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Thing   Listen
noun
Thing  n.  
1.
Whatever exists, or is conceived to exist, as a separate entity, whether animate or inanimate; any separable or distinguishable object of thought. "God made... every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind." "He sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt." "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
2.
An inanimate object, in distinction from a living being; any lifeless material. "Ye meads and groves, unconscious things!"
3.
A transaction or occurrence; an event; a deed. "(And Jacob said) All these things are against me." "Which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things."
4.
A portion or part; something. "Wicked men who understand any thing of wisdom."
5.
A diminutive or slighted object; any object viewed as merely existing; often used in pity or contempt. "See, sons, what things you are!" "The poor thing sighed, and... turned from me." "I'll be this abject thing no more." "I have a thing in prose."
6.
pl. Clothes; furniture; appurtenances; luggage; as, to pack or store one's things. (Colloq.) Note: Formerly, the singular was sometimes used in a plural or collective sense. "And them she gave her moebles and her thing." Note: Thing was used in a very general sense in Old English, and is still heard colloquially where some more definite term would be used in careful composition. "In the garden (he) walketh to and fro, And hath his things (i. e., prayers, devotions) said full courteously." "Hearkening his minstrels their things play."
7.
(Law) Whatever may be possessed or owned; a property; distinguished from person.
8.
In Scandinavian countries, a legislative or judicial assembly.
Things personal. (Law) Same as Personal property, under Personal.
Things real. Same as Real property, under Real.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Thing" Quotes from Famous Books



... strange thing and one which might astonish you, but I feel an indescribable horror at the sight of yonder man. Have you ever seen a snake rise up ...
— Twenty Years After • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... apace, and within two minutes of the close of preparation every girl in the house had heard that Honor Fitzgerald had taken a sovereign from Miss Maitland's room, and refused to "own up". The news made the greatest sensation. Such a thing had not occurred before in the annals of the College. It seemed a stain on St. Chad's that could never be wiped out, and for which no amount of tennis shields, champion cups, or other triumphs would ever compensate. How could the Chaddites hold up their heads again? They, who had ranked in reputation ...
— The New Girl at St. Chad's - A Story of School Life • Angela Brazil

... about the diamonds, but when I saw the image I knew he'd told the truth. There were about a hundred diamonds on the image, stuck all around it, the image itself being gold. The diamonds ran from a carat to seven or eight carats, and there was no question about them being the real thing. I stuck the thing into a hip pocket, figuring that with the few other ornaments I had I would have plenty to carry. Then I went back to where Ezela and ...
— The Boss of the Lazy Y • Charles Alden Seltzer

... Peter, "but I have been taught that it is one and the same thing. If you like, sir, I'll read to you all about it from ...
— The History of Little Peter, the Ship Boy • W.H.G. Kingston

... very heavy. I could have made them much heavier, but the result would have been the same. The moment I failed to get in with a rush, I was beat. I now feel that I cannot say I can relieve Ladysmith with my available force, and the best thing I can suggest is that I should occupy defensive positions, and fight it out in a country better suited to ...
— History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) - Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government • Frederick Maurice

... same reasons that we keep Mount Vernon as it originally was. The stately simplicity of its architecture is an expression of the character of the period in which it was built, and is in accord with the purposes it was designed to serve. It is a good thing to preserve such buildings as historic monuments which keep alive our sense of continuity ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... blazing yellow gorse; to his right he could see the thickets through which he had emerged upon this verdant solitude. But beyond the thickets there was no sign of the Vicarage. There was not a living thing in sight; there was nothing except the song of larks high up and imperceptible against the steady morning sun that shed a benign warmth upon the world, and particularly upon the back of Mark's neck when he decided that ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie

... time,—it was unreasonable to expect him to keep an orphan girl whom his family had picked up. Ugh! How he'd hate to trot along in that blue-frocked line! "I'm a dawdling idiot," he said irritatedly to himself. "What am I worrying about? I've done the sensible thing, the only possible thing. Her own people deserted her. I've secured her a decent home and honest training. Whew! It's later than I thought. I'll have to rush ...
— Honey-Sweet • Edna Turpin

... be an interval of rest for the nerve before the sensation can be renewed in its first freshness. Now it is the same, though in a less degree, with the more important sense of sight. We look long and steadily at a thing to know it, and the longer and more fixedly we look the better, if it engages the reasoning faculties; but an aesthetic pleasure cannot be increased or retained in that way. We must look, merely glancing as it were, and look again, and then again, with intervals, ...
— Afoot in England • W.H. Hudson

... Wilson's second term as president, just before the break with Germany, I was sitting in the quiet of my library rereading Browning's "Cristina". When I came to the third stanza I leaped to my feet—the thing seemed incredible, but here before my eyes was actually Browning's prophetic message to America in regard ...
— A Parody Outline of History • Donald Ogden Stewart

... comfort in the strength of love; 'Twill make a thing endurable, which else Would overset the brain, or break the heart: 450 I have conversed with more than one who well Remember the old Man, and what he was Years after he had heard this heavy news. His bodily frame had been from youth to age Of an unusual ...
— Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson • William Wordsworth and Alfred Lord Tennyson

... though appearing to have the face of a considerable dealer, but what may be taken any way, pro or con. The Hamburgh factor may be a ship, or a horse—be bound to Hamburgh or London. What shall be dispatched may be one thing, or any thing, or every thing, in a former letter. No ships since the 11th, may be no ships come in, or no ships gone out. The London fleet being in the roads, it may be the London fleet from Hull to London, or from ...
— The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) • Daniel Defoe

