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Froward   Listen
adjective
Froward  adj.  Not willing to yield or compIy with what is required or is reasonable; perverse; disobedient; peevish; as, a froward child. "A froward man soweth strife." "A froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as innovation."
Synonyms: Untoward; wayward; unyielding; ungovernable: refractory; obstinate; petulant; cross; peevish. See Perverse.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Froward" Quotes from Famous Books



... resou{n} / yove to wilfulnesse Froward to vertu / of thrift gaf[B] litil heede loth to lerne / lovid no besynesse Sauf pley or merthe / strau{n}ge to spelle or reede Folwyng al appetites / longyng to childheede lihtly tournyng wylde / and seelde sad Weepyng for nouht / and ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various

... the old Huguenot, coming forward and throwing open one of the doors which led from the landing, "you have indeed been a saviour of Israel and a stumbling-block to the froward this day. Will you not deign to rest under my roof, and even to take a cup of wine ere ...
— The Refugees • Arthur Conan Doyle

... from my court, was one day engaged in the cultivation of his field on the border of the village of Barkhara, which was supposed to be haunted by the spirit of an old proprietor, whose temper was so froward and violent that the lands could hardly be let for anything, for hardly any man would venture to cultivate them lest he might unintentionally incur his ghostship's displeasure. The poor cultivator, after begging his pardon in secret, ...
— Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official • William Sleeman

... to us, and cries for our love, is at times capricious as an April day. But the 'man' is ever firm and dominating, and with 'him' no one of us dares to trifle. Thy fortunate star shone o'er thee to-day. Few men have made so excellent a first impression on England's maiden Queen. But be not froward because of a first success, nor hope too much from a royal smile. The east wind can blow bitingly, even on a sunny day. Come with me now to the royal buffet; 'tis treason to quit this roof after a first visit without drinking a bumper ...
— Sea-Dogs All! - A Tale of Forest and Sea • Tom Bevan

... at and second my untowardlinesse, and such other faults that were in me. For by that meanes I read over Virgils AEneados, Terence, Plautus, and other Italian Comedies, allured thereunto by the pleasantnesse of their severall subjects: Had he beene so foolishly- severe, or so severely froward as to crosse this course of mine, I thinke verily I had never brought any thing from the College, but the hate and contempt of Bookes, as doth the greatest part of our Nobilitie. Such was his discretion, and so warily did he behave ...
— Literary and Philosophical Essays • Various

... her opinion is. She is froward and obstinate. It is my opinion that her true happiness requires all connection between you to cease from ...
— Jane Talbot • Charles Brockden Brown

... Rhonabwy, "who was yonder knight?" "The most eloquent and the wisest youth that is in this Island; Adaon the son of Taliesin." "Who was the man that struck his horse?" "A youth of froward nature; ...
— The Mabinogion Vol. 1 (of 3) • Owen M. Edwards

... what boots it to complain? Men's froward hearts are moved with women's tears As marble stones are pierced with drops of rain, No plaints find passage through unwilling ears: The tyrant, haply, would his wraith restrain Heard he these prayers ruthless Godfrey hears, Yet not thy fault is this, my chance, ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... faint, and weary, with her hard embracing, Like a wild bird being tam'd with too much handling, Or as the fleet-foot roe that's tir'd with chasing, 561 Or like the froward infant still'd with dandling, He now obeys, and now no more resisteth, While she takes all she can, ...
— Venus and Adonis • William Shakespeare

... a year after her sister, was a peevish, froward, ill-conditioned creature as ever was, ugly as the devil, lean, haggard, pale, with saucer eyes, a sharp nose, and hunched backed; but active, sprightly, and diligent about her affairs. Her ill complexion was occasioned by her bad diet, which ...
— The History of John Bull • John Arbuthnot

... rich and honourable: besides, the gentleman Is full of Vertue, Bounty, Worth, and Qualities Beseeming such a Wife, as your faire daughter: Cannot your Grace win her to fancie him? Duk. No, trust me, She is peeuish, sullen, froward, Prowd, disobedient, stubborne, lacking duty, Neither regarding that she is my childe, Nor fearing me, as if I were her father: And may I say to thee, this pride of hers (Vpon aduice) hath drawne my loue from ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... shame, ye that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.' 'For they sacrificed,' he saith, 'unto devils, and not to God; to gods whom their fathers knew not. There came new and fresh gods; because it is a froward generation, and there ...
— Barlaam and Ioasaph • St. John of Damascus

... me contains, A small, but wholesome soil with watery veins, Although the sun to rive[319] the earth incline, And the Icarian froward dog-star shine; Pelignian fields with liquid rivers flow, And on the soft ground fertile green grass grow; With corn the earth abounds, with vines much more, And some few pastures Pallas' olives bore; And by the rising herbs, where ...
— The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Christopher Marlowe

... was a prudent, sensible woman, and had united with him in constant endeavours to educate their family. Whilst they were yet infants, prattling at their mother's knee, she taught them to love and help one another, to conquer their little froward humours, and to be obedient and tractable. This saved both them and herself a great deal of trouble afterward; and their father often said, both to the boys and girls, "You may thank your mother, and so may I, for the good tempers ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth

... Tract. Megilla, fol. l3—'What, is it then permitted to the just to deal deceitfully? And he answered, Yea, for it is written, With the pure thou shalt be pure, and with the froward thou shalt learn frowardness.' [Footnote: 2 Sam. xxii. 27; a specimen of how the Talmudists interpret the Bible.] Item, it is written expressly in the Parascha Bereschith, 'It is permitted to the just to deal deceitfully, even as Jacob ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... design, and undoubtedly it covers much ground, including a stiff rejection of Locke's theory of toleration, and the assertion of the strong doctrine that the Christian prince has a right by temporal penalties to protect the church from the gathering together of the froward and the insurrection of wicked doers. It has at least the merit, so far from universal in the polemics of that day, of clear language, definite propositions, and formal arguments capable of being met by a downright yes or no.[96] The ...
— The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) - 1809-1859 • John Morley

