Spinners • Eden Phillpotts

... less pronounced in the eastern and western regions at the same latitude in the North Pacific Ocean; the western Pacific is monsoonal - a rainy season occurs during the summer months, when moisture-laden winds blow from the ocean over the land, and a dry season during the winter months, when dry winds blow from the Asian landmass back to the ocean; tropical cyclones (typhoons) may strike southeast and east Asia ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... thy hands alone my death can be, I am immortal, and a God to thee. If I would kill thee now, thy fate's so low, That I must stoop ere I can give the blow. But mine is fixed so far above thy crown, That all thy men, Piled on thy back, can never pull it down. But, at my ease, thy destiny I send, By ceasing from this hour to be thy friend. Like heaven, I need but only to stand ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Volume 4 (of 18) - Almanzor And Almahide, Marriage-a-la-Mode, The Assignation • John Dryden

... well understood that if a war was to be carried on as they desired, they must strike the first real blow. Comparatively speaking, a very short time had elapsed since the declaration of war, and the opportunity to take the initiative was ...
— The Great War Syndicate • Frank Stockton

... say, To soothe the anguish of this mournful day? They, they alone, whose hearts like thine have bled, Know how the living sorrow for the dead; I've felt it all,—alas! too well I know How vain all earthly power to hush thy woe! God cheer thee, childless mother! 'tis not given For man to ward the blow that falls from heaven. I've felt it all—as thou art feeling now; Like thee, with stricken heart and aching brow, I've sat and watched by dying beauty's bed, And burning tears of hopeless anguish shed; I've gazed upon the sweet, but pallid face, ...
— The Christian Home • Samuel Philips

... I should say," Forster said, with a dry laugh; "especially at times like this. It is rather unlucky for him that fighting is generally accompanied by noise. If I had such an idiosyncrasy, as you call it, I would blow out my brains." ...
— Rujub, the Juggler • G. A. Henty

... Josiah, 601 B.C., the first heavy blow fell upon the local sacrificial places. How vigorously the king set to work, how new were the measures taken, and how deeply they cut, can be learned from the narrative of 2Kings xxiii. Yet what a vitality did the green trees upon the high mountains still continue to show! Even now they were ...
— Prolegomena to the History of Israel • Julius Wellhausen

... actually could believe it, and the servant Peter said also that it was because of the draught from the chimney. We mentioned yet once more all the names, and the sieve stood still until we came to Eva's, and then we perceived very plainly a movement. The servant Peter at the same moment gave a great blow to the sieve, so that it fell to the ground, and he swore that it was a lie, and that he would answer for Eva. I would have done so too; but yet it was very extraordinary with the sieve! Most of the folks, however, have their own thoughts, ...
— O. T. - A Danish Romance • Hans Christian Andersen

... covers were removed, when, to their utter consternation, a full-grown fly was seen seated upon the dish of rice that stood before his majesty. Yudhisthira rose in consternation. 'When flies begin to blow upon men's dinners,' said his majesty, 'you may be sure, my brothers, that the end of the world is near—the golden age is gone—the iron one has commenced, and we must all be off; the plains of India are no longer a fit abode for gentlemen.' ...
— Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official • William Sleeman

... all this seemingly unconscious that every word he was uttering fell like a blow upon his old customer. But he understood it all very well, and had caught the hard bargain maker in a trap he little dreamed had been laid for ...
— Off-Hand Sketches - a Little Dashed with Humor • T. S. Arthur

... girl whom he loved, had completed the work of changing an irresponsible, untrammelled child of these Hungarian plains into a strong, well-balanced, well-controlled man of a wider world. His first instinct, when the terrible blow had been struck to all his hopes and all his happiness, had been the wild, unreasoning desire to strike back, and to kill. Had he been left to himself just then and then found himself face to face with the man who had robbed him of Elsa, ...
— A Bride of the Plains • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... and should we even succeed, there are no means of getting far from the ship in the launch, as all the oars have been carried off by the captain, and I can hear of neither masts nor sails. Had we the latter, with this wind which is beginning to blow, we might indeed prolong the uncertainty, by getting on some of those more distant spits ...
— Homeward Bound - or, The Chase • James Fenimore Cooper

... wounded. We have observed pronounced shock in children after being shot even when no serious injury was sustained. At the moment of injury the patient experiences a sensation which is variously described as being like the lash of a whip, a blow with a stick, or an electric shock. There is not much pain at first, but later it may become severe, and is usually associated with intense thirst, especially when much ...
— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles

... seeing how we do things now. Mother is not to be blamed for thinking that we are in front of what used to be. What do we care how the country lies? We have heared all this stuff up at Oare. If there are bogs, we shall timber them. If there are rocks, we shall blow them up. If there are caves, we shall fire down them. The moment we get our guns ...
— Slain By The Doones • R. D. Blackmore

... a terrible blow to the Duke; and he believed that it all came from this young Tregear. Still he must do his duty, and not more than his duty. He knew nothing against Tregear. That a Tregear should be a Conservative was perhaps natural enough—at any ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope

... and cherished a profound and mournful conviction of the truth of the maxim, that appearances are deceitful. E.g., a woman has set her heart on something, and is refused. She pouts and sulks: that is clouds, and will soon blow over. She scolds, storms, and raves (I speak in a figure; I mean she does something as much like that as a tender, delicate, angelic woman can): that is thunder, and only clears the air. She betakes herself to tears, sobs, and embroidered cambric: ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... passion. Malthus, he fully believes, has none of the ordinary passions, anger, pride, avarice, or the like, but declares that he must be a slave to an 'amorous complexion,' and believe all other men to be made 'of the same combustible materials.'[435] This foul blow is too characteristic of Hazlitt's usual method; but indicates also the tone which could ...
— The English Utilitarians, Volume II (of 3) - James Mill • Leslie Stephen

... artificial vagina: two tapes at the top and one below lash it to the back of a chair. The erotic literature of the Chinese and Japanese is highly developed and their illustrations are often facetious as well as obscene. All are familiar with that of the strong man who by a blow with his enormous phallus shivers a copper pot; and the ludicrous contrast of the huge-membered wights who land in the Isle of Women and presently escape from it, wrinkled and shrivelled, true Domine Dolittles. Of Turkistan we know ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10 • Richard F. Burton

... have spoken, there was scarcely time allowed them to have uttered a word; for, almost simultaneous with the yells, there was a rushing forward of dark forms; and the next moment fifty tall savages were around them. Basil, who had been farthest out from the fire, was knocked senseless by a blow; while Lucien and Francois, who did not think of using their guns, were seized by the brawny arms of the Indians and held fast. It was fortunate for them that they did not make any resistance, else the savages would have killed all three ...
— The Boy Hunters • Captain Mayne Reid

... a rumpus," Alf agreed. "Old Jen's not one to take a blow. She ups and gets in the first one." He couldn't help admiring Jenny, even yet. So he hastened to pretend that he did not admire her; out of a kind of tact. "But of course ... that's all very well for a bit of sport, but it gets a bit wearisome after a time. ...
— Nocturne • Frank Swinnerton

... and most ingenious contrivance of its kind I have ever seen. The motive wheel, which revolves in a horizontal position, is encased in high walls on three sides, leaving a slit on the north side, from whence the prevalent winds of Sistan blow. The wind entering with great force by this vertical slit—the walls being so cut as to catch as much wind as possible—sets the wheel in motion—a wheel which, although made coarsely of reeds tied in six bundles fastened together by means of cross-arms of wood, revolves ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... Paul and Peter and Barnabas stood ever for their rights; they suffered not wrong willingly. When the ark of truth is intrusted to few hands, they must bear it forward boldly, but with care, else are they at a blow cut off, and the ark with its precious burden borne away and lost—or miracles alone can rescue it. But when the time comes that no prudence or care will avail, then they may not refuse the issue, but must show that life is nothing in comparison ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware

... a little fruit, and that one was practically confined to a cup of tea. Lady Dorothy, who had remained silent and detached, was appealed to as to her opinion. In a sort of loud cackling—a voice she sometimes surprisingly adopted—she replied, "Oh, give me a blow-out of tripe and onions!" to the confusion of the precieuses. She had a wholesome respect for food, quite orthodox and old-fashioned, although I think she ate rather markedly little. But she liked that little good. She ...
— Some Diversions of a Man of Letters • Edmund William Gosse

... just arrived from New York-been there ever since Christmas staying at the house of Dan Slote my Quaker City room-mate, and having a splendid time. Charley Langdon, Jack Van Nostrand, Dan and I, (all Quaker City night-hawks,) had a blow-out at Dan's' house and a lively talk over old times. We went through the Holy Land together, and I just laughed till my sides ached, at some of our reminiscences. It was the unholiest gang that ever cavorted through Palestine, but those are the best boys in the world. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... at corn shuckings, cane grindings, hog killings, or quiltings. At hog killing time, huge containers of water were heated in the yard. When it reached the desired temperature, the hogs were driven to a certain spot where they were struck a hard blow on the head. When they fell, they were stuck with a very sharp knife, then scalded in the boiling water. The hair and dirt were then scrubbed off and they were a pretty light color as they hung from a rack to be dressed. When ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - Volume II. Arkansas Narratives. Part I • Work Projects Administration

