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Finger   Listen
verb
Finger  v. t.  (past & past part. fingered; pres. part. fingering)  
1.
To touch with the fingers; to handle; to meddle with. "Let the papers lie; You would be fingering them to anger me."
2.
To touch lightly; to toy with.
3.
(Mus.)
(a)
To perform on an instrument of music.
(b)
To mark the notes of (a piece of music) so as to guide the fingers in playing.
4.
To take thievishly; to pilfer; to purloin.
5.
To execute, as any delicate work.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Finger" Quotes from Famous Books



... slices cut off the bark of the trees, to mark out the line of road. The boundaries of the different lots are often marked by a blazed tree, also the concession-lines*. These blazes are of as much use as finger- posts of ...
— The Backwoods of Canada • Catharine Parr Traill

... communication. If she did not come, he had made a mistake and must begin again. But there was a slight noise in the private passage, the sound of a gown, then after a momentary surprise at not being able to come straight in, a touch with the tip of a finger, scarcely a knock. He did not move, and paid no attention to a little significant coughing. Then he heard her go away, with ...
— The Immortal - Or, One Of The "Forty." (L'immortel) - 1877 • Alphonse Daudet

... second experiment," said Jonas. "While Nathan is trying to press the two handles together, you, Rollo, may run your finger into the hole, and push up the ...
— Rollo's Philosophy. [Air] • Jacob Abbott

... and pressed his hand on a tiny bronze figure standing on the table. At the touch of his finger the head of the figure disappeared between its shoulders, and then sprung up again, producing a harsh ...
— Five Nights • Victoria Cross

... Wallace couldn't have phrased the question better himself. But the quality of the voice that asked it had, even to his not very sensitive ear, an unaccustomed flavor. So, almost simultaneously with his answer, he looked up from his finger-nails and shot an inquiring glance ...
— The Real Adventure • Henry Kitchell Webster

... plan is to open the window and breathe freely, closing one nostril with the finger or thumb, sniffing up the air through the open nostril. Then repeat the process on the other nostril. Repeat several times, changing nostrils. This method will usually ...
— The Hindu-Yogi Science Of Breath • Yogi Ramacharaka

... Ellin,' he said, 'Despise her not unto me; For better I love thy little finger, Than all her ...
— The Children's Garland from the Best Poets • Various

... teacher and student remember that the headings of the chapters name effects rather than causes, signs rather than things signified. They are not, therefore, objects of thought for the student while practising; they are finger points for the teacher; the criteria by which he measures ...
— The Evolution of Expression Vol. I • Charles Wesley Emerson

... peaks—there below the snow." Blanco suddenly raised his voice from confidential undertone to the sing-song of the professional guide. "Yonder," he said, scarcely changing the direction of his pointed finger, "is the unfinished sanatorium for consumptives which the Germans undertook and left unfinished." Two soldiers were sauntering by, smart in newly issued uniforms of tall red caps, dark tunics, sky-blue breeches, and polished boots. "That point," went on Blanco, dropping his voice again, as they ...
— The Lighted Match • Charles Neville Buck

... compassion for colleague, those who had been or were likely to be accused for the poor sinner under accusation at the moment; the sale also of the votes of jurymen was hardly any longer exceptional. Several senators had been judicially convicted of this crime: men pointed with the finger at others equally guilty; the most respected Optimates, such as Quintus Catulus, granted in an open sitting of the senate that the complaints were quite well founded; individual specially striking cases compelled the senate on several occasions, e. ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... The elective franchise was the greatest blessing enjoyed by a free people, and the inability of any class to exercise it indicated a description of servitude. She said that the person was trying to erase God's finger mark upon the human soul who would prevent anybody, man or woman, from following natural bent and ability in any avocation. In the founding of Harvard and other early colleges, some provision was made for the education of Indians, but none for women. Already at Yale and West ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... that he had got 60 more. My loss is immense. Lord Uxbridge, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, General Cooke, General Barnes, and Colonel Berkeley are wounded: Colonel De Lancey, Canning, Gordon, General Picton killed.[22] The finger of Providence was upon me, and I escaped unhurt.—Believe ...
— A Week at Waterloo in 1815 • Magdalene De Lancey

... gaze at him sadly, would walk for hours every day; but he always walked in one way, in the direction of a certain path. When he had reached the end, he would return, walking backwards. If any one stopped him, he would point his finger at a portion of the sky. If any one tried to make him turn round, he grew angry, and Duke would show his anger and ...
— The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras • Jules Verne

... in agriculture is in preventing the action of certain fungoid diseases, such as "rust," "smut," "finger-and-toe," &c., as well as in killing, as every horticulturist and ...
— Manures and the principles of manuring • Charles Morton Aikman

... at the Springs. I remarked upon it and she said that when she used a thimble she always had that kind. "I feel about a thimble as I do about mitts, which I always wear instead of gloves, because I like to see my fingers come through. So I like to see my finger come through my thimble. It is a tailor's thimble. Tailors always use that kind. I do not know whether they like to see their fingers come through or not." I had heard it said that it takes nine tailors to make a man and now I reflected ...
— Literary Hearthstones of Dixie • La Salle Corbell Pickett

... Janoah, holding up a grimy finger which he shook impressively at the wretched figure opposite, "is here for one of two reasons. You can like 'em or not, but they're true. He's either here to steal your ideas from you, or he's got ...
— Flood Tide • Sara Ware Bassett

