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Buoy   Listen
verb
Buoy  v. i.  To float; to rise like a buoy. "Rising merit will buoy up at last."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Buoy" Quotes from Famous Books



... part of the buoy there is affixed a firmly supported tube carrying at its extremity the lantern, c. The gas compressed to 6 or 7 atmospheres in the body of the buoy passes, before reaching the burner, into a regulator analogous to the one installed on railway ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882 • Various

... heard somebody knocking a few minutes ago." Captain Crowe rose like a buoy against the ceiling. "Here, now, I'm goin' to the door for you, Mis' Lunn; there may ...
— The Life of Nancy • Sarah Orne Jewett

... in warm life-blood wrote their nobler verse. Our trivial song to honor those who come With ears attuned to strenuous trump and drum. And shaped in squadron-strophes their desire Live battle-odes whose lines mere steel and fire: Yet sometimes feathered words are strong, A gracious memory to buoy up and save From Lethe's dreamless ooze, the common grave Of ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... congealed, though but for an instant or two. Then he threw off hat and coat, and stood alert and resolute to dive to Julius's rescue when he rose, while those who manned the yacht prepared to cast a buoy and line. Not a ripple or flash of water passed unheeded; the flood of sunshine rose fuller and fuller over the world; moments grew to minutes, and minutes swelled to hopeless hours under the doctor's ...
— Master of His Fate • J. Mclaren Cobban

... received from the Supply and colonists on shore. The passengers fortunately landed before the accident, and I will just mention to you the method by which the crew were saved. When they found that the ship was ruined and giving way upon the beam right athwart, they made a rope fast to a drift-buoy, which by the surf was driven on shore. By this a stout hawser was convey'd, and those on shore made it fast a good way up a pine-tree. The other end, being on board, was hove taut. On this hawser ...
— The Naval Pioneers of Australia • Louis Becke and Walter Jeffery

... Shakes down diseases, pestilence, and war; So stream'd the golden honours from his head, Trembled the sparkling plumes, and the loose glories shed. The chief beholds himself with wondering eyes; His arms he poises, and his motions tries; Buoy'd by some inward force, he seems to swim, And feels a ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer

... often called Proustock), a little more than a mile beyond, we have come into the immediate presence of a great wreck region, for Manacle Point lies close below, and the Manacles themselves foam yonder with perpetual menace, their bell-buoy sounding a dismal but quite ...
— The Cornwall Coast • Arthur L. Salmon

... the countries, and yet, the moral issues involved never change; for, right is eternal. To detect this ethical element amid the ever restless waves of human activities has ever been the noble and constant effort of true leaders. Like the pilot they are ever watching for the lighted buoy on ...
— Catholic Problems in Western Canada • George Thomas Daly

... el-Trah ("the Head that surrounds"), and flanked at both ends by its triangular reefs, the Sharm Makn, the past and future port of the mines, supports the miniature gunboat no larger than a "cock," and the Sambk dwarfed to a buoy. Beyond the purpling harbour, along the glaring yellow shore, cut by broad Wady-mouths and dotted here and there with a date-clump, the corallines, grits, and sandstones are weathered to the quaintest forms, giant pins and mushrooms, columns and ruined ...
— The Land of Midian, Vol. 1 • Richard Burton

... been recovered, and a portion of the three-wire cable, the rest being abandoned as unfit for use, owing to its twisted condition. Their work was over, but an unfortunate accident marred its conclusion. On the evening of the 2nd the first mate, while on the water unshackling a buoy, was struck in the back by a fluke of the ship's anchor as she drifted, and so severely injured that he lay for many weeks at Cagliari. Jenkin's knowledge of languages made him useful as an interpreter; but in mentioning this incident to Miss Austin, ...
— Heroes of the Telegraph • J. Munro

... brother's much-prized fishing hook and rod and went down to the seashore and sat down on the rocks. He baited his hook and then threw it into the sea clumsily. He sat and gazed at the little float bobbing up and down in the water, and longed for a good fish to come and be caught. Every time the buoy moved a little he pulled up his rod, but there was never a fish at the end of it, only the hook and the bait. If he had known how to fish properly, he would have been able to catch plenty of fish, but although he was the greatest hunter in the land he could not help ...
— Japanese Fairy Tales • Yei Theodora Ozaki

... been reading "The Bell Buoy" and "The Old Man" over and over again-my custom with Kipling's work—and saving up the rest for other leisurely and luxurious meals. A bell-buoy is a deeply impressive fellow-being. In these many recent trips up and down the Sound ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... of hope to buoy up the sorely-tried loyalists appeared, when Canadians who had been domiciled in all parts of the States returned to defend their native land on hearing of the great danger she was undoubtedly in. Having lived many years under the shadow of the Stars and ...
— The Dominion in 1983 • Ralph Centennius

