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Breaking   Listen
noun
breaking  n.  The act of breaking something.
Synonyms: breakage, break.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Breaking" Quotes from Famous Books



... his verses, never leaving any thing he had planted more than three months in the same place: and, if he set a fruit-tree, or sowed seed of any kind, he would go so often to examine it, and see if it were growing, that he generally ended with spoiling or breaking ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 17, No. - 481, March 19, 1831 • Various

... with the full force of their lungs while sharing the skipper's hymn-book appealed to them strongly. Besides, it maddened the mate, and to know that they were defying their superior, and at the same time doing good to their own souls, was very sweet The boy, whose voice was just breaking, got off some surprising effects, and seemed to compass ...
— Sea Urchins • W. W. Jacobs

... how it could be entered, Nya led them to a kind of cleft in its stones, not more than two feet in width, across which cleft were stretched strings of plaited grass. She pressed herself against them, breaking them, and walked forward, followed by Rachel and Noie. Suddenly they heard a noise above them, and, looking up, saw white-robed dwarfs perched upon the stones of the cleft, holding bent bows in their hands, whereof the arrows were pointed at their breasts. ...
— The Ghost Kings • H. Rider Haggard

... gravely, "that's not it exactly. At least, not with the most of us. It's rather the pride of wresting another quarter-section from the prairie, taking—our own—by labor, breaking the wilderness. You"—and he added this as if to explain that he could hardly expect her quite to grasp his views—"have ...
— Masters of the Wheat-Lands • Harold Bindloss

... Christ, who, to speak of him not as theology has interpreted him to us, but as he appeared to the eyes of his contemporaries, was the reputed son of Joseph and Mary, the Bethlehemites; who by his words and deeds had attracted much attention and made some converts; now accused of breaking the Jewish Sabbath, now of plotting against the Roman sovereignty; one who in his own person had felt the full power of temptation, and who had been raised to the grandeur of a transfiguration; so tender he would not bruise the broken reed, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various

... put aside with any talk about stocks, and duties, and respectability: all these, though very eminent matters, are but so many types in the volume of your thought; and your eager resolves about them are but so many ambitious waves breaking up from that great sea of dreamy speculation that has spread over your soul from its first start into the realm ...
— Dream Life - A Fable Of The Seasons • Donald G. Mitchell

... of a class which exist north as well as south—a most inveterate negro hater. At this period of William's history, a circumstance occurred, which, although a common incident in the lives of slaves, is one of the keenest trials they have to endure—the breaking up of his family circle. Her master wanted money, and he therefore sold Elizabeth and six of her children to seven different purchasers. The family relationship is almost the only solace of slavery. While the mother, ...
— Three Years in Europe - Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met • William Wells Brown

... dark hair and light lashes, and Tom freckles and a snub-nose, and Oliver a mole on his left cheek, and John fine red-gold hair on his bronzed skin; and Henry was merely the Odd-Job Boy whose voice was breaking, so he imagined that it was he alone who ran the farm. But Charles was a dear. He had a tuft of white hair at the back of his dark head, like the cotton-tail of a rabbit, and as well as corduroy breeches he wore a rabbit-skin waistcoat, ...
— Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard • Eleanor Farjeon

... i., p. 273. Others contend for a later date to this most important change; but, on the whole, it seems a necessary consequence of the innovations of Clisthenes, which were all modelled upon the one great system of breaking down the influence of the aristocracy. In the speech of Otanes (Herod., lib. iii., c. 80), it is curious to observe how much the vote by lot was identified with a republican form ...
— Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... breaking heavily over the whole length of the barrier reef; but my experience among the Caroline and Marshall Islands led me to believe that somewhere in that reef a break might be found wide enough to allow the passage of the ship through it. Examining the long ...
— Overdue - The Story of a Missing Ship • Harry Collingwood

... with a stately air. His face lit up, and his eyes took on a far-away look. "I haf never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. That will be the word of God, Mr. Coulson, and not even the lawyers can be breaking that. I will not be righteous, oh, no! The Lord forbid that I say such a word, for it is the evil tongue I will be hafing that will be uttering ungodly words when the dogs will be coming into the house o' the Lord—and a curse on them for ...
— 'Lizbeth of the Dale • Marian Keith

... earing", as he put it; and I told him the complete yarn, as he sat cross-legged in his low lounging chair, with a cheroot stuck in the corner of his mouth, listening, nodding his head from time to time, and frequently breaking in with a question upon some point which he wished to have more fully explained. He also put Master Jack pretty completely through his facings, so that, when at length we rose to go, he had acquired a very fair amount of ...
— A Middy in Command - A Tale of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood

... not once been a shoemaker: "No, sir," exclaimed Carey immediately; "only a cobbler." An eminently characteristic anecdote has been told of his perseverance as a boy. When climbing a tree one day, his foot slipped and he fell to the ground, breaking his leg by the fall. He was confined to his bed for weeks, but when he recovered and was able to walk without support, the very first thing he did was to go and climb that tree. Carey had need of this sort of dauntless courage for the great missionary ...
— How to Get on in the World - A Ladder to Practical Success • Major A.R. Calhoon

... solid arch of peperino, facing a cross-road leading from the Appian to the Latin Way; but the soil in the course of ages accumulated over it, and buried it out of sight. It was accidentally discovered in 1780, in consequence of a peasant digging in the vineyard to make a cellar, and breaking through a part of the vaulted roof of the tomb. Then was brought suddenly to light the celebrated sarcophagus of plain peperino stone, which contained the remains of the Roman consul, Lucius Scipio Barbatus, after having been undisturbed ...
— Roman Mosaics - Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood • Hugh Macmillan

... prison of the Inquisition has been broken open will ever reach the men on my estate. The priest of the village is a worthy man; and he has, I know, no sympathy with bigotry and cruelty. Consequently, if any of them should, in their confession, tell him that they have been engaged in breaking a prison, he will perchance guess what prison it was, and may imagine that I had a hand in it. But I feel sure that the knowledge so gained would go ...
— Under Drake's Flag - A Tale of the Spanish Main • G. A. Henty

... Ky.—This invention has for its object to furnish an improved plow for breaking up sod or prairie land, which shall be strong and durable in construction and effective ...
— Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 • Various

... son do but kill mice," up through the elaborate maledictions of the two old paupers in "The Workhouse Ward" and such delightful asperities as that of Maelmora anent his bitter sister Gormleith, "You were surely born on a Friday, and the briars breaking through the green sod," to aphorisms that have an accent of eternity, as, "It is the poor know all the troubles of the world," and "The swift, unflinching, terrible ...
— Irish Plays and Playwrights • Cornelius Weygandt

... drawn, but with the breaking of the window they began to flap about. With the iron grating he had picked up from the drain below the window young Trevert smashed the rest of the glass away, then thrust an arm through the empty ...
— The Yellow Streak • Williams, Valentine

... getting poisoned by Inds. (Kaiserimas) or strangled. So you have to rely utterly on Indians, which you often cannot get, as the district of Roraima is very poorly inhabited, and most of the Indians died by smallpox and measles breaking out among them four years ago, and those that survived left the district, and you will find whole districts nearly uninhabited. About five years ago I went up with Mr. Osmers to Roraima, but he broke down before we reached the ...
— About Orchids - A Chat • Frederick Boyle

... as often as on some plantations. The little girl, Della, was whipped only once—for breaking up a turkey's nest she had found. Several were accused of this, and because the master could not find the guilty party, he ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume IV, Georgia Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration

... exclaimed, the complaint wrung from her: "how can you be so light, so cruel, when our hearts are breaking?" ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood

... spectacles is here! Let me embrace too. 'O heart,' as the goodly saying is,— O heart, heavy heart, Why sigh'st thou without breaking? ...
— The History of Troilus and Cressida • William Shakespeare [Craig edition]

... make another move before anybody could get here. You heard what Sam said, and it shows he is so discontented that he'll be insisting on breaking camp very soon, unless he turns his back on this ...
— Messenger No. 48 • James Otis

... from house to house keep out the sun. Mules rattle through the crowd; curs yelp between your legs; negroes are as hideous and bright clothed as usual; grave Turks with long chibouques continue to march solemnly without breaking them; a little Arab in one dirty rag pokes fun at two splendid little Turks with brilliant fezzes; wiry mountaineers in dirty, full, white kilts, shouldering long guns and one hand on their pistols, stalk ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 • Robert Louis Stevenson

... deplore the blindness of the unfortunate creature who could renounce the happiness of possessing me, and congratulate myself upon getting rid of a heart unworthy of me. Besides, I have always felt grateful to those benevolent beauties who take upon themselves the disagreeable task of breaking off an engagement. At first, there is a slight feeling of wounded self-love, but as I have for some time concluded that the world contains an infinity of beings endowed with charms superior to mine, it only lasts a moment, and if the scratch bleed a little, I consider myself ...
— The Cross of Berny • Emile de Girardin