... perch of road. A dark green car with a smart drab lining Passed with a stately pair reclining; Peering walkers standing aside Saw Soyland's owner pass with his bride, Young Sir Eustace, biting his lip, Pressing his chin with his finger-tip, Nerves on edge, as he could not choose, From thought of the bets he stood to lose. His lady, a beauty whom thought made pale, Prayed from fear that the horse might fail. A bright brass rod on the motor's bonnet Carried her husband's colours on it, Scarlet spots on a field of cream: She stared ...
— Right Royal • John Masefield

... contrary motion is not to be undervalued. It is that a kind of physical 'sympathy' is developed between the fingers and the nerves which operate them in the corresponding hands. For instance, it is much easier to play with the fifth finger of one hand and the fifth finger of the other hand than it is to play with the third finger of one hand and ...
— Great Pianists on Piano Playing • James Francis Cooke

... whispered, pointing with the slender blue-veined finger, "there she is, in the doorway again with her baby in her arms, waving at sunset to her lover on the hill?—what does it matter, a cabin or ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon

... Cyclona. "I know now. The foundation was of stone made ready before they were brought hither, costly stones, great stones. It must have a foundation of some sort," she argued, keeping her finger on the place as she looked up, "or it ...
— The Way of the Wind • Zoe Anderson Norris

... you, my father! At the least, the arm rose at her side, and was ringed with such bracelets as Baleka wore, and it beckoned from her side, though her cold face changed not at all. Thrice the arm rose, thrice it stood awhile in air, thrice it beckoned with crooked finger, as though it summoned something from the depths of the shadow, and from the multitudes of the dead. Then it fell down, and in the utter silence I heard its fall and a clank of brazen bracelets. And as it fell there ...
— Nada the Lily • H. Rider Haggard

... "hint" at retribution. Even a German recorder of events would shrink from applying the word haben to the royal act of a Hottentot King, for whom hat is more than good enough, without the allergnaedigst. And we all remember Bismarck's story of the way mouth-washes and finger-bowls were treated at Frankfurt by those above and below the grade of serene highness. Toutes les vices et toutes les moeurs ...
— Ancient China Simplified • Edward Harper Parker

... contrasting with the pallid and puffy flesh of neck and arms, he gave an impression of sensuality emphasized by undress. The head was massive and well formed, and beneath the bloat of fever and dissipation there showed traces of refinement. The soft hands and neat finger-nails, the carefully trimmed hair, were sufficient indications of a kind of luxury. The animalism of the man, however, had developed so early in life that it had obliterated all strong markings of character. The flaccid, rather ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... the arte of navigation. M245 Marques de la Cruz Admyrall of the Ocean. M246 A meane to avoid the sodden arrests of our navy. M247 The cause why these discoveries went not forward in King Henry the Seavenths tyme. M248 (a symbol of a finger pointing) ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of - the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. • Richard Hakluyt

... off. I let myself over the side of the stretcher, hanging by one hand, and fumble for the controls. I can just reach. Then I realize this is no use. Antigrav controls are not meant to go off with a click of the finger; they might get switched off accidentally. To work the switch and the safety you must have two hands, or one hand in the optimum position. My position is about as bad as it could be. I can stroke the switch ...
— The Lost Kafoozalum • Pauline Ashwell

... 1870.—Sirocco. A bluish sky. The leafy crowns of the trees have dropped at their feet; the finger of winter has touched them. The errand-woman has just brought me my letters. Poor little woman, what a life! She spends her nights in going backward and forward from her invalid husband to her sister, who is scarcely less helpless, and her days are passed in labor. Resigned ...
— Amiel's Journal • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... with a wind just enough to fill the sails of the barque and a long blue leisurely swell running from the south. Away in the east was a trace of smoke as though a grimy finger had stained the sky just ...
— The Beach of Dreams • H. De Vere Stacpoole

... advice when it was asked for, and struck at him. Rawhide hit back, and then I heard a shot, and Rawhide fell over. I looked around quick, and started to pull my gun, but a bullet hit me here—" Mr. Swift laid gentle finger-tips upon his arm near the shoulder—"so I couldn't. I saw it was Jack Allen shooting and coming towards us from a clump of bushes off to the right of us. He shot again, and Texas Bill fell. I ducked behind a bush and started for help, ...
— The Gringos • B. M. Bower

... He was some better dressed 'n' usual but it just shows what bein' left a widower does for a man. It seems to somehow put new spirit in 'em 'n' sets 'em to wearin' ties again. Why, do you know when he come to go he actually asked me to ride a piece with him 'n' show him which finger-post to turn in to, an' I will say as, where I would n't of dreamed o' ridin' with him a week ago, I went to-day an' really ...
— Susan Clegg and Her Neighbors' Affairs • Anne Warner

... took the penknife by the blade, between her thumb and finger, and slung it at me. It struck me on the arm, and buried itself deep in the flesh till it touched the bone. I drew it out, and without another word left the room. As I went out I heard her summoning the maid in ...
— The American Baron • James De Mille

