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Muss   Listen
verb
Muss  v. t.  (past & past part. mussed; pres. part. mussing)  To disarrange, as clothing; to rumple; often used with up; as, the wind mussed up my hair. (Colloq. U.S.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Muss" Quotes from Famous Books



... impassive joss of the city desk, regarded with a chill eye. "One reporter visiting another gets into a muss and shoots up some riverside toughs," he remarked contemptuously. "You can hardly expect our public to get greatly excited over that. Are we going into the business ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... 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 reasoned books in ...
— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton

... just paddin' enough to round him out well, and not so much as to make him look ladyfied. Course, he was a good many pounds over-weight for the job he'd tackled, but he'd have looked mighty well on a poster. Honest, it seemed a shame to have to muss him. ...
— Shorty McCabe • Sewell Ford

... safe," ventured Myra, after a pause. She had only just come to live with old Mrs. Bray. She wondered how she would take it. "Well—might's well sweep up the muss!" ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1919 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... quite my own I now tried to get these three hundred singers, who were frequently united for rehearsals, into a state of genuine ecstasy; for instance, I succeeded in demonstrating to the basses that the celebrated passage Seid umschlungen, Millionen, and especially Bruder, uber'm Sternenzelt muss ein guter Vater wohnen, could not be sung in an ordinary manner, but must, as it were, be proclaimed with the greatest rapture. In this I took the lead in a manner so elated that I really think I literally transported them to ...
— My Life, Volume I • Richard Wagner

... moderate profit of three hundred per cent.; yet, I think, even in such a cause, Georgia, Carolina, and Virginia would stand aloof, rather than dress up in line with the Yankee battalions. The mobocracy are "all for a muss," of course, as they always are till they see the glitter of bayonets; but I cannot believe that the bellicose ideas they are so fond of mooting have ever been seriously entertained by the Government. The Federal navy is too utterly inefficient now, save for attack ...
— Border and Bastille • George A. Lawrence

... remind Aunty 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

... you. I was looking 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 little bit of a baby girl with ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson

... out man-meat, as you say," remarked one of the hunters, in answer to Rube's question, "a muss-rat's the meanest thing I ever ...
— The Scalp Hunters • Mayne Reid

... alone till next time they git into a muss, an' then clean 'em all out of camp," said Chagres Charley. "Let's hev it onderstood that while this camp cheerfully recognizes the right of a gentleman to shoot at sight an' lay out his man, that it considers stabbin' in the dark's the same thing ...
— Romance of California Life • John Habberton

... jewelery for which I could find a place, Nell's bracelet with the rest. The doctor and madam have both admired it very much, never dreaming that it was borrowed. In the jam coming out it must have unclasped and dropped off, for it's not to be found high nor low, and you can fancy the muss I am in. Down at Ball & Black's there fortunately is another exactly like Nell's, and this I must buy at any rate. I can perhaps pay my board bills four or five weeks longer, but Hugh must send me fifty dollars with which to replace the ...
— Bad Hugh • Mary Jane Holmes

... rooms 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 ...
— A Little Housekeeping Book for a Little Girl - Margaret's Saturday Mornings • Caroline French Benton

... class getting up in an engine cab to take the flyer into the city. For years every police magistrate was an old Siwash man, and, though plenty of the boys would get arrested, there were never any thirty-day complications or anything of the sort. Two classes would meet on the main street and muss each other up. The police would arrest nine or ten of the ringleaders. The next morning the prisoners would appear before Squire Jennings, who climbed up on the old college building with his class flag in '54 and kept a rival class away by tearing down the chimney and throwing the bricks at ...
— At Good Old Siwash • George Fitch

... for the "handing around of Agnes." He insisted it was up to him and Nat to give Tom a sendoff, and finally did obtain Mrs. White's permission to give a bachelor dinner in the coach house. They wanted the affair given where there would be no objection to either noise or "muss," as Nat put it, so the coach house was ...
— Dorothy Dale's Queer Holidays • Margaret Penrose

