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Initial   Listen
adjective
Initial  adj.  
1.
Of or pertaining to the beginning; marking the commencement; incipient; commencing; as, the initial symptoms of a disease.
2.
Placed at the beginning; standing at the head, as of a list or series; as, the initial letters of a name.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Initial" Quotes from Famous Books



... The money's bad enough." And the trouble came out in a quick rush of words—explanatory, contrite, despairing—all in one breath. For the Boy had Irish blood in his veins; and the initial difficulty over, he found it an unspeakable relief to disburden his soul to the man who had "brothered" him ever since ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver

... rest? Why limit oneself to a mere million of years for a dramatic illustration, when there is a star in space distant so far from us that if a telegram left the earth for it this very night, and maintained for ever its initial velocity, it ...
— The Crack of Doom • Robert Cromie

... fair and economical spouse should think of repairing to the Bon-Marche to secure some of those wonderful linen pillow-cases (at one franc forty) with your august initial embroidered on the centre with a view of impressing the sleeper's cheek, she will pass the end of the Rue St. Gingolphe on her way—provided the cabman be honest. There! You ...
— The Slave Of The Lamp • Henry Seton Merriman

... one or both of us must certainly have resulted, through ignorance of each other's plans. Let me congratulate you, my brave fellow, for having so successfully accomplished your remarkable journey. This is the initial step in the linking together of the destinies ...
— Zarlah the Martian • R. Norman Grisewood

... while keeping the rest of its pike-like body rigid and almost perpendicular. Each stroke is accomplished by a ludicrous wriggling movement. It would seem that by the impact of the tail upon the water the fish maintains its abnormal position and also sustains for a time its initial velocity. For a hundred yards or so its speed is considerable, equal to the flight of a bird, but the length of each successive skip rapidly diminishes, as the original impulse is exhausted, and then the fish disappears as suddenly as it shot into view. The "skipper" is an exceptionally supple ...
— The Confessions of a Beachcomber • E J Banfield

... and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat me down and reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph. He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm; but all through the interminable narrative there ran a vein of impressive earnestness and sincerity, which showed me plainly that, so far from his imagining that there was any thing ridiculous or ...
— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various

... went into the inner room, I carried this stick off for a minute or two. I knew it was not Worsfold's, because there was an umbrella there with his initial on ...
— Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison

... and permanent. The city was about to pave Fifty-fifth Street. There was a plan to extend the Halstead Street car line far below its present terminus. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which ran near there, would be glad to put a passenger station on the property. The initial cost of the land would be forty thousand dollars which they would share equally. Grading, paving, lighting, tree planting, surveying would cost, roughly, an additional twenty-five thousand. There would be expenses for advertising—say ten per cent, of the total investment ...
— Jennie Gerhardt - A Novel • Theodore Dreiser

... for protest than the officials sensed a "plot," and removed her at once to solitary confinement. But they were too late. Taking the leader only hastened the rebellion. A forlorn piece of paper was discovered, on which was written their initial demand, It was then passed from prisoner to prisoner through holes in the wall surrounding leaden pipes, until a finished document had been perfected and signed by all ...
— Jailed for Freedom • Doris Stevens

... the drift, where left in its initial state, also displays clear proof of its glacial origin. Over large areas it is spread in level plains of till, perhaps bowlder- dotted, similar to the plains of stony clay left in Spitzbergen by the recent retreat of some of the glaciers of that island. In ...
— The Elements of Geology • William Harmon Norton

... reader had the patience to work out the few initial terms of this series, which has no limit, because the series of natural numerals itself has ...
— The Life of the Spider • J. Henri Fabre

... gloves, new, size seven and a half; left-hand pocket, gun-metal cigarette case studded with pearls, half-full of Egyptian cigarettes. The trousers pockets contained a gold penknife, a small amount of money in bills and change, and a handkerchief with the initial "S" on it. ...
— The Man in Lower Ten • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... placing the flywheel forward, thus eliminating the need for the long driving belt of the Benz carriage. Yet he did reject the bevel gears used by Benz, which might well have been retained, as Frank was later to prove by designing a workable transmission that incorporated such bevel gears. The initial plan, as conceived by Charles, also included the details of the axles, steering gear, countershaft with its friction-drum, the 2-piece angle-iron frame upon which the countershaft bearings were mounted, and ...
— The 1893 Duryea Automobile In the Museum of History and Technology • Don H. Berkebile

... is some reason for this feeling. Many of us have already overcome the initial difficulties of mathematical training. When we now go on with our study, we feel that it requires exertion and involves fatigue, but we are confident that if we only work hard our progress ...
— Five of Maxwell's Papers • James Clerk Maxwell

... refused to consider moving picture work, but he finally consented, and even allowed his daughters to take their parts in the silent drama. In the initial book of the series, "The Moving Picture Girls," I ...
— The Moving Picture Girls at Sea - or, A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real • Laura Lee Hope

... keys called Authentic Modes, to which were added later four more called Plagal Modes. These modes, called Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc., are merely different presentations in the regular order of the notes of the C Major scale—first, with D as the initial or tonic note, then with E et seq. They lack the sentiment of a leading seventh note. In these weird keys Plain Song was conceived for psalms, graduals, introits, and other offices of the primitive church. Such music was generally called Gregorian, ...
— On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music • Camille Saint-Saens

... was the prophetic Psalm which describes the ignominy and sufferings of the Redeemer. It was surrounded by a wreathed border of thorn-branches interwoven with the blossoms and tendrils of the passion-flower, and the initial letters of the first two words were formed by a curious combination of the hammer, the nails, the spear, the crown of thorns, the cross, and other instruments of the Passion; and clear, in red letter, gleamed out those wonderful, mysterious words, consecrated by the remembrance ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 54, April, 1862 • Various