... break them down, but they are still very strong. Princes who live in the south have rarely ever in their lives seen or visited the states of the north. Perhaps among the latter are chiefs who have rarely ever left their homes. It cannot but be a good thing that they should meet and get to know each other and exchange ideas. To the East there is nothing strange, but something familiar and even sacred," continued Lord Curzon, "in the practice that brings sovereigns together with their people in ceremonies ...
— Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis

... alone, stood still for a moment as if robbed of all volition. Then, with a suppressed cry, she dragged out the accusing document and carried it to the light. Who could do such a thing! Who would be such a lying coward! Her helplessness made her rage. Oh, to be able to confront this traducer, this libeler. To see him punished, to tell him to his face what she thought of him I Somewhere he was in the world, laughing to himself ...
— Out of the Ashes • Ethel Watts Mumford

... royal succession does not seem to have interfered with the miracle; for, though William III evidently regarded the whole thing as a superstition, and on one occasion is said to have touched a patient, saying to him, "God give you better health and more sense," Whiston assures us that this person ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... they are one and the same thing) should be of convenient size to go into books both small and large; and a good size is approximately 21/4 inches wide by 11/2 inches high when trimmed. As comparatively few libraries care to go to the expense, which is about ten times that of printing, ...
— A Book for All Readers • Ainsworth Rand Spofford

... that bared arm, her breath held. The long square fingers closed once more with a firm grip on the instrument. "Miss Lemoris, some No. 3 gauze." Then not a sound until the thing was done, and the surgeon had turned away to cleanse his hands in the bowl of ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... through, but Mrs. Wood said that when the cattle stood in the stalls, both doors were never allowed to be open at the same time. Mr. Wood was most particular to have no drafts blowing upon his cattle. He would not have them chilled, and he would not have them overheated. One thing was as bad as the other. And during the winter they were never allowed to drink icy water. He took the chill off the water for his cows, just as Mrs. Wood did ...
— Beautiful Joe - An Autobiography of a Dog • by Marshall Saunders

... bunch of rascals, all of you, tryin' to down a pore girl and get her ground; but who put ye wise to this thing, in the first place? Who found this gold? Just because there's enough of you to vote that motion through, that don't make it legal, not by a damned sight, and it won't hold, because I won't write it in the book. You—you—" He glared ...
— The Barrier • Rex Beach

... false transgression, That makes me reasonless to reason thus? She is fair; and so is Julia that I love,— That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd; Which like a waxen image 'gainst a fire Bears no impression of the thing it was. Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold, And that I love him not as I was wont. O! but I love his lady too-too much, And that's the reason I love him so little. How shall I dote on her with more advice That thus without advice begin to love her? 'Tis but her picture I have yet ...
— The Two Gentlemen of Verona • William Shakespeare [Craig, Oxford edition]

... to make them dancers, singers, players, painters, and actresses. She maintains that when a man of sense comes to marry, he wants a companion rather than a creature who can only dress and dance and play upon an instrument. Yet she does not discourage ornamental talent; she admits it is a good thing, but not the best thing that a woman has. She would not cut up time into an endless multiplicity of employments, She urges mothers to impress on their daughters' minds a discriminating estimate ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VII • John Lord

... agreed Jessie. "It is to be an 'old folks' party, and her presence will give a reality to the thing." ...
— The Old Folks' Party - 1898 • Edward Bellamy

... "No—for now a strange thing happened. The assayer tried our ore again and again and found it very rich, but when we shipped to the mills we got almost no returns. We tried every process, but the gold seemed to slip away from us. Finally I took a carload and ...
— The Spirit of Sweetwater • Hamlin Garland

... reluctantly ends the second Argus bombshell, and this same last bombshell had been a very different thing to handle. It might have been made far more sensational, and the editor had sighed as he penned the cautiously worded lines: "It was a monstrous mesalliance, and a great deal could be said in disparagement ...
— The Diamond Coterie • Lawrence L. Lynch

... of was committed upon one claiming to be a freeman and a citizen, in that State, and who had been living for years under the dominion of its laws. And the rule is, that whatever is a justification where the thing is done, must be a justification in the forum where the case is tried. (20 How. St. ...
— Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Opinions of the Judges Thereof, in the Case of Dred Scott versus John F.A. Sandford • Benjamin C. Howard

... magnanimity and boldness to defend the absent and accused. His majesty has instructed me to assure you that, far from disapproving your conduct, he highly esteems and admires it, for the emperor knows how to appreciate every thing ...
— Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia • L. Muhlbach

... for them at the school. There was a luncheon room provided for those who brought their meals with them, but Horace had preferred eating his slice of bread and butter or bread and dripping, walking about the playground. There were others who did the same thing, but they walked in groups and chatted and frolicked, or played games, and when he first came Horace had been invited to join these, and had been initiated into the mysteries of one game peculiar ...
— That Scholarship Boy • Emma Leslie

... every cent," she said, "and as to their money, I can tell you one thing, that I heard him say to his sister with my own ears, that he was goin' to build a town on them meaders, with streets and chu'ches, and stores on the corners of the block, and a libr'y and a bank, and she said ...
— The Girl at Cobhurst • Frank Richard Stockton

... the shape things are in here, it will give them the chance they are after, so they will begin that very thing," she said. ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter

... relief indeed, for they were now assured of one thing—they could not die the frightful death that overtook the poor mare. This broad expanse of cool, refreshing water could not burn up, no matter how fervent the heat that might envelop its shores. Its cool depths offered a refreshing refuge, such as can hardly ...
— Through Forest and Fire - Wild-Woods Series No. 1 • Edward Ellis