... the Choice 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 ...
— A Lecture on the Study of History • Lord Acton

... Jack called out hurriedly. "If we retreat, like as not he'll muss things up around here, and maybe ...
— Air Service Boys Over the Atlantic • Charles Amory Beach

... 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

... hab's gewagt mit Sinnen, Und trag des noch kein Reu, Mag ich nit dran gewinnen, Noch muss man spueren Treu. ...
— The Story of the Innumerable Company, and Other Sketches • David Starr Jordan

... that grants it, at least,—as perfectly legal and operative all over the Union. Although this is not the case, there are almost insuperable obstacles to such a divorce being set aside. For there are no names of witnesses and no records. There is the name of the lawyer; but if a "muss is raised." he is either non est inventus, or his memory is paralyzed. He has no recollection of the names of the witnesses, of the date of the hearing, or indeed of the case. No matter what evidence the injured party might be able to produce, he cannot get an iota of ...
— Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations • William Howe

... wouldn't marry no woman. He's a woman-hater. He was famous fer thet over in California. He's run off with you—kidnapped you, thet's shore.... An' Gulden swears he shot his own men an' was in turn shot by you. Thet bullet-hole in his back was full of powder. There's liable to be a muss-up any time.... Shore, miss, you'd better sneak off with me tonight when they're all asleep. I'll git grub an' hosses, an' take you off to some prospector's camp. Then you ...
— The Border Legion • Zane Grey

... dis muss 'bout?" exclaimed Clorinda, sailing out to the lawn with a broad straw flat overshadowing her like an umbrella. "Well, Caleb, I 'low ebbery ting am pernicious 'bout ...
— A Noble Woman • Ann S. Stephens

... Jonathun and tother big officers, 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

... think what I've done to you about squares us for that calf deal. I've been yearning to hand you something before you left the country, but I didn't expect you'd give me the chance in just this way. I'm warning you that the next time you shove your coyote nose into my business I'll muss it up some. That applies to Miss Sheila. If I ever hear of you getting her name on your dirty tongue again I'll tear you apart. I reckon that's all." He drew his pistol and balanced it in his right hand. "It makes me feel some reckless to be talking to you," he added, a glint of intolerance ...
— The Trail to Yesterday • Charles Alden Seltzer

... 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

... 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 ...
— With the Procession • Henry B. Fuller

... don't, the first thing you know some 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 my general drift?' ...
— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb

... "without schemes or 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 ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander

... the bond," he said at last; "it's splendid of her, but if she does that she will be kept here, and I know she is crazy to get away, and we must not let her any deeper into this muss of mine." ...
— They of the High Trails • Hamlin Garland

... Seldom," answered one. "Here, Jackson, Benson—drag him forrard; and, Seldom," he added, reprovingly, "don't you ever try it again. Want to be captain, hey? You can't; you don't know enough. You couldn't command my wheelbarrow. Here's three days' work to clear up the muss you've made." ...
— "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea • Morgan Robertson

... bittren Bosheitswerken, als du an deinem Bruder hast Untat gebt." Da ngstete sich 55 Kain nach des Herrn Worten; er bekannte wohl zu wissen, Nie mge vor dem Allmchtigen ein Mann, solang die Welt steht, Eine Tat vertuschen: "So muss ich darob nun betrbten Sinn Bergen in meiner Brust, dass ich meinen Bruder schlug Durch meiner Hnde Kraft. Nun weiss ich, dass ich muss unter deinem Hasse leben 60 Frder, unter deiner Feindschaft, da ich diesen Frevel getan. Nun mich meine ...
— An anthology of German literature • Calvin Thomas

... dat ain't in my big black han'. Arter all, tain't de han's; it's de min'. 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

... claimed control and made immediate efforts to enforce orders relating to its conduct. Messages flew back and forth along the singing wires, and wrecking trains started almost simultaneously from Manchester and from Truesdale, with instructions to clear up the muss at Sawyerville, in order that the ...
— The Short Line War • Merwin-Webster