... lay along the level of the top of the Cathedral dome, so that the ball and the cross looked like a buoy riding on a leaden sea. As the flying ship swept towards it, this plain of cloud looked as dry and definite and rocky as any grey desert. Hence it gave to the mind and body a sharp and unearthly sensation when the ship cut and sank into the cloud as into any common mist, a thing ...
— The Ball and The Cross • G.K. Chesterton

... cottage door. Newlyn stands on slight elevations above the sea level, and at one point the road bends downward, breaks and fringes the tide, leading among broken iron, rusty anchors, and dismantled fishing-boats, past an ancient buoy whose sides now serve the purposes of advertisement and tell of prayer-meetings, cheap tea, and so forth. Hard by, the mighty blocks of the old breakwater stand, their fabric dating from the reign of James I., and taking the place of one still older. But the ...
— Lying Prophets • Eden Phillpotts

... though not with the severity their crime deserved, yet his enemies took occasion from thence to tax him with tyranny and oppression. About the same time, an information, drawn up in form against the admiral, was found concealed in the buoy of one of the ships, which he also transmitted to their majesties. This was the first mutinous attempt against the authority of the admiral in the West Indies, and became the foundation of all the opposition which was made against him and his successors in the exercise ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

... bell-buoy, I suppose?" he suggested, with a tentative laugh as he pushed his cap upwards away ...
— Tomaso's Fortune and Other Stories • Henry Seton Merriman

... Seem leagued against me. As I passed the hall, I met your solemn Dante, with huge strides Pacing in measure to his stately verse. The sweeping sleeves of his broad scarlet robe Blew out behind, like wide-expanded wings, And seemed to buoy him in his level flight. Thinking to pass, without disturbing him, I stole on tip-toe; but the poet paused, Subsiding into man, and steadily Bent on my face the lustre of his eyes. Then, taking both my trembling hands in his— You know how his God-troubled forehead awes— ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Francesca da Rimini • George Henry Boker

... to it, one on each side near the bow and the stern. Air was supplied from a pump on the quay by a pipe communicating with a small copper globe resting on the deck of the vessel, and from which place proceeded four other flexible tubes, one to each buoy, thus distributing the air to each one equally. The vessel being flooded and in a sinking condition, the buoys were attached and the valves opened; they rapidly filled with water, and the vessel immediately sank in ...
— Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880 • Various

... ship, on the ensuing day. These having with them a seal-skin bag filled with air, they began to kick it at each other and at the strangers: in this play the Englishmen joined, to the great amusement of both parties. The inflated skin was what the men had been using as the buoy to a harpoon, in the killing of a sea-unicorn. They gave to Captain Ross a piece of dried sea-unicorn's flesh, which appeared to have been half roasted. This gentleman had already seen them eat dried flesh; and he now had an opportunity of ascertaining that they did ...
— Travels in North America, From Modern Writers • William Bingley

... BUOY.—Under the heading of "Church and Schools," the St. James's Gazette gave an interesting illustration of "public spirit in schools." It recounted how "An Old Bedford Boy"—no relation to ROBERT, the Waiter, we believe—in the course of returning thanks, said, ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, August 22, 1891 • Various

... she swallowed everything her mother brought to her. Poor little one! She had nothing to buoy her up ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... forth; Plain plodding industry, and sober worth: Thence peasants, farmers, native sons of earth, And merchandise' whole genus take their birth: Each prudent cit a warm existence finds, And all mechanics' many-apron'd kinds. Some other rarer sorts are wanted yet, The lead and buoy are needful to the net; The caput mortuum of gross desires Makes a material for mere knights and squires; The martial phosphorus is taught to flow, She kneads the lumpish philosophic dough, Then marks th' unyielding mass with grave designs, Law, physic, politics, and deep divines: Last, she sublimes ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... October, when we made the Cape, nothing remarkable occurred, except the loss of a convict in the ship I was on board, who unfortunately fell into the sea, and perished in spite of our efforts to save him, by cutting adrift a life buoy and hoisting out a boat. During the passage, a slight dysentery prevailed in some of the ships, but was in no instance mortal. We were at first inclined to impute it to the water we took on board at the Brazils, but as the effect was very partial, some other cause was more ...
— A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay • Watkin Tench

... gray Morgan's walls, Looms the black fleet. Hark, deck to rampart calls With the drums' beat! Buoy your chains overboard, While the steam hums; Men! to ...
— How the Flag Became Old Glory • Emma Look Scott

