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Agate   Listen
noun
Agate  n.  
1.
(Min.) A semipellucid, uncrystallized variety of quartz, presenting various tints in the same specimen. Its colors are delicately arranged in stripes or bands, or blended in clouds. Note: The fortification agate, or Scotch pebble, the moss agate, the clouded agate, etc., are familiar varieties.
2.
(Print.) A kind of type, larger than pearl and smaller than nonpareil; in England called ruby. Note: This line is printed in the type called agate.
3.
A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals. (Obs.)
4.
A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.; so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Agate" Quotes from Famous Books



... (i.e., costing five dollars or less) are either lancewood or steel. See that your rod has "standing guides" and not movable rings. Most of the wear comes on the tip, therefore it should if possible be agate lined. A soft metal tip will have a groove worn in it in a very short time which will cut the line. The poorest ferrules are nickel-plated. The best ones are either German silver or brass. To care for a rod properly, we must keep the windings varnished ...
— Outdoor Sports and Games • Claude H. Miller

... the spot. Still, we picked up a few on the way. As these are now so much the fashion for jewelry, I will describe them. First, I should say that most suppose they contain real moss, or fern-leaves, so distinct are they seen in a clear agate to resemble them. Thus you see imitations of pine-trees, vines, a deer's head, and sprigs of various kinds; but it is through iron solutions penetrating them when in a soluble state. If you take a pen and drop some ink into a tumbler of water, it will scatter ...
— Three Years on the Plains - Observations of Indians, 1867-1870 • Edmund B. Tuttle

... stay with me for a while, Mary'll look after him. And I'll play marbles with him. Got any white alleys? Gimme six, and I'll give you an agate." ...
— The Awakening of Helena Richie • Margaret Deland

... dried, both the inner and outer surfaces are carefully and patiently smoothed and polished with a small stone, commonly a ribbon agate. During this process all pebbles found protruding from the surface are removed and the pits are filled with new clay thoroughly smoothed in place, and the thickness of the pot is made more uniform. The vessel is again placed on its supporting base in the sun, and kept turned ...
— The Bontoc Igorot • Albert Ernest Jenks

... Princess Elsa, drawing Patsy down on a sofa by the window, "let me look at you that I may see what it is that sets all the men agate to be carrying you off, and fighting duels about you. I suppose a woman cannot always tell, just because she is a woman. But I can see that you are vivid with life. You shine ...
— Patsy • S. R. Crockett

... playing and I'll hunt for the marble," said Bully after a while, so he searched along in the grass, and, as he did so, he dropped a nice glass agate out of his bag. He stooped to pick it up, but before he could get his toes on it something that looked like a big chicken's bill darted out of the prickly briar bush and gobbled ...
— Bully and Bawly No-Tail • Howard R. Garis

... the domain of the lapidary was almost as extensive as at the present day. That domain included the amethyst, the emerald, the garnet, the aquamarine, the chrysoprase, the innumerable varieties of agate and jasper, lapis lazuli, felspar, obsidian; also various rocks, such as granite, serpentine, and porphyry; certain fossils, as yellow amber and some kinds of turquoise; organic remains, as coral, mother-of-pearl, and pearls; ...
— Manual Of Egyptian Archaeology And Guide To The Study Of Antiquities In Egypt • Gaston Camille Charles Maspero

... of marble, rose and white in the sun; rock pools, with exquisite network of sunbeams crossing their rippling surface, and filled with green ribbon-grasses and red sea-foliage, and shining gleams of broken porphyry, and pieces of agate and cornelian. ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida

... Where grows the willow and the osier dank, My sliding chariot stays, Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen Of turkis blue, and emerald green, That in the channel strays; Whilst from off the waters fleet Thus I set my printless feet O'er the cowslip's velvet head, That bends not as I tread. Gentle swain, at ...
— L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas • John Milton

... serve to contain the relics of many Saints, which that Pontiff presented to that church in memory of himself. It would not be possible to find anything more varied than the curves of those vases, some of which are of sardonyx, agate, amethyst, and lapis-lazuli, and some of plasma, heliotrope, jasper, crystal, and cornelian, so that in point of value or beauty nothing more could be desired. For Pope Paul III he made a cross and two candelabra, likewise of crystal, engraved ...
— Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects - Vol. 06 (of 10) Fra Giocondo to Niccolo Soggi • Giorgio Vasari

... sometimes, like the spire of Dijon, it is by its own will or fault, it never seems to have been passively crushed But, for the forces which cause this passive ruin of the tourmaline,—here is a stone which will show you multitudes of them in operation at once It is known as "biecciated agate," beautiful, as you see, and highly valued as a pebble yet, so far as I can read or hear no one has ever looked at it with the least attention At the first glance, you see it is made of very fine red striped agates, ...
— The Ethics of the Dust • John Ruskin