... fist and an iron wrist, And he thumped on the nose, it is said, Till a wictim's gore ran over the floor And he rolled in the scuppers dead. But, Patch, there 's a few, I 'm tellin' ter you, Who 's nice and they hates a muss, And a plank, I contend, is a tidier end. No ...
— Wappin' Wharf - A Frightful Comedy of Pirates • Charles S. Brooks

... Frontenac. He got into trouble before we left La Famine. He's drinking hard now, you know. He had command of a company that was working on the stockades, and he made such a muss of it that his sergeant had to take hold and handle it to get the work done at all. You can imagine what bad feeling that made in his company. Played the devil with his discipline. Well, he took it like a child. But that night, when he got a little loose on his legs, he hunted up the ...
— The Road to Frontenac • Samuel Merwin

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

... trouble. It was the talk of the town, and of all the foreigners for days after. The leaders were aroused and angered, deeply angered. This stranger had kicked up a pretty muss with His inconvenient earnestness and inconsiderate quoting of Scripture. It was a practical assumption of superior authority over them. It was an assumption of the truth of John's ignored claim that He was ...
— Quiet Talks about Jesus • S. D. Gordon

... gittin' reddy to cry. I could feel tears startin' in my hart, and my throte all hot and lumpy, thinkin' of ma and Danny an' all of them, and I noticed the teakettle just in time—it neaded skourin'. You bet I put a shine on it, and, of course, I couldn't dab tears on it and muss it up, so I had to wait. Mrs. M. duzn't talk to me. She has a morgage or a cancer I think botherin' her. Ma knowed a woman once, and everybuddy thot she was terrible cross cos she wouldn't talk at all hardly and when she died, they found she'd a tumult in ...
— Sowing Seeds in Danny • Nellie L. McClung

... conscience gives a last dig. "I ought not to do it, though. I didn't have time to break a single engagement"—I'm a dental surgeon, too, by the way, with likewise an office of tile and enamel—"or explain at all. And the muss there'll be ...
— A Breath of Prairie and other stories • Will Lillibridge

... weakness; for people will have 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 we have ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley

... 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 ...
— Memories • Max Muller

... for de good oh my helf. Docta vises sea vyge; sides, I got frens in St. John, an business dar, what muss be tended to." ...
— Lost in the Fog • James De Mille

... speaking very low, as he always did, and taking the cigar out of his mouth—Bill always smoked cigars when he could get them, and not very cheap ones either; 'well, then, I surmise you're lettin' her think quite contrairy, and there's bound to be a muss if you don't hide your tracks and strike a trail she can't ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... ashore now, miss, to tell me when to wipe my feet and not muss the tidies! You're on the high seas, and I'm cap'n of this ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day

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

... Luther's German Letter on interpretation, to the translation of which I shall 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 denselbigen ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... such a nature that I need not have come over to England to observe them. I would be the last to deny that the same conveniences for being disagreeable and for getting in the way and for making a general muss of Life can be offered almost any time in my own hopeful and ...
— Crowds - A Moving-Picture of Democracy • Gerald Stanley Lee

... once 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, "He's no man ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn

... lingering hopes he might have had of her, he was in 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 ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London

... cents 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 got kept in at school, ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood

... who got her into trouble. But she didnt say nothing about you so I will just slip you his name. It wasnt your uncle at all but that crooked oil broker nephew of his James Cunningham. If you can muss him up proper for me youll sure ...
— Tangled Trails - A Western Detective Story • William MacLeod Raine

... she'd want to put away her own freshly laundered linen, and smooth it, and pat it. She was that kind of woman. She knew she'd want to do her own delightful haggling with butcher and grocer. She knew she'd want to muss Jo's hair, and sit on his knee, and even quarrel with him, if necessary, without the awareness of three ever-present pairs of maiden ...
— One Basket • Edna Ferber