... she warned, holding up a finger. "What have I told you so often that Jesus said? 'Of mine own self I can do nothing.' Nor can I, Sidney dear. It was—" her voice sank to a whisper—"it was the Christ-principle. It worked through him as a channel; and it ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... I am stopped again." Once or twice I thought I was reaching the ground, but it was only a projection from the rock. I had to give a quick shove with my foot.... Then, suddenly, I found myself seated on the ground. I stretched out my hands. Bushes.... A thorn pricked my finger. I was down. ...
— Atlantida • Pierre Benoit

... regretful glance; but when he come in swinging his new satchel, so independent, I moved a little; for I knew he was a gentleman by the way he wore his hat—clear back on his head—by the great seal, with a red stone in it, on his finger, and by the heavy gold chain ...
— Phemie Frost's Experiences • Ann S. Stephens

... him. He didn't know why it was disagreeable, and it would have shocked him unspeakably if you had told him why. And if you had asked him he would have had half a dozen noble and righteous reasons ready for you at his finger-ends. But the Vicar with his eyes shut could see clearly that if Gwenda married Rowcliffe the unpleasant event would have its compensation. He would be rid of an everlasting source of unpleasantness at home. He didn't say to himself that his egoism would ...
— The Three Sisters • May Sinclair

... asked one another, "From whom shall this child obtain suck?" Then Indra approached him, saying, "He shall obtain suck even from me!" From this circumstance, the chief of the deities came to call the child by the name of Mandhatri.[97] From the nourishment of that high-souled child of Yuvanaswa, the finger of Indra, placed in his mouth, began to yield a jet of milk. Sucking Indra's finger, he grew up into a stout youth in a hundred days. In twelve days he looked like one of twelve years. The whole earth in one day ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... playfully, to him as he sat down beside her leaning his head back against a cushion, and touched his forehead with her finger-tips gently. ...
— Love of Brothers • Katharine Tynan

... manufacture for themselves green shades to tie over the forehead, which gave them a ridiculous appearance and set all the world laughing. No! Mademoiselle was obliged to have a more reasonable excuse for taking from her finger the sign of her betrothal. But she found one without difficulty. Myself, I heard her plead to Monsieur Caspian that for the risks of these tours in automobile a jewel of this value was unsuitable. She requested him to keep ...
— The Lightning Conductor Discovers America • C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson and A. M. (Alice Muriel)

... put his thumb to his nose and wriggled his finger as exasperatingly as any Yankee boy here in this enlightened land. His flat face, his black little eyes, his stubby little nose, his hair black as coal and long behind, but fashionably "banged" in ...
— Connor Magan's Luck and Other Stories • M. T. W.

... children's heads by Reynolds or Lawrence, as he lay breathing imperceptibly, with his rich flowing hair spread upon the pillow, in which his face was partly hid, and his arms stretched out. Mrs. Aubrey put her finger into one of his hands, which was half open, and which closed as it were instinctively upon it, with a gentle pressure. "Look—only look—Kate!" softly whispered Mrs. Aubrey. Miss Aubrey leaned forward and kissed his little cheek with an ardor which almost ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren

... colours, and very showy, from his own neck, and put it round the neck of Guacanagari, and also put on him a loose coat of fine cloth which he then happened to wear. He also sent for a pair of coloured buskins, which he caused him to draw on; and put on his finger a large silver ring, such as was worn by some of the seamen; being informed that the cacique had seen one, and was anxious to get it, as the Indians put a great value on any white metal, whether silver or pewter. These gifts pleased Guacanagari highly, and made him ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

... budge a finger's breadth a nail's breadth from that spot; you so much as turn your head till I say the word, and by the Almighty, the next minute I'll send you to the gallows for a lesson, so ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... of few words in such transactions, but what he did say seemed always to hit exactly the point intended; and the wave of his finger was sufficient to summon a number of men to receive his commands. He was evidently a person of a different stamp from the coarse leaders of Lebanon factions, the Abu Neked, the Shibli el 'Arian, and such like; he is proud of his family antiquity, refined in dress and manners, and has always, ...
— Byeways in Palestine • James Finn

... said Blanche, gayly holding up her finger at the soldier; "I suspect you very much of paying ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... deathless line as the curtain speech and crawled to my feet. He threw the Mark III file at me and went back to scratching in his papers. Just as I reached the door, he looked up and impaled me on his finger again. ...
— The Repairman • Harry Harrison

... there had been a formal ratification by the parents; but in truth Mrs. Fordyce must have tacitly yielded her consent when she permitted her daughter to make the journey under the guardianship of Parson Frank. After a walk in the ravine of Lynton, we became aware of a ring upon Ellen's finger; and Emily was allowed at night to hear how and when it had ...
— Chantry House • Charlotte M. Yonge

... order of development' has not destined the peoples of the earth to the melancholy fate of China. The climacteric of the present stage of progress is rapidly approaching, is even now touching with its finger the startled nations. When it shall have passed, the world will enter upon the third and final stage of civil progress, in which the organized power, social order, moral grandeur, religious unity, and cooeperative industry of the past ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 5, November, 1863 • Various

... them?" She darted to the bookcase, and discovered a dictionary. "Now I shall understand Flattery," she remarked—"and then we shall understand each other. Oh, let me find it for myself!" She ran her raw red finger along the alphabetical headings at the top of each page. "'FAD.' That won't do. 'FIE.' Further on still. 'FLE.' Too far the other way. 'FLA.' Here we are! 'Flattery: False praise. Commendation bestowed for the purpose of gaining favor and influence.' Oh, Helena, how cruel ...
— The Legacy of Cain • Wilkie Collins