... by the mystery of her innocent youth. Mrs. Mallory was like steel beneath the soft and indolent surface. Swiftly she mapped her plan of attack. The Alaskan could not be moved, but it might be possible to startle the girl into breaking the engagement. Genevieve Mallory would have used the weapon at hand without scruple in any case, but she justified herself on the ground that such a marriage could result only ...
— The Yukon Trail - A Tale of the North • William MacLeod Raine

... in our comparison, every suggestion which has succeeded leaves a strong trace, or engram, in the brain. It has opened a way by breaking down a barrier or a chasm, and its effect, which appeared hitherto difficult or impossible to realize, will henceforth be much more easy to obtain. This is why considerable cerebral repose is often necessary at first to open a way for a suggestion, while later ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel

... point. It is to be hoped that Italy may also consent to hand over Rhodes and the neighbouring islands to Greece, in return for a free hand in Southern Asia Minor in the event of the Turkish Empire breaking up. By far the thorniest problem is provided by the future ownership of Kavala, which the Treaty of Bucarest assigned to Greece in August 1913, but which from an economic point of view is Bulgaria's port on the Aegean, and as vital a necessity ...
— The War and Democracy • R.W. Seton-Watson, J. Dover Wilson, Alfred E. Zimmern,

... had a most complete and wrong- headed contempt. She cared nothing for the ordinary laws of social life, and was prepared to break through them on emergency, as a wasp breaks through a spider's web. Perhaps she guessed that a good deal of breaking would be forgiven to the owner of such a lovely face, and more than twenty thousand a year. With all this, she was extremely observant, and possessed, unknown to herself, great powers of mind, and great, though dormant, capacities for passion. ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard

... adverbial adjunct, take "From abroad he received most favourable reports, but in the City he heard that a panic had broken out on the Exchange, and that the funds were fast falling." This ought to mean that the "hearing," and not (as is intended) that the "breaking out of the panic," took ...
— How to Write Clearly - Rules and Exercises on English Composition • Edwin A. Abbott

... the genius of Valmiki. The plot is based on the story of Valmiki, the robber chief, being moved to pity and breaking out into a metrical lament on witnessing the grief of one of a pair of cranes whose mate was killed by a hunter. In the metre which so came to him he afterwards ...
— My Reminiscences • Rabindranath Tagore

... conscious of a Presence in the room, and a chilling breath thrilled through my very being. "He is no such thing," cried my Wife, "and you are breaking the Commandments in thus dishonouring your own Grandson." But I took no notice of her. Looking around in every direction I could see nothing; yet still I FELT a Presence, and shivered as the cold whisper came again. I started up. "What ...
— Flatland • Edwin A. Abbott

... vagueness and dreadfulness of the words of Him who never spoke exaggerated words, and who, when He said, 'It shall grind him to powder,' meant (as it seems to me) nothing less than a destruction which, contrasted with the former remediable wounding and breaking, was a destruction utter, and hopeless, and everlasting, and without remedy. Ground—ground to powder! Any life left in that? any gathering up of that, and making a man of it again? All the humanity battered out of it, and the life clean gone from it! Does not that sound very much like 'everlasting ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren

... to shrug his shoulders without breaking the rhythm of his arms. "Perhaps my English is unequal to understanding what you mean by outside. All the forces I know are ...
— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore

... crimes in ancient Japan were divided into two classes: namely, sins against heaven and sins against the State. At the head of the former list stood injuries to agricultural pursuits, as breaking down the ridges of rice-fields, filling up drains, destroying aqueducts, sowing seeds twice in the same place, putting spits in rice-fields, flaying an animal alive or against the grain, etc. The crimes against the State were cutting and ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... was not surprised when, later on, just before they thought of breaking up the meeting, William got the floor on the question of a personal privilege, and threw a bombshell ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts - Or, The Struggle for Leadership • George A. Warren

... my life, and if I knew her, openly. Nothing short of bearing my name and being introduced to the world as my wife would satisfy her; and this not only threatened a scandal destructive of my hopes, but involved the breaking of a fresh matrimonial engagement into which I had lately entered with more ardor I fear than judgment. What was I to do? Let her have her way—this woman I had not seen in fifteen years,—who if at the age of twenty ...
— The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow • Anna Katharine Green

