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Muss   Listen
noun
Muss  n.  A state of confusion or disorder; prob. variant of mess, but influenced by muss, a scramble. (Colloq. U.S.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Muss" Quotes from Famous Books



... Christians are always talking about the conflicts you have with Satan. I am better off than you are. I don't have any conflicts or trouble, and yet I am an infidel and you are a Christian—always in a muss-how's that, Sambo?" This floored the colored man for a while. He didn't know how to meet the old infidel's argument. So he shook his head sorrowfully and said: "I dunno. Massa, I dunno." The Judge always carried a gun along with him for hunting. Pretty soon ...
— Moody's Anecdotes And Illustrations - Related in his Revival Work by the Great Evangilist • Dwight L. Moody

... Der Preis vom Draht muss ausgerechnet werden." And the German, roused from his taciturnity, turned to Vronsky. "Das laesst sich ausrechnen, Erlaucht." The German was just feeling in the pocket where were his pencil and the notebook he always wrote in, but recollecting that he was at a dinner, and observing Vronsky's ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... disorder; derangement &c 61; irregularity; anomaly &c (unconformity) 83; anarchy, anarchism; want of method; untidiness &c adj.; disunion; discord &c 24. confusion; confusedness &c adj.; mishmash, mix; disarray, jumble, huddle, litter, lumber; cahotage^; farrago; mess, mash, muddle, muss [U.S.], hash, hodgepodge; hotch-potch^, hotch-pot^; imbroglio, chaos, omnium gatherum [Lat.], medley; mere mixture &c 41; fortuitous concourse of atoms, disjecta membra [Lat.], rudis indigestaque moles [Lat.] [Ovid]. complexity &c 59.1. turmoil; ferment &c (agitation) 315; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... unimportant became in the end more momentous than the Eastern Empire of his dreams. The man who had made and unmade kingdoms, who had flung down the crowns of Europe for soldiers of fortune to scramble for as boys unto a muss, was now the unhonored captive of ungenerous opponents, the unhonored victim of the petty tyrannies ...
— A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume III (of 4) • Justin McCarthy and Justin Huntly McCarthy

... gone far enough. You may muss up the house as much as you like, but I can't let you make a laughing-stock of Bertie. When it comes to streaks of green under her chin, and purple shadows under her hair, I—I don't think it is right. And she—she admires you so much." His aunt's voice broke, and she ...
— With the Procession • Henry B. Fuller

... into the back of Mr. Kimball's store to see what under the sun could be done to get the first paper out of the press, when all of a sudden John Bunyan spoke up an' asked why they did n't turn the handle backward an' empty the whole muss out that way. Well, every one see the sense of what he said right off, an' so they began, an' as soon as they began to turn the crank backward the paper began to come out backward, tore, of course, ...
— Susan Clegg and a Man in the House • Anne Warner

... Gale stopped long enough to pull on a pair of heavy gloves, to muss his hair, and disarrange his collar. Then he stepped into the restaurant, went through, and halted in the door leading into the saloon. His five feet eleven inches and one hundred and eighty pounds were more noticeable there, and it was part of ...
— Desert Gold • Zane Grey

... from Art. The grounds are laid out after a fashion, and planted with shrubbery. The snowballs are at their snowballiest..... Have you heard or—how many times have you used the simile of some one, Bad-muss or Cadmus, or another hero, who sowed the dragon's teeth, and they came up dragoons a hundred-fold and infantry a thousand-fold? Nil admirari is, of course, my frame of mind; but I own astonishment ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 • Various

... passions, people will belong to meetin', and people will let their passions rise, even under the pulpit. But we have no distinct recollection of ever having known a misdirected, but properly interpreted letter, to settle a chuckly "plug muss," so efficiently and happily as the case ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley

... leave the master be. It's the fine sense he's gettin' the now. It would hearten the mistress could she see how he does be pickin' up. Always that gentle I d' know, as if the sorrow had been a broom sweepin' his soul all free of the moilder an' muss was in it long by. Only yesternight, whilst I was just washin' off me table afore layin' me cloth, into the kitchen he steps an' sits himself down by the door, lookin' out toward Fairacres. It was as soft as ...
— Reels and Spindles - A Story of Mill Life • Evelyn Raymond

... sought a new aim and chose another path in life. Even among those who have had a peaceful and gradual development, there came a time when they reached a conscious and decisive resolution to belong no more to the world but to God. "Man wird nicht von selbst ein Christ, man muss sich bekehren um ein Christ zu werden." We do not repudiate the doctrine of baptismal regeneration as it is held in the Lutheran Church. On this point we are in accord with our Confessions. But before we adopt without ...
— The Lutherans of New York - Their Story and Their Problems • George Wenner

... so—perhaps, the best for myself. I had no idea of being pursued in this manner. It seems I have been a fool. I let that Simon Girty make me believe he was an awkward countryman, and lead me into this muss." ...
— The Riflemen of the Miami • Edward S. Ellis

... growin quite rapid, and begins to scrootinize clothin, with young men inside of it, puthy clost. I obsarve, too, that she twists pieces of paper round her hair at nights, and won't let me put my arms round her any more for fair I'll muss her. "Your mother wasn't 'fraid I'd muss HER when she was your age, my child," sed I one day, with a sly twinkle ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 7 • Charles Farrar Browne

... discovered that the craft was intact, and then they set to work to clean up the muss. This was no easy job, and the boys perspired freely, for the day was a warm one. Then Randy looked ...
— Randy of the River - The Adventures of a Young Deckhand • Horatio Alger Jr.

