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Gain   Listen
verb
Gain  v. t.  (past & past part. gained; pres. part. gaining)  
1.
To get, as profit or advantage; to obtain or acquire by effort or labor; as, to gain a good living. "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" "To gain dominion, or to keep it gained." "For fame with toil we gain, but lose with ease."
2.
To come off winner or victor in; to be successful in; to obtain by competition; as, to gain a battle; to gain a case at law; to gain a prize.
3.
To draw into any interest or party; to win to one's side; to conciliate. "If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." "To gratify the queen, and gained the court."
4.
To reach; to attain to; to arrive at; as, to gain the top of a mountain; to gain a good harbor. "Forded Usk and gained the wood."
5.
To get, incur, or receive, as loss, harm, or damage. (Obs. or Ironical) "Ye should... not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss."
Gained day, the calendar day gained in sailing eastward around the earth.
To gain ground, to make progress; to advance in any undertaking; to prevail; to acquire strength or extent.
To gain over, to draw to one's party or interest; to win over.
To gain the wind (Naut.), to reach the windward side of another ship.
Synonyms: To obtain; acquire; get; procure; win; earn; attain; achieve. See Obtain. To Gain, Win. Gain implies only that we get something by exertion; win, that we do it in competition with others. A person gains knowledge, or gains a prize, simply by striving for it; he wins a victory, or wins a prize, by taking it in a struggle with others.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Gain" Quotes from Famous Books



... over the younger; ye younger, offer to your equals a stimulus; encourage yourselves by mutual exhortations; by examples emulous of virtue invite each other to glory; remain firm; conduct yourselves spiritually; gain the end happily. Only remember us then, when your virgin-state shall begin to be honoured." [Tantum mementote tunc nostri, cum incipiet in vobis virginitas honorari.—Page ...
— Primitive Christian Worship • James Endell Tyler

... election officers is an individual matter, beyond the cognizance of statute-books. But the weighty objection is that it would recognize, accept and confirm that very exclusion of the negro vote against which it professes to be aimed. It would only enforce a penalty, from which the gain would accrue solely to the Republican majority in Congress and the electoral college. The Republican party, it is safe to say, has too much virtue and intelligence in its rank and file to accept such a gain at such a cost. For the cost would be a bitter intensifying of race and sectional hostility. ...
— The Negro and the Nation - A History of American Slavery and Enfranchisement • George S. Merriam

... with which I asked this question got the better of his gravity. 'Come, Julia,' he said, 'you are a sad girl, but I gain nothing by scolding you.—Of these two strangers, the young lady is one whom you cannot fail, I think, to love—the person whom, for want of a better term, I called chaplain, is a very worthy, and somewhat ridiculous personage, who will ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott

... That we deeply sympathize with the family of our deceased friend in the loss that both they and we are called to sustain, feeling assured that after so long a life of Christian fidelity this loss, to him is an infinite gain. ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin

... she derived from not entirely abandoning prayer so as not to lose her soul; and what an excellent remedy this is in order to win back what one has lost. She exhorts everybody to practise prayer, and shows what a gain it is, even if one should have given it up for a time, to make use of ...
— The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus • Teresa of Avila

... Writing of Prince Henry's reception on March 1, 1902, The Spectator pointed out what delightful hosts the Americans had proved and were proving, but went on to express very grave doubt whether in the circumstances and with the men then at the helm, the Kaiser would "cut any political ice" or gain any material advantage by the visit or by the attempts at diplomatic bargaining sure to be connected with it. The ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey

... And bore her from her maidens, then broke up The hurried Court; indeed I know no more, For like a turning tide the crowd pressed on, And scarcely could I gain the grateful air. Yet on the Prado's walk came smiling by The Bishop of Ossuna; as he passed He clutched my cloak, and whispered in my ...
— Count Alarcos - A Tragedy • Benjamin Disraeli

... there should be a second trial. Crockett was very reluctant to consent to this, for he had nothing to gain, and everything to lose. But they insisted so vehemently that he had to yield. As what ensued does not redound much to his credit, we will let him tell the ...
— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott

... she extracted the juices as she well knows how. Now begins the awful scheme. She sent for me, who was living at the Convent de Santa Clara, to come and be her companion, as she was growing old. She knew that I was beautiful, and thinking to gain your love for me, tried in every way to bring us together. We met, and heaven knows we truly loved. Ever since my arrival she has given me a sweetmeat, of which I once told you. In this confection was the smallest quantity of the extract ...
— The Beautiful Eyes of Ysidria • Charles A. Gunnison

... to possess only two ambitions in life; one, to gain a place in his Junior House Fifteen, and the other, to score some signal and lasting victory over his form-master, a Mr Sydney Mellar, with whom he appears to wage a sort of perpetual guerilla warfare. Every vacation brings him home with a fresh tale of base subterfuges, ...
— The Right Stuff - Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton • Ian Hay

... what you will think of the world in which you will find yourself before to-morrow's moon arises. Come back thence and tell me, Bangu, for there are so many worlds beyond the sun, and I would learn for certain which of them such a one as you inhabits: a man who for hatred and for gain murders the father and the mother and then butchers the child—the child that could slay a warrior who has seen war—with the spear hot from ...
— Child of Storm • H. Rider Haggard