... story took ten minutes. When I began a second, a very short one, the initial work had to be done all over again, for the slight comparative quiet I had won had been totally lost in the ...
— How to Tell Stories to Children - And Some Stories to Tell • Sara Cone Bryant

... was right. They were seen beyond question, and without waiting for the initial shot, as before, they bounded across the open space, and the command was given to fire. The result of the shots was plainly seen. The rush ceased, and before the Professor could give the command for the second shot they reached the brush, and the ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: The Tribesmen • Roger Finlay

... that he was hoping against hope. He spoke of the army that was collecting on the Loire, whose initial performances, in the neighborhood of Arthenay, had not been of the most promising; it would become seasoned and would march to the relief of Paris. His enthusiasm was aroused to boiling pitch by the proclamations ...
— The Downfall • Emile Zola

... little too derogatory, "men of letters" is rarely (it is sometimes) applicable, as we use it when we mean to be complimentary. These letters are still close to "speech," thus meeting in a fashion our initial requirement, but they are close to the speech of the "orator"—of the sophisticated speaker to the public—not to that of genuine conversation. In fact in some cases it would require only the very slightest change to make those exercitations of the rhetors ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury

... impressions of the great English metropolis; a phrase which I have thought out as a designation for London; I think it proper to offer an initial apology. I find that I receive impressions with great difficulty and have nothing of that easy facility in picking them up which is shown by British writers on America. I remember Hugh Walpole telling me that he could hardly walk down Broadway without getting at least three dollars' worth ...
— My Discovery of England • Stephen Leacock

... either Park or myself. The arrangements, indeed, were admirable. In order to keep the crowd informed of the state of the game at each hole, two flags were made, one being white with a red "P" on it, and the other red with a "V" worked on in white. When Park won a hole the flag with his initial was hoisted, and the "V" was sent up when I won a hole, both flags being waved when it was a half. At each teeing ground a rope three hundred yards long was stretched, and fourteen constables and a like number of honorary officials took ...
— The Complete Golfer [1905] • Harry Vardon

... to bring about this ruin of a life. And yet things had gone well with him, existence had been made very easy for him, since his marriage; and only moral perversity would have so blighted a career which had lain open to all the possibilities of good fortune. The initial difficulty—poverty, which so many men have to overcome, had been conquered for Brian within the first year of his marriage. And now six years were gone, and he had done nothing except waste and ruin his mind ...
— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon

... what of the Nakonkirhirinons, making their initial trip by way of Rapid River and Deer Lake, coming through the country of the Saskatchewan and held by no bond of loyalty? I see trouble ahead if this young De Courtenay gets wind of their coming, for they will be rich in peltry and they are a ...
— The Maid of the Whispering Hills • Vingie E. Roe

... its contents, given in the correspondence with Horne, will make the modern reader accept with equanimity the fact that it never progressed beyond the initial stage of drafting the plot. It is allegorical, philosophical, fantastic, unreal—everything which was calculated to bring out the worst characteristics of Miss Barrett's style and to intensify her faults. Fortunately ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon

... published by Him and Swift, to which is prefix'd, An Essay on the Profund, to consider if those Attacks were justifiable; Mr. Dean Swift never saw the Profund, till made publick, and Dr. Arburthnot, who originally sketch'd the Design of it, desired that the Initial Letters of Names of the Gentlemen abused might not be inserted, that they might be A or B, or Do or Ro, or any thing of that Nature, which would make this Satire a general one upon any dull Writers in any Age: This was refused by Pope, and he chose rather to treat ...
— Two Poems Against Pope - One Epistle to Mr. A. Pope and the Blatant Beast • Leonard Welsted

... initial success and expecting lots of good things in the future, Bernhardt was bent upon having a good time. He drank with Frederick Augustus, made love to Lucretia and squeezed the chambermaids on his floor ...
— Secret Memoirs: The Story of Louise, Crown Princess • Henry W. Fischer

... whenever they spoke of the fundamental principles of the system, talked nonsense. The greatest advantage of my scheme was to supersede transpositions and keys, so that the same piece of music was noted and transposed at will by means of the change of a single initial letter at the head of the air. These gentlemen had heard from the music—masters of Paris that the method of executing by transposition was a bad one; and on this authority converted the most evident advantage ...
— The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete • Jean Jacques Rousseau

... late in the morning, a dull foggy November morning, when I had finished sealing the packets and locked them away in the steel safe with my own key. The one I had given you was the only duplicate in existence; they both bore my father's initial C, he was Carlo the ...
— A Queen's Error • Henry Curties

... The initial volume is called "The Khaki Boys at Camp Sterling," and in the pages of that you meet, for the first time, Jimmy, Roger, Bob and Iggy. To introduce them more formally I will say that Jimmy's correct name was James ...
— The Khaki Boys Over the Top - Doing and Daring for Uncle Sam • Gordon Bates

... of this victory can hardly be measured by the ordinary standard of naval warfare. Outweighing any material advantage is the moral effect of this initial success. At this unsurpassed achievement the great heart of our nation throbs, not with boasting or with greed of conquest, but with deep gratitude that this triumph has come in a just cause and that ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents • William McKinley

... simple plan (commended by the Editor of Truth and many others) you may furnish your House, Chambers, or Flat throughout,—and to the extent of Linen, Silver, and Cutlery,—Out of Income without drawing upon Capital by dividing the initial outlay into 6, 12, or 24 monthly, or 12 quarterly payments. At any period the option may be exercised of paying off the balance, and so take advantage ...
— Certain Personal Matters • H. G. Wells