... has sapped thy strength and rendered thy glory inglorious!... death that for thee, alas! shall be mournful and utter oblivion! Naught shall it avail to thee that thy musical weaving of words hath been graven seven times over, on tablets of stone and agate and ivory, of gold and white silex and porphyry, and the unbreakable rose-adamant,—none of these shall suffice to keep thy name in remembrance,—for what cannot be broken shall be melted with flame, and what cannot be erased shall ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli

... hailed from the South. We met the old gentleman in Paris, and the old lady some weeks later in Naples. Though the weather was moderately warm in Paris that week he wore red woolen wristlets down over his hands; and he wore also celluloid cuffs, which rattled musically, with very large moss agate buttons in them; and for ornamentation his watch chain bore a flat watch key, a secret order badge big enough to serve as a hitching weight and a peach-stone carved to look like a fruit basket. Everything ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb

... amid a shower of heartfelt congratulations, and loving wishes for the future opening out before them. Just as Elisabeth passed through the doorway into the evening sunshine, which was flooding the whole land and turning even the smoke-clouds into windows of agate whereby men caught faint glimmerings of a dim glory as yet to be revealed, she turned and held out her hands once more to her friends. "It is very good to come back to you all, and to dwell among mine ...
— The Farringdons • Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

... brilliant window niche, How statue-like I see thee stand, The agate lamp within thy hand! Ah, Psyche, from the regions ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe

... Shoi's murmuring flood! How its bamboos uptower in green array; The bonnets of the great, the wise and good At either ear an agate gem display; Bright as a star the crownlet of their hair— What witchery lurketh in their voice and eyes; Survey them once, and whilst thou breath'st the air Thou'lt ne'er forget the great, the ...
— Targum • George Borrow

... a study of our collections that ornaments of stone were seldom used by the inhabitants of Chiriqui. There are a few medium sized beads of agate and one pendant of dark greenish stone rudely shaped to resemble a human head. Ornaments of gold and ...
— Ancient art of the province of Chiriqui, Colombia • William Henry Holmes

... baffled description. The vessel sailed over a violet sea, and under a sky dappled with agate-coloured clouds. At noon the heat was terrible and all colour melted away, "with the canescence from above." The passengers were sympathetic with one another, notwithstanding their recent factiousness, and were especially kind to a poor little brown baby, ...
— The Life of Sir Richard Burton • Thomas Wright

... home is eighteen miles from St. Paul, on Lake St. Croix. It is a beautiful lake, and is navigable for large steamers, and there is splendid fishing here for boys. We find many specimens of carnelian on the lake shore. It is a species of agate or chalcedony. I would like to exchange some for any curiosities ...
— Harper's Young People, August 10, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... predominates—above all, in the shadows—and give value to the green tones of the grass. The upright stems show bare with colours as of stones and of rocks—grey, tawny, flushed, always very luminous (like an agate) in the reflections: the whole takes a sombre colour which vies in vigour with ...
— The Mind of the Artist - Thoughts and Sayings of Painters and Sculptors on Their Art • Various

... the men behind him in the barroom listened in attitudes which, varying in other matters, were alike in their tenseness. Galloway, however, staring stonily with eyes not unlike polished agate, so cold and steady were they, gave no sign ...
— The Bells of San Juan • Jackson Gregory

... many ancient practices and beliefs, as each stone had its own symbolic meaning, and its own peculiar influence for imparting good and protecting from evil and from sickness, its fortunate possessor. Probably John's description of heaven with its windows of agate, its doors of pearls or carbuncles, its foundations of amethyst, with sapphires blue, and sardines clear and red, had relation to the popular beliefs of the time. I have seen at Mill More, Killin, stones which are reported to have been used by St. Fillan for curing all sorts ...
— Folk Lore - Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century • James Napier

... clay like the American wampum or the ornaments of the Fernando Po tribes; and others flattened discs, also baked, almost identical with those found upon African mummies—in Peru they were used to record dates and events. A few were of reddish agate, a material not found in the island; these resembled bits of thick pipe-stem, varying from half an inch to an inch in length. Perhaps they were copies of the mysterious Popo-bead found upon the Slave Coast and in ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... the whole winter is during the moonlight nights, when the wind is still and the snow deep on the ground. In the streets the sparkling trottoir, which appears literally paved with diamonds, is as hard as the agate floor of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Kremlin. In the country, where alone you can enjoy the night in all its beauty, the frozen surface crunches, but scarcely sinks, beneath the sledge, as your troika tears ...
— Russia - As Seen and Described by Famous Writers • Various

... of the host. This alcove is decked with many little images of saints, which, with a few small pictures, of rare beauty,—the subjects all of a religious character,—and two cabinets of a curious, agate-colored marble, a product of the New World,—are the only ornaments that relieve the extreme simplicity of the apartment, with its plain white walls and floor of brick. The other alcove is occupied ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 15, January, 1859 • Various

... and crystal logically identical with the minerals whose names they bear. Any size, any surface. Diamond, Rock-Crystal, Agate and Ruby Bearings-cups, caps and collars for the higher speeds. For tractor bearings and spindles-Imperative. For rear ...
— Actions and Reactions • Rudyard Kipling