... "monkeys" and "bears" were grotesquely busy among types and presses. Five o'clock struck, but the friends felt neither hunger nor thirst; life had turned to a golden dream, and all the treasures of the world lay at their feet. Far away on the horizon lay the blue streak to which Hope points a finger in storm and stress; and a siren voice sounded in their ears, calling, "Come, spread your wings; through that streak of gold or silver or azure lies the sure way of ...
— Two Poets - Lost Illusions Part I • Honore de Balzac

... And wounded hands, and ravelled coils of wrong, Plead that the solemn Vision might make whole Our imperfection?—Fevered second-sight, Audacious wisdom of the blinded soul, Dim delicate auroras of delight That thrill the Dark from startled finger-tips, Are ye less precious ...
— The Hours of Fiammetta - A Sonnet Sequence • Rachel Annand Taylor

... indeed I do;" and then Mary's eyes fell wishfully on the cover of the book which lay in her lap while her finger kept the place. Rasselas is not very exciting, but it was ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope

... spoken of in Dr. Anderson's Essays on Agriculture, under the mistaken name of Astragalus glycophyllos, p. 489; but a truly practical account is given of it by Ellis in his Husbandry, p. 89, by the old name Lady-Finger-Grass. ...
— The Botanist's Companion, Vol. II • William Salisbury

... is placed in the circle of paste, fold the latter over and moisten the edge of the paste with the finger dipped in water to make it stay ...
— The Italian Cook Book - The Art of Eating Well • Maria Gentile

... looked modest, turning my diamond ring round my finger; while goody Moore looked mighty significant, calling it a very particular case; and the maiden fanned away, and primm'd, and purs'd, to show that what I had said ...
— Clarissa, Volume 5 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson

... of a somnambulist had come upon Frederick, who with his shirt sleeves rolled up was ceaselessly washing his arms and hands and brushing his finger nails, all at the bidding of a will not his own. He was acting in a state of will-lessness, of auto-suggestion. Yet it was with perfect lucidity and due deliberation that he selected the necessary instruments from the ...
— Atlantis • Gerhart Hauptmann

... fresh, sweet almonds, and pour boiling water over them; let them stand for two or three minutes, skim out, and drop into cold water. Press between the thumb and finger, and the kernels will readily slip out of the brown covering. Dry between clean towels. Blanched almonds served with raisins ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg

... elaborated organic substance, and being thus comparable with the phloem of the higher plants. The attachment organ of algae is thus more properly called a holdfast, and is found to be of very varied structure. It generally takes the form of a single flattened disc as in the Fucaceae, or a group of finger- like processes as in Laminariaceae, or a tuft of filaments as in many instances. When the attachment is in sand or mud, it often simulates the appearance of a true root as in Chara or Caulerpa. ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... walled or embattled ford, and Oxford almost certainly the "ford of the droves"—droves going north from Berkshire. One may say roughly that all the "hams" were Teutonic save where one can put one's finger on a probable Celtic derivation such as one has, for instance, in the case of Witham, which should mean the settlement upon the "bend" or curve of the river, a Celtic ...
— The Historic Thames • Hilaire Belloc

... mistake—when she finds a man who's good for nothing else in the universe she sends him to the legislature to make laws. There's an element of danger in foot-ball as in all other athletic exercises; but that is no reason why we should confine the youngsters to croquet, mumble-peg and finger-billiards, and allow the race to degenerate into a lobeliaceous aggregation of lollipops. That Georgia legislature is full o' goobers ...
— Volume 10 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... like a pleasant ripple upon the ear of Jeanette Roland, as she approached the altar, beneath her wreath of orange blossoms, while her bridal veil floated like a cloud of lovely mist from her fair young head. The vows were spoken, the bridal ring placed upon her finger, and amid a train of congratulating friends, she returned home where a sumptuous ...
— Sowing and Reaping • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

... without a ruler; as we conclude from the circumstance of its being connected with another passage in which the ruler is represented as entering into the evolved world of effects, 'He entered thither to the very tips of the finger-nails' &c. If it were supposed that the evolution of the world takes place without a ruler, to whom could the subsequent pronoun 'he' refer (in the passage last quoted) which manifestly is to be connected with ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1 • George Thibaut

... the French window upon a balcony now, he looked down the street. The newsboy was almost below. He whistled, and the lad looked up. In response to a beckoning finger the gutter-snipe took the doorway and the staircase at a bound. Like all his kind, he was a good judge of character, and one glance had assured him that he was speeding upon a visit of profit. Half a postman's knock—a sharp, insistent stroke—and ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... written: one was signed with his blood, in which he promised me that in case of his death he would come and bring me news of his condition; in the other I promised him the same thing. I pricked my finger; a drop of blood came, with which I signed my name. He was delighted to have my billet, and embracing me, he thanked ...
— The Phantom World - or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c. • Augustin Calmet

... syndic, who had his plan, gave evasive answers to his brother-furriers, the merchants of the neighborhood, and to all friends who spoke to him of his son: "Yes, I am very thankful to have saved him."—"Well, you know, it won't do to put your finger between the bark and the tree."—"My son touched fire and came near burning up my house."—"They took advantage of his youth; we burghers get nothing but shame and evil by frequenting the grandees."—"This affair decides me to make a lawyer ...
— Catherine de' Medici • Honore de Balzac