... entirely at his ease; he was languid and nonchalant; the long lashes of his half-shut eyelids gave his face a pensive look. At last King Kinkley walked over to him and said: "There's an almighty mysteriousness about this event which isn't joyful, Pretty Pierre. We want to see the muss cleared up, of course; we want Shon McGann to act like a high-toned citizen, and there's a general prejudice in favour of things bein' on the flat of your palm, as it were. Now this thing hangs fire, and there's a lack of ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... Bea in a hurry, feeling that the thrust was meant for her. "Because I'm housekeeper, it doesn't rest on me to keep everything in perfect order, when you all help to muss up." ...
— Six Girls - A Home Story • Fannie Belle Irving

... your turn to struggle and muss things up, for the betterment of posterity, soon enough," said Aunt Sarah ...
— Penrod • Booth Tarkington

... isn't a little the all-firedest muss a feller ever got into, Josh ain't no judge. Of course the papers have nothing to do but flout it all over the country. For myself I don't care a copper, but 'twill be mighty mortifyin' to you, though I think you desarve some mortifyin', for ...
— Tempest and Sunshine • Mary J. Holmes

... putting his hands on the handle-bars and the other boys began to call him Smarty Hunter and later, because he wore a stiff, white collar that folded down over his shoulders, they gave him a girl's name. "Hello, Susan," they shouted, "don't fall and muss ...
— Poor White • Sherwood Anderson

... goriller and a goose egg. He's a long-armed, short-legged, gimlet-eyed feller with a head like a egg upside down. You could split a board on that feller's head and never muss a hair. I never saw a man that had a chin like Matt Hall. They say a big chin's the sign of strength, and if that works out Matt must have a mind like a brigadier general. His face is all chin; chin's an affliction on Matt Hall; it's a ...
— The Flockmaster of Poison Creek • George W. Ogden

... asleep, in her narrow, pretty bed with little bowknots painted on the pale wood. About the room all the tired and happy muss of after-the-party. A white-taffeta dress with a whisper of real lace at the neck, almost stiffishly seated, as if with Marcia's trimness, on a chair. A steam of white tulle on the dressing table. A buttonhole ...
— The Vertical City • Fannie Hurst

... "And don't muss the house up," begged Prudence, as her father opened the door and pushed her gently ...
— Prudence Says So • Ethel Hueston

... it would probably be knocked to pieces by the shells, I asked the mulatto, who still sat back against the wall, apparently asleep, to bear a hand and help me bring it out. He opened his eyes, shook his head dolefully, and said, "De major, he say, I muss ...
— Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'61 • Abner Doubleday

... whole hutful became involved, and it really looked for a moment like a riot. A good deal of bad language flew about, and men seized their weapons. Yank rose to the occasion by appealing to them not "to kick up a muss," because there was "a lady of our own colour in the next room." The lady was mythical, ...
— Gold • Stewart White

... the thick of his spectacular and intensely bitter fight with the Coastwise Steam Navigation Company, and the Hawaiian, Nicaraguan, and Pacific-Mexican Steamship-Company. He stirred up a bigger muss than he had anticipated, and even he was astounded at the wide ramifications of the struggle and at the unexpected and incongruous interests that were drawn into it. Every newspaper in San Francisco turned upon him. It was true, one or two of them had first intimated that ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London

... wouldn't sell me to you, but dar was sich a pile, an' I wanted some beads, an' a red han'kercher, an' a ring, an' I done took one. I don'no how much, 'case I can't read, an' dat's why I was late an' had to run so fass. You're good, you is, an' I muss 'fess—may de ...
— The Cromptons • Mary J. Holmes

... Dere's my darter Mis Watson. Neber could larn her much mo'n plain cookin'. Dere's a knack at dese tings dat's bawn in one. It's wot you granpa used ter call genus, an' you allus hab it, eben when you was a chile an' want ter muss in de kitchen." ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe

... another word, St. John," answered his mother severely. "I am thankful the fire is out, even if you are not." And then she turned away to direct the servants in clearing away the muss that had ...
— Young Captain Jack - The Son of a Soldier • Horatio Alger and Arthur M. Winfield

... know exactly. I took out my drawer to fix it up, and my beads were all in a muss, and so I thought I'd sort ...
— Gypsy Breynton • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

... of perplexity which he had noted upon the face of his listener seemed to give way to one of unmistakable relief, and when Dennis had stated his case he exclaimed: "Shure, now, it's an aisy way out av a bad muss, so it is. Here, Phil!" he shouted, turning to the young fellow in the background, who had witnessed this brief interview with scowling interest, "here, you two can t'row th' gloves down an' shake; Muldoon here wants to hand yure job back ...
— The Flaw in the Sapphire • Charles M. Snyder