... he name be Muss"—probably Jaap's defective manner of repeating some Indian sound; "and a proper muss he get in, Masser Corny, when he try to cotch ...
— Satanstoe • James Fenimore Cooper

... how it burns! Muss, keep you warm; good truth, it is this new disease, there's a number are troubled withall for God's sake, sweet-heart, come in ...
— Every Man In His Humour • Ben Jonson

... papers as either participating in the row or of being present when it took place. You know they are extremely verdant, as well as what you term fanatical, and they are not likely to make any capital out of such a muss! Come, now, sit down, and act like ...
— From Wealth to Poverty • Austin Potter

... 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 ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... Master dozed off in peaceful slumber and only waked up and cried "Bravo!" when Mazeppa had finished careering and the two pianists were wiping their perspiring brows. Liszt begged the Princess to whistle, and opened his book of Lieder at "Es muss ein wunderbares sein" (a lovely song) and said, "Can you whistle that?" Yes, she could; and did it very carefully and in a wunderbares manner. ...
— The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 • Lillie DeHegermann-Lindencrone

... 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 over the ...
— Randy of the River - The Adventures of a Young Deckhand • Horatio Alger Jr.

... 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 mind ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell

... out of the top bureau drawer. "The very thing!" cried Helen. "I'll straighten out her drawer. It's always in a muss!" And she fell to work with a will, rolling, and folding, and arranging things in ...
— The Goody-Naughty Book • Sarah Cory Rippey

... dare was another man made a Governor, too, and he git a company one night and comed down here; but somebody had tole old massa, and dat day he tell me, and we went down to de riber under de cliff war was some cane and he tole me he was gwine to stay dar, and I muss bring him sometin to eat ebery day, but I musn't tell whar he was, not eben to ole missus, for dey would scare her and make her tell on him. Shore nuff, dat night here dey comed, a many a one on em, and dey went right into de great house ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks

... murdered him 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

... it vas shames de beoples Vas laugh demselfs most tead At de boor young veller lecturin, Vhen he tidn't know vot he said." Hereauf de Yankee answered, "Gaul dern it:- Shtop your fuss!" And all de crowd togeder Go slap in a grand plug-muss. ...
— The Breitmann Ballads • Charles G. Leland

... 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

... hatchets, beads, and other things, and they wanted to trade off thar hosses and buffalo robes, and skins of all kinds. That was the protection the traders had; and it warn't very often the Indians fell foul of them, except it might be a muss ...
— Captain Bayley's Heir: - A Tale of the Gold Fields of California • G. A. Henty

... 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 Fitts grandmother, ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration

... are 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

... the trapper, "it ur a branch made by the rain: we're a follerin it down; an' thurfor must kum to the river jest whur we want to git. Oncest thur, we'll soon find our way, I reck'n. Wagh! how the durned rain kums down! It 'ud drown a muss-rat. Wagh!" ...
— The War Trail - The Hunt of the Wild Horse • Mayne Reid

... 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 ...
— The Yellow Streak • Williams, Valentine

... einmal die Woche kommt somebody and Ich muss die Arbeit immer lassen und in die Regen ausgehen, und seh' mal how die boots sint mit mud covered, two dollars it ...
— Free Air • Sinclair Lewis

... fight brought 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 ...
— The Plastic Age • Percy Marks

... unhealthy 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 don't apologize ...
— Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man • Sinclair Lewis

... Ain't I your pal, in spite of all the muss you made of my plans? Why, I'm damned if I'll pay you the charter money at all, after the way you've ...
— The Lady and the Pirate - Being the Plain Tale of a Diligent Pirate and a Fair Captive • Emerson Hough

... company. I did see a race once at Coney Island. A car turned over and killed its driver and made a nasty muss. I—I didn't ...
— The Flying Mercury • Eleanor M. Ingram