... allegiance about which Sancroft and his disciples were so anxious, one thing at least is clear, that, whoever might be right, they were wrong. The Whigs held that, in the oath of allegiance, certain conditions were implied, that the King had violated these conditions, and that the oath had therefore lost its force. But, if the Whig doctrine were false, ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 2 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... horrible sound went on, and no answer came. His physical sense of the presence of the blister was blotted out by the abnormal thrill of the moment. One had to find out about a thing like that- one just had to. One could not go on and leave it behind uninvestigated in the dark and emptiness of a street no one was likely to pass through. He listened more intently. Yes, ...
— T. Tembarom • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... became, like the brazen serpent in the wilderness, the sign to which the sick spirits throughout the western world looked hopefully and were healed. In all those millions of hearts the words of Luther found an echo, and flew from lip to lip, from ear to ear. The thing which all were longing for was done, and in two years from that day there was scarcely perhaps a village from the Irish Channel to the Danube in which the name of Luther was not familiar as a word of hope and promise. Then rose a common cry for guidance. ...
— History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II. • James Anthony Froude

... paid to the memory of one who had merited the distinction so well. A public monument,[110] having been decreed by the imperial parliament, was raised a few years since in St. Paul's, and a view of it is said to have awakened in an astonished Indian more surprise and admiration than any thing he witnessed in England.[111] In consequence of an address[112] from the commons of Upper Canada to the prince regent, a munificent grant of 12,000 acres of land in that province was bestowed on the four surviving brothers of Sir Isaac Brock, who, in addition, were allowed a pension of L200 ...
— The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock • Ferdinand Brock Tupper

... Yet the thing was curiously hard to lead up to. It would be hard to set before any outsider the conditions at the Boyd house, or his own sense of obligation to help. Put into everyday English the whole scheme sounded ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... all the magazines, and the whole course of German exegetics. That's not enough! But here, as dessert, after junks of Rubrics, and indigestible slabs of controverted hermeneutics, come the light truffles and pate de foie gras of Crolly's 'Contracts.' Begor, the next thing will be they'll want us to preach our sermons before them; and then this Master of Conferences,—he's a good fellow and an old classmate of my own; but of course he must exhibit his learning, and bring in all his Christy ...
— My New Curate • P.A. Sheehan

... rather talkative woman she had become very reticent; she went about uneasily, with a look of suspicion or of fear. Her children she no longer ventured to command; the secret of their wealth weighed upon her, she was in constant dread on their behalf. It is a bad thing for one such as Mrs. Mutimer to be thrown back upon herself in novel circumstances, and practically debarred from the only relief which will avail her—free discussion with her own kind. The result is a species of shock to the ...
— Demos • George Gissing

... measure thy bright face Whose greatness doth so oft earth's greatness pass, And which still running the celestial ring, Is seen and felt of every living thing; But that fantastic'ly I change my theme To sing the swiftness of thy tireless team, To sing how, rising from the Indian wave, Thou seem'st (O Titan) like a bridegroom brave, Who, from his chamber early ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... dressed just in their ordinary clothes, but for the slung Mauser and the full cartridge belt over the shoulder or round the waist. Except for a few gunners, there is no uniform in the Boer Army. Even the officers can hardly be distinguished from ordinary farmers. The only thing that could be called uniform is the broad-brimmed soft hat of grey or brown. But all Boers wear it. It is generally very stained and dirty, and invariably a rusty crape band is wound about the crown. For the Boer, like the English ...
— Ladysmith - The Diary of a Siege • H. W. Nevinson

... beautiful city, With its mansions of light, With its glorified beings, In pure garments of white; Where no evil thing cometh To despoil what is fair; Where the angels are watching, Yes, my ...
— The Otterbein Hymnal - For Use in Public and Social Worship • Edmund S. Lorenz

... Emperor, his late Majesty of France a hateful tyrant. But for Haward, whose guest I was, I had not sat there with closed lips. I had sprung to my feet and given those flatterers, those traducers, the lie! The thing taunted and angered until she ...
— Audrey • Mary Johnston

... has failed. He hears a voice calling him. He looks back and sees an old friend pursuing him on a horse, and beckoning him to come back. He saw Columbus turn away from the Alhambra, disheartened, and he hastens to the queen and tells her what a great thing it would be, at a trifling expense, if what the sailor believes should prove true. "It shall be done," Isabella replies. "I will pledge my jewels to raise the money; call him back." Columbus turns back, and with ...
— Eclectic School Readings: Stories from Life • Orison Swett Marden

... nor does he appear to have regarded it with any feelings of affection. One small fountain at Ajaccio is pointed out as the only ornament which his bounty bestowed on his birthplace. He might perhaps think it impolitic to do any thing which might remind the country he ruled that he was not a child of her soil, nay, was in fact very near having been born an alien, for Corsica was not united to, or made an integral part of France, until June, 1769, a few weeks only before ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Supplementary Number, Issue 263, 1827 • Various

... the name of the man, or men, who had actually committed the crime. Those things were, for the moment, relatively unimportant. The police might find them, but that could wait. The thing that was important was that Bending was certain within his own mind who had paid to ...
— Damned If You Don't • Gordon Randall Garrett

... this species which will be mistaken for an entirely different thing, is yellow, sessile, and has adherent spores; looks like a badhamia, but is after all a leocarpus and probably belongs here. The spores are irregularly clustered and the badhamioid section of the ...
— The North American Slime-Moulds • Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

... storm. For a week snow fell and gales blew with such terrific fury that no living thing could have existed in the open, and during this period ...
— The Gaunt Gray Wolf - A Tale of Adventure With Ungava Bob • Dillon Wallace