... This was a blow to the detective's expectations. What awful mistake had he made? Or had it been made by the man detailed to steal the name from the package—or by the woman in the shop, or by all these combined? He could not stop to ask; ...
— The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow • Anna Katharine Green

... for war. I am not about to dilate on the horrors of war. Horrid as war may be, and full of evil, it is not so horrid to a nation, nor so full of evil, as national insult unavenged or as national injury unredressed. A blow taken by a nation and taken without atonement is an acknowledgment of national inferiority, than which any war is preferable. Neither England nor the States are inclined to take such blows. But such a blow, before it can be regarded as a national ...
— Volume 2 • Anthony Trollope

... worse," was the reply; "but I will not take it to heart. The blow is hard to bear—the carnal man must feel it—yet I am not without my solace. Read to ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various

... of this new sort of war in its opening phase will consist mainly in very rapid movements of guns and men behind that thin screen of marksmen, in order to deal suddenly and unexpectedly some forcible blow, to snatch at some position into which guns and men may be thrust to outflank and turn the advantage of the ground against some portion of the enemy's line. The game will be largely to crowd and crumple that line, to stretch it over an arc to the breaking point, to secure a position from ...
— Anticipations - Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon - Human life and Thought • Herbert George Wells

... exposed cannot explode, even if you drop a coal of fire into it; if the liquid is confined, or is under pressure, then an explosion will ensue; if paper be moistened with it and put on an anvil and a smart blow given with a hammer, a sharp detonation ensues; if gunpowder or the fulminates of mercury, silver or gun-cotton be ignited in a vacuum by a galvanic battery, none of them will explode; if any gas be introduced so as to produce a gentle pressure during the decomposition, ...
— Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 • Various

... whether he would, on any terms, be suffered to retain the splendid reward which he had earned by persecuting the Whigs and by sitting in the High Commission. He was saved from what would have been a fatal blow to his fortunes by the intercession of Burnet, who had been deeply injured by him, and who revenged himself as became a ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... are occasions when the interests of society and the highest motives of Christian love may render it much more preferable to discharge the duty of self-defense through the humanity of a successful falsehood, than by the barbarity of a stunning blow or a pistol-shot. General benevolence demands that the lesser evil, if possible, rather than the greater, should be inflicted ...
— A Lie Never Justifiable • H. Clay Trumbull

... fellow as I? You would not feel me between your teeth. Come, take these two wicked girls, they are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy's sake eat them!" The bear took no heed of his words, but gave the wicked creature a single blow with his paw, and ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... seems to have thought that this indeed was the crisis of his fortunes, and that, unless he was prepared to die a mere prebendary, canon, and rector of one or two benefices, now was the time to strike a blow for his advancement in the Church. His bustling activity at this trying time was indeed portentous, and at last took the form of arresting the unfortunate Dr. Burton (the original of Dr. Slop), on suspicion of holding communication with the invading army of the Pretender, then on its march southward ...
— Sterne • H.D. Traill

... longed to know what might be within it. As a little knickerbockered child I would pick the colored gravel-stones from the mortar, and play with them in the dust; and if perchance one stone struck the iron door, I would run away from the echo the blow produced. ...
— Debts of Honor • Maurus Jokai

... told him I must write to you. I suppose it is better that I should, although what I have to say is so unpleasant. I hope it will all blow over in time, because I love you dearly. You may be quite sure of one thing,—that I shall never change. [In this assurance the writer was alluding not to her friendship for her friend but her love for her lover,—and so the friend ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope

... in an assortment of tires, and I'll trust you to sell 'em. You and the road they got to travel. Why, when I was in Ludlow, a feller blew in there with a big brute of a car—36-6 tires. He'd had a blow-out down the other side of Patmos and he was sore because they didn't have no tires he could use down there. He bought three tires—three, mind yuh, and peeled off the bills to pay for 'em! Sa-ay when yuh figure two hundred cars a day rollin' through, ...
— Casey Ryan • B. M. Bower

... his wife and children, to other men, and to women, and to the state in peace and war, were in all essentials the same. His father had served all through the Civil War, entering an Iowa cavalry regiment as a private and coming out as a captain; his breast-bone was shattered by a blow from a musket-butt, ...
— Through the Brazilian Wilderness • Theodore Roosevelt