... acceptable terms of sale could be agreed upon. Another company composed of "principal characters" in the city had to be taken into the deal in a "profound secret." Arthur St. Clair, the president of the Congress, had to be accepted by the Associators as the governor of the territory, in order to gain his support. Cutler had to finesse by threatening to buy from some of the States which had land for sale within their borders. It is unfortunate for those who believe that our fathers were actuated ...
— The United States of America Part I • Ediwn Erle Sparks

... Vivian were too discomfited to be gracious. Like many persons more mature than they, they sought to cover embarrassment and to gain control of the situation by ...
— Virginia of Elk Creek Valley • Mary Ellen Chase

... naturally to gambling for money, betting on games, horse-racing, buying lottery tickets, and stock gambling, stimulated by the hope of making fortunes by risking small amounts, not stopping to think that what they gain, if successful, others must lose who are probably no better able to lose than they are. How much short of stealing is this? Look at the sad results which follow the practice started in so many of our churches—the poverty, the thieving, the failures, the breaches of trust, the disgrace ...
— Personal Experience of a Physician • John Ellis

... Patissot immediately wished to gain the shady nooks of the park, hoping that the melancholy of the forest would quiet the ruffled temper of his companion. But an entirely different effect resulted. As soon as she was amid the leaves and grass she began to sing at ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

... godchild's wife. For Pretextatus not only supplied Merowig with money in his various efforts to escape, but was so careless in his demands upon the friendship of the surrounding nobles, and in scattering bribes to gain them over, that his treasonable practices soon came to the ears of Hilperik. That avaricious and perpetually needy ruler was not long in securing the remainder of the treasure of which tidings had ...
— The Story of Rouen • Sir Theodore Andrea Cook

... Hannah," said Mr. Jennings, amused. "On the whole, I think she had better keep out of your clutches. Still, but for her we would never have met with Carl. What is his father's loss is our gain." ...
— Driven From Home - Carl Crawford's Experience • Horatio Alger

... kidnap his now affianced wife—who had escaped a deserved death on the gallows. It was a rude age, and men of Phips's quality, with no particular niceness as to women, or horror as to mutiny when it was twenty years old, compromised with their conscience for expediency and gain. Moreover, in his humorous way, Bucklaw, during his connection with Phips in England, had made himself agreeable and resourceful. Phips himself had sprung from the lower orders,—the son of a small farmer,—and even in future days when he rose to a high position ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... average or typical earthquake, though it may be convenient occasionally to depart slightly from such a course. Few shocks have contributed more to our knowledge than the majority of those described in this volume; but, on certain points, we gain additional information from the investigation of other earthquakes, and these are referred to when necessary for the purpose ...
— A Study of Recent Earthquakes • Charles Davison

... impossible long to continue the labour by which the pumps had been made to gain upon the leak, and as the exact situation of it could not be discovered, we had no hope of stopping it within. In this situation, Mr Monkhouse, one of my midshipmen, came to me and proposed an expedient that he had seen used on board a merchant ship, which sprung a leak that admitted above ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... of Why, and not of How) does he labour all day long, hunting for worms and insects for his children, while his wife nurses them in the nest? Why, too, did he help her to build that nest with toil and care this spring, for the sake of a set of nestlings who can be of no gain or use to him, but only take the food out of his mouth? Simply out of—what shall I call it, my child?—Love; that same sense of love and duty, coming surely from that one Fountain of all duty and all love, which makes your father work for you. That the mother should take care of her young, ...
— Madam How and Lady Why - or, First Lessons in Earth Lore for Children • Charles Kingsley

... eyes of the fishermen distinguished in the offing two ships running towards the land, the one a short distance ahead of the other, which was firing at her from her bow-chasers, the leading and smaller vessel returning the fire with her after guns, and apparently determined either to gain a sheltering harbour or to run on shore rather than be taken. The moment that revealed her to the spectators showed those on board how near she was to the shore, though evidently they were not aware of the still nearer danger of the treacherous ...
— Won from the Waves • W.H.G. Kingston

... broken, will usually fetch from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per ton more than large, the result of using these machines is a net gain of from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 9d. per ton of coke. It is not so much the actual gain, however, that operates in favor of providing a supply of broken coke, as the certainty that by so doing a market is obtained that would ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 360, November 25, 1882 • Various

... prisoner, without a moment's hesitancy; "and I will also add, that if you think that I am to be robbed with impunity, you are mistaken. What money I have about me I shall hold on to; and when I do gain my liberty look to yourselves, for there is law to ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... footsteps, that I may cease to see or hear aught any longer. And you, if you love me in reality, let me die as I desire and do not compel me to live against my will, but take your way to the victor and gain ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume V., Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) • Cassius Dio

... he probed the darkness as well as he could to gain some idea of the ranch which furnished and supported all these evidences of prosperity. But so far as he could make out, there was only a jumble of ragged hilltops behind the house, and before it the slope fell away steeply to the valley far below. He had not realized ...
— Black Jack • Max Brand

... would have the painful reflection ever present with him, that those he most loved in this world, were slaves—"knocked and beat about—and made to work out in all weathers." It was this that made many falter and give up their purpose to gain their freedom by flight, but Randolph was not one of this class. His young heart loved freedom too well to waver. True to his love of liberty, he left all, followed the north star, and ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still

... which I could gain admittance, my lord," replied Wilton. "He is a close prisoner in Newgate. I know no one who even is acquainted with him; and I believe none but his wife and various members of the government are admitted to ...
— The King's Highway • G. P. R. James