... knew that, unless he were dead and sinking, he could not possibly remain much longer beneath the surface. The exhibition of endurance we had just been favoured with was a very unusual one, I was told, it being a rare thing for a cachalot to take out two boats' lines before returning to ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen

... three kingdoms. Why should I not win her, and, with her, the means of making in the world that figure which my genius and inclination desired? I felt I was equal in blood and breeding to any Lyndon in Christendom, and determined to bend this haughty lady. When I determine, I look upon the thing ...
— Barry Lyndon • William Makepeace Thackeray

... himself at the expense of his neighbour are manifold; only a few typical examples out of a multitude can be cited. At the outset it is to be observed that the evil of which a man seeks to rid himself need not be transferred to a person; it may equally well be transferred to an animal or a thing, though in the last case the thing is often only a vehicle to convey the trouble to the first person who touches it. In some of the East Indian islands they think that epilepsy can be cured by striking the patient on the face with the leaves of certain trees and then throwing them away. The ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... said Mr. Wurley, with another leer and oath. "You're right; that's a deal safer kind of thing for you." ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes

... the man I told you about who's interested in Robinsons. He'll be delighted to meet you. (With a nervous laugh.) Funny thing, he's rather an authority on lions. You must show him that scar of yours; it will intrigue him immensely. (Earnestly.) Don't shake hands with him too heartily just at first; it might put ...
— First Plays • A. A. Milne

... other hand, never avails himself of divine interposition except where it is absolutely necessary; he formed men, according to the general confession of antiquity, better, that is, not more moral and exempt from error, but more beautiful and noble than they really are; and while he took every thing in the most human sense, he was at the same time open to its higher significance. According to all appearance he was also more temperate than Aeschylus in his use of scenic ornaments; displaying perhaps more of taste and chastened beauty, but not attempting ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel

... horrible arrangement, first invented, they say, in Iceland. It is a thing sent by a wizard, and may take any form, but most generally wanders about the land in the shape of a little purple cloud till it finds the sendee, and him it kills by changing into the form of a horse, or a cat, ...
— The Lock And Key Library - Classic Mystery And Detective Stories, Modern English • Various

... love? a mere machine, a spring For freaks fantastic, a convenient thing, A point to which each scribbling wight most steer, Or vainly hope for food or favour here; A summer's sigh; a winter's wistful tale: A sound at which th' untutor'd maid turns pale; Her soft eyes languish, and her bosom heaves, And Hope delights as ...
— Poems (1828) • Thomas Gent

... to have ruined its predecessor. This severity was more than the licentious capital would endure. At once every element of discontent burst forth again,—the janizaries, the Ulema, or doctors of the sacred law, and the people,—some mistrusting one thing, others another, all alike unwilling to obey any master but their own will. Disintegration of what little administrative organization there still was, seemed imminent. The Turkish generals on the Danube began ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. III. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane

... processing, and dissemination of area-specific data and is particularly useful for interchanging data between databases. Appendix F cross-references various country codes and Appendix G does the same thing ...
— The 1998 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... What on earth are you to do with her? A runaway woman, who, meaning to run off with somebody else—such are the crosses and contradictions in human destiny—has run off with you instead. What mortal can hope to be safe? The last thing I thought could befall me when I got up this morning was that I should have any trouble about the other sex before the day was over. If I were of an amatory temperament, the Fates might have some justification ...
— Kenelm Chillingly, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... sudden mischance hath so wrought in him, who by nature is allied to nothing less than a self-debasing humour of dejection, that I have never seen any thing more changed and spirit-broken. He hath, with a peremptory resolution, dismissed the partners of his riots and late hours, denied his house and person to their most earnest solicitings, and will be seen by none. He keeps ever alone, and ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV - Poems and Plays • Charles and Mary Lamb

... thing I shall do will be to write to Traverse, so that we can send the letter by to-day's mail and set his mind at rest. I shall simply tell him that our mutual letters have failed to reach their destination, but that I am now ...
— Capitola's Peril - A Sequel to 'The Hidden Hand' • Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth

... you please, Mister Pugh," said I; "the chart gives two thousand fathoms about the reef. We should have water enough, and water is a good thing, as ...
— The House Under the Sea - A Romance • Sir Max Pemberton

... great emotion at these words, and shed tears; a thing quite unusual in an Indian. He took the hand of the officer and said, "This must be a dream for me to be in such a fine room, and surrounded by such as you. Have I been asleep during the last four years of hardship and trial, dreaming that all ...
— Three Years on the Plains - Observations of Indians, 1867-1870 • Edmund B. Tuttle

... anything else which is an impediment to motion and movement. Then the word kakia appears to mean kakos ienai, or going badly, or limping and halting; of which the consequence is, that the soul becomes filled with vice. And if kakia is the name of this sort of thing, arete will be the opposite of it, signifying in the first place ease of motion, then that the stream of the good soul is unimpeded, and has therefore the attribute of ever flowing without let or hindrance, and is therefore called ...
— Cratylus • Plato

... to parade abstract theorems,—true in the abstract,—in political economy; nothing harder than to reduce them to practice. That an individual will understand his own interests better than the government can, or, what is the same thing, that trade, if let alone, will find its way into the channels on the whole most advantageous to the community, few will deny. But what is true of all together is not true of any one singly; and no one nation can safely act on these ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3 • William H. Prescott

... of Bolingbroke in the throne, and Thomas de Arundel bearing the mitre?" responded the old lady with a laugh. "Marry, my maid, that were a new thing." ...
— The White Rose of Langley - A Story of the Olden Time • Emily Sarah Holt

