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Gratuity   Listen
noun
Gratuity  n.  (pl. gratuities)  
1.
Something given freely or without recompense; a free gift; a present.
2.
Something voluntarily given in return for a favor or service, as a recompense or acknowledgment.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Gratuity" Quotes from Famous Books



... still more frightened by the manners of the old hag, now gladly embraced Lord Etherington's renewed offer to escort her from the hut. He left it not, however, without bestowing an additional gratuity on the old woman, who received ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott

... dollars was little enough. The British Government paid thirty thousand pounds as a gratuity for the discovery of vaccination; and more recently a poor German student made a much larger sum by the invention of a drug which has since fallen into disuse. Half a million would not have been more than Morton deserved, and ...
— Cambridge Sketches • Frank Preston Stearns

... sitting on the sidewalk every morning, at the corner of the Calzada de la Reina, just opposite the market, and he elicited a trifle from us now and again. One morning a couple of roses and a sprig of lemon verbena were added to his small gratuity. The effect upon that sightless countenance was electrical, and the poor mendicant, having only pantomime with which to express his delight, seemed half frantic. The money fell to the ground, but the flowers were pressed ...
— Due South or Cuba Past and Present • Maturin M. Ballou

... his hereditary enemies; the dependence on them which must ensue upon his losing the friendship of France, and of all foreign powers. To those considerations they added the prospect of immediate interest, by which they found the king to be much governed: they offered him a present gratuity of fifty thousand pounds: they promised him that the church should always be ready to contribute to his supply: and they pointed out to him the confiscation of heretics, as the means of filling his exchequer, and of adding a hundred thousand pounds a year ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. - From Henry VII. to Mary • David Hume

... that the reading of the committee's report to the House was finished it was growing dusk, and candles were called for. A resolution was then moved and put to the house by Trevor himself, that the Speaker, by receiving a gratuity of 1,000 guineas from the city of London after passing of the Orphans' Bill, had been guilty of a high crime and misdemeanour. The resolution was passed, and four days later (16 March) Trevor ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume II • Reginald R. Sharpe

... I, 491 ff. The custom of asking enormous prices with the expectation of being beaten down, is usual in Italy and carried to a frightful extent, and related to the bad custom prevalent there of begging a little after-payment to every little gratuity or drink-money which ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • William Roscher

... And receiving a gratuity which he accepted without demonstration of any kind whatever, the basket-bearer at ...
— Queechy • Susan Warner

... at once I'll break every bone in your body!' He then snatched my bonnet, a new one, from my head, and so acted on my nerves that I went off to the Registry Office and was married. That he was actuated by merely mercenary motives is proved by the fact that the gratuity (of half-a-crown), which he presented to the Registry Clerk, he actually borrowed from me! I knew him already to be unprincipled; but never until that moment had it flashed upon me that he was a fortune-hunter! ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, May 9, 1891 • Various

... in Anspach, 1st June [after six days' screwing of Nurnberg from without, which we had no cannon to take], a Gratuity for the Prussian troops [amount not stated] was demanded and given: at Schwabach, farther up the Regnitz River, they took quarters; no exemption made, clergy and laity alike getting soldiers billeted. Meat and ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XVIII. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great—Seven-Years War Rises to a Height.—1757-1759. • Thomas Carlyle

... table, which is decorated with box, flowers, and whatever ornamental dishes the family possesses. The priest is received with bows at the door, and when the benediction is over he is rewarded with the gratuity of a paul or a scudo, according to the piety and purse of the proprietor; while into the basket of his attendant is always dropped a pagnotta, a couple of eggs, a baiocco, or some such trifle. [Footnote: Beside the blessing of the eggs and house, it is the custom in some parts of ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 24, Oct. 1859 • Various

... the Aerated Bread Company, where a chill has apparently been imparted to their bearing by the temperature of the food they serve. It is very wholesome, however, and it may be rather that a New England severity in them is the effect of the impersonal relation of served and server which no gratuity humanizes. ...
— London Films • W.D. Howells

... San Giacomo had heard his prayer in that quarter to which he had more exclusively directed the saint's attention. The other habiliments came to him in the merely human process of sale and barter; the small-clothes were the personal gratuity ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 • Various

... of each district is to be under the direction of one person, who will be named for that purpose. All the patrols are placed under the immediate inspection of Herbert Keeling. They are never to receive any fee, gratuity, or reward, from any individual whatever, to engage their exertions in the execution of the above trust. Nor will they receive any stipulated encouragement for the conviction of any offender. But their diligence and good behaviour will be rewarded by the governor. And for ...
— A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson • Watkin Tench

... example in the camp on the Danube, which in a few days was imitated by almost all the officers of the army. They solemnly bound themselves to obey no orders, till these arrears, now outstanding for months, and even years, should be paid up, and a gratuity, either in money or lands, made to each man, according to his services. "Immense sums," they said, "were daily raised by contributions, and all dissipated by a few. They were called out to serve ...
— The History of the Thirty Years' War • Friedrich Schiller, Translated by Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, M.A.