... excavations, to purchase and sell again to the Roman antiquaries—to boast his prowess as compared with that of A., who had bitten him severely several times in their dealings; and, in the full tide of his self-glorification, I turned the conversation on the black agate, now become famous among the dealers. He could not resist the temptation, and told me all about it. "A. believes it to be antique, don't he?" "O, he is certain of it," said I. "Well, I'll tell you how it is: I bought the thing ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 108, October, 1866 • Various

... out the dough, roll several times in the flour, give one quick turn with the rolling-pin to flatten out dough, and cut out with small cake cutter, (I prefer using a small, empty tin, 1/2 pound baking powder can, to cut out cakes.) Place close together in an agate pan and bake, or bake in one cake in a pie tin and for shortcake; or place spoonfuls of the dough over veal or beef stew and potatoes or stewed chicken, and cook, closely covered, about fifteen minutes. ...
— Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit - among the "Pennsylvania Germans" • Edith M. Thomas

... home asking if agates were expensive, and if she might have one. Not that she thought they were pretty, but it was the stone for June, so of course she ought to wear one. The answer came in the shape of an old heirloom, a Scotch agate that had been handed down in the family, almost since the days of Malcolm the Second. It had been a small brooch, worn on the bosom of many a proud MacIntyre dame, but never had it evoked such interest as when, set ...
— The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware • Annie Fellows Johnston

... or discs of lapis lazuli, agate, turquoise, gold, silver, copper, antimony, and other metals with dedicatory inscriptions were deposited in the temples. What particular purpose they served we do not know. As a specimen of the more common formula on these tablets, a lapis lazuli tablet of Nippur may be chosen. ...
— The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria • Morris Jastrow

... said Dr. Deane, and in came Mr. Alfred Barton, resplendent in blue coat, buff waistcoat, cambric ruffles, and silver-gilt buckles. But, alas! the bunch of seals—topaz, agate, and cornelian—no longer buoyed the deep-anchored watch. The money due his father had been promptly paid, through the agency of a three-months' promissory note, and thus the most momentous result of the robbery ...
— The Story Of Kennett • Bayard Taylor

... response. A faint shrug of the shoulders, perhaps. The Mexican's glistening, sinister eyes, on the other hand, continued as rigid as orbs of polished agate, and his face ...
— The Iron Furrow • George C. Shedd

... it holds, and silver from Atropatene, Ruby and emerald from Hindustan, and Bactrian agate, Bright with beryl and pearl, sardonyx and sapphire."— and more that cannot be uttered— ...
— The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories • L. Adams Beck

... edges will be even. If the edges are to be gilded, the book is put in a gilding press and a skillful workman covers the edges with a sizing made of the white of eggs. Gold leaf is then laid upon them and they are burnished with tools headed with agate and bloodstone or instruments of various sorts until they are bright. Sometimes the edges are "marbled," and this is an interesting process to watch. On the surface of a vat of thin sizing the marbler drops a little of many colors of paint. Then he draws a comb ...
— Makers of Many Things • Eva March Tappan

... untarnishably clear childlike eyes on Sheila, 'I will take all risks—even to the foot of the gibbet: accessory, Danton, AFTER the fact.' And so direct and cloudless was his gaze that Sheila tried in vain to evade it and to catch a glimpse of Danton's small agate-like eyes, now completely under mastery, and awaiting confidently ...
— The Return • Walter de la Mare

... of the peril or the danger left. It is not like a city besieged, and the siege raised when the thing over which contending hosts have been quarrelling has become a ruin, but not one stone has been smitten from the walls, nor one agate chipped in the windows of the palaces. It is unharmed as well ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... kitchen door upon Eve and Miss Mullett, who, draped from chin to toes in blue-checked aprons, were busy over the summer preserving. A sweet, spicy fragrance was wafted out to him from the bubbling kettles, and now and then Eve, bearing a long agate-ware spoon and adorned on one cheek with a brilliant streak of currant juice, came to the threshold and smiled down upon him in a preoccupied manner, glancing ...
— The Lilac Girl • Ralph Henry Barbour

... had stood in his eyes changed slowly and in its place came an expression that was twin to that in Bud Lee's eyes, just a look of inscrutability with a hint of watchfulness under it, and the hardness of agate. While a man might have drawn a deep breath into his lungs and expelled it, neither Lee ...
— Judith of Blue Lake Ranch • Jackson Gregory

... excellent oil is obtained from the kernel by compression. The hard covering of the stem is converted into drums and used in the construction of huts; the lower part is so hard as to take on a beautiful polish [83] when it resembles agate. Finally the unexpanded terminal bud is a delicate article of food. Many other uses could be mentioned, but these may suffice to indicate how closely the life of the inhabitants is bound up with the culture of this palm, and how ...
— Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation • Hugo DeVries