... burst of her agony, Ellen almost thought she should die. Her grief had not now indeed the goading sting of impatience; she knew the hand that gave the blow, and did not raise her own against it; she believed too what Alice had been saying, and the sense of it was, in a manner, present with her in her darkest time. But her spirit died within her; she bowed her head as ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner

... combat raged there. Recovering the axe and coming up behind the animal, Nat now attempted to deal a blow. The moose wheeled, however, as if struck by sudden panic, and went clear over Nat, who was thrown headlong and slid down ...
— Good Cheer Stories Every Child Should Know • Various

... left the train Of Lords and Knights and Gentlemen; And hearing not the horn to blow, He could not tell which way ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10) • John Gibson Lockhart

... lifted the finger round which glistened the metal ring. Death appeared to have shrivelled the flesh still more upon the bones, to have contracted the knuckles and shrunk the tendons. The ring slid off quite easily. Mole had it in his hand, when suddenly a rough blow struck ...
— The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy

... palace hard by, lies stricken, she has "turned her face to the wall." The vision of hope which had supported her is at an end, not by reason of her mere mortal illness, but because of some other blow which has fallen. Susan knows what it is, and Densher is to learn. Till lately Milly was living in ignorance of the plot woven about her, the masterly design to make use of her in order that Densher and Kate Croy may come together in the end. The design was Kate's from the first; Densher has ...
— The Craft of Fiction • Percy Lubbock

... other day," says a contemporary, "the sky kept streaming silver sheen; mistlike lights pulsated in rapid flashes to the apex and piled-up stars could be seen." The fact that New York can still see things like this must be a sorry blow ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, April 28, 1920 • Various

... almost equally of the love of life and the idea that I was going to see my son, and all that was dear to me, again. A moment before I had thought less of death than of the pain which the steel, suspended over my head, would occasion me. Death is seldom seen so close without striking his blow. I heard every syllable uttered by the assassins, just as if I ...
— Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Complete • Madame Campan

... easily frustrate all their malicious designs by acquainting the king with their cowardly plots; but the cause of Jehovah shall gather more strength from a miraculous display of his power in the preservation of his servant from harm. Forty years ago, idolatry in Chaldea received a blow, from the effects of which it has never recovered, in the miraculous deliverance of my three cousins from the midst of a burning, fiery furnace. And if a visit to the lions for a few hours may cause the name of ...
— The Young Captives - A Story of Judah and Babylon • Erasmus W. Jones

... want any with you? But I have a rational fear, for if I happened to prime without being able to fire, I would blow my brains out." ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... often," said Philippe, "and there is no danger, only the sulphurous smoke, if it happens to blow over upon you, ...
— Rollo in Naples • Jacob Abbott

... it, which would be less disconcerting if he did not obviously know this and carefully avoid the furniture; he is so light that the subject must not be mentioned in his presence, but it is possible that, were the ladies to combine, they could blow him out of a chair. He enters portentously, his hands behind his back, as if every bit of him, from his domed head to his little feet, were the physical expressions of the deep thoughts within him, then suddenly he ...
— Dear Brutus • J. M. Barrie

... probably never knew himself. The American picked him up and found that he had money. For reasons of his own, he professed to take care of him. He must have come on some clue just when he heard of his new fortune. He was naturally panic-stricken; it must have been a big blow at that particular moment. He was sharp enough to see what it might mean, and held on to the poor chap like grim death, and has ...
— T. Tembarom • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... same manner; for finding myself in such imminent peril, and the conspiracy raised against me and mine, and my kingdom, ready to be executed, I had no time to arraign and try in open justice as much as I wished, but was constrained, to my very great regret, to strike the blow (lascher le main) in what has ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... number of the followers of Buddha might increase. The gods attended to this petition, and ordered Menjoo Dev’ to evacuate the waters by making a cut through the mountains. This he performed with one blow of his scimitar, and ever since, the waters of the Vagmati have flowed through the gap, which he then formed. The spirit who had presided over the lake was a large serpent, who, finding his water become scanty, and the dry land beginning every where to appear, became ...
— An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal • Fancis Buchanan Hamilton

... 4. "The winds blow, the lightnings[240] fly, plants spring up, the sky pours. Food is produced for the whole world, when Parganya blesses the earth ...
— India: What can it teach us? - A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge • F. Max Mueller