... unrequired concession of the indifferency of fornication (because things indifferent, and in the case of scandal, and when they are done with the appearance of evil, should be forborne), without ever mentioning the unlawfulness of it. But if in a froward tergiversation, the fornicator begin to reply, that he also is scandalised and provoked to go on in his fornication obstinately, by the pastor rebuking him for so light a matter, and that the pastor's reproof to him hath appearance of evil, as much as his fornication ...
— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie

... serve thee, he will assuredly expound to thee his case and will name to thee his wrongdoers; and indeed this is an arrear that is due to the Prince of True Believers, by whom may Allah fortify the Faith and vouchsafe him the victory over rebel and froward wretch!" Thereupon he ordered her a fine house and bade furnish it with carpets and vessels of choice and commanded them to give all she needed. This was done during the rest of the day, and when the night came, she sent the eunuch with a suit of clothes ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... Tongue, but humble, pleasing, and willing to learn; for ill words may provoke Blows from a Cook, their heads being always filled with the contrivance of their business, which may cause them to be peevish and froward, if provoked to it; this Maid ought also to have a good Memory, and not to forget from one day to another what should be done, nor to leave any manner of thing foul at night, neither in the Kitchin, nor Larders, to keep her Iron things and others clean ...
— The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet • Hannah Wolley

... embrace him shall not wander, nor be misled; for his "mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to his lips," Prov. viii. 7. "All the words of his mouth are in righteousness, and there is nothing froward or perverse in them," verse 8. "He is wisdom, and dwelleth with prudence, and findeth out knowledge of witty inventions," verse 12. "Counsel is his, and sound wisdom; he hath understanding ...
— Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life • John Brown (of Wamphray)

... crabbed; sour, sour as a crab; surly &c (discourteous) 895. moody; spleenish^, spleenly^; splenetic, cankered. cross, crossgrained^; perverse, wayward, humorsome^; restiff^, restive; cantankerous, intractable, exceptious^, sinistrous^, deaf to reason, unaccommodating, rusty, froward; cussed [U.S.]. dogged &c (stubborn) 606. grumpy, glum, grim, grum^, morose, frumpish; in the sulks &c n.; out of sorts; scowling, glowering, growling; grouchy. peevish ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... exerted ev'ry art to please; But all in vain: he only seemed to teaze: Whate'er he said, however nicely graced, Ill-humour, inexperience, or distaste, Induced the belle, unlearned in Cupid's book; To treat his passion with a froward look. ...
— The Tales and Novels, Complete • Jean de La Fontaine

... which, alas, our whole life long, Hoarsely each passing moment sings. But to new horror I awake each morn, And I could weep hot tears, to see the sun Dawn on another day, whose round forlorn Accomplishes no wish of mine—not one. Which still, with froward captiousness, impains E'en the presentiment of every joy, While low realities and paltry cares The spirit's fond imaginings destroy. Then must I too, when falls the veil of night, Stretch'd on my pallet languish in despair. Appalling ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... for lack of that love, should be rejected for their offences, and the heathen chosen in their stead. Hosea i, 10; Deut. xxxii, 20. "I will hide myself from them in view of their latter sins, for they are a froward generation without faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God, and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, and with an ignorant and ...
— Pascal's Pensees • Blaise Pascal

... not with him, but was doubled upon his Heire, your beloved Uncle the Bishop of [3] Chichester, that lives in this froward generation, to be an ornament to his Calling. And this affection to him was by Dr. D. so testified in his life, that he then trusted him with the very secrets of his soul; & at his death, with what was dearest to him, even his ...
— Waltoniana - Inedited Remains in Verse and Prose of Izaak Walton • Isaak Walton

... dancers of the minuet, ever to have an expression of that sort of gaity and chearfulness in the countenance, which will give it an amiable and even a noble frankness. Nothing can be more out of character, or even displeasing, than a froward or too pensive a look. There may be a sprightly vacancy, an openness in the face, without the least tincture of any indecent air of levity: as there may be a captivating modesty, without any of that bashfulness which arises either from low breeding, wrong breeding, ...
— A Treatise on the Art of Dancing • Giovanni-Andrea Gallini

... rewardeth wicked dooings in this world with worthie recompense, as well as in the world to come, appointing euill princes sometimes to reigne for the punishment of the people, according as they deserue, permitting some of them to haue gouernement a long time, that both the froward nations may suffer long for their sins, and that such wicked princes may in an other world tast the more bitter torments. Againe, other he taketh out of the waie, that the people may be deliuered from oppression, and also that the naughtie ruler for his misdemeanour may ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (6 of 8) - The Sixt Booke of the Historie of England • Raphael Holinshed

... There is nothing froward or formidable in the aspect of Dublin Castle. It has neither a portcullis nor a drawbridge. People go in and out of it as freely as through the City Hall in New York. There is a show of sentries at ...
— Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (1 of 2) (1888) • William Henry Hurlbert

... England, is the Law arising up to shine, If thou receive and practice it, the Crown it will be thine. If thou reject, and still remain a froward Son to be, Another Land will it receive, and take the ...
— The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth • Lewis H. Berens

... angel to us with the scroll of death, let us look upon it as an act of mercy, to prevent many sins and many calamities of a longer life; and lay down our heads softly and go to sleep, without wrangling like froward children. For this at least man gets by death, that his calamities are not immortal. To bear grief honorably and temperately, and to die willingly and nobly, are the duties of a good man and ...
— Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason • George Thornburgh