... there trailed a number of knotted ropes'-ends, terminating in fanciful Turks' heads. These were the life-lines, for the drowning to clutch. Inserted into the middle of the cork was an upright, carved pole, somewhat shorter than a pike-staff. The whole buoy was embossed with barnacles, and its sides festooned with sea-weeds. Dolphins were sporting and flashing around it, and one white bird was hovering over the top of the pole. Long ago, this thing must have been thrown over-board to save some poor ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville

... sufficiently to erase the budget deficit. The release of substantial development aid from the Netherlands - which had been held up due to the government's failure to initiate economic reforms - also has helped buoy the economy. Suriname's economic prospects for the medium term will depend on continued implementation of economic restructuring. The new government elected in the fall of 1996 has sent mixed signals about ...
— The 1997 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... Windmill Rock, and the constant rays from the lightship on the Rips. So that by day or night you could never be lonesome, unless, perhaps, on some thick night, when you could see no light, and could only hear a grating knell from the bell-buoy, and could seem to see, through the white darkness, the waters washing over its ...
— Five Hundred Dollars - First published in the "Century Magazine" • Heman White Chaplin

... clambered up to the cross-trees, gave them the direction of the trawl buoy-light, and they started. It was a clear, starlit night with only a gentle sea running and no wind to speak of. There was not a hint ...
— The Harbor of Doubt • Frank Williams

... into their hands. He was surprised to see another memorial on the same subject and that signed by a man who ought to have known the constitution better. He thought it a mischievous attempt, as it respected the persons in whose favor it was intended. It would buoy them up with hopes, without a foundation, and as they could not reason on the subject, as more enlightened men would, they might be led to do what they would be punished for, and the owners of them, in their own defence, would be compelled to exercise over them a severity they were not ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... photographic ability in setting forth an incident—style—good style—no barnacles on it in the way of unnecessary, retarding words (the Shipman scrapes off the barnacles when he wants his racer to go her best gait and straight to the buoy.) You should write a letter every day, long or short —and so ought ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... we had anchored, seeing no sign of life ashore, and they told me it was the Bar. We must wait for high water. Away ahead was the bar buoy, a white blob on the water. I stood leaning against a stanchion trying to sense the atmosphere of the place until the Second called me, for there was something to do. There was always something to do in that ...
— Aliens • William McFee

... old man. "It depends on the drift, which we can't calculate. Soundings mean nothing, for she's shallow for miles. If the fog would break, so we could see the light—there ain't any fog-buoy on that channel mouth, and it's murder that there ain't. It's this d——d fog that makes ...
— The Lady and the Pirate - Being the Plain Tale of a Diligent Pirate and a Fair Captive • Emerson Hough

... unusually quiet. They kept to themselves and had little to say. Miriam and her three particular friends were carefully avoided by their classmates. Miriam, herself, felt the snub at once. Had she, after all, made a mistake, and was she losing ground in the class? But her vanity was like a life buoy to her sinking hopes. She refused to see that the other girls regarded ...
— Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School - The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls • Jessie Graham Flower

... that tight white hammock, the light weight of the shot, and the very hot weather—think, too, how easily a fishing-cork is balanced in the water by a very small sinker, and lastly how confined air will buoy up anything—and you have the whole secret of his coming back. Let that air suddenly escape, and you have ...
— Not Pretty, But Precious • John Hay, et al.

... until an equitable division could be made; while each family likewise had a settlement right to four hundred acres adjoining the village. The vacant lands were sold, warrants for a hundred acres costing forty dollars in specie; but later on, towards the close of the war, Virginia tried to buoy up her mass of depreciated paper currency by accepting it nearly at par for land warrants, thereby reducing the cost of these to less than fifty cents for a hundred acres. No warrant applied to a particular spot; it was surveyed on any vacant or presumably vacant ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume Two - From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1777-1783 • Theodore Roosevelt

... strangeness of all life, a pastime which very often engaged him. Then he thought of some one whom he very greatly loved, and was refreshed by that thought; and, indeed, to love and be loved very greatly is the one stake to cling to in these troubled seas, the one unfailing life-buoy. Then, turning his mind into practical channels, he thought of hate, and of Charles Wilbraham, and of how best to strive that day to compass ...
— Mystery at Geneva - An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings • Rose Macaulay

... early sunlight of the next day we tossed close off the buoy, and saw the city sparkle in its groves about the foot of the Punch Bowl and the masts clustering thick in the small harbour. A good breeze, which had risen with the sea, carried us triumphantly through the intricacies ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... other bulky articles were left for the benefit of whosoever might choose to go after them. The shipment was completed in about three hours, after which Ned entered the inner basin and worked up as far as the anchorage, which spot was indicated by the buoy still watching over the slipped anchor. But though nobody was to be seen, and the storehouses had all the appearance of being completely abandoned, the voyagers were far too prudent to land—for which, ...
— The Missing Merchantman • Harry Collingwood