... see that a woman should be free to marry—that is, to give herself and her power to become a mother where she loves—not to be forced to bestow these sacred gifts when her spirit is unwilling—just because she has made the initial mistake of affiancing herself to a man, often through others' influence, who she discovers afterward is distasteful to her. Cannot you realize that it is wise for himself as well as for her that this man release her, before a life of long misery ...
— The Point of View • Elinor Glyn

... When the initial shock began to wear off, his face assumed an expression of intense thought. In about five minutes he leaped from his chair, dashed out of the office with a shouted syllable or two for his secretary, and got his car out of ...
— And All the Earth a Grave • Carroll M. Capps (AKA C.C. MacApp)

... mares were purchased with money take from the military chest, and being marked with an M (the initial of ...
— ESSAYS, Political, Economical and Philosophical. Volume 1. • Benjamin Rumford

... process, in which God and men unite, is what we call work. It is not a process introduced among men as an afterthought or as a form of punishment; it was involved in the initial creative act, and it is part of the complete creative act. The conception of a process of development carries with it the idea, not of a finished but of an unfinished world; it interprets history not as a record of persons and events separate from the stage upon which ...
— Essays On Work And Culture • Hamilton Wright Mabie

... a public meeting by advertisement to organize a volunteer fire department: M. F. Truett, J. J. Southgate, A. Kaindler, A. H. Guild, Charles Potter, Samuel Knight and J. N. Thain. This was the initial movement to form the volunteer fire department which did such good service ...
— Some Reminiscences of old Victoria • Edgar Fawcett

... reached here by flatboat, in a destitute condition. The Marietta neighbors were as kind as circumstances would allow, and cabins were built for them on what is now the Public Square of Gallipolis. But they were ignorant of the first principles of forestry or gardening; the initial winter was exceptionally severe, Indian forays sapped the life of the colony, yellow fever decimated the survivors; and, altogether, the little settlement suffered a series of disasters almost unparalleled in the ...
— Afloat on the Ohio - An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo • Reuben Gold Thwaites

... 'Endurance's' head for the opening, and, steaming at full speed, we got clear. Then we went east in the hope of getting better ice, and five hours later, after some dodging, we rounded the pack and were able to set sail once more. This initial tussle with the pack had been exciting at times. Pieces of ice and bergs of all sizes were heaving and jostling against each other in the heavy south-westerly swell. In spite of all our care the 'Endurance' struck large lumps stem on, but the engines were ...
— South! • Sir Ernest Shackleton

... houses and areas. But the grouping of these, also, would be determined finally by the convenience of access to the dominant centre. That secondary centres, literary, social, political, or military, may arise about the initial trade centre, complicates the application but does not alter the principle here stated. They must all be within striking distance. The day of twenty-four hours is an inexorable human condition, and up to the present time all intercourse and business has been broken into spells ...
— Anticipations - Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon - Human life and Thought • Herbert George Wells

... doubt that the most primitive of movements is that of crawling, and by this method of progression, one is brought into an intimate contact with the earth which cannot fail to be beneficial. I do not see any real difficulty in the way of our again becoming a race of happy and crawling people. The initial essay towards this end is to shed our arms and legs as useless incumbrances, and then to aim at a stronger growth of jaw and cranium. Among certain organisms it will be found that the jaws are the most immediately useful parts of ...
— Here are Ladies • James Stephens

... with their powers and resources, saw their commerce gradually extinguished by the ships of the foreign interloper, and their tropical possessions fall a prey to marauding bands of half-piratical buccaneers. Although struggling under tremendous initial disabilities in Europe, they had attempted, upon the slender pleas of prior discovery and papal investiture, to reserve half the world to themselves. Without a marine, without maritime traditions, they sought to hold a colonial ...
— The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century • Clarence Henry Haring

... chance and counter-chance, the edition which served for this last perusal, after threatening to disserve its text, had an exactly contrary result. It was the handsome two-volume issue of 1841 copiously adorned with all sorts of ingenious initial-devices, culs-de-lampe, etc., and with numerous illustrative "cuts" beautifully engraved (for the most part by English engravers, such as Orrin Smith, the Williamses, etc.), excellently drawn and composed by French artists from Gros downwards, ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... evils, social and political, that you hear men over their very cups rise to proclaim, with husky voices, "The saloon must go!" At this point the community is ripe for prohibition: accordingly, it would seem that the initial stages in the process, unpleasant as were their consequences, were not ill-advised, after all. But prohibition does not come without a political struggle, in which the enemy, selected for brazenness and schooled ...
— The Unpopular Review, Volume II Number 3 • Various

... and Von Bojna's forces, threatening to grind them between two relentless jaws of steel. It is Sunday, the second day of May, 1915; to all intents and purposes the battle of the Dunajec, as such, was over, and the initial aim of the Germanic offensive has been attained. The Russian line was pierced and its defense shattered. Von Mackensen's "Phalanx" was advancing two mighty tentacles guided by a master mind, remorselessly probing for the enemy's strongest points. Its formation comprised, in the northeastern ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12) - Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes • Francis J. Reynolds, Allen L. Churchill, and Francis Trevelyan

... in secret," I answered. "Indeed, it was that fact which caused me to suspect. You can, of course, obtain the original of the telegram by applying for it from the authorities. But it is only signed by an initial." ...
— The Stretton Street Affair • William Le Queux