... matter for the council—in the name of the King—for the love of Heaven—Leonard, son Leonard! for Heaven's sake what have you to do with the matter? Down with that sword, and follow me! Dost not hear, froward boy? Our names will be called in question! Leonard, on your duty—Ha! have ...
— The Lances of Lynwood • Charlotte M. Yonge

... that Tressilians were ever wild and bloody men; and that an angry Tressilian was a thing to be avoided. Sir Andrew, who was far from valorous, thought there might be wisdom in the Justice's words, and remembered that he had troubles enough of his own with a froward wife without taking up the burdens of others. Master Godolphin and Sir Oliver between them, quoth the justice, had got up this storm of theirs. A God's name let them settle it, and if in the settling they should cut each other's throats haply the countryside would be well rid of a brace of ...
— The Sea-Hawk • Raphael Sabatini

... Famine we saw the bold outline of Cape Froward, the southernmost point of South America, stretching into the Straits. It is a fine headland, and Tom ordered the engines to be stopped in order to enable Mr. Bingham to sketch, and me to photograph, both it and the splendid view back through the channel we had just traversed to ...
— A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' • Annie Allnut Brassey

... sweet innocent?" sobbed Gerard; "what have I to forgive? Thou hadst a foolish froward child to guide to his own weal, and didst all this for the best, I thank thee and bless thee. But as thy confessor, all deceit is ill in Heaven's pure eyes. Therefore thou hast done well to confess and report it; and even on thy confession and penitence the Church ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

... be the poor and feeble slave of love? Animated as I am with ambition, aspiring to the greatest heights of knowledge and distinction, shall I degenerate into an amorous and languishing boy; shall I wilfully prepare for myself a long vista of disappointment? Shall I by one froward and unreasonable desire, stain all my future prospects, and discolour all those sources of enjoyment, that fate may have reserved for me?" Alas, little did I then apprehend that loss of fortune that was about to place me still more below the ...
— Italian Letters, Vols. I and II • William Godwin

... my heart Long since to every man that mingles here; But grieve to find it trusted with such tempers, That can't forgive my froward ...
— Venice Preserved - A Tragedy • Thomas Otway

... do they not smile, While we sit carousing and drinking the while? Ah, bumpers, I see that our wine is all done, Our mirth falls of course, when our Bacchus is gone. Then since it is so, bring me here a supply; Begone, froward wife, for I'll ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... Ready with eye and lip to ensnare; And like the tendril'd vine they loose * The rich profusion of their hair: Shooting their shafts and arrows from * Beautiful eyes beyond compare; Overpowering and transpiercing * Every froward adversaire." ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... of affection and passion, they were generous and faithful where they had fixed an attachment; implacable, froward, and cruel, where they had conceived a dislike: addicted to debauchery, and the immoderate use of intoxicating liquors, they deliberated on the affairs of state in the heat of their riot; and in the same dangerous moments, conceived the designs of military enterprise, or terminated their ...
— An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Eighth Edition • Adam Ferguson, L.L.D.

... to us one day at Genoa, and enjoyed our dismay at it like a froward boy who has achieved what he considers some mischievous prank. He offered us a copy, but we declined to accept it; for, being in the habit of seeing Mr. Rogers frequently beneath our roof, we thought it would be treacherous to him. Byron, however, found ...
— The Idler in France • Marguerite Gardiner

... Society, capricious in its indignation as it had been capricious in its fondness, flew into a rage with its froward and petted darling. He had been worshiped with an irrational idolatry. He was persecuted with an irrational fury. Much has been written about those unhappy domestic occurrences which decided the fate of his life. Yet ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... itself, it doth now the office of each one of them itself in itself. And this befalleth when, after long use, and customable consenting unto them when they come, at the last it is made so fleshly, so worldly, and so malicious, so wicked, and so froward, that now plainly of itself, without suggestion of any other spirit, it gendereth and bringeth forth in itself, not only lusty thoughts of the flesh, and vain thoughts of the world, but that worst of all these, as are bitter ...
— The Cell of Self-Knowledge - Seven Early English Mystical Treaties • Various

... very beginning, is evident from v. 7: "Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations." Such words cannot be interpreted so as to fit the lips of Moses. It must have been composed in a time of natural gloom and depression, after Yahweh's anger had been provoked by "a very froward generation," certainly not before the Assyrian Empire had loomed up against the political horizon, aggressive and menacing. Some critics bring the date down even to the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. (4) The Blessing of ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 - "Destructors" to "Diameter" • Various

... widow or widower, who are supposed emancipated) without the consent of the father, or, if he be not living, of the mother or guardians, shall be absolutely void. A like provision is made as in the civil law, where the mother or guardian is non compos, beyond sea, or unreasonably froward, to dispense with such consent at the discretion of the lord chancellor: but no provision is made, in case the father should labour under any mental or other incapacity. Much may be, and much has been, said both ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone

... women who set the communities ablaze with their witcheries, none in fertility of invention and performance surpassed Elizabeth Godman of New Haven—a member of the household of Stephen Goodyear, the Deputy Governor. Reverend John Davenport said, in a sermon of the time, "that a froward discontented frame of spirit was a subject fitt for ye Devill," and Elizabeth was accused by Goodwife Larremore and others of being in "such a frame of spirit," and of practicing ...
— The Witchcraft Delusion In Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697) • John M. Taylor

... the moist shaddock to his parched mouth, Which felt Exhaustion's deep and bitter drouth. But soon observed, this guardian was withdrawn, Nor further Mercy clouds Rebellion's dawn.[361] 150 Then forward stepped the bold and froward boy His Chief had cherished only to destroy, And, pointing to the helpless prow beneath, Exclaimed, "Depart at once! delay is death!" Yet then, even then, his feelings ceased not all: In that last moment could a word ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... operations are necessarily on the side of God's lovers and against those who love Him not. They are contrary to Him, therefore He is so to them. 'With the froward Thou wilt show ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