... on the latter is apparent from the fact that it has the superscription in the master's handwriting, "Gneixendorf am 30 Oktober 1826." The finale has these curious sentences: "Der schwergefasste Entschluss. Muss es sein? Es muss sein." Question and answer turn on the subject of paying his room rent according to Schindler, the dialogue being a reminiscence of previous times. Beethoven often made some discussion when his rent was demanded, either from the desire ...
— Beethoven • George Alexander Fischer

... in," he murmured wanly, "you'll muss them. I'm sorting, and I know you'll step in them. ...
— The Beautiful and Damned • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... went on. "And I rather guess that there's 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

... theses for dispute, 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, extant in the university of Paris, read ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger

... comrade fallen in the war—Karl Hoffman, a pioneer of mountaineering in the Glockner district—and hearing their impassioned speeches. The mountains of Austrian Tyrol were to them "die Alpen seines Vaterlandes," and the song with the refrain, "Lieb Vaterland muss groesser sein" echoed from the rocks, "My beloved Fatherland must be greater"; may not this be the expression of a noble patriotism? But it so easily turns to "my country must have more, must take more," and becomes the very watchword of greed. "Deutschland ueber Alles" might ...
— Rebuilding Britain - A Survey Of Problems Of Reconstruction After The World War • Alfred Hopkinson

... you come from? Did—did you escape from the—the Yankees?" The girl still stammered and trembled. The three soldiers laughed. "No, m'm. No, m'm. They never cotch us. We was in a muss down the road yere about two mile. And Bill yere they gin it to him in the arm, kehplunk. And they pasted me thar, too. Curious. And Sim yere, he didn't get nothing, but they chased us all quite a little piece, and we done ...
— The Little Regiment - And Other Episodes of the American Civil War • Stephen Crane

... goodbye business a flutter. I think it's about the gaudiest thing in the book, if you boom it right along and don't get left on a base. It'll impress the girls. (Aloud.) Lassen Sie uns gehen: es ist schon sehr spat, und ich muss morgen ganz fruh aufstehen. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... turned the wrong way, and some crouching at his side as if they were about to spring up and pull him out of his saddle.—"Get out! If you interfere with my business there won't be as many of you to-night as there were this morning. Aha! there's one of you out of the muss already." ...
— George at the Fort - Life Among the Soldiers • Harry Castlemon

... letter; an' when 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 to ''scuse ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • 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 ...
— Five Little Peppers and their Friends • Margaret Sidney

... man Mutter ist, ist Man ein Mensch; die muetterliche Bestimmung aber, oder gar die heeliche, kann nicht die menschliche ueberwiegen oder ersetzen, sondern sie muss das Mittel, nicht der Zweck derselben sein."—J.P.F. ...
— Women and the Alphabet • Thomas Wentworth Higginson

... said the mother. "Of course that would never do, for, of all things, I do despise to have folks stalking through my kitchen when the pots and kittles are all in a muss, as they're always like to be at meal-times. What ever did you draw ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various

... einigen Orthen sind, und dass zu Inovraclaw und Strezeltnow der Scheffel Roggen um 12 Groschen kostet: da solches nun hier so wohlfeil ist, somuss ja der Preis in Pohlen noch wohl geringer, und ist daher nicht abzusehen warum die Pohlen auf so hohe Preise bestehen; der Bein muss sich daher nun rechte Muhe gebem, und den Einkauf so wohlfeil als nur immer mog lich ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... Muss. That I am sure of, madam. I have no doubt that the delicate texture of your shoes has been sadly treated by ...
— Six Plays • Florence Henrietta Darwin

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

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

... one day, when she brought his soup, "do you know that you're the only decent woman who'll talk to me? Do you know what I mean when I say that I'd give the rest of my life if I could just put my head in my mother's lap and have her muss up my hair and call ...
— Buttered Side Down • Edna Ferber

... his eightieth year, Goethe remarked to Chancellor von Mueller (March 6th, 1828): "Wer mit mir umgehen will, muss zuweilen auch meine Grobianslaune zugeben, ertragen, wie eines ...
— The Youth of Goethe • Peter Hume Brown