... liberal spirit of our management to the town, and might be a means to secure Booth more firmly in our interest, it never having been known that the skill of the best actor had received so round a reward or gratuity in ...
— The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield • Edward Robins

... than when I saw you that the pecuniary part of it was not altered by the codicil, and that it was intended for you at all events, that my brother, knowing your liberal way of thinking, laid on you something as an equivalent, not imagining you would refuse a small gratuity from the hands it was to come from as a testimony of his friendship, and tho' I most highly esteem the motives and manner, I cannot agree to accept of your renunciation, but leave you full master to dispose of it which way is most ...
— Life of Adam Smith • John Rae

... the distance, and had staggered with her thither, although shot at and wounded by the trainmen in the belief that he was an Indian. How it was afterwards discovered that the child was the long-lost daughter of a millionaire; how he had resolutely refused any gratuity for saving her, and she was now a peerless young heiress, famous in California. Whether this lighter tone of narrative suited him better, or whether the active feminine sympathy of his auditors helped him along, certain it was that his story ...
— Susy, A Story of the Plains • Bret Harte

... where affairs were not going so smoothly as he had hoped. He had succeeded in getting De Luque named Bishop protector de los Indios; but for Almagro, whose talents he knew, and whose ambition he feared, he had only asked that he should be ennobled and a gratuity of 500 ducats bestowed upon him, with the government of a fortress which was to be built at Tumbez. Almagro refused to take part in this new expedition; he was not pleased with the meagre portion given to him after spending all his money on the earlier expeditions; he wished now to organize one on ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part I. The Exploration of the World • Jules Verne

... rest of the business upon himself? If then the demi-gratuity can determine you to check competition, on what principle can the entire gratuity be alleged as a reason for admitting it? You are no logicians if, refusing the demi-gratuity as hurtful to human labor, you do not a fortiori, and with double zeal, reject the ...
— Sophisms of the Protectionists • Frederic Bastiat

... doing everything the way he thought the Prince would do it. For bringing his four valises aboard and stowing them in the nettings, he gave his porter four cents, and lightly apologized for the smallness of the gratuity —just with the condescendingest little royal air in the world. He stretched himself out on the front seat and rested his pomatum-cake on the middle arm, and stuck his feet out of the window, and began to pose as the Prince and work ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... consider me his chief.[50] I urged that it was as much his duty as mine to go there; and said that unless he changed his present resolution, I should certainly recommend the Government not to pay the gratuity which the Consul had promised him on condition that he worked entirely to our satisfaction, in assisting the expedition to ...
— What Led To The Discovery of the Source Of The Nile • John Hanning Speke

... (ladies') bodega, cellar, also hold (ship) chales, shawls dedales, thimbles desinteresarse, to abandon *desplegar, to unfold dictamen, award, decision entrepuentes, between decks festoneados, scalloped gratificacion, gratuity guarniciones, adornos, trimmings lanillas para banderas, buntings listados de algodon, cotton stripes logro, attainment ovillos de algodon, cotton balls panol, carbonera, bunker (ships') pintura, paint rehusar, to decline sabanas, bed sheets subasta, auction tablillas, boards ...
— Pitman's Commercial Spanish Grammar (2nd ed.) • C. A. Toledano

... usual myriad of land sharks. First came Monsieur the Commissionnaire with his book, out of which he enumerated two portmanteaus and two carpet-bags, for each of which he made a specific charge leaving his own gratuity optional with his employer; then came Mr. Boots to ask for something for showing them the way; after him the porter of the inn for carrying their cloaks and great-coats, all of which Mr. Jorrocks submitted to, most philosophically, but ...
— Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities • Robert Smith Surtees

... Fall of the Roman Empire," "David Copperfield," "Pilgrim's Progress," and "Ben Hur," I was myself that way distinguished and my future assured. Unhappily, through ignorance of the duties and dignities of the position I had the mischance to accept a gratuity for sweeping a street crossing and was compelled to flee ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce • Ambrose Bierce

... you give the men anything besides as a gratuity at settling time?-No; we give nothing in the way of drink money. They get what is called a midsummer bottle: that is an old custom, and it still continues among ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie

... leagues west without discovering land, to lay to every night, from midnight till day-break. And, as he had very confident hopes of discovering land that night, he required every one to keep watch at their quarters; and, besides the gratuity of thirty crowns a-year for life, which had been graciously promised by their sovereigns to him that first saw the land, he engaged to give the fortunate discoverer ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

... advance. As the mother of Herse, the groom who had fallen at Muehlberg, had permission from the government to visit Kohlhaas at times, and this woman had already known her for several months, she succeeded a few days later in gaining access to the horse-dealer by means of a small gratuity ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... or any other kind of pay, saying that he could serve the people better in the enterprise if he were known to have no selfish interest in it. He was not the kind of a man to reconcile himself to a gratuity (which is the Latinized word for a "tip" offered to a person not in livery), and if the modern methods of "coming in on the ground-floor" and "taking a rake-off" had been explained and suggested to him, I suspect that he would have described them in language ...
— The Americanism of Washington • Henry Van Dyke

... to continue their duties since they are without resources for supporting their families," the representatives allow three of them two hundred and seventy francs each, and a fourth one hundred and eighty francs, as a gratuity (outside of the three francs ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... from Ajaccio: the Campo dell' Oro, or the plain at the mouth of the Gravona, 5 frs.; the Baths of Caldaniccia, 5 frs.; Bastelicaccia, 5 frs.; Pisciatella, 6 frs. Three frs. gratuity for a whole day. The horses cover on an average about thirty ...
— Itinerary through Corsica - by its Rail, Carriage & Forest Roads • Charles Bertram Black

... endeavor to make the said inspection bring about the good results for which it is intended; and will give the auditor to whose lot it falls a vessel of fair size with which to sail from those islands of Luzon to the others, at the expense of my treasury. As for the additional pay or gratuity which should be allowed to the said auditors beyond their salary, and beyond what is granted them by the ordinances and decrees, you will send me a report, with ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume XI, 1599-1602 • Various

... the Emperor. "If we have made a mistake, we are rich enough to right it; nor shall Hereward be the poorer, if an Edward shall be found to merit this gratuity." ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott

... also again recommends that the gratuitous distribution of seeds cease and that no money be appropriated for that purpose except to experiment stations. He reiterates the reasons given in his report for 1893 for discontinuing this unjustifiable gratuity, and I fully concur in the conclusions ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Volume 8, Section 2 (of 2): Grover Cleveland • Grover Cleveland

... interrupted the Factor, "I un'erstaun' fine." He bestowed upon the confident petitioner a further gratuity of flour, tea, sugar, and tallow, a clay pipe, a plug of tobacco and some matches, so as to save him from having to break in upon his winter supplies before he started upon his journey to the hunting grounds. Oo-koo-hoo solemnly ...
— The Drama of the Forests - Romance and Adventure • Arthur Heming

... Assembly was moved to make a new offer of three hundred dollars for killing or taking a Trelawney Maroon, and a hundred and fifty dollars for killing or taking any fugitive slave who had joined them. They also voted five hundred pounds as a gratuity to the Accompong tribe of Maroons, who had thus far kept out of the insurrection; and various prizes and gratuities were also offered by the different parishes, with ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, No. 28, February, 1860 • Various

... but, unlike a Welshman, I spelt it as pronounced, and set down in order the additional goods he required. When Lumley thought he had given him enough on credit, he firmly closed the account, gave the man a small gratuity of tobacco, powder and shot, etcetera, and bade another chief ...
— The Big Otter • R.M. Ballantyne

... of his grace's commission, as captain-general, and plenipotentiary; and to end with the expiration of these commissions. But this noble design he lived not to execute, and the materials were afterwards returned to the duchess of Marlborough, who left them to Mr. Mallet, with a handsome gratuity for the execution of Sir ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Vol. IV • Theophilus Cibber

... acquainted me, that a design had been formed by the Dutch, in conjunction with the king of Bony, to cut us off: That the Dutch, however, were not to appear in it: That the business was to be done by a son of the king of Bony, who was, besides a gratuity from the Dutch, to receive the plunder of the vessel for his reward, and who, with eight hundred men, was then at Bonthain for that purpose: That the motive was jealousy of our forming a connection with the Buggueses, and other people of the country, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... I received the gratuity with a look of satisfaction which must have surprised the tired waiting maid. In reality I had scored a most important point. Thanks to my suppression of the first message and my addition to the second, I had completely cut off communication between the agent ...
— The International Spy - Being the Secret History of the Russo-Japanese War • Allen Upward

... has officially recognized and registered at the Home Office every prisoners' aid society in England, Scotland and Wales, and in order to boom them he gives to every discharged prisoner an extra gratuity of L3 provided he "joins" a prisoners' aid society on his discharge, the result being that all do so. England is a small and compact country, and the police have practically one head, and that head is the Home Secretary. Under the circumstances ...
— Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison - Fifteen Years in Solitude • Austin Biron Bidwell

... receive anything whose price can be measured by money. Yet there would be no sin in receiving something of the kind, not as exacting it, nor yet as though it were due on account of some agreement tacit or expressed, but as a gratuity: since, even before lending the money, one could accept a gratuity, nor is one in ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... castle we offered the woman the customary gratuity. "No;" she would "have the pleasure of showing it to me as a friend." And she ran into a charming little garden, full of flowers, and brought me a bouquet of lilies and roses, which I have had in ...
— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... in order to show to the enemy his satisfaction for the news of the arrival of British troops. General Gordon then treated my messenger cordially, and requested the Government to pay him a sum of L500 on his return to Cairo, as a gratuity for all the dangers he had run in accomplishing his faithful mission. Besides that, the General gave him, when he embarked with Colonel Stewart, L13 to meet his expenses on the journey. A few days after the arrival of my messenger at Khartoum, H.E. General Gordon thought ...
— The Life of Gordon, Volume II • Demetrius Charles Boulger

... out to the Carmel Mission, which is about a league from the town, where we got something in the way of a dinner— beef, eggs, frjoles, tortillas, and some middling wine— from the mayor-domo, who, of course, refused to make any charge, as it was the Lord's gift, yet received our present, as a gratuity, with a low bow, a touch of the hat, ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... even to those who teach the meanest trades, if their efforts appear to be extraordinary; we bestow a gratuity upon pilots, upon workmen who deal with the commonest materials and hire themselves out by the day. In the noblest arts, however, those which either preserve or beautify our lives, a man would be ...
— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca

... subject to her again. She has a great number of pensioners: and on Saturday, after she comes back from market, there is a regular levee of old men and women in the passage, waiting for their weekly gratuity. Her name always heads the list of any benevolent subscriptions, and hers are always the most liberal donations to the Winter Coal and Soup Distribution Society. She subscribed twenty pounds towards the erection of an organ in our parish church, and was so ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens

... representative in Congress, from one of the free States, reported a bill giving to the perpetrators of these murders a gratuity of five thousand dollars from the public treasury, as a token of the gratitude which the people of this nation felt for the soldierly and gallant manner in which the crime was committed toward them. The bill passed both houses of Congress, was approved ...
— Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854) • Various

... then turned to speak to persons behind you—who were not really there at all. Lorenzi, meanwhile, kept on running up the stairs, flight after flight, but was never able to overtake you. He wanted you because you had forgotten to give him a gratuity....." ...
— Casanova's Homecoming • Arthur Schnitzler

... servants who have attended one should receive a gratuity, proportioned to the means of the visitor and the style of ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... west without discovering land, to lay to every night from midnight till daybreak. And, as he had very confident hopes of discovering land that night, he required every one to keep watch at their quarters; and, besides the gratuity of thirty crowns a year for life, which had been graciously promised by their sovereigns to him that first saw the land, he engaged to give the fortunate discoverer ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8 - The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation • Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson

... grumbling to Walcote, to see to the new painting and preparing of that house, which my Lady Dowager intended to occupy for the future, giving up Castlewood to her daughter-in-law that might be expected daily from France. Another servant the Viscountess had was dismissed too—with a gratuity—on the pretext that her ladyship's train of domestics must be diminished; so, finally, there was not left in the household a single person who had belonged to it during the time my young Lord Castlewood was yet ...
— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray

... cutler received from Julian such a gratuity for the loan of the swords, that he generously abandoned the property to the gentlemen who had used them so well; "the rather," he said, "that he saw, by the way they handed their weapons, that they were men ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... Chaucer was constantly engaged in literary work, though for the first half of them he had no lack of official employment. Abundant favour was shown him by the new king. He was paid L22 as a reward for his later missions in Edward III.'s reign, and was allowed an annual gratuity of 10 marks in addition to his pay of L10 as comptroller of the customs of wool. In April 1382 a new comptrollership, that of the petty customs in the Port of London, was given him, and shortly after he was allowed to exercise it by deputy, ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 - "Chtelet" to "Chicago" • Various

... lend them money at exorbitant interest, which, being never paid, soon accumulated into a sum too great either for the debtor to pay, or for any body else to pay for him. The debtor, for fear of a very severe execution, was obliged, without any further gratuity, to vote for the candidate whom the creditor recommended. In spite of all the laws against bribery and corruption, the bounty of the candidates, together with the occasional distributions of coin which were ordered by the senate, were the principal funds from which, ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... he had found a new one. It was not what Gregory had done that made the difference to McCoy; simply the way he had done it. Any man with money could have defrayed the expenses of Blair's sickness and funeral. But it took a real man to make the gratuity appear as a favor to ...
— El Diablo • Brayton Norton

... came down reluctantly from my perch. Josephine was visibly impatient. She had seen the wedding-party going down one of the walks at the back of the house; and the concierge was waiting to let us out. I drew her aside, and slipped a liberal gratuity into her hand. ...
— In the Days of My Youth • Amelia Ann Blandford Edwards

... not know whether these wounds of mine will give me any claim;—and, talking about that, I would wish you to inquire whether or not I am entitled to any gratuity for them. I hear that officers returned "wounded" on the list in the Peninsular Campaign, no matter how slight the wound might have been, received a gratuity of one year's pay as a compensation; and this, I think, ...
— Campaign of the Indus • T.W.E. Holdsworth

... means to silence or compensate the sufferers, when in sight of port, or to satisfy the government. So slightly considered was this species of fraud, or so useful to colonial traders, that the magistrates held the payment of a gratuity to be a bar to further inquiry.[65] The convicts were thus exposed to severe, and even dangerous privations. Scurvy, a malady often in those days fatal to half a ship's crew, broke down the strength of men emaciated, dispirited, and diseased: many perished by the way, and a much larger number arrived ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West

... to those monuments, which are in the open part of the church, and free to every one's sight; for those I have been speaking of are inclosed [sic], and not to be seen without a small gratuity ...
— A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies - A Private Tutor for Little Masters and Misses • Unknown

... it is ceasing to be a cry, and passing into a fact, or as much a fact as that erroneous form of gratuity, prophecy, can be. Look at Western Europe and you cannot disbelieve the evidence of your own eyes. In France you have anarchy, the vulgarest frivolity and the cheapest scepticism, joined with a sort of dull capacity for routine ...
— The Half-Hearted • John Buchan

... the kemban, I was told in Yamanashi that many girls went to the factories "unwillingly by the instructions of their parents." It was also stated that the money paid to girls or their parents on their engagement was not properly a gratuity but an advance. I heard that the police keep a special watch on kemban. They would not do this ...
— The Foundations of Japan • J.W. Robertson Scott

... fleet, and make their way to the island of Luzon and other islands. To try to raise the said five hundred soldiers in Nueva Espana would be impossible, on account of the great cost that would result; because each soldier would cost more than one hundred and fifty pesos as a gratuity (the sum usually given), or even a greater sum; and even if the said expense should be incurred, they could not arrive under the banner of the hundred soldiers above—and that with great trouble and vexation, as ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 - Volume III, 1569-1576 • E.H. Blair

... his professional judgment is as much for sale as pork in the shambles. I counsel the young man thus tempted to ask himself, Am I entitled to pay from the manufacturer who offers it? If so, for what? If not, will my self-respect permit me to become his debtor for a gratuity to which I have no claim? Does not this money belong to my client, as an overcharge unconsciously paid by him for my benefit? If I refuse it, can I not with propriety demand in future that the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886 • Various

... place held sacred to the memory of some Beloved absentee, Perchance passed to the other shore, oh, let the stranger come And in gratuity Partake of festal favors that Shall sweeten hours of labor, And strengthen amity and love Unto ...
— Poems - Vol. IV • Hattie Howard

... stipend to obey his master? There is, according to him, no alternative.—As Mr. Johnson has, I think, failed in this account, may I, after so great an authority, venture at a short definition of so intricate a word? A pension then I would call a gratuity during the pleasure of the Prince for services performed, or expected to be performed, to himself, or to the state. Let us consider the celebrated Mr. Johnson, and a few other late pensioners ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... is the fare with threepence for my gratuity, that makes one and ninepence. So I have to give you ninepence back, although I thank you ...
— The Best British Short Stories of 1922 • Various

... kindness. The knight who had received special attention at the hands of his squire expressed his gratitude by a special reward. The word "gratuity" itself indicates that the little gift was once simply a spontaneous act of thoughtfulness. It has degenerated into a perfunctory habit, but it should not be so. Excellent service deserves a recompense just as slip-shod service does not. And no one has a right ...
— The Book of Business Etiquette • Nella Henney