... wouldn't cause an atomic reactor to blow. It obviously hadn't been a nuclear blow-up of any proportions, or he wouldn't be here now, zipping up the front of his vac suit. Still, it had been powerful enough to shake the lunar crust a little or he wouldn't have been wakened by ...
— The Bramble Bush • Gordon Randall Garrett

... present every prospect of an excellent passage to Van Diemen's Land: for although the wind sometimes shifted to the north-east, it seldom continued more than a few hours; then backed round again to north-west and south-west, between which quarters it seemed to blow as a trade wind; from north-north-east to the westward, and round to south-south-west are in general its limits: we had frequently hazy weather, but not so thick as to be called foggy; the ...
— An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island • John Hunter

... all chantries, obits, lights and lamps to be objects of superstitious use, and all goods, chattels, jewels, plate, ornaments and other moveables hitherto devoted to their maintenance to be thenceforth escheated to the Crown—dealt a heavy blow to the Corporation of the City of London, as well as to the civic companies and other bodies who owned property subject to certain payments under one or other of these heads. Three years after the passing of the Act the Corporation and ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe

... morning the little steamer Speedwell made her appearance round the promontory by Knollsea Bay, to take in passengers for the transit to Cherbourg. Breezes the freshest that could blow without verging on keenness flew over the quivering deeps and shallows; and the sunbeams pierced every detail of barrow, path and rabbit-run upon the lofty convexity of down and waste which shut in Knollsea from ...
— The Hand of Ethelberta • Thomas Hardy

... determined to die would dare pronounce the word traitor to Falcone. A good blow with the stiletto, which there would be no need of repeating, would have immediately paid the insult. However, Mateo made no other movement than to place his hand on his forehead like a ...
— International Short Stories: French • Various

... no chilling winds blow, No frost has embraced thee, no mantle of snow; Then hail to each sunbeam whose swift airy flight Speeds on for thy valleys each hill-top and height! To clothe them in glory then die 'mid the roar Of the sea-waves which echo far up from the shore! They will rest for a day, as if bound ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 1 July 1848 • Various

... hour of peril, and the war-cry Joshua had chosen: "Jehovah our standard!" bound the hearts of the warriors to the Ruler of Battles, and reminded the most despairing and untrained Hebrew that he could take no step and deal no blow which the ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... reputation, [this Doleman, I mean—not your wretch, to be sure!] formerly a rake, indeed, [I inquired after him long ago; and so was the easier satisfied;] but married to a woman of family—having had a palsy-blow—and, >>> one would think, a penitent, should recommend such a house [why, my dear, he could not inquire of it, but must find it to be bad] to such a man as Lovelace, to bring his future, nay, his then supposed, ...
— Clarissa, Volume 5 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson

... stood well together, as their wont was, and formed sixty and one squares, with a like number of men in every square thereof, and woe to the hardy Norman who ventured to enter their redoubts; for a single blow of a Saxon war-hatchet would break his lance and cut through his coat of mail.... When Harold threw himself into the fray the Saxons were one mighty square of men, shouting the battle-cries, ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney

... personal courage, and turned to meet his old enemy in a hand-to-hand encounter. The officer nearest him struck at Washington as he passed, but missed his blow and received a bullet in his side ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 99, March, 1876 • Various

... the choir closed up, though the loss of the Browns, who were all musical, was a staggering blow. Tilly Holmes cried so hard that her father had to let her come back, and two or three of the less faithful Methodists returned, pending the final decision in regard to the date. And Tremendous K. went on, stubbornly waving his baton in the face of ...
— In Orchard Glen • Marian Keith

... leave you!" the villain almost shouted, and smote him to the ground with his lead-loaded stick. It was a blow that must have killed him, but for the interposing hat, now battered down upon his bleeding head. Charles, at length thoroughly aroused, though his foe must be a brother, struggled with unusual strength in self-preserving instinct, wrested the club ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... the force of the blow which he had received on the back of his head from the spanker-boom when it swept him overboard, Masters was yet able to swim to the wreckage of the boat which he saw floating near him, and, clinging ...
— Ridan The Devil And Other Stories - 1899 • Louis Becke

... triumphs. It was a prodigal court, it was an ill-ordered revenue, that sapped the foundations of all her greatness. Credit cannot exist under the arm of necessity. Necessity strikes at credit, I allow, with a heavier and quicker blow under an arbitrary monarchy than under a limited and balanced government; but still necessity and credit are natural enemies, and cannot be long reconciled in any situation. From necessity and corruption, a free state may lose the spirit of that complex constitution which is the foundation of confidence. ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... said to Brigitta, who took the pot from her and led her to her own place. There were many good things, among them a brown knitted sweater, such as she had long desired, for in the kitchen an east wind was wont to blow through ...
— The Indian Lily and Other Stories • Hermann Sudermann