... touching pathos of his voice, when he repeated aloud in his room the prayers of his church, saying to his mother, when she objected that his prayers were made up beforehand: "And for the land's sake, ain't the sams and hims, which are nothing but prayers set to music, made up beforehand? A pretty muss you'd have of it if everybody should strike out for himself, a singin' his own words just as they popped ...
— Ethelyn's Mistake • Mary Jane Holmes

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

... badly, Cigar-sellers smoking madly, Bondsmen 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 ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 9, 1870 • Various

... wot happens is an accident," grumbled the cook, and went off to get the dust-pan and broom. As soon as the muss had been cleared away Nan cut out the red table cover for Freddie, which made him forget the loss of the "lilac tree" and ...
— The Bobbsey Twins - Or, Merry Days Indoors and Out • Laura Lee Hope

... impression of the resounding thwackings undergone by her. Emma was paying a series of visits to the dentist and might appear at the schoolroom door with frightened eyes, holding it open—"Hendchen! Ich muss zum Zahnarzt." Miriam dreaded these excursions. The first time Miriam had accompanied her Emma had had "gas." Miriam, assailed by a loud scream followed by the peremptory voices of two white-coated, fiercely moustached operators, one of whom seemed to be holding Emma in the chair, ...
— Pointed Roofs - Pilgrimage, Volume 1 • Dorothy Richardson

... I ain't counted in this muss, I'll never smile agin. Freeze me to death on a stump, if I won't walk into their meat-houses in style, then my name ...
— Oonomoo the Huron • Edward S. Ellis

... mayor is it, we do be havin'. An' a fine muss she'll be in ef she kapes on, indade and indade! McAlister's foreman was a tellin' av us last night, he was, that they'll soon be losin' their job. He says, says he, she's again' an honest man makin' a livin', she is. Why, there's me own naice's husband, ...
— A Woman for Mayor - A Novel of To-day • Helen M. Winslow

... right near the dressing-room. I asked pa not to mix in it, but keep away in the animal tent. Pa said, not much, he wouldn't be away, and he told all the managers, and they all got around the dressing-room to stop the muss, ...
— Peck's Bad Boy at the Circus • George W. Peck

... be downright ashamed of themselves," she said, "to leave everything in such a muss as this. You MUST see about getting a man to clean up the yard, Theron. It's no use your thinking of doing it yourself. In the first place, it wouldn't look quite the thing, and, second, you'd never get at ...
— The Damnation of Theron Ware • Harold Frederic

... says you 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

... resolved everything into myth, and the very many other negative points of view expressed in Nietzsche's supremest condemnation of Jesus as a wretched degenerate, while Wagner's deliberate slogan was, "Das Deutschtum muss ...
— The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 • Various

... the close, dark mass of horses and riders down the valley. And all waited for Holley to speak. "They're linin' up," began the rider. "Havin' some muss, too, it 'pears.... Bostil, thet red hoss is raisin' hell! He wants to fight. There! he's up in the air.... Boys, he's a devil—a hoss-killer like all them wild stallions.... He's plungin' at the King—strikin'! There! Lucy's got him down. She's ...
— Wildfire • Zane Grey

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

... the father," he said, "an' hov the money ready tull hus hond so uf I'm ot sea when the land offers he wull no muss the chance tull buy. An' then the owners can guv me the sack uz soon uz they like. Ut will be all night un, an' I wull be wuth you, Annie, an' the ...
— The Strength of the Strong • Jack London

... delighted. "Dear Mister Perkins, y're one person that I'm jus' achin' t' spank!" Then once more showing his pipe-stained teeth in a grin, "Oh, but I hate awful t' muss y' up! I hate t' spoil y', Perksie! Y' look so nice and neat and sweet! Almost like a stick o' candy! And, nobody'll want t' look at y' after I git ...
— The Rich Little Poor Boy • Eleanor Gates