... peeress, who, ignorant of Italian customs, went to an evening reception in Rome arrayed in a very low bodice with straps instead of sleeves. Her remonstrances were vain; she was politely but firmly refused admittance, though told she might gain her point by changing her costume, which I believe ...
— Vendetta - A Story of One Forgotten • Marie Corelli

... privilege exercised by lawyers to commence suits in any court they pleased, and unlawful fees extorted. The assembly was petitioned in vain on these points, and on account of these wrongs the people of the western districts attempted to gain by force what was denied them by ...
— An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America • J. P. MacLean

... laid upon the neck of their lusts; "to speak evil of dignities," of those that God had set over them, for their governing in all the law and testament of Christ, these dreamt that to live like brutes, to be greedy of gain, and to take away for it, as Cain and Balaam did by their wiles, the lives of the owners thereof, would go for good coin in the best of trials. These also Peter speaks of (2 Peter 2). And he makes their dreams, that Jude calls so, their principle ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... would detect that this is a very old story, and a trivial commonplace, and would challenge proof that the world is making progress in aught but intellect, that it is gaining in freedom, or that increase in freedom is either a progress or a gain. Ranke, who was my own master, rejected the view that I have stated;[36] Comte, the master of better men, believed that we drag a lengthening chain under the gathered weight of the dead hand;[37] and many of our recent classics, Carlyle, Newman, Froude, were persuaded that there is no progress ...
— A Lecture on the Study of History • Lord Acton

... admirable steadiness, and obeyed with cheerful alacrity when they were ordered to man the pumps. Towards daybreak the rudder was torn from its fastenings, and it was only the discovery that the water did not gain on the ship that sustained the drooping spirits of the seamen, exhausted as they were with their arduous exertions and long exposure to the biting cold and constant fall of sleet and snow. At half-past six the long-wished-for dawn ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly

... Maintenon was determined to be Queen of France, and she became so in soul as well as in fact. During her latter years she ruled, and the King was content to follow her advice and do her will. When the King was dying and she could gain no more at his hands, Madame de Maintenon effected a most satisfactory settlement for herself at St. Cyr, where she ended her days in piety ...
— The Story of Versailles • Francis Loring Payne

... affection as both would have. Seldome seest thou a man make haste to bee rich, and thrive in religion. Christs message to John holds true; The poore are most forward in receiving and following the Gospell: as thou lovest thy zeale, beware of resolving to bee rich, lest gain proove thy godlinesse; take heede of ambitious aspiring, lest Courts and great places, proove ill aires for zeale, whither it is as easie to go zealous, as to returne wise: Peter whiles hee warmed his hands, cooled his heart; Not that greatnesse and zeale cannot ...
— A Coal From The Altar, To Kindle The Holy Fire of Zeale - In a Sermon Preached at a Generall Visitation at Ipswich • Samuel Ward

... to judgment. The science of government, of race, of commerce, and of jurisprudence, all have that preparatorily apologetic character now; yea, it even seems as though the small amount of intellect which still remains active to-day, and is not used up by the great mechanism of gain and power, has as its sole task the defending—and ...
— Thoughts out of Season (Part One) • Friedrich Nietzsche

... folly indeed for the tongue to stammer a negative when the heart is proclaiming an affirmative. Or rather, it is an act of heroic self-denial, of which I for one confess myself wholly incapable. I would not tell such a lie to gain a thousand pounds. Write to me again soon. What made you say I admired Hippocrates? It is a confounded "fib." I tried to find something admirable in ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter

... the country he had lost. Those of the resplendent and wayward butterfly were of an empire she meant to gain. But in her, who might suspect the consummate diplomat? Even then she was speaking to Murguia, asking if it were not time that Fra Diavolo remembered his engagements. Driscoll heard the query, and his comment was a mental shrug ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... who defend this strange attachment of some of their countrymen to this savage life, on principles independent of the reason of state, for encouraging its subjects to spread and gain footing amongst the savage nations, by resorting to their country, of which they, at the same time, gain a knowledge useful to future enterprizes, by a winning conformity to their actions, and by intermarriages with them. They pretend, that even this savage ...
— An Account Of The Customs And Manners Of The Micmakis And Maricheets Savage Nations, Now Dependent On The Government Of Cape-Breton • Antoine Simon Maillard

... a neighboring island, the only spot now on earth where the African slave trade is openly tolerated, and this in defiance of solemn treaties with a power abundantly able at any moment to enforce their execution. There the master, intent upon present gain, extorts from the slave as much labor as his physical powers are capable of enduring, knowing that when death comes to his relief his place can be supplied at a price reduced to the lowest point ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... the banditti were not a myth,— reaching Rome not much before midnight. I perpetrated unheard-of briberies on the custom-house officers at the gates, and was permitted to pass through and establish myself at Spillman's Hotel, the only one where we could gain admittance, and where we have been half ...
— Passages From the French and Italian Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... with herself that if the kindly, simple-hearted Colonel was going anyhow, what could she gain by traveling alone and throwing away his company? So she told him she accepted his offer gladly, gratefully. She said it would be the greatest of favors if he would go with her and protect her—not ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... it's greener than ever. Wide-spreading elms grow everywhere; in serried ranks within the college grounds, in smaller detachments throughout the village, in picket lines along the river and out into the country. The grass grows lush wherever it can gain hold, and, not content with having its own way on green and campus, is forever attempting the conquest of path and road. The warm red bricks of the college buildings are well-nigh hidden by ivy, which, too, is an ardent expansionist. And ...
— Behind the Line • Ralph Henry Barbour