... duly sealed and addressed, Waife delivered to the care of Mike Callaghan; and simultaneously he astounded that functionary with no less a gratuity than half a crown. Cutting short the fervent blessings which this generous donation naturally called forth, the Comedian said, with his happiest combination of suavity and loftiness, "And should the Mayor ask you what sort of person I am,—for I have ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... finger and thumb, and for one moment I had a diabolical temptation to twitch it from him and throw it into the fire. This prompting of Satan, however, I womanfully resisted, and merely civilly declined the gratuity; and the gentleman left me with profuse acknowledgments of the service I had rendered them ...
— Records of Later Life • Frances Anne Kemble

... and he "wolfed" it as if he were famished. The invariable custom in the Congo is to have one huge meal a day. On this occasion every member of the family consumes all the edibles in sight. Then the crowd lays off until the following day. All food offered in the meantime by way of gratuity or otherwise is devoured on ...
— An African Adventure • Isaac F. Marcosson

... me near to it in his four-wheeled cruelty-chaise). 'I warrant it's the first piece of ready money he has received for some time. I don't know whether there was any foundation for this sneer, but the gratuity was received with a curtsey, and the gate opened for me to enter. 'Poor old porteress!' says I, inwardly. 'You little know that it is the Historian of Snobs whom you let in!' The gates were passed. ...
— The Book of Snobs • William Makepeace Thackeray

... profession which he exercised. But his face had not the frankness of the jolly hunter; he was down-looked, embarrassed, and avoided the eyes of those who looked hard at him. After some unimportant observations on the success of the day, Brown gave him a trifling gratuity, and rode on with his landlord. They found the gudewife prepared for their reception—the fold and the poultry-yard furnished the entertainment, and the kind and hearty welcome made amends for all deficiencies in elegance ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott

... grade of First Admiral of Peru. I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined; when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'" ...
— The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc. • Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald

... energy, they will never win for themselves or their wives one tithe of the public honour that comes by right to the heir to a dukedom. A dockyard hand who uses his brains and makes a suggestion that may save the country thousands of pounds will get—a gratuity. ...
— Mankind in the Making • H. G. Wells

... still, and to restrain our legs and arms from any straggling. There was no room to spare in the shaft we were about to traverse. Our car was run on to the tram-line, and the two lads, with a sickly smile, and a broad hint at their expected gratuity, began to pull, and promised us a rapid journey. In another minute we were whirring down an incline with a rush and a rattle, through the subterranean passage tunnelled into the solid limestone which runs to the outer edge of the Durrnberg. The length ...
— A Tramp's Wallet - stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France • William Duthie

... last year. The toil endured here is vast, and I have now but little strength and health to be able to endure it, when I have so little success in attaining my loyal desires. My agents will present memorials in that royal Council, in which I beg your Majesty for some gratuity and accommodations with which to leave this exile. I promise myself a very liberal one from your royal kindness and generosity, in proportion to my services and those of my ancestors and forbears. May our Lord preserve ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXIII, 1629-30 • Various

... 'Rules for Prisoners,' that no prisoner during the period of his confinement, or employment on public works, has any claim to remuneration of any kind, but that industry and good conduct are rewarded by a fixed gratuity under certain regulations, depending on the class in which the prisoner is placed; and this gratuity is credited to him at the following general rates: 1st class, 9d. per week; 2d class, 6d.; 3d class, 4d. If any misconduct themselves, they forfeit all advantages, or are subject ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 450 - Volume 18, New Series, August 14, 1852 • Various

... on that grand and noble maxim of life, that we are not born for ourselves only, but indebted to all mankind, to be of as great use and service to them, as our capacities and abilities will enable us to be; he, therefore, gave a handsome gratuity to a famous rat-catcher (who assumed the honour of being rat-catcher to the king,) to be initiated into that, and the still more useful secret of curing ...
— The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew • Unknown

... eternity. Even Rogers, brave swimmer as he was, could not have survived had he attempted to swim among those wreck-covered waves. For his heroic courage the National Lifeboat Institution awarded the gold medal to Rogers and a gratuity of 5 pounds. ...
— Our Sailors - Gallant Deeds of the British Navy during Victoria's Reign • W.H.G. Kingston

... would be the opinion of it, when it comes to be related that George Washington has received twenty thousand dollars and five thousand pounds sterling of the public money as an interest therein?" He thought it would make him look like a "pensioner or dependent" to accept this gratuity, and he recoiled from the idea. There is something entirely frank and human in the way in which he says "George Washington," instead of using the first pronoun singular. He always saw facts as they were; he understood the fact called "George Washington" as perfectly as any other, and although he ...
— George Washington, Vol. II • Henry Cabot Lodge

... of sins, if mercy were not a manifested attribute of God, all self-examination, and especially all this conjoint divine scrutiny, would be a pure torment and a pure gratuity. It is wretchedness to know that we are guilty sinners, but it is the endless torment to know that there is no forgiveness, either here or hereafter. Convince a man that he will never be pardoned, and you shut him up with the spirits in prison. Compel him to examine himself under the ...
— Sermons to the Natural Man • William G.T. Shedd

... just receiv'd that Morning, as a Token of his Gratitude for his courteous Entertainment. He added moreover, I would willingly speak one Word with your Master before I go. The Valet, thunder-struck at his unexpected Gratuity, comply'd with his Request: Most hospitable Sir, said the Hermit, I couldn't go away without returning you my grateful Acknowledgments for the friendly Reception we have met with this Afternoon. ...
— Zadig - Or, The Book of Fate • Voltaire