... to tell ye that ye'll have to stop spatterin' yer soup around after this, John, dear. I'm going to have a clean table-cloth on every day, and a clean napkin for him, and as I'm doin' the washing myself ye've got to help an' not muss things. First thing ye know he'll sour on what we are giving him and be goin' off worse than ever, trampin' the streets till all hours of the night." At which John had stretched his big frame and with a prolonged yawn, his arms over his head, had remarked: "All right, ...
— Felix O'Day • F. Hopkinson Smith

... here through a little wood of young oak and beech which came right down to the edge of the chaussee. The ground was deep in withered leaves which, with the rain and the water draining from the road's high camber, were soft and soggy. Robin went full length into this muss with a thud that shook every bone in his body. His left leg, catching in a bare gorse-bush, acted as a brake and stopped him from rolling farther. He sat up, his mouth full of mud and his hair full of wet leaves, and felt himself carefully over. He contemplated rather ...
— The Yellow Streak • Williams, Valentine

... wouldn't!" said Ellen, throwing them back; "and you oughtn't to crack them there, Nancy; you'll make a dreadful muss." ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner

... here!" he exclaimed. "Shot him down from behind. Look, men. No; stand back, and don't muss up the tracks. There are foot-prints here—Indians, by heaven! Three of ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish

... in der wahrheit und wesentlich wirt, da stet vorbass der inner mensche in der einung unbeweglich und got lest den ussern menschen her und dar bewegt werden von diesem zu dem. Das muss und sol sin und geschehen, dass der usser mensche spricht und es ouch in der warheit also ist, 'ich wil weder sin noch nit sin, weder leben oder sterben, wissen oder nicht wissen, tun oder lassen, und alles das disem glich ist, sunder alles, das da muss und sol sin und geschehen, ...
— Memories • Max Muller

... Daisy," said Preston, impatiently; "they don't care a straw about it, either. All the church they care about is when they get together in somebody's house and make a great muss." ...
— Daisy • Elizabeth Wetherell

... had a pastor (don't tell it), But we chanced on a time to discover That his sermons were writ long ago, And he had preached them twice over. How sad this mistake, tho' unmeaning, Oh, it made such a desperate muss! Both deacon and laymen were vexed, And decided, ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn

... in '79—or whenever it was—was exactly on this same muss-up." Mr. Taylor went on: "Your father owned this timber land then, and wanted to borrow money on it. At the time a rascally partner was trying to ruin him; and, in order to prevent his getting this money, which would save him, this partner instigated investigations and succeeded ...
— The Rules of the Game • Stewart Edward White

... "'Fraid I'll muss it up, hey?" Azalea laughed, "Well. I s'pose I am a terror! But honest to goodness I can't stand for those ticklers. ...
— Patty and Azalea • Carolyn Wells

... it. Sarve me dam well right, too! No business to go ag'in me own pore old ship. Look 'ere, Verity, I'm done for! If you get away from this rotten muss, see to my missus an' the ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy

... at this. "You muss heat," she said quickly, at the same time raking together the embers of the fire, and blowing them up into a flame, over which she placed a large iron pot. "Dick hims always heat well an' keep well. Once ...
— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne

... Bates to hang up my party dress real carefully? In all the fuss some one's sure to muss it!" ...
— Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby and Other Stories • Kathleen Norris

... did not undress the two new dolls, for she had no nighties for them, so she let them sit up in the two little red doll chairs so they would not muss their clothes. "I will make nighties for you tomorrow!" she said as she kissed them good night. Then she went over and gave Raggedy Ann a good night hug. "Take good care of all my children, Raggedy!" she said as ...
— Raggedy Ann Stories • Johnny Gruelle

... Uncle Jap decisively. "I'm talkin' now. Pick up that thar pen, and don't lay it down agen till I tell ye, or," the muzzle of the Colt almost touched the perspiring forehead of the Colossus, "or else, by Golly, thar'll be a terr'ble muss to clean up in here to-morrer mornin'. That's better. Lemmee see, whar was I? 'Sherman to the Sea,' yas. Now: 'I tried to down Jasper Panel, and he's downed me. I'm a nateral born hog, and I eat with all four ...
— Bunch Grass - A Chronicle of Life on a Cattle Ranch • Horace Annesley Vachell

... dirty-minded lump, I ain't much of a fighter, but I'm going to muss you up so's you can't find your ears if you ...
— Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man • Sinclair Lewis

... Barney, "that yesterday this muss was the largest corn mill west of anywhere. I guess we can both take vacations ...
— The Mad King • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... honin' for a muss," says Granger, "all you has to do is go a couple of blocks to the east, an' then five to the no'th, an' thar on the corner you'll note a mighty prosperous s'loon. You caper in by the side door; it says FAMILY ENTRANCE over this yere portal. Sa'nter up to the bar, call for licker, drink ...
— Wolfville Nights • Alfred Lewis

... sentimental ein neues Wort ist. War es Sternen erlaubt, sich ein neues Wort zu bilden, so muss es eben darum auch seinem Uebersetzer erlaubt seyn. Die Englnder hatten gar kein Adjectivum von Sentiment: wir haben von Empfindung mehr als eines, empfindlich, empfindbar, empfindungsreich, aber diese sagen alle etwas anders. ...
— Laurence Sterne in Germany • Harvey Waterman Thayer