... and appearance are of great importance. Be polite and pleasant. Do not lose your temper, no matter how much cause the customer gives you to do so. A calm, courteous manner will generally cool the anger of an irate customer and make it possible to gain his confidence and good will. Do not argue with your customers, Your business is to get the job and do it in an agreeable manner. If you make mistakes admit it and your customer will come again. Keep your clothes neat and clean and have your face and hands ...
— The Automobile Storage Battery - Its Care And Repair • O. A. Witte

... self, nevertheless they, with his money, and it may perhaps be added his religious opinions, stamp a man's individuality as strongly as any natural feature can stamp it. Change in style of dress, gain or loss of money, make a man feel and appear more changed than having his chin shaved or his nails cut. In fact, as soon as we leave common parlance on one side, and try for a scientific definition of personality, we find that there is none possible, any more ...
— Selections from Previous Works - and Remarks on Romanes' Mental Evolution in Animals • Samuel Butler

... the runaway with the remaining oar. Her inexperience and the clumsiness of the boat baffled her. The floating oar rose and fell, gently increasing its distance, and splash as she might she could not gain upon it. ...
— The Opened Shutters • Clara Louise Burnham

... freedom only after the death of Albany, when the resistance or the still more effectual indifference to his liberation of the man who alone could profit by his death in prison, or by any unpopular step he might be seduced into making to gain his freedom, was dead, and had ceased from troubling. It would perhaps, however, be false to say that his imprisonment had done him nothing but good. So far as education went this was no doubt the case; but it is possible ...
— Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets • Margaret Oliphant

... to me?" she repeated in an effort to gain time. "Why, nothing—nothing at all!" Her expression of distress lightened a little as she hit on an excuse that might serve to justify her interest. "Nothing at all, only—she's a friend of mine, a great friend of mine. Oh, yes!" Then, in an instant, the look of relief ...
— Within the Law - From the Play of Bayard Veiller • Marvin Dana

... slowly, "They say that El Hassan is in truth a renegade citizen of a far away Roumi land and that he attempts to build a great confederation in North Africa for his own gain." ...
— Border, Breed Nor Birth • Dallas McCord Reynolds

... thus weeping, Karna in great grief approached them both and said, 'Ye, Kuru princes, why do you thus yield to sorrow like ordinary men, from senselessness? Mere weeping can never ease a sorrowing man's grief. When weeping can never remove one's griefs, what do you gain by thus giving way to sorrow? Summon patience to your aid to not gladden the foe by such conduct. O king, the Pandavas only did their duty in liberating thee. They that reside in the dominions of the king, should always do what is agreeable to the king. Protected ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... him this evening. But he put her off with some excuse. How strange that any one should be so thoughtless as to withhold from the poor their hard-earned pittance! It is but a small sum at best, that the toiling seamstress or washerwoman can gain by her wearying labour. That, at least, should be promptly paid. To withhold it an hour is to do, in many cases, ...
— Friends and Neighbors - or Two Ways of Living in the World • Anonymous

... had read them to me: many of them, which pleased me, I struggled to preserve, but without effect; for, pretending he would alter them, he got them from me, and thrust them into the fire." That he wrote the Odes to gain a present subsistence is but the ...
— The Poetical Works of William Collins - With a Memoir • William Collins

... boy, laying a heart bare to her such that, if the world had many like it, the kingdom of heaven would be more than at hand. He talked as to an old friend in perfect understanding with him, from whom he had nothing to gain or to fear. There was never a compliment on the part of the man, and never a coquetry on the part of the girl—a dull idea to such as without compliment or coquetry could hold no intercourse, having no other available means. Mercy had never like her sister ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... greatly wrought up and interested. I got a cent ready in one hand and a florin in the other, intending to give him the former if he survived and the latter if he killed himself—for his loss would be my gain in a literary way, and I was willing to pay a fair price for the item —but this impostor ended his intensely moving performance by simply adding some powder to the liquid and polishing the spoon! Then he held it aloft, and he could not have shown a wilder exultation if he had ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... the Character of my Author than was necessary to explain the Nature and Use of this Edition, I shall proceed to consider him as a Genius in Possession of an everlasting Name. And how great that Merit must be, which could gain it against all the Disadvantages of the horrid Condition in which he had hitherto appear'd! Had Homer, or any other admir'd Author, first started into Publick so maim'd and deform'd, we cannot determine whether they had not sunk for ever under the Ignominy of such an ill Appearance. ...
— Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare • D. Nichol Smith

... place; as a lover, he was anxious to turn it to his own advantage. For he saw that, in spite of all her coldness and apparent apathy, Sophy was affected and wounded by Andrew's bitter imploration and its wretched and sorrowful ending. If the man should gain her ear and sympathy, Braelands feared for the result. He therefore urged her to an immediate marriage; and when Mistress Kilgour was taken into counsel, she encouraged the idea, because of the talk which was sure to follow such a flagrant breach ...
— A Knight of the Nets • Amelia E. Barr

... person starts this diet they will at first experience considerable weight loss because it is difficult to extract a large number of calories from these foods (though I have seen people actually gain weight on a pure melon diet, so much sugar do these fruits have, and well-chewed watermelon seeds are very nourishing). Eating even large quantities of only raw fruit and raw non-starchy vegetables results in a slow but steady healing process about 10 ...
— How and When to Be Your Own Doctor • Dr. Isabelle A. Moser with Steve Solomon

... reason as himself to maintain that she had won. In this embarrassment of not being able to find out the truth, he advanced towards the corpses, and sat down at the head, searching for some expedient that might gain him the victory over Zobeide. "I swear," cried he presently after, "by the holy name of God, that I will give a thousand pieces of gold to him who can tell me which ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 3 • Anon.