... the prese amonge, By froward chaunce my hood was gone; Yet for all that I stayd not longe, Tyll at the kynge bench I was come. Before the judge I kneled anon, And prayd hym for Gods sake to take heede; But for lack of money I ...
— A Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483 • Anonymous

... truth, or what would become of any of us? But it is true, and in a very solemn sense God is to us what we make Him. 'With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and with the perverse Thou wilt show Thyself froward.' ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... win the wager better yet, and show more signs of her new-built virtue and obedience." Katharine now entering with the two ladies, he continued: "See where she comes, and brings your froward wives as prisoners to her womanly persuasion. Katharine, that cap of yours does not become you; off with that bauble, and throw ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... his deliverer's neck and dangling down in front, bare and brier-scratched, his arms clasped tightly around the bear-skin war-cap, his own little coon-skin cap all brave with the pride of the war-bird—there sat our little white hero, that self-same runaway Bushie, whose froward legs had so well-nigh carried him to death's door, and on whose account a whole settlement had been unsettled from dinner-time yesterday till supper-time to-day. But what a shout that was which at this sight went pealing up from the fort to the sky, ...
— Burl • Morrison Heady

... your policy May bear it through, thus. [TO PER.] sir, a word with you. I would be loth to contest publicly With any gentlewoman, or to seem Froward, or violent, as the courtier says; It comes too near rusticity in a lady, Which I would shun by all means: and however I may deserve from master Would-be, yet T'have one fair gentlewoman thus be made The unkind instrument to wrong another, And one ...
— Volpone; Or, The Fox • Ben Jonson

... another tale, and help to bear him and plunge him into the pool of penance over the hard ears! But in the meanwhile, for fear lest if he would wax never the better he would wax much the worse; and from gentle, smooth, sweet, and courteous, might wax angry, rough, froward, and sour, and thereupon be troublous and tedious to the world to make fair weather with; they give him fair words for the while and put him in good comfort, and let him for the rest ...
— Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation - With Modifications To Obsolete Language By Monica Stevens • Thomas More

... mother, as she rushed into the chamber, leading in Uctred. He had been discovered on removing some of the huge piles of timber again from the hill, where, under a curiously-supported covering of beams and other rude materials, he lay, seemingly asleep. The urchin looked as malicious and froward as ever, even when ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... for servants to disregard the authority, or undervalue the character of the best masters and mistresses; but their duty is not to be measured by the virtue or even the kindness, of their domestic superiors, the apostle expressly ordaining obedience "not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward." ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I • Francis Augustus Cox

... trifling thing for aid, His sullen head would slip from off my knee, And his damp hair to earth would wander down, Till I grew frighten'd thus to challenge Death, And with the king of terrors idly play.— Yet those pale lips deserted not the smile Of froward, gay defiance, lingering there, Like a tir'd truant's sleeping on the grass, Mid the stray sun-beams of unsadden'd hope, ...
— Cromwell • Alfred B. Richards

... counsel thee, from soul cast out the wish that dwells therein, * And cut that short which threatens thee with sore risk oversoon: An to such talk thou dare return, I bid thee to expect * Fro' me such awful penalty as suiteth froward loon: I swear by Him who moulded man from gout of clotted blood,[FN34] * Who lit the Sun to shine by day and lit for night the moon, An thou return to mention that thou spakest in thy pride, * Upon a cross of tree for boon ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... He would then see, in the words of Dr. Wayland, "That the duty of slaves is explicitly made known in the Bible. They are bound to obedience, fidelity, submission, and respect to their masters—not only to the good and kind, but also to the unkind and froward; not, however, on the ground of duty to man, but on the ground of duty to God." But, with all, we have some little glimpse of our dangers, as well as some little sense ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various

... himself a man of extreme good-nature, was frequently much vexed in the spirit by the proud, froward, perverse, and untractable temper of his next vicar. The latter, after an absence much longer than usual, one day paid a visit to the bishop, who kindly inquired the cause of his absence, and was answered by the vicar, that he had been ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon

... that provides for a future assault. But many times we complain, repine and mutter without a cause, we give way to passions we may resist, and will not. Socrates was bad by nature, envious, as he confessed to Zophius the physiognomer, accusing him of it, froward and lascivious: but as he was Socrates, he did correct and amend himself. Thou art malicious, envious, covetous, impatient, no doubt, and lascivious, yet as thou art a Christian, correct and moderate ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior

... ungodly are froward, even from their mother's womb: as soon as they are born, they go astray, ...
— The Book of Common Prayer - and The Scottish Liturgy • Church of England

... thrust the press among, By froward chance my hood was gone; Yet for all that I stayed not long Till to the King's Bench I was come. Before the Judge I kneeled anon And prayed him for God's sake take heed. But for lack of money, I ...
— English Satires • Various

... thoughtlessness and presumption of youth, and, now that she is gone, my compunction is awakened by a thousand recollections of my treatment of her. I was indeed guilty of no flagrant acts of contempt or rebellion. Perhaps her deportment was inevitably calculated to instil into me a froward and refractory spirit. My faults, however, were speedily followed by repentance, and, in the midst of impatience and passion, a look of tender upbraiding from her was always sufficient to melt me into tears and make me ductile to her will. If sorrow for her loss be an atonement ...
— Arthur Mervyn - Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 • Charles Brockden Brown

... natural qualities. "Bishop Hall" (as you may remember to have seen quoted elsewhere) "prefers Nature before Grace in the Election of a wife, because, saith he, it will be a hard Task, where the Nature is peevish and froward, for Grace to make an ...
— The Poet at the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... baskets, staring straight up at the ceiling; but in denoting their degrees in society, and confining them to their respective stations (which experience shows to be lamentably difficult in real life), the makers of these Dolls had far improved on Nature, who is often froward and perverse; for they, not resting on such arbitrary marks as satin, cotton print, and bits of rag, had superadded striking personal differences which allowed of no mistake. Thus, the Doll-lady of distinction had wax limbs of perfect symmetry; but only she and her compeers. The next grade in ...
— The Cricket on the Hearth • Charles Dickens