... anything I like, it's being in a muss," said she, and throwing aside her leghorn flat, pinning up her sleeves, and fastening back her curls in imitation of 'Lena, she was soon up to her elbows in cooking—her dress literally covered with flour, eggs, and cream, and her face as red as the currant jelly which Hagar brought from ...
— 'Lena Rivers • Mary J. Holmes

... growled in defiance; "what now? what's all the muss about? Those parcels were what I took off his person when he was running away with them. Didn't ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... convenient, we'll paddle down to the place where Leland's house was burned, and drop him there; fur it won't do to take you 'long, George. Leslie understands the Injins better than you, and it would just git us all into a muss, and like enough, make 'em knock her on the head, to save trouble. We'll take you up to your farm 'cause that'll be a place we can't miss very well; and if there's a shed or anything left, you can stow yourself away till we gets back. Keep a good ...
— The Ranger - or The Fugitives of the Border • Edward S. Ellis

... known the existence of certain defects in his wares to the purchaser before sale, there is always scope for fraud. Compare Digest De Edict. aedilit., XXI, I. On the meaning of the German legal maxims: Hand muss Hand wahren, and Ein Wort, ein Mann, see Eisenhart, Deutsches Recht in Spruechwoertern, 311 f., 319 f. It is a principle in matters of business, that the person who through malice or carelessness recommends a man of whose probity ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • William Roscher

... town, with a squalid inn, we dined, at two, deliciously, on a red shrimp soup; no, not soup, it was a potage; no, a stew; no, a creamy, unctuous mess, muss, or whatever you please to call it. Sancho Panza never ate his olla podrida with more relish. Success to mine host of the ...
— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... muss," began Ian, in his slow, nasal tone, "the gless has bin fallin' for some time past, an'—Tonal', poy, mind your helm; see where you're ...
— The Eagle Cliff • R.M. Ballantyne

... perfect. All such marriages of threads make happy marriages among human beings. But by-and-by they get tired, and lazy, and instead of tying the knots carefully, they hurry up the work and then jumble them carelessly, and finally toss and tangle up all the rest in a muss. ...
— Japanese Fairy World - Stories from the Wonder-Lore of Japan • William Elliot Griffis

... job trying to fold up some of the things. Why, there was a big pink affair, lined with silk, with bits of ribbon and lace all over it, which nearly drove me out of my head, for I would have defied mortal man to pack it so that it shouldn't muss. I had a funny little feeling of tenderness for everything, which made fussing over it all a pleasure, even while I felt all the time that I was doing a sneak act and had really no right to touch her belongings. I didn't find anything incriminating, ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds

... fuss," Prescott advised. "I like to think myself a gentleman, and I don't want to muss you ...
— The High School Boys in Summer Camp • H. Irving Hancock

... plain-clothes bull with fallen arches and his neck shaved 'way up high in the back will be coming round asking us to go riding with him down town into the congested district, and if we declines the invitation, like as not he'll muss our clothes all up. Do you seem to get ...
— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb

... said aloud, though he was alone. "That'll bring 'em both up here, roaring like lions. They'll muss up the furniture, and then I can tell the reporters all about it. Even Walford ...
— Half a Rogue • Harold MacGrath

... will gute kuchen haben, der muss sieben sachen haben; Eier, butter un schmalz, milch, zucker un mehl; Un saffron mach die ...
— Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit - among the "Pennsylvania Germans" • Edith M. Thomas

... to know how the muss ended, but I didn't hurry around next mornin'. As a matter of fact, I'd enjoyed the society of the Sobowskis quite a lot durin' the past two days, and I thought I'd better stay away for a while. They're a strenuous bunch when they're ...
— The House of Torchy • Sewell Ford

... It's a great sight to see how they blunder along, and fall all over themselves. I know some fellows who have been practicing the stunt; but even then, in the excitement they're apt to get into a terrible muss." ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman

... started the fight this afternoon. I whaled the wadding out of that bucko woods-boss of Pennington's, and as a special compliment to you, John Cardigan, I did an almighty fine job of cleaning. Even went so far as to muss the ...
— The Valley of the Giants • Peter B. Kyne

... "And you muss der mate meet," declared Captain Kennor, beaming. "He it vass who show der light in your face, und den der ...
— Dave Darrin After The Mine Layers • H. Irving Hancock

... chap to get his hand in there without my knowing it. O, Prudy, where's your wallet? And yours, Dotty? I can carry them as well as not. There's no knowing what kind of a muss you may ...
— Little Folks Astray • Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)

... use o' doin' that?" Mandy inquired, stretching herself and yawning portentously. "We'll jist muss it all up in about two minutes. When you've worked in a mill as long as I have you'll git over the notion of makin' your bed, for ...
— The Power and the Glory • Grace MacGowan Cooke

... bear a hand," he cried, indicating the pile on the table. "You, Toby, quit laffin' an' git a holt on them clean laundry. An' say, don't you muss 'em any. Sunny, you best pile up them washin' fixin's—that hand-scrubber, the soap, that wash-flannel an' the towels. Guess that's the nighest you'll ever come to bathin' yourself. Sandy Joyce ...
— The Twins of Suffering Creek • Ridgwell Cullum