... the field of vision ahead, like one of Professor Pepper's patent ghosts, stand out for a moment in brilliant white relief against a background of impenetrable darkness, and then vanish with the swiftness of summer lightning, as the electric beam left it to search for another buoy farther away. ...
— Campaigning in Cuba • George Kennan

... can-buoy on which is placed, in wicker-work, a bell, which is sounded by the heaving and ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth

... in the same ball, "which floated like a cork on the water." As this species grows into an unusually bulky animal, we here see a beautiful and unique contrivance, in the cement forming a vesicular membranous mass, serving as a buoy to float the individuals, which, when young and light, were supported on the small objects to which they originally had been ...
— A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2) - The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes • Charles Darwin

... from the ship, we saw the lifebuoy, and Tom Bowline, the man who had fallen overboard, clinging to it, and driving away to leeward. We followed, and not without difficulty got him at last on board. We then attempted to secure the buoy, and while so doing, a heavy sea broke over us, and nearly swamped the boat. She had, we found, so slight a hold of the water that she drifted away even faster than the lifebuoy. One of the oars had been broken, and another was carried away while we were trying to haul in ...
— The Voyages of the Ranger and Crusader - And what befell their Passengers and Crews. • W.H.G. Kingston

... abreast of the ship; then we once more tried to sheer across to her, but no sooner did we get into the current again than it mercilessly drove us back. Beaten again! And again we tried the same manoeuvre with the same result. Now we saw them lowering a buoy from the ship—if we could only reach it we were saved; but we did not reach it. They were not exactly blessings that we poured on those on board. Why the deuce could they not bear down to us when they saw the straits we were in; or why, at any rate, could they ...
— Farthest North - Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 • Fridtjof Nansen

... line loose from its mooring, and saw that it was all clear. His father let the punt sweep in again. It is much easier to leap from a solid rock than from a boat, so Donald jumped in without difficulty. Then they rowed out to the buoy and hauled the great, dripping net ...
— Billy Topsail & Company - A Story for Boys • Norman Duncan

... the plan for the General Board on 24 February, Admiral Waesche listed eighteen vessels, mostly buoy tenders and patrol boats, that would be assigned black crews. All black enlistees would be sent to the Manhattan Beach Training Station, New York, for a basic training "longer and more extensive" than the usual recruit training. After recruit training ...
— Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 • Morris J. MacGregor Jr.

... mass of sails, she rode at a furious pace upon the waves, which filled one with an indescribable sense of pride and exultation. As she plunged into a foaming valley, how I loved to see the green waves, bordered deep with white, come rushing on astern, to buoy her upward at their pleasure, and curl about her as she stooped again, but always own her for their haughty mistress still! On, on we flew, with changing lights upon the water, being now in the blessed ...
— American Notes for General Circulation • Charles Dickens

... given a chance to send such an appeal for help, since he had been swept overboard just after the brigantine struck; besides, the vessel was a complete wreck at the time, and without a single stick in place could never have utilized the breeches buoy even had a line been shot out across her bows by means ...
— Darry the Life Saver - The Heroes of the Coast • Frank V. Webster

... the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed! Buoy the full heart up! It will sink If it but pause to feel and think. There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but ...
— The Vale of Cedars • Grace Aguilar

... originated in France, is a life-saving buoy that has been used on the River Seine in Paris. Persons falling into the water at night often lose their lives because it is impossible to ascertain their whereabouts; or, if a life-saving apparatus of any kind ...
— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 2, No. 5, February 3, 1898 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... left i' th' fast-boat. And says I, "But who's to stay by t' dead fish?" And no man answered, for they were all as keen as me for to go and help our mates; and we thought as we could come back to our dead fish, as had a boat for a buoy, once we had helped our mates. So off we rowed, every man Jack on us, out o' the black shadow o' th' iceberg, as looked as steady as th' pole-star. Well! we had na' been a dozen fathoms away fra' th' boat as we had left, when crash! down wi' a roaring noise, and then ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. I • Elizabeth Gaskell

... present Duke by the Corporation of Waterford, as having belonged to the French 28-gun frigate, on which in 1689 James II. and Lord Abercorn sailed away from Ireland for Prance. I believe that because of its weight the present First Lord of the Admiralty avers that it is no anchor at all, but a buoy fixture. It might have been ten times as heavy, and yet not have availed to keep James from getting to sea ...
— Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (1 of 2) (1888) • William Henry Hurlbert