... man over near the railroad to the telegraph pole for cutting the finger off of a dead woman in order to get ...
— The Johnstown Horror • James Herbert Walker

... understood that the matter concerned Melissa's brother, and a distinguished artist, he smiled expectantly. Even when he learned that Alexander was being hunted down for some heedless jest against the emperor, he only threatened Melissa sportively with his finger; but on being told that this jest dealt with the murder of Geta, he seemed startled, and the tone of his voice betrayed serious displeasure as he replied to the petitioner, "Do you suppose that I have three heads, like the Cerberus at the feet of your god, that you ask me to lay ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... 'See my ducks an' sack, Mr. Starke? Latest cut,' says I. 'Wish you knew my tailor. Man of enterprise, an' science, Sir. Knows mechanics, an' acoustics, an' the rest,—at his finger-ends,—well as his ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various

... for a space, in which Charley's eyes were like unmoving sparks of steel. He did not see Jo's face—it was in a mist—he was searching, searching, searching. All at once he felt the latch of the hidden door under his finger; he saw a court-room, a judge and jury, and hundreds of excited faces, himself standing in the midst. He saw twelve men file slowly into the room and take their seats-all save one, who stood still in ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... its accompanying finger pointed straight at the door, was so curt and direct that Mr Pancks did not see his way to prolong his visit. He stirred up his hair with his sprightliest expression, glanced at the little figure again, said 'Good evening, ma 'am; don't come down, Mrs Affery, I know the road to the door,' and steamed ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... must begin with Cruell, and Silver, or Gold, and work it up to the wings, every bout shifting your fingers, and making a stop, then the gold will fall right, then make fast: then work up the hackle to the same place, then make the hackle fast: then you must take the hook betwixt your finger and thumb, in the left hand, with a neeld or pin, part the wings in two: then with the arming silk, as you have fastned all hitherto, whip about as it falleth crosse betwixt the wings, then with your thumb you must turne the point of the feather towards the bent of the hook, then ...
— The Art of Angling • Thomas Barker

... was wholly owing to that wicked English Parliament. For the leaders in the Irish Popish massacre would never have dared to stir a finger, if they had not been encouraged by that rebellious spirit in the English House of Commons, which they very well knew must disable the King from sending any supplies to his Protestant subjects here; and, therefore, we may truly say that the English Parliament held the King's hands, while the Irish ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IV: - Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Volume II • Jonathan Swift

... together. According to an oft-repeated tradition, one day at the Chateau of Chambord, whilst Margaret was boasting to her brother of the superiority of womankind in matters of love, the King took a diamond ring from his finger and wrote on one of the ...
— The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.) • Margaret, Queen Of Navarre

... wears now a star on his shoulder, and well earned it is, too. I wonder if he has forgotten how he helped to bind up my little boy's finger which had been broken in an accident on the train from San Francisco to Los Angeles? or how he procured a surgeon for me on our arrival there, and got a comfortable room for us at the hotel? or how he took us to drive (with ...
— Vanished Arizona - Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman • Martha Summerhayes

... of American symphonies worth listening to, could be counted on the fingers with several digits to spare. A new finger has been preempted by Henry K. Hadley's symphony called "Youth and Life." The title is doubly happy. Psychologically it is a study of the intense emotional life of youth, written by an American youth,—a young man who, by the way, strangely reminds one, in his ...
— Contemporary American Composers • Rupert Hughes

... demi-voix, and meant only for Mrs. Thrale, but Lord Mulgrave heard and drew up upon them, and pointing his finger at me with a ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 1 • Madame D'Arblay

... those whom stern necessity has driven to the step as a means either of supporting themselves or of assisting parents or their near relatives. Such a sacrifice—a terrible sacrifice, I admit—has in Japan never been regarded with horror, but as in a sense laudable. The finger of scorn must not be pointed at a woman who has voluntarily sacrificed what women hold most dear, not from lust or from the desire of leading a gay life or pampering or adorning the body, but perhaps to ...
— The Empire of the East • H. B. Montgomery

... soon locked away his barrow, the loquacious Tony led Ravenslee along certain streets and into a certain yard, where presently appeared a stout man with rings in his ears, who smiled and nodded and greeted them with up-flung finger and the word "altro." Presently Ravenslee found himself examining a highly ornate barrow fitted with stove and outfit complete, even unto the whistle, and mounted upon a pair of the rosiest wheels he had ever seen. Thereafter were more smiles and ...
— The Definite Object - A Romance of New York • Jeffery Farnol

... though, as is almost always the case with the author, strangely unexciting. The interest is purely intellectual, and is actually increased by comparison with Hugo's imaginative account of the battle itself; but you do not care the snap of a finger whether the hero, Fabrice, gets off or not. Another patch later, where this same Fabrice is attacked by, and after a rough-and-tumble struggle kills, his saltimbanque rival in the affections of a low-class actress, and then has a series of escapes from ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... was obliged to pick up the note, which had fallen on the ground. Gontaut was the only person who saw all this, and, after supper, he went up to the little lady, and said, 'You are an excellent friend.'—'I did my duty,' said she, and immediately put her finger on her lips to enjoin him to be silent. He, however, informed me of this act of friendship of the little heroine, who had not told me of it herself." I admired the Countess's virtue, and Madame ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 1 • Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe

... along in a leash the bishops and cardinals; he tramples on the justice which curses him, and on the judges who adore him, thirty correspondents inform the Continent that he has frowned, and every electric telegraph vibrates if he raises his little finger; around him is heard the rustling of sabres, and the drums beat the salute; he sits under the shadow of the eagle in the midst of bayonets and of citadels, the free nations tremble and hide their liberties for fear that he should steal them, the great American ...
— The History of a Crime - The Testimony of an Eye-Witness • Victor Hugo

... infringe them—feeling thus, and thus trusting, there is a duty for me to perform. My friends, we must not permit the righteous chastisements of Providence to pass by unheeded, and be forgotten. The finger of Providence has been among us, to mark out and punish the guilty disturber of our peace. But, though dead, that guilty traitor has not ceased to disturb our peace. Do we not know that his groans have moved our enemies in the National ...
— The Hour and the Man - An Historical Romance • Harriet Martineau

... workmen; and, becoming one of themselves, and identifying his interest with theirs, his talents and acquirements had recommended him to an office of trust among them; whereas I, stubbornly battling, like Harry of the Wynd, "for my own hand," would not stir a finger in assertion of the alleged rights of fellows who had no respect for the rights which ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller

... quite natural in them. One or two of the singers glanced over their songs, and pointed out certain effects they meant to make to the principal accompanist, an abnormally thin boy with thick dark hair and flushed cheeks. He expressed comprehension, emphasising it by finger-taps on the music and a continual, "I see! I see!" Two or three of the members of the committee looked at their watches, and the murmur of conversation in the hidden concert-room rose ...
— The Woman With The Fan • Robert Hichens

... "But at all events listen well to this. Assassinate the Duke of Buckingham, or cause him to be assassinated—I care very little about that! I don't know him. Besides, he is an Englishman. But do not touch with the tip of your finger a single hair of d'Artagnan, who is a faithful friend whom I love and defend, or I swear to you by the head of my father the crime which you shall have endeavored to commit, or shall have ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... was thought to be lingering ever since in the passageway. She bade Phoebe step into one of the tall chairs, and inspect the ancient map of the Pyncheon territory at the eastward. In a tract of land on which she laid her finger, there existed a silver mine, the locality of which was precisely pointed out in some memoranda of Colonel Pyncheon himself, but only to be made known when the family claim should be recognized by government. ...
— The House of the Seven Gables • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... from me. * * * " She inquired for J.H.; and, on his coming into the room, being rather overcome with her exertions, she said, "I am too weak to speak now;" but, waving her hand, she pointed her finger towards heaven with ...
— A Brief Memoir with Portions of the Diary, Letters, and Other Remains, - of Eliza Southall, Late of Birmingham, England • Eliza Southall

... want to kill you now it would be easy, wouldn't it?" she reflected, after he had reloaded the gun and laid it in her hand, the muzzle pointing toward himself and her finger resting ...
— Laramie Holds the Range • Frank H. Spearman

... finger uncertainly over the keyboard searching for a key from which to make a start. The group watched him expectantly. As he struck a note each member of his audience jumped back in surprise at the sound. Fresno scratched his head and gingerly fingered ...
— The Round-up - A Romance of Arizona novelized from Edmund Day's melodrama • John Murray and Marion Mills Miller

... The Count promised to hold his whole government at the service of Alencon, and recommended that an attempt should be made to gain over the incorruptible Governor of Cambray. Margaret did not inform him that she had already turned that functionary round her finger, but she urged Lalain and his wife to seduce him from ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... what? Why, upon my word and honor, to a great brass plate on the floor, over which they were passing, and on which was engraven the figure of a bishop—and a very ugly bishop, too—with crosier and mitre, and lifted finger, on which sparkled the episcopal ring. "Do, my dear lord, come and marry us," said the lady, with a levity which shocked the feelings ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray

... span in length, which they would bind around their heads. So their trade went on for a time, until Karlsefni and his people began to grow short of cloth, when they divided it into such narrow pieces that it was not more than a finger's breadth wide, but the Skrellings still continued to give just as much for this as before, ...
— The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin • Frederick Jackson Turner

... scuttle-butt (having obtained permission from the quarter-deck), and draw off about half a pint of very offensive smelling water. To this add a gill of vinegar and a ship's biscuit broke up into small pieces. Stir it well up with the fore-finger; and then with the fore-finger and thumb you may pull out the pieces of biscuit, and eat them as fast as you please, drinking the liquor to ...
— Newton Forster - The Merchant Service • Captain Frederick Marryat

... not, indeed, a solitary instance. When the adulterous transgressor was brought into his presence by the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus "stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not;" but this was to disappoint their malice, whose sole purpose was to obtain some materials for his accusation. When he was attacked by reiterated calumnies in the presence of Pilate, "he answered nothing;" ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. II • Francis Augustus Cox

... cried, with a finger in his eye, and found they thought that organ, with its fluttering lids, a queer thing in him. They went ...
— The Door in the Wall And Other Stories • H. G. Wells

... little difficulty in ascertaining their line of march, for, "sure they make the terriblest little cloud o' dust iver raised, an' not a bit o' wind in it at all," so that a fairy migration is sometimes the talk of the county. "Though, be nacher, they're not the length av yer finger, they can make thimselves the bigness av a tower when it plazes thim, an' av that ugliness that ye'd faint wid the looks o' thim, as knowin' they can shtrike ye dead on the shpot or change ye into a dog, or a pig, or a unicorn, or anny ...
— Irish Wonders • D. R. McAnally, Jr.