... what woe to the froward, What joy to the just and kind! When the Seraph band comes streaming Christ's gleaming banner behind; Heavenly blue shall its hue be To a myriad marvelling eyes; Save where its heart encrimsons ...
— A Celtic Psaltery • Alfred Perceval Graves

... My liege lord, the taller. The other, please your grace, is her poor handmaid, Long since betrothed to me. But the maid's froward— Yet would your grace ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... fretted by the conduct of a froward child, had driven her boy from her presence, when, if she had controlled her own feelings, she might have drawn him to her side and subdued him by the power of affection. She was unhappy, and her ...
— Heart-Histories and Life-Pictures • T. S. Arthur

... instantly took the shape and found refuge in the immediate form of the darkest spleen, generally, indeed, brooding in silence, and, if speaking, expressing itself only in sarcasm. Cadurcis was indeed, as we have already described him, the spoiled child of society; a froward and petted darling, not always to be conciliated by kindness, but furious when neglected or controlled. He was habituated to triumph; it had been his lot to come, to see, and to conquer; even the procrastination of certain success was intolerable to him; his energetic volition ...
— Venetia • Benjamin Disraeli

... swimmer and fighter. Also by the drink which she gave she changed the strictness of the maiden to desire, and replaced her vanished anger with love and delight. Then she bade Westmar, Koll, and their sons go to the king and urge their mission afresh; and finally, should they find him froward, to anticipate a rebuff by a challenge ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... playhouse. Surely no worthy man goes near those sinks of iniquity, the baited traps of the Evil One? Has not the good and sanctified Master Bull declared from the pulpit that they are the gathering-place of the froward, the chosen haunts of the perverse Assyrians, as dangerous to the soul as any of those Papal steeple-houses wherein the creature is sacrilegiously confounded with ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle

... end,' she said haughtily, and bowed slightly as though she were really some rightful sovereign dismissing a froward courtier. ...
— A German Pompadour - Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Graevenitz, - Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg • Marie Hay

... is his life, Who is troubled with a wife! Be she ne'er so fair or comely, Be she ne'er so foul or homely, Be she ne'er so young and toward, Be she ne'er so old and froward, Be she kind, with arms enfolding, Be she cross, and always scolding, Be she blithe or melancholy, Have she wit, or have she folly, Be she wary, be she squandering, Be she staid, or be she wandering, Be she constant, be she fickle, Be she fire, or be she ickle; ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... and froward bearing, Proud heart, rebellious brow— Deaf ear and soul uncaring, We seek Thy mercy now! The sinner that forswore Thee, The fool that passed Thee by, Our times are known before Thee— Lord, grant us strength ...
— The Missionary • George Griffith

... the spirit of its teachings, consecrated wealth, luxury, and the quiet of an entire lifetime on the altar of voluntary sacrifice for the salvation of an alien people; because Samuel Johnson, shut out from mirthfulness by disease and suffering, and endowed with an intellectual pride intolerant of froward ignorance, was, through the chastening power of that belief, transformed into the cheerful minister and willing slave of the weaklings whom he gathered into his home, and around whom the tendrils of his heart had entwined themselves, waxing closer and stronger in ...
— West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude Explained by J. J. Thomas • J. J. (John Jacob) Thomas

... the next morning, the Dolphin and we got under weigh, with a northerly breeze, and rounding Berry Head stood for Froward Point, at the eastern side of Dartmouth Harbour. We had to keep at a distance from it, to avoid a reef of rocks which runs off that part of the coast. The entrance of Dartmouth Harbour is picturesque, with ...
— A Yacht Voyage Round England • W.H.G. Kingston

... human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humoured a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the ...
— A Book of English Prose - Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools • Percy Lubbock

... and the singer of the verses, though Alexander and the younger men about him were much amused to hear them, and encouraged them to go on, till at last Clitus, who had drunk too much, and was besides of a froward and willful temper, was so nettled that he could hold no longer, saying, it was not well done to expose the Macedonians so before the barbarians and their enemies, since though it was their unhappiness ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... overtake And snap the froward pen, That old and palsied poets shake Against the minds ...
— Georgian Poetry 1918-19 • Various

... when in froward mood She proves an angry foe: Small gain I found to let her come, Less ...
— England's Antiphon • George MacDonald

... the rascal weaver, That had the mantle wrought; And doubly cursed the froward imp ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... Their speeches so perswasorie and pleasing, as might robbe the fauour of an indesposed hart, and violently drawe vnto them any mind, though Satyr-like or churlish howsoeuer, to depraue Religion, to binde euery loose conceit, to make any rusty Peasant amorous, and to mollifie any froward disposition. Vppon which occasion, my minde, altogether set on fier with a new desire, and in the extreame heate of concupiscence, prouoked to fall headlong into a lasciuious appetite, & drowned in lustfull loue vnbridled: in the extreame inuasion and ...
— Hypnerotomachia - The Strife of Loue in a Dreame • Francesco Colonna

... peevish, and snappish to his clerks and domestics, to an unusual and almost intolerable degree, the acrimonious humours settled in a hissing-hot fit of the gout, which is a well-known tamer of the most froward spirits, and under whose discipline we shall, for the present, leave him, as the continuation of this history assumes, with the next division, a form somewhat different from direct narrative and epistolary correspondence, though partaking of the ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... spinster, yet with rudimentary lines and expressions of matronhood. She all unconsciously held her shawl, rolled up in a canvas bag, on her left hip, as if it had been a child. She wore a settled frown of dissent at life, but it was the frown of a mother who regarded life as a froward child, rather than as ...
— The Wind in the Rose-bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural • Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