... this Indian, as he appeared to be, standing before him. He suspected nothing. Suddenly the disguised brother put his hand within his robe, seized his dagger, and leaping at Sabat made a fierce blow at him. Sabat flung out his arm. He spoilt his brother's aim, but he was too late to save himself. He was wounded, but not killed. The brother threw off his disguise, and Sabat—remembering the forgiveness of Abdallah—forgave his brother, gave him many presents, and sent ...
— The Book of Missionary Heroes • Basil Mathews

... after the fluid in the nose is well cleared away the Eustachian tubes may be inflated by the patient. To accomplish this the lips are closed tightly, and the nostrils also, by holding the nose; then an effort is made to blow the cheeks out till air is forced into the tubes and is felt entering both ears. This act is attended with danger of carrying up fluid into the tubes and greatly aggravating the condition, unless the water from the spray has had time ...
— The Home Medical Library, Volume II (of VI) • Various

... "Nannie, mind the baby," all the live-long time, when he was sufficiently sober to know what was going on about him; and if the tired little feet loitered at all at his bidding, a wicked oath or a villainous blow hastened her weary steps. "What was she born for, any way?" She looked down upon the face of the sleeping babe whose cradle her foot was rocking, but it gave her no satisfactory answer. It was not a bright rosy-cheeked thing such as she met every day just round the corner, where she ...
— The Elm Tree Tales • F. Irene Burge Smith

... held in universal abhorrence; and his crime, in this instance, assumed the deeper dye of ingratitude, since the deceased was known to have had the greatest influence in reconciling the citizens early to his government. No one knew where the blow would fall next, or how soon he might himself become the victim of the ungovernable passions of the viceroy. In this state of things, some looked to the Audience, and yet more to Gonzalo Pizarro, ...
— History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William Hickling Prescott

... been unexpected, and this blow fairly took away her breath. Before her rage found ...
— A Flat Iron for a Farthing - or Some Passages in the Life of an only Son • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... it's his wife's birthday. [Pause.] It was a deuce of a blow to him, that's certain.—Tell me, when is he ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume II • Gerhart Hauptmann

... or motion, except that given her by the billows. Three Spanish galleons had been burnt. One had been run aground to save her company. A thousand Spaniards had been slain or drowned. Grenville wished to blow up his shattered hulk. A majority of the handful of survivors preferred to accept the Spanish Admiral's terms. They were that all lives should be spared, the crew be sent to England, and the better sort be released on payment of ransom. Grenville was conveyed on board a Spanish galley, ...
— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing

... that when my bubble of fame was at the highest I stood unintoxicated, with the inebriating cup in my hand, looking forward with rueful resolve to the hastening time, when the blow of Calumny should dash it to the ground, with all ...
— The Letters of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... companions is imitated in his adventure with the house-dog; the author fears the barking of this animal may disturb the sleep of the poor baker's wife: he beats the dog into silence, then grows remorseful and wishes "that I had given him no blow," or that the dog might at least give him back the blows. His thought that the dog might be pretending its pain, he designates a subtle subterfuge of his troubled conscience, and Goethe, in the review mentioned above, exclaims, "Afine pendant to ...
— Laurence Sterne in Germany • Harvey Waterman Thayer

... the weighty pear, And silver olives flourish all the year; The balmy spirit of the western gale Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail. Each dropping pear another pear supplies, On apples apples, figs on figs arise; The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, The buds to harden, ...
— The Naples Riviera • Herbert M. Vaughan

... elephant by stinging the end of his trunk. I hit the snake on the head with my stick, but instead of striking his head, the stick slipped down that ebony column which was still standing erect. Fortunately, in order to avert the next blow, the snake fell on his side. That very instant the up-raised foot of the ...
— Kari the Elephant • Dhan Gopal Mukerji

... imagination would be idle. Tassoni had no intention, as some critics have pretended, to exhibit the folly of those party wars which tore the heart of Italy three centuries before his epoch, to teach the people of his day the miseries of foreign interference, or to strike a death-blow at classical mythology. The lesson which can be drawn from his cantos, that man in warfare disquiets himself in vain for naught, that a bucket is as good a casus belli as Helen, the moral which Southey pointed in his ballad of the Battle of Blenheim, emerges, not from the poet's design, ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds

... opening, followed by a hasty tread. Whose tread? Not for a moment could it be fancied the oread step which belonged to that daughter of the hills—my wife, my Agnes; no, it was the dull massy tread of a man: and immediately there came a loud blow upon the door, and in the next moment, the bell having been found, a furious peal of ringing. Oh coward heart! not for a lease of immortality could I have gone forwards myself. My breath failed me; an interval came in which respiration seemed to be stifled—the blood to halt in its current; and ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey

... shall give a brief account of the State of Cutting on Wood in England for the type Press before he [Jackson] went to France in 1725. In the beginning of this Century a remarkable Blow was given to all Cutters on Wood, by an invention of engraving on the same sort of Metal which types are cast with. The celebrated Mr. Kirkhal, an able Engraver on Copper, is said to be the first who performed a Relievo Work to answer the use of Cutting on Wood. ...
— John Baptist Jackson - 18th-Century Master of the Color Woodcut • Jacob Kainen

... after fell back to Fort Erie. A British force of five thousand advanced and laid siege to the Fort, making a vigorous assault on the 15th of August. They were repulsed with a loss of a thousand men. Later, General Brown issued from the fort and gave them so stunning a blow as caused them ...
— An account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha - Red Jacket and his people, 1750-1830 • John Niles Hubbard

... every changing plane, to all manner of curves and contours, with touches sometimes delicate and deliberate, at others broad and sweeping, or even, at times, brought down with the weight and force of an ax-blow. ...
— Wood-Carving - Design and Workmanship • George Jack

... was he by his discovery that he shrank away from the opening in the floor completely unnerved, and unable for a time to move. He was, in fact, like one who had received a stunning blow, and only after some minutes had elapsed was he able to mutter a few words of thankfulness for his escape, as he now thoroughly realised that he had uncovered an ...
— In the King's Name - The Cruise of the "Kestrel" • George Manville Fenn

... but the breeze gave a hint of the sea, and every shop and house we passed seemed to keep spices stored away, for the breeze to blow over. ...
— Lady Betty Across the Water • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

... that had been all! But, unfortunately, he was too handsome a man to be a good husband. One night he didn't come home, and the next day, when I ventured to reproach him—very gently, I assure you—he answered me with an oath and a blow. All our happiness was over! Monsieur declared that he was master, and would do as he liked. He drank and carried away all the wine from the cellar—he took all the money—he remained away for weeks together; ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... what I am going to say. You must have a little patience; our parliamentary war, like the last war in Germany, produces very considerable battles, that are not decisive. Marshal Pitt has given another great blow to the subsidiary army, but they remained masters of the field, and both sides sing te Deum. I am not talking figuratively, when I assure you that bells, bonfires, and an illumination from the Monument, were prepared in the city, in case we had the majority. ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3 • Horace Walpole

... "Sweet and low, sweet and low, Wind of the western sea, Low, low, breathe and blow, Wind of the western sea! Over the rolling waters go, Come from the dying moon, and blow, Blow him again to me; While my little one, while my ...
— English: Composition and Literature • W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

... no sooner clear of the harbour, than the wind veered more to the southward, and began to blow strong, with thick, hazy, and dirty weather; and, what gave me privately a good deal of concern, the carpenter reported, that the ship, which had hitherto been very tight, now made water. This piece of information, with such a voyage as the Sirius was now entered upon, was no doubt ...
— An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island • John Hunter

... or stood back against the wall, afraid to move. I was unarmed, and thought rapidly. Saying, 'Well, if I must, I must,' I got up as if to walk around him to the bar, then, as I got opposite him, I wheeled and fetched him as heavy a blow on the chin-point as I could strike. He went down like a steer before the axe, firing both guns into the ceiling as he went. I jumped on him, and, with my knees on his chest, disarmed him in a hurry. The crowd was ...
— Camping with President Roosevelt • John Burroughs

... October, 1592, we again made sail into the South Sea, and got free from the land. This night the wind again began to blow very strong at west, and increased with such violence that we were in great doubt what measures to pursue. We durst not put into the straits for lack of ground tackle, neither durst we carry sail, the tempest being very furious, and our sails very bad. In this extremity the pinnace bore ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... is the bank short?" He looked straight into the eyes of the man who, several hours before, had dealt him such a death-blow. ...
— Amanda - A Daughter of the Mennonites • Anna Balmer Myers

... knife into its throat. When the buck discovered the pursuer it redoubled its efforts to reach the shore, but Paul was faster and was soon close on the antlered beauty. As he raised the knife to stab, the deer also raised and struck viciously with its front feet, and Paul barely dodged the blow which would have cut through the rubber suit like a keen edged knife. Again and again did he try to get an opening for a thrust, and as often did the deer, with eyes blazing like a panther's, beat him away with its sharp hoofs. At ...
— The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World • Paul Boyton