... After one the captain let off a rocket, also one of Holmes's patent "flare-ups." This is a contrivance for saving life during the dark. It consists of a box filled with potassium, which is pierced at both ends and thrown into the sea fastened to a life-buoy. In contact with the water the metal ignites, and for about half-an-hour sheds a radiance for a long way. It is visible for miles off. If a man falls overboard he knows then where to look ...
— Six Letters From the Colonies • Robert Seaton

... company till the sun showed over the eastern skyline. Its fiery rays dispelled the clinging vapors, and there, before our eyes, like a picture, lay the shrimp fleet, spread out in a great half-moon, the tips of the crescent fully three miles apart, and each junk moored fast to the buoy of a shrimp-net. But there was no stir, no sign ...
— Tales of the Fish Patrol • Jack London

... at Zeebrugge at 10 p.m. to-night. We should have been in at dawn to-day, but we received a wireless from the senior officer, Zeebrugge, to say that mine-laying was suspected, and we were to wait till the "Q.R." channel, from the Blankenberg buoy, had been swept. We lay in the bottom for eight hours, a few miles from the ...
— The Diary of a U-boat Commander • Anon

... was for us, when, upon the signal given, they ventured out their boats to save our lives. All our pumping had been in vain, and vain had all our attempts been, had they not come to our ship's side, and our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, which after great labour they got hold of, and we hauling them up to us got into their boat, and left our ship which we perceived sink within less than a quarter of an hour; and thus I learned ...
— The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of - York, Mariner (1801) • Daniel Defoe

... name, in the neighbourhood of Chelsea. He was, however, apprehended, and brought to trial at Armagh, in August 1808. He said while in prison, that, if found guilty of murder, he should suffer as an example to duellists in Ireland; but he endeavoured to buoy himself up with the hope that the jury would only convict him of manslaughter. It was proved in evidence upon the trial, that the duel was not fought immediately after the offence was given, but that Major Campbell ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay

... fishing-boats, each at its buoy, Ride up on the swell with their dare-danger prows, To sight o'er the ...
— Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics • Bliss Carman

... fishin' boats were out at sea, an' t' air were fair wick wi' kittiwakes an' herrin' gulls. So I just undressed misen, walked down to t' watter an' started swimmin'. Eh! but t' sea were bonny an' warm, an' for once I got all yon dowly thowts o' death clean out o' my head. So I just struck out for t' buoy that were anchored out at sea, happen hafe a mile frae t' shore. That had allus bin my swim sin first we took to comin' to Bridlington, and I'd niver had no trouble i' swimmin' theer an' back. I got to t' buoy all reight an' rested misen a bit an' looked round. Gow! but 'twere a grand seet. I could ...
— Tales of the Ridings • F. W. Moorman

... raging main for lo! these many years, are now favoring me with their advice concerning the navigation of ice-yachts. Archie, if you're willing to enter against such a handicap of brains and barnacles, I'll race you on a beat up to the point yonder, then on the ten mile run afore the wind to the buoy opposite the Club, and back to the cove by Dillaway's. And we'll make it a case of wine. ...
— Cape Cod Stories - The Old Home House • Joseph C. Lincoln

... very few things charged again at Anderson's. Sometimes her father brought home a little money, but she understood well enough that their financial circumstances were wellnigh desperate. However, she had an enormous faith in her father that went far to buoy her up. While she felt the most intense compassion for him that he should be so hard pressed, it never occurred to her that it could be due to any fault or lack of ability in him, and she had, in reality, no doubt whatever of his final recovery of their sinking fortunes. She ...
— The Debtor - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... bade you adieu one night?" asked Reyburn, taking Lilian upon his arm for a promenade upon the deck while they waited. "Let me see: she was very young, was she not, and tall, and ugly? Is it her destiny to watch over you? If she proves herself disagreeable, I will rig a buoy and drop her overboard. After all, she is only a child. Ah no," he said, half under his breath, "the end is ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 87, March, 1875 • Various

... up on the beach under them. The whole country from Cape Turnagain, thus far, was said to be under the rule of a single chief, called Teratu. A large inlet was next entered, and here the ship anchored. Several canoes of a less ornamental description came alongside, and tried to steal the buoy of the anchor. Three times during the night they repeated the attempt, hoping, it seemed, to catch the crew asleep. Again they came at daylight, and sang a war-song, preparatory to an attack. Tupia, however, expostulated with them, and explained so successfully that they ...
— Captain Cook - His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries • W.H.G. Kingston

... little farther we were moored to a buoy in the middle of the waterway, with all sorts of shipping round us, mostly French warships, there being at least a dozen of that nationality, the only British men-of-war being the two we saw enter. The transparency and ...
— The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" • George Davidson