... delightful Oriental confections now appeared for Amy and Mrs. Ashe; Turkish slippers, all gold embroidery; towels, with richly decorated ends in silks and tinsel;—all the pretty superfluities which the East holds out to charm gold from the pockets of her Western visitors. A pretty little dagger in agate and silver fell to Katy's share out of what Lieutenant Worthington called his "loot;" and beside, a most beautiful specimen of the inlaid work for which Nice is famous,—a looking-glass, with a stand and little doors to close it in,—which was a present from Mrs. Ashe. ...
— What Katy Did Next • Susan Coolidge

... and cry All night, merrily, merrily; They would pelt me with starry spangles and shells, Laughing and clapping their hands between, All night, merrily, merrily: But I would throw to them back in mine Turkis and agate and almondine: [1] Then leaping out upon them unseen I would kiss them often under the sea, And kiss them again till they kiss'd me Laughingly, laughingly. Oh! what a happy life were mine Under the hollow-hung ocean green! Soft are the moss-beds ...
— The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson • Tennyson

... head of each individual rested on a stone, fashioned with care, but to no certain pattern. Some were fusiform, others wedge-shaped, and others irregularly oblong. In general, the stones did not appear to be the production of the country. One was oriental jade, another German agate. In the tomb were also a few cinerary urns; whence it appears that the people, by whom it was constructed, were of a nation that was at once in the habit of burning, and of interring, their dead. From these facts, the Abbe finds room for much ingenious conjecture; and, after discussing the ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2) • Dawson Turner

... in fact can be imagined grander or more beautiful than we have hitherto found the river, and that too so near Bathurst that no reasonable expectation could have been formed of finding it such as we did. Many good specimens of agate forming on granite were found on the hills, chiefly where the limestone appeared in the largest and most continued stratum. We indulged ourselves in the probable speculation, that where limestone was found in such abundance as in this country, quarries of ...
— Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales • John Oxley

... round whose palpable contours and lines he may hang the solemn ornaments of the Dead—of the Dead to whom his soul turns, even while embracing the living! Far, far off, from where the real Helen waits, so "statue-like"—the "agate lamp" in her hands—wavers the face of that other Helen, the face "that launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless ...
— Visions and Revisions - A Book of Literary Devotions • John Cowper Powys

... lymph glands, etc., may be divided into small pieces by sterile instruments and rubbed up in a sterilised agate mortar (using an agate pestle), with a small quantity of sterile bouillon, and the syringe filled ...
— The Elements of Bacteriological Technique • John William Henry Eyre

... shelves full of little miracles, both of nature's material and man's workmanship. Greater [larger] things can be reasonably well appreciated with a less scrupulous though broader attention; but in order to estimate the brilliancy of the diamond eyes of a little agate bust, for instance, you have to screw your mind down to them and nothing else. You must sharpen your faculties of observation to a point, and touch the object exactly on the right spot, or you do not appreciate it at all. It is a troublesome process when there are a thousand ...
— Passages From the French and Italian Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... the yellow beauty of morning came their sadness returned, and they wept. Once more Sie accompanied her lover to the terrace-steps; and as she kissed him farewell, she pressed into his hand a parting gift,—a little brush-case of agate, wonderfully chiselled, and worthy the table of a great poet. And they separated forever, shedding ...
— Some Chinese Ghosts • Lafcadio Hearn

... the surface of the sand are innumerable pebbles of all sizes and colours—onyx, cornelian, agate, and many more, as well as sea fossils and other petrifactions which boys would love to collect. And it is also curious to notice that the rocks which crop up in all directions become sunburnt, and limestone, naturally ...
— Peeps at Many Lands: Egypt • R. Talbot Kelly

... the bed of the creek, but the pools were shallow and not permanent. Grassy flats extended for a mile on each bank of the creek, beyond which the level forest of stringybark, bloodwood, and box was well grassed; the soil a good red loam. In a few spots fragments of limestone and agate were strewed over the surface, and an occasional ridge of ironstone conglomerate was crossed on which the grass was indifferent. At 12.45 p.m. camped in a wide grassy flat, where the grass, having been burnt early in the season, had sprung up ...
— Journals of Australian Explorations • A C and F T Gregory

... thing I gave you ages ago!" he suddenly exclaimed in a pleased tone, holding up a little agate heart on a faded blue ribbon. "Will you let me take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh?" he asked, half in earnest, half in jest, touched by the little trinket and the recollections ...
— Rose in Bloom - A Sequel to "Eight Cousins" • Louisa May Alcott

... dark man in a pure white robe, his face and head smooth-shaven, approached the bed. He held out a broad gold cup, the rim whereof glinted with agate and sardonyx. He had no Greek, but Roxana took the cup from him and held it ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis

... BANANA SURPRISE—Turn any left-over breakfast cereal, while still hot, into cups rinsed in cold water, half filling the cups. When cold, scoop out the centers and fill the open spaces with sliced bananas, turn from the cups onto a buttered agate pan, fruit downward, and set into a hot oven to become very hot. Remove with a broad-bladed knife to cereal dishes. Serve at once with sugar and cream ...
— Good Things to Eat as Suggested by Rufus • Rufus Estes

... while in happy consonance the forelocks were like ravellings of silken veils; between the knees and the fetlocks the legs were flat as an open hand, but above the knees they were rounded with mighty muscles, needful to upbear the shapely close-knit bodies; the hoofs were like cups of polished agate; and in rearing and plunging they whipped the air, and sometimes the earth, with tails glossy-black and thick and long. The sheik spoke of them as the priceless, and ...
— Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ • Lew Wallace

... Afford, to give doni. Affray batigxo. Affright timigi. Affront insulto. Afloat flose, nagxe. Afraid timigita. Aft posta parto. After post. Aftermath postfojno. Afternoon posttagmezo. Afterwards poste. Again ree. Against kontraux. Agate agato. Age agxo. Aged maljuna. Agency agenteco. Agenda memorlibro. Agent agento. Aggrandize pligrandigi. Aggrandisement pligrandigo. Aggravate plimalbonigi. Aggression atako. Aggressor atakanto. Aghast terurega. Agile ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes

... Italian, the Persian, the modern English, &c. There were fountains of fairy workmanship, pictures from the old masters, statues from Italy, "chefs-d'oeuvre" of art; porcelain from China and Svres; damasks, cloth of gold, and bijoux from the East; Gobelin tapestry, tables of malachite and agate, and "knick- knacks" of every description. In the Mediaeval and Elizabethan apartments, it did not appear to me that any anachronisms had been committed with respect to the furniture and decorations. The light was subdued by passing through windows of rich stained ...
— The Englishwoman in America • Isabella Lucy Bird

... per Agate line. Four insertions, 70c. per Agate line for each insertion. Thirteen insertions, 65c. per Agate line for each insertion. Twenty-six " 60c. per Agate line for each insertion. Fifty-two " 50c. per Agate line ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume XIII, No. 51: November 12, 1892 • Various

... and perhaps Mr. Simpson if he gets along better will buy her a breast-pin and earrings, and she'll be fitted out like the others. I know Mrs. Peter Meserve is looked up to by everybody in Edgewood on account of her gold bracelets and moss agate necklace." ...
— New Chronicles of Rebecca • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... make pipes of agate, amber, crystal, carnelian and ivory, as well as the various kinds of pure or mixed metals. Many of the French and German pipes while they are beautiful in design and made of the most costly materials are often exceedingly grotesque, representing ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings

... an agate, in which appeared, formed by the hand of nature, Apollo amidst the Nine Muses holding a harp. At Venice another may be seen, in which is naturally formed the perfect figure of a man. At Pisa, in the church of St. John, there is a similar natural production, which represents an old hermit ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... unendurable. He rose and crossed to the farther side of the desk. The Aquila, rounding the northern end of Bainbridge Island, had come into Agate Pass; the tide ran swift in rips and eddies between close wooded shores, but these things no longer caught his attention. The scene he saw was the one he had put behind him, and in the calcium light of his mind, ...
— The Rim of the Desert • Ada Woodruff Anderson

... scented on its stalk, the sea-violet fragile as agate, lies fronting all the wind among the torn ...
— Sea Garden • Hilda Doolittle

... "build me a palace fit to receive the Princess Buddir al Buddoor. Let its materials be made of nothing less than porphyry, jasper, agate, lapis-lazuli, and the finest marble. Let its walls be massive gold and silver bricks laid alternately. Let each front contain six windows, and let the lattices of these (except one, which must be left unfinished) be enriched with diamonds, ...
— The Junior Classics, V5 • Edited by William Patten

... an ancient Roman might have for the Sibylline books in the Capitol. There are, as you see, twelve magnificent stones, inscribed with mystical characters. Counting from the left-hand top corner, the stones are carnelian, peridot, emerald, ruby, lapis lazuli, onyx, sapphire, agate, ...
— Tales of Terror and Mystery • Arthur Conan Doyle

... bolt upright, planted on both feet, like some victim dropped straight from the gibbet, when Raphael broke in upon him. He was intently watching an agate ball that rolled over a sun-dial, and awaited its final settlement. The worthy man had received neither pension nor decoration; he had not known how to make the right use of his ability for calculation. He was happy in his life spent on the watch for a discovery; he ...
— The Magic Skin • Honore de Balzac

... eaten and drunk as much as he wanted, the fairy Pari Banou took him through all the rooms, where he saw diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and all sorts of fine jewels, intermixed with pearls, agate, jasper, porphyry, and all kinds of the most precious marbles; not to mention the richness of the furniture, everything was in such profusion, that the prince acknowledged that there could not be anything in the world that could come up to ...
— Fairy Tales From The Arabian Nights • E. Dixon