... ostentatiously parade it: he may drop it altogether on his visiting cards, and may be imprinted as Mr. Jones instead of Mr. Ebenezer Jones. In his signature, save where the forms of the law demand Ebenezer in full, he may only use an initial and be your obedient servant E. Jones, leaving it to be conjectured that E. stands for Edward or Ernest,—names inoffensive, and not suggestive of a Dissenting Chapel, like Ebenezer. If a man called Edward ...
— Kenelm Chillingly, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... with the missionaries of the English Presbyterian Church. But a Christian discretion will enable them, on the receipt of the decision of the present Synod, in this matter now under consideration, to take such initial steps as are necessary to the speedy formation ...
— Forty Years in South China - The Life of Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D.D. • Rev. John Gerardus Fagg

... respectable families, and twelve of which appear, from want of funds, to have stopped short in their infancy many years ago at the basement, showing a weed-covered foundation of what might, had the over-sanguine capitalist not overshot the initial mark, have proved as fine a sea-side terrace on the South East Coast as the weary cockney eye could well hope to light upon, it would be including the fact that there is but one policeman to protect the lives and properties of the inhabitants ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101. Sep. 12, 1891 • Various

... mushroom, standing out pathetically on the side of a field. Leonard and Dick immediately proceeded to carve their initials, "L. W." and "R. P.", in the old red sandstone; but Paul desisted, because he had read in the newspaper satirical remarks about initial-carvers, who could find no other road to immortality. Then all the lads climbed to the top of the rock to ...
— Sons and Lovers • David Herbert Lawrence

... convention with prayer. It is the desire of our party to lift itself out of the mire of partisan politics, and nothing is more fitting than that an invocation to the Almighty should constitute our initial performance." ...
— The Transgressors - Story of a Great Sin • Francis A. Adams

... inference suffices, I think, to explain why, after the brief initial account of the entrance of sin and death into the world, the purport of the whole of Scripture is to record the subsequent prevalence of sin, and to reveal by what means grace abounded in the gift of righteousness, and how it abounded ...
— An Essay on the Scriptural Doctrine of Immortality • James Challis

... on Grinnell's forty yard line and Mack Carver's brilliant runback of the initial kick-off reduced ...
— Interference and Other Football Stories • Harold M. Sherman

... work-box, too," added Birger; "but how can I carve an initial on the cover when I don't know who is going to have ...
— Gerda in Sweden • Etta Blaisdell McDonald

... Each project has its own stock-room. Since we're a new base, the projects have been working from an initial supply." ...
— The Scarlet Lake Mystery • Harold Leland Goodwin

... they were useless to support his weight; he had broken too many, and they were expensive—there is nothing more durable than a strong basket chair. Lablache appreciated strength combined with durability, especially when the initial outlay was reduced ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum

... Bale, which was painted in 1312. This, like that in Great Bale, and most of the others, has been destroyed by time or violence. The Dance was made the ornament of books of devotion, and the subject of ornamental initial-letters; groups from it were engraved repeatedly by those fantastic designers and exquisite workmen known as the Little Masters of Germany; a single group was assumed as a device, or trademark, by more than one printer; and it was sung in popular ballads. There is now at Aix-la-Chapelle ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 17, March, 1859 • Various

... Coached by that practiced diplomat, Certina Charley, he made a speech memorable chiefly for what it did not say. The one bright, definite gleam, amidst rolling columns of oratory, was the proposal that an Emergency Committee of One Hundred be appointed to cope with the situation, that the initial sum of twenty-five thousand dollars be pledged by subscription, and that their distinguished fellow citizen, Dr. L. Andre Surtaine, be permanent chairman of said committee, with power to appoint. Dr. Surtaine had generously offered to subscribe ten thousand dollars ...
— The Clarion • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... Initial difficulty in Irish Camp; Brer FOX sitting in old place, two steps down third bench below Gangway. Brer RABBIT, sunk in profound meditation, oblivious to the rival Leader's presence, occupies corner seat; room ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, VOL. 100. Feb. 28, 1891 • Various

... "but we are met by this initial difficulty; that one might settle a dozen professions for Jack, and there is not the smallest guarantee that he would choose any of them. I think he will take his own line. I never knew anyone who knew so ...
— Watersprings • Arthur Christopher Benson

... example, both for the phenomenon or process usually so denoted, and for the result of that process: thus the refracted ray he habitually terms "the refraction" of the incident ray. When a wave-front, or, as he terms it, a "wave," has passed from some initial position to a subsequent one, he terms the wave-front in its subsequent position "the continuation" of the wave. He also speaks of the envelope of a set of elementary waves, formed by coalescence of those elementary wave-fronts, as "the termination" of the wave; ...
— Treatise on Light • Christiaan Huygens

... table qualities with the least tendency to succumb in seasons when conditions favour the spread of the fungus. Scientific men have not yet explained why the varieties differ in this respect, but practical men have discovered that initial vigour of growth is the main defence against the plague, and as the growing of a good Potato costs no more than the growing of a poor variety, the cultivator should bestow his care on the very best he can obtain. A little ...
— The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition • Sutton and Sons

... date of the second reading of such a bill (i.e., the first real opportunity for its discussion) in the first of these sessions of the House of Commons and the final passage of the bill in the third of the sessions. To come within the provisions of this act the measure must be, at its initial and its final appearances, the "same bill;" that is, it must exhibit no alterations save such as are rendered necessary by the lapse of time. And a bill is to be construed to be "rejected" by the Lords if it is not passed, or if amendments are introduced to which the ...
— The Governments of Europe • Frederic Austin Ogg

... the taxes from the people to defray the expenses of government has raised no difficulties. The door-tax of two dollars[217] per door (I.E. per family or household) is the only direct tax laid on the tribes. When once the initial reluctance has been overcome, this has been collected and regularly paid in by chiefs and PENGHULUS, including the headmen of the nomad groups. In times of misfortune, whether individual or collective, such as the loss of crops ...
— The Pagan Tribes of Borneo • Charles Hose and William McDougall