... was sitting Griswold could see the trim little catboat, resplendent in polished brass and mahogany, riding at its buoy beyond the lawn landing-stage. He cared little for the water, but the invitation pointed to a delightful prolongation of the basking process which had come to be one of the chief luxuries ...
— The Price • Francis Lynde

... some spars—lower the boats—over with the hen coops—down with the helm, and back the topsails"—roared out many voices; but she had sunk to rise no more! Her corpse was found a few days after when the tide receded, lying on a mud bank, close to the buoy which has ever since been known by every sailor and every pilot of Poole under the name of Old Betty. But to complete the sad narrative, it appeared that William, as he excelled in swimming, succeeded in gaining the shore of Portland, and arrived in time at Poole to attend the remains of ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume 19, No. 535, Saturday, February 25, 1832. • Various

... likely fished out, what with her natural want of luck and the good many people on the quay and on board. And just where the Ferndale was moored there hung on a wall (I know the berth) a coil of line, a pole, and a life-buoy kept there on purpose to save people who tumble into the dock. It's not so easy to get away from life's betrayals as she thought. However it did not come to that. He followed her with his quick gliding walk. Mr Smith! The liberated convict de Barral passed off the solid earth for the last ...
— Chance - A Tale in Two Parts • Joseph Conrad

... landing, a buoy bobbing in the billows, to which we are expected to make fast the schooner, and get to shore in the exceedingly small boat; captain fears to tarry on account of heavy weather; concludes to return to the coast and bide his time; consequently makes for Bolinas Bay, which we reach about 9 p.m., and ...
— In the Footprints of the Padres • Charles Warren Stoddard

... stone upon it, until you have the capes on this point opposite each other, namely, the two small ones; for to the westward of these there is a large one which is not to be regarded. Having the capes thus opposite each other, you are in the middle of the channel and by the first buoy. The current runs outside along the shore, east and west, to wit: the ebb tide westerly, and the flood easterly, and also very strong. The ebb runs until it is half flood. There are still two other channels, the old one which is the ...
— Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 • Jasper Danckaerts

... was standing on the weather bulwark, shaking the backstays, to feel if they bore an equal strain: all at once the ship gave a heavy weather lurch, the captain lost his footing, and was overboard in a moment. I instantly sprang aft, cut away the life-buoy, and knowing that he was but an indifferent swimmer, jumped overboard after him. As I said before, the sea was running high, and a few minutes elapsed before I caught sight of him, rising on the crest of a wave, ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume VI • Various

... wind is as unfavourable as ever and I take a hobbling morning walk upon the rampart, where I am edified by a good-natured officer who shows me the place, marked by a buoy, where the Royal George went down "with twice four hundred men."[482] Its hull forms a shoal which is still in existence, a neglect scarcely reconcilable with the splendour of our proceedings where our navy is concerned. Saw ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott

... the things which are behind and presses forward to fresh achievements. This perpetually saves from vanity; for everything seems a trifle, when you have once attained to it. The aim which yesterday filled your whole gymnastic horizon you overtake and pass as a boat passes a buoy: until passed, it was a goal; when passed, a mere speck in the horizon. Yesterday you could swing yourself three rounds upon the horizontal ladder; to-day, after weeks of effort, you have suddenly attained to the fourth, and instantly all that long laborious effort vanishes, to be formed again ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 41, March, 1861 • Various

... proof has been given to me that no light-house and light dues, tonnage dues, beacon and buoy dues, or other equivalent taxes of any kind are imposed upon vessels of the United States in the ports of the island of Grenada, one of the British ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Volume 8, Section 2 (of 2): Grover Cleveland • Grover Cleveland

... is coming ashore! Her masts are gone, and she can't get off! She'll strike soon. I want all the men I can get to help us with the breeches buoy. We can't launch our ...
— The Moving Picture Boys on the Coast • Victor Appleton

... make its nest upon the ground, or a hummock, a stump, a buoy, a chimney—upon anything near the water that offers an adequate platform; but its choice is the dead top of some lofty tree where the pathway for its wide wings is open and the vision range is free for ...
— Roof and Meadow • Dallas Lore Sharp

... Majesty's Council, and am lodging at Westminster in a house that faces the abbey. It is one of my cousin Edward's houses, and you will see the Vere cognizance over the door. Call there at one hour after noon, and I will have a talk with you; but do not buoy yourselves up with hopes as to your going with me." So saying, with a friendly nod of his head Francis ...
— By England's Aid or The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604) • G.A. Henty