... Perhaps love treats me as a mother deals with a froward child, because I asked too much of her. My life has become an endless battue. Much game of all kinds is thus driven out to be shot, but the sportsman finds true pleasure only in tracking the single heathcock, the solitary chamois. Yet, no," and in her ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... now it has come to my hearing that you are about to depart from this castle in quest of such fair adventures as God may vouchsafe to you; therefore, before you take the road, I would that you challenge this froward rustic, and compel him to marry my daughter in fulfillment of the promise he gave her to become her husband before he seduced her; for to expect that my lord the duke will do me justice is to ask pears from the elm tree, ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... people up Boston way, but they are sore beset by the tribulations of Zion. On land there is war and rumour of war, and on the sea the ships of the godly are snatched by every manner of ocean thief. Likewise we have dissension among ourselves, and a constant strife with the froward human heart. Still is Jerusalem troubled, and there is no ...
— Salute to Adventurers • John Buchan

... juggled with words and documents and chronicles (his thimble-rigging), making a truth a lie or a lie a truth according as it suited a froward and prejudicate mind, to quote the expression of an older and simpler-minded ...
— Dead Man's Plack and an Old Thorn • William Henry Hudson

... knights-errant that will joust with us. God forbid, said King Mark, for they be six and we but two. As for that, said Sir Dinadan, let us not spare, for I will assay the foremost; and therewith he made him ready. When King Mark saw him do so, as fast as Sir Dinadan rode toward them, King Mark rode froward them with all his menial meiny. So when Sir Dinadan saw King Mark was gone, he set the spear out of the rest, and threw his shield upon his back, and came, riding to the fellowship of the Table Round. And anon Sir Uwaine knew ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume II (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory

... Cocke to me, and tells me that the King comes to the House this day to pass the Poll Bill and the Irish Bill; and that, though the Faction is very froward in the House, yet all will end well there. But he says that one had got a Bill ready to present in the House against Sir W. Coventry for selling of places, and says he is certain of it, and how he was withheld from doing it. He says that the Vice-chamberlaine ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... physiognomy; and Shakspeare and Sterne, particularly the latter, were clever in the art; while Kempf and Zimmermann, in their profession, are said seldom to have erred as physiognomists. Surely it is a higher authority and more practical, which saith, "A wicked man walketh with a froward mouth; he speaketh with his feet; he teacheth with his fingers.—A man is known by his look, and a wise man by the air of his countenance." And yet again, "The wickedness of a ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 62, December, 1862 • Various

... fatal proves to me, My scrutiny but ends in admiration. Thus when the prophet from the Hills of Moab, Look'd down upon the chosen race of heaven, With fell intent to curse; ere yet he spake, Truth all resistless, emanation bright From great Adonai, fill'd his froward mind, And chang'd the curses ...
— Andre • William Dunlap

... far the King the generous Champion viewed, And rising, mildly thus his speech pursued:— "Since various tempers govern all mankind, Me, nature fashioned of a froward mind;[25] And what the heavens spontaneously bestow, Sown by their bounty must for ever grow. The fit of wrath which burst within me, soon Shrunk up my heart as thin as the new moon;[26] Else had I deemed thee still my army's ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 1,Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous

... to the woman who bore me; who nursed me in disease; who watched over my safety with incessant tenderness; whose life and whose peace were involved in mine. I should have deemed myself brutish and obdurately wicked to have loaded her with fears and cares merely to smooth the brow of a froward old man, whose avarice called on me to sacrifice my ease and my health, and who shifted to other shoulders the province of sustaining me when sick, and of mourning ...
— Arthur Mervyn - Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 • Charles Brockden Brown

... in the wall," said Betty, contemptuously. "Find you the meat, and I'll find the deceit: for he is as poor as a rat into the bargain. Nay, nay, God Almighty will never have the heart to burn us two for such a trifle. Why 't is no more than cheating a froward ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 • Various

... Although the heart that knows its bitterness Hear loath, And credit less— That he who kens to meet Pain's kisses fierce Which hiss against his tears, Dread, loss, nor love frustrate, Nor all iniquity of the froward years Shall his inur-ed wing make idly bate, Nor of the appointed quarry his staunch sight To lose observance quite; Seal from half-sad and all-elate Sagacious eyes Ultimate Paradise; Nor shake his certitude ...
— New Poems • Francis Thompson

... Quiet, Lord, my froward heart: Make me teachable and mild; Upright, simple, free from art; Make me as a weaned child, From distrust and envy free, Pleased with all ...
— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various

... your years Would have proved patience rather to your soul, Then with this frantique and untamed passion To whet their skeens; and, but for that I hope their friendships are too well confirmd, And their minds temperd with more kindly heat, Then for their froward parents soars That they should break forth into publique brawles— How ere the rough hand of th' untoward world Hath moulded your proceedings in this matter, Yet I am sure the first intent was love: Then since the first spring was so sweet and warm, ...
— The Merry Devil • William Shakespeare

... Nehemiah, whose worldly prosperity had outstripped his mental qualifications, had bethought himself of filling the breach with his nephew, given away as surplusage in his burdensome infancy, but transformed into a unique utility under the tutelage of Abner Sage. It was his boasting of his froward pupil, doubtless, that had suggested the idea, and Leander understood now that he was to do the work of the store and the post-office under the nominal incumbency of this unlettered lout. Had the whole transaction been open and acknowledged, Leander would have had scant appetite ...
— The Moonshiners At Hoho-Hebee Falls - 1895 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

... at its greatest and best, may be compared to a froward child, who must be humoured and played with till he falls asleep, and then the ...
— Morocco • S.L. Bensusan