... he must let the girl fully understand the grave peril in which she stood, and turn her hope of protection from her father to himself. He imagined that the initial step in undermining Virginia's confidence in her father would be to narrate every detail of the weird experiments which Professor Maxon had brought to such successful issues during their ...
— The Monster Men • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... Iroquois understand that the great Onontio[15] had returned to chastise them. Aiming therefore at the revival of French prestige, the Governor organised "The three war-parties," a step which may be considered as the initial move in that desperate conflict which left the flag of England floating over the ...
— Old Quebec - The Fortress of New France • Sir Gilbert Parker and Claude Glennon Bryan

... The initial stage of the journey, Emerson realized with thanksgiving, was over. As soon as he was able to talk he inquired ...
— The Silver Horde • Rex Beach

... his name, he told me in one of his bursts of confidence; and a very pretty name it is, though for brevity's sake it may be convenient hereafter to particularise him by the initial letter. ...
— Faces and Places • Henry William Lucy

... East of the Lodge, over the Master, inclosed in a triangle, is the Hebrew letter YŌD [Hebrew] or [Hebrew]. In the English and American Lodges the Letter G.'. is substituted for this, as the initial of the word GOD, with as little reason as if the letter D., initial of DIEU, were used in French Lodges instead of the proper letter. YŌD is, in the Kabalah, the symbol of Unity, of the Supreme Deity, the first letter of the Holy Name; and also a symbol ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike

... you. Yesterday we laughed like anything when he told us what fun the boys make of their masters. That story about the cigarette ends was screamingly funny. They have a society called T. Au. M., that is in Latin Be Silent or Die in initial letters. No one may betray the society's secrets, and when they make a new member he has to strip off all his clothes and lie down naked and every one spits on his chest and rubs it and says: Be One of Us, ...
— A Young Girl's Diary • An Anonymous Young Girl

... for a time the contest with the Dutch. War was, however, soon again to break out. The statesmen Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale, the initial letters of whose titles gave the name of the Cabal to their ministry, now formed a scheme for rendering the king absolute; Charles, acting under the influence of the King of France, who agreed to assist England in humbling the States-General. Every slight offence committed ...
— How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves - Updated to 1900 • W.H.G. Kingston

... to be curious, they omitted to print the initial letter of a chapter: they left that blank space to be painted or illuminated, to the fancy of the purchaser. Several ancient volumes of these early times have been found where these letters are wanting, as they neglected to have ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... comforting to "drop in" to the hospitable, untidy house, where, thanks to Mrs. Mangan's early experiences, there was always good luck in the pot, and to spend a peaceful evening over the fire, smoking, and listening to the famous Mangan Quartet. Music was the initial point of contact between Larry and these people among whom he had once more been cast, and the Big Doctor was not unaware of the fact. Singly, or united, the Mangan voices, mellow, tuneful, singing songs of Ireland with artless grace ...
— Mount Music • E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross

... initial volume tells how the hero ran away from his miserly guardian, fell in with a successful airman, and became a ...
— The Curlytops on Star Island - or Camping out with Grandpa • Howard R. Garis

... in the open market. It is similar to one shown in Fig. 41. As before mentioned, either dry or storage batteries may be used as a source of current. The writer strongly advises the use of storage batteries if possible. The initial cost of these batteries is greater than that for dry batteries; but, on the other hand, the small storage battery can be charged repeatedly and will outlast many dry batteries. If the boat is used much the storage battery ...
— Boys' Book of Model Boats • Raymond Francis Yates

... nor the display of prejudice, but the success and glory of the great republic. He felt that the American Nation had become greater and more glorious by the very act of overcoming rebellion. He recognized that the initial right or wrong of that struggle, whatever it might have been, should be subordinated in all minds to the result—an individual Nation. It was a greater and a grander thing to be an American than to have been a Confederate! It was more honorable and knightly to ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... these yet beginning Modern Ages, the ages of a practical learning, and scientific relief to the human estate, which this Pastime marks with its blazoned, illuminated initial. It is the opening of the era in which a common human sense is developed, and directed to the common-weal, which this Pastime celebrates; the opening of the ages in which, ere all is done, the politicians who expect mankind to entrust ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon

... to have formed this project of conquest immediately after his first victories, when his initial attempts to institute satrapies had taught him not only the condition and needs of Asia Minor, but of the teaching the Scythians such a lesson as would prevent them from bearing down upon his right flank during his march, or upon his rear while engaged ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... The initial impulse to secure suffrage for American women came from Europe. After the Revolution, Frances Wright, a young Scotchwoman, came to America to lecture and write, claiming equal political rights with men. In 1836, Ernestine L. Rose came from Poland and also advocated equal political rights. ...
— Woman in Modern Society • Earl Barnes

... finish," he calmly continued. "I have looked at the question in all its bearings, I have resolutely attacked it, and by incontrovertible calculations I find that a projectile endowed with an initial velocity of 12,000 yards per second, and aimed at the moon, must necessarily reach it. I have the honor, my brave colleagues, to propose a trial ...
— Jules Verne's Classic Books • Jules Verne

... glowered across the table at him, his inbred antagonism to authority aroused by that contemptuous demand, but then common sense cautioned. His initial introduction to this village had left him bruised and with one of his headaches. There was no reason to let them beat him until he was in no shape to make a break for freedom when and if there ...
— The Time Traders • Andre Norton