... poison their minds, until the fools with the high explosives blow that elemental goodness into shrieks of hate and splashes of blood. How kindly men are—up to the very instant of their cruelties! His mind teemed suddenly with little anecdotes and histories of the goodwill of men breaking through the ill-will of war, of the mutual help of sorely wounded Germans and English lying together in the mud and darkness between the trenches, of the fellowship of captors and prisoners, of the Saxons at Christmas fraternising ...
— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells

... creatures were struggling in it, I remember, and I thought to myself, how much more comfortably off I was than they; I was taking my ease on the nice open hill, cooled with the breezes, whilst they were in the nasty close bag, coiling about one another, and breaking their very hearts all to no purpose; and I felt quite comfortable and happy in the thought, and little by little closed my eyes, and fell into the sweetest snooze that ever I was in in all my life; and ...
— George Borrow - The Man and His Books • Edward Thomas

... subscribing for the feed," continued Tinkleby, brightening up. "We didn't let that fall through. It comes off on the breaking-up day, after the old boys' match. The Sixth are always invited in to have supper with the swells; but I know a lot or them would much rather be with us having a blow-out at 'Duster's.' Well, that's the meaning of our literary ...
— Soldiers of the Queen • Harold Avery

... celebrated dramatic writer, and patentee of the Duke's Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Ob. 1668, aged 64.] To-day was acted the second part of "The Siege of Rhodes." [Of which Sir W. Davenant was the author.] We staid a very great while for the King and Queen of Bohemia. And by the breaking of a board over our heads, we had a great deal of dust fell into the ladies' necks and the men's haire, which made good sport. The King being come, the scene opened; which indeed is very fine and magnificent, and well ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... their hands. For he had resolved that he would not evade the meeting. Cohenlupe had gone since he had made his promise, and he would throw all the blame on Cohenlupe. Everybody knows that when panics arise the breaking of one merchant causes the downfall of another. Cohenlupe should bear the burden. But as that must be so, he could do no good by going into the City. His pecuniary downfall had now become too much a matter of certainty to be staved off by his presence; and his personal security could ...
— The Way We Live Now • Anthony Trollope

... men were accepted as soldiers, and was exceedingly anxious to enlist. When they were nearly half across the river their young master reached the bank and bade them return or he'd shoot them; but the son pulled for the opposite shore, when a ball passed through his right arm, breaking the bone above the elbow. The mother took the oars and pulled with all her might, when a second ball entered the lungs of the son. They were met by a few of our soldiers, who took him from the skiff to the hospital, where he received the best ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland

... tell you how terrible that was to me,' he said, 'for I had by that time become quite aware that my happiness must depend upon you.' He tried the gentle, soft falsehoods that should have been as sweet as violets. Perhaps they were sweet. It is odd how stern a girl can be, while her heart is almost breaking with love. Hetta was ...
— The Way We Live Now • Anthony Trollope

... question all but led to the breaking up of the convention. The New Hampshire delegate had not yet appeared, and Rhode Island was never represented in the convention; the large states had therefore a majority of one. On June 13 it was voted that the ratio of representation in both branches of the legislature should be in proportion ...
— Formation of the Union • Albert Bushnell Hart

... both coming in, Miss Bruce," said Dick, breaking the awkward pause which succeeded Maud's mis-statement. "I think Puckers wears twice as smart a bonnet as yours. I hope you ...
— M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." • G.J. Whyte-Melville

... ceaseless Sang the grasshopper, Pah-puk-keena; 160 And the guests of Hiawatha, Weary with the heat of Summer, Slumbered in the sultry wigwam. Slowly o'er the simmering landscape Fell the evening's dusk and coolness, 165 And the long and level sunbeams Shot their spears into the forest, Breaking through its shields of shadow, Rushed into each secret ambush, Searched each thicket, dingle, hollow; 170 Still the guests of Hiawatha Slumbered in the silent wigwam. From his place rose Hiawatha, Bade farewell ...
— The Song of Hiawatha - An Epic Poem • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... are beginning to swell," she said. "I should hear small voices breaking out from the earth. I grow happy ...
— The Morgesons • Elizabeth Stoddard

... mat, and the Monte Carlo was not deserted. O Lalala would not budge to the demands of a hundred losers that he sell back packages of matches for cocoanuts or French francs or any other currency. Pigs, fish, canned goods, and all the contents of the stores he spurned as breaking faith with the kindly governor, who would recognize that while matches were not gambling stakes, all other ...
— White Shadows in the South Seas • Frederick O'Brien