... there, and if I buy three or four mules I shall then have to pay only the wages for the muleteers, and the expenses of living. Of course I shall arrange for my income and half- pay to be sent out to some firm at Lima. Now, you had better go off to bed, and don't buoy yourself up with the belief that you are going, for I have by no means decided upon ...
— The Treasure of the Incas • G. A. Henty

... buoy' ant in sip' id fe quent' ing scowl' ing ly sug ges' tion in tel' li gence sin' gu lar ly so lic' i tude com pet' i tor phi los' o pher ve' he ment ly tre men' dous ly ex pos tu la' tion ig no min' i ...
— De La Salle Fifth Reader • Brothers of the Christian Schools

... of fear. At this appeal he started into a fury of ephemeral courage. "Stick to the ship," he yelled; "there is no danger if you stick to the ship," and with this snatched a life-buoy, and hurled himself ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... raft whose density is less than that of the water? Can the shells, which are always empty and able to contain a few bubbles of air in their spiral, he floats? Can the big joists, which break in so ugly a fashion the none too great regularity of the work, serve to buoy up the over-heavy raft? In short, is the caddis worm versed in the laws of equilibrium and does it choose its pieces, now lighter and now heavier as the case may be, so as to constitute a whole that is capable of floating? The following facts are a refutation of any ...
— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre

... up and lean backward against the air as he stared at me. "How about this here tide that's rushin' out through the Golden Gate?" he demanded, or bellowed, rather. "How fast is she ebbin'? What's the drift, eh? Listen to that, will you? A bell-buoy, and we're a-top of it! ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London

... they hardly thought that she would reach the house before he died. But the fact that she was coming seemed to buoy him up: he lingered throughout the day, turning his eyes from time to time to the clock upon the mantelpiece, or towards the opening door. At night he grew restless and uneasy: he murmured piteously that she would not come, or that he should die ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... unpunished, "God spared not his own Son," but "was pleased[99], to bruise him and put him to grief" for our sakes; how vainly must impenitent sinners flatter themselves with the hope of escaping the vengeance of Heaven, and buoy themselves up with I know not what desperate dreams of ...
— A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity. • William Wilberforce

... 'Smees' is very much as an Italian would pronounce 'Smith,' as, you know, the French call it 'Smeet.' It will turn out that this Mr. Raoul has seized upon the first English name he fell in with, as a man overboard clutches at a spar adrift or a life-buoy; and that ...
— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper

... an odd reluctance the little roll of bills he handed me, though it was like a life buoy to a drowning sailor. ...
— The Bacillus of Beauty - A Romance of To-day • Harriet Stark

... of all. Every precaution was taken to prevent any accident at dangerous places on our way. Amongst other objects our guide pointed to the distant views of the Lizard Point, the Wolf Rock Lighthouse, and the Runnel Stone Bell Buoy, and immediately below us was the Porthcurnow Bay and beach. Then there were some queerly shaped rocks named the Castle Peak, the "Tortoise," the "Pig's Mouth," all more or less like the objects they represented, ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor

... above lure; but I do not much affect fishing for them. Excellent sport may be had with them, however, early in the season, when they are working near the shore, but they soon retire to water from fifty to seventy feet deep and can only be caught by deep trolling or buoy-fishing. I have no fancy for sitting in a slow-moving boat for hours, dragging three or four hundred feet of line in deep water, a four pound sinker tied by six feet of lighter line some twenty feet above the hooks. The sinker is supposed to go bumping ...
— Woodcraft • George W. Sears

... vessel's movement, as if the helmsman were neglecting his duties, and directly afterwards heard the thrilling cry of 'Man overboard!' Of course a great commotion ensued, the men rushing up from below, all eager to render assistance. I ran aft, whence the cry had proceeded, seizing a life-buoy as I passed, but found that one had already been thrown over by the man at the helm, who exclaimed, 'That gentleman,' meaning poor Mr. White, 'has jumped overboard.' A boat was lowered, a man was sent up to the cross-trees, another on to the deck-house to keep a look-out, ...
— The Last Voyage - to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' • Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey

... clutched at the base of the enormous pectoral fin, clinging with maniacal strength, mad with fear. Striking out to little purpose, save to help buoy himself, blinded by the flying scud and broken crests, Rainey felt himself upreared, swept impotently on and slammed against the slimy hulk, just close enough to Sandy to grasp him by the collar, as the whale, stung by a killer's tearing at its oily tongue, flailed with its fin and ...
— A Man to His Mate • J. Allan Dunn

... gross as beetles; half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire,—dreadful trade! Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark, Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge, That on th' unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, Cannot be heard so high.—I'll look no more, Lest my brain turn, and the ...
— English: Composition and Literature • W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