... instructions, and a very small gratuity, the Captain left me. When I again saw him, he was amused at the change in my appearance. I had, not without a pang (for they were as black as jet, and curled elegantly), shaved off my moustaches; had removed the odious grease and flour, which ...
— Barry Lyndon • William Makepeace Thackeray

... the first time that I found it thought criminal or dangerous to know how to read. I was dismissed decently, lest I should tell tales, and had a small gratuity above ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson

... their relative positions the fortunes of the two young ladies. As interpreted by one of the servants the prediction was decidedly hazy. It may have lost in being translated, but it amounted to this: "Him husband hab—werry good: plenty piastre got." A very small gratuity sent our gypsy friend off perfectly satisfied after salaams and kissing the hands of all the men of the party. Nobody ever kisses women's hands in the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. July, 1878. • Various

... duty. We presume, at the same time, that, as he must be a mortal man, and is to be paid by fees, he will have no objection to encourage every thing that brings grist to the mill. He is not likely to grudge being knocked up at night when a gratuity is to be the result. And thus we conclude that all observance of canonical hours will be dispensed with; and that the great work of matrimonial registration will be practicable at any ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 • Various

... that art of painting which he had recently determined to adopt. It did not take him long to make the change: he had soon returned to the mansion with his modest kit; and the cabman who brought him was readily induced, by the young man's pleasant manner and a small gratuity, to assist him in the installation of the iron bed. By six in the evening, when Somerset went forth to dine, he was able to look back upon the mansion with a sense of pride and property. Four-square it stood, of an imposing ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... of self-satisfied pride as, sitting erect on his box, he cracked his whip, and encouraged the nimble Cocotte. The vehicle could not have got over the ground more rapidly if its driver had been promised a hundred sous' gratuity. ...
— Monsieur Lecoq • Emile Gaboriau

... hire. I may be allowed to say, it was the price of their blood, and of your independency; it is, therefore, more than a common debt, it is a debt of honor; it can never be considered as a pension or gratuity, nor cancelled until ...
— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing

... they the only sufferers, the officials, many of whom had taken to the Government service as a permanent profession, in which they expected to pass their lives, were suddenly dismissed, mostly with a small gratuity, which would about suffice to pay their debts, and told to find their living as best they could. It was indeed a case of vae victis,—woe ...
— Cetywayo and his White Neighbours - Remarks on Recent Events in Zululand, Natal, and the Transvaal • H. Rider Haggard

... benevolent justice of his majesty. The duke de Choiseul, who never let slip an opportunity of signalizing the greatness of his character, not only assisted this unfortunate family with money, but obtained for them a gratuity of 36,000 livres ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox

... not succeeded in keeping his first wife, Bertha of Burgundy; and his second, Constance of Aquitaine, with her imperious, malevolent, avaricious, meddlesome disposition, reduced him to so abject a state that he never gave a gratuity to any of his servants without saying, "Take care that Constance know nought of it." After Robert's death, Constance, having become regent for her eldest son, Henry I., forthwith conspired to dethrone him, and to put in his place her second son, ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume I. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... receive any compensation, gratuity or reward, or promise thereof, for or on account of placing in a house of prostitution or elsewhere, any female for the purpose of causing her to cohabit with any male person or persons not ...
— Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls - War on the White Slave Trade • Various

... of Ameer Khoossroo in praise of kings, festivity, and music. The Sultan was delighted beyond measure, and commanded Mallek Syef ad Dien Ghoree to give the three hundred performers a draft for a gratuity on the treasury of the roy of Beejanuggur. The minister, though he judged the order the effect of wine, in compliance with the humour of the Sultan wrote it, but did not despatch it. However, Mahummud Shaw penetrated his thoughts. The next day he inquired if ...
— A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar; A Contribution to the History of India • Robert Sewell

... villein tenants and serfs, were averse to supplying the deficiency by any form of general taxation. Nor were the rising merchant classes in the cities any more anxious to pay taxes to provide for artisans and servants what had for ages been a gratuity or not ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY

... heart until he is dropped. If he dies, he dies like a gentleman. If he lives, he writes Home that he has been "potted," "sniped," "chipped" or "cut over," and sits down to besiege Government for a wound-gratuity until the next little war breaks out, when he perjures himself before a Medical Board, blarneys his Colonel, burns incense round his Adjutant, and is allowed to go to the ...
— Indian Tales • Rudyard Kipling

... and still in existence, Marbeuf learned that the chiefest cause of all the bitterness was the inequality between the pocket allowances of the young French nobles and that of the young Corsican. The kindly general displayed the liberality of a family friend, and gladly increased the boy's gratuity, administering at the same time a smart rebuke to him for his readiness to take offense. He is likewise thought to have introduced his young charge to Mme. Lomenie de Brienne, whose mansion was near by.[3] This noble woman, it is asserted, became a second mother to the lonely child: though ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. I. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane

... the domestic, and the whole family ensconced themselves in their apartment: before, however, this was effected, the escort were dismissed, the principal carabineer being presented with a peseta. The man stood surveying the gratuity for about half a minute, as it glittered in the palm of his hand; then with an abrupt Vamos! he turned upon his heel, and without a word of salutation to any person, departed with ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow

... red and blue shawl from off his head, wrung it as dry as possible, refolded it, and then adjusted his turban with infinite care, preparing forthwith to be gone: he did not depart without a slight gratuity, and took with him our best wishes. This was a fine open-countenanced fellow, middle-sized, and firmly built; he was, in fact, one of the few really good-looking aborigines I have met. As he was departing ...
— Impressions of America - During The Years 1833, 1834, and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Tyrone Power

... forthwith—that he had ridden part of the way in company with some who were coming as far as Gravesend, and had 'lifted' him. He looked like what he was, part oyster-dredger, part smuggler. Cromwell saw nothing in him that would justify detention, and dismissed him with a liberal gratuity. ...
— The Buccaneer - A Tale • Mrs. S. C. Hall