... woman. There was nought else could have melted that obdurate British heart or turned that obstinate British mind. This obtuseness had been his ruin, and he must have recognised it then; for he had admitted the enemy and our stronghold was in their hands. But the last blow had yet to fall. ...
— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson

... trouble she had been at to secure my happiness, fell on my neck, and shed a torrent of tears. When her first grief had subsided, she told me that my father had suffered much from bruises, and from a blow received on the head; but that the rest of the family were well; that our house had been considerably injured, many of our things pillaged; and that my nuptial room, in particular, had been almost ...
— The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan • James Morier

... wrinkles, distorted from crying—he saw the face of a murderer, he saw him plunging a knife into the body of another person—he saw, in the same second, this criminal in bondage, kneeling and his head being chopped off by the executioner with one blow of his sword—he saw the bodies of men and women, naked in positions and cramps of frenzied love—he saw corpses stretched out, motionless, cold, void— he saw the heads of animals, of boars, of crocodiles, ...
— Siddhartha • Herman Hesse

... take heed; Thy Sister is a thing to me so much Above mine honour, that I can endu[r]e All this; good gods—a blow I can endure; But stay not, lest thou draw a timely ...
— The Maids Tragedy • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... consented to be put to the torture before receiving his death-blow, if he might have been allowed to follow Marie-Anne ...
— The Honor of the Name • Emile Gaboriau

... expression means, "You are decayed." So Juan gets very angry. He whispers to the pot to stop; but the pot does not seem to hear him, for the murmuring sound becomes louder and louder. At last Juan is so exasperated, that he takes a piece of bamboo-bellows (ihip) and gives the pot a fatal blow. This puts an end to the pot, the ...
— Filipino Popular Tales • Dean S. Fansler

... Then, running up and down with manifold contrition and miserable lamentation, she confessed that for the act of contempt which she had committed against the servant of God she was struck by the vengeance of the present blow; and forthwith she sent knights to ask for forgiveness, and sent across the river the Romans his prayers for whom she had despised. The goldsmiths, having received immediately a promise of safety, and giving up the child, were in like ...
— The Hermits • Charles Kingsley

... club tumbled the Bull back into the water, but it turned aside, went to another place, and charged again. And again Orion landed a fearful blow with the club on the monster's ...
— Woodland Tales • Ernest Seton-Thompson

... mankind. Though it may benefit the working man, it is harmful to the general public, which suffers from the interruption of industry and sometimes of transportation, and whose business is disturbed by the blow to confidence. ...
— Society - Its Origin and Development • Henry Kalloch Rowe

... reason he seemed unabel to look at her. Vaguely he knew he had dealt her a blow, and that it was of a nature ...
— Winding Paths • Gertrude Page

... be calm! O winds, blow free - Blow all my ships safe home to me! But if thou sendest some a-wrack, To never more come sailing back, Send any—all that skim the sea, But bring my love-ship home ...
— Poems of Power • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... ass, Fred!" said the banjo, aggrieved. "How the blazes could a man blow his dog's nose, unless he muzzled it with a handkercher, and then twisted its tail? He played the clarinet, I say; and my father played the musical glasses, which was a form of harmony pertiklerly genial to him. Amongst us we've piped out a good long ...
— At a Winter's Fire • Bernard Edward J. Capes

... clinging to the railing of the veranda for support, stood the sick white man. Any one of them could have knocked him over with the blow of a little finger. Despite his firearms, the gang could have rushed him and delivered that blow, when his head and the plantation would have been theirs. Hatred and murder and lust for revenge they possessed to overflowing. But one ...
— Adventure • Jack London

... with drawn swords and pistols. The first two men who appeared above the hatchway were promptly despatched, and Iberville's sword was falling upon Gering, whom he did not recognise, when De Casson's hand diverted the blow. It caught the shoulder of ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... story takes up that portion of Paul Jones' adventurous life when he was hovering off the British coast, watching for an opportunity to strike the enemy a blow. It deals more particularly with his descent upon Whitehaven, the seizure of Lady Selkirk's plate, and the famous battle with the Drake. The boy who figures in the tale is one who was taken from a derelict by Paul Jones shortly after this ...
— Ralph Gurney's Oil Speculation • James Otis

... He's a good fellow, John, upon my word. Lend me thy horn, and get thee in to Much, And when I blow this horn, come both, and ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various



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