... her very solemnly and wisely, as if the thoughts in his mind would be of immense value if he could only express them; but he was without facilities in that direction. If one cannot be wise, the next best thing is to have a wise look. He rose, for he had caught sight of Tony Cornish crossing the Toornoifeld in the shade of the trees. Perhaps the major had forgotten for the moment that a great man was dead; that there were letters to be written and telegrams to be despatched; that ...
— Roden's Corner • Henry Seton Merriman

... thing may be said of the religion of Confucius. It belongs to China and the Chinese. It suits their taste and genius. They have had it as their state religion for some twenty-three hundred years, and it rules the opinions of the rulers of opinion among three hundred millions of men. But out of China ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... bad for me, I know. I ain't whining none. I just lie here and watch the world getting dimmer until I begin to be seeing things out of my past. That shows the devil ain't losing no time with me. But the thing that comes back oftenest and hits me the hardest is the sight of your mother, lying with you in the hollow of her arm and looking up at me and whispering, 'Dad,' ...
— Riders of the Silences • John Frederick

... these, the increase of dexterity of the individual workman is the most obvious and universal. It does not follow that because a thing has been done oftener it will be done better. That depends on the intelligence of the workman, and on the degree in which his mind works along with his hands. But it will be done more easily. This is as true of mental operations as of bodily. Even a ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • John Stuart Mill

... Not the least interesting thing about these utterances, is the fact that even Douglas could not now avoid public reference to the slavery question. He could no longer point to needed legislation quite apart from sectional interests; he could no longer treat slavery with assumed indifference; ...
— Stephen A. Douglas - A Study in American Politics • Allen Johnson

... While, by the studies of the learned and wise, it enriched itself with the most admirable principles of the religions of Egypt and Asia, it was changed, in the wanderings of the People, by everything that was most impure or seductive in the pagan manners and superstitions. It was one thing in the times of Moses and Aaron, another in those of David and Solomon, and still another in ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike

... first place, you ought not to take tobacco that does not belong to you. Every person has only the right to make use of his own property; if he takes anyone else's . . . he is a bad man!" ("I am not saying the right thing!" thought Yevgeny Petrovitch.) "For instance, Natalya Semyonovna has a box with her clothes in it. That's her box, and we—that is, you and I—dare not touch it, as it is not ours. That's right, isn't it? You've got toy horses and pictures. . . . I don't take them, do I? Perhaps I might ...
— The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... habitations, the little the people had there being destroyed this year by the freshets (inondations) which have carried off houses, cattle and grain. There is no probability that any families will desire to expose themselves hereafter to a thing so vexatious and so common on that river. Monsieur De Chauffours, who used to be the mainstay of the inhabitants and the savages, has been forced to abandon it and to withdraw to Port Royal, but he has no way to make a living there for his family, ...
— Glimpses of the Past - History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 • W. O. Raymond

... it would not be prudent to attempt getting in. In every part of Port Egmont there is fresh water in the greatest plenty, and geese, ducks, snipes, and other birds are so numerous, that our people grew tired of them: It was a common thing for a boat to bring off sixty or seventy fine geese, without expending a single charge of powder and shot, for the men knocked down as many as they pleased with stones: Wood, however, is wanting here, except a little that is found adrift along ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... of the thing by watching the monitors. They chattered together, and the girls went pleasantly through what was expected of them. Hod seemed quite numb, and Fran scowled. But he was more gracious when he saw Soames ...
— Long Ago, Far Away • William Fitzgerald Jenkins AKA Murray Leinster

... some mystery, depend upon it,' Mrs Lambert said, as she folded her mittened hands and twirled her thumbs one over the other, in a meditative mood; 'but I'll ring for Symes to get her a hot posset, poor thing.' ...
— Bristol Bells - A Story of the Eighteenth Century • Emma Marshall

... you are so exactly refin'd a Man of the Town, that you will not offer once to think of so dull a thing: let that alone for such cold Complexions as Bellmour here, and I, that have not attain'd to that most excellent faculty of Keeping yet, as you, Sir Timothy, have done; much to your Glory, ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. III • Aphra Behn

... same thing. But, you'd keep quiet for ten dollars, wouldn't you, if that was all ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page

... thing wore its accustomed aspect. Neither lamp nor candle was to be found. Now, for the first time, suspicions were suggested as to the nature of the light which I had seen. Was it possible to have been the ...
— Wieland; or The Transformation - An American Tale • Charles Brockden Brown

... were pleased to show him the manikin. She had rushed immediately to the grocer's shop to tell the thing, and the whole village now imagined that they had a real corpse concealed in their house. Foureau, yielding to the public clamour, had come to make sure about the fact. A number of persons, anxious for ...
— Bouvard and Pecuchet - A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life • Gustave Flaubert

... tassels hung round the crupper. A squire walked at the side of the sovereign, who held in his hand a long pole, at the end of which was an umbrella, to defend his majesty from the heat of the sun. The guard followed them on foot in great silence. Every thing announced fear. A look from the sovereign every where spread consternation. At his least word, he saw the head of one or more of his subjects fall without the least emotion. The culprit is lifeless, ere the last words of the sentence are out of his mouth. However, I never knew a rich man, who ...
— Perils and Captivity • Charlotte-Adelaide [nee Picard] Dard

... "It's the only thing to do," said Johnson. "Zanzibar is a nervous colt, and if I worked him on the track with the other horses he'd go all to pieces. That's why I have Dutchy take him out on a country road and canter him. It keeps him from fretting ...
— Old Man Curry - Race Track Stories • Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan

... "She has been at home far too long, running wild, and it's the only thing to be done. But let ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand

... then Fred would come down in the morning pale, sick, and subdued-looking; his head tightly bound with a handkerchief, and his whole countenance expressive of suffering. A sick headache was the only thing that could tame him; and a smile of ineffable relief sat on the faces of the others as they glanced at his woe-begone visage. He was as secure for that day as though chained hand and foot. My quiet hours were when some fascinating book engrossed my whole attention; I drank ...
— A Grandmother's Recollections • Ella Rodman

... we hunted the dog-banditti into their caves of the city, and bribed them into giving back their victim. Money was the least thing to think of in such case; I would have given a thousand pounds if I had had them in my hand. The audacity of the wretched men was marvellous. They said that they had been 'about stealing Flush these two years,' ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon

... having been condemned by Caesar, the thing that most prevailed upon the people (to whom he had appealed) to determine the cause in his favour, was the animosity and vehemence that Caesar had ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... and rural districts, whose needy children are no less entitled to public aid simply because their numbers are smaller. Great as were the difficulties, however, the committee saw that difficulties are in themselves no reason for not doing the right thing. On the other hand, if doing things at school is wrong, if school meals fail to correct and remove physical defects, great social and educational wrong would result from New York's setting an example that would not only misdirect funds and attention ...
— Civics and Health • William H. Allen

... ask me to leave my husband you ask me to do a dishonorable and cowardly thing. Fred has never"—the writing ceased abruptly. Fred read it again aloud, then sprang to his feet with a smothered exclamation. Only one solution presented itself to his mind. She had been writing to Rance Belmont trying to withstand ...
— The Black Creek Stopping-House • Nellie McClung

... more than child!—accomplished, beautiful with the most touching beauty, innocent as an angel—all these qualities that should disarm the very wolves and crocodiles, are, in the eyes of those to whom I stand indebted, commodities to buy and sell. You are a chattel; a marketable thing; and worth—heavens, that I should say such words!—worth money. Do you begin to see? If I were to give you freedom, I should defraud my creditors; the manumission would be certainly annulled; you would be still a slave, and ...
— The Dynamiter • Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny van de Grift Stevenson

... silently sacrificing herself. I clearly understood that Mr. Alcott was admirable, but he sometimes brought manuscript poetry with him, the dear child of his own Muse. There was one particularly long poem which he had read aloud to my mother and father; a seemingly harmless thing, from which ...
— Two Thousand Miles On An Automobile • Arthur Jerome Eddy

... is no uncommon thing for the ladies not to get their telephone messages," she replied evasively. "That was one reason why Mrs. Dick ran away with the milkman. She was so upset at not receiving an invitation to a wedding that had been sent her ...
— Polly and the Princess • Emma C. Dowd

... gathered together outside. From one of them Lacosse learnt that this man had shot two people since he had fixed himself at this spot, and that he was a terror to most of the miners in the camp. It appears to have been no uncommon thing among them for a man to settle a quarrel by severely disabling his adversary. There were several people at work down by the river, with their arms in slings, who had received serious injuries in quarrels ...
— California • J. Tyrwhitt Brooks

... wish ended, but he was transformed, and seemed a horse of twenty pound price, and leaped and curveted as nimble as if he had been in stable at rack and manger a good month. Then wished he himself a dog, and was so: then a tree, and was so: so from one thing to another, till he was certain and well assured that he could change himself ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick

... incomprehensible thing is that people studying history deliberately avoid seeing that this flank march cannot be attributed to any one man, that no one ever foresaw it, and that in reality, like the retreat from Fili, it did not suggest itself to ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy

... companion was eager to have some sport out of the incident, so he urged him to ask her how much the dress cost. He was not quite sure of the propriety of doing such a thing, but was reassured of this by his friend in whose judgement he had profound confidence; so he went up to the lady, took hold of her dress, held it up in his hand beyond the limit of discretion, and asked her in pure Anglo-Scotch how much a yard it might cost. The lady was startled, ...
— The Shellback's Progress - In the Nineteenth Century • Walter Runciman

... do you call it, Boss? I guess it's no such thing. No man knows better nor you, that, if I can whittle the smallest stick in creation, I can bring down the stoutest tree as well as ere a fellow in Michigan. Work is work—play is play. It's only the difference, I reckon, of the axe ...
— Hardscrabble - The Fall of Chicago: A Tale of Indian Warfare • John Richardson

... as a tutor in an English nobleman's family, had worked out his educational theories in practice and thought them through as mind processes, and had become thoroughly convinced that it was the process of learning that was important, rather than the thing learned. Education to him was a process of disciplining the body, fixing good habits, training the youth in moral situations, and training the mind through work with studies selected because of their disciplinary value. This conception of ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY

... inquired what sort of fare I might expect. Such a thing as a bed was not to be seen, but many large untanned bear and buffalo hides lay piled in a corner. I drew a fine timepiece from my breast, and told the woman that it was late, and that I was fatigued. She had espied my watch, the richness of which seemed ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... P.M. that afternoon the bivouac ground was empty and my composite column dispersed. I at once set to work to gather up the threads of my own especial work. The first thing was to establish a depot at Kroonstad for my brigade supplies. The next, to bespeak horses at the Remount Depot, just established at Kroonstad. I was busy at this work the next day when I received a message to report myself at headquarters. ...
— The Chronicles of a Gay Gordon • Jose Maria Gordon

... Charles Darwin to explain what he meant by the "Book of the Machines": "I am sincerely sorry that some of the critics should have thought I was laughing at your theory, a thing which I never meant to do and should be shocked at having done." Soon after this Butler was invited to Down and paid two visits to Mr. Darwin there; he thus became acquainted with all the family and for some years was on intimate terms with Mr. (now ...
— The Humour of Homer and Other Essays • Samuel Butler