... night And further declared That the said Capt. Waterhouse has been guilty of a Breach of the Articles of Agreement respecting the said Cruize by rejecting and refusing the Vote of the said Company, That the said Waterhouse is a Man of a Moross, Froward and Barbarous disposition having during sd. Cruize used Many of these appearers very Inhumanely by Confining them in Irons Without any real Cause, and is Man of no Courage or Resolution daring not to Engage any Vessell of Equal force with his, but on the Contrary has turned his back on them, and ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various

... refreshing liquid. Sink the longer then; cut it off. Each experiment will bring annoyance, as the tyro may find as he plods on in his task. Short-stemmed flowers make 'chunky' bouquets, every one knows. Another trouble is occasioned by the froward behavior of flowers. Never a woman among the sex could be at times so fickle and perverse. I am not prepared to maintain the theory of a higher nature in plants than the merely physical. It is enough ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... children from their first infancy, Who now despise all my godly instructions. An ox knoweth its lord, an ass its master's duty, But Israel will not know me, nor my conditions. Oh, froward people, given all to superstitions, Unnatural children, expert in blasphemies, Provoke me into hate, by their idolatries. Take heed to my words, ye tyrants of Sodoma, In vain ye offer your sacrifice to me. Discontent I am with you beasts of Gomorrah And ...
— Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays, with an Introduction • Anonymous

... Throughout the New Testament what word is there of patriotism? The citizenship is in heaven. What incitement to heroism? Resist not the power. What appeal to self-reverence? In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. What cry against injustice and oppression? Honour the king, and give obedience to the froward. Christianity makes a paradise for tyrants and a hell ...
— The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. - Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History • Annie Besant

... and security. But before I went, I took care to infuse such notions into her Head as tended to lessen the Guilt of destroying the Life of a Father, who obstructed the Happiness of his only Child; and strenuously argued, that the froward humours of old Age ought not to put a restraint on the Pleasures of Youth, and that when they did so, there was no sin in removing the Obstacle out ...
— Trial of Mary Blandy • William Roughead

... "When he wakes, he is to be assured that he is the Count of Montcorbier and Grand Constable of France. His antics may amuse me, his lucky star may serve me, and his winning tongue may help to avenge me on a certain froward maid, who disdained me. Send me ...
— If I Were King • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... behaved like a froward and obstinate girl," her father said angrily. "She has refused several most eligible offers, and I have to thank you for it. Well, sir, I hope at least that you have the grace to feel that it is preposterous that you should ...
— The Treasure of the Incas • G. A. Henty

... prynce : With support of your grace, Ther beon entred : in to youre royal place And late coomen in to youre castell, Youre poure lieges, wheche lyke no thing weel. Nowe in the vigyle of this nuwe yeere Certayne sweynes, ful [froward of ther chere], Of entent comen, [fallen on ther kne], For to compleyne vn to yuoure magestee Vpon the mescheef of gret aduersytee, Vpon the trouble and the cruweltee [10] Which that they haue endured in theyre lyves By the felnesse of theyre fierce ...
— The Disguising at Hertford • John Lydgate

... I will not tell what shrieks and cries, What angry pishes, and what fies, What pretty oaths, then newly born, The list'ning bridegroom heard there sworn: While froward she Most peevishly Did yielding fight, To keep o'er night, What she'd ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Volume I. • Theophilus Cibber

... here upon it; but it has pleased God so to place us, and it must please me also. I ask you, what is human life? Is not it a maimed happiness—care and weariness, weariness and care, with the baseless expectation, the strange cozenage of a brighter to-morrow? At best it is but a froward child, that must be played with and humored, to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James

... Whereas in Demosthenes' countenance on the other side, they might discern a marvellous diligence and care, and a pensive man, never weary with pain: insomuch that his enemies, (as he reporteth himself) called him a perverse and froward man. ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece • Various

... unconfuted may accuse, Then innocence must uncondemned die. The name of martyrdom offence hath gain'd When fury stopp'd a froward judge's ears. Much I'll not say (much speech much folly shows): What I have done you gave me leave to do. The excrements you bred whereon I feed; To rid the earth of their contagious fumes, With such ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various

... Justice. It is in such a contest that one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. 'The Lord disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.' 'Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of ...
— Thoughts on African Colonization • William Lloyd Garrison

... haven where the fortress stood Port Famine, owing to the utter want of all necessaries. It is in lat. 53 deg. S. Leaving this place on the 14th, they ran five leagues S.W. to Cape Froward, in the southernmost part of the straits, in lat. 54 deg. S. Sailing five leagues W. by N. from this cape, they put into a bay, called Muscle Cove, from the great quantities of muscles found there. Leaving that place on the 21st, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... that I do not know Intrinsic, and not their imaginary value My own health varies, as usual, but never deviates into good National honor and interest have been sacrificed to private Neither abilities or words enough to call a coach Neither know nor care, (when I die) for I am very weary Never saw a froward child mended by whipping Never to trust implicitly to the informations of others Not make their want still worse by grieving and regretting them Not tumble, but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life Nothing much worth either desiring or fearing Often ...
— Widger's Quotations from Chesterfield's Letters to his Son • David Widger

... superabundant, but in their very multiplicity lies our difficulty. The narrative in the Autobiography doubtless gives a correct general outline of his life in Leipzig and of its main results for his general development, but its cool, detached tone leaves a totally inadequate impression of the froward youth, torn to distraction by conflicting passions and conflicting ideals. With the contemporary testimonies our difficulties are of another kind. The testimonies of his friends regarding his personal traits are often contradictory, and equally ...
— The Youth of Goethe • Peter Hume Brown