... please, suh, en I tell you better, suh. En Abram teck de hatchet en gone to'des de railroad fuh cut de bresh. 'Fo' Gawd, Mass Johnnie, it's de trute, suh! Den I tell Miss Nellie say de chicken is all git out de coop, en she say I muss ketch one fuh unner supper, suh; en I teck de dawg en gone in de fiel' fuh look fuh de chicken. En I see Miss Nellie put 'e glub en de brier on de step, en walk to'des de swamp, like 'e was goin' on de dam—'kase de water ent rise ...
— Southern Lights and Shadows • Edited by William Dean Howells & Henry Mills Alden

... "'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. They ...
— Patty and Azalea • Carolyn Wells

... look so. Anyhow, I be glad tew see ye tidday. I see ye've got yer gun, Jabez. Ye muss be keerful. Loryers is so derndly like foxes, that ye mout hit one ...
— The Duke of Stockbridge • Edward Bellamy

... 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 gardenia in a ...
— The Vertical City • Fannie Hurst

... stotterte da wieder der betrunkene Tropeiro. "Unter uns beiden braucht's zwar keine Quittung, ich habe dein Vieh und du hast mein Geld; damit ist unsere Sache erledigt. Aber bei den Herren von der Charqueada muss ich etwas Schwarz auf ...
— The German Element in Brazil - Colonies and Dialect • Benjamin Franklin Schappelle

... go anywhere, 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

... is the name given to the fox): When I was first told that "Muss Reynolds come along last night" he was spoken of so intimately that I supposed he must be some old friend, and expressed a hope that he had been hospitably received. "He helped hisself," was the reply; and thereupon followed ...
— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas

... is 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 into ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 7 • Charles Farrar Browne

... Mrs. Wilkins, of all the aggravating women I ever came across, you are the worst. I believe you'd raise a riot in the cemetry if you were dead, you would. Don't you ever go prowling around any Quaker meeting, or you'll break it up in a plug muss. You? Why you'd put any other man's back up until he broke his spine. Oh! you're too annoying to live; I don't want to bother with you. ...
— The Universal Reciter - 81 Choice Pieces of Rare Poetical Gems • 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

... originality in harmony, and ends with a curious dissonance and resolution. "O'er the Woods' Brow" is very strange and interesting, though somewhat abstruse. Less so is a song, "An den Abendsstern;" it has a comparison-forcing name, but is a delightful song. "Es muss ein Wunderbares sein" is notable for novel effects in harmonies of crystal with light dissonances to edge the facets. A sonata for piano and violin and a romanza for 'cello have been published, and his "Hiawatha" overture ...
— Contemporary American Composers • Rupert Hughes

... did. You speak as if you were going to Paris, but papa is positive you are not. Yesterday was a lovely day, though very hot. Dr. Adams came and drove papa to the Park. Late in the afternoon I went to see Mrs. G., the woman whose husband is in jail. She is usually all in a muss, but this time was as nice as could be, the floor clean and everything in order. The baby, a year old, had learned to walk since I was last there, and came and planted herself in front of me, and stared at me out of two great bright ...
— The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss • George L. Prentiss

... 209 f. Ferguson, History of Civil Society, III, 4. Where the seller is not obliged to make 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 ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • William Roscher

... would soil my claws and blunt my teeth," he said. "I'm glad I didn't muss myself up this afternoon ...
— Little Wizard Stories of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... was some curious 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 ...
— The House of Torchy • Sewell Ford

... conversation I walked home with 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, mama will come in ...
— Parent and Child Vol. III., Child Study and Training • Mosiah Hall

... 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 our shop, and waitin' to see where ...
— On With Torchy • Sewell Ford

... 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 ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds

... prod with me, young fellow me lad. I'm liable to muss up your hair. Me, I'm from the Strip, where ...
— A Man Four-Square • William MacLeod Raine