... this was a good thing, as it kept me from brooding over Santiago's story, though even at the busiest times the thought of my father's fate would creep into my mind. I saw nothing of Jose, who had been left behind with some Indians to hold a mountain pass, but occasionally I paid a brief visit to the Spanish ...
— At the Point of the Sword • Herbert Hayens

... any thing, any fit for your ears, and my language; though I was bred up dull, I was ever civil; 'tis true, I have found it hard to look on you, and not desire, 'twill prove a wise mans task; yet those desires I have so mingled still, ...
— The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher - Vol. 2 of 10: Introduction to The Elder Brother • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... the baby have or touch the thing he starts after on taking the first step, and he will always get what he wishes. If it be the moon, then let him touch something light, on which its ...
— Current Superstitions - Collected from the Oral Tradition of English Speaking Folk • Various

... apparently cherished prayer-book that had been her solace during the last few months of her life. On the fly-leaf she had written: "I have nothing of God's earthly gifts to leave behind but this. It has brought me riches, but it is a poor thing in itself. I bequeath it, my only earthly possession, to the kind and merciful one who taught me that there is good in this bad world of ours." It was inscribed ...
— The Hollow of Her Hand • George Barr McCutcheon

... there can be no means of dominating those who have dominated us except by taking this process of the original selection of nominees into our own hands. Does that upset any ancient foundations? Is it not the most natural and simple thing in the world? You say that it does not always work; that the people are too busy or too lazy to bother about voting at primary elections? True, sometimes the people of a state or a community do let a direct primary go by without asserting their authority as against the bosses. The ...
— The New Freedom - A Call For the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People • Woodrow Wilson

... thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every ...
— Parish Papers • Norman Macleod

... experiment," exclaimed the cook, "for I do not know the new King's temper. But the idea may please His Majesty, and since you will not allow me to kill the birds, it is the best thing I can do. As for your other condition, you seem to be a very bright boy, and so I will have the butler take you as his page, and you shall stand back of the King's chair and keep the flies ...
— Mother Goose in Prose • L. Frank Baum

... shattered limb or a ball in one's side lengthens the miles astonishingly—in those horrid ambulances to the cars. 'We cried last night like children, some of us,' said a Lieutenant,'but we're all right now. This Hospital Train is a jolly thing. It goes like a cradle.' Seeing my sympathy wasted, I tried another tack. 'Did you know that Sherman was in Dalton?' 'No!' cried the Colonel and all the men who could, raised themselves up and stared at me with eager, questioning eyes. 'Is that so?' 'Yes,' I replied, 'It ...
— Woman's Work in the Civil War - A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience • Linus Pierpont Brockett

... nowhere can the entire Sydney be better seen. Of the three satirists of modern times with whom he may not unfairly claim to rank—Pascal, Swift, and Voltaire—he is most like Voltaire in his faculty of presenting a good thing with a preface which does not in the least prepare you for it, and then leaving it without the slightest attempt to go back on it, and elaborate it, and make sure that his hearer has duly appreciated it and laughed at it. And of the two, though the palm ...
— Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860 • George Saintsbury

... thing in this fight of all the fights I have seen, is the enormous amount of ammunition fired. There was a continuous roar of musketry from four o'clock in the morning until four in ...
— The Boys of '98 • James Otis

... worried about telepaths. In the first place, the only thing I had to hide was my conviction about a secret organization and how part of it functioned. In the second place, the chances were good that few, if any, telepaths were working there, if the case of Dr. Thorndyke carried any weight. That there were some ...
— Highways in Hiding • George Oliver Smith

... Anybody 'u'd think we'd lost all the rest of our family, when we're only doin' the square thing by our daughter. That's all. Why, you'll be as happy as a canary in less'n two weeks. Young folks is about the same everywhere, an' you'll git acquainted in less'n ...
— A Little Norsk; Or, Ol' Pap's Flaxen • Hamlin Garland

... "The first thing to ascertain," Lisle said, "is whether the enemy are still here, and to find out for certain whether our friends have left. If they stay where they were, we can swim the river and join them; if they have retreated, and the Ashantis are still here, we shall know that ...
— Through Three Campaigns - A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti • G. A. Henty

... you her best love, and wants you to get thoroughly rested, so that you can see her the first thing in the morning, Mrs. Wetherly. She says you are not to let ...
— In The Valley Of The Shadow • Josephine Daskam

... circumspection, and a most careful calculation of consequences. Error, if innocent and honest, is not punishable by divine, and ought not to be by human, law. It is covered by the mercy of God, and must not be pursued by the animosity of men. But it is, nevertheless, a thing to be dreaded and to be guarded against, with the utmost vigilance. Throughout the melancholy annals of the Church and the world, it has been the fountain of innumerable woes, spreading baleful influences through society, paralysing the energies of reason and conscience, dimming, all but ...
— Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather - A Reply • Charles W. Upham

... Madame Wachner, quickly divining his thoughts, "some of the people 'ere—why, they stay out on the water all night! Then they catch the early train back to Paris in the morning, and go and work all day. Ah, yes, it is indeed a splendid thing to be young!" ...
— The Chink in the Armour • Marie Belloc Lowndes

... the same breath struck the key-note of his character. "Where had he been? Lord, everywhere! What had he been? Bless you, everything a'most. Seen a good deal? Why, of course he had. Would be easier for him to tell what he hadn't seen than what he had. Ah! A deal, it would. What was the curiosest thing he'd seen? Well! He didn't know—couldn't name it momently—unless it was a Unicorn, and he see him over at a Fair. But"—and here came the golden retrospect, a fairy tale of love told by a tavern Boots, and ...
— Charles Dickens as a Reader • Charles Kent