... places, through the very prison doors, his gospel of hope has made its way. For the last dozen years the life prisoners in the Horsens penitentiary have been employed in breaking and reforesting the heath, and their keepers report that the effect upon them of the hard work in the open has been to notably cheer and brighten them. The discipline has been excellent. There have been few attempts at escape, and they have come to nothing through ...
— Hero Tales of the Far North • Jacob A. Riis

... unpleasant odors from the crude fuels and in early experiments with fats and waxes the odor was carefully noted as an important factor. Tallow was a by-product of the kitchen or of the butcher. Stearine, a constituent of tallow, is a compound of glyceryl and stearic acid. It is obtained by breaking up chemically the glycerides of animal fats and separating the fatty acids from glycerin. Fats are glycerides; that is, combinations of oleic, palmetic, and stearic acids. Inasmuch as the former is liquid at ...
— Artificial Light - Its Influence upon Civilization • M. Luckiesh

... J.J. Weyrauch and W. Launhardt, based on an empirical expression for Woehler's law, has been much used in bridge designing (see Proc. Inst. C.E. lxiii. p. 275). Let t be the statical breaking strength of a bar, loaded once gradually up to fracture (t breaking load divided by original area of section); u the breaking strength of a bar loaded and unloaded an indefinitely great number of times, the stress varying from ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various

... Tree. What characterizes the New York novels characterizes these others as well: a sense of human beings living in such intimate solidarity that no one of them may vary from the customary path without in some fashion breaking the pattern and ...
— Contemporary American Novelists (1900-1920) • Carl Van Doren

... to the army are obvious. In the case of an emergency, horses are always at hand, and these horses being bought in time of peace cost much less than it would be necessary to pay for them, were they to be purchased in a hurry upon the breaking out of a war, upon which occasions they are always dear, and sometimes not to ...
— ESSAYS, Political, Economical and Philosophical. Volume 1. • Benjamin Rumford

... enemy—pregnant with unseen terrors to glare at him. To breathe it stifled him; each draught of it was full of menace. With a shrill cry he dashed at the door, and felt in the clutch of his ghostly enemy when he failed to open it at once, breaking his nails on the baffling lock. He mowed and chattered and stamped, and tore at the lock, frustrate in fear. At last he was free! He broke into the kitchen, where his mother sat weeping. She raised her eyes to see a dishevelled ...
— The House with the Green Shutters • George Douglas Brown

... habit of mine to carry it and practise when I have a chance," Cairy remarked, breaking the revolver. After extracting the shells, he ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... they?" says Martin. This sort of verbal promptitude is out of the ordinary scope of Dickens; but we find it frequently in this particular part of Martin Chuzzlewit. Martin himself is constantly breaking out into a controversial lucidity, which is elsewhere not at all a part of his character. When they talk to him about the institutions of America he asks sarcastically whether bowie knives and swordsticks and revolvers are the institutions ...
— Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens • G. K. Chesterton

... the government is the JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT or the judiciary. Its members are, in Virginia, chosen by the legislature. Their duty is to administer the laws, that is to inquire into every case in which a person is accused of breaking the laws, and if a person is found to be guilty, to sentence him to the punishment which the law prescribes for the crime ...
— Civil Government of Virginia • William F. Fox

... in bed in one room at the Percy Standard, and Underwood in the next. The three conservative doctors moving from one chamber to another, watching each other closely, and hardly leaving the hotel, had a good time of it. Mr. Trigger had already remarked that in one respect the breaking of Sir Thomas's arm was lucky, because now there would be no difficulty as to paying the doctors out of the common fund. Every half-hour the state of the poll was brought to them. Early in the morning Moggs had been in the ascendant. At half-past nine the ...
— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

... You must know, madam, your father has us'd me very ill; and—to be plain with you, madam, your familiarity with this person, convinces me you wou'd have play'd the fool with my son, without my breaking the match. Ugh, ugh. ...
— The Politician Out-Witted • Samuel Low

... But I judge the beste, for in dobtes I will not resolve with a settled judgement, althoughe yo{u} may iudge this tediouse discourse of my father a needlesse thinge in setting forthe his diligence in breaking the yce, and givinge lighte to others, who may moore easely p{er}fecte then begyne any thinge, for facilius est addere qua{m} Invenire, and ...
— Animaduersions uppon the annotacions and corrections of some imperfections of impressiones of Chaucer's workes - 1865 edition • Francis Thynne