... green twilight lands Under the sea Her rainbow palace stands, Irised and opaline; Agate and almondine, Corals and pearly shells Swept from deep ocean dells, Strewing the silver strands, Starring the golden sands In the green twilight lands Under ...
— The Path of Dreams - Poems • Leigh Gordon Giltner

... Lord; and the former has in veritas the beautiful tomb of a Borghese princess and high-born Englishwoman (Lady Geraldine Talbot). The altar of the Virgin is supported by four pillars of oriental jaspar, agate, and gilded bronze; the image, which is said to have been the work of St. Luke(!), is richly adorned with precious stones. The church itself abounds in beautiful pictures, statuary, and tombs. The chapel of Santa Lucia is also very interesting, possessing many ...
— Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo • W. Cope Devereux

... had been stripped of all possibility now. The fateful comparison had been made—the comparison which most women make in the decision of such momentous issues—one man against another. Their emotions are the agate upon which the scales must swing. In favour of the man before her, they swung ...
— Sally Bishop - A Romance • E. Temple Thurston

... of strength was further enhanced by a week's growth of blue-black beard. But his eyes, agate gray and flecked with the green of the "moss" variety, were the real touchstones of his character, and they belied the stern lines of his mouth and chin and spoke eloquently of a warm, kindly heart within the powerful body, a body which, to the city dweller, ...
— 'Smiles' - A Rose of the Cumberlands • Eliot H. Robinson

... fragile-looking man, in pale gray suit, including frock coat of identical tint and texture, moving about among the company, conversing with different groups, and occasionally consulting his watch," which seemed to be" no bigger than an agate stone on the forefinger of an alderman." Whiskerless, beardless, fair of hair, and pale and thin of face, his appearance was "interesting and conspicuous," and when, "after a final glance at his miniature horologe, he ascended ...
— Chopin: The Man and His Music • James Huneker

... in yon brilliant window-niche How statue-like I see thee stand! The agate lamp within thy hand, Ah! Psyche, from the regions which ...
— The Function Of The Poet And Other Essays • James Russell Lowell

... the cushions were placed; two pictures, one representing Diana and Endymion, the other Venus and Mars, decorate the chamber; and a little niche, which contains the statue of a domestic god. The floor is composed of a rich mosaic of the rarest marbles, agate, jasper, and porphyry; it looks to the marble fountain and the snow-white columns, whose entablatures strew the floor of the portico they supported. The houses have only one story, and the apartments, tho not large, are very lofty. A great advantage results ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Vol VIII - Italy and Greece, Part Two • Various

... and in the city proper are found souvenirs of the patriotic war. You enter the Kremlin which Napoleon tried to explode, and which has been restored, you visit there the church of the Annunciation, and you will be told that the French soldiers had stabled their horses on the pavement of agate; you visit the church of the Assumption and you will be shown the treasures which, on the approach of the French, had been taken to places of safety; you raise your eye to the summit of the tower of Ivan and you learn ...
— Napoleon's Campaign in Russia Anno 1812 • Achilles Rose

... of French poetry represented by such names as Theophile Gautier, Leconte de Lisle, Theodore de Bauville, and Baudelaire. The modern use of the word dates from the publication of "La Parnasse Contemporain" (Lemerre, 1866).] carve urns of agate and of onyx, but inside the urns what is there?—ashes. Their work lacks feeling, seriousness, sincerity, and pathos—in a word, soul and moral life. I cannot bring myself to sympathize with such a way of understanding poetry. The talent shown ...
— Amiel's Journal • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... exclusive of his best agate, fought a boy who had unlawfully possessed himself of his most cherished "conny," and returned home with saddened spirits an hour later, only to find as he went through the gate that he had lost Aldith's ...
— Seven Little Australians • Ethel Sybil Turner

... Chile, within the Cordillera, old Indian houses are said to be especially numerous: by digging amongst the ruins, bits of woollen articles, instruments of precious metals, and heads of Indian corn, are not unfrequently discovered: an arrow-head made of agate, and of precisely the same form with those now used in Tierra del Fuego, was given me. I am aware that the Peruvian Indians now frequently inhabit most lofty and bleak situations; but at Copiapo I was assured by men who had spent their lives ...
— The Voyage of the Beagle • Charles Darwin

... of the turtle-dove and the goat. Other leeches consider that when the liver is diseased it is necessary to cure it with just the opposite remedies, and the opponent of Peneter-Deva being Sebek, [Planet Mercury] to give quicksilver, emerald, and agate, hazel-wood and coltsfoot, also parts of the body of a toad and an ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus

... presentment of a pump-room king, crowned with a white hat, waiting all day long in his best at the bow-window of the Smyrna Coffee-House to get a bow from that other, and alas! better accredited royalty, the Prince of Wales; this picture, of an old beau, with his toy-shop of gold snuff-boxes, his agate-rings, his senseless obelisk, his rattle of faded jokes and blunted stories—all this had something very attractive to Goldsmith both in its humour and its pathos; and he has left us, in his Life of Nash, ...
— Gossip in a Library • Edmund Gosse