... Then they, whose mothers midst the wood God Bacchus overbore, To lead the dance—Amata's name being held in nowise light— 581 Together draw from every side, and weary for the fight. Yea, all with froward heart and voice cry out for war and death, That signs of heaven forbid so sore, that high God gainsayeth, And King Latinus' house therewith beset they eagerly; But he unmoved against them stands as crag amid the sea; As crag amid the sea, that ...
— The AEneids of Virgil - Done into English Verse • Virgil

... out a torrent of words in eager deprecation of so limited an operation, enjoining me by unmistakable signs to immerse my whole body. To this I was forced to consent; and the honest fellow regarding me as a froward, inexperienced child, whom it was his duty to serve at the risk of offending, lifted me from the rocks, and tenderly bathed my limbs. This over, and resuming my seat, I could not avoid bursting into admiration ...
— Typee - A Romance of the South Sea • Herman Melville

... once a king of the kings of Hind, who was a model of morals, praiseworthy in policy, lief of justice to his lieges, lavish to men of learning and piety and abstinence and devoutness and worship and shunning mischief-makers and froward folk, fools and traitors. After such goodly fashion he abode in his kingship what Allah the Most High willed of watches and days and twelvemonths,[FN509] and he married the daughter of his father's brother, a beautiful woman and a winsome, endowed with brightness and perfection, who had been ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... would ever have been as the heir to a fortune; and he never forgot the lesson which pain, weakness, and shame had taught him,—that the way of evil is also the way of sorrow. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward. ...
— False Friends, and The Sailor's Resolve • Unknown

... the mingled Stoical and Epicurean. With him life is a trifle to be gracefully played with—a "froward child, to be humoured till it falls asleep, and all is over." His indifference is imputed to him as a crime; but it should not be forgotten that, if there be any fault at all in this indifference, it is the fault ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various

... fellow of a froward disposition, hasty and yet revengeful, and made up of almost all the vices that go to forming a debauchee in low life. He had had a long acquaintance with the person that suffered with him for their offences, but what made him appear in the worst light was that he had endeavoured to commit ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward

... frequent on my cheek, since last, At eventide, when all the winds were hush'd, I woke to thee the melancholy song. Since then with Thoughtfulness, a maid severe, I've journey'd, and have learn'd to shape the freaks Of frolic fancy to the line of truth; Not unrepining, for my froward heart Stills turns to thee, mine Harp, and to the flow Of spring-gales past—the woods and storied haunts Of my not songless boyhood.—Yet once more, Not fearless, I will wake thy tremulous tones, My long-neglected ...
— The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White - With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas • Henry Kirke White

... fashion of hashing up the author's production, taking all its facts from me with out disclosing that one fact to the reader and then proceed to "butter" or "slash." The worst, "fulfyld with malace of froward entente," would choose for theme not the work but the worker, upon the good old principle "Abuse the plaintiff's attorney." These arts fully account for the downfall of criticism in our day and the deafness of the public to such literary verdicts. ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... for now the return to her native hills, the presence of her lover, and the home-made bread and forest mutton, combining with her dainty years, were making her look wonderful. If Aubyn Auberley had not been despoiled of all true manliness, by the petting and the froward wit of many a foreign lady, he might have won the pure salvation of an earnest love. But, when judged by that French standard which was now supreme at court, this poor Frida was a rustic, only fit to go to school. ...
— Frida, or, The Lover's Leap, A Legend Of The West Country - From "Slain By The Doones" By R. D. Blackmore • R. D. Blackmore

... privilege; and therefore blesse God for it. And now, after this had been done, thy deare mother dyed in the Lord, departing out of this world into another, who did lose her life by being careful to preserve thine; for in the ship thou wert so feeble and froward, both in the day and night, that hereby shee lost her strength, and at last her life. Shee hath made also many a prayer and shed many a tear in secret for thee; and this hath bin oft her request, that if the Lord did not intend to glorify himselfe by thee, that he would cut ...
— Bertha and Her Baptism • Nehemiah Adams

... if I be able, to disinthrall thee from these thy pangs. But be thou still, nor be over impetuous in thy language. What! knowest thou not exactly, extremely intelligent as thou art, that punishment is inflicted on a froward tongue? ...
— Prometheus Bound and Seven Against Thebes • Aeschylus

... waste the night over the page of antiquity or the sallies of contemporary genius, but pursue the solitary walk, where Vanity, ever changing, but a few hours past walked before me—where she kept up the pageant, and now, like a froward child, seems hushed with ...
— Goldsmith - English Men of Letters Series • William Black

... placing and ranking both matter and words, that the composition be comely; and to do this with diligence and often. No matter how slow the style be at first, so it be laboured and accurate; seek the best, and be not glad of the froward conceits, or first words, that offer themselves to us; but judge of what we invent, and order what we approve. Repeat often what we have formerly written; which beside that it helps the consequence, and makes the juncture better, it quickens the heat of imagination, ...
— Discoveries and Some Poems • Ben Jonson

... So right even afore him there met two knights, the one came froward Camelot, and the other from the north, and either saluted other. What tidings at Camelot? said the one. By my head, said the other, there have I been and espied the court of King Arthur, and there is such a fellowship they may never be broken, and well-nigh all the ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume I (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory

... with her brother, by whom she was greatly loved, and who was a very great lord and married to the daughter of a King. This young Prince was a man much given to pleasure, fond of hunting, pastimes, and women, as his youth inclined him. He had a wife, however, who was of a very froward disposition, (2) and found no pleasure in her husband's pursuits; wherefore this Lord always took his sister along with his wife, for she was a most joyous and pleasant companion, and withal a discreet and ...
— The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.) • Margaret, Queen Of Navarre

... appear kinder, without being so kind. As I wish and intend to restore and establish your happiness, I shall go thoroughly to work. You don't want an apothecary, but a surgeon—but I shall give you over at once, if you are either froward or relapse. ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2 • Horace Walpole



Words linked to "Froward" :   wilful, headstrong, self-willed



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