... most beautiful flowers that ever grew," she cried in the choky way that mothers have at such moments. "I wish I could hug you all—but it would muss ...
— Highacres • Jane Abbott

... do away with the old fact that two big tough men can wipe the floor with one big tough man. I didn't even take long enough to muss up ...
— Stop Look and Dig • George O. Smith

... der Darstellung, eine ueberzeugende Kraft der Beweisfuehrung, ein einleuchtender Zusammenhang des Ganzen verbunden mit wuerdiger Haltung der Polemik, philosophischer Bildung und freier Liberalitaet des Standpunkts in diesem Buch, vermoege welcher es als meisterhaft anerkannt werden muss.'—Lechler's Geschichte des Englischen Deismus, p. 362. Warburton calls Conybeare's one of the best ...
— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton

... a pound, the thing to do was to learn Scripture verses by heart. If you were a rude, rough boy who didn't exactly love the Sunday-school as much as the hymn made you say you did, but still one who had rather sing it than stir up a muss, you hunted for the shortest verses you could find and said them off. From four to eight was considered a full day's work. But if you were a boy who put on an apron and helped your Ma with the dishes, a boy who always wiped your feet before you came in, a boy that never ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood

... guess she was going to patch Pa up so he will hold water. Pa's temper got him into the worst muss you ever see, last night. If that museum was here now they would hire Pa and exhibit him as the tattooed man. I tell you, I have got too old to be mauled as though I was a kid, and any man who attacks me from this out, wants to have his peace made ...
— Peck's Compendium of Fun • George W. Peck

... "Look out, you'll muss my roses!" she cried, waving him back and dodging Wowkle who, having cleared the table, was now making her last ...
— The Girl of the Golden West • David Belasco

... (who is, like as not, what Tabby Dormouse, with her incapacity to pronounce the r, calls "some 'aw, 'uff man from the country,") doesn't put the leg of his chair through the dress, and if you don't muss it sitting down—why, I should like to know a prettier place to wear a low-necked muslin, with jewels, than the dining-room of the "United States" ...
— The Potiphar Papers • George William Curtis

... after the fair," she explained, as she joined Mrs. Solomon Black. "It didn't seem no more than right; for even if Ann Whittle doesn't use her parlor, on account of not having it furnished up, she wants it broom-clean. My! You'd ought to have seen the muss ...
— An Alabaster Box • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Florence Morse Kingsley

... have, so you've got to look it. We'd better muss you up a bit. Let's see." She tapped her fingernail against her teeth as she looked him up and down. ...
— Ralestone Luck • Andre Norton

... took all the rest of the Saturday morning lesson. The window-curtains and portieres were pinned up and put into bags, long, loose ones, which kept them off the floor and out of the dust, but did not muss them. They dusted the piano and large sofa and covered them with strong sheets. They wiped off the book-shelves, and tucked newspapers in and out until all the books were entirely covered and protected. They brushed off the cushions of the chairs with a whisk-broom as they had ...
— A Little Housekeeping Book for a Little Girl - Margaret's Saturday Mornings • Caroline French Benton

... dem Wasser: Vom Himmel kommt es, Zum Himmel steigt es, Und wieder nieder 5 Zur Erde muss es, ...
— A Book Of German Lyrics • Various

... her. A beautiful child, with golden curls and great, dancing, black eyes, came running out to meet us, and with all the impulsive joy of childhood threw his arms about her. 'Don't do that, James, you will muss mama's dress.' I knew at once where the trouble lay. In a moment she said: 'Don't twist so, my son;' and 'Don't make such a noise.' Within a few minutes the mother had used 'don't' five times. No wonder when she said, 'Run in the house now, ...
— Parent and Child Vol. III., Child Study and Training • Mosiah Hall

... prefix, for the sake of those who read the German, yet are not likely to have dipped often in the massive folios of this heroic reformer, the simple, sinewy, idiomatic words of the original. "Denn man muss nicht die Buchstaben in der Lateinischen Sprache fragen wie man soll Deutsch reden: sondern man muss die Mutter in Hause, die Kinder auf den Gassen, den gemeinen Mann auf dem Markte, darum fragen: und ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... to that. You will find many temptations, but you set your face hard against them, and except when you come upon a hard man bent on kicking up a muss, you will find folks will think none the worse of you when you say to them straight, 'I am much obliged to you all the same, but ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty

... wir koennen die Kinder nach unserem Willen nicht formen, So wie Gott sie uns gab, so muss man sie lieben und haben, Sie erzielen aufs ...
— William of Germany • Stanley Shaw

... looking sorely, sadly, If their signatures are clear, If you will not cost them dear, If in court they must appear Mournfully, in doubt and fear. Oh! you weak, unfeeling cuss, To get them in this shocking muss; How their pocket-books will rue it! J.F.B., how could you do it? Are you putting for the West, Did you take French leave for Brest, Have you feathered well your nest, Do you sweetly take your rest; Say, whom do you like the best— COOK, ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 9, 1870 • Various