... the inguinal wall, the nature of its stricture will vary. If the hernia pass through a cleft in the conjoined tendon, f, Plate 38, this structure will constrict its neck all around. If it pass on the outer margin of this tendon, then the neck of the sac, bending inwards in order to gain the external ring, will be constricted against the sharp resisting edge of the tendon. Again, if the hernia enter the inguinal wall close to the epigastric artery, it will find its way into the inguinal canal, become invested by the structures forming ...
— Surgical Anatomy • Joseph Maclise

... hand, while she is no gainer by the change, most of the expense of it in blood and in money falls upon the home country. On the face of it, therefore, Great Britain had every reason to avoid so formidable a task as the conquest of the South African Republic. At the best she had nothing to gain, and at the worst she had an immense deal to lose. There was no room for ambition or aggression. It was a case of shirking or fulfilling a ...
— The War in South Africa - Its Cause and Conduct • Arthur Conan Doyle

... still hear the little lad whose life blood had ebbed away, saying to me in imploring tones: "Save me, Doctor! Save me for my mother!"... and I think a man must have heard such words in such a place to understand them aright, I think that every day this man must gain a stricter, a more precise, a more pathetic idea of suffering ...
— The New Book Of Martyrs • Georges Duhamel

... had ridiculed in her ignorance, not believing in it. She did not know that Inga's power had been lost, and found again, but she realized the boy was no common foe and that unless she could still manage to outwit him her reign in the Island of Coregos was ended. To gain time, she went back to the red-domed chamber and seated herself in her throne, before which were grouped ...
— Rinkitink in Oz • L. Frank Baum

... the task to reign supreme Within the sacred sphere of home; To make our life one happy dream, Thine own as spotless as the foam. To trade, to toil, to head the feast, To seek the politician's gain, Were hateful:—ay, as though the priest Took usury, ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101. October 17, 1891 • Various

... poet of a fairy's train, Might sit beside a violet's stem and view Its opening petals, watch the wondrous blue Thrill through their fibers, and their secret gain Of how the earth and sky and wind and rain Had given them life and form and scent and hue,— So I have gazed into the eyes of you, Those rare blue eyes, and have not looked in vain; For they have told me all that I would know, Even as the violets their secret tell Unto ...
— Pan and Aeolus: Poems • Charles Hamilton Musgrove

... unless watched closely. When the correct heat is obtained, drop the ladle. Take the wiping cloth in the right hand and with the fingers spread, clean off the top edge quickly, then shape the joint with the one cloth. With a little practice you will gain this knack. The joint can then be wiped. The left hand can steady the pipe. Spread the index finger and third finger to opposite sides of the cloth ...
— Elements of Plumbing • Samuel Dibble

... very guarded," I replied; "and above all things adhere strictly to the truth, and if you can gain the ear of some eminent man who takes an interest in the question, you might be the means of doing your country ...
— Six Years in the Prisons of England • A Merchant - Anonymous

... of peace or pain; For Fortune's favour or her frown; For lack or glut, for loss or gain, I never dodge, nor up nor down: But swing what way the ship shall swim, Or tack about with ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 348, December 27, 1828 • Various

... shopmen and customers, brokers and thieves from all the East. A noise and bustle, a deafening roar which never ceases all day long, a hurrying, a striving and eagerness to clear the stock and gain money. If the prices were fixed, business would soon be done. But if you have taken a fancy to a Kurdish mat and ask the price, the tradesman demands a quite absurd sum. You shrug your shoulders and go your way. He calls out ...
— From Pole to Pole - A Book for Young People • Sven Anders Hedin

... chafed not under this delay; specially as the way from there to Canterbury was too hard to be walked in the dark. Halt where I was, I must; but I did it, feeling that I might be too late, and that each moment lost to me was a gain to that foul Captain. ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed

... looked at her with eyes unseeing Her voice and laughter would not pass unheard; I should not be a reasonable being, I still should tremble at her lightest word; How could I then gain freedom from the spell Unless I ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, July 1, 1914 • Various

... and it chanced that a well-fed, silk-hatted dominie, sporting a diamond stud, was dawdling by as the man of Galilee uttered this emphatic protest against gain-grabbing preachers. His face flushed with anger, and turning upon ...
— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... the day of His crucifixion."—Kaye's Tertullian, p. 418. As Wednesday was dedicated to Mercury and Friday to Venus, this fasting, according to Clement, signified to the more advanced disciple, that he was to renounce the love of gain and the love of ...
— The Ancient Church - Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution • W.D. [William Dool] Killen

... advancing age might enable him to fathom and expound it, although it had been drawn up by the greatest lawyer of his day in all that country. His wife Hannah, grieving in spirit that her husband should be toiling forever in the quest of gain, sat near him, pale, calm and disheartened, but speaking not a word. He could not look at her with that fearful green shade on her face, but kept his eyes always fixed on the old parchment. When his aged father had taken his seat, and began his thanks to God for the bounties before them, ...
— Chanticleer - A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family • Cornelius Mathews

... with grief at the cruel separation from her master, and not being able to gain access to him through the gates of the prison, was at last sagacious enough to plan a method of visiting him. She watched her chance, scaled the walls of the Tower, and finally reached him by descending through the accumulated soot ...
— Minnie's Pet Cat • Madeline Leslie