... made any discovery in medicine, and would communicate it to physicians nominated by the King. The latter part of the proposition was not agreeable to Mesmer. He feared the unfavourable report of the King's physicians; and, breaking off the negotiation, spoke of his disregard of money, and his wish to have his discovery at once recognised by the government. He then retired to Spa, in a fit of disgust, upon pretence of drinking the waters for the benefit of ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Vol. I • Charles Mackay

... help you, missy," he declared, "because I like you. And it's just because I like you that I don't feel particular inclined to assist him. He ought to keep to his own sphere. There's a lot of talk about breaking down the barriers that divide one class from another, but, I tell you, it's a job that wants very careful handling. And I've got as much sense as most, and I rather enjoy interfering with other people's ...
— Love at Paddington • W. Pett Ridge

... Breaking in was simple. He tried the windows opening on the main wide porch. One window slid up. He went ...
— Operation Terror • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... depth of the wretched man's degradation. In this manner they continued to live for three or four months, when, new quarrels breaking out, they separated once more. This time their separation was final. Kelly, taking the elixir which he had found in Glastonbury Abbey, proceeded to Prague, forgetful of the abrupt mode in which he had previously been expelled from that city. Almost immediately after his arrival, he ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay

... laid down to obtain his share of rest. Pedro told me that the species of hear we had killed lived chiefly on fruits and vegetables, and that he often commits great ravages in the maize-fields of the Indians, by breaking off the green tops and carrying them away to his hole in the mountains; but when he cannot obtain that sort of food, he will catch deer and wild boars, and will even attack the oxen employed in the sugar-mills on the plantations. He ...
— Manco, the Peruvian Chief - An Englishman's Adventures in the Country of the Incas • W.H.G. Kingston

... and done it now, young 'un, and no mistake," said a gruff voice; and I found that Ike had come softly up behind me. "I thought it was you tumbling and breaking of yourself again; ...
— Brownsmith's Boy - A Romance in a Garden • George Manville Fenn

... would be rigid. This state of things grew worse, until the child was accidentally seen by Dr. Leech, who, on examination, found a contracted and adherent prepuce, the child being at the time in a high fever and suffering great nervous excitement. An operation by slitting and breaking up the adhesion afforded immediate relief; the spinal irritation, partial paralysis of the lower extremities, spasms during urination, and all trouble disappeared as if ...
— History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present - Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance • Peter Charles Remondino

... o'clock, you would see him munching a French roll or a penny loaf; not taking it boldly out of his pocket at once, like a man who knew he was only making a lunch; but breaking off little bits in his pocket, and eating them by stealth. He knew too well ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens

... second speaker stopped short, and, breaking into a run, caught up with his friend ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Foresters • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... Suddenly he was sprinkled from head to foot, as if the earth had opened to make way for a waterspout. A shell had fallen into the moat, throwing up an enormous column of water, making the carp sleeping in the mud fly into fragments, breaking a part of the edges and grinding to powder the white balustrades with their great ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... shall state therein that I am going: which will be no unimportant consideration, as affording the best possible reason for a long delay. How I am to get on without you for seven or eight months, I cannot, upon my soul, conceive. I dread to think of breaking up all our old happy habits for so long a time. The advantages of going, however, appear by steady looking-at so great, that I have come to persuade myself it is a matter of imperative necessity. Kate weeps whenever it is spoken of. Washington Irving has got a nasty low fever. ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster

... in the air; and in manhood, anger, first showing itself in frowns, in distended nostrils, in compressed lips, goes on to produce grinding of the teeth, clenching of the fingers, blows of the fist on the table, and perhaps ends in a violent attack on the offending person, or in throwing about and breaking the furniture. From that pursing of the mouth indicative of slight displeasure, up to the frantic struggles of the maniac, we shall find that mental irritation tends to vent ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer

... leave soon after this. Elizabeth walked down to the gate with them. Malcolm thought she looked rather grave when she returned, as though something troubled her, but she would not hear of the party breaking up, and promised Malcolm that she would sing all his favourite songs to his friends, and she kept her word. Malcolm sat in a trance of beatitude while the beautiful voice floated out into the darkness, startling some night-bird in ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... its forked lightnings pointed sarcasms; for "the gnarled oak," he gives us "the soft myrtle:" for rocks, and seas, and mountains, artificial grass-plats, gravel-walks, and tinkling rills; for earthquakes and tempests, the breaking of a flower-pot, or the fall of a china jar; for the tug and war of the elements, or the deadly strife of the ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin

... beyond explanation. Cattle stampeding are no more senseless than men in such a state. Goldite, however, was not only habitually keyed to the highest of tension, but it had recently been excited to the breaking point by several contributing factors. Lawless thefts of one another's claims, ore stealing, high pressure over the coming rush to the Indian reservation, and a certain apprehension engendered by the deeds of those liberated convicts—all these elements had aroused an over-revulsion of ...
— The Furnace of Gold • Philip Verrill Mighels

... date of the sinking of the Lusitania, America has always been on the verge of breaking off diplomatic relations with us. The German people, I am convinced, have no idea of the full danger of the situation, at least, if one may judge from our Press. On two occasions we were compelled to sacrifice individuals ...
— My Three Years in America • Johann Heinrich Andreas Hermann Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff

... Harriet," said Mrs. Dearborn, "we can be good and glad at the same time; and that is what I am, I am sure. What you are doing is the initiation of one of the most worthy reforms of the day, and if it should have an effect in breaking up that wretched custom of the bridal tramp, which is considered so necessary in this country, society should rise up and call you blessed. But it is funny, for all that. I am sure that the first woman who dared to ...
— The Associate Hermits • Frank R. Stockton

... one and all, originally London thieves, and had been transported years before to the early penal settlements of Australia. From thence they had managed, by fair means and foul, to work their way to other places, and had latterly been living in the Middle Island, earning what they could by horse-breaking and divers odd jobs. But your true convict hates work with a curiously deadly hatred, and these four men agreed to go and look round them at the new West Coast diggings. They found, however, that there, as elsewhere, ...
— Station Amusements • Lady Barker

... that the earthy matter may be washed out. This washing is several times repeated, and the flax-like filaments collected and dried; these are easily spun with the addition of flax. The cloth when woven is best preserved by oil from breaking or wasting; on exposure to the fire, the flax and the oil burn out, and the cloth remains of a pure white. The shorter threads, which separate on washing the stone, may be made into paper in the ...
— A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery • Benziger Brothers

... other; and, accordingly, that when a covenant with God is made, it is in the use of the oath. What on this point could be more conclusive than the language,—"Thus saith the Lord God, I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant?"[114] ...
— The Ordinance of Covenanting • John Cunningham

... come to see you," he said, breaking the spell. "Do you still live out on the Hill road? I remember the ...
— The Day of the Beast • Zane Grey

... up your tent-pegs: rather a heart- breaking work, especially to those who so love beauty and have surrounded themselves within doors with so much. You need, dear friend, a broad and fruitful field in London for your spiritual activity to recompense the great—the very great—sacrifices you must make in parting ...
— Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman • Giberne Sieveking

... closed on the bag, something viselike and relentless had fastened upon those same expert fingers; breaking two of them, and rending the ...
— Further Adventures of Lad • Albert Payson Terhune

... encouragement of farming; and I also made an excursion to Hindelbanck, three leagues distant, where is a much admired monument, erected from a design of M. Nahl; it represents his wife, who died in child-bed, breaking; from her tomb with her child in her arms. The Canton of Berne, before the separation from it of the Cantons of Vaud and Argovia, formed about a third of Switzerland; its population is now about 300,000. ...
— A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium • Richard Boyle Bernard

... de Stahrenberg, the Austrian ambassador, when he received a letter from the king, sending him off to his abbey of St. Medard de Soissons. He continued the conversation without changing countenance, and then, breaking off the conversation just as the ambassador was beginning to speak of business. "It is no longer to me, sir," he said, "that you must explain yourself on these great topics; I have just received my dismissal from his Majesty." ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume VI. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... Tiberius; grew into that favour with the latter, and won him by those arts, as there wanted nothing but the name to make him a co-partner of the empire. Which greatness of his, Drusus, the emperor's son, not brooking; after many smothered dislikes, it one day breaking out, the prince struck him publicly on the face. To revenge which disgrace, Livia, the wife of Drusus (being before corrupted by him to her dishonour, and the discovery of her husband's counsels) Sejanus practiseth with, together with her physician called Eudemus, and one ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson

... nor dark, or rather was both by fits and starts. Light fleecy clouds were constantly passing over the heavens, now gathering densely together and completely hiding the stars, and now breaking up and revealing between the rifts then shining points. A low wind softly moaned through the leafless trees on the banks of the Severn, sadly chiming in with the murmur of the tide, which rose quite up to the Falls of the Yaupaae. In the indistinct light, ...
— The Lost Hunter - A Tale of Early Times • John Turvill Adams