... her arm and pulled her gently down to a level with the face on the pillow, and her soft eyes twinkled—"it really seems good to see such a muss for once in my life: you do keep me ...
— Five Little Peppers and their Friends • Margaret Sidney

... als ein Kind, werd taub und blind, Dein eignes Icht muss werden nicht: All Icht, all Nicht treib ferne nur; Lass Statt, lass Zeit, auch Bild lass weit, Geh ohne Weg den schmalen Steg, So kommst du auf der Wueste Spur. O Seele mein, aus Gott geh ein, Sink als ein Icht in Gottes Nicht, Sink in die ungegruendte Fluth. Flich ich von ...
— Christian Mysticism • William Ralph Inge

... I'd a put in all de ribers, an' de mountins, an' eber so many runs, an' thought I'd done it right smart, I read it ober to him, but he say he sort o' reckoned it warnt quite done up 'pletely, not 'xactly 'cluded; an' he 'sisted dat I muss 'sert a pose scrip, axin' her ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... myself. Clear up the muss, and be careful next time. Boys, you'll have to do without the preserves. But ...
— Out with Gun and Camera • Ralph Bonehill

... 'em—yes, sir, literally massacreed 'em—in cold blood, in spite of our flag thar—yes, women and little children, even! Why, Senator Foster told me with his own lips (and him and his Committee come out yer from Washington, you know, and investigated this muss), that that thar durned miscreant and his men shot down squaws, and blew the brains out of little innocent children—pistoled little papooses in the arms of their dead mothers, and even worse than this!—them ...
— The Life of Kit Carson • Edward S. Ellis

... Hobart on the wire. Did he give me your pedigree? He did. Jim was about the happiest guy in the town when he learned we had you bottled. Raised hell last night, didn't you? All right, my friend, you are going to pay the piper today. What got you into this muss, anyhow? You are no relation to the Coolidge girl, ...
— The Case and The Girl • Randall Parrish

... cunningly enough passed over the perplexing points touching the Church, the power of the Pope, the celibacy of the clergy, the rules of fasting and the like, but pushed into the foreground, on the contrary, as the most important, those touching the Muss, because they could assail the view of Zwingli and [OE]colampadius on the Lord's Supper in part with Luther's own arguments. A letter from Erasmus against this view also came to their aid, which was, according to a report, ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger

... nor mad; didn't scream, nor pout; nor even stand round to keep up the excitement. She was just cool and quiet, and took herself off properly. I don't know another girl that would have done so. She saved me out of the scrape as far as she was concerned; she might have made it ten times the muss it was. I'd rather run down a whole flock of sheep than graze the varnish off a woman's wheel, as a general principle. There's real backbone to Sylvie Argenter, besides her prettiness. My father would like her, I know. Why don't you bring her here; ...
— The Other Girls • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... devil!" Mado chuckled. "He gets the idea perfectly. We'll have to muss his hair now and fix him up with a kirtle ...
— Creatures of Vibration • Harl Vincent

... mastra, de feene buttoon de la gold, de ring-a de gold, de bugla shean: two shelleng un doozen de buttoon, un shelleng-a un ring. 'Tis worth ten shelleng, but, mastra and mastressa, me muss a make money to go over in my own countrey, but me lose teen pound pour hast to go next ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley

... for a big man. You seemed as big as a house to me that day. I forgot that I'd grown up and you might be small. When those fellows got tight up there and let on like it was you that some folks hinted had took a child and kept it out of that muss, I couldn't hardly believe it; and everybody seeming to regard you so highly. And I couldn't believe this big girl was little Prue Girnway that I remembered. It seemed like you two would have to be a great big man and a ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson

... Sara. "We 'll put on shirt-waist suits and plain hats, muss our hair a bit, and take a ...
— Prince or Chauffeur? - A Story of Newport • Lawrence Perry

... of Books, 131. Nach allem erscheint es somit unzweifelhaft als eine der psychologischen Voraussetzungen des Strafrechts, ohne welche der Zurechnungsbegriff nicht haltbar waere, dass der Mensch fuer seinen Charakter verantwortlich ist und ihn muss abaendern koennen.—RUeMELIN, Reden und Aufsaetze, ii., 60. An der tiefen und verborgenen Quelle, woraus der Wille entspringt, an diesem Punkt, nur hier steht die Freiheit, und fuehrt das Steuer und lenkt den ...
— A Lecture on the Study of History • Lord Acton

... vierzig Ach, schon vierzig Und noch immer Keiner find 'sich. Im gesicht schon graue Flecken Ach, das muss im Spiegel stecken. ...
— The Lost Girl • D. H. Lawrence

... She rose and fell lazily over a glassy swell flawed here and there by catspaws from astern. It was the tail-end of the monsoon season, and the air was heavy and sticky with tropic moisture, the sky a florid, leaden muss of formless clouds. The rugged land was swathed with cloud-banks and squall wreaths, through which headlands and interior peaks thrust darkly. On one promontory a slant of sunshine blazed torridly, on another, scarcely ...
— A Son Of The Sun • Jack London