... than by St Ferdinand; and even in the greatest passion, his only imprecation was "God take you." When about to write, his usual way of trying his pen was in these words, Jesu cum Maria sit nobis in via; and in so fair a character as might have sufficed to gain his bread by writing. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

... literary and scientific effort in every department. In great cities they qualify the exclusive spirit of commercial and professional avocations, and encourage men to steal an hour from the pursuit of gain, and devote it to the attempt to satisfy a natural curiosity and to cultivate an elegant taste. Connected with literary and academical institutions, they supply the means and multiply the objects of study, and keep alive that enthusiasm in the cause ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... were strikingly diverse in the several regions. In Missouri, and in Delaware also, where plantations had never been dominant and where negroes were few, the loss of slaves was more than counterbalanced by the gain of freemen; in some portions of Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky the replacement of the one by the other was at so evenly compensating a rate that the volume of industry was not affected; but in other parts of those states and in the rural districts ...
— American Negro Slavery - A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime • Ulrich Bonnell Phillips

... humour is not to the same degree enriched by imagination; but it is free from the not infrequent excess into which that supreme gift also tempted its possessor. None of the tales is more attractive throughout, and on the whole it was a step in advance even of the stride previously taken. Nor was the gain lost in the succeeding story of the Old Curiosity Shop. The humorous traits of Mrs. Nickleby could hardly be surpassed: but, in Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness, there was a subtlety and lightness of touch that led to finer ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster

... Even before the Master's teaching brought me wisdom did my heart oft question the gain of lamentation and disfigurement, the soiling of the hair with ashes and the itching of the flesh with sackcloth. What is the use to turn beds upside down, to shut the sunshine out with black and give voice to naught ...
— The Coming of the King • Bernie Babcock

... superbly situated. To gain it from the seaward side you sail through a portal formed by the majestic peaks of Athos and Olympus. It reclines on the bronze-brown Macedonian hills, white-clad, like a young Greek goddess, with its feet laved by the blue waters of the AEgean. (I have used this ...
— The New Frontiers of Freedom from the Alps to the AEgean • Edward Alexander Powell

... too late what he ought to have said or done in any given circumstances. But on this occasion a flash of veritable inspiration revealed a way by which he might at one and the same time account for his presence, disarm the manager's suspicions, and perhaps even gain his point with regard to Madeleine. He smiled back at ...
— The Pit Prop Syndicate • Freeman Wills Crofts

... terminate to the advantage of the party who employed him. He had none of the arts of the pettifogger. He cared little for his own personal advantage. He had a native and lofty scorn for dishonesty and meanness. He was never better pleased than when, without prospect of gain for himself, he was employing his talents in the protection of poor and honest men against fraud and oppression. He had a large public spirit. He was early an anti-slavery man, and one of the founders of the Free Soil ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar

... lantern slide, A, Fig. 5, and then a plain glass, B, over the mat, C, and the three bound together with passepartout tape, D. Contrasty negatives make the best slides, but the lantern slide plate should be made without any attempt to gain density. ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... cup and gave him to drink, for the Tsar and his company were now at the gates, and he knew not how to face him. But, before he could gain the door, he heard a crash behind him; and, looking back, he saw that the captive had broken his bonds and stood free. Then, before one could say it had happened, he had loosed a great pair of wings from his sides, ...
— Edmund Dulac's Fairy-Book - Fairy Tales of the Allied Nations • Edmund Dulac

... flavour of the noted honey of Hymettus was said to be derived from the wild Thyme there visited by the bees. Likewise the flesh of sheep fed on pasturage where the wild Thyme grows freely has been said to gain a delicate flavour and taste from this source: but herein a mistake is committed, because sheep are really averse to such pasturage, and refuse it if ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... most malignant cruelty. "Pah! I hate his wife—a fair, soft thing, like a white snake! I used to watch them both from the corners of the streets as they drove along in their fine carriage, and I wondered how it would all end, whether he or she would gain the victory first. I wanted HIM to win; I would have helped him to kill her, yes! But the saints have made a mistake this time, for he is dead, and that she-devil has all. Oh, yes! God and the plague have done ...
— Vendetta - A Story of One Forgotten • Marie Corelli

... on sight saved you. The bosun's scheme was to pick a quarrel with you, but when you encountered him, your courtesy disarmed him. He confided this morning that you were 'such a proper little lad, I didn't 'ave the 'eart to 'it 'im.' So, to gain time, and to boost his courage, he carted you into the saloon and bought you a drink. And a good thing he did; otherwise we would have been in ignorance of Wild Bob Carew's joining this game. Ay, and Ruth might have disappeared and left us in ...
— Fire Mountain - A Thrilling Sea Story • Norman Springer

... was to gain time. Upon her advice he was to leave Koenigsberg with its expensive fraternity life and pass the winter in Berlin. The rest had to be ...
— The Indian Lily and Other Stories • Hermann Sudermann

... an alteration to take place while she was far from home, and alone with you, it would be terrible. The idea of it distresses me inexpressibly, and I tremble whenever she alludes to the project of a journey. In short, I wish we could gain time, and see how she gets on. If she leaves home it certainly should not be in the capricious month of May, which is proverbially trying to the weak. June would be a safer month. If we could reach June, I should have good hopes of her getting through the ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... women. Although we cannot calculate accurately the amount of physical force represented by these young women, there are some things we can tell. We know that for each one of these young women to be sick one day means thirty thousand sick one year. Just imagine the loss to the country, and the gain to posterity if ...
— What a Young Woman Ought to Know • Mary Wood-Allen