... 595.; Vol. viii., p. 61.).—The reason why the ring is placed on {575} the third finger of the right hand of the Blessed Virgin in Raffaelle's "Sposalizio" at Milan, and in Ghirlandais's frescoe of the same subject in the Santa Croce at Florence, is to be found in the fact that the right hand has ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 215, December 10, 1853 • Various

... hypocritical reader, I will answer the questions which have been agitating you this long while, which you have asked at every stage of this long narrative of a sinful life. Shake not your head, lift not your finger, exquisitely hypocritical reader; you can deceive me in nothing. I know the baseness and unworthiness of your soul as I know the baseness and unworthiness of my own. This is a magical tete-a-tete, such a one as will never happen in your life again; therefore I say let us put ...
— Confessions of a Young Man • George Moore

... to and fro with every breath of wind, and the next reflected a thousand brilliant colours as the sunbeams passed over it. His large open wounds shone brightly, and could be seen from a great distance: the wounds in his hands were so large that a finger might be put into them without difficulty; and rays of light proceeded from them, diverging in the direction of his fingers. The souls of the patriarchs bowed down before the Mother of our Saviour, and Jesus spoke to her concerning his Resurrection, ...
— The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ • Anna Catherine Emmerich

... heard Her Majesty say she desired to see you, I asked leave to go in search of you, saying I had known you once. And the Queen was right glad, and bade me go, and sent this gold ring to you from off her finger, in token ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden

... on to a large swamp, with long rank grass about six feet high, across which was a sort of Dyak bridge. The guide having made signs for me to advance, I cautiously crept to the edge of the jungle; and after some little trouble, and watching the direction of his finger, I observed the heads of two deer, male and female, protruding just above the grass at about sixty yards' distance. From the manner the doe was moving about her long ears, it had, to my view, all the appearance of a rabbit. Shooting ...
— The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido - For the Suppression of Piracy • Henry Keppel

... with his finger to his lips, over the sacristy, is reminding the monks that that room is vowed to silence. In the chapter house is the large Crucifixion by the same gentle hand, his greatest work in Florence, and very fine and true ...
— A Wanderer in Florence • E. V. Lucas

... the attainment of truth therein—a phase of fine art which the grandson could not value too much. The sergeant-painter and the deputy sergeant-painter were, indeed, conventional performers enough; as mechanical in their dispensation of wigs, finger-rings, ruffles, and simpers, as the figure of the armed knight who struck the bell in the Residence tower. But scattered through its half-deserted rooms, state bed-chambers and the like, hung the works of more genuine masters, still as unadulterate as the hock, ...
— Imaginary Portraits • Walter Horatio Pater

... state reform requires waiving certain federal regulations. I will act to make that process easier and quicker for every state that asks our help. And I want to add, as we make these changes, we work together to improve this system, that our intention is not scapegoating and finger-pointing. If you read the papers or watch TV you know there's been a rise these days in a certain kind of ugliness: racist comments, anti-Semitism, an increased sense of division. Really, this is not us. This is not who we are. ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... what the doctor said, that he'd anything more than a scratch on the tip end of his little finger!" said Mrs. Derrick,—"so I believe I didn't expect even to see him look pale. And all the while, the doctor was staring at the pantry doors—I didn't know but he'd get up and open 'em and ...
— Say and Seal, Volume I • Susan Warner

... of Vicksburg as follows: "When the two Negroes were captured, they were tied to trees, and while the funeral pyres were being prepared they were forced to suffer the most fiendish tortures. The blacks were forced to hold out their hands while one finger at a time was chopped off. The fingers were distributed as souvenirs. The ears of the murderers were cut off. Holbert was beaten severely, his skull was fractured, and one of his eyes, knocked out with a stick, ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... we were on the spot itself. Bertillon has cleared up many crimes with this help, such as the mystery of the shooting in the Hotel Quai d'Orsay and other cases. The metric photograph, I believe, will in time rank with the portrait parle, finger prints, and ...
— The Poisoned Pen • Arthur B. Reeve

... himself king; for his word was law, and no man dared lift a finger against him. But, before the people could thank him enough for what he had done, he gave back the power to the white-haired Roman Fathers, and went again to his little farm and ...
— Fifty Famous Stories Retold • James Baldwin

... finger to his lips, to stop him from saying aught of Jane Armstrong's death. He had, after dismounting, whispered in his mother's ear, before she had time to speak to the girls, that as yet they knew nought of their mother's death, and that he had left it to her to break ...
— Both Sides the Border - A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower • G. A. Henty