... und Nachwelt die Wahrheit verkuenden wolle. Wir lachten ihn aus: denn wir glaubten bemerkt zu haben, dass von alten Leuten eigentlich an der Welt nichts geschaetzt werde, was liebenswuerdig und gut an ihr ist. "Alte Kirchen haben dunkle Glaeser" "Wie Kirschen und Beeren schmecken, muss mann Kinder und Sperlinge fragen"—dies waren unsere Lust und Leibworte: und so schien uns jenes Buch, als die rechte Quintessenz der Greisenheit, unschmachhaft, ja abgeschmackt Alles sollte notwendig sein und deswegen kein Gott. "Koennte es denn aber nicht ...
— Baron d'Holbach • Max Pearson Cushing

... instructed. "I'm afraid we can't hold 'em direct—no use blowing a bank of tubes. We'll try relaying through Mars—we can hold them there, I think. It will muss up reception some, but it will probably be better than direct, at that. Point oh five ...
— Spacehounds of IPC • Edward Elmer Smith

... shouts of encouragement—to the villain. "Kill him!"... "Shoot one to his kidneys!"... "Ahhhhh," as the villain hit the hero in the stomach.... "Muss his hair. Attaboy!"... "Kill the skunk!" And finally groans of despair when the hero won his ...
— The Plastic Age • Percy Marks

... hold of Muss Lucy, that the physician's greeting might be properly responded to, while the young ...
— Polly of the Hospital Staff • Emma C. Dowd

... Majesty's delicate prejudices are safe. It will be all underground before he comes, and no muss at all." ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... a lecturing. They're a jolly lot of cowards, that's all. And I came over here thinking you wanted to be nice and cheerful like you always used to be. All by your dear old lonesome you'd never think of talking to me like this; I've a good notion to muss ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson

... legal phantoms, John Doe and Richard Roe; how Richard was always maltreating and dispossessing John, and how John was always going to law with Dick, and was hence an immense favorite with lawyers; and how, when Dick is sued, he always, having got up a muss, notifies the actual party in possession, and who ought to have been sued; tells him he must look out for himself, and hurries off to find where John has squat himself into other property; and thereupon ...
— Bart Ridgeley - A Story of Northern Ohio • A. G. Riddle

... any middles," said Ruth. "We'll keep making clean beginnings, all the way along. That is the difference between work and muss." ...
— We Girls: A Home Story • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... to go into the car where she belonged. Thereupon a young sprig, from the East, blustered like a Shanghai rooster, and began to sass the conductor with his chin music. That gentleman delivered the young aspirant for a muss one of his elegant little left-handers, which so astonished him that he began to feel for his shooter. Whereupon Mr. Slum gently raised the youth, carried him forth, and set him down just outside the car to cool off. Whether the young blood has yet made his way out of Bascom's ...
— The Gilded Age, Complete • Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

... let me think, can't you? I know you're all right, Jack, but my head aches terribly, and this muss nearly drives me mad. Why can't you be sympathetic and advise me, instead of harrowing ...
— All Aboard - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry

... are times when all of us Get riled up and start a muss, But there ain't no use to cuss, ...
— Poems for Pale People - A Volume of Verse • Edwin C. Ranck

... will never be wicked again, and she believes it, and so do I, for I've touched her imagination at last. I've been trying to keep a Bird of Paradise in a chicken coop! I'll put her with the right people for training, and have her with me a great deal, and not try to muss up her poor little ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell

... plans, hopes, desires, or fears for the future, that need trouble anybody so far as I am concerned."[665] Nevertheless, he had scarcely reached the capital before he discovered that he was charged with being the author of Weed's compromise policy. "Here's a muss," he wrote, on December 3. "Republican members stopped at the Tribune office on their way, and when they all lamented your articles, Dana told them they were not yours but mine; that I 'wanted to make a great compromise like Clay ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander

... relied Harlan. "There was three of them your father said. One got away in the night, leavin' Dolver an' Laskar to finish the job. I run plumb into them, crossin' here from Pardo. I bored Dolver, but I let Laskar off, not havin' the heart to muss up the ...
— 'Drag' Harlan • Charles Alden Seltzer

... lub to wash little baby clothes too. I is primp em up so nice. Never did put no starch much in em. I do me best on em en when I ge' t'rough, dey been look too nice to le' de child muss up." ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves • Works Projects Administration

... Schritte, 25 Und sieht sich in des Waldes Mitte; Da sperren auf gedrangem Steg, Zwei Moerder ploetzlich seinen Weg. Zum Kampfe muss er sich bereiten, Doch bald ermattet sinkt die Hand, 30 Sie hat der Leier zarte Saiten, Doch nie ...
— A Book Of German Lyrics • Various

... face. She had taken off her blue travelling-gown and flung it in a heap over a chair. Sylvia straightened it out carefully, noting with a little awe the rustle of its silk linings; then she hung it in the closet. "I'll hang it here, where it won't get all of a muss," said she. Already she began to feel a pleasure which she had never known—the pleasure of chiding a young creature from the heights of her own experience. She began harshly, but before she had finished her voice ...
— The Shoulders of Atlas - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... on the ranch. Old Billee Dobb was an experienced cook and Snake often said the old puncher could make beans taste like roast turkey. But Billee drew the line at washing dishes. Said he couldn't see any sense in cleaning plates only to muss 'em all up again. So when it came his turn to cook somebody else had to ...
— The Boy Ranchers in Death Valley - or Diamond X and the Poison Mystery • Willard F. Baker