... were the devouring elements leaping through the palaces and superb public buildings of the city; the petroleum flames were ascending from basement to roof; streets were in sheets of fire; the charred beams were breaking; the walls fell with thundering crash—the empress city was indeed on fire. Like the winds unchained by the storm-god, the passions of men marked their accursed sweep over the fairest city of Europe in torrents of human blood and ...
— Alvira: the Heroine of Vesuvius • A. J. O'Reilly

... our own France was forged by agelong struggles between the separate provinces. At one time every province, even every village, was a fatherland. For more than a hundred years the Armagnacs and the Burgundians (my ancestors) went on breaking one another's heads, to discover in the end that they were men of one blood. The war which is now mingling the blood of France and of Germany, is leading the French and the Germans to drink from the same cup to their future union, ...
— The Forerunners • Romain Rolland

... stared a moment in horror. "Good God! they've got us," the Doctor muttered, breaking the tenseness of ...
— The Girl in the Golden Atom • Raymond King Cummings

... but I've perhaps better reasons for my refusal than you think. Put it, if you will, that I feel too young, too inexperienced to deal with this fortune as Mr. Masters meant it to be dealt with, and on those grounds I ask you to devise some scheme for breaking it up without letting the workers suffer. I'll subscribe to any feasible plan you suggest. Will you ...
— Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker • Marguerite Bryant

... Muttering to herself, breaking her mutterings with sharp cries of pain, Sylvia, with Kester's help, reached widow Dobson's house. It was no longer a quiet, lonely dwelling. Several sailors stood about the door, awaiting, in silent anxiety, for the verdict of the doctor, who was even now examining Philip's injuries. ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. III • Elizabeth Gaskell

... English in me that loves the soft, wet weather— The cloud upon the mountain, the mist upon the sea, The sea-gull flying low and near with rain upon each feather, The scent of deep, green woodlands where the buds are breaking free. ...
— Fires of Driftwood • Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

... enough and to spare!" said the porter with a grin. "None so many, yet. Two men fetched in yestereven for breaking folks' heads in a drunken brawl; and two or three debtors; and a lad for thieving, and such; then Master Maynard brought an handful in this morrow—Moot Hall was getting too ...
— The King's Daughters • Emily Sarah Holt

... a thousand reasons, could not be happiness. Firm in this determination, and confident of his power to adhere to it; feeling, also, that time and absence could not cure his own passion, and having no desire for such a cure,—he saw no reason for breaking off the intercourse that was established between Ellen and himself. It was remarkable, that, notwithstanding the desperate nature of his love, that, or something connected with it, seemed to have a beneficial effect upon his health. There was now a slight tinge of color in his cheek, and a less consuming ...
— Fanshawe • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... Watson, and Firth shook hands with Hugh, and said they should be glad to see him back again: and Mr Tooke added that some of the boys should visit him pretty often till the breaking-up. Nobody else was allowed to come quite near; but the boys clustered at that side of the playground, to see as much as they could. Hugh waved his hand; and every boy saw it; and in a moment every hat and cap was off, and the boys gave three cheers,—the loudest that had ever been heard at ...
— The Crofton Boys • Harriet Martineau

... this portion of our army, from some women belonging to Dowdall's Tavern. When the Eleventh Corps occupied the place on Thursday, a watch was kept upon the family living there. But in the interval between the corps breaking camp to move out to Slocum's support on Friday morning, and its return to the old position, some of the women had disappeared. This fact was specially noted by ...
— The Campaign of Chancellorsville • Theodore A. Dodge

... with the gout. When such distempers are in the blood, there is never any security against their breaking out, and that often on the slightest occasions, and when ...
— Many Thoughts of Many Minds - A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age • Various

... good time," said he, waving his hand at me; "I am only beginning. Those are trivial cases of alteration. Surgery can do better things than that. There is building up as well as breaking down and changing. You have heard, perhaps, of a common surgical operation resorted to in cases where the nose has been destroyed: a flap of skin is cut from the forehead, turned down on the nose, and heals in the new position. This is a kind of grafting in a new position of part ...
— The Island of Doctor Moreau • H. G. Wells

... Hours together upon any Thing; but it must be owned to the Honour of the other Sex, that there are many among them who can Talk whole Hours together upon Nothing. I have known a Woman branch out into a long Extempore Dissertation upon the Edging of a Petticoat, and chide her Servant for breaking a China Cup, in all ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele



Words linked to "Breaking" :   record-breaking, fracture, fast-breaking, splintering, crack, shattering, breaking wind, cracking, breaking point, smashing, breaking ball, prison-breaking, break



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