... your note of 29th ult. You will see in the papers of to-day the debate in the House last night, at which I was present, and will have seen what in the H.L. Lord Russell said in reply to Lord Campbell. Thus the French affair remains in a 'muss,' unless the Emperor will show his hand on paper, we shall never know what he really means, or derive any benefit from his private and individual revelations. As things now stand before the public, there can be but one opinion, i.e., that ...
— Great Britain and the American Civil War • Ephraim Douglass Adams

... returned the old man, placidly. "I gen'ally do get in a muss when there's fresh paint around. But I don't mind my clothes. They're ust to it—same ...
— Uncle William - The Man Who Was Shif'less • Jennette Lee

... Esther Fairfax, is it? well, now that's a real pretty name, but do come right in and set down. Things is in a muss, fer I've been gone, and children don't amount to much fer work, 'specially when they ain't been raised right. I ain't had her long, you know, or she'd be different. Her ma wuz awful queer and silly about her. ...
— Rosa's Quest - The Way to the Beautiful Land • Anna Potter Wright

... this world spoils the average girl so quickly and so surely," said Mrs. Comstock. She raised her voice. "Elnora, fasten up that tag of hair over your left ear. These bushes muss you so you remind me of a sheep poking its ...
— A Girl Of The Limberlost • Gene Stratton Porter

... —Now, gods and devils! Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried ho! Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth And cry, your will.—Have you no ears? ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume 5 (of 18) - Amboyna; The state of Innocence; Aureng-Zebe; All for Love • John Dryden

... 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. Wagen Sie, empfindsam! Wenn eine mhsame Reise eine Reise ...
— Laurence Sterne in Germany • Harvey Waterman Thayer

... lie on the floor—" said Mrs. Derrick, as if the past might possibly help the future. "That does make a muss." ...
— Say and Seal, Volume I • Susan Warner

... Scott Aimes, stretching his neck toward the officer, "I've jest got one favor to ask of you. Git that bottle over thar an' give us fellers a drink. It was licker that got us into this here muss, an' you ought to let licker help ...
— The Jucklins - A Novel • Opie Read

... upon these Friendlies, and massacreed '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 durned devils! and you call sich soldiers ...
— The Life of Kit Carson • Edward S. Ellis

... no bloodshed," continued the captain, trying to control himself. "Behave yourselves, and you'll be treated all right. Kick up a muss, and it will ...
— The Rover Boys on the Great Lakes • Arthur M. Winfield

... 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 ...
— Baron d'Holbach • Max Pearson Cushing

... really turning over a new leaf. He was still quite trying sometimes, leaving the milk-room door open when puss was watching for the cream-pot, or slamming the kitchen door with a bang when everybody needed fresh air. He still kept his chamber in a state of confusion,—"muss," Grace called it,—pulling the drawers out of the bureau, and scattering the contents over the floor; dropping his clothes anywhere it happened, and carrying quantities of gravel up ...
— Captain Horace • Sophie May

... "No rod—muss go bock," replied Meetuck, turning the dogs in the direction whence they had come, and resuming his ...
— The World of Ice • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... himself now. And when I saw it I knew he was beat, for all he'd the drop on me. Since then my notion's proved itself. He's lit out. He's cut from his gopher hole at Sachigo. An' when a gopher gets away from his hole, the man with the gun has him dead set. But say, that muss up you reckon I made doesn't look that way when you know the things it's taught me. While I was way up at that penitentiary camp on the Beaver River I kept all my ears and eyes wide, and I learned most of the things a feller's liable to learn in this ...
— The Man in the Twilight • Ridgwell Cullum

... him, his plan being to push and pull at the back of one till he got it loose from the rest, and then work at it till it fell to the floor. He never failed to reduce the pile to a disreputable-looking muss. ...
— In Nesting Time • Olive Thorne Miller

... 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 your clothes." ...
— Poor White • Sherwood Anderson

... "Then muss it," she laughed. "You weren't always so particular." And he grabbed, held, and patted the hand that he had ...
— The Plunderer • Roy Norton



Words linked to "Muss" :   disorderliness, messiness, disorder, mess



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