... at Riviere du Pas, where an old Canadian, M. Constant, had fixed his abode, who appeared to have an abundance of the necessaries of life, and a large family of half-Indians, who seemed to claim him as their sire. We breakfasted sumptuously on fish and fowl, and no charge was made; but a gratuity of tea, tobacco, or sugar is always given; so that M. Constant loses nothing by his considerate attentions ...
— Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory • John M'lean

... with the cold air, and what with the whisky, and what with the jolting, Mr. Mollett was very cross when he reached the Kanturk Hotel so that he only cursed the driver instead of giving him the expected gratuity. ...
— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope

... nurse; and forty-five francs for her board and lodging at the agency and Madame Broquette's charges. Then there was the question of her child's return to the country, which meant another thirty francs, without counting a gratuity to La Couteau. ...
— Fruitfulness - Fecondite • Emile Zola

... after our advent at the restaurant, one evening, Joe Tallant, the mining secretary, one of our liveliest members, was observed to be awkward and distrait during dinner, forgetting even to offer the usual gratuity to the Italian waiter who handed him his hat, although he stared at him with an imbecile smile. As we chanced to leave the restaurant together, I was rallying him upon his abstraction, when to my surprise he said gravely: "Look here, one of two things has got to happen: either we ...
— Colonel Starbottle's Client and Other Stories • Bret Harte

... as in the case of governor Burnet, to make a grant to Mr. Belcher of one thousand pounds currency for defraying the expense of his voyage, and as a gratuity for his services while the agent of the colony in England; and, some time after, voted a sum equal to one thousand pounds sterling to enable him to manage the public affairs, &c.; but fixed no time for which the allowance ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5) • John Marshall

... a life unblamable and just, Their own dear virtue their unshaken trust; They never sin—or if (as all offend) Some trivial slips their daily walk attend, The poor are near at hand, the charge is small, A slight gratuity atones for all."—Cowper. ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... had no share in the murder wetted their hands and swords in blood, and came and showed them to Otho, presenting memorials suing for a gratuity. Not less than one hundred and twenty were identified afterwards from their written petitions; all of whom Vitellius sought out and put to death. There came also into the camp Marius Celsus, and was accused by many voices of encouraging the soldiers to assist Galba, and was demanded ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... the animal creation, with the exception of the shaggy wanderer of the desert and the floundering leviathan of the ocean. The animal was perfectly tractable; and its exhibition well compensated both for time and gratuity. ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... While the "gratuity money" lasted life went merrily enough, but when the last cheque had been cashed, and the grim reality that rations had ceased and Q. M. Stores were not longer available thrust itself vividly into the face of the demobilised veteran, and when after experiencing in job hunting varying degrees ...
— To Him That Hath - A Novel Of The West Of Today • Ralph Connor

... in Spain, since the abolition of the tithes, which brought with it that state of poverty under which the clergy now groan, there has been introduced a custom of slipping a few pieces of money into the hand of the confessor at parting. This gratuity varies according to the means of the penitents; but the average may be taken at a dollar and a half. May not the probability of a larger or a smaller fee on these occasions, as pourtrayed in the aspect of the giver, have an influence, more or less, ...
— Roman Catholicism in Spain • Anonymous

... be commuted at rate so high as twenty-seven years' purchase. JOKIM, generous with other people's money, flies in face of recommendation, and comfortably rounds off one or two of these little jobs with gratuity of twenty-seven years' purchase. Cheerful to hear this sort of thing denounced in breezy fashion from Conservative Benches. JENNINGS, amid loud cheers, hits straight out from the shoulder. WALTER FOSTER quite delighted. "Bless ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., December 6, 1890 • Various

... shape is undeniable. And what is asserted of the young Gypsey girls rambling about with their fathers who are musicians, dancing with lascivious and indecent gestures, to divert any person who is willing to give them a small gratuity for so acting, is likewise perfectly Indian. Sonnerat confirms this in the account he gives of ...
— A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies • John Hoyland

... delight and wonder—indeed it was a great sight. Policeman X separated the warriors. Clive ascended the box again with a dreadful wound in the coat, which was gashed from the waist to the shoulder. I hardly ever saw the elder Newcome in such a state of triumph. The postboys quite stared at the gratuity he gave them, and wished they might drive his ...
— The Newcomes • William Makepeace Thackeray

... proceed upon their journey next evening, as a stage-waggon, which travelled for some distance on the same road as they must take, would stop at the inn to change horses, and the driver for a small gratuity would give Nell a place inside. A bargain was soon struck when the waggon came; and in due time it rolled away; with the child comfortably bestowed among the softer packages, her grandfather and the schoolmaster walking on beside the driver, ...
— The Old Curiosity Shop • Charles Dickens

... importance, and requires a trustworthy attendant. Are you disposed to accompany him?" he asked. "You will find it, as I have before promised you, a good opportunity of seeing the great city, and all your expenses will besides be paid, while you will receive a handsome gratuity to boot. Take my advice: don't throw the chance away. As I told you before, you will be as safe there as you are in the middle of the fens, and you will, besides, very likely find an opportunity of pushing your fortune, which you ...
— John Deane of Nottingham - Historic Adventures by Land and Sea • W.H.G. Kingston