... And as strange thoughts Grow with a certain humming in my ears, About the life before I lived this life, And this life too, Popes, Cardinals, and priests, Your tall pale mother with her talking eyes And new-found agate urns fresh as day ...
— Christopher Columbus, Complete • Filson Young

... really such as it ought to have been feign'd." And this Bossu himself illustrates admirably well by an ingenious Simile; "A Statuary," says he, "first forms his Design, Posture, Altitudes which he intends for his Image; but if he then lights on any precious Material, Agate, or such like, where the Figure, the Colours, and Veins will not be accommodated to all he design'd, he regulates his Design and Imagination according to his Matter; nor ought we to believe, at the same time, that ...
— Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697) • Samuel Wesley

... six upright glass cases, in which are exposed to view statuettes, vases, cups, caskets, and a variety of ornaments made of lapis lazuli, rock crystal, jasper, agate, aqua marina, turquoise, and gold. In the second glass case is the most valuable article, acasket of rock crystal, with twenty-four events from the life of Christ engraved upon it by Valerio Belli, by order of Clement VII., who presented it to Catherine of Medicis as a wedding present. The Room ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black

... Benidjigemah, meaning "across the lake," and Bemidji is frequently known as Traverse Lake. It is a lovely, unbroken expanse, about seven miles long and four miles wide. Its shores are of beautiful white sand, gravel and boulders, reaching back to open pine-groved bluffs. Our shore-searchers found agate, topaz, carnelian, etc. Our approach to Bemidji had been invested with special interest as the first unmistakable landmark in our lonely wanderings, and as the home of one man—a half-breed—the only human being who has a home above Cass Lake. ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 • Various

... Polar light. Yet if I could dissolve in tears this core Of ice, my heart, undo these crystal spells, We should be sisters of incense evermore Like the crowned Lover of the Canticles. Through the great honeycomb of my soul should steep The secrets of the lilies, and her fire Be ambergris, her agate flagons keep The sorcelled hydromel which brings Desire To that mysterious Dark where still prevails The dream of ...
— The Hours of Fiammetta - A Sonnet Sequence • Rachel Annand Taylor

... these old mansions I saw had a fine copper roof that shone in the sun like a monster Lake Superior agate. It stands a bit back from the road, and on one great gatepost is a brass plate reading "Cardigan Hall," and on the other a sign, "No Admittance—Apply at the Office." So I applied at the office, which is evidently ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 2 of 14 - Little Journeys To the Homes of Famous Women • Elbert Hubbard

... evening So soon? I see, the night-dews, 15 Cluster'd in thick beads, dim The agate brooch-stones On thy white shoulder; The cool night-wind, too, Blows through the portico, 20 Stirs thy hair, Goddess, Waves ...
— Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems • Matthew Arnold

... too, shifts up and down with mirage play, climbing sometimes into the horizon, or again sharply defined against it; often it resembles a milky river flowing between banks of mud. The surface is rarely lustrous, but of a velvety texture, like a banded agate, mouse-colour or liver-tinted, with paler streaks in between, of the dead whiteness of a sheet of paper; now and again there flash up livid coruscations that glister awhile like enamel or burnished steel, and then fade away. These are the fields of virgin salt which, when you cross them, are ...
— Fountains In The Sand - Rambles Among The Oases Of Tunisia • Norman Douglas

... compass. (See Compass, Mariner's—Compass, Spirit, and other titles under compass, also Magnetic Axis—Magnetic Elements.) The needle in good compasses carries for a bearing at its centre, a little agate cup, and a sharp brass pin is the point ...
— The Standard Electrical Dictionary - A Popular Dictionary of Words and Terms Used in the Practice - of Electrical Engineering • T. O'Conor Slone

... sometimes masticated instead of the Betle-nut. In Brazil, baskets are made of the small fibres. The hard case of the stem is converted into drums, and used in the construction of huts. The lower part is so hard as to take a beautiful polish, when it resembles agate. The reticulated substance at base of the leaf is formed into cradles, and, as some say, into a coarse kind of cloth. The unexpanded terminal bud is a delicate article of food. The leaves furnish thatch for dwellings, and materials for fences, buckets, ...
— Flowers and Flower-Gardens • David Lester Richardson

... Scald the skins off the tomatoes and cut in rather large pieces; shred cabbage; peel and slice carrots; peel and chop onions; cut corn from cob; cut celery as for salad; remove the seeds from peppers, chop them and the parsley quite fine. Mix all together and boil for one hour in a porcelain or agate kettle, stirring often to prevent scorching; about ten minutes before it is done, add salt to taste. Seal hot in glass jars. Potatoes may be added to the soup in ...
— Stevenson Memorial Cook Book • Various