... his own works as well as in those of his European and American echoes. The 'Charles Elwood' of Mr. Brownson, for example, was placed in my hands. I read it with profound attention. Throughout I found it logical, but the portions which were not merely logical were unhappily the initial arguments of the disbelieving hero of the book. In his summing up it seemed evident to me that the reasoner had not even succeeded in convincing himself. His end had plainly forgotten his beginning, like the government of Trinculo. In short, I was not long in perceiving that if man is ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... and the middle part is full of attractive bits of the old kind. But Conachar-Eachin is rather a thing of shreds and patches, and the entire episode of Father Clement and the heresy business is dragged in with singularly little initial excuse, valid connection, ...
— Sir Walter Scott - Famous Scots Series • George Saintsbury

... boasting—the heart of a lion and the cunning of a fox, they said. One of us was called into a more sober chamber to drink ceremonious toasts in champagne with their officers. In the street another of us—I would not give even his initial—selecting the leading representative of young, demure, and ornamental maidenhood, embraced her in the middle of the most admiring crowd I have ever seen, while the rest of us explained to a half-angry mother that her daughter should ...
— Adventures of a Despatch Rider • W. H. L. Watson

... table in the centre of the room. As Burlingame sat down he noticed on the table a crumpled handkerchief. It had lettering in the corner. He spread it out slightly with his fingers, as though abstractedly thinking of what he was about to say. The initial in the corner was K. Kitty had left it on the table while she was talking to Mrs. Crozier a halfhour before. Whatever Burlingame actually thought or believed, he could not now resist picking up the handkerchief and ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... at his table in the bare upper room for many hours. Before him lay a new pen, a new bottle of ink and a new emerald exercise. From force of habit he had written at the top of the first page the initial letters of the jesuit motto: A.M.D.G. On the first line of the page appeared the title of the verses he was trying to write: To E— C—. He knew it was right to begin so for he had seen similar titles in the collected poems of Lord Byron. When he ...
— A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man • James Joyce

... that in accordance with euphonic laws initial k becomes ch sixteen times, and final a ...
— The Dakotan Languages, and Their Relations to Other Languages • Andrew Woods Williamson

... imitate that singing. The reason is fairly clear, because every idea in mind tends to pass into action unless something intervenes to stop it: consequently the child having the idea of singing in mind, simply from having heard others sing, has the initial impulse to song. As he gradually acquires the control and co-ordination of his faculties, song will follow as a matter of course. On the other hand if the child never hears anyone sing, from where is the motor impulse ...
— Spirit and Music • H. Ernest Hunt

... I continued, "be your bulwarks as it were against those excessively bitter and railing accusations. And taking up again as it were the initial clue to our subject, which as it is about the deity is dark and full of mazes and labyrinths, let us warily and calmly follow the track to what is probable and plausible, for certainty and truth are things ...
— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch

... United States was not prepared in military strength or popular intention. He had merely pledged these countries to use their acquisitions for the general good. Though the promises meant little in themselves, to have exacted them was an initial step toward victory. ...
— The Path of Empire - A Chronicle of the United States as a World Power, Volume - 46 in The Chronicles of America Series • Carl Russell Fish

... while the little girl found out that the Fairy was pretty particular, and wouldn't notice anything but letters—not even correspondence cards in envelopes; but real letters on sheets of paper, and sealed outside with a monogram—or your initial, anyway. So, then, she began to send her letters; and in about three weeks—or just the day before Christmas, it was—she got a letter from the Fairy, saying she might have it Christmas every day for a year, and then they would see ...
— Christmas Every Day and Other Stories • W. D. Howells

... larger concept is made by the combination of smaller ones, and presupposes them; and that to present any of these compound concepts before the child is in possession of its constituent ones, is only less absurd than to present the final concept of the series before the initial one? In the mastering of every subject some course of increasingly complex ideas has to be gone through. The evolution of the corresponding faculties consists in the assimilation of these; which, in any true sense, ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer

... an hour: the enemy were surprised and driven out from the heights to the east of the Malakand position; and the command of ground thus gained enabled this successful column to clear the flank of the exit from the Malakand, and to ensure the unopposed initial advance of the main body. Before reaching the open valley, however, strong parties of the enemy were found holding the rocky spurs and kopjes intervening. These after sharp fighting were carried with the bayonet by the Guides, 35th ...
— The Story of the Guides • G. J. Younghusband

... — N. beginning, commencement, opening, outset, incipience, inception, inchoation^; introduction &c (precursor) 64; alpha, initial; inauguration, debut, le premier pas, embarcation [Fr.], rising of the curtain; maiden speech; outbreak, onset, brunt; initiative, move, first move; narrow end of the wedge, thin end of the wedge; fresh start, new departure. origin ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... arms, surmounted by the lion, and below, in a scroll, the words 'For Valour.' The ribbon is blue for the navy, and red for the army. On the clasp are two branches of laurel, and from it the cross hangs, supported by the initial 'V.' ...
— Queen Victoria • Anonymous

... sacrifice of theirs. Before or after sunrise a person of subdued senses, with heart filled with devotion, poureth libations on the (sacrificial) fire according to the ordinance. Devotion is a mighty agent. With regard to homas again, that variety which is called skanna is the initial one, while that which is called askanna is the last (but foremost in point of merit). Sacrifices are multifarious. Their rites and fruits again are multifarious. The Brahmana possessed of devotion who, endued with scriptural ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... lady's soft handkerchief, with an initial in the corner—B; now that stands for Bessie, eh?" he said, looking expectant; but all he had in return was one of Dick's smiles that might stand for either yes ...
— Dick the Bank Boy - Or, A Missing Fortune • Frank V. Webster

... was issued in January, 1854, and the last in December, 1855. The first letter of the Shirley series appeared in the initial number, and the last one in the final issue. The magazine seems to have been well received in the East, and the Eastern magazines ...
— The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 • Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

... all kinds of apoplectic attacks may occur from simple transient aphasia to complete hemiplegia, and thirteen of his patients who had died and thirteen of those living at the time of this report showed failure of eyesight as an initial symptom of ...
— DISTURBANCES OF THE HEART • OLIVER T. OSBORNE, A.M., M.D.