... It is impossible to form from the perusal of a printed speech anything but the vaguest and often the most erroneous notion of the effect which it produced upon its hearers. But from the testimony of contemporaries one can often gain the clue to what is otherwise unintelligible. One learns what were the special attributes of bearing, voice, or gesture, the circumstances of delivery, or even the antecedent conditions of character and reputation, ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell

... Hold fast, it's pretty rough," and then the touring car turned off the main highway and began bumping over the rocks and ruts of a narrow wood road. The way was uphill, and the driver had to throw in his second speed to gain the top of the rise. Then the car made a sharp turn, and halted in front of ...
— Dave Porter and His Rivals - or, The Chums and Foes of Oak Hall • Edward Stratemeyer

... Lee shows that he is still falling back (this side the Rapidan), but gradually concentrating his forces. There may be another battle speedily—and if our army does not gain a great victory, there ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... favourable impression that many were inclined to vote for her. To none of the five girls did the vision of a championship appear more attractive than to Netta. She loved to shine, and it was a sore point with her that she was not more popular in her Form. Here, at any rate, seemed a chance to gain the applause of her schoolfellows. She was conscious of playing well, and though she was not a general favourite, she knew the girls did not allow individual preferences, as a rule, to bias their judgment when it was a question of winning or ...
— The Youngest Girl in the Fifth - A School Story • Angela Brazil

... speak his mind to her. Hampton had told him the price which the horses were to bring; it was pitifully small and Lee meant to tell her so, to tell her further that he would guarantee an enormous gain over it if she gave him time. He would be doing his part though she called him meddler for his pains. Marcia Langworthy, hidden in a big chair on the veranda, watched him approach with interest, though Lee was unconscious of her presence. He had lifted a hand to rap ...
— Judith of Blue Lake Ranch • Jackson Gregory

... characteristics is a disconcerting habit of making people repeat their remarks. This is deliberate and its purpose twofold—to gain time and to ...
— War-time Silhouettes • Stephen Hudson

... instead of fighting to windward. He taught me the tactics for meeting squalls, and the way to press your advantage when they are defeated—the iron hand in the velvet glove that the wilful tiller needs if you are to gain your ends with it; the exact set of the sheets necessary to get the easiest and swiftest play of the hull—all these things and many more I struggled to apprehend, careless for the moment as to whether they were worth knowing, but doggedly set on knowing them. Needless ...
— Riddle of the Sands • Erskine Childers

... bogholes, and had acquired a habit of wondering "what at all 'ud become of the childer, the crathurs." One shrill-blasted March morning Andy trudged off to the fair down below at Duffclane—not that he had any business to transact there, unless we reckon as such a desire to gain a respite from regretful boredom. He but partially succeeded in doing this, and returned at dusk so fagged and dispirited that he had not energy to relate his scraps of news until he was half through his ...
— Strangers at Lisconnel • Barlow Jane

... also been current at intervals, for more than a year past, of strange and terrible doings by a fierce and numerous people, called the Mantatees, who were advancing from the eastward. To gain definite intelligence concerning this people, and also with the view of paying his contemplated visit to Makaba, Moffat resolved upon undertaking a journey to that chief. He was also influenced by the ...
— Robert Moffat - The Missionary Hero of Kuruman • David J. Deane

... and the resources of their commander. To go to a town where they were unpopular strangers, and where the soldiers of the Commonwealth were in undisputed possession, would be to go to certain and immediate slaughter—to remain with Carteret was to gain the present hour and the chances of the future. Lady Carteret and the women and children were sent by the next opportunity to France; and then the work of defence was renewed; the guns were fired, as powder served and supplies were received from France; injured walls were repaired, and aid ...
— St George's Cross • H. G. Keene

... is written (Matt. 8:20): "The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head": as though He were to say as Jerome observes: "Why desirest thou to follow Me for the sake of riches and worldly gain, since I am so poor that I have not even the smallest dwelling-place, and I am sheltered by a roof that is not Mine?" And on Matt. 17:26: "That we may not scandalize them, go to the sea," Jerome says: "This incident, ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... the utmost forethought, were arranging everything for the approaching festivities, and whatever one of them forgot was sure to occur to the other. Fanny began to find her position more and more natural; every day she began to gain a greater command over her tender emotions, and indeed life, practical life, makes possible and comprehensible much which poetical logic and the ...
— A Hungarian Nabob • Maurus Jokai

... quantity now, in accordance with probable requirements; but there will be a loss rather than a gain of time if they are sown on pasty ground or during bad weather. There are now many excellent sorts of moderate height, and these give the least trouble in their management; but a few of the taller varieties ...
— The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition • Sutton and Sons

... the bonds of peace and tranquillity? How are the weak protected from the strong?—I will tell you. Idleness and poverty, the causes of so many crimes, are unknown here; each seeks in the prosecution of his lawful business that honest gain which supports them; every period of their time is full, either on shore or at sea. A probable expectation of reasonable profits, or of kindly assistance, if they fail of success, renders them strangers to licentious expedients. ...
— Letters from an American Farmer • Hector St. John de Crevecoeur