... country, lies three miles to the west of Trois Rivieres. Here are two great forges, besides two lesser ones to each of the great ones, and under the same roof with them. The bellows were made of wood, and every thing else as in the Swedish forges. The ore is got two and a half miles from the iron-works, and is carried thither on sledges. It is a kind of moor-ore (Tophus Tubalcaini: Linn. Syst. Nat., lib. iii., p. 187, note 5), which lies in veins within ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... The Republican party has its own record to meet here. The first time the negro suffrage question was submitted to the people of Iowa, it was submitted by a Republican legislature, and the submission was made when not over one voter in a hundred desired it done. This latter thing was a plain proposition, a most justly preferred petition. The people who were anxious to have the question submitted, are, it is confidently claimed, in majority. We think their wishes might well and fitly have been granted. ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... the rocky tomb so deep, Why raise the monument so fair, Save that the form we cherish there Is no dead thing, but laid to sleep? ...
— The Hymns of Prudentius • Aurelius Clemens Prudentius

... half-bombing machine. They call it a Sopwith, and it is a very good machine. They went over there, and the first ones over were the Frenchmen, and they dropped bombs on these Mauser works, and the only thing that the English saw was a big cloud of smoke and dust, and they could not see the works so they just dropped into them. Out of that raid the fighting machines got eight Germans and dropped them, and the Germans got eight Frenchmen. So, out of sixty-eight they lost eight, but we also ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot

... trying to get a bird's-eye of the town. I happened to notice a chink in the wall where a stone and a lot of plaster had slid out. Thinks I, I'll take a peep through to see how Mr. President's cabbages are growing. The first thing I saw was him and this Sir Englishman sitting at a little table about twenty feet away. They had the table all spread over with documents, and they were hobnobbing over them as thick as two pirates. 'Twas a nice corner of the garden, all private ...
— Cabbages and Kings • O. Henry

... victory, the earth out of which the altar is to be made should be taken from a place where a boar has been wallowing, since the strength of the boar will be in that earth. When you are playing the one-stringed lute, and your fingers are stiff, the thing to do is to catch some long-legged field spiders and roast them, and then rub your fingers with the ashes; that will make your fingers as lithe and nimble as the spiders' legs—at least so think the Galelareese. To bring back ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... you'd like to know you've got a strange lodger down to the old house. I don't seem to ever get moved!" she enlarged. "I'm always runnin' down there after first one thing 'n' another we've forgot. This morning 't was my stone batter-pot. Chauncey said he thought it was getting cold enough for buckwheat cakes. I don't suppose you want to have stray tramps in there in the old house, building fires in the ...
— The Desert and The Sown • Mary Hallock Foote

... prefer. I should prefer Pedro, that I confess, but the Archduke[53] has made a favourable impression on Charlotte; I saw that long before any question of engagement had taken place. The Archduke is out at sea, and nothing can well be heard before the 25th of this month. If the thing takes place the Emperor ought to put him at the head of Venice; he ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume III (of 3), 1854-1861 • Queen of Great Britain Victoria

... considerable time before giving rise to marked symptoms, and attention may first be drawn to it by pain and difficulty in swallowing, or by pain shooting towards the ear. In some cases enlargement of the glands behind the angle of the jaw is the first thing to attract the patient's attention. The other symptoms are very like those of cancer of the tongue—pain during eating or drinking, salivation and foetid breath. Sometimes fluids regurgitate through the nose, and the voice may become nasal and indistinct. As the patient is usually ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles

... her head, and went on, with the same reasonable sweetness. "And then, there's another thing. If I married you, sooner or later you would have to take me home to your people. Have you really thought of that, and how you would feel about it, when it came to the point?—No, no, it's impossible for ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson

... father." These are not the words of ordinary mourning, or of an ordinary woman. It is a saying, over which Balzac would have rubbed his episcopal hands. That the child who was to avenge her husband had not been born out of her body, was a thing intolerable to Valentina of Milan; and the expression of this singular and tragic jealousy is preserved to us by a rare chance, in such straightforward and vivid words as we are accustomed to hear only on the stress of actual life, or in the theatre. In history - where we see things as in ...
— Familiar Studies of Men & Books • Robert Louis Stevenson

... mounted the rostrum a man who held in his hand a contract between the king and the people; he began by saying that glory was a beautiful thing, and ambition and war as well; but there was something still more beautiful, ...
— The Confession of a Child of The Century • Alfred de Musset

... She was wondering how best to approach the questions in her mind. Somehow they did not come as easily as she had anticipated. It was one thing to make up her mind beforehand, and another to put her decision into execution. He was certainly not the rough, uncouth man she had expected to find. True, his language was the language of the prairie, and his clothes, yes, they surely belonged to his surroundings, ...
— The Golden Woman - A Story of the Montana Hills • Ridgwell Cullum



Words linked to "Thing" :   body of water, artefact, attribute, stinker, part, matter, entity, target, state of affairs, real thing, necessary, content, jimdandy, crackerjack, subject, least, occurrence, statement, affair, artifact, situation, requisite, horror, feeling, physical entity, happening, requirement, building block, essential, occurrent, abstraction, concern, security blanket, objective, freshener, animate thing, wobbler, variable, feast, reservoir, jimhickey, aim, nonessential, variation, standby, unit, thing-in-itself, water, necessity, pill, piece, whacker, natural event, near thing, flagship, source, action, living thing, inessential, change, sure thing, whopper, abstract, object, snorter, pacifier, depicted object



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