... hardly a country under the sun where an aeroplane would be of more real benefit than right here in the tropics. Think of avoiding all that tangle—of floating along, a mile a minute if you wanted, far above the tree tops and away from all such a muss." ...
— The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing - Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics • John Luther Langworthy

... slammed the Pans And screamed a Chinese chant at us, the while a Hippopotamus Shook tables, book-shelves and divans With vast Terpsichorean fuss . . . Some Oriental kind of muss ...
— Hermione and Her Little Group of Serious Thinkers • Don Marquis

... a possibility of that," returned Baldy, calmly. "But I reckon I could hurt a few of them at the same time. But it's bound to muss things up any way you look at it. Though I might be able to clear out enough of 'em so the others wouldn't bother you. ...
— The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch - Or, Great Days Among the Cowboys • Laura Lee Hope

... "You noting can do. Ony bid him be good man, and talk much,—pray to God. Golah wife lub him, and he sure muss die." ...
— The Boy Slaves • Mayne Reid

... bet he went home that night and told Wifey to prepare for the end of the world. Course, I knew it meant a muss. But when Old Hickory's been limpin' around with a gouty toe for two weeks, and his digestion's gone on the fritz, and things in gen'ral has been breakin' bad—well, it's a case of low barometer in ...
— On With Torchy • Sewell Ford

... not deviling you. I'm trying to haul you out of a muss. Quit it, will you?" She had sunk into a chair and covered her face. He got up and stood over her, scowling. "Will you stop it? Hear me? Stop it, I tell you'... What's the matter—anyhow? If Bonbright Foote's done anything ...
— Youth Challenges • Clarence B Kelland

... can I be unhappy, when I have attained the supreme happiness of possessing such a friend, of participating in such love? Oh, my Franz! could we but live always together! Or is the song to be right after all: "Es ist bestimmt in Gottes Rath, dass von dem liebsten was man hat, muss scheiden?" ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2 • Francis Hueffer (translator)

... says he, 'I ain't a gwyin for to fite that grate big fellah.' And arter that they ups and says, 'We ain't a gwying for to fite um nuther, 'caze he's all kiver'd with sheetirun, and his head's up so high we muss stand a hoss back to reach um!'—the jiunt he ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VII. (of X.) • Various

... a stone-cutter's shop. One day the proprietor, Dave Atkinson, got into a muss with one "Fighting" MacDonald, and there was a tremendous racket. Judge Clemens ran out and found the men down, punishing ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... laughed the small black figure, nowise impressed and cramming her stumpy fingers up to her mouth to keep the laugh in as she saw her young mistress' displeasure. "It's an awful old dirty muss, an' I wish I could do it," she added under ...
— Twilight Stories • Various

... The foreigners had protected themselves in large numbers by not coming, and the natives who prosper upon them suffered. The stout lady who kept a small shop of ivory carvings at Montreux continually lamented their absence to me: "Die Fremden kommen nicht, dieses regenes Wetter! Man muss Geduldt haben! Die Fremden kommen nicht!" She was from Interlaken, and the accents of her native dialect were flavored with the strong waters which she seemed always to have been drinking, and she put her face close up to that of the good, all-sympathizing ...
— A Little Swiss Sojourn • W. D. Howells

... cried: "Oh, but, Jimps! I haven't told you of the last and nicest thing that wonderful girl has done for me. She insisted on my bringing home the dearest little traveling suit of some kind of lovely summer serge that doesn't spot and doesn't muss and is altogether adorable. She insists it's not becoming to her, and it really isn't; but I almost know she planned not to have it becoming so she could give it away to me. And a perfect beauty of a little hat—and a big, loose coat, to wear on the steamer, that looks absolutely ...
— Under the Country Sky • Grace S. Richmond

... Missus. Dey lived at Furman. My mother mind Mr. Trowell's father. His name was Mr. Ben Trowell. I call him, Bub Ben. Bub was for brother. Dat de way we call folks den—didn't call 'em by dere names straight out. Mr. Trowell's mother we call, Muss, for Miss. Sort of a nickname. We call Mr. Harry ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration

... wrote: "Some object to the words, 'Good works are necessary,' or, 'One must do good works.' They object to the two words necessitas and debitum. And the Court-preacher [Agricola] at that time juggled with the word must: 'das Muss ist versalzen.' He understood necessarium and debitum as meaning, coerced by fear of punishment, extortum coactione (extorted by coercion), and spoke high-sounding words, such as, how good works ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente

... death. As for you, save yourselves, if you can. It were in vain for you to attempt to save my life. I commend my soul to the mercy of God." Obedient to his directions, all that were with him, save Nicholas Muss or de la Mouche, his faithful German interpreter, fled to the roof, and escaped under cover of ...
— History of the Rise of the Huguenots - Volume 2 • Henry Baird



Words linked to "Muss" :   mussiness, mussy, disarrange, mess, disorder



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