... observation and practical life (pp. 241-247). They must be taken exclusively from the generalizations by which scientific thinkers have ascended to great and comprehensive laws of natural phenomena. Now it is seldom possible, in these complicated inquiries, to go much beyond the initial steps, without calling in the instrument of Deduction, and the temporary aid of hypothesis; as I myself, in common with Dr. Whewell, have maintained against the purely empirical school. Since, therefore, such cases could not conveniently be selected to illustrate the principles of mere observation ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill

... the Duke read this account he was filled with horror, that heaven itself should cry, "Woe;" for when he placed the initial letters of each town together, he observed, to his dismay, that they read, "Weh Pom—" [Footnote: Weh is called Woe, and Pomerania, Pommern in the original.] Yet as the last syllable, mern, was wanting, the Duke comforted himself, and thought, "Perhaps it is the other Pomerania, ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... Kaffre languages throughout, subordinate words in certain syntactic combinations, accommodate their initial letter to that of the leading word of ...
— The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies • Robert Gordon Latham

... after her husband to Lord Sandwich's daughter. Apropos to my Lady Meadows's maiden name, a name I believe you have sometimes heard; I was diverted t'other day with a story of a lady of that name,[1] and a lord, whose initial is no farther from hers than he himself is sometimes supposed to be. Her postillion, a lad of sixteen, said, "I am not such a child but I can guess something: whenever my Lord Lyttelton comes to my lady, she orders the porter to let in nobody else, and then they ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume I • Horace Walpole

... far-reaching Triad Society, which seized the occasion to foment into open rebellion the dissatisfaction of the tribesmen with the glaring injustice they were suffering at the hands of the local authorities. After some initial massacres and reprisals, a general was sent to put an end to the outbreak; but so far from doing this, he seems to have come off second best in most of the battles which ensued, and was finally driven into Kuang-tung. For this he was superseded, and two ...
— China and the Manchus • Herbert A. Giles

... curiously inwrought with the images of the reigning monarch and his children. The summit of the pike supported a crown of gold which enclosed the mysterious monogram, at once expressive of the figure of the cross, and the initial letters, of the name of Christ. [35] The safety of the labarum was intrusted to fifty guards, of approved valor and fidelity; their station was marked by honors and emoluments; and some fortunate accidents ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... of you to perpetuate the name, girls. You must be sure, boys, always to spell your name out; don't hide in behind an initial. These old Bible names are a lot better than these new fancy ones. There must be a million Donalds and Dorothys right now scattered over the United States. Where do ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson

... changes from northward to westward or southward. The change begins with rain. A very light wind from the northward (NE. or N.) will spring up, and may last for a day or two; then it becomes unsettled and with rain changes to the westward. But this initial wind may come from the NW., W., SW., or S. This movement of the wind from the northward to westward or southward generally happens when the weather is settled and the wind is light, or in the warm season (spring, summer and autumn); but ...
— Three Years in Tristan da Cunha • K. M. Barrow

... claimed that in the Arnold steam sterilizer, with the use of a suitable gas stove, the water begins to boil at the end of two minutes after the gas is lighted. A four-ounce bottle of milk at an initial temperature of 70 F. in the open steam chamber attains a temperature of 170 in just one hour. An exposure of about one hour and twenty minutes in the steam chamber is therefore necessary for ...
— The Four Epochs of Woman's Life • Anna M. Galbraith

... is done, and the working of Mr. Darwin's mind can be seen as though it were the twitchings of a dog's nose, that any idea can be formed of the difficulty in which he found himself involved by his initial blunder of thinking he had got a distinctive feature which entitled him to claim the theory of evolution as an original idea of his own. He found his natural selection hang round his neck like a millstone. There ...
— Luck or Cunning? • Samuel Butler

... made known beyond the limited circle immediately interested. The surviving members of that circle would probably not thank me for once more dragging their names conspicuously before the public gaze. I might certainly veil their personalities under the thin disguise of initial letters, but to this mode of relating a story I have always entertained a decided objection. The chief object to be aimed at in story-telling is to hold the attention of the reader, and, speaking for myself, I am free to confess that I have seldom been able to feel ...
— The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales • John Charles Dent

... was, Ben, after noting a curious bell rope in the corner, began to examine his bedclothes. Each article filled him with astonishment—the exquisitely fine pillow spread trimmed with costly lace and embroidered with a gorgeous crest and initial, the dekbed cover (a great silk bag, large as the bed, stuffed with swan's down), and the pink satin quilts, embroidered with garlands of flowers. He could scarcely sleep for thinking what a queer little bed it was, so comfortable and pretty, too, with all its queerness. In the morning ...
— Hans Brinker - or The Silver Skates • Mary Mapes Dodge

... the British cause was well served by Germany's initial blunder; by the huge mistake which cost her four-fifths of her naval strength at a blow. This mistake in Germany's policy was distinctly traceable to one cause: the national arrogance which, since the invasion, ...
— The Message • Alec John Dawson

... itself; and this holds good in politics, morals, and all other departments as well: the actual supply is the measure of the effective demand; and the mere aspirations and professions produce nothing. No community has ever yet passed beyond the initial phases in which its pugnacity and fanaticism enabled it to found a nation, and its cupidity to establish and develop a commercial civilization. Even these stages have never been attained by public spirit, ...
— Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion • George Bernard Shaw