... it cannot be helped: it will do him no harm, and his swimming friend is in no danger of being grappled with and drowned. For very short distances, a usual way is for the man who cannot swim to hold his friend by the hips. A very little floating power is enough to buoy a man's head, above still water. ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton

... It was the truth. You are seeking now to buoy me up with false hope. It is sixteen hundred miles from Hong Kong to Singapore, and half as much from Siam to Borneo. The Sirdar might have been driven anywhere in the typhoon. Didn't you say ...
— The Wings of the Morning • Louis Tracy

... declared joyfully. "Buy a phonygraft an' some blank records an' keep sayin' that proposal just the same as you do to me. You can hear yourself poppin' as plain as you can hear a bell buoy ring-in'. It takes me to plan things," ...
— Cape Cod and All the Pilgrim Land, June 1922, Volume 6, Number 4 • Various

... a learner—for the third time in his life; and the quickest learner (in spite of his years) I have ever known, for his mind was bent on that single purpose. I should tell you that the Trinity House had discovered Menawhidden at last and placed the bell-buoy there —which is and always has been entirely useless: also that the Lifeboat Institution had listened to some suggestions of mine and were re-organising the service down at the Porth. And it was now my hope that John Emmet might become coxswain of the boat as soon as he had local knowledge to ...
— Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... buoy dances up and down on the miniature waves; beyond it a dazzling path of gold stretches away to the distant osier-islands—a path down which we came without seeing it till we looked back. The wavelets strike with a faint ...
— The Amateur Poacher • Richard Jefferies

... comrades. He refused to help me haul for fear such should be the case. I quickly pointed out to him that it could not be the case, as apart from a corpse being devoured by the voracious fish, it would swell as it decomposed, and gas being formed in it, it would buoy the body up, and float it to the surface, when the send of the waves would waft it away, no ...
— Jethou - or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles • E. R. Suffling

... lost loved ones "Over There" cannot be buoyed by that, I know not what will buoy ...
— Giant Hours With Poet Preachers • William L. Stidger

... I commanded, my own temper rising. "You're not going to leave me without means of landing after we reach our buoy." ...
— Swept Out to Sea - Clint Webb Among the Whalers • W. Bertram Foster

... another from Naples, both of which accompanied us to the harbour. Here the Swedish expedition was saluted by an American war-vessel, the Wyoming, with twenty-one guns. The harbour swarmed with boats adorned with flags. Scarcely had the Vega anchored—or more correctly been moored to a buoy—when the envoy LINDSTRAND, the Swedish-Norwegian consul CLAUSEN, Prince TEANO, president of the Geographical Society, Commander MARTIN FRANKLIN, Commendatore NEGRI, and others came on board. The last-named, who ...
— The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II • A.E. Nordenskieold

... schooner by her painter as she drifted astern, and the other dories were put over in the same manner. When all the dories were disposed of the first one was cast off. One of the men rowed the boat before the wind while the other ran out the gear. First, he threw over a keg for a buoy, which could be seen from some distance. Fastened to the buoy-line at some sixty fathoms, or three hundred and sixty feet from the keg, was the trawl with a small anchor attached to sink it to the bottom. When this was dropped overboard the trawl was rapidly run out, ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot

... the boat at anchor near the man on shore, a sail shot up, then fluttered and snapped in the wind. A moment later it was drawn in, the line holding the craft to the buoy slipped out, and the bow swung sharply around. Mr. Heatherbloom worked swiftly; one desire moved him—to get around that point before being overtaken—to discover what lay beyond. Then let happen what would! He reached for a line ...
— A Man and His Money • Frederic Stewart Isham

... Captain Zeb of the lightkeeper. "That her off back of the spar buoy? Let me have a squint through that glass; my eyes ain't what they used to be, when I could see a whale spout two miles t'other side of the sky line and tell how many barrels of ile he'd try out, fust look. Takes practice to keep your eyesight so's you can see round ...
— Keziah Coffin • Joseph C. Lincoln

... the house from the rock terrace, leaving the boat swinging to the buoy, and, followed by Tavish, Scoodrach, and the dogs, the two lads made for the old castle yard, whose outer entrance was the only way in ...
— Three Boys - or the Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai • George Manville Fenn

... against her will. Her bridesmaids,—young, gay, and accomplished,—gather around her. The fierce conflict raging in her bosom discloses itself; the attempt to cheer her up, under the impression that it arises from want of vigour to buoy up her sensitive system, fails. Again she seems labouring ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams



Words linked to "Buoy" :   buoyant, mark, nun buoy, buoy up, hold, support, breeches buoy, whistle buoy, sustain, float, swim, reference point, point of reference, can, bell buoy, hold up, life buoy, nun, conical buoy, gong buoy



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