... the tiny dots of stitches that held them to their delicate bindings; the hems and tucks, true to a thread, and dotted with the same fairy needle dimples (no machine-work, but all real, dainty finger-craft); the bits of ruffling peeping out from the folds, with their edges in almost invisible whip-hems; and here and there a finishing of lovely, lace-like crochet, done at odd minutes, and for "visiting work,"—there ...
— A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life. • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... such a mankind are not worth the dust of a puff-ball. The hog that gets his living by rooting, stirring up the soil so, would be ashamed of such company. If I could command the wealth of all the worlds by lifting my finger, I would not pay such a price for it. Even Mahomet knew that God did not make this world in jest. It makes God to be a moneyed gentleman who scatters a handful of pennies in order to see mankind scramble ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 72, October, 1863 • Various

... neither nerves nor brain, nor both together, possessed the energy necessary to animal motion; but he also saw that the nerve could lift a latch and open a door, by which floods of energy are let loose. 'As an engineer,' he says with admirable lucidity, 'by the motion of his finger in opening a valve or loosening a detent can liberate an amount of mechanical energy almost infinite compared with its exciting cause; so the nerves, acting on the muscles, can unlock an amount of power out of all proportion to the work done ...
— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall

... man, (said he,) who is more master of his wife and family than Thrale. If he but holds up a finger, he is obeyed. It is a great mistake to suppose that she is above him in literary attainments[1445]. She is more flippant; but he has ten times her learning: he is a regular scholar; but her learning is ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... the authority on the currency, and the man who knows all about the printing trade. If you want any information on any particular subject, it was not necessary to know the man, but it was very essential to know a man who can put his finger on the man. Get a note of introduction from a man who knows the man, ...
— A Woman Intervenes • Robert Barr

... that?" said Sam, as he pointed his finger to a spot in the dense dark forest of trees that hung down low to the water's edge, not many yards from where they were slowly ...
— Three Boys in the Wild North Land • Egerton Ryerson Young

... enter into the feelings of the poet and the enthusiastic lover of the wild and the wonderful of historic lore, I can yet make myself very happy and contented in this country. If its volume of history is yet a blank, that of Nature is open, and eloquently marked by the finger of God; and from its pages I can extract a thousand sources of amusement and interest whenever I take my walks in the forest or by ...
— The Backwoods of Canada • Catharine Parr Traill

... but such a movement, pointed at him derisively with his finger. The next moment, however, the other had struck aside the hand with his left fist, and given him a severe blow on the nose with his right, which he immediately followed by a left-hand blow in the eye. ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books - Vol. II: Fiction • Arthur Mee, J. A. Hammerton, Eds.

... expected to find food in plenty, servants to wait upon them, and everything furnished to hand without being obliged to raise a finger in their own behalf. What was yet worse, they had among them many men who believed they were to be ...
— Richard of Jamestown - A Story of the Virginia Colony • James Otis

... town attended our dances; no one had ever told us any better. The Bohemian set mingled freely with the very oldest families—oh, in a way that would never be tolerated in London society, I'm sure. And everything so crude! Why, I can remember when no one thought of putting doilies under the finger-bowls. No tone to it at all. For years we had no country club, if you can believe that. And even now, in spite of the efforts of Charles and a few of us, there are still some of the older families that are simply sloppy in their entertaining. And promiscuous. The trouble I've had with the Senator ...
— Ruggles of Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... separated, there were still evidently no conventional signs of number. On the other hand we find the three oldest and most indispensable numerals, one, five, and ten, represented by three signs—I, V or /, X, manifestly imitations of the outstretched finger, and the open hand single and double—which were not derived either from the Hellenes or the Phoenicians, but were common to the Romans, Sabellians, and Etruscans. They were the first steps towards the formation of a national Italian writing, ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... of me," she said cheerfully, resuming her seat. She dropped the matches into Mr. Corliss's hand with a fleeting touch of her finger-tips upon his palm. "Of course you wanted to smoke. I can't think why I didn't realize ...
— The Flirt • Booth Tarkington

... of a rich English milord, where she had officiated as governess; she called herself Mademoiselle Adele de Courval, and was very particular about the de, and very melancholy about her ancestors. Monsieur Goupille generally put his finger through his peruque, and fell away a little on his left pantaloon when he spoke to Mademoiselle de Courval, and Mademoiselle de Courval generally pecked at her bouquet when she answered Monsieur Goupille. On the other side of this young lady sat ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... steamed steadily on down the bay, past the bleak hills of Staten Island, on by Sandy Hook, reaching out its long, desolate finger as if pointing ships out to the ocean beyond, the three boys stood together in a delighted group in the lee of a pile of steel drums, each containing twenty gallons ...
— The Boy Aviators' Polar Dash - Or - Facing Death in the Antarctic • Captain Wilbur Lawton

... to sit hobnobbing with the jolly little deacon on that bright New Year's morning and not be affected by the happiness of his mood, for he was actually bubbling over with fun and as full of frolic as if the finger on the dial had, in truth, gone back forty years and he was only sixteen. "Only sixteen, ...
— How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's - And Other Stories • W. H. H. Murray

... adapted for flight through the air, appeared in the Jurassic and passed off the stage of existence before the end of the Cretaceous. The bones were hollow, as are those of birds. The sternum, or breastbone, was given a keel for the attachment of the wing muscles. The fifth finger, prodigiously lengthened, was turned backward to support a membrane which was attached to the body and extended to the base of the tail. The other fingers were free, and armed with sharp and delicate claws, as shown in Figures 336 ...
— The Elements of Geology • William Harmon Norton



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