... suitable girl, they broach the subject to her family. This is not done directly, but through an intermediary, generally a relative, "who can talk much and well." He carries with him three beads—one red, one yellow, and one agate, [78] which he offers "as an evidence of affection," and then proceeds to relate the many desirable qualities of the groom and his family, as well as the advantages to be gained by the union. If the suit is favored, the beads are attached ...
— The Tinguian - Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe • Fay-Cooper Cole

... in the heavens, presenting in a jewelled form contrasts of colour, pleasing harmonies, and endless variety of shade. The diamond, sapphire, emerald, amethyst, topaz, and ruby sparkle among crowds of stars of more sombre hue. Agate, chalcedony, onyx, opal, beryl, lapis-lazuli, and aquamarine are represented by the radiant sheen emanating from distant suns, displaying an inexhaustible variety of colour, blended ...
— The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' • Thomas Orchard

... welcome, if it's only as an excuse for t' liquor. But t' whalers, say'st ta? Why, is t' whalers in? There was none i' sight yesterday, when I were down on t' shore. It's early days for 'em as yet. And t' cursed old press-gang's agate again, doing ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. I • Elizabeth Gaskell

... all tea and coffee pots were "salt-glazed," plain, or, if decorated, copies of Oriental patterns, which were the only available models, imported for the use of the rich. Wedgwood invented in turn his tortoise shell, agate, mottled and other coloured wares, and finally his beautiful pale-cream, known as "Queen's" ware, in honour of Queen Charlotte, his patron. It is the "C.C." (cream colour) which is so popular to-day, either plain or decorated. He invented colours, as well as bodies, for the manufacture ...
— The Art of Interior Decoration • Grace Wood

... retired from the apartment with stately and ceremonious gravity. His treatment was suited to his rank and dignity: a magnificent apartment in the Alhambra was assigned to him, and before his departure a scimetar was sent to him by the king, the blade of the finest Damascus steel, the hilt of agate enriched with precious stones, and the guard of gold. De Vera drew it, and smiled grimly as he noticed the admirable temper of the blade. "His Majesty has given me a trenchant weapon," said he: "I trust a time will come when I may show him that ...
— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving

... slights of men, And pangs of hopeless passion also, To have his carven agate-stone On such a bosom rise ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 4 (of 4) • Various

... times combined more of morals with medicine than our own. They discovered that the agate rendered a man eloquent and even witty; a laurel leaf placed on the centre of the skull fortified the memory; the brains of fowls and birds of swift wing wonderfully helped the imagination. All such specifics have now disappeared, and have greatly ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... outworn — Sink into saintly heavens of stirless air, Clean from confessional. One died, this morn, And willed the world to wise Queen Tranquil: she, Sweet sovereign Lady of all souls that bide In contemplation, tames the too bright skies Like that faint agate film, far down descried, Restraining suns in sudden thoughtful eyes Which flashed but now. Blest distillation rare Of o'er-rank brightness filtered waterwise Through all the earths in heaven — thou always fair, Still virgin bride of e'er-creating thought — Dream-worker, in whose dream the Future's ...
— The Poems of Sidney Lanier • Sidney Lanier

... through the water so that all the light is transmitted from beneath and colored by the sea. Outside the magic world of pantomime there is nothing to equal these effects of blue and silver.... Numberless are the caves at Capri. The so-called Green Grotto has the beauty of moss agate in its liquid floor; the Red Grotto shows a warmer chord of color; and where there is no other charm to notice, endless beauty may be found in the play of sunlight upon roofs of limestone, tinted ...
— Italy, the Magic Land • Lilian Whiting

... Nyero, unlike its northern namesake, is a sluggish, muddy stream, rather small, flowing between abrupt clay banks. Farther down it drops into great canons and eroded abysses, and acquires a certain grandeur. But here, at the ford of Agate's Drift, it is decidedly unimpressive. Scant greenery ornaments its banks. In fact, at most places they run hard and baked to a sheer drop-off of ten or fifteen feet. Scattered mimosa trees and aloes mark its course. The earth for a mile or so is trampled by thousands of Masai cattle that ...
— African Camp Fires • Stewart Edward White

... ancient jewellers, which we have hitherto known only from pictures on the walls of tombs or on the boards of coffins, is here exhibited in all its cunning. The ornaments comprise a wealth of gold gorgets, necklaces of agate beads or of enamelled lotus-flowers, cornelian, amethyst, and onyx scarabs. Pectorals of pierced gold-work, inlaid with flakes of vitreous paste or precious stones, bear the cartouches of Usirtasen III. and of Amenemhait II., and every one of ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... can, No. 3, with a cover; some sawdust; a covered agate pail (to be used as a cooking pail); and two yards of denim; any old linen, cotton, or woollen material may ...
— Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Science in Rural Schools • Ministry of Education Ontario

... lighted by windows with dentelated arches, looking on to the gardens. On the marble floor were designs of graceful bouquets in onyx, lapis-lazuli, and agate. ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant



Words linked to "Agate" :   agate line, chalcedony, moss agate



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