... women-dancers, and six men, with three drums; we were informed by Tupia, that they were some of the most considerable people of the island, and that though they were continually going from place to place, they did not, like the little strolling companies of Otaheite, take any gratuity from the spectators. The women had upon their heads a considerable quantity of Tamou, or plaited hair, which was brought several times round the head, and adorned in many parts with the flowers of the cape-jessamine, which were stuck in with much taste, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... Should the above rules, compiled in the interest of leaders of Society, be insufficient to keep party-givers from appearing in the Court of Bankruptcy, guests who have partaken of any hospitality will be expected to contribute a gratuity, to enable the Official Receiver to declare ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, August 9, 1890. • Various

... him to be right: but he has gained that single voice at the sacrifice and expense of a brother's soul. Or again—if for the sake of ensuring personal politeness and attention, the rich man puts a gratuity into the hand of a servant of some company which has forbidden him to receive it, he gains the attention, he ensures the politeness, but he gains it at the sacrifice and expense of a man ...
— Sermons Preached at Brighton - Third Series • Frederick W. Robertson

... could be granted account should be made of the former subsidies, whow the same ware employed by Mr. Cotteridge and others, whom the King made use of to that purposc. Sure this was very grieveous to the King to sie himselfe so controlled in his expence, and that he could give no gratuity to my Ladie Castlemain (now Dutchesse of Cleveland, etc.) but that which they behoved to get notice of, behold the stratagem he makes use of. The Presbyterians at that tyme, hearing of the Indulgence given to some ministers ...
— Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36 • Sir John Lauder

... by his son-in-law, Mr. Cleypool; and to speak truly of him, he sent one that waited upon him in his chamber, once in two or three days, to hear how it fared with me in my sessions business; but I never had of him, directly or indirectly, either pension, or any the least sum of money, or any gratuity during his whole Protectorship; this I protest to be true, by the name and in the name of ...
— William Lilly's History of His Life and Times - From the Year 1602 to 1681 • William Lilly

... the enterprise, and hoping also that if Mademoiselle de Bourke still lived he might be permitted to restore her to her relations. Letters, clothes, and comforts were provided, and placed under the charge of the interpreter and of Arthur, together with a considerable gratuity for the Marabout, and authority for any ransom that Cabeleyze rapacity might require,—still, however, with great doubt whether all might not ...
— A Modern Telemachus • Charlotte M. Yonge

... be expected to take such a change in their circumstances very calmly. A man who had been transplanted from an estate worth L2,500 a year near Dublin, which his family had owned for four hundred years, and whose daughters were given the munificent gratuity of L10 a-piece by the Council Board, and forbidden for the future to ask for any further assistance, might certainly plead extenuating circumstances[503] if he took to highway robbery. Such circumstances as these were common at this period; and it should ...
— An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 • Mary Frances Cusack

... morrow the ringers rang; and being inspired by plenitude of beer and rich gratuity, and hearty good-will into the bargain, they rang till sundown. And when the wedding was over, and the bride and bridegroom had driven away with cheers and blessings in their train, the wedding-guests sat in the garden with the sylvan statues standing ...
— Aunt Rachel • David Christie Murray

... corporations, what they get is something besides wages or any other normal and legitimate income. If they accept for their time less than they are worth, they make a donation to the corporation. Neither filching something for nothing out of the returns of the corporation, nor giving it a gratuity, is to be here assumed as existent, since we are not dealing with the phenomena of quasi-plunder or eccentric benevolence. The character of wages of management, as the reward for a high grade of labor, is recognized in business life, and the salary of the manager, whether he is a stockholder ...
— Essentials of Economic Theory - As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy • John Bates Clark

... persons, for this night's slaying and tumult, and that in guarantee thereof twelve hostages of high rank, upon whose names we have agreed, be given into our keeping. That we retain our separate stations in the service of the Empire, or have leave to quit that service within three months, with the gratuity of a quarter's pay, and go where we will unmolested. But that, in return for these boons, we surrender the person of the Empress unharmed, and with her that of the General Olaf, to whom a fair trial is promised before a ...
— The Wanderer's Necklace • H. Rider Haggard

... loss of the castle, hoping to surprise the Emperor and his attendants in an open, defenceless town, and there to dictate conditions of peace. The dissatisfaction of a portion of the troops at not immediately receiving the usual gratuity for taking a place by assault occasioned a short delay in the advance of Maurice's army. He arrived at Innspruck in the middle of the night, and learned that the Emperor had fled only two hours before to Carinthia, followed ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... have been well regarded; in the record of his marriage license, May 16, 1691 (N.E. Hist. Gen. Reg., VI. 63) he is styled "William Kidd, Gentleman," and two days earlier the New York assembly (Journal, ed. 1764, I. 6, 13) voted him a gratuity of L150 for services in connection with the arrival of Governor Sloughter. In 1695, Kidd being then in England, Robert Livingston of New York arranged in London with Lord Bellomont, who had been designated but not yet commissioned as ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various

... every man and boy, three dollars each, which animated them, and promised to give them as much more if engaged againe, and that if [wee] took the ship, for every prisoner five pounds and besides a gratuity from the Gentlemen Employers. Wee read the King's Proclamation about Every, &c., ...
— Great Pirate Stories • Various

... glorious, because the more virtuous, period of the republic, that the relation was sustained upon so honorable a foundation. In the progress of society, the business of advocating causes became a distinct profession; and then it was usual to pay a fee in advance, which was called a gratuity or present. As this was a mere honorary recompense, the client was under no legal obligation to pay it. But the result necessarily was, that if the usual present was not given, the advocate did not consider himself bound in honor to ...
— An Essay on Professional Ethics - Second Edition • George Sharswood

... the other, who was Barwood himself, with a smile such as heralds the facetious, "you will hardly condescend to receive our little gratuity now?" ...
— Paul Faber, Surgeon • George MacDonald



Words linked to "Gratuity" :   prize, bakshish, baksheesh, tip, Christmas box, bakshis, perquisite



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