... put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work ...
— Twenty Years At Hull House • Jane Addams

... could span the hour, you could span the million years. And if you could go back the million years, it was within your power to go back to the first tick of eternity, the first stir of time across the face of emptiness and nothingness—back to that initial instant when nothing as yet had happened or been planned or thought, when all the vastness of the Universe was a new slate waiting the ...
— Project Mastodon • Clifford Donald Simak

... and English achieved little. Philip and Richard, who came by sea, captured Acre after a hard siege, but their quarrels prevented them from following up this initial success. Philip soon went home, leaving the further conduct of ...
— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER

... This initial success proclaimed our submarines to be our greatest weapon of offense and their importance became of world-wide renown, for we claim the honor of having fired the first successful torpedo shot from a submarine. ...
— The Journal of Submarine Commander von Forstner • Georg-Guenther von Forstner

... that such success was a thing worth winning, at the expense of the smallest loss to such human realities as the affection she felt for Mike and Henry. To love some one well and faithfully, to be one of a little circle vowed to eternal fidelity one to the other,—such was the initial success of these young lives; and it was to make them all their days safe from the dangers ...
— Young Lives • Richard Le Gallienne

... Parliamentary reporter for the "Morning Chronicle." The success of the "Pickwick Papers" was such that he felt encouraged to emerge from his pseudonym and to devote himself entirely to literature. Other literary events of the year in England were the publication of the initial volumes of Lockhart's "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott," of Captain Marryat's "Mr. Midshipman Easy," and "The Pirate and the Three Cutters," and of Landor's "Pericles and Aspasia." The first Shakespeare jubilee was celebrated at Stratford-on-Avon in the spring. A loss to English letters ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson

... British Museum if he wishes." Then there was a little postscript which showed that there was already considerable intimacy between the two young ladies. "We won't have either Mr. L. or Lord P." Not a word was said about Lord Silverbridge. There was not even an initial ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope

... rightly says that Addison gave the initial bias in favour of 'Paradise Lost' to the English national mind, which has thenceforward shrunk, as Addison himself did, from a dispassionate contemplation of its defects; the idea being, I presume, that a 'divine poem' in a manner disarmed rational criticism. And, strange ...
— Old Calabria • Norman Douglas

... determined to give his only son a name which should commemorate this event. The boy was, therefore, christened after the opening words of his commission of the peace, and grew to manhood bearing the name Potestatem Dedimus [Footnote: Potestatem dedimus: "We give thee power, etc." The initial words of the clause conferring jurisdiction upon officers, in the old forms of judicial commissions. This name is fact, not fancy.] Smith. This son was educated with care—the shrewd father feeling his own need—but was early instilled with his father's ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... The initial effort of Congress to deal with this situation was embodied in the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933.[444] The opening section of the act asserted the existence of "a national emergency productive of widespread unemployment ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... languages affix to the greater part of their substantives." He applies this observation to the name of the island which he thinks has been fortunately expressed by M. Bougainville in French, by Taiti, without the initial vowel usually given to it ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr

... following up his initial success Vernon, seeing Ross helpless in the doctor's grip, rushed to his chum's aid. For a few seconds he feinted, striving to find an opening, while Ramblethorne, dragging his captive with him, pivoted in order to keep his front towards his ...
— The Submarine Hunters - A Story of the Naval Patrol Work in the Great War • Percy F. Westerman

... now for returning home to find out whether Elaine was there or not. No sooner had she entered the car and driven off, than I examined the handkerchief. It was torn, as if it had been crushed in the hand during a struggle and wrenched away. I looked closer. In the corner was the initial, "E." ...
— The Exploits of Elaine • Arthur B. Reeve

... youngest son of the Colonel,—the H. of course standing for the paternal Hezekiah, put in to please the father, and reduced to its initial to please the mother, she having a marked preference for Frederic. Boy directed to wait ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... reason long since is fled to animals, you know, or indeed for the more modelising, or enamelling, or rather diamondising of your subject, you shall perceive the hypothesis, or galaxia, (whereof the meteors long since had their initial inceptions and notions,) to be merely Pythagorical, mathematical, and aristocratical — For, look you, sir, there is ever a kind of concinnity and species — Let us turn to our former discourse, for they ...
— Every Man Out Of His Humour • Ben Jonson

... to is no other than the famous treaty of peace between Alfred and Guthrun, whose name, by the substitution of an initial "L." for a "G.," among various other inaccuracies for which your correspondent is perhaps not responsible, has been disguised under the form of "Lvthrvnvs." The inscription itself forms the commencement of the treaty, which is stated, in Turner's Anglo-Saxons, book ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 197, August 6, 1853 • Various

... believing this initial attack of white troops to be the immediate advance guard of an overwhelming force, withdrew in something very like panic. But with morning light they realized they had been "bluffed" and at once ...
— The Watchers of the Plains - A Tale of the Western Prairies • Ridgewell Cullum

... take out of my little funds what would carry me to Shagarack and back; and back I should have had to come. So I have lost what would have been one of the rare joys of my life. But I shall have another chance. — This is but your first degree, Governor; — your initial step towards great things; and you are not one to ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner

... charge of smokeless powder, and the bullet. The bullet has a sharp point, is composed of a lead core and a jacket of cupro nickel, and weighs 150 grains. The bullet of this cartridge, when fired from the rifle, starts with an initial velocity at the muzzle ...
— Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Infantry • War Department



Words linked to "Initial" :   letter, okay, sign, approve, initial offering, first, o.k., sanction, initial rhyme, letter of the alphabet, alphabetic character, initial public offering



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