... however docile the English may be with respect to their wives, they can by no means bear the inconstancy of their mistresses, nor patiently suffer the advantages of a rival: suffer them therefore to remain in tranquillity, and do not gain ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... history combine that legend is most interesting and appeals to our fancy or our sympathy most strongly; and it is not too early for us to begin the collation of those quaint happenings and those spoken reports that gain in picturesqueness with each transmission. An attempt has been made in this instance to assemble only legends, for, doubtful as some historians profess to find them, certain occurrences, like the story of Captain Smith and Pocahontas, and the ride of General Putnam down Breakneck Stairs, ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner

... of human nature there is nothing surprising in the fact that a class of persons, who wink at this sacrifice of Sabhath sanctities to the demon of gain, look at the same time with stern disapprobation upon everything partaking of the character of amusement, however innocent and healthful, on this day. But for myself, looking down through the light of a golden evening upon these quietly passing groups, I cannot find it in my ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... cared little about celebrating the award of his medal, but he desired to gain a few hours before opening the little letter he had at last earned ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... fleeting sister of the mournful night! As in impatient hope he stands apart, Companioned only by his beating heart, And with an eager fancy oft beholds The vision of a white robe's fluttering folds Flit through the grove, and gain the open mead, True to the hour by loving hearts agreed! At length she comes. The evening's holy grace Mellows the glory of her radiant face; The curtain of that daylight, faint and pale, Hangs round her like the ...
— Home Pastimes; or Tableaux Vivants • James H. Head

... directing the games, tells stories throughout the season. Storytelling is also carried on by playground assistants and by volunteer storytellers. The interest shown by parents who frequently join the story hour groups in the parks, is considered a significant gain in sustaining neighborhood ...
— Library Work with Children • Alice I. Hazeltine

... their hands on her property one year from now or two years or three. They couldn't come to claim it even if we should notify them, which we can't. They don't lose nothing by waiting. Instead they gain—the interest it ...
— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb

... teachers are situated much the same, save that many of them, preferring a quiet home to gain, pay for their board out of their cash salary, and give up that which they could otherwise claim from the people. This, however, is by no means general, and the present mistress has come to stay her term with us, although having no occasion ...
— Sketches And Tales Illustrative Of Life In The Backwoods Of New Brunswick • Mrs. F. Beavan

... should be appropriated by one woman." She found, she said, "more happiness in the appellation of mistress or concubine, than in that of wife or empress," and by humiliating herself in him, she hoped to gain a stronger ...
— Over Strand and Field • Gustave Flaubert

... passing its equilibrium position; or in other words, when the string is infinitely long. Since the string has mass, however, it is not permissible to make it too long, or its weight begins to make itself felt, and a point is soon reached at which the geometrical gain in string velocity is compensated for by the total loss of velocity due to the inertia of the string. In practice it is sufficient to use a string 10 per ...
— On Laboratory Arts • Richard Threlfall

... handling a chaser, must be of perfect physique. He must have the coolest nerve and be of a temperament that longs for a fight. He must have a sense of absolute duty and fearlessness, the keenest sense of action, and perfect sight to gain the absolute ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot

... rather uncertain style as baggage, and the pawn-ticket for a rather good suit-case as insurance, Mr. and Mrs. Seth Appleby established themselves in a "furnished housekeeping room" on Avenue B, and prepared to reconquer New York. It was youth's hopeful sally. They had everything to gain. Yet ...
— The Innocents - A Story for Lovers • Sinclair Lewis

... was familiar with the neighborhood, now led his troop in the direction of the path which ran through the morass toward the village of Banfalva, hoping thus to gain the excellent highway of Eszterhaza. Here and there from the swamp rose slight elevations of dry earth which were overgrown with alders and willows. On one of these "hills" De Fervlans concluded to halt for a rest, as both ...
— The Nameless Castle • Maurus Jokai

... bad," he said cheerfully. "But my loss is Babler's gain. I suppose we ought in Christian decency to give him the afternoon. Let's go out to the creek for a stroll ourselves, shall we? That'll leave him a clear field when they return. You think they'll be back soon, ...
— Prudence Says So • Ethel Hueston

... time, more suitably to your liking and mine, because with more ease to himself; for you see his industrious will cannot be satisfied without doing something. In the fourth place, the management of this estate will gain him more respect and reverence among the tenants and his neighbours: and yet be all in his own way. For," added he, "you'll see, that it is always one point in view with me, to endeavour to convince every one, that I esteem and value them for their own intrinsic merit, and want ...
— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson

... ridge, we come to a little patch of hemlocks, spreading out their green wings, and making, in the ravine, a deep shelter, where many a fresh springing thing is standing, and where we gain much for our home vases. These pines are motherly creatures. One can think how it must rejoice the heart of a partridge or a rabbit to come from the dry, whistling sweep of a deciduous forest under the ...
— The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... Paul is a very keen and cogent reasoner. Like a powerful logician who is confident that he has the truth upon his side, and like a pureminded man who has no sinister ends to gain, he often takes his stand upon the same ground with his opponent, adopts his positions, and condemns him out of his own mouth. In the passage from which the text is taken, he brings the Jew in guilty before God, by employing the Jew's own claims and statements. "Behold ...
— Sermons to the Natural Man • William G.T. Shedd

... Phocas. The Greeks making a display of their dress, he told them that in Lombardy the common people wore as good clothes as they.—"How," they said, "can you procure them?"—"Through the Venetians and Amalfitan dealers," he replied, "who gain their subsistence by selling them to us." The foolish Greeks were very angry, and declared that any dealer presuming to export their ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 574 - Vol. XX, No. 574. Saturday, November 3, 1832 • Various



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